The Signature of All Things - Botany Rules!

In The Signature of All Things, by Elizabeth Gilbert, our main protagonist is Alma Whittaker, the daughter of Henry, a botanical explorer who came from incredibly humble beginnings in London in the shadow of his own father, who worked at Kew Gardens. With guile, sheer determination and little light theft, Henry became rich and married a Dutch lady, Beatrix, whom he lived with in Philadelphia. Then we see Alma, their precocious child, growing up and becoming a botanist in her own right, despite it being the nineteenth century and not really "the done thing" for a woman. After being the centre of her parents' attention for so long, life changes when they adopt a local girl who is beautiful beyond words. This causes tension throughout the rest of her life. Foiled in love at a young age, Alma throws herself into her botanical research and discovers the joys of moss (yes, moss) and becomes a published author. Many years later, she persuades her father to employ a botanical illustrator to help document the plants he has collected, at which point she falls for this much younger man. They marry, but each party's idea of what a marriage should consist of differ hugely (Alma is desperate for passion and sexual gratification, but her husband is only interested in her mind). Her new husband is sent away to Tahiti to locate some particular plants for Henry, but dies shortly after, and all that is returned is a trunk containing a few illustrations of plants, but mostly, sketches of "The Boy" (which helped to explain a few things). After her own trip to Tahiti, Alma continues her work and starts to delve into the mysteries of evolution. This book is a bit of an epic journey and an insight into all things botanical during the nineteenth century. I found those elements the most interesting and satisfying. I liked Alma for the most part and it was heartbreaking when she thought that she had found love, but was disappointed yet again. There were good supporting characters, with the possible exception of a childhood friend who attached herself to Alma and her sister, then married Alma's first love out of the blue and finally ended up in an asylum. To me this felt bolted on and unrealistic, as did Alma's obsession with her own body and what she got up to with it in the privacy of the "bindery room". Again, this almost appeared out of nowhere and the scene was repeated, and repeated many times. Unnecessary, in my opinion and detracted from the story. I loved the narration by Juliet Stephenson (one of the main reasons for me picking this book in the first place), and, on the whole, an interesting read.

My STAR rating: FOUR.

Length: 592 print pages.

Price I paid: £2.98.

Formats available: print, unabridged audio download, ebook.

Goldfinger - AGAIN!

In search of a quick and light holiday read, I reached for Goldfinger, by Ian Fleming. But it wasn't long before I started to think that the story was incredibly familiar. Initially, I put it down to my having seen the film, but then suddenly realised that I'd actually read it as an ebook back in 2017! However, this time I was indulging in the audio edition, superbly narrated by Hugh Bonneville, and decided I was too far down the road to stop. I thought it would be interesting to look at the blogpost I did at the time and see if I felt the same way about it as I did then ... and I have to tell you, dear reader, not quite! In this, the seventh outing for the spy with incredible longevity, the action starts with James Bond being a little disgruntled. He is finding it increasingly difficult to live up to his 007 billing and is wondering about his future - does he really want to continue killing people? While on an enforced stopover in the USA, he is asked to help someone who is convinced that the man he has been playing cards with is cheating. Bond takes on the challenge and proves this to be the case, running off with the beautiful girl who had been an unwilling accomplice to the fraud. Back in London, Bond is called in to investigate the smuggling of gold out of the country by none other than Auric Goldfinger - the card cheat himself! This sets Bond on a collision course with one of the richest men in the world, with death and destruction coming along for the ride. The action sweeps across Europe and then to the USA, where Bond is forced to help plan, and execute, the biggest heist in history - with the gold reserves at Fort Knox being the target. Goldfinger and his henchman, Oddjob, are completely despicable, and for once, Bond's attempts at romance are, for the most part, thwarted by the inclusion of lesbian characters ... although, sadly, the author didn't seem to have the balls (no pun intended) to carry this through to the end. And this is where I felt distinctly uncomfortable with the language used regarding the female characters in this book, the attitudes expressed towards women and the ridiculous ending where Pussy Galore (oh my, what can I say about this name!) succumbs to Bond's charms. This grated on me somewhat and definitely dates this book. Despite this, there are some superb passages, where the author demonstrates his usual eye for detail with the joyful descriptions of food, cars and people. And like last time, my favourite scenes feature the tense and thrilling round of golf between Bond and Goldfinger ... in fact, I would go as far as saying that it's worth reading the book just for this! (Indeed, maybe, just read that bit!!!)

My STAR rating: THREE (one less than last time).

Length: 320 print pages.
Price I paid: £2.98.
Formats available: print, unabridged audio download, unabridged audio CD, ebook.