Brian's Book Blog - 2016

[Brian.]

#5. All That I Am by Anna Funder

 

 

Blurb:

One September morning, elderly Ruth Wesemann wakes to the sound of a parcel being delivered to her door. Inside she finds a tattered little notebook. Opening it she meets with a flood of memories of her time in Germany during the Nazis' rise to power.

 

 

Thoughts:

I picked this up at some point last year and I was drawn to it because I recognised the name of the author, Anna Funder. I had previously read Stasiland by Funder and I really liked it so I thought this was worth a shot. The only wrinkle to this introduction is that Stasiland is non-fiction whereas All That I Am is a work of fiction based very heavily on a true story. How would her fiction writing carry across and would the book manage to hold my attention in the same way Stasiland did ?

 

I have to admit that shortly after starting the book I considered abandoning it. In recent years I have adopted a rule that if I am not getting on with a book fairly quickly then it gets put aside for something else. I used to set this benchmark at 100 pages but now if I find a book slow going, it doesn't get much longer to prove itself to me. I'm very glad that I stuck with it, because once the story moves out of German, and follows the characters into exile across Europe and the world, it really gets good. I did pick out the twist before it occurred. However, I don't think the intention was to hide the twist but to point out that they all should have seen it coming but they got careless.

 

Some of Funder's writing in this book is beautiful and that's not something I often say. It's not as though there are large swathes of great writing, but certain paragraphs or sentences really made me stop an admire them. One in particular struck a chord with me and I must have sat there for 5-10 minutes just thinking about it as it is so true.

 

 

"What he cannot yet know - oh, why are we taught so little? and is is such a basic, basic thing - is that one does not remember one's own pain. It is the suffering of others that undoes us."

 

 

In the early stages I didn't think this book was for me but it ended up being one of the best books I've read in recent years.

 

5/5

[Alexi]

Sounds right up my street that. Great review Brian, another for my growing wish list!

[Brian.]

#6. The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy

 

 

Blurb:

The year is 1969. In the state of Kerala, on the southernmost tip of India, fraternal twins Esthappen and Rahel fashion a childhood for themselves in the shade of the wreck that is their family. Their lonely, lovely mother, Ammu, (who loves by night the man her children love by day), fled an abusive marriage to live with their blind grandmother, Mammachi (who plays Handel on her violin), their beloved uncle Chacko (Rhodes scholar, pickle baron, radical Marxist, bottom-pincher), and their enemy, Baby Kochamma (ex-nun and incumbent grandaunt). When Chacko's English ex-wife brings their daughter for a Christmas visit, the twins learn that things can change in a day, that lives can twist into new, ugly shapes, even cease forever, beside their river...

 

 

Thoughts:

I've had a various copies of this book over the years as I kept seeing it in charity shops and forgetting I already owned a copy. Eventually I ended up reading it on my Kindle, and I quickly discovered that this is not a book that can be read with any distractions around. As a result, I initially struggled to get into the rhythm of Roy's writing style and found it slow going. After about a quarter of the book, things seemed to click and I sped through the middle half of the book in no time at all, enjoying the story along the way. Sadly the final quarter of the book really seemed to drag for me and it was a bit of a slog for me to finish. The non-linear time structure in the story caught me out a few times and at others I found myself confused a little as to where I was. I'm disappointed to say that this book didn't live up to the expectations I had for it and I found it an ok read but nothing more.

 

2/5

[Brian.]

I've noticed a couple of monthly summaries so I'm going to copy the idea.

 

January in Books.

 

Favourite: I've read a few really good books this month but I would have to go with The Wall by William Sutcliffe. It was a book I knew nothing about and had no expectations going in but it ended up really surprising me. An honorable mention should also go to All That I Am by Anna Funder.

 

Least Favourite: Sadly it has to be the last book I read, The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy. I didn't think it was a bad book but I just didn't get on with it despite having high hopes for it.

 

Plans For February: I want to read The Spy Who Loved Me and maybe also The Man With the Golden Gun which would complete the original Fleming Bond series for me. I've got some time off during the month as well so I'm hoping to finish about 10 books during this time.

 

Goal for 2016: 40

Read: 6

To Go: 34

Edited January 31, 2016 by Brian.

[Brian.]

#7. Game by Anders de le Motte

 

 

Blurb:

Play or be played in book one of the Game Trilogy , the Swedish thriller series taking the world by storm.

It began by spray-painting a door. Then detonating a hand grenade. Each task is secretly filmed and uploaded for other ‘Players’ to comment on. The more daring the mission, the greater the thrill and reward – and the acclaim.

But how far will loser Henrik “HP” Pettersson go before the seemingly innocent game he was invited to play on a ‘lost’ mobile phone begins to play him? With his police protection officer sister dragged into the action, and the game looking more and more like a trap, HP’s excitement is turning to fear.

 

Thoughts:

This is another one of my charity shop buys where the synopsis on the back sounded like fun. I raced through the book very quickly , the plot is fast moving, and the story was good enough to hold my attention. There is a little character development along the way but we learn a little of their back story's along the way. While exciting, the plot is quite far fetched and there are a lot of coincidences that are quite daft. Up to this point it sounds fairly standard but there are two flies in the ointment and they are pretty big. The first is that the main protagonist HP is pretty weak as a character. I understand that anti-heroes are a pretty popular narrative device but in this case he's a joke of a character. In fact, none of the characters seem 'real' in any way, they are all very cliched and come across as caricatures. The other issue is that the writing is pretty awful in places. Some passages are real stinkers, so much so that they really made me laugh at how bad they were. This could be a consequence of the translation but I very much doubt it. Words such as halal are used in completely the wrong context and his casual racism seem out of place given his friends. I get the feeling that de la Motte was trying to make HP come across as streetwise but he actually comes across as someone trying to act "street".

 

Here is an example of one line in particular, I have put it in spoilers because of the language it contains. This is part of HP's interior monologue congratulating himself due to his sexual prowess and his lack of care towards his sexual partner.

 

 

"But, he didn't give a damn. Because he was the King of fudgeing, the Prince of Penetration, the Ayatollah of fudge 'n' Rolla!"

 

 

All in all this is a decent enough, if far fetched story, really badly let down by the writing.

 

2/5

[Little Pixie]

Happy Reading in 2016, Brian. 

 

I`m tempted by the Mary Beard book. 

[Janet]

I read Casino Royal a few years ago but it wasn't for me, I'm afraid.  I'm not a huge Bond fan anyway (this was a Book Club read) although I did enjoy Skyfall. 

 

Happy reading in 2016. 

[bobblybear]

I think I have The God of Small Things on my wishlist, or maybe by TBR pile. I can visualise the cover, because I've seen it around so much and heard many things about it. From your review, I'm not sure if it's something I would enjoy. I shall drop it to the bottom of my pile!

[Brian.]

#8. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

 

 

Blurb:

The Gulag, the Stalinist labour camps to which millions of Russians were condemned for political deviation, has become a household word in the West. This is due to the accounts of many witnesses, but most of all to the publication, in 1962, of One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, the novel that first brought Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn to public attention. His story of one typical day in a labour camp as experienced by prisoner Ivan Denisovich Shukhov is sufficient to describe the entire world of the Soviet camps.

 

 

Thoughts:

This has been sitting on my TBR for a little while now and although I have read a few of the Russian classics this was the first Solzhenitsyn for me. This is a short book of only 150 pages and as the title suggests, it describes a day in the life of our main character, Ivan Denisovich. The unusual thing here is that Ivan is in a gulag and is part of gang 104 who are a prison work party used on building contracts.

 

The book details the nuances and back ground stuff going on in prisons that is not seen by the outside world. There is no great drama here, no huge twist, and yet the book is very captivating. The writing is very simple and yet effective at the same time. I really enjoyed this book and I look forward to reading Cancer Ward which I also have on my TBR.

 

4/5

Edited February 10, 2016 by Brian.

[Brian.]

#9. The Spy Who Loved Me by Ian Fleming

 

 

Blurb:

Vivienne Michel is in trouble. Trying to escape her tangled past, she has run away to the American backwoods, winding up at the Dreamy Pines Motor Court. A far cry from the privileged world she was born to, the motel is also the destination of two hardened killers—the perverse Sol Horror and the deadly Sluggsy Morant. When a coolly charismatic Englishman turns up, Viv, in terrible danger, is not just hopeful, but fascinated. Because he is James Bond, 007; the man she hopes will save her, the spy she hopes will love her …

 

 

Thoughts:

This was my 13th out of 14 James Bond books written by Ian Fleming, I now have only one left to read, The Man With the Golden Gun. This book is completely different to the others because it is written in first-person, from the perspective of Vivienne Michel. The first part of the book deals with her life. The second part, where she gets involved with the bad guys, and the final part, where James Bond gets involved. I found the first part to be pretty awful to be honest. It's clear Fleming had a pretty low opinion of women and it really shows here. The second part is better, and the final section which features James Bond, much better again.

 

Despite the poor first section I ended up enjoying this book.

 

3/5

[Brian.]

#10. Until Thy Wrath Be Past by Asa Larsson

 

 

Blurb:

In the first thaw of spring the body of a young woman surfaces in the River Torne in the far north of Sweden.

Rebecka Martinsson is working as a prosecutor in nearby Kiruna, her sleep troubled by visions of a shadowy, accusing figure. Could the body belong to the girl in her dream?

Joining forces with Police Inspector Anna-Maria Mella, Martinsson will need all her courage to face a killer who will kill again to keep the past buried under half a century of silent ice and snow.

 

 

Thoughts:

I spotted this while browsing the shelves in my local library. I was rather surprised to discover that there were other books in the Martinsson series that I was unaware of. I had read the three that come before this and I had enjoyed all of them so I just had to borrow this one.

I read this over the course of a few days and I was gripped from the first chapter which opens up a mystery that goes unsolved until the end of the book. Even though it has been a while since I read the previous books I managed to pick up where I left off almost straight away. The character are very familiar and I found that I had missed reading about them. One thing I always liked about the series is that there are no super human feats of strength or knowledge, all of the characters, even the stronger ones, have a weak side that we get to see from time to time. I also really like the old eccentrics that are featured throughout the series and it's nice to take a break from the cities often heavily featured in Scandinavian crime fiction.

 

I really enjoyed this book and I have already borrowed the next one (and last, so far) in the series.

 

4/5

[Brian.]

Picked up 3 books from the library today, 2 of which I had reserved.

 

• The Second Deadly Sin - Asa Larsson
• The Big Sleep - Raymond Chandler
• Seize the Day - Saul Bellow

[Anna Begins]

#8. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

 

 

Blurb:

The Gulag, the Stalinist labour camps to which millions of Russians were condemned for political deviation, has become a household word in the West. This is due to the accounts of many witnesses, but most of all to the publication, in 1962, of One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, the novel that first brought Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn to public attention. His story of one typical day in a labour camp as experienced by prisoner Ivan Denisovich Shukhov is sufficient to describe the entire world of the Soviet camps.

 

 

Thoughts:

This has been sitting on my TBR for a little while now and although I have read a few of the Russian classics this was the first Solzhenitsyn for me. This is a short book of only 150 pages and as the title suggests, it describes a day in the life of our main character, Ivan Denisovich. The unusual thing here is that Ivan is in a gulag and is part of gang 104 who are a prison work party used on building contracts.

 

The book details the nuances and back ground stuff going on in prisons that is not seen by the outside world. There is no great drama here, no huge twist, and yet the book is very captivating. The writing is very simple and yet effective at the same time. I really enjoyed this book and I look forward to reading Cancer Ward which I also have on my TBR.

 

4/5

Cancer Ward is good, but Ivan made such a lasting impression on me.  I love Solzhenitsyn, great writer.  Have you read Anne Applebaum?  Gulag was great (if you can call a read like that great!).

[Brian.]

I haven't read Anne Applebaum but taking a look at her Wiki page she covers just the kind of topics I really enjoy. Thanks for the recommendation.

[bookmonkey]

I can second the Anne Appelbaum book.  I read it a few years ago, and its stuck in my memory.

[Athena]

I hope you enjoy your library books, Brian .

[Brian.]

#11. Seize the Day by Saul Bellow

 

 

Blurb:

Deftly interweaving humor and pathos, Saul Bellow evokes in the climactic events of one day the full drama of one man's search to affirm his own worth and humanity.

 

 

Thoughts:

I have a list off 100 novellas on my computer and I can't remember where it came from. Occasionally I look at the list and pick a book from it. Due to the short length of a novella I'm not too worried about picking a bit of a stinker and this allows me to try things I normally wouldn't. I hadn't previously read any Bellow but if my memory serves me correctly he has 3 books in the 1001 books list although this isn't one of them.

 

Anyway, on to the book. I can't say I enjoyed this particularly, in fact I found it pretty turgid in places. I liked the theme and I seem to have read a few 'day in the life' books recently but this one just didn't click with me. I didn't hate it, and a few bits made me smile but it's not a book I would consider reading again. Despite this I still plan to read some of his other works and give him another shot.

 

2/5

[Brian.]

Not much reading done this week, mainly due to a water leak and an extremely incompetent plumber.

[Brian.]

#12. The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler

 

 

Blurb:

When a dying millionaire hires Philip Marlowe to handle the blackmailer of one of his two troublesome daughters, Marlowe finds himself involved with more than extortion. Kidnapping, pornography, seduction, and murder are just a few of the complications he gets caught up in.

 

 

Thoughts:

This is another one of those books that seem to appear on a lot of lists of 'must read' books. I've only read a few of these early noir crime books and although I like the style, they have been a bit hit and miss for me. This was more of the same for me. Some parts I really liked and other parts just seemed to drag on a bit and I really struggled to get into it properly. It won't put me off reading another Philip Marlowe book in the series but I won't be in a rush to either.

 

3/5

[Brian.]

February in Books.

 

Favourite: Two books have stood out this month, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich and Until Thy Wrath Be Past. They were both good for different reasons but if I had to choose one it would be Until Thy Wrath Be Past by Asa Larsson.

 

Least Favourite: Although I had high expectations for it, it has to be Seize the Day by Saul Bellow

 

Plans For February: I want to read The Man With the Golden Gun which would complete the original Fleming Bond series for me. I also plan to read The Second Deadly Sin by Asa Larsson and The Primal Blueprint by Mark Sisson.

 

Read: 12

To Go: 28

[Brian.]

My tardiness at keeping this updated has continued, I think I have good reasons so these will follow in my next post. I'm regularly annoyed at myself for now being more active here as I really like the community. I'm up to 23 books although I may have missed out on logging a few of them, this is what they are.

 

#13 - The Second Deadly Sin - Asa Larsson 4/5

#14 - The Man With the Golden Gun - Ian Fleming 3/5

#15 - The Primal Blueprint - Mark Sisson 3/5

#16 - Black Box Thinking - Matthew Syed 3/5

#17 - Phantom - Jo Nesbo 4/5

#18 - Yakuza Moon - Shoko Tendo 3/5

#19 - Climbs & Punishment - Felix Lowe 4/5

#20 - The Racer - David Millar 4/5

#21 - Bar Girl - David Thompson 3/5

#22 - The Mobile MBA - Jo Owen 3/5

#23 - The Man Who Smiled - Henning Mankell 4/5

 

My mojo has been up and down a lot but a few books from that list stood out, in particular The Second Deadly Sin and Climbs & Punishment. I'm a little sad that I have reached the end of the Ian Fleming written Bond series because I found them very enjoyable to read. I made start yesterday on Mexico Set by Len Deighton but I had to reacquaint myself with what happened in the previous book first as I had completely forgotten.

[Brian.]

So, for those who may be interested my life has taken a course of events that I would not have foreseen this time last year. I don't think I have posted this anywhere else on the forum but if I am repeating myself I apologise in advance. At the start of the year my girlfriend left her job and moved towns to live with me. After a short period of getting used to living with each other things have been great. We both like traveling so for the first 6 months of the year we spent a lot of our time off work doing just that. I usually try and visit a new country every year but this year already I have managed Portugal, Sweden, Denmark and Latvia. We have also visited the Lake District and the Peak District to do some hill walking which I have discovered I like more than I could have imagined.

 

Obviously with all that going on I have been pretty busy but I have been feeling like I'm treading water at work. An opportunity came up for a secondment onto a long term project and after talking to someone who does something fairly similar I decided to apply and see what happens. Well I got the job and with it comes a few complications. The first is that my current manager doesn't want to let me go so although it technically starts in September I still don't have a concrete start date. The second is that I will be working in another country so I will flying out and back once a week and living in a hotel during the week. If I'm perfectly honest this is a little daunting but I am looking forward to the challenge. At least the flying time will give me good opportunities to read

[Athena]

It's so nice you and your girlfriend have been living together and are having fun traveling .

 

The new job sounds like quite a challenge, I hope you really enjoy it .

[Nollaig]

Congratulations on the job, and good luck with it! Can you tell us more? What is it/what country?

[Brian.]

Currently I am an aircraft engineer and my daily job is fixing anything which happens to go wrong during the flying day. The airline is currently in the process of replacing our galleys (kitchen areas) and cabins to a newer, lightweight setup. It's not a quick job so it has been outsourced to 3 major repair organisations. The new job will involve me being based in one of these locations to oversee the work being carried out to ensure it is being done to our required specifications. I will also be responsible for training people on our computer systems and liaising with our head office to sort out any issues that arise. It's quite a departure from what I currently do and it will put me quite far outside my comfort zone but I feel like it is the right time to take a leap. As for locations, nothing is set in stone yet but it's likely to be either Spain, Slovenia, or Malta.