Oscar Wilde - The importance of being Earnest

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

ISBN: 978-1416500421




My rating: 4.5/5


 
Oscar Wilde's brilliant play makes fun of the English upper classes with light-hearted satire and dazzling humour. It is 1890's England and two young gentlemen are being somewhat limited with the truth. To inject some excitement into their lives, Mr Worthing invents a brother, Earnest, as an excuse to leave his dull country life behind him to pursue the object of his desire, the ravishing Gwendolyn. While across town Algernon Montecrieff decides to take the name Earnest, when visiting Worthing's young ward Cecily. The real fun and confusion begins when the two end up together and their deceptions are in danger of being revealed.  (http://www.fishpond.com.au/)




My thoughts

The master at work !

This is an extraordinary play which is cleverly written and, profound and beautiful. Oscar Wilde wrote this very funny yet profound play reflecting on status, wealth and marriage in the aristocracy of that time.

It's fun to read and I can only recommend it!

Janet Evanovich - Two for the dough

Publisher: St. Martin Press


ISBN: 978-0-312-94896-4

My rating: 4/5




It's Stephanie Plum, New Jersey's "fugitive apprehension" agent (aka bounty hunter), introduced to the world by Janet Evanovich in the award-winning novel One for the Money.

Now Stephanie's back, armed with attitude -- not to mention stun guns, defense sprays, killer flashlights, and her trusty .38. Stephanie is after a new bail jumper, Kenny Mancuso, a boy from Trenton's burg. He's fresh out of the army, suspiciously wealthy, and he's just shot his best friend.
With her bounty hunter pal Ranger stepping in occasionally to advise her, Stephanie staggers knee deep in corpses and caskets as she traipses through back streets, dark alleys, and funeral parlors.
And nobody knows funeral parlors better than Stephanie's irrepressible Grandma Mazur, a lady whose favorite pastime is grabbing a front-row seat at a neighborhood wake. So Stephanie uses Grandma as a cover to follow leads, but loses control when Grandma warms to the action, packing a cool pistol. Much to the family's chagrin, Stephanie and Granny may soon have the elusive Kenny in their sights.
Fast-talking, slow-handed vice cop Joe Morelli joins in the case, since the prey happens to be his young cousin. And if the assignment calls for an automobile stakeout for two with the woman who puts his libido in overdrive, Morelli's not one to object.
Low on expertise but learning fast, high on resilience, and despite the help she gets from friends and relatives, Stephanie eventually must face the danger alone when embalmed body parts begin to arrive on her doorstep and she's targeted for a nasty death by the most loathsome adversary she's ever encountered. Another case like this and she'll be a real pro.
Two for the Dough is irresistible fun and powerful entertainment from an acclaimed author who is already a national star. (evanovich.com)

My thoughts

The second Stephanie Plum book doesn't disappoint. It's great.

Stephanie is out and about again as a bounty hunter and this time her job is to find Kenny Mancuso who is accused of killing his best friend and now has jumped bail. Stephanie is still getting help from mystery man Ranger and cop Joe Morelli. Kenny is Joe's cousin so that's why he's also looking for him .
Grandma Mazur brings the book alive. She helps her granddaughter Stephanie by searching the funeral homes for Kenny - going to the funeral homes is one of her favourite pasttime.

The story is complicated enough to keep the reader engaged, and the action never lets up. If you liked One for the dough, which is slightly better, you will not be disappointed with "Two for the dough". Give it a go !

Sophie Kinsella - Twenties Girl

Publisher: Random House

ISBN: 978 - 0385342032

My rating: 4.5 / 5

Lara Linton has always had an overactive imagination, but suddenly that imagination seems to be in overdrive. Normal professional twenty-something young women don’t get visited by ghosts. Or do they?

When the spirit of Lara’s great-aunt Sadie—a feisty, demanding girl with firm ideas about fashion, love, and the right way to dance—mysteriously appears, she has one request: Lara must find a missing necklace that had been in Sadie’s possession for more than seventy-five years, because Sadie cannot rest without it.

Lara and Sadie make a hilarious sparring duo, and at first it seems as though they have nothing in common. But as the mission to find Sadie’s necklace leads to intrigue and a new romance for Lara, these very different “twenties” girls learn some surprising truths from and about each other. Written with all the irrepressible charm and humor that have made Sophie Kinsella’s books beloved by millions, Twenties Girl is also a deeply moving testament to the transcendent bonds of friendship and family. (amazon.com)

My thoughts

I have to admit that when I was half way through the book I had a big sigh - another of Kinsella's book, but this one is a bit ueber-over the top. Yet, I persisted and I am so glad I did. Once I got to around 2/3 of the book I wasn't able to put it down.

Lara is attending Sadie's funeral - her great-aunt. Lara never really knew her great-aunt Sadie, and nor does the rest of the family. So to no-one's surprise everybody is just wanting to get the funeral over and done with and get back to their busy daily life. Suddenly Lara hears someone looking for her necklace, but nobody else seems to hear it as well. Lara finds out, it's aunt Sadie who cannot rest without her necklace, and finds herself stopping the funeral because of some murder proposterous accusation - and with that it starts weeks of chaos to come for Lara as she tries to cope with the ghost of Sadie in her life, Sadies love for the twenties and Ed.

The end had me literally moved almost to tears. I really liked the book, though it was bit slow at the start. I loved the message Kinsella wants to bring across and I loved the humorous way she's done it. Everyone's got a body that ages, yet that number on the body doesn't necessarily mean that's the age of the person's mind. And to allow myself to copy this part from a different review, because I couldn't say it any better: Also, the message again that I've come across often lately and that is don't discount the elderly. They have stories to tell, they lived in a time we didn't and they love to look back and remember and share. We just have to take the time.

Tally ho Sadie AND THANKS !

Janet Evanovich - One for the Money

Publisher: St. Martin Press

ISBN: 978-0312990459

My rating: 4.5/5




Watch out, world. Here comes Stephanie Plum, a bounty hunter with attitude. In Stephanie's opinion, toxic waste, rabid drivers, armed schizophrenics, and August heat, humidity, and hydrocarbons are all part of the great adventure of living in Jersey.

She's a product of the "burg," a blue-collar pocket of Trenton where houses are attached and narrow, cars are American, windows are clean, and (God forbid you should be late) dinner is served at six.

Now Stephanie's all grown up and out on her own, living five miles from Mom and Dad's, doing her best to sever the world's longest umbilical cord. Her mother is a meddler, and her grandmother is a few cans short of a case.

Out of work and out of money, with her Miata repossessed and her refrigerator empty, Stephanie blackmails her bail bondsman cousin, Vinnie, into giving her a try as an apprehension agent. Stephanie knows zilch about the job requirements, but she figures her new pal, fearless bounty hunter Ranger, can teach her what it takes to catch a crook.

Her first assignment: nail Joe Morelli, a former vice cop on the run from a charge of murder one. Morelli is also the irresistible macho pig who took Stephanie's virginity at age sixteen and then wrote the details on the bathroom wall of Mario's Sub Shop. There's still powerful chemistry between these two, so the chase should be interesting.

It could also be extremely dangerous, especially when Stephanie encounters a heavyweight title contender who likes to play rough. Benito Ramirez is known for his brutality to women. At the very least, his obsession with Stephanie complicates her manhunt and brings terror and uncertainty into her life. At the worst, it could lead to murder. (evanovitch.com)


My thoughts

Loved it!

Janet Evanovitch has created some quirky characters, which live in "the burg," somewhere in New Jersey, with Stephanie Plum as the main protagonist. Once I got into the story and knew the “who’s who” of the characters, I just couldn’t put the book down again. It had me giggling and laughing with wonderful dialogues and scene descriptions. Stephanie is not the typical heroine you would expect to read about as a bounty hunter, she down to earth, prefers a donought to some fruit for breakfast and struggles to get out for her runs to get fit. Not to mention the relationship (or the lack thereof) with Ranger and Joe Morrelli.

If you’re in need for a crime story with a different nudge to it, go and get “One for the Money” – you won’t regret it!

Sophie Kinsella - The Undomestic Goddess

Publisher: Random House

ISBN: 978-0552772747

My rating: 3/5



Samantha Sweeting, the 29-year-old heroine of Kinsella's latest confection (after Shopaholic Sister), is on the verge of partnership at the prestigious London law firm Carter Spink—the Holy Grail of her entire workaholic life. But when she finds she has made a terrible, costly mistake just before the partnership decision, she's terrified of being fired. In a fog, she stumbles out of the building and onto the nearest train, which drops her in the countryside, where she wanders to a stately home. The nouveau riche lady of the house mistakes her for the new housekeeper—and Samantha is too astonished to correct her. Numb and unable to face returning to London, Samantha tries to master the finer points of laundry, cooking and cleaning. She discovers that the slow life, her pompous but good-hearted employers and the attentions of the handsome gardener, Nathaniel, suit her just fine. But her past is hard to escape, and when she discovers a terrible secret about her firm—and when the media learns that the former legal star is scrubbing toilets for a living—her life becomes more complicated than ever. If readers can swallow the implausible scenario, then Kinsella's genuine charm and sweet wit may continue to win her fans. (The Publishers Weekly)

My thoughts:

I am a small fan of You Keep a Secret, so I was looking forward to a Kinsella book that wasn't part of the Shopaholic series. The book is nice and interesting, but in true Kinsella style completely unrealistic.

Samantha Sweeting is an upcoming lawyer at a respectable firm in London – until she makes a small mistake which costs the firm’s client a nifty fifty million pounds. Sam panics and runs as far as she can until she ends up on the doorstep of Trish and Eddie Geiger, who mistake her for their new housekeeper. Coping with a bad headache, tiredness and no idea on what the future holds for her, she unwittingly takes the job.

Like all of Kinsella’s books, The Undomestic Goddess is stretching the readers believes in the story as well, like with no cooking skills at all, Sam gets help from the gardener and his mother. If you are happy to see beyond these unrealistic situations, you will probably enjoy this witty and mostly funny book. I did.

Dan Brown - Digital Fortress

Publisher: St Martins Pr, First Edition
ISBN: 978-0312944926

My rating: 3/5



The National Security Agency (NSA) is one setting for this exciting thriller; the other is Seville, where on page 1 the protagonist, lately dismissed from NSA, drops dead of a supposed heart attack. Though dead, he enjoys a dramaturgical afterlife in the form of his computer program. Digital Fortress creates unbreakable codes, which could render useless NSA's code-cracking supercomputer called TRANSLTR, but the deceased programmer slyly embossed a decryption key on a ring he wore. Pursuit of this ring is the engine of the plot. NSA cryptology boss Trevor Strathmore dispatches linguist Dave Becker to recover the ring, while he and Becker's lover, senior code-cracker Susan Fletcher, ponder the vulnerability of TRANSLTR. In Seville, over-the-top chase scenes abound; meanwhile, the critical events unfold at NSA. In a crescendo of murder, infernos, and explosions, it emerges that Strathmore has as agenda that goes beyond breaching Digital Fortress, and Brown's skill at hinting and concealing Strathmore's deceit will rivet cyber-minded readers. Gilbert Taylor --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. (Booklist)


My thoughts:

It took me a while to get into the book, but it seems once I had a feel who the characters were, it was easy to follow along.

Having read a few Dan Brown books, I feel comfortable to admit that I like the stories, though they’re so farfetched and unbelievable, it gives me a giggle – but for me they’re still entertaining!

I suppose the basic plot is that the NSA has a machine which can decode most of the codes, until a seemingly unbreakable code comes along. And the race starts here to stop this unbreakable code to be available to companies.

I have to admit, sending a non-agent (David Becker, Susan’s fiancé) to Spain to find the ring, seemed a bit ludicrous. Also some of the character or scene description seemed to be over the top and borderline comical.

If you like Dan Brown, it might be worth a read, otherwise ... see whether you find another book!

Sophie Kinsella - Can you keep a secret?

Publisher: Dell Publishing Company

ISBN: 9780440241904

My rating: 4/5



Meet Emma Corrigan, a young woman with a huge heart, an irrepressible spirit, and a few little secrets:
Secrets from her mother: Sammy the goldfish in my parents' kitchen is not the same goldfish that Mum gave me to look after when she and Dad were in Egypt. Secrets from her boyfriend: I've always thought Connor looks a bit like Ken. As in Barbie and Ken. From her colleagues: When Artemis really annoys me, I feed her plant orange juice. (Which is pretty much every day.) It was me who jammed the copier that time. In fact, all the times. Secrets she wouldn't share with anyone in the world: My G-string is hurting me.Until she spills them all to a handsome stranger on a plane. At least, she thought he was a stranger. But come Monday morning, Emma's office is abuzz about the arrival of Jack Harper, the company's elusive CEO. Suddenly Emma is face-to-face with the stranger from the plane, a man who knows every single humiliating detail about her. Things couldn't possibly get worse--Until they do. (fishpond.com.au)

My thoughts

This is the second by I've read by Sophie Kinsella and I have to admit I did like this one a lot more.

Emma Corrigan works for Panther Cola and after a disastrous business meeting in Glasgow she's on a flight back to London which is experiencing some turbulence. Afraid and thinking that's it, she spills all her secrets to the American sitting next to her - literally - how she lost her virginity, what she really thinks of her boyfriend, the petty stunts she pulls on co-workers, the way she killed her parents' goldfish while they were on vacation, and more. Safe and sound back in London, Emma hopes to never see the American again, yet, it's only a few days later that she finds out who he actually is and her life will never be the same. But he has a secret as well.

I liked it the way Emma grows over the weeks and the way she finds out that secrets can actually hold you back and most of the times you're better off telling the truth, even though it might initially hurt the other one. Life is about what you are no matter what. You don't have to be perfect in every sense, yet you have to accept yourself and things as they are.

I really am going to like the English Chick-lit which is on the market on the moment. I found this one a fast and easy read , which kept me staying up late at night and giggling along the way - even though I thought the story was pretty predictable and in places a bit "over the top". Well worth taking to the beach or on holidays !