Midleton & Fermoy Books

The Gates - John Connolly

2011-01-25T12:54:00.001Z

I am a huge fan of John Connolly's writing. That being said you are probably wondering why it has taken me so long to get around to reading this novel, marketed for both adults and children and published in 2009. It is simply a Charlie Bucket and the birthday chocolate thing. In Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Charlie gets a bar of chocolate on his birthday but instead of eating it at once he spends as long as possible looking at it before he can stand it no longer and he must eat the gift. I have been looking at this book for a long time waiting for the right moment to unwrap the gift that John Connolly has given us, that moment came when the book was chosen for one of the teen reading grouped I help organise.

Samuel is 11 and is not in a happy place, his Dad has left home and his mother has started getting dressed up to go out again. Samuel is a very unusual child, he is questioning and intelligent and the adults around him are by turns bemused, frustrated and irritated by him. In characteristic fashion Samuel decides to think creatively and steal a march on Halloween by going trick or treating a few days early. When he gets to 666 Crowley Road he finds more than he bargained for when Mr and Mrs Abernathy (with a little help from CERN's Large Hadron Collider) open a portal into another dimension and the gates of Hell begin to melt which will allow The Great Malevolence to lay waste to the world. Clearly Samuel and his dog Boswell have to stop this but when Samuel seeks help from adults they see only a child and do not believe him. Samuel has to rely on his wits and his dog, a few friends and a demon called Nurd, the scourge of Five Deities to save the world.

This is a hugely entertaining read. The tone of the book is light and accessible and Connolly has allowed the humour, which features in all of his books, even the dark Parker series, full reign. It is not just a book that entertains as there are also footnotes and riffs on particle physics, the Big Bang, philosophy and babysitters. The Gates has a very linear story line, there are occasional small branches off the main story that are short entertaining sketches but it's story arc is uncomplicated and perfect for ages 9+. I remain skeptical about it's marketing on publication to adults, but then the two adults who run book group both enjoyed the book immensely - so I am probably wrong.

I am interested in whether the book reveals Connolly's views on religion, although the story features the gates of Hell which will release The Great Malevolence, there is no mention of Satan and there is no sign of God - who you might think would take an interest in whether the gates of hell melt. The reader is treated to an opening chapter on the big bang theory which 'contained the building blocks of all that you see around you' and which also contained evil.

'There's a little bit in all of us, and the best thing we can do is to try not to let it govern our actions too much.'

It would seem that personal responsibility, rather than religion and a higher power, is the message, if there is a message, to be taken from Samuel's willingness to oppose Mrs Abernathy when the adults around him do not believe him. Taking personal responsibility is not a bad message to take away having read this entertaining and funny book.

Zombie Apocalypse created by Stephen Jones

2011-01-10T14:23:00.000Z

Wanting something a little different over Christmas, Stephen Jones' Zombie Apocalypse had caught my eye. It is a mosaic novel ie 'a novel where individual chapters are written by different authors with the aim of telling linear story from beginning to end' (Wikipedia). There are twenty co-authors of this book each responsible for a particular voice or narrative within the whole. The different sections range from diary entries, transcripts of radio broadcasts and audio files, Internet pages, police transmissions, medical reports etc. The experience of reading the novel (and I use that term loosely) is like picking up a file full of different data and forming an overall impression of a series of events.

Set in an increasingly authoritarian UK, where the current coalition government have decided to hold a new Festival of Britain 'To put the Great back into Britain'. Excavation has begun at a church and graveyard in London which is to be the site of a new train station for the festival. Concerns are raised that the graveyard contains a plague pit which if excavated could release Bubonic Plague - the rest as they say is history.

I have to say that this is the first zombie novel I have read and for me the zombies were not the point of the book. What the book does well is to look at the progression of a disease event (the zombies are irrelevant to this save as a transmission mechanism) through a western society, both from an individual perspective (think in cinema terms 'Cloverfield' and 'Blair Witch Project') to the often extreme and useless measures taken by government to combat the problem (together with bureaucratic inefficiency). One of my favourite contributions was 'Minutes of Meeting' by Kim Newman which as the title states are the minutes of a meeting of the Parliamentary Select Committee Supervising the Extreme Contingencies Planning Group during which the Minister with responsibility quizzes the Junior Assistant Planner on the circumstances leading to the formation of 'Contingency Twenty-Four: In the Event of the Zombie Apocalypse' which leads to official government advice being 'Run Away Screaming.'

Due to the fragmented nature of the various contributions, and when the novelty wore off, I found myself bored with my inability to connect with anyone in the book as almost inevitably things end badly and prematurely for everyone, I began skipping ahead. The book does convey a good sense of panic and fear (together with the global spread of the disease) but I felt the ending (which I won't give away) let down what had gone before it. Am I taking this to seriously? Possibly, but as one reviewer I spotted said 'personally I found it a little unrealistic'!

The Memory Cage-Ruth Eastham

2011-01-10T09:54:00.000Z

The Memory Cage is Ruth Eastham’s first novel. It is a touching story revolving around the effect of Alzheimer’s Disease on a family. Alex’s grandfather suffers from the disease and it is getting worse. Alex is adopted and his bond with his grandfather is very close as he is the one who made him feel most at home in England. Alex does not want to lose Grandad and so he covers up for him. Grandad makes Alex promise that he will not let his parents send him to a nursing home. A leaflet on Alzheimer’s Disease suggests that making a scrapbook can help sufferers. Alex clings to the hope that doing this will improve Grandad and that he will be able to keep his promise. But looking at the past upsets Grandad and some things do not add up. There are the strange words of Mr Webb and Grandad’s angry reaction to a figure in an old photograph. On top this there is the locked attic room in the house where no one is allowed to go. Alex is sure that all these things hold the secret to Grandad’s past. Piecing together the history leads to revelations about the Second World War but it also brings up memories of Alex’s past that he wants to forget forever.

The Memory Cage deals with many more issues than Alzheimer’s Disease. It shows the difficulties surrounding adoption in the jealousy of Alex’s adopted brother, Leonard. It also shows Alex’s fear of rejection by his family. He is scared that if his family send his grandfather away they will be capable of sending him away also. It also illustrates the tragic effects of war on people through Grandad’s Alzheimer’s and references to Alex’s past. Alex’s memories of his life in Bosnia before his adoption are repressed by him. It is clear that what happened to him damaged him deeply. The story also touches on how secrets within families can adversely affect the relationships between the people in them. Eastham provides a list of websites at the end of the book that give further information on the topics introduced in it.

I thought that The Memory Cage was an excellent book. I was thoroughly absorbed by it and, though I do not usually cry in books, I could barely read the last chapter through my tears! I would like the thank Scholastic for providing me with a copy of it to review. It is due out in January 2011 and is an excellent read for anyone in the 9+ age group.

Odd and the Frost Giants- Neil Gaiman

2010-11-23T15:13:00.000Z

Odd and the Frost Giants was originally written as a U.K. World Book Day book. It became a bestseller and subsequently was published in America. The edition being reviewed here is in hardback with expressive illustrations by Adam Stower. It is suitable for the 8+ age group and is available to buy from October 2010.

Odd lives in a small village in Norway in the time of the Vikings. His name does not mean odd in the English sense but instead translates as the tip of a blade. But Odd is strange in other ways. When he is told about his father’s death he just smiles. When he cripples his leg his reaction is the same. His mother’s new husband doesn’t have time for him and the winter seems as if it will never end. Odd decides to run away. He leaves for his father’s old woodcutting hut and that is when his adventures begin. He meets a fox who leads him to a bear and an eagle. They are not all they seem and through them Odd finds out why the winter has been so long and what must be done in order to end it and help his new friends. So Odd sets out on a journey to a place that stories are told of and on the way he finds out things about himself.

Odd and the Frost Giants is a book that uses Norse mythology to weave an interesting coming of age novel. Odd is out of place in his village after his father dies and he gets crippled. His journey with the fox, bear and eagle lead him far away from there. It is at this distance that Odd realises what he wants to do next in his life, after he has solved the problem of the Frost Giants of course! This is an exceptional piece of writing. I would never have guessed that it had originally been written for World Book Day if I hadn’t found out after I finished it. It is one of the best World Book Day pieces I have ever read and shows great skill on Gaiman’s part to be able to put together such an exciting and moving story with such a small word limit. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would recommend it to people of all age groups!

Tomorrow, when the War Began - John Marsden

2010-10-14T10:13:00.000+01:00

This book by Australian author John Marsden is regarded as a classic in it's native country and is taught extensively in Australian schools. The first in a seven book sequence it deals with the effect on a group of teenage friends of returning from a week of going bush (camping out away from civilisation in the Australian bush) to find their homes and towns empty of people and livestock, their pets dead and their country invaded by an unknown foreign force. Families, friends and townspeople are being held in a makeshift camp where the celebrations for Commemoration Day had been held.

Marsden's teenagers are educated but are, at the beginning of the book, more concerned with their friends and potential romantic connections than the strident voices issuing from the TV and radio. This all changes as they return from their trip to Hell to find that a version of hell has landed in their front yard.

Marsden's novel ticks all the right boxes for young adult literature dealing as it does with growing up, change and self discovery, where it triumphs however is in it's portrayal of teenagers as being thoughtful, concerned by the consequences of their actions and being able to see many sides to an issue. This is no gung-ho flag draped all action adventure but a hard look at the reaction to war/invasion by those who haven't really been interested in politics and current affairs and are forced to reassess their relevance to them.

The essential question that Marsden asks is what would you do? Hide, surrender or fight. The group of friends decide to fight for their country and society, from that moment on they have to grow and change to accommodate their new roles and experience.

It is a book that has great relevance in today's world, almost 20 years after it was published, for a generation that also considers that the strident voices issuing from TV and radio and politics has no relevance to them. In fact, the book is asking the biggest of questions of it's teenagers and the society in which they live, particularly now. What are you going to do? Hide, surrender or fight (figuratively not literally of course) for your country and the type of society you want to live in.

Originally published in Australia in 1993 the book has held up well to almost 20 years of technological advancement (the absence of ipods, ipads and mobiles goes almost unnoticed). No longer in print in Ireland, if you can root out a copy it would be well worth it for a well written account of real teens facing tough choices rather than easy actions with no consequences (nobody dies or is hurt badly).

Carole.

The Dead of Winter - Chris Priestley

2010-10-12T11:21:00.000+01:00

This tale opens with a funeral. Michael Vyner's mother has died leaving him an orphan. Michael's father died in Afghanistan when Michael was a baby saving the life of another,Sir Stephen Clarendon who has been Michael's benefactor and is now his Guardian. Michael is invited to Hawton Mere, Sir Stephen's ancestral home in the middle of bleak Cambridgeshire fenland, to spend Christmas with Sir Stephen and his sister Charlotte. But all is not well at Hawton Mere and Michael begins experience strange and sinister noises and apparitions. Who is the woman in the white shift? What or who is the image in the mirror?

This is a great spooky and frightening Gothic tale for children that has all the required elements for those who enjoy the more subtle horrors of vast and empty landscapes, castles, madness, death, secrets and ghosts. This is no blood and guts tale but an atmospheric and well crafted page turner that gathers its horrors around it like a cloak of thickening fog until the reader has sunk into the bed with a single lamp burning into the night, afraid not to finish the book and afraid to finish the book - and then afraid to turn the light off afterwards!

Read this in one giant bite and tell your friends, I doubt they will be as thrilled by anything so fearsome this year.

My thanks to Bloomsbury for my copy of Chris Priestley's book.

The Dead of Winter is available now.

Matched-Ally Condie

2010-09-30T09:14:00.000+01:00

Cassia is seventeen and she is about to attend her Match Banquet where the Society will reveal to her who her Match is. Her Match is her future husband found using a mixture of genetic and psychological compatibility. The government, known as the Society, has picked the partner who she is most likely to have a happy family life with and who is most likely to produce strong healthy children with her. Everyone in Cassia’s world is matched when they are seventeen unless they choose to be single for the rest of their lives. Only those who are matched are allowed to have children. In Cassia’s world the people are watched closely at all times, even while they are dreaming or exercising. People’s careers are determined by what they are best at and they are not allowed to have knowledge that relates to jobs that are not theirs. The Society even determines when people die, on their eightieth birthday. Cassia fits perfectly into this world, accepting all the rules the Society makes without question. It is only after her Match Banquet that she finds out more about the totalitarian regime that the Society really is and begins to see what is lost when lives are run purely on rules.

Cassia’s Match Banquet goes perfectly. She is matched to her best friend Xander, a surprise as is it rare that a person knows their Match prior to their matching. She is happy until she goes home and puts the microcard with Xander’s personal details onto her computer. Xander’s picture is replaced by someone else’s after a second. Someone that Cassia knows, Ky Markman. Curiosity leads Cassia to learn more about Ky and why he is one of the people in the Society who is not allowed be matched. Her relationship with Ky develops and through him she learns about things that have been lost due to the Society’s rules and about the people the Society exploits in order to maintain its control over the majority of the population. Cassia finds herself falling for Ky with no thought for the consequences.

Matched is a book about freedom of choice and about how something can look perfect on the outside until the consequences of achieving that perfection are shown. It explores the effects of a totalitarian government’s brainwashing on society when there is no one left who remembers what life was like before the totalitarian regime was established. It also puts the reader in mind of the Aryan race of Hitler’s regime as the matching system is essentially a breeding programme. It is a powerful book and as two more are to follow in the series it promises to continue to be so. My only problem with it is that probability gets such a bad name as it is one of my favourite branches of maths!

Condie has created a disturbing dystopian book, which not only makes the reader look to the future to see the faults that could happen there but to examine the faults in our own time. The Society shows why they rejected the world we live in now in the book. It easy for the reader to look at the world Condie portrays and to see the flaws in it but it is unsettling to see the flaws of our own as an outsider would see them. Dystopian as the world shown is, the inequalities of our own are equally unpalatable and the book helps us to remember that our world could be considered as a dystopia by an outsider. At least the people in Cassia’s world have the excuse of being brainwashed from birth in accepting their society. We have no such excuse.

Matched is a great, if disturbing read. It is suitable for young adults in the 14+ age group and is due out on 2nd December 2010. I would like to thank Razorbill Penguin for providing me with an advance copy for review.

Roisin

A Boy Called M.o.u.s.e.- Penny Dolan

2010-09-28T09:17:00.000+01:00

A Boy Called M.o.u.s.e. is an exciting and fast moving book about Mouse, a boy who has no surname and a surprising amount of enemies for someone so young. The reader knows more about Mouse’s story than he does himself as, though the majority of chapters are written in the first person from Mouse’s point of view, some the chapters are written in the third person from the view of both people who wish him ill and wish him well. Because of this from the start the reader knows what Mouse does not: that he is the son of rich parents who are lost at sea and his nursemaid Hanny, who he calls Ma, ran away with him to save him from his uncle Scrope who wants him dead. But Scrope is not the true villain of the piece. He is in the clutches of the sadistic money lender Mr Button who likes to cause others misery as much as he likes to collect the money they owe him. Scrope thinks that he has Button under his control but his perception is clouded by the jealousy he feels because his brother’s wife did not choose to marry him. Scrope needs money to pay back Button and feed his gambling addiction and Mouse is in his way. This leads him to leave Mouse’s affairs in Button’s hands. Button quickly discovers where Hanny has taken Mouse and when he judges the time is right he brings Mouse to Murkstone Hall, a cruel and tough school in the middle of nowhere run by an unhappy, uncaring man. But even during Mouse’s trials in his lessons we know worse is to come since we have seen Mouse as a servant in the kitchen of the school near the start of the book. Luckily we also know from the Dramatis Personae (if we have read it before starting the book) that Mouse has many cheerful friends to look forward to such as Nick Tick, Charlie Punchman and even a heroine, Kitty. Mouse longs to return to Hanny. The only clue he has to who he really is is a small silver disk with his name and a mouse carved on it that Hanny gave him and made him swear never to show to anybody.

This book is about love and friendship during hardship and what family really means. Even though Mouse is cruelly treated and pursued by villains throughout the book he also finds some true friends and how to survive in the world that has treated him badly. It also shows Mouse’s feelings of displacement because he knows he doesn’t know the full story about who he is and why the villains of the piece have it in for him. Mouse learns that it is love that creates a family and he uses this knowledge to create a life that he is happy in.

Mouse is a cheering and lively character. His skill at climbing and his head for heights are phenomenal and help him both in finding a place for himself wherever he is and when escaping from those who wish him ill. The other characters, whether hero or villain, in the book are all as vividly depicted as Mouse and have their own lives and, for some, secrets. I thoroughly enjoyed A Boy Called M.o.u.s.e. It is due out on 4th October and is an exciting book for the 9+ age group. I would like to thanks Bloomsbury for providing me with an advance copy for review.

Roisin

Reckless - Cornelia Funke

2010-09-23T14:49:00.001+01:00

Cornelia Funke has a world wide army of fans following the publication of her Inkheart Series. With 'Reckless' Funke will keep those fans and add new, older, ones beguiled by her writing style.

Jacob Reckless has lost his parents. His father has disappeared and his mother is lost in her grief. A year after his disappearance Jacob enters his father's study to look for clues as to what happened. Instead Jacob finds the way into a different world, through the glass mirror hanging on his father's study wall. From that moment Jacob is also lost to his mother and brother Will, disappearing for extended periods into this alternate world but as Will and Jacob Reckless grow up Jacob's secret does not remain a secret and Will follows him through the mirror.

Although we first meet Jacob as a child the story very swiftly jumps to a point when the Jacob and his brother are adults in their twenties, their alternate universe is peopled with humans, fairies elves and goyle. It is a place where magic is real but not in a benevolent way. The goyle (stone men) aided by the Dark Fairy are at war with the humans, the humans are loosing. Due to a mistake made by Jacob his brother is injured by a goyle as a result of which Will's skin is slowly turning to stone. Will is turning into the Jade Goyle dreamed of by the Dark Fairy and sought by the Goyle king's most trusted general. Jacob must find a way of reversing the Dark Fairy's spell in order to save his brother.

Funke has created a beguiling and dangerous world, from child eating witches to Sleeping Beauty whose prince never came (and I don't even want to think about the Tailor who is stitching clothes of skin!). There is an argument that this is not a book for those under 12 although children who have grown up with fairy tales will be no stranger to the grotesque. The fact that the Reckless boys are in their twenties which is unusual in 'childrens' fiction also means that there are more adult elements to the story, there are intimations that Jacob has had a chequered love life in this mirror world and there is possible confusion as to who Will's girlfriend Clara (who has also ended up in this mirror world) truly loves, Will or his brother Jacob.

The story is told from Jacob's point of view. He has clearly operated both in this world and the mirror world as an independent entity for many years leaving his mother and Will for long periods of time. He is in all respects a mercenary, paid for his services and hired for his expertise in tracking down artefacts. He is calculating and alone, apart from Fox. The impetus for his quest to save his brother is the mistake he made which resulted in Will's injury but along the way he comes to value that which he is about to loose - his family. There are however other relationships in this mirror world that Jacob does not necessarily value and it will be interesting to observe through this intended trilogy whether Jacob's lessons in caring are the point of the series.

My only critism of the book would be Jacobs capacious pockets, he seems to have a magical item for every eventuality, which became quite conspicuous by the end of the book. It is clear however at the end that there are further adventures to be had in this new world and Jacob faces further challenges. I for one will be waiting for the next instalment with baited breath.

Carole

Alien Storm - A. G. Taylor

2010-09-17T09:23:00.002+01:00

A taut roller coaster ride of danger, betrayal and superpowers this book continues A. G. Taylor’s tale of six children who have gained special powers following a virus infected meteorite strike (The first in the series is 'Meteorite Strike').

Saved from capture and befriended by Russian billionaire Nikolai Makarov, the six friends are pitted against their strongest and most dangerous adversary yet as more deadly meteorites head towards the earth in what will be an extinction event.

Perfect for the 10+ age group this is a thrilling sci-fi adventure with strong characters of both genders, so the book should appeal to a wide audience. At 412 pages the book is also one for confident readers younger than 10.

'Alien Storm' will be published on the 26th November so there's plenty of time to catch up by reading the first book in the series before publication day!

Noah Barleywater Runs Away- John Boyne

2010-09-15T09:56:00.000+01:00

Noah Barleywater Runs Away is about eight-year-old Noah Barleywater and the adventures he has the day he decides to run away from home. Noah has decided it is better to leave home and not to think about the things there that make him sad. Instead he faces the path before him. After all eight is old enough to leave home, all the books he has read show how easy it is. But Noah is surprised by how different it is to run away in real life and, having skipped breakfast, he is very hungry by lunchtime. The villages he passes through are strange. When he takes some apples off a tree they vanish and no one seems friendly. In the third village things are different. He is fascinated by a strange tree and the odd shop behind it. When Noah goes into the shop he meets an old man there and his fortune changes.

This book is an interesting blend of fairy tale and the present day. The stories Noah tells the old man are firmly set in the unmysterious modern world. But the old man’s stories take place in a strange, slightly magical world in the past and are strangely familiar... I personally found Noah’s stories more interesting but enjoyed those of the old man almost as much. It is a touching story about love, death and growing old. It is also about not being afraid to make the choices that will make you happy in life. The time that Noah and the old man spend together leads them both to share things that they are scared or ashamed of. Both their futures are put on a different path by their meeting.

I enjoyed the book, especially after the familiar story lines began to emerge. It is a clever combination of a sequel to a classic children’s story and a modern story about a child trying to deal with a problem that is out of his control. The novel is due out on the 30^th September and is a great read for anyone in the 8+ age group.

I would like to thank David Fickling Books for providing me with a copy for review.

Roisin.

The Stray Sod Country - Patrick McCabe

2010-09-14T09:03:00.000+01:00

The people of Cullymore, Ireland are startled by a scream. And so begins this novel of the innermost thoughts and desires of a town. Strangely compelled to act upon these impulses, the town may indeed have stepped onto ‘The Stray Sod’, a clump of grass enchanted by fairies so that you become lost and disoriented, the familiar becoming unfamiliar. Allied to this is William Blake’s vision of a ‘Nobodaddy’, a patriarchal god who is nobody because he never shows himself to those he supposedly created. McCabe has combined the two in a characteristically savage and fantastical tale of a town, its relationships and petty jealousies which is a song to the rural communities of the 1950’s. Who is the narrator of this tale? A Fetch designed to presage the death of the community and its way of life or, in the absence of God, the Devil come to taunt the devout community. As 1958 draws to a close and the modern world comes closer, the echo of the community and its actions reverberates through time.

X'ed Out - Charles Burns

2010-09-10T10:22:00.003+01:00

Doug is in bed with a head trauma, he is woken by his cat Inky who died years ago. The cat is sitting in front of a hole in Doug's bedroom wall, the cat enters the hole and Doug follows, through this portal into another world.

So begins this graphic novel of the American sequencial artist Charles Burns, a homage to Herge's Tintin ( the cover specifically references 'The Shooting Star') and William Borroughs. Doug is a teenage artist who possibly got into an altercation with the boyfrind of a (possibly) ex-girlfriend which resulted in the head injury. At home in bed, drugged with pictures scattered around him, Doug drifts between reality, flashbacks and drug induced hallucinations. The hallucinations take over more and more of his life until it becomes increasingly unclear what is reality and what's not.

This novel is concerned with Burns' enduring preoccupation with identity, the ability to cover or alter yourself, the wish to transform and become a new person - that a person may indeed be 'X'ed Out'. Doug's head wound is clearly visible as a result of having his head shaved, his 'affliction' is in plain sight. Doug can not cover the cause of his suffering, but can Doug transform himself? The eternal teenage quest for identity.

Filled with strange creatures and grotesque human figures -and eggs, Doug hallucinates a reptilian race who clearly hold some power. This race have found a new Queen and Doug is instantly smitten but she is being taken to the hive - yet another possible reference to the erasure of the individual, subsumed into a collective mentality much as modern society demands conformity.

Tintin is also referrenced in the artwork Burns' has produced, the hallucinated panels are in the style of Herge with flat bright colours. The panels dealing with Doug's reality have a different visual style, much darker. Images from Doug's reality are replicated in his dreams, much as Burns has replicated some of the images that recurr throughout his past work in this novel.

This is the first in a planned sequence of books (the next is 'The Hive'). There is much to look at and think about in this, the first part of Doug's story. My only critism is that it is too short. There is no sense that we have understood or resolved anything from this first part of the story, indeed I suspect that I have only just begun to scratch the surface of the complexity that Burns will offer to his readers in this series. Whilst the brevity of 'X'ed Out' is frustrating there is enough to engage the reader and keep them guessing until the publication of 'The Hive' (for which I have no release date).

I am indebted to an interview between Charles Burns and Brian Heater at The Daily Cross Hatch here .

I would also like to thank Jonathan Cape and Random House for my copy of 'X'ed Out' for review.

'X'ed Out' is released on the 16th October.

Carole

I Shall Wear Midnight - Terry Pratchett

2010-09-08T09:19:00.000+01:00

'I Shall Wear Midnight' is the fourth book about Tiffany Aching. Tiffany is a witch and she’s run off her feet. She’s not even sixteen but she’s the one who is called in by the people of the Chalk to deal with births and deaths. She’s also responsible for all the assorted nursing that everyone else is too busy to do or even think about, like cutting old ladies toenails. Usually Tiffany cannot remember when she last ate or slept in a proper bed. But even though she is doing all the work no one wants to do people seem to be suspicious of her. Tiffany knows that people always dislike witches a bit because they wish that they did not need them but it seems that the dislike is getting out of hand. And the kelda of the Nac Mac Feegles is telling her that that there is danger in her future. Tiffany may not have the time or energy to think about or fear what is in store for her but she will have to face it soon.

'I Shall Wear Midnight' is another excellent book by Pratchett. Like his other books concerning witches it deals with close knit communities and the problems that arise in them. Though the world it is set in seems old fashioned the ideas put forward are not. Tiffany and her fellow witches are involved in doing damage control for all the bad things that can happen in a community as well as being the equivalent of a local doctor. People think that magic can fix everything but Tiffany knows that sometimes difficult decisions have to be made and sometimes it is not deciding what the ‘good’ choice is but which of the two bad choices is the best. In an earlier book concerning Granny Weatherwax she plays Death for the choice of whether a mother or her baby dies. It is these choices that Tiffany is talking about in this book, the ones that you do not speak about afterwards but have to be made by someone. In Pratchett’s books it is witches that have to make them. Tiffany is not even an adult and she has to make decisions where there is no right choice. This book is partly about the fear that people who make such decisions can provoke in society and how it can lead society to turn on those who are trying to help them. Of course, it has the humour and excitement of all the Discworld books. No book containing the infamous Nac Mac Feegles (also known as Pictsies) could fail to be hilarious. While these are my favourite characters for providing amusement, the rest of the cast also lived up to expectations.

For Pratchett fans this book ties up a few loose ends and brings up old characters that might have been forgotten. There are also some fascinating new characters that can at times be very surprising! As there often is, there is a little crossover with characters from other Discworld subseries and it is fun to see people who are usually protagonists appearing in the background. The plot is fast moving and it is sometimes very scary. The importance of everyday life to the book means that the dangerous magical forces are even more terrifying in contrast.

As always I believe Terry Pratchett’s books are suitable for all age groups but this book is listed as Young Adult so I’ll put it down as 10+.

'I Shall Wear Midnight' is out at the start of September. It is a fantastic read and will not disappoint Pratchett’s fans.

My thanks to Doubleday for providing me with an advance copy for review.

Roisin

A Most Improper Magick- Stephanie Burgis

2010-09-06T09:22:00.000+01:00

Kat Stephenson’s family is in trouble. Her brother’s gambling debts will have him thrown into debtors’ prison if they are not paid in two months. For Kat and her two older sisters, Elissa and Angeline, this would put paid to any prospects of marriage. As it is their marriage prospects aren’t good. They have no real dowries and though their father is a clergyman, their mother was a witch and in the nineteenth century that was a disgrace in the eyes of society.

Kat is only twelve and her plan of dressing as a boy and running away to London to make her fortune is quickly foiled by her older sisters. Her stepmother has a much more practical plan. She hopes to marry off Elissa to a wealthy man, Sir Neville Collingwood. Elissa has agreed to this but Kat knows there is something ominous her two sisters are not telling her about him. Both Kat and Angeline are determined to stop the match from happening. Kat’s plans are brought to a halt but when she finds her mother’s magic books in Angeline’s possession she realises that Angeline’s plans are more risky. Kat realises that magic could be an effective means of preventing the marriage but when she searches her mother’s belongings she finds out there is more than one type of magic and that those who practice it are not always the friendliest people. As the meeting with Sir Neville grows closer Kat is determined to ensure that catastrophe is diverted without marrying her sisters off to men they do not love.

Kat is a lively and likable character. Her family seems to be a typical fairy tale family with the wicked stepmother and the weak father. It is an interesting twist that it is the girls’ dead mother who was the witch not the stepmother. The book is exciting and fast moving. It’s quite scary in places and very funny. Kat is perpetually making mistakes but she always has good intentions. The reader will be able to relate to her because she is not perfect even if she has powerful talents. The book has the familiar plotline of the young protagonist being responsible for dealing with the mess that her older relatives make. It is distinguished by its great heroine and sinister villains. It has a well thought out structure for its magical world and what is revealed about makes the reader want to know more. It also brushes against problems of class in both Kat’s home life and the magical world that she enters. A Most Improper Magick is an exciting book for readers in the 10+ age group.

'A Most Improper Magick' is Stephanie Burgis’ first novel. There are two more books about Kat and her family due to be published in the next few years. Stephanie Burgis has had short stories published, many of which are available to read online on her website www.stephanieburgis.com Most of these short stories are written for adults.

'A Most Imprper Magick' is available now.

My thanks to Templar Publishing for my review copy of the book.

Roisin

Dark Matter - Michelle Paver

2010-09-02T09:50:00.002+01:00

Dark Matter (n): Matter inferred to exist from it's gravitational effects on visible matter.

It is 1937 and in a foggy London four gentlemen of science await a fifth, the potential wireless operator for an expedition to Gruhuken in the Arctic to study High Arctic biology and conduct a meteorological survey. The fifth member of the group is Jack Miller, a clerk who had to abandon his dreams of a scientific career to care for his mother after his fathers illness and death.

'Dark Matter' is comprised of Jack's diary entries primarily written during his time in the Arctic. However, at the beginning of the book is a letter from a medical Doctor in 1947 seeking more information from a member of the Arctic team regarding Jack for a monograph on 'abnormal fears' and 'phobic disorders'. The reader is therefore placed on notice that the contents of the journal may not be reliable and of the need to assess how far Jack can be trusted to tell us the 'truth' of his experiences in the Arctic.

Jack is 28, lonely, poor and has a chip on his shoulder about his life circumstances and the wealth of his expedition companions. He has no friends and has been alone for 7 years since the death of his mother. Judgmental and resentful of his companion's opportunities due to their wealth Jack isn't a very likable character. Jack wants to change his life and views the Arctic and the expedition as a way to do this:

'I think that's what the Arctic means to me. I think that up here, I'll be able to "breathe with both lungs", as Mr Eriksson says: to see clearly for the first time in years. Right through to the heart of things'

Like the obscuring London fog at the beginning off the book, Jack is unable to view his circumstances and history clearly and without emotion. He hates 'all this raking up the past' and hopes that the expedition to Gruhuken will be a new start.

Unfortunately, of the original team of five, only three make it to Gruhuken - Jack, Algie and Gus.

What follows is a quiet winding of tension as both Algie and Gus have to leave Grunuken and Jack remains to carry out the meteorological objectives of the survey. But as endless day turns into endless night, Jack and the reader enter a world where science and reality hold no sway:

There's no dawn and no dusk. Time has no meaning. We've left the real world, and entered a land of dreams'

What actually happens to Jack, what he sees, hears and feels are the 'Dark Matter' of the title. Jack doesn't like the past 'poking through' but this is exactly what seems to be happening to him. The past influences Jack in how he lived in London and the past influences his behaviour in the Arctic winter. The scientific mind is pitted against our most primitive fears:

'Fear of the dark. Until I came here, I thought that was for children; that you grew out of it. But it never really goes away. It's always there underneath. The oldest fear of all.'

As the polar night engulfs Gruhuken in darkness and the point of no return approaches, what exactly is Jack experiencing?

Gruhuken and the Arctic are physically present in this book in their own right. What lingers in the mind are Pavers' descriptions of the expedition surroundings, the first sight of which is like 'a blow to Jack's heart'. The noises of the ice talking to itself, the pistol shot as part of a glacier breaks off and sinks into the sea and behind it all, the stillness

'Immense. Overwhelming. I realised that this place is and always will be No-man's-land.'

This is no high octane action adventure, more of a slow burn as tension and doubt are layered on top of each other. Paver's tightly controlled narrative and character development meant that I never lost belief in Jack's character, there are no slips or jarring notes to bring the reader back to their own reality. Jack's character begins to change as his story unfolds, thawing and relaxing, due to his friendship with Gus and his love for one of the team of huskies. Paver is equally convincing in the portrayal of the unraveling of Jack's view of reality. As we are left to try to sort out what actually happened to him in Gruhuken we are given a glimpse into Jack's future - a view which I found as unsettling as the events in Gruhuken itself.

Definitely a book to read in large bites (if not in one mouthful) if you are a lover of the strange and chilling.

This is Michelle Pavers' first ghost story for adults, her style is simple and direct and as such the book would be accessible for older teens.

My thanks to Orion for providing me with an advance copy for review. Because my copy is an advance some of the quotes above may differ slightly in the final version of the book.

'Dark Matter' will be published on the 21st October

Carole.

Dark Life - Kat Falls

2010-08-26T12:17:00.000+01:00

When the oceans rose, entire continents were swallowed up by the rising water. Now humans live packed into high rises on small tracts of land, while those willing to forge new frontiers settle deep on the ocean floor.

Ty is the first child to be born on the ocean floor in Benthic Territory, an underwater community. He has spent his entire life as one of the new settlers in this new environment. There are other children in the territory but he is the oldest. When he discovers a submarine without lights sitting on the sea floor it provides a convenient place to wait out some sharks that are a little too interested in him. Inside Ty finds the sub dripping with blood and a girl, Gemma, an orphan and ward of the Commonwealth, who is searching for her brother sent to a juvenile detention centre when she was young. But things are about to change in the territory, outlaws and pirates are preying on the ships of the 'wealth and they are about to turn their attention to the settlers. The children of the territory have secrets that could destroy their community and the life they live on the ocean floor.

Kat Falls has written an compelling book that owes a debt to many different genres and types of story. Variously a western (frontier life, pioneers, outlaws and a sheriff), a dystopian novel of life after global warming, a coming of age novel (both for the central character Ty and the community in which he lives), love story and science fiction all action adventure. Despite all of these different styles Falls has managed to keep a firm hand on her story which rattles along at breakneck speed and which will keep it 11+ audience entertained and enthralled.

Falls has done an excellent job of underwater world building, her awe and fascination with the creatures of the deep oceans is transmitted clearly through her vivid descriptions which, coupled with her underwater technologies, make the Benthic Territory a character in the book in it's own right. She touches on but does not labour the politics of the new frontier - control and exploitation by the Commonwealth. The reader is also made aware of The Topside (where Gemma comes from) an overcrowded, hot teeming place where space is a luxury and where the Commonwealth still maintain martial law and elections have not been held for 20 years. There are therefore many areas of interest for intelligent and interested teens to consider.

Although Ty and Gemma appear a little young for their supposed 15 years, slightly too gung-ho, innocent and unable to consider the consequences of their actions, they are not too young to feel the first stirrings of more adult emotions towards each other. Ty and his other underwater born friends have their own secrets which they are anxious to conceal, however as the outlaws turn their attention to Ty and Gemma and the 'Wealth reveals it's interest in the children of the new frontier it becomes clear that the children are what will help the settlers survive.

As the book ends and the plot arc draws to a close I anticipate that this is not the last we shall hear of Ty and Gemma, there is a lot more of this new world to be explored. Indeed for such a well thought out and potentially complex world I would hope that Kat Falls can produce fiction that is more complex and satisfying than this essentially plot driven novel. There is huge potential for the world of the Topsiders and Dark Lifers which is only touched on and skimmed over in this book. It is no surprise that the book has already been optioned as a movie.

Carole

The 10 p.m. Question – Kate de Goldi

2010-08-25T11:53:00.000+01:00

Kate de Goldi is a New Zealand author. She writes young adult fiction, short stories and children’s books and has won many awards for her work. The 10 p.m. Question has received several awards including the New Zealand Post Book of the Year (2009) and the Readers’ Choice award at the Montana New Zealand Book Awards (2009).

The 10 p.m. Question covers several months of twelve year old Frankie Parsons’ life. Frankie’s structured world is changed drastically when he makes friends with Sydney Vickerham, a new girl in his class. Sydney is different to everyone he knows and her intense questioning about his life and family make Frankie worry. Some parts of his family life are taboo subjects that no one ever brings up. What if Sydney asks him questions he does not want to answer?

As Sydney becomes part of Frankie’s life further worries emerge. Sydney’s mother does not stay in one place for long. Frankie worries all the time about everything from earthquakes to spiders and Sydney’s cheerful company helps Frankie to enjoy life more. He does not know how he will cope if Sydney goes. And since he is afraid of flying how will he be able to visit her?

de Goldi has created a fabulous world in The 10 p.m. Question. She has created fantastic characters in Frankie’s family and his school life. From the incredible Aunties to Frankie’s eccentric teacher, Mr A. all the characters in this book come to life on the page. Each chapter ends with a section in italics. This describes when Frankie goes to his mother’s room at 10 p.m. every night to ask her questions about what has been worrying him during the day. The italics make the conversation between Frankie and his mother more private and show what an important and personal part of Frankie’s day it is.

The 10 p.m. Question deals with the effect of mental illness in a family. It is interesting because it covers mental illness in both adults and children and shows the genetic connection within families. It also focuses more on Frankie’s journey to understanding what he wants from life than on how his difficulties with endless worry are solved. It is also notable in that it does not focus on the taking of medication to solve mental illness. It shows that there are limitations in trying to cure people who are mentally ill and that sometimes people need to compromise their idea of what is normal in order to be able to accept these limitations.

The 10 p.m. Question is out this August and is a great read for anyone in the 12+ age group.

My thanks to Templar Publishing for supplying me with a copy of this book for review.

Roisin

Gregor the Overlander - Suzanne Collins

2010-08-19T13:48:00.001+01:00

Published this month is Suzanne Collins' debut novel Gregor the Overlander, previously only available in the US. It is a fantasy adventure novel for ages 9+ that is well written and action packed.

Gregor is 11, his father disappeared 2yrs 7mths and 13 days ago and life has not been the same since. Gregor doesn't allow himself to think about the future, it is too painful, he just thinks about now - the now of not being able to go to summer camp because he has to stay home and mind his 2yr old sister Boots while his mum works. But while he is thinking about the now his mind is not on what he is doing (the laundry) and definitely not on his sister. When Gregor realises his sister is very quite and has been for some time he finds her leaning into a grate in the laundry room, as he reaches for her she disappears, Gregor has to follow and down down he falls into the Underland.

Gregor finds himself in a land where cockroaches, bats, rats and spiders speak and are far larger than in the Overland. Humans have violet eyes and his father is being held by Gorger, King of the Rats. Gregor's arrival leads the Underlanders to believe that he is the warrior prophesied in 'The Legend of Gray' carved on the walls of the palace, a warrior that will affect the fate of the humans in Underworld. Gregor knows he is no warrior, but it is the only way he can rescue his father so he, Boots and two Underworlders set out to build an alliance with the spiders and the cockroaches in order to rescue Gregor's father and save the Underworld from the rats.

Suzanne Collins is known in Europe for her best selling Hunger Games Series, a dystopian adventure for the 11+age group. Gregor's tale is an introduction to the world of fantasy literature for the 9+ age range but is no less well written or absorbing just because it is for a younger audience.

Gregor is an average child who has suffered a traumatic loss and Collins is astute enough to realise that although Gregor's father can be rescued, he will have been changed by his experiences.

Gregor had thought he would get a parent back when he found his Dad. Then he could stop having to make hard decisions. He could just be a kid. But the man before him was even needier than Boots was.

Collins' portrayal of Gregor is real and vivid, Gregor is no all action hero he is just an ordinary boy in extraordinary circumstances - he even realises that even though he might want a sword, as his mum won't even let him carry a pocket knife and, as he is likely to be grounded for the rest of his life, a sword just wouldn't be worth the hassle!

The Underland is a fantastic world. From Alice's Adventures in Wonderland through to the wardrobe in The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe secret portals to other worlds have long been a staple of children's literature and Collins has done an excellent job of world building. Coupled with dangerous allegiances, treachery and battles this book is a must for young (and not so young!) bookworms.

There are four more books in the series and I assume these will be released in due course

At the back of the book children will find a note about the author, an interview with Suzanne Collins and for imaginative children a piece about how to go about constructing their own portal and underworld when writing stories - this is a great idea.

You can find an excerpt of the book here

For the teachers amongst you a teachers guide and book group type questions here.

Carole

I Am Number Four - Pittacus Lore

2010-08-16T14:07:00.000+01:00

Penguin's big new release for the autumn is I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore, the pseudonym of James Frey ( A Million Little Pieces and Bright and Shiny Morning) and a new young writer Jobie Hughes. The book is also currently being filmed as a movie and clearly Penguin are hoping for great things from this projected 6 book series.

John Smith is a teenager new to Paradise, Ohio. His documentation says that he was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. John is not a normal teenager and his place of birth is far from Tuscaloosa, in fact its far from anywhere on Earth. John Smith was born on Lorien, a planet ravaged by the Mogadorian. He is a Garde, one of nine children that survived the Mogadorian invasion that destroyed his home world. Due to a charm placed on the nine they can only be killed in number order. Three of those survivors are dead, John is number four and he is next!

Whilst trying to come to terms with new powers that he is developing John must also try and blend in in the new school he is attending, difficult to do when your hands start glowing when stressed. Unfortunately not everyone in Paradise is friendly and as John's terrestrial problems mount it seems that his extra terrestrial problems are just about to explode with devastating consequences for friends and enemies alike.

This is a rip roaring read full of action and adventure for the 13+ age group, a plot driven story which will have the intended audience lapping up not just this book but it's sequels. It is also nice to see not only 'the love interest' but the introduction of, what I hope in future books, will be a kick ass girl - number 6.

The relationship between John and his guardian Henri is one of the best features of this tale. Henri has cared for and tried to guide John through 10 years of hiding on earth but, as with most teenagers, Henri's control over John is slipping as John moves closer to adulthood. As John makes more of the decisions on his own and Henri disappears we see just how frightening the adult world that Henri has shielded John from, can be.

Keep an eye out for two of my favourite characters Bernie Kosar and Sam Goode and for the sequel of this book which I am sure is going to be huge.

In the beginning we were a group of nine.

There are six of us left. The first three were killed in the order of their numbers.

They won't stop until they've killed us all.

I am number four.

I know that I am next.

Catch up with all the info on the book and movie here

My thanks to Penguin for sending me an advance copy of this book for review.

Carole.

The Odyssey - Homer (adapted by Tim Mucci, Ben Caldwell & Emanuel Tenderini

2010-08-10T12:26:00.000+01:00

I have a confession to make - I have never read 'The Iliad' nor have I read 'The Odyssey' in their original form - I suspect that I am not alone. The thought of wading in to two epic poems of over 25,000 words in total does not appeal, however the stories that make up these poems, tales of heroes and Gods, have entered our cultural psyche.

I have another confession, I don't read graphic novels. Why? I think I am afraid that they will not be as rich an experience as immersing myself in a novel. I'm not sure I want the images that form whilst reading to be hijacked by someone elses idea of what the characters and their surroundings look like.

When the opportunity to read the story of The Odyssey as a graphic novel presented itself I jumped at the chance. This all action classic was a different experience to reading a novel, was it a satisfying one? Read on.

After 10 years of war and destruction at Troy King Odysseus wishes to return home to his Queen Penelope who is besieged by prospective suitors eager to steal his wife and the throne of Ithaca. As Penelope spends her days sewing and every night unpicking her stitches to keep her suitors at bay, Odysseus must battle fearsome monsters and jealous Gods in order to make his way home to his Queen. Odysseus is protected by Athena (breaker of Armies) as he honours the Gods but the other Greeks are condemned to make their own fate, unprotected, due to Agamemnon's cursing of the Gods and defilement of the sacred places. It is Odysseus' job to try to get them home safely.

Tim Mucci's adaptation brings Odysseus to life, his intelligence and cleverness coupled with an ability for trickery and slyness lead him and those who follow him into and out of one adventure after another. From the Cyclops to the multi-headed hound Kerberos who guards the gates of Hades Odysseus outwits them all. The dialogue is contemporary and at times playful:

Hermes: Where are you off to now, my unlucky friend?

To Circe's Palace your life to end?

She'll change you in to Ox or Crow...

Odysseus: Wh..Who are You?

Hermes: Me? Oh...You know.

Ben Caldwell, the penciller, from which I take it he drew the cartoons, has produced strong pictures full of movement. Ghost lines can be seen throughout the book, which adds to the sense that the characters in the pictures are moving. Eyes are large, waists small. Men are square jawed, women have heart shaped faces. Where Caldwell excels is the depiction of the monsters, the mighty Cyclops with his one eye, the lotus eaters wasting away and Poseidon intent on revenge. If you want to see the genesis of some of the artwork for the book and other work by Ben Caldwell then head over to Art Cartooning to see more

Whilst Ben Caldwell may have drawn the pictures he did not colour them in! That task falls to colourist Emanuel Tenderini and 'colouring in' is far to simple a way of explaining his contribution. Colour provides depth and perception to the work, colour influences our response to the image and colour prompts us to make judgements about what we are seeing. When Odysseus travels to Hades to seek audience with the blind oracle of Thebes, Tiresias, the images are cold blues, greys and purples as befits a shadowy after world. Cerise is the colour of the devourer Scylla and aqua the sharp toothed Sirens.

This is a great read and one that is easily accessible to those who don't want to wade through thousands of words of ancient poetry. Is it authentic? Not having read the original I can't compare but it does put into context and explain the story of The Odyssey for a new generation.

And how was the experience of reading a graphic novel? The experience is not the same as reading a novel but it is not, as I feared, a lesser experience just a different and equally rewarding one. It is to the pictures you return again and again to assess expressions on faces and replay visual jokes. I will definitely be returning to the world of the graphic novel.

The Odyssey is available now and is the third in the All Action Classics series.

My thanks to GMC Distribution Services for sending me a copy of the book for review.

Carole

The Reapers Are The Angels - Alden Bell

2010-08-09T10:22:00.001+01:00

It is the end of days and the dead have risen and walk the earth.

Temple has only known this hard world in which she fights to survive. Finding Maury, a simple mute man, she decides to take him to Texas in search of his relatives as atonement for the things she has done and the mistake she made.

Pursued by a man intent on vengeance, both hunter and hunted travel the roads of this wasted America happier in the wilderness with the walking dead than in the last remaining places of civilisation.

Although life is hard there are miracles along the way and even when the earth is going to hell there is beauty to behold.

This is a fine debut novel with a distinctive voice reminiscent of the western. It is a call to savour the natural beauty around us even though we may be hard pressed with worry and asks that old question, are we bound to our fate or can we make our own future?

The devil has sown his harvest and it is the end of the world – but who are the angels, the civilised in their fortresses or the lone gunmen in the wilderness?

A post apocalyptic zombie novel worth reading.

The Reapers Are The Angels will be published on the 3rd September.

My thanks to Bertrams and Tor for providing me with an advance copy of the book for review.

Carole

Blood Ninja - Nick Lake

2010-08-05T09:44:00.003+01:00

UK Cover

It is 1565 and Japan is ruled by a boy Emperor. The political situation is only stable because the competing interests of the Lords, who rule the provinces of Japan, ensures that no one of them becomes too powerful. Whilst everything on the surface is cordial the Lords secretly scheme to obtain ultimate power. The Lords Oda and Tokugawa in particular seek to rule Imperial Japan.

Unaware of the political intrigue and machinations that flow and eddy in the palaces and great houses of Japan, Taro, the son of a fisherman and an amas (pearl diver) grows up in the coastal village of Nagoya. Taro does not look like his fellow villagers, he also prefers the bow and the hunt to the rod and the sea which sets him apart. His best friend Hiro is also an outsider, saved from a shark by Taro when a child.

The scene is therefore set for one of the oldest and one of the newest plot lines in history - boy with destiny grows up in obscurity only to find out that he is not who he thought he was. This is a pretty well used story line but where Nick Lake makes things interesting is that he introduces a whole new class of undead warrior - the Vampire Ninja. This means that throughout the book we are given awesome swordplay (from both boys and girls) with some major martial arts (from the boys and the girls) and some pretty gruesome scenes (do I need to mention the finger and the leprosy!).

Nick Lake has brought 16th Century Imperial Japan to life in a real and vibrant way. He has clearly researched his period, including the myths and legends of the time, which all make for a full, three dimensional experience. Japanese words are used throughout the book ( I would have appreciated a glossary of terms to help me keep up) and time and distance are again dealt with as if you were Japanese (again an introductory explanation would have been useful).

This book is not however one fight scene after another poorly linked, there are whole sections of the book that do not involve fighting. As Taro and his companions travel through Japan to the Ninja secret hideout Taro is shown to grow both emotionally and in his awareness that the world is not a black and white place, that the reasons people do things are complex. The book ends with two great scenes that I wish I could tell you about but which set up book two to be as exciting and thrilling as this first one.

Blood Ninja is the first in a planned trilogy and Nick Lake has said that there is a very definite end point for the series. The book very much felt as if we are being given an introduction to the characters and their lives and I expect the sequel ( The Revenge of Lord Oda) to be fast and furious as both the characters and readers will have hit their stride. As with Blood Ninja expect swords, changing allegiances, throwing stars, hideouts, sellouts, revenge, sacrifice, beheadings, body parts - and vampire ninjas.

This is a book that boys and kick ass girls will love.

US Cover

Before leaving the review however I would like to mention Blood Ninja's UK cover (above). One of the best that I have seen this year, very different to the book's American version (right) and a work of art. The illustrator is Hydro74 otherwise known as Joshua Smith. If you like the cover art then you could do worse than log on to his website ( here ) and view his other creations.

You can find an interview with Nick Lake here.

Read the first chapter of Blood Ninja: The Revenge of Lord Oda here (out 7th December).

Blood Ninja was published on 2nd August and is available to buy now.

My thanks to Corvus and Grove Atlantic for supplying me with a copy of Blood Ninja for review.

Carole

Last Light - Alex Scarrow

2010-07-30T09:55:00.000+01:00

Having read Alex Scarrow's teen/YA offering Time Riders in June ( review here ) I was sufficiently impressed by his plotting to sample one of his adult thrillers. Last Light looks at what would happen if the worlds supply of oil were to be cut off, how would governments and individuals cope?

The Sutherlands are a family in crisis. Dad Andy is an oil engineer in Iraq, he has bored his friends and family with his predictions of what would happen when the oil runs out - to the point where his wife Jennifer is in Manchester for a job interview, putting the final pieces in place to move out of the family home and out of Andy's life.
Daughter Leona is at university in Norwich and son Jacob is at his boarding school in London. It is through the lens of this family and their efforts to be reunited after a religious war kicks off in the middle east (helped along by a secret cabal) that Scarrow explores the, frankly scary, likely response to an oil crisis.

As the effects of the ash cloud earlier this year showed, we are all interconnected. Take away one element of this interconnectedness, in that case air travel, and all sorts of problems occur from interrupted holiday plans to shortages of certain types of foods. But what would happen if multiple connections fail? Without oil there is no means of energy production, no way to clean and pump water and no way of moving food from A to B. What would you do if no water came out of the tap and the only food you had was what happened to be in your fridge and cupboard the day the oil stopped?

As Andy struggles to get home from Iraq and Jennifer is holed up at a motorway service station, Scarrow describes a world in chaos in which only the fittest and the most ruthless survive. The most memorable scenes in the book are being played out in the residential streets of Shepherds Bush, London where Leona and Daniel have managed to make it back to the family home. Gangs of teenagers terrorise the homeowners as law and order breaks down and people begin to realise that no one is coming to fix the problem and it's every man for himself. Food and water become worth dying for.

It can be argued that Scarrow has over egged the pudding with the inclusion of a secret cabal who are masterminding things however this does not detract from a strong thriller that would be perfect for a summer read on holiday. But beware, this is a book that you will not be able to toss aside when you have finished and move on to the next one. If on holiday you will be itching to get back home and to an Internet connection to research the phenomenon known as Peak Oil, you will want to look through your cupboards to asses how much tinned and dry food you have, you will want to find out where your nearest water source is and how clean it is and you will want to look in your tool shed to find out just how many tools you have that don't rely on electricity to work and whether - in an emergency - they will be enough to help you survive the oil crash.

This is exactly the wake up call that society needs, forget global warming - will you survive Last Light?

Not an official book trailer but one that illustrates exactly what Last Light is about here

After Light the sequel to Last Light is now available and deals with the world 10 years after the crisis. How have the Sutherlands and society fared?

Carole.

The Man Booker Prize 2010

2010-07-28T10:43:00.000+01:00

The Man Booker Prize longlist was announced yesterday and with two of the thirteen nominated titles from Irish authors, Irish interest in the prize will be strong. The twelve books on the longlist are:

Peter Carey Parrot and Olivier in America (Faber and Faber)
Emma Donoghue Room (Pan MacMillan - Picador)
Helen Dunmore The Betrayal (Penguin - Fig Tree)
Damon Galgut In a Strange Room (Grove Atlantic - Atlantic Books)
Howard Jacobson The Finkler Question (Bloomsbury)
Andrea Levy The Long Song (Headline Publishing Group - Headline Review)
Tom McCarthy C (Random House - Jonathan Cape)
David Mitchell The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet (Hodder & Stoughton - Sceptre)
Lisa Moore February (Random House - Chatto & Windus)
Paul Murray Skippy Dies (Penguin - Hamish Hamilton)
Rose Tremain Trespass (Random House - Chatto & Windus)
Christos Tsiolkas The Slap (Grove Atlantic - Tuskar Rock)
Alan Warner The Stars in the Bright Sky (Random House - Jonathan Cape)

An overview of the contenders can be found in todays piece by Eileen Batersby in The Irish Times here

You can join the fun on the Man Booker website by joining the discussion on the various books (and side topics - have a good root around the site) here

For a roundup of what the critics have to say about the books head over to The Omnivore here

For information on who the judges of the prize are here

The thirteen will be reduced to just six on the 7th September when the shortlist is announced, with the overall winner being announced on the 12th October.

LET THE GAMES COMMENCE!

The Farseekers – Isobelle Carmody

2010-07-28T10:09:00.000+01:00

The Farseekers is the second book in The Obernewtyn Chronicles, the successful series by the Australian author Isobelle Carmody. It continues the story of Elspeth Gordie and the fate of the inhabitants of Obernewtyn. Now run by the Misfits that had been taken there to be cured of their curious mental abilities, Elspeth now sees Obernewtyn as a haven. She and her fellow Misfits have extraordinary powers of premonition and mental communication. Now their home is under threat and Elspeth must set out on a journey with a small group of companions to fulfil three very different tasks. A premonition has warned that if any one of these tasks is not completed before winter then Obernewtyn will fall. The team must rescue a Misfit near a far-off town, collect books from an ancient library in the same area and send a spy to infiltrate the Council headquarters in the capital of the country. The journey will be fraught with difficulties as Misfits are not accepted by the Council, the rulers of the land, and so they cannot allow their true identity to be revealed.

Elspeth is further troubled by a strange premonition made through the cat Maruman, an old companion of hers. When Elspeth enters Maruman’s mind a strange voice tells her that she must destroy the machines that caused the holocaust in the world many generations previously. It tells her that she must be ready when the time comes to go on this journey. The prediction is enigmatic and she pushes it to the back of her mind while she travels. The journey throws up difficulties, many of which are unexpected and leads to new friends and allies. Ever aware of the time constraints on their journey, Elspeth and her companions must use every power at their disposal to make it a success.

The Farseekers is a powerful book and a worthy successor to Obernewtyn, the first book in the series. Carmody reveals more of Elspeth’s world and the oppressive system that governs it. It is a book about fighting for freedom and equality for all and the bravery of the people who fight for it. It also shows the corrupting influence that power has on people and how the world needs people who are able to resist this. Carmody has created a wonderful series and I eagerly await the publication of the remaining books on this side of the world! Suitable for anyone aged 12 and over, The Farseekers will be available in Ireland in August.

Roisin

The Last Summer of the Death Warriors-Francisco X. Stork

2010-07-26T10:50:00.000+01:00

The Last Summer of the Death Warriors is Francisco X. Stork’s fourth novel. The book is set in New Mexico in the United States of America. After the death of his closest family members seventeen year old Pancho is being taken to live in an orphanage. His mother died when he was five. He lived with his father and older sister Rosa in a trailer for the majority of his life. His father died in a work related accident and Pancho was left to take responsibility for his mentally disabled sister’s welfare. Soon after her father’s death she is found dead in a motel room in what Pancho considers to be suspicious circumstances. However, the police do not listen to his concerns and her death is put down to undetermined natural causes. The police informed Pancho that his sister had had sexual intercourse before she died. Pancho is sure that the man who was with Rosa is responsible for her death. He is determined to hunt the man down and make him pay for Rosa’s death.

When he arrives at the orphanage he meets a terminally ill boy. D. Q. is his age and is dying of brain cancer. As there is no summer work for Pancho, his job for the summer will be helping D. Q. to get through his treatments in the hospital in the city of Albuquerque. D. Q. is writing a book called The Death Warrior Manifesto, which is about embracing life. He is determined to make Pancho into a Death Warrior but Pancho does not care what happens to him after he has found his sister’s killer. He assumes he will be in prison for the rest of his life. In Albuquerque Pancho meets Marisol, the girl whose heart D. Q. is determined to win. Can the new people in Pancho’s life divert his thoughts from revenge?

The Last Summer of the Death Warriors is a great book. It is an unsentimental treatment of the lives of those dealing with death. Pancho’s is suffering from the loss of his entire family and D. Q.’s has to face his own impending death in the best way he can. D. Q.’s mother’s reaction to his illness is as strong as Pancho’s desire for revenge. The book shows the intense emotions that the loss of love ones inspire. Stork writes with sympathy even when the emotions felt cause the characters to act in ways that could hurt themselves and those they care about.

I would like to thank Scholastic for providing with a copy of the book for review. The book was published in June and is suitable for teenagers in the 14+ age group.

Roisin

The Maze Runner - James Dashner

2010-07-09T09:59:00.001+01:00

Thomas is in a box, he can't remember his name, where he came from, how he got into the box or why. When the doors open he finds himself in The Glade, at the centre of a giant maze, with other boys who all arrived the same way and none of them can remember who they are.

One boy a month for 2 years.

Thus begins James Dashner's thrilling new series for 10+ boys and girls who like their fiction post apocalyptic and thrilling.

In The Glade the boys have to fend for themselves, whilst doing this they struggle every day to find the answer to why they have been sent to the maze and to find a way out. But as the walls of the maze move every day, the game changes every day, and you don't want to be caught in the maze overnight - that's when the Grievers come out to get you!

Dashner's book is a novel take on 'The Lord of the Flies' theme of children having to make and maintain a society in order to survive. In the first of a planned 3 books series we are introduced to the boys who form part of the Creators experiment. We are also introduced to the lone girl Theresa, who I hope will have a greater and more feisty role in future books in the series. It is clear that as the book draws to a close (no spoilers I promise!) that the maze is only phase 1 of what the band of comrades will have to endure before reaching a safe haven.

Whilst Dashner's characters might be regarded as 'stock' ie the new kid who is way smart, the troublemaker, the potential love interest, the quirky friend, they are believable and well fleshed out. The maze itself is a fantastic concept, I spent half the book wondering if the kids were on a holodeck (think Star Trek) or if it was 'real'. As Thomas pieces together what is going on and how the boys can escape, the tension in the second half of the book mounts as the boy's world falls apart around them.

The boys also have their own language 'Shuck-face', Klunk' which is an interesting way of allowing the kids to swear without them actually doing it. I am not totally convinced that this device worked, a few mild swear words are words that any 10 year old would hear in the playground, and worse, every day. The made up stuff was mildly distracting and affected the flow of the dialogue but did not diminish enjoyment of the book.

Dystopian fiction is all the rage in the children and teen market at the moment with a slew of books dealing with the topic, think Michael Grant's 'Gone' series, Suzanne Collins' 'Hunger Games' series and Pam Bachorz 'Candor' (reviewed here earlier this month). Dashner's book deserves to be read along with these cult oferings and I for one will be keeping my eyes peeled for the next book in the series.

The Maze Runner will be published on the 2nd August.

My thanks to Chicken House for providing me with an uncorrected proof copy for review.

Carole.

Appaloosa - Robert B. Parker

2010-07-09T09:10:00.000+01:00

I have long been a fan of Robert B. Parker's 'Spenser' novels, his series about a private detective. When I saw that 'Appaloosa' was finally to be published in the UK (originally having been published in the US in 2005) it went straight on to my wish list. I do not read westerns so this is a first for me but I was not disappointed as Parker's prose remains as spare and lean as ever.

The novel is narrated from the viewpoint of Everett Hitch the friend and partner of Virgil Cole. The two are itinerant lawmen in the American west of 1882, hired to sort out the problems of the town of Appaloosa in New Mexico Territory by the town's Board of Aldermen. Rancher Randall Bragg and his hands have taken effective control of the town having murdered the Sheriff and one deputy, his men take what they want, they do not pay, if you object you will be shot. Cole and Hitch are sworn in as lawmen and set about applying the law - as written by them.

Parker is reworking an old theme, even I have heard of 'The Seven Samuri' and The Magnificent Seven', but into the mix he throws Mrs Allie French a single woman with an eye for a strong man. That eye falls on Everett Cole who is not used to being the object of affection of a woman such as Mrs French and who gladly succumbs to her charms, even if she does play the piano badly. Allie is however a deeply flawed character who becomes Cole's Achilles Heel.

Parker's sense of dialogue is as sharp here as in all his books, he does not need to bore us with needless details about the character's surroundings, we can all imagine the wild west, the dust streets, the wooden boardwalks and the swing of the saloon doors so why spend time describing it. What Parker does best is dialogue, the interaction between his characters, the cadences of speech. He is the only writer I know who can write silence into his dialogue and force you to go at his pace.

" 'Bragg's got some water up around his place, but they ain't raising many cows. Mostly they steal them. And pretty much everything else.'

'How many hands,' Cole said.

'With Bragg? Fifteen, maybe twenty.'

'Gun hands?'

'They all carry guns,' May said.

'They any good with them?' Cole said. 'Anybody can carry them.'

'Good enough for us,' Raines said. 'We're all miners and shopkeepers.'

'And we're not,' Cole said

'That's for certain sure,' Olson said. 'I heard after you and Hitch came in and sat on Gin Springs one summer, babies could play in the streets.'

'That's why we sent for you,' Raines said. 'We're ready to pay your price.'

Cole looked at me.

'You game,' he said.

I shrugged

'It's what we do,' I said.

A smile like the flash of a spark spread across Cole's face.

'It is,' he said, 'ain't it.'

Whilst Cole and Hitch deal with the problem of Randall Bragg perhaps the real story is the effect of Allie French on Cole, Cole's 15 year relationship with Hitch and his ability to do his job. Whilst Allie may have an eye for a strong man, the other women are none to impressed. Hitch takes up with a local prostitute Katie Goode who voices her opinion of Allie early

" 'You think she's a sweet thing,' Katie said. 'All you men. Girls know better. She should move up to the north end with the rest of us.'

'You think she's a whore?'

'She's wiggling her sweet ass for money just like the rest of us'

As the events in Appaloosa unfold Allie French winds her way into Virgil Cole's life until Cole is faced with the extinction of his way of life.

Parker has seduced us into thinking he is writing a western when in fact it is a love story, a story about two flawed people, and the story of a friendship that comes asunder. Everything unnecessary has been removed from the narrative so that we are left with the bare bones of men's motivation and their inability to understand what motivates women. This is as true today as it was in the old west.

This is terrific, page turning stuff not to be missed by lovers of westerns, crime novels and love stories.

'Appaloosa' is the first in a series of novels centred around Cole and Hitch, I can only assume that the others 'Resolution', Brimstone' and 'Blue-Eyed Devil' will be published in the UK and Ireland in due course.

'Appaloosa' is currently available in hardback and will be published in paperback on 1st August. It has also been made into a film.

Robert B. Parker died unexpectedly whilst at his desk in January of this year. He wrote over 70 books and has been credited with influencing the work of such authors as Robert Crais, Harlan Coben and Dennis Lehane.

My thanks to Corvus books for providing me with a copy of 'Appaloosa' for review.

Carole

C - Thomas McCarthy

2010-07-08T22:23:00.001+01:00

Tom McCarthy's C brings us through the strange life of Serge Carrefax, brought up in a home of the first electrical devices, coded signals and his father's obsession with sound and communication. Caught up in his own world of morse code and chemistry experiments, tragedy at an early age soon changes life for the young boy.

Time spent in the health spas of Eastern Europe leads Serge on to a life as an observer high above enemy trenches where, through a hail of bullets he first begins experimenting with drugs.

Tom McCarthy, for the most part, brings us brilliantly through this intense life to London in a haze of drug-fuelled madness. Although his writing at times brings the most life to even the most banal of subjects, McCarthy does, however, drag us through some unnecessary passages. Unsure of why some parts are even in this book and as much of a struggle as they are to read, the knowledge that you will soon find yourself completely drawn into a skillfully crafted story brings you through.

In all not the easiest of reads due to its uneven nature, this book does though still have the ability to make you stick with it and follow it through to the end.

Thomas.

Elliot Allagash - Simon Rich

2010-07-08T22:22:00.001+01:00

Seymour is an isolated and lonely 8th grader who likes the quiet places at school - detention and sitting by himself at lunch. All this changes when the incredibly wealthy and amoral Elliot Allagash decides to relieve the boredom of school by transforming Seymour into the school’s most popular and successful student. What follows is a master class in deception, cheating, manipulation and the power of money. But as Seymour is transformed into something that he is not, he becomes more and more disconnected from his parents and himself.

This book is about money and power, what money can buy and ultimately what it cannot. Funny, thought provoking and slightly twisted, the book is a reminder of the agony of trying to fit in and be accepted as a teenager.

A little short on characterisation, the book more that makes up for it in entertainment and is a reminder to us all to beware what we wish for!

Obernewtyn - Isobelle Carmody

2010-07-08T10:18:00.001+01:00

Obernewtyn is the first book of The Obernewtyn Chronicles. It is written by the successful Australian author Isobelle Carmody. Set in a world suffering from the effects of nuclear holocaust, it introduces Elspeth Gordie a young orphan who fears being executed because of her mysterious mental powers. The world Elspeth lives in is ruled by the corrupt Council with the help of a fanatical religious order called the Herder Faction. They gained a tight hold over the people after the holocaust, which is referred to as the Great White. The Herder Faction teaches that the holocaust was a punishment from God to the people who lived before it and artifacts from before the holocaust are considered dangerous and destroyed. Anyone who opposes the Council and the Herder Faction is burnt or used as slave labour. The after effects of the holocaust cause some people to be born with ‘mutations’ of the body and mind. These mutations are feared by the Council and anyone who shows sign of them is burnt. People who have mutations of the mind, like Elspeth, are known as Misfits. Elspeth’s parents were burnt for opposing the Council and she fears that her brother’s fascination with the Herder Faction will lead him to reveal that she is a Misfit.

She fears being sent to Obernewtyn, an institution in the mountains run by a mysterious doctor who claims to be trying to cure Misfits. Her friend Maruman, a cat she can communicate with mentally, predicts that she will be sent there. When an official from Obernewtyn comes to the orphanage where she lives Elspeth’s hidden powers are brought to light and she is sent to the institution. There she dreams of escape.

Since escape is almost impossible Elspeth gets drawn into the mystery of Obernewtyn. Who is the mysterious doctor and what is he trying do with his experiments? What happened to Selmar to make her so afraid of the disturbing child Ariel? And who is Rushton and why does he seem to dislike Elspeth so much? Elspeth wants to find out the truth behind what happens in Obernewtyn but will the people who run it find out about her first?

Obernewtyn is a gripping read. Elspeth is a powerful, independent character and her story is one you want to know more of. The world Carmody creates is disturbingly real. She insightfully explores the possibilities of a world after nuclear disaster. She convincingly shows how fear of difference and love of power can lure people to do terrible things. The underlying current suggesting more to come in the series is brought about by mysterious premonitions and gives the reader a strong desire to find out what happens next. It is available in shops now and is a great read for anyone in the 12+ age group.

Stella Etc - karen McCombie

2010-07-08T09:55:00.001+01:00

Karen McCombie’s successful Stella etc series now has bright new covers. The doodles of flowers bring to mind the artistic abilities of the main character Stella. Each cover has a drawing of sea creature to remind the reader of the seaside setting of the books. Though I’m a big fan of the old covers, having originally read the books with them, the new covers are just as appealing. The series follows thirteen year old Stella and her efforts to make friends in her new home in the seaside town of Portbay. The series is cheerful and optimistic, while also touching on the harder aspects of life. Stella finds more self-confidence in her new town away from her outgoing friends from her old home in London. She makes new friends helped by the mysterious cat Peaches who seems to be an uncanny judge of character and the equally strange old woman who dishes out toffee and sweets to Stella whenever she sees her. Stella’s family consists of her mother, father and twin two year old brothers. Her brothers provide a lot of the humour in the books by being very mischievous and wreaking havoc everywhere they go! Stella’s father tries his hand at DIY to fix up their new house with disastrous effects.

As well as finding new friends Stella becomes interested in the history of Portbay, especially the beautiful old house near the local caravan park. The books have a hint of magic in them, which makes them a little mysterious. The first two books of the seven Stella etc books are now available in their sparkling new covers and the third and fourth books with be available in this format in August. Read a brief synopsis of each of the first four books here.

Frankie, Peaches and Me: In the first book in the series Stella is coming to terms with having to move away from busy London and all her friends to quiet Portbay where she knows nobody. She is upset at leaving just when the boy she has a crush seems to like her back and angry with her parents for making her move. Things get worse when her friends in London seem to be ignoring her calls and texts. The silence from Frankie, the daughter of her old childminder, is most worrying. They have known each other since they were babies and have never been out of touch for this long before. What has gone wrong? With the help of Peaches, a local cat who has decided to adopt her and a strange old lady Stella begins to get interested in the town she lives in and get used to the change in her life.

Sweet-Talking TJ: In the second book in the series Stella is determined to make new friends in Portbay. TJ, his little sister Ellie and his huge dog Bob appear in her life but she is not sure if he is friendship material. The group of older guys he hangs around with are not very friendly people. She seeks advice from her Auntie V on whether TJ could be a possible friend for her. She also learns more about the beautiful old house across the bay and the family who used to live there.

Meet the Real World Rachel: Rachel is spoilt, stuck-up and rude. She is unwelcoming to Stella and Stella never thought she would consider her as a friend. But things change when Rachel passes out in the local pool. Her equally rude friends start shunning her and Stella wonders if she has potential beneath her nasty exterior.

Truly Madly Megan: it is the Portbay Gala Week and Stella and her friends are enjoying themselves. Megan is one of the visitors enjoying the fun, or so it seems. Stella soon finds that Megan is covering up her older sister’s summer romance with an older boy and is spending the whole holiday on her own. Stella hopes to spend time with her while she is here on holidays but is sad that Megan will be gone by Saturday. The week is equally exciting as the last few Stella as spent in Portbay. There are talent contests, new friends and Stella also has a few more glimpses into the history of the old house that she has fallen in love with.

Any fans of Karen McCombie’s Ally’s World series will enjoy reading ‘The Raspberry Rules.’ Just published this May, it is Rowan’s secret diary. Like Ally’s world and the Stella etc books it is a great book for anyone in the 10+ age range.

'Frankie, Peaches and Me' and 'Sweet Talking TJ' have both just been released. 'Meet the Real World Rachel' and 'Truly Madly Megan' are due for rerelease with their new covers on the 2nd August.

I would like to thank Scholastic books for providing me with copies of the Stella etc books.

Roisin.

The Poisoned House - Michael Ford

2010-07-07T13:48:00.002+01:00

Michael Ford's new book, to be published on the 2nd August, is a Victorian ghost/murder mystery for the 9 - 11 yr old market. It opens with a note from the Assistant Curator of Victorian Manuscripts informing the reader that the following papers were discovered in a locked drawer of a bureau in the attic of a house formerly known as Greave Hall. The papers tell the story of Abigail Tamper during 1855, a servant at Greave Hall.

Turning the page the reader is immediately plunged into Abigail's world as she tries to flee Graeve Hall through the freezing streets of London, she does not make it and is returned to the house to face the wrath of it's housekeeper, Mrs Cotton. As Abigail's story progresses it becomes clear that Mrs Cotton's power within the house is increasing as the health of it's master, Lord Greave, fails.

But the staff are playing with Mrs Cotton, who believes that the ghost of her dead sister, Lady Greave is haunting her. She invites a medium, all the rage in Victorian times, to try to contact her sister. Abigail hears everything as she is concealed behind a screen to obtain information for the staff. What she hears causes Abigail to try discover who murdered her mother, a servant at Greave Hall before her death, and who her real father is.

This is a fast and well paced murder come ghost story. Michael Ford has obviously researched the period well and that research is incorporated into the novel seamlessly, giving small insights into the lives of the Victorians, probably without the reader even noticing:

'I spread damp tea leaves on the floor, then brushed them across the carpet to fetch up the dust.'

All of the characters are well drawn, the grades of servant and their relationships with each other are believable and do not feel strained. Ford has managed to make each character an individual within their specific servant class and job title, from Cook (who likes a little tipple), Rob the footman to Adam the coal boy

" 'That'll be the coal man,' said Rob. 'Tell him we only need a couple of sackfuls to keep us to Monday. And mind he doesn't wipe his hands on the door frame.'

Adam was waiting outside, hopping from foot to foot,with his hands in his armpits. His face was almost black from coal dust, which made his eyes seem to glow white.....Both Adam's parents were dead too, and he'd been plucked from the workhouse by a coal higgler and grocer with the unfortunate name of Crook, to help him on his errands. behind him in the lane was the coal cart and Archer the carthorse, head bowed in his nosebag.

'Morning Adam,' I said.

'Bloody freezing!' said Adam, looking past me longingly. 'What's it like in the lap o'luxury, hey?'

'Well,' I replied, putting on a posh voice, 'the caviar jelly we had last night was ruined by the presentation. You know I can't eat except off a gold-plated spoon.' "

The consequences of transgression are also highlighted in the sub plot of Lizzy, Abigail's friend and fellow maid, who is banished from the house despite having no family and nowhere to go following an unplanned pregnancy.

As Abigail delves deeper into her mothers death and Mrs Cotton's spite becomes more dangerous the various elements of suspense, the sense of menace emanating from Mrs Cotton, Abigail's investigation, the other servant's disbelief in her theory and the use of the Ouija board by Abigail to try to find out what really happened are handled well.

I have to admit to being able to guess the end but I am not the book's intended audience.

I suspect that this novel will have the 9 - 11 year olds, both boys and girls, hooked right from the first page.

My thanks to Bloomsbury for supplying me with an uncorrected proof copy of the book for review, as a result some of the quotes above may alter slightly in final publication.

'The Poisoned House' is published on 2nd August.

Carole

Candor - Pam Bachorz

2010-07-05T20:51:00.003+01:00

Welcome to Candor, the town where everything is perfect.

Everything you need is in Candor. Conformity is beauty.

Families move here because there is no graffiti, there is no litter, there is no loud music, their children study hard and Saturday night is family night.

Academics are the key to success. Parents always know what's best for their children.

Any problems with their children from before they move to Candor are put behind them.

The past is best forgotten.

In fact Candor is the ideal town - as long as you obey the messages because if you don't you could be taken to the Listening Room where you will be erased and you will become a model citizen.

The only way to survive Candor is to leave.

Arranging to leave Candor is what Oscar Banks does, he has invented his own messages and for those kids who believe him and have enough money, he can get them out - at a price. He is the model citizen, hiding in plain sight. Until Nia arrives with her skateboard and painted nails and her talent for art. She likes graffiti and Oscar Banks gives in to an impulse which leads to all sorts of problems.

Bachorz has created a dystopian novel that many teenagers are going to connect with immediately. Written in simple prose this book explores ideas of individuality and conformity for a new generation. This is a story of rebellion, about that old phrase 'teenagers today!' and what some parents are prepared to do to put an old head on young shoulders.

Oscar Banks is not a likable character, he is superior - The great are never late - self serving and exploitative. He has no real friends, everyone is just 'cover' for his real activities, even his girlfriend. He is too much like his father who built Candor. When he sees Nia however, despite the way she looks and the way she talks and the danger she represents, he falls in love. Bachorz uses Nia's talent for art in an interesting way as it is a form of expression which is generally encouraged but graffiti is of course frowned upon. Bachorz is not above playing with the ideas in the book, such as the concept of TAG (Teens Against Graffiti):

" 'today we are putting pride Messages on our sidewalks', she says. Like she's told me this part before, too. Not that I remember. That might have been when I was wondering what it looks like when a girl skateboards naked. What's the better view? Front or back?

Whoops. There I go again.

Pull it together, Oscar.

'You're writing on the sidewalks?' I ask.

'I have eighty catchy phrases right here.' She taps on her clipboard.

It's too funny to be real. 'Isn't that graffiti?'

She pulls the clipboard tight to her chest, which is regrettably shrouded in a loose shirt. 'It's a statement. It's anti-graffiti.'

'I guess if we cover the sidewalks, there's no room for graffiti,' I tease.

But she takes me seriously. Acts like I just came up with the cure for cancer. 'Good point, Oscar! I never thought of that. We'll need to think about how we can protect the lamp poles, too.' "

but there is the heartbreak of stifling creativity too, in the TAG drive for kids to hand in their crayons for a free calculator.

'Candor' exposes the worries of the adult world for their children, if you study hard you'll get a good job and you will be protected. The by product of this is that you will end up just like your parents.

Underlying all of the events of the novel (and the impulse to control in the real world) is fear, the fear of loosing what or who is important. If I control you, you will not leave and I will never be hurt but as this novel demonstrates, if a parent is successful in exercising total control all that is left is a hollow person.

Bachorz novel is therefore a call to cherish the total teenager. Yes, they may be loud, obnoxious, challenging, ill-disciplined and disrespectful but they are also thought provoking, creative, free thinking, uncompromising, questioning, vital and alive. Ready to sample and question the world around them and challenge accepted modes of thought. Yes, they will leave but, if you are very lucky and have parented even reasonably well, they just might come back and appreciate you.

'Candor' is published on the 2nd August by Egmont Press.

My thanks to Egmont for supplying me with an uncorrected proof for review, as a result the quotes above may differ from the final published version.

The town of Candor has it's own website.

Pam Bachorz's website is here where you will find all sorts of info including a playlist.

And just for those who are teenagers or who cherish their teenagers, a reminder of why we might want to brainwash them!

Carole

The Moth Diaries - Rachel Klein

2010-07-03T10:27:00.000+01:00

This novel, originally published in 2002, has been recently reissued on foot of the resurgence of interest in vampires and an expected movie release later this year. But is this a Vampire novel? Certainly if you are expecting anything like the 'Twilight' books of Stephanie Meyer then you will be disappointed but what you get instead is a claustrophobic, intense look at female adolescence, obsession and possible psychosis.

The unnamed narrator has been asked by her former therapist to consider the publication of the diary she wrote during her junior year in a girls boarding school. From the preface to the diary, written by the diarist 30 years later, we are told right at the beginning that she was diagnosed with "borderline personality disorder complicated by depression and psychosis" we have been directed therefore to regard everything that she says with suspicion, to analyse her words because what she says can not possibly be true - can it?

At the beginning of our narrator's diary she warns us of the intensity of emotion generated by the boarders:

"She knows what it's like to be shut up in a place like this, where all your emotions are focused on the girls around you, where you dream of a boyfriend but only feel comfortable with your arm around another girl's waist."

In this case the narrator's emotional focus is on her roommate Lucy a blond WASP to the narrator's dark Jew, and across the corridor is Ernessa Bloch, another dark haired Jewish girl. When Lucy becomes more and more friendly with Ernessa, a girl who never seems to eat or sleep in her bed, our narrator becomes suspicious of Ernessa and her motives. As girls begin to die and Lucy becomes ill and listless the diarist is convinced that Ernessa is responsible:

"She goes where she pleases. She appears unhoped for, uncalled for. She moves through walls and doors and windows. Her thoughts move through minds. She enters dreams. She vanishes and is still there. She knows the future and see through flesh. She is not afraid of anything."

The narrator tries to tell the other boarders and the school authorities of her suspicions but her warnings are dismissed as the product of her obsession with Lucy and paranoia at Lucy's growing friendship with Ernessa but Lucy is fading away and only seems to recover from a diagnosed blood disorder when away from the school and therefore away from Ernessa.

Following a final death, the narrator decides that she must take drastic action to destroy the vampire that is feeding off the girls, she discovers Ernessa's travelling trunk and from her description of it's contents there is clear evidence of Ernessa's true nature however all of this is destroyed by the narrator's final actions. The only item that survived those final few days is a razor blade given to the narrator, so she says, by Ernessa and which is used by her doctor to later form part of her "clinical picture". The narrator has destroyed any evidence that her accusations may be true.

Is Ernessa a Vampire? Does the narrator suffer from a personality disorder? This is what is so intriguing about this novel, there is no right answer to these questions and while we work our way through the school year we are treated to an intelligent and dark version of female adolescence filled with questions about adulthood - which attracts and repels the girls.

After we close the diary the narrators also adds an "Afterword", also written 30 years later. Does it paint a picture of hope? I have my doubts, she has given up on the girl who was the diarist despite that person being "excruciatingly alive, as if she had been born without a skin" but she has survived. Perhaps this is Klein's final message, that adolescence, however dark and intense, will come to an end and there is life on the other side, however dull and grey it may seem in comparison.

Although tagged for teens this is a book that adults will find satisfyingly Gothic, it is a welcome thought provoking, intelligent read, a million miles away from the safe domesticated vampires currently enjoying popularity.

Carole

Paper Towns - John Green

2010-06-28T10:05:00.000+01:00

Quentin Jacobson is a normal kid living in a subdivision in Florida. He isn't one of the cool kids (he takes his pulse when he gets too excited to check it isn't dangerously high) but Q has a miracle, he lives next door to Margo Roth Spiegelman,

"She was the most fantastically gorgeous creature that God had ever created"

Q is in love, gut wrenchingly and achingly in love with Margo who he has known since they were 2 years of age, but while Margo progressed to being a legend at school for her looks and exploits, Q hangs around outside the band hall with his two friends, regarded as geeks and obsessing about getting dates for prom night. Q won't be going to the prom, because if he can't go with Margo, he sees no point in going at all.

When Margo opens Q's bedroom window a month before graduation and invites him along on a long night of revenge Q goes - and has the night of his life, but Margo does not turn up to school the following day, nor the next, nor the one after that. She has done this before, and now technically an adult, no one is seriously looking for her. When Q spots a poster taped to the back of her bedroom blind he realises it's a clue and sets out in search of the real Margo Roth Spiegelman.

John Green's book is a book about that perennial favourite subject amongst teens - identity. Think 'Catcher in the Rye' and 'To kill a Mockingbird'. 'Paper Towns' is easily as good as these classics but has the added advantage of being contemporary. As Q spends his last month of school searching for Margot and following the clues she leaves in a book of Walt Whitman poetry he begins to realise that the popular, beautiful and legendary Margot Roth Spiegelman maybe wasn't waving after all, she was drowning. There is more than a nod to Whitman (the middle part of the book revolves around his poem 'Song of Myself') and Emily Dickinson and Sylvia Plath are also referenced as is 'Moby Dick'.

Green has created some memorable characters, particularly Radar (remember MASH - no you probably don't you're too young!) who spends all his time editing an online encyclopedia Omnicionary, which has it's own website here (a bit like Wikipedia), and Q's parents, both analysts. Radar's parents have the second largest collection of black Santa's and Ben needs to pee - a lot, which can be problematic on a non stop road trip!

Have I mentioned the road trip? Every good book needs one and this one is to a paper town, which is a town that doesn't exist inserted into maps to spot copyright infringement, and this is of course the metaphor for the whole novel. Margot refers to herself as paper and those around her as paper, the image she has projected is not the real her. In that respect we are all paper, a construct that reflects how we want others to see us. Margot's flight is a search for her real self and, if he finds her, Q realises that he has to accept Margot as she really is and not as he has constructed her in order to love her - even if this means loosing her.

This is a sharply written novel which I enjoyed immensely, it is clever, witty and very serious. It will appeal to older teens who are ready for more than just a plot line in their reading.

John Green is also the author of two other novels only one of which, 'Looking for Alaska'. is available in Europe. All three of his books have won him a huge following in America and 'Paper Towns' has it's own Facebook page here. You can also see John Green answering questions about the book here.

Just go and buy the book, but preferably buy both 'Paper Towns' and 'Looking for Alaska'- you won't be disappointed.

Carole

The Other Girl-Sarah Miller

2010-06-25T21:31:00.000+01:00

This is Sarah Miller’s second book about Molly McGarry. Molly is now going out with Gideon Rayburn and her ability to see inside his mind means she can give him what he wants in the relationship. However, she soon realises that there are disadvantages to seeing her boyfriend’s inner thoughts. Pilar Benitez-Jones, the hottest girl in the school, always flirts with Gideon and Molly can see the effect of this attention in her boyfriend’s mind. The knowledge Molly receives has disastrous and bizarre consequences in her life and Pilar is not Molly’s only problem. Molly is a scholarship girl at Midvale Academy. The school needs its richer pupils so their disregard for rules will not result in expulsion but if Molly pushes her luck too much it could cost her her place in the school. Her relationship with Gideon causes her to break the rules. When she is caught her house-mistress does not talk about punishment but about wanting her to be on the school’s team for the ATAT, an intellectual competition between schools. The prize for the winning this year is the enough for four years college tuition. Molly needs the prize if she wants to go to a top university but her grades have been slipping since her relationship with Gideon started. She doesn’t want to use time she could be spending with her boyfriend studying for the competition. Her life is slipping out of her control. How can she have everything she wants?

Available since the 21^st June, this is a great book for girls in the 14+ age group. Miller competently deals with teenage relationships showing how difficult it can be to balance love and other aspects of life. The book touches on teenage issues like body image and sex.

I really enjoyed this book. Molly’s unorthodox approach to solving her problems is absorbing and often hilarious. I would recommend it to anyone who likes a good book that engages with teenage problems and has a more relaxed side to the storyline as well.

I would like to thank Bloomsbury for providing me with an advance copy of this book for review.

Reviewed by Roisin

How Ali Ferguson Saved Houdini - Elen Caldecott

2010-06-25T21:19:00.001+01:00

For Ali Ferguson just moving into his new home is an adventure. He and his mother have moved out of his grandparent’s house into a flat in a Tower Block. Ali pretends he is an explorer as he inspects his new neighbourhood but when he meets Caitlin he gets involved in a mystery that is so exciting pretence takes second place. Caitlin’s dad Dave is attacked and Ali, Caitlin’s friend Gez, and Caitlin’s adventures begin when they try to find out who attacked him and why.

The book is not only an adventure story. A second story line follows how the absence of Ali’s dad affects him and his mother. Their move into the Tower block is the start of their plans for a new life without him. Ali becomes aware that his mother has a different idea to him of what this new life will be like. He realises that his view of what his life will be might have to change.

The book also deals with attitudes towards people who are different. For example, Ali’s granddad does not like the area the Tower Block is in and judges it before he has met the people in it. The book explores how preconceptions like this are not always right.

Caldecott has written a book that will be enjoyed by all ages. The exciting plotline and the entertaining characters combine to make a book that is more than a simple adventure story. It is due out on the 12^th July and would be a great summer read for the 9+ age group and anyone else who wants to read a good book!

I would like to thank Bloomsbury for providing me with an advance copy of this book for review.

Reviewed by Roisin

Magical Mischief - Anna Dale

2010-06-23T10:40:00.002+01:00

Mr Hardbattle has a problem, his bookshop is inhabited by magic.

Magic can be very inconvenient, particularly when a step on the stairs regularly turns to custard. And magic gives off a mighty whiff, the result of which is that Mr Hardbattle's customers have flooded out the door and have not returned.

When he receives a notice that his rent is to be increased Mr Hardbattle doesn't know what to do but the wind and rain blow Arthur and Miss Quint into his shop and Mr Hardbattle is forced to reveal his secret. The three set out to find a new home for the magic but things take a serious turn when Mr Hardbattle leaves Arthur and Miss Quint in charge whilst he scouts possible locations for magic's relocation. But Miss Quint is lonely and starts making wishes.

Have you ever heard the saying 'Beware what you wish for!'

Wishes are dangerous things, particularly when you are in a magic bookshop.

This wonderful book for 9 - 11 year olds is a real treat to read with some great characters - both real and magic - and one disaster after another. With a silly spinster and a sensible Arthur, children will delight in the role reversal of the principle characters and the madcap ending. Also a great bedtime read for those not yet ready for a independent reading of a book of this length.

As I was reading (and as the book deals with magic) comparisons with that other children's contemporary magic series Harry Potter are inevitable. Personally I couldn't read the Potter books but Magical Mischief I read with a smile on my face and enjoyed every madcap minute of.

And yes working in a bookshop is a lovely job. Is our shop full of magic?

Well, if you look really hard in the corners and open some of the books, you never know what you will find!

Wake - Lisa McMann

2010-06-22T14:04:00.001+01:00

It would be cool to be able to see other people's dreams, wouldn't it?

Janie Hannagan would not agree, she has been sucked into people's dreams since she was eight. The falling one, the naked one and the ones that terrify. But the dreams are only one of Janie's problems, she's living with her alcholic mother in the wrong part of town, working and saving furiously to go to college but in school the students keep falling asleep and this means Janie knows their intimate thoughts, feelings, desires and wishes.

When one night she experiences one of Cabel's dreams she is terrified. His reputatuion as a drug dealer goes before him, so how come he is so concerned about her? Trying to make sense of his mixed signals Janie is drawn into more than Cabel's dreams as 2005 draws to a close.

Lisa McMann's style is simple and direct which I liked alot. The story moved forward quickly, although the date and time headings could be confusing and I gave up following them as the story drew me in.

The book has been nominated as an American Library Association Quick Pick for reluctant YA readers and is ideal in this catagory because of the books style. Tagged for ages 12yrs + there are themes of alcholism, drugs and lesbianism in the book.

'Fade' the second book in the expected trilogy of books will be published on 1st August.

The Boys Are Back In Town

2010-06-22T13:07:00.000+01:00

A few suggestions for the girls as they try to get under the skin of the boys for challenge #10 in our Summer Reading Challenge. I will start by recommending the three books that have influenced girls and their idea of a romantic hero for generations:

Mr Darcy, Mr Rochester and Heathcliffe in some of the greatest love stories ever told - and not a Cullen in sight!

Who could resist a fallen angel? Angels are all the rage at the moment and picking up where the vampires left off, in 'Hush Hush' we meet Patch and Nora who become involved in a century's old battle between the immortal and the fallen - and what a cover.

The second part of the story 'Crescendo' is out on 14th October.

And so that we are fair to all magical species, why not curl up with Sam in Maggie Stiefvater's 'Shiver'. Sam is a werewolf who must fight not to change into his wolf form if he is to stay with Grace. The next instalment of Sam and Grace's story, 'Linger', is due out on 5th July so you won't have to wait too long to find out what happens next.

John Green's novel 'Looking for Alaska' deals with all the big milestones - first drink, first prank, first friend, first girl, last words. In a wonderful coming of age story Miles Halter must make his way in the new boarding school he has been sent to, negotiate all those firsts and deal with the clever funny and sexy Alaska Young.

What would happen if you were sitting in class and you teacher disappeared, and not just your teacher but everyone over the age of 14 years. How would you manage, how would you survive and how would you deal with the kids who want to take over your world? Add some superpowers to the mix and Sam and Astrid have some big problems.

'Hunger' the second book in the series is available and with 'Lies', book number three, published in the US you could spend the whole summer with Sam and the kids from Perdido Beach.

Finally, Tim Bowler's fusion of real life and the supernatural 'Bloodchild' will have you on the edge of your seat as Will tries to piece together who he is and what has happened in the town, which has a secret - a secret that some will do all in their power to preserve. Even kill.

It's over to you now girls as the boys out there are waiting to provide you with an action packed summer.

The Boys Are Back in Town!

2010-06-19T18:40:00.000+01:00

A musical link for the girls, start guessing what challenge #10 - A Different Gender - books we'll be posting about next week! In the meanitime sit back relax and enjoy your musical link

The Boys Are Back in Town

iBoy - Kevin Brooks

2010-06-18T21:13:00.002+01:00

'I had no major problems, no secrets,no terrors, no vices, no nightmares, no special talents...I had no story to tell. I was just a kid, that's all.'

Tom Harvey lives in Crow Town, a sink estate of eight tower blocks which are plagued by twin problems of drugs and gangs. When walking home from school to a friends house an iPhone is thrown from the 30th floor of one of those tower blocks at Tom, it cracks his skull and pieces of the iconic technology lodge and fuse in his brain. Tom wakes up to find himself in hospital with some pretty cool abilities.

How would you like to make calls, send texts and log on to the Internet using your brain? Tom can do this and more - but what he discovers using his abilities is a world of pain and grief, his lifetime friend has been gang raped and her brother beaten up.

What would you do?

Kevin Brooks' new novel for YA readers is a fast paced thriller which manages to combine the big questions - What is right? Who determines what is right? Why do gangs exist and How far does personal responsibility extend? - with an action packed story that kept me hooked right 'til the last page. Brooks does not talk down to his readers, hence the big questions, and does not shy away from dealing with the grim reality of many children's lives. All of this is however achieved with a light touch and an instinct for when to draw back and when to pile on the reality/morality/storytelling.

Being a technophobe I was entirely convinced by the explanation of how Tom's superpowers worked and was captivated by the burgeoning relationship between Tom and Lucy. Infact, Brooks doesn't put a foot wrong in this grim but uplifting tale of a superhero who realises that knowledge is power but with knowledge must come responsibility.

I will be waiting and hoping that this is only the first instalment of Tom's story.

This book would be good for 14+ readers bearing in mind the themes of gang violence, drugs, gang rape and vigilantism that are explored in the book. It would be a great book for older reluctant readers who want something with a more adult content and who are not necessarily intimidated by slightly longer length.

'iBoy' is published on the 1st July.

My thanks to Penguin for supplying me with an advance copy of this book for review.

White Crow - Marcus Sedgwick

2010-06-16T12:58:00.002+01:00

I suspect that in other hands this hot, intense, strange tale would be an overblown behemoth, part historical novel and part modern parable. In Sedgwick's hands however we have a pared down glittering gem for older YA readers who are interested in things that are obscure and obscured.

Rebecca and her father have run away to the remote village of Winterfold for the summer to escape media attention. The village is living but dead, it is slowly falling into the sea, house by house, church by church, all that remains are three streets. Winterfold is full of abandoned houses and churches where you open the main doors to find yourself looking out to sea because the end of the church has been reclaimed by nature. Rebecca is lonely and isolated having been removed from her busy London life and is beginning to realise that her friends might not be friends after all and her boyfriend is prepared to dump her. She is estranged from her father who is coping with his own difficulties, her mother having died several years ago. She does not realise that having arrived in Winterfold she is being watched.

'She couldn't have been anyone, because the moment I saw her beautiful face I knew I loved her, and I knew she would love me too.

I knew.'

Rebecca is being watched by Ferelith, a girl who left school at 14 when she had to explain Game Theory to her maths teacher and who has educated herself, particularly in human behaviour

'because nothing is more important to learn in life than the interaction of a human being with another human being'

Sedgwick has allowed us access to the thoughts of both girls, as they both narrate the story of their friendship over that hot summer. But are they truly friends and what are Ferelith's real intentions? As the summer progresses and Rebecca is pulled further and further from the conventional life she once inhabited we are left asking what or who is Ferelith.

Interweaved with the story of the two girls is the personal journal of the Rector of Winterfold in 1798, a glutton and a fornicator who has fallen short of the standards of his office. He is filled with doubt, struggling to keep his faith, obsessed with hell and unable to visualise heaven. When the abandoned Hall is rented by Dr Barrieux, the two strike up a friendship and find that they are consumed by the same questions - What happens to us after we die? Is there a heaven and is there a hell? Their experiments into these questions are the subject of local legend over 200 years later.

As the hot summer continues, the tensions between Rebecca and Ferelith mount and we begin to doubt Ferelith's sanity. When the weather eventually breaks and the games are over the girls discover the secret of The Hall and the truth of those experiments 200 years ago.

Sedgwick has provided a note at the end of my proof copy of the book (I don't know whether they it will be included in the final book) in which he states that the title refers to a quote by William James (brother to Henry)

"If you wish to upset the law that all crows are black you mustn't seek to show that no crows are: it is enough if you prove one single crow to be white"

On the evidence of this book Sedgwick would seem to believe that there is life after death but that the Devil is in us all. In getting us to this point we are shown characters that inhabit lives of loss, loss of faith, loss of certainty and who are searching for answers that give meaning to their lives. These characters are easily manipulated by those around them, the small decisions they make slowly leading them to a place they might not wish to be. And at the end of the book we are left questioning what exactly is Ferelith, is she truly the White Crow of the title or is she the fevered and frightened imagining of a teenage girl.

I am not completely sure I understand everything that Sedgwick is aiming for in this novel - and this can be a good thing. I will be pondering the story of these three characters long after I close the book, turning and turning their fates until I reach an accommodation between my understanding, the things I don't understand and the things that there will never be an answer to - until finally I can put the book away.

'White Crow' will be released on 1st July 2010.

My thanks to Orion for providing a copy of the book.

Marcus Sedgwick has provided a list of music that Ferelith listens to on her ipod here. Unfortunately those of us in Ireland can not access Spotify so I have provided a link to five of the songs on YouTube - enjoy.

Blue Roses - Rebecca

Andre Previn Four Sea Interludes Op. 33a (from Peter Grimes)IV. Storm (Presto con fuoco)

Julie London - Cry Me A River

My Chemical Romance - This Is How I Disappear

Sonic Youth - 'Cross the Breeze

Here Come the Girls!

2010-06-15T09:44:00.015+01:00

Challenge #10 is to read a book in which the main character is a different gender to you. So for all those boys out there - here come the girls! Tough, feisty and with attitude these girls would give any boy a run for their money in the 'Who's a Hero' stakes.

Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen regards it as a death sentence when she is forced to represent her district in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV. But Katniss has been close to death before - and survival, for her, is second nature. "The Hunger Games" is a searing novel set in a future with unsettling parallels to our present. Welcome to the deadliest reality TV show ever...

And with book 2 in the series 'Cathing Fire' out already and 'Mockingjay' the third book in the series out in August, this will be a satifyingly long read over the summer.

Since her mother's death, fifteen-year-old Jem has kept a secret. When her eyes meet someone else's, a number pops into her head the date on which they will die. Knowing that nothing lasts forever, Jem avoids relationships, but when she meets a boy called Spider, and they plan a day out together, her life takes a new twist and turn. Waiting for the London Eye, she sees everyone in the queue has the same number - something terrible is going to happen.

Book 2 in the series 'The Chaos' is also available, this time the main character is a boy.

It's January 1st, 2015, and the UK is the first nation to introduce carbon dioxide rationing, in a drastic bid to combat climate change. As her family spirals out of control, Laura Brown chronicles the first year of rationing with scathing abandon. Will her mother become one with her inner wolf? Will her sister give up her weekends in Ibiza? Does her father love the pig more than her? Can her band the dirty angels make it big? In these dark days, Laura deals with the issues that really matter: love, floods and pigs. The Carbon Diaries 2015 is one girl's drastic bid to stay sane in a world unravelling at the seams.

lovereadingforkids said 'It's edgy, it's appealing and it's contemporary and it makes for utterly compelling and frightening reading' and with Carbon Diaries 2017 also available it could be a fun filled apocolyptic summer for the teens in your household.

Two boys, two girls each as capable as the other.

Fourteen years ago, scientist William Fox implanted four babies with the Medusa gene - a gene for psychic abilities. But Fox died and the babies were hidden away for years. Now the children are teenagers - and unaware that their psychic powers are about to kick in. Prepare for psychic action as the four teens discover their powers and each other in this fast paced opener.

Book 2 'The Hostage' is out already and book 3 'The Rescue' will be in shops from the 8th July. Suitable for 9+

When two young women meet under extraordinary circumstances in the eighteenth- century West Indies, they are unified in their desire to escape their oppressive lives. Fate ensures that one night the two young women have to save each other and run away to a life no less dangerous but certainly a lot more free. As pirates, they roam the seas, fight pitched battles against their foes and become embroiled in many a heart-quickening adventure.

'This is as swashbuckling a yarn as anyone could wish for.' Adele Geras, Guardian. If you like this try Celia Rees' other strong female characters 'Sovay', 'Sorceress' and Witch Child.

Meet Clary Fray, an ordinary 16 year old teenager, who likes hanging out in Brooklyn with her friends. But everything changes the night she witnesses a murder, committed by a group of teens armed with medieval weaponry. The murderous group are Shadowhunters, secret warriors dedicated to driving demons out of this dimension and back into their own. Drawn inexorably into a terrifying world, Clary slowly begins to learn the truth about her family - and the battle for the fate of the world. As tough as it gets! Ages 14+

Ok boys, the girls are putting it up to you - are you up for the challenge of these tough women?

A Clue to this weeks posts

2010-06-14T09:19:00.002+01:00

Follow the link for a clue to which Summer Reading Challenge prompt we will be posting about this week

http://tinyurl.com/3y3egcj

A Quiet Quest

2010-06-11T12:20:00.003+01:00

A quiet revolution is taking place in this part of East Cork. A reading revolution!

That notoriously difficult group to interest in books, boys between 7 - 9 yrs, are reading and talking about a set of books that, if you do not have a boy of that age, will have passed you by. The boys are all on a Quest to read and finish the ever expanding series of Beast Quest books that currently run to a series of 36 books - with a further 6 to be published in the autumn.

My own son is in this age group and I would not call him a natural reader but Beast Quest and that other favourite 'Diary of a Wimpy Kid' are firm favourites in the playground. Whilst the books are not great literature they are chock full of good stories and characters, which is what every child needs at this age to feed their imagination. I don't know what the sales figures are for these books (if anyone who knows is reading this then please post in the comments or email me) but as parents of these boys know they are feeding the habit to the tune of 2 - 4 books a week and with the summer holidays approaching Beast Quest is likely to be the hit of the summer.

Time Riders - Alex Scarrow

2010-06-11T11:33:00.004+01:00

Are you wondering what to do with your boys this summer? You could do alot worse that invest in a copy of Alex Scarrow's first outing in the teen/YA catagory Time Riders.

Liam, Maddy and Sal are all snatched from certain death by a mysterious man called 'Fowler' who offers them the choice: either die as you were supposed to or take my hand and become a Time Rider. I for one would would take the offered hand, and when they do each of the teens is transported from their own time to New York on 10th September 2001. Their job is to watch for any shifts in the timeline and correct them. They live in a time bubble at a pivotal point in history, endlessly repeating 10th & 11th September, endlessly watching the horror of the twin towers, which Sal must get to know intimately so that she can spot any changes that occur which point to an interruption in the timeline.

Scarrow is clearly having loads of fun with this book, to a timeline in which the Terminator is President to an AI support unit called Bob, he masterfully grabs the readers attention and holds it throughout the length of the book.

History has changed, Hitler won (with a little help from a man from the future) and New York and the world are utterly different but when Derr Fuhrer determines on a final solution for everyone there is a further more severe time shift. Fowler, Maddy and Sal have to deal with a world of devastation whilst Liam and Bob, stuck in an alternate 1957, have to get a message across time to their collegues in the hope that they can save the day.

There is no swearing or sex in the book but there is violence both of the shoot 'em up variety and of the more insidious kind, with the creepy creatures that inhabit the end of the world. With the various timelines and length of the book I would put it at a 12+ level, a good book for older teens who may be reluctant readers.

This is a ripping yarn that will keep your teens, particularly boys, enthralled for the length of the book and with Time Riders: Day of the Predator due out on 5th August there is no reason why your boys (and girls) shouldn't be riding time for the entire summer.

Summer Challenge Reading #6: Body Modification- Some Suggestions for teens

2010-06-08T19:40:00.012+01:00

Some books that teen readers may find of interest, particularly for challenge #6 in our Summer Reading Challenge - body modification.

Scott Westerfeld's Trilogy of books dealing with body image, the idealisation of perfection and environmental issues are ready made for those interested in the way society is fixated on how people look rather than the substance of who they are. 12+

Neal Shusterman's Unwind is a gripping tale of survival which also deals with body modification, in this case transplantation. The story is set in a world where teenagers can be unwound ie all their body parts harvested and stored for use by those more deserving. Neal Shusterman challenges readers' ideas about life - not just where it begins and where it ends, but what it truly means to be alive. 12+

Kazu Ishiguro's book was shortlisted for the 2005 Booker Prize, the 2006 Arthur C Clark Award and was Time magazine's 2005 best novel of the year. Set in a dystopian Britain in which human beings are cloned to provide donor organs for transplant. This book is about love, friendship and memory.

Dean Kootz's Watchers also deals with body modification, in this case that of a dog to give it near human intelligence by government research. The same lab also created a hybrid monster known as "The Outsider", which is loose and hunting the dog... and capable of following it by a psychological link that binds them even over hundreds of miles. Dean Kootz's books are classed as horror and strictly for those 14+ but are immensely readable and compelling.

The Uninvited - Tim Wynne-Jones

2010-06-08T15:30:00.004+01:00

What do you do if you are being stalked? For 19 old year Mimi Shapiro, who has made a disastrous mistake in her love life, the answer is to flee to a small cottage owned by her father set on a snye (look it up!). But the cottage is already occupied by Jay. Mimi and Jay negotiate a living arrangement but Mimi's problems are not over as Jay is also being stalked - someone is leaving tokens and strange sounds on his computer. As the incursions into their home increase and objects are removed Mimi and Jay begin to investigate who their intruder might be.

Mimi and Jay's perspective in this novel is interspersed with that of Cramer, a school contemporary of Jay's who is coming under pressure from working two jobs and caring for his increasingly strange mother. Cramer and Mimi finally meet but just as things look like coming good for Cramer the novel reaches it's explosive climax.

All the characters that live around the house on the snye illustrate the difficulties faced by those who live outside big conurbations - lack of jobs, lack of prospects and the attractions of crime. Mimi and Jay, both from affluent citified backgrounds with good teeth, wealthy liberal parents (Jay's mother is a lesbian) and college educations, contrast sharply with Cramer's lack of prospects. Tim Wynne-Jones brings these characters to life through good use of dialogue but fails to use the highlighted issues, around social inequality and inequality of opportunity, for anything other than contrast.

And this is where my problem with the book lies, this is a page turning thriller with an ending that Wynne-Jones manages to conceal right until a few pages before the final showdown, but I can't help thinking that it is a missed opportunity in which he could have explored so much more with the characters and their situations.

Whilst there is no sex in the book it is alluded to in the reason Mimi escapes New York, there is little swearing but there are several unpleasant and threatening characters which give the book an air of menace. All in all a book for the 14+ age group.

The Vanishing of Katharina Linden - Helen Grant

2010-06-08T13:46:00.004+01:00

Published in 2009, Helen Grant's debut novel is an interesting and welcome addition to the bookshelves. At a time when teenagers seem to be offered endless vampire/werewolf/school stories it is refreshing to find a novel that provides excellent writing and taut plotting whilst looking to our European neighbours rather than America for its setting.

10 year old Pia Kolvenbach lives in the picturesque and small town of Bad Munstereifel in Germany. When her Grandmother explodes on advent Sunday Pia is ostracized by her school friends. Being part of a small town, where everyone knows everyone, the death of her Grandmother is on the way to becoming a local legend and Pia rapidly becomes aware of the harm that spite and gossip can do in a community as closely knit and as stifling as the one in which she lives.

Katharina Linden, a school friend of Pia's, disappears during the festival of Karnaval. Pia is the last person to see her alive and she realises that whilst everyone might think that they know everyone else's business, clearly this is not the case. With 'Stinkstefan' as Batman to her Robin, the pair decide to take matters into their own hands and investigate Herr Dusterr, another victim of small town gossip and brother to Pia's friend Herr Schiller.

As more girls disappear and Pia and Stefan become more daring in their investigations, Pia discovers more about the town in which she lives, it's poisonous gossip and long held grudges, than any 10 year old has the right to know. The resolution of this thriller of a tale will have you on the edge of your seat and younger readers might want to look away towards the end of the book.

Whilst Pia in the book is 10 and her story takes place in 1999, it is an older Pia who is narrating the events of her childhood which allows Grant to use a wider vocabulary and bring a greater level of analysis to the actions of the adults around Pia - thus appealing to a wider audience. Indeed this is a book that could equally be read by adults as teens.Interspersed with Herr Schiller's grim folk tales and the break up of Pia's parents marriage, Grant has produced a multi-layered and modern novel dealing with the loss of innocence.

Longlisted for the 2009 Teenage Booktrust Award this book is a timely reminder of the richness of our European storytelling tradition with folk tales and Gothic horror mixed with modern crime.

There is no sex or swearing in the book but the creepiness of Herr Schiller's tales together with the slightly gruesome nature of the ending put this book firmly in the category of 14+ reading. The text is also interspersed with German words and a glossary is provided at the back of the book making this a slightly more challenging read.

Helen Grant's second book The Glass Demon has just been published.

CRY - Community Radio Youghal

2010-06-01T12:25:00.003+01:00

After chatting with Ryan Tubridy last year about The Secret Scripture' and 'The Private Lives of Pippa Lee', I was delighted to be asked to talk books on Youghal's local radio station. For those who missed it or were not quick enough to catch the titles and authors here are the books I spoke about:

ADULTS
Personally I Blame My Fairy Godmother - Claudia Carroll
House Rules - Jodie Picouolt
Mother of the Bride - Marita Conlon McKenna
The Best of Times - Penny Vincenzi
The Man Who Disappeared - Clare Morrell
The Little Stranger - Sarah Waters
Ghost Light - Joseph O'Connor
Let the Great World Spin/Dancer - Column McCann
The Soldiers Song - Alan Monaghan
The Slap - Christos Tsiolkas
The Help - Katherine Stockett

TEEN FICTION
Twilight Series - Stephanie Meyer
The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner - Stephanie Meyer
Mortal Instruments Trilogy - Cassandra Clare
Hush Hush - Becca Fitzpatrick
Fallen - Lauren Kate
The Forest of Hands and Teeth - Carrie Ryan
Shiver - Maggie Stiever
Chaos Walking Trilogy - Patrick Ness
Gone/ Hunger - Michael Grant
Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins

CHILDREN'S FICTION
Adam's Pirate Adventure - Benji Bennett
What the Ladybird Heard/Troll - Julia Donaldson
Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus - Mo Willems
The Heart in the Bottle/The Great Paper Caper/The Incredible Book Eating Boy - Oliver Jeffers
Aliens Love Underpants - Clare Freedman
The Great Dog Bottom Swap - Peter Bentley
There - Marie Louise Fitzpatrick
Beast Quest Series - Adam Blade
Dragon Blood Pirates Series - Dan Jerris

As you can tell I bored everyone silly with the great books that are available this summer, particularly on the children and young adult front. My thanks to CRY for having me and they have promised to let me have a recording of the interview for the blog - what would it be worth not to subject you to this podcast, answers in the comments section below!

American Devil - Oliver Stark

2010-06-01T09:54:00.005+01:00

I was lucky enough to receive an advance copy of this debut novel by Oliver Stark which will be a find for those who love crime fiction. At over 400 pages of densely packed type the book delivers a taut and complex storyline that will have you turning pages long after you should have turned the light out and gone to sleep.

Whilst the premise may seem tired - lone wolf cop with anger management issues and beautiful female sidekick chase serial killer - what Stark delivers is a riveting read full of dead ends and false leads that takes us into the heart of the investigation and into the mind of a killer. That Stark is able to control this length of novel at his first published outing with hardly a slip bodes well for future books from this new novelist.

There are a few moments where dialogue and prose become wooden (particularly the first chapter) but these are very few and far between and do not spoil an otherwise enjoyable read. I will definitely be looking forward to the follow up from Mr Stark.

American Devil is currently out in Hardback and tradepaperback with a paperback edition to be published on 2nd September. My thanks to Bertrams and Headline Publishing for providing an advance copy of this book.

Ostrich Boys - Keith Grey

2010-05-27T20:45:00.005+01:00

Over the summer I will be reading loads of teen fiction and hope to share with you my thoughts on the books. First up is Keith Gray's Ostrich Boys. Originally published in 2008 the book was shortlisted for the Costa Children's Book Award and the Carnegie Award and also shortlisted for the Teenage Book of the Year Award.

Kenny, Sim and Blake kidnap their best friend Ross, this is easily done as Ross is dead. Killed whilst riding his bike, Ross' three friends are angry and hurt at what they see as the hypocrisy of his funeral, particularly as the people organising and speaking at the service had been giving their friend a difficult time in the weeks before his death. Believing Ross would have been disappointed in his memorial service they decide that a more fitting memorial would be to take their friend the place that he always wanted to go, they are going to take Ross to Ross ( in Southern Scotland). Having stolen his ashes the boys set out on a road trip that is by turns hilarious and tortuous but underlying this is a serious theme, the friends discover that there is a suggestion that Ross deliberately ran his bike into the path of the car that killed him.

As the boy's journey towards Ross they begin to discover that their friendship is based on shifting sands and the truth about Ross' death is more complicated than they thought. It gradually emerges that there are other, darker, emotions and motivations within the group of travelling friends. Grief, loss and guilt are played out within the group as their disastrous journey draws to a close with increasing, page turning, tension.

For a book that deals with a serious subject Gray has written a humorous and engaging story that is one of hope and an affirmation of the unexpectedness of the journey that life is. There is no sex, no obvious violence and only a little swearing in the book. Age recommendations I have seen vary between 11 and 14, probably due to the themes of teen suicide and the devastation that such an act leaves in it's wake which are explored in the book. I would say the book is suitable for 12+, those in second level education, although younger readers (particularly competent 9+ readers ) would be able to read the story, the issue is one of comprehension and understanding of the themes Gray is exploring as opposed to reading competency.

You can read an interview with Keith Gray about the book here:

http://vulpeslibris.wordpress.com/2008/07/30/interview-with-keith-gray/

June's Book Newsletter

2010-05-27T12:42:00.002+01:00

I'm putting the final touches to Junes E-Book Newsletter, some good new teen reads and a few notable adult selections. Email us if you would like to be added to our mailing list. The Newsletter is free and delivered to your email account once a month - nothing could be simpler!

Buddying Up

2010-05-24T14:23:00.004+01:00

Why not choose a buddy this summer for a buddy read! The rules are easy:

Choose a buddy you want to share a book with

Choose a book you both want to read (why not pick one that matches one of the Reading Challenge Prompts)

Read and discuss with your buddy.

You can have more than one buddy for a book and you can read more than one book together - hey you have started a book group!

That wasn't hard, was it?

Challenge #7 - Some suggestions

2010-05-18T12:58:00.002+01:00

Stuck for a play, challenge #7 in our Summer Reading Project. Here are David Mamet's top 10 American plays which comes courtesy of The Wall Street Journal

1. Thornton Wilder’s 'Our Town'
2. Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur’’s 'The Front Page'
3. Edward Albee’s 'Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'
4. Tennessee Williams’s 'A Streetcar Named Desire '
5. Arthur Miller’s 'All My Sons'
6. John Patrick Shanley’s 'Doubt'
7. William Saroyan’s 'The Time of Your Life'
8. Mart Crowley’s 'The Boys in the Band'
9. Gore Vidal’s 'The Best Man '
10. Clare Boothe Luce’s 'The Women'

Would anyone like to suggest some Irish or European plays, Oscar Wilde springs to mind. How about reading a play rather than a novel as your next book group read?

Didn't like the ending?

2010-05-18T12:38:00.003+01:00

'I enjoyed that book' says the customer

'Great' I say

'But I didn't like the ending' she looks at me expectantly

'Oh I haven't read that one', I say

'No I didn't like the ending' More looking at me expectantly. I begin to worry 'What was wrong with it'

'It was as if there is going to be a sequel' the customer says

'Maybe there will be' , I am getting a bit desperate what does this customer want me to say?

'The ending was very disappointing' More looking and a silence develops

I decide to take the plunge 'I can't change the ending'

'Oh I know but it was very disappointing'

Beloved - Toni Morrison

2010-05-17T10:37:00.004+01:00

How do you review a book that won the 1998 Pulitzer Prize and is written by a giant of American letters. This is a daunting task, books have been written about Beloved and the story remains a seminal piece of writing. It is however my book group's choice for this month and, as it has been my last read, I will try to do it justice.

Beloved is the story of Sethe a slave on a farm in Kentucky. There are five other slaves on the farm all of whom determine to escape when their living and working conditions deteriorate. Sethe makes it to the home of her mother-in-law in Cincinnati who is a freed slave, freed on payment by her son of his labour. Twenty eight days after arriving and living a life of liberty men arrive to retrieve Sethe. Rather than allowing the men to take her and her children Sethe takes the children to the woodshed and tries to kill them, she succeeds in killing only one child, her eldest girl. Sethe is sent to prison with her other newborn daughter Denver, her two sons run away. Sethe is ultimately released from prison with her surviving daughter and moves back into her mother-in-laws house. The events of the book take place 20 years later in and around 1873.

In an interview for 'Race Today Review' Toni Morrison said that her main aim in writing Beloved was 'to bear witness to a history that is unrecorded, untaught in mainstream education.' It is certainly true that whilst I know what slavery was and am also aware of some of the events surrounding the abolition of slavery, it is clear from reading this book that I did not really know about slavery. What impacted me most about this book were the small details Morrison provides of the conditions and treatment of these human beings.

During the course of the book Sethe and the other slaves on Sweet Home Farm (a misnomer if ever there was one!) undergo rape, beatings and the selling of one of their number. We learn that slaves were regarded as animals, which legitimated the way they were treated. Men and women were put to stud and women were valuable because they were capable of reproducing and thus providing new free labour. The children of slaves were regarded as assets that could be sold and one of the themes of this book is the way that family relationships and bonds were destroyed by the selling of human beings. We learn that it was dangerous for slaves to love to much because that love could be sold or destroyed on the whim of another, thus they only loved a little.

We also learn the penalties for a slave that runs away. Of the five slaves that ran from Sweet Farm, only two survived, Sethe and Paul D. One slave was shot, an attempt to burn another alive failed and he was shot, a third was unhinged by witnessing the rape and beating of his wife (Sethe) and his outcome remains unknown. What happens to Paul D after he runs and is captured provides details of the oppression and suffering that put into context Sethe's extreme response to being recaptured, a response that is based on several actual cases of infanticide amongst slave women.

But who is Beloved? Perhaps the central question in this book. Sethe is literally haunted by the ghost of the child she killed. When Beloved appears on Sethe's doorstep Sethe believes that she is the reincarnation of her dead daughter and Denver believes she is her sister but by the end of the novel none of the characters can remember Beloved with any clarity. Is Beloved real or just an incarnation of Sethe's guilt?

It is an entirely different thing knowing something on an intellectual level and being shown and involved in the suffering of others. Morrison has managed to bring the reality of slavery, the human as object, to life on the page. She has shown us what it is to be owned and how the human mind can so easily twist and reclassify to justify anything. As I have said previously, there have been books written about this book and it is possible to write pages on the multiple levels that this book works at - but this blog is not the place for those pages. Suffice to say that this is an important, near perfect work of fiction.

This book is dedicated to 'The Sixty Million and more' being those slaves that died on the voyage from Africa to the American continent - this novel is dedicated to the dead.

Summer Reading Challenge

2010-05-13T14:05:00.003+01:00

As the end of term approaches and you are wondering what to do with your teens for the summer why not challenge them to a readathon or summer reading challenge. We have listed a set of prompts and those taking part in the challenge must select one book for each prompt (12 in total) and finish all 12 books before the new school year starts at the end of the summer - thats 1 book a week!

And parents, if you are challenging your teens why not challenge yourselves and read along with your teens, the prompts are not just to be used with teen/young adult fiction, they can equally apply to adult books or read the books your teens choose so that you can talk about them.

Let us know what books you intend to read either through our comments box below or come and see us in the shop and we will post them on the blog so that everyone can see what everyone else is reading.

If you need help finding books for the prompts come and see us and we will be able to suggest something.

The Challenge:

Read one book from each of the categories below (12 in total) before school resumes at the end of the summer.

As it's the holidays, choose a holiday destination and read a book either set there or by an author from that country or place.
As 20th June is Father's Day, read a book that features a father or has the word father/dad in the title
Read a graphic novel
Read a book set in the future
As its summer read a book with a 'hot' word in the title (eg heat, sun, summer, scorch).
As the summer is the time for the beach and we all want to be toned and tanned why not build a better body, read a book that deals with improving the body eg cloning, genetic manipulation, body modification, cybernetic implants, tattooing, cosmetic surgery, organ donation).
Read a full length play.
Read a book by an Irish author.
Read a book by an author from another country.
Read a book where the main character is a different gender to you.
Read a book from one of the genres (try choosing something that you wouldn't normally read) ie. crime/thriller, fantasy and sci-fi, humour, romance, horror.
Read a book set in the past/alternative past.

Start Date is Saturday June 5th

Should I Stay or Should I go!

2010-05-12T13:32:00.003+01:00

What to do when the book you are reading has it's merits, some good ideas and dialogue but as a whole does not work for you.

Do you plough on in the hope that it will all at some point come together, if so how long do you give it?

Do you abandon it, tossing it aside without further thought?

Is the problem the book or is it you?

Having passed the point of 40 time has become precious and I am less inclined to waste my time on something that does not work for me. A true indicator is the time it has taken me to reach page 197 - 7 days!

Enough!

Just Started 'Kraken'

2010-05-05T13:46:00.004+01:00

I have just started China Mieville's 'Kraken'. A strange, funny and funny (peculiar) book. Not sure I'm enjoying it yet but it is definitely interesting. I never thought of a giant squid as an object of worship before!

The Whisperers - John Connolly

2010-05-03T15:29:00.004+01:00

A new book by John Connolly is always a treat, particularly if it is one featuring Connolly's private detective Charlie Parker. The Whisperers is Parker's 9th outing in a series that has propelled Connolly into the position of being one of Ireland's best selling authors, with not one of his books actually set in Ireland.

Parker has been asked to look into an ex soldier, Joel Tobias, who is mistreating his girlfriend. The client, Bennett Patchett, has a secondary motive which is to uncover why his son Damien, also an ex soldier and who served with Tobias in Iraq, committed suicide. As Parker's investigation develops he discovers a suicide cluster amongst the ex servicemen who served together and it rapidly becomes clear that Tobias's income can not support his lifestyle.

The soldiers are smuggling looted Iraqi artefacts but they have transported more than they bargained for across the Canadian border. An item has come to the attention of several interested parties, shadowy figures that embody the evil in men's hearts and minds. As the object of desire whispers to those who might bend to it's will, Parker, The Collector and The Captain manoeuvre for possession of something that could unleash terror and destruction on the world.

Connolly is clearly intent on informing as well as entertaining in this novel, principally about the problems of post traumatic stress disorder in returning soldiers and the poor quality of aftercare afforded those injured both physically and mentally by participation in the conflict in Iraq. His research is extensive, not heavy handed and is imported into the storyline almost seamlessly, no mean feat.

Fans will be pleased to see the return of Louis and Angel, if only briefly, and there are intimations that Parker will be put to further and greater tests in the future.

My one reservation is that the end seemed rushed, we are told rather than shown how the story ends for one of the characters, a character who it seemed had little significance but whose influence turns out to have been crucial. This reservation aside, The Whisperers is a compelling read, one that you will find it difficult to put down once started and which fans of Charlie Parker will find satisfying.

Whilst the detective/supernatural/horror mix will not appeal to everyone I would suggest that Connolly's work should be read not only for the shear quality of the writing but also, in the Parker books, for the breadth of Connolly's vision. Parker is not just a detective, he is, in the tradition of those epic poems of old, battling the demon, slaying the dragon, killing Grendel. He is the scarred hero fighting the darkness in men's souls and as such is the hope of civilisation, a last bulwark against the demons and monsters that lurk just outside of the comforting glow of the firelight. Epic tales do not come much better than this.

May's Book Newsletter

2010-04-30T10:45:00.002+01:00

May's Newsletter is now available with details of the month's new releases and a roundup of book news and interviews. Email us for your copy.

The City and The City Wins Arthur C Clarke Award

2010-04-29T11:58:00.005+01:00

China Mieville's The City and The City has won the prestigious Arthur C Clarke Award. The annual award is presented for the best science fiction novel of the year. You will recall that I reviewed the book in March of last year and it provided one of the most interesting and thought provoking reads of the year.

Mieville commented afterwards

"One of the many reasons this means so much to me is that I tried to draw on different literary inspirations than I had previously done, to write in a different voice, to channel a different kind of 'weird'. Trying to do something different was a huge pleasure and excitement, but of course there's no guarantee that you'll do a good job. To have the effort received like this means an incredible amount."

Mieville's follow up book Kraken has just been released and has made it to my TBR pile already.

#1b1t2010 - American Gods by Neil Gaiman

2010-04-29T10:00:00.004+01:00

The winner of 1 book 1 twitter is, as predicted, Neil Gaiman's American Gods. All that remains is for everyone to get reading and tweeting their thoughts on the book in 140 characters or less.

If you've read the book let us know what you thought of it in our comments section, where you can use more than 140 characters!

#1b1t

2010-04-28T18:00:00.002+01:00

Fancy being part of a global book group, then head over to http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/04/one-book-one-twitter-let-the-voting-begin/ to find out which book has been chosen for the global read. As I write voting is still open - just. The likely outcome is that the book will be American Gods by Neil Gaiman, closely followed by Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.

Those on Twitter will be able to comment on the read and share their thoughts on the book - in 140 characters or less.

I'll be trying to fit the book into my TBR pile and will let you know what I think.

PS. Putting the final touches to next months Book Newsletter, if you want a copy sent to your email then email us.

Exciting Book News

2010-04-28T12:45:00.009+01:00

We have not been posting as we should, partly because we are doing technological stuff and partly because I got tired. I didn't get tired of reading, just trying to keep up with new books.

However I am now to receive proof copies of books due out later in the year so I should be able to get ahead of the game! I am reading something due out in August and very funny and slightly twisted it is to - reviews will be posted in July but I will also try and post about my other reading, be it new or old, literature or genre fiction (I have had a strange addiction to science fiction recently).

On my TBR pile

The border between Maine and Canada is porous. Anything can be smuggled across it: drugs, cash, weapons, people. Now a group of disenchanted former soldiers has begun its own smuggling operation, and what is being moved is infinitely stranger and more terrifying than anyone can imagine. Anyone, that is, except private detective Charlie Parker, who has his own intimate knowledge of the darkness in men's hearts. But the soldiers' actions have attracted the attention of the reclusive Herod, a man with a taste for the strange. And where Herod goes, so too does the shadowy figure that he calls the Captain. To defeat them, Parker must form an uneasy alliance with a man he fears more than any other, the killer known as the Collector ...

Acclaimed as one of the funniest and most assured Irish novels of recent years, "An Evening of Long Goodbyes" is the story of Dubliner Charles Hythloday and the heroic squandering of the family inheritance. Featuring drinking, greyhound racing, vanishing furniture, more drinking, old movies, assorted Dublin lowlife, eviction and the perils of community theatre, Paul Murray's debut novel is a tour de force of comedic writing wrapped in an honest-to-goodness tale of a mann and a family - living in denial.

If I die before I wake ...A grisly murder is committed at a health resort situated in a recently renovated farmhouse, which turns out to be notorious for being haunted. Attorney Thora Gudmundsdottir is called upon by the owner of the resort -- the prime suspect in the case -- to represent him. Her investigations uncover some very disturbing occurrences at the farm decades earlier -- things that have never before seen the light of day ...MY SOUL TO TAKE is a chilling, dark and witty crime novel, and a welcome return for Thora, the heroine of the highly-acclaimed LAST RITUALS.

Deep in the research wing of the Natural History Museum is a prize specimen, something that comes along much less often than once in a
lifetime: a perfect, and perfectly preserved, giant squid. But what does it mean when the creature suddenly and impossibly disappears?
For curator Billy Harrow it's the start of a headlong pitch into a London of warring cults, surreal magic, apostates and assassins. It might just be that the creature he's been preserving is more than a biological rarity: there are those who are sure it's a god.
A god that someone is hoping will end the world.

Fits and Giggles

2010-04-19T10:10:00.004+01:00

Thomas in our Fermoy shop is organising a charity comedy night in aid of Brainwave, the Irish Epilepsy Society.

A host of Cork's finest comedians will gather to raise money for this very worthy cause. All comedians have generously donated their time for free which means every cent made is going to charity. If you can make it it you're in for a great night.

This night of fun is on the 7th May in the LV Bar on MacCurtain Street Cork. Tickets are €5 on the door. For more info email Thomas at fermoybooks@eircom.net

TELL YOUR FRIENDS!

Get Tweeting!

2010-03-23T15:02:00.003Z

Sorry for the extended silence but we have been doing technological things to bring us into the twenty-first century. The first of these is that you can now follow us on Twitter @midletonbooks we will be tweeting on news and gossip as we find it. Follow us as an RSS feed by clicking on the orange box.

Answer to the Friday Book Quiz

2010-03-01T14:54:00.002Z

The answer was The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald. The murder was the death of Myrtle Wilson, hit by a car driven by Daisy Buchanan, as she runs from her husband following an argument.

Friday Book Quiz

2010-02-26T10:21:00.002Z

Unashamedly piggybacking on a literary mystery photo for today's quiz, head over to Literary Kicks here http://litkicks.com/MysterySpot001 for an intriguing aerial photo from 1924 showing the site of a literary murder - name that book!

The Returners - Gemma Malley

2010-02-24T13:49:00.004Z

Gemma Malley's new book The Returners is not an easy read. Originally picked for the school book group the consensus of adult opinion was that the book was not suitable for the first year age group 12/13 and that only confident 14 yr olds would find the book manageable. The book is set in the Britain of 2016, a time of economic collapse where racism and intolerance is on the rise.

Will, the main character, is living at home with his father. His mother has died. Will's memories of her death, whilst vivid, do not explain how his mother ended up in the water. Will's belief, reinforced by his father's explanation, is that she committed suicide.

Will's father, a lawyer, is under the sway of Patrick a member of a BNP type political party that espouses deportation for non nationals. When Will witnesses a violent act Patrick and his Father make sure that Will remembers correctly what exactly happened but Will suffers from memory lapses, vivid dreams and nightmares. He also believes that people are following him. As Will remembers more of his past he finds out things about himself that are disturbing and horrifying. Can he change his future?

Gemma Malley's dystopian novel is not an easy read for several reasons, the vivid nightmares Will has about Auschwitz and the massacres in Rwanda together with the fact that Will is not a likeable character are some. Issues abound which would keep an older book group, 15+ perhaps, talking for ages, rascism, spin, social attitudes to immigrants and their communities particularly in times of economic downturn, whether there is such a thing as preordained outcomes or whether we make our own future.

A worthwhile but difficult read that will not have universal appeal.

Answers to Friday's Book Quiz

2010-02-23T09:10:00.002Z

Sorry about the late posting but a family crisis yesterday kept me away from the computer.

1. Tin Cans - especially diet coke cans

2. Steve

3. 12

4. Monkshood (also known as Wolfsbane)

5. Georgia accidentally shaves them off

6. Oliver Twist

7. The Golden Compass

8. Spanish Flu

9. Asperger's Syndrome

10. Calculus

How did you do?

Look out for reviews this week of Gemma Malley's new book The Returners and Sophie McKenzie's book The Medusa Project.

Friday Book Quiz

2010-02-19T11:26:00.002Z

A quiz for children and teens.

1. In Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson Series what is Percy's friend Grover's favorite thing to eat: enchiladas and...?

Mayo
Pizza
Tin Cans
Spaghetti

2. In Darren Shan’s "Cirque Du Freak" when they are deciding who should get the tickets, Darren gets one but who gets the other?
Alan
Steve
Mr. Dalton
Annie

3. In "Artemis Fowl", what age is Artemis?

13
14
12
11

4. In Charlie Higson’s Young Bond Series John Charnnage is a strange man who has a collection of poisons, including belladonna, death cap, cyanide and more. It also includes aconite. What is this also known as?

5. In Louise Rennison’s books featuring Georgia Nicolson what does Georgia accidentally do to her eyebrows?

6. In what book is Fagin a leader of the gang of thieves that the main character gets drawn into?

"Crispin: The Cross of Lead", by Avi
"Redwall", by Brian Jacques
"Oliver Twist", by Charles Dickens
"The Bad Beginning", by Lemony Snicket

7. In what book does Lord Asriel use Roger and his daemon to open a passageway into a new world?

"The Golden Compass", by Philip Pullman
"Bridge to Terabithia", by Katherine Paterson
"Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone", by J. K. Rowling
"Walk Two Moons", by Sharon Creech

8. In the Twilight Series What was Edward suffering from when he was turned into a vampire?

9. In Mark Haddon's book The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, what does the narrator, Christopher, suffer from?

Colour-blindness
Asperger's Syndrome
Haddon's Syndrome
Hiccups

10. In Tintin what is the name of the Professor

Calculus
Addition
Fraction
Algebra

Next week we will be joined by Luke a transition year student so expect an emphasis on young adult literature with reviews and views on some new releases.

Have a great weekend.

Friday Book Quiz Answers

2010-02-15T10:01:00.003Z

Here are the answers to Friday's last lines quiz.

1. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood

2. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz - Frank L Baum

3. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald

4. The Road - Cormac McCarthy

5. The Colour Purple - Alice Walker

6. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov

7. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell

8. The Dead in The Dubliners - James Joyce

9. In Cold Blood - Truman Capote

10. Little Women - Louisa May Alcott

11. The Picyure of Dorian Grey - Oscar Wilde

12. Brokeback Mountain - Annie Proulx

13. On the Road - Jack Kerouac

14. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown

15. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens

How did you do? A pat on the back and a large slice of fat free virtual chocolate cake if you got them all right. Look out for another book quiz on Friday!

Friday Book Quiz

2010-02-12T10:03:00.004Z

A large slice of virtual chocolate cake to anyone who can guess the author and titles of the books these last lines come from.

1. Are there any questions?

2. I'm so glad to be at home again

3. So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

4. In the deep glens where they lived all things were older than man and they hummed of mystery.

5. Matter of fact, I think this the youngest us ever felt.

6. I am thinking of aurochs and angels, the secret of durable pigments, prophetic sonnets, the refuge of art. And this is the only immortality you and I may share, my Lolita.

7. After all, tomorrow is another day.

8. His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead.

9. Then starting home, he walked toward the trees, and under them, leaving behind him the big sky, the whisper of wind voices in the wind-bent wheat.

10. Oh, my girls, however long you may live, I never can wish you a greater happiness than this!

11. He was withered, wrinkled, and loathsome of visage. It was not till they had examined the rings that they recognized who it was.

12. There was some open space between what he knew and what he tried to believe, but nothing could be done about it, and if you can't fix it you've got to stand it.

13. So in America when the sun goes down and I sit on the old broken-down river pier watching the long, long skies over New Jersey and sense all that raw land that rolls in one unbelievable huge bulge over to the West Coast, and all that road going, all the people dreaming in the immensity of it, and in Iowa I know by now the children must be crying in the land where they let the children cry, and tonight the stars�ll be out, and don�t you know that God is Pooh Bear? the evening star must be drooping and shedding her sparkler dims on the prairie, which is just before the coming of complete night that blesses the earth, darkens all rivers, cups the peaks and folds the final shore in, and nobody, nobody knows what�s going to happen to anybody besides the forlorn rags of growing old, I think of Dean Moriarty, I even think of Old Dean Moriarty the father we never found, I think of Dean Moriarty.

14. For a moment. he thought he heard a woman's voice...the wisdom of the ages...whispering up from the chasms of the earth.

15. O Agnes, O my soul, so may thy face be by me when I close my life indeed; so may I, when realities are melting from me like the shadows which I now dismiss, still find thee near me, pointing upward!

Happy Reading

Word of the Week GIN

2010-02-10T12:32:00.008Z

GIN: a) A spirit flavoured with juniper berries

b) A machine for separating seeds from raw cotton

As a Gin and Tonic kind of girl I figured that Gin, the drink, would feature somewhere in literature. Surprisingly it features rarely, the most famous and extensive piece being Charles Dickens' 'Gin Shops' in'Sketches by Boz' published in 1836.

Gin had been thought to have medicinal qualities and became popular in England when unlicensed gin production was allowed by the government who at the same time imposed heavy tariffs on imported spirits. By the 1730's of the 15,000 drinking establishments in London over half were gin shops!

The government became alarmed when it emerged that the average Londoner drank 14 gallons of spirit a year. People would do anything to get gin…a cattle drover sold his eleven-year-old daughter to a trader for a gallon of gin, and a coachman pawned his wife for a quart bottle.

The desperation of the situation led Hogarth to produce two prints 'Beer Street' and 'Gin Lane' (above) in 1751. The print shows the horror and squalor of the times with a woman taking snuff as her baby falls into a gin cellar.

Realising the seriousness of the situation the government imposed a tax on gin in 1736 which led to riots and immediately the sale of gin went underground with bootleggers, runners and pushers selling their illegal wares under such names as Cuckold's Comfort, Ladies Delight and Knock Me Down.

Gin was however the 'Opium of the people', although it led to debt, starvation and death it kept them warm in winter and allayed terrible hunger pangs. The government again raised the duty on gin and throughout the 18th Century consumption began to fall. Consumption did not however fall very rapidly and the drink remained a social problem such that in 1836 Dickens wrote about it. Like Hogarth Dickens noted that poverty was the underlying issue

'Gin-drinking is a great vice in England, but wretchedness and dirt are a greater; and until you improve the homes of the poor, or persuade a half-famished wretch not to seek relief in the temporary oblivion of his own misery, with the pittance which, divided among his family, would furnish a morsel of bread for each, gin-shops will increase in number and splendour.'

The Cotton Gin

The Cotton Gin was invented by Eli Whitney in about 1793. It is a machine that separates cotton seeds from cotton fibres. The effect of Whitney's invention was a massive increase and growth in the cotton industry, by the middle of the 1800's America was growing 3/4's of the worlds cotton. The increased demand for cotton led to an increase in the demand for land and slaves.

'In 1790 there were six slave states; in 1860 there were 15. From 1790 until Congress banned the importation of slaves from Africa in 1808, Southerners imported 80,000 Africans. By 1860 approximately one in three Southerners was a slave.' (Eli Whitney Museum and Workshop)

As the plantations grew and spread and the price of land and slaves increased this inhibited the growth of towns and cities, which in turn exacerbated the differences between the North and South of America. The North of America at this time accounted for 72% of the country's manufacturing capacity whilst the South was an agricultural slave owning society.

In 1798 Eli Whitney figured out how to manufacture muskets by machine so that the parts were interchangeable, it was this that finally made him rich.

Eli Whitney was not only directly responsible for making cotton King but also the expansion of the slave trade that led to the American Civil War in 1861. Not only that, he provided the means by which the North triumphed by reason of it's superior arms manufacturing capabilities.

But what has this to do with literature? Many novels have dealt with the issues of slavery and the Civil War, 'Roots' and 'Gone with the Wind' are but two examples, and also the division between North and South and issues around racism (William Faulkner springs to mind here). Not only that but the conditions Eli Whitney created with the invention of the cotton gin, arms manufacturing and the resultant conflict changed the course of history, much of modern America and therefore it's literature are as they are because of the results of Eli Whitney's inventions.

Whew! I'm off for a Gin and Tonic.

Next Week's Word: IDENTIFICATION

The First Century After Beatrice Amin Maalouf

2010-02-08T11:39:00.004Z

Maalouf's tale of science and superstition is both speculative fiction and elegantly written dystopian fiction. I would hesitate to call it science fiction as I do not want images of aliens and star systems to intrude but science fiction it is. Set in 2034 the novel is the memoir of a French entomologist and narrates the events of the end of the 20th Century and the beginning of the 21st.

Whist at a conference in Cairo the narrator discovers Scarab Beans sold at the local market that promise to increase a man's fertility and guarantee the birth of sons. Subsequently, the narrators partner (Clarence) discovers that such beans are being sold not only in Egypt but also India, all over Africa and the Third World. Further research reveals that a synthetic drug had been manufactured which would guarantee the results the beans promise and that sales had made the developing scientist rich. When Clarence, a journalist, tries to write about the issue in her paper she is met with indifference, her employers consider the matter a Third World problem and an ideal solution to the overpopulation and food shortages that are it's perennial problems.

'If tomorrow, or even today, a method could be found to reduce the birthrate without violence, without force,with the free consent of the parents....'

But what, asks Maalouf, are the consequences of such a policy of positive discrimination. As the number of female births decline and the numbers of men increase, men who have no hope of a normal family life, suspicion and paranoia between races, cultures and tribes increase with inevitably violent results.

The novel deals with themes of gender bias and selective birth and illustrates the power of fiction to make global issues immediate and real for the reader. My only criticism is that the tone of the narrator, the retelling of events rather than the immediacy of living through them, puts the issues the novel explores at a distance. The events are narrated too calmly and therefore loose their ability to engage, you can admire the writers style and argument without getting caught up in the drama as there is no real drama.

Maalouf is a Lebanese born writer living in Paris, he believes that

'the level of civilisation of any society can be determined by the place of women'.

He is not hopeful if we are to take his conclusions from this novel.

Never has the Egyptian prayer

May your name live forever and a son be born to you

sounded so chilling.

Teen Book Group

2010-02-08T11:29:00.003Z

Due to problems getting enough copies of this months teen read 'Jackdaw Summer' I have changed the book and it is now Gemma Malley's The Returners.

Will Hodge's life is a mess! His mother is dead, he has no friends and he thinks he is being followed by a strange group of people who tell him they know him. But Will can't remember them ...at first. And when he does he doesn't like what he can remember. While Will is struggling with unsettling memories, he learns that his past is a lot deeper than many people's, and he has to find out if he is strong enough to break links with the powerful hold that history has on him. This compelling novel, set in alternate future, challenges readers to consider the role we all have to play in making our society, and asks how much we are prepared to stand up for what's right.

Why not pick up a copy and read along with the group. I will post about the book and discussion at the end of February.

Answers to the Friday Book Quiz

2010-02-08T10:06:00.002Z

1. Finnegan's Wake by James Joyce

2. 1984 by George Orwell

3. Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger

4. The Good Soldier by Ford Maddox Ford

5. City of Glass by Paul Auster

6. Beloved by Toni Morrison

7. The Crow Road by Iain M Banks

8. Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

9. Back When We Were Grown Ups by Ann Tyler

10. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

11. I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith

12. Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe

13. Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice

14. Charlotte's Web by E. B. White

15. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

How did you do? On Friday we will post a last lines quiz.

Friday Book Quiz

2010-02-05T13:30:00.002Z

As it's Friday a quick First Lines quiz, there are no prizes just the chance to sit with a coffee/tea and exercise the little grey cells. Name the title and author of the books from which these first lines are taken, answers on Monday.

1. riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs.

2. It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.

3. If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.

4. This is the saddest story I have ever heard.

5. It was a wrong number that started it, the telephone ringing three times in the dead of night, and the voice on the other end asking for someone he was not.

6. 124 was spiteful

7. It was the day my grandmother exploded.

8. It was a pleasure to burn.

9. Once upon a time, there was a woman who discovered she had turned into the wrong person.

10. It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn't know what I was doing in New York.

11. I write this sitting in the kitchen sink

12. And then say what? Say, 'Forget you're hungry, forget you got shot inna back by some racist cop--Chuck was here? Chuck come up to Harlem--

13. I see . . ." said the vampire thoughtfully, and slowly he walked across the room towards the window.

14. Where's Papa going with that ax?" said Fern to her mother as they were setting the table for breakfast.

15. Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun.

Have a great weekend.

Word of the Week - Debt

2010-02-04T11:11:00.004Z

Debt: a sum of money owed

Owing money and the amount owed is big news at the moment, from bankers and developers to mortgage default and credit cards, debt looms large in the national psyche. How is debt treated in literature?

We all have an image of the artist starving in his garret but what about authors, how do they fare? Historically debt has nipped at the toes of authors, Daniel Defoe went bankrupt in 1692 owing a whopping £17,000 and Samuel Johnson was arrested for debt. John Cleland finished 'Fanny Hill' while incarcerated in the Fleet Prison for owing a more modest, but by the standard of the times a not inconsiderable, £840 and Walter Scott's publishing house foundered on the rock of £120,000 of debt in 1826.

The ability to borrow relied on your standing ie your social and moral position, not just your finances. Debt encompassed therefore not just financial but moral and social obligations. Colin Burrows for his article 'The Borrowers' http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/dec/06/debt

points out that

'Stories of debt could touch on almost any aspect of human relationships,from friendship to commerce.'

Debt allows the author to explore the tensions and conflicts that can arise between those who owe and those to whom money (or other obligations) are owed. Probably the best known example of an author exploring these issues is Charles Dickens. In 1824, when Dickens was 12, his father was imprisoned in Marshalsea prison for debt. It is said that this experience led directly to 'Little Dorrit' which was a direct attack on the practice of imprisonment for debt (abolished in the England in 1869). Throughout Dickens' fiction there are figures that survive by borrowing from others with varying degrees of venality examples include Mr Micawber in 'David Copperfield and Harold Skimpole in 'Bleak House'.

Usury, another facet of borrowing and debt, is the lending of money at high interest rates. It wasn't always thus, it was originally just the practice of charging interest on loans but it's meaning has evolved over time. The church has since early times taken the view that usury is sinful and the practice grew of economically coercing those considered outside the normal professions to collect rents and interests on behalf of landlords. Thus the depiction of Shylock in Shakespeare's 'The Merchant of Venice' who has to convert to Christianity and forsake usury before he can be redeemed. Dante reserves a special place for usurers in his 'Divine Comedy' on the seventh circle of hell along with the blasphemers and sodomites!

A change occurred in 1545 when Henry VIII signed into law an Act of Parliament that allowed the charging of interest on monies lent. With the formation of the Bank of England in 1694 the link between social standing and social ties and debt began to unravel and with it the fertile ground for authors to explore social and other connections through the medium of debt. The separation of debt from it's social and moral aspects into a purely financial transaction (generally) between strangers is perhaps why debt is not used as a medium to explore social issues anymore. It remains however a plot device, the debt of money to a drug dealer or the obligations owed to the mafia don. As Burrows points out literature does explore issues around money but these issues are about 'disconnected individuals rather than society as a whole.'

NEXT WEEK : GIN

The Other Hand Chris Cleave

2010-02-02T09:52:00.008Z

Would you give a finger to save a stranger on a beach? Yes or No, answer now!

This is the dilemma that faces the O'Rourke's, on holiday in Nigeria in an effort to save their marriage. The person they are asked to save is Little Bee, one of the two narrator's of this book and a refugee from Nigeria's oil wars. Needless to say the O'Rourkes make different choices and it is these choices and their consequences that are played out in Chris Cleave's ambitious new novel.

The novel opens with Little Bee in a detention centre in Essex where she has spent the last two years having fled Nigeria in a cargo ship full of tea. It is here that she sharpens her survival skills, practicing and perfecting her Queen's English and hiding from the men in the detention centre by dressing badly and binding her breasts, her only indulgence painting her toenails red with a bottle of varnish she found in a charity box of clothes. The incident on the beach happened over two years ago but she has retained Andrew O'Rourke's Driving License and business card so that when she is released from the detention centre, as part of an administrative error without documents, it is Andrew she calls.

The O'Rourk's have spent the intervening years carrying on lives of desperation. Andrew, haunted by the choice he made, descends into depression whilst Sarah continues her life editing a women's lifestyle magazine, having an affair with Lawrence, a self deprecating Home Office official and entirely missing the signals Andrew is sending out. It is into this fraught and unhappy situation that Little Bee's telephone call lands, detonating and scattering their carefully constructed lives.

The novel explores issues around immigration, globalisation, political violence and personal accountability. Each character is presented with choices and is judged by the reader on those choices. Is Sarah as frivolous as she seems? How far is Little Bee prepared to go to remain in the UK? How much does Lawrence really mean to Sarah and what is he prepared to do to keep her?
This would be a great book group read.

Book Technology

2010-01-28T09:21:00.003Z

Yesterday Apple unveiled their much anticipated ipad, a sort of cross between a computer and an mp3 player without a phone. There has been much excitement and anticipation around this launch as the device (which will cost between $499 - $829 depending on memory size)

"is a touchscreen computer designed for browsing the web, managing email, viewing pictures and videos, listening to music, playing games and reading electronic books." (John Collins in today's Irish Times)

As Steve Jobs of Apple says

"iPad creates and defines an entirely new category of devices that will connect users with their apps and content in a much more intimate, intuitive and fun way than ever before.” (Irish Times)

I'm not sure that I want to be intimate and intuitive with a machine but obviously some people do!

The interesting thing is that this acts as an e-reader to challenge the Kindle and Sony's device, there are others but these are the two market leaders. For those who don't know an e-reader is (or was until the ipad) a dedicated device into which you can download electronic books to read. The devices work on the basis of e-ink technology (don't ask me to explain, I have only a hazy idea how it works) which means that its less strain on the eyes but the device will hold hundreds of books.

When I heard about this I wanted one - so badly - but then I got to thinking.

The electronic 'books' are not that less expensive than their paper counterparts and the device itself is approx €250, that would buy an awful lot of traditional books.

Who do the books belong to? There is no physical object that you own, you can't even copy the book to a disc although (and I'm not sure about this) I assume that if you exceed the memory capacity of the device that any excess can be put on a memory stick or stored in an electronic library. This is a pertinent question, especially for Kindle owners that operate wirelessly. Recently Amazon were selling '1984' by George Orwell, they discovered that the book contained a breach of copyright. All the customers who had bought that edition of the book (and the irony of it being that book title) found that the books had been removed from their kindles without prior warning. So, I have paid my money for the book but the seller can still take it back - wouldn't happen with a paper copy.

Where do I read? I read at work, in bed, in the kitchen while cooking dinner, on the beach, in the bath - infact the list is endless. My favourite spot is in the bath with a glass of wine, how would an e-reader cope? OK until the inevitable moment where it's dropped in the bath. I doubt draping it over a radiator to dry out would work. Similarly, on the beach if sand got in to it can you shake it out and it would continue working? I doubt it.

There is however another piece of modern technology that is portable, can be read in almost every environment, will not short circuit if it gets wet, you can write on it, it can be read in most lights and is available in various font sizes for those with sight problems. This piece of technology is the book - why are we trying to reinvent the wheel with a price tag of €250 - $829 attached. Plus you can't decorate a room with an e- reader.

Love your books because once bought no one can take them away from you unless you loan them out, they are friends that you can return to again and again, they will provide comfort when down, humour and thought provoking discussion. To handle a good quality book is a joy that no electronic device, however expensive and interconnected, can replace.

Wednesday Word - LACUNA

2010-01-27T12:56:00.003Z

Another word that fits quite neatly into the world of books.

LACUNA: a gap in a manuscript, inscription, text, painting or musical work.

There are four ways a lacuna can occur:

1. Parts of the physical manuscript are missing

2. Unfinished works

3. Gaps in time within the story

4. Information gaps in what is being read

Gaps in the physical manuscript need no explanation.

Unfinished works abound throughout literature, usually where the author dies before the completion of a manuscript or planned sequence of books. Some examples are Dickens' 'Edwin Drood', Chaucer's 'Canterbury Tales' and Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast series.

Gaps in time within the story are there for a reason, usually to set up a contrast between the how a person was before and how they are now. The most famous example is perhaps Virginia Woolf's 'To the Lighthouse' in which there is a gap of many years between part 1 and 2. In that gap World War 1 has been fought, the reader's imagination has to fill in the gap as to events on the basis of the readers own knowledge and the changes in the characters in the novel.

Lacuna in the information the reader is being given by the author occur both naturally and by design. Whilst reading we constantly fill in information because if an author wrote everything stories would be impossibly long. What is left out by the author can therefore range from the trivial right through to information central to the story, such as the identity of the murderer. Gaps can also be temporary, to be revealed later as a plot device, or remain completely unfilled, a good example would be Henry James' 'The Turn of the Screw' where an explanation for the events in the novel remain unclear and ambiguous (a similar and modern example is Sarah Waters' 'The Little Friend').

Gaps can enhance interest and curiosity and are therefore central to the readers involvement in the story. It is in the gaps that imagination takes flight for if everything is described for us then there would be no need for imagination, it is through imagination that we engage with the author. The author has a choice of how much to tell and when, so the reader when identifying gaps has to ask 'is this gap relevant and if it is relevant why is this information being withheld?' Obviously in the detective story the identity of the murderer is the culmination of the investigation which has gone before it and it makes sense that the revelation comes at the end of the book (although in Donna Tartt's 'The secret History' the identity of the murderer is known from the beginning - it is the why that is important). It is in books with an unreliable narrator that the author's power to give and withhold information comes into its own, not only does the reader's imagination have to fill in details that the author leaves out but the reader has to decide whether to believe the information they are given! Examples of this type of fiction would be 'The Turn of the Screw' and 'The Little Friend' mentioned above and also Sebastian Faulk's 'Engleby' and Poppy Adams' 'The Behaviour of Moths'

Gaps are therefore the way in which an author keeps the reader interested in what is happening in the novel and also how the reader's response to the novel is manipulated. Far from being silent spaces, gaps are filled with the readers own imagination and speculation.

Next Week: Debt

Teenage Book Group - Update

2010-01-26T11:36:00.004Z

Jimbo and Charlie are best mates, so when Jimbo finds out from his not entirely trustworthy sister that he is in big trouble at school and a transfer to a special school is being considered he takes his worries to Charlie. Charlie suggests bugging the school staffroom to find out what's going on, a brilliant plan that goes off without a hitch. What the boys overhear leads them to break in to a teachers house but then they are threatened and Charlie disappears. When Jimbo is attacked at home and is saved by his sisters boyfriend, Jimbo and his sister steal the boyfriends motorbike and head off to the Isle of Skye to rescue Charlie. What they find when they get there is a transport beam, an alien planet and a spider called Britney.

The members of the school book group that read this book are a mixed sex group of 1st and 2nd years, so ages range from 12 to 14. Generally they enjoyed the book, the relationship between the two boys was believable and they enjoyed the humour in the book - bugging the school staffroom, the alien spider Britney and the light tone of the book. Head of English particularly liked the way the boyfriend was described and the families reaction to him 'He had the brain of a toilet brush. Mum, Dad and I were in complete agreement about this.' The students also commented on the dynamic within Jimbo's family - his father struggling to come to terms with the loss of his job, his mother racing around in her car and the sister who when the chips are down stands by her brother.

When asked whether the book ended as they expected the students said they were completely taken by surprise by the ending, they thought that maybe Mark Haddon did not know how to resolve the story having got the boys to the alien planet - thus the aliens die. The general feeling was that the book was less than the sum of it's parts in that the various elements of the book were done well and humorously but that the ending let the book down. An average score for the book was 7/10.

As I said in my earlier post I suspected that the discussion on the book would run out of steam before the end of the meeting so I had been looking for ways of discussing alien fiction in general. I had found on Youtube the original broadcast of H G Well's 'War of the Worlds' by Orson Welles from 1938. The broadcast is broken into approx. 10 minute chunks on Youtube and the students were played part 2, where a field reporter reports from a farm in New Jersey on what at first appears to be a meteorite but then turns into a death machine with a death ray. Welles had not only turned the book into a play but in doing so had twisted it so that they events of the book were taking place in real time, news bulletins interrupting a programme of dance music.

The students were attentive to the broadcast, they listened to the whole 9 minutes. I then explained how the broadcast had caused panic and showed them newspaper headlines of the time. They did not understand why panic ensued, even when the events of 1938 were described to them. None of the students said that they would have believed what they were hearing, what was marked was how distrustful of modern media they are. Head of English pointed out that with the advent of the spin doctor we had all become more aware of how media can be manipulated. The students had great difficulty in picturing only being able to get news from two sources, the newspaper and the radio, they had not thought of themselves as sophisticated users of digital media to get the information they wanted compared to people in 1938. A good discussion was had with all of the group engaged and contributing to the discussion.

Next months book is 'Jackdaw Summer' by David Almond, again I'll keep you posted!

Answers to the Book Meme

2010-01-26T10:26:00.004Z

I meant to post my answers to the Meme yesterday but got caught up in the drama and excitement of selling books! Anyway here are my answers to Friday's Meme

1. The last book I bought

'The Other Hand' by Chris Cleave, my book groups choice for this month. More on this in a later post.

2. The book I read the most as a child

'The Secret of Moon Castle' by Enid Blyton. I must have read this book 12 or 13 times

3. The book I've owned the longest

A first edition copy of 'The Secret of Moon Castle'

4. The total number of books I own

I haven't done a definitive count but I estimate over a thousand

5. The one book I would want on a desert island

'How to Survive on a Desert Island' I'd be dead in a week if I didn't have such a book!

6. The worst book I read in the last 12 months

'Eat Pray Love' by Elizabeth Gilbert. Where to start describing why I didn't like this book? It was a book group choice and for those lovers of the book most of the book group loved it. I thought Gilbert frivolous and despite her desire for change and the lengths she went to to achieve that change, by the end of the book she did not seem to have achieved any insight into herself or her situation.

7. The best book read in the last 12 months

Not many books get 10/10 but three made it into that category last year:

'John the Revelator' by Peter Murphy

'The Shooting Party' by Isabella Colgate

'The Archivists Story' by Travis Holland

If I have to chose one it would be 'The Archivists Story', a book about memory and how we use stories to make sense of our memories, both as individuals and as nations.

8. The book I most hated studying at school

'Jude the Obscure' by Thomas Hardy. I studied this for my A levels and gave up reading this most depressing book when the children all killed themselves because their parents weren't married. I never finished the book even though it was a set text. Since then I have read almost all of Hardy's novels but can not bring myself to reread this.

9. The book which made the most impression on me as a teenager

'To Kill a Mockingbird' by Harper Lee. Another set text but for O level this time. We were given the book one afternoon and I read it until I had finished it at 3am the following morning.

10. My favourite book Character

Either Scout from 'To Kill a Mockingbird' a feisty and brave girl or, a cliche I know but, Mr Darcy - do I need to spell it out!

Friday Book Meme

2010-01-22T13:37:00.002Z

A book meme for you to think about over the weekend, I'll post my answers on Monday.

1. The last book you bought and why

2. Which book did you read the most as a child?

3. The book you have owned the longest

4. The total number of books you own

5. One book you would want on a desert island (not the bible or the Complete Works of Shakespeare please)

6. The worst book you read in the last 12 months and why

7. The best book you read in the last 12 months and why

8.The book you most hated studying at school

9. The book that made the most impression on you as a teenager

10. Your favourite book character and why

Have a great weekend!

CAMPUS

2010-01-20T10:08:00.006Z

Once a week we will take a randomly chosen word and try to link this to the world of books - watch out this might get a bit tenuous!

Today's word is CAMPUS: the grounds of a university or college.

An easy one to start as several novels have been set in and around universities, indeed 'The Campus Novel' can be regarded as a genre in it's own right. The idea of a novel set in and around university life can be traced back to 1925 with the publication of Willa Cather's 'The Professor's House' but it came into it's own in the 1950's and onward. There are several advantages to a novel set within the confines of university life

-the setting is a closed world in much the same way as the country house detective novel was for Agatha Christie,

-time within the novel can be clearly structured, broken down into terms and years,

-the university gives a clearly defined power structure both within the university staff and between student and teacher

The world of the campus is one that has clear structure which can be exploited for dramatic effect and which provides a microcosm of the more extended and messy world beyond its walls. David Lodge, author of many campus novels, is clear about their attraction for a writer "The high ideals of the university as an institution - the pursuit of knowledge and truth are set against the actual behaviour and motivations of the people who work in them, who are only human and subject to the same ignoble desires and selfish ambitions as anybody else. The contrast is perhaps more ironic, more marked, than it would be in any other professional milieu." It is therefore no surprise that the campus has provided several novelists with comic opportunities, Lodge among them.

Universities and those who have access to them have however changed over the years, they are less the preserve of the elite and now cater for the bulk of school leavers. This democratisation of the university is perhaps the reason that the emphasis has moved away from class and old ideas verses new towards issues surrounding the purpose of education itself. It is the question of whether education is solely for obtaining points at the end of 6th year or a degree for a particular job, or does education serve a wider more holistic purpose?

Where does the school novel fit into this, particularly that staple of children's fiction the boarding school, think Harry Potter, Vampire Academy and the Twilight series. It would seem that the campus novel is alive and well in children and teen fiction, perhaps because it provides that necessity for such stories - an almost adult free environment. Whilst the university novel has foundered in recent years (the last I can remember is Tom Wolfe's I am Charlotte Symmons published in 2004) the school novel seems to be alive and well and positively flourishing.

Some Campus Novels:

Pnin - Vladimir Nabokov

The Human Stain - Philip Roth

The Secret History - Donna Tartt

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie - Muriel Spark

Lucky Jim - Kingsley Amis

Wonder Boys - Michael Chabon

NEXT WEEK: Lacuna

Support your local bookshop

2010-01-18T09:55:00.006Z

In this weeks Sunday Times India Knight has written a piece entitled 'The bookshop strangler: It's a scary whodunnit' in which she looks at the fortunes of Waterstones, which took a nosedive over Christmas, and contemplates a future without this last remaining dedicated bookshop chain and various valiant independents and asks how did this happen and who is to blame?

Let us look at how the bookshop industry might have got itself into this situation. Online retailers and Waterstones themselves have huge clout with the publishing industry which allows them to demand large discounts on titles so they can sell them at less than cost price - hence the 3 for 2 offers and the huge discounting of new releases, independent bookshops can not compete with this and customers looking for 'value' buy books in droves from these sources hastening the death of the independent bookshops but without the independents the chains and onliners have no competition.

Equally, Knight points out, if a debut novelist wants his book not only published but distributed he is reliant on the large chains picking it up and promoting it, if they don't he's stuffed. Thus the large online retailers and chains control not only the price the customer pays for books but also the books that are available to buy.

Customers have turned away from local independents (and this goes for butchers, hardware and other shops) to large chain retailers who offer discounting and a one size fits all model with the only books available being the ones they deem to be the ones we want to buy - hence the sea of celebrity serial biographies. The result seems to be that the customer has got tired of this model, if the latest results from Waterstones are anything to go by, service, knowledge and not having to trek to the nearest large town or city for what you want may be something that book buyers are coming to appreciate we hope!

There is also a knock-on effect of the dirth of bookshops - how do you foster a love of reading and literature in the young if there are no bookshops in which children can physically pick up, touch and look at books. There is nothing like the wonder of a child who opens a book to find that the contents pop up towards them in an explosion of colour and fun or the thrill of picking up a book that you had never heard of a finding that you have read the first 10 pages without realising it. This is what we risk loosing if we loose our bookshops to online retailers, yes they may be cheap but, as Knight points out,

'Amazon is a huge and powerful behemoth that has crushed publishing in its fist. I know it’s nice to buy cheap books (Amazon demands massive concessions from publishers), but publishers have little or no margins as a result and authors’ royalties suffer, too.'

Support your local bookshop, its a place to browse, chat with knowledgeable staff and customers, it fosters the imagination in both young and old and will transport you away from where you are. What other shop can do this and all for an average price of about €9.99!

Teenage Book Group

2010-01-15T11:19:00.004Z

I am involved in a secondary school book group as one of the required adult supervisors to any teen activity. What that actually means is that although the students pick the books to read I try to bring something to the meeting that they may not have thought of in connection with the chosen book in an effort to get them to 'think out of the box' - their English teacher brings chocolate brownies (Guess who's more popular!)

This months book is Mark Haddon's 'Boom' a tale of two boys who discover that two of their teachers are aliens who have a fiendish plot to take sci-fi fans and repopulate their world with them. It would be a great book for 9 - 12 year olds or those slightly older who are reluctant readers. Unfortunately I suspect the discussion on the book will not last the full hour we have available to us as, although humorous the book is not complex. I have therefore been casting about for ways to make the meeting more interesting and began to think about that other great alien invasion book H. G. Well's 'War of the Worlds'. There are at least two films of the book but far more interesting is Orson Welles' 1938 radio production which was broadcast on the night of 30th October 1938 - Halloween.

The production took the form of news bulletins which interrupted a programme of dance music and seemingly caused panic among the population. The original production is available on Youtube (in segments) and I have collected several newspaper headlines of the time not only dealing with the panic but, in an effort to try and put the public's reaction into context, of the surrounding political and world situation - the Australian Anschluss and the capitulation to Germany of their demand for part of Czechoslovakia and the unofficial war between China and Japan. The Americans of the time thought they were being invaded. The public had no TV and were not media savvy. All news was obtained from the radio or newsreels in cinemas and, if they missed the opening introduction, listeners had no way of knowing if what they were hearing was true or not. The task at the meeting is to get these 12 - 14 year old to imagine a world without TV where war is being openly talked about in a society that does not want to get involved in another European conflict.

I'll let you know how it goes!

Welcome to a New Year

2010-01-14T09:37:00.004Z

Now that the Christmas rush is over and all the mince pies have been eaten it's time to sit back and look forward to the new year. I am busy preparing February's Book Newsletter for our customers setting out new releases for the month and news and info from the world of books. Delivered by email - you can request a copy of the newsletter by emailing us at the shop with your name and we will add you to the e-mailing list. We can post any book to you - subject to payment of postage. Have a look at the 'About Me' section of the blog for our email and phone details.

Snowed Under

2009-09-16T11:10:00.002+01:00

Blogging will be suspended for a time whilst we work out new systems in the shop for streamlining what we do. Trying to keep up with blogging and dealing with new orders is proving to be problematic so we are taking a break until we sort out the issues and we can free up some time. Happy Reading

The City and The City - China Mieville

2009-09-03T09:27:00.002+01:00

Science Fiction books are something that I read as a teenager and moved away from, despite the realisation that they were often the books that pushed at the boundaries of knowledge and ideas - looking forward rather than back. I like books that explore ideas and China Mieville's name has been on my radar for some time, previous novels have been packaged as science fiction and have been called the new weird, but they remained in the science fiction/fantasy section but with the publication of 'The City and The City' it is perhaps time to take Mieville's novels and put them firmly in the modern literature section. This does not mean that we are being given reality as we know it reflected back to us, we are being given a reality which has been stretched thin and wrapped around a murder mystery!

The cities of the title are Beszel and Ul Qoma, they are located somewhere towards the Balkans in an otherwise identical world. Each city has it's own characteristics, food, fashion, colours and administrative systems. The point of departure from the conventional is that the two cities occupy the same physical space. The citizens of each city live their lives around the citizens of the other city having learnt to 'unsee' from an early age, the penalties for 'seeing' or Breach, being severe.

The book is narrated from the point of view of Inspector Borlu of the Beszian Extreme Crime Squad, a woman's body is found in a run down area of the city of Beszel and it soon becomes clear to Borlu that the murder involves the illegal passage between the two cities or Breach. The murdered woman is involved in an archaeological dig in Ul Qoma which is recovering mysterious artifacts, as the investigation progresses it becomes clear that the murdered woman had become convinced that there is a third city, Orciny, which exists in the spaces between Beszel and Ul Qoma unseen by the occupants of both cities and which wields power greater than that of Breach. As Borlu pursues his investigation he travels to Ul Qoma and both he and his Ul Qomaan counterpart slowly begin to believe that Orciny may be real.

China Mieville has created a novel that deals with our modern busy crowded urban lives. We all 'unsee' things we don't want to see from the beggar in the street to that big chap coming towards us on a dark night. He has taken this idea and stretched it to create this engrossing murder mystery which offers us a view of how we deal with the chaos of life lived in the city.

2009 Man Booker Prize Longlist

2009-07-29T10:54:00.002+01:00

The Man Booker Prize Longlist was announced yesterday and the contenders for the shortlist which will be announced on the 8th September are:

The Children's Book - AS Byatt

Summertime - J M Coetzee

The Quickening Maze - Adam Foulds

How to Paint a Dead Man - Sarah Hall

The Wilderness - Samantha Harvey

Me Cheeta - James Lever

Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantell

The Glass Room - Simon Mawer

Not Untrue and Not Unkind - Ed O'Loughlin

Heliopolis - James Scudamore

Brooklyn - Colm Toibin

Love and Summer - William Trevor

The Little Stranger - Sarah Waters

Check out our reviews of The Wilderness and The Little Stranger. We will bring you reviews of the other nominees in due course.

American Rust - Philipp Meyer

2009-07-01T14:31:00.007+01:00

Philipp Meyer's debut novel and his writing have been compared to Jack Kerouac, John Steinbeck, J D Salinger and Cormac McCarthy. This is heady stuff - as is this novel.

Buell Pennsylvania is a steel town, or it was. It is now in the Rust Belt of America, the steel works have been closed and the only jobs are those involved in dismantling the mills and at WalMart - packing groceries. In a period of twenty years

'the area had lost 150,00 jobs-most of the towns could no longer afford basic services; many no longer had any police...It was like this all up and down the river and many of the young people, the way they accepted their lack of prospects, it was like watching sparks die in the night.'

Two of these young people are Isaac English and Billy Poe, high school friends who have been left behind in Buell where others their age have fled. Isaac steals $4,000 from his invalid father and plans to head west, to California to study at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. His friend Billy, a High School football star agrees to accompany him on the first leg of his journey. But when they shelter from rain in a disused mill and encounter three homeless men, Billy refuses to run and Isaac kills one of the men. It is from this morally ambiguous incident that Meyers builds and layers his novel.

The two boys panic and run instead of going to the police. Billy is eventually arrested and charged with murder. Isaac, unaware of his friends arrest, fleas as originally planned. The novel explores the consequences of the boys actions on themselves and those around them, Billy's mother Grace, Isaac's sister Lee and Bud Harris the local Chief of Police. Each chapter is narrated by a different character which allows Meyer to focus in on various aspects of the repercussions of the murder but also explore the consequences of the economic decline of Buell.

This is not just a story of a murder but an exploration of the choices we make, be they large ones such as not investing in new technology and maintenance of a mill or the relatively smaller one of not taking up employment in a city because it would mean moving your son from the school where he is on the football team. Also how people are swept aside by history, marginalised and overlooked. Meyer gives us the modern dispossessed, living in trailer parks and disused houses, the corruption of municipal politics and the barely contained violence of a maximum security prison.

Throughout 'American Rust', below the surface and waiting in the wings, is nature herself. The Mon valley where Buell is situated is a lovely verdant area and with the decline of industry and the depopulation of the towns nature is beginning to reassert itself. Deer walk down deserted streets and those people that remain are turning to almost frontier lifestyles of growing their own vegetables and hunting their own food. Is this a simpler time? The people of Buell are living lives of quiet desperation.

Meyer puts hardly a foot wrong in this novel, there are however two niggles, the lack of interest in even looking at an alternative scenario to the murder theory and whether anyone awaiting trial would be sent to a maximum security prison. These are very minor criticisms which do not detract from a novel that explores the economic and personal reality of decisions made at the highest levels of government and at the intimate and individual level.

The Wilderness - Samantha Harvey

2009-06-15T09:33:00.006+01:00

Jake Jameson is taking an aeroplane flight. It is his birthday and the flight is a gift, one that he does not enjoy. As the world wheels and shifts around him he is disoriented. Below is the prison for which he was the architect and in which his son Henry is incarcerated. He is proud of his work but the pilot believes it is a blot on the landscape. He sees men in the exercise yard below

'Can he see his son? Can they see one another?...That one is Henry. No, he is mistaken. That one perhaps. That one? Impossible to tell he decides'

This short extract neatly sums up the basic premise of Harvey's novel. Can we see ourselves properly, can we see or know others. Jake has Alzheimer's and in this first person novel we see the decline of Jake as he sifts and sorts memories to try to get to their basic truth. But as the disease progresses he is left with less and less, the world becoming a bewildering place - the wilderness of the title. Who is the woman with whom he sleeps, who drove the car that knocked over the dog Lucky and where is his daughter Alice - did she die or did she live to tell him about her pregnancy?

The facts of Jake's life wheel and shift around him. It is clear that he is a man who thinks that facts and reality are important, for whom there is black and white and who dreams of glass

'On one side of the bridge,he remarks, is the courthouse: here are the free and the godly, those who pass judgement. On the other side is the jail: the imprisoned, those who have been judged.'

His wife Helen though sees the world as a much more ambiguous place, despite her religious certainty

'One should hesitate to cast aspersions. A person's morality is usually a two way journey - it just depends which leg of it you catch them on.'

As Jake's Alzheimer's progresses he is left with less and less certainty, things become more ambiguous, did his wife have an affair, did he? Does it matter that he can not remember, can he choose his identity or is he born with it

'He is giddy with the sensation that nothing, nothing, not even himself, is certain. And then he begins to wonder if perhaps this is a godsend, and that he can protect himself by filling in the gaps with what he would prefer as opposed to what was.'

Questions of identity abound throughout this novel. Jake's mother Sara is Jewish but she hides her Jewishness and is married to an antisemite. Jake embraces his Jewishness becoming actively involved in an organisation to promote Zionism.

As Jake's memories become uncertain he finds relief in being able to remember as he would like things to be and we, the reader, become more certain in our reading as the novel progresses as more and more, or should that be less and less, of Jake's memories are made available to us. This first novel was rightly shortlisted for the Orange Prize this year it is a heartbreaking and vital look at the decline of a mind.

'Back at the table he works again on the timeline, thinks he might have a coffee, stands, crouches to stroke the back of the dog's ear with his thumb, tells her silently, that he is terribly sorry for running her over, returns to the table, thinks he wouldn't mind a coffee, stands, concludes that he needs to urinate. Urinates, and returns to find the dog barking at the coffee machine, which is banging with dry heat and a crack working it's way up the glass. Fool that he is.'

International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award 2009

2009-06-12T09:18:00.005+01:00

This years winner of the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award is 'Man Gone Down' by Michael Thomas.

The Judges commented

“We never know his name. But the African-American protagonist of Michael Thomas’ masterful debut, Man Gone Down, will stay with readers for a long time. He lingers because this extraordinary novel comes to us from a writer of enthralling voice and startling insight. Tuned urgently to the way we live now, the winner of the International Dublin IMPAC Prize 2009 is a novel brilliant in its scope and energy, and deeply moving in its human warmth.”

This book is an extraordinary debut that tackles race, wealth and family head on as a young black man finds the American Dream dissolving around him. On the eve of this thirty-fifth birthday, the unnamed black narrator of "Man Gone Down" finds himself broke, estranged from his white wife and three children, and living in the bedroom of a friend's six-year-old child. He has four days to come up with the money to keep his kids in school and make a down payment on an apartment for them to live in. As we slip between his childhood in inner city Boston and present-day New York City, we discover a life marked by abuse, abandonment, raging alcoholism, and the best and worst intentions of a supposedly integrated America. This is a story of the American Dream gone awry, about what it's like to feel preprogrammed to fail in life and the urge to escape that sentence.

The other novels nominated were:

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz; The Burnt-Out Town of Miracles by Roy Jacobsen, in translation; Ravel by Jean Echenoz, in translation; Animal’s People by Indra Sinha; The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid; The Archivist’s Story by Travis Holland and The Indian Clerk by David Leavitt.