Journey's End

Well here we are at journey’s end.  It has taken me 11 months longer than I thought it would but it has been an interesting, informative and inspiring journey, which was uplifting in parts and depressing in others.  Most of the books I read were ones that I wouldn’t otherwise have picked up.  Some were great and a few were not.  My favourites were The Book Thief by Markus Zusack (Germany), Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (Democratic Republic of Congo & Congo Brazzaville) and Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese (Ethiopia and Eritrea).  My least favourites were Cameroon with Egbert by Dervla Murphy (Cameroon), which was informative but very dull and Tailor of Panama by John Le Carre (Panama), which I didn’t understand!  Would I do it again?  Yes but not for a while.  My next reading challenge is going to be closer to home and will combine 2 of my hobbies – reading and ‘collecting’ islands  – Around the British Isles in 80 Island Books.  Here endeth this blog.  Thank you for reading it.   7^th December 2012

Book 80, Countries 86 & 87 – Wales and England

I think I Love You by Allison Pearson – first published 2010

With only one book to go to the end of my reading journey I realised I still had 2 countries to visit.  This was the only book I could find in a hurry, which was set in both Wales and England. 

The first part of the book is set in a South Wales town somewhere near Swansea in 1974.  Petra and her friends are all mad about David Cassidy and avid readers of the Essential David Cassidy Magazine.  Unknown to them a man named Bill, who works in an office in London, is paid to write articles for the magazine, as if he were David Cassidy.  Petra and her friend Sharon enter the Ultimate David Cassidy Quiz run by the magazine.   24 years later, after the death of her mother, Petra finds a letter that her mother had hidden from her saying that they had won the competition.  Petra rings the publishers of the magazine and although it is no longer published Bill still works for them and they agree to pay for Petra and Sharon to fly to Las Vegas with Bill to meet David Cassidy.  An agreeable feel-good story.  7/10

24th November 2012

Book 79, Country 85 – Ireland

It had to be you by Sarah Webb – first published in 2004

This is an above average feel-good chick lit book.  Molly, Paige and Kate are 3 friends who live in a small town near Dublin.  Molly is the manager of Ireland’s only specialist romance bookshop and an aspiring author herself, Paige is standing for election to the national parliament and Kate is a shop assistant in a trendy shoe shop during the day and by night she runs a dummy dating service.    They all have issues to deal with in their personal lives but by the end of the books these are all resolved and everyone lives happily ever after, which is also the name of the bookshop where Molly works!  7/10

1st November 2012

Book 78, Country 84 - Scotland

Death of a Nag by M.C. Beaton - first published in the UK in 1995

This is the first of the many Hamish Macbeth murder mysteries I have read.  I have never seen any of the 1995-97 TV series, starring Robert Carlyle in the title role.  Hamish goes on holiday to the fictional village of Skag on the Moray Firth.    He stays in a guesthouse where the food is awful and there are several other guests in residence.  He has only been there a couple of days when the unlikable husband of one of the fellow guests is murdered and he offers to help the local police with their enquiries.  The book has an old fashioned 'Agatha Christie' kind of feel to it  e.g. no one feels very sorry for the deceased and the murderer must be one of the fellow guests.  7/10

1st September 2012

Book 77, Country 83 - Iceland

Tainted Blood by Arnaldur Indridason - translated from Icelandic and first published in the UK as Jar City in 2004

An excellent crime novel set in and around Reykjavik.  A man is murdered in his flat and a cryptic note is left behind by the murderer.  Detective Erlendur and his team delve into his past and discover that he was accused of rape 40 years earlier.  As they unravel more they discover that the true story is far more complicated than it first appears and involves Iceland's Genetic Research Centre.  The same team of detectives appears in other novels by the same author but each novel stands up well on its own.  Maps of Iceland and Reykjavik are included, which are useful for those of us whose geography of Icleand is minimal.   8/10

25th August 2012

Book 76 - Country 82 - Greenland

Cold Earth by Sarah Moss - first published in the UK in 2009

 A team of 6 archaeologists travel to a remote and unpopulated place on the west coast of Greenland to excavate a Viking settlement.  However the group members fail to 'gel' and gradually they realise that their leader hasn't brought enough food or made firm arrangements for them to be collected at the end of their stay.  The story is narrated by each of the team in turn but mostly by Nina, who soon becomes aware of a ghostly stranger in their midst.  She thinks it is a Viking, who is unhappy that the team are digging up human skeletons in a graveyard.  The rest of the team think Nina is just neurotic.  Meanwhile back in the rest of the world a flu pandemic is spreading across the world.  Then the team's communication links with the outside world fail and no one comes to pick them up, as the long dark cold Arctic winter approaches and their food runs out.   The story then ends abruptly with the survivors having been rescued and returning to their homes.  However details of the rescue are absent and it all feels a bit unsatisfactory and unclear with several unanswered questions, e.g. who rescued them, and what was the outcome of the pandemic.  The book reminded me of Michel Paver's Dark Matter but it much less convincing or terrifying than that excellent book, which is set on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard in the 1930s.      6/10

10th August 2012

Book 75, Country 81 - Canada

No Cry for Help – Grant McKenzie – first published in the UK in 2010

The wife and 2 young sons of Canadian bus driver Wallace Carver vanish from a shopping mall in the USA.  The police suspect him but he is innocent and has no idea why they have been taken.  Wallace is determined to get them back and he enlists the help of a friend and his friend’s relatives.  The book is a real page-turner and the pace rarely lets up.  However I thought the plot was a bit thin and unbelievable.  There is quite a lots of violence and several people come to various sticky ends at the hands of each other and Wallace and his friends.  I found it hard to believe that an ordinary law abiding citizen would have had the skills and mental and physical strength to survive all the events in the book.  6/10

9th July 2012

Book 74, Country 80 - USA

Every Last One – Anna Quindlen – first published in the UK in 2010

The book begins as a story about an unremarkable but reasonably well off family with a teenage daughter who has had an eating disorder and a son who has mental health issues.  Then something shocking and unexpected happens and the whole focus of the book shifts to the mother – Mary Beth – and is then about how she copes with the aftermath.  The New York Times described the book as spellbinding.  I wouldn’t go that far but it is compelling.  7/10

1st July 2012

Book 73, Country 79 - Mexico

The ZigZag Way by Anita Desai - first published in the UK in 2004

Eric accompanies his student girlfriend on her field trip to Mexico but goes off exploring on his own.   He travels to the mining area where his paternal grandfather, a Cornish tin miner, once worked and where his own father was born.   Initially he stays at a hacienda belonging to the mysterious and unfriendly Dona Vera, an Austrian with a dubious past in wartime Europe.  He visits the place where his grandparents lived on the day of La Noche de los Muertos (Festival of the Dead).  The story of his grandparents lives in Mexico and his grandmother’s death in childbirth as they fled from the Mexican Revolution is also told.   At the end of the book Eric has an unexpected and strange meeting with someone, which ties the various strands of the story together.  I enjoyed learning about the history of the Cornish miners in Mexico, which was something I was hitherto unaware of.  Both the hardback and paperback copies of the book have quite scary covers with skeletons or skulls on, which I think give the wrong impression of the content of the book.  6/10

15th June 2012

Book 72, Country 78 - Guatemala

Lies – Enrique de Heriz – translated from Spanish and first published in the UK in 2007

A woman dies in a boat accident in a remote part of the Guatemalan jungle.  She is wrongly identified as Spanish anthropologist Isabel Garcia Luna.  When Isabel finds out that her husband and children think she is dead, she decides not to say anything for a while.  Meanwhile back in Malespina in Spain her daughter Serena is obsessed with disentangling the truth from all the lies she has been told about the life and death of her grandfather Simon.  I felt the story could have been told in a more succinct way and there is rather too much introspection for my liking.  However it is an unusual plot and has some interesting details about death customs and rituals and cannibalism in remote tribes around the world.  6/10

10th June 2012

Book 71, Country 77 - Honduras

The Mosquito Coast by Paul Theroux - first published in the UK in 1981

Allie Fox is a brilliant inventor but he is also paranoid and self obsessed.  He suddenly uproots his wife and 4 children from a comfortable, if unconventional, life in rural America and without consulting them decides they are emigrating to the Honduran jungle.  They settle in a remote place called Jeronimo and at first things go well.  They build a house, plant crops and Allie constructs an ice making factory.  Then unwittingly Allie invites some guests to stay who threaten their security.  Things spiral downhill for the family after this. The story is narrated by Allie's oldest son Charlie.  The book is well written but I vaguely remembered seeing the 1986 film starring Harrison Ford and so couldn't fully enjoy the story knowing that something awful was going to happen.  Allie isn't a likeable character, as he never considers the needs, safety, health or opinions of his wife or children.    7/10

16th May 2012

Book 70, Country 76 - Nicaragua

The Jaguar Smile by Salman Rushdie - first published 1987       

The best thing about this book is that it is really short – even in large print, which was the only version I could get hold of,  it is only 146 pages long.  The author visited Nicaragua in 1986 and talked to people at all levels of society in several different areas of the country.  However I felt it was neither travel writing nor a history but a collection of individuals’ views and personal experiences put together in no logical order.  There is no timeline of events or summary of modern history of Nicaragua, which would have helped it make more sense.  2/10


29th April 2012

Book 69, Country 75 - Costa Rica

Nancy Drew, Girl Detective - Trails of Treachery - Carolyn Keene - first published 2007

This is a children's book but it combines a fast paced thriller with a good description of the Costa Rican countryside.  Nancy's friend George is competing in a coast to coast mountain bike race called La Ruta.   She and mutual friend Bess have come to be her support team.  They make friends with 2 other competitors - Sharine and her boyfriend Derek, who is one of the favourites to win La Ruta.  However someone is trying hard to sabotage his chances of winning and will stop at nothing to ensure that Derek never finishes the race.  Nancy decides to investigate  8/10

13th April 2012

Book 68, Country 74 - Panama

The Tailor of Panama by John Le Carre - first published in 1996

I found this book very very dull and after a while found I was reading the words but not really taking anything in.  Even when I was concentrating I didn't understand the plot.  It is something to do with the politics surrounding the Panama Canal.  I think I must have been reading a completely different book to the one reviewed on the flyleaf, which promised suspense, compassion, wit and an explosively terrifying finale.  I did not find it in the least thrilling.  1/10

11th April 2012

Book 67, Country 73 - Columbia

No One To Trust - Iris Johansen

Elena Kyler is a trained assassin on the run from Columbian drug baron Rico Chavez.  Chavez raped her 6 years earlier and got her pregnant.  Now he wants to kill her and take his son Barry.  Elena enlists the help of tough guy Sean Galen and together they lure Chavez into a trap.  Disappointingly only the first few chapters of the book are set in Columbia and then the action moves to the USA.  The story is action packed but very violent.  Lots of people get killed but most of them are bad guys, although that doesn't really make it ok does it?  There is also a bit of romance and betrayal.   6/10

1st March 2012

Book 66, Country 72 - Brazil

December Heat by Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza  translated from Portuguese and first published in English in 2005

A retired policeman called Vieia goes out for the evening in Rio de Janeiro with his girlfriend Magali, who is a prostitute.  He gets very drunk, loses his wallet and wakes up in his bed the next day not able to remember anything.  During the night Magali has been murdered in her flat.  The case is investigated by Inspector Espinosa.  Three more murders follow, including those of 2 homeless children.  There are lots of twists and turns in the case, some of which I couldn’t follow and I didn’t find the final outcome very convincing.   However the novel does give a very atmospheric description of life in the Copacabana area of Rio.    5/10

17th February 2012

Book 65, Country 71 - Peru

The Chaos Code by Justin Richards - first published in the UK in 2007

The story is like a children's version of Indiana Jones.  15 year old Matt arrives at his archaeologist father's house in the Cotswold's to find his father has gone missing.  Matt teams up with his father's friend Julius Venture and his daughter Robin and millionaire Atticus Harper to track down the whereabouts of his father and the Lost Treasure of the Knights of St John of Jerusalem.  They travel to the Peruvian jungle where Harper has his business headquarters inside an ancient step pyramid.  There are lots of twists and turns in the plot,  including a trip to a Danish island and a brief return to the UK before a return to the South American jungle where it is a race against time to stop one man from cracking the ancient code needed to control the whole world.    The story moves rapidly along almost from the first page.  You need to suspend your disbelief and let the story carry you along but all in all it was a very enjoyable read and would make a good film.  It doesn't however tell you much about Peru.  8/10

5th February 2012

Book 64, Country 70 - Bolivia

The Prison Runner by Deborah Ellis - first published in the UK in 2006

This is a short novel written for teenagers about the reality of life in parts of present day Bolivia.  12 year old Diego lives in a Bolivian women's prison with his mother and younger sister.  His parents were wrongly convicted of supplying cocaine and his father lives in a nearby men's prison.  Diego is free to leave the prison during the day to go to school in Cochabamba and to run errands for other prisoners to earn money to help his mother with their living expenses.    One day his sister goes missing when he is supposed to be looking after her and although she is found safe and well, Diego is stopped from running errands and therefore earning money.  His friend Mando suggests that they take up a job offer from some businessmen for a couple of weeks, which will earn them very good money.  They do this and are taken off to the jungle where the job turns out to be helping with the production of cocaine in a makeshift temporary 'factory'.  Diego has to find a way to escape.  The book is a quick and easy read but after a slow start it becomes quite gripping.   7/10

2nd February 2012

Book 63, Country 69 - Paraguay

The Pleasure of Eliza Lynch by Anne Enright - first published in the UK in 2002

Books set in Paraguay are thin on the ground and I had already read The News from Paraguay by Lily Tuck, which is also a fictionalised account of the life of Eliza Lynch, and is in my opinion a much more intelligible story.

The real Eliza Lynch was born in Ireland in 1835 and emigrated to Paris with her parents when she was 10.  She met Francisco Solano Lopez, who was the son of the President of Paraguay in Paris in 1854.  She became his mistress and returned to Paraguay with him and they had 6 children together.   Lopez became President in 1862 after the death of his father and in 1864 the War of the Triple Alliance broke out - Paraguay versus Argentina, Brazil and Uruaguay.  It lasted until 1870 when Lopez was killed.

The books is not presented in chronological order and none of the history of Paraguay before or during the war is explained at all.  Lopez only appears as a minor character in the story.  The result of this was that I was very disorientated by the book and didn't quite manage to grasp what was going on.   2/10

31st January 2012

Book 62, country 68 - Argentina

The Buenos Aires Broken Hearts Club by Jessica Morrison - first published in the UK 2007

This book reminded me why I no longer read much chick lit – it is superficial and predictable.  Cassie Moore loses her job in Seattle and the same day comes home and finds her partner  in bed with his ex-girlfriend.  After drowning her sorrows in alchohol she makes an impulsive decision to live in Buenos Aires for 6 months, despite speaking no Spanish and knowing nothing about Argentina.  On arrival she spends quite a while feeling sorry for herself.  After much cajoling from her lovely landlady she does finally get out and make some friends.  She has 2 short lived relationships with an Argentinian and a man from New York before falling in love with her landlady’s handyman.  It is an easy and undemanding read.  The best thing about it is the title.  It does give a flavour of the country and its culture. 6/10

21st January 2012

Book 61, Country 67 - Chile

Portrait in Sepia by Isabel Allende - translated from Spanish and first published in the UK in 2001

Aurora del Valle is born in San Francisco in 1880 and she narrates the story.  Her mother dies giving birth to her and after the death of her Chinese maternal grandfather when she is 5 years old,  she is raised by her very rich and formidable paternal grandmother Paulina del Valle.  Aurora and her family moved back to their native Chile in 1886.  They survive a revolution, flourish financially for a while and Aurora becomes a photographer.   Aurora marries but leaves her husband when he is unfaithful.  She eventually learns why she has always been haunted by nightmares and cannot remember the first 5 years of her life  The book is inhabited by several unusual and very colourful characters.  It is well written and not too long.  It is a sequel to Daughter of Fortune, which I haven't read.  6/10 

10th January 2012