Deceived - Sarah Smith *****

In the Spring of 1993 Sarah Smith found herself in the centre of a living nightmare. Told she was on an IRA hit list, she was forced to go one the run to save her life and lives of her loved ones.

Always in fear of a snipers bullet, Sarah was constantly moved around the country from one "safe house" to another, working in low paid jobs, never knowing who she could trust. To evade detection she adopted numerous aliases, changed her looks, and deposited her earnings in a special police account to be accessed when the nightmare was over.

One man was there to protect her : a British Secret agent code named Robert Freeguard. To survive assassination Sarah had to follow his rules with complete compliance : sever ties with family and friends, speak to no one, and wait for his orders.

In a spine chilling journey, Sarah Smith spent ten years on the edge of existence, sometimes starving and living rough, often penniless, and alone. But what she did not know was that she had been duped and it was all a lie.....

One of the best books I've read for a while, its simply heart breaking to read. Ten years this psycho stole from her, how he does it is amazing.
I cannot recommend it enough.

5 / 5

Million Dollar Wheel of Boredom.

Wheel of Fortune has recommenced on Channel Nine in Australia. After a potted history, and after being on tv for nearly fifty years, you can imagine it would be difficult to shake up the format of the show, without losing the key successes of the show.

Enter Big Cash prizes, new personalities and "young folk". As Michael Idato states "it is one of those peculiarities of television that for many years Wheel did not offer cash prizes."

Now they're making up for lost time by offering (the chance to win) a Million Dollars. I say a chance, because if you "spin it up", you have to win the round, then win the night, for a chance at playing for the Mil.

New hosts. Well obviously this is a no brainer for a show that's been off TV for two+ years. I find Tim Campbell painful to watch however, having none of the natural TV pizazz that Larry Emdur possessed for game shows. Love him or hate him, Larry Emdur could certainly propel a game show. Kelly Landry, in what I can only assume is a clever clause negotiated by her agent;

Landry, unlike her predecessors, is no mere "letter turner"..."she is the co-host and takes a role in the show, introducing the puzzles"

WTF? She says "Phrase" and suddenly she's a co-host?
The new "high tech" letterboard appears to be no more than the letters lighting up at the touch of a button underneath the letter. There was an opportunity for Channel Nine to seriously revamp the format by, I don't know, NOT having a piece of female eye-candy who does essentially nothing but act as a high-priced clothes horse?
Lavinia Nixon was more of a "co-host" on Temptation (Sale of the Century) than Landry is on Wheel. She wishes she could be a tenth of the letter turner Adriana Xenides was.

They're both wooden, and I can't see either of them lasting. Perhaps I'm being too harsh, and its too early, they both need to settle in, but HELLO? The first week of a show like this, which has been promoted through the roof on a struggling network, it needs to have IMPACT and convince viewers to switch from Deal or No Deal, which is currently winning the time slot.

Lastly, "young folk". There is certainly a younger contestant set, as if they're trying to say "We're young! We're in touch! See our young hosts! See our young contestants winning! Please watch!"

Sorry Wheel, I'm sticking with Andrew O'Keefe, who makes you Tim Campbell, look like a cardboard cutout.

The Unknown Terrorist - Richard Flanagan ****

So, I finally got to read this. After my earlier misstep in reading the wrong book, I managed to borrow it from the library. I was looking forward to it as I'd sort of forgotten why I wanted to read it (hence why I initially persevered with the incorrect book).
I actually really enjoy doing that, it's one of the reasons after I pick a book to read, I don't read the blurb. Its sort of like getting a surprise picked by the best selector possible; yourself!

What would you do if you turned on the television and saw you were the most wanted terrorist in Australia?
Gina Davies is about to find out.
....a fast paced thriller that paints a devastating picture of contemporary Australia.
Five days, three unexploded bombs, and every truth of your life turned into a lie.
What would you do?

The reason I didn't give this book a five, is that it was as if it couldn't quite commit to what genre it wanted to be. In the blurb it claims its a thriller, but it doesn't quite make "Thriller" I don't feel. Almost like Flanagan isn't comfortable joining the ranks of so many thriller and crime writers, he may be portrayed as a fraud. So he holds back just so much as if criticised he could jump back into his own camp and claim he'd never strayed.

I also found it a teensy bit pompous at the start. The language is so descriptive, its almost TOO descriptive, I thought it was trying to hard to describe Kings Cross, and Darlinghurst, and well, Sydney.
Trying too hard to be literary in its approach, not thriller.
What I will say is its a terrifying insight on the hysteria that can grip a city, and the way the media drives it.
Perhaps I enjoyed as as I'm a Sydneysider, as it's been caned a bit by Australian Reviewers, while lauded overseas.
Curious.
Worth a look if you're after something, with wide appeal I think.

4 / 5

Shame- Jasvinder Sanghera ***** (an update)

I read this book a year ago, see the original post here.

I don't feel I truly did this book justice with this review originally. I didn't want to over analyse it, or babble, and I ended up not saying enough.

This book has changed my outlook on the world at large. I've never thought of myself as a feminist, and I've never really focused on the fact that I am a woman in the world. But this book inspired me to read about women in other countries, with lives less fortunate than my own. It made me think about what it is to be a woman in a western country with little prejudice. We talk about the glass ceiling in the workplace and lack of paid maternity leave, but at the end of the day, we're treated with dignity and respect at all times (no when you're gyrating on a table in a haze of tequila induced "Sexyness" it doesn't count that you're not being respected).

I won't say that I've gone native and joined a commune, or that I ran off and joined Greenpeace, but I'm so much more aware than my middle class upbringing afforded me, than before I read it.
There is a whole different world that exists outside western culture, but I think we're all so comfortable we try to pretend it doesn't exist. I don't know if selling all my worldly possessions and moving to Africa is the solution, I don't know if donating 10% of my income to charity is the answer. How do we help in a meaningful way?

Double Cross - James Patterson ****

One of the wonderfully predictable (in a good way) books I love to rip through. The latest from Patterson in the Alex Cross series (the same series that features the books and movies Kiss the Girls and Along Came a Spider). I love James Patterson, he writes great book. I do however wonder whether because he's been so good for so long, he;s doing himself a disservice by continuing to churn books out. He now collaborates with other authors, resulting in say six books a year with his name on the cover. The average crime fiction writer will release one book a year generally
(feeling sorry for the people {like hah} that got into the Sue Grafton Alphabet murder series, they're up to T finally! Sue Grafton must be rolling in it, she started with A for Alibi in 1983!)
but is Patterson flooding his own market?

Hmmm.... Anyway, Patterson has widened his character scope in his writing, he now has two series, the Alex Cross and the Women's Murder Club, because even though Cross is still kicking, he's getting a bit boring. You can only be targeted by serial killers for so long before you're using all the same material.

So the Women's Murder Club series is up to book 7, and it kicked off nicely. The main character, a female detective called Lindsay Boxer was a refreshing change to the masculinity of the Alex Cross series. I was pretty excited when I heard they were making it into a TV series. But just like the disappointment when a book is made into a movie, this just hasn't cut the mustard for me. I like Angie Harmon, I do, I thought she was great in Law and Order. But she's all wrong as Lindsay for me. *sigh* It will be interesting to see if that series survives in Oz.

4 / 5

Brothers & Sisters, Joan Sauers ****

A woman who gave birth to a baby for her sister...Brothers who fought each other in the Supreme Court for the family farm...Two sisters who survived Auschwitz together, one convincing the other to choose life over death...A famous actress and her not-so-famous sister...Five loving siblings of whom four are adopted from different racial backgrounds....

....Sometimes sad, often quite funny, Brothers and Sisters is a book for everyone, and especially for those who still have arguments about who was the favourite child...

**Couldn't find the cover art, I tried! So here is cute pic of random brother and sister. :)

Great book. I really enjoyed the perspectives it offered on sibling relationships. My only criticism was that there was no summation at the end of the issues raised and theories offered.

The book finishes with Sauers' own siblings and their answers to the same questions asked of the included parties, but it is delivered in the same interview style as all the other chapters. I would have liked Sauers to have offered opinions and theorems on the subject and the "why's".

4 / 5

It did, naturally, make me reflect on the relationship I have with my own brother and sisters, and others that I know. There's also a few interviews with Single children, or "only children". {Hmm, has anyone thought about where that phrase comes from? Only Children? Only what? When you actually go to write that down you realise it doesn't quite make sense....}
One of the things I have speculated about often recently is my sisters. As they are both overseas presently, it does make you reflect more on your relationship with them, people are ask how I'm "doing/going". And I do miss them, a lot. Interestingly the way they interact with us while they are away affects how much we miss them.

At least I think it does, it's hard to say. I miss Beeb a lot, and I think the fact that she's constantly texting has an affect on that, but then its possible that it feels like I miss Eca less only because she's been gone so much longer. By the time she's home she will have been gone 2 years. I do think the time she's been gone though, has only been bearable because she's actually been back twice in that time for visits (which were fab!). I was definitely a lot sadder the last time she left, and when Beeb left everyone was a blubbering mess so I totally lost it.
In Eca's defence also, she's been way more communicative in Philadelphia where she can just sit at the computer at home and chat away :)

I actually think Facebook has helped a lot too. Its as useless as tits on a bull for friends that live in the same city as you (you remember them, the ones you actually SEE)
But it's been really great for communicating with my sisters.

My brother has always been a little left of centre. I hope as we get older we can relate better to each other. Interestingly I've always clashed the most with him of everyone I think, and yet, of the four of us, we've the most in common now as we're both married.

Hmmm....

Live Bait- PJ Tracy ***

CATCH EVIL ANYWAY YOU CAN

Springtime in Minneapolis and with the thaw comes murder: an elderly man executed with a gunshot to the head and another literally frightened to death. But when Detective Magozzi calls on the analytical skills of Grace McBride, it appears not only that the killings might be connected but also that the victims might be something other than they seemed at first. As more deaths follow, Magozzi and Grace must quickly discover what secrets these men shared-- and with whom -- if they are to bait their trap and catch their killer...

*sigh* I'm sick of ranting about blurbs that suck. This one isn't too bad, it's the end that goes all pear shaped, pretending things that aren't there in the story. One could theorise though, that the only people that read the blurb after they've read the book are weirdos like me and every other happy reader wouldn't both because they've already read the book!

That aside now, this is the second book after a very good book written by Mother-Daughter team PJ Tracy (which I always forget until I finish the book). I really enjoyed Want to Play (debut), and it's funny, after picking up this book and beginning it I found myself in a classic case of "That-was-good-what-was-it-about-again-confusion". For those uninitiated, this is where I buy/choose a book without reading the blurb because it's by an author I recognise well enough from a previous read that I know I'll enjoy it. Tess Gerritsen is another of these authors, as is James Patterson and Harlen Coben to name a few. The only Reading Danger with these authors is that I have to check I haven't -

A) read it already

B) if I have more than one on the shelf to choose from that I don't read them out of order as I have found a few niche authors that write with the same characters (they can be read as stand alones but they're quite good when read in sequence too-I've done both).

This book I read and before I started it I had thought I was about to jump back into the lives of "Mr J and Ms X" when in fact it was "Character Y and So&so Q, storyline Z". Not a disaster, just have to readjust.

I discovered as I read that I was actually reading book 2 of the small number Tracy has written, having read 1 (Want to Play) and I think #4 which was also excellent.

Reflecting on this one however I'm struck by the thought that if I had read these in order and this was the second I would have been disappointed by the follow up to the first. As it stands, I've read one further down the line and know it will be ok. As a review on Want To Play so plaintatively states "Writers usually improve immensely on their next novels and so I'm very excited to see what more she has in store for us."

I can't say I think that's what happened here.

Don't get me wrong, it was good, I enjoyed it, but the first and subsequents are better. The two pivotal characters, one a Detective, and the other a neurotic computer whiz are meant to be growing closer romantically, the first book from memory focuses so closely on the MonkeeWrench team but this book is all Magozzi. Like they were experimenting with making Grace the side character, when in fact the subsequent books put Magozzi back on the sideline.

Hmm, it's interesting, but like I said, it's good, and worth a look. But read Want to Play first.

3 / 5

Shame- Jasvinder Sanghera *****

"When she was fourteen, Jasvinder Sanghera was shown a photo of the man chosen to be her husband. She was terrified. She'd witnessed the torment her sisters endured in their arranged marriages, so she ran away from home, grief-stricken when her parents disowned her.

SHAME is the heart-rending true story of a young girls attempt to escape from a cruel, claustrophobic world where family honour mattered more than anything- sometimes more than life itself.

Jasvinder's story is one of terrible opression, a harrowing struggle against a punitive code of honour-and, finally, triumph over adversity.

This book was amazing. It was so good, I read it cover to cover in a single day. There is so much that goes on in the world without us knowing, it just amazes you.
A must read as far as I'm concerned.

5/5

*** update-I was so moved by this book I wrote the author a note. I've only done that once before.

01.05.08 ****See this post for Another update to this a year on****

The Burning Girl-Mark Billingham ****/*

X marks the spot- and when that spot is a corpse's naked back and the X is carved in vlood, DI Tom Thorne is in no doubt that the dead man is the latest victim of a particularly vicious contract-killer. This is a turf warfare between North London gangs. Organised-crime boss Billy Ryan is moving into someone else's patch, and that someone is not best pleased. For Thorne, a tenuous link between two cases becomes two pieces of the same puzzle; past and present fuse together to form a new and very nasty riddle.

And when an X is carved on Thorne's front door, he knows that the smouldering embers of a long dead case are about to erupt into flames...."

Worst blurb in the world. Does it's job, but has the story all turned around. Utter bollocks.

That aside.... Brilliant book. Loved it. Would have been a five star but in retrospect there are a few loose ends I can't remember them tying up actually. I thought it was great however and raced through it in the couple of days since the Long Weekend (reading in the peak hour traffic hehehe). Highly recommend (the book that is-not the traffic) :)

I've read several others of Mark Billingham's and DI Tom Thorne is an oldie but a goodie. A very traditional Cop character in a British sense, and the other characters have good sub plots happening which keeps you coming back. I like reading a book and simply slipping into the characters, not being bludgeoned with the background info (see Baby Sitters Club-1st chapter of every single book). It sort of lost steam toward the end, but I was still really keen on finishing it.

4.5/5

Crossing the Line, Young Women and the Law-Carol Brinkwater, Editor ***/*

Available at Collins
"I got involved with drugs and the wrong sort of people...Drugs are a vicious cricle. Once you're hooked, it's hard to get out"
"I stole twenty-four-and-a-half thousand pounds over a period of less than a year. I gave it to my boyfriend to stop him beating me. [When I told the police] it felt like such a relief...now I just want to get on with my life"

What is it like to find yourself in trouble with the law? How does it feel to have a mum or dad in prison? And what makes someone get involved in crime in the first place?

In Crossing the Line young women describe what it's really like to end up in trouble with the police. They talk about what led them to 'cross the line' and how that experience has changed their lives. Frank, witty, and often angry, these women offer and inside view of the life on the other side of the legal divide.

This was a very interesting and thought provoking book. While it is set in London, not all the girls are British, and they are all different. As Brinkwater states in the introduction, "you will notice...just how many of their lives have been touched by drugs".

For me, this does have the effect of sort of alienating me from the individuals, preventing me from empathising as I don't understand drug culture at all. But it doesn't prevent their stories from being just as sad, and despairing. There is a fair amount of talk of suicide, and overall the tone of the book is frank, without being overly pitying or sympathetic. They simply tell their stories.

It makes me afraid to have my own children, but it also makes me feel relieved that I never got caught up with the wrong crowd, which is seemingly for a lot of these young women how it all starts. Definitely worth a read, quite a slim volume (119 pgs) and each account is only 4 pages or so, so it can be picked up and put down with frequency.

3.5/5

Wicker- Kevin Guilfoile ***/*

Bah always so annoying when you type a post and lose it!
How Far would you go to look into the eyes of your child's killer??

Look twenty years or so into the future and imagine a time when it's commonplace to clone babies for infertile couples. Imagine too a a world divided buy this practice and a band of religious vigilantes determined to bring an end to cloning. Now take the case of Dr Davis Moore, a cloning specialist who;s confronted with the brutal rape and murder of his teenage daughter. What would you do if the police drew a blank in their investigations but erroneously sent you a vial containing the killer's DNA...DNA you could use to clone the killer? Would you be able to create a cuckoo in the nest just so that you could look your daughter's killer in the eye?

Justin Finn, at three, looks just like any other child. But his face, one day, will be the exact match of the cold-blooded killer of whom he is a perfect genetic replica. And Justin Finn at fifteen has developed an unhealthy obsession with the Wicker Man, a notorious serial killer who prowls the streets of Chicago....

I think the quirkiest thing about this book was that I bought it at Big W in the post Christmas sales, and then a week or so later, I bought a stack of books at the Dymocks Big Book Sale and when got home I realised I must have really wanted to read it, because I'd bought another copy! In my defence however, they had different covers and one was trade size, one regular paperback size.
This is the first novel by Kevin, and I think he needs to change his publisher. See this post for my frustrations on blurbs.

This was a really interesting book because about half way through it I commented that it was really hard going and I was really labouring through it. I really felt the author had over extended himself and had way too many character threads happening, a very over-ambitious first novel perhaps.

But then the second half of the book just galloped along! I didn't want to put it down, which generally means I really enjoy it, and if it didn't drag so much at the start it may have gotten more stars. As it is, it tackles some big cloning issues and has quite a twist at the end. I didn't really like the way I felt he abandoned some of his sub-plots at times, you'd think "hmm where did that guy go?" and then it would still be another twenty pages before he'd pop up again. There was also a tendency to discard characters, as there were so many involved, they would suddenly be written out with the ease of a Home and Away starlet falling pregnant.

I would recommend, but with the warning that the early slog is worth it in the end if you don't pick the twist (which in retrospect I suspected, but forgot again until it was revealed).

3.5/5

Books Books Books.

Because I think I am eternally interesting, I am starting a new section about my reading habits. I'll try to include a brief synopsis and if I really like ot or really hate it, a short review. (Or if I really like it it will probably be a little rave). Primarily I would like to create a space in which to send people so they can see which books I read and which I own, so that they can borrow them : )

ciao