Sunday 17 April 2011

March

This month I got a free replacement for my Kindle cover as the one without the light was causing the Kindle to crash. However Amazon's customer service team were amazing and I now have a smart cover with a light which is great for reading in taxis and doesn't seem to be destroying the battery life :-)

So another amalagmation of a month's worth of books:
Fairy Tales from the Arabian nights by E Dixon
A lovely collection of fairy tales, unlike the British variety I don't think I would recommend these for young children. It seemed in every chapter at least one character died a terrible death and often there was a beautiful princess / fairy trapped in an underground cavern waiting for her prince to marry her.

I also wasn't expecting to find Sinbad the sailor in this book but there he was at the end. He certainly earned his reputation as a bad luck charm on a voyage as on all of his journeys he was the only one to return. Though by the last journey I was more than ready for it all to end. I'm not sure that these arabian fairy tales had quite the same moral aspect but they were definitely worth reading.

The Hanging Shed by Gordon Ferris
Not for the faint hearted this book is a real crime story. But what's interesting is it is not so much of a whodunnit as who didn't... Set in Glasgow council estates there is a level of slightly annoying dialect written out in full, personally I would rather simply add the Glaswegian accent in my head but I guess it's all down to personal preference.

The Basement by Stephen Leather
Another one not for the easily shocked, if you didn't like Emma Donoghue's Room then don't try this one. The seemingly obvious answer to this crime story is smashed in an incredible twist at the end of the book.

An Inconvenient Marriage by Ruth Ann Nordin
Time for a bit of periosd writing and something lighter than the previous two books. Some interesting themes about the role of women in a marriage and I whipped through this easy read.

The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson
Although I didn't love the first on of this trilogy when this came up reduced on my Kindle I wanted to find out what happened next. This one moved alot faster, perhaps because there was no need to set-up the characters. There were the twists you would expect although some of them were verging on the ridiculous but all in all I think it is worth persevering with the first book so you can get to this one, the highlight of the trilogy.