Mar
31
2009

March books

41b3kmpcvpl_sl500_aa240_Perfect Match by Jodi Picoult features Nina, who is an assistant district attorney. Life is going very well for her until her 5-year old son Nathaniel discloses that he has been sexually abused. Despite spending many years prosecuting child abusers she knows that the likelihood of gaining a conviction is slim, so when her son discloses who the perpetrator was she takes the law into her own hands.

Usually I quite like Jodi Picoult books but this one was much the same as some of her other stories, but it just wasn’t quite as good ! I think I enjoy her novels more when they are set in an unusual situations, like Plain Truth which was set in the Amish community. This one just didn’t quite cut it for me unfortunately.

————————————————————————

4110w1jbj8l_sl500_aa240_ I have been listening to Light on Snow by Anita Shreve on CD. Nicky is 12-years old and and lives in the middle of nowhere in New Hampshire along with her father. They moved there following the death of her mother and sister in a car accident and her father doesn’t really want to have too much contact with the outside wall. However, this all changes when they go walking in the snow one day and find a newborn baby in the woods. Things get even stranger when the mother of the baby turns up at their house in the middle of a snow storm.

To be honest I didn’t really like this book much. I think this is partly because I thought the story was slow, and quite dull and I didn’t really like the characters. However, I have to admit that I found that the woman who was reading the book had the most irritating, drawly, whiney American accent, and that put me off. The other thing that irritated me was that the dialogue was incredibly stilted, with lots of “he said”, “she saids” which just wound me up. I am not sure I would have noticed it so much if I had been reading the book, but listening to it made it very obvious.

Not one of my favourites!

————————————————————————

51wdzagd8gl_sl500_aa240_ The Suspicions of Mr Whicher or the Murder at Road Hill House by Kate Summerscale is one of the first Richard and Judy books that I haven’t enjoyed. It is about the real life murder of a three-year old boy who was brutally murdered by one of the residents of the house. The book was researched using police papers from the National Archive and other information gained from newspapers around the time.

I guess I just found it a bit boring. It was incredibly detailed, but I found the story dragged and I just found the whole research thing a bit tedious.

Seems to me I haven’t enjoyed many books so far this month. Maybe I need to read another No 1 Ladies Detective Agency to cheer me up!

————————————————————————

418my4n3tal_sl500_aa240_Conversations with the Fat Girl by Liza Palmer was a good book. It is about a girl called Maggie and her best friend Olivia. When they were younger both girls were overweight, but Olivia paid for surgery and is now a US size 2 – just in time for her wedding. Maggie hasn’t lost the weight, but this book is about her discovery of how her weight doesn’t make her a better or worse person, and it also doesn’t mean her life has to end.

It is unusual for me to find a novel so thought-provoking. I guess having been a ‘fat girl’ my entire life, I found that I related to Maggie and her traumas. Her anxieties and low self-esteem was both heartbreaking and endearing and she very much proved that she was so much nicer than her skinny friend. However, she rather beautifully got her own back at the end!

————————————————————————

51odriubxpl_bo2204203200_pisitb-sticker-arrow-clicktopright35-76_aa240_sh20_ou02_Morality for Beautiful Girls by Alexander McCall Smith is the third in the Number 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency Series.

So, we meet again with Mma Precious Ramotswe and her now legendary detective work. However, some of he problems are closer to home as her intended husband appears to be suffering with depression. The stories and mysteries to be solved are unusual but not especially interesting, but what I loved the most about this book is the gentle meander through the culture of Botswana. The focus on community and the role of the extended family was beautifully developed and I found in incredibly endearing. I love these stories. The characters are beautifully developed and when I have read loads of crap books, I can rely on the No 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency to cheer me up.

————————————————————————

519n80glr1l_bo2204203200_pisitb-sticker-arrow-clicktopright35-76_aa240_sh20_ou02_A Friend of the Family by Lisa Jewell is about the London family, who are a family in need, even though they don’t know it. Gerry and Bernie are the parents, totally in love with each other and live in a house full of tat. They are also the parents to three boys. Tony is newly divorced and in love with one of his brother’s girlfriends. Sean is a successful novelist, who goes to pieces when he finds out his girlfriend is pregnant, and Ned who has just returned from living in Australia where he left a girlfriend who keeps sending her hair and toenail clippings in the post to show how mental she is. Living with their parents is Gervase, an enigmatic rockabilly who seems to have a psychic gift for understanding the troubles the boys are going through.

I really enjoyed this book – an easy read with likeable characters. Halfway through I thought the story was familiar… it was… I have read this book before!!

————————————————————————

51aajaq4eol_bo2204203200_pisitb-sticker-arrow-clicktopright35-76_aa240_sh20_ou02_Sunbathing Naked and Other Miracle Cures by Guy Kennaway is a hilarious, and sad memoir about living with psoriasis. It documents the many different types of cures he has tried for this difficult to manage condition and the ways in which it affects his life. There are some real laugh out loud moments… especially when he is describing naked sunbathing, and the ways in which people contort their bodies to get as much sun the the affected parts. Unfortunately I was on the bus when I was reading that part so I was quite embarrassing. I found this book very interesting as my sister had psoriasis when she was younger and had to use the most revolting smelly shampoo. Anyway, great book about a serious subject!

————————————————————————

21qggmpsy0l_sl500_aa180_Comfort Food by Kate Jacobs is about a TV cook called Gus. She hosts a successful cookery show and seriously gets the hump when she is forced into hosting a life TV cookery show with an ex-beauty-queen called Carmen who she loathes with a passion. The book contains some serious spats and some hilarious attempts at team building.

The other thing that this book did was made me think about how important food is to my family, especially on my Mum’s side. Whether it is family party, wedding, funeral or general day-to-day stuff, food is pretty crucial. My Mum makes an amazing roast and prize winning Guernsey biscuits. Auntie Josie’s profiteroles are legendary, as are Auntie Pat’s meringues. As for Auntie Jen…. pretty much everything she cooks is magnificent. Maybe this goes some way to explain why I am not wafer thin!!

Whilst I enjoyed this book I found the beginning really slow, but the ending was wrapped up way too quickly. The author also wrote The Friday Night Knitting Club which I absolutely loved (and reviewed here) I kind of felt that this second book was a bit rushed and didn’t have the same charm as the first but it was still an OK read.

————————————————————————

41qmxxlkyyl_sl500_aa240_1And now to something distinctly less chick-litty! Onto an audio book called Blood Hunt by Ian Rankin, writing as Jack Harvey.

Gordon Reeve is a survival expert who lives in the Scottish Highlands with his family. His life is ticking along quite nicely, running ‘let’s-play-at-being-soldier’ weekends for men who think they look good with a gun, when his journalist brother is found dead in a car in America. Allegedly it is suicide but Gordon is less than convinced when he finds out that his brother has been investigating a less-than-savoury story. There is plenty of bloodshed and suspense and a great story with lots of twists and turns.

For a start, I really liked the voice of the guy reading this story which definitely helps! I thought that characters were well developed and interesting and it was an excellent read/listen. In general I like Ian Rankin novels and this one was a bit different to his usual Rebus novels.

————————————————————————

41cn4j8647l_sl500_aa240_Home Truths by Freya North is another great book. The McCable sisters, Fen, Pip and Cat have characterised their whole lives by the fact that when they were small their mother ran off with a cowboy from Denver. As a result they were looked after by their eccentric uncle Django who has an interesting take on cooking and an equally colourful dress sense. However, on his 75th birthday their lives are turned upside down when their mother arrived.

I have always like these books by Freya North. Her characters are beautifully developed, largely due to the fact that each of the girls has a whole booked dedicated to them. This story of about families, both traditional and the more untraditional and how close family bonds enable them to get through almost anything.

————————————————————————

41cva4nqh7l_sl500_aa240_2I was very confused by the book More Twisted by Jeffrey Deaver. I found it confusing and difficult to read and I couldn’t work out why each chapter seemed like a different story with different characters and plots. It was only when I got to the end of the book, peeled off the label on the front and read the statement “Bite-sized thrills from the master of suspense” that it actually made sense. The reason that it felt like a book of short stories was because it is a book of story stories. Doh!!!

Written by Anna Williams in: Uncategorized | Tags: ,

5 Comments »

  • Cooo. You’ve been busy! I might try the Freya North one… and of course the Ladies’ Detective Agency… 🙂

    Comment | March 31, 2009
  • Pants

    I quite liked Perfect Match. I seem to remember finding it quite though provoking. Aren’t all of hers similar kinds of story lines?

    Comment | March 31, 2009
  • Well four on your list are ones I’ve read – I guess I ought to try the others if we’re going to keep mirroring each other! 😉

    I’ve just finished reading The Welsh Girl which based on your other reads you may enjoy – I’ll be getting a review up soon.

    Totally agree with you on the Jodi Picoult books, and Plain Truth was indeed one of my favourites. Just started reading Nineteen Minutes on the train this morning so interested to see if that one is “formulaic” too.

    Comment | March 31, 2009
  • Here you go Mrs C…. I read Nineteen Minutes back in June 2008. I seemed to like it, although I can’t really remember much about it to be honest!!

    http://auntiedoris.wibsite.com/2008/06/02/rc_part_36_-_nineteen_minutes_by_jodi_picoult/

    Comment | March 31, 2009
  • Well, only about 100 pages in so far, but quite enjoying it. One thing that I have noticed though is all the characters that keep popping up that have been in her other books. Slightly strange at first!

    Comment | April 1, 2009

RSS feed for comments on this post.

Leave a comment

Design: TheBuckmaker.com WordPress Themes