I love reading. It’s the only talent I displayed as a child, fast and precocious book devouring. Maybe because we didn’t have a TV, maybe because I could see my parents obviously valued books and maybe because they were a welcome refuge from aspects of my childhood.
Even now I have an intense moment of pleasure when I read something that I recognise so clearly it’s as though the author has reached out from the pages to directly clasp me on the shoulder and assure me that I’m not alone. It’s as though they’re speaking directly to me and that’s also one of the things I love about blogs. I think essentially we’re quite alone (and I recognise that I’m a particularly lonely soul) and any contact however fleeting is what keeps me sane (ish)
I used to work in a bookshop and the best bit (and I’d just like to reiterate to the millions of people , most of which used to mention it to me in the shop while I was carrying a back-breaking pile of fifty Nigellas Kitchen or something similarly heavy, who seem to think this – you don’t actually get to sit around reading all day, you are in fact a cross of till monkey, cleaner and weightlifter humping enormous heavy piles of damn hardback around constantly).. ummm..where was I? – oh yes – best bit – talking about books to (longsuffering) customers.
Now I’d like to pretend this was going to be an erudite witty list of excellent improving reads, but since I am what I like to call an eclectic reader, although Steve prefers indiscriminate, you will quickly gather it’s not. So essentially, a list of the books I’m reading at the moment interspersed with ones that spring to mind for some reason.
Due to a learning curve I’m not actually sure how this is going to pan out as I’d like to keep it separate to my actual blog, so bear with a certain technical stumbling around…
Monday 7th March 2011
The Battle of the Sun by Jeanette Winterson 
I love Jeanette Winterson. I have enjoyed everything I’ve read of her but some more than others. Recently the one that stands out is Tanglewreck which was her first kids book. Huzzah for children’s books I say – I’m a big fan. This is her second one. Silver, Tanglewrecks’ protagonist, appears in it but it’s no tired sequel. It’s an inventive, enchanting stand alone. Imbued with alchemy, historic london, dragons and poetry I found it a very happy way to spend a few hours.
(I’m trialing a new twisting post setting to another page so bear with me if this is in the wrong place…update – bugger, didn’t work – ah me)
5th March 2011 Well I’m being rubbish at this. I wanted to note down every book as I read it and I don’t – I keep putting it off and making piles which then get disturbed and put away and then I forget what they were. Maybe I should not be bothering with all the trash and rereading I do but that was the idea – so I could look back on the whole sum of it. Hmmm. Anyway as I sit here these are the recent few I remember…
Summer of the Bear by Bella Pollen
Ah lovely, lovely. I adore novels that pull together out of fragments. Understanding dawning through snatches of revelation. Like getting to know people. I think Pollens strength for me is in her character sketches. The three children in this one are irresistible. I can’t tell you how I identified with Alba’s anger - the walls she erects to protect herself. The unflinching honesty of her. Bring to me your rageful, awkward angular spiky young and I will love them. Roughly,bluntly and sincerely as is my wont. I also particularly loved the insight into Jamie’s thought processes. How small children interpret adult mystery. His rich internal thought processes. Marvelous, all of it, painful, revealing, redeemingly marvelous. I really recommend this exploration of a families grief.
Friday Girl by Georgette Heyer
Ah Georgette Heyer… So much to say. Since a recent reprinting of her back catalogue of these she’s enjoyed a resurgence, and well deserved it is too. For me she is bound up in formative memories and unassailable. My Nanny loved her and had all the old Pan paperbacks. As her eyesight failed I used to read them to her and when she spent her last few years in a nursing home that’s what we did on visits. A surprising Saturday morning sight for the other visitors. The sullen adolescent goth girl in a reclaimed Victorian nightie with severed Barbie heads sewn around the hem chuckling at Regency slang with her vague great-grandmother.
In one of her letters Heyer describes her heroines as type A or B. On the whole I prefer B’s, strong-minded, intelligent, independent but Hero in this one is undoubtedly a kittenish A. My fondness springs from this is the first one I read with Nanny.
I urge you to go out now and try one. I bear the weight of unrelenting mocking from friends, family and Steve and I love them none the less. They are the books I pick up to read in bed when I’m thick with headcold or just sad.
Lorelli’s Secret by Carolyn Pankhurst
A reread prompted by finishing summer of the Bear. Another treatise on grief. A lyrical, articulate gilded one. Paul is mourning the sudden death of his beloved wife Lexy. The only witness was their dog Lorelli and he’s convinced he can teach her to talk to find the answers he needs. So much here I love. The quality of the writing is luminous and astounding. The threads of subjects raised twists into your mind and disturbs you at quiet moments for months afterwards. For me the theme of unanswered questions resonates. The feeling that you just cannot move on without being able to stand in front of a witness/ perpetrator and ask why? and then the dawning realisation that no answer could heal you. I came away with the ”almost truth” ”What remains of us is love” reaffirmed.
Snowcrash by Neal Stephenson
Classic science fiction, slightly dated technically but not at all in the ideas and not an orc in sight. Fantastic stuff. Wonderful ideas about the acquisition of language. This reread was slightly prompted by Paul’s attempt to teach his dog to talk in the previous book. Had to search high and low for it. It was actually in one of the book stuffed boxes holding up the bed. Must get some more shelves.
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15th feb 2011 A couple of trashy proof reads (S keeps me well supplied..)
Summer of Love Katie FForde Ah more of the same frothy read, quite enjoyable but still prefer her earlier stuff – I like the one set in Stroud and the one with the llama farm…
Breaking Silence by Linda Castillo This is third in a series but the first I’ve read. Typical crime fare but the twist is; they’re set in and around a large Amish community and the protagonist, the chief of police, has grown up Amish but is now shunned. I quite enjoyed it. Well written but not striking.
These two reviews are a bit lukewarm but I did enjoy them – comfy reading – nothing wrong with that.
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4th Feb 2011 Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman
Another re-read. Perhaps I’m hoping by just reading this I’ll get some. The first quote in the book is from Aristotle;
Anyone can become angry – that is easy. But to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose, and in the right way – this is not easy.
sums up why I’m rereading it really…see any of my rage rants. If you like this sort of thing I could definitely recommend it. For me it errs on the right side of the academic/self help/guardian angels on your shoulder tightropes.
The Daffodils of Newent quartet by Susan Sallis:
I did consider being a bit more…um… aspirationally self editing? but have decided not to bother as I know I won’t be able to maintain it and I do honestly read anything. I bought these in a charity shop as they’ve been out of print for ages and since I worked in a Gloucester bookshop I’ve been asked for them a million times. I haven’t read any other Sallis’s but was pleasantly surprised by these. I’m a sucker for a good family saga – Mary E Pearce, et al and these had all those qualities. Engaging strong female characters, an insight into the historical timeline set behind the family dramas and as an extra bonus, a familiar physical backdrop. Yeah – really enjoyed them and March’s (one of the characters) elements of a antiheroine, something I always find appealing.
S
ummer Island by Tove Jansson:
I can’t recommend this highly enough – really absorbing and thought-provoking. I’ve read it a couple of times and always come away with new insights. Also – anyone responsible for the Moomins can’t put a foot (pen) wrong for me. I love the simplicity and starkness of life on the island which is reflected in the clarity and pared down quality in the writing style. Writing this now, a few weeks after the last read, sharp in my mind is the description of the building of a mini Venice in the marshlands and the stormy night that sweeps it away. Thinking of how Jansson invokes the complicated long-term mourning of a child for her mother and the compassion and understanding of her grandmother so simply yet powerfully has brought tears to my eyes. Just beautiful.
