What I'm reading ...

I have started How It All Began by Penelope Lively. First book I've read by this author - book club selection, of course. Here's the blurb:

When . . . Charlotte is mugged and breaks her hip, her daughter Rose cannot accompany her employer Lord Peters to Manchester, which means his niece Marion has to go instead, which means she sends a text to her lover which is intercepted by his wife, which is . . . just the beginning in the ensuing chain of life-altering events.

In this engaging, utterly absorbing and brilliantly told novel, Penelope Lively shows us how one random event can cause marriages to fracture and heal themselves, opportunities to appear and disappear, lovers who might never have met to find each other and entire lives to become irrevocably changed.

Grey: Fifty Shades of Grey as told by Christian - by E L James

This book "does what it says on the tin". The story is retold from Christian's perspective. As a result, we learn about where his tastes, fetishes and fears come from. So, it makes for an OK read. His perspective is very different from Ana's and we learn all the details.

Overall, I quite enjoyed what was ultimately a trivial book. I was dismayed to discover, when I got to the end of the book, that it is probably the first of a trilogy...

What I'm reading ...

I have started Grey: Fifty Shades of Grey as told by Christian by E L James. I will admit to being swept up by the hype and buying this book [at a reasonable price] a few hours after publication. I do not have high expectations, but having invested time in reading the previous books, I thought that this might be interesting. Here’s the blurb:

In Christian’s own words, and through his thoughts, reflections, and dreams, E L James offers a fresh perspective on the love story that has enthralled millions of readers around the world.
Christian Grey exercises control in all things; his world is neat, disciplined, and utterly empty – until the day that Anastasia Steele falls into his office, in a tangle of shapely limbs and tumbling brown hair. He tries to forget her, but instead is swept up in a storm of emotion he cannot comprehend and cannot resist. Unlike any woman he has known before, shy, unworldly Ana seems to see right through him – past the business prodigy and the penthouse lifestyle to Christian’s cold, wounded heart.
Will being with Ana dispel the horrors of his childhood that haunt Christian every night? Or will his dark sexual desires, his compulsion to control, and the self-loathing that fills his soul drive this girl away and destroy the fragile hope she offers him?

Wild - by Cheryl Strayed

This was a very engaging and thought provoking book. The story is a rich mixture, telling the tale of the actual journey itself, the people she met and the emotional journey that she experienced. The author's lucid writing style gave me a very clear impression of the world and the people around her. I was also impressed with the candour with which she told the very personal parts of the story. I think I'd like to see the movie now ...

What I'm reading ...

I have started Wild by Cheryl Strayed. I was after something serious - something more down to earth - to read. I had heard good things about this book (and the movie) and it seemed to fit the bill. I have read the first chapter, which covers the author's mother's death, and found it very moving. I think that I am in for an emotional ride. Here's the blurb:

At twenty-six, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. In the wake of her mother's rapid death from cancer, her family disbanded and her marriage crumbled. With nothing to lose, she made the most impulsive decision of her life: to walk eleven-hundred miles of the west coast of America and to do it alone. She had no experience of long-distance hiking and the journey was nothing more than a line on a map. But it held a promise - a promise of piecing together a life that lay shattered at her feet...

The Reality Dysfunction - by Peter F. Hamilton

At over 1200 pages, I think this must be the biggest book that I have ever read in one go. The author uses the large canvas to good effect, constructing a detailed, consistent universe set a few centuries into the future. The story is wide ranging and kept me turning the pages. I also think that the characters are quite well drawn, regardless of there being a large number. I am always critical of the science in science fiction, but this book is quite credible, overcoming long distance travel using wormholes and introducing some novel ideas like biological starships.

Although it was an enormous book, I got through it quite quickly, as I was pulled along by the story. Ultimately, this led to my one disappointment. The end of the book just arrived. It was not really an end - the book just stopped, with numerous story lines still unresolved. Of course, this is just the first book of a trilogy, so there is plenty of time/space for more development. However, am I up for another 3000 or so pages ... ?