Maggot Moon, Sally Gardner

Maggot Moon won the Costa Children's prize last year, I got this proof whilst working at Waterstones and it came highly reccomended. It is a lovey easy read, very simply and distinctively written. It is narrated from the point of view of Standish Treadwell who is living under an oppressive regime. His parents have 'disappeared' and a chain of events is triggered when a new family move in next door.

Maggot Moon feels simultaneously very small and very big. It deals with a very short space of time and Standish's family are quite isolated. It does however deal with some huge themes of politics, humanity and love and is dramatic. Well worth a read.

Thanks to Hot Key Books for the proof. Next I think is Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.

A Room With a View, E.M.Forster

Not a great deal to say about this one. It is funny and feels indulgent. Quite old fashioned and predictable, but deep and philosophical in places. Enjoyable.

The Shock of the Fall, Nathan Filer

Eye opening and enjoyable - the inside cover of my copy says 'There are books which let us into the hidden parts of life and make them vividly real' and this is certainly one of them. It is narrated by, and is about Matthew, whose older brother Simon died when he (Matt) was 9. Matt tells us of what follows, of his mum and dad trying to cope and the way in which Matt himself isn't coping. It is compelling - there are unanswered questions throughout and we are slowly allowed to fill in the gaps.

The Shock of the Fall is about mental illness and the different forms it can take. The author does a really good job of letting us know, without exactly telling us, what kind of person Matt is. You recognise him and it is like siting on the other side of the fence. It feels very contemporary and it feels very real.

Next up is one from the other end of the spectrum A Room with a View, by E.M Forster

Seven Years In Tibet, Heinrich Harrer

This is a brilliant book - it is an adventure story, travel book, and memoir. Heinrich Harrer was an Austrian mountaneer, ski champion and one of the four who first climbed the North Face of the Eiger. Harrer was climing in the Himalayas when the Second World War broke out and became a prisoner of war in India.

Seven Years in Tibet describes Harrer's escape from the POW camp, his journey into Tibet with Peter Aufschnaiter and their arrival and eventual acceptance in Lhasa. It is written very matter of factly, in the beginning Harrer states 'As I have no experience as an author I shall content myself with the unadorned facts.' He proves himself an excellent narrator, not romanticising or draging out any of his experiences. It is a pleasure to be in his company.

Whilst somewhat sceptical of the superstition of the Tibetans he is a curious and interested observer. It is clear Harrer has a great love for Tibet and its people. Forced to leave on the invasion of Tibet by China he writes:

'I follow all that happens in Tibet with the deepest interest, for part of my being is indissolubly linked with that dear country. Wherever I live, I shall feel homesick for Tibet.... My heartfelt wish is that this book may create some understandng for a people whose will to live in peace and freedom has won so little sympathy from an indifferent world'

A beautiful and intriguing book well worth a read. Next is 'The Shock of the Fall' by Nathan Filer. 

The Yellow Birds, Kevin Powers

The Yellow Birds doesn't feel like something I can critique, it is emotive and beautifully written but feels too real and too possible.

Kevin Powers is a poet and served in the US army in Iraq in 2004 and 2005. When the novel came out and I was still working at Waterstones, I remember reading that he had set out to write something which conveys the feeling of war. It ends on hope and is certainly worth reading.

 

Thank you Sceptre for the proof. I think Seven Years in Tibet, by Heinrich Harrer is next. 

Amity and Sorrow, Peggy Riley

Amity and Sorrow tells us of a woman and her two daughters who are running away from their family and everything the daughters have ever known. The 'family' is one man and 50 wives (the woman was the first) who have gradually, over the years turned into a cult. It is broadly about surviving, ideas of how best to live and how adaptable different people can be.

Amity is the youngest daughter, and the character I most liked, it is understandable the way she tries to reconcile her beliefs from he life before with what she sees and feels to be right in life outside. She is contrasted with her sister, Sorrow, who is indoctrinated to the point of insanity. Though again this is understandable - she has been pulled from the world she has known into one completely different which seems harsh, unloving and evil.

There is a really interesting point of view from the mother. Through her memories we piece together the beginning of the cult, how it evolved, all the comfort and safety it gave for years.

Amity and Sorrow is a compelling and rich read, the author is considered and doesn't take an opportunity to slate religion or fundamentalism, but rather tries to point out how people can be immersed in something which isn't as safe as it seems, just because they want to find a home and family. Riley also shows that those who appear vulnerable aren't always, and can be capable of brave and terrifying action.  She asks questions of cause and effect, nature and nurture. In all entertaning and questioning. Thanks for the proof Tinder Press!

Now reading The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers.

The Customs of the Kingdoms of India, Marco Polo

I don't have a great deal to say about this one. It is very dated which makes it interesting and some of it is obviously made up and/or exaggerated. The tone is notable, it is a little like listening to an old man you have just met, quite formal but immediate and it feels like a dialogue rather than a piece of writing.
He is pre-occupied with describing the trade and flora/fauna of the countries he is telling of, so sometimes it reads a little like a catalogue! All the rulers seem to be 'one of the richest rulers in the world'. Worth a read though.

 

Can't decide on the next book, possibly The Infatuations by Javier Marias.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Jonathan Safran Foer

This was a brilliantly original book. It uses images and the layout of the pages to help tell the story.

The main plot follows nine-year-old Oskar. Oskar is greiving for his dad, who died in 9/11 (which at this point is around a year ago). He finds a key in his dad's wardrobe and tries to find its lock. It is a book full of difficult lives, but it feels honest and isn't depressing, more humbling. Safran Foer entwines the stories of Oskar's grandparents with that of Oskar, and you also get glimpses of other lives though the people Oskar meets trying to find the lock.

Oskar is incredibly engaging. He is insatiably curious and invents things when he is nervous or can't sleep.
Also I designed a pretty fascinating bracelet, where you put a rubber band around your favourite book of poems for a year, and then you take it off and wear it.

The way it is written feels very real and honest, partly because sometime it feels a little disjointed and less coherent than you might expect. This adds to the feeling of the reality of the lives Safran Foer is describing. Though it also means that on finishing the book, I felt i wanted to turn over and start again from the beginning, to get all the things I may have missed. This feeling wasn't helped by the fact I devoured the last 10 pages or so. It is definitely one I want to read again.

I invented a book that listed every word in every language. it wouldn't be a very useful book, but you could hold it and know that everything you could possibly say was in your hands.

Marco Polo is telling me about India now, not sure how truthful he is being.

Metamorphosis and Other Stories, Franz Kafka

To be perfectly honest I found this pretty annoying. The story Metamorphosis is interesting, about a man who wakes one day to find he has turned into a giant insect. Kafka explains the family's reaction and how their attitude changes to him over time. In the Penal Settlement is also alright. However each of the other three stories are irritating and dull at best. The Burrow forces you to listen to the insecurities of a burrowing animal for pages and pages - it seems to be a theme that Kafka's characters are self absorbed and neurotic.

As it is Kafka you think there is a parallel meaning which will be important, or even just interesting. However the way in which he writes pushes you away and ensures you have none but a passing interest in what that might be. 

At the end of the book I got the feeling I got at the end of Women in Love- that I wouldn't like or agree with the author if I met them. Which, fairly or unfairly, means I am not inclined to spend my free time with them or their inventions.

I have just started Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by .... I'm very excited as it has been highly recommended by someone who has never recommended me a less than brilliant book!

The Black Cloud, Fred Hoyle

I loved this, it is very original, unpredictable and gripping. It was bought for my brother (because of the last name!) and has been lent around quite a bit as it is so good.

It is a brilliant story of a team of scientists, and their governments, trying to deal with a threat to life on earth. It is not depressing or dramatic however and Hoyle manages to fit in alot of theory and scientific explanations, a social/political critique and some endearing and likeable characters. It is truly original and leaves you buzzing.

I really don't want to ruin it for anyone who decides to read it and so feel I can't say much more - other than I urge you to read it!

Next is Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis and Other Stories, not a fan..

Meeting The English, Kate Clanchy

This was a really good read, engaging and enjoyble. It follows Struan Robertson, 18 and just out of school as he moves from his hometown in Scotland to London to be a carer for a famous author, who has recently suffered from a stroke. Struan is responsible and old for his age, and takes very good care of Phillip whilst getting used to and finding his place within Phillip's dysfunctional and mostly selfish and uncaring family.

I read this a few weeks ago (been on holiday so no blogging!) whilst it was very hot, and the novel is based in the scorching summer of 1989 (also the summer I was born) so it was pretty apt. Its a relatively easy read but not mindless, it asks questions, is funny and just manages to shy away from cliche at the end! Certainly worth a look.  

Next was The Black Cloud by Fred Hoyle - bought for my brother by his girlfriend, probably because of the same last name (quite rare and we're always local to West Yorkshire). It was brilliant and very original.

Benediction, Kent Haruf

Benediction is perfect. It is life, humanity, and lives and people and huge sorrows. I can't articulate how much I feel and love novels which aren't fast paced and don't really have a beginning, middle and end, and don't end. The book leaves, but the world it has let you into keeps going and is still there in some other place.

It is set in a small town in Colorado. Holt is surrounded by plains and the story reflects this, it is open and isolated simultaneously. Haruf's prose is pared down, long sentences but simple, with feeling and a particular sense of place even in the way he writes and the people he speaks for.

The core story is that of Dad Lewis and his family. Dad is dying, his wife and daughter are caring for him. There is a son who they don't hear from anymore. A girl just moved into the house next door to live with her grandmother as her mother has died and there are the Johnson women, a mother and daughter, and the story of the preacher and his family.

 

Benediction is a book you read and then think, yes that is how it seems to be, but overwhelmingly, it will be ok, and there will be something or someone, and maybe it is all just healing. You just can't convey some things in a sentence. But Benediction shows, for me, exactly what novels are for.

Thank you very much Picador for the proof.

Brighton Rock, Graham Greene

I'm not sure about this one, it is enjoyable, but not hugely. I think in part because none of the characters are particularly likeable, they aren't as straight forward as that. Greene seems to be moralising and testing opinions of different characters, you aren't supposed to like any of them, and they evolve and change throughout.

This from the back cover:
'Pinkie, a boy gangster in the pre-war Brighton underworld, is a catholic dedicated to evil and damnation. In a dark setting of double-crossing and razor slashes, his ambitions and hatreds are horribly fulfilled... until Ida determines to convict him of murder. But Pinkie, on the run from her pursuing fury, becomes even more dangerous...'

The above description gives a very glamorised version. The story is linear, and not as straightforward as you expect.  It continually leaves things behind and moves on. I like that nothing is explained fully, but it gives the novel a not-quite tied down feel. This, coupled with the characters and Greene's questioning of morality, contributed to my not engaging fully I think. 

I started it because I was going to Brighton for the weekend, it has a brilliant sense of place. The town is vivid, even as the characters are somewhat murky, the feel of the place and the sea-side-ness of it is conveyed.

Unusually I'm not sure what I'll read next (finished Brighton Rock in my lunch break today). My bookmark is currently in Benediction by Kent Haruf, but I'm not quite convinced it suits my mood.

Pygmalion, Bernard Shaw

I didn't realise until a couple of pages in that this is the play that 'My Fair Lady' is based on. It is pretty much the same as the film, except for a rather long afterword. This isn't too tedious though, Shaw uses it to explain why he didn't match up Eliza and Higgins. Higgins doesn't see Eliza as his equal and so can't give her what she wants; 'his relation to her is too godlike to be agreeable'. I get the impression Shaw would have been a really interesting person to have a conversation with.

Pygmalion is a very funny play, but I never really appreciated before how moral the story is. Classes and superficiality, men and women and how people are treated. Shaw lulls you in with a funny, slightly silly play and asks you lots of questions whilst showing you the answers. Its a lovely read, and worth taking the time over as its a different experience reading it over a few days than watching it in a couple of hours. 

I have just started Brighton Rock by Graham Greene (mostly because im going to Brighton at the weekend..) 

If You Find Me, Emily Murdoch

If You Find Me  is compelling and original. It was one of the last proofs I got before I stopped working at Waterstones. It is a teen novel, which would usually have me running a mile, but this one has something different.

It is the story of Carey (aged 14/15) and her little sister Janessa (6), who live in a camper van in the woods with their drug-addicted mother. They have lived there almost as long as Carey can remember and since before Janessa was born. Their mother often disappears for weeks at a time, it is during one of these disappearances, when they are running low on supplies, that we meet the sisters. 'Then strangers arrive and everything changes'

 

It is a brilliant, story of surviving, coping, and family. New ways of life being reconciled with old secrets. The characterisation is really subtle and well done. When you read it (because you are going to, aren't you?) you'll notice that Delaney is really well drawn, and not a cliche as she could have been!

Thank you very much Indigo books for the proof. 

I am reading Pygmalion by Bernard Shaw now. I didn't realise until I was a couple of pages in, but its the play 'My Fair Lady' is based on, so I have Audrey Hepburn walking around in my head.

My Family and Other Animals, Gerald Durrell

This was an absolute pleasure! Funny, entertaining and completely bonkers. It had me stifling laughter in public places (unsuccessfully) and wanting to go bug hunting in a warm country.

The book is Durrell chatting and reminiscing about his life living in Corfu with his family when he was a boy. You meet his brilliantly eccentric family, and their friends (a mix of equally intriguing settlers and locals) and an amazing array of wildlife, magpies, terrapins, toads, scorpions, water snakes....
Durrell spends his time out watching (and often catching and keeping) the wildlife. He has an insatiable curiosity and a passion for any creature, no matter how repulsive to the rest of his family.

There is so much life in this book and reading it is like being on holiday. Gorgeous.

No-one to thank this time as its not a proof! Borrowed it off me dad...

The President's Hat, Antoine Laurain

If you read the last post you might remember I started 'Is That a Fish in Your Ear?' by David Bellos. It is a really engaging book and I'm about half way through. I have put that one aside for now though (new job, don't have any thinking/concentration power left over) for something a bit lighter.

The President's Hat was just what I wanted, warm, light hearted and thoughtful. It reads like a succession of short stories. The novel is set in France in the 1980's and follows President Francois Mitterrand's hat as it is picked up by a fellow diner at a restaurant. The hat is no ordinary hat, it is lost and picked up by a succession of people who all have their lives changed in some way. It is well written and the links and crossovers between the different 'owners' of the hat are beautifully crafted.

Thanks for the proof Gallic Books.

Im now reading My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell and so am spending my spare time with a boisterous family and living on the island of Corfu. Sunny! 

The Honey Guide, Richard Crompton

This is a murder mystery, I don't read much crime but this one looked a bit different. It is set in Nairobi and the detective is Maasai. 'It will do for Nairobi what Ian Rankin's novels did for Edinburgh, bringing the city vividly and unforgettably to life' according to the back cover. It does seem like it was written at least partly out of a love for Nairobi and Africa. The actual murder and investigation isn't as riveting as fans of crime might hope and the writing is a little ordinary.

It did get me wondering though why so much crime writing seems to be similar. The Honey Guide describes Mollel (the detective) on the back cover as 'a 42-year-old single father whose wife has been brutally murdered. A former Massai warrior, now working for the police' How come detectives have to be tragic and/or flawed? Aren't there other ways to make policemen-protagonists compelling?

Thank you Weidenfeld and Nicolson for the proof!

I am on Is That a Fish in Your Ear? by David Bellos now which is talking about translation, enjoying it so far.

Dear Lucy, Julie Sarkissian

Dear Lucy is a good story beautifully told. Lucy is the main narrator, 'I don't have right words for things and I have no good behaviour'. She is sent to live on the farm with Mister and Missus when her mum can't cope with her. The story is of Lucy and her mother, Samantha, another girl sent to live on the farm, and her baby and Mister and Missus and their family struggles. It is a heartbreaking and beautiful story about trying to cope and 'the secret of growing'

The only thing I wasn't sure about was the ending, the narrative just stops, there is no conclusion. Usually I would say that that was a good thing, you're left to make up your own mind. Here though there is a little niggle, did she end it like that for a reason, or could she just not think of the right way to finish it?

The main thing which rings out of this novel though is Lucy's personality, she is a striking and compelling character. She often doesn't fully understand what she sees, so having her as the main narrator is a little like watching what is happening through fog. You are constantly questioning what you're being told.

Thanks Hodder and Stoughton for the proof!

Just finishing reading The Honey Guide by Richard Crompton now.

In The Sea There Are Crocodiles, Fabio Geda

This is the true story of Enaiatollah Akbari. It is listed as fiction though, so not sure how embellished or cut down it is. This from the back cover 'One night before putting him to bed, Enaiatollah's mother tells him three things: don't use drugs, don't use weapons and don't steal. The next day, the ten year old Afghan boy wakes up to find she has gone. He is on the border of Pakistan, and he is all alone.'

Enaiatollah goes from Afghanistan to Pakistan to Iran to Turkey to Greece and to Italy. Always trying to feel safer.

I was reading an English translation of an Italian novel, the story of which was told to the author in Italian by a boy whose first language is either Pashto or Dari. But it doesn't matter, you get the impression that there are so many children like Enaiatollah and so many people in the same situation, that if it didn't happen quite like that to him, it will have happened that way to someone else.

I don't think there is much else I can say about this, it is too real and it is happening everywhere.

Thanks David Fickling Books for the proof. 

I am reading Dear Lucy by Julie Sarkissian now. 

In One Person, John Irving

I was really looking forward to reading this, I have loved his other books. His work is usually very beautiful and very lonely. In One Person begins with a quote: 'Thus play I in one person many people, And none contented.'

The novel is narrated by Billy, we meet him at high school and follow him into his sixties. This from the back cover: 'In One Person is a poignant tribute to Billy's friends and lovers - a theatrical cast of characters who defy category and convention. Not least, it is a intimate and unforgettable portrait of the solitariness of a bisexual man who is dedicated to making himself 'worthwhile''.

I enjoyed this, though more towards the end. At the beginning it is hard to see it as anything more than The World According to Garp rehashed. There's the year in Vienna, the writing, the transexuals, the wrestling... He also introduces around five billion characters in the first 20 pages. HOWEVER after you get past all that it is a really good novel. It is about family, lovers, figuring out who you are and who you think you're allowed to be and high school infatuations lasting lifetimes.

Thank you Doubleday for the proof!

I've just finished In The Sea There are Crocodiles by Fabio Geda, thoughts on that one are coming shortly.

Walking Home, Simon Armitage

A refreshing one this. Simon Armitage is from Marsden, one of the stops on the Pennine Way. He sets out to walk the Pennine Way backwards (as in the opposite way round to the way most people do it). Walking from Kirk Yetholm towards his home town. He travels as 'a modern troubadour' setting off with the rail fare to Scotland and no more. He stays with strangers and gives poetry readings each evening for donations.

It is such a good read. Armitage is engaging, funny and honest. The book is full of the stories of the people he walks with, those who put him up at night and musings (or just generalisations based on stereotypes depending on his mood) on those he passes on the way. The writing is poetic in the way he chats, wonders and describes the walk. Im parts you can feel the rising panic of being lost in the mist and rain, or that weathered, rosy cheeked feeling of someone who has come in from a day on the tops in good weather.

My parents and their families are all from Huddersfield (im from just next door in Wakefield). Which meant I felt like I could relate to Armitage, I could see in my head the places he was, and feel his surprise at seeing Emley Moor mast from Malham Cove. The point though is that Simon Armitage writes so well, with an immediacy, that I think you'll get that feeling even if you've never been anywhere near anywhere.

Armitage notes that 'the Pennine Way is a pointless exercise, leading from nowhere in particular to nowhere in particular via no particular route, for no particular reason' but if you go along with Mr Armitage you will get stories and thinkings and snippets and giggles and lost, and its great fun (especially curled up warm and dry in bed with tea).

Thank you very much Faber and Faber for the proof.

Im a couple of chapters in to In One Person by John Irving. Its very 'John Irving', if you know what I mean, so far. Im looking forward to being in the thick of it. 

The 32 Stops, Danny Dorling

This is one of Penguin's Underground Lines books. Dorling follows the Central Line one Saturday, telling us of the social and economic state of the people who live around each of the tube stops.

Sounds dry I know, but Dorling conjures a portrait of a cross section of London. At each stop there is the textual equivalent of a photograph of someone who lives nearby. A surgeon out to lunch with a younger female colleague. An old woman in a home thinking she would just like a change of company every now and then. A homeless woman who used to beg outside St Paul's Cathedral. These images are compelling and so the work is never boring. I'm not entirely sure weather or not the stories are true. I can't figure out how they could be but its implied that they are.

All in all its a good read, really nice length and I think does what the series set out to do, it is a celebration of London and the tube but doesn't romanticise it, a collection of engaging and well written information. Thanks so much for the proof Penguin!

Just cracked the spine of Simon Armitage's Walking Home. Im looking forward to this one, I like Armitage (seen him presenting a few things) but never read much of his work. This one looks interesting. He is walking the Pennine Way 'backwards', ending up in his hometown of Marsden, which is very near where my Mum, Dad and Grandparents are from.

Telling the Bees, Peggy Hesketh

There isn't much to say about this one really. Its ok, an easy, steady read. It is narrated by an 80 year old beekeeper, who has lived in the same house all his life and is a solitary character. Outwardly the only thing he cares about are his bees. 

This from Waterstones.com: Young Albert Honig spends much of his time in solitude, his daily routine shaped by the almost mystical attention he quietly lavishes on his bees. Into his tightly repressed existence bursts a brash young neighbour, whose vivacity and boldness begin to transform his life. Yet years pass by, feelings are repressed, opportunities missed. When, one balmy day, led by a trail of bees, Albert discovers her body, he is plunged back into his memories, and finally confronts the lies and secrets that led to their estrangement. In doing so he unearths the real truth of Claire's murder - a question not so much of who but why.

It isn't really the kind of novel I expected it to be, the characters are likeable but I wasn't enamoured with them. You are definitely on the outside looking in, despite the first person narrative. I learnt alot about beekeeping which is interesting, and it made me crave honey. Essentially it is mildly interesting and an easy read. Thanks to Oneworld / Penguin for the proof.

Next up is The 32 Stops by Danny Dorling. It is The Central Line of the Penguin Underground Lines books, looks interesting and is very pretty.

The Shape of a Pocket, John Berger

This is a collection of essays and writings by Berger. I haven't read it all in one go but have been dipping in and out, probably for about a year. You can rely on John Berger to be knowledgeable, in-depth and interesting. I find him a bit condescending and authoritative, he seems to be aware that all artists have to read him- but he is worth putting up with - he writes so well and says such good stuff!

These essays were full of ideas. Apparently Degas said that you only have one heart, and there is love and your life's work. Degas (obviously) chose to put his heart only in his work, all the women he knew, and the only way he knew them, was to draw them. For Berger that plays a huge part in the sensitivity of his work. Another essay talks about the Fayum portraits, apparently the earliest portraits found. 'Flawed because very evidently hand-made. More precious because the painted gaze is entirely concentrated on the life it knows it will one day lose. And so they gaze on us, the Fayum portraits, like the missing of our own century'. (You see why we have to read him?- gorgeous)

The best essay I think is one on Frida Kahlo. Berger's idea is that she painted on a surface like skin, which she thought of as skin. Therefore she doesn't paint pain, but paints the feeling of it. Everything she painted was from herself and on herself. 'Frida Kahlo lay cheek to cheek with everything she depicted'

I am just on the last few pages of Peggy Hesketh's Telling the Bees, tell you about that one tomorrow.

The Fields, Kevin Maher

This book is phenomenal. Maher has you giggling along for pages and then has your heart pounding before he punches you in the stomach. Its giggling, hammering and punching in any order and often all at the same time after that.  It is narrated by Jim Finnegan, a 13 year old boy and the youngest in a family of 5 sisters. Jim ends up being exactly like a little brother to the reader and he is brilliant fun to be around. This from Waterstones.com: 

After a drunken yet delicate rendition of 'The Fields of Athenry' at the Donohues' raucous annual party, Jim captures both the attention of the beautiful Saidhbh Donohue and the unwanted desires of the devious and dangerous Father Luke O'Culigeen. Bounced between his growing love for Saidhbh and his need to avoid the dreaded O'Culigeen, Jim's life starts to unravel.

I hardly ever cry at books, can't remember the last time I did. But this one had me actually sobbing-crying at the end. That isn't to say its depressing, though it is sometimes hard to take. Usually I seem to be once removed from the world in a book, but Maher has taken down all the walls and you are right there. This coupled with a compelling story line means it is difficult to tear yourself away. The most incredible thing I think is the way Maher makes you care so much about Jim, he is a phenomenal writer just for that.

Ill give you this bit, so you can see why you love Jim as a narrator, and why the funny bits are worth the punches. Jim is at school, having a lesson on Wuthering Heights: 

'And Mr Clarke then puts down the book and looks around the room and asks us to imagine loving a girl so much that we'd want to bash our heads off a knotty tree trunk for her, even though she was dead. All the GAA lads snort at this, and say things like, She can knot my trunk any day of the week! Which is totally stupid and doesn't mean anything, but gets everyone laughing and kind of makes Mr Clarke stare into space and dream about a time when he might be teaching real-life boys and not a load of complete fecking eejits'

Thanks for my proof Little, Brown.

I have just started (meaning I have broken the spine and put my bookmark in the first page of) 'Telling the Bees' by Peggy Hesketh.

Binocular Vision, Edith Pearlman

These short stories are careful, quiet, thoughtful. Some are gorgeous. They're like photographs in that you get a sense of something, but the back story is left up to you. I love short stories for this, and these seem more at ease than others I've read. Pearlman seems to me to be imagining and testing. It has taken me a while to read them as you kind of need to let them breathe before starting the next one.

One of the best I think was If Love Were All (sounds mushy from the title, promise it isn't). Sonya finds herself in London during WWII, helping find homes for displaced children. She is a drifter, doesn't really seem to know what to do with herself and doesn't want to settle. The tale plays out and ends, and then the next story Purim Night follows Sonya as well, which is surprising and you get the feeling you don't want to know, you want to leave her at the start of something and not find out how it goes, but then obviously curiosity gets the better of you.

The only criticism I have to make is that I don't think books of short stories should be allowed to contain more than about 5 stories. No matter how good they are they get samey after a while. I don't seem to have the will power to read a few and then leave the rest because I want to know - and then regret it.

Thanks Pushkin Press for my copy!

Reading The Fields by Kevin Maher now, which is heartbreaking.

The Lifeboat, Charlotte Rogan

This is a good one, intelligent and questioning.

The Empress Alexandra sinks after an explosion, en-route from Liverpool to New York City. The story is told from the point of view of Grace, a young woman who ended up in one of the lifeboats and is now back in America, on trial for her life. 

We hear about the trial and the ordeal in the overcrowded lifeboat (it apparently holds 40 people, but is dangerously overladen with 39) The author is asking what is acceptable (and lawful?) behaviour when you are trying to survive in a situation where some have to die for others to live. 

Charlotte Rogan doesn't dictate the answers to the questions she is asking, she respects the reader and just asks us to think. In the same way there are small mysteries and gossips in the book, like why the ship sank and the motives and natures of the other people in the boat (and Grace herself, she is questionable and we hear everything from her subjective point of view.) Rogan never reveals the 'truth', we just hear rumours and have to make our own minds up. Really refreshing and enjoyable.

Thanks Virago for my copy!

I'm reading a couple of things at the moment - Binocular Vision by Edith Pearlman which is a book of short stories (as a rule I love short stories) and The Shape of a Pocket by John Berger (as a rule he is interesting but vaguely annoying)

Penelope, Rebecca Harrington

This is an odd one. It follows Penelope as she starts at Harvard, we meet her as she moves in and the novel ends as she moves home for the summer. As I mentioned in my last post it is very American, I think it gets lost in translation, maybe if you went to university in America (preferably Harvard) it would make more sense.

Penelope is a bit of a drip, she has no opinions and doesn't ever know what's going on (to the point where you don't believe she could have ever got it together enough to apply to Harvard). The only reason she seems to be there is so the other characters have someone to bounce off. The others are all quite funny, but are over the top caricatures. It wasn't bad enough for me to stop reading it, there are some funny moments and bits you can relate to, but I wouldn't recommend it.

Thanks Virago for the proof!

Next is The Lifeboat by Charlotte Rogan. I've had my eye on this since it came out sometime last year, looks like a page turner.

The Universe Versus Alex Woods, Gavin Extence

This is brilliant, very funny, life affirming and heartwarming without being twee or predictable. Its one of those stories that if I write a synopsis here it will sound very dark and probably depressing. This is a synopsis lifted from Waterstones.com (they can say it way better than I can so why not)

A tale of an unexpected friendship, an unlikely hero and an improbable journey, Alex's story treads the fine line between light and dark, laughter and tears. And it might just strike you as one of the funniest, most heartbreaking novels you've ever read. Alex Woods knows that he hasn't had the most conventional start in life. He knows that growing up with a clairvoyant single mother won't endear him to the local bullies. He also knows that even the most improbable events can happen - he's got the scars to prove it. What he doesn't know yet is that when he meets ill-tempered, reclusive widower Mr Peterson, he'll make an unlikely friend. Someone who tells him that you only get one shot at life. That you have to make the best possible choices. So when, aged seventeen, Alex is stopped at Dover customs with 113 grams of marijuana, an urn full of  ashes on the passenger seat, and an entire nation in uproar, he's fairly sure he's done the right thing ...

The Universe According to Alex Woods is one of the most enjoyable books I've ever read.  It is one of those books you want to be reading constantly as the world Extence has created is just so good to be in. Alex has a very wry, dry sense of humour and comes across as quite naive at first, though you soon realise he is just very to-the-point and is pretty savvy. Definitely one for anyone who has ever thought the rest of the world is crazy.

Thanks so much to Hodder & Stoughton for my copy!

Currently reading Penelope by Rebecca Harrington, not so sure on this one, very American...

Papillon, Henri Charriere

I loved this. It is a true story (any embellishments or mistakes politely ignored) written by Henri Charriere, nicknamed Papillon owing to a large butterfly tattoo on his chest. He is extraordinary. Condemned to the penal colonies of French Guiana for a murder he didn't commit, he refuses to take the punishment and is determined to escape. After nine attempts, during one of which he lives with an indian tribe for over six months, he does finally get free and into a country which doesn't hand convicts back to France. You can feel him getting more and more desperate in the build up to the last couple of attempts.

Papillon is such an enjoyable read, simply written, personal and not at all laboured. Its very human, though in a weird way. The prisoners are pretty much just unpredictable and a law unto themselves (as you'd expect) The prison guards are generally The Enemy and for the most part portrayed as sadistic. Then there are those who help him on the occasions he gets free of the colony but is not yet home-and-dry. You can feel that these last set of people have been elevated to the status of saints in Papillon's eyes (except, conversely a group of Nuns).

I have never come across anyone, in a book or in life who has half his determination and tenacity. His strength of mind and character are no less remarkable either, the man survived three and a half years in solitary confinement (in two stints) without it affecting his mental health, half starved, in a tiny cell, watched from a walkway above 24/7 and not allowed to say a word or be spoken to. Papillon is also particularly charismatic, must be for so many of his fellow prisoners to put their lives in his hands and to naturally take him as a leader. All in all it is brilliant to have him talking to you for a couple of weeks, and you're a little bit in love with him for most of the book. His only flaw seems to be the way he treats the women he gets involved with. The last one he abandons without saying a word (and not because he couldn't say anything either) This is the only time in the whole book and around 10 years in the penal system and all the horrific things he has to bear that you think, Papillon, no need.

Next up is The Universe According to Alex Woods by Gavin Extence, which I have been giggling my way through for a couple of days now. Reading it is like cutting through butter so chattings about that will no doubt be up in a day or two.

Preface

This will soon be a blog chock full of reviews of books. Mostly novels with a smattering of travel/history and general non-fiction titles - true crime too as I am currently reading Papillon by Henri Charriere. I work in a bookshop so I often get proofs of new books, meaning some of the reviews may even be topical.

The plan is to write a review after I finish each book. So if its a short book the review will come pretty soon after the one before, if its long and im busy we may be waiting weeks, all adds to the fun hey? 

So stay tuned for an opinion on Papillon- currently on page 261 of 560 and right now the going is good.