Coming Up For Air, book review. (George Orwell)

If you like books about absolutely nothing but are so beautifully written that you end up speeding through the narrative as if it's the most exciting literary experience you've ever encountered then read, Coming Up For Air by George Orwell.

Our main protagonist, George Bowling is forty-five years old, weighs too much, doesn't much like is wife, thinks his kids are a nuisance and wishes he were young, so he could spend his days fishing.

As a traveling salesman he's reasonably successful, pulling in five to seven pounds a week - it's 1939 by the way - but he has an undeniable passion for his past and what could have been.

A large chunk of this novel is about Bowling's past and is written in a way that, in spite the fact that I could never truly comprehend what living in England was like over a hundred years ago, felt familiar. The author's ability to wrap you up in George Bowling's childhood, his father's work in the shop selling seeds and animal feed, his mother keeping house and what school was like were all superb and made me wonder if there was an autobiographical element to this book.

When war comes, George Bowling signs up and goes to France but is injured so returns home to convalesce before being sent to a small village in Cornwall where he spends a somewhat idyllic few years looking after a supply depot that doesn't exist. After the war he chances across one of his superior officers from the army whilst in London and lands himself a job which sets him on the road to all that follows: a three-bedroom house in the suburbs, a mortgage, a wife, kids and the monotony that is everyday life.

That monotony however is broken when George Bowling wins a bet and, having a whole seventeen pounds of undisclosed cash to his name, decides to take a holiday - telling his wife he's going on a business trip - he head back to his childhood town.

But, the shop his father ran is now a tearoom, the secret pond so full of fish when he was a young boy is no more, and the fields in which he absently wandered all those years before have been built upon and, due to the flashback nature of this book, how much we've been told about George Bowling's childhood and the skill of the author, you can't help but feel a deep sadness, a longing for what came before, and it emanates from the page.

So, Coming Up For Air is a superbly written book about the absolutely ordinary but a book I can and will heartily recommend. Four Star.

Don't forget to search my blog for your favourite authors and books and if I haven't read them, message me with your recommendations.

The Midnight Library, book review. (Matt Haig)

There was a lovely moment when I neared the halfway point of this book, a light bulb moment if you will, when I didn't so much know how it would end but knew how it would end!

To clarify: the finer details were still a mystery of course and would be until the very last page, but the general premise, where Nora Seed (who had just lost her cat - dead - her job - economic downturn - hadn't heard from her best friend in ages and so, believed there was little else to live for) would end up. Whether she would find her perfect life, the one she should have lead from her first beginning - be it the fame of a world renown rock band, being able to hold an audience with the perfect rendition of a Mozart concerto, holding the world and Olympic record for the four hundred meters breaststroke, or surviving the extreme climes of the coldest places on earth as a glaciologist - I had the answer.

Although I was but halfway through, knowing what was going to happen - or at least thinking I did - did nothing to lesson my enthusiasm; if anything it help, fuelled me, pushed me to see if I was right, and when I found out that I was, again, it didn't matter, I felt no less cheated, it was exactly how it should have been and made for a better book.

With myriad scenarios at the author's disposal it could so easily have been different. He could have fallen by the wayside, been temped by vainglory and excess or dwelt on the pitiful and despair but instead he went with what in this humble readers opinion was, the right road. It was a bumpy one, there's no question about that, with many a precipice for our weary protagonist to have tripped and fallen down, but she didn't, she made it, made it to her final resting place, and there was just so much right about where that was.

The way Matt Haig writes here grabs you straight from the off ,and with short sharp chapters and Nora's contrasting lives of excess, fame, quiet solitude, helplessness, addiction and the very serious subject of loneliness, there wasn't a page turned that didn't reveal some new and intriguing facet of a life not lived and it became a very emotional journey.

You want Nora to live, to love, be loved, find her happiness, wherever that might lie but you want to shake her, too; shout at her for wanting to give up, but not once did I ever stop routing for her, through good decisions and bad I was loyal to the end because as I said at the beginning of this post, I had a sneaky suspicion I knew the outcome.

Thank you Matt Haig, for this book, which is my first taste of your work, for I truly enjoyed it and will be wholeheartedly recommending it to all. I will no doubt be acquiring your back catalogue over the coming months and look forward to whatever you come up with next.

Four star for The Midnight Library. An enjoyable but thought provoking book which, especially at this time of year, brings the very important subject of loneliness to the fore and it's just won the Goodreads book of the year for fiction, too, so go check it out; it does not disappoint.

Don't forget to search my blog for your favourite authors and books and if I haven't read them yet why not message me with your recommendations.

Bird Box, book review. (Josh Malerman)

Although there is no big reveal at the end of this book, which might disappoint some, I felt it conveyed the helplessness of a post-apocalyptic world with a subtlety that other novels in this genre sometimes lack, and like it for that.

The bulk of the book is in flashback, told whilst Malorie and two children make their way down a river, blindfolded, to where they hope to find lasting sanctuary.

Losing her sister at the beginning of the story, to whatever is killing off the human race, and finding the courage to make her way across town in answer to an advert proposing a safe haven, Malorie found herself in a house full of strangers for four years.

The characters in the house are a mixed bunch with varying views: from what the enemy is, to how much longer their food stocks will last, from the merits of letting any more newcomers in due to the real possibility of starvation, to whose turn it is to cook and clean. So, as Malorie continues her journey downriver, we gradually find out more about the ex-housemates and why she had to leave.

When her baby is born - along with another housemate's, Jessica - there's a sense of mild panic in the house, as there is in the boat whenever they hit an obstacle or hear birds and animals on the banks, for the real threat has always been outside. Blocked from view when she lived in the house, by painted and boarded-up window, blindfolds and helmets when they did venture outside to empty the slop buckets, retrieve freshwater or go in search of something better, she’d felt a certain sort of safety, but exposed on the river in the boat, Malorie is always on high alert, which eventually takes its toll.

I particularly liked the sense of abandonment in this book, especially when Malorie's favourite housemate, Tom, leaves to find supplies and is gone for a week rather than a day. The sense of loss and solitude created here reminded me of Matheson's, I am Legend and Wyndham's, The Day of the Triffids, which is praise indeed but well deserved. I also liked that Malorie simply calls the children, girl and boy, as if giving them names would make her more attached to them. I thought this added depth to her as a person and gave the reader a greater sense of what trauma she may have endured in the past, who she may have lost during those four long years, and added to the feeling of hopelessness. Why get attached to a child if all it was going to do is die?

So to sum up, Bird Box makes you feel cold and alone, it is sad and upsetting, horrific even, so why am I recommending it? Because it is all of those things, and like the above-mentioned classics that have that same edge of despair, Bird Box really is very good.

Four stars for this one then and a chill down the spine.

A Thousand Splendid Suns, book review. (Khaled Hosseini)

I've heard much about this author, how authentic his books are, compelling even - on the cover of this very book is a quote from, Isabel Allende, which simply reads, Unforgettable - and even for someone like me, who has a shockingly bad memory, I have to agree.

Unforgettable.

I know little about Afghanistan's history but by reading his book I feel my eyes have been opened. Yes, I knew the Russians invaded and of course I've heard of the Mujahideen and the Taliban, who dispersed so many civilians during their occupation, but through this work of fiction, through the eyes of this incredible author, I feel I've grasped a little of what it must have been like for those who lived and died, endured lose and torture during those dreadfully long years.

The book centres around two young women from very different backgrounds who both find themselves married to the tyrant, Rasheed, who beats then, chastises them and favours his second child over his first, simply because he is a boy!

And the two women, Mariam and Laila, not only do they have to endure the beatings and his mood swings but also his unwanted sexual advances, but over time (Mariam is unable to bear children, having had many miscarriages over the years, whilst Laila gives birth and raises her daughter in their shared house) and with the common goal of protecting themselves from their husband, an alliance is formed; an uneasy one at first, but their love for the child and each other soon grows.

With the Russians gone there is celebration, but it is short-lived. The war might be over but the spoils are not so easily split and so, the Mujahideen fight amongst themselves and with shells raining down and bullets flying, Kabul is once again under siege.

Women can no longer learn, be seen, having to hide beneath full-face burkas, and are assaulted if caught without male chaperones. As time passes, the Taliban's grip on the country tightens and Rasheed's frustrations grow, until the women are forced to take drastic action!

To be able to weave the delicacies of love and passion, for life and one another, for the children they have borne or grown to love, into a story of such depravity and desolation, of loss and grief, is a true testament to this author's writing, and so I don't hesitate to recommend this book to all and can with hand on heart say that it is one of the best I have read so far this year.

Four big fat lovely gold stars for, A Thousand Splendid Suns then. Enjoy.

After the Fire, book review. (Will Hill)

This book came to me by chance, a link from Goodreads I think, probably on the back of another book I'd read which an algorithm thought was similar: it was not. Although this book is told in the first person by a teenage girl (Hunger Games, Divergent, We Were Liars) the premise is quite different, which is refreshing.

The book follows Moonbeam's life (bear with me here) through a series of flashbacks and interviews conducted by Dr. Hernandez and Agent Carlyle. As the book progresses we get to hear more about what happened in the compound of 'The Lord's Legion' a religious cult that had isolated itself from the outside world until, well, until now, their perceived apocalypse.
Moonbeam and the surviving young members of the cult are in a hospital/gaol, exactly where Father John said they would be if they didn't sacrifice themselves for his god, so when they all meet in the rec room there are clashes: there is love, hate, fear and retribution which all adds to the realism of the narrative.
The book alternates between 'before' and 'after' chapters, which keeps the pages turning, and Moonbeam is both tough and vulnerable, never really believing the rhetoric of Father John but at the same time, doubting herself - wondering whether she should have died for his god.
I liked her internal battles: whether Dr Hernandez and Agent Carlyle could be trusted, whether her surviving would send her to hell, or gaol, or both, and as the novel moves on, we learn more about the changes that happened in the compound, the hardening of Father John's rhetoric, the increase in work and punishment that ended in Moonbeam’s mother leaving. Her sense of abandonment that follows, which inexorably leads to the grand finale, the battle between good and evil, is well executed, being fast furious and somewhat frightening, whilst retaining a good sense of reality.
So the characters are good, the story is different, has pace, so why only three and a half stars? It's silly things like Moonbeam's heart pounding in her chest all the time as if it might pound somewhere else, and when fire ignites everything the author adds, 'it came into contact with', which is totally unnecessary. If fire ignites everything, it ignites everything, you can leave it at that.

There were numerous examples of this throughout the book and suffice to say it took the edge off of things. Sometimes, less really is more.
After the Fire isn't amazing then but it does have something worth exploring and as it's neither apocalyptic nor mystical/sci-fi, it differentiates itself from other Y/A books, which is good.

The Girls, book review. (Emma Cline)

I've seen this book widely publicised in the press and in bookshops since its release and lots of Bookstagrammers seem to like it so I thought it was about time I dipped my toe in the water.

The writing style is right up my street with plenty of detail (sometimes a little too much) but the loss in momentum when the descriptions go off point is easily forgiven as you become increasingly immersed in the Californian summer of 1969.

You feel the sweat ooze from Evie Boyd's pores, the smell of garbage on Suzanne's clothes, the heat of the campfire as Russell strums his guitar but most of all you feel Evie's uneasiness as she gradually succumbs to her new surroundings.

The other girls are all older than Evie but she wants to be them, be liked by them, especially Suzanne, and so she goes to the ranch where Russell promises sex, drugs and a surreal, almost naturist lifestyle where rules are in short supply.

There's a record deal on the horizon, freedoms that fourteen-year-old Evie wouldn't have dreamt of in her previous life - where she hung out with the plump girl and did things that 'normal' fourteen-year-olds did.

At the ranch people just come and go; they steal food from dumpsters and borrow cars that aren't theirs. Their clothes are pooled and so, before the week is out Evie finds herself transformed. The drinks flow, drugs are shared and she is farmed out for sex, accompanying the indomitable Suzanne to Mitch's house - Mitch being the man promising the record deal.

For the most part, I found this book quite good, but what I do take umbrage with is the use of a fourteen-year-old protagonist.

The other girls are mostly eighteen so I saw no reason for Evie to be so young, other than for shock value, and the events in the book are shocking enough.
The other let down for me was (spoiler alert, spoiler alert) that the main event, the mass murder that is alluded to throughout the book, doesn't even involve Evie. What the hell!!

I wanted her to be in the thick of it, growing a conscience and trying to stop it or relishing in the slaughter, for Suzanne to save her maybe or take the hit because Evie was so young, what I didn't want was a flashback of the trial transcripts and a bit of hearsay.

So, The Girls is beautifully written and memorable but lets you down at the end.

Three stars.

Don't forget to search my blog for your favourite authors and books and if I haven't read them, message me with your recommendations.

Elizabeth is Missing, book review. (Emma Healey)

Confused.

That's how this book made me feel, confused. Let me explain.

The style is easy but the subject matter, dementia, is tough but handled well.
Our main character, Maud, is slowly losing her way in the world, wondering how one grows marrows and where her friend Elizabeth is. She is both warm and lovable, as well as damned right annoying, like your own Nan/Mum, maybe, and you feel for her.
She gets on the bus but can't remember why, goes to the shop to buy food she already has, driving her daughter Helen, mad, and she has a fixation on her friend Elizabeth, being missing. There are subtleties and quirks to her character that are very believable and you quickly warm to her, worrying that she might get lost or worse, injure herself.

I like the back story too - Maud's sister goes missing when she is a teenager - and the decisions she makes when she was still a child felt plausible and realistic, and I thought the narrative when she is older and confused, forgetting things that have just been explained to her, is well written and convincing, but for me the book jumps from the past to the present too much. I would have preferred the book to have been in parts rather than chapters. Let me explain.

Every chapter is split between the past and the present, and there are a lot of chapters in what is a relatively short book, and it is here that I think it would have worked better if there had been a run of chapters focusing on the past, and then the same for the present, so one could get more involved with the characters of that time, and what was happening to them, before hopping back and forth; other than that, the book was an enjoyable read.
Three stars then for Elizabeth is Missing.

The Hate U Give, book review. (Angie Thomas)

There is a lot of love out there for this book, on Instagram, Goodreads and the likes but I only found some of it; let me explain.
Going to parties is not Starr's thing, and we soon find out why. Shots are fired, a teenager is killed, and in the mayhem that follows, she and a friend, Khalil, manage to escape, only to be pulled over by a cop a few streets away.
The premise of this story is that when Khalil leans back into his car to ask Starr if she is alright, (the cop having given no reason for stopping them), whether the cop felt he was a conceivable threat, or just shot him because he was black.
The shooting, the emotions that follow, the characters in general and Garden Heights, where Starr and her family live, are all very believable, but there’s other aspects of this book that are even better, more realistic.
When Starr's friends' find out she’s dating Chris, who’s white, there are all sorts of accusations, and when her father finds out - something she and her mother have deliberately kept from the dad - the shit hits the fan, albeit temporarily, and this I thought was very clever, because as we all know, the reality is that there is a fear in any ethnic group of outsiders, strangers, and although that fear can sometimes be overcome by being civil and wanting to learn, it quite often boil over into the hate that this book draws its name from, racism.
The protests, the verbal and physical threats that follow Starr through the book, are both edgy and believable, but the scene that created the most tension for me, that was genius in its simplicity, was when Starr's father is made to lie on the pavement by two cops in broad daylight, in front of his children and neighbours, for nothing more than a perceived argument. Again, as is so often the case, less is more.
So the author handles riots well, convinces us of the injustices of law enforcement, uses a subtlety around emotions, and has believable characters, so, why not five stars?
Two reasons: Firstly, this book has the story the characters and the trials and tribulations of a Y/A novel, but it's littered with far too much profanity. Call me old if you like but, The Hunger Games dealt with death, torture, maiming and worse, but never felt the need to use the F-word once, let alone the many times you see it here. Secondly, the 'N' word. We're told not to use it, that it is racist, defamatory, ugly, all sentiments I agree with, so why is it here? For an adult book, fine, go for it, knock yourself out, but for Y/A, I say no.
So, four stars then, for this tightly written rollercoaster book of emotion, fear, racism and understanding.
I hope the film is half as good.

Oranges are not the Only Fruit, book review. (Jeanette Winterson)

This book had passed me by for too long. So long ago in fact, did I watch the BBC dramatisation, that the only thing I remember about it, was the excellent portrayal of Jeanette, by the much missed, Charlotte Coleman, (who most of you will know from her role in Four Weddings & A Funeral).

Set in the north of England, the story charts our heroine's journey through her adolescence, arguing with her mother, beavering away in the church and questioning her sexuality, only to fall in love . . . with a girl!

The shock, the anger, the ostracisation from her community, builds to a point where Jeanette’s mother and fellow members of her church - the church where Jeanette once believed she would become a missionary - perform an exorcism.

She feels alienated, has nowhere to go, no-one to turn to, and suddenly, no lover, no future, nothing.

I like this book a lot, it's short but packs a punch, and has great atmosphere. You get the sense that Jeanette's mother and friends, truly believe that evil has taken her, that her being gay can actually be cured, as if she's caught a cold, or has the flu!

I also agree with one of the author’s quotes I found on the internet, if it be true:

"I've never understood why straight fiction is supposed to be for everyone, but anything with a gay character or that includes gay experience is only for queers”

. . . because this book is a love story, pure and simple, and like hundreds of other love stories, there are hurdles to jump and hills to climb, but gay or not, this is a book for everyone. Enjoy.
Four well deserved stars.

The Thirteenth Tale, book review. (Diane Setterfield)

I thought this book would be good before I turned the first page, it just had that certain something about it; I wasn't wrong.

Diane Setterfield's, The Thirteenth Tale, is a book about redemption, death, and a great deception.

A letter, hand written, by the world renown author, Vida Winter, summonses little known biographer, Margaret Lea, to take her deposition, her thirteenth tale. A tale of incest, madness, and feral children, of a dark family past, and the long kept secrets of her days as a child, growing up at Angelfield house, a house now lost to nature after fire tore through it.

The book is spooky in places - when Margaret takes a sneaky look around the now derelict Angelfield house, she encounters a man living in the squalid remains, and we feel her heart racing, as she attempts her escape.

As her relationship develops with Vida Winter - who is very ill - there is an atmosphere and suspense, that I liken to Kate Mosse's Languedoc series, and Carlos Ruiz Zafon's, Shadow of the Wind trilogy, and is something I actively seek out in books now.

The novel is told in the first person by both Margaret Lea and Vida Winter, and Vida isn't the only one who has something to hide!

As Margaret deposes more and more of her notes, and the interviews with Vida continue, it brings into question things in her past; things that have remained buried for years, and Diane Setterfield's clever prose, drip feed you just enough information to keep you intrigued, guessing, and reading to the end.

Great atmosphere then, well written, absorbing characters and a great twist. Four and a half well deserved stars.

A Spot of Bother, book review. (Mark Haddon)

Like Alice Sebold's, The Lovely Bones, this book has a stand out chapter, (chapter 60), in which our main character, George Hall - 57 and recently retired - decides to remove the lesion on the side of his body, with a pair of scissors. (Hence the cover art) When this fails, he decides to chisel it off instead, before succumbing to blood loss and passing out in his cellar.

The bloody trail he leaves and subsequent fright he causes his family on discovery, is both weirdly humorous and damned right shocking, but this chapter alone, underlines why the author is so revered.

Just to clarify, this book is not from the horror section.

Like Mark Haddon's other books, A Spot of Bother, is a story about normal people, going around doing normal things, but with a twist.

So, George Hall has retired, but life isn't all rosy. His wife is having an affair with his ex- business partner, his daughter is getting married, again, and to a man the family don't really approve of, his son, Jamie, is having commitment issues with his boyfriend, and George, well George is going steadily mad.

I like the way Haddon interjects life into seemingly inanimate material; creating depth and intrigue from the mundane. His writing reminds me of Ian McEwan, but with more humour.

There's a clever mix of human emotion here, from the families' pain and anguish, on discovering George's mutilation, through their love and anger - George finds out about the affair - to happiness and forgiveness, their coming together for the daughter's marriage, it's got the lot, and then some.

I liken this book to a good English movie! You know the sort, something with a few well-known actors in and a good solid story, but where nothing really happens. It would have Bill Nighy and Maggie Smith in it, Keeley Hawes would play the daughter, and you'd love their characters so much you'd watch it all the way to the end and then smile about it.

A good four star book this one; buy it, read it, share it.

The Children Act, book review. (Ian McEwan)

As is the norm with this eminent authors' books, we have a relatively short novel that centres around a single main character; in this instance, a high court judge by the name of Fiona Maye, but as is also the norm, we find ourselves unable to put the book down until we've read to the end.

How a mundane trip in a car, or a relatively boring night, sifting through paperwork, keeps one enticed, is still beyond me, but it does, and before we know it, we’re in a courtroom, we’re by the bedside of a dying teenager, we’re reeling from the absurdity of her husband’s proposal of an open marriage, and we’re biting your nails in anticipation of her ruling.

After several rulings - on whether parents have the rights to decide their children's fate or not - we reach the core of the book, the central plot.

Her ward, a young boy of seventeen, is refusing treatment on religious grounds, and also has the backing of his parents and the elders in the community, but needs urgent medical attention if he is to live.

Will she go against his wishes? Will the law allow it? If he survives, what will become of him? Will he be ostracised, or welcomed home with open arms?

This book doesn't quite have the grit and verve that I found in Sweet Tooth and it doesn't have the explosive ending of Saturday, but it does have superb characters, with a depth of emotion that renders them very believable.

Ian McEwan is fast becoming a firm favourite with me; long may he continue writing genuinely interesting books, about everyday life but with a twist. 

On a personal note, I like a long book as much as I like a short one, so please, please, please Mr McEwan can we have something around the five hundred page mark next time? Go on, you know you want to!

Three and a half star for this one then, and the bonus that it will only take a few days to read.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, book review. (Ken Kesey)

I'm not going to lie to you; I found the first half of this book hard going. (Hence the Whisky!) I don't know what it is about classic American literature, but I always seem to struggle with it, be it F Scott Fitzgerald, Steinbeck or Salinger, there just seems to be a disconnect.

Many of you will have seen the film with Jack Nicholson, and therefore know the basic story - McMurphy is a wise cracking, gambler, who has avoided gaol (jail) for what he thinks is going to be a few easy months in a mental hospital, and he brings turmoil and discord to what was once a peaceful, psychiatric ward.

From what I remember, the film was really quite good, but I saw it too long ago to make any meaningful connection with the book; which I felt dragged, to the point where I had to put it to one side and read something else, before coming back to it.

I suppose, being told in the first person by an American Indian, who pretends to be deaf and dumb, is regularly drugged and resides in a mental institute, may have had something to do with that, but it's not until a fishing trip, (about half way through the book) that I felt it really started to get interesting.

There are flashes of greatness here, some of the group therapy sessions are tense and leave you guessing. McMurphy's ability to talk everyone around to his way of thinking, are intriguing but soon grow tiresome; the Chief's flashbacks of home are convincing and come with a hint of sadness, but his visions of a hidden world, a world where everything is controlled by the Combine, are lacklustre.

I think perseverance is the key with this book. I'm glad I stuck with it, and in the end I can see why some of you might like it, but for me, I can't recommend it.

Just scrapes three stars for those flashes of excellence then, the fishing trip being the one true highlight, but without that scene, it really don't think it would have been worth my while.

Moon over Soho, book review. (Ben Aaronovitch)

Oh I do love a quick dip into books about magic policing, chimeras and sex!

It's quite apt I think, that out of the first four books, this one is the most racy because it's set in Soho, and Soho is, or used to be, synonymous with sin.

That aside, we have another wonderful jaunt with P.C. Peter Grant, through the pitfalls of policing in the capital, whilst trying to practice magic, learn Latin, keep the status quo between the King and Queen of the Thames, and last but not least, catch criminals.

There's an illegal practitioner of magic in London, three girls who died when a bomb dropped on a jazz club in World War II, renting an apartment off of Denmark Street, and there's The Pale Lady; she bites men's penises off with her vagina.

The death of a journalist, who had the misfortune of meeting the Pale Lady, leads P.C. Grant on a journey of jazz venues, where he finds a group of musicians whose lead saxophonist has recently passed on, suspiciously. It turns out he's not the only one; after further investigation, it appears that quite a few jazz musicians have met with untimely deaths recently.
There are also people being magically spliced together with animals.

So, during this escapade, P.C. Grant steals an Ambulance, running amok through the streets of the West End - just managing to save his wards life by dumping him in the river - helps his friend and fellow P.C., Lesley May, (who lost her face in book one), come to terms with her disfigurement, whilst keeping the families of the Thames happy enough to avoid a turf war.

Just like with Rivers of London, I enjoyed this book a lot, and it is in fact, the second time I've read it.

It is funny, fast paced, original and at around four hundred pages, just the right length.

A four star book then, and on to book three, Whispers Underground.

Magician has taken flight. (I've sent it out to the agents)

So, Magician, or Magica, as it might end up being called, has flown the nest.
Being the first book of a trilogy, I've had my work cut out, making sure I have no continuity issues, (book two is in what I like to call, the pre-production stage); in other words, I've only just finished the first draft, but bear with, I do work full time and I have a family to talk to once in a while, 'and pubs to visit', who said that?
But, Magician is done. Well, done to the degree that I think it punches in all the right places, cuddles you when you need it and gives you a jolly big slap around the face towards the end.
Magician, charts Charlie and Eve’s journey from their home town of Enfield, (where they go on a magical shopping spree), to Hertford, (where Eve listens, in a swimming pool), to the famous University City of Cambridge, (where they spend a few days hiding in a camper-van), to the harbour town of Brixham, (where they find Heather). [For any international readers: Enfield and Hertford are just north of London, whilst Brixham is on the south coast of England, in Devon].
Whilst being pursued, we experience the ups and downs of their relationship, the stresses and strains, as they get evermore isolated from their friends and family. We share their most intimate fears, marvel at Charlie’s magic, and rejoice at Eve’s most wonderful gift!

So, it's with the agents, I'm in their hands now; wish me luck cyber friends, 'cause I might need it.
Thanks of course, go to my long suffering, (yes I still live here, I'm in the back room editing again), wife, (a good cup of tea keeps me in her good books), my junior editors, Nathan and Verona, for ideas aplenty, and Sam from Texas, for all her editorial and grammatical advise last year.
I've not got any proper artwork for Magician yet - here's hoping I won't need it - but if I have to go down the self publish route, the picture to your left, might have something to do with it, so, let me know what you think.

Cell, book review. (Stephen King)

Big, bold, blood thirsty apocalyptic fantasy fiction, all rolled into one neat little package by the best in the business?

Well, almost.

Some Stephen King books have as much in common with the horror genre as Bridget Jones's Diary, but Cell certainly isn't one of them.

The book starts like a punch to the face, smack, and you're in; you're in the middle of Boston to be precise, and the world is going mad, losing its head; people are starting to go crazy, committing mass suicide, attacking each other with gut retching, blood thirsty ferocity. (The incident is later referred to as the Pulse).

A proper Horror then? You bet; don't read this if you’re squeamish.

Our main character, Clayton Riddell - he's just managed to sell some artwork and has a spring in his step when the shit hits the fan - links up with the somewhat bookish Tom McCourt and rather excellent Alice Maxwell, (who quickly became my favourite character), her mixture of vulnerability and teenage verve being reminiscent of Beverly Marsh from 'It'.

The story centres round Clayton and his small posse, escaping the ever apocalyptic Boston, to begin the journey that will result (we hope) in Clayton finding his son.

They hole up in Tom McCourt's house for a night before pressing on, they find a school headmaster and a single pupil, (Jordan), who they try to convince to join their quest, and commit mass murder on the way.

Bloody, thoughtful, slightly SCI-FI, horrific and touching in equal measure, this book is Stephen King doing what everybody thinks he is doing, in all of his books, but rarely does, (most of his books are nowhere near as bloodthirsty as this one) and coming up trumps. 

It did feel like something was missing thought, and I won't spoil it by telling you the end, but it stopped very abruptly, and unlike a lot of his books, there was very little backstory to most of the characters.

It wouldn't surprise me it there's an unabridged version of this book somewhere in the SK vault; one with a bit more of a beginning, more character development, (like what happened at Jordan's school) and maybe even, what happened after Clayton finds . . .

Almost spoilt it!

Three and a half stars then, but if you're a King fan, I'm sure you'll read it anyway.

The Angel's Game, book review. (Carlos Ruiz Zafon)

I've been having a foreign affair (evidence to the left), and what a ride.

It goes to show just how important it is for books to be translated and shared around the world, because these three are great.

This post is about my favourite one though, Carlos Ruiz Zafon's, The Angel's Game.

Where do I start with this book? It's one of the few books I've read that doesn't fit into a given genre. It is thrilling, sexy, frightening and spooky, in equal measure. It is pacey, has excellent and very memorable characters; there is love and loss, and all wrapped up in the atmospheric backdrop of early twentieth century Barcelona.

So, where better to read a book that is set in the fair city of Barcelona, than Barcelona!

No I didn't arrange my summer holiday around my reading habits, (I'm not that sad), but I did wait for Barcelona before I started the book, and it added to the experience.

The novel follows the life the loves, the ups and downs, of the main character, David Martin, as he fights his way out of poverty, start to write under a pseudonym, fall desperately ill, only to be saved by the mysterious Senor Corelli, with a book deal to end all book deals: One hundred thousand Francs, for a single book to be written over a twelve month period. (I'm still waiting for my letter, Senor Corelli).

The deal is struck and Martin's illness wanes, but there is skulduggery abound. His previous employers are killed in an arson attack, his beloved Cristina, is betrothed to another, (his benefactor) only to be driven to despair and . . . (no spoilers here I'm afraid). His muse, a young girl by the name of Isabella, is thrust upon him one night, and I couldn't tell whether she was going to be a distraction, a love interest, or fill his world with further anguish!!

A shockingly good read then, and all the better I think for being the middle book in a three book series, that was so good as a stand-alone novel, that I didn't realise it had a prequel and a sequel, until after I'd read it.  

As near to a five star book as I've got this year and I feel certain that it will be in my top five books of 2016.

Highly recommended

The Curious case of Benjamin Button, book review. (F. Scott Fitzgerald)

Yes, very curious indeed. 

A few years ago I read the Great Gatsby by the same author and really liked it, but this collection of short stories is quite something else. 

Firstly, Benjamin Button is only a dozen or so pages, so a really short story then; quirky though. 

Some of the other stories here are better, my favourite being, O Russet Witch, which has a certain charm about it that captures the mood of an affluent 1920's America. Coming in a close second is the equally delightful, but somewhat brutish, May Day, which centres on a mob running through the city, and is the longest story here. 

Some of the others were a bit boring, but that's the beauty of short stories I suppose, the good ones stick with you, the others can be quickly forgotten, and you don't end up kicking yourself for wasting too much time. 

This is the third selection of short stories I've read this year, diversifying from my usual novels, and it's been a breath of fresh air; something I would heartily recommend you try, especially as we all seem to lead such busy lives these days and have so little time to do the things we really love, (like having the time to escape into the depth of a great book every day).

So, grab a collection that suits you, whether it be a classic like this, something contemporary, like Mark Haddon's The Pier Falls, (Blog review on 30th August), or something dark like Stephen King's, Full Dark, No Stars, and dig in; you won't regret it. 

This collection gets a 'reasonably entertaining' three stars. 

The Pier Falls, book review. (Mark Haddon)

Like a lot of you bibliophiles out there, I first heard of Mark Haddon when he wrote his hugely acclaimed Dog in the Night time novel, and very good it is too. He's subsequently written two more novels and now this, his first collection of short stories. 
This book was a present from a woman at work and I'm glad she bought it for me, because I rarely read short stories (even though I write them!), so it might have passed me by if I'd been left to my own devises. 
I read this book in no particular order, which was probably the wrong thing to do, (I imagine the author and publisher spent many an hour deliberating over what should go where), but so be it.  
The Pier Falls is the first story in the book and it is excellent. It has a great sense of prose, and puts the reader right there, in the middle of a collapsing pier. It is also quite horrific in the way a disaster like that would be, so a good start.
The Gun, this is about two teenagers who take a gun from one of their brother's bedrooms, and fire it in the local wood, was interesting, but that's about it.
There's an expedition to the Amazon, which I quite liked, a story about a seriously obese man, which was okay, a failed expedition to Mars, which was one of the high points in the book, being almost as good as the title story, but then it falls a bit flat.
The one that really got my goat was the weirdly titled, 'Wodwo'.
This and the rather lacklustre 'Breathe' were the low points in the book, the point where I began to wonder, what the hell! I wondered (and still do) whether Wodwo was supposed to be supernatural, or real? Did it have a hidden meaning? (because if it did, I didn't get it). I'm still at a complete loss as to how a man can be shot at point blank range with a shotgun, get up and come back the following year!!!! It was just soooooo strange. (To add insult to injury, it was also the longest story in the book). Arrrgggg!!!
Without Wodwo, Breathe and Bunny, I would have offered this book four stars, but with Wodwo sitting there, right in the middle of the book, spoiling it all (in my opinion), it only gets three. 
Stupidly, I don't read as many short stories as I should, so credit to Mark Haddon and his team for getting these out there. 
I await his next novel with much anticipation. 

What is a Good Book?

What is a good book?

A good book to you might not be a good book to me, so what makes a really, truly entertaining book?

Pace?
If a book has pace, you wiz through it, so surely a page turner is a good book?

Well, not always.

Take Robert Harris's An Officer and a Spy as an example. I have lamented the virtues of this book in previous posts and I stick by what I said then, it is a page turner, and a most excellent read, but if you look at Dan Brown's Inferno, also a page turner with lots of action, historical references and famous places, you could be fooled into thinking the same, but you'd be wrong.

Dan Brown's research is second to none, but his well used characters are starting to wear a bit thin now, and another megalomaniac getting their comeuppance at the hand of Robert Langdon is getting a bit tiresome.
Length then?
We all know how important size is, but again, don't be fooled. 
Some of my all time favourite books are less than two hundred pages long. H.G.Wells, The War of the Worlds and Richard Matheson's, I am Legend, spring to mind, and at the other end of the spectrum there's Stephen King's, The Stand and J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter novels, which extend to many hundreds of pages, but which I love in equal measure.
The King, Queen and Prince of all books for me, is J.R.R Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, a book so sublime that I will take it from the shelf every so often, blow of the dust and read random passages; weird!
Genre then?
No, still barking up the wrong tree. You can see from of my shelfie photo above, that teen-fiction mixes with old classics, horror with Sci-Fi, hardback with soft and they are in no particular order. Short books mix with long, old books rub binds with new, so, what it a good book?

There is a saying in the photographic community, that the best camera in the world, is the one you have with you, and I think this applies to books too. 
Yes there are duff ones, and some you won't get; some are poorly written, some too long, but when I leave the house every morning, I know how lost I'd feel if I didn't take my long, new, old, short, horror, young adult, classic, hardback, book with me. So pick something, anything before you leave for work, go on holiday, sit down with a cup of tea, and I guarantee it will be better than having no book at all.