I have been reading...

So, after finishing the two YA novels in my last post, I did what I'd been promising myself I'd do for several years - a reread of The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. 

The first thing I'll do is post a link to my review of 2007. It's HERE. That's an OK description of the book, I think, so I won't go into describing it all over again. I didn't reread that before I did my reread as I wanted to go into it having forgotten most of the detail, which I had. Thus, the gorgeousness of The Historian took me by surprise all over again. I knew of course that it was long and rambly, 650 pages long and rambly in fact, and that's a bit of a committment. And it did take me 10 days to read. But that fine, I don't mind that when I know what I'm getting into. Several things I had forgotten about this book. Firstly the sense of menace from Vlad Dracula, and those in league with him, that runs right through the book. I'd forgotten how wrapped up I got in the mystery of what has happened to various people like Elena's mother, Professor Rossi and then later, her father. I'd also forgotten how rich this book is in history and travel and how much Elizabeth Kostova clearly loves Eastern Europe. This book is quite the love letter to it and we visit Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, plus Balkan countries such as Croatia and Greece. Other cities such as Paris and Instanbul also play a big part. I'm going to be controversial now and say that I like The Historian better than I like Bram Stoker's Dracula. That's purely because the whole book suits my reading tastes slightly more than Stoker's classic. Ryan from Wordsmithonia commented on my last post that he didn't find The Historian too long and actually wanted more. Me too. And the author must be aware of how many people feel like that, because there's a kind of sequel coming out in October 2026, Mystery Play. I believe this will be set in Boston, or at least starts out there, knowing this author, heaven only knows where the book will end up. I can't wait and wish it wasn't a whole year before it's published. 

Next up is, The World Beneath by Rebecca Cantrell.

This is book one in the author's 'Joe Tesla' series and was recommended to me by a lovely visitor a few weeks ago. Joe Tesla used to work for a tech company (possibly owned it, I can't quite remember) but had to retire unexpectedly when he became afflicted with agoraphobia. It's dibilitating of course and he ends up living in a house that was built in the New York subway, with his service dog, Edison. Joe becomes suspect number one in a murder case when he comes across a frantic young man dismantling a bricked up entrance to something in the subway. Feeling threatened, Joe leaves the scene, only to come back later and find an abandoned railway carriage behind the wall and the young man beaten to death. There are also three very old skeletons. Joe, unable to face being taken outside by the police goes on the run and with the help of a female security guard tries to prove his innocence. So, I'm not really a massive reader of thrillers and elements of this were outside my comfort zone, I can't say what as it would involve spoilers. Suffice it to say, it was scary in a militaristic manner. (To be honest it's fairly obvious from the beginning the kind of thing that's going on.) I was attracted to this because of the underground aspect, tunnels and hidden worlds and secrets and all that. And the book delivered. I thoroughly enjoyed it, it was fast paced, exciting and I loved the dog. It wasn't perfect... Joe sees numbers as colours and while I suppose that's interesting I found it a bit intrusive to read. Luckily, there wasn't heaps of it. I will definitely read on in this four part series. For a start there's the mystery of what happened to Joe to cause his agoraphobia, it's clear from the book that it didn't just happen randomly. I had already read one other book by Rebecca Cantrell, Blood Gospel, a rather good vampire yarn: she might become a new favourite author. Who knows? And that's the joy of reading. 

So my two current reads are:

 

This is basically what it says on the tin, a book about British weather... mainly wild and woolly weather I notice. The writing is 'so' beautiful but then I knew it would be as I've read Matt Gaw's delightful book about rivers. 

And this: 

 

Fabulous cover on this edition of Bleak House by Dickens. It's a painting by John Atkinson Grimshaw and entitled Waterloo Lake, Leeds. (The lake was built by soldiers returning from the Napoleonic wars.) This is a Dickens novel I've not read but I have seen the BBC adaptation from 2005, so the storyline is quite familiar. Author, Katie Lumsden, is hosting a 2 month readalong of the novel on Youtube so I thought I would join in. I'm only 70 pages in but am already hooked. One thing I had definitely not expected... it's funny, the tone is humorous. Well, well. Nice that I can still be taken by surprise. 

I hope you're all keeping well. The clocks go back tonight in the UK and BST disappears. Time to get out all the wintery, spooky, atmosperic books you can find, sit in your favourite chair and hibernate. Happy autumn reading. 

 

Two Young Adult books

It seems crazy that we're in mid-October already and people I know are already thinking about Christmas! One piece of sad news is that the blogging community lost one of its best loved bloggers a few weeks ago, Nan from Letters from a Hill Farm.  She was beloved by many for her gentle kindness and interest in all things to do with gardening, nature and books. Her family must be bereft. This mad world does not need to lose beautiful people like Nan and she will be missed. 

A couple of Young Adult novels today, to be honest they're more middle-grade, but as I'm never certain what the age-range is for either and I'm sure there is over-lapping, I'll call them YA. 

First up, The Snow Spider Trilogy by Jenny Nimmo. This is an omnibus edition of three short novels, all set in the mountains of North Wales.

Nine year old, Gwyn, lives with his parents on a hill-farm in Wales. There's a feeling of deep melancholy about the family because Gwyn's older sister, Bethan, disappeared on the mountain 2 years ago. In the first book of the trilogy, The Snow Spider, Gwyn is given 5 gifts by his grandmother, on his birthday: she suspects he might be the reincarnation of a Welsh wizard. One of these gifts leads to him being sent a beautiful silver spider and Gwyn hopes to use the spider to help him find his sister. In book 2, Emlyn's Moon, we meet Nia, with loads of siblings, one of whom is Gwyn's best friend, Alun. Nia is drawn to Emlyn, a strange boy in the village whose mother has disappeared; no one mixes with Emlyn and his father, although she doesn't know why. Nia, of course, ignores all the warnings. In book 3, The Chestnut Soldier, Nia's family are to have a visitor, a cousin recovering from serving in Northern Ireland during The Troubles. But Gwyn has suddenly lost one of the gifts his grandmother gave him, one with an evil reputation... how will this mix with a troubled soldier? This was such an excellent young adult trilogy. What worked for me was not so much the magic and all that, although that was good too... it was the setting. Having travelled quite a bit around Wales, I could see that Jenny Nimmo was absolutely spot on with her sense of place and the characters of people who live on these isolated mountain farms and in the villages. It is almost other-worldly and she makes it even more so with a certain extra element she introduces. She doesn't shy away from the hardship experienced by people who don't have a lot, either. I loved this and gave it 5 stars on Goodreads, without quibbling.

The second book is, The Betwitching of Aveline Jones by Phil Hickes. I read the first book in this trilogy, The Haunting of Aveline Jones, last year. My review is HERE. 

Aveline and her mum are spending a week away in a holiday cottage, around the end of the school summer holidays, which in the UK is early September. The cottage is not too far from Bristol, where they live (my thought was Wiltshire as it has the right ancient, mystical kind of atmosphere). Almost as soon as they arrive, Aveline sets out to explore her surroundings and is delighted to discover a circle of standing stones in the field behind their back garden. There she meets Hazel, a girl seemingly of her own age but unlike anyone Aveline has ever met before. The stones are apparently known locally as The Witch Stones and Aveline, who has an interest in such things, wants to know more. Her friend, Harold, whom she met in the last book, is coming to stay with his uncle, the one who owns a bookshop. She messages him to 'bring books' on the subject. He does and the adventure begins as they try to find out about the contents of a mysterious plugged bottle Aveline found in the garden and what it could possibly have to do with Hazel. I enjoyed this as much as book one, although the seaside setting of that one probably appealed to me more. This one has an ancient site feel to it and is atmospheric and creepy, particularly towards the end as you find out what's what and how much danger both Aveline and Harold are in. As young teen I think I would've 'loved' this and, although there were some excellent books around in the 1960s, there is now a 'huge' choice for kids and I often feel very envious of the sheer number of books and choices available now for children and teens. Recommend this series of novella length creepy books even if you're 72 like me and not 13 or 14. 

So, that's what I've been reading. Now and for the last week or so I've been rereading a favourite book that I last read in 2007.

 

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova is a sweeping tome of a novel, spanning centuries and dealing with the history of one, Vlad Dracula, and the people searching for him and his place of burial. It's a love letter to Eastern Europe, I thought it was wonderful back in 2007 and I love it even more now and wish I hadn't waited so long to reread it. 

I hope you're enjoying October - it's one of my favourite months - keeping well and finding some good books to read.