30 June: Book 30 - two old fools in Spain!

I read and finished Chickens, Mules and Two Old Fools by Victoria Tweed as an Ebook on my Kindle in very apt place ... while on holiday in Spain! This is the true story of an English couple in their 50's who give themselves 5 years to decide whether retirement in an isolated Spanish village in Andalucia is going to be a reality or whether the dream of a completely different way of life turns into a nightmare. Full of characters - from the ridculously friendly next door neighbours to the man whose mule seems to be in love with him - this is a highly entertaining memoir. We meet builders with varying timekeeping skills, an eccentric ex pat and her mother who seems to bathe in Chanel No. 5. One of the highlights for me is the recipes of Spanish dishes which are scattered throughout the book - tasty treats that the Tweeds have come across during their 5 years. This is a fun book, light, short and a swift read. It won't hurt your head and will keep you entertained for a few hours, but is one you will remember fondly if mentioned to you, but which you won't tell everyone you meet that they must read.

My star rating is THREE.

The stats bit:
Length: 196 print pages.
Price I paid: £2.49.
Other formats available in: Print.

27 June 2011 - Book 29: Chocolate Wars .. a tasty education!

So, here's the next catch up ... it's Chocolate Wars by Deborah Cadbury, which I read as an audio book and is my 29th book this year. The subtitle of this book is "From Cadbury to Kraft: 200 years of Sweet Success and Bitter Rivalry" ... and that just about covers it! This is the true account of how the chocolate industry developed both in the UK and around the world. How the race to find a really digestible product from the humble cocoa bean fired the imagination of Quakers up and down the country, leading them to create some of our most well known chocolate bars of the present day. Told by a member of the Cadbury family, it feels like you are listening to a simple family history - but one which spans the globe. We hear how Terrys, Frys, Hersheys and Nestle all started in the sweet tooth game. We touch on the ethics of the Quaker movement and how it leads to the improvement of conditions for workers. And, unfortunately, how each unique business has been swallowed up by huge corporations such as Kraft. This is a fascinating book and I learned a lot - including how takeovers can happen when the company doesn't want to be taken over.

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Who would have thought history could be such a thrilling read? I can highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the development of a lucrative industry, the Quaker movement or indeed, good old chocolate itself.
My star rating is 5.

The stats bit:
Length: 352 print pages.
Price I paid: £7.84 (from Audible).
Other formats available in: Print; unabridged audio CD; ebook.

Week 26 - I'm BACK ... and vamping it up!

Well hello once again ... I am back online and able to start blogging. We've a lot to catch up on now I'm back from a holiday in Spain where the weather was SCORCHING hot, the people friendly and the reading opportunities many. Over the next few days I'll be posting my thoughts on my holiday reads, starting with Moon Dance (Vampire for Hire #1) by JR Rain which I read as an EBook on my Kindle. This was a fun and light read - not having to use up too much brain power, an ideal book for when you are travelling or on holiday. The star of the show is Samantha Moon - who, we discover, is an ex-FBI agent, now a private detective who only works nights ... for one very good reason ... she is a vampire (having been bitten by an assailant some 4 years previously!) She is also a Mum and a wife. As she struggles with a tricky case, her marriage is falling apart at the seams ... well it's hard for a man who is now so terrified of his wife that he can't bear to touch her anymore - she is not only NOT the woman he married, she's not even the HUMAN he married! It's no wonder that her case - involving an attorney shot 5 times in the head and yet miraculously survives, becomes the focus of her attention and she finds herself drawn more and more towards the hulk of a man who is her client. Will this case and her online chats with the mysterious "Fang9" help her to move on with her life? The book ends kind of suddenly, but sets itself up for more of the same in what is now a series of titles by the same author. Whilst I did enjoy this book and it made me laugh out loud, it's a bit "vampire light" and I'm not sure I'll be going back for more and I definitely wouldn't be paying much for it if I did.

Star rating: 3 stars (for the laughs)

The stats bit:
Length: 288 print pages.
Price I paid: £0.49.
Other formats available in: Print.

9 June 2011 - Chocolate and Vampires ... where will it end?

I'm posting a quick message here because I am not going to be able to post anything for a couple of weeks after today. I will, however, be continuing to read! I'm in the middle of two books right now - The Chocolate Wars in audio format, and Moon Dance on my Kindle. Am quite surprised how much I'm enjoying The Chocolate Wars - the story of the development of the chocolate business in the UK - I am learning so much about Cadbury's and Fry's and Terry's. But then, I DO like chocolate, so maybe I was very receptive to knowing more about how we got to some of the glorious delicacies we have available today. Moon Dance is a totally different read - very, VERY light crime novel about a private detective who is a) female and b) a vampire. It's going to be a very quick read - not hard going at all and I have laughed out loud a couple of times. True Blood it is not - a bit vampire light so far! Anyhow, that's me signing off for a couple of weeks, after which I hope to have lots to tell you.

Week 23 - Labyrinth: a hard puzzle to crack! (Book 27)

This week saw me finishing Labyrinth by Kate Mosse. It's an epic tale set in the same location (around Carcassone in France) but in two different times - 2005 and the 1200's. In contemporary times, Alice goes on an archaeological dig and finds a cave containing, among other things, two skeletons, a labyrinth pattern on the wall, a stone ring and a small leather bag - after which, everybody seems out to get her and why does she keep getting that deja vu feeling? Eight hundred years earlier, amidst the frightening crusade to stamp out heresy in southern France, a young woman named Alais is given a ring and a book for safe-keeping by her father - after which, everyone seems to be out to get her .... These women's lives are linked across the centuries and we journey with each of them separately (really enjoyed the medieval stuff best) until we come to an almighty bringing together of all the strands back in the cave from the start of the book. Full of peril and mystery and herculean efforts to keep the secret of the "true grail" hidden from those who would misuse it, this is a story that definitely keeps you turning the page. Who can you trust? What were the Cathars up to? I was really enjoying it (maybe because I have been on holiday in the area it is set and was picturing the places mentioned) until quite near the end, when I started to find things had got a little confusing and blurry. Maybe it could have done with a bit of editing to tighten it up - or maybe it was just me. On the whole, an enjoyable but not totally satisfying read as I left it not quite 100% sure if I'd got all that I should have out of it.     

My star rating is 3.5.

The stats bit:
Length: 702 print pages.
Price I paid: £1.00 (PDSA charity shop).
Other formats available in: Print; abridged audio CD; unabridged audio download; ebook.

Week 21 - Halfway there, 26 books down, 26 to go!

It's great to be well ahead of schedule for my challenge this year ... but I know all that can change very quickly. However, I have finished book number TWENTY SIX, which was a cracker! The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman - which I read as an audio book - is the story of a toddler, who escapes death one night when the Man Jack comes to kill his family. He ends up at the old graveyard and is taken in by the residents, who decide to protect him and raise him. The residents are all ghosts, with one exception - Silas - who becomes the boys guardian ... but Silas isn't exactly human either! We then go on a journey with the boy as he grows up into a young man. Now, you'd think that this premis would be a bit on the spooky side, but it's not at all.There are deadly hazards and we meet supernatural beings of all shapes and sizes, some with good intentions and some with bad. But overall, it's a story of love and care for those around you. I loved it, and the dialogue is funny and surprising and extremely satisfying. If you like the current Doctor Who (Matt Smith), there is a sequence in the book where the dialogue could be being spoken by the Doctor. Mr Gaiman has written for the series and I can hear his influence very clearly. Although this is catalogued as a children's book, it would be a shame to dismiss it - it's a great read and with Mr Gaiman as narrator in the audio edition, I felt I was getting exactly the characters and inferences that the author intended. Thank you Mr Gaiman!



My star rating is FIVE.

The stats bit:
Length: 304 print pages.
Price I paid: £7.99 (through Audible).
Other formats available in: Print; unabridged audio CD; unabridged audio download.

Week 20 - an interesting WWII memoir is book number 25

Felt I needed something a bit more serious after Bond! So, I chose a book I'd downloaded onto my Kindle for free which is a memoir of a Ukranian woman who doesn't reveal her wartime experiences to anyone until nearly 50 years after the events! Called The Secret Holocaust Diaries by Nonna Bannister (with contributions from Denise George and Carolyn Tomlin), we hear about a girl who has a great childhood within a well to do family (with a Cossack heritage), whose lives are tainted first by the Russian Revolution, closely followed by World War II. It is written in a naive style, taken from a set of diaries she started aged 9 and which she hid by sewing into her pillow or clothing. We follow her through a happy childhood Christmas into the shortages, then random violence that a war brings. She ends up in a labour camp with her mother, but they too become separated. Eventually, Nonna follows her fathers dream and arrives in America where she meets and marries a good man. She leads a happy life, but is very secretive, only showing her husband her diaries as she nears the end of her life. I found this a very enlightening perspective on the holocaust, it is too easy to forget that these unimaginable horrors happened to millions of diverse people. It made me shudder, but I think we all need to be reminded of this human capacity for evil, so that we don't allow ourselves to go down that road again.

I would give this a 3 STAR rating.

The stats bit:
Length: 336 print pages.
Price I paid: £0.00 (but as at today, it's £8.27).
Other formats available in: Print; unabridged audio CD; unabridged audio download.