Frozen Assets

The ethereal post-rock music of Sigur Ros accompanied me while I was reading this Scandinavian mystery.  It is also thanks the above-mentioned band that I have a great idea of how Iceland looks, the land, the people and even the food. I watched a documentary Heimas the band made about a home tour they did which was free and open to everyone to come and listen.  It made me realise that Iceland got all of the good parts… it is so incredibly beautiful!  I wanted to plan my next overseas trip there just so (even though I would probably freeze my butt off and starve) I could experience for myself this awe-inspiring country.  With all of the countries that I have visited this year in my Scandinavian mystery challenge, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Norway, I have had no idea what each country has looked like, so it was really nice to know for a change.

There is a setback, however.  An Englishman wrote the story, and I noticed some English mannerisms and slang (maybe they have been adopted?).  So it’s not the complete Icelandic experience. Good story though.  Lots of suspense, and I loved the Icelandic names. I learned a thing or two and shuddered a time or two (“would you like some fat on that? prawn sandwich anyone? “… a vegan nightmare). 

The Dalek Invasion of Earth

Once a year, usually during winter break, this movie would be shown on television.  Not being familiar with the earlier Doctor Who’s I did not realise that the actor playing the doctor, Peter Cushing, wasn’t in fact the original doctor.  For some strange reason someone wanted to make two Doctor Who movies based on two story arcs from the television series.  Not that I am complaining… I loved those movies, I actually own them now and look forward to watching them every year or so as a winter treat.

Reading the book, was illuminating, and then watching the original television broadcast, was wonderful.  There was, of course, some slight changes from the movies, which is alright, I like them all on their own merits.  It was a great story no matter how it was told.  The Doctor’s words to Susan at the end of the television show indicate the man he gradually evolved to be in later stories.  There is a fundamental theme about the Doctor which has made him into a folk hero, and that is his curiosity and wonder at new places and new species, which, no matter how strange they looked, he would see them as beautiful.  It was an important lesson to be taught, to young and old people alike, the respect and acceptance of those that are different to you.  The books make this first doctor look so much better than he really is on the television show (a cranky old goat), but he really did shine this time.

The Phantom of Pemberley

Okay, I found this story a bit too difficult to believe.  There were too many liberties taken, and some things I felt were ridiculous.  I have always had faith in my hero and heroine’s intelligence and there are just some things that would be impossible for them not to know.
That aside, I still enjoyed the book.  I am always curious to see what someone will come up with for a Pride and Prejudice fiction, and I am not always disappointed.  

I Still Dream About You

I am struggling to describe the feeling that a Fannie Flagg book always gives me.  She is one of my ‘must-buys’.    Which means that whenever something of hers comes out I must buy it! 
On  the back of I Still Dream About You one reviewer says that the story is heart filling, and I would have to agree with that.  Maybe I will never be able to express how much these books mean to me, but heart-filling is extremely apt.  My heart is always full afterwards,  full of joy and the beauty of life however it presents itself.   It is the best kind of therapy for someone who has been having it rough for a while, is worn down and questions the purpose of it all.  Heart filling.  Perhaps I should make it a habit of picking up a Fannie Flagg book at least once a year, just so I can get myself centered again, and remember what is really most important  about life. 

The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack

Everything Life places in your path is an opportunity.
No matter how difficult.
No matter how upsetting.
No matter how impenetrable.
No matter how you judge it.
An opportunity.

An impressive quote, right off the bat at the very beginning of this awesome story.  I have been for a very long time a huge fan of Sherlock Holmes, and this book was very reminiscent of that kind of story.  I loved this book from start to finish.  Lots of action, lots of familiarity ( I know this period of history quite well so it was comfortable), lots of crazy steam punk gadgets, and hilarious genetic creations (insulting parrots anyone?).  Are you missing some Sherlock Holmes type of action?   Wish you could revisit Victorian England but with a twist?   If you want to really depart from the here and now, take a vacation from what you know,  this is a great world to go and visit, today.

The Speed of Dark

When you are a kid you believe everything that an adult tells you.  What happens from there on in can go two different ways.  Either you can believe it as the truth for the rest of your life, or you will see it as a lie and act accordingly.  That’s a pretty simplistic approach, I could wax poetic about the many different kinds of lies and how, when we acquire wisdom as we grow up, we learn to interpret them and realise our own truths.  I have spent a great deal of my adult life re-interpreting my past and finding new truths every year (every day!) with the changing of my own perspective.
But what if you didn’t question what you were told?  What if you lived your life with blinders on believing that what was said to you was absolute and that  there was no alternate paths to take?  I shudder to think what my life would have been like now if I had listened and followed faithfully what my own adults told me.
That is what is at the heart of this wonderful book.  Beliefs and the ability to change them when they no longer make sense.
When I first started reading this book I was a little worried that it would be like Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes, the theme is similar after all.  The journey the protagonist goes through was fascinating
I loved Lou,  and, admittedly I was picturing Benedict Cumberbatch when I was reading it.  I have found this year that reading about the process a person goes through, mentally, the struggles to understand adversity, and the natural conclusions each character made to reach their own ultimate goal, engaged my interest and had me riveted to my reading chair, eager to see what the results where in each epiphany.  I loved this story and will be looking for more by Elizabeth Moon.

Notes From a Small Island

A non fiction category book, I might not have read this except that it is on the 1001 Books You Should Read Before You Die list, so I had to give it a go.  I could tell from the start how it would be, and for the most part (I didn’t like it when he slagged one of my favourite authors George Orwell), I liked what I had read, even found some parts quite funny.  I will, at some point re-read it because I have my own tour of the UK to plan in the near future, though I’m not sure I will do it the way he did (ever since I read Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis I have wanted to do a walking tour of some parts of England hopefully with a literary theme if they have such things…).  Also, unlike Mr. Bryson, I will not take him at his word when I go to see for myself some of the places he went to and described in his book, because I realise that truth is in the eye of the beholder, and since we are all different, I don’t think that other opinions, should sway me from my own impressions and perceptions. And I certainly would not get mad at him if my conclusions differed from his own!