Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff

Book review: “Fates and Furies” in many ways is two books in one. The first "book", entitled Fate, tells the story of Lotto and Mathilde. You meet them at age 22. They are on a beach enjoying each others company having just eloped, their young love shining through the pages in this breezy intro.

However as their marriage goes through its course it isn’t always so breezy. “Nothing like having a wife who works herself to death to stifle the mood for love. Nothing like dying dreams, and disappointment.”

However always at the core of their story is a love of each other. But the marriage does end in tragic circumstances and thus “Fate” ends, back where it began on the beach, Lotto and Mathilde as they once were.

Then the second part of the book is “Furies”. Whereas the first part was from Lotto’s perspective, now you get to see things from Mathilde’s point of view, as she picks things up from where they were left off, with a lot of anger. She also fills the gaps in to the backstory because, as the blurb says, “every story has two sides”.

Altogether I enjoyed this book and the writing style, with unique style, like its use of square brackets for asides, and the bit-part characters with names like Freckles and Miniskirt. And, as I said, it is like two books in one so you get double the value. All-in-all then a good read.

Publication date: 17 Sep 2015

Available on AMAZON (Go check it out!)

Fishbowl by Bradley Somer

Book review: “The heartbreaking sweetness of love, the rending hatred, the slippery lust, the sorrow of losing a family member , the pain of loneliness, all thoughts that were ever thought, every word ever said and even those that were not, the joys of birth and the sorrows of death and everything else will be experienced in this one vessel.”

 

That is what is says near the beginning of the book and in many ways this book does do that, although maybe not using every word ever said and maybe excluding some thoughts that were ever thought, yet the quote is not about the book (or is it?) but about the block of flats (or apartments as this is an American setting) where this story is set.

 

The story is essentially about a goldfish making a jump for it out of his fishbowl on his “little corner of the balcony” of a 27th floor apartment. After all “an entire life devoted to a fishbowl will make one die an old fish with not one adventure had.”

 

He then takes four seconds to descend but in those four seconds we learn about some of the residents’ lives within that block as he passes them by in the glint of eye. In many ways they are all living in their own fishbowls although some of their lives/fishbowls connect as the story gets told. And whilst this goes on the book also explores the idea of time, whether that be through Homeschooled Herman and his ability to time travel, or through the slow motion descent of the fish with its “stresses and terrors to last a lifetime”.

 

Through this method we get to see the different points of view of the separate characters, and get to hear the same stories from the different viewpoints.

 

Maybe at the end of the book you’ll want to know what happens next in some of the character stories, but the nature of this book is that it is only following the characters, and the lives they lead within their separate fishbowls, for a particular moment in time and therefore the stories are obviously going to be incomplete as it were. And is it not the sign of a good book that it makes you want more.

 

The only other thing to mention is that my version of the book came with an excellent cover and the pages formed a flipbook of a fish falling from the top of the book to the bottom. This fish aided me in working out my rough progress through the book at any one time and the cover was excellent because the “O” had a hole in it revealing the fish which then appeared beneath on a second cover where he is falling from his bowl. Therefore initial impressions are good just on flicking through the book too.

 

Amazon UK link: Fishbowl

 

Publication date: 6 August 2015

American Savage by Matt Whyman

"American Savage" is about cannibalism, which is quite a macabre subject, hence it may not be to everyone's tastes (literacy tastes, not food). However the author does point out that he wasn't trying to write "a novel driven by horror and gore," rather one about about our relationship with food, e.g. "as a culinary concept, cannibalism was not something Titus expected to break into the mainstream any time soon."

The book follows the Savage family in America. It is the follow-up to "The Savages" which you don't need to have read to get into this one. Also if you have read the original I don't know if by this book the joke is wearing a bit thin.

The book starts slowly. The family are introduced: Titus the father, Angelica the mother, Ivan the 15-year-old son, Katya the 5-year-old daughter, a little nipper in more ways than one, and the vegan lodger Amanda, who makes an exception to her vegan-ism for human meat. 103-year-old granddad Oleg lives just down the road too in a OAP home. They have a family "feast" at the beginning before their separate lives are told episodically throughout until there is a coming together of story-lines at the end. The main strand sees Titus, as head of the family, trying to source the main ingredient for the next feast, and the pressure everyone else is putting on him to do just that. However Titus has scruples and will only take someone who doesn't deserve to live, e.g. a problem tenant.

Other side-orders, for example, follow the family setting up a vegan restaurant whilst getting on the wrong side of a Russian gangster.

Overall then I felt that this book was OK, although it took a while to get going. Given the praise on the back cover "The Savages" is probably the better book.

(I got this book through a Goodreads First Read competition. This review is my honest opinion of the book.)

Publication date: 5 June 2014

Amazon UK link: American Savage

The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd

“The Invention of Wings” is set between 1811 and 1838 and tells the tale of slavery in the South of America from two viewpoints, that of the slave, and that of a white girl from a slave-holding family, a girl who sees the cruelty endured by the slaves for what it is but, because of society, feels “alone in the world with my alien ideas.” 

That girl is Sarah Grimke, a famous abolitionist who can be read about on Wikipedia. This work of fiction starts with her being 11 and offered a slave called Handful. She refuses the gift. This, as the blurb says, is where the trouble begins.

From there Sarah realises that she too is enslaved in certain things – “at the age of eleven I owned a slave I couldn’t free.” She is also prevented from being who she wants to be because she is a woman. “If Sarah were a boy, she would be the greatest jurist in South Carolina!” her father says. But “for a woman to aspire to be a lawyer – well, possibly, the world would end.” And her slave Handful summed it up best of all by saying “my body might be slave, but not my mind, for you, it’s the other way round.”

So Sarah goes through her life with her alien ideas, which she also influences upon her younger sister and goddaughter Nina Grimke. Eventually she comes upon her purpose in life, “we can’t accept slavery, it must end. That’s what I was born for.” This is where she, with the help of Nina, discovers her wings – “I saw how cunning the Fates had been. Nina was one wing, I was the other.” Meanwhile Handful’s wings are still clipped. With the slaves having failed in a revolt she is still enslaved back in Charleston at the Grimke’s home.  

Sarah and Nina then become famous, or infamous, speakers across the North of America on issues around abolition and women’s rights which leads to them getting ostracised. They “could no longer set foot in Charleston without fear of imprisonment.”

And onto the ending which sees Handful no longer being able to face being a slave for the rest of her days and so planning to make an audacious and dangerous escape with her sister Sky - “We gonna leave here or die trying” – as they  want to finally discover their wings.

Overall this is a good work of fiction bringing slavery to life. The voices are good too as Handful sounds like how you’d imagine a slave to sound, and Sarah more the “daughter of Judge John Grimke – a Southern patriot, a slaveholder, an aristocrat” although without the pro-slavery elements of course. In the author’s note at the end the author says she was inspired by the words of Professor Julian Lester, “History is not just facts and events. History is also a pain in the heart and we repeat history until we are able to make another’s pain in the heart our own.” And that is what this book does.

Publication date: 7 January 2014

Amazon UK link: THE INVENTION OF WINGS 

This is the Life by Alex Shearer

This book is basically an ode to a brother. It is the tale of someone dying, Louis, and their brother is the narrator recollecting the last moments of their life plus the odd anecdote of their earlier life. 

Louis is introduced as someone who "looked like a wild man, like one of those rough sleepers you feel part sorry for, part afraid of, and part repelled by." Really he is someone who has had a tumour removed from their brain and is in his dying days. His brother has traveled across from England to be him, Louis having emigrated to Australia. 

Louis was the elder brother. He achieved academic success but never stuck with a decent job, "the bohemianism was in his soul." But then at the end, he had the terminal illness and his brother had to cope with it.

Some bits are funny, but not necessarily "achingly funny" as the blurb says.

There is plenty of contemplation too. "Life just seems like a big party sometimes, at which we all gradually get edged towards the door, and then we are out in the cold."

The last section of the book, "The origins of This is the Life," explains that the book was inspired by the authors own brother as he died from a terminal illness. I think the author's brother would have been pleased and proud of this book.  

Publication date: 27 Feb 2014

Amazon UK link: This is the Life

The First Book of Calamity Leek by Paula Lichtarowicz

The First Book of Calamity Leek is sad, sweet and funny at the same time.

The story is of Calamity Leek and her sisters Maria Liphook, Sandra Saffron Walden, Dorothy Macclesfield, Annie St Albans, Truly Polperro, Nancy Nunhead, Mary Bootle, Eliza Aberdeen, Evita Thrupp, Millie Gatwick, Odette Pontefract, Pontefract, Fantine Welshpool, Cinderella Galashiels, Adelaide Worthing, Toddler Thurrock, Toddler Pease Pottage, Toddler Gordano, Toddler Gretna Green, Toddler Watford Gap, Toddler South Mimm’s, Baby Sainsbury’s, who all live at St Emily’s Orphanage.

Except the Orphanage is a front. Really the girls are kept inside their “grey stone, red and yellow brick-topped Wall, jewel-toothed and twinkling, belting them into perfect safety,” where they are trained to kill off males, or demonmales as they know them, when they become of age, and where the truth is instilled into them from the Appendix, “for all the answers we need in life”, and of which Calamity Leek has the best knowledge.

An example entry from the Appendix – “Injuns: red-skinned, feather-skirted, whooping demonmale warriors, set to prowl Outside the Wall and tear wandering females into pieces with machetes or arrows.”

You see Mother “was sent down to raise an army, only how was she ever going to raise an army on Earth, when her only beloved daughter got killed off by a demonmale? Well, the best answer she came up with was to rescue other daughters already part-grown Outside and to grow them as her own.”

So that is the sad bit of the story what with the girls being kidnapped and brainwashed, but the little world the sisters inhabit is idyllic in some ways – “I was going to wake up safe in the dorm with the communicator bing-bonging and Aunty singing, ‘Oh what a beautiful morning’ with Evita’s porridge pot set on the table, and our milk bowls around it’ – as they spend life in their walled in country garden in North Wales. 

And it is sweet how all the girls have a great togetherness - “such solidarity in the sisterhood.” But it all comes to an end and Calamity’s world as she knew it is blown apart, which she finds difficult to accept. And with this being “The First Book of Calamity Leek” it throws it open to a sequel.

I enjoyed this book for the world it created and the lead character's voice.

Publication date: 7th Feb 2013

Amazon UK link: The First Book of Calamity Leek

Sketcher by Roland Watson-Grant

"Sketcher" is about a family growing up in a one-room shack in the swamps just outside New O'lins during the 1980s. That family is made up of four boys, a mum from the Caribbean and a white dad who likes to get drunk. Later the dad walks out.

The narrator is the youngest of the boys, Skid. Straight from the opening sentence you get into his voice, his accent and his talkative nature coming out - "Well to begin with lemme tell you my pops is the reason we grew up in that swamp." His brothers are Tony, Doug and Frico. Frico is the sketcher with brilliant drawing skills that win a lot of praise.

Skid he can see all isn't well in the family with its troubles growing up in that swamp. So "I got to thinkin' that the way to get things back in shape in my family, and make them have some respect for people other than Frico Beaumont, was for me to get the city that had been sleeping for years to start movin' into the swamps again."

Now the way he is going to do that is to make use of the Sketcher's skills. "That boy was more than artistic. He had somethin' in his left hand, a strange power to fix things with a pencil." Like "when Frico was four, he sketched a picture of a cat that had a broken leg. And the cat got better and walked away."

But is this just Skid's imagination or is it real? His mother's former life as a hoodoo user until "it was time to stop all that mojo-conjuring" adds kudos to his thoughts as do other incidents. "Skid, your old lady is a witch and your brother is a wizard."

Anyway as Skid and the family grow older he tries to persuade Frico to put his left hand to good use to bring in the city, but Frico is reluctant. That is until Skid hears about a State of Louisiana State Fair Competition, where the first prize is $5,000, with a theme of "New Orleans 2020. A vision of tomorrow."

He convinces Frico to enter and Frico does, although not winning, but "Frico's art entry was really a conjuration." And so Skid just waits. "This place was so low it could only get better, and any day now would be the new beginning."

However things don't go to plan as Skid realises at the end because the Sketcher had other ideas. "The guy's a genius. You can't beat a genius."

The way of speaking, the swamps setting and the hoodoo reminded me of the Disney film The Princess and the Frog, although this is more than a cartoon. Good book with a cast of characters that you grow up with all told in a good voice.

Publication Date: 23 May 2013

Amazon UK link: Sketcher

The Great Unexpected by Sharon Creech

This book starts off in a surreal manner. First there is a story in the prologue about a man pulling things out of a talking donkey's ear such as a loaf of bread and a sack of gold, then there is the opening chapter with a strange boy falling out of a tree on top of the main character of the book, Naomi Deane, the boy barely speaking except to say once in a while strange things such as "Don't take the gold" and "There isn't any gold".

Because of the imaginative off-the-wall beginning the story really grabs the attention, and I thought it was ideal to read to my nearly 7-year-old daughter.

The story tries to keep the same intriguing style throughout with lots of random bits with you left to try and decipher the bits in-between, but in my opinion the story gets confusing because of this, although by the end all the connections are revealed. However the beginning is still the best part and because of that I expected more of the rest of the book.

The basic story revolves around two girls, Naomi and Lizzie, and the mysterious Finn boy who fell out the tree, based in their small town of Blackbird Tree with its strange cast of characters such as Witch Wiggins, Crazy Cora and one-armed Farley.

Then there are occasional chapters "across the ocean" in Ireland following Sybil and Pilpenny who love the odd murder. The people that live in the two places are related, but the connections only come about at the end of the book. Knowing what I know now I think a 2nd reading of the book would be good so that I can understand the story fully.

Having said all that there are intriguing things in the book like a crooked bridge which has many turns as it crosses a river rather than just following a straight line, and the strange characters, but with all the disconnects the book is a bit weird and confusing.

Publication date: 1 November 2012

(I got this book through Amazon Vine. It is listed HERE.)

Traps by MacKenzie Bezos

"Life is full of things that feel like traps. Our own weaknesses and mistakes. Unlucky accidents. The violence done to us by others. But they're not always what they seem. Sometimes later we see that they led us where we needed to go."

Traps follows four women. In chapter 1 we meet "our first hero", Dana, who is being confronted by a savage dog inside a locked vehicle as part of her training before she returns home to her nice, ordered home across the way from her messy boyfriend's place.

Chapter 2 is where we meet Jessica , an famous actor who is in hiding at home with her doctor husband and two girls, as she avoids answering her ringing phone. 

In chapter 3 we meet the third woman, Vivian, a teenager forced to flee the red widow spider infested hovel home of her boyfriend, with her twin babies, and $14 in her pocket.

Chapter 4 is where the fourth woman, Lynn, is introduced. She runs a dog rescue centre and is advertising a vacancy after yet another of her "girls" leaves the role. 

Having four separate introductions for me disrupted the flow of the book at the beginning, and the chapters also contain a lot of detailed description in them making them slow reading for me.

But after those chapters the disconnects become less and the stories converge, as each of the women confronts their traps, leading to a moving end for each of them.

Overall a book that gets more gripping as you get through it and would suit those who like emotional stories (4 for the price of one in fact).

I got this book through Amazon Vine UK. It is listed HERE.

The Universe Versus Alex Woods by Gavin Extence

I was expecting big things from this book as it had been hyped up as a book to look out for in 2013. Alas I was disappointed.

At times the book read more like a non-fiction book than a novel. If I wanted to find out about meteors and meteorites I would have bought an astrology book and if I wanted to know the road layout of Zurich I would have bought a map. The theory of everything and chaos theory also got mentions in sections I glossed over. But the reason for all the detail into various topics is explained in chapter 10 where Alex, in discovering Kurt Vonnegut books (of which many of the plots are detailed in here), talks about Vonnegut's writing and how he explained everything in detail. I am sure that didn't mean slipping in boring bits about non-fiction topics.

So having started the book I was waiting for the good bits to come, and the further I got in the more I felt this must have been the ending as I was still waiting.

At first I thought the layout was that each chapter was part of the universe against Alex Woods. So in chapter 1 it was the police vs Alex Woods, then it was a meteor, then things like Epilepsy vs Alex Woods and School Bullies vs Alex Woods.

At all times it is hard to feel much for Alex. His character comes across as if he is a little Autistic. He takes everything literally (in the book he is called logical) and doesn't seem to feel emotion. He even thinks he knows better than doctors and argues it out with one pointing out that a diagnosis he made is clearly wrong. It was hard for me to feel for him, and he was main character of the book.

A character I could feel for was Mr Peterson, who we eventually meet in chapter 8. He is a US war veteran and now a retired widower. He had a no-nonsense approach and wasn't afraid to mince his words. He reminded me of the dad from **** My Dad Says. Unfortunately Mr Peterson doesn't stay like this. He loses some of his fight later on in the novel as he becomes ill, leading to him trying to commit suicide.

After Mr Peterson tries this for the first time Alex Woods resolves to help him live out his remaining independent years before his debilitating illness takes hold to the point where he is suffering. At that point Alex would help him go to a clinic in Switzerland, thus the get out option would be available only when absolutely necessary.

This is the real crux of the novel but given the preamble it is only the last fifth of the novel where it is finally covered.

There are some good touches along the way though. The meteor that hit Alex is described in great detail as now being in the Natural History Museum, in the vault, 100m from the dinosaurs. This led me on a short lunchtime trip to the museum to try and find it. I couldn't on such a short trip, but this sort of thing can bring life to a novel outside the pages of the book.

Also there was a good high-speed wheelchair chase, a good scene on a school bus, and a good farewell speech by Mr. Peterson as part of the book club Alex sets up. The speech was good because it had a double meaning where it was relevant to the book club, but also about himself.

And then the last few pages, particularly covering the death (and Kurt Vonnegut is used again), are good too.

Covering such an emotive topic will sell the book no matter what, and next time I'll remember not to raise my expectations.

(I got this book through Amazon Vine. It is listed here.)

A is for Angelica by Iain Broome

This is a very sad novel about loneliness. It is told through the eyes of Gordon Kingdom who is in his 50s and who clearly has some sort of autism. Everything he does is very methodical and he takes everything literally.

One day Angelica moves in across the road from him and he opens a file "A is for Angelica" because he keeps written files on what his neighbours across the road get up to. It is some sort of therapy for him to help with his coming to terms with the state his wife is in - she's had a stroke and can do hardly anything. Gordon is sure that he can help her get better all on his own but things get worse. At the same time his dog dies and his best friend dies. So very sad, but at least there is Angelica across the road, who he sort of gets obsessed with.

And within the main narratice the back-story is filled in, the Gordon Kingdom memories of the good times when his wife was well - the times that can never be again.

The book reminded me a little of The Notable Brain of Maximilian Ponder in the way that the lead character takes meticulous notes, although this book was more melancholy.

(I got this book through Amazon Vine. It is listed here.)

The Colour of Milk by Nell Leyshon

The colour of milk is a really good book. It’s narrated by Mary who is quite a character,  and for that reason the book is good. Mary has hair the colour of milk, hence the title of the book. Her voice is that of a working-class farm girl from 1830, and she is also a bit of a blabbermouth never afraid to voice her opinion. She is also new to learning how to read and write which makes the text primitive in style. All these aspects make her voice very endearing to the reader (or at least to this particular reader).

The story covers the four seasons from Spring to Winter of 1830. The year begins with her working from sun up to sun down on the family farm with her three sisters and parents. Then she is sent to work at the local vicarage as a maid/nurse. Her dad gets paid for this so really she has little choice as to her circumstances and she is keen to remind people that when the opportunity arises. And so life goes on until things start going wrong for Mary, and because she is so endearing you have your heart-strings strung by the end, especially the last two pages where she reveals the reason she had to write the book in such an urgency.

Lovely.

(I got this book through Amazon Vine. It is listed here.)

The Illicit Happiness of Other People by Manu Joseph

This book is about a father’s (Ousep’s) search for answers as to why his son, Unni, a keen cartoonist, committed suicide seemingly out of the blue. He questions Unni’s friends finding out bits and pieces but still he can’t decipher it. He continues and more is revealed as key characters reveal the gaps.

At the same time the book is also a story about finding the meaning of life as Unni convinced those around him that there was more to life than met the eye. So it is a very thinking novel. It paints a picture of a life in a busy Indian city in 1990 well, or at least I can imagine this is how Madras (now Chennai) was then. There is a bit halfway through where it seems to drag a little as Ousep’s search for answers doesn’t really go anywhere but then a catalyst comes along and everything comes together nicely at the end.

As for the meaning of life? This is just a work of fiction so don’t expect the answers, but do expect some interesting, and maybe unique, ideas.

(I got this book through Amazon Vine. It is listed here.)

The Woman Who Went to Bed for a Year by Sue Townsend

I liked reading this book. It felt a lot like a sitcom to me in places, what with funny characters and a limited number of locations, e.g. the bedroom.

There were strong characters. They were funny the way they had contrasting features that went together. For example Brian, the husband of Eva who is the woman who went to bed for a year, is a boring, weedy-looking astronomer yet he has a couple of affairs, something you wouldn’t expect. 

And putting the characters into situations where they rub each other up in the wrong way worked well too – Eva taking to the bed for a year for instance seemed to annoy everyone. My favourite character was the melodramatic student Poppy who lies and makes up stories about everything and gets a reaction from everyone she comes into contact with. 

The story is like a sitcom too in that lots of funny different things are going on. That is until near the end where things become a bit more sombre and less fun. 

This is all fine, unless you like your books to have one narrative without lots of diversions. I think it worked and I could definitely see parts of it making a good TV show.

(I got this book through Amazon Vine. It is listed here.)

The Notable Brain of Maximilian Ponder by J. W. Ironmonger

This book is about Maximilian Ponder. He is pictured on the cover, lying dead and beheaded on a table. And that is where the book starts. His friend Adam Last then narrates the full story to fill in the gaps of what has happened before. This includes the telling of the life of Max and how he took to cataloguing his brain, writing a whole library-worth of volumes containing his memories, his conversations, etc. as he shuts himself off from the world to take part in this exercise. 

So the premise is certainly unique and I found it to be interesting. The way the book was written provided an intriguing way of getting little tidbits of information or funny little stories or detailed descriptions into a novel but at the same time there is a story there to carry it all, a story of an obsessive.

There is wit in the novel too, in places, although predominantly the tone is serious. My only criticism really is that it may not be for everyone but for me its quirkiness and unique premise worked.

Recommended.

(I got this book through Amazon Vine. It is listed on Amazon here.)

I Married You For Happiness by Lily Tuck

This book tells the fictional story of Nina reminiscing over her and her husband's (Philip's) life through one night after she finds him dead in their bedroom.

She flits from one memory to another before maybe going back to the same time of the previous memory before moving on again, in a sort of stream of consciousness way. For me this made it a rather fragmented book with the best bits being when a memory was expanded in full before she moved on to the next recollection. (This approach means that if you put the book down you may forget characters by the time they reappear.

Memories mainly focus on their times spent abroad, notably in Paris. In fact this is where they met and there are lots of little bits in French so a passing knowledge of French would be useful (Italian and Spanish also feature but not to the same extent). There are also a few imagined scenes where Nina fills in the gaps, for example Philip's time spent with a woman called Sofia.

Lastly there is a lot of mathematical talk. Maybe Philip is a really boring guy as Maths is pretty much all he talks about. Or maybe he is a really interesting guy because he has such knowledge of his topic. Make up your own mind. Or perhaps that is unfair as he also has an interest in yachting, and an interest in Nina of course, and their daughter Louise (although there are not that many memories with her in which is perhaps a surprise).

So a fragmented story although well-written and quite a quick read too.

(I got this book through Amazon Vine. It is listed on Amazon here.)

Buzz Aldrin, What Happened to You in All the Confusion? by Johan Harstad

Well, the story, for it is a story and not a biography of the astronaut Buzz Aldrin (that's clear because it says so, on the cover no less - "a novel"), follows the Norwegian Mattias. He has a job and a girlfriend but then he loses both in quick succession, goes into meltdown and ends up in the Faroe Islands. There he is taken into a sort of psychiatric hostel. He then grows to love his adopted country because it mirrors the way he is, a person that doesn't like the limelight (hence the title referring to one of his heroes, Buzz Aldrin - the second and not the first man on the moon). And all done with a lot of rain in-between.

This is a rather wordy tome of a book. However as the book is narrated by Mattias, a character that does a lot of thinking and speculating, this style fits. I did find it a bit odd though that for key moments in the book the conversations would be long, long speeches made by these otherwise quite private individuals suddenly revealing their long-held secrets and whatnot. Also there are a lot of Norwegian and Faroese references to place names in the text but you can get by without having heard of them before although if you do know them it'll help you better imagine the journeys etc. the characters were taking.

As a whole I enjoyed the book very much right from its artistic front cover of a boat out at sea being dwarfed by the Faroe Isle it has just left through all the pages organised in their "The Cardigans"-album named chapters and on to the positive ending.

As for Buzz Aldrin I guess I'll never know what happened to him in all the confusion.

(I got this book through Amazon Vine. It is listed on Amazon here.)

Herb 'n' Lorna: A Love Story by Eric Kraft

This is the first Eric Kraft book I have read. I was intrigued to find out what it would be like after finding out that all his books form part of the Peter Leroy saga - this book being about Peter's maternal grandparents.

The book is written as if it were a historical essay. It delves into family trees and sources evidence from books, films etc. (all fictional evidence I believe) and also includes quotes of a good friend of the title characters too. This made it different in style to any other fiction book I have read but didn't detract from the story.

The story itself is just that of an ordinary American loving couple going through life from the beginning of the 20th century, through 2 world wars and into retirement. The only difference being that they have a secret.

But apart from that secret there is little to differentiate this couple from any other couple of the period (the author admitted his aim was to make them ordinary but for their secret) so it makes for a pleasant story but maybe not a spectacular one.

(I got this book through Amazon Vine. It is listed on Amazon here.)

The Roundabout Man by Clare Morrall

I was intrigued by this book: "The Roundabout Man" about a man living on a roundabout. How could that be interesting? Well it starts off with Quinn Smith living in his caravan on the roundabout being confronted by a newspaper reporter he clearly isn't interested in talking to. And that leads to a newspaper article and suddenly things happen to Quinn.

It turns out Quinn was one of the stars of a series of children's books written by his mother and "The Roundabout Man" flits between his current life and his past when his mother wrote those books and the days when he was a child. It does it very well with the flashbacks coming in and out of the main narrative concerning his current plight. Passages from his mother's books are also dealt like this.

I did however feel that the character Quinn Smith was a bit inconsistent. He wanted to meet a childhood acquaintance then he didn't; He wanted to escape his past but then he started delving into it in an attempt to finally separate the fact from the fiction. Maybe this was the author's intention for this character thus bringing a double meaning to the title of the book?

Anyway it was very well written and a nice read.

(Book was received through Amazon Vine and is available here)