The Return by Victoria Hislop ~a book review

The Return by Victoria Hislop: Sonia knows nothing of Granada's shocking past, but ordering a simple cup of coffee in a quiet cafÉ will lead her into the extraordinary tale of a family's fight to survive the horror of the Spanish Civil War.

Seventy years earlier, in the RamÍrez family's cafÉ, Concha and Pablo's children relish an atmosphere of hope. Antonio is a serious young teacher, Ignacio a flamboyant matador, and Emilio a skilled musician. Their sister, Mercedes, is a spirited girl whose sole passion is dancing, until she meets Javier and an obsessive love affair begins. But Spain is a country in turmoil. In the heat of civil war, everyone must take a side and choose whether to submit, to fight, or to attempt escape.

When I first started reading this book it was hard for me to get into. I like stories that take place over time where the past affects the future. The present story was not engaging and hard to get through. However once this novel went to the past I could not put it down! I only new a little about the Spanish civil war because of art history and the art I studied from that time. This narrative puts you right in the middle of the civil war. It's moving and it made me want to learn  more about Spanish history. Some people think if they ignore politics it will go away. But what they do affect us each and every day. It's just scary how much power governments and other parties have over innocent people.

Anyway this is an amazing story and I would say if you get a chance plough through the first part and get to the part that will stay with you for a very long time!
Think I might have to take up salsa!

Talking about: FOREIGN FRUIT by Jojo Moyes

Merham is a well-ordered 1950s seaside town: the kind of town in which everyone knows their place (and those who don’t are promptly put in it). Lottie Swift, an evacuee who has grown up with the respectable Holden family, loves Merham, while the Holdens’ daughter Celia chafes against the constraints of the town.
When a group of bohemians takes over Arcadia, a stark Art Deco house on the seafront, the girls are as drawn to its temptations as Merham’s citizens are appalled by them. They set in place a chain of events both within the Holden family and Merham itself which will have longstanding and tragic consequences for all concerned.
Now, almost fifty years on, Arcadia is returning to life, and its inhabitants stirring up strong feelings again. And prompting more than one person to look into their own romantic history and ask: Can you ever leave your past behind?

I am deep down a sucker for a good love story and after reading Jane Austen I have always found most of them, love stories that is fail to make me feel anything. Most love stories feel false to me, I like them to feel real. Ya know? Rattling on again, but my point is that this novel felt real to me. I was completely wrapped up in the characters and their lives. (I wouldn't compare this to Jane Austen I was just using her to make point.)

Foreign Fruit, won the RNA Novel of the Year award for 2003. I can say it was well deserved. I picked this book up for £1 at my local store; I liked it because of the cover. Yes, I do judge books by there cover, I can't help it! I also think it's a stupid saying because if I were to ever write a book I would make sure it had an awesome cover! For the sole purpose of selling it.
Back to the book. I think most people reflect on the choices they have made, good or bad and wonder "what if?" The book mainly follows Lottie's story full of everything that life is made of: love, loss and so on. I like how it shows that love can grow from friendship full of understanding and loyalty and how some are a whirlwind of intense passion. This book has it all. I would say if you, like me, are a sucker for love stories give this one a go!

Lisa Recommends ~Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton

If you are a fan of Pirates of the Caribbean and Michael Crichton and gore and adventure then you must read this book! I have enjoyed all of the books I have read by Michael Crichton. Timeline makes my top 5 books of all time and Jurassic Park would make my top 20! The way it is different is it doesn't have the same science background. Most of his books have something to do with the way the humans are advancing themselves etc...

Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton
Synopsis: From one of the best-loved authors of all time comes an irresistible adventure of swashbuckling pirates in the New World, a classic story of treasure and betrayal.
The Caribbean, 1665. A remote colony of the English Crown, the island of Jamaica holds out against the vast supremacy of the Spanish empire. Port Royal, its capital, is a cutthroat town of taverns, grog shops, and bawdy houses.
In this steamy climate there's a living to be made, a living that can end swiftly by disease—or by dagger. For Captain Charles Hunter, gold in Spanish hands is gold for the taking, and the law of the land rests with those ruthless enough to make it.
Word in port is that the galleon El Trinidad, fresh from New Spain, is awaiting repairs in a nearby harbor. Heavily fortified, the impregnable harbor is guarded by the bloodthirsty Cazalla, a favorite commander of the Spanish king himself. With backing from a powerful ally, Hunter assembles a crew of ruffians to infiltrate the enemy outpost and commandeer El Trinidad, along with its fortune in Spanish gold. The raid is as perilous as the bloodiest tales of island legend, and Hunter will lose more than one man before he even sets foot on foreign shores, where dense jungle and the firepower of Spanish infantry stand between him and the treasure. . . .


The story is a short easy read as it was found after his death in 2008 so who knows how he would have changed it. Don't worry  it is a full story with action and adventure around every corner. What I like best is it doesn't romanticise pirates.

http://www.crichton-official.com/ go here to find out more about Michael Crichton!!

Company of Liars by Karen Maitland

Company of Liars by Karen Maitland

I picked this up at a charity shop and wasn't sure what to think at first. It says 'a novel of the plague' but it's not really about the plague. It's a story that takes place during the plague. In the back they had book club questions and one them asked if the story would have worked had it been set any other time. I think not because even though the plague wasn't the main focus it gave the right atmosphere. The 14th century was a time where religion and myth were intertwined and that is essential to the novel. The company of liars is a group of 9 travelers. The main character Camelot, a young pregnant couple on the run, a conjuror, a pair of musicians, a storyteller, a midwife, and a young girl who reads the ruins. Together they are trying to out run the plague. Thinking if they keep moving they will escape it, but there is something more dark traveling with them then the plague. By the title of the book you know all of them are lying about something. Some of them are obvious and others not so much. But thats the fun and mystery of this book. I would recommend it if you like a bit of history mixed with myth and mystery. I think I'd read Karen Maitlands newer title The Owl Killers about a group of witches in the same time period. Very enjoyable read!!

A Book Review

The Lost Book of Salem (UK) or The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane (USA) by Katherine Howe
N.B. THE LOST BOOK OF SALEM is published in the US under the title THE PHYSICK BOOK OF DELIVERANCE DANE. While clearing out her grandmother's’s cottage for sale, Connie Goodwin finds a parchment inscribed with the name Deliverance Dane. And so begins the hunt to uncover the woman behind the name, a hunt that takes her back to Salem in 1692 . . . and the infamous witchcraft trials. But nothing is entirely as it seems and when Connie unearths the existence of Deliverance’s spell book, the Physick Book, the situation takes on a menacing edge as interested parties reveal their desperation to find this precious artifact at any cost. What secrets does the Physick Book contain? What magic is scrawled across its parchment pages? Connie must race to answer these questions– and reveal the truth about Salem’s women– before an ancient family curse once more fulfils its dark and devastating prophecy . . .

This was one of those glaringly obvious books. I felt like screaming at the main character "LIKE DUH!?!?" The mystery wasn't much of a mystery. I love all sorts of super natural stuff and history so once again this book caught my attention.

Connie is suppose to be a history major or something at an ivy league university (please excuse me it's been a little while since I read the book) and she misses some of the most obvious clues. I thought she was suppose to be smart? and a good researcher? But she's neither when it comes to finding out who Deliverance Dane was. I thought the author dumbing down her leading lady was insulting to the reader.

It was for the most part an enjoyable read and would only recommend picking it up if you have absolutely nothing else to read and only if you borrow it. (I have it!) ;0) Don't waste money on it.

Cross Stitch (Outlander Series) by Diana Gabaldon -- A Book Review

Claire Randall is leading a double life. She has a husband in one century - and a lover in another...In 1945, Claire Randall is back from the war and reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon in Scotland. Innocently, she walks through a stone circle in the Highlands, and finds herself in a violent skirmish-taking place in 1743. Suddenly, she is a Sassenach, an outlander, in a country torn by war and by clan feuds. A wartime nurse, Claire can deal with the bloody wounds that face her. But it is harder to deal with the knowledge that she is in Jacobite Scotland and the carnage of Culloden is looming. Marooned amid the passion and violence, the superstition, the shifting allegiances and the fervent loyalties, Claire is in danger from Jacobites and Redcoats - and from the shock of her own desire for James Fraser, a gallant and courageous young Scots warrior. Jamie shows her a passion so fierce and a love so absolute that Claire becomes a woman torn between fidelity and desire, and between two vastly different men in two irreconcilable lives.

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut -- A Book Review

So it goes.

The first time I tried to read this book I couldn’t give it the proper attention. It was at a busy time and I could only read a few pages here and there and it made no sense reading it like that. That was years ago and now I’ve been able to give it the proper attention it deserves. The story is about a WWII Veteran, Billy Pilgrim, who witnessed the bombing of Dresden, Germany. Today the death toll is estimated to be about 25,000 people, when Vonnegut wrote the book the death toll was estimated much higher. Kurt Vonnegut was a POW in Dresden at the time of the bombings and this story is his experience there, but told through a fictional character that is not himself.

Billy Pilgrim is the main character and we hear is story through a jumble of events. One minute he’s in war the next curled up next to his wife years after the war. He talks of time traveling and of how he was abducted by aliens. He is able to tell in great detail of his experience with these other life forms. The reason it is called time traveling is because he not only has flash backs he also experiences flash forwards. Anytime death is mentioned it is followed by the saying “So it goes.” It is how the author changes the subject and uses it as comic relief. According to wikipedia it appears 116 times. Once the POW’s arrived in Dresden they are imprisoned in an unused slaughterhouse…Slaughterhouse-Five. It’s also there that they take shelter from the bombings.