The Bookworm's Thread 2016

Lynplatinum

Evening All

Sorry I am not expert enough to put pictures up!! Yet!!

The precis on the back describes the main protagonist of the novel (Eve) as a housewife who is 'old and fat - just like her mother'. Then her life changes - she realises how powerless she is and how what she has always just accepted is wrong (an appalling husband who is always telling her what is best for her - being left to care for her ailing mother while her sister swans off abroad etc etc) Her hopes rest on her children - her son who is an ardent environmentalist - her daughter who she expects to go to university.
Edenford is a typical middle class town and when her friend Inge comes back to stay she is the focus of false bonhomie from the townsfolk who do not know Inge's secret. Our protagonist does - they have always been best friends - even though Inge is now a celebrity. Eve is largely dismissed by the community until she does something very out of character.

Sandi T weaves the very complex web of relationships with expertise. She describes emotion by inference rather than spelling it out. As a woman of a certain age one feels empathy with Eve the main character. This is not chick lit but i am not sure if a man would enjoy the novel. It is not for the depressed or recently bereaved as several characters die in various ways. It is a brilliant study of small town machinations, assumptions and behaviors though. Very readable as it is written in short distinct chapters in good English that flows well.
I am looking forward to reading next novel but after choosing something with a lighter note first! Hope this helps you decide if you want to read it!
Nite all

lollyfin

Pollypenny if your kindle does that again hold the on switch and count to ten the light around the switch should change colour and when it's green let go of the switch and it should work fine again. I'm on my second kindle after being bought one of the very first ones for my birthday. I really wasn't sure about it to begin with but now I love it, it fits in my handbag and means I can read anywhere. I will admit it doesn't compare to the feel of a real book so I still buy them as well.

pollypenny

I think that's what I did, lollyfin, in desperation!

Actually, I was also thinking of an upgrade, by nipping to Walmart and getting one if the touch screen ones while I'm here in the USA. So much cheaper.

mumps

This week I have read

Blood Works by Michael Connelly which I really enjoyed. It is about an ex FBI agent who has had a heart transplant and is asked to find the person who killed his donor.

The Last Juror by John Grisham. I find I love or hate his books, nothing in between and I loved this one. I have mentioned before that I have a terrible memory for names and in this book Grisham describes the town where it's set. I thought that sounds just like the description in A Time to Kill, as if all southern towns in the USA have exactly the same layout. Then a lawyer is mentioned and I think he sounds like the one in A Time to Kill. Penny drops, yes it is set in the same town and some of the same characters appear. I wish I could remember names.

The Survivors by Terry Nation, as mentioned by MissBiggles1. I really enjoyed it but was puzzled by the ending, I don't know if I missed the end of the TV series but it seems unlikely as I have also watched the DVDs. I just don't remember it ending like it does in the book. Don't know if I have just forgotten but seems strange as alot of the book is so true to the tv series and I remembered it all well. I might have to dig out the DVDs and have a look.

Gallows View by Peter Robinson which is an Inspector Banks novel, the first in the series. I wasn't particularly keen, he seems quite a shallow sort of character, no substance. It was OK and I finished it which says something but not a favourite.

I am now reading A Necessary End, another Inspector Banks one. I thought I would give him another go to see if he improved but he still seems really two dimensional to me. It might just be that I never worked with a DI like him. DI Rebus, by Ian Rankin, reminds me of several detectives I've known and even though some of what he gets away with seems far fetched he seems quite believable. I've read a couple of Inspector Morse books and again I have known one or two detectives like him but DI Banks, no I don't know him at all.

One thing I have noticed is detectives all seem to drink malt whisky, well the American ones sometimes drink bourbon. They all seem music lovers, some of them classical but lots of them seem to listen to jazz. I wonder what that is all about? I did know one detective who loved classical music and his nickname was Morse. They all seem to have woman trouble, again DI Banks is a little different as he is happily married but I'm not sure about that psychologist, it wouldn't surprise me if that got a bit out of hand at some stage.

Not sure what I am going to read next but I have got a Frederick Forsyth book on my kindle. I think it was a freebie. I've never read one of his before so I might give that a go.

Sorry, I didn't realise that was such an epic till after I posted it.

Upsidedown_Bear

Just finished Broken Dolls by James Carol.
I did it enjoy but kept getting a weird sense of Dejà Vu. It was only published in 2014 so I know I haven't read it before.
My memory is not that bad. :cool: Maybe I've read something very similar in the past :think:
I have got the next one to read so I'll see if that reminds me of something else.

mumps - if you have read Grisham's A Time to Kill there is a follow up book - Sycamore Row.

mumps

Upsidedown_Bear wrote: »

Just finished Broken Dolls by James Carol.
I did it enjoy but kept getting a weird sense of Dejà Vu. It was only published in 2014 so I know I haven't read it before.
My memory is not that bad. :cool: Maybe I've read something very similar in the past :think:
I have got the next one to read so I'll see if that reminds me of something else.

mumps - if you have read Grisham's A Time to Kill there is a follow up book - Sycamore Row.

Thanks, I'll have a look for that.

Callie22

mumps wrote: »

The Survivors by Terry Nation, as mentioned by MissBiggles1. I really enjoyed it but was puzzled by the ending, I don't know if I missed the end of the TV series but it seems unlikely as I have also watched the DVDs. I just don't remember it ending like it does in the book. Don't know if I have just forgotten but seems strange as alot of the book is so true to the tv series and I remembered it all well. I might have to dig out the DVDs and have a look.

I've only seen the 2008 TV series (I think that they also made a series in the late 70s) but I remember that it was almost nothing like the book. It starts similarly and keeps the storyline of the main female character looking for her son, but most of the other characters in the TV series aren't in the book, or if they are they are quite different. The BBC also cancelled it after the second series so it never really 'finished' - I think the series ended with one of the characters sneaking onto a plane that was heading to a secret island base, which doesn't happen in the book and is nothing like the ending of the novel. It wasn't a bad series but I much preferred the novel.

VfM4meplse

Wk 4:



Another chazzer £1 find, but well ahead of its time (the copyright is 1957, well ahead of equality and yet the same concepts are peddled out by self-help books today!). It delivers some real truths, and I've scribbled notes all over it.

I'm also reading this as a "slow-burner" as it's easy to dip in and out of:



It's a fascinating insight into British history (interviews are in chronological order from the 1940s - 2000s, told through the perspective of the subjects), and I'm learning so much and loving it - a true OS pleasure. It helps if you like WH anyway. My copy came from the chaz last year, £1.99 in hardback and looks brand new. Definitely one to pass onto future generations!

Upsidedown_Bear

I have just finished Agatha Christie's And then there were none.
I read it many years ago but I'd forgotten how good it was

Next I'm reading Watch Me by James Carol.

pollypenny

I'm reading Whisper to the Blood by Dana Stabenow. Complex and I learn a lot about Alaska again.

Her books are fascinating and the first is usually free on Amazon thrillers.