Critics Corner - give us your reviews of your recent reading

[Howard]

Aha! An opportunity for cultural exchange: in America (and perhaps elsewhere?), Murphy's law is that if anything can possibly go wrong, it will, and usually at the worst possible moment. From context, I gather that Sod's law is the same, or similar?

[Hilary]

That's right Antipodes but Murphy's Law sounds more polite. Although Sod's Law is commonly used, sod is also used as a relatively mild expletive and so I suspect sod is short for sodomite.

[[deleted user]]

Here is the Wikipedia on the similarities and differences between Sod and Murphy's laws
Sod's law


Sod's law is a name for the axiom that "if something can go wrong, it will".Toast tending to land butter side down is often given as an example of Sod's law in action. The phrase is seemingly derived, at least in part, from the colloquialism an "unlucky sod"; a term for someone who has had some bad unlucky experience, and is usually used as a sympathetic reference to the person.

The term is still used in the United Kingdom, though in North America the eponymous "Murphy's law" is more popular.

Sod's law is similar to, but broader than, Murphy's law ("Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong"). For example, concepts such as "bad fortune will be tailored to the individual" and "good fortune will occur in spite of the individual's actions" are sometimes given as examples of Sod's law in action. This would broaden Sod's law to a general sense of being "mocked by fate". In these aspects it is similar to some definitions of irony, particularly the irony of fate. Murphy's technological origin on John Stapp's Project MX981 is more upbeat—it was a reminder to the engineers and team members to be cautious and make sure everything was accounted for, to let no stone be left unturned—not an acceptance of an uncaring uninfluenceable fate.

[Hilary]

Good grief - that's conprehensive!

[Hilary]

The Criminal Conversation of Mrs Norton - Dianne Atkinson
This is one of the best biographies I've read. It reads like a novel and I couldn't put it down.

Caroline Norton was the granddaughter of Richard Sheridan, the famous playwright and so moved in the very best social, political and literary circles. Her widowed mother persuaded her to marry George Norton at the age of 18 after she had been misled as to his wealth and career prospects.

A weak, cold and jealous man, who was sometimes physically violent towards Caroline, he manipulated her into using her wit, intelligence and beauty to persuade her friends of influence to get him positions which would increase his income. Principal among these friends was Lord Melbourne who held several high offices in the government, including that of Prime Minister. In an effort to disgrace Melbourne and punish Caroline, he sued him for damages for having "criminal conversation" with his wife, the term for adultery at the time. He lost the case and so set about making Caroline's life as difficult and miserable as possible. She was an established poet, songwriter and author and eventually "made good", changing the law, getting back access to her sons and to a large extent her position in society.

Sorry to have made his review so long but I cannot recommend this book highly enough. A fascinating, determined and clever woman.

[Joy]

Major Benjy

The author, Guy Fraser-Sampson, takes the characters created by E.F. Benson in his Mapp & Lucia series, and creates a 'further adventure'. This story is set after Miss Mapp & before Lucia arrives in Tilling.
At first I felt it read like fan-fiction; the author borrows phrases and gestures that the original characters use as a kind of shorthand to establish them. However as the story developed it began to take on a life of its own and I found it very funny in places.
There were minor irritations - my edition hasn't been adequately proof-read, so a number of typos.
I think you probably need to have read the originals to enjoy this tribute. The story doesn't have E.F. Benson's sparkle, but it's an entertaining light read.

[[deleted user]]

Has any one ever come across a really good "sequel" by a different author to the original? I think the only books of this genre that I have enjoyed have been the Sherlock Holmes Laurie King books that purport to be written by the lady he married after his "retirement" to the Suffolk Downs.

[Hilary]

I don't think I've ever read any sequels by different authors but I was attracted to P D James sequel to Pride and Prejudice as I have enjoyed her other books.

[Angela]

I'd be interested to read the Sherlock you mentioned Lee. I bought my husband the one by Sebastian Faulks last year which he thought was 'okay'. Apparently he is writing another one too.

Also, sorry if I missed it earlier, but what did you think of Daughters of the House?

[[deleted user]]

I was a bit disappointed with it I'm afraid - I think it was because I just couldn't latch on to any of the characters - also it had one of those endings which leaves you (or me at least) with no idea what's happened to one of the 2 main characters - and I can't be doing with that. It's a shame because the subject - 2 young girls discovering dark secrets from WWII which later come back to haunt them - is one that appeals to me.
I think Laurel was thinking of reading it too - perhaps she'll get on better with it.

[Angela]

Oh dear. Well it's good to know. Often a book synopsis is more gripping than the actual materials so I am glad for your comments.

[Ellie]

Hilary, I've not read the PD James P&P sequel but saw the TV adaption last Christmas. I'm not sure if was a poor adaption of the book itself, but I worked out whodunit by the end if the first of three episodes :-(

[Hilary]

I think I'll stick to her detective stories in that case, Ellie.

[[deleted user]]

@ Angela - my favourites of the Laurie King Sherlock sequels are:
A Letter of Mary, A Monstrous Regiment of Women and The Moor.
They're in the "Mary Russell" series of books.

[Joy]

Goblin Moon
I'm finding it quite hard to sum up my feelings on this book. For almost all of it, I thought it was brilliant. The author successfully creates a completely believable & intriguing parallel world, where magic exists but isn't the obvious feature it is in Terry Pratchett's Discworld for example. There's enough description to give a rich texture, without holding up the story. (view spoiler)[ As an aside I loved the idea that society wives would have a funeral for their husbands before their deaths - the mourning parades have a somewhat Victorian feel, I thought. (hide spoiler)] The characters are rounded and interesting and the plot-lines gripped me.
BUT (you knew it was coming) the ending felt like a real let-down. (view spoiler)[ Elsie's rescue happens just too quickly & easily, as does Skelbrooke's escape. (hide spoiler)] I realise there is a sequel, but there were too many loose ends left hanging. (view spoiler)[ what was the reason for the creation of the homumculus? Who was Thomas Kelly and why was he so violent? I thought the idea of the coffin acting as a kind of suspended animation chamber was very original, but I wanted to know who had created, when & why (hide spoiler)] I needed the plots to intertwine and support each other at he end. The only link between the threads seemed to be the characters.

Lee - I see you enjoyed this novel - how did the ending strike you?

[[deleted user]]

I agree that the ending was a bit unsatisfactory - but I loved the book as a whole - kind of a mad, supernatural regency romance.

[[deleted user]]

Remembering how much I enjoyed this book - I just had to order the sequel:0)

[[deleted user]]

Yesterday I finished How Steeple Sinderby Wanderers Won the Fa Cup, I read A Month in the Country a while ago and loved it - How Steeple Sinderby Wanderers Won the Fa Cup is entirely different both in style and subject matter but just as good.
You don't have to be a football fan to enjoy this book - yes it is about a small village amateur football club who decide to win the F.A. Cup but it's more about the members of the club, and their ingenious almost Machiavellian schemes to ensure success than the game of football itself.. It's bitter sweet, endearing and very, very funny . Read it - I insist.

[Joy]

Lee wrote: "Remembering how much I enjoyed this book - I just had to order the sequel:0)"

Did you have to order it from America?

[[deleted user]]

I did indeed - by the time it arrives, I will have forgotten all about it so it will be a nice surprise :0)

[Anna]

@Lee - I like the sound of the Steeple Sinderby Wanderers! I think I'll have to create a new list for books & authors I've learned about by being part of this group.

[[deleted user]]

It's great isn't it :0)

[Anna]

I recently read The Hunchback of Notre-Dame.
It was one of the hardest books I've ever tackled - full of long passages about the design of the cathedral, the layout of medieval Paris, old French names of districts, churches, saints and coins. You also have to contend with words like donjon, arquebus, minever, machicolations, targes!!

But I'm glad I read it as the story is brilliant - more so than any film version. It's a complex tragedy. Archdeacon Frollo starts out as a decent guy: loves learning, adopts and cares for a deformed foundling, spoils his younger brother. But the fatal flaw in his character is his obsessiveness and when this gets directed at La Esmeralda it sends him mad with possessive lust. It turns him evil and his desperate plots to own the girl bring about the destruction of himself, her, his brother, his adopted son and very nearly the cathedral itself. By contrast the hideous, deaf, simple Quasimodo has the purest love for Esmeralda, only wishing to protect, and not possess, her.

The book contains many superfluous details from architecture to vagabond culture, lots of characters from King Louis down to penniless poet Gringoire, long dialogues and Latin quotations. So a bit of a struggle but worth it. Guess I’ll have to try ‘Les Mis’ next.

[[deleted user]]

Another one for the to read list. :0)

[Hilary]

I love this book and have read it several times. It always leaves me in tears!

[Angela]

It does sound magical! Great review Anna :)

[Hilary]

Perdido Street Station 1 was recommended by Laurel. Although I struggled with it a little to begin with I have just read the final 40% of it in one sitting.

It's a long time since I have read a fantasy book that is so imaginative and well constructed. The characters are totally engaging, even when the are doing disturbing things (view spoiler)[ the description of Isaac looking at a pigeon he had pinned, alive, to a board almost made me leave the book (hide spoiler)]. Each page seems to introduce yet another exotic creation of the author's mind, each one fitting into the whole. The ending feels tragic, right, unfair and full of hope all at the same time. I think this is an outstanding book and Yagharek is someone I'll not forget easily.

[Laurel]

Yay!!! Glad you liked it Hilary! I thought it was amazing and his imagination is unbelievable. I'm all happy inside that you liked something I recommended :)

[Hilary]

Thank you for mentioning it Laurel! Have you read the two others set in New Crobuzon

[Laurel]

Yes, I have read them both. Perdido Street Station was my favourite but the other two are also definitely worth a read if you enjoyed that one ;) Also his The City and the City is brilliant too - like noir with shades of Orwell and Kafka, loved it.

[Hilary]

Thanks Laurel, I'll add them to the list

[[deleted user]]

Perdido Street is already on my to read list - looks like I need to bump it up the waiting list :0)

[[deleted user]]

Mr. Chartwell
Throughout his life Winston Churchill suffered from a depression that he called the Black Dog. The conceit of this book is that depression really is a large visible, audible (and smellable) black dog which has just moved in with Esther Hammerhans a recently widowed librarian at the House of Commons.
Now I know that this sounds ridiculous, but Rebecca Hunt manages to turn it in to a funny, moving and very wise story about fighting depression. I loved it and think that it is going to be one of my favourite books.

[[deleted user]]

The Murder of Halland does indeed start with the murder of Halland - buts it's less a murder mystery than an exploration of the effect of the murder on his grieving partner Bess and others who knew him. Bess is a complicated and eccentric person and she continually shocks the people around her with her unconventional reactions to her partner's death.
As we find out more about Bess she discovers some confusing and disturbing facts about Halland. There's a lot to think about in this "Nordic noir" novella - I really enjoyed it.

[[deleted user]]

The Palace of Dreams is set in an alternative Ottoman Empire sometime in the 19th century, where the government is so controlling that it even examines it's subjects dreams.
At the beginning of the book we join Mark-Alem on his first day in the labyrinthian head quarters of the Tabir Serrail ( the Bureau of Sleep and Dreams) - the organisation which collects and interprets dreams from all over the Empire. Every week a particularly significant "Master Dream" is chosen and sent with it's interpretation to the Sultan - an event which often leads to sudden policy changes, broken alliances and even imprisonments and executions.
As Mark-Alem learns more about the mysterious workings of the Palace of Dreams he becomes increasingly concerned about the use that the dreams are being put to.
The book it's self has a rather surreal feel to it - it's like one of those particularly eerie dreams where everything seems quite normal on the surface but you know that something very weird is going on underneath.

[Hilary]

Three Men in a Boat just finished this and it was every bit as good as you said Lee! I thoroughly enjoyed the adventures of these three incompetents on the river. Some of the phrases made me laugh out loud. And I intend to note them so that I can repeat them! Particularly to those who fish. It seems such a modern book to have been written in the last century, it's certainly one of those which doesn't date. It really made me want to travel the Thames myself and I hate boating! Thanks Lee.

[[deleted user]]

So glad you enjoyed it Hilary - it's one of my all time favourites and I wish I could persuade everyone to read it - for the good of humankind :0)

[Anna]

All Quiet on the Western Front is a very powerful anti-war novel by Erich Maria Remarque who was sent to the front line aged 18 and was wounded at Passchendale such that he didn’t return to active service (so he was one of the lucky ones)
Brilliantly written but, of course, very tragic and upsetting. It follows the terrible experiences of a group of teenage German schoolboys who are cajoled by a jingoistic schoolteacher into enlisting to fight in the Great War. Some take their schoolbooks with them! It brings home the true horror of it all – the relentless shelling, awful food, ghastly injuries and especially the mental and emotional effects like the sheer terror, the savagery of the kill-or-be-killed situations, the despair in summer 1918 when they hear rumours of peace but the war, from their point of view, is getting worse with no end in sight. There is also, during respites, comradeship and tomfoolery to keep them sane and alive. There is no happy ending though. I think this book will haunt me for a long time.

[Cleo]

Can I link my review to my blog, or would the mods like it written out on this thread?

[[deleted user]]

Whichever way you'd like to do it is fine :0)

[Hilary]

The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford.

When I came across this book in the local Oxfam shop, I only looked at it because the author sounded vaguely familiar although I knew I'd never read anything by him. A thin book, it is very simply a monologue, in a conversational style, by John Dowell an American living in Europe. It describes the development of a friendship between he and his wife and an English couple, Edward and Leonora Ashburnham. Set before WWI, in the social circles familiar to anyone who has read anything of F Scott Fitzgerald, it is a study in deceit, betrayal, and the dangers of assuming that a persons true character and motivation is the same as their public persona.

You are aware from the beginning that something dreadful has happened, but what and why is only slowly revealed, in the way that it would be in a conversation, in backtracking and a slightly rambling fashion. I generally find this kind of structure irritating but in this book, it is so in tune with the characters and the story, so beautifully written, it was just perfect. An unexpected gem.

[Cleo]

Hilary wrote: "The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford.

When I came across this book in the local Oxfam shop, I only looked at it because the author sounded vaguely familiar although I kne…"

Thanks for the wonderful review. The Good Soldier is on the Guardian's 1001 list, which I plan to tackle one year, so it is good to know that I can look forward to it.

[Angela]

Great review Hilary! And I do love the appeal of a thin book. On the TBR it goes :)

[[deleted user]]

Sounds amazing - I've been meaning to read it for ages and shall definitely bump it up the list now.

[Joy]

I think I'd like to try The Good Soldier. Did you see the film of Parade's End with Benedict Cumberbatch? I thought it was brilliant, although I haven't read the book.

[Joy]

Have just finished a re-read of A Suitable Boy. I first read it a long while ago and think it's superb. Here's a link to my review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Cleo]

Joy wrote: "Have just finished a re-read of A Suitable Boy. I first read it a long while ago and think it's superb. Here's a link to my review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show..."

A Suitable Boy is on my TBR-but-I'm-not-sure-when-I'll-get-to-it list. ;-) Your review has moved it up a number of notches. A great synopsis!

[Cleo]

Here is my review of Madame Bovary

I was a little so-so with this book. Has anyone else read it and, if so, what did you think?

[[deleted user]]

Two great reviews - I must try A Suitable Boy again - I tried it years ago and I think I was too young for it.
Never really fancied Madame Bovary but thought I should try it . Your review has dissuaded me Cleo :0)

[Hilary]

Three Day Road

This book was chosen by a member of my book group to commemorate WW1. it tells the story of two members of the Cree tribe, living in the traditional way, who volunteer to serve in the Canadian army shipped over to fight in France. Alternate chapters are narrated by "Auntie" Niska and by Xavier, her nephew as he fights in France. The author says he writes it to honour the Native soldiers who fought in the Great War and particularly mentions Francis Pegahmagabow, scout, sniper and one of Canada's most important heroes.

While I thought the book was slightly overlong, and the descriptions of the violence and atrocities carried out, sometimes a little overdone, its descriptions of the culture of the Cree and the conflict and the confusion experienced by Xavier and his "brother" Elijah is excellent. I enjoyed this book very much and found it moving. Perhaps the saddest aspect of it, was not the physical violence and destruction but the gradual erosion of the morality and friendship of the two displaced Cree as they learn to survive in an alien culture totally focussed on killing.