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Gamers, Vampires, Volcanoes, Demons and A Superhero Kid
My reading for July 2024 was eclectic as always but with the usual break from reality and accompanied by a cast of memorable characters. These are just post-it notes style remarks on the books I’ve read this month. TOMORROW AND TOMORROW AND TOMORROW by Gabrielle Zevin When Sam catches sight of Sadie at a crowded train station one morning he is catapulted straight back to childhood, and the hours they spent immersed in playing games. Their spark is instantly reignited and sets off a creative collaboration that will make them superstars. It is the 90s, and anything is possible. What comes next is a decades-long tale of friendship and rivalry, fame and art, betrayal and tragedy, perfect worlds and imperfect ones. And, above all, our need to connect: to be loved and to love. My daughter, A,…
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MEANWHILE…#5
This is what I’m getting up to lately… Reading: Just finished “The Half Heroes” series by Ian W. Sainsbury. Loved it but couldn’t help feeling the third book was a little rushed at the end. Rereading Julian May’s “Saga of the Exiles” Series after 40 years. Finished book 1 The Many Coloured Land and most of the way through book 2 The Golden Torc. Every bit as good as I remembered it to be, despite some language and references that would cause a bit of a stink if it was published recently. The series is out of print and I had to buy the four novels from an online site selling second hand books. When the ban cheile saw the well thumbed books she was amazed I’d actually have books that battered. But the urge to read…
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Review: The HalfHero series by Ian W. Sainsbury
What if a super human turned out not to be so super…or even human? Britain’s superhero, The Deterrent, was unveiled to the world in 1979, and disappeared two years later. The truth about his origins has never been revealed. The rumours about his children—those that survived—and their mysterious abilities have never been confirmed. Until now. Armed with a diary that reveals everything about The Deterrent’s early years, Daniel Harbin—discovering powers of his own—finds himself dragged into the same secretive government department his famous father worked for. Can a halfhero be a better superhero than his father, or is Daniel making a terrible mistake? When the wrong people know what you’re capable of, no matter how powerful you are, you’re still in danger…. A…
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Review: Frying Plantain by Zalika Reid-Benta
Kara Davis is a girl caught in the middle — of her Canadian nationality and her desire to be a “true” Jamaican, of her mother and grandmother’s rages and life lessons, of having to avoid being thought of as too “faas” or too “quiet” or too “bold” or too “soft.” Set in “Little Jamaica,” Toronto’s Eglinton West neighbourhood, Kara moves from girlhood to the threshold of adulthood, from elementary school to high school graduation, in these twelve interconnected stories. We see her on a visit to Jamaica, startled by the sight of a severed pig’s head in her great aunt’s freezer; in junior high, the victim of a devastating prank by her closest friends; and as a teenager in and out of her grandmother’s house, trying to cope with the ongoing battles between her unyielding grandparents. I…
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Armchair Traveler
“You can lead me all over Attica or anywhere else you like, simply waving in front of me the leaves of a book.” ~ Socrates When the Covid lockdowns had begun to take their toll on my everyday tolerance for staying at home – something I thought up to that point was limitless – I decided to travel in my armchair using other peoples travel memoirs as gateways to the world. “We may sit in our library and yet be in all quarters of the earth.” ― John Lubbock People told me I was mad and only making the restrictions worse, but in fact the books I was reading told stories of journeys I would most likely never have taken even without the freeze the pandemic placed on us. As you can see from…
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DRIVING OVER LEMONS
Given the ban on travel because of the current pandemic, and a series of unfortunate events that have prevented us from even wandering around Ireland, I've taken lately to travelling vicariously through other people's accounts of their journeys and life experiences in various parts of the world. In this adventure we're off to Andalucia in the 1980s with the first drummer of the band Genesis (I bet he's sick of being described in that way at this stage), his wife and a menagerie of both human and non-human characters. This memoir is an easy read and if I'm to be honest it's suffering from a dated feel at this stage, even though the version I read was a 25th anniversary edition with an extra chapter (that didn't really add anything to the overall story).
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MORIARTY
Moriarty by Anthony Horowitz Sherlock Holmes is dead. Days after Holmes and his arch-enemy Moriarty fall to their doom at the Reichenbach Falls, Pinkerton agent Frederick Chase arrives in Europe from New York. The death of Moriarty has created a poisonous vacuum which has been swiftly filled by a fiendish new criminal mastermind who has risen to take his place. Ably assisted by Inspector Athelney Jones of Scotland Yard, a devoted student of Holmes’s methods of investigation and deduction, Frederick Chase must forge a path through the darkest corners of the capital to shine light on this shadowy figure, a man much feared but seldom seen, a man determined to engulf London in a tide of murder and menace. THIS IS A SPOILER FREE REVIEW A sequel to House of Silk the first Sherlock Holmes novel approved…
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NECROPOLIS
Necropolis by Anthony Horowitz Evil has been unleashed on the world and only five children – with special powers – can save it. Matt and the other three desperately need to find Scar, the final gatekeeper, who has been trapped in Hong Kong, where puddles of water turn into puddles of blood, where ghosts, demons and hideous creatures stalk the streets. Matt has no choice but to follow her. Now, both imprisoned, their only hope of survival is to reach a secret door in the Man Ho temple. But even if Scar can find her psychic power, it may already be too late. THIS IS A SPOILER FREE REVIEW If you’re what Stephen King refers to as a ‘constant reader’ then you’ll know when I find an author or series of books I tend to binge until…
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MEANWHILE…#4
This is what I’m getting up to lately… Reading: Not reading anything like the volume of books I should be reading since I’m in holiday mode for the past couple of weeks. Just finished Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz. It’s a really satisfying twist on the whodunnit. Just started The Rise and Fall of DODO by Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland. A SciFi (sort of…) novel about quantum physics and magic. Watching: Not finding TV very satisfying lately. Sticking to my staple diet of Luke Cage Season 2 with a smattering of Who Do You Think You Are? – both US and UK. Jessica Biel and Liv Tyler came across as very likeable indeed. Listening To: TED Talks mostly and some Robert Thurman podcasts on Buddhism. Making: Bookmarks from stone and beads and elastic and stuff. Doing: Enjoying “pottering” – nothing…
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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.
