The Last Hero - Terry Pratchett

*I'm a huge Pratchettaholic and have almost everything he's written on my shelves, this is a book I've read before, but never reviewed.*

The Last Hero is a graphic novel, illustrated by Paul Kidby, but not set out in the usual style of graphic novels. It mixes text with pages of Kidby's wonderful illustrations, his one of The Great A'Tuin and the elephants with the Disc on top is spectacular, he does an amazing job of bringing Pratchett's world to life.
It centres on Cohen the Barbarian and his Silver Horde as they travel to the gods' home of Dunmanifestin' atop Cori Celeste at the centre of the Disc, to return what the first hero stole, namely fire.
Lord Vetinari, Patrician of Anhk-Morpork assembles a crack team (inventor Leonard of Quirm, wizzard Rincewind and Captain Carrot of the Watch) to stop them. Along for the ride is the Unseen University's unusual librarian, a kidnapped bard, Evil Lord Harry Dread and his bumbling henchmen, Vena the Raven-haired and a whole host of wizards, deities and dragons. Just another day on the Disc really.
As always there are echoes of our world, inside jokes for the fans (although nothing that alienates the new reader), references to stories that sound a little familiar and with the added pictures it's almost like you can see inside Pratchett's head!
The book works as a stand-alone text or as part of the Discworld narrative as a whole. It's a lot shorter than most of the other books, so would work as an introduction to the wonderful world Pratchett has created.

Her Fearful Symmetry - Audrey Niffenegger

Set mostly in a flat overlooking London's Highgate Cemetery, this is a rather unusual ghost story. Elspeth Noblin leaves her spacious flat to her twin nieces, Julia and Valentina, who have never met their aunt. She stipulates that they must live there for a year before deciding whether to keep the flat or not. Upstairs lives Martin and his wife Marijke, he's an OCD crossword compiler and she works for the BBC, until one day, shortly after Elspeth's death, she leaves him. Downstairs lives Elspeth's lover Robert, a man trapped in his despair and sadness until he meets the twins and becomes entwined in their lives.
The twins are identical, symmetrical, Valentina is an exact mirror image of Julia, with her heart on the right. Seen as the weaker twin, she finds the bonds with her sister suffocating, but how far will she go to escape them?

I really liked this book, I wasn't that keen on The Time Traveller's Wife, Niffenegger's previous book, but I enjoyed the dark, Gothic-y tone of this one. Niffenegger spent time as a tour guide in Highgate Cemetery, and the little details about its inhabitants, which Robert is researching for his dissertation, add a sense of history to the novel.

Goodbye to Berlin - Christopher Isherwood

The book that inspired the musical and film Cabaret, should be a great, fun read right?
Well bits of it were, and bits weren't. A fictionalised version of Isherwood's time in Berlin during the late 1920s and early 1930s, leading up to the fall of the Wiemar Republic and the Second World War, it chronicles the lives of Isherwood's friends and acquaintances, from his landlady, Sally Bowles, the Nowak and Landauer families and others he meets, in a series of short interwoven stories.
The narrator (confusingly called Christopher Isherwood, although the author assures us in his introductory note, it's a mere coincidence), seems somewhat distanced from the people around him, and observes them with a detached air, as though unwilling or unable to get too involved in their lives. He's not entirely likable, being cruel to one young woman, just for fun.
At times the book drags, the way it is set out doesn't help. Hopping from one story to another, not entirely linking them together, it reads like extracts from a longer, more involved manuscript.
He touches briefly, at times, on the political situation, but as a foreigner, it doesn't seem to have much effect on him, even when it has a great one on the people he knows. It's an odd little book, worth a quick read but perhaps not worth investing too much in.

A few bits from the papers, found on the web

Today marks the 50th Anniversary of the publication of Harper Lee's one and only published book, the wonderful To Kill A Mockingbird. Author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has written a lovely piece about her experience of reading it.
I first read it at school, and the copy I went out and bought shortly after still resides on my shelf. Perhaps it's time for a re-read.

Michael Morpurgo explains the inspiration for his children's classic (and now stage play) War Horse. If it doesn't make you tear up a little, I'm not sure what will.

I'm not a fan of the whole Kindle/e-book phenomenon, it leaves me cold, but this was interesting.

Too hot to read...

I never thought I'd say that, but it is. It's boiling away outside and all I want to do is lie in the shade and eat ice lollies. I'm sort-of reading Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel's 2009 Booker Prize winner. I liked it when I first started it, but since then I've either been busy being sociable or too melted to read.
I'm drawing up a list of my favourite summer time reads. Any suggestions?

The Constant Gardener - John le Carre

This started off slow and I struggled to maintain my interest, but I'm glad I did. The novel is a tense thriller as Justin Quayle searches for his wife's murderer and investigates the work she was doing that may have lead to her death.
I haven't seen the film, I might now, mainly to compare the way the story is presented, the novel is well written, densely plotted, with strong characters and full of things to make you think.
I've never read any of le Carre's books, but I think it might be worth hunting some of his others out, any suggestions?