The Brightest Star in the Sky (Marian Keyes)

Title: The Brightest Star in the Sky
Author: Marian Keyes
Published: 2009
Publisher: Penguin UK
Pages: 614
Source: Own copy
Genres: Contemporary Fiction / Chick Lit
Goodreads  |  Amazon.com

There's this thing that happens when you get pregnant where all of a sudden your energy levels decide to leave you to go on holiday and your concentration seems to have hitched a ride in the suitcase. This results in the need to re-evaluate your reading list and start choosing titles that require, well how do I put this diplomatically, a little less brain power.

As such I picked up The Brightest Star in the Sky by Marian Keyes. I love Keyes. Her books tend to have the best mix of low key chick-lit writing with themes that have a bit of substance thrown in for good measure. My favourite so far has been Anybody Out There and I would recommend it to anyone.

The Brightest Star in the Sky centers around a 'being' of some kind (explained later in the book) that comes down to 66 Star Street in Dublin and watches the residences in the building's 4 apartments. The book quickly jumps between the characters lives slowly interweaving the stories as time goes on. The chapters are quick enough and the characters interesting enough to keep the pages turning and I really enjoyed reading as the various plots unfolded. There was a lot of mystery surrounding the couple in the bottom flat but I did guess the mystery long before it was revealed within the pages.

I must admit I didn't enjoy the ending, things just didn't quite seem to round up in an interesting enough way and the 'being' stuff was a bit too much out of reality for me to buy into it. This meant that unfortunately the whole book was a bit more disappointing in the end even though I enjoyed the middle part so much.

Ultimately if you haven't read a Marian Keyes before I certainly wouldn't recommend starting with this one and there are a lot better books out there to read but if you're after an easy to read popular character fiction it's still worth the time.

When Will There Be Good News? (Kate Atkinson)

Title: When Will There Be Good News?
Author: Kate Atkinson
Published: 2008
Publisher: Doubleday
Pages: 352
Source: Found it
Genres: Mystery / Crime
Goodreads  |  Amazon.com

The most interesting thing about this book is how I came to have it. You see I collected this book from my local dump transfer station. Now before you start to judge me and think I go trifling through rubbish tips looking for books that's not quite how this story goes.

You see what happened was, I was at my local transfer station doing some recycling of old moving boxes like one does and I noticed a woman pitch over the side of the paper container a pile of books. Of course I was a little dumbfounded by this; there are plenty of charity shops and second hand stores that love to get a hold of books so I sidled over to take a look expecting them all to be ripped or disfigured in some way. To my surprise they were neither. In fact many of them were in pristine condition and many of them were titles released in the past few years.

Another woman as surprised as I was to see so many books just carelessly discarded asked the book dumper why she hadn't donated them. The response? "I didn't have time, I just need to get rid of them". Well my new transfer station pal and I decided the books still deserved a second chance and thankfully the transfer station attendants see this often enough that they have a policy of rescuing items like this wherever possible and donating them to a local charity shop. The three of us fished all the books back out of the container ready for a new home.

The attendant also gave us first pick and I had read many of them I did manage to grab this book I am reviewing today.

I have never read a Kate Atkinson book so didn't know what to expect. I'm also not a huge fan of the murder mystery / detective novel type genre but I like the odd one now and then. Considering this one starts off with a young girl witnessing the murder of her entire family I thought I might be in for a bit of a rough ride.

Thankfully it tames down a little after that and isn't quite as graphic. There are a number of subplots that all merge together and there are a lot of characters which meant it was a little hard to keep track of who was who, as the writing jumps around in the various chapters. I found myself reading for longer periods then I normally would just so I wouldn't lose track.

I did like the character of Reggie - a tough 16 year old orphan girl who looks like a child and who has a bit of a nasty brother. She was a pretty tough and resourceful kid and I liked reading her sections.

Overall it was an okay light read but certainly not a star of this genre due to excessive characters and distracting subplots but hey still worth rescuing from a dumpster!

Disappearing Act

For those of you who have followed my blog semi-regularly you may have wondered what was the deal with my sudden disappearance and blogging silence? Yes I am still here, promise! It may take a little bit to get back into a regular habit of blogging but expect to see a bit more activity around here.

So what happened?! Well basically I had one of the busiest, craziest, emotionally charged and financially stressful years of my life! Why is that? Well in the past year my boyfriend and I bought a house, got married, had a honeymoon on the other side of the world and now we're having a baby! Say what?! Yep we're a bit nuts like that, but even for us holy moly it was a lot to cram into a year!!!

So please forgive my absence but I had very good reason to put my blogging on hold while other things took over my life. Of course things will never quite be back to normal now that two will be three before the end of the year but at least I now have a spare minute to read a book (in between my naps). And oh I can't wait!

See you all again soon xx

Circus of Ghosts (Barbara Ewing)

Title: The Circus of Ghosts
Author: Barbara Ewing
Published: 2011
Publisher: Little Brown Paperbacks
Pages: 416
Source: Library
Genres: Historical Fiction
Goodreads  |  Amazon.com

Circus of Ghosts is the sequel to Barbara Ewing's fantastic novel The Mesmerist. The Mesmerist was set in London in the 1830s and follows the story of Miss Cordelia Preston, a beautiful, ageing actress who, faced with poverty, reinvents herself as a Lady Phreno-Mesmerist, a practice of entrancing patients for healing purposes that has captivated the city. I read The Mesmerist two years ago and found it an incredibly captivating read. I have always enjoyed Ewing's novels for their strong female character leads and in depth research.

Circus of Ghosts follows Cordelia Preston over 10 years later as she has taken her daughter Gwenlliam and her misfit collection of "family" across to New York and set themselves up with Silas P. Swift's circus. Unknown to them a venomous duke from their past plots with an unscrupulous lawyer against the mother and daughter; to kill one and to abduct the other.

The amount of research that would have gone into this book must have been quite substantial as the descriptions of New York during that time; of the gangs and the docks and the police and the stark contrast between poverty and high class society are simply stunning. That coupled with the incredibly detailed picture of San Francisco during the gold mining era was fascinating. I would love to read more about this time in America's history so if anyone knows some great books to dive into let me know.

Unfortunately that was the best thing I liked about this book. Unlike many of her other books this one simply lacked something in the character relationships that should really engage you into a novel. I found many of the character interactions and drivers to be surface level, the story jumped all over the place and was quite disjointed and it lacked the pace of the first book. This made it just an okay novel instead of a great one.

Skip It

Circus of Ghosts by Barbara Ewing

The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)

Title: The Grapes of Wrath
Author: John Steinbeck
Originally Published: 1939
My Edition Published: 2011
Publisher: Penguin Books
Pages: 536
Source: Book club
Genres: Classics
Goodreads  |  Amazon.com


The Grapes of Wrath follows the Joad family during the Great Depression as they are displaced from the land they work in Oklahoma and follow thousands of others as they head west to California with the promise of work and a better life. What they find there is anything but.

This is the first Steinbeck I have read and I think he is an incredible writer. The writing is so vivid and descriptive that you can't help but be transported into the lives of this family and the struggles that they go through. The story is quite simply one of the most harrowing I have read. Tom Joad is released from prison (there because he killed someone defending himself in a fight) and heads home to reunite with his family only to find his family have been kicked off the farm they work due to ecological disasters and the hunt for more and more profits from greedy bankers. There begins a journey across America with 11 other family members and an ex preacher in the back of a truck with all their worldly possessions. They join thousands of others heading west due to the promise of work, a lie used to drive down wages as more and more people demand work on the cotton and fruit fields. Anger, death, hunger, and violence await them at the end of their journey.

This book is not for the faint hearted but it is an incredible story and well worth the read. Steinbeck has been able to capture the human spirit of determination and will to survive when all else is lost, the need to battle and fight no matter what, and the bond that will hold a family together no matter what hardship is thrown at them. It is also a very realistic depiction of what life during the depression would have been like. Steinbeck also tries to overlay the families story with information about how the country ended up in the mess that it was in, and why the families were all on the move. This really helped put a lot of things in context across the story. Steinbeck wrote character speeches phonetically allowing you to pick up accents and colloquialism of various people throughout the story. Some chapters were also written in a stream of consciousness style which can be difficult but I think did enhance the overall story.

I want to talk about the ending but I better not give any spoilers away but I will just say that I found the abrupt ending very difficult to digest and it left me wanting more. I'm now really looking forward to reading some of Steinbeck's other novels as I think he's one of the greatest writers I've had the pleasure of reading. If you haven't picked up The Grapes of Wrath yet I urge you to do so.

"And the failure hangs over the State like a great sorrow. ...and in the eyes of the people there is the failure; and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage."

The Grapes of Wrath was read as part of my 100 book challenge of must read novels.

(22 read. 78 to go!).

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

It's Monday, what are you reading? 27 May 2013

It's been a busy few months! I started a new job, got engaged and are now planning a wedding and we're looking to buy our first home! On top of that my sister and my best friend are both pregnant with their first children and are due in the next two months. Wow so much going on! No wonder the blog hasn't seen a lot of attention lately. Well we'll have to rectify that now won't we?!

I've had two baby showers in the last month and I had the pleasure of organsing my best friend E's baby shower (along with my very talented other best friend H). E loves books as much as I do so H and I decided that a children's themed baby shower was the perfect way to go. And she had already been gifted so many generous things from family and friends that she was a little nervous about where she would put more gifts so we asked everyone to bring their favourite childhood book for the baby instead. It was a huge hit. All the food was book themed and H did an incredible job making the labels; we had green eggs and ham, charlie and the chocolate factory sweets, alice in wonderland mushroom lollies, the very hungry caterpillar platter full or fruit, cheese, salami and other goodies, peter rabbit carrots and dip and some others too.

The most fun thing was we made a very hungry caterpillar cupcake cake. I made the green cupcakes and H made the head and legs. We were so pleased with how it came out! So if you're ever stuck with an idea for a baby shower or kids party theme I can certainly recommend it, everyone seemed to love the idea.

Our present to her was a nappy cake. I'd never made one before but H had so we thought it'd be a bit of fun. We decided we wanted to work it in with the theme so after searching online I found an example of a couch made out of nappies so we thought we could definitely do something with that. In the end we made a three tier nappy cake and the top tier was a chair with a little soft toy reading a book on it. We were so pleased at how it turned out. The whole thing was made from nappies, wraps, cloths, blankets, baby clothes and a whole lot of rubber bands! To top it off E and her husband have decided to wait to find out the sex of their baby so we had to go with gender neutral colours. Yellow is E's favourite colour so it was mainly yellow, mint green, aqua and grey.

Ok so on to books. I haven't been reading too much sadly because things have been so busy. But this month's theme at my library book club was Country Life, so I decided to pick up and read The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck). It's incredibly descriptive and is the kind of book that you really want to delve into for big chunks of time so progress is a little slow but I am really enjoying it.

New books I have acquired include Look at Me (Jennifer Egan), A Spot of Bother (Mark Haddon) and for something  a little different The Lincoln Lawyer (Michael Connelly). I haven't read any crime books in a very long time but I just felt like something a little different to my usual. 

I also received a review copy of The Ghosts That Come Between Us (Bulbul Bahuguna) so that will be the next book I pick up.

In other fun news I went to my book club at the local library and got a nice little surprise when I showed up, turned out they had an author speaking. Katie Fforde was touring Australia and New Zealand and we had the pleasure of having her speak at our local library. I have to admit I haven't read any of her books however I have no doubt I will over the years, I love a bit of light chick-lit here and there and I've spotted her books around. She is such a nice person and was very funny and really interesting to listen to so if you ever get a chance to hear her speak I can highly recommend you go.

It's Monday. What are you Reading? is a weekly meme hosted by Book Journey

Its Monday, what are you reading? 18 March 2013

It's Monday. What are you Reading? is a weekly meme hosted by Book Journey to outline what you have been reading and what you plan to read this week.

Wow how does time go past so quickly?! You may have noticed I haven't posted for awhile? That's because things have been a little disrupted in my life lately, I was made redundant at the end of last year and have been looking for work ever since. Funnily enough I thought being unemployed would mean I would be posting all the time, but turns out the stress of the unknown and the changes to your daily routine tends to block creativity and motivation for blogging, who knew? Oh that and it's summer here so why wouldn't I make the most of it and spend as much time outdoors as humanly possible?! Things are looking a lot more positive on the job front so I am hopeful to have a job offer within the next week or two. Yay!

On other even more positive news on Valentines day my boyfriend of 5 years popped the question and I'm getting married! N is going to make me the happiest girl ever! I don't plan on sharing all my wedding planning news on this blog but it's nice to be able to announce it to you all. We have already set the wedding for February next year and have a beautiful garden location all picked out so I'm really excited.

Onto the book front, I haven't been reading too much, I guess the same reason I haven't been blogging too much, it's very hard to relax at the moment. But over the last couple of months I have read The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint (Brady Udall), and then went on to a bit of non-fiction with Outliers: The Story of Success(Malcolm Gladwell) and finally I'm currently reading The Odyssey (Homer).


Picking up that one was a bit weird because I grabbed it just to read a few passages of poetry thinking I needed something a bit different, but the next thing I knew I had read the first two sections and was really enjoying it. I figured I would really struggle with the writing and not understand half of it but I'm enthralled with the adventures and some of the incredible descriptions. I know very little of Greek mythology as I never studied it so I don't know half the people in the book as others would but I still really like it so I'm stoked I began reading it.

And finally I'm sure that many of you have heard about Google dropping Reader in a few months. I use Google Reader so am pretty annoyed at the decision. Anyone want to recommend another great rss reader they use that I should switch to?

Christened With Crosses (Eduard Kochergin)

Name: Christened with Crosses
Author: Eduard Kochergin
Published: 2012
Publisher: Glagoslav Publications
Translated By: Simon Patterson / Nina Chordas
Pages: 275
Source: Review copy from Publisher
Genres: Translated Literature, Memoir
Goodreads  |  Amazon.com


Christened with Crosses is the true story of Kochergin's childhood in state orphanages in the Soviet Union in the 1940s. Orphaned after his Polish mother is arrested as an "enemy of the people", Eduard Stepanovich (Stepanych) Kochergin, often referred to as Stepanych in the book, finds himself a ward of the state and is transferred to an orphanage in Siberia. After the war has ended, convinced his mother would have been released, Stepanych runs away to return to his home city of Leningrad (St Petersburg). Having to turn himself into an orphanage each winter for shelter and taking approximately six years to cross the Soviet Union, this is the story of one young boy's determination and resilience to return home and be reunited with his mother.

This reads like a road trip adventure novel, although this time the mode of transport is stowing away in freight and passenger trains, and the side stories include getting in with some train robbers, meeting forest people and trying not to get caught by authorities. The State run orphanages are what you'd expect; oppressive places run by tough leaders who get given nicknames like Toad. Places where a natural hierarchy in the children prevails and one has to find some kind of skill or useful contribution for the elders in order to keep in their favour and out of trouble.

Kochergin doesn't over emotionalise his time at the orphanage which makes this less of a memoir and more just simply a great story. His descriptions of people, places and events are so vivid that you forget sometimes that this is a recollection from a young boy's life. He meets some incredible people along the way including his first friend; Mityai, a blind boy who was severely injured during a German plane attack on the passenger train he was traveling in, none of his family survived. Together they must fight against those who would steal Mityai to use as pity fodder for begging. He also meets forest dwellers who teach him survival skills and another orphan who is trying to return home also.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, it is both a fantastic story and a moving memoir at the same time. The author (or potentially it was the translator who added these footnotes in) does well to expand on a few terms and name variations that may be common in Russian and Polish culture but would not be known by a wider audience. These footnotes are done very well and work to enhance the story. The most fun part about reading this book? Pulling out an atlas and following along the trail of his journey on the map.

Ultimately if you are looking for an adventure book, are interested in the Soviet Union, have never tried translated literature and want to try it out, or quite simply are looking for a great read then this is the book for you.

Read It

Christened with Crosses by Eduard Kochergin

Merry Christmas 2012

Merry Christmas to all my wonderful followers out there. I hope you all have a fantastic one filled with family, laughter and good food. We have Christmas at my Dad's place this year and it is my niece's first Christmas so I can't wait. I'm franticly getting all the presents wrapped, lunch and dessert contributions made and house cleaned. But mostly I'm just listening to all the Christmas music on the radio. Love it!

The last couple of weeks have been great in the book department. At my library book club I received a bag of goodies including a free book, a calendar and some chocolate. Not to mention the coolest bag ever! Eat Sleep Read. Yep that sounds a bit like me.

I then grabbed a bunch from my fav second hand book store including a Janet Frame and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society which I have wanted to read so much because of all the great reviews from some other bloggers.

And then I scored all of these from my other book (sharing) club. Can't wait to sink my teeth into The Grapes of Wrath! I missed the readalong earlier this year so I'll be glad to catch up with you all.

Things may be pretty quiet on here for the next couple of weeks as I make the most of the sun and time with family and friends. But don't worry I won't be too far away.

Merry Christmas everyone!!

Sin (Zakhar Prilepin)

Title: Sin
Author: Zakhar Prilepin
Published: 2012 (first published 2007)
Publisher: Glagoslav Publications
Translated: Simon Patterson / Nina Chordas
Pages: 272
Source: Review copy
Genres: Translated Literature
Goodreads  |  Amazon.com



Sin is the story of Prilepin's life told in a series of short stories in non-chronological order. From a hard drinking grave digger, to a young boy, a soldier in Chechnya and a father, each chapter tells some aspect of Prilepin's life. Translated from Russian and published by UK based Glagoslav Publications, this award winning Russian novel is trying to break into a new market.

I really liked the unique structure of this book. Some may find it difficult but I liked how it was simply a series of snippets of a life rather than a chronological auto-biography, it made a far more intriguing read. Not all of this book blends well as a story, some of the individual stories jumped around a little and were a bit hard to follow but overall I enjoyed it. Prilepin is a very poetic writer and even includes a poem chapter in his novel. Unfortunately I'm not great with poetry but somehow it seemed to work.

I'll admit this isn't the easiest of reads, I think anyone who is new to translated literature or does not enjoy a more abstract story-telling may struggle with this, but it's a good book for those interested in translated literature and especially those who are interested in Russian culture. This is not a light read, some of the stories were hard to read as it was not an easy life. I haven't read any Russian literature before and this novel pleasantly surprised me.

There were a few spelling and grammatical errors which I hope will be ironed out in final publications (I received a review copy) but it didn't detract from the story and overall the the translation was very good.

Try It

Sin by Zakhar Prilepin

Man and Boy (Tony Parsons)

Title: Man and Boy
Author: Tony Parsons
Published: 2000
Publisher: Harper Collins
Pages: 344
Source: Own copy
Genres: Contemporary Fiction
Goodreads  |  Amazon.com



Man and Boy is the story of 30 year old Harry Silver. With a loving wife, a young son and a fantastic job he seems to have it all but one single act turns his world upside down and he becomes a single father trying to juggle parenthood and work and having to come to turns with the decisions he makes in his life.

This book is touted as being both humorous and heart warming and it didn't really hit me on either level. I did find it interesting to explore the thoughts and decisions of a man who is thrust into single parenthood, someone trying to do the best he can by his son while trying to work out his own life. But at the same time I found it hard to feel for the guy when it was his own stupid decisions that put him there in the first place.

On top of that, I have to admit something, I'm a bit of a romantic. I do love the whole idea of your one true love and although happily ever after doesn't always make a great book I can't go past a book with a brilliant enduring love sort of plot. Which meant that this book about falling in and out of love, divorces and second marriages was a little difficult for me. I wonder what that says about me? Maybe I don't live in the real world, or maybe I just see enough of it in the real world that I don't like to escape to it in my books.

Ultimately I didn't get very invested in the characters or their story and didn't find enough wit or emotion to hold my attention on this one.

Skip It

Man and Boy by Tony Parsons

New site discovery - Small Demons

Yesterday I cam across a new website that I am loving. It's called Small Demons (https://www.smalldemons.com/) and its goal is to connect everything (people, places, food...) from books in one big mega information site.

It's incredible. Want to find book excerpts where The Great Gatsby is mentioned? Or find out what Curd Vadai looks like - a food talked about in Life of Pi. Or all the bands that were mentioned in A Visit from the Goon Squad? Maybe you want to discover the 254 odd books that mention Mahatma Gandhi. The possibilities are endless.

And if you find something missing? Simply Contribute and become a part of the site.



If you haven't encountered Small Demons yet, check it out.