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

Norwich Murders - Maurice Morson 2006 - * * * *

I cannot help but be interested in murders that take place in places that I have visited before. Although I didn't know every part of this book of Norwich-based murders I certainly knew enough to be thoroughly amazed and disgusted by some of the cases.
The particular highlights for me were the last trilogy of murders from about 1860-1950 all based around passionate killers. Very eerie to see pictures where the bodies were found and areas the suspects were arrested etc.
Very well written.

Started 22nd March
Finished 27th March

Sickened - Julie Gregory 2003 *

This was quite frankly a really boring and badly written book. The author writes in a peculiar and barely readable way, mixing up real and fantasy in a way that really confused me. I didn't enjoy it at all and I'm very pleased it's over.

Started 20th March
Finished 26th March

The Edible Woman - Margaret Atwood 1969 * * * *

Margaret Atwood has an amazing knack of conjuring up a vivid and distinctive picture of a certain scene for me when I read and although this is shamefully my first Atwood it won't be my last. She writes in a perfectly normal way with a hint of bizarre obscurity. I was also surprised to learn that she was only 23 when she wrote this, her first novel and although there are hints of a naive writer there are also parts of the book that seem incredibly mature. I look forward to sampling more of her books.

Started 19th March
Finished 23rd March

Crimes of Passion: An unblinking look at murderous love - Howard Engel 2001 * * * *

Although this book took quite a while to get into I found it really fascinating to read about so many cases (some that I knew, and some that were unknown to me) where people have either got off a jail sentence (or the death penalty)when it was clear it was premeditated murder or have been executed when they really shouldn't have been because it was literally a crime of passion. The cases span back hundreds of years from the case of Grace Marks (who was written about as the subject of Margaret Atwood's novel 'Alias Grace') right until more recent ones including the case of Lorena Bobbitt who cut off her husbands' penis after a row. Very well written and documented.

Started 7th March
Finished 19th March (was also reading other things!)

Forgotten - Les Cummings 2008 * * *

Not a bad read, I got through it pretty fast, written in an easy style and this time we are confronted with the dreadful story of a boy who is abused in the children's home that he is sent to after being abandoned by his mother. This man really confronts his demons later on in his life though and it is a relief to read.

Started 17th March
Finished 19th March

Broken - Shy Keenan 2008* *

Although this story was dreadful and hearbreaking I didn't much care for the way it was written. References began to annoy me afterwards such as rape being called 'doing the horrible' which came up on nearly every page and for that I don't want to rate it higher than 2 stars. That is only for the writing style and technique however and nothing to do with the story - unlike fiction you cannot even think of rating a story such as this because it seems like an insult to mark it out of five. Still it has taken me a lot longer than some misery memoirs I have read in the past.

Started 5th March
Finished 17th March

Bel-Ami - Guy De Maupassant 1885* * * * *

A first book from this writer for me, but it definitely won't be my last. A wonderful portrayal of 19th century Paris and the ruthless, money-grabbing chauvinist that is Georges Duroy a.k.a Bel-Ami to his friends and many adoring mistresses. Maupassant has an amazing way of capturing Paris through his writing and when reading about his walks up and down various streets at night one could almost make believe that you were there too. His writing style is exquisite and the story is one of the best satires about a corrupt social-climbing manipulator that I have ever read.
Amazing.

Started 1st March
Finished 9th March

The Chocolate Run - Dorothy Koomson 2004* * * *

I'd never heard of this writer before until a good friend recommended her and I sped through this book. This was incredibly easy to read and I found that I really cared about the main character and what happened to her from beginning until end, however I did manage to guess the big 'secret' way before the finish but all the same a fun read.

Started 2nd March
Finished 5th March

Intimate Adventures of an Office Girl - Sienna Lewis 2009* * * * *

I thoroughly enjoyed this account of an office girls' exploration into one night stands, sex clubs and 'uncomplicated' flings. Written in a very real and very refreshing way, Sienna manages to pull the reader straight into her life and witness her failings at finding 'the one.'
Great Read.

Started 1st March
Finished 3rd March

Please don't make me go - John Fenton 2009- * * * *

This story really touched a nerve. I'm not sure if it was the way the boy had been brought up to believe that violence was a normal part of life, or the fact he was so religious despite all the trauma he went through including being sexually abused and beaten and caned by the sadistic Brothers at his school - St Vincent's.
Written in a very easy style to read I skimmed through this book in no time.

Started 23rd February
Finished 26th February

Evil Psychopaths - Gordan Kerr 2009* * * *

I have quite a few books based around this subject but am always on the look out for more and so I was pleased to find this in my library. It covers quite few killers that I've heard of already and know of quite well but also shows a few lesser known characters who have the ability to shock and disgust all the readers.
A good book but with some obvious mistakes such as spelling.

Started 22nd February
Finished 26th February

The Most Evil Women in History - Shelley Klein 2003 * * * *

This book had it's good and bad parts. The selection of women was interesting and there were a few that I hadn't heard of which is very rare for me. However a few of the women mentioned at the beginning of the book were simply double acts to their powerful husbands and were drunk on the power of what he could do instead of being ruthless killing machines themselves. There will always be a difference on opinion on books like this as certain people find certain female killers worse than others and so the definative list will never be 'correct.'
Each woman however was covered with a lot of information and each of their stories was interesting/gruesome to the extreme.

Started 19th February
Finished 23rd February

Don't Tell Mummy - Toni Maguire 2007* * * *

I devoured this book in just over a day. I simply could not stop reading it and finding myself moved beyond belief. When Toni is questioned about her father's actions by the police they actually ask her if she enjoyed what he did to her because she had not mentioned what was happening for so many years! How depraved is that in a society where the police are supposed to help and support instead of patronise and insult the victims.
Spell-binding read.

Started 17th Febraury
Finished 18th February