A Year of Reading: November 2011
1. Only Time Will Tell by Jeffrey Archer
3 stars on Goodreads
The first in a new series by Archer, this is a multigenerational interwoven-families novel not unlike Kane and Abel. A fast read, sometimes frustrating to have unidentified characters but you know you'll get it from their POV later on. Left on a HELL of a cliff-hanger, but then, how could it not?
2. A Prison Diary Volume 1: Hell by Jeffrey Archer
A diary giving an inside look at the first few weeks of Jeffrey Archer's incarceration in 2001 for perjury. Archer tells the story of his days, and the stories of the other inmates who he gets to know - this being a high-security prison, these are generally people convicted of murder. Interesting stuff - I fully intend to read the second and third volumes as well.
3 stars on Goodreads
3. Come, Thou Tortoise by Jessica Grant
2 stars on Goodreads
The lack of question marks or quotation marks is annoying! (Other reviews at GoodReads indicate that I am not alone in this frustration!) This book was quirky, the word play was fun, and the tortoise narration was excellent - but all in all it went on too long with (to me) an insufficient resolution.
4. A Prison Diary Volume 2: Purgatory by Jeffrey Archer
3 stars on Goodreads
I do admit that the prison diaries get a bit repetitive, but isn't that to be expected when the author is telling the story of his time in prison? This second volume takes place in a medium-security prison and Archer meets a new group of inmates with new stories to share. I read this quickly and am moving on to the third volume.
5. A Prison Diary Volume 3: Heaven by Jeffrey Archer
3 stars on Goodreads
The closer I got to the end of this book, the more frustrated I became with the Home Office - it seemed like they were "out to get" Archer - and maybe they were and maybe they weren't - but certainly someone was willing and able to treat him unfairly by telling him after the facts what the rules of his limited release were. He had been an absolutely model prisoner and person or persons unknown just kept screwing him over (keeping him from going to a prison near his family, allowing him to teach in the prison education system, doing school visits about drugs, etc.)
Now I did not follow the trial and I am not in Britain, but it seems to me that the evidence that the judge was prejudiced against Archer was pretty obvious to sentence him to 4 years when drug and violent crimes were getting 18 months. But of course I have only read the diaries so perhaps there is something I'm missing. I ended up hugely frustrated on Archer's behalf, and then on my own, as my volume borrowed from the library was missing the 'post-script' indicated in the index. Strange!
6. Beyond Reasonable Doubt by Jeffrey Archer (play)
2 stars on Goodreads
The thing with having read so many of Jeffrey Archer's books so many times is that I knew where this was going before it got there.
7. To Hold the Crown by Jean Plaidy
2 stars on Goodreads
A Plaidy book about the Tudors that I've never read - shocking. On the back of this book it says that it's going to be the "wonderful love story" of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York - LIARS. Elizabeth is barely in this book, and when she is, she's suffering through a pregnancy or thinking that she can't have an opinion about anything because Henry wouldn't like it. (She's also trying not to think about her poor probably-dead brothers, the Princes in the Tower.) I did enjoy the characterization of Henry VII, though, he was credible and relate-able. (Other than the whole "usurped the rightful king" thing.) The book also relates the "confession" of Tyrell and the accusations against Richard III (re: Princes in the Tower) in a way I could understand and support.
As other GoodReads reviewers mentioned, 3-year-old Henry (VIII to be) speaks like an adult, and all of the narration sounds the same (voice-wise) even though there are several POV characters.
8. What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami
2 stars on Goodreads
Partly a memoir of writing, partly a memoir of running, this was interesting to me as a non-runner - part of what I liked is that he talks about the fact that running can be HARD. Most books about running seem to me to talk about how EASY it is. A couple of people have commented how flat this fell for them, possibly because of the translation. I didn't mind the language, but it did seem to jump around a bit - I wouldn't have minded a more linear approach.
NB: I have read about 1/3 of one of Murakami's novels and could not finish it. (Though my sister is a HUGE fan.) One of my favourite things in this book was learning that Murakami did the Japanese translations of John Irving's books - cool.
9. Attachments by Rainbow Rowell
2 stars on Goodreads
2.5 if I could. At a newspaper in a small town, Lincoln (a lonely loner with no direction in life) is hired to read flagged emails and issue warnings to employees. He starts reading the chatty and not-work-appropriate emails of two best friends (Beth and Jennifer) and comes to fall in love with one of them from reading her emails. Good character growth but it went on a bit too long. And the "he stalked me, how cute is that" thing can read as creepy but the author does the characters justice in the end.
10. The Amateur Gourmet: How to Shop, Chop and Table Hop Like a Pro by Adam D. Roberts (reread)
4 stars on Goodreads
Thinking about having a dinner party, I was looking for inspiration. (As well, the 'how to shop the farmers' market' chapter always makes me THINK.
Currently Reading:
-South Riding by Winifred Holtby (best friend of Vera Brittain)
First published in 1936, this is the story of people (school-mistress, alderwoman, various land-owners, farmers, etc.) and politics in the South Riding of Yorkshire in the 1930s. (The BBC made it into a mini-series this year.) I have to say, it's a little slow... and I can't keep all of the characters and their various schemes straight. I continue on.
-Lucy Maud Montgomery: The Gift of Wings by Mary Henley Rubio
This is fascinating - I am really getting the social and culture contexts of the LMM journals, which is great. It's also interesting to learn how much of the journals were created or re-written after the fact and what was left out or left in. (The Herman Leard incidents that so much are made of were apparently much dramatized by LMM?) Learning more about Ewan's depression, LMM's obsession with World War I, and her own mental health issues is very insightful.
BUT. It's so depressing. The mental health issues and the court cases (which seem such a travesty of justice - a hard of hearing judge ignored expert testimony and determined that a car accident had caused prostate cancer and diabetes?) and the battles with her publisher are bringing me down so much it's hard to keep reading. Part of it is, I think, that I'm reluctant to know that the life of someone I admire and whose books I love so much was so sad and stress-filled.
Up Next:
No idea!!
What are you reading lately? What do you recommend? Are you on GoodReads? If so, please feel free to add me there!