This was a crazy read. Eleanor moves to Talbingo to take up a teaching job and things go haywire. The story started with humour and then just went weird. There is a lot of swearing. The horror fell short, I think because Eleanor was portrayed as off balance before she arrived in the mountains – so was it creepy because of what was happening or was it all in Eleanor’s head. Most of the situations were far fetched but it did make me want to see how the story ended.
It had been so long since I first read this, I had completely forgotten it, and especially how funny it is. It is about two men who met during WWII, and their families, living, working, growing up in London. It’s about the immigrant experience, identity, growing up in the 80s and early 90s, what it is to be English, faith, love, and the glorious mess of life and relationships. The audiobook was brilliantly done, and it is just a thoroughly fascinating and entertaining book.
I really loved this book of essays about a life, love, grief, friendship, and reading. Tegan Bennett Daylight writes so movingly about the power of reading, and how it has impacted her life. It helps that I have read many of the books she writes about, and that she quotes The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, my favourite of the Chronicles of Narnia, but the book is also about the connection between people, so I don’t think a lot of prior reading is necessary in order to enjoy it.
This was a big Southern hug of a book. Full of Southern charm and magic. It remined me of the movie Steel Magnolias – where even though it covers pain and suffering, it does so with a big heart and a big sense of community.
Having read both Nervous Conditions and The Book of Not, many years ago, I was keen to revisit Tambudzai and see what she was up to. Well, nothing good I’m afraid. The years have been unkind, and all of the promise of Tambu’s youth has come to nothing. She so desperately wants the success she feels owed, and struggles to get by. Life is hard in Zimbabwe, especially for women, and terribly complicated. This is a complex book, pretty bleak, sometimes hard to understand, and sad, but thought provoking, clever, and moving.
Macon Leary writes travel guides for businessmen who want to travel without feeling like they have left home. He is methodical, logical, controlled, and then his wife leaves him, and his life is changed by a young, impulsive, dog trainer. While I never got over the man’s name (it rhymes with bacon!) I really enjoyed this slow, gentle story about who we are, who we want to be, and the power of connection. I listened to the audio version, and thought it well done, though had I been reading it myself, I’d have gone for a soft c in Macon!
Set in northwest London, very much a character itself, NW is the story of four people who grew up in a housing estate, and what they make of their lives. It is experimental in style – spare, stream of consciousness, staccato; skimming the surface and diving deep into who these characters are. It’s about London, class, race, how people are perceived, how they really are, and all that contributes to a person’s self, and place in the world.
Life in a small town is well captured in this story. People knowing each others business, small businesses and the characters who inhabit a town made me smile. The mystery in the story was interesting and was a slow reveal throughout the story. The ending was a disappointment – there were things left to explain – but that may of been the author’s purpose – to leave the reader to connect all the dots in a more solid way.
In the minutes after her death, Tequila Leila is immersed in memories; of her childhood, her life in Istanbul, and her friends. This was a delicious experience. New, not only for the Turkish setting, culture, and history, but for the fascinating structure, the sensuous detail, and deeply endearing characters. It’s about life, loss, friendship, humanity, and the power of love.
The final book in a brilliant, unflinching trilogy about the Great War. Rivers continues to treat broken soldiers, thinking back to his time as an anthropologist in Melanesia, while Prior and Owen return to France, cured of their shell shock. It’s tragic, and bewilderingly beautiful. What unfathomable horror, waste, and loss. The audiobook is mesmerising.
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