Book Reviews

I think I'm on my 14th book since lockdown. I've been ploughing through my backlog over the last few weeks and have a stack of books to pass on when I am able to. Admittedly, I'm stuck on one - Why Men Don't Listen and Women Can't Read Maps. I realise I have read this before, and though it is fascinating how different women's brains work differently men's, and it is very amusingly written, I'm keen to read new books. So, although I'm over half way through, I can't seem to finish it, and some part of me thinks why bother, as I've read it before.

Of the others, there has been a mixed bag of topics, and this is a brief look at some. I hope I'm not repeating myself here because I do throw in the odd review in my blogs.

The Way of Seeing by John Berger is a book I'd had for a long time, began and never read more than a few pagers. I'm glad I kept it because, wow, I learned so much from this. It's a book about art and I was drawn to start it again after I found the TV series on which it was based. It came up online of arty things to do during lockdown. The TV series is from the 1970's, and looks it, but it was fascinating. In four parts it looks at various ways of looking at art that I had never come across in any art history  classes I'd taken. One programme was about how women are portrayed, the pose they are given, what's on show and how women see themselves. The book is split in the same fashion as the TV series with photos, though the photos in the book are all black and white and not of good quality, the text helped me to reinforce what I had seen. In the programme (available on YouTube) the pictures are in colour and better, despite the grainy 70's film. I have this theory that you have to be ready for some books. Since I bought that book I've learned more and experienced more. This time I was ready for the book. It all clicked into place and was a real eye opener.

 Fragrant Habour by John Lanchester is a story told by four people and set in Hong Kong. The characters lives interlock, but the main character is the one of most interest. Having left England  in his early twenties he gets a job in a Hong Kong hotel and eventually runs the business. He meets various people who dip in and out of the story including a nun who he met on the boat coming over, and the years pass. Everything changes when World War II happens. He rescues the nun and they hide together for a while, but he must go back to the business, but things get worse for him when he is captured. Without giving the story away, it is his connection to the nun that years later changes things for him. The story is multilayered, gentle and tense. A really good read.

I have just finished another book by John Lanchester which I picked up at the Wimbledon Book Festival last October, having heard him speak. The Wall is based in the future, after the change (climate). There are no beaches left due to the rise in sea levels and now the young have to spend two years guarding the wall from The Others (climate refugees). Kavanagh is one. He blames his parents for what has happened and the fact that he has to do his stint on the wall. The books is well written and you can sense the boredom of a twelve hour shift on the wall, the cold, the endless hours, what he does to take his mind off it. He just wants to get through it and calculates the days, the hours, the weeks. He makes a few friends, but is drawn to Hifa, a girl. After an incident on the wall, several Defenders (that's what they are called) die and Kavanagh is injured. Later what's left of his troop go to Scotland for more training on how to overcome The Others when they attack. When a big attack comes Kavanagh and his friends are blamed, because that is the way things go. For every Other that goes over the wall, one Defender is put to sea. This book looks into a future that could happen and what we might do to defend what we have left. It is a world of microchipping people, where the Others that get through are given three options, only one of which is a chance to live by becoming Help to the elite, basically slaves. I can't say this is a happy book, there is more doom and gloom than good moments, but the writing takes you inside Kavanagh's mind making you feel the boredom, the fear, hope, hopes dashed, and a chance to survive.

Graham Norton really knows how to write a page turner. The Keeper is his second book, and I really hope he will continue to write as I love his books. This, like the last one, is set in Ireland. A daughter comes home to sort out her mother's house before going back to the States and her own teenage son. She comes across some letters and goes in search of her mother's past, which answers some questions for her. Chapters alternate between the daughter in the now and her mother (in her voice) in the past. The past becomes a psychological thriller set on a farm in the wilds of Ireland. Absolutely brilliant.

Realms of Glory is the last in a trilogy set in a fictional Diocese. Having read the first two books I reveled in this. Knowing a little about the workings of the clergy (having been on a parish council once....never again) I find these books by Catherine Fox (wife to the Bishop of Liverpool) so amusing. Think Rev (if you watched the TV series) and you have some idea of what I'm talking about. Of course a Diocese is much bigger than a parish, so there are multiple characters (and their families), but there is a helpful list at the start of who is who. I think Catherine might be working on a fourth book after readers wore her down! I do hope so.

How Not to Write A Novel by Sandra Newman and Howard Mittelmark is funny. All the stuff a beginner writer does is there with examples. Yet, I have read many books that flout some of those rules and have got away with it. They now shout out at me, but it doesn't bother me if the book holds my attention. The particular rules I'm thinking of here are looking in a mirror to describe the character and starting a novel with a dream scene. Andrea Camilleri regularly started his books with a dream sequence. So, there you go.

Birdcage Walk by a favourite author of mine, Helen Dunbar. Set in the 1700's, Lizzie is married to John, a property developer. Having sunk all his money into a project, over the water the French Revolution is having repercussions. People aren't keen to buy and debt looms. Meanwhile Lizzie is haunted by the thought of John's first wife while he tightens his hold on her, telling her he doesn't want her walking out by herself and visiting her mother (who writes pamphlets for the radicals). Lizzie begins to fear her husband's moods as the book reaches a climax. This was another book I could not put down.

Finally, I must mention two brilliant books. Firstly, The Moneyless Man by Mark Boyle. This is the prequel to The Way Home which I read last year and enjoyed so much. This is a brilliant book about how Mark went off grid to live a year without money. He makes some really good points and there is a website list at the back that are useful. Should you want a compose loo, a rocket oven or make paper and ink from mushrooms, then in theory I have the knowledge! I believe in a lot of what he says, though I couldn't go that far. Like he says, we each have to find our own way, and that is what I am trying to do.

Secondly, Peter Wohllenben's Walks in the Wild. Peter is my favourite nature writer, and here he tells you what you can find in the forest in different seasons. He talks about free food, the trees and how to recognise different ones, the animals you will find. He uses anecdotes and his own thoughts about so called tree management, hunting and grouse shooting. Peter's books never end up in a charity shop because they are a wealth of knowledge. He has made me see trees in a totally new way. I cannot recommend his books highly enough because they are written in layman's terms, extremely accessible.