Category Archives: book reviews

A poem to read in the bath… ‘Japanese Maple’

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Most of us came to Australian broadcaster Clive James via his witty television programmes and writings. In recent years he has turned again to poetry. It is four years now since he was diagnosed with ‘the lot’: with leukaemia, emphysema and kidney failure. Now his poetry is full of dying – reflections on life and death – and the poems are beautiful and incredibly moving.

poetry

[photo: Rex Features]

‘Japanese Maple’ is about a tree, given to him by his daughter, and how witnessing the tree change through autumn signals a change for him. I defy you to listen to this, and not have moist eyes.

Because of copyright restrictions I am unable to reproduce the poem in full, but please search it out in an anthology or at your local library.

‘Japanese Maple’
Your death, near now, is of an easy sort.
So slow a fading out brings no real pain.
Breath growing short
Is just uncomfortable. You feel the drain
Of energy, but thought and sight remain:

Click here to listen to Clive James read ‘Japanese Maple’ for the BBC.
For recent poems by Clive James, visit his website here.
Listen here to Clive James talk about ‘taking life slowly’ [Interview: Radio 4’s ‘Today’ programme]

poetry

 

‘Sentenced to Life’ by Clive James [UK: Picador]

Read these other excerpts and find a new poet to love:-
‘Digging’ by Seamus Heaney
‘The Road Not Taken’ by Robert Frost
‘My Heart Leaps Up’ by William Wordsworth

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
A poem to think about: JAPANESE MAPLE by Clive James #poetry http://wp.me/p5gEM4-1Rp via @SandraDanby

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#BookReview ‘Beginnings’ by Helen J Christmas @SFDPBeginnings #thriller #romance

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A teenager abandoned and at the mercy of a 1970s London gang, Eleanor Chapman is the ‘same face’ in the romantic thriller series ‘Same Face Different Place’ by Helen J Christmas. London’s East End is the starting point for the first novel, Beginnings. Eleanor’s father must disappear from England after killing in a man in a gang war. Sixteen-year-old Eleanor is taken under the wing of her father’s boss, gang leader Sammie Maxwell. And from that point, her life spirals out of control. Helen J Christmas Forced to work in a brothel, she escapes and joins up with another teenager-on-the-run, Dutch musician Jake. Together they attract the attention of organised crime gangs and the police. Unsure who is really chasing them, they run from hiding place to hiding place and lose the ability to judge who is trustworthy. Sharing their fears, spending every minute together, Jake and Eleanor live on borrowed time. They fall in love. At times the story takes surprising twists, sometimes the outcomes are a little more predictable. I found it a little difficult to keep track of how time was passing, they seem to fall in love very quickly, and it will be interesting to see if Eleanor’s father re-emerges in the next book.
Inevitably in the first book of a series, there is lots of setting-up, character introduction and exposition. Christmas does a great job creating Seventies colour, the food, the fashions, the neighbourhoods. In a fast-moving story, Christmas writes well about a teenager lost in a large and unforgiving world.

Click the title to read my reviews of the next books in this series:-
VISIONS #2SAMEFACEDIFFERENTPLACE
PLEASURES #3SAMEFACEDIFFERENTPLACE

If you like this, try:-
‘The Girl on the Train’ by Paula Hawkins
‘The Cheesemaker’s House’ by Jane Cable
‘The Seventh Miss Hatfield’ by Anna Caltabiano

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview BEGINNINGS by Helen J Christmas @SFDPBeginnings via @Sandra Danby http://wp.me/p5gEM4-29V

My Porridge & Cream read: Rachel Dove

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Today I’m delighted to welcome romance novelist Rachel Dove.

Her ‘Porridge & Cream’ read is Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris which Rachel summarizes as ‘telepathic waitress meets vampires and shapeshifters in the deep south of Bon Temps, finds love and the answers to her very existence.’ Rachel Dove“It was 2009. My second baby in fourteen months had not long been born, and having two boys under two while my husband worked long hours was hard work. I was studying for a degree and writing in my spare time, with dreams of being an author and teacher when the children were older. My days consisted of looking after my children and the house, staying awake and reading to escape, to relax. I remember seeing an advert for the new HBO True Blood series, and seeing it was based on a book series. I immediately went online, newborn in one arm, and found the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris. I immediately bought the full set of what she had written so far, and devoured them. They kept me sane for weeks, and made my world feel less small, more exciting than nappy changes and nipple cream. Night feeds meant pages of vampires and shape shifters while my son fed, and the love stories and loss in the books kept me engaged. Since then, I have read all of the books in the series, and watched the series several times, and the first book is my book of choice whenever I feel bored with the mundane part of motherhood. It was my companion in those first few precious months, and it’s like coming home when I reread them. They always pull me out of my reading slump, and Sookie Stackhouse is a perfect character to lose yourself in.”

Rachel Dove’s Bio
Rachel is a wife, mother of two boys, perpetual student, qualified adult education teacher, avid reader and writer of words. She sometimes sleeps, always has eye bags and dreams of retiring to a big white house in Cornwall with two shaggy dogs where she will drink wine on her seafront balcony whilst creating works of romantic fiction. All done with immaculate make up and floaty dresses. In the meantime she nearly always remembers to brush her hair, seldom has time to look in a mirror and writes many, many to-do lists.

Rachel Dove’s links
Facebook
Twitter
Blog

Rachel Dove’s books
Rachel DoveThe perfect escape to the country…
Recently single and tired of the London rat race Amanda is determined to make her dreams of setting up an idyllic countryside boutique come true, and the picturesque village of Westfield is the perfect place to make a fresh start.
Local vet Ben is the golden boy of Westfield, especially to resident gossip Agatha Mayweather, who is determined to help Ben get his life back together after his wife left.
When a chance encounter outside the ‘chic boutique’ sets sparks flying between Amanda and Ben, Agatha is itching to set them up. But are Amanda and Ben really ready for romance?
‘The Chic Boutique on Baker Street’ by Rachel Dove [UK: Mills and Boon] 

Porridge & Cream

 

What is a ‘Porridge & Cream’ book? It’s the book you turn to when you need a familiar read, when you are tired, ill, or out-of-sorts, where you know the story and love it. Where reading it is like slipping on your oldest, scruffiest slippers after walking for miles. Where does the name ‘Porridge & Cream’ come from? Cat Deerborn is a character in Susan Hill’s ‘Simon Serrailler’ detective series. Cat is a hard-worked GP, a widow with two children and she struggles from day-to-day. One night, after a particularly difficult day, she needs something familiar to read. From her bookshelf she selects ‘Love in A Cold Climate’ by Nancy Mitford. Do you have a favourite read which you return to again and again? If so, please send me a message via the contact form here.

 

Discover the ‘Porridge & Cream’ books of these authors:-
Rhoda Baxter
Shelley Weiner
JG Harlond

Rachel Dove

 

‘Dead Until Dark’ by Charlaine Harris [UK: Gollancz] 

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
Why does @WriterDove love DEAD UNTIL DARK by Charlaine Harris? http://wp.me/p5gEM4-24Q via @SandraDanby #reading

#BookReview ‘Orphans of the Carnival’ by @CarolBirch #historical

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What to say about this unusual novel by Carol Birch? First, I loved part of it. Second, I didn’t realize until I got to the end that it is loosely-based on a true story. If you loved Birch’s Jamrach’s Menagerie, try this. Carol BirchA young veiled woman travels by train from Mexico to New Orleans. She is disfigured but we don’t know the exact details until quite a way into the book: this is a novel which rewards patient reading. Julia Pastrana becomes a music hall attraction – singing, dancing, playing a guitar – while undergoing examinations by doctors who proclaim her part-human. Her successive managers make the most of the doctors’ pronouncements. This is a linear narrative, Julia’s life story, driven by her search for unconditional love.
The real Julia Pastrana had large ears and nose, irregular teeth and straight black hair all over her body. Despite her obvious intelligence – she spoke three languages – the myths continued until her death. It is an indictment of the way people not considered ‘normal’ were treated in the 19th century, seeing them as attractions rather than people with feelings.
The modern-day storyline of Rose, a young woman who collects unwanted items, was, for me, an unnecessary distraction from the main story. The obvious connection between the two women is their struggle to fit into society, though Rose is more of an emotional drifter.

Click the title for a brief taster of Carol Birch’s JAMRACH’S MENAGERIE.

If you like this, try:-
‘An Appetite for Violets’ by Martine Bailey
‘The Miniaturist’ by Jessie Burton
‘Frog Music’ by Emma Donoghue

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview ORPHANS OF THE CARNIVAL by @CarolBirch via @SandraDanby http://wp.me/p5gEM4-29G

#BookReview ‘The Secrets of Gaslight Lane’ by MRC Kasasian #crime

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I found the first few chapters of The Secrets of Gaslight Lane confusing and was still confused at the end. This is partly because it is fourth in the The Gower Street Detective series by MRC Kasasian and I haven’t read the previous three, but partly because the author seems to confuse the reader on purpose. MRC KasasianTwo murders are to be solved, one new, one ten years earlier, involving the same family, in the same house. I got both events totally confused. March Middleton is the god-daughter of ‘personal detective’ Sidney Grice. It is London, 1883 and this series is billed as an alternative ‘Holmes and Watson’ detecting duo. Grice is a pedantic character, a bit like Sherlock Holmes but without the charm. I found his arrogance and language intensely irritating. March’s way of dealing with his rudeness is to plough her own furrow, defending herself and occasionally going her own way. I liked March, I kept reading because of her. We see the story from her point of view.
The duo is employed by Charity Goodsmile to investigate the murder of her father. Grice and Middleton visit the scene of the crime and what follows is told in minute detail, unlike any other detective novel I have read. Grice’s arrogant questioning of suspects is based on his super-human ability to analyse detail, but I wasn’t convinced. For example, when a suspect answers Grice’s question Grice says this answer is only one of the fourteen possible answers. He does not explain the other thirteen answers and I wonder if the author chose a number at random.
A little too pleased with its own cleverness and a little too long.
If you want to start at the beginning of the series, the first is The Mangle Street Murders.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT THIS BOOK AT AMAZON

If you like this, try:-
‘The Quick’ by Lauren Owen
‘A Death in the Dales’ by Frances Brody
‘The Truth Will Out’ by Jane Isaac

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THE SECRETS OF GASLIGHT LANE by MRC Kasasian via @SandraDanby http://wp.me/p5gEM4-25R

#BookReview ‘Agatha Raisin and the Walkers of Dembley’ by @mc_beaton #cosycrime

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Absence makes the heart grow fonder, so after a spell in London’s PR world Agatha Raisin is pleased to return to Carsley in Agatha Raisin and The Walkers of Dembley by MC Beaton. MC BeatonEverything seems the same, except she cannot shake her crush on neighbor – and detective buddy – James. James, however is concentrating on writing his history book and so in an effort to distract herself, Agatha takes up rambling. To cut a long story short, there is a murder, Agatha and James investigate, and all sorts of trouble ensues.
This series is a great example of the ‘cozy crime’ genre, involving a bitchy walking group, a miltant leader determined to challenge landowners who block access to their land, and lots of sexual crossed wires.
MC Beaton’s Agatha Raisin books are like that paint: they do what they say on the cover [or, it does what it says on the tin].

Read my reviews of other books in this series:-
AGATHA RAISIN AND THE QUICHE OF DEATH #1AGATHARAISIN
AGATHA RAISIN AND THE VICIOUS VET #2AGATHARAISIN
AGATHA RAISIN AND THE POTTED GARDENER #3AGATHARAISIN
AGATHA RAISIN AND THE MURDEROUS MARRIAGE #5AGATHARAISIN

If you like this, try:-
‘The Art of the Imperfect’ by Kate Evans
‘The Various Haunts of Men’ by Susan Hill
‘The Secrets of Gaslight Lane’ by MRC Kasasian

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview AGATHA RAISIN AND THE WALKERS OF DEMBLEY by @mc_beaton http://wp.me/p5gEM4-1XH via @SandraDanby

#BookReview ‘Thin Air’ by Michelle Paver #ghosts #mystery

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1935, the Himalayas. A team arrives in Darjeeling, in preparation for climbing Kanchenjunga. A retired climber, who attempted the same climb, warns the team’s doctor to cancel the climb, or take another route. And so begins Thin Air by Michelle Paver, a tale balancing the power of nature, the vulnerability of man’s minds, and the toxic mix of superstition and arrogance. Michelle PaverIs the retired climber right, is there something bad out there? If so, what? Can the past come back to haunt you? No-one has stood on the very peak of Kanchenjunga, the locals believe it is bad luck to do so. At her website, Michelle Paver writes about her expeditions – she travels extensively to research her novels – and it shows that she has been there. Throw into the mix some bitter sibling rivalry, class snobbishness and Sherpa superstitions, and you have an atmospheric thriller which makes you really feel you are there, with them, stranded in a tent in a Himalayan blizzard.
Billed by some as a ghost story, this is more an account of psychological terror: as the mountaineers climb higher, the tension tightens. Is their bitching, sniping and forgetfulness a symptom of altitude sickness? Is the doctor hallucinating, or are his sightings a sign of a something more sinister?
I loved Paver’s previous ‘ghost/terror’ novel, Dark Matter. This is similar, the tension tightens slowly, with the turn of every page, until you cannot put the book down.

And read my reviews of other novels by Michelle Paver:-
THE OUTSIDERS #1GODS&WARRIORS
VIPER’S DAUGHTER #7WOLFBROTHER
WAKENHYRST

If you like this, try:-
‘The Wicked Cometh’ by Laura Carlin
‘A Sudden Light’ by Garth Stein
‘The House on Cold Hill’ by Peter James

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THIN AIR by Michelle Paver http://wp.me/p5gEM4-21Y via @SandraDanby

#BookReview ‘Angel’ by Elizabeth Taylor #historical

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Angel by Elizabeth Taylor tells the story of the rise and fall of one woman. Fifteen-year old Angel Deverell has always known she was different, determined to do better in life than her mother, when she is 15 she decides she is destined to live at nearby mansion Paradise House, where her aunt works as a maid. Elizabeth TaylorAngel starts to write a novel, allowing flight to her fantasies, caring nothing for accuracies of history, detail or context.  Her publisher agrees to take on The Lady Irania with misgivings but it flies off the shelves and a new romantic novelist is born. Angel, already living the life of a grand novelist, writes a second and a third.
This book is a wonderful study of a girl’s life, a girl who doesn’t take no for an answer, who grows into a woman who finds it impossible to accept advice or guidance from anyone. She learns to ignore the insults of the critics and relish her sales figures, whilst remaining separate from her readers. Elizabeth Taylor is a novelist with an acute observational eye and in Angel she has created a monster heroine: vain, blinkered, stubborn and lacking entirely in humility, empathy or self-knowledge, she leaves a trail as she charges through life. She is certainly unlikeable, but Taylor has created a chemistry which made me want to continue reading Angel’s story.
This is a quiet novel, the storyline has no bells and whistles but it follows Angel’s life through a time of great upheaval. She is born a Victorian, becomes an Edwardian, survives the Great War, the depressed 1930s and the Second World War. As women are agitating for the vote free of the constraints of their husbands, Angel has no husband to support her or vote for her. She is an independent woman and we see her life unfurl not only in her writing, but her interactions with men and women.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT THIS BOOK AT AMAZON

Read my reviews of other books by Elizabeth Taylor:-
A VIEW OF THE HARBOUR
A WREATH OF ROSES
AT MRS LIPPINCOTE’S
IN A SUMMER SEASON
THE SLEEPING BEAUTY

If you like this, try:-
‘At Mrs Lippincote’s’ by Elizabeth Taylor
‘The Lightning Tree’ by Emily Woof
‘The Past’ by Tessa Hadley

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview  ANGEL by Elizabeth Taylor via @SandraDanby http://wp.me/p5gEM4-1PB

A poem to read in the bath… ‘Poems’

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Ruth Stone [below] was rocked to sleep in her mother’s arms to the sound of Tennyson’s verse. A poet all her life, she died in 2011 aged 96. In 2009 her collection What Love Comes To was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. This poem, included in her 2002 National Book Award-winning collection In the Next Galaxy, is about ageing, a topic she returned to again and again.

[photo: poetryfoundation.org]

[photo: poetryfoundation.org]

Because of copyright restrictions I am unable to reproduce the poem in full, but please search it out in an anthology or at your local library.

‘Poems’
When you come back to me
It will be crow time
And flycatcher time,
With rising spirals of gnats
Between the apple trees.
Every weed will be quadrupled,
Coarse, welcoming
And spine-tipped.

To listen read a tribute to Ruth Stone on her death, published in the New York Times, click here.

in the next galaxy by ruth stone 3-9-15

 

‘In the Next Galaxy’ by Ruth Stone [Copper Canyon Press]

Read these other excerpts and find a new poet to love:-
‘The Road Not Taken’ by Robert Frost
‘Japanese Maple’ by Clive James
‘Lost Acres’ by Robert Graves

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
Enjoy this #poem by Ruth Stone http://wp.me/p5gEM4-1Ms @CopperCanyonPrs via @SandraDanby

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#BookReview ‘Barkskins’ by Annie Proulx #historical

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This story of the North East American forests begins with two men who arrive in New France from Europe. It is 1693 and they find work wielding axes, chopping down trees. Barkskins by Annie Proulx ends in 2013 with their English, French and Indian descendants learning about the disappearance of the native trees and plants. It is a chastening story but throughout, Proulx’s descriptions of trees enable you to see and smell them. Annie ProulxProulx’s reputation precedes her: the Pulitzer Prize, Brokeback Mountain, The Shipping News etcetera. For me she is one of the classic American authors but refuses to be pigeonholed. Barkskins is a huge tome, starting with René Sel and Charles Duquet’s struggles to survive, their contrasting stories and the subsequent lives of their families. Barkskins is more the story of the forests than of the Sel and Duquet/Duke families and their subsequent timber business.
The natural world has a huge part to play in this novel. The trees breathe on every page, as the settlers fight the forests and the native Indian tribes struggle to understand the newcomers. It ticks so many boxes: indigenous culture, sea voyages, logging, trade with China, herbal remedies, Dutch merchant vessels, the plundering of nature for man’s thoughtless consumption. Each generation of the Sel and Duquet families experiences the evolution of colonial power, demand for timber for construction, war, ships and railways, and this shows us the passing centuries.
There is humour, brutality, and beautiful description of the natural world. The depth of research is clear on every page and at 736 pages, it demands patient reading. But if you allow Proulx to pull you into her stories, it is worth the commitment. But perhaps it would be more easily digestible as a trilogy of novels. There was a disproportionate amount of time spent on the lives of René Sel and Charles Duquet, while the modern-day Sels and Dukes were covered too quickly for me. At the beginning I remembered who was related to who, but as the generations passed quickly I lost track. This could easily be corrected by the addition of a family tree or character list at the front of the book. And a map.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT THIS BOOK

If you like this, try:-
‘Summertime’ by Vanessa Lafaye
‘The Knife with the Ivory Handle’ by Cynthia Bruchman
‘The Last Runaway’ by Tracy Chevalier

 And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview BARKSKINS by Annie Proulx via @SandraDanby http://wp.me/p5gEM4-24o