elkiedee reading and reviewing in 2013 - best intentions

I joined LT in late 2009 and this group in early 2010, so this is my 4th year of trying to run a thread here, wow!

I'm Luci, I live in London with my partner, two little boys and a cat at the moment. I was made redundant last year and am about to try and do a couple of paid pieces of work at home - an index and some work on a bibliography (2 different book projects), then I will explore more possibilities for freelance work for the next few months, with a view to temping as a legal secretary once the youngest little monster starts school next October.

I buy too many books for my Kindle and from charity shops, and I have multiple maxed out library cards for 3 different London boroughs.

Last year I read 309 books, compared to

2011 359 books
2010 319 books
2009 49 books

I've no real target for reading this year - I expect I'll manage over 200 easily but am not worrying about matching any of the last 3 years. Nor do I aim to cut my book buying habits but I would like to read and give away some books I don't need to keep, and I will continue use Kindle sales and daily deals to replace some paper books.

I get some free books to review through the Amazon Vine program and a website called www.curiousbookfans.co.uk, though I have been very lax in reviewing things in the last couple of years and I aim to catch up and keep up a bit better over the next year.

I would like to do better at maintaining this thread than I did last year.

Books read in 2013

1. 02.12.13 Kate Morton, The Secret Keeper (483 pp; total year to date 483 pp) 4.1

2. 04.12.13 Edmund de Wahl, The Hare with Amber Eyes (353 pp; ytd 836 pp) 4.6

3. 04.12.13 Howard Zinn, Dana Frank, Robin D G Kelley, Three Strikes (173 pp; ytd 1009 pp) 4.7

4. 04.12.13 Liz Harris, Evie Undercover (226 pp; ydt 1235 pp) 4.0

5. 05.12.13 Chris Collett, The Worm in the Bud (327 pp; ytd 1562 pp) 4.2

6. 06.12.13 Karin Alvtegen, Shadow (311 pp; ytd 1873 pp) 3.7

7. 07.12.13 Christina Courtenay, Once Bitten, Twice Shy (100 pp (e); ytd 1973 pp) 3.7

8. 09.12.13 Adrian McKinty, I Hear the Sirens in the Street (336 pp, ytd 2329 pp) 4.1

9.

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

Hi Luci - hope I'm not intruding before you've finished setting up. I've managed to resist The 12 Days Of Kindle so far - I wonder how long I'll last?!

No, you're not intruding at all, I'm not setting up too many lists for myself - details of what I've read and bought in each year can be checked out from my profile page, for example I've already logged 7 of my Kindle downloads this year, and there's more to come. Don't hold back too long, the Kindle sale lasts until 7 January I think. How about 800 pages of letters between the Mitford Sisters? There's two Andrew Marr books in one Kindle edition, a book about women flying Spitfires, presumably WWII.

I've got (and read!) the Mitford book, which reminds me that I think I also have Wait for Me, but I can't seem to find it. And it is hard to misplace things in a flat this small! I've been looking at the titles every morning but nothing else has really grabbed me, or at least I've already got it if it did.

Lovely to see you Luci. I hope 2013 is kind to you and yours.

Happy New Year Luci!

Happy New Year Luci!

Welcome back! Happy New Year!!

Hello Luci, found you!

I've succumbed to a few items in the 12 Days of Kindle Sale already... and I've been wondering about that Andrew Marr book.

Good luck with the freelance work.

Hi Lucy, starring you again. All the best for the New Year.

1. 02.12.13 Kate Morton, The Secret Keeper (483 pages) 4.1

Own book, Kindle format

I've enjoyed her first two books, and still have the 3rd to look forward to. This one was on offer briefly last year for Kindle at £1.99, quite a deal for such a new book. Like her others, stories of past and present intertwine, though there isn't a grand family house. In the present day, Laurel is an actress in her 60s, with a mother dying - she is trying to piece together some disturbing childhood memories and get some explanation from the confused Dorothy while there is time.

Dorothy's story is mostly set during WWII, in the London Blitz - she has run away from home, is working is a lady's companion, and is fascinated by a glamorous neighbour, Vivien. She is also desperate to get together enough money to put her working class roots firmly behind her, and is stung by several incidents putting her in her place.

I found this slower to get going than my previous reads by this author, and I wasn't sure how much I liked the main characters - an issue for me in more escapist commercial fiction. The historical story was more interesting than the present day one for a while. However, it did pick up, and was a good read overall.

Page count so far: 483 pp

Hello. You are off to a good start for the year's reading. I've not read any Kate Morton at all but remember seeing a lot of them in charity shops - perhaps I'll give her a go one day.

I've bought quite a bit from the Kindle sale (both this one and previous ones), tempted just by things being cheaper and then later wondering why on earth I'd bought them - but you seem to have found some good stuff. I also find myself getting lots of samples so I'm reading bits of things and then not going on to reading the whole book.

Hello Luci. I picked up lots of leads to cheap kindle books from you last year and I hope to be doing the same this year! I've just gone throught he 12 Days of Kindle list this morning. I bought the Mitford Sisters' letters and a few others. I got a generous supply of Amazon tokens for Christmas so I've got to spend them on something...

Justine, from what I remember of your other reading, Kate Morton may not be your thing - and right now all her books have gone back up on Kindle (the first two were under £1 for ages last year).

I was just looking at your library on your profile page, and saw that you gave Jon Ronson's The Psychopath Test a 5 star rating. Have you seen that there's an omnibus edition of 3 of his books together in the Kindle sale for less than £2? Grrr, that's less than I paid for the Pscho Test book - Them and The Men Who Stare at Goat were cheaper (He's Picador - Pan Macmillan - and they tend to do a lot of bargains through the year as well as Daily Deals and Kindle sale offers - sometimes I look at the website as for a while last year they had a weekly Picador deal, but usually I just search publishers in the Kindle store and look at their lowest priced stuff).

Thanks Luci, I now have the Ronson omnibus on my newly acquired Kindle. Along with a few other things...

Welcome back Luci - I hope 2013 is a better year for you. Thanks for recommending so many kindle books to me in 2012 :-)

Luci - hope that your weekend is going well with plenty of quality reading time.

Luci - I did see the Jon Ronson omnibus and groaned as I pretty much paid full price for The Psychopath Test on the Kindle and I already own Them in hardback. I don't fancy The Men who stare at Goats quite so much.

On reflection I think my 5-star rating might have been over-generous - I didn't read that much last year so anything I managed to complete I probably thought much more favourably about than I would have in days where I read more.

That's the irritating thing about the Kindle sales - I paid over £9 for one book which is in the sale at the moment, about a girl whose mum returned to Chile to fight in the underground against the government, and also then to other countries in the region - but at least I read that one - I bought books by Stef Penney and Tahmima Amam much more recently - my first reaction when I check out the new offers each night is to scream at the bargains I missed before finding the new ones. And yet, I suppose those books cost me much less than either hardbacks or paperbacks would have done pre-Kindle.

2. 04.12.13 Edmund de Wahl, The Hare with Amber Eyes (353 pp; ytd 836 pp) 4.6

3. 04.12.13 Howard Zinn, Dana Frank, Robin D G Kelley, Three Strikes: Miners, Musicians, Salesgirls and the Fighting Spirit of Labor's Last Century (173 pp; ytd 1009 pp) 4.7

4. 04.12.13 Liz Harris, Evie Undercover (226 pp; ydt 1235 pp) 4.0

5. 05.12.13 Chris Collett, The Worm in the Bud (327 pp; ytd 1562 pp) 4.2

6. 06.12.13 Karin Alvtegen, Shadow (311 pp; ytd 1873 pp) 3.7

7. 07.12.13 Christina Courtenay, Once Bitten, Twice Shy (100 pp (e); ytd 1973 pp) 3.7

8. 09.12.13 Adrian McKinty, I Hear the Sirens in the Street (336 pp, ytd 2329 pp) 4.1

Eight books already - glad to see Hare with amber eyes gets 4.6 stars, and the one about the strikes (non fiction presumably?) must be good at 4.7! Karin Alvtegen I'm not very impressed by, read a couple last year (not Shadow) and won't be running for more).

Hope the New Year is unfolding reasonably ok for you so far - any news on the job/freelance work front?

Hi Luci, I've been really slow at finding and starring people this year. From the sound of it I'm going to be stalking you for Kindle bargains.

Wow, I've neglected my own thread for two months! Oops, will have to address that soon.

The Women's Prize for Fiction (formerly the Orange Prize - Orange no longer sponsors it) has announced the longlist today.

Kitty Aldridge A Trick I Learned From Dead Men

Kate Atkinson Life After Life

Ros Barber The Marlowe Papers

Shani Boianjiu The People of Forever are Not Afraid

Gillian Flynn Gone Girl

Sheila Heti How Should A Person Be?

AM Homes May We Be Forgiven

Barbara Kingsolver Flight Behaviour

Deborah Copaken Kogan The Red Book

Hilary Mantel Bring Up the Bodies

Bonnie Nadzam Lamb

Emily Perkins The Forrests

Michèle Roberts Ignorance

Francesca Segal The Innocents

Maria Semple Where'd You Go, Bernadette

Elif Shafak Honour

Zadie Smith NW

ML Stedman The Light Between Oceans

Carrie Tiffany Mateship with Birds

G Willow Wilson Alif the Unseen

Bizarrely, I'm actually reading one book on the list at the moment, Honour by Elif Safak, and am about to start reading another for my library book group - Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel. I've read Zadie Smith's NW and I own The Red Book, Ignorance, The Innocents and Alif the Unseen. I'd also like to read Kingsolver, Atkinson and probably Aldridge, Flynn and Perkins - must look into the others.

Thanks for the list, Luci. I've read 2 of them so far: the Kingsolver and the Mantel. I didn't know there was a new Atkinson out until yesterday, I'll certainly to read that one soon, and look forward to finding out more about the others. I've read a few of Michele Roberts, quite a while ago...

I've reserved 3 of the ones I'd like to read at the library, I plan to still buy the Kingsolver anyway at some point. They don't have the Emily Perkins and there's no way they'll get the Atkinson so quickly. I'll have to investigate the others, I'm intrigued by The People of Forever Are Not Afraid.

Hi Luci - Thanks for the list of "Orange" books. I've read the Kingsolver and a couple of others. Good list.

It's 40 years since Virago Books was founded, apparently:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/14/virago-changed-publishers-attitudes-...

34: Thanks for that Luci, and also for the Orange longlist which I had somehow managed to overlook completely. I am not usually so out of the bookish loop!

Hi Luci - always pleasing to see that I'm not the only one being very slow to update my thread!

I do hope that this year is better for you than last year.

Thanks for the ex-Orange Prize list too - I hadn't realised that had come out - will have to peruse. Shamefully, the only two I'd come across are the Hilary Mantel and the Kate Atkinson (and I haven't read either...)

I've just read two, both of which I started before I knew what was on the list - Mantel and Shafik. Both were excellent but I really like to see literary awards shared around rather than being heaped on one book. I got library copies of the Kingsolver and Aldridge books yesterday, via Mike - the borough where he works do free library reservations, and his office is in the central library building, so I send him to pick up all sorts of books for me.

Mike sounds like someone we all need to know! ;o)

My thought to re sharing around the awards. Mind you, I've still not read Wolf Hall, so...

Thanks for posting the Women's Prize for Fiction List. I've seen/heard a couple of discussions elsewhere about whether there still needs to be a separate prize for female authors. I haven't made up my mind about that - but this one definitely needs a snappier name! Could another sponsor not be found?

On the books themselves, I've only read Gone Girl entirely. I've read a sample of Where'd You Go, Bernadette which I did like, but I was hoping would come down in price before I buy. I've seen How a Person Should Be mentioned a lot and can't decide whether it sounds awful or something I'd love. I read Elif Shafak's other books a few years ago and didn't realise she had another one, so I might give that a go.

Aha, there you are. I wondered where you'd gone - glad it was nothing vital that kept you from posting.

Oh, I post, just not on my own thread much!

Excuse my self indulgence here, posting the entire lyrics of one of my favourite songs, which just seems appropriate today.

Oddly, I heard the news on the way to Mike's mum's funeral this afternoon, on the taxi's radio.

Tramp the Dirt Down by Elvis Costello

I saw a newspaper picture from the political campaign
A woman was kissing a child, who was obviously in pain
She spills with compassion, as that young child's face in her hands she grips
Can you imagine all that greed and avarice coming down on that child's lips?

Well I hope I don't die too soon, I pray the Lord my soul to save
Yes, I'll be a good boy, I'm trying so hard to behave
Because there's one thing I know, I'd like to live long enough to savour
That's when they finally put you in the ground
I'll stand on your grave and tramp the dirt down

When England was the whore of the world, Margaret was her madam
And the future looked as bright and as clear as the black tarmacadam
Well I hope that she sleeps well at night, isn't haunted by every tiny detail
When she held that lovely face in her hands all she thought of was betrayal

And now the cynical ones say that it all ends the same in the long run
Try telling that to the desperate father who just squeezed the life from his only son
And how it's only voices in your head and dreams you never dreamt
Try telling him the subtle difference between justice and contempt
Try telling me she isn't angry with this pitiful discontent
When they flaunt it in your face as you line up for punishment
And then expect you to say "Thank you", straighten up, look proud and pleased
Because you've only got the symptoms, you haven't got the whole disease
Just like a schoolboy, whose head's like a tin-can
Filled up with dreams then poured down the drain
Try telling that to the boys on both sides, being blown to bits or beaten and maimed
Who takes all the glory but none of the shame?

Well I hope you live long now, I pray the Lord your soul to keep
I think I'll be going before we fold our arms and start to weep
I never thought for a moment that human life could be so cheap
But when they finally put you in the ground
They'll stand there laughing and tramp the dirt down

You've probably already seen this from Ken Loach

Let’s privatize her funeral. Put it out to competitive tender and accept the cheapest bid. It’s what she would have wanted.

I hope you and Mike are okay.

Thanks Dee - I hadn't seen that, although I have seen similar suggestions before. Maybe once she's buried, we can sell her grave to someone? A Russian oligarch? (For people outside the UK, a flagship Tory Council, Westminster, famously sold off lots of graves for something mad like 2p each during the height of Thatcherism).

Mike is of course quite sad at the moment, but the funeral was quite fitting.

And if anyone thinks I shouldn't speak ill of the dead, years ago, she came to a memorial service for her tutor at Oxford, Dorothy Hodgkin. The Hodgkins were good family friends of my mum's family, and her son was married to my aunt for a few years and they had 3 children together (who are my cousins). DH's daughter read some of her mother's writing on the need for peace. At the end, she stood by the door shaking people's hands and thanking them for coming. When she reached out to Lady Thatcher, that person just snubbed her and refused to take her hand. How rude is that? To come to a funeral and treat the dead person's family like that.... I was just so shocked.

#44 And if anyone thinks I shouldn't speak ill of the dead - I feel the same way as you - I detested the woman when she was alive and it seems hypocritical to pretend otherwise now she's dead.

I'm avoiding watching/listening to news as much as possible at present - I'd rather not speak about her at all or hear others speaking of her.

I can really understand that, Genny!

Another song which expresses very well how many of us felt about living through the Thatcher years, from Billy Bragg, the Bard of Barking:

I was a miner
I was a docker
I was a railway man
Between the wars
I raised a family
In times of austerity
With sweat at the foundry
Between the wars

I paid the union and as times got harder
I looked to the government to help the working man
And they brought prosperity down at the armoury
"We're arming for peace me boys"
Between the wars

I kept the faith and I kept voting
Not for the iron fist but for the helping hand
For theirs is a land with a wall around it
And mine is a faith in my fellow man
Theirs is a land of hope and glory
Mine is the green field and the factory floor
Theirs are the skies all dark with bombers
And mine is the peace we knew
Between the wars

Call up the craftsmen
Bring me the draughtsmen
Build me a path from cradle to grave
And I'll give my consent
To any government
That does not deny a man a living wage

Go find the young men never to fight again
Bring up the banners from the days gone by
Sweet moderation
Heart of this nation
Desert us not, we are
Between the wars

Some of the lyrics seem pretty apt now too.

Sorry to hear about your family bereavement. Hope you are ok.

And I totally agree on the Thatcher stuff - pity it didn't come sooner before hundreds of thousands of lives were destroyed and communities damaged beyond repair.

That Billy Bragg song always gets me emotional too.

Sorry for your loss, Luci.

And couldn't agree with you more about MT. Even from over here in the US it was easy for me to see that she was a hard, hard woman who had not the least feeling or consideration for all the people she was smashing to bits with her policies. I've never thought that the dead should get a pass because they are dead. You have to own your life - whatever it is - and not have everything glossed over, the truth obscured, because your string finally ran out. If you are stinker, so be it. It's what you chose to be.

On another note entirely, I thought I'd repost something about my current reading from a Virago Modern Classics thread, as I've rambled on quite a lot about my books for once.

I'm not actually reading a Virago at the moment though I did just finish reading Less Than Angels, one of my first time Pym reads, yesterday. I am reading

Barbara Kingsolver, Flight Behaviour - the Women's Prize for Fiction longlist prompted me to reserve it from the library - I'd been waiting for it for a while. Someone who's in this group asked me on Facebook how I liked it the other day, and at the time I wasn't sure but thought I wasn't that far in - just a couple of pages on from that I found it suddenly picked up and I was really sucked into the story - the scene which grabbed my attention, for those who have read it, is when Dellarobia meets a Mexican family and learns some important things. This is a novel about global warming, which has long been a concern of the author's. Hopefully a TIOLI shared read too.

I've also started reading Dorothy Whipple, Someone at a Distance as I've decided to resume reading a Persephone a month - I had read slightly more than one a month from January 2010 until late 2012, and I have a few I've not read yet I'm looking forward to. I'm also more than due a trip to Lambs Conduit Street - I might go this afternoon if I get my act together, otherwise the beginning of next week.

I'm enjoying Dodie Smith, The Town in Bloom, a story of a young woman with theatrical ambitions - it feels very different from I Capture the Castle and her 101 Dalmatians stories, but I think it's worth a read in its own right if you like mid 20th century novels and theatre settings - I wonder how much of an autobiographical element there is, and wish Corsair (Constable Robinson) was the sort of publisher who commissioned introductions or afterwords, I think it would have been so cool to have one here. I've been meaning to read these Dodie Smith reprints since I bought them last year and I chose this as it will hopefully be a TIOLI shared read.

I've also just started reading a review copy of Imogen Robertson, The Paris Winter, a historical novel I have high hopes of, I know FleurFisher (a blogger, Amazon Vine reviewer and VMC group person who posts her reviews on Goodreads and who seems to go for a lot of the same books, particularly historical fiction) highly recommended it.

And I'm reading The Gilded Fan, a historical romance from Choc Lit, and sequel to The Scarlet Kimono which I read earlier this year. Midori has been brought up in 16th/17th century Japan, but has an English mother and is now reluctantly leaving Japan to sail for England following her parents' deaths - there was a crackdown on foreigners in Japan in this period. I actually met the author recently as she came to do an event at my local independent bookseller The Big Green Bookshop with another Choc Lit writer, Henriette Gyland.

#51 I read The Town in Bloom this week too and really enjoyed it. I think your comments captured my thoughts too except that I thought it did remind me of I Capture the Castle but it's been a long time since I read that one.

The Women's Prize for fiction shortlist has been announced - 4 big names/previous winners and or shortlisted writers, 1 who has written lots of books and one 2nd novel

Kate Atkinson Life After Life Doubleday British 8th Novel
A.M Homes May We Be Forgiven Granta American 6th Novel
Barbara Kingsolver Flight Behaviour Faber & Faber American 8th Novel
Hilary Mantel Bring Up the Bodies Fourth Estate British 11th Novel
Maria Semple Where’d You Go, Bernadette Weidenfeld & Nicolson American 2nd Novel
Zadie Smith NW Hamish Hamilton British 4th Novel

I've read Kingsolver, Mantel and Smith, thought all were excellent - I think my favourite was the Kingsolver but there's not much between it and the Mantel. I'm keen to get hold of a copy of Kate Atkinson, and without having read it, I'd quite like to see her win. Bring Up the Bodies has won so many awards. I'm a little bit disappointed that all of the shortlisted novels are by British and American writers and as far as I know, set in their own countries, and no debuts - was it in 2011 that there was a terrifically international flavour to the longlist at least?

And Granta has announced their Best Young British novelists, defined as under 40. Most are 30 somethings - but I'm surprised to learn that some of them are still so young, or maybe I'm feeling my age.

Thoughts?

Naomi Alderman (born 1974), author of books including The Liars' Gospel and designer of computer games.

3 novels I think - I wasn't that keen on her 2nd novel, but really want to read her first - I'm impressed that they all seem to be completely different.

Tahmima Anam (1975), whose Bengal Trilogy charts Bangladeshi history from the war of independence onwards.

I thought her first novel was excellent and have The Good Muslim TBR.

Ned Beauman (1985), who was longlisted for the Man Booker prize for The Teleportation Accident.

Jenni Fagan (1977), whose debut, The Panopticon, was published 2012. She is also a poet.

Adam Foulds (1974) won the Costa poetry prize for his poem about the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya. His novels include The Quickening Maze, which was shortlisted for the Man Booker.

Have QM TBR

Xiaolu Guo (1973) was shortlisted for the Orange prize for A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers.

Have this TBR

Sarah Hall (1974) has won and been shortlisted for many awards for her novels, which include How To Paint a Dead Man.

Several of her novels TBR

Steven Hall (1975) has published one novel, The Raw Shark Texts, which won the Somerset Maugham award.

Joanna Kavenna (1973), whose books include Come to the Edge, won the Orange prize for new writing.

I reviewed The Birth of Love and have her 1st and 3rd novels and a travel book TBR

Benjamin Markovits (1973) turned from professional basketball playing to writing, including a trilogy on the life of Lord Byron.

Nadifa Mohamed (1981) was born in Somalia and won the Betty Trask award for her debut, Black Mamba Boy.

TBR

Helen Oyeyemi (1984) is the author of three novels including White is for Witching.

All her novels TBR

Ross Raisin (1979) is the author of God's Own Country, shortlisted for the Guardian first book award, and Waterline.

Both TBR

Sunjeev Sahota (1981) is working on his second novel, The Year of the Runaways.

Taiye Selasi (1979) has just published her debut, Ghana Must Go.

Kamila Shamsie (1973) has written five novels; the most recent, Burnt Shadows, was shortlisted for the Orange prize.

Several books TBR

Zadie Smith (1975) is the author of four novels. The latest is NW. She was on the Granta list in 2003.

Have read White Teeth and NW, and reviewed her essay collection for the Bookbag, and I have On Beauty TBR.

David Szalay (1974) is the author of three novels: London and the South-east, The Innocent and Spring.

Adam Thirlwell (1974) has written two novels and was on the Granta list in 2003.

Evie Wyld (1980) publishes her second novel, All the Birds, Singing, in June.

1st novel TBR.

Thanks for posting the Young Writers list. I've read a few of them

Ned Beauman - I read his first book Boxer Beetle - it was quite good and I intend to read the Teleportation Accident soon

Sarah Hall - I read The Electric Michaelangelo year ago - not bad, but just never got round to reading anything else by her

Steven Hall - I loved Raw Shark Texts - have you read it - I tend to think of it alongside Scarlett Thomas' books.

Ross Raisin - just read Waterline for my book club the other month - great writing, but bleak.

Adam Thirlwell - I read Politics which was hugely hyped when it was first released but I wasn't that impressed.

Evie Wyld - I have her first novel but I couldn't get into it.

Most surprisingly I haven't read anything by Zadie Smith - I probably should give her a try.

Luci - Saw the Granta list in the Guardian while I was back home and we were busy not being able to meet up. x

Don't think Zadie Smith or Adam Thirlwell should be on two lists as it seems to defeat the purpose somewhat of a Young Novelists List over ten years. It shows what a tremendously diverse and cosmopolitan society the UK is nowadays with a rich ethnicity blessing our literature these days.

Have a lovely weekend Luci.

I think it's because they started at such a ridiculously young age. I just bought the Granta issue as a Kindle ebook - I got an email about it and spotted that it was only £2.20 or something, and I don't even feel guilty about another paper book to take up space we don't have.

It's Danny's 6th birthday today, they grow up so fast! So the house is full of excitement and presents.

Happy Birthday to Danny! I hope he had a good day and enjoyed his presents.

I hadn't heard of most of those Granta-listed novelists. I've read Burnt Shadows by Kamila Shamsie, and White Teeth, and that's it.

Danny can get himself on the next list then all being well Luci. Make a wish for him when he blows his candles. x

59: He could in theory be on any of the next 3 lists - the 2033 list at 25 might be a more realistic goal than 2023 at 15! I will have to publish a book first though, ha ha.

More seriously, a book has just been published which I had a hand in - I did the index - I've just found out that it's actually out and available to buy in paperback or Kindle form from Amazon, and it has a 5 star review. It's written by my mum:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mao-Very-Short-Introduction-Introductions/dp/019958866X/...

I'm very behind on my reviews, but here's one for a book I read in April and reviewed yesterday (for Amazon Vine.

What I don't say in the review, bearing in mind it's for an online bookseller, is that this is great for what it is, and I think for serious fans of crime fiction it's worth a read, but might be a borrow rather than buy book unless you collect such things - as a fairly serious genre addict, I'm really chuffed to get the chance to add a book like this to my collection of literary criticism of crime fiction books. I have a shelf which contains 4 lit crit books which aren't crime related, and 4 other quite hefty history books, and the rest is this collection!

If anyone looks at this on Amazon, I would be grateful for votes for my review (or others) - or if you'd like to know something I've missed out, please ask.

Peter Messent, The Crime Fiction Handbook

Any crime fiction fan will realise that the number of crime novels and writers that a book on the genre might cover is enormous, and that anyone writing such a book is going to have to make some really hard decisions on who or what to write about. The title of this "handbook" led me to expect a more scholarly version of the Rough Guide to Crime Fiction aimed at the general reader. In fact, the approach and style is more that of a textbook for an introductory course on crime fiction. Peter Messent is a retired academic (Emeritus Professor of Modern American Literature at the University of Nottingham) who used to teach a crime fiction module to students in the US and Britain.

About half of this 200 page book is about the politics, main forms and key concerns of crime fiction. Messent states in the introduction that his teaching experience was in the crime fiction of the US, and his general commentary focuses on authors from the US, Britain (England and Scotland) and Sweden, although there are a few others - I just counted 88 crime authors in the index and was quite impressed that he managed to pack so many different references into the text.

He defines four main types of crime fiction - classical detective, hard-boiled detective and police fiction, and transgressor narratives (stories told from the criminal's viewpoint), and then discusses the social concerns that are so much part of crime fiction, including the city, violence, gender and race politics. Messent is clearly drawn to crime fiction by the many writers who are very critical of society and of racism and sexism, and I think I liked this book as much as I did because we share some political sympathies.

The second half of the book consists of more detailed analysis of 14 "key works in crime fiction" published between 1841 and 2005, by authors including Poe, Arthur Conan Doyle, Christie, Chandler and Hammett, Cornwell, Rankin and Stieg Larsson. His selection is not based on his favourite books or authors, as I suspect this would exclude the paranoid conservative delusional ramblings of Patricia Cornwell (my description not his) in favour of someone like Sara Paretsky or even Sue Grafton - it is chosen to illustrate as wide a range as possible of attitudes, approaches and styles within the confines of a short textbook (or course syllabus) with obvious space limitations.

Some crime fiction fans might prefer a more general readers' guide to the subject, but for those of us who enjoy a more academic approach, this is worth reading as an academic introduction to the subject, and one which might well prompt reading (or rereading) some of the texts discussed in detail and/or mentioned in passing.

#60 Well done to you and your Mum!

#61 Headed over to amazon to thumb your review which I found helpful. As it's academic book price I think it would definitely be one I borrow rather than buy.

Thanks!

Hi Lucy thumbed a few of your amazon reviews, keep reminding us from time to time. I'm happy to keep doing that. I do read the reviews and don't understand how people can vote them as unhelpful.

I just gave the review a thumbs up too. It does sound an interesting read for any of us who read a lot of crime/mysteries and like the occasional bit of analysis.

Robert Dinsdale, Little Exiles 4.5*

review for Amazon Vine

Born in 1940, Jon has grown up with his mother and sisters in Chapeltown, Leeds - his father never came home from the war and is a character in stories of daring and adventure for his son. Just before Christmas 1950, he finds himself in the Chapeltown Boys' Home of the Childrens' Crusade. He has been told he is there for a couple of months while his mother gets well, and finds some money and a new home for the family, but the other boys soon tell him the score - they all thought their parents would come back for them, but it isn't going to happen. Moreover, most of them will soon travel to new lives on the other side of the world. Jon soon finds himself on a ship to Australia.

Little Exiles is a long novel, packed with disturbing images of lost and bullied children in scary institutions, and stories of these boys growing up to be damaged and angry men. Dinsdale has drawn on true stories of enforced emigration. I was impressed by his level of empathy with his historical characters' story. His characters are very real and memorable both as boys and young men - even Jon and the other sympathetic characters are very flawed, and we learn how the apparently nasty men have come to be that way. This story could have been rather mawkish and sentimental, but Dinsdale deftly avoids that - the Crusade boys grow into men who don't do emotion, who have real problems with feelings, and his writing style somehow reflected this for me.

I am really looking forward to reading Robert Dinsdale's other novels, also set in Leeds.

Hi Luci - just dropping by to say good to meet you yesterday! ...and I shall be back to peruse the #54 new writers list more thoroughly - there are several there I know, but quite a few I don't...

Would have liked to have joined you ladies yesterday but its a little far for a day trip!
Robert Dinsdale looks like one to keep an eye out for.

Have a lovely weekend Luci.

Thanks for your wishes but I'm hoping next weekend will be more fun than this one - Mike's gone away to a conference yesterday, back on Friday, I've never had the kids on my own for more than one day from 8.30 to 5.30, and that was in the school holidays, this week is term time. At least I have childcare tomorrow and Tuesday, (in addition to morning nursery and school for the kids) but on the other hand, school means I have to get us all out of the house in time for that, and then do nursery pickup each day.

This week has felt like horribly hard work, but despite a stinky cold starting now, I'm feeling so much happier - Mike is due home tomorrow, Conor has generally behaved better today apart from a bit of a spat between me and him this afternoon - no fights at all this morning, which makes a change. We are looking forward to my sister coming round to see us all and cook tea for us, and tomorrow evening Mike is home, touch wood for a safe and speedy journey with no delays on train from Liverpool and tube home.

I finished a review book this morning - the pending review is for Curious Book Fans as I have been to the Penguin Bloggers' Parties and acquired lots of free books/ARCs as a representative of that website - and I will need to think and write more than this, but I posted some of this on Facebook earlier, and several people have said they will buy and/or read it!

Notes towards a proper review:

White Dog Fell from the Sky by Eleanor Morse is set in late 70s Botswana, not far (enough) from the border with apartheid South Africa, a changing country still struggling with social change. The main characters are a black South African refugee and an expat American woman working out where her future is following marriage breakdown. It's a brilliantly well told story and very moving. Yes, it's another novel set in Africa by a white writer from a developed country (US), but apart from that, and Botswana itself, the only thing it has in common with Alexander McCall Smith's Mma Ramotswe series is a belief in the importance of humanitarian values and human rights.

The book is published by Penguin Books on both sides of the Atlantic, and I intend to write a proper review for Curious Book Fans very soon.

Thanks to Penguin/Fig Tree for the ARC of this book, which I received free for review.

Well done for getting through the week, Luci. I remember when Steve used to go for his annual conference when my boys were small, and that was horribly hard work too.

I'm very interested in White Dog for several reasons: your positive review, your five star rating, because it's set in Botswana where I have lived and taught and also because you say it hasn't got much in common with the Alexander McCall Smith books!

When did you live and work in Botswana, Dee?

Well, so much for that. We've been looking forward to Mike's return all week. He promised on the phone to stick to the changes I'd made with the boys while I was away. He's not stuck to any of them so far, and he's been snapping and shouting at me ever since he finally got back, an hour later than he should have been. And he's shouting at me in front of the kids, in their bedroom, at bedtime. He hasn't bothered to talk to me about how to do things this evening. And he's just not done something I specifically asked him to do.

He claims he left conference 50 minutes before his train, but he mysteriously missed his train. What, he doesn't know how far it is? He didn't think to get a cab. Then he didn't even think to let me know he'd missed his original train for over two hours, and then I had to phone him, and then he didn't bother to answer.

I'm glad it's my turn to go out for the whole day tomorrow.

What a horrible way to end a challenging week, Luci. I hope you have a relaxing day today and that you and Mike manage to sort things out.

I was in Botswana in the late eighties, during a university gap year.

#74 Luci, I'm sorry you are having such a touch and frustrating time. Thinking of you...

Thanks. We sorted things out and I got my day off today to go to the New Books Readers' Conference in Winchester, with Sadie Jones, Ben Aaronovitch, Jennie Rooney and Fergus McNeill. I've only read one book between the 4 authors, Red Joan by Jennie Rooney, but I have books by Sadie Jones and Ben Aaronovitch and will look out for Fergus McNeill's book.

As someone who has a loving but fairly tempestuous relationship I trust that thibgs have settled down at yours. Tiredness and travelling are stressful aren't they?
On a rare quiet day SWMBO will catch my eye and say Hey! we didn't fight yet today!" my stock response is normally something along the lines that the day is not finished yet!

Looking forward to a Luci update on the number of books read in 2013 as my next thread update stats wise cries out for accuracy with you near the summit of the "books read' charts!

My reconstructed LT "collection" of Books read in 2013" says 118, Paul - I think I must have deleted the collection but not the books somehow, as I noticed recently when adding one that there were only about 4. (There is a power edit feature so I was able to sort my library with books with dates read at the top, books finished most recently first, select the first 100 and then go down the next page to the first date in January). That's a lot less than last year, or 2011, and suggests I won't make it to 300+ books this year, but my reading has slowed down for the last 2 or 3 months, I think, so it's probably about right, there may be the odd book missing as I occasionally forget to insert the dates when I finish books.

White Dog sounds good - I think Beth read it earlier this year and also rated it very highly.

Sorry to hear Mike's return home was so stressful - glad you got a day off to attend the conference.

Thanks Luci! 118 is a figure that we lesser mortals can, of course, merely fantasise over.

Hope I'm not responsible for sharing my cold virus with you, Luci...

Just a note to say -- although I'm sure you have already noticed -- that Masaryk Station is a Kindle Daily Deal today.

Ironically, the July list is full of books (at least four of 'em) for which I paid full price when I first got my UK device. *muttering curses at my own impatience*

Yes, thanks, I was very happy that I hadn't already bought it. I did buy myself Denise Mina's new book today. A few weeks ago I signed up for some market research thing, a man came round and wasted a lot of my precious time, but I got a £5 voucher with a promise of more - the voucher would buy about half a book in Waterstones. Then today I got an email saying they're ending this research but with an Amazon code which turned out to be for £10. And I still have a £30 voucher from my birthday to spend, as well as some birthday money which I won't spend entirely on books - I desperately need to invest in some new clothes - but I probably will treat myself to something.

I'm hoping there will be a summer sale - 2011 began on 1 July but last year's coincided with the school summer holidays - late July and all of August, so I might try to hold on to my voucher until then - it is very annoying when the books I couldn't resist are suddenly £1-£2, especially if I haven't read them yet.

That's exactly the situation I found myself in on Monday, all the more acute because I am limited to the # of gift cards I was able to pick up at the two Sainsburys I made it to... I don't think I'll be able to buy myself a gift certificate online -- it worked the first time but then the next two were turned down for some reason. Amazon sez the bank; the bank sez Amazon.

Another Amazon Vine review:

Meeting the English by Kate Clanchy (4.5 * on LT, 5 on Amazon/Goodreads)

This novel is beautifully crafted and written but is also a highly entertaining read and amusing read. This is Kate Clanchy's first novel but is hardly a literary debut, as she is a well-established author in several genres, including poetry, radio drama, short stories and a memoir/biography of a woman who once worked as her cleaner (Antigona and Me, and she puts her experience to good use in writing about what people say aloud and what they think in their heads.

Much of the story is told from the viewpoint of a Scottish teenager, Struan, whose English teacher has encouraged him to come down to work as a live in carer for a "literary giant", but the reader also learns the thoughts of the other characters, including Philip, his family and others. Who is deluded, and whose perceptions of how things are most accurate? I had fun trying to work that out.

Philip Prys was an angry young man from the Welsh valleys in the 1950s but now he has lived in Hampstead for over 30 years and is on his third marriage to a woman less than half his age. His kids have had an expensive private education but seem rather less well prepared for adult life than the practical and academically brilliant Struan, whose experiences as a young carer, paid and unpaid, haven't stopped him doing well at school or having ambitions to train as a dentist.

I particularly appreciated the idea that Struan accepts the enthusiastic encouragement of his English teacher Mr Fox on philanthropic grounds - he has read many of the books the teacher lends him already from the public library, but thinks he can protect the teacher from his rougher classmates by keeping Mr Fox inside talking to him.

The shifting viewpoint helps to make a lot of Clanchy's characters more fully realised and realistic - Struan is very likeable but he still has a darker side, and I moved from thinking Juliet was a silly teenage girl to caring about her and worrying about her naivety rather than just being irritated.
The many ironies in the novel include the title - Struan thinks he is going to meet lots of English people, but few of the adult characters actually are English - Philip and his ex-wife Myfanwy are Welsh, Philip's current wife is from Iran. There may be more class differences between characters, but even that is not so clear cut - Struan is from a mining town but he doesn't come from that background, and nor do any of his classmates who have stayed on to study for Highers.

Finally, I was intrigued by the author's choice to set her novel in 1989 - the trivial concerns of the characters are contrasted with the big news stories of that year (although many of those, such as the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of many of Eastern Europe's Communist regimes, didn't happen until the autumn). Clanchy does point out at some length that very few people had mobiles at the time, that it was still a few years before the changes brought by the internet and email, and interestingly, that Shirin has used her ability to make use of more old-fashioned communications technology to escape from Iran and to survive and prosper as a refugee in London. I would love to know more about how she came to choose that year.

The book is highly recommended.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews/0330535277/ref=cm_cr_pr_top_recent?ie=UT...

Judith Kinghorn, The Memory of Lost Senses

Reviewed for Amazon Vine

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/cdp/member-reviews/A2VQTEO33Q3KLV/ref=cm_pdp_rev_more...

A big house at the edge of a village, an elderly countess, a biographer, old secrets, young love - all the ingredients for a historical novel.

I loved Judith Kinghorn's first published book, The Last Summer, last year, and looked forward to the new one. However, I found it quite slow moving compared to the first - I enjoyed it eventually but it took me a long time to get into this story.

Of the main characters, Cora, the countess, remains rather mysterious and aloof, and her friend, who wants to write her biography, seems more pathetic than sympathetic. I'm always intrigued by stories of secrets and deceptions, but I was only surprised that some of the characters hadn't realised things earlier. I enjoyed the book more when the focus shifted to Cora's grandson Jack, and Cecily, a young woman from the village - they seemed more real and multi-dimensional.

It's still worth a read if you like historical sagas with a bit of a love story, and have an interest in the early 20th century.

Hi Luci - Great reviews. I will look for both Kinghorn and Clanchy -- I'm not familiar with either of them. Like you, I loved White Dog Fell from the Sky. I'm going to read more Morse, too. Have you read her other books?

Thanks. No, I've not read her other book, this was the first time I'd heard of her, I found details of one but it sounds like quite a small press publication, completely different subject matter and not such obvious appeal.

Luci - I am doing my stats at the moment and note that you have not updated for a while on your own prodigious reading from the 118 you advised in mid-June. Would be grateful of an update if you have a mo!

Have a lovely week by the way.

Was it only 118 in mid June? It's 185 now and I wouldn't have thought I would have read 67 since then, but it's 185 now, with one book only a few pages to go.

Did you have a good birthday yesterday?

Thanks Luci! I had a lovely day with three separate cakes which was better for my demeanour than it was for my waistline.

I got the 118 from your post #79. 185 does seem much more in keeping with your normal reading pace. xx

Aminatta Forna, The Hired Man 4.4

reviewed for Amazon Vine

How would you feel about buying a holiday home in a former war zone?

Duro lives in Gost, a small town in Croatia. He lives alone and sometimes struggles to make ends meet, so when Laura and her family come from England to stay in a house which has been empty for some years, he sees an opportunity for a few weeks of building work, a chance to earn some money. He chats to Laura as he helps to renovate her property, and he listens to her talk. However, it is soon obvious that Duro doesn't talk about everything. This beautiful town has some very dark secrets - in the present it is 2007, just 12 years after the end of the war between Croatia and Serbia.

Forna was born in Scotland but her father was from Sierra Leone, where her first two novels and a memoir are set. In a radio interview, she has expressed her shock that people who wouldn't consider Sierra Leone as a holiday destination are happy to snap up cheap properties in Croatia with no concern or curiosity about the war there in the 1990s.

The Hired Man is beautifully written and thought provoking - Duro's story about his past unfolds quite slowly, and in the meantime there is a portrait of life in a town which has not really come to terms with its troubled past.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews/1408817667/ref=cm_cr_pr_btm_link_3?ie=UT...

Rebecca Wait, The View on the Way Down 4.5

reviewed for Amazon Vine

Jamie and Emma's family is struggling to come to terms with overwhelming grief and loss. Their brother Kit died a few years ago. Jamie has left home and doesn't keep in touch, but there is no escaping from his feelings of guilt and sadness. Emma is much younger, still at school, and is stuck at home with parents who can't talk about Kit to her or to each other.

This is a well written novel, but what made it so powerful and moving was the author's exploration of her characters' feelings through a narrative which alternates between Emma and Jamie. The characters aren't always likeable - Emma is very self-absorbed while her brother has withdrawn into himself, hiding behind his Alistair Maclean novels. Gradually they engage our sympathy, though.

There are no easy answers to what is wrong with this family, but this is a powerful novel for those who like stories about characters rather than ones driven by plot and action.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews/1447224698/ref=cm_cr_pr_btm_link_2?ie=UT...

#94 she has expressed her shock that people who wouldn't consider Sierra Leone as a holiday destination are happy to snap up cheap properties in Croatia with no concern or curiosity about the war there in the 1990s. As someone who has holidayed in Croatia I'm not sure I share her shock: certainly in the parts we visited there is very little to remind of the war. And after all Yugoslavia was well on the holiday trail before the war.

Rhian, I have to say I'm a bit surprised by your post - do you disagree with being shocked by the ignorance or are you arguing in favour of a certain type of British tourism which is oblivious to the history or to the permanent residents of a holiday destination?

Here are a couple of links where Aminatta Forna says what she has to say much better than I said it:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/9946586/Aminatta-Forna-interview-unsilent-wit...

http://gulfnews.com/about-gulf-news/al-nisr-portfolio/weekend-review/interview-w...

No I'm not arguing that people shouldn't be knowledgeable about the places that they visit or read up on the history. I think what i was trying to say was that I think people in general are very unknowledgeable about their holiday destinations - there was a survey recently which said that a large percentage of the British population couldn't find their last holiday destination on the map. And in the main Croatia itself encourages the view of itself as holiday destination rather than as an ex war zone: I found you had to work quite hard to get beyond that. And you can see that with tourism being so important there are economic reasons why they would want to do that. I was also thinking about the realities of why people choose to go on holiday where they do, which involve all sort of reasons other than a country's recent history, and there are a lot of reasons why people wanting a holiday rather than an adventurous travel experience would choose Croatia over Sierra Leone. To be honest I wouldn't want to go on holiday to Sierra Leone for a number of reasons which wouldn't have anything to do with its past violent history.

To be honest I have got issues with holiday homes in general, but to do with the impact on the local community rather than whether they are in an ex-war zone or not.

Fair enough, Rhian, thanks for explaining what you meant. I think you might find Forna's novel(s) an interesting read.

92, 93: I've read both books recently (borrowed them from the library) and pretty much agree with your reviews. I found The Hired Man thought provoking and intelligently written. After enjoying The Memory of Love, my admiration for Forna just continues to grow.

I quickly became immersed in The View on the Way Down, thanks to Rebecca Wait's very immediate writing style and characters I warmed to fairly quickly. I found the book's final chapters heart breaking, and was in tears at the end.

I have 'liked' both reviews on Amazon, Luci, along with a couple of other perfectly helpful reviews of The Hired Man which had been given two 'unhelpfuls' for absolutely no good reason at all.

Ms. Forna was in my opinion a little bit unlucky alongside Kate Atkinson and Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie that the Booker panel wanted to be all obscurist and show themselves clever than they probably really are in their longlist selections. Much as I admire Toibin he shortlisted with something that is decidely not a novel and Jhumpa Lahiri strictly speaking ought not to qualify for consideration.

Against holiday homes? No way would love one each in a plethora of places if only I could afford one.

Have a great weekend Luci.

Thanks Dee.

Paul, what have you got against Lahiri? I really enjoyed her first novel and bought The Lowland the other day when it came down to £4.99 on Kindle.

Nothing at all Luci other than the fact that as a citizen of the USA she didn't ought to have qualified for the Longlist. As she considers herself American apparently (quoted from Wikipedia) then I would have thought she wouldn't have herself put forward for an award that was until days ago the province of The Commonwealth and Ireland.

Helene Gremillon, The Confidant (sorry for the lack of accents)

review for Amazon Vine

In Paris in 1975, Camille’s mother has recently died and she is struggling to cope, when she receives the first of a series of long confessional letters from a man called Louis, recalling a love story set in the 1930s and 1940s. The Second World War and the German occupation of France are a backdrop to the story rather than a main part of it.

Louis loved Annie from when they were at school together. Annie became friends with a wealthy woman who moved to their village. Madame M is desperate to have a baby and somehow persuades Annie to help her. A complicated, tragic story unfolds.

I enjoyed reading this novel and working out the story, but I didn’t find most of the characters entirely convincing – Annie seems too good to be true, and Madame M too scheming and unpleasant. Various references to historical events of the time seem to add little to the story, which is not about the political history of the time.

With these reservations, this is still worth reading, and I would probably read another book by the author.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews/1908313293/ref=cm_cr_pr_top_recent?ie=UT...

See you next week?

Yes, thanks - I've just seen your message on my profile page.

Great!

Lisa Brackman, Day of the Dead (US title Getaway)

reviewed for Amazon Vine

Michelle's much needed holiday in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico quickly turns into a nightmare, when a night out is interrupted by violence. Then she is arrested on the way to the airport to catch her flight home. And that is only the start - there is much worse to come.

Who is the sexy Daniel, and why does he seem to have so many enemies? Who can tell Michelle what is going on and who can she trust?

I really enjoyed Lisa Brackman's first novel, Year of the Tiger, about an American woman in China, but this one was a bit disappointing by comparison. Both feature heroines stumbling into all kinds of trouble, but they are quite different. I really liked Ellie's first person narrative in Year of the Tiger, whereas this story is told in the third person, and Michelle doesn't seem as interesting or engaging as Ellie. Brackman's other novel had a lot more to say about the country that it was set in.

I also found the plot a bit unsatisfactory.

This is an ok thriller for all my griping, but I am hoping Brackman's next novel, featuring Ellie again, is as good as her first.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Day-Dead-Lisa-Brackman/dp/0007457731/ref=cm_aya_orig_sub...

Charlotte Mendelson, Almost English

Review for Amazon Vine

“Be careful what you wish for”.

Marina collects wise words of wisdom like this, and she is certainly in need of some advice. At 16, she is struggling to make sense of her life and work out what she wants. She lives with her mum, her paternal grandmother and two great aunts in a cramped London flat, and has found her fantasy of going to boarding school to be a nightmare.

The title led me to expect a story about being foreign in London, but in fact, the main characters of the story are Marina and her English mother – we see Marina’s sometimes rather embarrassing Hungarian relatives through their eyes. It is Marina who feels a bit like an alien at her school, never feeling posh or pretty or popular enough to belong. Through a sort of boyfriend at school she meets the wealthy, successful Viney family who seem to be everything she would like her own family to be.

I was a little bit disappointed that this didn’t quite live up to my memory of the author’s third novel, When We Were Bad, but I think it has a slightly understated charm of its own. The comedy is based on feelings of social embarrassment, and perhaps sometimes I was cringing too much to laugh.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews/144721997X/ref=cm_cr_dp_see_all_btm?ie=U...

I'm very pleased to hear that one of my favourite short story writers, Alice Munro, has been awarded the Nobel Prize for literature.

#108 Luci, which of Munro's books would you recommend as a starting point?

Munro mainly writes short stories - Lives of Girls and Women is linked short stories - I can't really make a recommendation of one book over another. I probably read a lot of them a long time ago and I still have some recent collections to read - The View from Castle Rock and Too Much Happiness. I'd suggest going with what we can find from the library. Maybe we can get some of her books on future TIOLIs (I don't think I'll get to a Munro collection this month, I've more books in mind than I will get to as it is).

Of the four collections of hers that I've read, my favourites were Runaway and Something I've Been Meaning to Tell You.

I really liked When we were bad and bought a copy of Almost English because of that but have been nervous about starting it.

Alison Rattle, The Quietness 4.1

Reviewed for Amazon Vine

In 19th century London, two rather naïve 15 year old girls face very different problems. The narrative alternates between them, chapter by chapter. Ellen is bored and lonely. Her father is wealthy but has little time for his daughter, and her only confidante is her maid, Mary, until an attractive young man comes to work with her father. Queenie's Da drinks, and Mam has turned to prostitution to support the family, while Queenie looks after her brothers and sisters. Her escape is a domestic job in Covent Garden, looking after babies who have been given up for adoption. Both girls will soon be shocked out of their innocence.

From her experience with her own siblings, Queenie knows that the quietness of the Wild Street babies isn't normal, and that there is something wrong. Why is her employer, Mrs Ellis, so angry when she gives babies milk which has not been doctored with the mysterious Godfreys Cordial (a popular "medicine" given to quieten Victorian babies, containing opium), or when Queenie thinks the babies lying on the sofa could do with some sunshine? Why are the babies too quiet and sleepy to eat?

Can these two girls break free of the future apparently mapped out for them?

The Quietness is an engaging historical novel for older teenagers. I'm quite a lot older than the intended audience, but really enjoyed reading it. Alison Rattle has previously co-written a non-fiction book about Amelia Dyer, one of the most notorious convicted baby farmers in Victorian England, and she has put her knowledge and research to great use in this fascinating and disturbing story.

There are some aspects of the novel which don't totally work for me - some unlikely coincidences and at least one complete change in character which I didn't quite believe. I would still recommend it, especially for girls over about 14 and mature readers of young adult fiction - there are some scenes of sexual violence and other very nasty crimes which might be a bit much for a precocious 10 year old.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews/1471401014/ref=cm_cr_pr_top_recent?ie=UT...

I'll be your mirror
Reflect what you are, in case you don't know
I'll be the wind, the rain and the sunset
The light on your door to show that you're home

When you think the night has seen your mind
That inside you're twisted and unkind
Let me stand to show that you are blind
Please put down your hands
'Cause I see you

I find it hard to believe you don't know
The beauty that you are
But if you don't let me be your eyes
A hand in your darkness, so you won't be afraid

When you think the night has seen your mind
That inside you're twisted and unkind
Let me stand to show that you are blind
Please put down your hands
'Cause I see you

I'll be your mirror

Lou Reed wrote this song for the Velvet Underground, it's on their first LP. I've just heard on the radio that he's died aged 71.

Carrie Tiffany, Mateship with Birds 4.2

reviewed for Amazon Vine programme

Mateship with Birds is the title of a book of nature notes by Alec Chisholm, first published in 1922, and of this quirky short novel set in a small town farming community in 1950s Australia. (Cohuna, Victoria, apparently 170 miles from Melbourne).

Farmer Harry observes a family of kookaburras, from reproductive rituals to family life, through his binoculars, and writes about what he sees in free verse. He also daydreams about his neighbour next door. Betty also has binoculars, only she isn't watching the birds....

I really liked the characterisation in this novel, especially Betty, single mother of two by choice who simply lets people assume her husband must have died in the war, and avoids gossip or scandal.

This is a story about watching and thinking, with lots of sex thrown in , bird sex and human sex. It takes time to piece together what is going on, but it turns out to be quite a witty and delightful story about two people and the others around them.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews/1447219864/ref=cm_cr_pr_top_recent?ie=UT...

Maureen Johnson, The Last Little Blue Envelope 3.7

reviewed for Amazon Vine programme YA/chicklit

This is a sequel to 13 Little Blue Envelopes, in which a Ginny, a 17 year old American girl was sent on a quest in Europe by her beloved aunt Peg, who recently died of cancer. If you haven't read that first book, it isn't necessary to read this one, but please be warned that this review may contain spoilers. The first book was an entertaining piece of teen chicklit which ended on a rather frustrating cliffhanger, as Ginny lost her bag containing the 13 little blue envelopes before she completed the final bit of her quest. So Ginny jumps at the chance to have another go, and I jumped at the chance to read about it.

There is enough information in this story to enjoy it without having read the first book, though I don't think you would want to go back and read #1 after reading this one. There are a few things that you will have to accept at the beginning of the book, for example, that Ginny is rather well off for a girl her age and can afford to just fly over to London and travel around to complete her quest (for reasons which are clear from the earlier story).

The book isn't very well written, with some rather clunky bits of writing and a lot of rather far-fetched events and contrived situations, but is a quick and engaging read which would provide light entertainment for kids. Ginny faces disappointment about her romantic interest in the earlier book, and Oliver is holding her to ransom over the final envelope from her aunt Peg, and then he is just so annoying. I also found Ginny a bit silly.

Still, I was amused enough by the story to read on, and I did want to know what happened next. I might well read more by this author, and I think it wold be a fun read for its intended audience (teenage girls). I quite enjoyed the portrayal of London through the eyes of a young American travelling there, and finally, I really liked the fact that while there were hints of romance (nothing very explicit, by the way), that didn't seem to be the central point of these two stories - Ginny is learning about her aunt and other people, and in the end, about herself and that she has choices about her future.

My review of Penelope Lively's new sort of memoir, Ammonites and Leaping Fish, is up at Curious Book Fans.

http://www.curiousbookfans.co.uk/2013/history/12187/ammonites-and-leaping-fish-p...

Luci, have a wonderful Christmas and keep warm as best you can. We almost managed a meet-up this year and will have to put that right when I next make it back home.

Luci, have a great Christmas and New Year!

Hi Luci, I've been lurking here for a while. It was really nice meeting you in London.



Warm wishes for the festive season from the tropics, and all the best for 2014!

Thanks for the Christmas wishes, hope you're all enjoying yourselves, or in Rhian's case that you do when you wake up.