Cramlington Book Club

Did you know Roald Dahl wrote stories for adults? Not just Matilda or The Witches? I had no idea! To put this right I promptly purchased a collection of his short stories for adults - Someone Like You, but will they work golden tickets, magic potions and Quentin Blake?! Did you know it was national Bookshop Day in October? I did and I celebrated by visiting my favourite bookshop and purchasing not one, not two but three brand new sparkly books (no glitter was used in the making of said three). On Writing by Stephen King, part memoir part writing aide, is a book frequently mentioned in bookish circles and following my stumbling across a very good reading list of King's novels (see From a Buick 8 review below) I just had to add it to my pile. Once upon a time there was a lady who had had her eye on Below Zero, a young adult adventure thriller based in the Antarctic, for quite a while. The author of the book visited the lady's favourite bookshop and added his autog...

WARNING THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS ABOUT BOTH SNARE AND TRAP, BOOKS NUMBER 1 AND 2 IN THE REYKJAVIK NOIR TRILOGY BY LILJA SIGURDARDOTTIR!!! I know a lot of us use book reviews to work out whether we want to read a book or not, yet often I read a book and I just need to talk to someone about it. Did they gasp out loud at that part too? How on earth could she decide to leave him? Why did he answer the door? Wasn't that bit heartbreaking? To celebrate our Sigurdardottir double bill weekend I therefore thought I would write a third post and instead of providing an overall summary of both books I have included my top five points that I most wanted to talk about when reading both Snare and Trap. The below contains spoilers for both books so if you haven't read both and don't want to spoil the epic twists and turns then please wait until you have read both before continuing. If you are undecided about what to read and are looking for a generic overview of the books you can...

A Sigurdardottir double bill this weekend with Snare , the first book in the Reykjavik Trilogy being the Book Club's Book Of The Month and Trap , the second book being my last Blog Tour of the month. Picking up straight where Snare left off I really do recommend you read the first book before dipping your toes into the second helping of Sonja and her drug smuggling, Adam the evil ex husband and Agla Sonja's ex girlfriend and high finance crook. In fact all the character's from Snare make a return in all their complicated glory. I should start with a word of caution - Trap really should come with a health warning as God I found it tense!  Taking us much deeper in to both the banking crisis and the drug smuggling underworld, Trap was so much darker than Snare and really had me questioning why I found myself routing for these characters. Can a criminal ever be a victim? Surely not a fat cat banker who seeks to line their own pockets further, or a drug smuggler who is...

Snare was the group's second trip to Iceland in less than seven months, somebody clearly has designs for a road trip! (Bagsie my name is first on the list!) Whereas Names for The Sea , our first venture in to Icelandic reads, was non fiction detailing life in Iceland for an English lecturer and her family, Snare is set around the (supposed) drug trade in Iceland, with protagonist Sonja being a mule for the underbelly of the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Those of us at the meeting had all finished the book and remarked how easy it was to read, liking the lack of waffle and attributing this to the book being Icelandic (a common trait of Icelandic books apparently). We spent time discussing the book's three main characters Sonja, her lover Agla (who is not a lesbian) and customs officer Bragi. All of whom were not your standard protagonists.       I loved how Sonja wasn't necessarily a heroine. She was, at least initially, revealed to be respons...

At the risk of singing THAT song in October I couldn't resist the chance to read So Here It Is by Dave Hill, Slade's co-creator and guitar player. Hill is the one who wore the outfits, had the haircut and the platforms and still plays in the band (or a version of it) today. The 70s is very much a hidden decade for me, it was the era of my parents and the parents of my husband who still groans when ELO come on the radio. Not being born until the 80s my knowledge of Slade was pretty much limited to THAT song and my standard answer to a 70s music question in a pub quiz was 'Mud' (it didn't yield me many points). I was therefore keen to learn more. What other songs did Slade sing? Where did the name come from? and was Slade even English? Hill was brilliant at explaining all this and more. I particularly liked the opening chapters describing Hill's early life, he really captured what it was like to grow up in post war England. I didn't expect depression to b...

What would you do if you were cursed to die on your eleventh birthday? Recommended by a friend, my 9 year old nabbed Nevermoor  before me, then my mother and then even my (lovely) mother in law before I finally got the chance to fall upon its pages. I love children's fiction and quite often think it's better than adult. There is just something about not being able to rely upon a murder or a divorce that seems to open up a world of different story lines and you never know where they will take you. In this instance we ended up travelling with Morrigan Crow to Nevermoor where transportation is carried out using umbrellas, vampire dwarfs (not dwarf vampires, apparently that distinction is important) reside in hotels that grow chandeliers and trials must be passed in order to gain entrance into the prestigious Wundrous Society Cursed to die at midnight on her eleventh birthday Morrigan must pass these trials to gain a family who love her, legitimacy in Nevermoor and safety f...

I have a good idea! Why don't we open a beach resort Miami stylie but in Finland! Well, yes, it's cold but this particular beach is the hottest beach in the whole country! Well, yes, it may STILL be colder than my knackered central heating but we will stick some Palm Trees up (plastic of course) slap some neon paint on and a fake flamingo or two later bob's your uncle we have ourselves a holiday resort! This is the idea of permanently sweaty Jorma Leivo (pink shirt, white blazer, shoulder pads) and to be honest I could have loved Palm Beach Finland for the resort alone. The description of the giant flamingo with the diving board and slides - it all sounded so wonderfully kitsch.  The opening sentence (fabulous by the way) sets the tone. Throw in a murder, an undercover policeman and a mishap or ten from odd and plod (Robin and Chico) and you have an EVEN better book making it a glorious mishmash of Scandi noir and dark comedy.  Tuomainen describes in his ack...

I have a hangover. A Bleak House hangover to be precise and fearing it was still too soon to down another Dickens it was with reluctance I picked up A Tale of Two Cities from my book shelf. In its favour, it was a mere 300 or so pages, it is widely considered the 'best' of Dickens works and it starts with THAT opening line (I'm not going to quote it, you're just going to have to read it but it is one of my favourite opening paragraphs). Following the lives of a group of people caught up in the French Revolution, the book is divided between 1770s Paris and London (that would be the two cities then) As with most Dickens that I have read, poverty is a prevalent theme and essential in a book based around the Revolution however there were numerous themes running throughout the book from Dickens use of water to his contrasting between light and darkness, illustrated perfectly in Lucie Manette (the golden haired, compassionate, unfailingly loyal and kind daughter of Do...

Despite Stephen King being my favourite author I hadn't heard of From a Buick 8 when it landed under my tree at Christmas. Based around a spooky car that causes strange lightening attacks and eats(?) people, only King could come up with such a concept and successfully sell it to publishers, twice . From the man who wrote one of my favourite chapters ever ( 'Salem's Lot ) this wasn't one of my favourite offerings and I can see why it is not as well known as The Shining or Carrie. I decided very early on that I was just going to have to go with the idea that the car was alive but even then I found the ending a step too far. As always with King's writing it was the characters I loved and the effortless capturing of small town America. A lot of research had clearly gone into how a police station is run which I both liked and appreciated. I also liked the way the book was delivered, through a series of recollections rather than the characters (and reader) experienci...

I was sent Wyld Dreamers out of the blue by Urbane Publication s (thank you) and I have to be honest had never heard of the book or Holmes. The inside of the book was particularly beautiful however and noting it was due to be published in October I decided to give it a whirl. "In the summer of 1972, a group of friends is invited to Somerset to help photographer Seymour Stratton renovate a dilapidated cottage on Wyld Farm. Over the next year the group come to regard the farm as offering them a place to be for the rest of their lives, to enjoy 'the good life'. But despite the commitment and camaraderie the rural idyll collapses. Twenty-five years later, the group is brought together again in unexpected circumstances. Can events of the past be forgotten? Or will the secrets that are revealed devastate once unbreakable friendships?" I immediately loved the opening chapters where main character Amy escapes the confines of her parents to spend the summer with her bo...