What makes you pick up a book? Is the cover design? An author you've read and liked before? Is it the title? The by-line? When you turn it over, does the blurb convince you to buy it/borrow it? Perhaps it's the genre. Do you read the praise given to a book by various critics and other authors? What else does it for you? Maybe you read the first page, or the first few paragraphs.
I'll tell you what works for me. The title, cover design and blurb are important. I like to pick out something different from the run of the mill similar cover designs that seem to flood the market. The genre isn't so important to me, though I am drawn to certain crime and thriller books. I like my crime a bit gritty. But I read an eclectic mix of books, and am not necessarily drawn to bestsellers. What I don't read is the praise inside. I like to make up my own mind about a book. Sometimes books are hyped up to such an extent that they fall short of what I was expecting.
One last thing. I listen to recommendations by friends, a post on Twitter, and sometimes a review in a newspaper. Often it is the subject matter too that will interest me, so I go and search the book out.
I've been in a reading frenzy lately, so here is my review of three books I've read since I last posted a review.
Maureen Fry and the Angel of the North: I love Rachel Joyce's books, so I was keen to get my hands on this one. The final part of the trilogy (though Rachel Joyce never set out to make it a trilogy). I loved the previous two in this series, and even went to see the film The Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, which kept sincerely to the book. This is a small book, a novella, and I have to say I read it in a day. In this book Maureen sets off on her own journey up north. She doesn't walk like her husband, but takes the car. It is several years on from Harold's walk and Covid is still evident with people wearing masks.
On Maureen's journey she meets different people. Some of these encounters are amusing, some are sad. I feel for Maureen as she struggles with her feelings, unable to express them, resorting to whip-tongue replies and put downs. There is still a lot of anger in her over what happened to her son. It is perhaps the saddest book of the three, and certainly towards the end there is a scene that made me cry. There is so much emotion. The guilt, the anger, the overwhelming love, and trying to come to terms with the past, and the lady who Maureen resents, Queenie Hennessey. It is to her garden Maureen is travelling to because she has been told that there is a memorial to her dead son. Though Queenie has been dead for some years, the garden still exists and is maintained by volunteers. It has become a place people visit to leave tributes to their own loved ones.
This third books brings everything together and, as usual, is beautifully written. There are book club reading questions and an interview with the author (and Maureen!) at the back of the book.
Dark Matter is Michelle Paver's first adult book, and boy it's compelling. I picked this one up in a charity shop and once I started, I could not put it down. It is menacing! Jack joins an expedition to the Arctic as a wireless operator. Unlike the other four men, Jack is poor and desperate to change his life. But before they even arrive with the eight huskies and all their provisions, one of the party breaks a leg and has to leave the expedition.
Jack is disappointed they are not the first to live there. Miners had been there once, and the captain of the ship tries to warn them from going there. At one point he even refuses to take them. But there they are setting up camp. It is not long before Jack sees something, a man, who he takes to be part of the ship's crew, who hasn't yet left.
As in all ghost stories there is an atmosphere. One side of the cabin is always cold and a deep dread often overtakes Jack. He doesn't say anything to the others, doesn't want to name his fears. Jack has become close to Gus, but when Gus is taken ill with appendicitis they have to radio for help. Someone needs to go with him, and Jack makes the decision to stay alone to save the expedition, while Algie goes back until Gus is ready to rejoin the group.
Jack is now alone on the ice through the storms and the never ending night. He becomes attached to one of the huskies, Issack. Jack goes about his duties, taking the readings, sending the results back by wireless. Outside there is a bear post Jack becomes obsessed with. He thinks it moves. He experiences the dread more often, puts up curtains in the windows to avoid looking at the post. He feels he gradually going mad.
The story builds to a devastating climax, ramping up the tension. I could not put it down. At the back of the book Michelle talks about her journey to write this book, which I found most interesting. She did her research in Norway, but admits the place mentioned in her book does not exist, so don't go looking for it! If you like ghost stories, you will like this, and it will stay with you after you've finished it.
This was another charity shop find. The Places in Between by Rory Stewart follows the author on his journey through Afghanistan shortly after the Taliban have left. This was a difficult read at times, not only what the Taliban did, but in fighting between groups and the way they treat animals. Rory acquires a dog at one of his stop-overs. He has no name and was raised as a dog to fight off the wolves. His tail had been docked, the top of his ears cut off and his teeth smashed out. The dog becomes his faithful, if somewhat reluctant friend.
As Rory moves from place to place he encounters hostility and kindness. Food is in short supply in most places and seems to consist mostly of rice and bread. The dog, who Rory names Babur, after the man in whose footsteps Rory is following, exists on bread. Giving meat to a dog is frowned upon. I felt sorry for this dog as it followed Rory through deep snow and blizzards. Rory had decided he would take the dog back to Scotland with him after the journey was over.
What came out of this was how difficult a place Afghanistan is. Some people have never set foot outside their village and have no concept of the larger world, especially the women, who feature very sparingly in this book. Rory is looked at with suspicion and often confronted by men wanting money, his sunglasses, even his dog as a fighting dog. They ask him for medicine because they have seen him taking it, and he ends giving most of it away. He needs letters of introduction to the main man in the next village for his own safety. At one place he arranges for Babur to be taken the final stages to Kabul by car as he fears the dog won't make it.
On the journey he is warned, not only about the weather, but that he will be killed by groups on the next leg of his journey. Often he is accompanied by a man or men from one village who walk with him part way. Rory would prefer to walk alone, and during the last part he is alone. He is careful what he says because the atmosphere is volatile. He walks in temperatures way below freezing and almost succumbs to hypothermia. For someone like me who hates the cold, I find it strange that someone would want to put themselves through this. Rory suffers from dysentery and the antibiotics don't work. He is weak, but will not be swayed to rest as he walks eight hours a day through dreadful freezing conditions. This is one stubborn man!
There are some very uncomfortable reads in this book. This is a place with little in the way of human rights and where torture is commonplace. Despite this it was an eye opener to Afghanistan, and saved by the few very hospitable men Rory encountered who made his life just that bit better. Strangely, Rory Stewart was on Joanna Lumley's programme last night about the Spice Trail. These days Rory works with refugees.
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