Notes of Life

Memories of sitting on the school playing field and making daisy chains in the summer.

A little bee on the purple heather in our back garden.

Posted for Camera Critters. Why not join in?!

Newes from the Dead by Mary Hooper

From the back of the book…

It is 1650 and a baby lies dead before it even drew breath. A young servant girl, terrified and alone, is accused of its murder and sent to the gallows. Protesting her innocence in the chill air of a December morning, Anne Green is hanged. Moments later her lifeless body is lifted down from the scaffold and carried to the College of Physicians for brutal dissection.

But as Anne’s corpse lies on the table and the doctors assemble, a strange rattle is heard in her throat.

Could she still be alive?

This historical novel is based on a true story, which made it all the more interesting for me. While Newes from the Dead is actually a book aimed at teenagers/young adults, I wouldn’t let that put older readers off. After all, it’s been a long time since I was a teenager, but I found this to be a great read.

The story starts with Anne’s thoughts as she wakes to a senseless darkness where she begins to wonder if she’s in Purgatory or, God forbid, buried alive! Here she begins to tell us of awful things that have led her there, of her life at the big house where she worked and how she came to be sent to the gallows to hang. The next chapter is set in a room in Oxford, where a corpse lays resting, waiting to be dissected. Then the following chapter takes us back to Anne and her story. While the book bats back and forth between Anne telling us her story and the room in Oxford, it has been done in a way that is actually easy to follow.

I loved the way this book was written. While Anne was telling me her story, I could almost hear that frightened girl from the 17th century speaking the words.

We meet a number of characters and get to know them, some of whom are quite like-able, while others are not so much! We meet Robert, a scholar of New College in Oxford, who takes quite an interest in the corpse laid before him, wondering, almost worrying about her. We learn of Master Geoffrey and his unwanted advances, and of his grandfather Sir Thomas who will go to any length to protect his family.

This book is descriptive and imaginative, and I feel that you learn about what life was like back then (it was certainly nowhere as easy at life is for us these days). Mary Hooper has taken an event in history and made it into an interesting story in which we get to know the fateful Anne Green.

At the end of the book in a chapter titled “Author’s Notes”, Mary Hooper tells us how she came across the story of Anne Green and what was fact in the story and what she’s made-up from imagination and research. This, again, adds to the whole story.

I hadn’t noticed that this was a book for teenagers/young adults when I first spotted it in a book shop, but having read the back of the book I didn’t care whether it was aimed at me or not. I simply had to read it! I’m glad to have read this book and I think it would make an interesting read for anyone from teenagers in school to the blissfully retired. I’d have enjoyed reading this in school (get it on the syllabus, if it’s not already there!) and I certainly enjoyed reading it now as I’m touching 30.

Available in hardback, paperback and audio CD format.

Highly recommended!

Yesterday was pretty non-stop from the moment I got up until I went to bed. I went shopping in Birmingham with a friend and then we caught an evening showing of Sex in the City 2 at the cinema in Shrewsbury. So I left the house at 8.20am and got home at 11.30pm! I’m now aching from all the walking we did yesterday (though I must say, shopping is a great form of exercise!). I didn’t spend much – I just bought myself some goodies from Lush and a little toy for my niece. Oh, and the good people from Barclays (who I don’t actually bank with) were giving away some nice blue canvas bags, so I grabbed myself one (though Mum already has her eye on it!).

Today I’m off for a family meal to celebrate my grandparents wedding anniversary (last week) and my birthday (next weekend). There will be 4 generations of the family there, so I’m hoping to get some nice photos.

I’ve finished reading Newes from the Dead by Mary Hooper, so I’m hoping to get a review posted this week (when I have a moment to sit down and write it!). The next book I’ll be reading is Hunted by the Others by Jess Haines. She’s currently running a competition to celebrate the release of the book and so I decided I just had to enter (see my entry below). Jess has included my entry in her latest competition update (Thanks Jess!), but there’s still time for you to enter as the deadline for the contest is midnight 30ths June (Contest Rules & Regulations here).

Anyway, I’d better get going!

Founded in 2004, The Book Depository is an online book store selling a large range of books. In fact, they claim to be the UK’s largest dedicated online bookseller offering the largest range of titles in the world, available for dispatch in 48 hours.

The website is clearly laid out with a list of book subjects down the left hand side (Audio Books, Crime & Thriller, Humour, Food & Drink etc) and links to Bestsellers, Fast Movers, Reviews, Offers, Blog, Interviews etc along the top. At the very top of the page are links to Login/Register, Track Order etc, as well as Currency Selection (British Pound, US Dollar, Euro, AUD Dollar and CAD Dollar), a search box and a Basket/Checkout button.

The search box is simple to use as you can search using keywords, book title, author or ISBN, or clicking the Advanced Search link will take you to a page where you can search using one or more fields. The website also has a “Super Powerful Deep Search”, but I have not yet had the need to use that.

The Home page also includes Features, Editor’s Top Picks, Book Recommendations and Charts, but their unique feature is Watch People Shop. Using Google Maps, this feature shows you what people have just bought, e.g. a speech bubble pops up with a marker showing where the shopper is and the speech bubble will say something along the lines of “Someone in Ireland bought The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo with free delivery 5 minutes ago”. So it’s really just a fun and nosey feature, but I’ve never seen it on any other website before.

Another feature The Book Depository provide is that if they believe a book is out of print they will show a link to Abebooks to help you track down that certain book. Very helpful!

Most, if not all, of the books sold by The Book Depository are discounted and in some cases they are discounted by over 50%! Even brand new books and pre-releases can be discounted to this extent, ensuring that The Book Depository is one website that you should definitely check for prices when buying books.

The Book Depository don’t just sell hardback and paperback books, but they also sell audio books and ebooks. They even have a selection of ebooks for free!

My most recent reason for buying from The Book Depository came a couple of weeks ago. I was after a book that had just been released and I always check Amazon first but they were showing a 2-4 week dispatch time-frame. Most of the sellers on Abebooks were showing that they would dispatch the book from the US and so I tried The Book Depository… Not only was the book cheaper on The Book Depository, but it would be dispatched within 48 hours, so I ordered the book straight away.

The Book Depository provide free postage worldwide (which is very handy when you only want to order one book!), so all I had to pay was the price of the book. Payment-wise, they take VISA, MasterCard, AMEX, VISA Debit, VISA Delta, Maestro, Electron, SOLO, as well as Paypal. So they cover the main payment options.

I made my order on the Sunday, my book was dispatched on the Tuesday and it arrived on the Thursday. This was pretty much what I was expecting, given their “Dispatched within 48 hours” notice and the fact that postage is free (and so they use 2nd class postage within the UK).

The one thing that annoys me about The Book Depository is that while you get an Order Confirmation (and Receipt for Payment, if paying via Paypal), you don’t get a Dispatch Notice (which usually gives you a fair idea of when to expect the book). Still, that’s only a small niggle, but I’m sure it’s something they could sort out.

However, all in all, I’m very happy with the service The Book Depository provides. I’ve yet to fail to find a book on their website and their prices are very reasonable and on a par with Amazon. The free postage is most definitely a bonus!

Highly recommended!

Website: www.bookdepository.co.uk