GOLDFINGER by IAN FLEMING- Review

 Goldinger is the 7th Ian Fleming book, publishing date of 1959. Having watched many James Bond movies, I am used to the action taking place at the beginning and just getting more and more intense as the movie moves forward. This book and movie ate pretty true to one another, except for maybe the gadgets and the shifting of some of the data. There is of course more reflection in a book over a movie. 

This book starts of with bond finishing an assignment and thinking about whether he likes the things he does, and looking forward to a much needed break. In the movie, we are on that assignment and he is heading to Miami afterward. Both meet Mr. Goldfinger in Miami, but through different people: Book an aquintance who is getting hustled: movie the British Govt wants Bond to keep an eye on him.

I have never read an Ian Fleming book, but they are pretty well written, maybe I will read a few more that were not written in 1959.

The Sirens of Titan-review

 The Sirens of Titan was written by Kurt Vonnegut, and fiirst published in 1959. My copy was published in 2009 by Dial Press Club. 

Space travel, Martians, religious input, and three people most sffected by these things. Mr. Rumford is stuck in the Chrono-synclastic infundibula, with his dog Kazak. This means he appears every 14 days with an update for his wife Beatrice and eventually a man named Malachi Constant. When Rumford appears he comes to the same space in his house. Recently he has told Beatrice that  she will marry Malachi and have a son named Chrono, and live on Mars. This make Beatrice mad, and both she and Malachi try to devise ways to avoid each other. Malachi sells the very spaceship that Rumford says they will use. Beatrice refuses to be  forced to marry, since she is already married. 

Rumford pulls strings all over the place to get this to happen. But is it only him pulling the strings. There is a martian invasion of Earth, but these are not the type of Martians you read about in stories. Though there are little antenna sticking out of their heads. 

I have to say it is the quirkiest book I have read, in regards to space travel. It's worth the read only to figure out how it plays with the space race that was happening around the time this book was written.

Religion also plays a roll in this book, but a religion based not on God but accidents that happen to everybody and why.

Review: The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

 The Haunting of Hill House  by Shirley Jackson,was published in 1959 by Viking books, my copy was published in 2006 by Penguin books. The introduction to the book was by Laura Miller.

I am not a big horror fan, used to be in my 20's but as you grow older and hear the atrocities you realize you tend to live horror everyday. I have watched various ghost hunting shows and find them very interesting. I have always believed in entities, especially when my grandmother told me the figure passing behind her was my grandfather just checking up on her. Not a malevolent entity. 

Hill House is a little different as you are introduced in the beginning about the house that wished to be left alone. Enter a Dr. Montague who studies the occult, his assistant Theo, the future owner of the house, and Eleanor. Eleanor was brought in because the Dr. thought that she may have a poltergiest connected to her from a past experience. 

Eleanor arrives first, is introduced to the caretaker and the housekeeper, who basically tell her she should leave. The house description is great, she sees that the walls don't quite match, her room is dark, everything in the whole house is dark. On her way to Hill House she fantasizes about her escape from her current life and wouldn't be nice to live in a little place hidden by oleanders. Hill House is nothing like she expects or even hoped for, she thinks about leaving when the next guest arrives. 

Theo is all personality and tries to get Eleanor to not be afraid, but I feel that she abuses their tenuous friendship, constantly pointing out Eleanors feelings. But at first they are both thinking the house is a little weird, especially the housekeeper.

Luke is the potential owner of the house but he is young and full of life. Theo eventually tells Eleanor that he is a rake. He arrives with Dr. Montague. 

The real action does not start until midway through the book, but there is always a feeling that something is about to happen. To me it does not read scary, but I am sure in 1959 it was very scary type of book and I am sure the movie or miniseries of today will use CGI to make you jump, startle and hide your eyes. I need to watch the mini-series. 

But before the hauntings begin, there is the change in the attitude of Eleanor, talking to herself, trying to fit in and eventually getting angry at the people in the house. The end was unexpected but it shouldn't have been because of the foreshadowing in the book. Nobody leaves Hill House unless it wants them to leave. 

I liked th book, but I am preparing myself for the changes in the plot when I watch it. My daughter who has watched the mini-series says she is going to read the book. Then we are going to discuss the changes. 

Cat Among the Pigeons by Agatha Christie

This is one of the books from my list of books first published the year I was born. It is Agatha Christies 29th Hercule Poirot story. In this book Hercule Poirot is somewhat retired only acting as a consultant. In fact the whole scenario plays out and he comes in about midway through the book. 

The cast of characters include, a headmistress at Meadowbank, an all girls school. She has a friend who helped develop the school and make it a high rated school, they are Miss Bulstrode and Miss Chadwick. Remember woman teachers are not to be married. Then there are the other mistresses of the school teaching various subjects and the girls themselves. Each their own precocious selves. 

But that is not the only place, we travel to another place called Ramat, where there is about to be an overthrow of the government. A british escort to the Prince of Ramat is about to receive a package from Prince Ali Yusuf to secret away from the country. Our escort, Bob Rawlison just happens to have family in the area and he hides it discretely away in their things. 

So with the revolution about to start British people are asked to leave, others are sabatoged and the whole mess lands in Meadowbank unbeknowst to any of the mistresses. Two deaths later and in comes Hercule Poirot, having been asked by an unlikely person to intervene.

Lovely twists and turns, felt like I could not put the book down and I figured out the culprit or culprits pretty easily. Especially, when the phrase "cat among the pigeons" was said on multiple occasions.

Good book, to while away the hours.

I have read over a hundred books since my last blog, a long time ago- it seems like at least 5 years. I have never finished my reading challenge of 100 books that you need to read in a facebook challenge. I only have two to go and for reasons unknown to me I just can't get them done. One is the Golden Notebook - Doris Lessing and the other is Marcel Proust- Swann's Way.

I vow to get them read but have started a new challenge for myself. This year I am going to read at least ten books written (published) in 1959.

This is the list- not in any particular order

1. Cat Among Pigeons-Agatha Christie

2. Goldfinger- Ian Fleming

3.The Sirens of Titan- Kurt Vonnegut

4. Endurance -Alfred Lansing

5. Echo in the Skull-John Brunner

6. Starship Troopers - Robert Heinlein

7-10 are still being debated. 

I am also doing reviews of books on Goodreads.

My Name is Lucy Barton- review

My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout, published by Penguin Random House LLC in 2016. This is a work of fiction but if you think about how the mind work it is right on point , which makes it almost seem like non-fiction. How many times does something cause you to reflect on something in the past and that is what happens in this book. You find out about her home life by her reflections after talks with her mother or talks with her friends or family. But the most reflections comes from her talks with her mother in a hospital setting where Lucy is basically captive.

It took me a bit to warm up to it, so I may have to go back and reread the initial chapters. Her stream of thought is like most peoples. It jumps around according to what is happening in their lives. The other day my husband was your have an interesting stream of consciousness, we were driving and things along the route just jumped out at me and of course I just blurted out what ever came to mind. Nothing hurtful, sometimes songs, poems, something someone said to me in the past. That is the feeling I get from this book.

Her husband is somewhat neglectful, his wife is in the hospital for 2 months and he decides to have an affair with the babysitter of her two children, which she finds out much later. he brings he mother in, so that he doesn't have to sit with his wife in the hospital, because he does not like them.

In her past, is abuse, but you don't get the whole story, we see snippets and then have to infer as to what really was going on. She tells her story of her life in the hospital and what happens surrounding that, before, during and after. But she does not delve into this info because she says that's another story. She is given a quote form another author " You only have one story to tell" and we hear this particular story, making you want to find out more about her life.

Very interesting way to set up a story. I wonder as with Elizabeth Strout's Olive books will we see a sequel about Lucy, so she can tell us another story.

The Great Alone by Kristen Hannah

THE GREAT ALONE by Kristin Hannah, published by St. Martins Press in 2018. 
I haven't reviewed a book in a bit, but after reading travel manuals for my travel blog, I felt that I needed to start writing the things I have been reading. Last month I read the book EDUCATED by Tara Westover and was surprised by the cruelty that happened in this book, the extremes presented and the men who think they are protecting you but in reality are hurting you. Tara's was based on her life and her family.

THE GREAT ALONE is a work of fiction but holds true to the concepts above, a man broken by circumstances tries to protect his family from the horrors of the world after Vietnam, and finds the last frontier in Alaska. Hoping to get away from the rules of society. In tow are his wife Cora and daughter Leni. They have inherited a cabin in the woods on the Kenai pennisula, when it was mostly, dirt road, no electricity and no running water. They move when it is summer and full of light, but winter comes and the darkness that lies within the father Ernt comes pouring out , usually in the form of abuse to Cora. In a typical "I love him, and it's not his fault he is like this excuse," she stays, never press charges and gives her daughter a very unrealistic look about what love is.

Leni still finds someone in the only boy her age in this wilderness, who she likes, but the wilderness can be cruel and this young man experiencing tragedy leaves to him leaving for awhile to live with his Aunt and Uncle in Fairbanks. They write and their feelings change, but the obstacle is his father Mr. Walker. Ernt, Leni's father hates the family because he thinks Mr. Walker is flirting with his wife and trying to change Alaska. 

The Walker family had been the first people to homestead this land and had built a small city and opened it up to people who wanted to live on the land , but as time changes so do thoughts about what this area could look like in the future. This is a thorn in Ernt's side, he wants to live off the grid and not have electricity, running water or a bathroom. Many clashes of will occur, which usually ends with Cora battered and bruised.

Ms. Hannah brings to light the harshness and beauty of Alaska in this book. The dangers that you can encounter and the reality to people who think they can live in Alaska because they went in the summer when it was beautiful. Having been to Alaska in the summer I saw the beauty of the place the long hours of sunlight, the great flowers and rivers. I even played golf at midnight. My husband who lived in Alaska for a few years when he was a child, knows the harsh reality of Alaska. The long nights, the expense of buying things to stay alive, the hunting in the wilderness with his dad and the knowing that you always have to be prepared. When we visited in the summer, he had us bring winter coats, gloves hats, flashlights, water and food, no matter where we went. He was always prepared, he learned this from Alaska. 

This book made me understand more about Alaska and how it can either bring a family together or tear it apart. Great book. Great title.