Talking to My Daughter About the Economy, Yanis Varoufakis

I loved this, I've folded over so many pages it would have been better if I'd folded over the ones which didn't have something to remember on them. It is straight forward, left leaning and written with a passion and lightness which makes it easy to absorb the ideas and understand the way the economy works in practical terms. It is also unusual in the Varoufakis points out the problems with the economy and then provides ideas for solutions, or multiple ideas for different ways of doing things. It should be required reading in high-school maths classes all over the world. 

They Came to Baghdad, Agatha Christie

 

This was exactly what I wanted to read just before Christmas when my head was full of work and I had no room for anything else. It is completely how you would expect, some views are dated but it is a brilliantly satisfying mystery novel. 

In Cold Blood, Truman Capote

I had a lot of curiosity about this book, having heard so much about it and having seen the film 'Capote', about Truman Capote researching this book. 

Capote expertly tells the stories of the murders of the Clutter family, it's impact on the town and the lives of the murders Perry Smith and Dick Hancock. 

I am not sure how much of the stories of the men's lives are true, though they seem very plausible and unromantcised. Capote seems to get to the bottom of what was a completely incomprehensible crime, the family were murdered apparently for no real reason and with no real thought by two lost, cruel and unthinking, unfeeling men. For this reason the murders were so shocking, the town and the US at the time were searching for an explanation, and it seems that the explanation there is is completely unsatisfactory. It goes against everything common sense and culture tells us.

 

Different Class, Joanne Harris

I love a Joanne Harris. She writes such good, satisfying stories and food always plays a huge part even, as in this case, just as symbols and tools to show the character's attitudes. Having said that there is always something that annoys me about the way she writes, if all the rhetorical questions were edited out her novels would benefit hugely.

This novel is very different to any of the others I have read though. It is a real mystery with plot twists and slow reveals. It centers around a boy who seems to be a sociopath and an ageing and well meaning Latin teacher at St Oswald's Grammar School. Harris touches on what feels like a thousand different themes in the book. I am not sure that I agree with her conclusions on some of them but it is compelling and readable. IT reminded me something of Harry Potter in places, but I think that was mostly down to the setting in a fairly well to do and very traditional school. 

To Throw Away Unopened, Viv Albertine

This is an incredible memoir, it really is uncompromising, and is written beautifully. The evening of Albertine's mum's death is slowly revealed, paragraph by paragraph in between the telling of Albertine's family life. We are shown a window into the lives of her mum, dad and to some extent her sister's lives. Albertine is shockingly honest and uncompromising, when talking about her own experiences we feel like we see the ugliness and the best of her.

I am amazed that Albertine could write this book and convey so clearly all the contradictory feelings of complicated families (and isn't every family complicated on the inside?) She makes us understand how much she loved her mum, but that she also saw her flaws and really problematic behaviour with long lasting effects. 

Her writing on men is also illuminating and sad, at one point she writes: 

'I've never regretted the loss of any man -or cat- I've known. I have regretted losing women though. Every woman, good or bad, who's gone from my life has left a hole.'

I found this eye-opening, and from her writing you can completely understand why, a mixture of the time (being in a successful female punk band in the 70's, you can imagine) and her family experience. She continues:

'I was on tenterhooks for years anticipating my mother leaving the biggest hole of all. I expected her to leave a crater. A crater can be beautiful, I kept telling myself. People go to Iceland and America especially to see craters' 

The book is whole and vital and funny and sad and cutting and galvanising.

Annie John, Jamaica Kincaid

 Heartbreaking, as Annie John gradually hits puberty her relationship with her mother breaks down. Kincaid artfully tells the story from Annie's point of view, we see cracks appear and watch as neither mother or daughter know how to repair them. Despite themselves they drive wedges between each other and the rift becomes too big to cope with.

The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy

I'm not sure why I didn't read this sooner, its legendary and for good reason. The story is heartbreaking, every character is scarred and broken. Gradually the reasons and circumstances of their wounds are shown to us, as are the ways they try to cope or are unable of coping. There is an aunt who acts like poison, infiltrating every situation and turning it sour. 

The characters are struggling with each other, but also with circumstances, Roy shows with total clarity the human cost of politics and customs. The book is dark, but it is also very funny in places, and the descriptive passages are original, lyrical and evocative. It is a pleasure to read, despite the darkness and it feels important.  

 

The Middlesteins, Jami Attenberg

This was really reminiscent of A Spool of Blue Thread, less far reaching but still looking at the lives of a family and how they individually relate to one another and the world. The Middlesteins concentrates on a family of four, mum, dad and two grown-up kids. The mother is fat and is having serious health complications. The rest of the family, including the son's wife, try to help an unwilling Edie to change her lifestyle. We see into the relationships of the daughter, son and son's family too and the ways they cope, or don't, with the lives they have. 

The Middlesteins takes a fairly dim view of relationships, both romantic and familial. It makes you not want to get married or start a family. Everyone seems trapped in a life they no longer want, or never did. There is very little everyday joy and no contentment. It's a good novel, but I don't know if it's perpetuating a trope rather than adding nuance.

For Whom The Bell Tolls, Ernest Hemingway

I have mixed feelings about Hemingway. The Old Man and the Sea is one of my favourite stories, but generally I think I have difficulty with what I've heard of his personality, and in general his attitude to women in life and print.

For Whom the Bell Tolls is a great war novel. We follow Robert Jordan, who is an American volunteer fighting against the fascists in the Spanish Civil War. He is sent to blow up a bridge, and for this reason is attached temporarily to a group of guerrilla fighters behind enemy lines. They are a motley crew of mostly men and two women. The younger woman is a love interest for our hero and is sickeningly and unbelievably sweet, pliable and naive. The relationship, and in particular its intensity, is vital to the plot, and there is something in Maria being so young and naive which is symbolic or says something about the situation. Nevertheless I found her difficult, some parts of her history vs. present hard to believe and generally wanted her to get a grip. The other female character, Pilar has a touch of caricature, but so do many of the other members of the guerrilla group. Apart from numerous references to how ugly she is, she is well and sympathetically drawn.  

The novel feels genuine and somewhat realistic, not overly idealised or cynical. It looks at the individual, human experience of war and is thoroughly engaging. It focuses on individual experiences, lives and deaths rather than on battles or even concerns with ideology. We can feel the characters' fear and both a hope and hopelessness, a kind of resignation. When compared to Orwell's Homage to Catalonia there is no contest, For Whom.. is the better book by miles. 

My copy was given to me for my birthday by friends and it is a gorgeous gift edition, photographed here without its dust jacket it is a lovely embossed hardback with gold edging and an oak leaf pattern inside. 

Bad Feminist, Roxane Gay

I took a while to start reading this, I think because the word 'essays' put me off a bit. That was completely my loss, Gay's writing is funny, intelligent, passionate and compelling. The essays are completely accessible and cover popular culture, race, sexual assault, politics and personal experience. Her personality shines through the work and she feels familiar by the end. It is a privilege to read something so personal and political and galvanizing. 

Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury

This is a great dystopian novel, as you would expect from its reputation. It is an idea which I think will always be current, the idea that people are becoming lazier and less interested in reading, critical thinking and 'intellectual' pursuits. It is not a dystopia that comes from the top down, rather it is the government who exploit a 'weakness' in the population. 

I like the way Bradbury writes, it is to the point and the narrative is concise. I did have a problem with the women in the novel though. There is a 17 year old girl who is the catalyst for the 'awakening' of our main character. She is a trope, bright, engaging 'pleasing' in every way to the hero and makes him feel special whilst making him think, she's a bit like a puppy, waiting for him as he goes to and from work and softening his heart. The other women (it is even worse that one of them is his wife) are held in complete contempt by our hero. They are symptoms of the system, in that they fall for all the new, vapid entertainment and have no free thought. The men are all complicit or in control or activists. The women have no agency and the reader is asked to hate them for it. In reality they are victims of a system which, if all the other roles in the novel are to be believed, was built and is maintained by men.  

Love in the time of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez

I am not sure what I was expecting from this book, but it wasn't what I got. I found it completely distasteful and claustrophobic at times. I am sure the claustrophobia was intentional, and came from the skill of the author in describing the oppressive atmosphere of the city where the characters live as well as the social and personal binds they create or find themselves in. 

In terms of the distaste, I am not sure how we are supposed to view Florentino Ariza. I imagine there are two parallel readings, one where he is an admirable, poetic and heroic figure, and my reading, which was that he is completely insufferable, self delusional and vampiric, feeding off the idea of an idea of a woman his whole life. Having said that I was charmed by the ending of the novel and fully appreciate what García Márquez says about different forms of love and relationships. 

Some of the themes are similar to The Return of the Native; someone falls in love with the idea of a person and the disconnect between idea and reality has a ripple effect. He also talks about marriage and what makes a good one, the role of women and loss of self-hood in marriage, which for the time must have been perceptive. And then there are both long term and short lived affairs, and the idea of loving and being with multiple people at once. There is a particularly disgusting and predatory relationship between the old Florentino Ariza and a teenager, which I think is there to show disillusionment and degradation of old age, but which is awful and marring.

The whole novel is written in such a way that it all, except the first and last chapters, feels like background information, the author seems to be skimming over events whilst giving us details, everything seems to be taking place in fast forward somehow and I am not sure exactly where that feeling comes from. I found it engaging, but could completely understand someone who stopped reading part-way through.

Postcard Stories, Jan Carson

This is a gorgeous collection of very short stories, first written on postcards and sent to Carson's friends. The stories are vignettes, observations and ideas, most both everyday and profound. They are completely delightful. 

It is from fab independent publisher's The Emma Press who publish beautiful, original stories and poetry pamphlets, well worth looking up. 

Education, Tara Westover

This is a difficult read in places. Westover talks about her upbringing in a survivalist, mormon family, headed by her father. She and her siblings were brought up off grid in rural USA. The father has a complete and shocking disregard for the safety of his children, putting them in harm's way as a matter of course. That's to say nothing of his religious and conspiracy theories. Westover conveys the fact that she did not see anything wrong with how she was brought up at the time - it was normal for her - but she felt scared when her father asked her to do clearly dangerous tasks. Her brother was also very abusive, and it was this that made her leave for good. 

It is amazing that she managed to leave the family and receive an education. It is also eye opening in that there must be so many children who are experiencing the same thing. Children who are unregistered and cut off completely from society. 

A Spool of Blue Thread, Anne Tyler

This is my first Anne Tyler novel and I can't account for why. It's a family drama which follows three generations of the Whitshank family, revolving around the large house they live in. It is a very american novel, the family have a really strong sense of identity which is based on only one generation, nothing is known of the generations before, and there is a pervading sense of the american dream, failed or otherwise. 

Tyler slowly and carefully reveals each member of the family, at first through other's eyes and finally through their own words or at least their own story. There is something uncannily skillful in the way she can fully draw a family and describe all the underlying frustrations, resentments, longings and sadnesses without it feeling forced or overly dramatic. The nuance of their relationships are laid out for us, and explanations are quietly revealed. 

The Wise Man's Fear, Patrick Rothfuss

This is the second in a series, I read the first book, The Name of the Wind, as a teenager and was completely hooked.

That was the story of a young boy whose family was killed and had to survive on the streets before trying to get into The University if he had any chance of getting revenge on his parents' killers. This second book picks up during Kvothe's university years. It is told by Kvoth himself as he looks back over his life while hiding by posing as an innkeeper.

The story is a huge, wide ranging fantasy novel, with stories of adventre, love and heroics mixed together. It is gripping and readable, you don't need to concentrate a lot which made it perfect escapism for days in quarantine. For the most part I like the characterisation of the male characters, the women tend to seem a bit idealised or reductive, all (all) the good ones are described as beautiful. It has some great ideas of social structures and languages which we learn when Kvothe goes travelling. These are really thoroughly thought through and are fascinating, one of which is a culture which uses hand gestures instead of facial expressions. In all thoroughly enjoyable. 

A Walk in the Woods, Lee Blessing

I liked this much more than I thought, for some reason I thought it'd be dry, but it's witty and engaging. It's a play; two diplomats meet in a woodland clearing, away from their official business discussing some sort of arms limitations deal. One is Russian and a seasoned negotiator, the other is an American, serious and new to the job.

The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern

Night Circus is based around a competition, whose playing field is a circus. Beautifully atmospheric with really good characterization, and very satisfying. Imaginative except when it comes to the aesthetics, some of which seemed like they'd been directed by Tim Burton in the 90's. The way the story unfolds seems original somehow, there are no huge reveals, it unravels naturally and while it is gripping, it doesn't seem that was the only aim of Morgenstern. I loved the way the novel spans time and weaves in other stories, it is certainly filmic. 

El Principito, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

This was lent to me by a friend, who was surprised I hadn't read it as a child. It's a lovely book, one that works with drawings as well as words, I don't mean illustrations, I mean drawings which are used as well as words to tell the story. I wonder why other books don't do that more, and why drawings apparently aren't considered in books for adults.

It's the first book I've read in Spanish, so the tone and the voices of the characters seems foggier than they would in English, nevertheless it is a lovely story and one I'm sure more people will be familiar with than not. It's about relationships and how we treat the world around us, and what is and should be valued. Though, saying that, I wonder if there are many people in the world who really do value ownership, vanity and power, some certainly, but I think there are more who value other things.

Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro

Never Let Me Go follows three characters as they grow up in an institution akin to boarding school and enter the real world. Slowly they begin to discover the reason for their existence and the details of their future lives. Above all though they are children and then teenagers and their personalities and behaviour towards each other is the focus of the novel. As is redemption and closure which all the characters are ultimately given, and seems to be a theme for Ishiguro.

Maybe because I knew the story before I read this, it took away from the emotional impact of the novel. Though I think Ishiguro creates intellectual impact through the behaviour of his characters, their 'normal' lives and acceptance of their fate. The chilling backdrop is only a backdrop and whilst it creates drama and intrigue, it and the moral questions are not the focus of the story. I enjoyed it, and it is easy to read, so I finished it within a few days, but it doesn't compare to The Remains of the Day. 

Woolgathering, Patti Smith

Lovely, but needs to be read with more attention and a clearer mind, I'll be back to it.

Before the Coffee Gets Cold, Toshikazu Kawaguchi

A lovely little novel which could be read as a collection of short stories. All take place with the same cast of characters, collected together by chance and circumstance, in a cafe where it is possible to visit the past. Kawaguchi explores reasons for visiting the past, all the rules (like, the present will never change) make the novel solely about the emotional journey of the characters, rather than technicalities. It is lovely, and while based on regrets or longings it's uplifting; the take away is that you can always change the present, and most things can be solved by that.

A Month in the Country, J L Carr

A Month in the Country follows Tom Birkin who, just after WW1 is hired to help uncover a medieval painting in a church in rural Yorkshire. The story is told as Birkin is an old man, looking back on an idyllic few weeks. 

It is definitely romantic, written with nostalgia for youth and what might have been, but at the same time feels plausible and relateable. It is a complete tonic for the soul, beautifully written so you feel the healing summer.

Beast, Paul Kingsnorth

A brilliant, unexplained descent, we understand that the narrator had left his old life in the city to live in an abandoned farmhouse on the moor. He is lucid at first but then descends, describing weather and happenings that cannot possibly be. We have glimmers of his story but nothing is fully explained. A marvel. 

The Living Mountain, Nan Shepherd

Beautiful, poetic and deep description of and musing on the Cairngorms, though it applies to all wild and natural places. I feel I need to read it again to absorb all the ideas fully. It's quiet, truly timeless and an incredible product of a life truly well lived. I find Nan Shepherd herself fascinating and the story of her life comforting. 

Wee Free Men, Terry Pratchett

This is everything that is delightful about reading as a child, a magical funny adventure story with underlying themes of family, belonging and fears. Reminded me of why and how I fell in love with reading and stories.

The Female Persuasion, Meg Woltizer

Reminded me of Normal People, maybe in the way it was written as well as the subject matter, two teens and then young people whose lives are entwined. Again questioning a life well lived and people's expectations of themselves and others. Not keen on the last chapter tying up the loose ends, I didn't want to read it but was too curious, would have preferred to have been left with the hints.   

All Passion Spent, Vita Sackville West

A beautiful, quiet book questioning what a life well lived looks like; taking into account personalities, circumstances and duty.