Books of the Month - June thru August

June Book of the Month
The Other Hand by Chris Cleave
I was lured in by the vague, air of mystery blurb on the back of the book from the publisher, about not telling us what it is about. It may seem like a pretty silly tactic but to be honest I probably wouldn't have bought it if it had said "this is a story about a middle-class English woman's friendship a Nigerian refugee". That is what it is about, but if I had ignored it on that summary, I would have missed out on a wonderfully written book, that was beautiful and moving. I may have also been put off by a story told from the perspective of two women that was written by one man, but again this was done brilliantly. It has some very bittersweet bits of humour in here.


July Book of the Month
Willard and His Bowling Trophies by Richard Brautigan
A short, surreal story from Brautigan who most famous works (In Watermelon Sugar and Trout Fishing in America) I wasn't so impressed with. But I loved this one. It is about two couples living in the same apartment block, and three brothers who are looking for their stolen bowling trophies. The Willard of the title is a papier-mache bird - its that kind of book!


August Book of the Month
Riven Rock by T C Boyle
My new favourite Boyle book. This one is loosely based on the true story of Stanley McCormick who spends most of his adult life locked away from society due to his mental illness. The book charters his treatment by various doctors, which at times descends into farce, but other parts of the book were genuinely moving. I was reduced to tears by the end.

999 Challenge Update: End of August

I've not posted in ages due to a new job and various other stresses. I've also lapsed on the 999 challenge reviews over on the challenge website, so this update is merely a list for now. I'm quite close to completing the challenge with four categories completed, although it now getting tougher to get hold of books to fit the categories.


1001 Books to Read Before You Die
1. Black Water by Joyce Carol Oates
2. The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien
3. Slow Man by J M Coetzee
4. The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M Cain
5. Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham
6. Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
7. The Successor by Ismail Kadore
8. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
9. Mr Vertigo by Paul Auster


Fiction Authors that are New to Me
1. Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann
2. Underground Man by Mick Jackson
3. The Flood by David Maine
4. The Man who was Thursday by G K Chesterton
5. Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin
6. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
7. The Girls: A Novel by Lori Lansens
8. When I was Five I Killed Myself by Howard Buten
9.The Other Hand by Chris Cleave


Crime and Detectives around the world (each one from a different country)
1. Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow by Peter Hoeg (Greenland)
2. Real World by Natsuo Kirino (Japan)
3. Ice Moon by Jan Costin Wagner (Finland)
4. Right as Rain by George Pelecanos (Washington DC, USA)
5. Messenger of Athens by Anne Zouroudi (Greece)
6. The Snack Thief by Andrea Camilleri (Sicilly)
7. Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith (Soviet Union)
8
9.


Theme: Dystopia
1. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
2. The Declaration by Gemma Malley
3. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
4. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
5. Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
6.Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
7.The Giver by Lois Lowry
8. We by Yevgenry Zamyatin

Retro: Beats, Hippies, 1960s and Counter-Culture (fiction and non-fiction)
1. Retro Retro: Fictional Flashbacks by Amy Prior
2. 1968: the year that rocked the world - Mark Kurlansky
3. Hippie by Barry Miles
4. Trout Fishing in America by Richard Brautigan
5. I think therefore who am I by Peter Weissman
6. When I Was Cool - Sam Kashner
7. In Watermelon Sugar by Richard Brautigan
8. Willard and his Bowling Trophies by Richard Brautigan
9. Hippie Hippie Shake by Richard Neville


Around the World (fiction set outside of the UK and USA - each one from a different country)
1. Cloudstreet by Tim Winton (Australia)
2. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khalid Hosseini (Afghanistan)
3. Distant Star by Roberto Bolano (Chile)
4. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz (Dominican Republic)
5. Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Nigeria)
6. Tropical Fish: Tales from Entebbe by Doreen Baingana (Uganda)
7. Elegy for Easterly by Petina Gappah (Zimbabwe)


Non-Fiction
1. Shakespeare by Bill Bryson
2. Los Angeles without a Map by Richard Rayner
3. The Natural History of Unicorns by Chris Laver
4. The Suspicions of Mr Whicher by Kate Summerscale.
5. Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell
6.The Last Shot by Darcy Frey (sports related book picked by my OH)
7. Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell
8. Hippo Eats Dwarf by Alex Boese



Complete Works of - T C Boyle
1. East is East
2. Inner Circle
3. A Friend of the Earth
4. Talk Talk
5. Budding Prospects
6. Riven Rock
7. World's End


Themed Titles - Animals (a different animal in each title)
1. The Boy Who Kicked Pigs by Tom Baker
2. White Tiger by Aravinda Adiga
3. Giraffe by J M Ledgard
4. Attack of the Unsinkable Rubber Ducks by Christopher Brookmyre
5. The Book of Chameleons by Jose Eduardo Agualusa
6 The Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa
7. The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
8. Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall
9. Downtown Owl by Chuck Klosterman

Books of the Months - March thru May

I forgot entirely about this. (I pretty much forgot about the whole blog). So to catch up:

March Book of the Month
The Road by Cormac McCarthy - absolutely amazing. A deceptively simple narrative about a man and his son, making their way through a post-apocalyptic world. Sparse text, with minimal punctation, but genuinely moving and disturbing. I had to stop reading it on the train because I was going to cry - recommendations don't come higher than that!


April Book of the Month
Talk Talk by T C Boyle - A woman, who is deaf, is the victim of identity theft and takes the law into her own hands to seek revenge on the criminal. This is a book about identity and communication, thought-provoking and with great characters.


May Book of the Month
The Last Shot: City Streets, Basketball Dream by Darcy Frey - my surprise hit! Borrowed (under duress) from the OH, I wasn't particularly interested in the plight of basketball playing kids from Coney Island before reading this, but was so engrossed in it. Basketball obviously does feature, but it as much about the poverty trap and the ridiculous college sport system. This one made me angry and sad at the same time. I'm not sure if I set myself any rules about the book of the month being fiction, but this one is a non-fiction book.

999 Challenge: Update End of April

I didn't update at the end of March as I was away. My reading has slowed but I'm still on target to finish and not doing too bad a job at keeping the categories balanced.

1001 Books to Read Before You Die
1. Black Water by Joyce Carol Oates
2. Third Policeman by Flann O’Brien
3. Slow Man by J M Coetzee
4. The Postman Always Rings Twice - James M Cain


Fiction Authors that are New to Me
1. Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann
2. The Underground Man by Mick Jackson
3. The Flood by David Maine
4. The Man who was Thursday by G K Chesterton
5. Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin
6. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield


Crime and Detectives around the world (each one from a different country)
1. Miss Smilla’s Feeling for Snow by Peter Hoeg (Denmark and Greenland)
2. Real World by Natsuo Kirino (Japan)
3. Ice Moon by Jan Costin Wagner (Finland)
4. Right as Rain by George Pelecanos (USA)
5. The Messenger of Athens by Anne Zouroudi (Greece)


Theme: Dystopia
1. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
2. The Declaration by Gemma Malley
3. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
4. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
5. The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham


Retro: Beats, Hippies, 1960s and Counter-Culture (fiction and non-fiction)
1. Retro Retro edited by Amy Prior
2. 1968: The Year that Rocked the World by Mark Kurlansky
3. Hippie by Barry Miles
4. Trout Fishing in America by Richard Brautigan
5. I think therefore who am I by Peter Weissman


Around the World (fiction set outside of the UK and USA - each one from a different country)
1. Cloudstreet by Tim Winton (Australia)
2. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khalid Hosseini (Afghanistan)
3. Distant Star by Roberto Bolano (Chile)
4. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz (Dominican Republic)
5. Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Nigeria)
6. Tropical Fish: Tales from Entebbe by Doreen Baingana (Uganda)
7. Elegy for Easterly by Petina Gappah (Zimbabwe)


Non-Fiction
1. Shakespeare by Bill Bryson
2. Los Angeles without a Map by Richard Rayner
3. The Natural History of Unicorns by Chris Laver
4. The Suspicions of Mr Whicher by Kate Summerscale.
5. Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell


Complete Works of - T C Boyle
1. East is East by T C Boyle
2. The Inner Circle by T C Boyle
3. A Friend of the Earth by T C Boyle
4. Talk Talk by T C Boyle


Themed Titles - Animals (a different animal in each title)
1. The Boy Who Kicked Pigs by Tom Baker
2. White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
3. Giraffe by J M Ledgard
4. Attack of the Unsinkable Rubber Ducks by Christopher Brookmyre
5. The Book of Chameleons by Jose Eduardo Agualusa

Charity Shop Watch: April 2009

I'd not been on my charity shop run for quite some time, but came back with quite a haul today. I did my bit for heart disease, spending £10 on four books in the British Heart Foundation Shop. The most expensive of the charity shops on my run, they seem to have upped their prices since my last trip, with many books now on sale for £3 a go. But they do have a good selection and the four I bought could easily have been doubled.

I bought:

The Book of Chameleons by Jose Eduardo Agualusa
You Cannont Live as I have Lived and Not End up Like This - The Thoroughly DisgracefullLife and Times of Willie Donaldson by Terence Blacker
The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
The Girls by Lori Lansens

Once more proving that last year's best seller is this year's charity fodder, there were four copies of No Time for Goodbyes in the BHF shop and another one in the YMCA shop. How long before multiple copies of The Suspicions of Mr Whicher start to appear there?

Holiday Reads

I love browsing other people's bookshelves, so I was delighted to find that the apartment we had rented in San Francisco had a small library of books.

It was an eclectic selection, I presume comprising of books belonging to the owners and things left behind by previous holiday-makers.

It included the quintessential San Francisco book "Tales of the City" by Armistead Maupin which I'd been meaning to read so was pleased to discover here. I also read "Down and Out in Paris and London" by George Orwell, the poverty and misery providing a nice contrast with Californian sun. I started "A Short History of Nearly Everything " by Bill Bryson but it wasn't short enough and I abondoned it when I realised that I wouldn't be able to read 600 pages in the remaining time.

The collection had something for all tastes:

White Teeth by Zadie Smith
Virago Woman's Guide to San Francisco
Treasury of Poetry
Its Not About the Bike by Lance Armstrong
Charlotte Gray by Sebastian Faulk
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
The Complete Book of Horse Care
3 books by Anne Rice
Several Alexander McCall Smith books
Multiple books by Nick Bantock (who?)

and my absolute favourite "There and Back Again" by Sean Astin, which I did try to read aloud from once, but found so dull I couldn't continue.

Reading Borges

Jorge Luis Borges is one of the greats. One of those writers that you really must read.

I've been carrying "Fictions" around in my bag for two weeks now. I've managed to read two stories from it.

I just can't read it. Perhaps if I'd come to Borges while I was younger and studying literature then I would have had the mental agility to read it, but not now when I primarily read for pleasure. I do like to feel challenged occasionally in my reading and certainly to learn something new, but this is too much. It is impenetrable.

The note from the translator says it all:
"I have presumed the reader to possess more or less the range of general or world history or culture that JLB makes constant reference to, or to have access to such reference books and other sources as would supply any need there".

It may be worth trying to find my way through, so that I too love Borges, but I'm just not in the right mindset at the moment.

I think Borges in going back to the library unread.

Favourite Passage: "The Man Who Was Thursday" by G K Chesterton

A description of the lead character, Gabriel Syme's family:

"He came from a family of cranks, in which all the oldest people had all the newest notions. One of his uncles always walked about without a hat and another had made an unsuccessful attempt to walk about with a hat and nothing esle. His father cultivated art and self-realization; his mother went in for simplicity and hygiene. Hence the child, during his tenderer years, was wholly unacquainted with any drink between the extremes of absinthe and cocoa, of both of which he had a healthy dislike. The more his mother preached a more than Puritan abstinence the more did his father expand into a more than pagan latitude; and by the time the former had come to enforcing vegetarianism, the latter had pretty well reached the point of defending cannibalism.

Book of the Month: February 2009

Rather late but I've been deliberating.

After much thought, February's Book of the Month is "Tropical Fish: Tales from Entebbe" by Doreen Baingana.

The book consists of eight connected short stories about Christine and her two sisters, coming of age in Uganda. A full review can be found here, but in brief, I read it in the space of a few hours and felt the deepest empathy for the characters.

Connections: "Giraffe" and "Natural History of Unicorns"

"Giraffe" by J M Ledgard is a fictionalised account of a real life incident involving giraffes in a Czechoslovakian zoo in the 1970s.

“The Natural History of Unicorns” is a non-fiction book looking at the origins and persistence of the unicorn myth.

What connects these two books?

Before I read “Giraffe” I had never heard of the Okapi, the closest relative of the giraffe, but without the long legs or neck. And then, I encountered it again in “The Natural History of Unicorns” as one of the possible candidates for being the source of the unicorn.

999 Challenge Update: End of February

My aim at the beginning of the month was to have read three books in each category by the end of the month. This plan went awry. Numbers-wise I'm still on target, but I have been enticed by books in the Around the World category at the expense of others.


1001 Books to Read Before You Die
1. Black Water by Joyce Carol Oates
2. Third Policeman by Flann O’Brien
3. Slow Man by J M Coetzee


Fiction Authors that are New to Me
1. Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann
2. The Underground Man by Mick Jackson


Crime and Detectives around the world (each one from a different country)
1. Miss Smilla’s Feeling for Snow by Peter Hoeg (Denmark and Greenland)
2. Real World by Natsuo Kirino (Japan)
3. Ice Moon by Jan Costin Wagner (Finland)


Theme: Dystopia
1. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
2. The Declaration by Gemma Malley
3. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury


Retro: Beats, Hippies, 1960s and Counter-Culture (fiction and non-fiction)
1. Retro Retro edited by Amy Prior
2. 1968: The Year that Rocked the World by Mark Kurlansky


Around the World (fiction set outside of the UK and USA - each one from a different country)
1. Cloudstreet by Tim Winton (Australia)
2. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khalid Hosseini (Afghanistan)
3. Distant Star by Roberto Bolano
4. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
5. Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
6. Tropical Fish: Tales from Entebbe by Doreen Baingana


Non-Fiction
1. Shakespeare by Bill Bryson
2. Los Angeles without a Map by Richard Rayner


Complete Works of - T C Boyle
1. East is East by T C Boyle
2. The Inner Circle by T C Boyle
3. A Friend of the Earth by T C Boyle


Themed Titles - Animals (a different animal in each title)
1. The Boy Who Kicked Pigs by Tom Baker
2. White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
3. Giraffe by J M Ledgard

File Under: A Rant

I had heard good things about Doreen Baingana's book "Tropical Fish: Tales from Entebbe" and was pleased that my library had a copy in stock.

On my first attempt to find it, I drew a blank, but this is a common problem in my library - many books are listed as in stock, but are not be found on the shelves.

On my next visit, I looked for it again on the Fiction shelves where it was categorised as being, but again to no avail. Then I had a thought occurred to me and I looked on the Black Writers shelf, and there it was.

Doreen Baingana is a black writer in so much as she is black and a writer, but I still think the catalogue's record of the book being in the General Fiction section is more accurate. For me the Black Writers section has connotations and I as a white woman would normally have no interest in those books and would feel somewhat of a fraud in that section (in the same way that I enjoy the beats of NWA, but know that "911s a Joke in Your Town" is not aimed at me).

At what point does a writer who is black cease to be a Black Writer and just become a Writer?

Having taken the book home, I read "Tropical Fish" in one evening. It was fantastic. Set mainly in Uganda, some of its themes were very specific to that place, but other parts of it were universal. It is a wonderful book, and not one that should be marginalised in the Black Writers shelf.

So the lessons learnt are once more to not trust the library catalogue and to look in the Black Writers section again because who knows what other gems might be tucked away there.

Book Award Challenge: Completed

I have completed the challenge!

1. Stuart: A Life Backwards by Alexander Master - Guardian First Book Award 2005
2. Last Orders by Graham Swift - Booker Prize 1996
3. The Sea by John Banville - Man Booker Prize 2005
4. The Gathering by Anne Enright - Man Booker Prize 2007
5. Boy A by Jonathan Trigell - John Llewellyn Rhys Prize 2004
6. Shipping News - Annie Proulx - Pulitzer Prize
7. Whatever - Michel Houellebecq - Impac Prize
8. The Accidental - Ali Smith - Whitbread Prize
9. White Tiger- Arvinda Adiga - Man Booker Prize 2008
10. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao - Pulizer Prize 2008


10 books across 6 prizes.

Book Prize

I like Sky Arts’ Book Show. I think Mariella Frostrup is a great host. I like the format of the show. I think the show pitches a good balance between intellectual and accessible.

However, one element disturbs me each week.

The competition prize.

You can win each of the books that the guests have picked in answer to the question about the character in literature they would most like to be. But you also win this Book Chair.

I love books. I quite like chairs. But this is just wrong. Hideous.

Which character in literature would you be?

Every guest on The Book Show (on Sky Arts) is asked this question. There have been various approaches to it. The character who is most like yourself. The character with the most enviable life. The character who is nothing like yourself who you'd like to feel things through for a time.

I've been pondering this for a few weeks now. I've struggled to think of many female characters who I'd like to be, so I'm putting aside gender. Someone else on the show picked this character, but I keep coming back to it.

I would be Arthur Dent from the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

He is English, he is often confused, he wears a dressing gown and he gets to travel.

Favourite Passage: "Underground Man" by Mick Jackson

About twenty years ago, on my birthday, good Lord Galway of Serlby presented me with a beautiful basset-hound pup... Immediately recognizable by their stout little legs, concave back and baggy ears, something about their appearance suggests they have been knocked together out of odd bits of other dogs. The simplest task - such as walking - can prove very troublesome for a bassset-hound. It is as if they had been poorly designed. Their coat is always most generously tailored and none more so than the pup handed to me that day. He had on him enough flesh to adequated clothe another two or three dogs besides - the majority of it hanging of his face - and though he was at the time no more than a few months old he wore the immutable basset expression of Lifelong Woe.

Book of the Month: January 2009

Each month I'm going to pick my Book of the Month. Strictly one book, no matter how hard a decision that might be.

This month's choice is Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

A classic book that I can't believe it took me so long to get around to reading. It was thought-provoking as all good dystopian literature should be, but it was still a relatively easy read, and I was surprised by how humorous it was.

999 Challenge: Update End of January

Quite a good start to the year. I’ve read at least one book in each category plus I’ve even read a few things outside of challenge.

My reviews are can be read on the 999 Challenge blog by clicking on the titles below.


1001 Books to Read Before You Die
1. Black Water by Joyce Carol Oates
2. Third Policeman by Flann O’Brien


Fiction Authors that are New to Me
1. Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann


Crime and Detectives around the world (each one from a different country)
1. Miss Smilla’s Feeling for Snow by Peter Hoeg (Denmark and Greenland)
2. Real World by Natsuo Kirino (Japan)


Theme: Dystopia
1. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
2. The Declaration by Gemma Malley


Retro: Beats, Hippies, 1960s and Counter-Culture (fiction and non-fiction)
1. Retro Retro edited by Amy Prior
2. 1968: The Year that Rocked the World by Mark Kurlansky


Around the World (fiction set outside of the UK and USA - each one from a different country)
1. Cloudstreet by Tim Winton (Australia)
2. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khalid Hosseini (Afghanistan)
3. Distant Star by Roberto Bolano


Non-Fiction
1. Shakespeare by Bill Bryson


Complete Works of - T C Boyle
1. East is East by T C Boyle


Themed Titles - Animals (a different animal in each title)
1. The Boy Who Kicked Pigs by Tom Baker
2. White Tiger by Aravind Adiga

Book Award Challenge: Update January 2009

1. Stuart: A Life Backwards by Alexander Master - Guardian First Book Award 2005
2. Last Orders by Graham Swift - Booker Prize 1996
3. The Sea by John Banville - Man Booker Prize 2005
4. The Gathering by Anne Enright - Man Booker Prize 2007
5. Boy A by Jonathan Trigell - John Llewellyn Rhys Prize 2004
6. Shipping News - Annie Proulx - Pulitzer Prize
7. Whatever - Michel Houellebecq - Impac Prize
8. The Accidental - Ali Smith - Whitbread Prize
9. White Tiger- Arvinda Adiga - Man Booker Prize 2008


Number of book: 9
Number of prizes: 6

The Thrill of the Chase

I love reading. I really do. But I think I enjoy the acquisition of books just as much. The thrill of finding a gem in a charity shop, the atmosphere of the independent bookstore, the swapping process on ReadItSwapIt and the wealth of books for free from the library. All of these are great, but I still love browsing in the large bookshops, even if I rarely buy anything there these days.

Yesterday, I called into Borders on Oxford Street. Just because it was there really. So many books. It was wonderful. I was close to climbing onto the 3 for 2 table and rolling around amongst the books, I was that overcome with joy.

They had such a great selection. But still common sense prevailed and I left empty-handed. I need to reduce the "To Be Read" pile significantly before I can buy anything more.

Although swapping is an entirely different matter...

Charity Shop Watch Part 2

I returned to the shop that had the three copies of "The Five People You Meet in Heaven". No copies of it remained but instead there were three copies of "The House at Riverton" by Kate Morton. Very odd.

Also is it weird of me to feel slightly offended when I see copies of books I love in charity shops? Its not as if I'm the author, but I still feel a bit put out that someone wants rid of something that is a favourite of mine.

For the second week running I didn't buy anything. I was tempted by a copy of "The Artist in the Floating World" by Kazuo Ishiguro, but I'm on a temporary book buying ban, having bought three books last week. I will lift the ban once these are read.

Favourite Passage: "The Boy Who Kicked Pigs" by Tom Baker

(this is a conversation between two reporters on the local radio discussing the huge catastrophe on the road)

"Was there anyone in the cab"? asked David revealing again there wasn't much inside his cab.

Cassandra pushed on. "Well David it seems there were two people in the car, a man accompanied by another man. They were twins, both of them. Twin brothers. At least that's what they told Mr Crump, who is good on details and picked all this up while trying to save the little car. Both the men were of the male sex and aged seventy-three. It would appear that they were on their way to the birthday party of their old headmaster, but as I said their number was up. Their name was on the bullet"

"Oh my God" responded David the brain who would have said the same thing if Cassandra had told him it was raining.

"We rang the old headmaster", said Cassandra, "to tell him of the tragedy and to spoil his party"

"Oh my god" groaned David. "And what did he say?"

"Well, David it seems he was too upset to talk coherently. All he kept saying was the twins were good at geography and nothing like this had ever happened before."

Charity Shop Watch

On my regular Sunday jaunt to what I refer to as the Charity Shop Mile (which isn't anywhere near a mile long, but does have 5 charity shops), I spotted that one shop had three copies of the same book. Clearly a book that was briefly a "must read" book, but is over-rated.

It wasn't the Da Vinci Code, although that would fit my analysis and there is usually a copy of this in the Charity Shop Mile.

The book was:

The Five People You Meet in Heavenby Mitch Albom

I've read it myself a few years ago, that it was only just ok.