May 2011 Archives

Good chick lit.

Single mum Tess flees London to take a position house sitting in Saltburn.

Amazon.co.uk link: Secrets - Freya North

A great read!

What, or who, is real: Pran Nath, Rukhsana, Chandra, Pretty Bobby or Jonathan Bridgeman?

Amazon.co.uk link: The Impressionist - Hari Kunzru

A very different view of the woman's world in the mid 15th century from Sarah Dunant's Sacred Hearts.

The Wise Woman looks at the thin line trodden by natural healers and herbalists who could be both suspected as witches and valued as healers and midwives, by the same communities. Set in the north of England, far from the court of Henry VIII, in a world of fear and superstition, religions and beliefs in conflict, sprinkled with a touch black magic and horror - or is it simply paranoia and fear?

An OK read.

Amazon.co.uk link: The Wise Woman - Philippa Gregory

I started this in Walton, twice. I'm glad I persevered to get beyond the initial mystical omen scene. A fantastic read, right through to the end... which kept me up until 3am and left me in tears - not for the first time in this Indian epic, set in the lush lands of the Coorg.

If you liked Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things, I think you will love Tiger Hills.

Amazon.co.uk link: Tiger Hills - Sarita Mandanna

Bought in Hereford in 2004; finally finished in Walton on the Naze in May 2011 - possibly the longest it's taken me to read a book, ever.

Perfect for dipping into, it's a collection travel writings and musings. Some were by people I've read, others by names that are new to me, even if the book was already 20 years old when I bought it.

Amazon.co.uk link: Granta 10: Travel Writing - Bill Buford (Editor)

A slim book of short stories by Hilary Mantel, possibly (semi)autobiographical? Quick to read, and left me a bit cold.

Nothing at all like Wolf Hall.

Amazon.co.uk link: Learning to Talk: Short stories - Hilary Mantel

Subtitled Richard Sharpe and the Emperor, 1820-1821 and set predominantly in Chile in the twilight days of Spain's South American Empire, and on one of the South Atlantic's more famous islands, St Helena, Sharpe's Devil sees Sharpe and Harper reunite for one last hurrah. Their mission, to find - dead or alive - old friend, Captain-General Vivar, who has disappeared in Chile in mysterious circumstances. But before the quest begins, their St Helena stop off results in a meeting with their old enemy in exile, Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte....

Not sure what prompted Bernard Cornwell to write it, but it's a cracking good story, as always.

amazon.co.uk link: Sharpe's Devil: Richard Sharpe and the Emperor, 1820 - 1821 - Bernard Cornwell