What I'm reading

I have started The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes. I spotted this on the Man Booker long list [13 books] a few weeks ago and it looked interesting for some reason - also a good price on Kindle. I later heard that it had not only made the short list [6 books], but was the favourite to win. So, of course, I was keen to read it before the winner is announced [18 October].

Here is the blurb:

Tony Webster and his clique first met Adrian Finn at school. Sex-hungry and book-hungry, they would navigate the girl-less sixth form together, trading in affectations, in-jokes, rumour and wit. Maybe Adrian was a little more serious than the others, certainly more intelligent, but they all swore to stay friends for life.Now Tony is in middle age. He’s had a career and a single marriage, a calm divorce. He’s certainly never tried to hurt anybody. Memory, though, is imperfect. It can always throw up surprises, as a lawyer’s letter is about to prove.The Sense of an Ending is the story of one man coming to terms with the mutable past. 

You've Gone Too Far This Time, Sir! - by Danny Bent

I think that I can say that this book "did what it says on the tin". It is a personal, quite light-hearted account of the author's bicycle journey across Europe and down into India. Having said that, he does not paint a rosy picture - there was much hardship and he was close to failure numerous times. I felt that it was written honestly and it made me feel like I knew him a little bit. I was glad that he succeeded in his goal.

The downside of the book is that it makes any cycling I have done, or am ever likely to do, seem ridiculously tame.

What I'm reading

I have started You've Gone Too Far This Time, Sir! by Danny Bent. After the last book, which was long and required a lot of intellectual effort from me, I thought that a light autobiography might fit the bill.  Here is the blurb:

When Danny Bent cycled 15,000 kilometres from the UK to India to raise money for ActionAid, it was a decision that took twenty years and one minute. For twenty years he had wanted to do something to raise money for charity. The one minute was when as their teacher he was put on the spot by his pupils and declared that the means was by bike, and he was going to India.

What he had signed up for was slogging along roads with trucks bearing down on him, unable to see and choking in the smog; shooting down treacherous descents with 100 foot drops, shaking with cold and too numb to brake; muscle burn and saddle sores; delirium and food poisoning; thirst and malnutrition; foul and insanitary conditions; life-threatening crises; obstructive border guards, crazed dogs and inquisitive passers-by.

'You've Gone Too Far This Time, Sir!' is a real and compelling blow-by-blow account of Danny's trip across Europe, the former Soviet Republics, Russia, China, Pakistan and India.

And what people he met! They are the true delight of this book, mostly charming, sometimes reckless, occasionally threatening, always unpredictable, and forever inviting Danny to be up for the challenge of entertaining them, in one instance by dancing in front of a packed stadium, in another by eating sheep's brains in a local night market.

Danny turns the wheels, you turn the pages. The pace is relentless. The story is both heart-stopping and heart-warming. The arrival is breakdown-and-cry emotional. And there's loads of fun and wonderment along the way too. 

The Leopard - by Jo Nesbo

This was a long book and it took me a while, but fortunately it got un-put-downable quite fast and the Kindle doesn't make a book look so dauntingly big.

It is a complex mystery story about a serial killer in which the author frequently plays tricks on the reader, making you think you know something and then surprising you with a twist. There is some very gruesome violence in the book and the scene is set for this in the first chapter, where a horrible killing takes place.

The writing is definitely out of the same mold as Stieg Larsson, but I think Nesbo is actually a better author. Just like Larsson he sustains a complex story line, pays attention to detail and draws characters with just enough detail. Unlike Larsson, he does not waste pages on unnecessary ramblings - complete computer specifications for example.

All in all, a very good read which kept me totally engaged right up to the end. Although I did not like the violence, it was not gratuitous, so I am likely to investigate Nesbo's other books.

What I'm reading

I have started The Leopard by Jo Nesbo. My partner is reading this for her book club, so she asked me to get the Kindle edition. Reading the reviews, I thought that I would give it a go. He is described by some as the second Stieg Larsson. Here is the blurb:

In the depths of winter, two young women are found dead, both drowned in their own blood. Inspector Harry Hole, deeply traumatised by an investigation that threatened the lives of those he holds most dear, initially wants nothing to do with the case but his instincts take over when a prominent MP is found brutally murdered. The victims appear completely unconnected to one another, but it’s not long before Harry makes a discovery: the women all spent the night in the same isolated mountain hostel. And someone is picking off the guests, one by one...

365 Nights - by Charla Muller

My attention was drawn to this book a while ago. The idea of a couple setting out to have sex every night for a year was different, at least. I guess writing about it is either just as odd or inevitable, depending upon your perspective. Then I saw it at a bargain price as a Kindle e-book ...

First off, this is not a book about sex. We know how often they had sex, why they did it and how the author felt about it, but we are not privy to details of exactly what happened in their bedroom. I confess some slight curiosity, as "having sex" can mean different things to different people at different times, but we never find out.

The author takes the initial concept and uses it as a means to discuss numerous aspects of a woman's life in middle-class, 21st Century America. She uses "The Gift" as a thread through the story in quite an ingenious way. We learn a lot about her feelings and details of her life. For a man, reading about a woman's feelings is always an insight and this book is no exception. But this is also the flaw of the book - it is written purely from a woman's perspective. I would have loved to hear her husband's angle.

As it is, I think she makes two errors: First, she portrays sex as something that women deliver [maybe under sufferance] for men's pleasure. In my experience, it can and does work both ways. Second, she talked in terms of it being a challenge for her to "deliver" every night for a year and seemed to assume that her husband was blissfully happy with the arrangement. Perhaps he was. But, as a man, I would not want to receive this gift, as I would find the pressure to perform and the artificiality of the arrangement very off-putting.

Its faults aside, all in all I found this a good and enjoyable read and maybe I understand just a tiny bit more about how women see the world [or maybe I don't].

What I'm reading

I have started 365 Nights by Charla Muller. I was intrigued by the concept of this book as it challenged a taboo, which is always interesting. Here is the blurb:


For an entire year. The Mullers had a solid marriage and two wonderful children, but over the years sex had fallen low on their to-do list. The lack of intimacy wasn't causing them to drift apart, exactly, but their connection didn't seem as great as it could be. Charla decided that the couple would emabrk on a year of scheduled sex - falling over toy trucks and piles of laundry in an effort to make time for each other. There were obstacles along the way - when disasters at work intruded on their home life and when there were questions about the sex itself and faking it. Would physical love - whether good mediocre or ugly - make up for things that weren't so good? Charla and her husband had a whole year to find out...