Don't Point That Thing at Me - Kyril Bonfiglioli

The blurb on the front of this compares the book to a combination of PG Wodehouse and Ian Fleming, a comparison that I would say is quite fair; however I would like to throw Tom Sharpe into the mix, simply because the mapcap and cheeky storyline brings to mind some of the escapades of characters like Wilt. Certainly this crime caper about stolen Goyas and murderous policemen owes a lot to Wodehouse, a fact that is made clear my Charlie Mortdecai through his references to Bertie Wooster, and various of the Jeeves novels. I would happily agree that this book is as funny as Wodehouse, but with the added thrills (and tongue in cheek misogyny) of Fleming. The relationship between Charlie and his trusted manservant Jock Strapp seems to owe as much to Clouseau and Cato as it does to Jeeves and Wooster though.
I genuinely enjoyed reading this one, it made a long train journey fly by, and was amusing, disgusting and deeply unpleasant in a very British way all at the same time. Where else could you find a down at heel degenerate minor aristocrat stealing major artworks, drinking fine port with his manservant and getting one over on an incompetent and vindictive member of Special Branch?
I would certainly recommend this to anyone wanting a book full of biting wit, and a good dollop of adventure, and urge you to imagine Roger Moore as Charlie Mortdecai as you read...

Metropole - Ferenc Karinthy

Well then..... I have to say that having finished reading Metropole a few days ago, and having thought long and hard about it, I will still struggle to explain just what happens. Thankfully I think this confusion is the point so I'm not left feeling too stuupid..... after all if Budai, the central character (and the only character to actually have a fixed name), can go through the whole story without having a clue what is happening then so can I. Budai is a, presumably Hungarian, linguist on his way to a conference in Helsinki; anyone who has read earlier reviews will know that the combination of Hungary and Finland is going to be a winning one for me. However thanks to a mix up at the airport, maybe he gets on the wrong plane, maybe it gets redirected Budai never knows; when he gets to his destination Hotel Budai realises that it's not Helsinki. In fact he has no idea where he is, or quite how he got there. He tries out his considerable linguistic skills on staff at the hotel, but they are unable or unwilling to understand him, and he can't recognise the language at all. Budai spends weeks exploring this strange unrecognisable city, trying to find someone who can understand him, someone who will help him get home. He wanders the streets, which are always packed full of brusque crowds, trying to find some transport hub that could help him leave; by this point he is keen to get to any location where he can at least recognise the language, but all he finds is a metro that allows him to travel further but offers no chance of leaving the city. With his funds swiftly running out, he forms a connection with the only person in the city who seems willing to even acknowledge him as a fellow human, the lift operator. Unfortunately despite her willingness to connect with Budai, he is unable to even pin down what her name is, ranging variously from Epepe, Dede, Bebpe etc etc etc..... he also encounters a never ending skyscraper that I guess is a stand in for the Tower of Babel. Finally, as his funds run out and his hotel evicts him, Budai finds himself on the street, working as a porter and confronting a breakdown in social order which is all the more terrifying because he is still at a total loss as to what anyone is saying around him. Budai comes up against an incomprehensible and uncaring bureaucracy again and again in a manner that reminded me of both Kafka's The Trial and Claudel's The Investigation. In fact the descriptions of the violent and bustling crowds on the street seemed to link so closely to Claudel, that apart from the issues of language you could almost believe that they share a setting.
I wouldn't advise reading this if you want a story with a strong plot, there is a plot here, but it is at times as confused as Budai himself is, and takes on an almost dreamlike sense sometimes. Nor would I advise reading this if you are likely to become annoyed by Budai's constant self absorbed whining, he is not a terribly sympathetic character and is, in fact something of an idiot. However something about this odd little book kept me reading, at times I wasn't 100% sure what was happening to Budai, but still I was interested enough to keep turning the pages.... I wanted Budai to make it home, I wanted him to figure out where he was, how he got there, why a man had been seen on the Metro with a vintage edition of a Hungarian newspaper. I wanted answers damn it! Did I get them? Not really, the reader is left in the same position as Budai, but still I felt like I had experienced something bizarre, slightly surreal and very interesting indeed.

The Year of Reading Dangerously - Andy Miller

Another book about reading books here, my second or third this year I think. This one follows Andy Miller, not the author of Pure, the ex-bookseller and half hearted editor, during his 'Year of Betterment'. His challenge is to read fifty of the books that he has had on his to be read heap for quite a while, mainly books that he has convinced himself and others that he has actually read despite this being a lie. Anyone who has worked as a bookseller or librarian will have come up against the dilemma of being asked to discuss books they haven't actually read; often you will have absorbed so much knowledge about these 'classics' that you feel that you have read them even if you've never opened the actual book. Miller's year delves into why he feels as he does about books and reading, and about the way that well loved books can worm their way into your life and into your very soul. I must admit that I never totally trust anyone who says they hate/dislike reading, the only acceptable excuse I can see for this kind of attitude is an actual disability such as profound dyslexia. In that case then I can see that struggling away at something wouldn't be a necessarily enjoyable experience. I am probably being rather unfair here, but anyone else who can't name a single book that they have enjoyed just strikes me as being terrifyingly close minded and in fact rather stupid. It doesn't have to be an epic novel, like Andy Miller, I fully recognise the power and worth of light fluff. There is a place for Dan Brown, even a place for EL James. I might mock the hideous, poorly written nonsense that is Fifty Shades but if someone is reading that then at least they are connecting with the outside world. I loved Miller's take on the role of Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code book in his 'Year of Betterment' and it was genuinely heartening to see a bit of mass market fluff like DVC making it's way into his list.
 This book manages to follow Miller's attempts to reignite his love of reading in an entertaining and quirky way, providing a series of reviews for the books as well as a wonderful journey into a lifetime of loving books. There are some quite delightful personal memories of reading and using libraries as a child and well as very funny insights into the life of a London bookseller in the 1990s. For any 'bookish' people out there, this is a lovely read; and I would go so far as making it compulsory reading for booksellers everywhere.

The Awakening of Miss Prim - Natalia Sanmartin Fenollera

This is rather lovely. In fact given the rather unsympathetic character that is the titular Miss Prim it is maybe surprising just how lovely this actually is. It seems to be one of the stream of books about book lovers that seem to be coming out with increasing frequency right now, maybe because both writers and publishers think that bibliophiles are the only ones actually purchasing books beyond the Christmas rush these days? Who knows? Whatever may be the case there certainly have been a spate of these books based in and around libraries and bookshops, and so far the ones I have read have been all quite lovely; this is no exception.
Miss Prudencia is an extremely well qualified and rather uptight young woman who answers an advert for a position as a librarian at the private library of a man who is essentially the squire and founder of the community of intellectuals and eccentrics that is San Ireneo. Despite being supremely over qualified for the position she is accepted for the post and finds herself having to adapt to the unconventional, but rather wonderful, family life of her new home. Miss Prim is a rather prickly individual, she has firm views and opinions which she tries her hardest to live up to, and she expects those around her to live up to these standards as well. It is only through accepting that it is acceptable to want and need others that she starts to soften, relaxing her purely rational approach to life and love.
In many ways this novel reads very much like one of the great Victorian novels that Miss Prim so adores. Obviously the plot is rather similar in several respects; Miss Prim is entering the house of landed gentry in one of those awkward 'not quite family, not quite staff' roles such as librarian or governess. Like one of Gaskell's or Bronte's heroines she engages in spiky slightly confrontational conversations with her employer; conversations where the most interesting thing is how long both of them can avoid saying what they really feel or think. Ultimately it is the softening and acceptance that grows within the novel and within Miss Prim that makes this such an endearing read. Gentle, thought provoking and really one of those books that you will think about for a long while.

I Murdered My Library - Linda Grant

One of the most brutal and distressing essays about the change from printed books to ebooks I've yet to come across; this sums up what it really means to be someone who's books take over their lives. If like me, and like Linda Grant, you can trace important events of your life by the books that you read; and if you are fighting a constant battle to maintain control of your book heaps this is something you need to read. Grant perfectly describes the sense of security that is found in being surrounded by books, and the physical need to aquire and read as many as you can. Certainly this is something I am able to relate to. The whittling down of her library is distressing, and again I could relate to the feelings expressed here on having your library forcably broken up. I genuinely found this distressing to read, and found myself looking around at my overflowing bookshelves and heaps and almost reassuring them that they are safe............
It seems almost ironic that this has been produced as a Kindle Short.

The Murder Book - Jonathan Kellerman Book Tour.....WITH GIVEAWAY!!

I'm relatively new to Jonathan Kellerman, in fact this is only the second or third of his Alex Delaware novels that I have read. Looking through some of the reviews of this 16th instalment in the series, prior to reading it, this may well have been to my advantage. Unlike some of the other reviewers I was able to approach this with a relatively open mind, and I think I probably enjoyed the story more because of this.
The story revolves around a historic unsolved case from the past of detective Milo Sturgis, one that is brought back into the light following the arrival of a 'Murder Book' at the home of Alex Delaware. The book is made up of a series of graphic crime scene photographs. All of historic cases, but arranged to highlight the one unsolved case; that of a young girl brutally tortured, murdered and arranged out in the open above LA. Through this story we finally get a bit of solid back story for Milo, fleshing out his character nicely and providing some insight into events from other novels in the series. In their attempts to discover exactly what had happened Milo and Alex uncover a conspiracy that reaches all the way through the LA political and corporate world. I really enjoyed the complicated storyline, drawing in so many different threads to form a coherent whole. The mystery itself was well written and very interesting.
I did have a few issues though. Having the story unfold through dual narratives was a great idea. Milo and Alex each had something important to offer to the story, and to the reader's appreciation of the finer details. Unfortunately though there were times when following who's narrative I was reading was pretty difficult. I had to go back and double check a fair few times, being charitable I will admit that I was largely reading this quite late at night, but I don't usually struggle to follow narrative threads this much. Another thing that grated a little was the constant references to Milo's sexuality; I think we all get the point that Milo is a homosexual cop working in a prejudiced department, however it did feel as though this fact was brought up in practically every mention of him. I'd hope that the character could be more rounded than this would suggest. Surely there is more to the guy than his sexuality? There are moments where it seems as though we will get more, such as the flashback scenes at the start; but then these come to little.
My final, and by far the biggest issue I have with the novel is how neatly everything falls into place, coupled with the lack of consequences for any of the major characters. To start with we have to initial murder, which has consequences for the people directly involved, but which could apparently be totally removed from the public (and private record). I appreciate that the crux of the story here is the conspiracy, but still it strikes me as a little unlikely that such a total whitewash would have ever been possible. Equally incredible is the fact that the total bloodbath that occurs as a climax to the story is able to be tidied up and dealt with without any involvement of any authorities. We are led to believe that numerous corpses have been quietly buried or left tied up in smouldering buildings, and yet neither Milo nor Alex need to discuss this with any form of police force? This strikes me as maybe stretching reality a little too far.
To sum up this is a very enjoyable thriller with an entertaining crime story and some good character building, just don't expect too much from it because it does require some suspension of disbelief in order to hold together. However I'll certainly be looking out some more Delaware novels in the future.

This is part of the Kellerman 2014 blog tour...

As part of the tour I have a copy of Kellerman's latest book Killer to give away to one lucky person.

To enter all you have to do is leave a comment on my review telling me what your favourite Kellerman book is and why. I'll pick the best reply at random and send your book out to you. :)
I'll pick a winner on 25th May so you have until then to enter....

Be Safe I Love You - Cara Hoffman

With a partner away in Afghan at the moment I have been a little wary about starting this one; I had heard good things but if it was as good as I had been hearing then I wasn't totally sure I would be up for reading it right now. I finally got up the courage to make a start on it and read it in one go more or less.

Be Safe is a unforgiving look at the impact of war shown through the reactions of three generations of interlinked people living in small town America. The majority of the story links around the return home of Sgt Lauren Clay, a gifted singer who enlisted for her tour of Iraq in order to earn enough to give her little brother a better start in life than she has had. Lauren has had a tough life, as the story unfolds it becomes clear that she has been the person responsible for both her little brother and her deeply depressed father since her mother abandoned the family when Lauren was ten. She has spent her whole life being capable and looking after others, so a tour as an NCO with the US Army seems to be a natural progression, especially as the signing bonus and pay will change the life of her whole family. She comes home from her year in Iraq a changed woman; harsh, brittle, unyielding and tattooed. Her friends and family have all managed to move on with their lives in the time she has been away, their lives may not be satisfactory but they have still managed without her. They welcome her home, but are too caught up in their own issues to fully notice or appreciate the changes in her nature.
The story moves forward using all of the different characters and switching between timelines, to build up a full and complete picture of Lauren's life before enlisting, and to show her reactions and steady breakdown once she returns home. Clearly we can see that something deeply traumatic has happened to her during her tour of duty. She is starting to display increasingly worrying signs; home is now nothing but a FOB, she is irritated that her orders are no longer obeyed unquestioningly, and she shows her willingness to use her new skills to inflict pain and bodily harm even on those she cares for. Both her ex-boyfriend and her little brother are subjected to her blows as she attempts to dominate the one and train the other.
Lauren is determined to 'rescue' her little brother, Danny; and plans to do this by heading north into Canada to meet up with her old army buddy and make a new life free and away from the rules and idiocy of society. She is also determined to avoid speaking to the Army Psychologist who is trying to clear up a few irregularities in Sgt Clay's discharge interviews.
The tension builds masterfully, as Hoffman keeps the reader in the dark as to what it is that happened in Iraq, and we are left knowing that we should be worried but unsure as to how far Lauren is willing to go in order to 'live free'.
This is a blunt and raw depiction of how much combat and trauma in the military can devastate the life of those who serve as well as the lives of their loved ones once the come home. Drawing in older characters who have served in Vietnam and the first Gulf War helps keep this from being an attack on any specific conflict, and opens the story up to a more general attack on the dangers of a lack of ongoing care after combat has ceased. I also get the feeling that the length of US tours of duty are being criticised, especially ones that involve RnR periods in theatre. The disassociation from friends and family, and the dislocation from the real non-military world is a major theme in the story.
I would say that this is a powerful novel, however I did feel a little let down by the neatness of the ending. Everything just came together, with all loose ends simply brushed under the carpet. I have to say that even this somewhat trite ending couldn't diminish the impact of the novel too much for me. I don't think it quite had the power of Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk or Yellow Birds, but it should go down as one of the important modern novels about the impact of war on the generation that is currently serving.

Blog Tour and Book Giveaway

On the 19th I will be doing my bit for the Jonathan Kellerman Blog Tour 2014, reviewing the 17th Book in the series, The Murder Room. 

As part of the tour I have a copy of Kellerman's latest book Killer to give away to one lucky person.

To enter all you have to do is leave a comment on my review telling me what your favourite Kellerman book is and why. I'll pick the best reply at random and send your book out to you. :)

Only four more days to go......

For the rest of the tour try these....

12th May fromfirstpagetolast
http://fromfirstpagetolast.wordpress.com “Guilt”

13th May TraceyBookLover
http://traceybooklover.wordpress.com “Bones”

14th May Adventures With Words
http://www.adventureswithords.com “Mystery”

15th May Compelling Reads
http://www.compellingreads.co.uk “A Cold Heart”

16th May Men Who Stare At Books
http://www.menwhostareatbooks.co.uk/ “Evidence”

17th May Book Addict Shaun
http://bookaddictshaun.blogspot.co.uk/ “Deception”

18th May BleachHouseLibrary
http://bleachhouselibrary.blogspot.ie “Therapy”

19th May A Book Worm UK
http://abookwormuk.blogspot.co.uk/ “The Murder Book”

20th May Books, Biscuits and Tea
http://www.booksbiscuitsandtea.co.uk “Victims”

 21st May The Welsh Librarian
http://thewelshlibrarian.blogspot.co.uk/ “Killer”

Descartes Bones- Russell Shorto

A fascinating look at the enlightenment and it's impact on modern society and belief, using the controversies surrounding the loss and location of Descartes bones to illustrate several different aspects and conflicts that have arisen thanks largely to the initial teachings of the great philosopher himself. The manipulation and deviations from his original thoughts are highlighted here in a clear and detailed manner.

This book takes us through the courts of seventeenth century Sweden and France, via the chaos of the French revolution, and right up to the modern 'War on Terror' with it's fundamentalists on all sides. Shorto seems to be highly sympathetic for those who follow Descartes and allow their reason to continue to admit some doubt about mankind's ability to understand everything about the world and self, and 'fundementalist athists' such as Christopher Hitchens come in for as much criticism as any of the early modern thinkers who spent their time trying to defend and maintain Aristotle's views of the world.
The story of the bones is itself complex and very interesting, and I loved the quietly sarcastic tone adopted by Shorto at the more ridiculous elements of the the tale.

If you are looking for a highly readable and well written look at the central themes of the Enlightenment and the impact these have had on shaping modern society and thought then this is the ideal book to choose. Concise, entertaining and absolutely fascinating.

April 2014

 Has been a slow month here at bookworm HQ. Had a bit of a break from reading at the start of the month, as I had something far far more important to do. I had almost two weeks to spend with my other half before he jetted off on his RAF sponsored holiday. Obviously spending time with him was just a little bit more important than keeping up with my reading, so it kinda fell by the wayside a bit.

At the end of the month I spent a few days helping out at the Cambridge shop; they needed some help moving stuff around and getting everything settled in after expanding their shelving a fair bit. Working here brought home to me just how little my current store really is, even compared to my last shop, we have so little space to play with that it is amazing that we get as much out as we do. A couple of things beyond the range of stock were really nice about working in the larger, more literary minded store that is Cambridge. Firstly the number of gorgeous translated books, whole displays from my old friends Pushkin Press and &Other Stories; they even had a copy of Szerb's The Third Tower on show in the window which made me happy right from the start.
The second thing that I liked about working there for the week, was that for the first few days I was given a totally free rein to tidy and reorganised the history section. This was just like old times, only with a few more books here and there. I absolutely loved getting the section back into shape, a proper return to the good old days. This brought home to me just how well stocked my old history section really was. So many of the books that I came into contact with in Cambridge were ones that I had lovingly re-shelved back in my old store too. A couple of lovely days rearranging this section to my satisfaction countered by a day's penance spent re-shelving the Mind Body and Spirit section. Most of this I don't really have a problem with, the Mythology and Wicca  bit is fine, as is most of the fortune telling part; as a teenager I certainly would have  enjoyed these bits; even now I'm partial to some of this kind of thing from time to time for old time's sake. In fact there was a time when I knew all the best places to pick up a spell book. There was a particularly good place round the corner from Camden Lock, that me and my friends used to visit on the odd Saturday up in London. Lots of the Self-Help books annoy me quite a bit, especially when people come looking at them as gifts for friends. I think I might take offence just a little bit if someone presented me with a book designed to deal with a 'failing' on my part. However the portion of this section that really makes me want to start throwing things about the room is the ridiculous 'I can talk to Angels' largely Doreen Virtue based bit. This combines misery with total bulls**t to create something that winds me up just looking at it. Sorting this section out countered against all the fun I had dealing with the history bit... so nothing in the universe was out of balance there!

So to the reading I've done this month, as usual some really great things alongside a few not so great. I discovered Antal Szerb this month which was quite a find, one of those authors who I've been meaning to read ever since I saw his name alongside that of Stefan Zweig and Hans Fallada. It was well worth the wait to read some of his works. The Third Tower is a lovely little travelogue around Northern Italy while Oliver VII seems to combine Banffy/Wilde and Anthony Hope to make a very funny balanced novel about a dissatisfied central European monarchy. I have a few more of his books to be looking at and hope I'll be able to make a start with at least one of these in May. The other translated works I read this month included The Beggar and the Hare which is gorgeous and which has reaffirmed my desire to read a few Finnish classics, and Big Bad Wolf, the second of the Nele Neuhaus crime novels. This is due to be published as a normal paperback at the end of July and is well worth a look for any fans of Scandi crime. If you haven't read the first one Snow White Must Die then you really do need to go get yourself a copy. I'll be interested to see just how many Grimm references Neuhaus and the translators can make use of with this series.

The book that blew me away this month was Son of the Morning by Mark Alder, if you've looked at my review of this one from earlier in the month, you will see that I got rather over excited about this one. I loved absolutely every moment of reading it. It's complex, dark, bloody and very funny. With some brilliant historical detail and a surprisingly simple basic concept. The past is treated in a wonderfully irreverent way that really got me excited. I spent a wee while talking to the author after I'd read and reviewed this one... and got more and more agitated talking about all the bits and pieces that could be drawn into this fantasy series. I think he may have got a little bit fed up with my geeky enthusiasm but there we go... He needs to get on with writing the next book anyway hehe. Don't let the fantasy label put you off with this one, there are certain fans of Bernard Cornwell's medieval books who could also get a lot from reading SotM.

Other great books this month, (and please don't be annoyed that you are only in my other great books bit) have included Christopher Moore's Shakespearean romp though the Venetian plays that is The Serpent of Venice, James Smythe's The Machine a twist on the Frankenstein story and Nicole Mary Kelby's The Pink Suit a novel about the Kennedy assassination told from a very unusual perspective. These are all well worth checking out if you get the chance and these, along with everything else I have read this month have all been reviewed on here so please have a look.

April has seen me read a mere eleven books.. so I really am slipping. Nine of these I aquired in the first few months of the year one in April itself, and only one came from my to be read heap. I aquired 41 new books of the course of the month so lots more to tempt me throughout May, I'd best just knuckle down to it hadn't I?

Books aquired in April...............

Death a life	George Pendle	The Hunting Gun	Yasushi Inoue
The Corpse-Rat King	Lee Battersby	Murder Book	Jonathan Kellerman
Good Luck of Right Now	Matthew Quick	Prisoner of Night and Fog	Anne Blankman
History of London	David Long	The Shattered Crown	Richard Ford
Last Bus to Coffeeville	J Paul Henderson	Forbidden Tomb	Chris Kuzneski
Before the Fall	Juliet West	Everything Begins at Midnight	Charlene Harris
Metropole	Ferenc Karinthy	The Pink Suit	Nicole Mary Kelby
In The Morning I'll Be Gone	Adrian McKinty	Ten Cities that Made an Empire	Tristram Hunt
Everland	Rebecca Hunt	Smoke and Mirrors	Neil Gaiman
Zodiac Station	Tom Harper	Strange Girls and Ordinary Women	Morgan McCarthy
Compartment No 6	Rosa Liksom	If I Knew You Were Going to be this Beautiful	Judy Chicurel
The Circle	Dave Eggers	An Englishman in Madrid	Eduardo Mendoza
Plague	CC Humphries	The Merman	Carl-Johan Vallgren
Digging for Richard III	Mike Pitts	Shadow of Night	Deborah Harkness
The Oversight	Charlie Fletcher	Discovery of witches	Deborah Harkness
The Vanishing Witch	Karen Maitland	Big Bad Wolf	Nele Neuhaus
Descartes Bones	Russel Shorto	The Lying Down Room	Anna Jaquiery
Easter Parade	Richard Yates	The Axeman's Jazz	Ray Celestin
Above	Isla Morley	The Poppy	Nicholas J Saunders
The Three	Sarah Lotz	Our Happy Time	Gong Ji-Young
		An Appitite for Violets	Martine Bailey