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'Blind Faith' by Ben Elton
August 18 - 20, 320 pages
I enjoy novels about dystopias, and utopias for that matter. Although the two seem to overlap. Maybe there's some appeal in seeing society (with all good intentions) go to the extremes only to realise that life just isn't very nice and is much better the way it is for us now. Mass self-assurance, perhaps. Whatever the reason, I really like books like this and 'Blind Faith' was no exception. It was completely different to what I expected. For starters, it was funny. I enjoyed reading it. I also really like how 'current' it was; so relevant to everyday life. And, I don;t want to spoil it but I just have to say, I like how it ends with his faith in humankind to realise the error of their ways and put things right. Eventually.
'The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy' by Douglas Adams
August 11 - 13, 159 pages
This is a very funny book. I really enjoyed it. I don't usually have much time for science fiction but this novel definitely made up for this by being so hilarious. I just don't know what else to say. A great length, too; short enough to be funny the whole way through without becoming tiresome.
'Tinkers' by Paul Harding
August 13 - 15, 191 pages
A beautiful book. I love the way it's written; like a tapestry. I like how it cited other works and wove its way back through time by following the lives of each son's father. Quite brilliant.
'Such a crooked and flimsy device could only keep the fantastic hours of unruly ghosts.'
Yep. A good week's reading. Although it did frustrate my slightly that on this copy of 'The Hitch Hiker's Guide' the title is spelled different on the cover and on the spine. The cover says 'The Hitch-hikers Guide to the Galaxy' while the spine says 'The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy'. Oh well, I'm sure I'll eventually get over it.
Some quotes from 'Tinkers':
'He grabbed for his hat because the mule had eaten it off his head once before, leaving the beast ill and gassy and he behind it with teary eyes and a sunburned nose.'
'My goodness, I am made from planets and wood, diamonds and orange peels, now and then, here and there; the iron in my blood was the blade of a Roman plow; peel back my scalp and you will see my cranium covered in the scrimshaw carved by an ancient sailor who never suspected he was whittling at my skull...'
'A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare' by James Shapiro
August 2 - 8, 333 pages
I love reading about Shakespeare just as much as I love reading his plays. I think that part of what makes him so interesting for me is not just his genius, but how we know so little about him. Still, today, even what the Bard from Avon looks like is speculation.
But moving right along. I was very impressed by the depth of research gone into this book. And not only that but how much that research told us about Shakespeare's sources and inspiration. I also was very interested to learn more of the world in which Shakespeare lived. A good read; heavy at times.
And imagine a year when he wrote Henry V, Julius Caesar, As You Like It and Hamlet. What a year!
'The Secret Life of Bees' by Sue Monk Kidd
July 26 - 27, 374 pages
I really liked this book. It was great. Quite refreshing. And very different from what one would expect from a book set in the south of America in 1964. It was sad, but had some funny lines: "You put his brain in a bird, and the bird would fly backward" and 'Sometimes you want to fall on your knees and thank God in heaven for all the poor news reporting that goes on in the world.'
And didn't I learn a lot about bees!
'Dirt Music' by Tim Winton
July 29 - 31, 461 pages
It was good. I do like Winton. He's honest and comfortable at the same time. I still prefer 'Cloudstreet' though. But a good book, and I like the way Winton creates characters with so much complexity. He sold Broome to me as well, I really want to go!
Okay I'll admit it: part of the fun in reading 'The Secret Life of Bees' was imagining them all speaking in their South Carolinian accents.
'The Bronze Horseman' by Paullina Simons
July 20 - 25, 637 pages
I love reading about Russia. It fascinates me. I think I just find it so interesting that it is so different from the rest of the world. This novel most definitely confirmed that for me. Set in World War Two, I cannot imagine living the way those people did.
I enjoyed this book. Mostly its 'Russian-ness' I guess. And feeling like I was deep in the Soviet Union. It was a love story though. Which was nice. I did get over having to read about Tatiana and Alexander sleeping together for about 200 pages non-stop. I avoided reading it in public.
But it was good. Very interesting. I really want to go to Russia now. But maybe not in winter.
'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows' by JK Rowling
July 13 - 14, 607 pages
I just felt like a bad person. I had read all of the Harry Potter books except the last. I needed to read this one. I like the books; they make for fun reading. And I always knew Snape was good. I just knew it. I can't believe I've finally finished the series!
'The Five People You Meet in Heaven' by Mitch Albom
July 15, 208 pages
This was a really good read. I powered through it. I quite liked Albom's style and will definitely read the more famous 'Tuesdays with Morrie'. Yes, this is a lovely book, sad at times.
'As I Lay Dying' by William Faulkner
July 17 - 18, 208 pages
I really liked the multiple points of view by didn't like the 9-day-old dead body: I could practically smell it!
My first three-book week! Wowee.
Some of my favourite quotes from 'The Five People You Meet in Heaven':
"Adam's first night on earth? When he lays down to sleep? He thinks it's all over, right? He doesn't know what sleep is. His eyes are closing and he thinks he's leaving this world right?
"Only he isn't. He wakes up the next morning and he has a fresh new world to work with, but he has something else, too. He has yesterday."
"Sometimes when you sacrifice something precious, you're not really losing it. You're just passing it on to someone else."
And from 'As I Lay Dying':
'When He aims for something to be always a-moving, He makes it long ways, like a road or a horse or a wagon, but when He aims for something to stay put, He makes it up-and-down ways, like a tree or a man ... Because if He'd a aimed for man to be always a-moving and going somewheres else, wouldn't He put him longways on his belly, like a snake?'
'... when I was young I believed death to be a phenomenon of the body; now I know it to be merely a function of the mind ...'
'She looks at us. Only her eyes seem to move. It's like they touch us, not with sight or sense, but like the stream from a hose touches you, the stream at the instant of impact as dissociated from the nozzle as though it had never been there.'
'He is a big tub of guts and I am a little tub of guts and if there is not any room for anything else important in a big tub of guts, how can it be room in a little tub of guts.'
And my favourite chapter of the book consists of only five words: 'My mother is a fish.'
'Breath' by Tim Winton
July 7 - 8, 247 pages
I like Winton. I like the way that he writes. I like the intensity, the power but also how casual it is.
I thought it was brought together well ,this novel, but I still much prefer 'Cloudstreet'. The passion was still there, though. I could really feel the way that the narrator loved, needed to surf: 'we'd left the ordinary in our wake.'
Yes. I think I enjoyed this. It got a little strange at times but had some excellent passages. In particular: '... more than a rebellion against the monotony of drawing breath ... breath upon breath upon breath in an endless capitulation to biological routine.'
I just love it when you find a passage with a clever link to the title in a novel. It reminded me of 'To Kill a Mockingbird' or 'The Catcher in the Rye'
