Willoyd's Reading 2025

[willoyd]

Post number

02  Book list 2025

03  Reading the World project

04  Tour the United States project

05  Author reading lists

06  The Book Pile

07  Favourite books

08  Favourite authors

09  Reading awards

10  spare

11  spare

12  spare

13  spare

14 First review!

Edited January 22 by willoyd

[willoyd]

Book list 2025

 

January

01.  The Scapegoat by Lucy Hughes-Hallett ****

02.  West of Rehoboth by Alexs D Pate  U ****

03.  Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro  G *(*)

04.  So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell U *****

05.  The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley ***

06.  Notes from the Henhouse by Elspeth Barker ***

 

February

07.  Orbital by Samantha Harvey GR ******

08.  A Sunday in Ville d'Avray by Dominique Barberis ***

09.  West by Carys Davies ***

10.  State of Wonder by Ann Patchett G *****

11.  Rhine Journey by Anne Schlee ******

12.  A River Runs Through It by Norman Maclean U ****

 

March

13.  Co-Wives, Co-Widows by Adrienne Yabouza W *****

14.  The Burgundians by Bart van Loo ****

15.  Caledonian Road by Andrew O'Hagan X **

16.  L'Argent (Money) by Emile Zola *****

17.  Love Triangle by Matt Parker X **

 

April

18.  Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri G ***

19.  Havana Year Zero by Karla Suarez W ****

20.  The Great Fortune by Olivia Manning ***** 

 

G = a book group choice, R = reread, U = Tour of the United States, W = Read Around the World, X = unfinished

 

Ratings

*  Positively disliked: almost certainly unfinished.  Unforunately, most of these books tend to be book group choices, mainly because I didn't choose them for myself! LibraryThing rating 0.5 - 1

**  Disappointing or not particularly liked:  likely to be skimmed, and possibly unfinished.  LT 1.5 - 2

***  OK. If fiction, generally a book that I wanted/am happy to finish, but not compelling, even if I can appreciate its qualities.  Non-fiction: functional, did the job, but no more  LT 2.5 - 3

****  Good: an engaging read that may be 'putdownable', but demands to be picked up again!  LT 3.5

*****  Very good: into the realms of 'unputdownable'  LT 4

******  Excellent:  an outstanding read, even if not quite a 'favourite' (at least, not yet!).  LT 4.5

******  Favourite: books which, for whatever reason, have something special about them, even if only personal to me. For the full list of these (less than 150 of them) see post #7 below.  LT 5

Edited April 17 by willoyd

[willoyd]

Reading The World

 

Full details of this project are in this thread:

 

Constituent countries/continent are:

• the 193 members of the United Nations
• its 2 observer members (Vatican City, Palestine)
• one ex-member (Taiwan)
• the four home nations of the United Kingdom (I've read plenty from England, some from Scotland but very little from the other 2)
• the largest island (a self-governing autonomous territory): Greenland

 

making a total of 200 countries.

 

The only strict criteria is that I mustn't have read the book previously, and that all choices should be narrative prose. Otherwise, the rule is aims rather than rules, the main aim being to read an example of adult literature frome each country. Ideally by an author born in or a citizen of that country; resident is next best. This project was started in 2022, and the book should be written since 1922 (since the publication of Ulysses). I will normally go for fiction, but, non-fiction is allowed; it may even, on occasions, be preferred if I think it gives more insight into the country and/or its literature. On occasions it will need to be a book about the place written by someone who is neither from there nor a resident, but that will generally be a last resort. 

 

Countries so far: 52/200

Countries in 2022: 16,  2023: 18, 2024: 16

Countries this year:  2  (in blue below)

Europe (20/47)

Austria:  Chess Story by Stefan Zweig  *****

Bulgaria:  Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov ***

Czech Republic:  Closely Watched Trains by Bohumil Hrabal ****

Finland: The Year of the Hare by Arto Paasilinna ****

France:  The Black Notebook by Patrick Modiano *****

Germany:  Measuring the World - Daniel Kehlmann *****

Iceland: History. A Mess. by Sigrun Palsdottir ****

Ireland:  Ulysses by James Joyce ******

Italy:  The Leopard - Giuseppe Tomaso di Lampedusa ****

Luxembourg:  The Pleasure of Drowning by Jean Burlesk ****

Netherlands:  The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden *****

Northern Ireland:  Travelling In A Strange Land by David Park ****

Norway:  The Ice Palace by Tarjei Vesaas ****

Poland:  Drive Your Plow Over The Bones of The Dead by Olga Tokarczuk ******

San Marino: The Republic of San Marino - Giuseppe Rossi ***

Scotland: O Caledonia - Elspeth Barker ***

Spain:  A Heart So White - Javier Marias ****

Sweden:  The Details - Ia Genberg *****

Ukraine: Death and the Penguin - Andrey Kurkov ***

Wales:  One Moonlit Night - Caradog Prichard ******

 

Africa (11/54)

Angola:  The Book of Chameleons - Jose Eduardo Agualusa ****

Burkina Faso:  So Distant From My Life - Monique Ilboudo ****

Central African Republic:  Co-Wives, Co-Widows - Adrienne Yabouza *****

Congo, Republic of:  Black Moses - Alain Mabanckou *****

Cote d'Ivoire: Standing Heavy - GauZ ******

Djibouti:  In The United States of Africa - Abdourahman Waberi ****

Ghana:  The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born - Ayi Kwei Armah ****

Kenya:  A Grain Of Wheat by Ngugi wa Thiong'o ******

South Africa:  The Promise - Damon Galgut *****

Sudan: Season of Migration to the North - Tayeb Salih ******

Togo: Michel the Giant - Tete-Michel Kpomassie ******

Asia (9/49)

Malaysia: The Night Tiger - Yangsze Choo ****

China:  To Live - Yu Hua ****

Japan:  Snow Country - Yasunari Kawabata **; Tokyo Express - Seicho Matsumoto ****

Kuwait:  The Bone Censor's Library - Bothayna Al-Essa ******

Pakistan:  The Wandering Falcon - Jamil Ahmad  *****

Philippines:  Ilustrado - Miguel Syjuco ***

South Korea:  The Vegetarian - Han Kang *

Turkey: 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World - Elif Shafak **

Vietnam:  The Sorrow of War - Bao Ninh **

North America (7/24)

Antigua and Barbuda:  Annie John - Jamaica Kincaid ***

Canada:  Runaway - Alice Munro ***

Cuba:  Havana Year Zero - Karla Suarez ****

Grenada: The Bone Readers - Jacob Ross *****

Mexico: Pedro Paramo - Juan Rulfo ****

Trinidad and Tobago:  Minty Alley - CLR James *****

USA:  Beloved - Toni Morrison *****

 

South America (3/12)

Argentina:  Not A River - Selva Almeda *****

Columbia:  One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez  *****

Uruguay:  Who Among Us? - Mario Benedetti ****

 

Oceania and Antarctica (2/15)

Nauru:  Stories from Nauru - Bam Bam Solomon et al (plus readings from Indigehous Literatures of Micronesia) ****

New Zealand: The Garden Party and Other Stories - Katherine Mansfield ******; Potiki - Patricia Grace ****

Edited April 17 by willoyd

[willoyd]

A Tour of the United States

 

My experience of American literature being much narrower than I would have liked, I decided a few years ago to take a tour of the USA in a similar way to our own English Counties challenge: 51 books, one set in each of the states (including Washington DC).  In fact, the English Counties was modelled on an American States challenge here, but in the spirit of broadening that experience, I have amended it using these rules: a. it must be fiction or narrative non-fiction; b. an author can only appear once; c. published after 1900 (what I've read has been predominantly 19th century); d. adult books; e. no rereads. Inevitably some great books and authors will have been left off, but the process itself has already helped identify those holes, and I aim to fill them in as additional reading!  Blue means read, bold means read this year.  Books in black are unread, and are those I've currently got lined up - but they can (and do!) change, and some alternatives are listed below the main list.

40/51

The Keepers of the House - Shirley Ann Grau (Alabama) *****
To The Bright Edge of the World - Eowyn Ivey (Alaska) ******
The Bean Trees - Barbara Kingsolver (Arizona) ****

The Architecture of the Arkansas Ozarks - Donald Harington (Arkansas)
East of Eden - John Steinbeck (California)
Plainsong - Kent Haruf (Colorado) *****
The Stepford Wives - Ira Levin (Connecticut) *
West of Rehoboth - Alexs D Pate (Delaware) ****
Their Eyes Were Watching God - Zora Neale Hurst (Florida) ****
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter - Carson McCullers (Georgia) ******
The Descendants - Kaui Hart Hemmings (Hawaii)
Housekeeping - Marilynne Robinson (Idaho) ****
So Long, See You Tomorrow - William Maxwell (Illinois) *****
The Stone Diaries - Carol Shields (Indiana) *****
The Bridges of Madison County - Robert Waller (Iowa) ****
Not Without Laughter by Langston Hughes (Kansas)
Nathan Coultar - Wendell Berry (Kentucky) ******
All the King's Men - Robert Penn Warren (Louisiana)
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Stout (Maine) ***
Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant - Anne Tyler (Maryland) ***
Ethan Frome - Edith Wharton (Massachusetts) ***
Song of Solomon - Toni Morrison (Michigan) ******
Main Street - Sinclair Lewis (Minnesota) ***
As I Lay Dying - William Faulkner (Mississippi) ******
Mrs Bridge - Evan S. Connell (Missouri) *****
A River Runs Through It - Norman Maclean (Montana) ****
My Antonia - Willa Cather (Nebraska) ******
The Ox-Bow Incident - Walter van Tilburg Clark (Nevada) *****
Peyton Place - Grace Metallious (New Hampshire)
The Sportswriter - Richard Ford (New Jersey) ****
The Crossing - Cormac McCarthy (New Mexico)
Another Country - James Baldwin (New York) ******
Cold Mountain - Charles Frazier (North Carolina) ****
The Plague of Doves - Louise Erdrich (North Dakota) *****
Winesburg, Ohio - Sherwood Anderson (Ohio) ***
True Grit - Charles Portis (Oklahoma) *****
Trask - Don Berry (Oregon)
The Killer Angels - Michael Shaara (Pennsylvania) *****
The Witches of Eastwick - John Updike (Rhode Island) ***
The Secret Life of Bees - Sue Monk Kidd (South Carolina) ***
The Personal History of Rachel Dupree - Anne Weisberger (South Dakota)
Shiloh -Shelby Foote (Tennessee) ****
Lonesome Dove - Larry McMurtry (Texas) ******
The Monkey-Wrench Gang - Edward Abbey (Utah)
The Secret History - Donna Tartt (Vermont)
Commonwealth - Ann Patchett (Virginia)
Snow Falling on Cedars - David Guterson (Washington) ***
Advise and Consent - Allen Drury (Washington DC) ****
Rocket Boys - Homer H Hickam (West Virginia) ******
American Wife - Curtis Sittenfeld (Wisconsin) **** 
The Virginian - Owen Wister (Wyoming) ***** 

 

Alternatives for states yet to be read

Delaware:  The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henriquez

Hawaii:  Shark Dialogues by Kiana Davenport;  Moloka'I by Alan Brennert

Illinois: The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow, Crossroads by Jonathan Frantzen

Kansas:  The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton by Jane Smiley

Louisiana: A Kind of Freedom by Margaret Sexton;

Oregon:  Sometimes A Great Notion by Ken Kesey; Geek Love by Katherine Dunn; Hole In The Sky by William Kittredge

South Dakota Welcome to the Hard Times by EL Doctorow

Utah: The Nineteenth Wife by David Ebershoff

 

Edited April 17 by willoyd

[willoyd]

Author reading lists

 

Three authors whose books I want to keep a track of:

          +  Charles Dickens

          +  Emile Zola's Rougon-Macquart series

          +  Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series 

Charles Dickens - Novels
01. The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club (1837) *****
02. The Adventures of Oliver Twist (1839) ******
03. The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (1839) ******
04. The Old Curiosity Shop (1841) ***
05. Barnaby Rudge (1841)
06. The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit (1844)
07. Dealings with the Firm of Dombey and Son (1848)
08. The Personal History of David Copperfield (1850) ******
09. Bleak House (1853) ******
10. Hard Times (1854)
11. Little Dorrit (1857)
12. A Tale of Two Cities (1859) ******
13. Great Expectations (1861) ****
14. Our Mutual Friend (1865)
15. The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1870)

 

The Christmas Books
16. A Christmas Carol (1843) ******
17. The Chimes (1844) ***
18. The Cricket on the Hearth (1845) ***
19. The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain (1846)

 

Emile Zola's Rougon-Macquart Series

01. La Fortune des Rougon (The Fortune of the Rougons) *****
02. Son Excellence Eugene Rougon (His Excellency Eugene Rougon) ****
03. La Curee (The Kill) *****
04. L'Argent (Money)
05. Le Reve (The Dream)
06. La Conquete de Plassans (The Conquest of Plassans)
07. Pot-Bouille (Pot Luck)
08. Au Bonheur des Dames (The Ladies' Delight/Paradise) ******
09. La Faute de L'Abbe Mouret (The Sin of Father Mouret)
10. Une Page d'amour (A Love Story)
11. Le Ventre de Paris (The Belly of Paris)
12. La Joie de vivre (The Bright Side of Life)
13. L'Assommoir (The Drinking Den)
14. L'Oeuvre (The Masterpiece)
15. La Bete humaine (The Beast Within)
16. Germinal
17. Nana
18. La Terre (The Earth)
19. La Debacle (The Debacle)
20. Le Docteur Pascal (Doctor Pascal)

(English titles as used by OUP and/or Penguin, if different to the French).

 

Patrick O'Brian Aubrey-Maturin series
01. Master and Commander
02. Post Captain
03. HMS Surprise
04. The Mauritius Command
05. Desolation Island
06. The Fortune of War
08. The Ionian Mission
09. Treason's Harbour
10. The Far Side of the World
11. The Reverse of the Medal
12. The Letter of Marque
13. The Thirteen-Gun Salute
14. The Nutmeg of Consolation
15. Clarissa Oakes
16. The Wine-Dark Sea
17. The Commodore
18. The Yellow Admiral
19. The Hundred Days
20. Blue at the Mizzen

 

Edited April 17 by willoyd

[willoyd]

The Book Pile
I am very acquisitive when it comes to books, buying (or receiving) far more than I can actually read in short order. I'm happy with that - I like to have a library of books to choose from and follow whims - but it also means that books that I intended to read pretty soon after buying can get lost! So, I've decided to create a virtual book pile. This will consist of such books, with the aim that I will now read them in the near future!. The pile needs to stay manageable, so I will limit it to no more than ten of each genre, and will generally only add books to it as books already on the pile get read. Hopefully, this, appealing as it does to my passion for lists, will help me work through the bigger long term reading list. We'll see how it all works!
Books that are ineligible to be added include any that are included in another reading project* or being read for a book group (unless already on the pile!) - these are meant to be all books that could otherwise get overlooked because I'm so focused on these other areas. I'll also keep a record of which book pile books I have actually read!

 

Fiction
The Cautious Traveller's Guide to the Wastelands - Sarah Brook
The Glassmaker - Tracy Chevalier
James - Percival Everett
The Marriage Portrait - Maggie O'Farrell
Enlightenment - Sarah Perry

The Whalebone Theatre - Joanna Quinn
Greta and Valdin - Rebecca Reilly
Great Circle - Maggie Shipstead
The Fraud - Zadie Smith

 

Non-fiction
Kingmaker - Graham Brady
A Voyage Around the Queen - Craig Brown

Vanished Kingdoms - Norman Davies
Question 7 - Richard Flanagan
The Rising Down - Alexandra Harris
The Garden Against Time - Olivia Laing
The Haunted Wood - Sam Leith
England, A Natural History by John Lewis-Stempel

Walking the Invisible - Michael Stewart
Wild Thing - Sue Prideaux
 

Book Pile read this year
The Scapegoat - Lucy Hughes-Hallett

Caledonian Road - Andrew O'Hagan

The Burgundians - Bart van Loo

=========

 

* These include:
Reading the World
Tour of the United States
Emile Zola's Rougon-Macquart series
Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin sequence
Charles Dickens novels

 

Edited April 17 by willoyd

[willoyd]

Favourite books

 

Edited January 22 by willoyd

[willoyd]

Favourite authors

 

Edited January 22 by willoyd

[willoyd]

Reading awards

 

Edited January 22 by willoyd

[willoyd]

10  spare

 

[willoyd]

11  spare

 

[willoyd]

12  spare

 

[willoyd]

13  spare

 

[willoyd]

01. The Scapegoat by Lucy Hughes-Hallett  ****
First book of the year, and it was a chunky one, just over 600 pages. Even more so when one considers that this coves a mere 15 years. Subtitled The Brilliant Brief Life of the Duke of Buckingham, the author examines the meteoric rise of George Villiers from court introduction in 1613 to favourite of both James I and son Charles I, through to his assassination in 1628. As favourite he may well have been lover to either or both of these kings (although he also had a loving marriage too), but he was certainly their lead statesman, effectively prime minister in all but name. This is the same Duke of Buckingham who features in Dumas' The Three Musketeers, which is really what first attracted me to this biography (along with a string of great reviews!). It also covered a bit of a hole in my historical knowledge, having studied the Tudors in some depth, and read about the Civil Wars almost as much!

Detailed and chunky it might have been, but it also flowed remarkably easily. Lucy Hughes-Hallett, winner of the Baillie-Gifford for her previous biography (The Pike), and a popular fiction writer, has not written a totally conventional biography. Chapters tend to be on the short side (over 100 of them), and she often varies the style, including bullet point lists, occasional semi-speculation, and asides from the main 'narrative' to cover aspects of Buckingham's life that might perhaps not otherwise fit in neatly. It all makes for a generally rollicking read, whilst not lacking in gravitas. Buckingham himself comes over as an interesting human in all his strengths and weaknesses, unjustifiably demonised at the time, but his own worst enemy in his stubborness and determination to almost unilaterally take on the Spaniards and French - he just never seemed to learn from his mistakes, or indeed from his relationship with James I, who determinedly stayed out of European conflict. At least James helped protect him from his worst errors, but once Buckingham started his association with Charles I, then there was really nobody to protect him from himself. Indeed, Charles just made the situation worse, Buckingham being blamed for many of Charles's deficiencies even when he tried to stop his royal master from some of his worst errors/excesses of stubborness (this was a time when it was regarded as treason to blame a king, so somebody else had to take it). They were basically bad for each other, and both suffered as a result, Buckingham most of all in the short term, but sowing the seeds for Charles's own tragedy some twenty years later.

So, a fascinating, highly readable biography. I have to admit, however, that there were occasions in the second half, when things did very slightly drag, and I do think that the book could have come in a mite shorter without loss. But then, I'm not sure what I would have left out! Once Buckingham and Charles started getting entangled with Parliament (particularly the Commons), there was a certain amount of repetition, but that was because the same things did keep repeating themselves, with the former appearing to continually dig a deeper and deeper hole for themselves. I also think this might have been because the narrative started covering material I was already familiar with - it was the period of James I's reign where I really felt I was learning something new, and with all his faults, I did start to develop more respect for him than previously - he was a cannier man than often given the credit. Overall then, a great start to a year in which I want to read more non-fiction, and some bigger books - both boxes definitely ticked here, and very enjoyably too!

[France]

This sounds really interesting, I don't know a lot about Buckingham either so would like read more.  I knew the author's brother when I was living in Hong Kong so another added bit of interest!

[willoyd]

02. West of Rehoboth by Alexs D Pate ****
Read as the book for Delaware in my Tour of the United States. Edward is an athletic but introverted, bookworm, twelve-year old black boy living in Philadelphia, who spends his summer vacations in Rehoboth, on the coast of Delaware, where his mother has a regular summer job, whilst his father stays at home (having driven them to the resort). It's the 1960s Jim Crow era, and blacks and whites are effectively segregated. Here he develops a fascination, indeed obsession, for his 'Uncle' Rufus, who has been (for some unknown reason) expelled from the house of 'Aunt' Edna (where Edward with his mother and younger sister stay) who herself is a successful matriarchal business woman, more than capable of mainipulating even the local (white) police force. One of Edward's literary heroes is Hercule Poirot, and he determines to investigate Rufus, a hard drinking, messed up man. The bulk of the novel focuses on the development of that relationship, one banned by both Edward's mother and Aunt Edna, and its outcomes, filling in the relevant backstory of Edna's and Rufus's backstory on the way.
Alexs D Pate, who I'd never heard of before researching which book to read for Delaware (there isn't a wide choice), is a great story teller, who gets well inside his main characters: Eddie and Rufus come alive in his hands, although his lesser characters are rather more lightly sketched. There's a liveliness and clarity to the opening scenes which I found immersive. After the family (bar father) move to Rehoboth, the narrative narrows down somewhat to Eddie's burgeoning obsession with Rufus to the exclusion of much else. This is the nature of the story: it is a tale of obsession after all, but I have to admit to feeling that perhaps a little something went missing as a result - this was more of a niggle than a spoiler though, and the thrust of the story still remained compulsive. The last third of the book though....hmmm. All I want to say, because much more would lead to spoilers, is that it was not what I expected, was an admirably different approach, and whilst I'm still not sure if it fully worked for me, certainly made for an interesting read.
Overall, I really enjoyed the author's style: his descriptiive work in particular added a certain richness which made this as much a story of place as people, whilst on the latter, I felt I really learned something about black life at this time; this was a place, a society, a time about which I knew little; I probably still know little, but a few doors and windows have been opened. The story itself, whilst not perfect by any means for me, was still addictively readable - I looked forward to sitting down to read and left it reluctantly, reaching the end satisfied that the story had been fully told, but wanting to know more about Eddie's life beyond. A very enjoyable addition to the tour list.

[willoyd]

03. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro **
Read for one of my book groups. I had mixed feelings about this author prior to starting this novel: Remains of the Day had been an interesting read, When We Were Orphans so-so, and I was unable to finish Klara and the Sun. They had, incidentally, all been book group choices. If I'm really honest, he's not an author who I would naturally gravitate towards, although I was grateful that I had been directed his way with the first of these three. So, which way would I trend for this fourth outing with this Booker short-lister by a Nobel laureate.
Well, sadly, and actually to my surprise, the closest track was with that of the last of these. I cannot in all honesty say that I was ever in the least engaged with this drearily dull and tediously predictable dystopian take on society, and one possible future. It's set in what initially feels to be a contemporaneous England, but from the word go suggests (well, actually, bludgeons you over the head) that something is different, not quite right. And in no subtle way that 'something different' is gradually revealed, to no great surprise. And, basically, nothing happens, but it takes a while to get there - this story could have been told in half the words.
All in all, one of those rare books where I feel I wasted my time. So, why two stars and not one? Well, if I didn't know it beforehand (and I obviously did), Ishiguro can write - and this is well written (if that doesn't seem a contradiction to all that I've said to date), some vignettes in particular provided moments of real character penetration. It's just not something in the broader context of the story as a whole and its structure that I found remotely interesting to read. An early contender for most disappointing book of the year.

Edited January 23 by willoyd

[willoyd]

04. So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell *****
Read as the book for Illinois in my Tour of the US. I had several possibilities for this state, not least Saul Bellow's The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow and Crossroads by Jonathan Frantzen, two 'big guns', but I opted for this slim novella, barely 135 pages long, mainly because I was intrigued by someone obviously so highly rated (winner of the American Book Award with this novel), but of whose work I knew next to nothing - and even less of the author himself. No regrets either - this was an absolutely captivating contemplation on how we draw our memories together, the impact they can have on our lives, and the destructive impact of an affair between two neighbours on their respective families. I loved the writing, understated, spare even, but all the more vivid as a result: sympathetic if flawed (ie human) characters, the stark environment, the fallout all laid bare: a very human tragedy. It reminded me of Willa Cather's Prairie Trilogy.

In this story, two rather insular boys, neighbours and drawn together almost from necessity, are separated by the murder of a local farmer at the hands of, it turns out, one of the boy's fathers. It very soon becomes apparent that the murdered man had been having an affair with the murderer's wife, both men having been nex door neighbours and close friends previously. The other boy is the narrator, looking back on the event from older adulthood, and trying to reconstruct what really happened from his memories and other still available evidence. And, as the author writes, memory is "really a form of storytelling" that often changes in the telling, not least to help us handle our own emotional conflicts which make our true life stories unpalatable - we (almost) all have something we really don't like looking back on in our past (I certainly do - positively cringe-making even now, over 40 years later). "In talking about the past we lie with every breath we draw".

Reading Maxwell's biography in Wikipedia, I suspect that there are significant autobiographical elements here: the setting is Lincoln, Illinois, Maxwell's hometown; the narrator's mother dies from Spanish flu when he is about 10 as did Maxwell's mother; one of the main characters is an orphan brought up by aunt and uncle, as was Maxwell for some time; the narrator's father remarries and moves to Chicago with his family - Maxwell's father did the same, as Maxwell rejoined him there. These are all key influences within the book. How deep the autobiography goes, I don't know, but it's a book that feels very personal. It's certainly left me wanting to explore his relatively small oeuvre, just six novels, although more short story collections, and a couple of non-fictions, in amongst his main work, almost 40 years as fiction editor for The New Yorker. 5 stars, although I'm not quite sure why I didn't give it 6, so it might change.

[willoyd]

05. The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley ***
A time travel novel that has received a lot of publicity and complimentary reviews, although interestingly those in forums appear to be rather more mixed than I've seen from critics. The premise is that the British government has acquired time travel, and is bring people through from the past. In order not to disturb the time continuum, they are restricted to those who in their own time are just about to die (I'm assuming that they were regarded as dead because they had disappeared into the future!). One of these is Graham Gore, a member of the ill-fated Franklin Expedition. The (unnamed) narrator is employed as a 'bridge', ie someone to guide the inevitably bewildered subject (kidnapee?) through the travails of the 21st century - living as a housemate.

So, an interesting, indeed promising, premise which initially worked well for me: following Gore through his adjustments proved interesting with plenty of possibilities. But fairly soon it started to leave me asking "And....?". I was also starting to ask precisely what sort of novel the author inteded this to be. I don't want to suggest that books need to be straitjacketed into a specific style or genre, but I do think the author needs to be very clear about what they are trying to achieve, what the book is about. The problem was that this one seemed to fall between various stools. Obviously it comes over initially as time travel sci-fi (although you rapidly appreciate that the true sci-fi enthusiast is likely to be disappointed, as the author tells us to forget all the technical side of things, and just accept it for what it is!). Romance is almost inevitable, there's just that feel to it. Various interesting social issues are raised, highlighted by the struggle Gore has to adjust to modern day societal norms (not least living unchaperoned in a house with a mixed heritage, female bridge). Then there's the morph into thriller, with, after a fair amount of longueuse in the middle third, a mad rush to a frenetic end with a twist that didn't really work, not least because the book was so determinedly not sci-fi for so long, but then relies on it at the end (and I don't think that's a spoiler). In other words, this is a book that never quite decides what it is, skimming across several genres, multiple ideas, but none in any depth. At the end, it all felt rather superficial, and a mite disappointing, not least given the potential. I haven't read huge amounts of time travel, but just off the top off my head, the likes of The Time-Traveler's Wife and Connie Willis's novels (eg Doomsday Book, To Say Nothing of the Dog) are head and shoulders better than this (even if the Willis novels contain some fairly awful historical faux pas). But, it's a first novel, and there is enough here to suggest that it might be worth keeping an eye out for future books.

[willoyd]

06.  Notes From the Henhouse by Elspeth Barker ***
Having read and enjoyed Elspeth Barker's O, Caledonia as my book for Scotland in my round the world tour, I was looking forward to this collection of essays and short stories, reinforced by the reviews I read. Essays depend on high quality writing, and that was for me the primary strength of her novel.

In the event, this proved an enjoyable read, but not as compulsive as I had expected. There was again no doubt about the quality of her writing, but there was a sameness to much of it that left me feeling that she was repeating herself - I suspect that individually in a magazine/journal these would have been a great read, but as a collection (even though I tried to pace myself) it was all too much of a muchness. So, I loved the early ones whilst I was fresh, but later on (especially parts 2 and 3) things began to pall. Amongst these there were some highlights, essays on a first driving lesson (what was the instructor thinking?!) and much of part 4 (including Portia the pig!) standing out. The short stories at the end, in the Appendix, were a bit of a damp squib for me - all so similar, all very much in the vein of her novel, and an awful lot of death (in her essays too).

So, whilst enoyable, with some excellent prose, it wasn't a keeper; quite unexpected. Maybe I should have spaced reading them out even further?

[willoyd]

07. Orbital by Samantha Harvey ******
A reread for one of my book groups. I only read this last September, and the review still stands. Suffice to say that I possibly enjoyed this even more second time around, allowing myself to mull over each chapter individually.

 

08. A Sunday in Ville-d'Avray by Dominique Barberis ***
Picked up on a whim in a bookshop. Beautifully written, very atmospheric, the torpor and rather melancholic atmosphere permeates every line, reflecting the dullness of this Parisian suburb and life in it (so dull, the narrator's husband refuses to go with her!). Two sisters (one the city centre resitdent narrator, visiting her suburban sister) spend time together and secrets emerge in conversation. Yet, ultimately, this felt all a bit empty and lacking in heft or any real meaning. Maybe that was deliberate, but only a few days later, and I'm already struggling to remember much of the book. It strikes me as an exercise in style rather than substance. The blurb says 'sharply observed and wryly funny', possibly the former, although i didn't really get the point of the observation, but I'd love to know where the latter was. Having said all that, maybe just wrong book at one wrong time? I did enjoy the prose after all.

Edited February 28 by willoyd

[willoyd]

09. West by Carys Davies ***
I came to this book rather indirectly: various reviews and comments had attracted me to Carys Davies's latest novel Clear, but when I tried to obtain a copy, none of my libraries had a copy, and whilst the hardback seems to have gone out of print, the paperback wasn't due out until the end of February. But an earlier novel of Davies's, this one, was available from one of the libraries, so I thought I'd try her writing out with that. West is a slim volume (as is Clear apparently) of just 160 pages, set, surprise, surprise, in the American West of the nineteenth century . Cy Bellman, a widower, reads an article about gigantic bones discovered in Kansas (we now know them to be of dinosaurs), and becomes obsesses with seeing the original animals, so he sets off up the Mississippi-Missouri to find them, leaving his ten-year old daughter Bess with his reluctant sister. The novel then alternates backwards and forwards between Cy's adventures and Bess's experiences waiting.

I loved the writing of this - pellucid, precise prose, packing a great saga of a novel into so few pages. Characters are vividly, yet concisely, drawn, and I do get a great feeling of place. So, all the ingredients are there for a rave review. And yet...I could never get past the problem that I just didn't believe the story. Not that Bellman believed the dinosaurs existed - that worked well in fact - nor the happenings both on Bellman's journey and back at home - all to believable in fact - but in the basic premise that he, already having lost a much loved wife, would simply take off and abandon his young daughter to his obviously disapproving sister, knowing that it would take him at least a year, and probably (although not admitting to others) longer. For me, this just didn't ring true, so much so that I never really bought into what happened next. Maybe that's just my twenty-first century sensibilities cutting through. It might have worked for me if Bess's mother was still alive, but this felt like one step too far. On top of that, Cy's journey felt all too aimless; there seemed to be little or no coherence to his search, just vague sorts of wanderings. Maybe that was all the point (if so, I'm not sure precisely what that point was), but it all just led to a sense of irritation, both with the character and with the author!

As so often happens in novels with parallel strands, one engages interest far more than the other, and this was no exception, and I found myself increasingly not really caring what happened to Bellman (a study in wasteful futility), whilst in contrast Bess's narrative saw me through to the end, and I was left wanting to know more.

So, something of a curate's egg of a novel, hence the middle of the road grading. But, given the book's positive qualities, I'm definitely looking forward to giving Clear a go when the paperback comes out in a week or so's time. Maybe not immediately - I've quite a stack at present! - but certainly in the near future.

Edited February 28 by willoyd

[willoyd]

10. State of Wonder by Ann Patchett *****
A book group choice, this was my third Ann Patchett novel, having previously read, and enjoyed, The Dutch House (for another group) and Commonwealth (for my Tour of the USA), so this was no reluctant read.

The premise was very different though to the previous books, rather more in line (perhaps, as I've not read it yet) with Bel Canto: news comes through to pharmacology researcher Melanie Singh that her colleague and friend, dispatched to the Brazilian jungle to check up on a drug research project being carried out there, has died. The information provided is cursory at best. Under pressure from both employers and the colleague's wife to go and find out what has happened (and to follow up on the project investigation), Melanie heads off to Manaus. It's a daunting, almost overwhelming, experience, not helped by the fact that the head of the project is not only highly elusive, but was Melanie's dauntingly clinical supervisor when she was training as a medical doctor, a career she left after a serious accident.

It's a complicated, perhaps unlikely scenario, but in Patchett's hands, I found it compulsive reading. The tropical atmosphere is as claustrophobic as I find that sort of climate, the plot hangs together surprisingly well (at least for me) and, as I found with the previous novels, the author is a real story teller; I couldn't put it down. So, it was with a tinge of disappointment, that I reached the end, rather more swiftly than anticipated, not least because it all came together with what felt to be an almighty rush; after three hundred and thirty-odd pages of careful build up, it was all rather abrupt, and jarred somewhat: for me it just didn't follow from what had happened to date (although considering the novel later, I think I can see what Patchett was doing/saying - however discussing it would be rather a plot spoiler).

It's also one of those stories that, whilst you are immersed in it (and I was!), it all makes sense, but when you back away from it on completion, and contemplate it, somehow it all feels not quite as credible. But that is almost a compliment, because reading it, I never once doubted, so 'into' the book I became. It certainly promises to make for a good group meeting, raising any number of discussion points both about the novel as a novel, but also some of the broader issues it raises. Well worth its five stars (it lost one with that ending), and the best of the Patchett novels I've read to date.

[willoyd]

A series of catch up reviews - a long time since I last posted.  The first two:

 

11. Rhine Journey by Ann Schlee ******
Charlotte Morrision is a middle-aged (?) spinster on holiday with her brother and sister-in-law on the German Rhine. Life has become rather unsettled for her as the man she for whom she has acted as housekeeper (thus providing her with occupation, a home and an income) has died, leaving her a small legacy sufficient for independence, if that's what she wants, which is uncertain. On the boat, she's sees a man who she initially mistakes for a previous love and, whilst almost immediately recognising the mistake, it sets off a series of events that become ever more unsettling, particularly as she gets to know the man and his family.

I had noted this book owing to a recommendation read somewhere - I thought it was her on Club Read, but can't find the reference anyway - and browsing it in our local bookshop persuaded me almost immediately. Sitting down to read, I was immersed from the word go. It was a three sitting read, but could easily have been one if I'd had the time. I was reminded of one of my favourite writers, EM Forster, both in content - a mixture of A Room With A View (although Germany rather than Italy!) and A Passage to India (startling event turns single woman's life upside down) - and style. This may be the early 1850s (soon after the 1848 uprisings, which do affect the plot) rather than Forster's early twentieth century, but there remained the atmosphere of a woman pushing against the bounds of a patriarchal society (almost without realising in Charlotte's case), with Charlotte submissive to the rule of her tract-waving brother, and en route to the conventional life of a live-in maiden aunt. Although told in the third person, we see the world through Charlotte's mind's eye, including dream sequences which she, and we, are in danger of mistaking for reality - one needs to pay close attention!

This book scored on all fronts for me: I loved the sense of place and the atmosphere - reminding me of a cycling trip up the Rhine of a few years ago, even if this was, and felt, over 150 years ago - and the narrative was strong enough to propel me steadily through the book, still with time to savour the words - I just loved the writing, and positively enjoyed absorbing each word and phrase. This was not a book I wanted to rush through. It was good enough that when, at the end, I briefly went back to the start to check up on a few details, I found myself ready to carry on reading all the way through.

Overall, a read that really chimed with me, and a full 6 stars. Whether it's a 'favourite', time will tell!

 

12. A River Runs Through It and Other Stories by Norman Maclean ****
Read as the fortieth book in my Tour of the United States, for the state of Montana. Published in the 1970s, this was a trio of pieces of autofiction set in the pre-WW2 years in the country around Missoula, and based on Maclean's outdoor experiences. The eponymous novella (ARRTI), positioned first, is centred on his relationship with his brother Paul, particularly seen through their mutual love of fly-fishing (inherited from their minister father) and a specific holiday in one 1930s summer. The other two are earlier, the main one (USFS 1919) being another 100-page novella on another summer working with the US Forestry Service in the Montana hills, whilst the third, positioned as almost as a 20-page interval between the two longer pieces, focused on time spent logging and, again, on Maclean's relationship with another individual, this time a logging colleague (they weren't friends!).

The book was worth reading for ARRTI alone. There was an emotional engagement both through the family connections, and through Maclean's obvious passion for fly-fishing: I know nothing of the latter, but I found myself almost as completely immersed as he obviously was - I loved the technical detail, and his deep involvement in both activity and landscape. The time, the place, the people, particularly the three men (the brothers and, later, the father) were all brought vividly to life, and I was surprised how emotionally involved I became and felt at the end! The other two pieces, although fine pieces of writing, lacked the same intensity to me. They were lively, entertaining, and provided insight on time and place, but never quite reached the same level: I wanted to go back and reread sections of ARRTI, but the other two I found myself content to leave and let live at the end. So, whilst ARRTI was a solid 5-star read, the other two meant that overall the book landed up slightly lower, even if still a good read.

 

[willoyd]

The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters *
Well, that was an interesting one. This was the choice for for one of my book groups. The novel is set around the disappearance of a young Mi'kmaq girl whilst the family, from Nova Scotia, are blueberry picking in Maine. She has been kidnapped by a local childless couple, and the novel examines the impact of this event on both the girl herself, Ruthie (renamed Norma by the couple), and her family. Amanda Peters herself is of mixed heritage, part Mi'kmaq, and the book is aimed partly at highlighting the racial prejudices the Mi'kmaq have faced historically, even very recently. It wone an Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction. What?!

It's not often our very varied group is in complete accord in our feelings about a book, and on the one or two occasions where we have been in complete agreement, it's been as to how good a book has been, so this one achieved something unique to date for us: unanimous, almost vitriolic, dislike! 'Pedestrian', 'poorly written', 'bland', 'two dimensional' and other similar descriptors were agreed to by all. We were lucky that one of the group had visited one of the Mi'kmaq communities whilst on holiday in Nova Scotia last year, and was able to provide some valuable insight from the introduction she had been given by community members, as this novel provided little if any - indeed, this was regarded as perhaps the most disappointing aspect of the novel, that it could have been set pretty much anywhere in the world. One of our group, with personal insight into being brought up in a family of different heritage, found the character of Ruthie simply unbelievable. We were staggered that this book had won any sort of prize, and bemused by the positive reviews we'd read. All we could think was that the book's cause had given this novel some sort of 'worthy' status that had influenced reviews and jury opinions.

TBH I was, if anything, relieved! I'd read this book with a rapidly sinking heart, and only managed to reach the end with massive stints of skim reading. Unrelentingly dreary, tediously predictable in plotting and stereotypical, cardboard cutout characterisation, lacking in any narrative suspense, this was for me representative of the worst sort of mis-lit, a style and genre of writing that I really dislike anyway, and I dreaded being the 'odd man out' at our meeting, convinced that, given the consistently positive reviews from media and online, I was missing something substantial, and going to be on my own. I should have had more faith in the rest of the group! It was interesting talking round the group, how many had feared the same! I struggled to give this one star.