Tag Archives: book

The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay

Twelve years ago John and I were dating and I was in the hospital recovering from a surgery, doped up on painkillers. John came to visit me every day I was there and one night he rounded up a TV and VCR and brought in one of his favorite movies for us to watch – The Power of One. Sadly due to all those painkillers I have a vivid memory of John sitting by my bed holding my hand, a vague memory of a TV showing up and absolutely no recollection of the movie. Nothing. Nada. In fact it doesn’t matter how many times John has told me over the last twelve years that I have seen the movie, I still don’t remember it.

Two months ago I brought home a book a friend had lent us saying it was a good “guy read” and I should give it to John. I dutifully passed the message on to John telling him it was “something about power of one?” Which then spurred on the same discussion we have repeated over the last twelve years about how I have seen that movie, and I say I don’t remember any of it and he says he loves it… yada, yada, yada.

But now our conversation has changed because now I’ve read the book and he remembers the movie and I can say things like, “What do you mean the movie doesn’t have Hoppie in it?!” Which is far better than the I still don’t remember the movie conversation we had been having.

Would I recommend it? Yes.  This is a good “guy book” in a way that isn’t just shooting people, running around and blowing stuff up.  It should also be mention that while I am distinctly not a guy myself, I thoroughly enjoyed it and have recommended it to other not guys. Although my girlyness probably came out when the boxing made me cringe, I can’t help it, I’m not a guy.

Born to Run by Christopher McDougall

This book is, among other things, about ultra-marathoners.

Ultra-marathons are nuts.

You’d have to be crazy to run for 100 miles/24 hours/forever.

Crazy people make for very interesting reading!

In addition to the stories about crazy people this book contains a lot of talk about the evils of shoes.

Since I have always believed in the evils of shoes it was fun and fascinating to read something that had some facts to back up my feelings.

Would I recommend this book? Yes. I believe it would be an interesting read even for a non-runner – you know, like me.

The Bachelors by Muriel Spark

After reading Loitering With Intent and The Abbess of Crewe I was all hyped up on this new (to me) crazy author.  I dove into The Bachelors and came up all “eehh.”

It’s not that I’m necessarily against  a story about epileptic bachelors, scam artist, spiritualism, seances, unwanted pregnancies, trials, handwriting experts,  and planned murders, it’s just that I didn’t care about any of the characters. I kept confusing all the bachelors for the first half of the book, was irritated with the women throughout and never got vested in any of them.

Would I recommend it? No, but I’d still recommend the author. I need to take a bit of a Spark break and read a few other books that have been piling up, (Why do all the inter-library loans come in at once?) but I’ll be back to read her other books for certain.

The Abbess of Crewe by Muriel Spark

Words of wisdom from the Abbess of Crewe:

On saying grace – “Oh, it isn’t necessary… there’s nothing wrong with my food.”

“Only the beautiful should make love when they are likely to be photographed.”

“I love you so dearly, Winifrede, that I could eat you were it not for the fact that I can’t bear suet pudding.”

In answer to the question what are scenarios. – “They are an art-form, based on facts. A good scenario is a garble. A bad one is a bungle. They need not be plausible, only hypnotic, like good art.”

“A Lady is cheerful and accommodating when dealing with the perpetrators of a third-rate burglary; but a Bourgeoise calls the police.”

Would I recommend it? The book is only six chapters long so if an abbey full of plotting nuns, electronics, scandal, blackmail, and English poetry sounds amusing or interesting go ahead and pick it up. I’m thinking that it must at least sound interesting so you’d better go read it… it’s only SIX chapters after all, and tell me what you think!

Don’t forget to stop by and see what Simon and Harriet have to say about Spark this week too.

I read that Muriel Spark is like the J.D. Salinger of the U. K. read in schools and the whole nine yards. I’d never heard of her before, how about you?

Loitering With Intent by Muriel Spark

One day my travels on the internet brought me to Stuck in a Book.  As I browsed the site I discovered that Stuck in a Book and Harriet were hosting a Muriel Spark reading week. Who, I thought, is Muriel Spark and what is this reading week business of hers all about? Ever the intrepid internet explorer at one AM I hit Wikipedia to discover just who Muriel Spark was. Then it was onto my library loan site to get a few books of hers so that I could read them, post reviews the week of April 23-29 and thus join the Muriel Spark reading week.

And so that brings me, finally, to Loitering With Intent, the first Muriel Spark novel I have read.

There are main characters, and there are main characters. The most common ones are those who you suspect due to their large amounts of charisma, good luck, good looks, and the fact that they have a series of books named after them will, survive to have the fairy tale, good karma, feel good sort of end. Then there are the other ones, the more interesting ones.  The main characters who range from a bit off the moral high road to the down right dubious and nasty (Gentlemen and Players by Joanne Harris comes to mind) characters who leave you in doubt up to the end whether they’ll get their happy ending, or even if they deserve it.  These main characters are sometimes hard to love, like, or even enjoy reading about the workings of their twisted minds, but they do without a doubt make a book much more interesting.

Loitering With Intent‘s Fleur is by no means all the way to the evil end of this spectrum, but she does fall squarely into the dodgy (may I use that word- American that I am- since I’m talking about a book set in London???) portion of things and that is what makes the book so interesting.  She’s not your normal shining star of a girl. Fleur is more of an penniless, egotistical, writer, who’s not completely believable… but I sorta liked her anyway.

Would I recommend it? Yes, the book kept me guessing and you really need to meet the fabulous Lady Edwina who was the best part of the whole thing!

If your interested in more Muriel Spark don’t forget to check in with Stuck in a Book and Harriet as they alternate posting this week!

One of Our Thursdays is Missing by Jasper Fforde

One of the fun things about the Weekly Photo Challenge is that in looking at other peoples entries I have found some amazing blogs. One of them is Anne Freeman Images: Art of the Outdoors. Anne’s pictures are amazing, her short stories are fun and she has posted a few book reviews – what’s not to love? I read about One of Our Thursdays is Missing on her site and she gave it such a fantastic review that I went and requested it through the library system as I promptly forgot half of what she said in her review.

She says, right there, in plain English, that this is not the first in the series but do I remember?

No.

Fortunately Anne was right, this was a very fun book and I also will be heading back to the library to get the first in the series The Eyre Affair.

Would I recommend it? Yes. War is threatening between Racy Novel and Women’s Fiction you don’t want to miss out on that! Unless you have an issue with puns. If you have an issue with puns you may want to steer clear. In that regard it is reminiscent of the Xanth books but less 14 year old boy humor and more book humor.

And don’t be like me.

DON’T FORGET!

This is not the first in the series, if you want to start at the beginning don’t start here look up The Eyre Affair instead!

City Dog, Country Frog by Jon J. Muth and Mo Willems

A sweet, simple story about friendship, seasons, aging and loss.

Illustrated by the same man who did Zen Shorts and Zen Ghosts the pictures are touching and funny all at the same time.

There is not a great deal of text, yet it is enough that the story can be read as a slightly silly, slightly sad book about a dog and his friends or as something that goes beyond that into friendship, aging, loss and the constant changing of the seasons while life goes on.

Would I recommend it? Yes.

Fighting For Your Life, Man-eater Bears by Tom Hron

Dear Cousin Johnny,

Thank you for giving me this book to read.  I now know that if things really go poorly I should attempt to punch a black bear that is trying to eat me (or my friend/family member) in the nose.  Since I’m hoping it won’t come to that I’m now considering getting a larger dog, baseball bat, machete and stun gun to bring with me in the woods – just in case- oh and I promise not to forget my binoculars. Also after learning that grizzly bears enjoy flattening and shredding nylon tents I may never go camping much less hiking in certain areas again. My Dad painted a vivid enough picture of polar bears for me that I wasn’t planning on spending my vacation with one anytime soon but just in case his stories were fading in memory I now have some new ones to reinforce them with.

Thank you as well for the nightmare this book gave me. I had accidentally fallen asleep in Clara’s bed and that got me right back up and into my own bed. You know, the one with my husband who has a longer reach than me and would be better at beating a bear with a bat or punching it in the nose than I would.  And I certainly can’t forget to thank you for introducing me to a huge amount of graphic, horrific, descriptions of people who were eaten alive by bears. I shall never forget what a bear can do, ever… even if I want to.

Finally thank you for giving me a book to read that made me laugh. Because if I’m going to read about graphic bear deaths I do truly prefer it to be with a good dose of sarcasm and contempt for those who ignore “traditional knowledge and wisdom”…  “for the sake of computer modeling by a bunch of pinheads who have never set foot on the pack ice.”

In Gratitude,

Jessie

Would I recommend it? Bears: They don’t just eat nuts and berries, sometimes they eat people.  There was quite a lot of useful and interesting information but it is certainly not for the faint of heart!

Mirror by Jeannie Baker

First off if you go find this book don’t be like me. Don’t pick it up, open it and think that it must be defective because there are no pages. Be smarter than me, be more like Ivy, she can figure out how to open it, see:It opens from the middle out… very tricky.

The book follows two boys, (the boy on the left lives in Sydney Australia and the one on the right lives in Morocco) as they go about their day.

Designed to be looked at together it requires a lot of space to open it all up, but it’s totally worth it.

The pictures that tell the story are amazing collages… …with unbelievable detail. Ivy and Clara didn’t really pick up much of the different culture, same life aspect but their interest in the pictures more than made up for it.

Would I recommend it? Yes, I’m hoping to remember this book again when the girls are a little older and can understand a bit more, but it was worth it just to check out the cool chickens!

City of Dragons by Robin Hobb

If you’ve ever gone to my page of fiction books and looked around you’ll see that I’ve got nine posts of Robin Hobb’s which in total review eleven books and almost every one says that you should really read Assassins Apprentice. So I just thought I’d start this one out by saying it again.

You should read Assassins Apprentice.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way I’ve only one really important thing to say about this book.

Even though this is the 15th book of Robin Hobb’s that I have read, even though ALL the others came in sets of three, (you know a trilogy, the thing fantasy writers seem to love) this is not book three of a trilogy. This is book three of four.

I just thought I should warn you.

Would I recommend it? Yes, but I have I mentioned that you should read Assassins Apprentice?