My Favourite Books

Sunday, February 26, 2006

Storm Front - Jim Butcher

Magic and wizardry meet hardboiled detective fiction in this genre-blending debut novel from Jim Butcher.

Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden is a wizard for hire (he's in the Yellow Pages, under "Wizards"). He doesn't have a lot of competition: in fact, he's the only openly practicing professional wizard in the country. At the turn of the millennium, popular awareness of the paranormal has skyrocketed (aided by events like the Unseelie Incursion of 1994, when the entire city of Milwaukee vanished for two hours), but most of those with paranormal skills still prefer to keep their abilities under wraps.

Business is slow. So when the police department, which occasionally calls Harry in to consult on cases that involve the paranormal, asks him to assist with a particularly gruesome double murder that may have been accomplished by magic, he can't afford to say no -- even though it's immediately obvious to him that black magic is involved, and that the mage responsible is very powerful indeed.

The above is courtesy of the SFSite.com website.

I have seen the books around and were hesitant in buying the first one. I thought that it would be as mindstonkingly boring as the Laurell K Hamilton books, the Anita Blake series but found - happily - that I was wrong. This is much better written and the author, Jim Butcher, has taken great pains in creating a genuinely nice main character who is just that little bit unpredictable but completely understandable to snare you and draw you in. Unlike the Anita Blake or Merry Gentry novels, there isn't thirty pages of sex at one sitting to get through, in fact, there is no sex in this, but a lot of sexy and a lot (a lot) of action and tongue in cheek funny stuff.

It wasn't until I visited the Jim Butcher website that I found out they are currently shooting/have completed shooting the first episode (or entire series, I didn't read all of it) of The Dresden Files, which is based on Harry's adventures. Smashing stuff - and what is really cool is that they have an English actor playing the part of Harry, but with an American accent. His name is Paul Blackthorne (what a fantastic name, right!?). So, it looks good.

I am looking forward to reading the second book in the Dresden Files series which I picked up today.

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

The Borgia Bride by Jeanne Kalogridis

Continuing my historical novel romp, I started reading The Borgia Bride this week. It was one of my birthday presents which I had asked for on my "wishlist".

Ye gods, I am utterly loving it.

What I resent though is the fact that on the cover it is cited as "Corset Busting Excitement" by the Sunday Times. Why is it, when a man writes a historical novel it is called a historical novel (even if there is sex scenes every few pages, raping and pillaging), but when a woman writes one (there has been 2 sex scenes and I am on page 300-odd) it is called a bustier-buster? Anyway, I suppose it makes the books sell...either that or the chap/ette from the ST didn't actually read it and went on the blurb on the back!

Ahem. I am not finished with it yet - I reckon two or three more trainjourneys into town and back home should do it. So, in the meantime, I copied this across from http://www.lovereading.co.uk/book/200

Breakdown of the novel:

Italy 1492 Pope Alexander VI is elected. And so begins the Borgia reign of terror.
Alexander murders, bribes and betrays to establish his dynasty. No one is immune. Rome is a hotbed of accusation and conspiracy. Every day, the River Tiber is full of new bodies.

Sancha de Aragon, daughter of King Alfonso II of Naples, arrives in Rome newly wed to Alexander’s youngest son, Jofre. Their marriage protects Naples against the ambitions of the French King Louis and gains Spanish support for the Borgias. But Rome is very different to her beloved Naples.

The debauchery of the Borgia inner-circle is notorious: every lust is indulged and every indiscretion overlooked. Sancha is no innocent: she possesses an indomitable spirit which allows her to survive in the snake-pit, but her ancestors once rivalled the Borgias in cruelty and Sancha’s greatest fear is that blood will out.

Lucrezia Borgia’s vicious jealously stings Sancha at first, but gradually the two young women develop a cautious friendship. Lucrezia, adored by her father but used ruthlessly as a political tool, seems deceptively innocent and sympathetic, and their bond strengthens when Lucrezia is married to Sancha’s treasured brother, Alfonso.

But when Sancha falls in love with Cesare Borgia, her husband’s enigmatic older brother, she has no idea of how bizarre and internecine are the family's true ties. Alexander is rather more than an indulgent father; Lucrezia not the innocent she appears; and Cesare’s ambition burns wildly. The only safe relationship with the Borgias is none at all: as Sancha, her brother and Naples are soon to discover...

Thus far, I must say, we have another very strong female heroine. I look forward to seeing how the story developes!

The paid companion, Amanda Quick

I found this beauty in the crime section in the Waterstones on Piccadilly and because I am a sucker for historical novels - okay, read, Liz is a sucker for any book that piques her interest - and loved the idea of an English nobleman deciding to procure his fiance through an agency that supplies paid companions to the elderly ladies...

Of course, things go "wrong" and he discovers that the young lady he has chosen is full of sass, is clever, and has strong morals and is also, accidently, quite lovely and is hailed as an original by the High Society circles they mingle in. The reason for his new "fiance" is a simple one - she is to be a distraction whilst he sorts out new business investments...and you can immediately tell that this is a lie, right!? Right! He is in fact after the murderer of his uncle and his companion / fiance turns out to be quite capable of helping him out.

A fantastically fun book - the characters are genuine and you really like Eleanora who is funny, witty and is not at all a wallflower.

I really enjoyed this book and have subsequently discovered that there are other novels written by this author.

Oh, happy days!

Thursday, February 02, 2006

Tell me what you see, Zoran Drvenkar

From the publishers' website:

Berlin. The dead of night. Sixteen-year-old Alissa and her best friend Evelin make their secret Christmas pilgrimage to Alissa's father's grave. In the graveyard, Alissa falls through thick snow into an underground crypt. Searching for a way out, she discovers something else: out of the lid of a small coffin coils a strange black plant. Drawn closer, Alissa sees its roots embedded in a young child's heart. This chance encounter sets off a chain of nightmarish events that throw her life into turmoil. Haunted by angels, stalked by her ex-boyfriend, only with Evelin’s help can Alissa reclaim her sanity and discover the truth about her frightening new gift.

I bought this on Tuesday and finished it on Wednesday evening - it was that readable and that compelling.

I found Mr. Drvenkar's work utterly riveting and the prose, translated into English from German, a revelation in style. He conveyed so much atmosphere with few well chosen words. And he didn't skimp on being lyrical.

It is quite a grown up novel - it deals accurately and beautifully with friendships and relationships between friends and family. You really feel for the main character, Alissa the winter child and Evelin, the best friend. And by grown up, I don't mean x-rated (although he deals beautifully and maturely with lesbianism and an ex-boyfriend who is the loving one) but grown up in the sense that he tackles issues pertinent to his two girls in the book and makes them see it through and be the heroes in a very realistic way.

I don't really know how to describe the novel other than saying it is an intimate visit during a period in a young girl's life where she goes through something very strange - I enjoyed it thoroughly. I doubted her sanity, thinking that he was going to cop out and have it all be in her head ... that she was insane... but he had tricks up his sleeve and pulled out a whopping end.

I would recommend it highly - four out of five books!

Saturday, January 28, 2006

Re-reading an old favourite - Greenmantle, Charles de Lint

Charles de Lint is one of my favourite authors. He is a musician, writer and artist. I have probably got every single one of his books - not that I am obsessive or anything!

I picked up Greenmantle this week to re-read as I don't have anything new to read, having spent my allowance on presents for friends (send free books, in other words!).

I can only one day dream of being able to write as well as he does. He writes what can be termed "urban fantasy" - every day "normal" people happen across magical beings and suddenly, their world and their perceptions are turned upside down.

Greenmantle is no different.

It tells the story of a retired Mafia soldier - Valenti - who leaves the business behind and buys himself a love house in the woods. His neighbour turns out to be a young single mother called Frankie who has a fourteen year old daughter by the name of Ali. Frankie also has a nasty ex-husband who is after the few thousand dollars she had won on the lottery and he gets thrown into the mix of characters...it is about crime, mafia, music, magic, and believing in the impossible.

Ahem.

Meanwhile things are stirring in the forest - beautifully haunting music is played on a pipe, deep within the forest. Ali and Valenti go in search of it and find something no one expected - an entire village of English people who have returned to the old ways of nature worship. The young boy who is the piper calls the "mystery" to him - a large beautiful stag, that represents both the Green Man, Pan and Cerunnos, all at once. The music awakes within those who hear it, whatever they bring to it - be it anger, loss, pain, lust. It is powerful stuff and the first time I read it I was completely taken aback by the things written and said in there - the fact that Christianity is a fledgling religion, that it stole and borrowed from other religions to become what it is today...that our imagination is indeed strong enough to create beings of mystical power and to enable them to roam the world.

It is an eclectic book - beautifully written with so many questions being asked by all the characters that it is, in retrospect, not sumat you want to pick up and flick through and skip paragraphs and pages "cos they don't talk too much in this, do they?".

It is a fantastic read and for those of us with a bit of a New Age slant, it goes down very well. Heavy decisions are made by the characters in the book and they are all genuinely interesting people with faults and failings which makes you feel for them when they succeed or just crumble when you realised they did the wrong thing.

Good fun - give it a whirl.

And now for something completely different...!

I am a sucker for anything to do with myths and legends, magical and mystical creatures. The above book was sent to me as the Editor's choice from my book club. I was thrilled.

This weekend I will be dipping into said treasure trove of creatures - who knows if inspiration might strike! For instance, from one of my other books in the same vein, I learned that Hagrid actually means giant in one of the Germanic/Scandanavian languages...very cunning Mrs. Rowling!

This is from the creature book itself - only one of thousands of entries:

Achelous
In Greek mythology, Achelous was a river
god who took three different shapes when
he chose. He could take the form of a bull, a
speckled serpent or a bull-headed man, like
the Minotaur. He wrestled with Hercules
for the hand of Dejanira and, while in the
latter form, lost a horn. The blood that fell
to the ground from the horn became the
Sirens, while the horn itself was discovered
by Naiads who took and filled it with flowers
and fruit. Classical myth tells us that
Achelous’ horn was then presented to
Plenty (Amalthea) who made it her cornucopia
(the ‘horn of plenty’).

How can you not be excited about having such an invaluable tool at hand? Yay for Thorsons Element for publishing a unique book!

Sunday, January 15, 2006

Seeking whom he may devour - Fred Vargas

I couldn't wait to start reading this book.

The premise is fantastic - Disturbing things have been happening up in the French mountains; more and more sheep are being found with their throats torn-out. The evidence points to a wolf of unnatural size and strength.

Which of course leads us to the concept of it being a werewolf and I am a sucker for anything remotely lycantropic or anything to do with wolves. They are our primal fears embodied!

Its a slim book, I thought to myself, a quick easy read. Phsaw. How wrong can one be?

I started reading it and I was swept away on a slow, scary ride of a thriller plotted well and written in beautiful prose.

This book had me sitting outside my house - after I forgot my keys and had to wait for hubby to come home in the evening - on the doorstep, in the moonlight, squinting at the pages. I then looked up and noticed the moon.

It was ghosting through the sky under cover of whispy clouds and it was oh so very very dark.

And I was reading a book about wolves attacking people and sheep. I was petrified. I closed the book and put it back in my bag. What, I kept musing to myself, if it was real? What is that sound? I jumped it in alarm. I sighed in relief. It was hubby coming back from walking the dog and it was the dog's nails clipping on the pavement.

Shudder.

It is a tense, taughtly written piece of fiction with fantastically interesting characters who exude mystery and charm. It is set in France in modern times but in a very rural area where, in my mind, anything can happen. Myths and legends still abound and people live close to the land, where paganism and folklore live side by side with going to Mass, where superstitions are rife and where people can be whipped up into a lynch mob to hunt down a suspected werewolf - an inside out man - at the mere hint of the thought of one being amongst them.

I would really recommend this book to anyone who enjoys well written fiction. The end is a scorpion's sting and I didnt' see it coming at all.

Well done, Mme Vargas. I now look forward to reading The Three Evangelists!

Be carefull what you wish for - Alexandra Potter

A guilty secret. I hate chick-lit. I hate these little pink fluffy books on the bookshelves being hailed as best-sellers. It makes me want to shout and scream as there are other "real" authors out there who deserve to attention these books get.

And then, after some retrospect, I realised how unfair I am being. Chick-lit caters to a certain group of women in market. And why shouldn't their needs be fulfilled?

Many people out there who read "serious" novels in the "acceptable" format of literary books, crime novels and thrillers, look at other writings in different genres and call them "fluffy" "not serious books". Science fiction and fantasy authors have been fighting for years against the stigma of their work not being called "real". I sometimes wonder if it is a case of sheer jealousy? Those who can't...turn into bitter jealous types who refuse to acknowledge hard work.

The blood, sweat and tears to get that manuscript out is as real as any other author struggling to get his or her own work out, no matter the genre. I will NEVER, I hope and pray, be nasty about other authors, ever again, no matter the genre.

I picked Be careful what you wish for up fromWH Smith as an offer when I bought Fred Vargas' Seeking whom he may desire. I wanted to see, for the first time in absolute years what was going on in the chick-lit genre. I girded myself and reached out to the bookshelf with a quavering hand and picked it up, hastily paying for it and hiding it in my handbag.

And, I am glad I did buy it, in the end. It is a rollicking good read. You immediately like the main character Heather and can identify with her mishaps, her job, her own insecurities and how utterly hilarious some of the situations are she gets herself into. This is far better than I expected and I applaud the author wholeheartedly for giving a real character who interacts genuinely with her family, friends and two men her life.

This is the synopsis from Amazon:

A sassy romantic comedy to delight fans of Sophie Kinsella, Freya North and Helen Fielding. You couldn't wish for a better book! 'I wish I could get a seat on the tube...I hadn't eaten that entire bag of Maltesers...I could meet a man whose hobbies include washing up and monogamy...' Heather Hamilton is always wishing for things. Not just big stuff - like world peace or for a date with Brad Pitt - but little, everyday wishes, made without thinking. With her luck, she knows they'll never come true...Until one day she buys some heather from a gypsy. Suddenly the bad hair days stop; a handsome American answers her ad for a housemate; and she starts seeing James - The Perfect Man who sends her flowers, excels in the bedroom, and isn't afraid to say 'I love you'...But are these wishes-come-true a blessing or a curse? And is there such a thing as too much foreplay?

I would, out of five bookish stars, give it...four book stars.

It also taught me not to pigeonhole books. Now, all I have to do is overcome my aversion to science fiction books!

Sunday, January 08, 2006

Long Way Round - The book, not the TV show

I didn't watch The Long Way Round when it aired on TV last year - I thought "yeah, yeah, another publicity stunt by two actors wanting to make yet more money".

But, in the end, at a loose end as what to buy hubby as a stocking filler, I opted for the book written by Ewan and his mate Charley. I didn't think it would be anything special but since it had to do with motorbikes, leatherclad boys and travelling the world, it would the stocking and be an interesting thing to chat about.

Both hubby and I are ex-bikers (I was the pillion as my own bike escapades ended with me selling my bike - Black Betty (eventhough she was purple) to friends of ours as her souped up engine was too much for poor me to handle) and I thought it would be a nostalgic way to look back on our crazy days of camping out with other insane bikers in the freezing cold or the boiling hot.

Hubby finished the book, loving it, laughing out loud sometimes and out of curiosity I picked it up and was instantly immersed in the two boys' adventure. I admit to being very wrong about it all. They weren't just out to make another quick buck. They were scraping money together to do what they have dreamed of doing for years - travel around the world. It struck a chord. I felt sorry for them as they ran around trying to do get funding for this trip, eventually agreeing to do a tv show just so that they could make the trip.

I sit back, having finished reading it last week Monday night and can't help but feel that this is something I would love to do myself. I told Mark and he looked at me as if I had just sprouted another head. Yes, right, he said, burying his head in playing Splinter Cell on the Playstation, clearly thinking that I had a fever.

Isn't that what books are supposed to do though? Make you want to run out and do things?

I followed the lads on their journey, loving their tongue in cheek way of writing, meeting hundreds of people through them, seeing that there are very few strangers out there, just potential friends. I felt sorry for Ewan though as he was being recognised wherever he went, even in Russia. The Kazaks told him blatantly that Moulin Rouge was not their favourite movie, not his best either. It was very funny. I think it took him aback as it just showed how far into the world one has to go to be anymous.

Charley was very funny - he was the angry one a lot of times, shouting at the back-up chaps and generally having fits about things. Which surprised me a bit as I thought Ewan would be the one throwing the prima-donna fits. Although he did, according to Charley, going into sulks and then being fine the next minute. Which amazed me even more - aren't us women supposed to be the ones with hormonal problems?

They had a rollicking time - eventually clocking that this journey which had started out so well, had turned into a schedule keeping malarky and once they relaxed, things went tonnes better. They travelled and saw things very few Westerners get to see, ever. I take my hat off to their cameraman Claudio who travelled with them and filmed them and their escapades. He was indeed the unsung hero of the book.

I think I will buy the dvd for Mark - of course - as it would be interesting to equate what was written in the book to what we saw on that.

Charley is currently doing the Paris to Dakar rally - but had apparently managed to break both his hands and is now merely travelling along as back-up to the other two chaps in the team. I am not sure what Ewan is up to but either way, I will always be a fan of them now and will always dream - even more - of going to farflung places and meeting interesting people. And have an Adventure.

Cinnamon City - Miranda Innes

I love travel writing books - it is a weakness, I will admit to. I love being carried away by other people's trials and tribulations whilst feverently wishing that it was me there, spending money on a home to be made beautiful, a trip to enjoy to the last...they are fantastic journeys, better than made-up fiction.

Cinnamon City was a book I was looking forward to reading when I first spotted it in Ottakars in Greenwich on one of our many coffeebean buying trips to the market there.

I finally bought a copy just before Christmas, started reading it haphazzardly and then putting it aside in favour of one or two other, more pressing books, and I am glad I did. This is not a book to sit down and read in one go. It is not for the feint hearted.

Poor Miranda and Dan's trials really had me shaking my head thinking that this was never going to work.

They were lured into buying a broken and sad riad in Marrakech. She relates all their troubles with heartfelt anxiety and worry whilst lyrically giving an account of this magical city, its people and the genuine friendships they had formed with their (eventual) manager, neighbours and workmen.

I had to grin and laugh, knowing how chaotic building projects in Africa can go and then shape up magically in a blink of an eye. She and poor Dan worried fretfully as suddenly, everywhere they looked there was chaos, mud and water and the plumbing didn't work. Their palace had been turned into a tip. It was terrible and they out of money and had to borrow from friends and family until a flat could be sold in Brighton. Thanks to perseverance and the good fortune of having hired the right man for the job, it all came together beautifully in the end and apparently, the end result, like the book, is a work of triumph.

It is a genuinely an enjoyable book and hopefully I will be able to visit the now finished palatial and beautiful riad to take in all I had read about. Their website www.marocandalucia.co.uk is a very basic one, showing some of the pictures in both their riad in Morocco and their home in Andalucia - both of which are up to rent throughout the year, prices on the website!

Wednesday, January 04, 2006

And today's lesson is...plot

Dan Brown. The man who has sold more books worldwide than any other author…his books have only been outsold by the Bible. Which is sort of funny, if you think about it.

I was chatting to a colleague at the watercooler – as you do – and he asked me what I did over the holiday…so I mentioned that I got quite a bit done on my novel (brave move for me as I try not to talk about it too much as it used to be an embarrassing thing….are all budding authors like this?). I digress. Young colleague, lets call him YC, to make things easier, and he asked me firstly:

“Are you writing a Mills & Boone romance?” at which I burst out laughing and said no, not quite.

Then he looked at me keenly and said… “Are you writing a Dan Brown novel?”

And I laughed even more. And said no, my writing is MUCH better than his. Which led – amongst other things - to the conversation about the sale of his books and if he is a good writer or not…

Now, I think he is a fantastic writer – he has the world wrapped around his word processor.

I admit this with a blushing face as I know my prose is better than his but what he hit upon was an amazing plot and a public willing to believe all he wrote – I am talking about the Da Vinci Code here, by the way. A hugely successful book which, like JK Rowling’s books firstly started selling by word of mouth, then the media picked it up, the marketing machine kicked in and it all just steam rollered it into a book so talked about and controversial that it had the Vatican up in arms, families not talking to one another….and all of this hype spawned off-shoot books about the REAL Da Vinci Code, including programmes about church organisations, the Templars and Roslyn Chapel in Scotland!

Which brings me to the real crux of this blog – you can be a rubbish writer, but if you have a fantastic plot and you can manage to weave your story together to make it plausible so that you turn people’s heads then you are a successful writer. As that is what writers do – create something altogether real and plausible and make you wonder what if…

We discussed the Dan Brown phenomenon in our writing class last year and our tutor maintained that even though it wasn’t the most literary thriller in the world, it had all the ingredients that made it a best seller – fast paced plot, an attractive hero, a plausible heroine, conspiracies, scary baddies (what is more scary than a religious fanatic backed by an even scarier Vatican sanctioned order), yet more conspiracies…he admitted rightly that he read two pages of the book and had to throw it across the room as he couldn’t stomach the bad writing. We questioned him as to how it got past the editors if it was that bad and he circled us back to the plot, the thrill of the ride you get to go on with the characters and how, if you are clever enough at illusion, you could have a rollicking time writing your novel because you know so many people out there would be loving it, just because it is in places far-fetched! And face it, even if you aren’t a conspiracy theorist who doesn’t love a good cover up!?

It was a valuable lesson that gave us pause as we were quite happy to write it off as rubbish (more out of jealousy than anything else) but the core role is – plot.

This is a bit of blurb from the Writing section of the BBC website

In a nutshell, a great plot will be one which appears to develop inevitably, features credible events, and resolves itself in a way which appears to be a natural consequence of the chain of events you've inflicted upon your characters.

And that is the lesson for today.

Thursday, December 29, 2005

The Walking Drum

Growing up I never had access to a lot of books. My mom, very much the home maker and craft worker hated me reading, seeing it as a waste of my time.

My dad, on the other hand, absolutely loved and adored the cowboy book genre and encouraged me to read as many of them as I could. The wild west was his life. He could spin me stories of Hondo, Sundance, the Sacketts, A Man Called Noon, Zorro - the list seemed endless. One of his favourite authors was the genuine article, a chap called Louis L'Amour. I read all the books we had on our bookshelf voraciously.

At school, my English teacher despaired - all I ever wrote about in my essays were cowboys drinking coffee, rustling horses and stand-offs at noon. He made fun of me and begged me to borrow books from libraries and read other things - not cowboy related. So I did. I bought my dad a copy of this book - The Walking Drum - written by Louis L'Amour with all my savings money and instantly fell in love with the historical novel and the historical background he set his writing against.

The novel is set against the backdrop of the 12th Century. At the center of The Walking Drum is Kerbouchard, one of L'Amour's greatest heroes. Warrior, lover, scholar, Kerbouchard is a daring seeker of knowledge and fortune bound on a journey of enormous challenge, danger and revenge. Across the Europe, the Russian steppes and through the Byzantine wonder of Constantinople, gateway to Asia, Kerbouchard is thrust into the heart of the treacheries, passions, violence and dazzling wonders of a magnificent time. From castle to slave gallery, from sword-racked battlefields to a princess's secret chamber, and ultimately, to the impregnable fortress of the Valley of Assassins, this is a book I have read maybe five or six times, if that few.

In fact, I still have a copy of it and I am re-reading it, yet again.

I always think back at my English teacher's despair and have to smile. I think that what if my reading habits had not started with the high adventure of the cowboy genre, would I have been keen to become a writer myself? Anything could happen out there. The stories were endless. And these first stepping stones formed the basis of the rest of my reading habit. I haven't read a cowboy book in years, I will admit, but I am still a great fan of Mr. L'Amour's books.

Happy reading!

Words written on "Daughter of the Red Branch" up to date:- 9,996