Friday Funny: WHAT GOES UP, MUST COME DOWN (the hidden dangers of bookstagram, continued)

It’s been cold and wet for weeks now, and the motivation to go outside is inversely proportional to the outside temperature and wind speed. But since I love hiking almost as much as I love books, I tried to use the moments between showers (and hail, and thunder, and gale force winds) to quickly sprint up another mountain track today, in the light of some serious eating to be done later for my husband’s birthday feast. All was well until I spotted an interesting outcrop of rocks in the distance, which offered a perfect view over the coastline and a nice little reading nook to shelter from an approaching dark cloud, promising an imminent shower. And a great bookstagram photo opportunity! I have reflected on the dangers of bookstagram before, and the instant suspension of any reason when it comes to the pursuit of the perfect photo. So, ignoring the rain and the wind and the slippery rock I climbed up the steep granite rock face, carefully wedging my hiking boots into small crevasses and admiring my “pretty-good-for-my-age” climbing ability. The view was spectacular! And the little rock cave just big enough to shelter me from the rain, which sleeted down horizontally, wind whistling mournfully around the rock. I sat with my little book  feeling slightly smug and righteous to have braved the elements, and waited for the sun to come out.

What goes up, must come down
 

Hmmmm, it’s time to climb down the rock now and it’s gotten all slippery from the rain, glinting menacingly like a black ski slope, water still pouring off it from above. A stray ray of sunshine reflects in its greenish-black slick, making tiny rainbows. I test the surface with my left boot – slippery. Crap! I get down on all fours backwards (in what my yoga teacher calls the table position), searching for footholds whilst my cold and numb fingers clamp down on the granite beneath me. Still slippery! On all sides of me is sheer rock. Clouds are brewing up in the distance. My right foot finds a tiny foothold and I decide to “Go for it, sister! You’ve got this!” I shimmy down the rock backwards like a crab, my breath coming out in tense little hiccupping puffs as I imagine myself stranded on the rock, spread eagled, a news helicopter circling over me as the cliff rescue is being dispatched to save the idiot who got herself stranded on a rock in the middle of a severe weather warning. My left foot is scrambling for purchase now, and this is the moment I lose my hold on the rock. Landing hard on my butt, I find myself sliding, sliding, sliding down the sheer rock face towards the abyss. In the split seconds of my life flashing in front of my eyes, I draft my obituary:

Died in the pursuit of bookstagram.

As a bright ray of sunlight breaks through the clouds and I feel myself airborne, sailing through the air and landing – with a soft plop as air is expelled from my lungs – feet first on the soft forest floor. Staring down at the boots of a bemused hiker, who has undoubtedly watched the whole funny performance from beginning to end. Just shoot me now!

Now, reflecting rather sheepishly on my near death experience whilst trying to dry off my cold and wet (and bruised) derriere, I need to start planning how to make it sound heroic rather than foolish, to polish the near-death experience like a shiny marble to make it fit for telling around a camp fire. Because, as an ED nurse, I recognise the implications of a “just hold my beer and watch this” moment. Really, I should know better!

But wasn’t it all worth it, for this delightful landscape?

Audiobook Review: THE TEA GIRL OF HUMMINGBIRD LANE by Lisa See

Title: The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane  

Author: Lisa See
Read: July / August 2017

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟 1/2

Book Description:

Li-yan and her family align their lives around the seasons and the farming of tea. There is ritual and routine, and it has been ever thus for generations. Then one day a jeep appears at the village gate - the first automobile any of them have seen - and a stranger arrives. In this remote Yunnan village, the stranger finds the rare tea he has been seeking and a reticent Akha people.

Li-yan, one of the few educated girls on her mountain, translates for the stranger and is among the first to reject the rules that have shaped her existence. When she has a baby outside of wedlock, rather than stand by tradition she wraps her daughter in a blanket, with a tea cake hidden in her swaddling, and abandons her in the nearest city. After mother and daughter have gone their separate ways, Li-yan slowly emerges from the security and insularity of her village to encounter modern life while Haley grows up a privileged and well-loved California girl. Despite Haley's happy home life, she wonders about her origins, and Li-yan longs for her lost daughter. They both search for and find answers in the tea that has shaped their family's destiny for generations.

My musings:

I can’t start this review without first saying a HUGE thank you to the Goodreads community, who continue to put me on to fantastic new books I wouldn’t normally pick up. The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane is a perfect example – with a title that is so obviously not my usual genre, I would have never read this marvel of a story had I not stumbled across a few rave reviews by much respected readers on Goodreads, who highly recommended it. Feeling like something different from my usual fare of gruesome murder mysteries and psychological thrillers, I downloaded the audiobook and - WOW! What a fantastic read!

I have longed for some armchair travel to a remote and culturally diverse place for some time, and Lisa See’s book delivered it in spades. Transported off to a different world altogether, I not only discovered the culture of the Akha people (one of the 50 ethnic minorities living in China), but learned so much about my favourite beverage – tea – that it has added a whole new depth to my morning cuppa of Chinese Jasmine tea. See seamlessly blends facts and fiction, educating the armchair traveller as the story progresses and adding depth to her characters. I fell in love with Li-yan, and felt quite bereft when the book ended. Li-yan’s journey from her simple and yet culturally rich life in the remote mountain village in Yunnan to being confronted with all the trappings of 20^th century life was fascinating. I often tried to put myself in her shoes, thinking how strange it must feel to come from a place without cars and electricity, and suddenly having to learn her way around a computer, catch a plane, drive a car. Such different worlds! See’s astute descriptions of how the 21st century finally catches up with the Akha people were also thought provoking, as I have witnessed these changes myself when travelling to previously untouched regions, where everyone suddenly owns a mobile phone.

Following Li-yan’s life from her early childhood to young adulthood and finally being a wife and mother, the book took me on an incredible journey I will remember for a long time to come. I thoroughly admired Li-yan’s courage and resilience in the face of adversity, and she soon was as real to me as someone I had known all my life. I now feel like I want to go to Yunnan and sip some of the famous Pu’er’ tea that influenced Li-yan’s life so much! Whilst most of the book is written from Li-yan’s POV, See incorporates some clever and unusual chapters revealing the fate of Li-yan’s abandoned daughter, who has been adopted by a wealthy American couple and is struggling with her own identity as she grows up not knowing her origins. Whilst I initially struggled with Hailey’s voice in the narration, I was able to connect more deeply with her towards the end of the book, and found her story a worthwhile journey in its own right. See’s insights into cross-cultural adoption made for some interesting reflection and discussion points, and it would be interesting to read more about Hailey’s life in the years following the book’s ending.

Hours of pleasure and joyful anticipation of my commute (and listening to the story) later, and I am still rocked by the emotional impact the story had on me. A fantastic read, and very much recommended. Don’t be put off by the title, as I was, because this in an author that really packs some punch and you won’t regret picking up this marvel of a book. Definitely on my favourite list for the year! 

Feel Good Friday Reflection: LIFE IS BETTER WITH A BOOK (or: my glass may be piss but at least it's half-full)

Today dawned windy and wet and I've got a cold (Again! Damn it!), so I was all poised to wimp it out indoors and wallow in my own misery all day. Instead, I forced myself to grab my book and go for a brisk sprint up the mountain not far from our house (forgetting how far it actually was, and how unfit I was, and that I had a coffee date at 11 a.m. which I would probably not make now). 

And it was definitely worth it - look at that heavenly view! Even with the wind whistling and the clouds sitting ominously over the ocean, I feel invigorated now. So, I may get pneumonia from walking back in the rain, and I may have nearly slipped and fallen off a cliff in the process of getting this photo, but at least I can say I got out of the house!

Nothing like a hike to clear the mind. Reflecting on how my reading time will be a bit on the lean side this month, with more night shifts, study and a conference in Perth, as well as trying to organise our upcoming holiday, I decided to try something new: a reading plan. I've never been a maker of lists (or if I do, I usually forget them at home) or a forward planner, living on a wing and a prayer most of the time and hoping it will work out. But desperate times and all that ...

So here it is - my reading list for August.

 The Wish Child by Catherine Chidgey

 The Darkest Lies by Barbara Copperthwaite

 Beneath the Surface by Sibel Hodge

 Then She was Gone by Lisa Jewell

 Neon Pilgrim by Lisa Dempster

 The Other Girl by Erica Spindler


Let's see how it goes and if my impulsive reading persona can resist the temptation to throw caution to the wind and grab any old book of the pile "because I feel like it".

One thing is for sure: Life is better with a book!

Audiobook Review: THE KIND WORTH KILLING by Peter Swanson

Title: The Kind Worth Killing

Author: Peter Swanson
Read: July 2017

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟1/2

Book Description (Audible):

'Hello there.' I looked at the pale, freckled hand on the back of the empty bar seat next to me in the business class lounge of Heathrow Airport, then up into the stranger's face. 'Do I know you?'

Delayed in London, Ted Severson meets a woman at the airport bar. Over cocktails they tell each other rather more than they should, and a dark plan is hatched - but is either of them being serious? Could they actually go through with it? And if they did, what would be their chances of getting away with it?

My musings:

Having really loved Swanson’s novel Her Every Fear, it was a no-brainer that I simply had to read The Kind Worth Killing, especially after reading all the raving reviews about it. As I am always looking for captivating books for my daily commute in the car, I downloaded this novel from Audible, and I am so glad I did! The Kind Worth Killing was a fantastic read, the sort that made me sit in my car in the driveway on a cold, chilly night for “just a few more minutes” because I couldn’t tear myself away. I can’t remember much about my driving on those days, except that I got there safe and sound, but my mind was fully captivated by the book. Now there is a psychological thriller that lives up to its name!

Swanson offers us two female leads so chilling and malicious that listening to them sent shivers down my spine at times, and yet Lily intrigued me to a point where I silently feared for her safety and secretly hoped she would get away with murder (literally). She was both terrifying and sympathetic, which is a very hard thing to achieve in a protagonist, and I applaud the author for pulling this off so perfectly. It helped that Lily always had a perfectly reasonable explanation – at times challenging my own moral conventions. Is killing justified if the victim is a truly horrible individual with no chance of redemption, set to make a lot of lives miserable? Lily thinks so. In the airport bar, she says to Ted:

"Truthfully, I don't think murder is necessarily as bad as people make it out to be. Everyone dies. What difference does it make if a few bad apples get pushed along a little sooner than God intended? And your wife, for example, seems like the kind worth killing."

Sounds reasonable to you? No, no! *slaps face* - murder is BAD! I would love to delve deeper into the characters and discuss the storyline, but this is not the place and I would hate to give any spoilers. My advice is: plunge into this book blindly and let Swanson take you on his journey. The writing is excellent. The subject matter is chilling. It will mess with your mind – believe me! And the ending – I was worried at one point about how the author would pull this off, but it was perfect!

As for the narration: I loved that the publisher used four different narrators for the different characters, which made the story easy to follow and a pleasure to listen to. 

  

Summary:

The Kind Worth Killing was one of my favourite reads this year so far – one of those rare psychological thrillers that really mess with your mind and make you itch to find someone to discuss it with. I loved it, and am so glad I stumbled across it. If you love a good psychological thriller and are looking for something different, do yourself a favour and pick up this book today. You won’t be disappointed.

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Audiobook Review: THE DEEPEST GRAVE (Fiona Griffiths #6) by Harry Bingham

Title: The Deepest Grave

Author: Harry Bingham

My Rating:🌟🌟🌟🌟

Book Description:

British detective Fiona Griffiths, one of the most engaging female protagonists in crime thrillers, is back with a new case to solve.

DC Fiona Griffiths is bored. It's been months since she had a good corpse, let alone a decent murder to deal with, and it's frankly driving her nuts. And then comes the news, and she has to literally stop herself from jumping with joy: not just a murder but a decapitation, with an antique sword no less, and a murder scene that has been laid out like a particularly gruesome crossword clue.

Gaynor Charteris was an archaeologist leading a team excavating a nearby Iron Age site. Genial, respected, well liked, it was hard to see why anyone would want to kill her in such a brutal way. But as Fiona starts to dig beneath the surface, she finds evidence of a crime that leads back to King Arthur and his final battle - a crime so bizarre that getting her superiors to take it seriously is going to be her toughest job. Especially since the crime hasn't yet been committed.

My musings:

I am so happy that I discovered the Fiona Griffiths series back in 2012, because I have been totally addicted to it ever since and it never disappoints! Everyone who has read Bingham’s books will know that Fiona is a very different character. Having suffered from a mental illness in her teens, she still struggles to fit into society, or “Planet Normal” as Fiona calls it, and in times of stress her illness recurs in feelings of dissociation from her own body and a strange connection to her dead victims, which makes her all the more determined to fight for justice for them. With the impulsiveness and sometimes lack of common sense that has characterised her since Book 1 in the series (Talking to the Dead), Fiona usually goes against police protocol to solve her murder cases, which often gets her into trouble with authority as well as putting her own life in danger. However, her intelligence and ability to connect with her victims in ways no other detective can usually brings results, and over the last five books, she has earned herself a grudging respect amongst her colleagues.

I was very excited when The Deepest Grave was finally released, and found it to be a worthy continuation of a series I love. True to form, Bingham delivers a most unusual murder case for his protagonist, who has been impatiently counting the days (462) since her last murder case. Set in Wales like its predecessors, the book offers a fair amount of armchair travel to this mystical place, which makes the series even more irresistible for me (I will never forget the tense and terrifying caving scene in The Dead House, Book 5 in the series). Bingham always manages to incorporate a special interest theme into each story, which saw me learning a lot about archaeology, medieval artefacts and the King Arthur legend in this latest instalment. With a brutally beheaded corpse setting the scene, the peppermint-tea-drinking and weed-smoking Fiona has her work cut out for her to solve this murder case before more people are killed, and she does so in the unconventional, thinking-outside-the-square way that has endeared her to followers of the series.

In his blog, author Harry Bingham stated that he wanted his first book to revolve as much around the mystery of Fiona’s character as it does around the crime she’s investigating, and he is staying true to this original idea by revealing little snippets of Fiona’s past in each book in the series. Fans will be pleased to hear that the great cast of supporting characters from Fiona’s work and private life are all back in The Deepest Grave, and that we get to know a few more interesting characters who may feature in future novels (I would love to see Katie back and see how she fares).

Siriol Jenkins’ narration was perfect for Fiona’s voice, and I was very happy that she continued narrating the series!

  

Summary:

The Fiona Griffiths series is one of my all-time-favourite police procedural series, and will appeal to anyone who likes unusual murder cases with an oddball detective who doesn’t fit any mould. Bingham’s style to revolve his cases around different, interesting subject matters and incorporating details about the case that broaden the reader’s knowledge base on the subject whilst thrilling and entertaining, have made this series stand out from the fray. Whilst The Deepest Grave can be read as a stand-alone, I highly recommend starting the series at Book 1, which will give all the necessary background into Fiona’s life that makes her character so special. Highly recommended, and I am already looking forward to the next book in the series. 

Other books in the series: link