(no subject)
Three weeks from today, Christmas will be over! Eek!
I am looking forward to it, though.
I've not posted book stuff in awhile. I didn't read that much in November due to the traveling. Even though I bring my book or ereader when i go away, i don't really get much chance to read other than maybe on the plane or in the airport waiting. In this most recent group of books, I've not had a lot of luck. There have been a couple of them that i did like but mostly they were meh and one i couldn't even get into so i didn't even try to finish it. That is not included in the group below because i didn't get very far into it. It just wasn't for me. Another i did get through but i didn't like it at all. Coincidentally (?) a few of the books i've read recently are paper books. Two of them were given to me, one i bought and one i received for early review. I have another paper book to read too, a Diana Gabaldon book of 4 novellas that are Outlander character stories. It was only available in the UK and it was released just before I got there. I have all her other books in hard back so it was no contest.
I've started one now that I'm going to like and I'm still picking at a biography of Cleopatra. I'm going to pick up the next in the Gabaldon Outlander books, two more to read to finish the series again. I think i've only ever read the last two once each. Her next in the series should be out sometime early 2013.
96 - The Secret Keeper - Kate Morton
Liked it. Girl sees her mother kill a stranger who has come to their house in the country. Fifty years later, she is a successful actor and at the time of her mother's 90th birthday, decides to find out what really happened. The story tells the mother's tale from before to the middle of WWII in parallel with the daughter's search and how she puts the pieces together. The reader knows more of the whole story than the daughter finds out but she finds out the main points due to luck, mostly. It was enjoyable, with good characters and a few twists I didn't see coming (because I don't as a rule!)
97 - All She Wants - Jonathan Harvey
Jonathan Harvey is one of the better Coronation Street writers and has also written plays. This is a foray into chicklit and is quite a fun read. It's about a woman from Liverpool who is a soap opera actor who has just broken up with her boyfriend and is on the edge of a bit of a breakdown. She makes a drunken fool of herself at an awards show and we are then taken back to her childhood and hear her story, including her relationships with her friends and her brother, her first love. There's heartbreak, and fun. The dialogue is mostly sharp and sarcastic. It was light and easy to read.
98 - Cutting for Stone - Abraham Verghese
The story of twin boys, the sons of a brilliant but troubled surgeon and a nun who work at an Ethiopian mission hospital. The nun dies in childbirth and the doctor runs off. The boys are raised by two other doctors and become medical professionals themselves. The story is told by one of the twins, Marion and describes their lives in what is often politically uncertain times in the 1950s and 60s. It's about relationships and unconventional families, betrayal and discovery. Betrayal over a woman drives the twins apart and forces Marion to flee to America. It's the woman that causes a life and death crisis that may or may not resolve the pasts of characters. It was really well written and I quite enjoyed it.
99 - Mimi - Lucy Ellmann
This was an advance copy I got for review.
This is a somewhat eccentric book about an eccentric plastic surgeon who falls for a most definitely eccentric middle aged woman called Mimi. Mimi is brash, colourful, confident, outspoken. She's not afraid to tell it like it is and she shakes up the world of Dr. Harrison Hanafan. I like her a lot. He's a plastic surgeon who started off trying to help people but is now disillusioned with all the nipping, tucking and botoxing he's required to do these days. He meets Mimi when he falls on Christmas Eve and she helps him up. He's recently broken up with someone who seems to have been a self centred nightmare. He aquires a stray cat who delights his convalescence (sprained ankle). He runs across Mimi several weeks later and they strike up a friendship and become lovers. She seems to give him the push that changes his life. We also meet his ex, Gertrude, and his sister, Bee and hear snippets of their childhood and family life and see how it molded the people they became.
The book is pretty good but can go on a bit too much at times. Mimi tells Harrison that repetition is good when making an effective speech. 3 or 4 pages of all the qualities of the cat before you finally find out what happened to the cat is excessive. I realize that at this point in the book, Harrison is dealing with several major losses and depression but even so....There are other tangents like that sometimes though that was the worst one for me. Some is repetition, some is completely off topic and doesn't seem to contribute at all, but some make sense in the big picture. Overall I liked the book, liked the style and liked the characters. I liked the dialogue, it was real and it was wonderfully sardonic at times.
There is a sizeable appendix at the end containing recipes, song lyrics mentioned in the book and a manifesto that figures in the ending of the book. Interesting add-ons to include.
100 - I Was Ena Sharples' Father - Tony Warren
A brief autobiography by the man who created Coronation Street. It was written at the end of the 60s when the show had only been on the air less than 10 years. It tells a bit of the story of how it was created but most of it seems quite self indulgent and doesn't really have a lot of coherence.
101 - Winter of the World - Ken Follett
The second of a trilogy about a group of families during the 20th century. This follows the families and characters through WWII. We see the war from the point of view of civilians living in Germany, and from characters living in Russia under Stalin's rule. People are disillusioned by various regimes. There is social upheaval as the Fascists come to power in Germany, and there's a civil war in Spain. There's an American socialite who marries into the British aristocracy and it doesn't go very well. People fall in love with others they shouldn't. I have to see how it comes out in the third book!
102 - NW - Zadie Smith
I liked Ms. Smith's earlier books so I looked forward to this one. I was disappointed. I found there was no real story, no consistency. It was a series of either random thoughts from various characters mostly. It is described as having to do with a woman, a stranger who comes into one of the main character's life and changes everything. It doesn't seem to be about that at all. That does happen but all it does is introduce the character, Leah and her friend Natalie who used to be called Keisha. It's meant to be a slice of real life in NW London and maybe it would work better on screen but it's very difficult to make sense of when reading.
I am looking forward to it, though.
I've not posted book stuff in awhile. I didn't read that much in November due to the traveling. Even though I bring my book or ereader when i go away, i don't really get much chance to read other than maybe on the plane or in the airport waiting. In this most recent group of books, I've not had a lot of luck. There have been a couple of them that i did like but mostly they were meh and one i couldn't even get into so i didn't even try to finish it. That is not included in the group below because i didn't get very far into it. It just wasn't for me. Another i did get through but i didn't like it at all. Coincidentally (?) a few of the books i've read recently are paper books. Two of them were given to me, one i bought and one i received for early review. I have another paper book to read too, a Diana Gabaldon book of 4 novellas that are Outlander character stories. It was only available in the UK and it was released just before I got there. I have all her other books in hard back so it was no contest.
I've started one now that I'm going to like and I'm still picking at a biography of Cleopatra. I'm going to pick up the next in the Gabaldon Outlander books, two more to read to finish the series again. I think i've only ever read the last two once each. Her next in the series should be out sometime early 2013.
96 - The Secret Keeper - Kate Morton
Liked it. Girl sees her mother kill a stranger who has come to their house in the country. Fifty years later, she is a successful actor and at the time of her mother's 90th birthday, decides to find out what really happened. The story tells the mother's tale from before to the middle of WWII in parallel with the daughter's search and how she puts the pieces together. The reader knows more of the whole story than the daughter finds out but she finds out the main points due to luck, mostly. It was enjoyable, with good characters and a few twists I didn't see coming (because I don't as a rule!)
97 - All She Wants - Jonathan Harvey
Jonathan Harvey is one of the better Coronation Street writers and has also written plays. This is a foray into chicklit and is quite a fun read. It's about a woman from Liverpool who is a soap opera actor who has just broken up with her boyfriend and is on the edge of a bit of a breakdown. She makes a drunken fool of herself at an awards show and we are then taken back to her childhood and hear her story, including her relationships with her friends and her brother, her first love. There's heartbreak, and fun. The dialogue is mostly sharp and sarcastic. It was light and easy to read.
98 - Cutting for Stone - Abraham Verghese
The story of twin boys, the sons of a brilliant but troubled surgeon and a nun who work at an Ethiopian mission hospital. The nun dies in childbirth and the doctor runs off. The boys are raised by two other doctors and become medical professionals themselves. The story is told by one of the twins, Marion and describes their lives in what is often politically uncertain times in the 1950s and 60s. It's about relationships and unconventional families, betrayal and discovery. Betrayal over a woman drives the twins apart and forces Marion to flee to America. It's the woman that causes a life and death crisis that may or may not resolve the pasts of characters. It was really well written and I quite enjoyed it.
99 - Mimi - Lucy Ellmann
This was an advance copy I got for review.
This is a somewhat eccentric book about an eccentric plastic surgeon who falls for a most definitely eccentric middle aged woman called Mimi. Mimi is brash, colourful, confident, outspoken. She's not afraid to tell it like it is and she shakes up the world of Dr. Harrison Hanafan. I like her a lot. He's a plastic surgeon who started off trying to help people but is now disillusioned with all the nipping, tucking and botoxing he's required to do these days. He meets Mimi when he falls on Christmas Eve and she helps him up. He's recently broken up with someone who seems to have been a self centred nightmare. He aquires a stray cat who delights his convalescence (sprained ankle). He runs across Mimi several weeks later and they strike up a friendship and become lovers. She seems to give him the push that changes his life. We also meet his ex, Gertrude, and his sister, Bee and hear snippets of their childhood and family life and see how it molded the people they became.
The book is pretty good but can go on a bit too much at times. Mimi tells Harrison that repetition is good when making an effective speech. 3 or 4 pages of all the qualities of the cat before you finally find out what happened to the cat is excessive. I realize that at this point in the book, Harrison is dealing with several major losses and depression but even so....There are other tangents like that sometimes though that was the worst one for me. Some is repetition, some is completely off topic and doesn't seem to contribute at all, but some make sense in the big picture. Overall I liked the book, liked the style and liked the characters. I liked the dialogue, it was real and it was wonderfully sardonic at times.
There is a sizeable appendix at the end containing recipes, song lyrics mentioned in the book and a manifesto that figures in the ending of the book. Interesting add-ons to include.
100 - I Was Ena Sharples' Father - Tony Warren
A brief autobiography by the man who created Coronation Street. It was written at the end of the 60s when the show had only been on the air less than 10 years. It tells a bit of the story of how it was created but most of it seems quite self indulgent and doesn't really have a lot of coherence.
101 - Winter of the World - Ken Follett
The second of a trilogy about a group of families during the 20th century. This follows the families and characters through WWII. We see the war from the point of view of civilians living in Germany, and from characters living in Russia under Stalin's rule. People are disillusioned by various regimes. There is social upheaval as the Fascists come to power in Germany, and there's a civil war in Spain. There's an American socialite who marries into the British aristocracy and it doesn't go very well. People fall in love with others they shouldn't. I have to see how it comes out in the third book!
102 - NW - Zadie Smith
I liked Ms. Smith's earlier books so I looked forward to this one. I was disappointed. I found there was no real story, no consistency. It was a series of either random thoughts from various characters mostly. It is described as having to do with a woman, a stranger who comes into one of the main character's life and changes everything. It doesn't seem to be about that at all. That does happen but all it does is introduce the character, Leah and her friend Natalie who used to be called Keisha. It's meant to be a slice of real life in NW London and maybe it would work better on screen but it's very difficult to make sense of when reading.