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spooky_miss) wrote2010-12-09 12:05 pm
spooky_miss) wrote2010-12-09 12:05 pm
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Books One Hundred and Two to One Hundred and Five
Book One Hundred and Two - The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney
This book is set in Canada in the 19th Century, and is about a murder committed in a small community, and how they try to find out who did it. The murdered man is someone on the fringes of their society, but just after he gets murdered, the son of the main character goes off to try to find his murdered, through tracking his movements / prints / whatever you track through the snow. There is also another issue in the community regarding two girls who went missing a few years ago. The main character, a woman, goes with a man who has recently arrived in the town to try and find her son. As well as their story of going through the snow to find her son, there is also the story of the son and where he went. He ends up in a Norweigan religious community, very ill and tired, and they look after him. When his mother and the other man arrive there, they speak to him about the murdered man, and find out there are far more secrets in the case than they thought. What they have found out leads them to another community, and into the world of trading and tracking, and more murders. There is also another set of people, a family who have left the religious community and are trying to find somewhere else to live.
When I really liked about this book were the amazing descriptions. I couldn't really visualise the towns, or where they lived (apart from the trading outpost in the middle of nowhere, that was described well), but their environment, the snow, the biting cold, and how they managed to make their way through it, it was all described really well and you could really imagine it. Its not the best mystery / murder story I've ever read, some of it was just a bit too convenient! But it was excellent for the descriptions, and it was almost unputdownable in parts. Recommended! 8 / 10
Book One Hundred and Three - A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams
This is a play (obviously!) and I hadn't read many plays before so I wasn't sure about it at first, but it was ok as I read more of it. It was good to read all the stage directions etc as you could then imagine it in your mind, which was good. As for the story - well, it was ok, but I didn't really gain any kind of great point or feeling out of it. Maybe it would be better to actually see it, but reading it I didn't really gain anything from it. It didn't really seem to have a very satisfying ending or narrative. So, it was ok. I would read more by the same author, but not sure this was as good as I maybe thought it would be. 6 / 10
Book One Hundred and Four - Man and Boy by Tony Parsons
This book is about a man and his son, after he sleeps with a work colleague and his wife leaves him to work in Japan. It describes the changes he has to make in his life to be able to care for his son, the people who help him, and the women he meets in the meantime. It was an ok read, but nothing special. The wife came across as very selfish, although I know the man had done wrong by sleeping with someone else, but the wife just wanted to go away to Japan, and then expected to come back in 6 months and care for their son again. She didn't really seem to think of how the child would feel. It was an ok quick read, as all Tony Parsons' books are, but I'd only recommend it if there weren't any other books to read! 6 / 10
Book One Hundred and Five - A Tiny Bit Marvellous by Dawn French
This book is great! It is the first novel by Dawn French, and is as funny as a book written by her should be! :) It is about a family which consists of a mother, Mo, who is a child psychologist, Dora, who is a 17 year old girl, Oscar (otherwise known as Peter!), a teenage boy who is "channelling" Oscar Wilde!, and the father of the family. Dora, Oscar and Mo each have a chapter in turn, which gives their own intepretation on events as they happen, written in the style of a diary. There is also Noel, a student at the Mo's work, and the grandmother. Oscar / Peter becomes obsessed with Noel, and takes a job at the practice to get a chance to speak to him. Dora has the "normal" teenage angst about her mother not understanding her, and how she has absolutely no idea what she's going through, haha. Meanwhile Noel is developing a romantic attachment to Mo, and she talks about how this is affecting her otherwise content life, and what she's going to do about it! It is written really well, and in such a way that you can really hear their voices as they talk - Oscar does really talk like Oscar Wilde, and Dora talks like a teenager (e.g. OMG mum is like so not right about that!). There was the nice touch of the father having one chapter towards the end, as you don't really hear his voice himself through the rest of the book, its just everyone else interpreting his actions themselves. I really enjoyed this book, so I really hope Dawn French writes more! :) 9 / 10
This book is set in Canada in the 19th Century, and is about a murder committed in a small community, and how they try to find out who did it. The murdered man is someone on the fringes of their society, but just after he gets murdered, the son of the main character goes off to try to find his murdered, through tracking his movements / prints / whatever you track through the snow. There is also another issue in the community regarding two girls who went missing a few years ago. The main character, a woman, goes with a man who has recently arrived in the town to try and find her son. As well as their story of going through the snow to find her son, there is also the story of the son and where he went. He ends up in a Norweigan religious community, very ill and tired, and they look after him. When his mother and the other man arrive there, they speak to him about the murdered man, and find out there are far more secrets in the case than they thought. What they have found out leads them to another community, and into the world of trading and tracking, and more murders. There is also another set of people, a family who have left the religious community and are trying to find somewhere else to live.
When I really liked about this book were the amazing descriptions. I couldn't really visualise the towns, or where they lived (apart from the trading outpost in the middle of nowhere, that was described well), but their environment, the snow, the biting cold, and how they managed to make their way through it, it was all described really well and you could really imagine it. Its not the best mystery / murder story I've ever read, some of it was just a bit too convenient! But it was excellent for the descriptions, and it was almost unputdownable in parts. Recommended! 8 / 10
Book One Hundred and Three - A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams
This is a play (obviously!) and I hadn't read many plays before so I wasn't sure about it at first, but it was ok as I read more of it. It was good to read all the stage directions etc as you could then imagine it in your mind, which was good. As for the story - well, it was ok, but I didn't really gain any kind of great point or feeling out of it. Maybe it would be better to actually see it, but reading it I didn't really gain anything from it. It didn't really seem to have a very satisfying ending or narrative. So, it was ok. I would read more by the same author, but not sure this was as good as I maybe thought it would be. 6 / 10
Book One Hundred and Four - Man and Boy by Tony Parsons
This book is about a man and his son, after he sleeps with a work colleague and his wife leaves him to work in Japan. It describes the changes he has to make in his life to be able to care for his son, the people who help him, and the women he meets in the meantime. It was an ok read, but nothing special. The wife came across as very selfish, although I know the man had done wrong by sleeping with someone else, but the wife just wanted to go away to Japan, and then expected to come back in 6 months and care for their son again. She didn't really seem to think of how the child would feel. It was an ok quick read, as all Tony Parsons' books are, but I'd only recommend it if there weren't any other books to read! 6 / 10
Book One Hundred and Five - A Tiny Bit Marvellous by Dawn French
This book is great! It is the first novel by Dawn French, and is as funny as a book written by her should be! :) It is about a family which consists of a mother, Mo, who is a child psychologist, Dora, who is a 17 year old girl, Oscar (otherwise known as Peter!), a teenage boy who is "channelling" Oscar Wilde!, and the father of the family. Dora, Oscar and Mo each have a chapter in turn, which gives their own intepretation on events as they happen, written in the style of a diary. There is also Noel, a student at the Mo's work, and the grandmother. Oscar / Peter becomes obsessed with Noel, and takes a job at the practice to get a chance to speak to him. Dora has the "normal" teenage angst about her mother not understanding her, and how she has absolutely no idea what she's going through, haha. Meanwhile Noel is developing a romantic attachment to Mo, and she talks about how this is affecting her otherwise content life, and what she's going to do about it! It is written really well, and in such a way that you can really hear their voices as they talk - Oscar does really talk like Oscar Wilde, and Dora talks like a teenager (e.g. OMG mum is like so not right about that!). There was the nice touch of the father having one chapter towards the end, as you don't really hear his voice himself through the rest of the book, its just everyone else interpreting his actions themselves. I really enjoyed this book, so I really hope Dawn French writes more! :) 9 / 10