You are currently browsing the monthly archive for May 2007.
I have just finished the last Kathy Reichs book, Break No Bones, knowing that the next Tempe Brennan book must be coming out fairly soon. I really enjoy these novels and find them far superior to Patricia Cornwell, but I wish Tempe spent a bit more time in Quebec – it was my fascination with anything remotely Canadian which got me into these stories in the first place. Having said all that, this is still excellent; we find Tempe helping out a colleague by running an archaeological field school in South Carolina, where she and her students find a decomposing body and off we go. I was pulled into the story, with both the whodunnit and Tempe’s personal life becoming ever more complicated, and found the ending very satisfying (even though I had a fairly good idea what the murder(s) were all about). Recommended.
The Book God’s copy of The Prestige by Christopher Priest has been kicking around for 12 years and I have added it to and 
removed it from various reading lists since then. I was finally persuaded to read it by the release of the film version, directed by Christopher Nolan, last year (and now in our possession as a DVD). I really like to read a book before I see its film adaptation. I’m not really sure why – it’s a quirk of my personality that I don’t mind knowing the plot of a film or TV series in advance but absolutely hate the idea of reading ahead; that can really spoil a novel for me.
The Prestige is about the rivalry between two stage illusionists at the turn of the 20th century. Driven by different attitudes to their art and centred around a particular trick where the illusionist is transported from one point of the stage to another, the feud continues until their deaths allow their individual secrets to be revealed.
I loved this book; the atmosphere really gripped me and although I started to get an inkling of what the prestige actually was, I still found the resolution of the story extremely effective. Christopher Priest is a fine writer and I will dig out the other titles by him in the Book God’s collection.
A thin month for book purchases with only a couple of additions to the shelves.
In a previous post I talked about how much I like Stuart MacBride, and so I made sure I got a copy of his new novel Broken Skin as soon as it came out. I haven’t started reading it yet; I’m going to wait until I can get some unbroken (if you’ll pardon the pun) time to really get into the story, and I happen to have some long train journeys coming up in May which should be ideal!
My other purchase is Bloomsbury in Sussex from Snake River Press; this is a guide to Bloomsbury Group through the buildings they were connected with in the county. It’s a beautifully produced slim volume with lovely illustrations, and an interesting approach to one of my big areas of interest.
Bride of the Book God 