bookswelike

bwl 62 - Autumn 2011

Fiction

Kate Atkinson - Started Early, Took my Dog

Atkinson's fourth novel about former police officer turned occasional private investigator, Jackson Brodie, features stolen children, murdered prostitutes, lost loves, failing faculties, impulse acquisitions of dependents and assorted concatenations of events spanning some thirty years. Infused with a keener sense of melancholy than previous Brodie novels, and containing fewer neatly tied up ends, this one is nevertheless as witty, engaging and ultimately human as the rest. (Siobhan Thomson)

Lee Child - Running Blind

One of the best in the Reacher series, really unputdownable (horrible word, but in this case apt). The story goes at a breathless pace, and is so ingenious that the end solution really takes one by surprise, although the author deals fairly with the reader and leaves clear clues behind for those not wholly mesmerised to pick up. Reacher, as usual, is his competent self, violent when necessary but emotionally and morally involved. Another winner. (Kathie Somerwil Ayrton)

Michael Connelly - The Fifth Witness

Connelly gets better and better and so does his lawyer, Mickey Haller. In fact if DSK goes to trial, he should hire him! American justice is fascinating because so different from ours. A very good read. (Laurence Martin Euler)

David Ebershoff - The 19th Wife

At first I found this novel difficult to understand as it keeps switching from historical facts to modern day storytelling. It is about a subject (Mormon fundamentalism and polygamy) that I knew very little about, so in some ways it was educational. It is vastly entertaining with unforgettable characters, combining love, family, murder and faith. (Shirley Williams)

Sebastian Faulks - A Week in December

This captures the lives of a group of people in London in a week in 2007, including a tube driver, an arrogant literary critic, a trophy wife, and crucially, a city banker and an Islamic militant. The latter two are plotting destruction in different ways. As the story unfolds the characters' lives interweave - most are being invited to the same dinner party - and tension increases. Some characters are better defined than others but it is an interesting read. (Christine Miller)

Jonathan Franzen - Freedom

This is a great American novel - moving, depressing, and hilarious at the same time. Wait till you're reading when Walter Belgrund is trying to convince his neighbours that their cats should stay indoors at all times for the sake of one species of birds he really cares about! It makes you think: Is this planet becoming really crazy? A very good novel. (Laurence Martin Euler)

Jason Goodwin - The Janissary Tree

It is always good to meet a character that you feel is a friend, so I really enjoyed going back to renew my acquaintance with Yashim, the eunuch. This is the first novel in which he appears. The plot is wonderfully convoluted; the characters varied and the setting, Istanbul at the close of the Ottoman Empire, richly detailed in social detail and history. I shall certainly read more. (Ferelith Hordon)

Thomas Hardy - A Pair of Blue Eyes

A highly readable narrative of the life and loves of a naive but attractive girl who learns some hard lessons about taking right and wrong turnings. You always want to know what happens next thanks to shrewd psychological insight and a, literally, cliff-hanging plot. One scene in particular is a tour-de-force by a great writer in the making. Free for Kindlers! (Tony Pratt)

Mary Hooper - Velvet

This is a very accessible historical novel as one would expect from Mary Hooper. She delights in introducing her young readers to unusual and interesting aspects of society - in this case that of the late Victorian and early Edwardian period. However, it is rescued from becoming a history lesson through her characters - Velvet is lively, independent and attractive and her predicament ensures that the reader wants to turn the page. Definitely one to try. (Ferelith Hordon)

Lloyd Jones - Hand Me Down World

Who is she, this young African woman searching through Europe for the child who was stolen? Her story unfolds through the eyes of the witnesses she encounters - each with their own perspective, some honest, others evasive so that we are constantly left questioning who and what she is and what actually happened. Then we hear her version. This new book from the author of Mr. Pip (bwl 47) is equally complex, equally compelling. Read it! (Jenny Baker)

Sadie Jones - The Outcast

A good page-turner about the grief of a boy after the sudden death of his mother which paints a bleak picture of a claustrophobic, judgmental and hypocritical post-war village society. Ignored by a distant father and family friends, his loss and despair builds into withdrawal, self- harm and violence. The contrast between modern thinking on grief, emotional intelligence and expectations of parenting is stark. (Rebecca Howell)

William Joyce - The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

If you have an i-Pad, or similar device, and young children around you who you want to encourage to read, download this App. Half book, half animated film it tells the story of Morris Lessmore who loved words, loved stories, loved books. Listen to the story, manipulate the images or just read the words underneath each page. And if you have a device but no children, download it anyway. It's magic! (Jenny Baker)

Douglas Kennedy - The Moment

I used to be a Kennedy fan but I disliked this over-sentimental pseudo love story! You just don't understand the mid-life crisis of the narrator. Yes, his life is a failure but not because he gave up the love of his life when he was young but simply because he was afraid to fully live. You can really skip it. (Laurence Martin Euler)

Sophie Kinsella - Mini Shopaholic

With this mother and daughter shopping tale, this whole Becky Bloomwood Shopaholic thing is running rather thin. Kinsella has now tried every angle, more than once, making for too many repetitions but the pace is fast and the repartee fresh and sassy. For holiday reading, one can't go wrong but one ends up feeling that enough is enough, still it certainly has a cushioning effect after a hard day in the real world. (Kathie Somerwil Ayrton)

Nicole Krauss - Great House

The writer is young, beautiful and writes like an angel; the literary establishment are apparently grinding their teeth! Four narrators, tenuously linked by their histories, their memories, their Jewishness, the people they love and the impossibility of truly knowing and understanding those you care about the most. Lucid, infuriating and illuminating, I was captivated but be warned, if you only enjoy a straight narrative, you might want to throw it out of the window. (Jenny Baker)

Andrea Levy - The Long Song

Let July, the narrator, be your guide: " . . . My son Thomas, who is publishing this book, tells me, it is customary at this place in a novel to give the reader a little taste of the story that is held within these pages. As your storyteller, I am to convey that this tale is set in Jamaica during the last turbulent years of slavery and the early years of freedom that followed . . . " and read on to be well rewarded. (Jenny Baker)

George Macdonald Fraser - Flashman

I loved Flashman as a youth, so I was a little concerned that a later reading might somehow diminish the memories I had of him. I needn't have worried though. Flashies brutally honest assessment of his own and others' characters allied to his great luck, cowardice and a finely-honed sense of self-preservation mean that his place is safe in the pantheon of great literary characters. And some wonderful footnotes for the discerning connoisseur as well . . . (Clive Yelf)

Olivia Manning - School for Love

Reissued, a great read about ordinary people caught up in the drama of Jerusalem in 1945. Waiting for passage to England the recently orphaned Felix Latimer arrives from Bagdad to board with the dreadful Miss Bohun, She is an Ever-Readie, supposed to offer charity and love, but she is completely avaricious, making life miserable for her boarders. Mrs. Ellis, a pregnant young widow, moves into the house and disrupts everything. (Christine Miller)

Téa Obreht - The Tiger's Wife

Natalia, child of war-torn ex-Yugoslavia, feels compelled to explore the tales told her by her beloved grandfather. Who was the Deathless Man? Who was the Tiger's Wife? This is a book of stories behind stories, past/present, superstition/truth, myth/reality. Obreht seems to me to be extraordinary on two counts: an extraordinary imagination and an extraordinary gift for haunting story-telling. She won the 2011 Orange Prize for this her first novel, and she deserved it! (Annabel Bedini)

Marcel Proust - In Search of Lost Time

If you've ever been tempted to take the plunge but been daunted by the length or the seemingly endless meanderings, please think again! I read this epic novel during a six week holiday this summer. It had long been an ambition so despite an aborted attempt years ago I decided to try again. But this time my approach was different; I did not expect pace, plot or character development, was prepared for some tedious passages but was also prepared to give it up again if I wasn't really enjoying it. And my summer holiday became a wonderful, memorable journey. I soon enjoyed drifting along with his incredibly long sentences, found his prose achingly beautiful even when describing ugly things, was amazed at his meticulous observations of all aspects of human nature, loved the sheer pomposity of his language and laughed out loud many, many times. Why doesn't anyone ever mention Proust's humour? So, if you're tempted, all I can say is that, for me, the reward far outweighed the time invested, though I was lucky to have two things: several hours every day to devote to reading . . . and my Kindle!

P.S. (Thank you Jenny for allowing me more than 75 words to review 3,500 pages and apologies to James that I didn't do it all in one sentence!!) (Denise Lewis)

Marcus Sedgwick - Midwinterblood

Inspired by a painting in the National Gallery in Sweden, Sedgwick has created a tale of sacrifice and love. It is a fascinating construction, linking seven different stories across the ages from the future to the past all starting from one act of violence. The author's style - spare and somewhat uncompromising add to its power - and even if you don't quite understand what is going on, the images will remain. (Ferelith Hordon)

Mary Ann Shaffer - The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

This heart-warming epistolary novel, reminiscent of 84 Charing Cross Road, contrasts the grimness of occupied Guernsey with the humour and courage of the inhabitants. The letters are funny and moving, the author has the ability truly to evoke England at war but also to recreate a culture that reveres books. Comic and quirky, but at the same time touching and tragic, this is a lovely book.

Written with Annie Barrows (Kathie Somerwil Ayrton)

Johanna Skibsrud - The Sentimentalist

A debut novel by a Canadian author about the devastating effect war (Vietnam) can have on someone and his family. When her own life falls apart, a daughter tries to learn the truth about her father before his memory fails. She shares a house with her father and the father of his friend who was killed where she has happy childhood memories. Skibsrud is a war veteran's daughter and brings her understanding to the novel. (Christine Miller)

Joanna Trollope - Daughters-in-Law

This is the most recent novel in Trollope's whole series of sympathetic but clinical analyses of marriage. She now addresses the stresses and strains within a family when the three sons marry. Their mother Rachel loves being the central pivot but her control begins to slip away as her daughters-in-law bring with them different, sometimes alien elements - subtle rifts occur and adjustments are necessary - a situation familiar to almost every family. Interesting and thought-provoking. (Kathie Somerwil Ayrton)

Gerard Woodward - Nourishment

Wartime Britain. The family sits down to a superb joint rescued from a bombed butcher's . . . but might it be the butcher's leg? You never quite know what is coming next in this quirky, original saga in which the twists and turns of a life are set against a background of war/post war England. Funny, intriguing, sad by turns and very, very enjoyable. (Tony Pratt)

Non-Fiction

Jeffrey Archer - A Prison Diary: Belmarsh: Hell; Wayland: Purgatory & North Sea Camp: Heaven

This bleak and clinical account of Archer's two years in various prisons, following a travesty of inverted class justice, is not only on the level of Dostoevsky and Solzhenitsyn but is an important contribution to British literature. With cogent remarks on prison life and the vagaries of British justice in general, he advocates three reforms which would make a huge difference at little extra cost to a system that is close to breaking point. Lacking self-pity and completely non-judgmental, with many thumb-nail sketches of the inmates. A truly monumental achievement. (Kathie Somerwil Ayrton)

H H Asquith - Letters to Venetia Stanley

How do you attract a pretty girl 40 years your junior? By being powerful and famous and constantly reminding her of the fact. Asquith, Prime Minister during WW I, became infatuated by a young aristocrat to whom he wrote daily - sometimes during cabinet meetings - astonishingly indiscreet and increasingly desperate letters. They provide a unique insight into the running of the nation and the psyche of a man in the last-chance emotional saloon. An utterly riveting story. (Tony Pratt)

Bill Bryson - At Home: A short history of private life

A sort of companion volume to his A Short History of Nearly Everything (bwl 21), here Bryson embarks on a voyage of discovery of human artifacts, taking us round his home, room by room, tracing the history of the things we live with every day in our houses and take for granted. As we would expect, he provides an overflowing cornucopia of fascinating facts and illuminating anecdotes, purveyed with lightly carried erudition. A truly wonderful book! (Annabel Bedini)

Leaf Fielding - To Live Outside the Law: Caught by Operation Julie, Britain's Biggest Drugs Bust

The true story of an English middle-class 1960s dropout, who lived outside the law, stealing, and cheating, experimenting with drugs, and who eventually became a key member of an important LSD manufacturing and distribution enterprise. This resulted in a long prison sentence. There is no self-pity. Rather an honest and often gripping memoir of his encounters with his family, his friends, the authorities, and the people of the two prisons where he served his punishment. (Peter Healy)

Stephen Fry - The Fry Chronicles

Fry defines himself a Jack of All Trades, berating himself for what his fans would call a wonderful diversity of talents. In fact a surprising amount of self-berating goes on in this honest account of his complex young self, of course written with immense verbal dexterity and wit. By the end I was rather bored by the endless list of performers and performances but I gobbled up most of it with the greatest interest and delight. (Annabel Bedini)

Evelyn Juers - House of Exile: War, Love and Literature, from Berlin to Los Angeles

This brilliant book is a story of exile of the intellectual and artistic elite of Europe as a result of the Nazi tyranny. It is mainly told through the eyes of the Mann brothers,Thomas and Heinrich, and their families. Meticulously researched it also deals with the life work and suicide of Virginia Wolf. All the greatest literary figures of the last century are brought into imaginative life. To read it is an enriching experience. (David Graham)

Hubert Kubly - A Stranger in Italy

Re-reading Hubert Kubly's autobiographical account of his post war journey through Italy confirmed that my original love for his book was not misplaced. At the same time I can see that while I find his characterisation to be brilliant there are those who may feel that they have entered an elaborate opera set in the 1950s. Italy may have changed since Kubly's day but the eccentricity, friendliness and generosity are still the same. (Judith Peppitt)

Graham McCann - Spike & Co: Inside the House of Fun with Milligan, Sykes, Galton & Simpson

This book is full of 'Well I never knew that!' moments. For example I never realised how important Eric Sykes was to post-war comedy. I never knew he and Spike Milligan set up Associated London Scripts together and I never realised that apart from discovering new writers like Johnny Speight, almost every significant 60s radio or television comedy show was part of their output. I do now though and a fascinating story it is too. (Clive Yelf)

Joyce Carol Oates - A Widow's Story: A Memoir

This book is especially interesting In these days when divorce has become so common. It tells movingly of Oates' puzzlement, loneliness and raw suffering when her not so young husband dies. What is it that some people seem to know, which enables them to share their life, nourishing one another? And then they are lost when they're left alone by the death of their spouse. And in Oates' case her writing doesn't seem to help her. (Laurence Martin Euler)

Jeremy Poolman - Gypsy Jem Mace: First Heavyweight Champion of the World

This book introduced me to one of the most fascinating characters you could ever hope to meet, a fiddle-playing boxer of immense strength and courage who straddled the old world of bare-knuckle bouts and modern boxing. However, I'm not sure this is the book to really learn about him. The author (and descendent) relates his own life in parallel with Jem's and many scenes of his life read almost as fictional recreations. Very frustrating! (Clive Yelf)

Morgan Spurlock - Where In The World Is Osama Bin Laden?

An out-dated title now, but I did read it before Osama's ultimate demise. It's really more an excuse for a 'typical' American to go out and talk to those involved in the current 'War Against Terror' and to hear their views on Bin-Laden and his influence than a real effort to find Osama himself. Which is fine and quite entertaining as he zig-zags over continents slowly working his way (significantly?) toward the badlands of northern Pakistan. (Clive Yelf)

Sean Thomas - Millions of Women are Waiting to Meet You: A Story of Life, Love and Internet Dating

I admit I was a bit put off by this at first. An internet dating assignment to a journalist and I started to fear a 'knowing' and slightly snickering attitude from the author. Which, to be fair, was probably what he intended to do. However he finds himself engaging in to a series of relationships that force him to re-visit and re-evaluate his own emotional past with candour and possibly a touch too much honesty. (Clive Yelf)

Nicklaus Thomas-Symonds - Attlee: A Life in Politics

Nicklaus Thomas-Symonds through his thorough research gives a thoughtful and very enjoyable interpretation of Attlee's political life, its successes and failures. Attlee played important roles in such things as the war coalition, Indian Independence, nationalisation of the utilities, the welfare state, etc and led a very disparate group of Labour politicians. However, his style of leadership and lack of 'charisma' can mean his role is underestimated. (Christine Miller)

Jennifer Worth - Call the Midwife: A True Story Of The East End In The 1950s

Absolutely riveting for me, as it is set in the time when I first started nursing, proving how tough it was then for nurses. Worth paints a superb picture of the Docklands area of London, showing how our lives have changed since then, both generally and in the nursing world, and describing how the various people, living in often impossible conditions, survived. Particularly pointing out how strong the women of that age were. Difficult to put down. (Shirley Williams)

Feedback

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One unexpected drawback about the Kindle or the i-Pad: you can't lend your copy of your favourite read to a friend. This is perhaps an unexpected (or is it?) bonus for the sellers of ebooks and I suppose it also saves the horrible annoyance of not getting that favourite book back. What do you think? (Jenny Baker)

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