50 Book Challenge

9. A Night Out With Robert Burns ed. by Andrew O'Hagan

2009-02-27T10:00:00.000-08:00

This is a difficult book to review because for me, it is two separate entities: Burns' poetry and O'Hagan's presentation of it in this particular book. I do love poetry but Burns has never been a poet I've particularly fallen for. I can't say that this book has stimulated any kind of epiphany with regards to Burns - he is and always will be a difficult poet to read for me. However, O'Hagan's presentation of Burns' work here is novel in format (the poems divided into 4 main sections depending on underlying subject matter, each poem accompanied by a small anecdote from O'Hagan himself) and this format has helped me to gain a deeper appreciation of what Burns is 'about'. The historical information, shallow though it is, is enough to contextualise each poem and bring it 'alive' for a modern reader. The modern anecdotes about the importance of Burns in a modern context to O'Hagan serve to show that, at least for some modern readers, Burns has a very real place in their literary interaction. There is an interesting introduction which really analyses, albeit in a shallow manner, the concept of Burns as a marketing tool and an entity apart from the literary world - not deep but thought-provoking nonetheless.

I wouldn't recommend this to someone who was looking for something that borders on heavy-duty scholarship. It's 'coffee-table' poetry presentation. It is a good introduction to or revisiting of Burns, however, for those of us who don't know his poetry well or quite understand where it's rooted in.

7. American Gods by Neil Gaiman

2009-02-27T09:59:00.001-08:00

This was a slow-burner of a book for me. Neil Gaiman has been on my 'must read' list for quite a while. From what I'd heard, I guessed I was going to love his work so it was one of those treats you save for later. I was initially disappointed - OK, but not a revelation. Then, about 100 pages in I started to 'get' it. By the end, I had been drawn in completely to the rich, full reading experience that is Neil Gaiman. I couldn't put it down.

Essentially set on the cusp of a new age, this novel deals with the beliefs of the past and the objects of devotion in the often spiritually bereft society we live in now. The rich description of the 'American Gods' brings them alive and they become a living, credible part of the world we live in today. Without giving too much away, the brilliant and novel idea behind the source of their existence on the new continent is a stroke of imaginative genius. As you become accustomed to the diversions from the main plot that introduce the plethora of deities to you, the tale becomes denser and fuller by merit of their presence.

Shadow is a likeable protagonist. He is complex and lives in the grey areas between the monochromatic morality that society purports to adhere to. What makes him believeable and endears him to us is that deep down we too exist in the grey. The old Gods are fantastic characters. Gaiman brings them alive, not falling back on the safety cushion of how the literary canon has portrayed them before but making them real - with humour, personality quirks and emotions. If this is what Gods were really like, I might recant my agnostic stance. What is truly wonderful about this novel is that rather than just existing as a setting for the protagonists to navigate through, America lives, breathes and chokes its way through the alternative existence Gaiman has created for it - but a parallel America, not quite the one we know. The description is vibrant enough to cause the reader to look on America with fresh eyes. Gaiman's America will always lurk beneath the surface. Coming from a multinational family, I found the subtextual treatment of immigration an interesting aside. I loved the idea of the traditions, superstitions and beliefs of an old world carrying something more than purely memories to a new home. The fact that no matter how much we'd like to believe that we travel unencumbered, rags and threads of our past and our homeland still cling.

I wished Gaiman had made more of the modern Gods. While the ancient Gods were rich and full, I felt that their modern equivalents were a missed opportunity. It's not that they were young upstarts with less history - even conveying that still left room for the chance to afford them greater impact on the reader. The weak spot in the book for me was the ending - I loved the build up but the denoument was anticlimactic, it was over too fast. That said, these are minor gripes. I'd strongly recommend this book to those of you who enjoy an unusual perspective on the familiar. Thematically and stylistically, it owes more to 'The Master and Margarita' than to modern fantasy novels. Dare I suggest that, based on this, Neil Gaiman has created a class of his own - Fiction: Gaiman - which sits somewhere between cult Eastern European allegory and western Fantasy/Cyberpunk writing. Don't prejudge whether Gaiman's writing is for you, dive in and you may be surprised.

6. A Lost Lady by Willa Cather

2009-02-27T09:58:00.000-08:00

This was my first foray into Willa Cather's writing and I found this a thoughtful and engaging novel that works on several levels. It is a character study of a woman at a time of change in the American west; a character study of America at the time of the railroad boom as it evolves alongside changing ideas of morality and social convention; a study of a complex web of relationships: friendship, love, loyalty rooted in respect, gratitude or feudal class-based tradition. I was left under no illusions, Cather was obviously a supporter of the old ways.

Mrs Forrester, the 'Lost Lady' of the title is married to an ageing Captain in a small, backwoods town in the transitional America of the railroad era. This work deals with her complex relationship with her husband, her lovers and a youth of the town, Neils, who idolises the image of her and reveres her husband and his old fashioned morals and conventions. The new, crude manners of the upcoming generation contrasts with Neils' old-school outlook. Cather shows him as outdated, left behind by his compatriots. As you follow this trio of characters through to the death of the Captain, we see Neils' polarised idea of right and wrong in the light of the complexities of the emotional and moral ties that bind the other characters. Ultimately, Neils' innocence dies with Captain Forrester as his illusions are shattered by the realisation that all live with some kind or moral compromise and none of his idols fit into his succinct categories of morality. As for the 'Lady' herself, on the one hand, the reader is tempted to dislike her for her perceived disloyalty. However, ultimately it becomes clear that, in her own way, she was as loyal to her husband as others and that loyalty and faithfulness are not necessarily synonymous and in some ways this redeems her.

It is an interesting and beautifully crafted novel and the characterisation is very competently realised. Criticism has been levelled at Cather's work, implying that she was over-reliant on her devotion to the old America of a time that was passing and that she refused to accept the newer world; that she was wasting her obvious talent by not turning it loose on the modern world. However, for me, it is exactly this viewpoint that makes the novel so poignant. I would certainly recommend this. It is a very engaging and fast read but definitely a pleasureable one too.

5. The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid

2009-02-12T02:37:00.000-08:00

'The Reluctant Fundamentalist' is a cleverly constructed novel, written as one part of a dialogue between two men in a Pakistan marketplace. This intimate and innovative style quickly draws the reader into a dual storyline: the history of the narrator's life, discussed as a past narrative and the story unfolding in the narrator's present, which the reader learns about through commentary and innuendo from a single perspective. There is a constant question as to the identity of the narrator and the other participant in the conversation. It is an effective stylistic device. The reader becomes an integral part of the fiction as the narrator addresses a nameless, faceless Western individual. It places the reader themselves in that position, a clever narrative device to bring the story to life in the mind of the reader.

Hamid is a master of characterisation in an unconventional format. The reader becomes more and more curious regarding the audience of the personal history being recounted, as small tidbits of information are dropped into the conversation. It is interesting how Hamid builds a degree of character for the unseen individual, fascinating how your opinion of character can be formed purely through a third party's reactions to that person. On a wider scale, it raises the question of how far our perceptions of nations or nationalities unfamiliar to us are affected by the reaction of others towards them.

The dual thread of the narrative allows Hamid to give an interesting, intelligent portrayal of post 9/11 America. There is an wonderful analysis, at one point, of the traditional empire that America resembles within its own borders. He also paints a portrait of the development of fundamentalism more complex than any we are usually given - a combination of internal and external triggers, personal and political reasons, as much an echo of a man's dissatisfaction with himself and his own perspective on his heritage as a reaction to the political climate of the day. It makes the creation of a fundamentalist mindset seem frighteningly plausible, even possibly understandable. It is born of reasoned argument that it is impossible not to indentify with at some level. It serves as an antidote to the common portrayal of the fundamentalist mindset being born of low intellect and high susceptibility to influence or of purely religious fanaticism.

It is a remarkably well-realised novel, with mounting suspense that brings the reader towards the conclusion with ever-increasing eagerness to discover who the individuals really are and what that narrator's true story is. The image of suicide, always hanging in the background, symbolises perhaps a nation's unacknowledged fears. As the two men converse, with a constantly changing backdrop of the local marketplace, it seems more than purely an atmospheric description of their surroundings. It is more analogous to the constantly changing world around us. The image of the changing character of the market as it empties mirroring the image of our solitude as our society lives more and more empty of faith.

This was a real 'impossible to put down' book, an incredibly fast read but one that leaves you thinking and broadens your view of a contemporary issue, taking it in interesting directions. Well worth the investment of time and money.

4. Old Goriot by Honoré de Balzac

2009-02-11T08:18:00.000-08:00

This was my first foray into Balzac and it certainly won't be my last. It is, in a way, less a story of old Goriot himself (an old man, almost destitute, living in a run-down boarding house on the seedier side of Paris, visited occasionally by two beautiful young women who he claims are his daughters) as it is of Eugene Rastignac, the young student who shares the boarding house with Goriot and a host of richly drawn supporting characters. Balzac creates a masterful description, evocative and vibrant, bringing the high society and low underbelly of Paris alive for the reader. He is ascerbic and satirical in his portrayal of life at both ends of the social scale and makes astute observations about the human condition in general through his well-realised cast of characters and the moral dilemmas they face. Often this is executed with sharp humour, relevant in its application to certain elements of modern-day human interaction.

It is an easy read and the style is both contemporary and accessible to the modern-day reader despite the age of the work. It is a great book, a portrait of human failings, of self-interest, of consuming passions and of the cynicism of romantic attachments. I would highly recommend it.

3. The Island at the End of the World by Sam Taylor

2009-01-12T07:28:00.001-08:00

This is an excellent book and I'm going to state upfront that it's well worth taking the time to read. It's difficult to review, I don't want to go into too much detail as part of its appeal lies in the sense of uncertainty as to what constitutes reality that it engenders in the reader. It is basically a tale of a family (Pa, Alice, Finn and Daisy), who live on an ark in the middle of an island, separated after a great flood that hit modern-day America. They live off the land and do not know if there are any other survivors elsewhere. The book is told in three different voices: Pa, religious, controlling and desperately protective of his family; Finn, a young boy in awe of his father and at one with the land he's grown up on; and Alice, a teenager with memories of the time before the flood, dissatisfied with the isolated life they live. While trying to piece together the history that led to the flood, the reader gradually has a sense that the story is more complicated than they initially believed.

This book is very well-written. Sometimes Pa's narrative voice becomes confused - a stream of consciousness with religious dogma interspersed. Finn's phonetic spelling takes time to get used to, but once you are, it really conveys the voice of the young boy.

Original and unsettling, this is a book I expect to hear much more about in 2009.

2. The Taker and Other Stories by Rubem Fonseca

2009-01-12T07:24:00.000-08:00

This is a great collection of short stories from a brilliant small US publisher devoted to acquiring and translating diverse contemporary foreign language works that would otherwise remain overlooked by the English-speaking reading public.

These stories, set in Brazil, all contain a central theme: death. From protagonists with murderous intention to ageing characters coming to terms with their own mortality, Fonseca evocatively conveys the atmosphere of a dark underbelly of Brazilian society. Ironically, I found the eponomous 'The Taker' to be the weakest of the collection. I won't go into too much detail about the contents - with many of the stories, their greatest effect lies in the gradual realisation of the reader as they come to understand the inevitable resolution of the tales.

Fonseca writes effectively, from the longer pieces to the brief two-page stories, although there were one or two stories which confused me slightly but I think I will return and re-read them to see if my perspective differs. If I had to liken Fonseca's writing to anyone's, I would say that his work is similar in tone to Pedro Juan Gutierrez - the same visceral descriptions, the edge of darkness and brutality, the uncompromising picture of the darker side of life in a major city with no concessions towards a brighter picture. Certainly a worthwhile read - a great collection.

1. In the Land of Invisible Women by Qanta Ahmed

2009-01-12T07:22:00.000-08:00

In 'In the Land of Invisible Women' Qanta Ahmed, an English-born female Muslim doctor, recounts the experiences of her time in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It's a fascinating account that suffers somewhat from a poor writing style. The writing is bad and I found Ahmed's narration patronising - her voice was one of superior tone and it appears that she sets herself above Saudi Muslims, western non-Muslims, anyone who may have a negative opinion about America ... the list is endless. The arrogant tone is particularly evident when she refers to her obvious sense of professional superiority. In passages where she describes herself, particularly around the hospital, the reader is left in no doubt of the high opinion of herself she holds. I found the chapter where she deals with the issue of homosexuality in the Kingdom disturbing in the extreme. She lists a number of contributing factors to the appeasement of an 'uncomfortable libido by seeking acquired homosexual behaviours' - obviously, it couldn't be that they were actually gay, it must have been contributing factors, environmentally acquired homosexuality. At least I will sleep easier at night knowing her 'detection of latent homosexuality was probably accurate'.

I also found that she was oddly schizophrenic in her response to veiling: when around westerners, she adopted a superior tone and emphasised the idea of the sense of liberation veiling gave her; when around Saudis, she often adopted a superior tone, asserting her right not to. There are moments where she labours the point of liberation from male attention. When she described how Saudi men attempted to pick up girls, much as she attributed her fear and intimidation to the male attention, I couldn't help but ask myself whether this stemmed from the attention itself or the context of the climate of fear created by the religious police, which she had already demonstrated she was affected by.

Nonetheless, this book is a fascinating window onto what it, for me, an alien world. It was an interesting portrait of two vastly different forms of Islam (from multi- and single faith environments). I found it particularly telling that, at the outset, the non-Muslim expats who had been in the Kingdom longer, often appeared more at home than the Muslim narrator. The opening account of a dying woman and the extreme lengths her family went to to make sure that she remained veiled raised the interesting question of whether her rights were being supresses or her dignity upheld - as she was unable to bear witness to this herself, we shall never know.

It is evident that there are multiple levels of segregation in the Kingdom: by sex, by nationality and by class with the dichotomy of the uber-rich and the slave class that serves them. Many of the most interesting moments for me were the tales of the ER as these gave insight into the nature of Saudi citizens at their worst moments; these stories were more 'alive' than some of Ahmed's other descriptions. The re-telling of her pilgrimage to Mecca, her Hajj, was absolutely fascinating - a real view of a world I know very little about.

In the end, I found Ahmed to be a person who seemed to be conflicted in her sense of national identity. It is telling that in the chapters describing post-9/11 Saudi Arabia, Ahmed finds it quite easy to take an uncritical view of America's role in precipitating the event. Despite being English born, she repeatedly allies herself with America, constantly belabouring the point that she owed America a great deal for her medical training (conveniently failing to give any credit to the British university that gave her her original medical degree). Ultimately, the author's obvious and overriding pro-American voice led me to treat her description of post-9/11 Saudi with a degree of scepticism as, with regards to America, I never got the sense that her writing was particularly balanced. The degree to which she allied herself with America is typified by a description of a conversation with a Saudi male who sympathised with the US later in the book, where she describes him as being 'on our side' - it is rare that an English person would ever use the word 'our' to encompass the US and the UK as an entity.

I was, in the end, reminded of the fact that change never comes fast. There is process and there is evolution behind every perceived momentary revolution of culture. The book ends on a hopeful note that leaves the reader feeling that there may be a chance for Saudi Arabia; that, in time, it could become a more open and independent place for all Saudis, women included, and that this could happen without the submersion of its rich Islamic heritage under the yoke of a western, or more specifically an American, monoculture and value structure. How accurate this is, I'm not sure. Ahmed's voice is not one that I feel I fully trust and sometimes there is a sense that, once free from the control exerted by the Kingdom, able to return as an obviously-rich western woman, there is a tint of rose in the glasses she wears to look back at it. Certainly from personal accounts I've had from people who have spent much longer in the Kingdom than Ahmed's short stay, the view is not so positive.

For the story and insight it gives to aspects of Saudi life, I would certainly recommend this book. It's a four-star for content. Unfortunately, it's a two-star for writing ability; although it's not often so bad that it prevents you from absorbing the facts, certainly at the beginning you have to cling to the fact that from a chapter or so in the subject matter becomes fascinating and overrides the fact that the writing is so poor at the outset that you'll be tempted to discard it. Hang in there! It will be an illuminating experience. I decided to split the difference and settled on a three-star compromise.

47. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

2009-01-12T07:07:00.005-08:00

For biting satire, this is Jane Austen at her best. For storytelling, her other works are much stronger. There's not much I can say about Jane Austen that hasn't been said before and I have no intention of using this review for an in depth critical analysis of the text, so I'm just going to tell you what I liked about this satirical take on the gothic theme.

More than any of Austen's books, this one conveyed to me a living, breathing sense of what life was like in Bath during the Season. Albeit through prose which is some of Austen's most sarcastic, nonetheless she really conveyed the crowded, bustle-filled social whirl that was Bath. The initial description of Catherine's arrival and first sortie out to the Upper Rooms, where they knew no-one, had a familiar ring to it. I loved her cutting sarcasm, she became more restrained in later novels (possibly as her writing and storycrafting also became more refined).

Where this book was let down was in the story itself. Entertaining though Austen's dissection of Bath, the social structure of the day and the predominant fashion for gothic novels was, ascerbic and hilarious, it came at the expense of a truly absorbing story. There was no great romantic pairing, no Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy. I didn't feel in any way invested in our heroine and her romantic interest tale. If I was being uncharitable, I might even go so far as to say that I felt this novel was at times nothing more than a scaffold to enable Austen to vent spleen on her least favourite aspects of the society of the day.

On balance, I liked the book - it was an enjoyable read but it was far from my favourite Austen novel.

46. Dracula by Bram Stoker

2009-01-12T07:07:00.003-08:00

I fall into the category of someone who should have read 'Dracula' but who just never got around to it so I came at this book with the kind of preconceptions that anyone who has been exposed to the Hollywood Dracula canon cannot help but acquire. I was pleasantly surprised at the differences I found in the written work.

It's an easy read but it is told in an unusual style via extracts from a variety of writings created by the protagonists. Unfortunately, this means that you are at the mercy of character perspective: if you enjoy certain styles over others, some parts will be harder to stick with. Personally, I found I was willing to do away with Jonathan Harker myself after a couple of pages and as for Mina, well, I'm just not going to go there, not at all!

I found it an entertaining book, possible not always in the way Stoker intended. The bumbling attempts by Van Helsing's vampire hunters were a hoot. It was like 'Imbeciles: 101' and I wondered what comedy slaying attempt was going to pop up next. As for Van Helsing's heavily accented English, even the grammatical errors Stoker introduced were not a correct and natural representation of a foreign language speaker. I enjoyed the dark world Stoker created, nonetheless, with the Count's castle, the suspicious locals and the compliant wolves. The heavily overdone sexual symbolism was sometimes too blatant but it did suit the style of the novel. What surprised me was how little Dracula himself actually figured in the novel - he was more of a shadowy presence than a vibrant character and as a result of Stoker's use of multi-character narratory perspective and his omission of Dracula from this, we only ever see him through the eyes of others and are therefore unsure as to the veracity of the descriptions. Nonetheless, he cuts a sinister figure in the Whitby churchyard, which has changed very little, even in the present day. The description of the heavy mist on the Whitby sea is an eerie picture.

All in all, it's a fun book and I thoroughly enjoyed it. There's plenty of mileage for those who wish to delve deeply into the symbolic side but I chose not to. I'd rather keep this as one of my genre-defining favourites. I can indulge in Stoker's story, in the beautiful Folio Society edition (black and blood-red with woodcuts) and a big bar of chocolate on a Friday night in.

43. Number the Stars by Lois Lowry

2009-01-12T07:06:00.003-08:00

This is a simple, non-remarkable tale of the Second World War and Jewish persecution through the eyes of a 10 year old Danish girl. Nonetheless, its effective execution means it is quite a powerful story despite its brevity, albeit lacking the hook of reality that 'The Diary of Anne Frank' has.

The characters are realistic, the dialogue not stilted and it is a poignant tale. It's particularly interesting as it is set in Denmark rather than the 'usual suspects' - it is not a country you hear much about, especially during the period this novel is set. All-in-all, this is an excellent book, worth recommending for youngsters and an extremely quick but worthwhile read for adults. It is a small story with a big history.

42. Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve

2009-01-12T07:06:00.001-08:00

This is an innovative and well-written young adult book, set in an original alternate future where there is no electronic technology and the world is based on mechanical instruments and machines. The reader is led to believe that this is our world after a cataclysmic war or event. A wonderfully original civilisation has evolved where vast, mechanical traction cities prowl the land and static settlements are rare and endangered. The future's here and the future's mobile. The world is based on the priniciples of Municipal Darwinism - throughout the Hunting Grounds, larger predatory cities prowl, swallowing up unwary smaller conurbations, cheered on by their population from viewing decks as their great jaws entrap and dismantle their unfortunate prey.

All is not tranquil and compliant in this world, however. The all-reaching tenets of Municipal Darwinism are not welcomed with open arms and the revolutionary Anti-Traction League, from their base in the static cities of the East, wage a war of underground resistance and subterfuge, fighting to destroy the evil exemplified by the traction cities. It is in front of this backdrop that the reader is taken on a great adventure, filled with action and treachery, as Tom Natsworthy, a young apprentice historian from the great traction city of London and the scarred and damaged Hester Shaw, a city-less loner on a quest for revenge, are thrown together by circumstance and necessity.

This is a great book. Reeve quickly draws the reader into a world of intrigue, of revolutionary plots and diabolical schemes, of treachery, adventure and bravery. He skilfully creates a world that is both familiar and alien, futuristic yet archaic. You will be disturbed by the eerie stalkers, the Resurrected Men. You will be inspired by the magic of Airhaven. It is an evocative novel, like Indiana Jones in another age, with archaeological finds pieces of our modern world. Reeve mixes cultures in a way that is reminiscent of Blade Runner or William Gibson. The traction cities are living characters themselves.

What sets this apart, to a degree, from other young adult books is not just this vibrant world but the fact that Hester Shaw is more of an anti-heroine. She is self-serving, without empathy, controlling to the point of treachery and utterly dishonest as long as it achieves her goal. She is a damaged child and her history makes her quite ruthless.

I would certainly recommend the whole series (this is the first of four books) for younger readers and adults who haven't lost the ability to be absorbed by the magic of an almost tangible future world, strange and beautiful, alien and exciting, a world that captures the imagination. It's the kind of book I would have loved to have had read aloud to me as a child and that would have absorbed me as a teenager.

41. The Elementary Particles by Michel Houellebecq

2009-01-12T06:59:00.000-08:00

This is a brutal and explicit entry onto the 1001 Books List. Houellebecq uses a combination of detached, documentary style narration and crude, sexual narrative voice to recount the past and present lives of two brothers, Michel and Bruno, raised separately but sharing the same mother. The alternation in styles maximises the 'shock factor'; although in modern writing, crudity has become commonplace, the apposition of styles employed here does go some way towards attaching a sense of novelty to it. It isn't a book for the faint-hearted.

Each individual character's history is recounted in a formulaic, scientific manner. It is as if the narrator is setting their current actions in the context of empirical data and study. It is an interesting approach but ultimately, it leaves the reader detached from the main characters. Bruno and Michel are like matter and anti-matter. Bruno is a crude, sexually motivated unsuccessful writer whilst Michel is an almost asexual scientific genius. In the passages detailing Bruno's life, the reader hears his literal voice and his narrative voice. For Michel, the description of his life is scientific. In Bruno, Houellebecq carries out an examination of sex - not love, not relationships but brutal, visceral sex. Ultimately we are led to believe, however, that these two brothers are equally damaged and this is exemplified in the mirroring of their final relationships with women.

It is the epilogue that really puts a new slant on the book. In the end, it leaves a question in the reader's mind: having laid the worst of humanity to bare, should we be willing to give it up easily in the pursuit of security. What price should we pay for a santised but physically and emotionally safe existence? Houellebecq best exemplifies his approach to this book when he describes a scientific technique:

"A Griffiths history is constructed from a succession of more or less random quantum measurements taken at different moments".

This novel is Bruno and Michel's Griffiths history. It is a book to stimulate thoughts and ideas but not a pleasure to read. It is certainly worth reading but not one of my favourites.

40. The Giver by Lois Lowry

2009-01-04T13:34:00.000-08:00

This is a though-provoking book aimed at a young adult audience but written skillfully enough to make it relevant and enjoyable for adult readers too. Often a controversial novel in America, it gives the reader an initial impression of a darkly controlling society in which the main protagonists live. This is the backdrop to what appears at first to be the normal worries of a boy on the cusp of having to make decisions about what he will become in adulthood. It is soon evident that no member of this society has the autonomy to make these decisions, all being pre-determined by the ruling body that controls this world. As Jonas moves from the schoolyard to his adult apprenticeship, it becomes clear that the price of the harmony members of the society believe they have is enormous when viewed through the reader's eyes.

What sets this apart from many of the Young Adult novels dealing with alternate societies is the sinister nature of this world and the questions it raises about our own society. There is the constant shadow of the dark, euphemistic 'release', especially when applied to children. Despite the perceived benefits, this society is frighteningly conformist, with the eerie construction of idealised family units. Lowry invokes the classic dystopian image of the receipt of children from a centralised stock of nameless babies. All sense of individuality has been removed, even birthdays. Not even your feelings are your own in a society based on ultimate control; psychological, social and pharmaceutical.

Lowry creates a likeable character in Jonas, you find yourself hoping for him to break free as the sense of horror mounts towards an eventual realisation of the reader's worst suspicions. The ending is ambiguous, leaving the reader's imagination to work and setting the scene for the other books in the trilogy.

A note on the edition is merited - I read the HarperCollins 'More Than a Story' edition, which I can highly recommend for anyone who is thinking of giving this to a younger reader. It contains a great section of additional material to stimulate discussion and further reading, including a note from the author, a discussion of where to draw the line between defining a society as dystopian or utopian and a variety of other supplementary sections.

This is definitely a worthwhile read for any age group. Despite the dark undertones (or more accurately, because of them), it is a stimulating read for younger readers and a relevant novel for adults.

39. Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset

2008-11-16T06:34:00.000-08:00

This monumental saga of the life of a Norwegian woman in medieval times is far less well-known in translation than it should be. Often divided into three separate works, this edition is a compilation of the three parts. Having read it as one novel, I would balk at calling it an omnibus as none of the sections could really count as a stand-alone novel. The saga needs to be read in full to appreciate the scope and breadth of Undset's writing. On the surface, it is a great tale of medieval Norway and I was quickly lost in Kristin's world. It is worth noting that the edition I read was the Archer translation from the 1930s. He chose to use very archaic style and vocabulary which did take a while to get used to. There are more modern translations available (Nunnally, for example) and I will certainly be tempted to re-read this in a more contemporary style, but after the initial adjustment period, Archer's style complemented the novel's subject matter well and helped to transport me back to a Norway of so many centuries past. The Archer edition has detailed and informative notes which gave a great insight into the social and political landscape at the time the novel takes place and deserve mention in their own right for the complete and wide-reaching historical background they provide.

This is a multi-faceted novel that delivers on many levels. It is a vibrant and gripping personal history of the characters involved, of which there is a vast supporting cast, every one of them given full consideration and development in the narrative. It is also an account of a woman's lifetime relationship with her spirituality. Ever present is the moulding of and conflict between religion and superstition in the world Kristin lives in. In her own life, we see her fight a lifelong battle between the person she is and, from a spiritual perspective, the person she believes she should be. Over and above these, it is a stunningly comprehensive social and political history of Norway at this time. It is uncompromising in Undset's dedication to realism surrounding the characters. It doesn't fall into the trap of needing 'happy endings' for characters - they live and die without undermining Undset's character development, as the reader expects based on that rather than as the reader wants.

I can highly recommend this. Admittedly, there were parts that I had to persevere with when Undset delved deeply into the Scandinavian political landscape or devoted much page-space to spiritual discussions but I feel that when I inevitably re-read this, I'll be able to devote more active attention to these passages, being less impatient to find out how situations resolve for the characters. Nonetheless, it was still a superb book and I missed the characters once I put it down, a sure sign it made an impression. My only caveat would be to choose your translation carefully - it would be a shame to pass on this because you can't get to grips with Archer's archaic style and it is certainly worth the investment, temporal and emotional, to follow Kristin through her life.

38. Drop City by T.C. Boyle

2008-11-16T05:37:00.000-08:00

This was a random, experimental book choice - it was on the 1001 Books list and I hadn't read any T.C. Boyle before so I mooched it as a trial balloon. It was certainly a satisfying read and I'm going to search out more of his novels after this.

This book centres around two drastically different communities in the late 60s/early 70s hippy era: a commune in California and a bush community in Alaska living off trap lines and hunting trips. Boyle carefully sets up both of these communities as opposing ends of the same phenomenon - both, in their individual ways, are trying to drop out of a mainstream American society that they feel no fraternity with. However, that's where the similarity ends as these two are mirror images of each other. The commune may attract tourists and converts but its commitment to living off the land is laughable in comparison to the Alaskans, whose continued existence depends on it. It soon becomes clear that these communities are heading for a spectacular collision.

There is an underlying irony; that the eponymous Drop City community, formed as a means of dropping out of society and living in harmony with the land, finds it impossible to do so despite the visible evidence that it is possible, provided by the Alaskans they live alongside. The longer Drop City remains in the Alaskan bush, the more this becomes a study of the decay and breakdown of a society under pressure created by the reality of living wild in Alaska. It is a symbolic representation of the disintegration of the dream the commune member have, the artificial, romanticised version of Alaskan life they have constructed in their minds. I have seen this book described in other reviews as a comment on the American Dream. If that is the case, then Boyle seems to have penned a fairly damning indictment of those who seek it, implying naivety and unrealistic expectations.

It is a well-characterised and complex novel, certainly not just 'one of the crowd' of hippy novels this period continues to spawn. The question remains, is it a great book? For me, it was a very good book, competently executed, enjoyable and easy to read but it never really crossed the line to greatness. Possibly it suffered from the fact that I didn't really like any of the characters. There was certainly little that really stuck with me from this but it was enjoyable enough that, as I said earlier, I will read more from T.C. Boyle. An enjoyable read but not necessarily a 'must-read'.

37. The Double Helix by James Watson

2008-10-21T07:54:00.001-07:00

This is the account of the discovery of the structure of DNA, penned by one of the main protagonists in this history-making tale. It is an account from his perspective only, and is perfused by the arrogance and self-confidence that I believe was integral in James Watson's ability to persevere and make, along with Frances Crick and the other scientists involved, this earth shatteringly important scientific breakthrough. It is a picture of a man clearly rooted in the academic cliques and prejudices of the time, an invaluable record of a pivotal moment in our scientific history and a flashback to a time when academic science was firmly rooted in the field of thought and ideas, less polluted with the commercial world that now governs much of the research carried out in the scientific community.

Whilst he is not a writer, Watson's text is quite readable and far less stilted than many accounts by scientists. His personality comes through with avengeance and the reader is left with an overwhelming sense of Watson's confidence in his own superiority. I was amazed at how his questing mind skipped from research topic to research topic, whatever inspired him, from major issues to minutiae in the work of others that set his mind working on a tangent. You are left in no doubt that Watson viewed himself as an ideas man, the scientific graft necessary to make things work something he relegates to lesser scientists, in his words 'minor minds'. Condescension oozes from every page. I'll leave it to you to decide whether this combination of phrenetic bursts of activity and the ability to see the wider picture, sets a genius apart; or whether you see Watson as a scientist who built his reputation on the backs of those who have the diligence and patience to work at an idea and amass the data necessary to prove or disprove an hypothesis, swooping in at the endgame to steal the glory. I would suggest that great discoveries require both components in equal measure. One thing shines through for me, that discovery is not solely genius at work but a meeting between genius, luck and hard work.

Attitudes towards women at that time seem appallingly dated, but in the context of its historical setting, this account certainly shows that it was endemic in the academic world rather than purely James Watson's personal view. Not least in this is the diabolical treatment that Rosalind Franklin received, revealing of attitudes at that time in the academic community. In an odd addendum at the rear of the book, Watson tries to ameliorate this, although whether from personal or public necessity, we shall never know. For me it was too little, too late, too far to the back of the book - that in itself shows that he ranked her treatment as something less important than the discovery he himself was a part of making. His attitude towards women throughout the book is one that screams 'lesser class citizen'; they are there to amuse him, to date but never in a serious level as intellectual equals. Even in his description of Rosalind Franklin, he mentally corrects her physical appearance before giving cursory attention to her ideas. His superior attitude to his sister and her choice of partner is, quite frankly, nauseating in the extreme. At all times, it is Maurice Wilkins' feelings that he tries to spare, Franklin's not being worth consideration. Even his acknowledgement of Franklin in the addendum seems to count her as an exception to the rule of womanhood!

He certainly comes across as harsh, arrogant and lacking in scruples. His fierce efforts to beat Pauling to the finish-line raised the question in my mind of whether you can be a great scientist without being self-serving and competitive - I like to think so. It moves the reader to ask what is more important, the discovery being made or being the one to make it. Something I think often gets blurred in academia today. If this account shows anything, it is that scientific discovery is a combination of the dogged hard work of many and moments of inspiration, often from outside the problem - it may be both impossible and undesirable to disentangle the two.

The book, albeit from a singular perspective, is a great study and record of the interaction between a cast of strong characters. It is an invaluable window onto one aspect of the scientific process and a character study of a single great mind of our time. I would recommend it. Don't expect to like Watson, but appreciate his achievement.

36. Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer

2008-10-21T07:50:00.000-07:00

I'm going to make the glaring assumption that if you've got this far, there's something that keeps you hanging in there. A love of great writing? I doubt it. Cutting edge storytelling? Not so much. Great characterisation? Now you've got to be kidding! Nonetheless, here I am, hanging in like the rest of you as the series sucks you into the vortex that is the conclusion of the 'Twilight Saga'. I'm going to approach this fresh and dispense with any of the preconceived prejudices that 'Eclipse' left in my head. If I hadn't found 'Eclipse' so disturbing (morally and aesthetically), I wouldn't have picked up battered wife implications, anti-abortion subtexts, Christ-like analogies ... so I'm just not going there!

The writing wasn't as cringeworthy on this one. The characters were a bit better developed and Meyer kept the storyline racing. Possibly, I found it less annoying because Bella became a stronger character and no longer Edward's doormat. The story was more convoluted, relied less on adjectives pertaining to Edward's beauty. There was nothing original here, all the old Anne Rice-like influences are there, alongside a storyline snapped from the jaws of 'Underworld' and reworked in a sanitised fashion as some kind of 'coming of the Messiah' parable. The child (with the stupidest name in history, by the way) an obvious replica of Alia of the knife in Dune.

But even so, a fast and entertaining read somehow. A satisfying conclusion to the series, with enough space to extend it further if, as I suspect, Stephenie Meyer needs this guaranteed seller to keep her writing head up. It is what it is..

35. Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters

2008-09-23T02:56:00.000-07:00

I have seen this book regularly described as a "lesbian classic" and, having read it, would like to take issue with the appending of "lesbian" to that phrase. This book is a big, bawdy, history-soaked classic - to try and put it into a sub-genre of classic lit does it a disservice. It belongs front and centre in the 'classic' pile!

Waters has crafted a perfect window into a period of time, from rich descriptions of oystersellers and music halls to the beautifully wrought recreation of the lesbian sub-culture of the upper classes, alive again in these pages, to the passion and dedication of the social activists and the squalour and poverty of those they were charged to protect. She has great immediacy of description - the music halls come alive as vibrant, hot, buzzing places of entertainment. Her description of their scent was magnificent - reminiscent of the unique smell of English pubs that wafts doorwards from the shabbier establishments in the central London sidestreets of the present day - with a smattering of the odours of Victorian England thrown into the ephemeral mix.

This is a first person narrative and I'm always wary of these because so much is reliant on the author's ability to create a believable character that the reader can empathise with. Waters does an admirable job with Nan, who is far from flawless and at times even callous and selfish, but who I liked throughout - her imperfections making her more real, her reactions more natural. It is through her eyes that we are taken on a journey through Victorian England.

Much is made of the lesbian theme of the novel, but what is often overlooked is that this is a great character novel and Nan typifies this. Her relationship with Kitty and the changes it undergoes show the development of Nan as an individual. From the outset, it seems that Nan is more willing to embrace her own sexuality than Kitty. Early on Walters describes Nan's feelings of being 'bound and fettered','chained and muzzled and blinkered' by her inability to publicly display the affection she demonstrates for Kitty in private. Kitty comes across as an ambitious user from the beginning. What is interesting about the dynamic of their relationship is how it seems to undergo a transition of emotional dominance, despite the fact that Nan is controlled by her love for Kitty. Initially it is Kitty that seems worldly and superior, but as the relationship develops, Nan becomes more self-assured and comfortable with her own sexuality (although she sees it more specifically as her love for Kitty alone). I believe this is because, for Nan, Kitty's approval is most important. For Kitty, on the other hand, it is society's approval that matters most. Could Nan be described as naive here? Possibly so, but in that naivety, Nan shows how simple it should be. Is it right to be critical of that naivety, to think she should be more jaded? I prefer to be critical of a society that required her to be more jaded in order to be realistic. The reader can feel nothing but sympathy for Nan as she has to face the fact that her sister Alice loves her more for who she wants her to be than for the person Nan is.

There are themes which resonate whichever time and place you live in. The sense that change and novelty in your life often distances you from the important people in your past. This is epitomised by the painful description of Nan's visit home from London. Nan's real love for Kitty and the abandonment and betrayal she experiences when Kitty makes a choice that doesn't include her leave her so broken that she eschews any real affection she is offered by those around her. It's painfully ironic that, destroyed and bitter as she is, she finds no sympathy for her male patrons who use her services as a renter. Her entry into the profession, born of the hatred raised in her by Walter, left her with no empathy for the men forced into the hidden underworld of London, much as she had been. In the end, she commits herself to a loveless arrangement with an older woman, based on pure hedonism and ultimate self-objectification.

Throughout this novel, Nan is 'owned' in some way - by Kitty (emotionally), by Diana (physically), by her own anger and hatred - and as I read, I found I was itching for her to find her own path and free herself from the physical and emotional bondage imposed on her. It is as if she is a work-in-progress and experiences a lifetime's education in a few short years. I was struck by the sense of homecoming there was when Nan found the society of the women in "The Boy in the Boat". I was rooting for her to win this time! The Boy is a direct contrast to the Felicity Place society. Nan has passed full circle to come home. She began as a naive girl and passed through the opposite extreme of debauched hedonism to finally find a home among people who are warm, realistic and good, not unlike her family in Whitstable. In the final pages, when all of the elements of Nan's past come together at the political rally, we see the culmination of that experience in the new Nan - comfortable with herself, confident enough to truly love again. I found myself wanting to cheer out loud for Nan and Flo and hoped that the time had come for them to be happy.

A great book for the long winter evenings. Close the door, take the phone off the hook and settle down in your favourite chair - you'll find it impossible to put down and you'll have to drag yourself back from the dingy streets of Victorian England.

34. The Little Grey Men by B.B.

2008-09-10T14:01:00.000-07:00

This novel is one of the all-time great river novels - 'Heart of Darkness' with little folk. A quest for their long-lost brother, Cloudberry, leads Dodder and his brothers on a journey of great bravery and excitement. Cloudberry travelled upstream years before to find the source of the Folly and never returned.

This is the first of what I am sure are going to be many indulgent purchases in the name of furnishing a library for my daughter - patently they're for me but I won't tell anyone if you don't. I read this a long, long time ago when my parents allowed me to borrow it from their shop as long as I read it without marking it so it could still be sold! I remember that first read, as a child of nine or ten, as captivating - I was loathed to return it but we didn't have enough spare money for me to keep it, so when I noticed The Folio Society were releasing an edition I was compelled to buy it.

This is a true children's classic. From the outset, B.B.'s familiarity and knowledge of the natural world is apparent - the book is steeped in nature. The fact that it is so evocative of the British countryside makes it believable. Anyone who has spent time poking about stream banks as a child or adult can imagine sitting very still and watching as the animals and gnomes come out of the cracks and crevices. The plausibility of these little folk appearing from the tree roots is what makes it so magical for children.

B.B.'s description of a cosy night by the fire in the oak home of the gnomes shows great skill in characterisation and creation of a world that comes alive in the pages. There is something melancholy about the atmosphere as they hunker down against the cold and wet. The reader is drawn quickly into this little world of the gnomes and the three brothers are so endearing that it is impossible not to be affected by the poignant departure of Baldmoney and Sneezewort. Adult and child alike will share in the horror of Crow Wood and the magic touches hearts of any age.

This book is evocative of a bygone age. The creatures he describes are often relics of the countryside of our grandfathers' time when the country was rich and replete with diverse and rare species that you see few of today. The language and writing is neither patronising nor childish. It's a delightful tale and one that is educational with B.B.'s descriptions of the natural world. For children, it is a source of inspiration, feeding their imagination and acting as a starting point for the development of a relationship of true love and affection for the countryside and creatures around us. It is as if the countryside is a character in itself.

I don't usually comment on editions but it would be remiss to finish this review without giving The Folio Society credit for the beautifully produced edition they have released. It certainly added to my enjoyment of the novel. It's wonderfully illustrated with D.J. Watkins-Pitchford's black and white woodcuts and beautifully complementary colour plates. In combination with the magical story, this makes this a wonderful 'read aloud' book for younger children and a treasure for older children to cherish.

For some biographical information on B.B., check out my blog entry at The Book Gnome.

33. Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer

2008-09-07T13:31:00.000-07:00

"True love, my arse!" That's what springs to mind on finishing the third instalment of the 'Twilight' saga. No longer do I think that Edward and Bella are star-crossed lovers separated by circumstance. I've come to the conclusion that Edward has really done a number on Bella. This is the first of the books that I had a serious problem with. For the first half, Edward is a really good approximation of a classic abusive, controlling partner. He breaks down Bella's self-esteem and manipulates, isolates and controls her. It culminates in a downright disturbing chapter when Bella is held hostage by his family and her low opinion of herself means she takes it. It takes a lot for me to react like this to a book - I'm not a militant feminist and I often think that people make a lot of fuss about nothing with these kind of complaints. What's more disturbing is the self-perpetuating nature of the abuse. Bella is not much better on the emotional damage side in her selfish treatment of Jacob.

I was close to abandoning this book on principle in the first section - it was Jacob and the La Push werewolves that redeemed it for me. He's a loveable character (up until he seems to lack the understanding of 'No means no'). Bella and Edward probably deserve each other and quite frankly the sooner he bites her and they disappear, the better! Jacob though, he's great and I found I was rooting for him to wake up and smell the coffee and find himself someone better than Bella (although preferably not a 2 year old like one of the other adult werewolves ... but let's not go there or I'll never shut up...). The vamps aren't all bad, I like Alice despite her complicity in Edward's plans - actually, there are moments when it seems that Edward dominates her in a similar way to Bella. I don't understand how any self-respecting author, let alone a female author, could laud female subservience and male dominance to such a degree. Not one female character has any strength. Even Emily suffers her scars because Sam didn't mean it and wasn't responsible for his actions. It's like an abused girlfriends' handbook.

I also hated the author's convenient use of an ultimatum to preserve the lovers' religious morality. Of course it's OK that Edward killed people because they were bad people but heaven forbid that they should risk their fragile souls by having pre-marital sex! I wonder here how much the author's religious background shows through?

Will I read 'Breaking Dawn'? Certainly! Like I said, hooked. Would I like my daughter to read this and love Bella and Edward and accept this portrayal of social dynamics? Not so much. Bring back Buffy! I want a vampire loving high school girl that kicks butt not a willingly complicit doormat.

32. New Moon by Stephenie Meyer

2008-09-07T06:28:00.001-07:00

This is the second in the 'Twilight Series' and continues the tale of the 'great love' between Edward (vampire, superlatives cannot describe his beauty) and Bella (human, self-confidence zero, deathwish).

To be fair to the literary side of things, I must say that once again Meyer's writing is uninspiringly pedestrian. Let's face it, the story premise and background is borrowed from just about every vampire genre success story - heavily from the Buffyverse and (especially the Italian vampires) eerily reminiscent of a teenage homage to writers such as Anne Rice. I use the word 'teenage' intentionally - the best YA genre writers write for that audience, not as if they are one of them. Meyer doesn't. Her style is adolescent - like a teenager writing Buffy fan fiction rather than an author crafting a viable set of characters. In contrast to the 'vampire greats' like Anne Rice, Meyer's characterisation is weak and overly reliant on long lists of indulgent adjectives rather than real character building. Bella, in particular, is completely lacking in depth - I wondered how much more I could take of her self-deprecation and Edward's 'beauty'. I had a problem with the religion-pedalling debate about vampires and souls. It was out of place. I don't object to religious sub-themes, intelligently handled, in books where the story justifies it, but here I felt that it did not have a place in the story other than possibly to make the characters more acceptable to the author herself. For writing quality, by rights this should be a one-star book.

Meyer's success lies in the fact that despite all of this, her books have frustratingly enjoyable stories. This one is no exception. I say 'frustratingly' because I feel annoyed as I imagine what a book it could have been if it were in the hands of a good writer.

So, why am I going to read 'Eclipse'? Because I enjoyed it despite all of the above. It's the fulfilment of every adolescent bad-boy fantasy that teenage girls have ever entertained. It's a dangerous drug this 'Twilight' series .... I'm hooked!

31. Bones to Ashes by Kathy Reichs

2008-09-07T04:09:00.000-07:00

There's not too much you can write about crime fiction in a review without heading into spoiler territory (not something I'm going to do here). I don't expect this kind of book to be 'high art', I aim for well-written story, innovative enough and with enough suspense to keep my interest. Bearing in mind, I've bought and read the rest of the series already, I am a relatively captive audience. Unfortunately, this book falls short on all counts. Without giving anything crucial away, it continues to relate the life and career of forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan. This time she finds herself drawn into an investigation of the disappearance of a childhood friend by its similarity to a current case. Meanwhile, her stumbling relationship with Detective Andrew Ryan continues stumbling in the background.

The plot of this novel was hardly gripping and electric and there was little originality. In fact, I'd worked out what was going on long before Tempe did. As for her relationship with Ryan, god, I've rarely come across such a limp fish! Reichs is in the running for a 'Worst Sex Scene Ever' award and there's no excuse for a character saying things like 'the nookie was good', even if it was addressed to a cat.

I think I'll probably buy the next book, they come up cheaply in supermarkets, but I am fast losing patience with this series. Soon, as I did with the Kay Scarpetta novels, I will have to make a conscious decision to drop the series. Already I've just fallen into the buying from habit not excitement trap.

For those interested in a bit of biographical information on Kathy Reichs, check out my other blog, The Book Gnome.

30. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

2008-08-13T08:19:00.000-07:00

I think the best way to describe this book is as a really big, gooey, caramel-filled, high-calorie chocolate bar. You know you shouldn't, you know it's bad for you and has no real food value but you love it anyway and keep coming back for more.

On the surface, it is not an amazingly original concept: high school girl falls in love with dashing, immortal member of the fraternity of the undead who has a conscience and fights against his base instincts to become an heroic and useful member of society. Meyer lays it on with a trowel, too. We are left in no doubt that Edward is gorgeous - she uses every second paragraph to point that out in very plain terms and Bella's reactions are described in an almost adolescent writing style. The book focuses far too exclusively on Bella and Edward's interaction and the peripheral characters are not well-fleshed-out. Bella and Edward themselves are absolutely stereotypical with no depth to them. There are some unsatisfactory plot devices too, such as the baseball game, which even in the context of the subject matter of the book, doesn't really work.

But the book does work. It draws you in from the outset and it is really just a one day read despite its length. The vampire family are intriguing characters and I'm itching to see more of Jacob Black. I can't wait to see what's next for Edward and Bella and they've already entered the realms of well-loved characters. It is a truly guilty pleasure, but if vampires and high school are your thing, it's one I'd recommend you indulge in! I'm off to read a classic now in a literary effort to burn off the calories......

29. Earth Inc. by Michael Bollen

2008-08-11T04:25:00.001-07:00

This book is an interesting if not revolutionary tale set in an alternate reality driven by consumerism, where the world has been taken over by Softcom (a computer corporation) and policed by O'Connell's (a fast food chain). In front of this backdrop, we follow the lives of hapless anti-heroes Jorj and Abi as circumstances and bad luck take them from one unfortunate scenario to the next as the fate of the world rests in their rather incapable hands.

Humorous books are difficult to do well and this one is no exception. It's effectively written and I didn't have any problem flying through it to the end but the balance between humour and story-crafting was not always right. Quantity is not always a good substitute for quality and, especially in the early stages, this book seemed like more of a scaffold for jokes than a coherent story. This left the humour feeling forced and dissipated its effect. There were definitely periods early on where depth of description was lacking, especially at the beginning when the premise is being set up. This has the effect of distancing the reader at a time when the author should be drawing them in. That's not to say that Bollen isn't funny, he is. There are some quaint moments such as the call-centre 'I want to die' episode which will be cannily familiar to any who worked in one I'm sure and I loved Bil, the character living in an unused office amongst the detritis of a world he couldn't bear to leave behind - reminiscent of a type I believe everyone will have encountered in their working life. It's just that the humour sometimes tries too hard and has the effect of leaving the reader feeling like they have been exposed to a constant stream of one-liners. This led to problems with characterisation. At times it seems like the characters never indulge in normal dialogue, everything is a snide, sarcastic comment. They would have been more plausible if the humour had been combined with more 'normal' conversation. The interaction between Abi and Rob James at the end is an example of how it could have been done throughout. In fact, in the final portion of the book, when the focus is more on the resolution of the story, the balance is much better and this means that the humour is punchier and has greater effect.

I did enjoy this book as a distraction and an entertaining read. It is certainly not an awful book. I look forward to more from Michael Bollen and hope that as his writing style matures and becomes more rounded, he will show his humorous side to its best advantage. A solid 3-star read.

28. The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

2008-08-11T03:08:00.001-07:00

This is a masterful work by Wharton, set in the upper echelons of New York society in the 1870s. It deals with the lives of Newland Archer, his young bride May and her cousin, the Countess Ellen Olenska, against a backdrop of the shallow and exclusive high society that constrained them at the time, surrounded by a wealth of characters who define the world they live in.

It is impossible to read this book with anything other than modern eyes. From a female perspective in the 21st century, Newland comes across throughout as weak and patronising with his desire to tenaciously cling to the ideal of a "woman's innoncence" and his position as the worldly man who can educate them. May, his young wife, appears both irritating and frustrating. She is manipulative via her innocent assumptions and unbending will on matters of social conformation. By rights, the reader's sympathy should lie with her, but instead one finds that it is Newland Archer for whom you are rooting, willing him to break free. To a modern reader, Countess Olenska is the character with whom sympathy lies. Her independent mind and spirit fights against constraint by the society that she has returned to as a refuge. It is not until Newland forces her to be aware of it, that she adapts her behaviour at all. Ironic that it should be the case when the rest of the story unfolds.

I loved this book when I read it a decade ago and on this re-read I was waiting to understand why I had remembered it as such a classic. As I reached the final third, I realised that this is where it shines. The subtext behind the actions of Newland, May and Ellen and the words unspoken carry such weight that it is suffused with tension and sensuality. Throughout there is the idea that to this society, women were almost sacrificial in the face of scandal. The ultimate irony is that despite Newland's consideration of himself as worldly, his need to educate May, in fact he is as innocent as she in his desire to "get away" with Ellen "into a world where ..... categories do not exist". It is Ellen that is realistic. The idea that May had "spent her poetry and romance on their short courting" whilst Newland remains blameless in his eyes and cannot see that he is as responsible and changed as she. The culmination of the farewell meal for Ellen when Archer finally loses his innocence, his moment of realisation of what has been thought of him by society, what has been observed and supposed, is as painful a description of disillusionment as any I have read. Throughout this book there are moments when you dislike May intensely as she seems controlling and manipulative (irrationally, as she is the victim and has done nothing wrong). However, there are moments, such as after the leaving party for Ellen, when she deserves, and Wharton moves us to give her, sympathy.

The book is finally resolved by a poignant and brilliant ending where Newland is shown for what he really is: a man as devoted to convention in his way as any other of his time, a man who cherishes his ideals more than the reality of life when it comes to the final reckoning.

A brilliant and restrained book, a real classic!

27. After the Quake by Haruki Murakami

2008-08-04T03:42:00.000-07:00

I must assert from the outset that I am not a particular fan of the short story genre. However, this collection dealing with individuals touched in some way by the Kobe earthquake in Japan has turned that opinion on its head and shows Murakami to be a master of the form.

My main problem with a lot of short stories is that they seem forced and in some way less than a novel-length piece. Murakami proves that it is the writer's skill that limits them not the form itself, each of these stories existing as a perfect self-contained whole without any need for the reader to long for a longer piece. His characterisation is brilliant. He manages to convey the emptiness of a man whose marriage has disintegrated and a collection of misfits brought together by a bonfire on the beach using few words and sparse prose, lovingly crafted. He is an expert at descriptives, the hangover at the beginning of 'All God's Children Can Dance' a prime example of this. This is a humorous and slightly oedipal tale of a man finding his faith and demonstrates that Murakami is capable of intertwining humour and depth without trivialising his work.

He writes from many perspectives, each as alive in his work as the others - a broken man, an embittered female with regret eating away at her inside, among others. The reader is left with a sense of priviledge at being able to bear witness to a moment in the lives of characters that live on past the end of Murakami's tales. It is a sensation of a perfect glimpse of a moment and the context it stands in, not the impression that the author has been constrained by the format. There are still elements of Murakami's whimsy and magic such as the giant frog, a harbinger of disasters to come. In a testament to his characterisation, you find yourself accepting and rooting for the frog against the odds.

The enduring theme of these stories is that of rebuilding - as Kobe has to rebuild after the destruction wreaked by the earthquake, so these characters have to rebuild their lives. The reader is left with a sense of hope that they will succeed. This is a masterclass in the art form and leaves other authors in the shade. Definitely worth the time spent reading and a 1001 book choice that I have no problem with!

26. Virtual Light by William Gibson

2008-07-22T05:12:00.000-07:00

This is classic William Gibson. Set in the near-future dystopian society of North and South California, Gibson plays his traditional trick of introducing diverse characters and situations and gradually knitting them together into a climactic ending. Centred on the society that has grown up on the Bridge, anarchic, antiestablishment, unmonitored, he creates a world apart but one with its own life and heartbeat. The reader roots for the odd cross-section of individuals carving a life on the new frontier. He has created a dark, bleak but believable future world. There's just enough difference to make it foreign and alien, enough touchstones to make it a tangible future. The technology is futuristic without being ridiculous. It's a backdrop to a dark, violent subculture in a world dominated by all-powerful corporations, outside the law. There is an enmeshing of Eastern and Western cultures creating a hybrid society, truly globalised, with blurred boundaries. Gibson effectively tells the stories of his protagonists' lives through a mix of narration, personal recollection, flashback and memories of others. It takes the reader the full duration of the book to flesh out fully each character and event. Is this a genre novel? Definitely. Is that a bad thing? Not at all!

25. An Artist of the Floating World by Kasuo Ishiguro

2008-07-22T03:04:00.000-07:00

In this book, Ishiguro brings alive post-war Japan from the Japanese perspective. It focuses on the life of Masuji Ono, an artist, father and grandfather. Set in the backdrop of a changing Japanese society, he retells his personal history in excerpts between descriptions of the marriage negotiations for his second daughter. Through these insights, we learn of his family history, his personal and professional history and Japan's own history.

This is an intimate portrayal of a relationship between a father and his daughters, highlighting the miscommunication that generational differences can cause. The unwritten suggestion is that Ono's relationship with his son would have been easier, had he survived the war and that his wife, had she too survived, would have placated his daughters. It is backed by a changing world where the alienation of the older generation is all the more acute as Japan progresses through not just modernisation but westernisation. There is an constant echo of the country's collective guilt over acts during the war years in Ono's personal guilt over his own past. It is clear that Ono's view of his own past and guilt is coloured by his present day feelings - the reader is left unsure whether Ono is giving an accurate representation of the opinions and actions of others or merely creating 'demons' from his personal view of his culpability.

This personal struggle for justification and absolution is set as a counterpoint to a sensitive portrayal of social relationships in Japan at the time. At all times, the distance between the old and the young is apparent; both socially as a result of the old social structures in Japan and in a temporal sense - the young being more forward and westward thinking, happy to devolve themselves from the Japan of the war years in the name of progress. There is also a sense of anger amongst the young about the lost generation of their peers who, like Ono's son, never survived the war.

This is a quiet work of brilliance. Ishiguro uses understated prose to convey atmosphere and skilfully draw the main characters. It has certainly moved me to read more of his work and so this is definitely to be recommended.

24. The Body Artist by Don DeLillo

2008-06-29T06:35:00.001-07:00

This is a strange, evocative, challenging little book. DeLillo writes with flair and skill, making this a true literary voyage through a moment in the life of Lauren Hartke, the eponomous Body Artist. In essence, this book deals with a short, traumatic period in her life from her own perspective.

The prose is sparse, emphasizing the loneliness and isolation of Hartke's life and artistic vocation. The opening is a masterful description of a couple dancing around each other, the minutiae of daily interaction so accurately conveyed that one could not fail to recognise it as a situation so familiar to us all. The genius of DeLillo's writing in this book is epitomised in his ability to convey through this description the loneliness and separation of these two people as they move through their married life together. It is poetry in a prose form that permeates this novel. As DeLillo describes the remaking of Hartke's body (she is an artist whose medium is her own form and physique), we see evidence of this in descriptions such as:

"She had emery boards and files, many kinds of scissors, clippers and creams that activated the verbs of abridgement and incision".

In the remaking of her image, we see a woman who is trying to disappear, to become "classically unseen". The nameless man who enters her life during this period is the epitome of her aims - he has achieved the bland anonimity that she so craves. As she is an art project, so we find this man becomes hers too. As she studies him and develops him, she seeks within him answers to events in her own life. In the end, the reader is left unsure whether he existed at all or was just a facet of Hartke. It is never clear how much of the world was real and how much was her own internalised world. In seeking answers to the question of the nameless man's prescient ability, is she not merely questioning whether she herself could have seen the eventual actions of others around her, whether she could have altered her own future?

This is a book to be mulled over. I think I will return to it, having read it to the end, and re-read it with fresh eyes. Deserving of it's place on the '1001 Books List'.

23. Middlemarch by George Eliot

2008-06-29T06:34:00.001-07:00

This classic novel has been languishing on my bookshelf for more than a decade in the 'Books I Really Ought To Read' corner of shame so I was very glad that the Group Reads - Literature group picked it for their next book. It moved me to pick it up and stick with it, not to be seduced away by shorter 200-page-reads.

I will state up front that I just loved this book. I approached it expecting to enjoy it, certainly to appreciated it for its classical literary merit, but not necessarily to love it in the way I do some of my favourite more contemporary novels. How wrong I was! I am used to reading classic novels and commenting on their literary merit as if they are a genre apart from their modern counterparts, but what struck me about Middlemarch was how alive and contemporary it was - I raced through to the end empathising and identifying with the characters and situations from my modern perspective. Much has been written about Eliot's depth of characterisation and layered storytelling, about her use of language and development of themes - all undeniably valid. However, what is sometimes missed in these lofty critiques is that Middlemarch is a cracking tale and a great love story. It's one of those rare novels that you live with and are absorbed by so completely and for so long, that on finishing it is as if you have lost a group of friends.

Admittedly, in the beginning it took a while to understand where Eliot was heading with the many different character threads and her somewhat verbose style took a few chapters to get into. If you find this difficult, I can only recommend you stick with it. This book more than returns the favour by the end and I found I whipped through the second half, desperate to find out how it would all end up for my favourites.

Possibly the best demonstration of its pulling power is that the characters grow and develop so much over the course of the novel that I know that I will re-read it sometime in the future because I want to go back to the early sections knowing what I do now about how each individual ends up.

The most worthwhile read I've had in a long, long while and a rare 5 stars from me!

22. The Virus Hunters by Joe McCormick, Susan Fisher-Hoch

2008-06-20T05:22:00.000-07:00

I was moved to pick this book up at the library because of an interest in the field of infectious disease that the two authors work in. It recounts their personal descriptions of their professional history as epidemiologists and immunological investigators working for the CDC (Centre for Disease Control) both in the US and at various points around the globe where an outbreak of some infectious disease has occurred. Their aim, to put a personal face on the victims and diseases that strike horror into the minds of people in the developed world such as Ebola and Lassa Fever.

Judging by the third writing credit, I assume that this book was ghostwritten to a degree. Certainly it is apparent that their skills were better spent curing diseases than crafting novels! However, that is not what this book is about so it doesn't suffer too much from the fact that it is more a transcribed monologue than a work of literary prowess. It is not so stilted as to interfere with the reader's enjoyment. After all, it is the content rather than the style that is of prime importance. Nonetheless, occasionally the heavy-handed transitions from one 'voice' to the other (e.g. "I'll let Joe take it from here") did grate. I felt that the main narrator, McCormick, had the most interesting and relevant tale to tell. I did wonder whether Fisher-Hoch would have been selected as a second narrator had she not been married to McCormick! It was, I think, more distracting than informative to switch perspectives.

Despite these criticisms, it remains a fascinating book if you are at all interested in the field of infectious diseases. It did, to a large extent, achieve its goal in putting a human face to the victims of these diabolical haemorrhagic fevers. Albeit one that differed depending on your nationality - despite all the professions of anger at the treatment of the developing world's sick and dying by the Western world, it did not escape my notice that the authors themselves were guilty of the same double standards when 'one of their own', a British nurse got sick - something that I didn't get the impression they acknowledged. I also found them to be exceedingly US-centric. I work in the British scientific community and their condescension and patronising tone when describing non-US science and medicine did not sit well, the US being not quite so all-powerful as they would have liked us to believe.

As an unprecedented first-hand account of what it's like to work on the front-line in the battle against emerging infectious diseases, this is certainly to be recommended. As a work of literary prowess, it is left hanging. I would recommend it to people who find the subject matter interesting, I don't believe the writing is good enough to encourage those who are ambivalent to stick with it.

21. Autobiography of a Geisha by Sayo Masuda

2008-05-24T10:17:00.000-07:00

I bought this book hot on the heels of having read and loved Arthur Golden's 'Memoirs of a Geisha'. I had lost myself in the world of 'flower and willow' whilst reading it and wasn't ready to return. An autobiography seemed like something that would satisfy my need for a window onto the real world that Golden romanticised so well. It turned out that this book provided that and so much more.

In essence, the life of Sayo Masuda is very similar to the geisha life described in Golden's book. At a young age she was indentured to a geisha house by her mother, who went on to marry and have further children by another man to Masuda's father. This is the tale of her life as she trains and becomes a practising geisha and further. It tells of the wide range of jobs and schemes she was involved in afterwards in her struggle to survive whilst bringing up her half-brother.

It is simply written, although the nuances of translation do not fully do justice to the distinction linguistically between the most basic form of Japanese that she wrote in and what would have been more usual in a written work, there being no equivalent distinction in English. What this does mean is that the writing seems very natural, almost as if the reader is privy to an audience with Masuda herself. She is certainly a narrator with whom I had no problem empathising. Her descriptions of all parts of her life came alive and provided a real view of what actual geisha life and ex-geisha life was in Japan during this time. It was fascinating to read the portrayal of the day-to-day existence she lived.

The difference between this and Golden's book lies not in the description (I was impressed, having read this, how accurate his portrayal of geisha life was), but in the ultimate genre of the book. This work, being non-fiction, held none of the soothing elements of Golden's tale - for Masuda, there was no simple happy ending for life doesn't provide them in the way a fiction novel does. Her tragedies and heartbreaks were real and this resonates with the reader. Her life as a geisha was skirting around the edges of what could be described as prostitution. Whereas in Golden's book, the focus was strongly on the level of the artisan, here we are aware that the reality was placed more firmly in the arena of the courtesan.

Perhaps the most poignant moment of the whole novel is the 'Afterword', where G.G.Rowley (the translator) gives a brief description of his attempts to meet Masuda. I will leave it to you to find this yourself, but will go so far as to say tht this, above all, shows the wide reaching personal implications of geisha life.

I can strongly recommend this book as both an historic record and a personal history. If you have already read 'Memoirs of a Geisha', then it is essential background reading. If you haven't, then it is a poignant and sensitive portrait of an individual and a culture foreign to the Western mind but not so alien as to be dismissed with detachment.

20. Snow by Orhan Pamuk

2008-05-23T02:34:00.000-07:00

On the surface this is a book about a poet, Ka, who returns to Turkey after twelve years of political exile and, on the recommendation of a friend, visits Kars. This town has recently experienced a rash of suicides among young women and is involved in a verbal conflict and public debate about the practice of covering women's heads. It's indicative of the conflict between religious observance and atheism and the East and the West that simmers below the surface here. The early part of the novel is narrated from the perspective of Ka himself and the action focuses on a short period of time while Kars is cut off from the rest of Turkey by a heavy snowfall. As the town is isolated, so the action itself becomes more detached from reality. The snow itself a symbol that touches so many levels of this novel.

During this time, the reader follows the interactions of many characters: Ka, the idealistic poet, irritating, hypocritical and self-absorbed; the shallow, vain and selfish Ipek; Kadife, her sister, the principled leader of the headscarf girls; Blue, a dogmatic and unpleasant reactionary Islamic fundamentalist; Sunay, the farcical and pitiful actor looking for one last moment in the spotlight before his reknown fades. Personally, I found none of the characters that likeable and certainly couldn't empathise with their situations, so what surprised me was how much I liked the novel. Normally, if I don't empathise with anyone, I find it hard to make a connection with a novel. As I analysed this and read further, I realised that the voice of the narrator, a friend of Ka's, that dominates the storytelling in later parts of the novel, appealed to me initially on a subconscious level. At a similar time, without giving too much away, the novel shifts and is no longer about Ka himself, but more about the lost poems he wrote during his time in Kars. His experiences are seen in the context of these mythical, absent entities that become characters themselves. I found myself wishing that they not be found as to hear them would shatter the image of their meaning that Pamuk's description had given me.

Herein lies some of the brilliance of this novel. The reader comes to appreciate the poems from the meaning and inspiration behind them without actually hearing them. First we are introduced to the characters from Ka's perspective, later the narrator (who we are led to believe is Pamuk) sheds new light on them as he travels to Kars in search of Ka's notebook, the poems and some kind of explanation behind events he has recounted.

I won't add more because I don't want to spoil this for anyone who hasn't yet read it. I can say that it is an easy read and on one level not challenging to the reader. On another level, however, as you begin to appreciate the layers in this book, it becomes highly thought-provoking, asking the reader to delve beyond the surface to get the most from it. It is definitely one of my 'Recommended Reads'!

19. A River Runs Through It and Other Stories by Norman Maclean

2008-05-19T06:56:00.000-07:00

In case anyone reads the review and is worried, the information I've referred to in it, whilst containing plot details, is not a Spoiler as Maclean himself refers to the events at the beginning of the novella. I have focused on the main piece in this collection, 'A River Runs Through It' as it is the most substantial of the three novellas.

"In our family there was no clear line between religion and fly-fishing"

So starts the chronicle of the hot summer of 1937, the last Maclean spent with his younger brother Paul. This is an unparalleled piece of writing, a poignant and captivating memoir of a particular moment in time for this family and an evocative description of a bygone era in Montana. Maclean's descriptive talents are immense and there is great poetry to his portrayal of fly-fishing as an art form. He applies them equally as effectively when describing the natural world around him and the reader is transported to a time past - feeling the lazy summer heat and the constant flow of the great Montana waters.

He is exceptionally perceptive in his description and analysis of his relationship with his brother Paul. The mirroring of their interaction in the landscape as the brothers cross the Continental Divide at the same time as it becomes apparent there is a great divide in their own lives is subtly achieved.

It is a short work that is peppered with humour to balance the poignancy of events, none more so than the extremely funny description of the disdain which fly fisherman have for fishermen of the bait variety. The descriptions of Maclean's brother-in-law (a bait fisherman, no less) especially on the ill-fated fishing trip which culminated in a naked, sunburnt prostitute running down the main street, are ascerbic and brilliant.

This short novella is as much a history of the waters and fish of Montana, as it is of the family Maclean. The river lives in it as a character all of its own and the reader finds themselves infused with the same love and enthusiasm for fish and the art of fly-casting as Maclean and his family have.

"If you listen carefully, you will hear that the words are underneath the water"

Maclean's use of words and vocabulary choices are second to none. This piece is rich and full. I found myself noting so many quotes from it, just because I found his phrasing so beautiful and his meaning so relevant. It is a piece that is based on a deep foundation of words that breathe life into the natural world around the protagonists.

In the end, however, this story of a family tragedy is heartbreaking. The description of the final fishing trip the sons took with their ageing father is almost painful as the reader is already equipped with the knowledge each moment is one that would never be repeated. Maclean artfully conveys the inevitability of Paul's death through his character building and leaves the reader aching for the loss both to the family and the world, of a brother, a son and an artist.

I cannot recommend this highly enough. It is a classic work and is both moving and affecting. Maclean puts it more eloquently than I ever could: "I am haunted by waters".

18. Perdido Street Station by China Mieville

2008-04-29T02:10:00.003-07:00

This is pure indulgent dark sci-fi, very well executed. The world of New Crobuzon that Mieville creates is a rich, layered, vibrant mix of species underlain by a deep, seedy underbelly of corruption and vice, encompassing all the species that live in it. As an 'imagined world', this works very well. Mieville is skilled in his imagery and writes with an immediacy that breathes life into weird and wonderful species and the dismal, dark world they live in. This is a dirty, crowded, polluted world - industrial and grimy. The people that live in it - mutants, humans, other species, machines - are coloured by that grime. Parliament and the militia rule with heavy hands.

It is against this backdrop that the story unfolds. Characters such as Isaac and Lin, the unlikely couple; Yagharek, the intriguing stranger with unusual demands; the viscious criminal Mr Motley and many others live their lives. This is a moment of change for them all as an evil and dark group of creatures is accidentally released - freed to prey on a helpless city. These events bring the people together as they try and fight this unstoppable enemy. I won't go into any more plot details as I don't want to enter 'spoiler' territory. It is enough to say that there is little uplifting about this book and even the ending does little to salve the horror that has gone before.

I enjoyed this book and despite its length (867 pages), it read well and fast. Nonetheless, for me it was slightly too long. I'm not averse to long novels but I felt that the length of this one was unnecessary. A sharper and more streamlined novel would have had more effect as there were passages and threads that appeared redundant. I would, however, most certainly recommend it.

13. Gossip Girl by Cecily von Ziegesar

2008-04-10T06:07:00.000-07:00

I saw the author of this book (heinously priviledged ... no wonder she got published!) talking about how much she based it on her own experiences as a teen in the oddly rich set of New York's Upper East Side and I was intrigued enough to give it a try. It was a snappily written teen novel that was easily disposed of in an evening and was surprisingly entertaining. I think that partially came from flashbacks to the events of my teenage years - OK, so we weren't as rich but believe me, sometimes it was pretty close to the mark ...... for 'sometimes' read 'often'! Would an adult from a background dissimilar to the story find it as entertaining? I'm not sure. Although it has to be said that 'Sex and the City' did well enough so there's certainly a market out there for the shallow! There is a sharp edge to it which stops it from coming over all 'Sweet Valley High', and let's face it, 'The OC' was a hit and this is just like a literary re-run in colder climes. What amused me is how grown-up we thought we were living the same kind of black tie, hedonistic, hungover at school life. I could give the game away and tell you which one I was like ..... but I think not!

12. Dragonsinger: Harper of Pern by Anne McCaffrey

2008-04-10T06:06:00.004-07:00

The fourth Pern novel continues to follow Menolly during her time in the Harper Hall and I thoroughly enjoyed this. A more substantial read than Dragonsong, it really brings the life in the Harper Hall alive. Menolly herself is a truly likeable character and you finds yourself rooting for her to succeed against any obstacles in her way. The Masterharper is a likeable father-figure and the others in the hall are lively characters. The firelizards are an interesting focus and the world of Pern is more layered - from the Crafthall perspective that this novel adds to the Weyr-focused view we've seen before.

Again, for all Pern addicts out there, one of my favourites so far. Lose yourself in an alternative reality for a while, you won't regret it!

11. Dragonsong by Anne McCaffrey

2008-04-10T06:06:00.003-07:00

The third Pern novel focuses on Menolly, a girl living in a sea hold with a great musical talent. Thwarted by her father's sexist expectations, she leaves the hold to pursue her dreams of freedom.

This is a very short book, as well executed as any of Anne McCaffrey's tales but in my opinion it could have been combined with the next in the series to make a more substantial tale. That said, it's still a good read and I was lucky enough to be able to move straight on to the next in the series so, in reality, I read them as a complete novel.

It was yet another efficiently and effectively spun tale. There was an element of frustration caused by Menolly's situation that made me race ahead to find out what happened at the climax, but the ending was satisfying enough to compensate. Once again, an enjoyable read and if you are making your way through the world of Pern, I'm sure you won't be disappointed.

9. Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey

2008-04-02T07:28:00.001-07:00

The first of the Pern series, and to my mind a good, solid fantasy novel. It goes without saying that you have to enjoy the genre to get any pleasure out of this kind of novel and I must state up front that I do, although I often class this kind of book as 'guilty pleasures' as I use them as a way of switching off and losing myself in a great tale! To that end, it has to be said that Anne McCaffrey has created a brilliant world to lose yourself in. In a world where dragons, impressed at a young age by their riders, fly through space in an instant by going 'between' and where Holdlords and Craftmasters rule the common people, a search is on for a female to impress the new queen when she hatches from the single queen egg laid by a dying dragon. This tale is the backdrop for intrigue, action and romance and is very well executed. Anne McCaffrey writes with immediacy and accessibility and creates a vibrant world that left me rushing out to buy the next batch of books. The characters are alive and, as is often not the case in fantasy novels from male authors, there are strong male and female leads. Go on, try it out! You might find yourself addicted.

8. Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami

2008-04-02T07:27:00.004-07:00

This is another poignant and unique offering from Murakami. I love his writing and the translations read well (although as to their accuracy I cannot testify, being less than fluent in Japanese!). I certainly won't talk too much about the plot as, for me, each Murakami novel needs to be approached for the first time without preconceived ideas. This is, on the surface, a simple tale of unrequited love. The narrator, a male teacher, in love with his friend, a girl. She, in turn, is in love with a sophisticated older woman she met at a wedding and continued on to work for. As usual, Murakami's treatment of love is subtle, poignant and tasteful.

This is where the book begins to depart from the norm. With a backdrop of normality, Murakami introduces his own 'magic' storylines that depart from reality but remain very real to the reader. It is very alien to the western mind - there is something very Japanese about it, in a similar spirit to Miyazaki's animation and completely apart from any flights of fancy I've come across in western writing. The reader is left to put their own interpretation on the events of the novel and choose how far to take Murakami's description of events as literal.

In translated novels, you are so dependent on the translator's skill to let you appreciate the flair and language of the original. Read in translation, this book carried a depth of language and richness of evocative description, both of places and emotions. It reads well and in an unstilted manner. How closely this matched the sense of the original I cannot say, but I believe that anyone skilled enough to translate something that reads so well in English will have been true to the author's original words.

I would certainly recommend this highly and would suggest that even if you are a reader who prefers to read more literal novels, it is worth giving Murakami a try. It might surprise you!

6. Burning Chrome by William Gibson

2008-04-02T07:27:00.001-07:00

This is a collection of Gibson's short stories which contain the embryonic shells of many themes, characters and stories we see in his full-length novels alongside other more individual pieces. I thoroughly enjoy Gibson's world and his full-length novels but I found this collection a slightly frustrating mixed bag of shorter pieces. They veered between stories that never quite fulfilled their promise (the confusing 'Johnny Mnemonic' being a prime example of this) and others which were thoroughly enjoyable but left me itching for more than the few pages worth of writing that the short story format allowed (such as the eponomous 'Burning Chrome'). It's possible that I am clouded by a dislike of the format itself - I am never fully satisfied by the short story as I find it slightly contrived in style and execution, not substantial enough to fulfil my need. For me, this is an interesting window into what Gibson shows he can do in the full length form, but not my favourite of his publications.

5. The Heroin Diaries by Nikki Sixx

2008-04-02T07:26:00.002-07:00

This is a classic rock tome - an accompaniment to the Motley Crue autobiography 'The Dirt'. It comprises the diary entries of a year in the life of Nikki Sixx, chronicling his descent into the throes of drug addiction whilst the Crue follow a brutal tour schedule supporting 'Girls, Girls, Girls'.

The diary entries are a brutal portrayal of the wreck Nikki Sixx was during this time. What stands out amidst the carnage of a serious substance abuse issue is the lonliness of someone who, to all intents and purposes, appears to be at the height of his fame and popularity - what wasn't apparent to the coterie that surrounded him at this time was that he was spiralling towards a personal nadir in contrast to the public high. For the honesty with which they describe Sixx's state of mind at the time, the diary alone is interesting, but for me, what really makes this book is the personal retrospectives appended to each entry by many of the protagonists. It's this present day perspective that lends depth to the exercise and makes it more than just a depressing catalogue of drug-fuelled excesses.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the book, when taken in the context of what has gone before, is the final chapter, where Nikki Sixx brings his 'life since then' up-to-date. It is through this that the reader gets a window onto the man that he has become, more comprehensible for the view we've had of the man he was.

Got to worry when you begin to think that Tommy Lee was the most sorted one of the lot ....... !

4. No Country For Old Men by Cormac McCarthy

2008-04-02T07:26:00.001-07:00

There is ambiguity in the title of this novel and that is fed down to the story itself. One could take it to mean that the harsh, brutal modern west that this history of murder, vengeance and pursuit takes place in is no place for the old lawman (whose voice parts of this are recounted in) and his kind. Another interpretation is that there no longer exists a country, a place, or the generation that this man comes from. The world has moved on, become more brutal and mindless in its violence. The country of their youth is no longer there. It is typical of McCarthy's depth that the novel makes it clear that both interpretations are true.

I don't want to give too many plot details away - I think books are better approached as 'virgins'. What I think is fair to say is that McCarthy once again does not disappoint. He deals with 'The Westd' once again in this book and once again picks a point of change: the old lawman representing a bygone era, the brutal and senseless actions of Chigurgh an analogy for the world it has become.

What never ceases to amaze me with McCarthy's books is his ability to bring atmosphere alive from the written word. His use of dialect is second to none - you find you are reading it in your head as an accented American. This process is facilitated by the omission of punctuation, more akin to transcribed speech than written dialogue. He evocatively conveys the emotions behind the speech - the bone-weariness, for example, of the old lawman.

Atmospheric, chilling and dark - I would certainly recommend this.

36. Black Swan Green by David Mitchell

2008-04-02T07:07:00.000-07:00

A cultural-reference-soaked journey back to the 1980s, perfectly aimed at the 35+ generation who came of age during this decade just as Mitchell's protagonist is doing.

On one level, this book was extremely well-crafted and catapulted me backwards to a time I remembered oh so well. It made it very easy to identify with the main character from the outset - a boy on the cusp of teenage awakening, dealing with bullying, stuttering, divorce and the change in family dynamics caused by an older sister moving away. The reader follows him through first crushes and kisses in a way that is almost painful for those of us who were in his position at the same moment in time. The fact that I remained caught up in his really mundane life is a testament to Mitchell's easy writing style and the reality of his characters.

On another level, the book isn't subtle. The cultural references fall thick and fast in every paragraph and I would be interested to know how it reads for someone of a different age or cultural background for whom the social and commercial references have a less immediate meaning.

I thoroughly enjoyed this nostalgia ride and find Mitchell's prose style, while not deep, extremely accessible and easy on the reading ear. I would certainly recommend it: for those of us that lived that time, it will take you right back and for those that didn't, it will show you clearly what it was like for the rest of us!

35. Lunar Park by Bret Easton Ellis

2008-04-02T06:35:00.000-07:00

This is an unusual book. With the author's choice to make himself the protagonist, it lends an aura of reality to something which is full of the fantastic and macabre.

The Bret Easton Ellis of this novel is a damning portrait of a successful author spiralling into a drug and alcohol fuelled personal failure. He has an inability to sustain either his sobriety or any form of a relationship on a personal level. On the surface, this book is simply the account of this character's inability to build a relationship with his new wife (old girlfriend) and her 2 children (the son they had together and her daughter). Superimposed over this are macabre and dark events that the reader is left unsure about whether they happened or were just a hallucination, a manifestation o Bret Easton Ellis (of the novel)'s deepest fears through drug and alcohol fuelled visions.

But there is more to it than this. On another level, it seems that we are being shown a window into what makes up Bret Easton Ellis (the complete man). We see him as a boy, as his father and all of these are part of the whole person. It's as if his son Robby in the novel is a younger Bret and failure of this relationship is akin to the failure of Bret Easton Ellis to build a relationship with his own father. The final scene in the diner a flashback to the earlier description of his encounter with his own father.

It's a difficult book to fathom but an easy book to read. It is certainly, in part, an attempt at a genre novel. It has, in common with 'American Psycho', the air of unreality about parts of it and the reader is left never quite sure what actually happened and what happened inside the main character's head, just as it was never clarified as to what Patrick Bateman did and what he imagined.

I would definitely recommend this book but I think it's one that needs reading, digesting, dwelling on and then re-reading in the future with fresh eyes. After only one pass at it, I reached the end feeling like I was slightly missing the point and just a little bit confused .... but in a good way, a kind of 'I need to put my mind to work on this one' way not a 'what on earth is going on' way. I think the reader is never supposed to be left question-free about this book. You need to think about it a bit.

34. General Practice by James White

2008-04-02T03:54:00.004-07:00

This is the third omnibus editiion of James White's Sector General stories and novels and I think one of the better ones. It comprises 'Code Blue: Emergency' and 'The Genocidal Healer'.

At first, I was apprehensive about this one as, after Conway's elevation to Diagnostician status, he no longer presented himself as the main character . Having got to know him so well over the previous novels, I didn't know how I would take to new characters and a new focus. I shouldn't have worried though, James White did not disappoint!

The first novel, 'Code Blue: Emergency' introduces Cha-Thrat, a member of a hitherto unknown species, a warrior-surgeon on her own world. Having healed a member of the Monitor Corps' Cultural Contact division after an accident on her home planet, she is brought to Sector General to train as a surgeon. Cultural differences and insubordination lead to her removal from the training program (even though her treatment of patients was successful) and she eventually ends up on O'Mara's psychology staff and it is this area that the rest of this omnibus is concerned with. It's quite nice to finally get a peak into O'Mara's department, especially as he was the first member of the Sector General staff we met ... so long ago. In the introduction, this is described as a mosaic novel ... a collection of tales loosely connected as a narrative. It is that, but still stands up well as a whole.

The second novel, 'The Genocidal Healer', is most definitely a novel and not a collection. Not only does it function as a solid, lucid piece of narrative, but it also brings together many other character and story threads we have met in the earlier Sector General books. It focuses on a character who, through the desire to heal and do good but in possession of incomplete data, inadvertently destroyed almost all of an alien species. The book begins as he prosecutes himself, out of personal guilt, demanding the death penalty for his crimes. O'Mara defends him, against his wishes, and when successful, transfers him to his own staff. He gradually throughout the novel works his way to his own redemption. During the process, he helps many other beings, some of whom we have already come to know well. One of my favourite Sector General books so far!

30. Next by Michael Crichton

2008-04-02T03:30:00.001-07:00

When will I ever learn? This book was truly awful on so many levels I don't even know where to begin.

(a) Badly written and ill-conceived. It's a mish-mash of stories put together with no apparent respect for any vague flow of storytelling, seemingly just to prove a point.

(b) The science is just nonsense. It's not me being overpicky because I work in that field, it is just awful beyond belief. I mean, come on .... the talking parrot, the man-chimp hybrid living as a normal boy ... get a grip! It's beyond science fiction, it's science fairytale.

(c) It's opinionated without being informed - a dangerous combination.

(d) It's just bad! But then it cites a Matt Ridley book as source material so what should I expect?

23/24/25. Tales of the City/More Tales of the City/Further Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin

2008-04-02T03:14:00.000-07:00

I can't really believe it's taken me this long to find these gems, but sometimes it's the ones that lie undiscovered under your nose that prove the most surprising.

These books detail the lives of a motley band of individuals who live in San Francisco on Barbary Lane under the watchful eye of the matriarchal Anna Madrigal. The pluses and the minuses of these stories all stem from the fact that they were initially serialisations in a regular newspaper column. It makes them an addictive doddle to read - each book is divided into bite-sized chunks that have an element of self-containment mixed with a splattering of suspense that leaves you wanting more. The characters are skillfully drawn and quickly come to life and become much-loved friends - a testament to Maupin's skill as a writer. They are each a little window onto life in San Francisco at the time - interesting documentation of society there.

I guess, should you choose to, you could level the criticism that the interlinking storylines are all-to-convenient and readily wrapped up ..... but I don't find it problematic. It is an inherent quality of the original media they were published in and you have to allow for that format. I'm just glad to see them put together as a book so that they can be enjoyed by everyone. I think that if you cannot overcome objections to plot and structure, then these books were probably never meant for you.

Personally, once I found them, I couldn't put them down and I'll certainly be looking forward to reading the next batch of them.

22. Krakatoa by Simon Winchester

2008-03-28T03:23:00.004-07:00

This is the recounting of the history of the eruption of Mt. Krakatoa. It's an interesting examination of many of the factors in play at the time, garnered from many different sources and containing both a scientific and historical perspective on events. I come from a background of undergrad geological science, so found the chapters detailing the geology interesting - if you were less inclined in that direction, I can imagine that they might prove slower going (but maybe I'm wrong, as you were obviously interested enough to buy the book). There were interesting windows onto life at the time as well.

Despite all of this, for some intangible reason, I felt that the book missed the mark slightly. I can't really explain why but even though it was an easy and engaging read and I came away more informed than I was before, I still felt slightly disappointed by this one - as if it was almost there, but just fell short. Nonetheless, a worthwhile read.

15. Abhorsen by Garth Nix

2008-03-28T03:16:00.000-07:00

This is the third book in the Abhorsen Trilogy and it's here that all ends come together. Whilst the first two books focus on two quite separate tales (although interlinked), this brings together Sabriel, Lirael and Sabriel's children in the climax of the trilogy. Without giving too much away, a satisfying end which leaves the reader waiting for more .... not everything seems completely finished; the Old Kingdom has more to tell, I'm sure.

Again, a good tale, competently told. Not hands and fists above other writing in its genre but enjoyable, nonetheless. It 'does what it says on the tin' and I'm looking forward to more tales from the other side of the wall!

13. Darkest Fear by Harlan Coben

2008-03-28T03:13:00.000-07:00

Thoroughly enjoyed this Bolitar book - one of my favourites, I think! The usual well-crafted convoluted plot that we've come to expect from Harlan Coben. You either love 'em or you don't. I love 'em.

12. The Final Detail by Harlan Coben

2008-03-28T03:06:00.000-07:00

I'm not going to say much about this one because, as with all Harlan Coben books, the fun is in working your way through the mystery and trying to second guess the outcome. This Myron Bolitar novel starts with Esperanza in jail for the murder of a client of the agency and revolves around Myron trying to piece together the actual events leading to the night in question. Enough said, I think!

11. One False Move by Harlan Coben

2008-03-28T02:58:00.000-07:00

Don't want to spoil this for anyone - nothing worse than giving away the twists and turns of a mystery novel in a review! Another of the Myron Bolitar novels, this time centering around women's basketball. Some people love Harlan Coben's stand-alone books and hate the Bolitar novels - I'm not one of them. Crime fiction is disposable reading for me but I like the characters enough in these to keep them on my bookshelves (besides, they look pretty lined up together!) and come back to them and re-read them on occasion. A pleasant diversion from more mentally challenging reading.

10. Back Spin by Harlan Coben

2008-03-28T02:32:00.000-07:00

This Myron Bolitar novel is set in the world of professional golf. Not going to say too much and give the end away! I enjoyed it, but then I like this kind of thing for a bit of light relief. I find, as with all the Bolitar books, I can pretty much dispense with them in 24 hours. Kind of like a good mystery movie. Like the characters, find the story engaging and always want to know 'whodunnit' and this is no exception.

9. Dirty Havana Trilogy by Pedro Juan Gutierrez

2008-03-26T06:42:00.000-07:00

Found this on a late night wandering session in Borders - always the best time for rooting out new authors. I wasn't disappointed with this choice. This is a great book. It's certainly not for the fainhearted - Gutierrez writes brutally explicit prose in the first of the three parts - but its point becomes clear as this fits into the trio of 'novellas'. The brutal and sexually charged backdrop this creates is the perfect foil for the second of the trio, which seems to develop further the description of abject poverty in modern-day Havana. The final portion of the novel focuses in more depth on individual portraits, all the more vital and comprehensible for the understanding the reader has of the context of their lives. All this is relayed through the eyes of the debauched Pedro Juan - a character towards whom my initial disgust and dislike gradually became replaced by, if not fondness (for that would be too much), at least comprehension as he is skillfully developed throughout the three parts. This book is incredibly well-written and accessible - I ran through it in a couple of days and was completely absorbed by the atmosphere in squalid and depressed Havana. Despite myself, I found that I was disappointed to be done with Pedro Juan and could almost say I missed him once he was gone! I'd definitely recommend this.

8. Dispatches by Michael Herr

2008-03-26T06:34:00.000-07:00

One of the books that I bought ages ago and that has, much to its disservice, lain on my bookshelf for too long unread. I'm also one of life's sceptics when it comes to heavily lauded books, but this one certainly deserves its reputation as a seminal tome on war. Herr's writing is both guttural and poetic - he captures the essence of chaos, confusion and waste surrounding the Vietnam War. Acutely well-observed portraits of soldiers that pass in and out of his acquaintance during his time in Vietnam, convey well the diversity of characters found in this conflict. This is combined with politically informed accounts of some of the major offensives and the ulterior motives of the 'powers that be' in ordering these men to their deaths. It expresses well the futility of many of the actions in Vietnam. Despite the brilliance of the descriptions and analyses of the conflict, for me the real gem in this novel is the section where Herr pertinently turns his writer's eye on the journalists themselves, giving the reader an insight into the effect this war had on them. This is definitely much, much more than another tired text trying to decipher Vietnam - more of a tour-de-force of brilliant writing and originality.

7. Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

2008-03-26T03:48:00.000-07:00

This is a book of quiet genius. Marquez expertly crafts a picture of communal guilt in the killing of an evidently (or possibly not......) innocent man in the name of 'family honour'. Although the final conclusion is known to the reader from the beginning, there is still artistry in the building aof suspense throughout the book to the eventual act. The easy self-justification of a community who chose to say nothing rather than speak out to warn the victim is explored in depth through the investigations of a community member years later and his careful attempts to chronicle the events that led up to this killing appear as a modern day documentary or investigative reportage. The reader is left feeling frustrated by the missed opportunities to avert the course of events. The interviewer and narrator himself remains analytically detached, leaving one with the sense that whilst he dispassionately examines the culpability of others, he is yet to face his own. A very thought-provoking book which adds weight to the adage that for evil to prosper, all that is needed is a good man who says nothing.

6. Lirael by Garth Nix

2008-03-26T03:32:00.000-07:00

The second book of the Abhorsen Saga and, in my opinion, better than 'Sabriel'. It was a more fully fleshed out novel. While 'Sabriel' did a good job of constructing the world in which these books are set, Lirael makes it grow more. It primarily follows the story of Lirael, a daughter of a daughter of the Clayr (a group of people with some kind of psychic ability) as she finds her place in the world. She is without the 'sight' and feels out of place and outcast in her own society. The tale recounts her quest to discover her true calling and although by the end of it the reader has already guessed what this is, it still entertains en route. The book is definitely improved by the presence of the Disreputable Dog (although, despite Nix's assertion that Dog is female, for me the voice it spoke in was always male) - I can't imagine a more mischievous companion. We don't lose contact with Sabriel and her family either - now an adult with children, one of whom is the focus for the second storyline that runs through this book. Again, it isn't monumental writing - nothing to stir the soul. Neither is it in any way bad writing. It is a good tale, efficiently told.

5. Children of the Mind by Orson Scott Card

2008-03-25T04:10:00.000-07:00

This is the conclusion to the tale of Ender Wiggin and is, in my opinion, the weakest of the four books. While it is satisfying to follow the saga to its eventual conclusion, the premise that this book is based on appears to be a weak structure conceived to take the characters to their eventual conclusion. Ender's 'children' are neither characters that live nor did their conception seem to be anything more than a convenient vessel to ties up loose ends in what has become a rather convoluted plot line. All the same, this was a quick read as I was spurred on to find out how the quartet resolved itself. I think it is more that some of the earlier books were so good that this was a disappointment in relation to them - more 'bog-standard' sci-fi fodder than the earlier books which had a degree of originality and depth that this lacked.

4. Sabriel by Garth Nix

2008-03-25T04:02:00.000-07:00

I picked this up on one of my 'book-mining' expeditions on the off-chance that it might be interesting and was pleasantly surprised. It wasn't a book of great literary genius but then I wasn't expecting that from the Young Adult section. However, the story captured my imagination and I liked the world that Nix created. While the writing was not the kind to inspire you, it was certainly a competently executed book and there was no bad writing to interfere with the enjoyment of the story itself.

It follows the eponomous Sabriel as she grows into her role as the Abhorsen - the person responsible for keeping the dead dead - and takes the reader into a world of magic and marauding dead spirits which is juxtaposed with the modern day world, separated only by a magical wall. With Sabriel's father the Abhorsen missing, she begins to investigate what is going on and finds a threat to both the modern and ancient worlds this novel is set in. It doesn't deal with and lofty issues or raise any moral debates but adequately fulfils its role as an entertaining story well told.

3. Xenocide - Orson Scott Card

2008-03-25T03:34:00.000-07:00

'Xenocide' is the third book in the story of Ender Wiggin and for me, in some ways, the weakest so far. Ender is still on Lusitania, the world of the pequeninos. All species on that world are now threatened by a fleet sent to destroy it - the two alien species that live there are threatened with xenocide as they exist nowhere else. A virus, deadly to all worlds exposed to it that cannot adapt or protect themselves is present on Lusitania and it is this that is used for the justification of the destruction of the world. This is the backdrop to a book which deals with questions of religion, of how we characterise sentient life, of where the line should be drawn in cases of self-preservation. Still the broken family of 'Speaker for the Dead' follow their path to salvation and still Ender continues to age.

My main problems with this book were that it didn't live for me the way 'Speaker for the Dead' did. Card still crafts a good story but the jarring introduction of the world of Path to offer a counterpoint to the religious arguments and a resolution of some of the problems in the book didn't quite sit right for me. Nonetheless, I still whipped through this book and was engaged throughout with the characters and tale.

2. Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card

2008-03-25T02:44:00.000-07:00

This is my favourite of the Ender Saga books by a long way. Without giving anything away, it follows Ender Wiggin as an adult as he travels from world to world acting as a Speaker for the Dead - a concept I love, someone who speaks honestly for the life of someone after they died and gives a real portrait of who they were. He finds himself drawn to a planet where humans have made contact with a sentient alien race, the pequeninos (or 'piggies'). Card has carefully crafted a gripping story that raises important issues of the justification for and defence of the 'false paternalism' that stems from the human idea that we are the most superior of species. It is often brought into play when humans from more technologically advanced societies come into contact wit people from more isolated areas and is a demeaning concept, treating adults from different societies like children and deciding what is best for their own 'protection'. As a backdrop to this, there is the very personal, very 'human' story of a broken family and the process of healing them. This is a family that lives and breathes in this book and you find yourself caring what happens to them, although you may not like some of them! Through all of this, Ender's story is developed and told and he grows from the child that we knew in 'Ender's Game' to a fully-fledged adult character and I find I like him all the more for it.

1. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

2008-03-20T09:44:00.000-07:00

Whilst this isn't my favourite book of the original Ender 'saga', it is, nonetheless, a very competently crafted sci-fi novel. Not wishing to give anything away, I'll just say that is raises issues of relevance to society today - after all, how much is it morally correct for a society to sacrifice in order to save itself? How different are we from those among us that we think of as barbaric? Could it be that we could be closer to those that we condemn than we think and is it merely circumstance that dictates our actions rather than inherent moral code? For me, this book raises all these questions and more but wrapped up in a cracking tale and a world of Battle School that comes alive through Card's writing.