A place I go

A place in cyberspace where I go when I am blue.
I go just to see the beauty.
And because it always puts a smile on my face.

http://www.antiquedress.com/gallery.htm

Skellig

This is a tiny book that had a big impact on me. My very dear friend in England Catherin gave me a copy one day and said you have to read this. I did and I loved it.

It is not a big book, but it has big ideas. It is really just a wisp of a thing, but like a wisp of smoke, or a wisp of light it can change how you see an event or how your day goes. Despite it's big ideas it is as gentle on the readers hart as a of a wisp of smoke.

A young boy, during a time of change in his life comes across a secret and a new friend. And that is all you really need to know. Read with an open mind and open your hart to Skellig.

Different Types of Legend

When I saw the movie I am Legend I really liked it. I love movies and books about the last person on earth or the last of a kind or the end of the world. It all seems so fantastical that it is like a dark fairy tale to me.

So finally I got around to reading the book and if you want a happy ending do not read this book. It is a great ending but it is not an ending you will like if you go in for the happy Hollywood ending.

This Richard Matheson book was published in 1954. When you read it you will be impressed with his idea of the future. It is set in the 1970s and it has the whole Cold War feel that the 70s had. SiFi writers are clever buggers. I am never not amazed with what they write and how so much of it comes true. Well elements of it come true.

I think that the movie was a good interpretation of the original work, despite the happy ending, I know the Will Smith character died, but the others got to safety. I am now looking forward to seeing Omega man as well to complete my
I am Legend journey.

The Man loves his Hometown

Just finished The Given Day by Dennis Lehane

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Lehanehttp://

The man loves his home town. Every one of his books has an extra character, Boston. Every time I read one of his books or see a film version of his books, I want to see Boston, I want to walk the wet gray streets, and feel the pulse that is in all of his work, but then I wonder would I have had to live there my whole life to feel it as he does.

I love my home town, I would never live anywhere else, but can I feel and write it as he does? There are a handful of writers who can do this, let you in to the world they know, the streets they walk, the smell, the grit. I love his work.

I found the story engrossing as well, I am fascinated by history, race relations, the union movement and the red menace. All of this is covered in the book and a lot more. Family, family we are born into, and the family we create. I liked this book so much that I was having trouble finishing it. I was so worried that bad things would happen to the people in it that I at times could not keep reading because I could not face them been hurt!

And can this guy be more diverse? He jumps all over when it comes to subject matter, but he always jumps in Boston.

Layer Cake or more like an Onion cos it makes your eyes water.

Disgrace by J.M.Coetzee can be read in many ways. It could just be a book about an ageing man learning to let go of his youth, it can be about a whole Country falling apart, it can be about human bondage and it can be about race relations. While it can be any or all of those things the one that it definitely is, is well written.

http://www.randomhouse.com.au/Books/Default.aspx?Page=Book&ID=9780099526834

I seem totally unable to write about this book. So all I will say is, it is beautifully written, it will reflect any number of scenarios back at you and will open your eyes to a world you want to think does not exist. It could be Australia, and if we don't look at ourselves and how we live with others here, it could be our future.


P.S I would like to know how my South African Friends feel about this book.

Sarah Waters The Little Stranger

I love a good ghost story, the paranormal, and mysteries. But I very rarely find authors that I like who write in that field. Sarah Waters is a difficult writer, her writing is wonderful and always draws me in, but sometimes I don't like what she does to her people!

The Little Stranger is like that, I sat down to read and 7 hours later I was finished. I love the book, but was so unhappy with the outcome. It was just like I felt when I finished her other book Affinity. She really is someone I want to sit down with and ask her "what the hell?" Why the outcomes?

The Little Stranger is set in an old English manor house after WWII, the locale Doctor is drawn to Hundreds Hall and the Ayres family. As Dr Faraday gets to know the family better he learns they are living under a threat, it's source unknown.

The book is creepy good. It made me a little jumpy and made me wish I had not started it at night time. I liked the people in the book and I liked that the minor players where well rounded even if they where only in it for a short time.

If you want to think and get a thrill give Sarah Waters a go.

http://www.sarahwaters.com/

A bit of Magic

When I lived in London I was fascinated by the Ghost Stations of the London Underground and by the Wild Apple Trees that you would see all along the way. Why where the Stations empty and how did the Apple Tree grow where it did? Where did the little doors go and the random staircases lead too?

These where the thoughts I followed every work day for two years. They where the thoughts that took me away from the over crowed Tube, the smell of too many damp people and not enough ventilation.

London is a magic place, it is so old, and it's little by ways can still lead you places. This is the London that Neil Gaiman brings to life in his lovely book Neverwhere. I have been in a book funk recently and thought that my reading 3 books a week since I was 11 had finally brought me to a place where the might not be anymore surprises for me. Maybe I had read every version of every story there was to tell.

With that in mind I took my time at work and drove my Josiegirl mad with my constant cry of "Which Book"

Neverwhere won and I am so happy it did. It is a wonderful modern fairytale and I love it. After seeing the movie Stardust I should have known he was different, that he had something new to give.

So if you are feeling a bit sick of the everyday, and want to see your world in a new way give him and read and then work your own magic into every day.

http://underground-history.co.uk/front.php

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/apr/24/traditional-orchards-biodiversityhttp://

http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-global/w-news/w-latest_news/w-news-orchardwindfall.htmhttp://

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/g/neil-gaiman/