Silas Marner, George Eliot

I thoroughly enjoyed Silas Marner, it is a little old fashioned and twee in places, but it is a great story.

The novel follows Silas Marner, for around 50 years. He is the victim of an injustice in his early life and again later on. We see how these events affect Silas, and ultimately how he finds contentment. 

Silas is completely susceptible to the events around him, he isn't at all resilient, and the novel is one in which, for the most part, everyone gets what they deserve. It portrays village life in the 19th Century, with all it's characters and superstitions. It's a satisfying, easy read.

Going Solo, Roald Dahl

Going Solo is a memoir and picks up from where 'Boy' left off. It follows Dahl's time in Africa as an employee of Shell and then, when WWII broke out, as a fighter pilot.

The book is full of Dahl's hallmarks, the stories are all true, but still strange, absurd and dark. He writes with absolute clarity, wry humour and adds occasional reflective interludes. He paints a very bright and fascinating image of an improbable early adulthood. 

The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan

The Joy Luck Club sits somewhere between a series of short stories and a novel. The book explores the lives of four Chinese women and their Chinese-American daughters. Each chapter is told from the point of view of one of the women and is a more-or-less self contained narrative.

The stories are powerful; each one showing flip sides and reasons for behaviours that we can never see in real life. They are complicated, difficult and painful love stories between each of the women and their daughters. Tan manages to create beautiful narratives which are poignant and moving without being overly sentimental or nostalgic. Whilst not culturally relatable for me; the love, frustrations and anxieties are universal. The book is a cry for us all to be better, more understanding daughters and maybe less fearful mothers.

Ready Player One, Ernest Cline

I read this book in a weekend and loved it - it's a proper adventure story, set in a vividly described world which feels just about plausible.

It's about a virtual reality world called OASIS and it's creator, 80's pop-culture obsessed James Halliday. OASIS is a phenomenon in which most people spend almost all their lives, going to school, gaming and socialising in this world. Halliday dies with no heir and hides his fortune as an easter egg in OASIS. The novel follows our protagonist who is trying to find the fortune.

A quote on the cover says Ready Player One is a cross between The Matrix and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory - the format also reminded me of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. It's gripping, funny and just a brilliant idea, the competition is a great format to explore the idea of VR and how it could become intrinsic to our lives.

The protagonist is the usual kids/teen fiction hero; no family, poor and unattractive which is vaguely annoying, but he is well drawn and you absolutely want him to succeed. The novel touches on loads of themes which are relevant to how we live now and the way humanity might be heading. Cline makes you think, but without beating you over the head with ideas. The 80's thing wasn't so exciting for me as I didn't get alot of the references; but Cline engaged me all the same. It's a hugely satisfying story, and very fun.

The Inheritors, William Golding

I was surprised by this novel, it's one my Dad gave me. I didn't make it to the end of The Lord of the Flies, so didn't start this one with high hopes. It turns out to be a really interesting and strangely gripping book.

The Inheritors deals with some of the same themes as Lord of the Flies. For the most part the novel is told from the point of view of Lok, we aren't sure what Lok is; but he seems to be a creature very similar to a neanderthal. We follow Lok as he moves with his family or tribe to their summer home. After a while it becomes apparent that there are some other, hitherto unknown creatures living nearby.

In some places it's quite hard to understand exactly what's going on as the book is told from Lok's perspective and his language and thought process hasn't evolved fully. It's a little like watching a film through fog, you can't be sure of what you're seeing. In spite of that I liked the way it was written, it's an interesting exploration of what early people might have thought and how they lived. It also gives you some room to think about what is happening and the consequences of that, it slows you down.

One thing I found really annoying wasn't Golding's fault, but the publishers. The copy I was reading is my Dad's - so published in 1977. For some bizarre reason in the 70's it was ok to write a review on the back which completely gives away the ending of the book...?

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, Ransom Riggs

Miss Peregrine.. is told from the perspective of Jacob, a sixteen year old boy. His grandfather used to tell amazing stories of a childhood evading monsters and filled with children with incredible powers; the ability to levitate, invisibility and super strength. Jacob grows up idolising his grandfather and believing the stories, until he starts questioning the photographs given as evidence and the possibility of such things. After a family tragedy however he is pushed to investigate his grandfather's stories for himself.

Much of the plot is centered around photographs like the one on the cover. They are photographs Jacob's grandfather shows him to prove his stories, or that Jacob comes across in the process of finding out the truth.  Riggs uses real vintage photos he has collected, and includes them with little or no re-touching. The images are all eerie in some way, and apart from a couple which seem shoe-horned in, complement the story by setting a tone and augmenting the text.

It's a very gripping book; we are drip-fed the truth and encouraged to figure the story out before Jacob does. It's a proper teen-fiction nail-biter and is a good read. It's very cinematic and the descriptions of people and place are vivid and raw. Well worth a read.

The Martian, Andy Weir

I started reading this after my boyfriend raced through it on holiday this summer. The Martian of the title is Mark Watney, who has been left behind on Mars (his crewmates think they saw him die). His challenge is to survive (possibly until the next mission comes to Mars, in around 4 years time) and try to get back to Earth.

It's compelling, Watney is an entertainer and it's his well written sense of humour which makes you keep reading. The novel also moves quickly, essentially only giving us updates when something changes, rather than an in-depth, blow by blow account (though saying that, things change pretty often). The science is in-depth however, you get the lovely impression that Weir set the novel as a puzzle for himself, he relishes fixing unfixable problems and explaining how they were fixed, and why the solution works. This got too in-depth for me at times, a couple of passages went right over my head but I was quite happy to accept what I was being told.

In all it's a brilliant read, my only criticism is that you don't get a sense of the time. Without spoiling anything Mark is on Mars, on his own, for a pretty long time. There isn't really any sense of that time passing, or of the psychological affects or moments of madness that might happen to someone in that time and under that much stress. Watney is written as an american hero, but it might have been a little more interesting if the circumstances had cracked his shell just a little.

I have just started another adventure; Eric Newby's A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush