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December/January Summary and Plans for February

I’ve had a mixed few months. December seemed to produce one amazing read after another, but 2014 has been disappointing so far. Many of the books I’d been looking forward to didn’t live up to expectations. Hopefully my run of bad luck will be broken soon. 

In the meantime I’ll focus on the positives. I read three outstanding books in December:

  • The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert was a wonderful piece of historical fiction. It was rich in period detail, had a fantastic female protagonist, and was good old-fashioned story telling at its best. I’ll try not to put you off by mentioning the moss!
  • The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion was a entertaining book about a man with Asperger’s finding love. It was refreshing to read such a positive portrayal of someone on the spectrum and it made me cry with laughter – a rare event!
  • Tampa by Alissa Nutting was the most controversial book I read last year, but underneath the graphic sex scenes there were many important messages about our society and its attitude to female paedophiles. 

Books of the Month

The Rosie ProjectThe Signature of All ThingsTampa

Books Reviewed January/December:

The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert 

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion 

Tampa by Alissa Nutting 

My Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriarty 

Strange Weather in Tokyo by Hiromi Kawakami 

The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson 

Questions of Travel by Michelle de Kretser 

Sex and the Citadel by Shereen El Feki 

The Lie by Helen Dunmore 

The Summer of the Ubume by Natsuhiko Kyogoku 

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd 

Salvation of a Saint by Keigo Higashino 

Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward 

Jack Glass by Adam Roberts 

Back to Back by Julia Franck 

The Hunger Angel by Herta Müller 

DNF: The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer, Strange Bodies by Marcel Theroux, Underworld by Don DeLillio

Plans for February

I don’t have any firm plans for February, but I hope to read Traveller of the Century by Andres Neuman for Stu’s Pushkin Press event.  I also hope to try most of these books:

The Night Watch by Sarah Waters

A Long Long Way by Sebastian Barry

The Last Word by Hanif Kureishi

The Free by Willy Vlautin

Feeding the Ghosts by Fred D’Aguiar

All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren

I hope that you have a wonderful February!

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DVD Review: Untouchable (French Cinema)

Untouchable [DVD]

Five words from the blurb: Paris, slum, quadriplegic, wealthy, adventure

I don’t normally review films on this blog, but I don’t often watch ones that are as good as this! Untouchable is funny, but moving; entertaining, but with a deeper message beneath the surface. It is made even more wonderful by the fact that it is based on a true story.

Untouchable begins in Paris with Philippe, a wealthy quadriplegic, interviewing for the position of his carer. Driss, a poor Sengalese man, is only attending the interview in order to get his benefit book stamped, but Philippe loves his attitude and hires him on the spot. The pair form an unlikely friendship, with Driss injecting fun and adventure back into Phillipe’s life.

The acting was flawless and the chemistry between the two characters was heart-warming to watch. It is rare to see male friendship investigated on screen and I think we could all learn a lot from their interactions.

I loved the way the film highlighted the problem of society looking down on disabled people, assuming they are stupid and of no value. The way it contrasted these issues with the problems faced by those living in poverty was cleverly done. It somehow managed to avoid being condescending, simply showing how important it is to make the most of what we have.

There was a lot of bad language, but it was an accurate portrayal of the people involved and never felt gratuitous. Scenes of a sexual nature wre minimal, but there was a touching love story that added an extra dimension to the emotional rollercoaster.

There were some sad moments in the film, but the majority was uplifting and I ended it with a massive grin on my face. It’s the best thing I’ve watched in ages.

Highly recommended.

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Have you seen Untouchable?

Did you enjoy it as much as I did?

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Brief Thoughts: Salvation of a Saint, My Husband’s Secret, Underworld, The Summer of the Ubume

Salvation of a Saint

Salvation of a Saint by Keigo Higashino

Five words from the blurb: husband, dead, poisoning, suspect, deceit

This wasn’t in the same league as The Devotion of Suspect X. The writing was simpler and it didn’t contain any of the same clever twists. I read to the end in the hope of being surprised, but unfortunately I wasn’t. Disappointing.

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The Husband's Secret

The Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriarty

Five words from the blurb: letter, secret, opens, truth, family

This book was so gripping I found myself trying to read it whilst doing other things. It was a real page-turner, with a fantastic cast of characters. Unfortunately it is one of those books that falls apart under scrutiny and my opinion of it lowers every time I think about it. It created a fantastic discussion at my book group, but I think we’ll all have forgotten what happened by the next meeting.

(because I enjoyed the experience of reading it so much)

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Underworld

Underworld by Don Delillio

Five words from the blurb: baseball, Russian, bomb, global, Bronx

I really wanted to read this modern classic, but I’m afraid the baseball bored me rigid. The writing was fantastic, but I failed to connect to any of the characters and felt an increasing sense of dread every time I picked up this massive chunkster. Life is too short to battle through a book this long that does nothing for you, so I abandoned it after about 150 pages.

DNF

Summer Of The Ubume, The

The Summer of the Ubume by Natsuhiko Kyogoku

Five words: folklore, ghost, real, explanations, mystery

I was worried that this book might be too scary (it is described as horror on the cover) but that isn’t the case. The Summer of the Ubume is a rich discussion of the Japanese spirit world, concentrating on Ubume, the beings created when a pregnant woman dies. Unfortunately the book is dominated by a debate about what is real and what isn’t and I was already familiar with all the quantum physics and most of the philosophical arguments. If you’re new to this sort of discussion then you’ll love it, but I’m afraid I’d heard 90% of it before.

Despite the problems, it is probably still worth reading for all the information about the Japanese spirit world. 

 

Have you read any of these books?

What did you think of them?

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Strange Weather in Tokyo by Hiromi Kawakami

Strange Weather in Tokyo Translated from the Japanese by Allison Markin Powell

Shortlisted for 2012 Man Asian Literary Prize

Five words from the blurb: romance, old, teacher, friendship, solace

Strange Weather is Tokyo is a beautifully written story about the friendship that develops between Tsukiko and one of her former high school teachers. The pair meet by chance in a bar and over time their relationship blossoms into a strange love affair.

Very little happens over the course of the book, but I was captivated by the quality of the writing. If the same story had been set in England I’d have probably been bored, but there is something about the Japanese way of life that fascinates me. I loved the atmospheric descriptions of the bars and food had a high prominence – it was mouthwatering:

With renewed determination, I seized a piece of the fish with my chopsticks and dunked it in the gingered soy sauce. The firm flesh had a slightly peculiar flavour. I sipped from my glass of cold sake and looked around the bar. Today’s menu was written in chalk on the blackboard: MINCED BONITO. FLYING FISH. NEW POTATOES. BROAD BEANS. BOILED PORK. If sensei were here, he would definitely order the bonito and broad beans first.

It is probably worth pointing out that the cover of this book is quite misleading. The floating woman implies some supernatural element, but this book is firmly grounded in reality. Anyone looking for the more bizarre aspects of Japanese fiction will be disappointed.

Despite the slow pace of the plot I read this book very quickly – it only took a few hours to reach the emotionally charged end. It’s the perfect way to be briefly immersed in Japanese culture.

Recommended to those who love all things Japanese.

stars41

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For more Japanese book reviews see Tony’s January in Japan blog..

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Brief Thoughts: The Psychopath Test, The Secret Life of Bees, The Interestings and Strange Bodies

 The Psychopath Test

The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson

Five words from the blurb: insanity, compelling, adventure, madness, truths

Fascinating investigation into psychopathic behaviour. It was light, entertaining and raised many interesting questions. It didn’t quite go into enough scientific depth for me, but was the perfect introduction to the subject.

stars41

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 The Secret Life of Bees

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

Five words from the blurb: forgiveness, racial, tension, sanctuary, mystery

Had a promising premise, but was surprisingly lacking in emotion. It didn’t give me any new insight into the racial tensions of the American South and I felt that the characters lacked depth. It was compelling enough to finish, but overall I was a bit disappointed.

 

The Interestings

The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer

Five words from the blurb: American, tragicomedy, adolescence, friendships, fortunes

Fantastic writing and wonderful character development, but the plot failed to grab me. It all felt too ordinary and I’m afraid I didn’t care enough to want to find out what happened.

DNF

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Strange Bodies

Strange Bodies by Marcel Theroux

Five words from the blurb: metaphysical, challenging, forgery, identity, literature

Great premise, but I was unable to suspend my disbelief. I abandoned it at the half way point because it became increasingly weird, but lacked the charm or enlightenment necessary to keep me engaged.

DNF

Have you read any of these books?

What did you think of them?

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Happy New Year!

I hope that you all had a fantastic Christmas and New Year! 

We had a great few weeks visiting family and friends. We traveled up and down the country; our journeys made all the more entertaining by the accompaniment of The Harry Potter Audio Books. 

My boys really enjoyed Christmas. Their favourite present was a Warhammer starter set, which they have been painstakingly painting in every spare moment. They also received several new books (of course!), a recorder, some CDs and a few new games. Here they are pretending to go down a slope in a new sledge!: 

ch1Unfortunately they didn’t get any snow. It has rained almost continually for the last few weeks and much of our time has been spent watching the waters rise around us. Luckily our home hasn’t been affected, but here’s what I found when I tried to go shopping on Boxing Day:

flood

The floods are going to peak again tomorrow so we’re keeping all our fingers crossed for our friends who live near the river. 

Despite the fact that the rain kept me inside, I read very little. In fact I only finished one book: Strange Weather in Tokyo by Hiromi Kawakami (which I read for Tony’s January in Japan). Luckily, I completed several wonderful books at the beginning of December (especially The Rosie Project and The Signature of All Things) and so have plenty of books to review in the near future.

I look forward to getting back to reading & blogging soon!