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February Summary and Plans for March

February has been a very enjoyable reading month for me. I’ve kept to my strict abandonment policy and been rewarded with one good book after another.

Book of the Month

Nothing to Envy: Real Lives in North Korea 

Books reviewed in February:

Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick 

The Death of Grass by John Christopher 

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey 

Do No Harm by Carol Topolski 

Care of Wooden Floors by Will Wiles 

Before I Go To Sleep by SJ Watson 

A Novel Bookstore by Laurence Cossé 

Purgatory by Tomás Eloy Martínez 

The Twyborn Affair by Patrick White DNF

 

Plans for March

I’m going to finish The Half Brother, an amazing Norwegian book, which has been dominating my February reading time because it contains 750 pages of tiny type. I also hope to read most of these:

A Death in the Family by Karl Ove Knausgaard

The Golden Scales by Parker Bilal

The Great Singapore Penis Panic by Scott Mendelson

The Boy Who Fell To Earth by Kathy Lette

Death in Breslau by Marek Krajewski

The Roundabout Man by Clare Morrall

We the Animals by Justin Torres

I hope that you have a wonderful March!

 

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Other

My UFO is an Optical Illusion!

Yesterday I posted photographs of a strange object in the sky. Through the magic of Twitter I connected with aviation enthusiast @shorsley who explained that the object was a 4 engined aircraft leaving a vapour trail. An optical illusion made it look as though it was travelling straight down when it was in fact flying away from me. The angle of the sun in the sky created big shadows, making the trail appear larger than it was.

Apparently I’m not the only one to get confused over such events. In 2010 people in California witnessed a similar trail and suspected it was a missile being launched from the sea.

It turned out to be just an aeroplane – the optical illusion is explained in this article.

I’m slightly disappointed that I didn’t witness a meteorite falling to Earth, but it was beautiful.

 

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Other

What is this?

This has nothing to do with books, but I spotted something very strange in the sky this morning and hoped someone would be able to identify it for me.

I let my dog out into the garden at about 6.30am and noticed something falling from the sky. It appeared to be on fire.

Is it a meteorite?

All ideas gratefully received!

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Other Uncategorized

Links I Like

Little, Brown To Publish J.K. Rowling’s First Novel For Adults and speculation suggests that it is a crime novel.

The shortlist for the oddest book title of the year has been revealed.

Collins and Livemocha find the UK’s Most Multilingual Student.

Dear Photograph – A website with photographs and emotional captions.

Book Lamp use their data to answer the question: Do Vampires Get Married More Often Than Werewolves?

Paperus: A new design for Ereaders

Sales of Physical Books Nosedive

Rereading books offers a profound emotional benefit.

New series of My Life in Books to be broadcast on BBC next week.

23 British Publishing Euphemisms Decoded by Industry Experts  

Have a wonderful weekend!

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Nobel Prize Other

Abandoned: The Twyborn Affair by Patrick White

The Twyborn Affair (Vintage Classics)

Patrick White is an author I’ve wanted to try for a long time. He won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1973 and I’m sure I’ll love some of his work, but unfortunately I think I started with the wrong one.

The Twyborn Affair was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1979, but the author withdrew it from consideration. The book centres on Eddie Twyborn, a bisexual woman, and is set in the Australian Outback, France and London.

Unfortunately I can’t really tell you what happened because:

  1. I was too confused
  2. I abandoned it after 100 pages
  3. I’m not sure anything actually does happen

The writing quality was immediately obvious and I was initially impressed by the vivid scene setting. Unfortunately it wasn’t long before I lost the plot!

A stream-of-consciousness writing style, reminiscent of Virginia Woolf, began to dominate and I struggled to follow what was going on, let alone its relevance to the plot (if there was one). I can see that this is an intelligently written novel and I’m sure that anyone with the patience unravel this complex novel will be rewarded, but I’m afraid I couldn’t stomach 430 pages of slow confusion.

Have you read anything written by Patrick White?

Are all his books written in a steam-of-consciousness writing style?

Do you think I’d enjoy any of his other books?

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A Walk in the Woods

I live in Surrey, the most wooded county in England. Every day I take Ayla, my Bernese Mountain Dog, for a walk in the woods. As it is half term I am too busy entertaining my sons to write a lengthy book review so I thought you might like to see a few pictures of where I go each morning.


Ayla is now 9 months old and weighs 35kg. She will get a little bit taller, but by the time she is 2 years old she will probably weigh just under 50kg.

My friend’s labradors love this lake, but Ayla doesn’t like swimming. She prefers to dig in muddy puddles!

There is a lot of heathland near my house too. Ayla loves bouncing through the heather.

I love the walks as much as Ayla does!