Category: Book Review

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Book Review: Inkheart by Cornelia Funke

i had finished reading Inkheart quite a few weeks ago but have put off writing this review. At one point, i even thought i would not review it because it has been reviewed and reviewed. A Google search for “Book Review Inkheart” returned 18,400 results in 0.27 seconds – see what i mean.

Then i thought maybe i will wait till i finish the whole series of 3 books but that may take me a fair while (talking months here) as i don’t like reading the same author consecutively (yes, it’s a quirk). So here it is – my book review of Inkheart.

i had watched the movie quite a few years back and have been waiting to read this book so there was a level expectation already. And i’m happy to say the book does not disappoint. Even though this was marketed as a middle-grade book, i believe any adult who enjoys a good fantasy will enjoy reading it.

Inkheart
Inkheart (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The characters of Mo and Meggie captured my heart from the first pages. i kept wanting to know what would happen to them. i kept following their journey, hoping and wishing them well. Dustfinger started out (for me) as a rather mysterious and untrustworthy character. i was screaming in my head for Mo not to trust him and was very curious as to why Mo did and why Mo felt indebted towards him. But as the story moved on, i came to pity Dustfinger, to feel for his situation. And i can say that in the end i was even rooting for him to get his wish.

The antagonist in the book, Capricorn, along with his henchmen, Basta and Flatnose, did not lose in the battle for the reader’s emotions. But they were very different emotions indeed. Through their actions you could tell where their heart laid and i hated them and their dark hearts. Their hearts weren’t all necessarily dark in the sense of evil, some were dark in the sense of lost. The cruelty Capricorn displayed made me pity the men under him even more, made me realise how desperate they must have been to decide to serve under such a horrible (that’s putting it mildly) person.

The supporting characters of Elinor and Fenoglio were not just flat characters either, although they remained pretty much steadfast in their beliefs, their actions showed how their eyes were opened as they were drawn into the story. Elinor moved from a stubborn woman who loved books above all else to a woman who would welcome a family to live with her. Fenoglio was a forgotten writer who got to meet his creations and went on to live in his created world.

The pace of the book was fast, yet not so fast that you are fighting to catch your breath and understand what just happened. i love how somewhere past the middle of the book it all seemed resolved and there was just one more thing Mo had wanted to do and then suddenly they were back in the thick of it.

i also liked how at the beginning of each chapter is a quote from fairly well-known books which Funke had read and liked. i enjoyed trying to guess which book each quote came from. It has also added to my to-read list.

So if you are looking for adventure with passion, along with good action and fantasy thrown in, Inkheart is your book. It is not as heavy going as an adult fantasy book but it certainly does not lack depth and action.

If you have already read Inkheart, let me know what you think.

syc

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Book Review: 31 Dream Street…

Doesn’t that title just say chick-lit all over it? i like to indulge in some all out chick-lit once in a while. It is good for some perspective on life – really it is, at least for me.

However, i must say, this book by Lisa Jewell has more depth than i initially thought. But it’s not crack-your-head, heavy-going type of depth. The depth of this story is so well woven into the lives of the characters that you finish the book and look back with a surprised acknowledgement of what you have learnt or gained from reading it.

Leah, a woman in her mid-30s, has lived across from the eccentric house on 31 Silversmith Road for a few years now. She wants so much to get to know the weird and wonderful people who live there. i love how she names them, Old Skinny Guy, Girl with the Guitar, Young Skinny Guy, the Teenager, the Air Hostess and Sybil (a tenant who changes her image very often).

She gets her chance when one of the tenants dies in the street one morning and she runs to get the owner of house, Toby, the failed/struggling poet. She and Toby form an unlikely friendship in which she encourages him to seek out his path in life and Toby finds in her his Aunty Agony and more.

Toby’s tenants aren’t just Toby’s tenants. They are a sort of lifeline which he keeps at arm’s length but he needs them to stay rooted in this world. But with the death of one of them and an unexpected letter, he has to face the facts – he has to try to move ahead and move them out of his house and his life. Leah tries her best to help him, an almost recluse, to do just that and she learns that she might need him just as much too.

As the shape-up and move-out process goes on, we learn about the lives and back-stories of Toby’s strange tenants and what great stories they all have. Jewell does not leave any one of them in the dark. We get to know them and even like some of them in the end.

It is a story you hope as you read that there will be a happy end. There are times when it seems that the happy end is not to be… but keep reading, it does have a happy and heart-warming end which every chick-lit should have.

i read this while on our annual visit to Singapore. It is a light and good read which is satisfying and leaves you with a smile.

Have you read 31 Dream Street? Or maybe another one of Lisa Jewell’s books? What did you think of this or her other books? Let me know.

syc

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Book Review: Angry Housewives Eating BonBons…

First of all, i LOVE the title of this book! And i loved it even more when i found out that that is the name of the book club which is the centre of action in the book; the AHEB (Angry Housewives Eating BonBons).

Second, i apologise as i will be skimming over the details of this book. i read this for my own book club meeting at the beginning of May and my memory isn’t what it used to be. But i liked the book and remember enough to want to talk about it some more.

Ok onto the book review proper…

The first few lines of the book (Prologue) immediately grabbed my attention and the writing style and story-lines held it all the way through the book.

“I knew all about having my life saved. When I was three years old, I broke free of my MawMaw’s callused grasp to chase a paper cup skittering across the street at the same time a jalopy full of new army recruits careened around the corner. A sailor coming out of Knapp’s Drugs and Sundries, with reflexes I hope served him well in his tour of duty, threw his bottle of Hires root beer to the sidewalk and raced out into the street, scooping me up in his arms. I can still hear the cacophony of squealing brakes, honking horns, and my grandmother’s scream, feel the sailor’s rough cotton uniform on my cheek and smell the soda pop on his breath…”

See what i mean. The writing is not complex but it is full of details which draw you right into the action, right into what the character sees and feels.

Faith, the ‘I’ in the above excerpt, is the main character who is also the one with the biggest, oldest secret in the story. (No spoiler here – i won’t tell you what’s the secret.) However, all the other housewives are so well-fleshed out that you live and feel for each of them as they take turns to tell their part in this story. i like Audrey for her dare-to-live attitude and Slip for her fight-to-the-end viewpoint. Their personal stories both take an unexpected twist. Merit, whom my heart goes out to, is amazing as she tries to keep it all together under an abusive husband and then when it falls apart, raises her girls on her own; not an easy thing to do in the Sixties. Kari, the ‘mother-hen’ of the group, who has her own sad story with a wonderful end, is equally interesting to read about.

i enjoy so much the camaraderie which the women share in those 40 over years they spent together; how they were there for each other at every turn. It is something i do not have – not to say that my life is lacking but such close friendships with people who live on the same street i have not experienced. i have wonderful friends but we are, unfortunately, at this point in our lives, not living in the same country even, let alone the same street. i have always wondered about living with neighbours who became close friends and i got to see that through the eyes of these characters.

The topics touched upon in the book are also varied and of great interest to me. Everything from the war (Vietnam specifically) and the peace marches to marriage (normal, abusive, divorce etc…) and sex; it also covers parenting, adoption, lost of loved ones, relationships and expectations between parent and child, religion, the gay movement/issue, and most importantly, holding onto secrets and its effects. There is no lack of tragedies with regards to all those issues but there are also lots of triumphs as well.

Of course, in those many years, these friends have had their disagreements and fights with each other and the process of healing the broken relationships was never easy. But they stayed true to each other, loving each other, even when they were ‘hating’ the other.

i love it that two of their children would carry on the book club in their own way, just as their mothers did. We leave the Angry Housewives in the midst of another battle in life:

“The Angry Housewives tame a Hell’s Angel, I wrote. Next stop: world domination. I laughed, even though I was a breath away from bursting into tears. I looked at Slip, but my valiant, true friend did not stir, and I stared at the photograph for a moment more before adding, We’re still working on that one.”

i would read this book again some time in the future. (when my to-read list is finally no more… God only knows when that will be – hehehee;) ).

Have you read this book? If so, did you like it? Hate it? Do share.

syc