Categories
Book Prizes Orange Prize

Three books from the Baileys’ longlist

The Dogs of Littlefield

The Dogs of Littlefield by Suzanne Berne

Five words from the blurb: dogs, poisoned, manicured, lawns, Massachussetts

The Dogs of Littlefield started well, with interesting observations about dog owners. I found their arguments about the shared use of a park interesting as I’m sure the UK will be subject to similar debates about the control of dogs in the near future.

A mystery around the poisoning of local dogs looked like a promising thread, but unfortunately this petered out, leaving only wry observations of the residents in this little town. If you enjoy slow character studies then this could be for you, but I’m afraid it was too subtle and ordinary for me.

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The Shadow Of The Crescent Moon

The Shadow of the Crescent Moon by Fatima Bhutto

Five words from the blurb: Pakistan, brothers, war, devastating, morning

The Shadow of the Crescent Moon is set in a small town in Pakistan, close to the Afghan border. It follows three brothers over the course of a single morning as devastating events change their lives forever.

I found the story fragmented and was irritated by the continual flashbacks. The plot was also a bit predictable, with a terrible inevitability that I feel bad for criticising. The politics and culture of the area was well described, but I’m afraid I failed to become emotionally engaged.

Unfortunately it is the same tragic story I’ve heard many times before, with no spark of originality to grab my attention. Recommended if you’re particularly interested in the politics of the region.

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Still Life with Bread Crumbs

Still Life with Bread Crumbs by Anna Quindlen

Five words from the blurb: photographer, New York, country, life, lens

Still Life with Bread Crumbs is an entertaining story about a photographer who is struggling financially. She leaves her stylish New York apartment for a cheaper cottage in the country. Here she meets a variety of local residents, each with their own story to tell.

The writing was fast paced and vivid, but I’m afraid the story was too ordinary for me. I didn’t really care what happened to any of the characters and the reflections on loneliness and aging were nothing I hadn’t heard before.

If you enjoy lighter fiction, towards the chick-lit end of the scale, you’ll probably love this, but I’m afraid it didn’t have enough depth for me.

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Did you enjoy any of these books more than I did?

Categories
2009

Labor Day by Joyce Maynard

Labor Day Movie Tie- In Edition: A Novel (P.S.)

Five words from the blurb: mother, love, stranger, secret, betrayal

Labor Day is set in a small American town and begins with thirteen-year-old Harry and his divorced mother looking after an injured stranger. They quickly realise that this man is an escaped prisoner, but he charms them so they agree to hide him from the police.

The characters were all beautifully drawn and I completely understood their motivations. The depiction of Harry was especially realistic and I loved his adolescent view of the world.

The book was packed with flaws, but some of these added to the book’s appeal – especially for those planning a book group discussion. The writing continually introduced good concepts, but the sentence structure was clunky and so the real beauty of the statements was watered down :

No doubt Richard’s father, like my mother, had once held his infant son in his arms, looked into the eyes of his child’s mother, and believed they would move into the future together with love. The fact that they didn’t was a weight each of us carried, as every child does, probably, whose parents no longer live under the same roof. Wherever it is you make your home, there is always this other place, this other person, calling to you. Come to me. Come back.

The plot was unrealistic and the treatment of the issues was heavy-handed, with twists and characters added just to ensure all sides of the debate were covered. The ending also tied things up too much for my liking – I’d have preferred the book to have ended about two chapters earlier, leaving some ambiguity to events.

This review sounds negative, but I loved the fact that the scenes were larger than life. This made them memorable and allowed me to forgive most of the flaws. I don’t recommend Labor Day to someone looking for great literature, but if you’re after a gripping story then this could be for you.

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The film is released in the UK today. I’m looking forward to seeing how they’ve adapted it, but think I’ll wait until the DVD is released.

The thoughts of other bloggers:

 ….a unique and creative story about love, family, believing in others and loyalty. The House of Seven Tails

… one of the most ridiculously one-dimensional, unrealistic stories I’ve read in a long time. The Book Stop

I loved how this book challenged my thoughts on right and wrong and made me think about love and loss in a different way.One More Page

Categories
2014

Reasons She Goes to the Woods by Deborah Kay Davies

 Reasons She Goes to the Woods Longlisted for 2014 Baileys Women’s Fiction Prize

Five words from the blurb: girl, secret, dark, sinister, lyrical

Reasons She Goes to the Woods is a dark story about a deeply disturbed little girl. She is violent and often escapes to the woods in order to be alone. Some reasons for her behaviour are revealed over the course of the novel, but much is left to the reader’s imagination.

The book has an unusual structure, with every chapter lasting exactly one page. The writing quality was fantastic, but I quickly became frustrated by the rhythm of the book. I found the layout distracting, my mind concentrating on this rather than becoming absorbed by the characters. If you enjoy poetic vignettes then you’ll love this experimental style, but I prefer a more conventional narrative.

No matter what she does, it’s impossible for Pearl to shake off the feeling that there’s a raw, weeping patch growing on her heart, and that someone is pressing on it. It’s not as if I care about stuff, she thinks, but tonight the burning starts the moment she lies down, and chews away until she jerks herself out of bed and runs to open the window.

Some of the scenes were disturbing, but I reached the end of the book without really understanding their purpose. They seemed to exist purely to shock the reader, something I’m not keen on.

The ambiguous nature of the text means that it will probably work well as the focus of a book group discussion, but as an individual reader I felt I gained little more than a few disturbing new images in my head.

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The thoughts of other bloggers:

…disturbing and unputdownable, an uneasy but thought-provoking read.  Annabel’s House of Books

…it was so sick. Book-ish Variety

Original, offbeat, short and bitter-sweet. Amazon Reviewer

 

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Categories
Other

My favourites have been released in paperback!

Just a quick post to let you know that three of my favourite books from 2013 have now been published in paperback: 

Far From The Tree: Parents, Children and the Search for Identity: A Dozen Kinds of Love

Far From the Tree by Andrew Solomon

This book will make you look at disability, parenting and society in a whole new light. The world would be a better place if everyone read it.

My Notorious Life

My Notorious Life by Kate Manning

An atmospheric book set in 19th century New York. It deals with the controversial subject of abortion in a sensitive and thought-provoking way. I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys intelligent story-telling.

 Kiss Me First

Kiss Me First by Lottie Moggach

One of the most modern books I’ve ever read. Its insights into social media use and online identity are so relevant to today’s society that it will make readers look at their online activity in a whole new light.

If you haven’t already, I hope this will encourage you to try them   😀

Categories
Other

Two Books with an Important Subject Matter

I started writing reviews for these two books and realised I was saying the same things about both of them. In order to avoid repitition I’ve combined them into one post. They are very different in terms of style, but I hope when you reach the end of this post you’ll understand why I’ve paired them together.

Things that were different:

Good Kings, Bad Kings

Good Kings, Bad Kings by Susan Nussbaum

Winner of 2012 Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction

Five words from the blurb: institution, residents, juveniles, disabilities, mistreatment

Good Kings, Bad Kings is set in an institution for children with disabilities. Children and staff at the centre take turns to narrate each chapter, revealing the truth about life within its walls.

No one works at nursing home unless they’re scraping the underneath of the bottom of the barrel. The kid thing makes it easier though. People think there’s nothing more horrifying  and depressing than a disabled child, but even when kids are all messed up and spazzed out and needy as hell there’s still a ton of good energy coming off them. They’re so funny and surprising and they are who they are.

The number of narrators was a slight issue for me as I found myself thrown into a new perspective just as I’d bonded with the person from the previous chapter. This fragmented approach meant it often felt more like a series of short stories than a novel and so I wasn’t as emotionally invested as I’d have liked.

Prayers for the Stolen

Prayers for the Stolen by Jennifer Clement

Five words from the blurb: Mexico, girls, kidnapping, mother, protect

Prayers for the Stolen is set in Mexico and shows the life of girls who fear being kidnapped by violent drug gangs. The girls deliberately make themselves ugly in an effort to be less appealing to the men who patrol the area in their big SUVs:

Now we make you ugly, my mother said. She whistled. Her mouth so close she sprayed my neck with her whistle-spit. I could smell beer. In the mirror I watched her move the piece of charcoal across my face. It’s a nasty life, she whispered.

The book also gave an insight into the life of a community without men. The male members of the family had gone to America in order to make money, leaving the women to do everything by themselves. The large cast of characters meant I didn’t have a strong connection to any individual, but it was a vivid portrait of a whole society surviving in a harsh landscape.

Things that were the same:

  • Both books informed the reader about terrible events that are happening in the world and I’m pleased that I’m now more aware of these situations.
  • Both books had a good quality of writing. It was often direct, giving graphic information about the horrors the characters had to endure, but the darkness was never over-bearing.
  • The atmosphere and individual voice of the narrators was impressive and this led to a fantastic sense of place.
  • The only problem was that both books failed to maintain a forward momentum throughout. They had compelling sections, but also areas where I lost interest.

Overall

Both books highlighted important issues that deserve greater attention. The pacing and plot wasn’t perfect, but it is probably worth forgiving these issues in order to learn about these hidden societies.

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Have you read either of these books?

What did you think of them?

Categories
2000 - 2007 Historical Fiction

The Night Watch by Sarah Waters

The Night Watch

Five words from the blurb: Londoners, 1940s, streets, secrets, liaisons

The Fingersmith is one of my favourite books so I had high expectations for this one. The Night Watch wasn’t quite in the same league, but I was impressed by Waters’ ability to bring war-torn London to life.

The Night Watch begins in 1947 and goes backwards in time, showing how WWII affected four Londoners. It was a fairly quiet book, concentrating on the relationships and emotions of ordinary people living within the capital.

Every scene was vividly described and the characters were all well developed. I’ve read lots of books about WWII, but this was the first to really make me understand what daily life was like for those who weren’t fighting on the front line.

The period detail was fantastic and it was especially nice to recognise the places in London and to learn how landmarks that I am familiar with were utilised or damaged during the war. The resilience of the characters and their attitude to the ever-present danger of the bombings felt accurate and it was nice to see positive stories layered with the darker ones.

She’d never thought of that before, about all the secrets that the war must have swallowed up, left buried in dust and darkness and silence. She’d only ever thought of the raids as tearing things open, making things hard.

The only negative was the lack of forward momentum.  I’d heard a lot about the amazing backwards structure of this book, but I’m afraid I wasn’t impressed by it. I felt that it would have been stronger with a conventional timeline as the reversal seemed like a gimmick.

Overall this was a beautifully researched piece of historical fiction, packed with atmosphere. I’d have preferred a stronger narrative, but it is still an impressive book and I recommend it.

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