White Teeth, Zadie Smith

I really like Zadie Smith and have read a lot of articles about and by her, and watched her speak on various topics, but this is the first novel of hers I've read. I thought it was excellent. The way it weaves stories through the different parts and knits them together at the end is very skillful. The novel follows two men, their wives and their children (and meanwhile weaves in the stories of their ancestors) as they navigate Britain. It is a satisfying novel in terms of story but also Smith has so much to say about 'multicultural Britain' and about people in general in terms of experience, fear, beliefs, character, relationships. It is huge.

The Captain and the Enemy, Graham Greene

I alaways forn Graham Greene a bit hit and miss, some of his books I have loved and others I really haven't liked. This one was good, but I thought it lacked something. The narrator is plucked out of boarding school by 'The Captain' and goes to live with The Captain's sort-of partner, to keep her company. As a young man the narrator is re-living his experience from then on and eventually goes to find the Captain. There is some intrigue, but nothing is ever very clear, this is definitely intentional on the part for Greene, but I think some engagement is lost because of it. 

 

A Little History of the World, E.H Gombrich

I'd been wanting to read this for a while and it didn't disappoint. A lovely chatty run-through of the history of the world. Also a bit dated, and Euro-centric, but lovely and informative nevertheless. 

 

I Dreamed of Africa, Kuki Gallman

I devoured this in a few days. It is addictive and beautifully written. There is a shadow over the whole book, you know right from the off that some thing awful will happen, but that only serves to make everything deeper and more poignant. It is dated, there is a sort of colonial undertone to everything, and I was always wondering where they and their friends got their money from. However that doesn't ruin it. The book really is a love letter to Kenya but it also says something very powerful about the author's realtionships, with her family, but also with friends and aquaintances.

The Midnight Library, Matt Haig

I thoroughly enjoyed this. At midnight one night Haig's protagonist finds herself in a huge library, where she can step into any of the lives she might have lived if she had made different choices (stayed in the band, said yes to the coffee date etc) Predictably, through all this, she finds that in each life, there she herself is, she can't ever escape that, but she comes to realise what she does actually want out of life.

 There are a few details I'd change about the book and I think there could have been less time on the big, obvious regrets and more on the little ones, or more on the fall-out of having to leave these other lives when she wasn't totally happy there. However in the end it was a great book, compellingly written and with a nice ending

 

My Life, Marc Chagall

 

I loved this, I knew nothing in about Chagall, neither his art or his life, but found this in a bookshop. What intrigued me, along with the illustrational sketches, was that he had written it as he was about to leave his home of Russia and move to Paris in 1922.

It is written in a melancholic, nostalgic, dream-like tone. Snatches of impressions of incidents, people and old habits are interspersed with more traditionally told memories as Chagall tells the story of his youth and early adulthood. 

The Travelling Cat Chronicles, Hiro Arikawa

This lovely book was a gift from a friend. The protagonist is a cat, once a stray who tells us the story of his meeting and deciding to live with a seemingly fairly lonely, caring young man. One day they set off on a journey visiting the man's old friends. Through these meetings and the ca's commentary we discover the story of the man't life and why he is suddenly trying to re-home his best friend. It is a bit too sweet, but is nicely told and was a good, chilled read.