The Shack by William P. Young

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Horror of horrors, I came to the end of my knitting supplies and have nothing to fill my morning train ride hours. No, I can’t write. I’ve tried it and I’m too sleepy to be able to focus. Besides that, my eyes water like crazy, which is more than a little annoying and I was arriving at work looking as if I’ve cried all the way because my eyes were so red and puffy. Not a good start to the day, I can tell you. Yet I find I can knit and not suffer any “side affects”.

After some complaining, I woke one morning to find a small mp3 player sitting on the kitchen table, along with a spare battery. Upon querying why the device was there, I was told that an audio book borrowed from the library had been converted and loaded onto the player and that I was to take it with me on the train. I did. It’s not the first audio book I’ve listened too, but it’s the first time I’ve realised that I can listen to a book without “side affects” too. Yay!

The Shack (Amazon / Kindle) is a story of a man whose six-year old daughter is taken and murdered, while the family is on a camping trip, and then goes on to tell the anguish that follows the tragic event – emotionally and spiritually. When G borrowed the item from the library and when I first started listening to the story, neither of us knew it was religious. By the time I did realise, I had already grown attached to the main character and his problems (I could identify with him because of my own loss) and I wanted to know more. I wanted to know if this man, this father, could get through the darkness that I knew so well…so I kept listening.

Yes, this story is highly religious and my one complaint is that at times the dialogue felt more like a sermon than a discussion, which really grated on my nerves. Yet at the same time, I was drawn in and held tight by the ideas behind the sermons. I guess I even found comfort in those ideas to a degree. So, again, I kept listening.

This book was written to get those religious thoughts across to an audience. I know and accept that. Prior to 18th May 2006, I wouldn’t have listened to the entire book because I simply don’t like being preached at and to be honest I wouldn’t have related to the characters and events at all. But I’ve changed…in many ways. I didn’t like the preachy parts, but I sat and listened and was completed absorbed in what was being said. I was touched by the emotional struggle the father was battling, enough to bring tears. I remained oblivious to the comings and goings of other passengers. I was oblivious to everything happening around me. In fact, when I turned off the player and looked around I was shocked to see so many people seated around me when I had been completely alone when I pressed play.

This isn’t a book I would feel comfortable recommending to others because not everyone will get something from it. It’s a book that the reader should read if they have experienced troubled times, if they know grief and if they want to attempt understanding just one possibility of the whole picture. It’s a book I believe will pull a reader/listener in, but only if that person can relate to profound grief and emotional stress.

Religious or not, I’m glad I listened to this audio book because I gained something from it.

Want to Play? by P.J. Tracy

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Want to Play? (also published as “Monkeewrench”) (Amazon) is a mystery thriller written by mother/daughter team who use the pseudonym P J Tracy.

A group of five friends who compile gaming software soon discover that someone is using their latest game – Serial Killer Detective – as a basis for murder. When they report the discovery to the police, they quickly find themselves on the top of the suspect list.

I picked this book up as I flew out of the house to catch a train. I wanted something to read on the long trip and the book was on top of the pile. I didn’t have time to be choosy. To be honest, on the train when I looked at it more carefully, I didn’t expect much from it. So I was pleasantly surprised when I opened the book to the first page and the writing style snagged me straight away.

I liked the sense of humour and the colourful characters. I also liked the way the mystery unfolded – little by little, without making me get edgy because the next bit of information was too long in coming. I also enjoyed the thriller side of the story. Wondering what had happened in their past to make them the people I was reading about. Wondering what was around the next dark corner.

My only complaint about this book is that at one point I felt the crudeness was getting too much to handle. In some ways it felt sexist and I started to get annoyed, but then that side of things settled (or maybe I just stopped noticing) and I began to enjoy the story again.

I especially liked how the story didn’t get too technical or wasn’t too focused on the forensics side of things. In my opinion, there was a good balance of information given without it getting bogged down in facts and figures, which becomes boring.

Want to Play? is an interesting read and I recommend it to anyone who wants to be entertained, wants the pages to almost turn themselves, and experience a well thought out story with characters who put defined images of themselves into your imagination.

Wilderness by Roddy Doyle

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Wilderness is a book for younger readers. I usually enjoy such books, but something about this one just didn’t do it for me. I didn’t connect with the characters. I couldn’t relate to them.

It’s a story of two boys who are taken on a wilderness holiday by their mother. She is keen to be away from home while her husband’s first wife visits their daughter, who lives with her dad. I enjoyed the mother/daughter relationship — the fear, anger and getting to know each other scenes. However, I didn’t enjoy the wilderness side of the book. It bordered on boring. It didn’t feel realistic. And the climax wasn’t very suspenseful.

It’s a story that explores relationships within dysfunctional families, which is a situation I know well, but that’s where my connection with this book ended.

Having said this, it wasn’t a terrible book, just not meaningful enough for my liking.

When I Forgot by Elina Hirvonen

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I saw this in a second hand bookshop and, liking the blurb, decided to buy it.

When I Forgot (Amazon) is a dark, contemporary story of only 180 pages. It’s written in a way that I found to be quite confusing at times, as it moved back and forth between time periods frequently and I became a bit lost. Yet the information being slowly fed to me was intriguing, which meant I had to keep reading to find out what was happening.

Anna is a young woman sitting in a café trying to read a book. Yet the content of the book brings memories of her childhood to mind. She spends the entire day lost in thought, remembering a childhood wrought with fear and distrust. She also remembers the day dreams she had to help keep herself sane – a child’s effort to hold on to hope. As her story unfolds the darkness shifts and it’s easy to relate to why a person wants to forget, why Anna chose to forget. But in forgetting the bad times she also forgot the good memories too, because rarely is life all bad.

This story is about mental illness, the effects of war and the perspective of a child who doesn’t fully understand what is happening to her family. It’s a story that clearly shows how one person’s actions can affect so many lives. It’s a story that shows that love can be so deeply buried you don’t know it’s there.

I could really relate to the theme, the emotions and the feeling of hopelessness. The author’s writing style, however, was not for me. The confusion I felt whilst reading was distracting and, in the end, irritating. I’m glad the book was short because I don’t think I could have dealt with it much longer, which is a shame, because if it had been written with a smoother style this would have been a very moving reading experience.

Some Kind of Normal by Heidi Willis

My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

I finished this on Monday 7 June 2010. I was on the train, surrounded by people, trying to hide the fact that I was crying. It was extremely difficult and I’m not sure if I succeeded or not. But in the end it didn’t matter. I didn’t care. I stared out the window into the dark night and let it happen.

Some Kind of Normal (Amazon/Kindle) is different to what I usually read. It’s a book that I probably wouldn’t have taken any notice of, except for the fact that I’ve been reading the author’s blog for about eight or so months. The author writes well balanced, informative posts which I always enjoy and it was for that reason I decided to take a chance on her book.

Babs Babcock is a wife and mother. She’s not special in any way. She considers herself unintelligent, uninformed and unlikely to ever amount to anything. She is even unsure in her faith. Her family are normal, everyday battlers. Her husband barely holding on to his job. Her son rebellious and distant. Her daughter a typical pre-teen. When her daughter collapses in the driveway one morning, their lives change forever. Everything they know is thrown aside and the threat of death looms around them constantly.

This is a story of a family battling with difficult decisions that go against everything they believe in. They must fight their inner demons, but they also find themselves fighting against each other and the community. They must sit and watch someone they love deal with pain, discomfort and possible death. They must do this without knowing if their lives will ever return to some kind of normal again.

It’s a story that challenges the reader to think about what they would do if they found themselves in a similar situation. It’s a story that reminds us that we have no right to judge other people’s actions and decisions.

Babs is fictitious, but she’s so well written you’d swear she was a real woman with real problems. Because of this, it felt like I was privy to her personal diary and that drew me into the family’s crisis and held me tight. Having a family history of type 1 diabetes (although I don’t have it myself) I also learned a lot about this medical condition and now understand what aunts and cousins are going through, which I never fully appreciated before.

The book isn’t filled with dragons or made up worlds or brave men carrying heavy swords. You won’t find action scenes filled with blood and gore or murderous villains with evil thoughts of taking over the world within these pages. What you will find is a mother’s battle to keep her daughter alive…and it’s so real, it’s heart wrenching.

It’s an excellent book and I highly recommend it.

Dreamer by Steven Harper

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

I actually finished this book at the end of May but am only just getting around to writing about it. Dreamer (Kindle/Smashwords) is a science fiction book and I haven’t read anything of that genre for several years.

The prologue showed a world in chaos after civil wars and battles for leadership between planets. It showed a couple’s attempt at survival in a world where there was little food or water. And…in a world where money meant the difference between life and death, they had none. It was a strong piece of writing and I quickly grew attached to the characters and setting.

When chapter one started with different characters and an obviously different time period, I was utterly disappointed. I wanted to know what became of the couple and wasn’t particularly interested in the new characters. But I read on and with time the new characters grew on me and I eventually gave up trying to work out where the couple fit in to the story and just went with the flow.

Kendi is a brother in a religious order called Children of Irfan (no, it’s not a religious story). Sejal is a rebellious teenager living on planet Rust. Their paths cross when something strange starts happening in the Dream – a place where certain people can meet and communicate, no matter where they are located, even if they are light years apart. A darkness is ascending into the usual tranquil Dream and a black hole is swallowing the minds of the people who can go there. This leaves them emotionless which in some cases turns violent, forcing some people to take their own lives or the lives of others.

It seems that Sejal is the key, he is a powerful Silent (person who enters the Dream), but has no idea about any of it until Kendi takes him under his wing and starts training him. But the Children of Irfan were not the only ones looking for Sejal. He is being sort by many. All have an agenda of their own. All want to use him to achieve their goal. Sejal is unsure who he can trust and flees. Meanwhile the chaos caused in the dream is affecting many worlds and is becoming increasingly dangerous.

It’s an interesting story, with a different look on Australian Dreamtime. My only issue with this particular area of the story was that it felt vague and unsure – hesitant, may be the better word. In fact, I had read a huge chunk of the book before I realised Kendi was an Australian aboriginal. I have since researched the author and found that he is not an Australian and doesn’t live in Australia, so I suspect this is the reason for the vagueness.

This small point aside, Dreamer is a book that will make the reader confront issues such as sexuality and death. There are some graphic scenes concerning suicide too. And, of course, the couple at the beginning of the story were there for a reason.

Dreamer is the first book of the Silent Empire Series. I have the second book and look forward to finding out where it will take me.

Recommended.

Witch on the Water by Christine Rose

My rating: 2.5 of 5 stars
Witch on the Water ( Amazon / Smashwords ) is the sequel to Rowan of the Wood ( Amazon / Smashwords ). I enjoyed the first book quite a bit, although I don’t think it’s suitable for the younger audience it’s intended for. The second book doesn’t have the sexual innuendo so is more suitable for that particular audience.

However, this book wasn’t as strong as the first. It was good, but not as riveting and the pace was much slower. There were some really interesting scenes and topics covered, but generally speaking the characters felt uncommitted to the storyline and this affected the overall reading experience for me. I especially found Cullen’s moodiness irritating. The biggest letdown was the climax, which sort of fizzled out and felt like a carbon copy of the first book. It should have been much bigger, stronger, getting the adrenaline going and leaving the reader eager for the next book, but that’s not what happened.

In truth, I have little else to say, which is unusual for me. I don’t think I’ll bother with any more books in this series.

Originally posted on another site on 22 April 2010.

The Hobbit by J R R Tolkien

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Although I’ve always been an avid reader, I was not introduced to Tolkien until the Lord of the Rings series was made into movies. I watched the movies in absolute awe and rushed out to buy the books. However, the books were drab and boring in comparison. It’s not often I enjoy the movie more than the book, but in this case it was 100% true.

Tolkien’s writing style put me to sleep! I didn’t finish the books and got rid of them, vowing never to read anything else by this author…and I’ve kept that vow.

Then, last year, G arrived home from the library with an audiobook version of The Hobbit ( book / audio book ). I didn’t have time to listen to it then, and wasn’t overly keen to make time either, but he kindly converted it to mp3 so that I could listen to it when I was able.

Time became available at the beginning of this week. My thought was…I’m too tired to read or do anything else on the train in the morning, so I could sit with my eyes shut and listen to the story. If it was boring – and I was certain it would be – I could let my mind wander, just like I do any other morning. No big loss.

Early on Monday morning, iPod Touch clutched in my hand, I settled back, touched “play” and closed my eyes. Two hours later, I almost missed my stop – which has never happened before. No, I didn’t fall asleep. Yes, I was engrossed in the story…and I was enjoying it.

I wish I knew the reader for this audiobook, because he was excellent. He made the experience entertaining by using different voices and accents for different characters. He used music and some sound affects to help set the mood in certain scenes and he knew how to deliver tension and pace effectively. I also wish I knew if the reading was abridged or not. At a guess, I’d say it was but that was fine by me.

I’m glad I took the time to listen to this story, or this version of the story anyway. It surpassed my expectations. Highly recommended.

Originally posted on another site on 21 April 2010.

Rowan of the Wood by Christine Rose

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Rowan of the Wood (Amazon / Smashwords ) is an enjoyable story about a young boy dealing with life as a foster child. He escapes his unloved life by reading fantasy stories, but one day he finds himself in a situation that is confusing and dangerous when all the elements of one of his stories finds him in real life.

Meanwhile, a second story is unfolding. A story of legends, myths, witches and vampires. We move through the centuries with another character, a woman who is desperate to find her lost love and will do anything to stay alive long enough to find him.

The story is written in a way that held my attention, but as a writer I could see its flaws. Firstly, there’s a lot of telling rather than showing. However, most of the time I was comfortable with this as the telling was mostly done in a storyline that covered about 1400 years and I appreciate how hard it would be to “show” all that passed during that time. Secondly, although the author has noted the intended audience as “young adult”, I felt the age of the young boy – a 12 year old – together with the book cover shown actually targets a younger audience…and the content is not suitable for the younger age group (in my opinion). This could have been easily resolved by increasing the age of young Cullen to about 15 or 16. Thirdly, there are many similarities between Cullen and Harry Potter – so many, in fact, that I found it distracting at times because I felt as if Harry was the model used when Cullen was created. Whether or not that’s true, I don’t know, but I think it’s a shame that Cullen didn’t come across as his own person.

These things aside, I enjoyed the story. The characters fit together well and their motivations were realistic. I found that the author’s writing style was easy to read for long periods of time without becoming fidgety. In fact, I finished the book in a very short period of time and have already started the second book.

This book is recommended to readers who have a mature mind, a young heart and enjoy books about never ending love and adventure.

Originally posted on another site on 11 April 2010.

MageSign by Alan Baxter

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

MageSign (Amazon / Smashwords) is the sequel to RealmShift (Amazon / Smashwords), both written by Alan Baxter.

You can read my review on Realmshift here.

Being the second book in a set, I expect more from the story and the author…and I got both.

We return to Isiah three years later. Nothing much is happening in his life, so he decides to check out something that had been bothering him since the death of his old enemy, Samuel Harrigan. What starts out as a simple errand type job, becomes a nightmare filled with gods, sorcerers, demons, witches and a ninja type figure that proves quite a distraction.

I was pleased to revisit the setting and find familiar faces, I was even more pleased to discover that the author’s writing style has improved tenfold. MageSign isn’t a “shoot ‘em up” storyline like the first book (which, I should add, was fast paced and kept the pages turning), but a more realistic storyline with more suspense and tension (even a touch of sexual tension, which was unexpected). And…where Realmshift had a complicated religious thread which slowed the story down, MageSign doesn’t have that problem. I found the flow to be almost seamless, which means I could get into the story and stand right beside the characters and stay there. I find this experience improves everything about reading – my enjoyment triples and my reading time becomes more involved and less fidgety too.

MageSign is slower paced, but that doesn’t mean the story is lacking, because it isn’t. The suspense builds to such a degree that you can almost feel the pressure accumulating within Isiah when he finally faces the antagonists of the story. This tension is what forces the reader to keep turning the pages. It’s not only essential to find out what’s going to happen next, it is of the utmost importance to witness the final battle between good and evil — because, as I saw on a TV show recently, “Evil triumphs, when good men do nothing”. When I saw that phrase, it made me think of MageSign.

Truly a good story, written with a strong voice. Highly recommended.