The Great Gatsby

I have not written a review in quite some time, and for that I apologise, I have no excuse and shall not proffer a fake one. So then, I read this book a few weeks ago, it was my second attempt at Gatsby and was an entirely enjoyable experience. It was written by F Scott Fitzgerald and i'm sure many of you have read the book, and a fair few will have seen the recent film adaptation. For that reason i'll not give a synopsis, instead i'm going to go about this review in a slightly different manner. It should come as no surprise that I love reading, and the majority of the time i'll read at home with a massive mug of tea. In this instance I read this novel (and it's pretty short) sitting in a car passing time. And honestly it was my favourite ever reading experience, there are I suppose several reasons for this, firstly, Fitzgerald has a lovely way with words and there where a lot of lines from this novel that have stuck with me since reading it, normally you'll come across one or two quotes you love in a good book, in this one however there was many more than a couple. However, and this is what I feel like talking about here in this post, but this novel I can't seem to separate from the situation I read it in. You know how a certain smell will remind you of a particular memory? It's kind of like that. And this is why I can't seem to give a fair opinion on the novel as I can't tell if I loved the novel or that the situation I was in at the time of reading it influenced my feelings on it. It's hard to think of the great gatsby without thinking of the person I was waiting on. And that is by no means a bad thing. So i'll reserve my judgement on the novel, except to say this, I can't think of anything I did not like about it, and that is rare, there's always something I don't like…so read Gatsby is my advice, a little bit of the green light is does no harm at all.

Uncle Petros and Goldbach's Conjecture

As some of you may know I love mathematics, in all honesty I love it more that even Meryl Streep, Denzel Washington and cake. Over the years i've read a fair few math related books (Fermat's last theorem by Simon Singh is definitely worth a read, as is The man who loved numbers (alas the author of that one escapes me)). I get that my reaction to math is not a common one, generally people tend to run away from said subject but i'll let you in on a wee secret. Math isn't like math at school, where you're given equations to learn and plug numbers into them over and over, that's why we have computers. Math, the math I like (i.e love) is different, it's kind of like magic, it's little statements of truth with elegant proofs (that in hindsight seem the most obvious solutions but are never that simple to find) without math, technology as we know it would not exist, there would be no shuffle on your iPod, there would be no computer/phone that you're reading this on, searching for things on the internet would not be nearly so easy and in a world where everything can be a bit vague math is reliably black or white, right or wrong (well 99.9% of the time) So to the book then! It is fiction, although a lot of the subject matter is based on truth. You don't need to know anything of math or number theory to understand any of the novel, there are no sums or dense mathematical material to trudge through the math in it is the characters problems, we just read the story of uncle Petros via his favourite nephew. Uncle Petros as we start the novel is almost an outcast of his family, a self made recluse whose brothers and their families visit once a year. It is in these visits his nephew begins to wonder why Uncle Petros is disliked by his brothers, what did he do to earn their ridicule when he just seems like a sweet old gardening, chess playing man. From there on this really is quite the page turner, I genuinely could not put it down, which I know in part is due to my fondness for math and reading little (true) anecdotes about mathematicians i've heard of or studied before (Petros is a fictional creation, Hardy, Littlewood, Ramaujan, Goldbach, Euler and Gauss are not). Goldbach's Conjecture is also a real statement, notoriously difficult to prove but sounds pretty simple; every even number greater than 2 is the sum of two primes (e.g 4=2+2, 6=3+3, 8=5+3) Incidentally if you can't cope with the math in the previous statement then you'll still be fine with the book I promise, it's really more about Uncle Petros, his relationship with his nephew and should life be deemed as a failure if you set yourself unattainable goals or admired for the journey in trying. I as you may have figured out loved this book, and if you took out the math and gave the uncle a different challenge I absolutely would have still enjoyed it (although probably not quite so much). It's quite touching in parts, sad in others and constantly riveting, don't let Math put you off, plus you never know you might end up with a certain fondness for my favourite subject (plus mathematicians are generally really interesting, odd, eccentric people, who all seem more or less to end up going mad)

The Woman In Black

Written by Susan Hill this is a book a lot of people will recognise the title of as it was adapted into a film starring he of Harry Potter fame, Daniel Radcliffe in the not so distant past. I have not watched the film version due to my slight aversion to the aforementioned actor. So then on to what I thought of the book. This novel isn't terribly long but I couldn't seem to get into it, although in defence of the book I have had a lot on my mind this week which is never exactly conducive to an enjoyable reading experience. It is essentially a ghost story, told by our narrator Arthur Kipps a young lawyer sent to sort through the papers of recently deceased Alice Drablow, a woman, something of a recluse who lived in eel marsh house which is cut off at high tide from the surrounding village. The villagers seem unwilling to talk much about this house or Mrs Drablow and immediately there is the feeling that something is afoot. At the funeral of Mrs Drablow he sees a mysterious figure, the woman in black. This figure continues to haunt him throughout the novel till it's gripping conclusion. The reveal of who and why this woman is haunting Eel Marsh House was one of my favourite parts of the novel, I also particularly enjoyed the ending which was excellent. I think however I would have enjoyed this more if I could have concentrated a little better on what I was reading. By all accounts it's somewhat different to the film but it does maintain a sinister undercurrent throughout and although there are certainly spine chilling moments I wouldn't regard this book as overwhelming scary.

The perks of being a wallflower.

Rather the perks of being ill meant I was able to trundle through this novel by Stephen Chbosky this morning in my bed ridden state. I was mid way through another book called the collected Dorothy Parker and as much as like Dorothy Parker I needed a little break. So this book is written as a series of letters from a 15 year old called charlie to some unknown person. Essentially then Charlie is the narrator of the story and is a very bright, likeable character who see's the world in his own way. He isn't normal in the traditional sense of normal. The charlie that narrates is inconsistent with the charlie you'd imagine if you only knew the situations and events that happen in the course of the book. He seems younger (and by younger I mean about 8 years old as opposed to 15) in his letters, his level of naivety doesn't match that of an adolescent by even the greatest stretch of the imagination. The quantity of issues dealt with in the book is also rather vast, almost disproportionate to it's length and henceforth none are dealt with any great depth. Saying all of that I really enjoyed this book, if you just go along with it and don't pay any great attention to the nagging feeling that things don't all fit it's actually very good. Some of it is massively sad too and there are quite a few tear jerker moments. Essentially then it's kind of like watching Stepmom or The Notebook or a generic Jennifer Aniston film, a thoroughly enjoyable way to spend a couple of hours but it's probably not going to win any awards. It's compared to the catcher in the rye and other 'coming of age stories' and I genuinely liked it more than J.D Salingers novel (controversial I know but i'm not Holden Caulfields biggest fan) but I doubt it'll leave the same impression on me.

Alex

Until I lived alone I loved thrillers and horror films. Now if I watch them I end up convincing myself there's some unscrupulous character in my house and I have to sleep on my sofa (my sofa is not massive, it's actually really quite small so this is uncomfortable). But I can still manage to read thrillers without these irrational fears taking over, also I generally read in bed so it's ok if I get a little scared as obviously a quilt cover is the only deterrent a girl needs against a murderer, that and sleep. So why i'm I whittling on? well, the most recent book i've read is called Alex by Pierre Lemaitre. And it is an entirely thrilling thriller. I couldn't put it down. It reminded me a lot of the girl with the dragon tattoo, the eponymous character Alex is a little Lisbeth Salander-esque but that is all i'm saying. The novel has plenty of twists and i'm sure even the briefest of synopsis' would contain spoilers. Vaguely then it's set in Paris (originally written in French happily there are not the issues when reading books originally written in Russian as the character names are much easier to pronounce and differentiate from one another) and opens on quite the violent kidnapping of Alex. Camille a very short detective with a few issues is trying to find her. From that point on this book turns into many different books, your sympathies change constantly nothing is straightforward and you're never sure who to root for. Until the end. But because you'll not be able to put the book down it won't take too long to get to the conclusion. It's a terrific read, if you liked the girl with the dragon tattoo I more or less guarantee you'll like this too. Also bargain fans you can pick it up for £2.99 in sainsburys although if you're in my vicinity i'll lend it to you anyway. For a summer thriller to keep you occupied on the beach or (more likely) a rainy afternoon you could do an awful lot worse than this.

Sharp Objects

Gillian Flynn is kind of the it girl of thrillers at the minute, or rather that's the impression I get from my (far too) frequent trips to Waterstones, with their mildly abundant displays of her books, not that she has written many, just the three. I've therefore read 66% of her novels and have enjoyed in the vicinity of 100%. This one left me with an overwhelming sense of unease. Camille is a journalist sent back to her childhood home to report on a couple of murders that had recently occurred there. Staying with a mother who is Disney-witch level of twisted, a stepdad Alan and a precocious 13 year old half sister Amma (who is a little bit nasty in every sense of the word) in the house she grew up in, with the memory of a dead little sister Marian lingering in her head she's a fair amount to contend with, never mind trying to figure out who killed Natalie and Ann, the two school girls found with their teeth removed. She's also a bit damaged to start with, and by a bit I mean a lot. I don't tend to go for gruesome in books but this is not that, it's dark and it's twisty, the characters are complex and Flynn has a knack for writing female characters and protagonists that no one else does. They're not your usual likeable mundane boy chasing girls you usually find in novels (well thrillers especially). It also has quite easily the most unhealthy mother daughter relationship I have read. In saying that it's not as good as Gone Girl so if you can only read one Gillian Flynn book make it that one but this is definitely worth a read too. It trundles along nicely, it's close to believable, you'll want to find out what happens so it ticks the thrilling box and I loved the characters even though I didn't much like them. Waterstones are right.

For Esme - With Love And Squalor

So I have a confession. I used to hate short stories, not for any rational logical reason mind, I just didn't like them. In my head I guess I thought they weren't worth reading, they just weren't worth my time, and couldn't be possibly as good as a 'real book'. I have recently seen the error of my ways. Those of you that know me might know I have been going to a creative writing class, and this is what changed my mind. Short stories require a little more effort, you've to concentrate from the get go cause they are so jam packed with hints there really are no wasted words. Someone once said "please forgive this long and drawn out letter, I did not have time to write you a short one." I think that explains what i'm getting at, there's nothing left in a short story that isn't necessary (well written ones anyway!) So with that in mind, on to the review. For Esme - With Love And Squalor is (and this should come as no surprise) a collection of short stories. Written by J.D Salinger (he of the catcher in the rye fame), you can find the same book published under the name nine stories, that was what they called it in America, apparently Americans are a little less adverse to short stories. I'm not going to sit and give a synopsis of each story, that would be tedious. People tend to either love Salinger or hate him, I alas fall somewhere in between. His writing is excellent that is in no doubt but his characters annoy me a little. There tends to be two categories of character in his stories, the pure innocent good children and the damaged occasionally mean, occasionally crazy adults. He writes both well, particularly crazy, but I didn't like any of them, in that I found them all unlikeable. Not everyone has this reaction, a lot of people like the characters but they just weren't my sort of people. Obviously this should mean the collection of stories was absolutely tedious to read but that was strangely not the case. I liked the stories he was telling, I just didn't like the characters. In fact I liked the stories he was telling so much that it didn't particularly matter that I wasn't so keen on the characters. Some of the stories where sad, actually the majority of them where, nearly all of them had you sightly winded by the end and there was enough humour in each that you don't end up a depressed quivering wreck after you've read them all. Salinger didn't publish a massive amount of books for all his talents (he ended up so reclusive in later life that by comparison Garbo seems entirely sociable) so it's definitely worth reading what he did write, there aren't many like him.

The master and margarita

To my regulars sorry this has been a while coming! The master and margarita is a classic of russian literature. It is one of the most popular books in Russia which is not too shabby considering it was written back in 1928. So if you meet a russian and you've read this book you're halfway to a conversation (obviously this only works if you both can speak the same language). It was written by Mikhail Bulgakov who fact fans stalin convinced not to leave the country back when he was miserable. The book is set in 1920s russia and there's three stories to it really although they are all intertwined. The main part of it is about Woland, a magician and his entourage, Behemouth (a large vodka drinking, train riding black cat) and korokev. Woland is basically the devil, well literally the devil is a more precise description and him and his two pals wreak havoc on the city especially within the literary elite but it is funny and they are likeable characters, you actually side with the baddies in this story, which was Bulgakovs intention as this represents people standing up against the strict russian bureaucracies and government of the time, and how silly it all is. These parts are set in moscow, there's an analogous story running alongside set in Jerusalem about pontius pilate and the trial of yeshua who is a jesus like character which ties together with the story of the master (who wrote a novel about pontius pilate and yeshua) and his lost love margarita, one of the better female characters i've read in fiction, who makes a deal with the devil (Woland), becoming a broomstick riding, hostess of satans ball in order to be reunited with her love. It's an incredible novel which my synopsis doesn't do the slightest bit of justice. It's very funny, honestly really really funny, it's got layers and layers and layers to it, you do need to concentrate reading it though you can miss alot of the best bits without even realising (I know this cause I did, it was only after I went to a class about it that I really appreciated it). The last thing I have to say is a little word of warning, there's several different translations of this, if you fancy reading it the Picador version is the best, I promise and you'll get a lot more out of it if you read the notes at the back alongside reading the actual story, it is a bit of a pain, but there's a fair amount of things in it that get funnier with a little bit extra explanation. Absolutely worth the effort it takes to read.

Steve Jobs

First a little note, i've the review of two books coming in about three weeks or so, i've a class on them so i'm holding off my initial thoughts until in all honesty I understand what they're about a bit better. Enough about that though we have more important matters at hand namely Steve Jobs biography by Walter Issacson. Steve Jobs, as the majority of people know was the founder of Apple and died of cancer in 2011. I bought this book for my brother a couple of christmases ago and I borrowed it off him last week as i'm considering getting a Mac and I was a bit curious about the man who started the company. Biographies aren't my usual reading fodder so i'm not too sure how to go about rating it but i'll have a crack at it anyway. First off Steve Jobs really is terribly interesting if not altogether likeable. The book takes us from his childhood right through to his death. It's an easy book to read and covers everything that happened in Jobs life fluently although there is a bit of repetition here and there. It also seems pretty honest, not overtly biased towards Jobs although I did get a creeping feeling that the author was in the Steve Jobs camp unless microsoft is actually evil. We learn (or perhaps this was already known, I only had rudimentary knowledge of Jobs prior to reading this) that Jobs was kind of a hippie. He was also a genius. He was also temperamental, moody and also nearly always got his way. He'd steal employees ideas proclaiming them as shit and then a week later passing them off as his own. He was manipulative and mean and I got the impression he never really grew up. But he was charismatic and he stuck by his convictions (which worked well as he was rarely wrong) and without him I doubt the world would be as it is today. He also was the CEO of pixar, and my love for pixar films will forever forgive any wrongs. Basically although a flawed man he had one trump card and that was that he'd stand behind what he believed in, he wouldn't be bullied or compromise and if he said something seemingly impossible could be done people would get it done. The book is full of interesting little facts, he and his buddy steve wozniak (who is some kind of computer genius) started Apple pretty much in his Dads garage. And it's named Apple because at the time Jobs was eating only Apples (he was for periods of time a fruitarian, or would eat only one food for weeks at a time). The slate in Apple stores is all from Italy. The staircases in them was his idea too. Rounded corner rectangles are his favourite shape (look at your iphone). He was kicked out of Apple in the late 90s. When he returned to the helm it's was in a lot of trouble and he pretty much resurrected it, turning it into the most successful company in the world. Macs are named after macintosh reds (the greatest apple known to man). The i in iphone etc stands for internet. And if you want anymore facts you should read this biography. A quick search on the internet would probably give you all the information you could need on the man though. It's not a necessary, essential must read but its inspiring and interesting all the same. 3 stars.

Housekeeping

No this is not a novel on cleaning, however it may as well have been. Written by Marilynne Robinson it has the tagline (if books have taglines) of being one of the Observers greatest 100 books which for me is usually a good thing. A lot of people don't like award winning books or critically recognized ones but that's how I usually find something to read so I was looking forward to this one. Sadly however I can't say I understood it, the prose is rather dense (to put it mildly) and full of similes and metaphors predominantly concerned with water, as a lake seems pivotal to the whole story. Normally I don't really mind that style of writing but I just didn't have much patience for it this time. Synopsis time! Set in Fingerbone, which I can only assume is the 'sticks' of America, it concerns itself with the Fosters and primarily the two sisters Ruthie and Lucille. Their mother Helen killed herself much in the way of Thelma and Louise after leaving the two girls with her mother and hence their grandmother (the grandfather died years ago in an accident involving a train and the lake in Fingerbone). They are raised by a succession of members of the family until their Aunt Sylvie returns to Fingerbone and the rickety old family house. Then it gets a bit more interesting. Mainly because Sylvie is a bit more interesting, in the sense that she's a bit odd, she's lived as a vagrant for years and habits from that lifestyle have carried over to the more domesticated setting of a house. Ruth who narrates the tale finds she has much in common with Sylvie, both awkwardly tall, socially dysfunctional and really happier alone together than with friends and such things. Lucille however like most teenagers is solely concerned with what other people think, is ashamed and embarrassed by her odd Aunt and distances herself from her sister at school cause she just wants to fit in and live a 'normal' life eventually moving in with one of her teachers. The authorities try to take Ruth away from Sylvie but they make off in the night crossing the train tracks over the lake and essentially live happily (well as happily as inherently sad people can be) ever after in their vagabond shoes. That's about it. It's a short book but took me forever to read I didn't much enjoy it and it was never easy. I kept having to read the same bits over and over just could not get into it. I think part of the problem was that I was trying to rush through it as i've a class next week about the master and margarita, which I haven't yet read and I probably should have started that instead of trying to squeeze this book in too. With a bit of effort and patience I imagine I would have enjoyed this novel it's really quite philosophical and read at a more leisurely pace it might prove to be a lot better but as it stands right now I pretty much hated it.

Music for torching

OH MY GOD is exactly what I said to my empty living room when I finished reading this novel by A.M. Homes. After Revolutionary Road and Little Children this is the third successive novel i've read dealing with suburban life in America. Paul and Elaine this time are the unhappy couple and a little bit crazy, certainly depressed, completely selfish, mostly unlikeable and somehow and i've no idea how but Homes makes you care about these two strangely believable characters. The story starts when they burn down their house on a whim, seemingly just for the craic by kicking over the barbeque. The house isn't completely destroyed just some superficial damage and a hole in the dining room wall. They end up staying at Pat and Georges house, Pat being the stereotypical stepford housewife who isn't as most people aren't, all that she seems (it is very funny and very weird when that little plot thread comes to a head) and their two kids Sammy and Daniel are shipped off to two friends house (Sammy staying with Nate the son of Mrs Apple, one of the women Paul is having an affair with, and Daniel with the Meaders who are the traditionally normal family but seem kind of odd against the cacophony of strange characters we meet). The rest of the story then deals with this anything but normal family attempting to get back to normal, to rebuild and improve their house and well lives too. I think this novel is about how people are never who they portray on the surface and that really everyone is a little bit crazy but even if it's about nothing but an entertaining story then that's more than enough. Homes writes the kind of things other people are afraid to say out loud and she writes it well. I have a sad little confession, when I read a book I write down the sentences/quotes I particularly like. I couldn't do that with this novel, because I pretty much particularly liked every line in it. It's very funny, it's very dark, it's very twisted and it's very excellent. It may not be to everyones liking however, I imagine a good barometer would be if you like American Beauty then this you will love. Finally, I wished more books had endings like this one, she's some writer. If the one advantage of being dark and twisty is getting to love novels like this then I say embrace the dark and twisty, it's occasionally worth it.

Little Children

So my back is getting sore and my mum's dogs want to play with me (or more likely they just want fed) so this review is going to be pretty short although I don't have that much to say about this novel by Tom Perrotta. Sarah, a young mother, rather intelligent, someone probably more suited to an academic career than stay at home mum is married to Richard a weird middle aged man with something of a porn fetish. She has essentially a summer affair with the 'prom king', Todd, an unfeasibly handsome house husband she meets at the park. There's other subplots, most notably the child molester who moves to the neighbourhood that summer and it's an easy enough read. There's more to the story than my outline would suggest but I just didn't care enough about the characters to rattle on about it, it's not a bad book, parts of it even verge on gripping but maybe it's because I just read revolutionary road another novel set in the suburbs that really was excellent (really give it a read) that this one just paled in comparison. It's ok but there's better novels to read than this one, resoundingly average, 3 stars. P.S this is one of the rare occasions i'd say just watch the film instead, although the joy that is Kate Winslet is far too pretty to be playing Sarah. Still it has Kate Winslet which is the main thing, and this novel does not.

Revolutionary Road

Set in the 1950s this novel written by Richard Yates is quite something. It deals with the tale of April and Frank Wheeler, a young married couple, two kids, a nice house in the suburbs and from the outside it all seems pretty great but the problem is they thought they were destined for greater things. They think they are the interesting couple, deep thinking, more intelligent and really when it comes down to it better than their neighbours, not that they are outwardly snobbish. It's the internal dialogue between the couple that tells us this primarily. Frank in particular though is quite self aware and is very conscience of portraying himself in a certain way so people see him as attractive, this original first rate mind (he even does this with his wife April). He talks a lot, and I mean a lot, and all of what he says is obviously in his mind so well constructed and important that everyone should be in awe of him. There's a little bit towards the end when April says 'Oh, Frank, you really are a wonderful talker. If black could be made into white by talking, you’d be the man for the job.' and taken out of context it's sounds like a compliment but it comes in the middle of an argument where April has had enough of all the talking and you're rooting her on, cause by this stage as a reader you've had enough of him too. The two main characters in this are brilliantly written, the entire book is in all honesty, with April becoming increasingly sympathetic while Frank runs the other way and becomes more and more unlikeable. Their relationship, never exactly on an even keel really falls apart when April suggests they up and move to Paris, to give Frank a chance at finding out what he wants to do while she'll take on highly paid secretary work to support the family. Initially Franks all for it but in the end for someone apparently miserable in his job, who has conformed to an existence thats all a bit run of the mill and not as extraordinary as would befit a man like him he doesn't have the courage to change but then again I don't imagine many would. I don't know if I would. But I do know the way he gets out of it can't be described in any other way but horrible. April is who you feel sorry for, she's trapped in this life and unlike Frank she is willing to do something about it, to not settle for this existence of suburban banality, but she put her faith in a man who as it turns out was all just talk, and that was the undoing of them, all the talk. The story is many things, it's a satire on suburban life, it's the american dream gone wrong, it's a relationship coming apart and it's the tragic story of April Wheeler subtly building to its sad, abrupt but always inevitable conclusion. I couldn't recommend this book more, i've a habit of thinking the thing i'm reading is the best book i've ever read (not always but often enough)so i'm not going to say this is the best book i've ever read but part of me thinks it might be.

The Reader

I love Kate Winslet. I do, I think she's a bit great so this is the first of my three 'Kate Winslet books', not of course that she wrote any of them, it's just that she's starred in their adaptation. The book was written by Bernard Schlink. Set in Germany in the 1950s it spans 40 years of the narrator, Michael Bergs life. We meet him at 15 where a chance encounter with a young woman Hannah Schmitz has a greater impact on his life than he could possibly imagine. The novel is divided into three parts and it starts off as a love story, Michael falling head over heels for this relatively older woman and they commence a brief affair and we learn about Hanna through Michael, she likes to be read to, she seems to be a bit temperamental and can be both affectionate and stand-offish, sometimes within the same sentence. Then one day she has gone, abruptly packed up her life without a word, leaving Michael devastated. In the second part Michael is now at university studying law, and as part of his classes he attend a trial investigating the involvement of several women guards at Nazi war camps and in a tragic incident involving a number of prisoners locked inside a burning church. It is revealed Hannah is one of the guards under trial and that's when it gets interesting. Because this revelation leads us to one of the main issues in the novel, that for the generation of post war Germans who in Michaels case fell in love, or where taught or where brought up my people who where directly or indirectly involved in the crimes perpetrated during the German war effort their feelings are thrown into turmoil, the shame or guilt to fall in love with someone who may have committed atrocious crimes or to be faced with the realisation that maybe your parents who brought you up and taught you right from wrong, stood by and did nothing would throw your moral certainty into a fair amount of disarray. As the trial progresses the actions of Hanna are explained by a secret of hers, that would although not absolve her guilt it would at the least lessen her charges however she is too ashamed to admit and it seems Michael is the only one that has figured it out, her past actions in their relationship helping him come to the realisation. He toys with talking to the judge but in the end doesn't feel it's his right to reveal something Hanna so clearly doesn't want divulged even though she maybe can't see what the consequence of keeping it to herself would have. The final part brings us to Michael with a failed marriage and a daughter, a man who has never really been able to get over Hanna, in two senses I suppose both the whole being unable to love someone like he loved her and the shame of having loved someone who could commit such atrocities , someone he can't forgive but can't forget or leave behind. He ends up sending her tapes of him reading to prison and it is actually very touching. The end I found terribly sad and this book will stay with me for a long time. I guess it's my feelings about Hanna in particular, if you heard her crimes without any background information you'd immediately condemn her, she'd be a monster but I felt a lot of pity for her, in many ways I found her the most likeable character in the novel she was just a regular citizen and she was doing her job not that i'm saying that makes what happened during the war OK. Obviously there where Nazis who where sick individuals and the crimes committed in the holocaust are horrific but we can't just make sweeping generalizations that all Germans in that period of time where monsters. To forgive is too much but if you put yourself in those regular citizens shoes you can see, or maybe its just me, but it would be difficult to know what you would do. I highly recommend this novel, it is written well, not spectacular, but it's how Schlink deals with the subject that is the bit that got me. Bonus review: The film adaptation of this is excellent, minor bits of the story are changed but overall it is very true to the book and I would have to say one of those rare occasions where the film is on par with the novel. Plus Kate Winslet is in it! (and she got an oscar for it)

Beyond Black

Hilary Mantel has gotten a bit of a reputation for being a great author (she's won two bookers which is a fairly significant literary award and not a huge amount of people have won two so it's a pretty big deal) so I decided I wanted to see what the fuss was about and opted for this novel (which I chanced upon in my favourite second hand book shop, it contains thousands of books stacked to the ceiling and i've spent many a happy afternoon trawling for bargains there. If you should ever be in Belfast I would absolutely recommend a visit). In this novel we meet Alison, a morbidly obese, kind hearted psychic who seems to genuinely be able to contact/be contacted by the dead. Colette is a thin, mean woman who turns to psychics during the failure of her marriage and winds up becoming Alison's assistant or as she prefers to be referred, her manager. And along with Morris, Alison's spirit guide who is nasty in every sense of the word they travel around london holding psychic fairs where Alison passes on messages from the dead to the audience. The story is Alison's and as we get further into the book it becomes apparent Alison, had a terrible childhood, her mother essentially a prostitute had all sorts of horrible men around the house, men who kept dogs for fights, petty thieves, basically an unscrupulous bunch with abuse more than hinted at, she also had to deal with the onset of her psychic abilities at a young age with the dead wanted to find other people that had passed they had known. So all fairly traumatic then, Mantel intersperses the traumatic bits with humour though, it's quite a dry dark humour which suits me right down to the ground. The development of Colette and Alison's relationship in particular had many laugh out loud moments, Colette is as it turns out really quite a hard hearted woman who becomes more and more controlling and nasty to Alison, putting her on a diet, rationing her toast, and there ends up being very little to like about her whereas Alison becomes an increasingly sympathetic character. We watch as the novel progresses Alison having to deal more and more with her past, which is literally haunting her, Morris having a link to the men from her childhood and spending his time looking for his these men, his old mates. It's about then dealing with your past then really, Alison having to deal with these old spirits, the way you or I might have to confront bad memories in order to move forward. Mantel lives up to all the hype, she's a terrific writer and this was an enjoyable novel, for all the ghosts it contains it is not a ghost story so if you read it don't approach it looking for a scare, it is creepy in parts but it's lots of other things too. 4 out of 5.

The catcher in the rye.

Written by J.D. Salinger this novel is a bit famous. It tends to be associated with the murder of John Lennon (Before killing John Lennon, Mark Chapman, who read and re-read the book many times - to the point of believing it was his own biography, asked Lennon to autograph his copy before gunning down the musician) However it's also a modern classic in it's own right. Holden Caulfield is the teenage protaganist and narrator of the diary-esque story. Set over two/three days in December in the early 1950s it's about Holden, who is expelled from his prestigious boarding school, Pencey Prep and told not to return after the Christmas break which starts on Wednesday. Instead of waiting till then he leaves early to stay in a hotel in New York for a couple of days by himself until his parents expect him home. But really as I sit here writing this review it's not so much what this story is about as WHO it's about. Holden Caulfield is this book, we get to see the thoughts and actions of a teenager, a depressed, troubled, contradictory, mind which we witness falling apart. It's not as you'd imagine, a chore to read this, parts of it are very funny, parts of it leap of the page and get lodged in your mind and it tells you something you don't know without ever feeling like it is. Lonely, ostracised teenagers should read this, parents of teenagers should read this, the popular kids should read it to, and if like me you're coming late to the party, you should read it too. It's an important book without feeling like it or feeling like it's trying to be, and to borrow a Caulfield phrase, it killed me. My last little point of recommendation, there's a line in the book about wishing you could phone up an author and just have a conversation with him cause you like how he writes. Salinger is that author, what a guy. 5 massive completely non phoney stars.

The Queen Of The South

I should have loved this book. What's not to like? A unlikely rags to riches tale, the main character Tereza Mendoza, (the mexicana, the Queen of the South) is the girlfriend of a drug smuggler, who ends up dead and she on the run. A series of fairly dramatic events leads her to prison where she rather fortuitously meets Patty O'Flaherty. That brings us halfway through this rather long novel written by Arturo Perez Reverte. The second half brings the riches and we see Tereza essentially rise to become the major importer of drugs to southern spain (well the really southern bit of spain near Morocco and Gibraltar) with connections with the russian mafia, columians, italians and with judges and police in her pocket too. She creates quite the impressive business infrastructure that keeps her safe from investigations into her money. From the start of the novel she comes across as more than just a 'narcos' girlfriend and by the end she is proven to be intelligent and shrewd and risen to the top of a industry which would i'm guessing would be fairly unheard of for a woman especially. It's got gun fights, police chases, a pretty sizeable TWIST near the end and I liked Tereza so what was wrong? Honestly it's pretty bland the story isn't particularly gripping, it's all a little bit predictable and not that believable. All in all I couldn't recommend it. 2 stars.

The Fault In Our Stars

First a disclaimer: this book comes under the category, teen fiction, I do not read teen fiction. It's not that I'm a reading snob, except I guess I kind of am but more I'm not a teen and there are more than enough books to keep me going as it is. Ok there's also a slightly more petty reason for my dislike of teen fiction, I was acquainted with a girl once who would only ever read from within this category, which is fine people like what they like, but alas she crossed me in a rather unforgivable way, stalking was involved (on her part). And so I shall always associate teen fiction with her rather distasteful memory. Saying (all) that this book isn't bad, written by john green it is essentially a Romeo and Juliet star crossed lovers type of a story. Hazel, the narrator and main character in this tale is a teenager with terminal cancer, drowning in her own lungs essentially, so it's all a bit grim and then she meets Augustus waters a hottie in remission at her cancer support group. And despite or because of everything they fall in love. It is written well, and although the subject matter could be all a bit depressing the authors wit helps lift the mood, saying that parts of it are incredibly sad and I mean proper tear inducing craic here. Truth be told, and I hate to admit it, but I really liked this novel, a minor quibble though, if like me you remember Dawson's creek where the cast, all teens talk like they're adults, this is a bit like that, also like Dawson the two main characters irritated me, but not enough to detract from the story (maybe I just don't like teenagers). 3 stars.

Blackbird House

I was reading this and I was half way through the second chapter when I thought hmmm is this a set of short stories? Turned out it wasn't, I was just being a bit dim, it is the story of a house, blackbird house. Written by Alice Hoffman, and you can't much go wrong with a Hoffman novel she's a sturdy sort of writer always dependable for a good yarn, this fairly short book is like I said the story of house over maybe 200 years or so. It tells the tales of the families that lived in it, the majority of which are struck by some kind of tragedy. Some chapters are linked by more than the house some that's all they have in common and in all honesty you could read the chapters independently and still have an enjoyable read, but sometimes the whole is greater than the sum of it's parts and this is definitely one of those times. The stories build and twist together more the more you read and it ends up almost being a ghost story but it's much more subtle. It is certainly haunting, parts of it are sad, occasionally it leaves you slack jawed in shock but overall it's excellent, 4 stars.

Vanity Fair

Vanity fair is one of those epic sprawling 19th century English novels. Written by William Makepeace Thackeray it's a satire on society but really it boils down to the story of two very different females, Amelia Sedley and Rebecca Sharp. Amelia is the typical girl you find in novels from this period, nice, pretty, amiable not that her story isn't interesting, it twists along nicely with love and loss and lots inbetween, alas her character is fairly insipid, and she's really just a bland, inoffensive nice girl but I think that is the authors intention. Miss Becky Sharp however is a whole different kettle of fish, born poor without any status in life and without family she manipulates and lies and sacrifices everything to climb to the heights of society and you should hate her for it. She is completely ruthless and deceitful and if ever I loved a fictional character I love her and I love Thackeray for writing a female with wit and independence rather than the usual love obsessed creature you normally get. It's a very long book, a huge amount happens but it's easy enough to keep track of everything, the two girls stories weave together well and the ending was perfect. I enjoyed this so much more than I thought I would, its full of irony and although you'll not laugh out loud you might well catch yourself grinning innanely at the pages as you read. It is a bit daunting to start with but the old fashioned English doesn't take long to get used to and once you get into the story I promise you'll be hooked. Little warning though, don't get the penguin popular classics version the typeset is painfully small. Read it, if only to meet Becky Sharp, the story is subtitled a novel without a hero but honestly she's mine. I can only imagine i'll be thinking to myself 'what would Becky do?' in times of strife for the foreseeable future.

Push

This is the third and last review today, I don't have internet at my flat and I get tired writing my blog via phone so I tend to do a weeks worth at my mum's on a Sunday. I also haven't had as much time to read the past couple of weeks between work and feeling a bit under the weather so I whizzed through this (short) book by Sapphire this morning. It is the story, actually it's essentially the diary of Claireece "Precious" Jones. At 16 she is obese, illiterate, abused by her mother and pregnant by her father with her second child. So all fairly harrowing so far. When a school administrator finds out that she is pregnant again they want to kick her out of school but her maff (math, precious spells like I speak! it takes a little getting used to but is a very powerful tactic employed by the author to show the improvement in Precious' literacy) teacher speaks up on her behalf and they find another source of education for her, an alternative school. It is in this new school where Precious meets her new teacher, Ms. Rain. Ms. Rain is the teacher everyone deserves to have, the one that can make a difference to you, and she's that teacher for Precious. So for the first time in her life, Precious feels like she belongs somewhere. She connects with her classmates, makes friends, gets support and starts to believe in herself. It doesn't play out as sentimental mush though, it's written much better than my synopsis suggests. As hard as parts of it are to read, and as sad as it is it is also uplifting but and this is a big but, reading it just made me want to read The Color Purple by Alice Walker again, they're very similar stories, not that Sapphire is ripping off Walker, Precious compares herself to The Color Purples protagonist herself, it's just The Color Purple is a better novel. If you're so inclined they're both certainly worth reading but if you've only time for one i'd have to say The Color Purple would be my choice.

Norwegian Wood

This is a book that has been read by everyone in Japan (give or take). It was written by Haruki Murakami who usually writes surreal novels I guess the same kind of genre as Gabriel Garcia Marquez, although this one is a much more straight forward love story. Not that it's boring or mundane or typical in anyway. It is narrated by the main character Watanabe and is his memories of the period in his life between 17 and 21. In a way it's a coming of age story too, Watanabe is a very well rounded character with plenty of flaws but always remains likeable although you do feel like giving him a good shake at some points of his story. He is in love with Naoko who was the girlfriend of his dead best friend, who is a beautiful but very troubled person, emotionally unavailable to say the least. But then another girl comes into the story, Midori, I love Midori, one of the strangest, funniest characters i've had the joy to meet on my bookish travels. We get to see how his relationships with these two girls change and develop as the novel progresses. Apart from love a lot of the characters in this book have varying levels of mental illness/depression, and some of it is very sad but life isn't all sweetness and light so novels shouldn't be either and the author strikes a fair balance, the story of Reiko who we meet about halfway through the novel demonstrates this particularly well, she too is one of Murakami's strange girls but all of them seem believable at the same time. I have a few other of his books sitting on my bookshelf waiting to be read and going by this one I have high hopes, a very enjoyable novel. 4 stars. P.S On a side note this book has given me an overwhelming urge for sushi and I wouldn't mind visiting Japan which is something that has never crossed my mind before.

Postcards From The Edge

So after the past couple of difficult reading choices I went for something a little easier this time, certainly no need for a dictionary anyway! This novel is written by princess Leia (well the actress who played her, Carrie Fisher) and much like when models decide to act I didn't have a huge amount of faith in the offspring of an actress deciding to write. But...it wasn't all that bad, parts of it where very witty and the writing was pretty good not great enough for me to rush out and read her other novels mind but certainly far from terrible. So what is it about? It's the story of an actress, Suzanne Vale with something of a drug problem and a flailing career and many issues concerning her own opinion of herself. It starts with her in rehab although there isn't a great deal of struggle involved in her overcoming her addiction which all sounds a bit grim but it's more of a funny little tale of her time there with the other patients and that sort of caper so nothing too deep. We move on to her trying to get her career back on track, going to parties and not fitting in, bad boyfriends so nothing too exciting in all honesty but it doesn't drag on, there's enough wit in her writing that lets it trundle along at a good pace, it all winds up ending nicely, with you guessed it, a nice boy. So all in all it's not good, but it's not bad it's just OK. An important thing to bear in mind is that it was made into a film starring Meryl Streep and I think this might be one of those rare occasions where you're better off just watching the film, you can't after all go wrong with the Streep. 2 stars.

Brief Interviews With Hideous Men

Reading this collection of short stories by David Foster Wallace was much like being a told a series of long really intelligent jokes. When 'I got them' they were excellent but some of them right over my head leaving me with thinking what on earth was all that about. It didn't help matters that Wallace is a bit infamous for his use of obscure synonyms of recognizable words which makes the whole reading process unnecessarily difficult in parts. After the trouble that one hundred years of solitude caused me I should have probably went for a book a bit lighter on challenging vocabulary but this was certainly not that, it was to be entirely honest on a whole other level of taxing. The little Oxford dictionary didn't even cut it half the time, the next time I attempt a DFW book I am going to have to haul a bad-ass massive dictionary along for the ride. Yes despite the trouble I had with these short stories I would certainly try other books by him because when it was good it was some of the best, most different, uncategorizable writing I have ever read. He's worth the battle but it was a bit of a struggle, 3 stars overall.

One Hundred Years Of Solitude

After two long dictionary riddled weeks I finally finished this modern classic by the Columbian Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It's a book about a family, the Buendias, that tells their story through several generations and that of the town Macondo that the family founds. There is a lot of tragedy in the family and the same mistakes are made with each generation to give this feeling of history being rather cyclical. Although this sounds like it's going to be a bit miserable to read it's actually very funny. There are many characters in this novel, seven generations worth and the main problem I had was keeping track of who was who; all the men are named some derivative of Jose Arcadio or Aureliano for their fathers/grandfathers/great grandfathers. Luckily the copy I read had a little family tree on one of the early pages so I could have a look at that when I lost my way again! The female characters where my favourite probably because their stories where easier to follow with their diverse names and each of them where very different, whereas the sons in the family all seemed to inherit similar character traits, which again strengthened the whole theme of history repeating. You just have to go along with this book, there's a lot of supernatural bits in it that are just portrayed as run of the mill everyday occurances, like one character Remedios the beauty is folding a sheet one day when she just up and floats off to heaven, as she's too pretty to be confined to Earth. I think it's called magical realism when a book is written like this, so you just have to take it all in, Marquez makes it easy to do this though and the physically impossible things don't stick out or seem that odd which I suppose is odd in itself. This book has been called required reading for the entire human race, the author won the nobel prize for literature, and it's on all of those 'books you must read' lists so should you? Well it's not the easiest read, honestly if I managed to read a page without looking up a dictionary I felt a massive sense of achievement/relief, Marquez really has some vocabulary on him but it was worth the effort. It just takes a LOT of effort but you put that in and it's a very good book, it's a classic that's really actual is a classic, bring a dictionary though. 5 stars.

Every Last One

I thought I was going to hate this book by Anna Quindlen. In all honesty for the first half I was a little bit bored and then as I'm sitting in waterstones cafe with a pot of tea trudging my way through it (ok that's a little harsh) something so shocking, so unexpected happens I gasp loudly enough that at least two people turn round to look at me. In hindsight the author had done the work in the first half to build up to the shocking thing that happens so although fairly extreme it was completely plausible, I absolutely did not see it coming though! Like my last review I can't give much of an overview of the story without spoiling it for anyone who might fancy reading it. It's about a family, well essentially the mother of this family and how she copes when things start to unravel. I'm being very vague and I'm not making it sound like much of a story but it is, trust me the second half just knocks you right over. Also I have to warn you this book will make you cry, and I don't usually cry unless I'm really angry (which is inconvenient in an argument). I seem to be having a streak of luck with my choices of novel at the minute, this one gets 4 out of 5.

Gone Girl

Gillian Flynn has managed to something quite impressive with this her third novel. Thrillers generally are the book equivalent of an action film; always enjoyable but without a great deal of substance. Flynn however has written a thriller with actual characters not the usual good guys, bad guys and red herrings. And she's written it well, the writing is absolutelyon par with that you'd normally find in literary fiction. The plot makes sense, the twists, the reveals they are all suprisingly believable. I can't really give a useful synopsis without giving something away, essentially Nicks wife Amy goes missing and its sort of about the hunt to find out what happened, that's the thriller bit but it has this whole other layer to it about relationships and marriage and love and hate and everything inbetween. The twist in it really is something and Amy's a character that will loiter with me for sometime, it's excellent, and I'm afraid I can't say much else except if you like thrillers read it, actually if you like reading anything read it, it's one of the most enjoyable books I've read this year.

The Shipping News

There are really two main characters in this pulitzer winning novel by Annie Proulx; a man Quoyle (pronounced like coil) and Newfoundland (which is not somewhere in England, my ignorance of geography really knows no bounds, but in Canada or rather in Canada but kind of independent of it I think). A little synopsis of the story would be Quoyle, a man who has never quite fitted in or felt comfortable in himself is living in New York with his 2 daughters bunny and sunshine and wife Pearl who he loves inordinately but it's all rather unreciprocated, when she dies (it's ok though she's entirely unlikeable). He ends up packing his life and kids up and under the influence of his Aunt Agnis moves to Newfoundland where all his ancestors are originally from. It is a rugged harsh place and it's really about how he finally finds himself at home in this bleak environment, finds friends a place in this odd little fishing community and going from a man who wouldn't set his foot on a boat to writing the shipping news for the local paper. Newfoundland comes quite alive in your head through Proulx's portrayal and she uses a lot of wit in her writing. A warning though, if your squeamish about fish this might not be the book for you, not that there's graphic descriptions of the gutting of fish or what not, it's just that being a fishing town they eat a lot of squid and such things which isn't my idea of fun. It's a good book well, very good really and some of the things the author touches on are dealt with very wel, Quoyle's sense of unease within himself rang very true plus it really is pretty funny, 4 out of 5 for this one.

The Small Hand

Susan Hill, who wrote the woman in black (not that i've read it or seen the film due to my aversion to a certain Daniel Radcliffe) is the author of this little ghost story. Like Kelly Clarkson this is short and perfectly formed. A brief synopsis would be a man, a dealer of rare valuable books stumbles across an old dilapidated house while driving to a client. Drawn to the house and its gardens he gets out and has a look around. He feels as though a child is holding his hand ('the small hand'). He leaves the gardens but throughout the novel this small hand continues to haunt him, gripping his hand in different situations trying to lead him into danger. The story twists and turns and the 'big reveal' is shocking but entirely believable. It's a very well written book, I think one of the comments on the front from a newspaper review is that it's subtle and masterly, and that's exactly what it is. It kind of sneaks up on you, reading the first few pages I wasn't at all interested but once I got into it I enjoyed it very much. If you're in the mood for a creepy story with plausible twists and good writing to pass a rainy afternoon with you could do a lot worse than this book.

The Twelve Tribes of Hattie

Oprah told me to read this, actually oprah told me a while ago but this first novel by ayana mathis hadn't been released here so I waited. And I waited. And then I waited a little more until the happy moment I spotted it in waterstones last Saturday. Alas the wait still was not over as I hadn't finished crime and punishment but eventually I did. I hurtled through this book. I couldn't read it quick enough, I'd come in from work throw my stuff down, feed the guinea pig thelma and then sit enraptured on my sofa with this for hours. So was the wait worth it? Absolutely. This book is about Hattie, a woman originally from Georgia who moves to north Philadelphia as a teenager. It is her story told via the lives of her children, all eleven of them. Each chapter deals with one or in some cases two of them and from the adults they become and the references about their mother we learn all about Hattie. It doesn't sound that exciting and I suppose it isn't exciting but it's something better than that. If a book could ever break your heart there's chapters in this that completely do, a lot of it is terribly sad but kind of hopefully at the same time. It's by no means a long book but the amount of subjects it deals with is quite incredible, there's death, madness, homosexuality, suicide, alcoholism, racism, poverty, adultery and even though mathis might only write about them through her characters for a couple of pages it never feels like she's skimping or throwing them in for the sake of it, she writes so clearly you understand everything about these topics grasp on the characters, its really pretty powerful stuff. This book kind of gets right to the core of you, it did me anyway and you don't come across writing this good often. I hope I come across another book as good as this one but it'll take some doing. People always say in reviews 'if you read one book this year make it this one' but I genuinely mean it this is a top read, if you know me i'll lend it to you but you have to return it, it's my new favourite.

Crime and punishment

Russia to me (not that I've ever been) is a great big country full of concrete, imposing buildings, rain and an overwhelming sense of gloom. This book written by one of the great Russian authors Fyodor Dostoyevsky is much the same. The basic jist of the story is a fella kills an old pawnbrokering woman and then gets a bit paranoid/mad not I think with guilt but more about getting caught, he thinks he's not just an ordinary human but a special person who can commit a crime without conscience getting in the way and go on to do extraordinary things a bit like napoleon. The main bulk of the book deals with his thoughts and frame of mind and how he really undo's himself. There is of course other characters but he is central to the whole novel and everyone else leads from him. My main problem was understanding who was who in this book, and yes I'm sure that makes me sound really dim but Russians have a lot of names each (well at least three) depending on the familiarity/formality with which they are talking so I did find it a bit hard to keep track of who did/said/thought what. Another small problem was that its really a bit miserable now I can be a bit miserable and misery loves company but this was a whole different level there was no light to all the dark, it was just unrelenting gloom. The author felt like he just had too much to say, he had all these opinions on the psychology of crime and it just got rather tedious after a while reading them. That's not to say the whole novel was tedious, some sections of it trundled along nicely, some were really quite exciting and in all honesty the scene involving the murder was the only time I've read something and wanted to shut my eyes the way you would at the cinema when somethings particularly horrific, I was just sitting reading on my sofa flinching at the words! So to sum up then, its not a bad book, and I understand why it's a classic, all the plotlines link well together and the characters couldn't be formed any better. The main characters plight makes sense and is plausible, to be fair the entire story is, and after you get used to the names it does get easier to read but it does go on a bit and I just stopped caring about halfway through. I don't know if I'd recommend it I guess I would but its not an immediately enjoyable book, you probably won't have much empathy for the characters and it takes a fair helping of concentration. It's not a likeable book but I think it's worth reading, 3 out of 5.

The Lacuna.

Once in a while you read a book and you think it's the greatest thing ever, and once in a blue moon you read a book and it gets under your skin and can change completely how you think about things. This novel by Barbara Kingsolver is firmly in the latter category for me. It is about a man Harrison Shepherd, and it's this fictional man's life story told using his notebooks, but it's set in a world comprising of non fiction, well the authors take on these non fictional events and people at least, so you have people cropping up who you might of heard of like Frida Khalo (who from reading this comes across as my favourite woman ever), J.Edgar Hoover, Trotsky and a few others. History is not something I've much of an interest in, I certainly wouldn't seek out a historical novel but this is I guess one I read without even realising, it deals with politics in Mexico, the rise in communism, America and the whole cold war caper and to be honest those things bore me something silly but reading this I was like huh this is properly riveting! But I'm losing my way a little, the setting, all this historical basis isn't even the main part the whole story is about this man Harrison and the different things that happen and change him throughout his entire life. Lacuna means missing piece, a page absent in a document, the something that isn't there, and there is a line in this book that I loved 'the most important thing about a person is always the thing you don't know'. Anyway why I'm I telling you that, well a part of his story is missing, one of his notebooks, I'm not going to give anything away on the off chance you might decide to read this book (which you most certainly should) but the thing that we don't know is the thing that changes him the most, the most important piece. I suppose as much as this book is the story of a man and it really is everything you could want for in a story, great characters, its funny, sad, exciting, thrilling its like an HBO production of a story to put it mildly but it also leaves you with a lesson on the power words have, for good and how they can tear people and lives apart as well. If I've ever read a book that has felt like the author has tailor written it especially for me, this is that book. 5 stars, hell 5 gold stars! It was epic in the truest sense of the word.

The unlikely pilgrimage of Harold Fry

Read between the 6th and 9th January this novel written by Rachel Joyce really is quite lovely. And sad. And unputdownable. The main jist of the story is that of a man Harold Fry, a pensioner living in the South of england with his wife Maureen when he receives a letter from an old work colleague, the delightfully named Queenie Hennessy. It's really a goodbye note as she is ill with cancer in a hospice up in Berwick upon Tweed which is pretty much right at the top of England. Harold takes it upon himself to walk to Queenie, because if he keeps walking she'll keep living, all whilst wearing a pair of yachting shoes and no preparation, plan or map. Through this journey we learn about Harold, his life, relationship with Queenie, Maureen, his estranged son David and more besides. There's twists and turns throughout. Things are revealed which are really quite startling and in parts it is terribly moving. As the main character Harold is very likeable and well rounded as our the others we meet throughout his travels, I particularly liked how his and Maureens relationship changed throughout, and how it rang true to both characters. No parts of the novel felt rushed and even though what Harold sets out to do is quite extraordinary it never feels unbelievable. All in all this is a book that is funny, inspiring, touching and in parts terribly sad. It is Rachel Joyce's first novel but reading it you would thing she's a old hand at this sort of craic. Highly recommended, 4.5 stars out of 5.

Alys, always

I read this book by Harriet Lane between the 3rd and 5th of Jan (i'm a quick reader and it's not terribly long). From the cover and all the little recommendations from various magazines and other authors I was expecting this to be a thriller. It was not thrilling. It wasn't a bad story by any means, it was actually fairly enjoyable but it just wasn't marketed quite right. It's about a woman, Frances who stumbles upon a car accident on her way home one evening and how this encounter changes her life from a stagnant career as a book editor for a newspaper to a world of elite literary types and how she wriggles her way to success. She is a well developed character and there was a certain underlying not quite sinister-ness to her. Whist reading it I did keep wanting to find out what she'd do next so there was a certain amount of intrigue to the story. The majority of characters held my interest, although there where a couple I would've liked to have heard more about as they where introduced well but not used much beyond that. My main qualms with the book was the ending and how quickly loose ends where tied together. I don't want to give anything away but a relationship that occurs towards the end I found completely implausible and it just seemed an easy way for the author to end the story, it was disappointing and despite a promising start I ended up not too fond of this novel. So the rating for this one then it's somewhere between 2 and 3, like someone who lets you down with so much promise as opposed to a person who never tried at all I guess it was more disappointing cause I thought from its start and the reviews it was going to be great, so it'll just be the 2 out of 5 then.

A visit from the goon squad.

I read this between the 28th Dec and 3rd Jan so I'm half cheating including it here but I guess my club my rules right? I jest of course, I just enjoyed this novel by Jennifer Egan quite a bit so wanted to include my review here. After reading it I still can't quite come up with a synopsis for it. People asked as people do what it was about whilst I was reading it and I couldn't find a way to describe it. It's an interesting novel, terribly well written and jumps back and forth in time throughout the chapters. There is also a huge amount of characters who pop up some more frequently than others at different stages of their lives, from different viewpoints. This non linear way to tell the story makes it a bit confusing to start with and its hard to know which characters matter and are going to pop up again BUT the characters are so well developed the confusion is worth it. Sasha is really the main protagonist although I'm not sure if that's the right way to describe her, she turns up the most frequently and links a lot of threads together so as I read I found myself looking for her parts in particular. I suppose this novel is really about the passing of time, what getting old brings and takes away. It's funny, it's sad and its perfectly balanced it is confusing and takes a little effort but it's one of the few books I may well read again. I suppose some star rating should be given so out of a 5 I'd have to say this is a very strong 4.