Bookcase Antics

From my previous reviews you will know that one of my favourite books is Kane and Abel by Jeffrey Archer. I also enjoyed the follow up book titled The Prodigal Daughter. That is where the fun ends for me with Jeffrey Archer.

The back of Shall we tell the President implies that this books follows on from the Prodigal Daughter, but the author’s note tells a different story. This is what he said:
“When I first wrote Shall We Tell the President? I set the story six or seven years in the future. Now that future date lies in the past, some of the story’s credibility becomes impaired.
Since that time too I have written The Prodigal Daughter in which the chief character, Florentyna Kane, becomes the first woman president of the United States. It therefore seemed logical to me, in recasting Shall We tell the President?, to introduce my fictional president … This gives it a natural link to The Prodigal Daughter and Kane and Abel.
I have not altered the essential story of Shall We Tell the President?…”

After reading the book and then going back and reading this “author’s” note it made be very angry. It seemed like a very lazy way of adding this book to the other two very successful books.

Reading the book it really felt like all he had done was change the other presidents name for Florentyna. The book does not flow at all. It has a completely different tone to the other two books.

The book focuses absolutely on his story about the FBI and rarely mentions Florentyna at all. This is in stark contrast to the first two books which are all about the Kane and Rosnovski families.

I found this book extremely disappointing. I loved the first two books and have read them over and over but this leaves a very bitter taste.

After this I will not buy any more books written by Jeffrey Archer. I feel completely ripped off.

Kane & Abel is one of my very favorite books. I love this story of two men who were born on the same day, at opposite ends of the world. Their only similarity is their birth date. Abel Rosnovski (born Wladek Koskiewicz) is born in Slonim Poland. His mother dies during in child birth and he is found by the trapper’s son who takes him home. The Koskiewicz family takes him in even though they are extremely poor.

At the opposite side of the world, Boston Massachusetts, William Lowell Kane, is born on the same day. William is born into one of Boston’s oldest, richest families. His father, and his grandfather before him, were bankers. There are no concerns in the Kane family about how they will afford to feed another person in their household.

The story follows each of their lives in alternate chapters.

Wladek leaves the family cottage at a young age to live with Baron Rosnovski and his son, as a play mate and fellow student for the son. While he is living there war breaks out and Wladek and the others that live at the castle are detained in the dungeon for years. Eventually when there are only a few of them left they are taken to a prison camp where the conditions are even worse than living in the dungeon. Eventually he escapes and makes his way to America.

Throughout this time William is gaining an excellent education and becoming somewhat of an entrepreneur in his quest to obtain as much money as possible. William’s father dies when he is young and this spurs him on to want to achieve everything his father did and then more. It is when he is working at the family owned bank that he first officially meets Abel Rosnovski (as he changed his name to when he arrived in America). Their first contact with each other does not go well. Abel is attempting to convince William to have his bank back the hotels that Abel owns but William will not agree. Abel becomes convinced that it is William’s fault that his best friend and co-owner of the hotels had committed suicide. This misunderstanding is one that will affect the rest of their lives, and in fact their children’s lives.

The book goes on to follow their lives, and their interactions. Abel makes it is life’s work to try to destroy William.

I highly recommend this book. I head read and re-read it.

The only negative are a couple of inconsistencies. I wouldn’t normally point these out but it sets the tone for the review I am going to be doing of the book “Shall we tell the president” which purports to be the third book in this series, which is full of inconsistencies and errors.

On page 44 it says “It was a terrible blow for Richard and Anne, who themselves had both been only children, largely as a result of their respective father’s premature deaths”. But on the same page it also says “Richard, who had taken over as the president of Kane and Cabot Bank and Trust Company when his father died in 1904…”. Surely if Richard was only enough to take over the bank he had to have at least been in his 20’s or 30’s. If his parents were to have children then they would have had them within years of each other. Thus the fact that Richard’s father died when he was on his 20’s or 30’s would make little difference as to whether his parents had more children.

On page 85 in relation to Wladek’s injured leg (at the prison camp) it says “There was little Doctor Dubien could do in the absence of any real medical supplies…”. This seems to be a contradiction to the sentence on page 86 when the doctor at the prison camp tells Wladek “I have already arranged with the senior cook that in exchange for some drugs…”

Even with these small inconsistencies the book is fantastic. I have probably only noticed them because I love this book so much and have ready it so many times.

Ok…so this isn’t a book review but I wanted to share this awesome website my hubby found…

http://bookshelfporn.com/

Awesome pics of hundreds of book shelves. Some of them are amazing. So jealous!!!

I also found Forgotten Bookmarks which I thought was pretty cool too.

http://www.forgottenbookmarks.com

This is one book that I just could not finish.

I read about half of it but could just not do it. It goes on, and on, and on and for hundreds of pages nothing of interest happens at all.

I thought it was 766 pages of boringness, well actually I wouldn’t know as I only read about the first 400 of them.

If you have read it and enjoyed it let me know. If you managed to finish it let me know what happened!

Room was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2010 and rightly so.

Room is the story of 5 year old Jack and his Ma. Jack and his Ma live in Room. Room is actually a shed that Jack’s Ma has been imprisoned in since before his birth. Room is the only world Jack has ever know and therefore it is his whole reality. His Ma tells him everything he sees on TV is actually make believe.

Jack’s world consists of his Ma, objects such as TV, stove, sponge and Old Nick, who brings him and Ma food. When Old Nick comes to visit his Ma Jack has to sleep in Wardrobe. Jack is quite content in his little world, it is all he has ever known.

One day not long after Jack turns 5 his Ma decides to tell him the truth about the world outside of Room. This comes as a shock to Jack and his whole world is turned upside down. Ma convinces Jack that they need to escape Room for their own safety. I am not going to tell you what happens with the attempted escape. You will have to read it to find out…

Room is a really well written, intriguing book that is written in an original way. It kept me turning page after page. I loved the tone of it and the way it was written.

It is a book well worth reading.

I love this book!

I have been reading and re-reading this book for years. It is one of my favorites. There is something magical about the story.

I am not normally into reading anything that is based on fantasy but something about this book captures my imagination.

Wild Magic is about a girl named Daine who lives in a world of magic and wonder. A world where some people are special and have special powers, such as being a healer. As much as her mother tests her, Daine doesn’t seem to have a special power.

After a great tragedy at her home Daine finds herself on the road where she meets Onua who is a horse mistress from Tortall. Onua, and her friends, see something in Daine that no one has before. She always thought she was just “good with animals” until they tell her she has wild magic. A very rare and strong kind of magic that most people don’t believe actually exists.

The story continues with Daine and her new friends facing the massive challenge together of saving the town of Tortall.

This book makes me believe in magic! Highly recommended read.

The President’s Wife is about a young woman who falls in love with the President of the United States. She ends up marrying the president, but life is not as she expected it.

Parts of the story are interesting but I found it quite slow and I kept waiting for something to happen.

Overall it was pretty boring and I don’t have a lot to say about it. It wasn’t terrible but I won’t bother reading it again.

My first instinct was to say don’t bother, but that is probably a little harsh. Single white e-mail is a light read, something for by the pool on holidays. It is a bit predictable and definitely not a book to sink your teeth into.

It is the story of Victoria, who finds herself single, again. It is a bit romancy, a bit techy, a bit predictable.

It wasn’t actually bad, just not my kind of book.

The Roald Dahl that I think of is the one who wrote the stories I read growing up, Witches, Matilda, The BFG, George’s Marvellous Medicine, to name a few. Warning! This is not one of these books!

The story is about the narrator’s Uncle Oswald who is somewhat of an entrepreneur always searching for a way to get rich. His first scheme is a pill that is a very potent form of Viagra. His second scheme commences after he meets a man that has worked out how to freeze sperm. He combines these two things with a very attractive woman and comes up with a plan to travel around the world with the woman seducing famous men with the help of the pill and then freezing their sperm to sell after their deaths.

The book is well written and quite comical as with all of Roald’s books. You just first need to get over the graphic nature compared to his other books.

Definitely worth reading, but adults only!

This is the fourth book in the Tomorrow Series.

The group are safe in New Zealand for a few months when they are approached by Colonel Finley and asked to go back to Australia to lead a group of NZ soldiers. At first Ellie does not want to go back, but in the end she manages to be convinced.

The NZ soldiers are attempting to destroy Wirawee airfield but they go missing without a trace, and unfortunately Lee is with them. The group decide it is too far to go back and hide in Hell so they hole up at their high school. Through some luck Lee happens to hide out at the school too so they all end up back together again.

The group attempt a couple of missions but they are unsuccessful and end up back in their even faithful hiding place, Hell.

Another great book, well worth the read. Again, you wont want to put it down.