The Beach - Alex Garland 1996* * *

Without meaning to I spent most of this book comparing it to the film even though I knew that the film had changed things around and missed things out!

I won't say this is a great book by any standards, but it was certainly captivating and I really couldn't wait for lunch break every day to get back stuck into it ( it's been my work only reading book!). I thought the first half of the book was very well written with amazing descriptions of Thailand and surrounding scenery but later on into the novel my interest lagged a bit, and near the end I was just desperate to see what happened. The ending was a big disappointment to me, a) because the events surrounding it were just a blur to me and b) nothing was explained or justified. Yet again I was comparing the end to the ending in The Beach and it was nothing like it (dare I say that the film ending was a lot better and much more fullfilling..) Of course I am not going to dislike a book simply because the ending doesn't work out the way I want it to as sometimes that can be even more refreshing, but I'm not impressed when authors spend ages enticing you with gorgeous prose until about 3 pages before the end then suddenly decide that's enough and you are plunged out the other side! Worth a read, but I'm afraid to say the film IS better.

Started 22nd April

Finished 28th April

Cocktail Time - P.G. Wodehouse 1958 * * * *

As I had hoped, Wodehouse is getting funnier with each read (although so far I am only on my second out of nearly 100!) and I sped through this book in 2 days. Wodehouse has a lovely easy way or writing and drawing you in that means you literally cannot put the book down ( it was taken into every room of the house, held whilst cooking and read whilst walking to put the rubbish out to the bin!) and that is what I love about him. The premise of this novel is effectively a story about a story. We are introduced to Lord Ickenham who, one day after feeling particulary naughty, takes a catapult and shoots his in-law Beefy in the head with a Brazil Nut. Unaware of who the culprit is, Beefy publishes an annonymous and scandelous novel about the events and then, because he is afraid that exposure may ruin his chances in politics he lets his dreadful cousin Cosmo take all the credit, and the royalties! Mayhem ensues of course! Hilarious!

Started 20th April

Finished 21st April

Raffles: The Amateur Cracksman E.W. Hornung 1890 *

Try as I did to like this I just couldn't. It was dull, tedious and most importantly unfunny! I liked the idea of a cracksman who is also a keen cricketer but it was poorly executed and the characters were so boring and unlikeable!

Within the first page it is almost as though we have been thrown headfirst into a story that is already in the middle of happening and therefore we are given the impression that we have missed a lot including Raffles and Bunny getting to know each other and planning their ideas meticulously (although they never work properly!)

It was a chore to finish this book and that is not what a good novel is about; this author will never be a Sherlock Holmes or have his extreme dry humour and simply genius ideas, nor should he even try.

Started 12th April

Finished 18th April

The Historian - Elizabeth Kostova 2005 * * * *

Having finally finished this book yesterday I breathed a huge sigh of relief. This was an amazing book, not simply because of the story but because of the intricate detail that Kostova put into researching the folklore of Dracula, and his surrounding homeland. There are literally pages and pages of descriptive beauty as the story shifts from present to past and the hero/heroine comes across sumptuous countries and traditions.

Not everyone will like this book, purely because the legend of Dracula is a tricky subject, and also because some people feel that this is author is trying to overtake Bram Stoker's wonderful book.

She is doing no such thing and if anything is bringing the Dracula myth to the surface, alive and kicking. I am astounded at some of the folklore that Kostova shares with us, and also how she intergrates it into the story. I think she really deserves praise for the book and for her dedicated research, added to which the story itself was really gripping with some solid and heartfelt characters.

The one thing I wasn't keen on was how the story shifted immediatly from past to present without much of a warning, which gave me the impresssion that sometimes I was reading the account of the wrong person. The whole account is a story inside a story so to speak which can make you loose track sometimes, but overall that didn't stop me loving the idea of the story, and spending ages thinking afterwards 'as Vlad Tepes (Dracula) was a real person, who's to say this folklore couldn't be true and that he may not be alive today in some shape or form?..'

Started 1st March ( I was only reading this at work so it has taken longer!)

Finished 20th April

Sweeney Todd : The Real Story of the Demon Barber of Fleet Street - Peter Haining 1993* * * *

I've gone back to being fascinated by the legend of Sweeney Todd after recently re-watching the newest film with Johnny Depp and so was pretty excited to find that this book had been written, trying to prove that his story was more than just a myth, but actually a reality. Although in my rather grotesque mind I had hoped that it was based on truth I didn't really start to believe it until I read this book, where the author has painstakingly laid out all the evidence from first-hand accounts to newspaper articles and proven (in my opinion) that Todd was a real life person. I think one of the reasons that the public have got it into their head that Todd was a character of fiction is because there were many plays performed of his story fifty years or so after the events were supposed to have happened.I also think that people could not believe that something this gruesome could have occured in our society and decided to denounce it as ever having happened,(which is where the writer makes excellent references to Sawney Bean, who, along with his lover, allegedly killed and decapitated hundreds of people in 16th Century Scotland, pickling their body parts ready to be eaten. This gastly event is well documented and thoroughly believed by all so why can't the same be said for Sweeney Todd?).
The book is brilliantly written and very well researched and is a welcome breath of air to all books that base themselves purely on Sweeney's Todd's "legendary" existance.


Started 10th April
Finished 12th April

Money For Nothing - P.G. Wodehouse 1928 * * *

With nearly 100 Wodehouse novels to get through I decided to go down to the library and take a few out to start me off so that I'd know if I liked the style of his writing. I can say that I really enjoyed the way Wodehouse wrote and think these books would be brilliant for an easy read which is sometimes what I desperately need!
The plot roughly follows a group of likeable fellows who decide to stage a robbery to get some much needed money by breaking into their friend's house;with his say-so! The only trouble is a few other people catch on to what is happening and cannot keep it secret forever...
Can't wait for the next one!

Started 27th March
Finished 10th April

How could he do it? - Emma Charles 2008 * * * *

I think this is to be the last misery memoir that I read for a while because there comes a point where you find yourself too depressed to continue reading book after book of ghastly and disgusting information about child abuse. The difference with this book is that Emma Charles is not the daughter but the mother, and she decided to write the book to give her events of how difficult it was for her monster of a husband Daniel to get convicted because of his sexual abuse on her daughter Tamsin. She painstakingly takes us through the weeks and months after finding our from her daughter about the horror that she endured and explains how awful it was for her and her family when her husband refused to give them any money to live on and so for a time they were barely making it through with benefits that she managed to receive from her disability. It really speaks volumes to have a book written like this and in a way it was more interesting than some of the other memoirs I have read by the children themselves because it shows us how corrupt and uncaring people like the Social Services and the Criminal Justice System can be (for example Daniel's lawyer tried to make out that Tamsin who was under ten at the time of the event had thrown herself on her father and forced him to perform sexual acts on her, an idea that is so disgusting and insulting that it is almost laughable) and for that I am glad I have read it and my eyes have been opened.

Started 25th March
Finished 30th March