The Girl Who Played with Fire By Stieg Larsson
Maclehose Press
ISBN 978-1906694180
It's great to get back into a book which has a familiar feel yet new and exciting at the same time. I'm always wary of sequels as they never seem to live up to the promises of the first. But I was first impressed by the Harry Potter series (well and if it comes to it The Famous Five weren't that bad.)However, Larsson pulled this second book in a trilogy very well.
We get to know Lisbeth Salander even more in this book and what lengths she is prepared to go to. I really like her feisty, edgy and at times completely wacky character. It's so fulfilling to have a female MC who is prepared to mock traditional stereotypes. Salander certainly does this and takes a few down with her in the process. She is extremely intelligent yet at the same time a little rough around the edges, not afraid of anyone or anything it seems. We find out more about what made her like that, what drives her and the reasons for some of her actions.
Blomkvist is also still there as her wannabe protector (though she does her best to try and shake him off) and the underlying love story which is very subtle is quite beautiful. He is back at Millenium and working on exposing more bad people when things go very wrong for Salander. But she has been absent from his life for over a year and despite his efforts to contact her she is very reluctant to let him back into her life.
Some of the action towards the end of the book may come across as a little unbelievable but you must remember that this is fiction and it's thriller fiction. It is fast and pacey and has lots of nasty cliffhangers which just beg you to turn the page. It's a great read and the third is proving to be the same. It's a shame Larsson never lived long enough to see the fervour that his writing has stirred up. And now I hear that the trilogy is going to be filmed - I have some thoughts about who might be up for these two characters, what do you think?
Readability: 10 (didn't notice any translation hiccups)
Recommendation: 100%
Showing posts with label fiction. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fiction. Show all posts
Wednesday, 30 June 2010
Wednesday, 2 June 2010
Book Review - Discovering the Writer Within
Discovering the Writer Within – 40 Days to more Imaginative Writing
By Bruce Ballenger and Barry Lane
Publisher: Writer's Digest Books; New edition (Mar 1996)
ISBN: 978-0898797398
I’ve not read ‘Discovering the Writer Within’ from beginning to end, so you may well ask why am I writing a review? Well, it’s not a book to be read in a sitting, it’s a book of writing exercises – which could take 40 days if you wish – or something to be dipped into when you feel the need. It’s kind of like having a lesson planner and the exercises on your desk for those time when you think ‘I can’t do this’. This book will not show you how to do it (you should have learnt by now, there isn’t one book on earth which will teach you to ‘write’) but it does provide some inspiration.
‘Discovering the Writer Within’ helps to get something down on paper, whatever that may be. It encourages you to release your dreams, live out your writing fantasies and get started. The book is based on the very simple and well-known premise, that the only way to become a writer is to ‘write’. Why do we never believe it is that simple? Well because writing is never just about writing, it’s about a truckload of other stuff too, but without the words, there isn’t any writing, so this is the first step.
‘Discovering the Writer Within’ promotes a kind of keep fit regime, providing exercises that will encourage you to explore your creativity and produce interesting ideas. It also takes you past the first ‘drafting’ phase and into revision so that the writing can become a polished piece if you want it to. It’s something to dip into when you are feeling hot, flustered and long to feel a sense of calm and understanding.
I’m now off to read Day 20, which is about retelling classic fairy tales, as there is a competition that I want to enter where the theme is ‘Modern Twists on Fables’. I’m hoping that it will allow me to shake off the glass slipper and find a hip and new way to tell the love story of a poor girl and her horrid sisters.
About the Authors: Both Ballenger and Lane are successful American authors with a considerable publishing history between them. Lane is also a singer/songwriter.
Readability Rating: It’s hard to set a rating as it’s not that kind of read. It provides examples of the authors experience and then asks you to undertake an exercise.
Recommendation: Sure, if you need help in getting started, this is a good place to go.
Wednesday, 28 April 2010
Book Review - The Freelance Writer's Handbook
The Freelance Writer's Handbook by Andrew Croft
Publisher: Piatakus 3rd Revised Edition 2007
ISBN: 978-0749927639
Andrew Croft is a very successful author and freelance writer, who is also very good at marketing his wares. So much so that The Freelance Writer’s Handbook is in it’s third stage of life, having been updated to reflect the technological changes in our world like blogs and e-books.I have the 2002 edition, which I do use as occasional reference and for those ‘down’ times when I want to be told ‘yes, you can do it’.
Croft believes passionately in writing as a way of living, so this book is for professionals wanting to sell their craft. But it’s not just about non-fiction, Croft has been very successful in the fiction world as well, particularly in ghost writing. The book starts from the premise that there is not better way to feed yourself and have fun at the same time as in the world of freelance writing. He warns against unrealistic day dreaming however, laying down the good and the bad in the first two chapters, so there is no room for misunderstanding. The Freelance Writer’s Handbook aims to help develop an ‘approach’ to writing which will ensure an income and provide the requisite enjoyment.
It’s all down to self-marketing, a skill most writers shrug their shoulders at or even turn their back.
If you have the ability to market yourself, then Croft believes you can sell your writing. This book is not about how to write well, it’s about how to market your writing and get paid for it.
The Freelance Writer’s Handbook asks the reader first to undergo a bit of self-analysis, a familiar activity. Then a short section is dedicated to the kind of equipment and materials you need to make a start - the practical bit. For me this is a little like telling grandma how to suck eggs, but I guess there are some people still out there who believe they can get by without a PC.
The majority of the book is dedicated to individual market sectors with insider advice about how to, and what not to do when approaching them. So readers would access these chapters depending on their self-analysis or not if they felt like a bigger challenge. Sections include; newspapers, magazines, non-fiction, business, travel, fiction, children, film, television, radio, and I believe the new edition includes blog and eBook writing.
The final section is dedicated to the ‘business’ of writing and constitutes the basic rules and regulations of any business. Advice is given on how to sell your work, agent representation, publication rights and record keeping. This part is the bit that will increase your chance of success in placing a piece of writing, but no part of the book will tell you how to write it.
Andrew Croft believes in the continued future of freelance writing, in whatever medium that might be. The Freelance Writer’s Handbook does not provide all the answers or covers all the advice but it is a good start, a framework to build upon. There is one golden rule – NEVER, EVER GIVE UP – brick walls are meant to be climbed over and the secret of writing success lies in the preparation you make to see what is on the other side.
Visit the website where Andrew Croft shares more about his life as an author and ghost writer.
Readability Rating: 10 -very clearly written for the intended market
Recommendation: Definitely - for serious writers
Thursday, 8 April 2010
All He Ever Wanted by Anita Shreve
All He Ever Wanted by Anita Shreve
Published by Abacus/Little Brown 2003
ISBN: 0 349 115583
All He Ever Wanted is an evocative story of love and passion, which is fed to the reader in small, delicious bites. There are two significant features to this novel.
It is written in the first person, a difficult point of view to maintain, but never the less Shreve does this well. First person is told through only one set of eyes so demands a certain expertise in providing the right element of showing and telling.
Secondly, it is written as a kind of account, a stream of thought from the main character (who is a man) and who is recalling the events on a long train journey. Again, this style requires a significant skill to ensure that the reader does not become bored or distracted. Again, something, which the author manages well.
The main character and narrator is Nicholas Van Tassel, Professor of English and Rhetoric (no less) at Thrupp College in New Hampshire
The two meet very soon in the account, following a fire at a hotel where they are both dining, separately. Van Tassel accompanies Etna and her aunt to the safety of their home following the distressing incident. He is at once mesmerised by Etna’s beauty and is unperturbed by her cool, almost mannequin-like demeanour. He courts her slowly and we learn of his growing lust and indeed love for her. She is all he ever wanted. However, Etna does not have the same feelings and when Van Tassel plucks up the courage to ask for her hand in marriage, she begs for some time to think. But she leaves, returning to her family home without informing him and he is devastated. He is not taking her absence for granted though, follows her, and persuades her to accept him.
However, whilst his relationship with Etna will go on for some years, Van Tassel is beleaguered by a notion that starts on his wedding night and the consummation of their marriage. He says nothing but it is this niggle which will eat away at him and their relationship. They have two children – a girl and a boy and on the outer surface appear to have a normal life. Until some fourteen years later when the promotion sought by Van Tassel is put at risk by a newcomer. A man of the Jewish faith and whom has some knowledge of Etna. But it is not this that seals the fate of Van Tassel; he also finds out that Etna has been keeping something secret from him. It is when he confronts her about it that her true feelings for him are revealed more openly. She leaves with the children but is persuaded to return by a sequence of events which Van Tassel constructs but does not understand their true consequence.
All He Ever Wanted is a story of love, jealous passion, unrequited dedication but also a story of deceit, lies that take many guises. It is also a reflection of the societies demands of the times (late 1900’s) and its prejudices regarding faith and its portrayal of the role of women. Shreve portrays so beautifully the love felt by one man for one woman and how that love can be all consuming with unwanted outcomes.
Readability Rating = 7 (the style takes a bit of getting used to)
Recommendation = Yes, if you like a slow, simple but evocative tale
Thursday, 11 March 2010
The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry
The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry
Publisher: Hodder and Hodder (2009)
ISBN: 978-0571215294
I loved this story. It wasn’t fast paced, nor full of steamy activities, nor murder or mayhem. It was intriguing. It did capture my imagination. It made me shed a tear. The Secret Scripture is a story of love, loss and ignorance. But it is also a story of power, misplaced power at that, power held by people who thought they were right. But their actions influenced not one but many lives for decades.
Roseanne is at the beginning of the story, an old woman of around 100 years old. She has spent most of her life incarcerated in a mental health hospital, but it appears no one knows why. The story centres around her doctor unravelling the mystery. Her medical records are lost or incomplete and the hospital is closing down. Decisions need to be made about her relocation.
Dr Grene is the psychiatrist in charge of her care and has never really paid much attention to his eldest patient until now. But finding out what lies behind her incarceration becomes almost his obsession. He is an Irishman, brought up by adoptive parents in England and lives a sterile, loveless life with his wife.
The story is told through flashbacks to Roseanne’s life and the observations of Dr Grene as both characters record their memories and thoughts in independent journals – the secret scriptures.
The Secret Scriptures is set in rural Sligo, Ireland with flashbacks between the present day and Roseanne’s childhood and her incarceration as a young woman in the 1930’s.
The use of the present tense for both main characters allows you to enter their minds and see things as they see them – an intimate experience – you hear, feel and see their pain and their struggles and their desires. Barry has a certain poetic feel to his description and he cleverly weaves together the old woman’s memories with the facts of the day. Roseanne’s recall of events is understandably shrouded in a mist, she herself is no longer certain if what she remembers is the truth.
Dr Grene is thorough with his research around the circumstances leading to Roseanne’s arriving at the institution; even the death of his wife does not deter him. He is determined to make the right decisions for her future, no matter how short that may be.
Eventually the missing pieces are put together, with an ending, which was beginning to take shape but not clear until the end.
The Secret Scripture is beautifully narrated and I almost could reach out and touch Roseanne, so real did she seem. Through the bland although rather endearing character of Dr Grene, we learn that bad things happen, that there is little that can be done about them now, but we hope that they never happen again. A truly delightful but serious tale.
About the Author
Sebastian Barry is an Irish playwright, novelist and poet. He has been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction twice and won the Costa Book of the Year Award in 2008.
Publisher: Hodder and Hodder (2009)
ISBN: 978-0571215294
I loved this story. It wasn’t fast paced, nor full of steamy activities, nor murder or mayhem. It was intriguing. It did capture my imagination. It made me shed a tear. The Secret Scripture is a story of love, loss and ignorance. But it is also a story of power, misplaced power at that, power held by people who thought they were right. But their actions influenced not one but many lives for decades.
Roseanne is at the beginning of the story, an old woman of around 100 years old. She has spent most of her life incarcerated in a mental health hospital, but it appears no one knows why. The story centres around her doctor unravelling the mystery. Her medical records are lost or incomplete and the hospital is closing down. Decisions need to be made about her relocation.
Dr Grene is the psychiatrist in charge of her care and has never really paid much attention to his eldest patient until now. But finding out what lies behind her incarceration becomes almost his obsession. He is an Irishman, brought up by adoptive parents in England and lives a sterile, loveless life with his wife.
The story is told through flashbacks to Roseanne’s life and the observations of Dr Grene as both characters record their memories and thoughts in independent journals – the secret scriptures.
The Secret Scriptures is set in rural Sligo, Ireland with flashbacks between the present day and Roseanne’s childhood and her incarceration as a young woman in the 1930’s.
The use of the present tense for both main characters allows you to enter their minds and see things as they see them – an intimate experience – you hear, feel and see their pain and their struggles and their desires. Barry has a certain poetic feel to his description and he cleverly weaves together the old woman’s memories with the facts of the day. Roseanne’s recall of events is understandably shrouded in a mist, she herself is no longer certain if what she remembers is the truth.
Dr Grene is thorough with his research around the circumstances leading to Roseanne’s arriving at the institution; even the death of his wife does not deter him. He is determined to make the right decisions for her future, no matter how short that may be.
Eventually the missing pieces are put together, with an ending, which was beginning to take shape but not clear until the end.
The Secret Scripture is beautifully narrated and I almost could reach out and touch Roseanne, so real did she seem. Through the bland although rather endearing character of Dr Grene, we learn that bad things happen, that there is little that can be done about them now, but we hope that they never happen again. A truly delightful but serious tale.
About the Author
Sebastian Barry is an Irish playwright, novelist and poet. He has been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction twice and won the Costa Book of the Year Award in 2008.
Readability Rating: 10 (A Serious Good Read)
Wednesday, 10 March 2010
My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult
Book Review
My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult (Hodder 2004)
ISBN 978-0-340-91861-6
I have read most of Jodi Picoult's books. She is fairly unique in her approach and her prolific output in taking extremely controversial issues, usually issues I have very strong feelings about, and manages to show me the other side. Usually it is the side I have chosen to dismiss, or ignore or sometimes just haven’t considered. Some of my reasoning is hard to determine, a kind of subconscious ‘that’s how it is’ reasoning. She has written about bullying and mass killing of school students, organ donation from a murderer of the receiver’s sister and the issues surrounding an Amish family and a girl in trouble. Her novels are about normal life, families and relationships which experience something which tests their strength and their unity and their beliefs.
My Sister’s Keeper was published in 2004 and has recently been made into a film. Picoult who is a very keen researcher of the issues she covers, writes this one from the position of some expertise. That of a mother of a child who suffered some considerable illness.
Kate is the daughter of Sarah and Brian Fitzgerald. They have an older son Jesse and all seems well with their world. Until, at the age of two, Kate is diagnosed with a rare form of childhood leukaemia. None of the family are suitable as bone marrow donors and they are faced with the impossible – the death of their daughter. So they, as in Sarah, make the decision to have another child. Not as a replacement for Kate, but as a donor for Kate. Anna is Kate’s younger sister and a designer baby. Controversial issues but Sarah is clear that she loves Anna as much as Kate and that Anna would want this for her sister. From the second Anna is born, she undergoes medical intervention for the benefit of Kate.
Picoult weaves her way through the very difficult emotional and psychological issues which modern medical technology has created in its fast and creative development. Why wouldn’t a parent want to do all they could to help their dying child. Even if that meant using another? The reasoning behind Sarah’s beliefs is unshakeable and almost defendable. The focus of the story centres on the very real pressure of a family under duress, and a child with a terminal illness. Kate would like to be ‘normal’ and hates the attention and the demands her illness puts on her family. Jesse – a sultry teenager - turns to drastic attention seeking activities, including drugs, booze and fire raising. He craves the attention of someone, anyone. And Anna, at the age of thirteen, seeks legal help to obtain the rights to her own body. This decision seems to be generated by Kate’s last option to extend her life. A kidney transplant.
The story is told through the eyes of the key characters; Sarah and Brian, Kate, Jesse and Anna – with chapters dedicated to each where we learn of their conflicting and reasonable reactions to the enforced chaos the action by Anna brings. It also helps us to get to know the family, from the time before Kate’s illness and their mechanisms to cope with it. A separate small sub plot is provided through the relationship with Anna’s lawyer her Guardian Ad Litem, a woman appointed to represent and advocate on Anna’s behalf.
So, does Kate get her kidney in the end? Does the family survive and how does Anna cope with the overwhelming ball she has set rolling? The ending is a surprise, a cruel twist that brought more than a tear to my eye. It felt most unfair, but then, life is isn’t it?
However, the key to the stories, indeed to most of Picoult’s stories, is that there are always two (or more) sides to consider.
My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult (Hodder 2004)
ISBN 978-0-340-91861-6
I have read most of Jodi Picoult's books. She is fairly unique in her approach and her prolific output in taking extremely controversial issues, usually issues I have very strong feelings about, and manages to show me the other side. Usually it is the side I have chosen to dismiss, or ignore or sometimes just haven’t considered. Some of my reasoning is hard to determine, a kind of subconscious ‘that’s how it is’ reasoning. She has written about bullying and mass killing of school students, organ donation from a murderer of the receiver’s sister and the issues surrounding an Amish family and a girl in trouble. Her novels are about normal life, families and relationships which experience something which tests their strength and their unity and their beliefs.
My Sister’s Keeper was published in 2004 and has recently been made into a film. Picoult who is a very keen researcher of the issues she covers, writes this one from the position of some expertise. That of a mother of a child who suffered some considerable illness.
Kate is the daughter of Sarah and Brian Fitzgerald. They have an older son Jesse and all seems well with their world. Until, at the age of two, Kate is diagnosed with a rare form of childhood leukaemia. None of the family are suitable as bone marrow donors and they are faced with the impossible – the death of their daughter. So they, as in Sarah, make the decision to have another child. Not as a replacement for Kate, but as a donor for Kate. Anna is Kate’s younger sister and a designer baby. Controversial issues but Sarah is clear that she loves Anna as much as Kate and that Anna would want this for her sister. From the second Anna is born, she undergoes medical intervention for the benefit of Kate.
Picoult weaves her way through the very difficult emotional and psychological issues which modern medical technology has created in its fast and creative development. Why wouldn’t a parent want to do all they could to help their dying child. Even if that meant using another? The reasoning behind Sarah’s beliefs is unshakeable and almost defendable. The focus of the story centres on the very real pressure of a family under duress, and a child with a terminal illness. Kate would like to be ‘normal’ and hates the attention and the demands her illness puts on her family. Jesse – a sultry teenager - turns to drastic attention seeking activities, including drugs, booze and fire raising. He craves the attention of someone, anyone. And Anna, at the age of thirteen, seeks legal help to obtain the rights to her own body. This decision seems to be generated by Kate’s last option to extend her life. A kidney transplant.
The story is told through the eyes of the key characters; Sarah and Brian, Kate, Jesse and Anna – with chapters dedicated to each where we learn of their conflicting and reasonable reactions to the enforced chaos the action by Anna brings. It also helps us to get to know the family, from the time before Kate’s illness and their mechanisms to cope with it. A separate small sub plot is provided through the relationship with Anna’s lawyer her Guardian Ad Litem, a woman appointed to represent and advocate on Anna’s behalf.
So, does Kate get her kidney in the end? Does the family survive and how does Anna cope with the overwhelming ball she has set rolling? The ending is a surprise, a cruel twist that brought more than a tear to my eye. It felt most unfair, but then, life is isn’t it?
However, the key to the stories, indeed to most of Picoult’s stories, is that there are always two (or more) sides to consider.
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