BOOKS possibly to be recommended - any comments? - see our website email link on Home Page Vic will gradually reduce these mini-reviews to a "star" system, using Emoticons - the more stars the better, & reservations indicated by the expressions - eg   = maybe silly & a bit of a pain; but  = really good & a laugh (a bit of fun for you to work out?) Earlier Reads (Starting mid-2009) Doris Lessing's 'London Observed - Stories & Sketches' -    CJ Sansom's "Winter in Madrid" - "World Without End" by Ken Follett -    "The Haunted Hotel" by Wilkie Collins - 'Blackadder' comedies scripts - "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo", by Stieg Larsson - "The Return", by Victoria Hislop - "Brother & Sister" by Joanna Trollope - "Chocolate & Cuckoo Clocks - The Essential Alan Coren" -  "The Stained Glass of A.W.N Pugin" by Stanley A. Shepherd - "The Decline & Fall of the British Empire" by Piers Brendon - "A Cup of Tea in Pamplona", by Robert Laxalt - "Historic House" magazine of the Historic Houses Association -  Latest "France" magazine . "The Lost Upland", by W.S. Merwin - "Stories of Southwest France"  - perhaps Vic's favourite book for some time "Fractured" by Ruth Dee - one hell of a journey, but nothing like that for "Ruth" .... "Shield & Crest" by Julian Franklyn: "And Now All This", by W.C.Sellars & R.J.Yeatman - "A Complete Guide to Heraldry" by AC Fox-Davies - For references to other HERALDRY books in our 'Gallery', click here & here 2010-02-05 : Vic: "The Master and Margarita" by Mikhail Bulgakov 2010-02-14 Donna Leon's "Friends in High Places" 2010-03-15 "Cathedral by the Sea, by Ildefonso Falcones . 2010-03 Alongside these back-numbers, Vic also read the latest "Journal" & "Newsletter" from the Church Monuments Society, which, as usual, add insights into Heraldry from other angles, & into interesting churches. 2010-03-27 "A Noble Radiance", Donna Leon .... superb 'tec' novel : horrific implications of the punning title April 2010 "Company of Liars", 'a novel of the Plague', by Karen Maitland - another better historical novel & a build-up of real horror, ... maybe disappointing, petering-out end - but, then, where do you go after the demoralisation these characters suffer? April 2010 Donna Leon's "The Death of Faith" -usual brilliance + some lovely vignettes in the form of the subtle & simpatico Vianello, "subordinate" to Brunetti .... ends on a strangely current note, the scandals dogging the Church - cynicism under the apparent resolution. May 2010 Vic finished Ian McEwan's "On Chesil Beach" still that sense that he hasn't decided what he wants to write? For such a relatively late novel in his career, should he still be apparently saying, "Now, what sort of novel should I try next?" May 2010 Completed by Vic- "Queen Camilla" by Sue Townsend, ... hilarious, sympathetic, often strangely predictive & "simpatico" - Royal Family ghettoed in social exclusion zone by anti-royalist régime: "Brilliant!" June 2010 Vic has finished: "The American Boy" by Andrew Taylor (no relation!) excellent bit of fictional exploration / re-creation, but not conventional "hist-fict" - invites comparison with Dickens, Poe, etc. (based on a small period in the life of young Edgar Allen Poe), but stands in own right as a piece of gothick writing - gripping & well crafted. Vic has ploughed very quickly & very easily through the first of Henning Mankell's Wallander books, after we have so much enjoyed both the original Swedish series & the English Branagh versions. This first book, "The Pyramid", is in fact a collection of shorter stories, with the title piece more of a longer novella - not just perhaps essential reading to understand what makes Wallander tick( & sometimes not tick!), or to understand the Swedish mindset (such as we learned to appreciate on our trip to Vic's half-sister & family in 1999 for our 25th Wedding Anniversary), but very much as a superb set of tales of mystery, intrgue, crime & character - highly recommended - must read more! Vic has also finished "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society" by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows - some hesitation (not yet quite allayed by the end) from so many reviews of it inside the front cover extolling its "heart-warming nature", its mass of "lovable people" & "characters so utterly wonderful that I kept forgetting that they weren't my actual friends and neighbors" .... - eventually seems less condescending or patronising & some of the characters (including the circle of the "narrator") are hardly "heart-warming"...perhaps unsurprising, considering the gossipy-letter format? - overall "message" of the story becoming clearer, as the narrator & her circle come to learn that their superficial literary world is not quite enough ... Not totally convinced. Vic finished, while away with friends in Wilts & Warwickshire, a Tracey Chevalier novel, "Falling Angels", which got even more interesting after the intriguing first few pages - a clever & poignant bit of work on the suffragette movement, seen especially through the eyes of three women, but also with other views, sometimes tellingly male; .... a very, very tragic & bitter outcome, perhaps inevitably built into the implications of why & how women sought freedom .... Alan Sillitoe's "The German Numbers Woman" - always admired since our early acquaintance with his work & the association with our Nottingham..... everything you would expect of him - beautifully crafted ... strange, but absolutely compelling, with its mixture of quite gritty realism & frequent spells of what might be described as very "operatic" stuff for the thoughts & emotions, plus an oddly convincing "happy-ever-after" conclusion following a violent climax.  Just a Taste ....................... AND NOW CLICK THE "READ" BUTTON BELOW FOR "CURRENT READS", .... and then a new sub-section, via a "Next" link to a page of Reviews by a friend ... qv at end of immediate next page |
