Sam Sunday #11: Farewell, Easter Holidays!

Joseph making himself at home in our new house.

My Easter break has been lovely this year, but it's over now as tomorrow is back to work and the run up to exam season (eek!).  As with all last days of the holidays, today has completely run away with me and already it's 7.30pm and I'm wondering where the day has gone.  I don't really mind going back to work, I would just love another couple of days to carry on settling into the house.  And I have that teenager last night before school feeling, I don't think it ever goes away for teachers!

This last week has been quite chilled compared to the busy first week.  We've mainly been painting, sourcing furniture and I've had a few long lie-ins with a good book or two.  I have steadfastly been ignoring household chores and trying to make the most of not having any pressure.  I like the summer term back at school as it means the summer hols are not too far away!

I'm pleased that I finally managed to finish unpacking all of my books during the week.  I've culled my collection a bit, donating some books that I didn't love to charity shops, so I actually have that unheard-of thing, space on my bookshelves.  I'm not going to rush to fill it, but it's nice to know the option is there.

Reviews posted:
The People of Forever are Not Afraid by Shani Boianjui
A Dance with Dragons by George R.R. Martin

Hope everyone had a good week!

A Dance with Dragons by George R.R. Martin

So that's it - I've now read every single one of the A Song of Fire and Ice books published to date. And it looks like a long wait for the sixth volume!  I tried to slow down my reading of this one by reading it alongside other titles but as soon as I hit the half-way point, I had to give up on all other reading and concentrate just on this.  As with all my other reviews of this series, there will be spoilers, so proceed with caution if you haven't already read it.  A Dance with Dragons starts at the same time as A Feast for Crows, but follows different characters.  We already know what happened to Cersei, Jamie and Arya so now we get to visit Jon Snow at the Wall, Daenerys across the sea in Meereen and Tyrion in exile.  In the latter stages of the book all the narratives start to entwine again and the main characters from A Feast for Crows are reintroduced with their own chapters.

A Dance with Dragons is a long book at 1000+ pages and at times, I felt it's length more than I did with the other books in the series.  There were some fascinating characters and interesting plot developments but the pace of the storytelling appeared to have slowed to the point where some chapters felt repetitive, especially for someone reading the series straight through.  I've never been the biggest Daenerys fan and found the chapters dealing with her rule in Meereen a bit tedious.  I understand why it's important for her to have actual experience of being a ruler before trying to take Westeros, but there was just too much information about too many new characters that the reader isn't invested in at all.  I enjoyed her final chapters and the moral quandry the full grown dragons presented, I just didn't want to read about competing political factions in Meereen.

In A Dance with Dragons, rather than waiting for Daenerys to arrive in Westeros, half of Westeros seem to be seeking her out, including Tyrion, on the run for killing Tywin Lannister.  Tyrion has always been one of my favourites as his chapters give the book some much needed humour.  I enjoyed the meeting between him and Jorah Mormont and the trials he faced on his journey.  Also seeking Daenerys is Quentyn, Prince of Martell and Vicatarion of the Iron Islands.   I love both the Martells and the Greyjoys so again, these plots were welcome.  I was shocked at the arrival of Aegon Targaryen and have my suspicions that all isn't as it appears to be, especially as he didn't have any chapters of his own.  

Back in Westeros, Cersei's humiliation was the most memorable event.  Although Cersei was unquestionably a bad leader and person, her punishment was harsh indeed and I was rooting for her to keep her head held high throughout it out.  Theon Greyjoy emerges in the torture chambers of Ramsay Bolton and we get to see Jon Snow's choices as Commander of the Night's Watch.  Jon's chapters were especially interesting as they were all about doing the right thing, whether or not it makes you popular.  I could see his betrayal coming before it happened and don't think he is actually dead (although it's not nice of George R.R. Martin to leave us hanging).  There were enough anvil sized hints about Jon's real parentage to make him too important to the plot to kill off, I think.

On the whole, I loved A Dance with Dragons despite it's long-windedness.  I could feel the story building up to a pressure point and anticipate that the next volume will be more action packed, as all the main characters are now in key places for some game-changing events to occur.

And now the wait begins for book six!

Source: Personal copy (kindle)

First Published: 2011

Score: 4 out of 5

The People of Forever are Not Afraid by Shani Boianjiu

The People of Forever are Not Afraid was one of the books I was most intrigued by at the announcement of the Women's Prize for Fiction long-list.  It's about three girls, Yael, Avishag and Lea, who are conscripted into the Israeli army at the age of eighteen for their two years of compulsory military service.  Israel is the only country in the world to draft both men and women.  More of a collection of experiences than a coherent narrative, The People of Forever are Not Afraid is about coming of age in a military environment and what happens to life after discharge.  Between them, the girls experience a wide range of Israeli military life, from manning Palestinian checkpoints, to border control, to being in an infantry squad and training new recruits.  Set before and during the 2006 war with Lebanon, none of the girls leave the army psychologically unscathed.

 I had mixed feelings about this book, although the good outweighed the bad.  I just loved the blunt, forward tone of the narration and found it extremely refreshing.  The People of Forever are Not Afraid is not a 'nice' book, it's brutal in places but it's  abrupt and feels raw and honest.  There's no purple prose, just soldiers dying from Russian Roulette, girls shooting ice water into their veins and teenagers playing with guns.  Parts of the narrative were written in a stream of consciousness style, and Boianjiu is very good at portraying how the emotional crises of being a young adult can be amplified by the militaty setting;

"I tried and I tried to pretend that I was an olive tree.  I told myself that I lived, and I lived, and even when there were tumours exploding under my bones and predators eating out my eyes, I thought I'd die but I didn't.  I stood frozen, eyes open, my arms misshapen in the air; I tried forever to be an olive tree, I swear."

The first half of the book was the most compelling as it dealt with the girls being conscripted and their experiences during training and their first posting.  This was all completely fascinating and Boianjiu maintained ambiguity about the morality of what the three main characters were doing.  I read with interest about learning to withstand poison gas, learning how to shoot accurately, and how to check Palestinan border permits.  The book at this point was still a collection of stories, but they all hung together coherently around a common theme.

However, in the second half of the book, the narrative thread became too loose as Boianjiu wrote about what happened to the girls after the war, after the army.  The book meanders between the characters almost aimlessly and a number of new perspectives were introduced.  Yael, Avishag and Lea seemed to blend into each other, until I had trouble telling them apart.  I don't mind a book that's really a collection of stories, but I need more connection than this.

If I was just judging on the first half of the book, I would be giving an extremely high rating for the bluntness and emotional rawness of the narrative tone.  I loved that, and think Boianjiu is a very talented writer.  Unfortunately, the second half was too meandering for me.  I would still recommend this book though, I've read nothing like it before.

Source: From the publisher, in exchange for an honest review.
First Published: 2012
Score: 3.5 out of 5

Sam Sunday #10: Easter Holidays Edition

Last week was the first week of my two week Easter holiday and so far, it's been great.  On Tuesday, one of my best friends from school got married, so we spent all day and evening at the wedding.  It was a small and relaxed wedding, which are my favourite kinds.  It was a good opportunity to catch up with all my friends from school/sixth form and swap news.

In the week, it was also my sister-in-laws 18th birthday and Tom's Nan's birthday, so we've had a good mix of time in the new house and time out with friends and family.  We went for a delicious curry for my sister-in-law's birthday, and then we took Tom's Nan out for the day for her birthday.  I've also managed to fit in a bit of shopping with my Mum and sister.

When we've not been out, we've been working on the new house and just getting used to the fact that we actually own a house now.  Priority number one has been eliminating the mahogany woodwork (which is everywhere) as it makes the whole house look much darker than it should do.  Painting the bannisters was extremely fiddly and time consuming (you can just see my book room at the back of the picture too).

Today, I've been doing some gardening.  I've planted carrots, onions, chillies and cherry tomatoes and am hoping to plant some more fruit and veg in the week.  We had a great vegetable harvest a few years ago, but last summer the sheer amount of rain killed most of our plants - here's hoping for better conditions this year!  And then this evening, I'm babysitting my nephew as my sister and her husband have to attend a rehearsal dinner for a wedding they are going to tomorrow.

Next week is another week of holiday, so I'm hoping for another week like the last.  Tomorrow we're furniture shopping (browsing at least), as this house is a lot bigger than our last, and we need to fill some spaces!  

As far as reading goes, I've been doing a fair amount but I've been in a picky mood.  I've picked up lots of titles and then put them down again, deciding that I'm not in the right frame of mind for them.  I'm steadily working through A Dance with Dragons, which is a massive book but excellent.  This week, I've been reading:

    

Reviews posted:

Beauty by Robin McKinley

The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman

Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson

Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson

Alif is a young hacker living in a unnamed city in what can be presumed to be the United Arab Emirates in the time of the Arab Spring.  Drawn to computing and to making money, he sells his skills to whoever can afford them, from Islamic terrorists to the owners of pornography sites.  At the opening of the book, Alif's relationship with upper class Insitar is falling apart with the knowledge that she will soon be marrying a wealthy member of the Arab elite.  In his sadness and anger, Alif creates a new program that can identify an individual, no matter what machine they are using, and uses it to cut Insitar off from his life.  But the program makes him vulnerable to the Hand, the state security monitoring devices, and the arrival of a mysterious book from Insitar only increases the danger.  With the help of his neighbour Dina and an American convert to Islam, Alif learns that the seeing world isn't the edge of reality and that invisible dangers, including djinns and demons, might lurk beneath.

I was very pleased to see Alif the Unseen on the long-list for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2013, as it's rare that you see a fantasy novel long-listed for a literary prize.   I was excited to get to it after reading JoV's review which described it as part Harry Potter, part Arabian Nights.  Two of my most favourite things!  This combined with the praise from Neil Gaiman on the front cover, probably raised my expectations a bit too high, for Alif the Unseen is a very good book, but perhaps not a great one.  As a fan of the original Arabian Nights, I loved how Wilson borrowed the mythology of the djinns from this and from the Qu'ran and then adapted it to create her world, where djinns and humans used to coincide before the narrow-mindedness of the humans made the djinns virtually invisible.  Characters with closed minds still can not fully appreciate the world around them as it truly is.  I liked the moral ambiguity of the djinns and the way the fantasy was interwoven with modern politics, such as in the section where Alif is held by the state in a brutal way.  In the same way the djinns moved in and out of human consciousness, the fantasy elements moved in and out of the story.

Alif's neighbour, Dina, was a fantastic character and I loved how G. Willow Wilson used her and the American convert to subtly challenge preconceptions about Muslim women.  Even though Dina has chosen to wear the veil, she's outspoken, brave and most definitely the source of Alif's strength.  On the whole the book was well plotted with a good pace that kept me turning the pages.  I liked the mythology of the 'Thousand and One Days', the book that Insitar gave Alif at the end of their relationship.

There was so much to like about this book and it certainly ticked all of the things I love to read about at the moment (fantasy, Arabian Nights, adventure, strong female characters, old books).  However, it was a bit lacking overall.  The reveal about the person behind the Hand, the state security system, didn't quite work and his motivations for causing such suffering seemed to keep on changing, which took away from the plot.  There's only one djinn character that has any kind of character development, which made some of the nastier djinns much less threatening.  The book overall was suffering from a lack of depth.  Despite the fact that I so wanted to love this book and treasure it forever, I couldn't quite do it.  Still, I'm pleased to see it on the long-list and I hope that it leads to more fantasy books on the long-list in future, as it makes a refreshing change.

Source: Library
First Published: 2012
Score: 3.5 out of 5

The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman

Tom Sherbourne, a veteran of World War One, is the lighthouse keeper of Janus, a remote Australian island that marks the meeting of the Indian and Southern Oceans.  He lives a quiet life with his impulsive wife, Isabel.  They are happy together but both mourn the fact that they are unable to have children; Isabel has suffered a string of miscarriages and a recent still-birth.  When, days after her still-birth, a boat containing a dead man and a newborn baby washes up on the beach, Tom and Isabel must decide whether to do the right thing, or whether to take the chance to make their dream come true.

The Light Between Oceans has had a bit of buzz on book blogs, so I was excited to see it long-listed for the Women's Prize for Fiction this year.  I picked it up with high hopes but unfortunately the novel didn't quite work for me.  There were many elements I liked about it but as a whole, it felt a bit lacking.

Starting with what I liked:  I loved the remote setting of Janus island and how vividly the sea is described by Stedman.  We get to see the power of nature helping Tom to recover from the war and there are many lovely scenes where Isabel, newly arrived to the island, explores all the hidden caves and coves.  The writing about the setting was beautiful; I could almost taste the salt from the sea.  I also appreciated how Stedman refrained from making a moral judgement on Tom and Isabel, everything was kept deliberately ambiguous.  A lot of their actions could be seen as right or wrong, and it was left up to the reader to decide for themselves what they would have done in Isabel's situation.  I liked that the tone of the book was completely non-judgemental.

However, I never connected properly with either Tom or Isabel and this is where the book fell down.  I certainly felt sorry for them after Isabel's miscarriages and still-births but Isabel especially remained an emotionally distant figure.  I needed to engage with her more for the book to really work.  Also, the story covered a long time span and some parts were more interesting than others.  The beginning and end were strong, but the middle lacked that special something.

On the whole, The Light Between Oceans is a solid, well written book.  It just didn't quite work for me personally.  I wouldn't be surprised to see it on the short-list.

Source: Library
First Published: 2012
Score: 3 out of 5

Read Alongside:
Island of Wings by Karin Altenberg - This was longlisted for the Orange Prize this year and is a similar story of a couple starting a life together on a deserted island, this time the Hebrides in the 1830s.

Beauty by Robin McKinley

"It's said there's a castle in a wild garden at the center of these woods: and if you walk into the trees till you are out of sight of the edge of the forest and you can see nothing but big dark trees all around you, you will be drawn to that castle: and in the castle there lives a monster.  He was a man once, some tales say, and he was turned into a terrible monster as a punishment for his evil deeds; some say he was born that way, as a punishment to his parents, who were king and queen of a good land, but cared only for their own pleasure."

I can't remember where I first heard about Robin McKinley, but I've seen her books mentioned on lots of blogs that I respect.  As I love fairy tale retellings, I decided that the time was right to pick up Beauty, a retelling of the Beauty and the Beast story.  In terms of plot, it's a fairly straightforward telling, with Beauty (an ironic nickname in this version) offering to become the captive of the Beast in order to save the life of her beloved father.  Once prosperous residents of the city, Beauty's family has fallen on hard times and they leave with her sister Hope's husband to settle in the countryside, where he will work as a blacksmith.  Beauty's father loses the path through the forest when returning from a journey and ends up at an enchanted castle, where he is treated kindly until he tries to steal a rose to take home for his daughter.  Rather than allow her father to die, Beauty leaves her family to live in the  castle, unaware of the secrets hidden by the Beast.

In the end, I really enjoyed Beauty.  I found the first section rather slow but as soon as Beauty actually arrived at the enchanted castle, the book was far more captivating.  There was a subtle hint of magic running through each sentence and it was fascinating to watch Beauty's attitude towards the castle and the Beast slowly change, until she simply couldn't imagine being happy anywhere else.  I'm not a fan of romance novels, but the romance in this fairy tale retelling was completely believable as Beauty's feelings changed slowly and gradually with time.  I loved the scene where the Beast shows her his library, which contains copies of books that will only be published much later, and the way that romance only came after respect and friendship.

It was hard whilst reading this to get the Disney film (a favorite from childhood) completely out of my head. Beauty is less dramatic; there's no Gaston also pursuing Beauty, and this made the ending quieter but more powerful.  McKinley wrote the character of the Beast very well; we only get to see him through Beauty's eyes but she manages to get across hints of his past and emotions.  From about the mid-point on, I couldn't put the book down and I ended it with a big smile on my face.  I'll certainly be looking out for more McKinley books to read, as she combines the fairy tale with a great portrayal of human emotion.

Source: Library

First Published: 1978

Edition Read: Corgi Books UK, 2004

Score: 4 out of 5