Last Chance to See, Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine

Here Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine, along with some BBC sound recorders and photographers, went looking for some of the most endangered species for a BBC TV and radio show. The book recounts their expeditions, five in total I think, in typical Adams fahion; informative, intelligent and very funny. It is a lovely read and walks the line between depressing and hopeful. 

Evelyn Waugh, Brideshead Revisited

 I am not sure what I expected from this novel, maybe a type of friendship/love story in a big old house. While it is of course about a big old house, it's not what I expected. The story is split into three main parts; the protagonist, Charles, meeting a friend at Oxford and falling in love with the idea of him and his family; the breakdown of this relationship (and the friend); Charles re-finding of the family in the form of an affair with the sister. 

There is alot of talk of religion, baseless charm and the shirking of responsibilities and bad decisions. The protagonist, Charles seems to go through the whole book having things happen to him, and feeling helpless, he mostly manages to avoid being annoying though, and I enjoyed the book. 

Haruki Murakami, 1Q84 (Book Two)

The same calm, clear and trustworthy writing continues in book two of 1Q84, and the story gets much darker and more fantastical. We learn of the whole lives of the protagonists, Tengo and Aomame their childhoods and their inner thoughts. Book two is uncomfortable reading in places and builds tension. 

March, Geraldine Brooks

I really liked this, it's an easy read and is compelling, though maybe not the most original of stories, maybe because of all the stories that have come out of the American civil car. 

The protagonist is Mr March, the father of the March sisters from Little Women and the story tells of what happens to him as a chaplain in the army on the same timeline as Little Women, with flashbacks to his past as a young man, his meeting of Mrs March and the way they lost their fortune.

It is well written and researched, the most imporbable part of it, that Mr March knew Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson turns out to be true of Louise May Alcott's own father. Mr March is a saintlike figure in Little Women but while the book is maybe a little soft, it portrays him as a flawed and therefore interesting and if not relatable then human, character.

 

The Book of Form and Emptiness, Ruth Ozeki

Super interesting, about books and libraries, objects, mental health and culture vs philisophies, how our environment affects us, how people see us and how we see other people, finding our way, medicine and authority and how they hinder and maybe help. Nice push and pull between what is 'crazy'. Both in how Benny, the protagonist, sees other people and how the reader sees him.

Really good, lots in it, unexpected and lovely, deeply thought through. Not sure how it's that long though, felt like it could have been shorter, but not at all boring or slow. 

Haruki Murakami, 1Q84 (Book One)

I ended up cutting this book into books one and two because it was too heavy to carry aound in my bag. It has two parallel stories which at the end of book one are just starting to touch. One is of a young fitness instructor who seems to be an assasin, and the other of a quiet Maths teacher and writer who agrees to ghost write, or rework, a story written by a teenage girl for a literary competition. 

The book seems to get more complicated and more confusing as it goes on, but I was really happy to sit back and let it tell me things. The way Murakami writes is calm, precise and detailed and it somehow provokes a trust, that the things he is telling you are relevant and worth knowing. Complex and beautifully written and intriguing. 

Convenience Store Woman, Sayaka Murata

I devoured this, it is so readable and odd and lovely. Our protagomist is odd which serves to highlight just how odd a lot of society is. She ends up being very relatable and we root for her and her simple life. Funny and strange.