Book #12 The Versions Of Us by Laura Barnett

The Versions Of Us

My thanks to the publisher Weidenfeld & Nicolson for the complimentary copy of this book

Eva and Jim are students at Cambridge in the 1950's - a minor bicycle mishap causes them to collide one afternoon, and from there romance ensues, OR DOES IT? 

In essence The Versions Of Us is a love story with a Quantum element - the reader is shown all different possibilities occurring at once, in one Version, they meet and marry, in another meet and split up shortly after and in the third option they never meet at all. But which story has the best outcome for the couple? Which version is best, which version do you the Reader love the most?

I loved this book I really did. I loved both lead characters so much. Jim, the would-be creative stifled by family pressure to study Law and have a proper occupation, struck a chord and literally made my heart ache and continuously so; both in the versions he succeeds and in the ones were he makes a mess of his life. The observations around Jim's character in all possible outcomes are perfectly drawn. And in Eva's too. In one life the successful writer, in another, the barely visible wife of a Hollywood star, forced to devote herself to domesticity.

The versions themselves are distinct enough to genuinely BE different. For example, in every Version Jim and Eva have different children. I inhabited all three worlds with the same level of intensity. I was deeply wrapped up in it, and devoted to the idea, that sometimes some people are just made for one another come what may, and the stars which drove them apart will eventually pull them back together.

I have seen this novel compared to 'One Day' a book I didn't much care for, and so I feel like it's almost an insult! This book knocks spots off One Day, it's so much better, so much cleverer, so much more thoughtful and so much more real and believable. Eva and Jim won a place in my heart and the book is definitely one which I will re-read and buy as a gift for others. I want to read it again and read all versions individually just so that I can experience each as a solo story.

I recommend this particularly if you enjoy a love story that is above chick lit fare, or appreciate a love story done in a new way. I also think that those who loved Kate Atkinson's 'Life After Life' will love this.

A stunning debut by Laura Barnett, I can't wait to see what she does next 10/10       

Book #1 Longbourne by Jo Baker

Longbourne


There are many books that have riffed off Pride and Prejudice and many terrible unauthorized sequels like PD James 'Death Comes To Pemberley', because of this I was somewhat wary of Longbourne and came to it quite late.

What makes it different, and the reason I gave it a chance is that it offers something that feels like a fresh take by retelling the story from the perspective of the Bennett families lowly servants on their small estate.

I enjoyed this book but I also found it quite hit and miss. Some of it is very well observed. Would Elizabeth Bennett for example have traipsed about the countryside getting her petticoats three inches deep in mud if she'd had the washing of them? Ditto other household chores of the age like making soap from scratch and having to boil and reuse menstrual napkins.

By sheer coincidence, prior to reading this book I'd had a long conversation on Twitter about the uncertain nature of Mr Bingley's background. Just why was a young man of breeding and fortune on the hunt for a Rent-A-Mansion? Why didn't he have a family seat?

This book posits that the Bingley's made their money from the slave trade and were plantation owners which suddenly casts the affable cheery Mr Bingley in a new unpleasant light. But this got me to thinking that with all of our landed gentry Austen heroes a good source of their wealth must have come from exploitation of those 'beneath them' be it slavery, or through owning mills or collieries or via the feudal system.

It does take a wider perspective of life at the time and that it wasn't all drawing rooms and balls for everyone.

Sarah, a maid and one of the main characters, who begins to fall for the new footman James is likeable as a protagonist, and the much harried Hill, likeable too, and there were a lot of nuances about the James back story that I liked in terms of the way they impacted the original novel.  I liked how each chapter was prefaced with a sentence from a Pride and Prejudice indicating which part of the novel Sarah's story was running concurrently to. I also loved how the below stairs staff were completely on to Mr Wickham from the start.

It does have a tendency to drift though, and the section featuring James's experiences in the army was unnecessary. For reasons I can't be clear on without spoilers the denouement is quite silly and would have worked much better had the roles been reversed.

It's a good book, if not a great one.

8/10         

Book #28 Looking For Alaska by John Green

Looking For Alaska

Miles isn't a popular kid, and when the opportunity arises elects to go to his father's old boarding school Culver Creek 'to seek a Great Perhaps'. Once there he quickly makes friends with the cooler crowd by virtue of his new room-mate, and falls in love with a girl, the beautiful, unobtainable, Alaska  

Looking For Alaska is a genuinely lovely, well written, reflective novel about life, love, loss and the search for meaning.  What it feels like to be a teenage boy trying to become a man and find your place in the world.

In it's own right, for its own sake, I really enjoyed it. What struck me most though was how much it resembles Paper Towns,  which I happened to read first, published in 2008, 3 years after this, his debut.

Two very similar boys in Miles & Quentin, two very similar girls in Alaska & Margot, are the leads in each, and it somehow feels like Paper Towns IS Looking For Alaska rewritten with a different high school setting and a different ending.

This, though it diminishes Paper Towns as a book and makes it somewhat superfluous it should not diminish Looking For Alaska seeing as it came first, but I have to say, a) I wish I'd read these the opposite way around and b) if I had not also read The Fault In Our Stars I might conclude that John Green only had one novel in him, recycled.

That criticism aside, I have to say that though I liked Paper Towns I really, really, thought Looking For Alaska was fab, and moving and so very worth reading that I have started recommending it about the place already.

Though the similarities were overt, I did love it, and really admired it as a piece of writing.

10/10

Book #23 Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell

Eleanor and Park

I find my relationship with young adult fiction has its ups and downs, but every time I start to think : "I'm really too old for this sort of thing now" - a book does come along which proves that no matter how old you are or which target market the publisher is aiming at, if a book is something special then it doesn't matter what section of the book shop they sell it in, it will still resonate.


Eleanor is a new girl, overweight and badly dressed, with wild ginger hair, no-one wants to let her sit with them on the bus. Park isn't so popular either, but people respect him and he's always flown under the radar of the bullies - and when Eleanor is left standing in the aisle Park takes pity on her, and from there - a genuinely lovely and touching romance emerges.

Though the novel is a dual narrative which tells its tale from both their perspectives, I found that for me this book was just all about Eleanor. Her story consistently has this darkness to it as her love for Park is overshadowed by her sinister stepfather, the failings of her biological parents and the tragic poverty she lives in. It really does often feel like Park is her only light in an otherwise dark world.        


I found that towards the end when I had about 80 pages left to go that I was in this constant state of anxiety over Eleanor utterly convinced that something terrible was going to happen to her and feeling powerless to stop it.

And then I reminded myself that I was feeling intense anxiety for A FICTIONAL CHARACTER.

That is how good this book is. How it effects you inside.

It ends on something of a cliffhanger and I was vexed, and I genuinely tweeted the author with BUT WHAT HAPPENED AFTER??? angst - she didn't reply, she's probably used to this sort of thing by now, though probably not from women approaching 33.

It's an unlikely choice from me but I think Eleanor and Park is my favourite book so far this year. It made me feel. I felt like its characters were real and I didn't want it to end.

It was nice to see a novel were the romantic female lead did not fit traditional stereotypes about image. Also, I need a sequel to this book and I needed it pretty much the second I finished it, I surely can't be alone in this.

Lovely : 10/10

Book #8 The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows

The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society

The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society was recommended to me by my friend Jennie from Book Club.

Annie Barrows was Mary Ann Shaffer's niece and worked to get her novel completed and published posthumously, it is lovely to find out that Mary Ann died knowing that her book would be published worldwide even if she didn't get to see this happen.

The story takes place on Guernsey during World War Two, which as many know but increasingly many don't, was, though British territory, occupied by Nazi Forces during the war.

We pick up the story post-war in the 50s as writer Juliet, formally a war columnist, casts about for her next project. Her project finds her when she strikes up a correspondence with Dawsey Adams and subsequently his friends and begins to learn what the Islanders went through during wartime.

Though it is set during a really grim and grueling period of history for Guernsey there is something just persistently joyous about this book. Told in letters, the voices of the different characters come through really well and each maintain uniqueness, often it is funny, the letter written when Juliet requests a character reference from a woman who hates her for example. Often it is quaint, but in the best of ways, all 'Jolly Ho!" and "Toodle Pip!" the vernacular of the day really shines through, and feels genuinely authentic.

I loved all the supporting characters as much as the lead, and I liked how the writer managed to trick me into making an incorrect assumption about a relationship. There is something just so heartwarming about it all. The phrase 'testament to the human spirit' gets bandied about in lots of literary criticism but in this case it genuinely applies.

Some might dismiss this as 'fluff' and perhaps a 'girls book' but they would be guilty of being a book snob to do so.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and would give it 10/10    

Book #7 Paper Towns by John Green

Paper Towns

At the end of 2012 - I read The Fault In Our Stars, the young adult romance novel by John Green, and thought it was a classy affair with real crossover merit. Many people my own age have also read it and recommended it to me, including just the other day a friend of mine from uni days. A film of The Fault In Our Stars is set to appear at a cinema near you shortly.

What then of the rest of John Green's output? I've just got round to a second one of his now and chose Paper Towns.

This novel is told from the perspective of Quentin, one night school Queen Bee Margo who was once his friend and lives next door appears at his window and makes him join her on a series of revenge pranks in the middle of the night and then promptly vanishes leaving Quentin and his friends to decipher the mystery of her whereabouts.

There's a lot to like about Paper Towns and I'll start with that, for every girl with a complicated internal life there is something to identify with in Margo. She's the girl with a million records whose friends don't even know she likes music. The girl with a copy of Leaves Of Grass by Walt Whitman whose friends don't even know she likes poetry. The popular girl at the centre of things who knows she's faking it all.

She's the girl who keeps going missing because she needs to be found. And the girl who wants to stay lost too.

Margo is a great character - fascinating even, though perhaps with some annoying hipster tendencies.

Margo is the best thing about this novel - but she is also its biggest problem.

The book isn't about Margo. It's about Quentin. Quentin and his friends Ben and Radar - later joined by Lacey who are searching for Margo.

And there's nothing of note about any of them really; Quentin IMs his friends, they play video games, they scour the equivalent of Wikipedia for Margo clues and live out standard American High School Outsider tropes about which there is nothing original.

The only thing that is interesting about Quentin is 'Quentin in relation to Margo' - he's not interesting outside of her. The essential point that John Green is making about people with this novel and it's a great point and one particularly worth making to young people I think, is about how Quentin relates to Margo.

At the beginning of the novel Quentin counts it as a miracle that he ever knew Margo, that she ever happened to be his next door neighbour.

Quentin has an idea, a concept, of the person that he believes Margo to be, he's built it all in his mind, this idea that he has of her, is an impression that he's decided upon. It's an interesting lesson about how we, and it applies to adults too, carry ideals or mistaken beliefs about people based upon the narrative we have imposed upon them ourselves.

Margo, Quentin realises eventually is not a miracle, she's just a troubled girl and nothing more or less than that.

And this is such a good book for young people just for that lesson, but it's a mistake that adults including myself are often guilty of making; of expecting superhuman behaviour from people who we put on a pedestal who ultimately are just as human and fallible as we are.

A good book with a great secondary character 7/10 for Paper Towns the bulk of which didn't engage me - 10/10 for Margo herself.

 
    

Book #5 Secrecy by Rupert Thomson

Secrecy

I chose Secrecy in a rush in a train station bookshop, I liked the title and the blurb sounded good. Wax sculptor Zummo who is from Sicily takes a commission at the court of the Grand Duke Of Tuscany in 1691 and finds himself in a world of intrigue.

The book seemed terribly promising, great endorsements on the cover and a raft of 5 stars on Amazon and was also the Radio 4 Book At Bedtime. If anything this books publisher has done an incredibly successful PR campaign in promoting the book but I confess I found myself baffled by it.

It gets off to a good start,  I particularly liked the writing near the beginning, but somehow it just all started slipping away at great speed after say page 100.

A lot of it has no substance, the villain of the piece just isn't remotely fleshed out and we are I think left to infer much from very little. It's as though through the fact that "He's a Dominican Monk"  we are meant to infer not only his entire personality, but the entire point and purpose of his schemes, which I felt never really held much water in terms of practical motive. It was a bit Dan Brown School Of Writing.

Other bizarre things happen like Zummo meets a girl he fancies in passing twice and she suddenly randomly sends him the 17th Century equivalent of Viagra. Huh?!

Secondary characters serve little purpose either. One character is brought in only apparently to be attacked at a later date to illustrate that the Monks already pretty unlikely vendetta has escalated to such a degree that he went after Zummo's friends. None of Zummo's relationships feel genuine or possess depth and seem to exist purely as plot devices.

The denouement too is very very strange and lacking entirely in credibility.

In many ways this novel as a personal reading experience suffered in being read in too close a proximity to Ghana Must Go. The two novels are completely different yet Secrecy felt like it stood in the former books shadow in terms of how the quality and style of the plot and prose shone.

I think the best word I can use to describe this book is 'flimsy' - it just feels silly and without much weight.

6/10

Book #3 All Of My Friends Are Superheroes by Andrew Kaufman

All Of My Friends Are Superheroes

First and foremost All Of My Friends Are Superheroes is a really great idea, the Amazon synopsis reads thus :

"All Tom's friends really are superheroes. Tom even married a superhero, the Perfectionist. But at their wedding the Perfectionist is hypnotized by her ex, Hypno, to believe that Tom is invisible. Nothing he does can make her see him. Six months later, the Perfectionist is sure that Tom has abandoned her, so she's moving to Vancouver. She'll use her superpowers to leave all the heartbreak behind. With no idea that Tom's beside her, she boards the plane. Tom has, until they touch down, to convince her he's there, or he loses her forever."


So I was kind of excited by this. I really like superheroes, I really like a good love story. I guess I had high expectations, and these expectations were not really met.

It isn't badly written by any means, the style is really engaging and I was never really bored, yet I found I got annoyed by the descriptions of the Superheroes themselves. In a well worn theme throughout a character is introduced and their superpower described, and then we never see them again. The problem here really is that most of these superheroes have no real superpower at all and all that Kaufman is really describing is a personality. All The Perfectionist really is is a Type A Personality, there are others such as the Couch Potato which are similarly just descriptions of types of people with nothing really special there at all. Off hand, I can only think of Hypno as a character possessing genuine ability.

The real flaw here ultimately is the fact that this novel took me 30 minutes to read, possibly slightly less, and I kind of felt like : "Is this it?" I was really, really glad that I got it as a Kindle Daily Deal for £1.99 because if I'd paid list price I'd have felt properly ripped off by it.

It's very slight, has no depth, and feels like an excellent premise gone to waste. It's quite sweet, in its way, but wholly unsatisfying.

5/10   

Book #1 The Rosie Project by Graeme Simison

The Rosie Project

My first book of January was The Rosie Project - a current bestseller, which I read for my book club.

The novel is about Professor Don Tillman, a genetics lecturer in Australia who, it is strongly implied though not directly stated has Asperger's Syndrome. Don is on the hunt for a wife, and has an extremely strict criteria of qualities which his potential wife needs to possess in an orchestrated 'Wife Project'. Step forward Rosie - a woman who meets none of Don's criteria and who has a very specific project of her own.

In many ways there's a lot of inevitability to the entire plot, but it's executed in a really sweet and warm way. There's a lot to like about The Rosie Project, particularly many witty scenarios and turns of phrase.

My personal favourite moments included the Jacket Incident where Don takes the need to wear a jacket at a certain restaurant quite literally, and especially the moment where Don purposefully doesn't tell Rosie she is beautiful as she has told him not to objectify women.

"I hadn't noticed. I told the most beautiful woman in the world"

The result of this means that Rosie's next appearance in the novel is her gorging herself on cake at her desk. Which is totally believable as a female response. Who doesn't immediately buy cake when they are romantically frustrated? Oh? Just me then? OK! 

The book would lend itself well to a romantic comedy at the cinema and was apparently initially intended as such, but it is not entirely well done.

The main hostility towards it at my book club was its portrayal of Asperger's - the more Don falls in love the more the rigid structures he imposes on himself dissipate as if love is the miracle cure of quite a serious condition. People who had first and second hand experience of Asperger's were annoyed and frustrated at what was seen and actually I think, rightly, as a saccharine, unrealistic & occasionally stereotypical depiction.

On the plus side, it never feels like you the Reader, or that Graeme Simison the author is mocking or scoffing at Don, you do root for him and enjoy his quirky ways, which makes the book stronger as a portrayal of disability for it.

The resolution of the novel itself is too neat, too clean, too smiley faced and too Hollywood. We all felt that a more open ended yet positive finale would have been far more suitable.

I enjoyed this book but it is entirely disposable and fluffy, chick lit really, think more Male Bridget Jones with Asperger's than something like The Time Traveler's Wife.

8.5/10
    

Book #47 Memories Of My Melancholy Whores by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Memories Of My Melancholy Whores

Length Of Time In Possession : 2 weeks

I have wanted to read Marquez for some years but on each occasion I have tried to read either Love In The Time Of Cholera or A Hundred Years of Solitude, I have failed in the early stages of the novel. This failure is an ongoing source of personal embarrassment and I do still fully intend to read both.

I came across Memories Of My Melancholy Whores in the library and given that it is relatively slight, just over 100 pages thought I'd give this a crack at finally losing my Marquez virginity.

The novel concerns an elderly journalist, unnamed throughout the novel who has only ever had sex with whores. On his 90th birthday he decides that what he most wants, as a gift to himself, is to deflower an adolescent virgin.

At the beginning of this novel, I thought I was about to read an extremely distasteful tale of a dirty old man, engaging in a vile abuse that was tantamount to rape. I was fully prepared to throw the book aside in disgust.

But then, when he meets his again unnamed whore, whom he christens Delgadina, she has taken valerian out of fear, and has fallen into a deep sleep, and the two do not have intercourse.

What follows as a result of this failure to fulfill his plans turns into a love story of incredibly unusual parameters and is on occasion very touching and fable-like.  

I don't think I've read a story like this before, and I really admired and enjoyed it.

Odd and unique, I think I would recommend this to people who enjoy reading stories that are a bit different from the norm and the mainstream.

I hope that in the rest of this year, I can finally read one of his larger novels.

Verdict : 9/10
Destination : Return To Library

Book #30 Shattered Blue by Jane Taylor Starwood

Shattered Blue

Length of Time In Possession : 2 weeks

Shane Mackinnon lives off the grid. She has an isolated house in the hillside of a small town, she doesn't have a mobile and she doesn't go on the internet. An artist with a talent for tapestry, she sells her creations in a small, local gallery, and lives a quiet and private life. She is irked when a man, Matt, buys the property next to hers and begins building a home, encroaching on her cherished seclusion.

For some people this is a preferred lifestyle choice, but for Shane, it is necessary, deliberate, and cultivated. Her name is not Shane Mackinnon, but who or what is she hiding from?

Charming and good looking Matt begins to win Shane over, but her past has not yet finished with her.

A romantic thriller, Shattered Blue is a self publish from Jane Starwood, available from the Kindle on Amazon. I have to say that it is surprising that this hasn't been snapped up by a traditional publisher as it fits a certain sub genre really well, publishers are crying out for novels of this type right now.

I say this because it reminded me a lot of the Fifty Shades novels, don't mistake me, the sex in Shattered Blue is not BDSM associated or dreadfully gratuitous or anything like that, but in those novels the Christian/Ana relationship exists against a backdrop of various threats : Christian's mentally ill former sub and his jealous foster brother to name two, which ramp up the excitement and add soap opera style qualities to it. Shattered Blue has the potential to satisfy readers who are looking for "the next thing" to read afterwards.

The threat Shane exists under is an interesting one because it isn't the threat she has initially run from, and doesn't anticipate, she is stalked by her aggressor until he can build a strong picture of her habits and knows how to attack. As a menace, he is an ugly and uncomfortable character against whom the reader has strong convictions, and therefore succeeds well as a villain.

For my part, though the sex with Matt is often steamy and their relationship is enjoyable, I felt that slowing it down and allowing it time to develop over a number of months, and allowing her stalker to do the same with his surveillance would have given the realism of the book extra weight. In addition Matt discovers who Shane really is in a too quick, too convenient way, and I would have changed this slightly.  To be honest, I'm not exactly sure how I would change it, but in my opinion it needed to be less easy.

If this description sounds like the sort of thing you enjoy, then I would really recommend this novel to you. Again, I was happy to read a thriller that doesn't go down the traditional police procedural route and hope to see more from Starwood in future.

Verdict : 7/10

Destination : ebook storage

Book #1 Exodus by Leon Uris

Exodus

Length of time in possession before being read : 2 or 3 days

Exodus is the story of birth of a nation. The nation of Israel as a sovereign state recognised by the UN in 20th Century History. It begins at the close of World War 2 with many post Holocaust Jews endeavouring to be repatriated to the Jewish state promised them by the international community. It is very different from Anita Diamant’s Day After Night, which focused on female refugees themselves and not just because it is a better novel.

We are introduced early in the novel to its two central protagonists. One is Kitty Fremont, a bereaved American nurse, who has some intrinsic anti-semitic prejudices and Ari Ben Canaan, a native Israeli and a hard as nails freedom fighter, part of early Mossad. Kitty joins a party of immigrants in order to remain close to an orphaned girl, slowly finding that she falls in love with Israel and the other characters we meet.

In addition to the post war narrative we also get several other narratives, the journey of Ari Ben Canaan’s forefathers; Yakov and Jossi Rabinsky, as they travel from a closed East European ghetto to Palestine, joining the small groups of Jewish settlements in the late 1800’s, as well as aspects of Ari’s own childhood.

So too, do we get the Holocaust survival stories of Karen Clement and Dov Landau, each with very different stories to tell. The final strand is the birth of a Nation, a birth of blood, grief and loss as the Arab Nations turn on the returning Jews for control of what was once Palestine beginning what is now a 70 year Middle Eastern Conflict.

 I loved this book, each different strand was as compelling as the last and no section bored me. Interesting, informative, engrossing, entertaining, I had but one qualm against it: The book, written by a Jewish author feels biased. The Arabs are described as primitive, lazy, lacking in education or motivation and are rarely described in any positive light and their political standpoint is not given any consideration let alone balanced consideration. A thunderous hit at the time of publication, it is not very hard to see why.

Destination : Keeping this book

Verdict : 10/10

Book #100 The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick

The Silver Linings Playbook

I went to see the film adaptation of this novel last month, absolutely loved it and then the friend I went with went on to buy me the book.

The book and the film are very similar, protagonist Pat has been in a psychiatric facility for some time when his mother calls time on it and checks him out. Post-breakdown Pat has a new philosophy : he is determined to look for silver linings and happy endings and he's going to turn himself into the perfect husband to his wife Nikki. The thing is, Nikki is nowhere to be seen, there's more than one restraining order in place, and what exactly happened to send Pat to "the bad place" is never spoken of. Living not quite in-step with reality, Pat strikes up a friendship with the equally damaged Tiffany. 

The film of this book made me howl with laughter and was really popular with the audience I was in, and the film has been true to the book in the sense that it recreates some of the books best moments like "the Hemingway scene". This is however among some of the rare cases where film beats book, the book gets dragged down by the sporting side of the narrative, players and scores etc, in a way that the film doesn't, and is so well acted that it is easier to take the characters into your heart.

The differences towards the end give the book the edge in terms of realism, and particularly Pat's struggle with the concept of time is left out of the film presumably because it would be hard to express visually, but adds weight to the extent of his delusion in the book yet ultimately for me the heartwarming humorous film is a 10/10 but the book is only a 7.

Book #96 The Fault In Our Stars by John Green

The Fault In Our Stars

In The Fault In Our Stars, terminally ill teenager Hazel is forced to go to a support group for young people with cancer by her mother in the hope she'll make friends. Step forward Isaac and Augustus, a boy losing his sight and a boy who has lost his leg respectively.

Hazel and Augustus begin a romantic relationship, which is heartwarming and thoroughly believable. Though suffering from cancer the two become consumed with the need to decipher the secrets of (fictional) novel "An Imperial Affliction" by reclusive author Peter Van Houten, and having the answers to their question becomes a mission and distraction for them.

Earlier this year I read Stephen Chbosky's "The Perks Of Being A Wallflower" and questioned whether or not I had passed a certain age threshold when it came to identifying with teenage issues. The Fault In Our Stars was very different however; heartwarming without being sentimental or cloying, at times darkly humorous and refreshingly lacking in cliches or self help jargon, The Fault In Our Stars though about teenagers is not necessarily exclusively a teenage novel.   

The best thing about this book was its honesty and believability in the face of terminal illness and death, which leads me to wonder about the author's personal experience in this area. That which I liked least was its "Americanised prose" a tonal quality/style which seems to pervade contemporary American novels, making their inner voice sound the same. British novels don't do this, or at least I don't feel they do, perhaps Americans feel they do, and this is a problem both sides of the Atlantic!

Though this is a very accessible novel for all ages, I particularly recommend it to 14-20 year old reader for whom I think this novel will earn a special place in their hearts. Certainly a cut above most novels in this age bracket. Put Twilight down and read this! 8/10

Book #77 Pure by Julianna Baggott

Pure

At the time of the "Detonations", Pressia Bellze was aged 6 and on the outside, a hot white light came and the doll she had in her hand, became her hand. Partridge Willux, son of a government official, had a place inside the Dome, and has remained unharmed and Pure.

Outside the Dome, the "wretches" were told they would be helped, eventually, but 10 years have passed, and no help has come, they live in fear of a brutal regime, but the regime within the safe, clean Dome is no less sinister.

Pure is another young adult dystopian novel, in the vein of the Hunger Games or Chaos Walking trilogies by Suzanne Collins and Patrick Ness respectively, the theme like those novels is of earnest, persistent strong young people fighting an unjust system. It also has shades of Justin Cronin's The Passage in its tone and delivery.

The imagery is inventive and arresting, original in its choices, particularly with the variety of fusions on display. Deliberate parallels are drawn to the real life events of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, a brave new world imagined from a global scale similar disaster. There are some holes in the plot, and unanswered questions, mainly unbelievable coincidences, lucky escapes that wouldn't occur and bizarre failure to properly act on extensive surveillance, but it is by no means a fishnet. 

It has the obligatory teen romance, which for both couples really feels a little weak and there by force, as though the publisher requested it to line it up with the current trend, and sometimes the dialogue is a bit Famous Five, they all seem to know rather a lot for, on the one hand, 2 kids with little education, and on the other, a kid with a heavily censored one. Bradwell particularly being ridiculously knowing about pre Dome history and politics for someone orphaned at the age of 9.

That said the book  as an opener to a new young adult dystopia trilogy or quartet was good, I did enjoy it, and will probably read the follow up as it comes out, if the other books I mention in this review appealed to you, this book will too 8/10

Book #66 Jamilia by Chingiz Aitmatov

Jamilia

Jamilia by Chingiz Aitmatov has the unusual distinction of being the first book I have ever read set in Kyrgyzstan or by a Kyrgyzstani author. I'd love to be more "globally read" the vast majority of the novels I read and their authors being either UK or USA based, so reading Jamilia feels like an expansion of my literary horizons.

Jamilia is a tender, nostalgic, evocative tale about a painter named Sait, reflecting upon his youth, when the country was at war, and his relationship with his beguiling sister in law Jamilia and the time he spent as a boy working alongside her.

It's a lovely little story, charming and engaging, but little is the operative word, at only 94 pages long, this doesn't even feel like a novella, but more like a short story.

Charming as it is, I think that the cover quote by Louis Aragon that Jamilia is "the most beautiful love story in the world" must rank highly among the plethora of over exaggerated cover quotes in publishing. The best adjective for it is simply "nice"      

Additionally, I paid £7.99 for this book, £5.99 on Amazon, sweet as it is, it simply isn't worth paying £6 for, not in the least. 7/10

Book #61 Killing Cupid by Louise Voss and Mark Edwards

Killing Cupid

Killing Cupid from the Voss/Edwards writing duo is the story of wannabee writer Alex, who develops an unhealthy obsession with his tutor Siobhan, and believing he is in love begins to stalk her. Separate chapters cover Alex's viewpoint of the story and then Siobhan's as the story develops.

The thing with this novel as a single woman and a woman who lives alone, is that it does give you the actual creeps as you read it. He lurks in her house unseen, hiding in her wardrobe, he deletes an email which would positively effect her career, and buys her gifts with her own credit card. Alex is a seriously delusional human being who thinks of the day when she "invites him to move in" not as a fantasy or hope but states it in his journal as a certain fact. This is a good portrait of a stalker who in almost every case genuinely believe the object of their affection does or could welcome their attentions.

But, as Alex's behaviour pushes Siobhan to crack under the strain, her own breakdown brings about a whole new chain of events.

The central intelligence of Killing Cupid is that it takes what would commonly be known as the standard chick lit plot "boy meets girl, misunderstandings and obstacles ensue, happy ending" and perverts it making it a subversive version of that sort of novel, like a twisted reflection in a black mirror, the dark side of human emotion. It's like an anti-chick lit, chick lit, behaviours that can seem endearing in those sorts of novels, finding out where someone lives to try and "bump into them" become not the sweet fare of a Hugh Grant love story, but a woman's worst nightmare.

I also found Siobhan's initial response to Alex's withdrawal believable, what woman hasn't felt threatened when someone who said they were in love with you, seems to move on with someone you view as lesser? I think all women have felt that.

Naturally, at the extreme ends of the novel, particularly the end there is a lack of credulity, but in a way this is a necessary evil to complete the journey of the happy go lucky romcom novel through a distorted lens into a murky, seedy world of misfits and danger.

I really enjoyed this novel, the questions it posed about human responses and Alex freaked me out which he was duly supposed to do. I can think of people I know who would like this novel too, and can see why it would be popular. 9/10 

 

Book #59 The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides

The Marriage Plot

In the opening of this novel Jeffrey Eugenides sets forth what is meant by "The Marriage Plot" via his lead character Madeline who is an English graduate. "The Marriage Plot" is the sort of novel that was written by Austen in the likes of Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility, and Madeline's tutor espouses the belief that "a marriage plot" was the epitome of what a novel ought to be about and that a novel isn't a good one without one.

Thus Eugenides begins his own 1980's set "marriage plot novel"in which heroine Madeline must choose between her angst riddled relationship with intense but unpredictable bipolar sufferer Leonard and sensible theologian suitor  Mitchell whose desire for her she has somewhat exploited.

All are graduates from Rhode Island Ivy League institution Brown and the novel is deeply imbued with academia, from semiotics to biology to theology, there is a lot of intense intellectual discussion from earnest young people, because I am in some ways that sort of person, this aspect of the novel didn't bother me or at least didn't bother me to the point of annoyance but I imagine it could prove irritating for other people less concerned in the lofty ideals and bombastic opinions of the educationally privileged. 

I believe that his depiction of Leonard was a fairly good portrait of the average bipolar experience and think it might prove interesting for people wanting to know more about that experience. As a result of personal interests I preferred Mitchell, nominally Greek Orthodox but with a developing interest in Catholicism who travels through Europe and India having, for a change, what doesn't feel like a cliched spiritual journey.

The problem with this novel is that as I realised I was reaching the end, I thought to myself "but, this novel isn't nearly finished" the ending, like a film which suddenly cuts to black, is abrupt, though the marriage plot is resolved the novel is left feeling like someone cut the end off with scissors with one character in particular having zero resolution in terms of plot. As a separate issue I found his general comments about English undergraduates somewhat insulting, having been one myself once.

My first words upon finishing were "disappointing conclusion" which is a shame for a well written novel I was up til that point really enjoying . 8/10

Book #56 The Song Of Achilles by Madeline Miller

The Song Of Achilles
 
The Song Of Achilles by Madeline Miller won the Orange Prize 2012 about a week or so ago and rarely has a book been so worthy of the accolades it has received.

The story of Patroclus an exiled Prince, who is befriended by Achilles, Prince Of Phthia, the novel charts their lives together from childhood to adolescence to the Trojan war.

For me this book was flawless, just flawless, it got me from the first page onwards and I sat smiling at it as I read it, so pleased was I with the knock out quality of the prose. Tender, beautiful, dramatic, atmospheric, touching, heartbreaking. This book is all these things.

Moreover the characters leap off the page. Known from The Iliad, they become rounded humans in Miller's reworking and are beautifully realised. Particularly, I could feel Thetis before me, smelling of salt and choking the earth beneath her feet, with the threat of power all around her.

The relationship between Achilles and Patroclus, thoroughly believable is the obvious star of the show, but the relationship between Briseis and Patroclus is both touching and sad.

I was blown away by this book and I think everyone who reads it should be. A Herculean piece of work in order to portray the Trojan war and an obvious labour of love, I can only thank Madeline Miller for providing me and other readers with it.     

Though it has the obvious attraction for anyone into Ancient Greece and Greek Myths it utterly transcends that. If you love reading, if you love books you need this book in your life, you will not be sorry you spent your money. An outstanding achievement 10/10

Book #50 The Man Who Forgot His Wife by John O'Farrell

The Man Who Forgot His Wife

The Man Who Forgot His Wife by John O'Farrell is the story of Jack Vaughn, a history teacher, who wakes up on the tube with no memory of who he is, or his past, and his journey back to mental wellbeing.

It transpires that Jack's marriage has ended and that he was the one who filed for divorce but as his memories slowly return, he begins to remember all the reasons why he loved his wife to begin with.

I had a mixed response to this book, at times quite funny and also quite poignant at one point I started crying, which quite surprised me, as the calibre of the prose in general was only slightly above average. It's very contemporary with reference to the Royal Wedding as a recent past event, and has the same bloke lit kind of writing style as Tony Parsons or Nick Hornby.

The problem with the book is that 'psychogenic fugue' which is what Jack Vaughn experiences is actually quite a serious disorder which leaves it sufferers permanently disconnected and unable to bond with those they have loved. If they remember past events which is often unlikely, they still feel separate from their old self.

The jocular way the matter is treated with, though sometimes fun too often veers into the asinine and the ludicrous rendering the novel less endearing in general because it invokes the unpleasant 'As If' reaction in the reader. It lacks any depth or seriousness whatsoever. It's fluff, but it's fun fluff.

Jack Vaughn adapts too well, and resumes his old life too easily for someone in his circumstances. Were surrounding characters are concerned, I couldn't stand Linda and Gary and found it completely unbelievable that characters like Jack and Maddy would be their friends. The ending ultimately is the cheesy fare of a really poor romantic comedy. Yet somehow despite spotting glaring flaws as I read, I both laughed and cried. It was an engaging read, easy, fun, quick. 7/10