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After Dark - Haruki Murakami
by helenc72
I am a big fan of Haruki Murakami's books and have read all of them at least once. I recently read After Dark for the second time. For fans it is definitely worth reading and a casual reader might also enjoy it but in some ways it is not really representative of his usual style. It is good, but not his best.
After Dark is much ... shorter than many of Murakami's other novels, which means that it doesn't contain as many twists, turns, flashes into other times, places and worlds as some of his other stories. Due to its brevity After Dark does not develop its characters or story in great depth. It is a simple snapshot of a few hours after midnight in Tokyo. However, it is typical of Murakami style description where he portrays people and places in a realistic, modern way including every day details such as brand names.
The reader gets a brief introduction to the main characters. Mari is a 19 year old student of Chinese who has missed the last train home and ends up spending the night talking to a musician and being drawn into an incident in a local love hotel with some colourful characters including the owner of the "love ho", a female wrestler. There is a separate strand to the story featuring Mari's sister, Eri, who has been in a prolonged deep sleep. This section is very surreal and is a stark contrast to the realistic sections out in Tokyo. The relationship between the two sisters gets more attention as morning draws closer. Each chapter is headed up by a clock, showing how time progresses throughout the book. I like the way he explores that time seems to pass slower during the night when most people are sleeping and the atmosphere he builds.
This is worth reading for the atmosphere, but if this is first Murakami you read and you are not sure what you think, I would definitely recommend trying one of his longer ones where he has more room to develop characters and story to really show off his talent.
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The Secret Shopper Affair - Kate Harrison
by kaitlinsmummy
After reading and thoroughly enjoying the previous books within this series, I jumped at the chance to read this newest offering, and gladly wasn't disappointed!
The book in question is "The secret shopper affair" by Kate Harrison.
Sandie is now officially pregnant (instead of knowing and not really ... wanting to be!), and is being gradually ground down to actually accepting the marriage proposals that keep coming (every five minutes!) from her live in lover Toby.
She knows she should really be starting to take it easy, but when Toby's family store, and Sandie's previous workplace is faced with bankruptcy, she finds that she is the only one that could potentially save it!
Emily is living the dream, with her crafters empire in her home village of Heartsease really starting to take off, and her son becoming a very well grounded child (even though his Dad is an arse!), she should be overjoyed with her lot.
She is however starting to find hat Sandie's dream life is starting to draw out the green eyed monster, what with Sandie having the career, a man who adores her and the one thing that Emily really wants....a baby.
Will her dream life suddenly turn into a nightmare?
Grazia has always been used to doing her own thing, but when she meets a new man, she finds herself drawn into his world and facing the unthinkable.........will she cope with all that this new lover brings?
I loved this book completely, from the first page to the last.
As with the previous books there is the strong friendship between the three central characters, with each of them bringing their own personalities to the book, Grazia with her "cold fish" tendencies, Sandie with her strong female determination and Emily with her love for her family and friends, the book is immediately familiar.
This book however turns these characters on their heads and changes them (hopefully for the best!), by taking these trademarks of their personalities, and making them do the polar opposites of what you have come to expect of them, this not only adds a new depth to them, but also means the book isn't predictable in anyway!
The book is written with real humour and warmth, making you feel a real solidarity with the characters, even when you know they are being spiteful (this pertains mostly to Emily's character, as she does seem to take on the biggest transformation of the three!), with there being a really good supply of support characters, this was a really easy read and incredibly enjoyable to boot.
As with the previous books there is always a definite ending, but not so definite that another follow on book couldn't be achievable, but not leaving it completely up in he air, I have a distinct dislike of those sort of books!
This book comes highly recommended (by me!) and is the ideal chick lit book, full of humour and love!
Price wise this has a RRP of £6.99, but can be purchased for less via www.amazon.co.uk
Thanks for reading x
ISBN 978-1-4091-1860-2
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IOU - Helen Warner
by mummy2harry
Amy has enjoyed a charmed life, shopping and lunching while the nanny looks after her children. Until her world is thrown into disarray when husband Ben's business collapses overnight, taking their house and savings with it. Suddenly Amy finds herself the breadwinner. Can she rise to the challenge? Will her marriage survive such an ... upheaval? Or is it a case of 'Till Debt Do Us Part'? Kate has always had to struggle by, juggling her job with two children and a husband, though she wouldn't have it any other way. But her safe little world is rocked when she meets enigmatic Jack in a chance encounter. Feeling increasingly estranged from husband Miles, Kate wonders if Jack can offer her a fresh start. But there's something about Jack that Kate doesn't know...Jennifer is only just beginning to recover from the death of her own husband. When Jennifer makes contact with old flame Hugh she unlocks a dangerous Pandora's box. She is desperate to find the answer to a question that has tormented her for decades. But will she be able to cope with the truth?
I read and enjoyed Helen Warner's debut novel RSVP last year, and was lucky enough to receive a review copy of this book too. Clearly Warner really likes her acronyms because this book is named after one as well, this time IOU. I really like the cover, anything purple makes me happy so this one was pretty good in my eyes! I didn't realise before I started it that the main characters in this book are family - a mother and her two daughters, and when I found that out, I thought the book would be even better as I always like it when there is a family connection in a book. I looked forward to tucking in to this one, and when I did, I found it to be a really good and readable book that I thoroughly enjoyed.
The book centres around 3 female characters - mother Jennifer and her 2 daughters Kate and Amy, who all live very different lives and aren't as close as they would perhaps like to think that they are. Jennifer is still grieving after the loss of her husband Michael, but is wondering if it is time to start seeing a face from her past once more, however feels afraid of upsetting her daughters. Kate, a busy heart nurse, is feeling like something is lacking in her marriage to Miles, and when a stranger suddenly comes into her life, she wonders if it worth risking her stable life for a bit of fun and happiness. Finally, there's her sister Amy, the one with the privileged life thanks to her marriage to wealthy Ben. But when Ben loses his job, and consequently their money, income and house goes down the drain as well. Amy has to learn to cope without the money she's always had, and the big adjustments this has on her family life too.
As you can see, there is quite a bit going on in this book, but I enjoyed that fact that it was busy. It was easy to tell the difference between the three stories, as it tended to be that every chapter followed a different woman, although as they are family their stories were woven together somewhat, and all the characters frequently appeared all over the book. One thing I really liked were the flashbacks throughout Jennifer's chapter to her courtship and early life with husband Michael, it really set the scene for her grief in the present day, and confusion over what to do with the new man in her life, especially being who he is. I felt that Warner handled this story especially well, and I really loved Jennifer straight away, she was just a woman who wanted to please everyone and keep everyone happy, something I know a lot of mums do for their families and I was willing her to put herself first! At first, I found her daughter Amy really unlikeable, but as her story unfolded, I started to warm to her and you could sort of understand why she was how she was, she had no reason to be otherwise.
Finally, there was Kate, probably the most level-headed of the three women, and the one her mother and sister confide in as well. I enjoyed reading Kate's story, and felt that the family as a whole worked really well, including the more minor male characters who were really well written too. Quite a lot of important issues were covered in the book, from the financial crisis, to infidelity, grief and health problems too. There was a surprising turn at the end of the book, I won't spoil it by revealing anything about it as I think it's important to read it in the context of the book, but I have to say it was so moving and emotional to read, I did shed a tear by the time it was all done, and I felt Warner covered it so well. I didn't expect it to happen, but it certainly made for some interesting revelations and was a sudden change in direction for the book.
Overall, this was a really positive book about women coming through in the face of adversity, via the three very different stories of Amy, Kate and Jennifer. All of them have different obstacles to overcome, whether it's financial, personal or otherwise, but all have to find an inner strength to get past them, and I enjoyed reading their journeys in this book. I also liked that they were family too because it felt important that all the stories were linked, and added an extra depth to the book as well. I found the writing was really easy to read, and I was absorbed into the book really quickly, and read it pretty fast as it was something I didn't want to stop reading. Although I loved her debut book RSVP, I feel like this one is an improvement on that and that Warner is in her stride writing-wise here, and I felt much more for these characters too. It was a really great book to sit down with and devour, and I'd highly recommend it, it's a fantastic read, with some great characters that you really can care about.
ISBN: 978-0857201249. Published by Simon and Schuster on 1st March 2012. Pages: 416. RRP: £12.99. Also available as an eBook.
Thank you to the publishers for sending me a copy to review for http://chicklitchloe.blogspot.com
Thank you for reading.
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