'A Hundred Small Lessons' by Ashley Hay

Elsie fell down. This sweet, lovely lady fell down and couldn't get back up, so spent a day or so on the floor of her living room watching the sun pass over the carpet; watching the colours of the day change and how the light changed throughout the house for a while - something she hadn't noticed before - until the police kicked down her door and the paramedics zoomed her off to hospital.

But she never came back home.

This was the sad part - and a sad reality for a lot of elderly people. They are taken to hospital; and from there, they are shuffled off to a home by their family; a family who think they're doing the right thing. 
While she's in the home, Elsie's two children, Don and Elaine empty out her house. Don is a sentimental man who often stops to peruse and remember the good times over photographs, wonder over others and packs things carefully. Elaine just goes through the place like a bull in a china shop and throws out things she doesn't think is important (whether it is or not doesn't interest her - just getting rid of the 'junk' is the main thing).

However, when Don takes the boxes of things to Elsie's new home, he discovers he's picked up the wrong one and finds that everything he's given her are things she hates. The blue mug that was on the counter near the sink was Elsie's favourite... and all the photos in the box in the ceiling (did he check there? No, he didn't) were the ones she loved the most. And why did he bring this vase? It's hideous. It was then, he realised he should have had her right there.

But the house has been sold to a lovely couple who are young: Lucy Kiss and her husband Ben, with their sweet little boy, Tom. While Ben is in his hometown of Brisbane, Lucy has found this humid city of large, purple-flowering trees is strange and unusual to her. She doesn't like it that it rains so much, she doesn't know her way around as much as she does in Sydney, and the old house they bought still has the old-fashioned fittings of the 1960's. 

Lucy is finding things from the life of Elsie, things she thinks the older woman would want back at some point; but she never gets around to contacting the previous owner. She starts drinking out the blue mug she found behind the front door (why was it there?). The photos in the ceiling were beautiful, but who were they of? And does she really like Brisbane really?


I've read Australian books before - even Brisbane-based books - and for a good part of the time, I've loved them. However, as the small chapters moved on, I found it harder and harder to read them. This is a very melancholy book to read - which isn't really my thing, but it's nice to get into one of them once in a while - but I found this book very depressing. It started off sounding lovely, sweet and pretty. It had all the right turns of phrase, and made me want to read more. Then, something in it change, and I found it was becoming harder and harder to read, and I simply lost interest in it. This is why this is an Unfinished Read. 

Unable To Read

This past week, I was hoping to get my nose into some creepy books - for October and Halloween. However, I've had enough creepiness going on around my real life to cater my imagination for yonks.

I haven't been sleeping all that great and so, my focus for reading isn't here. I started 'Magician' by Raymond E Feist and this stalled when things became complicated around my unit complex. 

Don't you hate it when life interferes so much with everything else, it stuffs up what you really want to do in your spare time? Yeah, me too. So, 'Magician' is on hold at the moment, sitting there staring at me with a bookmark only a tiny way through chapter 1. 

If only I hadn't asked the neighbour two doors down to turn down his music, none of this would have happened... no, it would have, but much later. How frustrating this is. Well, my posts should improve soon once things settle down. Until my next post, happy reading!

'Other People's Diaries' by Kathy Webb

Alice Day is a washed-up writer who was once well-known and famous from her one and only book titled 'Her Life My Life'.  But that was a decade ago; and since then, she has gotten married, had children and settled into the humdrum of domestic life.  But she wants to write again and get back into being known again.  

So, after working at a local bookstore in Brisbane for a few weeks, she finds that the people who frequent its cafe are not happy.  It's not the service or the books they're not happy about; it's their lives.  This gets her thinking about how much our lives have changed and she begins looking through her Grandmother's belongings and listening to her cassette tapes - the same ones which inspired her first book - and Alice is yet again inspired to write.  This time, it's not about herself, or her family or anything like that - this time, she wants to help other people by changing the small things in their lives which will impact on the bigger things in a positive way.  But will this project work?

I have another book by Kathy Webb, however it's under two different names; and I didn't know it was her until I saw what other books she had written in the front of this one - 'Inheriting Jack' - and so I thought that this book would be a good one to get into as a light one between The Dark Tower books.  But I have found it goes around in circles a fair bit and hit on more of the same characters instead of all of them evenly.  I found it very confusing and couldn't tell which character was which after a while - and I'm not yet halfway through it - and this is a worry when it's a book like this.

I've tried looking for an official website about Kathy Webb, but have only tracked down one other book review about this book which informs us that Kathy Webb and Kris Wilson are sisters who work from different parts of the world to write books together; and this book is their third book.  Until my next post, happy reading.

Me & Her by Karen Tyrrell

Being a school teacher isn't easy; especially when so much is expected of you from the parents of some of the students.  Karen's life at school is hard, however when the parents of a couple of students begin to make her life so stressful she can't cope anymore, she finds that it begins to affect her personal life as well.  While on their way to a school reunion, her husband has to take her to a hospital because he finds she isn't making any sense to him.

However, by the time they return, things seem fine; but they're not.  Nightmares haunt her while she sleeps and working at school with children who try to provoke her is really taking its toll.  So, Karen does the one thing she knows:  she runs away.  She packs a bag, pulls out all her money from an ATM and stays at a cheap hotel for a week where she thinks she's okay.  This is until the police find her and take her to a hospital for her own good.

This book is an amazing journey through a serious medical and personal hell one of my friends went through.  It's hard to talk about mental illness and even harder to write about it.  However, Karen Tyrell has done it in this brilliant book.  I found it a tough read and haven't been able to finish it as it's something I can't really handle.  I will keep the book and try to read it at a later date,though.  This is well worth a read; and is available on Amazon as well as in e-book form too.

Last Night In Twisted River by John Irving

This book begins with a death of a young man named Angel who drowns. The first few chapters are well-written.  I love how the characters fit in well with each other, the feelings that are put across are brilliant!  I love it right up until around chapter four when John Irving began repeating himself every half page.  

There is something about books that John Irving writes that make me want to attempt reading them again and again.  Now, I have never completed one of his works; and it's because around a third way through, something happens in the writing I lose interest.  I'm not sure if it's because of the way he writes, the way the story has twisted around or how I'm feeling at the time, but I don't see the whole story the same way as I did three pages ago (even though I go back and re-read it, it changes in the same place; I see where it has changed).

So, I'm afraid to say, this is another of John Irving's works I've been unable to complete.  The other one was 'The World According to Garp' which was turned into a fantastic movie, but the book was something I couldn't fathom.  I guess it's each to their own.  Until my next post, happy reading!

The Impossible Reads

Over the years, I've read some fantastic books; and I've read some horrible ones too.  However, there have been books that have really been unreadable.  I have wondered how these authors actually get themselves published - and keep on making enough money to be published again and again.  Now, I don't put down a book all that often, but when I do, it's for a really good reason.

This year, I have put down two books.  Out of eighteen books that's pretty good.  And now, I'm about to put down my third book; and it's a big one.  It's 'The Mists of Avalon' by Marion Zimmer Bradley.  Now, I've had this book on my shelves for a very long time - years actually - and I've made three attempts at reading it; and failed each time before reaching chapter twelve.  So, is it me?  Is it my attention span shortening?  Have I found better things to read other than sci-fi fantasy?  No.  It's just this book is huge and it's one of the most vague and difficult to get into - and I read over twenty pages on the weekend and when I put the bookmark back in, it didn't even look like I read any thing!

There's been another post on The New Dork Review of Books

and he has written down the most ban-able books according to him.  I think 'The Mists of Avalon' should be included; along with 'Baudolino' by Umberto Eco and 'Tipping the Velvet' by Sara Waters.  Now the last one has had rave reviews; it may have been me having problems focusing.  However, I found that once the story moved to London, it slowed right down.  I have also found 'Enchanting April' a dreadful read too; as that also slowed down to a very pensive speed just when I thought it was going to get interesting.
So what's done it for you?  What made you put down a book?  Was it how slow it was?  Focusing problems (as it can strike even the most avid reader from time to time) or was that book just bloody horrible?  Until my next post, happy reading!

Baudolino by Umberto Eco

It is April 1204 and Constantinople is being sack and burned by the Knights of the Fourth Crusade.  Amid the carnage and confusion, one Baudolino saves a Byzantine historian and high court official from certain death and proceeds to tell his own fantastical story.

I have found a few of this author's books in my travels and just this year thought to sit down and read them.  This is the first one I thought to open up and read; and fortunately, I do love a challenge with my reading.  But I found this book so dreadfully boring that - even though I only got 50 pages in - I found myself dreading opening its pages each day.  It didn't hold my attention (and I'm one to read classic novels) and I'm not sure if I'll be reading anymore of his books soon.

Umberto Eco was born in the city of Alessandria in the Italian region of Piedmont,  right in the middle of the Genova, Milan, Turin triangle.  Before he was drafted to fight in 3 wars, his father, Giulio Eco, was an accountant.  Young Umberto and his mother, Giovanna, moved to a small village in the Piedmontese mountainside during the Second World War.

Eco received a Salesian education, and he has made references to the order and its founder in his works and interviews.

His family name is supposedly an acronym of ex caelis oblatus (Latin: a gift from the heavens), which was given to his grandfather (a foundling) by a city official.

His father came from a family of thirteen children, and was very keen fo Umberto to read Law, but instead he entered the University of Turin in order to take up medieval philosophy and literature. Umberto's thesis was on the topic of Thomas Aquinas and this earned him a BA in philosophy in 1954. In that period, Eco abandoned the Roman Catholic Church after a crisis of faith.

Following this, Eco worked as a cultural editor for RAI, Radiotelevisione Italiana, the state broadcasting station, he also became a lecturer at the University of Turin (1956–64).

A group of avant-garde artists—painters, musicians, writers—whom he had befriended at RAI (Gruppo 63) became an important and influential component in Eco's future writing career. This was especially true after the publication of his first book in 1956, Il problema estetico di San Tommaso, which was an extension of his doctoral thesis. This also marked the beginning of his lecturing career at his alma mater.

In September 1962, he married Renate Ramge, a German art teacher with whom he has a son and a daughter. He divides his time between an apartment in Milan and a vacation house near Rimini. He has a 30,000 volume library in the former and a 20,000 volume library in the latter.

The Enchanted April by Elizabeth Von Armin

Two women from 1920's London spot an advertisement in 'The Times' wanting four people to rent a castle in Italy for the month of April.  Both of them want to go; but they wonder if they should.  As they plan how much it will cost, they figure out who to invite and find two other women to take with them.  One is Lady Caroline and the other Mrs Fisher.  The one difference about them all is that none of them have anything in common; except they love the castle they arrive at.  It's breath-takingly beautiful, overlooks the sea, has the most wonderful gardens surrounding it... yet, these four women will find that - as April moves on - they will be uplifted, changed and freed.

When I received this book in the mail, I thought it was going to be a wonderful, old-fashioned classic.  And it is.  However, I have found that it does ebb and flow in its chapters; something which bothers me when a writer really should speed up at the right places.  I found there was too much thinking; it's a very pensive book and something I find isn't to my liking.  So, I'm afraid to say that I didn't finish the book in the required time for two reasons:  the first was that I celebrated my birthday last Tuesday and I didn't get a chance to do anything much over the last few days but put together a home theatre system.  The other was that I lost interest in the book.  I did try to pick it up many times, however, it failed to keep me interested.  I guess it's just not my type of book.

Elizabeth von Arnim (née Mary Annette Beauchamp, `May’) was born 31 August 1866 at Kiribili Point, Sydney, Australia. In 1871 the Beauchamps left Australia to live in Switzerland for a time before settling in England. Arnim attended the Blythwood House School in London, then Queen's College School in Horn Lane, Acton in 1881.In 1889 she travelled abroad to Rome with her father when she met a German nobleman, Count Henning August von Arnim (1851–1910). Two years later they married in London at St. Stephen's, Kensington, 21 February 1891. 

Writing was the refuge for Arnim in her, what turned out to be, incompatible marriage. They were now living on the vast and somewhat neglected von Arnim estate, Nassenheide, in Pomerania.Arnim’s husband had increasing debts and was eventually sent to prison for fraud. This was when she created her pen name `Elizabeth' and launched her career as a writer by anonymously publishing her semi-autobiographical, brooding yet satirical Elizabeth and her German Garden. (1898) It would be such a success as to be reprinted twenty times in it's first year. A bitter-sweet memoir and companion to it was The Solitary Summer, (1899) and The Benefactress (1902) was also semi-autobiographical.

in August of 1910 Count Henning August von Arnim died. Arnim left London to move back to her beloved Switzerland, where she had such great memories from her youth. She built Château Soleil near Randogne sur Sierre, Valais.  In 1914 Arnim fell in love with John Francis Stanley Russell, second Earl Russell, (1865–1931) Bertrand Russell's older brother. They moved back to England and on 11 February 1916 she became Countess Russell. She almost immediately regretted this whirlwind marriage and fled to the United States. 

The same year Armin had left Russell for good. What many say is Arnim's masterpiece, Vera, (1921) is a condemnation of Russell. It would not be the lat time she caricatures him. The Enchanted April (1922) again contains themes of feminine protest and male tyranny. Four women leave gloomy London to embark on a rejuvenating trip to sunny southern Italy. There was also a movie based on it. Arnim's affair with Alexander Stuart Frere (1892–1984) inspired Love. (1925) Titles to follow were Father, (1931) The Jasmine Farm Mr Skeffington. (1940)  

(1934) and when World War II broke out however she travelled to the United States to reside there. Dealing with the one constant and consistent source of acceptance and love in her life, Arnim's autobiographical All the Dogs of my Life was printed in 1936. On 9 February 1941 Elizabeth von Arnim died from complications of influenza at the Riverside Infirmary in Charleston, South Carolina.

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

From the back cover:  'Six interlocking lives - one amazing adventure.  In a narrative that circles the globe and reaches from the 19th Century to a post-apocalyptic future, David Mitchell erases the boundaries of time, genre and language to offer an enthralling vision of humanity's will to power, and where it will lead us.'

I love reading unusual books; but this one just hasn't done it for me.  It's got all the hooks and wonderful bits I'd expect from an usual text but it took too long to pull me in with too many characters to keep a track of.  I found myself feeling dragged down and not wanting to read it when I really did need to get going with it.  So, I haven't finished this book and moved onto another.

Born in Southport in 1969, David Mitchell grew up in Malvern, Worcestershire, studying for a degree in English and American Literature followed by an MA in Comparative Literature, at the University of Kent. He lived for a year in Sicily before moving to Hiroshima, Japan, where he taught English to technical students for eight years, before returning to England.

His first novel, Ghostwritten (1999).  His second novel, number9dream (2001), was shortlisted for the 2002 Man Booker Prize for fiction.  His third novel, Cloud Atlas (2004) was shortlisted for the 2004 Man Booker Prize for Fiction, and was followed by Black Swan Green (2006).

David Mitchell lives in Ireland. His most recent book is The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet (2010).

Under The Dome by Stephen King

One afternoon in Spring 2009, a massive dome lowers over the small town of Chester's Mill, Maine. While one guy, Barbie, runs into it while he walks out of town, a plane slams into it as it takes its passengers on a flying lesson; killing them both. Around Chester's Mill, other people are effected. One gardener has her hand chopped off and two elderly ladies who were on their way back to the small town are both kill when their car slams into the invisible barrier of the dome. Over the next couple of days, the residents of Chester's Mill find out who is their friend and who is their enemy. But by Halloween, something is going to happen.... something really bad. The one thing Barbie knows is that he has to get rid of the dome before Halloween; there are a few problems standing in his way. Right now, he's been framed and is in prison, most of the town's teenagers are amateur police officers and the richest man in town is holding the whole town to ransom. With only a few people who know Barbie's innocent, he needs all the help he can get!

I bought this tome of a book for myself for Christmas. At this time of year, I usually buy myself a few gifts that I know my family won't get me; and seeing I live on my own, it's usually the only the time of year I go all out and spoil myself. However, this book wasn't anything I was pleased with. I have been struggling with it for almost 3 months and should have finished it weeks ago. However it was how it's been written that bugs me. Anyone who has read 'The Stand' will see great similarities between this book and that one; but if you have gone to the trouble to read the unabridged edition of 'The Stand', you'll understand even more where I'm going when I say this book got to a point where I dreaded opening it when my afternoon reading time came around. King is a great story-teller and he is wonderful with detailed information. However, he put every single person in this book under the microscope; and it drove me to distraction. What was more frustrating was that if I skipped over any paragraph or pages, I missed something in the next chapter. This book forced me to read every little bit and detail; and I really don't like that when a writer expects that much from their readers in a book of this size.
I do love reading his older works; however I've found it harder to get into his newer stuff, but I do keep trying to read each new book as it comes out.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Liesel Meminger is around ten years old when she's placed into a foster home in Nazi-Germany after the sudden death of her brother and the disappearance of her mother. At first, she hates being at this dull and uninspiring place where her foster mother is horrible, curses and swears a lot at her husband and treat Liesel terribly. However, there's Papa. The man who is cursed and sworn at by her foster mother. Papa's gentle and kind. He knows how to read - well, a little and very slowly. And this is the very thing that Liesel wishes to do when one night, after a horrible nightmare, Papa discovers that she had been hiding a book between the mattresses of her bed. So, in the late hours of the night, her lessons on reading begin; and so does the passion to read more. However, seeing how hard it is to find a good book to read, Liesel begins to steal them; her first one being from a Nazi book-burning one night. Then, she begins taking them from the mayor's wife's library and anywhere else she can find them.

I was curious about this book when it first came out. However, I didn't rush out to purchase it because of when it was set; I didn't wish to own a book about a book thief set in this particular time in case I didn't feel comfortable about. And when I received this one in the mail as a bookring from Bookcrossing I gave it a try; keeping an open mind to it. However, I could barely get halfway through this one. The story is brilliantly executed and I love the imagery, however, it's the time that it's set that I just can't get my head around.

Australian author Markus Zusak grew up hearing stories about Nazi Germany, about the bombing of Munich and about Jews being marched through his mother’s small, German town. He always knew it was a story he wanted to tell.
At the age of 30, Zusak has already asserted himself as one of today’s most innovative and poetic novelists. With the publication of The Book Thief, he is now being dubbed a ‘literary phenomenon’ by Australian and U.S. critics. Zusak is the award-winning author of four previous books for young adults: The Underdog, Fighting Ruben Wolfe, Getting the Girl, and I Am the Messenger, recipient of a 2006 Printz Honor for excellence in young adult literature. He lives in Sydney.