Books
A Quiet Belief in Angels - R J Ellory
After reading the first three pages I had the feeling that this was going be a great book. I even ended up flipping back to the start so I could read the passage again. From there on, opportunities to read such as break times at work, did not come round as soon as I would have liked.
I'm not going to give much more away about this book than the cover does itself. I would not wish to spoil your reading experience, should you choose to read it. The story follows 12 year old Joseph Vaughan through the many misfortunes of his life and in particular, his attempts to protect the children of Augusta Falls from the serial killer that exists within their community.
This has been my life.
A life spooled out like thread, strength uncertain, length unknown; whether it will cease abruptly or run out endlessly, binding more lives together as it goes; in one instance no more than cotton, barely sufficient to gather a shirt together at its seems, in another a rope - triple woven, turk's head closures, each strand and fiber tarred and twisted to repel water, blood, sweat, tears; a rope to raise a barn, to fashion Portuguese bowlines and bring a near drowned child from a flooded run-off, to hold a roan mare and break her will, to bind a man to a tree and beat him for his crimes, to hoist a sail, to hang a sinner.
Then We Came to the End - Joshua Ferris
I didn't manage to get to the end of this one. I lost the will to go on after around 240 pages. I should have known better due to the amount of 'blurb' on the cover telling me how funny I would find it. My excuse for buying it is that I was in a hurry and needed another book to complete a 3 for 2 offer in Waterstones.
The setting for the book is the office of an Advertising Agency. There isn't a main protagonist telling the tale. Unusually the book narrated in the first person plural (ie.'then we') but even this becomes tiring after a while.
The worst thing for me about this book was that it is just a catalogue of loosely connected events. There is no real direction or story line. I'm sure the author intended to capture the sometimes mundane nature of office work and make it funny. Sadly it hasn't turned out like that. An example of the humour being a member of staff being brought to account for swapping their chair with one from another office - anything but hilarious!!
Plea of Insanity - Jilliane Hoffman
Dr David Marquette has brutally killed his wife and three children. His wealthy family provide the best legal team money can buy, the kind of defence team only afforded by celebrities. His plea is guilty - on the grounds of insanity. It is the job of the state prosecution, the inexperienced Julia Valenciano, to argue that David Marquette premeditated the cold blooded murder of his family.
Its quite a weighty novel, this one, probably more so than is necessary. The story got off to a great start with the arrival of the Police Department at the scene of the murders. Then the pace slowed dramatically after this and became weighed down with the complex workings of the American District Court system. The plot did gather pace again, not quite as much as it began with, and didn't become the easy holiday read I had in mind until I became familiar with the legal terminology
A good story line and strong characterisation, but excessively padded with legal jargon.
To Kill a Mocking Bird - Harper Lee
I have just re-read this for the what must be the 10th time and found just as much pleasure from it as I did the first time of reading.
Scout Finch narrates the events leading to the trial of Tom Robinson, a black man accused of the rape of a white woman. Her father Atticus Finch, is a respected pillar in his community and has been appointed to defend Tom Robinson - his 'Mocking Bird'. The racial prejudices in the small Alabama town turn the previously respectful community against Atticus Finch and his family.
The Book Thief - Markus Zusak
Having read the 'Blurb' on the back sleeve of The Book Thief my mind was made up to buy it instantly. It's quite different from anything I've seen before.
The setting for the book is Nazi Germany in 1939 with the tale narrated by Death! Death follows the life of Liesel Meminger when she moves in with her foster family. In her new home she learns to read, falls in love, steals books from the mayors' library and also guards the secret about the Jew hidden in her basement. In this time Death is enduring his busiest workload ever!
Despite its setting and narrator the book is not often grim or maudlin - It is in fact a great tribute to the tenacity of the human spirit over adversity. There's a good blend of humour too. I had a few of those all too rare laugh-out-loud moments whilst reading. There were a couple of occasions where Death gave away what was about to happen - instead of being annoying it gave me time to prepare for some of the books darker moments. Even so, there was one moment where there was no such warning and I winced as I read.