The Stories of Eva Luna, Isabel Allende

I love Isabel Allende's work, I can really remember reading 'City of the Beasts' as a child; its vividness and mixing of reality and imagination. The Stories of Eva Luna were not a disappointment, they have the same blend of reality and fairytale and are much more passionate and sensual.

The stories I think are based in Allende's native Chile and seem to come from another time. Outlaws, rebels, illegitimate children and mistresses all feature in stories sometimes domestic and sometimes fantastic. 

I love the short story format as it often encourages authors to leave more up to the reader; we get snippets rather than beginnings, middles and endings. Not so with Allende, her stories read more like fables. We get a full life but told simply, pared down to the essential parts but still poetic and beautifully told. I loved reading them and would definitely recommend. 

Graham Greene's 'A Burnt-Out Case' next.

The Execution of Noa P. Singleton, Elizabeth L. Silver

I really enjoyed this. It is a definite page turner; you don't find out the 'truth' until the very end. It is very well written, and you feel that Silver has a lot of respect for the reader; allowing us to make up our own minds rather than spoon-feeding us a moral outcome.

The story follows Noa P. Singleton, when we meet her she is on death row and her execution date is in six months. Silver reveals the story to us in snippets and from Noa's point of view.

The thing I loved the most about this is the story, when we finally find out the whole of it, is not cut and dry. It is complicated and mixed together with bad decisions, mistakes and bad luck. You get the feeling Silver is making a point; in life there aren't goodies and badies, but situations people react to, one way or another. Silver opens the novel with the line 'In this world you are either good or evil' and then shows us how this is not true, how the world puts is into categories which then makes others' react to or think of us in a certain way and creates a sort of self fulfilling prophecy. The novel is complicated and intelligent, as well as being a gripping read.

A Good Parcel of English Soil, Richard Mabey

I was unsure what I would make of this. I bought it partly because it was a beautiful book and reasonably cheap, but also because I thought it might teach me something, it is an interesting idea for a series of books to be written based on Underground Lines. 

Here Mabey discusses the beginnings of the Metropolitan line; why it was built and what it led to. Much of the book is based on a tension between the city and the countryside and hinges on people living in suburbia and commuting into the City. 

It is certainly an interesting read, and has been very well researched. Mabey talks about the early marketing campaigns for the line and how canny the company running it were. The book is also centred on Mabey's personal experience growing up in 'Metro-land' and on the flora, fauna and wildlife found co-habiting with people. The thoughts translate to any suburban area, the tussle and contradiction found in these areas makes it worth a read.

Next is The Execution of Noa P. Singleton by Elizabeth L. Silver.