by Bernardine Evaristo
I did not like the format of this book. It is 12 short stories about black women/trans living mostly in the UK but they all have a link to each other somehow.
This grew on me as the book unfolded and I got caught up in the working out of these lives across different time periods. 7/10
Sunday, September 29, 2019
The Handmaid's Tale
by Margaret Atwood
This famous post apocalyptic novel has a sequel 30+ something years later. I wanted to read this before I read the Booker listed sequel. It is fairly grim stuff but totally engaging. What was going to happen to our heroine at the end of the book as she stepped in to the van? Can't wait to find out 9/10
This famous post apocalyptic novel has a sequel 30+ something years later. I wanted to read this before I read the Booker listed sequel. It is fairly grim stuff but totally engaging. What was going to happen to our heroine at the end of the book as she stepped in to the van? Can't wait to find out 9/10
Quichotte
by Salman Rushdie
Magical, funny, topical, this was a really good book as long as you are prepared to suspend reality.
The story revolves around a man in America addicted to TV, who falls in love with a TV talk show host, who like him hails from India.
He takes on the name of Quichotte and invents a son for himself called Sancho who materialises into reality (for a while at least).
However, the story of Quichotte runs alongside the story of the author, one Sam Duchamp who also has a son. Confusing it is at times but you have to marvel at the imagination who can dream up this stuff. 9/10
Magical, funny, topical, this was a really good book as long as you are prepared to suspend reality.
The story revolves around a man in America addicted to TV, who falls in love with a TV talk show host, who like him hails from India.
He takes on the name of Quichotte and invents a son for himself called Sancho who materialises into reality (for a while at least).
However, the story of Quichotte runs alongside the story of the author, one Sam Duchamp who also has a son. Confusing it is at times but you have to marvel at the imagination who can dream up this stuff. 9/10
Tuesday, August 27, 2019
An Orchestra of Minorities
by Chigozie Obioma
This book is different in that it is narrated by a chi-the guardian spirit that is joined to a human from birth. It tells the story of Nonso, a chicken farmer in Nigeria. He saves a woman from jumping off a bridge and eventually they become lovers. In trying to win the approval of her parents he goes off to Cyprus to get a degree. This turns out to be a scam and he ends up imprisoned for a crime he did not commit.
The language of the book is great but to be honest I found it really bleak and devoid of hope. I did not like it. 5/10
This book is different in that it is narrated by a chi-the guardian spirit that is joined to a human from birth. It tells the story of Nonso, a chicken farmer in Nigeria. He saves a woman from jumping off a bridge and eventually they become lovers. In trying to win the approval of her parents he goes off to Cyprus to get a degree. This turns out to be a scam and he ends up imprisoned for a crime he did not commit.
The language of the book is great but to be honest I found it really bleak and devoid of hope. I did not like it. 5/10
Lanny
by Max Porter
I did not expect to enjoy this book but I loved it. Lanny is a young boy living with his parents in a commuter village in the home counties. He also seems to be in rouch with dead papa toothwart, who can and does take the form of all sorts of things in the surroundings of the village.
When Lanny goes missing the blame focuses on a local artist, as the outsider, the not like us. It is a great fable for our time and written in a challenging yet engaging style. A potential winner of the Booker prize? Would that be that bold? 9/10
I did not expect to enjoy this book but I loved it. Lanny is a young boy living with his parents in a commuter village in the home counties. He also seems to be in rouch with dead papa toothwart, who can and does take the form of all sorts of things in the surroundings of the village.
When Lanny goes missing the blame focuses on a local artist, as the outsider, the not like us. It is a great fable for our time and written in a challenging yet engaging style. A potential winner of the Booker prize? Would that be that bold? 9/10
10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World
by Elif Shafak
On the face of it this does not offer a promising premise.
A prostitute is found dead in a waste bin in Istanbul. The 10 minutes 38 seconds of the title refers to the time from when her heart stopped beating to when her brain died.
However, Leila uses that time to tell us her life story and introduce us to her five dearest friends. The latter part of the book takes us on a slapstick journey of how these friends demonstrate their friendship and also how important friendship is. In danger of getting a little twee toward the end I really enjoyed this book and hope it makes the Booker shortlist 9/10
On the face of it this does not offer a promising premise.
A prostitute is found dead in a waste bin in Istanbul. The 10 minutes 38 seconds of the title refers to the time from when her heart stopped beating to when her brain died.
However, Leila uses that time to tell us her life story and introduce us to her five dearest friends. The latter part of the book takes us on a slapstick journey of how these friends demonstrate their friendship and also how important friendship is. In danger of getting a little twee toward the end I really enjoyed this book and hope it makes the Booker shortlist 9/10
Wednesday, August 14, 2019
Within a Budding Grove
by Marcel Proust
The second book in the Remebrance of things Past septology(?) on Audible.
This book takes our narrator and us to Balbec where we meet Elstir the painter, and Albertine and her gang of friends. I love the description and his understanding of the human condition but it has to be said-and I know it is sacrilege-but he does go on a bit at times! 8/10
The second book in the Remebrance of things Past septology(?) on Audible.
This book takes our narrator and us to Balbec where we meet Elstir the painter, and Albertine and her gang of friends. I love the description and his understanding of the human condition but it has to be said-and I know it is sacrilege-but he does go on a bit at times! 8/10
Frankissstein
by Jeanette Winterson
As you can guess by the title this has echoes of Frankenstein throughout.
The book starts with Mary Shelley in Italy where she first gets the idea for her famous book. Switch abruptly to a tech show in Memphis for adult toys and robots and enter Ron Lord. He is a very funny character and if Dickens was alive now I can imagine him conjuring up such a character along with his soon to be partner Claire, Enter also Ry Shelley, a doctor who is trans and used to be called Mary. Enter also Victor Stein a very intelligent academic in the field of AI who falls in love with Ry-or does he?
As well as being funny in places it is also a book that provokes you to think about what it means to be human as well as gender patterns.
The end was not perfect, a little too contrived and clunky but a great read none the less. 9/10
As you can guess by the title this has echoes of Frankenstein throughout.
The book starts with Mary Shelley in Italy where she first gets the idea for her famous book. Switch abruptly to a tech show in Memphis for adult toys and robots and enter Ron Lord. He is a very funny character and if Dickens was alive now I can imagine him conjuring up such a character along with his soon to be partner Claire, Enter also Ry Shelley, a doctor who is trans and used to be called Mary. Enter also Victor Stein a very intelligent academic in the field of AI who falls in love with Ry-or does he?
As well as being funny in places it is also a book that provokes you to think about what it means to be human as well as gender patterns.
The end was not perfect, a little too contrived and clunky but a great read none the less. 9/10
Wednesday, July 31, 2019
Night Boat to Tangier
by Kevin Barry
This book is set in the Spanish port of Algeciras as two middle aged drug dealers from Cork wait in the hope of finding a daughter, Dilly who disappeared three years earlier. It is funny in places, sad and melancholic in others but has a lovely lilting flow to the language that made it a really enjoyable read. 8/10
This book is set in the Spanish port of Algeciras as two middle aged drug dealers from Cork wait in the hope of finding a daughter, Dilly who disappeared three years earlier. It is funny in places, sad and melancholic in others but has a lovely lilting flow to the language that made it a really enjoyable read. 8/10
Saturday, July 27, 2019
My sister, the serial killer
by Oyinkan Braithwaite
Set in Lagos what do you do when your sister starts killing people?
This was a good read, presented in a deadpan sort of way we learn how a nurse looks out for her sister and why she reacts to men the way she does. 7/10
Set in Lagos what do you do when your sister starts killing people?
This was a good read, presented in a deadpan sort of way we learn how a nurse looks out for her sister and why she reacts to men the way she does. 7/10
The Pale Criminal
by Philip Kerr
Second in the Bernie Gunther series and Bernie is forced to rejoin the police force to solve a crime intricately involved with the politics of the time. A good read for a train journey. 7/10
Second in the Bernie Gunther series and Bernie is forced to rejoin the police force to solve a crime intricately involved with the politics of the time. A good read for a train journey. 7/10
Sunday, June 23, 2019
March Violets
by Philip Kerr
The first novel in a crime series about a detective called Bernie Gunther. Set in pre-war Berlin it is given an added twist by being set alongside the rise of national socialism, A good story 7/10
The first novel in a crime series about a detective called Bernie Gunther. Set in pre-war Berlin it is given an added twist by being set alongside the rise of national socialism, A good story 7/10
Machines like Me
by Ian McEwan
Very well written as you would expect.
I am not sure about the device of setting the book in the eighties and playing with political outcomes following the Falklands war, alongside a technology world set some years beyond where we are now. However, the story provokes thought about morals in an AI world and how sentient a being a robot can be. I finished the book quite drained and needed to plug myself, recharge and muse about what it all meant. 8/10
Very well written as you would expect.
I am not sure about the device of setting the book in the eighties and playing with political outcomes following the Falklands war, alongside a technology world set some years beyond where we are now. However, the story provokes thought about morals in an AI world and how sentient a being a robot can be. I finished the book quite drained and needed to plug myself, recharge and muse about what it all meant. 8/10
Swann's Way
by Marcel Proust
The first book of Remembrance of things Past which I first read 30 years ago. Listening to it as an audiobook is different but enjoyable, The descriptive passages are faantastic and although they can get drawn out for far too long at times his capturing of human emotion is brilliant 8/10
The first book of Remembrance of things Past which I first read 30 years ago. Listening to it as an audiobook is different but enjoyable, The descriptive passages are faantastic and although they can get drawn out for far too long at times his capturing of human emotion is brilliant 8/10
Tuesday, May 28, 2019
The confessions of Frannie Langton
by Sara Collins
Frannie is a mulato slave brought up on a sugar plantation in the West Indies. She is involved in some weird experiments her owner is undertaking to try and show that slavery is justified.
The book starts at the Old Bailey where she is on trial for murder. The book is her tale of what happened and how she got to the position she was in. I loved the ending but I think not everyone will. 7/10
Frannie is a mulato slave brought up on a sugar plantation in the West Indies. She is involved in some weird experiments her owner is undertaking to try and show that slavery is justified.
The book starts at the Old Bailey where she is on trial for murder. The book is her tale of what happened and how she got to the position she was in. I loved the ending but I think not everyone will. 7/10
Tangerine
by Christine Mangan
Tangiers 1956 and newly married Alice is deeply unhappy and a long way from home. Out of nowhere her best friend from college turns up-a friend she does not want to meet. This book promised a lot and I read it very quickly but somehow it did not quite do it for me. A good train read 6/10
Tangiers 1956 and newly married Alice is deeply unhappy and a long way from home. Out of nowhere her best friend from college turns up-a friend she does not want to meet. This book promised a lot and I read it very quickly but somehow it did not quite do it for me. A good train read 6/10
Maigret takes a room
by Georges Simenon
Back in Paris and a really enjoyable novel, as Maigret sets out to find out who shot and wounded one of his detectives. He checks into a boarding house and meets a great array of characters. Oh and along the way he solves the case! 8/10
Back in Paris and a really enjoyable novel, as Maigret sets out to find out who shot and wounded one of his detectives. He checks into a boarding house and meets a great array of characters. Oh and along the way he solves the case! 8/10
Spring
by Ali Smith
The third in a quartet looking at the state of Britain today.
I really enjoyed this book with a good balance of anger v humour and some great characters. Particularly liked Paddy and Richard (nickname Doubledick after a Dickens character).
I got a little bit lost at times in the second half of the book but didn't really mind this as I knew the direction we were heading in and that we were unlikely to arrive by the end-which we didn't. Still a great read 8/10
The third in a quartet looking at the state of Britain today.
I really enjoyed this book with a good balance of anger v humour and some great characters. Particularly liked Paddy and Richard (nickname Doubledick after a Dickens character).
I got a little bit lost at times in the second half of the book but didn't really mind this as I knew the direction we were heading in and that we were unlikely to arrive by the end-which we didn't. Still a great read 8/10
Sunday, May 05, 2019
Revolution Francaise
by Sophie Pedder
The author makes clear that she is not writing a biography but she does write about Emmanuel Macron and his dramatic rise to the role of French President.
The whole book is fascinating as it tries to unravel what drives this unusual character and what it is he is trying to achieve. The best parts of the book were in chapters nine and ten examining the deep fractures that divide France and the French education system which is controlled from the centre to the point of stifling good teachers from developing those most in need of it.
Both society and the education system need attention. As I write this the yellow vest protests continue(they had not started when the book was written), and you feel the next 12 months are critical if the Macron presidency is going to deliver any of the hope promised during his election campaign. 9/10
The author makes clear that she is not writing a biography but she does write about Emmanuel Macron and his dramatic rise to the role of French President.
The whole book is fascinating as it tries to unravel what drives this unusual character and what it is he is trying to achieve. The best parts of the book were in chapters nine and ten examining the deep fractures that divide France and the French education system which is controlled from the centre to the point of stifling good teachers from developing those most in need of it.
Both society and the education system need attention. As I write this the yellow vest protests continue(they had not started when the book was written), and you feel the next 12 months are critical if the Macron presidency is going to deliver any of the hope promised during his election campaign. 9/10
Left Bank
by Agnes Poirier
A very readable portrait of the Paris arts scene during and after the war.
Sartre and de Beauvoir feature a lot but so do Mailer, Koestler and Camus, Saul Bellow and Miles Davis, and a host of others. It paints Paris in such a way as to be attractive, but also realistic about the realities of a post war city and leaves the reader wanting to explore the city and the works of the various people mentioned. 8/10
A very readable portrait of the Paris arts scene during and after the war.
Sartre and de Beauvoir feature a lot but so do Mailer, Koestler and Camus, Saul Bellow and Miles Davis, and a host of others. It paints Paris in such a way as to be attractive, but also realistic about the realities of a post war city and leaves the reader wanting to explore the city and the works of the various people mentioned. 8/10
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