1356 - chivalry, revenge and bloodthirsty battles

Ahhhhh, Mr Bernard Cornwell, how I have missed your dazzling books. Thank you for bringing the distant past into sharp focus and breathtaking vibrancy. 1356, takes up the story of Thomas of Hookton - an English archer who we first came into contact in the Grail Quest some years ago. We are still in the throes of the Hundred Years' War between England and France, and Thomas is rampaging around France with his band of Hellequins ... earning money by taking on tasks no-one else wants to do. His wife and son are with him and life is tough but he is fairly content until he becomes embroiled in another man's revenge. Things get increasingly complicated when he is tasked with another quest ... to find Le Malice, the sword reputed to be the one Simon Peter used to try and protect Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. This sword has been hidden away for centuries, but is now being sought by a dodgy religious zealot who is convinced that it will gain victory for France and also ease his way to becoming the next Pope. This is a book about power - those who have it, those who want it and those who are prepared to do anything to get it. The book leads us to the Battle of Poitier, a real battle (all his books are based in historically true contexts with a mixture of real people and completely fictitious characters). Not as famous as Crecy or Agincourt, but a battle that would turn out to be the most decisive and improbable victory of the Hundred Years’ War. Against what should have been overwhelming odds, the English not only the captured the strategic site of Poitiers, but the French King John II as well. As you would expect, the action never ends and it's a real edge-of-the-seat book ... but that should come as no surprise ... this is what Bernard Cornwell excels at. Can't wait to get my teeth back into the Richard Sharpe series ...

My STAR rating: FOUR.

Length: 432 print pages.
Price I paid: free (borrowed from my local library).
Formats available: print; audio CD unabridged; audio download unabridged; ebook.

Moon Over Soho - jazz vampires agogo!

This is a tight, gritty police procedural with a twist. And the twist is that the central character, PC Peter Grant, is an apprentice wizard in a special unit of the Metropolitan Police Force set up to deal with the odd and unexplained events in the capital city. This is the sequel to Rivers of London, and the author, Ben Aaronovitch, puts more meat on the bones of the characters we met in the first book. PC Grant is coming to terms with the magical and supernatural world around him - fitting in exercises to learn how to make fire balls inbetween investigating the death of a jazz musician, who, when you get close to the body, seems to be emitting a version of the jazz standard, Body and Soul. More deaths follow and it soon becomes obvious that there is dark magic at work ... and another wizard on the loose with nefarious intentions. Into the mix comes the attractive girlfriend of one of the victims - she seems to get over her loss incredibly quickly, and sets her cap at Peter who is powerless to resist her charms. She has a penchance for both jazz and French patisserie. But when Peter takes her to a gig at which his musician father is playing, his mother attacks his new girlfriend telling her to keep away from her husband ... he realises all is not what it seems. How could his mother accuse her of trying to steal her husband 20 years ago ... and yet her rival doesn't seem to have aged a single day! This is a great book - full of action and humour, as well as magic. It's a fantasy for those who aren't sure that fantasy is for them. Take the leap and go for it - you will not be disappointed. I can particularly recommend the audio edition I read, narrated by the fantastically dry Kobna Holdbrook-Smith.

My STAR rating: FIVE.

Length: 384 print pages
Price I paid: 7.99 (sterling)
Formats available: print; unabridged audio download; ebook.

The Grapes of Wrath - what a struggle!

At last, at long last, I have finally finished The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. I started this book several months ago and I have really struggled to finish it. One of my sisters says that life is too short to finish a book you are not enjoying ... there are so many others to chose from. But I was determined to get to the end of this book as it was one of the BBC Top 100 reads, which was the focus of my reading challenge last year. It is, no doubt, a worthy book, highlighting the plight of poor tenant farmers from Oklahoma - the Joads - who, with pretty much everyone they know, are driven off their small patch of land by wealthy landowners and head off to California, where they have been told there is plenty of work picking oranges, grapes and cotton. The journey is long and hard - with both grandparents dying en route, the husband of the pregnant daughter doing a runner and the constant worry that the not long out of prison son, Tom, will get himself arrested and carted back to the big house. So far, so gloomy ... and so it continues. Deary me, this a desperately depressing book. Full of hardship, poverty, grief and death - there are no bright spots on the horizon. Grim, grim, grim all the way through. If you are feeling low, DO NOT read this book. It is well written in parts, but I felt it was very stop/start and just didn't flow or carry me along. I'm sure many people absolutely love this book, but it just wasn't for me.

My STAR rating: TWO.

Length: 536 print pages.
Price I paid: free, borrowed from local library.
Formats available: print; unabridged audio download or CD; ebook.

Bring up the Bodies - the fall of Anne Boleyn

Hoorah for the first completed book of 2014. Bring up the Bodies, by Hilary Mantel, continues the story of Thomas Cromwell in the court of King Henry VIII ... and boy was it worth the wait! I read Wolf Hall a couple of years ago on audio (it was the first audio book I purchased) and absolutely loved it. When I heard there was a sequel, and that it was just as good (winning the Man Booker Prize just like its predecessor) I couldn't wait to get it on my ipod and immerse myself in the intrigues of the Tudor era where everyone is at the mercy of the whims and desires of the monarch! The action starts with Henry starting to pay attention to the quiet, plain Jane Seymour. His wife, Anne Boleyn, is claiming to be pregnant and trying to reassure the King that THIS time, it WILL be a son ... however, Henry's love for Anne has diminished and he is starting to murmur that their marriage may not be valid and therefore has been cursed, and that it will never produce the male heir he is so desperate for. Thomas Cromwell, the "fixer" for the King starts to see the writing on the wall, but, as always hedges his bets for a while and tries to keep things on an even keel. When the exiled Katherine of Aragon dies and Anne loses the baby, Henry's mind is made up and he tasks Cromwell with clearing the path for him to take Jane Seymour as his new wife ... and so the betrayals and intrigues begin and we all know where they end up. This is such a great book, one that I found hard to put down, and looked for excuses to get my ipod back on at every opportunity. I cannot recommend this book highly enough ... and I can't wait for the third book in the trilogy.

My STAR rating: FIVE (did you ever doubt it).

Length: 436 print pages.
Price I paid: £7.99.
Formats available: print; unabridged audio download; abridged audio CD; multimedia CD.

So what am I reading right now ...?

To kick off my new reading year, I am very pleased to be able to say that I am reading Bring Up the Bodies, by Hilary Mantell. This is the sequel to Wolf Hall which I absolutely loved and was one of my favourite books of a few years ago. I have been champing at the bit to get started on this one, and so far, it is not disappointing. I'm already halfway through and the intrigues to oust Anne Boleyn from Henry VIII's side have already started ...

I'm also trying to finish The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck which was part of my 2013 challenge. Am enjoying this less, but am determined to finish it as I'm over 200 pages into it.

2013 ... the close of the year

As 2013 winds its way out, it's a time to reflect on how I have stood up to the challenge I'd set myself over the last year. My self-imposed target was to have read 70 of the BBC Top 100 Best Reads, and, annoyingly, I have missed it by just ONE book. I am still reading what would have been the 70th book (The Grapes of Wrath), but won't have finished it by the end of today! Overly ambitious maybe ... on reflection, I should have actually looked to see how long many of the books on the list actually are. I did get through a few of the monsters, such as War and Peace, The Stand and Gone with the Wind - but brother did they slow me down. Overall, I have enjoyed this particular challenge - reading books I would probably never have chosen to read if they were not on this list. Books that really surprised me were The Stand (have downloaded another Stephen King off the back of that experience, something I never would have done before), Memoirs of a Geisha and The Alchemist (two books of beauty that will stay with me for a long time) and the Harry Potter series ... I really started to enjoy them despite myself! And then there were books that I cannot understand what all the fuss is about - Catcher in the Rye for starters! And, I have to admit, I've been really struggling with The Grapes of Wrath for two months now and I'm not even halfway through it! Although I've just missed my target, I'm not going to beat myself up about it as I came really close, read some great books, and had an excuse to read a few that were written for youngsters that I missed out on during my own childhood. I will definitely be reading more titles from this list as time goes on, but maybe not in such a focused way! I think I'm definitely ready for a bit more fun in my reading list. And so onto 2014 ... 

The Story of Tracy Beaker (31) - will anyone foster this girl?

In this apparently self-penned story of a 10-year-old girl living in care, we find out that Tracy Beaker is an outwardly tough girl, fed up of being in care, and to make herself feel better, constantly brags about her glamorous mother, who lives in Hollywood, and who will soon be swooping back into her life and taking her away from where she is staying, after which they'll go and live happily ever after. Abandoned from an early age, Tracy has gone through two foster homes, neither of which worked out for her, and now she finds herself in a care home. Her best friend is no longer her best friend and Tracy pours all her heartbreak and loneliness out onto the pages of her journal ... describing what she would like to do to the various people who she feels have let her down. The Story of Tracy Beaker, by Jacqueline Wilson, genuinely feels like it is written by the central character herself, which is an achievement in itself. Tracy is imaginative and sensitive (but tries not to show it ... she "never cries" but has "hay fever attacks" when sad or upset!) Feeling increasingly isolated, Tracy's life takes a turn for the better when the home welcomes a new visitor - a writer who has been commissioned to write an article about children in care. "Cam" makes a big impact on Tracy, and they talk about writing and life in general. By the end of the book, Tracy thinks she might have successfully persuaded Cam to adopt her, and life is looking up for our feisty heroine. This is a book where a child tries desperately to hide what she is truly feeling behind her challenging behaviour and vivid imagination. It is sad and touching, but also funny. I can see youngsters really taking to this character and empathising with her feelings, but I fear I am probably too old to appreciate it more fully.  

My STAR rating: TWO.

Length: 158 print pages.
Price I paid: Free, borrowed from local library.
Formats available: print; unabridged audio CD; unabridged audio download; ebook.