Book Report: Devil's Cub

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My first book in February seemed to go by very fast, probably because I finished The Summer Tree with four days still to go in January. That's fine, the further ahead I can get the better because then I might actually feel like I have time to tackle a longer book without falling off pace. 

Expectations

Mixed. Very decidedly mixed. This book was a present - years ago - from Nickie, whose judgement I trust. On the other hand, it's still a Regency romance novel and as such I expected it to be pretty predictable. I made a wordsearch about romance novels for Valentine's Day and I've been wanting to give a bona fide romance a try every since - I'm not sure this quite fulfilled that niche in my mind. I might still need to track down Dare I Be Happy? or Cupid Rides Pillion. 

Positives

At least one of the plot twists in this book actually surprised me! For the first several chapters I thought I could see exactly where it was going: respectable, strait-laced young woman gets involved with dashing, impetuous junior lord in order to save beautiful but irresponsible sister. Of course, opposites attract and the two main characters will slowly fall in love and end up properly married and living out their happily ever after, right? In broad strokes I was absolutely spot on, but there were more steps to get to that end result than I was expecting and a certain turn of events that I won't spoil honestly threw a spanner in the works. 

I liked the characters — especially Mary. The background characters were very much straight out of an Austen novel, but Mary and Lord Vidal were at least a little different. I also got a fair few laughs out of some of the dialogue, particularly when the uptight male characters (Mr John Marling and Mr Frederick Cummin) come up against the wilder of the ladies. Georgette Heyer has the advantage over Jane Austen that she's writing for a modern audience and therefore doesn't have her jokes hinging on the exact type of barouche the characters drive. (Which isn't to say I don't find Jane Austen funny, I do — Mr and Mrs Bennet have perhaps one of the best comic relationships in literature.)

Negatives

The plot was, after all, a little predictable. I knew from very early on exactly which characters would end up together and nothing ever happened that caused me to question that. 

The prose also suffered from a lot of showing not telling, especially when it came to Mary. Though Georgette Heyer describes how Mary feels for Lord Vidal it’s rarely shown in her actions, which causes her feelings to fall a little flat. 

Final Thoughts

I don't think I'll be rushing out to find more novels by Georgette Heyer, but it was perfectly good for what it was and I got a few laughs as well — 6 stars. 

Music Monthly

Towards the end of last year, I read a description of someone's music ranking system. Apparently they kept track of their top ten songs each day, and then made a list at the end of the year. I thought that sounded interesting and decided to give it a go myself. Now, I didn't do it every day and I don't think I ever had a full ten favourite songs but I thought a monthy round-up would be worthwhile. So here it is: 

Me (Beauty and the Beast) - 17 points 

More Fool Me (Bend it Like Beckham) - 13 points

Online (Brad Paisley) - 10 points

Rhythm of My Heart (Runrig) - 10 points

The Wearing of the Green (The Wolfe Tones) - 10 points

Two Magicians (Greg Russell, Ciaran Algar) - 10 points

No Doubling Back (Jason Mraz) - 10 points

Luck Be a Lady (Guys and Dolls) - 10 points 

Brave (Sara Bareilles) - 10 points

Oh Cecilia (The Vamps) - 10 points

Shenandoah (Peter Hollens) - 10 points

Stars (Collabro) - 10 points

 Who Am I? (Will Young) - 9 points

Friend Like Me (Ne-Yo) - 9 points 

Fight Song (Popchoir) - 9 points

Topsy Turvy (Hunchback of Notre Dame) - 9 points

Sit Down You're Rocking the Boat (Guys and Dolls) - 9 points

Pop 101 (Marianas Trench, Anami Vice) - 9 points

I Won't Give Up (Peter Hollens) - 9 points

I See the Light (Peter Hollens, Evynne Hollens) - 9 points 

 UB2 (Bend it Like Beckham) - 8 points

Boy Band Parody (Jon Cozart, Peter Hollens) - 8 points

Bad Day (Daniel Powter) - 8 points

American Girls (Counting Crows) - 8 points

Wake Up Little Susie (Everly Brothers) - 8 points

Air Guitar (McBusted) - 8 points

About You Now (Skipinnish) - 8 points 

Look at Us Now (Bend it Like Beckham) - 7 points

Nerdy (Busted) - 7 points

A Thousand Miles (Vanessa Carlton) - 7 points

Lucky (Britney Spears) - 7 points

Maybe Tomorrow (London Music) - 7 points

Girl Perfect (Bend it Like Beckham) - 6 points

Tough Love (Bend it Like Beckham) - 5 points

Mine, Mine, Mine (Pocahontas) - 4 points 

 

Book Report: The Summer Tree

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Second January book (which means I am on track for 24 books this year despite the fact that my work life has become a whirlwind) is The Summer Tree by Guy Gavriel Kay. Let's get to it: 

Expectations

It must be at least a decade since I first heard about this book. I don't remember where, or what was said, other than that it was all positive and I put the book on my 'to read' list because it intrigued me. It proved difficult to find in shops, and this was before I had a debit card with which I could order things online. Then there were other things to read and... I just didn't get around to it. Until now. So, sadly, I can't really remember my expectations for this book. 

I was expecting it to be good, and I was expecting it to be fantasy. As it turns out, it wasn't the type of fantasy I thought it was. It was the kind where humans from the real world are dragged into the fantasy world. As much as I love C S Lewis, that isn't really my preferred form. 

Positives

Despite that, I did enjoy this book. It didn't take long at all for me to get past the 'why is this book set in Toronto?' factor and start really getting into the emotional meat of the characters. And the characters certainly do have a lot of emotional depth which is slowly uncovered. Not only the humans from our world but the Dwarf King and the Magician as well. I struggled to keep the five humans straight for a while, but eventually got the hang of it. The relationships between them are interesting, as are the varying relationships between each character and their families. There's not a lot of that, because they move to the fantasy world fairly fast, but what there was was enough to keep me interested in their stories. 

The structure of this book did some interesting things. At the beginning, it seemed normal as we followed the group of five humans plus two Fionavar residents. Then, as the character went their separate ways the narrative started switching between them. There was no warning that this was happening, the book would just launch into a new viewpoint. (This may have been a fault in my ebook, but I doubt it.) I swear, towards the climax of the novel the sections got much shorter and it started to feel almost like they were weaving in and out of one another.Which is appropriate, as there's a lot of reference to The Weaver (a god figure) and The Tapestry (fate). Then the narrative went back in time to almost the beginning of the story, which was incredibly frustrating because I want to know what happened. But then, as with the best authors, I got into the new story - which wasn't presented in the tapestry form. Even though this structure didn't really carry through, it was still interesting. 

Negatives

I don't have a lot of criticism for this book, and most of what there is revolves around the end. I was not entirely pleased to find that there's surprise rape and torture about thirty pages from the end. It was well written, and not explicit, but I still could have done with it. Though, that said, it made the actual final-page ending a lot more powerful. The other problem with the ending was that it was a cliffhanger. Now, this is part of a serious so I wasn't expecting everything to be neatly wrapped up, but I do prefer not to be left wondering if everyone is still alive.

Final Thoughts

I'm not sure this book is AS good as the praise I heard made it out to be, nor am I convinced it was worth waiting ten years for. I did enjoy it, though, which is more of an achievement given I don't like this specific subgenre that much. The characters were enough to carry off any faults with it, and I find the structure interesting. 7 stars. 

Book Report: The Tortoise and the Hare

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My first book of the new year was The Tortoise and the Hare by Elizabeth Jenkins, which I finished in six days. Ever since doing NotSoNaBooReaMo, I'm realising just how quickly I can finish books if I just devote a little time to it outside of the daily commute. I hope I'll keep this up and read more books this year than I have since leaving university. 

Expectations

Rebecca recommended this book to me and said it was excellent - so my expectations were pretty high. I've never heard of it outside of that conversation, nor am I familiar with Elizabeth Jenkins, but I knew it was about a man and two women. Rebecca compared Blanche to someone else, though I can't remember who now, which is how the conversation got started.

Positives

I absolutely enjoyed the latter half of this book, and at least some of the moments earlier on as well. There are lots of gorgeous descriptions of the houses and the English countryside. I found that many of these focused on the light, which is something I tend to be interested in so I imagine that added to how much I enjoyed them. 

It's hard to talk about what was so great in the second half of this book without spoiling it. I want to describe it as a very elegant, polished cover on a rushing river of emotion and that emotion is done so well, and so unobtrusively, that it really carries you away. There's a turning point - and anyone who has read the book probably knows exactly what I mean - after which I stopped thinking I wasn't going to like this book and immediately saw what Rebecca had recommended it for. 

The ending is also superb, but again difficult to describe without risking spoilers. It felt very emotionally real and surprisingly satisfying. 

Negatives

The first half of the book isn't as strong. If I hadn't gone into it knowing what the main plot was, I'm not sure I'd have picked up on what was happening. For the first few days I thought I was going to be disappointed, that I wasn't clever enough to 'get' what Rebecca had seen in it. She talked about how it was devastating and insidious and at first I couldn't see that at all. 

Several of the characters are quite similar. I struggled to differentiate between Paul and Hunter. Over halfway through the book, I couldn't explain to Rebecca who Hunter was! This made it quite difficult for me to get a grasp on the background characters, but in the end that didn't really matter. The characters you need to know are Imogen, Blanche, Evelyn, Tim and Gavin. Everyone else will fall into place. Another criticism would be that a few of the others are quite superfluous, certainly to a modern reader who isn't as likely to pick up on what I suspect is a slight satire of contemporary attitudes. 

Final Thoughts

In some ways, this book reminded me of Madame Bovary - which you wouldn't think would be a good thing, since I hated Madame Bovary when I read it in school. I definitely didn't hate this, at all. Once I got into it I thought it was wonderful. I'd like to read it again now that I know the ending. 7.5 stars. 

Theatre Trip: Guys and Dolls

https://twitter.com/guysanddollsuk

Rebecca and I kicked off the New Year in style with a trip to Guys and Dolls at the Savoy Theatre. The tickets were from Rebecca's secret theatre club and the seats were a little far from the stage but pretty comfortable. 

Expectations

I knew going in that this was the musical Luck Be a Lady is from - which is one of my favourite songs. Rebecca had knew that Jamie Parker was in, which was more exciting to me than to her as I still adore all the actors from The History Boys. I also knew he'd done other musical things before, so he seemed a solid casting choice. 

https://twitter.com/guysanddollsuk

Beyond that, we didn't know a lot. We were pretty sure it was about Gangsters, but this conversation aptly reflects the depth of our ignorance:

K: I think this is the musical Luck Be a Lady is from, but beyond that I know almost nothing about it.
R: It is, I remember that from the spiel above the ordering box. Is this the one about gangsters?
K: I think it's a one about gangsters? I mean, it's not Bugsy Malone which is what I think of when you say 'the one about gangsters'.
R: Two  musical about gangsters?? You'd think it wouldn't make a very apt topic for a musical, wouldn't you? I suppose three if you include West Side Story. Or is that gangs, rather than gangsters?

Positives

We had a blast. The stage was awesome and innovative, with lots of lighting effects. I think my favourite was either when they went from New York to Havana and there were palm trees and a big blue moon or else towards the end when they used twinkly lights. There was also some surprisingly glittery ticker tape right at the end.

The singing was excellent too - the cast was full of those admirable, amazing people who are both quality actors and quality singers. Rebecca and I were surprised to find David Haig (Bernard from Four Weddings and a Funeral) in a lead role. Even the more minor characters had great voices, especially Gavin Spokes who sang Sit Down You're Rocking The Boat to extended applause.

https://twitter.com/guysanddollsuk

The music was jaunty and lively, the costumes were great and the story was fun. As an added bonus, we discovered that the strudel v cheesecake bet in Cabin Pressure was originally from this! 

Negatives

I'd say the story took a little while to get into. It took some time for the main character to actually appear on stage. The plot was also pretty predictable, but that's not as much of a downside for a musical as it would be for other forms of entertainment. 

There was a little too much talking (as compared to singing) for my personal tastes, and also a couple of extended dance numbers with neither singing nor talking - which are historically not my favourite. 

Final Thoughts

Possibly a more professional, polished production than the last musical I went to see (Bend it like Beckham) but not quite as much fun. 8 stars. 

 

Failure

It's not been a good fortnight. My much-desired, long-delayed day off on Friday the 9th was fine, but it only made me more keenly aware of what I'm missing by not taking the remaining 19 days I'm entitled to. It made me resentful and moody over returning to work on Monday. This was not helped at all by being faced with the Christmas schedule. I don't see how it's possible for me to stop working any earlier than the 24th of December. That means missing my street's Christmas party, it means either travelling down to my parents' house with a bulky bag of presents or spending Christmas eve wrapping everything for everybody. It means working hard every day until Christmas and not being sure that's enough.

This bad start to the week was not aided by another period of finding everything dissatisfying. No matter what I did when I got home, I was apathetic about it, unenthusiastic. I forced myself to buy some things I needed (a coat, present supplies for a crafty present I am making), I did some colouring, I went to choir but... it's just so frustrating when I'm forcing myself to do these things, when I'm not enjoying anything or getting any satisfaction out of them. I was afraid this mood would infect my much-anticipated viewing of Miss Saigon on Friday. Fortunately, I had a counselling session on Thursday that helped get some feelings out which I think helped. Thursday evening and Friday were certainly better than the rest of the week. 

The weekend was... fine. Then Monday morning I woke up realising I'd forogtten to do some work on Friday which meant the Mirror went all weekend without having its codebreaker hint lines available. As a perfectionist, this burdened me with a lot of shame and anger (at myself) and anxiety. Once again, there’s that feeling of not enjoying anything in the evenings to contend with. I found some drawing lessons, forced myself to make some progress, cooked, even donated to a good cause but none of it made me feel like life means anything. 

Then I put myself forward for some criticism of my online dating profile. That may not have been a good idea.

"The obese girl in a t shirt with no makeup and flat hair isn't going to do well in dating."

"Lose 60 pounds." 

"Overall if you're not getting the responses that you would like from men that you like, the only thing holding back is your weight."

"Harsh reality you're probably already aware of, but being overweight makes it a lot harder to date."

I know it's all true, and I know I'm not entitled to love or a relationship. I just wish 'harder to date' wasn't 'impossible to date'... 

Most of all, I wish I knew what to do to fix the 'nothing is satisfying' feeling. 

Maybe counselling tomorrow will give me another good day and a half, but shouldn't my week be made up of more than 1.5 good days, 2 'fine' days and 3 awful days? 

Random Round-Up (July)

This tip of my tongue website is just brilliant. I was looking for the word 'retroactively' (as you do) and could only think of 'in retrospect' which isn't quite the same thing. Collins thesaurus couldn't help me, neither of two very clever wordy friends could think of the world I meant, google searches for 'backdate synonym' and 'retrospect synonym' had turned up nothing. This website, on the other hand, with only the fact the word I wanted started with 'R' and meant 'retrospect' brilliantly found me exactly the word I wanted! There are also fields for word length and sounds like!