One Book at a Time?

I read three books at a time …

My books are almost in every room. All genres and categories, all shapes and sizes, new and old, popular and obscure, loved, liked and even loathed. I will refer to them, quote them, yet perhaps not always re-read them. I prefer the next book, the next Great Read, something new to me but not necessarily a blockbusting bestseller.

As mentioned, I read about three books at a time, not to show off, but to suit my mood during the day. The books can be in any format, paper, ebook, large print, audio as long as it holds my attention, sparks my imagination, gets me interested or teaches me something new. I’ve been through my non-fiction period, my classics epoch, my intellectual stage, my steampunk phase, my romance jaunt and different levels of humour, while dabbling in between with things like sci-fi fantasy and horror, but I keep coming back to perennial crime fiction.

For me, the ‘must have’ is a good strong lead character, someone I want to know about, someone I want to tag along with throughout the day, or night. On the weekend I read in the garden under the palms with a cool drink but mainly I read at night. A good crime novel can be detrimental to my sleep! Apart from a nicely twisted plot, the characters are who I care about the most. Currently my favourite murder mysteries are written by Australian and British authors.

While I enjoy writing reviews, my ego is under no illusions that anyone would find my reviews earth-shattering or even interesting.  It’s a hobby for me and my suggestion to you, dear reader, is that you should make up your own mind on any book.  Blurb can be misleading!  It would be nice to see more conflicting, controversial reviews and posts by readers who are not looking over their shoulders at freebies/writers/publishers/fans or the next thumbs up.

I recommend books I’ve liked and occasionally pan those I’ve disliked. My thoughts may differ from yours so if you have never written a review, why not give it a go? Write a couple of paragraphs and see if it deepens your appreciation of the book. My thoughts lead me to writing down the key words and hey-presto. Get along to book launches and author signings for insider information. And grab a copy of “Francis Plug: How to Be a Public Author” by Paul Ewen. Kooky, hilarious and factual, it delves into the fan/author relationship with real consequences.

NOTE: Reading three books simultaneously for maximum brain gymnastics means, for example, one on public transport, another in a lunch break, and a third at bedtime. Happy reading!

♥ Gretchen Bernet-Ward

Jasper Fforde Ffun

As a dyed-in-the-wool Jasper Fforde ffan, I recommend Shades Of Grey. No, not that one!

Shades Of Grey deviates from Fforde’s brilliantly off-kilter, zany other-Britain adventures of Thursday Next, a LiteraTech operative for SpecOps-27, a crime fighting division inside literary fiction – literally – but there is some serious world building going on. The Fforde trademark of inventiveness and unusual plot twists is there but the tone is sombre, the protagonist Eddie Russett lives in a tightly controlled world with a rigid hierarchy based on primary colours. However, Eddie is not stupid and rises to the challenge of solving a perplexing mystery with the aid of some ‘colourful’ locals and a feisty Grey woman, Jane.

I have to say it is not my all-time favourite book in Fforde’s repertoire: Thursday Next wins. I found the ending unsatisfying (except discovering where spoons go) although I do think it has been left open for a sequel. If you’ve read the odd humour of Douglas Adams or inimitable Terry Pratchett and want a neo-noir version, try Jasper Fforde for ffun. There’s enough books to keep you going!

Fforde has also written humorous Nursery Crimes series, and The Last Dragonslayer series about teenager Jennifer Strange. Her agency, Kazam, employs weird and wonderful wizards who create magic and mayhem.

Check the website Grand Central http://www.jasperfforde.com/

♥ Gretchen Bernet-Ward

NEWS FLASH JASPER FFORDE WILL BE IN BRISBANE AUSTRALIA FOR BRISBANE WRITERS FESTIVAL, SOUTH BANK, FROM THURSDAY 5 SEPT TO SUNDAY 8 SEPT 2019.
https://bwf.org.au/2019/brisbane-writers-festival/artists/jasper-fforde-1

Jasper Fforde itinerary will be:

Event 1 – Workshop ‘Writing Futures’ with Jasper Fforde at QWC: Learning Centre, State Library of Queensland.

Event 2 – ‘Dream Worlds’ Panel at Cinema B, Gallery of Modern Art, South Bank.

Event 3 – Conversation ‘Early Riser’ at The Edge, State Library of Queensland.

Event 4 – Book Club ‘Meet Jasper Fforde’ River Decks, State Library of Queensland.

Event 5 – Lecture / Special Closing Address by Jasper Fforde, The Edge, State Library of Queensland.

Jasper Fforde at Brisbane Writers Festival Sept 2019

‘My Name is Lucy Barton’ by Elizabeth Strout

Hmm . . . a puzzling book. Good, then it dissolves into vignettes.

It is a book which sometimes comes back to me in flashes. I didn’t love it but I didn’t hate it.

Lucy has an extended stay in hospital. I found the mother-daughter part of the story made me think. We all relate to our own personal experiences and I definitely got twinges when I related my mother’s attitude to Lucy’s mother – although my relationship was different. I didn’t like her father, troubled but not nice.

Much of Lucy’s early family life came out in tiny bits here and there. The trickle affect showed the reader the cruel hardship of her earlier life. Is that why Lucy was estranged? Why was she locked in the old car?

It was interesting how Lucy loved her kind doctor, she got no real love or compassion from her father or her husband. The author Sarah Payne was a great character, I wish she had been fleshed out a bit more. I liked her comment after that cutting PTSD remark “…And anyone who uses their training to put someone down that way – well, that person is just a big old piece of crap.”

After Lucy came out of hospital, the story took on the quality of snapshots as though author Elizabeth Strout saw or heard something and jotted it down then couldn’t quite flesh it out but wanted to use it anyway. There are very human insights but we don’t even know what Lucy wrote in her books.

Lucy’s relationship with her grown-up daughters was rather superficial but I liked the unnerving chapter about her brother, and also when she is bothered by the fact that friend Jeremy may have been the dying AIDS patient she saw in hospital.

The marble statue of Ugolino and His Sons by Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux in the Metropolitan Museum of Art fascinated Lucy but I couldn’t understand why. It’s graphic but to me just shows the agony of imprisonment.

Overall, I guess I’d give this book three out of five stars because I’m not poetic enough to read between the lines!

♥ Gretchen Bernet-Ward