Personal Book

Review – The Winter Ghosts

/ justbookreading / Leave a comment

The Winter Ghosts

By Kate Mosse

Putnam

ISBN: 978-0-399-15715-8

4.25 stars

I’ve wanted to read a Kate Mosse novel for a while now.  Why I haven’t picked one up earlier is a mystery to me.  Fortunately, I had this book with me on a business trip and found myself so entangled with the story that my flight being delayed over and over again didn’t have the slightest impact.

Freddie Watson is a troubled person.  Still badly grieving the loss of his brother during WWII, he conjures up memories of his brother and talks to him for comfort when the pain gets too bad.  A stay in a mental institution hasn’t done much except to convince him he’s damaged.  In an attempt to find peace and quiet, and possibly a break from the ghosts that surround his life, Freddie takes a trip through the French Pyrenees and while driving through a blinding snow storm, he crashes his car.  Not badly hurt, he finds his way to a small mountain town where an inn keeper is willing to take him in.  She offers him a room, dry clothes, and the opportunity for a bit of socializing as the town will be hosting a celebration that night.  In an uncharacteristic attempt at fun, Freddie decides to go to the event but gets lost on the way.  He finally makes it and is seated next to a beautiful woman he falls instantly in love with.  After speaking to her all night and releasing a few of his tightly held stories about his brother and how he’s obsessed with his death, a fight takes place at the dinner and he runs away to the hills with her.  When Freddie is found the next morning, all he wants is to find the woman he met at the dinner but a fever soon makes his searching impossible and he’s forced back to the inn.  In a daze, he struggles to understand what happened to him and whether or not the woman he met was even real as no one seems to believe him.

There’s a strange coldness to this story and it’s not that it takes place during winter in the Pyrenees.  Freddie is hurting so much he turns himself off from life and when he finally finds something to make him happy, he finds out the woman he has fallen for is most likely a ghost or possibly even a figment of his imagination.  Is he slipping back into the depths of his mental problems or has he found something no one else knew existed?  I won’t say more because I don’t want to ruin it if you plan to read this one.  I will say I enjoyed it immensely and not just because my flight was delayed.  It was a thoroughly engrossing book.

Today’s Book – Livia, Empress of Rome

/ justbookreading / Leave a comment

I read non-fiction much slower than fiction so I’m not surprised to find myself less than 100 pages into Livia, Empress of Rome two days later.  While I’m enjoying the book, it can be at times slightly hard to follow.  It’s not the author’s fault either since records of Roman women, even the ones that marry emperors, were not kept with any regularity.  The story is told through the men in her life, which is interesting, but at times frustrating since a good deal of the time you’re left reading about a man whose role in Livia’s life was minimal but their meeting was the only way to mark the passage of time in her life.

Roman lifestyles, marriage in particular, are fascinating to read about and slightly disturbing.  Women are used as pawns, not to say they didn’t have a say in who or when they married (most didn’t but in households where a marriage was based on love, some thought may have been given to the daughter’s wishes but it would have been unusual) but most of the time are traded easily as property which is how most if not all are thought of.  For instance, Livia’s second marriage to Octavian (Emperor Augustus in later years) happens while she is pregnant with her second child from her first husband.  Of course, out of courtesy, Octavian waits to marry her until after she gives birth.  A few days after she has the baby, they marry and the child is returned to Livia’s first husband as was the custom when a man marries a woman pregnant with another’s child.  Crazy.

What I’m enjoying most is not necessarily the information about Livia, she is an interesting person though, but the background on Roman life.  Debauched is a good description this early on but not the only one that can be used.  I’m sure I’ll have more when I get to the end of this one.

Review – The Gates

/ justbookreading / 1 Comment

The Gates

By John Connolly

Washington Square Press

ISBN: 978-1-4391-7540-8

4 stars

I love me a little humor with my demons and end of world type books and The Gates delivered on that promise.  This is my first Connolly book but I’ve picked them up before thinking that a fantasy thriller might work for me.  It did, and now I can say it won’t be my last either.

Samuel Johnson is an enterprising 11 year-old.  Instead of waiting for Halloween and having to fight the crowds, he decides to start trick or treating a few days early.  Unfortunately for him, his mildly brilliant plan doesn’t work out the way he intended.  Instead of loads of candy, he sees something in the neighbors’ basement that makes him believe his neighbor, Mrs. Abernathy, is now a demon.  He soon finds himself attempting to convince his mother and friends that not only is Mrs. Abernathy an actual demon but that more demons will be arriving very soon through the portal that now exists in the Abernathy’s basement.  No one wants to believe Samuel the end of the world is nearing which makes for an amusing little apocalypse tale.

Don’t pick up this book and think it’s a dark one; it’s actually a really funny take on the usual end of the world scenario and I enjoyed it quite a lot.  There’s some slapstick here — even the dog gets in on it at times — and random jokes laced throughout reminding you what you’re reading isn’t serious.  And that’s good!  I wanted a break from my normal reading which was starting to feel heavy and this came along at the right time.  One particularly amusing character in the book is a demon named Nurd who was banished to a flat, deserted world with a little annoying fellow as his only company.  Somehow he ends getting sucked into Samuel’s world and befriends him.  You see, Nurd is a nice demon looking for a friend to connect with.  His little adventures, especially his one driving a Porsche, are a good interlude and I do wish there had been more time featuring Nurd.

What can I say, if you’re looking for a small break in your regular reading pattern, pick this one up.  Connolly didn’t disappoint and thanks to this book, I plan to pick up more of his work.

Teaser Tuesdays – Livia, Empress of Rome

/ justbookreading / 5 Comments

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.  The idea is to give everyone a look inside the book you’re reading.

Play along: Grab your current read; Open to a random page; Share two teaser sentences from that page; Share the title and author so other participants know what you’re reading.

I’ve been on a fantasy bender lately so I thought a little non-fiction was in order.  Today I’m starting Livia, Empress of Rome by Matthew Dennison.

Between Tiberius and the throne had stood at various moments five or possibly six candidates preferable to Augustus, as well as Augustus himself.  All died unexpectedly, in each case in circumstances which remain in part unresolved. (page 2)

Review – The Girl Who Chased the Moon

/ justbookreading / 1 Comment

The Girl Who Chased the Moon

By Sarah Addison Allen

Bantam

ISBN: 978-0-553-38559-5

4.25 stars

Sarah Addison Allen is an author I knew about but never read.  That changed earlier this year when I finally picked up Garden Spells.  Can I tell you how much I loved it?  I really did.  Then came The Peach Keeper which was just as wonderful, and thanks to a strange confluence of events, The Girl Who Chased the Moon landed in my lap.  As with her previous books, I devoured this one completely entranced to the last page.

Emily Benedict regrets her choice to move in with the grandfather she never knew the moment she arrives at his house.  Her mother’s recent death leaves her somewhat homeless and she’s in need of a parent but Mullaby, North Carolina is turning out to be a more difficult adjustment than she imaged.  Her grandfather, Vance Shelby, borders on being a giant, the wallpaper in her room changes with her mood, and strange lights appear night after night behind the house making her wonder what’s really out there.  Vance tells her to leave them be but it only increases her curiosity.  The town is full of secrets including why her mother is detested by the people in this small town.  She eventually finds out her mother, Dulcie, was ostracized for the way she treated a former boyfriend and some of that same dislike pours over to her but it still doesn’t answer all her questions.

Her neighbor, Julia Winterson, was never a friend of Dulcie’s but she befriends Emily treating her almost as a daughter.  But Julia has no plans to stay in Mullaby.  In town only to pay off her father’s debts after his death, she plans only on staying for two years.  It’s when she gets involved with a man she fell for in high school that her plans change and her own secrets come tumbling out.

I never thought I was a fan of magical realism and truthfully on most occasions I’m not, but there’s something about the way Addison Allen integrates it into the story that it works for me.  Everything about the town has a one off feeling which sets the stage so you know some odd things are going to happen.  Although I will admit one thing here did make me sort fall out of the story a minute and it’s the explanation of the Mullaby lights (you have to read it, I won’t explain more because I don’t want to give too much away) but I quickly got over it and moved right along.

Doing my best not to revert to gushing over this book, I’ll say this — if you’re looking for a book to sink into, try one of Sarah Addison Allen’s.  The stories are soft with a few hard edges to keep you in reality but not nearly enough to make you want to stop reading.  I recommend this one.

Teaser Tuesdays – A Clash of Kings

/ justbookreading / Leave a comment

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.  The idea is to give everyone a look inside the book you’re reading.

Play along: Grab your current read; Open to a random page; Share two teaser sentences from that page; Share the title and author so other participants know what you’re reading.

I’m still working my way through A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin.  It’s a long book (874 on my Nook) but I’m also intentionally reading slow because I’m enjoying it way too much for it to end.

She is not breathing.  Dany listened to the silence.  None of them are breathing, and they do not move, and those eyes see nothing.  Could it be that the Undying Ones were dead? (pg. 608 on Nook)

Teaser Tuesdays – A Clash of Kings

/ justbookreading / 3 Comments

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.  The idea is to give everyone a look inside the book you’re reading.

Play along: Grab your current read; Open to a random page; Share two teaser sentences from that page; Share the title and author so other participants know what you’re reading.

I was saving this book but finally gave in and started it the other day — A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin.

It was just the sort of notion that would appeal to Renly Baratheon; a splendid new order of knighthood, with gorgeous new raiment to proclaim it.  Even as a boy, Renly had loved bright colors and rich fabrics, and he loved his games as well. (pg. 16 on Nook)

Today’s Book

/ justbookreading / 2 Comments

Sometimes you read a new to you author and really like his/her style.  You pick up a second book and then maybe a third and that’s when you go from like to love.  That’s me and China Miéville’s writing right now.  I started with The City & The City and enjoyed it.  Moved on to Kraken and adored it.  I’m now reading Un Lun Dun and loving it.

Why you might ask?  Lines like this one…

“I’m Margarita Staples.”  She bowed in her harness.  “Extreme librarian.  Bookaneer.” (pg. 154 on Nook)

Such a sucker for a book reference in a book.