Inheritance ~ Nicholas Shakespeare

** LIKE **

Recommended by the lovely Camilla
Great coincidences and a great cad.

The hero, Andy, gets an unexpected windfall ... he accidentally turns up at a funeral where the deceased has stipulated that his estate be split between attendees ... and he is the only one there!

The author found a good way of revealing a family's history in a story within a story. A poor man does good, a broken heart, a charismatic conman, a determined young Galahad ... all the cliches and all the coincidences you can poke a stick at ... but it all comes together in a readable narrative.

Nothing great but it keeps your attention.

First Tuesday Book Club

Revolutionary Road ~ Richard Yates

Note to self : DON'T see the movie!
A First Tuesday Book Club book

What a depressing read! And the word depressing should be in CAPS and bold!

I can see that it could have been seen as a masterpiece when it was published (1961) but it seemed dated now.

Frank and April feel they are too good for the blandness of suburbia. They were perfect intellectual snobs ... trouble is, they have very little intellect. They are boring malcontents.

Mournfully depressing life in the 50s

First Tuesday Book Club

Faithful Place ~ Tana French

The Redeemer ~ Jo Nesbo

How do you say "O.K." in Norwegian?
Maybe I should have read an earlier "Harry Hole" novel

This was an ok read ... nothing more, nothing less. Yet another book on the Scandinavian bandwagon because of the Millennium trilogy.

Maybe it was the fault of a lackluster translation ... I found the language quite repetitive. This book is part of a series that uses the same detective, harry Hole, so some of the storytelling was spent retelling old narrative, going over background to get the new reader up to speed and tying up one loose end after another from previous texts. And then it spent time setting things up for the next installment.

Basically annoying!

The Slap ~ Christos Tsiolkas

Longlisted : Booker 2010

Best Overall : Commonwealth Writers Prize 2009

Too raw, too harsh, too unrelentingly nasty

This book was a gift (thanks Lin) and enthusiastically endorsed by the critics ... so I had to finish it ... but What An Effort!!!

What totally unlikable characters!!! Brilliantly written ... unfortunately they are all too believable. My problem was that I just didn't want to spend any time with them!! Low-lives!!! Nasty dumb-fucks!!!! A strongly written narrative about life among the great unwashed yobbo new Australians ... for me, putting my own dirty washing on the line as per the book, this was a book for bringing out the inner racism in you.

Can't deny that it wasn't well written ... full credit to the author ... great use of point of view voice ... but the characters and narrative left me cold. Too raw.

I have seen it called a get-down-and-dirty version of Tom Perrott's "Little Children" ... a book that happens to be on my Favourites list ... for me that was a much preferable read!!!!!

Longlisted for 2010 Booker

First Tuesday Book Club

Savages ~ Don WInslow

X NO X

Tournament of Books : 2011

The Lacuna ~ Barbara Kingsolver

***** FAVOURITE *****

Orange Award : Winner 2010

Tournament of Books : 2010 (finalist)

The God of Small Things ~ Arundhati Roy

*** LIKE ***

Winner : Booker Prize 1997

Ahhh ! Only in India!!

An eclectic mix of characters from different classes, the outcasts and the impoverished upper class, all sinking slowly into the crumbling mold.

A good read ... more a "slice of life" than a climactic narrative. Written in a different style that well suits the strangeness of the characters and events ... and with a certain lushness that suits the heat and humidity of the setting.

The 19th Wife ~ David Ebershoff

 ** LIKE **

Light murder mystery

Heavy religious background

This was a good read to give insight into the Church of Latter Day Saints ... and especially into polygamy and the fundamental splinter groups that exist today.

The writing seemed a bit jerky with the narrative jumping between the present and the past and back again but it was a good vehicle for showing the history of the church and the cults of today.

The murder investigation was a bit light but the twist was good.

Breath ~ Tim Winton

Wow! At last!

A Tim Winton I enjoyed!

I enjoyed the sense of place and the surf culture background to the story. It was simply written. There was a lot of dialogue with no quotation marks and this sometimes led to some confusion and rereading.

As usual with Winton, all is not sunshine with his characters. In this narrative they dabble with near-death auto-erotica sex games.