To Read or Not To Read...

I am in a quandary - I purchased a copy of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies last night for my partner - he thinks the whole concept is hilarious and he can't wait to read it. But my problem is - should I read it or not??

There has been so much talk about this book in the blogging world - and the book world in general. Even when I bought the book last night the sales assistant who served me was reading the book himself (and was loving it). Most of what I have heard about the book sounds positive - even staunch Austen addicts like myself seem to be getting on board and taking the book in the spirit in which it was intended - I'm just not sure I can do it! I keep having visions of Jane Austen turning over in her grave at the thought of what Elizabeth and Darcy have been reduced to. I don't want anything to ruin Austen for me!

So, advice gladly accepted - should I go here or not??

Library Loot This Week

As I am sure many people can consistently relate to I keep picking up more and more books from my library even though I still haven't finished (or in some cases even started) the books I picked up at my last visit - it's like a compulsion to collect and stock pile as though some book related nuclear event is about to fall down upon us! Oh well!

The two books I have collected (so far!) this week are:

Beijing Blur by James West - the story of an Australian journalist in China. I picked this one up when I saw it because not only does it look like an interesting book but I still haven't read any books for The World Citizen Challenge so I need to get a move on!

The Suspicions of Mr Whicher by Kate Summerscale - I have heard so many terrific things about this book and I have been meaning to read it for ages. I am also going to hear the author speak at the Sydney Writers Festival at the end of May so I want to have finished it by then.

The Women in Black - Madeleine St John

I am ashamed to say that I had never heard of the Australian author Madeleine St John before being attracted to the recently re-released cover of The Women in Black. This was her first novel published when the author was 52 years old in 1993 and has been re-released with a forward by Australian film maker Bruce Beresford and an obituary by the author's publisher (St John died in 2006). St John also had a book short listed for the Booker Prize in 1997 - The Essence of The Thing.

The Women in Black is the author's only book set in the country of her birth - Australia. It follows the lives of a group of female sales assistants working in the high class Sydney department store, Goodes, in the 1960's. Goodes is a fictional store but it is believed that St John based her setting on the real David Jones department store of the time.

Mrs Williams (Patty) and Miss Baines (Fay) work with others in the Ladies Cocktail Frocks section of the store - an area that is becoming increasingly busy as Christmas draws near as the book opens. The group is joined by temporary staff member, Lesley (who prefers to be called Lisa) a young girl who has just finished her leaving certificate at high school and is waiting anxiously to see if her results will be high enough for her to earn a scholarship at university.

The gorgeous, exotic and voluptuous Magda works in the Model Gowns section of the store (one of a kind gowns sold to women who do not want to attend a function looking like anyone else) and she enters the lives of these women in Ladies Cocktail Frocks in subtle - but no less dramatic ways.

I can't believe I have not discovered this book before - I devoured it in basically one sitting yesterday and I just wanted it to keep going - although the ending was divine and I wouldn't have wanted it any other way. I think it helped that I have spent quite a bit of time at the David Jones department store in Elizabeth St in Sydney so even though this book is set in a time before I was born I still feel like I had a familiar context firmly in mind as I was reading the book. Lesley/Lisa is a gorgeous character and over the short course of the book you do see her develop which is lovely to watch. Just a gorgeous, sweet, beautiful read!

The Luminous Life of Lilly Aphrodite - Beatrice Colin

The Luminous Life of Lilly Aphrodite is a book I could not ignore - the cover is gorgeous and tempting and the title evocative and intriguing - who could avoid the temptation? Not me!

I did do a little more research beyond the cover and the title though - there have been lots of good reviews about this one floating around the blogging world - The review from Farm Lane Books is one that I can remember at the moment and the setting of the book did interest me. I am always looking out for novels set in the early 20th Century and I am interested in the setting of the novel - Germany - during this time.

Lilly is born on the very first day of the new century but is quickly orphaned and sent to live in an orphanage run by the first love of Lilly's life, Sister August. It is here that Lilly meets her friend Hanne who will play a part in the rest of her story to come.

I have to say that this book, for me, was bleak - I did not find Lilly's life particularly luminous and I would be really interested to hear why the author chose to use this word. Lilly is certainly resilient and strong but life deals her some pretty awful hands. Just when you thought something was finally going right for her - it didn't.

I found the actual structure of the story quite clunky - the chapters didn't really flow for me and I thought coincidence played too great a part in the events and story line. Having said all that though, I really did enjoy reading this book - something about Lilly kept me hanging in there.

Weekend Book Buying

While many of you have been caught up in the world of the read-a-thon this weekend I have been spending time catching up on housework (not fun EVER!) and spending a day in Sydney with my boy visiting all of our favourite bookish haunts. I was surprisingly restrained in the book buying department but I did come home with a couple of new purchases:

Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham - thanks to Claire I was hunting out these gorgeous Vintage editions of Maugham's work. I have actually never read any of his books before so I thought it was appropriate to start with one with an absolutely divine cover like this.

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi - this is my first adventure into graphic novel reading and I have heard this is a great book to start with.

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie - Alan Bradley

I first read about The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (how fantastic is that title??) over at Dove Grey Reader - the source of a lot of my reading inspiration lately.

This is a novel set in an English countryside village, Bishops Lacey, in 1950 and it is told from the perspective of 11 year Flavia de Luce - amateur detective, chemist and large pain in the rear end for her older sisters Ophelia and Daphne (I would read this book again simply for the gorgeous names of all of the female characters!).

Flavia's world is really quite isolated - she lives in the run down family estate, Buckshaw, just outside of the village, her father locks himself away pouring over his stamp collections, her older sisters either ignore her or torment her, her mother died when she was only very young and her best friend seems to be her beloved bike - Gladys. Despite all this Flavia is a vivacious, outgoing, intelligent, creative and, some would say, precocious child - I loved her!

The mystery of the novel centres around the discovery of a dead body in the garden of Buckshaw by Flavia herself. Flavia steps in to work out the events that led up to the death - which actually go back a lot further than the present time.

The actual mystery plot was neither here nor there for me - I just cared about hearing more from Falvia about her adventures! I am pleased to hear that Alan Bradley has at least 2 more Flavia books on the horizon - can't wait!! A pure delight to read - I only wish those other books were out now!

Library Loot This Week

I haven't participated in Library Loot for quite a while now - even though I have regularly been making collections from my library.

Today is my last day off before returning to the working world tomorrow so I made a trip to the library this morning and picked up the following:

Brick Lane by Monica Ali: This is a book I have been meaning to read for a very long time now and I have tickets to see Ali when she is speaking at the Sydney Writer's Festival next month so I thought it was about time I actually read this one!

The Lollipop Shoes by Joanne Harris: Chocolat was a huge favourite of mine when I first read it a long time ago so I thought I would give the sequel a go. I might need to re-read Chocolat before diving into this one though.

The Luminous Life of Lilly Aphrodite by Beatrice Colin: I have heard lots of great things about this book - and the title and the cover are so gorgeous how could I resist?