The Last Continent by Terry Pratchett

Waterstone’s Synopsis:

It’s the Discworld’s last continent and it’s going to die in a few days, except…Who is this hero striding across the red desert? Sheep shearer, beer drinker, bush ranger, and someone who’ll even eat a Meat Pie Floater when he’s sober. A man in a hat whose luggage follows him on little legs. Yes, it’s Rincewind, the inept wizard who can’t even spell wizard. He’s the only hero left. Still…no worries, eh?

This has become one of my favourite Discworld books. It is number 22 in the series and features the Wizards – the Wizards on holiday in fact! While trying to find someone who knows about geography they stumble through an open window onto a hot island. This window closes and they are stuck. Meanwhile, Rincewind is loose and trying to escape from whatever it is he is expected to do, as usual.

I loved this book. There were moments in it that I was crying with laughter – such as when the wizards trying to explain sex to a god. The wizards just lack common sense and magic, and it was so funny reading about them on a desert island and their attempt to get back to Unseen University. And there is the fact that they are stuck on the island with a woman….they are like hormonal teenage boys – very funny. And of course Rincewind always makes me laugh. He manages to save everyone in all his adventures, but essentially he does this by running away and being scared; and drinking beer.

I really enjoyed this book and got through it very quickly. We get a visit from Death in the book too which always makes me laugh – his wit is hilarious. The book is full of adventure and humour, as well as gripping storylines – I really wanted to know if they wizards would make it back in an edible boat – and amazing descriptions. Without fail Pratchett always transports me to the Discworld with no trouble and I love it. This is highly recommended.

9/10

Jingo by Terry Pratchett

Waterstone’s Synopsis:

Discworld goes to war, with armies of sardines, warriors, fishermen, squid and at least one very camp follower. As two armies march, Commander Vimes of Ankh-Morpork City Watch faces unpleasant foes who are out to get him…and that’s just the people on his side. The enemy might be even worse. “Jingo”, the 21st in Terry Pratchett’s phenomenally successful “Discworld” series, makes the World Cup look like a friendly five-a-side.

This is book 21 in the Discworld series and features the Watch. After finding an unoccupied area of land, Ankh-Morpork finds itself at war to claim this land – even though it is deserted and not particularly impressive. Everyone seems to have their own agenda and different ways of conquering and taking the land as their own.

I much preferred this book to the previous Watch book, Feet of Clay. I found the storyline more gripping and the characters amused me a lot more. The Watch are an amusing group of individuals – not all human, and they have many different talents. Carrot, the human raised as a dwarf always cracks me up. He is so sensitive and literal, and Detritus the troll was hilarious. Listening to him going “I’m gunna be thick” just made me laugh. His approach to politics – intimidate to get results amused me a lot.

I found this book back to Pratchett’s high standard. His writing style whisked me off to the Discworld and took me on an adventure as the Watch fought for politics which I enjoyed. The book was funny, full of fantasy and adventure and an enjoyable read. I love this series and cannot get enough of it.

8/10

Old Boyfriends by Debbie Macomber

Waterstones Synopsis:

“She didn’t understand how she could lie beside him in bed night after night and dream about another man…”When Susannah Nelson turned eighteen, her parents sent her to school abroad. She said goodbye to her boyfriend, Jake – and never saw him again.Years later, Susannah finds herself regretting the paths not taken. Returning to her parents’ house and her girlhood friends, she also returns to the past – and discovers that things are not always as they once seemed…

This book is another in the Blossom Street series. In this book we are introduced to Susannah of Susannah’s Garden. The book is set before she buys the shop on Blossom Street. Her mission is to get her mother into assisted living accommodation and to go through the house of her parents. She is suffering from depression, which is leading her to regret things that happened in her life, such as losing the love of her life, Jake.

As ever, I enjoyed this book, but I do not think it is Macomber’s best, nor do I think it is the best in the Blossom Street series. I think Macomber deals with some hard issues, such as depression and the need to live in a nursing home, as well as dealing with past regrets and I think the storyline was good. However, there towards the end there was a twist I didn’t see coming, and to be honest, I didn’t believe. And that spoilt the story for me. The return of someone from her past was not believable at all. But because this occurred close to the end of the book I don’t think it ruined the book completely.

Macomber is very good at writing characters who I like and empathise with. I like Susannah. I didn’t always agree with her decisions but I understood where she came from and I felt for her with all the decisions she had to make. I think her mother was written well too – an elderly lady who was starting to suffer from memory loss. I think she sensitive and realistic. My favourite character however was Caroline – Susannah’s old school friend. She was focused and loyal and believable.

This is chick-lit, and for the most part a good read. It was easy to read and easy to get into, I was just disappointed with the ending.

7/10

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

This rather beautiful books tells the story of three women, two of whom – Aibileen and Minny – are black maids working for white families in Jackson, Mississippi, in the 1960s, when racial segregation meant that black and white people could not mix socially, could not use the same restaurants, and could not go to the same hospitals or churches.  The third woman is a white girl named Skeeter, who comes home from college with dreams of becoming a writer.  She eventually decides to write a book about what it is like to be a black maid working for a white family, and she, Aibileen and Minny become embroiled in an exciting and potentially dangerous project. 

I’m not sure I can accurately put into words how much I enjoyed this book.  The three narrators’ voices (Aibileen, Minny and Skeeter) come through beautifully and each character is distinct and wholly believeable.  We see each character’s life through their own eyes, and watch as they cope with their own problems (Aibileen is still grieving over the death of her son, and trying hard to make the young child she looks after grow up to be a nice person; Minny lives with an abusive husband and several demanding children; Skeeter has an over-bearing mother who won’t explain the sudden disappearance of Skeeter’s beloved childhood maid).

As well as the three central characters, there are a multitude of other people of great importance to the storyline.  Hilly Holbrook is a long time friend of Skeeter’s, but the bond between them is pulled very taut as the hypocritical and bigoted Hilly dislikes Skeeter’s desire for awareness and change.  Their other best friend, Elizabeth Leefolt, is Aibileen’s boss and it is her daughter who Aibileen cares for (seemingly far more than Elizabeth does).  However, my favourite of the ’supporting’ players is Celia Foote – Minny’s boss, who herself feels an outsider, as Hilly and her friends consider that she is not good enough to associate with them. 

Historical events such as the death of JFK and Martin Luther King’s famous “I have a dream” speech are covered here, adding to the already very real sense of the time in which this novel is set.

One of the things I most admired about the novel is that the author does not just show the characters as either good or bad.  She shows them as totally believable people.  Some of the nicer people sometimes do less-than-good things, and some of the not-so-nice characters in the book can show that they have a heart.

I loved this book, and would say it is definitely my favourite book out of all that I have read this year.  It’s thought-provoking, funny in places (look out for the scene with the toilets), and it made me cry in other places.  I was riveted throughout; my attention was grabbed on page one, and was held right through to the last page.

Utterly fantastic read, and very strongly recommended.  10/10

Influential Women by Wendy Virgo

Waterstones synopsis:

Wendy offers studies of key women in the New Testament as a starting point for a series of reflections on women’s roles in the church today. Some of these women were saints, full of good works; some were frankly poisonous and did considerable harm. From her long experience within New frontiers, Wendy offers a good deal of shrewd advice and writes candidly about her own struggles to fit into church structures. ‘Women can be powerful in a church and can be influential in changing it from a sick community to a healthy one. They can be a tremendous asset or a huge liability. They can influence the whole ambiance of a church…The pages of the New Testament contain a surprising number of references to women to whom we can relate as we seek to build good healthy churches in the twenty first century’.

In this book Wendy studies the women in the New Testament and shows how even though women are not meant to lead the church, they can still influence it, either in a good way or bad. I liked the way Wendy did this – she expands on Biblical story, adding fiction to make the stories substantial and for the point to be explained. There are explanations and examples to help us understand how we can function well in the church. Wendy also uses real life examples, from her own life and friend’s stories, so we can see the impact women can have.

I found this book really useful and will be holding onto it. I think this is an important read for women in church, so they know how they can help the men and wait to watch out for so that they do not cause problems. I for one know I don’t want to be a jezebel and now have an idea of what to be aware of.

This book is for women and does have some strong opinions, such as how women should not lead the church. I think this should be pointed out so people are prepared in case they might be offended/have a different view. I agreed with what Wendy wrote however and found this book incredibly well written, easy to read and very helpful. I have nothing bad to say about this book and highly recommend it.

10/10

Girl In a Red Tunic by Alys Clare

In medieval 1193, while the King, Richard the Lionheart is held captive by the Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI, many people in England find themselves short of food and provisions, due to the efforts made to raise the ransom for the King’s release.  In Hawkenlye Abbey, things are no different, and Abbess Helewise is struggling to make ends meet.  So she is delighted when her son Leofgar arrives for a visit with his wife Rohaise and their young son Timus.  However, it soon becomes clear that Leofgar and Rohaise are hiding something; Rohaise is terrified of her own shadow, and Timus barely speaks.  As the family stay at the Abbey, their states of mind improve and things seem to be getting better.  However, when a man is found hung, strung from a tree near to the Abbey, Leofgar, Rohaise and Timus leave the premises unannounced and are nowhere to be found.

Aided by her faithful friend, the Knight, Sir Josse D’Acquin, Helewise sets out to solve the mystery of the man’s hanging and her own son’s disappearance.  In doing so, she has to look into her own past, when she was a wife and mother to the handsome Ivo, and ask herself if her husband’s family were really the good people that she believed them to be.

This book is one of a series set around Abbey Hawkenlye, with the Abbess at it’s centre.  However, this was easy to read as a stand-alone novel, and I did not feel that lack of knowledge of the background of the characters hindered my reading at all.

The story moved along quickly, without ever feeling too rushed.  It is an undemanding read, which made it perfect for curling up with to relax.  The mystery at the heart of the story was intriguing enough to hold my interest throughout, and I found myself engrossed enough to consider reading the other books in the series.

The sense of the period in which the book was set was conveyed well, but this book was really more about the events which happened, rather than portraying life in the medieval period.  For instance, the situation with the captivity of Richard the Lionheart was mentioned only at the beginning of the story, and in no way really effected the events in the book.  I also enjoyed the parts where Helewise reminisced about her past – for readers of the whole series, I imagine this may have filled in a lot of gaps about the character’s life.

Having said that, the characterisation wasn’t brilliant.  Josse was extremely likeable and was probably my favourite character throughout the book.  However, there was little exploration of the other characters.  However, this did not detract from my enjoyment.

Overall then, this is a leisurely read, and I don’t believe that a special interest in the medieval period is necessary for this book to be enjoyed.  I would certainly read more by this author.

The Bone Collector by Jeffery Deaver

Lincoln Rhyme is New York City’s best Criminalist, who has helped solve some of the most perplexing crimes that have been committed in the city.  He is also a quadraplegic, as the result of an accident at a crime scene, three years before; and has decided to kill himself.  But then the Police need his help.  Someone is committing brutal and seemingly random attacks in the city, and the only person who can solve the clues left behind is Rhyme.  However, Rhyme can’t walk the crime scenes himself, so he needs somebody to do it for him.  Amelia Sachs is working her last shift as a Patrol Officer, before she transfers into Public Affairs.  But the scene she stumbles across in the morning, leads her head-first into a new investigation, where she finds herself being the eyes and ears of Lincoln Rhyme…

This is the first novel in the Lincoln Rhyme series, and I felt that it did a great job of introducing the two main characters, Rhyme and Sachs.  The story itself had a lot of twists and turns, and there were some genuine surprises along the way.  I was never able to second guess what was going to happen, and the action moved along at a fast pace, making me want to keep reading.

As well as the main storyline, about Rhyme and his hastily assembled team trying to solve the case, the relationship between Rhyme and Sachs is explored, and as a result, I felt that I got to know the two characters well.

The other characters weren’t so well developed (with the exception of Rhyme’s aide Thom, who I adored), but that did not detract from the enjoyment of the book.  As this is the first in a series, there is presumably plenty of time to get to know the others.

I did feel that at times, the storyline about the kidnappings stretched credibility somewhat.  Rhyme is certainly supposed to be brilliant, but on occasions he seemed able to deduce something very specific from the vaguest of clues.  This is the course the character’s job, but it did feel slight unbelieveable.  However, there was enough excitement and intrigue in this book for me to forgive that minor niggle.

Overall, this is a cut above a lot of other crime based novels, and is very cleverly written.  (it’s very evident that Deaver has done his research with regards to forensic work and equipment).  A highly recommended read.

The Boy Who Loved Anne Frank by Ellen Feldman

‘The Boy who loved Anne Frank’ tells the story of Peter van pels, also known as Peter van Daan in ‘The Diary of Anne Frank’ and what if he had survived the war. The story begins with Peter seeing a doctor because he has lost his voice, he does not understand why he has lost his voice but as the story progresses you find out why, as hard as he tries to forget, Peter cannot leave his time in annexe in the past, his experiences following his liberation. Peter struggles with himself, he hides his true self, he will not speak to his wife, as time goes on, the situation becomes worse for Peter, as ‘The Diary of Anne Frank’ is released, then to the stage show and finally, the film, Peter begins to question his past, and begins to face it.
I had a lot of sympathy for Peter, he was so unhappy, angry, he misses his parents, in some ways he has lost his identify, at times, I wished that Peter would speak to his wife, tell her who he was.
I found this book to be very insightful, a lot of research has went into the reactions regards Anne’s diary, the questions raised towards Otto Frank, the family of Fritz Pfeffer, it showed that there is more to the members of the annexe, the lost of so many lives, the ripple effect of loss and the questions raised from it. I found at times the questions concerning Anne where slightly unfair, the people who complained and found problems seem to forget that she was a teenager in unusual circumstances.
Highly recommended.

Reviewed by Paula Mc (Gyre/Heen)

By The Time You Read This by Lola Jaye

Waterstones Synopsis:

This is my (Kevin Bates) manual for my daughter Lois. The love of my life. Rules of the manual: 1.You must only read each new entry on your birthday 2.This is a private manual between you and me. 3.No peeping at the next entry unless it’s your birthday! When Lois Bates is handed the manual, she can barely bring herself to read it as the pain of her dad’s death is still so raw.Yet soon Kevin’s advice is guiding her through every stage of her life — from jobs to first loves and relationships. The manual can never be a substitute for having her dad back, but through his words Lois learns to start living again, and finds that happiness is waiting round the corner !

I was attracted to this book by the cover – green with a pretty pattern and the title. The title reminded me of Elizabeth Noble’s Things I Want My Daughter’s to Know – and in fact this book sports a similar theme: it is communication left from a dead parent for the children. When Lois is five her Dad dies. Up until the age of twelve Lois knows nothing about The Manual her Dad has left. This Manual is a hand written book with an entry on every birthday up until her thirtieth birthday.

Although not a particularly original idea, it was a good read. What was different was the fact the Manual was written by the Dad not the Mum, which highlights a special bond between father and daughter. I think Jaye’s writing of the Manual was very good and I didn’t for one moment think that this was a woman writing as a man – she wrote the part of the father well. She encompassed all the things a Dad would say to his little girl as she grows up – such as hoping she hasn’t discovered men! I think the advice given was helpful to Lois, and the reader. It was fresh and wise.

The Manual consisted of many sections, and of course the note on every birthday. However, not all of the Manual was in the book. Jaye skipped out years and didn’t include all the Miscellaneous section. Although I can understand why she did this, I do think it is a shame as a lot of emphasis is placed on how she can only read the next year’s message on her birthday. It is only a 320 page book too, which meant a lot of her life was missed out/rushed too. We follow Lois from the age of twelve to the age of thirty in not very many pages – some of which are full of the Manual. I sometimes found myself a bit lost and wondering how old she is now. I also found that this meant the only people in the book I felt connected too were the Dad and Lois. There were some important other characters who featured throughout the entire book but I didn’t seem to know them as intimately as I would have liked.

I found I had several questions too, such as what happened between her Dad and his sister? Why was the Manual started at the age of twelve? I found some things unclear. The ending was a bit predictable, but it was a happy ending.

Having listed my complaints, I must say that I found this very readable. I read it in two sittings – the story flew off the page. I amcriticising the book like I am because I enjoyed the book and felt there could have been more in it to make it excellent. Although we didn’t know all the characters well I liked them, and I found myself cheering Lois on. This is chick-lit, and it is an easy read. To be honest I probablypreferred Things I Want My Daughters To Know, but I did enjoy this book and would recommend it.

8/10

Anne Boleyn: A New Life of England’s Tragic Queen by Joanna Denny

Anne Boleyn is one of the most famous Queens of England. Typically in literature she is described as the manipulative schemer who lured Henry VIII from his devoted wife Katharine of Aragon and later met her death on (probably trumped up) charges of Adultery, Incest and Treason.

In this book, Denny presents a different view of Anne, as a victim of Henry’s cold blooded-ness.  She asserts that Henry relentlessly pursued Anne, who resisted because of his marriage to Katharine.  Anne finally succumbed to Henry’s advances and was then cast aside when it no longer suited him to be married to her.

The book is written in a very ‘readable’ way.  I often find non-fiction to be somewhat dry; however this book flowed easily and held my interest throughout.

It has obviously been very well researched, and Denny is clearly a Boleyn enthusiast, with a lot of passion for her subject.  However, this is a double edged sword.  While I firmly believe that it is important for any biographer to really care about their subject, Denny’s own view means that this book is extremely biased.  Katharine of Aragon is described as a vicious, manipulative and unreasonable woman, who lied to fulfill her ambition to become Queen of England.  Anne is painted almost as a saint, who could do no wrong and was blameless in every respect.

Joanna Denny wrote this book to bring balance to the general view of Anne; however, she has not created balance but has merely tipped the scales all the way to the other side.  She claims that the critics of Anne are biased – and this may well be true – but unfortunately, Denny shows herself to be equally as biased.  The women in Anne’s world are portrayed as evil and two faced, with the exception of Elizabeth I, Anne’s daughter.

I would recommend this book to anyone with an interest in Anne or the Tudor period, but I do not think that this book is ‘the truth’ about Anne Boleyn, as the author claims.