27 October, 2005

In Her Shoes (Jennifer Weiner)

This is probably the first book I've ever read that might be characterised as chick-lit (although I think it's a pretty annoying and demeaning tag, most of the time). Unless you count reading Jackie Collins and Judith Krantz as a teenager, but I think they just count as junk-food books rather than chick-lit.
This was a light weekend read, but nothing special. I picked it up because I thought the movie looked enjoyable, but I'm not sure I'd see the movie after reading the book. I didn't particularly like either of the characters, and it annoyed me that the 'intelligent lawyer' sister has to stop being a lawyer and start walking dogs to be happy. It irritates me that in those sort of books women can never be happy while working in a full-time job that exercises their minds. I found that I didn't particularly care whether or not the characters were reconciled with each other at the end.
The plot seemed a bit scattered, too - here and there, let's jump a year, and then bounce over to this character. Meh. It was OK. A 2 out of 5 book.

20 October, 2005

Phryne Fisher Mysteries (Kerry Greenwood)

This is a combined review of Cocaine Blues, Flying Too High, The Green Mill Murders, Murder at Victoria Dock, Murder on the Ballarat Train, Blood and Circuses and Death by Water.

It's a bit of a cop-out, reviewing seven books in one post. But there is a certain similarity to these Phryne Fisher mysteries (which doesn't detract from them, but makes it difficult to try and find something different to say about each one.)

These mysteries are set in Melbourne, Australia in the 1920s, and feature glamourous "lady detective" Phryne (pronounced Fry-knee) Fisher, enormously wealthy fashion plate and woman of many and varied lovers. She's a fabulous character, and if I had as much money as Phryne, I would aspire to be exactly like her. She's the reason I enjoy these books.

These novels are all quick reads - Phyrne is presented with mysteries, and she solves them neatly by the end of the book, usually leaving at least one dead body and a satiated lover in her wake. (It's honestly not as trashy as I'm making it sound.) Greenwood writes well, and she write Phryne perfectly. I think these books improve later in the series ( Death by Water is the most recently published), simply because Greenwood is very familiar with her format and does it to perfection.

These books make me want to lie in a bathtub of hot water (scented with something ridiculously expensive and French) and fall asleep. The perfect books to read in bed.

15 October, 2005

To the Power of Three (Laura Lipman)

Sometimes I'll be reading a whole pile of random stuff on the internet, see a book recommended that seems good, and I'll zip over to my library's website and put it on hold. And then several weeks later, the book will arrive, and I will have completely forgotten where I heard of it, and sometimes why I wanted to read it. This was one of these books.

The story begins with a girl dead from a gun shot wound on a school bathroom floor, another girl in a coma, and a third shot in the foot. It then winds backwards and forwards, leading us gently into the relationship between the girls, and then onwards to what would be their last day together at school.

I enjoyed it, but was a little disappointed with the big reveal ending. I often am, with mysteries. This felt like a beautifully drawn together web for the first two thirds, and then rushed together at the ending. It was a decent read, however, despite not knowing where I heard of it. It's a three out of five book.

The Red Queen (Margaret Drabble)

About halfway through this book, the Red Queen of the title narrates one of the most horrifying death scenes I've read for a while. I put this down for a day until I felt removed enough from it to continue.

The Red Queen is a fictionalised look at the life of the Queen of Korea in the eighteenth century, and the royal family that surrounds her. The story is based on the memoirs of the Queen, and is therefore based quite strongly, I think, in fact. It begins with the Queen as a young child longing intensely for a red silk skirt, and this memory continues to reappear throughout the book. I must say, reading it has invoked a strong desire for red things. I'm very fond of red, generally, but I don't usually gravitate towards such prosaic items as red pens, murmuring "Aaaah! So pretty!"

Perhaps I've been gently taken over by the spirit of the Red Queen. This story did affect me quite strongly, and certainly not simply because of the death I've mentioned. I enjoyed the writing, which isn't a surprise, as I like Drabble. But the characters seemed particularly vibrant, perhaps because they were based on fact. I was quite drawn in by the idea of this iron-willed woman living hundreds of years ago, riding through the Korean countryside in a covered carriage. An excellent book, for all sorts of reasons - highly recommended.

09 October, 2005

The Wee Free Men & A Hat Full of Sky (Terry Pratchett)

These two books are stories set in the Discworld aimed at younger readers, but really only so in the sense that the heroine is 11 years old. They star Tiffany Aching, a very determined young girl, and the Nac Mac Feegle, small blue drunk fairies, who live to swear and fight anything in their path (and each other if they get bored). In The Wee Free Men, Tiffany, with the aid of the Nac Mac Feegle, fights the Queen of the Fairies to retrieve her baby brother. In A Hat Full of Sky, she is apprenticed to a witch, and faces a more terrifying internal battle with a drifting spirit called a hiver.

"Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colours. And the people there see you differently too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving."
(A Hat Full of Sky, p349)

These are just as enjoyable to read as an adult, I think. Pratchett's skill and love of language shines through in all his work, no matter who its written for. Tiffany is a wonderful character - exactly the sort of person I wanted to be when I was younger (and in some ways, how I still want to be). I think these two novels, along with the later Discworld books, are some of Pratchett's best work.

08 October, 2005

The Bride Stripped Bare (Anonymous)

The Bride Stripped Bare is fairly short novel, written in small chapters described as lessons, and in the second person. I thought I would find it clumsy, but it's very beguiling, and after a few pages I didn't notice the perspective at all.

This book made me think a lot of my own relationships, how I think about intimacy and sex, and how women discuss these sorts of things with each other. And I really value books that make me think about and evaluate myself. I'm going to recommend this to all my women friends. I think men would find it confusing, and I don't have all that many men friends anyway, hence the women-only recommendation. An absorbing and tactile read.

06 October, 2005

Night Watch & Going Postal (Terry Pratchett)

I do love Terry Pratchett an awful lot. He's one of my favourite authors, the way he gives me comforting reasurances about the state of humanity (even if there are really horrible serial killers, there are always going to be wonderful characters like Sam Vimes who can stop them.)
And out of the great mass of characters that inhabit the Discworld, Sam Vimes is one my dearest favourites. His sarcasm, gruffness and struggle with himself - how can you not love the man? He is the star of Night Watch , so I was bound to enjoy it. And it's one of Pratchett's best books, I think. We see Vimes as a young man, and experience the events that change him. And we see Vimes as a grown man, and watch him struggle to live up to his younger self's ideals. It's beautiful - and it's set in amongst the usual craziness and footnotes of the Discworld. Fantastic.
Going Postal was a different experience, because while it's still set in familiar Ankh Morpork, with its accompanying cast of supporting characters, it also introduces many new ones. I read it quite soon after it was released, and thought it was OK. On the second reading, I enjoyed it much more. I think Discworld novels, for me, always need a second read - I'm too excited about them when they're first written, and reality always feels like a bit of a let down. Then I read them again, some time later, and appreciate them much more. Going Postal is a fantastic book. (Pratchett is definitely an author who improves with age and practice, as I enjoy his mid to later books much more than his earlier ones.) A spin on the postal service, as apparent by the title, it introduces soon-to-be-ex conman Moist Lipwig, the post office staff, and gives us more golems (Hooray For Golems). Vastly enjoyable. I'm in a Pratchett phase at the moment, while waiting for Thud to arrive at the library.

04 October, 2005

Fivestar (Mardi McConnochie)

Modelled very closely on the rise of the Spice Girls in the early 90s, this is a novel about an Australian version of the story - five young women recruited into a manufactured pop machine, their rise and fall, and the toll this has on their lives. It's fun, and fairly well written light fluff. I wanted to find out what happened to the characters, but I wasn't enthralled by it. It's an interesting idea though, so it gets points for that.

Case Histories (Kate Atkinson)

I've read all of Kate Atkinson's other books, and I was looking forward to this one, with its reputation as the best of the lot. And it does live up to it.
It's one of the multi-strand stories that Atkinson seems to enjoy writing, and this one works particularly well. It begins by introducing three incidents in different times - a small girl who disappears, a young woman who's murdered, and woman who kills her husband with an axe. We are then introduced to Jackson Brodie, a private detective and ex-policeman, who slowly draws all these disparate threads together.
As usual, with Atkinson, this is a novel that thrives on its detail and deliciously three dimensional characters, which in a way are almost more exciting than the mysteries involved (although I was anxious to see those solved as well). I particularly enjoyed the father/daughter storyline, as I really identify with loving a parent enormously, yet secretly thinking of them as a bit silly, and how cruel that is.
This is a wonderful, five star novel - something to force your family and friends to read.