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Book Review of Betty Woodcock’s The Pram

Author, Betty Woodcock, sent me a copy of her novel, The Pram. Honestly, I don’t find the cover too appealing, but it disguises a bit of a gem.

Description from Amazon:
When Carrie buys a secondhand pram for her eagerly awaited grandchild, she becomes trapped in a horrifying nightmare world, terrorised by her own aborted baby . . . already worried that only she can see the phantom baby in the pram, Carrie is appalled when her granddaughter is placed beside it and the two merge. Unsure if she has imagined this, she tells no one. And so her nightmare begins . . . She is shocked when the phantom converses with her in her mind . . . especially when it claims to be her own aborted child. Horrified, torn between a mix of love and revulsion for her grandchild and terror of the intimidating invading spirit, Carrie doesn’t know what to do. Then she begins to see ghosts, and is convinced she is losing her mind. The mind-to-mind conversations become menacing and Carrie panics and sometimes answers the baby aloud, causing misunderstandings with her daughter. She dreads that her grandchild will never outgrow this weirdness which is becoming terrifyingly entrenched. So when her long-ago lover’s unexpected return to her life coincides with vindictive blasts of pain in her head, she can’t resist asking for his advice. He is intrigued by Carrie’s heavily censored story, and too late, she realises she has made a mistake . . . he also has a genetic link to the malevolent She must keep them apart because neither of them know that he is the father.

Review
The Pram recounts the frightening experience of Carrie M. as she is terrorised by the ghost of her worst mistake. Told largely in the first person, The Pram drops the reader into the mind of the main character. While not a huge fan of first-person narratives, it is pretty effective in this particular case. It provides you with a very clear understanding of her thoughts, thought processes, worries, and very real fears as she tries to come to terms with the existence of what she considers to be an alien being within her grandchild. This inside knowledge did leave me feeling a little bit like Carrie made a snap decision about Baby, though. While this may, in fact, have been the right decision, in the end, she never once considered that the baby might be benign. She accepts that the other ghosts are and even takes Baby’s word for it, but she never pays Baby the same courtesy. This, coupled with the abrupt manner in which Carrie treats her daughter in order to disguise her dislike for the baby, left me disliking her. I get that she was terrified, and who can be expected to be at their best when in the grips of terror? I should give her a little leeway on the issue, but I still didn’t like her. In fact, I didn’t like most of the characters. I found Carrie’s daughter to be annoying and Gervaise false. I kept waiting for him to turn out to be the baddie somehow. But a person can like a book without liking the characters. Unlikeable characters are just as valuable as goodie-goodies. I think they seem more life-like.

The writing is clear and easy to follow. There are a few typos, but not enough to spoil the read. I considered it to be a really satisfying read, with one exception. Unless this is meant to be an allegory on the power of God (how he can easily accomplish what humans are unable to even when they try their hardest), the whole thing felt like it wrapped up a little too quickly and easily. All-in-all, it’s worth the read. I read it on an international flight, and it easily passed the time for me.

Book Review: Murder Takes Time, by Giacomo Giammatteo

Author Giacomo Giammatteo (who has possibly the coolest name ever) sent me a copy of his new novel Murder Takes Time. This book had 25 5* reviews on Amazon.com when I got it. It has 26 now. 

Description from Amazon:
A string of brutal murders has bodies piling up in Brooklyn, and Detective Frankie Donovan knows what is going on. Clues left at the crime scenes point to someone from the old neighborhood, and that isn’t good.

Frankie has taken two oaths in his life–the one he took to uphold the law when he became a cop, and the one he took with his two best friends when they were eight years old and inseparable. Those relationships have forced Frankie to make many tough decisions, but now he faces the toughest one of his life; he has five murders to solve and one of those two friends is responsible. If Frankie lets him go, he breaks the oath he took as a cop and risks losing his job. But if he tries to bring him in, he breaks the oath he kept for twenty-five years–and risks losing his life.

In the neighborhood where Frankie Donovan grew up, you never broke an oath.

Review:

Oh yea,  a full five stars for this one! Murder Takes Time is ostensibly a pretty straightforward cops versus the Mafia murder mystery, but it doesn’t take long to realise that there is a lot more to it than that. Tony ‘the brain,’ Nicky ‘the rat,’ Paulie ‘the suit’ and Fankie ‘Bugs’ Donovan are fabulously conflicted characters, with full histories and a genuine desire to do right by their friends (even when failing miserably). You really feel for them (one in particular, but I don’t want to ruin anything).

“Rule number 2: Murder has consequences”, and so does everything else. This is a book that highlights impeccably the damage that can be done in the spur of the moment. It moves along at a good pace, never seems to drag more than necessary, throws a few red herrings at you to keep things interesting and ends on a high note. There is quite a lot of violence. The title should probably forewarn you of that. But despite being gruesome I never thought it became gratuitous or overly graphic. It certainly could have been and I don’t think the book would have been improved by it. Giammatteo walks a dangerously thin line on this one, but never steps off it in my opinion.

Definitely if you are a fan of The Godfather (especially the second one), Goodfellas, or Donnie Brasco you should race out and pick this book up. You’ll feel right at home.

A 5 step plan to clear my shelves

Do you have an ereader? How many books do you have stored in it? Me, I’ve got a Kindle, my husband has a Nook and the family has a computer, all of which have books on themthousands of books. I could stop gathering them now and still not need to buy a new one for a couple of years. I won’t, but I could. Be that as it may I still prefer a real physical book. I love the heft of it, the ease of flicking back and forwards, the visual reminder of how close to finished I am, the smell (I know, weird right), and the ability to have it autographed.

What I don’t love is hundreds and hundreds of books that I’ll never read again gathering dust in the corners, on the shelves, under the bed, or anywhere else I can find a place for them. Don’t get me wrong, there are some books I’d always want a copy of, preferably hardbound and prominently on display. Those books qualify as art and are exempt from anything I might say from this point forwards, but what of all of those relatively inexpensive paperbacks that I’m finished with?

I have tons of them and simply can’t bear to throw them away. That would be beyond wasteful. I’ve put some thought into this and I have a plan. A plan, as you might have guessed, I intend to share with you so that you might do the same. Here’s what I’m going to do to clear my shelves, making room for new books, in a series of 5 simple steps.

First, I’m getting together with a few girlfriends of mine, who like, me have too many books. No doubt you know a few too. I’m inviting them over to lunch with instructions to bring 5 good books they’ve read and are willing to part with. Over pasta and a good red (no one said I was much of a cook) we’ll lay the books out for discussion, debate, negotiation, and eventually rehoming. Hopefully everyone will leave with five fewer read books and five more new books to read. You could also join forces with your friends to have a joint book sale. Me, I can’t be hassled. 

Next, those books that were a little pricier and therefore might be worth a few bob I’m giving to the local charity. In my experience they have become a lot more selective about books. They don’t want all of that pulp cluttering up their shelves either, but hardbacks still seem to be welcome.

Third, I’m sending some out into the wild. If you haven’t discovered the Bookcrossing yet, you should. The whole idea is intriguing. It started in 2001 and has grown into an international phenomenon. According to the website there are “here are currently 1,181,663 BookCrossers and 9,197,339 books travelling throughout132 countries.”

Once registered with the site (which is free) users are able to tag their books by marking them with a provided BCID (BookCrossing Identity Numbers). Each one is unique to each book. After that pass the book onto someone you think will love it, or better yet leave it on the train, in the cafe, the dentist’s office, etc. This is releasing it into the wild. Once registered and released, its journey can be followed as it travels the world. 

Fouth, I’m signing up for one of the online book swap  groups. There are a number of them these days, Read It, Swap It, BookMooch, Paperback Swap, Title TraderBook Exchange (UK), etc. In most cases you just create an account, list the books you wish to put up for offer, and wait for a request. The downside is that it can be awful hard to resist also making a request or two of your own. Keep on task. The idea is to get rid of books, not find new ones. 

Last, those last few books that I just couldn’t get rid of for whatever reason I’m going to get creative with. I’ve never actually tried making book art, so I don’t expect to create anything too grand. They have some amazing ones here: Book art. These two look comparatively simple though. 

 

 

 

 

That’s my five stage plan to clear off my shelves. I fully expect to fill them again, but that’s part of the fun isn’t it. So, how about you? Have you got any other suggestions? I’d love to hear them.