Reading Between the Wines: ghostoftheMNchicken's book

[ghostoftheMNchicken]

This is a book that I read a while ago and fell in love with (and which may, in fact, deserve a reread). It's pretty dark and painful to read at times, but I enjoyed it, although I've recently read another by the same author and was a bit disappointed.

Hope everyone enjoys this one.

[KeithLeMonde]

Oh, it's tricky to be the first one to review without spoiling the book for anyone else!

Thank you Ghost for introducing me to this book. It was a gripping read - all read in about 36 hours. Very atmospheric, and teeming with vividly-depicted C18th London life in all its filthy glory. Apparently the idea for the book started with the building of the new St Pauls Cathedral and the image of the new dome rising above London was beautiful and potent (at least it was for me, being a born and bred Londoner with a great love of the city).

On the minus side, there is an awful lot of misery and pain and fear and darkness in this book, and not much to balance that out. I think I would have found it easier to read if there were some sections with a lighter touch.

For Ghost and anyone else who likes this sort of thing, I also enjoyed this one: www.theguardian.com/books/2013/nov/30/ace-king-knave-maria-mccann-review

[aristocat]

I did like this book thanks Ghost.

I also loved the description of London, you really get a feel for the time and place. However 18th C London was a miserable, evil and shocking place to be and the horrors just kept coming page after page. The references to St Pauls were good - I saw it as her friend. Someone (something) that is always there for her. There is probably a deeper meaning though.

It is unbelievable what was considered medicine years ago and that made it a disturbing read but an enjoyable one. Thanks again. A good book.

[InsufficientlyCaffeinated]

This was an interesting one. There are some elements that I really enjoyed but I felt it could do with a better edit and tighten up. In the end I didn't finish it before having to send on because I found myself falling out with it and kept skipping sections.

The element that particularly jarred for me is how Eliza supposedly had only a low level education but was incredibly eloquent yet the author chose to write Mary's speaking in a more colloquial style. There was also no real sense of time and the build up of fear that the apothecary wanted to inflict just wasn't felt in the book. For me personally it was a good idea and had some good moments but was poorly executed.

I did however enjoy a lot of the descriptions. The author is clearly an excellent writer when it comes to scene setting and description.

[RufusTheSpartacusReindeer]

I did read this in september, i just forgot to post

I enjoyed the book , again not one i would usually pick

The subject matter was very interesting, i have just finished a book about reincarnation/previous lives and the theory in that book was that birth marks can mimic the wounds incurred in the death of the previous life...if that makes sense

It was evocative but i would agree with the previous poster that the 'scary' bits weren't really scary . I kept thinking that something really awful was going to happen and it didnt

Enjoyed the charactors and felt that the desperation of eliza in the last few chapters was very 'real'

Thanks ghost