Syston Town News » Book Review

BOOK REVIEW

admin — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 04:04:47 +0000

The Help
By Kathryn Stockett
Published by Penguin
£7.99
Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step.Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.
Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.
Minny, Aibileen’s best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody’s business, but she can’t mind her tongue, so she’s lost yet another job. Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk.
A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humour, and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don’t.

The Scarpetta Factor

By Patricia Cornwall
Published by Sphere
£7.99
Christmas is coming but the festive spirit is sorely missing in freezing, credit-crunch New York. Everyone feels bad: Kay Scarpetta, Benton Wesley, Pete Marino and Lucy Farinelli are haunted by their gruesome pasts.
The Title refers to a TV show which CNN hopes the forensic pathologist will host. Until now Scarpetta has, against her better judgment, only been a contributor to another crime show fronted by an unscrupulous bitch. The loss of her BlackBerry, a present from her niece, Lucy the lesbian loose cannon, at the TV station causes panic among her inner circle. Meanwhile, there is the murder of a young female runner and the disappearance of Hannah Starr a crooked financier, to investigate. Then someone delivers a bomb to Scarpetta’s apartment. The suspects include a wicked witch, a sleazy Hollywood heart-throb and an arch-enemy of Benton, Scarpetta’s husband, whose sudden return from the dead a few years ago is still causing problems.

Alone in Berlin
by Hans Fallada
Published by Penguin
£9.99
Berlin, 1940, and the city is filled with fear. At the house on 55 Jablonski Strasse, its various occupants try to live under Nazi rule in their different ways: the bullying Hitler loyalists the Persickes, the retired judge Fromm and the unassuming couple Otto and Anna Quangel. Then the Quangels receive the news that their beloved son has been killed fighting in France. Shocked out of their quiet existence, they begin a silent campaign of defiance, and a deadly game of cat and mouse develops between the Quangels and the ambitious Gestapo inspector Escherich. When petty criminals Kluge and Borkhausen also become involved, deception, betrayal and murder ensue, tightening the noose around the Quangels’ necks …

Lynda Page visits The Bookmark

admin — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 04:01:45 +0000

On Saturday 15th May at 11.00am a long queue was forming at The Bookmark to have Lynda Page sign copies of her latest novel ‘Secrets to Keep’. Lynda who began writing her first book in her 45 minute lunch hour while working full time, has become one of Leicester’s celebrated successes as she has produced over 20 books in the last 22 years when she became a full time writer.She spent time with everyone who came to The Bookmark to get their book signed and wrote something personal to each and every one of them which showed what a very
friendly and generous person she is and one who genuinely enjoyed meeting her readership, talking with them and reliving some of the characters from previous novels with them.
Two ladies from Syston said that they have every book she has written and how much they enjoyed them. They loved the characters and plots of the books and spent a lot of time discussing characters and plots with Lynda as they all queued patiently to meet her. Our picture shows Lynda signing books for Kitty Cooley and Mercy Lardner, both in their nineties and avid readers with Julie Hilton, also a fan of Lynda’s books.
One question asked was were she got her inspiration for the books and she explained that there was no one format, it varied from book to book.?

Book Reviews May 2010

admin — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 04:01:09 +0000

Secrets to Keep
By Lynda Page
Published by Headline Publications £7.99

Lynda Page’s latest novel is an emotional rollercoaster of hardship and heartache. When a new doctor arrives in the back streets of Leicester, the locals are outraged by his rudeness and hostility. Young Aidy Nelson discovers just how rude he can be when a family tragedy brings her face to face with his abrasive manner. However, this is just the start of Aidy’s troubles. Abandoned by her husband and left to care for her family, she struggles to make ends meet. Then things go from bad to worse and she is forced to take a job as receptionist to the unpleasant doctor. But as she gets to know her employer, Aidy realises that the doctor is a man burdened with dark secrets he’s desperate to keep.

Blood Line
by Mark Billingham
Published by Sphere, £6.99

When a dead body is found in a North London flat, it seems like a straightforward domestic murder until a bloodstained sliver of X-ray is found clutched in the dead woman’s fist – and it quickly becomes clear that this case is anything but ordinary. DI Thorne discovers that the victim’s mother had herself been murdered fifteen years before by infamous serial killer Raymond Garvey. The hunt to catch Garvey was one of the biggest in the history of the Met, and ended with seven women dead. When more bodies and more fragments of X-ray are discovered, Thorne has a macabre jigsaw to piece together until the horrifying picture finally emerges. A killer is targeting the children of Raymond Garvey’s victims. Thorne must move quickly to protect those still on the murderers list, but nothing and nobody are what they seem. Not when Thorne is dealing with one of the most twisted killers he has ever hunted…

The Best of Times
by Penny Vincenzsi,
published by Headline, £7.99

Bestseller Vincenzi’s diverting if charmless latest delves into the lives of a massive cast brought together by a multicar accident on a London highway. The brisk, journalistic style makes it hard to fall for any of the characters, whose lives are filled with high and low drama: a truck driver racked with guilt over the accident; his terrified passenger, who flees the scene; a successful doctor trying to break up with his mistress; a groom and best man already late for the wedding due to scandalous circumstances; and a widow headed to reunite with a past love. After the crisis, their lives intertwine tangentially as, among others, the best man starts a relationship with an ER doctor, the truck driver’s wife becomes close with the widow, and the mistress falls for the farmer whose land overlooks the accident scene. The story brings them all back together at the inquest, the cause of the accident is revealed and apologies are made. Though everyone gets their predictably happy ending, the way the obvious resolutions drag out makes this something like a once-enjoyable guest who has long outstayed his welcome.

The Bookmark Changes Ownership

admin — Sat, 01 May 2010 04:01:22 +0000

After many years of running the Bookmark, Eric Vardy decided to retire and initially there were fears that The Bookmark would close down. Then John Slapp came along looking for a business relating to second hand books. Although The Bookmark is not a second hand book shop he decided to buy it. Eric still helps in the shop and Christine, the retired editor of The Syston Town News, works on Wednesdays. Since taking ownership of The Bookmark, John said that he is impressed by the local community of Syston and enjoys meeting new and returning customers.
John has also re-arranged the shop on the ground floor to enable young parents with pushchair’s to move round the shop and give it a more spacious feel. He has installed a coffee machine on the first floor, with a range of furniture for book browsers to enjoy a complimentary coffee while they decide on their purchase. He has expanded the stock of art materials, music books and pre-owned books. The latter are also found on the first floor. See pictures above and below.Recently, he has offered free of charge space to enable local artists to show their work and the ever changing exhibition can be viewed on the stairs and on the first floor, see pictures below and left. Services offered by The Bookmark include ordering any book not in stock and obtaining it within one to three days, if in stock at the publishers, weekly updates of the top 20 paperbacks with £1 off, searching for out of print titles, ordering school and university textbooks as well as supplying schools with large orders. The Bookmark also sells book tokens, tickets for the Old Chapel Centre Screening cinema, as well as having an impressive selection of quality greetings cards.
If you haven’t visited The Bookmark yet, then take time out to go in and browse, you are bound to find something to your taste.
Children’s books, Novels, biographies etc. Local artwork prices around £25.
Celebrate the choice on your doorstep and support your local economy.

Book Reviews, April 2010

admin — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 04:03:25 +0000

The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets’ Nest
by Steig Larsson
published by Quercus £7.99
Salander is plotting her revenge – against the man who tried to kill her, and against the government institutions that very nearly destroyed her life. But it is not going to be a straightforward campaign. After taking a bullet to the head, Salander is under close supervision in Intensive Care, and is set to face trial for three murders and one attempted murder on her eventual release. With the help of journalist Mikael Blomkvist and his researchers at Millennium magazine, Salander must not only prove her innocence, but identify and denounce the corrupt politicians that have allowed the vulnerable to become victims of abuse and violence. Once a victim herself, Salander is now ready to fight back.

The Bourne Deception
by Eric Van Lustbader
published by Orion £6.99
The BOURNE DECEPTION picks up where THE BOURNE SANCTION left off. Jason Bourne’s nemesis, Arkadin, is still hot on his trail and the two continue their struggle, reversing roles of hunter and hunted. When Bourne is ambushed and badly wounded, he fakes his death and goes into hiding. In safety, he takes on a new identity, and begins a mission to find out who tried to assassinate him. Jason begins to question who he really is, how much of him is tied up in the Bourne identity, and what he would become if that was suddenly taken away from him. Meanwhile, an American passenger airliner is shot down over Egypt by what seems to be an Iranian missile. A massive global investigative team is assembled to get at the truth of the situation before it can escalate into an international scandal. Jason Bourne’s search for the man who shot him intersects with the search for the people that brought down the airliner, leading Bourne into one of the most deadly and challenging situations he has ever encountered. With the threat of a new world war brewing, Bourne finds himself in a race against time to uncover the truth and find the person behind his assault, all the while being stalked by his unknown nemesis.

Fever of the Bone
by Val McDermid
published by Little, Brown £6.99
‘You should have been a detective. If there’s one thing the last year has proved, it’s how good you are at finding things out. Not simple things, hard things, things that nobody is supposed to be able to find out. Things that are buried so deep nobody even thinks twice about them. The sort of things that turn people’s lives inside out once they’re exposed.’ Meet Tony Hill’s most twisted adversary, a killer with a shopping list of victims, a killer unmoved by youth and innocence, a killer driven by the most perverted of desires. The murder and mutilation of teenager Jennifer Maidment is horrific enough on its own. But it’s not long before Tony realises it’s just the start of a brutal and ruthless campaign that’s targeting an apparently unconnected group of young people. Struggling with the newly-awakened ghosts of his own past and desperate for distraction in his work, Tony battles to find the answers that will give him personal and professional satisfaction in his most testing investigation yet.

Book Reviews March

admin — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 04:01:21 +0000

Sacred Hearts
By Sarah Dynant
published by Virage £7.99
The year is 1570, and in the convent of Santa Caterina, in the Italian city of Ferrara, noblewomen find space to pursue their lives under God’s protection, but any community, however smoothly run, suffers tremors when it takes in someone by force. The arrival of Santa Caterina’s new novice sets in motion a chain of events that will shake the convent to its core.
Ripped by her family from an illicit love affair, sixteen-year-old Serafina is willful, emotional, sharp, and defiant, young enough to have a life to look forward to and old enough to know when that life is being cut short. Her first night inside the walls is spent in an incandescent rage so violent that the dispensary mistress, Suora Zuana, is dispatched to the girl’s cell to sedate her. Thus begins a complex relationship of trust and betrayal between the young rebel and the clever, scholarly nun, for whom the girl becomes the daughter she will never have.
Sarah Dunant, the bestselling author of The Birth of Venus and In the Company of the Courtesan, brings this intricate Renaissance world compellingly to life. Amid Sacred Hearts is a rich, engrossing, multifaceted love story, encompassing the passions of the flesh, the exultation of the spirit, and the deep, enduring power of friendship.
The Lovely Bones
By Alice Sebold
Published by Picador £7.99
This is a luminous and astonishing novel about life and death, forgiveness and vengeance, memory and forgetting. This is a novel which finds light in even the darkest of places. My name was Salmon; like the fish; first name, Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on 6th December 1973. My murderer was a man from our neighbourhood. My mother liked his border flowers and my father talked to him once about fertilizer. This is Susie Salmon, speaking from heaven, which looks a lot like her school playground, where everything she wants appears as soon as she thinks of it, except the thing she wants most: to be back with the people she loved on Earth. Watching from here, Susie sees her happy suburban family devastated by her death, isolated, even from one another, as they each try to cope with their terrible loss alone. Over the years, her friends and siblings grow up, fall in love, do all the things she never had the chance to do herself. But life is not quite finished with Susie yet. A compelling read, once picked up you won’t want to put it down.
Blacklands
By Belinda Baker
Published by Congi £7.99
Twelve-year-old Steven Lamb digs holes on Exmoor, hoping to find a body. Every day after school, while his classmates swap football stickers, Steven goes digging to lay to rest the ghost of the uncle he never knew, who disappeared aged eleven and is assumed to have fallen victim to the notorious serial killer Arnold Avery. Only Steven’s Nan is not convinced her son is dead. She still waits for him to come home, standing bitter guard at the front window while her family fragments around her. Steven is determined to heal the widening cracks between them before it’s too late, and if that means presenting his grandmother with the bones of her murdered son, he’ll do it. So the boy takes the next logical step, carefully crafting a letter to Arnold Avery in prison. And there begins a dangerous cat-and-mouse game between a desperate child and a bored serial killer. A game that will have more terrifying consequences than Steven could ever imagine…
How Could She
By Dana Fowley
Published by Arrow £6.99
“How Could She?” is the moving story of one young woman’s desperate struggle to survive and overcome years of horrific abuse. At just five years old, Dana learned that there was no one she could trust. Most devastating of all, even her own mother betrayed her and in the most unimaginable way. For years, Dana and her younger sister suffered at the hands of one of Britain’s largest ever-known paedophile rings, and their mother did nothing to protect them. Only now is Dana’s nightmare coming to an end as she crusades to put her abusers behind bars. In June 2007, the truth was finally exposed. Dana bravely testified against her own mother. The woman who had subjected Dana and her sister to a lifetime of horror was sentenced to twelve years in prison. It was one of the most traumatic ordeals Dana has ever experienced, but a shocked world was finally forced to open its eyes to what happened to Dana. This is her story of survival.

February Book Reviews

admin — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 16:09:47 +0000

JULIET, NAKED
By Nick Ornby
Published by Penguin £7.99
Annie and Duncan are a mid-thirties couple who have reached a fork in the road, realising their shared interest in the reclusive musician Tucker Crowe (in Duncan’s case, an obsession rather than an interest) is not enough to hold them together any more. When Annie hates Tucker’s ‘new release’, a terrible demo of his most famous album, it’s the last straw – Duncan cheats on her and she promptly throws him out. Via an internet discussion forum, Annie’s harsh opinion reaches Tucker himself, who couldn’t agree more. He and Annie start an unlikely correspondence which teaches them both something about moving on from years of wasted time. Nick Hornby’s compelling new novel, four years after “A Long Way Down”, is about the nature of creativity and obsession, and how two lonely people can gradually find each other.
THE LITTLE STRANGER
By Sarah Waters
Published by Virago £7.99
In a dusty post-war summer in rural Warwickshire, a doctor is called to a patient at Hundreds Hall. Home to the Ayres family for over two centuries, the Georgian house, once grand and handsome, is now in decline, its masonry crumbling, its gardens choked with weeds, the clock in its stable yard permanently fixed at twenty to nine. But are the Ayreses haunted by something more sinister than a dying way of life? Little does Dr Faraday know how closely, and how terrifyingly, their story is about to become entwined with his. Prepare yourself. From this wonderful writer who continues to astonish us, now comes a chilling ghost story.
RUN FOR YOUR LIFE
By James Patterson
Published by Arrow Books £7.99
A calculating killer who calls himself The Teacher is taking on New York City, killing the powerful and the arrogant. His message is clear: remember your manners or suffer the consequences! For some, it seems that the rich are finally getting what they deserve. For New York’s elite, it is a call to terror.
Only one man can tackle such a high-profile case: Detective Mike Bennett. The pressure is enough for anyone, but Mike also has to care for his 10 children, all of whom have come down with virulent flu at once!
Discovering a secret pattern in The Teacher’s lessons, Detective Bennett realizes he has just hours to save New York from the greatest disaster in its history.
THE WINTER HOUSE
by Nicci Gerrard
Published by Penguin £7.99
When Marnie receives a phone call that summons her to the side of a once-beloved friend, she is wrenched from her orderly London life and sent back into a past from which she has fled but never escaped. Ralph, Marnie and Oliver once knew each other well and are still inextricably bound by ties of love and betrayal. Now they meet again in Ralph’s secluded cottage in the Scottish highlands, to spend the precious days that Ralph has left with each other. As they reminisce, Marnie is taken back to the summer years ago when everything changed between them and heartbreak and desire broke up their little group. Will Ralph have the chance to say what needs to be said before it’s too late? And can they put the devastating events of twenty years ago to rest and rekindle the intimacy they once shared?

Book Signing- Alice Grist

admin — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 16:09:47 +0000

The Bookmark was the place to be on Saturday 25th November to meet and have a book signed by local author Alice Grist who had a steady flow of people wanting her to sign her first book. This is an exciting new view on the different faiths and religions and tracks Alice’s own journey to enlightenment. Our picture shows Alice signing Angel’s book. Angela who lives in Syston, said that she wanted to meet Alice because of her own interest in all things spiritual, she is a councillor and Rekhi practitioner as is Alice so they had a lot to talk about.
Alice is also gaining popularity in America and her book is selling well. We look forward to her next one when it is published.

BOOK REVIEWS: December 2009

admin — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 04:01:52 +0000

THE ASSOCIATE
By John Grisham. £7.99
Published by Century.
Kyle McAvoy is one of the outstanding legal students of his generation: he’s good looking, has a brilliant mind and a glittering future ahead of him. But he has a secret from his past, a secret that threatens to destroy his fledgling career and possibly, his entire life.
What price do they demand for Kyle’s secret? Strangely, it is for Kyle to do exactly what any ambitious young lawyer would want to do, take a job in New York as an associate at the largest law firm in the world, a job that is incredibly well paid and, with mammoth hours and outrageous billing, could lead to partnership and a fortune.
But Kyle won’t be working for the company, but against it, passing on the secrets of the company’s biggest trial to date, a dispute between two defence contractors worth billions of dollars to the victor. Now Kyle is caught between the criminal forces manipulating him and the FBI, who would love to unmask the conspiracy. Will his intellect, cunning and bravery be enough to extricate him from an impossible dilemma?

FIRST FAMILY
By David Baldacci. £6.99
Published by McMillan
A birthday party at the presidential retreat Camp David takes a nasty turn when a child is abducted after the party has finished. The First Lady needs the very best to help in this dangerous situation, and who better than top operatives Sean King and Michelle Maxwell to track down the child? (Baldacci enthusiasts will know his reliable protagonists from earlier novels). However, the First Lady and Sean King have had dealings before: he was instrumental in saving her husband (then a senator) from a very unhappy situation… and perhaps their involvement was more than political. Michelle Maxwell, as we know from earlier books by this author, is a woman with her own major problems, and everyone involved in the events of First Family will emerge chastened and changed from an incendiary situation.

THOMAS THE TANK ENGINE WORKSHOP MANUAL
By Chris Oxlade. £9.99
Published by Haynes
Aimed at the three to seven age group, this innovative book applies the Haynes treatment to one of the most popular children’s characters. Inspired by the world-famous Haynes manuals, this book explains how Thomas works, how his driver operates him, and how the engineers of the Sodor railway keep him in tip-top condition. Some of Thomas’s friends also feature, with Henry’s overhaul, for example, offering the chance for young readers to see how a steam engine is taken apart and refitted. This brightly designed book will delight children and parents alike.

This months book review

admin — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 04:01:54 +0000

THE HOST
By Stephanie Meyer
Published by Sphere. £7.99

Melanie is part of a human group resisting the alien invasion of Earth. She gets caught and a soul named Wanderer is inserted into her body. Melanie’s consciousness won’t fade away, however, and her thoughts and memories move Wanderer to love the people Melanie once loved. This leads Wanderer to set out to find her host body’s family, and what follows is the story of her time with the humans of the resistance movement.
The Host is marketed as “science fiction for people who don’t like science fiction.” This is true. The science fiction aspect is that it involves aliens who possess technology well advanced beyond ours, but it’s firstly a love story on several levels. There’s friendship and familial love as well as romantic love in likely and unlikely places. Ultimately, it’s about the power and hope of love. It is an amazing book, definitely one to put on your books to re-read pile!

JUST AFTER SUNSET
By Stephen King
published by Hodder. £7.99

The dead are all around in Stephen King’s latest collection of short stories.
A young man stands at a Wyoming railway halt. His train has been derailed, his girlfriend has abandoned him for the bright lights of town; the dregs of the sunset recently ‘faded to bitter orange’ over the Wind River mountains. He is about to discover, or at any rate to admit, that he’s dead. Around him on the platform the other benighted travellers huddle together like the cast of a 1940s movie: everyone is far too familiar with everyone else. Assembled here by circumstances beyond their control, they jeer at one another’s uncertainties while the High Plains wolves howl in the darkness and the relief train brings no relief.
Images of entrapment are central to many of the 13 stories in Just After Sunset. Most of them are lovingly specific. These chilling but mesmerizing stories will leave you wondering and wanting to read more.

MY SISTER’S KEEPER
By Jodi Picoult
Published by Washington Square Press. £7.99

My Sister’s Keeper is a poignant, uplifting, emotional, sad, triumphant, passionate, heart wrenching and extremely powerful story about the Fitzgeralds, a family united in their love for each other but divided on exactly where the boundaries of family obligations, love and sacrifice should end. But it is, ultimately, a story of two sisters, the unbreakable bond they share and how totally entwined they have been all their lives until a crucial decision threatens to tear them apart and ends up changing all the lives forever.
The Fitzgeralds – Brian, a firefighter and avid amateur astronomer, and Sara, a stay-at-home mother and ex-lawyer, have the perfect suburban family, but life changes irreversibly when Kate, now sixteen, is diagnosed at age two with leukemia. Kate suffers from a type of leukemia which has a survival rate of 20-30%. The treatments keep the disease at bay for about five years, until Kate’s body explodes with runaway cancer cells. She desperately needs a bone marrow transplant or she will die. Her determined mother, on the advice of the doctor, persuades her husband to try for the ‘perfectly engineered baby.’
Their other child, Jesse, is not a match, but now at thirteen, Anna has always been aware that she was born for a specific purpose so that could she could be a bone marrow match for her sister Kate. When Kate needs leukocytes or stem cells or bone marrow ‘to fool her body into thinking it’s healthy,’ Anna has obediently stepped in. Every time Kate is hospitalized so is she, which means Anna can never go away to soccer camp or even to college.
Until now, Anna has never questioned her role in life. But with the prospect of being required to give a kidney she sues her parents for the right to make her own medical decisions. A compelling read.