bookgeek girl

Late…Holiday Reading

Bookgeek girl says no more books — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 20:22:17 +0000

Weeelllll…I may be a little late on this, but holiday reads are what I’m going to write about – you can recast them as Winter Holiday reads, if you like – some I read in Mediterranean September It’s-Too- Hot-To-Breathe Sunshine – some in Irish October Brrrr-Heating-Is-Broke-Dammit Sunshine (not the same thing atall atall).
So, without fear or favour, I can tell you I read ( and for the most part enjoyed) the following -
- Tickling the English – Dara O’Briain; a humorous memoir of an Irishman’s take on the English.
- Spilling the Beans – Clarissa Dickson Wright; a wryly humorous memoir from one of the Two Fat Ladies cooks.
- I Shall Wear Midnight – Terry Pratchett; nominally a young adult book, this combines sophisticated humour and teenage angst with lashings of common sense woven through with fantasy and serious musings on the human condition – all in the one book. A masterpiece – for sheer humorous humanity, Terry Pratchett has no match since P. G. Wodehouse.
- Rebel Prince – Celine Kiernan; the third volume in the Moorehawke Trilogy, this concludes this really rather good young adult series worthily.
- Jealousy – Lili St. Crow; another 3rd volume of a y/a series, this time the series deals with vampires and werewolves (yes, I know, you’re thinking Twilight clone, but think again!) which looks like it has more quality books to come in the series.
- Magic Study & Fire Study – Maria Snyder – these read like quality y/a fantasy, but aren’t marketed as such – really very good with a well imagined world and rounded characters.
- Tamara Drewe – Posy Simmonds; graphic novel, originally run in the Guardian newspaper, very loosely based on Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy.
- Fry Chronicles – Stephen Fry; a memoir by the immensely clever and likeable Stephen Fry.
- Sovereign – C J Sansom; the third in a very well written and researched murder mystery series set in the court of Henry VIII – gripping suspense within a gritty, realistic Tudor setting
- The Clever One – Helen Close; a claustrophic, tense novel set in contemporary Limerick which is a y/a crossover – seen through the eyes of an intelligent but detached 16 year old as she watches her family and community unravel over the space of a year
and finally…
- Ross O’Carroll-Kelly. I have fallen in love with this character, despicable as he is…like a modern Dublin 4 version of Flashman, he is cowardly, mendacious and self-serving, but he also casts the illusion that was the “Celtic Tiger” in an unflatteringly accurate light. Very funny, very smart. I have read the whole series, from the first in the series The Teenage Dirtbag Years up to the most recent book, The Oh My God Delusion and it just gets better and more powerful and funnier with every book.

And yes, I am buying books…books galore, diet bedamned! Ah well, it was never going to last too long…

Everything changes…

Bookgeek girl says no more books — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 07:10:07 +0000

Who’d a thunk it? Back in January of this year, life was pootling along smoothly enough – working away in the bookshop in Dun Laoghaire, running the bookclub, hanging out with my friends and reading a lot – the big news being I had just decided to go on a book-buying diet for a bit and blog about it here. How things change! Six months later, and the bookshop chain I worked for went into liquidation, I’m working for a different bookshop, and many of my friends and colleagues have emigrated or got jobs elsewhere. Some stalwarts hung in there though, and last weekend Hughes & Hughes in Dun Laoghaire reopened as Easons and my friends have their jobs back – rejoice!

And now in other news…I want to read everything by China Miéville! When I finished The City & The City I was completely blown away by it – it has an intricately woven plot that combines a crime procedural with a fractured city set in an indeterminate future; there are Orwellian and Kafkaesque echoes – absolutely brilliant. Then I read Iron Council; this densely written novel, chewy with ideas and studded with grotesque imagery, is set in the town of New Crobuzon and follows the fortunes of rebels against the increasingly oppressive authorities. It is one of those books that impels you to put it down at frequent intervals – the language is so rich and inventive, the world building so vividly imagined and strange and most of all, the ideas keep coming so fast that you have to pause and consider them at length. It is NOT an easy reading, bubblebath book! I’m about to start Perdido Street Station, but am waiting for the right mood to come – it really is one of those books you need to read with full attention.

It’s been a while since I last blogged – it’s been pretty busy what with new jobs and friends weddings and trying to throw in the odd cultural event…but also because the bookdiet part of this blog has started to crumble. I DID last the first tranche of three months, and was really determined to last longer, but being threatened with legal action tends to make you abandon experiments…Lured by a special offer, I joined a book society whose only criteria were that you had to purchase four books in the next year; I didn’t realise they meant you had to buy them immediately and all together! I joined just before I started the book diet, and held out for three months, but had to buy the other four to meet the terms of the offer. Caveat emptor! So in the impregnable dam there was chiseled a small hole – which started to crumble…so in the interests of transparency, I have bolded any books in the list below that I purchased; I have only given links to books I particularly want to draw attention to.

Young Adult

Web of Air – Philip Reeve

The Adoration of Jenna Fox – Mary E. Pearson

Incarceron and Sapphique – Catherine Fisher I simply can’t express how good this series is – stunning! Read it for yourself and see how the themes of reality and freedom are teased out through the means of a great adventure. Anyone who is a fan of Diana Wynne Jones would like this.

Nation – Terry Pratchett

Crime Fiction

Nevada Barr – Hard Truth Ill Wind Winter Study A Superior Death Endangered Species Deep South Yep, I’ve been on a real Anna Pigeon, NPS Ranger buzz…set in various National Parks in America, this is crime fiction seasoned with gripping suspense and evocative descriptions of the landscape. Really good.

The Draining Lake – Arnaldur Indridason & Faceless Killers – Henning Mankell Maybe it’s the mood I’m in, but I wasn’t very interested in dour Scandanavian detection…will try again sometime! They lack the bitter humour of Rebus – I wish that series wasn’t over…

Speculative Fiction

Madness of Angels and Midnight Mayor by Kate Griffin Matthew Swift is a sorceror – an urban sorceror. He lives in London, and the electricity in the overhead wires and rules of the Tube stations are the tools he uses in his magic…inventive, witty, fizzing with ideas and written at a cracking pace, I can’t wait for the next installment!

Colour of Magic, Wyrd Sisters – Terry Pratchett

Paths not taken – Simon R. Green

All J. R. Ward – Black Dagger Brotherhood & Covet

Changes – Dresden Files – Jim Butcher The latest in the Dresden Files series, and it’s a cracker. Harry has managed to rack up quite the enemy list, and he has to face most of them in this book…to try to save his daughter, kidnapped by the Red Court vampires.

The Unwritten Comics # 1 – 13 – Mike Carey & Peter Gross (thanks Anna!) Tom Taylor knows he’s the inspiration for Tommy Taylor, the bestselling boy magician hero written by his father, Wilson Taylor. But is he? Some people (sinister people) seem to think Wilson Taylor is Tom’s literary rather than biological creator, and that he was written into existence…and are seeking to use him for their own ends. This looks really good – I can’t imagine where the character is going to end up, but it’s a fun journey so far!

Fiction

Georgette Heyer – The Convenient Marriage, Cousin Kate, Devils Cub, Unknown Ajax, The Masqueraders, False Colours More Regency fun and frolics – I hadn’t read False Colours before, and can highly recommend it to any fans of Ms. Heyer.

Service with a smile – P. G. Wodehouse

Haunting of Hill House – Shirley Jackson It’s a classic, but still feels fresh – the original psychological/haunted house story.

Fast Women – Jenny Crusie

Gods in Alabama – Joshilynn Jackson

Foster – Claire Keegan A young Irish girl is taken to stay with her aunt and uncle for the summer in the countryside – that is the deceptively simple plot. I find it hard to say why this story is so moving; perhaps it’s the pitch-perfect tone or the intimations of something darker in the narrative, I’m not sure – it blew me away even on a second reading. Do yourself a favour and read it.

Bookgeek girl says no more books — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 20:00:29 +0000

I’ve been reading a lot lately – and I mean a LOT! So I thought, the Oscars and Razzies recently being past, I’d nominate the books in the following categories -

You must read this!
Definitely worth your time.
A curate’s egg…
Meh…
Reader beware – I read this, so you don’t have to!

The awards are as follows:

You must read this!

Smile or Die (Bright Sided in US) by Barbara Ehrenreich (thanks for the lend, OH)

Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore (again, thanks for the lend, OH!)

Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce (thanks for the proof, S) A very good young adult proof, due to be published in early June. Reworking old myths and fairytales seems to be where it’s at in y/a right now, and this is one of the best I’ve read in ages. Taking the story of Little Red Riding Hood and giving it a Company of Wolves/Buffy spin is a very clever idea, and in this book is very effectively worked through. Highly recommended.

Maus by Art Spiegelman

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys We read this for the last ever *sob* Hughes & Hughes Dun Laoghaire Book club – and thankfully, everyone loved it! I would have hated us to end on a bad note…and I would like to thank all the members since we began for their support and intelligent, informed comment. Especially, I would like to say a heartfelt ‘Thank you!’ to everyone who showed up at this final meet. Hopefully, I will post up the list of all our choices from the beginning, along with our comments! As for this book, I cannot recommend it highly enough. Suffused with the lush but foreboding atmosphere of Jamaica in the 1830′s, this novel takes a minor female character from ‘Jane Eyre’ and fills in her back story, to devastating effect.

Definitely worth your time.

Going Postal by Terry Pratchett

The Last Hero by Terry Pratchett, illustrated by Paul Kidby

The Dramatist by Ken Bruen

Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill

Bill the Conqueror by P. G. Wodehouse

Quick Service by P. G. Wodehouse

A curate’s egg…

The Deed of Paksenarrion by Elizabeth Moon

Meh…

Night Shield by Nora Roberts

Risky Business by Nora Roberts

Reader beware – I read this, so you don’t have to!

Everything and the moon by Julia Quinn – a shudder worthy Jane Austen/Georgette Heyer pastiche; beyond horrible.

You know the quote in Ecclesiastes – the one that says to everything there is a season?

“A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away…”

Well, there were two books I was, reluctantly, forced to cast away; I can’t tell if it was me or the books, but I’d rather give the books the benefit of the doubt! The first was The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz – I just couldn’t warm to it, despite the fact that I was lent it by two people who’s word I trust on reading (QueenGeek & CupcakeGirl, take a bow!). I got half way and gave up, but this may be because a lot of it is in Spanish slang, and apart from “habla usted Ingles?” I have no Spanish… The second book was one of a young adult series I’ve heard a lot about; the Stravaganza series by Mary Hoffman, and the book I had may have suffered from the fact it was the last of a series I haven’t read any of.

So, out of sheer boredom during my (f)unemployment period, I calculated the rate at which I’ve been reading books over the last month, and I reckon it’s roughly about three a week. All this spare time is good for something!

The end is nigh…

Bookgeek girl says no more books — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 22:46:17 +0000

I’ve been too heartsick to write anything here lately – Hughes & Hughes Books have gone into receivership, and the employees of the high street stores, of which I am one, have been laid off. We first learned of this on Friday evening, when the receivers walked in the door…it was the same for any other staff members I’ve talked to in other shops. The chain may or may not be bought up by i) W H Smiths ii) Easons iii) A. N. Other or iv) broken up and bought up piecemeal, depending on which rumour mill you take seriously, so the future is uncertain. The airport shops are still running at present and I have no idea how long that can go on for – surely no publishers would be willing to sell them stock at present? Anyway, I will blog about books I’ve been reading (and not buying) soon – right now I need to polish my CV and interview techniques!

January reading

Bookgeek girl says no more books — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 17:29:48 +0000

I’ve been on a bit of a Tana French binge this month. She doesn’t seem to have the profile – yet – of other, less talented crime authors, but I’m very confident that she will…especially with most of the booksellers in our shop behind her!

I reread her first novel, In the Woods, for our bookclub early this month, and was dazzled anew by her beautiful writing and strong sense of place, her vivid characters and avoidance of a standard formulaic ending. It deals with the long shadows the past can throw across your life, the instability of memory and how you can blunder into destroying something before you realise how crucial it is. The other bookclub members loved it too.

Having enjoyed her debut novel so much, I went back to The Likeness, the next one in the series. Featuring Cassie, one of the main protagonists in the first book, it is still very much a stand-alone novel. Featuring more of that contrast of shimmering, dreamy atmospherics with hardbitten characters and rapid-fire dialogue, this is just as good as In the Woods – once you can get by the unlikely (pun intended) premise. Cassie Maddox has a doppelganger – a dead woman, Lexie Madison…except there is no such person as Lexie Madison. She was a identity Cassie and her handler, Frank Mackey, invented as part of working undercover. Somehow, Tana French convinces you this is plausible, partly through Cassie’s reluctance to accept the situation. So the obvious way to use this uncanny resemblance is for Cassie to step into Lexie’s life, pretend she was just badly injured, not killed, and see what follows…

I’ve just finished reading a proof copy of her third novel, Faithful Place, due to be published in August – supplied by a friendly rep (Thanks S!). This one features Frank Mackey, Cassie’s handler in the last book, as his past he thought he’d escaped reaches out for him. It has such a vividly written sense of place that I feel I know exactly where Frank grew up – Faithful Place, an invented street in the very real Liberties in Dublin. I live not far from the Liberties, and went to school and worked there, so I know it well – this is an accurate, vivid depiction of the place; the hoodies and addicts on the streets, the doughty, tough women shouting from the doorways, the hard-drinking men in the pubs, and the way people close ranks on outsiders, especially the police.

This book feels like somewhat of a departure – gone are the ambiguities and the sometimes dream-like tone that were so marked in the first two books; instead the focus is more on the interplay of the characters and family dynamics. All families have secrets – secrets from outsiders, secret cliques within the family, open secrets that no-one acknowledges, but that are just as potent for all that…Frank uses his skills and ruthlessness as an undercover cop to pit his old neighbours and family against each other, giving up vital pieces of information to solve a dark mystery from his past.

I don’t want to give too much away, but it’s a great story and I look forward to hand-selling to customers when it’s published in August!

I’ve also been on a bit of a Georgette Heyer binge – I’ve reread both The Grand Sophy and Sylvester, and hugely enjoyed both. If you’re not familiar with her, she’s sort of like Jane Austen, if Jane Austen had written inthe 1960′s! She’s great fun – witty repartee, vivid characters and a fantastic ear for authentic Regency slang. I think of her as the feminine equivalent of P. G. Wodehouse – warm, humorous tales to cheer, written with a deceptive simplicity that disguises the skill and craft that went into their creations.

I’ve also finished Ash by Malinda Lo – a young adult twist on the Cinderella fable – fans of Holly Black’s Modern Tale of Faerie series will, I think, enjoy this.

And last of all, I read one of the last books I bought, Already Dead by Charlie Huston – it was fine, but it won’t take much willpower to resist buying any more in the series!

Objects of Lust

Bookgeek girl says no more books — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 21:37:59 +0000

It’s that time of the week again – the Sunday Times Culture section has been devoured, and I have a new want list of books. Like a penniless urchin, grubby nose pressed against the window of the sweetshop, I can look but not touch! Listed below are the lovely, shiny books I’d buy if I could…

On Monsters: An Unnatural History of Our Worst Fears by Stephen T Asma
Waking up in Toytown by John Burnside
Smile or Die by Barbara Ehrenreich
The Children’s Book by AS Byatt
How to Live: A life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer by Sarah Bakewell

And unusually, there is a novel in this lot…it’ll be interesting to look back and see how many ‘must haves’ turn into ‘well, maybes’ once you don’t yield to the impulse of the moment.

Goodbye to all that…

Bookgeek girl says no more books — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 06:34:44 +0000

I thought I’d list the last books I bought before launching the good ship No More Books; I reckon it’s a reasonably accurate measure of the quantity and type of books I’d buy every 6-8 weeks. New books, that is; it doesn’t count books bought from charity shops, sales of work, given by reps, lent by friends…

Monday 4th Jan 2010

Already Dead by Charlie Huston (Sale €3.50) … Vampire/sci-fi
Adventures of the Dish & the Spoon by Mini Grey (Sale €2.50) … Childrens picture book
Wolves (HB) by Emily Gravett x 2(Sale €1.50) … Childrens picture book
A Leg to Stand on by Oliver Sacks (Sale €4.00) … Popular science
Was by Geoff Ryman (Sale €4.00) … Classic fantasy
Elvis ’56 – In the beginning (Sale €5.00) … Present for sister!

Friday 8th January 2010

Zest (€20.00) … Cookbook
Thursbitch by Alan Garner (€9.79) … Novel
Staff Meals from Chanterelle (€22.00) … Cookbook
Pompeii (illustrated) by Mary Beard (€24.99) … History
Island of the Colour-blind by Oliver Sacks (Sale €4.00) … Popular science

So…I like a bargain! And it’s no surprise there’s only one ‘straight’ fiction book there, and I only bought it because Alan Garner is one of my favourite young adult writers, and this novel got great reviews.

In the interests of transparency, I should say I bought a copy of our book club book, but decided to return it as it seemed against the spirit of the whole enterprise; I’ll just have to write my notes in a notebook so I don’t scribble on the borrowed copy!

This whole thing is not just about not buying books, it’s also meant to curtail my reading of books to those I already possess. So far, the only exceptions I’m making are books I need to read for work, so thank you to all my friends and colleagues in work who have already offered to lend me reading matter, but that way lies the slippery slope!

What I am finding difficult is reading all the book reviews at the weekend, going ‘Ooo, ooo, so pretty, I want!’ before realising I.Can’t.Have.It… So maybe my next post will be a listing of the most desireable newly published books, just to really tantalise myself!

The book (buying) stops here…

Bookgeek girl says no more books — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 00:16:29 +0000

I am a bookgeek, I’m a girl, and I’m giving up books. Not reading them, now, just buying them. For a limited period – perhaps a year? Sounds a little ambitious to me, so I think I’ll take it in 3 month tranches and see how I go! That may sound pathetically easy to you, but there are some complications:-

a) I’m a book addict

b) I work in a bookshop, and am expected to have a decent working knowledge of newly published books plus the backlist

c) I help run a bookclub, and write notes for the meetings on my copy of the book, so I can’t borrow it from anyone

d) I live with a book addict

e) Books are my ultimate fallback for gifts – I’m really stuck for gift ideas without them!

f) I’m a book addict…

So what pushed me to taking this rather drastic step? Two things. A book (naturally). My lack of space/money/time. The book - ‘Howards End is on the Landing’ by Susan Hill. In it, she describes vividly her search one day for a book in her home; she searches through shelves, rooms, piles and stacks of books without finding it, but in the process realises just how many books she owns but has never read and really wants to, or rediscovers old treasures that deserve a reread…and I thought, apart from the amazing sounding house, that’s me!

I looked around at the tottering piles of books layering every horizontal – and sometimes in defiance of gravity, vertical – surface, and wondered how many of these books I had or would ever read… How many were impulse buys, or bought because the cover looked pretty/interesting/must-have in some way, shape or form, or they were super-cheap, or – well, you get the picture. I’m earning a meagre wage, am running out of space and would like to have some cash to pay debts/day-to-day expenses/travel. So the book stops here.

In fact, not only am I not adding to my store of books, I’m going to whittle down the amount I possess. Again, sounds ridiculously simple, right? Not so much – it feels like I’m abandoning my babies to a cruel, indifferent world!

The first wave of book-divestment isn’t so hard; we’re going to have what Americans call a yard sale in aid of Haiti next Friday at noon, so all the read-once-and-don’t-need-to-keep thrillers are being culled for that. The majority of these were charity shop buys anyway (but are in good condition, if anyone wants to buy them!) and a decent of portion were the other resident book addicts anyway…but it’s a start.

Anyway, I hope to detail here my trials, tribulations and temptations as I struggle NOT to buy a book. I promise you this will be a journey full of tears and laughter, thrills, spills and breathless excitement! Eh, well no, I don’t. Not at all. But it may provide the heartless among you with some amusing moments, as you watch a bookgeek girl going cold turkey in a world full of books she really, really wants to buy.