The Ice Princess

I haven't read crime fiction for ages but I do like a bit of Nordic murder so I thought I would give this a go.  I enjoyed it and have spent my last few weeks on the train reading it, but I also know I will quickly forget it.  It wasn't too taxing but I still didn't manage to work out who the murderer was. I really thought I was on the right track, but I wasn't!  

 There were lots of sentences about making coffee, adding sugar and stirring it. Infact the whole book seemed to have a coffee making fetish.  Weird!  Maybe the Swedes are all just fanatic caffeine addicts.

I enjoyed trying to puzzle out who did the dirty murder but I also like a twisted, strange, eccentric, mad, alcoholic, depressed and autistic sleuth to solve it, but the main policeman and his lovely girlfriend were just too normal and boring for me.  The only thing they liked doing was making and drinking coffee together.  

This book is the first in a series of 8 or so. So maybe the characters will develop over time but I don't think I will read another one yet. 

 In fact yes, this book was OK, but just a little bit bland.  If it were ever to be televised it would be on ITV 3 on a week day!  

A Clash of Kings

I have been reading this book for over a month now and it's time to STOP. It's defeated me, I'm done. I'm a shadow of my former self. I am now a corpse like WIGHT prowling the frozen lands of the North, dazed and confused, thinking I am from the cast of LOST.   My  New Year's resolution is to just give up and move on!  

This book has been like a boa constrictor round my neck and I have finally cut loose.    Unfortunately according to Amazon there are about 50 million people who disagree with me but hey, maybe they are just sticking with the TV show.  Now that sounds like much more fun! 

Life is just too short to carry on reading this.  I am sadly  50% through but I just can't handle it any more! 

it's a shame because I liked the first book but this is just a sea full of margarine. I deeply respect the script writers of the TV series for dredging the good bits out of this over long saga and making HBO, the actors, themselves and Mr. Martin lots of money. 

I do like the idea behind the books though and think it's perfect for a TV series.  I just can't take the structure and rambling style of the writing anymore!  I have heard there is lots of sex in the TV series.  Well,  all I can say is this book might be better if there were more sex in it. (Probably not though.) 

 Also George Martin should be banned from writing from the perspective of grown women.  It's unbelievable that they are all either semi clad sex goddesses with dragon babies (Danerys) mad evil bitches who slap men's faces a lot and scream (Cersei) or boring whinging mothers whose chapters  are completely dull. (catylyn.)  At least the men and child characters are far more interesting!

Right enough...must go and feed my dragons. 

PS can anyone lend me the TV series? 

The first time. True tales of virginity, lost and found.

C

Thought I'd read this for something completely different. I didn't know what to expect, apart from maybe some sad and cringeworthy tales of women remembering experiences they'd rather forget...but I wasn't expecting such a GREAT book.  Honestly, this book was surprisingly brilliant. Really well written, funny in places, extremely honest, sad in parts but always incredibly moving.

it was tales that the writer had collected from willing women and men (aged between 85 and 25) who agreed to be interviewed about their first sexual experiences. All tales were placed into the social contexts and norms of their days.  It was fantastic social commentary of life and sex  in Britain from the 40s up to the present day. 

I loved it because it was so well compiled and she just comes across as a really great interviewer, managing to put people at ease and ultimately getting the people to tell her so much more than what she bargained for! 

I wish I had read this book when I was much younger. Anyone 14 or upwards and ALL sex education teachers should read this book...it might freak the kids a bit but ultimately it's all stuff I wish I had known about when I was younger.

What I love is the tone of the book is not judgemental at all. it's up to the interviewees to decide what 'losing your virginity' entails. Is it the first time you have full sex, the first time you have an orgasm, the first time you feel totally , absolutely and completely in love with someone or is it never? 

Is it worth waiting and holding out for someone special or is it better just to get the first time done, dusted and behind you? What are the pressures put on young people today and are we really anymore sexually aware and active now than young people 40or 50 years ago? 

  People candidly  recount all of the above issues and I especially loved the male point of view. It was great to get really brutally honest, funny and also sensitive impressions of virginity loss from the male perspective! 

I love the way that difference is applauded too. The stories from gays and lesbians are well told but the section that affected me mostwas on abstinence. people who had never had sex seemed to be the most shunned and isolated group. ('Still  a Virgin and not religious, why are you so weird?'  seemed to be a common question these people encountered!)  It was really refreshing to read stories from people who were happily declaring themselves, ( most of them without God in their ear) as different. 

In this book she talks about losing something you don't really have and why virginity is still a discussion point, even in modern Britain.

 When The author was about eight years old she found out what the word VIRGIN meant and she was shocked that there was a word to define the 'default' state. This was similar to me too. When I found out at about the same age I was upset to know that I could be labelled as a virgin. I didn't like the word or the label! 

What this book highlights though is how choices have improved life for women in the Western World. They might not be easy choices but at least here in Britain people can make them and not concern themselves too much with people's reactions to them. But here we are in the minority, most women around the world are still being brutilised for 'losing' something that is almost impossible to quantify or to define.  

All my friends read this book and then give it to your teenagers! 

Sea of Poppies.

I first read this five years ago and totally loved it.  After having a bad run of quite dull books I pulled it off my shelf and read it again.  To be honest I didn't enjoy it as much second time but the plot is fantastic and I happily and quickly read it in under a week. 

It starts really well in the villages of central India in 1832. All the villagers are being forced to grow opium poppies to sell to the East India company who are then selling all this opium to China. The harsh life of the local people is set bare in stark reality. The British colonialists come out as nothing better than drug barons...which to be fair we were. But my God, we were efficient and skilled at it.

This book is all about getting the characters onto the IBIS boat which is sailing to Mauritius via Hong Kong. The boat used to carry slaves but now is being used to move opium to China and back to the West.

The characters are all a bit wooden but it's still a fun book.  I loved the free born American slave, (who luckily for him looks completely white because his mother was only a quarter black) I love the bankrupt Raja, who loses all his money and status due to the money grabbing, duplicitous Brits. The Raj is a guy who doesn't even know how to wipe his own bum until he learns hard lessons inside the British jail. The section where he cleans up the body of his fellow prisoner who is suffering from severe cold turkey is really well written. 

it's all a bit bonkers and I have to admit on second reading a bit cheesy but the first half based in Central India is really good. Once all the characters start moving and collecting on the IBIS boat in Calcutta it loses it's way a bit.

BUT the highlight for me is the language.  Ghosh writes in the language of the lascars and pirates; who run the boats, the British; who run the country, and the locals; who run nothing.  It's a book full of mad words which I loved. I'm sure this wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea because it is quite hard to follow in places and it could be seen as pretentious.  But it for me it worked because even if I didn't understand everything in places it didn't matter!  Misunderstanding was part of these peoples lives as they all tried to communicate with each other and I just became part of that confusion too.

Enjoyed it, but not as much as I thought I would.  Oh well, I think I put this book on a pedestal when I read it 5years ago and I think what I like to read has changed.

Underground London

I'm not having much luck with books at the moment. This started well with descriptions of London's covered up rivers and why people decided to cover them up because they were so filthy.  Then  there was an interesting paragraph on how underground stations are built, and that was it!

By chapter 3 it was SO boring.  The author just talked  about what he learnt as he went round London with tour guides.  he was just grabbing sound bites from tour guides and people on the street. The book was more about him and the people he was meeting.  Which would have been fine if he or the people he were meeting were interesting!

By chapter 5 I gave up.  it's not often that I stop reading a book.  I always think it will get better but life is just too short to trudge through this shit. A poor, dull, tat filled 'book'. 

 

Confronting Iran

F

Got this for a few quid in a second hand bookshop in Oxford and it's been a slow but interesting read. Got a bit bogged down though.  Iranian history is a tad mind blowing! Can't  find this cover online, hence the photo.  I would only recommend this book if you want to know about Iranian modern history. No Isfahan,  Cyrus the Great, Zoroastrianism or Persepolis in this book! 

 Most people know I am completely fascinated by Iran, so a perfect little read for me but bloody hell there is A LOT to get your head round!  

Over the last 100 or so years Iran has been eyed up by Ottomans, Brits, Soviets, and finally the Americans. I read about how democracy was halted in the 50 s by the Brits and Yanks as they didn't like Iran's elected choice of leader, this of course was linked to the Brits and Americans losing control over the unbelievable amount of oil coming out of Iran. So the CIA assassinated him and somehow became even closer allies with Iran. Infact Iran was almost like a state of the USA. the countries seemed to be happily married in the 60s and 70s but then the crushing and bitter divorce took place between the two countries at the end of the 70s. In fact it's only now that the two countries are beginning to slowly communicate with each other again.  Both sides made bad decisions but ultimately the USA made errors by just flinging money and crude capatilism into a country which didn't need this kind of assistance.  I could see from the history a kind of simple logic behind the revolution.  it was a kind of  backlash against implied Soviet invasion from the north, Sunni aggression from their Arabic neighbours and American might and Israel thrown in for good measure.  how a country could fall under such a harsh regime is beyond me but I'm sure Iranians were just trying their best to preserve their country and protect themselves. The book then talked about the hideous war with Iraq, the emergence of Hezbullah in Lebanon...not actually Iran. and life under sanctions in this theocratic country today.  All a bit grim to be honest...

I also read about how the Bosnians were given weapons by the Iranians. Without the help of Iran Bosnian Sarajevo would have fallen.  Hence all the Iranian shops there I suppose. Never knew this until now.  

Out of It

I really wanted to like this book.  It's not often that I find a novel which is based in Gaza. It looked good and had great reviews but unfortunately I was greatly disappointed. I was looking forward to reading a book which would transport me to a different and harsh reality in one of the most politically,  economically   and physically isolated cities on the planet.

It doesn't matter how much you are interested in a place you still need a story to hold you,  writing that grips you and characters you can believe in.  Unfortunately I got none of the above from this book!

This book only managed to annoy and irritate me. The characters were so weakly described I couldn't really give a damn about what happened to them.  In fact the last 30% of the book was a quick flip through, I was so bored I just couldn't be bothered to read it properly. Hence I can't really review what happened because there wasn't a story! 

A shame really, I just felt this book didn't describe or explain anything successfully. It was devoid of any emotion and people were flat as pancakes.  I was annoyed that the horrors of life in Gaza was having no affect on me. Normally when I read a novel based in a particular place I get transported to the time and inspired and interested in the history and politics, but not with this bilge.

  Nah...not for me!

 This book proves to me that if I want to find out anything about Gaza city I just have to go there...what do you reckon to my chances?!