Severe Jam Damage

So with nothing better to write about here are a few of the books I’ve read lately.
First up is The Ledge by Blanaid McKinney. I picked this one up on holidays on one of the bargain tables. It sounded pretty interesting according to the blurb which reads:

At the time of his kidnapping, John was a successful film critic, with his own late night TV slot and something of a cult following. Crazed fans were an occupational hazard. One night, during a break in the show, John stepped outside to have a smoke. When he didn’t come back, nobody worried too much.

Which sounds kind of interesting right? Except that all of this happens in the first chapter of the book. The rest of the book follows 3 other main characters and their association (however tenuous) with the main character John. It’s worth the five quid I paid for it although the conclusion may be less than satisfying to a number of readers.

Mirror, Mirror by Gregory Maguire - My continued fascination with revamped fairy tales (and the excellent Gregory Maguire) led me to this version of ‘Snow White’ which places our Snow (in this version named Bianca de Nevada) in the middle of the Italian alps. Our Witch Queen in this case is the depraved Lucrezia Borgia who becomes jealous of her brother Cesare’s infatuation with a young Bianca. Throw in a quest for the Tree of Knowledge, eight decidedly non-Disneyesque dwarves and a touch of hentai (the old cook claims to have taken an octopus for a lover) and the result is a refreshing new take on the tale of Snow White.

Green Man Anthology: Tales from the Mythic forest edited by Terri Windling and Ellen Datlow. Datlow and Windling have edited a number of anthologies together based on old fairy and folk tales. I have most of them and this is the latest one received in an amazon envelope. For this anthology they have focused on stories based around the theme of the Green Man, the (male) personification of nature, although some writers have focused on the Green Lady. Featuring stories from the likes of Neil Gaiman, Jane Yolen, Tanith Lee, Charles deLint, Gregory Maguire and others it’s got some interesting ideas, although I found it easier to read piecemeal rather than all in one sitting.

Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K Jerome. I had been looking for a copy of this for ages and eventually trolling around Eason’s last Saturday morning spotted a copy for €2.95. ‘Bargain!’ sez I. Despite being written in 1889 the jokes are still as funny as if it had been written yesterday. J, (Jerome Klapka Jerome) and his two mates George and Harris (to say nothing of Montmorency the dog) decide to take a leisurely trip down the Thames to cure themselves of perceived illness and disease. There is very little plot to the book, but it is the asides that make it so amusing. Harris getting lost in the Maze, J’s belief that he has every disease known to man, (barring Housemaids Knee) observations on holidaying that would not go amiss on an episode of ‘Holidays From Hell’ all told with a vaguely cynical edge that seems unusual for something written in the Victorian era. At just under 200 pages long its the perfect size to throw in your handbag for reading on the bus or train. Although you may well recieve some strange looks as you snigger your way home.