2022 book journal
by Tony Lawrence | e-Books | This book has not been rated.
ISBN: 0140437533 Global Overview for this book
ISBN: 0140437533 Global Overview for this book
1 journaler for this copy...
I started to read this a long time ago, and gave up - so not like me. I *will* read it one day...
This book, Vanity Fair by William Thackeray has been lost, or otherwise distributed. This is now being repurposed as my 2022 reading journal and book list.
(7/01/22)
Read 1/2022
Skeleton Key by Anthony Horowitz
(12/01/22)
Read 2/2022
Paper Towns by John Green
(14/01/22)
Read 3/2022
What's The Point of Maths?
(15/01/22)
Read 4/2022
Smarter Than You Think by Clive Thompson (n/r)
Subtitle ‘How technology is changing our minds for the better’. Clive Thompson is a Canadian tech writer and ‘thinker’ (aren’t we all?) and has written a superior book on this difficult topic - jumping mid-flow into a rapidly changing technology and social landscape and making some sense of it. Although the book is nearly 10 years old it still works, although maybe not for long? For example, IBMs Watson AI software (a successor to Deep Blue), has been overtaken by agents like Alexa, Siri & Google. And obviously the whole shift to remote working has accelerated during the Covid pandemic. These 2 examples aside, Thompson very cleverly unpicks how we engage with technology and how it’s affecting and shaping our communication, memory, ways-of-working & collaborating, learning, playing, and developing [new] literacies. For example, rote learning giving way to better tools to search external memory, wider collaboration, and ambient awareness. I also like the fact that the new information age is seen as just one of a continuation of paradigm shifts that have caused hand-wringing from reactionaries in different eras (printing, telegraph, telephones etc.) By necessity we become different, adapting and evolving as humans have always done. It’s a fascinating topic.
(19/01/22)
Read 5/2022
Howards End by E.M.Forster (book group)
(24/01/22)
Read 6/2022
September 1, 1939 by Ian Sansom (lib)
This is a heady mix of; (1) biography (W H Auden hero worship); (2) personal memoir, with a big dose of self-deprecation and humble-bragging, and; (3) a primer for the famous eponymous poem. Sansom is more or less successful in these aspects, in descending order. I quite enjoyed the scholarly review of Auden’s oeuvre and a deeper-dive into nature of Wystan as a man, a poet, and an icon, and New York on the eve of WW2. However, I would have a liked a simpler straight review of the poem, maybe as an appendix! To understand the context at play here; Sansom has spent 25 years writing this book, so its a big thing for him, and he obviously feels unworthy, down-playing his skill and prowess as a writer a lot of times … it became a bit dull to be honest. However, there are enough sparks of humour to make me want to read his own fiction, but probably not to read more Auden. I’m probably not worthy ;)
(26/01/22)
Read 7/2022
Mostly Harmless by Douglas Adams (PC)
*includes spoilers* And so I have finished my anniversary re-reading of the 5-part trilogy (see below), and am slightly sad. I remembered some of this book, but forgot that in the end ‘everyone dies’, in that the Vogon’s conscientiously repeat their job to destroy earth, this time tidying up the multi-dimensional loose ends, I think!
The main arc of the book is getting Arthur, Tricia/Trillian and their daughter Random back to earth before the second and final destruction. There is also a sub-plot about the guide itself, again the Vogons are involved in the new sinister management, so I guess that Ford Prefect’s presence in the Beta club means that all records of [Mostly Harmless] Earth are similarly expunged. So I am sad if this is the case(!), but also for the untimely loss of Adams. I wouldn’t say that he was at the height of his powers, but H2G2 and Dirk Gently are too little to show of his genius. This book also saw the very abrupt loss of Fenchurch
Here is a great quote, which I have used, and now I know where it comes from! p138 “You live and learn. At any rate. You learn” A rootless Arthur is settled-in as the venerated Sandwich Maker on the planet Lamuella and then Trillian arrives with his unexpected surly and difficult teenage daughter Random. This lesson is about trusting children to the right thing when he’s trying to develop a relationship.
A more general note about the ‘trilogy’, and to repeat H2G2 is 42 years old in 2021! Yes, I have enjoyed the re-reading, in some respects they are timeless (Adams wit and humour), but they are aging a bit IMO, mostly because of pre-internet technology, but also the style of writing, not that comedy sci-fi is a big sub-genre. The 5 books feel a bit messy and disconnected in parts, I assume they weren’t planned as a series, but do require some prior knowledge to enjoy.
(02/02/22)
Read 8/2022
Farmacology by Daphne Miller (borrow)
I borrowed this from my DD, right up my street, pop science and medicine. I was a bit worried about the chatty memoir style, but Dr. Miller turns out to be a good writer and storyteller, engaging and informative without being either too technical or patronising. Broadly speaking, Dr. Miller explores links between farming, the food chain [US-centric], medical interventions, and our health & well-being. Each chapter looks at a particular element of farming (eggs, wine grapes, aromatics, mixed agricultural & animal pastures, and urban community farms etc.) and a case study on individual farms and eco-farmers, and sometimes a patient(s) of hers. It’s fascinating to hear her connect the dots between healthy management of soil and the overall ecosystem (biome?), and the way that feeds into our human flora and fauna. It all makes perfect sense, after all, ‘we are what we eat’ There is a little mis-step into crystal energies - maybe a subject for another book - but mostly fascinating. However, it’s cautionary to think about how scalable these models in the face of powerful farming and food supply industries, and consumers demands for cheap protein, sugary, fatty & processed food.
(06/02/22)
Read 9/2022
Light Perpetual by Francis Spufford (PC)
*Includes spoilers* I can’t believe how good a writer Spufford is, this is only his second novel, and so different in style and period from Golden Hill. It does reinforce the idea that a lot of [good] non-fiction writing requires similar creative skills. This book follows the premise that a V2 rocket in 1944 that killed dozens of people in South East London Woolworths (a real incident, but fictional location Bexford), did not happen, and 5 children in particular went on to live their lives. In a documentary-style the book drops-in on Ben, Alec, Vern, Jo & Val in 15 year chunks. This gives great scope to look at the breadth of experiences in 5 memoirs with the constant ever-changing London in the background. And what breadth! Some topics covered include; pop stardom, inter-racial marriage, Wapping strikes, teaching, opera, mental illness, racial hatred, anorexia, greed, gentrification, regret, unfulfilled potential etc. etc. Despite some heavy themes and apparent futility I found it quite a positive book and a quick read, probably because of the engaging characters and the pace and quality of the writing. In a more meta-physical sense the individuals are both the most important part of their own lives and unimportant transient beings of light (the title) and dust (the last 2 words).
(12/02/22)
Read 10/2022
Allegorizings by Jan Morris (lib)
This is a great little collection of Jan Morris’s random musings, thematically and loosely linked by allegory, ‘nothing is ever [only] what it is’ (I paraphrase). The book was posthumously published, Morris knew this would happen, which is reflected in the ‘pre-mortem’ and ‘pre-mortem’ parentheses and the rather wistful feel to a lot of the writing about her life & times, her travels (revisiting), philosophies, and thoughts about growing old and her own demise. There is some repetition of ideas, which I guess would be difficult to ‘edit out’ post-mortem, as it were, but it still works as a coherent work and tribute to Morris.
Ps. I particularly liked the Ulysses/Bloomsday article, “The most prolonged and affecting of literary allegories …”
(13/02/22)
Read 11/2022
Eagle Strike by Anthony Horowitz
(28/02/22)
Read 12/2022
How to Kill Your Family by Bell Mackie (n/r)
I caught this book on the way to the charity shop, a clear-out from my DD. I’m glad I did, it is a fun (I mean entertaining) book about familial murder! Our heroine Grace relates a lot of the story from a prison cell, for a crime she didn’t commit, not the 6 murders that she did. There’s some social commentary here about being rich, corrupt, and just plain unpleasant in the C21st century, including a bored socialite, a sexual deviant, and a vacuous social media influencer. There is an unexpected twist at the end, which takes the sheen of off [her] master plan to avenge her mother and punish her estranged father's family; but it doesn't entirely balance the moral scales. Mackie is a journalist but this is a very assured first novel.
(4/03/22)
Read 13/2022
Just Like You by Nick Hornby
(6/03/22)
Read 14/2022
James Joyce: A Beginner’s Guide by Frank Startup (lib)
This would have been very useful before I carried out my own Herculean task (or probably Odyssean quest?) to read Ulysses. As well as the little potted summaries of the sections, I also learnt some important things; (1) Joyce’s had his first date with future wife Nora Barnacle on 16th June 1904 (Bloomsday); (2) the 3 books featured here, Dubliners, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Ulysses are linked and should be read and understood as a whole, and (3) The ‘artist’ Stephen Daedalus is loosely autobiographical, and other characters are based on real people including Molly and Buck Mulligan. Useful insights for my re-reading!
Anyhoo, the first 1/2 of this was interesting about Joyce’s life, writing style, and primers for the books themselves; the second section was dry and showy about critical styles, reviews, biographies, and other aspects of the Joycean world.
(8/03/22)
Read 15/2022
Talking for Britain by Simon Elmes (n/r)
This is a rich and detailed analysis of English as it is spoken across the 4 home nations (e.g. Ulster Scots & Scots English rather than the Gaelic/‘Gallic’ indigenous languages), including recordings carried out by local BBC radio stations in 2004/5 [Voices Survey] and earlier vox-pop interviews and anecdotes. The author splits the UK into 12 sections, although by his admission he is only scratching the surface of the depth and variety of language that may change even within a few miles. Each chapter gives some geographical and socio-historical context, results from interviews, pronunciation notes, and a glossary of local terms. One of the underlying themes - in all areas - is how language develops and is evolving constantly, with some regrets about lost very localised rural and industrial communities (and concomitant language and dialects) up against the influences of mass-media and mobility, but recognition of the broader sweep of change. Of course the biggest problem with this book is that it is words on paper, most of the dialects and accents, however much they are rendered ‘phonetically’, need to be heard to be fully appreciated.
(15/03/22)
Read 16/2022
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark (book group/lib)
This was a perfect book group choice, in my opinion. It is short and relatively easy to read, very much ‘not’ something I would have picked up, and the catalyst for lots of conversation, debate and conjecture. The key themes (informal Q&A) were; (1) what is the book about, what is the author trying to say; (2) is Jean Brodie a monster, a flawed individual, an influential and charismatic teacher, or all of the above; (3) given the above and her manipulation and corruption(?) of the Brodie Set, would she survive in a modern teaching setting; (4) were the children damaged by her progressive/unique teaching style; and last but not least; (5) what is the ‘Prime’ [of life]?! I don’t think we came to any unanimous conclusions, except (3), ‘probably’, we would hope? We also talked about the weakness of the male characters, primarily the Art & Singing teachers (Teddy Lloyd and Lowther), and the lost love Hugh … and whether the latter even existing. Essentially we were undecided as to whether Brodie is a monstrous dictator (parallels with Mussolini and Hitler), a manipulative, but influential, teacher, a narcissist, or a rather sad unfulfilled figure. Phew, discuss!
Peaky Blinders: The True Story by Carl Chinn (n/r) - Did not finish
I thought I would read this as prep(!) for the last series of Peaky Blinders on the tellybox … I didn’t finish it, but instead am watching a TV adaptation of the book, narrated in part by the author and historian (really?) Carl Chinn. Carl is related to a Birmingham gang member, and seems to revel in this infamous connection in a breathless amateurish style, both written and in person.
The story jumps around between fact and fiction, and also over a 50/60 year period from mid C19th street-corner ‘slogging gangs’, to more organised criminal enterprises, and [I assume] in a straight-ish line to organised crime in the inter-war period and beyond. So, I found the writing style a bit annoying (not like Gangs of New York, for example), a bit too exploitative of the real people involved, primarily aimed at a salacious TV audience. I will pass on for someone else to try (not registered).
(15/03/22)
Read 17/2022
Die Last by Tony Parsons (n/r)
From the sublime (The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie) to something else. I’ve said it before, this is shaping up to be a really good series; gritty ‘real world’ crime and the underbelly of modern [London] society, but with the back stories of Max Wolfe, his family, and colleagues to add a bit or depth and continuity. In this 3rd novel there is human trafficking, Chinese triads, French migration camps, high-end prostitution (and low-end lap-dancing clubs), and care homes. We are reunited with retired 60’s gangster Paul Warlock(?) and his heirs. On the lighter side, there is a glimpse of a possible love life for the embattled Max; he needs a break from the all death, violence, and trauma in his work and life. And, long may it continue, at the time of writing there are 3 more novels and 2 novellas. Hurrah.
(31/03/22)
Read 18/2022
Big Sky by Kate Atkinson
(1/04/22)
Read 19/2022
The Shortest History of Europe by John Hirst (n/r)
This is a very clever book, adapted and extended from a series of lectures used by the author as an introduction to European history. It tries to understand and chart the same in terms of the Classic world (Greece and Rome learning), German warrior tribes, Religion (primarily Christian/Christendom), monarchs, various political and other significant mass-movements, such as [The] Reformation, Enlightenment. Renaissance, Agricultural & Industrial Revolutions, Romanticism, and Nationalism. By necessity this has to use broad brush strokes, the bigger entities (the Western European nations & empires), but still it covers a lot of time and ideas in under 200 pages. Fascinating and not too heavy, this sounds like a course I would have liked :)
(9/04/22)
Read 20/2022
Mad, Bad, Dangerous to know: The fathers of Wilde, Yeats and Joyce by Colm Toibin (lib)
I read the first 2 sections (Wilde & Yeats) before a holiday, so there was a 2 week gap before picking up the story of James Joyces’ father. That said, there are regular hints about JJ and his books earlier on, including the extended intro with Toibin wandering around Dublin pointing out real and fictional places and stories. I don’t know if the book title relates to each, or all, of the fathers Wilde, Yeats, and Joyce, but we get a strong sense of unusual parenting styles and larger-than-life characters, set in a slightly rarified Anglo-Irish middle-class artistic community. The third section is different, with John Stanislaus Joyce definitely a bad father in all senses of the word; a nasty drunk, feckless, and unable to support his wife and large family. He also suffers from having diarists as children, several of whom write about their upbringing and progressive slide. James Joyce seems like an unloved boy, but tries to reconcile his father - good and bad - in his semi-autobiographical works. As Simon Dedalus in Ulysses he is treated generously and becomes a somewhat ambiguous figure. On the whole I enjoyed these 3 portraits, although whether they should be in the same book, I’m not sure. Finally a quote from Joyce, ‘A father … is a necessary evil’.
(12/04/22)
Read 21/2022
Whatever Love Means by David Baddiel
(20/04/22)
Read 22/2022
The Awakening by Kate Chopin (book group)
*Includes spoilers*. Suffice to say, this is one of the more unlikely books that I would (have) read; I will go further, I would never have read this book if it wasn’t a book group choice! It’s small (116 pages), mannered and dated (written in 1899), and quite narrow in scope - but it still raises some interesting topics. The narrator is a very disaffected middle class wife of a New Orleans businessman, Edna Pontellier. She struggles will her role in life as secondary to her husband and children, as she says, she ‘…would give up the unessential, but she would never sacrifice herself for her children'. Some of this still resonates in the modern world, but more shocking in this era was her exploration of her own personhood and sensuality with 2 partners. Although somewhat chaste, her ‘affairs’ with Arobin and Robert, both younger men I think, would have caused shame and censure from society, friends & family. The ending surprised me, wither giving up essentials in her ultimate sacrifice?
In other themes to explore; is this a simple unrequited love story, or more(?); mental health (and the role of the family practitioner); support & collusion by her female friends, and; the prevailing racial and class differences in the deep south. Interesting as an oddity to me.
(2/05/22)
Read 23/2022
Moonflower Murders by Anthony Horowitz (n/r)
*includes spoilers* This was as complex, multi-layered, and satisfying as the Magpie Murders, and with 9 Atticus Pund books to deconstruct the series could run and run … but I’m jumping ahead of myself. As with MM this includes a book-within-a-book, ‘Atticus Pund Takes the Case’ but this time repackaged as a complete book. Set in the 1950’s in a quiet Devon seaside town, it involves the death of Hollywood star and hotelier (the Moonflower of the title) Melissa James and then her husband Francis Pendleton, all bought to life with a rich and suspicious cast of characters. Pund solves the ridiculously contrived murders; so good so far. In the present time Susan Ryeland, two years after MM, travels to Suffolk from her new life in Crete to investigate the disappearance of Cecily Traherne, manageress at the ‘real’ Branlow Hotel.
Why is Sarah involved? Well, here is where it gets really convoluted … the novel APTTC, edited by Sarah and written by [now dead] author Alan Conway, was thinly based on a brutal murder at Branlow (in the Moonflower wing) 8 years previously. There are lots of Easter Egg links between novel and 'real life’ individuals and events, and also clues to the real murderer. The wrong man was convicted, so the killer is loose to strike again, which of course he does. Yep, truly bonkers, but good fun. Both books finish with a Christie-like reveal, 2 for the price of one!
At the end Sarah returns to Crete, newly reconciled with the dashing life-saving Andreas, and provides a teaser for more sequels, hurrah.
(4/05/22)
Read 24/2022
The Great British Dream Factory by Dominic Sandbrook (n/r)
To give you some sense of the bulk, breadth, and variety of subjects in this book; it starts with Black Sabbath, Charles Dickens, J Arthur Rank, and Catherine Cookson, and the Victorian industrial giant that was Birmingham … and 500 pages later arrives at; Andrew Lloyd Webber, Margaret Thatcher, Elton John, Billy Elliot, Easington Colliery and the 1980’s miner’s strike. The somewhat tenuous set of links provide a fascinating personal almanac - if admittedly not a ‘definitive narrative history’ - of modern British culture. I’m trying to avoid lists of authors, artists, entrepreneurs and their works and influences, but it’s hard. To his credit Sandbrook has created a very readable book, but more as an almanac of stories rather than a single coherent thread. He cleverly provides signposts from post-colonial and post-industrial Britain, but also the impact of the world wars, and larger (socio-)political movements in which the ‘creatives’ operated.
Some of the obvious candidates are here; Harry Potter, the Beatles, James Bond, Dr. Who, and Coronation Street (oops a list!) but also mini essays on ours, and the world’s, obsessions with Edwardian Country Houses and Public Schools, and the early evolution of Science Fiction, Self-Help and teen-agers. There are many many more little gems and big ideas that I would hope to retain, but fear that there is just too much detail to fully absorb and summarise. You will have to take my word for it, fascinating stuff!
(17/05/22)
Read 25/2022
It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis (book group)
This is an oddity, thrown up by a book group, which I might not otherwise have found. Also, a new-to-me American author Sinclair Lewis who won the Nobel Prize for Literature before this book was published. The underlying message from Lewis is that it ‘can’ happen here, i.e. the rise of a nationalism (any dangerous ‘ism’) and a totalitarian state in the US. Written in 1935 due to fears about Hitler and Mussolini, the first part of the book tracks the somewhat farcical rise of ‘Buzz’ Windrip (who was compared with Trump in our book group?) to absolute power, as observed by the somewhat meek liberal and intellectual newspaper editor Doremus ‘Dormouse’ Jessup.
The second part of the book becomes more serious, a spiral of absolutist control and abuse that predicts some of the excesses of Fascism. We follow Doremus and his family as they are effected in different ways by the regime, including a scary insight into what might (did?) happen to the weak, bitter, and disenfranchised when given power, including lawyer Doremus's son Philip and Shad, their erstwhile family handyman/gardener. There are some echoes here of Orwell’s Animal Farm and 1984, but in a much longer and more realistic dystopian style. I don’t know how this was received at the time, maybe it checked the rise any Hitler apologists in America(?), but if not it still holds up today as a warning of extremism, nationalism, and personality politics.
(18/05/22)
Read 26/2022
My Name is Why by Leon Sissay (book group)
(review after book group meeting)
I was initially frustrated by the style of this book; reproductions of rediscovered reports, case reviews, and letters from Lemn Sissay's nearly 18 years in the care system; sparse commentary; and some of his poetry. It’s not a traditional memoir with the colour and detail that I would expect, but I think this deliberate to show the crushing black-and-white detail of the institutional process. Lemn - or Norman Green as he was known - was hardly ever consulted as a ward of the state (before the 1989 Children Act). Most of the adult ‘carers’ didn’t seem to care, but treated a young vulnerable, but relatively normal child, as an object to be processed by The Authority. He had some identity and behavioural problems, leading to depression, but these are the least that could be expected! The way he was removed from his birth mother and subsequently treated by his foster parents was shocking, and the slide into various degrees of abusive and inhuman homes and institutions in the system seemed inevitable. It is credit to Lemn that he managed to escape, forged an identity, and positive place in society, let alone become successful. However, [he] is left with residual bitterness about his treatment, and later rejection by his mother; so I was told about a follow-up TV documentary. Hopefully things are better now, but the feeling amongst the reading group was that similar problems may still be happening under our noses in a society that is struggling to cope and look after its most vulnerable members.
(23/05/22)
Read 27/2022
Scorpia (Alex Rider #5) by Anthony Horowitz
(29/05/22)
Read 28/2022
Mrs. Hemingway by Naomi Wood
(30/05/22)
Read 29/2022
What's the Point of Science - Art Director Joe Lawrence*
(7/06/22)
Read 30/2022
Red Plenty by Francis Spufford (n/r)
As expected, this is an excellent book - Spufford can do no wrong in my eyes! I really enjoyed the mixture of fact and fiction [fictionalised] that gave more depth and humanity to what could otherwise be a dry history of the Soviet planned economy in the 1950’s & 60’s. The slightly surreal and tragi-comic aspects of the story reminded me of the ’The Death of Stalin’ film, especially the political aspirations, naive ideology, and bumbling management of Khrushchev ‘Mr K’ as her tries to surpass the West and the USA with bounteous Red Plenty. Towards the end of the book Khrushchev is portrayed as a rather sad figure, unusually a living ex-premier in reduced cicrcumstances with no role other than to wistfully look back on his mistakes. The scope of this book is as big and messy (deliberately?) as the USSR/Russia itself; despite the handy little key I struggled sometimes with the names of all the scientists, engineers, mathematicians & cybernetics experts (early computers use to model the economy in the absence of prices driven by a ‘normal’ supply and demand market), black marketeers, farmers, students, politicians, and other apparatus of the hideously complicated and seemingly perverse state machine.
An interesting footnote, Spufford finished writing the book at the St. Deiniol’s/Gladstone library in Hawarden, Flintshire, near me in Chester.
(9/06/22)
Read 31/2022
Knife Edge by Simon Mayo
(14/06/22)
Read 32/2022
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (book group/lib)
I wanted to enjoy this more than I did; maybe it is just too alien and jarring compared to my normal Western reading material? Achebe wrote this seminal book in 1958 with an authentic African voice and perspective, based on his fictionalised Nigerian clan. He tells a rich story about the famed Okonkwo, starting in successful middle-age, and following his fall in parallel with the arrival of Western [British] missionaries and ‘civilising’ institutions and ideas circa late C19th/early C20th. He is not a very likeable character, driven by the memories of his feckless and lazy father, and the need to be strong, which makes him unforgiving and cruel with his family.
The book is in 3 uneven parts. The longer 1st section goes into a lot of detail about the family and village, its food, rituals, mythology, relationships, and the general ebb-and-flow of daily life, probably not too dissimilar to any pre-industrial pagan society - if you squint slightly sideways! Then there is 7 year exile of Okonkwo, his wives and children, for an accidental(?) killing - maybe some atonement for a familicide that he was involved in - and then his return to his village [now] under the disrupting influence of the District Commissioner and Anglican Church. As mentioned in the introduction to my copy, Achebe finds himself at a ‘crossroads’ between these cultures, which makes some of the book semi-autobiographical. There are regrets for a lost way of life, however backward, superstitious, and patriarchal it appears to our eyes, which again is common to other cultures, to have a rose-tinted view of a lost simpler pastoral idyll.
I’m sure the reading group will have a lot to say about this, not least how our hero is damaged as a boy, and how this affects his expectations of his oldest son specifically, and intolerance generally, except the touching relationship with his oldest daughter.
(20/06/22)
Read 33/2022
The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work by Alain de Botton (n/r)
I’ve read a few of Alain de Botton’s books and have always found them interesting, albeit with a somewhat flowery language and unique investigative/memoir/analytical style. This book tries to understand ‘why’ we work in the [post-] modern world by looking at a number of industries, professions, and individuals in some detail. For example the worldwide aviation industry, a large accountancy firm, logistics, entrepreneurs, and career guidance. By this route he exposes some more general themes, such as; the increasing specialism but also detachment from the means of production; what it means to be fulfilled or content in work (keeping busy); the futility of an individual’s time, effort, and career span; the inequities across different sectors and roles. This all sounds a bit heavy, but it is not in itself a depressing book … definitely thought-provoking. I quote, “If we could witness the eventual fate of every one of our projects, we would have no choice but to succumb to immediate paralysis.”(!)
(25/06/22)
Read 34/2022
Here We Are by Graham Swift (n/r)
*includes spoilers* This is a small - almost novella sized - gentle study of the human condition, relationships, careers & fulfilment, parental expectation, love and the absence of love. The story follows the careers of magician Ronnie ‘Pablo’ Dean, his friend and all round entertainer Jack ‘Robinson’ Robbins, and a menage-a-trois with Evie/‘Eve’ in Brighton end-of-the-pier theatreland in 1959 (and episodes before and after). Evie becomes Ronnie’s assistant, and eventually Jack’s wife. But, more important, is the effect of Ronnie’s upbringing, his absent father, estrangement from his mother, and idyllic wartime evacuation with Eric & Penny Lawrence; the former is Ronnie's mentor. Jack and Evie’s tiger mothers also provide a counterpoint to Agnes Dean’s lack of support.
I don’t think I fully understand the title 'Here we are’, as said by Penny Lawrence, a domestic phrase turned metaphysical? Last but not least, the Parrot on the lovely cover art relates to a key episode between Ronnie and his parents, and becomes part of a big final illusion. This is an understated, clever, and enigmatic read from one of my favourite authors.
(30/06/22)
Read 35/2022
Holes by Louis Sachar
(9/07/22)
Read 36/2022
The Heretics: Adventures With the Enemies of Science by Will Storr (n/r)
This is one of the best non-fiction books I’ve ever read. I had assumed that it would be a Louis Theroux-type expose of the looney fringe, the ‘heretics’ of rational prevailing wisdom; the deniers of schizophrenia (as an example of mental illness/difference), satanic cults (inc. false memory syndrome), climate change, the holocaust … and the believers in homeopathy, Christian creation, past live regression, alien abduction [etc.] However, that is only the start, Storr looks within himself to understand his own prejudices and failings, into the wiring of the human brain, and even the evolutionary significance of stories. His real mission becomes the causes that drive such extreme views, the nature of polarisation, and why sometimes it is the self-proclaimed rational and open-minded debunkers who can be more dogmatic and unprincipled in pursuing their beliefs. In Storr’s company we meet some fascinating extremists (on both sides, I’m not saying ‘right' and 'wrong’ deliberately), and find out a lot about how our own memories work and how we build and reinforce our subjective view of the world (confirmation bias). It would be fascinating to see this book updated with the recent schisms and shocks of Brexit/Remain and Covid/Anti-Vaxx.
(9/07/22)
Read 37/2022
Fun Home by Alison Bechdel (book group)
*includes spoilers* It’s a credit to the Chester (Storyhouse) book group that I’ve tried a new genre, this is my first graphic novel. It’s also a memoir, and a coming of age story, but, honestly, it wasn’t really my cup of tea. There are 2 main themes; Alison’s relationship with her father (and the impact of his untimely death), and her own search for her [gender] identity. Bruce Bechdel comes across as a mostly selfish, obsessive, and inconstant father. He runs the family funeral parlour - Fun House - but his passions seem to be renovating their large period house, sun bathing, old stuff, and young boys. Alison has father issues (of course she has), she is bookish, introverted, sometimes fractious, and her parents seem to be nightmares of parental neglect. All this makes her home life challenging, interesting, and unusual, but not all in bad ways. I found Alison's story somewhat trivialised by the comic book/graphic novel format, but that could just be me! I enjoyed the literary references, including the extended Ulysses/Joycean metaphor, which leads to a confused mutual understanding between father and daughter of their shared homosexuality. This is a very personal book that touches on some important topics, but I will be mostly going back to the written word.
(19/07/22)
Read 38/2022
A Perfect Spy by John le Carre (book group)
(31/07/22)
Read 39/2022
Blindsighted by Karin Slaughter
(31/07/22)
Read 40/2022
Happy-Go-Lucky by David Sedaris
This is my second Sedaris book, and I’m seen him twice in person (of which more later), and I feel like I’m beginning to ‘get’ his unique style and voice. And by the way, his voice is odd, high pitched, more New Yoik than North Carolina, and despite him not being Jewish, his schtick is pure Woody Allen. His live show is like his books, a mixture of memoir, observational comedy, and a few jokes, mostly garnered from people he meets on his talking and book-signing tours it appears. I was introduced to Sedaris by my daughter (Me Talk Pretty One Day), and saw him live in Toronto and Salford, separated by 4 months. He seems to be a workaholic and touring junkie, and it was fascinating to see his show evolving to include material from in progress to finished sections from this, his newest book. There are a few LOL moments, and timely and timeless observations about Covid, American politics, familial love, sexual abuse, gender politics, the nature of ageing and death as it affects adult children [etc.] That’s it, I think I’m now a Sedaris fan, probably, and am looking forward to catching up on his back catalogue.
(7/08/22)
Read 41/2022
The October Man by Ben Aaronovitch
(13/08/22)
Read 42/2022
The Churchill Factor by Boris Johnson
Once I forgot that Boris Johnson was the author I enjoyed this a lot more! In a series of linked mini essays, Johnson cleverly covers most of the key biographical details of Churchill’s fascinating life, in more or less chronological order, but it didn’t feel too bulky or fact-heavy. Johnson is obviously a ‘fan boy’, and isn’t always successful in presenting a balanced view of all Churchill’s actions, but challenges us to see him, warts and all, as the greatest Britain of all time. That’s endlessly debatable, but he definitely was the right man in the right place to lead Britain against Hitler and the Nazis and strive to bring America into the war. His flawed character (sometimes bullying, always egotistical) and boundless energy & drive would probably make it difficult to love and work with him, but in everything he seems to have acted with his own moral integrity, grit, and consistency. He really was a unique behemoth of geo-politics and social change, stretching from the Boer War to the the Cold War, the rise and fall of the British Empire (handing the baton over to the USA?), from the welfare state and emancipation to the birth of NATO and the EC/EU. He wasn’t just a much-decorated politician and peddler of brilliant quotes, but a hugely prolific writer, an artist, bricklayer, and soldier-reporter on 4 continents. If not the greatest Britain, then who else has been as influential?
(16/08/22)
Read 43/2022
Fleishman is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner (book group)
(28/08/22)
Read 44/2022
Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan
(29/08/22)
Read 45/2022
The Power of Geography by Tim Marshall (not registered)
As a sequel (companion?) to a hugely successful book, I guess Marshall had to look for a different angle. The Prisoners of Geography was more about how geography shaped certain countries and regions in the current world and local pressure points and perceptions … and of course he has had to pick different countries and regions, which could result in diminishing returns?
However, 4 years later this feels very current, considering climate changes, migration, and, in a post-Brexit, post-Pandemic world changing from the Cold War ‘bipolar’ to ‘multipolar’ power struggles. Countries such as Australia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia, and Iran become critical in the power games and aspirations of the US, China and Russia. That’s not to say he doesn’t look at rivers, seas, mountains, and trade routes. Each section starts with a potted history and then some analysis of how each chosen country (and the Sahel ‘shore’ region of Africa, and Space) fits into the current and future power dynamic. Fascinating and important stuff.
(31/08/22)
Read 46/2022
Calypso by David Sedaris (lib)
I seem to be reading about Sedaris’s life in reverse, relying on serendipity to present his memoirs to me. I’m now tuned into his style, the humour, storytelling, and irreverence. I also know more about his family constellation, his sisters, mother, father, partner (Hugh), and houses in West Sussex and coastal North Carolina (‘Sea Section’).
There is the growing obsession with his daily Fitbit steps, and lots of random anecdotes about his illnesses, travel/book-signing, and general grumpiness with the human race. He is essentially a really funny writer and speaker, with autobiography bolted-on. The book title is a possible name for a snapping turtle that David gets attached to, and wants to feed with an excised benign tumour. This will make no sense if you’ve not read any Sedaris before; if you have you will just nod your head knowingly ;)
(9/09/22)
Read 47/2022
Life of Pi by Yann Martel (new and old reviews)
(19/09/22)
Read 48/2022
Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart
(27/09/22)
Read 49/2022
Ark Angel by Anthony Horowitz
(1/10/22)
Read 50/2022
Walk the Lines by Mark Mason
(13/10/22)
Read 51/2022
The Water-Method Man by John Irving
(19/10/22)
Read 52/2022
Better Off Dead by Lee Child
(24/10/22)
Read 53/2022
The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
(29/10/22)
Read 54/2022
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (n/r)
This is a classic that I’ve wanted to read for a while, although I’m obviously not the target audience I really enjoyed it. The language and manners are of their time (set in 1861), but I liked the innocence, the genuine affection for the March girls and the friends and family that occupy their lives and day-to-day kitchen-sink dramas. I don’t know if this was originally serialised, but it probably helps with a younger readership (and me!) that each chapter/episode is manageable in a sitting, has an arc and a moral. I’m going to miss Meg, Jo, Beth & Amy, as the author says at the end, “Whether it ever rises again, depends upon the reception given to the first act of the domestic drama …” And yes, she wrote a 'part 2' and 2 sequels! I was a bit surprised how little the Civil War played in the story, other than a fairly low-key background, their father being away and then getting sick, but the girls - and the reader - are protected from the details.
As a postscript I had a look at Louisa May Alcott’s biography; she had a fascinating and unconventional life. She is obviously ‘Jo’, as the tomboy and book lover and 2nd of 4 girls, and she was a nurse during the war. However, she didn't seem to have the same joy and freedom growing up as the March girls had, which adds a certain wistfulness to the story and a nostalgia for the life she never had. She didn't marry.
(3/11/22)
Read 55/2022
I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh
(11/11/22)
Read 56/2022
Dadland by Keggie Carew (n/r)
(shortened book group review)
This is a deceptively rich and clever biography of Keggie’s father, the inimitable Thomas ‘Tom’ Carew, also variously called Arthur, Desmond, the ‘Lawrence of Burma’, and the mad Irishman! Keggie is attempting to fill in the gaps in Tom’s fascinating life while his memory and cognition is failing, but is also reconciling her own life experiences with her parents and the wider family. She uncovers a lot of details about his wartime experience and fame as part of an elite group of SOE agents, the ‘Jedburghs’, involved in the later stages of the war in France and then as part of Force 136 operations in Myanmar (then colonial Burma). He worked deep undercover engaging-with, training and equipping resistance forces against the Germans and Japanese, respectively. As well as these books-within-books Keggie also covers several generations of family history and influences on her parents, not least her mother Jane/Joan’s mental illness. In the process of writing [Tom’s] biography we also hear a little about Keggie’s life growing up, as you would expect, but her own demons are not fully resolved.
My only small complaint is the confusing timeline, particular some of the later events; Tom’s marriage to 'SM' (Stepmother), as a widower being supported by Keggie (with little help from her siblings it would seem?), and then his slide into dementia. That said, Keggie provides maps and a family tree, and a very assured guided tour through a lot of complex events, people, and places spanning over 100 years. She has gone on to write another personal memoir (Quicksand) and non-fiction book ‘Beastly’, and has inspired me to find out more about Burma/Myanmar.
(16/11/22)
Read 57/2022
The Girl With the Louding Voice by Abi Dare
(22/11/22)
Read 58/2022
Snakehead by Anthony Horowitz
(1/12/22)
Read 59/2022
The Talented Mr. Varg by Alexander McCall Smith (n/r)
See 1st in series, The Department of Sensitive Crimes
Not so much the ‘talented’ Mr. Varg, but the sensitive, slightly sad, and deeply empathetic [Mr..Varg], the head of the Sensitive Crimes Department as he tackles more crimes and non-crimes in the second book of the series (and a 3rd to look forward to). The real talent of course is McCall Smith, with his unerring ability to create joy, pathos, and endearing characters in his gentle and unique philosophising way. Picking out any one crime or theme is difficult with AMS books; purely in terms of word count, Varg’s investigation into the blackmail of the ‘Swedish Hemingway’ and the possible adultery of his partner Anna’s husband are the bigger storylines. But that’s not the full story, McCall Smith quietly builds up the warp and weft of the world he has createsd. Not least, we hear about Varg’s depressed dog, his hypochondriac partner Blonquist, his own unresolved grief and issues with relationships, motorbike gangs, car theft, the Orwellian Swedish police supplies ordering process etc. etc. Brilliant, more of the same please.
(8/12/22)
Read 60/2022
Northerners: A History by Brian Groom (library)
I mostly enjoyed this book, with some reservations, and enjoyed hearing the author speaking at the recent Chester LitFest. He gave us a summary of the book, his voice and slides added colour that was somewhat were missing in the book itself. With such a broad canvas and sweep of history and geography (of which more later), a few maps, timelines and pictures embedded in the text would have helped. The result, from a journalist, was sometimes a dry list of facts. Maybe Broom was unsure about adding anything imagined or made up - which of course most of history writing is!
That said it was fascinating to get a Northern perspective of events from pre-history to the C21st, especially, but not exhaustively; the ancient C1st Brigantia kingdom and their leader Cartimandua; the impact of hundreds of years of border raids with Scotland (‘reaving’); the separation of Lancashire in religion and politics etc. Groom tries to define the North and what it means to be a Northerner with limited success, suggesting that it is ultimately a ‘state of mind’ and a loose collection of behaviours and attitudes, irrespective of where one comes from or lives. This is problematic as it leans into the idea of the North as being somehow separate, inferior, and competitive with the South. Coincidentally the Romans divided the country into Britannia Inferior and Superior, named for the relative closeness to Rome, with the North managed from York. In fact York had strong claims over the years as being the capital of the UK until the inevitable(?) migration of power further South. Londinium had the advantages of more arable land, distance from Celtic and Viking raiders, and nearness to Northern France and Flanders, for example. This is not I suggest a conclusive argument, especially balanced against the industrial revolution and Mersey & Clyde [and Bristol] facing the New World markets. I like the idea of a North/South dividing line between the Humber (hence 'North(h)umbria') and the Mersey - one of many possible - which coincidentally leaves a big chunk of South Yorkshire and Cheshire in the south! As I say, lines on a map don't ultimately mean anything.
(13/12/22)
Read 61/2022
Snow Country by Sebastian Faulks
(25/12/22)
Read 62/2022
Deadeye Dick by Kurt Vonnegut
(26/12/22)
Read 63/2022
The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green
(7/01/22)
Read 1/2022
Skeleton Key by Anthony Horowitz
(12/01/22)
Read 2/2022
Paper Towns by John Green
(14/01/22)
Read 3/2022
What's The Point of Maths?
(15/01/22)
Read 4/2022
Smarter Than You Think by Clive Thompson (n/r)
Subtitle ‘How technology is changing our minds for the better’. Clive Thompson is a Canadian tech writer and ‘thinker’ (aren’t we all?) and has written a superior book on this difficult topic - jumping mid-flow into a rapidly changing technology and social landscape and making some sense of it. Although the book is nearly 10 years old it still works, although maybe not for long? For example, IBMs Watson AI software (a successor to Deep Blue), has been overtaken by agents like Alexa, Siri & Google. And obviously the whole shift to remote working has accelerated during the Covid pandemic. These 2 examples aside, Thompson very cleverly unpicks how we engage with technology and how it’s affecting and shaping our communication, memory, ways-of-working & collaborating, learning, playing, and developing [new] literacies. For example, rote learning giving way to better tools to search external memory, wider collaboration, and ambient awareness. I also like the fact that the new information age is seen as just one of a continuation of paradigm shifts that have caused hand-wringing from reactionaries in different eras (printing, telegraph, telephones etc.) By necessity we become different, adapting and evolving as humans have always done. It’s a fascinating topic.
(19/01/22)
Read 5/2022
Howards End by E.M.Forster (book group)
(24/01/22)
Read 6/2022
September 1, 1939 by Ian Sansom (lib)
This is a heady mix of; (1) biography (W H Auden hero worship); (2) personal memoir, with a big dose of self-deprecation and humble-bragging, and; (3) a primer for the famous eponymous poem. Sansom is more or less successful in these aspects, in descending order. I quite enjoyed the scholarly review of Auden’s oeuvre and a deeper-dive into nature of Wystan as a man, a poet, and an icon, and New York on the eve of WW2. However, I would have a liked a simpler straight review of the poem, maybe as an appendix! To understand the context at play here; Sansom has spent 25 years writing this book, so its a big thing for him, and he obviously feels unworthy, down-playing his skill and prowess as a writer a lot of times … it became a bit dull to be honest. However, there are enough sparks of humour to make me want to read his own fiction, but probably not to read more Auden. I’m probably not worthy ;)
(26/01/22)
Read 7/2022
Mostly Harmless by Douglas Adams (PC)
*includes spoilers* And so I have finished my anniversary re-reading of the 5-part trilogy (see below), and am slightly sad. I remembered some of this book, but forgot that in the end ‘everyone dies’, in that the Vogon’s conscientiously repeat their job to destroy earth, this time tidying up the multi-dimensional loose ends, I think!
The main arc of the book is getting Arthur, Tricia/Trillian and their daughter Random back to earth before the second and final destruction. There is also a sub-plot about the guide itself, again the Vogons are involved in the new sinister management, so I guess that Ford Prefect’s presence in the Beta club means that all records of [Mostly Harmless] Earth are similarly expunged. So I am sad if this is the case(!), but also for the untimely loss of Adams. I wouldn’t say that he was at the height of his powers, but H2G2 and Dirk Gently are too little to show of his genius. This book also saw the very abrupt loss of Fenchurch
Here is a great quote, which I have used, and now I know where it comes from! p138 “You live and learn. At any rate. You learn” A rootless Arthur is settled-in as the venerated Sandwich Maker on the planet Lamuella and then Trillian arrives with his unexpected surly and difficult teenage daughter Random. This lesson is about trusting children to the right thing when he’s trying to develop a relationship.
A more general note about the ‘trilogy’, and to repeat H2G2 is 42 years old in 2021! Yes, I have enjoyed the re-reading, in some respects they are timeless (Adams wit and humour), but they are aging a bit IMO, mostly because of pre-internet technology, but also the style of writing, not that comedy sci-fi is a big sub-genre. The 5 books feel a bit messy and disconnected in parts, I assume they weren’t planned as a series, but do require some prior knowledge to enjoy.
(02/02/22)
Read 8/2022
Farmacology by Daphne Miller (borrow)
I borrowed this from my DD, right up my street, pop science and medicine. I was a bit worried about the chatty memoir style, but Dr. Miller turns out to be a good writer and storyteller, engaging and informative without being either too technical or patronising. Broadly speaking, Dr. Miller explores links between farming, the food chain [US-centric], medical interventions, and our health & well-being. Each chapter looks at a particular element of farming (eggs, wine grapes, aromatics, mixed agricultural & animal pastures, and urban community farms etc.) and a case study on individual farms and eco-farmers, and sometimes a patient(s) of hers. It’s fascinating to hear her connect the dots between healthy management of soil and the overall ecosystem (biome?), and the way that feeds into our human flora and fauna. It all makes perfect sense, after all, ‘we are what we eat’ There is a little mis-step into crystal energies - maybe a subject for another book - but mostly fascinating. However, it’s cautionary to think about how scalable these models in the face of powerful farming and food supply industries, and consumers demands for cheap protein, sugary, fatty & processed food.
(06/02/22)
Read 9/2022
Light Perpetual by Francis Spufford (PC)
*Includes spoilers* I can’t believe how good a writer Spufford is, this is only his second novel, and so different in style and period from Golden Hill. It does reinforce the idea that a lot of [good] non-fiction writing requires similar creative skills. This book follows the premise that a V2 rocket in 1944 that killed dozens of people in South East London Woolworths (a real incident, but fictional location Bexford), did not happen, and 5 children in particular went on to live their lives. In a documentary-style the book drops-in on Ben, Alec, Vern, Jo & Val in 15 year chunks. This gives great scope to look at the breadth of experiences in 5 memoirs with the constant ever-changing London in the background. And what breadth! Some topics covered include; pop stardom, inter-racial marriage, Wapping strikes, teaching, opera, mental illness, racial hatred, anorexia, greed, gentrification, regret, unfulfilled potential etc. etc. Despite some heavy themes and apparent futility I found it quite a positive book and a quick read, probably because of the engaging characters and the pace and quality of the writing. In a more meta-physical sense the individuals are both the most important part of their own lives and unimportant transient beings of light (the title) and dust (the last 2 words).
(12/02/22)
Read 10/2022
Allegorizings by Jan Morris (lib)
This is a great little collection of Jan Morris’s random musings, thematically and loosely linked by allegory, ‘nothing is ever [only] what it is’ (I paraphrase). The book was posthumously published, Morris knew this would happen, which is reflected in the ‘pre-mortem’ and ‘pre-mortem’ parentheses and the rather wistful feel to a lot of the writing about her life & times, her travels (revisiting), philosophies, and thoughts about growing old and her own demise. There is some repetition of ideas, which I guess would be difficult to ‘edit out’ post-mortem, as it were, but it still works as a coherent work and tribute to Morris.
Ps. I particularly liked the Ulysses/Bloomsday article, “The most prolonged and affecting of literary allegories …”
(13/02/22)
Read 11/2022
Eagle Strike by Anthony Horowitz
(28/02/22)
Read 12/2022
How to Kill Your Family by Bell Mackie (n/r)
I caught this book on the way to the charity shop, a clear-out from my DD. I’m glad I did, it is a fun (I mean entertaining) book about familial murder! Our heroine Grace relates a lot of the story from a prison cell, for a crime she didn’t commit, not the 6 murders that she did. There’s some social commentary here about being rich, corrupt, and just plain unpleasant in the C21st century, including a bored socialite, a sexual deviant, and a vacuous social media influencer. There is an unexpected twist at the end, which takes the sheen of off [her] master plan to avenge her mother and punish her estranged father's family; but it doesn't entirely balance the moral scales. Mackie is a journalist but this is a very assured first novel.
(4/03/22)
Read 13/2022
Just Like You by Nick Hornby
(6/03/22)
Read 14/2022
James Joyce: A Beginner’s Guide by Frank Startup (lib)
This would have been very useful before I carried out my own Herculean task (or probably Odyssean quest?) to read Ulysses. As well as the little potted summaries of the sections, I also learnt some important things; (1) Joyce’s had his first date with future wife Nora Barnacle on 16th June 1904 (Bloomsday); (2) the 3 books featured here, Dubliners, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Ulysses are linked and should be read and understood as a whole, and (3) The ‘artist’ Stephen Daedalus is loosely autobiographical, and other characters are based on real people including Molly and Buck Mulligan. Useful insights for my re-reading!
Anyhoo, the first 1/2 of this was interesting about Joyce’s life, writing style, and primers for the books themselves; the second section was dry and showy about critical styles, reviews, biographies, and other aspects of the Joycean world.
(8/03/22)
Read 15/2022
Talking for Britain by Simon Elmes (n/r)
This is a rich and detailed analysis of English as it is spoken across the 4 home nations (e.g. Ulster Scots & Scots English rather than the Gaelic/‘Gallic’ indigenous languages), including recordings carried out by local BBC radio stations in 2004/5 [Voices Survey] and earlier vox-pop interviews and anecdotes. The author splits the UK into 12 sections, although by his admission he is only scratching the surface of the depth and variety of language that may change even within a few miles. Each chapter gives some geographical and socio-historical context, results from interviews, pronunciation notes, and a glossary of local terms. One of the underlying themes - in all areas - is how language develops and is evolving constantly, with some regrets about lost very localised rural and industrial communities (and concomitant language and dialects) up against the influences of mass-media and mobility, but recognition of the broader sweep of change. Of course the biggest problem with this book is that it is words on paper, most of the dialects and accents, however much they are rendered ‘phonetically’, need to be heard to be fully appreciated.
(15/03/22)
Read 16/2022
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark (book group/lib)
This was a perfect book group choice, in my opinion. It is short and relatively easy to read, very much ‘not’ something I would have picked up, and the catalyst for lots of conversation, debate and conjecture. The key themes (informal Q&A) were; (1) what is the book about, what is the author trying to say; (2) is Jean Brodie a monster, a flawed individual, an influential and charismatic teacher, or all of the above; (3) given the above and her manipulation and corruption(?) of the Brodie Set, would she survive in a modern teaching setting; (4) were the children damaged by her progressive/unique teaching style; and last but not least; (5) what is the ‘Prime’ [of life]?! I don’t think we came to any unanimous conclusions, except (3), ‘probably’, we would hope? We also talked about the weakness of the male characters, primarily the Art & Singing teachers (Teddy Lloyd and Lowther), and the lost love Hugh … and whether the latter even existing. Essentially we were undecided as to whether Brodie is a monstrous dictator (parallels with Mussolini and Hitler), a manipulative, but influential, teacher, a narcissist, or a rather sad unfulfilled figure. Phew, discuss!
Peaky Blinders: The True Story by Carl Chinn (n/r) - Did not finish
I thought I would read this as prep(!) for the last series of Peaky Blinders on the tellybox … I didn’t finish it, but instead am watching a TV adaptation of the book, narrated in part by the author and historian (really?) Carl Chinn. Carl is related to a Birmingham gang member, and seems to revel in this infamous connection in a breathless amateurish style, both written and in person.
The story jumps around between fact and fiction, and also over a 50/60 year period from mid C19th street-corner ‘slogging gangs’, to more organised criminal enterprises, and [I assume] in a straight-ish line to organised crime in the inter-war period and beyond. So, I found the writing style a bit annoying (not like Gangs of New York, for example), a bit too exploitative of the real people involved, primarily aimed at a salacious TV audience. I will pass on for someone else to try (not registered).
(15/03/22)
Read 17/2022
Die Last by Tony Parsons (n/r)
From the sublime (The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie) to something else. I’ve said it before, this is shaping up to be a really good series; gritty ‘real world’ crime and the underbelly of modern [London] society, but with the back stories of Max Wolfe, his family, and colleagues to add a bit or depth and continuity. In this 3rd novel there is human trafficking, Chinese triads, French migration camps, high-end prostitution (and low-end lap-dancing clubs), and care homes. We are reunited with retired 60’s gangster Paul Warlock(?) and his heirs. On the lighter side, there is a glimpse of a possible love life for the embattled Max; he needs a break from the all death, violence, and trauma in his work and life. And, long may it continue, at the time of writing there are 3 more novels and 2 novellas. Hurrah.
(31/03/22)
Read 18/2022
Big Sky by Kate Atkinson
(1/04/22)
Read 19/2022
The Shortest History of Europe by John Hirst (n/r)
This is a very clever book, adapted and extended from a series of lectures used by the author as an introduction to European history. It tries to understand and chart the same in terms of the Classic world (Greece and Rome learning), German warrior tribes, Religion (primarily Christian/Christendom), monarchs, various political and other significant mass-movements, such as [The] Reformation, Enlightenment. Renaissance, Agricultural & Industrial Revolutions, Romanticism, and Nationalism. By necessity this has to use broad brush strokes, the bigger entities (the Western European nations & empires), but still it covers a lot of time and ideas in under 200 pages. Fascinating and not too heavy, this sounds like a course I would have liked :)
(9/04/22)
Read 20/2022
Mad, Bad, Dangerous to know: The fathers of Wilde, Yeats and Joyce by Colm Toibin (lib)
I read the first 2 sections (Wilde & Yeats) before a holiday, so there was a 2 week gap before picking up the story of James Joyces’ father. That said, there are regular hints about JJ and his books earlier on, including the extended intro with Toibin wandering around Dublin pointing out real and fictional places and stories. I don’t know if the book title relates to each, or all, of the fathers Wilde, Yeats, and Joyce, but we get a strong sense of unusual parenting styles and larger-than-life characters, set in a slightly rarified Anglo-Irish middle-class artistic community. The third section is different, with John Stanislaus Joyce definitely a bad father in all senses of the word; a nasty drunk, feckless, and unable to support his wife and large family. He also suffers from having diarists as children, several of whom write about their upbringing and progressive slide. James Joyce seems like an unloved boy, but tries to reconcile his father - good and bad - in his semi-autobiographical works. As Simon Dedalus in Ulysses he is treated generously and becomes a somewhat ambiguous figure. On the whole I enjoyed these 3 portraits, although whether they should be in the same book, I’m not sure. Finally a quote from Joyce, ‘A father … is a necessary evil’.
(12/04/22)
Read 21/2022
Whatever Love Means by David Baddiel
(20/04/22)
Read 22/2022
The Awakening by Kate Chopin (book group)
*Includes spoilers*. Suffice to say, this is one of the more unlikely books that I would (have) read; I will go further, I would never have read this book if it wasn’t a book group choice! It’s small (116 pages), mannered and dated (written in 1899), and quite narrow in scope - but it still raises some interesting topics. The narrator is a very disaffected middle class wife of a New Orleans businessman, Edna Pontellier. She struggles will her role in life as secondary to her husband and children, as she says, she ‘…would give up the unessential, but she would never sacrifice herself for her children'. Some of this still resonates in the modern world, but more shocking in this era was her exploration of her own personhood and sensuality with 2 partners. Although somewhat chaste, her ‘affairs’ with Arobin and Robert, both younger men I think, would have caused shame and censure from society, friends & family. The ending surprised me, wither giving up essentials in her ultimate sacrifice?
In other themes to explore; is this a simple unrequited love story, or more(?); mental health (and the role of the family practitioner); support & collusion by her female friends, and; the prevailing racial and class differences in the deep south. Interesting as an oddity to me.
(2/05/22)
Read 23/2022
Moonflower Murders by Anthony Horowitz (n/r)
*includes spoilers* This was as complex, multi-layered, and satisfying as the Magpie Murders, and with 9 Atticus Pund books to deconstruct the series could run and run … but I’m jumping ahead of myself. As with MM this includes a book-within-a-book, ‘Atticus Pund Takes the Case’ but this time repackaged as a complete book. Set in the 1950’s in a quiet Devon seaside town, it involves the death of Hollywood star and hotelier (the Moonflower of the title) Melissa James and then her husband Francis Pendleton, all bought to life with a rich and suspicious cast of characters. Pund solves the ridiculously contrived murders; so good so far. In the present time Susan Ryeland, two years after MM, travels to Suffolk from her new life in Crete to investigate the disappearance of Cecily Traherne, manageress at the ‘real’ Branlow Hotel.
Why is Sarah involved? Well, here is where it gets really convoluted … the novel APTTC, edited by Sarah and written by [now dead] author Alan Conway, was thinly based on a brutal murder at Branlow (in the Moonflower wing) 8 years previously. There are lots of Easter Egg links between novel and 'real life’ individuals and events, and also clues to the real murderer. The wrong man was convicted, so the killer is loose to strike again, which of course he does. Yep, truly bonkers, but good fun. Both books finish with a Christie-like reveal, 2 for the price of one!
At the end Sarah returns to Crete, newly reconciled with the dashing life-saving Andreas, and provides a teaser for more sequels, hurrah.
(4/05/22)
Read 24/2022
The Great British Dream Factory by Dominic Sandbrook (n/r)
To give you some sense of the bulk, breadth, and variety of subjects in this book; it starts with Black Sabbath, Charles Dickens, J Arthur Rank, and Catherine Cookson, and the Victorian industrial giant that was Birmingham … and 500 pages later arrives at; Andrew Lloyd Webber, Margaret Thatcher, Elton John, Billy Elliot, Easington Colliery and the 1980’s miner’s strike. The somewhat tenuous set of links provide a fascinating personal almanac - if admittedly not a ‘definitive narrative history’ - of modern British culture. I’m trying to avoid lists of authors, artists, entrepreneurs and their works and influences, but it’s hard. To his credit Sandbrook has created a very readable book, but more as an almanac of stories rather than a single coherent thread. He cleverly provides signposts from post-colonial and post-industrial Britain, but also the impact of the world wars, and larger (socio-)political movements in which the ‘creatives’ operated.
Some of the obvious candidates are here; Harry Potter, the Beatles, James Bond, Dr. Who, and Coronation Street (oops a list!) but also mini essays on ours, and the world’s, obsessions with Edwardian Country Houses and Public Schools, and the early evolution of Science Fiction, Self-Help and teen-agers. There are many many more little gems and big ideas that I would hope to retain, but fear that there is just too much detail to fully absorb and summarise. You will have to take my word for it, fascinating stuff!
(17/05/22)
Read 25/2022
It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis (book group)
This is an oddity, thrown up by a book group, which I might not otherwise have found. Also, a new-to-me American author Sinclair Lewis who won the Nobel Prize for Literature before this book was published. The underlying message from Lewis is that it ‘can’ happen here, i.e. the rise of a nationalism (any dangerous ‘ism’) and a totalitarian state in the US. Written in 1935 due to fears about Hitler and Mussolini, the first part of the book tracks the somewhat farcical rise of ‘Buzz’ Windrip (who was compared with Trump in our book group?) to absolute power, as observed by the somewhat meek liberal and intellectual newspaper editor Doremus ‘Dormouse’ Jessup.
The second part of the book becomes more serious, a spiral of absolutist control and abuse that predicts some of the excesses of Fascism. We follow Doremus and his family as they are effected in different ways by the regime, including a scary insight into what might (did?) happen to the weak, bitter, and disenfranchised when given power, including lawyer Doremus's son Philip and Shad, their erstwhile family handyman/gardener. There are some echoes here of Orwell’s Animal Farm and 1984, but in a much longer and more realistic dystopian style. I don’t know how this was received at the time, maybe it checked the rise any Hitler apologists in America(?), but if not it still holds up today as a warning of extremism, nationalism, and personality politics.
(18/05/22)
Read 26/2022
My Name is Why by Leon Sissay (book group)
(review after book group meeting)
I was initially frustrated by the style of this book; reproductions of rediscovered reports, case reviews, and letters from Lemn Sissay's nearly 18 years in the care system; sparse commentary; and some of his poetry. It’s not a traditional memoir with the colour and detail that I would expect, but I think this deliberate to show the crushing black-and-white detail of the institutional process. Lemn - or Norman Green as he was known - was hardly ever consulted as a ward of the state (before the 1989 Children Act). Most of the adult ‘carers’ didn’t seem to care, but treated a young vulnerable, but relatively normal child, as an object to be processed by The Authority. He had some identity and behavioural problems, leading to depression, but these are the least that could be expected! The way he was removed from his birth mother and subsequently treated by his foster parents was shocking, and the slide into various degrees of abusive and inhuman homes and institutions in the system seemed inevitable. It is credit to Lemn that he managed to escape, forged an identity, and positive place in society, let alone become successful. However, [he] is left with residual bitterness about his treatment, and later rejection by his mother; so I was told about a follow-up TV documentary. Hopefully things are better now, but the feeling amongst the reading group was that similar problems may still be happening under our noses in a society that is struggling to cope and look after its most vulnerable members.
(23/05/22)
Read 27/2022
Scorpia (Alex Rider #5) by Anthony Horowitz
(29/05/22)
Read 28/2022
Mrs. Hemingway by Naomi Wood
(30/05/22)
Read 29/2022
What's the Point of Science - Art Director Joe Lawrence*
(7/06/22)
Read 30/2022
Red Plenty by Francis Spufford (n/r)
As expected, this is an excellent book - Spufford can do no wrong in my eyes! I really enjoyed the mixture of fact and fiction [fictionalised] that gave more depth and humanity to what could otherwise be a dry history of the Soviet planned economy in the 1950’s & 60’s. The slightly surreal and tragi-comic aspects of the story reminded me of the ’The Death of Stalin’ film, especially the political aspirations, naive ideology, and bumbling management of Khrushchev ‘Mr K’ as her tries to surpass the West and the USA with bounteous Red Plenty. Towards the end of the book Khrushchev is portrayed as a rather sad figure, unusually a living ex-premier in reduced cicrcumstances with no role other than to wistfully look back on his mistakes. The scope of this book is as big and messy (deliberately?) as the USSR/Russia itself; despite the handy little key I struggled sometimes with the names of all the scientists, engineers, mathematicians & cybernetics experts (early computers use to model the economy in the absence of prices driven by a ‘normal’ supply and demand market), black marketeers, farmers, students, politicians, and other apparatus of the hideously complicated and seemingly perverse state machine.
An interesting footnote, Spufford finished writing the book at the St. Deiniol’s/Gladstone library in Hawarden, Flintshire, near me in Chester.
(9/06/22)
Read 31/2022
Knife Edge by Simon Mayo
(14/06/22)
Read 32/2022
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (book group/lib)
I wanted to enjoy this more than I did; maybe it is just too alien and jarring compared to my normal Western reading material? Achebe wrote this seminal book in 1958 with an authentic African voice and perspective, based on his fictionalised Nigerian clan. He tells a rich story about the famed Okonkwo, starting in successful middle-age, and following his fall in parallel with the arrival of Western [British] missionaries and ‘civilising’ institutions and ideas circa late C19th/early C20th. He is not a very likeable character, driven by the memories of his feckless and lazy father, and the need to be strong, which makes him unforgiving and cruel with his family.
The book is in 3 uneven parts. The longer 1st section goes into a lot of detail about the family and village, its food, rituals, mythology, relationships, and the general ebb-and-flow of daily life, probably not too dissimilar to any pre-industrial pagan society - if you squint slightly sideways! Then there is 7 year exile of Okonkwo, his wives and children, for an accidental(?) killing - maybe some atonement for a familicide that he was involved in - and then his return to his village [now] under the disrupting influence of the District Commissioner and Anglican Church. As mentioned in the introduction to my copy, Achebe finds himself at a ‘crossroads’ between these cultures, which makes some of the book semi-autobiographical. There are regrets for a lost way of life, however backward, superstitious, and patriarchal it appears to our eyes, which again is common to other cultures, to have a rose-tinted view of a lost simpler pastoral idyll.
I’m sure the reading group will have a lot to say about this, not least how our hero is damaged as a boy, and how this affects his expectations of his oldest son specifically, and intolerance generally, except the touching relationship with his oldest daughter.
(20/06/22)
Read 33/2022
The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work by Alain de Botton (n/r)
I’ve read a few of Alain de Botton’s books and have always found them interesting, albeit with a somewhat flowery language and unique investigative/memoir/analytical style. This book tries to understand ‘why’ we work in the [post-] modern world by looking at a number of industries, professions, and individuals in some detail. For example the worldwide aviation industry, a large accountancy firm, logistics, entrepreneurs, and career guidance. By this route he exposes some more general themes, such as; the increasing specialism but also detachment from the means of production; what it means to be fulfilled or content in work (keeping busy); the futility of an individual’s time, effort, and career span; the inequities across different sectors and roles. This all sounds a bit heavy, but it is not in itself a depressing book … definitely thought-provoking. I quote, “If we could witness the eventual fate of every one of our projects, we would have no choice but to succumb to immediate paralysis.”(!)
(25/06/22)
Read 34/2022
Here We Are by Graham Swift (n/r)
*includes spoilers* This is a small - almost novella sized - gentle study of the human condition, relationships, careers & fulfilment, parental expectation, love and the absence of love. The story follows the careers of magician Ronnie ‘Pablo’ Dean, his friend and all round entertainer Jack ‘Robinson’ Robbins, and a menage-a-trois with Evie/‘Eve’ in Brighton end-of-the-pier theatreland in 1959 (and episodes before and after). Evie becomes Ronnie’s assistant, and eventually Jack’s wife. But, more important, is the effect of Ronnie’s upbringing, his absent father, estrangement from his mother, and idyllic wartime evacuation with Eric & Penny Lawrence; the former is Ronnie's mentor. Jack and Evie’s tiger mothers also provide a counterpoint to Agnes Dean’s lack of support.
I don’t think I fully understand the title 'Here we are’, as said by Penny Lawrence, a domestic phrase turned metaphysical? Last but not least, the Parrot on the lovely cover art relates to a key episode between Ronnie and his parents, and becomes part of a big final illusion. This is an understated, clever, and enigmatic read from one of my favourite authors.
(30/06/22)
Read 35/2022
Holes by Louis Sachar
(9/07/22)
Read 36/2022
The Heretics: Adventures With the Enemies of Science by Will Storr (n/r)
This is one of the best non-fiction books I’ve ever read. I had assumed that it would be a Louis Theroux-type expose of the looney fringe, the ‘heretics’ of rational prevailing wisdom; the deniers of schizophrenia (as an example of mental illness/difference), satanic cults (inc. false memory syndrome), climate change, the holocaust … and the believers in homeopathy, Christian creation, past live regression, alien abduction [etc.] However, that is only the start, Storr looks within himself to understand his own prejudices and failings, into the wiring of the human brain, and even the evolutionary significance of stories. His real mission becomes the causes that drive such extreme views, the nature of polarisation, and why sometimes it is the self-proclaimed rational and open-minded debunkers who can be more dogmatic and unprincipled in pursuing their beliefs. In Storr’s company we meet some fascinating extremists (on both sides, I’m not saying ‘right' and 'wrong’ deliberately), and find out a lot about how our own memories work and how we build and reinforce our subjective view of the world (confirmation bias). It would be fascinating to see this book updated with the recent schisms and shocks of Brexit/Remain and Covid/Anti-Vaxx.
(9/07/22)
Read 37/2022
Fun Home by Alison Bechdel (book group)
*includes spoilers* It’s a credit to the Chester (Storyhouse) book group that I’ve tried a new genre, this is my first graphic novel. It’s also a memoir, and a coming of age story, but, honestly, it wasn’t really my cup of tea. There are 2 main themes; Alison’s relationship with her father (and the impact of his untimely death), and her own search for her [gender] identity. Bruce Bechdel comes across as a mostly selfish, obsessive, and inconstant father. He runs the family funeral parlour - Fun House - but his passions seem to be renovating their large period house, sun bathing, old stuff, and young boys. Alison has father issues (of course she has), she is bookish, introverted, sometimes fractious, and her parents seem to be nightmares of parental neglect. All this makes her home life challenging, interesting, and unusual, but not all in bad ways. I found Alison's story somewhat trivialised by the comic book/graphic novel format, but that could just be me! I enjoyed the literary references, including the extended Ulysses/Joycean metaphor, which leads to a confused mutual understanding between father and daughter of their shared homosexuality. This is a very personal book that touches on some important topics, but I will be mostly going back to the written word.
(19/07/22)
Read 38/2022
A Perfect Spy by John le Carre (book group)
(31/07/22)
Read 39/2022
Blindsighted by Karin Slaughter
(31/07/22)
Read 40/2022
Happy-Go-Lucky by David Sedaris
This is my second Sedaris book, and I’m seen him twice in person (of which more later), and I feel like I’m beginning to ‘get’ his unique style and voice. And by the way, his voice is odd, high pitched, more New Yoik than North Carolina, and despite him not being Jewish, his schtick is pure Woody Allen. His live show is like his books, a mixture of memoir, observational comedy, and a few jokes, mostly garnered from people he meets on his talking and book-signing tours it appears. I was introduced to Sedaris by my daughter (Me Talk Pretty One Day), and saw him live in Toronto and Salford, separated by 4 months. He seems to be a workaholic and touring junkie, and it was fascinating to see his show evolving to include material from in progress to finished sections from this, his newest book. There are a few LOL moments, and timely and timeless observations about Covid, American politics, familial love, sexual abuse, gender politics, the nature of ageing and death as it affects adult children [etc.] That’s it, I think I’m now a Sedaris fan, probably, and am looking forward to catching up on his back catalogue.
(7/08/22)
Read 41/2022
The October Man by Ben Aaronovitch
(13/08/22)
Read 42/2022
The Churchill Factor by Boris Johnson
Once I forgot that Boris Johnson was the author I enjoyed this a lot more! In a series of linked mini essays, Johnson cleverly covers most of the key biographical details of Churchill’s fascinating life, in more or less chronological order, but it didn’t feel too bulky or fact-heavy. Johnson is obviously a ‘fan boy’, and isn’t always successful in presenting a balanced view of all Churchill’s actions, but challenges us to see him, warts and all, as the greatest Britain of all time. That’s endlessly debatable, but he definitely was the right man in the right place to lead Britain against Hitler and the Nazis and strive to bring America into the war. His flawed character (sometimes bullying, always egotistical) and boundless energy & drive would probably make it difficult to love and work with him, but in everything he seems to have acted with his own moral integrity, grit, and consistency. He really was a unique behemoth of geo-politics and social change, stretching from the Boer War to the the Cold War, the rise and fall of the British Empire (handing the baton over to the USA?), from the welfare state and emancipation to the birth of NATO and the EC/EU. He wasn’t just a much-decorated politician and peddler of brilliant quotes, but a hugely prolific writer, an artist, bricklayer, and soldier-reporter on 4 continents. If not the greatest Britain, then who else has been as influential?
(16/08/22)
Read 43/2022
Fleishman is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner (book group)
(28/08/22)
Read 44/2022
Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan
(29/08/22)
Read 45/2022
The Power of Geography by Tim Marshall (not registered)
As a sequel (companion?) to a hugely successful book, I guess Marshall had to look for a different angle. The Prisoners of Geography was more about how geography shaped certain countries and regions in the current world and local pressure points and perceptions … and of course he has had to pick different countries and regions, which could result in diminishing returns?
However, 4 years later this feels very current, considering climate changes, migration, and, in a post-Brexit, post-Pandemic world changing from the Cold War ‘bipolar’ to ‘multipolar’ power struggles. Countries such as Australia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia, and Iran become critical in the power games and aspirations of the US, China and Russia. That’s not to say he doesn’t look at rivers, seas, mountains, and trade routes. Each section starts with a potted history and then some analysis of how each chosen country (and the Sahel ‘shore’ region of Africa, and Space) fits into the current and future power dynamic. Fascinating and important stuff.
(31/08/22)
Read 46/2022
Calypso by David Sedaris (lib)
I seem to be reading about Sedaris’s life in reverse, relying on serendipity to present his memoirs to me. I’m now tuned into his style, the humour, storytelling, and irreverence. I also know more about his family constellation, his sisters, mother, father, partner (Hugh), and houses in West Sussex and coastal North Carolina (‘Sea Section’).
There is the growing obsession with his daily Fitbit steps, and lots of random anecdotes about his illnesses, travel/book-signing, and general grumpiness with the human race. He is essentially a really funny writer and speaker, with autobiography bolted-on. The book title is a possible name for a snapping turtle that David gets attached to, and wants to feed with an excised benign tumour. This will make no sense if you’ve not read any Sedaris before; if you have you will just nod your head knowingly ;)
(9/09/22)
Read 47/2022
Life of Pi by Yann Martel (new and old reviews)
(19/09/22)
Read 48/2022
Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart
(27/09/22)
Read 49/2022
Ark Angel by Anthony Horowitz
(1/10/22)
Read 50/2022
Walk the Lines by Mark Mason
(13/10/22)
Read 51/2022
The Water-Method Man by John Irving
(19/10/22)
Read 52/2022
Better Off Dead by Lee Child
(24/10/22)
Read 53/2022
The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
(29/10/22)
Read 54/2022
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (n/r)
This is a classic that I’ve wanted to read for a while, although I’m obviously not the target audience I really enjoyed it. The language and manners are of their time (set in 1861), but I liked the innocence, the genuine affection for the March girls and the friends and family that occupy their lives and day-to-day kitchen-sink dramas. I don’t know if this was originally serialised, but it probably helps with a younger readership (and me!) that each chapter/episode is manageable in a sitting, has an arc and a moral. I’m going to miss Meg, Jo, Beth & Amy, as the author says at the end, “Whether it ever rises again, depends upon the reception given to the first act of the domestic drama …” And yes, she wrote a 'part 2' and 2 sequels! I was a bit surprised how little the Civil War played in the story, other than a fairly low-key background, their father being away and then getting sick, but the girls - and the reader - are protected from the details.
As a postscript I had a look at Louisa May Alcott’s biography; she had a fascinating and unconventional life. She is obviously ‘Jo’, as the tomboy and book lover and 2nd of 4 girls, and she was a nurse during the war. However, she didn't seem to have the same joy and freedom growing up as the March girls had, which adds a certain wistfulness to the story and a nostalgia for the life she never had. She didn't marry.
(3/11/22)
Read 55/2022
I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh
(11/11/22)
Read 56/2022
Dadland by Keggie Carew (n/r)
(shortened book group review)
This is a deceptively rich and clever biography of Keggie’s father, the inimitable Thomas ‘Tom’ Carew, also variously called Arthur, Desmond, the ‘Lawrence of Burma’, and the mad Irishman! Keggie is attempting to fill in the gaps in Tom’s fascinating life while his memory and cognition is failing, but is also reconciling her own life experiences with her parents and the wider family. She uncovers a lot of details about his wartime experience and fame as part of an elite group of SOE agents, the ‘Jedburghs’, involved in the later stages of the war in France and then as part of Force 136 operations in Myanmar (then colonial Burma). He worked deep undercover engaging-with, training and equipping resistance forces against the Germans and Japanese, respectively. As well as these books-within-books Keggie also covers several generations of family history and influences on her parents, not least her mother Jane/Joan’s mental illness. In the process of writing [Tom’s] biography we also hear a little about Keggie’s life growing up, as you would expect, but her own demons are not fully resolved.
My only small complaint is the confusing timeline, particular some of the later events; Tom’s marriage to 'SM' (Stepmother), as a widower being supported by Keggie (with little help from her siblings it would seem?), and then his slide into dementia. That said, Keggie provides maps and a family tree, and a very assured guided tour through a lot of complex events, people, and places spanning over 100 years. She has gone on to write another personal memoir (Quicksand) and non-fiction book ‘Beastly’, and has inspired me to find out more about Burma/Myanmar.
(16/11/22)
Read 57/2022
The Girl With the Louding Voice by Abi Dare
(22/11/22)
Read 58/2022
Snakehead by Anthony Horowitz
(1/12/22)
Read 59/2022
The Talented Mr. Varg by Alexander McCall Smith (n/r)
See 1st in series, The Department of Sensitive Crimes
Not so much the ‘talented’ Mr. Varg, but the sensitive, slightly sad, and deeply empathetic [Mr..Varg], the head of the Sensitive Crimes Department as he tackles more crimes and non-crimes in the second book of the series (and a 3rd to look forward to). The real talent of course is McCall Smith, with his unerring ability to create joy, pathos, and endearing characters in his gentle and unique philosophising way. Picking out any one crime or theme is difficult with AMS books; purely in terms of word count, Varg’s investigation into the blackmail of the ‘Swedish Hemingway’ and the possible adultery of his partner Anna’s husband are the bigger storylines. But that’s not the full story, McCall Smith quietly builds up the warp and weft of the world he has createsd. Not least, we hear about Varg’s depressed dog, his hypochondriac partner Blonquist, his own unresolved grief and issues with relationships, motorbike gangs, car theft, the Orwellian Swedish police supplies ordering process etc. etc. Brilliant, more of the same please.
(8/12/22)
Read 60/2022
Northerners: A History by Brian Groom (library)
I mostly enjoyed this book, with some reservations, and enjoyed hearing the author speaking at the recent Chester LitFest. He gave us a summary of the book, his voice and slides added colour that was somewhat were missing in the book itself. With such a broad canvas and sweep of history and geography (of which more later), a few maps, timelines and pictures embedded in the text would have helped. The result, from a journalist, was sometimes a dry list of facts. Maybe Broom was unsure about adding anything imagined or made up - which of course most of history writing is!
That said it was fascinating to get a Northern perspective of events from pre-history to the C21st, especially, but not exhaustively; the ancient C1st Brigantia kingdom and their leader Cartimandua; the impact of hundreds of years of border raids with Scotland (‘reaving’); the separation of Lancashire in religion and politics etc. Groom tries to define the North and what it means to be a Northerner with limited success, suggesting that it is ultimately a ‘state of mind’ and a loose collection of behaviours and attitudes, irrespective of where one comes from or lives. This is problematic as it leans into the idea of the North as being somehow separate, inferior, and competitive with the South. Coincidentally the Romans divided the country into Britannia Inferior and Superior, named for the relative closeness to Rome, with the North managed from York. In fact York had strong claims over the years as being the capital of the UK until the inevitable(?) migration of power further South. Londinium had the advantages of more arable land, distance from Celtic and Viking raiders, and nearness to Northern France and Flanders, for example. This is not I suggest a conclusive argument, especially balanced against the industrial revolution and Mersey & Clyde [and Bristol] facing the New World markets. I like the idea of a North/South dividing line between the Humber (hence 'North(h)umbria') and the Mersey - one of many possible - which coincidentally leaves a big chunk of South Yorkshire and Cheshire in the south! As I say, lines on a map don't ultimately mean anything.
(13/12/22)
Read 61/2022
Snow Country by Sebastian Faulks
(25/12/22)
Read 62/2022
Deadeye Dick by Kurt Vonnegut
(26/12/22)
Read 63/2022
The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green
To-be-read, new, and wishlists
Moonflower Murders by Anthony Horowitz (sequel to Magpie Murders)
Die Last by Tony Parsons
Light Perpetual by Francis Spufford
Wish list #1 (paperback/any)
Sell Us the Rope by Stephen May
The Cockroach by Ian McEwan
Setting Free the Bears by John Irving
Kisscut by Karin Slaughter (Grant County #2)
The Death of Eli Gold by David Baddiel
The October Man by Ben Aaronovitch
The Three Body Problem by Liu Cixin
The Dubliners by James Joyce (to re-read and keep)
Identity Crisis by Ben Elton
Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall (read before but I want to dip in again)
Red Plenty by Francis Spufford
Erebus by Michael Palin
My Name is Why by Lemn Sissay
The Cousins' Wars by Kevin Phillips
Wishlist #2 (Hardback collection - 1st Ed.)
With a Mind To Kill by Anthony Horowitz (new Bond)
And Another Thing by Eoin Colfer (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eoin_Colfer)
A Line to Kill by Anthony Horowitz
Here We Are by Graham Swift
Die Last by Tony Parsons
Light Perpetual by Francis Spufford
Wish list #1 (paperback/any)
The Cockroach by Ian McEwan
Setting Free the Bears by John Irving
Kisscut by Karin Slaughter (Grant County #2)
The Death of Eli Gold by David Baddiel
The October Man by Ben Aaronovitch
The Three Body Problem by Liu Cixin
The Dubliners by James Joyce (to re-read and keep)
Identity Crisis by Ben Elton
Red Plenty by Francis Spufford
Erebus by Michael Palin
My Name is Why by Lemn Sissay
The Cousins' Wars by Kevin Phillips
Wishlist #2 (Hardback collection - 1st Ed.)
And Another Thing by Eoin Colfer (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eoin_Colfer)
A Line to Kill by Anthony Horowitz
Here We Are by Graham Swift
Storyhouse Book Club - 2022 list
19/1/22: Howards End, E M Forster (20th Century)
16/2/22: Where the Crawdads Sing, Delia Owens (American Novels)
16/3/22: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Muriel Spark (Books)
20/4/22: The Awakening, Kate Chopin (19th Century)
18/5/22: My Name is Why, Lemn Sissay (Autobiography)
15/6/22: Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe (post-war/C20th?)
20/7/22: Fun Home, Alison Bechdel (Graphic Novel) / Holes, Louis Sachar (Children’s Literature)
17/8/22: The Secret History, Donna Tartt (21st Century)
21/9/22: Shuggie Bain, Douglas Stuart (Prize Winners)
19/10/22: The Mermaid of Black Conch, Monique Roffey (Sci-Fi, Fantasy)*away*
16/11/22: The Girl with the Louding Voice, Abi Daré (World Books)
14/12/22: Snow Country, Sebastian Faulks (Last 12 Months)
16/2/22: Where the Crawdads Sing, Delia Owens (American Novels)
16/3/22: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Muriel Spark (Books)
20/4/22: The Awakening, Kate Chopin (19th Century)
18/5/22: My Name is Why, Lemn Sissay (Autobiography)
15/6/22: Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe (post-war/C20th?)
20/7/22: Fun Home, Alison Bechdel (Graphic Novel) / Holes, Louis Sachar (Children’s Literature)
17/8/22: The Secret History, Donna Tartt (21st Century)
21/9/22: Shuggie Bain, Douglas Stuart (Prize Winners)
19/10/22: The Mermaid of Black Conch, Monique Roffey (Sci-Fi, Fantasy)
14/12/22: Snow Country, Sebastian Faulks (Last 12 Months)
Flintshire U3A Book Group #1
March'22 - The Tide Between Us by Olive Collins (not read)
27/04/22 - Educated by Tara Westover (not read)
18/05/22 - It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis
15/06/22 - Will She Do by Eileen Atkins (not read)
20/07/22 - A Perfect Spy by John Le Carre (Bob)
17/08/22 - Fleishman Is In Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner (me)
21/09/22 - The Life of Pi by Yann Martel (Elen)
19/10/22 - The Casual Vacancy by J K Rowling (Yvon) *away*
16/11/22 & 11/12/22 - Dadland by Keggie Carew (Bob)
21/12/22 - The Fault in Our Stars by John Green (me) *cancelled - deferred to 2023*
27/04/22 - Educated by Tara Westover (not read)
18/05/22 - It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis
15/06/22 - Will She Do by Eileen Atkins (not read)
20/07/22 - A Perfect Spy by John Le Carre (Bob)
17/08/22 - Fleishman Is In Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner (me)
21/09/22 - The Life of Pi by Yann Martel (Elen)
19/10/22 - The Casual Vacancy by J K Rowling (Yvon)
