Stargazer (Roepman) by Jan van Tonder

30 Sep 2009 Leave a comment

by mashadutoit in books

I’m not used to reading a book that is set in my own country.   So reading Stargazer was like listening to the voice of an old friend.

Stargazer is a semi autobiographical novel.  It’s set in the sixties; Verwoerd’s South Africa. It is told through the eyes of Timus, a thirteen years old boy.  He is the youngest of seven children in a poor white family, living in a Railways house on the Bluff in Durban.

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Now this is familiar territory.  I grew up in the seventies, well after the assassination of Verwoerd. But South Africa under PW Botha was not that different.  I recognise the smell of those times.   More

Ant’s Eye View

26 Sep 2009 6 Comments

by mashadutoit in Myself

As antidote to today’s very cold, rainy and grey spring weather, here are some pictures I took in Kirstenbosch the other day.  I stuck my phone in right underneath the flowers to get an ant’s eye view of the sunny sky:

daisies

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La-la-la Laaaaaa!

25 Sep 2009 4 Comments

by mashadutoit in Myself

pippin

Pippin says:  “Here Comes the Sun! ”

Spring has sprung.

More

Hugo Pepper by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell

17 Sep 2009 2 Comments

by mashadutoit in books, Illustration

I’ve been meaning to write about Hugo Pepper for a while.  It fits into the same world as Corby Flood, and if possible, I enjoyed it even more.

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In Short: Some years ago in the remote Frozen North, baby Hugo was found in the wreckage of a strange contraption; half sled, half balloon.   Ten years later Hugo Pepper decides to return to the home he never knew – the town of Harbour Heights.   He befriends the inhabitants of Firefly Square who remember his parents with love.  They accept Hugo into their hearts as though he was family.  But all is not well in Harbour Heights.  Hugo’s new friends are at the mercy of an unscrupulous villain.  Hugo hoped to learn more about his parents, but instead he uncovers a tangled web of tragic love, thwarted ambition, blackmail and lost treasure that ties all their stories together.

What I thought: This is a very special little book.  It is a warm, absurd and funny story with just enough sadness to keep you hooked.  It is a story about stories.  The villain of the piece, Elliot de Mille, has taken the once wonderful publication The Firefly Quarterly – that used to be a collection of marvellous and rare folk tales – and turned it into a spiteful tabloid filled with lies and innuendo. More

Talon by Janet Lee Carey

16 Sep 2009 2 Comments

by mashadutoit in books, fantasy

Title: Talon
Author: Janet Lee Carey
Series : no, its a stand alone

In Short: Princess Rosalind is the  heir to Wilde Island. It is 12th century. In nearby England, Empress Maud and King Stephen are fighting the long civil war.  The war that Princess Rosie will end, or so everyone believes.  Six hundred years ago Merlin made prophecy that the twenty first Queen of Wilde Island would “end the war with a wave of her hand.”  But pretty Princess Rosie has a secret.   Under her golden gloves she hides a “beast mark” – a fingers shaped like a lizards talon, tipped with a curving claw.

talon

What I thought: It took me a little while to get get into the rhythm of this book.  I was prejudiced by the cover, for some reason.  Its a very pretty cover, but it made me expect a humourless and overly florid romance.  I was wrong. This is probably one of the most down to earth descriptions of Medieval life I’ve read, even to the fleas in Rosie’s hair.

But the best thing about this book is hinted at by its cover.  More

BBAW – Book Meme

16 Sep 2009 2 Comments

by mashadutoit in Inspiration

Continuing with the program of the Book Bloggers Appreciation Week – today everyone is answering these questions. So here goes:

*Edit – whoops, I didn’t notice that I was supposed to answer in as few words as possible…oh well*

Do you snack while you read?

Yes.  Sometimes to the point where if I have a particularly tasty snack, I wander around my house looking for a good book to read with it.  When I get like that, I can’t eat unless I’m reading.

Do you tend to mark your books as you read, or does the idea of writing in books horrify you?
I cannot bear to write in a book.  Even to correct mistakes, as I often see done in library books.

How do you keep your place while reading a book? Bookmark? Dog-ears? Laying the book flat open?
I  used to lay books on their faces, but this horrifies my husband.  Now I’ve just developed a knack for finding the right place by flipping through.

Hard copy or audiobooks?
I like listening to audiobooks while I’m doing creative work.  Otherwise its the standard old paper book.

Are you a person who tends to read to the end of chapters, or are you able to put a book down at any point?
Not always my choice. “Maaashaaa DINNERS READY NOW”. Or “Oops. Lights out. You can go on reading in the dark if you like” 😀 More

BBAW – Interview with Sassy Brit from AlternativeRead.com

15 Sep 2009 5 Comments

by mashadutoit in books

As part of Book Bloggers Appreciation Week, I’ve been partnered with Sassy Brit of alternativeread.com.  We drew up a list of questions for one another.  It was fun!  Here is Sassy, answering some of my questions:

The header of your blog says “joining authors and readers together”.  Can you share something about your blog’s purpose?

Well, I like to think that I helping both authors and readers. For authors I offer extra promotion, by publishing their reviews, book excerpts and other writing news, and at the same time I’m giving my readers new ideas for reading material – joining them together, on the blog and in my chat group.

Since I’ve started reviewing books on my blog, I find that it affects my reading.  I catch myself formulating an opinion for my review, where previously I might just have submerged myself in the narrative.  Has reviewing books affected your reading experience?

I can’t read without making notes! Well, I can, but I have to force myself to do it. I don’t think it really spoils the experience, but it does change it, in that I analyse them much more than I did before. I have to say that is part of the fun for me; taking it all in, not just the story, but how it was written, what I feel I liked, disliked and how it affected me emotionally when I read it.


Some people only review books they enjoy.  Others use the opportunity to expose what they dislike.  What motivates you to write reviews? More

Peter and the Wolf by Victor Ambrus

10 Sep 2009 3 Comments

by mashadutoit in Illustration Tags:

I love Peter and the Wolf.  We used to have a recording of it with the narration in German.   Even now, the music evokes the German phrases: “Der Große, Graue WOLF! Ta Daaaaaaaaaa!” wolfbit

Victor Ambrus’s illustrations are fabulous.  They remind me rather of  Adelchi Galloni.  Rough and lively, but delicate too.

Here is Peter: More

Challenging my Assumptions

07 Sep 2009 Leave a comment

by mashadutoit in Opinions & reviews

Well, I had an interesting, if rather surreal experience yesterday.

I was waiting in line at the check out queue at the supermarket.  I noticed a couple of young (student age) black girls, obviously a group of friends, standing in the line next to mine.  One of them was an albino.  I noticed her because she did a big double take at the magazine rack and said “Oh wow, look! Wow!” to her friends. Very excited.

I leant over to look at the magazine she was pointing at.  It was the “You” magazine, and there was a photograph of Caster Semenya on the cover. Caster was looking very different from all the media images we’ve seen of her lately – she was wearing a sexy dress, her hair was teased out in little curls and she was wearing make up. The byline said “Look at Caster Now!” or something similar. I though she looked great.

These girls were super excited. They passed the magazine around, laughing and pointing.  Then the albino girl held the magazine up in front of her face, stared at it hard and said:

“Frrrreak!” very emphatically, and with great disgust.

I was so taken aback. Oh well.

If you are wondering about Caster, here are some posts written about her on Blogher:

Here

and

here

Patchwork Cat – Nichola Bayley

07 Sep 2009 10 Comments

by mashadutoit in books, Illustration

First the mouse, and now the cat! Here is a companion piece to my previous post about Markus Mouse .  Liep Lap die Lappies Kat (translates as Patch the Patchwork Cat) is  a similar, sleepy time story, and the illustrations by Nicola Bayley have the same loving attention to small and seemingly insignificant details.  Both books have the same delight in the creature being depicted.  1

Only a cat lover can draw like this:

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The Troll Princess Part 3

06 Sep 2009 7 Comments

by mashadutoit in Inspiration Tags:

*continued from The Troll Princess Part 1 and The Troll Princess Part 2.*

The next morning Emma woke from powerful dreams of fish mince.  Something was tickling nose.  She opened her eyes to find Ratkin peering closely at her face.  Emma sat up.  “Hungry?”  It was late morning.  She must have overslept.

She washed and dressed and made her way to the breakfast room. There was no one there.  The food was untouched and nearly cold.  Emma served herself  porridge and the kitten was soon deeply engaged in a plate of salmon.

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Things were unusually quiet for this time of the morning.  Usually by this time,  King was pacing the room, followed by his chief minister attempting to organize his schedule.  Cook would be barely containing his irritation at the Queen’s leisurely suggestions for tonight’s menu. And what about all those human servants and men-at-arm?  Where was Prince Gregory? More

Markus Mouse by Maria Majewska

05 Sep 2009 1 Comment

by mashadutoit in Illustration Tags:

I’ve been enjoying looking at Maria Majewska’s illustrations of Markus Muis se Nuwe Huis ( Marcus Mouse’s New House). I like the way she uses pattern and treats all surfaces with equal attention.  And I like how she draws everything with such respect for what it is.

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The story is about Marcus Mouse’s search for a comfortable home.  He starts off in his overcrowded family home: More

District 9 (Here Be Spoilers)

02 Sep 2009 1 Comment

by mashadutoit in Opinions & reviews

Its been a couple of days since I saw District 9, and I’m still figuring out how I feel about it.  Its a rough movie.  Rough in its  presentation- the jerky view point of the hand held cameras, the lack of slickness.  Rough in its structure –  the way it moves without warning from the mock documentary style into more conventional story telling.  Rough in its subject matter – the moral dilemmas, the resonance with our Apartheid past and Xenophobic present.  And rough in its violence.  This is a difficult movie to watch.

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I was reminded of Starship Troopers, which also had any number of insectile alien bits spraying around the screen. But unlike Starship Troopers, which had a pretensions to an ironic message, District 9 asks some honest, difficult questions.  More