Peaches for Monsieur le Cure by Joanne Harris July 9, 2012

What I thought:

I haven’t been around again lately – if you saw my last “cakey” post then you’ll know why. Unfortunately my new found venture also means that I have had less and less time for reading (sigh ). In fact, despite longing to read Peaches for Monsieur le Curé for months before it came out, it actually then took me about three weeks to read (instead of the usual three days). But do you know what? I think that just made me love it even more. Picking up this books was such a sumptuous treat and one I couldn’t wait to find half a hour to escape with (whether it be in the bath, while having a rare sit down with a cup of coffee or snuggling down into bed before going to sleep). Seriously, this is what reading is all about. Enjoying a book so much that it feels like a special treat.

It’s no secret that I am a huge Joanne Harris fan. I have raved about her books many a time on this blog and Five Quarters of the Orange is actually one of my all-time favourites. So imagine my delight when I discovered that there was to be a third book in the “Chocolat” series. Chocolat was the first book I read by Harris and I absolutely loved it. The setting in a little French village, the secrets and mysteries and magic – lovely! Although I wasn’t quite as enamoured with The Lollipop Shoes (second in the series) I was still longing to read more of Vianne and Anouk’s travels so when I saw that they were heading back to Lansquenet (the original village that they left 8 years previously) I couldn’t wait to get started.

Vianne recieves a letter from the grave – from Armande whom she befriended in Chocolat - telling her to come back to the village as trouble would be brewing. Vianne, after a little consideration, breezes back in on the wind with Anouk and younger daughter Rosette in tow to find a village on the verge of something: something is brewing in Lansquenet. A muslim community which has been living peacefully among the villagers for the last 8 years is turning away and a mysterious and aloof woman who is veiled from head to toe in black apears to be the one behind it all.

I loved the cover of the book (who could possibly not drool at the sight of those delicious looking peaches – OK there is a pesky wasp on there too and I don’t “do” wasps!). True to form, the descriptions of the peaches straight from the tree and the jam they make from them and the chocolates that Vianne begins to make again and the aromatic moroccon food had me salivating. And what wonderful characters too – I just loved Omi (the old Grandmother who sneaks food during Ramadan) and even Monsieur le Curé himself manages to find his heart in this book (which makes it so much easier for us to loose ours to him). To be honest, although it was like catching up with old friends in this book, even though I had forgotten a lot of the original cast (it’s a long while since I read the first book): I could remember their names but nothing else about them. This means that it would be possible to entirely enjoy this book without having read the other two; having said that you are seriously missing out if you do. I insist that you read them all in order and you will be as richly rewarded as your taste buds will be at every page.

Verdict: A treat. Read it!

 

Not much about books but a lot about cake! June 6, 2012

Mmmm, cake!

Happy Diamond Jubilee Your Majesty!

I’ve been fairly quiet again in the last couple of weeks but this time I have an excuse: I’ve been baking for England (quite literally last week as I baked a batch of Diamond Jubilee cupcakes).

I have decided to do a little cupcake venture and have set up a facebook page for anyone who’s interested: www.facebook.com/claudinescake

 

Here are just a small selection of the cupcakes that I have created recently:

Bunny rabbit

Moooo!

Sleeping baby

Two sleeping babies

Woof!

Cat on a mat

A collection of furry / woolly things

Summer’s here! (or at least it was fleetingly…)

Peppa and George

What do you think?

Peaches in the sun May 22, 2012

Something really strange happened today…

 

The sun came out!

What better reason, then, to nip down to Pugneys Lake for a little snooze in the sun and to start my sumptuous looking new book Peaches for Monsieur le Curé by Joanne Harris. I slipped into the first pages like melted chocolate and can’t wait to read on.

 

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes May 21, 2012

In three words:

Beautiful, funny, heart-breaking

What I thought:

Many years ago I read a book called The Ship of Brides by Jojo Moyes and I loved it. Why then has it taken me this long to pick another of her books up? If I loved Ship of Brides then I ADORED this!

Me Before You stars a young, eccentricly dressed young woman called Lou Clark who has lost her job at the local cafe and has to make a choice about her next job betweenworking in a chicken factory or being a carer to a disabled man. At the time, neither seem appealing but Lou opts for the role of carer which is where she meets Will Trayor. Will is in his mid thirties and up until his accident he was a high-flying, adrenaline-junkie, career-minded business man with a great appartment in London and a gorgeous girlfriend. Since the accident which left Will quadriplegic, he is now living with, and being cared for by, his parents and hating every second of it. The first meeting between Lou and Will is anything but comfortable and Lou begins to wonder what she has let herself in for. Before long though, Lou has decided to try to make Will’s life a happy one again and show him that it might just be worth living afterall.

What is amazing about this book is that despite dealing with a serious subject matter such as the right to die, Me Beofre You is infused with humour and comic relief that had me howling at parts. Believe me, the humour is needed and Will is one of the funniest characters I have read for a while. Moyes never sugar-coats Will’s condition and this and his sarcastic sense of humour are what makes him so human

Now a warning: Do not read this book in public! I am not kidding when I say that I sobbed my way through the last 50 or so pages, and from reading other reviews I am not alone. You would have to have a heart of stone not to be moved by this book.

Verdict: Highly, highly recommended. I was so invested in this small cast of characters that I felt as though I had lost friends when I finished this book. The growing friendship between Lou and Will is one of the most touching and heart-breaking I have ever read and I found myself willing them on at every turn of the page:  I still find myself thinking about them now.

 

  Have you read this book or anything else by Jojo Moyes? What did you think?

 

The Gambia in photos May 17, 2012

Holiday bliss – reading on the beach

The Gambia in photos

Regular readers of my blog will know that travel is one of my passions (I still have to do part 2 and 3 of my trip to Paris yet – sorry I’ve been off the radar for a while but I will get round to it, I promise). Last month, Mr Whisperer and I went to The Gambia on the west coast of Africa and it was one of my favourite holidays.

What I loved about The Gambia:

1) The people – it’s not nickenamed The Smiling Coast of Africa for no reason – the locals are some of the friendliest people I have ever met. They are happy, smiley, chatty and have a great sense of humour.

2) The weather – hot, hot, hot!

3) The animals – we had monkeys and cats on our patio and huge turtles and lizards elsewhere in our hotel grounds. We also went to a crocodile park and I actually got up close and personal with a crocodile (with nothing between me and it). I was expecting its skin to be like armour but it was actually really soft (although as my horrified sister-in-law pointed out, it’s teeth aren’t!)

4) The culture – we went on an open top jeep tour and among other things we visited a local primary school and watched some lessons in progress and also a fishing village in the early evening when the boats were coming back in with the fish. It was crazy and amazing!

5) The relaxation – beaches, palm trees, friendly locals, sun. What more is there?

A holiday to remember

A regular visitor to our patio (usually when there was peanuts or mangos nearby)

The most insane place – the village of Tanje where they bring in the fish each day

Crazy, insane, wonderful!

Trip to see a local primary shcool

Children hanging around the school in the hope of some sweet – luckily we came prepared

Wall art with books – and lots of them

The fruit ladies on the beach touting for business

The lovely Fatima who adopted us as “her” customer

Trip down the Gambia River and through the mangroves

The oyster ladies in the mangroves

Chilling with one of my books on the beach – bliss

Band on the beach

I’m watching you!!!

Hanmade batik’s

Our hotel

  Have you ever been to Africa? Where else do you recommend that I add to my “travel hist-list”?

NB/ The above photos belong to me and may not be used without my permission. Thank you.

A Life Without Limits by Chrissie Wellington May 16, 2012

In three words:

Inspirational, passionate, engaging

 

 

What I thought:

I admit – I had never heard of Chrissie Wellington. I am a recent conver to cycling and swimming in particular and I kept coming across this book so I was intrigued to find out why so many glowing reviews.

Chrissie Wellington is an extraordinary woman – she never started out life wanting to be a sportswoman, despite being a member of the local swimming club. What is aparant from her early life, though, is her passion and dedication to everything she cares about: Chrissie does nothing at half measures and sets out to win at pretty much everything she does (academic, career or sport). Not only that, but Chrissie came to this sport late – not even competing in her first race until she was in her 30′s.

What is fantastic about this book is that it grips you from the beginning and doesn’t let you go. Chrissie takes the reader through her younger life and early career to show us how she came to be the winner of so many Ironman triathlons. Her early travels and career which took her all over the world, pretty much, were just as intersting to me as the “sports bits” as it really shows us the sort of person that she is. Cycling with friends though Nepal was also a grounding for her future career in competing triathlons and I loved hearing about the rides and adventures she went on there as well as New Zealand, Argentina and so many other places. Chrissie’s passion for the charities she worked for shone through too and I am sure it is this dogged determination that has seen her win so many races since.

Verdict: Whether you are a lover of sport or not, I would highly recommend this book. It is engaging, interesting, passionate and a gripping read. And even if you haven’t even got on a bike in the last 20 years (like I hadn’t until recently) I guarantee you’ll be wanting to enter an Ironman after reading this…

 

  What do you think about sports biographies? Have you read any others that you can recommend?

 

Dead Scared by S J Bolton May 13, 2012

In three words:

Cambridge, nightmares, scared

 

 

What I thought:

Just over a year ago I discovered S J Bolton’s books, starting with Sacrife which I absolutely loved. Since then I have gone on to read three more of her books and this latest book is every bit as good as all the others.

Dead Scared is the second book featuring Detectives Lacey Flint and Mark Joesbury and this time they are in Cambridge investigating an unusually high number of student suicides at the University over the last 5 years. Lacey is sent undercover to live as student Laura Farrow at the Universtity and only days into her “new life” she discovers that the suicides aren’t quite what they first seem. The students, usually female and pretty, are killing themselves in increasingly violent ways after complaing of nightmares and being terrified for weeks  beforehand. Lacey/Laura delves deeper into the lives and histories of the student deaths with the help of University Psychiatrist Evi Oliver (who is apparantly a character from Blood Harvest which is the only obe of Boltons books that I haven’t read yet – to be rectified VERY soon!). Evi is the person who alerted the police to her concerns about the high suicide rate in Cambridge and soon finds that  not only is she suffering from nightmares herself but strange and very scary things are starting to happen to her in her own home too.

Despite this being the second book to star Flint and Joesbury, I don’t think that it is at all necessary to have read the first in the series, Now You See Me. There are a few references to things that happened in that first book but I was really pleased to note that Bolton didn’t give away any of the plot that would spoil it for readers who haven’t picked that one up yet. Also, the way that this book ends means that surely there is a next in the series to come. YES!

Verdict: Highly recommended. I found this book absolutely fantastic and had trouble putting it down. It had me hooked from page one (which has been something pretty rare recently as I have struggled to get into a few books), and it was an intelligent and fast-paced thriller with genuinely creepy moments and if you are of a nervous disposition I would heartily recommend that you don’t read this book alone in the dark….

 

  Have you read any of S J Bolton’s books. If not, are you going to?

 

(Source: I received a copy of this book for review from Netgalley)