Where or When by Anita Shreve

Where or When by Anita Shreve
First published by Harcourt in 1993 (this edition by Abacus in 1994)









Description (from Goodreads)
Charles Callahan, a faithfully married businessman, chances upon a newspaper photograph of a woman he loved 30 years ago. Unable to resist, he writes her, a poet living with her husband and two children.

Powerfully drawn together again, the two lovers grapple with issues they never expected to face: the nature of erotic love and betrayal, the agony of lost years, bewildering moral quandaries in an age of shifting values, and the elusive nature of time.

My thoughts

This is a book I had never thought about reading at any time. I had heard of Anita Shreve before, but I just never seemed to want to pick up a book of hers to read (for no particular reason). So this year, when I was browsing through my Grandma's bookshelves, I noticed that she had quite a few Anita Shreve books and it made me curious. Apparently, she loves reading Anita Shreve books, so I decided to try one to see for myself. Where or When was just the one I decided to pick up, as I looked through a few descriptions and that was the one that made me want to read it more.

So, after that ramble, I'll go on with the actual review. Where or When is the story of two people, Charles and Sian, who met at a summer camp when they were 12 and fell in love with each other. Fast forwarding 30 years, Charles and Sian have not seen each other since, but when Charles sees a photo of Sian in the newspaper, he decides to contact her. After that, we have a series of letters coming back and forth between the two main characters, until Charles realises he really is still in love with her (and she is still in love with him).

To me, the whole premise the novel was based on seems rather ridiculous. I can understand two people being in love, losing contact and then, meet up again, only to realise that the feeling has always been there. But in this case, it was a little stupid. I mean, Charles and Sian met when they were 12 (!!!), were at that summer camp for only a week (!!!!!) and after 30 years, they just decide that those brief moments 30-odd years ago are worth breaking up their whole families for. It just sounds very unrealistic and very shallow. And that ending.... Talk about disappointing. It left so many things open. But, at least, I am happy that it wasn't what I expected it to be.

And I really came to dislike Charles as a character. He was in debt, there was a big chance of their house being repossessed because of said debts and all that he cared about was how, when and where he would meet Sian. He didn't even seem to care that much about his children, at times, which I found to be catalytic in my decision not to like him. Sian, at least, was a little more dignified as a character.

All in all, I obviously haven't had a good first experience with Anita Shreve's writing, but I promise myself I will try reading another one of her books next year when I visit my grandparents' house again.

Rating: 4/10

Author:

Anita Shreve is an American author. She holds a degree from Tufts University and taught in high schools for a number of years before deciding to quit, in order to pursue a career in writing. She has written a large number of books, including:

The Pilot's Wife  |  The Weight of Water

The Last Time They Met  |  Sea Glass

You can find out more about Anita Shreve and her books from her official website.

Read for the: 100 Books In A Year Challenge 2011

One Chance by Steve May

One Chance by Steve May
First published by Egmont in 2004 (this edition by Egmont in 2004)


Description (from Goodreads):
Jaq, is running scared. This is France, wartime, 1940. Dodging soldiers and enemy tanks, hunted by the villagers for thieving, Jaq has nowhere to hide, nowhere to shelter, no one to turn to. And then he meets Lise...Told in the manner of a traditional adventure story, Steve May's writing stands out for its pace and dynamism, and offers a wonderfully fresh and modern account of wartime France.


My thoughts:
I only picked up this book because, after 1984, I was in the mood for something much lighter and much easier to read. One Chance is a children's book, which we have had for quite a few years, but which I had not read when I was younger. 


What I got was not what I expected. This is a book that is definitely targeted to a much, much younger audience than my 21-year-old self. The good thing about this book is that, instead of focusing on the war itself, it focused on the relationships between the members of two families, when Jaq, a 15 year old thief, appears and steals a chicken from one of them. All of these events happen having the war as a background and it only seems more real as the reader reaches the end of the book. It doesn't lessen the effect of the war, as it is mentioned throughout the book; it's just that it is more real near the end. The characters are ok. I didn't feel as if I could relate to any one of them, except maybe Yvette, Lise's mother. She was a wonderful maternal figure, not afraid to stand up for her beliefs.


The one thing I really did not like about this book was the writing. I hadn't liked it even after a few pages, but it got more tiring as the book progressed. As a result, it took me 2 days to finish a 250-pages-long children's book with a relatively large font. To give you an example, this is what you can find on the back cover of the book (but it is in the same tone as most of the book):

This is France, 1940. War is approaching and Jaq is running scared. Branded as a thief. Hunted. He has nowhere to hide. No one to turn to. And then he meets Lise.

Most of the time, it felt as if I was reading a telegram or something of the sort. Though I did not enjoy it very much, I am pretty positive that a younger child would probably enjoy the book. (It is the intended audience, after all!)

Rating: 4/10

Author:

Steve May is a teacher, poet and radio dramatist, among other things. His novel, One Chance, has been described as a classic wartime adventure story, fit to rival the storytelling of Morpurgo.

Read for the: 100 Books In A Year Challenge 2011, British Books Challenge 2011

The Messenger Of Athens

This is also a book we have had lying around the house for quite a few years. I remember my brother reading it at the time and telling me that he did not really enjoy it, so I sort-of put off reading it. I decided to give it a try this year, though, so here is the review.

The Messenger of Athens by Anne Zouroudi
First published by Bloomsbury in 2007 (this edition by Bloomsbury in 2008)

Book #1 in The Mysteries of the Greek Detective series


Description: (from back cover)

Lies, love, tragedy - and a stranger with the key to every secret

When the battered body of a young woman is discovered on a remote Greek island, the local police are quick to dismiss her death as an accident. Then, a stranger arrives, uninvited, from Athens, announcing his intention to investigate further. His methods are unorthodox, and he brings his own mystery into the web of dark secrets and lies. Who has sent him, on whose authority is he acting, and how does he know of dramas played out decades ago?


Opinions:
As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, The Messenger of Athens is a book we have had lying around the house for quite a few years and that my brother had read it and hadn't enjoyed it. I would like to clarify that I did not start reading this book expecting it to be bad, nor was I in any way influenced by my brother's opinions on it.

So, now that's clear, I have to day I did not enjoy this book. But it was not a bad book, per se. I remember that we bought this book because it sounded quite interesting and something we could relate to, in a way (as we live in Greece). The story does sound quite interesting, from the description on the back cover. There has been a death of a young woman on a Greek island which is dismissed as an accident. But obviously, someone suspects foul play, so a detective from Athens is sent over to investigate the case.

So, there's a death AND foul play suspected. You think that might make an interesting story. Well, it's not really. This book is so very slow in its narrative, that it made me want to read it just so that I could finish it. I really don't like leaving books unfinished (even though I have done it sometimes). Just to explain why I found it slow, by the time I reached page 150 (out of the approximately 250 pages of the whole book), the detective had only found out two things about the whole case. Which probably makes you wonder what was going on in those 150 pages.

The book was not bad in every aspect. The characters were quite well developed, but I think that's what made the book progress in such a slow way. There was also one thing I liked about the narrative. I think that the alternating chapters set in the present (when the detective was investigating) and the ones set in the past (before the death). Another thing I liked about the book is that the author actually gave Greek names to her characters. I remember reading other books, that weren't necessarily set in Greece, but they featured Greek characters, but with Anglicised versions of Greek names or even just plain English names. I'm sorry, but that's just not realistic.

This was the first book in the (quite successful) Mysteries of the Greek Detective (or Greek Detective, for short) Series, followed by The Taint of Midas, The Doctor of Thessaly and The Lady of Sorrows, all featuring the Greek detective Hermes Diaktoros. I am not sure I will be reading any of the follow-up books in the near future, but I have to admit, the covers are quite pretty. I like the fact that they are simple, consistent and look good as a full series.

Rating: 4/10

Author:
Anne Zouroudi was born on the 1st day of the year 1959, in Lincolnshire. After she finished school, she started working in the IT industry, which led her to America. There she started to take writing seriously and bought a typewriter, on which she wrote her first short stories. When she moved back to the UK, she went on holiday to a small Greek island (which serves as a backdrop in her first novel, The Messenger of Athens). She lived for many years in Greece, where she met her husband and had her son. Anne Zouroudi currently lives in Derbyshire with her son, where she is working on a new instalment for the Greek Detective series.

More information about the author can be found here:
Anne Zouroudi Official Website
Anne Zouroudi on Goodreads
Anne Zouroudi on Amazon.co.uk

Counts as Book #20 in my 100 Books In A Year Challenge and as Book #9 in my British Books Challenge 2011!

(All pictures are from Goodreads)

Dark Flame (The Immortals - Book 4)

Book title: Dark Flame (The Immortals - Book 4)
Author: Alyson Noel
Publisher: MacMillan
First published: 2010
No of pages: 320

Description: Ever is between three men: Roman, Damen and Jude. She knows who her true love is, but she is bound by magyck and is trapped by a passion that is uncontrollable. What will she do to remedy the situation?


Review:  Dark Flame is the fourth instalment of Alyson Noel's The Immotals series. I have read the previous three books in the series and I rather liked them, in a sort of easy-to-read-book way. So when I went to the bookshop, and I saw that the fourth book had come out, I bought it! I didn't start reading it straight away though.

When I did though, I have to admit that I actually found this book to be rather tiring. Nothing much seemed to be going on. The whole book revolved around two main themes, one of them being the passion mentioned in the description. The lack of themes was not my problem with the book. It was more the way that the author went about presenting them. I honestly got to a point where I had read approximately half of the book and it felt like a was basically reading one of the previous books in the series, with a slightly altered main theme.

It's not that it's a bad book per se, it's just that it resembles the previous ones a little too much and it makes the whole reading process a bit tedious. The fact that I did not particularly enjoy this book, however, will not put me off reading the next books in the series. I have already bought the fifth book, which I will be reading sometime this year and then reviewing!

Rating: 4/10


Author: Now, for the customary info about the author. Alyson Noel is an American author. She held a vast variety of jobs, before finally becoming an author. Noel credits the book ''Are you there God? It's me, Margaret'' by Judy Blume as inspiration for becoming an author. Her first ever book was called ''Faking 19'' and it focuses on the lifestyles of teens today. Some of her other books include ''Art Geeks and Prom Queens'', ''Kiss & Blog'' and ''Lacuna Cove''. The titles of the Immortals Series books are (in order):

1. Evermore

2. Blue Moon

3. Shadowland

4. Dark Flame

5. Nightstar

6. Everlasting (due June 7th, 2011)

Alyson Noel has also created a spin-off series from The Immortals, called ''The Riley Bloom Series'', which features Ever's sister, Riley. The first book, ''Radiance'', has been published and the second one, ''Shimmer'' is  due on the 15th March 2011. Here are some selected covers

And again, for anyone who is interested:

Alyson Noel

Alyson Noel on Wikipedia

Alyson Noel on Amazon.co.uk

The Immortals Series

Counts as Book #2 in my 100 Books In A Year!