Noah's Compass by Anne Tyler, Chatto & Windus 2009.
From the cover: 'Anne Tyler's new novel tells the story of a year in the life of Liam Pennywell, a man in his sixty-first year. A classical pedant, he's just been 'let go' from his schoolteaching job and downsizes to a tiny out-of-town apartment, where he goes to bed early and alone on his first night.
Widowed, re-married, divorced and the father of three daughters, Liam is a man who is proud of his recall but has learned to dodge issues and skirt adventure. Something occurs, though, to jolt him out of his certainty. Obsessed with a frightening gap in his memory, he sets out to uncover what happened, and finds instead an unusual woman with secrets of her own, and a late-flowering love that brings its own thorny problems.
Noah's Compass is about memory and its loss, about incidents and relationships which open up sight lines into a painful past long dead for a man who becomes aware that merely trying to stay afloat may no be enough.'
I don't know quite what to say about Noah's Compass - I suppose it was OK, but nothing very wonderful unlike some of Tyler's other novels (Breathing Lessons, The Accidental Tourist, Ladder of Years).'
Monday, 28 September 2009
Wednesday, 23 September 2009
Book 80 - 206 Bones
206 Bones by Kathy Reichs, William Heinemann 2009.
From the cover: 'You have an enemy, Dr Brennan. It is in your interest to learn who placed that call.
A routine case turns sinister when Dr Temperance Brennan is accused of mishandling that autopsy of a missing heiress. Someone has made an incriminating accusation that she missed or concealed crucial evidence. Before tempe can get to the one man with information, he turns up dead.
The heiress isn't the only elderly female to have appeared on Tempe's gurney recently. Back in Montreal, three more women have died, their bodies brutally discarded. Tempe is convinced there's a link between their deaths and that of the heiress. But what - or who - connects them?
Tempe struggles with the clues, but nothing adds up. Has she made grave errors or is some unknown foe sabotaging her? It soon becomes frighteningly clear. It's not simply Tempe's career at risk. Her life is at stake too.'
Disappointing - a hotch potch of plots and red herrings made for a muddled read.
From the cover: 'You have an enemy, Dr Brennan. It is in your interest to learn who placed that call.
A routine case turns sinister when Dr Temperance Brennan is accused of mishandling that autopsy of a missing heiress. Someone has made an incriminating accusation that she missed or concealed crucial evidence. Before tempe can get to the one man with information, he turns up dead.
The heiress isn't the only elderly female to have appeared on Tempe's gurney recently. Back in Montreal, three more women have died, their bodies brutally discarded. Tempe is convinced there's a link between their deaths and that of the heiress. But what - or who - connects them?
Tempe struggles with the clues, but nothing adds up. Has she made grave errors or is some unknown foe sabotaging her? It soon becomes frighteningly clear. It's not simply Tempe's career at risk. Her life is at stake too.'
Disappointing - a hotch potch of plots and red herrings made for a muddled read.
Monday, 21 September 2009
Book 79 - The Gate House
The Gate House by Nelson DeMille, unabridged audio book from Oakhill Publishing, narrated by Jeff Harding.
From the cover: 'After John Sutter's wife killed her Mafia don lover, he set out in his boat on a three-year journey around the world, eventually settling in London. Now, ten years later, he has come home to the stretch of Long Island's North Shore to attend the funeral of an old family servant. John finds himself living less than a mile from Susan, and though the infamous Mafia don, Frank Bellarosa is long dead, his son Anthony has two missions: to draw John back into the violent Mafia world and to kill Susan Sutter.'
Jeff Harding could read the phone book and make it sound interesting. Just as well really as this was a rather slow-to-get-going story - one of those books that I probably wouldn't have finished reading.
From the cover: 'After John Sutter's wife killed her Mafia don lover, he set out in his boat on a three-year journey around the world, eventually settling in London. Now, ten years later, he has come home to the stretch of Long Island's North Shore to attend the funeral of an old family servant. John finds himself living less than a mile from Susan, and though the infamous Mafia don, Frank Bellarosa is long dead, his son Anthony has two missions: to draw John back into the violent Mafia world and to kill Susan Sutter.'
Jeff Harding could read the phone book and make it sound interesting. Just as well really as this was a rather slow-to-get-going story - one of those books that I probably wouldn't have finished reading.
Friday, 18 September 2009
Book 78 - Elizabeth Wydeville, The Slandered Queen
Elizabeth Wydeville, The Slandered Queen by Arlene Okerlund, Tempus Publishing 2005.
From the cover: 'Elizabeth Wydeville, queen consort to Edward IV, has traditionally been portrayed as a scheming, cold-blooded and conceited opportunist. Yet was she a cunning vixen or a tragic wife and mother? As this extraordinary biography shows, the first queen to bear the name Elizabeth lived a life of tragedy, love and loss that no other queen has since endured. This shocking revelation about the survival of one woman through vilification and adversity shows Elizabeth as beautiful and adored wife, distraught mother of the two lost princes in the Tower and innocent queen slandered by politicians.
Victimised by the cruelty and violence of Richard III, Elizabeth's brother, cousin, and three sons were all murdered by the callous king, whose parliament then declared her marriage to Edward IV to be adulterous and her children illegitimate. Despite coming from a cultured, pious and chivalric family, Elizabeth died in poverty. Yet this incredible woman was the direct ancestor of Henry VIII, Mary Queen of Scots, and Elizabeth I, and her blood runs in the veins of every subsequent monarch, right through to the current queen who bears her name. With heartbreak, bloodshed and romance, this book tells the remarkable story of our very first Queen Elizabeth'.
I do tend to fall into the 'Richard III got a bad press' camp (partly as a result of reading Josephine Tey's classic novel The Daughter of Time when I was a child) and it was interesting to read a book taking the opposite point of view. I found this fairly heavy going in parts and rather repetitious, but it's certainly rekindled my interest in this period in English history.
From the cover: 'Elizabeth Wydeville, queen consort to Edward IV, has traditionally been portrayed as a scheming, cold-blooded and conceited opportunist. Yet was she a cunning vixen or a tragic wife and mother? As this extraordinary biography shows, the first queen to bear the name Elizabeth lived a life of tragedy, love and loss that no other queen has since endured. This shocking revelation about the survival of one woman through vilification and adversity shows Elizabeth as beautiful and adored wife, distraught mother of the two lost princes in the Tower and innocent queen slandered by politicians.
Victimised by the cruelty and violence of Richard III, Elizabeth's brother, cousin, and three sons were all murdered by the callous king, whose parliament then declared her marriage to Edward IV to be adulterous and her children illegitimate. Despite coming from a cultured, pious and chivalric family, Elizabeth died in poverty. Yet this incredible woman was the direct ancestor of Henry VIII, Mary Queen of Scots, and Elizabeth I, and her blood runs in the veins of every subsequent monarch, right through to the current queen who bears her name. With heartbreak, bloodshed and romance, this book tells the remarkable story of our very first Queen Elizabeth'.
I do tend to fall into the 'Richard III got a bad press' camp (partly as a result of reading Josephine Tey's classic novel The Daughter of Time when I was a child) and it was interesting to read a book taking the opposite point of view. I found this fairly heavy going in parts and rather repetitious, but it's certainly rekindled my interest in this period in English history.
Book 77 - The Whole Truth
The Whole Truth by David Baldacci, unabridged audio book from Chivers Audio Books, narrated by John Chancer.
From the cover: 'With the world relatively stable, Nicolas Creel, a super-rich and super-powerful arms dealer, is losing money fast. And if a war won't start naturally, he is more than willing to help move things along.
When her boyfriend proposes, Anna Fischer couldn't be happier - but can she handle the truth about the man she loves? Katie James, a journalist, will do anything to get back to the top of her profession. But can she keep her demons at bay long enough to get the story?
Shaw travels the world for a secret multi-national agency trying to keep the world peaceful and safe. He dreams of retirement and marriage, but will his employers ever let him go?'.
From the cover: 'With the world relatively stable, Nicolas Creel, a super-rich and super-powerful arms dealer, is losing money fast. And if a war won't start naturally, he is more than willing to help move things along.
When her boyfriend proposes, Anna Fischer couldn't be happier - but can she handle the truth about the man she loves? Katie James, a journalist, will do anything to get back to the top of her profession. But can she keep her demons at bay long enough to get the story?
Shaw travels the world for a secret multi-national agency trying to keep the world peaceful and safe. He dreams of retirement and marriage, but will his employers ever let him go?'.
Rubbish, but very entertaining rubbish and it worked very well as an audio book.
Sunday, 6 September 2009
Book 76 - A Cure for all Diseases
A Cure for all Diseases by Reginald Hill, unabridged audio book from Clipper Audio, narrated by Jonathan Keeble.
From the cover: ' Whilst convalescing after his recent proximity to a terrorist blast, Superintendent Dalziel befriends Charlotte Heywood, a psychologist who is researching the benefits of alternative therapy. With much in common, the two soon find themselves in league when trouble comes to town. Sandytown's principal landowners have grandiose plans for the resort - none of which they can agree on. One of them has to go, and when one of them does, in spectacularly gruesome fashion, DCI Peter Pascoe is called in to investigate - with Dalziel and Charlotte providing unwelcome support. But Pascoe finds dark forces at work in a place where medicine and holistic remedies are no match for the oldest cure of all...'.
I failed to finish reading A Cure for all Diseases - part of the story is written in the form of e-mails and I just couldn't get past the annoying bad spelling/no punctuation style of those sections on the printed page. No such irritations with the audio book version though and I whizzed through the CDs thinking that this is one of Hill's finest Dalziel & Pascoe books.
From the cover: ' Whilst convalescing after his recent proximity to a terrorist blast, Superintendent Dalziel befriends Charlotte Heywood, a psychologist who is researching the benefits of alternative therapy. With much in common, the two soon find themselves in league when trouble comes to town. Sandytown's principal landowners have grandiose plans for the resort - none of which they can agree on. One of them has to go, and when one of them does, in spectacularly gruesome fashion, DCI Peter Pascoe is called in to investigate - with Dalziel and Charlotte providing unwelcome support. But Pascoe finds dark forces at work in a place where medicine and holistic remedies are no match for the oldest cure of all...'.
I failed to finish reading A Cure for all Diseases - part of the story is written in the form of e-mails and I just couldn't get past the annoying bad spelling/no punctuation style of those sections on the printed page. No such irritations with the audio book version though and I whizzed through the CDs thinking that this is one of Hill's finest Dalziel & Pascoe books.
Tuesday, 1 September 2009
Book 75 - The Moonstone
The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins, unabridged audio book from Audible UK, narrated by Peter Jeffrey.
From the cover: 'T.S. Eliot described The Moonstone as "the first and the greatest English detective novel". The stone of the title is an enormous diamond plundered from an Indian shrine after the Siege of Seringapatam. Given to Miss Verinder on her 18th birthday, it mysteriously disappears that very night. Suspicion falls on three Indian jugglers who have been seen in the neighbourhood'.
I've read The Moonstone several times in the past, but thoroughly enjoyed becoming acquainted with the story again as an audio book. This was partly due to the writing and partly to the superb narrating skills of Peter Jeffrey.
From the cover: 'T.S. Eliot described The Moonstone as "the first and the greatest English detective novel". The stone of the title is an enormous diamond plundered from an Indian shrine after the Siege of Seringapatam. Given to Miss Verinder on her 18th birthday, it mysteriously disappears that very night. Suspicion falls on three Indian jugglers who have been seen in the neighbourhood'.
I've read The Moonstone several times in the past, but thoroughly enjoyed becoming acquainted with the story again as an audio book. This was partly due to the writing and partly to the superb narrating skills of Peter Jeffrey.
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