February to March reads

After I did this for January, I thought I should keep it up as a record of the books that I have read. Next time I won't leave it so long, cos this is just February to 10th March!

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

Excellent for those interested in Tudor history, the protagonist of this is Thomas Cromwell, who rose to become Henry VIII's Lord Chancellor. It won the Man Booker prize, but don't let that put you off. Brilliantly descriptive and powerfully evocative of the sights, sounds and smells of Tudor England, it is only let down by a slightly bizarre writing style of referring to Cromwell as 'he' all the way through the book, despite the confusion this leads to on occasion. Provided the reader recognises this and assumes 'he' means the protagonist, you'll be fine. I would have rated it 8/10 but it loses a point for the awkward writing style. 7/10

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

A beautiful young man gazes upon a picture of himself and wishes he could always stay that beautiful. He receives his wish, and the picture ages and decays instead of him. He lives a debauched life and watches in horror as the picture progressively portrays his internal ugliness. This was a fascinating read, with some real insights on how we judge people on their appearance. There are some challenging passages too though. Definitely worth persevering with. 6/10

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

A blend of Bram Stoker's Dracula and Dan Brown's DaVinci Code, this uses historical writing and architecture (as in Dan Brown) to solve the mystery of the life and afterlife of Vlad 'The Impaler' Tepes - Dracula. Despite my complete lack of interest in vampires, this book was a strong enough story to keep my interest and wanting to turn the pages. Don't expect your Twilight style romantic hero vampire here though, Dracula is a real nasty piece of work, but with a peculiar penchant for librarians. Containing a few disturbing historical facts, this has some passages that made me wince, all the more for being real history. A good read. 7/10

Sister by Rosamund Lupton

Beatrice races home to London from New York when she hears her younger sister Tess is missing. Despite the thriller/mystery aspect what happened to her, this book really is about the relationship between the sisters. I read it within 24 hours, it was a real page turner. Beautifully insightful and honest, with a twist I didn't see coming despite guessing who was responsible about half way through. Compelling. 8/10

One Day by David Nicholls

Starting the day they graduate, this looks at Emma and Dexter on the same day for the next twenty years. A great premise, this didn't really deliver for me. I didn't relate to the characters, found them both quite cliched and stereotyped, and I didn't quite believe their story. 5/10

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Anne Barrows

I always forget that a part of the British Isles was occupied by the Germans during WW2, and this story vividly brought the experience to life. Written as a series of letters, it is by turns witty, charming, insightful, educational and heart-breakingly sad. An easy and quick read, I highly recommend it. 9/10

Holes by Louis Sachar

Aimed at the youth market, this delighful book is absolutely worth a couple of hours of anyone's time. A miscarriage of justice sends Stanley Yelnats to a young offenders place on a dry lake bed, where they spend all day every day digging holes. Beautifully written, with a neat wrap to the story. Fabulous. 9/10

Longitude by Dava Sobel

The true story of the man who effectively invented the pocket watch, plus a whole array of other devices we still use, to try and help ships with the problem of knowing longitude. Fascinating, and entertaining. 8/10

Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

A fictional account of the life of geisha Sayuri, it nevertheless relies heavily on real accounts and accurate historical fact. Beautifully evocative of life in the pleasure distict of Gion in Kyoto, this book is gut-wrenchingly matter of fact of the worst elements of the life that a geisha had and shows the sometime ugliness behind the mask of beauty. It appeals greatly to my interest in Japan and Japanese history, and I loved it. 8/10