nocto

Finishing this it's difficult to see how I managed to leave it lying around the house for a year or so before picking it up to read. Though I did leave it lying around numerous times during the reading too - putting it down while other books took my fancy. And indeed I've set down far more books halfway through than I've finished in the last couple of years so maybe it's not so odd.

It is a really good read, and one that I think I'd enjoy as much on a second reading - if I didn't have far too many other demands on my reading time to even contemplate it.

The story is mostly narrated by Roseanne Clear, a hundred year old resident in an Irish mental hospital, as she writes down her history in secret. Retelling her childhood and young womanhood in the years between the first and second world wars. There are also passages from her doctor who is wondering how she will cope with the old hospital closing and moving to a new facility. Steadily you find out why Roseanne ended up in the mental hospital - it's pretty clear from the outset that she's not particularly mad but has been classified as such for convenience at some point.

To be honest I think the book was better for my reading it slowly, it feels right to have done so. To have zoomed through it quickly might have condensed the years of the story too far. It feels like there was much more story here than the number of pages would have you believe.

Purchased on 6th February 2009.

Picked this up to read on holiday and wasn't quite sure if it was going to be my cup of tea. It seemed to feature a lot of African chimpanzee watching and this is what I wasn't at all sure about.

Couldn't have been more wrong. Strong female lead - a chimpanzee watcher, yes, but also good scientist in a facility who are not quite straight with their research data. And her relationship with a slightly mad mathematician making up more of the storyline than I thought at the outset.

Good stuff and definitely an author to read more of.

Purchased on 6th February 2010.

I didn't remember that after reading If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things I'd written.... 'Jon McGregor's next book will very probably be on my "buy instantly in hardback the second it comes out" list.' ....but I did remember enjoying it and I bought this as soon as I saw it in the bookshop. It's not a hardback but some kind of bendy fabric covered not quite a paperback. This edition came out a week before I bought it, I'm not sure if there was a proper hardback released before it. Anyway, I think I more or less did as I said I would do.

While this book didn't engage me as ferociously as the previous book I still enjoyed it. The bitty narrative was great and just the kind of thing I was expecting although I did find it a bit impenetrable in places. I found myself flipping back from time to time to reread a previous passage now I'd deciphered the relationship of the characters to each other and to the story. The story centres on the death of a more or less housebound alcoholic and you piece together his life and that of his family and friends, most of whom are heroin users, as you hear different fragments of the story from different people.

It doesn't sound like it's going to be hugely interesting and I wonder if I'd have picked the book up if I hadn't previously liked the author's work. The multiple voices and jigsaw type storytelling works really well though. And I'll definitely stick with my view from the last book and will buy McGregor's next book more or less as soon as it's out in whatever passes for hardback these days too.

Purchased on 6th February 2010.

Just the kind of thing I was in the mood for. Well written, plotful, good characters and not too long. Not too long is probably pushing the boundaries of definition actually, it's a really short book. But that makes it better rather than seeming like a half arsed attempt at stretching a short story into novel. Like the author knew just exactly how much to put in to tell the story and didn't add anything else just for the hell of it.

I don't want to mention the plot at all - it didn't go where I was expecting it to go but after finishing it I can't imagine how I ever thought it was going anywhere else.

Oh, and really good, highly recommended. Future classic, quite possibly. And probably the only book I've ever read that mentions websites by name and it doesn't feel like the author's just trying to seem hip and trendy.

"Well," Riley said, "let's say I go way beyond Wikipedia."

Quite.

Purchased on 1st December 2009.

This tale of Andrew Taylor's hasn't yet been reissued like other of his earlier works. I tracked down a secondhand copy to give it a try. I can see why it hasn't made a reissue as it's not as mystery based as his other work. I enjoyed it all the same.

Hugh is a young teenager in London, somewhere before the start of the second world war and he's just been expelled from school. His bullying father is recruited to do some kind of Secret Service mission to Prague and ends up taking Hugh with him. The mission is never going to succeed and Hugh ends up stuck in Prague with a false identity while his awful father goes home happily without him. It's a good start to a story and I thought it was going to be more of a children's book for a while, but it isn't.

The story does go a bit all over the place, it doesn't fit as a mystery, or as a spy story but nor is it not one of those. I wouldn't particularly recommend it to anyone as Taylor's written lots of good books that you should read first, but I did enjoy this one all the same.

Purchased on 1st December 2009.

It seems like a good omen to start a new year, and a new decade, with a book I really enjoyed reading. It took me a while to get into the story as it seemed to ramble around a bit much to start with but I loved it once I had my head around it and am looking forward to reading the later two books in the trilogy.

Purchased on 10th December 2009.

A so-so entry in one of my favourite series over the long term. I didn't like the central premise of the book at all though I'll see what happens after this book to judge that properly. I did like seeing more of the surrounding characters of the series though. Decent really I suppose, there's just been better.

Purchased on 30th November 1999.

Slightly surreal, dark tale about a family of orphaned children. I loved it. Enchanting is a good word to describe it. I didn't realise it was McEwan's first book - I like it better than some of the later stuff and it's very well polished.

Purchased on 1st November 2009.

One of the few chick-lit authors I've ever managed to read. Decent writing and fleshed out central characters make good light entertainment.

Borrowed.

This is billed as an antidote to self help books and it's basically full of self help type techniques that have actual scientific research to back them up. I've never really read a self help book as I suspect them to be full of a load of made up nonsense and/or to point things out that are basic common sense. This either makes me a bad audience for this book, or maybe a good one, I can't decide. It's possibly aimed at both people who don't read self help books and those who read too much of them; cunning marketing idea anyway.

I didn't find it hugely enlightening but I was pleased to find that some of the techniques I've uncovered on my own over the years actually work, and some of the things I've suspected are baloney - actually are. Interesting and quick read, I don't remember having any big disagreements with the author while reading.

Borrowed.