As promised in the last
blog post I said that I would share some books read.
If you know me well, you'll know that I like books, not like, LOVE books, the look of them, the feel of them and the smell of them. Second hand books, especially those that I find with messages in, with dates, I particularly love. I often wonder about the person who gifted that book and of the receiver, did they like it? who were they? It brings a book alive for me, one of the reasons I could never own a kindle or such a gadget, it has no soul.
Back in February I did a post,
here, listing the books I had read so far then promised to be back with more. Well clearly I'm a big fat liar and didn't come back at all. Well I'm back now now ain't I?
My Goodreads target was 52 books, I often try to read some from the
BBC big read list and because I really like a challenge I'm doing the
Pop Sugar 2019 challenge too!
The BBC list is ongoing and there's a lot I won't read on that list, same goes with the Pop Sugar, I'm doing quite well but I don't think I'll manage all 50.
So, carrying on from where I left off let's start with the first 12, I have 24 to share, next 12 tomorrow:
Hardy tells the story
of Tess Durbeyfield, a beautiful young woman living with her
impoverished family in Wessex, the southwestern English county
immortalized by Hardy. After the family learns of their connection to
the wealthy d'Urbervilles, they send Tess to claim a portion of their
fortune.
My review ★★★★★
Such a range of emotions
with this book, how I wanted to slap Tess around the chops! Alec is a
dangerous predator who needed castrating, as for Angel Clare, well he
was rather pathetic, I mean who calls a bloke Angel, Hardy referred to
him constantly through the book as Clare, bluddy hell I kept thinking he
was a woman! Oh for a modern age woman in her place who would give 'em
all the finger and say to all that used her, "F*ck you!". A page turner
for me though, as frustrating as it was.
Challenge: BBC big read; Pop sugar - A book about a family; A book that includes a wedding
The
astounding yet true rags-to-riches saga of a homeless father who raised
and cared for his son on the mean streets of San Francisco and went on
to become a crown prince of Wall Street
More than a
memoir of Gardner's financial success, this is the story of a man who
breaks his own family's cycle of men abandoning their children. Mythic,
triumphant, and unstintingly honest, The Pursuit of Happyness conjures heroes like Horatio Alger and Antwone Fisher, and appeals to the very essence of the American Dream.
At the age of twenty, Milwaukee native Chris
Gardner, just out of the Navy, arrived in San Francisco to pursue a
promising career in medicine. Considered a prodigy in scientific
research, he surprised everyone and himself by setting his sights on the
competitive world of high finance. Yet no sooner had he landed an
entry-level position at a prestigious firm than Gardner found himself
caught in a web of incredibly challenging circumstances that left him as
part of the city's working homeless and with a toddler son. Motivated
by the promise he made to himself as a fatherless child to never abandon
his own children, the two spent almost a year moving among shelters,
"HO-tels," soup lines, and even sleeping in the public restroom of a
subway station.
Never giving in to despair, Gardner made an
astonishing transformation from being part of the city's invisible poor
to being a powerful player in its financial district.
My review ★★★★★
A
fascinating read, which took me on a bit of a roller coaster ride, it
was brutal at times. It made me laugh and cry, there are some hugely
emotional moments. It's not an easy read, being quite graphic in
content, I can understand from other reviews why some people didn't get
on too well with it. Having said that, his story isn't one that should
be made all "fluffy" so as not to offend anyone. If you're offended or
upset by swearing or graphic sexual content, then maybe this isn't the
book for you, but imagine what living it must have been like! Some
people have the tenacity to endure, no matter what life throws at them,
Chris Gardner is one of those people. But don't take my word for it,
read it for yourself.
Monique Dembele saves
lives and dispenses hope in a place where childbirth is a life-and-death
matter. Her unquenchable passion to improve the lot of the women and
children in her West African village is matched by her buoyant humour in
the face of unhappy marriage and backbreaking work. This is the deeply
compelling story of the rare friendship between a young development
volunteer and this midwife who defies tradition and becomes - too early
in her own life - a legend.
February's book club selection
My review ★★★★★
Incredible story, it broke my heart
The inspiring story of an elderly woman's battles with her family who try and force her into a nursing home.
My review ★★★★★
Loved it, initially I felt
quite angry and very sad but as the story went on I was rooting for the
underdog. Quite a few laugh out loud moments, plenty of happy tears too.
My only complaint, it was over all too soon, I wanted more.
Heart of Darkness, a
novel by Joseph Conrad, was originally a three-part series in
Blackwood's Magazine in 1899. It is a story within a story, following a
character named Charlie Marlow, who recounts his adventure to a group of
men onboard an anchored ship. The story told is of his early life as a
ferry boat captain. Although his job was to transport ivory downriver,
Charlie develops an interest in investing an ivory procurement agent,
Kurtz, who is employed by the government. Preceded by his reputation as a
brilliant emissary of progress, Kurtz has now established himself as a
god among the natives in “one of the darkest places on earth.” Marlow
suspects something else of Kurtz: he has gone mad.
A reflection on corruptive European colonialism and a journey into the nightmare psyche of one of the corrupted, Heart of Darkness is considered one of the most influential works ever written.
My review zero stars! What
load of cobblers! The book had about as many pages of notes as story,
if you need as many pages to explain a book, then the author hasn't done
a very good job has he! Painful from beginning to end, I nearly gave up
but dragged my way through it. Watching paint dry is infinitely more
interesting, I could have happily gouged out my one good eye with a
spoon but it is on the BBC big read list, one more book crossed off the
list. I won't even give it one star, I hated it so much. I was reminded
of the movie Apocalypse Now throughout.
Challenge: BBC Big read
Ruth is widowed, her
sons are grown, and she lives in an isolated beach house outside of
town. Her routines are few and small. One day a stranger arrives at her
door, looking as if she has been blown in from the sea. This
woman—Frida—claims to be a care worker sent by the government. Ruth lets
her in.
Now that Frida is in her house, is Ruth right to fear
the tiger she hears on the prowl at night, far from its jungle habitat?
Why do memories of childhood in Fiji press upon her with increasing
urgency? How far can she trust this mysterious woman, Frida, who seems
to carry with her own troubled past? And how far can Ruth trust herself?
The
Night Guest, Fiona McFarlane’s hypnotic first novel, is no simple tale
of a crime committed and a mystery solved. This is a tale that soars
above its own suspense to tell us, with exceptional grace and beauty,
about ageing, love, trust, dependence, and fear; about processes of
colonization; and about things (and people) in places they shouldn’t be.
Here is a new writer who comes to us fully formed, working wonders with
language, renewing our faith in the power of fiction to describe the
mysterious workings of our minds.
My review ★★★★★ An
unsettling book, immensely sad, I was unable to put it down. A
fascinating read and a very well written story. I won't go into the plot
as there are plenty of other reviews that do that.
March's book club selection
Challenge: Pop sugar - A book you think should be turned into a movie; A debut novel
In this vivid portrait
of one day in a woman's life, Clarissa Dalloway is preoccupied with the
last-minute details of party she is to give that evening, while in her
mind she is much more than a perfect society hostess. As she readies her
house she is flooded with memories and, met with the realities of the
present, Clarissa re-examines the choices she has made, hesitantly
looking ahead to growing old. Undeniably triumphant, this is the
inspired novelistic outline of human consciousness.
My review ★★
Pfffrt! Reading this was
like listening to someone telling you a story, who every so often would
go off on a tangent, digress as it were. Most of the book was ok, but
she lost me once in a while with parts so boring I threw my head back in
despair. I know she's one of those writers from the 1920s that were
supposed to have changed the course of writing but puleeze! A rather
pointless story line, a bit like the characters really, from a
privileged class with no real purpose. Yawn. It was however, beautifully
written waffle.
Challenge; Pop sugar - A book that takes place in a single day; A book with no chapters
When the downtrodden
animals of Manor Farm overthrow their master Mr Jones and take over the
farm themselves, they imagine it is the beginning of a life of freedom
and equality. But gradually a cunning, ruthless élite among them,
masterminded by the pigs Napoleon and Snowball, starts to take control.
Soon the other animals discover that they are not all as equal as they
thought, and find themselves hopelessly ensnared as one form of tyranny
is replaced with another. Orwell’s chilling ‘fairy story’ is a timeless
and devastating satire of idealism betrayed by power and corruption.
My Review ★★★★★
I remember reading this at
school and not having a single clue what it was about. I'm rather glad I
didn't understand it back then, I may have had nightmares because
re-reading it as an adult it's truly terrifying and very relevant
Challenge: BBC big read; Pop sugar - A book with at least 1 million ratings on Goodreads; A book you meant to read in 2018
It begins with a boy.
Theo Decker, a thirteen-year-old New Yorker, miraculously survives an
accident that kills his mother. Abandoned by his father, Theo is taken
in by the family of a wealthy friend. Bewildered by his strange new home
on Park Avenue, disturbed by schoolmates who don't know how to talk to
him, and tormented above all by his unbearable longing for his mother,
he clings to one thing that reminds him of her: a small, mysteriously
captivating painting that ultimately draws Theo into the underworld of
art.
As an adult, Theo moves silkily between the drawing rooms of
the rich and the dusty labyrinth of an antiques store where he works.
He is alienated and in love-and at the center of a narrowing, ever more
dangerous circle.
The Goldfinch combines vivid characters,
mesmerizing language, and suspense, while plumbing with a philosopher's
calm the deepest mysteries of love, identity, and art. It is an
old-fashioned story of loss and obsession, survival and self-invention,
and the ruthless machinations of fate.
My review ★★★★★ I
really, really liked this, I didn't think I would, I saw 771 pages and
thought, Uh Oh, this is going to drag on. But it didn't, not really, not
for me anyway. It's not a fast paced book by any means, it chugs along
at it's own pace, it's not entirely boring and not entirely exciting but
there was a certain something that kept me reading, strangely
compelling, pulling me in to the point that in the last 2-300 pages, I
didn't want to put it down. I knew it was building towards something; I
was hoping rather; had that not happened I think I may well have been
very disappointed. It was just the last few pages that went on a little
bit too long for me. At the end of the 3rd and final (thank God) LOTR's
movies, I yelled at the big screen, "Get on the damned boat Frodo!!"the
end was a bit like that, but definitely not like the end of A Suitable
boy that went on for 1474 pages, took me months to read and when I read
that final page, I threw it across the room in anger! Narrowly missing
the husband! The Goldfinch is a very well written story otherwise.
Challenge: Pop sugar - A book becoming a movie in 2019
Heart - warming and
compulsive reading, this is an entertaining, lively and moving novel
from one of New Zealand's favourite authors.
My review ★★★★ What a lovely story, an enjoyable read. Light hearted, even with the serious undertone.
April's book club choice
Challenge: Pop sugar - A book with and item of clothing on the cover
Olivia is a young
mother coping with the loss of her autistic son. She comes to Nantucket
to separate herself from the life she led as wife and mother, and to
start afresh, even as she tries to make sense of her tragedy: why was
Anthony born autistic, only to live such a short life?
My review ★★★★★
My
rating as I was reading was initially going to be 4 stars, it wasn't
until I read the last two chapters that it instantly went to 5. It was
really hard not curl up on the sofa and read until it was finished. It
really resonated with me and I shed happy tears at the last few pages.
Beautifully written.
Challenge : Pop sugar - A book with LOVE in the title
Gossip Girl meets Mad Max in this breakneck thriller where the divide between rich and poor is the line between life and death.
'The windows on all the skyscrapers are smashed . . .
No power, no lights, no people . . .
It's a parallel New York of some kind.'
THE COMING END
When
Skye Rogers and her twin brother Red move to Manhattan, rumours of a
coming global apocalypse are building. But this does not stop the young
elite of New York from partying without a care.
CAN YOU KEEP A SECRET?
And
then suddenly Skye is invited to join an exclusive gang known as the
Secret Runners of New York. But this is no ordinary clique - they have
access to an underground portal that can transport them into the future.
And what Skye discovers in the future is horrifying . . .
RUN! AS FAST AS YOU CAN!
My review ★★★★
I would have liked to have
put 5 stars, but 5 stars means "It was amazing". It wasn't quite amazing
but I really, really liked it. Extremely difficult to stop reading and
do other stuff, but a girl has to pee occasionally. Not read anything
like it in years and years, loved this kind of genre as a teenager.
Great
story and loved the way how it all wove together, with plenty of ah ha
moments. I'd like to see this made into a movie, as long as they movie
makers don't cock it up!
Challenge: Pop sugar - A cli-fi (climate fiction) book
Also if you look down the left side of my blog you'll see that there is a Goodreads gadget that lists all of my books read to date since joining Goodreads.
💓💓💓💓💓💓💓
That will do for today, a really gloomy one it is too, it started out foggy, a real pea-souper which turned into rain and now we have thunder rumbling around. Time to close all the curtains, shut it out and snuggle under a blankie with my current book.
Will try and finish off that list tomorrow
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
