Category Archives: book reviews

#BookReview ‘The Paying Guests’ by Sarah Waters #historical

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Sarah Waters is one of my favourite authors, I await each new book with delicious anticipation. I waited a while for this one, The Paying Guests was a Christmas present and I started reading it about an hour after unwrapping it. Sarah WatersI wasn’t disappointed. Waters has written a ‘closed room’ mystery with a bit of romance and crime thrown in, all in the post-Great War context of women’s rights, abandoned soldiers and the corset of social manners. Mrs Wray and her daughter Frances have fallen on hard times, in order to pay off debts left after the death of Frances’ father, they rent out the upstairs of their house to lodgers. Except they don’t call Mr and Mrs Barber their lodgers, they are ‘paying guests’. Waters puts these four strangers together and mixes it a little, waiting to see what happens. They bump into each other on the landing, on the stairs, in the kitchen on the way to the outside lavatory, in their dressing gowns, first thing in the morning and last thing at night. They circle around each other according to the parameters of social behaviour. And all the time, Waters turns the screw slowly, tightening, until the buttoned-down feelings break free. Then all hell breaks loose.
I loved this book, the characters are drawn with such care and I could see this divided house as if looking at a photograph.

Read the first paragraph of THE PAYING GUESTS.

If you like this, try:-
‘After the Bombing’ by Clare Morrall
‘Freya’ by Anthony Quinn
‘At Mrs Lippincote’s’ by Elizabeth Taylor

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THE PAYING GUESTS by Sarah Waters http://wp.me/p5gEM4-1s3 via @Sandra Danby

#BookReview ‘The Risk of Darkness’ by @susanhillwriter #crime

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The Risk of Darkness by Susan Hill is a chilling book with two key storylines. One is continued from the previous book in Simon Serrailler series in which children are disappearing. The second storyline explores the line where grief and anger descends into madness, where we can be threatened in our homes, in the streets which are familiar beneath our feet, and will never feel safe again. Susan HillDetective Chief Inspector Simon Serrailler, created by crime author Susan Hill, is called to Yorkshire where a child has been abducted. Is it the same modus operandi, is it the same kidnapper? Simon is also squabbling with his sister Cat about how he treats his girlfriends. She thinks he isolates himself too much, he likes women but doesn’t want them to get too close. All the regular day-to-day life of the Serrailler family continues from the previous two books, providing a warm framework of family and community, into which barges the threat of violence. Cat, with a newborn baby, struggles to balance baby caring and the demands of a GP. She feels responsible for her patients, the ordinary people of Lafferton.
Meanwhile, we get glimpses into the lives of these ordinary people in their homes. Are they going to be victims or criminals? Susan Hill blends invisibly the fear factor of crime fiction and the security blanket of familiar family lives, daily routine, eating breakfast, squabbling with each other, going to work. I turn the page, not knowing what is going to happen next, wanting to know but not wanting it to happen. She is a master of her craft.

Read my reviews of the other novels in the series:-
THE VARIOUS HAUNTS OF MEN #1SIMONSERRAILLER
THE PURE IN HEART #2SIMONSERRAILLER
THE VOWS OF SILENCE #4SIMONSERRAILLER
THE SHADOWS IN THE STREET #5SIMONSERRAILLER
THE BETRAYAL OF TRUST #6SIMONSERRAILLER
A QUESTION OF IDENTITY #7SIMONSERRAILLER
THE SOUL OF DISCRETION #8SIMONSERRAILLER
THE COMFORTS OF HOME #9SIMONSERRAILLER
THE BENEFIT OF HINDSIGHT #10SIMONSERRAILLER
A CHANGE OF CIRCUMSTANCE #11SIMONSERRAILLER

And also by Susan Hill, HOWARD’S END IS ON THE LANDING

If you like this, try:-
‘The Private Patient’ by PD James #14ADAMDALGLIESH
‘The Secrets of Gaslight Lane’ by MRC Kasasian #4GOWERDETECTIVE
‘Agatha Raisin and the Murderous Marriage’ by MC Beaton #5AGATHARAISIN

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THE RISK OF DARKNESS by @susanhillwriter http://wp.me/p5gEM4-1qT via @SandraDanby 

#BookReview ‘The Magician King’ by Lev Grossman @leverus #fantasy #magic

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As The Magician King begins, Quentin is living in Fillory. And he is king, or a king, one of four human kings and queens who rule this magical land. In the first book of ‘The Magicians’ trilogy by Lev Grossman, we saw Quentin accepted at a magical university in New York and finally find his way to Fillory, which he thought was a fictional world from a children’s book. Now, in the second book, he is living his childhood fantasy but is bored. Lev GrossmanLife is like living in a 20-star hotel and he is getting fat. Then one day, out hunting the Seeing Hare, one of the Unique Beasts of Fillory – this world is full of magical beasts which can talk or have special powers – a new adventure starts.
The big difference for me from book one of the trilogy is that the action starts straight away. All the setting-up has been done, the background is in place, Fillory is understood, key characters  are established. Most intriguing is the presence of Julia, who was Quentin’s love interest in the non-magical world, briefly at the beginning of the first book. Quentin was offered a place at Brakebills, the magical college. Julia wasn’t. But now she is a magician too. She learned her magic the hard way, in the magical underground in the ordinary world. And she is moody and edgy. She talks to the animals, speaks in an old-fashioned cadence, she dresses in black. She is interesting. I liked Julia.
Quentin and Julia set sail on a magical ship, heading for the Outer Island to collect overdue taxes. They end up back in the real world, trapped, and unable to return to Fillory. Of course they manage it in the end, via the underground magic network, trips to Cornwall and Venice, an Australian magician, and a dragon.
This book is three quests, one after another. The action is continuous. I saved books two and three to read while on holiday, and read them back –to-back.

Click the title below to read my reviews of the two other novels in the trilogy:-
THE MAGICIANS #1THEMAGICIANS
THE MAGICIAN’S LAND #3THEMAGICIANS

If you like this, try:-
‘The Goldfinch’ by Donna Tartt
‘In Ark’ by Lisa Devaney
‘Ferney’ by James Long

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THE MAGICIAN KING by Lev Grossman @leverus http://wp.me/p5gEM4-1rx via @SandraDanby

A poem to read in the bath… ‘Name’

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Today’s poem to read in your bath is another by the wonderful Carol Ann Duffy. I flick through her slim anthologies, looking for poems to select for this feature, and stop again and again: ‘this one, and this one… and this one.’

‘Name’ is about the delights on new love, not necessarily young love, just the feeling when you realize liking is loving.

[photo: wikipedia]

[photo: wikipedia]

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 or click the link below to hear Duffy read the poem aloud.

‘Name’
When did your name
change from a proper noun
to a charm?

Its three vowels
like jewels
on the thread of my breath.

Duffy encapsulates that feeling of new love so well it is impossible to read without being drawn back through years of memories.

To read another Carol Ann Duffy poem, ‘Elegy’ in my blog series ‘A poem to read in the bath…’, click here.

To listen to Carol Ann Duffy read ‘Name’ click here for The Poetry Archive website.

In 1989, Carol Ann Duffy spoke to the BBC Programme ‘English File’ about what inspires her to write. Click here to watch it.

Rapture by Carol Ann Duffy 16-6-14

 

‘Rapture’ by Carol Ann Duffy [UK: Picador] 

Read these other excerpts and find a new poet to love:-
‘Runaways’ by Daniela Nunnari
‘Sometimes and After’ by Hilda Doolittle
‘Happiness’ by Stephen Dunn

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
A #poem to read in the bath: ‘Name’ by Carol Ann Duffy http://wp.me/p5gEM4-14G via @SandraDanby

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#BookReview ‘The Last Days of Rabbit Hayes’ by Anna McPartlin @annamcpartlin #contemporary #grief

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Rabbit is dying of breast cancer and this is her life story. In The Last Days of Rabbit Hayes, Anna McPartlin has written the story of her last few days, in a hospice surrounded by family and friends. And it is the story of her life. It will make you laugh and cry, tossing your emotions around like a washing machine on spin cycle. I loved it. Anna McPartlinIt’s an interesting story to read, from an author’s point of view, as we know what happens. The title tells us that this is the story of Rabbit’s last days, therefore she is going to die at the end. But this doesn’t matter a jot, as we see her life in flashbacks. I liked the character so much I wanted to read about her. It is at times irreverent, it will make you laugh out loud – especially at the scene which involves Rabbit sleeping, her mother, and a priest – and it will bring a tear to the eye as the future of Rabbit’s daughter hangs in the balance. Will she stay in Ireland, or go abroad?

Read my review of SOMEWHERE INSIDE OF HAPPY, also by Anna McPartlin.

If you like this, try:-
‘The Language of Others’ by Clare Morrall
‘Please Release Me’ by Rhoda Baxter
‘The Last of Us’ by Rob Ewing

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THE LAST DAYS OF RABBIT HAYES by Anna McPartlin @annamcpartlin via @SandraDanby http://wp.me/p5gEM4-1rm

#BookReview ‘The Lives She Left Behind’ by James Long #romance #timetravel

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There was a novel about time-travelling love before The Time Travellers Wife. It is called Ferney, written by James Long, and to my mind is far superior. The Lives She Left Behind is the sequel. James LongWhen I finished Ferney, I couldn’t imagine how the story could continue. After all, we’d worked out how the time travel worked and what the relationship implications and difficulties were. I feared that a sequel would be a let-down, some books are just meant to be stand-alone novels. I am pleased to say I was wrong. The Lives She Left Behind is as heart-wrenching as the first, combined with a thriller element involving murder and sexual assault. Misunderstandings across the centuries, modern policing methods and contemporary parenting, all combine to make the lives of Ferney and Gally difficult. Ferney explains his connection with Gally: ‘Our halves are nothing on their own but half and half make one and halves, divided, stand alone when the adding’s done.’
The second book can be read on its own, but I do urge you to read Ferney first. Both novels are infused with the Somerset countryside and the history of England. Ferney and Gally remember the old names of roads, remember when the tiny plantation of trees was an entire wood, when kings had different names.
Three teenage girls go on their first archaeological dig, not knowing what to expect. Into their lives falls a teenage boy on a bike, pulled to that location by some force within himself. The action moves to the ancient village of Pen Selwood as Ferney and Gally find each other again.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT THIS BOOK AT AMAZON

Read my review of FERNEY.

If you like this, try:-
‘In Another Life’ by Julie Christine Johnson
‘Please Release Me’ by Rhoda Baxter
‘Outline’ by Rachel Cusk

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THE LIVES SHE LEFT BEHIND by James Long via @SandraDanby http://wp.me/p5gEM4-1cy

#BookReview ‘The Pure in Heart’ by @susanhillwriter #crime

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The nature of death, grieving and hope are examined in The Pure in Heart, the second Simon Serrailler novel by Susan Hill. To give these books a label – thriller, crime novel, detective novel – is to underplay the complexity of the subject. It is an examination of human nature. Susan HillA nine-year boy waits by the garden gate for his lift to school, but is never seen again. A severely handicapped young woman dies. Both families struggle with grief, reacting in different ways, ways which cause tension within the family. And involved in the mix is a local man, an ex-con newly released from prison, struggling to stay straight, struggling with the prejudices of his family. Reading this book will make you examine your own prejudices, your attitude to death and dying, it will make you as ‘what would I do if…’
The small cathedral town of Lafferton is like an extra character in Susan Hill’s Serrailler novels. Surrounded by wooden hills and deep ravines, it is at once brooding and at the same time reassuring.

Read my reviews of the other novels in the series:-
THE VARIOUS HAUNTS OF MEN #1SIMONSERRAILLER
THE RISK OF DARKNESS #3SIMONSERRAILLER
THE VOWS OF SILENCE #4SIMONSERRAILLER
THE SHADOWS IN THE STREET #5SIMONSERRAILLER
THE BETRAYAL OF TRUST #6SIMONSERRAILLER
A QUESTION OF IDENTITY #7SIMONSERRAILLER
THE SOUL OF DISCRETION #8SIMONSERRAILLER
THE COMFORTS OF HOME #9SIMONSERRAILLER
THE BENEFIT OF HINDSIGHT #10SIMONSERRAILLER
A CHANGE OF CIRCUMSTANCE #11SIMONSERRAILLER

And also by Susan Hill, HOWARD’S END IS ON THE LANDING

If you like this, try:-
‘The Truth Will Out’ by Jane Isaac
‘No Other Darkness’ by Sarah Hilary #2MARNIEROME
‘A Fatal Crossing’ by Tom Hindle

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THE PURE IN HEART by @susanhillwriter http://wp.me/p5gEM4-1oE via @SandraDanby 

#BookReview ‘The Magicians’ by Lev Grossman @leverus #fantasy #magic

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In the first sentence of The Magicians by Lev Grossman, Quentin Coldwater does a magic trick with a nickel. A human version of magic. A great opening to a new fantasy trilogy. Lev GrossmanAnother series about magic, I hear you ask? Well this is nothing like Harry Potter. Quentin is due to sit an entrance exam for Princeton when he wanders into the grounds of a mysterious school in upstate New York. In a large room full of unknown teenagers, he sits the oddest test he has ever known. Then he is told he has passed and is accepted at Brakebills, a school of magic. For the first few months his best friend is a glass marble on which he practises his magic.
This is an adult tale. Brakebills is not Hogwarts and Quentin is a young man on the cusp of adulthood, with lingering adolescent depression and lack of confidence. The teenage magicians practise their magic, get drunk and have sex. At his ‘youngest’ moments Quentin remembers the magical tales he loved as a child about a land called Fillory. When he is down, he wishes he could escape to Fillory. And at first, he thinks Brakebills might be Fillory. But it isn’t because Fillory, of course, is fictional.
There are three books in the series and out of necessity in this book Quentin learns his magic. There were times I wished it would move more quickly, the carrot of Fillory is dangled in front of Quentin so much. In Harry Potter – oh how Lev Grossman must be tired of the comparisons – the threat of Lord Voldemort hovers from the first pages. There is no dark threat hovering over Quentin, just teenage angst, teenage love, and a longing to escape his daily life into Fillory. When he does reach Fillory, will it be what he expects?

Click the title below to read my reviews of the next two novels in the trilogy:-
THE MAGICIAN KING #2THEMAGICIANS
THE MAGICIAN’S LAND #3THEMAGICIANS

If you like this, try:-
‘Divergent’ by Veronica Roth #1DIVERGENT
‘Insurgent’ by Veronica Roth #2DIVERGENT
‘Allegiant’ by Veronica Roth #3DIVERGENT

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THE MAGICIANS by Lev Grossman @leverus via @SandraDanby http://wp.me/p5gEM4-1oy

A poem to read in the bath… ‘My Heart Leaps Up’

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This short poem by William Wordsworth says a lot of me about being a child, being an adult, and appreciation of nature. I had a wonderful Wordsworth lecturer at university who truly loved the poet and she brought his poems to life with her enthusiasm, so this poem is dedicated to Mary Wedd who recited Wordsworth’s poems and showed us photographs of the Lake District.

William Wordsworth

[photo: lake-district-guides.co.uk]

‘My Heart Leaps Up’
My heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky:
So was it when my life began;
So is it now I am a man;
So be it when I shall grow old,
Or let me die!
The Child is father of the Man;
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.” William WordsworthAbove is my old copy of ‘Selected Poems’, written on the inside cover with my name and college and the date ‘December 1979’ making it one of the first books I bought. I remember the anticipation I felt, never having studied Wordsworth before. My Everyman’s University Library edition was published in the Seventies by JM Dent & Sons. Dent is now an imprint of Orion.

William Wordsworth

[photo: poetryfoundation.org]

For the Poetry Foundation’s biography of Wordsworth [above], click here.

William Wordsworth

‘Selected Poems’ by William Wordsworth [UK: Penguin Classics] 

Read these other excerpts and find a new poet to love:-
‘The Dead’ by Billy Collins
‘Name’ by Carol Ann Duffy
‘Alone’ by Dea Parkin

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
A #poem to read in the bath: ‘My Heart Leaps Up’ by William Wordsworth http://wp.me/p5gEM4-1g1 via @SandraDanby

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#BookReview ‘The Various Haunts of Men’ by @susanhillwriter #crime

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The first Simon Serrailler novel by Susan Hill was published in 2004. I recently read the eighth in the series and it made me want to revisit the beginnings of the character of Detective Inspector Serailler and the cathedral city of Lafferton in the first novel, The Various Haunts of Men. Susan HillI remembered two things, the enigmatic DI, and the misty spooky Hill, its ley lines and standing stones. Re-reading The Various Haunts of Men, the dichotomy of the setting was as I remembered it: cathedral, choir, close-knit community, beautiful countryside and looking over the city, The Hill. Benign and beautiful by day, spooky by night. One woman disappears, a private, quiet, hard-working woman. Next, a dog vanishes on The Hill. Alarm bells start to ring with the third disappearance, a young woman, plump, problem skin, depressed, who has recently developed an interest in alternative therapies. Characters are introduced and there is that extra frisson at the beginning of a series when every character is unknown: which are the victims, which is the murderer? With the luxury of ten years since my first reading, I did not remember the identity of victims or criminal.
Re-reading it, I wasn’t disappointed and it’s spurred me on to re-read the next.

Click the title below for my review of the other novels in this series:-
THE PURE IN HEART #2SIMONSERRAILLER
THE RISK OF DARKNESS #3SIMONSERRAILLER
THE VOWS OF SILENCE #4SIMONSERRAILLER
THE SHADOWS IN THE STREET #5SIMONSERRAILLER
THE BETRAYAL OF TRUST #6SIMONSERRAILLER
A QUESTION OF IDENTITY #7SIMONSERRAILLER
THE SOUL OF DISCRETION #8SIMONSERRAILLER
THE COMFORTS OF HOME #9SIMONSERRAILLER
THE BENEFIT OF HINDSIGHT #10SIMONSERRAILLER
A CHANGE OF CIRCUMSTANCE #11SIMONSERRAILLER

And also by Susan Hill, HOWARD’S END IS ON THE LANDING

If you like this, try:-
‘Wolf’ by Mo Hayder
‘The Black Tower’ by PD James #5ADAMDALGLIESH
‘Deadly Descent’ by Charlotte Hinger #1LOTTIEALBRIGHT

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THE VARIOUS HAUNTS OF MEN by @susanhillwriter http://wp.me/p5gEM4-1mn via @SandraDanby