bookswelike

bwl 4 - July 2000

Fiction

Margaret Atwood - Cat's Eye

If you experienced the subtle bullying that so-called best friends can inflict on a child, this book will strike a chord. It tells the story of Elaine, a painter, who because of an exhibition, returns reluctantly to Toronto where she grew up. Long buried memories begin to surface and as the story unfolds so are revealed the miseries she underwent at the hands of her tormentor Cordelia. This is Margaret Atwood at her best. (Jenny Baker)

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni - Sister of my Heart

Don't be put off by the rather sloppy title. This is a stunning story of two cousins born on the same night as both their fathers were mysteriously lost. Set in India and America, it charts the story of their childhood ruled by the mothers, their arranged marriages and their efforts to break free and become part of the modern world. (Jenny Baker)

Julian Barnes - A History of the World in 10½ Chapters

History around the themes of love and survival. Often cynical, sometimes very funny.The first chapter tells the story of Noah's Ark as seen through the eyes of a strange stowaway. Another gives a graphic account of the hijacking of a Mediterranean cruise liner. There's also a remake of part of the film 'The Mission', where things don't turn out quite as planned. And lots more. (Wendy Swann)

J M Coetzee - Disgrace

Compellingly written, grisly and sometimes brutal, this story of a literary academic concerns human frailty and rejection as much as disgrace. Seeking refuge through bleak affairs, his relationship with his daughter and working with unwanted animals, some of the most lyrical writing describes his dreams to write an opera about Byron. Coetzee paints a terrifying picture of the shift of power in S. Africa. This book provoked more discussion at our book-club than any so far. (Jenny Freeman)

Lawrence Durrell - Mountolive

This, the third part of the Alexandria Quartet, is a straightforward narrative in which Mountolive, British ambassador in Cairo, is torn between his duty and his affection for a rich Coptic family discovered to be leading a conspiracy against British power in Palestine. Re-reading it after many years I found it even more entertaining than I remembered. (Jeremy Swann)

Richard Flanagan - The Sound of One Hand Clapping

Set in Tasmania, from the atmospheric beginning when three year old Sonja's mother walks out into a blizzard, this is a real page turner. As she grows up, in order to come to terms with themselves and each other, she and her father must confront the horrors witnessed by the family in Nazi occupied Slovenia. (Jenny Baker)

Jane Green - Bookends

I wasn't sure, when I began this story of friends who started a bookshop, if I would enjoy it. The synopsis I had read had given me a wrong impression. Although a younger reader, 'a thirty something', will probably have more in common with the circle of friends and their problems and lifestyles, I found it strangely diverting, entertaining, and a good 'light' read. (Sandra Lee)

Alan Isler - The Prince of West End Avenue

Otto Korner, a Jewish refugee, ends up in the Emma Lazarus retirement home in Manhattan where the residents embark on a chaotic and jealousy-ridden production of Hamlet. Cast as the Ghost, he feels that at 83 he is ready to play the Prince......read on! Lovely, funny and touching, tragic as well. Alan Isler writes about his characters with great affection and by the end you feel you know and care for them all. (Jenny Freeman)

Pamela Jooste - Dance with a Poor Man's Daughter

The whole exotic and lively culture of the Cape Coloured community, when apartheid threatened its destruction, is seen through the sharp yet loving eyes of 11-year old Lily. The story of her past - and future - unfolds as her beautiful but angry mother returns to Cape Town, determined to fight for justice for her family. This prize-winning first novel is a genuine and moving tribute to a richly individual community. (Rosamund Bandi)

Barbara Kingsolver - The Poisonwood Bible

Fanatical Baptist missionary takes family to the Congo during Independence. The accounts of his beleaguered wife and daughters describe the alternately hilarious and harrowing effects of clashing belief systems on their family and the village's social structure. The consequences extend into the women's later lives, each one articulating a relevant theme, from political skulduggery (fascinating) to personal redemption (American-style). Too many serious intentions may end up diluting the truly enthralling atmosphere of the first half. (Annabel Bedini)

Rose Tremain - The Way I Found Her

Lewis, aged 13, is on the brink of adolescence and in Paris for the summer. He becomes both obsessed by his hostess and aware of the fragility of his parents marriage as he grapples with the complications that arise. It's a charming, perceptive, slowly addictive read, and Lewis's conflicting emotions as he leaves his childhood behind ring very true. I struggled to suspend my disbelief near the end but didn't want the end to come. (Victoria Grey-Edwards)

Barry Unsworth - Sacred Hunger

The horrifying reality of the slave trade in the 18th century is the context for a tale of conflict between two cousins who embody the opposing philosophies of life emerging at that time and equally relevant to ours: profit-based capitalism versus enlightened humanism. But it can also simply be read as an extremely exciting historical adventure, excellently researched, vividly real and beautifully written. (Annabel Bedini)

Barbara Vine - The House of Stairs

Lizzie narrates this tightly woven, beautifully written tale of intricate relationships, friendships and murder. She is under threat of a fatal hereditary disease which she will escape - if it does not strike her down by the age of forty. How would one live one's life? A dark, complex, and totally enthralling book. (Sandra Lee)

Niall Williams - As it is in Heaven

Set mainly in Ireland and partly in Venice, this is the story of a not very good history teacher in Co. Clare who lost his mother and sister in a car crash when he was a child. He and his father, a Dublin tailor, spend many sad years together, playing chess and listening to music. Then he goes to a concert where he meets Gabriella, an Italian violinist and his life takes off. (Wendy Swann)

Non-Fiction

Andrea Ashworth - Once in a House on Fire

This is a vivid and ultimately uplifting account of the author's childhood in northern England. Somehow she, her sister and half sister learn to cope in a confusing world in which their widowed mother always falls for men who swing from passionate love to extreme violence. You might think this is just another account of a poverty stricken childhood but what comes across is how children can grow and survive even in awful conditions. (Jenny Baker)

Trevor Baylis - Clock This

Refreshingly unpretentious autobiography of the man who invented the clockwork radio. Typical Secondary Modern fodder - hopeless at exams but 'good with his hands' - he made good, helped by a loving home, a somewhat obsessional personality, and a patient and encouraging dad (with a glorious workshop in his shed). Optimistic and strangely humbling. (Kate Hobson)

Anthony Beevor - Stalingrad

Not my normal bedside read, but I found this book fascinating and in places un-put-downable. It is an incredibly compelling and moving account of the war at Stalingrad, made all the more interesting by the intimate accounts of the lives of the soldiers and civilians trapped there for the duration. (James Baker)

Tom Bower - The Perfect English Spy

'Perfect' hardly applies to the way many operations, as recounted here, were conducted by Britain's intelligence services between 1935 and 1990. 'Calamitous' seems more appropriate, but if you wryly enjoy descriptions of official 'cock-ups', this is a book for you. (Jeremy Swann)

Benvenuto Cellini - Benvenuto Cellini: Autobiography

The vivid recollections of the famous Florentine goldsmith and sculptor (1500 - 71) who worked for the Papacy, the Medici and François I of France. A boisterous character, Cellini tells an exciting story of his violent adventures and dramatic misfortunes. As fresh as if it was written yesterday. (Jeremy Swann)

Bruce Chatwin - What am I doing here

A selection of 35 articles all of which illustrate the author's remarkable talent for finding unusual and exotic subjects and people to write about. The approach he takes is always unpredictable and stimulating. Numerous humorous anecdotes and asides. In my experience ideal bedtime reading. (Jeremy Swann)

Glenn Frankel - Beyond the Promised Land

Subtitled 'Jews and Arabs on the Hard Road to a New Israel', this work by a former Washington Post bureau chief in Jerusalem provides useful background reading and a help to a greater understanding of the difficulties in the negotiations between the Israelis and the Arabs. Interesting portraits of the protagonists up to the death of Rabin. (Jeremy Swann)

Roy Jenkins - The Chancellors

Roy Jenkins has provided a fine set of essays on his predecessors as Chancellor of the Exchequer from Lord Randolph Churchill to Hugh Dalton which provide much reflection on British politics of the twentieth century. It is spoilt by poor editing with some long and unwieldy sentences. It also lacks a table of Prime Ministers and their Chancellors. Although it falls short of what it might have been, nonetheless this is a good read. (Pamela Jaunin)

Fergal Keane - Letters Home

Following the success of 'Letter to Daniel', the BBC's foreign correspondent Fergal Keane has put together a collection of short articles reflecting on events of the last century. From his own experience growing up in Ireland to massacres in Rwanda, the war in Sarajevo, and the farewell to Hong Kong, this book is well worth reading - not only interesting and informative but very moving. (Caroline Winstanley)

Eric Lomax - The Railway Man

Eric Lomax was captured by the Japanese in Singapore 1942. He was sent to work on the Burma-Siam railway where he and his fellow prisoners lived in the most appalling conditions. Horribly tortured by his captors, he spent the rest of the war there until finally released when the Japanese surrendered. Fifty years later, he flew to Thailand and met one of his tormentors. (Caroline Winstanley)

Peter Mayle - Encore Provence

I always start to read his books with a jaundiced eye, but have to recognise and empathise with some things he describes, such as the dramatics of a southern storm. I still think he writes like a tourist trying to write a guidebook, but if you like olive trees, truffles, and Provence, you will probably have to read it, just like me. (Sandra Lee)

Jetsun Pema - Tibet, My Story

Jetsun Pema is the sister of the present Dalai Lama. This is her autobiography. It is a fascinating tale of her life in Tibet from the time her brother was acknowledged as the fourteenth Dalai Lama and the whole family moved from their small village to Lhasa. Several years later they were forced to flee to India to escape the Chinese invasion. Here she plays a major part in the education of the refugee Tibetan children. (Caroline Winstanley)

Will Scully - Once a Pilgrim

This tells of Sierra Leone's troubles, but in 1997. An ex-SAS soldier's incredible (but corroborated) story of how he saved the lives of about a thousand civilians, from hundreds of heavily armed rebel attackers, essentially single handed. Far from a great literary masterpiece, but an amazing action read for the boys. (Chris Bradshaw)

Simon Singh - The Code Book

A book for the schoolboy (or maybe schoolgirl) in us all. It traces the history of codes and ciphers from ancient Greece to the present day and ends with a world-wide Cipher Challenge for which there is a £10,000 reward. If you like maths you'll have endless fun with all the graphs and charts and if you are so inclined you might even be tempted to try to devise an unbreakable code of your own! (Jenny Baker)

Marina Warner - Alone of all her Sex

The myth and the cult of the Virgin Mary - a piece of fascinating scholarly historical research which is also highly readable. Taking the various attributes in turn - Virgin, Queen, Mother etc. - and following their development through the ages, Warner raises thought-provoking questions about what is desired in the idealised woman, without succumbing to the temptation of drawing immoderately feminist conclusions. Packed with information on art, literature, music as well as theology. (Annabel Bedini)