From Tolstoy to True Crime

Will I read any more Tolstoy short stories? I might! However my Tolstoy-fest was followed by a weekend of very different books.

First I borrowed and read LeNae's Scrapbooking Basics by LeNae Gerig. This took me several hours to read, which to me is an indication of a good scrapbooking book - one with plenty of text and information and not just pictures. I picked up several good tips, which will no doubt be coming to a scrapbook near you very soon. For the unconverted, here is a link to the UK's most popular scrapbooking website.

Next was Widows by Lynda La Plante. I remembered this as a TV series so I wanted to see what the book was like. The series had several very striking plot twists, which unfortunately for my reading I remembered clearly. The book was still an exciting crime thriller though, even though the author was too fond for my taste of using commas instead of conjunctions. That distracted me from the story a bit.

Finally I read Finding Shannon: the Inside Story. This account of the recent kidnap case was well-written by a journalist with a conscience. He points out the sweeping generalisations which were made by national newspapers about "sink estates" and "the underclass". In fact the estate where Shannon lived had 80% employment. He gives credit to the local community for organising a campaign to find Shannon, even though they were later to be betrayed by the very woman they were trying to help. He sticks purely to the facts but it would have been very interesting to know more about the personalities of Karen and Mick and what could have led them to act as they did. He does give some fascinating asides from the local courtroom, including where you hide pills that you want to take into prison - ewwww! (And it's not where you might think).

Day 145; Book 144

In which I read some Tolstoy (in translation of course)

I was given a book of Tolstoy stories yesterday. The first story was Father Sergius, which has one completely shocking scene but for the rest is rather dull with its emphasis on religion and duty (most of which is self-imposed). The next story was Master and Man which was excellent. It really gives you a feel for the time and the place and concludes with an amazing transformation. Lastly was Hadji Murat, which I am still reading. It's set in the 1850s and it's rather depressing to learn that even then the Russians and the Chechens were fighting. I'm not sure yet where the story is going but apparently it is based on a historical character.

Hadji Murat was preceded by an introduction provided by the translator. I've left that till after I've read the story though as I think that if it's well written the story will provide you with enough of the context to be able to understand it. I'll read the introduction later to fill in any gaps I was wondering about.

In Which my Inferior Performance on Ice leads to Book Purchase

We went ice skating last night and while I managed to skate round all right, I was definitely rather wooden *blushes*

So I did what any reader would do - I ordered a new book to address the problem. Here it is: Ice Skating: Steps to Success. I'll let you know if following the instructions leads to any improvement at all.

In the meantime, here is a link to Prancing on Mice. Go Ray!

The Brontes by Flora Masson

This is a biography of the Bronte family. It's only 92 pages long so leaves you wanting to know more about some of the incidents mentioned, but overall it is a very good introduction. The story of the Brontes is so well known of course that you will find yourself recognising each of the scenes as they take place.

The book itself is an old one, published in 1914. It's funny that the author thinks the Brontes will come to be underrated. She writes "Charlotte Bronte and her family have taken their place, once for all, among the literary enthusiasms of a bygone age". Of course she has been proved very wrong!

Day 141; Book 140.

The Opposite of Serendipity

It was serendipitous* when I came across the wonderful Augustus Carp a couple of days ago. It was the opposite of serendipitous, whatever that might be, when I came across Love and Mr Lewisham by H G Wells, and Robert E. Lee by John Drinkwater. Fired by my earlier success, I took them home, only to be bored by Love and Mr Lewisham. It was dated and it was dull. This was H G Wells: I wanted Martians, I wanted time machines, I even wanted absconding shopkeepers. What I got was a man who wants to become a success, and gets married and becomes mediocre instead. Yawn. Robert E. Lee was a play about the Confederate general. I was hopeful about this, having enjoyed several plays from the 20s and 30s, which seems to be something of a golden age for British theatre. Wrongo! This was contrived and cheesy, the gloom only relieved by some unintentional humour as the author attempts to hint at great battles on a tiny stage. Crack! Yet another character is offed by a sniper's bullet. I sniggered as they toppled with monotonous regularity. There was also a dreadful "witty" character with a banjo. Avoid, gentle readers!

*although perhaps not THAT serendipitous that your intrepid reader should find a good book, considering I was wandering among the stacks at the time ...

Day 140; Book 139

Augustus Carp Esq.

I came across this brilliant book yesterday by accident. I'm afraid I had never heard of it before but apparently it is a cult comic novel, first published in 1924. Augustus Carp is smug and self-satisfied, horrible but hilarious. Unlike Mr Pooter you don't sympathise with him at all and in fact you are full of glee anytime something goes wrong for the awful man.

It's a funny thing about cult books or films. You want to talk about them with other people, but on the other hand you don't want too many people to get to know about them ...

Day 139; Book 137

Saturday Night and Sunday Morning

Actually it was Friday night to Sunday morning, but that wasn't a book title.

I finished The Poisonwood Bible and can really recommend it. If you like the dense, literary style of Snow Falling on Cedars, you will probably like this one. My only complaint is that I think the book is too long - and not just because it took me three days to read! I would like to have seen the story concluded after the family has to leave Kingala. Instead it continues for several decades as the girls grow up - material which would have been more suited to a sequel, I felt.

Mr F had kindly bought me a book which he spotted in the village shop, Panic by Jeff Abbott (which had a rave review from Harlan Coben). It plunges right into the non-stop action, gradually reveals secrets from the past and has a surprising ending - but too much of it was about espionage to suit me.

I went back to crime with Indemnity Only by Sara Paretsky. This is the first of the V I Warshawski detective series. The story was good with the mystery gradually revealed but it seemed a little dated to me. It was written in 1982 and the poor woman had to do her detecting without even a mobile phone or a computer, but it was more the self-consciously feminist style which seemed from another age. A woman private eye wouldn't be such a big deal these days (which of course shows how much things must have moved on) but V I Warshawski seems to have to act deliberately macho to keep her foothold in a man's world.

Day 138; Book 136