bookswelike

bwl 19 - June 2003

Fiction

Beryl Bainbridge - The Truth About Queeney

In 1765 Samuel Johnson falls in love with Mrs Thrale (the wife of his benefactor). By this time he was famous and much revered. He was also observed by 'Queeney' daughter of Thrale as she grew up until Johnson's death in 1784. Written in a style sympathetic to the times and with remarkable economy, it has a convincing authority of touch. I had to read it twice to get the full benefit of this extraordinary book. (James Baker)

Pat Barker - Regeneration

Regeneration is the first book in the author's trilogy about WW 1, the others being The Eye in the Door and Ghost Road, all exceptionally forceful novels. It's a reconstruction of the effects of shell shock, amongst other things, based on the well-documented historical facts of Siegfried Sassoon's relationship with his psychiatrist, W Rivers, in 1916 in Scotland. The only fictional character being Billy Prior, the hero of the second two books. Although daunting for the impressionable, this trilogy is a brilliant evocation of an event which never ceases to fascinate. (Kathie Somerwil Ayrton)

Bo Caldwell - The Distant Land of my Father

This is an American writer. It is a story of life in Shanghai during the 30s/40s and after. It is told by a daughter after her Father dies and she pieces together his strange life. (Julia Garbett)

Sandra Dallas - The Persian Pickle Club

This is a little gem of a book. It is set in the 1930s in Kansas, where the crops are burning up and times are very hard. The Persian Pickle Club is a group of eccentric quilters with strong bonds of friendship for each other which survive a nasty murder. What is the Persian Pickle? You have to read the book or be a quilter to know! (Sandra Lee)

Jeffrey Deaver - The Vanished Man

The fourth novel featuring detective Lincoln Rhyme. Full of forensic detail - and everything you might want to know about conjuring. Rhyme and his team are pitted against a magician seeking revenge. There are blind-alleys, misdirection and surprises throughout with the usual completely unexpected twist at the end. Like Holmes, Rhyme, a quadriplegic, solves his mysteries using his mind (helped by modern technology). I love the detail and nail-biting excitement. Polished, no - but gripping. (Ferelith Hordon)

Neil Gaiman - American Gods

A war is about to start - a war between the 'old' gods, those brought to America in the minds of immigrants from the earliest times, and the 'new' gods of technology. Caught up in this war is Shadow, an ex-con and everyman. This is a big fantasy but Gaiman's world is uncompromisingly contemporary. The fantasy springs from the myths and beliefs that are woven into society. Tough, gritty, full of ideas and absorbing. (Ferelith Hordon)

Sue Gee - Thin Air

William Harriman, retired, lives a comfortable if lonely existence in his Dulwich house. He runs an antique stall with Buffy, his late wife's best friend, and struggles to understand his prickly daughter and help his schizophrenic son. Then Janice Harper arrives as his lodger sent to get a life from Shropshire by his eccentric cousins who run a down-at-heel dog sanctuary and museum. She is the catalyst for change. An engrossing and thought provoking book. (Jenny Baker)

Mark Haddon - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

This is an extraordinary insight into the sometimes comic, more often bleak and frightening world of a 15 year-old boy with Asperger's. He hates anything yellow or brown or being touched; loves lists and patterns; is good at maths and cannot lie; other humans are a mystery. His story begins when he finds a neighbour's dog murdered and sets out - with his pet rat - on a journey which will irrevocably change his life. (Jenny Baker)

Julia Hamilton - A Pillar of Society

A marvelous read, meaty with considerations of the various realities of life when it comes to human relationships; poetic and sensitive, with round characters who constantly surprise. Hamilton is full of worldly wisdom giving food for thought without being too weighty about it. It is set in a privileged milieu but one that the reader can relate to. Highly recommended for vacation and travel. (Kathie Somerwil Ayrton)

Julia Hamilton - After Julia and Forbidden Fruits

Two other suggestions for holiday reading. After Julia is again very analytical and understanding of the darker side of the human emotional drive. Alas Forbidden Fruits is much more superficial, a bit wooden and contrived and although clever seems to lack inspiration. However, as Hamilton cannot write badly, it is not bad entertainment and will while away the hours of perhaps a long train, plane or coach journey! (Kathie Somerwil Ayrton)

William Horwood - Skallagrigg

Who or what is the Skallagrigg? What significance does the name have for Eddie abandoned in the twenties in a grim hospital, for Esther, a girl with cerebral palsy growing up in the seventies and for the narrator, an American computer-games genius? This book takes you on a journey of emotional and psychological discovery as the truth behind the myth is gradually revealed. (Jenny Baker)

Siri Hustvedt - What I Loved

Siri Hustvedt's book is not a happy one. As we follow the lives of two friends, Leo 'the art historian' and Bill 'the painter', and that of their wives - two for Bill, one for Leo - we experience the many ups and terrible downs of life. We see how easily the course of someone's life can be altered for ever simply because of what happens to someone you love. It's very unsettling but gripping. (Laurence Martin Euler)

Penelope Lively - According to Mark

This novel will appeal - especially at the holiday season - to many readers, certainly to those with literary, critical tastes as well as to those who just like a good read. Written with great insight into the human condition, the love interest is especially intelligent, subtle and certainly 'unusual'. Lively's analytically amused and astringent view of her fellow creatures is a must. (Kathie Somerwil Ayrton)

Penelope Lively - Spiderweb

Stella, an anthropologist, has just retired after many years conducting research in distant primitive communities. She settles down in a small West Country (UK) village. How she finds her new environment compares with the communities in which she has lived before and the situation of a female anthropologist at work 'in the field' are just two of the themes the author develops in what I found to be a fascinating story. (Jeremy Swann)

Jamie O'Neill - At Swim, Two Boys

Ireland, 1915. Against the backdrop of war, sixteen-year-old 'heart's pals' Jim and Doyler make a pact to swim to a distant rock the following Easter, to plant the national flag. In the meantime, their search for life, loyalty and love (illuminatingly, for ignorant heterosexuals) involves political struggle, the Church, poverty...Been-there-done-that? But with his roots deep in Ireland's literary traditions O'Neill develops a voice of his own, a kind of tough poetry, to tell this moving story. (Annabel Bedini)

Kathy Reichs - Grave Secrets

Temperance Brennan, a forensic anthropologist, is in Guatemala identifying the remains of victims of a 20 year old political massacre. She is pulled off this project to assist the local police when a body is found in a motel septic tank: four teenage girls have disappeared, one being the Canadian ambassador's daughter. Crisscrossing plot lines, a well paced story set in Guatemala and Quebec, strong characters, a hint of romance - all made for great beach-reading. (Siobhan Thomson)

Peter Robinson - In a Dry Season

An ingenious thriller. A hot summer dries out an artificial lake which swallowed up a Yorkshire village. The remains of a murdered woman are discovered under the ruins of an outhouse. The police are called in and the story is told by the inspector investigating and the sister of the victim, the latter with vivid descriptions of London after the Blitz and life in wartime England. (Jeremy Swann)

Alice Sebold - The Lovely Bones

From her gazebo in a very un-celestial heaven, murdered teenager Susie Salmon watches and frets over her family and friends as they reel under the shock of her death. Can her parents' marriage survive? How will her sister and little brother cope? Will her friends learn to live without her? Underlying everything, will her killer ever be discovered and caught? Life, death, forgiveness, vengeance, memory and forgetting all are encompassed in this truly remarkable novel. (Jenny Baker)

Donna Tartt - The Little Friend

In a Mississippi small town, Harriet, bossy and bull-headed, aided by her devoted playmate Hely, undertakes to solve and avenge the murder of her nine-year-old brother which happened 12 years ago. Unlike Tartt's first novel, The Secret History, this one concentrates more on depth of character and atmosphere than it does on plot. Its rich, unhurried prose makes one forget that nothing much has happened for ages and when something does, it's suspenseful and credible. (Siobhan Thomson)

Non-fiction

Helen Forester - Two Pennies to Cross the Mersey

The author, her 'public school' parents and six siblings came to Liverpool in mid-depression to escape her father's bankruptcy, only to be trapped in the extreme poverty of England's then second worst city. This book and her others, Liverpool Miss and Lime Street at Two, give a vivid idea of the lower classes' struggles before Social Security and National Health. Written with dry humour, insight and compassion - occasionally needing a pinch of salt - they are worthwhile books by a courageous woman. (Kathie Somerwil Ayrton)

Sean Hamil (editor with others) - The Changing Face of the Football Business

A collection of conference papers that goes some way to answering the question: "What happened to the beautiful game?". Money, egos and big business took the faithful supporter - a consumer locked-in by loyalty to a dubious and exploitative product - for granted. But a glimmer of hope emerges with the rise of supporter run clubs where members act together and exercise collective shareholder influence. If Wimbledon FC had only read this a year ago..... (Clive Yelf)

Jenny Hartley - The Reading Groups Book

If you have heard of reading groups, do not know how they function but would like to, this is the book for you. It explains the different ways that are used in various countries, covers how groups choose what they read, lists books chosen with the comments of groups. It also includes useful web sites. (Jeremy Swann)

Michael Korda - Charmed Lives - A Family Romance

This biography of film director Sir Alexander Korda goes some way to explain how three wartime refugee brothers from Hungary could become the personification of post-war British film-making. What it does best is to look at the brothers' family dynamics - it was less successful in invoking the political background to British film making of the time. Even so it's an engaging read, even if the claims of 'a cast of thousands' was typically oversold... (Clive Yelf)

Bernard Lewis - The Crisis of Islam - Holy War and Unholy Terrorism

In this short book, Islamic expert Lewis explains with admirable lucidity why the Islamic world in the present day is breeding terrorism and why Western culture is perceived as threatening. Fascinating and important (some of our leaders would do well to pay attention!) with only one proviso: he seems a little blurred on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and anti-Americanism but of course he is writing for an American public... (Annabel Bedini)

Jan Morris - Oxford

Although this latest and revised edition of 1987 is to a minor extent outdated, it still gives a good picture of Oxford (city and university) today and over the centuries. It is packed, like Morris's excellent book on Venice (bwl 7), with a vast amount of easily readable information about every conceivable aspect. I particularly liked the idea of students being not allowed to keep a private aeroplane within 20 miles of Oxford! (Jeremy Swann)

Feedback

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Clive Yelf writes:

I usually dispose of books down at the local second-hand book shop, but as I've recently obtained some specialist numismatic tomes on such topics as pilgrims' tokens and jetons from the early medieval period (Nuremberg region - honest!), I thought I'd try selling them on Amazon.com. I've never tried selling on Amazon's second-hand book site before and was wondering if anyone had either sold, or bought, using this method. How did you find it? Was there much response or did you find it a waste of time? I've put about six books on the site, covering subjects from Freud to Cricket, Greek history to the aforementioned coin-collecting. I'll let you know how it all went for the next issue of bwl, but I'd also be interested to hear what others do with recently read books. Are you a hoarder or a ruthless disposer - and if you do dispose of them where do you do it?

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Annabel Bedini writes:

Thanks to the reviewer of Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (bwl 18), but I'd like to add: what about that ironic, brain-teasing ending?

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Sandra Lee writes:

I've just come across Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsover (bwl 12). If you like flora and fauna, and people, do read it. It's a celebration of nature and love, and is such a rich enthralling story of lives amid the mountains and farms of southern Appalachia. It is a lovely book, the sort of book one wishes one could have written oneself.

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Jenny Baker writes:

Like the reviewer in bwl 17, I loved The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency the unlikely author of which, Alexander McCall Smith, turns out to be an Edinburgh professor of law! If you share the belief that Africa is an exclusively frightening place, then heroine Mma Precious Ramotswe will show you a different world where goodness, decency and humour prevail. This was my book group's recent choice and we all agreed it was a rewarding one and couldn't wait to read its sequels.

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