Water for Elephants

Synopsis: When Jacob Jankowski, recently orphaned and suddenly adrift, jumps onto a passing train, he enters a world of freaks, grifters, and misfits the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth a second-rate travelling circus struggling to survive during the Great Depression, making one-night stands in town after endless town. Jacob, a veterinary student who almost earned his degree, is put in charge of caring for the circus menagerie. It is there that he meets Marlena, the beautiful young star of the equestrian act, who is married to August, the charismatic but twisted animal trainer. He also meets Rosie, an elephant who seems untrainable until he discovers a way to reach her. Water for Elephants is illuminated by a wonderful sense of time and place. It tells a story of a love between two people that overcomes incredible odds in a world in which even love is a luxury that few can afford.

Review: Jacob is ninety (or ninety three .. one or the other, he's not sure) and he's living in an old people's home. When a circus comes to town it starts Jacob reminiscing about his younger days as a veterinary surgeon in charge of the animals in a travelling circus during the Great Depression in America (the rather optomistically and undeservingly named Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth.)

The author does a great job of bringing all the circus characters to life .. the beautiful, the daring, the vulnerable, the villains, the sinisters and the freaks ... she paints them so vividly that instantly you're interested in them and hooked into the storyline. Jacob especially is thoroughly endearing, I think I loved the parts about him in the home even more than I did those concerning his circus adventures, he's a bit cantankerous, he's fed up with being treated like an imbecile, he's fed up with the nursery food and the mountains of pills and he can't always remember which relative is visiting him. He's always been a fairly placid person but has just begun to behave just a teeny bit badly. I also loved Rosie the elephant, but then I love a story about an elephant, there's something about them that pulls at the heartstrings immediately. I did think the ending was a bit far fetched and it has 'movie adaptation' written all over it but for all that it was still really enjoyable .. a real adventure story with a thoroughly likeable main character.

The Wives of Henry Oades

Synopsis: In 1890, Henry Oades decided to undertake the arduous sea voyage from England to New Zealand in order to further his family's fortunes. Here they settled on the lush but wild coast -- although it wasn't long before disaster struck in the most unexpected of ways. A local Maori tribe, incensed at their treatment at the hands of the settlers, kidnapped Mrs Oades and her four children, and vanished into the rugged hills surrounding the town. Henry searched ceaselessly for his family, but two grief-stricken years later was forced to conclude that they must be dead. In despair he shipped out to San Francisco to start over, eventually falling in love with and marrying a young widow. In the meantime, Margaret Oades and her children were leading a miserable existence, enslaved to the local tribe. When they contracted smallpox they were cast out and, ill and footsore, made their way back to town, five years after they were presumed dead. Discovering that Henry was now half a world away, they were determined to rejoin him. So months later they arrived on his doorstep in America and Henry Oades discovered that he had two wives and many dilemmas ! This is a darkly comic but moving historical fiction debut about love and family, based on a controversial court case from the early 1900s.

Review: I Liked this one, it has the sort of absurd humour that appeals to me. Immensely readable it tells the story of Henry Oades, who is seeking his fortune (and that of his wife Margaret and four children) in New Zealand in 1890. I believe the tale is based on a true story but Johanna Moran has given it flesh and bones. When Henry returns from work one evening he finds his home a smouldering wreck and the unrecognisable body of a woman amongst the ashes. he searches high and low for his family but cannot find them or news of them. Eventually, believing them to be dead, he sails to San Francisco where he eventually meets, falls in love and marries Nancy.

The reader knows all along that his first wife and children (all except one) are still alive, they have been captured and imprisoned by a local Maori tribe (with the body back at the homestead being that of a visiting friend) and you know it's only a matter of time before they all meet up (the title is a bit of a giveaway in that respect.)

'A pretty girl opened the door and eyed them up and down suspiciously. 'Forgive us for startling you' Margaret said 'Is this the home of Mr Henry Oades?.' The girl poked at her unruly hair 'who wants to know?' The insolent lass could use a good caning. 'We are Mrs Henry Oades and children, we're not expected.' The girl scowled, cocking her head as if she hadn't heard right. 'You're his mother?' 'I'm his wife miss, if it's any concern of yours'. The loony thing clapped hands to ears and closed her eyes. With an audible amen her hands dropped to her sides, wedding band gaudy new, winking with sunlight. 'I'm sorry, but I am Henry Oades wife now.'

Again it's a book that makes you laugh a lot but you also care about the characters .. Margaret in particular. It's a situation nobody would want to find themselves in, it's humiliating and degrading but Margaret is made of stern stuff and she's determined to make it work. That's not to say that Nancy is unlikeable, both women try and work things out so that they can all live in peace together but of course it's not as easy as that. They never descend into Krystal/Alexis catfighting as you might expect, there's a mutual respect and understanding of each other's position but they both harbour regrets and resentments as would be only natural. Watching them cope with each other and the situation they find themselves in is fascinating.A great story told with warmth and humour, I couldn't put it down.

Labyrinth (Audiobook)

Synopsis: When Dr Alice Tanner discovers two skeletons during an archaeological dig in southern France, she unearths a link with a horrific and brutal past. But it's not just the sight of the shattered bones that makes her uneasy; there's an overwhelming sense of evil in the tomb that Alice finds hard to shake off, even in the bright French sunshine. Puzzled by the words carved inside the chamber, Alice has an uneasy feeling that she has disturbed something which was meant to remain hidden...Eight hundred years ago, on the night before a brutal civil war ripped apart Languedoc, a book was entrusted to Alais, a young herbalist and healer. Although she cannot understand the symbols and diagrams the book contains, Alais knows her destiny lies in protecting their secret, at all costs. Skilfully blending the lives of two women divided by centuries but united by a common destiny, LABYRINTH is a powerful story steeped in the atmosphere and history of southern France.

Review: I didn't really enjoy this story, I practically gave up after listening to the first two sides, it seemed long and convulted and a bit clunky. I found I wasn't really interested in the modern day story of Alice but did get more intrigued by Alais's tale and that kept me listening. Nearly all the revelations were second guessed by me which means they must have been pretty obvious to begin with. The story didn't seem to gel or connect .. there was no 'skilful blending' ... and incredulity was stretched too far. Some stories have you suspending disbelief willingly .. I'm happy to imagine a hobbit in a hole or envisage an orangutan librarian but this was more of the 'you're having me on .. right?' sort. If I had had to read it instead of listen to it, it would definitely have been abandoned, lifes too short to turn that many pages of uninteresting, laboured prose. Perhaps I'm being harsh, it has a heavyweight reputation but it just didn't entertain me at all.

Cranberry Queen

Synopsis: Diana Moore is 33 and about, so her Aunt Margaret predicts, to have the best three years she's ever had. Which is a relief since tomorrow she's facing The Biggest Day of her Life so far. A friend's wedding, to which her ex (aka The Monster) complete with New Girlfriend, is also invited. And Diana, brown of hair, nine of foot and wide of thigh is going - alone. But somehow Aunt Margaret's got it wrong. And next day all thoughts of weddings, exes and New Girlfriends seem absurdly irrelevant. For Diana is really alone. The car containing her mother, father and only brother has collided with a large truck on a small road. And from that moment on everything she's know is changed. Including Diana...

Review: This was a bit of a book of two halves and the first half I really enjoyed. Diana is steeling herself to attend a wedding of some so called friends who think it's about time she moved on and started socialising with her ex and his impossibly gorgeous girlfriend. There's lots of self deprecation, sarcasm and Bridget Jones style humour and even when tragedy strikes and Diana .. at 33 .. is left an orphan, there's plenty of wry observational humour mixed in with the pathos.

'Tomorrow, I will embody what it means to be aging gracefully. I will be the perfect single guest. I will be the Katharine Hepburn (at thirty three not eighty) of the wedding. I am going alone. And I am not allowing myself one second of self-deprecation. Not one second. Affirmations and visuals. I am Elizabeth Bennett in Pride and Prejudice. I am Bette Davis in All About Eve. I am anyone at all, but me, Diana Moore, brown of hair, nine of shoe and wide of thigh.'

There is a realness to the writing and a warmth about Diana that makes you take to her within about two pages. She has an alter ego which she calls 'Foxhole Girl' ... this is her true self buried deep beneath her public persona (or 'Smiling Idiot' as Diana refers to herself .. she's too willing to please and bend to other people's wishes) and it's Diana's fear that 'Foxhole Girl' will always remain buried.

With her friends and extended family trying their best to support her and stop her being eaten by alsatians (they don't actually say that, that would be plagiarism,) Diana feels stifled and she takes herself off on a roadtrip of sorts. It's here that she meets Louisa, who in contrast to Diana is a thoroughly unlikeable self absorbed character, I found myself irritated by her and the story went off in unenjoyable directions that seemed a bit clichéd. I did love all the descriptions of the New Jersey cranberry bogs though, I could really envisage the beauty of the place. It's not Proust but it's not lightweight either .. although I think I've managed to make it sound as if it is. For the most part it was very enjoyable and funny.

Never Let Me Go

Synopsis: In one of the most acclaimed and strange novels of recent years, Kazuo Ishiguro imagines the lives of a group of students growing up in a darkly skewered version of contemporary England. Narrated by Kathy, now 31, "Never Let Me Go" hauntingly dramatises her attempts to come to terms with her childhood at the seemingly idyllic Hailsham School, and with the fate that has always awaited her and her closest friends in the wider world. A story of love, friendship and memory, "Never Let Me Go" is charged throughout with a sense of the fragility of life.

'My name is Kathy H. I'm thirty-one years old, and I've been a carer now for over eleven years. That sounds long enough, I know, but actually they want me to go on for another eight months, until the end of this year. That'll make it almost exactly twelve years. Now I know my being a carer so long isn't necessarily because they think I'm fantastic at what I do. There are some really good carers who've been told to stop after just two or three years. And I can think of one carer at least who went on for all of fourteen years despite being a complete waste of space. So I'm not trying to boast. But then I do know for a fact they've been pleased with my work, and by and large, I have too. My donors have always tended to do much better than expected. Their recovery times have been impressive, and hardly any of them have been classified as 'agitated', even before fourth donation. Okay, maybe I am boasting now. But it means a lot to me, being able to do my work well.

Review: I loved every page. You begin this book by thinking you are reading about a fairly normal girl at a fairly normal boarding school. Kathy's schooldays at Hailsham sound pretty idyllic and from the way she eulogises about it you think that Hailsham must be pretty special and it is, just not in the way you were thinking. Bit by bit she drops snippets into her recollections that make you think that all is not as it seems and fairly soon you know that something fairly disturbing is occurring. This is not Malory Towers!

You get to know the characters very well, Kathy and Tommy in particular, but there is always a slight detachment. Kathy is not emotional in the way that we perhaps expect her to be, and she accepts her situation with a kind of docile resignation. All the same her narration draws you in. In some respects Kathy and her schoolfriends are not entirely clued up about their situation, they know about it, they've always known about it, but somehow it hasn't entirely registered. You hope at some point the penny will drop and she'll rebel because you don't want her to suffer the same fate as the others, you feel it would be easy for her just to run for the hills but these children/young adults have been conditioned to accept their destiny.

Haunting and beautifully written, it keeps you turning pages even though it is extremely slow paced. Some people feel that the science doesn't add up, it probably doesn't but I don't think it matters. It's thought provoking, you hope such horrors could never occur, but the unacceptable often becomes acceptable without you quite knowing how it happened.

On the Move

Well, many apologies for the lack of book reviews over the past few months. We have, after two years of trying, sold our house and moved to Cirencester (hurrah!!)

The move didn't go that smoothly (do they ever?) Firstly we had to be homeless for three weeks which involved caravan living and imposing on mum and dad and then when we did eventually move in we were faced with the hammer house of horrors. The place was filthy with an overgrown garden and half eaten food in the cupboards. The old owners had flea ridden cats and our poor two cats have gone through hell ever since. Despite treatment we are practically having to fumigate the house .. nightmare!

The house is a Victorian terrace, with victorian plumbing and electrics (it's not, it just seems like it) and there's so much to do that we've been constantly cleaning and swabbing down. My precious books have nearly all been put in the basement which is probably the safest place for them but I'm so behind with my reading that I'm getting quite grouchy about it.

I did read quite a few books during my sojourn in the caravan etc and so will post my shortened reviews.

Why do houses always look so much better on paper than they do in actuality? I wasn't expecting a Harrods hamper welcome but all they left was their dirt, food and hair in the plugholes (uggghh.) No note or anything, it's just not cricket!