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Posted by MK [Blogger] at 31/07/2012 12:56:51
This book first came to my attention when it featured on Oprah Winfrey's summer reads list for 2012. It stood out from the others that were listed because it was true crime.
It tells the story of Lucie Blackman, a twenty-one year old English woman, who left her job as a BA air steward to work as a bar hostess in Japan. One day, just months after she had arrived “she stepped out into the vastness of a Tokyo summer and disappeared forever. “Her case attracted interest from con-men to Prime Ministers alike.
We are in no doubt as to Lucie’s fate from the beginning but it is still a compulsive and page turning read. Richard does not sensationalise the crime instead he recounts Lucie’s early home life with her family and friend‘s, before sensitively and sympathetically describing her experience as a bar hostess in Toyko, leading up to her eventual disappearance. By the end of the book I felt as if I had known Lucie personally.
Richard Lloyd Party has spent years researching this case and as a Japanese correspondent for twenty years he weaves Lucie’s tragic story against a fascinating backdrop of Japanese culture, social class and the treatment of women.
With Fifty Shades of Grey topping the charts at the moment this book is a timely insight into the flip side of a world, where the submission of women and the pursuit of glamour can collide with tragic consequences.
Available as a Book.
Posted by Jacqui [blogger] at 27/07/2012 16:44:26
This is an excellent short read and definitely for bedtime reading. Helen Dunmore gets straight into the story of a young doctors wife, Isabel, who is finding life in her husband's new job location lonely and isolated. On a cold night Isabel awakes and discovers an old RAF great coat at the back of a cupboard, she lays the coat over herself in bed and dreams of a young RAF pilot. Soon after...
Posted by MK [Blogger] at 27/07/2012 12:39:44
This may not be the typical beach read but this story, set in Ireland in the 1950’s is a perfect summer read. It documents the relationship between a shy young farmer’s wife Ellie and a stranger – a restless amateur photographer - who cycles into town. As the long summer progresses they fall in love but Ellie is warned about this reckless attachment – she is well...
Posted by Melanie [Blogger] at 27/07/2012 10:40:50
Would you give your first love a second chance? This is the question posed on the back cover of the latest offering from Elizabeth Noble.
Susannah is a 39 year old woman with a successful career as a lawyer. Divorced from her first husband, she now shares her life with Douglas, a fellow lawyer, and his three children from a previous marriage. At a wedding she comes face to face with ...
Posted by Mandy [Blogger] at 25/07/2012 14:01:02
It is 2010 and Jonathan Kellaway is looking forward to retiring when he is called to the Augusta HQ of the multi-million mining firm he has worked for since leaving University. There is a last task that Greville Lashley, former Chairman (‘officially retired but not quite out of touch’) wants Jonathan to carry out. A historian has been hired to document a history of the company...
Posted by Mandy [Blogger] at 25/07/2012 13:55:11
I had already read and enjoyed Mark Haddon’s two other novels – ‘A Spot of Bother’ and ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time’ – so I was happy to take a chance on this most recent book.
Richard and his sister Angela take their respective families on a shared holiday in a house on the Welsh borders. Their mother has recently passed...
Posted by Mandy [Blogger] at 25/07/2012 13:45:27
I really enjoy listening to the ten minutes programme on a Sunday morning where various people give their views on a range of topics so it was great to come across this collection of broadcasts (60 of them) by Clive James. These cover his ‘musings’ from 2007 – 2009 and they have an additional postscript as Clive reflects on issues since the first airing. In some cases he thinks...
Posted by Mandy [Blogger] at 25/07/2012 12:47:23
This story traces the lives of three folk - Rebecca (Becca), Olly and Joe - who are flatmates while studying at Bristol University. Needless to say, the most important aspect of their education takes places outside the lecture room. The story is told from Becca’s perspective and after a brief scene setting advances ten years.
Becca’s life in London is shattered when her...
Posted by Ray [Blogger] at 25/07/2012 10:43:25
If you like stories about New York, there is a new one out, written by Amor Towles. He wouldn’t be the most popular person at the moment, as he runs an investment fund in Manhattan but he writes like an angel. Imagine F Scott Fitzgerald with a word-processor. His novel is called Rules of Civility. It deals with a love triangle, with human indebtedness and with the...
Posted by Helen [Blogger] at 24/07/2012 08:04:49
Sicilian detective Inspector Montalbano has to try and solve a murder - a dismembered body found in a field during a torrential rain storm. The body is cut up into 30 pieces, hidden in a bin liner and buried in the field. At the same time he has to try and figure out why his second in command Mimi is acting so strangely (obviously being a Sicilian man he just can’t ask)....
Posted by Heather [Blogger] at 16/07/2012 09:24:55
Up until now I have only known Jenny Eclair as a stand up comedian. This is the first of her novels that I have read. I must admit it was the title that drew me to read the blurb, and I decided to give it a chance. I was pleasantly surprised by this novel. The first chapter had me giggling to myself which was a good start. Anne is a busy 48 year with a successful surgeon for a...
Posted by Heather [Blogger] at 02/07/2012 14:54:33
This is Christopher Coake’s first novel and I hope it won’t be the last. I read this novel over a weekend as I couldn’t put it down. The novel centres around three characters, Mark, his ex wife Chloe and his new love Allison. Mark and Chloe’s son died accidently and not being able to cope with their loss was the reason for their break up. They have been...
