2013 books: 19-22

[the_siobhan]

Fish, Blood and Bone by Leslie Forbes.

Another proof. Also another book I absolutely loved. I will definitely be looking for more of her work.

The Fish, Blood and Bones of the title is a kind of fertilizer. Plants are a central character in this book along with the recurring themes of growth and death, fertility and decay. The actual story centres around Claire, who works as a forensic photographer. She is the daughter of a pair of nomadic hippies, and inheriting a family estate in London sends her looking for her roots. Her family made their fortune in the opium trade and through circumstance she ends up re-tracing the path of one of her ancestors in search of an legendary green poppy that is believed to cure cancer. There is stuff in there about the drug trade, orchid smuggling, a murder mystery, scientific espionage, mental illness, a love story and an awful lot about plants. The plot is complicated and her family tree even more so, but the writing is incredible and I could not put the book down.



Possessing The Secret Of Joy by Alice Walker.

Walker's exposition on female genital mutilation. The main character is somebody who had a short mention in The Color Purple; a woman who had the surgery as a teenager as a way of aligning herself with her tribal roots and rejecting the westerners who had destroyed her village and her culture. The trauma of the experience causes her to relive the death of her sister and she basically goes mad. The book traces her attempt to heal after what has been done to her.

This is a re-read but I had forgotten about the sister. So maybe not such a good book for me to be reading right now.

Anyway it's a quick and powerful read on a disturbing subject.




Locksley by Nicholas Chase.

A version of the Robin Hood legend that incorporates the actual politics, culture and technology of the time. The story spans the period from King Richard's part in the Crusades to the end of King John's reign, so the Robin Hood period actually takes up less than a quarter of the book. Which is a pity because it is the most fun part. (There is a reason why the Robin Hood years gets turned into movies and the "John turned out to be a bad King" part does not.) Still, the whole book is an interesting read about about England of the time period. Definitely worth the time if you enjoy the genre.



Endymion Spring by Matthew Skelton.

I managed to rescue some of my sister's books before they got carted off to a thrift shop. I didn't have a lot of time to do much more than scoop out the ones that looked like they had interesting titles or cover art, which is how I ended up with this one.

It's a young adult novel about the search for a book made from the skin of a dragon, a skin that contains the intrinsic knowledge of good and evil. There are two plots, one following Endymion Spring who is an apprentice to Gutenberg and who first discovers and hides the book. The second plot follows a boy named Blake Winters who discovers the book in modern-day Oxford and tries to protect it from some unnamed adult who is hunting the book for some evil purpose. The chapters alternate, and the ones that take place in the 1400's are greyed slightly to make them look aged.

I'm enjoying the story but it constantly rides the edge of being unreadable for me. The writing is blocky and overly dramatic. The chapters that take place in the modern day are marginally better, so I find myself gritting my teeth through Endymion's sections until I can get back to Oxford. Still the basic plot is good, so I'll tough it out to the end.