dittybox

  Published: 2018, Picador Genre: Fiction Themes: Singapore, teenage friendships, ambition, loss My rating (out of 5): ❤❤❤ Reading this book is rather like looking through a kaleidoscope as the key elements are shown from many different perspectives, but new pieces of information are constantly falling into place.  The time-line flips backwards and forwards as we follow teenage school friends Szu and Circe and discover how their lives have been influenced by a set of three horror movies staring Szu's mother, Amisa. When Amisa was a teenager herself, she was spotted by a wealthy man who wanted to make a film about a Pontianak, which is a mythical female ghost from Singaporean folklore.  The man chose Amisa because of her classic beauty and promised he would make her a star if she would agree to leave her job and come and take the lead in his film.  In the end they made three films about the Ponti, but they were not successful as audiences had tired of traditional stor...

Published: 2013, Penguin Genre: Fiction Themes: New Testament, grief, loss, reflection My rating (out of 5): ❤❤ I'm sorry to say that I was disappointed with this book, but that could quite possibly be because I am missing something.  I am familiar with the New Testament and my problem is that I don't recognise the characters of Mary, Jesus or the disciples.  They don't behave as I would have expected them to. This short novella gives Mary's account of Jesus' ministry and death on the cross, and it is told from the vantage point of her old age when she is nearing the end of her life.  The way the story is told in Colm  Tóibín, it seems that Mary does not understand what her son and his friends are doing when they make a fuss in the Temple and cause a 'frenzy' among the people.  In the Bible, Mary knows exactly what her son has been sent to do, and even encourages him to begin his work when the time is right. Colm  Tóibín also alters the order of events....

Published: 2015, Penguin Random House Genre: Fiction Themes: Crime, thriller, American west My rating (out of 5): ❤❤❤ This is one of those books that reads as though the story was written up after somebody watched the film, although that is not actually the case.  Endangered by C J Box is a thriller in the same sort of style as the Jack Reacher novels by Lee Child and I can well imagine it sells well at airports in America.   C J Box is the number 1 New York Times Best Selling Author, and Endangered is part of a series written about Joe Pickett who is a game warden in Wyoming.  All the characters are so stereotypical that you could pick them out in a game of misfits and there is a clear demarcation between the bad guys, who beat up and mistreat women, and the good guys who chase after them and ensure 'justice' is done. Warden Pickett works in and around the law as it suits him, but this is apparently ok as he is a good guy and the bad guys had it coming to them....

  Published: 2020, Penguin Genre: Fiction Themes: competition between brothers, Irish family, price of success My rating (out of 5): ❤❤❤❤❤ I usually put a few props on the tray that I use for book photographs, but what on earth do you use when you want to portray a family of self-serving, malicious miscreants as the characters in this book?   Our Little Cruelties by Liz Nugent is a dark story of three brothers desperately competing for the love of their selfish mother.  It begins at the funeral of one of them and throughout the book you are left to guess which one it is going to be.  Each takes a turn at telling their version of their family story, and at the end of each section you are left thinking, 'yep, someone would certainly want to kill him!' The narrative is beautifully written, to a quality right up there with best contemporary Irish writers, and it is rightly an international best seller.  I enjoyed it from the start as the three brother...

Published 2020, Hodder and Staughton Genre: Fiction Themes: Ireland, acceptance of homosexuality, family, bereavement My rating (out of 5): ❤❤❤   Home Stretch is Graham Norton's third novel and his style of writing very much reflects his conversational style, so it makes for an entertaining read.  It's not the sort of book that would find its way onto the long list for any of the major book awards, but it still has wide appeal and became a best seller here in the UK. The story begins in a small town in Ireland and describes a fatal car crash that takes the lives of three young people, including a couple who were to be married the following day.  The crash has a massive impact on the three survivors and the consequences of that afternoon impact their lives for decades to come. Over the first few pages it feels as though the reader is being introduced to the entire town of Mullinmore, and by chapter two I had to flick back to the start a few times to remind myself who was r...

Published: 2014, Picador Genre: Fiction Themes: family, race, abuse, friendship My rating (out of 5): ❤❤❤ I have given this book three out of five even though it probably deserves more.  The writing is quite inspired in places, and I think some people would really love the original style of this book, but I found it took me a while to get into it.   I suppose this book is out of my comfort zone, and there is a strange unsettling quality to it, which readers will either embrace or pull away from, as it combines beautiful writing with the utmost cruelty.   The main character is a girl named Boy whose childhood is filled with episodes of violent physical abuse at the hands of her father who is the local rat-catcher.  Her mother died when she was born, so there is no-where else to go, and in the end she is around college age before she flees from her home and takes a night bus to Flax Hill at the end of the route.  She is free at last, but she has no money...

  Published: 2019, Oneworld Genre: Fiction Themes: America, miscarriage of justice, marriage, family values My rating (out of 5): ❤❤❤❤❤ I read this book in great chunks as I couldn't bring myself to put it down.  It is a roller coaster of a story that carries you through great highs and then down into deep dark tunnels of injustice and despair.  The characters and their families are so beautifully described through their thoughts, words and deeds that you could almost be watching the events unfold in front of you rather than reading them from the page. Roy and Celestial are newlyweds who have the world at their feet, as they have both been to college, and are now brimming with ideas to make the most of their future life together.  Their closest friend is Andre, who lived next door to Celestial when they were children, and came to know Roy when they attended the same college.  Andre and Celestial are so close that they could be brother and sister, and she co...