My life in books (2012)

I found this meme going the rounds on a blog post from Pop Culture Nerd and thought it looked like fun.

It goes like this:

Finish a series of sentences about yourself using book titles you’ve read in a year.  I didn’t want to wait 8 months to do this for 2013, so I thought I’d look back at the books I read in 2012 and see what I could come up with.  I must confess a couple were from earlier than 2012, but couldn’t find anything that would fit otherwise.  I’ll do it properly next year.

Here are the results:

Describe Yourself: The Woman In Black

How do you feel: The Howling Miller

Describe where you currently live: Two Caravans

If you could go anywhere, where would you go: Breakfast at Tiffany’s

Your favorite form of transport: Stardust

Your best friend is: My Cousin Rachel

You and your friends are: Spying in High Heels

What’s the weather like: An Ice Cold Grave

Favourite time of day: Dark Matter

If your life was: Very Good Jeeves

What is life to you: Happy Ever After

Your fear: Catching Fire

What is the best advice you have to give: Finding the Dream

Thought for the Day: The Perfect Hope

How I would like to die: Immortal in Death

My soul’s present condition: Neverwhere

Advent by James Treadwell

Publisher: Hodder

ISBN: 978-1444728491

Advent gets off to a great start (see First Paragraphs post here) and I really enjoyed the beginning.

It is quite a long book at 624 pages, but I was racing through it at first, then it got to that moment that every member of a book club knows about - when you know you have to stop reading one book so you can have enough time to read the assigned club book. So I had to put Advent down for a while, and I think that's where it went wrong. I'd lost enthusiasm for the story, and it took a major effort to pick it up again and finish.

The story is basically that of Faustus returning from the dead in the 21st century, to achieve his goal of being the most powerful immortal in the world. Disaffected teenager Gavin is the only one who has a chance of defeating him and saving the world from darkness.

I have to admit after I picked up the story again I found jumping back and forth between characters a little confusing. The purpose of some of the characters (the journalist) seemed to be missing or too obscure for me. The Professor goes off to do something important and I don't think she ever comes back, at least I don't remember it clearly. Marina's father appears at the beginning, and at the very end, but nowhere in the middle. A few characters who seem important at the start of the story just come to nothing later on. As a result it felt like the second half of the book didn't belong to the first half. I have seen references to this being the first chapter of a trilogy, so maybe these things would be resolved later on.

Elements of the story don't work for me, but I can't deny that the writing style is wonderful. Treadwell has a gift in describing time and place, and writes in quite a compelling way, and if I'd not had to put the book down for a week or two just as things were hotting up I might well have had a different feel for the book. I think it must be me, as the comments on the rear cover of the book are incredibly positive.

What I liked most - the promising start, the haunting prose and wonderful descriptions of Cornwall. Descriptions of the cold and snow that are so convincing they made me shiver while sitting in front of a fire (recent weather may have helped this a little).

What I liked least - the disconnect between the start of the book and the end, the apparent disappearance or insignificance of characters who appear important at the beginning. The fact that I had to stop reading half way through and subsequently lost interest (my fault).

The Vanishing Act by Mette Jakobsen

Publisher: Vintage

ISBN: 978-0099572473

Sweet, melancholy, charming, beautifully told, and pretty much plotless.

The Vanishing Act is a simple story about a young girl called Minou who lives on a remote island years after a major war, though you don't know where (other than it is extremely cold in winter therefore is likely to be far north or far south), or when/which war.  It is ultimately about the search for truth which so often eludes us.

Minou lives on this island with her Papa, Priest, Boxman, and No-name the dog. Other than Minou the only other character who has a name is the founder of the island who died many years before. This seems to have the effect of isolating the island even more than it is geographically, it also speaks to the truth of us.  We are not our names, we are the things we do and the way we live our lives (oops, in danger of getting a bit deep here). The only people to visit the island are an Uncle, and the boat men who deliver supplies once a week, and the dead boy who washes up on the beach of course.

A year before the book is set Minou's mother leaves the island, though it is not known if she walked off the island and drowned, or was saved. Minou clings to the idea that she was saved, and proving this takes up much of her focus. Minou is of course very innocent, and it's through her recollections that we learn about the other islanders, her parents relationship and probably the reason her mother vanished.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book though the lack of plot was a little frustrating to me. By the end of the book nothing is resolved, though we understand more about life for Minou and her little family. 

I started the book thinking about how peaceful a life on an isolated island might be, and wouldn't that be nice. I have always liked the idea of getting away from people and the world, but by the end I had completely changed my mind.  I suppose I have found some truths of my own.  Maybe this is the kind of thing that Erin Morgenstern meant with her quote on the cover - that this is the kind of book that changes you.

What I liked most - beautiful writing, the mystery of Minou's mother.

What I liked least - I got tired of the references to Philosophical method and Descartes.

Links

I've just added a couple of links in the Literary Stuff gadget on the right of the screen.  Since switching the blog template to the new dynamic templates the old boxes have disappeared and instead you now have to hover the little sidebar on the right to select the gadget.

Also since switching I've been getting a lot more page views.  I previously had about 50 in six months (mostly mine), until this week and now it's nearly 500.  Hopefully not all by accident.  Welcome to any new readers!

Back on topic... I've added a link to a couple of blogs that I read regularly.

1. Bibliophile by the sea - I don't know how she reads so many but I am very impressed!  This blog is also the source and inspiration for my 'First Paragraphs' blog posts.  A singularly brilliant idea!

2. Fennell Books - A fabulous blog run by a friend from the same book club that I belong to.  Again, I'm very impressed by the sheer volume of books Ms F manages to read.  And I love her literary links posts.  Note to self - check the literary links posts early as I usually miss the radio shows.  Must make more use of iPlayer.

Calculated In Death by J.D. Robb

Publisher - Piatkus
Format - Hardcover
ISBN - 9780749959340

This particular volume is number 36 in what has to be one of the most successful sequences ever.  JD Robb is the pseudonym of worldwide publishing phenomenon Nora Roberts, who is surely one of the most prolific authors there ever was or will be.  The 'In Death' sequence has been going since 1995, and has averaged about 2 books a year since then, with numerous short stories in between, an astonishing feat when you consider that there are also one or two books she brings out as Nora Roberts each year as well.

Each story is a Police Procedural/Romance novel centred around Eve Dallas, a New York Homicide cop and her gazillionaire husband Roarke.  I started reading them around 10 years ago, and you'd think that the format, characters etc... would get stale, but they aren't.  Alongside the murder investigation plot Eve and Roarke have faced numerous demons from their past.  The murders in each story are gruesome, imaginative and often keep you guessing for a long time, and it's also nice to break with the norm of a romance novel, by following the same characters and seeing the relationships grow and deepen.
 
In this story an Auditor is murdered during an apparent (badly disguised) mugging.  In my day job I'm a software consultant, so I was all over this plot...  There is a subplot too about the premiere of a movie that was based on one of Eve's earlier cases which plays alongside, and gives us the personal relationships between Eve, Roarke and their friends and colleagues.  It looks like Eve is finally dealing with her past, and I'm looking forward to book 37, due later this year.

What I liked most:  The running around trying to figure out whodunnit, piecing together of the evidence (what there is of it).

What I liked least:  A few things if I'm honest...

1. In the earlier books a lot of investigative work would be done to gather evidence and leave no stone unturned. Every effort would be made to be certain that there was no way the murderer could wriggle out of their punishment.  In this story we know too much too early on, and Eve seems to be working on instinct, not purely on the evidence.  Under those circumstances a conviction could be at risk, which would nicely set the cat amongst the pigeons.
2. In general the ending is always the same.  Apparently all baddies in the mid 21st century allow themselves to be tricked into confessing.  It's entertaining, but really?
3. There's a big build up for the movie premiere and after party, and then Robb cuts the ending short so you don't get to celebrate with them.
4. The personal stuff didn't ring quite true, and some seemed a little out of character. 
5. If Eve is finally overcoming her past, I'm left wondering where's the next challenge coming from for her and Roarke?  The risk is they become the old marrieds of the books, far too solid and happy.  Everyone knows the best drama comes when things get shaken up, and I really think that something needs to happen to change the dynamic of their relationship before things get stale.

Oops, I think I made it sound like I didn't enjoy it, and I did.  For escapist fun with characters you've known for years there's not much to beat it.