Anita Shreve - Testimony

Review by Corinna Christopher on show 25th March
Anita Shreve has written many excellent books and her themes are reflected in assured and powerful writing. She lives in the States as are the background of her books and i am a great fan of hers.
Much of the setting is a New England boarding school presided over by Mike Bordin the headmaster. Three youngsters are caught up in a sex-scandal which unfortunately was filmed and due to the ease of computer networks is soon in the public domain. Up until then Silas, Rob and J.Dot were all promising students with an excellent future ahead of them. Because of one stupid and weak moment fuelled by an excess of alcohol their lives were devastated. To add to their misfortunes the girl Sienna was only 14 yrs old and although she was sexually advanced for her years this di not extenuate the crime.
We are told the students home life details and following their expulsion from the school, we are then gripped by the emotional dramas of each family, one ending in tragedy, partly caused by the fact that the headmaster has embarked upon an affair with Silas' mother.
Little is told about Sienna the story being mostly about repercussions for the three boys. This is a taut compelling book and a real page turner with believable characters and feelings. The message from this book is that it takes only a few minutes of foolishness to de-rail lives and expose human frailty.
Good book!
Review by Corinna

show 25th March

G’day and welcome to the Bookshow on radio scilly 107.9fm Guests today are Corinna Christopher and Ro Bennett. Books being reviewed are:
Testimony by Anita Shreve, The Romance Reader by Pearl Abraham,
The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry, The Lovers by John Connolly,
Plus talking about what Ro & Corinna's favourite book of the decade might be out of the 10 picked by 'Lovereading',.
Suggested authors who write like anita Shreve: Lionel Shriver & Jodi Picoult Actually I was thinking about these two authors when I was reading reviews of 'Testimony', they reminded my of Lionel Shriver because of the story content & Jodi Picoult because of story being retold from different viewpoints…)
Loved this reviewers comment about John Connolly's The Lovers: Horror for crime lovers (and crime for horror lovers).
Suggested similar auhtors Stephen King and Richard Laymon.

Ro's pick of the 'Lovereading' books of the decade was: The Book Thief
Corinnas pick was: We Need to Talk About Kevin

Anita Shreve - Fortunes Rock

reviewed live on show by Babs Simspon 27th Sept This is the story of Olympia Biddeford, the 15-year-old daughter of respectable upper-middle class parents from Boston, and the momentous events that happen during six short weeks of the family's annual stay on the New Engand coast at Fortune's Rocks. Olympia is an only child, taught at home by her well educated and clever father; consequently she is used to the companyof adults and seems very mature for her 15 years. Her father invites a newcomer, John Haskell to dinner. He is a doctor, married with children, who has set up a clinic to help the dreadfully poor and deprived immigrant workers in the mills of Ely Falls, a few miles from Fortune's Rocks. Although Haskell is 40, he and Olympia are drawn instantly to each other and an extraordinary but doomed love affair ensues. When, inevitably, their liaison is exposed, John and Olympia are forced to part and she is sent away to be a teacher. She also discovers that she is expecting Haskell's child. The complications of what happens to her and her baby make up the remainder of the story and there are plenty of twists and turns along the way. I can't praise this highly enough. The contrasts between the privileged folks spending their summers in luxury on the cool coast and the squalor, heat and deprivation experieced by the French immigrant mill workers such a short distance away; the extraordinary and utterly believable bond between Olympia and John; the sweltering heqt of of a New England summer, the stifling life of the well-to-do in America at the turn of the 19th/20th Century and, above all, the helplessness of a young girl at that time - all are beautifully and convincingly described. Thank you, Anita Shreve, for a marvellous story!

30th April 2009

Guests this week are:
Babs Simpson reviewing 'The Piano Teacher' by Lynn Wood and 'Faith' by Lesley Pearse
Malcolm Martland reviewing 'Blingsighted' by Karin Slaughter and 'Hanging Garden' by Ian Rankin.
Similar authors to:
Karin Slaughter are: Patricia Cornwell, Kathy Reichs, Tess Geritsen.
Ian Rankin is: Stuart MacBride
Lyn York are: Anita Shreve, joanne Harris.
There were four books with the title of 'The Piano Teacher'. The fictional town of Swan Knob was inspired by Pilot Mountain in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains where the author spent her adolescent years.
Lesley Pearse had a traumatic early life and three marriages, some of which have inspired her novels.
Malcolm finished with a quick mention of 'We're british innit' by Iain Aitch and his amusing observasions of English quirkiness. And 'The Bad Dogs Diary: A Year in the Life of Blake' by Martin Howard 'does his best to avoid the frequently threatened neutering and spends a lot of his time either scooting across the carpet or chasing local tail. It really is a dog's life, and Blake has kindly taken the time to keep a diary of a year in his own life - providing a hilarious, unputdownable glimpse into the mind and world of your average mutt'.