Book Addicts Anonymous

I've been busy knitting and not had time to up-date here.
I've read a small mountain of books since last I posted.
I think just name them and a brief summary of what I thought about them.

The Left Hand of God by Paul Hoffman.  I occasionally pick up pure fantasy novels, this one was great, following Thomas Cale from hisbeginnings in a sudo-monastry, to the outside world.  It's the first of a series. 
Havisham by Ronald Frame.  A review copy from Waterstones.  Maps out Miss Havisham's early life. Great read, prompted me to then read Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.  I read this for O level in the dim and distant past, and after around 100 pages the book rang no bells at all, not surprising as I don't think we finished the book.  However, I have now, and reading at my own pace, I found it a very entertaining book. Since reading Little Dorrit during my degree, I have found that like Shakespeare, he is not fully appreciated.
Crow Stone by Jenni Mills. A suspense/thriller set around stone mine workings.  Very good.
The Very Thought of You by Rosie Alison. Anna Sands is evacuated to Yorkshire during the second world war.  In the novel we follow the events during her evacuation.  A good book.

The Spare Room by Helen Garner.  Helen offers her spare room to an ailing friend, not realising just how ill her friend is.  A good novel about the strength of a friendship.
The Last Weekend by Blake Morrison.  This was dramatised on ITV in 2012, I enjoyed the dramatisation, so decided to read the book.  The book was much better than the TV series.
A Darker Domain by Val Mc Dermid.  A thriller with a missing miner, missing grandchild, all set in a grim Scottish town  A very engrossing read.
Mirror, Mirror by Gregory Maguire.  A retelling of the Snow White tale by the author who brought u Wicked. A nice sideways glance at the tale.
Swimming Home by Deborah Levy and The Lighthouse by Alsion Moore.  Two of last year''s Man Booker shortlist. Although good stories, after reading I knew that neither would win the Booker prize.
Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult.  After a miscarriage Zoe and Max split up.  They have been undergoing IVF treatment.  Zoe wishes to use the remaining embryos to have the child she craves, but Max doesn't want her to.  As with all Picoult books, she explores the emotional repercussions of people's actions.
The Little Stanger by Sarah Walters.  Dr Faraday becomes entangled with the Ayres family, at the "big house" in the aftermath of WW2.  Money is tight, and the stress affects the family, or does it? Brilliant book.
Mr Toppit by Charles Elton.  A good book, based around what an author's family find out after he has died.  Stuff they didn't know about.
The Secrets of the Noteboook by Eve Haas.  A true story of Eve Haas' search for her forebears and the difficulties in searching for them behind the Iron Curtain.  Absorbing Book.
Ordinary Thunderstorms by William Boyd. A chance encouter for Adam Kindred has him having to go undercover, as there are people out to kill him.  Brilliant Thriller.
The Rose Labyrinth by Titania Hardie.  Another book about searching for famuily history, this one fictional, but just as good.
Never Go Back by Robert Goddard.  A group of men who did their National Service together are invited to a reunion.  Suspenseful events take place, and a few end up dead.  Good Thriller.
The NInth Stone by Kylie Fitzpatrick.  A rae jewel, and Indian curse, an orphan all make up this thriller, as people end up dea in Victorian London.
Remarkable Creatures by Tracey Chevalier.  A novel based around two friends whose hobby becomes an obsession.  They find dinosaur fossils on a South coast beach, but their find is claimed by a man, as it was not a "femine pursuit" The two women are eventually recognised.
The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan.  Set in a post apocalyptic world, the novel follows Mary outside the safety of their compound and into the dangerous world outside it.  Good read. First of a series.

I only got as far as p34 in this slim volume before I lost patience.
I' very sorry Ms Madden, but stream of consciousness novels are hard work, and I'm afraid I couldn't stick with this. 
Usually I persevere, but after reading a classic, with all it's attendant verbosity, I still lost patience. 
I truly wish there was a place where people posted ads for books they wanted to read and were willing to pay for a copy.

The germ of the tale of Frankenstein was created when Mary Shelly, along with Percy Bysshe Shelly and several others were at a lakeside  during a storm.  They challenged each other to come up with a suitable story.
Mary Shelly turned her stormy tale into a full length novel.

For loads of information about Frankenstein, click here.

Despite it being almost 200 years since it's publication, the novel is fresh and engaging. When the monster tells his part of the tale the reader feels every sympathy for him.

Above is the bumph from the back of the book, tells you enough to catch your attention, but doesn't give away much of the plot.  It's by Jeanette Winterson, what else do you need to know, it's bound to be good.

Jeanette Winterson breathes more magic into this slim volume about the machinations going on behind the arrests of the women accused of witchcraft from Pendle in 1612.  Much more magic than I have encountered in any other books based on the Lancashire Witches.
I also love the way she portrays Thomas Potts, as a jumped up jobsworth who sees witchcraft and popery everywhere he looks.
Another well crafted book from the pen of Jeanette Winterson

An engrossing book that starts with someone getting an unexpected promotion, then a woman who has served time in prison, wrongly convicted, for the murder of her children, is murdered. The only link to the reader is that the person who has received the promotion is working on a documentary about wrongly accused women.
It's a fast paced book with plenty to keep the reader's attention.
Sophie Hannah is a favourite of mine.

I only managed to read as far as page 41 in this novel before I gave up on it.
Stream of consciousness novels are not really my kind of read, and this is very disjointed, as the narrator into whose consciousness we are being given an insigth is a drug addict.  He leaves of sentences half way through and jumps scenario, topic and time.  I realise that this might be how a drug addict thinks, but it just got very frustrating and I gave up.
I have read stream of consciouness novels in the past and found most of them readable, but not the best book I have ever read. 
I might in the future give this novel another try, as I have read If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things by the same author, and from what I remeber I liked it.
My dislike might also be down to having just read two very different books and the change of pace threw me.

It's a while since I read Rebecca, (third year at Uni, but that was only 2002-2003,) and at the time I was mostly reading coursebooks and theory books.  I got The Scapegoat when I heard it was to be made into a TV drama this autumn. If they stick to the text it should be a really good dramatisation.
John, a university lecturer, is on holiday/fact gathering in France.  He stops in Le Mans and there at a station buffet he meets Jean, a French Comte.  They are strikingly similar, this chance likeness leads to them spending the evening together, drinking.  When John wakes the next afternoon, Jean has taken his clothes, his car and his wallet, leaving John his clothes and belongings.  A chauffeur is waiting to take Monsieur Le Comte back to the chateau.
Jean has left with John's identity and left John to pick up his life, and all it's attendant problems. John finds that he has to pass himself off as husband, son, father, brother, and lover to the circle of Jean's family.  He does at first try to tell people that he is not Jean, but no-one believes him. But John has different values to Jean, he has always wanted family life, and finds that Jean's family life is an acrimonious one, where he, (Jean,) only cares for his own comfort, not John's way at all.
I know it sounds very confusing, but it isn't, as the errant Jean does not figure for most of the novel.

The novel does have an introduction which outlines the plot.  I'm not sure if I like all aspects of this as it does reveal a few things, but it also lets the reader know that like Shakespeare, Du Maurier was fascinated by the possibility of duality, easiest explored by using twins or look-alikes.
I thoroughly enjoyed the novel and will be reading more of Du Maurier's in the future.