It's been an interesting month for reading. Once again, eight books were consumed. Some great, some not so much.
Here's the list with some initial thoughts.
1) Life After Life by Kate Atkinson - Audio - 5 stars
This has been sitting in my bookcase for many years. I picked up an audio copy of it, and OH MY GOD HOW CAN I HAVE NOT READ THIS SOONER!
This is a Sliding Doors type book. Ursula Todd is born on 11 February 1920. Then dies - Darkness Falls. She's born again. She survives. But she dies soon after. Then's she's not dead. Sounds grim? It's not. It looks at life, and, in the words of T.S. Eliot, "In a minute there is time for decisions and revisions that a minute will reverse." The details in this are awesome. You meet Ursula's funny family and see how her life is impacted by the smallest decision, from a glance, to a knee to a groin, to a visit to Germany.
This is a stunning, stunning book.
2) The Midnight Train by Matt Haig - Paperback - 3.75 Stars
I'm love Matt Haig's The Midnight Library - it's a gorgeous little book. This, The Midnight Train, which runs along the same lines as its predecessor didn't win me over as much.
Wikipedia describes the plot as such, "The Midnight Train follows Wilbur Budd, an 81-year-old bookshop owner on the brink of death. He boards a magical train that allows him to revisit the important events of his life including his honeymoon with wife, Maggie, in Venice."
Look, it's a nice read. Haig spins a great philosophical tale, in this case, from the moment of a person's death, looking at the choices they've made.
This is not bad - but I preferred The Midnight Library. It had more charm and hope.
3) God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson - Audio - 4.5 Stars
This was ordered on the back of reading Life After Life - it's the second book in the series following on, yet with a different spin. This one looks at the life of Teddy Todd, Ursula's younger brother, who came back from the war after three years in a prison camp to marry the girl next door, and to get on with his life, marrying, having a daughter and living a quiet life, while his daughter, Viola, stumbles through life making some very questionable decisions which play on her children, Sun and Moon (bloody hippies).
By the end of the book, you know this family intimately. Their loves, traumas, mistakes and triumphs are reflected upon intimately.
Kate Atkinson is remarkable. I must seek out more.
4) The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles - Paperback - 3 Stars
This was this month's book group pick, taken up on the back of the most wonderful A Gentleman in Moscow - which we all loved. I've also read his Rules of Civility - which was also very enjoyable.
This one - not so much. It is the story of three youth, one, recently released from youth detention after an unfortunate accident saw him up on manslaughter charges. Emmett returns to the recently sold family farm to collect his brother and take off down the Lincoln Highway to California, where he and is brother Billy hope to start a new life, and possibly find their mother. However, two other youth, Duchess and Woolly have stowed away in the car bringing Emmett home. And things change.
I won't go into it further. It was 100 pages too long and I didn't gel with the characters, although the writing was good - and I liked the ending. There was just enough to keep me going over the near 600 pages. It wasn't for me.
5) One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez - Audio - 3 Stars
I listened to this as an audiobook. I should have read it on paper - I've had a copy in my bookcase for decades.
Look, it's South American magic realism. It's dense. It's funny in places. It's about a town that has shut itself away from the rest of the world. I've been told that you need to go to South American, particularly Columbia to really understand it. Lots of people get shot. I only half got it.
Garcia Marquez won a Nobel Prize for literature. I think if I ever go back to this I will need to read it on paper. It doesn't lend well to the audiobook format (Toni Morrison is another who I have the same feelings about audio versus paper.) I am, however, glad I've tackled this.
6) When Words Fail Us by Stan Grant - Hardback - 4 Stars
This slim volume of essays written for the Simone Weil lectures is expansive in its though. I was blown away by the talk Grant gave at the Wheeler Centre a few weeks back, and was interest to delve into this. It reinforces what he said in his talk. It's very thought provoking.
As non-fiction goes, particularly if you have an interest in philosophy, it's worth a look. Stan Grant is brilliant.
7) The Bright Years by Sarah Damoff - Audio - 4.5 Stars
I picked this up on spec on Audible on one of their sales and loved every minute of it.
The Simon and Schuster website describes the plot as such:
"One family. Four generations. A secret son. A devastating addiction. A Texas family is met with losses and surprises of inheritance, but they’re unable to shake the pull back toward each other.
Ryan and Lillian Bright are deeply in love, recently married, and now parents to a baby girl, Georgette. But Lillian has a son she hasn’t told Ryan about, and Ryan has an alcohol addiction he hasn’t told Lillian about, so Georgette comes of age watching their marriage rise and fall.
When a shocking blow scatters their fragile trio, Georgette tries to distance herself from reminders of her parents. Years later, Lillian’s son comes searching for his birth family, so Georgette must return to her roots, unearth her family’s history, and decide whether she can open up to love for them—or herself—while there’s still time.
Told from three intimate points of view, The Bright Years is a tender, true-to-life debut that explores the impact of each generation in a family torn apart by tragedy but, over time, restored by the power of grace and love."
This is fabulous. The perfect book group book. Sure, it has themes of addiction and domestic violence, but this is perfectly pitched and exquisitely written. It comes recommended.
The second non-fiction book of the month, and this is important reading.
I'll admit to being a political animal who's over the situation in America. Swan and Haberman write for the New York Times. This is meticulously researched and written with the highest values of journalistic integrity. It's maddening, irritating and jaw-droppingly gobsmacking and terrifying how low these people in power can go. If Trump were your grandfather, you'd have him committed to a secure ward.
I'm glad I've read it. It reads incredibly well. Essential reading if you a politics buff.
Today's song:
No comments:
Post a Comment