What I'm reading ...

I have started La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman, my next book club book. Having read some of the author’s work before, I am optimistic ...

The Secret War: Spies, Codes and Guerrillas 1939–1945 - by Max Hastings

This book has a lot going for it. Lots of detail about intelligence activities in WW2 and numerous stories and anecdotes about the activities of agents etc. The book is clearly very well researched, so I am confident of the accuracy of the information. However, for me, it was all too much. I managed to read about one third of the book and found getting there rather hard work. Ultimately I felt that there was a very nice 200-page book in here - it just needs someone to to do thorough editing. I did learn lots of interesting things, but there comes a point when it is time to move on ...

What I'm reading ...

I have started reading The Secret War: Spies, Codes and Guerrillas 1939–1945 by Max Hastings, my next book club book.  A good time for some meaty non-fiction, I think, and this should fit the bill.  Here’s the blurb:

In ‘The Secret War’, Max Hastings examines the espionage and intelligence machines of all sides in World War II, and the impact of spies, code-breakers and partisan operations on events. Written on a global scale, the book brings together accounts from British, American, German, Russian and Japanese sources to tell the story of a secret war waged unceasingly by men and women often far from the battlefields but whose actions profoundly influenced the outcome.
Returning to the Second World War for the first time since his best-selling ‘All Hell Let Loose’, Hastings weaves into a ‘big picture’ framework, the human stories of spies and intelligence officers who served their respective masters. Told through a series of snapshots of key moments, the book looks closely at Soviet espionage operations which dwarfed those of every other belligerent in scale, as well as the code-breaking operation at Bletchley Park – the greatest intelligence achievement of the conflict – with many more surprising and unfamiliar tales of treachery, deception, betrayal and incompetence by spies of Axis, Allied or indeterminate loyalty.

The Standing Chandelier - by Lionel Shriver

This book is described as a novella and it is, indeed, quite a short book, even though the story covers quite a long timer period. It is not so much a story about events, but more an exploration into a number of people’s response to those events and the feelings engendered. I guess I might say that it is a study of emotional intelligence. The key issue is whether a man and a woman can be truly platonic friends. The author does not attempt to give a definitive answer, but does a good job of pushing around the subject for thought and discussion.

What I'm reading ...

I have started The Standing Chandelier by Lionel Shriver. I wanted a quick read while I am travelling and this is described as a novella [just 129 pages]. This author always impresses me. Here’s the blurb:

When Weston Babansky receives an extravagant engagement present from his best friend (and old flame) Jillian Frisk, he doesn’t quite know what to make of it – or how to get it past his fiancée. Especially as it’s a massive, handmade, intensely personal sculpture that they’d have to live with forever.
As the argument rages about whether Jillian’s gift was an act of pure platonic generosity or something more insidious, battle lines are drawn…
Can men and women ever be friends? Just friends?

Dead Tomorrow - by Peter James

As usual with this author’s work, I enjoyed the ride. It was just what I needed for a long aeroplane flight. The story had the complexity that I have come to expect, but there was no real, unexpected twist at the end. Two things linger with me: Early in the book a guy has a motorbike accident and is later declared dead. We are just left to assume that he is the potential liver donor that is mentioned towards the end. The backstory about Sandy progressed by a small step; does each book add just a tiny bit more?

What I'm reading ...

I have started Dead Tomorrow by Peter James. Time for some escapist fiction and this author’s work is just the job. Here’s the blurb:

The body of a missing teenager is dredged from the seabed off the Sussex coast, missing vital organs. Soon after, a further two more bodies are found . . .
Caitlin Beckett, a fifteen-year-old in Brighton will die if she does not receive an urgent transplant. When the health system threatens to let her down her mother takes drastic action and goes to an online broker in black-market organs. The broker can provide what she wants, but it will come at a price.
As Detective Superintendent Roy Grace investigates the recovered bodies, he unearths the trail of a gang of child traffickers operating from Eastern Europe. Soon Grace and his team will find themselves in a race against time to save the life of a young street kid, while a desperate mother will stop at nothing to save her daughter's life . . .

The Shepherd's Life: A Tale of the Lake District - by James Rebanks

My interest in sheep, to be frank, is very limited and mainly focussed on their role in providing Sunday roast. However, I am always interested in other people’s lives, how they live them and what perspective they have on the world. This book delivered. The content is an interesting mixture of general discussion of life on a Lake District farm and stories from the author’s and his family’s life. It is well written and has a genuine feel to it - I can hear the author’s voice. A few philosophical points are slightly laboured, but I feel that can be forgiven, as they are the expression of some deep seated emotions and beliefs. I expected to say that the book made me want to visit the area and to some extent it does, however, I am left wondering whether tourism is really a benefit to the people there.

What I'm reading ...

I have started The Shepherd's Life: A Tale of the Lake District by James Rebanks, my next book club book. Looks to be something different. Here’s the blurb:

Some people's lives are entirely their own creations. James Rebanks' isn't. The first son of a shepherd, who was the first son of a shepherd himself, he and his family have lived and worked in and around the Lake District for generations. Their way of life is ordered by the seasons and the work they demand, and has been for hundreds of years. A Viking would understand the work they do: sending the sheep to the fells in the summer and making the hay; the autumn fairs where the flocks are replenished; the gruelling toil of winter when the sheep must be kept alive, and the light-headedness that comes with spring, as the lambs are born and the sheep get ready to return to the fells.
These modern dispatches from an ancient landscape tell the story of a deep-rooted attachment to place, describing a way of life that is little noticed and yet has profoundly shaped this landscape. In evocative and lucid prose, James Rebanks takes us through a shepherd's year, offering a unique account of rural life and a fundamental connection with the land that most of us have lost. It is a story of working lives, the people around him, his childhood, his parents and grandparents, a people who exist and endure even as the world changes around them. Many stories are of people working desperately hard to leave a place. This is the story of someone trying desperately hard to stay.

How to Be a Husband - by Tim Dowling

I went straight on to this book, as I wanted some light holiday reading. Here’s the blurb:

The much-loved Guardian columnist asks what it takes to make a husband, and looks to his own married life to provide the answer.*
*Anything resembling advice should be taken at reader’s own risk.
You’ll never get divorced if you never get married. Not even your granny minds if you live in sin anymore. And if you’re single you can choose curtains without somebody else butting in. So why bother with marriage? It can’t just be an easy way round having to buy your own deodorant.
Guardian columnist Tim Dowling is a husband of some twenty years. His marriage is resounding proof that even the most impossible partnership can work out for the best. Some of the time.
So while this book is called ‘How To be a Husband’, it’s not really a how-to guide at all. Nor is it a compendium of petty remarks and brinkmanship – although it contains plenty of both. You may pick up a few DIY hints. You might learn that while marriage is founded on love, it endures through bloody hard work. Most likely it will make you whimper with the laughter of painful recognition.

I am a regular reader of the author’s newspaper column and expected more of the same - sharp observations that make me smile. I was not disappointed. The book investigates numerous aspects of 21st Century life and how a marriage - or, in particular, a husband - fits into it. I found myself highlighting various turns of phrase that I enjoyed and learned some new, useful words [like “uxorious”]. I will continue to look out for the author’s work - both his writing and musical performances.

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine - by Gail Honeyman

I enjoyed this book, as I felt it was well written, humorous without being trivial and well paced. Someone told me it was “heart warming”; I think that is a nice summary.

When I started the book, I quickly assumed that Eleanor was autistic - or, at least, had a tendency that way. By the end of the book, I concluded that she was the product of nurture - her traumatic experiences - and not nature.

I particularly enjoyed the twist concerning her mother at the end. It was nicely done and took me by surprise.

I will be interested to see what the author comes up with in future.

What I'm reading ...

I have started Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman - a very popular book that is riding high in the charts right now and has been recommended to me. Here’s the blurb:

Eleanor Oliphant leads a simple life. She wears the same clothes to work every day, eats the same meal deal for lunch every day and buys the same two bottles of vodka to drink every weekend.
Eleanor Oliphant is happy. Nothing is missing from her carefully timetabled life. Except, sometimes, everything.
One simple act of kindness is about to shatter the walls Eleanor has built around herself. Now she must learn how to navigate the world that everyone else seems to take for granted – while searching for the courage to face the dark corners she’s avoided all her life.
Change can be good. Change can be bad. But surely any change is better than… fine?

The Black Echo - by Michael Connelly

I enjoyed this book. It is a reasonably complex murder mystery, with various back-stories. For me, the complexity and the detail was just about right. Some of the language is very odd [to me] - I assume it is LAPD-speak. For example, if you “make” someone, it means that you recognize or identify them. This did not impair my understanding - at added to the atmosphere. The book is set a quarter of a century ago. There are frequent references to pagers and  much rushing off to find pay-phones. It made me happier to be living in 2018.

Overall, I found the story to be well paced and easy to read and I was always happy to get back to it. I may well read more in the Harry Bosch series at some point.

What I'm reading ...

I have started The Black Echo by Michael Connelly, my next book club book. Just a little daunted by 500 pages! Here’s the blurb:

LAPD detective Harry Bosch is a loner and a nighthawk. One Sunday he gets a call-out on his pager. A body has been found in a drainage tunnel off Mulholland Drive, Hollywood. At first sight, it looks like a routine drugs overdose case, but the one new puncture wound amid the scars of old tracks leaves Bosch unconvinced.
To make matters worse, Harry Bosch recognises the victim. Billy Meadows was a fellow 'tunnel rat' in Vietnam, running against the VC and the fear they all used to call the Black Echo. Bosch believes he let down Billy Meadows once before, so now he is determined to bring the killer to justice.

A Normal Family: Everyday adventures with our autistic son - by Henry Normal

Having encountered the author in person, I had expectations of this book. I anticipated a straightforward, honest account of what it is like to live with a parent an autistic child. And that is what I got. I feel that I have gained interesting insights into a world of which I am never likely to have very direct experience. In some ways, I think the book is squarely aimed at readers who are in a similar situation to the author. However, even if I fall outside of the intended audience, I hope that I may be just a little better at interacting with any autistic people that I might meet and appreciate the challenges of their carers. IMHO, it is a worthwhile read for the “lay reader”.

What I'm reading ...

I have started A Normal Family: Everyday adventures with our autistic son by Henry Normal. We saw the author, who was giving a talk at a local poetry festival and he unashamedly plugged his book. We immediately purchased a copy and I am assured that it is a good read. It is certainly a subject that interests me.  Here’s the blurb:

Johnny is nineteen. He likes music, art and going to the beach. He is also autistic - in his case that means he will probably never get a job, never have a girlfriend, never leave home. And over the last nineteen years this is what his father, TV producer and comedy writer Henry Normal and his wife Angela have been trying to come to terms with.
This is a book for anyone whose life has been touched by autism - it's about the hope, the despair, and the messy, honest sometimes comical day-to-day world of autism, as well as a wonderful, warm book about the unconditional, unconventional love between a father, a mother and a son.

Notes from an Exhibition - by Patrick Gale

I found this book riveting; always looking forward to the next spell of reading it. The structure is similar to A Perfectly Good Man insofar as it is non-linear. Each chapter is introduced by the exhibition notes to a picture and the text appertains to that time period. Reading the book is like completing a jigsaw - the total picture gradually emerges. But there are pieces missing, where the reader is left to imagine what is in the gaps. It is all I can do to read something other than another of Gale’s books, but I will be back for more soon!

What I'm reading ...

I have started Notes from an Exhibition by Patrick Gale. I rarely read two books by an author in quick succession, but this is the second time that I have read one of Gale’s books and immediately wanted to read another. Here’s the blurb:

Celebrated artist Rachel Kelly dies alone in her Penzance studio, after decades of struggling with the creative highs and devastating lows that have coloured her life. Her family gathers, each of them searching for answers. They reflect on lives shaped by the enigmatic Rachel - as artist, wife and mother - and on the ambiguous legacies she leaves them, of talent, torment and transcendent love.

A Perfectly Good Man - by Patrick Gale [redux]

I have just re-read this book, as it is my next book club selection. It is nearly 3 years since I read it last time, so I had forgotten the details, only remembering that I had enjoyed it before. I think I enjoyed it even more this time around. I rarely read a book twice, as there are so many books I have not read and so little time. But this makes me rethink my approach.

I stand by all my previous comments. I now realise that the non-linear presentation of the story is actually the way we recall the past and this is why it does not feel unnatural. My only slightly negative thought is that I do not really understand why Phuc was so angry at his adopted parents, but I suspect my emotional intelligence is limited ...

I have just bought the book's predecessor, Notes from an Exhibition. 

The Rosie Project - by Graeme Simsion

After my initial feeling of identifying with Don, I quickly realized that, although I understood his logic and way of thinking, he was a lot worse than me! The story is laugh-out-loud funny in places and other bits are cringe-worthy embarrassment, but, to me, it was all quite credible.

As the story progresses and we get to know Don better, he is also rapidly developing as a person. Like Don, the other characters are mostly quite well drawn and the story progresses at a good pace.

Overall, I enjoyed the book. I was entertained, but also made to think. An interesting aspect of the story is, if Don were told the ending at the start, he would have deemed it impossible. However, as the reader, I found his transition, leading to the climax of the book, quite believable.

I am not 100% sure that I want to read book 2, although the reviews are quite strong ...

What I'm reading ...

I have started The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion. This book was recommended to me as being a very amusing, but not trivial read. Here’s the blurb:

Love isn't an exact science - but no one told Don Tillman. A thirty-nine-year-old geneticist, Don's never had a second date. So he devises the Wife Project, a scientific test to find the perfect partner. Enter Rosie - 'the world's most incompatible woman' - throwing Don's safe, ordered life into chaos. But what is this unsettling, alien emotion he's feeling?

My first impression is that I identify with Don rather a lot and wonder if it will read more like a self-help manual than a novel.

Dead Man’s Footsteps - by Peter James

As with the previous books in this series, I very much enjoyed reading this one. The pace is good and the amount of detail just about right. As usual, there are a number of threads that come together in a complex way and every chapter seems to end with some kind of cliff-hanger that pulls me in to read more, as the resolution is likely to be 2-3 chapters on. Overall, I kept turning the pages and didn’t guess everything before the end. Next time I was very recreational read, book #5 is to hand.

What I'm reading ...

I have started Dead Man’s Footsteps by Peter James. Nice to relax into another in this series. Here’s the blurb:

Amid the tragic unfolding mayhem of the morning of 9/11, failed Brighton businessman and ne'er-do-well Ronnie Wilson sees the chance of a lifeline: to shed his debts, disappear and reinvent himself in another country. Six years later the discovery of the skeletal remains of a woman's body in a storm drain in Brighton leads Detective Superintendent Roy Grace on an enquiry spanning the globe, and into a desperate race against time to save the life of a woman being hunted down like an animal in the streets and alleys of Brighton.

The Essex Serpent - by Sarah Perry

This book was recommended to me and is my latest book club choice. Here’s the blurb:

London, 1893. When Cora Seaborne's controlling husband dies, she steps into her new life as a widow with as much relief as sadness. Along with her son Francis - a curious, obsessive boy - she leaves town for Essex, in the hope that fresh air and open space will provide refuge.
On arrival, rumours reach them that the mythical Essex Serpent, once said to roam the marshes claiming lives, has returned to the coastal parish of Aldwinter. Cora, a keen amateur naturalist with no patience for superstition, is enthralled, convinced that what the local people think is a magical beast may be a yet-undiscovered species. As she sets out on its trail, she is introduced to William Ransome, Aldwinter's vicar, who is also deeply suspicious of the rumours, but thinks they are a distraction from true faith.
As he tries to calm his parishioners, Will and Cora strike up an intense relationship, and although they agree on absolutely nothing, they find themselves at once drawn together and torn apart, affecting each other in ways that surprise them both.
The Essex Serpent is a celebration of love, and the many different shapes it can take.

I found this book an enjoyable read, with a good pace and excellent writing style. The legend of the serpent is used as a vehicle to tell the story of a number of people’s lives and loves and the complex interactions between them. We also get a good picture of late Victorian life in a number of contexts.
I thought that the characters were well drawn and Cora, in particular, quite interesting. The story has good pace and the ending is not rushed. Although the story does have an ending of sorts, I would have liked to know exactly what happened to Stella. Did she die? If so, did Will and Cora progress their relationship?
Looking at the author’s previous book and her forthcoming novel, I will be inclined to read more.

Your Life In My Hands - a Junior Doctor's Story - by Rachel Clarke

This book was quite a straightforward read, as the writing is very competent, so it flows well. Some tighter editing would have been helpful, as with many modern books, as there is some repetition.

There are two strands to the book, as is hinted by the blurb. The big one is the discussion of the NHS and its decline resulting from the lack of funding. I was not uninterested in this topic, but I did feel that the message was rather repetitive. The author’s passionate concern about the NHS shine through and I guess her spelling it out in such detail was inevitable.

The other thread was the description of her medical work. This was the part that I really enjoyed, finding a lot of it quite emotional. Thinking back on the book, the medical stories are the part that will stay with me.

What I'm reading ...

I have started Your Life In My Hands - a Junior Doctor's Story by Rachel Clarke, my next book club book. Here’s the blurb:

How does it feel to be spat out of medical school into a world of pain, loss and trauma that you feel wholly ill-equipped to handle?
To be a medical novice who makes decisions which - if you get them wrong - might forever alter, or end, a person's life?
To toughen up the hard way, through repeated exposure to life-and-death situations, until you are finally a match for them?
In this heartfelt, deeply personal account of life as a junior doctor in today's health service, former television journalist turned doctor, Rachel Clarke, captures the extraordinary realities of ordinary life on the NHS front line. From the historic junior doctor strikes of 2016 to the 'humanitarian crisis' declared by the Red Cross, the overstretched health service is on the precipice, calling for junior doctors to draw on extraordinary reserves of what compelled them into medicine in the first place - and the value the NHS can least afford to lose - kindness.
Your Life in My Hands is at once a powerful polemic on the systematic degradation of Britain's most vital public institution, and a love letter of optimism and hope to that same health service and those who support it. This extraordinary memoir offers a glimpse into a life spent between the operating room and the bedside, the mortuary and the doctors' mess, telling powerful truths about today's NHS frontline, and capturing with tenderness and humanity the highs and lows of a new doctor's first steps onto the wards in the context of a health service at breaking point - and what it means to be entrusted with carrying another's life in your hands.

The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science - by Richard Holmes

Another book club book, which looked interesting. Here’s the blurb:

Shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize and winner of the Royal Society Prize for Science Books, Richard Holmes’s dazzling portrait of the age of great scientific discovery is a groundbreaking achievement.
The book opens with Joseph Banks, botanist on Captain Cook’s first Endeavour voyage, who stepped onto a Tahitian beach in 1769 fully expecting to have located Paradise. Back in Britain, the same Romantic revolution that had inspired Banks was spurring other great thinkers on to their own voyages of artistic and scientific discovery – astronomical, chemical, poetical, philosophical – that together made up the ‘age of wonder’.
In this breathtaking group biography, Richard Holmes tells the stories of the period’s celebrated innovators and their great scientific discoveries: from telescopic sight to the miner’s lamp, and from the first balloon flight to African exploration.

The book was interesting, but it was far too long and, hence, took me an age to read. I enjoyed a lot of it - particularly the details of the lives of some of the scientists and the connections between them. I could live without all the poetical stuff.

The Good Companions - by J.B. Priestley

Phew! This book took a while. I started it, under the impression that it was quite short. I read it on my Kindle and the details said that it had around 100 pages; it is actually rather over 600 pages!

The story is long and quite detailed, illustrating some interesting angles on aspects of life in England a century ago. It is well written, with excellent descriptive sequences and a lot of humour, but it is too long. I think a third of it could be edited out - as I feel it would be in a modern book - and the story would be tighter, but lose none of its richness.

Overall, I enjoyed the book, but the excessive length would deter me from reading any of the author’s other work.