Pure - Andrew Miller

In the time just before the French Revolution a young engineer is looking to make his way up in the world. Jean-Baptiste Baratte has been called by one of the King's ministers for a special job. Baratte is to go to Paris to clear out Les Innocents Cemetery which has been poising that area of the city despite being closed. Not exactly a glamorous job but Baratte intends to do it well. What he didn't expect was people to be upset by his task. As well as overcoming the problem of how to clear the cemetery Baratte must overcome all the people who are against the destruction of the cemetery. For some it is part of their world. It's where they work and live.

I had been looking forward to this but after the first few chapters (which are short) I was less than overwhelmed. I thought it was going to be extremely dull. I thought it was going to be a book reflecting on the run up to the French Revolution. Instead it was droning on about a cemetery and one very naive engineer. Thankfully it picked up and political unrest was there in the background.

I disliked Baratte at first for his naivety. I cringed as he allowed people to take advantage of him. He was naive about his place in life too believing that he was finally moving up in the world. Just a little pompous without any real reason to be. It didn't last long mind you and it took a crack on the head for him to wake up to the real world.

As work on the cemetery finally begins the pace of the writing and the story picks up to. The pace of political unrest also picks up but again this seems to be more a part of the back ground. For the sake of Baratte, who had grown on me, I couldn't wait for the task to be finished. At the same time I didn't want it to be over as it would mean saying goodbye to some very interesting characters. Bit of a change from my feelings about the book at the start. It will never be my favourite historical fiction but it grew on me and it still hasn't left my head.

Wonder Boys - Michael Chabon

Grady Tripp is a writer. He has had a few well received books and is now working on his latest called Wonder Boys. The problem is that he has been working on it the last seven years and can't seem to end it. Instead it keeps growing and at 2611 pages it's still nowhere near the end. Meanwhile he is teaching at the local college, his wife has left him and he is having an affair with his boss's wife, Sara. When Sara tells him she is expecting Grady has one of the strangest weekends in his life with one of his students in tow.

I've only ever read on other Chabon novel and I loved it. I knew this one was going to be very different so I read it with no expectations. Not as good as Kavalier and Clay but I still liked it. Grady isn't one of the most likeable of characters and yet I did. Everything that went wrong in his life was his own doing and yet I couldn't help but feel sorry for him. You want to give him a bit of a shake and tell him to grow up but then if he did this crazy weekend wouldn't have happened.

There isn't much of a line between Grady and his students. It's almost as though by going into teaching he is re-living his own student days. One of the girls has a crush on him and is living in his basement. Another is dragged along on Grady's mad weekend (to be fair this student did create a good bit of the madness). He spends most of his time working on his novel and smoking pot.

Chabon actually wrote this because he was was struggling with another novel himself. In that way alone he was Grady. The character of Grady was based on a teacher he had himself in the 80s. Scary but not hard to imagine that such a teacher existed. Mind you he must have been good at teaching as all of these students did seem to look up to him (well, all but one). Grady manages to keep his envy of these young talents to himself. Although to be fair to Grady it's not the destructive kind of envy.

The story itself is one of those that has you laughing and cringing at the same time. You want to hide your eyes from the situations Grady manages to get himself into and yet you want to carry on reading. It's well paced and over all too soon. If like me you have read Kavalier and Clay please don't even try to look for similarities. There are none other than it's a well written book. Looking forward to seeing what else Chabon has in his back list.

His Last Bow & The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle

More short stories featuring the famous Sherlock Holmes. In this case the stories are two volumes brought together. Once again Watson has been diligently recording his friends most famous cases, including some that had previously been banned by Holmes from public viewing. We hear of Holmes' last case and what he does after he leaves London for the country. As it is approaching WWI when Watson publishes these there are a few that involved Holmes' protecting State secrets. He even heads into the world of the supernatural and uncovers the truth about a vampire. Lastly, after years of berating Watson, Holmes has a go at writing up one of his cases himself.

I am actually quite sad that I have now finished all these tales. True there is a new one out written by Anthony Horrowitz but somehow it won't be the same (that's not to say I won't try it). I feel like I am saying goodbye to am old friend here and yet I read the vast majority of these books this year.

I am more pleased with the way Holmes left his career this time than I would have been had Final Solution been the last story. Better to have Holmes still out there somewhere. In this case he is in the country bee-keeping. In fact there is one story in there after his so called retirement. Holmes has to write this one out himself since Watson isn't on hand to do it for him.

I think I enjoyed these short stories slightly more than all the others. Possibly because I knew they were the last and so prized them more. However, I think it's also because they were slightly darker. The tales always did have a dark edge to them but with the approaching war Doyle was able to move away from trivial problems to ones that put the country in danger. Only Holmes stood between Britain and disaster. I quite liked that edge to them.

Now that I have finished them all I can go on to the films and tv adaptations. I have been looking forward to those but wanted to hold off. It will be interesting to see how they compare. If you haven't read any of these books I recommend that you do. Especially, the short stories. Don't be put off if you aren't a fan of classics or crime. I think most readers would get something out of them. I dare you not to pick it up and fall in love with Holmes.

League of Extraordinary Gentleman Challenge Overview

Bet you didn't think this post was every going to happen. Only been promising it for the last two months or so. However, I thought I would break up my review catch up a bit with this.

Way back in 2011 Hanna of Booking In Heels set up a challenge for 2012. The challenge was to read the books starring the characters from The League of Extraordinary Gentleman. Although not a film I enjoyed I am a fan of the genres most of the characters came from. It was basically a chance for me to re-read some old favourites and to try some new ones. Here is a list of the books I read with the main character highlighted. Have also linked the titles to my reviews of them.

King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard (Allan Quatermain)
Dracula by Bram Stoker (Mina Harker) Re-read
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne (Captain Nemo)
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain (Tom Sawyer) Re-read
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stephenson (Jekyll/Hyde) Re-read
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (Dorian Grey) Re-read
The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux (the phantom) Re-read
The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells (Invisible man)
The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle (Moriarty)

Only nine books and most of them weren't that long. I read one each month which meant that I finished the challenge in September. I was going to read the graphic novel however I am having to be careful with the pennies and in the end it just didn't appeal to me.

Over all I enjoyed the challenge. It was fun to return to old favourites. I was particularly reminded of how much I love Dracula. I also enjoyed trying Jules Verne again. Oh, and I have loved visiting all the Sherlock books in the build up to the one listed here (of course I kept going with those after the challenge title had been read). I even discovered that a book I wasn't too fond of before that I actually quite enjoyed this time round (looking at you Phantom). I was also surprised that I liked The Invisible Man as H. G. Wells has been a hit or a miss with me over the last few years. The only book I disliked the first time and still do was Dorian Gray (please don't hate me Oscar fans). In fact it's the only book on the list that I disliked at all and it was the one that put me off the challenge. As time to read it got closer I started to struggle with the challenge and could see myself giving up. Thankfully that didn't happen.

Would be interested to here what others think of these books on the list. Big thank you to Hanna for running the challenge. It has been interesting.

The Valley of Fear - Arthur Conan Doyle

Sherlock is at home when he receives a letter from someone who works for Professor Moriarty. The letter is in code but it's not long before Sherlock has it all worked out. It's a warning that a Mr John Douglas is about to be murdered. He then receives a visit from Scotland Yard who come to deliver the news of John Douglas's death and ask him to come and unfold the mystery surrounding it. Holmes quickly agrees and travels to the Douglas home along with his good friend Watson. There they hear the stories of the dead mans wife, servant and friend. All the stories are the same and yet something doesn't quite add up. Of course it doesn't take Sherlock long to work out what exactly has gone on.

Supposedly not the best of the Holmes books. It's the last one that takes the form of a novella. However, it is criticised because Holmes is only in the first half of the book. Like the first two novella's Holmes uncovers the truth and then we get the back ground story of the individuals involved. In this case was travel back to America and a small town which is held in fear by a group belonging to the order, The Freemen (a play on the Freemasons).

Like in the previous two books I liked this division. It had a different style to it as we learn of John Douglas and how he became a hunted man. It was almost like reading a different book but at the same time you are constantly aware that it's about to reveal more of Holmes's initial mystery. I can agree that there wasn't enough of Holmes but at the same time I think the story would have lost something if this second section had been cut. It was very much part of the intrigue.

The parts of the book that did annoy me (very mildly) was when Moriarty was mentioned. The mystery must have been set before The Final Problem as the stand off between Moriarty and Holmes wasn't mentioned. Plus, according to Watson, this is the first he himself has heard of Moriarty. Yet, Watson was also first introduced to Moriarty in that short story. It was something I could live with and maybe my memory isn't as good and Watson had heard of Moriarty before the final stand off.

I still prefer the short stories but the novellas are still worth reading. It's an opportunity to see what else the author could do.

Will Be Up To Date Eventually!

The last few months have been a struggle for me. Not in a personal sense I've just been struggling to juggle everything and this blog has suffered. It's been a constant game of catch up. Instead of admitting defeat and taking a time out I have tried to get myself up to date. Which of course I failed at miserably. Next time I will do what I did last year and take a time out.

I have had placement (almost finished), an essay (almost finished) and I am onto my second bout of the cold which actually left me in my bed for two days. I've never been so run down and I think stress has been a big part of it. To make matters worse I spilled tea over my laptop and had to re-do my essay from scratch. Thankfully the computer I managed to save but not until I had already re-done the essay. 

Sounds like a big long whine but that's not what I mean. Just explaining my absence. Fingers crossed I will be back to normal next week and I WILL catch up on all those reviews. More than that I am actually looking forward to picking up a non-nursing book. Hope everyone is enjoying the run up to the festive period. Looking forward to seeing what you have all been reading and what challenges you have signed up to for next year.

Ringworld - Larry Niven

Louis has left his own party celebrating his 200th birthday. He is bored and is thinking that it might be time to take one of his own adventures. As he contemplates this as he travels round Earth he somehow ends up in a room with a Puppeteer, an alien everyone believed had disappeared a long time ago. The Puppeteer, Nessus, has a task for Louis. He wants him to travel to a sun which has a metal ring constructed around it. The Puppeteers are a fearful race and they want him to find out if it will be a threat. Along with Speaker (a Kzin) and Louis' 29 year old girlfriend, Teela, they head out. There Louis and friends meet the unexpected and the strange. A world constructed by unknown beings and filled with plants and animals from other worlds.

I have to say that this wasn't my favourite sci fi book  that I have ever read. Having said that the more time passes the more favourably I look on it. My thoughts at the time were that it was far too simply written. I was expecting a piece of classic sci fi. What I got was something that was almost written for children (if you take out the discussions on mating). The dialogue and the language itself was very simple. On the plus side it did make it for an easy read and it made the technological aspects of it easier to take (for those who don't like the technobabble).

We all know that in sci fi and fantasy we have to sometimes take things with a pinch of salt or to just let reality go. I could do that with a metal world constructed round a sun with it's own oceans and mountains. I could do that with an alien race called Puppeteers (although it turns out that name is quite apt). I could do that with a 200 year old man having a relationship with a 20 year old (that really isn't new when you read Peter F. Hamilton). I could do that with sunflowers which store up sunlight and shoot at anything that moves. What I found difficult to take was that the human race had evolved luck. A lottery in place to allow people to have a second child (for population control) has meant that those who win it are lucky and this luck grows as it is passed genetically on to their children. That had me almost wanting to through the book across the room.

Glad I didn't though as I did enjoy the four characters travelling across the Ringworld. This part of the book was an interesting plotline. Ringworld is clearly a technological marvel however society has broken down on it. It makes for an interesting read. I also liked the interaction between the four characters and any of the people they found on Ringworld. People who have forgotten that their ancestors created the world they live on.

I do have to defend it a little from one review. I read one that said that they found it very sexist in terms of the relationship between Louis and Teela. I can see how they came to feel that but it wasn't the impression I got. Human's now have access to longevity treatment and so age differences in relationships don't matter so much. Like I mentioned earlier this really isn't new. Peter F. Hamilton and other authors have done something similar in their books. I also don't think Teela was portrayed as just a silly young girl. She said came across as just as intelligent and actually seemed to get things far faster than some of the others. I think that the point the author was trying to get across is that she is young with no responsibilities other than to enjoy everything out of life.

I read this as part of the sci fi challenge hosted by Ellie of Curiosity Killed the Bookworm. It was for November's choice and I did read it last month. This is just the first opportunity I have had to get typing. If you want to see what others read last month you can do so here. Decembers choice is to read a sci fi book with a Christmas theme. I haven't picked my book yet and at this point in time I'm not sure I will have a chance to read one.