The White Woman on the Green Bicycle

Image sourced from Lee Cannon

This is a novel of two parts. The first part is set in modern day, looking at the lives of Sabine and George as 70-something expats living in Trinidad. They have been there since Trinidad achieved it's independence and there is lots of discussion regarding what is still wrong with the country 50 years on. But more importantly, there is a lot going on with George and Sabine. And you're not sure what is happening, or what the history is. It slowly is revealed as the part, and the book goes on however.

The second part of the book is set 50 years earlier. It tells the story of George and Sabine coming to Trinidad as newly weds from London. The story is told from Sabine's perspective mainly, so you find out what it is like as a woman particularly on the island, where work wasn't an option as it would be for a man. But from Sabine, we get a look at the independence movement and the political atmosphere on the island from the observations in the street and the domestic house workers.

If I'm honest, the story was okay. I didn't like Sabine, so that made it hard. But the themes explored in the story, race, class, expat workers, political independence and agency was all well handled. I learnt a lot about Trinidad and it's history. I had a demonstration from my Trinidadian friend what steupsing was, which is important.

But the saviour was the writing, which was beautiful, descriptive and immersive. The descriptions of the island and the environment were invocative. I felt like I was on the island, looking at the flowers or iguanas, and feeling the heat. It lost the Prize-Formerly-known-as-Orange to The Lacuna, which I also enjoyed a lot more, but I can see why it was a contender.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone

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Well. Why on earth have I not read this earlier? Why has no one forced this book upon me and told me I had to read it? Considered yourself cornered by me with wild crazy eyes, telling you to read it.

Welcome to the world of Karou. Karou is a 16 year old art student living in the beautiful city of Prague (seriously, the city descriptions are gorgeous. If the city is half as nice as the book suggests, I'm going to live there). She draws by day, hangs out with her friend in a weird gothic bar, and runs errands for her family at night. Her family however is a random group of mixed animal constructs. Who have portals that open up anywhere in our world. And trade in teeth.

You interested yet? I was. I wanted to know as much as I could about this world. It was different, interesting. Something a bit lacking in urban fantasy.

Add in a conflict, particularly with Seraphim (not what I learnt about in Bible study, but just as terrifying) and I was sold. There was the obligatory romance element to the story, but it was interesting enough to not be teenage angsty.

I want to tell you more. I really do. But I don't, as I don't want to spoil it for you. I'm leaning to 4.5 stars as I was annoyed at the ending. But I know there are another 2 books now, so I am glad I waited to read it for that reason. And I am going to find them. As soon as I can!

A Beautiful Place to Die

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I grew up like so many children of the 80s and 90s knowing about apartheid. I knew that in South Africa black and white people were separated, and black people were denied things, and rights, and opportunities that white people had. I also remember it ending, and Nelson Mandela becoming President, lots of happy people and dancing.

So I've always had the knowledge of apartheid. But I don't think I have ever really had an understanding of apartheid. I mean, it's pretty straightforward, right? White and black? I never considered the tiering between Afrikaans and English, or Jews, or Indians, or mixed race, etc. This book explores all of this and some. My 7 year old knowledge was blown out of the water and highlighted as what it obviously was, incredibly naive and simplistic. But until I had to really think about it, I really never realised how simplistic I assumed it was.

Detective Emmanuel Cooper is a white, English police officer. He is called out to a small town on the border with Mozambique. He arrives at the murder scene of the Afrikaan police captain, who seems to pretty much rule the town with his pack of sons. In an incredibly volatile situation already, Detective Cooper also has to work with officers from the country's Intelligence Agency who have taken over the investigation, while also enforcing the new apartheid policy and stamping out communism.

It's very well written. Both the story itself and the writing as a whole. I didn't think the story would be able to string itself out for the whole book, but she did it well. I thought I had the culprit picked early, but that got flipped on it's head, which I love. The writing of the landscape and the area was by someone who obviously loves the land, and made it sound incredibly beautiful, even in its barrenness.

She also handled the political landscape very well, I was impressed. There was obviously a point of view in the book, but it never felt heavy handed. I definitely would recommend, it's well worth the read.

Boneshaker

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I really wanted to love this book. I've been looking forward to reading it for years, and finally got the chance. Because of this, I've been sitting on this review. Mainly because the main word I have for this book is "disappointed".

The steampunk elements to the book are wonderful. I like the world, I like the premise. The catastrophe was interesting although never fully explained. There was so much to pull me along and to keep me engaged.

However, despite all this, the book never really grabbed me. The story had so much potential and just didn't seem to fulfill it. The world was fascinating, but never got explained or explored properly. The writing and the characters were somewhat wooden and never really drew you in or made you care. To be fair, some of the side characters where wonderful, but I never really cared for the main characters.

And the ending. I thought it was because I read the ending at 1am that I missed something, as it was a bit... meh. But I reread the last chapter a couple of days later as this was bothering me, and nope, missed nothing.

I will give Cherie Priest another go, I've seen her interviewed and actually really like *her*. Maybe another series before revisiting this one. But I would be prepared to revisit this world. I just hope that the next books have a little more oomph!

A Walk in the Woods

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This particular romp takes us through hiking the Appalachian Trail in the eastern most states in America, through the stereotypical storytelling, facts and ranting of Bryson. The trail starts in Georgia and works it's way along the coastal states to Maine. Bryson and his friend Katz decide to walk the whole thing, with no hiking experience, as well as being rather unfit.

I enjoyed this book a lot more than I thought I would. I was worried it would be a bit too much about their particular hike and day to day activities. Walked, pitched tent, slept, walked, etc. But I should have known better. While there were parts that were definitely regarding them on the trail, these were tied in wonderfully to history, science, tales of environmental destruction and woe, but also the wonderful anecdotes of the other people they encounter on the trail or experiences they have.

As always, Bryson handles his stories about the environment and the amazing devastation we humans are causing, and then through our own incompetence are increasing, beautifully. He doesn't preach (possibly unlike the reviewer). He states with an air of exasperation. What troubles me is that it is nearly 20 years since the books publication. I hate to think of the state of affairs now.

My one problem with the book, is the whole thing was written in the imperial system. Which is fine, as Bryson is an American in America. But as there were so many measurements (miles hiked per day, feet of mountains, slopes rising at rates) and temperatures, it really did hurt my brain converting all the time to meters, kilometers and celsius. There were a few pages in the last third of the book which were discussing mountain heights in great detail. I couldn't keep up. The book was thrown across the room with a long and loud tirade about backwards systems.

It honestly detracted from my enjoyment of the book as I had to stop at least once a page to convert something in my head to a vague approximation. And I probably was off a lot of the time. I was more annoyed as my copy was an Australian copy. I would recommend people check if there is a metric version available if you think this would bother you too.

But it honestly is a minor quibble. It's another enjoyable, educational and very funny read.

Let the Right One In

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Sometimes you pick up a book, or get recommended one, and it is absolutely nothing like what you expect. This book was both of these things. I picked it up a couple of years ago for a couple of dollars, as I heard it was a movie and Swedish. I like Swedish things, and movies, and Swedish movies. Give it a go.

It's then sat on the bookshelves for a while, until my brother in law saw it last year and exclaimed (which is always exciting as he's incredibly tall) when he saw it. "Have you read that?! You have to! It's so scary! It's really good!". Right noted. Swedish and scary. Vampires no less.

So it is all of this, but not the scary vampire book I had in my mind. We meet Oskar, who is a bullied and psychologically traumatised if we are being honest, 12 year old boy living in the outskirts of Stockholm. He meets a girl who has moved in next door to him at night time (although that's not hard as it's late autumn/early winter in Sweden) in the playground, and he strikes up a friendship with her. But Eli is a little odd and has some very strange behaviours. But to be fair, so does Oskar.

There are vampires. They do gorey things. But that's not the point of the book. The point of the book to me is really more about friendship and finding someone you can trust and be yourself with. It's about overcoming adversity whether that's bullies, loneliness, thirst for human blood and being the size of a 11 year old. You know. Big issues.

For me, the scariest thing in this book was the setting. Stockholm but where the woods meet the city, in snow and ice and frozen lakes and just fricking cold. But most importantly for me though, was that these things were coming out at night. And it's October/November. THE NIGHTS ARE BECOMING LONGER AND LONGER!

This freaked me out more than anything else really. My own brain doing the maths. I mean, in winter here the nights are only 12-13 hours long at June (longest day). Can you imagine if there were things that could come at you in the night and your nights were 15 hours long and only getting longer?

This was a clever and disconcerting look at vampires. It wasn't what I was expecting and I'm very glad for that. For a subject matter that has been beaten to death over the past decade, this is a refreshing and very Scandinavian take.

In the Darkness

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Eva is walking alongside a river with her daughter, and they discover a dead body in the water. They go to a phone box to call the police, although Eva doesn't actually call the police so not to get her daughter or herself involved. But this is the second murder in this small town that occurred within a few days...

This book is pretty much what I love about Nordic Noir. We have a clever investigator (this time, an actual policeman), with an interesting backstory and past. A murder or two which may or may not relate to each other. Flips of narrative and playing with storytelling devices. Twists. Sudden ending. All with amazing descriptions of landscape and wonderful Scandinavian settings.

What annoys me about translated books, particularly with crime books, is that publishers tend to choose what they think are the "good stories" and just translate those. Who cares if it's book 7 in a 10 book series! This series is no exception, unfortunately, with many other Inspector Konrad Sejer books published before the English publishers thought that book 1 was worth translating. I'm glad they did though as I think this was a beautiful introductory novel, and I will join this Inspector again on his skydiving over fjords and maybe another murder.