"The Mists of Avalon" by Marion Zimmler Bradley

Oh my goodness where to begin.

This book was absolutely amazing, and I have no idea how I can possibly do it justice here, without actually revealing the whole plot. Actually I'm not sure I could even do that it's so complex, and to be honest I'm not sure I remember all the details.

This is a huge book too, it took me about a week and a half to read, and that's without doing anything else on the side.

It's basically, if I'm to be extremely brief, a retelling of the legend of Arthur, but from the point of view of the women surrounding him, especially his sister Morgan le Fay (named Morgaine in this version of the story). She's really the main character of the story, but we see the point of views of all the important female characters from the original legends (the Lady of the lake, Vivianne, Nimue, Gwenhywfar, etc).

So first of all instead of approaching the story from a male point of view, we see in all through the eyes of women, and a great variety of women too.

There's also a whole lot of religion in this book. Ms Bradley shows the conflict between the old Druid religion, worshipping nature and the Goddess, and the new Christian religion worshipping Christ. So again there's this conflict between a patriarchal point of view and a matriarchal one. This is an important plot key that appears again and again as the story progresses.

The book starts as Morgaine is just a young girl of five years old, and Arthur isn't even born yet, and the book follows the path of her entire life, until we finish with Morgaine as an old woman remembering the days of her youth. So the story takes place over at the very least a good fifty years.

And it's just so good. You see her go through all these changes as she adapts to these situations, and how she reacts to what life throws at her. You see her defend her beliefs against all odds, how she both helps and attacks Arthur, how she simultaneously loves and hates him.

And the older she gets, the more she sees things differently, and she does things that she swore she would never do and vice versa.

It's just a fantastic book, it's definitely become one of my favourites and I would not hesitate to read it again sometime. To think I almost didn't read it because I thought it looked too ordinary and boring.

100% would recommend.

"The Red Queen" by Philippa Gregory

I can't even remember why I got this actually. Usually I do, but it's just a blank in this case. I mean I ordered it so there must have been a reason...

In any case I ordered it, and I read it, and I didn't like it very much.

I found it boring actually, it felt like I was reading a really long historical complaint. And I know that Philippa Gregory specialises in historical novels, but that does not mean that they have to be so dull.

And I like history! I think it's great! But the main character here, Margaret Beaufort was just annoying and self righteous and not all that interesting.

She's a very religious person and she's completely convinced of her own greatness. She's persuaded that she has her own personal connexion with God, who apparently speaks to her directly.

And her destiny (or so she believes) is to put her son Henry Tudor on the throne. And so first of all you have to hear her moan about her marriage to her first two husbands (whom were chosen by her mother), and then you have to wait until Henry is actually old enough to understand what a throne is, and then there's the multiple plots and plans to overthrow the kings currently in place.

All this with Margaret moaning about what she deserves, and what God owes her, and why she's so much better than everyone else.

Boring.

And of course she moans about how her York cousins are in power, when the throne should be in the hands of her side of the family (the Lancaster cousins).

This is meant to be series, and the second book is called "The White Queen", but I'll not be getting it. I'm just not interested enough.

"Javady Alley" by Manny Shirazi

This story takes place in Iran while political power was still in the hands of the Shah, therefore it takes place because the coup that put the current Islamic power in place (at least I think so, I have to admit my knowledge on this matter is quite limited).

The whole story is entirely told from the point of view of a little girl named Homa. Her family consists of her mother, her father, her grandmother, her younger brother, and her baby sister.

Being so little (she's about eight years old) she's very influenced by the adults in her life. He grandmother is very religious, but her parents are not religious at all, so she often has conflicting and changing views on how she wants to be.

She doesn't have a very happy family life (her father beats her mother, who isn't very affectionate with her children bar the youngest), so she often tries to escape to play in her neighbourhood with her friends. Homa has a family life filled with conflict.

And when she's out playing she needs to keep away from frankly pretty lecherous religious leaders who disapprove of little girls playing outside instead of helping their mothers, while also keeping an ear out for her parents in case they call her.

Her father is hardly ever home, he works all the time, and he is a communist activist, something that was illegal at the time (the Shah having very close relations with the USA). His mother (Homa's Grandmother) hates it because she believes that he should be more grateful to God for providing him for what he has.

The time during which this tale takes place is a time of great political upheaval, the Shah being contested from all directions apart from the States. There are the communists, the supporters of the Shah and the Islamist extremists.

Homa sees all this form the perspective of a small child, and so we see it the same way. We see but we don't necessarily understand why theses things are happening.

It's a very interesting story, it's quite bittersweet, because Homa doesn't seem to have a life that predisposes her towards happiness, but she strives for it anyway. It's quite uplifting really.

"Sula" by Toni Morrison

My mother gave me this book, and I read it today cause it's not a very big book, and I was looking for something to keep me occupied but not for too long.

It was really quite sad! I wasn't expecting sad! It took me by surprise.

I was expecting some conflict, and maybe a little exploring but there was so much more than that. This book is all about relationships, how they are made, how they are broken and how they can be mended or left broken.

It really explored all relationships too. Romantic relationships, friendships, family ties...

And it showed that all kinds of love can break your heart, just as well by a friend or family member as it can be broken by a lover.

The main relationship that is explored though is the relationship between Sula and her best friend Nel. At first when they are young everything is easy and they share everything. But later on their relationship is broken because of their inability to share absolutely everything in their lives.

When this happens you see Nel and Sula, both completely heartbroken over this event, react to their separate heartbreaks in a completely different manner.

In this novel the author also shows how one person can affect an entire group of people just by her presence. In this case Sula becomes the person to blame for everything and anything that goes wrong. She's seen as immoral, someone to hid the children from. No one approaches, or even really speaks to her anymore and it's quite sad because she's not really a bad person. She's just different.

And because she represents to all the people living in her area the very embodiment of degradation and sin, they actually lead better lives because they want to prove themselves better than her. Reverse psychology basically.

All in all a lovely, if quite sad, novel.

"When will there be good news?" by kate Atkinson

I very rarely read books like this, not because I don't think they're any good but because they're just not my favourite kind of genre. They just don't interest me that much.

This novel was given to me by the mother of my best friend and the other day I decided that I might as well give it a shot.

I didn't like it very much. It wasn't a bad book, I just didn't find it very original. It was a bit bland to be honest.

Bad thing happens to nice person, years go by, bad thing resurfaces...
The person has tried to move on, and has made a life for themselves, and the newest person to come in to that persons life just wants to help.
And then the people who are working to help (i.e. the police) have relationship issues to do with their career, and it's all just so very predictable.

I don't want to make it seem like this was a dreadful book because it wasn't. Some of the characters were really cool, and all of them, even the more boring ones, were very well developed, and the back stories weren't all dull.

If you're into crime novels you'd probably like it I guess. Maybe I just don't like the genre, who knows.

"Wuthering Heights" by Emily Brontë

Every now and again I decide to read a classic. This time I chose "Wuthering Heights" for no particular reason, other than the fact that I happened to own a copy. Also my best friend loves it so I kind o wanted to understand why.

I really enjoyed it, even though I found it hard to get into at first. I think I had to make myself read the first three or four chapters, but after that it just went really smoothly.

This is quite a dark novel, because it's all about revenge, and grief, and manipulation. In this story love isn't portrayed as a good thing, it's shown more as something that causes quite a lot of trouble and heartbreak.

It shows you that one event can have consequences that can last for years, and that sometimes people are awful. Like really really awful. I mean Heathcliff, one of the main characters, that guy really knows how to hold a grudge. I mean really. Wow.

Towards the end I was just holding my breath for a happy ending, because nothing good seemed to happen to anyone, and to be really honest most of them deserved it. I mean it's the first time I've read a book where almost all the characters are just atrocious human beings.

All in all a good read, and its a classic so you get the added benefit of being able to be a snob to be who haven't read it.

"Alias Grace" by Margaret Atwood

This book was given to me by my mother, which is not something that usually happens since we tend to read fairly different types of books. But she really enjoyed this one and left in my room, and I figured why not? It certainly looked interesting.

I did not regret my decision, not one bit.

This is a type of historical novel, only not quite. How to explain... The main character, Grace Marks, was a woman who actually existed, but seeing as not much of her actual life is known, the whole story is fiction. So fiction based on a real character. Yeah that's about it.

Grace Marks was a young woman living in Canada who was arrested in the 19th century at the age of 16 for murder, along with her accomplice James McDermott. He was hanged for his crimes, but seeing as no one was really sure if Grace was guilty or not she was just sentenced to life in prison instead.

The story is told from many different perspectives, Grace tells her story in the first person, and her doctors impressions of her are told in the third person. There are also a few chapters that are entirely epistolary. It's an interesting mix, and it's the first time I've read a book that's mixed them all up like that.

She explains her life as a servant, her life in the asylum, her life in jail... You really get to see how she ended up in her position, what or who influenced her decisions and why.

Also what I found really funny was the fact that, for a suspected murderess, she actually seemed like an extremely moral and forgiving human being. Go figure.

It's a very interesting read, it's very detailed, and you are never entirely sure what you are supposed to believe.

It's not a quick or easy read. You need to settle down quietly to read it, and take your time over a few days to really take it all in. It's definitely worth it though, it' really is a great book.