The Ice Bear by Jackie Morris

An enchanting, magical book
Review by Maryom

I feel extremely privileged to have a copy of this for review as I've been following its development through Jackie Morris' website and blog, and eagerly awaiting its publication.

An enchanting, magical book set in the beginning of time, before the naming and fixing of things, when men and animals were all equal. A polar bear cub is stolen away from his mother by a raven and raised by hunters as their child, till the day when he wanders far from home and is found by his bear-twin. Then he finds he must choose between his two families....

As always, Jackie Morris's paintings are the most gorgeous things imaginable for a children's book - though to call this merely a children's picture book is doing it a great dis-service. This isn't a 'picture book' in the sense of a cartoon type film tie-in but one of exquisite paintings, whether of wide open Arctic spaces or intimacy of hunter's tent. She manages to convey both the power and strength of the massive bears and their tenderness and love.

With wonderfully descriptive, poetic prose, it's suitable as either a bedtime storybook for a young child or read-alone for an older one, or play 'spot the arctic fox' as he hides in the background of many pictures. A book to spark a child's imagination and one they will treasure for always - or give in and treat yourself!

I'm a bit disappointed with the copy of the cover as lifted from the publishers' web site - the original has greater depth and such feeling in the bear's eyes. If you haven't come across Jackie Morris' work - either as paintings or book illustrations - visit her website where you'll find more of the illustrations and some rough drafts from The Ice Bear and other books.

Jackie blogs at http://drawingalineintime.blogspot.com/

Maryom's review - 5 stars

Publisher - Frances Lincoln
Genre - Artistic Picture Story Book - All Ages

Fantastic Fantasy

Having been reading quite a lot of Fantasy recently left me thinking about this genre that is called 'fantasy'. As a youth I accumulated swathes of science fiction books and enjoyed them immensely. Asimov, Clarke,  Lois McMaster Bujol, Heinlein, Moorcock and many more - but no fantasy. Many years later I became aware of fantasy as a genre and wondered why I had never encountered it before. On reflection I now understand.that Fantasy didn't exist. Everyone was obsessed with SF and everything was classified as such if the publishers could get away with it.

I thought I would now look back and choose the best fantasy stories I have read. Therein lies a problem... You tend to favour the books you read recently which means you end up listing the most recent books instead. I will try not to do that here, but instead reclassify some of that old SF as fantasy and try to be impartial.

So what element is needed to make it fantasy, rather than SF? For me the separation is that the story must contain non explainable fantastic elements that are key to the story. This tends to come down to .... Magic.

I will now list some of the fantasies that have either influenced my reading or have become favourites. There is a temptation to do a top 5 or 10 but I will resist that and try to cover them in chronological order of my reading them.

Magic Inc. - Robert Heinlein
   I acquired this book (Waldo and Magic Inc.) as a teenager and have to admit that it is the first story I can recollect reading that I could classify as 'fantasy'. By today's standards it probably doesn't classify as that good but I include it as an influence in my taste for fantasy. It was classified as SF at the time, but wouldn't be today, although 'Waldo' - the other story in the book - probably would still be SF.
Dune - Frank Herbert
    Very much a 'cult' read shortly after it was published but I left it a few years before trying it. It started to define fantasy in a way but also spawned sequels which never quite came up to the original. As a story I wasn't overly impressed but like so many fantasy novels the hero is very special and the story focuses on the individual. It was an all too frequently followed idea.
Lord of The Rings - Tolkien
   I tried to read this at school and stopped at Bilbo's eleventy first birthday party. OK the first couple of pages but I was a serious minded teenager and could not take this silly idea. I tried again later when I was married and a father and while I found the writing style not to my taste I did get totally pulled into the story and had to admit that I enjoyed it. It was Frodo's 'unspecialness' that made him such a wonderful and innocent hero and allowed me to really enjoy it. Perhaps I should have persevered as a teenager?
Stardust - Neil Gaiman
    I read this at the recommendation of my wife. I found it very sweet and very different to anything I had read before. Our hero that we meet in the first few pages doesn't remain with us and his son takes over. I later saw the film and found I was disappointed as it didn't feel very much like the book I read and enjoyed so much.
Wizard of Earthsea - Ursula LeGuin
   This is sort of back to the special hero formula, but is also a 'dark' story and at times it almost feel depressing in it's 'darkness'. So why include it?  Well at the recommendation of my wife, I read it to my daughter as a bedtime story. We did enjoy it, though I have never read the next two books.
Colour of Magic - Terry Pratchett
   Fantasy fiction for me would be nothing today if not for Mr. Pratchett. I felt Discworld was not for me - it seemed it would be too silly so I ignored it. So why did I change my mind? I didn't - my daughter made me. It was my birthday and one of my presents was 'The Colour of Magic'. I could not believe  my wife had bought it me. She hadn't I was told when my daughter was asleep, my daughter had because she liked the picture on the cover. My daughter was reception class at the time. Well what could I say - such innocence. I had to read it because it had made it special, so I did. I was totally HOOKED. Since then I have acquired a shelf full and borrowed many more from the library but Rincewind and his luggage remain a very firm favourite and I always hope my next Pratchett will have them in, if only in a cameo roles. This book will always be special to me.
Ye Gods - Tom Holt
   I was in hospital - confined against my will - reading a Pratchett - I forget which - when a nurse asked what I was reading. I showed her and she asked if I had read any Tom Holt. When I replied that I hadn't she brought Ye Gods in for me to read. I tried it and was entranced. One thing I very much like about Tom Holt is that he has very few recurring themes. Things like 'Wells & Co' do appear in more than one book but the concept is not overdone. His humour is not as schoolboy as Pratchett and that is another attraction - variation. I only have half a shelf of Tom Holt but have added to that shelf Robert Rankin and Andrew Harman. And all because a nurse encouraged me to try Ye Gods by Tom Holt.

Since branching into the humourous fantasy genre I have read a great deal more serious fantasies and now find SF far harder to read. After 30+ years in IT I find myself questioning technologies in stories instead of suspending disbelief and loosing myself in the plot. With fantasy I can make that release and whether reading Holt, Rankin and Pratchett or Pehov, Juliet E Mckenna and Gillian Philip then I can find I can put the world on hold and just relax in the humour or tension of fantasy.

Shopaholic Abroad by Sophie Kinsella

Becky Bloomwood's back - this time taking on New York.
review by Maryom

Continuing my Shopaholic reading challenge with OneMorePage.
Confessions of a Shopaholic finished on a high note - Becky had got a new job with more pay and paid off all her debts, BUT, in the months since then, 'taking the long view' and 'investing' in her career have started to run up the bills again, and her favourite bank manager has retired to be replaced with someone far less sympathetic.
Now she's off to New York with her entrepreneur boyfriend, Luke, who's looking to expand his business there. Unfortunately, it's a place full of opportunities to spend - from bijou shops to flashy department stores, sample sales to the Guggenheim Museum, everything says 'buy me' and this time her debts really are going to catch up with her in a most unpleasant way.
Another wonderful Shopaholic book, in many ways funnier than Confessions. Who but Becky would try to get round packing for the weekend by having their clothes delivered by courier, direct to the hotel? Who else, out to impress their boyfriend's mother at an important lunch, would get mistaken for a waitress? but when it comes to the crunch and Luke's business is failing apart around his ears, who but Becky can save it?

Maryom's review - 5 stars

Publisher - Transworld Publishing

Genre - Chick-Lit


Shopaholic Abroad can be purchased from Amazon.co.uk

Books arrived this week.

Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella

Shop Till You Drop
review by Maryom

I was inspired to re-read this by the Shopaholic challenge at onemorepage.co.uk I don't think I'm likely to finish all 5 books before September, but I thought I'd give it a go.

This is undoubtedly one of my favourite chick-lit feel good reads. Becky Bloomwood is a financial journalist who knows all about finance - unless it involves her own personal spending. Starting with an interest free overdraft after leaving university, she just keeps adding to it - and ignoring any nasty little bank and credit card statements that turn up in the post. At last though, she feels some action is needed. First she tries Cutting Back - this somehow leads to MORE spending. Then she tries Making More Money - hhmm, no that doesn't work either. How is she ever going to sort out her finances?

I actually prefer its original title of Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic because so much of Becky's time is spent in that dreamworld - where she will win the lottery, be photographed on the street for magazines, be swept off her feet by a movie star - rather than the dull one of financial journalism. It's only when she starts to take her journalism seriously, instead of it being a stop-gap job on the way to bigger things, that she accidentally finds a way out of her financial mess.

I've heard the Shopaholic series knocked for portraying Becky as a scatter-headed bimbo, saying it doesn't provide a suitable role model for today's young women, but chick lit is meant to be light, fluffy and escapist, and that's what the Shopaholic books are all about. I love them!

Maryom's review - 5 stars

Publisher - Transworld Publishing

Genre - Chick-Lit


Confessions of a Shopaholic can be bought from Amazon

The 10pm Question by Kate De Goldi

What Are Your Worst Fears?
review by Maryom

Frankie Parsons isn't like the rest of the kids in Year 8. While they enjoy life, totally carefree, he spends all his time worrying about anything and everything - are aching muscles a sign of meningitis? is his headache actually an aneurism? has the cat passed on fleas to the family? To keep his fears at bay, he recites lists - of birds or animals. The only person who understands his fears, and listens to them, is his Mother. But while she can still comfort and reassure Frankie, she has problems and fears of her own. Then a new girl arrives at school with her own problems and her own way of dealing with them, and disrupts Frankie's orderly world.
There's a rather slow start to this tale, but the ever-worried Frankie and his slightly weird family gradually come to life as you read on. Kate De Goldi paints a sensitive and thought provoking picture of children coping with the vagaries of parents, whether brought on by illness or lifestyle.

Maryom's review - 4 stars

Publisher - Templar Publishing

Genre - Children's (12+)

The 10pm Question can be purchased from Amazon.co.uk

Hue and Cry by Shirley McKay

Murder - 16th Century Style
review by Maryom

Hew Cullan returns home to St Andrews after 6 years studying Law in Paris and is immediately caught up in the events surrounding the death of a thirteen year old boy, the private pupil of an old friend, Nicholas Colp. Gossip insists there was too close a relationship between pupil and master, and following the discovery of incriminating letters Nicholas is the main suspect. Believing that this cannot be true, Hew sets out to investigate.
Hue And Cry is an absorbing murder mystery set in 16th century Scotland, a time when homosexuality was punishable by death, when the sight of burning at the stake was seemingly commonplace. In some ways Hew Cullan with his abhorrence for punishments meted out by the legal system seems a little too modern and out of step with his environment to ring true, but otherwise this is an excellent read. Shirley McKay presents the reader with a cast of believable characters, with their varying concerns and secrets - university scholars, merchants and tradespeople of the town, the almost outcast dyer and his family.
I thought I'd managed to outsmart the author and guess the culprit's identity - but I was wrong, deliberately led up a blind alley. Despite its slightly contrived ending to reveal the killer and expose the corruption within the College, Hue and Cry is an excellent read. One that should appeal to lovers of Brother Cadfael and other historical murder mysteries.

Maryom's review - 4.5 stars

Publisher - Polygon

Genre - Adult historical crime

Hue and Cry: A Hew Cullen Mystery (Hew Cullan Mystery 1) is available from Amazon