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patchworkbunny's Reviews (2.12k)
The Elements of Eloquence; its very title an example of the first chapter’s rhetoric, alliteration. This charming little book from the man who brought you The Etymologicon and The Horologicon reveals the secrets of all great poets (and songwriters) with tongue firmly in cheek. Whilst we all learned about alliteration at school, the rest of rhetoric has been thrown out with the bathwater.
Before the Romantics came along, the figures of rhetoric were studied extensively and used by the likes of Shakespeare to make some of the greatest lines in literary history. Shakespeare was not a genius, he just learned what makes words sound good and memorable. And that is where this book sets off, picking apart poems, songs and political speeches (but don’t worry, only tiny bits of them) and pointing out what technique makes them work. All in a friendly, and at times amusing, tone.
Whilst it’s a book that can be dipped into now and then, the chapter structure tricks you into reading more than you intended. There are 39 chapters, to deal with 39 figures of rhetoric. Each example ends with an example of the next term. So one chapter ends:
“Striking down and blind” is, by the way, an example of syllepsis.
And, of course, the next chapter is syllepsis so you think you might as well spend a few more minutes finding out what that is and next thing you know, it’s the middle of the night and you’ve finished the whole book.
I actually tried writing a review in poetry using all the techniques but it started to get a bit silly:
The Elements of Eloquence, an entertaining endeavour.
Book yourself in for a weekend alone with this book.
Read these words; read to be educated and read to chuckle.
I wonder…
Read, I tell you, read!
You see where that was going. But I did fit in alliteration, polyptoton, antithesis, aposiopesis and diacope. The personification in iambic pentameter didn’t make the cut… I’m not a natural at poetry but after reading this book, it’s become a lot easier to see why some poems, and quotes, work better than others.
One thing I did learn, it that I’ve been using ellipsis all wrong. I don’t think anyone noticed though.
If you enjoyed Mark Forsyth’s other books, you’re bound to enjoy this one and it’s the perfect gift for any word geeks. Although if you’ve got a PhD in English language, you may already know a lot of this, but I would hope it’s still got enough enjoyment factor to it. I think it could also have its place in the classroom. There should be room for learning to be fun too
Before the Romantics came along, the figures of rhetoric were studied extensively and used by the likes of Shakespeare to make some of the greatest lines in literary history. Shakespeare was not a genius, he just learned what makes words sound good and memorable. And that is where this book sets off, picking apart poems, songs and political speeches (but don’t worry, only tiny bits of them) and pointing out what technique makes them work. All in a friendly, and at times amusing, tone.
Whilst it’s a book that can be dipped into now and then, the chapter structure tricks you into reading more than you intended. There are 39 chapters, to deal with 39 figures of rhetoric. Each example ends with an example of the next term. So one chapter ends:
“Striking down and blind” is, by the way, an example of syllepsis.
And, of course, the next chapter is syllepsis so you think you might as well spend a few more minutes finding out what that is and next thing you know, it’s the middle of the night and you’ve finished the whole book.
I actually tried writing a review in poetry using all the techniques but it started to get a bit silly:
The Elements of Eloquence, an entertaining endeavour.
Book yourself in for a weekend alone with this book.
Read these words; read to be educated and read to chuckle.
I wonder…
Read, I tell you, read!
You see where that was going. But I did fit in alliteration, polyptoton, antithesis, aposiopesis and diacope. The personification in iambic pentameter didn’t make the cut… I’m not a natural at poetry but after reading this book, it’s become a lot easier to see why some poems, and quotes, work better than others.
One thing I did learn, it that I’ve been using ellipsis all wrong. I don’t think anyone noticed though.
If you enjoyed Mark Forsyth’s other books, you’re bound to enjoy this one and it’s the perfect gift for any word geeks. Although if you’ve got a PhD in English language, you may already know a lot of this, but I would hope it’s still got enough enjoyment factor to it. I think it could also have its place in the classroom. There should be room for learning to be fun too
Chloé’s husband has left her and their children for another woman. She is angry and confused but her father-in-law (or would that be ex father-in-law?), Pierre, comes to the rescue and whisks her away from it all. They have never been close, Pierre generally quiet in her presence but as they talk and argue, she learns so much more about him, and how sometimes you can’t help who you loved.
Someone I Loved is a novella composed mostly of conversations, starting with a car journey and little snippets of everyday life that Gavalda does so well. Soon Chloé’s betrayal is revealed and her awkward relationship with Pierre grows into a confidant. The speech is unattributed, no he said, she said, and the prose is sparse, all adding to the conversational tone. At one point, there is speech within speech and it all got a bit confusing, but it is an intimate little look into someone’s life through what they decide to tell another.
Someone I Loved is a novella composed mostly of conversations, starting with a car journey and little snippets of everyday life that Gavalda does so well. Soon Chloé’s betrayal is revealed and her awkward relationship with Pierre grows into a confidant. The speech is unattributed, no he said, she said, and the prose is sparse, all adding to the conversational tone. At one point, there is speech within speech and it all got a bit confusing, but it is an intimate little look into someone’s life through what they decide to tell another.
It is spring in northern Sweden, when a body is found hidden in a fishing ark, on the frozen lake of Torneträsk. She’s dressed for running, not for fishing in icy conditions, yet she’s wearing make-up. Whilst inspectors Mella and Stålnacke think it’s probably another case of a husband killing his wife, the soon realise she has been tortured. When Mella discovers a link between the dead woman and Kallis Mining, she asks newly appointed special prosecutor, Rebecka Martinsson, to help find out more about one of Sweden’s seemingly most successful mining companies. Will they find corruption beneath the respectable façade?
It starts with Rebecka’s release from St. Göran’s psychiatric unit and her decision to leave her life in Stockholm for her rural home town of Kurravaara near Kiruna. This is the third book in the series of which I have only read the fourth, Until Thy Wrath Be Past, but as she is starting again after a traumatic experience, it’s a reasonable place to pick up the plot. I just had to remember that some things hadn’t happened yet!
There’s a large cast of characters and at times there doesn’t seem much point to all of them. Whilst they slow the pace down a bit, by the end, they all have their place in the plot. The family background of Kallis explains not only his rise from nowhere but his mother’s mental illness goes some of the way to explaining Ester’s behaviour at the end. The head of security is there to add some context to the situation in Uganda and Diddi’s wife has her worries about financial security. It does create a wide range of suspects but there’s not a lot of time for developing the on-going series characters.
Each character has their moment though and I really like the little moments that Åsa Larsson writes into their stories. Stålnacke and his lost cat, Ester’s painting and Rebecka’s worrying over the man she left behind. And the climax is one of the most gripping scenes I’ve read in a long time.
It starts with Rebecka’s release from St. Göran’s psychiatric unit and her decision to leave her life in Stockholm for her rural home town of Kurravaara near Kiruna. This is the third book in the series of which I have only read the fourth, Until Thy Wrath Be Past, but as she is starting again after a traumatic experience, it’s a reasonable place to pick up the plot. I just had to remember that some things hadn’t happened yet!
There’s a large cast of characters and at times there doesn’t seem much point to all of them. Whilst they slow the pace down a bit, by the end, they all have their place in the plot. The family background of Kallis explains not only his rise from nowhere but his mother’s mental illness goes some of the way to explaining Ester’s behaviour at the end. The head of security is there to add some context to the situation in Uganda and Diddi’s wife has her worries about financial security. It does create a wide range of suspects but there’s not a lot of time for developing the on-going series characters.
Each character has their moment though and I really like the little moments that Åsa Larsson writes into their stories. Stålnacke and his lost cat, Ester’s painting and Rebecka’s worrying over the man she left behind. And the climax is one of the most gripping scenes I’ve read in a long time.
Riven’s name strikes fear into the people in Neospes, a fearsome soldier in charge of the half human Vectors, but in this dimension she is just trying to pass as a regular teenage girl. When her friend and prince, Cale, became ill, she came to this world to seek out his long-lost brother, Caden, and return with him. But she’s not the only one looking for Caden.
When I heard there was a new science fiction title coming from Strange Chemistry, I was pretty excited. Overall I liked the idea of Riven, a tough and unemotional girl, crossing dimensions and battling her conditioning. She has been taught that love is a weakness, both familial and romantic. Romance isn’t at the centre of this story and it’s very action based, however I felt a lot of the action scenes didn’t really contribute to the plot. I tend to skim long action scenes if I’m not careful, and found myself doing this on numerous occasions.
At the start, I was a bit concerned that it was going to be set in a high school and it would be another new girl fits in kind of story, but she soon shuns that world with her eye on the mission. I liked her sister; showing how much of a struggle it became to be the cold, unfeeling person she was proud to be.
With a strong opening scene that did a great job of setting the stage without going into detail, I ended up a bit disappointed with the descriptions throughout the book. I think the world-building worked better in the few flashbacks. Elsewhere she was very repetitive, stressing how things were different in “her world”. Like the water shortage, which seemed to be the number one thing that made our dimension better. But it didn’t go any further into the impacts of this, in fact, once we get to Neospes, it’s only really mentioned that roses are wasteful.
We are just meant to take for granted that the robotic war ruined everything. I wanted more back story on the war. How did their dimension end up so far ahead of ours? They say that evertion was banned after the Black Death, so that means they were centuries ahead technologically. The Vectors were interesting, reanimated corpses, powered by nanobes but there were used as mindless soldiers to fuel the action rather than explored further. So many questions, and it’s not like it’s a short book for YA. At 428 pages, it wasn’t all needed, and the middle dragged a bit.
It picked up a lot when the revelations started, one I had guessed at but the other was a surprise (and again, something I wanted more background on). The ending felt much faster paced and had me mildly gripped at last. Personally, I think it needed more time world-building and less time spent on action. It’s part of a duology (what used to be a standalone novel with a sequel) and as a debut novel, I would probably give the second book a go.
When I heard there was a new science fiction title coming from Strange Chemistry, I was pretty excited. Overall I liked the idea of Riven, a tough and unemotional girl, crossing dimensions and battling her conditioning. She has been taught that love is a weakness, both familial and romantic. Romance isn’t at the centre of this story and it’s very action based, however I felt a lot of the action scenes didn’t really contribute to the plot. I tend to skim long action scenes if I’m not careful, and found myself doing this on numerous occasions.
At the start, I was a bit concerned that it was going to be set in a high school and it would be another new girl fits in kind of story, but she soon shuns that world with her eye on the mission. I liked her sister; showing how much of a struggle it became to be the cold, unfeeling person she was proud to be.
With a strong opening scene that did a great job of setting the stage without going into detail, I ended up a bit disappointed with the descriptions throughout the book. I think the world-building worked better in the few flashbacks. Elsewhere she was very repetitive, stressing how things were different in “her world”. Like the water shortage, which seemed to be the number one thing that made our dimension better. But it didn’t go any further into the impacts of this, in fact, once we get to Neospes, it’s only really mentioned that roses are wasteful.
We are just meant to take for granted that the robotic war ruined everything. I wanted more back story on the war. How did their dimension end up so far ahead of ours? They say that evertion was banned after the Black Death, so that means they were centuries ahead technologically. The Vectors were interesting, reanimated corpses, powered by nanobes but there were used as mindless soldiers to fuel the action rather than explored further. So many questions, and it’s not like it’s a short book for YA. At 428 pages, it wasn’t all needed, and the middle dragged a bit.
It picked up a lot when the revelations started, one I had guessed at but the other was a surprise (and again, something I wanted more background on). The ending felt much faster paced and had me mildly gripped at last. Personally, I think it needed more time world-building and less time spent on action. It’s part of a duology (what used to be a standalone novel with a sequel) and as a debut novel, I would probably give the second book a go.
Changeling October Daye was living a mortal life with her human husband and daughter when she was turned into a koi carp, destined to live out her life in the Tea Garden of Golden Gate Park. 14 years later, she miraculously transforms back into her old self, but the rest of the world has moved on. Her family has mourned her and refuse to take her back. In turn, Toby has turned her back on the fae world, until she receives a series of voicemail messages from the Countess of Goldengreen, Evening. In her final moments, the pureblood had reached out to Toby and when she didn’t answer she bound her. Toby must find out who murdered the woman who was the closest she had to a friend or face death herself.
I was warned by several trustworthy sources that this series takes a while to get going. There is an info-dump approach to world-building, lots of paragraphs throwing information about the fae at you and somewhat breaking up the flow of the story. Sometimes the snippets of back-story made me feel there should be other books prior to Rosemary and Rue (there aren’t). I think if you weren’t used to the mythology of fae, you might struggle to pick up on everything. However, I am writing this having read several other books and it gets so much better. Your patience will be rewarded!
However the story really picks up in the second half and settles into the sort of urban fantasy mystery the series promises to be. I am really fond of novel featuring the fae as something to be wary of, with a mix of different races and prejudices; weird creatures lurking in the shadows. I think this series has potential to deliver a fantastic split-world between reality (San Francisco) and the Summerlands (the world beyond the veil). Devin’s whole set-up seemed really dodgy and I’m not sure there was enough supporting information to really grasp Toby’s ambivalent feelings. It sounded like he was a changeling pimp but this was never made clear, perhaps he just used the poor teens in his “care”.
I instantly loved Tybalt, the King of Cats. A Cait Sidhe who is cat-like even in his humanoid form but a grouchy tabby in his other. He probably has the least amount of back-story and I do think the lack of over-description adds to his mystique. Some of the other characters are a bit obvious (Connor) and you know I like the bad boys (even though we know they must be redeemable). There’s not really an emphasis on romance (nor sex, I don’t think there was any) but this makes any little interactions between characters all the more effective.
The books all come with a pronunciation guide, which is useful if you’re unfamiliar with the traditional fae names, however I think some of the words are a little obvious! All the titles come from Shakespearean quotes, and I think the relevant plays are connected in small ways. I promise this series gets better.
I was warned by several trustworthy sources that this series takes a while to get going. There is an info-dump approach to world-building, lots of paragraphs throwing information about the fae at you and somewhat breaking up the flow of the story. Sometimes the snippets of back-story made me feel there should be other books prior to Rosemary and Rue (there aren’t). I think if you weren’t used to the mythology of fae, you might struggle to pick up on everything. However, I am writing this having read several other books and it gets so much better. Your patience will be rewarded!
However the story really picks up in the second half and settles into the sort of urban fantasy mystery the series promises to be. I am really fond of novel featuring the fae as something to be wary of, with a mix of different races and prejudices; weird creatures lurking in the shadows. I think this series has potential to deliver a fantastic split-world between reality (San Francisco) and the Summerlands (the world beyond the veil). Devin’s whole set-up seemed really dodgy and I’m not sure there was enough supporting information to really grasp Toby’s ambivalent feelings. It sounded like he was a changeling pimp but this was never made clear, perhaps he just used the poor teens in his “care”.
I instantly loved Tybalt, the King of Cats. A Cait Sidhe who is cat-like even in his humanoid form but a grouchy tabby in his other. He probably has the least amount of back-story and I do think the lack of over-description adds to his mystique. Some of the other characters are a bit obvious (Connor) and you know I like the bad boys (even though we know they must be redeemable). There’s not really an emphasis on romance (nor sex, I don’t think there was any) but this makes any little interactions between characters all the more effective.
The books all come with a pronunciation guide, which is useful if you’re unfamiliar with the traditional fae names, however I think some of the words are a little obvious! All the titles come from Shakespearean quotes, and I think the relevant plays are connected in small ways. I promise this series gets better.
The news reports says it was a stampede that sadly resulted in the abattoir burning to the ground. But one cow didn't die and soon a virus has been unleashed which turns Scotland's cattle into slobbering, sneezing, flesh-craving and horny beasts.
Not only did a cow survive, but abattoir worker, Terry also made it through the massacre but is now being held hostage in what looks suspiciously like a secret government research facility. The tip-off of the government's involvement falls into the lap of the worst reporter at the Glasgow Tribune, who's just lost her job. Geldof is a miserable teenage boy, ginger hair, English, vegan parents that force him to wear hemp and won't allow him to even have a sniff of meat. Their neighbours include Terry's meat loving cousin who also has anger issues. Can this motley bunch save the day? Or is Britain doomed to be nuked by the French?
There are some of you that will shy away from this because it has zombies in it. Yet the death is never the subject of the jokes. The characters mourn their losses and feel regret at leaving people behind. The humour is in the things that people do under stress and their reactions. Middle class suburbanites trying to hoist their Samsonite cases onto evacuation trucks. The vegan who is convinced her meat-free life will ultimately save her. The things that teenage boys do that could possibly be mistaken for a zombie attack. The squirrels! The kitten! Go on, read it and you'll see.
Humour is often under-appreciated in the book world. People want books that make them feel something but often dismiss books that will make them laugh out loud. It's hard to say in a review what I thought was funny because I can easily ruin the jokes for you but I can say that after chapter 18 I had to put the down for a few minutes because I was laughing so much. The kind the bubbles up when you think you're done.
Not only did a cow survive, but abattoir worker, Terry also made it through the massacre but is now being held hostage in what looks suspiciously like a secret government research facility. The tip-off of the government's involvement falls into the lap of the worst reporter at the Glasgow Tribune, who's just lost her job. Geldof is a miserable teenage boy, ginger hair, English, vegan parents that force him to wear hemp and won't allow him to even have a sniff of meat. Their neighbours include Terry's meat loving cousin who also has anger issues. Can this motley bunch save the day? Or is Britain doomed to be nuked by the French?
There are some of you that will shy away from this because it has zombies in it. Yet the death is never the subject of the jokes. The characters mourn their losses and feel regret at leaving people behind. The humour is in the things that people do under stress and their reactions. Middle class suburbanites trying to hoist their Samsonite cases onto evacuation trucks. The vegan who is convinced her meat-free life will ultimately save her. The things that teenage boys do that could possibly be mistaken for a zombie attack. The squirrels! The kitten! Go on, read it and you'll see.
Humour is often under-appreciated in the book world. People want books that make them feel something but often dismiss books that will make them laugh out loud. It's hard to say in a review what I thought was funny because I can easily ruin the jokes for you but I can say that after chapter 18 I had to put the down for a few minutes because I was laughing so much. The kind the bubbles up when you think you're done.
The last sage let a human die. Autumn Rose is now sage and protector at her school, which doesn’t make her popular. When another sage turns up, she is dragged back into a world she would much rather leave behind.
I was a little confused when I started Autumn Rose as I was expecting a follow on from The Dark Heroine: Dinner with a Vampire. Instead, this runs concurrently with the previous story, introducing new characters whose timelines slowly start to merge. Abigail’s writing is becoming a lot more consistent, but overall I felt it lost some of the appeal of Violet’s story. Maybe she made Fallon a bit too nice and respectable in response to Kaspar.
I liked Edmund as a sort of father figure to Autumn. I think he puts her age into perspective sometimes. If she acts like a spoilt child at times, well it probably because she is. She’s only supposed to be 15 at the start of the book. There’s less sex this time round but it still touches on teen sex, and decisions to take the extra step.
Autumn’s depression wasn’t entirely convincing. I don’t think you should need to be explicitly told that a character is depressed to be aware of it. It didn’t come across in her narrative and if Fallon hadn’t had that conversation about suicidal thoughts, I don’t think I would have thought of her as suffering depression. Yes, she’s been bullied at school, but the way it was introduced was that she had no one. Yet, later on we find she has plenty of people behind her and she had also stuck up for another, younger, girl and become firm friends. She seemed to be coping with life pretty well considering her unusual circumstances.
It needed a bit more world-building for my liking. The multiple dimensions weren’t all that clear. They had shared history and culture, so are people meant to exist in all or one? Autumn’s news covered Violet’s kidnaping but she’s in another dimension. I couldn’t get my head around it and was unsure of the purpose of making Autumn’s world nearly the same as the vampire’s dimension (which I also think is ours). Why did she have to go to a school? When really the author’s fondness for manor houses comes through eventually.
I was really looking forward to read more about the heroines. Because it’s running concurrently rather than a true sequel, it only gets picked up again near the end. I’m not sure if I’d continue with this series. I would probably want to see the next instalment pick up with both Violet and Autumn, rather than investing and getting to know yet another main character. We’ll see…
Review copy provided by publisher.
I was a little confused when I started Autumn Rose as I was expecting a follow on from The Dark Heroine: Dinner with a Vampire. Instead, this runs concurrently with the previous story, introducing new characters whose timelines slowly start to merge. Abigail’s writing is becoming a lot more consistent, but overall I felt it lost some of the appeal of Violet’s story. Maybe she made Fallon a bit too nice and respectable in response to Kaspar.
I liked Edmund as a sort of father figure to Autumn. I think he puts her age into perspective sometimes. If she acts like a spoilt child at times, well it probably because she is. She’s only supposed to be 15 at the start of the book. There’s less sex this time round but it still touches on teen sex, and decisions to take the extra step.
Autumn’s depression wasn’t entirely convincing. I don’t think you should need to be explicitly told that a character is depressed to be aware of it. It didn’t come across in her narrative and if Fallon hadn’t had that conversation about suicidal thoughts, I don’t think I would have thought of her as suffering depression. Yes, she’s been bullied at school, but the way it was introduced was that she had no one. Yet, later on we find she has plenty of people behind her and she had also stuck up for another, younger, girl and become firm friends. She seemed to be coping with life pretty well considering her unusual circumstances.
It needed a bit more world-building for my liking. The multiple dimensions weren’t all that clear. They had shared history and culture, so are people meant to exist in all or one? Autumn’s news covered Violet’s kidnaping but she’s in another dimension. I couldn’t get my head around it and was unsure of the purpose of making Autumn’s world nearly the same as the vampire’s dimension (which I also think is ours). Why did she have to go to a school? When really the author’s fondness for manor houses comes through eventually.
I was really looking forward to read more about the heroines. Because it’s running concurrently rather than a true sequel, it only gets picked up again near the end. I’m not sure if I’d continue with this series. I would probably want to see the next instalment pick up with both Violet and Autumn, rather than investing and getting to know yet another main character. We’ll see…
Review copy provided by publisher.
