In a few weeks I will be deconstructing poetry and deciphering narrative so I wanted to fill myself with as much silly and fun reading as I can right now. Like filling up on junk food before going to the health spa. So my light and fluffy choice for holiday reading involved vampires and lycans. I read both Laurell K Hamilton's new Anita Blake book Hit List and Charlaine Harris's new Sookie Stackhouse book Dead Reckoning. Neither was very satisfying.
Hamilton had backed herself into a corner with the uber-evil dead coming after Anita so she spent the whole book with the lesser interesting characters killing them off. Ho Hum. And Harris has lost the fun - it was all blood and murder and very little sex and romp. Ho Hum. Someone new needs to start up with that innocent good fun of first love.
And I need to read something with a little more substance, I guess. I could finish Maugham's Of Human Bondage which I was loving reading (don't know why that got put down?) or I could start my first Patrick White book, or I could finish Game of Thrones or start Truth by Peter Temple. I have over 100 books in my library that I haven't read yet. I don't really know which to pick next I just know it won't be another Ho Hum vampire story.
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Saturday, July 23, 2011
The Wreckage by Michael Robotham
Usually when I write a review of a book I try to be a bit cheeky, a bit funny, a bit clever. I think a book report is not a very interesting way to talk about a piece of art. Sometimes the books are high art and sometimes kids drawings on the fridge, but art all the same. I like to spice things up with witty words and clever repartees.
This review will not be silly or smart. I'm not going to search for the right words or try to make you laugh. I approached Michael Robotham's new book The Wreckage with a reading experience in mind. I loved his last book Bleed for Me and wrote a little review of it a few months ago. It was a great adventure full of delicious suspense and an all around rollicking good mystery. The Wreckage started out the same way. The flawed but loveable and probably redeemable protagonist – an ex-detective in London, Vincent Ruiz, has an exchange with a small young thief which turns out to be the beginning of a roller coaster of a ride involving corruption at it's highest level. At the same time Luca Terracini, a Pulitzer prized winning journalist in Baghdad, falls upon a story which becomes an obsession and extremely dangerous. These two stories follow their own paths until they intersect later in the book and work together to uncover a world-effecting diabolical plot.
The story is a serious lesson about the financial state of the world and the people who manipulate money and lives without any thought for future consequences. It is a true story. Well, it's fiction, but it is based on truth. The world is a screwed up place in some respects and the arse-holes who have contributed to that state need to be found out and corrected, severely.
The twists and turns, the characters, the story line, the descriptions – all of it is top notch in this book. Robotham doesn't put a pen-stroke wrong here. He has captured the feel of the heat in Iraq and the drizzle in London. He has made me love some of his characters and, without over-dramatising, abjectly fear others. I was cheering for the grit and determination of some and hoping for the downfall of others.
Robotham has written a book, which is a suspense-filled, attention-grabbing, tightly written crime novel, AGAIN! I loved reading it. It kept me glued – another sleepless night (thanks Michael, at my age it is getting harder to catch up on missed sleep) - and totally enthralled. I didn't see any of it coming. I have said before that this isn't my favourite genre to read but that I would read anything Robotham writes. Well, that promise still holds after finishing this book. It is a winner with a message. Wake up and smell the money laundering. It is affecting us little folk too.
I so recommend this book – no jokes, no puns, no kidding around. This is one of those serious moments when I think the rest of the naive world should read this story and discover just one of the dirty little secrets of the upper echelon of society – bankers, investors, politicians and war-mongers. But I don't want to tell you too much more – I don't want to Wreck the ending. (Sorry – couldn't resist!)
This review will not be silly or smart. I'm not going to search for the right words or try to make you laugh. I approached Michael Robotham's new book The Wreckage with a reading experience in mind. I loved his last book Bleed for Me and wrote a little review of it a few months ago. It was a great adventure full of delicious suspense and an all around rollicking good mystery. The Wreckage started out the same way. The flawed but loveable and probably redeemable protagonist – an ex-detective in London, Vincent Ruiz, has an exchange with a small young thief which turns out to be the beginning of a roller coaster of a ride involving corruption at it's highest level. At the same time Luca Terracini, a Pulitzer prized winning journalist in Baghdad, falls upon a story which becomes an obsession and extremely dangerous. These two stories follow their own paths until they intersect later in the book and work together to uncover a world-effecting diabolical plot.
The story is a serious lesson about the financial state of the world and the people who manipulate money and lives without any thought for future consequences. It is a true story. Well, it's fiction, but it is based on truth. The world is a screwed up place in some respects and the arse-holes who have contributed to that state need to be found out and corrected, severely.
The twists and turns, the characters, the story line, the descriptions – all of it is top notch in this book. Robotham doesn't put a pen-stroke wrong here. He has captured the feel of the heat in Iraq and the drizzle in London. He has made me love some of his characters and, without over-dramatising, abjectly fear others. I was cheering for the grit and determination of some and hoping for the downfall of others.
Robotham has written a book, which is a suspense-filled, attention-grabbing, tightly written crime novel, AGAIN! I loved reading it. It kept me glued – another sleepless night (thanks Michael, at my age it is getting harder to catch up on missed sleep) - and totally enthralled. I didn't see any of it coming. I have said before that this isn't my favourite genre to read but that I would read anything Robotham writes. Well, that promise still holds after finishing this book. It is a winner with a message. Wake up and smell the money laundering. It is affecting us little folk too.
I so recommend this book – no jokes, no puns, no kidding around. This is one of those serious moments when I think the rest of the naive world should read this story and discover just one of the dirty little secrets of the upper echelon of society – bankers, investors, politicians and war-mongers. But I don't want to tell you too much more – I don't want to Wreck the ending. (Sorry – couldn't resist!)
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Books are my Constant
What is it that witches call their cats? Familiars - that's it. Books are my familiars. I am a bit of a restless soul. One month all I want to do is knit socks – I'll knit four pairs and post them off before the thirty days are up. Next month I'll be in a sewing frenzy – sewing aprons for all my friends. Next I will be completely besotted by chocolate and I will cook 15 chocolate desserts and all of the people who usually just put up with me are, suddenly, my best friends. I'm exaggerating just a little but I do switch crafting and cooking loyalties at the drop of a calendar.
Books are the one thing that I never give up – that I never want to change. I do change genres and moods but I always have at least one book to read.
I have all my books in my bedroom. I don't necessarily want them in there but that's where they live. I can't kick them out. They are comfortable there. They wink at me as I walk by. I fondle them on a daily basis. They are the last thing I see as I close my eyes at night. They aren't my friends – they are my refuge.
When I feel that wanderlust creeping up on me, I pick up a book. When I get the urge to start looking in the rentals in Maui, I pick up a book. When I think I can't stand it all one more minute, I find a book to help me. I hardly ever get bored. I have books to read.
I have a restless mind too. I need to learn something every day. If I have had a routine day at work I need to come home and learn something. Usually from a book. I have books about maps, which fascinate me. I have geographic atlases and historical atlases. (Is that how you spell the plural of atlas?) I love planning trips down rivers in Europe or on trains through Russia.
I have cookbooks, craft books – mostly knitting but I am building up my quilting collection – which I never tire of. I have architecture books that can keep me entertained for hours. I have gardening books which I hardly ever look at but when I do, I love planning what I will do with my backyard. I have a collection of Vogue Entertaining, Rachel Ray and Cooks Illustrated magazines that I wander through often.
If I am not watching TV or a movie, if I am not cooking or sleeping, if I am not performing my nightly dance - I am reading something. I know I have said this before but I am not myself if I don't have a book. Even if I probably won't be reading it in the next couple hours I still carry one with me. What if I have to sit still for a few minutes? What if my friend is running late? What if I find myself in a park on a bench in the sun? I have had quiet un-reading moments, but not many.
Books are my familiars and I am sure that when I die - I will be able to take my favourites with me.
Books are the one thing that I never give up – that I never want to change. I do change genres and moods but I always have at least one book to read.
I have all my books in my bedroom. I don't necessarily want them in there but that's where they live. I can't kick them out. They are comfortable there. They wink at me as I walk by. I fondle them on a daily basis. They are the last thing I see as I close my eyes at night. They aren't my friends – they are my refuge.
When I feel that wanderlust creeping up on me, I pick up a book. When I get the urge to start looking in the rentals in Maui, I pick up a book. When I think I can't stand it all one more minute, I find a book to help me. I hardly ever get bored. I have books to read.
I have a restless mind too. I need to learn something every day. If I have had a routine day at work I need to come home and learn something. Usually from a book. I have books about maps, which fascinate me. I have geographic atlases and historical atlases. (Is that how you spell the plural of atlas?) I love planning trips down rivers in Europe or on trains through Russia.
I have cookbooks, craft books – mostly knitting but I am building up my quilting collection – which I never tire of. I have architecture books that can keep me entertained for hours. I have gardening books which I hardly ever look at but when I do, I love planning what I will do with my backyard. I have a collection of Vogue Entertaining, Rachel Ray and Cooks Illustrated magazines that I wander through often.
If I am not watching TV or a movie, if I am not cooking or sleeping, if I am not performing my nightly dance - I am reading something. I know I have said this before but I am not myself if I don't have a book. Even if I probably won't be reading it in the next couple hours I still carry one with me. What if I have to sit still for a few minutes? What if my friend is running late? What if I find myself in a park on a bench in the sun? I have had quiet un-reading moments, but not many.
Books are my familiars and I am sure that when I die - I will be able to take my favourites with me.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Ten Talents by Frank and Rosalie Hurd
I have moved around a lot in my life. For the first 16 years of my sons' lives we lived in 20 different houses in a few different countries. For those 16 years (and, for me, several years before I had children) we were strict vegetarians. No meat, no eggs, no alcohol. I know the alcohol part has nothing to do with vegetarianism but I was very strict with what went into my body. Needless to say, I have been rebelling somewhat since I gave up being a vego, but occasionally I will have a few months of clean eating and then Ten Talents comes off the cookbook shelf and becomes my cooking bible.
Oh, I lost my train of thought then, didn't I? As I was saying, I have moved around the world a lot and have packed up many households in the past 30 years. Most things from my first house are lost, destroyed, eaten by mice or living happy lives in someone else's house. There are few things that I always packed first as precious belongings and have carried with me no matter where I have laid my head – my Grandma's wedding ring, my Granny's silver dish that she received as a wedding present in 1901 (she gave it to me when I was 16) and my guitar. Last but not least – my copy of Ten Talents which I bought in 1977.
Ten Talents is a independently published vegetarian cookbook that you can still buy over 40 years of its first printing in 1968. My copy no longer has a cover, is stained, torn and ragged but I still love it. I still cook from it. I still read it. This book taught me about nutrition and how to feed my family and keep them healthy. Ten Talents taught me how to make bread (we especially love the sprouted wheat bread). I made healthy organic baby food for my kids from the recipes in this book. I made 'foreign food' (tofu) and lima bean loaf regularly. I made every Christmas dinner from this book for 20 years. It's big and has lots of recipes so I never get bored cooking from it.
Most of all, Ten Talents taught me to be mindful and grateful around food. It taught me to cook from a place of love. It taught me simplicity is most often the best course. It taught me to expand my own talents, especially in the area of food, with confidence, reverence and respect.
I have strayed from my first cooking principals since the kids left home. Most evening after work I open a can of tuna or turn to cheese on toast. Writing this blog post has inspired me to make a start to get back to those simple, healthy roots and eat more vegetarian meals. Ten Talents is coming off the shelf and returning to active duty.
Oh, I lost my train of thought then, didn't I? As I was saying, I have moved around the world a lot and have packed up many households in the past 30 years. Most things from my first house are lost, destroyed, eaten by mice or living happy lives in someone else's house. There are few things that I always packed first as precious belongings and have carried with me no matter where I have laid my head – my Grandma's wedding ring, my Granny's silver dish that she received as a wedding present in 1901 (she gave it to me when I was 16) and my guitar. Last but not least – my copy of Ten Talents which I bought in 1977.
Ten Talents is a independently published vegetarian cookbook that you can still buy over 40 years of its first printing in 1968. My copy no longer has a cover, is stained, torn and ragged but I still love it. I still cook from it. I still read it. This book taught me about nutrition and how to feed my family and keep them healthy. Ten Talents taught me how to make bread (we especially love the sprouted wheat bread). I made healthy organic baby food for my kids from the recipes in this book. I made 'foreign food' (tofu) and lima bean loaf regularly. I made every Christmas dinner from this book for 20 years. It's big and has lots of recipes so I never get bored cooking from it.
Most of all, Ten Talents taught me to be mindful and grateful around food. It taught me to cook from a place of love. It taught me simplicity is most often the best course. It taught me to expand my own talents, especially in the area of food, with confidence, reverence and respect.
I have strayed from my first cooking principals since the kids left home. Most evening after work I open a can of tuna or turn to cheese on toast. Writing this blog post has inspired me to make a start to get back to those simple, healthy roots and eat more vegetarian meals. Ten Talents is coming off the shelf and returning to active duty.
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