May's Book Club Choice-Folklore Fiction

The Winter Sister
by
Megan Collins

Title: The Winter Sister

Author: Megan Collins

Publisher: ATRIA Books

Publication Date: February 2019

Genre: Suspense Fiction

Summary: 
                                         SECRETS BETWEEN SISTERS ARE SACRED. 
                                                      SECRETS ARE DEADLY.

Sixteen years ago, Sylvie's sister, Persephone, never came home. Out too late with the boyfriend she was forbidden to see, Persephone was missing for three days before her body was found-and years later, her murder remains unsolved. In the present day, Sylvie returns home to care for her estranged mother, Annie, who is undergoing cancer treatment. Prone to unexplained "Dark Days" even before her daughter's death, Annie let her once close bond with Sylvie dissolve in the years after their loss, making for an uncomfortable reunion. Worse, Persephone's former boyfriend, Ben, is now a nurse at the cancer center where Annie is being treated. Sylvie has always believed that Ben was responsible for her sister's murder-but she carries her own guilt about that night, guilt that traps her in the past while the world goes on around her.
As she navigates the complicated relationship with her mother, Sylvie begins to uncover the secrets that fill their house-and what really happened the night Persephone died-in this spellbinding and suspenseful debut.

ISBN: 978-1-9821-0014-8

Review:
OK so for this month it was hard to find books in the category of folklore fiction, after a little bit of searching I found a blog post with what were apparently 8 of them of which this was one. Now on that basis and it giving the impression it had its roots in the story of Demeter and Persephone we all thought this would be a good book for this month. But if it did its the vaguest sort of connection to the story. I think she mentioned once that  "she was rescuing Persephone from a life in the underworld". And that aside from the girl's name is the only tentative connection to the Greek myth! Which was really disappointing, as you know we've read a lot of greek mythology based books this year so far and I was looking forward to another one.
The book was an easy read but it was by no means suspenseful, you knew a lot of what was going to happen way before it did because she made it quite obvious. The reasons why Persephone came home bruised after spending time with Ben was just a stupid explanation and the father's motives for killing her were simplistic like a child had explained it.

At our book club meeting, we agreed that the book group questions were written to give it far more depth than it actually had.
All in all, it's not a book I'll read again and if I'm honest I won't be recommending it. 

Krystina xx



Book Club Score-5/10

April's Book Club-Poetry Month

April's Book Club

Poetry Month

So no book review for April, but I thought id share with you my poem choice for this month's meeting. This has been my favorite poem since I was about 9/10 (i know 2 decades on and I still haven't found a new one!), it was read by my year 5 teacher to the class and something about the story of it and the descriptions stuck with me. 

So here is my favorite poem...

The Highwayman

BY ALFRED NOYES

PART ONE

The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees.   

The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas.   

The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor,   

And the highwayman came riding—

         Riding—riding—

The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn-door.

He’d a French cocked-hat on his forehead, a bunch of lace at his chin,   

A coat of the claret velvet, and breeches of brown doe-skin.

They fitted with never a wrinkle. His boots were up to the thigh.   

And he rode with a jewelled twinkle,

         His pistol butts a-twinkle,

His rapier hilt a-twinkle, under the jewelled sky.

Over the cobbles he clattered and clashed in the dark inn-yard.

He tapped with his whip on the shutters, but all was locked and barred.   

He whistled a tune to the window, and who should be waiting there   

But the landlord’s black-eyed daughter,

         Bess, the landlord’s daughter,

Plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long black hair.

And dark in the dark old inn-yard a stable-wicket creaked

Where Tim the ostler listened. His face was white and peaked.   

His eyes were hollows of madness, his hair like mouldy hay,   

But he loved the landlord’s daughter,

         The landlord’s red-lipped daughter.

Dumb as a dog he listened, and he heard the robber say—

“One kiss, my bonny sweetheart, I’m after a prize to-night,

But I shall be back with the yellow gold before the morning light;

Yet, if they press me sharply, and harry me through the day,   

Then look for me by moonlight,

         Watch for me by moonlight,

I’ll come to thee by moonlight, though hell should bar the way.”

He rose upright in the stirrups. He scarce could reach her hand,

But she loosened her hair in the casement. His face burnt like a brand

As the black cascade of perfume came tumbling over his breast;   

And he kissed its waves in the moonlight,

         (O, sweet black waves in the moonlight!)

Then he tugged at his rein in the moonlight, and galloped away to the west.

PART TWO

He did not come in the dawning. He did not come at noon;   

And out of the tawny sunset, before the rise of the moon,   

When the road was a gypsy’s ribbon, looping the purple moor,   

A red-coat troop came marching—

         Marching—marching—

King George’s men came marching, up to the old inn-door.

They said no word to the landlord. They drank his ale instead.   

But they gagged his daughter, and bound her, to the foot of her narrow bed.

Two of them knelt at her casement, with muskets at their side!   

There was death at every window;

         And hell at one dark window;

For Bess could see, through her casement, the road that he would ride.

They had tied her up to attention, with many a sniggering jest.

They had bound a musket beside her, with the muzzle beneath her breast!

“Now, keep good watch!” and they kissed her. She heard the doomed man say—

Look for me by moonlight;

         Watch for me by moonlight;

I’ll come to thee by moonlight, though hell should bar the way!

She twisted her hands behind her; but all the knots held good!

She writhed her hands till her fingers were wet with sweat or blood!   

They stretched and strained in the darkness, and the hours crawled by like years

Till, now, on the stroke of midnight,

         Cold, on the stroke of midnight,

The tip of one finger touched it! The trigger at least was hers!

The tip of one finger touched it. She strove no more for the rest.   

Up, she stood up to attention, with the muzzle beneath her breast.   

She would not risk their hearing; she would not strive again;   

For the road lay bare in the moonlight;

         Blank and bare in the moonlight;

And the blood of her veins, in the moonlight, throbbed to her love’s refrain.

Tlot-tlot; tlot-tlot! Had they heard it? The horsehoofs ringing clear;   

Tlot-tlot; tlot-tlot, in the distance? Were they deaf that they did not hear?

Down the ribbon of moonlight, over the brow of the hill,

The highwayman came riding—

         Riding—riding—

The red coats looked to their priming! She stood up, straight and still.

Tlot-tlot, in the frosty silence! Tlot-tlot, in the echoing night!   

Nearer he came and nearer. Her face was like a light.

Her eyes grew wide for a moment; she drew one last deep breath,   

Then her finger moved in the moonlight,

         Her musket shattered the moonlight,

Shattered her breast in the moonlight and warned him—with her death.

He turned. He spurred to the west; he did not know who stood   

Bowed, with her head o’er the musket, drenched with her own blood!   

Not till the dawn he heard it, and his face grew grey to hear   

How Bess, the landlord’s daughter,

         The landlord’s black-eyed daughter,

Had watched for her love in the moonlight, and died in the darkness there.

Back, he spurred like a madman, shrieking a curse to the sky,

With the white road smoking behind him and his rapier brandished high.

Blood red were his spurs in the golden noon; wine-red was his velvet coat;

When they shot him down on the highway,

         Down like a dog on the highway,

And he lay in his blood on the highway, with a bunch of lace at his throat.

.       .       .

And still of a winter’s night, they say, when the wind is in the trees,

When the moon is a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas,   

When the road is a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor,   

A highwayman comes riding—

         Riding—riding—

A highwayman comes riding, up to the old inn-door.

Over the cobbles he clatters and clangs in the dark inn-yard.

He taps with his whip on the shutters, but all is locked and barred.   

He whistles a tune to the window, and who should be waiting there   

But the landlord’s black-eyed daughter,

         Bess, the landlord’s daughter,

Plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long black hair.

Feel free to post your favorite poems in the comments!

March's Book Club Choice-Women's Prize for Fiction

  The Silence of The Girls  

by  

Pat Barker

Title: The Silence Of The Girls

Author: Pat Barker

Publisher: Penguin Random House UK

Publication Date: 30th August 2018

Genre: Fiction

Summary: 

When the Greek Queen Helen is kidnapped by the Trojans, the Greeks sail in pursuit, besieging the city of Troy. Trapped in the Greek soldiers camp is another captured queen, Briseis. Condemned to be a bed-slave to Achilles, the man who butchered her family, she becomes a pawn in a menacing game between bored and frustrated warriors. In the centuries after this most famous war, history will write her off, a footnote in a bloody story scripted by vengeful men - but Briseis has a very different tale to tell.....

ISBN: 978-0-241-98320-1

Review:

March's book choice came from the shortlist of books on the women's prize for fiction 2019, minus one as we'd already read Circe in December.

After reading Circe I was excited to see this book win the vote! As soon as I read the synopsis I knew I had to vote for it :) Recently I seem to have found some fab books based around Greek mythology and I've added many to my to-be-read pile(one day I suspect ill be found buried under my tbr pile!)
What I loved about this book is that its told from a woman's perspective and, for a change, the woman isn't Helen of Troy! I'd never heard of Briseis before reading this book but then again I only know the basics about the Trojan war and I've never read around the subject, I suspect I will in the future (another addition to that tbr pile).

Now the book doesn't shy away from the brutality of the situation Briseis (and various other women) is in, it tends to be quite graphic, to be honest. The detailed description of her situation and what happens/is done to her means that you do think well what would I do in her place, would I have chosen to follow the same path or would I have jumped at the beginning as her cousin did. It's also easy to forget that this brutality does still occur and women are still subjected to this treatment in some parts of the world (I'll be honest while reading this book I forgot that and was reminded by the lovely Val during our meeting). Now don't get me wrong, I really loved this book but I did think that occasionally she used quite modern phrasing/words and it felt out of place. Not quite jarring but borderline.
It's definitely a book I would read again and I've already recommended it to a few people!

Krystina xx


Book Club Score- 7/10

January's Book Club Choice-Classic Books

                       One Hundred Years of Solitude
                                   
                                              by
                   

                                Gabriel Garcia Marques 

Title: One Hundred Years of Solitude

Author: Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Publisher: Penguin

Publication Date:1970 ( in English)

Summary: Pipes and kettledrums herald the arrival of gypsies on their annual visit to Macondo, the newly formed village where Jose Arcadio Buendia and his strong-willed wife, Ursula have started their new life. As the mysterious Melquiades excites Aureliano Buendia and his father with new inventions and tales of adventure, neither can know the significance of the indecipherable manuscript that the old gypsy passes into their hands.

Through plagues of insomnia, civil war, hauntings, and vendettas, the many tribulations of the Buendia household push memories of the manuscript aside. Few remember its existence and only one will discover the hidden message it holds.

ISBN:978-0-241-96858-1

Review:
So from the off, I was not looking forward to this book. The synopsis didn't draw me in and frankly, it just didn't interest me. But knowing I needed to read it for book club I gave it a go and let me tell you its a hard slog of a book. So much so that I only made it 30 pages before I gave up! This is not normal for me and I have tried a few times since to finish it but I just can't. I have no interest in finishing it and I doubt I'll pick it up again.

Sorry for the short review on this one but I really don't have much to say about it.

Book Club Score-3/10

So.....

So. I had a plan to review all the book club books from December 2019  through to now and post them in the correct order....but that clearly hasn't happened! 
I could faff and pretend but honestly, I just haven't had the time to go back and read them to refresh my memory before writing the review and having an almost 10-month-old doesn't help with this( i swear he knows when I try and sit for 10 minutes to read). 

So what I'm going to do instead is post what I have and add the rest in as and when I can sit and read them! They may be out of order but I promise by the end of the year there will be a full set of reviews!

Now back to posts....

Krystina xx