Meanderings - This and That.

I've been absent from the blog and blogging sporadically. One reason is the lack of time or rather I would say bad management of time. I somehow seem to put off stuff that needs to be done and blogging was one of those things.

The second reason is that I do not have books to read - I have towering piles of wishlists of course but actual books none. I got two yesterday and thats' a huge relief. 

The picture above does not mean that I have been lying on a beach - nothing like that and in fact I dislike the sea and the sand. Its just an indication of what Sri Lankan beaches look like. I have always preferred green and mountains - each to their own!

I am following all the blogs which interest me and commenting as usual. Its just my reading that has gone AWOL. On another book note believe it or not I have won this on three different blogs! I do wish my luck would persist with other book giveaways as well.  I've graciously declined two of them so good luck to another winner on those blogs.

 

ANIL'S GHOST BY MICHAEL ONDAATJE

This is not an easy book to review. We come to a Michael Ondaatje book with a lot of expectation and for me the book met up with all my expectations - but I am a Sri Lankan and I knew the background in which the book was set. I feel that the background to the story may be a bit fragmented and may not be specific enough for someone without a knowledge of Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka has been in the limelight mainly because of the Tamil separatist war which lasted for 30 years and was a most bloody conflict. Anil's Ghost deals mainly with an insurgency against the Government by forces which meant to overthrow what they thought was a corrupt goverment. How they went about it and the thousands they murdered in order to try to lay down their rule of law (they did not succeed) by a means of fear and oppression is the greater part of the story.

The book confused me from the first page! Anil is a boy's name and when you start the story Anil is a female forensic pathologist. She has been away from the country of her birth for fifteen years and is now highly qualified in her field and coming as a representative for a Human Rights organization based in Geneva to check and do a "report" on the situation in Sri Lanka. She is teamed with Sarath an archaelogist  who represents the government (I thought it a strange combination) but as the story goes on it is revealed firstly how Anil got her name and secondly why Sarath was the chosen representative from the Government.

I loved the writing. The descriptive nature of the story set mainly in remote areas of Sri Lanka was breath taking. I haven't been to many of the places mentioned though I've learnt about them in my history lessons but they were brought to life by Ondaatje's writing. You also learn a lot from his writing and it shows the extent of his research to make sure that the book is as meticulously authentic as possible. 

Each character in the story is different. They are also in so many layers which peel off one at a time to reveal so many different persona. 

The story is haunting and lingers with you long after the book is over. A story of death, evil, superstition and traditional practices. Despite the lack of light in the story, it is a very compelling one. Couldn't put this down and finished it in one go.

THE MASQUERADERS by GEORGETTE HEYER

I picked up this one as I wanted a quieter book after The Casual Vacancy. This was not a slow paced read but the setting is so serene that you tend to totally relax with a Georgette Heyer novel.

We have Robin and Prudence as our "masqueraders". The boy living out the part of a girl and the girl as a boy. They act out their parts beautifully in society and no one is the wiser other than for one discerning gentleman who feels that everything is not what it seems - as he feels a distinct attraction for the young "man"!

It is a complicated story of a family with a past, as Prudence puts it - they are adventurers and not suitable to get married into "good respectable families" but like everything else things are sorted out beautifully, after several adventures, a duel or two, highwaymen and a murder and romance of the best kind.

I liked each character for what they were and they were all different. Prudence was very different to the average young lady of the time - she was daring and willing to take a risk at every turn, Robin was willing to follow whatever rules his father said at the risk of everything he held dear, the father was a dashing buccaneer almost and then we have Anthony who appears to be staid and very quiet and is anything but. 

Lovely book for the weekend.

THE CASUAL VACANCY by J K ROWLING

I never know what book comes my way and there are always very pleasant surprises coming (all the time!). This was one of them.

With a book like this, we always seem to think to what the author has put up before and doesnt everyone have huge expectations when it is on the scale of Harry Potter.

A modern day setting with very eclectic characters we run the whole gamut of people. The no nonsense types, the interfering ones, the do gooders, the gruff bluff types and the hypocrites.  We have modern day trappings of Facebook and online web sites being very much part of the book.  We can identify with the entire story as it runs parallel to anyone's life in modern day times and this is what draws one in.

As usual Rowling knows how to enthrall and entice,  and also keep you at it till the story is done and dusted. It also is interesting that despite not happy endings you do end the book with a sense of well being that you've read a winner!

We have a small town of Pagford on the brink of having an election to fill in the vacancy (this is the casual part) as a result of the death of a councillor Barry Fairweather. The ones who are jostling for this position are varied and different - all with agendas of their own - some wanting to follow in the footsteps of Barry and others totally opposite to what he aimed for and thus hoping to turn the Council in another direction. The ramifications of the election are huge and will affect life in Pagford and Yarvill and it is this that drives the election forward.

We have malicious, smug, righteous, boring, abusive, mixed up and nice characters in the story. We also have the modern day elements of huge drug abuse, teenagers with angst, generation gaps at its height and so many other features that in another story would be most confusing but which in this one seems so natural to the story.

Needless to say I loved the book and am just glad that I got it to it sooner rather than later. I hope Ms. Rowling continues with the modern theme.

Christmas at the Alexanders by M. Malone

This was another download to my Ipad. A very warm hearted Christamassy story which was also very short. This is not exactly a review just an appreciation to Amazon for their free stuff for people like me who really appreciate having something to read!

The story of a young man and a young woman both with slightly complicated pasts being attracted to each other and how they work things out is the basic story. Add to it stern parents on the one side and a very warm, loving family on the other. I have apparently gone into the series right in the middle at No. 3.5 so hopefully will get to the others shortly.

As to weather, it has improved very slightly with a few showers but hardly enough to effect the heat and humidity of the day. When I look at North America, I keep thinking why some of that could not come this way. The grass is always much more attractive on the other side. 

THOU ART THE MAN. by M.E. BRADDON

  

This is the second book that I downloaded to my Ipad and I couldn't be happier. With no access to books freely this has opened a vista for me which was unimaginable. 

A very old fashioned read. Set at the end of the 19th century, we see very clearly that time is of no account where people are concerned. We get the good and the villains in every era and though gentility and being a gentleman were of paramount importance at the time, it is not something that was apparent in every man of the time and the story is partly representative of this.

We have the lady of the house, married to the Lord Penrith. She spurned the advances of his brother and married him and this is something that the brother kept in mind till the end of his days. Ending up as a murderer not once but twice - the first time letting another take the blame, the second time around being so successful that it was ruled as an accidental death, he comes into the baronetcy and the wealth of his brother. It does not lead to a happy end though and the moral of repentance before death to get absolution for your sins (does it work out like this so easily!) is part of the story.

Very descriptive of the surroundings of the area in which the book is situated, also finely tuned as to the characters of the story, it was a very pleasant read.

First Chapter - First Paragraph Tuesday

I am over the moon because I got an Ipad for Christmas from my brother!!! everyone says I will become a freak now using this and am thinking I am going to agree with them!!!!

Technology of this kind is new to me so its a learning curve still - but learn I will!!!! Downloaded a very small book yesterday from Amazon which was free and read it too.

Today I went to another site (recommended by The Novel Life) called Forgotton Books and my excerpt comes from one of those books.  After a period of around five years, I find that I have no new books in the house to read - either my own or borrowed and that has left me feeling slightly disconcerted.  Now I have access to books again!

Lady Penrith was again missing at afternoon tea and again John Coverdale looked around the drawing room with a countenance expressive of blank disappointment. He had not been with the shooters who had just returned and who were having a substantial egg and toast tea in the breakfast room.  He came to the drawing room after a long afternoon reading  in the almost unused library  - a spacious apartment which had once been an armoury  and in which three great carved book cases filled with eighteen century literature  books which nobody ever looked at  represented culture at Killander Castle.

Taken from the book Thou Art the Man - a novel by M E Braddon first published in 1894. 

Joining Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea