Book Review: Richard Wilde by Mary Fitzgerald

This book is based on an old diary found by the author and the story partly fictionalised. This book came highly recommended by readers on a web forum and although it only had a couple of reviews on Amazon's UK site they were both glowing.

Richard Wilde is 95 and told he doesn't have long to live, he decides in what little time he has left he wants to commit his family's story to paper so the secrets he has been hiding for decades will finally come out. The majority of the book is told from Richard's point of view and moves between the present and the past, as he deals with the business of dying while recounting his history. The book covers a period spanning two world wars and massive change. Richard is a no-nonsense farmer's son who joins the Army and sees action in India. As a young man Richard falls for Elizabeth who has come to live on his parents' farm, but he is betrayed when she marries his brother Billy. Their relationship is a major theme, as is the notion of family honour and duty.

The narrative covers major events and the minutiae of daily life equally well, and with this straighforward older man telling the story, while it is beautifully detailed, it never becomes overly sentimental. That said this book has the distinction of being one of very few to make me cry. The biggest secret is one that I had suspected relatively early on but when all was finally revealed at the end the impact was not lessened for that.

This is a wonderful book that particularly appeals to the side of me that enjoys tracing my family tree to discover more about social history. As well as being a fantastic although tragic story it is also a brilliant slice of history and a book I would have no hesitation recommending.

Book Blogger Hop 28/1 - 31/1

It's that time of the week again, off on the blog hop, hosted by Jen at crazy-for-books.com. I love this chance to find other great book blogs, meet people and share opinions.

This week's question is:


"What book are you most looking forward to seeing published in 2011?  Why are you anticipating that book?"

Since getting my kindle I haven't followed my old faves quite so slavishly so I don't really have a list of highly anticipated books. However I recently read No Good Deed by Mary McDonald, the sequel is due shortly and I'll be keen to read that when it comes out.

So e-books won't take off hey...

While there seem to be plenty of people out there who don't believe in the e-book I really wasn't surprised when I turned on the news this morning and one of the lead stories was Amazon's announcement that in the USA in the last quarter of 2010 sales of kindle books outsold paperbacks. What did surprise me slightly was that the figures don't even take into account free books. A related story that also appeared today is that for the first time the judges of the Man Booker prize have been sent e-readers to read longlisted books on.

So to the cynical price fixers at Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin, and Simon & Schuster publishers, all of whom have adopted the "agency model" and invariably price kindle editions at a higher price than the paperback version, you may not like e-books but it's about time you embraced change, realised they are here to stay and stop ripping consumers off with a business model of such dubious legality!

Book review: The New World by Patrick Ness

First off, this is actually a short story which took me no time at all to devour. It came to my attention when it appeared on Amazon as a freebie (and in fact as I write is still free) The product description made it clear it's the prequel to a series but didn't hint that it's a sci-fi or a YA series.

I haven't really bought short stories and novellas in the past, maybe because in traditional tree book format I never really noticed them, but I'm trying to be more open and this is the second I've read this month. This story details Viola's trip to the New World, where she and her parents are meant to establish a new colony for themselves and other colonists who will join them later, who have only ever known life aboard spaceships. There are also flashbacks to the run up to their departure.

Being so short there isn't much time for a lot of character development but Viola is clearly a young teen who is more than a little scared at being one of the first to arrive on a planet, and who is fed up of everyone talking about hope. I expect for fans of the series who have already read the books they would be a lot more able to empathise with what she goes through.

I found that the story immediately grabbed me and I wanted to read on to find out what was going on and put the action into context. I am so glad I didn't know it was sci-fi YA material as I might have otherwise ignored it, but having made light work of it I was impressed by the quality of the writing and how it pulled me in. I may not get round to reading them any time soon but I'll certainly be looking for the series now.

Book Review: Blank Slate (A Kyle Jackle thriller) by Zack Hamric

This another book I bought as a cheapie to try a new author, the product description appealing to the side of me that likes a thriller, especially with an international dimension thrown in.

The book starts with Kyle Jackle coming round from a serious beating with a nasty case of amnesia. The scene then switches to a woman running for her life in Naples, before moving back to Florida. Kyle has to discover who he is & why he appears to have links to the Russian mob. The story is largely told from his viewpoint, with parts of the story picked up by other characters such as Miami Dade homicide detective Manny Rivera. The action moves from south Florida through to south America, as Kyle picks up the threads of his life and decides he needs to go forward to rediscover his past. The chase is then on as he sails towards a confrontation with the mob.

The book covers the links between the mafia and the Russian mob, drug smuggling and people trafficking and sailing, which I am guessing is a particular passion of the author's from the loving detail it is mentioned in. It paints a vivid picture of the seedier side of life and is action-packed from the start. I warmed to Kyle's character but was less impressed with the female characters, all strippers or woman with impressive physical assets but little substance. Tasha was the main female character and she was meant to be something of a mystery but even with the reveal on her close to the end of the book I still didn't find her credible.

My other complaint about the book was the number and variety of typos. It didn't start too badly but later in the book, unless I seriously lost attention and there was another character with a similar name, one character's name changed for a few pages before changing back again, and rogue apostrophes crept in. Usually although I notice typos a mile off I don't find them offputting, but when el Jefe became Jeff I couldn't take him too seriously anymore.

Overall I would consider reading more books by this author if reasonably priced as the general plot was good but the issues mentioned above somewhat detracted from my enjoyment.

ADDED: One of the things I love about finding new authors via the kindle is how interactive the experience becomes. In praise of Zack he has responded to my review, something I'd never have expected in the past from traditionally published authors. The other beauty of e-books is how easy it is to update them. He says he will be doing an update soon and I have passed on details of the typos I spotted where I could find them again, so hopefully soon the paragraph above on typos will be null and void. I have read a couple of other kindle books that have been updated and if you contact Amazon they will resend the new version free of charge!

Looking for inspiration

The Man Booker prize is one of those prizes I've always been aware of but never paid a great deal of attention to in the past. I think to me it's one of those prizes that makes headlines very briefly, the decision is usually derided by some quarters and then it disappears from my conciousness again. I have been thinking about it this week having just read The Life of Pi, which won the prize in 2002.

Since I got my kindle I've been in a complete download frenzy, trying all sorts of books and authors I wouldn't have paid attention to before, partly based on price and partly on reviews. Now I'm running out of steam a bit, and the Amazon top 100 seems to be heavily populated by romance novels which aren't my cup of tea. As such I was thinking maybe I ought to take a look at other Booker prizewinners and expand my horizons in a different way. So, I took a look at the Booker Prize website and was a bit shocked at how few I'd read. I thought I was relatively well read but must have been deluding myself! In a way I'm pleased though as it gives me a bit of a theme, and I can now go and hunt out some winners I like the look of and intersperse them with the others I already have in my to be read stack. Anyone have any suggestions of winners they've enojyed?

Book Review: Life of Pi by Yann Martel

Life of Pi is one of those much vaunted books that I hear a massive amount about, then approach with trepidation wondering how much of the hype is merited. Checking the background to the book before writing this I was surprised to see it was 2002 when it won the Booker prize - I didn't realise it had taken me so long to get round to it!

The book starts with an author's note explaining that it seemed natural to write the book in the first person, presumably to better convey the experiences of Piscine Patel (better known as Pi, or 3.14, at school, rather than endure the mispronunciation of his full name) It also makes the lofty promise that the story will make you believe in God.

The first part introduces us to Pi's early life in Pondicherry, India. He is growing up living in a zoo, attending a Catholic school and trying to be a Muslim, Hindu and a Christian. This is to the bemusement, or perhaps amusement, of the rest of his family. Concerned by the political climate of the mid 70s Pi's parents decide to sell up and move to Canada. Many of the animals are sold to zoos in the USA, so arrangements are made for the family to travel with the animals by sea, leading us to the second part of the book.

At the start of part 2 the ship the family and menagerie are travelling on sinks. Somehow Pi finds himself alone in a lifeboat, save for the company of a zebra, a hyena, an orang-utan and a Bengal tiger. Not only does Pi have to survive 227 days afloat in the Pacific, with all the attendant problems being cast adrift presents, he also has to deal with his animal companions.

The final part takes place in a hospital in Mexico once Pi has finally found land once more. He is interviewed by investigators from the Japanese Ministry of Transport, who are investigating the disappearance of the ship Pi was travelling on.

The first part tells us about the sort of person Pi is, provides an interesting defence of zoos and covers quite some ground on religion. In fact I felt a little bogged down by the pages and pages on the basic beliefs that support the three religions Pi subscribes to. At this point I was starting to think it would be another of those books that failed to meet high expectations. While there are moments in the second part where Pi is hoping for divine intervention or marvelling at creation religion as a theme plays much less of a role than I was expecting.

Moving onto the story of his time at sea the book shifted gear. Details of the battles between the animals and how Pi manages to provide himself with the essentials of life while avoiding instant death by tiger was highly readable, although by now I was starting to question whether what had been set up as a true story was anything of the sort. This is something of a flight of fancy that I enjoyed despite some parts including butchery in the name of survival that made me cringe.

The final part sealed my affection for this book. In most books I read by the end I want to be clear about what has happened and generally quite like it if all the threads tie up. However here the end of the book throws everything I read in even greater doubt. For once instead of feeling miffed I find myself happy that I am mystified as to what actually happened. This is a rare occasion where I am pleased to say a much hyped book lived up to it's reputation, in my eyes at least, although I don't think it alone would make me believe in God.