Neither Here nor There, Bill Bryson

I enjoyed this, it's a light entertaining read, though I think I was expecting a little more. Bryson quips well and is funny, particularly when describing interactions between people or the wanderings of his mind on journeys.

Bryson could be pretty unforgiving at times and doesn't conjure up the feeling or atmosphere of a place as well as other travel writers. He also had a strong dislike for Germans, apparently based on their history. Given that Americans and the British have a very similar history of invading and wiping out races of people I don't think his dislike is at all justified.
It's the first Bryson I've read, I don't think I'll try another travel book but would try a history or memoir.

The Two Pound Tram, WIlliam Newton

The Two Pound Tram is a completely delightful book. The story follows two young brothers Second World War as they leave their rather cold family home to make their own way in the world. It is concise, simple in the best possible way, funny, heartwarming and heartbreaking. It is a novel which doesn't demand much of the reader but gives a lot back; bright and refreshing.

Something of Myself, Rudyard Kipling

Something of Myself is a collection of essays/chapters/writings by Rudyard Kipling describing his life; his childhood, working life and the places he has lived. I was expecting it to be 'of the times' and was aware of Kipling's more controversial opinions which led me to think it would be an interesting read.

The writing though is so of it's time that it became completely obtuse in places and was a drag to read. Certainly not one just to dip in and out of, only for those with a sincere (and already well researched) love of or fascination with Mr Kipling.

Fire Season, Philip Connors

For nearly ten summers Philip Connors has been returning to the Gila National Forest in New Mexico to watch for wildfires. Fire Season, Field Notes from a Wilderness Lookout, tells of Connor's experiences.

It is a beautifully written, atmospheric book. Connor has a real flare for description, and imbues the book with a very strong sense of place and personality. Anecdotes, history, autobiography and musings make up Fire Season, it is romantic and practical, informative and funny. It beats Kerouac's 'Alone on a Mountaintop' hands down. Highly recommended.

Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, Jeanette Winterson

Oranges is a vivid coming of age novel, exploring the early life of an girl who was adopted by an overzealous Evangelical woman and her barely-there husband. The plan for Jeanette is a missionary life, she will be her adoptive mother's gift to the world and the Lord. Unfortunately for the mother, Jeanette finds out she is gay. For the latter half of the novel Jeanette attempts to reconcile her two selves.

Oranges.. is brilliantly written in snapshots which carefully and thoroughly build a picture of a childhood & adolescence. It is not bitter or disparaging towards the church, it lightheartedly points out the hypocrisies whilst clearly showing the warmth and community it provides. Winterson draws you in with her wit and wry observations, by the end of the novel you realise her dilemma is a distilled version of the universal push and pull between home/early family life and carving a life as an adult. Oranges.. deserves it's reputation.

Waterland, Graham Swift

I enjoyed this novel much more having finished it, than I did half way through. It's structure is complicated; chapters describing the history of the fens and the Atkinson family are intermingled with memories of a fateful time in the narrator's childhood and current events, the narrator's crisis in later years. The story is intriguing, the structure works well in tying together all the strands of the narrative and whilst the narrator's contemporary ramblings are necessary to the plot and Swift's characterisation of him, they are often tedious.

It is a novel absolutely about the fens, its landscape and the effect it has on the people living and working there. It's also about families, madness and the huge and rippling effects of what might be, in other situations, minor events. There is so much in this novel, Swift uses and questions the idea of 'history' to great effect, it is a book which needs mulling over. 

The Dig, Cynan Jones

This is a sparsely, beautifully written short novel. It's calm, pared-down delivery belies it's violent, grief stricken world.

The novel shows two men in rural Wales; one is a bereft farmer trying to cope with lambing season alone and the other is an unnamed cruel man, making a living badger baiting. The two men live in parallel for most of the book, skirting around each other's worlds.

The Dig is powerful and still enjoyable. The portrait of grief is strong and well drawn, the novel feels to have love at the edges. A profound and incredible story.