The Librain……retired

I did manage a quick visit to the Library this week, but still had a few ebooks left in my account too. When I choose ebooks, I tend to find something beyond my usual genres so I was very pleased with my rather wild selections!

The Bones of Paradise by Jonis Agee

My first choice was The Bones of Paradise by Jonis Agee. This is described as:

…a multi-generational family saga, set in the unforgiving Nebraska Sandhills in the years following the massacre at Wounded Knee—an ambitious tale of history, vengeance, race, guilt, betrayal, family, and belonging, filled with a vivid cast of characters shaped by violence, love, and a desperate loyalty to the land.

Here is the blurb:

Ten years after the 7th Calvary massacred more than 200 Lakota men, women, and children at Wounded Knee, J. B. Bennett, a white rancher, and Star, a young Native American woman, are murdered in a remote meadow on J. B.’s land. The deaths bring together the scattered members of the Bennett family: his cunning and hard father, Drum; his estranged wife, Dulcinea; and his young sons, Cullen and Hayward. As the mystery of these twin deaths unfolds, the history of the dysfunctional Bennett’s and their damning secrets are revealed exposing the conflicted heart of a nation caught between past and future.

At the center of The Bones of Paradise are two remarkable women. Dulcinea, returned after bitter years of self-exile, yearns for redemption and the courage to mend her broken family and reclaim the land that is rightfully hers. Rose, scarred by the terrible slaughters that have decimated and dislocated her people, struggles to accept the death of her sister, Star, and refuses to rest until she is avenged.

And here is my review:

This was an almost five star read. An extraordinary book, a mixture of genres and like nothing I have ever read before. Fantastic descriptions of the landscape, the period and the characters. Strong story arcs that keep the reader guessing until the end. Wonderful female characters. I really loved it so, oh let’s change that to a five! Recommended for this with the patience to savour this wonderful read.

I really don’t think that I would have chosen this from the library shelves, so I am so glad that I stumbled across it when wandering through the ebook catalogue! I must now look for The River Wife as that also sounds amazing.

The Quiet Child by John Burley

The next book was The Quiet Child by John Burley. This was very different from the previous book. This is the blurb:

It’s the summer of 1954, and the residents of Cottonwood, California, are dying. At the center of it all is six-year-old Danny McCray, a strange and silent child the townspeople regard with fear and superstition, and who appears to bring illness and ruin to those around him. Even his own mother is plagued by a disease that is slowly consuming her.

Sheriff Jim Kent, increasingly aware of the whispers and rumors surrounding the boy, has watched the people of his town suffer—and he worries someone might take drastic action to protect their loved ones. Then a stranger arrives, and Danny and his ten-year-old brother, Sean, go missing. In the search that follows, everyone is a suspect, and the consequences of finding the two brothers may be worse than not finding them at all.

I gave this one four stars on Goodreads and wrote this review:

I almost didn’t read this, but I am so glad that I did. I also read it in one afternoon. Such a creepy mystery set in 1950s small town America. I can’t say much about the plot as it would give too much away, but there were amazing twists and a great atmosphere to the book. Recommended.

The Lieutenant by Kate Grenville

The third book of the week was another departure from my “normal” called The Lieutenant by Kate Grenville. This one was set 18th century Australia:

As a boy, Daniel Rooke was always an outsider. Ridiculed in school and misunderstood by his parents, Daniel could only hope, against all the evidence, that he would one day find his place in life. When he joins the marines and travels to New South Wales as a lieutenant on the First Fleet, Daniel finally sees his chance for a new beginning. As his countrymen struggle to control their cargo of convicts and communicate with those who already inhabit the land, Daniel constructs an observatory to chart the stars and begin the scientific work he prays will make him famous. But the place where they have landed will prove far more revelatory than the night sky. Out on his isolated point, Daniel comes to intimately know the local Aborigines and forges a remarkable connection with one young girl, Tagaran, that will forever change the course of his life. As the strained coexistence between the Englishmen and the native tribes collapses into violence, Daniel is forced to decide between dedication to his work, allegiance to his country, and his protective devotion to Tagaran and her people. Inspired by the notebooks of British astronomer William Dawes, The Lieutenant is a remarkable story about the poignancy and emotional power of a friendship that defies linguistic and cultural barriers, and shows one ordinary man that he is capable of exceptional courage.

This also deserved the full five stars (oh, I have been so fortunate with my choices 😍):

What a wonderful book. I have never read anything like this before, an account of the early colonisation of Australia. A young man, sensitive, intelligent and shy, is part of that colony and learns part of the native language from a young aboriginal girl. Their relationship is very innocent and touching. The background about mathematics and astronomy is amazing. I wonder if the main character has autistic traits with his struggle to understand social cues and his fascination for the subjects in my previous sentence. This is a magical book, so well written.

I will definitely look out for other books by Kate Grenville if they are also of this high quality.

48 by James Herbert

The last book of the week, and my final ebook for now as I have a lovely big pile of print books to read, was a much easier and less satisfying read, worth three stars: 48 by James Herbert. Here is the blurb:

In 1945, Hitler unleashed the Blood Death on Britain as his final act of vengeance.

Those who died at once were the lucky ones. The really unfortunate took years. The survivors – people like me, who had the blood group that kept us safe from the disease – were now targets for those who believed our blood could save them.

I survived for three years. I lived alone, spending my days avoiding the fascist Blackshirts who wanted my blood for their dying leader. Then I met the others – and life got complicated all over again . . .

And here is my response:

One of those books where you ignore the clichés and plot holes and just go along for the ride. Rather stereotypical characters, particularly the women. Exciting and gripping throughout with just the right amount of bloodthirsty(!) horror.

I now have a pile of six library books next to my bed and I am going to enjoy working my way through them. Two are books I reserved in response to reading Leviathan Wakes by James S A Corey last week. I will let you know what I think when I have finished them.

Here’s hoping you all enjoy your reading!

Best wishes,

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This was a much more successful week in terms of reading. My life feels as if it is on a seesaw these days: if I am reading a lot it is because I am spending more time ill in bed; if  I am feeling well enough to get up, then I don’t make as much time to read. I suppose it is a case of clouds and silver linings!

Lady of Hay by Barbara Erskine

I was struggling with the huge book Lady of Hay by Barbara Erskine at the end of last week. I did manage to finish it in the end, but it was a bit of a slog. Here is the blurb:

In London, journalist Jo Clifford plans to debunk the belief in past-lives in a hard-hitting magazine piece. But her scepticism is shaken when a hypnotist forces her to relive the experiences of Matilda, Lady of Hay, a noblewoman during the reign of King John.

She learns of Matilda’s unhappy marriage, her love for the handsome Richard de Clare, and the brutal death threats handed out by King John, before it becomes clear that Jo’s past and present are inevitably entwined. She realises that eight hundred years on, Matilda’s story of secret passion and unspeakable treachery is about to repeat itself.

I had read another book by Erskine many years ago, but I couldn’t remember much about it. Lady of Hay has become a classic over the thirty years plus since it was first published. This is what I wrote in my three star review:

I am not really sure why I persevered right to the end of this very long book. I have read a book by Erskine before, many years ago, and had seen that this one is widely regarded as a classic of historical novels. So, I thought that I should give it a go. However, although I enjoyed the historical parts of the story, the sections from the “present” were awful. Set at the time of writing, the 1980s, I simply didn’t recognise the time that I lived through. These characters were almost all unpleasant with what seemed like an unhealthy obsession with alcohol or coffee, but mainly alcohol, at all times of the day, and night. It appears that just about all of them could hypnotise each other with barely a moment’s notice! As to the violence between people who were supposed to care for each other, the lack of any boundaries. Well, let’s just say that the book has dated very badly indeed.

I was so very disappointed with this book and it seems that many other reviewers on Goodreads feel the same!

Leviathan Wakes by James S A Corey

My next book was a welcome return to science fiction and deserved at least four stars. I have already requested some of the sequels in the series from the library, so you can see how positive I feel about Leviathan Wakes by James S A Corey. This is the blurb:

Humanity has colonized the solar system – Mars, the Moon, the Asteroid Belt and beyond – but the stars are still out of our reach.

Jim Holden is XO of an ice miner making runs from the rings of Saturn to the mining stations of the Belt. When he and his crew stumble upon a derelict ship, the Scopuli, they find themselves in possession of a secret they never wanted. A secret that someone is willing to kill for – and kill on a scale unfathomable to Jim and his crew. War is brewing in the system unless he can find out who left the ship and why.

Detective Miller is looking for a girl. One girl in a system of billions, but her parents have money and money talks. When the trail leads him to the Scopuli and rebel sympathizer Holden, he realizes that this girl may be the key to everything.

Holden and Miller must thread the needle between the Earth government, the Outer Planet revolutionaries, and secretive corporations – and the odds are against them. But out in the Belt, the rules are different, and one small ship can change the fate of the universe.

This was my response:

What a great book! I have already put in a request at the library for the next one in the series. I loved the detail of the world building here: the languages, the way that people in the Belt lived and thought. The book was such a rollercoaster ride with the switching points of view and the sudden changes and surprises. I picked it up thinking that it might be a slog. I was totally wrong. Exciting, gripping and highly recommended.

The series itself is called The Expanse and the author name James S A Corey is a pseudonym for two people: Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck. I am sure that I will really enjoy reading more books set in this world.

This was the last of my library book pile and so I turned to ebooks for my next read…

The Seagull by Ann Cleeves

Funnily enough, we had been watching the Vera TV series in the morning and then I saw that the latest in the book series, The Seagull, was available on our library’s ebook catalogue. Visitors to this site will know by now that I am a huge fan of Ann Cleeves’ Shetland and Vera Stanhope series and will read anything I have missed from those. Anyway, here is the blurb for The Seagull:

A visit to her local prison brings DI Vera Stanhope face to face with an old enemy: former detective superintendent, and now inmate, John Brace. Brace was convicted of corruption and involvement in the death of a gamekeeper – and Vera played a key part in his downfall.

Now, Brace promises Vera information about the disappearance of Robbie Marshall, a notorious wheeler-dealer who disappeared in the mid-nineties, if she will look out for his daughter and grandchildren. He tells her that Marshall is dead, and that his body is buried close to St Mary’s Island in Whitley Bay. However, when a search team investigates, officers find not one skeleton, but two.

This cold case case takes Vera back in time, and very close to home, as Brace and Marshall, along with a mysterious stranger known only as ‘the Prof’, were close friends of Hector, her father. Together, they were the ‘Gang of Four’, regulars at a glamorous nightclub called The Seagull. Hector had been one of the last people to see Marshall alive. As the past begins to collide dangerously with the present, Vera confronts her prejudices and unwanted memories to dig out the truth . . .

And here is my four star review:

I read this all in one go on a cold Sunday and it was worth every minute spent on it. I love the character of Vera Stanhope, but I can’t decide whether that is because of the books or because of how Brenda Blethyn plays her in the TV series. Anyway, this was another great read in the series and I enjoyed that we found out more about Vera’s father, Hector. The interplay between the members of Vera’s team is also getting more interesting as the series continues. And long may it do just that!

Race to the Kill by Helen Cadbury

My last book this week was another ebook: Race to the Kill by Helen Cadbury. This is the blurb:

It is the middle of a long night shift for PC Sean Denton and his partner PC Gavin Wentworth when they are approached by a dishevelled-looking woman desperate that they follow her. She leads them to the old Chasebridge High School where they find the dead body of a Syrian refugee. The investigation which points to the neighbouring greyhound stadium finds Denton caught up in a world of immigration, drugs and sexual abuse, and one in which his private life becomes increasingly entwined.

I gave this this one a three star review, although I did enjoy it:

I enjoyed the characters and the setting and at least, for once, the plot did not involve a horrible gory murder of a female victim. Different story arcs were woven together well and the police procedures seemed to be well written. On the other hand, I simply wasn’t gripped by this book and kept drifting away from it and doing something else. Good enough, but could have been better. Sorry to see that the author died in 2017, she had a lot of promise.

If I ever come across the other two books in the series, this was the third, I am sure that I will read them.

Now, I am going to have a look through the ebook service to choose my next read as I don’t have the strength to visit the library yet.

Happy Reading to you all,

Best wishes,

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