Bobblybear's Book List - 2015

[bobblybear]

Thanks, Gaia.

[Anna Begins]

I can remember struggling with The Drowned World and Super-Cannes and giving up on both, but I think that was many years ago.

Oh great!

 

He's an author that's pretty highly regarded, so I always keep him on my watchlist, as I want to know what the appeal is.

I know, me too!  But I couldn't even read 30 pages in Crash.  Even the movie was disjointed.

[Janet]

Shopped: The Shocking Power of British Supermarkets - Joanna Blythman

 

A few things surprised me: supermarkets reject a lot of produce (sometimes 50% of what is sent in), but that doesn't mean the product gets returned to the grower – it just means that the supermarket keeps it for other purposes but doesn't have to pay for it. There are also many strict guidelines on colour and size and shape of food – like within a specific mm range for tomatoes for example, with colour charts deeming what is acceptable and not. I vaguely knew this took place, but it kind of surprised me that they would have colour charts, etc.

I like the sound of this one. 

 

However, although I didn't work in the produce department, I worked in Tesco until very recently and I don't think that practice took place in our store.  I certainly wasn't aware of it, anyway.   I think in recent times there has been a move away from supermarkets insisting on straight cucumbers (as just one example).  I know one supermarket (it could be Sainsbury's but I'm not 100% sure) actually put on the packaging of their low-end range of vegetables that they are the same taste but maybe not quite as attractive. 

 

Good luck with reducing your 'to read' pile.  I hope your very full jar helps.

[chesilbeach]

However, although I didn't work in the produce department, I worked in Tesco until very recently and I don't think that practice took place in our store.  I certainly wasn't aware of it, anyway.   I think in recent times there has been a move away from supermarkets insisting on straight cucumbers (as just one example).  I know one supermarket (it could be Sainsbury's but I'm not 100% sure) actually put on the packaging of their low-end range of vegetables that they are the same taste but maybe not quite as attractive.

My guess would be that it happened at the distribution centres rather than at stores. It does sounds like an interesting book though, and I might have a look at it at some point.

[bobblybear]

I like the sound of this one. 

 

However, although I didn't work in the produce department, I worked in Tesco until very recently and I don't think that practice took place in our store.  I certainly wasn't aware of it, anyway.   I think in recent times there has been a move away from supermarkets insisting on straight cucumbers (as just one example).  I know one supermarket (it could be Sainsbury's but I'm not 100% sure) actually put on the packaging of their low-end range of vegetables that they are the same taste but maybe not quite as attractive.

I vaguely recall reading about an EU ruling that meant that supermarkets couldn't discriminate against oddly shaped fruit and vegetables, or something like that in recent years. I may have got it wrong, and all the produce I see in my local supermarket does seem to be pretty uniformly shaped, so who knows.

 

Good luck with reducing your 'to read' pile.  I hope your very full jar helps.

 

Thanks, Janet. I hope it helps, and I can't fit much more in my jar anyway.

 

My guess would be that it happened at the distribution centres rather than at stores. It does sounds like an interesting book though, and I might have a look at it at some point.

If you both do decide to read it, then make sure you get the updated version. My Kindle version was outdated, and it did detract from my enjoyment a bit.

[bobblybear]

A Dog's Purpose - W. Bruce Cameron

The book is told through the eyes of a dog, as he passes through several lives and struggles to find a deeper meaning behind what his ultimate purpose is in life. It starts with him being born as a stray, and from there he passes through different lives, coming back as a different breed but with the memories from his previous lives. Bailey (as he is called in his first family home) is somewhat surprised to keep returning, and thinks there must be a deeper purpose behind this.

 

As with most dog stories, there are many moments that do tug on your heart strings, and I think it's best appreciated by people who love dogs. If you aren't a dog-person then you probably wouldn't get or appreciate some sections of the book. There is a bit of humour in it and there were also a few parts that took me by surprise, like

when he was put down via a 'gas chamber' with other dogs, at the start of the book. I was quite shocked and had to read it again as I thought I was missing something. I didn't realise the book was about a dog that kept being reborn, so it took me a while to get it. I found that quite shocking and brutal to read, as it's not something often described in books.

 

 

It was a sweet book, but overall I prefered The Art of Racing in the Rain, which is also told through the eyes of a dog.

 

4/6

[bobblybear]

Burial Rites - Hannah Kent

 

I can't remember what prompted me to buy this book (probably a recommendation from here ), but I'm glad I did.

 

It is a novel, but based on the actual events leading up to the last execution in Iceland, which took place in 1829. A young woman called Agnes Magnúsdóttir was the executed.

 

At the start of the story Agnes has been sentenced to death because of her involvement in the murder of her lover. She has been sent to stay with the family of a district official on their farm, in the months leading to her execution (which is a bit odd, but I guess that is the way things were done back then). A priest has also been chosen to be Agnes' spiritual guardian and is there to help her repent and find solace before her death.

 

As Agnes settles in with the family, helping them with the chores, she also begins to speak about her background and the events that led to the murder. This is revealed quite slowly and is interspersed with her current life on the farm, and the initially reluctant relationships she builds with her "guardians" (which can't be easy..... I mean would you want a convicted murdered hanging around your home? It's not like she was locked up either; she had the free run of the house and could have escaped at any time, or worse ).

 

I thought this was very well written and engaging, and you can't help but like Agnes and want to know the truth behind what happened. Obviously we can never know the truth, but only what the author's research has uncovered, and either way even if liberties have been taken (and there must have been), it is compelling right up to the end. It's a debut novel and was short listed for a few awards, and it's easy to see why. It's of a decent length, enough to tell the story in compelling detail, but with very little filler or fluff.

 

There is a bit of info online about Agnes Magnúsdóttir including a group of friends who trailed her story in Iceland, as the distances between her birth and execution were quite small. It appears that her grave has been redone as the grave stone is obviously very modern. It made for an interesting read, and there are some good pictures showing the execution site (which has a marker) as well as remnants of the farm and workshop area around where the murder took place.

 

A brilliant read and highly recommended. Apparently it is to be made into a Hollywood movie (there is an older movie from the mid 1990s) starring Jennifer Lawrence. I don't know whether she will be able to pull it off but I will no doubt watch it anyway.

 

5/6

 

 

[Nollaig]

I had heard of that book before, and for some reason I never put it on my wishlist. It's firmly on there now - great review!

[Anna Begins]

Burial Rites sounds great!  Definitely will have that on the soon TBR pile!

[bobblybear]

Hope you both enjoy it as much as I did.

[Athena]

Great reviews ! I have A Dog's Purpose on my TBR. I loved The Art of Racing in the Rain, so I think I will enjoy A Dog's Purpose . Could you tell me if the book has an ending? Since there is also A Dog's Journey (and I think there is also a Christmassy one?). I don't own Burial Rites but it sounds so familiar I think one of my family members might own the Dutch translation, I'll have to ask them or look at their shelves some time. It sounds like a good read.

[bobblybear]

Thanks, Gaia. When you ask if the book has an ending, do you mean if it is open-ended, or a proper ending that completes the story? It definitely completes the story, but I don't actually know what the sequels are about. I've just looked on Amazon for A Dog's Journey, and I recognise the character names (well, one of them) from the blurb, so maybe it's a separate story with the same characters - rather than something that follows on, if you see what I mean.

[Athena]

Yes, I meant if it completed the story or whether it ends on a huge cliffhanger. I don't do well with cliffhangers, so I'm glad to know that the ending completed the story . Yes, I do!

[bobblybear]

This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate - Naomi Klein

 

I thoroughly enjoyed No Logo by Naomi Klein, and having heard so much about climate change but never researched it in major detail, I thought this would be the book to change that.

 

This turned out to be a very heavy and difficult read, and I didn't enjoy it as much as I hoped. (It killed my mojo for a while  ). There is no doubt that the book was very well researched, and every aspect of political and economic influence on climate change was covered, but her constant anti-capitalism stance soured it for me. There was no balance to the book, and the majority of times there was ranting rather than informing, and I ended up mentally switching off. I had also hoped for more about the science behind climate change, but I probably should have paid more attention to the subtitle of the book, which clearly says it's about capitalism.

 

Some of her suggests were unfeasible, such as motivating people to reduce their consumption. I just don't see that happening on the grand scale necessary to make a difference to the environment.  Her suggestion is for the working week to be shortened to 3 days. Wages will be reduced, so people have less spending money; purchases and therefore environmentally-damaging production will fall. I just don't see this as a realistic option, and there was no discussion of how something like this would be implemented in a way that could work.

 

I tend to do better with short and precise bursts of information, but this book was the opposite. it was 576 pages long, and although the book was divided into sections I felt like I was reading much of the same thing throughout the whole book.

 

In the last chapter, she wrote about her personal experiences that inspired her to write the book, but by then I had lost interest in anything more she had to say.

 

2/6

[chesilbeach]

I've found books about climate change difficult to read too, bobblybear.   I did do some research on the subject when I did an Environmental Science A level at evening classes about 10 years ago, and read mostly articles and scientific journals about it.  Books suffer from the problem of being out of date before they're even published on such a rapidly changing scientific subject, and I often found they were just going over subject matter I'd already read.  The only book I really enjoyed, was one of James Lovelock's books on the Gaia theory (he's written a few, all relating to the same theory, and I can't remember which one it was exactly, I'll have to check the bookshelves for it), but I thought it was fascinating.

[bobblybear]

I think articles and possibly scientific journals (if they are understandable) are the better way to go for learning about climate change and the environment. At least that way you are getting a variety of approaches, and they probably cover a broader subject matter as well, rather than one persons (radical) viewpoint, which is why I struggled with this one. I've heard of James Lovelock and Gaia Theory but never actually read into it, because I've just assumed it was to do with the concept of the earth being a 'spiritual being' (probably because I first heard Gaia in terms of Final Fantasy ). I've just had a browse of his books on Amazon, and they do seem to be a bit more readable and not heavy-handed or lecturing, like Klein's was. I've added one to my wishlist; I think it's the book he was first recognised for, but with an updated preface.

[bobblybear]

Only Ever Yours - Louise O'Neill

 

Set in the future, this dystopian novel is a satire on the obsession with perfection in today's society. In this new world, women are subservient to men, and their lives are dedicated to perfecting this.....until the age of 40 when they are literally discarded, having fulfilled their purpose. Until then, they must be perfect, thin, and not prone to thinking too much. From the youngest age, these girls are pitted against each other to be the most attractive, thinnest (with the largest thigh gap   - I don't even have a thigh gap ), and best dressed, etc. Should they reach high enough up the ranks compared to their fellow 'eves' then they may be selected as Companions (and therefore become a wife and then a mother). The remaining girls end up as either Concubines, or Chastities (those who 'teach' the girls at school).

 

frieda is the main character and it's through her eyes that this new world is revealed. She is in her final year of school, and soon to have her 'career' as one of the three, chosen for her. She is somewhat struggling to maintain her place in the rankings and her only real friendship with isobel has been fading for reasons she can't see. isobel has been balking the rules, and she has gained a few pounds, and frieda is being torn between salvaging her friendship or risking isolation from the other 'eves'.

 

I really enjoyed reading this. It is very powerful and hard-hitting and the ending will stay with me for quite a while. There are a few quirks that make it stand out, such as the girls names being non-capitalised or being referred to as numbers. I also loved references to MyFace (this worlds version of Facebook) and other aspects of social media (which I can't remember the specific names of ). It's a book I'd love to read again, but at the same time I really don't want to, if that makes any kind of sense. It's not a happy book brimming with positivity, so if you are looking for something uplifting then I would avoid this. But if you are looking for a thought-provoking and dark tale, then I would definitely recommend it.

 

5.5/6

[Nollaig]

Glad you enjoyed it, Bobbly! It's definitely dark and depressing but such a great read.

[bobblybear]

The Psychopath Test - Jon Ronson

 

This was the first Jon Ronson book I have read, and I found his style very easy-going and accessible. It also helps that I am interested in the subject matter as well.

 

His book covers quite a few areas within psychopathy. There is a continuous thread throughout the story of Tony, who is in Broadmoor, having faked insanity in order to avoid a prison sentence. Years later he is is still trying to convince doctors and psychiatrists that he is sane and can be released, but they are yet to believe him.

 

His story is told in dispatches through the whole book, with Ronson jumping back from other sections to catch up with Tony and see how he is coping.

 

Running alongside this story, is a discussion involving Robert Hare, a researcher who developed a very well known checklist on assessing a person for psychopathic tendencies. The checklist consists of 40 questions, and the higher the score the more psychopathic tendencies the person has. This is based on Hare's extensive interest and experiments/observations over the years, which had some very interesting results. These experiments were the most interesting part of the book for me, and I wish there had been more of them.

 

An example of his studies, was the “Startle Reflex Test”, where Hare would present his volunteers with gruesome images. Hare would then make a loud noise in their ear and they would jump with shock. However he found that psychopaths wouldn't have this startle reflex because they were too absorbed in the images.
 

There were also electric shock experiments with volunteers from a prison – a mix of psychopaths and non-psychopaths. He found that the non-psychopaths prepared themselves for the electric shock – he could see increased perspiration, etc. But psychopaths had no anticipatory anxiety responses. Even when the test was repeated and they knew how painful it would be, the psychopaths still had no response leading up to the second shock.

 

He also touched on some examples of senior executives in the corporate world showing psychopathic tendencies in the way they ran their companies and treated their employees. His prime example was Al Dunlap who ran Sunbeam, who was also willing to be interviewed by Ronson for the book.
 

While I did enjoy it, I found it meandered a fair bit, and while there were particular individuals that Ronson focused on, there was also a lot of vague bits of information about a lot of cases, which seemed a bit unfocused.

 

I would have preferred more discussion on serial-killers but there is hardly any mention at all. This is mostly about psychopaths who manage to be relatively high functioning in society.

 

All in all an interesting read, and I'd recommend it to anyone with an interest in the subject.

 

4/6

[bobblybear]

Glad you enjoyed it, Bobbly! It's definitely dark and depressing but such a great read.

 

Most definitely. Sometimes it's "nice" to read a depressing and dark book.   I've been reading many reviews about it on people's *(mostly women) blogs and it has had such an impact on them.

[chesilbeach]

I enjoyed reading your review of Only Ever Yours, bobblybear - seems we felt pretty much the same.  I'm not sure I'd re-read it, more just because I'm not a big re-reader, but also I'm not sure it would keep my attention enough as I already knew the ending.  I think a big part of it was this whole new society where I just didn't know what was going to happen or where the author was taking me, and the suspense of finding out kept me turning the pages and now I know, I don't know if I would want to experience it again.

[Athena]

Great reviews, BB !

[bobblybear]

Thanks, Gaia!   I'm still catching up.

[bobblybear]

The Grass Is Singing - Doris Lessing

This is the first Doris Lessing book I have read and I really enjoyed it.

 

The book opens with the murder of a white woman named Mary Turner, by one of her black household servants, Moses. From there we are taken back to Mary's childhood, and her life up to the point of her murder. Her tale is a tad depressing. She was such a positive and inspiring character during her younger years, but then one day she overhears a comment about her spinsterhood. It had never occurred to her to get married, but she then does so out of obligation, and to the first 'acceptable' person who comes along. Her new husband, Dick Turner, is a struggling farmer, isolated on his rundown farm and trying to stay afloat. Mary moves from the city to be with him on his farm, and it is obvious from the start that she is completely out of her element and at odds with the wilderness of the African land. It is this disconnect within her, that starts her deterioration into a sort of madness.

 

It's beautifully written with wonderful descriptions of the African landscape. I also found the author to be very insightful with feelings and thoughts that people usually keep under the surface. There were some passages that I could relate to that took me by surprise.

 

Because of the political environment in which the novel is set, there is plenty of racism, but as it was the reality of the time, it does not come across as gratuitous or out of place.

 

We know how the book ends (with Mary's murder), and I do have a fondness for books that start at the 'conclusion', and then work forwards to what led us there. When we get to the ending, even though we know what will happen, it still have a very strong impact.

 

Highly recommended.

 

5.5/6

[bobblybear]

Wool - Hugh Howey

 

It's a post-apocalyptic setting, and people are now living in huge underground Silos – so massive it take days to ascend and descend them. The Silos are divided into sections and each department (Mechanical, IT, Agricultural) helps keep things running smoothly. All residents are barred from the outside world which is now a toxic wasteland. Any talk of the outside world is forbidden, and those caught are sentenced to 'cleaning', in which they are driven outside and made to clean the giant lenses that beam outside images back into the Silo, until the environment kills them. When the current sheriff is sent out for 'cleaning', a lowly Mechanical worker, Jules, is promoted as the new sheriff. Once in her new position, she becomes aware that not all is what it seems, and that the IT department seems to have too much control over the Silo, and are keeping something hidden from the inhabitants.

 

I thought it was a pretty decent story, with a lot happening and a lot of questions raised (most of which are answered, and some which are left for the sequels). I wouldn't necessarily say there was a whole lot of depth to the story but it is readable and exciting enough. I will be reading the sequels (bought them all as a set) but not in a huge rush to do so. Not because I didn't enjoy it, but because the books are so big that I need a break in between them. While I liked it,  I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would, but I had very high expectations based on other reviews and comments.

 

4/6