Book Review: I'll Fly Away

From Goodreads: In 2003 Wally Lamb—the author of two of the most beloved novels of our time,She's Come Undone and I Know This Much Is True—published Couldn't Keep It to Myself, a collection of essays by the students in his writing workshop at the maximum-security York Correctional Institution, Connecticut's only prison for women. Writing, Lamb discovered, was a way for these women to confront painful memories, face their fears and their failures, and begin to imagine better lives. The New York Times described the book as "Gut-tearing tales . . . the unvarnished truth." The Los Angeles Times said of it, "Lying next to and rising out of despair, hope permeates this book."
Now Lamb returns with I'll Fly Away, a new volume of intimate, searching pieces from the York workshop. Here, twenty women—eighteen inmates and two of Lamb's cofacilitators—share the experiences that shaped them from childhood and that haunt and inspire them to this day. These portraits, vignettes, and stories depict with soul-baring honesty how and why women land in prison—and what happens once they get there. The stories are as varied as the individuals who wrote them, but each testifies to the same core truth: the universal value of knowing oneself and changing one's life through the power of the written word.

Thoughts: Last year I read the first of the anthologies Wally Lamb helped produced with a collection of inmates from the York Correctional Institution - Couldn't Keep it to Myself. I can remember feeling amazed by the stories. I'll Fly Away is more incredible stories. The thing that really stands out for me is how hard we work to dehumanise these women and then act surprised when they don't rehabilitate. Several of the stories mentioned how degrading the prison experience is and how any attempt to try and better yourself, retain some dignity is stripped away. While none of these women argued that they shouldn't be punished for what they did, I don't believe any of them deserve to be treated the way they are at times.

Their stories are incredible. They pull no punches. Some of the women came from fairly horrific backgrounds, enduring years of abuse and hatred leading to acts of desperation. Others backgrounds were picture perfect, yet somehow they lost their way and ended up incarcerate. Books such as these are essential reading, allowing us to strip back the media hype over how prisoners are treated, what lead them to prison in the first place and how we treat them inside the walls makes a huge difference to how they manage outside of them.

I'll Fly Away gets 4 stars

 *        Did not like it
**       It was OK
***      Liked it
****    Really liked it

*****   It was amazing

Book Review: A Game of You - Sandman Volume 5

From Goodreads: Volume Five of New York Times best selling author Neil Gaiman’s acclaimed creation THE SANDMAN collects one of the series’ most beloved storylines.Take an apartment house, add in a drag queen, a lesbian couple, some talking animals, a talking severed head, a confused heroine and the deadly Cuckoo. Stir vigorously with a hurricane and Morpheus himself and you get this fifth installment of the SANDMAN series. This story stars Barbie, who first makes an appearance in THE DOLL’S HOUSE and now finds herself a princess in a vivid dreamworld.

Thoughts: Definitely my favourite Sandman so far. In this volume Gaiman and his band of incredibly talented artists follows Barbie, a character who briefly appeared in The Doll's House. Barbie is now living in an old house divided into apartments with an assortment of people. Wanda, a transgender undergoing treatment to make her body match her feelings, a lesbian couple, a strange, quiet girl and an old man. Each of these people have a role to play in Barbie's dreams, but they may not all make it out alive. Gaiman lifts that very thin veil between Morpheus's Dream Country and the real world. Are our dreams truly our own, or do we simply move into abandoned dreamscapes and make them ours? What happens to the pieces of us that we leave behind in those dreamscapes and who can we rely on to save us when we can't save ourselves?

A Game of You gets 4 stars.

 *        Did not like it
**       It was OK
***      Liked it
****    Really liked it

*****   It was amazing 

Book Review: Midnight's Children

From Goodreads: Born at the stroke of midnight, at the precise moment of India's independence, Saleem Sinai is destined from birth to be special. For he is one of 1,001 children born in the midnight hour, children who all have special gifts, children with whom Saleem is telepathically linked.
But there has been a terrible mix up at birth, and Saleem’s life takes some unexpected twists and turns. As he grows up amidst a whirlwind of triumphs and disasters, Saleem must learn the ominous consequences of his gift, for the course of his life is inseparably linked to that of his motherland, and his every act is mirrored and magnified in the events that shape the newborn nation of India. It is a great gift, and a terrible burden. 

Thoughts: This was our book group read for September. I was a little concerned - Rushdie is not known as an easy read and our last two book group reads, Coin Locker Babies and The Swan Book, were not easy going. (I didn't finish The Swan Book). It wasn't easy, but I did enjoy it.
If you don't like books that go off on tangents, hint at things and then not tell you, tell you someone dies, but not how, at least not yet then this is not the book for you. Rushdie does all of these. Saleem is taking a journey through his life and there are many paths to follow, many stories to tell, but all in their own time. Towards the end of the book Saleem is a lot more disciplined about following the tangents, starting off down the path only to turn back abruptly as he tells the reader time is short and he must concentrate on getting to the end. This gave a sense of urgency to the telling, a need to get this out before there was no time left.
I think I would have got more out of this book if I'd had a stronger understanding of Indian history. Saleem's belief that his life is paralleled by the history of India is a core component of the story. However, there is still much to be got from the story even if your knowledge like mine is basic. For me the chaotic nature of India that I've read about in other books and been told about by friends is once again reflected in Midnight's Children. It's quirkiness, fierce, hard won independence and pockets of amazing tranquility among riots of colour are strongly represented. 
I was right, Rushdie wasn't an easy read, but it was definitely a worthwhile one. While not everyone's cup of tea, there are moments of laugh out loud and moments of true reflection. He's one of those authors you must, at the very least, give a go.

Midnight's Children gets 3 stars

*        Did not like it
**       It was OK
***      Liked it
****    Really liked it

*****   It was amazing 

Book Review: The Faceless Ones

From Goodreads: The third bone-breaking, belly-busting adventure in the series that puts the “funny” back in, um, funny series. That didn’t really work, did it?
If you’ve read the previous Skulduggery books then you know what the Faceless Ones are — and if you know what the Faceless Ones are, then you can probably take a wild guess that things in this book are going to get AWFULLY sticky for our skeletal hero and his young sidekick. If you haven’t read the previous Skulduggery books then what are you doing reading this? Go and read them right now, so that you know what all that stuff in the previous paragraph was about. Done? Good. So now you’re on tenterhooks too, desperately awaiting the answers to all your questions, and instead you’re going to have to wait to read the book. Sorry about that. 

Thoughts: The characters make this story. Once again Landy delivers a fast paced, exciting, hilarious story where the characters can shine. Once again Skulduggery and Valkyrie have to stop the bad guys from letting the Faceless Ones back in. Once again there is a group of dastardly villains trying to stop Skulduggery and Valkyrie stop them. And the twist at the end of this book - guaranteed to make you want to go out and grab book 4 - which I'm glad about. It looks like Landy will be taking the story away from baddies attempting to get the Faceless Ones back to earth, which is good, because really there is only so many ways you can approach that story line. As with the other two in this series, I really enjoyed Rupert Degas' narration. Highly recommend these books in an audio format.

The Faceless Ones gets 3 stars

*        Did not like it
**       It was OK
***      Liked it
****    Really liked it

*****   It was amazing 

Book Review: Coin Locker Babies

From Goodreads: A surreal coming-of-age tale that establishes Ryu Murakami as one of the most inventive young writers in the world today. 
Abandoned at birth in adjacent train station lockers, two troubled boys spend their youth in an orphanage and with foster parents on a semi-deserted island before finally setting off for the city to find and destroy the women who first rejected them. Both are drawn to an area of freaks and hustlers called Toxitown. One becomes a bisexual rock singer, star of this exotic demimonde, while the other, a pole vaulter, seeks his revenge in the company of his girlfriend, Anemone, a model who has converted her condominium into a tropical swamp for her pet crocodile. 
Together and apart, their journey from a hot metal box to a stunning, savage climax is a brutal funhouse ride through the eerie landscape of late-twentieth-century Japan.

Thoughts: This was our July book group read and I found it hard going. So hard I actually put it down because I was not going to the meeting so didn't feel a pressing need to finish it. Then the meeting got postponed,  as did the next one and we finally decided we would have a long lunch meeting and discuss all three books. So I picked it up again and while I won't say I found it easy reading, I did hit my stride with it.

Coin Locker Babies is just one of those books you have to go with the flow with. There's not much point trying to delve to deep, just be carried by the current and grab the snatches you can in the hope it will come together finally. And it did, sort of. I'm sure I missed stuff, but I got the general feeling of the book. Basically being dumped in a coin locker and then bought up in and orphanage and foster family really, really messes with you head. It's incredibly obvious that Kiku and Hashi are damaged. Their ways of dealing with that damage are vastly different, but their loyalty to each other as brothers, while twisted, is as strong as any siblings. A very strange read.

Coin Locker Babies gets 2 stars

*        Did not like it
**       It was OK
***      Liked it
****    Really liked it

*****   It was amazing 

August in Review

Slooooooowwwwwwwwww reading month. Don't know what happened, but I've really struggled to find anything that inspired me this month. I finally seemed to snap out of it about a week ago so have finished the month with only 5 reads. Hoping for a better September.

Stats for August.

Kindle - 0                                   Library - 3
Book - 3                                      Own - 2

Audio - 2                                     Borrowed (non library) - 0
Fiction - 5                           
Non-fiction - 0

Female Author - 2                        New to Me Authors - 3
Male Author - 3
Australian Author - 0

Yep, there it is folks - 5 books. However, what the month lacked in quantity it made for in quality. I'd be hard pressed to pick a best for the month. I loved The Universe Versus Alex Woods and also really enjoyed Inside the O'Briens. Both would make great book group reads. I'm still really enjoying the Sandman Series and anything Minette Walters is good. 

None of the books listed are book group reads! I finally picked up Coin Locker Babies again on Monday this week. It was our July book and I stopped at about 30% as I wasn't enjoying it and I wasn't going to make it to the meeting. If I'd only preserved for another 5 pages! While I won't say I am totally enthralled by it, I am getting something out of it. Our August book is another non finish - The Swan Book. I have started but am struggling to make head or tail of it. I will go back to it after the September book, Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children. With the last couple of meetings being fairly sparse as various members had trouble getting to them (I didn't make July or August), we have settled on an extended lunch meeting for September to discuss all three.

Audio was my saviour this month with both The Universe Versus Alex Woods and Inside the O'Briens purchased through Audible. The narrators of both books were excellent and if you are an audio person I highly recommend both books for your listening pleasure. The third Skullduggery Pleasant, The Faceless Ones, is my current audio.

So how was your August? Better than mine I hope! Oh well, with September comes warmer weather so hopefully that will help!

Book Review: Fox Evil

From Goodreads: When elderly Ailsa Lockyer-Fox is found dead in her garden, dressed only in nightclothes and with bloodstains on the ground near her body, the finger of suspicion points at her wealthy husband, Colonel James Lockyer-Fox. A coroner's investigation deems it death by natural causes, but the gossip surrounding James refuses to go away. 
Friendless and alone, James and his reclusive behavior begins to alarm his attorney, whose concern deepens when he discovers that his client has become the victim of a relentless campaign accusing him of far worse than the death of his wife. James is unwilling to fight the allegations, choosing instead to devote his energies to a desperate search for the illegitimate granddaughter who may prove his savior as he battles for his name-and his life.

Thoughts: It's rare to find a crime writer who doesn't seem to end up repeating themselves. Minette Walters is one of that rare breed. I think the fact she doesn't write a series with reoccuring characters has a lot to do with it. Her books are stand alones which allows focus on the events in that story rather than getting intertwined with history from previous cases. I also like the fact that she tells her tales from third person point of view. In a crime novel it feels more objective, like you are an observer and are not having what you see tainted by only one persons view.

As with many of her books, Minette Walters has a whole raft of characters you need to keep track of. Some are highly important, some not so much. Half the challenge is working out who you need to keep tabs on and who you can let go. I know some readers find this distracting and difficult, but I love the complexity it adds to the story. As a British writer Walters also uses the psychological aspect of the crime to drive the story a lot more than the non stop action you get in American crime novels. For me it makes the story more complex, more compelling and a lot less formulaic. Walters is an author I need to remember the next time I hit a reading rut. The holes her characters dig for themselves only serve to lift me out of mine.

Fox Evil gets 4 stars

*        Did not like it
**       It was OK
***      Liked it
****    Really liked it

*****   It was amazing 

Book Review: The Universe Versus Alex Woods

From Goodreads: A rare meteorite struck Alex Woods when he was ten years old, leaving scars and marking him for an extraordinary future. The son of a fortune teller, bookish, and an easy target for bullies, Alex hasn't had the easiest childhood. 
But when he meets curmudgeonly widower Mr. Peterson, he finds an unlikely friend. Someone who teaches him that that you only get one shot at life. That you have to make it count. 
So when, aged seventeen, Alex is stopped at customs with 113 grams of marijuana, an urn full of ashes on the front seat, and an entire nation in uproar, he's fairly sure he's done the right thing ...
Introducing a bright young voice destined to charm the world, The Universe Versus Alex Woods is a celebration of curious incidents, astronomy and astrology, the works of Kurt Vonnegut and the unexpected connections that form our world.

Thoughts: OK, so now I want to read Kurt Vonnegut. This is a bit of an issue because usually when I read a book because I read about it in another book I end up sorely disappointed. I don't get it the way the characters do and really, that's just disappointing. But apart from that, I loved this book. Alex is an extraordinary boy. He is intelligent, puzzled by the way the school world works, (why can't others see the value of knowledge??), wise beyond his years in some ways and incredibly naive in others.

Alex's voice in this book keeps it from becoming a rather depressing, maudlin book. His matter of a fact way of looking at things, at analysising the situation stops you from dwelling on the sadness in the book. That's not to say Alex is emotionless, he isn't, he is just able to reason why he is feeling the way he does and accept it.

Any time you get a friendship between an older character and a younger one in a book I feel you have to tread carefully. Extence manages to make the friendship between Mr Peterson and Alex one of equals, but not straight away. Each character stays true to themselves - Alex has to prove himself before Mr Peterson allows him to be anything other than the kid who comes and helps him. It starts as a student/ teacher, mentor type relationship and grows to one of equals. The best bit is the reader doesn't even realise it's happening, it just suddenly occurs to you the friendship has grown and matured.

The Universe Versus Alex Woods takes you in unexpected directions - but that is good. It challenges you to think outside the box, explore your reactions and those around you. It's another read that is easily labelled quirky and for me falls into the same category as A Man Called Ove and The Hundred Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out a Window and Disappeared - left of centre, guaranteed to induce an emotional response and force you to re-examine certain aspects of your life and beliefs.

I listened to this as an audio book narrated by Joe Thomas. It took me awhile to get use to his voice, but in the end it truly suited the character of Alex. Not emotionless, but restrained and logical.

The Universe Versus Alex Wood gets 4 stars

*        Did not like it
**       It was OK
***      Liked it
****    Really liked it

*****   It was amazing