April 2006 Archives
I wasn't at all sure about this from the blurb and (over)enthusiastic recommendation from Joanne Harris. Still, I'm always a sucker for epic novels set in glorious eras in the past, and all the more so when the action takes place in pre-Maoist China. In this novel we're quickly introduced to the cast of (mainly) female characters and the concept of jin-shei - a sisterhood determined by a self-determined commitment to friendship and loyalty, and facilitated by a secret women's language. Once the relationships are established, the plot continues headlong into tales of courtly intrigue and powerplays, spiritual and self-discovery - both for good and for bad set against the background of social and cultural life in mediaeval capital of the Syai empire, aka mediaeval China.
Not as good as Dorothy Dunnett, but then she does build her plots over a whole series of books.
Buy it: Amazon link
Another Barbican library loan, and another good Easter holiday read. Set in an unnamed English county in the early years of the 20th century, this novel is narrated by Catherine, and takes us from her childhood years of priveledge without parents, to incest and abortion and on into genteel poverty and loss brought The Great War. Not a joyous novel, but a good read, especially sitting in rural Herefordshire.
Buy it: Amazon link
I've not read Matthew Kneale's English Passengers, although I have thought about it.... so spotting this more recent publication in the Barbican Library I decided to give it a whirl, and I'm glad I did. I like short stories, and in this collection Matthew Kneale writes about characters whose acts do disservice to themselves, or those they encounter. Sometimes you feel on their side, at other times not.
The story that sticks in the mind comes near the start of the collection, where a modern London family tries out independent travel for the first time and cause the execution of a man who did nothing but help them and be perceived as being a bit "odd" - hardly surprising given he lived in a Chinese city off the beaten track for western visitors. One other is about a respectable London solicitor who finds more profit and job satisfaction as a drugs dealer, until his late teenage children find out. Lots of familiar settings for a young metropolitain type such as I am.
Buy it: Amazon link
After two relatively erudite novels, I felt the need to induldge in a spot of American crime - the CSI of literature, to my mind. This was the "oldest" Kay Scarpetta novel I could find on the library shelves, and it deals with a time when Scarpetta is still working out her feelings for Benton, and getting over the death of her previous lover, Mark. Lucy is in the early years of her career and still honing her skills as an FBI agent. In other parts of the plot, Patricia Cornwell offers dismembered bodies both sides of the Atlantic, and a mutant smallpox epidemic spread by postal deliveries. See, very CSI.
Amazon.co.uk link: Unnatural Exposure - Patricia Cornwell
Amazon.co.uk list: Kay Scarpetta Collection (in order)
I knew it had to happen sometime; I'd find myself reading a Kinsey Millhone mystery that I'd read before.... after all, I didn't discover Sue Grafton's heroine with A is for Alibi (which it looks like I've managed to overlook!) - I suspect that I thought Q is for Quarry was just an interesting title. So here we are, re-reading a crime story but this time with 16 books-worth of character development and background information, all of which makes certain parts more enjoyable (Henry's love interest) and other parts more significant (the appearance of Aunt Susanna). I'm not racing through it however....
Buy it: Amazon link
Jane Green is always reliable on the old chicklit front, and The Other Woman was the first book I spotted in my recent trip to the Barbican Library. Not as gripping as some of her other novels, or perhaps I'm just getting to familiar with them now, and the blurb on the back cover is fine as far as bare facts go but seems to over egg the differences between Ellie, the main character, and husband-to-be, Dan who's mother is "The Other Woman" of the title.
Ellie is rather less likeable than other lead characters that Jane Green has created, being too preoccupied with her own desires, needs and emotions to see situations from other people's perspectives until the light dawns (or, rather, is shone directly at her) so as to achieve the requisite happy ending.
Buy it: Amazon link