Month: April 2013

My Easter Holidays

My boys go back to school tomorrow, so today is the final day of the Easter holidays. We’ve had a busy couple of weeks – here’s what we’ve been up to:

Cooking

We made cream eggs using this recipe. It was really simple and they tasted surprisingly similar to the real thing:

Camping

We went camping in Dorset. It was so cold we had to put things in the cool box to stop them freezing! We had a great time, despite the weather, and went for a lovely cycle ride on a disused railway track. We also did lots of walking in the countryside around the campsite. Here I am trying to keep warm by cuddling a coffee and wearing three pairs of trousers!

Activities

The next weekend we went to a PGL adventure centre with my son’s rugby club. It was great to see my boys having fun and conquering their fears:

The whole family preparing to abseil off a giant tower

Walks

We’ve also had lots of walks in the local woods and met up with friends:

Now it’s back to normality and back to the books. I’ll return on Tuesday with a post about my thoughts on the Women’s Fiction Prize Shortlist. Fingers crossed the best books make it through!

I hope you’ve had a wonderful Easter too!

1960s Classics

The Merry-Go-Round in the Sea by Randolph Stow

Post author By Jackie
Post date April 12, 2013
12 Comments on The Merry-Go-Round in the Sea by Randolph Stow

Five words from the blurb: Australia, remote, war, disillusioned, restless

I hadn’t heard of The Merry-Go-Round in the Sea until David, a regular commenter on my blog, recommended it. Further research revealed it to be an Australian classic, so I thought it would be the perfect book to read for Kim’s Australian Literature month. I’m surprised that it isn’t more well known outside Australia – it is a wonderful piece of literature!

The Merry-Go-Round in the Sea is set in Geraldton, Western Australian and shows how one family is affected by WWII. The story is narrated by Rob, who is six at the start of the book in 1941, and a teenager by the time it ends in 1949. Rob’s older cousin, Rick, is sent to fight and the whole family must deal with the changes brought on by war and the mental scars of those who return from it.

The main joy of this book is the vivid sense of place – it contains some of the most evocative descriptions of the Australian landscape I’ve ever read:

In winter, rain flooded the gravelled verges of the street and made brown lakes where wooden and paper boats were floated. The soft mud squished up between the boy’s toes. In winter they were forced into shoes and socks, but they took them off and paddled home in the delicious mud.
The stark grey berry-bushes on the vacant land grew green and soft-looking, and put out small, mauve-tinged flowers. Then spring came, loud with bees, and the red berries formed, and in many yards were yellow flowering cassias. When the petals fell, the flowers turned into writhing green snakes full of seeds.

Rob was a fantastic narrator. He was initially too wise for his age, but I was willing to forgive this problem because of the wonderful narrative arc created. The blurb states that the story is semi-autobiographical and it is easy to see the way personal insight has added to the realistic feel of this story.

The only reason I didn’t fall in love with this book is because the plot was too slow for me. The family dynamics and emotions were flawlessly observed, but very little actually happened. It is a testament to the writing quality that I managed to enjoy a book with so little plot at all.

Overall, I highly recommend The Merry-Go-Round in the Sea to anyone looking for a fantastic Australian book. This classic deserves a wider audience.

For more Australian fiction reviews head over to Kim’s blog.

Tags Australia

Orange Prize Other

Ranking the Women’s Fiction Prize Longlist

Post author By Jackie
Post date April 9, 2013
10 Comments on Ranking the Women’s Fiction Prize Longlist

I’ve now finished trying all the books on the longlist and thought it would be interesting to summarise my thoughts before the shortlist is announced on Tuesday 16th.

I haven’t posted about all the books yet, but rather than inundate the blog with lots of (mainly negative) reviews I thought it was best to focus on the positives and then move on to books that are more to my taste. So here are the books I most enjoyed reading:

The six books I most enjoyed reading:

Honour by Elif Shafak
Lamb by Bonnie Nadzam
Ignorance by Michèle Roberts
Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple
A Trick I Learned From Dead Men by Kitty Aldridge
Mateship with Birds by Carrie Tiffany

As you can see I didn’t love many books from the longlist, but my taste isn’t everything. Many of the books were fantastic, just not for me. So here is the more important ranking:

The longlist by literary merit:

The Marlowe Papers by Ros Barber
Bring up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel
Ignorance by Michèle Roberts
NW by Zadie Smith
The Forrests by Emily Perkins
Honour by Elif Shafak
Alif the Unseen by G Willow Wilson
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
May We Be Forgiven by AM Homes
Lamb by Bonnie Nadzam

Who will make the shortlist?

That question is almost impossible to answer as it is all down to the personal taste of the judges on the day, but I suspect their discussions will mainly involve the ten books I’ve listed above. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Gone Girl on the shortlist, but if I had to stick my neck out I’d predict these six books will make the cut:

Bring up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
Ignorance by Michèle Roberts
NW by Zadie Smith
Alif the Unseen by G Willow Wilson
The Marlowe Papers by Ros Barber

Who will win?

Hilary Mantel is the most likely contender, but I think there is a strong chance Kate Atkinson will pip her at the post on this one. Shame as all my fingers are crossed for The Marlowe Papers – it hasn’t received the attention it deserves.

Who do you think will make the shortlist?

Which books on the longlist did you enjoy reading?

Orange Prize

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

Post author By Jackie
Post date April 8, 2013
30 Comments on Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

Longlisted for 2013 Women’s Fiction Prize

Five words from the blurb: born, lives, change, chances, destiny

Life After Life is getting rave reviews everywhere. I’ve seen more people declare it as their “book of the year (so far)” than any other title. I loved the concept and with all the buzz I was expecting to enjoy it. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case. I found it repetitive and I couldn’t engage with the central character, Ursula, at all.

The book begins well, with Ursula shooting Hitler. It then jumps back in time to Ursula’s birth, but Ursula doesn’t survive. In a strange twist of events Ursula is born again and this time survives. Ursula continues to die at regular intervals, each time being reborn, living slightly longer, and learning from past events.

Staircases were very dangerous places, according to Sylvie. People died on them. Sylvie always told them not to play at the top of the stairs. Ursula crept along the carpet runner. Took a quiet breath and then, both hands out in front of her, as if trying to stop a train, she threw herself at the small of Bridget’s back. Bridget whipped her head round, mouth and eyes wide in horror at the sight of Ursula. Bridget went flying, toppling down the stairs in a great flurry of arms and legs. Ursula only just managed to stop herself from following in her wake. Practice makes perfect.

Unfortunately I couldn’t connect with the the format. Every time Ursula died I groaned inside. I found the repetition of each scene irritating and even though new details were added each time there was more to annoy me than entertain. It could be down to the fact I’ve never had much success with this type of structure – The Post-Birthday World by Lionel Shriver also annoyed me.

Another problem was that the fragmented nature of the plot meant I struggled to become emotionally attached to Ursula. The fact she kept being reborn also meant each tragedy had an increasingly small impact on me.

On a positive note, the writing quality was good – a big improvement from When Will There Be Good News?, the only other book by Kate Atkinson that I’ve read.

Due to the volume of glowing reviews I persevered with this book for longer than I normally would, giving up after 175 pages. I seem to be the only one who didn’t fall in love with Life After Life so please don’t take my word for it. Give it a try!

DNF

The thoughts of other bloggers:

Every little detail has a purpose, every single decision was made for a reason and carried a particular consequence. The Pretty Good Gatsby

…the structure, rather than create difficulties or disjointedness in the reader’s understanding, brings us to a deeper knowledge of Ursula and her motives. The Writes of Woman

…one of the most extraordinary books you’ll read this year. Alex in Leeds

Orange Prize

Honour by Elif Shafak

Longlisted for the 2013 Women’s Fiction Prize

Five words from the blurb: Turkey, London, traditions, mistakes, families

Honour is the story of a Turkish family who are haunted by their mistakes. Pembe and Adem Toprak move to London in order to start a new life, but Turkish traditions are never far from their mind. Maintaining the family’s “honour” is vitally important, but this book questions how far a person should go to protect it.

The book started really well with the introduction of some fantastic characters. I was instantly engaged in their story, keen to work out what was happening. It was a little confusing at first because the book jumped forwards and backwards in time, but each chapter was so vivid that I didn’t mind this.

The most impressive thing about Honour is the way it portrays both Eastern and Western cultures with sensitivity and respect. I didn’t know much about Turkish tradition, but this book introduced their beliefs in a way that was easy to comprehend. I understood the dilemmas they faced in maintaining their public image and found the way this impacted on their life in London fascinating.

In England things were topsy-turvy. The word couscous, though ordinary, was treated with reverence. Yet the word shame, though substantial, was taken quite lightly.

Unfortunately I lost interest in the story towards the middle of the book. Everything came together and I felt as though I knew where the story was heading. Luckily I was wrong, but I still felt this middle section was overly long and lacked the sparkle of the rest of the novel.

I ended the book with mixed feelings, expecting to award it 4 stars. But this is one of those rare books that improves with time. On reflection it kept getting better – an impressive number of issues were raised and it is only with hindsight that I realised how clever some of the earlier scenes were. I’m sure that even more would be revealed on a re-read, making this a strong contender for the shortlist.

It is one of my favourite books of the year so far and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys character driven novels that investigate how culture impacts on our lives.

The thoughts of other bloggers:

Note: I couldn’t find a bad review for this one!

Personally, Elif Shafak looks set to be my favourite author. JoV’s Book Pyramid

I love Shafak’s style of writing – it is lush and hints at magic realism. Winstonsdad’s Blog

It continues to make you read it even after you have closed the last page. Just a Word

Tags Turkey

Uncategorized

World Autism Awareness Day: The Best Fiction Books?

Post author By Jackie
Post date April 2, 2013
26 Comments on World Autism Awareness Day: The Best Fiction Books?

Today is world autism awareness day. My eldest son has Asperger’s syndrome, a form of autism, and so I’m keen to spread the word about the condition and give as much information as I can.

The main problem with autism is that there are no outward physical signs of a disability. The general public has little awareness of the difficulties faced by those with autism, often assuming those with the condition are rude, naughty or stupid. Society places emphasis on our ability to socialise and although many people with autism are talented, intelligent individuals they find life difficult because the rest of the population fail to understand their needs.

Autism is a spectrum disorder, meaning that some people are more disabled than others, but all share the ‘triad of impairments’. They are:

difficulty with social communication
difficulty with social interaction
difficulty with social imagination

Many also suffer from a heightening of the senses, meaning that strong light, noise, smell or touch can be unplesant.

You probably know someone with undiagnosed autism.

It is estimated that one in every hundred people have autism, but a diagnosis is often only obtained for those at the more severe end of the spectrum.

Does this sound like someone you know?

Rigidly follows rules
Talks endlessly about a single subject
Unable to understand facial expressions
Incapable of lying
Has inflexible routines
Thinks literally
Has difficulty understanding sarcasm

If you’d like more information the National Austic Society is a fantastic source of information.

The Best Fiction Books About Autism?

Since my son received his diagnosis I’ve made an effort to read as many books as possible containing autistic characters. Most have the factual details of the condition right, but very few capture the difficulties and emotions correctly.

Here are my favourites: