My Thoughts: Love and Summer by William Trevor

After complaining yesterday that I wouldn't have much time to read I managed to get a whole book read. Love and Summer has sat on my bottom step (where library books and bookrings live, for fear of mixing them in with my personal tbr pile) for a good 6 weeks. Its a bookring so should have been read and sent of asap, ideally within 4 weeks of receiving it. I just kept putting it off and reading anything but it, as its cover and the title just made me think romance yuck! (Can you tell I'm oh so very single at the moment!). However I picked it up last night thinking I'd manage half an hour and whizzed through it.
Set in rural Ireland, a a tiny village where nothing happens 2 people meet and fall in love. Ellie, was first a maid then a wife to a local widower, lives a secluded life on the farm. She travels into town to sell eggs, pick supplies and pick lavender once a week. One week, during the funeral of a well to-do lady in town she notices a photographer, which sparks off feelings of love.
The pair meet regularly, but nothing really seems to happen between them accept the knowledge the her love for him exists.
Its a book of moments, there is little action, but it is an easy and comforting read - kind of a literary beach read. I'm not sure if I'll remember it next week, let alone in a year but I'm thinking that I may buy a copy for my Mum's next birthday/holiday.

My Thoughts: Summertime by J.M Coetzee

Summertime is the third in a series by Coetzee, wheich I didn't realise when I first agreed to read this book. Summertime is a novel in which a biographer is collecting notes and interviewing people in order to write a biography of the dead John Coetzee. A strange scenario from the beginning.
Coetzee the character is a novelist who found fame late in life. This novel looks at a period in his life just before he became successful. His cousin, lovers and an acquaintance are interviewed about him, in some cases what is presented is more a story of the interviewed than of him. What we do learn is that he was a cold man, hard to love and unemotional, yet seemingly always embroilled in an affair of some sort. He teaches, yet doesn't enjoy teaching and he writes with almost a desperation.

I was surprised at how easy this was to read. The interviews I really enjoyed, but I lost interest in the last 20 pages when we are given snippets from his notebook in which he writes about himself in the third person. By then I felt enough was enough.
An biography about a character with your name who wrote the books which you have published is a strange old concept to take in, but he seems to pull it off.

My Thoughts: The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters

I picked up The Little Stranger with trepidation on Saturday, I had seen bad reviews in blogland and a friend had told me that she thought it was awful (she normally love Sarah Waters). After 50 pages I was pleasantly surprised that I was enjoying it.

The Little Stranger is set in post-war England in the small village of Lidcote. The novel starts with a childs visit to a grand house where his mother had previously worked as a nursery nurse. In awe of the house he breaks part of a display down. I didn't realise that our narrator was a boy for many pages.

30 odd years later the boy visits the house again but this time as a doctor. The house is not as he remembered, not as big and grand, many of its rooms are shut up and old age and a lack of finances are clearly seen in the decoration and condition of the place. Living there is just the mother and a son and daughter, plus a young helpless maid. Gradually the doctor builds up a friendship with the members of the household, and visits them as both a doctor and a friend on a regular basis. Thats when things become strange.

The son, damaged by the war, keeps hearing noises and injuring himself, fires start and a placid dog attacks. Suddenly we are unsure if there is a spirit in the house or if one of the members of the household is out to cause havoc.

I enjoyed this read, and raced through the 500 pages in just two reading session. However, I would certainly not say this was Sarah Waters best, no Victorian underworlds splayed out in my imagination, no fancy narrative structure, no loveable illicit lesbians or crooks. This was just a ghost story, not highly original, and probably in need of a good editing. Don't get me wrong, it was good, but if I was writing her a school style report I would have scrawled 'Could do better' on the page.

There is a great discussion of the book here, the 'ghost' and Caroline's sexuality are discussed amongst other things.

Sunday Salon: Booker Shortlist 2008

Today is a good old lazy Sunday (next week is hectice so this is much needed). I have to do a few boring jobs around the house then I'm free to read. I need to read the next book of A Suitable Boy for my bookcrossing readalong. Then continue with Survival in the Killing Fields and The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane both of which I'm really enjoying. I might also rewatch Twilight as I'm off to see New Moon later in the week, or possibly coninue making so homemade photoalbums for friends Christmas gifts.

I am a part of a group of bookcrossers who each purchase a book from the Booker list and then pass it around the circle. So far I have read 5 of the books on the shortlist and have only the winner left to go.
Aravind Adiga The White Tiger
Sebastian Barry The Secret Scripture
Amitav Ghosh Sea of Poppies
Linda Grant The Clothes on Their Backs
Philip Hensher The Northern Clemency
Steve Toltz A Fraction of the Whole

Yesterday I finished reading The Secret Scripture which I was really looking forward to - mainly because of the gorgeous cover work.
This book is divided into two narratives that of a doctor running a mental institute and then his eldest patient. The doctor has to close the institute and in doing so has to assess the patients to decided who will need to be replaced and who will be sent back out into the world. The institute is full of elderly patients who have been secioned there for decades. He is fascinated by one patient Mrs McNutly, she is the oldest surviving, and longest patient to have lived at the institute, her notes are in tatters so he needs to work to find out just why she was placed there in the first place.
Mrs McNutly's section of the novel deals with her desire to write down the past, she knows that her time is growing nearer and feels the need to journal the events leading up to her sectioning. We hear of her family, the much loved father and distant mother. Her teenage years and the early days of her wedding and the events which led her to the institution.

It sounds a great read, but I just felt that it didn't work. The joint narrative meant that we were learning things of her past to quickly. It was her childhood which facinated me. I would have preferred a chronological tale, rather than one held in flashbacks as in this novel they weakened the story. The ending was far to obvious from early on in the novel. What this book really needed was a good editing.

I'm hoping to read The White Tiger before the year is out, I borrowed my brothers copy (he read it in a day) way back in February so really should return it soon. I have to say that I think many of the shortlist where just okay books, with the exception of A Fraction of the Whole I didn't feel any were good enough to be considered for the Booker Prize. The 2009 list however looks much more promising, I have read 2 of those so far and they are of a higher standard.

I'm hoping eventually to have read all of the Booker winners and a large number of the shortlist. Do you have any recommendations? Or do you have any award winning books whose entry ou thought was questionnable?

My Thoughts: The Glass Room by Simon Mawer

In my pledge to create myself a mini-read-a-thon this weekend so that I can tackle my huge pile of books I have read for a good 4 and a half hours today and knocked the first book off of the pile :D Only about 50 more to go! lol

The Glass Room is the second book in the 2009 Booker Shortlist which I have read, and it definately deserves to be part of that list. (I've read the winner, and thought that this was the better of the books).

The Glass Room is actually a glass house, a thoroughly modern home built on a hillside over looking a Czech city. The house, built for the Landauer family, becomes the symbol of sexual and emotional relationships as the novel progresses.

Viktor and Lisel Landauer have this home built in the early days of their marriage, when life is a bunch of roses for the family. Viktor is the founder of a famous car manufacturer, and the wealthy couple fill their home with piano recitals and modern art. The glass building becomes a home for their small family, a symbol of oppulance and luxury.
As the marriage cools, Viktor finds comfort away from home, whilst Lisel's life is made exciting through the gossip and behaviour of her sexually adventurous best friend Hana.
When the war looms, Viktor and Lisel are forced to move away, he a Jew and she a German. They escape with his mistress over the border to Switzerland. The house then becomes an empty shell, facing the destruction of bombs, govermental ownership and possession and scientific experimentation.
The characters gripped me from early on, especially Hana and Kata, Viktor's lover. But all in all I wanted to know what happened to the characters, how their life turned out. I felt robbed when I discovered that the book suddenly moved 20 odd years into the future and I had missed out hearing about Ottilie (love that name) and Martin's childhood. The house reminded me of the house in To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf. There is a segment in that novel when the war is occuring and the destruction of Britain and the family is characterised by the deterioration of the family home.
A fantastic read, I highly recommend it.

Challenges:
War Through the Generations
Booker

My Thoughts: Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

It has been a manic couple of weeks since the read-a-thon finished, despite having a school holiday last week I was working, seeing friends or partying all week. Going back to work this week has meant that tons of stuff suddenly had to be done. Our school is sitting the pupils early for their English Language exam, we have to mark all their coursework by this Friday - a couple are still missing pieces, and then they have their exams next week! I'm way more stressed than the kids are. Thats without all the normal school stuff and extra work I have in my new role.
So...rather than picking a nice easy book to read I picked up Wolf Hall, the recent Booker winner.

The novel is 650 pages long, but in hardback so bloody heavy. Its starts with Cromwell's childhood, growing up beaten by an alcoholic father till the age of 15 when he runs away. The book then chronicles his gradual rise in the British monarchy till he became the Henry's right-hand man.

I loved parts of this. Cromwell's relationship with his family, his dealings with Mary Boyelen, all the affairs and his conversations with his son and nephew. It was also a very readable novel. However I felt that I missed out on tons of stuff as I knew nothing of the history of this time, except recognising the names. The author has a huge cast of charcaters and the novel spans 35 years. I was often lost as to which Henry or Mary they were discussing. Segments frequently started with 'he...' and it wasn't until a page later that I could work out who they were talking about.

I'm sending this out on a bookring to 5 other people, it will probably return to me next summertime. I'm thinking that I may do a bit of reading on the period and then try and tackle this again next year when I'm more clued up.

My Thoughts: The Clothes on Their Backs by Linda Grant

This book continues my reads of last years Booker Nominee list, so far I have read four: one ok (The Sea of Poppies), one good (Northern Clemency) and one I abandoned early on (The Lost Dog). So I wasn't sure what I was going to get with this one.

The novel is told from the view point of Vivian Kovacs, a child of immigrant Polish parents. Her parents, thankful for their rescue from Poland during the war stay hidden away in the house, they go to work, come home and watch the tv. She grows up 'a mouse' told to respect England and never to do anything wrong so that England regrets the choice to house the family.
Hidden away in the closet is an uncle with a rather different view of England, he came to the country and exploited immigrants and women. Vivian is drawn to this man, a man who can reveal to her her parents past and a life she has never known.

The book was a good read, I finished in in just two sittings, it was an easy read with colourful characters. However, I never felt this was a Booker Nominee, it doesn't fit in with the other Bookers that I have read over the years. I'm starting to wonder what the next one shall be like - The White Tiger - the winner, lets hope it makes the grade.
Challenges:
999 (New Books)
Booker

A Fraction of a Whole, Steve Toltz

This is one of last years Booker Nominees which I'm still trying to read through! The novel is a sons account of living with a father who is livig in the shadow of his dead brother. Sounds confusing, huh! Terry Dean became a national hero despite being a serial killer, he took it to himself to rid the sporting world of cheats and was killed whilst in prison.
His brother, Martin, had a pretty strange life, even without the murderous brother, he spent 7 years of his childhood in a coma, travelled the world, fathered and 'looked after' our narrator, rarely worked, ended up being sectioned then tried to make Australia a country of millionaires. And then became Australia's most hated man.
As you can see from above, Martin's son Jasper had a pretty strange background he writes the novel telling his own story within that of his father's.

According to Amazon this is the book they felt should win, I still haven't read White Tiger (It's waiting on a shelf). I loved the first 500 pages, the text was fast paced and amusing but then it started to drag. Last night I decided just to skim read the last 150 pages. I still loved the characters and wated to know what happened, but I didn't need the detail - and things were getting far fetched even for this book.
I'm glad I read it, but I feel the 720 pages could be edited down by a good 200 pages. Anyone else read this? What did you think?

Challenges:
Booker
A-Z (Title)
Chunkster Challenge
Orbis Terrarum
999 (New Book)

My Thoughts: A Fraction of a Whole by Steve Toltz

This is one of last years Booker Nominees which I'm still trying to read through! The novel is a sons account of living with a father who is livig in the shadow of his dead brother. Sounds confusing, huh! Terry Dean became a national hero despite being a serial killer, he took it to himself to rid the sporting world of cheats and was killed whilst in prison.
His brother, Martin, had a pretty strange life, even without the murderous brother, he spent 7 years of his childhood in a coma, travelled the world, fathered and 'looked after' our narrator, rarely worked, ended up being sectioned then tried to make Australia a country of millionaires. And then became Australia's most hated man.
As you can see from above, Martin's son Jasper had a pretty strange background he writes the novel telling his own story within that of his father's.

According to Amazon this is the book they felt should win, I still haven't read White Tiger (It's waiting on a shelf). I loved the first 500 pages, the text was fast paced and amusing but then it started to drag. Last night I decided just to skim read the last 150 pages. I still loved the characters and wated to know what happened, but I didn't need the detail - and things were getting far fetched even for this book.
I'm glad I read it, but I feel the 720 pages could be edited down by a good 200 pages. Anyone else read this? What did you think?

Challenges:
Booker
A-Z (Author)
Chunkster Challenge
Orbis Terrarum
999 (New Books)

My Thoughts: Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh

Boy this book has taken me so long to read, a week and a half may not sound so long to some people but thats more than double the time I normally take.

An Indian housewife steps down to the Ganga to wash and sees a vision of a ship, she goes inside and immediately draws what she has seen. What is so shocking about the vision is that the woman has never seen even a drawing of a ship before, yet before long her life has dramatically changed and the ship, the Ibis has become an important element of her life.

This book is littered with characters from far reaching areas of life - a mixed race American, a young girl born and raised outside of the traditions of the British or Indian culture, a fallen raja, and an Indian widow on the run after marrying below her caste. Each has an individual story, a reason to end up onboard the Ibis.

These characters where all gripping and I will be looking out for the next instalment of the triology to see what becomes of them.

Having read and loved The Glass Palace I was disappointed with this book, I did find it was overly long, and although I loved all of the characters, the vast array of plot lines and the ranges of langauges, religious and cultural traditions and beliefs created a very challenging read.

Have you read this? Id be interested to hear other peoples opinions on this book.

My Thoughts: The Gathering by Anne Enright

Lots of reviews of this book say it is too depressing, too miserable. This is a book about a suicide, its hardly likely to be full of happiness and joy.

The book is narrated by a middle aged, middle class woman, with a seemingly perfect life - she's at home looking after the kids, whilst her husbands business is going so well she can buy anything she wants. But she isn't happy.

When her brother commits suicide she starts mulling over events in the past, her past and her families past, as well as the present, her lifeless, loveless marriage. Veronica is from a large family, one where the kids all drag up each other. The mother has too many kids to care about each child individually, and she also has some type of problem, so the family is constantly trying to protect her from the live going on around her. Veronica seems to hate, and yet love her mother, and also blames her father for having to grow up in this overly large family.

After her brother's suicide, Veronica explores a past she would have never known, the meeting of her grandparents, and how that meeting led to the event that she says it the root cause of her brother's death.

This novel is firmly based in the thoughts of the narrator, no great event happens, and you guess early on what childhood event will be revealed. I felt I never knew whether to trust this narrator, at some points she even told you that she couldn't clearly remember events. I also didn't really like her, or any of her family, they all seemed fairly self absorbed, no one really seemed to love anyone else, they all just existed side-by-side.

Saying that I thought it was well written, and a good read.

This was the last book I had to read for the 2008 Man Booker Challenge, this year I read:

1. The Gathering (winner)
2. The Famished Road (winner)
3. Sour Sweet (Short listed 1982)
4. Moon Tiger (winner 1986)
5. Mister Pip (Short listed 2007)
6. The Orchard on Fire (Short listed 1996)

By far my favorite was Mr Pip. In the next year I shall be reading all the of the 2008 shortlist, as well as some previous winners and runners up

My Thoughts: The Famished Road by Ben Okri

This book about the life a a spirit-child, he struggles and fights for his chance to live, and at many times has to fight against the spirits who want him to return to the spirit world.

The book deals with many African political and social problems, including poverty, hunger, lack of stability and the dirty tricks and means used by politicians to capture as man votes as they can. The whole community is filled with spirits and their actions can affect the life of all, yet the boy is the person most affected. He moves between normal life, the spirit world and a time and space where they both converge.

I'll be honest and say that this book was a struggle, I'm sure that their were many references to folk tales, religion and cultural beliefs that I just didn't know enough about to recognise. However, this is a book that I wish I had had the opportunity to study when I was at university, it would have been great to learn about the influences, origins and context of the novel and to attend seminars and hear other peoples views about it.

Challenges:

2008 Booker Challenge: Book 5/6

Fall into Reading: Book 1

Olympic Challenge: Nigeria

Book Awards 2: Book 1/10

Other Reviews:

Jackie's

Trevor's Review

My Thought: Mister Pip - Lloyd Jones

I have been meaning to read this book since it came out and I had it down for a few different challenges, so I was very happy when it arrived as part of a bookring, a great book and free too!
The novel is focused on a small island in Papa New Guinea, the islands men have travelled to Australia to work in the mines leaving the women and children on the island till they can find a way to join the men. Then war strikes, daily routines are hit and dreams of seeing fathers and husbands again are put on hold.
The only white man on the island decides to start up the school again, many of the lessons are dedicated to Great Expectations, the children are gripped. Matilda the main character uses the novel as a means of escape from the war and also a way to understand the world around her.
I thought that this was one of the best reads of this year so far. The language was fantastic, the characters well rounded and the shock well placed. Definately a novel I'll be recommending to others.
Challenges:
Book 3/3 for I Heard it Through the Grapevine
Book 9/9 for Orbis Terravm
Book 4/6 for 2008 Booker Challenge
Also part of my ongoing project to read a book from each country in the world

If you have read this book feel free to comment or leave a link to your own review.
Read other peoples thoughts about Mister Pip:
Raidergirl3's thoughts
Trevor's thoughts

Lizzy's thoughts

My Thoughts: Orchard on Fire - Sheena Mackay

This is one of those books I would never have even picked up in a bookshop as the cover just doesn't look like my type of read but when I saw the title on Bookcrossing I thought I'd give it a go. And I'm really glad I did.
The novel is set in a quaint English countryside in the 1950/60's I'd guess, against this background is set the story of two young girls with not so quaint lives. April's parent's own a little tea shop which doesn't do much business, she attracts the unwanted attentions of an elderly old man. And Ruby lives in a pub with parents who pay her very little attention except with their fists. The girls become good friends but try and deal separately with their problems.
The narration is told by April and the author manages to pull of a child's voice and point of view well, without the novel seeming like a child's book. This really reminded me of Tatty which I read last year and loved.
Definitely a book I'd recommend to others. If you have read this book feel free to comment or leave a link to your own review.

Book 6/6 for the Novella Challenge (my first ever completed challenge!)
Book 3/6 for the 2008 Booker Challenge
Book 31/52 for my A-Z Challenge

My Thoughts: Moon Tiger - Penelope Lively

I would never have picked this book up but it was on the Booker winners list, of which I am trying to read all the winners, and it fitted in with a few other challenges. It got pulled towards the top of mount tbr because the name 'Moon Tiger' sounded exciting, adventurous and romantic - which is what this book wishes to be, but some how doesn't quite get there.

The book's narrator is Claudia, an old lady who is nearing the end of her life, with her death looming she decides to write a history of the world. Her life history gets mixed in with a sparse amount of world history. We here of her lovers her incestuous relations with her brother, her poor attempt at motherhood as well as her jaunts in Egypt as a journalist during the war and her fairly selfish life as a popular historian.

She is created as a woman who keeps everyone distant from her, self sufficient and self involved - which she is - which is why I think I couldn't really care with the story. She seemed so distant that we couldn't believe in this gaping short lived love affair, we couldn't believe that she felt the horror of war or the horror of her upcoming death. It was an ok read, certainly not gripping and one I'm sure to have pretty much forgotten by next week.

If you have read this book feel free to comment or leave a link to your own review.

Book 2/6 for The 2008 Booker Challenge
Book 1/6 for The What's in a Name? Challenge
Book 5/6 for The Novella Challenge
Book 5/6 for Orbis Terravm

My Thoughts: Sour Sweet - Timothy Mo

I love Asian books and seeing the title and the author I expected this book to be set in China, however this book is about a Chinese family who have recently moved to 1960's London. The family - a young husband and wife, a baby and a sister all start of living in a small flat whilst the husband works in a Chinese restaurant. In the novel it is the women who are in charge, they pester the husband into setting up his own business and become much more integrated into the English culture than he does. However, Chinese customs and beliefs are still followed rigorously. The interpretations on British life and the misunderstandings are humourous and I could have quite happily have read another couple of hundred pages about the family life of the Chens.

The book alternated chapters between the Chen family and a group of Chinese gang members called the Hung Family. The chapters about the gang contained initiation ceremonies and lots of violence, they never really seemed to hang true and the link to the Chen family was very weak and appeared just there to provide the ending. Personally I just skim read these chapters as a means to get back to the Chan family drama.

This is my first read for the 2008 Booker Challenge, as this was short-listed for the Booker prize in 1982. Although it was an enjoyable read I can see why it wouldn't have won a Booker prize.

If you have read this book feel free to comment or leave a link to your own review.

The Complete Booker

I have also joined The Complete Booker Challenge and the 2008 Booker Challenge to help me complete the first one.

So far I have read 16 Booker winners (I knew my degree would come in handy somewhere!). I have now signed up to try and read all of the Booker winners. The 2008 challenge, challenges participants to read 6 books which have won, been shortlisted or longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, they can be from any year.

I'm planning on reading:

1. The Gathering (winner)

2. The Famished Road (winner)

3. Sour Sweet (Short listed 1982)

4. Moon Tiger (winner 1986)

5. Mister Pip (Short listed 2007)

6. The Orchard on Fire (Short listed 1996)

Extra: Sea of Poppies, Amitav Ghosh (2008 nominee)

My Booker Read's So Far and What I Still Need To Read:

1969 Something to Answer for
by P.H. Newby

1970 Elected Member
by B. Rubens

1971 In a Free State: A Novel
by V.S. Naipaul
1972 G.: A Novel
by John Berger
1973 The siege of Krishnapur;
by J. G Farrell
1974 Holiday
by Stanley Middleton
1974 The Conservationist
by Nadine Gordimer
1975 Heat and Dust
by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
1976 Saville
by David Storey
1977 Staying On: A Novel (Phoenix Fiction Series)
by Paul Scott
1978 The Sea, The Sea (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics)
by Iris Murdoch
1979 Offshore
by Penelope Fitzgerald
1980 Rites of Passage
by William Golding
1981 Midnight's Children (Everyman's Library)
by Salman Rushdie ***** (Really struggled with it, but definately worth perservering)
1982 Schindler's Ark (Coronet Books)
by Thomas Keneally
1983 Life and Times of Michael K: A Novel
by J. M. Coetzee
1984 Hotel Du Lac
by Anita Brookner ***** (Not my type of thing)
1985 The Bone People: A Novel
by Keri Hulme ***** (A fav of mine)
1986 The Old Devils
by Kingsley Amis
1987 Moon Tiger
by Penelope Lively ***** (ok but not outstanding)
1988 Oscar and Lucinda: movie tie-in edition
by Peter Carey ***** (Ok, but didn't live up to my expectations for it)
1989 The Remains of the Day
by Kazuo Ishiguro ***** (A really good read)
1990 Possession: A Romance
by A.S. Byatt ***** (One of my all time favs)
1991 The Famished Road *****
by Ben Okri
1992 The English Patient
by Michael Ondaatje ***** (A modern classic)
1992 Sacred Hunger (Norton Paperback Fiction)
by Barry Unsworth
1993 Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha
by Roddy Doyle ***** ? (Read for Uni, I can't remember it at all)
1994 How Late It Was, How Late
by James Kelman
1995 The Ghost Road
by Pat Barker
1996 Last Orders
by Graham Swift
1997 The God of Small Things
by Arundhati Roy ***** (A really good read)
1998 Amsterdam: A Novel
by Ian McEwan ***** (He's written a lot better material)
1999 Disgrace
by J. M. Coetzee ***** (I wasn't impressed)
2000 The Blind Assassin: A Novel
by Margaret Atwood ***** (A great read as expected from Margaret Atwood)
2001 True History of the Kelly Gang: A Novel
by Peter Carey
2002 Life of Pi
by Yann Martel ***** (A really great read)
2003 Vernon God Little
by DBC Pierre ***** (One of my all time most hated reads)
2004 The Line of Beauty: A Novel
by Alan Hollinghurst ***** (A good read)
2005 The Sea (Man Booker Prize)
by John Banville
2006 The Inheritance of Loss
by Kiran Desai ***** (I thought this book was trying to be too clever)
2007 The Gathering
by Anne Enright