July Reviews

A Strangeness in my Mind
Orhan Pamuk
2.5/5
Faber & Faber Paperback Jul 2016
Recommendation from Daddy

As you can tell from the rating, I am in two minds about this one. There are definitely pros and cons to it, let me go through a few of them now.
Pro: As with all Orhan Pamuk's books, it is a love letter to Istanbul. The characters wind their way through the streets of the old town and descriptions of the city really bring the reader into the setting.
Con: It can get a little draining hearing about the different districts that spring up and endless descriptions of the space.
Pro: Character development is lovely, this book spans over a decade, which means that there is ample time to get to know all the characters from several angles.
Con: It's set over a decade! I would say it's too long, but the premise is that it is s true documentation of someones life-time so to cut out a chunk of years doesn't really work.
Pro: The story is great, exciting in parts, as well as interesting and intriguing. I definitely enjoyed many things about this book. But I think it needs to be read at a time when you can really commit the time to reading the story in a few sittings (holiday in Istanbul perhaps?). I found it difficult to get into the story every time I picked it up on the tube and I did read it very slowly. Not one I'd read again, but a narrative that will stay with me.

June Reviews

The Red Clocks
Leni Zumas
1/5
The Borough Press Mar 2018 Kindle
Amazon

I think it was a shame that I read this book directly after The Cows because I ended up having a double dose of female voice. It is telling that I don't remember the story at all here. Everyone applauded the book because it had the feeling of the next Handmaid's tale about it just as the TV series was coming out. Meanwhile real world issues in Ireland and America surrounding women's rights around abortion. 
However, I didn't think much of the voice it jumped around to show off different writing styles and had that feeling of the author seeking to win prizes for their clever literary techniques. I wasn't a fan.

The Lemon Grove 
Helen Walsh 
1/5
Tinder Press June 2014 paperback
Birthday Gift

This was recommended to me by Stylist magazine in their book battle section. BUT the review did not point out that this is in fact quite smutty. *shocked face* The story follows a family holiday and the young daughter has brought home a fit boyfriend who treats her quite badly, mainly by going after the mother. It's a terrible story, it's full of quite awkward scenes. You can imagine the kind : "I shattered against him". 
The review I read made it seem like a travel writing book, a love letter to southern France, so you can imagine my surprise when I started reading it. Everything suddenly made sense for why the friend who gave it to me was blushing. 
Not one to read again or even one I'd gift, probably one to leave on a tube. I did read it on holiday in Miami where I was happy to read something easy like this so it does work as a holiday beach read.

Until September Petronella 
Jean Rhys
2/5
Penguin Modern 2018 Paperback 
Impulse purchase

These are short stories by some of the best writers of the modern age. I really enjoyed the three short stories in this one and have always liked Jean Rhys. But the trouble I had was that because it was such short bites I struggled to not just devour the whole thing in one sitting and differentiate each story. I am perhaps not used to reading short stories like this. 

Reading the Seasons

The seasons may not command our daily lives like they used to, but I still feel their influence in the books that I choose. I consciously pick up a Gothic novel or thriller for Halloween and I realise that there are a few other genres that I go for that seem to have a correlation with what the weather is doing. I was at an author Q&A last weekend and one of them mentioned how they always read Wind in the Willows for Spring, Darling Buds of May for Summer and A Christmas Carol for Winter.

I know that a ton of people have a particular book at Christmas time. What's yours?

I've put down my suggestions for the seasons. These are all books I would read again and enjoy over and over again. I've tried to put them in the part of the year that would suit the story best.

Summer
Her
Eat, Pray, Love
The Power

Spring
Wind in the Willows
Chocolat
Blackberry Wine

Autumn
The Historian
Dracula
American Psycho

Winter
Christmas Carol
Little Women
A Gentleman in Moscow

A Gentleman in Moscow

A Gentleman in Moscow
Amor Towles
5/5
Sphere Paperback Feb 2006
Daddy's Bookclub

I rarely think about the "book of the year" award I give in May before I get there. But this book is definitely in the running. So much did my dad believe that I would love this book, he actually posted it to me to prevent any more delays or arguments.
I absolutely loved the story, a gentleman under house arrest in a large hotel in Moscow and how he copes. As a gentleman we see that he has no real world skills in terms of a career, but his ability to work with people is his triumph. Soon he has his hand in all sorts of areas in the hotel, and feels ownership of his life and situation. His resourcefulness is amazing! What would you do if you were trapped in a hotel for life?
The relationships between the characters is lovely to see develop. Despite the book spanning 3 decades the passage of time is clear and well handled, it doesn't drag or skip too many chunks. The writing is divine and fun to read. 
I've seen it in the window of Waterstones, so it is definitely a recommended read for Christmas, I may even re-read it my self. 

Staying up to date

I review every book that I read. 

This is something that I have stuck to since I started a blog. However, there have been times where I have fallen behind in my reviews. Like now. Four months behind, 8 or 9 books to write up and the end of the year is fast approaching. 

I tend to do reviews in monthly round ups. But occasionally I get a month with a dud book. Not achingly bad, but not a favourite either. Or it takes me ages to read because suddenly keeping up with my podcast schedule on the tube seems more important. In these months, I carry these undigested books around. They are literal weight in my bag and serve as a constant reminder of my failure to read them and, often, the fact that I haven't made a post here in a while. 

The domino of this is that in my lack of enthusiasm to read that month, my desire to share the news of this dumb weight of a tomb is dampened. In the case of a particularly bad book, for example one I cannot bring my self to finish (a rare thing!), I may be excited by the prospect of writing a scathing review, which is "fun to write and to read". But mostly it only makes me sad. 

Then the good pick me up book that I read next gets stuck behind the queue of boring OK books and the pile of reviews "to do" piles up to a scary number. By the time I go back to (JUNE!) I have half forgotten the book. Half forgotten the discussion I had about it at the time. Half forgotten what was going on in my life. All of this makes for some strained little paragraphs in my reviews. 

I have decided to change things. I will continue to read every book that I read. BUT. I am going to stop chronological order. I'm going to review when I feel like it for the good ones and try and catch up with writing the ones I'm less excited about. My joy vs my duty reviews. I hope that this will light a fire under me to keep my blog alive. I am so proud of it, I wouldn't want it to fail because I'd set myself rules for how I run it. It's not working so we have to change the process. 

I won't make any promises that this will work. I hope it does though and I hope it leads to more reading and more writing. 

Man Booker 2018 Short list

WOW here we are again with the shortlist for the Man Booker Prize. 

Milkman - Anna Burns

Washington Black - Esi Edugyan

Everything under - Daisy Johnson

The Mars Room - Rachel Kushner

The Overstory - Richard Powers

The Long Take - Robin Robertson

I am actually thrilled with this year's short list and 4/5 were ones I was interested in reading. The only one I am sorry didn't make the list is The Water Cure. The Long Take took it's place in the official list. 


Congratulations to all of the shortlisted authors and good luck in the next stage!

May Reviews

Mythos
Stephen Fry
4/5
Michael Joseph Hardback November 2017
Birthday present from Alan.

As always my Birthday present from Alan was a beautiful edition of Mythos, shiny, embossed hardback. It just doesn't get much better than that. Oh wait, it can because it's by Stephen Fry and there are Gods. Having grown up on the more popular stories of: Athena, Arachne, Echo, Narcissus and Diana, to name a few; it was great to get to grips with the foundations of the creation story.
The Greek myths do not really have a time line, which results in some confusing bits when you try to think of the gods as a family house. They jumble together and all happen at roughly the same time "eons ago".
Stephan Fry gives voice to all of the characters and conjures up depth from the two dimensional originals. and gives them the texture of real people. It's given a more narrative time line and the story unspools without the: x begat x begat y begat z which can sometimes come with pseudo historic texts. I really enjoyed this book and it was a delight to read. I wish it had existed in my teens, I'd have felt much more knowledgeable.

The Cows
Dawn O'Porter
3/5
Harper Collins Kindle / April 2017
Recommended on the Guilty Feminist

I really enjoyed reading the cows, I thought it was well written with a solid voice and style differentiation as the author moved between characters. I liked that each of the female characters had varying motives and levels of sanity and although things drifted into the extreme, it seemed to happen so gradually that the believably wasn't lost.
It was great to read a book about the varying roles of women in society and how that is changing or not as the case may be. However, although my experience of reading The Cows was very positive and I was engrossed and then immediately advised others to read it. I now cannot remember much of what happens. The actual plot has not stuck with me as I expect it to and I think that is the mark of a good book. I would still suggest people read it, but I think I might have to revisit with a more critical mind next time.