Holiday Books - Belated!

I have been very slack in sharing with you the books I picked up while we were travelling in September. So, not including Her Fearful Symmetry and Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day which I have already blogged about, from the bottom of the pile to the top these are the books I bought while away:

The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Bronte - Syrie James, I really enjoyed her first book - The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen so I thought I would give this one a go (I have to admit that I have started it already but just couldn't get into it at this stage unfortunately).

Good Evening Mrs Craven: The Wartime Stories of Mollie Panter-Downes - my other Persephone selection - I could have come home with so many more of these!

The Brontes Went To Woolworths - Rachel Ferguson, I just love this title and I have heard so many of you say great things about this one.

Dubliners - James Joyce, I have not read any of Joyce before but I heard a lot about him when we were in Ireland so I really wanted to give one of his books a go.

Chic Shopping Paris - Rebecca Perry Magniant, Just too cute to leave on the shelf really!

The Brightest Star in the Sky - Marian Keyes

I am a huge Marian Keyes fan from way back but I was so disappointed by her last book, This Charming Man, that I didn't automatically rush out to buy her latest release, The Brightest Star in the Sky when it hit the shelves in Australia recently. However, after reading Dot's review I thought I would give Marian one more chance - and I am glad that I did.

I felt that with this book Keyes has returned to the style that made me enjoy her earlier books so much - a collection of interesting and flawed characters all interconnecting in some way to create a story. I must admit that there is a certain degree of "sameness" about a lot of her characters - a sense of having read about this character before - but I guess people in the real world are a bit like this too - we all share a lot of similar traits and characteristics in a way.

The Brightest Star in the Sky centres around the block of flats, and the people that live there, at 66 Star Street, Dublin. The reader enters the characters lives through an anonymous narrator who has the power to hover over each person seeing into their thoughts and memories. It is through this technique that we are able to see things that the characters might not know about themselves or things that they aren't letting other people know about. It is a clever technique that could have come across as way too cute or unrealistic but I think Keyes has made it work in this book - you are kept guessing until right at the end about who this elusive narrator may actually be - my first guess ended up being very wrong!

As with most of Keyes's books there is a mixture of lighthearted comedy and funny moments mixed in with far more serious issues. I felt that the serious issues in this book (one in particular) were probably brushed over a little too quickly - I can imagine that it would be a struggle to include issues like these in a book like this - you want to obviously get some sort of message across while at the same time making the book readable and enjoyable - a tough ask.

Overall my faith in Keyes has been restored - while not without it's flaws I was kept entertained right until the end of this one - and I will be buying her next book as soon as it comes out.

Almost French - Sarah Turnbull

Continuing my new obsession with all things Paris I recently finished re-reading Almost French by Sarah Turnbull. In a nutshell the book is the memoir of an Australian journalist who meets a French man while travelling in Europe and ends up moving to Paris to live with him and continue their relationship together.

I had read the book when it first came out a few years ago and I remember enjoying it then even though I had never been to Paris (or even overseas at all) at that time. I have always loved to read stories by people who have picked up their whole life and moved to another country for adventures - it is a not so secret dream of mine to do the same one day and has been since I was young. My friends had photos of pop stars and actors on their walls and I had photos of my far away dream destinations such as New York and Rome.

So, Almost French was a book I was always going to be drawn to - although I think I enjoyed reading it even more the second time after having now been to Paris (however briefly!) myself.

The author is taking a year off from her job with a television station in Australia to travel around Europe and think about where she would like to head next in her career - and life in general. Then she meets Frederic and her plans are pretty much decided for her - the initial spark they feel for each other turns into something more and Sarah moves to Paris to live with him and start a life there. The unique "Aussieness" of the author is a positive in this book for me - I felt I could connect with her stories about home and how different Paris was to her hometown of Sydney in so many ways - and how that impacted on her transition to living and working in the French capital - but also about how she was able to fall in love with her new home:

I used to marvel at Sydney Harbour too, whenever I saw it. Sparkling blue carves the city with coves and inlets; it's a wonder of nature. But somehow in Paris the feeling of being awe-struck is even stronger. Perhaps because it is still relatively new to me or perhaps because it somehow seems preposterous that such beauty could be created by people. The city is a testament to civilisation. Of course, I know from the last year that living in a gorgeous environment isn't enough to make you happy. But breathtaking beauty of any kind is moving. It makes tourists of us all. It anchors your heart to a place. Just like Sydney Harbour, the wonderful sights of Paris inspire emotion, yes, even love.

Sarah talks about the different aspects of her life that she now has to re-learn in the French way, working, dinner parties, pets, fashion and families and relationships to name a few. I really enjoyed this book as an insight into one Australian woman's experience of Paris and the life she created there.

The End of the Chunkster Challenge - 2009

I had committed to reading three books for The Chunkster Challenge 2009 but I officially only managed to read two (I say officially because I am sure amongst my other reads so far this year I have read others that probably fit into the "chunkster" category but I only read two of the three books I had listed for the challenge). The two books I did manage to finish were Drood and Wolf Hall - both books that I loved (thankfully!). The book I had listed that I didn't manage to get to before the challenge ended was A Suitable Boy - and I am quite disappointed about this as this was the book that prompted me to join the challenge in the first place as it is a book I have been meaning to read for so long now. I have wanted to have a clear space of reading time to devote to this book but my reading habits and style (particularly at the moment) don't tend to lend themselves to this kind of reading - I like to have many different books going at the same time rather than devote myself to one large book. I think I am just going to have to bite the bullet and start this one - maybe the new year will be the perfect time??

The Young Victoria

The Young Victoria was a DVD that I bought while we were in the UK and I was very excited to find it as it only just come out at the cinemas at the time we left Australia and I hadn't been able to get to see it before we left. I find with DVD's (unlike books!) I seem to wait ages after I have purchased them to actually sit down and watch them - so it was only last night that I finally broke open the packaging on this one.
The story of Queen Victoria is not one I am overly familiar with beyond the most well known facts but I have always been interested in the relationship she had with Prince Albert and the way she grieved his loss after his early death at the age of 42. I became more interested when we visited Muckross House in Killarney in Ireland on our recent trip - a beautiful house that Queen Victoria and Prince Albert had spent a few nights in not long before his death.

The Young Victoria is a stunning visual movie - gorgeous locations, costumes and people! I felt that Emily Blunt played a vibrant, feisty Victoria and while some of her mannerisms may have come across as quite modern (similar to the response I had to Miss Austen Regrets) who is to say that that is not how she would have responded in certain situations - particularly in regards to her relationship with Albert.
The movie focuses on the period in Victoria's life just before she turns 18 and then afterwards when she becomes Queen. We see her relationship with Albert develop from one of suspicion (this is the man that her manipulative mother wants her to marry after all) to one of respect and love. The movie also covers aspects of the political and social setting at the time which I found gave a good context for the relationship between Victoria and Albert.

With my lack of historical knowledge of this particular person and time in history I am not sure if the movie is accurate in all that it portrays but I know that I enjoyed watching it very much.

I have now brought out a copy of a book I have had on my shelves for a while and am now inspired to read - Becoming Queen by Kate Williams.

Has anyone else read any other books about Queen Victoria (fiction or non-fiction) that they would recommend?

Her Fearful Symmetry - Audrey Niffenegger

Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger was possibly my most anticipated book release of 2009. I fell in love with The Time Traveler's Wife and the characters of Clare and Henry and I was so excited to see what the author of this book had come up with next.

I was in London on our trip in September when the book was released and I quickly picked up a copy (I must admit I was excited to be actually purchasing the book in London when so much of the story is set there). I finished the book quite soon after we had arrived home in early October but it has taken until now for me to write my review. A couple of reasons for this - firstly, I lent the book to my best friend as soon as I had finished it because I was eager to hear her views on it and I don't like to write a review unless my copy of the book is right beside me (is anyone else like this??) but secondly, I needed some time to digest my thoughts and feelings about this one before writing about it.

The book tells the story of two sets of twins, London based Elspeth and her sister Edie who lives in the USA with her 20 year old twin daughters, Julia and Valentina. As the book opens Elspeth is dying in a hospital bed with her long term partner, Robert close by:

Elspeth turned her face towards the door. She wanted to call out, Robert, but her throat was suddenly full. She felt as though her soul were attempting to climb out by way of her oesophagus. She tried to cough, to let it out, but she only gurgled. I'm drowning. Drowning in a bed...She felt intense pressure, and then she was floating; the pain was gone and she was looking down from the ceiling at her small wrecked body.

As a result of her death her twin nieces are sent a letter telling them that they have inherited her property and her apartment in London, right next to Highgate Cemetery, on the condition that they live in it for one year before they sell it. When the twins arrive in London they come to meet up with Elspeth's partner Robert and Martin, an agoraphobic, obsessive compulsive crossword puzzle designer who lives upstairs, both have an influence on and effect the lives of Julia and Valentina. As the young woman move into the apartment of their deceased aunt fractures start to appear in their normally closer than close relationship - one of the twins starts to imagine a life where she isn't tied to the other - and Elspeth herself plays a part in the lives of the twins.

I felt that the book started poetically and with great promise - the first chapter where Elspeth dies brought up so much emotion for me that I was almost in tears - but that is where the poetry virtually ended for me. I thought Robert was the most complex and in ways endearing character of the book but by the end I had lost all respect for him (as I think he would have for himself!). I did start out enjoying Elspeth as a character but I felt that the direction she was written into felt forced and unnatural - even for a ghost! Julia and Valentina were by far the most disappointing characters for me - they felt like cardboard cutouts for the entire story and while I felt I glimpsed moments where they had some character and depth this wasn't enough to sustain my interest - or my ability to care about what happened to them. The parts of the story where London and Highgate Cemetery were in focus were my absolute favourite scenes and I found myself reading faster just to get to these places in the book.

Two great reviews I have read about this book are from Jackie and Claire and some others that I have read have mentioned that you may need to suspend your beliefs in order to fully get on board with the content of this book but I didn't really have a problem with this at all. I am not sure if I believe in the actuality of ghosts but I do believe that an energy can remain after someone has died so for me this was not such a hard concept to grasp - I just don't feel that the connection between the characters was built up enough for me to believe in this particular "ghost" story.

Miss Austen Regrets

The BBC production of Miss Austen Regrets which showed last night in Australia was my third selection for the Everything Austen Challenge.

This movie focuses on the latter parts of Jane Austen's life - she is approaching the age of 40, is living with her elderly mother and adored sister, Cassandra and is in the process of finishing Emma and searching for a publisher for it when the movie begins. Jane's 20 year old niece, Fanny, is looking for the perfect husband and so enlists the support and assistance of "Aunt Jane" in her endeavours. As Jane and Fanny go over prospective husbands for the younger woman Jane reminisces on the past loves, flirtations and proposals of her own life and meets one or two possible suitors in the present time.

The script writer has said that she based her story on the surviving letters Jane sent to Cassandra and Fanny during this period and I thought she did a wonderful job of interpreting these letters into fiction.

The actress who played Jane, Olivia Williams (where have I seen her before??), was beautiful - she created an edgy, funny, moody and spirited Jane who I really enjoyed watching. I found a lot of her mannerisms and language to probably be a bit too modern for the moment she is meant to be living in but I still enjoyed watching.

The regrets of the title focus on Jane's thoughts about never having married - although I feel she may have had regrets about this at times (isn't it only human to have regrets about our choices in life at times?) I truly feel that her books and writing were her family and her passion and her true regret may only have really lay in having missed an opportunity to make her beloved family more comfortable which may have happened if she had chosen to marry. I thought the movie really captured the difficult situation Jane was forced into because of the time period in which she lived - her only "real" choice was to marry and become a wife and mother - a way of life that would have most probably ended her writing career which she so loved.

I spent a totally enjoyable hour and a half watching this show! Beautiful sets, costumes and photography added to the magic of the script for me. Do I think this is actually how things happened? No, but I enjoyed thinking it might have...

I now have 3 more selections left to read/watch in this challenge - do any of you have any selections that you think I should definitely add to my list?