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Mummy Told Me Not to Tell - Cathy Glass
by fifi1993
once picking up this book i didn't went to put it down it was so memorising with each chapter telling a different story to the boys life Reece and Cathy glass and her family Paula,Adrian and Lucy.
Cathy glass is a foster carer who write true stories based on there experience, in this book she is fostering a boy name Reece ... nicknamed sharkie by his mom Tracey because he bites, it tells us about how Reece has been to 4 other carers because of his behaviour and Cathy is his last hope which i find so amazing that even thou he has been with 4 other carers Cathy is willing to give him a chance, it explains everything that happened in Reece life and the reason why he and his sisters and brother was taken into care, it also mentions his education what he does at school him behaving badly then at home behaving good, the sexual behaviour and what he likes and dislikes this being tv and burger anc chips, after reading this book i went in search of another book by cathy glass ;) 5 stairs
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The Innocent Man - John Grisham
by IainWear
John Grisham is one of those authors who, although I enjoy their work, I don't tend to spend money on it. Much like James Patterson, he work is enjoyable and readable enough, but it doesn't have a great deal of impact that would make it worth having the book around to re-read. He's the sort of author I can understand selling well at ... airports and train stations, as it's the perfect way to while away a long journey with little else to do but stare out of a window.
''The Innocent Man'' is touted as Grisham's first work of non-fiction, as opposed to his usual legal thriller, which could make it a little different, although it does share some common aspects with his normal work. The innocent man of the title is Ron Williamson, a former college baseball star from small town Oklahoma who didn't quite make it in the world of professional baseball thanks to injuries and a fondness for things that didn't keep him in the best physical shape.
Giving up on his dreams of becoming a sports star, he returned home as a drifter, never settling and never quite able to let go of his glory days and the unfulfilled potential he had. A few years after his return, a young waitress is brutally murdered and, a few years later, another young girl goes missing. The local police were unable to solve either case, but getting desperate for a conviction, they relied on questionable forensic evidence and paid for testimonies and so Ron Williamson ended up on Death Row.
The scope of the novel is unusual for Grisham as much of it is biographical, covering Williamson's early life and full details of the crime, rather than just the court room legal wrangling. This means we get a glimpse into Williamson's early life, from his early days as a slightly spoiled and demanding child, through his attempts to become a professional baseball player, to his life afterwards and his time on Death Row. In many Grisham novels, the focus is on the one character only for the scope of the story and this put a little more meat onto the bones of the story than I'm used to getting from Grisham.
On the down side, on occasion it does show that this approach isn't a common one for Grisham. Williamson suffered from mental illness throughout much of his life and it appears he was tormented by the prison guards in local prison and on Death Row and also struggled to live a normal life once his baseball career was over. Unfortunately, most of this was reported dispassionately and gave no real insight into how Williamson was progressing emotionally. The way it was reported gave evidence he was suffering and in decline, but I never really felt all that much empathy with him, as the writing wasn't emotional enough to draw me in that way.
Whilst the almost journalistic tone of the novel failed on that level, it worked very well when we came to Grisham's real strength, that of the legal process. It is during these sections that the book goes into the kind of detail you expect from a John Grisham novel, as both his interests and experience seem to lead him into every aspect of the legal process, from evidence collection to witness coaching and fact twisting. The story of Williamson's life may have been skipped over fairly quickly, but the story of the court cases that changed his life were presented in minute detail.
However, the maintaining of a single writing style made the book as a whole quite readable. Regardless of whether Grisham was looking at Williamson's life on the baseball field or examining the paltry evidence the prosecution had, he writes in a simple language that encourages the reader to keep ploughing on and keeps the pages turning quite rapidly. I found that even without ever becoming involved in the story on an emotional level, the style of writing enabled me to keep reading and, even though this is longer than a normal Grisham novel, I reached the end fairly quickly.
This is a book that needs to be read with a pinch of salt. History tends to be written by the winners and that is certainly the case here. Although some of his past misdemeanours are touched upon, Williamson is presented as someone who has done very little wrong through his life and the prosecution and local police come across as a group as being at worst corrupt and at best incompetent. To be fair, this matches Grisham's usual style, where he only follows one side of the story, but in a work of non-fiction, I feel we're entitled to a more balanced view. The truth may well be that Williamson was wrongly convicted, but to paint an entire police and District Attorney's department in the light they were to hammer this point home left me feeling slightly uncomfortable.
If you're normally a fan of courtroom based dramas and John Grisham's work in particular, this is well worth reading for something slightly different from the norm. However, for those used to better writing than Grisham can produce, you may find that a story as high on some detail, but lacking in emotion and balance as this one leaves a little to be desired. However, if you're off on a long journey and need something to occupy your time, there is certainly worse to be had, especially as this can be found for as little as a penny for a used copy from eBay or the Amazon Marketplace.
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Shakespeare's Wife - Germaine Greer
by ryeb
Are you a Bardolater? Someone who thinks that as Shakespeare was a playwriting genius, he could do no wrong in any aspect of his life? Germaine Greer thinks that there are many of them around, and that they are well represented in the ranks of Shakespeare's biographers. His wife doesn't tend to be portrayed too flatteringly by these same ... writers, a wrong that Greer is attempting to right in her biography "Shakespeares Wife". I love Shakespeare's writing, and I have also read numerous books about him, so I thought a volume on his wife would make interesting reading. I bought my copy second hand, for 50p, with the current paperback price being £8.99.
Germain Greer is obviously a well known author, and one that I respect as someone who usually argues her point well, even if I do not always agree with her conclusions. She has has a lifelong interest in poetry, and indeed is the compiler of several anthologies as well as the owner of a publishing company. It seems she is enthusiastic about the subject and a good choice for an unusual take on the life of a poet's wife.
I had assumed previously that we do not know much more about Ann Hathaway than we do about her husband. That is the main reason I did not buy the book when it was first published. I feared that the author may have to resort to a lot of speculation. Sadly, I was not mistaken. The book opens up interestingly enough, with a run down of how Shakespeare's biographers have presented Ann. This makes amusing reading, and really does seem to tell more of the prejudices of the writers than anything else. They presume that as she was approximately 8 years older than her husband, he must have been either tricked into marrying her or been taken to the alter at swordpoint, and more often than not, that he must have found her physically repulsive. In fact there is no evidence that she was a bitter old maid - she was of an average age for marriage at the time, and as Greer convincingly points out, Shakespeare was no great catch financially speaking. If she set out to seduce him in order to better her station, as some writers would have her do, she didn't choose very wisely. I thought that it was interesting that when Greer describes her subject as Ann Shakespeare, I paused for a moment to think which of the Bard's relatives she was refering to. The answer is that she is of course refering to his wife, who is usually called by her maiden name. I thought Greer would have something more to say about that subject, but she has plenty of others to cover.
The next part of the book describes Ann's childhood, and this is where my first doubts set in. The truth is Greer has to resort to telling us what the average childhood for a woman of Ann's station may have been, because there is no real evidence of how our subject lived her young life. This is not surprising, as many of the records that tell us about peoples lives in those days are business transactions that a child can't have been part of. So I would have not minded the approach, if it wasn't carried through for the rest of the book too. This early chapter is a little distracting really as it introduces a large number of Ann's relatives, only some of whom are paticularly relevant to the rest of the narrarive. I feel that a family tree would have been beneficial here. This early part does however contain what I feel is one of the most interesting parts of Greer's research. This is the fact that Ann may have had a relative working on the stage in London shortly before William went to make his fortune there. This hyposis is based on the fact a man named Richard Hathaway was recorded as writing plays at that time, for the company that William also became involved with later on. The trouble is that there is no evidence that Richard Hathaway was related to the Warwickshire Hathaways, although the surname was not common then. It is such an interesting idea that I would like to have seen Greer investigate it at greater length, as surely how her husband made his fortune would also have been very relevant to Ann's own life.
The author continues on through Ann's life supposing how she may have earned her keep while her husband was away for example, and how she may have felt having read the sonnets for the first time. These are interesting potential subjects but I think the reason they have been neglected by other writers is the fact we have little evidence to back up any theorising. Greer wonders if the newly married Shakespeares may have worked as basket makers or ossiers on the banks of the River Avon despite the fact that ossiers "are never mentioned in the Stratford muniments but it stands to reason that there must have been some.." I am not sure this is a convincing arguement, although it isn't the only possible early career imagined for them. Similarly, later on we are told that Anne "was a wife of the old school" and having read the sonnets probably said a prayer for herself and her husband. I do not see how we can tell what Ann's personal view on marriage was.
One of the things that irritates me about some writings on Shakespeare, is the fact that the author can find evidence for any theory within the Bards writing, presuming any convenient part to be autobiograghical. Greer convincingly demolishes many of these arguements, by providing examples of contrasting speeches from the mouths of other characters that may be just as representative of Williams views on a subject. She is not immune to finding evidence for Mr Shakespeares attitude to his wife in the plays, but in general I think she quotes from his works in a more even handed way. The excerpts illustrate attitudes to woman at the time for example and are quoted alongside works of his contemporaries for balance. It is not only the writers who rely on Shakespeares plays that come under fire from Greer. She dismisses - quite bluntly it must be said - all sorts of theories such as that from Michael Wood that the Shakespeare family were closet Catholics. Her arguements here are more interesting because they dispute claims made on the basis of some solid evidence such as family members being fined for non attendance at the protestant church.
All in all, I have found Germaine Greer's perspective on how Shakespeare lived his life interesting to read, but the book is supposed to be about his wife. My ultimate feeling is that I know just as little of her at the end of the book as I did at the beginning. I did learn about the lives of woman at the time but I also felt the book was bogged down in too many irrelevant details. I can understand the feminist in Greer wanted to write a compassionate book about Ann as she often been maligned on the flimsiest of evidence. I would however, have liked Greer to turn her myth breaking eye to Mr William Shakespeare's entire life, rather than solely that of his wife. That would be an interesting book to me, based on the research she has done on possible alternative roots for William establishing his career, amongst other things. I would recommend this as a book to read if you are interested in the playwright for that reason. Sadly, if you are really only concerned with Ann, you won't discover much about her here. An ideal book to hire from a library or buy second hand in my opinion, as I don't feel it is something I could read again and again.
[This review is also on Ciao under my user name]
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