A Song of Ice and Fire

27 Apr 2012 By
Comments 0 In Fantasy fiction, Fiction Books

Song of Ice & Fire - A Game of Thrones, a Clash of Kings, a Storm of Swords, and a Feast for Crows (A Song of Ice and Fire) - George R R Martin, book reviewIn 2011, a new show began on Sky, called A Game of Thrones. Starring Sean Bean, it looked like an absorbing fantasy epic, yet as with many shows I forgot to watch the first episode and never managed to catch up. Yet the show brought to my attention the series of novels upon which it was based – George R. R. Martin’s A Song Of Ice And Fire.

The first novel in the series is A Song Of Ice And Fire. Set in a land called Westeros, known as the Seven Kingdoms, it follows a number of characters through the beginning of troubled times. The main characters are the Stark family, with Eddard, or Ned, at its head as Lord of Winterfell.


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How Good is That?

26 Apr 2012 By
Comments 0 In Autobiography, Health, mind and body

How Good is That? Jane Tomlinson, Mike Tomlinson, book reviewJane Tomlinson was first diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 27 in 1991. Nine years later in 2000 she was told that the cancer had spread and was untreatable. She was given six months to live. Like many people with a terminal diagnosis she wanted to travel and to create memories for her husband and children to cherish when she could no longer be with them. Unlike most people that urge to travel turned into seven years of performing feats of great physical endurance all over the world to raise money for charities. She competed in marathons, Ironman triathlon events and undertook several long distance bicycle rides including Lands End to John O’Groats, ‘Rome to Home’ (from Rome to Yorkshire) and her final big expedition to cross the USA from the Golden Gate Bridge to Brooklyn Bridge. It’s that final ride which features in this book How Good is that?

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Will

26 Apr 2012 By
Comments 0 In Contemporary fiction, Fiction Books

Will, Christopher Rush, book reviewIn the book Will Christopher Rush brings us a fictionalized autobiography of one of the most famous writers of all time – William Shakespeare.

Biographies can often be terribly boring, academic tomes that find interest only in those who are fascinated by the subjects. Autobiographies can be terribly indulgent works that leave out anything negative about the person. In general, it is far more fun to read fiction. What makes the book Will by Christopher Rush special is that it is a fictional autobiography. What this means is that Rush has decided to get into the head and voice of the most famous writer of all time, William Shakespeare, and write a biographical piece with the narrator being none other than the Bard himself!


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Basic Training

25 Apr 2012 By
Comments 0 In Contemporary fiction, Fiction Books

Basic Training - Kurt Vonnegut, book reviewIn my student days I was a big fan of Kurt Vonnegut – I’m told the term used by his fans is a ‘Vonnenut’. I got hooked by the classic ‘Slaughterhouse 5’ and then worked my way through a load more. I thought Vonnegut was brilliant – right up to the point that I got tickets for a book reading he was due to do at Ottaker’s bookshop in Manchester. I was very excited by the prospect of actually seeing and meeting the man. Then I got the news that the session was cancelled – the great man refused to go anywhere outside London for such events. The respect built up over multiple books was slashed in an instant. Too snooty to head north meant my idol had feet of clay. Perhaps he hated rain and was allergic to Eccles Cakes, who knows, I was young and unforgiving. I didn’t buy another Vonnegut novel for over 20 years.


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Smoke and Mirrors

25 Apr 2012 By
Comments 0 In Contemporary fiction, Fiction Books

Narcopolis, Jeet Thayil, book reviewBefore it even came out, Narcopolis was hailed as the successor to De Quincey and Burroughs, a new opium fuelled haze set in the mean streets of Bombay of the 70’s. The poet Jeet Thayil’s first novel undoubtedly informed with that sensitive use of language that has characterized his poetry. So much is certainly true. The language takes you by the imagination and leads you through the pages like the slow drift of smoke. There is an ‘I’ narrator, Dom Ullis, who like Thayil hails from the South, who escapes after an unfortunate incident in New York to find Shuklaji Street and Rashid’s opium den in Bombay. He discovers piyalis of opium expertly served by the eunuch Dimple who engages with him in intellectual discussion. And when he’s on his flights of opium fantasy, Dom’s language of choice is English.


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The Flying Man

24 Apr 2012 By
Comments 0 In Contemporary fiction, Fiction Books

The Flying Man, Roopa Farooki, book reviewIn a cheap French hotel room in Biarritz a man is writing the letter that will precede his death. He has recently met his son who wants him to return to his homeland of Pakistan and act like a proper old man for once in his life but son and father both know that it’s just not the old man’s style to ever really go back. They’re playing a game – concerned son, disobedient father – and they both know their roles.

The Flying Man of the title is Maqil but he could more accurately be called the Fleeing Man because that’s what Maqil does. He makes his fortune, makes a mess and then makes a speedy exit. There’s always a lover, a cheated business partner, an unhappy victim of fraud, or detectives with uncomfortable questions about his friends and associates on Maqil’s tail.


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The Lady in the Tower

24 Apr 2012 By
Comments 0 In Biography, History

The Lady in the Tower: The Fall of Anne Boleyn, Alison Weir, book review The Lady in the Tower by Alison Weir bears the subtitle “The Fall of Anne Boleyn”, which tells you just about everything you need to know about the book. Assuming you know Alison Weir is a historian, you will then be able to surmise that this is a historical study of the last months and days of the life of Anne Boleyn, Henry VIIIs second queen.

Henry VIII became infatuated with Anne while he was still married to Katherine of Aragon. For six long years she kept him obsessed with her, refusing to sleep with him until they were married. Finally he broke with Rome in order to take over as Supreme Head of the Church of England, and therefore set Katherine aside and marry Anne.


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Tolstoy

22 Apr 2012 By
Comments 0 In Biography

Tolstoy, A. N. Wilson, book reviewRepackaged and with a new foreword by the author, A.N. Wilson’s epic biography of Tolstoy is a welcome re-publication. There have been countless works devoted to the Russian author, a man whose colourful life and complex beliefs make for a thoroughly thrilling and entertaining biographical work, but this one stands out thanks to Wilson’s engaging style which presents key periods of Tolstoy’s life against the backdrop of nineteenth century Russia, showing how the prevailing ideas and politics influenced his thinking.

As an introduction to Tolstoy for readers who are new to the subject, this is an invaluable volume; Wilson covers all of the novels as well as Tolstoy’s most important non-fiction writing, and such content, in combination with a selective but nonetheless detailed biography, is illuminating without alienating the newcomer.


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The Autobiography of Jack the Ripper

21 Apr 2012 By
Comments 0 In Autobiography, Crime fiction

The Autobiography of Jack the Ripper by James Carnac, book reviewDespite happening over a hundred years ago, the six killings over the autumn of 1888 that were attributed to Jack the Ripper continue to hold a powerful grasp over our collective imaginations. While not the first serial killer in history, he was the first to have his crimes sensationalised by the media of the day, and the first to be given a nickname. Hundreds of books, articles and films have been produced speculating as to the identity and motive of the killer, and are still being produced – the study of this particular series of crimes has even spawned its own name: “ripperology”. I am far from being a ripperologist, but do have an interest in true crime and have read a number of books about Jack in the past. The Autobiography of Jack the Ripper is something quite different from other things I have read, however.


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The Making of Us

21 Apr 2012 By
Comments 0 In Contemporary fiction, Fiction Books

The Making of Us - Lisa Jewell, book reviewLisa Jewell is one of my favourite contemporary women’s authors and I have loved reading all of her books. Her latest, The Making of Us is just as readable and compelling as all of the others, and I was hooked in to the absorbing storyline from the very first page.

The Making of Us is about a set of disparate people who have never met but who are intrinsically linked by a twist of fate – they all share the same father. This would not be so unusual were it not for the fact that their mothers had never met their father either; the reason for this being that they were all conceived through sperm donation. Their father, Daniel Blanchard was a French medical student who had his own reasons for making the donation and never intended to ever meet his children.


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Emma Brown

21 Apr 2012 By
Comments 0 In Contemporary fiction, Fiction Books

Emma Brown, Clare Boylan, book reviewA novel based on Charlotte Brontë’s notes.

Many modern writers have tried their hands at writing books in the style of classic authors. Clare Boylan succeeds in making Charlotte Brontë come alive on the page again.

When Charlotte Brontë, author of the classic novel “Jane Eyre”, died in 1855, she left behind 20 pages of a manuscript of a new novel, along with some other scraps of pieces she had been working on. Almost 150 years later in 2003, Irish author Clare Boylan took it upon herself to complete what Charlotte had begun, and published Emma Brown. Despite being published in the 21st century, this is truly a classic novel, and a credit to the Charlotte Brontë name and legacy.


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We had it So Good

21 Apr 2012 By
Comments 0 In Contemporary fiction, Fiction Books

We Had it So Good, Linda Grant, book reviewSome people believe that life consists of a series of problems with solutions, whereas others believe that there are simply situations which have their own internal life and momentum. This difference is an important one in We Had it So Good by Linda Grant. Stephen Newman is American, and an example of the first type of person, while his wife Andrea is English and an example of the second. Stephen and Andrea meet while at Oxford University, and embark on a marriage (in part of convenience) which is at the core of this book. Stephen and Andrea are very different – (“You fall for what you do not know, he figured out eventually. But you do fall: the loss of balance is the point.”) – and this allows Linda Grant to explore some very different perspectives during the course of the book.


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