A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin

Once I finished the first volume in George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, A Game of Thrones (my review), it didn't take me long to reach for the second.  I wanted to know what would happen to all of the characters after the dramatic ending of book one.  As this review is for the second book in a series, it contains spoilers for A Game of Thrones.

When we left the first book, Eddard Stark had been murdered and Prince Joffrey had succeeded to his 'father' Robert Baratheon's throne.  Robb Stark had been proclaimed as King in the North, Daenerys had bought three dragons to life and Jon Snow had become a man of the Night's Watch.  A Clash of Kings is about exactly what it says on the tin - many men come forward to attempt to fill the power vacuum left by the deaths of Robert and Ned and the resulting civil war becomes increasingly complex.  Robert's two brothers, Stannis and Renly, both declare themselves King and go to war.  Renly is young and inexperienced but has the support of several houses whilst Stannis is brutal and determined but his harsh personality wins him few friends in the Seven Kingdoms.  With the threat to Joffrey's regime enlarging, Tyrion travels to Kings Landing to become the Hand of the King.  Of course, whilst all the battles are going on, the reader is still kept up to date with the adventures of Daenerys in the East, Arya's attempts to get back to her family and the growing threat past the Wall.

I really enjoyed A Clash of Kings and again I read through it extremely quickly as it's so addictive it was hard to put down.  It's a much more sprawling book than A Game of Thrones as more characters are introduced and the political intriguing and battles become more complicated.  Whilst I had no trouble keeping up with the main characters, I have to admit that it was hard to keep track of the lesser Lords and bannerman, especially as their allegiances were likely to change from chapter to chapter.

Martin certainly keeps you on your toes with regard to character development and plot too.  It was almost impossible to predict what would be coming next and characters do surprising things (I'm looking at you, Theon Greyjoy) that make sense for them, but that I would never have thought of.  In A Game of Thrones I enjoyed Daenerys' storyline but I did find it a bit tedious in A Clash of Kings, I'm hoping she'll have more excitement in the third volume.  Although I know that George R.R. Martin wants his readers to be fans of the Starks, my favourite character in this volume was probably Stannis, I loved how blunt he was.  In a political situation where everyone was talking to each other nicely whilst stabbing their 'friends' in the back, he was brutally honest about what he wanted to achieve and it was a breath of fresh air.

The fantasy elements do increase in A Clash of Kings.  They don't overwhelm the text but I prefer the storylines that don't rely on magic or sorcery of some kind (this is why the Daenerys' plot didn't really work for me at times).  On the whole, A Clash of Kings is a fantastic book but it didn't grab me in quite the same way as the first volume did.  I'm still utterly caught in the world, and will be starting A Storm of Swords very soon.

Source: Personal copy

First Published: 1998

Score: 4.5 out of 5

Best Books of 2012: Volume Two

I'm looking back over a year's worth of reading by identifying my favourite book from each month.  In volume one, I shared my favourite reads from January to June, this volume will cover July to December:

July:

A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth

I read this book over several months as part of a read-along, but I started it in July and it was by far the best thing I read that month.  In fact, A Suitable Boy is my favourite book from the whole year, hands down.  It's an epic tale of four families in post-partition India, but it's more than that too, it's an examination of what it means to be human in all it's forms (it reminded me of Anna Karenina).  The links between the characters and the number of plots that Seth does well are awe-inspiring.  Honestly, he is a genius.  Apparently the sequel, A Suitable Girl, is due out in 2013 and I can't wait.  

My Final Review

August:

In the Shadow of the Banyan by Vaddy Ratner

The Cambodian genocide as seen through the eyes of a child, In the Shadow of the Banyan is a grim but beautifully written book.  It's a novel but is based on the experiences of the author, and all the fear of her experiences comes through alongside her love for Cambodia.  I couldn't tear my eyes away from this book.

My Review

September:

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

Up until this point, I had only read Jane Austen books that I had first seen an adaptation of (Emma, Pride & Prejudice), so Sense and Sensibility was the first Austen book I went into 'blind'.  I was worried I wouldn't be able to keep up!  But I loved the story of the two sisters, Elinor and Marianne, one led by emotions and one who suppresses them.  I'm also getting better at spotting Austen's famous wit!  In 2013, I hope to read at least one of the three Austen books I have left.

My Review

October:

On Black Sisters' Street by Chika Unigwe

And now for something completely different to Austen!  On Black Sisters' Street is about four African women who have become prostitutes in Brussels, seduced by dreams of the wealthy West.  When one of their number is murdered, the women come together and start to share their harrowing stories.  I liked how Unigwe didn't take the easy way out by making this story too moral - three of the women knew they were going to be prostitutes and made the decision purely for money.  Not an easy read, but a good one.

My Review

November:

Beside the Sea by Veronique Olmi

Regular readers will know that I am taking part in a read-along of Peirene Press novellas and the best one so far has been Beside the Sea.  A worn out mother plans to take her two sons on a holiday to the seaside, one last trip.  You can guess the tragic ending before it comes, but Olmi's portrait of the mentally ill, exhausted mother unable to cope with life is unsettling because of how true to life it is.

My Review

December

A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin

After resisting this series for over a year, I am now officially hooked.  I've read the first two books within the space of three weeks (and these are big books) and am desperate to start the next.  Martin's world-building is so good that the books are pure escapism, full of plots, twists and turns.  The characters are constantly plotting against each other and it's impressive how Martin keeps up with it all.  The high fantasy elements are minimal, so this series will appeal to even non-fantasy readers like me.  Expect reviews of the remaining books in 2013, I've got to know what happens next!

My Review

2012 was a great year in books, I hope 2013 is the same.

Have you read any of the books on my list?

Best Books of 2012: Volume One

At the end of 2011, I did a series of three posts (one, two, three), highlighting my favourite book read during each month of the year.  It was a great way to look back over a year of reading, so I've decided to repeat it for 2012.  As of today, I've read 99 books (although I hope to finish A Clash of Kings before the 31st) and the following are my favourite reads from January - June:

January:

Annabel by Kathleen Winter

This is a seriously under-rated book about the experience of a hermaphrodite raised as a boy in rural Canada during the 1960s.  Despite the topic, there's no sensationalism and instead it's a thoughtful, quiet book that still packs an emotional punch.   I loved Wayne's father, Treadway, who in his own way was the most understanding despite his rough exterior.  Annabel is a great literary fiction novel that deserves more love.

My Review

February:

Jamrach's Menagerie by Carol Birch

Jaffy Brown is a street urchin in Victorian London who gets a job working for Jamrach, the owner of some exotic animals.  Tasked with being part of a crew setting sail on a whaling boat to capture the infamous Komodo dragon, Jaffy is in for some adventures, not all of them good.  I loved Jamrach's Menagerie because it's a good old-fashioned adventure story that isn't afraid to show blood and guts too.  If you thought The Lifeboat was a harrowing account of a shipwreck, you should try this one!

My Review

March:

Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

I love gothic classics and I love vampire stories, so it was only a matter of time before I read Carmilla, about a family that shelter a seemingly harmless young woman only to suffer the consequences.  I loved this book for the atmosphere, I felt as though I was in the creaking Austrian forest looking at the ruins of an abandoned castle.  Readers who enjoy classics will love this one, especially fans of Dracula.

My Review

April:

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

April found me working my way steadily through the Orange Prize long-list and my favourite was the eventual winner, Song of Achilles.  I kept putting off reading this book as I'm not a fan of stories set in Ancient Greece and the mythology isn't something I'm generally interested in, but this book had me hooked.  It's a beautiful love story about two people caught up in the sweep of history.  Trust me on this one, it's amazing.

My Review

Honorable Mentions: April was an awesome reading month, I also loved Esi Edugyan's Half Blood Blues, The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman and of course Gillespie and I by Jane Harris.

May
The Cranes Dance by Meg Howrey

Bit of an unexpected one.  I don't read much contemporary and I'm not into ballet but this story of sibling rivalry between two sisters really got under my skin.  Like the main character, Kate, I'm a perfectionist prone to extremes of emotion and I couldn't look away during her descent into mental illness.  This book got to me, and I'm glad that I read it. 

My Review

June

Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte

June was the month in which I discovered the third Bronte, Anne, and I'm glad to report that I liked her as much as her two sisters.  I know Agnes Grey isn't the most acclaimed book but I really related to the story of a put-upon governess as I work as a teacher.  Reading it made me think that the more things change, the more they stay the same.  The writing was of course wonderful and I can't wait to read The Tenant of Wildfell Hall in 2013.

My review

Have you read any of my favourites?  

If so, what did you think of them?

Merry Christmas!

My Christmas tree :)

Merry Christmas everyone!  It's Christmas Eve here and all I have left to do is some last minute present wrapping, then I can relax and enjoy the holidays.  It's going to be a low-key Christmas as my husband and I were hoping to be moved into our first proper house (we had our offer accepted back in September, solicitors need to hurry up!), but that hasn't happened, which is a bit disappointing.  But on the positive side, we both have two glorious weeks off work and I worked extra hard over the last few weeks to ensure that I didn't have school work to complete during that time - so it's a proper holiday.  I hope to read lots of books, bake, visit friends and family and take lots of walks.

It's also going to be a special Christmas as it's our first one with our new nephew, Joseph, who will be six weeks old on Christmas Day.  He's starting to get more curious about the world and loves bright things so I'm sure that a) he will get spoiled rotten over Christmas and b) he's going to love it.

However you celebrate at this time of year, hope you have a wonderful time!

What have you got planned?

Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne

Phileas Fogg is a man who lives his life following a routine with military precision until one day he bets his companions at a gentleman's club that he can travel around the world in just eighty days.  Accompanied by his new servant, impulsive Frenchman Passepartout, Fogg heads out by train, boat and elephant to meet his goal.  Along the way he will rescue a damsel in distress, commandeer a ship and gain a follower in the shape of Inspector Fix of Scotland Yard, who thinks Fogg is an ingenious bank robber.  But will he win the bet and travel round the globe in just eighty days?

Although I've never read Around the World in Eighty Days in it's entirety before, I remember reading some extracts from it during English lessons in secondary school and finding it rather dull.  So I decided to add it to my Classics Club list to find out whether I was just too young for it, or whether it's simply not a book for me.  And the good news is that I found it anything but dull on this read.  As a teenager, I completely missed the wit that Verne sprinkles throughout the novel, but this time I fully appreciated the sarcasm and the gentle way Verne pokes fun at Fogg and English gentlemen of the nineteenth century.  Verne doesn't take his novel too seriously, and as a result it's enjoyable to read.  Yes, the attitudes expressed by the characters and author are in line with what you would expect from the times (there's a lot of casual colonial prejudice), but Verne also mocks these views too.  In fact, I couldn't quite work out whether Verne agreed with Fogg or not.  There's a light-heartedness about the whole novel that was refreshing.

I like to think that Verne saw himself as a bit of a Passepartout.  Whilst Fogg is cloistered in his train carriage, uninterested in seeing the sights anywhere he goes, Passepartout is the one that seizes the opportunity of travel. Compared to Fogg's almost ludicrous English stiff-upper-lip attitude, Passepartout comes across as impulsive, brave and in many ways, the real hero of the novel.  There's a lot of mocking of the English but it comes across as gentle and you get the sense that Verne was an Anglophile after all.

What I love about classics is the way they make me think, and Around the World in Eighty Days was no exception.  Although the story was light and action-packed, it made me think about the nature of travel.  I couldn't believe that Fogg was visiting all those wonderful places but yet showing no desire to get to know them, remaining focused simply on getting around the world just so he could say that he had.  I love to travel, especially by train, and many of the journeys in the book made me think back over my own experiences.  Travel should be savoured, not rushed.  Passepartout reminded me that we should make the most of every opportunity that comes our way, not remain locked up inside of ourselves, like Fogg.

However, there were elements I didn't enjoy about Around the World in Eighty Days.  As Fogg shows no interest in the countries he visits, it's left up to Verne to fill us in on them and it comes across as lecturing at times.  The whole mistaken identity thing with Inspector Fix drags on for too long and becomes too much like a comedy of errors; I was tired of it by the end of the novel.  The romance was implausible and felt like an add-on rather than central to the story.  But none of these things take away from the fact that Around the World in Eighty Days is a good old-fashioned adventure story full of drama and excitement.  I'm glad that I read it.

Source: Personal Copy
First Published: 1873
My Edition: Penguin UK, 2008
Score: 3.5 out of 5

Classics Club: Book 4/72.

You can see a list of the classics I intend to read here.

Peirene Discussion Post #2: Male Voices

    

Lyndsey from Tolstoy is my Cat and I are now two-thirds of the way through our epic Peirene Press novella read-along.  The last three titles we have read Next World Novella, Tomorrow Pamplona and Maybe This Time (see below for links to our reviews) have been part of a series entitled Male Voices, and focus on  the quest for intimacy from a male perspective.  Here are some thoughts of ours on the novellas:

1. Have you enjoyed the series? Did you have a particular favourite?  Why?

Lyndsay: I have enjoyed the series, although it hasn't left me swooning like the 'Female Voices' series did, most likely because the female ones were much more like the books I normally gravitate towards and enjoy. The 'Male Voice' series has been wildly illuminating for me for that exact reason though and I think, despite my slightly reduced emotional reaction to the series, that these are fabulous books that stand up on a world-class level and deserve a wide, wide readership.

My favourite, as the regular readers of my blog will know, was 'Maybe This Time' by Alois Hotschnig, which is a novella-length collection of nine short stories that is the final book in the three-book series. I love surrealist, slightly bizarre literary fiction that plays with perception, technique and narrative, as well as featuring some truly 'unique' characters, and these short stories fulfilled that wonderfully - I found them funny and disturbing and utterly refreshing! I also love open-ended, ambiguous structures and endings as I think they are one of the ways to best mimic the uncertainties of life in fiction. 

Sam: My emotional reaction was less too, although I think that was perhaps the intention in 'Tomorrow Pamplona', as the author wrote in a style that reminded me of Hemingway.  As usual, we haven't agreed on our favourites - I have to admit that 'Maybe This Time' didn't do much for me as I'm not a fan of surrealism.  I loved 'Next World Novella' as it's about an everyday topic, the death of intimacy in a marriage.  I found I was most emotionally engaged with the sadness in this story.

2. We both loved the Female Voices series - do the Male Voices novellas compare?

Lyndsay: In terms of quality, writing and intuition, most certainly - it's reassuring to know, when you don't know the individual authors, that any Peirene book you pick up will be of the same glowing standard. I think it was important that there was a slight change in focus from the 'Female Voices' series, as of course you can have too much of a good thing and too much immersive inner reality could drive you mad after a while, and it's important that we as readers see the other side of the female/male coin. It did impressed me that the men were no more together and at ease with reality than the woman in the previous series though :)

How about you? What did you think?

Sam: I agree that the quality was up to the same high standard.  Even though 'Maybe This Time' didn't work for me, the quality of the writing was obvious to see.  I liked the diversity of this series, it seemed to me like the three titles were more different from each other than the three titles in the Female Voices series.  I am of course very much looking forward to the Small Epics series, as epics are something I love to read.

3. Have you found it harder to connect to the main characters this time around as the focus was on men?

Lyndsay: Yes, in a way, but I think that was due to the nature of the characters and the story rather than because I'm female and these books are about men: the women we read about in the first series were emotionally articulate and reasonably garrulous, so we knew them quickly, whereas part of the point of these male characters is that they don't know themselves in the same way, and cannot communicate their feelings to those around them, the reader included. So a greater emotional distance is a given, I think.

That said, I saw them just as clearly as characters because quiet, struggling men who can't say what they mean are everywhere you look, particularly in our parents' generation, I think. Never did they feel to me like characters I couldn't get a handle on, so the desired connection was there for me throughout in that regard. These are not men to take to your heart, however, as of course many of them are wildly unsympathetic - I'm thinking of Next World Novella's Hinrich, Danny in Tomorrow Pamplona and most of the characters in Maybe This Time, particularly - which is never a problem for me as it seems to be for some, but it is perhaps a given that your fictional relationship with a character will be different when you'd largely go out of your way to avoid them in real life.

Sam: I do think that 'quiet, struggling' is a stereotype for men and the male voices were different to the female.  As a society we expect women to be more emotionally articulate, so the women in the first three novellas were.  I would have liked to read about a man who shared emotions in the same way and especially wanted to know more about Danny from 'Tomorrow Pamplona'.

4. The series is about the quest for intimacy the male characters face.  In which novella did you see this struggle most clearly and why?

Lyndsay: Oo, good question. Of the three books, I see Next World Novella as the exception on this account, as I think Hinrich lost interest in connecting with his wife but could have improved this if his attention hadn't been elsewhere, whereas Danny in Tomorrow Pamplona and the characters in Maybe This Time (apologies for lumping them together) seem completely unable to either build face-to-face adaptive relationships, or to express emotion through words off their tongue than through their body and or with their hands.

Danny's struggle affected me most in this regard I think, as I don't see how the book could have ended in any other way; I really don't think he possessed the necessary social skills to act in any other fashion. Running seems natural to him, and punching, and even staring down a bull, but to conjure an ending where he attains real emotional intimacy with either Ragna or Robert would require character aspects that I just don't see as feasible. So, he is a prisoner within his 'Quest for Intimacy' in my eyes, and most likely can never escape that. And, as I said in my review, that made me really sad for both him and also the millions of men who are their own worst enemies in this regard.

Sam: I felt for Danny too, especially as I'm not convinced his version of events was accurate - I wanted him to stay and 'face the music', so to speak.

Thanks for the interesting discussion, Lyndsay!

After Christmas, we will be reading and reviewing the three Peirene novellas in the 'Small Epics' series, The Brothers by Asko Sahlberg, The Murder of Halland by Pia Juul and Sea of Ink by Richard Weihe.

Links to our reviews:

Next World Novella:Lyndsay's, Mine

Tomorrow Pamplona:Lyndsay's, Mine

Maybe This Time: Lyndsay's, Mine

A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin

My husband has been nagging me to read this, the first volume in George R.R. Martin's epic series A Song of Ice and Fire for over a year now.  I kept on resisting because I'm not generally a fan of fantasy and because the existing books are numerous and massive with no sign of the series being finished yet.  I tend to only read series once they have all been published (with the obvious exception of Harry Potter) so I had plans to wait a couple of years before trying these books.

But now I've given in and read the first book, I'm annoyed that I waited so long!  Yes, the book is long and it does contain a lot of characters, but it completely sucks you in.  It's a "just one more chapter book" and I whizzed through it in under a week.  The story centers around Eddard Stark, Lord of Winterfell, who has just been appointed as Hand (first advisor) to King Robert Baratheon.  The King's power is waning and his wife's family, the Lannisters, are attempting to seize the throne for themselves.  The heir to the throne, Prince Joffrey, isn't all that he seems and there are no depths the Lannisters will not plunge to in order to gain power.  As a backdrop to this main clash, we also have the story of Ned's bastard son, Jon Snow, who becomes part of a defensive group of men in the North that struggle to contain the wildness that exists beyond the fringe of civilisation.  Daenerys Targaryen, the last remaining descendent of former Kings, is in exile in the East and gaining strength of her own.

These are the main storylines but the plot is panoramic; Martin has created a complete, fully functioning world and I get the impression that we only skimmed the surface in this, the first book.  His world feels so real that I had no trouble keeping the different Houses and relations between them distinct in my mind, something I normally struggle with in books containing many characters.  I could picture the ice of Northern wall, the endless plains of the Dothraki sea and the mountain climb of Eyrie.  In short, every time I loaded up this book in my kindle, I left the real world completely behind me for Martin's world and it was a wonderful feeling.  In addition to this, the story never felt cluttered with too many fantasy elements, with the main focus being on the intrigue and political drama.

A Game of Thrones is all about the plot.  It's not the most fantastically well written book I've ever read, but the plot and world building are so impressive that it's a very engrossing read.  I continued to read past my bedtime each night, purely because I really wanted to know what would happen next.  Martin doesn't shy away from using cliffhangers and none of his characters are safe.  Although I predicted some of the events, I got nowhere near guessing them all and it's always lovely to be surprised by events in a book.

On the whole, I was completely and utterly hooked and will be a) watching the HBO series as soon as possible and b) reading A Clash of Kings soon.  Don't let the length of this book or the fact that it is fantasy put you off, this is honestly one of the most engaging plot-driven novels I've read all year.

Source: Personal copy (kindle)
First Published: 1996
Score: 5 out of 5

Maybe This Time by Alois Hotschnig

Maybe This Time is the third volume in the Peirene Press series Male Voices (I have also read and reviewed Next World Novella and Tomorrow Pamplona).  It's different from the other volumes as it's actually a collection of nine short stories, tied together around the themes of alienation, voyeurism and loss of identity.  Characters wake up as completely different people, meet sinister dolls that look identical to them, become obsessed with watching neighbours and waste their lives waiting for a relative to turn up.  There's a surreal under-tone to all of the stories and they aim to unsettle.

Although I enjoyed the writing in Maybe This Time and respect the imagination of the author, ultimately this book just wasn't for me.  Whilst I like unsettling and creepy, gothic style tales, I struggle with surreal works of fiction.  I don't enjoy the surreal elements of Alice in Wonderland, let alone the works of authors like Kafka and Hotschnig.  I think what bothered me in this particular collection was not the surrealism itself, but the way the characters responded to it.  In one short story, the main character is invited into an old lady's house only to find that she collects dolls, one of which has his name and looks exactly like him, even down to the clothes he is wearing.  I think a normal reaction to this would be to leave and never return but Karl just doesn't come across as shocked enough, and this is consistent across the collection.

I think Maybe This Time would be enjoyable for readers who enjoy the surreal.  As I said, the writing is good and Hotschnig tackles some important themes (identity, alienation).  I'm just not the right reader for it.  I suppose in a set of nine books, I'm bound to find one that doesn't work for me.

Source: From the publisher, in exchange for an honest review.
First published in English: 2011
Score: 2.5 out of 5

The Red Tent by Anita Diamant

Dinah is the daughter of Jacob and sister of Joseph, remembered in the Bible only for being the victim of a rape that leads to mass murder and devastation for her family.  In The Red Tent, Diamant imagines what it would have been like to be a woman in biblical times and retells the story from the point of view of Dinah herself.  Starting with the lives of her mother Leah and her three sisters and ending with Dinah's old age, Diamant draws on the pagan traditions of the time and the mythology around women and birth.  Leah and her sisters all share the same husband, Jacob, and Dinah grows up as the only girl among eleven brothers.  Every new moon, the women of the compound retreat to the red tent (this coincides with their menstrual cycles) and here Dinah learns the stories of the woman around her, including some of the skills of midwifery.  When she comes of age and decides to choose a husband for herself without consulting her family, the insult is too much for some of her brothers to bear and a cycle of violence is started.

The Red Tent is one of those books I've had sitting of my shelf for years; I kept meaning to read it but never got around to it.  I went into it with high hopes as I love historical fiction set in ancient times, especially when the challenges the reader by adopting a female narrator.  And on the whole, I was pleased with The Red Tent.  It was engagingly written and hard to put down.  The female characters were well imagined and distinct from each other.  There's a powerful sense of emotion throughout the story; I especially felt for Rachel as she was unable to carry a child to term but had to watch her sisters repeatedly become pregnant and give birth.  It's a book that I'm still thinking about days after finishing it, which is always a good sign.

But unfortunately I didn't adore The Red Tent in the way I was hoping to, perhaps my expectations were too high. The biggest problem I had with it was the earth-mother tone and all the worship of periods and fertility. This is perhaps my own personal bias here, but I find it corny to read about women celebrating their periods as linking them to the earth and motherhood as the pinnacle of what it means to be a woman.  Before you remind me, I know this is set in Biblical times and motherhood was what it meant to be a woman then, but I still felt as though Diamant was over the top with the female rituals and menstruation worship.  It was though Diamant was also trying to make a point to women today (to celebrate our periods?), that she was claiming that the woman in The Red Tent had the right idea (look at all the sisterhood) and to be honest, it made me a bit uncomfortable.  I think there is much more to being a woman than this and I didn't like Diamant's agenda. I'm not an earth-mother kind of girl.

However, I did enjoy the sections on midwifery and birth. I'm not a mother myself but I still found it fascinating to read about the different techniques women of those times would have used to get a woman through birth.  I think we in the West sometimes forget how inherently dangerous giving birth to a child is as death is always lurking for the women in the story.

Although the female characters were well developed, I found the male characters a little one-dimensional.  There is a deliberate distance adopted (men are not allowed in the red tent), but still they seemed either good (Shechem) or evil (Laban) with nothing in between.  I didn't believe that any of the relationships between Jacob and his wives were emotionally fulfilling for the women in them.  Strict Christians may also object to the liberty Diamant takes with some Biblical events, although this wasn't an issue for me.

When I finished this book, I was intending to give it a low rating but it is a book that has stuck in my mind and the more I look back on it, the more I appreciate the story and female characters.  It's just a shame it didn't live up to my expectations.

Source: Personal copy
First Published: 1997
My Edition: Pan Macmillan, 2001
Score: 3.5 out of 5

Read Alongside:
1. The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman - another retelling of an event in Jewish history, the mass suicide in Masada in 70AD.  This is how I feel retellings from female points of view should be done.
2. The Gilded Chamber by Rebecca Kohn - The story of Purim from the point of view of Esther.
3. Jerusalem Maiden by Talia Carner - A little bit further on in history, but still worth reading.  An Orthodox Jew, Esther, strains against the boundaries of her religion during Ottoman times.

Tomorrow Pamplona by Jan Van Mersbergen

Danny is a boxer and he's running hard when he hitches a ride with Robert, a family man on his way to Pamplona to participate in the legendary bull race.  Desperate to get away from his own immediate past, Danny joins Robert and attempts to block certain events from his mind.  But even when you run the past has a habit of catching up with you, as Danny is about to discover.

I think that is quite possibly the shortest summary I have ever written, but Tomorrow Pamplona is like that.  It's a spare book in which not a word is wasted and not everything is explicit.  On the surface it seems like a simple story - Danny running from life - but there's so much going on underneath and it's up to you as the reader to figure it out.  To be completely honest, I don't think I got everything out of this book there was to get; I finished it with more questions than I had answers.  And that was refreshing - too often authors tell you everything, so it was nice to read a book that left it to me to connect the dots for myself.

Tomorrow Pamplona is the second book in the Peirene series 'Male Voices' and it's more overly 'macho' than the previous offering, Next World Novella (my review).  Aside from Danny being a boxer, he's much more 'closed off' than Hinrich was in Next World Novella, much more brief and he keeps his emotions to himself.  There's a lot of stuff about adrenaline and danger and the need to face danger to get the blood pumping.  Rightly or wrongly, these are traits that society generally associates with males.  I felt like Van Mersbergen took me very convincingly inside Danny's head, although I didn't understand everything I found there.  At the end of the book, I was still undecided about whether or not I liked him and I suspect that the his actions and his need to run were all based on false information.

The writing in Tomorrow Pamplona was excellent, as was the depiction of Danny.  But I wanted to know more about Robert, as I couldn't understand why he was so helpful to Danny.  In the beginning he says something about helping hitchhikers in order to hear their stories, but this didn't seem to justify everything he did, including paying Danny's way and putting up with some erratic and snappy/aggressive behaviour.  I felt like Van Mersbergen only scratched the surface of what made Robert tick and it would have been interesting to delve a little deeper.

On the whole, another well written and interesting novella from Peirene.  It's not going to be one of my favourites, but I still enjoyed it.

Source: From the publisher, in exchange for an honest review
First Published in English: 2011
Score: 3.5 out of 5

Inkheart by Cornelia Funke

There's nothing like settling down to revisit an old favourite, is there?  When I pick up Inkheart, I'm taken back to when I was at university, still living at home with my Mum and Dad.  One Christmas, I received all three books that make up the Inkheart trilogy in my stocking and I devoured them all within a week.  I literally did nothing apart from lay on the sofa and eat leftover Christmas treats with my nose stuck in these books until I had finished all three.  Even though I'm now twenty-six, married and definitely not living with my parents anymore, picking up these books brings back all the magic of the first time I read them.

Twelve-year-old Meggie lives with her bookbinder father Mo after the disappearance of her mother in mysterious circumstances when she was only three.  They are visiting a relative, book collector Eleanor when a strange man called Dustfinger arrives, claiming that Mo read him out of a book called Inkheart.  What follows is a good old-fashioned adventure as Meggie and Mo race to stop the villain of Inkheart, Capricon, from destroying all the remaining copies and wreaking a terrible vengeance on his enemies.  Along the way, they are assisted by Eleanor, the author of Inkheart, Fenoglio, and Farid, a young boy read out of the pages of A Thousand and One Nights.

Here's the thing:  I know Inkheart isn't exactly the finest literature and I know that the plot is a little silly at times (the Shadow being a case in point), but none of that stops me from loving the book so much that even thinking about it makes me smile.  Who amongst us hasn't read a book and wanted the characters to come out of the book?  I know I have and I love that the entire story revolves around the love of books and in particular, the love of all the classics I loved so much as a child (Peter Pan, Arabian Nights etc).  In fact, the thing I enjoy most about Inkheart is the tone; it feels like the old-fashioned books I devoured when I was young.  There's a good dose of adventure, a straightforward good vs evil plot and a hint of magic.  Picking it up feels like picking up an Enid Blyton novel,Treasure Island or Peter Pan.  Although Meggie is in for a lot of suffering, it's due to the danger she faces and the world of the book is like a lovely bubble I like to sink into every now and again.

This isn't really a proper review as I'm not going to be critical.  I understand this book isn't for everyone but I absolutely love it and I'm already looking forward to making time for a reread of Inkspell and Inkdeath over the next few weeks.  For me, Inkheart is escapist adventure at its best.

Source: Personal copy
Edition: Chicken House, 2004
Score: 5 out of 5

Next World Novella by Matthias Politycki

Next World Novella is the first book in the Peirene series on Male Dilemmas: The Quest for Intimacy (I have previously reviewed all of the novellas in the Female Voices series; Beside the Sea, Stone in a Landslide and Portrait of the Mother as a Young Woman). Hinrich Schepp is an ageing academic in a seemingly happy relationship with wife Doro. He enters their apartment to find her editing one of his manuscripts, a regular occurence.  But things aren't as they always are - Doro has passed away and the manuscript she was editing was Hinrich's long abandoned attempt at a fiction novel.  Using the disguise of story, Hinrich has revealed much about the past and he is shocked by Doro's alterations as they show she knows more than he ever realised.  Sitting down next to her corpse to read, Hinrich has to face up to his past and the disintegration of his superficially happy marriage.

I really enjoyed Next World Novella, more than I expected to.  I loved the wry voice of the author, the black humour and the macabre tone that pervaded the whole book.  There are many details of death included, giving the novella a gothic feel that appealed to me.  Politycki is clever in that he guides you to judge and poke fun at Hinrich but at the same time you can't help but feel sorry for him.  One moment you're judging him for fantasising about attractive waitresses within a few minutes of discovering his wife's corpse and the next you want to stop him from embarrassing himself with his clumsy attempts at an extramarital affair that have you cringing.

Hinrich traces the decline of his marriage to an operation he had to improve his vision; "It was terrible to see the world in such detail, so sharply outlined, all of a sudden!  It dazzled him with a confusingly large number of details". In a sense, this is a metaphor for the whole story.  Hinrich and Doro's marriage looks happy if you only look at it quickly, or not thoroughly.  As soon as you start to dig deeper, the misery becomes apparent.  The majority of the novel is narrated from Hinrich's point of view and it's black comedy at it's best but doesn't elicit too much emotion.  However, the final part is Doro's editorial opinion on the manuscript and this is the heart of the novel.  I had been reading along, poking fun at Hinrich whilst secretly pitying him and I simply wasn't expecting the emotional punch of Doro's words.  It's easy to forget the impact that one person's actions can have on another.  Including Doro's voice at the end made the novella cohesive and more powerful than Hinrich's narration alone could have been.

Putting aside the death and descriptions of the decay of Doro's corpse, Next World Novella will ring true for a lot of readers.  It's easy to ignore slow but serious decline in our personal relationships and it's often only when you look back that you realise how far things have gone.  Hinrich and Doro never found the relationships they were hoping for and both suffered with a lonlieness that must be very common.  The mix of this serious theme and the hints of comedy really worked for me.  It's one of my favourite Peirene novellas so far and will be hard to beat.

Source: From the publisher, in exchange for an honest review.
Edition: Peirene Press, 2011
Score: 4.5 out of 5

Heads in Beds by Jacob Tomsky

As a certified nosy person, I'm a sucker for employment memoirs;  I will happily sit and read about life as a doctor, nurse, vet, explorer, retail assistant - in fact I will read about anything that is different from what I do myself.  So I was excited to request Heads in Beds: A Reckless Memoir of Hotels, Hustles, and So-Called Hospitality from Netgalley.  In it, Tomsky details his rise through the hotel industry from valet parking through to front desk manager.  Having worked many jobs within the industry, Tomsky is in the perfect position to detail what life as a hotel worker is really like and to give insider information for potential guests keen on upgrades and other perks.

Heads in Beds was very good light relief and I enjoyed reading it.  I'm not a frequent hotel user, but I've checked into enough hotels to recognise lots of the situations detailed in the book.  As always, I was shocked by how inconsiderate and rude members of the public can be towards service staff.  Tomsky does come across as a bit angry in places, but having worked in retail myself (thankfully, many years ago now!), I'm sure that this anger was justified.  There's only so long you can take being treated like the dirt on someone's shoe before you want to snap!  There are mentions of polite customers and good experiences but these become less frequent as the book goes on and Tomsky becomes more disillusioned with his job.  It's safe to say I won't be applying to be a front desk operator any time soon!

One thing I found very interesting was the comparison between the two main hotels Tomsky worked in, luxury hotels in New Orleans and New York.  In New Orleans, the staff were valued and trusted and consequently often went above and beyond in order to provide good service to their guests.  In New York, they were constantly monitored for any slip up, treated as if they were slackers and initiative was punished rather than rewarded.  This led to resentment and poor service, with no one willing to go the extra mile.  Even though Tomsky is writing specifically about the hotel industry in Heads in Beds, I've seen this kind of thing in every single working environment I have been in.  When will managers learn that staff work better if you trust them, value them and simply leave them to it?

Heads in Beds was on the whole clearly written with lots of humour.  It didn't set my world alight, but I found it interesting and enjoyable.  I think it could have benefited from being edited down slightly as it dragged in the later sections, with too much page time being devoted to Tomsky's time as a front desk operator.  I'm sure that fellow nosy readers will enjoy this book as much as I did!

Source: From the publisher via Netgalley
Publication Date: 20th November 2012
Score: 3 out of 5

The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt

Summary from the back cover:
It is 1851, and a lust for gold has swept the American frontier.  Two brothers - the notorious Eli and Charlie Sisters - are on the road to California, following the trail of an elusive prospector, Hermann Kermit Warm.  On this odyssey Eli and his brother cross paths with a remarkable cast of characters - losers, cheaters and ne'er-do-wells from all stripes of life - and Eli begins to question what he does for a living, and whom he does it for. (I don't normally copy summaries, but this one is perfect).

Thoughts:
I went into this book expecting to enjoy it because of all the hype around it and the positive reviews I have seen, but I didn't expect to enjoy the Western element as much as I did.  I've never read a Western before and I'm not American so I was surprised at how natural the reading experience was.  I loved the grimy, cockroach infested hotels the brothers stayed in with prostitutes at the ready and men having shoot-outs in the dust.  I loved the idea of burying gold dust and busting mafia-style crime rings.  I have some adventure in my spirit and anyone who does will enjoy the Western elements of The Sisters Brothers.  DeWitt balanced all of this rip-roaring, swash-buckling adventure by also showing the harshness of life on the frontier in 1851, not shying away from the nastier elements and this gave the novel some much-needed grit and realism.

I remember there was a lot of fuss about this book being included on the Booker short-list in 2011, with critics complaining that it's not literary enough.  But I disagree; The Sisters Brothers is genre fiction, but it also transcends the genre and has a lot to say about human existence.  Whereas Charlie is more of a straight-forward villain, Eli is a sympathetic character who has drifted into the killing business under the influence his big brother.  He may be a contract killer, but he doesn't think much of money and dreams of giving it all up to open his own shop (Charlie wants to be the kind of gangster who gets to run a whole town).  He's a romantic who falls in love easily and who won't abandon his horse when it is injured.  Eli is the heart of the novel and through him DeWitt manages to make the book both funny, adventurous and sad.  As the reader can see that Eli is essentially a good guy, all the way through the book you are rooting for him to be able to have the courage to leave Charlie and do something just for himself.  He has some big disappointments towards the end of the novel and I was genuinely sad for him.  I wasn't expecting Eli to be the character he was and it made the book so much more powerful and, dare I say it, literary.

The Sisters Brothers was one of those books I bought because it was on a short-list and because plenty of people seemed to enjoy reading it.  I'm glad I did, because it's something I would never have picked out for myself and I thoroughly enjoyed every page of it.  Recommended even for Western newbies like me.

Source: Personal copy
First Published: 2011
My Edition: Granta, 2012
Score: 4.5 out of 5

Portrait of the Mother as a Young Woman by Friedrich Christian Delius

Portrait of the Mother as a Young Woman is the third and final book in the Peirene Press series entitled Female Voices.  It's an unusually structured book that takes the reader into the mind of Margarethe, a twenty-one year old German woman living in Rome in 1943, who is walking from the boarding house where she lives to a Bach concert being held at the church on Via Sicilia.  Having followed her husband to Rome only to see him shipped off to Africa to help the war effort, Margarethe is alone and eight months pregnant.  She speaks little Italian and is both mystified by and scared of Rome, the city of their Italian allies.  As we follow Margarethe on her walk, we get an insight into her thought processes and get to see World War Two through a new lens.

I liked this book.  I found the structure difficult at first; the book is basically one long sentence with no full stops or page breaks and this was challenging for me.  I didn't know when to put the book down and the lack of punctuation made the novella feel longer than it was.  The pace was also fairly slow towards the beginning and these two factors combined made reading heavy going initially.  But as soon as I settled into the book and saw it for what it was, a character driven novel, I started to enjoy it.  The pace is slow but this allows the character to get really under your skin and this is how Portrait of the Mother is effective.

I had mixed feelings about the main character, Margarethe.  She was expertly written and I'm in awe at how the male author managed to get so into the mind of a young, pregnant woman. On the one hand I couldn't help but empathise with her situation, alone and unsure in a foreign city, struggling to keep her composure.  I admired how she constantly battled to remain positive, to appreciate all she had rather than give in to fear, because I don't know if I could do the same.  You can't help but feel sorry for her when you read about her wishing that her husband's leg wound would worsen so he could have treatment at a Roman hospital and they could be reunited.  But at the same time, I found her very naive.  To protect herself she has drawn a shell around herself and tries not to think of politics and the war.  Although she never articulates it fully, her views from her time in the Hitler Youth contradict with her religious views and she has severe doubts about the directions Hitler is taking.  But she does nothing, she has completely detached herself;

"Even in Germany she had not read the papers, it was better not to know too much, not to say too much, not to ask too much, as one always heard bad news soon enough."

There must have been many people like Margarethe but this side of her made me have very mixed feelings towards her.  I suspect this is what Delius intended and that this is part of what makes the book so effective, but it challenges you as a reader.  To empathise and not at the same time.  After finishing this book, I'm still not quite sure what I think about the main character.

Portrait of the Mother as a Young Woman is the Peirene book that I've found the hardest going so far, mainly because of the structure.  It's without a doubt beautifully written and thought-provoking but I don't know if I would describe reading it as an enjoyable experience.

Source: From the publisher, in exchange for an honest review.
First Published in the UK: 2010
First Published in Germany: 2006
Score: 3 out of 5

My Nephew!

Blogging has gone out of the window this week because on Tuesday I became an aunt for the first time!  My sister had a baby boy, Joseph, and he is simply the most precious thing in the entire world.  So instead of blogging I've been waiting for good news, buying baby clothes, visiting the hospital, blowing up balloons and getting in my first cuddle.  He may only be days old but he already has the entire family wrapped around his little finger!

Tom and I with Joseph.

Normal service will resume shortly!

Mermaid by Carolyn Turgeon

Mermaid is a retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale, The Little Mermaid (you can read the original here).  Lenia is the youngest sister of five mermaid princesses who are granted just one day to travel to the surface and observe what the world is like for humans.  On her eighteenth birthday, she takes her opportunity but gets caught up in a ferocious storm and can't resist rescuing the Prince of the Southern Kingdom.  Taking him to the beach, she leaves him in the care of Princess Margrethe, daughter of the war-hungry King of the Northern Kingdom.  Unable to put him from her mind and drawn to ideas of a human soul, Lenia sacrifices her tail and tongue in order to become a human, enduring agonising pain.  But is her sacrifice worth it?

Mermaid is on the whole a faithful retelling of the original fairy tale, so consequently much darker than the Disney version!  The main difference is that the role of the 'other woman', Princess Margrethe, is greatly expanded, to the extent that the chapters alternate between Margrethe and Lenia's points of view.  However, Margarethe feels much more like a modern invention than Lenia, which can be a bit jarring. Despite these differences, Turgeon is successful at capturing the gothic, slightly creepy, slightly magical atmosphere of the original.  The world she creates is one where it seems natural that mermaids exist and souls float to the heavens.  There's a dark undercurrent of pain and suffering throughout the whole story which fits with Andersen too.

As this is a fairy tale, it's acceptable that the characters do things that you would never do in real life.  There's a lot of love at first sight and much sacrifice for someone who doesn't seem worth it (I'm looking at you, Prince!).  If this was a normal story, I'd have a big problem with Lenia's actions and how easily she gave up everything she had ever known, but I didn't mind it in the context of the original story.  In fact, the only thing I really had an issue with was the ending; I felt as though it was too happy.  The last sections seem to build up to a dark, depressing end but then there's a last minute reprieve and it felt like a cop-out.  Andersen never shied away from unhappy endings, so it's a shame that Turgeon felt the need to.

On the whole, Mermaid was a fun read which broke up my usual reading pattern.  It's not going to win any prizes and it's not going to set your world on fire, but it's a lovely way to pass a Sunday afternoon.  Fans of fairy tales or fairy tale re-tellings will especially appreciate this book.

Source: Library
First Published: 2011
Score: 3 out of 5

Crossing on the Paris by Dana Gynther

It's 1921 and the transatlantic liner Paris is sailing to New York from France and England.  Three passengers from three different classes and generations are onboard; Vera, Constance and Julie.  Vera Sinclair is an ex-pat American who has spent years in Paris and is now returning home after receiving the news that she hasn't got long to live.  Constance Stone is returning from an unsuccessful mission to bring her younger sister Faith home from Paris to help their mentally ill mother.  And Julie Vernet is working in steerage class on her first ocean crossing.  The three women are very different but all will be changed in some way by the voyage.

I enjoyed Crossing on the Paris a lot more than I expected to.  I thought it would be shallow and possibly a bit cheesy, but it wasn't at all.  The atmosphere of the 1920s and the glamour and squalor of ocean liners was captured well by Gynther and this made a great back-drop to the story.  The three women were vividly written and easily distinguishable from each other.  I liked the technique of splitting the book up in to chapters, with each one relating to a different day of the five-day crossing.

Of the three women, I found it easiest to relate to Julie.  Having lost all of her brothers in the First World War, she's desperate for a chance to get away from the grief and poverty of her home in France and jumps at the opportunity to work on the boat.  But she is assigned to serve in steerage class (3rd class) and the liner isn't as glamorous as she had hoped.  Suffering with low self-esteem, she's overjoyed when a handsome engineer takes an interest in her and is swept away in what she thinks is a romantic fairy tale only to learn a very hard lesson about life.  I really felt for Julie as I was reading her story and it's here that Gynther makes the plot more heavy going than I had anticipated it would be.  This book definitely isn't as sweet as the cover makes it look.

I also enjoyed Constance's story.  She's married to a man that she doesn't really love and gets a taste of freedom on board the Paris.  With no one to answer to but herself, she fools people into thinking she isn't married and is tempted to have an affair with another passenger.  Jealous of her sister's freedoms, Constance has to choose whether to live in the moment or remember all of her responsibilities   I think this is something we all face in life, not necessarily with adultery, but we all have moments where we have to choose between what we want to do and what is the right thing to do.  I didn't enjoy Vera's story as much as those of the other two women, but her voice was still engaging enough to make reading the book pleasant.

All in all, I enjoyed the time I spent with Crossing on the Paris. It's a lovely escapist read with more depth than I had anticipated.  Fans of historical fiction would enjoy this title.

Source: From Simon & Schuster, via NetGalley
Published: 13th November 2012
Score: 4 out of 5

Stone in a Landslide by Maria Barbal

Stone in a Landslide is the second book in the Peirene Press series 'Female Voices' and is set in Spain before and during the Civil War.  Conxa is only thirteen when she is sent to a neighbouring mountain village to work for her aunt and uncle.  Life is hard in the way it has been for generations; men and women work long hours in the fields for little reward, the chores are endless and it's a struggle to get by. Conxa's days of work are brightened when she meets Jaume and they marry young.  But Jaume is an idealist captivated by democratic ideas and becomes a prominent local voice in the revolution. When this fledgling revolution is brutally crushed, Conxa has to face the inevitable consequences and the devastating effect on her life.

I enjoyed Stone in a Landslide mainly for the wonderful narrative voice of Conxa.  She's born into a hard life where being pragmatic and hard-working are skills prized above all, but she has a dreamy, romantic soul that can't be squashed.  She finds old dresses in the attic and puts them on, dreaming of a brighter future.  She loves pretty things.  She dawdles in the fields watching the sky.  She loves Jaume because he "puts new colours into her mundane world".  She really values happiness and is always seeking it for herself and her loved ones, prioritising feelings over politics at every turn.  It's hard not to like a character like this and even though Conxa is extremely naive about what is happening around her, I adored her.

I didn't know much about the Spanish Civil War before reading this book and it only filled in a few of my gaps.  Although it's set in a particular time and place (Spain in the early twentieth century), the story is more about the effects of war and political suppression on individual families; so in a sense, which war it is doesn't matter.  The feelings and consequences described are universal.  I was expecting the book to be more hard-hitting than it was in the final sections - I felt for Conxa but she became so detached that it was hard to really understand what it would have been like to be in her shoes.  I thought the effects of war could have been portrayed more powerfully than they were.  I wanted the book to upset me but it didn't.

Whilst I liked this book, I felt like I was reading it at a distance, never emotionally engaged with the story.  I could see Conxa was devastated, but I wasn't devastated with her, which prevented the book from having a strong impact.  It was expertly written, sensitively translated and taught me about a different period of history, but ultimately I needed more emotional engagement to properly enjoy it.

Source: From the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

First Published: 2010

Score: 3.5 out of 5

The Cutting Season by Attica Locke

Caren is the manager at Belle Vie, a sprawling plantation house deep in Louisiana   One morning whilst making her inspection of the grounds, she comes across a young Mexican woman, brutally murdered and discarded.  With the police investigation inadequate, Caren investigates and the more she finds out, the more she starts to suspect a cover up.  The white owner of the property is desperate to sell, the woman's employer has a history of violence and  she might have uncovered something she shouldn't have just before her death.  The investigation even leads back to Caren's ancestor Joseph, a slave on the plantation that disappeared soon after gaining freedom.  An ambitious book, The Cutting Season covers race relations, history and politics as well as a criminal investigation.

Crime is not a genre I read very often but I had heard good things about Attica Locke.  In fact, I own her previous novel, Black Water Rising, although typically I haven't got around to reading it yet.  I'd seen some positive reviews of Cutting Season on other blogs and the setting of the book really appealed.  On our American honeymoon last summer, my husband and I spent a few weeks in Louisiana and we visited lots of those old plantation homes and there is something about the history and atmosphere of such places that I thought would make for a great crime story.  And that atmosphere was conveyed excellently in the book by Locke, it had an almost gothic, sinister feel which helped build suspense throughout.

On the whole, I enjoyed Cutting Season.  It's expertly written and ambitious in coverage.  The topics of race and slavery are handled sensitively and the book is thought provoking - who should really own the plantation houses?  Should they be preserved for history or should we wipe the slate clean and start again?  Does history belong to all of us or just a select few?  Should history affect modern day decisions?  Although I'm not a big fan of crime fiction, I could see that the mystery of who had killed Ines was well structured with enough red herrings to keep me guessing.  I didn't work out who it was before the big reveal.

Despite everything I enjoyed about the book, it just seemed to be missing that special something.  I don't know if it was purely because I don't love crime, but the middle section lagged and I never felt fully engaged with the story.  In some ways, I think Locke was too ambitious and couldn't do everything she wanted to do within the confines of a crime/mystery novel; the genre was too restrictive for all the themes she wanted to cover.  Locke was experimental by adding so much more to the genre but too confined by the conventions of the genre.  I would have liked to see more of a gothic literary style novel rather than a traditional whodunit.  

I'm sure crime fans will love this book as it's a good mystery and the writing is excellent.  I wasn't the biggest fan of this one but I don't think I was the right reader for it.

Source: Library (reserved)
First Published: 2012
My Edition: Serpent's Tail UK, 2012
Score: 3.5 out of 5