The Distant Hours by Kate Morton

This is the latest offering by Brisbane based novelist Kate Morton.  It is the first of hers I have read and I do regret that I did not like it more.  The reason I regret not liking it more than I did, is because she is a best selling novelist from the city I grew up in, and when I see her interviewed she seems so thoughtful and likeable.  Basically, I think I should have read one of her earlier books, and now, alas, after having waded through the more than 550 pages of The Distant Hours, I can't see myself picking up another any time soon.

From the book jacket:

It starts with a letter, lost for half a century and unexpectedly delivered to Edie's mother on a Sunday afternoon.  The letter leads Edie to Milderhurst Castle, where the eccentric Blythe sisters live and where, she discovers, her mother was billeted during WWII.  The elder Blythe sisters are twins and have spent most of their lives caring for their younger sister, Juniper, who hasn't been the same since her fiance jilted her in 1941.

You know,  Morton does write well, there is plenty of lovely original descriptive prose throughout the novel.  She creates a good sense of place in the woods surrounding the castle.  More so than in the castle itself, where the idea of the whispering walls struck me as a bit silly, or at least overly romantic.  The story also contains some really good elements.  It has interesting ingredients, a modern and WWII setting.  To be honest, I think I have read too many books lately using the sort of narrative device where the reader is jumping from the modern era back to an earlier mystery.  At least I didn't enjoy how it was executed in this novel.  There were too many jumps and I just felt exhausted with it.   In the end it was just too long in my view.  The characters did not engage me to the degree that I needed to sustain my interest for that many pages.  I think the idea might have been that the castle itself is one of the main characters.  It just didn't hang together that well for me, and parts of the plotting were overblown or predictable.

I could see why some readers would really enjoy this novel.  If you like expansive, languid and descriptive prose, with some intriguing historically romantic themes, then you may enjoy this.

Also, don't forget to enter my  New Year Book Giveaway and a very happy New Year to you!

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Reading this book brought to mind what it was like reading stories as a child that took place in large dark rambling houses, with endless mysterious rooms to explore.  I adored that kind of story then (the one that jumped to mind was The Secret Garden) and still do!  Only, The Shadow of the Wind is even more deliciously mysterious and  labyrinthine than anything you can imagine.

Set in Barcelona the story begins in 1945, when young Daniel Sempere is taken by his book-selling father to an enourmous book archive called the Cemetery of Forgotten Books.  First time visitors to the cemetery are required to select a single book from amongst the thousands of books, as their own, to read and protect it.  Ten year old Daniel selects a rare volume called The Shadow of the Wind by Julian Carax.  The novel soon becomes Daniel's favourite book and in the years that follow he begins a search to learn more of the mercurial author.

From the very first I knew this novel would win my heart.  The Cemetery of Forgotten Books is like a lolly shop for any reader, and from its heart Daniel takes a book that unleashes all the magic and mystery of story telling within him.  His passionate quest to find the author greatly resembles an ardent readers pursuit of stories.

The novel has been translated from the Spanish original and the prose is gorgeous and original.

Fumero laughed again, that forced, affected laugh that seemed to sum him up like the blurb on a book jacket.  p. 144

and

There was another silence, the kind in which grey hairs seem to creep up on you.  p. 358

The ever misty Barcelona streetscapes form the setting for most of the story. Against this backdrop Ruiz Zafon introduces a parade of flamboyant and lively characters that we soon grow to either love or fear.  While the writing is often subtle, the story is anything but, it is bold and passionate. 

I know many of you have probably already read The Shadow of the Wind and I would love to hear what you think of it.  For me it is simply a sparkling, dramatic tale, that, in more ways than one, pays tribute to stories and story telling.

Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon, Audio Book read by Davina Porter

I finish this year lighter and fitter than when it commenced.  I partially have Diana Gabaldon and Davina Porter to thank for this.  I listened to the audio book Dragonfly in Amber (the second book of the Outlander series) while pedalling on my exercise bike and jogging and walking around my local streets for forty enjoyable hours.

On many days, it was my interest to see what was happening in the lives of Claire and Jamie Fraser as they fought 18th Century foes, that compelled me to put trainers on and get active.

This of course touches on the issue of audio books, and are they the same as reading.  The answer is simple to me; of course listening to an audio book is not the same as reading, but what a brilliant way to consume a story!

The Outlander series is a timeslip series that follows Claire Randall who is an English nurse from the 1940s.  While on holiday with her husband in Scotland she stumbles across a circle of stones that transport her back to the mid eighteen century, where she becomes part of the world of Scottish highlanders and their struggle against the English powers.  Claire falls in love with the incredibly dashing, heroic and endlessly wonderful highland lord Jamie Fraser.  Dragonfly in Amber picks the story up in the 1960s, where Claire has returned to Scotland with her adult daughter. Claire's daughter knows nothing of her mother's past in a different century.  With the help of a historian, Roger, Claire brings us up to speed with events that transpired between the time her and Jamie left Paris at the end of Outlander, their efforts to stop the Jacobite rebellion that culminated in the bloody battle of Culloden in 1746.  We also learn why Claire returned to the twentieth century.  Wonderfully, Gabaldon leaves the reader with a massive cliffhanger at the end Dragonfly in Amber when the historian Roger, who has been listening to Claire's tale, reveals something that rocks her to her very core. 

Gabaldon has a talent for sustaining drama, and with Jamie, Claire and their extended entourage, she has created memorable characters that I kept wanting to rejoin on their seemingly endless adventure across Europe.  With audio books the quality of the narration is king (or queen as the case may be) and Davina Porter is simply superb as the narrator of this forty hour epic.  In addition to her remarkable skill at character voices, she injects the narration with the right sense of warmth and fun.

For me, audio books are about sheer enjoyment.  I still read as many books as ever, the audio books allow me to enjoy stories at times when I wouldn't be able to read, such as exercising, doing chores or long car journeys.  I am currently listening to Ken Follet's World Without End.  Like Dragonfly in Amber, it is an audio book without an apparent end, but I am loving it.  It is just so much fun and transforms forty minutes, of otherwise tedious exercise, into something that I can't wait to embrace each day.

Diana Gabaldon "Outlander"

I loved this book. People say they love things very easily these days but I really did dig this. Outlander is a fantastic, historical, romantic, time-travelling romp. It is a very lengthly romp; but in the end you can't believe it is over. Of course the story is not over. It continues in Dragonfly in Amber and I can't wait to read that one.

Who hasn't been captivated at some stage in their youth by the idea of travelling back in time? It is very easy for me to understand why Gabaldon has such an ardent following. You get swept away by these characters. And I am normally so cynical with romantic fiction. But she totally drew me in with plucky Clare and the strong but embattled Jamie. The host of supporting characters truly come alive as well.

In truth I did not read this book, but listened to the entire unabridged version as an audible book. I listened as I drove long distances in my car, I listened as I ironed and I listened as I briskly walked for exercise.

I know that unlike many of the dozens of books I have read in recent years, these characters will remain with me for many years to come. For some reason this book, that could have been so cliched, really sings. I would guess that Outlander will possibly appeal more to female readers; it certainly appealled to me. For sheer fun escapism, I thoroughly recommend it.