Turning Over a New Leaf - book 5

Book number 5: What To Do When Someone Dies by Nicci French.

The blurb:
Ellie Faulkner's world has been destroyed. Her husband Greg died in a car crash - and he wasn't alone. In the passenger seat was the body of Milena Livingstone - a woman Ellie's never even heard of.

But Ellie refuses to leap to the obvious conclusion, despite the whispers and suspicions of those around her. Maybe it's the grief, but Ellie has to find out who this woman was - and must prove Greg wasn't having an affair.

And soon she is chillingly certain their deaths were no accident. Are Ellie's accusations of murder her way of avoiding the truth about her marriage? Or does an even more sinister discovery await her?

My view:

The main character, Ellie, can't grieve for her husband until she proves he hasn't, or has, been unfaithful. She becomes completely obsessed and her sanity is questioned by close friends as she strives to find out the truth. I know that it's a novel and not a true story but this book has a completely implausible plot, which gets even more unbelievable after the 'twist' near the end. A quick, read-it-on-the-beach book (no thinking necessary), but I actually think this story would work much better on TV than as a book.

Turning Over a New Leaf - book 4

Book number 4: Blackwater by Kerstin Ekman.

The blurb:

Midsummer eve, 1974, in the far north of Sweden. Annie Raft arrives with her six-year-old daughter in a small town called Blackwater to join her lover Dan on a commune. But Dan is not there to meet them. Panicking, Annie treks into the wilderness to find the commune, in the strange, hovering light of midsummer night. By the river, she finds a tent; and inside it two bodies hideously murdered - stabbed so violently that the feathers from their sleeping bag scatter the ground. Many years later, Annie has settled in the region, and Mia, her daughter has grown up. Early one morning glimpses Mia in the arms of the man she believes responsible for the murders. The seemingly inexplicable crime, long buried, is forced to come to its own dark and unexpected conclusion.

My view:

A long hard slog... but I always read to the very last page. A dark and disturbing tale; beautifully detailed descriptions set scenes and moments in time, but complicated, confusing and, at times, monotonous. Complex characters and Swedish names, and a plot jumping from one character to the next and from the present time to the past = not an easy book to read on the bus! The first half is very slow but the second half moves along at a slightly quicker pace as the plot develops and you understand the characters more. I think you'll either love this book, or absolutely hate it.

Turning Over a New Leaf - book 3

Book 3 this year: But Inside I'm Screaming by Elizabeth Flock.

The blurb:

'But inside I'm screaming' is one woman's unforgettable story about what it is to lose control as the world watches, to figure out what went so very wrong and to accept an imperfect life in a world that demands perfection.

While breaking the hottest news story of the year, broadcast journalist Isabel Murphy falls apart on live television in front of an audience of millions. She lands at Three Breezes, a four-star psychiatric hospital nicknamed the "nut hut," where she begins the painful process of recovering the life everyone thought she had.

But accepting her place among her fellow patients proves difficult. Isabel struggles to reconcile the fact that she is, indeed, one of them, and faces the reality that in order to mend her painfully fractured life she must rely solely on herself.

My view:

A disappointing read; a quick, read-it-on-the-beach novel rather than a realistic portrayal of mental illness.

I liked the fact that the main character's story was told through flashbacks of her life, whilst enduring the daily, personal torment of life in a psychiatric hospital. However, I thought that the author didn't spend enough time on the recovery process - Isabel came out of her depression way too quickly and easily for it to be true to life.

The ending was intriguing in that loose ends weren't tied up. We're left wondering what Isabel did when she was discharged, and how she coped with the decisions she'd made about her future - and I liked that. Full of stereotypes and two-dimensional characters though.

Turning Over a New Leaf - book 2

Well I'm doing well so far - two books read this year and we're only in week two (only another 51 to go to beat my record!)

My latest read was The Savage Garden by Mark Mills.

Whilst browsing the charity shop shelves I'm always drawn to books with 'garden' in the title, or those set in exotic locations - this book was both. Full of intrigue and suspicion, this book is a decent mystery novel, with a bit of romance thrown in, centred around a memorial garden in post-war Italy.

Review from Fantastic Fiction:

A beautiful Tuscan villa, a mysterious garden, two hidden murders - one from the 16th century, one from the twentieth - and a family driven by dark secrets, combine in this evocative, intriguing mystery set in post-War Italy.

In 1958, Adam Strickland, a young Cambridge scholar, travels to the Villa Docci in Tuscany to study a sixteenth-century garden. Designed and laid out by a grieving husband to the memory of his dead wife, it is a mysterious world of statues, grottoes, meandering rills and classical inscriptions. But tragedy has hit the Docci family more recently. The German occupation during World War 2 had a devastating impact on them, and the tensions between collaborators and partisans were played out within their own tight circle.

Adam is fascinated by the Doccis and increasingly aware that there are dangerous secrets hidden within the family domain. The garden itself starts to exercise a powerful influence over his imagination, its iconography seeming to point to some deeper, darker truth than was first apparent. And what really lay behind a killing at the villa towards the end of the war? Past and present, love and intrigue, intertwine in an evocative mystery which vividly captures the experience of an innocent abroad in the uncertain world of post-War Italy.



This was a Richard & Judy Summer Read in 2007, so if you didn't read it then it's worth trying to pick up a copy now.

New Year - New Book Goal

As I've previously mentioned, I love reading. In a previous job my journey time to and from work was much longer, so I used to read a lot of books to make the time more enjoyable - 53 in 2007 (I was aiming to read a book each week but I miscounted!) But then I changed jobs and worked much closer to home so my travelling time reduced, and consequently so did my book quota - 45 in 2008, 32 in 2009, and a pitiful 26 last year.

You can see which books I read in 2009-2010 if you scroll down the right hand side of the page. I tend to buy most of my books from charity shops so it's a fairly eclectic mix of whatever appeals at the time.

I have big plans for this year - and one of them is to read a lot more. Over the festive break I managed to finish my first book: The Book of Names by Jill Gregory & Karen Tintori.

I really enjoyed it. It was easy to read, fast-paced, with a decent good-versus-evil plot.

Here's the blurb:

Within each generation, there are thirty-six righteous souls. Their lives hold the key to the fate of the world. Now someone wants them dead.

When a childhood tragedy comes back to haunt Professor David Shepherd, he finds himself in possession of knowledge that holds the world in a delicate balance. He uncovers the Book of Names---an ancient text originating with the biblical Adam, and thought lost to history forever. By Kabbalistic tradition, the book contains the names of each generation's thirty-six righteous souls---the Hidden Ones---by whose merits alone the world continues to exist. Legend holds that if all thirty-six Hidden Ones were eliminated, the world would meet its end.

When the Hidden Ones start dying of unnatural causes, the world grows increasingly unstable: war in Afghanistan, massive flooding in New York, brutal terrorist attacks in Melbourne, a tanker explosion in Iran. David finds himself battling against the Gnoseos, a secret religious sect whose goal is to destroy the world by eliminating all of the righteous souls. David's involvement quickly turns personal when his stepdaughter's name is discovered to be one of the endangered. With the help of a brilliant and beautiful Israeli ancient texts expert, David races to decipher the traditions of the Kabbalah to save the righteous souls, his stepdaughter, and perhaps the world.

And here is an interview with the authors, explaining the background to the novel.

Can you recommend your latest read? Which books do you intend to read this year?

Model customer #4 and book #29

Drum roll please... da da da da da da daaahhhh...
Please put your hands together for my Model Customer number 4 - Laura from Aberdeen!

Laura is wearing my Funky Scarf; a lovely soft and fuzzy scarf in dark purple with bright pink stripes. Laura said, "I love this scarf - the colours are fab and it's SO warm!" Doesn't she look great? Thanks for shopping at Bliss Knits Laura!

If you've bought anything from my Folksy shop or from one of the craft fairs that I've attended, and you fancy being a 'Model Customer', please get in touch!

I finished 'The Memory Garden' by Rachel Hore today, so that's me up to 29 books read this year. Definitely nowhere near my record of 53 books in a year (but that was when my bus journey to work was much longer!).

I  found this book a bit slow going at times, but that's probably because I'm used to more fast-paced crime novels. It was an enjoyable light read though.

The book is set in Cornwall (a well-loved holiday destination of ours) and tells the story of a lecturer who takes a sabbatical to research and write a book on the famous artists of the area of Lamorna. It tells of how Mel falls in love with this part of Cornwall, and Merryn Hall in particular. Here she stays in the gardener's cottage and builds friendships with the local people in the present, and learns about the inhabitants of the past (the story moves effortlessly from one era to another). She helps the new owner, Patrick, to start renovations on the overgrown and neglected gardens, and a relationship starts to blossom - but will the past get in the way of their future? And will Mel uncover the truth about the mysterious artist PT?

Making, eating and reading

It was so lovely to have a long weekend away from work over the Bank Holiday. I made some spooky Halloween brooches - here's some of the making-up process... (and click on the link to see the final items in my Folksy shop).





I also enjoyed pottering in the garden on the one day we had decent weather; and spent some time with my family. My brother and his wife, who live near Aberdeen, are staying with Mam this week. They met me from work last night and we had a lovely pub meal in Newcastle (Surf 'n' Turf for me - delicious!) and a good old chinwag. My brother and I email and chat regularly but I haven't spoken to his wife for ages so it was great to catch-up on all the gossip.

I managed to sneak a bit of reading in over the weekend too - I finished 'The Surgeon', so that brings my total to 24 books read this year so far. Not as many as I'd like to read, but not bad considering I usually only read on the relatively short bus journey to and from work. Hubby and I are off for a week's break in Corfu soon so I'm hoping I can fit in a couple more books then.

The Surgeon is Tess Gerritsen's first book in the Detective Jane Rizzoli series. I thought that the Rizzoli character played a fairly small part in this novel though, with the main interest being between her homicide partner (Saint) Thomas Moore and his relationship with Dr. Catherine Cordell, the main focus of the serial killers' attention. Cordell was attacked by a serial killer two years prior, but those murders were brought to a halt when she shot him dead. So who is the new killer and how does he know so much about her and the previous murders?

Gerritsen's story is told through the well-rounded characters - the warring and grieving detectives, the traumatised and terrified victims and the chilling killer himself. The descriptions of the crime scenes and the murders are shocking in their detail (Gerritsen was a medic so she knows her stuff), and it is quite disturbing to listen to the killer's actual thought processes, but it's a great psychological/forensic novel full of supense - a definite page-turner.

I've now started 'In Cold Domain' by Anne Fine. I try to intersperse the crime novels with something a bit lighter so I don't get too scared and depressed! What books have you read lately? Any recommendations?

So many books, not enough time

I've always loved books. I buy far more books than I actually read though, so I have bookcases sagging under their weight, awaiting the day I retire or break a leg!

Gardening books are a favourite - great for picking up tips and learning about 'what to do in your garden this month'; or flicking through design books, creating a wish list of glorious plants and planning for my dream bigger patch.

Craft books are great sources of inspiration for me too, and a fount of knowledge. I love learning new things but don't always have the patience to stick with one thing. I'm always wanting to try new techniques - patchwork, quilting, beading, felting, applique, knitting, crochet, freestyle embroidery, cross stitch, needlepoint, ragwork, Kumihimo - I've tried them all! Fabric and yarn are the common factors though.

Aside from the gardening and craft books I also have a tonne of fiction waiting for my time. I do have a few favourite authors (Jodi Picoult, James Patterson, Jean M. Auel amongst others) that I keep turning back too, but I enjoy reading all sorts really. I've had a few packs of books from The Book People before and they're great for trying out new authors (they sell packs of ten books for £10 - on a certain theme, or a collection of one author). I also frequent the charity book shops and just pick up whatever takes my fancy that day. I'll get round to reading them all one day! My Dad was a great reader too and he obviously passed on his love of books as my sister, brother and nieces enjoy reading too.

A couple of years ago I spent a lot of time travelling to and from work so I thought it was the ideal opportunity to do something useful rather than just looking out of the window or reading the posters (trying to avoid catching the eyes of fellow travellers!) I decided to set myself a target to read a book a week. In 2007 I managed to read 53 books (a slight counting error led to an extra book by the end of the year!) But part-way through 2008 I changed jobs and my travelling time halved, so I only read 45 books that year. This year, so far, I'm only up to 23 books, which isn't bad really (you can see what I've read this year in the list to the right).

I finished 'The Olive Farm' by Carol Drinkwater last night. I thought it might be just another of those - move abroad, buy derelict cottage, do it up, try to converse with the locals - sort of book but I was pleasantly surprised. As the book states it's 'a memoir of life, love and olive oil in the South of France'. The book is intelligently written; and the detailed descriptions create a really vivid and atmospheric image of renovating, and living on, a run-down but now successful Provencal olive farm. The author has produced an incredibly passionate tale of the highs and lows of her family and professional life, of attracting stray dogs, harvesting olives, travelling the world as an actress and trying to find success as a screen writer.

I've just started 'The Surgeon' by Tess Gerritsen today. Have you read it? What do you enjoy reading? Do you stick to books by your favourite author or do you enjoy walking down new literary avenues?