See above! (Couldn’t be bothered to repost as it took a lot of frustration to get both images in the first time round…)

What can I say, the ending to this book totally changed my opinion of the entire story altogether!

As a brief overview before I go on, this novel is written almost in the form of a journal, save for dates (possibly to keep the text contemporary?), of Cassandra Mortmain’s home life, love life and all that’s in between. It gradually becomes a love triangle between her sister, herself, her sister’s fiance and his brother and Stephen, a ’servant’ position character.

As I was reading through it, I found Smith’s narrative through Cassandra very charming, sweet, in some areas hilarious and almost reminiscent of the likes of Austen and the Brontes. I loved how the book traces through from their state of poverty to when the family merges with the Cottons through Rose’s engagement to Simon, highlighted by the use of Smith’s dividing the novel up into ‘books’, naming them after the coins at the time (starting with the lowest for the poverty, and the highest when they came into money).

 Around halfway through the novel I was slightly put off by all the religious themes (I’m not a religious person and I do not wish to offend anyone but I respect everyone’s beliefs) so I must admit I did not pay no much attention to these scenes. I was also finding it incredibly wrong that Cassandra believed herself to be in love with her sister’s fiance and was again starting to be put off by this, but the ending changed my view of this entirely. It did seem to be a bit of ‘puppy love’ , and was secretly hoping that she would end up with Stephen simply because he worshipped the ground she walked on and that she would realise how much she loved him when he went to London to become an actor.

I also found it hard to contextualise the novel as it seems like it is written at a time where there were no decent links to London, cars, electricity, but then the characters always seemed to be in swanky apartments in London. I know Smith was born around the end of the 1800s, but there was nothing about either of the wars, or even anything to do with the 50s or 60s.

However, the bittersweet ending was what completely changed my perception of this book, and is definitely something that I want to read again in the future!

Author: Terry Pratchett

From: Oxfam…49p, yo!

Status: Finished

Summary: Johnny Maxwell is 12 years old and can see the dead. And their cemetary has just been sold off – and they’re not happy. Can Johnny teach them to enjoy the afterlife before it’s too late?

Thoughts: I think Pterry is a genius anyway, so this is totally bias, but I do like the Johhny Maxwell books. They’re for younger readers but is perfectly enjoyable for older readers too. They’re nothing like Discworld – Johnny and his friends are a normal (mostly) bunch of kids living in a small town in the UK, only Johnny always finds some strange occurances that allows them to have all kinds of wierd adventures.

The story is very moving in places, such as when dead soldiers march back from France to collect the ghost of a friend, and also very funny, such as when Johnny brings the dead a radio and they dance to ‘Thriller’. It’s simpler than the Discworld series, obviously, but certainly not written ‘down’ for children. The characterisation is very good: Johnny and his friends are the kind of kids you see every day, or that we might have been. All the boys are strangely endearing: Bigmac, the biro-tattoo’d wannabe skinhead with the bullying big brother; Yoless, who’s ‘technically’ black but about as cool as his mother; and Wobbler, large, cowardly and thrown out from the nerd club.

Definitely reccomended, espeically for those who want something quick, funny and clever.

This is going to be a long post… beware…

EDITED to take out a whopping great big spoiler, whoops!

Title: The Song of the Lioness Quartet
(Alanna/In The Hand of the Goddess/Woman Who Rides Like A Man/Lioness Rampant)

Summary: *Steals synopsis from author’s website*

This story, all four books, is about the making of a hero. It’s also about a very stubborn girl.

Alanna of Trebond wants to be a knight of the realm of Tortall, in a time when girls are forbidden to be warriors. Rather than give up her dream, she and her brother–who wants to be a mage, not a knight–switch places. She becomes Alan; Thom becomes a student wizard in the school where she would have learned to be a lady.

The quartet is about her struggle to achieve her goals and to master weapons, combat, polite behavior, her magic, her temper, and even her own heart. It is about friendships–with the heir to the throne, the King of Thieves, a wise and kindly knight–and her long struggle against a powerful enemy mage.

She sees battle as a squire and as a knight, lives among desert people and tries to rescue an independent princess. Singled out by a goddess, accompanied by a semi-divine cat with firm opinions, somehow she survives her many adventures to become a most unlikely legend.

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Title: The Immortals Quartet
(Wild Magic/Wolfspeaker/The Emperor Mage/Realms of the Gods)

Summary:

Wild Magic: Daine is desperate to forget the past. The bandit attack. The slaughter of her family. Her madness. Calling to the wolves, running with the pack, smelling blood, smelling vengeance. But she cannot forget. Power over wild magic is Daine’s birthright, and protecting Tortall her destiny. For her adoptive home is in terrible danger, being ravaged by dread creations from the Divine Realms: Stormwings, Hurrocks and deadly Spidrens. Daine must master her rare and wondrous power or else see friends and home destroyed once more.

Wolfspeaker: The wolves of Long Lake are calling to their pack-sister. They aided Daine once, now they need her help. They are her family. She cannot ignore their cry. For the wolves have formidable foes: a grisly band of warriors, Ogres, Hurroks and Stormwings, with the Carthaki war-mage Tristan Staghorn at their head. Will Daine’s new understanding of wild magic give her the strength to combat Tristan’s army, and the power to destroy his terrible, cataclysmic weapon – the bloodrain?

The Emperor Mage: Emperor Ozorne’s Immortal minions have savaged peaceful Tortall. Daine has lost many friends to Hurrock claw and Stormwing talon. Now Ozorne talks of treaties, and for Tortall’s sake, Daine must attend the peace conference – somehow keeping her wild magic in check. But other forces demand she unleash that power. The Gods are furious with Emperor Ozorne, and have chosen Daine to deliver their dreadful retribution. Compelled by the Graveyard Hag, Daine confronts Ozorne. But should she use divine power to bring the mighty Empire to its knees..?

Realms of the Gods: Daine should have killed Ozorne when she had the chance. Now the former Emperor turned Stormwing has raised a band of pirates, brigands and Immortals intent on destroying Tortall. But through his quest for revenge, the evil mage has unleashed a darkness beyond even his reckoning. Ozorne has made a foolish pact with Uusoae, God of Chaos. Daine must seek help in the Divine Realms, for this vile queen will not stop with the extermination of Tortall. She exists with one purpose – to suck all life into chaos and oblivion.

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Title: The Protector of the Small Quartet
(First Test/Page/Squire/Lady Knight)

Summary: *steals from author’s website again*

This is the tale of Keladry of Mindelan, a girl who wants just one thing: to copy the feat of her hero Alanna the Lioness, and win her knight’s shield. She is now old enough to be a page, and the King has decreed that any nobly-born girl with her parents’ consent can enter the palace school. Kel has that permission, as well as the warnings of her parents and older brothers that she will not exactly be welcomed in her new life. They are right, but she means to succeed. To stop Kel in her tracks, the training master, Lord Wyldon of Cavall, insists that she be placed on probation. FIRST TEST is the story of Kel’s probationary year.

PAGE, the second Protector book, details Kel’s remaining years as a page. Just because she survived her first year doesn’t mean that everyone now loves and accepts her. She has to deal with that, among other things. What other things? you ask. Try a stray dog who doesn’t listen when Kel says “No.” Try a maidservant who squeaks with dismay every time Kel picks up a weapon. Try a company of bandits that isn’t supposed to be there. Try new boys and changes in her own body. And never forget Kel’s fear of heights. When Lord Wyldon sends her out to climb trees, walls, and cliffs, is he doing it because he wants to cure her of her fear, or drive her away from the palace?

SQUIRE, the third Protector book, describes Kel’s next four years. Her new knight-master is as different from Lord Wyldon as a man can be. He introduces Kel to a new way of life, one that’s as much fun as it is hard work. He not only allows her to carry and use her Yamani glaive, but he helps her to take her skill at jousting to the next level, one that introduces Tortall’s young knights and squires to a formidable new force on the tournament field. She has the care of a very different new foundling, as well as matters of the heart to consider. Kel meets a wide panorama of new faces, including the Yamani princess Shinkokami and her ladies, a very troubled squire, a baby griffin, and a metal creation like nothing she has ever seen before. Old friends and foes appear: Neal of Queenscove, Cleon of Kennan, Owen of Jesslaw, and the puzzling Joren of Stone Mountain. Through it all, Kel never allows herself to forget what awaits her after her night-long vigil in Midwinter of her fourth year as a squire: the Chamber of the Ordeal.

LADY KNIGHT, the fourth Protector book, describes Kel’s first appearance as a knight of the realm. War with Scanra is declared at last during the book, and Kel finds herself in charge of not a border post or even a portion of the army, but of a refugee camp, placed there by her district commander, Lord Wyldon. She’s certain that he does this to keep her out of the fighting, but she also knows that these people, torn from their homes, robbed of their wealth and self-respect, are her responsibility. She must feed them, house them, and keep them safe from harm, on a piece of ground that is far too close to the Scanran border. She will have help, in the shape of her old friends Neal and Merric, the horses Peachblossom and Hoshi, the dog Jump and her personal sparrow flock, but also from as mixed a brew of people as ever came together at one point: the Wildmage called Daine; the great mage Numair; Neal’s own father, Duke Baird of Queenscove; Kel’s former knight-master Raoul of Goldenlake and Malorie’s Peak, and men of the King’s Own, including Kel’s friend Sergeant Domitan of Masbolle; convict soldiers, who have been given the choice to fight in the army or to die at hard labor; several hundred refugees who have gotten too many empty promises from nobles; smugglers, and a stolid, unusual boy named Tobe.

While Kel struggles with her responsibilities and the urge simply to abandon the camp and find a real fight, another obligation hangs over her. Tied to the camp, she cannot pursue the task set for her by the Chamber of the Ordeal: to find and destroy the mage who is using foul magic to create the rat-like, swift-moving, deadly metallic things known to the Tortallans as “killing devices.” As the summer wears on and the war intensifies, events move to put a perverted mage and his conscienceless war-leader in Kel’s path, to test her resolve and find out if she is truly worthy of her shield.

Thoughts

I love them. I wish it was the law for everyone to read them. There is absolutely no point in me even attempting to write a constructive review, as I would just gush.

If you think they sound interesting, borrow them, I would be so happy to discuss the Tortal Universe with you once you’ve finished!!

And Protector of the Small is followed by a stand-alone duo… Daughter of the Lioness (Tricker’s Choice/Trickster’s Queen) – which, quite clearly has spoilers out the yazoo, so I haven’t included their summaries here. But they are OMFGSOAWESOME too

Summary: In the future people are aided by ‘Persocoms’, beautiful and obedient human-shaped computers. When broke student Hideki finds a cute Persocom in the rubbish, he takes her home, happy to finally have one of his own – but all the Persocom can say is ‘Chi’ and she has no data or programming set up. Determined to teach her and find out more about her, Hideki discovers he may have stumbled upon a ‘Chobit’ – a genuine AI being.

Thoughts: I like CLAMP generally, having started my manga collection with Cardcaptor Sakura back in the day. The art is beautiful, smooth and detailed and the stories generally centre on romance. Chobits is no different although with a slightly more adult theme – there is no shortage of sexual jokes in the story, despite Chi’s innocence. A few jokes come from female characters finding Hideki’s porn magazines by accident, and in order to turn Chi on (haha) Hideki has to find her switch – between her legs. There are more innocent moments of humour too, such as when Chi copies what the people around her do. Underlying this light-heartedness, however, is the motif of the relationship between humans and artificial humans – is it any different to that between two humans, or should it be? The characters are endearing and interesting and Chi, the persocom, is beautifully drawn, and very sweet and easy to like. Hideki is a kind, pleasant hero and the story adds a small selection of background characters to offer different views on how the persocoms affect human life and society. Hideki is warned not to fall in love with Chi no matter how cute and human she seems, because she ultimately is not human, but if she is an AI with her own feelings and emotional range, would this advice still hold true?

The Tokyopop translation seems generally decent although the odd line is a touch lost in translation.

Reccomended to anyone who enjoys attractive manga and a different kind of romance.

Summary:

Michelle Moran returns with another riveting and untold historical tale set against the backdrop of Egypt’s demise. Following Cleopatra and Marc Antony’s deaths, their three children – twins named Alexander and Selene plus a younger son named Ptolemy – are exiled from Egypt and sent to Rome in chains to be raised in one of the most fascinating (and dangerous) courts of all time. Cleopatra’s Daughter is the remarkable true story of what happens to these three surviving children as seen through the eyes of Selene. Their adaptation to Roman culture, their treatment as both a curiosity and a threat, and Selene’s perilous journey to adulthood, are all chronicled in the elegant detail and gripping pace for which Michelle Moran is celebrated.

Thoughts

I love Michelle Moran. I just happened to pick up Nefertiti in the airport, as I was on my way out to Egypt, and I was immediately hooked. The sequel, The Heretic Queen was even better. So when I saw Cleopatra’s Daugther sitting there all seductively in a Waterstones IT HAD TO BE MINE.

My favourite aspect of this book was how she worked the dichotomy between the domestic – Selene and Alexander are adopted by Octavian’s sister Octavia (who their father Marc Antony had divorced to be with Cleopatra!) - and the affairs of the state – the underplot is concerned with Gallic slavery in Rome and their attempts at revolution. As a Classics grad I loved seeing characters and situations I was familiar with getting attention, but as with the other two Michelle Moran books you need no Classical foreknowledge to understand and enjoy.

I’ll give this book a 9/10 – purely because a) I don’t think I can go around giving tens out all the time and b) I think I enjoyed The Heretic Queen a teeny tiny bit more.

I cannot reccommend these three books enough and urge you to borrow them from me!

Summary: The story of a girl who needs to slow down. To find herself. To fall in love. And to discover what an iron is for…Samantha is a high-powered lawyer in London. She works all hours, has no home life, and cares only about getting a partnership. She thrives on the pressure and adrenalin. Until one day…she makes a mistake. A mistake so huge, it’ll wreck her career. She walks right out of the office, gets on the first train she sees, and finds herself in the middle of nowhere. Asking for directions at a big, beautiful house, she is mistaken for the interviewee housekeeper and finds herself being offered the job. They have no idea they’ve hired a Cambridge-educated lawyer with an IQ of 158 – Samantha has no idea how to work the oven. Disaster ensues. It’s chaos as Samantha battles with the washing machine…the ironing board…and attempts to cook a cordon bleu dinner. But gradually, she falls in love with her new life in a wholly unexpected way. Will her employers ever discover the truth? Will Samantha’s old life ever catch up with her? And if it does…will she want it back?

Thoughts: Well I finished this in three days flat. I couldn’t put it down at all! It’s a very easy read, and to me it was on a bit of a personal level as it only cemented my decision not to go to Law School and made me really appreciate what I do have. Plus, Samantha reminds me of me in every way as I too am the epitome of an undomestic goddess!

As with all the chick lit I’ve read, it was fairly predictable in parts, but that was sort of a given. The sex scenes weren’t too graphic and definitely has some laugh out loud moments. Definitely worth a read if you just want something easy to read after a hard day/when commuting/on holiday.

(Sorry if I only read chick lit at the mo, I will put up more intellectual stuff! When you work full time in the environment I do, you don’t really want to read anything you have to think about )

Summary: Princess Alyss Heart, born in Wonderland, is destined to be a warrior queen. After a bloody coup headed by her aunt Redd topples the Heart regime, Alyss is exiled to another world entirely, where she is adopted into a new family, renamed Alice and befriended by Lewis Carroll. At age 20 she returns to Wonderland to battle Redd and lead Wonderland into its next golden age of imagination.

Thoughts: Definitely not for those who love the Carroll Alice canon. Seriously. The basic premise of LLGW is that Carroll got it hopelessly wrong. Nevertheless, once the basic irritation at the messing-with-history is out of the way – and there is some, in the section where Alyss is stuck in ‘this’ world – it’s not a bad read.

Generally, it’s a book of extremes, and strangely American. The bits that are well written are very much so, but the bits that jar, really jar. This is a fantasy/fairy tale for adults, and the odd addition of cutesy names and occurances in Wonderland lead to an uncomfortable mix with the well-choreographed violence, the politics and the danger of the world. Even the villain has some moments of such over-the-top melodrama (“Call me ‘Her Imperial Viciousness!”) it’s hard to take her seriously as a threat sometimes.  Her attempts to create a 1984-esque society in Wonderland veer from the believeable, Dysopically terrifying to the plain childish. The Cat assassin is deadly and truly scary at first but loses some of his flair in non-battle scenes. Some of the characters, particularly the evil or neutral ones, are flat and unsympathetic while others such as Hatter Madigan, the bodyguard, Homburg Molly, and Dodge Anders, Alyss’ childhood love, are complex and fascinating, with a great deal of charm. It says a lot that Hatter has his own spin off graphic novel series (worth a look for sure, perhaps more than the novel).

LLGW is an interesting rehash of a surreal story, with an involving, page-turning plot and some very clever, imaginative ideas (the card soldiers, the killing mushrooms, the Millinary and the Crystal Continuum show that Beddor has put a lot of thought into his world). Alyss is a pleasant, likeable heroine, and her romance sub-plots are minimal and for the most part well-handled. The use of the power of Imagination for good and evil creates an epic backdrop to which the characters do not always live up to. While not great literature, it’s an exciting read with a good idea behind it, and a sprinkling of  memorable characters. The plot is fairly simple without any major revelations, but basically enjoyable. If you don’t mind the bad bits, the good bits are worth a read.

Summary: This is the story of a family in crisis. Sara and Brian have three children: Kate, Jesse and Anna. When Kate was a young child she was diagnosed with Leukemia and needed bone marrow. The problem being that her other sibling at the time, Jesse, wasn’t a match. Brian and Sara conceive Anna, knowing that she is a genetic match for Kate and will therefore be a match for her. The idea being that Kate can receive cord blood when Anna is born. However, over time, Kate needs more and more from Anna and Anna has had enough of being treated as spare parts for her sister. When she hires an attorney to argue for medical emancipation from her parents – Sara is less than pleased and fights back.

This is the story of one 13 year old girl who feels that the only reason she is here is to keep her sister alive. She is unable to do many of the things she wants to do because her sister might need her blood, platelets, bone marrow or finally kidney at any time.

Thoughts:

24/8/09: The first page instantly put me off as the subject matter is about a very strong desire of wanting to kill your sister, which for me is quite close to home. But I didn’t want to judge a book by its cover and so decided to continue.

So far I would say that I’m enjoying it, but when the legal/medical jargon comes into it I start to switch off as it’s hard to understand. However it’s something I definitely want to persevere with as the actual storyline is very good and Picoult deals with the subject matter of a family dealing with a dying child very well.

I’m not reading this book just because the film is out (I didn’t even know that there was one until the other day!) but it’s definitely something I want to see when I’m done.

I’ll add to this when I’m finished. I have no idea when that will be as it’s not one I can’t put down as the jargon makes me lose interest, but I’m determined, damnit!

27/8/09: Finally done after a three long weeks stringing it out. The ending was very good, although unexpected. I thought that it defeated the whole point of the novel, but at the same time it ends on a very positive note and all the characters begin to realise that things happen for a reason. OK, so the technical jargon is taxing in areas (hence why it took me so long to read the damn thing) as it does make your mind drift but I didn’t let it halter my determination to finish this. I also didn’t particularly like the ideas of death, suicide and potentially assisted suicide to the main character’s own sister, but I guess if that’s what happens when a member of your family has a terminal illness, it becomes a way of life.

Overall, I would probably give this book 8/10 as the storyline is engaging but I was simply put off by all the technical jargon.

Title: This Charming Man
Author: Marian Keyes
From: The ever classy Amazon
Status: Finished

Summary: Lola has just found out that her boyfriend – charismatic politician Paddy de Courcy – is getting married. To someone else. Heartbroken, Lola flees the city for a cottage by the sea. But will Lola’s retreat prove as idyllic as she hopes?

Journalist Grace wants the inside story on Paddy de Courcy’s engagement and thinks Lola holds the key to it. Grace knew Paddy a long time ago. But why can’t she forget him?

Grace’s sister, Marnie, might have the answer but she also has issues with the past. Her loving loving husband and beautiful daughters are wonderful, but they can’t take away memories of her first love: a certain Paddy de Courcy. What will it take for Marnie to be able to move on?

Alicia Thornton is Paddy’s wife-to-be. Determined to be the perfect wife, Alicia would do anything for her fiancé. But does she know the real Paddy? Four very different women. One awfully charming man. And the dark secret that binds them all…

Thoughts: I’ve started doing a project on ‘really awful chick lit’ (and I wanted something crap to read…) and I was certainly proved wrong with this. I couldn’t put it down at all, and was scared that my family were going to start branding me as anti-social as I spent more time with this book than with them!

The book is divided into the stories of four different women, but are all linked by the character of Paddy deCourcy. However, as the book gradually progresses, the subject matter becomes far more darker and in some parts, quite scary. As with all chick lit, it was pretty much very predictable in some areas, but Keyes handles the subject matter with much sensitivity (and throws in some light humour to lighten the mood of the overall text)  and her character development is spot on. Some bits were unnecessary (the book is a whopping 800 pages long), but definitely worth a read.