Monday 24 January 2011

Books round 2

Last time I wrote about what books I've been reading I think I said I was going to read the Millenium trilogy, which I did. I enjoyed the first one (The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo), it was an easy read, engaging, interesting story but nothing mind-blowing. The second and third ones I found tedious, the dragged the story on too long with the plots getting more and more ridiculous. Call me literal minded (as many of you do) but for me books have to be believable, or else a complete fantasy and clearly not resembling real life. So I'm sorry but they didn't really do it for me.
But here's some books I have read, really enjoyed and recommend:
'The Girl at the Lion D'or' by Sebastian Faulkes. About a girl who moves from Paris to a smaller town Janvilliers as a waitress and there meets a married man who she falls in love with. There's more to it than that but that is the basic premise and it has really interesting, beautiful character interactions. A really simple but interesting and beautifully written story.
'Fred and Edie' by Jill Dawson. Based on a true story about a woman and her lover who killed her husband in the 1920's. Told through her letters to him while she is in prison, it builds up a wonderful idea of her character- vain, conceited and self-absorbed. It was even better when I found out it was true. Apparently there was a big media furore around the story at the time. The historian in me wants to research more into the documents surrounding the trial!
'Perfume' by Patrick Suskind. This is the story of a man who has an unbelievable sense of smell, he can smell the difference between milk which was made on a sunny day or on a rainy day for example. And it's the story of his search for the best scent in the world. I've never read anything like it before, it's such an interesting premise for a book. Suskind's descriptions are brilliant. I began to think about smell in an entirely different way and how much it effects an atmosphere. Brilliant.
'The Swan Thieves' by Elizabeth Kostova. This was the last book I read. I knew I would like because I loved her first book 'The Historian'. A psychologist receives a new patient- an artist who has attacked a painting and tries to discover what made him do it. It's a mix of faux-history, mystery and love. So good. I couldn't put it down and now I don't know what to read.
If anyone has any suggestions for what I can read next, please help!

2 comments:

  1. Did you try 'her fearful symmetry' yet?

    ReplyDelete
  2. I have a couple of books you'd like. Do you want me to post them?

    ReplyDelete