First of all a huge thanks to P.J. Nunn and the author with her team for providing me with the copy of the book

 

Deadline Yemen to me personally, was a great source to learn about Yemen, its culture, the people and the lifestyle from a westerner’s point of view. It is quite evident that the author is partial towards the country. Her love for the culture and Yemen in whole is spread all through the book. Maybe that is where she loses her audience because somewhere between explaining and painting a picture of Yemen, she loses focus and main purpose of the book which is the story that she had planned to tell.

 

The book lags through a whole lot of details and missing out on the essential ones required to tell us what exactly is going on in the book. Sadly the book only comes to the main point in the last few chapters and that too gets treated pretty harshly and roughly, that we miss out on the action and the details

 

But if you treat the book as a travelogue or a traveler’s memoir then i think this book will be a great guide to know about Yemen and its people but as a thriller it is nowhere around attaining its goal and in fact it dulls the narration with incorporation of a whole lot of characters that keep popping without warning and blurs even faster than the blink of the eye

 

The first half is literally dragging with travel guide and technicalities losing out on the story at hand and the second half rushes too quickly through the actual story that one fails to notice when the story got pace and even ended but while this is the case i think the author does paint a vivid and detailed picture of Yemen but unfortunately that was not the purpose of the book . Also i felt the book was lengthy and lost in the maze of details

Before starting, I would like to say something first (sorry if it sounds dramatic - it's not):

I am aware there might not be many (or anyone, maybe) reading my blog. Although, I would like to apologize for not have been making any reviews this month... I am sorry. I promise to do better next month. With the books from May and the missing ones from April. Now that's said!

 

 

It's keeping on going well! I found a new book to my favorite shelf (North and South), which took me more than 10 days and still I managed to read quite a bit.

Oh! BTW - It's Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (I just liked the Danish cover better)

 

The month of May will be focusing on Classics. One from before the 20th century and one from the 20th century

 

And my classic before the 20th century will be:

 

Yes, Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There (long title) the sequel to Alice in Wonderland

 

I actually already read my classic from the 20th century which was:

 

 

I love Anne of Green Gables and it was nice to read it again, but more about that in my review.

 

So that was the book from April and the books for May.

I really didn't hate this novel or anywhere close. However, I had a few problems with it that meant I couldn't rate it any higher than I did.

1. The structure. While I love (love love LOVE) epistolary novels, a lot of the switches in medium really didn't work for me here. The excerpts from Peter Maxwell's biography, the newspapers, Hansard, and some of the police interview things are superfluous and don't work as well as the diary, email, and letter portions. I got really bored during some of the former kind of sections and found myself glazing over.

2. The way Harriet's character was portrayed with relation to Fred. It felt like her whole story, in particular her relationship with Robert, was structured in order to enable Fred's character development. Although I am glad they didn't end up together, I wasn't terribly happy about the way Harriet and Robert's story played out. Ultimately, I wanted to know more about Harriet and was more invested in her as a character than any of the others. She really suffers in this story and it feels a bit unfair that she is so sidelined to Fred and his marriage issues. The sex scene was icky and felt completely out of character - I would also have preferred if the author had maintained the repressed longing aspect rather than have had that scene in there.

3. The ending. Having two of the best characters in the novel die for no reason just... ugh. It was such a crap way to end the story. I mean, what for? Blugh.

I really didn't hate this novel or anywhere close. However, I had a few problems with it that meant I couldn't rate it any higher than I did.

1. The structure. While I love (love love LOVE) epistolary novels, a lot of the switches in medium really didn't work for me here. The excerpts from Peter Maxwell's biography, the newspapers, Hansard, and some of the police interview things are superfluous and don't work as well as the diary, email, and letter portions. I got really bored during some of the former kind of sections and found myself glazing over.

2. The way Harriet's character was portrayed with relation to Fred. It felt like her whole story, in particular her relationship with Robert, was structured in order to enable Fred's character development. Although I am glad they didn't end up together, I wasn't terribly happy about the way Harriet and Robert's story played out. Ultimately, I wanted to know more about Harriet and was more invested in her as a character than any of the others. She really suffers in this story and it feels a bit unfair that she is so sidelined to Fred and his marriage issues. The sex scene was icky and felt completely out of character - I would also have preferred if the author had maintained the repressed longing aspect rather than have had that scene in there.

3. The ending. Having two of the best characters in the novel die for no reason just... ugh. It was such a crap way to end the story. I mean, what for? Blugh.

 

In my opinion it have been a great month. I have read a great deal of good books and once again I am satisfied with the amount of books I've read... Although two of them were plays - but Jeppe on the Hill was written in such old Danish that it reminded more of German, so that was a great challenge. 

 

But it is a new month, with new categories! 

Today is April Fool's Day and though I do not enjoy the pranks and such myself, it seems only naturally that this month's category should be humor and what is the opposite of humor? Tragedy! Just like an old fashioned greek play!

 

The choice for the humorous book is:

 

 

 

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen by Paul Torday is one of the best book I've ever read. I laughed out loud several times! I have for a long time wanted to reread it and now I think it is time again!

 

The tragic book will be:

 

 

Everyone seems to love The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. I have not really wanted to read him myself, but now I am giving him a chance. Who knows? Maybe I will need to buy a lot of John Green-books when I'm done. I have of course heard a lot about it and my conclusion is that this would be a good choice for a bit of tragedy.

 

And for my book club's choice of the month it is Hopeless by Colleen Hoover. I have once read her book Slammed, but I was not so positive. It is time to give her a second chance!

 

 

These was my books of March and my TBR of April. Looking once again forward to new books!