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ed by his wife hester who runs a charity clinic for prostitutes this series is darker with more harsh realities unrelieved by excursions into london society and in many ways i enjoy this series more for this very reason world war i series there are also five books set in world war i with members of the reavley family as the main characters i think the author manages to reveal the sheer harshness of life in the trenches and the mental and physical dangers the men faced a thread between the books is a story of treason and an alternate approach to the resolution of the conflict but one which leaves the ordinary man with no choices she also manages to make it very clear how the war would impact life in england afterwards all of these books have been very interesting and i found it easy to care about the characters christmas novels anne perry also has a series of christmas novels and as yet i ve only read one of them it too has a crime theme but of a lighter note in my view the author s strengths are her characterisations and her ability to help us really understand or know the victorian era as well as wwi very occasionally there are lapses where she tells rather than shows but they are minor down points i have gained a new respect and understanding for the poor of london and no doubt other major cities their lives really were marginal and infinitely difficult recommendation if you like crime or mystery and you haven t tried this author it would be well worth reading a few to see if you like them magic carpet factor an average 3 ½ to 4 stars from me for taking me back in time and really engaging with the characters library loot is a weekly event co hosted by claire from the captive reader and marg from the adventures of an intrepid reader that encourages bloggers to share the books they ve checked out from the library posted in books crime uncategorized tagged anne perry crime thomas and charlotte pitt william monk series leave a reply thoughts of maria by gregory heath posted on march 29 2013 by cassmob 2 a few weeks ago i received a copy of the e book thoughts of maria by gregory heath thanks to a computer glitch it s taken me a while to get to the review synopsis there are four main protagonists in the story who tell interleaving stories about a phase in their lives gerry was divorced by his wife rachel maria a young filipina living on manila s dumps with her family and gerry and rachel s son callum the story focuses on gerry s decision to find a mail order bride from asia and the impact that has on each of the characters review the approach of revealing each character s thoughts and aims by telling their story in interweaving chapters is interesting the strength of this strategy is that is shows how little each of the characters really know of each other and their motivations i found gerry and maria engaging and though each had their own aspirations for the relationship there were hidden undercurrents especially maria not revealing her family s dire straits while understandable given the family s absolute poverty this has potential for undermining the couple s relationship but time may have made it possible for maria to reveal the truth both gerry and maria seem committed to making the relationship work gerry and maria convinced me of their belief in family and the willingness to commit but the behaviour of the other characters left me with the expectation that their new found happiness might be destroyed gerry s son callum on the other hand is a nasty piece of work weak conniving and generally unstable his self destructive behaviour leaves a potential bombshell for gerry and maria rachel is equally flawed dissatisfied with her life and envious of gerry s new relationship her bitterness and viciousness combined with callum s bombshell have the potential to completely destroy gerry and maria s marriage despite their best efforts gerry s father arthur makes a brief appearance which reveals where gerry has learned his family values i prefer a longer novel and this one was quite short but honestly by the end i didn t really want to know of might become the car crash of their lives the characters were certainly believable but the weakness and nastiness of callum and rachel meant that it wasn t a book i enjoyed the open ending left the reader with their own options for what would happen next disclaimer i was provided with a free copy of the book by the publisher in exchange for an honest review magic carpet factor i gave this book three stars because of the believability of the characters without that it would probably have been 2½ posted in fiction tagged gregory heath thoughts of maria 2 replies because i m small now and you love me by gina london posted on february 18 2013 by cassmob 2 last week i read an e book called because i m small now and you love me the world according to my four year old by cnn reporter gina london synopsis this is the story of a small girl her funny sayings and the family s life in paris france usa and arezzo italy review they say never to compete with children and animals and the author wisely avoided this dilemma instead she has turned it on its head using her daughter s humorous comments and world view to tell a delightful tale of life in three countries her professional skills leavened with some maternal cynicism as well as pride make it an enjoyable and amusing read though perhaps not one which would appeal to those with an aversion to children personally i found it enchanting lulu is a bright child who knows her mind and leads her parents something of a merry dance challenging but rewarding and adaptable parents and grandparents may well find themselves thinking why didn t i write something like that probably because unlike the author many of us simply think it s cute on the day and don t record the saying or the context there are elements of familiarity here and it could easily have turned saccharine but for the spicy dollop of cultural differences quite unlike other versions of my life in tuscany paris this is a fairly light book which is easily read but it reminds us just how adaptable children can be halloween visits at midnight anyone and as someone who can t manage to roll their r s i can empathise with gina s dilemma disclaimer i received a free copy of this book from the publisher via library thing on the understanding that i would write an honest review magic carpet factor 3 5 posted in biography books memoir uncategorized tagged biography memoir travel 2 replies the chemistry of tears peter carey posted on february 5 2013 by cassmob 6 peter carey s the chemistry of tears made me think i should have called this blog bewildered by books not bewitched while i could mostly follow the plot quite easily there were times when i had no idea what the characters thought they were doing and especially what was the point of the whole book and story the book has two story lines one historical and one modern day interlinked by a complex piece of aesthetic machinery an automaton in the shape and character of a swan the modern story concerns catherine aka cat who is an horologist who works for swinburne museum catherine discovers by chance that her long term lover had just died and much of her behaviour through the book is supposedly dictated by her grief catherine is a self obsessed selfish and personally indulgent character who i didn t find at all likeable her alcohol and drug abuse breach of museum protocols and boundless disregard for the safety of the pieces entrusted to her seem completely unjustifiable in terms of grief which the average reader will have coped with without catherine s level of self indulgence the other characters in the modern world are no more endearing her kindly yet manipulative boss her manic assistant her lover s children none of these characters rang true for me and the only bit of the story which stood up was the need to please the loots and suits in terms of the income generating capacity of the swan automaton as part of her boss s grief therapy for cat he assigns her the task of bringing back to life a large automaton of a swan crafted in the mid 19 th century among the assets are a pile of books written by the man henry brandling who had commissioned the swan well a duck actually henry s story seems no more surreal than catherine s despite his presence in the black forest among a small group of enormously skilled english speaking german craftsmen and a child genius henry s motivation for contracting the automaton is to find something which will keep his child alive against the odds of illness and his hope that this might also restore him in his wife s credit as bizarre as the craftsman sumper appears he is no less so than much of the rest of the story if the oil spill in the gulf of mexico is supposed to link to the theme of machinery then i also found that self indulgent as shocking as it undoubtedly was to place that as the rationale for cat s assistant s behaviour again seems self indulgent placed against the human horrors of war death and genocide that has characterised the past 160 years since the automaton was hypothetically constructed this seems utterly disproportionate ultimately we are left with the conclusion that henry did manage to get his amazing automaton how else would it have come to the swinburne but without any idea of whether he succeeded in his goal of saving his son for me the crux of the story it may well be that i prefer a simple logical story line but either way this book was a flop from my point of view i wanted to tell them all to just get a grip and grow up i honestly felt this book had been a waste of my time reading it magic carpet factor 2½ posted in australian male authors tagged peter carey the chemistry of tears 6 replies travelling to infinity my life with stephen by jane hawking posted on january 31 2013 by cassmob 4 while at the library recently i picked up travelling to infinity my life with stephen by jane hawking i often borrow books from the library that i might not otherwise read and this is one of them synopsis this is the biography memoir of jane hawking wife for 25 years of stephen hawking the famed physicist it traces not only their lives but that of their families as well as his remarkable scientific discoveries and the impact of his degenerative illness motor neuron disease on himself his wife family and colleagues my thoughts i was intrigued by this story and astonished that a woman as young as jane married and took on the responsibilities associated with a brilliant but increasingly ill man the rigours of their lives and the physical and emotional hardships were perhaps made more difficult rather than less with a husband who was a scientific genius everyday people would have most of the same strains but presumably not the added pressure of a brain which far outstripped anyone else s jane s persistence and determination and her family s support are remarkable the sheer generosity of stephen hawking s students and colleagues is also amazing throughout the story i was increasingly annoyed with stephen hawking s selfish disregard of his wife s needs and lack of recognition of her academic ability which is evident throughout the memoir while not reaching stephen s standard of genius it s plain that jane is no slouch intellectually however she sacrifices a great deal for her husband s well being both physically and intellectually he appears not to have reciprocated her generosity or regard while the details of the science and sometimes her own linguistic endeavours were often lost on me or i didn t bother to try to keep on top of them the life story was intriguing while it could be argued that she has puffed herself up this is not how it strikes me rather the opposite if anything as the book neared its conclusion i was increasingly irritated with stephen hawking s lack of respect and regard for his wife and her significant contributions to his achievements his fame seems to reflect this grandiose view of himself which is perhaps the real reason why he becomes besotted by his nurse after all in traditional terms nurses are accustomed to deferring to the supposed greater intellect of the medicos a phenomenon which is perhaps less common today and yes jane does have a relationship with a family friend initially platonic and later physical who continues to help the whole family at great sacrifice to himself who could blame her struggling with the depths of despair frankly i wondered why jane hawking continued to denigrate her own abilities and remain in the marriage stephen hawking s elitist perspectives were increasingly infuriating to me as he appeared to intimidate if not bully his wife and family as the famed scientist his needs were held to be greater than those of the rest of the family personally i agreed with the local minister who assured jane that irrespective of intelligence or genius each member of a family has equal rights if not always equal needs magic carpet factor 3 75 aggravation factor with him 4 75 posted in biography books memoir tagged biography jane hawking memoir travelling to infinity 4 replies mosaic by diane armstrong posted on january 28 2013 by cassmob 6 yesterday 27 th january marks holocaust memorial day it s not a day that s marked officially in australia being overtaken by australia day or as australia s indigenous people refer to it survival day on 26 th january despite the lack of official recognition here it s likely there are many people who remember this day with great sadness last week my blog post on the voyage of their life talked about how some of the refugees and displaced people made their way to australia in the aftermath of world war ii among them were many jewish people who had experienced the horrors and privation of the war i tend to read every book by authors i like so this week i downloaded the e book of another of diane armstrong s books one called mosaic then yesterday armstrong was featured in this weekend s weekend australian magazine strange how these things run in cycles synopsis mosaic is the story of diane armstrong s polish jewish family back to the late 19 th century and her great grandparents and up to her life in australia it is essentially a family history of five generations told against the backdrop of war and terror as a child diane was called denusia baldinger but as the dogs of war came closer with their snapping teeth her father moved them further east in poland preferring to take his chances with the russians than the germany ss in a wild throw of the dice he changed their names to the more polish sounding name of boguslawski and their small nuclear family pretended to be catholic although the villagers were suspicious the family were saved from being denounced to the gestapo by the support of the local catholic parish priest who had known they were jewish but continued to support them diane tells ultimately how over 60 of their immediate family ...