Review : Alias Grace

Title : Alias Grace
Author : Margaret Atwood
ISBN : 1-86049-259-2
Rating : 9/10
Great for : cuppa by the fire

A friend and I were rattling around a rather smelly (sorry, but it’s true!) charity shop in Guisely when she picked up a weighty tome and thrust it in my hands.  Have you read it? It’s amazing, she said.  I hadn’t and, for 50p I was willing to take a punt.  I’m pretty happy that I did because she was right, it is amazing. I really loved it!

Margaret Atwood takes the bare bones facts of a real life murder case and weaves a sinister, but thoroughly enjoyable story around the “celebrated murdress”, Grace Marks.   The question of her innocence divided her community at the time (the murder took place in the mid 1800’s).  At just 16 when the murders were committed, people queried whether Grace was a fiendish femme fatale who murdered out of love and jealousy, or whether she was a naive young innocent who was caught up in a murderous plot by the shadowy James McDermott.

The book has so much going for it – one part whodunnit, one part historical fiction/drama, add a touch of class conflict and psychological thriller….it’s juicy and riveting. I’m just surprised it never made it to the big screen.

Kx

Confessions of an Eco-Shopper

Title : Confessions of an Eco-Shopper
Author : Kate Lock
ISBN : 978-0-340-95567-6
Rating : 9/10
Great for : inspiring the eco warrioress amongst you

I really enjoyed this book and as normal, it sent me scurrying for my pad and pencil to start writing things down.  From changing the way you approach your weekly shop to making your own beauty products, it’s no nonsense approach to all things green.

Some green guides can be a bit pompous and stilted, but this book is funny and really informative.  If you think one person can’t change the world, think again.  Every one of us can do our bit to help the environment and it’s simple and easy stuff.

It’s also left me with a strange yearning for a shopping trolley and a desire to ditch deodrant!

Review : The Behaviour of Moths

Title : The Behaviour of Moths
Author : Poppy Adams
ISBN : 978-1-84408-488-3
Rating : 7/10
Great for : late night reading

Having seen this book everywhere – the library, the bookshops, in the grubby hands of a grey-suited commuter, friend’s bookshelves, even Tescos – I finally succumbed and decided to give it a go.   And…yeah…it’s okay.   I think having seen it everywhere it was probably over-hyped in my mind and that’s never good is it?

The narrator is the rather batty and selectively perceptive Ginny, a reclusive old lady who rattles around in her rather old and derelict house.  After forty-odd years of separation, her sister Vivi finally comes to visit and, as is the way of the world, dark secrets begin to unravel and sibling rivalries start to bubble to the surface.

What I particularly appreciated was the claustrophobic atmosphere Poppy Adams managed to conjour up.  And though Ginny is supposedly a few sandwiches short of a picnic, I found her totally believable (who knows what that says about me).

This book had lingering hints of Alice Sebold’s The Almost Moon and Mark Haddon’s Curious Incident. I don’t think it is as original and well-executed as the latter, but hey ho.

If you’ve read this – and you must have, it’s everywhere! – let us know what you thought.

Kx

Tell us…

…are you planning to give any books away this Christmas?

If so, what?

Review : The Bookseller of Kabul

Title : The Bookseller of Kabul
Author : Asne Seierstad
ISBN : 1-84408-047-1
Rating : 6/10
Great for : a glimpse into life in Kabul

The Bookseller of Kabul caught my eye because I’d enjoyed Greg Mortensen’s Three Cups of Tea so very much.   The author of The Bookseller, Asne Seierstad, is an award-winning journalist and actually lived with Sultan Khan (the bookseller!) and his family for four months.

Asne Seierstad tells the real life story of the Khans and describes family squabbles, weddings, religious pilgrimages, everyday life, sometimes in shocking detail.   I read newspapers and watch the news so I’m not entirely ignorant about life in Afghanistan but I must confess parts of it really shocked me.   One chapter in particular turned my stomach – an unmarried neighbourhood girl is caught chatting to a boy in a local park.  Someone tells on her to her family and her father doles out a horrific beating.    I suppose she was lucky – there was a suggestion that another girl in a similar situation had been killed by her family.

Interestingly, according to Wikipedia (that reliable source!) the novel itself was contested by Sultan Khan after it was published.  He claimed that Asne Seierstad painted an erronous account of him, his family and his country.  It goes on to say that he was seeking asylum in Norway or Sweden because he felt the book made it unsafe for him and his family to remain in Afghanistan.  I wonder how true this is!

It’s not a book I’d rush back to read again, but it was worth the read, if only to get a better idea of what’s going on in the world.

Kx

Erm….

Reading holidays. Love the idea in principle.  Accommodation in a big country house, lovely meals, a guest author, “bibliotherapy” and time to get your nose stuck in a good book.

But £385 pp for a weekend? Ummm…not so sure about that.

Tempted?

Review : The White Tiger

Title : The White Tiger
Author : Aravind Adiga
ISBN : 978-1843547204
Rating : 8/10
Great for : something a little different

Balram Halwai is the protagonist of The White Tiger, a character we get to know intimately, whether we like it or not.  The son of a low-caste rickshaw puller, he works as a driver for a wealthy couple caught up in the trappings of a modern consumer-driven India.  Through Balram’s eyes we see the vast disparity between rich and poor in a developing nation, and his own experience culminates in something really rather ghastly.

There are parts of this book which are dark, subversive. Brutal even.  The genuinely frightening thing is how believable the dark, subversive and brutal bits are.  There’s bloodshed, child labour, divorce, corruption.  It ain’t a pretty story.   Having said that, don’t be put off.  The narrative floods with wonderful humour throughout.    Black humour, maybe, but it works so well.  On top of that, The White Tiger is a page-turner.  You really want to know how it ends (well, I did anyway).

The White Tiger won the Booker 2008.  While I did enjoy reading it, I’m not convinced that it is a Booker winner.  To be fair, out of the 2008 shortlist the only other book I read was Sebastian Barry’s The Secret Scripture (cunning own review plug), though I did enjoy that more.

Kx

Review : The Enchanted April

Title : The Enchanted April
Author : Elizabeth von Arnim
ISBN : 978-0860685173
Rating : 9/10
Great for : being enchanted; taking a break

I truly adore this book.

Four strangers respond to a discreet notice in The Times advertising a castle for rent on the Italian Riviera.  The strangers are four very different women: the mousy, love-starved Mrs. Wilkins, the pious Mrs. Arbuthnot, the  and beguiling Lady Caroline Dester and the rather grumpy stick-in-the-mud Mrs. Fisher.

As the month goes on and the women are surrounded by the glorious natural landscapes of Italy, old personalities and hang-ups are discarded. The women find themselves recharged and full of the joys of life, a state of mind they couldn’t find in miserable, grey London (of course!).

I can’t think of a better book to read whilst stuck in the grey, rainy UK (if indeed you are).  It’s a sumptuously easy book to read, it’s funny and insightful and just a wonderful relaxing holiday for the mind.  Search it out for a rainy day and I guarantee you’ll find yourself enchanted.

Phonebox Libraries

Love this so much.

Wish my local council were that creative.

Whipping Round Wednesday

Come on you lot!  Fess up..

How many have you got on the go?

Who are they and what are they called?