I have started Three Wishes by Liane Moriarty. It was time for fiction again and this book has just come out on Kindle - although it is actually one of the author’s older works. I have read a number of Moriarty’s other books, so I am confident that this one will be a good read. Here’s the blurb:
They say trouble always comes in threes. And for sisters Lyn, Cat and Gemma Kettle, the year they turn thirty-three is no exception.
Sensible Lyn is struggling to balance being a mother, wife and businesswoman without losing her mind. Cat, whose perfect marriage is the envy of all her friends, never suspects that her husband has been hiding a secret that will tear her life apart. And directionless Gemma, who changes jobs and boyfriends every few months, has just met a new man who could be the one to unlock her hidden past.
Through everything, the bonds of the sisters are strong enough to withstand whatever life throws at them. That is until the night of their thirty-fourth birthday dinner, when home truths are revealed and things are said that can't be taken back . . .
21 Mar 2016
The Examined Life: How We Lose and Find Ourselves - by Stephen Grosz
This was a fascinating book and a very straightforward read. I enjoyed the insights into other people’s lives and the author’s analysis of how their past experiences affected their current lives. Each chapter is a separate “story”, so it is an easy book to pick up and put down, but I rarely found myself reading just one chapter.
15 Mar 2016
What I'm reading ...
Time for some non-fiction, so I have started The Examined Life: How We Lose and Find Ourselves by Stephen Grosz. Here’s the blurb:
This book is about learning to live.
In simple stories of encounter between a psychoanalyst and his patients, The Examined Life reveals how the art of insight can illuminate the most complicated, confounding and human of experiences.
These are stories about our everyday lives: they are about the people we love and the lies that we tell; the changes we bear, and the grief. Ultimately, they show us not only how we lose ourselves but how we might find ourselves too.
This book is about learning to live.
In simple stories of encounter between a psychoanalyst and his patients, The Examined Life reveals how the art of insight can illuminate the most complicated, confounding and human of experiences.
These are stories about our everyday lives: they are about the people we love and the lies that we tell; the changes we bear, and the grief. Ultimately, they show us not only how we lose ourselves but how we might find ourselves too.
Instances of the Number 3 - by Salley Vickers
I was attracted by the premise for this book and it did, indeed, provide a good vehicle for the story. It has a good pace and I was soon in “just one more chapter” mode. There are some interesting surprises and twists to the story, that kept me interested. I cannot say that I really understood what was going on in the heads of either of the main characters - but maybe I wasn’t supposed to. Both of them seemed to be solid, loyal kinds of people, but this doesn’t stop them going to bed with a man at the slightest opportunity. I found the life after death angle a bit half-hearted and unconvincing - maybe there were hidden depths that I was missing. The ending of the book was slightly abrupt and I felt the story was left hanging slightly.
I am uncertain about my views of the book overall. The quality of the writing is good, which might lead me to read more of the author’s books. I have a feeling that this is not her best work.
I am uncertain about my views of the book overall. The quality of the writing is good, which might lead me to read more of the author’s books. I have a feeling that this is not her best work.
8 Mar 2016
What I'm reading ...
I have started Instances of the Number 3 by Salley Vickers. I have read two books set in the past, so I wanted to get back to the 21st Century. A friend recommended this book and I was familiar with the author’s work. Here’s the blurb:
Bridget Hansome and Frances Slater have only one thing in common. And that's Peter Hansome, who has died suddenly. Without their husband or lover, the women find that before they can rebuild their lives they must look to themselves and unravel mysteries that they had never before even suspected. So begins an unlikely alliance between wife and mistress and a voyage of discovery that is as comic as it is profound.
Bridget Hansome and Frances Slater have only one thing in common. And that's Peter Hansome, who has died suddenly. Without their husband or lover, the women find that before they can rebuild their lives they must look to themselves and unravel mysteries that they had never before even suspected. So begins an unlikely alliance between wife and mistress and a voyage of discovery that is as comic as it is profound.
Sword at Sunset - by Rosemary Sutcliffe
This book was selected by my book club and I was interested to read it, as the King Arthur stories and anything about the dark ages attract me. Here is the blurb:
Overall, the story is not what I expected. I thought that it would be a rehash of the usual tales, with the nice veneer of authenticity that we expect from modern authors. Instead, what we get is a story set in a vividly described post-Roman Britain, where life is balanced between something like the order of the Roman times and the chaos that would have preceded them.
We meet Arthur - or rather Artos - but almost all the other well-known characters and motifs are missing. We encounter Guenhumara - Guinevere - and Bedwyr, who must be the substitute for Lancelot, simply because he is Artos’ close friend and his cuckold. However, Lancelot is normally depicted as a dashing knight, not a rather ugly harper. There’s no mention of Camelot, the Round Table, the Holy Grail or Merlin. I have always felt that the world of Arthur that I have read about always seems a bit too “clean”. They are living in what amounts to a post-apocolyptic world and this book portrays that much more believably. I had visualized Author’s world as being a couple of centuries after the Roman departure, but this book takes place only decades or 100 years after they left. Artos and his people were true Romano-British and he had a clear Roman blood line, which gave him some claim to be King/Emperor.
It took me a little while to get going with the book. Perhaps the first 100 pages got me inside Artos’ head, which is essential, as that is where the story really takes place. From then onwards, it was steady going with enough pace to keep turning the pages and I was engaged to enough to care what would happen next. I have a great ambivalence to size of the book and level of detail in the writing. The author uses words to paint very vivid images of, what to me is, a fascinating world. On the other hand, although it would change the dynamic, I have a feeling that there a very nice 300 page book in there trying to get out.
For fourteen centuries the story of Arthur was a legend, misted over by the tradition of romantic hero-tales. But Arthur was real - a man of towering strength, a dreamer and a warrior who actually lived, fought and died for his impossible dream.This is quite a large book, which I found daunting, but, in the end, I got through it with little problem.
In Sutcliffe's now legendary retelling, King Arthur is brought passionately to life.
This brilliant reconception of the Arthurian epic cuts through the familiar myths and tells the story of the real King Arthur: Artos the Bear, the mighty warrior-king who saved the last lights of Western civilization when the barbarian darkness descended in the fifth century. Artos here comes alive: bold and forceful in battle, warm and generous in friendship, tough in politics, shrewd in the strategy of war - and tender and tragically tormented in love. Out of the braiding of ancient legend, fresh research, soaring imagination and hypnotic narrative skill comes a novel that has richly earned its reputation as a classic.
Overall, the story is not what I expected. I thought that it would be a rehash of the usual tales, with the nice veneer of authenticity that we expect from modern authors. Instead, what we get is a story set in a vividly described post-Roman Britain, where life is balanced between something like the order of the Roman times and the chaos that would have preceded them.
We meet Arthur - or rather Artos - but almost all the other well-known characters and motifs are missing. We encounter Guenhumara - Guinevere - and Bedwyr, who must be the substitute for Lancelot, simply because he is Artos’ close friend and his cuckold. However, Lancelot is normally depicted as a dashing knight, not a rather ugly harper. There’s no mention of Camelot, the Round Table, the Holy Grail or Merlin. I have always felt that the world of Arthur that I have read about always seems a bit too “clean”. They are living in what amounts to a post-apocolyptic world and this book portrays that much more believably. I had visualized Author’s world as being a couple of centuries after the Roman departure, but this book takes place only decades or 100 years after they left. Artos and his people were true Romano-British and he had a clear Roman blood line, which gave him some claim to be King/Emperor.
It took me a little while to get going with the book. Perhaps the first 100 pages got me inside Artos’ head, which is essential, as that is where the story really takes place. From then onwards, it was steady going with enough pace to keep turning the pages and I was engaged to enough to care what would happen next. I have a great ambivalence to size of the book and level of detail in the writing. The author uses words to paint very vivid images of, what to me is, a fascinating world. On the other hand, although it would change the dynamic, I have a feeling that there a very nice 300 page book in there trying to get out.
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