The Color Purple by Alice Walker

Set in the deep American South this follows a young girl's journey into adulthood amidst a world of inequality, racial tensions and poverty. Abused by the man she calls 'Pa' and separated from her devoted sister, Celie struggles to carve out a future of her own.




In many ways I like this book. I like the characters, the clever way Alice Walker integrates and uses the unique voice of the main character and it is also quite educational. The story kept my interest all the way and overall it's not a bad read.




But I did feel kind of disconnected from the story. You know sometimes when you read a really good book and you feel like you are not just reading a book but actually 'consumed' by it? I didn't get that with this book. I don't know what it is. Maybe it's because there is so much historical hype about the Color Purple and whenever there is hype, genuinely I tend to be a little disappointed. Or maybe it's because this book isn't really aimed at me at this point in my life. I do feel like it's more of a woman's book and even though I'm not exactly a blokey bloke, maybe I'm still not the intended reader.





But I also think part of the reason I felt detached from this one is because there are simply too many characters to hold on to. I found myself struggling to keep up with what I can only describe as a literary version of ' Who's who.'  There are so many characters in this and so many locations it's not easy to keep up. It's not helped by Alice Walker's use of the 'Mr --' thing instead of just using people's surnames. But maybe that's the kind of thing the main character would have done in those days.







I did like this book but I didn't love it. I think I would have enjoyed it more if I had read it when I was younger.




4/5

Hard Water by Jean Sprackland

First published by Cape Poetry in 2003.






I have always had a love hate relationship with poetry but I still try to read a handful of poetry books a year. This jumped out at me at our local library and it's a handy quick filler of a read.





This honestly has to be one of the best collections of poetry I have read. There's not really a damp squid in there. Jean Sprackland's writing is fresh and quirky and, in places, reassuringly northern. Her writing reminds me of Billy Collins who is still my favourite modern day poet.






 A few notable crackers: Hard Water, Caravan, Shocks, The Man Who Comes To Collect The Bottle Bank, The Light Collector and the unique and disturbing A Baby In The Filing Cabinet. I'd say the Light Collector is the pick of the bunch.







Overall a fab collection of poems.








4/5

The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka

The Buddha in the Attic recounts the trials and tribulations of the many Japanese women who travelled to America in search of a better life, clutching the photos of their new husbands to be, in the early 1900's. Some of them were as young as 12. Some of them were seasick. Some of them never made it across.





I've never read a book written in First Person Plural and I didn't know anything about the Japanese picture brides before I read this book. It's a book that shouldn't work. It should be boring. It is borderline Non-Fiction and there isn't really a traditional plot to grab hold of. But it does work. A lot of that is down solely to the wonderful prose that Julie Otsuka weaves the story with. Every line is significant. Every line is powerful. Every line is totally gripping.


The story is an eye opener. It's educational. It is tragic and inspirational. It's just the right length for the story that it tells and I think the biggest compliment I can give the Buddha in the Attic is that is has given me something different. It is unique in a great way and I can't ask for more than that.







5/5

Helen's Babies by John Habberton

There is something I find incredibly annoying about listening to Librivox recordings. I can't quite put my finger on it but I don't think I've ever listened to one that I didn't find annoying.



This is an old book and it's perfectly harmless. It's a book for children or a book for families, which ever way you want to look at it. It's about a well groomed city guy who spends a week looking after his sister's young children. He initially finds the children annoying but he ends up literally falling in love with them. They get up to all kinds of scrapes and mishaps but forgive me, I wasn't rolling around on the floor in hysterics.



I just found it boring. Maybe if I had read the book instead of listening to a woman reading it to me I would have appreciated it more. I just found her annoying, especially when she was reading the children's voices. I just wanted to chuck this book-less book at her!





Not my cup of bovril.




2/5

Nailed by Lucia Jordan

As it's Valentines day I though I would try to get in the spirit by reading something a little fruity.


It's always been my mission to read as many kinds of books as possible so it was time for me to read another erotica book. I'm not going to beat about the bush with this one. Just a short, flash of a review.


So how was it for me?



It's another example of those marketing ploys that pisses some people off, where an author writes a book and divides it into 3 or 4 books and you are hoodwinked into buying 3 or 4 books instead of one. As usual the first one is free and then the publishers are hoping to get the reader hooked so that they will purchase the others.



I won't. This was fun, sexy and and probably written by a guy. Lucia Jordan, really?





3/5

Someone Like Me by Tom Holt

'Nobody knows where they came from.

Nobody knows what they want.


The creatures are killing humans for meat and nobody, it seems can stop them.'




It's Earth but not as we know it. Everything has stopped. Everything that we once took for granted has disappeared. Apart from the monsters. The monsters have arrived.




In many ways this is right up my street. Set in a dystopian world, it is creepy and dark and has periods of excitement. However the book as a whole suffers a little bit from what I call the Tom Gordon effect. Most of the book is centred around the main character's journey through a dark tunnel, which is great for a single chapter but for an entire novel it did tend to drag on a little bit.


It's Ok though and the writing isn't bad.


Decent.



3/5

Two Quick Reads

I had some catching up to do if I wanted to get on track with reading at least 52 books this year and so here are a couple of quick read reviews.

This is my second book by Carmel Carberry and it doesn't disappoint.



Once again it's such an inspiring and helpful book, with a mixture of real life stories, bible verses and much more. Communion With God , Soaring on Eagles Wings is a bright light on a dull day. It's a book that kept my interest all the way and I found it encouraging and educational at the same time.



Sometimes Christian books can be heavy and repetitive but this was neither. It was light and enjoyable. Grab it if you get the chance.




5/5

This was diabolical. The less that can be said about it the better.



I am surprised because Lynda La Plante is very much a household name and a highly respected screenplay writer and Author. I haven't read any of her work before but I have briefly come across her television adaptations. But this was shocking!


Although Lynda states at the beginning of the book that 'The Escape' is based on two actual prisoner accounts (and I have no reason to doubt what she says), this whole book is completely unrealistic and unbelievable from the very first page. Not only is every single plot twist unrealistic but this small book is littered with incredibly obvious coincidences masquerading as plot devices.



A prison guard is about to look at a photograph that would blow the whole escape plan but suddenly a fight breaks out so he doesn't look at it.

The prisoner escapes because his hand cuffs are removed in the magistrates court waiting area and his guard goes off into a separate room, leaving him alone next to the front door.

The prisoner runs out of the court and needs to find a mode of transport and just at that exact time an old man is propping a bicycle up against a shop window.




Too many coincidences. Poor, lazy writing. The biggest plot hole is the main plot itself. A plot hole bigger than the Eiffel Tower. Avoid.



1/5