Tuesday 29 November 2016

A Change Of Heart by Mark Benjamin


A Change Of Heart by Mark Benjamin
Self published on the 29th May 2016.

Featured in Cover Characteristics: Blood

Where to buy this book:
Buy the ebook from Amazon.comAmazon.co.uk
Buy the ebook from Smashwords

How I got this book:
Received a review copy from the author

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Bullied his entire life, orphaned university graduate, Gabriel Harper, is bitten by a Royal vampire moments before sunrise, transforming him over the course of six terrible and exhilarating nights into a hybrid - human by day, vampire by night. Just as he learns to come to grips with what he has become, the Silver Legion, a covert vampire-hunting organisation, kidnap him and his three friends, forcing them to join their clandestine crusade. However, the Silver Legion remain unaware of Gabriel's nature until it is too late.

A Change Of Heart starts out well. The descriptions of Gabriel's attack by vampire is exciting and I enjoyed the anticipation of learning how he slowly changed, day by day, from entirely human to part-vampire. We meet Gabriel's friends and his dysfunctional adoptive parents which provides interesting background. The political machinations of both vampires and Legion are intricate with lots of betrayals and power struggles.

The novel is written with an unusual structure of short chapters being written in the third person, but with each from the viewpoint of a different character. Sometimes we jump person within half a page, other times we might stick with someone for three or four pages, and with a large cast I did sometimes find it difficult to remember who was who. I stuck with it though! There is a good overall storyline here and ideas about personal identity. The ending is too much geared towards a sequel for my taste, but for fans of horror fantasy, I think A Change Of Heart would be a welcome addition to the genre.


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Books by Mark Benjamin / Fantasy / Books from England

Monday 28 November 2016

And The Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini


And The Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini 
First published in May 2013.

I registered my copy of this book on BookCrossing

How I got this book:
Swapped for at a book exchange

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Ten-year-old Abdullah would do anything for his younger sister. In a life of poverty and struggle, with no mother to care for them, Pari is the only person who brings Abdullah happiness. For her, he will trade his only pair of shoes to give her a feather for her treasured collection. When their father sets off with Pari across the desert to Kabul in search of work, Abdullah is determined not to be separated from her. Neither brother nor sister know what this fateful journey will bring them.
And the Mountains Echoed is a deeply moving epic of heartache, hope and, above all, the unbreakable bonds of love.

And The Mountains Echoed starts off with an interesting fable which is then reflected in the lives of young brother and sister Abdullah and Pari. Their story is beautifully told, poignant and ultimately heartbreaking. However this is only half of the book and I was disappointed by the melange of other tenuously connected tales that followed. Each is, of course, well-written and could have made good novels in their own right, but I felt that the disparate ideas within one book made for a confusing sprawling structure. It was often difficult to identify which character we had jumped to. And The Mountains Echoed is still certainly a good book, but I had thought both The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns were brilliant so this one does pale significantly in comparison.

Etsy Find!
by Boutique Poetry in
London, England

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Books by Khaled Hosseini / Contemporary fiction / Books from Afghanistan

Sunday 27 November 2016

Turkish Gambit by Boris Akunin


Turkish Gambit by Boris Akunin
First published as Turietsky Gambit by I Zakharov in Russian in Russia in 1998. English translation by Andrew Bromfield published by Weidenfeld and Nicolson in 2004.

I registered my copy of this book on BookCrossing

Where to buy this book:


How I got this book:
Bought from a charity shop

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Russo-Turkish war is at a critical juncture, and Erast Fandorin, broken-hearted and disillusioned, has gone to the front in an attempt to forget his sorrows. But Fandorin's efforts to steer clear of trouble are thwarted when he comes to the aid of Varvara Suvorova - a 'progressive' Russian woman trying to make her way to the Russian headquarters to join her fiancé. Within days, Varvara's fiancé has been accused of treason, a Turkish victory looms on the horizon, and there are rumours of a Turkish spy hiding within their own camp. Our reluctant gentleman sleuth will need to resurrect all of his dormant powers of detection if he is to unmask the traitor, help the Russians to victory and smooth the path of young love.

I had quite high hopes for Turkish Gambit and had looked forward to a swashbuckling historical tale. Unfortunately I found the book rather dull. There are lots of lengthy conversations, but little in the way of descriptive writing about the country and period. I found it difficult to keep track of who everyone was too. Our heroine Varvara is well defined, but sleuth Erast Fandorin mostly kept himself to himself and it wasn't until the latter stages of the book that I thought the many other men in the cast began to differentiate themselves. The spy plot at the centre of the tale is nicely done, but the advertised romantic element is practically nonexistent. Varvara never seems particularly concerned for her fiance! Turkish Gambit does have interesting moments, however I think I must have missed the point with this book because it is one in a popular series of a dozen Fandorin novels and at times I wasn't sure I would finish even this one!


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Books by Boris Akunin / Historical fiction / Books from Russia

Saturday 26 November 2016

Your Flight To Happiness by Toni Mackenzie


Your Flight To Happiness by Toni Mackenzie
First published in the UK by Inner Depths in June 2016.

Featured in Cover Characteristics: Aeroplanes

Where to buy this book:
Buy from independent booksellers via Abebooks
Buy from independent booksellers via Alibris
Buy the ebook from Amazon.comAmazon.co.uk
Buy the paperback from The Book Depository

How I got this book:
Received a review copy from the author's team

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Your Flight to Happiness is a self-help book with a flying theme, taking the reader on a journey which will enable them to release negative thinking and limiting beliefs, and create emotional freedom and happiness from within. Chapter one tells of how the author found herself at an all time low point in her life, her 'plane crash'. She then guides the reader through the seven steps she used to rebuild her life and learn how to fly again. So many people believe they will be happy at some time in the future - when they get a new job, meet a new partner, go on holiday, buy a new outfit, lose weight... The truth is, happiness does not come from outside experiences or other people, happiness ultimately is an inside job!

I appreciated the down to earth and chatty style Mackenzie employs in Your Flight To Happiness. Understanding how and why she had learned the techniques and philosophies she offers to readers helped me to envisage their potential effectiveness. I have not yet actually tried any of the suggested exercises, but I can see how they would work because they are all clearly explained and I think the mindfulness steps would be useful for me. Through simple ideas like a rubber band memory aid to more involved concepts such as deep meditation, Mackenzie aims to help her readers find inner happiness. This book doesn't claim to get you everything you have ever wanted, but instead to allow you to appreciate what you already have and use that as a grounding for future emotional strength and resilience.

Mackenzie is strongly influenced by Eastern philosophy and I liked her inclusion of relevant quotes by famous historical thinkers. There are also blank pages for readers to note down their own Thoughts. These are, of course, not much use in the ebook, but I imagine would be a good addition to the physical book edition. (Note: if you buy the ebook, get yourself a little notebook to use as you read!) The overarching aeroplane metaphor is good too and made for a nice hook from which each Step could hang. I wasn't completely convinced by later ideas such as conflating the positive or negative energies of electrons with positive or negative emotions. However overall I found Your Flight To Happiness to be a potentially inspirational and useful book.


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Books by Toni Mackenzie / Self help / Books from England

Friday 25 November 2016

The Memory Box by Margaret Forster


The Memory Box by Margaret Forster
First published in the UK in August 2000.

Where to buy this book:
Buy the book from Amazon.comAmazon.co.uk
Buy the paperback from Speedyhen
Buy the paperback from The Book Depository
Buy the paperback from Waterstones

How I got this book:
Swapped for at Lumburn Court campsite

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Catherine's mother died when Catherine was just a baby girl, leaving nothing but her perfect reputation to live up to. Or so she thought. But then Catherine finds a box addressed to her, filled with objects seemingly without meaning - three feathers, an exotic seashell, a painting, a mirror, two prints, an address book, a map, a hat, a rucksack and a necklace. And while she's busy playing detective trying to find out who her mother was, she finds out more about herself than she ever really wanted to know. Secrets are discovered, truths uncovered, and Catherine realises that maybe there was something more to her mother, something that her familiy has kept from her. How long a shadow can a dead woman cast?

I was interested to see how Forster would develop her premise of a woman discovering her lost mother some thirty years later, through the contents of a gaudy hat box. Catherine's mother, Susannah, died when she was just six months old. Her father remarried and Catherine had always rejected the idea of her birth mother, instead insisting that her stepmother, Charlotte, fulfilled that maternal role perfectly. Knowing she was dying, Susannah carefully chose, wrapped and boxed eleven items instructing that the box be given to Catherine. However, through various circumstances, Catherine didn't get the said box until after her father, stepmother and grandmother had died too. With a prickly aunt being the only person left who actually knew Susannah, Catherine is left unravelling the myth of her perfectly happy mother's perfect life single-handedly.

The Memory Box is an incredibly introspective and introverted novel which is quite unusual and I thoroughly enjoyed the book. Catherine examines her own life, seeing her choices differently in the light of what she learns about her biological mother. Forster uses her characters to develop a fascinating discussion of motherhood in its many forms and influences. Did Charlotte's constant presence mould the young Catherine to a greater extent than Susannah's genes? Is Catherine's rejection of close friendships and of motherhood for herself a result of her early abandonment?

For me, this novel was a page turner all the way through and I never lost interest in Catherine's quest. Some of her intuitive jumps were too convenient to be believable which why I have only awarded four stars, however overall I very much enjoyed The Memory Box and look forward to discovering more of Forster's work.


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Books by Margaret Forster / Women's fiction / Books from England

Thursday 24 November 2016

Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie


Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
First published by Algonquin Books in October 2003.

One of my WorldReads - Nigeria book choices.


How I got this book:
Bought Purple Hibiscus from the Children's Society charity shop in Garstang

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The limits of fifteen-year-old Kambili’s world are defined by the high walls of her family estate and the dictates of her fanatically religious father. Her life is regulated by schedules: prayer, sleep, study, prayer. When Nigeria is shaken by a military coup, Kambili’s father, involved mysteriously in the political crisis, sends her to live with her aunt. In this house, noisy and full of laughter, she discovers life and love – and a terrible, bruising secret deep within her family.
This extraordinary debut novel from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, author of ‘Half of a Yellow Sun’, is about the blurred lines between the old gods and the new, childhood and adulthood, love and hatred – the grey spaces in which truths are revealed and real life is lived.

Purple Hibiscus is a Nigerian-set coming of age novel following fifteen-year-old Kambili over the months after a military coup in Nigeria is the catalyst for massive change in the country and also in her oppressive home life. I was reminded a little of the obsessively religious patriarch in Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible who, like Eugene here, puts ridiculous strains onto his family in the name of his God. Eugene however has been so brainwashed by a particularly sadistic strain of Catholicism that he is simply vicious to his wife and children. I found several of the abuse scenes in Purple Hibiscus difficult to read and what makes it more so is Kambili's apparent quiet acceptance of her treatment. It is not until she experiences life with her aunt instead of her parents that she finds a hint of self-respect and courage.

I love Adichie's descriptive prose which really brings urban and rural Nigeria to life for me. She has a wonderful eye for detail and creates realistic complex characters that I could easily believe in, even when I didn't like them! The menace of the political instability surrounds every scene meaning that there is always a sense of unease - within the family or within the country, perhaps one is a microcosm of the other? The contrasts between our rich central family's lifestyle and that of their poor village back home are shocking. Even the forced frugality of Aunt Ifeoma, awaiting her university salary which hasn't been paid, made me realise how much I take for granted. At least our caravan generally has reliable power!

I think I liked Purple Hibiscus the most of Adichie's books that I have read so far, but it's only my third title so I still have lots more to discover!

Etsy Find!
by Fabulously Feminist in
Pennsylvania, USA

Click pic to visit Etsy Shop


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Books by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie / Contemporary fiction / Books from Nigeria

Wednesday 23 November 2016

The Little Voice by Joss Sheldon


The Little Voice by Joss Sheldon
Self published today, 23rd November 2016.

Where to buy this book:
Buy the ebook from Amazon.comAmazon.co.uk

How I got this book:
Received review copy from the author

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

“Can you remember who you were before the world told you who you should be?”
Dear reader, My character has been shaped by two opposing forces; the pressure to conform to social norms, and the pressure to be true to myself. To be honest with you, these forces have really torn me apart. They’ve pulled me one way and then the other. At times, they’ve left me questioning my whole entire existence. But please don’t think that I’m angry or morose. I’m not. Because through adversity comes knowledge. I’ve suffered, it’s true. But I’ve learnt from my pain. I’ve become a better person. Now, for the first time, I’m ready to tell my story. Perhaps it will inspire you. Perhaps it will encourage you to think in a whole new way. Perhaps it won’t. There’s only one way to find out… 
Enjoy the book,
Yew Shodkin

One of my most highly anticipated bookish experiences is discovering a new favourite author and I am especially happy when they are indie authors. If you read my Month In Books round-up posts on my Stephanie Jane blog you will already know that I made such a discovery in October with the superb Occupied by Joss Sheldon earning my Book Of The Month accolade. I was delighted therefore when Sheldon got in touch again to ask if I would be interested in reviewing his new book, The Little Voice. I was only too pleased!

Sheldon has a talent for observing aspects of society and mirroring them back to readers in a thought-provoking way. Occupied looked at immigration. The Little Voice examines how we condition our children. The book is written in the style of a memoir with Yew describing how a little red creature in his head was the cause of much of his 'bad' behaviour as a child. Parents and teachers encouraged him to overcome the red creature's malevolent influence, but was the resultant well behaved automaton really the best Yew that Yew could be? Is creating an ordered society more important than allowing individual happiness?

I liked how sociological and psychological theories and experimental results are included within the text and loved Sheldon's portrayal of young Yew. I found myself wishing I had had his nerve as a child - those classroom settings were certainly similar to my own experiences! Fiction that makes me think deeply isn't always the most convincingly written as characters can become overly preachy, but I thought The Little Voice had a good flow and pace throughout. I could understand and appreciate why Yew made the choices he did and his ultimate destination is certainly enticing.


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Books by Joss Sheldon / Novellas / Books from England

Monday 21 November 2016

Song Of The Vampire by K M McFarland


Song of the Vampire by K. M. McFarland
Self published in April 2013.

How I got this book:
Received a free copy during the All Hallows Reads Facebook party.

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


In 1989, Quinn Forrester was a successful rock star living a dream with a wife, a baby daughter and a hit record. Little did he know that was all about to end the night he met Giselle ... the mysterious vampire who would change his world forever. Eighteen years later, a chance meeting with Nadia, the daughter he abandoned as a baby the night he was turned, shakes his lonely, tormented world. Quinn and Nadia reconnect and bond, but Nadia’s fate is sealed. Saved by Quinn’s blood, they guide each other through the dark world they have become a part of. As they help each other battle their demons, shocking lies, secrets and deceptions are revealed culminating in the discovery of the truth about the night Quinn was turned.

Song Of The Vampire is the first book in McFarland's Vampyr trilogy and is set in New Orleans, a city I loved when we visited there in Spring 2013. McFarland makes pretty good use of this atmospheric setting and I enjoyed remembering sights such as the St Charles Avenue streetcars and the Mardi Gras bead strings adorning the trees.

Song Of The Vampire is very much a first novel and does have issues with pacing. Some inconsequential scenes are overlong whereas other vital story elements zipped by when much more could have been made of them. I liked the overall story and the untangling of the characters' relationships as each new revelation comes to light. Their dialogue isn't always realistic, especially in mundane conversations, and does go overboard on the lovey-dovey chat - but that might just be my preference! Hopefully, the characterisation will deepen in the next two novels as we discover more about our vampires' lives and world.


Etsy Find!
by Jerrystuff Designs in
the UK

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Books by K M McFarland / Fantasy fiction / Books from America

Saturday 19 November 2016

Aylin by Ayse Kulin


Aylin by AyĹźe Kulin
Published in Turkish as Adi: Aylin in Turkey in 1997. English translation, possibly by Dara Colakoglu, published by Amazon Crossing in October 2015.

Where to buy this book:
Buy from independent booksellers via Abebooks
Buy from independent booksellers via Alibris
Buy the ebook from Amazon.comAmazon.co.uk
Buy the paperback from The Book Depository

How I got this book:
Received a review copy from its publishers via NetGalley.

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Aylin’s body was found in her garden, her hair immaculately styled as usual. Her death came as a shock—after all, who would have wanted someone so admired and talented dead? Who—among the many she’d helped, the few she’d hurt, and all those she’d left behind—might have been driven to murder? In the course of Aylin’s life, she had been many things: a skinny little girl, a young woman blossoming into a beauty, a princess married to a controlling Libyan prince, a broke medical student determined to succeed. She’d been a seductress, a teacher, a renowned psychiatrist, and a Turkish immigrant remarkably at home as an officer in the US Army. Through it all, she’d loved, been in love, and pursued truth without surrender. Whatever role she’d found herself in, she’d committed to it fully and lived it with her heart, mind, and soul.

Aylin is an affluent Turkish woman, brilliant and beautiful, but incapable of finding the happiness she craves in her life. The novel begins with her freak death - murder or accident? - before jumping back to her childhood and adolescence, the moving forward through her life. I found it difficult to really get into the story and never particularly cared about Aylin herself because of the way her tale was told. A leading psychologist, she failed to recognise basic destructive behaviour patterns in herself so the novel is essentially her jumping from one marriage to the next, but with no sense of love or emotion. Supporting characters like her sister and niece came across much more convincingly to me, but I thought the male characters were frequently flat.

I am not sure if the distance I felt from the characters was due to Kulin's storytelling style or whether the translation from Turkish was at fault. Certainly much of the book is set in America which disappointed me as I was hoping to read about Turkey. I was baffled by viewpoint switches such as suddenly finding myself reading the innermost thoughts of a mute nun, and spent most of the book feeling that I had missed the point.


Search Lit Flits for more:
Books by Ayse Kulin / Contemporary fiction / Books from Turkey

Friday 18 November 2016

Half The Sky by Nicholas D Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn


Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn
Published in America by Knopf Publishing Group in September 2009.

How I got this book:
Bought the ebook from Amazon

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Pulitzer Prize-winning reporting team, husband and wife Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, take us on a journey through Africa and Asia to meet an extraordinary array of exceptional women struggling against terrible circumstances. More girls have been killed in the last fifty years, precisely because they are girls, than men were killed in all the wars of the twentieth century combined. More girls are killed in this routine 'gendercide' in any one decade than people were slaughtered in all the genocides of the twentieth century. In the nineteenth century, the central moral challenge was slavery. In the twentieth, it was totalitarianism. In the twenty-first, Kristof and WuDunn demonstrate, it will be the struggle for gender equality in the developing world. Fierce, moral, pragmatic, full of amazing stories of courage and inspiration, HALF THE SKY is essential reading for every global citizen.

I guess came to the Half The Sky book backwards as I was an active member of microlending charity Kiva for a couple of years before I got around to buying it in October 2014. By then I had already joined Kiva's Half The Sky team as I was aware of the gist of the book. I am transferring my review over from my Stephanie Jane blog today to celebrate having now lent $3000 within this team!

I'm not completely sure how I feel about Half The Sky now having read it. Its aims are obviously admirable and by appealing to such a wide audience and being bought in great numbers, its message will reach many people who might previously been unaware of the plight of many of our world's women. However, I felt a bit awkward at the patronising tone in some places. Written primarily for an affluent American audience, there is very much a 'them and us' feel to the writing. Abuses happen 'elsewhere' and the apparent importance and influence of American political decisions to life and death in other sovereign nations is unnerving. It reminded me of the power of the former British empire and of how many of our decisions were catastrophic to those on the receiving end.

Also, the emotional manipulation throughout the text is phenomenal! At least the authors are upfront about this. They discuss how experiments have proved that individuals are more likely to donate, and to donate larger sums, to single named individual than to a country or a general appeal. (On reflection, this is also how Kiva works - by putting forward a series of individuals and their stories.) Before and after having made this point, that is exactly what the Half The Sky authors do. Don't expect much in the way of hard facts and figures, but instead there are dozens of anecdotes: stories of first-named women across Asia and Africa who were all horrifically treated, denied medical care, denied education, simply due to their gender. Reading so many tales is a bit like watching the serious bits of Children in Need or Comic Relief. You know you're being manipulated by clever research and editing, but there is a real need too and, by the end, you're pretty punch drunk and overwhelmed.

I am glad I have read Half The Sky. Similarly to The Rape of Nanking, its success is to get the world talking. It has reinforced my commitment to Kiva and I will now also be searching out other deeper books on the topics raised. Suggestions of other titles will be gratefully received.


Etsy Find!
by Wry Toast Designs in
Washington, USA

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Search Literary Flits for more:
Books by Nicholas D Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn / Reportage / Books from America

Tuesday 15 November 2016

IA: Initiate by John Darryl Winston


IA: Initiate by John Darryl Winston
Published by Purple Ash Press in April 2014.

Where to buy this book:
Buy from independent booksellers via Abebooks
Buy the ebook from Amazon.comAmazon.co.uk

How I got this book:
Won an ebook from the author in a Goodreads giveaway

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

IA: Initiate is a supernatural thriller set in the mean streets of America. A seemingly random act of gang violence sends "Naz" Andersen on a quest to find answers surrounding his dead parents and leads to a series of discoveries about his supernatural abilities. Naz tries to stay out of the way at his foster parent's home, but he walks in his sleep. He is unable to keep the fact that he hears voices from his therapist. He attempts to go unnoticed at school and in the streets of the Exclave, but attracts the attention of friends and bullies alike. His efforts to protect his little sister make him the target of malicious bullying by the notorious street gang, Incubus Apostles. Naz is an ordinary thirteen-year-old, or so he thinks. He harbors a secret that even he is oblivious to, and a series of ill-fated events reveal to him telekinetic and telepathic abilities. Now he must navigate newly found friendship and gang violence, and face the full force of the world around him. The only way he can survive is to discover the supernatural world within.

IA Initiate is set in a slightly futuristic dystopian cityscape. The Exclave is recognisable as the rough end of any present-day Western city, yet is given a sense of difference through interesting use of language and descriptions of elements such as the hyperstores and the Helix train. The Market Merchants reminded me of the Chinese stores in practically every Spanish town - everything you could possibly want even though you don't know you need something until you see it there!

Naz Anderson is our thirteen year old protagonist, a head-down, stay-unnoticed kind of boy, orphaned and devoted to his younger sister, Meri. Winton's creations of both Naz and Meri are well done making it easy to envisage these children and to empathise with them. We learn of the trauma in their past and how Naz in particular is having problems due to these events. Other characters around them are more hazy, but may develop further in sequel(s) to this novella.

IA Initiate kept me interested throughout and I like Winston's understated style of writing. This is very much a YA novella, written by a teacher, and I thought it occasionally veered too close to overt moralising, but I enjoyed the read nonetheless. His created world has a hint of scifi without being bafflingly different and there are enough intriguing open threads to tempt me into its sequel, IA Boss. However, IA Initiate has a good story arc in its own right and A Proper Sense Of An Ending!


Search Lit Flits for more:
Books by John Darryl Winston / Young adult books / Books from America

Monday 14 November 2016

March by Geraldine Brooks


March by Geraldine Brooks
First published by Viking Press in 2005. Won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Audio edition narrated by Richard Easton published by Penguin Audio.

Where to buy this book:
Buy the book from Amazon.comAmazon.co.uk
Buy the paperback from Speedyhen
Buy the paperback from The Book Depository
Buy the paperback from Waterstones

How I got this book:
Downloaded the audiobook from AudioSYNC

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

"Set during the American Civil War, ‘March’ tells the story of John March, known to us as the father away from his family of girls in ‘Little Women’, Louisa May Alcott’s classic American novel. In Brooks’s telling, March emerges as an abolitionist and idealistic chaplain on the front lines of a war that tests his faith in himself and in the Union cause when he learns that his side, too, is capable of barbarism and racism. As he recovers from a near-fatal illness in a Washington hospital, he must reassemble the shards of his shattered mind and body, and find a way to reconnect with a wife and daughters who have no idea of the ordeals he has been through.
As Alcott drew on her real-life sisters in shaping the characters of her little women, so Brooks turned to the journals and letters of Bronson Alcott, Louisa May’s father, an idealistic educator, animal rights exponent and abolitionist who was a friend and confidante of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. The story spans the vibrant intellectual world of Concord and the sensuous antebellum South, through to the first year of the Civil War as the North reels under a series of unexpected defeats."

I liked the idea of filling in the missing year of the Little Women's father and especially chose to buy a copy of Louisa May Alcott's classic recently as I wanted it to be fresh in my memory when listening to March. Geraldine Brooks has done a great job of aligning her story with Alcott's and I enjoyed spotting nods to the original. She has also taken a far wider view of 1860s America providing an overview of the Civil War and the societal divides which led to it. I am sure that March has been impeccably researched and every minute, superbly narrated by Richard Easton, rang with authentic detail, however I didn't find myself as captivated by this book as I had hoped I would be.

For starters, March himself is infuriatingly and patronisingly 'right on' at every opportunity, even though his actions frequently fail to back up his holier than thou words. I almost cheered when fever finally struck him dumb - not the opinion I should have had, I know! Marmee, his wife takes over storytelling for the last couple of hours however and it was interesting to hear her take on events of which we had previously heard from him. 'Don't assume' I think would be the overriding message! Overall, I am glad to have had the opportunity to listen to this audiobook. I did learn a little more about America's Civil War than I had previously known and I liked Brooks' writing style, but I think the book could have done with a stronger storyline. As it was, I felt Brooks was trying to show as many aspects of the War as she could and having March flit from pillar to post to enable this didn't really work for me.


Search Lit Flits for more:
Books by Geraldine Brooks / Historical fiction / Books from Australia

Saturday 12 November 2016

Until Thy Wrath Be Past by Asa Larsson


Until Thy Wrath Be Past by Asa Larsson
First published in Swedish in Sweden as Till dess din vrede upphor by Albert Bonniers Forlag in 2008. English translation by Laurie Thompson published by MacLehose Press in 2011.

One of my WorldReads from Sweden
I registered my copy of this book on BookCrossing

Where to buy this book:
Buy from independent booksellers via Abebooks
Buy the book from Amazon.comAmazon.co.uk
Buy the paperback from Speedyhen
Buy the paperback from Waterstones

How I got this book:
Bought from a charity shop

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"In the first thaw of spring the body of a young woman surfaces in the River Torne in the far north of Sweden. Rebecka Martinsson is working as a prosecutor in nearby Kiruna, her sleep troubled by visions of a shadowy, accusing figure. Could the body belong to the girl in her dream? Joining forces with Police Inspector Anna-Maria Mella, Martinsson will need all her courage to face a killer who will kill again to keep the past buried under half a century of silent ice and snow."

I couldn't put this book down and stayed glued to it almost from start to finish, reading the entire novel in a single afternoon and evening! I loved Larsson's prose which brings her settings and characters vividly to life - yes, even the dead ones! - while still maintaining a gripping pace. I don't think there was a dull moment throughout the book. Larsson set Until Thy Wrath Be Past in a small town to the North of Sweden so we get a very different view of the country and people to the more usual Stockholm-based Scandi-Crime fare. The very first person we meet is a murder victim, several months after the crime took place, so she is a ghost, but this was presented in such a matter of fact way that, for me, the device worked surprisingly well without ever becoming whimsical. Both our lead detective and our prosecutor are women and neither are burnt-out alcoholics which makes a refreshing change. They do, of course, have Issues and, as this is not the first in the Rebecka Martinsson series, there were moments where my lack of back-story knowledge affected understanding of these, but the crime narrative is completely self-contained so I didn't feel that I missed anything from that. I admit I wasn't completely convinced by the feasibility of the ending, but the journey to get there was excellent and both my partner and I enjoyed the book very much. So much so in his case that he has already bought another novel in the series. Praise indeed!


Search Lit Flits for more:
Books by Asa Larsson / Crime Fiction / Books from Sweden

Friday 11 November 2016

Slater's Sussex by James Trollope


Slater's Sussex by James Trollope
Published by the Towner Gallery with Eastbourne Borough Council and the Arts Council on 27th April 2013.

Where to buy this book:
Buy the paperback from Amazon.comAmazon.co.uk
Buy the paperback from Waterstones

How I got this book:
Bought the paperback from Towner Gallery

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

"This is the first book to explore the life and work of Eric Slater, a colour woodcut artist who enjoyed international success in the 1930s but died in obscurity in 1963. He was one of a group of British print makers who adapted Japanese techniques to suit Western tastes. There are over 50 illustrations including 17 full colour plates. Most of his prints depict the Sussex landscape near his home in Seaford. As well as a list of his known works, there is a suggested walk through the countryside which inspired him."

I loved Eric Slater's artwork when it was included in the Point Of Departure exhibition at the Towner Gallery in Eastbourne in 2012. His woodcut prints were created during the 1930s and, as he lived much of his life in Seaford, several depict scenes local to where I then lived. The evocative images included in Point Of Departure had been chosen by James Trollope, an expert on Slater's work, and I was delighted to discover that James had also written a book about this artist. I treated myself to one of the first copies available!

I particularly love the seventeen full page colour reproductions of Slater's prints. Seeing them all together gives a wonderful feel for his work and of the period in which he created them. My favourites from the Towner exhibition are there as well as other landscapes and floral still life images. James Trollope has penned a fascinating biography of Eric Slater and also describes the Japanese technique he used. Slater's Sussex is an interesting read and I know I will pick it up to see the prints again and again.


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Books by James Trollope / Arts and culture / Books from England

Thursday 10 November 2016

Wasp Days by Erhard von Buren


Wasp Days by Erhard von Buren
First published in German in Switzerland as Wespenzeit by Rotpunktverlag in 2000. English translation by Helen Wallimann published by Matador in July 2016.

Featured in WorldReads: Switzerland

How I got this book:
Received a review copy from the publisher via NetGalley

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


"Summertime. While his wife and daughters are away on holiday, the husband – a librarian by profession – back home at work in the stultifying heat of a provincial Swiss town, indulges in reminiscence. With light amusement he recalls old love affairs. Memories come back of student days in Zurich and academic research in Paris, of starting family life, of trifling matters and crucial turning-points. But again and again the narrator also returns to the present; he describes his work at the library, life in his small town, acquaintances old and new and finally, in the autumn, a journey with his wife to China.
The author's ironic but amiable look at life in all its diversity, the combination of laconic recounting and academic recollection, day-dreaming sequences and conscious remembering make for an enjoyable and intellectually stimulating read."

Wasp Days is an unusual book which I wasn't sure whether I would like or not. It took me a while to get into von Buren's previous novel, Epitaph For A Working Man, and I experienced the same adjustment time with Wasp Days. The first chapter is an older man reminiscing about women who had been his lovers in his youth and its sets our narrator up in a particularly unlikeable light, or so I thought anyway! Essentially a perpetual small-scale academic, he sees himself as something of a catch despite relying on his wife, Eva, to whom he is unfaithful, to organise anything practical and to finance their family through her career. Eva is the dynamo of the partnership bringing up their daughters, arranging their house moves and providing their social face, while our narrator potters and hides away in libraries.

I did rather envy him his library-closeted life and, as we get to know him better, I could see what initially seemed chauvinistic arrogance actually as sheer bravado. He might have been daring in a small way in his younger days, but now he is dusty and fading, paranoid about his health and almost afraid to step outside of his clearly defined comfort zones. I never felt sorry for him, but found this novel compelling reading as more was revealed. My wanderlust was sparked by reading Wasp Days too. A late voyage to China is briefly described in fascinating detail and I was entranced by Paris scenes. Wasp Days certainly won't be a book for everyone and it meandering pace is sometimes too slow. I liked it though and enjoyed reading this careful portrait of a man of a certain age.


Search Literary Flits for more:
Books by Erhard von Buren / Contemporary fiction / Books from Switzerland

Wednesday 9 November 2016

The MacKinnon's Bride by Tanya Anne Crosby + Free book


The MacKinnon's Bride by Tanya Anne Crosby
First published in America by Avon Books in June 1996.

This book is set in Scotland so I am counting it as my fifth book for the 2016 Read Scotland Challenge.

Where to buy this book:
Download the ebook free from Amazon.com / Amazon.co.uk
Buy from independent booksellers via Abebooks
Buy from independent booksellers via Alibris

How I got this book:
Downloaded the ebook from Amazon

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

'When laird Iain MacKinnon's young son is captured by the English, the fierce Scottish chieftain retaliates in kind, capturing the daughter of his enemy to bargain for his boy's return. Fiercely loyal to kin, Iain never imagines a father can deny his child--or that he will become Page FitzSimon's savior. "Keep her, or kill her!" FitzSimon proclaims when Iain forces his hand. What can a good lad do, but take the lass home. Even as Page blames her reluctant champion for welching on a bargain with her father, she suspects the truth... the shadows hold secrets... and danger. Now only love can save MacKinnon's fiery new bride.'

Instead of a giveaway competition, this Wednesday I chosen to review a book that its author is giving away so everybody can get a freebie! The MacKinnon's Bride is the first in Tanya Anne Crosby's Highland Brides series and is free as an ebook via Amazon. Click through the links above to download your copy. (If you prefer to read a physical book, low priced copies are available from many independent booksellers via Abebooks and Alibris.)

I did quite enjoy reading The MacKinnon's Bride. I would have preferred a faster pace as there is a lot of unnecessary padding which drags, but the novel has a nice storyline. The ending is, of course, telegraphed from practically the first time Page and MacKinnon meet - and from the book's title of course - but that doesn't detract from its charm. I didn't get much sense of a historical setting other than an odd sprinkling of olde worlde language, forsooth, and there's no great depth to the characters, but for a light romance The MacKinnon's Bride is fun.


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Books by Tanya Anne Crosby / Romance / Books from America

Monday 7 November 2016

Love, Life, Loss And Leaving by Andrew Baguley and Janet Rawson


Love, Life, Loss And Leaving by Andrew Baguley and Janet Rawson
Published by Citsea Press in January 2013.

Where to buy this book:
Buy the ebook from Amazon.comAmazon.co.uk

How I got this book:
Bought the ebook from Amazon

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"Authors Andrew Baguley and Janet Rawson have compiled a selection of their most enticing and diverse contemporary stories to thrill, shock and tickle. Where ordinary people react to extra-ordinary events: ‘A roomful of weeping women and him the wrong side of the door.’ ‘You never told me’, she said, ‘where to find the section for Poison Ivy.’ ‘What if it was a larger lady? Could he manage?’"

As it is made up of independent short stories and poems, Love, Life, Loss and Leaving can be dipped into and I found myself returning to the collection on several occasions over the months after I first purchased it. I like the way the book alternates between authors because the different voices compliment each other well. The subjects of the stories appeal to my dark side and there are certainly a few that should not be read too close to bedtime - especially if you're prone to bad dreams. I think my favourite stories are Far Fathoms and Time To Kill by Janet Rawson and The New Jesus by Andrew Baguley.


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Books by Andrew Baguley and Janet Rawson / Short stories / Books from England

Tuesday 1 November 2016

Four Chambers by John Henry Winter


Four Chambers by John Henry Winter
Published by Long Fox Press in August 2014.

Where to buy this book:
Buy the ebook from Amazon.comAmazon.co.uk

How I got this book:
Downloaded ebook from Amazon

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Many things happened today and Amit wondered why.... What if a billion years passes in the blink of an eye? What happens to yesterday when tomorrow dawns? There are possibilities and there are probabilities and you will already know they are not the same thing. Amit knows. He pays close attention to that sort of thing. On the cusp of completing his research an unexpected configuration has appeared. No matter how hard he tries to ignore it, the image refuses to leave. Meanwhile, a sniper targets journalists visiting an Afghan market, a cruise ship sinks in the Arctic Ocean and a young boy struggles with his first piano composition. With his orderly schedule thrown into disarray, Amit searches with increasing desperation for the meaning behind the configuration. Is it linked to the events elsewhere? What does the man in the blue suit really want? Why on earth has his wife told Clara?
Four Chambers is an ambiguous tale of timeless connections and atomic entanglement. It is a story of four individuals linked by forces in existence since the birth of the universe; of time and distance, speed and location. Ultimately, Four Chambers is a story of love. A story of love, energy and the immortality that exists within us all. Because when we stop moving it is just possible we may live forever.

I'm going to describe Four Chambers as an 'onion' of a book and I hope you'll bear with me while I explain why. It's not because reading it made my eyes water! I discovered this novella through a BooksGoSocial newsletter a couple of months ago and was intrigued by its synopsis. Four well told but initially disparate tales are slowly revealed to have unexpected links and this is where my onion analogy comes in. I soon realised that, despite its short length, Four Chambers is not a quick read. It's four individual characters' stories are straightforward enough, but to simply understand their situations misses out a lot of Four Chambers' meaning. It's the seemingly innocuous connections that made this work fascinating for me and the more I spotted, the more engrossed I become in the book and the more I had to mull over between finishing reading it and writing this review.

There is an interesting interview with Winter on the Long Fox Press website in which he talks about quantum physics being his inspiration. Don't worry if you're not a physicist! I'm a 'likes watching Big Bang Theory' level scientist myself and (think) I understood Four Chambers just fine so potential readers don't need a degree. However the quantum ideas of widely separated events or actions being linked in bizarre ways is what drives this novella and Winters' interpretation of this makes for an unusual and thoughtful read.


Search Lit Flits for more:
Books by John Henry Winter / Novellas / Books from England