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A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers by Xiaolu Guo

A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers by Xiaolu GuoI picked up this book in my local bookshop last Sunday. It was a toss up between this one and a Philippa Gregory novel Wild…something…

I loved the way this book started. “Sorry of my English.”

Zhuang is a Chinese language student who arrives in London to attend an English language school in order to get ahead in China.

The book begins in broken English: “Is unbelievable, I arriving London, ‘Heathlow Airport’. Every single name very difficult remembering, because just not ‘London Airport’ simple way like we simple way call ‘Beijing Airport’. Everything very confuse way here…”

Broken but charming, her language is quite poetic: “Immigration officer holding my passport behind his accounter, my heart hanging on high sky.”

Xiaolu Guo’s insights are also really interesting and sometimes funny: “People say ‘I’m going to go to the cinema…’ Why there two go for one sentence? Why not enough to say one go to go?”
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I felt inside her skin as she tried to make sense of the alien Western world and as she comments on the differences learning learning learning about her culture.

Now I suppose the title should have given it away… after all “for lovers” is a pretty big hint, but I was surprised at the amount of sex in this book. It’s not confronting, just… surprising. But it makes sense as part of the novel, for this innocent from China is not only discovering the Western World but also herself, her sexuality.

I really enjoyed this novel. It’s very cleverly written. Zhuang’s English gets better and better throughout the book. And as her language gets better, so does the depth of her insight.

My favourite expression is her description of the English sun while she’s in Portugal: “They got a real sun here in their sky, not like in England. English sun is a fake sun, a literature sun.”

Right on the money!

The Hanging Garden by Ian Rankin

Ian Rankin Hanging GardenIan Rankin‘s book The Hanging Gardenis one of his Inspector Rebus novels. You might have seen the Rebus TV series starring John Hannah?

In this book Rebus investigates two crimes. A war crime and some gangster in-fighting. Both complex, both in their way intriguing and somehow inter-related.

Rebus is a miserable bugger. Wedded to his job. Broken marriage. Recovering alcoholic. He’s a loner but of course a loner with the insight to resolve these puzzling crimes, even prevent them.

It’s set in the grimy underworld of Edinburgh and the grey setting perfectly matches Rebus’s mood.

I haven’t read an Ian Rankin novel before. He intersperses his prose with song titles which is a bit off-putting at first. Is it part of the text or a suggested accompanying playlist? Maybe they are what Ian was listening to as he wrote.
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Overall, I enjoyed the read. He sets a mean pace and I was carried along with the plot.

Worth picking up if you like crime fiction.

Other reviews:
Complete review
Amazon (scroll down to find it)

Chinese Cinderella by Adeline Yen Mah

Chinese CinderellaI picked up this book over Easter. One of our teenage guests had read it for school and was writing a paper on it. It’s not a long read – I read it over the course of a morning.

Chinese Cinderella is the autobiographical tale of Adeline Yen Mah – you may have seen her book Falling Leaves, a more adult memoir.

The story is of her childhood, growing up in China during the second World War. She is the fifth child of a fairly wealthy man and two weeks after her birth her mother dies – she is thought of as bad luck. Her father re-marries soon after and the new stepmother is – as you might expect from the title – not the most even-handed particularly when her own two children arrive on the scene.

She is not allowed to invite friends home, never celebrates birthdays, has no new clothes etc.

Her only champion is her aunt and to a lesser extent her grandfather, whose power wanes as the stepmother’s grows.

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I wonder if her adult autobiography would elicit the same response.

Have you read this book? What did you think?

Another review:
Reading Matters
It is an extraordinary catalogue of abuse and malice which will stay with you for quite a while after you finish the book. And I think you might find this book actually enjoyable, despite the content, because it is so well written.

Dear John by Nicholas Sparks

Dear JohnI picked this book up at the airport waiting for someone called John. On reading the first couple of pages I discovered it was set in Wilmington. We loved Wilmington on our recent trip to the US and so it seemed as if the universe was speaking and I should try out this new author. New to me anyway…

Dear John by Nicholas Sparks is the story of an Army infantry soldier who falls in love and then has to let his love go. No don’t worry I haven’t given away the ending – Sparks tells you that almost in the first sentence.

Yes, a love story. From a man’s point of view written by a bloke.

Interesting. I haven’t read too much male romantic fiction in my time.

There are a few macho bits. The action in Iraq for example, the odd fisticuffs on the beach, but mostly this is a story of a bloke and his feelings. A lot about his feelings – for his girlfriend, his dad, his girlfriend’s childhood friend…
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I enjoyed it. It’s not challenging to read. A fairly gentle story with a hint of doom and you wonder all the way through why it all goes pear-shaped given the depths of his feelings.

Not a bad holiday read.

Other reviews:
Inthenews.co.uk
Book Reporter

The Broken Shore by Peter Temple

The Broken ShoreI first heard about Peter Temple on Matilda and then while I was frantically searching for something to read on the plane to Broome, my colleague mentioned him too. So I picked up The Broken Shore and started reading it on the plane.

The story is of a broken cop, “retired” in the town he grew up in, on a property gone to rack and ruin. He is called in to investigate the murder of a local businessman. There are racial tensions in the town, bent cops, it’s grimy, grim and sinister.

Peter Temple writes in a very spare way and after reading the flowery prose of Daphne Du Maurier that took a while to get used to. I found myself getting lost and referring back a bit. It felt like a story I wasn’t going to get into.

But I persevered and you know, I got into it. I was intrigued to find out why this cop was broken. I thought I’d guessed who’d done it and I wanted to be proved right. I wanted to see if he ever was going to restore his grandfather’s house. I guess I started investing in the character. I wanted him to be alright.
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At times it felt a bit “Wire in the Blood” ish. Some really gross stuff happens.

Overall though, I liked it and would probably try another Peter Temple. I like that he is Australian too.

Other reviews:
The Age, Dagger Award, First Tuesday Bookclub Forum, Mostly Fiction, Matilda.

Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier

rebecca

Rebecca is not the easiest of novels to get into. Opening with a dream scene with heavy descriptive prose in this day and age can be a bit of a chore, but once you get into maybe chapter 3, after all that depressing looking back at Manderley, it’s really worth the effort.

Du Maurier sets the scene. Here is a couple who once lived in a beautiful grand house in Cornwall – we assume it’s Cornwall – the house – Manderlay is no more. They live a tedious mundane life in hotels where she – the heroine is never named – is completely subsumed by her husband. Choosing what she reads with care lest she upsets him.

How did they get there? It is with this impending sense of doom that we then get into the novel proper. Du Maurier completely gets suspense. It is oppressive in this book – you know where the heroine is heading.

The heroine – only known as Mrs de Winter is the second wife of Maxim. His first wife, Rebecca, has died tragically at sea. Her maid/housekeeper/friend Mrs Danvers lives to keep her memory alive.

Unfortunately to all of you wealthy people out there, this cialis pills effects of product is much much cheaper than your prescription drugs. get cialis cheap Kamagra Fizz This is the effervescent form of Kamagra and is taken by mixing it in a glass of water. In 2004, they published research which showed that patients with severe levitra uk http://respitecaresa.org/category/uncategorized/page/3/ psoriasis have shorter life expectations by an average of three to five years than those who did not share. Ginkgo cheap cialis is also of fantastic support to people who endure the vigorous climb. Rebecca is the polar opposite of the new Mrs de Winter. She is outrageous, flamboyant, extroverted and independent. Our heroine is timid, conventional, submissive, and mousy.

Apparently the two Mrs de Winters are like the two sides of Daphne Du Maurier in real life. Interesting.

As I said, once you get past the first couple of chapters it really is a good read and from the Fancy Dress Ball – unputdownable. So much for my early night last night.

What is intriguing to me is how powerful the Mrs Danvers character is – despite her relatively minor role she is the one I remember from reading this book twenty years ago. And how much I was prepared to forgive Maxim.

Maybe I am more like the new Mrs de Winter than I would like to think?

Review: Horrendo’s Curse

horrendo's curseThis little book by Anna Fienberg is charming. Aimed at 6-10 year olds I guess it has illustrations by the same guy that drew for the Tashi books – Kim Gamble.

The book is set in a village which is raided each year by pirates. They take boys aged 12 who endure two years of misery as slaves to the pirates. To help them survive the village school teaches them how to cuss and curse, how to fight, how to raise perilous pets.

The hero of our story – Horrendo – though is cursed with a Charming spell which leaves him unable to fight or swear or cuss.

If someone stole his lunch, Horrendo would say. “Oh dear, how hungry yuo must be! Why don’t you take my chocolate cake as well?” Or if a person happened to race by and kick him in the shins, he would call after them, “So sorry, aren’t I always in the way? Hope you didn’t hurt your foot on my shin!”
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I love the concept and I’m sure kids would too – in fact I’m hoping one of mine will read it too to give us their expert opinion.

*Anna Fienberg and Kim Gamble are featured in the PIAF Writer’s Festival on Saturday afternoon.

A little game
Another review

Review: People of the Book

geraldine brooksMaybe because I’d recently visited the Holocaust museum in Washington DC, I was totally ready for this book set around a rare Jewish book – the Sarajevo Haggadah.

The novel travels space and time. We travel the world as Hanna Heath uncovers the secrets of this ancient text and uncovers some unexplored areas of her own heart.

I love Geraldine Brooks’s other works – March and Year of Wonders – but what charmed me so much with this one was her Australian heroine. She is SO Australian!

Here’s a passage describing how to get hold of cow gut (don’t ask) to prove my point:

Ever since they moved the abattoir out of Homebush and started to spruce the place up for the 2000 Olympics, you have to drive, basically, to woop woop, and then when you finally get there, there’s so much security in place because of the animal libbers you can barely get in the gate

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I just love it. And I love the story. It’s a love story – boy v girl – girl v career – man v God – girl v parent… okay love/hate. A pleasure to read. Easy to read in fact (took me about 6 hours – around 400 pp) but you still feel you learned something.

More reviews

And Geraldine Brooks is coming to Perth.

Book Review: Going Gray

book Anne Kreamer‘s exploration of one woman’s discoveries about life when you go grey has touched a nerve with me. Sure she is ten years older than me but I have been throwing money at my badger stripe for years now – and sometimes I just wish I could shave my hair off and start again – grey but without the hassle of dying my hair – of hating my hair for 4 weeks out of every six. I simply can’t be bothered getting it dyed any more than that.

But I’m that one of those strange women who would really not rather waste hours in a hair salon getting “pampered” – Oh it is SO boring! Totally not worth the two minutes of head massage after the shampoo.

Anyway back to the book. Some interesting observations.

Until I stopped colouring my hair, I’d never dared to calculate what it wsa costing me… Every three weeks for twenty four years added up to a total expenditure, not adjusted for inflation of US$65,000. Staggering.

Anne also discovered that she got more hits on a dating site with grey hair rather than her dyed brown hair – counter intuitive huh?

Perhaps her most useful observation is that if you change your hair colour – you need to look at your total look. Your make-up choices, your wardrobe.
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So did she convince me?

Well kind of.

But Groover says he’ll leave me if I go grey. He’s just not ready. Oh and when I say grey – it is more likely to be white.

Do you dye your hair? When might you stop?


The War Over Going Gray. An article by Anne Kreamer

The Jane Austen Bookclub – Film and book

The book coverComing home from Sydney the other day I picked up The Jane Austen Bookclub by Karen Joy Fowler. I had a five hour journey and I love Jane Austen so I figured it was the perfect match. 🙂

Settling into my upgraded business class seat (the best use for FF points about to expire) I started to read.

I was immediately sucked in. While you might think it’s a book about reading books it is more than that. It’s about life and love and generational conflict. About being married, about not being married, about relationships. In short it has the same themes as any of your favourite Jane Austen novels. No doubt intended.

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The film takes a far less structured form than the book – crafted around the six books as it were – and loses some detail – but still I thought it was a reasonable interpretation and quite a good film. Not a bad chick flick.

The book is easy to read and quite entertaining and has inspired me to read Northanger Abbey and Mansfield Park again.