After not really liking the first book in the paperback sleuth series, I find for me at least that it has found its feet a bit and books two and three are pretty fun. I still prefer the vinyl detective series, but I quite like how Eric Make Loud and Tinkler appeared in this book.
I appears that the world of rare paperback trading is just as murderous and dangerous as that of rare vinyl record trading and our heroine must fight for her life with the help of her friendly mild mannered serial (vigilante) killer landlord.
I found this book interesting and strangely compelling. It follows dual stories – modern day American, Ella, who has been a relatively happy homemaker, wife and mother, even knowing that her husband regularly cheats on her with other women, until her children are grown and her daughter announces her engagement and she strongly advises her against marriage. At the same time, she takes a job outside of the home (well, actually working from home, I just mean outside of homemaking) as a reader for a publishing agency and the first book she is tasked with reading is Sweet Blasphemy, a retelling of the life of Shams of Tabriz, a thirteenth century traveling dervish (a kind of mystical sect within Islam) and his relationship with the famous Turkish poet Rami, and we read this book along with her.
She is drawn to the religious teachings about love in this book and begins an email conversation with its author, Aziz Zahara, a man with a difficult past who found peace after converting to Sufism. Ella and Aziz form a deep connection and I did find myself itching to get back to their story even though all the deep philosophical stuff was in the Sweet Blasphemy chapters.
I had not really known much about Islamic sects prior to reading this book, and I was struck by similarities to Christian teachings and different groups’ or individuals’ interpretations of them.
I’m not sure I really liked Shams of Tabriz, he seemed a bit full of his own wisdom, especially when he agreed to an arranged marriage and refused to have any relations with his young wife (because he was above all that kind of thing) which left her horribly hurt and feeling useless in a society where wives produce children and not much else.
He was, however, less judgey of outcast groups in society as other religious types of his era (and probably every era!) which was nice.
From the writer of Room this is a very different (although, now that I think about it, similarly claustrophobic) novel. It’s historical fiction set in Dublin during WWI when a deadly flu epidemic ravages the city and people die within hours of contracting it.
The novel takes place over just two days and mostly in a hastily set up ward in the hospital for pregnant mothers who have the flu, from the point of view of Nurse Julia Power, who due to staff shortages is left in charge of the ward with just an untrained volunteer, Bridie, to help her.
The flu is very serious in pregnant women causing premature labour and often death of either or both of mother and child and Julia feels overwhelmed trying to help these women through terrible ordeals.
The minute by minute detailing of all that goes on in the ward from making beds and changing bed pans to graphic descriptions of labour and medical emergencies feels like one of those single shot shows about nights in emergency hospitals or other traumatic events.
Also Julia lives with her brother who came back from the war shell shocked and unable to talk.
Over the couple of days Julia formed a deep bond with Bridie, the young volunteer and learns about her own sad backstory from being born in an unmarried mothers home and kept by the nuns as basically slave labour.
The book was pretty gripping and certainly emotional and an interesting look at that period of Irish history.
(The title refers to the fact that the word Influenza comes from an Italian phrase meaning the influence (or pull) of the stars because ancient doctors believed flu was cause by astral effects.)
Oh, I was really gripped and totally invested in the lives of Leni Allbright and her troubled family – dad, Ernt, returned from time in Vietnam including time as a prisoner of war and totally wrecked with PTSD and Mum, Cora, who does her best and stands by her man even as he gets more and more obsessive and violent and controlling of her.
When they move to Alaska, Leni finally feels at home in the tiny school where she meets her first true friend and the love of her life, Matthew.
The Alaskan scenery and harshness is beautifully described as is the close knit community looking out for each other who become Leni’s extended family. But, hoo boy, does poor Leni have to go through a lot of hard tragic life experiences. An emotional rollercoaster this certainly is, and in the hands of a less accomplished writer this may have strayed into melodrama, but it was in fact perfectly pitched to tug at the heartstrings and push the reader to the brink of anxious tension before everything is masterfully resolved.
Well, they say you should write what you know, so it makes sense that radio talk show host Jeremy Vine would write a whodunnit set in and around a local radio station with the main character a talk show host.
There were many things that I liked about the book – I liked the pathos of the main character suffering through grief and guilt after the death of his son, and his relationships with colleagues, his ex-wife and his new blossoming romance.
However, I thought the whodunnit aspect was just so glaringly obvious I couldn’t believe all the characters could not have worked it out sooner. Hmmm.
I had this book on my kindle for quite a while before I got around to reading it, thinking it would be a bit of a chore, like reading Shakespeare, but actually, when I finally got around to it, it was very readable and fun.
It is a modern retelling of Shakespeare’s The Tempest (a play that I am not that familiar with, although the book explains the plot quite well so that wasn’t a hindrance to my enjoyment or appreciation). A washed out over ambitious actor is ousted from his theatre position and ends up teaching a Literature class in a men’s prison where he has the inmates perform a retelling of a Shakespeare play every year, which they re-write themselves in modern American parlance (like a mirror to the novel itself!).
When the people who turned on him and fired him from his previous role themselves rise through the ranks of politics and visit the prison (not knowing who the teacher is as he works under an alias) he plots a way to get his revenge on them.
I enjoyed the book, I think it was quite short (it’s hard to tell with a kindle book – lol!) at least it didn’t take me long to read it, or the reading flew in, so, if like me you are put off – don’t be, read it, it’s fun!
I listened to this series of short ‘things’ that you should do to make yourself a bit healthier (according to the sadly deceased Michael Mosley) while out walking my dog or running so I could feel quite smug whenever the ‘thing’ involved being outside or exercising!
I’m writing this about two weeks after I finished the book, and I’ve already forgotten (to my shame) some of the things, although I have also remembered some – for instance, on my dog walks I now divert slightly from my previous route to walk through more woodland because nice Dr Mosley told me about the beneficial chemicals given out by trees in woodlands that can make you healthier if you breathe them in. I did for at least a week try standing on one leg every time a used my chuckit to hurl the dogs ball across the (what we call) ‘chuckit field’ for time it took him to run after the ball and bring it back. I’ve stopped that now.
A lot of the stuff I already knew – like avoiding processed food and sugar and not eating after dinner time to have a longer fast period. I tried incorporating beetroot into my diet, but I just don’t really like it.
My hubby Paul is about to retire (two weeks and counting!) and we’re excited to try learning a new language or new skills with all the extra free time we’ll have (I’m already early retired) which was another ‘thing’ recommended.
I am sorry that Michael Mosley passed away because he came across as a very nice man, and he went to a lot of trouble to make himself healthier. It seems like such a waste.
This was an interesting and enjoyable book. Set in a post apocalyptic world, where a poisonous gas covers most of the planet and a small community lives on an Greek island that had been inhabited by a team of scientists before the apocalypse most of whom were put into suspended animation in an underground lab, now cut off by gas in the tunnels and a few, unnaturally long lived ‘elders’ survive and rule the community of descendants of the original scientists.
An AI presence has a telepathic connection to the villagers and also some control over them. Most of the villagers happily accept both this control and the strictly hierarchical society with the elders calling the shots, including that all other villagers peacefully die on the evening of their 60th birthday (my husband is about to turn 60 so we had a rueful laugh about this!). One villager, however, is unusually questioning and when one of the elders dies in suspicious circumstances, she is tasked with investigating the ‘murder’.
I found the book quite thought provoking, with interesting twists that I didn’t always see coming. Thumbs up from me!
I was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed the first book in this series, but this sequel didn’t excite me so much. It was fine, a bit young adulty for my taste (I am after all a retired granny now!). The relationship between the two main (living) characters was sweet but I got a bit bored with all the action and the mystery elements. Maybe my head just wasn’t in it enough and I got a bit lost.
I am such a fan of Stephen King, especially his more recent books which have moved away from full on horror to more rich character led books of different genres, often (but not always) involving supernatural elements and sometimes mystery or thriller elements and deep thoughtful plots.
I saw an ad for the TV adaptation of this book and realised it was a Stephen King that I hadn’t read and it sounded great so I bought it right away.
The institute that the book is named for is a secure and secret unit hidden in the woods in Maine, housing children with special gifts – either TK (telekinesis or the ability to move objects with their minds) or TP (telepathy – mind reading) or very rarely, both.
The children are abducted from their homes and told that they will be returned when they have completed their ‘service’ but we know that this is not true – the staff of the institute are ruthless and cold blooded in the pursuit of their mission and leave no witnesses. They believe (or at least some of them do) that they are working toward a greater good that is worth the sacrifice.
When Luke Ellis is taken to the institute, the staff hadn’t reckoned on his superior intelligence making him the first child in their ‘care’ with a real chance at fighting back.
I loved it (of course!) and I’m enjoying watching the tv show too.
Sarah Wray Writer 