One must always be careful of books...

"One must always be careful of books,” said Tessa,

“and what is inside them,
for words have the power to change us."

- Cassandra Clare (Clockwork Angel)

Finished and starting...

This holiday I finished reading The Brave by Nicholas Evans. Like all of Evans books before, I really enjoyed it and found it hard to put down. The book contained great characters and vivid imagery.

Right now I am about to start reading The Memory of Running  by Ron McLarty. It sounds very interesting. Here is a bit about the book (taken from the authors website): 

"Meet Smithson "Smithy" Ide, an overweight, friendless, chain-smoking, forty-three-year-old drunk who works as a quality control inspector at a toy-action-figure factory in Rhode Island. By all accounts, especially Smithy's own, he's a loser. Then, within one week, Smithy's beloved parents are killed in a car crash, and Smithy learns that his emotionally troubled, long-lost sister, Bethany, has turned up in a morgue in Los Angeles. Unmoored by the loss of his entire family-Smithy had always hoped Bethany might return-he rolls down the driveway of his parents' house on his old Raleigh bicycle into an epic journey that will take him clear across the country." 

What book are you finishing or starting right now?

My favourite book of 2010

I read quite a few really good books last year, but the book that wins the title of  "my favourite book of 2010" has to be Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. If you have not read it, I highly recommend you do :)

What was your favourite book of 2010?

A note: this book has actually just been made into a film and will be out this year.

The December/January book list

I am going to try read at least 2 of these over the festive season. Will you be joining me in reading any these books in Dec/Jan?

1. The Ladies of Grace Adieu by Susanna Clarke

2. The Distant Hours by Kate Morton

3. The Brave by Nicholas Evans

4. The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks

5. Summer Sisters by Judy Blume

6. Playing with the Grown-ups by Sophie Dahl

Click on book titles for more information.

Happy reading!

The Dec/Jan book list coming soon...

Darlings, I realise I am late putting up the December / January book list (my apologies). The new book list will be up next week :)

Book review: Cutting for Stone

Cutting for Stone By Abraham Verghese

reviewed by JHB Princess

I loved this book. I have no idea how exactly to start this review except to say - I loved it! It was the kind of book which left me bookless for a good few weeks after I’d read it, in book mourning really*.

The story is set in Ethiopia around the 1950’s, at a mission hospital called Missing (actually Mission, but the name was confused by one of the locals and became Missing), and centers around Marion and Shiva Stone. The story is told by Marion, and starts before they were born, with their mother as a young woman and her voyage to Ethiopia.

Although complex and full of many different relationships, between the boys, their parents, the dead and other characters, the one underlining question remains - who is the boy’s father and how did they come to be.

Naturally there’s a little love triangle, a few moments which may leave you close to tears, a little suspense and a slight twist or two.

Abraham Verghese’s fantastic use of the English language as well as the gorgeous way he describes Ethiopia, human emotions, the complex and diverse relationships truly has one bonding with the characters and not wanting the book to end!

I highly recommend this book.

*The reluctance to start a new book, in fear it just won’t match up to the last.

Second hand books are wild books...

"Second hand books are wild books, homeless books; they have come together in vast flocks of variegated feather, and have a charm which the domesticated volumes of the library lack"

- Virginia Woolf