Frances and Bernard – Carlene Bauer

Frances Reardon is an author and Bernard Eliot a poet who meet for the first time at a writer’s colony in 1957. They have mutual admiration for each other’s work, which is more than they can say about many of the other attendees at the colony that year. They agree to become correspondents after they leave the colony and over the following nine years the most extraordinary love story begins.

This is an epistolary novel which has only five voices. The majority of letters are from Frances and Bernard but there are also contributions from Frances’s friend, Claire, Bernard’s friend, Ted and their joint publisher, John. Reading the letters is a perfect way for the characters to be uncovered and for the reader to watch the love story unfold. I adore reading stories told through correspondence and even though it sometimes feels like an intrusion into the subject’s private thoughts and feelings, I find I cannot wait to read the next letter in the story!

This novel proved to be an extraordinary accomplishment in penmanship, especially as the main characters are artists and quite opposite in character. Frances is restrained, religious and erudite and Bernard is entirely learned, passionate and suffers with mental illness episodes which seem to be brought about by his struggles with thoughts on love and the nature of faith. Even though there are a lot of religious references and discussions in this story, it did not detract from my enjoyment of it. Frances is devoutly Catholic although she has a hearty dislike of religious hypocrites and most of the nuns who taught her as a child. Bernard is a recent convert to Catholicism and soon realises the construct of his faith is flawed. The discussions around this are so well thought out and not in the least bit “preachy” which is what I dislike most about religion-centric novels. Religion is included in this novel because it is such an important issue to both characters and not just to make a statement to the reader.

Carlene Bauer has written an astonishingly witty, absorbing and ingenious novel which does not shy away from questions of faith, love and suffering for ones art. She skilfully uncovers the controlled and explosive natures of Frances and Bernard and is completely masterful with her use of language throughout the story. It is one of the most enjoyable novels I have read in many years and I was totally absorbed by the prose. I know I will read it many times not only to feast on the language and turn of phrase but to amble rather than gallop through the letters, now that I know what happens next!

This book is a feast of eloquent and witty prose and an absolute joy to read.

9.95/10

Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares – Rachel Cohn & David Levithan

Happy New Year! Every good wish for 2013. Here is the first review of this year. Hope you enjoy!

It is Christmastime in New York and Dash (short for Dashiell) finds himself in his favourite place in all the world, the Strand Bookshop. Whilst searching the shelves he comes across a red moleskin notebook with the words “DO YOU DARE?” written on masking tape, in black Sharpie stuck on the front cover. He opens the book and there on the first page was a message:

“I’ve left some clues for you.
If you want them, turn the page.
If you don’t, put the book back on the shelf, please. “


He knew the handwriting was that of a girl. As he turns the page he sees the words that lead to the first steps of a wonderful journey of dares and truth!

Dash hates Christmas! His parents had been through a bitter divorce when Dash was eight years old. His father used Dash as a weapon to hurt his ex-wife, trying to gain sole custody of him and thus denying her any access to her beloved son. Fortunately, the judge realised what was happening and Dash’s mother won that particular battle. He has lived with her ever since although, a few years after the divorce, she had taken up with a boyfriend who Dash was not too fond of.

Dash is now sixteen and this particular year finds himself all alone at Christmas. He engineered this by telling his father he was spending the holiday with his mother and telling his mother he was with his dad. Both his mum and dad had decided to go on holiday with their respective partners thinking he was with the other parent. Dash was certain he would not be found out as his parents had not spoken a word to each other since the day they divorced. Being alone was just fine by him, it was a good opportunity to read and trawl the eighteen miles of bookshelves at the Strand Bookstore, Dash’s favourite pastimes.

Lily loves Christmas! She loves everything about it and even set up her own carolling society because there was none in the “gentrified bohemia” of the East Village where she lives. Lily is the youngest in the family, a family which includes her devoted mother and father, her brother, Langston, a doting grandfather, a great aunt and so many aunties, uncles and cousins she cannot count them all. Her grandfather used to run the neighbourhood family grocery store in East Village. He knows EVERYONE and even though he has retired from the grocery store he still lives on the fourth floor penthouse of the old brownstone building where it stood. Lily and her family live on the second and third floor. Because of this extensive network of family, friends and acquaintances looking out for her and the fact that Lily goes to an all girls school where she is not in the “in-crowd”, she finds it terribly difficult to meet and associate with boys her own age.

Langston suggests that she needs a boyfriend of her own age and with similar interests. He mentions the book of dares idea to her. Slowly she comes up with a plan and as her cousin works at The Strand Bookstore, her favourite place, she decides to try it out.

This is when things get really interesting!

This is a lovely story of two teenagers who are bookish and lonely and find it difficult to meet people they get along with. The fact that it is set at Christmastime adds to the feel good factor of the tale too. I particularly like the fact that each of Dash’s chapters were written by David Levithan and each of Lily’s chapters were written by Rachel Cohn without them having mapped out a plan for the story beforehand. They wrote each chapter sequentially and shared them only after each one was completed. The story unfolds just like that, especially as in some of the chapters the Dash and Lily have not met in person.

I was sorry when the book ended and headed off to look for the two other books which the authors had co-written.

If you want an entertaining, heart warming, well written story with believable characters, then be sure to pick up Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares which was published by Harlequin UK in Oct 2012.

9.8/10

Extraordinary Rendition - Paul Batista

Byron Johnson is partner in a Wall Street law firm who, at the apex of his career, volunteers to take on the case of Ali Hussein. Ali is a Syrian national who lived and worked in the US for ten years as an accountant prior to being arrested in Europe over 9 years earlier. Byron learns that Hussein has finally been brought back to the US for trial after being kept, without charge, in solitary confinement at various places around the world and has been tortured and beaten during those nine years. He feels that justice should be done and the man should be charged with something, offered a fair trial and have the right to defend himself in a court of law. This is where the story begins.

Extraordinary Rendition is a fast paced, eloquent, witty, sometimes disturbing account of a lawyer facing an uphill battle against forces within the US government which are hell bent on getting a conviction. Members of nameless government departments, the FBI, Homeland Security and the CIA have worked for years to uncover the invisible millions of dollars which they believe travel around the world almost unseen and untraceable. These are the dollars used to fund terrorist activities. They believe Hussein is the mastermind behind securing funding for, amongst other things, the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center. For nine years they have tried to make him confess and for nine years he has protested his innocence.

Here’s an extract from Chapter 2. Byron Johnson has called a meeting with the US governments lead lawyer, Hamerindapal Rana, who is prosecuting the case. He is trying to establish the nature of the charges and arrange a date for the indictment:

Rana said, “Mr Johnson, you must understand we will indict Mr Hussein at a time and in a place of our own choosing. It may be an hour from now. It may be six months from now. And it may be in Miami and it may be in Juneau Alaska, with Sarah Palin as judge.”

In the five minutes since the start of the conference, Byron had let go of any pretence that this would be what he liked to call a ‘good, cordial meeting,’ He said, “Mr Rana, the man is now in jail in the United States. He’s been in detention more than nine years by my count. I don’t think you have the right to delay indicting him indefinitely.”

“You think so Mr Johnson?” Like his clothes, Hal Rana’s voice was elegant, almost British-accented. Byron, who had the sense that Rana must have spent time in an English boarding school, was intrigued. Rana continued, “The Congress and the president don’t see it your way. We have an anti-terrorism bill that gives us the option to decide when to indict and where to indict, We don’t need to be concerned by whatever speedy trial rights your client may have, because he has none. And, in this case we can indict him anywhere in the country and he can’t complain that it’s the wrong place.”

“So you are going to pick a state where the jury is most likely to convict, right?”

“We’ve been thinking about Oklahoma, Mr Johnson. We relish the idea of putting a terrorist on trail in front of an Oklahoma jury near the site where McVeigh blew up the federal building.”

“I don’t think that’s fair.”

“You don’t? Then you have to complain to Congress. I am just a simple country lawyer.”


This story feels chillingly realistic. Nobody is quite who they seem to be and sometimes it is hard to know who the bad guys really are. Paul Batista paints a disturbingly blurred line between the terrorism of the offenders and the terrorism of the prosecutors. Justice, it seems, depends on good men doing something out of the ordinary to protect the tenets of law. This doesn’t happen every day, certainly not if a lawyer wants to rise to great heights in their career and gain the ultimate prizes: success and accolade.

I couldn’t put this book down. It is brilliantly written, the characters are realistic and it offers real insight into the intricacies of the US legal system, especially those rather complex, controversial and challenging laws pertaining to Extraordinary Rendition and national security. There is another bonus in this book; any lover of New York City will be enthralled by the many vivid descriptions of places, buildings and landmarks in the city. It made me pine to be back there. Of course, like any good thriller there are many twists and turns in the tale. The one at the end left me asking more questions than it answered. I’m still wondering about it now!

Extraordinary Rendition was published in July 2012 by Astor + Blue Editions. I cannot recommend it highly enough. Just brilliant!

9.9/10