Tuesday 31 January 2017

Commonwealth by Ann Patchett

Commonwealth, Ann Patchett’s eagerly awaited new novel, is the story of a two interconnected families, the Cousins and the Keatings, told over fifty odd years, starting out with a christening party in 1964.

Bert Cousins turns up at little Franny Keating's party with a bottle of gin and falls for Franny’s mother, who is strikingly beautiful. Patchett lovingly describes the interactions of those present at the party, with a memorable scene surrounding the making of gin cocktails and the squeezing of endless oranges. We’re definitely in L.A.

When Bert marries Beverly, Franny’s mother, two groups of children find themselves thrown together every summer: Bert’s four kids and Beverly’s two. The children don’t immediately hit it off, but when Caroline shows them all how to break into a car, and Cal finds a gun in his father’s glove compartment, tension and daring crank up a notch.

The story builds to one terrible tragedy, but the children are so good at secrets and subterfuge, the reader doesn’t find out what really happened for some time afterwards. These events later become a career saver for Leon Posen, the aging, hard-drinking author that Franny admires, who is desperate for inspiration.

Mostly, though, this is a novel about family relationships; about the things that push people together and pull them apart; about loyalty and forgiveness and how it all impacts on the ebb and flow of life. These are terrific characters, the children are interesting because of the secrets they harbour, the burden of guilt they carry and the messy lives of their parents. Just how they get over all that creates a terrific read with plenty to mull over for quite a while afterwards.

Posted by JAM

Catalogue link: Commonwealth

Thursday 26 January 2017

My Top Reads



Lee Child has for years been one of my must read authors. A guaranteed good read, his main character Jack Reacher appealed to me on many levels. A rough, tough, no-nonsense bloke and all around good guy, travelling around and learning about his country after a life time in the military. Finding himself in unusual situations (fantastical really) Reacher just does what he feels needs to be done with little fuss and generally saves the day. Sadly the Jack Reacher movie starring Tom Cruise in the role of Reacher pretty much ruined this for me. We all know the Reacher character is 6”5 and 250lbs – big and strong, but not overly fast due to his size. I understand it would have been practically impossible to find the right actor of this physical stature to play the part, but really, Tom Cruise?!

Its taken me a while to get over this, but I’m getting there. Night School, the new Jack Reacher thriller is sitting in on my to-read list and hopefully delivers the kind of reading enjoyment the early Reacher novels did. Meanwhile I’ve explored other authors who could be considered a similar style to Lee Child and found some amazing reads.

My top pick is New York Times bestselling author Robert Crais. His Elvis Cole and Joe Pike novels began with The Monkeys Raincoat in 1987 and are followed by fifteen other titles in which the two very different men, friends and business partners, have evolved into complex enjoyable characters of which I can’t get enough. In the earlier novels Elvis, a Private Detective is the front man, the character we mainly connect with, while Joe Pike is the strong silent partner who steps up when needed. As the series develops so does Pike’s character, and we come to understand the events that made him into the man he is – a decorated war veteran, mercenary, a hunter of men, someone who never gives up. A man whose motto is to always move forward, as depicted in his forward pointing, red arrow tattoos on his arms. 

Author Robert Crais describes Joe Pike as a conscious representative of our righteous rage at injustice. He is what happens when society fails."

Crais has also delivered great stand alone novels. Demolition Angel, Hostage and The Two Minute Rule are all titles I highly recommend to anyone who enjoys a good, well written thriller.

Reviewed by Cookie Fan 

Catalogue link: Night School
Catalogue link: Robert Crais

Thursday 19 January 2017

Rather be the Devil by Ian Rankin

Another book in the Rebus series is always cause for excitement for me!
Rather be the Devil finds Rebus in a relationship with pathologist Deborah Quant and dealing with health issues as a result of a life time of neglect.  He keeps the details a secret from those around him and dubs the shadow on his lung 'Hank Williams' while he struggles with giving up the booze and fags.  Considering we are talking about fictional characters here I have no business at all being as anxious as I am about where all this will lead and how far away the last Rebus mystery may be...
As a retired Detective Inspector he whiles the time away trawling through the old notes of an unsolved  cold case forty years earlier, when a beautiful young socialite was murdered in an upmarket hotel at the same time a famous rock singer and his entourage were staying there.
Meanwhile young-gun criminal boss Darryl Christie is assaulted in his driveway,and Rebus's old colleagues Siobhan Clarke and Malcolm Fox are investigating; albeit in a chilly atmosphere as Fox has been promoted to a job which Siobhan covets, at the prestigious Scottish Crime Campus.
As people of interest  are injured or killed, the two cases overlap and Rebus is called in to help in a consulting role.
Ian Rankin's Rebus novels are such a treat; the seedy side of Edinburgh and the familiar renegade character of Rebus who is  a lifelong non-conformer. Even the criminal element are well known foes from the past.
In this case familiarity does not breed contempt, because Rankin continues to produce well thought- out plots with a richness of characters and relationships.
Recommended.

Reviewed by Katrina

Catalogue link: Rather be the Devil



Wednesday 18 January 2017

How to be a Writer by John Birmingham

If, like me, you sometimes like to drag out the old laptop and hammer out the odd story, or perhaps you have a fully-fledged novel manuscript sitting in your documents folder you haven’t the nerve to show anybody, or maybe you write blogs and little freelance articles and wonder if you could turn your hobby into a full-time writing career - well then, this could be the book for you.

John Birmingham is author of the highly popular He Died with a Felafel in His Hand, and a bunch of fiction and non-fiction, blogs and newspaper articles – a proper jobbing author in fact. So he knows what he’s talking about.

How to Be a Writer won’t tell you how to write: how to construct a story, develop characters, hone your prose, etc. What it focuses on are the practices and habits that help you to be more professional: how to boost your word count, how to pitch a story, get over self-doubt, the business of self-publishing. And a lot more.

Birmingham is an unrelenting task-master: he scolds and howls in your ear, peppering his invective with bad language. Somehow this is very encouraging, because every now and then you need someone to give you a rev up and your friends and family are usually too nice. He is also very funny. I would love to quote some of his wittier moments here on this post but there’s the problem with the bad language and I’m not allowed. So you’ll just have to read the book instead.

Posted by JAM

Catalogue link: How to Be a Writer

Thursday 12 January 2017

Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor

Born in New York, but living in Aba, Nigeria, twelve-year old Sunny is an Albino girl who just wants to fit in at school and be able to play soccer. Bullied for the way she looks, and unable to go in the sun without an umbrella, Sunny tends to stand out of the crowd, even if sometimes she just wishes she could blend in to it.

But one day something amazing happens. With the help of two kids in her neighbourhood she discovers that she has juju magic running through her veins. Can she learn to control her power and defeat the evil forces at work? Will she make friends, and be able to balance her everyday life with her magical one?

Akata Witch was pitched to me as ‘Harry Potter, with a Hermione type lead, but set in Nigeria’, and while that was enough to gain my interest, it does not do this wonderful book justice. This is a book about a girl displaced.  Trying to keep her strict parents happy, while not angering her bad-tempered father; then finally discovering that she belongs in a world of magic, only to feel like she is constantly falling behind the other Leopard People (witches and wizards) because they were raised in it, whereas she is new. But she never gives up. Sunny is smart, hard working and determined, and I spent the whole book wishing that she was my friend.

A beautiful diverse YA book that I would recommend for any reader – not just the teenaged one.

Posted by Sas

Catalogue link: Akata Witch

Monday 9 January 2017

Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant? by Roz Chast

With her trademark quirky humour, Roz Chast has been publishing cartoons in The New Yorker since 1978. In Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant?, Chast has written a graphic memoir chronicling her relationship with her parents as they grew old, well into their nineties, and their reluctance to think about their care and eventual dying.

Chast’s parents were older than the norm when she was born and lived in the same Brooklyn apartment for 48 years. And never threw anything out. Her mother was the dominant parent, an ex-teacher who didn’t stand any nonsense and threatened anyone with ‘a blast from Chast!’ Her father was quieter, timid and nervous, rather like Roz herself, with a different set of peculiar habits.

While the narrative is mostly chronological, there are vignettes, many of which are very funny. The Wheel of Doom is a diagram of things to be avoided on pain of death: swimming without a cap; laughing during a meal; wearing too tight watchbands…; there are poems her mother wrote, illustrated by her daughter; her father’s paranoia over decades of accumulated bankbooks; photos of hoarded stuff in her parents old apartment, much of it dating back to the 1950s.

Through Chast’s characterisation of her parents, the quirky drawings, the growing guilt and anxieties that she records, you get to see the funny side of coping with the aged. But it is a poignant, honest and increasingly sad read as well, particularly as her parents decline and Chast has to deal with a mixture of emotions and memories.

Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant? is an award winning book (Kirkus Prize in Non-fiction; National Book Award Finalist; National Book Critics Circle Award Winner). Give it a try, even if the graphic format isn’t your usual sort of reading, for this is an outstanding book in so many ways.

Posted by JAM

Saturday 7 January 2017

Scattered Pearls by Sohila Zanjani

Subtitled 'three generations of Iranian women and their search for freedom' Scattered Pearls describes how the women in one family survived, and on varying levels overcame, violence, intimidation and control. Sohila Zanjani grew up in Iran, seeing the impact of domestic violence on both her mother and grandmother but also seeing the fierce determination of these mothers to do their best for their children.

After completing a degree, Sohila grasps a chance to avoid following in her grandmother and mother’s footsteps. She meets a man visiting relatives from Australia, where he is studying towards a post graduate degree at university. They marry and set off for a new life down under.

Unfortunately, Sohila’s husband has never been to university, seems incapable of holding down a job, and is reluctant to contribute to the care of their home and increasing family, while spending his day smoking and gambling. Meanwhile, Sohila works outside the home and tries to manage the family’s finances. Gradually she becomes a victim of increasing domestic violence.

Sohila doesn’t consider leaving for years because she assumes that she will lose her children, something that she is threatened with regularly. Eventually with the help of relatives, workmates and the Australian legal system, Sohila leaves her husband, returns to university to study law and starts her own business.

Sohila’s story is a compelling one, going beyond the personal to look at how cultural expectations can shape the behaviour of individuals, even in a new country on the other side of the world. Her determination to rise above the ill-treatment she suffers to make a new start gives the book a final message of courage and hope.

Posted by LCH

Catalogue link: Scattered Pearls 

Thursday 5 January 2017

And I Darken by Kiersten White

'Fantasy' is not necessarily the best description of this book. It is more like an ‘alternative history” (or maybe a gender swapped historical fiction), set in Transylvania at the height of the Ottoman Empire. It is imaginative, it is political, and it is brutal.

What if Vlad the Impaler was a young woman?

Lada is an amazing lead character. She is strong, and passionate, and kind of psychotic. She has grown up hating the fact that she was not born a man. She has spent her life being told that her brothers will get power, lead armies, and rule over the Kingdom, while her only purpose is to get married to someone who would be a strong ally. But she wants what her brothers have. She wants the power and position that would have been passed to her on a silver platter if she had been born a boy. She works harder than any soldier in the Ottoman army just to be considered a fighter, while her younger brother (who is called Radu the Handsome, is very effeminate, and has no battle skills) gets handed his own troop of soldiers to lead. While Lada makes a huge amount of bad choices, I can’t help but be inspired (and at times afraid) of how viciously she is prepared to go after what she wants.

At times it was very dark, and Lada is not a likeable character. But I devoured this book. I have seen it described as ‘Game of Thrones’ without the magic or dragons, and honestly, I think it’s a fair comparison.

Posted by Sas

Catalogue link: And I Darken

Monday 2 January 2017

Sing Street

As someone who was a teenager in the 1980s, this was a hoot; my 16 year old daughter had a giggle as well.  The double denim, the big glasses and the perms, as well as music by the Cure, Duran Duran and the Clash - happy times!
Fourteen year-old Connor is having a tough time growing up in Dublin.  His Dad has lost his job and his parents are always arguing. It is decided he will have to move from his private school to the tough Catholic Boys local boys school.
Connor convinces a beautiful aloof girl  Raphina to be in a music video for his band.  Which would be great except he is not in a band.  So of course he starts a band with a group of misfits and advice from his drop-out stoner brother.
They avidly watch music videos and write songs in the style of whichever band they currently admire (as well as stealing their look/mother's clothes with great hilarity)
If you liked Irish music movies such as The Commitments and Once (a most excellent movie about a busker by the same director), give Sing Street a viewing.

Reviewed by Katrina 

Catalogue link:  Sing Street



Sunday 1 January 2017

My Holiday Reading

Holidays are perfect for catching up with books that have been languishing on your MUST READ list, for reading new releases or maybe watching a DVD or two as I discovered recently.

Still Alice, the debut award-winning novel of Lisa Genova, first published in 2007, is the moving story of Alice Howlan. After experiencing episodes of forgetfulness and then becoming lost in her own neighbourhood, Alice is diagnosed with early onset dementia at the age of fifty.  A highly respected academic, wife and mother to three adult children, Lisa’s memory loss changes her relationships with her colleagues and family: her equally high achieving husband; her eldest daughter, a lawyer who is struggling to get pregnant; son who is in his third year at medical school; and younger daughter keen to follow an acting career.  Genova who has a Ph.D in neuroscience writes convincingly and the novel's topic of Alzheimer's is very relevant to many families.  If DVD’s are more your thing then there is a film adaptation available to hire at Hastings District Libraries, with Julianne Moore in the role of Alice, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress.

Resistance is Futile by Jenny T Colgan is a romantic comedy/science fiction novel, perfect for summer holiday reading.  Red-haired mathematician Connie is recruited along with five other mathematicians to solve a top secret code in Cambridge under mysterious circumstances. Humour (including maths puns), romance and interesting geeky characters make this a fun read.

The regular cast of characters are all back in the latest instalment of Alexander McCall Smith’s The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency series, Precious and Grace.  The main investigative thread follows Susan, a woman living in Canada for over thirty years, but who began life living in Botswana. As a child, Susan was distraught at having to leave when her parents changed jobs. However Mma Ramotswe is also kept busy as always with solving dilemmas affecting others she works with, such as Charlie the former apprentice mechanic, Fanwell the other apprentice and Grace, now what is her official title these days?  No story would be complete without Violet Sephotho threatening to spoil Grace’s happiness and Mma Potokwani’s restorative fruit cake and tea all under the wide sky of Botswana.

Posted by VT

Catalogue links:
Still Alice (book)
Still Alice (DVD)
Resistance Is Futile
Precious and Grace