Book Review Archives - Page 2 of 10

October Reads | 52 Books 2015

11.16.2015 by Nicola //

I am very late to getting around to posting these. I do apologise.

So – here are my thoughts on the nine books I read in October.

64. Did You Ever Have a Family by Bill Clegg
★★★★★ – Literary agent Bill Clegg’s debut novel was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and found its way onto my review pile. This is beautifully and subtly drawn. I’m usually a sucker for multiple character perspectives, but these were overly detailed in ways that left me a little cold.

Read my full review in the Big Issue.

65. Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff
★★★★★ – The more you put into this book, the more you get out of it. It’s a fairly standard story of a marriage, followed by a complete deconstruction of its set-up. Groff’s insights are on point and it’s the characters rather than the plot that spark surprises and turns throughout. One of my favourite books of the year.

Read my full review in the Big Issue.

66. Grandmother Divided by Monkey Equals Outer Space by Nora Chassler
★★★★★ – I read this in one sitting on a train and although a few scenes and general impressions stick in my mind, I can barely tell you what this book is about. It’s a family drama set in NYC, there’s a lot of drugs and alcohol involved, and its most interesting character – a psychic – is incidental to the plot. Give this one a miss.

67. 10:04 by Ben Lerner
★★★★★ – Ben Lerner’s a very decorated author. New Yorky, intelligent, nuanced and insightful characters… yet somehow underwhelming.

68. In Order to Live by Yeonmi Park
★★★★★ – Yeonmi Park’s autobiography tells of her experiences living in then defecting from North Korea. It’s tightly written and, though harrowing at points, never verges into misery or melodrama. I read this in two sittings. A remarkable woman and a remarkable story.

69. Poor Things by Alasdair Gray
★★★★★ – Alasdair Gray is very darkly comic and very on the nose. Here he borrows heavily from Frankenstein and related stories, adding a layer of comedy and politics that’s laid on so thick you can barely read the characters beneath. I was never able to forget that I was reading a story by Alasdair Gray that outlines Alasdair Gray’s cleverness and Alasdair Gray’s ability to put Alasdair Gray in Alistair Gray’s novel. I see what you did there, Ally, but I’d had enough after 100 pages.

70. Barrel Fever by David Sedaris (audiobook)
★★★★★ – My final Sedaris book! I’ve been reading his books for years now, always whenever one happened to cross my path – so reading his first published book last didn’t give it the best chance to stand out. I listened to this as an audiobook with the author’s signature wry vocal performances, some featuring his sister Amy. As ever with his works, I preferred the personal essays to the stories here. Not his best work, but still Sedaris.

71. On Cats by Charles Bukowski
★★★★★ – I couldn’t help but request this title when I spotted it on a website for advanced readers copies. Bukowski’s poetry is gruff and gentle as he expresses love for his pet cats so profound it’s near tangible. Some poems and short passages are a bit repetitive, playing on the same ideas and interactions, but overall this was a great wee collection to read before bed, and would make a lovely gift for any literary cat lover.

72. Faces in the Crowd by Valeria Luiselli
★★★★★ – I bought this debut after purchasing the author’s latest book, The Story of My Teeth, but vowed to read it first so as to follow Luiselli’s growth as an author. I loved her essay collection, Sidewalks, and here I found many of her best quirks. The story is fragmented and divided by stars, popping up in different times, places, and character perspectives and relying on you as a reader to keep up – or to break it down farther on your own terms. I’d need a lot more words to do it justice, but I was not disappointed.

Your turn! Read anything good this month?

August Reads | 52 Books 2015

09.01.2015 by Nicola //

I finished 12 books in August, which is waaay above my average of 3–5. I had so many new books that I was keen to read that it kind of snowballed. So here’s what I thought of each of them.

41. Good Behaviour by Molly Keane
★★★★★ – This book club pick is a satirical regency novel set in Ireland. It’s most commonly described as a dark comedy, and Keane plays a lot with the first persona narrator’s voice and her understanding of the world. It’s outrageous and tragic and really rather silly at points. Very well drawn, but not entirely my cup of tea. Probably one for people who love classics and enjoy a good unreliable narrator.

42. Something Childish but Very Natural by Katherine Mansfield
★★★★★ – Mansfield has been on my TBR for the longest time, and I began this slim volume from the Penguin Great Loves series during the 7 in 7 Readathon. Her prose style is beautiful and she sketches in characters with a light touch. Again, not entirely my scene, but I could see why people enjoy her work so much.

43. Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates (Audiobook)
★★★★★ – Totally switching gears here. Between the World and Me is written in the form of a letter to his son about the experience of growing up as a black man in the United States. Though he’s been compared with James Baldwin, his secular viewpoint brings an immediacy and poignancy to his discussions about the destruction of black bodies that’s prevalent today. He questions the need to forgive oppressors, and challenges traditional, religious thinking around the value of a life. His prose is lyrical and decidedly contemporary in comparison with his literary forefathers. Ta-Nehisi Coates’ book is so important in this moment in history, and you’ll probably want to read it more than once.

44. Strange Weather in Tokyo by Hiromi Kawakami
★★★★★ – I received this book in my Willoughby Book Club subscription and found it a little disappointing. The plot is thin, which is fine unless there’s plenty to flesh it out, but there wasn’t much to build upon. It’s ostensibly a love story, but the characters were flimsy and inconsistent and there’s little chemistry to speak of. As a reading experience, it felt like being on a bus that’s taking the long way around. A bit of a snore.

45. Life Among the Savages by Shirley Jackson
★★★★★ – This is definitely a book for the Shirley Jackson completists. Though I’ve only read a handful of her novels and short stories, I absolutely loved it. She writes about domestic life with humour, charm, and a sprinkling of farce. She has such a great personality, and although I enjoyed her own daily observations over the scenes with her children, I’m keen to read the follow up, Raising Demons.

46. Hear the Wind Sing by Haruki Murakami
★★★★★ – Murakami’s debut has finally been released in English outside of Japan! Make no mistake, this isn’t up to his current standards but, as a debut, you can see why it was picked from a pile of hundreds to win a prize back in the late 1970s. His voice is fully formed, some of his tropes can already be detected, and I loved the voice of a pretentious 21 year-old aspiring author. This was like revisiting an old friend.

47. Territorial Rights by Muriel Spark
★★★★★ – A spry farce, this novel is billed as being about a character named Richard who falls in love and galavants around Venice. What follows is more of an ensemble mystery thriller. I devoured this in a day – more out of ease than delight – but it was diverting enough.

48. The Dinner by Herman Koch
★★★★★ – Here’s a book I’d heard a lot about and found to be much darker than I’d anticipated. It begins as an extended internal monologue, and it builds well towards a surprising and twisted conclusion. I didn’t love the voice, though, and it doesn’t make you complicit as a reader – which might have sealed the deal for me. Again, a quick and engaging read but I didn’t love it.

49. The Driver’s Seat by Muriel Spark
★★★★★ – After a slight misfire with Territorial Rights, I turned to the Muriel Spark novel that I really wanted to read. This is how you write a damn novella. It’s descriptive, mysterious, engaging and thrilling, topped of with an unforeseeable ending. I was absolutely riveted.

50. The Trick is to Keep Breathing by Janice Galloway
★★★★★ – Doesn’t this have the greatest title? It’s an experimental novel that reads like a mental health memoir or, more accurately, a diary. It’s observant, sometimes depressing, and cuts close to the bone. I feel utterly under-equipped to discuss it well. But I’d recommend that you read it.

51. Pinball, 1973 by Haruki Murakami
★★★★★ – Murakami’s second novel, this book focuses on the same main character as Hear the Wind Sing and his friend nicknamed the Rat. It bounces betwen the characters without much direction, except towards the titular pinball machine. It’s fine, but it didn’t capture my imagination.

52. Quesadillas by Juan Pablo Villalobos
★★★★★ – Villalobos’ language and characters just leaps off the page. Quesadillas is a hilarious, biting satire of life in Mexico. Like his previous novella, Down the Rabbit Hole, it’s narrated by a teen at war with the world, but this time his main character is more worldly and determined to get what he’s owed. It’s an excellent translation, too. I found a lot to love here.

Your turn – have you read any of these books? What were your thoughts?

Give me a shout in the comments or on Twitter @robotnic.

March Reads | 52 Books 2015

04.03.2015 by Nicola //

March has been a big-time catch-up reading month. Some thoughts…

8. The First Bad Man by Miranda July
★★★★★ – I read an interview with Miranda July where she said that writing a novel was like having unlimited filmed coverage to edit and re-edit a scene – and that’s kind of how this reads. There’s a perfectionism to her sharp observation, like each moment is slowed down to allow us to take in the world as her perceptive character sees it. There’s a delicate balance here between how this first-person narrator sees herself, how we perceive her, and how others see her. I’ve never read anything quite like it. An impressive debut.

9. The Bling Ring by Nancy Jo Sales
★★★★★ – This is my version of a trashy hungover Sunday morning read. It’s a time capsule of a recent but bygone era filled with recession anxiety and the pain of yearning for fame. Nancy Jo Sales is excellent at shining the veneer and tearing it down in one fell swoop, but 200 pages over-stretches the real story here by quite a margin.

10. The Last Treasure Hunt by Jane Alexander
★★★★★ – A Scottish debut, this is the story of a rekindled love affair unconventionally told. Contains some nice ideas and lovely observations – some of which aren’t quite realised. Review to come in The List.

11. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
★★★★★ – More yawn, girl than Gone Girl.

12. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
★★★★★ – A powerful mix of biography and popular science which tells the story of Henrietta Lacks – a working black woman whose rapidly-dividing cancer cells were taken without her permission and eventually came to drive a billion-dollar industry. A thoughtful and empathetic approach to a subject based in science and ethics.

13. Bonjour Tristesse by Francoise Sagan
★★★★★ – Oppressive heat, insufferable rich people and languid afternoons. What more could you want in a novella? A little more oomph maybe, but this one’s worth an hour or two of your time.

14. Boy by Roald Dahl
★★★★★ – This was So. Fucking. Delightful. Dahl tells thes tory of his younger years through a series of absolutely true anecdotes which vary from the utterly hilarious to the downright terrifying. Life is just richer when there are Roald Dahl books to be read.

15. Going Solo by Roald Dahl
★★★★★ – More memoir here, this time in his later years from his early twenties in East Africa and into his RAF service during the Second World War. Fewer laughs to be had here, but his stories of day-to-day African life to flying blind are never short of absolutely remarkable.

Did you read anything good this month? Give me a shout in the comments.