So far so good. This is not as funny as I had thought it would be after reading the short story, but maybe the stories get funnier in the later books (did I mention this is the first in a series?). The style is very straightforward and reminds me of classic macho tough guy detective stories. The story is plot driven and there has been action on nearly every page so far. The Stainless Steel Rat is not having a good time where I am reading right now – he’s got serious female trouble.
Author: Harry Harrison Published: 1966 (this edition: 1997) Where got: Bookstore, sale Genre: Science fiction, action
I’ve wanted to read this book since I read and enjoyed Harry Harrison’s short story “The Golden Years of the Stainless Steel Rat” in the comic fantasy collection The Flying Sorcerers.
This is classic science fiction, as can be seen from how long this book has been in print. First published in 1966, it is still being reprinted.
Author: Elizabeth Ann Scarborough Year published: 1994 Where got: Public library Genre: Fantasy (real world, alternate reality/possible future), fairy tale Cover image
As I mentioned yesterday, I went to the library to look for a suitable romance to review so I could keep my promise to choose reading material outside my comfort zone. Found no romance I liked the look of, but came home with The Godmother, Stormy Weather by Carl Hiaasen and Foucaults’s Pendulum by Umberto Eco.
I didn’t know what to expect when I started reading The Godmother, never having read anything by Scarborough before. What got my attention was the the title and the cover , which shows a middle-aged woman (who resembles Lauren Baccall) with a knowing smile and a pose of authority and confidence, surrounded by graphics that suggest magic and interposed on an image of the Seattle skyline (immediately recogniseable because of the Space Needle). Woohoo, I thought. Magic in the modern world. Nice!
I finished it in one sitting, around 2 in the morning and went to sleep with my head full of fairy godmothers and talking cats.
What follows might be considered by some to be SPOILERS, so if you want this book to totally surprise you, please stop reading here and skip to the rating at the bottom.
The story: In an alternate reality or possible near future, Seattle social worker Rose Samson is toiling under an unfair official policy that is turning the place into a hopeless hell for the homeless and the abused. One day she cynically whishes for a fairy godmother for the city, and is surprised and incredulous when one turns up.
A lost teenager, two homeless young people, a street gang, dangerous pedophiles and two missing children are some of the things Rose has to deal with, aided by her police officer love-interest and the godmother, Felicity Fortune. Felicity doesn’t use much magic, only resorting to it when things get tough. Instead she relies on her psychic talent and a widespread net of connections among people she has previously helped.
A savvy reader will immediately recognise several fairy tales in their modern incarnations. Some of the ones I identified were Cinderella, Snow White, Little Red Riding Hood, Hanzel and Gretel, Blubeard and Puss in Boots.
Scarborough isn’t afraid of describing violence – people get beaten up, poisoned and sexually molested, but in the end the good and the innocent get the good they deserve and the bad get their comeuppance. Oh, and there is a little romance as well.
The technical points: The story is well written and well plotted with some minor flaws in the plot. The beginning is somewhat slow but it’s necessary in order to introduce all the different characters and narrative threads that come together later in the story. Although there is a fair amount of violence, it never becomes too graphic, and the author handles it sensitively.
Sometimes I thought she was being a little too simplistic or not clear enough. For example it is never really explained why the evil toad decided to help bring one of the godmother’s good causes to a happy ending (unless it was just from a desire to be kept safe until he could become human again), and the reasons the author gives as to why Rose’s accusations against the bad guys are unlikely to be believed seem unlikely to hold up in a court of law when there is so much physical evidence to support them. Aside from these minor flaws, this was a good read and a gripping story, but not one I am likely to want to re-read.
Rating: A modern fairy tale with social conscience. Recommended for everyone who likes fairy tales. 3 stars.
Now I will just have to wait patiently until the person who borrowed the sequel returns it to the library.
After browsing this great newsletter on romance literature, I had a hankering for reading a pure romance novel for the first time since I was in my teens. The articles I read convinced me that maybe there was more to romance than the Barbara Cartland and Victoria Holt romances I read as a child and teenager.
One of the things that made me give up on reading romances were the formulas: both of the abovementioned writers always wrote about very young, virginal heroines who married much older men and were then flung into danger, often by a jealous mother or ex-lover of the husband. The genuinely good and often funny and interesting Scandinavian romance authors I also liked to read fell by the wayside as well. I had simply had enough romance.
I took longer to stop reading Phyllis A. Whitney and Mary Stewart, perhaps because their romances are not as sappy as Cartland and Holt's and often read more like thrillers than romances.
Anyway, I made my way to the library after work and searched through the stacks to find something interesting, preferably a Regency romance so I could use my new reference book on Regency and Victorian era culture to look up things.
Nothing. I couldn't find a single romance I wanted to read. Nothing. Nada.
I love reading blurbs on books I know I will never read, for example formula literature like Mills & Boon romances. People do not buy these books because they are dying to know who the heroine will end up with - it is therefore OK for the blurb to give a hint, even an assurance, as to the identity and basic personality of Mr. Right. The blurbs on these books are really like little condensations of the story, minus all the little twists, and you are never in doubt as to how the book will end. In the case of romances, giving away the identity of the hero is essential because people buy romances for two things: they like to experience the satisfaction of falling and being in love, even if it's only for as long as it takes to read the story, and they what to see the twists that finally bring the lovers together. They also want to be sure they will like the hero and heroine. What they don't want is to be kept wondering throughout half the book which character is Mr. Right.
blurb noun [C] a short description of a book or film, etc., written by the people who have produced it, and intended to make people want to buy it or see it: The blurb on the back of the book says that it 'will touch your heart'.
(from Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)
In an earlier entry I mentioned the importance of good blurbs on books. By that I meant the teasers that are designed to entice a potential reader into buying the book. The good ones do just that without giving away the plot. The bad ones, the ones that give away important plot elements, are just plain horrible. When I sit down to a whodunit, I want to be kept guessing, and not get told in a blurb just who did what.
The other blurbs, the ones I like to call "gushers" - the overwrought praise by reviewers and famous authors - can be funny or just plain horrible. The funny ones are those which have obviously been edited to leave out unfavourable wording and also the ones that are very carefully worded to sound like praise but are really saying: "I hated this book, but I'm too polite to say so."
Two pages of gusher blurbs are not going to make me any more interested in a book than a well-crafted teaser on the back cover. I mean, so what if Stephen King thought a book was good? I don't know what kind of taste he has in literature.
The story: The book touches upon several subjects, but the core story is that of two men who were influential in the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary. One was Professor James Murray, the longest-serving editor of the OED, and the other was one of the most useful contributors of quotations to the book, Dr. William C. Minor, an inmate in a lunatic asylum (as they were called in those days). The life stories of both men are told in brief, showing how Prof. Murray rose from humble origins to become a philologist and a professor, and looking at Dr. Minor's career as an army surgeon in the American civil war and exploring the possible causes of his insanity. The history of British lexicography is touched upon, and also the conception and launching of the biggest lexicographical project ever undertaken: the Oxford English Dictionary. The storylines all come together in the second half of the book and we follow the relationship between Murray and Minor to the end, look at Minor's final years when he was finally released and sent home to the USA, and the OED's history is followed (in brief) up to modern times. It's really amazing how so much material made it into so short a book without becoming superficial: it is only 242 pages, including the preface, postscript and other end material. The only thing I missed was a bibliography.
The technical points: This is another brilliantly written popular history book that reads like a novel (see my review of Seabiscuit). The narrative method takes some getting used to - at one point I became rather annoyed with the author for what I saw as over-usage of flashbacks, taking the reader back in time and to a different subject in every chapter and sometimes within chapters - but of course he had a good reason for telling the story in this way: There are so many narrative strands that have to be explored before they all come together that it would have been impossible to do it differently. I love the way each chapter is prefaced with one or more entries from the OED, explaining words that are pertinent to the subject of the chapter.
Rating: A fascinating snippet of history that is quite capable of gripping the reader until the end. 4 stars.
Book cover art is one of the hurdles readers need to get past in order to choose a book to read. Why do I call it a hurdle? Because there is so much BAD cover art out there, repelling readers from what are often quite good books.
Why is so much cover art so amazingly bad? This art form is a form of advertising that is meant to draw in readers and you would think that publishers would choose the designs carefully, but often the covers seem to be a kind of afterthought: Advertising department guy: Hey man, what do we do about a cover for this romance? Editor: Just get the colour-blind guy who works in the cafeteria to whip something up.
So much popular literature cover art is misleading. You look at a fantasy novel and think it must be torrid and porn-riddled, only to discover that inside the horrible cover is a pleasant and funny book with no more sex that the average Disney movie. A romance cover with a dashingly handsome half-naked young man who is embracing a voluptuous near-naked redhead, turns out to contain a sensitive love story about a chaste blonde in love with a middle-aged man.
In addition to being misleading, the covers of many popular literature books are eye-wateringly garish and often decorated with scowling, dramatically posed and very tan men with no chest hair and so many muscles that they look like an overstuffed armchair, and/or very pink, skimpily dressed reclining women so buxom they look like they would fall over if they tried to stand up. This especially applies to bodice-ripper romances, and some action and fantasy novels. Thrillers are often decorated with something symbolic that drips blood, like a gun, a rose or a coil of barbed wire. Silver and gold often feature heavily in the design.
Some publishers of course do care about packaging and consistently produce books with good or at least inoffensive cover art. I just whish there were more of them.
Author: Peter Mayle Year published: 1989 Genre: Biography, living abroad Where got: Charity shop Cover image
Just finished reading this book. It describes the first year Mayle and his wife spent in their Provence farmhouse, sometime in the 1980's. The story is set up in 12 chapters, each of which covers one month of the year. The two main threads that hold the story together and prevent it from being just a rambling collection of anecdotes are on the one hand their relationship with their rascally old neighbour Massot and his fight to keep tourists away from what he considers to be his land (actually part of a national park), and on the other the alterations being made to the house to make it fit for the Mayles to live in (i.e. installing modern conveniences like central heating) and their relationship with the workmen. Pesky summer visitors make their appearance and are so sarcastically described that one wonders if they were likely ever to come back again after recognising themselves in the book (not that it would be a loss to the Mayles), delightful restaurants are visited and delicious meals consumed, and in the background the seasons change, each bringing its share of problems and delights. Even the travails of having a noisy crew of workmen apparently dismantling and reassembling the house on an irregular basis is made out to be not too bad - the Mayles are either a very tolerant couple or else Mr. Mayle has an exceedingly bad memory.
Rating: A nice, light read that would be suitable for taking along to while away time during a long-distance flight. Interesting enough that I have now got hold of the sequel and will review it later. 3 stars.
Full title: The Professor and the Madman: A tale of murder, insanity, and the making of the Oxford English Dictionary Author: Simon Winchester Published: 1998 Genre: History, biography, lexicography Where got: National library Cover image
This book is about two men who worked on the making of the OED (Oxford English Dictionary) and their longstanding relationship. What got me interested in it was the title. We will have to see if the book lives up to it.
This is the sequel to The Wee Free Men and the third Discworld book for children.
As usual, Pratchett has done an excellent job. The book is written for children, but is actually quite a good read for adults, who will read it at a deeper level. As this is a children's book, there are not as many allusions to other works as there are in the adult Discworld books, but there are still quite a few, some of which will be easily picked up by children and some which are better understood by adults. (These are already being collected and annotated by the denizens of the alt.books.pratchett newsgroup and can be accessed there).
Here be SPOILERS ... .. . .. ...
The story is slower than The Wee Free Men and not quite as laugh-aloud funny, but it is also deeper and more thought provoking and will (hopefully) teach children who read it a useful lesson about why it's bad to always act upon impulse. The previous story reminded me of Alice in Wonderland (except Tiffany is quite a lot brighter than Alice), but this one has elements of both Alien (the movie) and Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
The story is not as dark as The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents (the first Discworld children?s book), but is still about quite a serious subject. The Nac Mac Feegle (see The Wee Free Men or Carpe Jugulum) play an important part and provide many of the funniest jokes. As in the previous book, Pratchett has not made the reading too easy - you sometimes have to read the Feegle's dialogue out loud (in a Scottish accent if you can manage it) in order to fully understand it.
Pratchett writes realistically about the feelings and thoughts of eleven year-old witch-in-training Tiffany Aching. I remember feeling some of the things Tiffany does when I was at her age.
The inclusion of Granny Weatherwax is a good touch and I recommend for anyone who wants full enjoyment from reading this story to have read not only The Wee Free Men, but also the short story "The Sea and Little Fishes", which introduces the Witch Trials and the character of Letice Earwig and explains why Granny doesn't like her.
Rating: Excellent book, recommended to anyone who likes fantasy, fairy tales and/or is a fan of Granny Weatherwax. 5 stars.
This book was delivered by the mailman on Friday afternoon, and I had to restrain myself not to start reading until after dinner. Finished reading it around midnight. I am going to read it again - more slowly - before I review it.
This is by far the best and most representative Icelandic cookbook for foreigners I have seen. The recipes are a mixture of traditional and modern recipes, and the author never forgets that it is supposed to represent Icelandic home cooking. Too many Icelandic cookbooks for foreigners are full of fiddly "nouvelle" recipes that can only be called Icelandic - and not French, Italian or international - because they were invented by Icelandic chefs and use some supposedly unique Icelandic ingredient like rhubarb or fresh fish.
The recipes in this book are for the most part easy, although users in the USA may in some cases find it difficult to hunt down some of the more obscure ingredients. Hartshorn (ammonium carbonate) will certainly be hard to find, and even mundane (to Icelanders) ingredients like fresh haddock or a leg of lamb can be difficult to find. (I once searched supermarkets in eastern North Dakota from the Canadian border and all the way down to Fargo for both these ingredients and found neither. People who live in cities like New York will not have any trouble finding this stuff.)
The book was specifically written for the American market, and so the measures are American. The book is widely available from Internet bookstores, such as Powell's, Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble, and I have no doubt that many of the bigger bookstores in the USA will carry it.
Some recipes include: Icelandic halibut soup, langoustines (scampi) with garlic butter, cocktail sauce, grilled salmon, leg of reindeer with rosemary, flamed puffin breasts, glazed potatoes, velvet pudding, bilberry soup, crullers, vínarterta and leaf bread.
Rating: Great cookbook, full of easy and tasty recipes for homemade Icelandic-style food. 5+ stars.
This is more than just a regular cookbook. The first section offers a short history of food and eating habits in Iceland, an introduction to Icelandic festive food and a listing of many of the festive occasions available to Icelanders and the traditional foods that go with them. A second section lists some of the ingredients in the recipes and in the case of ingredients largely unknown to Americans*, like skyr and hartshorn, there are suggestions as to where they can be got from and also what substitutes can be used.
The recipe section is divided into the usual categories. With each recipe there is a short text where the author explains why the recipe was chosen for the book and in the case of traditional recipes she often recounts some memories she has about the dish.
*The book is written for the American market and uses American measures.
Author: Nanna Rögnvaldardóttir Year published: 2002 Where got: public library Genre: Food, recipes, social history Cover image
Nanna Rögnvaldardóttir is at the moment Iceland's most famous cookery book author who is not a chef. Her previous two cookery tomes, Matarást (Love of Food) and Matreiðslubók Nönnu (Nanna's Cookbook) are veritable food bibles. The first is an encyclopedia of food, ingredients, cookery methods, kitchen science, cookery terms, food history etc. etc., and the second is a collection of over 3000 recipes from all over the world. Both are unfortunately only available in Icelandic.
Icelandic Food and Cookery is Nanna's first cookery book written in English (to my knowledge). It focuses on food that may be called Icelandic, both traditional and modern. This book is of special interest to me because what Nanna is doing with this book is exactly what I have been doing with my cooking website, namely to introduce Icelandic cuisine to an international audience. Here is one of the downsides to library books: you never know what condition they're going to be in. Every time I open this particular copy, the stink of stale cigarette smoke wafts up to meet me. Not the nicest thing when you're thinking about food. Aaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrr gggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhh!
The book is about a teacher at a private girl's school in Edinburgh (Scotland) who has her own special ideas about education. She strives to turn out girls who are liberated and free thinking - or what she thinks is liberated and free thinking. Her behaviour and teaching methods are far from orthodox in the conservative environment of the school. She makes enemies among the other teachers and the headmistress is constantly trying to find an excuse to get rid of her. Her closest allies are a group of her students, six girls known as "the Brodie Set" among the other teachers and students of the school. The story is about her relationship with the girls and how the girls' perceptions of her change as they get older, and how in the end one of them betrays her fascist political ideas to the headmistress, causing her to be forced into early retirement.
This is in many ways a good story. Jean Brodie is a memorable character, somewhat unsympathetic and utterly real and understandable. She is the kind of teacher who can be a blessing or a curse, depending on how you look at it. A blessing because she readily diverges from the set curriculum to tell her students about foreign countries and other interesting subjects, and a curse because she does so much of it that learning is mostly done at home and can be reflected in bad grades. Her teaching seems to consist mostly of telling the girls about her life and travels and trying to mould each of them into the persons she believes they are destined to become. The girls seem to love her unquestioningly and form a protective shield between her and the headmistress whose attempts to get something on her become ever more desperate as the narrative continues. We are told almost from the start that she will be betrayed by one of her own girls, and when the betrayal happens, it is quite understandable why the girl did what she did, although you still feel sorry for Miss Brodie.
The narrative jumps backwards and forwards in time and is somewhat disjointed at times. It took me quite some time to figure out the age of Miss Brodie, and sometimes it wasn't clear how old the girls were either (not that it matters much).
Rating: A decent read, nothing earth-shattering, but worth taking the time. The movie is better (in my opinion) even though it is a bit stagy - Maggie Smith captures Miss Brodie perfectly. 3 stars.
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About me
What this blog is about:
Reading and books.
If you’re wondering about the name 52 books, it stems from a book-a-week reading challenge I set myself. The challenge is over, but I'm still reading, and will continue to blog about the books I read and my reading experiences, and other stuff connected with books and reading.
I rate the books (if I feel like it), giving them stars ranging from zero to 5.
Books I have already read (sporadically updated):Cover gallery
Note: Some of the entries are linked to the months the reviews appeared in, because I made several entries for each book. I have marked those reviews with an asterix (*). If you want to read the whole review from beginning to end, you must scroll down and read from the bottom up (but you probably already knew that ;-) >
