The Last Werewolf ~ Glen Duncan

*** FAVOURITE ***

Reviewed on First Tuesday Book Club (but had found it first)
Schlock Horror of high quality

Alphie had read this before we left home on the There & Back Again Tour and even though I have loaded up my Kindle with 40 odd books (Pulitzer, Booker, Poe, Dagger etc winners plus pop fiction plus past classics), I started with this “hard copy” of pulp horror fiction. And so glad I did A plus was the lovely quality of the paper and print ... for even though I am being won over by the Kindle, there is something about a “good book”.

I enjoyed it ... for schlock horror it was well constructed and well written. The literary and popular references were cute (“Dear Reader, I ate him.”). The story kept an even pace with plenty of action, romance and mayhem (ok, gory werewolf violence and physically explicit sex).

While not my fav of the genre this year (definitely “The Passage” by Justin Cronin followed by the two “Sandman Slim” novels by Richard Kadrey) it was a good read and I wish I had brought “I, Lucifer” with me.

First Tuesday Book Club

Hell’s Bells ~ John Connolly

** RECOMMEND **

Round 2 of Samuel Johnson V The Devil
Fun follow up; Young Teen Fiction

Connolly does “dark & creepy” so well for adults but also for children.

This is well pitched with good fun thrown in with the dark and creepy. This is a good follow-up to “The Gates” and there is book #3 in the pipeline.

aka "The Infernals"

MAY 2011

Happy Mother's Day

Black Cherry Blues ~ James Lee Burke

< OK >

Edgar Award 1990
# 3 Dave Robincheaux

I haven’t read a lot of Burke and I think this was my first Robincheaux. Not sure that I am won over, not sure what all the fuss is about. No doubt I will read more but this was ok, nothing more.

I seem to have a knack of picking the ones (“White Dves At The Morning” & “Cimarron Rose”), that aren’t totally about Louisanna and the South and I think that is the “sense of place” that I am looking for.

This one was partially set in Louisanna but much of the action also takes place in Montana - which is written with vivid description.

Neverwhere ~ Neil Gaiman

** RECOMMEND **

Apparently a story-from-the-script
Great fantasy ... so wouldn't mind seeing the show-from-the-script.

Neil Gaiman actually wrote “Stardust” (one of our fav fantasy movies) ... have bought that book but haven’t read it yet (waiting for the movie to fade from imagination). So meanwhile we have been taste-testing other Gaiman’s ( and the bonus it that through that we have got on to Kadrey).

I enjoyed this soooooo much more than “American Gods”. He created another world that exists under London. It is kind of an Alice In Wonderland for grown-ups. It keeps your interest through all the travails of the hero.

Caleb’s Crossing ~ Geraldine Brooks

* LIKE *

OK read ... but didn’t do it for me.
Historical novel set in early US

Have really loved some Geraldine Brooks. I have two of hers on my all-time-favourites list : “Year of Wonders” and “March”. And I have enjoyed the memoir she wrote of growing up in Sydney. I am not a fan of “People of the Book” and this goes in with that ... read it, forget it.

I did love the historical background to the story : It is set at Martha’s Vineyard and is about the first native american to go to Harvard. It is based of true fact and there is a lot of interesting detail revealed through the narrative. As always, her prose and vocabulary are wonderful

I think my main problem was the voice of Bertha, the narrator of the story. Didn’t work for me. I found the ending weak and the romance blah.

The Wreckage ~ Michael Robotham

** FAVOURITE **

An excellent read ... taut and terrific
Maybe even my favourite Robotham! (Oooo but I still love “Shatter”)

Really enjoyed this! I loved the fast pace ~ this was a page turner but so much more than a “beach read”. The background was complex and the research was well woven into the story. I loved the characters and the way the storyline swapped between the two scenarios. When I was “in” England, I wondered what was happening in Iraq. I was also mental guessing how the tow storylines would come together. Hence - a page turner because it captured your attention and imagination so well.

All this ... and the wonderful use of investigative journalism to reveal the corruption on the Iraq war and the immortality of banks and corporations.

Unfamiliar Fishes ~ Sarah Vowell

* LIKE *

Non Fiction from New York Time Best Sellers List
A “history” of Hawaii

This is a rambling, highly opinionated history of the early days of the colonisation by sailors, clergy and canegrowers and how Hawaii was stolen from the Hawaiians and handed over as the 50th state. It covers topics with a rather broad brushstroke but each stroke is coloured by religion.

The author is unstintingly and unceasingly anti-Christian ... but many interesting facts come from her biased observations.

APRIL 2011

HaPpy aPriL fOOls DaY

Between The Assassinations ~ Aravind Adiga

* LIKE *

OHHH! India!
Like watching a train wreck!

I seem to have a morbid fascination with the sub-continent.
What a complex, chaotic, yukky place!

This is a “story” composed of vignettes that are loosely (very loosely) tied together as snapshots of people in a fictional Indian city.

There is a range of voice : rich and poor, different religions, different castes, different ages groups. But is it still India ... with such a different moral outlook.