The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

May 13, 2010 in Reviews | Tags: | 1 comment

Oh Lordy. So, I’m back in that place where I always seem to find myself these days, trying to write a review months and months after everyone else has read the thing and (almost) everyone has loved it and articulated their feelings about it much better than I think I can (I refer the jury to Carl’s review as exhibit number one).

Your view of  The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie is I think going to depend on how you feel about Flavia de Luce, heroine and amateur sleuth, 11 years old and plunged into a murder investigation when the body of a man who may or may not be known to her father is found in the cucumber patch. Given that Flavia’s mother died when she was very young, her father is her only family apart from her two fairly odious sisters, so she naturally sets out to get to the bottom of the whole thing.

We are in 1950’s England, recovering from the Second World War, and Flavia is part of a family fallen on hard times and living in a mansion that has seen better days. She has a remarkable chemistry lab which sounds fabulous (even though I don’t do smells), her father is obsessed with his stamp collection (can understand that, I drool over my own occasionally) and their household staff are pretty odd but very loyal.

The plot is irrelevant in lots of ways, though it is fairly enjoyable and although I suspect there are several plot holes I quite happily went along with it all simply because, precocious and faintly unbelievable though she may be, I really liked Flavia.

Like my other read-a-thon books this probably benefitted from being read in a sitting (more or less) and it certainly got me through to the wee small hours. Looking forward to the sequel which is probably out already but I’m saving for later in the year.

Nightmares and Fairy Tales: Once Upon a Time

May 10, 2010 in Challenges, Reviews | Tags: , , | 3 comments

Annabelle is a small rag doll who doesn’t know whether she is the cause of or merely a witness to the suffering of those people into whose possession she falls.

For suffering and misfortune are certainly all around her, and try as she might she cannot always warn or protect the innocent.

Or something along those lines.

Nightmares and Fairy Tales: Once Upon a Time is a creepily inventive little book of new horror stories and twisted re-tellings of fairy tales, all in graphic form. Wicked nuns, cruel parents, and even poor old Cinderella get the full treatment.

The only thing that saves this from totally over-the-top-grisly-goriness is the fact that it’s in black and white, but it’s still fairly horrible. And therefore right up my street!

This was my fifth read for the 2010 Graphic Novel Challenge, and did a lot to keep me awake during read-a-thon (largely cos I was too scared to sleep……..)

Anthropology

May 9, 2010 in Reviews | Tags: | Leave a comment

It’s actually going to be quite difficult to review Anthropology, a book of 101 short stories, each just a page long and all about love in its various aspects and all narrated in the first person.

The stories are arranged in alphabetical order, so we move from Anthropology (where he explains how he lost his anthropologist girlfriend to the culture she was studying) to Words (about what keeps a marriage together). Some of them are very funny, some of them rather sad, but they are all little gems.

This was another read-a-thon book, and again I read it in one sitting. Looking back I wonder if that was entirely wise and whether some of the stories lost their impact because I read the book like a novel. It made me wonder what the best way to read short stories actually is.

I remember listening to Simon Mayo’s book review podcast ages and ages ago when he was interviewing (I think) Anne Enright and the subject of how to read stories came up. The two approaches discussed were reading one, savouring it and closing the book, as opposed to doing what I’ve just done. Someone compared it to how you might eat a box of chocolates, and I suppose I just have to confess that I handle both the same way – once that box is opened I very rarely have the self-control to just have one chocolate….

I’m going to look for some more Dan Rhodes as I really admired his style, and as a bonus they all seem (like this one) to have a fabulous David Roberts cover illustration.

After the Armistice Ball

May 9, 2010 in Reviews | Tags: , | 4 comments

AftertheArmisticeBallCat48294_fFinally getting around to reviews after another (and not yet finished) busy period at work, and of course all the excitement of the UK General Election (which is still distracting me from other things – as a civil servant I am keen to know who my next set of bosses is going to be….)

All this means that I’m not reading as much as I should – I often go through these patches driven sometimes by not being able to find something that I’m interested on reading just at that particular point, but more often (as now) just not finding the time to read regularly.

So, After the Armistice Ball by Catriona McPherson is a detective novel in the classic style, set in 1920s Scotland and is huge fun. In terms of plot, there’s a bit of a scandal brewing amongst Dandy (short for Dandelion) Gilver’s social set when some valuable diamonds are stolen after the eponymous ball. Asked by her friend Daisy to do a bit of sleuthing she gets pulled into something much darker when Cara Duffy, the youngest daughter of the diamonds’ owner dies in a fire in a remote cottage, and it becomes clear that this might not have been an accident.

Which is about all that can be said without giving away too much of the plot. It’s well-written, pacy, has a nice sense of location and time and an attractive heroine who is easy to identify. This was my first read-a-thon book and so benefitted from being read in one sitting, and I enjoyed it so much I’ve already bought the second in the series.

Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes – and other stuff of a cultural nature

April 25, 2010 in Challenges, Concerts, Reviews, Theatre, TV & Film | Tags: , , , , | 2 comments

Signing up for the 2010 Graphic Novel Challenge gave me the perfect excuse (in case I really thought I needed one) to re-read the Neil Gaiman Sandman series from scratch, alongside the fascinating-and-occasionally-dipped-into-but-never-properly-read Sandman Companion by Hy Bender. And of course you start at the beginning, with Preludes and Nocturnes.

The thing about the need for an excuse is that my TBR pile (which with my tendency to be unable to avoid buying books plus all the stuff the Book God has in his possession) has actually become a TBR room, if not taking over the whole house, and so any re-reading has to be carefully thought through because there are just so many new(ish) books waiting for me to pick them up.

This is a problem that will not go away for two reasons:

  • the Book God and I currently have a combined age of 106, and if you assume that we both started buying our own books as teenagers (let’s say arbitrarily 15) then that’s potentially 76 years of book buying

Which brings me to reason number 2:

  • I am constitutionally incapable of getting rid of anything vaguely book shaped. At all. So I almost certainly have just about everything I have bought since I was a teenager

So you can see my problem.

Nevertheless the draw of Sandman was irresistible and I ploughed on, really enjoying the opportunity to get back inside a world that I have always enjoyed. And then  another issue hit me – how do I review this? I mean, I can’t really review this as if I have come to it fresh, because I haven’t, and it is such a well-loved series and so many other bloggers have written about it all so eloquently. So I’m not going to attempt the feat at all.

I love it still, and if you haven’t read the series I urge you to have a go.

———–

I’ve also had a couple of relatively rare outings this week (I don’t count cocktails with Silvery Dude and friend on Wednesday because in my simple little mind that’s the sort of thing I should be doing every day); no, this is proper going out for the evening stuff, involving:

  • on Thursday, the Birmingham Royal Ballet performing Sleeping Beauty at the London Coliseum – wonderful stuff with costumes based on the court of Louis XIV and a classic fairy tale on stage the way it should be done
  • on Saturday, The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers at the Royal Albert Hall, with the full score performed live by the London Philharmonic Orchestra – and lovely to see Howard Shore, the composer, take a bow at the end.

And then home to Dr Who and River Song. What more could a girl want?

Fables:Animal Farm

April 25, 2010 in Challenges, Reviews | Tags: , | Leave a comment

So having enjoyed volume one (reviewed here) and just so happening to have volume 2 kicking around the house for some strange reason, I decided to leap straight into the world of Fables once again with Animal Farm.

So after the fall out from the events of volume 1, not to be discussed here in case there is someone out there who has been even tardier than me in coming to the series, the Fabletown Mayor, Snow White, is heading upstate from New York for her annual visit to the Farm. This is the property, hidden by a glamour, where the non-human fables can live away from the prying eyes of the “normal” world. So we have the Three Pigs, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, a few dragons and sleeping giants and so forth.

But all is not well; these fables want to take their homelands back from the Adversary, and are fomenting a revolution in order to do so, led by a very different take on Goldilocks than you would have seen before. Can Snow White stop them, and who can she trust to help her?

If anything this was even more fun than the previous story, with some well-known characters from literature (Shere Khan and Baghera, anyone?) involved, plus who could resist animals with weapons? Not giving away what happens but the fable approach to justice is brutal if necessary.

And you have to feel a bit sorry for Colin the Pig.

Will definitely be continuing to follow this series.

This was my third read for the 2010 Graphic Novel Challenge.

Fables:Legends in Exile

April 24, 2010 in Challenges, Reviews | Tags: , | 1 comment

Well, bit of a blogging hiatus as I recovered from the fun-packed-but-tiring read-a-thon with a mountain (well, small pile) of reviews to catch up on both here and over at the Screen God blog. Plus work has been really busy so not reading much that’s new.

All very feeble excuses but the tide is about to turn, and I’m going to start with Bill Willingham’s Fables:Legends in Exile, first in a graphic novel series which is hugely popular in the blog world, and to which I have come, as always, as a late adopter.

So the land(s) of the fairy tale and other legends have been taken over by the minions of the evil being known (so far) only as The Adversary, and they have all been driven out to live alongside us normal folk (well, in New York) in their own environment of Fabletown. And there has been an apparent murder, so the question is who killed Rose Red?

This is really great stuff if you like the idea of a world ruled by King Cole, where Snow White is the Mayor and the Big Bad Wolf (in human form) is a private detective. The mystery isn’t really the point though it’s a good way to get immersed in the world of the fables.

So in summary, a good story, strong artwork and a nice premise makes for an enjoyable read.

And I went straight onto volume 2 which I’ll review shortly.

This was my second read for the 2010 Graphic Novel Challenge.

All Done

April 11, 2010 in Challenges | 3 comments

So, final outcome:

  • Currently reading: When Last I Died by Gladys Mitchell
  • Books finished: 4 (After the Armistice Ball, Anthropology, Nightmares & Fairy Tales: Once Upon a Time, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie)
  • Pages read: 59
  • Running total of pages read: 1025
  • Amount of time spent reading: 50 minutes
  • Running total of time spent reading: 10 hours 15 minutes
  • Mini-challenges completed: 2
  • Other participants I’ve visited: 23 (though not always leaving comments – shame on me)

Final meme for the read-a-thon:

  1. Which hour was the most daunting? 1am when I realised I’d made it half way but was starting to acknowledge how tired I was
  2. A few high-interest books for others? Don’t think I’ve read enough to make that recommendation, but found crime fiction was both light to read and interesting enough to keep me going
  3. Suggestions for next time? Not really, I thought it was very well-organised and have nothing but admiration for the hosts
  4. What went well? Cheerleaders were very important, I enjoyed reading their comments on my posts
  5. How many books read? 4.75
  6. Names of the books? See above
  7. I enjoyed the first one the most, though pleased that I liked all of my chosen reads
  8. I suppose I enjoyed Nightmares & Fairy Tales the least (though I still enjoyed it); a bit grim for this type of event
  9. I wasn’t a cheerleader
  10. I will definitely take part in future events, probably still as a reader

And that’s me, thrilled at having read over 1000 pages, and off to have some lunch and enjoy the London spring sunshine.

Post the Twelfth

April 11, 2010 in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

On the home stretch now, less than an hour to go!

  • Currently reading: When Last I Died by Gladys Mitchell
  • Books finished: 4 (After the Armistice Ball, Anthropology, Nightmares & Fairy Tales: Once Upon a Time, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie)
  • Pages read: 95
  • Running total of pages read: 966
  • Amount of time spent reading: 1 hour 25 minutes
  • Running total of time spent reading: 9 hours 25 minutes
  • Mini-challenges completed: 1
  • Other participants I’ve visited: 23 (though not always leaving comments – shame on me)

Not sure I’ll finish my las book before the end of the challenge, but going to do my best!

Post the Eleventh

April 11, 2010 in Challenges | 1 comment

So, here I am, back again after sleeping way longer than I meant to but (as my old mum used to say ) I must have needed it. Planning to read for the remainder of the ‘thon, just under 2 and a half hours – great way to spend a Sunday morning.

As a reminder, progress since last post:

  • Currently reading: When Last I Died by Gladys Mitchell
  • Books finished: 4 (After the Armistice Ball, Anthropology, Nightmares & Fairy Tales: Once Upon a Time, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie)
  • Pages read: 0
  • Running total of pages read: 871
  • Amount of time spent reading: 0 minutes
  • Running total of time spent reading: 8 hours
  • Mini-challenges completed: 1
  • Other participants I’ve visited: 23 (though not always leaving comments – shame on me)

See you all later, and here’s hoping I can finish another book!

Bride of the Book God

Follow brideofthebook on Twitter

Scottish, in my fifties, love books but not always able to find the time to read them as much as I would like. I’m based in London and happily married to the Book God.

I also blog at Bride of the Screen God (all about movies and TV) and The Dowager Bride, if you are interested in ramblings about stuff of little consequence

If you would like to get in touch you can contact me at brideofthebookgod (at) btinternet (dot) com.

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