Read it, loved it!

Hello there,  greetings from a quiet Northumbrian living room.  CBC is transcribing music, J is snoozing, WOMOTM is reading a book about maths equations and I am flitting I haven't done a book post for such a long time!  I kept meaning to write down what I'd read and it gradually got too long a list and I am quite sure there are an absolute wealth of books that I've forgotten about.  As I draw near the end of the year, I a pleased to discover I have read more than one a week, including a couple of weighty tomes!

I've read a couple of books recently that I have found rather brilliant and gripping!

48.Claude Izner Murder on the Eiffel Tower
49.Clause Izner The Montmatre Investigation

A Poirot-esque mystery set in 1889 Paris, during the Great Universal Exposition, but a bit more risque than Christie!  Our hero and detective is a Victor Legris who is a bookseller.  Romantic interest is provided in suspicious artist, Tasha.   He has his only family mysteries and background that are integral to the plot.  His colleague and practically Father, Kenji seems implicated as Victor dashes all over the city.  The author provides some nice colour and description of the time and setting but not too much to be at all obstrusive to the plot.  The second book was also interesting visiting another spot we tourists know- the Moulin Rouge! These are worth a read.  Sorry, not really a review, I can't seem to say anything interesting, I just wanted to put them down on the list as an interesting possible read for any of you!
 
50.  Carola Dunn Die lauging
 Once again, Daisy stumbles on a crime- she's lovable and really wants the best for people,s o she always, to the chagrin of Scotland Yard, manages to get in on the detecting action!  Great fun as usual and hurrah, true to form, I guessed who the murderer was!!!

51.  Carola Dunn Damsel in Distress
It's always distressing when you lose a book when you're just about to reach the denouement- so irritating- have no idea where this disappeared to- it was good though!  This definitely had a real Enid Blyton feel to this- namely, Five fall into adventure- with a kidnapping, searching in a forest for the victim, sub-plots and treachery- great, but I'd love to know how it ends.


An old work colleague used to go on and on about the Chalet school series, she adored them and was always trying to collect first editions of them.  I always remember seeing them in my local library but sadly, did not read them when there was a wealth of them available- alas, why did I not realise they are exactly like Malory Towers and St Claire's, only better!!!  I was lucky enough to find these three books in a charity shop and consumed them instantly!!!

52.  Peggy of the Chalet School
In this book, the Chalet school has moved to St Briavel's and Peggy is head-girl. It has the usual school story formula of disgruntled pupil who must be reformed- great fun and an enjoyable read.  If you love Enid Blyton, you'll love this!
 
53. Jo Returns to the Chalet School
The heroine in this book totally reminds me of Darerel from the Malory Towers series, she's fun and intelligent and cares passionately about her school- I loved reading the setting of this bok out in Austria- you get a real sense of coldness of the setting, I found myself really drawn into this story!
 
54. The Rivals of the Chalet School
 I love a good bit of school rivalry!  This book was as good as the other 3, except there was a rather dramatic amount of adventure in here with cracking ice and desperate escapes across snowy mountain passes!  Well worth a read!
55. C.S. Lewis Voyage to Venus
 If you read my review below of Out of the silent planet you will know about book 1 in C.S. Lewis's Sci-fi trilogy of books.  When I first read them, I always preferred the first book.  However, on the second reading, I find I enjoyed Voyage to Venus or Perelandra much more.  It tells the tale of Dr Ransom, hero of the first book who is called to travel to Venus to witness the beginning of life on that planet and to help keep the influence of the evil Eldil Oyarsa of Thulcandra (our planet) from corrupting a new Eve.  The story once again has absolutely wonderful description, I long, oh how I long, to experience the floating islands of Perelandra- islands that ripple with the waves they flow over, delicious gourd fruits and bubble trees that burst and refresh you like you've had a shower of fragrant morning dew.  I found the dialogue between the corrupted Weston and Ransom to be really interesting and thought-provoking and found myself once again, very anxious to find out the result of it- what would Eve do- surprisingly, I'd forgotten a lot of this story!  A reallly lovely read!

Here are my reviews for the three Blogging good read books in case you missed them!

 

45.  Markus Zusak The Book thief
The Book Thief for me was an utter joy to read: in a bittersweet way. It tells the tale of a young girl, Liesl Meminger who is fostered by a family in Molching, Nazi Germany in 1939, after her Mother cannot afford to keep her (and though we don’t learn of her fate, we suspect she gives her up partially because the Nazis have something against her and she ends up dead, ‘off-stage’ as it were) and how the power of words in a book ultimately saves and nurtures her life.


I consider a good sign that a book evokes strong emotions in me, one that engages your emotions and makes you care about the fate of the characters deeply. I confess to crying several times reading this book (3 times embarrassingly in a single Tube journey!) - I fretted over the ending of this book before I reached it, I was that drawn into the story and I cared about each and every character deeply! The story constantly kept up the sense of suspense as to their fate. The Narrator as Death was clever and he was a witty raconteur. A really special part of the book is the relationship development between Liesl and the various characters she meets, her foster father, her best friend Rudy, a hidden Jew, the latter particularly beautifully develops. The stories within the story (the books which are thieved!) are rather poignant too.

The description and vocabulary was something striking for me about this book, the imagery used- it was clever, witty and highly original- phrases like bullet-proof eyes, and the shop was white and cold and bloodless (p51) had me laughing in delight at the originality as did the creative and unusual verb choices. The story was just the right length- despite its 580 pages, the pace was constantly moving and there was always something to learn or something happening. Honestly, I know I say this about most books I read, but you really have to read this - it is utterly beautiful and though a multitude of tales exist written about this era, this really is something Other with that capital O! There is nothing I can say that I did not like about it apart from the fact I wish things ended differently for certain characters!
 
46. A Tale of Time City by Diana Wynne Jones

Interestingly, when I started this, I noticed that all 3 books we read were written or set in 1938-9! On the whole I liked this book. It had a great Dr Who-esque sense of adventure in the quest to find who was causing Time City to become Unstable and unhinged from time with interesting and creative ideas of what might happen in future Earth history and the type of technological advancements.

The plot took a while to get going, there were moments of hiatus where we had some more description of Time City (or at least that was my impression) and then it got moving again. I wanted it to keep up the pace! I liked the main character Vivian although I find the two leading boys rather annoying. It had an Enid Blytonesque element, which seems ubiquitous to most children’s stories, with lots of talk of food which I found strangely annoying, unusual for me. I usually love a bit of food description!

The ending was a bit abrupt, confused and unresolved- I wasn’t quite sure exactly what was happening to Vivian - and the final denouement was a bit of a let-down: I thought, “Oh is that it?” I may have raised some negative points but on the whole though, I enjoyed this tale- I always enjoy a quest and I would certainly recommend this to some of my kids at school to read (I think I’ll donate my copy of this to the school library) because I think it has all the ingredients that boys and girls alike would alike.


47.  Out of the Silent Planet by C.S Lewis

I think it is an extraordinary book that more people should know about. I first read it about 6 years ago, (not read it since), and I don’t know anyone personally who has read it, so I really wanted to hear what other people think of it! For me, I was most excited at views of what space, planets, space-ships and extra-terrestial life-forms in an author pre-space travel, pre-Moon landing! This was the first book I had read in which the author has not been saturated by a myriad of different films, TV programmes and books with their images and thoughts of alien-life, so it was refreshing and beautiful. I adored hearing about a spherical space ship with its own centre of gravity and the strange landscape and life-forms on the beautiful planet of Malacandra. C.S. Lewis has a beautiful method of description and the second book in this trilogy has the same delightfully original description. I like the subtle allegorical message involved- it’s not too in your face!