Book Review: The Conjuror's Bird by Martin Davies

Genre: Historical FictionPublished by: Hodder & Stoughton (2005)Pages: 306







Synopsis: It seems a long time ago that Fitz and Gabby were together, with his work on extinct species about to make him world-famous. Now, it's his career that is almost extinct. Suddenly, though, the beautiful Gabby reappears in his life. She wants his help in tracing the history of The Mysterious Bird of Ulieta, a creature once owned by the great 18th Century naturalist Joseph Banks. It soon becomes clear that Fitz is getting involved in something more complicated - and dangerous - than the search for a stuffed bird. To solve the puzzle, he must uncover the identity of the amazing woman Banks loved - a woman who has disappeared from history as effectively as the specimen he is hunting.

The book has two parallel stories, separated by almost 300 years. The 1700's story gave you a real feel of how difficult and different life was for a young woman with no prospects at that time, and how dependent they were on men looking after them. This contrasts sharply with both Katya and Gabby, the two very independent women in the present time who face no such problems.

Alternate chapters effortlessly blended into each time line with ease so you didn't feel as if you were getting confused.

Combined with an usual mystery about a stuffed bird this is a lovely mix of history (Captain Cook's voyages) with a little romance........who was the mysterious woman in the woods that Joseph Banks becomes captivated by? And how is she connected to the missing bird?

Martin Davies slowly and tantalisingly reveals the connection between the different eras without giving too much away too soon.

This is an enjoyable mystery with a difference - not just for ornithologists!

First Line: "That Thursday evening I was working late, removing the skull of a dead owl"

Favourite Line: "The cage-reared bird will always partly fear the sky"

What I Liked about this book: How Martin Davies skilfully ended each chapter on a cliff-hanger

What I didn't Like: It was a little slow in the middle

8/10

Back from Budapest !

Budapest is such a lovely city ............. from the wide streets to the magnificent buildings, statues and monuments which are dotted around commemorating uprisings, war victories, and heroes in all of this country's long and interesting history.




Me studying my indispensable Budapest Guidebook!

I would definitely recommend this pocket book guide to all the sights along the River Danube ........... we could plan out just where we wanted to go and what we wanted to see ........... lots of descriptions of the various museums, parks, historic baths and spas, hotels, eating places, popular shopping areas, etc etc. Everything you could possibly want and more!




Published by: Dorling Kindersley (Feb 2008)
128 Pages

Book Review: Keeping The World Away by Margaret Forster

Keeping the World Away by Margaret Forster

My review

rating: 2 of 5 stars
I really liked the idea of the book ............ a painting owned by different women and the effect on them ............ but I couldn't finish it, I just found it too boring.




View all my reviews.

Book Review: Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell (Kurt Wallander, Book 1)

This is Henning Mankell's 1st book (of 9) in the Inspector Wallander series.

My review is based on the abridged audio version recently serialised on BBC Radio 7.

Synopsis:
One frozen January morning at 5 am, Inspector Wallander responds to what he believes is a routine call out. When he reaches the isolated farmhouse he discovers a bloodbath. An old man has been tortured and beaten to death, his wife lies barely alive beside his shattered body, both victims of a violence beyond reason. The woman supplies Wallander with his only clue: the perpetrators may have been foreign. When this is leaked to the press, it unleashes racial hatred. Kurt Wallander is a senior police officer. . But now, with winter tightening and his activities being monitored by a tough-minded district attorney, Wallander must throw himself into a battle against time and against mounting xenophobia.

This is the first Henning Mankell book I've read/listened to and I know that he is a very popular Swedish best selling author.

Kurt Wallander is your typical over-worked Detective, working long hours but has tremendous dedication for the job at hand. In this book, Wallander has very few clues and no obvious motive for the horrendous murders of a farmer and his wife in their isolated farmhouse. There are some red herrings along the way and also some lucky breaks. It was an easy book to listen to, the writing is fast and pacy, but not too fast that you get confused.

What I Liked About This Book ~ It was a good murder mystery book and I certainly didn't guess 'who dunnit' which is always a bonus!

What I Didn't Like ~ The Swedish names were hard to remember but I know that's just me being pedantic! It is based in Sweden after all!

Why Did I Read It ~ I love a good detective story and I'd heard good things about Henning Mankell's books so I thought it was time that I tried one.

Would I Recommend It ~ Yes, and I'll certainly be looking out for his other books in the series.


Here is a list of the other books in the Kurt Wallander series ~

The Dogs of Riga

The White Lioness

The Man Who Smiled

Sidetracked

The Fifth Woman

One Step Behind

Firewall

The Pyramid

Book Review: The Story of Forgetting by Stefan Merrill Block

Abel Haggard, 70, all alone on his farm in Texas, lives on memories of the family he has lost. Once he lived there with his brother, who had Alzheimer's disease, his brother's wife and their daughter. But since they've been gone, he has steadily sold bits of his farmland to the developers who have built 'mansions' all around him, his house is now ramshackle and he is just waiting...........

Hundreds of miles away, 15 year old Seth Waller (who's ambition is to be a Scientist) lives with his mother and father. Over the years Seth has come to realise that his mother is not well but doesn't know what's wrong with her. After an incident at home it is decided that it is for the best if she goes into a home. So begins Seth's quest to find out more about his mothers condition.

Each chapter is narrated by either Abel or Seth and we learn more of their past and how they come to this point in their lives. At first we think they have nothing in common but as Seth begins his 'empirical investigation' to uncover the roots of the disease we realise they are inextricably linked.

They also share the knowledge of a mythical land called Isidora where no-one remembers anything, no-one has a name and all is peaceful and happy. In some ways this reminded me of Margaret Atwood's The Blind Assassin which has a story within a story.

I can't believe that this is Stefan Merrill Block's debut novel...........he writes with such experience and assuredness for one so young.

Favourite Lines From The Book ~ 'Theorists support the hypothesis that our success as a species is based as much, if not more, on our ability to forget more than on our ability to remember'

What I Liked About This Book ~ The way the words just seemed to flow along with ease. I liked the way the author delved back and forth in time so we slowly began to learn the secrets of each family.

What I Didn't Like About The Book ~ I could have done with less of the scientific diagnoses, I thought they went on for too long and were too difficult to comprehend.

Why Did I Read This Book ~ It was being discussed on the radio a few months ago and it sounded like a book that I could enjoy and learn something from. I had a relative with Alzheimer's Disease and so I was already interested in the subject matter.

Would I Recommend It ~ Yes.......in some parts it is quite heavy going, but at the heart of it is an interesting and heart warming tale, a story of loss and faith and of how the mind remembers what's important and forgets the unimportant.

Published by: Faber and Faber Limited
Pages: 310

Libraries!!

Don't you just love them! I use my local library an awful lot, I probably go in there twice a week, armed with a list of all the recommendations I've either read on the internet, heard about on the radio, seen on the TV or just from friends saying how much they've enjoyed a particular book.

I want to praise my wonderful library which, apparently, is one of the most popular and busiest in the UK despite being in a relatively small town.

After a major £1 million refurbishment in 2003, Blackburn Library has reinvented itself as a community resource with a retail feel – bright, spacious and funkily lit. It offers PDAs loaded with ebooks to take on holiday, comfy chairs, self service borrowing and a range of clubs including reading groups linked to others around the world, reflecting Blackburn’s diverse population.

In one corner of the library, near the CD's and DVD's, there is a wall-mounted plasma TV screen showing Sky Sports with comfy chairs, in another part you'll find young adults playing the latest games on a Playstation. Then in the main part is a large range of fiction and non-fiction titles, including many Audio Books, a Quick Choice section (picture shown above) ......... and that's just on the ground floor!

There's the Reference Library, Childrens Library, Learning Centre where the computers have internet access, Reading Room, Community History area for looking up newspapers etc. etc. so many things to mention. It's open 7 days a week, yes, 7 days!

It really is a credit to the people of Blackburn......and of course I mustn't forget there is the warm and friendly staff who are only too ready to help you. What more could one possibly want?!!

What's your library like?
Is it better than mine?
In what way?
Is it worse?
Do you have a library that's nearby or do you have to travel a long way?
Please feel free to leave me a comment.............

The 20 Best Selling Mass Market Fiction Books 2008 in UK*

1. No Time For Goodbye by Linwood Barclay
2. The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton
3. On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan
4. This Year It Will Be Different by Maeve Binchy
5. Book Of The Dead by Patricia Cornwell
6. The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak
7. The Outcast by Sadie Jones
8. The Appeal by John Grisham
9. Engleby by Sebastian Faulks
10. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
11. The Secret Life Of A Slummy Mummy by Fiona Neill

1. The Kite Runner (Film Tie-In) by Khaled Hosseini
2. East Of The Sun by Julia Gregson
3. Notes From An Exhibition by Patrick Gale
4. Sepulchre by Kate Mosse
5. Thanks For The Memories by Cecilia Ahern
6. PS, I Love You (Film Tie-In) by Cecilia Ahern
7. The Ghost by Robert Harris
8. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
9. Exit Music by Ian Rankin

*52 Weeks Ending 27th December 2008 from the Nielsen BookScan (www.nielsenbookscan.co.uk).

It's amazing the effect that Richard and Judy have on book sales. Of the 17 authors in the chart, 11 of them have featured in their Book Club.

I have read

• No Time For Goodbye by Linwood Barclay 8/10
• The Outcast by Sadie Jones 8/10
• East Of The Sun by Julia Gregson 8/10
• PS, I Love You by Cecilia Ahern 9/10

On my Bookshelf to be read

• A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
• The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
• Notes From An Exhibition by Patrick Gale

The 20 best selling Hardback Fiction Books to come next .................

Book Review: The Pirate's Daughter by Margaret Cezair-Thompson

Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Headline Publishing Group
Pages: 512


Synopsis:

An unforgettable story of love and adventure, spanning three decades of Jamaican history.Jamaica, 1946.; Errol Flynn washes up on in the Zaca", his storm-wrecked yacht.; Ida Joseph, the teenaged daughter of Port Antonio's Justice of the Peace, is intrigued to learn that the 'World's Handsomest Man' is on the island, and makes it her business to meet him.;For the jaded swashbuckler, Jamaica is a tropical paradise that Ida, unfazed by his celebrity, seems to share.;Soon Flynn has made a home for himself on Navy Island, where he entertains the cream of Hollywood at parties;that become a byword for decadence; - and;Ida has set her heart on marrying this charismatic older man who has singled her out for his attention.; Flynn and Ida do not marry, but Ida bears Flynn a daughter, May, who will meet her father but once.; The Pirate's Daughter" is a tale of passion and recklessness, of two generations of women and their battles for love and survivial, and of a nation struggling to rise to the challenge of hard-won independence.


For 14 year old Ida Joseph growing up in Jamaica in the 1940's, Errol Flynn brings the glamour and glitz of Hollywood to the small town where she lives. She can see Navy Island (which is about a mile from the coast) from her house and she loves the stories associated with it of Captain Bligh and Pirates and buried Treasure and of a ghost that walks the island, Sabine.

Her father becomes friends with Flynn and Ida meets his several times over the course of the next few years and, when she is 16, they become lovers. For Ida, he is the love of her life and she never stops loving him. For him, she is probably no-one special, just another one of his many conquests.

The author does not judge Flynn or his way of life, that is left to the reader to make their own mind up.

Ida then becomes pregnant with Flynn's daughter, May, the Pirate's daughter of the book's title. The second part of the book is concerned with May and how her mother struggles to bring up her daughter and look after her sick father. To do this, Ida goes to New York to earn some money, when May is 3. She comes back after a few years and the mother and daughter have to learn to get to know each other again and adjust to life together. All the while, knowing that Errol Flynn is living on Navy Island just a short taxi-boat ride away.............

The book also deals with serious issues of the violence surrounding Jamaica's independence and of how close to home it becomes.
I loved the descriptions of the Jamaican way of life, the food they ate, the mountains where Ida's grandmother lived where you had to ride on a donkey cart to reach her house!

An enjoyable read.
8/10

The 20 Best Selling Original Fiction Books 2008 in UK*

1. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
2. The Business by Martina Cole
3. The Gift by Cecilia Ahern
4. Devil May Care by Sebastian Faulks
5. Scarpetta by Patricia Cornwell
6. Azincourt by Bernard Cornwell
7. Angel Uncovered by Katie Price
8. Heart and Soul by Maeve Binchy
9. Thanks For The Memories by Cecilia Ahern
10. The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga

11. Remember Me by Sophie Kinsella
12. Cross Country by James Patterson
13. Brute Force by Andy McNab
14. This Charming Man by Marian Keyes
15. Bones of the Hills by Conn Iggulden
16. Just After Sunset by Stephen King
17. The Return by Victoria Hislop
18. Lords of the Bow by Conn Iggulden
19. The Appeal by John Grisham
20. Doors Open by Ian Rankin


*For the 52 weeks ending 27th December 2008 from the Nielsen BookScan www.nielsenbookscan.co.uk

Book Review: The Kissing Gates by Mackenzie Ford

Genre: Historical Fiction
Pages: 433
Publisher: Sphere

Synopsis:

'Set against the panorama of the First World War, The Kissing Gates is a poignant love story, a finely woven tapestry of choice, consequence and redemption. Mackenzie Ford explores the ambiguities of the human heart with an unwavering hand, and in so doing creates a haunting and moving tale that will resonate with the reader long after he or she has finished the last page." Pam Jenoff, bestselling author of Kommandant's Girl 'This book is a joy to read. Wonderful period detail, and the atmosphere so convincing it had me looking out the window for Zeppelins. The First World War ? with its no-man's land and valiant nurses ? is disturbingly contrasted to the peaceful idyll of rural England. Even the touching love story, with a secret ticking away like a time-bomb at its heart, has us on a knife-edge of uncertainty. And Ford provides fascinating details of the thrills of the wartime intelligence world. I was swept up in this intimate and captivating story of conflicting loyalties. It's the kind of read that lingers in the mind'

This is, in essence, a love story but with a huge secret at the heart of it.

Hal, the protagonist, is fighting in the trenches in World War 1, when a Christmas ceasefire happens. He, hesitantly, climbs into No Mans Land and meets Wilhelm his counterpart in the German Army. They exchange gifts and Wilhelm gives Hal a picture of himself and asks him to give it to his English girlfriend, Sam, who he met and fell in love with in England before the War started. Hal agrees to do this for him.

Shortly after, Hal is badly injured and goes home to recuperate - for him the fighting is over.

Hal, after recovery, then decides to try and find Wilhelm's love, Sam, and when he sees her he is instantly smitten. They meet accidentally (or so Sam thinks) and, the more Hal gets to know her, the more he falls deeply in love with her and, consequently, he doesn't tell her about Wilhelm, even though he knows that Sam is still in love with him and, indeed, has a son by him (though Wilhelm is unaware of this).

As the War rages, Hal and Sam go to live in London together but there is always Wilhelm's memory in the background. Is he still alive? Is Sam still in love with him? Can Sam ever love Hal and forget him?

As I said this is basically a love story but there is much more to it than that...it's the story of secrecy, guilt, hatred for the Germans, and how the War affected families in so many ways, how it tore them apart.

I have to say that I was disappointed with the last 10 pages or so, I felt that the author rushed it and didn't know how to end it properly. But if I try and put that to one side I thoroughly enjoyed the whole engrossing story, in particular the part Hal played in the Intelligence and also his sister's letters from the Front (she was a nurse) were very interesting.

Overall, an absorbing novel set during the First World War.

8/10

The 10 Best Selling Books in the UK for 2008*

1. The Tales of Beedle the Bard by JK Rowling
   
2. Guinness World Records
   
3. At My Mother's Knee by Paul O'Grady
   
4. No Time For Goodbye by Linwood Barclay
   
5. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
   
6. Dear Fatty by Dawn French
   
7. Jamie's Ministry of Food by Jamie Oliver
   
8. Delia's How to Cheat at Cooking by Delia Smith
   
9. That's Another Story by Julie Walters
   
10. Parky: My Autobiography by Michael Parkinson
    

* For the 52 weeks ending 27th December 2008 and taken from Nielsen BookScan - www.nielsenbookscan.co.uk

Of the Top 10 I have only read one of the books ............ No Time for Goodbye by Linwood Barclay, which I thoroughly enjoyed, I found it a real page-turner.

Over the next week or so (time permitting) I will be breaking down the Best Selling Book Lists into Top 20 Original Fiction - Top 20 Mass Market Fiction - Top 20 Hardback Non-Fiction - Top 20 Paperback Non-Fiction - Top 20 Children's Books and Top 20 Paperback Fiction.

Book Review: Q and A by Vikas Swarup

Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Transworld Publishers Ltd.
Pages: 384

Synopsis:

Ram Mohammad Thomas has been arrested. For answering twelve questions correctly on Who Will Win A Billion? Because a poor orphan who has never gone to school cannot name the smallest planet in the solar system, or the plays of Shakespeare. Unless he has cheated. Reviewing TV footage of the show, Ram tells us how he won, and takes us on an amazing tour of his life. From the day he is rescued from a dustbin, to his encounter with a security-crazed Australian colonel, and a spell as an over-creative guide at the Taj Mahal, Ram's survival instincts are infallible. Stunning an audience of millions, he draws on a store of street wisdom and trivia to provide him with the essential keys, not only to the quiz show, but to life itself. Set in modern India, "Q & A" presents a kaleidoscopic vision of the struggle of good against evil, and what happens when one boy has no choice left in life but to survive.


I had picked up this book and put it down at the library so many times before I finally decided that, yes, I would read it. And I am so glad that I did.

The word 'karma' is never used in the book but that is the word that, to me, sums it up.

The book begins with poor orphan boy Ram being arrested and taken into police custody after being accused by TV producers of cheating in a TV game show. He is tortured by the police who want him to confess, and we know that he is innocent as the game show owners admit to themselves that they just didn't have the money to pay him. Just as Ram is thinking of signing the confession papers to end the torture a young female lawyer comes along and stops the police and takes him away to her home. It is here that we slowly and amazingly learn the story of Ram's life and how he has been able to answer all the questions correctly.

From living and working for an aged film star to being a tour guide at the Taj Mahal and meeting good and bad people inbetween, Ram's faith in the goodness of life does not desert him and his unselfishness and kindness is rewarded when he needs it most.

This is not a book that preaches to the reader - it is a fascinating story that, okay, is full of coincidences, but I feel that life is like that sometimes.......coincidences do happen all the time. And not everything that happens to Ram is good, he does have his fair share of bad luck too.

I really loved this book, in some ways it is such a simple story of rags to riches but with a few twists and turns.

9/10

Book Review: Case Histories by Kate Atkinson

Genre: Modern Fiction
Pages: 416
Publisher: Transworld Publishers

Synopsis:

Cambridge is sweltering, during an unusually hot summer. To Jackson Brodie, former police inspector turned private investigator, the world consists of one accounting sheet - lost on the left, found on the right - and the two never seem to balance. Jackson has never felt at home in Cambridge, and has a failed marriage to prove it. Surrounded by death, intrigue and misfortune, his own life haunted by a family tragedy, he attempts to unravel three disparate case histories and begins to realise that in spite of apparent diversity, everything is connected...

At the beginning of the book the first 3 chapters each describe an event - the first one is of a missing little girl, the second is of a seemingly random murder of a teenage girl and the third is of a wife murdering her husband with an axe. All the events happen in different years.

In the present time, Jackson Brodie is approached by the missing girl's two elder sisters to enlist his help in finding her - the axe murderer's sister also asks Jackson to look for her niece - and the teenage girl's father contacts him to find his daughter's murder.

As the story unfolds we learn of family secrets and of friendships and liaisons in the past and the present. As Jackson attempts to track people down he also realises that someone is trying to kill him...........is this all connected to his work?

Who is the random woman we are introduced to in one chapter after another that seems to have no connection with anyone?

Most of the questions are answered and neatly tied up at the end. It all comes together in an interesting and well-written novel.

I do like the way that Kate Atkinson writes her stories......some with humour and tongue in cheek. This is the second book of hers that I've read after Behind the Scenes at the Museum and I look forward to reading more in the future.

I would recommend this book to anyone who loves a good mystery with a few twists and turns.

8/10

Most Borrowed Library Books in the UK

Here are the 10 Most Borrowed Library Fiction Books in the UK from June 2007 to June 2008

1. The House at Riverton by Kate Morton
2. The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards
3. Relentless by Simon Kernick
4. The Other Side of the Bridge by Mary Lawson
5. The Quickie by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge
6. The Sixth Target by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro
7. The Savage Garden by Mark Mills
8. Cross by James Patterson
9. Step on a Crack by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge
10. The Overlook by Michael Connelly

James Patterson is still the most borrowed author in the UK for the second year running, with Nora Roberts the second most borrowed and Josephine Cox the third.

No surprise to learn that JK Rowling's Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was the most borrowed Childrens Fiction Library Book with Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince in second place and Horrid Henry and the Football Fiend by Franscesca Simon in third place.

Book Review: The Memory Garden by Rachel Hore

Genre: Fiction
Pages: 400
Publisher: Pocket Books

Synopsis:
Lamorna Cove, in Cornwall's far west, is a tiny bay set at the mouth of a secluded wooded valley of wild beauty, the haunt, a hundred years ago, of a close-knit colony of artists. Here, to a rented cottage in the overgrown gardens of Merryn Hall, Melanie Pentreath retreats from her busy London life as a lecturer in art history to research a book about the painters, and to seek solace following the death of her mother and a broken love affair. In this magical place, full of echoes of the past, Mel helps her landlord, Patrick Winterton, restore the garden and starts to pull together the shreds of her life. Patrick finds some old paintings in a glory hole in one of the attics, and as they uncover the identity of the artist they are drawn into an extraordinary story of illicit passion and thwarted ambition from the Edwardian past which proves resonant in Mel's own life. Merryn is an idyll, and Mel and Patrick, himself here to escape a romantic disappointment, find themselves drawing closer to one another - until the reality of the outside world once more intervenes and everything is threatened.


The book started well, with Mel moving to the Gardeners Cottage of Merryn Hall while she writes her book, and then starts to renovate the very overgrown huge garden that had been neglected for nearly 100 years. Then she meets the young and handsome Patrick, who has recently inherited Merryn Hall from his deceased uncle.

The story goes back into the past occasionally where we meet Pearl, the new maid, who loves painting. I really enjoyed this part of the book and wish that the author could give us more of Pearl's story. But I guess that wasn't the idea.

I loved the descriptions of the garden - I could easily imagine the weeds, overgrown flowers, the greenhouse, the laurel maze, the secret grotto, among others. What an amazing garden it sounded.

But somehow I felt it lost its way about half way through and I must admit I did lose interest a little bit, but only a little, before it picked up and swept me along again.

I thoroughly enjoyed it overall.

8/10

(Please feel free to make a comment or email me at purplecards@googlemail.com. I'd love to hear from you.)

Book Review: The Witch's Trinity by Erika Mailman

Genre: Historical Fiction
Pages: 288 Pages
Published by: Crown

Synopsis:

The year is 1507, and a friar has arrived in Tierkinddorf, a remote German village nestled deeply in the woods. The village has been suffering a famine, and the villagers are desperately hungry. The friars arrival is a miracle, and when he claims he can restore the town to prosperity, the men and women gathered to hear him rejoice. The friar has a book called the Malleus Maleficarum;a guide to gaining confessions of witchcraft. The friar promises he will identify the guilty woman who has brought Gods anger upon the town; she will be burned, and bounty will be restored. Tierkinddorf is filled with hope. Neighbors wonder aloud who has cursed them and how quickly can she be found? They begin sharing secrets with the friar.

Güde Müller, an elderly woman, has stark and frightening visions, recently she has seen things that defy explanation. None in the village know this, and Güde herself worries that perhaps her mind has begun to wander, certainly she has outlived all but one of her peers in Tierkinddorf. Yet of one thing she is absolutely certain: She has become an object of scorn and a burden to her son's wife. In these desperate times her daughter-in-law would prefer one less hungry mouth at the family table. As the friar turns his eye on each member of the tiny community, Güde dreads what her daughter-in-law might say to win his favor.

What would you do if your nasty daughter-in-law accuses you of being a witch (and could be burned at the stake) as her family is starving and you're just another hungry mouth to feed? This is the horrific death that could befall Gude, the storyteller. She has already seen the terrible repercussions of the villagers accusations towards her best friend Gunne, and she desperately tries to avoid suffering the same fate.

I found this book absolutely fascinating and it certainly made me think about the terrible deeds done to women (and men) who were (usually) falsely accused of witchcraft. Throughout the book Gude relives moments in her life and we're given a glimpse of a time when food was plentiful and all the villagers were her friends, until the crops fail for the second year and they need someone to blame.

All in all, I thought it was a great read, even if you're not interested in witches and witchcraft, which I'm not......even though I was born and raised, and still live, just a few miles from Pendle Hill, the home of the famous Pendle Witches who were tried and hanged at Lancaster Castle in 1612.

If you are interested in wicca - this is an excellent website - wiccaweb.ca

Book Review: East of the Sun by Julia Gregson

Genre: Fiction
Pages: 464

Synopsis: Autumn 1928. The Kaiser-i-Hind is en route to Bombay. In Cabin D38, Viva Holloway, an inexperienced chaperone, is beginning to feel as though she's made a mistake. Her advert in The Lady has resulted in three unsettling young charges to be escorted to India. Rose, a beautiful, dangerously naive English girl, is about to be married to the cavalry officer she has met a handful of times. Victoria, her bridesmaid, is determined to lose her virginity en route before finding a husband of her own. And overshadowing all three, the dangerously malevolent presence of Guy Glover. But nothing frightens Viva as much as her real reasons for the voyage: firstly to lead an independent life, husband-less life as a writer, and secondly, to confront her own explosive past. Three potential Memsahibs with a multitude of reasons for leaving their homeland - but the cargo of hopes and secrets they carry can do little to prepare them for what lies ahead in India.

I love historical novels and this sounded just like the sort of book I would enjoy. Even though I did enjoy it I felt as if there was something missing. I often finish a book and think about the characters afterwards - how did their lives progress, etc?

I felt like I didn't really care about any of the 3 female characters or about what happened to them. There didn't seem to be enough depth to them somehow.

The India of 1928/29 was a time of social change, Gandhi was becoming well known and there was a feeling of slight anti-Britishness beginning. As I didn't know anything of India at this time, I found this very interesting, and was fascinated by how the author described how some people were very suspicious of the motives of the teachers in the orphan childrens school.

The 1st part of the book describes the 2 week voyage to India - the various people the girls meet and the bonding that will carry on when they go their separate ways.

The rest of the book concentrates on the next 12 months of their lives.

This is a very engaging read with lots of colourful characters.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!

I read or listened to 61 books last year. I can't believe it was so many! I usually have 2 books on the go all the time - 1 that I'm listening to and 1 that I I'm reading.

The blog is a good way of me keeping track of all the books that I'll be devouring this year and I'll try and review them all, good or bad.

Book Review: Santa Cruise by Mary Higgins Clark

Synopsis
Alvirah Meehan, the lottery winner turned amateur sleuth, and her husband Willy, private detective Regan Reilly, her new husband Jack, and Regan's parents are all guests on the Royal Mermaid's maiden voyage, the Santa Cruise. The ship's passengers include members of the Oklahoma Readers and Writers group - who are planning a mystery seminar dedicated to a Ghost of Honour, the late Left Hook Louie - as well as assorted other charitable folk all planning on a restful post-Christmas vacation. What the guests don't know is that two escaping criminals have been smuggled on board. The hoped-for tranquility quickly vanishes when a terrified mystery fan swears she has spotted the Ghost of Honour in the ship's chapel, and soon after - while a storm develops outside - an attempt is made on the life of a feeble passenger. As the Royal Mermaid sails on through troubled waters, Alvirah, Regan and Jack are uncovering clues that lead them to dangerous criminals.

Well, I was looking forward to reading this - I've never read any of Mary Higgins Clark's books and I'd heard that she was good. BUT, I have to say that I just couldn't finish it.

I just found it very disappointing and boring. I didn't care about any of the characters and there were so many of them! I didn't know who was who.

All in all, it was a complete waste of my time even reading 3/4 of it.

I do have another Mary Higgins Clark book to read (You Belong To Me) so I hope that that's much better.

WWW.FANTASTICFICTION.CO.UK

FANTASTIC FICTION!

If I want more information on an author or a book, the website I always turn to is fantasticfiction. It's amazingly informative and up to date.

For instance, if I wanted to know about Patricia Cornwell I would just type in her name under Search Author: a new page then opens up, there is some personal blurb (usually) and - this is the bit that I love - all her books are listed in chronological order, you can click on any one which will open up again with information about that particular book. This page contains a short synopsis of the book.

The front page of the site contains loads of info as well - showing all new books recently released and coming soon. It claims to have bibliographies for over 15,000 Authors and information on over 250,000 books!

All in all, it's got everything that you need! Definitely a favourite of mine.