Mr Pip by Lloyd Jones

In the 1990's the island of bougainville was in the midst of a civil war, sparked by the exploitation of their hugely profitable copper mine. This led to a blockade of the island and brutal guerrilla warfare involving Redskins(government troops) and Rambos(rebel forces from the island).

The only white man who didn't flee the island after the blockade is Mr Watts, who pulls is native wife around on a cart, sometimes wearing a red clowns nose. This re-emerges throughout the novel and an explanation is not forthcoming until the end of the book. Mr Watts decides to re-open the school, but as he says himself he is no teacher, and he only has one textbook, Great Expectations, which is what he uses.

"I will be honest with you. I have no wisdom, none at all. The truest thing I can tell you is that whatever we have between us is all we've got. Oh, and of course Mr Dickens."

Mr Watts uses Great Expectations as a way of giving the children a means of escape from the hardships they are suffering on the island. Just as pip escapes starts a new life, he wants the children to do the same, if only in their heads. Matilda is thirteen, and becomes enthralled with Pip and his story. The more she tells her mother about pip and his story, the more her mother becomes opposed to the book, and therefore Mr Watts. Mr Watts realises this and invites the adults of the village into school to share their knowledge. Matilda however, empathises more with Pip than the stories and moral messages of her mother, and builds a shrine to Pip on the beach, which sets in motion a fatal series of events when redskin Solders arrive demanding to know who Pip is. Due to a yet unknown betrayal the villagers cannot produce the book that would explain who Pip is so they end up losing their possessions and eventually their homes.

The idea of stories having the ability to change peoples lives permeates this novel. Matilda is consumed by Pip and his story, the villagers try to use their stories to try and sway the children away from the white mans novel that they are suspicious of, and Mr Watts holds the Rebel army at bay with stories. The idea that stories pervade your life and give it meaning, as well as escape from real life is made clear in Mr Watts statement to the Rebel army,

"A dream is a story that no-one else will get to hear or read"

The writing is simplistic but effective. It almost gives a dreamlike quality to the whole thing (stories again), and even the horrific events that form the climax of the novel are told in a matter of fact way. There is a sense of foreboding throughout the whole story, but the actual horrors are quickly described, and almost come from nowhere, as they would in a dream. I was left with a sense of horror that will stay with me for a long time, and I think this is exacerbated by the simplistic and matter of fact way it is told, and the pragmatic way the villagers deal with it. The fate of the pigs, for anyone who has read this!

I loved this book. It was fantastic. I don't think I can fault it at all. I think a quote from the novel sums up perfectly how it feels to read this book.

"a person entranced by a book simply forgets to breathe"

Weekly Geeks-Book Covers

This week it's all about judging books by their covers! Pick a book--any book, really--and search out multiple book cover images for that book. They could span a decade or two (or more)...Or they could span several countries. Which cover is your favorite? Which one is your least favorite? Which one best 'captures' what the book is about?


This is my first ever weekly Geeks post. I've been lurking for a while, but couldn't resist doing this one. I'm going to do ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild, because it was my favourite childhood book, and apart from the two copies I own, I've never really thought about what other covers might be available.

The first is the one I've had since I was a child will probably always epitomise this book for me. The second is the one I've recently bought for my daughter. I don't actually like this one but I wanted her to have her own copy (read as I didn't want to give mine up!) and this is what was available.

There are a multitude of covers. They seem to fall into various types, probably dependent on when they were published. There are those that feature all three children, in various situations. These all tend to be the older covers. They are the ones that encapsulate the story most faithfully. My personal favourite here is the foreign one with the original drawings on the front.

Then there are the ones that feature a single ballet dancer. These are not very appealing to me at all, but I don't know whether its just an immediate reaction to the aesthetics of them, or a personal feeling that as the story is about three children, just one child on the cover doesn't seem appropriate.

The next category would be those that just have ballet shoes on the cover! Fairly obvious but effective!

And then there's the more recent covers, like this one, obviously designed to look like the many other generic books aimed at girls on the shelves today. This is a trend I'm not sure about but as I said at the start of this post it's the only type of cover I could find when I was buying for my daughter.

All in all, I think the covers with the three children on are my favourites, and the ones with the single dancers on I like the least. Oh and I think the cover below is beautiful and if I want it! Its really pretty, but I think its designed more for an adult market and I prefer children's books to have children's covers. I'd still buy it if I ever saw it though!

Booking Through Thursday

Have you ever been put off an author’s books after reading a biography of them? Or the reverse - a biography has made you love an author more?

I don't very often read biographies of authors, so the immediate answer to this would have to be no. I do sometimes try and find out a bit about an author if I've really liked a book, but only a brief overview from various online sources. I can't really imagine anything I would find out that would put me off their books.

One of the reasons I read is to get different opinions and viewpoints on the world, and maybe even expand my own views slightly. If I chose to only read authors with similar belief systems to myself, then this would leave me with a very narrow view of the world. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions and it would be a very boring world if everybody thought the same, or only read work by authors who feel the same as them, whatever the issue.

I also think that if an author's belief system is so completely opposed to mine and they choose to preach about it in a book then it wouldn't be a book I would be interested in reading anyway. If they write good books then it doesn't actually matter what they believe.

Having said all that, I now need to qualify it slightly and say that with very extreme belief systems I would refrain from buying the book. But only if I felt that my money might be going towards a cause that may actually harm people, or infringe on their rights to hold their own opinions. I think it very unlikely I would want to read a book that would fall into this category, but I wouldn't avoid it if I did. I just wouldn't buy it.

I don't think knowing information about an author would make me love them more, but it may help me appreciate their books a little more. Most authors write from experience, so it can only enhance my appreciation of the book to know even a little bit about their life.

The Time Travelers Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

I struggled to review this book. Not because I didn't like it,because overall I did. I just didn't want to have to think about it any more, because it haunted me from the moment I finished it.

The basic premise of the story is that Henry is a time traveller who jumps about in time. He has an ordinary chronological life, although he is not always in it! He has no control over when this happens or where he goes to, but he always seems to go back (or forward) to his own life. This is how he meets Claire, he appears next to her in a field when he is 36 and she is 6. This continues through Claire's childhood until they eventually meet in real time when Claire is 20 and Henry is 28. Oh and he's always naked when he time travels, which quite often causes problems!

The story continues with their life together in real time, punctuated by Henry's frequent disappearances into other periods of his life. In the first half of the book, everything seems fine and as if their life can be continued with at least an appearance of normality, but as the story continues it becomes clear that something is going to go horribly wrong for Claire and Henry. Events don't seem quite right, and certain of Henry's time travelling 'adventures' appear to be very unpleasant, almost cataclysmic. The second half of the book is permeated with a accelerating sense of impending doom.

The story is told through alternating accounts from both Clare and Henry, and the author helpfully starts each section by telling us how old they both are and what year we are in! Henry is obviously coming from the future with knowledge of how his life is there which leads nicely on to the most interesting part of the story for me. The first occasion Henry meets Claire it is by chance, but from then on, Claire is in the meadow because Henry has given her a list telling her the dates that he will appear. I don't think it gives very much away to say that Claire and Henry eventually get married but does the fact that Henry knows what is going to happen in his future mean that it has to happen. Towards the end of the book it becomes perfectly clear that things will happen because they have already happened and nobody can really do anything to change it.

There is also an interesting thread running throughout the novel where Henry comes into contact with himself. Each time he time travels he creates a new version of himself, which then exists in that time period forever. And on various occasions, this alternate self helps the real time Henry in situations. The first example of this is when Henry is a small boy and travels for the first time and grown up Henry is there to help him. Obviously adult Henry has already experienced this so knows that he is there to help the child Henry and this is just a continuous circle, always repeating itself! In fact, the alternate Henry's are quite often present at crucial points in Henry and Claire's life and on a couple of occasions saves the day,as such.

Aaaah!!!!!! Did I say it was head spinning? I definitely should have done. I enjoyed the story though, and all the ideas about non-linear time. It is however an incredibly sad story, but I couldn't put it down. I really wanted to know what happened to Henry and Claire, but this isn't actually why it haunted me though. It was the end. I just wanted more from Claire at the end. What happens is incredibly sad, but she seems to spend the rest of her life waiting for Henry, just as she has spent her life waiting for him since she was 6. I just wanted her to have more about her and I can't get it out of my head. I just can't and don't want to imagine that sort of life!

I can't do this book justice in a review. I'm sure a better reviewer could, but I can't. This is not helped by the fact that I can't include any quotes to illustrate these ideas because I can't even bring myself to open the book to find them! It was a good story though, I just wanted a better ending. Not necessarily a happy one, just a better one.

Musing Monday

Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about book stores…

How do you choose what do buy from your local bookstore? Do you have a list, or just browse? What is the selection in your book store like? Do you find what you're looking for? Do you feel pressured to buy the kind of books the store makes prominent?

Bookshops! Mmmmm, heaven! Lol. And its exactly this attitude that means I only go in bookshops if I've not got anything particular in mind that I want to buy. If I want a specific book, I'll buy it online where there's less chance of me being sidetracked into buying something else. Notice that this only says less chance, not no chance. Lol.

With this in mind, it follows that my local bookshop, Waterstones, is perfectly adequate for my needs. I don't need it to stock anything in particular and it has a wide ranging selection for when I do just want to browse. I will browse the display tables, and quite often buy from here, although I don't feel pressured into doing so. I do have to walk past on my way to work every morning though so I need quite a strong will not to go in every day. Because I'd just end up buying something everyday and my finances couldn't stand that! And as much I'd love to remove some of the responsibility from me and blame the shop for that, I can't. My bookshop gives me too much pleasure to heap that kind of accusation upon it!

The Fantastic Book of Everybody's Secrets by Sophie Hannah

This is an entertaining and insightful collection of short stories from an author who I believe has written two novels previous to this, but I can't compare this to those as I haven't read them. This was a random library pick, chosen because it is a personal goal to read more short stories this year at it is a form I've neglected recently.

The stories all deal with obsession in its various forms and they focus on the negative aspects that obsession can have on our lives. As with any short story collection some of them were better than others, but I did find with this collection that whilst I enjoyed all the stories at the time of reading some were totally forgettable, but the good ones will stay with me for a long time.

The book starts with the story that won the author an award, the Octopuses Nest. This follows a couple's discovery that for the last ten years the same woman appears to have been stalking them, a fact that they discover because she appears in all their holiday photographs over this period. Needless to say all is not as it seems and the couple are forced to re-assess their whole lives at the end of this story. The build up of tension is superb in this story, and I was actually scared. I think my heart rate was probably raised whilst I was reading it!

Another of my favourites was 'Twelve Noon', a story about a woman who has made a promise to herself to donate £2000 to charity although the disturbing reason for this is revealed gradually throughout the story. Her obsession has obviously affected her life to the point that when she finally ventures out to do this she is totally confused by a simple parking sign.

'Maximum stay 2 hours. No return within 2 hours.'

The woman in this story cannot figure this sign out and eventually ends up deciding that she must park for exactly 2 hours. She sees this as an omen that she must do what she has promised, although it is clear from the writing that she doesn't want to. But having made the promise she needs to keep it, or something bad might happen. Just like something bad might happen if she doesn't keep to the precise rules of the parking sign. This story is littered with examples of the woman being obsessed with obeying rules, and keeping promises.

'I tried not to take this as an omen of what might happen to me if I disobeyed.'

'Here, on the pavement, what if I was too close already? Would a traffic warden that i meant no harm, I was only standing here in a sort of desperate paralysis?'

'Furious with myself for the ridiculous bargain I had made and now had to honour, I had allowed a voice in my head to say, it's not worth it. Then I feared I would be struck down'

This story will stick with me a long time, and when the reasons for this excursion are revealed, I actually shed a tear or two, which is good going for a short story.

Another favourite is 'You Are a Gongedip', which deals with an obsession with language and words and involves a protagonist who makes up his own words for things, but this secret language is used against him with devastating effects. As book lover, his fate is terrifying!

The whole collection was enjoyable, but those are the three stories I would pick out as favourites, and they are the ones I would recommend to anyone looking for individual short stories.

January Wrap Up

So thats it. The end of my first full blogging month! And I'm quite surprised at how many books I read, I've never really kept track before.

Books read in January


A Case Of Exploding Mangoes by Mohammed Hanif
Edward Trencom's Nose: A novel of History, Dark intrigue and Cheese by Giles Milton
Water for Elephants by Sarah Gruen
The Stone Gods by Jeanette Winterson
The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K.Rowling
The Complete Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby
The Museum Guard by Howard Norman
Saplings by Noel Streatfeild
The fantastic Book of Everybody's Secrets by Sophie Hannah (review to come)
The Time Travellers Wife by Audrey Niffenger (review to come)


Top Three


The Museum Guard by Howard Norman
A Case of Exploding Mangoes by Mohammed Hanif
The Stone Gods by Jeanette Winterson


Challenge Progress

A-Z Challenge 8/52

War Through the Generations Challenge 2/6

Support your library Challenge 5/50

Whats in a name Challenge 2/6

Chunkster Challenge 1/3

Read your own Books Challenge 2/20