Book Beginnings On Fridays (A Reliable Wife)

Book Beginnings on Fridays is hosted by Rose City Reader and as she says the idea of this meme is for you to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name. There's a linky list on the website and you can use #BookBeginnings on Twitter.

 

 

My book beginning is from A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick

 

It was bitter cold, the air electric with all that had not happened yet. The world stood stock still, four o'clock dead on. Nothing moved anywhere, not a body, not a bird; for a split second there was only silence, there was only stillness. Figures stood frozen in the frozen land, men, women and children. 

 

 

Book Blurb:

Rural Wisconsin, 1909. In the bitter cold, Ralph Truitt, a successful businessman, stands alone on a train platform waiting for the woman who answered his newspaper advertisement for "a reliable wife." But when Catherine Land steps off the train from Chicago, she's not the "simple, honest woman" that Ralph is expecting. She is both complex and devious, haunted by a terrible past and motivated by greed. Her plan is simple: she will win this man's devotion, and then, ever so slowly, she will poison him and leave Wisconsin a wealthy widow. What she has not counted on, though, is that Truitt a passionate man with his own dark secrets has plans of his own for his new wife. Isolated on a remote estate and imprisoned by relentless snow, the story of Ralph and Catherine unfolds in unimaginable ways.  

 

Christmas Tree Is Up

We put our Christmas tree up last night, usually it's done at the beginning of December but we couldn't wait any longer. My daughters were unsurprisingly really excited when I told them after school and couldn't wait for their Dad to get home from work and get the decorations down from the loft. They also have small trees in their bedrooms.

Teaser Tuesdays (26th November)

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My teaser:

 

They were all dead now, his father, Emilia, the little girl she gave birth to in that first Wisconsin spring, his brother. All dead, even, finally, his relentless mother, who never forgave him.


A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick page 65

Snowblind by Christopher Golden

 

The novel starts in the small New England town of Coventry during a severe snow storm. Something inside the blizzard led to the deaths and disappearances of eighteen people. Twelve years later and another blizzard of the same magnitude has been forecast, understandably the town's occupants are nervous and frightened that a similar outcome will occur. 

 

Snowblind has been described as reminiscent of early Stephen King, and being a big fan of King's work I can certainly see why. I loved this because it's a story that is character driven, it also doesn't rely on gore to shock and scare like so many horror and supernatural books seem to nowadays. Don't expect to be terrified, it's far more subtle than that but no less enjoyable for it. I liked how we met the characters again and found out how they dealt with their bereavements twelve years on, getting completely wrapped up in the story. So much so that when I glanced up from reading I was almost surprised see there was no snow outside.

I received a copy of this from Netgalley in return for an honest review

Rating: 4 out of 5

Publication date: 16th January 2014 

 

 

A Pleasure And A Calling by Phil Hogan

Mr Heming is an estate agent with a secret, he has kept the keys to all the properties he has sold over the years. He likes to keep up with what's happening in the occupant's lives without their knowledge, letting himself in when they're not at home, even sometimes taking a small memento away with him. Soon things escalate almost out of his control.

It's difficult to review this without giving away too much but I will say that Mr Heming is a very interesting and creepy character and his story is told from his perspective. It starts with his childhood and then catches up to the present day when he is the owner of the successful estate agents where he has always worked.

 

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, I wasn't sure what the outcome would be but thought it ended perfectly. This is a book that is impossible not to be gripped by and I read the last half of it in almost one sitting.

 

I received a copy of this from Netgalley in return for an honest review

 

Rating: 4 out of 5 

 

Publication date: 13th February 2014

 

Book Blurb:

You won't remember Mr Heming. He showed you round your comfortable home, suggested a sustainable financial package, negotiated a price with the owner and called you with the good news. The less good news is that, all these years later, he still has the key.

That's absurd, you laugh. Of all the many hundreds of houses he has sold, why would he still have the key to mine?

The answer to that is, he has the keys to them all.

William Heming's every pleasure is in his leafy community. He loves and knows every inch of it, feels nurtured by it, and would defend it - perhaps not with his life but if it came to it, with yours...

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (18th November)

 

Its Monday! What Are You Reading is a weekly meme run by Book Journey and you can mention books you've just finished, are currently reading and any you plan to read this week. You can leave a link to your blog and read other bloggers posts.

 

 

This week I've read:

 

 The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion by Fannie Flagg

The One Plus One by Jojo Moyes

Others Of My Kind by James Sallis

 

I've just started reading:

 

A Pleasure And A Calling by Phil Hogan - this isn't out until February 2014 but I got an ARC from Netgalley



  

 

Book Beginnings On Fridays (Others Of My Kind)

Book Beginnings on Fridays is hosted by Rose City Reader and as she says the idea of this meme is for you to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name. There's a linky list on the website and you can use #BookBeginnings on Twitter.

 

My book beginning is Others Of My Kind by James Sallis

 

As I turned into my apartment complex, sack of Chinese takeout from Hong Kong Garden in hand, Szechuan bean curd, Buddhist Delight, a man stood from where he'd been sitting on the low wall by the bank of flowers and ground out his cigarette underfoot. He wore a cheap navy-blue suit that nonetheless fit him perfectly, gray cotton shirt, maroon tie, oxblood loafers. He had the most beautiful eyes I've ever seen. 

'Miss Rowan? Jack Collins, violent crimes.' With an easy practiced motion he flipped open his wallet to display a badge.

 

 

Book Blurb:

At age eight, Jenny Rowan was abducted and kept for two years in a box beneath her captor's bed. Eventually she escaped and, after living for eighteen months on cast-offs at the local mall, was put into the child-care system. Suing for emancipation, at age sixteen she became a legal adult. Nowadays she works as a production editor for the local public TV station, and is one of the world's good people.

One evening she returns home to find a detective waiting for her. Though her records are sealed, he somehow knows her story. He asks if she can help with a young woman who, like her many years before, has been abducted and traumatized.

Initially hesitant, Jenny decides to get involved, reviving buried memories and setting in motion an unexpected interchange with the president herself. As brilliantly spare and compact as are all of James Sallis's novels, Others of My Kind stands apart for its female protagonist. Set in a near future of political turmoil, it is a story of how we overcome, how we shape ourselves by what happens to us, and of how the human spirit, whatever horrors it undergoes, will not be put down. 

The One Plus One by Jojo Moyes

Single Mum Jess is struggling to bring up her daughter as well as the withdrawn teenage son of her ex. She cleans Ed's holiday home, on paper to her he seems to have it all, two homes, nice cars and no money worries. But Ed also has problems of his own, including something that could lead to him losing everything.

 

I received this from Real Readers, my first review book from them, and I was disappointed when I opened the parcel. I have never read any of Jojo Moyes previous novels, I always presumed she was a chick lit author and therefore I wouldn't enjoy her stories. How wrong I was!

 

The chapters alternate from each characters point of view and I loved all of them. Jess, Tanzie, Nicky, Ed and of course not forgetting Norman the dog. It is intelligently well written and ignoring all preconceptions describes what it is like to be a single parent in Britain today, as well as perfectly encapsulating teenage angst amongst other issues. There are moments when you'll laugh as well as cry and at no point did I regret deciding to read it.

 

Thanks to Real Readers and Penguin for sending me this book in return for an honest review.

 

Rating: 4 out of 5

 

Publication date: 27th February 2014  

 

 

Book Blurb:

One single mum.
One chaotic family.
One handsome stranger.
One unexpected love story.

Sometimes we add up to more than the sum of our parts.

Discover the poignant and compelling new novel from international bestseller, Jojo Moyes

Follow Jojo on Twitter: @JojoMoyes

www.jojomoyes.com
#TheOneJojo

Autobiography by Morrissey

Review by Steve Clark

 

Feverishly anticipated for some years now, Morrissey’s autobiography was never going to be a normal book. Publishing it on the Penguin Classics label was always going to stir controversy as usually death is required before your work can appear in that canon. But then Morrissey has never been one for convention and that is soon clear when the reader starts the book.

There are no chapters and not all that many new paragraphs either. He flits from subject to subject throughout the book and sometimes the chronology suffers as a result. The writing style is florid (as you would expect) but often entertaining. The former lead singer of the Smiths has never shied away from giving opinions in the past and he certainly fires off a number of verbal volleys here; in his sights for gunning down (amongst others) are Siouxsie Sioux, journalist Julie Burchill, virtually every teacher from his schools whilst growing up, and of course ex-Smiths drummer Mike Joyce, who famously won substantial royalties following a controversial court case in 1996.

In fact, the court case does take an extraordinary amount of time to recount in the book. Morrissey is clearly very upset with the outcome and fires pages and pages of invective at both Joyce and Judge John Weeks, who despite the flimsy evidence on display, ruled in favour of the drummer and famously lambasted the singer as “devious, truculent and unreliable”. It is understandable that Morrissey should feel hard done by, but the sixty or seventy pages that the case takes up in the book is often repetitive and gets too bogged down in the fine details of Weeks’ final judgement. The reader has got the point about 30 pages before the author finally blows himself out.

The section about Morrissey’s time in the Smiths is barely much longer than the court case diatribe and that is a shame as the reader does feel a little short changed that there still seems so many questions unanswered, especially about the formation of the band and also its ultimate demise. To be fair, I learned a lot more from previous biographies of the group than I did from this tome, which was rather disappointing. Much of the writing about this period involves Morrissey mockingly deriding the efforts of Rough Trade’s Geoff Travis, who seems a figure of fun to him. We don’t find out much about what inspired him to write the great lyrics that we all know him for, so the veil still remains firmly down here.

Where the book is more enlightening is in Morrissey’s childhood, where finally we get to understand why he grew up to be who he is. “I must sing” he tells us, as music is his escape from the horrors of the Manchester education system, where beatings and humiliation are normal for someone of his more delicate disposition. Childhood friends come and go and there is a dizzying array of Aunts in his life, all of who are spoken of fondly. His mother is treated with the reverence which you would expect but there are only brief mentions of his father throughout the book. Morrissey poignantly invokes the feeling of helplessness of being young and unemployed in Thatcher’s Britain and takes us through some of the menial jobs he briefly performed before Johnny Marr, and ultimately fame, found him.

Marr himself is generally treated well in the book (except during the Court Case rant, where he comes in for stick for “trying to be everyone’s friend”) and you are left with the feeling that there is still unfinished business between them, although there is nothing here to encourage those desperate to see them work together again.

Morrissey’s love life is sparsely treated and we learn very little new, other than he lived with a man (Jake Walters) for two years in the 90s and that he also discussed with a long time female friend the possibility of them having a child together. However, we never get to know whether there was anything any more than platonic in either of these relationships, so once again we are left with more mysteries cloaked in vague statements: "You are either brothers or lovers" says an airline worker to Morrissey. "Can't brothers be lovers?" he replies, and the world is none the wiser.

Moreover, Morrissey is excellent at airbrushing people out of his life completely; there are no mentions, for instance, for Mark Nevin (who he wrote many songs with), or Vini Reilly, who played guitar on the singer’s debut solo album; it is like they never existed. Plenty of other famous people get mentioned though, such as David Bowie, Eric Cantona and a host of others. Morrissey complains of being deliberately ignored by celebrities and recounts many incidences of it, but doesn’t seem averse to handing out plenty of snubs himself; such is the paradox of the man. There are predictably frequent digs at meat eaters, which start to wear after a while (references to "cannibals" and "spurting blood” for instance, are more akin to sixth form melodrama) and often he switches subjects at the drop of a hat, making the lack of chapters very noticeable.

The last section of the book reads like an elongated tour diary and is often entertaining, if a little random at times. There are a number of amusing incidents during his live shows, usually involving over-zealous security men or misreporting by journalists.

It all ends a bit suddenly, and you are left feeling a little empty and eager to know more, but somehow I suspect that is what Morrissey intended all along. 

The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion by Fannie Flagg

Sookie Poole is fifty nine years old and married with four grown up children when she discovers she's not who she thinks she is. She was adopted when she was a baby, even her birthday is a lie and she's actually sixty years old.

 

I was a little disappointed with this to start with, however as the story progressed it did get better. Particularly because of the flashback chapters set during World War II (which I loved), for me it was a shame that the parts in the present day weren't as interesting. I also found Sookie annoying to begin with but I did warm more to her after a while. If this review comes across as overly negative then I don't mean it to, it's just that I've read many of Fannie Flagg's previous novels and enjoyed them all more. Fried Green Tomatoes is one of my favourite books, but felt this one wasn't up to their standard. There are plenty of humorous moments throughout the story that will appeal to other readers but overall, for me, this wasn't one of the authors best. 

 

Rating: 3 out of 5

 

Book Blurb:

Mrs. Sookie Poole of Point Clear, Alabama, has just married off the last of her three daughters and is looking forward to relaxing and perhaps traveling with her husband, Earle. The only thing left to contend with now is her mother, the formidable and imposing Lenore Simmons Krackenberry—never an easy task. Lenore may be a lot of fun for other people, but is, for the most part, an overbearing presence for her daughter. Then one day, quite by accident, Sookie discovers a shocking secret about her mother’s past that knocks her for a loop and suddenly calls into question everything she ever thought she knew about herself, her family, and her future.

Feeling like a stranger in her own life, and fearful of confronting her mother with questions, Sookie begins a search for answers that takes her to California, the Midwest, and back in time, to the 1940s, when an irrepressible woman named Fritzi takes on the job of running her family’s filling station. With so many men off to war, it’s up to Fritzi and her enterprising younger sisters to keep it going. Soon truck drivers are changing their routes to fill up at the All-Girl Filling Station. But before long, Fritzi sees an opportunity for an even more groundbreaking adventure when she receives a life-changing invitation from the U.S. military to assist in the war effort. As Sookie learns more and more about Fritzi’s story, she finds herself with new answers to the questions she’s been asking her whole life.

 

 

Book Beginnings On Fridays (The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion)

Book Beginnings on Fridays is hosted by Rose City Reader and as she says the idea of this meme is for you to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name. There's a linky list on the website and you can use #BookBeginnings on Twitter.

 

My book beginning is The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion by Fannie Flagg

 

A few years ago, if someone had told me that I would be at this reunion today, I wouldn't have believed them in a million years....And yet, here I am! - Mrs Earle Poole Jr. 

 

This is the latest novel by Fannie Flagg and I have a review copy from Netgalley. I've only just started it but I have enjoyed all of her books that I have read so I'm looking forward to this one.

Book Blurb:

Mrs. Sookie Poole of Point Clear, Alabama, has just married off the last of her three daughters and is looking forward to relaxing and perhaps traveling with her husband, Earle. The only thing left to contend with now is her mother, the formidable and imposing Lenore Simmons Krackenberry—never an easy task. Lenore may be a lot of fun for other people, but is, for the most part, an overbearing presence for her daughter. Then one day, quite by accident, Sookie discovers a shocking secret about her mother’s past that knocks her for a loop and suddenly calls into question everything she ever thought she knew about herself, her family, and her future.

Feeling like a stranger in her own life, and fearful of confronting her mother with questions, Sookie begins a search for answers that takes her to California, the Midwest, and back in time, to the 1940s, when an irrepressible woman named Fritzi takes on the job of running her family’s filling station. With so many men off to war, it’s up to Fritzi and her enterprising younger sisters to keep it going. Soon truck drivers are changing their routes to fill up at the All-Girl Filling Station. But before long, Fritzi sees an opportunity for an even more groundbreaking adventure when she receives a life-changing invitation from the U.S. military to assist in the war effort. As Sookie learns more and more about Fritzi’s story, she finds herself with new answers to the questions she’s been asking her whole life. 

Book Blogger Hop (8th-14th November)

The Book Blogger Hop is hosted at Ramblings Of A Coffee Addicted Writer and this week's question is:

 

Do you post your book reviews as soon as you have completed the book or do you wait a few days?

 

I normally write and post my review after I've finished reading the book. This is because I will usually start my next read quite quickly and want to write my thoughts while the book is still clear in my mind.

 

 

 

The Ghost Hunters by Neil Spring

The Ghost Hunters is a fictionalised account about real life psychic researcher and ghost hunter Harry Price. It concentrates mainly on his investigations into Borley Rectory, the most haunted house in England, during the 1930s and 40s.  Harry is a sceptic who spends a lot of his time exposing spiritualist mediums as fakes. He meets Sarah Grey and her mother at one of his meetings and Sarah soon becomes his assistant. The story is from her point of view in the form of a manuscript she has written.

I've been looking forward to this book ever since I heard it concerned Borley Rectory. I live in Suffolk and have relatives in Long Melford which isn't far away. When I was a child I remember loving to be scared by the tales of the scary goings on there and it has always fascinated me.

I was very impressed with this, the authors first novel, and particularly by how well he managed to mix fact with fiction to produce a well researched gripping story. I loved the character of Sarah, she is completely fictionalised and wasn't Harry's assistant in reality.

The Ghost Hunters is one of the best ghost, gothic and historical novels I've read in a while. Also I was surprised by many of the twists right up until the end.

It's made me want to look into Borley Rectory all over again, perhaps a drive out that way will be on the cards soon. 

 

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

 

Book Blurb:

Welcome to Borley Rectory, the most haunted house in England.
The year is 1926 and Sarah Grey has landed herself an unlikely new job - personal assistant to Harry Price, London's most infamous ghost hunter. Equal parts brilliant and charming, neurotic and manipulative, Harry has devoted his life to exposing the truth behind England's many 'false hauntings', and never has he left a case unsolved, nor a fraud unexposed.

So when Harry and Sarah are invited to Borley Rectory - a house so haunted objects frequently fly through the air unbidden, and locals avoid the grounds for fear of facing the spectral nun that walks there - they're sure that this case will be just like any other. But when night falls and still no artifice can be found, the ghost hunters are forced to confront an uncomfortable truth: the ghost of Borley Rectory may be real and, if so, they're about to make its most intimate acquaintance.

Waiting On Wednesday (6th November)

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme, hosted by Breaking The Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases we can't wait to be published.

 

This week mine is Road Ends by Mary Lawson

 

 "He listened as their voices faded into the rumble of the falls. He was thinking about the lynx. The way it had looked at him, acknowledging his existence, then passing out of his life like smoke. . . It was the first thing--the only thing--that had managed, if only for a moment, to displace from his mind the image of the child. He had carried that image with him for a year now, and it had been a weight so great that sometimes he could hardly stand." 
Road Ends brings us a family unravelling in the aftermath of tragedy: Edward Cartwright, struggling to escape the legacy of a violent past; Emily, his wife, cloistered in her room with yet another new baby, increasingly unaware of events outside the bedroom door; Tom, their eldest son, twenty-five years old but home again, unable to come to terms with the death of a friend; and capable, formidable Megan, the sole daughter in a household of eight sons, who for years held the family together but has finally broken free and gone to England, to try to make a life of her own. 
Road Ends is Mary Lawson at her best. In this masterful, enthralling, tender novel, which ranges from the Ontario silver rush of the early 1900s to swinging London in the 1960s, she gently reveals the intricacies and anguish of family life, the push and pull of responsibility and individual desire, the way we can face tragedy, and in time, hope to start again. 

Publication date: 
Kindle edition - 6th March 2014
Hardback - 24th June 2014

Teaser Tuesdays (5th November)

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My teaser:

 

I have witnessed an apparition: the tall, dark figure of a man which appeared in one of the passageways on the ground floor. And once, late one night outside the blue room, I heard a woman's voice, cry out, "Don't Carlos - don't!"

The Ghost Hunters by Neil Spring 28%

Home Front Girls by Rosie Goodwin

Three women, Lucy, Dotty and Annabelle start work at a department store in Coventry at the start of World War II. They're all from different backgrounds but soon become close friends. Dotty was brought up in an orphanage and doesn't know who her parents are, Lucy is bringing up her young sister alone while her brother fights for his country and Annabelle, from a privileged background, isn't impressed at first by having to work for a living. 

 

The story follows the lives of the women throughout the war and gets across well what it must have been like to live during those times. A few of the twists in the story were a little obvious and I wasn't as impressed by the last third of the book but overall it was an enjoyable read.

It will appeal to anyone who's a fan of family sagas,  particularly those set during the Second World War. Despite the period in time in which it's set, and by no means do any of the characters escape any of the horrors of the war, I found it an easy read that I could quickly dip in and out of without having to concentrate too hard. The perfect choice for me during half term week.

 

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Book Beginnings On Fridays (The Ghost Hunters)

Book Beginnings on Fridays is hosted by Rose City Reader and as she says the idea of this meme is for you to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name. There's a linky list on the website and you can use #BookBeginnings on Twitter.

 

My book beginning is The Ghost Hunters by Neil Spring

 

There had always been rumours about the eight floor. According to the curator, John Wesley, the other librarians said there was something about it that made them uncomfortable. The braver of his colleagues who had ventured up there alone reported that shadows stalked its dusty stacks and secrets lingered in the air.

I've just finished a book and this is going to be my next read, I'm really looking forward it. I've always been fascinated about Borley Rectory, I don't live that far away and the stories about it spooked me when I was younger.

Book Blurb:

Welcome to Borley Rectory, the most haunted house in England.
The year is 1926 and Sarah Grey has landed herself an unlikely new job - personal assistant to Harry Price, London's most infamous ghost hunter. Equal parts brilliant and charming, neurotic and manipulative, Harry has devoted his life to exposing the truth behind England's many 'false hauntings', and never has he left a case unsolved, nor a fraud unexposed.

So when Harry and Sarah are invited to Borley Rectory - a house so haunted objects frequently fly through the air unbidden, and locals avoid the grounds for fear of facing the spectral nun that walks there - they're sure that this case will be just like any other. But when night falls and still no artifice can be found, the ghost hunters are forced to confront an uncomfortable truth: the ghost of Borley Rectory may be real and, if so, they're about to make its most intimate acquaintance.

  

 

Book Blogger Hop (1st-7th November)

The Book Blogger Hop is hosted at Ramblings Of A Coffee Addicted Writer and this week's question is:

When you are out of town, do you still participate in weekly memes or do you have your post scheduled to appear on your blog and perhaps check back? Or do you not participate at all?

I've only been away once since I started my blog earlier this year and I scheduled a few posts. In fact I do this most of the time anyway, work on and schedule mine in advance when I've got time, then when online the day it appears, put my link on the organisers blog and look at other participants posts. This one was done on 24th October.