Category: Recommended books

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Audio Book Recommended books

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society – Mary Ann Shaffer (Audio Book)

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society had been on my wish list for a while, so when I saw Sandy from You’ve Gotta Read This! raving about the audio book version, I decided to buy a copy. Unfortunately I didn’t realise that it wasn’t released as an audio book in the UK, and it seemed to be getting rarer in the rest of the world too! The benefit of my book selling business is that I can treat things like these as ‘expenses’, (well I’ll hopefully make a profit on it anyway!), so at great cost, I bought a copy. After several weeks I was hit by a large, unexpected customs bill, then finally the audio book arrived.

I’m really pleased that I did go to the effort of getting the audio book. I don’t normally like books written entirely in letter form, and I think I would have struggled to identify with the characters initially, had I read it.  The audio book is very well produced, with a whole cast of actors reading it. This brought the book to life immediately, and gave each letter it’s unique voice. This enabled me to picture each of the people straight away, without having to wait for the descriptions of them, which came much later in the book.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is set just after the Second World War. Juliet is a writer, based in London, and is looking for a new subject for her next book. She begins to correspond with a group of people in Guernsey, and as she learns about what life during the war was like under German occupation, she begins to build lasting friendships with them. Captivated by their stories, she visits her new friends and her life is changed forever.

It is a simple, heart-warming story, and although many disturbing events of the war are covered, the book never felt dark.

Recommended.

stars4

Also reviewed by Word Lily , Fresh Ink Books and You’ve Gotta Read This

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1980s Booker Prize Recommended books

The Bone People – Keri Hulme

The Bone People won the Booker Prize in 1985. It is set on the South Island of New Zealand, and centres around three characters. The first, Kerewin, is a painter, who having won the lottery builds herself a tower by the sea and lives as a virtual recluse. One day, Simon, a young, mute boy turns up at her tower and they begin a strange friendship. Simon’s foster father, Joe, is then drawn towards Kerewin and the three characters begin to discover secrets lurking in each of their pasts.

The book deals with many difficult issues, but domestic violence is the most dominant. Joe beats his foster son, and the delicate line between punishment and cruelty if seen to be very hazy at times. The characters are all really well developed, deeply flawed and incredibly interesting!

The book is very well written, and the writing is almost poetic at times, but at other times it was a ‘stream of conciousness’ and, particularly in the beginning, was very confusing. I fluctuated between loving it, and being irritated by it!

The book was filled with Maori myths and symbolism, some of which went over my head. I think that this book is one which needs to be read several times, in order to appreicate it’s many layers. In many ways it is very similar to Beloved – difficult to understand at first, complex, moving and full of symbolism.

I’m not sure I’d ever recommend this book to anyone, but I’m glad that I read it.

Categories
Chunkster Classics Recommended books

The Moonstone – Wilkie Collins

2003 Paperback

2003 Paperback

The Moonstone was first published in 1868, and is considered to be the first detective novel ever written. Many people site The Moonstone as the longest piece of detective fiction in existence. I’m not an expert on this, but I do know that it took me a long time to read it! At 464 pages it only just classes as a chunkster, but I feel no guilt in counting it towards the Chunkster Challenge as the type was tiny!

The story takes place in an English country house, in which a rare diamond is stolen over night. The suspects are therefore limited, and a famous London detective is called in to investigate the crime.

The writing was easy to follow, but it was very dense, and so it was a slow read. For the majority of the book this wasn’t a bad thing, as I loved the descriptions, but there was a slow section in the middle, which I found hard to get through. It picked up towards the end though, and the it was very well plotted. I didn’t see any of the twists coming, and I liked the realism of it. There were also a lot of other issues raised during the book. SPOILER! Highlight text to read. I loved the beginning and ending in India, and the way Wilkie Collins challenged racial stereotypes by portraying the Indians as mysterious thieves, when they were the good ones all along.

I also found the opium factor interesting. I had no idea of it’s affects, and have since learnt that Wilkie Collins was writing from experience, as he had an opium habit.

I loved reading it so soon after The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher as I noticed all the similarities between the real murder at Road Hill and the theft of the moonstone. If you’ve read The Moonstone then it is worth having a look at this analysis – I found it very insightful. It contains lots of spoilers, so don’t click through if you’re interested in reading the book soon.

Overall, I enjoyed reading The Moonstone. It was hard work at times, but well worth the effort. As it’s the first ever detective novel I can’t not recommend it, everyone should read it at some point!

Categories
2009 Recommended books YA

The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins

I bought this book about ten seconds after I finished reading Semicolon’s review for it, and I’m really glad I did, as I think this is my favourite book of the year so far.

The Hunger Games is an annual televised event in which twenty-four children fight-to-the-death. Two children from each of the twelve regions of Panem, a new land created from the ruins of post-apocalyptic North America, are randomly selected to take part.

This sounds like a scary, violent book, and if I’d have thought about it too much I may not have bought it. I admit that when I was reading the first chapter I was worried about the kind of book I’d started, and wondered how on earth it could be suitable for eleven-year-olds (the age suggested on the back cover). I didn’t have to worry, although the children do fight to the death, it isn’t graphic, and in a strange way you are hoping that each of them die, so that the narrator, Katniss, can survive.

Many important issues are raised in the book, including poverty, war, the misuse of power and the evolution of reality television – for this reason I think it would be great for reading groups.

The book is perfectly paced; the plot drives the book on so well that I didn’t want to put it down, but at no point was it going so fast that I was skimming sections. The characters are well thought out, and although survival is a large part of the book, I think the main theme is love. Katniss’s confusion over who she truly loves is very touching. I enjoyed this book so much that I have already pre-ordered the second book in the trilogy, which is released in September.

I can’t fault it. Highly recommended.

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Recommended books Richard and Judy Book Club

The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher – Kate Summerscale

The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher is the true account of a Victorian murder mystery, committed in an English country house. This murder became the basis of many classic books written during this time period, including the first English detective novel, The Moonstone. It is meticulously researched, and full of interesting information, not just on the Road Hill House murder, but every day family life in the 1860s.

The facts are laid out in the same order Mr. Whicher discovered them, so as well as being extremely informative, this book also acts as a murder mystery. The great thing about this murder is that it took place within a locked building, so all the potential killers are immediately obvious, and it is just a case of unearthing all their secrets, and discovering which one committed the dreadful dead.

This book isn’t a quick, easy read. It is dense with facts that need time to be savoured, but I found it so interesting that I was never tempted to skip a single word.

I love the fact that the book went on to explain what happened to all the characters up to their death. It also includes photographs of all the key characters, and maps of house and surrounding area.

The only drawback to the book was that it gave away key plot points to many of the books which were written during this time period, or based on the Road Hill murder. This was great for all those to which I already knew the plot (eg. many of Dicken’s novels) but as I planned to read The Moonstone very soon, it was a little bit disappointing, (although I only have myself to blame, as I was aware that these would be within the book!).

I highly recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in Victorian England, the development of the police detective, or who just loves a good whodunnit!

Categories
Books in Translation Recommended books Short Story

The Bride From Odessa – Edgardo Cozarinsky

Translated from the Spanish by Nick Caistor.

The Bride From Odessa is a collection of eleven short stories written by Argentinian author, Edgardo Cozarinsky. Spanning over 100 years, and several continents, the stories show an impressive range of cultural knowledge.

The stories are mainly based on Jewish migration around the Second World War, but the oldest one is about Russian Jews, who find refuge in Argentina in 1890, and the most recent, is about an Argentine-American Jew who travels to Lisbon to unravel the threads of his grandparents’ wartime affair. It is difficult to go into more detail about what happens without giving things away. Even the back cover of the book ruins one of them – so if you do decide to get your hands on this book – please don’t read the back cover first!

Although each story is only about 15 pages long, the characters are vivid, and each one is compelling. Cozarinsky also has a career as a filmmaker, and I think this comes across in the eye for detail he has in the book’s construction.

I really enjoyed reading this collection – it has made me realise how little I have read from South American authors, and how poor my knowledge of their history is. The small snippets of information I now have, has left me craving more! I ordered one of Cozarinsky’s novels as soon as I finished reading this book, and can’t wait to read more, from both him, and other Argentinian authors.

Recommended, especially for the first short story.