Author: Jackie

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2010 Books in Translation Novella

Stone in a Landslide – Maria Barbal

 

Translated from the Catalan by Laura McGloughlin and Paul Mitchell

I loved Beside the Sea, so wondered how the second book from the newly formed Peirene Press could ever live up to its emotional older sister. The two books were very different, but I’m afraid that I didn’t think Stone in a Landslide was in the same league as Beside the Sea.

Stone in a Landslide is set in a small village in the Pyrenees and follows 13-year-old Conxa as she leaves her parental home to live with her childless aunt. The book tells the story of her entire life, showing us how she finds a husband, cares for her children and copes with with the impact of the Spanish Civil War.

The book was very easy to read, but the simplicity of the prose left me cold. The 126 pages flew by, but I felt that it tried to cover too much in a short time and so I ended the book desperate to know more about her life. It is the same feeling I often get when reading a short story – I want more detail, more emotion and more complexity.

The gentle, simple narrative will appeal to a lot of people, but I felt that much of the book, especially scenes of the Spanish Civil War, were rushed.  Coxna led such an interesting life, but I never felt as though I knew her or what she was thinking. Descriptions of her surroundings seemed to be give more prominence than her emotions:

It was a bright day and I felt as if I was looking at everything in a huge mirror. The wind was fresh, you could still make out the snow on the mountain tops, even though the new grass had come up some days before. The birches stretched their arms to the sky waiting for their soft foliage.

Overall it was an interesting glimpse into life in the Pyrenees, but I felt it lacked depth.

Recommended to those who enjoy gentle short stories.

Opinions are divided on this one:

…each individual sentence is very plain, but somehow they combine to make a voice that is startlingly present and human. Stuck in a Book

I read the entire book feeling like an observer, and not a participant. Reading Matters

Stone in a Landslide is beautiful, simple and stark. Yet it is filled with warmth, the smell of grass on the mountains and the sunshine of a late afternoon. Chasing Bawa

Categories
2010 Non Fiction Richard and Judy Book Club

Operation Mincemeat – Ben Macintyre

 Richard and Judy Winter Read 2010

I don’t have any interest in military history or spy stories so when I saw that Richard and Judy had selected this as one of their Winter Reads I decided to challenge my preconceptions and give it a try. I’m afraid that it hasn’t converted me to into a lover of the genre, but I’m pleased that I gave it a chance.

Operation Mincemeat is a non fiction account of the planning that went into the invasion of Sicily during WWII. It details the deceptions that the British created to persuade German forces that an invasion would take place elsewhere – the plot centring on dropping a dead body into the sea off the coast of Spain with fake invasion plans.

The main problem I had with this book was that the plot was very simple. I was expecting a complex plan with lots of negotiations, spies and double-crossing, but I didn’t find Operation Mincemeat to be particularly cunning or original. It was interesting to see the massive amount of planning that went into this operation, but if this is the most exciting plot in WWII then I definitely don’t want to read any more military history.

This 400 page book was incredibly well researched, but I found many of the details boring. We were told the complete history of every person who was introduced and while some of it was relevant I didn’t care where they went to school or who their parents were.

I’m far more interested in the human side of war and this book lacked emotion. It was well written and readable, but I’d only recommend it to people who have an interest in military history.

Have you enjoyed any military history?

Can you recommend any that I might enjoy more than this one?

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Other

Win a copy of Hand Me Down World by Lloyd Jones

Hand Me Down World is the new book from Lloyd Jones, the best–selling author of Mister Pip. It will be released in the UK on the 11th November, but I have
10 limited edition copies to give away to readers of my blog.

These special books each have a unique identifier which enables you to log onto the Hand Me Down World Website. The idea is that each lucky recipient of the book will read it, leave their thoughts on the website and then hand it onto someone else. The journey of each book will be mapped and so the globe will hopefully become criss-crossed with the paths that copies of this book have made.

If you’d like to know a bit more about Hand Me Down World then I highly recommend that you watch this short video in which Lloyd Jones explains the plot and how he came to write it.

For a chance to read this book before its publication, please leave a comment below before 11am GMT on Friday 8th October.

This giveaway is open INTERNATIONALLY!!

Winners will be chosen at random and revealed on this blog shortly after the closing date.

Good Luck!

Categories
Other

September Summary and Plans for October

September was a very slow reading month for me. I had several weekends away and I was so busy with various other projects that the month just flew by. I only managed to finish 9 books, which I think is a record low for me. I did manage to get a fair way through a few chunksters though, so hopefully my October tally will be larger.

Book of the Month

Books Reviewed in September:

Never Let Me Go – Kazuo Ishiguro

Bad Karma – David Safier 

Young Hitler – Claus Hant 

Palace Walk – Naguib Mahfouz 

C – Tom McCarthy 

Choo Woo – Lloyd Jones 

Forgetting Zoë – Ray Robinson 

The Elephant’s Journey – José Saramago 

In a Strange Room – Damon Galgut 

Corrag – Susan Fletcher 

The Finkler Question – Howard Jacobson   (DNF)

Waiting for Columbus – Thomas Trofimuk   (DNF)

 

Plans for October

I failed to make much of an indent on my September plans and so most have the books have been transferred straight from that list to this one:

Tinkers – Paul Harding

Solo – Rana Dasgupta

Stonehenge: A Novel of 2000 BC – Bernard Cornwall

Paprika – Yasutaka Tsutsui

Wolf Totem – Jiang Rong

All My Friends are Superheroes – Andrew Kaufman

Stone in a Landslide – Muriel Barbal

I plan to join My Friend Amy’s Lonesome Dove readalong. I’ve had this chunkster on my shelf for far too long so it will be really nice to share the reading experience with lots of other bloggers. 

I’m also currently working my way through The Dark Side of Love which is 800+ pages long. It is fantastic so far, but its length means that it will dominate my October reading.

On top of these I will also be working my way through a few more of Richard and Judy’s book choices.

There is no way I’ll be able to complete all these books in October, but I’ll have fun trying. I better get back to the reading……

Categories
2000 - 2007 Booker Prize Recommended books

Never Let Me Go – Kazuo Ishiguro

 Shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2005

I have been wanting to read this book for ages, but for some reason it never made it to the top of my reading pile. I’m making a conscious effort to ensure that this doesn’t happen to the most important books in my collection and so Never Let Me Go became a priority. I’m so happy that it lived up to my expectations and that I will be joining the hoards of people who rave about this book.

Never Let Me Go is set in an English boarding school, but things aren’t quite as you’d expect them to be. Over the course of the book we slowly discover that it isn’t set in our world, but in one with subtle differences. I won’t say any more than that as I’d hate to give it away. All I can say is that it is an incredibly well constructed book, where the power is in what is left unsaid, as much as what is.

Maybe from as early as when you’re five or six, there’s been a whisper going at the back of your head, saying: “One day, maybe not so long from now, you’ll get to know how it feels.” So you’re waiting, even if you don’t
quite know it, waiting for the moment when you realise that you really are different to them; that there are people out there, like Madame, who don’t hate you or wish you any harm, but who nevertheless shudder at the very thought of you – of how you were brought into this world and why–and who dread the idea of your hand brushing against theirs.

It was such a subtle book that I found myself reading it very slowly, studying each paragraph for clues about what was happening. The ending left me with more questions than answers, but I quite liked the way some things were left open –  it means that it can be discussed for longer, making it a perfect book group choice.

I had expected the text to be challenging and so I was impressed by how easy and accessible it was to read. This combined with a thought provoking and original plot make Never Let Me Go a modern classic.

Highly recommended.

The Never Let You Go movie is released in the US on 1st of October and in the UK on 14th January 2011.

WARNING!! DO NOT WATCH THE AMERICAN TRAILER FOR THIS FILM IF YOU HAVEN’T READ THE BOOK – IT GIVES EVERYTHING AWAY!

The UK trailer for the film is below – it is almost spoiler free:

I was quite worried about how the adaptation would be handled, but I’ve been reassured by watching the trailers and am looking forward to seeing the film.

Did you enjoy Never Let Me Go?
What did you think of the trailer?

Categories
Discussions Other

How Can We Save UK Libraries?

Photo by: Martinrp, Flickr
Photo by: Martinrp, Flickr

Libraries in the UK are in real danger. The number of library visitors is dropping all the time, down 50% in the last 20 years, 9% since 2005.

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In the past five years, library funding in the UK has actually gone up by 25% to £1 billion and with these hard economic times you’d expect people to be borrowing books from libraries instead of buying them, but that isn’t the case.

Why aren’t people in the UK borrowing books?

I have to admit that I didn’t visit a library for seven years. With a full-time job I found it increasingly hard to visit a library regularly. It was always shut in the evening by the time I finished work and I couldn’t guarantee I’d be able to get there on a Saturday morning. The city centre location, with expensive car parking and long queues of traffic put me off. Why would I put myself through that when I could just buy a second hand book from a car boot sale for 50p and not worry about being fined for not taking it back on time?

I eventually signed up to the library when my oldest son was 2-years-old. I wanted him to experience the love of libraries that I’d once had and, as a full-time mum, I had the time to get there. My children love their library, but as an adult I’m not that impressed. They often don’t have the books I want and although I can order some (at a cost of 50p) there are many books that never end up in my library system.

My local library is packed with people wanting free Internet access, but very few people seem to be borrowing the books.

School Libraries too good?

My oldest son started school a few weeks ago and now has access to a wonderful library in his school and computers with sodapdf to access pdf books online. I’m beginning to wonder if there is a need to go to the main public library now that he is bringing school library books home on a regular basis.

Things are different in America

In the US, despite cuts in library funding, visits to libraries are increasing, up 5% since 2006. I was astounded by the number of different initiatives available in some US libraries.

These include:

I’m going to look into the “books by mail” service a bit more and will report back with my findings soon.

The love for US libraries on Twitter was especially heart warming:

We go to storytime about 3-4 times a week at library. They also do lots of weekly crafts, put on a movie & special events. @mawbooks

Sometimes I take my kids to the library just for a family game night. We play board games there. So much fun. @pussreboots

I run a book club at my library, & there are always events like movies, writing groups, game nights, classes, etc. @pookasluagh

My boys have seen/petted more animals up close at the library at various events then they have anywhere else! @mawbooks

Compare the Usage Statistics

A Twitter conversation with @mawbooks led me to investigate her library in Utah. I have compared this with my local library system in Surrey, England.

I am aware that other libraries in both countries may have huge differences to these two, but as they served similar populations I thought it was an interesting comparison.

The difference in library usage can be seen by comparing the statistics:

Library Population Number of Borrowers

Estimated Number of Items that will be Checked Out in 2010
Surrey, UK 1.1 Million 355,000 6 Million
Salt Lake County, Utah, USA  783,000  680,000  15 Million
  • Just 32% of Surrey residents borrow books from the library, compared with a massive 87% of Utah residents.
  • That’s 5.5 items per year for each resident in Surrey, compared to 19 items in Utah.
  • Roughly 4x more items are being borrowed per person in Utah.

The staggering difference can also be seen when you look at the number of copies of new books available to borrow:

 Library Population Copies of Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins Copies of Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
Surrey, UK 1.1 Million 8 copies on order.   No Holds 12 copies on order.   No Holds.
Salt Lake County, Utah, USA 783,000 962 copies,   2718 Holds 47 copies,   340 Holds

Note: Statistics were correct on the day each book was released in its respective country.

The Future of UK Libraries?

1000 libraries in the UK are threatened with closure in the next year.

I still visit my library, but it is more from a sense of duty than a desire to check books out.

I have been impressed by the recent advances Surrey libraries have made in some areas, including a new free audio/ebook download service, but I’m worried that this isn’t going to be enough to save many libraries from closure.

Drastic changes need to be made if libraries are to compete with the increasingly cheap second-hand book market. I’m not sure what the solution is, but we need to start thinking about it before we lose our libraries forever.

What would encourage you to visit your library more often?

Are you surprised by the difference in library usage across the Atlantic?

Which US initiatives do you think would work well in the UK?