Archive for November, 2009
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Christmas is coming
And what better time to read Christmas themed books?
The Christmas Mystery by Jostein Gaarder -(of ‘Sophie’s World’ fame) is one of my favourite Christmas books.Jostein Gaarder weaves a magical tale with his story of Joachim. Joachin buys a magic advent calender on November 30th and every day, a piece of paper falls out of the door of the calendar. Each page tells the story of Elisabet Hansen, who chases a toy lamb that has come to life from an Oslo department store. While chasing the lamb, she meets the angel Epiriel; the shepherds Joshua and Jacob; Caspar, the King of the Orient; and the cherub Impuriel.
This is a perfect book to read at the beginning of December as the lead up to Christmas is happening just as it is in the book. Jostein Gaarder has a delightful way with words and story telling and with some philosophical musings at the same time. it is a mystery about Christmas, and purely delicious.
(I have read all his books, enjoyed them all and will definitely be giving this book a reread this coming Christmas.)
Do you have any favourite Christmas books to share with us?
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Twenties girl – Sophie Kinsella
Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella has been on my ‘to be read’ list since I discovered that it had been released. Today, I found it in the library -shock horror, a new book in a the library, who would of thought! My eager hands pulled it off the shelf with such glee, it was like finding an unexpected gift in my hands and I went off to the counter to take it out. Returned home, made some lunch and settled down to start reading it.
And what a joy! This book is delightful, considering that I finished it in a day, I think that’s saying something. It is perfect holiday reading, light and quirky with a mystery thrown in for good measure. It is a ghost story but not a horror filled one.
The book is set in London and starts with Lara about to attend her Great Aunt Sadie’s funeral. The funeral is family only as no one really kept in touch with Sadie and had lived in an Old Age Home after having a stroke. But this is where the fun begins, because Great Aunt Sadie comes back as a ghost of her 23 year old self, but only Lara can see her! And Sadie needs her help to find a very important necklace, once the necklace is found, only then can she pass on over the ‘the other side’.
And so follows a most delightful story, a mystery and a love story all rolled into one. Sophie Kinsella weaves her characters so that they are as large as life, with a twenties theme to boot. I found it immensely enjoyable and had me laughing out loud in some places. I have to admit to enjoying all her books to date, she has a fresh and unique way of writing, even if it is ‘chick lit’. This book is a great way to pass the time, if you need to, or to just wallow in some good old fashioned story telling, without too much thinking involved.
If you are a ‘chick lit’ or Sophie Kinsella fan, I would recommend her latest book.
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Almost at 100!
Firstly, apologies that this post is slightly delayed, but due to my dancing shoes, I was out at the Johnny Clegg concert last night and was too full of music to be writing posts when I arrived home!
But, here we are, full of the joys of Summer on this gorgeous day and ladies and gentlemen, I have some extremely good news.
Remember this post?
Our aim is to raise 100 books for Bambelela and so far, we have 69 books! How awesome is that? So, we only need another 31 books in order to send it off to our growing bookworms. So, for those of you, who would still like to participate and add a book to our collection, please do. If you would like to order from Kalahari, go to this post and take a pick, just let me know which ones you purchase so we dont get duplicates. Just leave a comment asking for delivery directions (you send them to me) and I will mail you back. I am aiming to send the 100 books by the 15 December at the latest so we have a little time to get those last 31 books in.
A huge thank you to everyone who has been involved in this Book Raiser, you are all stars and the fact that you are helping to grow a bookworm, makes my heart feel oh so glad:-)
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Holiday reading!
Hello hello!
So, I have been away for a week and what a wonderful week away it was!
I managed to get in some extra reading time which is almost unheard of when not on holiday and it was great. I read 2 full books and 2 half books (which I am in the process of finishing and the one should be finished by tonight at the latest).
The first one I read was ‘Her Fearful Symmetry‘ – by Audrey Niffeneger, which is the one which I will be completing tonight, and so far it is brilliant. I wont tell you all about it here, but will post a review at a slightly later date.
Second one was ‘More Ants’ – by Annica Foxcroft, who we were very privileged to get an interview with. If you haven’t yet read it, hop on over here to see it.
Third one was ‘Friends, lovers and other indiscretions‘ – by Fiona Neill, which I have to say is one of the most blah books I have read to date, I loved her first novel though, so plowed my way through this one to see if it might redeem itself. Alas, it was not to be.
Fourth one and still reading is ‘Inkdeath‘ – by Cornelia Funke and the third in her Inkheart trilogy. Fabulous fabulous book and am itching to get stuck back into it. ( I was up till 1am last night reading…)
Reviews will be put up of them all in due course and you can then decide for yourself which ones to read or which ones to discard.
I love how different books are. The stories they tell and the characters journeys, they can either pull you in, mesmerising you and taking you to imagined places or… not! Some books fall flat on their covers with no qualities that allow you to even enjoy them for themselves, but then, that is only one opinion (mine of course);-).
So, what I would like from you, oh fellow book lovers is a list of your favourite books to date. I would like to do a Top 20 for The Book Club Blog and would love to see what would be on your list of highly recommended books. Go on, don’t be shy! You can put as many or as few books as you’d like and I will then dedicate a post on your list of books. Christmas is coming and I don’t know about you, but I am always on the look out for books to give as gifts.
I’l start you off with three of my favourite books:
Jitterbug Perfume – Tom Robbins
Perfume – Patrick Suskind
Rasero – Francisco Reboledo
Ooh, cant wait to hear what is on your list!
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What are YOU reading?
OK, readers and blogger’s alike, we have one copy of Sarah Waters’s Little Stranger to give away.
All you need to do is comment to be entered into the draw. The closing date is 30 November 2009, so there is still time to get those comments in… and…
We are wondering what you are reading? What books are sitting on your nightstand, piled next to your bed, in your bookshelf, waiting to be devoured? Do tell us. What books did you take out at book club?What book/s did you purchase this month?
Come on, spill it, tell us what you are reading, we are waiting patiently..
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One page, two page, three page, book!
WHO ARE WE BOOKRAISING FOR?
BAMBELELA MINISTRY SCHOOL
…”They continued to pour in until 9 am. They had walked for miles to get here. It was cold and wet but they had braved the weather in their meager clothing and were coming, albeit a little nervously, in the hope of something better for their children. What a sight. About eighty thin, bedraggled children and mothers whose spirits should have been crushed by the circumstances, under which they lived, all joined together in our tiny half- finished church to sing and draw, listen to stories and play with puzzles. None of them had even held a crayon before let alone seen or held a book.” - Yvette Steytler
The Tristan Cullum Heart and Courage Foundation have also managed to raise some monies towards Bambelela, you can click on the link to see more about it.
Some of the books that we would like to purchase for the children of Bambelela -
These ones are available at Kalahari and range from R30 – R50. But, again, please do not hesitate to go through your own home for books which are no longer being read by your children. As long as they are in good readable condition, I’m sure the babies and children really wont mind where they have come from!
And another thank you to all of you who are being such super stars with The Book raiser, it looks like we may have 100 books yet!
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Book Blogger, holiday swop
While reading As usual, I need more bookshelves, I came across this brilliant idea!
The holiday swap is a way for book blogger’s to connect and celebrate the holiday spirit by sharing gifts. It’s done secret Santa style; all of the participants are randomly assigned a blogger to send a gift to, and these assignments are kept secret until the gift has been delivered. So no one knows who their gift is coming from!
You can sign up at the Book Blogger Holiday Swap website – why not join us? The Deadline is November 12, so hurry hurry!
If you fancy joining in, head on over to sign up! I have:-)
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The Historian – Elizabeth Kostova
Ok, so after our bookraiser post, thought it would be nice to have a review of a slightly different book… Have any of you read it? What did you think of it? Did you find it too long or just the right length? Did you enjoy it? I would love to hear from any of you that have read it, or plan to read it, or hated it…
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova is a brilliant book. It is a historical novel about Dracula. It is eerie and fascinating and a page turner and a half!
I have to be honest, again, I couldn’t read this book at night time, it gave me goosey pimples so I kept this in my daytime reading schedule. It was while I was doing care work in the UK so I had daytime reading hours to spare, and I hated having to put it down to do actual work!
It is pacy and intriguing and full of wonder.
This is taken from Wikipedia:
The Historian has been described as a combination of genres, including Gothic novel, adventure novel, detective fiction,travelogue, postmodern historical novel, epistolary epic, and historical thriller. Kostova was intent on writing a serious work of literature and saw herself as an inheritor of the Victorian style. Although based on Bram Stoker‘s Dracula, The Historian is not a horror novel, but rather an eerie tale. It is concerned with history’s role in society and representation in books, as well as the nature of good and evil. As Kostova explains, “Dracula is a metaphor for the evil that is so hard to undo in history.”The evils brought about by religious conflict are a particular theme, and the novel explores the relationship between the ChristianWest and the Islamic East.
The book begins like this:
“To you, perceptive reader, I bequeath my history….”
Late one night, exploring her father’s library, a young woman finds an ancient book and a cache of yellowing letters. The letters are all addressed to “My dear and unfortunate successor,” and they plunge her into a world she never dreamed of—a labyrinth where the secrets of her father’s past and her mother’s mysterious fate connect to an inconceivable evil hidden in the depths of history.
The letters provide links to one of the darkest powers that humanity has ever known—and to a centuries-long quest to find the source of that darkness and wipe it out. It is a quest for the truth about Vlad the Impaler, the medieval ruler whose barbarous reign formed the basis of the legend of Dracula. Generations of historians have risked their reputations, their sanity, and even their lives to learn the truth about Vlad the Impaler and Dracula. Now one young woman must decide whether to take up this quest herself—to follow her father in a hunt that nearly brought him to ruin years ago, when he was a vibrant young scholar and her mother was still alive.
This is a thought provoking first novel and what I mostly enjoyed about it was the historical references combined with the young lady in the present.
Give it a go, you may enjoy it…
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Make a pledge, grow a bookworm!
After reading this post at F2F, my heart felt sore.
What broke my heart was the fact that without assistance these children could grow up without knowing the joy of reading. They could grow up illiterate. They could grow up without knowing how to read or write, the two most basic of human gifts. And who are we to decide their fate?
Something within the post spoke to me, touched a part of my soul and I would love to be able to help these children have a better and brighter future. With knowledge comes skills, with reading comes writing, with books come friends.
As you know I am an avid reader, as I’m sure most of you who read this blog are probably just the same. I have no idea what it would be like to not be able to read. To not be able to devour knowledge within books and to not be able to journey to the distant lands within books, be they fantasy or reality. To not have those friends within the covers of a book. To me reading is as essential as breathing. So much so, that I have already started teaching my daughter to read (she is 19 months old).
So, my aim is to have a ‘BOOKRAISER’ for Bambelela. To raise at least 100 children’s books ages ranging from between 0 -6yrs. In English, Afrikaans and any other African languages. Picture books/story books and board books to tempt the eyes and minds of the little ones. To give just that extra step for a better future for them. Most of the children at Bambelela are babies and under 6, but even the elder ones do not know how to read. Because of this, we need books which will enable them to learn, and to instill a love of reading and learning. Now, I know it is not food or money or clothes that I am attempting to raise, but for me, books are just as important. And I would love your help in doing this. All you need to do, is pledge a book – one that you own that is no longer as loved at it once was/or a newly bought one/ or a second hand bought one/ or a hand me down , a book is a book is a book!- and then post it to me. Once we have raised 100 books, I will then contact Bambelela to let them know we have managed to raise the 100 books and send them up to them. I will take care of the postage and packaging and ensure that the books arrive in good order. I am aiming to succeed in this venture by mid December so it can be like a Christmas gift for all the little children.
I have not attempted to do any sort of ‘raiser’ before (bar the selling of raffle tickets at school) and if anyone has any suggestions please do not hesitate to tell me, but I have high hopes and a dream of at least 100 books. I have faith in the goodness of us humans, even amidst all the non goodness which is read/felt/seen daily and I believe that this small act of kindness will go a long way.
If you would like to be part of this ‘BOOKRAISER’, please email us your email address by using the ‘submit review button’ at the top of the page, or use the comment section below, with the title of the book that you are pledging so we don’t get duplicates, and I will get back to you with contact details of where to send the books to. If you are planning on buying a book, you can click on the Kalahari link at the bottom of the page, which makes it that one step easier for you!
Lets do this!
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International Author Interview! (and a giveaway)
Sarah Waters novels may be well known for their lesbian content, but her writing is more than just a label.(Though if one is new to lesbian authors, she is great one to start with). She has story telling down to a fine art, with the twists and turns of a characters path, with the ability to transport you to the places she describes in a blink of an eye and with the knack of just the right pace to set her tone at. Her atmospheric ability is astounding and the relationships between the characters are so believable, you find yourself rooting for them, or not as the case may be.
She has written 5 books, ‘Tipping the Velvet‘ – her first and by far my most favourite of all of them; ‘Affinity‘; ‘Fingersmith‘ – I read this book twice, I enjoyed it so much; ‘The night watch‘ – slightly different to her first three in that this one is set in the second world war and her latest ‘ The Little Stranger‘ – a ghost story with meaning. Three of her books have been adapted for the screen: Tipping the Velvet, Affinity and Fingersmith. Her books have won awards and really, if you don’t believe me when I say, she is a phenomenal writer, you can believe the facts.
And now that I have told you a little bit about her, let me introduce you to Sarah Waters, as she answers questions for The Book Club Blog:
1) Are any of the characters and characters relationships in your books based on ‘real life’ people?
Well, not really – at least, not in ways that anyone else would recognise. Inevitably, a certain amount of my own experience finds its way into my stories and characters; that must be true for every writer. But those details are combined with all sorts of other things: things I make up, things I read in the paper, things I overhear on the bus… So while there are always threads from my own life in my books, they are usually lost in the larger pattern. I hope so, anyway! I would hate for anyone I know to feel that I had ‘used’ them for a novel.
2) The Little Stranger is quite different to your other books, where did you find the inspiration to write this novel? And did you have a particular house that you have based Hundreds Hall on?
I became increasingly interested in 1940s Britain while I was writing The Night Watch, which is set in London in the Second World War. I finished that novel wanting to look more closely at post-war changes – in particular, I was intrigued by what had happened to the British class system, which had become really shaken up. A Labour government had been voted in, and working-class people were looking forward to a fairer future: that was tremendously exciting for some people, but for other, more conservative, people, the country seemed to be sliding into chaos. I began to think that that turmoil, and the middle-class dread which accompanied it, might best be explored through the image of a haunted house… I didn’t base Hundreds Hall on any actual house, but I did visit a lot of big country houses while I was writing the novel, and I suppose Hundreds is a bit of a patchwork of details from all of them.
3) Your first three novels are set in the Victorian era (which I loved) where did your propensity for this era come from?
I began writing fiction after finishing a PhD thesis on lesbian and gay writing from the nineteenth century onwards. The thesis had shown me what a lot of interesting material there was about the sexual underworlds of late-Victorian London, and I thought I’d like to use them in a novel – that became my first book, Tipping the Velvet. After that, I just became more and more fascinated by nineteenth-century life. I like the fact that the Victorians are quite close to us, but also, in many ways, quite alien. They lived without a welfare state, and before the rise of mass media, which meant that there must have been pockets of experience which were really eccentric, quirky, odd, or grotesque – the sort of thing captured by Dickens, I suppose. It’s those strange and shadowy bits of Victorian culture that appeal to me most.
4) Which has been your favourite book, to date, that you enjoyed writing more?
Tipping the Velvet was a real joy to write – lots of fun, from start to finish. But that was partly, simply, because it was my first novel: I had no confidence it would ever be published, and was really just writing it for myself. Fingersmith was fun, too, with its extravagant plot, and its larger-than-life characters, and its twists. I always enjoy trying to create particular effects for my readers: surprises, revelations, shocks. I really enjoyed trying to unnerve people with The Little Stranger.
5) Do you ever think about the characters from your novels and wonder what they may be doing now?
No, I can honestly say I don’t. Readers have often asked me whether I plan to write a sequel to, say, Tipping the Velvet or The Night Watch. But the fact is, though I usually grow very fond of my characters and am always sorry to see them go, they exist for me solely for the purposes of the books they inhabit: they are like parts of a machine. I only think about their futures if they are relevant to their stories as a whole – ie, if a narrative is clearly heading in a certain direction (as it is, for example, for poor Margaret in Affinity). Sounds a bit heartless, doesn’t it?
6) What were your favourite books as a child?
I read a lot of rubbish as a child, so only a few books really stand out in my memory. John Chrisopher’s sci-fi novel The White Mountains was one; I also recall very fondly The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster, A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L’Engle, and Ian Serraillier’s The Silver Sword. That’s about it, for children’s books – though my main reading was adult ghost and horror stories, and some of those impressed me very deeply. W.W. Jacobs’s ‘The Monkey’s Paw’ is still one of my favourite ever stories.
7) What book/s are you currently reading?
I usually have a couple of books on the go at the same time, often a contemporary novel for bed-time reading, and something older for during the day. At the moment, my bed-time book is the utterly brilliant Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel. I’ve also just finished the two wonderful novellas published as The Hunters, by Claire Messud. My current daytime reading is Patrick Hamilton’s The Gorse Trilogy, first published in the 1950s – a book which, like all of Hamilton’s work, manages to be funny, sad and exquisitely painful, all at once.
What is your idea of happiness?A book going well! Those occasional moments when writing feels genuinely inspired – which make up for all the hours when it just feels like a horrible slog.
9) Where do you find your greatest support while writing?
My girlfriend, Lucy, is the best partner a writer could have: smart, supportive, encouraging – and honest.
Thank you , Sarah, for joining us at The Book Club Blog.
I hope you all enjoyed this interview and if you haven’t read any of her novels, I hope this inspires you to give them a go! And if that isn’t enough to tantalise those taste- buds….
The Book Club Blog has one copy of The Little Stranger to GIVE AWAY! All you need to do, is leave a comment in the comment section giving me your reason why you should win this book. See, simple as that. Just remember that this giveaway is only open to South African residents and the winner will be announced on the 30 November 2009.
Happy Commenting!
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