BOOKS
BOOK REVIEWS ARE BASED ON PERSONAL CHOICE WHETHER YOU WORK FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES OR A BLOG THAT PRACTICALLY NOBODY KNOWS ABOUT. IT'S GOOD TO HAVE AT LEAST ONE OTHER OPINION, EVEN IF IT'S JUST SO WE CAN DISAGREE.
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A BOOK OF BONES
The new Charlie Parker novel is always a highly anticipated event for me. It's like getting together with a group of old friends that studiously avoid social media and the way that medium devalues the joy and sometimes sadness of "catching up". A Book of Bones was more like being invited to a wedding to which those old friends had also been invited and getting the highlights of what we'd all been up to despite the distractions of the other guests and the too loud music. In this case the too loud music was without a doubt the intrusion of the historical "short stories' injected into the almost 700 page novel.
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GONE
Gone is the first in a series of YA of six novels which pitches a group of young people against forces they can't begin to understand and ultimately each other. Once again we have Lord of the Flies meets Stephen King's under the dome with a touch of Marvel's Xmen thrown in for good measure.
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THE REDBREAST
This is the 3rd Harry Hole novel and in this instalment in the very successful series of bestsellers, the level of complexity we have grown to expect from Jo Nesbo begins to show itself. The story combines elements of both a whodunnit and a who-will-do-it by delivering a very well integrated combination of stories from the second world war and Norway during the visit of US President Clinton (although he's never actually named in the novel).
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ELEANOR OLIPHANT IS COMPLETELY FINE
Don't read this novel unless you want to run the full gamut of emotions from hilarity to sadness and from shock to anger. I'm not sure what I thought this novel would be about to be honest and early on I even thought it might not be for me, but I'm so glad I didn't listen to that impatient inner voice and stuck with it after the first chapter.
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FEVRE DREAM
FEVRE DREAM by George R.R. Martin Abner Marsh has had his dearest wish come true - he has built the Fevre Dream, the finest steamship ever to sail the Mississippi. Abner hopes to race the boat some day, but his partner is making it hard for him to realise his ambition. Joshua York put up the money for Fevre Dream, but now rumours have started about the company he keeps, his odd eating habits and strange hours. As the Dream sails the great river, it leaves in its wake one too many dark tales, until Abner is forced to face down the man who helped his dreams become reality. THERE ARE NO SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW I know this will sound like sacrilege to fans of Mr Martin, but in my opinion this novel has way more potential…
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THE BOY WHO SAW
This is the second in a series of novels about the enigmatic figure that is Solomon Creed and, in my opinion, this outing is far superior to the previous novel. Good conscience insists that I confess that any novel set in France has already gained some points from me because of my love for the country, but putting that aside this story is much more relatable for me and less like a pitch for a Netflix/HBO TV series. Something the first novel in this series seemed to descend into at times.
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SOLOMON CREED
I'd read previous books by this author and knew I was in for a decent novel that would be entertaining enough to hold my attention (during a busy time of the year for me) and provide good value for the time I'd invest. I was pleasantly surprised to find Solomon Creed an engaging character with a good balance of personality and mystery, a combination that appeals to me when looking for crime fiction.
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LADY MIDNIGHT
It's summertime so my head turns to YA fiction to get away from the pressure of "grown up" books - that's an insult to some of the YA fiction that outstrips the so-called mainstream novels by a country mile and especially when it comes to addressing social issues and generating a useful conversation, but in my case it simply means I'm too old to emotionally empathise with the romantic dilemmas and so I get to focus on the story.
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AUTHORITY
To be fair to Authority, book two in the Area X trilogy, I haven't read book one Annihilation. I saw the Netflix movie and despite some very mixed reviews I really enjoyed the disjointed nature of the story and the amazing special effect images. Given the fact there's unlikely to be a sequel to the movie I decided to check out the novels.
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SLEEPING BEAUTIES
Apart from the fact that a Stephen King novel is almost always an entertaining read, what attracted me to this novel was the notion of a father/son collaboration. I hadn't read any of Owen King's other work, comedy not being one of my areas of interest, and it appealed to me to see what his influence on the story might be. I also thought the focus on absent women and the possibility of looking at what men might do if this ever came to pass (okay I know it's not likely, but maybe it would be a scaled up version of what it would be like if all the women in one's family left for some or various reasons).
