Something Rotten by Jasper Fforde - Book Review

Something Rotten
By Jasper Fforde
Hodder & Stoughton 2004
Jasper Fforde - Wikipedia

Well now, let me tell you, Jasper Fforde is back to his usual exciting writing. Remember a few days ago I reviewed The Well of Lost Plots, (Book Three) and said that I found it somewhat boring? Mostly because it was set in the world of fiction and nothing interesting seemed to happen there.


Now that Thursday Next has returned to the "real" world, Book Four is just as exciting as Book Two was. Thursday now has a 2 year old son named Friday. Her husband Landen is still eradicated, so Thursday and Friday must move back into her mothers home in Swindon. Thursday has also brought a visitor with her from the Book World - Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Thursday tries to settle back into her old job as a SpecOps Literary Detective. She has been gone for 2.5 years and everyone assumes she has been in prison. The year is now 1988.

When Thursday returns to the "real world" she finds some minor changes. One is a new Politician in the English Parliament named Yorick Kaine, who is intent on becoming a dictator. He is currently fomenting a war against Denmark, over the Danes invasion of England some 1100 years before (around 800AD). And he has also passed a law stating that anything written by a Danish author, must be burned.

Also a 13th century Saint wrote that the old President of England would die 2 days after the Swindon hoops (croquet) team lost the Superhoops match in 1988. Thursday's dad (the rogue Chronoguard) tells Thursday that this match is of vital importance because with the old president dead, that will leave Yorick Kaine in a position to become a dictator, and start the last and final war. The war that annihilates the human race.

So Thursday must stop Danish books being burned, help the Swindon hoops team to win, find out what book Yorick Kaine comes from, get her husband un-eradicated and keep the current President alive, and keep Hamlet from getting into trouble. That's all in a weeks work for Thursday. Oh yes, and she must also avoid several assassination attempts. The Goliath Corporation are very keen to eradicate her as well.

I found this book to be just as good as Book two. Again like all the books in this series, there are over-the-top events that can never happen in our world, but this is fiction. Anything can happen in a novel. And as long as you're having fun when you're reading, well then, the book has done its job.

The fifth book in the series was published just last year (2007), and it is called First in a Sequel. There is talk of a sixth book called One of our Thursdays is Missing, due out in 2009.

Toronto Star Book Reviewer Retires

There's a job vacancy opening up at the Toronto Star. The Star's Book Reviewer for the last 18 years (Philip Marchand) is retiring.

Our book critic says farewell

As book reviewer and general reader both, we can only be grateful for moments when we encounter certain writers – Margaret Atwood at her best, in her short stories, and Alice Munro, of course, and Barbara Gowdy and Wayne Johnston and Guy Vanderhaeghe, when they are at the top of their game. When they're not at the top of their game, it is also, needless to say, the duty of a critic to point that out.

[...]

As books columnist I was expected not only to review books but also to write about such things as the government's Baie Comeau policy. Don't ask me what that was. It had to do with foreign ownership of publishing companies and was considered very important at the time.

I also covered meetings of the Writers Union, where highly emotional debates over issues such as "appropriation of voice" raged. At the first such meeting, held in Kingston in the spring of 1990, I called in my story, over a pay phone, to the re-write desk – a practice, in those pre-BlackBerry days, that was already beginning to feel archaic and, in my case, would seldom be repeated.

One thing that has remained the same, however, is the never-ending debate over the art of book reviewing, particularly as practised in Canada. In a comprehensive article titled "Adventures in the Reviewing Trade," published in the Spring/Summer edition of Canadian Notes & Queries (CNQ), critic Alex Good points out certain constants in that debate – the tendency of reviewers generally to go easy on books, for example.


So which one of us addicts will be applying for this new job?

The Top 50 Books of all time - according to the Globe and Mail for 2008.

THE TOP 50 BOOKS OF ALL TIME

The Globe & Mail Newspaper here in Toronto plans on doing a weekly series choosing the top 50 books of all time, starting next week.

As of next week, Globe Books begins a new series, The 50 Greatest Books...So why not simply 50 Great Books? In part, because we want readers to engage in the discussion - we plan to provide a forum for outraged advocates or critics, clever ripostes and tut-tutting over obvious oversights - and in part because in making distinctions, we implicitly reject the postmodern view that won't allow privileging (in the fashionable term) Anna Karenina over the James Bond books...The 50 will not be ranked in order. We figure just choosing them is adventurous enough. The entries will be derived from discussions among members of our panel of experts (as if anyone's really expert). Their carefully guarded identities will be revealed only at the end of the series, when readers will be invited to engage with them more directly. Each entry will be written by someone with knowledge, usually extensive knowledge, of the book in question...So many issues, so many books, so few of them great. Watch for our first choice in this space next week. And be prepared to argue.

Rene Angelil Unauthorised Biography - Book Review

Rene Angelil: The Making of Celine Dion: The Unauthorized Biography
by Jean Beaunoyer, Jean Beaulne, Don Wilson (Translator)
Publisher: Dundurn Press
Pub. Date: March 2004

For almost twelve years, Jean Beaulne was a member of the Baronets "the Beatles of Quebec" along with Rene Angelil. In this book, he has collaborated with writer and journalist Jean Beaunoyer to tell the untold story of Rene Angelil and Celine Dion.



Previously unknown details of Rene Angelil''s personal and professional life are
revealed in this unprecedented investigation into the man who orchestrated one of the foremost successes in the history of show business.

This bio covers Rene's childhood in Montreal, his gambling, his health problems, and
his perfectionism and absolute control over his clients. To me he seems to be a
Svengali. Even more so when he married his client. The gambling really put me off. That Rene chooses not to control or quit gambling. For Celine to marry a gambling man, that to me screams Svengali.

I realise that the above statement is harsh, but that's the feeling I got when I finished reading the book. There are some very good details, on his previous marriages, his kids, his family, his relationships with others in the music industry, his relationship with celine, and anything else you might want to know. The book is well written, but with a lot of details. Some personal opinions creep in by Beaunoyer occasionally. Beaulne wrote some small extra chapters on other big music industry names as they came up in the narrative.

I read this book for the Memoir (In their Shoes) and the Canadian Book Challenges.

The Things you can do with Photographs

As promised yesterday there was more snow in Toronto. But we also had a very steep temperature drop. Woke up this morning to find ICE on the sidewalks and roads, and a windchill factor of Minus 24 degrees celcius. (the temperature was actually -14).

So I did my rounds of the blogs today, and came across a really cool place that make your photos look like they are in a museum. So here is yesterdays Snowmaze Photograph as it would look if it were on display in a Museum. I like it. Looks so cool.

Chunkster Challenge

I was late getting onto the Chunkster Challenge last year so this year it's on again. I cant make a list, but some of the books I plan on reading for this years other challenges (see side bar) will also qualify for the chunkster challenge. So once I've read them, I will list them. Here are the guidelines for the Chunkster Challenge 2008




To qualify the book must be 450 pps regular type OR 750 pps large text.
You must read FOUR chunksters (one each quarter), you OBVIOUSLY may read more
The Challenge will run Jan 7th, 2008 - Dec 20th, 2008
Oh yes and there will be Prizes - one a quarter. Prizes to be determined later

Happy New Year - Again

It snowed overnight here in Toronto, so I went out and took some photographs. The snow on the trees looks absolutely beautiful. I call this one SNOWMAZE. My Flickr account has more photos. More snow is forecast for tonight.