Book Addicts Anonymous

OK! I should apologise...Michel Faber is one of my favourite authors, and I just sped through this book. I will probably re-read in the future, as I re-read "Under the Skin", and find new things each time I read.
Faber is a brilliant author, and probably a "best kept secret", because if I say I love his books I usually get a blank look.
Fire Gospel is nowhere near the same subject matter as "Under the Skin", but he has given a potential idea the same weight. The novel is just as "urgent" to read...it only took me two days.
As yet I have liked all Faber's work
Here's the "bumph" from the back cover of the book.

when Theo Griepenkerl happens upon the fifth Gospel in a war-torn Iraqi museum, he can't believe his luck. Driven by greed and a lust for fame, he capitalises on his find by publishing it. His book is a sensation. But he can hardly imagine the incendiary consequences his discovery will have for Christians, Arabs, homicidal maniacs and Amazon customers alike.

for more information on Michel Faber, click here
this is one of the "Myths" series of books published by Canongate.

Posted by Sea at 5:03 PM | 0 comments  
Labels: canongate publishers, contemporary literature, Michel Faber

I finished this last night....I just had to...I only had 40+ pages to read
To me the novel is very insightful, knowing what went on several years later. Tolstoy could not have foreseen the revolution.
Anna is a "tragic" character, she falls for someone whilst married, in a society that gives everything to the man....whatever.
She leaves he husband to set up home with her lover, also the father of her daughter, but as she is still officially married to her husband, it his name that claims Anna and her lover's child.
The end of part seven is very tragic, and part eight seems to me to be devoted to tying up all the ends neatly.
Anyone who knows their Russian history will spot that this might be the beginning of the rot.
The novel is worth reading, and once you sort out the naming in your head, fairly easy to follow.
I have the good luck to have read several Russian based novels, and understand the various names.
But.....let's be honest...who ever you are reading this...you are someones child, someones sibling, maybe someones spouse...without taking into consideration any other social circumstances...you might have three ways of address.
The Russian way of naming is not so odd...the endings point to the relationships.

Posted by Sea at 3:20 PM | 0 comments  
Labels: Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy

I now have less than 200 pages to read of AK......It has become a book where I just want to read to the end of the next chapter. I am familiar with all the characters now, and am thoroughly enjoying. When I bought Anna Karenina, it was part of a set of seven published by Penguin as "wonders of the World". Maybe the others are as good, I did read one of them around halfway through whilst doing my degree, that's why I never finished it. Perhaps after you persevere through the first few chapters they all get easy?

Posted by Sea at 12:27 PM | 0 comments  
Labels: Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy, Penguin "wonders of the world"

The year is 885 and England is at peace, divided between the Danish kingdom to the north and the Saxon kingdom of Wessex in the south. Warrior by instinct and Viking by nature, Uhtred, the dispossessed son of a Northumbrian lord, has land, a wife and children – and a duty to King Alfred to hold the frontier on the Thames. But a dead man has risen, and new Vikings have invaded the decayed Roman city of London with dreams of conquering Wessex … with Uhtred’s help. Suddenly forced to weigh his oath to the king against the dangerous turning tide of shifting allegiances and deadly power struggles, Uhtred – Alfred’s sharpest sword – must now make the choice that will determine England’s future.

While it may seem that the introduction of such a dreaded concept as peace into any of Bernard Cornwell’s writing to be a bad thing, he still manages to make peace exciting. All of Cornwell’s books are infused enough action to be a literary equivalent of the best action movie one can imagine. But as brutal a time as he writes about here, it’s never something that is off-putting. You read and understand that this was a way of life. So even peace can be eventful.
Highly recommended as are all of Cornwell’s books.

posted by Sea on behalf of Blue

Posted by Sea at 4:00 PM | 0 comments  

I have been reading AK slowly but surely. The main complaint of most readers doesn't bother me. I have read several books based in Russia and know that one family member can have many different names, depending on who is talking about them/addressing them. It isn't as strange as you think, our own language has many different ways of addressing people. If you are talking to a family member you use their given name, but if you talk about a family member, you give their relationship as well as their name. If you know the person well there may be a nickname you use, and then parents rarely call their offspring their given names, but shorten them or use "pet names". OK....keeping that in mind...embark on Anna Karenina and the naming is not as odd as people first think..
I have only got as far as where Levin has found out that Vronsky has not proposed to Kitty, and Kitty has gone into a decline. The book is much easier to read than I thought it would be, however, I am only reading in 10-20 page chunks.
I had also started a book called "The Confusion" by Neal Stephenson, only to realise that it is the second book of a huge trilogy. So, yesterday I found a copy of "Quicksilver", the first in the trilogy, and am reading that.....all 900+ pages of it.
Bearing that in mind, please forgive me if I don't post for a while, as I am working my way through two ENORMOUS books.

Posted by Sea at 6:00 PM | 0 comments  
Labels: Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy, Neal Stephenson, Quicksilver, The Confusion

The bumph is so good I bought this twice. Then gave the second copy...when I realised what I had done, to one of the English teachers at school.
Anyway...yes..so good I bought it twice?
Well actually..it is another book that just wanted to be read!
Luciano is a street child, living by his wits. One day "the chef" catches him stealing a pomegranate, and instead of turning him in to the "authorities" he gives him a job in his kitchen. "The Chef" is chef to the Doge of Venice in a time where there is corruption everywhere. Many are searching for answers to various questions, such as eternal life, beating ageing, turning base metals into gold. "The chef" has a copy of "the book"....but what is contained within the pages is not what the searchers are looking for. However, they do not know this, and the Doge, the Pope, and several other influential persons initiate a search for "the book". This puts "the chef" and Luciano's life in danger.
If I say more I will spoil the plot. If what you have read has caught your interest...look for this book, set in 1498, prior to the mass production of printed matter...the masses were expected to follow whatever "priests" told the to follow......like sheep...this novel explores the beginnings of the masses thinking for themselves.

And here's a link to the author's site http://www.ellenewmark.com/book.php

Posted by Sea at 4:45 PM | 0 comments  
Labels: Elle Newmark, historical fiction

http://www.19thwife.com/
I will admit when I picked this book up I didn't read the back, the short bit on the front had me hooked.
One Sect, many secrets....and murder
I didn't realise it was about Mormons, and polygamy, I thought it was about a "Bluebeard" type man.
Another brilliant book, with the two tales intertwining throughout. In my eyes, one without the other would possibly have made a weaker novel, but both woven together made for very interesting reading.
If you are a very strong feminist this book will make you angry, how the children are treated is not so good either in my eyes. The indoctrination of the Mormon women of the sect is particularly shocking.

Posted by Sea at 11:36 AM | 0 comments  
Labels: fiction