May 2009 – Page 7 – BooksPlease

Sunday Salon – An Elegy for Easterly by Petina Gappah

Published on May 3, 2009November 18, 2017 by Margaret6 Comments

Yesterday I finished reading An Elegy for Easterly by Petina Gappah. My copy, via LibraryThing’s Early Reviewer’s Programme, is an uncorrected proof and is not for quotation, so no quotes in this post.

Elegy for Easterly001

This book has one of the most attractive covers I’ve seen for a while – the colours as well as the trees receding into infinity.

I sometimes don’t get on very well with collections of short stories but these are long enough for the characters to be more developed and the stories to be more satisfying than others I’ve read. But several I though would be even better developed as full length novels. They are about the lives of people in Zimbabwe, struggling to live with escalating inflation, where a loaf of bread costs half a million dollars, of corruption, scams, disappointed lives, unfulfilled dreams and broken promises. They paint a bleak picture of the resilence and resistance of people in extreme circumstances, coping with despair.

Something Nice From London is one of the most poignant tales. Relatives living in England often sent something special to their families back home but one family are waiting at Harare airport for something different – the arrival of Peter who died in London. His cousin, also living in England keeps promising his body will be on the flight. Peter was the golden boy and much was expected of him. This is the story of unfulfilled ambition and expection. Because you’re not allowed to speak ill of the dead, the family have to forget how he bled them dry with constant demands for more money to pay his fees and provide accommodation and food as they mourn his death. Eventually the body does arrive, but not how they expected.

I also enjoyed Our Man in Geneva Wins a Million Euros, the story of a diplomat conned by an internet scam. In At the Sound of the Last Post, a politician’s widow at her husband’s funeral ponders the corrupt society they’re living in as his collegues bury an empty coffin – her husband was not the national hero he was made out to be. Death and sickness figure quite prominently in most of the stories and the book as a whole, although laced through with ironic humour, is a lament – a lament for Zimbabwe and its suffering people.

A – Z Author Index

Published on May 2, 2009 by Margaret7 Comments

I’ve been busy this last week compiling an A – Z Author Index to my blog posts. It’s there in a tab at the top of my blog. Whilst doing this I found that several of my links in my Books Read Pages no longer worked and kept giving me a 404 Error – Ooops where did you find this link? I hope I’ve fixed these and that the ones in my index all work.

I would like to compile a Title Index now, but this will take me much longer, but I may do this some time! If I have time I’m thinking of revising the tags and categories on my posts as I’ve not been consistent at all. This is all just for my own benefit as I don’t suppose anyone else is at all interested.

Library Loot

Published on May 1, 2009 by Margaret5 Comments

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Eva and Alessandra that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library.

I haven’t written about my Library Loot for a few weeks as I’ve been trying to catch up on reading my ever-growing piles of books. I have of course been visiting the library but not adding much to their issue figures. In fact I’ve returned more recently than I’ve borrowed.

But here are four more library books I’ve acquired in the last few weeks, none of which I’ve started to read (descriptions from the library on-line catalogue):

The Island That Wasn’t There by Rita Snowden. “One day, Rosie finds a mermaid, Anemone, tangled in the seaweed. The mermaid is too scared to swim back. But when Rosie tries to get help, no one believes her – except for an old man called Yan Eye.” This children’s book is Rita Snowden’s first novel. So far I’ve only looked at a few pages but it is obviously drawn from folk-lore and myths.
Doctored Evidence by Donna Leon. When the body of a wealthy elderly woman is found, brutally murdered in her Venetian flat, Commissario Brunetti decides – unofficially – to take the case on himself. I keep reading about Donna Leon’s books – how good they are etc, but I’ve never read one. I like the map of Venice on the inside covers of the book.
Plum Spooky by Janet Evanovitch. Stephanie Plum is back in town, along with her sidekick Lula, her Grandma Mazur, and an ever-widening cast of freaks, criminals, deranged felons, and lunatics looking for love. And just when Stephanie thinks her life can’t get any more complicated, in walks the mysterious Diesel. Janet Evanovich is another author I’ve never read, but seen reviews on some blogs. I thought I’d try this one.
The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie. No library description, but then the title says it all. From the back cover – “The Bantrys have awoken to find the body of a young woman in their library. … But who is she? How did she get there? And what’s the connection with another dead girl, whose charred remains are later discovered in an abandoned quarry?” I must have read this years ago, but as I’m taking part in the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge I decided to read it again. Have a look at the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge Carnival for reviews of Christie’s books.

Here are two more phtos of my library – the Children’s Section and the little reading area where my husband sits and reads the paper whilst waiting for me to choose books – he chooses his much more quickly than I do.