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.