Round Robin

Round Robin by Jennifer Chiaverini is the second in the Elm Creek Quilters series. This came into the library at the perfect time. I was about half way through Great Expectations and in desperate need of a break!

The first book in the series focussed on Sarah and Sylvia. This book allows you to find out more about each of the quilters and their story.

The group decides to make a Round Robin quilt as a surprise for Sylvia to hang in the entrance hall of the manor. A Round Robin quilt is made by a group of quilters. Each quilter adds a border, passing it onto the next participant once they have finished, so they too can add to it. As each quilter in the story adds their border, they are also faced with a dilemma in their lives. As each issue is dealt with, the border comes to represent the struggle and the sewers family and friends who help them along the way.

While you could read this as a stand alone, you would miss out on some things - like why Andrew is so significant in Sylvia's life or why Sarah and her mother struggle to get along. The story is significantly different enough from the first that you don't end up feeling like you have already read the book and moves the characters along, adding dimensions and depth to those introduced in the first book. Once again, not a taxing read, but an enjoyable one. Looking forward to the next!

Bachelor Kisses

Bachelor Kisses by Nick Earls is the third book in the list of Nick Earls books I plan to read. Once again, a lot of fun.

Jon is a resident at a small, not significant hospital. He's had a couple of relationships with some nurses there - none that ended well. He is currently doing a psych rotation. Psych, by the way, is seen as the cushiest rotation. "Psych. Finishing by five-thirty p.m. almost every day. Saturday mornings off every week. There is no other term like that." And he thinks he may have worked out a better way to treat depression.

Bachelor Kisses follows Jon's journey through a relationship with another nurse and his continuing exploration of his depression theory. The whole time he is worried the theory is about to be shot down in flames - something he has mixed feelings about. Mind you, he has mixed feelings about the nurse as well!

This book is a fun, easy read. It doesn't answer any of life's great questions, but it doesn't pose any either. I'm enjoying my journey through Earls' backlist and look forward to the next book.

Oh, I did learn one thing from Bachelor Kisses - Nick Earls trained as a doctor! The layout of the hospital he uses is "not unlike that of a hospital where [he] did [his] residency" and he "was a co-researcher on a melatonin project not unlike that outlined in the novel'  And I was wondering if he actually knew what he was talking about as I read the book. Obviously he did!

The Quilter's Apprentice

The Quilter's Apprentice by Jennifer Chiaverini is the first book in the Elm Creek Quilters series. I know I have read the first three or four, but I can't remember if it's three or four so I decided to start again at the beginning.

I read this in less than 24 hours - which gives you an idea of how taxing a read it is! However, I truly believe not everything you read needs to challenge you mentally, and this is a lovely easy, light read.

Sarah McClure has moved to a small college town in America to support her husband when he lands a new job in Waterford. While she gave up a job she wasn't happy in to move, she is having trouble finding work in this small town and is starting to get despondent. When her husband Matt, takes her with him to meet a new client, she ends up helping the elderly and very cranky Sylvia Compson get her family estate, Elm Creek Manor ready for sale. In return, Sylvia agrees to teach Sarah how to make a quilt. As they work, Sarah learns more of Syliva's story and starts to wonder if and how they can save Elm Creek Manor.

As you can imagine, they do find a way to prevent the sale and it sets the scene for the many sequels to come - there are currently 14 books in the series.

I think my biggest mistake with this book was borrowing the first one only! I did want to start the second immediately, but have had to settle for putting it on hold at the library instead! At least it gives me something to look forward to!

I'm not sure how much appeal there would be for those who don't quilt (I do, you can check out my craft blog here), although I do feel the story stands apart from the quilting enough to be a pleasant read at least.

Mr Pip

 

Mr Pip by Lloyd Jones

From Goodreads:

In a novel that is at once intense, beautiful, and fablelike, Lloyd Jones weaves a transcendent story that celebrates the resilience of the human spirit and the power of narrative to transform our lives.
On a copper-rich tropical island shattered by war, where the teachers have fled with most everyone else, only one white man chooses to stay behind: the eccentric Mr. Watts, object of much curiosity and scorn, who sweeps out the ruined schoolhouse and begins to read to the children each day from Charles Dickens’s classic Great Expectations.
So begins this rare, original story about the abiding strength that imagination, once ignited, can provide. As artillery echoes in the mountains, thirteen-year-old Matilda and her peers are riveted by the adventures of a young orphan named Pip in a city called London, a city whose contours soon become more real than their own blighted landscape. As Mr. Watts says, “A person entranced by a book simply forgets to breathe.” Soon come the rest of the villagers, initially threatened, finally inspired to share tales of their own that bring alive the rich mythology of their past. But in a ravaged place where even children are forced to live by their wits and daily survival is the only objective, imagination can be a dangerous thing.

I have a confession to make - I have never read Great Expectations. I know, it's terrible, but the truth is, I'm not very good at classics. I only read Wuthering Heights  after I read I Am the Messenger.I obviously need a catalyst of some type to read classics. So, after reading Mr Pip I have put Great Expectations on hold at the library. It must be popular, I'm number 3 on the list!

So onto Mr Pip. After all the whites are evacuated from, or leave the island village, Mr Watts is the only white left. He starts to teach the children, but the only book he has is Great Expectations. Matilda not only enjoys the story, she is transport to Pip's world. He is more real to her than her mother's devil, something that causes tension between Mr Watts and Matilda's mother.
I'm finding it really hard to express what I feel about this book. I enjoyed it, I think over the next few days, things about it will occur to me and give me that "ahhh" moment. The island they are talking about is near or part of Papua New Guinea  and I need to go and read some of their recent history to place the book properly for me. It was an easy read with much to think about. I really enjoyed the lack of over embellishment about events in the book. It was like it had been pared back to its bare bones, to give the reader a feeling for the starkness and reality of life in the village at that time. I felt for Matilda, torn between her mother and Mr Watts.
At one point in the story, the book is destroyed and Mr Watts and the children set about "retrieving" the story. Each day as they come to class, Mr Watts asks the children what they have remembered about the book and he notes each retrieval down in a book, noting who has retrieved it and where in the story it belongs. I love this idea, the idea that as long as we can remember a book and why it touched us, it will never be lost.

After January

 

After January by Nick Earls  

The second in my reading of Nick Earls' backlist. While this was published the same year as Zigzag Street, it was actually the first book he wrote.

From Goodreads

Alex Delaney is waiting for the beginning of the rest of his life. Marking time till his tertiary offer, he's not expecting much, just the usual holiday in Caloundra. So he's not prepared for the girl with the nose-ring who cuts past him on a wave and draws him into a new way of looking at himself and the world.

After January is basically a coming of age story. While it was nothing that set the world on fire, I found it to be really well written, the characters believable and the story flowed. What I really liked about this book was the lack of overdone teenage angst! I often find with books aimed at a teenage audience the angst is way overdone! Alex was unsure about approaching the girl, but he did and managed to do it without embarrassing himself too much, there was no great misunderstanding that could easily be resolved if they just bothered to ask a question. At it's most basic level, After January is about two people meeting, getting to know each other and expliring how they fit into each others worlds and lives.

Friendly Fire

Friendly Fire by Wil Anderson.

I love Wil Anderson! I cried when his satirical show The Glass House ended and I cheered when his new show that looks at advertising, The Gruen Transfer appeared. I truly believe he is one of Australia's funniest comedians. So you can imagine how thrilled I was to discover this book. Pity it didn't live up to my expectations. Wil Anderson writes how he speaks and while that works really well when I am listening to him, for me, it didn't translate to the written word. The stories were funny, the thoughts interesting, but the writing was, well, clunky. Segues that would flow naturally during a stand up show or monologue were glaringly obvious and out of place. Really,  I think if Wil Anderson has been sitting on my couch reading it to me, I would have been in stitches. Reading it myself, a few smiles an occasional giggle, but I think from now on, I'll take my Wil Anderson straight off the stage or the TV.

The Host

 

The Host by Stephenie Meyer

From Goodreads 

The author of the Twilight series of # 1 bestsellers delivers her brilliant first novel for adults: a gripping story of love and betrayal in a future with the fate of humanity at stake.

Melanie Stryder refuses to fade away. The earth has been invaded by a species that take over the minds of their human hosts while leaving their bodies intact, and most of humanity has succumbed.
Wanderer, the invading "soul" who has been given Melanie's body, knew about the challenges of living inside a human: the overwhelming emotions, the too vivid memories. But there was one difficulty Wanderer didn't expect: the former tenant of her body refusing to relinquish possession of her mind.
Melanie fills Wanderer's thoughts with visions of the man Melanie loves-Jared, a human who still lives in hiding. Unable to separate herself from her body's desires, Wanderer yearns for a man she's never met. As outside forces make Wanderer and Melanie unwilling allies, they set off to search for the man they both love.
Featuring what may be the first love triangle involving only two bodies, THE HOST is a riveting and unforgettable novel that will bring a vast new readership to one of the most compelling writers of our time.

After I read the Twilight series, I said, yep, that was interesting, don't think I will go any further with this author. So I am still trying to work out why I picked up The Host. I think it was the line "her brilliant first novel for adults" (emphasis mine). And here is my first problem with the book - I don't see the audience being any different than the one for Twilight. I suppose I expect an adults book to be a little more challenging, characters with greater depth and a less predictable story line.  I found the characters very two dimensional. I understand the love Mel and Jarad have, (I myself truly believe I have found my soul mate in this life) but the complete utter blind devotion is not real - not even in an invaded world. While they said Jamie had grown up, he continually came across as a 10 year old to me- completely unable to pick up nuances (not that there were many in the book!). None of the characters seem to grow and develop, they were pretty much the same at the end as at the beginning. Some had changed attitudes but they happened to easily and without any real questioning from the characters. My best example of this was Kyle's turn around when he found Jodi. For me, there was not enough of a reason for him to change so dramatically - very unconvincing.
The storyline was predictable. I guessed the ending less than half way through the book. (Spoiler here, highlight the white area if you want to read it.) I I suppose both Wanda and Melanie needed to survive in order for there to be a sequel, which I am assuming there is or will be.

Having said that, I did enjoy most of  the book. It was a good light read, although I got a little annoyed towards the end. I would love to say that if there is a sequel, I won't read it, but I don't make rash promises!