The Reaper

I've recently finished reading The Reaper by Peter Lovesey, chosen by Beth for our book club. I don't read a lot of Crime Fiction and this was one of those books that wasn't very deep but easy to read; something that you can just read lightly. It actually was pretty enjoyable but did suffer from some poor writing. While the main character was written quite well the female characters (particularly the main female character) were written poorly, as if the author thought all females were gossips and desperate for love. The book included at least one particular plot twist which wasn't exciting but instead was annoying because it was completely inconsistent with the character involved. It just seemed to come out of nowhere, whereas the plot twists involving the lead male character were much more believable and unpredictable.

There was also some annoying poor editing, where there was a whole part going on about burial rather than cremation and then an editing slip where it talked about people gathering after the cremation instead of the burial. Not a big thing but I find that kind of stuff really off-putting (no doubt the editor in me coming out).

I won't go out of my way to read any more Peter Lovesey books but it wasn't all bad, and certainly not the worst book I've ever read.

The Reaper - 2.5 stars.

The Reaper by Peter Lovesey

True History of the Kelly Gang

This was one of the books I'd chosen for my work book club so I had been looking forward to reading it for a long time. Interspersed with newspaper articles of accounts, this book is written from the perspective of Ned Kelly which made for a refreshing change. It's listed as historical fiction but truth be told I only know the basics of Ned Kelly so I am not sure how many liberties Peter Carey took when writing this or which parts are more fiction than history but that's the good thing; the writing doesn't jar from history to fiction, it all blends so well so that it's easy to read without being distracting.

Ned Kelly is definitely likable in this book (I guess that's the idea given that it's written from his perspective) and it's a little 'poor me' but at the same time there is a difference in the crimes he admits to doing and the ones he seems unfairly accused of so it's not as if it's all written with him being completely innocent of everything. But from the outset it appears the poor guy never stood a chance but to end up in crime.

I devoured this book, reading it in a week which for me is really fast. The style was great as was the language used which made the characters come to life in my mind, and the book gave a great picture of what life was like for early migrants, convicts and settlers to Australia.

True History of the Kelly Gang - 4 stars!

True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey

Easter 2012

I hope everyone had a nice Easter weekend!  Ours was really quiet.  It was the first year that we haven't had my niece and nephew here since they moved to Tasmania so no kids with which to have an Easter egg hunt made it much more quiet than usual, but they're visiting in 2 weeks so I can't wait.  We still had a nice relaxing Easter though; it was very quiet and we had very few plans so plenty of time to do things like read and play on the computer, which is my kind of weekend.

I have to admit to being a bit worried as to how the weekend would pan out after learning that Dad had bought himself a couple of casks of wine, as he hasn't had any for 4 months.  He has the occasional beer but seems to be able to control himself with that, whereas wine he knocks back as if he's guzzling water. So I wasn't sure what kind of weekend we'd end up having.

Thank God though that when we arrived for lunch on Saturday at my parent's house he was fine, and remained that way all day. In fact I had a really nice afternoon there. Grandma had the afternoon out of the nursing home so we had lunch with the five of us, although she grew tired after a short time and was keen to get back home.

That was about the extent of our Easter celebrations actually! I went to church with Mum on Sunday but aside from that and the usual weekly chores we did nothing constructive all weekend. Loved it!

I hope everyone had a nice relaxing weekend :)

Second Honeymoon

For our first anniversary, Glen shouted me to a few days away at Victor Harbor. Karen called it our second honeymoon but I'm not so sure, might be a bit soon for a second honeymoon! Anyway we left at about midday on Monday 2nd April and arrived at Victor a couple of hours later and were greeted with absolutely gorgeous weather.

We stayed at the Beachfront Caravan Park in a really nice waterview villa cabin.  The last time I stayed in a cabin at this caravan park was with Natasha when I was 17 and our accommodation then was pretty basic but comfortable.  This time was camping like I'd never experienced before. The cabin had Foxtel, a great big shower, air conditioning, a fancy toilet where there was a handbasin in the top, and the best thing of all, a dishwasher!  I'd never used a dishwasher before, now I really want one!

Anyway that first afternoon we went for a few walks.  The beach was only a short walk across a path so we sat on the mountains of seaweed and relaxed while patting the occasional dog that was being walked by its owner. We then walked to the town centre (about a 15 minute walk, not far) and looked around a bit before grabbing some Chinese takeaway for dinner and heading back to the cabin to relax in the air conditioned comfort.

The next day, our actual anniversary, Glen gave me a beautiful silver bracelet that he'd had engraved.  On the front it says 'To my wife Melinda' and on the back it says 'On our First Anniversary'. We then headed off to Granite Island, walking across the bridge as the horse-drawn tram wasn't working (a shame, never been on that before).  We had lunch at the Granite Island Cafe and as we sat outside having our lunch we noticed a dolphin just off the shore having a play and a feed.  So gorgeous!  We then did the walk around the island before heading back to the cafe for a coffee.  This time as we sat outside we saw a seal having a feed.  Amazing seeing these animals out in the wild! We then headed to the Penguin Centre for the 2:30pm feeding session.  Definitely my kind of trip, I loved seeing the penguins, sooooo cute!  I took about 50 photos just of the same penguins lol. We then headed back to the town centre for a little more of a look around, stopping at the local chocolate shop to buy some goodies and then stumbling upon a book exchange.  I could have spent ages here and a lot of money but walked out with only 2 Kate Grenville books while Glen bought a Raymond E Feist book.  It was then time to return to the cabin to relax for a couple of hours before dinner, when we went to this Italian place called Nino's.  I definitely recommend this place if you go to Victor Harbor, the food was great and pretty reasonably priced.

The next morning we checked out and headed on home, sad to be leaving behind such a peaceful place. I could definitely get used to being so close to the beach and such beautiful animals!  I leave you with just one of my penguin photos.

Our first anniversary

April 3rd marks our first anniversary, and I still can't quite believe the year has gone so quickly. To celebrate, Glen's taking me to Victor Harbor for a few days this week so it'll be nice to get away and hopefully have some mornings where I can sleep in without being woken by an alarm clock or a cat.

Last night we went to 1877 Restaurant at Sfera's (the place we got married) and it was fantastic. I love Italian food! Plus because it was our anniversary we got a free bottle of some Rockford's Alicante Bouchard Rose and a complimentary seafood antipasto platter.  For once I ate oysters and didn't feel like vomiting afterwards! Our meals were awesome and we decided to treat ourselves to dessert too, so my calorie counting went out the window yesterday. When we returned home we watched The Road, which was a great film but very much a downer (probably not the best choice after a romantic dinner).

Aside from that we haven't been up to much else in the last week. I managed to finish my short story and hand it up but I really don't feel it was any good. Very predictable ending and I have no idea if I included enough of the original fairytale's themes like we were supposed to. Now I have to wait 4 weeks before I get it back. I might post it up here then, not sure. A three week break from classes will be great, perhaps I can even get ahead in some of my next assignments!

That said, on Friday I went and collected the next books for my work book club from the library and one of the books is True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey. I've wanted to read this book for a long time and I have been reading it non-stop at the expense of reading anything else, so not sure how much I'll actually achieve with the time off classes. It's written from the perspective of Ned Kelly and I'm loving it!

Anyway better get back to the dreariness of housework and go put some laundry on...