Keeping Faith – Jodi Picoult

This is the second of Picoult’s novels that I’ve read in about as many weeks and I have to admit that I skim read most of it. I enjoyed the overall romantic and legal aspects of the novel however the religious element bored me – it was just too much.

Faith is a young girl that lives with both her parents, her mother Mariah is a previously clinically depressed and suicidal woman and her father Colin is an adulterer. Faith’s world is tipped upside down when she walks in on her father showering with another woman, of course as a little girl she doesn’t understand the ramifications of this, just that it makes her mother sad.

Next we know Faith has an imaginary friend, a friend that can heal, a friend that is a woman, a friend who is called God. Is she mad? Is she making it up? Is her mother putting thoughts into her head so that she can achieve fame? Or is she just a sad little girl?

Cue Ian Fletcher, the man to blow the lies out the water and prove that God isn’t real, or so he intends. Fletcher is hiding a family secret and when Faith begins to perform miracles he wonders if one can be saved for his family.

Fletcher is presented as a hound, a journalist with no morals but when it comes to his family he will do anything to help, with Faith proving that God may well just be real Fletcher allows himself to open to Mariah and soon they are romantically involved. As Colin fights for the custody he originally relinquished Fletcher becomes the ally no one expected.

It a responsible story but it’s not one I’d intend on reading again so this one will be destined for the charity shop.

The Cuckoo’s Calling – Robert Galbraith

Whoops already distracted – when looking how to spell the incredible J K Rowling’s pseudonym Robert Galbraith I noticed there is a second novel in the series – cue looking on Amazon!

Dare I admit that this novel was actually good?! I hated Casual Vacancy and I think maybe that was down to high expectations as an avid fan of Rowling during my childhood, in fact her novels shaped every aspect of my childhood – I adored Harry Potter and still do.

Whilst The Cuckoo’s Calling was a slow start with a lot of background setting the ending was a crafty twist and leaving my lunch break at work with only 20 pages left to finish was almost a killer.

Comoran Strike is an injured Afghanistan war hero as well as an illegitimate child of a rockstar. Team that with the fact he lost everything and he is worth very little provides the perfect private detective. Dedicated to a fault until his temp Robin steps in. Robin has always wanted to work in the industry and when Luna Landry’s brother Jonathan employs Strike she does her utmost to help get the case solved before her time is up.

Landry was a beautiful model who everyone wanted a piece of but when she tumbled to her death everyone ruled it a suicide – but was it?

Jonathan fights to prove it was murder and from there the novel spirals further and further into darkness of deceit, murder and all out psychotic behaviour. 

I think I considered pretty much everyone close to Landry as her murderer yet the twist at the end is brilliant.

Anyway, here’s to the next one!!

 

The Hollow – Agatha Christie

 

I am currently reading The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith but as that is taking me a little while I figured I would back track to another novel I have read recently. Do you remember me doing the Prudence and the Crow piece a while back, well this was the novel included.

I’ll admit I have never even considered reading an Agatha Christie as she is not someone who particularly enthralls me but I figured as it was included I would have to give it a go. I did pick crime novels after all! As per many short novels this was a struggle, I don’t know why but I always struggle on novels that are only a couple of hundred pages long, this is 190 pages, I think it’s because the author has to squeeze minute details into as little words as possible. I prefer the longer more drawn out process where you have time to digest the storyline.

Hilariously Poirot doesn’t seem to be a huge part of this novel, he is a neighbour of the Angkatell’s who held one of their ‘wild’ summer parties and low and behold a guest ends up dead. John Christow is the great respected doctor but when he’s found face down in the pool surrounded by his own blood his wife is the main suspect. I personally fancied his lover as the murderer but each to their own.

I won’t spoil the ending for anyone who may want to read this but I have to say the murder mystery aspect wasn’t all that exciting.

John Bishop – How Did All This Happen?

I think this book frustrated me so much that it’s put me off writing slightly!!

John Bishop is a well known name in this household and I purchased this for my mum’s birthday back in December, it was one of many that has since sat in my unread pile.

It may be that because we know so much of John Bishop, and if you have read it my mum was one of the few people at his first Edinburgh fringe show, that this autobiography just didn’t hold my attention. It was that dull and slow running that my colleague said about a week and a half in ‘Are you still reading that?’ – which to be honest was the kick up the bum I needed to finish it. I think I spend on average a week reading a book.

John Bishop seems a lovely bloke with a now very happy family and decent life but as a comedian who uses his life as his material, I know most of his story. Maybe if he was to write another about the later comedic side of him it would be better.

This book has been donated to our local library.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Little Beach Street Bakery – Jenny Colgan

 

Following on by the slight disappointment of Sophie Kinsella’s ‘Wedding Night’ I had another of my favourite ‘chic lit’ authors in my hands. I was dubious, if Kinsella’s was so simple and predictable would this then follow suit?

The answer is no, not because its not simple or predictable but because the simplicity of such a sweet story was enjoyable.

Polly Waterford has her life turned upside down when she is made bankrupt, during her search for a new flat she finds a dilapidated house in Polbearne and her life starts to rebuild slowly but surely.

Polly bakes bread, really good bread and it is from there that she starts to build herself relationships with most of the Polbearne inhabitants except one, her landlord Gillian Manse. A name that might sound like another familiar author? 😉

Manse is a hardcore Polbearne woman but behind her is a soft lady that has had her life ruined by loss, she is not necessarily fighting for the little village to stay the same but fighting because she herself cannot leave until Polly gives her a lifeline.

Polly’s love life is focused on a fair bit in this book, there are affairs, dramas and most of all the knight in shining armour at the end.

I really enjoyed this novel so I hope you will too, oh and watch out for Neil.

The Husband’s Secret – Lane Moriarty

I had low expectations for this novel. Mum took it on holiday with her and wasn’t particularly keen however I like to give most books a go (That’s probably why my unread pile is currently so high!).

It starts off quite slow and we have three different authors which I believe exacerbates this:  Cecilia,  Tess and Rachel. The women come from different families but their lives are interlinked by a dark secret that they spend most of the novel unaware of.

Rachel’s daughter Janie was brutally murdered at 17 with no sign of the killer being brought to justice. Rachel is all consumed by the lack of closure she’s found. Combine that with her son and daughter in law taking away her beloved grandson and she may just do something drastic.

Tess has fled to Sydney following the breakdown of her marriage due to psychological infidelity. I mean that in the way that her husband hasn’t quite been unfaithful. Tess meets up with an old boyfriend in Sydney that is implicated more than you could believe in this narrative. Is he the killer?

And then I come onto Cecilia. Cecilia is married to John-Paul, they have a wonderful life with beautiful children yet when Cecilia finds a letter it turns her world upside down. John-Paul has the ability to ruin everyone’s lives but what will happen when his comes tumbling down around him?

I quite liked this novel. Although it had some predictable entities to it there were enough twists to keep me intrigued.

The Missing One – Lucy Atkins

WOW.

This is a must read.

I haven’t said that one in a while. Lucy Atkins has provided a twisty novel with a gripping journey, try to predict the ending and you will no doubt get it wrong – my mum and I both did!

The novel focuses on the disjointed family life of Kali McKenzie (Halstrom) and the secrets slowly revealed by the death of her mother. Having had a tempestuous relationship with her mother throughout her life Kali craves further knowledge to get closure on her mother’s unknown and distant personality.

Prior to her mother’s death Kali finds texts on her husbands phone that leads her to believe he has been cheating on her – but all is not what it seems – with her world turned upside down she makes the impulsive decision to take herself and her little boy Finn halfway around the world in search of answers.

Kali soon finds out that what she believed is in fact true – she knew very little about her mother. Whilst we, the reader, know slightly more with the intertextuality provided by her mothers diary extracts  it is intriguing to learn further about her mothers Orca studies and why she abandoned them.

Whilst in Vancouver Kali meets her mothers long lost friend Susannah and suddenly her whole family history unravels in front of her. Not knowing Susannah is incredibly sick Kali pushes her for more and more information before she snaps and does the unthinkable – but I won’t divulge what happens, you will just have to read it yourself!

 

Pages: 569

To Buy: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Missing-One-Lucy-Atkins/dp/184866320X/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1398198173&sr=1-1-spell&keywords=the+missing+onee £2 what a bargain!!

Author: http://www.lucyatkins.com/

The Shock of the Fall – Nathan Filer

WEIRD.

That was how I described this novel the entire way through reading it. Peculiar.

I felt similarly about this book as I did when I read Heart of Darkness, i’ve read the entire story but I am still unsure of what I have read.

The novel is the journey of schizophrenic protagonist Matt Homes (he isn’t named for quite some time!) whom introduces us to his brother first and foremost saying that whilst we will like little Simon Homes he will be dead in a few pages.

Filer focuses on the journey Matt goes through after losing his brother, a death he blames himself for, whilst it has an interesting element in terms of looking at a schizophrenic’s life it is a bizarre read. Sure a schizophrenic’s head is going to be all over the place and thus the novel follows this structure but I have to say I struggled to follow this story – thus I struggled to read it.

Saying that it won last years Costa Coffee Book Award so it cannot be all bad! Just my opinion it seems.

On to the next novel!!

Apple Tree Yard – Louise Doughty

It’s been a while, I feel like books are starting to take me a little longer to read due to work and the fact I can drive. This may sound random but I have only been driving for two months and prior to this I could read on the bus. That means for up to an hour a day (sometimes more) I was getting the opportunity to jump out of my life and into someone else’s.

My mum sold this book as ‘could not put down’ she literally wanted to finish it in about two days. However, I have to say, and this is down to different tastes (although we do share A LOT of books), that I do not agree. I am not saying it was bad as that would be unfair but I certainly wasn’t chomping at the bit for my lunch break, or bath(!) to read further.

Anyway ‘Apple Tree Yard’ is a cryptic book which leaves you to make your own assumptions about the second protagonist for about two thirds of the tale. He is for the most part, an unnamed entity. The novel features a geneticist called Yvonne who indulges in an extra marital affair – something she has never considered before.

Whilst as the reader I did not dislike her husband and I didn’t have particularly strong feelings towards her lover the way in which Yvonne goes about starting the affair seems almost farcical. Upon meeting the gentlemen in question, and I use that word lightly, she has sex with him. This alone would make a rather boring novel however, her ‘friend’ is cryptic. Yvonne thinks he is a spook – but is he?

When Yvonne’s life takes a turn for the worse and she finds herself in a dangerous position the two of them find themselves in court. It is then the novel draws your attention. You learn that Yvonne’s mysterious friend is not what she expected and she ends up feeling cheated. Ironic hey?

Although I wasn’t amazed by the story it wasn’t horrendous. I would recommend it as a read, especially as my mum found it so enthralling (to me that means that many others would!).

We got it from our local library but if you would like to buy it you can find it here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Apple-Tree-Yard-Louise-Doughty/dp/0571278647/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1396712228&sr=8-1&keywords=apple+tree+yard

My Animals and Other Family – Clare Balding

Clare Balding is quite a name in this house. We aren’t sports lovers (well I am but it’s motor racing), we wouldn’t avidly watch everything with Balding on it, but we adore the lady that is Clare Balding. One of the reasons for this – we have something in common with her – a naughty Tibetan Terrier.

I’ve encountered Clare Balding a couple of times in the past through events but never quite got the chance to speak to her, nonetheless I think she has got the most lovely personality given her background.

‘My Animals and Other Family’ is Balding’s autobiography. For me autobiographies are notoriously hard to read, for someone as nosy as I am I have to say I really struggling reading people’s life stories. However, Balding’s was different.

Based more on the animals than her family itself Balding gives a new take (to me anyway) on how to write autobiographies. Each animal comes with a personality and with that Balding introduces us first to the animals and then her family.

I think the first chapter ‘Candy’ was one of my favourites. Her mother’s dog was so incredibly in love with Balding that she jumped out of a window when she thought Clare was being abducted by her mother. It broke my heart when Balding later revealed she had died at the kennels when they had gone away.

It is clear in the book that it isn’t just Balding’s animals who have great personalities but also her family. Her dad might not be the best father in the world, far from it in fact, but his skills in the world of horse training sound incredible. He knows what he wants and how to get it. Although this makes her family sound tough and harsh I can’t help but wonder if Balding would be half the woman she is now without them.

I don’t think I’d like her grandmother l, I find it bizarre to read of a woman who quite frankly seems to hate her own gender. I’m far from a feminist but Balding’s grandmother seemed to think women were inept at most things in life.
The two slightly warmer family members were her mother and brother. Clare and Andrew seemed to have a brilliant relationship all things considered in their family and her mother seemed to warm as the tale went on. Balding’s mother seems like a less vicious version of her mother.

All in all it was excellent and an autobiography I read with fair speed. I would recommend it to both animal lovers and those who have ever liked any of Balding’s work. Enjoy!!