Category: 2000 – 2007

Categories
2000 - 2007 Booker Prize Historical Fiction Orange Prize Other Prizes

The Siege – Helen Dunmore

 

Short listed for 2001 Orange Prize and Whitbread Novel of the Year Award

In September 1941 German troops surrounded the city of Leningrad, cutting off all supply routes. This left the 3 millions residents battling for survival – most so hungry that they resorted to making soup from strips of leather. 

The Siege is historical fiction at its best. The writing was so vivid that I almost felt as though I’d been there.

Late in the morning a lilac-coloured dawn will come, with burning frost that glitters on branches, on spills of frozen water, on snow, cupolas and boarded up statues. Nothing has ever been more beautiful than these broad avenues, the snow-coloured Neva, the parks and embankments. Only the people mar its perfection as they crawl out of their homes into the radiance of snow. Perhaps today is the day when they’ll fail to reach the bread queue. So they move on, flies caught between sheets of glass.

The book focused on one family. This personal insight into the crisis made the events come alive. I felt a deep connection to each member of the family and I willed them all to survive.

The Siege also contained a few chapters from the view-point of Pavlov, the nutritionist controlling the amount of food that each person received with their ration card each day. This was a fantastic addition to the plot as it allowed the real facts and figures of the situation to be revealed to the reader. It also allowed us to learn about the numerous ways in which the citizens were advised get nutrition from objects they possessed in their homes – some much more unusual than others.

As you can imagine this could never be described as a happy book, but I can only admire the strength of human spirit – that desire to survive despite the odds being stacked against them.

Highly recommended.

The Siege is the prequel to the 2010 Booker long listed The Betrayal. If you haven’t read The Siege then I highly recommend that you avoid reading any reviews for The Betrayal – I discovered that my 2010 Booker research had led me to reading a few spoilers for The Siege.

The Siege is my first experience of Helen Dunmore’s writing, but I’m a convert! I hope to read The Betrayal next week, but will also be on the look out for all her other books.

Have you read any Helen Dunmore books?

Which one is your favourite?

 

Categories
2000 - 2007

The Republic of Trees – Sam Taylor

I loved The Island at the End of the World and so was keen to read some of Sam Taylor’s earlier books. The Republic of Trees is his debut novel, but unfortunately I didn’t love it as much as The Island at the End of the World.

The Republic of Trees is set in France and follows a group of four teenagers as they decide to run away from home and build a life for themselves in the forest.  They create their own “Republic”, surviving by hunting for their own food among the trees.

I loved this first section! I think many children dream of running away and living without adults. This book perfectly captured their emotions – the insecurity and innocence was a joy to read!

Though we never talked about being caught, I could sense our fear in the silences between the words. In the evenings nothing looked the same – the forest became ghostly, insubstantial – and when I closed my eyes at night I worried that it wouldn’t be here the next morning.

As the book progressed it slowly became darker. There was an increasing sense of foreboding and although I had no idea what would happen I knew that it wouldn’t be good.

I found that I enjoyed the book less at it progressed. The beautiful realism of those initial chapters was lost in a series of bizarre events. The actions of the teenagers didn’t seem to make sense and I had no idea what motivated the events that occurred.

Overall I’d say it was a good debut novel, but I recommend starting with one of his other books.

Thoughts of Other Bloggers:

….just didn’t do it for me.  Reading Matters

Not quite as good as The Island at the End of the World, but good all the same. Peachy Books

It’s definitely powerful, and not for everyone. The Literary Amnesiac

Sam Taylor has recently launched a creative writing course at his beautiful home in Southern France. If I was a writer I’d love to go and make use of his advice while enjoying the great food, wine and scenery of rural France.

If you are an aspiring writer then I recommend looking at his website – I’m sure you’ll be tempted!

Have you read any of Sam Taylor’s books?

Which one did you enjoy the most?

 

Categories
2000 - 2007 Thriller

Hurting Distance – Sophie Hannah

  

Long listed for the 2008 Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award.

Little Face was one of the best thrillers I’ve ever read, so I was very keen to try another one of Sophie Hannah’s books. Hurting Distance is the second book in series. I think you can understand it without having read the first, but you would miss out on a few of the small plot lines that continue from one book to the next. If you want to follow the lives of the police officers then I recommend that you read them in order.

Hurting Distance is much darker than Little Face. The whole book revolves around a serial rapist, so it is quite disturbing in places. The story is told through the eyes of Naomi who was raped three years ago and didn’t report the crime. Robert, her lover, vanishes but the police don’t believe it is worth investigating. In a desperate attempt to get them to take her seriously Naomi accuses Robert of rape, using the details of the crime that was committed against her all those years ago.

The book then became a fast paced investigation, packed with unexpected twists and turns. There were a few too many unlikely coincidences for my liking, but on the whole it was an enjoyable read.

I don’t think it was quite as good as Little Face, but I remain a big fan of Sophie Hannah and look forward to reading the rest of her books.

I was totally gripped. Novel Insights

Despite its plot implausibilities, HURTING DISTANCE is a gripping tale.  Euro Crime

There is suspense and a lot of twists without it being over complicated….. Savidge Reads

Sophie Hannah’s new book A Room Swept White was released earlier this year and she has recently announced that her books are being adapted for television – I can’t wait!

Have you read any of Sophie Hannah’s books?

Which one did you enjoy the most?

Categories
2000 - 2007 Chunkster Historical Fiction Orange Prize Other Prizes

Small Island – Andrea Levy

 

Winner of the 2004 Orange Prize, Winner of 2004 Whitbread Prize (now Costa)

Small Island is a book I have been meaning to read for a very long time, but for some reason it never really grabbed my attention and kept sinking down the TBR pile. In an effort to prevent it from becoming lost forever under stacks of books I made a conscious decision to read it, but it still took me three months to finally start!

Small Island follows the first wave of Caribbean immigrants as they move from Jamaica to the UK. The book centres on four characters: Jamaican newly-weds, Gilbert and Hortense; and English couple, Queenie and Bernard. Bernard has failed to return from WWII and so Queenie lets rooms in her house to the Jamaican couple. We discover their complex relationships as well as their individual feelings as they cope with the effects of war and moving to a new country. The plot travels forwards and backwards in time, describing their lives before, during and after the war, but the main theme of the book is the racism encountered in both countries.

The pace of the book was gentle and I’d describe it as charming rather than the more intense book I was expecting. The plot held my attention, but although I was entertained all the way through I didn’t encounter anything that really bowled me over.

The narratives of the women were well done, but I found the male characters to be less convincing and almost boring in places. Bernard’s section was the weakest and I question its inclusion in the book.

I also found the book lacked vivid descriptions – I couldn’t picture the Jamaican scenes and I’d have had no idea where in the world they were if I hadn’t been told. These are minor quibbles really – a 560 page book has to be very good to provide an interesting plot throughout.

Recommended to the few people that haven’t already read it!

I have reserved a copy of The Long Song from the library and will be interested to see if it is good enough to win this year’s Orange prize.

Have you read Small Island?

Which is the best Andrea Levy book you have read?

Categories
2000 - 2007 Orange Prize

Buddha Da – Anne Donovan

 Short Listed for the 2003 Orange Prize

Buddha Da is a lovely story about a working-class Glaswegian man who decides to convert to Buddhism. The book follows his every day life as he begins be appreciate the benefits of simple living and meditation. His family don’t understand his desire for a more meaningful life and this causes them to drift apart.

The book is written entirely in dialect and I have a feeling that those unfamiliar with the Scottish way of pronouncing things may struggle with this book. Here is the first paragraph so you can see how you’d get on:

Ma Da’s a nutter. Radio rental. He’d dae anythin for a laugh so he wid; went doon the shops wi a perra knickers on his heid, tellt the wifie next door we’d won the lottery and were flittin tae Barbados, but that wis daft stuff compared tae whit he’s went and done noo. He’s turnt intae a Buddhist.

For those who are struggling: Radio rental is rhyming slag for mental, meaning mad.

It took me a little bit of time to get used to the dialect but after a few pages I started to love it and thought it really added to the atmosphere.

The plot was quite gentle, but there were thought provoking discussions about how to give more meaning to your life and the problem of balancing this with your relationships.

Overall it was a light, entertaining read that I’d recommend to someone looking for something a bit different.

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Did you understand the first paragraph of the book?

Have you read Buddha Da?

Have you read any other books written by Anne Donovan?

 

Categories
2000 - 2007 Non Fiction

Blink – Malcolm Gladwell

Blink explains our instinctive ability to make decisions without thinking about them. Using a series of examples the book analyses the way in which we are able to make critical, often life-saving actions without understanding why we are performing them.

I loved Malcolm Gladwell’s bestselling book The Tipping Point, but I don’t think Blink was quite as good. It had the same number of well researched examples, a large number of those interesting little facts that you find yourself sharing with friends, and the same light hearted, but scientific tone, but overall I felt this book was less useful.

The premise implies that we are all able to make split-second decisions, but reading the book revealed that most of us are likely to be wrong – the ability to make the right choice takes a lot of training.  One of the sections I found most interesting was about a marriage counsellor called John Gottman. He is able to predict whether a couple will still be together fifteen years from now, just by looking at a short film of them talking. John Gottman has worked out that couples who display the tiniest amount of contempt for each other are unlikely to stay together, so he watches for specific indications of contempt, ignoring how aggressive or friendly they appear to be. Other people fail to spot these signs, but once John Gottman has trained them they will be almost as good as him at predicting the success of a relationship.

The book gave many other examples of people who are able to make important decisions based on an instinct that they may not understand. Often concentrating on police officers or fire-fighters the analysis was fascinating, but not of much use to the average person.

Recommended to anyone who enjoys sociology books, but don’t expect it to change your life in any way.


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Which is your favourite Gladwell book?

Can you recommend any other authors who write similar books?