A Book Review: The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters

The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters:
In a dusty post-war summer in rural Warwickshire, a doctor is called to a patient at lonely Hundreds Hall. Home to the Ayres family for over two centuries, the Georgian house, once grand and handsome, is now in decline, its masonry crumbling, its gardens choked with weeds, its owners mother, son, and daughter struggling to keep pace. But are the Ayreses haunted by something more sinister than a dying way of life? Little does Dr. Faraday know how closely, and how terrifyingly, their story is about to become entwined with his.

This book was shortlisted for The Man Book Prize 2009. This is a first by Sarah Waters for me and I know it won't be my last. I don't want to go too much into detail, but it's an excellent ghost story. Yet, I don't really like calling it a ghost story. I feel labeling it as such doesn't give it the credit it deserves. It's not a ghost story that you tell around the camp fire, but one that stays with you days after you've finished it. It also makes you want to go back and reread different parts of the story to see the clues you should have picked up on, but didn't because that's how well it's written.
I do warn readers that it was hard to get into at first. Nothing really exciting happens until the 3rd chapter. And the chapters are long about 30 pages each. I'm glad I stuck with it and finished. A must read for supernatural lovers. A lot of people compare it to Henry James' The Turn of the Screw (shortstory) which I would also recommend reading.

Visit Sarah Waters official website: www.sarahwaters.com

Man Booker prize 2009 Winner has been announced!!

Hilary Mantel (the bookmakers' hot favourite) has been named the winner of the £50,000 Man Booker Prize for Fiction for Wolf Hall, published by Fourth Estate, an imprint of Harper Collins.

'Lock Cromwell in a deep dungeon in the morning,' says Thomas More, 'and when you come back that night he'll be sitting on a plush cushion eating larks' tongues, and all the gaolers will owe him money.'

England, the 1520s. Henry VIII is on the throne, but has no heir. Cardinal Wolsey is his chief advisor, charged with securing the divorce the pope refuses to grant. Into this atmosphere of distrust and need comes Thomas Cromwell, first as Wolsey's clerk, and later his successor.Cromwell is a wholly original man: the son of a brutal blacksmith, a political genius, a briber, a charmer, a bully, a man with a delicate and deadly expertise in manipulating people and events. Ruthless in pursuit of his own interests, he is as ambitious in his wider politics as he is for himself. His reforming agenda is carried out in the grip of a self-interested parliament and a king who fluctuates between romantic passions and murderous rages. From one of our finest living writers, Wolf Hall is that very rare thing: a truly great English novel, one that explores the intersection of individual psychology and wider politics. With a vast array of characters, and richly overflowing with incident, it peels back history to show us Tudor England as a half-made society, moulding itself with great passion and suffering and courage.

taken from:

http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/navigate.do?pPageID=1423

The White Tiger by Aravinda Adiga -- A Book Review

Meet Balram Halwai, the 'White Tiger': servant, philosopher, entrepreneur and murderer. Balram, the White Tiger, was born in a backwater village on the River Ganges, the son of a rickshaw-puller. He works in a teashop, crushing coal and wiping tables, but nurses a dream of escape. When he learns that a rich village landlord needs a chauffeur, he takes his opportunity, and is soon on his way to Delhi behind the wheel of a Honda. Amid the cockroaches and call-centres, the 36,000,004 gods, the slums, the shopping malls, and the crippling traffic jams, Balram learns of a new morality at the heart of a new India. Driven by desire to better himself, he comes to see how the Tiger might escape his cage...

http://pagesofthemind3.blogspot.com/search?q=white+tiger

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga -- Additional Reading

This month's Book Club Book was a quick read for me, so I am planning on reading The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga. If you are interested, I would love for you to read along and then we can discuss! :)

Remember to send us your suggestions for the Book Club Book (mysistersandme3@gmail.com). This should be a title that you are interested in reading and have not read before. We would like to cover many genres, so send us some titles!