The issue I had was with the plot and the writing. There is no doubt the author was well versed in the history, particularly of Poland during the war. But a novel should wear its history lightly. It should be the background of the fiction. I felt with much of this novel, it was more of a history lesson shoehorned into a fictional format such that the fictional characters were just an excuse to describe actual events. As such it felt dry and there were parts that just lost me completely.

When Gretl finally goes to South Africa, I felt the story actually deteriorated. There was a lot of extraneous detail about her life as a child which did very little for the pace or the plot. And then when Jakob finally arrived in South Africa, the romance was almost started too soon and then drawn out. It meant that the thrill of the romance was over and there was still a long way to go. I understand the writer is highly religious and therefore religion played an enormous role in the story, but as someone who isn’t religious, it felt too much to me.

I wish I could have seen past the flaws, but I just couldn’t. And it wasn’t just because it was translated as there was nothing wrong with the language itself. It was the whole structure of the novel which let it down.

I reviewed this book for NetGalley

The premise is good. I hoped and believed that this would be a fascinating, anthropological study of humanity and what it means to be human. But although the opening was clever, funny and really engaging, I felt the book deteriorated from there. Less anthropology, more touchy-feely, feel-good predictability. The word that kept going through my head was ‘obvious’. Yes, there were a lot of observations on humanity, but they were nothing new. In fact, there were lines which I thought were so well used that they had almost become clichéd. For my old, cynical self, this book did not enlighten me at all and therefore I found that it didn’t particularly engage me.

The story continues: alien meets wife and angry teenage son, alien behaves far better than husband ever did, alien discovers what it means to love, and all turns out in the end. OK, I get the point. But what completely lost me was on page 271, alien sits down to write some life advice to angry teenage son and we are subjected to several pages of aphorisms which were so utterly saccharine sweet and unnecessary, that they actually stripped any pleasure out of the book for me at that point. I pretty much shut the book in disgust, only coming back the next day to skim the final pages (and demonstrate that what happened in the end was precisely what you would predict happened in the end). It was the ‘Sunscreen Song’ all over again. That song touched me deeply when I was 21 years old. Now I am 41 it just irritates me.

I don’t say ‘don’t read this book’, but there is a definite time and place for it. If you are twitching to read something simple, unchallenging and with plenty of life advice written in nice digestible bites, this is the book for you. If you’re not, then there’s a lot of other good sci-fi around.

I was so glad to get an excuse to read this book. I have had a copy for years but I had never read it and sometimes it takes something like a book club to make you read something.

Dracula is the story of Count Dracula, a Vampire from Transylvania who goes to London to work his diabolical evil on the population there. It is set in the nineteenth century – indeed it was written in the late nineteenth century – so it is a fantastic example of the Victorian Gothic. The story is written as diary entries and letters by the main characters, most of whom come together to try to destroy Dracula. The group ends up consisting of Abraham Van Helsing, doctor and vampire expert; John Seward, doctor; Jonathan Harker, solicitor; Arthur Holmwood, Lord Godalming; Quincy Morris and, of course, Jonathan Harker’s wife, Mina. Throughout, they have to find ways to outfox Dracula and catch him and kill him before he can return to his castle.

My favourite part of the book was the chase at the very end, where the six separate into three parties to pursue Dracula through Transylvania. Despite the novel having being written over 100 years ago, it was incredibly creepy and it was a real page turner. It is funny how, even with stories where you know what the outcome is going to be, you still find yourself breathlessly turning the pages to find out for sure. I don’t know if you have read it so I don’t want to give too many spoilers, although it would be unusual now for someone not to have at least seen a film of Dracula so perhaps it is no secret to know that Mina Harker had been bitten by Dracula, so part of the excitement at the end was to find out whether the group would kill the Count before Mina herself turned into an Un-dead.

Of course, Mina was my favourite character. It is most definitely a book of its time, where women were supposedly meek and weak, and men were the strong, protective types. This is evidenced in the language, the way that the men speak to the women and their worry about distressing one of the ‘fairer sex’. And yet, Mina, in my opinion, was the strongest and brightest of them all, which is why I liked her so much. She doesn’t necessarily defy the social expectations of her as a woman, but she still manages to have the calmest head and some of the best ideas whilst maintaining this image of the weak, vulnerable female.

I really loved the book and I am so glad I have finally read it. Yes, I did keep putting it down but that was because, as a Victorian novel, it was pretty dense reading at times. There is such a difference between it and novels of today. No author today would dream of having their characters launch into two page soliloquies, filled with dramatic “Oh!” and “My God!” and “Dear, dear Woman!” etc! I don’t think anyone would buy a book nowadays if it did that! But it worked because you knew that it was a Victorian Classic, and so you could forgive the flowery language and excessive description. The bit I found the most difficult though was having Van Helsing speak in a kind of half’ Dutch/half English grammatical vernacular. All of the diarists in the novel seemed to quote him verbatim which made for quite difficult reading at time. That and the fact that he did like to talk…

I am not sure this novel has changed me, but it has shown me that Classics can be really enjoyable. I am trying to read more of the Classics. I feel that as I am studying Creative Writing and hope eventually to work in the English Literature Department of a university, then at the least I should have read most of them. This has definitely inspired me to read more.

If I could have asked Bram Stoker a question, it would be whether he had intended for Mina, the main female character, to end up being the strongest and most important character in the book. I do believe he probably meant it, despite the many protestations of the male characters as to her vulnerability and weak nerves, but I would like to know what he was thinking as it was quite progressive for the time!

I haven’t read any other of Bram Stoker’s books, and in fact, from what I know, I don’t believe many of them are in print as I have heard that none of them are particularly good. This was his finest work and the only one he is known for so I am not sure I want to read anything else as I don’t want to change the view I have formed about this fabulous novel

I’ll do a small comment on each of the four books that I read in April. I am updating more now on Goodreads although I am not doing full reviews. I am involved in a Reading Challenge group over there as well so that will hopefully ramp my reading up somewhat.

(440) Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte

Unlike half of the rest of the world, I didn’t actually like Wuthering Heights. Although it was a fascinating study in unreliable narrators, I felt nothing but contempt for all of the characters. I wasn’t sure, but were we supposed to like Cathy and Heathcliff? Sadly, I was really pleased when Cathy died as I thought she was hideous. Heathcliff was just a nasty person all up, Linton was pathetic and Cathy Junior was truly awful. The writing was lovely – that I will admit – but I am afraid I didn’t see it as ‘the worlds greatest love story’. I saw it as a bunch of really rather unpleasant people who all ended up getting their just desserts. Ah well, I guess we can’t all agree.

(439) Engleby – Sebastian Faulks

This book was very strange and really quite difficult to read. Not because it was badly written – on the contrary, it was really well written, and it was a really good story. But it was chilling to be caught inside the head of a person who was clearly a psychopath. I found that every time I picked the book up I could feel a vague sense of unease and disgust. The choice of the first person is what made this. It wouldn’t have been nearly as effective if it had been written in the third person. But as a reader, you knew that this guy was deluded and you suspected all along that he was responsible for Jennifer’s murder, but he leads you along in his own headspace from which you can’t escape. I wasn’t thrilled by the end, but then, I don’t think I have read a single Sebastian Faulks novel which I do like the ending of.

(438) Learning to Talk – Hilary Mantel

This was a collection of short stories about Mantel’s early life, but all written such that they were stand alone and you didn’t necessarily think that the author was writing about herself. She had a very strange childhood which is reflected in her experiences, particularly where her father lived in the same house as her mother and a lodger who was her lover and who the children were supposed to call ‘Dad’? However, if this kind of childhood is what produces a writer of this quality, then I guess good does come out of it.

(437) The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel – Deborah Moggach

Ho hum…that’s about the best I could say about this book. It was a nice enough story about a group of elderly people who move to a ‘hotel’ (home) in India and how many of them start living in a way they never would have done were they still in Britain. But it didn’t really go anywhere. The comments on the cover said something about it being hilarious. I rarely pay attention to these comments because more often than not, when it says ‘hilarious’ on the cover, it is anything but. This book was enjoyable but I don’t think I actually raised a smile. It was pretty pedestrian all the way through.

1. (444) My Name was Judas – C.K. Stead – 14 December 2012 – a fascinating alternative take on the life of Jesus and Judas’ role in it. Well researched and very believable.

2. (443) The Art of the Engine Driver – Steven Carroll – 22 December 2012 – an amazing book where almost nothing happens…

3. (442) Tuesdays with Morrie – Mitch Albom – 15 March 2013

4. (441) The Sea – John Banville – 18 March 2013

The rest will be written up because of some of my swaps. I haven’t read a lot since December, but I have been trying to deal with the death of my beloved brother from cancer and I have to admit that reading hasn’t been high on my list of priorities.

Anyway, True Grit certainly wouldn’t have been my first choice of book. As anyone who has seen either of the films would know, it is a Western, set in the back end of the nineteenth century and narrated from a distance of 30 years by Mattie Ross. Mattie recounts an event which occurred early in her life where, together with two very different law men, she goes on a hunt to avenge the apparently senseless shooting of her father. One-eyed Rooster Cogburn is essentially a killer made legitimate by the marshall’s star he wears and LaBoeuf (pronounced La Beef) is a Texas Ranger who is more interested in reward than justice. Mattie, despite her young age, commissions Rooster to assist her in the hunt. LaBoeuf tries to convince Rooster to go without her, but her own dogged determination ensures that she becomes as much a part of the hunting party as the two men.

The discussion on the Guardian site was interesting as it started with a question about how reliable Mattie is as a narrator. She writes about her 14 year old self as she is in old age and I feel her own bitterness about her life comes through. Presbyterian platitudes dot the narrative with a regularity which reminds you that it is an old woman speaking as I could not believe that a 14 year old would have such inflexible and black and white thoughts as described. It is true that memory is often unreliable, but more so, it seems that this event is the only important and exciting event in Mattie’s life, and therefore it seems highly likely that it was embellished.

I personally didn’t find Mattie a particularly sympathetic or likeable character. I admired her determination to an extent, but I found her manner difficult to cope with. I felt that Rooster was more rounded, with definite contrasts between good and bad. Mattie paints herself in a somewhat self-righteous light – again, not surprising as she is recounting a story of her past which cannot be corroborated by anyone – but it made her less believable to me. It made me wonder what the true story was, but perhaps that was part of Portis’ intention.

The world he describes is cold and ruthless, with death and killing apparently commonplace to the extent that it is hardly commented on and rarely subject to moral censure. Life is cheap it seems and this may very well have been the nature of the time and place. Mattie’s take on death is clinical. Even the death of her own father is met with a business-like efficiency on her part. Indeed, she contrasts herself with her own mother who she sees as weak and, I would almost go so far as to say, womanly. I wonder, does she emphasise this contrast to help herself justify the old lady she becomes – a one-armed spinster whose writings are rejected by publishers and whose life was filled by her church, her bank and caring for her mother?

But the book could also be read at face-value: an exciting yarn about revenge and retribution and the American spirit of justice and independence. It could be seen in terms of the contrasts it sets up between innocent victim/cruel murderer, righteousness/depravity, law/crime, independent efficiency/state inefficiency. But I do think there are shades of grey in this as every one of these themes, rather than simply contrasting with the other, actually contains elements of the other. For instance, the legal system, embodied by Rooster, but also the Judges and Lawyers, is involved in its own crimes, whether killing in Rooster’s case or getting guilty men off on thinly based technicalities or bribery in the lawyers’ case. It seems to be saying that no matter how black and white Mattie tries to paint things, there can be no certainties.

I did enjoy the book and I can understand why people go back for a second or third reading as I think there is more to it than I got on the first pass. But the pile of unread books by my bed is very tall, so I don’t think I will go back any time soon. I am glad I did though.

Anyway, I have been keeping a note of books so all I am going to do is list them here for posterity. One habit that has changed is that rather than finish a book before starting the next one, I currently have around 8 on the go. I have also started an MA in Creative Writing so that has added a new dimension to my reading – reading as a writer.

Books Completed Between 13 March 2010 (my last review) and 15 Sept 2011 (when I started the 500 project)

1. Lennox – Craig Russell (7 March 2010, Crime fiction – The opening was like a punch in the face…)
2. The Deeds of the Disturber – Elizabeth Peters (Historical crime fiction – Yuck. Contrived. Dull)
3. Woman with Birthmark – Hakan Nesser (Crime fiction)
4. The Wilding – Maria McCann (Historical – Atmospheric and really interesting)
5. Mortal Mischief – Frank Tallis (Historical crime fiction – I love how every issue was discussed over cake)
6. Mao’s Last Dancer – Li Cunxin (Autobiography – Uplifting, tragic and wonderful. Brought tears to my eyes)
7. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd – Agatha Christie (Crime fiction – Curious twist I am not sure I believed)
8. The Unicorn Road – Martin Davis (Literary fiction)
9. The Age of American Unreason (7 July 2010, Non-fiction – A sad indictment of American society)
10. No Time To Think!: The Menace of Media Speed and the 24 Hour News Cycle – Howard Rosenberg & Charles S. Feldman (11 Jul 2010, Non-fiction – Another eye-opening comment on the state of our media)
11. True History of the Kelly Gang – Peter Carey (2 Aug 2010, Historical fiction – Brings Ned Kelly alive)
12. Out Stealing Horses – Per Patterson (15 Aug 2010, Literary fiction – Raises more questions than it answers)
13. The Chinese Gold Murders – Robert Van Gulik (20 Aug 2010, Historical crime fiction – My first encounter with Judge Dee)
14. The Mind Parasites – Colin Wilson (30 Aug 2010, Science Fiction – Dated and very sexist!)
15. Small Wars – Sadie Jones (History – Beautifully written)
16. The Winter of Frankie Machine – Don Winslow (Crime/Noir – Earthy, rough and amusing)
17. The Horse Whisperer – Monty Roberts (Autobiography – A far better horseman than writer)
18. Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury (Fiction – Dystopian warnings as relevant today as 50 years ago)
19. The War of the Worlds – H.G. Wells (Science Fiction)
20. The Gentleman’s Hour – Don Winslow (Thriller – Couldn’t put it down)
21. Winter in Madrid – C.J. Sansom (Historical fiction – Magnificent picture of the Spanish Civil War)
22. How Proust Can Change Your Life – Alain De Botton (Philosophy)
23. Times Arrow – Martin Amis (Fiction – Chilling and amazing, written with time going backwards)
24. Historic Shipwrecks of Wales – Dilys Gater (22 Dec 2010, History – Holiday cottage reading)
25. Trick or Treatment –  Simon Singh & Edzard Ernst (23 Dec 2010, Non-fiction – compulsory reading for anyone interested in health)
26. At the Same Time: Essays and Speeches – Susan Sontag (24 Dec 2010, Essays)
27. Wolf Hall – Hilary Mantel (27 Dec 2010, Historical fiction – A masterpiece)
28. Granta 113: The Best of Young Spanish Novellists (28 Dec 2010, Short stories)
29. Break No Bones – Kathy Reichs (20 Jan 2011, Crime fiction – they are all starting to be very similar…)
30. Nothing to Lose – Lee Child (23 Jan 2011, Crime fiction – I just adore Jack Reacher)
31. A Child’s Book of True Crime – Chloe Hooper (30 Jan 2011, Fiction – a very strange book indeed)
32. The Visitor – Lee Child (30 Jan 2011, Crime fiction – not my favourite Reacher novel)
33. Bone by Bone – Carol O’Connell (20 Feb 2011, Crime fiction – I shouldn’t even list this as I hated it so much I just couldn’t bring myself to finish it!)
34. Long Lost – Harlan Coben (28 Feb 2011, Crime Fiction)
35. Nothing to Envy: Real Lives in North Korea – Barbara Demick (8 March 2011, Non Fiction – shocking, eye-opening and very sad)
36. The Meaning of Night – Michael Cox (Fiction – I now know this is deliberately ‘neo-Victorian’ which explains why it is 600 pages when the story only really warranted 250)
37. One Day – David Nicholls (20 March 2011, Fiction)
38. Granta 112: Pakistan (24 March 2011, Short stories)
39. Days Without Number – Robert Goddard (15 April 2011, Thriller)
40. The Slap – Christios Tsiolkas (29 April 2011, Fiction – ripples in the pond of suburban Melbourne life. Uncomfortable reading)
41. Blood Work – Michael Connelly (7 May 2011, Crime fiction)
42. Blood and Ice – Robert Masello (12 May 2011, Thriller – From Dusk Til Dawn in the Antarctic)
43. Prince of Fire – Daniel Silva (14 May 2011, Crime fiction – Stereotyped ‘evil Arab/good Israeli’ novel – I won’t read another one of these)
44. From Potter’s Field – Patricia Cornwell (16 May 2011, Crime fiction)
45. Compulsion – Jonathan Kellerman (16 May 2011, Crime fiction)
46. A Faint Cold Fear – Karin Slaughter (17 May 2011, Crime fiction – I love the Grant County novels, and this is no disappointment)
47. Indelible – Karin Slaughter (18 May 2011, Crime fiction – This was a second reading of this book and I loved it just as much as the first time)
48. Sea Change – Robert Goddard (24 May 2011, History – expected a thriller and was disappointed)
49. Hypothermia – Arnaldur Indridason (26 May 2011, Crime fiction)
50. Bury Your Dead – Louise Perry (30 May 2011, Crime fiction – made me fall in love with Armande Gamache, Quebec and this writer)
51. Dead Cold – Louise Perry (31 May 2011, Crime fiction – …and so I read more)
52. The Swan Thieves – Elizabeth Kostova (3 Jun 2011, Fiction – a real let-down after The Historian)
53. Still Life – Louise Perry (5 Jun 2011, Crime fiction – …and I kept reading more)
54. Delusions of Gender – Cordelia Fine (9 June 2011, Non-fiction: Psychology – dispelling the myth of psychological gender difference)
55. The Redbreast – Jo Nesbo (14 June 2011, Crime fiction)
56. The Winter Queen – Boris Akunin (27 June 2011, Historical crime fiction – the first in the Erast Fandorin series)
57. The Ghost of Lily Painter – Caitlin Davies (11 July 2011, Supernatural/Historical – indifferent)
58. Faceless Killers – Henning Mankell (14 July 2011, Crime fiction)
59. The Book of Human Skin – Michelle Lovric (18 July 2011, Historical fiction – fantastic characterisation. She has created some real monsters)
60. A Whispered Name – William Brodrick (1 Aug 2011, Fiction)
61. Stone’s Fall – Iain Pears (12 Aug 2011, Fiction – With a fabulous Iain Pears twist which had me laughing out loud in surprise)
62. The Dogs of Riga – Henning Mankell (6 Aug 2011, Crime fiction)
63. Burnt Shadows – Kamila Shamsie (13 Aug 2011, Fiction)
64. The Man Who Smiled – Henning Mankell (19 Aug 2011, Crime fiction)
65. The Girl Who Played with Fire – Steig Larsson (19 Aug 2011, Crime fiction)
66. Surfacing – Margaret Atwood (21 Aug 2011, Literary fiction)
67. This Perfect World – Suzanne Bugler (23 Aug 2011, Fiction – an eerie portrayal of suburban life and how your past comes back to haunt you)
68. The Diving Bell and The Butterfly – Jean-Dominique Bauby (25 Aug 2011, Autobiography)
69. The Psychopath Test – Jon Ronson (25 Aug 2011, Non fiction: Psychology)
70. The White Lioness – Henning Mankell (28 Aug 2011, Crime fiction)
71. Murther and the Walking Spirits – Robertson Davis (5 Sept 2011, Literary fiction – odd and disjointed)
72. Shattered: Modern Motherhood and the Illusion of Equality – Rebecca Asher (31 Aug 2011, Non fiction: Society – not the most wonderful thing for an independent woman to read just before the birth of her first baby!)
73. Overcoming Anxiety – Helen Kennerley (6 Sept 2011, Non fiction: Psychology)
74. Paths of Glory – Jeffrey Archer (10 Sept 2011, History – not convinced about Archer, but it was a good story about George Mallory)

Books Read Since 15 Sept 2011 to 20 Nov 2012

75. (500) Cat and Mouse – James Patterson (15 Sept 2011, Crime fiction)
76. (499) The Fifth Woman – Henning Mankell (17 Sept 2011, Crime fiction)
77. (498) The Brutal Art – Jesse Kellerman (19 Sept 2011, Thriller – brilliant, and the Ethan of this book encouraged me to agree to Ethan as the name of our son)
78. (497) The Darling Strumpet – Gillian Bagwell (25 Sept 2011, Historical fiction – far more blatantly erotic than most historical novels)
79. (496) The Executor – Jesse Kellerman (25 Sept 2011, Thriller – also brilliant. I am really impressed by this writer)
80. (495) The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest – Steig Larsson (27 Sept 2011, Crime fiction)
81. (494) Never Let Me Go – Kazuo Ishiguro (2 Oct 2011, Literary fiction)
82. (493) Death at La Fenice – Donna Leon (2 Oct 2011, Crime fiction)
83. (492) Sidetracked – Henning Mankell (Crime fiction)
84. (491) One Step Behind – Henning Mankell (9 Oct 2011, Crime fiction)
85. (490) Hour of the Cat – Peter Quinn (13 Oct 2011, Thriller – a combination of a Chandler-esque noir and a WWII espionage novel)
86. (489) The Murder Stone – Louise Perry (14 Oct 2011, Crime fiction – …and I found another one!)
87. (488) Granta 115: The F Word (16 Oct 2011, Short stories)
88. (487) The Spies of Warsaw – Alan Furst (20 Oct 2011, Thriller) – a pre-WWII espionage thriller which didn’t always hang together but was saved by a fabulous main character)
89. (486) The Whisperer – Donato Carrisi (24 Oct 2011, Crime fiction – even if it was deliberate, I grew very annoyed at not knowing where this was set. I also didn’t believe the ending)
90. (485) Spies of the Balkans – Alan Furst (27 Oct 2011, Thriller – must more enjoyable, set in Greece as war was coming)
91. (484) The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society – Mary Anne Schaeffer & Annie Burrows (30 Oct 2011, Fiction – the second time I have read this and I loved it just as much)
92. (483) A Visit from the Goon Squad – Jennifer Egan (2 Nov 2011, Literary fiction – fabulous. Can’t say any more)
93. (482) The Savage Garden – Mark Mills (3 Nov 2011, Fiction – pretty mundane, save for the hidden message in the layout of the garden)
94. (481) Goodbye to All That – Robert Graves (6 Nov 2011, Autobiography)
95. (480) Deadly Communion – Frank Tallis (9 Nov 2011, Historical crime fiction – with more obligatory cake)
96. (479) Invisible Man – Ralph Ellison (10 Nov 2011, Literary fiction – hard work to get through, but I think this would be worth several reads)
97. (478) The Pyramid – Henning Mankell (14 Nov 2011, Crime fiction/short stories)
98. (477) Weapons of Mass Deception – Sheldon Rampton & John Stauber (14 Nov 2011, Non fiction: politics – sad truths about George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq)
99. (476) Easing the Passing: The Trial of Dr John Bodkin Adams – Patrick Devlin (21 Nov 2011, Non fiction: legal history – dissection of an interesting trial in the 1950s by the presiding judge)
100. (475) All That I Am – Anna Funder (23 Nov 2011, Historical fiction – beautifully written and a wonderful mixing of fact and fiction)
101. (474) Gone Tomorrow – Lee Child (10 Dec 2011, Crime fiction)
102. (473) Borrowed Time – Robert Goddard (2 Jan 2012, Thriller – not one of his best ones)
103. (472) Snow Drops – A.D.Miller (4 Jan 2012, Fiction – it doesn’t paint modern Russian society in a particularly flattering light)
104. (471) The Pariah – Graham Masterson (8 Jan 2012, Horror – Yuck. Rubbish)
105. (470) 61 Hours – Lee Child (13 Jan 2012, Crime fiction)
106. (469) Moon Over Soho – Ben Aaronovitch (26 Jan 2012, Crime fiction – brilliant, funny, and wonderfully contemporary)
107. (468) The Nightmare Thief – Meg Gardiner (5 Feb 2012, Crime fiction – clumsy although it was still a page turner. It could have done with a good edit)
108. (467) Rivers of London – Ben Aaronovitch (17 Feb 2012, Crime fiction – the first in the series. I wish I had read this one first but it was still wonderful)
109. (466) Firewall – Henning Mankell (22 Feb 2012, Crime fiction – the penultimate Wallander book set in 1997)
110. (465) Before the Frost – Henning Mankell (24 Feb 2012, Crime fiction – a bit of a side book with Linda Wallander as the hero.)
111. (464) Before I Go To Sleep – S.J.Watson (4 Mar 2012, Thriller – kept me guessing until about half way when I think I cottoned on to what was happening)
112. (463) The Hand that First Held Mine – Maggie O’Farrell (11 Mar 2012, Fiction – the first half wasn’t great but the second half was wonderful)
113. (462) The Rules of Civility – Amor Towes (21 Mar 2012, Fiction – set in New York in 1938, this story grew on me as it went on)
114. (461) Light Lifting – Alexander McLeod (3 May 2012, Short stories – pithy, well observed, carefully written)
115. (460) A Book of Secrets  – Michael Holroyd (20 May 2012, Biography – dull, boring. If this is the ‘jewel of biography’ I am not impressed)
116. (459) Gillespie and I – Jane Harris (29 May 2012, Historical fiction – creepy but I couldn’t quite figure the book or the main character, Harriet Baxter, out)
117. (458) Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal – Jeanette Winterson (1 Jun 2012, Autobiography – everyone else loved this book but I found it self-indulgent)
118. (457) How to be a Woman – Caitlin Moran (4 Jun 2012, Autobiography – rant, rant, funny in parts, rant. Pass)
119. (456) The Report – Jessica Francis Kane (Historical fiction – a sad moment in history treated very well)
120. (455) The Song of Achilles – Madeline Miller (Historical fiction – bordering on a gay Mills & Boon, I found it wonderfully romantic. I loved it)
121. (454) The Sisters Brothers – Patrick deWitt (17 Jul 2012, Literary fiction – interesting, but not at all ‘laugh out loud funny’ as the cover suggested )
122. (453) Girl Reading – Katie Ward (29 Jul 2012, Fiction – Yuck, terrible, contrived. Would this have been published if the author hadn’t been friends with Hilary Mantel? I would hope not)
123. (452) Capital – John Lanchester (Fiction – very interesting look at contemporary suburban London life)
124. (451) The Other Boleyn Girl – Phillippa Gregory (Historical fiction – magnificent. Gripping characters, page turning story, beautifully written.)
125. (450) House of Silk – Anthony Horowitz (4 Sept 2012, Historical crime fiction – Sherlock Holmes rides out one more time)
126. (449) Rachel’s Holiday – Marian Keyes (13 Sept 2012, Fiction – overcoming drug addiction, chick-lit style. I didn’t hate it)
127. (448) Sense of an Ending – Julian Barnes (20 Sept 2012, Literary fiction – disliked all of the characters which made it a difficult book to enjoy)
128. (447) The Boleyn Inheritance – Philippa Gregory (24 Sept 2012, Historical fiction – another fantastic book and the birth of a new strong woman of history – Anne of Cleves)
129. (446) Postern of Fate – Agatha Christie (30 Sept 2012, Crime fiction – her last one, and possibly one too many)

Wow – that’s quite a list. I possibly need to speed up if I am going to achieve my 500 in 5 years but I have made quite a dent.

And the reading journey continues…

Particularly as I read this immediately after the previous James Patterson novel, it was an interesting contrast. Mankell writes a classic police procedural. The thrilling car chases, near misses, constant threats to the life of the protagonist or his or her immediate family, endless ‘personal connections’ with the case and the detective, are all used sparingly. That makes these books far, far more realistic. Wallander and his team are police officers in a small Swedish town. Not every murder is going to have some personal connection with Wallander. His life isn’t going to be threatened every time. He has a job to do, and that is to find out who committed the crimes and his team work methodically with him to do just that.

Nevertheless, they are page turners. I love Wallander’s instinct and hunches, and I absolutely love his need to think things through, catch a subtle clue in someone’s demeanour or words, and his ability to make connections. His team are fantastic as well. In this book, the original police commissioner, Bjork, has left to be replaced by another female (to join Ann-Britt who became a member of the team two books ago) and the balance is really good. And most importantly, you watch Wallander himself grow, change and develop as the years go on which makes you feel like you are there with him.

This book introduces a murderer who seems to be preying on men who, at first, have no apparent connection to one another. The only similar thing is the method of murder which is cruel, painful and very methodical. One is taken along several investigative lines – Africa and mercenaries, soldiers – but when some connections seem to arise in the form of a number of mysterious deaths of women, the case starts to break and the suspense builds.

Wallander is a real, flawed, emotional and very sharp man who is married to his job, but deserves his role. I know there are only a finite number of the Wallander series and I can now see how disappointed people were when the ‘last one’ was released. I have become so attached to the Inspector and his team already and I am not even halfway through them all. I suspect I know how I am going to feel when I close the cover on the final book as well.

Rating: 9/10
Date finished: 10 September 2011
Copyright: 2000
Pages: 583
Verdict: Bring on the next one.

Anyway, I want to read 500 books in the next 5 years. Why? Well, why not? To be honest, it is because I am currently in that unpleasant (to me) situation where, as we await the birth of a baby, I am being told left, right and centre by everyone from close friends to complete strangers that I am never going to get time to read again when the baby is born, and me being stubborn (as well as getting pretty annoyed at the smug insistence that these people know me and my life better than I know myself!) I thought – well, let’s just wait and see shall we? So, I thought I would record my reading publicly again just so I can point all of those unwanted advice givers somewhere as they prepare themselves to announce “I told you so”…

So, baby is due in 9 weeks, and I set my start date from yesterday, 14th September 2011 for my long term reading project. So, here’s the first book…

James Patterson…well, it is an easy place to start I guess. His books aren’t exactly difficult to get through. One of the reason I am reading them is that my book collection (now in excess of 1300 books) doesn’t fit very well in our house so I am making some decisions about which books I can donate. Patterson’s entire oeuvre falls into that category. However, before I donate anything, I will read them so I can churn through them pretty quickly and pass them on – leaving room for something better!

I have been working through the Alex Cross series over the years – this is number 4. Frankly, it brought no surprises. Cross faces his old nemesis, Gary Soneji, while at the same time an even more sinister, macabre killer – Mr Smith – is also on the loose. The first part of the book is devoted to the chase for Soneji as he embarks on his murderous swansong. Then we swing around to the case of Mr Smith, meeting another FBI agent, Thomas Pierce, along the way.

As usual there is an Alex Cross love interest. Unfortunately, Patterson feels the need to add steamy bedroom scenes into the books which simply don’t work for me. If I wanted to read about bedroom gymnastics, I would pick up a romance, not a gruesome crime fiction. I also get a little bit tired of the saccharine sweetness of Cross’s children who seem to never, ever behave badly, have bad days or annoy their parent or caregiver. Goodness, if children were all like the angelic Jannie and the perfect Damon, then perhaps having them wouldn’t be such a challenge! Finally, the identity of Mr Smith, set out as a clever twist, really didn’t hold together for me. It was a good idea, but it was poorly executed and came off as contrived. I just couldn’t suspend my disbelief quite enough to feel satisfied with it.

So, no, I didn’t enjoy this as much as I have been enjoying, say, Henning Menkel (I launched into a Wallander the minute I had finished the last page of Cat and Mouse), but then I didn’t expect to. Patterson’s books are the CSI Miami of the book world – pretty, plot driven, but ultimately empty and when its over in half an hour (or a few hours in the case of the book) you are left with a feeling that you haven’t really been fed much substance.

Rating: 3/10
Date Finished: 14 September 2011
Copyright: 1997
Pages: 342
Verdict: Read once then move on…

The Well Thought Out Text

One of the things I love about reading is to immerse myself in the language of a book, poem or article. I love reading works which have clearly taken time to produce. I love reading works which have been researched, mulled over, rewritten, edited, researched further and have genuinely come from the intellectual heart of the author. Unfortunately, due to the ease of production both online and offline, and the fact that the world as I know it is getting faster and faster, demands on time are greater and greater, and the drive to produce content before the next person does is greater than ever, there is a lot of writing out there which is truly awful.

Sadly, it isn’t just on the internet, although I would hazard a guess that around 80% of the writing on the internet is utter crap. Trying to filter the decent writing from the rubbish is a challenge in itself. The beauty of the printed word is that it should have seen the pen of an editor, although scanning newspapers nowadays, even print is not immune to slapdash content production. Sadly, many self-published books fall into the same category. Had they actually been in front of an editor, they too would have been scrapped or relegated to someone’s personal diary space or the old exercise books on the shelf which never saw the light of day.

Which is one of the reasons I haven’t been reviewing. Honestly, if I value the time and effort that people put in to proper reviews (which I do) then I have no right to just throw something out there, whether it is my blog or not. I have mentioned before how dissatisfied I often feel with my writing, and part of that is down to the fact that I haven’t spent the time on it that I should. I am currently trying my hand at writing an actual book, and I have given myself time – time to research, plan, think, experiment, and research more. Unless I can do that with my book reviewing, then I don’t think I am ever going to find true satisfaction with it.

I don’t want well thought out writing to vanish the same way that handwritten letters have. So I feel I need to be part of the dwindling crusade to retain it…

Which leads me on to the other thing I am passionate about, and which I want to explore further in this blog.

The Demise of the Paper Book

If all of the stories on the internet are to be believed, by the time I am an old lady, I will no longer be able to enjoy the pleasure of reading a book in any other form than on a mini computer, pressing buttons or swiping screens rather than turning pages. Apparently, paper books are going to disappear in 5 years, 10 years or 50 years (depending on which futurist you care to listen to). The virtues of the eBook reader are being touted everywhere and I don’t doubt that technology will win out. I am not so deluded to believe that progress won’t continue. But that doesn’t mean I have to like it.

The thought of not being able to flick through the pages of a book, smell the paper, feel it in my hands, pick it off my bookshelf or discover it in a little second-hand shop truly breaks my heart. All of the benefits of ‘sharing’ and ‘collaborating’ and ‘changing the text on the fly’ and ‘carrying a million books around at once’ (all well and good, but remember we still only exist on this planet for 70 or 80 years and in that time we can still only read several thousand books) are great, but they do nothing to ease my heartache. I adore books and I always will. I adore the feel of a new book when it arrives. I love holding books of 500 pages or more. I love hunting bookshelves whether in a library, in my own house or in a shop. I love the peace that comes from sitting with myself and a book knowing that nothing can get in the way – no-one can intrude, no-one can demand anything of me, I don’t have to chat to anyone or justify anything. The battery won’t go flat, there is no ‘collaboration’ or ‘conversation’ (I will choose when I want that), the words will always be there without ever going obsolete or demanding me to upgrade or buy a new device. The publisher can’t take my pages from me, or change what they say. I can close the book and hand it to someone, or leave it somewhere for someone else to enjoy. Perhaps these things that I love so much are going to be things of the past, but that doesn’t mean I can’t lament them. I constantly lament the loss of the letter even though I know that all we have now (and I suspect all we will have from now) is the impersonal, dashed-off email. And I will lament the loss of the book.

Yes, I am getting old. This is the first time I have felt it – the first time I have looked at a new technology and thought ‘I can’t do this’. This is the first time I have felt myself resisting not because it isn’t practical, but because emotionally, I don’t want to be forced to give up the thing I love. I know people far older than me who think I am being ridiculous. That is their opinion. I know people far older than me who have told me to ‘get with it’ but I just won’t. Technology is inevitable. It gives you a lot, but it also takes a lot away. I am only on this planet for another, maybe 50 years. It isn’t long. In that time, I want to maintain at least one of the things which makes me happy. Destroy the last paper book the day after I die (or better still, bury it with me) but I for one will still be reading them as long as I possibly can, even if I am the only person in the world to do so.