Reading

 4Dec P The Water Horse by Julia Gregson** Well written and well researched but thoroughly grim and depressing. After the death of her mother, Catherine, a Welsh farmer’s daughter, leaves home, and her drover sweetheart, to join Florence Nightingale’s nurses in the Crimea. There is romance in Catherine’s future, but it is so overshadowed with the horrors of war and army hospitals that I was unable to read the book from start to finish without rests to read magazines and fanfic for light relief. I’m sure the war sections were very realistic but they were, of course, gruesome. I wanted to know what happened but was very glad to reach the end. Probably my least favourite book of the year.

14Dec E A Season for the Dead by David Hewson****. Gruesome but intelligent and absorbing crime story set in Rome. The murders involve senior churchmen and the city’s churches in the hunt for a serial killer. There is tension between the state police and the diplomatic immunity provided by the Vatican. The young policeman at the centre of the case is apparently to figure in a series and I might look out for more.

21Dec E My Secret Garden by Nancy Friday**. Ms Friday collected information about women’s sexual fantasies and wove them into a book interspersed with her own opinions on the subject. There is also an afterword by a psychiatrist. He and the author both claim that the book will allow women to admit to having sexual fantasies. I think this argument makes the entire project seem very old fashioned, and yet it’s possible that this was one of the works that led to some more liberal thought. The author does not claim to have a complete record of the subject; her collection is limited by the people who responded to her advertisements and talks. One criticism of the book is that it is a kind of porn and at first I was tempted to agree but then realised that if it was, it was very inefficient. I could certainly have done without so many long descriptions of fantasies, but mainly because they were boring. I think my major finding was that other people’s sexual fantasies are not a turn-on. Even if they are shared, there are bound to be details that change them and decrease their power. What was really interesting was the extent to which people indulge in fantasy, their motivations, and the stimuli for the different types of fantasy in the first place. An fascinating concept but I had to force myself to finish the book.

I have apparently read so little this month! That’s not the whole truth but I haven’t read many novels. I have been distracted by all the online ficlets that I mentioned in my post on novels and shorter writing. I ought perhaps to give particular mention to Josh Lanyon’s codas. Every other day he gave his blog followers a coda or short glimpse of Christmas for a pair of characters from one of his novels or novellas. It was a lovely idea, and the codas were very satisfying, linked to the main story and giving an extra ‘ending’. There has also been an Advent Calendar of fanfic recommendations on one of the communities I belong to on Live Journal, and to my surprise, almost half were stories I had not read before. As a result of all this, my usual reading habits suffered!

132 books in a year – about 11 per month, so around 3 a week. But I probably doubled that with fanfic reading, a lot of which is novel length.

Viewing

6Dec Magic Mike** The film was billed as a story of a young man shown the ‘ropes’ as a male stripper by an expert. I expected – well, I’m not sure, but probably sexy moves and perhaps some comedy. Something like The Full Monty. The dance routines were incredible, but the plot was quite dark, and the filming was dark, too, with a lot of the action taking place seen through windows, curtains, etc. and in sepia-style colours. I found a lot of the dialogue hard to follow – the southern American accents plus a lot of dialect and idiom didn’t come across well for an English viewer. Disappointing.

14Dec Snow White and the Huntsman*** Very beautiful and quite dark, as befits the underlying story. However, the main characters were insufficiently developed and there were minor plotholes in the retelling. I was faintly disappointed, having looked forward to this for some time.

19Dec The Hobbit***** For once, we went to the cinema. The computer graphics really do need ‘space’ and although we have a DVD projector we felt a need to see the film on a bigger screen and as soon as it came out. The only possible criticism is the slowness of the way the plot develops. Of course, Jackson made Lord of the Rings in three films from three long volumes, and has now decided to make three films from the comparatively short one volume book of The Hobbit so the pace was bound to be different. It was very well done, though at time he took liberties with the story for cinematic effect. He has chosen to insert things from The Silmarillion to explain things – it wouldn’t have worked in the book but perhaps it was needed for a film. Some of the family thought it improved in the second half; I was satisfied right from the opening scenes. The hobbit hole is perfect! We supported our local independent cinema and now need to see the film again in 3D!

20Dec Eyes Wide Open**** This story about two very religious Jewish men in Jerusalem who desire each other and question their sexuality is absorbing and ultimately (inevitably?) sad. The underlying themes of homophobia and the question of sin within a religious context are interestingly presented but I think the main fascination of the film was the detail about daily life in Jerusalem in an Orthodox neighbourhood. I have been to Jerusalem and recognised some aspects of it but found the glimpses ‘behind the scenes’ illuminating. It was also, for me, something new to watch a film (subtitled, of course) in Hebrew.

22Dec The Mystery of Edwin Drood**** A BBC period drama that adapts and completes the Dickens story. Extremely well acted. The switch from Dickens to BBC was seamless! One strange aspect of the film was that although most scenes were shot in apparently normal locations, and not a studio, there were no ‘extras’, no people around other than the cast.

23Dec Loving Miss Hatto***** An extremely well acted and filmed BBC drama scripted by Victoria Wood. It tells the true story of a classical music hoax and of the love story behind it. I didn’t intend to watch it but was hooked from the first scene.

24Dec The Snowman and the Snowdog*** Sweet but unmemorable ‘sequel’ to The Snowman. It lacked the novelty of the original and the soundtrack wasn’t anywhere near as exquisite. I have since watched a documentary about the way it was made, and that was intriguing.

24Dec In Bruges* I was talked into watching this (over two nights) on the understanding that it was a dark comedy with a good ending. Nothing could be further from the truth and it was not something I would have chosen to watch on Christmas Eve. Tense, violent, and sad. Extremely well acted but I don’t that makes up for the drawbacks.

25Dec Room on the Broom*** Another children’s film based on the story by the author of The Gruffalo. Beautifully produced but perhaps without quite the endearing quirkiness of The Gruffalo.

25Dec The Snowmen: The Doctor Who Christmas Special.**** I suspect a lot of future snowmen will have evil features so perhaps it’s a good job it was raining here over Christmas. The doctor gained a new companion who is a bit of a mystery. The episode was slightly unsatisfying as we have no way of solving the mystery until the new season starts, which isn’t immediately. Presumably it’s meant to hook the audience into watching the new season, though surely that can’t be necessary.

27Dec The Birds** I honestly thought I’d seen this Hitchcock ‘classic’ but it turns out I hadn’t – just clips – and of course I was familiar with the Daphne du Maurier story it’s based on. That made quite an impact when I first read it. I wasn’t impressed by the film – too glossy and unreal, too long-drawn-out, etc. The way actresses in films of that era kept their hair and make-up intact provokes giggles rather than admiration.

28Dec Restless*** A BBC spy drama – a three hour film shown over two nights. Much better than The Birds in terms of acting and direction but it had numerous plotholes and some huge continuity errors.

29Dec Men in Black III**** I still think the first film in the series was the best but the sequels are very enjoyable. Perhaps it’s the lack of novelty that makes them less, somehow. Once you’ve seen the underground offices full of aliens, you’ve seen them, after all. I love Will Smith, and I liked the way the plot linked itself to the original moon launch, way back in the month I got married – I could really relate to all those people watching on their televisions! And the villain was quite original. Not five star, but still very good.

30Dec Moon** A sci-fi film that BBC billed as Film of the Day. Very long-drawn-out story about workers on the moon discovering that they are clones. They didn’t exactly have to spend much on sets or cast. Boring!

Early December viewing was pretty sparse then things came thick and fast over Christmas! I won’t be watching any films on New Year’s Eve so that’s it for 2012.

This has been an interesting exercise but I think next year I will only review things that you need to know about, because they are either extremely good or extremely bad. I might add fanfic to the mix. I will also try to review in more depth though I will, I promise, avoid my pet hate – plot spoilers within a review. However I organise my reviews, there won’t be a monthly post.

Meanwhile, Happy New Year!

Reading

3Nov Skin Deep by Drew Zachary **** After reading a few books by him I know the author can be trusted to deliver a good story, well told. This is an erotic romance, set in a world where there are magic users. Razi possesses the power of glamour, and, after a childhood made miserable by abuse, is terrified that nobody will ever want the real person behind the magical beauty and glitter. It’s up to Dannan to prove Razi’s fears are groundless. The magic is beautifully described, and the gradual change to a normal relationship is both heart-warming and full of lessons for the reader which are all the better for not being too heavily presented. I would have liked a little more of both worlds, the glamorous and the prosaic, and a little less sex, but the publishers clearly wanted this to sell as erotica and the sex was at least well written.

6Nov Casket of Souls by Lynn Flewelling**** This is the sixth book in the Nightrunner series, and I enjoyed it, but thought it lacked some of the sparkle of its predecessors. The characters are as engaging as ever, and the plot is satisfyingly complex. The world building is detailed and competent. I thought the structure of the story was more prosaic and less exciting than the previous tales; the reader knew what was going on almost before the protagonists did, which reduced the tension. I also found the language at times less well-edited than is normal for this writer. I was engrossed by the story but somehow hope Ms Flewelling turns her attention to new characters for her next novel; I suspect she has, at least temporarily, run out of interesting things to say about Seregil and Alec, and also out of convincing mysteries for them to unravel. The pair still command affection but there seems to be little more to learn about them, and their country has perhaps had its fair share of national and city-wide disasters and triumphs. Whilst the plot hinges, as usual, on magic, the overall magic is waning. However, for anyone who has been following the series, this book is to be recommended. For anyone else, it probably wouldn’t make sense.

 9Nov Gleams of a Remoter World by Fiona Glass*** This is a romance mixed with a ghost story set in Ireland on the coast of Galway where a ruined rectory (next door to an equally ruined church) is haunted by a murder that took place during the first world war. Investigative journalists are sent to cover the story and the results change their lives, bringing an end to their already rocky relationship then creating better futures for everyone. I enjoyed the location and the plot was mysterious enough, but I never really took to the main characters, and the confusing spirit manifestations were never altogether convincing. Well done but perhaps not totally to my taste. When it comes to paranormal tales, as opposed to absolute fantasy, I am hard to please.

13Nov Sidetracked by Henning Mankell*** The third of the Wallander books I bought. Unfortunately I read them in the wrong order and realised who the criminal in this one was before I should have done which rather reduced themystery element. The plots are quite intriguing but I think I shall avoid them in future because the constant short sentences have a staccato effect that I find very irritating.

15Nov Ashes of Honor by Seanan McGuire***** The sixth volume in the October Daye series. I absolutely adore this beautifully written urban fantasy series with the changeling private detective and all the forays into faerie. I can even forgive the American spelling of the title, because, after all, the author is American and the stories are based in San Francisco. This time, October has to stop an uncontrolled changeling teenager destroying the foundations of the fairy lands.The books need to be read in order otherwise a lot of things woudn’t make sense, but I can thoroughly recommend them to anyone who likes a hefty dose of magic and lots of different fae races mixed with a violent thriller-style plot and a helping of romance.

17Nov Transforming Hades by Drew Zachary*** I was disappointed in this. It’s an erotic romance set against a sci fi background (terraforming planets for human occupation) and the world building and characterisation are up to the author’s usual standards. But the plot is too slight to support the amount of sex and too short to really engage the reader.

21Nov Half Moon Chambers by Harper Fox***** I love this author’s work. I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that there were no paranormal elements included. Recently, Harper’s stories have all had hints of ghosts or other beings and whilst I sometimes don’t mind at other times I find it interferes with the narrative. This was a straightforward romance between a cop and a witness, with plenty of police procedure, violence and suspense. When it went ‘live’ Harper asked her fans to take a survey about their e-book reading preferences, e.g. formats, online stores, etc. and I was one of the lucky ones picked at random to get a free copy of one of her books. As I have them all, I’ve been promised the next one!

28Nov The Scottish Prisoner by Diana Gabaldon***** I really like the Lord John Grey novels and novellas by this author but am less keen on the Outlander series for which she is so famous. Time travel in anything other than science fiction really isn’t my ‘thing’ and I find it very hard to suspend disbelief. So I approached this novel cautiously as it contains elements of both series. I was relieved to find that twentieth century Claire was missing from the plot except when her husband, Jamie Fraser, thought about her, and everything was firmly grounded in eighteenth century England and Ireland. The story was complex and fascinating and the writing was brilliant. That’s true of the Outlander books, too, but I’ll stick with John Grey and his military entanglements. Jamie, a Scot captured after Culloden, is a paroled prisoner under the control of John Grey, and is persuaded to help foil a new plot to put Charles Stuart on the throne. He agrees, because he knows (from Claire) that the plot will fail and he wants to spare his friends death and destruction.The growing friendship between the two men is overshadowed by Grey’s position as parole officer and also by his declaration (in an earlier book) that he loves  and desires Jamie. The characters are drawn in such detail that the reader feels they are real acquaintances by the end, but I suspect that a knowledge of the earlier books, at least the John Grey ones, is needed to make sense of some of the events. Highly recommended if you already know the series.

Some excellent reading this month!

Viewing.

5Nov Legend of the Seeker Season 1*** I’d read most of the books and wanted to see what a TV series had made of them. The world building in the books is fantastic and kept me reading, but the films used what looked like the same woods, the same studio villages and the same ‘palaces’ over and over again. The acting is wooden, the fights are badly choreographed, and the plot wanders away from the source material. This was cheap television. Something I disliked about the books was the emphasis on pain, but the worst volume was reduced to one episode. Something I liked about both books and films was the focus on friendship and family. I have season 2 and will probably watch it at some point. I know the series ended when the funding was withdrawn and does not cover all the books but I would be interested to find out how far it gets.I stopped reading the books but I know the show doesn’t get as far as the volumes I read, anyway.

 7Nov The Dictator** This wasn’t as funny as some of Sacha Baron Cohen’s earlier work. It tried too hard and the humour became too heavy handed to make me laugh. The plot concerns a dictator who tries to keep his country from becoming westernised. There are echoes of North Korea, Afghanistan, Iraq and other states, but Wadiya is not a real place, just a symbol of oppression. During a trip to the US to talk to the UN the dictator meets an American girl and his world view gradually changes. He tells the US that they are the real dictatorship then goes home determined that his country will never fall into western ways. As a satirical concept it works, but as a film it is never great, and occasionally boring.

10Nov Firefly: Serenity.*** LoveFilm sent me Disc One, which had the film on it, and two of the series episodes. I suspect I should have seen some episodes before watching the film, as I never really engaged with the characters. It was quite an exciting sci-fi story with a lovely space ship, and a visit to a planet with echoes of the wild west but I won’t mind much if I never see Disc Two.

11Nov The 10th Kingdom** I really wanted to see this and missed the TV series so was thrilled when a friend gave me her copy of the eight episodes. I was disappointed. I had been lured with tales of fae characters in New York. In fact, after the first episode, most of the action takes place in the nine kingdoms of Fairyland with a father and daughter team from New York expected to save the day. The concept was good but the humour, the horror, and the romance were all heavy handed. The story was based around fairy tales such as Snow White, Red Riding Hood etc. with walk-on parts for nursery rhymes such as Little Bo Peep. I didn’t think it was nearly as good as The Brothers Grimm.

13Nov Inspector Montalbano Season 2**** I really enjoy the Sicilian locations and the glimpses of the Sicilian way of life. The main characters are very pleasing, too. There are flaws. The plots, which I believe are taken from novels, are convoluted and sometimes hard to follow, probably because they are condensed into hour and a half or two hour episodes. Some of the humour is also hard to understand via subtitles. However, I’ve been quite involved in watching the series and will probably watch the next season.

24Nov The Lincoln Lawyer**** A courtroom drama that turns into a thriller with a lot of twists and turns. Competent and engaging.

 25Nov DCI Banks**** TV series. I’ve forgotten which season this was. It’s a police drama series with the main focus on Banks (Stephen Tompkinson) but with a good supporting cast. I love the Yorkshire locations and the attention to detail that makes this show so real and believable. I tried the books it’s based on but was less than impressed by the writing style.

28Nov The Young Victoria***** I was really surprised that I liked this film so much. I wanted to see it because of all the reviews but half expected it to be boring. The acting and direction were superb, and it was a lovely glimpse of Victoria’s youth and marriage. We have such firm views of the queen, coloured by time and hindsight and we forget that she was young once. This is a romantic film but it also shows a great deal about politics and about the relationship between the monarch and government. Highly recommended.

29Nov Secret State***** Four part Brit political thriller highlighting the links between the banks and the petrochemical industry versus the government of the day. Well acted and scripted. Interesting and intelligent.

A mixed bag of viewing this month with a couple of highlights at the end.

Reading

10Oct P Ice, Wind and Fire***** – Mel Keegan. An excellent thriller featuring a pair of gay investigative journalists who are holidaying in Jamaica when they run foul of organised crime. Exciting, interesting and well written. Even the explicit sex scenes, which are frequent, were always carefully designed to further character development and plot. I borrowed this from a friend and was glad to be introduced to such a competent author.

 13Oct P Firewall*** – Henning Mankell. This is one of the Wallander series, made popular by two TV shows, one Brit, starring Kenneth Branagh, and the other Swedish but shown in UK with subtitles. I haven’t watched either but am assured that the Swedish version is better. I think the same might be true of the books. The plots are complex and fascinating, and the characters are well drawn but the language, I suspect, suffers in translation. Almost all the sentences are short and simple which gives a staccato effect. Occasionally two simple sentences are joined with a conjunction which comes almost as a relief. The plot, which centres around internet crime, must have been original and startling when the book was first written in 1998. Translation took ten years and was probably only undertaken in response to the TV shows. The story is no longer ‘cutting edge’ but is still very plausible.

16Oct P Death’s Head***** – Mel Keegan. Another exciting m/m romance, this time sci-fi. There were, for me, too many detailed battle scenes and these could have been cut without affecting the basic story, but I’m sure a lot of readers would be enthralled by the futuristic armour, weapons and strategies. A pair of ship captains are involved in policing drug running and riots  – one stays with the ship while the other goes undercover. They want each other but the service doesn’t approve of involvement that might endanger missions. When one is caught by the drug lords and forcibly addicted the other agrees to a permanent empathetic bond to save his friend. The results are fascinating. An unusual and interesting novel.

19Oct P Love Song**** – Charlotte Bingham. This was a traditional romantic tragedy with a helping of hope at the end. It was, in some ways, over sentimental but it was beautifully written and interesting from a point of view of studying the writing technique. It follows the dissolution of a marriage and the growth of a new love, with sub-plots detailing the lives of the adolescent children. I thought the epilogue was unnecessary and the few things it told us about the future could have been worked into the body of the novel, but apart from that I found the story gripping and could only admire the execution. It was also wonderful to read a book that had no typos or other infelicities. Not my usual choice of reading matter but I enjoyed it.

23Oct Before the Frost*** – Henning Mankell. Another Wallander story – I picked up three at a charity stall. I didn’t enjoy this one much although the translation was slightly better (or the original writing was…). At the end of the previous book I read, Wallander’s daughter is about to join the police force, and this book is written from her point of view. I found her a less interesting and sympathetic character than her father, even though the case revolved around some of her friends. The plot grows out of the 1978 James Town massacre of the Christian sect led by Jim Jones but the beliefs of the supposed survivor are not well explained.

28Oct Anguished English** – Richard Lederer. A book of idiotic abuses and misuses of our language by students, politicians, newspaper headlines, etc. Something to dip into rather than to read at one sitting.  I imagine that when it was first published readers split their sides laughing. The trouble is, so many of these readers have since shared their favourite quotations with the rest of us via ‘joke’ emails that the originals no longer raise a smile.

October in general… I have been reading some online zines, especially Beneath Ceaseless Skies. Each issue contains at least two short stories or a short story and the first (or second) part of a slightly longer one. From time to time the zine publishes an anthology of ‘the best of’. I loved the cover pictures and thought there would be plenty of sci-fi and fantasy. I was very disappointed in the contents. Most of the writing was pretentious and quasi-experimental. There seemed to be a ‘fashion’ for setting the stories in a pseudo-oriental world with the addition of magic. Altogether disappointing. I also read a couple of issues of Silver Shorts – free short stories by authors who publish with Silver Publishing, presumably intended to showcase and advertise their skills, and available to people who purchase from the publisher’s site. These were better, for the most part, than the Ceaseless Skies offerings, but were too short to appeal to me much – I like to get really into a story and settle down to enjoy it. The occasional ficlet can be entertaining but a diet of them left me feeling cheated.

I have also been spending a lot of time reading the stories in a fandom ‘big bang’ which is when writers and artists join to provide a diet of illustrated novellas spanning a month. As I was one of the authors I felt a need to check out the offerings of my fellow contributors and spent a great deal of October enjoying their work and entering into fandom discussion about it.

Viewing

11Oct A Very Long Engagement**** – French film about a girl searching for her fiancé – she does not believe reports of his death in the first world war. Exquisite filming and direction, and some good acting, but the film was long, dark and quite depressing, with gruesome footage about the trenches, so I had mixed feelings about it. However, I had wanted to see it for ages, and am glad I eventually did.

19Oct Taken*** – Liam Neeson as a CIA operative rescuing his daughter from sex traffickers. I kept getting distracted (this was on TV) and followed the main story but never got truly involved.

23Oct  Bride and Prejudice** – The Bollywood version of Pride and Prejudice. I have heard about this film for ages and finally rented it from LoveFilm. It crashed, twice, and the second time, I gave up, because I wasn’t particularly enjoying it anyway. I find musicals tend to bore me, Hollywood, Bollywood, or otherwise. The plot adaptation was clever, but didn’t live up to Miss Austen’s standards. The acting was mediocre. So I haven’t actually watched this film to the end, but I can imagine the ending because I know the original story so well.

25Oct Priscilla-Queen of the Desert*****- some excellent acting. Terence Stamp was amazing as Bernadette. I loved seeing parts of the Australian landscape again, and the plot was endearing. I had heard of this film but never seen it, and LoveFilm sent it quickly as compensation for the breakdown of Bride and Prejudice. I enjoyed it. I wish I had seen it before I saw the play Ladies Down Under at the theatre (which a friend produced) because I now realise that the play was in some senses a kind of homage to the film. I think the cross references would have been fun to recognise at the time. One thing I hadn’t known in advance was that the Priscilla of the title was a bus.

31Oct Going Postal*****. This is the third in the Terry Pratchett DVD trilogy of films my sister-in-law bought me last Christmas. I absolutely loved it and found it really exciting even though I have read the book and knew perfectly well that the hero was going to survive. Well, I thought I did, because of course Terry himself endorses these films. But it’s a measure of both the original story and the film version that the ending is truly gripping. The filming is superb, with wonderful attention to detail in both the locations and the ‘machinery’, and all the acting, from a host of well-known names, is great. David Suchet, for example, makes a fantastic villain, and Charles Dance is convincing as the enigmatic Lord Vetinari. Highly recommended, and one I will re-watch.

October already! Reporting on my reading and viewing has made me much more aware of my habits. I’ll continue this monthly review to the end of the year but I think from January I will only write notes about the things that really appeal to me. Meanwhile…

Reading:

3Sep E Irregulars***** – a fabulous anthology of four stories by well known m/m writers set in a shared magical world. The Irregulars of the title police interactions between humans and others. (In some respects the premise resembles the basic plot of Men in Black.) The stories are well written, full of detailed world building and rich description. The characters are fascinating and their adventures are gripping, filled with unexpected violence, secret crimes and different ways of looking at the world. The romances are unusual and compelling: goblins, fae and humans returned from ‘fairy’ realms abound. One major character plays a minor part in another writer’s tale. I wanted to read more about the world created, and was really sad to finish the book. Happily, the writing was so dense and packed with interest that reading took quite a while, and of course I can always read it again. Kimberling, Lanyon, Amara and Hale have written a delightful and intriguing collection of stories. Highly recommended for anyone who enjoys adult ‘fairy’ tales.

10Sep E Warhorses of Letters*** -Marie Phillips and Robert Hudson. I initially heard this as a radio series which I adored, and I subscribed to the publication by Unbound Books. When I read the whole thing, complete with extra footnotes etc., I was slightly disappointed. It purports to chronicle a love affair (by letter) between Marengo, Napoleon’s horse, and Copenhagen, Wellington’s horse. Obviously a lot of the plot is humorous  – not to the horse characters, who are in earnest, but to the human reader. However, in the text, the humour overwhelmed the pathos and excitement that came across in the radio presentation so that the horse characters seemed somehow distanced and less important than the attitude of the writers. I was also sorry that the story simply stopped, rather than having any kind of historical ending. That was fitting, perhaps, for something that was supposed to be based on scraps of old letters, but it was unsatisfying to the reader. I told all my friends to listen to the radio series but sadly, would not recommend them to buy the book.

10Sep P The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life ** – Erving Goffman. This was quite a dense book in the sociology/psychology genre about the way we present ourselves to others and the way we understand their presentations. It was first published in 1959 and the author died in 1983 but I expected more insights and more to interest me. Unfortunately, Goffman used examples that were drawn almost wholly  from American society at the time of writing. His few examples from Britain were either very ‘dated’ (and in some cases based on nineteenth century society) or based on an outsider’s observation of life on one of the Shetland Isles. As a result, I found the examples, meant, one assumes, to illuminate and expand the text, to be less accessible than the text itself, and they therefore hindered rather than helped my understanding. I struggled through the book but would probably have got just as much from a synopsis. I am not convinced that Penguin should have reprinted this book and I am sorry I spent so much time on it.

14Sep P The Last Templar** – Michael Jecks. This was an irritating historical detective story, based on meticulous research. The author should have stuck to non-fiction. The points of view were all over the place, sometimes from one short paragraph to the next, which led to confusion. There was far too much repetition. both of thoughts and of voiced speculation about the various murders. Not an author I would read again.

16Sep P The Dead Zone**** – Stephen King. King is a brilliant writer – detailed characterisation and a plot that drags you into his world even when it doesn’t initially interest you. I’d heard of The Dead Zone and was intrigued by the idea of Johnny Smith, the unwilling psychic. The story was well told and I couldn’t stop reading. It was also sad and in some ways I wished I hadn’t read it. There were moments of horror – King excels at horror – and moments of sweetness. I wouldn’t read it again but it was very well done.

19Sep E Psycops****– Jordan Castillo Price. The  Psycops series is set in a world where psychics and supernatural creatures abound. The world building was good and I liked the main detectives, Victor and Jacob, who end up having an affair and then moving in together. I have  the whole series, up to Book 12, having bought them as a ‘bundle’. Most of them are are novellas, and the character building for Victor, the psychic cop, is fascinating. I can’t tell you about the plots as anything I said would be a huge spoiler for anyone who decides to read the stories! I would give five stars if any of the books were longer – I really do prefer crime stories to be novel length; somehow the pacing is more satisfying. The ‘shorts’ (romance focus) are less interesting than the longer stories which are dominated by paranormal crime. I understand there are more books to come. I will definitely read the longer ones. I would feel cheated if I spent any money on the shorts.

22Sep P Company of Liars***** – Karen Maitland. I couldn’t put this down. The subtitle is ‘a novel of the plague’. A group of ill-assorted travellers are on the move through England during the time of what is now known as the Black Death, the plague that ravaged Europe in the fourteenth century. The group have various reasons for their travel but have banded together on the road and are heading north and inland to try to outrun the plague. They fail, but none falls victim to the pestilence. Instead, there are various fates in store for them but not until they have told their stories, some of them retellings of legends, and some of them dark secrets of their lives. The structure of the book echoes The Canterbury Tales because of the group, the travel, and the stories. There is a hint of magic although everything that happens can be explained by the psychology and religious ideas of the middle ages. Many of the events are tragic and gruesome, and the gradual disintegration of the group reminds the reader of the death and decay of the population and the resulting devastation of the countryside. The ending seems merely sad and then there is a twist that leaves the reader shocked and unlikely to forget the story. Excellent historical research and skilled writing make this a fascinating novel. It would be hard to re-read it, knowing how things turn out for some of the characters, but I would certainly recommend this to anyone who enjoys either historical novels or tales of the macabre. I will also be looking for the author’s other works.

29Sep P The Judgement of Caesar** – Steven Saylor. I read a couple of Saylor’s Roman ‘mysteries’ some time ago and was not impressed. They were nowhere near as good as Lindsey Davis’ Falco books. I had just about forgotten why Saylor’s work annoyed me and as he’s so highly thought of and well reviewed I gave this story a try. Now I know. The writing irritates me. There are huge ‘info dumps’ and characters frequently tell each other, at some length, things they must already know, in order to inform the reader. There are artificial plot devices – Gordianus the Finder is placed as an eyewitness at many historical events through an unbelievable set of coincidences, thus allowing history to be related by a ‘common man’. So I was already inclined to dislike the book before I realised that the mystery didn’t even arise until two thirds of the way through. I liked the characters of Gordianus’ family and once I had started reading I ploughed through the novel to find out their fates and the explanation of the crime that was committed. The story takes place against the backdrop of Caesar and Cleopatra, at the beginning of Cleopatra’s reign. (The main thread of the novel starts with the death of Pompey and ends with the death of Ptolemy.) I did not particularly enjoy myself and will not read one of this author’s works again. The historical research is interesting and detailed, and is deservedly praised, but maybe Saylor should stick to text books?

29Sep E The Etymologicon*** – Mark Forsyth. This is a stroll through the English language looking at where words come from, how they are related, etc. Some of it was quite entertaining but at times the author’s sense of humour was a little heavy-handed. It’s a book to dip into rather than to read all at once. I might have tried harder with the quiz section at the end if I’d had a printed version – I find moving to and fro within a book on my Kindle unsatisfying which is why I don’t often use it for non-fiction.

So – a disappointing month but  Irregulars and The Company of Liars were highlights, and I read plenty of good fanfic, too.

Viewing:

Not much to report this month, because I’ve been watching a lot of documentaries, and have started watching some series that won’t be finished for some time either because of TV schedules or because my DVD watching will take some time. (Dr. Who, Inspector Montalbano and The Legend of the Seeker.)

10Sep Sherlock Holmes. A Game of Shadows***** – the second of the Robert Downey Junior films. I think I was possibly slightly less impressed than by the first film, but was it was still stunning. The special effects, the acting, the humour in the script… I think it far surpasses the BBC Sherlock series, though I enjoy that too. The effects, and some of the filming techniques were brilliant in this ‘sequel’. especially some of the slow motion sequences. Downey makes the perfect Holmes, and Jude Law is a fascinating Watson. The supporting cast were great, especially Stephen Fry as Mycroft. Altogether marvellous and highly recommended.

14Sep The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.***** – a sparkling cast, beautiful locations and direction, and a gentle plot full of humour and melancholy. A group of retired people go to India to a hotel in Jaipur. Life is never the same again for anyone. A lovely film.

27Sep Monsters Vs. Aliens*** – a Dreamworks ‘cartoon’ style of film with the latest computer graphics etc. A rather worthy and ponderous plot in which a young woman becomes a ‘monster’, saves the world, and decides she doesn’t need to return to normality. To be fair, it was made as a children’s film, but I was glad it was only 90 minutes…

30Sep Fierce Creatures*** – John Cleese and Michael Palin plus other well known stars. Farce set in a zoo that is due for closure. Some funny moments but generally ordinary.

Anybody read or watched any of the above?

Reading

Aug 5 E The Wise Man’s Fear***** – Patrick Rothfuss. This is the sequel to The Name of the Wind. They are the first two books in The Kingkiller Chronicle and I am looking forward to the next. Excellent world building, and characters (even the minor ones) so detailed and three dimensional I couldn’t help caring deeply about them. There are stories within the story, which itself is told as a story to a Chronicler at an inn. Intricate and enthralling fantasy, beautifully written.

Aug 7 E The Gallows Tree**** – RJ Scott. An American, fleeing an abusive relationship, comes to England and gets involved with a ghost story and a local man. The ghost element was hard to follow at times but the story was well written and charming.

Aug 8 E Hot Head* – Damon Suede. Basically porn, dressed up as a very lightweight story about New York fire fighters. It also had very strange dialogue punctuation. I hated it.

Aug 10 E Renfred’s Masquerade*** – Hayden Thorne. An intriguing YA novel of magic and mystery. I’m pretty sure teenagers would love it but although the plot hooked me the characters didn’t. I felt distanced from them and never really lost myself in the story as a result. Ghosts, magic, and mechanical marvels abound. I know the author (and indeed she has done incredibly helpful beta work for me) and I admire her YA stories but most of them don’t really appeal. For this one, she deserved a better editor – there were a lot of typos and similar errors. She has changed publishing houses and it shows.

Aug 12 E Riptide Rentboys Collection * – Various authors. I bought this because I know one of the authors well and she was excited about her new publisher. I reviewed her contribution a couple of months ago, The stories were acceptable though not special. The formatting, however, was appalling, which really annoyed me, because there is so much said about how publishers, such as Riptide, give the readers good formatting, unlike self-publishing… One story in the collection was unreadable, because the file was corrupt. The others had elementary formatting errors which kept interfering with reading enjoyment. I will pass on my comments via my friend, and I am unlikely ever to buy from this publisher again.

[Update: I contacted the publisher and was able to download another copy of the story. It wasn’t worth the effort but the publisher was polite and helpful. Also, I got a mobi download this time and the formatting was much better, so .pdfs can clearly be a problem.]

Aug 13 E In search of saints**** – Harper Fox. As usual, Harper Fox’s research and location were mind blowing and beautiful, but this time I felt that the story deserved a novel and this was only a novella. A fascinating tale of rival archaeologists and a discovery that needs to remain hidden, side by side with an m/m romance. True to form, the author introduces paranormal elements with a light touch. A lovely book, but one that should have been longer.

Aug 18 P Revelation*** – C.J.Sansom. This is a volume in the writer’s much-hyped Tudor detective series. The historical research and background details were fascinating and the plot was at times gripping but… First of all, the whole thing was too long and could well have been cut to about two thirds its length with some good editing. It was full of repetitions, ponderous info dumps and clumsy (though grammatical) sentence structures.  The crime element of the story, whilst exciting, never quite convinced me, and some of the sub-plots simply petered out though of course they might re-emerge in future volumes. I was  transported into Tudor England by the descriptions of everyday life and the effect was both haunting and lasting, but I won’t be reading any more books by this author. Disappointing in some ways.

Aug 20 P The Safe House*** – Nicci French. Another crime story, this time set in present day Essex. Gripping plot with a lot of twists but whilst I was caught up in the story while I read, the whole thing didn’t quite convince me when I wasn’t reading. A very unsettling ending, and I don’t think I’ll be reading any of their other books (the author is a husband and wife team).

Aug 24 E Point of Knives***** – Melissa Scott. A lovely addition to the Astreiant series which deals with ‘police’ work in a fantasy world. When Melissa Scott’s partner and co-writer died, fans of the books thought there would be no more but she has finally given us this novella which bridges the two previous books, and she is promising us another later in the year. Beautifully written, with interesting characters and detailed world-building. This story could probably stand alone but would benefit from being read after Point of Hopes. Recommended.

Aug 28 E Love Ahead*** – Madelaine Urban and Abigail Roux. Two long novellas with a modern m/m romance theme. The stories were pleasant but not particularly memorable, and the writing, whilst good, was full of American dialect and cultural references that left this Brit reader at times bewildered. I read books like this to check out the competition. I don’t think I’ll be in the same competition as these.

Viewing

Aug 9 Third Man Out** – One of the Donald Strachey mystery series. Poor acting and poor filming.

Aug 14 Shelter** – very lightweight m/m romance made film length by the addition of a lot of surfing scenes and a great deal of unmemorable music.

Aug 19 Page Eight**** – beautifully directed and acted made-for-TV spy film with Bill Nighy and Michael Gambon plus a sparkling supporting cast. Reminiscent somehow of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. I was disappointed by the ending which I thought was left slightly ambiguous for some kind of ‘art’ reason.

Aug 21 The Boat that Rocked*** – Nighy again, and Kenneth Brannagh, both of whom were somewhat wasted in this film. The story of UK’s pirate radio stations was one that needed to be told but the film couldn’t make its mind up over whether to be serious or comic, true to the facts or just a generalisation. It was too long for the story it ended up delivering, and was too lightweight, I thought, for its theme. The music was included in short snatches which were tantalising but unsatisfying. I have heard the CD which was better. The star-studded cast must have felt strongly about the subject matter in order to go ahead with this project. I found it disappointing.

Reading

3July E Savage City**** – Sophia McDougall. The final part of the Romanitas trilogy. Excellent and gripping writing but… During the first two books I got incredibly attached to some of the core characters. Now that I know their fates and futures (some dead, some on unexpected  paths) I don’t think I will ever be able to re-read the first two parts. That saddens me in some ways because I adored those books. The third – well, clever and satisfactory but not quite as special.

4July E Beneath the Neon Moon** – Theda Black. I usually like werewolf stories but this was strange. Two guys, strangers to each other, are kidnapped and chained together in a cellar. One is bitten and will soon ‘change’; the other is intended as his first prey. They have to trust each other in order to escape though the bitten one will still be a werewolf. Unsatisfactory.
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5July E Blind Items*** – Kate McMurray. Forgettable, though well written, m/m romance between a left-wing journalist and the son of a conservative senator.

6July E Blind Space*** – Marie Sexton. Space pirates. Some rather dubious non-consensual sex, fetishes, justifications of piracy, and insufficiently developed characters. I was sufficiently interested to read to the end, and the actual writing was quite good but I wouldn’t recommend it wholeheartedly.

7July E Human for a Day**** – edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Jennifer Brozek. An intriguing anthology of stories where something or someone becomes human for twenty four hours. There are swords, cities and statues as well as robots and zombies. As usual in an anthology the quality was varied but there were more memorable stories than poor ones.

7July E Are You There, Blog?*** – Kristen Lamb. This was an attempt to show authors how to use social media to sell themselves and their books. Despite the blurb, I learnt nothing new, and found the style (and humour) too American to read happily. I’m sure I probably ought to be on Facebook and Twitter but for now I won’t be following the advice. But it might inspire me to post about it…

8July E Forgotten Soul*** – Natasha Duncan Drake. Another story by this author who is a friend. I can admire the writing and plotting but as I am less than enamoured of most vampire stories I am unlikely to read the sequels.

9July E The Only Gold***** – Tamara Allen. Unusual thriller with an m/m sub-plot, set in nineteenth century New York banking circles. Pinkerton’s agents end up chasing bank robbers through one of the worst ever snow storms which paralyses the city. Interesting and well written.

10July E City Falcon***** – Feliz Faber. Intriguing m/m romance based around the research into using birds of prey to control bird strikes at airports.

11July E The Book of Dragons* – E. Nesbit. Collection of Nesbit’s short stories about dragons. I vaguely remembered enjoying her children’s books but this irritated me. The narrator voice was omnipresent and alternated between condescending and coy. Even at the time these were written this must have grated on a large part of the readership.

12July E Floaters** – Joe Konrath and Henry Perez. A short and competent thriller. Konrath is a good writer but in his attempts to have lots and lots of ebooks available I feel he has lost the interest of this reader at least. This story, co-written with Perez and involving both writers’ detectives, never really gets into the character of either.

13July E Hammer and Air** – Amy Lane. This was intended as an m/m fairy tale but I thought it was heavy handed and had far too much explicit sex for the genre.

14July E A devil’s own luck**** – Rowan McAllister. Competent and entertaining m/m version of a typical Georgette Heyer style Regency novel.

15July E The Song of Achilles** – Madeline Miller. A disappointing retelling of the Trojan Wars which got rave reviews (which was why I bought it). Unlike other modern versions of old legends and ancient history this was too short, and it was impossible for me to become sufficiently involved in the story to forget the ending. The narrator was Patroclus and he was an interesting character but Achilles never really became three dimensional.

17July E His Hearth** – Mary Calmes. Forgettable story of a demon hunter who needs a ‘hearth’ or human to ground him.

19July E Enlightened* – J.P.Barnaby. An unlikely tale of teenage m/m romance. Very American and very annoying as it turned out to be the first part of a serial, not a series as the title page suggested. I won’t be reading the rest.

21July E Kill for me***** – Karen Rose. The third part of a story started in Die for me, though the books can be read alone. Excellent convoluted thriller, which, as usual for this author, has the reader on edge until the last minute.

26July E Stolen Moments** – Ariel Tachna. Long and boring story detailing the difficulties of a gay relationship in the southern states of America. I felt sympathy for the characters but kept wanting to yell at them to emigrate to Europe. The writing was good and I’m sure the author had the best of intentions. Maybe the book just wasn’t directed at me.

I read more original fiction than usual this month, perhaps because I was in Portugal with no TV, magazines, etc.  Unfortunately, the books I had loaded on my Kindle didn’t include many ‘keepers’.

Viewing

24July The Prestige**** Interesting film, with some good acting by Hugh Jackman and Christian Bayle. The story concerns the deadly rivalry between two stage magicians at the end of the nineteenth century and moves between England and America. The insights into stage magic were fascinating. The plot was occasionally impenetrable.

25July The Bridge***** Final part of the Swedish/Danish TV thriller based around police co-operation between the two countries after a body is discovered on the centre of the bridge between them. Some excellent acting and suspense – this was a ten part story with each part taking an hour. Subtitles.

31July Mirror Mirror**** An interesting take on the story of Snow White. The plot is tweaked slightly to good (and feminist) effect. Some lovely special effects and clever fight scenes. I adored the monster. Some of the humour was rather heavy handed. Altogether a pleasant experience but not a film that I would bother rewatching.

Fewer films etc. than usual, because in Portugal we can only get news channels on TV and I hadn’t taken DVDs.

For anyone who’s wondering, the photograph is of a wall of cut plaster work in Alsfeld, Germany.

We’re in Portugal, with erratic internet access, hence the lack of posts in the last couple of weeks. This little wasp in building a nest on a pile of coffee-table books in my study. The nest will probably have to go, but meanwhile, I am fascinated.

Reading and Viewing

Reading

4 June E With a twist*** – Jack Kilborn and JA Konrath. Clever ‘locked room’ mystery but not very memorable.

8 June E Westward Weird***** –  an anthology edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Kerrie Hughes. The stories, a really odd mixture of sci-fi, fantasy, paranormal and horror, are of a uniformly high quality and I thoroughly enjoyed the collection. The factor than ties them together is the ‘Wild West’ setting, though the connection is not always as it seems and one or two of the stories take place on other planets or in alternate histories. I bought this because it contains a short story by Seanan McGuire that ties in with one of her urban fantasy series, but I loved all the other contributions too.

14 June P Discount Armageddon***** – Seanan McGuire. The author had a short story in the Westward Weird anthology, set in her new ‘world’ of cryptozoologists (monster hunters) and I had read some snippets on her blog. So I bought the first novel in the the series and it was excellent: exciting, well-written and fun, with lots of well-imagined non-humans including a dragon under Manhattan. But although I admire it, it didn’t really hook me the way the October Daye series does. I wait impatiently for the next October Daye novel; I think the cryptozoologists will be more of an occasional read.

14 June P The Ice Dragon** – George R. R. Martin. I assume this was intended as a children’s book; it is short, fully illustrated and simply told. However, it’s a very melancholy story and I’m not at all sure it would be popular with the age range it seems to be directed at. I’m also not sure Martin has really got inside the head of a small child. Disappointing.

15 June E All Roads Lead to You***** – Harper Fox. I love Harper Fox’s m/m romances and after reading about this one on her blog, and the ‘competition’ to name it (no, I didn’t win), I had to buy it. A very romantic and satisfying story of an ex-model who is seeking the boy he thought was a just pizza waiter in Rome.

17June E Against the Light*** – Dave Duncan. The author takes the idea of the Gunpowder Plot and transforms it into a fantasy with magic instead of Catholicism. The story is exciting and the characters are well drawn but the world building fails. References to police officers and people being ‘dorky’ in an essentially historical story simply don’t work. There is also too much explicit description of tortures and punishments.

17June E Lonely*** – Scarlet Blackwell. Sweet but unmemorable m/m romance about a lonely vet who bonds with a client over a dog.

18June E A Solid Core of Alpha***** – Amy Lane. Gripping sci-fi m/m romance. A twelve year old boy, sole survivor of a planetary catastrophe, creates a family of holograms to sustain his ten year journey through space. Then, grown up, he has to face reality. I loved this book.

20June E Sister of the Hedge and other stories**** – Jim Hines. Interesting and very different take on a number of fairy stories and myths. Good writing.

21June E Perfect Day***** – Josh Lanyon. Bittersweet and ultimately satisfying m/m romance short story in which everything hinges on a bee sting.

24June E Close Enough to Kill** – Beverly Barton. Boring and banal serial-killer ‘thriller’. The plot was poor and there was far too much explicit sex between various characters, including the lead detectives, and far too much detail about the killer’s torture programme.

27June E The Quiche of Death** – M.C.Beaton. Boring ‘whodunnit’ with and unpleasant ‘heroine’. The first story in the Agatha Raisin Omnibus. I won’t be reading the other three.

28June E Rome Burning***** – Sophia McDougall. Second book in the Romanitas trilogy, set in a word where the Roman Empire never fell. Exciting, fascinating, romantic, tragic… I enjoyed Romanitas, the first book, and I shall be buying the sequel, Savage City.

29June E Necessity’s Door*** – Fiona Glass. A novella in which a cop goes undercover as a rentboy and is tempted both by the money and by one of his customers. I felt the format was too short to explore the issues properly.

Viewing
1June Star Trek 9: Insurrection.**  Boring. Maybe when it was first made the special effects would have saved it. (I understand it was the first of the Star Trek films to be made with CGI effects.) Watched today it just seemed like an over-long version of a TV episode.

2June Garrow’s Law Season 2***** Fascinating series that mixes fact with fiction to create drama from the life and career of William Garrow, the barrister who is regarded as the ‘father’ of the English adversarial courtroom system. I will definitely buy Season 3.

6June Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 ****  Much better than  part 1, with some excellent special effects, but I wonder if anyone who hadn’t read the books had the faintest idea what was going on? Of course, the majority of viewers would have read the books, but still…

9June The Colour of Magic***** Two linked films on one disc – the made-for-TV versions of The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic, overseen and introduced by Terry Pratchett. Excellent sets, special effects and acting – and of course I love the books anyway.

11June Desperate Housewives *****  Season 8 (final season). I’ve followed this series all the way through and loved it. It was quite sad to watch the final finale and I will always remember the inhabitants of Wisteria Lane. Great scripts that combined humour, excitement and tragedy, great acting that made the people seem completely real, and an interesting look at a small part of a very foreign culture.

12June How to Train your Dragon**** Beautifully made ‘cartoon’ (Dreamworks) film about ‘Vikings’ and dragons.  Exquisite artwork and quirky plot. My daughter recommended it and I enjoyed it very much but wouldn’t watch it again now that I know the outcome.

15June Eragon** A rather trite story with very unrealistic sets and some stilted script. I liked the dragon but the rest was disappointing.

Reading
2May E Scrap Metal***** – Harper Fox. This is a beautiful m/m romance set on the Scottish island of Arran. I love Harper Fox’s writing style which is very lyrical but at the same time detailed and earthy, and I love the UK settings for her stories, especially the northern ones. She describes landscapes well and her characters, even the minor ones, are very real.  Her romances usually have an element of suspense and violence and this one is no different, but as usual, the story ends on a note of hope for the future.

7May E Cat’s Creation**** – Natasha Duncan-Drake. A competent sequel to Cat’s Call (with the same proofreading flaws). The team have an interesting assignment which takes up most of the book. Probably a very appealing book for YA readers wanting excitement with plenty of character development and coming-of-age plotlines. Now that I have gained some insight into the ‘world’ of Charlie and his cat spirit I am less interested but can still admire the story structure.

9May P The Church of Dead Girls** – Stephen Dobyns. A very unpleasant story about how a serial abduction case (later known to be a murder one) creates suspicion and havoc in a small American town. I was intrigued by rave reviews by writers I respect (e.g. Stephen King) but found myself disliking almost all the characters, including the narrator and the victims, and skimming the detailed descriptions of  society to find out who was the villain. Not an author I would try again.

11May P Treasure Islands***** – Nicholas Shaxson. Subtitle: Tax havens and the men who stole the world. This was a very readable and gripping acount of offshore banking and the effects it has on global finance in general, and the current banking crisis in particular. I kept feeling that I was being told something I ought to have known – and yet the details are carefully brushed under the carpet by politicians and journalists alike, and the ordinary citizen is kept in ignorance. A fascinating book and one that has opened my eyes to the way finance works. Highly recommended.

14May P Piece of my heart** – Peter Robinson. Thriller set in a semi-fictitious Yorkshire Dales which threw me because of my own connections with the area. I kept trying to fit the made-up names and descriptions to real places. The story dealt with a case in 1969 and one today. Eventually, the two turn out to be linked. The modern case concerns DI Banks, a detective I enjoyed in the TV series but found slightly boring in novel form.

15May P Kingdoms of Elfin** – Sylvia Townsend Warner. A few people had recommended this and other books by the same author, presumably because I have written about ‘fairies’. I managed to buy a second hand copy of this one (supposedly her best) which is currently out of print. I was terribly disappointed. Ms Warner’s fairies are arbitrary, cruel and amoral but that wasn’t the problem;  my own fae don’t always adhere to human rules of conduct. The trouble is that the fairies in Elfin (and the mortals, for that matter) are never developed into fully three-dimensional characters. We learn what they do, but not really how they feel about it. I really didn’t care about anyone in the stories and whilst their antics were intriguing it was almost like watching flocks of birds or clouds of insects. Some of the societies and events were brilliantly depicted and the descriptions showed unusual imagination but there was no attempt to develop any empathy or sympathy. I had to struggle to read to the end and only did so to be able to discuss the book with the people who recommended it in such glowing terms.

18May P You Belong To Me***** – Karen Rose. Karen Rose’s thrillers are over the top and somewhat formulaic. They shouldn’t fascinate  me but they do. She creates characters I care about from the first chapter, in some cases from the first page, and the action is always intensely gripping. I put off meals and bedtime to read just one more chapter… So her writing is extremely good, to have such an effect. I think the appealing characters are the key. Other thrillers have fast-paced and exciting plots but don’t hook me. In this story, from the moment when Lucy stumbled across a corpse and met JD, the homicide detective, I wanted them to be together so I read on through 547 pages of angst. It was worth it.

19May E Human Tales**** – ed. Jennifer Brozek. An anthology of ‘fairy tales’ told from fairy and other supernatural points of view. The humans of the title come across as difficult – and sometimes wicked – but always interesting. As with any anthology the quality varied but every story drew me in and made me care about the main characters. Much more to my taste than The Kingdoms of Elfin, read earlier in the month.

23May P Edge***** – Jeffery Deaver. I bought this at a charity shop because I’ve enjoyed his detective novels and because I was interested to see what the author given the task of writing a new James Bond novel could do in a slightly different type of thriller. Edge follows four days in a case of protecting a family who are the targets of a ‘lifter’, someone paid, not initially to kill, but to get information by any means possible. It’s all told in the first person by the main protector and is quite gripping. There’s a great deal of discussion about game theory which is interesting, and the plot has numerous twists and turns. Not my usual choice of fiction but very good, all the same.

25May P Wink**** – Leyton Attens. This is a volume of One Short Story to be Told and I was the latest recipient of the single copy that is travelling around the world. The story was readable and competently written but the main intrigue is in following the story of the stories.

31May P Everything is Obvious (once you know the answer)**** – Duncan J. Watts. Subtitle: How common sense fails. An interesting book about sociology and recent research in the field. The author does indeed manage to get the reader to question their common sense assumptions. The experiments, particularly the ones carried out on huge samples via the internet, were fascinating. The explanations became somewhat repetitive on occasion.

31May P The Rook Trilogy (The Edge Chronicles)**** – Paul Stewart and Chris Ridddell. This is a children’s book – a long saga of war and friendship in a world of humans, goblins and gnomes and stranger monsters, some good and some evil. The descriptions and world building are richly detailed as are the black and white illustrations. I found it interesting and will definitely keep it for my grandson, but I did find myself skimming a lot of the battle scenes. I would probably recommend it for reading aloud to seven year olds upwards and for slightly older children (or maybe just more able readers) for reading to themselves, but the reviews at the back suggest that younger teenagers love the series and are thrilled by the associated website at http://www.edgechronicles.co.uk. There are apparently three trilogies, to date, and a book of oddments.

Watching

3May Ratatouille*** – Disney cartoon film about a rat who wants to be the best chef in Paris. Quite a sweet story but it dragged a little.

16May The Golden Compass** – Gorgeous special effects but if I hadn’t read the book I would be very confused. I assume they are going to make films of the other two parts of the trilogy otherwise there really doesn’t seem much point to the story.

20May Misfits**** – Season 1. Clever dark comedy about a gang of young offenders who get superpowers during a freak storm.

22May The Lakehouse** – I rented this because I’d read an intriguing fanfic based on the premise in the story. Well made but disappointing with an ending that didn’t make sense. The couple in the film are living in different times, roughly two years apart, and though they meet it is never ‘right’. It’s a romance, but a strange one and it never explained how they got together at the end.

24May The Brothers Grimm***** – A gorgeous mix of fantasy, folk tale, horror and humour, with excellent acting and special effects. Slight echoes of Tim Burton and of Pan’s Labyrinth, and all the unusual detail you can expect from Terry Gilliam and Czech film making. I don’t know why this didn’t attract greater critical acclaim.  Highly recommended.

25May Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1* – I thought this was a deeply flawed film. I enjoy the Harry Potter world – books and films – but this was far too dependent on knowledge of the book, to make sense, too slow to retain interest, too visually dark and too unfinished. OK, they made Part 2 (and I have yet to watch that) but although the first part of the final book drags in much the same way as the film the slowness is in keeping with the context and the reader is able to go straight on into the rest of the story.  As a piece of cinema, I think this film fails. I think it was made purely with the profits of the series in mind, and not with any artistic vision.

An interesting month with some highs and unexpected lows. What have you been reading and watching?

Reading:

2Apr P Driving Force***** – Dick Francis. I love Francis’s books. The combination of the racing community and the inadvertent hero theme really appeals to me. (I grew up in a ‘racing’ town.) And the novels are gripping. All the characters, villains, heroes and supporting cast, are well developed and the plots/crimes are intriguing. This was set in the horsebox transport business and was a fascinating and exciting read.

2 Apr E Sharing***** – Philippe and Suzanne Aigrain. Subtitle: Culture and the eonomy in the internet age. A fascinating set of proposals for reform of copyright law, put forward by one of the founders of La Quadrature du Net, a French organisation dedicating to fighting the ACTA treaty in Europe. This was a hard book to read, as it relied a lot on statistics, which are not my favourite subject, but it had some incredibly good and fresh ideas about copyright, piracy, sharing, and creative commons.

3Apr E Write Good or Die*** – Scott Nicholson and others. A collection of essays/blog entries by known authors about how they achieved success with tips as to how other authors might emulate them. I didn’t learn anything but then I’ve read quite a lot of books like this. The overall advice was that everyone will find their own way, but that you must write the book you would like to read.

8Apr P The Little Paris Kitchen***** – Rachel Khoo. We started watching the TV series then a neighbour lent us the book. There are some great recipes and ideas, beautifully explained. The book is much better than the BBC website entries which fail, miserably, to enlighten the would-be cook about such things as which kind of flour or sugar to use. It’s an expensive book and I suspect the inflated price reflects the TV tie-in but we’re ordering it from Amazon which is quite a lot cheaper. There are instructions for such essentials as making your own fromage frais, something we will have to do in Portugal if we’re to have it at all.

10Apr E Cat’s Call**** – Natasha Duncan-Drake. YA fantasy about an eighteen-year-old who finds himself taken over by a cat spirit and thrust into leadership of a team that fights to save the universe. Engaging characters and some interesting magic. The book could do with a higher standard of proofreading but is otherwise delightful. Self published by the author, who is a ‘real life’ friend as well as someone whose blogs I follow. I only bought this to check out her writing but will definitely buy the sequel as the story is quite exciting and I like following other YA writers.

19Apr P Trick of the Dark***** – Val McDermid. Stand-alone thriller that is just as good as her series. A psychiatrist/profiler is dragged into a case involving some old murders and potential threats.

21Apr E King’s Conquest* – Valentina Heart. I bought this because the blurb said it was about an arranged m/m marriage in a fantasy kingdom so of course I wanted to check out the competition. I don’t think I need worry. The writing was poor – characterisation was sketchy and world building even more so. The protagonists were meant to be a different species and one type of male could bear children but this was not really explained and the whole ‘otherness’ of the people could have been so much better done. The actual writing was technically competent but the plot was so shallow and boring that I only finished the book in the name of research. This was published by Silver, who usually publish quite good novels. I’m surprised it made the grade.

24Apr E Set in Darkness**** – Ian Rankin. Rankin’s murder mysteries are good value because you get a whole novel, with well-developed characters, as well as a competent police procedural. This one, set just before the inauguration of the Scottish Parliament, was interesting and wide-ranging in its commentary on Edinburgh society. The way three deaths and a rape case were tied together after seeming to be totally unconnected was clever. It was also depressing, as the Rebus novels often are.

28Apr P Blue Skies and Black Olives** – John and Christopher Humphrys. The famous (in UK) TV presenter and journalist, and his musician son wrote a book about building a house in Greece. There are the occasional interesting or amusing anecdotes about life in Greece, which could probably be duplicated in a book about almost anywhere. The trouble is, a friend lent us this assuming we’d be agog to read about settling into and building in a new country. The book is more about the relationship between father and son and is largely boring though it did make me look more kindly on Portuguese bureaucracy. I had the niggling suspicion that it got written as a ‘lots-of-people-make-money-out-of-books-about-building-abroad-so-let’s-see-if-we-can-too’ kind of book.  I only finished it because it was a loan. I sincerely hope we’ll be able to do better, but then we aren’t famous journalists so the readership won’t be as guaranteed.

30Apr E The Pauper Prince** – Sui Lynn. A shapeshifter romance. There was lots of repetition in the abortive attempts of the various characters to explain their powers to each other. The romance was too sentimental and too sudden to be likely. The plot was confusing and, once unravelled, not particularly interesting. I finished it because I like werewolves – but I’ve read much better!

A mixed bag this month, in terms of both subject matter and quality. I feel as if I’ve spent too much time on non-fiction but that’s maybe because the non-fiction titles took longer to read.

Watching:

3Apr Sweeney Todd***** – the Tim Burton film with Johnny Depp and other famous names. Different. Horror done as an opera/musical with lyrics and music by Sondheim. Very interesting and dramatic – there were parts I could hardly bear to watch because the tension was so high. When murder is inevitable but is preceded by an aria… Depp was suitably insane with grief, Rickman and Spall were delightfully  villainous, and Helena Bonham-Carter was sometimes unintelligible in her spoken parts but looked superb and sang like an angel. Burton created sets that echoed some of his darker cartoon backgrounds and turned into a kind of stage set appropriate to the music. The story was gruesome and predictable but strangely engrossing. An intriguing idea, beautifully executed.

9Apr Outlaw*** – Sean Bean plays an Iraqui War veteran who returns to a crime-ridden UK and gathers a team of ‘victims’ to fight the situation . Some good acting, especially from Bean, but the plot was a bit disjointed and confusing, and I strongly disliked the vigilante message.

14Apr Inspector Montalbano***** – Season 1. Italian cop show set in Sicily. (Subtitles.) Complex cases, fascinating scenery and a big helping of comedy in the background story about the police in the small town of Vigata. I’m looking forward to Season 2.

21Apr Rabbit-Proof-Fence***** I’d seen this before and in fact we have the DVD somewhere but when it came on TV I couldn’t help but watch again. It’s a powerful and enlightening film about the attitudes of early twentieth century Australians towards aborigines and ‘half-casts.’ Some stunning performances from previously unknown child actresses who outshine Kenneth Branagh, though he might have hoped that would happen, in order to get the film’s message across.

23Apr City of Ember* – A fantasy about a society deep underground after some kind of apocalypse where the infrastructure starts to fail and someone must find a way out. The events, the location and the social structure didn’t ring true and the eventual ‘adventure’ up into the light was almost cartoon-like in its unlikeliness. I got the distinct impression that even the actors didn’t believe in it. I think it was aimed at a YA audience but that doesn’t usually stop films being good or gripping.

26Apr Hawaii 5.0***** – Season 1 – new version. I love this. The plots are unbelievably trashy but the characters are charming and the team banter is sharp and funny. Season 1 ended in a cliff-hanger so no doubt I will try to beg or borrow Season 2 from someone or other. Fortunately, a number of my friends share my tastes.

27Apr Run Fatboy Run*** A romantic comedy  (set around the London marathon) from the team who brought us Hot Fuzz (which I adore). It was OK but although there were some funny moments I was disappointed.

30Apr Blame it on the Bellboy***** Zany Brit farce with Dudley Moore and other well known Brit actors, set in Venice. Extremely funny with gorgeous photography of the location.

Some excellent viewing this month.

What have you been reading and watching?