More hard copy
Writing myself notes to remember things is a good idea in theory, but I am let down on a number of occasions by my past self's confident belief that only a few key words will be needed to remind me of a complex chain of events. So, currently, the notepad next to my computer says "number 3 mech academy", which could be an anime reference (I am slowly working through various Gundam serieses) or a mangled street address or neither. The comment underneath that says "Antique ribboned autumn" (I think it's "autumn". I thought it was "ottoman" at first, which might have actually made sense (not that I am looking for an antique ottoman, with or without ribbons), but there's a definite "aut" at the beginning, even if everything after that deteriorates into my usual scrawl), which doesn't help at all. Anyway. Fortunately I have slightly more detailed notes on these. Although then I hit the iPod books, which I believe contain a number of electronic bookmarks that no doubt made sense at the time...

Rumer Godden, Five for Sorrow, Ten for Joy. Elizabeth Fanshawe, Lise Ambard, is in Paris after liberation (WWII) when she meets a man, Patrice, who she falls in love with and stays with, despite the fact that he is an abusive pimp who prefers a young runaway (Vivi) whom Lise ends up adopting. Through Vivi’s manipulations Lise ends up shooting Patrice, and going to prison for his murder; in prison, she discovers a religious vocation and on release becomes a nun. There’s a double-time thread to the narrative, interspersed with first-person pieces from Vivi, until it all runs together at the end.

Whenever I’ve read a book before which stated with the heroine being released from prison in this sort of setting it’s been about revenge, so the focus on redemption via religion was a nice change, but the nuns in this were so amazingly good in a character sense that it pulled the story all out of true for me. Yes, some of the nuns still swear, but they’re all kind, patient and understanding; the senior ones can tell that the strung-out junkie is actually not the one using drugs, but instead is being blackmailed by the more laid-back, friendly peasant, and they’re all terribly, terribly noble. Possibly if I hadn’t read this just after the release of the Ryan report it would also have worked slightly better. Regardless of that, though, the confrontation that ends the story is more of a postponement rather than a resolution of the conflict between Lise and Vivi; it didn't feel like it was a serious challenge to Lise's choices.


Helen Lowe, Thornspell. Sleeping Beauty prequel from the prince’s point of view; I picked this up originally in the bookshop out of a desire to Support NZ Authors, but ended up putting it back down again and getting it from the library instead after Sigismund (the prince) failed to make any decisions, or at least any with consequences in the first 50 pages.

Unfortunately this continues. I think this is partly a problem with the prequel/known fairy-tale structure, and it’s quite possible that people who are more into inevitable destiny etc will be fine with this, but it’s hard to feel all that concerned about Sigismund’s eventual fate when someone’s always popping up to save him from evil and point him towards the next plot objective. Also, when he does finally act by deciding to head off and force a final conflict, he does so in the middle of the night without telling anyone for no good reason at all (fortunately, tho’, the poppers-up arrive again at the appropriate nicks of time), which is the sort of behaviour that tends to irk me unless there's a very good reason for it.

Outside of Sigismund himself Thornspell is a rather nonspecific sort of book – there’s a reference to Italy, but otherwise it’s fairly undifferentiated Europe – and most of the description is visual, which is another choice that makes me feel removed from the characters, watching rather than experiencing (the boar hunt was very disappointing in this respect - all visuals). Only one mention of food that I recall - bread and cheese, no further description - and a political structure that appears to cope with the Crown Prince receiving only a minimal education in actual politics and disappearing for large chunks of time. I am really a reader who believes you generalise best by being specific (for a very different, grounded, Sleeping Beauty re-telling, try Jane Yolen’s Briar Rose, set in the Holocaust – I have problems with the layers of narrative, but the story itself is devastating), and this is too diffuse to work for me.


Doreen Tovey, Making the horse laugh. Diminishing returns - Cats in May is brilliant (and I really must track down Cats in the Belfry), but this is the 5th or 6th book, and it's enjoyable but forgettable. Their travels - to Canada and the Camargue - are the most interesting bits here.