Reading tag:www.sparklytrainers.com,2005-05-22:/reading//18 2012-02-02T14:38:41Z Movable Type Pro 5.12 To Defy A King - Elizabeth Chadwick tag:www.sparklytrainers.com,2012:/reading//18.13268 2012-01-29T11:08:12Z 2012-02-02T14:38:41Z I don't know why I do it. Every time I plough through one of Elizabeth Chadwick's historical novel I get irritated by the knowing / deliberate use of words and phrases unearthed in this season's research (my bête noires from... Mary I don't know why I do it. Every time I plough through one of Elizabeth Chadwick's historical novel I get irritated by the knowing / deliberate use of words and phrases unearthed in this season's research (my bête noires from in this particular novel are: solar plexus and dapifer) and the mediaeval Mills and Boon plot.

No More!

Amazon.co.uk link: To Defy A King - Elizabeth Chadwick

]]> King of the Badgers - Philip Hensher tag:www.sparklytrainers.com,2012:/reading//18.13267 2012-01-20T11:26:01Z 2012-01-29T11:44:18Z A slow read. Set in a fictional Devon seaside town, King of the Badgers starts with the abduction of a local girl with echoes of Shannon Matthews, and ends with her release. In between we follow the lives of, amongst... Mary A slow read.

Set in a fictional Devon seaside town, King of the Badgers starts with the abduction of a local girl with echoes of Shannon Matthews, and ends with her release. In between we follow the lives of, amongst others, London escapees/retirees, snobbish middle class academics living beyond their means, and the open and hidden the gay scene on sea.

Amazon.co.uk link: King of the Badgers - Philip Hensher

]]> Heartstone - C. J. Sansom tag:www.sparklytrainers.com,2012:/reading//18.13181 2012-01-01T21:46:49Z 2012-01-02T14:53:12Z Deftly connecting characters from previous novels in the Shardlake series to Henry VIII's futile final war against the French and the sinking of the Mary Rose. Smashing. Amazon.co.uk link: Heartstone - C J Sansom... Mary Deftly connecting characters from previous novels in the Shardlake series to Henry VIII's futile final war against the French and the sinking of the Mary Rose.

Smashing.

Amazon.co.uk link: Heartstone - C J Sansom

]]> The Memory Box - Margaret Forster tag:www.sparklytrainers.com,2011:/reading//18.13165 2011-12-26T11:34:39Z 2011-12-26T11:40:06Z Catherine Musgrave's mother died when she was 6 months old, leaving her daughter a Memory Box. Thirty years later, as she at last tries to understand the significance of each item her mother put into the box, Catherine discovers that... Mary Catherine Musgrave's mother died when she was 6 months old, leaving her daughter a Memory Box. Thirty years later, as she at last tries to understand the significance of each item her mother put into the box, Catherine discovers that there is more about herself and her family's relationships than she'd previously allowed herself to appreciate.

Amazon.co.uk link: The Memory Box - Margaret Forster

]]> Out of Steppe - Daniel Metcalfe tag:www.sparklytrainers.com,2011:/reading//18.13152 2011-12-23T20:42:05Z 2011-12-24T09:55:54Z Daniel Metcalfe's 2004 journey in search of "the lost peoples of Central Asia". Leaving Iran he travelled through Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Afghanistan, winding up with the Kalash in the NWFP valleys of Pakistan. A good read if you're... Mary Daniel Metcalfe's 2004 journey in search of "the lost peoples of Central Asia".

Leaving Iran he travelled through Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Afghanistan, winding up with the Kalash in the NWFP valleys of Pakistan.

A good read if you're thinking of doing either of these trips or similar:

My appetite for these Wild Frontiers expeditions has been (re)whetted:

Amazon.co.uk link: Out of Steppe - Daniel Metcalfe

]]> The Snake Stone - Jason Goodwin tag:www.sparklytrainers.com,2011:/reading//18.13145 2011-12-08T22:40:01Z 2011-12-09T19:42:24Z Another jolly good read as Yashim encounters Greek history, Scottish doctors, Albanian watermen and a French femme fatale. Amazon.co.uk link: The Snake Stone - Jason Goodwin... Mary Another jolly good read as Yashim encounters Greek history, Scottish doctors, Albanian watermen and a French femme fatale.

Amazon.co.uk link: The Snake Stone - Jason Goodwin

]]> Getting Rid of Matthew - Jane Fallon tag:www.sparklytrainers.com,2011:/reading//18.13119 2011-12-02T16:04:13Z 2011-12-03T16:06:14Z Married man leaves wife and family for his mistress.... who realises she doesn't want him now she has him 24/7. Amazon.co.uk link: Getting Rid of Matthew - Jane Fallon... Mary Married man leaves wife and family for his mistress.... who realises she doesn't want him now she has him 24/7.

Amazon.co.uk link: Getting Rid of Matthew - Jane Fallon

]]> Chinese Whispers: Searching for Forgiveness in Beijing - Jan Wong tag:www.sparklytrainers.com,2011:/reading//18.13120 2011-12-01T21:08:37Z 2011-12-03T16:17:18Z In 2006, Chinese Canadian journalist Jan Wong returned to Beijing, with her family, on a quest to track down the fellow student she had shopped to the Maoist authorities in the early 1970s for wanting to leave China for America.... Mary In 2006, Chinese Canadian journalist Jan Wong returned to Beijing, with her family, on a quest to track down the fellow student she had shopped to the Maoist authorities in the early 1970s for wanting to leave China for America. In her account, Jan Wong illustrates just how much China changed in the intervening 35 years, just as she had. Five years on, and post the 2008 Olympics, China's changed even more.

Amazon.co.uk link: Chinese Whispers: Searching for Forgiveness in Beijing - Jan Wong

]]> The Winter Ghosts - Kate Mosse tag:www.sparklytrainers.com,2011:/reading//18.13089 2011-11-25T09:13:04Z 2011-11-25T09:15:59Z Another loan from Hazel during our Three High Passes to Everest trek. In this short novel (novella really) Kate Mosse tackles war, (male) grief and the final suppression of the Cathars in the south of France. Amazon.co.uk link: The Winter... Mary Another loan from Hazel during our Three High Passes to Everest trek. In this short novel (novella really) Kate Mosse tackles war, (male) grief and the final suppression of the Cathars in the south of France.

Amazon.co.uk link: The Winter Ghosts - Kate Mosse

]]> Rivers of London - Ben Aaronovitch tag:www.sparklytrainers.com,2011:/reading//18.13088 2011-11-18T09:08:36Z 2011-11-25T09:11:27Z Borrowed from Hazel during our Three High Passes to Everest trek, a good read - a crime story with a modern magical London twist. Amazon.co.uk link: Rivers of London - Ben Aaronovitch... Mary Borrowed from Hazel during our Three High Passes to Everest trek, a good read - a crime story with a modern magical London twist.

Amazon.co.uk link: Rivers of London - Ben Aaronovitch

]]> How To Be Good - Nick Hornby tag:www.sparklytrainers.com,2011:/reading//18.13010 2011-10-11T20:04:24Z 2011-10-16T14:13:39Z A modern parable - a north London family's response to the father of the house turning from a cynical newspaper columnist to a Totally Good Person after the laying on of hot hands by DJ Good News. Amazon.co.uk link: How... Mary A modern parable - a north London family's response to the father of the house turning from a cynical newspaper columnist to a Totally Good Person after the laying on of hot hands by DJ Good News.

Amazon.co.uk link: How to be good - Nick Hornby

]]> The Sun Over Breda - Arturo Perez-Reverte tag:www.sparklytrainers.com,2011:/reading//18.13011 2011-10-06T20:10:02Z 2011-10-16T10:15:10Z Martin lent me the first three Adventures of Captain Alatriste, and I made it half way through The Sun Over Breda before succumbing to the lure of Viggo Mortensen playing the role in the DVD version of the whole series.... Mary Martin lent me the first three Adventures of Captain Alatriste, and I made it half way through The Sun Over Breda before succumbing to the lure of Viggo Mortensen playing the role in the DVD version of the whole series. The books are just a bit slow compared to Bernard Cornwell....

Amazon.co.uk link: The Sun Over Breda - Arturo Perez-Reverte

]]> Excalibur - Bernard Cornwell tag:www.sparklytrainers.com,2011:/reading//18.13009 2011-10-02T20:58:59Z 2011-10-16T10:02:43Z The closing chapters of The Warlord Chronicle - Arthur sails off into the west, Derfel obeys his oath and follows Sansum, and Britain becomes Christian. Amazon.co.uk link: Excalibur - Bernard Cornwell... Mary The closing chapters of The Warlord Chronicle - Arthur sails off into the west, Derfel obeys his oath and follows Sansum, and Britain becomes Christian.

Amazon.co.uk link: Excalibur - Bernard Cornwell

]]> The Long Song - Andrea Levy tag:www.sparklytrainers.com,2011:/reading//18.12950 2011-09-24T18:19:25Z 2011-09-24T19:25:23Z Andrea Levy's telling of slavery in Jamaica, spanning the decades in the middle of the 19th century when Great Britain abolished slavery across its empire. Amazon.co.uk link: The Long Song - Andrea Levy... Mary Andrea Levy's telling of slavery in Jamaica, spanning the decades in the middle of the 19th century when Great Britain abolished slavery across its empire.

Amazon.co.uk link: The Long Song - Andrea Levy

]]> To A Mountain In Tibet - Colin Thubron tag:www.sparklytrainers.com,2011:/reading//18.12923 2011-09-18T10:01:11Z 2011-09-18T10:51:26Z "In the minutes before sleep, a shadowy melancholy descends: the bewilderment when something long awaited has gone." A very personal account of Colin Thubron's pilgrimage to Mount Kailas; a slighter, but deeper, volume than usual. Read it if you're going... Mary "In the minutes before sleep, a shadowy melancholy descends: the bewilderment when something long awaited has gone."

A very personal account of Colin Thubron's pilgrimage to Mount Kailas; a slighter, but deeper, volume than usual.

Read it if you're going to do the kora: you'll gain an understanding not simply of the physical demands, but also the spiritual significance of this mountain for Buddhists, Hindus, Jain and Bon. I wish I had.

It's also made me want to reread A Stranger in Tibet: The Adventures of a Zen Monk, Scott Berry's account of the life and travels of Kawaguchi Ekai, a Japanese zen monk who travelled to Tibet in the opening years of the 20th century. Kawaguchi is mentioned a lot in Colin Thubron's account, and he (Kawaguchi) also lived in Marpha, Nepal, for a while - we passed his house on the Annapurna Circuit.

Amazon.co.uk link: To A Mountain In Tibet - Colin Thubron

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