April's Book Review

Argh! I'm late! I hate being late. Hate it hate it hate it. But it's not my fault. I took all those days off work and I was punished because my internet at home is crap to non-existent. Throw in a Royal Wedding tea party and The Person coming to see me for the bank holiday and my schedule got thrown well and completely out. Nightmare.

But never fear, I will just have to borrow some of the days in May instead, I'm sure it'll forgive me.

Cutting for Stone - Abraham Verghese
I am attracted to books that are mahoosive. I won't lie, if there are two books that are the same price but one is bigger than the other, more often than not I will pick the fatter book. I know, I'm a terrible person. Anyway I didn't buy this book but borrowed it from my Dad's wife. It was described as a "rich tapestry" which also attracted me, I love characters, I love feeling like I really know people within a story.

This book was an odd one. It was just kind of dull. And very.....very.....slow......paced.

Marion and Shiva are twins born in Ethiopia. Their mother dies in childbirth and their father abandons them and they are brought up by Drs in a hospital. Shiva does a "bad thing"  to Marion (I won't give away what the bad thing is nut you'll see it coming from a mile away and it will creep towards you at a snail's pace.) and Marion eventually moves away to America and Shiva makes up for the "bad thing" and oh look, there's their Dad.

Yeah I didn't think much to this one.

Pies and Prejudice: In Search of the North - Stuart Maconie
Another one borrowed from the library of Dad. I saw this reviewed on Lucy's blog and thought I'd give it a go.

You know me, I love my North and this book is a celebration of that. I agree with Lucy, it is very north-west focused but to be fair he does make a disclaimer about that at the beginning and it worked pretty well for me because the north-west is my favourite too.

I loved beyond all everything when he was talking about Manchester and the environs - I got excited when he talked about the Factory Records office because I was remembering being in there at uni (it was then a club called Paradise Factory) and getting lost in it's twists and turns, just like he did back in the day. I was with him when he travelled by tram to Bury market...you get the drift.

Would you find it funny if you were from the South? I'm sure you would, some of you must have a sense of humour (jokes!) but I feel like this is a love letter from The North to its inhabitants and maybe it holds a special something for us.

And he didn't even go to Hull. I'm trying not to be sad about that.

Handle with Care - Jodi Picoult
Another borrowed one - this is the last of the Jodi Picoult's that I borrowed from Culture Friend, I have officially almost cleared my Book Debt with her.

This is actually one of the better ones I've read of Picoult's. It's about a young girl called Willow with brittle bone syndrome (I can't be bothered to try and correctly spell the official medical term right now) whose mother decides to sue her obstetrician (also her best friend) for not alerting her and her husband to the possibility of their child having the condition.

The story is told in a series of letters to Willow from her mother, her father, her older sister and the obstetrician.

It's good, it's engaging and it's an interesting story and I happily got lost in it. There is a big shock ending which leaves you scratching your head a bit. And then you remember the ending to My Sister's Keeper and you think "Really Jodi? Again?!"

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Book of the month: Pie and Prejudice: In Search of the North.