The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammet

My first non tbr read of the year, this one was allowed as it was a bookgroup read however I fear that my journey to and from New York is going to be my downfall as I've been sent and given books that look like ideal plane ride books.

The Maltese Falcon is a detective novel from 1929. The book follows Sam Spade, who starts an investigation to discover a missing sister, which soon involves the death of his partner, him being stitched up for murder and the search for the Maltese Falcon, a prized ornament.
Spade is a typical detenctive, women falling for him all over the place and a criminal himself with many dodgy police helping his cause. I can't tell you anymore of the story without giving away too much.

I raced through the first 100 pages, the style was easy to read and there was plenty happening, then I really slowed down and stretched the next 100 pages over 4 nights. I lost interest as more and more people became involved, and there was so many people double crossing one another. Also, I disliked the way the women fawned over Spade; he was clearly sleeping with his secutary even though she knew he was also with many other women, yet she bowed to his every request. I suppose it's a product of its time yet it still bothered me.

In My Mailbox

I don't normally participate in IMM as I rarely have many books arriving to the house each week, but last week was a week of deliveries ahoy! So I thought I'd show you my new editions to the house.

First up were these beautiful ATC (artist trading cards), I participated in a group swap were we had to send a card to each member of the group, there were 13 members in total so I should be recieving more of these in the coming weeks. We each had to create a card (credit card size) which used just one colour. My favourite is the yellow butterfly design. When these have all arrived I'll create a little book of them or find some way to display them in the house.


This picture is kind of a lie. I actually recieved a box with 19 books in it, I then had to select those I wanted to read and replace them with the same number of books I removed (not too bad for the tbr stacks). This box contained only books from the 1001 bookcrossing library - books that are in the 1001 books to read before you die list. The other 11 books were those I'd read previously. These bookboxes seem expensive to post, this will cost me about £10, but then I'm getting 8 books and a book averages at £7 if brought new, so its good in its way.
I took out:
Angus Wilson, No Laughing Matter
Umberto Eco, Foucault's Pendulum
Peter Ackroyd, Hawksmoor
E.M Forster, A Room With a View
Jack London, The Call of the Wild and White Fang
Dorothy L. Sayers, The Nine Tailors
Dashiell Hammett, The Thin Man
Murial Spark, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

With the exception of Forster these are all new to me authors so I may find a new fav.

This pile are the other books which arrived in the post.
Anthony Powell, At Lady Molly's
Cees Nooteboom, Rituals
Antonio Tabucchi, Pereria Maintains
All from bookcrossings 1001 virtual bookbox (the same idea as before but the 'box' is sent via email to save postage.
Dashiell Hammett, The Maltese Falcon (my bookgroup read for the month - allowed as one of my exceptions to the TBR Dare)

Not pictured:
H.G Wells, The Island of Dr. Moreau (a bookring - another exception to the TBR Dare)
Gray's Anatomy: Season One (I love this show so much and have been hiring the DVDs through a postal service. I'm on season 4 now and have to say my crush on Dr Sheppard just grows, but I'm also starting to find George attractive!)

Did you get anything good through the post this week?

TSS: Bleak House by Charles Dickens

It looks like I'm getting good at read-a-longs, another one finished :D
I started reading Bleak House back in November, we read a section each Sunday following the sections that Dickens had them published originally in the perodicals.

A quick summary: Bleak House focuses on the main heroine Esther, she starts her life as a orphan, with a childhood of misery. When her aunt dies she finds that she is taken by a new guardian along with two other teenagers to live in Bleak House. The three all share a link in a long legal debate over a will, which has been being debated longer than the three have lived.
Esther's a kind hearted a generous central character, formaing relationships with many along the way, from orphaned children to the aristocracy. The novel explores the power of greed, the unravelling of secrets and friendships.

Dickens is one of those authors who I'm never 100% sure of, I have loved some of his works (Great Expectations in particular) and really disliked others (Nicholas Nickelby). This novel held me unsure of my feelings for it over a number of months. Split into two narratives, Esther's and a unknown narrators, we view all manner of peoples lives, many who are only barely linked to Esther's story. And while I loved her narrative, which focused on just the few people she met, I dislike the other narrative which introduced too many characters and was hard to follow.
I think that as a read-a-long we should have read more each week, the sections were about 30 pages in length and varied in enjoyment. Sometimes you finished a Sunday reading glad to have spent 30minutes with Esther and other weeks the reading left me bored and wondering what was happening to Esther.
The BBC adaptation of this is supposed to be brilliant, I'm hoping to hire this and watch it in the coming weeks.

Jezebel by Irene Nemirovsky

I finally finished another book! My reading time seems to be being zapped at the moment, school work is filling up my spare hours, plus I've discovered some new TV shows and DVD boxsets so my spare time is being eaten into.

Jezebel starts with the court case of an older woman accused of killing her much younger lover. The court watches in awe and fascination, not because the death of a 21 year old man, but because of the beauty and poise of the accused.
From then on the novel recounts moments from her life, showing her growth, relationships and leading to the murder.

For me this novel just didn't work, which is frustrating because the idea behind it really sounds like it should be a good read. The main character was simply hideous, one of those obnoxious girls at school who I would have simply hated. Other characters flit in and out so that we never get to form an attachment to them.

I think if the book had been much longer than its 190 pages, of fairly big font, I would have given it up and started something new.

Island Madness by Tim Binding

Island Madness is set on the tiny island of Guernsey, a British Island that is actually right off the tip of France. This book is set during the German occupation of the island during WWII. Used as a vantage point for the Germans, as well as a prime smuggling location the locals and the occupiers live side-by-side with the enemy.

As the book started I thought that this novel was going to be about the changes to the society caused by the occupation; the French prostitues brought over to service the men, with lines of men running up the street, the young local women whose parents turn a blind-eye to their daughters affairs with the enemy, knowing that this will keep their daughters well fed, the local men and women breaking the law just for real butter or BirdsEye Custard Powder. But soon a local girl is murdered and a who-done-it unravels.

The pace of the book, the twists and turns and tangled relationships kept me well entertained for the day, but I was never enthralled by the novel. It was of overly long paragraphs and a setting and people I just couldn't picture. This is the dark side of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.


I'm carrying on with the TBR Dare I'm now up to book 7 of the 25 that I pledged to read. I have to say that it is making me look at my TBR pile in a new light. One of my friends - with a much much smaller pile than me - has put hers in order of the date they were written, she takes one from the top of the pile then the next one from the bottom, ensuring that some of the others get read. I'm still trying to work out how to tackle mine, I'm trying a world tour idea at the moment but I'm not sure how successful this will be. Having said that you may see a few French books popping up in the next few weeks!
Have you a way to tackle your tbr pile? Or do you just read as you please?

The Sunday Salon: If I wasn't being a good girl...

I'd have brought the following books this week.

The Idiot by Dostoevsky. I'm reading two Russian books at the moment, and quite fancy a Russian theme running through the year but only have one on the tbr stacks. This one caught my eye not just as its one of those that if you're doing the Russians (sorry for the bad English, I've been watching and reading Educating Rita at school), you should have tackled; but also because it's translated by Pevear and Volokhonsky whose translation of W&P I'm loving.


The Kreutzer Sonata by Leo Tolstoy. As above, because I'm loving W&P and want to read the Russians. But also because of the Oh-so-pretty cover. The Penguin Great Loves series all have lush covers.

And finally,

Indian Killer by Sherman Alexie, because I want a good YA to take with me for the flight to New York (4 weeks today I'll be there!!!), I have many on my shelves already so I should read those, and rely on the Alexie audiobook that I have on my trusty old iPod.

Youth by J.M Coetzee

Only my second 1001 book of the year (with an aim of 40 I should be aiming for one every second or third read not leaving 5 books in between).
Coetzee is one of those authors I have a mixed relationship with, I hated Disgrace and disliked Amsterdamn but then really enjoyed Waiting for the Barbarians, and Elizabeth Costello I think I've read but I'm not 100% sure, so I went into Youth with some trepidation.
Youth is actually the second in a semi-autobiographical trilogy, but I didn't know that till I was half way through. However, I didn't feel like I was missing out too much as a rough sketch of his childhood was provided as I read through.

Youth follows John, a mathmatics student with more interest in poetry and saving up enough money to escape South Africa. When he finally escapes to England life is not what he imagines, the long hours, cold people and cold weather lead him to a life of seclusion. As well as his life in England and his love of poetry, we learn much about his desire for a woman. He seems to pick up along the way a number of unsuitable women (who all drop their pants immediately), he barely gets them back to his room before he and they have decided that it's all a bad idea, but it continues.

The novel had a really mellow feel to it, despite dramas, upsets and loneliness he accepts the world and the tension never builds. And, this creates a nice easy read, but one that is likely to leave me not remembering much, if any of the novel in a months time.

The Sunday Salon

At the moment I'm participating in two read-a-longs both of which have Sunday reading goals, so my Sunday's have changed and are no longer wallowing in laziness with one novel but trying to have read the right amount of pages and make some type of constructive comment.
This morning - after marking and housework - I finished off the section of War and Peace I needed to get read and later on I'll be reading the next 3 chapters of Bleak House.
I'm enjoying both books, and really enjoy the discussion that entails - especially in the War and Peace group as people pick up on funny things (Tolstoy's obssession with female lip hair!) but also discuss the historical and social context.
Do you participte in read-a-longs? Know of any good read-a-longs coming up?

I'm not a New Years Resolution kinda girl, mainly because I'm always setting myself resolutions throughout the year, and secondly because January is a bad time of year for starting stuff - the weather is rubbish, and I don't want to eat healthy/excercise/learn new things - I just want to hibernate.
However I did set myself a goal of 15 books that I wanted off my TBR mountain before the end of 2011. 10 fiction and 5 non-fiction.
Fiction:
1. Court on the Air (a book I requested through bookcrossing ages ago and still haven't read).
2. Tender is the Night
3. The Sound and the Fury
4. Arthur and George
5. The Tapestries
6. Les Miserables (All five have been on mount tbr for over 3 years)
7. Tsotsi (the kids study it at school yet I still haven't read it).
8. David Copperfield (a non-reading ex read this while travelling and made me promise to read it asap - that was a year ago)
9. Jude the Obscure
10. Don Quixote (both books I feel as a lit graduate I should have read, and both have lingered for 3+ years on the pile).

Non-fiction:
1. Wild Swans (a bookcrossing book I've had since 20070
2. Wall and Piece (I love Banksy and should do more than just look at the pretty pictures)
3. An Age of Wonder (brought not this christmas but the one before, it looks good, so should have been read ages ago).
4. A Human Being Died That Night (I loved Eva's review and keep saying I should read more non-fitcion, plus it's real skinny).
5. The Shory History of Nearly Everything (because my knowledge of pretty much everything is teeny or non-existant, and the only way I'm going to understand the Big Bang Theory - plus others - is if Bill Bryson explains it nice and simple).

Hopefully in the next year these will be ticked off the pile, reviewed and some sent to other readers.

The Duppy by Anthony C. Winkler

My first read for the Caribbean Reads Challenge was The Duppy. This novel set in Jamaica tells the tale of Baps a character who dies in the first line of the novel. This starts off well with a funny episode where he watches his housemaid and gardener stealling his money from his body while he watches (he was a harsh boss and starts getting really miffed when they take Christmas, Easter, New Years etc bonuses, bonuses he would never have paid in his lifetime) then the maid props her sticky feet upon his head while she waits for the doctor to arrive.
After this he travels to a Jamaican heaven, with no fluffy clouds and laziness but plenty of sex, food and gossip. Gradually he becomes friends with God.
This book is meant to be a tongue in cheek look at heaven, Jamaican men and their opinions, and started off well, in fact I enjoyed a good 120 pages of the book. Then, I'd just had enough; the joke had gone on too long and I started feeling that it was just simply silly. I scanned the last 50 pages just to get it finished. Having said that on goodreads this book is rated four stars, where I would only give it one.
For a positive review of this book please see here

Anything But Ordinary: The Nine Lives of Cecile by Cecile Dorward

I started this book way back in December, then it managed to get left at home over the Christmas break and has been sadly waiting to be picked up all this time.
Cecile Dorward is an ecentric old lady who spent her later years (60+) travelling the world in her Land Rover.
The book is separated into her 'nine lives', starting with her childhood living in that limbo of 'people with money' who actually have very little money when you look past the grand house and the society they keep. We then follow her through her first job as one of a company of famale decorators, early marriage and then on to har travels. The travels start at first in a canal boat exploring the bywaters of England. But as she gets older the journeys get more adventurous, taking her across the world, including driving overland from Australia to the UK.
When I first picked up this book I loved it and quickly read the first two-thirds. She was ecentric, daring and an original. Although she has a strange obssession with her lack of sex. I'm not sure if the fact I hadn't picked up the book in a good three weeks had an effect, but the last part detailing her journeys around the world alone seemed to suddenly lack excitement. It annoyed me that the last 20 years of her life, and the most adventurous years were crammed into such a small space, and we wasn't given a huge amount of description of the places she travelled and the people she met (apart from the overly amourous men!), it suddenly felt like she had lost interest in telling her story. Still I am glad that I read it, and would give it a strong 3 stars.

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

I've been saying to myself for the last few years that I should really reread more, but then I always get distracted by those new unread books sitting on the shelf. So this year I'm going to try some rereading, especially of books that I read in uni and didn't really get the time to appreciate.
I thought I'd start off with a real classic which I first read whan I was 16, Pride and Prejudice was probably my first 'classic' and it was a great introduction to the canon.

A quick plot summary for anyone who has managed to miss this: The Bennets are 5 sisters living in Regency England all in search of a husband. The two sensible sisters, Elizabeth and Jane are hindered by their silly younger siblings, inadequate parents and relative who are just mere lawyers and not aristocracy! At a ball Elizabeth meets the rude obnoxious Mr Darcy and Jane the lovely Bingley. After this the novel is about the way these two relationships play out and a whole bunch of wonderful other stuff.

This is my third or fourth reading of the novel and I've seen a few filmed versions so the story is pretty much already set in my mind. What I loved about this rereading was looking at the way that Austen unraveled the relationships, the twists and turns that they took. And also the knowledge of the comments that Elizabeth makes when we know her future. Along with this is the whole Regency feel; the balls and dinners, the country walks and endless journeys, the dresses and letters - all things pretty much lost in the modern art of finding a man.

Elizabeth's family in itself produce an interesting study, although you do wonder how Elizabth's sensibility, Jane's niceness and Mary's intellect developed with such a silly mother and disinterested father.

I'm now tempted to dig out the BBC boxset and indulge over the next week or so, plus Mr Darcy coming out the river is a great way of banishing the blues caused by our miserable weather!

Short Story Sunday and a Novella

Last year I barely read any short stories, like poetry and plays short stories are something I love but they tend to get abandoned in the crush of big old novels.
I'm aiming to read more, and hopefully post each Sunday about one. There did use to be a Short Story Sunday feature but I can't find anything up to date so I'll just keep myself company.

'The Daughters of the Late Colonel' by Katherine Mansfield
The death of their dictatorial father leaves Josephine and Constatine lost and bewildered. Not from sadness, but from merely knowing what to do. Every adecision they need to make, every action they take is laboured with fear of the father. Would he approve? Will he hate them?
Motherless and unmarried the girls have been ruled by a tyrannical father and maid, friendless and unworldly the young women are orphaned in a world which they barely know.

I really enjoyed this short story, I wanted to shake the girls and give them some bravery and strength.

'Anthem' by Ayn RandLast night I managed to knock a novella off the tbr pile, and one perfect for the dystopia challenge.

Anthem is set in a world in which children are brought up in a centre rather than with their families, taught only the basics at school and then assigned a work placement for life. The main characters in this novella discover an unknown place, a place linked to the time before. They sneak to this place as often as possible, discovering not just the thrill of doing what is not allowed but also the thrill of knowledge and discovery. For the first time they are able to think for themselves - just so long as no one finds out.
Written in first person in a series of reflective journal entries we gradually see the constraints of the society, as well as the things that are gradually being learnt, things we take for granted.

Surfacing by Margaret Atwood

First up Happy New Year, hopefully this one will bring love, happiness and laughter for everyone. Having gone to bed at 10.30 last night (damn cough was just too annoying!) I had a clear head and plenty of time to read today.

Surfacing kicks off my attempt to tackle more of the 1001 list this year. Margaret Atwood's 'The Handmaid's Tale' is one of two books that sent me to university to study literature, I've since then read and loved about 6 of her books. This one I've been avoiding as I'd heard it had bad reviews, but it was sent to me so I thought I should really give it ago.

The main character (who I think remains nameless - I sure can't remember her name and have scanned and can't find it), travels with her new boyfriend and two new friends back to northern Quebec, in search of her missing father. She grew up on a tiny island inhabited by just her family, now on the island she must search for clues of her father.
The novel sounds like it'll be full of clues and answers but in reality the trip home is for her a way to find herself. Her friends are shallow and the boyfriend quiet, all they add to the trip is a mode of transport and people to be amused.

For me I never felt like I could connect to any of the characters, the main character is pretty emotionless through most of the novel, she never seems interested in finding her father, and the novel is more of a description of the things they do to fill the day. Then all of a sudden there is this bizarre ending, which just left me wondering what was going on.

July's People by Nadine Gordimer

My last 1001 book for the year! I was aiming for 30 this year and I just managed it.

July's People is set in South Africa at the time of the black uprising, white families houses were being destroyed, parts of the cities were bombed and many were killed. This novel tells the tale of the servant July's plight to save the white family he has worked for. He transports them to his home village were they take up residence in one of the mud huts. The focus of the story is on how this family, both parents and young children cope living in a traditional village, living without the conveiniences of a fridge, television and society life.

I enjoyed looking at this glimpse of a white family in a different setting - often novels focus on the servants reaction to the big city. However, I would have prefered to see more of the African's ways of life, they form a background rather than a character, even July of the title only comes and goes. My biggest gripe, and something many books annoy me with, is the writing of the children. Their speach and actions were way too old for the ages they were meant to be. A baby asking eloquently whether he can go to the ciniema, a three year old who communicates in full sentences and can be suspected of having stolen a car!

Sexing the Cherry by Jeanette Winterson

Years ago I read Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit and loved it and did something that I used to do which was go by a selection of books by that author. I think I brought four books I now on the third - its no wonder mount tbr is so big!

Sexing the Cherry is a fantastical novel. It starts with the discovery of a child, Jordan, abandoned in the Thames in the 17th century, he is discovered by and brought up by a giant of a woman. Early in his life he sees the first banana brought to the shores of Britain, from then on he journeys the real world and the unreal worlds of him mind.

This novel is a complete work of fantasy, times and worlds change, weightless dancing girls, worlds which don't understand gravity and meetings with the king. I loved it this time around but when I attempted to read it a few years back I quickly gave up, certainly the type of book you have to be in the right frame of mind for.

The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff

A good 6 months ago my Mum handed me this book and told me that I would love it, it duly sat in my tbr pile waiting for me to get to it, and as I was home for Christmas I thoght I'd give it a shot.
The book tells the tale of two Mormon wives both trapped in polygamous marriages but split across a 100 year time divide. The earlier wife's tale is told through a story and extracts from her biography, letters and diary entries of the time and someones Masters thesis. She was the first wife to go public to the rest of America and reveal how the lives of these women were ruled.
The story set in modern times is actually told through looking at her gay son who has been rejected from the faith and by her many years before. She is suddenly arrested for the murder of her husband and he goes back to his old home to try and discover the truth.

My mum loved this, I thought it was okay. The story of the earlier wife was more credible, but because of the various sources I felt it would have woked better on its own as a single novel. While the second story would belong more to the trashy novel type of book - the story was okay, but a little to easy for him to solve, and way too many coincidences.

The Lonely Londoners by Sam Selvon

8 years ago I was meant to do a university module on post-colonial literature focusing on immigration/emigration, this was on the reading list, I got put in a post-colonial literature class but not the one I'd applies for. This book has stayed on my mental tbr list for all that time and today I finally got to it.

The Lonely Londoners focuses on a group of immigrants from Trinidad, who arrive in dank foggy London just after the war (why is London always foggy in books? I've been there loads of times and never recall it being foggy). Mainly young men, this novel looks at the lives that they create for themselves, in a country that once wanted them but quickly turned its back on them.

The writing is vernacular, which I know some people struggle with, but I quickly found a nice voice in my head so it didn't hinder the speed I read in. Focusing on a small group of men the story focused a lot on their white girlfriends and the way that the men all swindle each other and others around them for money. The strangest part featured a 4 page, no punctuation account of these black men being paid to sleep with white prostitues so white men could watch - this seemed very out of place in style, and I just wanted them to get angry, rather than see it as a free 'treat'.
The style of the novel shows a way of life, but never goes beneath the surface and really shows you how the characters felt about their treatment. Having said that I enjoyed it, but thought that 120 odd pages was enough - no story, character stood out to keep the novel moving for much longer.

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

I think I've found a new favourite author. After I had read We Have Always Lived at the Castle I knew that I wanted to read more of this author who I previously hadn't heard of. This was the next book that the library had available.

The Haunting of House Hill follows four people brought together to stay in a haunted house. Previous residents have all fled after just a few days declaring business elsewhere that has made them abandon the house, but never declaring that they were scared. The main character Eleanor, a lonely woman who had previously spent all her life nursing her sick mother feels the full force of the haunting.

The book grabbed me from its very beginning, the oddly angled house, the odd way that the characters interact with one another and the mystery of what it is that possesses the house ring out from the pages. It is scary, but I never was scared when reading it. I found it strange rather than scary, perplexing. Apparently this book is the basis for two films both called The Haunting, neither of which I've seen I'd like to know how they portray the characters when much of the book is pschological fear.

Chelmsford Cathedral

As I walked past the cathedral today I snapped a few pictures on my phone - new camera for Christmas, I can't wait! I will go back with a decent camera to photograph some of the detail. My favourite is the tree.

TSS: Green Angel by Alice Hoffman

I've been hibernating and generally wasting the day today - damn my lack of motivation! However I did manage to read this wonderful novella. Way back Darren from Bart's Bookshelf reviewed this book and straight away I reserved it in the library, and it finally came in!

The novella starts:

I once believed that life was a gift. I thought whatever I wanted I would someday possess. Is that greed, or only youth? Is it hope or stupidity?

What a beautiful way to start the story. Green is a timid teenager living with her family at the edge of the wood. She is left one day when they go off to the city and never come back after a big fire - we are told very little of this fire, the few bits we do get sound a little like 9/11 but the setting and time is wrong.
Left along with her grief Green stops caring about her looks, shrouds herself with thorns and nails and black tattoos to cover herself.

I can't tell you much more without ruining the story except you should go read this book. The language and imagery is beautiful with a fairytale feel. The book is marketed as YA, but I would say its for anyone who appreciates beautiful language.
I wanted to buy a copy for my sisters birthday but can only find second hand copies available, although I may buy one anyway and explain why. There is a follow up to this novella which was released this year and its already been added to my wishlit.

More than just a wonderful story the presentation is gorgeous, as well as the gorgeous cover abover, the chapter openings are a gorgeous shade of moss green and illustrated. Page breaks have three teeny delicate leaves.

Even the publishing details are laid out like a stem.