The Hotel New Hampshire

I have recently decided to broaden my reading horizon to include general fiction, rather than just fantasy. I pride myself in the ability to pick fantasies that have at least 12 parts to it, that way I have something to look forward to read after I've finished the first book. At book club, I was told to read the Hotel New Hampshire and so embarked my quest to read a stand alone fictional novel.

The book was tragic and beautiful. A peculiar American family with a pet bear, State-o-Maine, is introduced to you through the eyes of the second son, John. His father is a dreamer and sort of blinded to the harsh facts of reality. His mother loves unreservedly and his grandfather, Iowa Bob, enjoys weightlifting. His older brother Frank is serious but loves to dress up, his sister Franny is vivacious and head strong, his younger brother Egg may be slightly deaf, his little sister Lilly is small and his pet dog Sorrow farts a lot.

His father opens the first Hotel New Hampshire in their home town, and with that signals the start of their new life. The story unfolds beautifully and brings you closer to this peculiar family. John Irving manages to introduce the tragedy that besets the family almost whimsically, that I found myself backtracking to make sure that I just read what I thought he couldn't possibly have said. He weaves through symbolic imagery effortlessly and creates this tragic landscape with elegance. The story moves from America to Germany, Vienna, where things take an even more dramatic turn. Their father opens the second hotel New Hampshire and with it comes prostitutes and freedom fighters. The characters struggle to come to terms with grief and either deny it or call it something else. They grow, they learn and they cope. This book dealt with very real human emotions in an overtly tragic family drama, amazingly. I was drawn in and captivated.

I loved this book and it reaffirmed my quest to delve into the unknown world of fiction. I think that you should definitely read this book.

I give it 5 butter beers.

Black Magician Trilogy - Trudi Canavan

I have recently started reading Trudi Canavan and began with the Black Magician Trilogy, for no other reason then I liked the look of the cover, shallow I know, but so what.

I have become so disillusioned with trilogies that I almost did not read this one, but I am very glad that I did.

The first of the three, the Magician's Guild begins with the yearly purge in the city of Imardin. Each year the magicians purge the city of the poor, forcing them into the very outskirts of town. This is the cause of much anger, but the magicians are unconcerned as they are shrouded by an impenetrable shield. Until Sonea, who is so angry with the rough and uncaring treatment of her family and frightened of having to move puts all her rage into throwing a stone. Strangely it passes through the shield and injures a magician.

Sonea, frightened by what she has done runs away, barely escaping with her life. The guild must pursue her, an untrained magician is too dangerous to be left alone, but will Sonea ever trust them enough to allow that to happen.

The second book, The Novice, details Sonea's training at the Guild. I will not go into too much detail as I feel the story is too good to spoil. Finding it difficult to fit in amongst all the high born students she has no friends until she challenges a fellow student to a dual and wins their respect. Meanwhile she discovers a secret about black magic that could destroy the guild.

The third and final book, The High Lord, finds Sonea in the middle of a complex plot. Is black magic really as evil as everyone makes out?

I found each book to be unputdownable, even though the second and third books were not really two stories, but rather one that was split into two. There are enough mysteries and twists to keep it interesting and the plot is not as generic as most questy type fantasy novels are.

All in all a great read if you like fantasy and be prepared for the review of The Age of the Five coming soon...

I give this book 5 phallic fruits.

New kiddies book by Neil Gaiman!

WOOT!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWRvqO1MjIs

Are people here just less interested

So a couple of weeks ago, I managed to lock myself out of my flat, I was doing laundry and thus was outside in the hallway in my socks without a jersey or my cellphone...so as i walk out the door having thought that I had disengaged my yale lock i hear the door click shut, but with arms full of just washed laundry I realise that sudddenly throwing it on the ground is going to accomplish nothing and I will just end up making more laundry for myself, I calmly place it in the tumble dryer, I managed to remember to bring the store cupboard key but not the house keys ? anyways, once inside the store cupboard I realise that there is a long legnth of shower door seal plastic lying on the ground, and that the slot in my front door is big enough for me to force 2/3 of my arm through, so I do and spend 20 minutes smelling my dinner burn and trying desperatly to get the door open before one of my neighbours calls the police on me cos I am clearly breaking in...eventually I opened the door to the flat and only the delivery man saw me although he sed nothing so either that kind of behaviour is normal in these here parts or they dont care very much if your being robbed by a shoeless individual...why you may ask did i not just knock on my next door neighbours door and ask to borrow their phone? I have no idea I didnt think of it before and by the time I did I was damned if that door was going to beat me!

And then yesterday, I climbed through a hole in the fence around my flat, and several people saw me do this...not one of them put up their hand cleared their throat and asked just exactly what I was doing...I mean...it was late, it was getting dark and I was clearly climbing through a hole in the fence...is this normal behavior in Scotland do you think? Or should I be concerned that apparently no one will ask the ax wielding murderer climbing through the fence what it is that he thinks he is doing?

Restaurant Rant

While I generally hate the generic idea that blogs are primarily a soap box for ranting I feel so strongly about this that I am going to rant here in the hopes that this restaurant will close down forever or send me lots of free goodies as an apology.

The previous post mentioned that 2 of our members are engaged and a couple of weekends ago (when the sun was still shining) 20 of us went to Jonkerhuis in Groot Constantia, Cape Town.

When we arrived there were two tables set out, each seating 10 people. We asked the manager if we could move the table together and have one table, since we all wanted to chat and celebrate together. We were told that this was impossible. When we asked why it became clear that this restaurant likes to serve everyone at a table at the about the same time and that the kitchen could not possibly do that for a table of 20. We replied that while we thought that that was a nice idea, we wouldn't mind if half the table ate before the other half.

We were angrily told that that was not how they operated in a very condescending tone. We then requested that the tables be moved closer together so that whilst we couldn't actually join we could be close enough to talk to each other. Apparently that was also an unreasonable request.

We eventually decided to sit separately and swap around every now and then. Which meant that people who ordered at one table were served at another, totally ruining their service plans. That showed them!

We managed to have a lovely time despite the rudeness of the manager, who also rudely told us to get out because other people were coming soon. The food was good although a little overpriced but the stupidity of the managing staff ruined my experience there. I will definitely not be going back.

Book club 22 April

In an attempt to be healthy, our food theme this month was salads. All this meant was that we stuffed ourselves spherical with *some veggies, and only like 40% cake and junk food. Massive improvement! The other members will be posting their yummy salad recipes soon (or face my wrath). I made a fruit salad which is not exactly rocket science so no need for me to post a recipe (success!).



Of note this month is that two of our members are currently engaged, which is an increase of 20% from the last meeting we attended. Les verrouiller, Mesdames! I am guessing this means that book club will be more along the lines of 'Weddingsdinnermenweddingsbooks' for the next little while, but c'est la vie!



Two people brought the same book to lend out, Douglas Adam's 'Mostly harmless' which surely must reccommend this work as worth a read. I finally completed the Farseer trilogy (Robin Hobb) with a resounding 'Meh', and the 'Dirty bits for girls' (India Knight) is still making the rounds. We started a new book club game this month, called 66,6 or 88,8 depending on which is funnier. Basically each month we will feature a piece made up entirely of the 6th sentence on the 66th page of each of our books. Dirty bits did its part marvellously this month with something about gaping lady bits, however the entirity of the quote is lost to the sands of time as nobody thought to write it down. Next time, we promise.



Thats all for book club this month, our non book club book club event is going to be a girlie night this Thursday so with the many conflicting viewpoints on what constitutes appropriately girly movies I am sure it will be marvellous. If I didn't know the ladies better my contribution would be the movie 'Sunshine', however I have watched one book club member sit through 'Event Horizon' and I don't want to put her through that again, so perhaps something slightly less terrifying will suffice.

Happy reading!

Procession of the Dead

Ok, so I've been feeling really guilty about not posting, so I decided to cheat and look up an old review that I'd already done to try and relieve my conscience. I found a brief review (more of a synopsis really) I did of Procession of the Dead, which I have bought to book club, for the Calgary Herald around April 2008. YIKES! That's two years ago already! Do I pass?... (an apologies for the atrocious grammar in the above sentence. I'm tired, ok?)

When discussing it later, I think I may have been overly harsh in my critique of this book, as 'ol D.B.'s publicists tried to liken him to My Darling Gaiman, and D.B. should tell them not to do that, as no one can live up to Him. The book is worth a read, I guess...

Procession of the Dead

D.B. Shan

D.B. Shan's revision of his first book in The City Trilogy, Procession of the Dead, starts as a cliché yarn about wannabe-gangster Capac Raimi who comes to the city to find his fortune in the underworld. Quickly he is snapped up by The Cardinal, the nefarious kingpin of the city, and a fantastic story of mystical intrigue unfolds as a friend of Capac's goes missing and Capac discovers there's no evidence he ever existed. The mystery spurs him on in a quest to find out about inexplicable lapses in his own memories, and, in the process, he learns the unbelievable truth about how the Cardinal keeps his hold on the city. The story, told from Capac's point of view, is filled with colourful characters, imaginative details and a compelling storyline.