A whole lot of reading going on

I have been on holiday for nearly three weeks and have managed to pack in a number of good and not so good reads in that time. The bodies left behind by Jeffrey Deaver is one of the books that I recommend. Jeffrey Deaver, as always, keeps you guessing until nearly the last page.  A 911 call cut short leads deputy Brynn to a house on Lake Mondac, where she discovers two bodies and nearly becomes a victim herself. On the run from the murderers with only her wits to keep her alive, Brynn's fight to survive keeps you turning the pages. Deaver writes a good story and I was not disappointed. If you need a good page turner for a chilly winter's night ( or a lazy day on the beach for those lucky souls in the North) then you this is a good choice.

 Z by Michael Thomas Ford was one of the books that I reviewed for my husband's slibrary. If you are a teen reader and enjoy a good zombie thriller, then this might be for you. The plot is good and it is well written. It does however highlight the depths to which we as so called " civilized" beings can and do descend and is a bit gruesome in places, but then what can you expect from a book about zombies.

 Yet another zombie book that I reviewed is Monster Island, the first in a trilogy written by David Wellington.  This book was a bit too weird for my taste, although it is a great page turner and will certainly keep you reading.  A small band of Somali girl soldiers accompany a former UN inspector to New York city to look for AIDS drugs. The catch is that all of the civilized world has fallen to a zombie infection and Manhattan is crawling with the undead. Join Dekalb and his girl soldiers as they invade New York in their quest for these drugs. Besides these newly undead, a greater threat awaits them, as one of the undead is not quite as mindless as one would assume. A thinking zombie is far more  of a threat than the other undead and this twist in the tale lends itself to all sorts of action.Throw in an ancient druid, a couple of mummy's and this all makes for a good but disturbing read.

                                   

Finding a book by an author you enjoy that you have not yet read is like coming home. I have not read a Tony Hillerman in a long time and I really enjoyed reading Talking god . What do a corpse and a grave robber have in common? This question brings Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee together and as Joe tries to identify the victim and Jim arrests the grave digger. This story is well written and the plot all comes together in the last pages, leaving the reader guessing. I love a good detective novel where the plot is not given away in the first half of the book. Tony Hillerman hooks you and keeps you to the last page. It is also fascinating getting a glimpse into a world so far removed from my own, which is one of the special joys of being a reader and an armchair traveller.

As my holiday draws to a close, I find myself intensely wrapped up in the world of Henry and Claire in The Time traveller's wife by Audrey Niffenegger, as they fight to live a normal life with Henry time travelling throughout their relationship.  They meet when Claire is 6 and Henry 40, get married when Claire is 22  and Henry 30. While this is a beautiful love story , there is nothing typical about it and you keep reading , wanting to know how they resolve the fact that Henry keeps disappearing. I have an allergic reaction to most love stories and while I am not immune to chic lit, I generally avoid these types of books. However, this story is lovely and I would recommend it to anyone who is a romantic at heart.

Still on to read list is a Sue Grafton omnibus, The Worst Hard time by Timothy Egan and two murder mysteries by authors that I have not read before, which is always something to look forward to. What are the books you are reading these holidays or the ones still on your bedside table, waiting like a large box of chocolate allsorts? I would love to hear from you. 

A different take on the art book

Having been off for a while, I thougth I might post something a little out of the ordinary. I came across this list of books as artwork. It is truly bizarre and thought provoking. From nail encrusted books to books as three story high sculptures, this link is just plain weird on one level but some of the art work is also quite beautiful. In a world where books seem to be rapidly being replaced by the one minute thought bite, I love the idea of books as pieces of art, not only for the words between their covers but also as a solid object occupying a three dimensional space. Follow this link to see some of the other works of art.

 http://www.flavorwire.com/292899/10-incredibly-bizarre-works-of-book-art/comment-page-1#comment-135048

Don't you just love this waterfall of books by Alicia Martín. It gives me the idea of a house that is so overflowing with books that the walls cannot contain them anymore.As a book lover I find this a wonderful idea ( or am I just a bit peculiar?) I spent a pleasant twenty minutes in the car yesterday wondering what I would do if I won the Lotto. Filling a house with books would probably be high on my wish list and this image gives a visual idea of what that might be like.

Cookbooks and mystics: The cookbook collector

I have just finished reading the Cookbook Collector by Allegra Goodman. I really enjoyed the book. She makes beautiful use of language, weaving words together to create vivid mind pictures for her readers. The book focuses on the lives of two sisters, Emily and Jessamine Bach. Emily is practical, intellectual and business minded.She is engaged to a fellow dot com entrepreneur. Jessamine is studying philosophy and is dating a tree hugger.

The book is about cookbooks and cooking, mysticism, finding love in very unexpected places and putting your life together again when it does not go as planned. This is the first of Allegra Goodman's books that I have read but it will not be the last.She has a lovely way with words and she transported me to a very different world from my own

So sweet

It is seldom that one gets to combine sweetness so well in a book blog. For those of you who love sentimental stories and have a sweet tooth, look no further than today's installment of Bookmark That.

Here is another of my favourite children's books. Guess how much I love youhttp://www.amazon.com/Guess-How-Much-Love-You/dp/076360013X, written by Sam McBratney and illustrated by Anita Jeram, tells the charming story of Little Nutbrown Hare trying to outdo his dad in telling him how much he loves him as a stalling technique before bedtime. Big Nutbrown Hare always manages to go one better in his declaration of love for his son. Children need to be reassured of their parents love and this book gives this reassurance abundantly. It is charming and beautifully illustrated and you should have it on your bookshelf if you are a parent or grandparent. It makes a lovely gift for a young family as well.

I found this  birthday cake on one of the baking blogs I follow and thought I would add it, as it combines two of the things I enjoy the most, namely reading and cakes. The cake was baked by Anne Heap of the Pink Cakebox and I think it is gorgeous. If you are looking for some inspiration, you have to visit her blog. Jacob is definitely a lucky birthday boy.

A sweet book and an even sweeter cake. Two of life's greatest pleasures. Enjoy!

Where to put my books?

Here are one or two bookshelves/bookends that I found on the net and thought I would like to share. Don't you just love the books "falling" over. Just putting a book on a shelf is never quite as interesting a finding somewhere quirky or unusual to store them. See if you can spot what is so different about the bookshelf on the left. If you can, let me know what it says.While my books line shelves in our home, I am always trying to find new and unusual book shelves or bookends. Do you have any quirky bookcases to share? Please send in the photo's.

We're going on a bear hunt..........

I have decided to start a series on some of my favourite children's books. Some of these I enjoyed as a child and am rediscovering them with my own children, others are new books and authors that I love to share with my children. My two pre-schoolers have just received a book as a gift from their granny overseas and they have enjoyed reading it as much as we enjoy reading it to them. We're going on a bear hunt is retold by Michael Rosen and illustrated by Helen Oxenbury. It is a lovely read and takes me back to sitting round the campfire on youth camps, doing all the actions and shrieking with laughter. I enjoy the story as it makes  a family outing of going to go and look for the bear, with much splashing and squelching and swishing as the family traverse fields, mud puddles and streams on there expedition. The children love finding the bear and all the running back to the house, especially when their dad makes big growly noises and adds the sound effects( you can tell who the extrovert is in our family). This is a great read and is beautifully illustrated. It is published by Walker Books and is a must have for the bookshelf.

Book sculptures

Book sculpture is not what you do when that pile of unread books next to your bed reaches gravity defying heights and you try to rearrange them so that they do not all come crashing down. If the idea of taking a pair of scissors to a book horrifies you, STOP READING NOW. For those book lovers out there who can bear the thought, this beautiful work of art has been done by taking an old Boys Own manual and cutting out the inside pages to form a collage. This artwork is done by Alexander Korzer- Robinson and I think it is exquisite. He makes use of antiquarian books in his sculptures, giving us a glimpse into a forgotten past and making what is old and forgotten, new again. If you want to see some more of his work , follow this link to http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturepicturegalleries/9211702/Book-sculpting-by-Alexander-Korzer-Robinson.html?frame=2196639#?frame=2196646. Tell me what you think. I would personally love to have one ( or two)  of these in my Christmas stocking ( hint,hint).