Great Book..Shitty Review

The Stray Sod Country by Patrick McCabe

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


READING NOTES:

>1958....Cullymore, Ireland. SPUTNIK is in orbit and the village is in turmoil. A Parish Priest beset with Paranoia and Guilt...Housewives with thoughts of Murder...a Teddy Boy come home hoping to regain the Lass He Once Loved....the World in between the Serious 1950s...on the cusp of the Wild & Wooly 1960s....Satan pulls the strings.....

The position of "remote artificer" ..be that Satan or God...or collective Conscience??? I haven't decided on any guilty party..But, Satan can't exist without God....If Satan is the Puppetmaster here..God lurks in the wings..and vice versa....Given the Time..1958...on the cusp...between the staid 1950s and the potential unknown of the 1960s, it's a crapshhot....

Culleymore, Ireland is the perfect place for Old Scratch to insinuate himself into the lives of "normal" folk...a seriously paranoid parish Priest what carries a load of Past Guilt.....erstwhile housewives, one who has murderous night time thoughts.....the "hated" local hermit..the SCAPEGOAT...

The FETCH...what gives access to THE STRAY SOD COUNTRY...where we all go when life becomes a bit "too much....Is OLD SCRATCH the one who pulls the strings, here?.or is it the fact that Times are Changing?

Patrick Mc Cabe is not LACE CURTAIN Irish..as a writer...His books include violence, cruelty, and madness....but i own 4 of them...If you want to start reading them...do so with [The Butcher Boy]

i give this book 4 1/2 stars

* i know this review sucks...but i can never give a decent review to a book i seriously love*





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FOOD FOR THOUGHT...and then some

More Home Cooking: A Writer Returns to the Kitchen by Laurie Colwin

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I first read this book, and its companion Home Cooking: A Writer in the Kitchen in 1997. This time around I devoured it in one sitting...and it is still a satisfying read.

Food writing as it should be..true Kitchen Table talk...full of stories, anecdotes, hints, tips, victories and flops. The recipes? some work...some don't

The favor Ms Colwin did for me was mentioning Taste of Country Cooking by the inimitable Edna Lewis...which title I recommend to anyone interested in "American" cookery...besides that, Ms Lewis is one hell of a storyteller.

MORE HOME COOKING has a chapter on what to eat whilst suffering JET LAG....the bugbear of our times. Her chapter on feeding children is a gem since she does not focus so much on the "dos and donts" as she does on the "exciting the palate" of those who are not jaded..Her chapter on Lentil Soup left me with a serious craving...and are those drool spots on the page(s)???

I love this book. It's a pity Ms Colwin died so young...we lost a good Foodie....and a Good Woman to boot.

4 Stars

HISTORY

The Convent: A Novel by Panos Karnezis

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


An isolated convent in the Spanish sierra...home to 6 nuns of varying ages, whose lives are devoted to God, reflection and solitude....Everything changes the day that a baby is found, in a padded suitcase, on the front steps.

Everything changes..the world comes to the convent in an emotional sense, at least. Jealousy, cruelty, zealotry, pride...make for a heady, deadly mix..The MOTHER SUPERIOR is at the center of the storm, having kept her own secret for many years. ....in the misguided belief that the orphaned child is the expiation of her own past sin...she delves into madness and shame...wherein the story becomes itself. Too many tales of this ilk become tacky..this one does not

This book is not a religious screed, nor is it a tabloid expose...it is a story of 6 women living isolated lives whose world is suddenly shattered from without...how each one deals with this new "truth". This book won't set the world on fire..but may give a reader food for thought...regarding the sanctity of the Church..and the price it exacts from its "sons & daughters"

3 Stars

YURK!

Flesh Wound by Jon Say

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



Oh, Man....what we have here is a contemporary Male Fantasy loosely disguised as a "thriller". Studly ex-Homicide Cop literally runs into the car of a high-priced Fetish Call Girl..."Love" follows like mould spores...with acts of domination, humiiiation, boot licking....but no penetration.Except off-the-clock..the Cop and the Call Girl...

Somewhere in between the thinly veiled "talks" on relationship dynamics and the role of private erotic fantasies..there is a tale of financial chicanery...investment bank mergers.the sale of T-Bills to the Chinese...the success of which hinges on satisfying the sexual desires of one lone Chinese diplomat.....throw into the mix a horny SEC regulator...a snidely State Department agent, or two....one confused/bitter ex-wife...gorgeous, athletic strippers..and two adorable 4-year-old girls.....adds up to one glorious Mess

I received this book through Library Thing's Member Giveaway...otherwise I never would have read..I give it 2 Stars...the reading was slowed due to the fact that too much information was crammed into the dialogue....making for undue distraction. The Characters were of the Cartoon variety....PLAYBOY without the Wit....too much "stud" in the Hero...too much perfection" in the Heroine.

This was a cheap, easy read...if you're looking for erotic thrills, go elsewhere...no THRILL this.



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History

The Gendarme by Mark Mustian

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


*I received this book through Library Thing Early Reviewers*

Emmett Conn/Ahmet Khan, in the last days of his life, is haunted by dreams of a horrible time in his past...his time spent as a gendarme, herding Armenians from Turkey to Syria (the ARMENIAN GENOCIDE 1915-1923).During this time he met a young woman with eyes of two different colors....named Araxie...whose memory haunts him still. the fact that he loved her and abandoned her.

At the end of his life, Emmett/Ahmet, a naturalized US citizen, has time to reflect on his past, since he is dying of a brain tumor. Having suffered memory loss, after surviving the battle of Gallipoli and the subsequent airlift to England (having been mis-identified as a British soldier), he knows well the vagaries of memory/reminiscence. How much of what he "recalls" is real? How much is the residue of recorded history? How much is "merely" guilt? this is where the story goes deep. Emmett's dreams are fraught with horror and violence...and regret. He sets himself the "task" of confronting them....and damn the consequences.

I don't often read "war novels" and am not fond of the stories that tout the "triumph of the human spirit". Too often those books spiral into screeds of accusation and whining...writ Large. This book, on the other hand, is writ small...in scope. Small enough to fit into a dying man's heart and brain....into a man trying to make sense of old horrors, loves, and regrets. The ending is a "stunner" and I won't give it away. Suffice to say, Ahmet dies with a modicum of peace.

I recommend this lovely heartbreak of a book to anyone who likes prose gracefully written...who prefers history confined to the heart rather than the Headlines

4 Stars



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Fearless

Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K. Hamilton

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



......and lo! the title is appropriate! Ms Hamilton's work is surely one of my guilty pleasures...at least the first four Anita Blake titles, before the "stories" devolved into what I call WALMART PORN-cheesy enough to not offend the sensibilities of the average "Christian" housewife...with just enough "hard sex" to raise the reader's temperature....puhleez! How many descriptions of exotic blow jobs can one read before the eyes start rolling and laughter rules the day? Or is that just me?

Someone, or some thing, is killing the Master Vampires in St. Louis. Anita Blake, who raises the dead and slays vampires for a living, is on the case, albeit unwillingly. A gal can be bitten, stabbed,thrown against walls, and attacked by were-rats only so often before she concedes defeat, right? From Vampire Strip Clubs to a Hellish circus......dungeons to cemetaries....the hunt is on. In the company of a seductive, boyish stripper (who is also a vampire junkie), an armed, amoral yet dependable hit man....various cops, colleagues and, yes, vampires (plus a zombie or two)...Anita has her work cut out...She raises a few dead folks...slays a few "bad" vamps, including the Baddest One of All....infiltrates the Church of Eternal Life (don't ask)...and comes out in, more or less, one piece. A few busted ribs, one more grave to visit, and the mysterious Jean-Claude...who "made" her what she never wanted to be. Not too high a price, or is it?

The series begins here....which, to my mins, is THE place to start, where the story ruled and the sex was peripheral. These books won't give Anne Rice any competition, and Bram Stoker still rules the roost.

3 Stars for a wild, sexy walk on the wild side..with just enough violence and gore to satisfy the little bloodsucker in each of us!



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The Inscrutable East

Out by Natsuo Kirino

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


HEADS-UP:

my reading notes for this book were as long as the book itself....what I post here is what i posted to another LT friend (not in OUR group) but, it might work...until i figure out something better.

# 26

Out by Natsuo Kirino

4.5 stars

This is one of the best books I've read in quite some time...Ms. Kirino has a knack for getting inside her character's heads....thereby getting inside the reader's head...so we all go to Hell together (no Yellow Brick Road)

my notes for this book are as long as the Effing book...if i write a review it will have to hit me very quickly...Read the damned thing...and squirm with pleasure...Ms Kirino is a rare bird...she can write a Thriller that Thrills...and make one think...that "it can happen here"

Four women working dead-end jobs...living in dead-end relationships...One woman murders her abusive husband....from there it's a slippery slide into the Tokyo Underworld....

Ms Kirino is a kill-hell writer....made this reader feel as if she was living the story. I have known women in this situation..in that case, real life, there was no murder...But who knows what lurks in the heart?

Not for the squeamish, faint-of-heart, or those who are only comfortable with "nice" books. This one rocks...and will leave you thinking about many things....that maybe aren't on your Agenda. I have two more of Ms Kirino's books...look forward to the "pleasure" of her company....



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