DECEMBER 2017

The Unseen ~ Roy Jacobsen

The Animators ~ Kayla Rae Whitaker

NOVEMBER 2017

The Power ~ Naomi Alderman

Manhattan Beach ~ Jennifer Egan

OCTOBER 2017

Good Omens ~ Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett

 

****

Two Steps Forward ~ Graeme Simsion $ Anne Buist

The Book of Dust : La Belle Savage ~ Philip Pullman

SEPTEMBER 2017

Little Fires Everywhere ~ Celeste Ng

**** RECOMMEND ****

The Child Finder ~ Rene Denfeld

AUGUST 2107

Stay WIth Me ~ Ayobami Adebayo

The Underground Railroad ~ Colson Whitehead

JULY 2017

Rich People Problems ! Kevin Kwan

China RIch Girlfriend ~ Kevin Kwan

*** LIKE ***

No, not as good as CRA but I was in need of a lightweight diverting read and this was perfect

A Monster Calls ~ Patrick Ness

**** RECOMMEND ****

The Secrets She Keeps ~ Michael Robotham

X NO X

Not for me.  Where has that investigative journalist gone that wrote something of depth with The Wreckage, or where is that crime writer gone who made me read while holding my breath with Shatter?  This is the ghostwriter who rewrote the twaddle of brainless performers or maybe this is the author who is chasing a buck and commercial fame ... but this is not in the same class as Big Little Lies.

The Handmaid's Tale ~ Margaret Attwood

**** RECOMMEND ****

JUNE 2017

Kintu ~ Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi

Drown ~ Junot Diaz

Ill Will ~ Dan Chaon

** OK **

MAY 2017

Arrival ~ Ted Chiang

** OK **

The Leavers ~ Lisa Ko

** OK **

Waking Gods ~ Sylvain Neuvel

** OK **

APRIL 2017

Anything Is Possible ~ Elizabeth Strout

A Game Of Ghosts ~ John Connolly

Nemaluk ~ Ion Idress

Post Polio ~ Alph Williams

MARCH 2017

I Can Jump Puddles ~ Alan Marshall

****RECOMMEND ****


I could say it no better than words taken from the book :

Marshall says :

"I wanted to do so much more than record the experiences of a little boy faced with the problem of crutches; I wanted to give a picture of a period that has passed."


The publisher's note at the end says :

"In his later life, Alan remarked that being on crutches from this time forced him to be an observer, an onlooker, and a more compassionate person - all qualities of a successful novelist.  His work is characterised by his astute eye for detail and his ability to illuminate life's small but meaningful things...  Life in the country - on the land and in the bush - features prominently in his work, which celebrates the camaraderie of Australian working-class life."

This was a delight!

The Refugees ~ Viet Thanh Nguyen

Exit West ~ Mohsin Hamid

** OK **

Umm when is magic realism not science fiction?

When someone wants to highbrow it and call it "literature"

I was disappointed!  I very much enjoyed The Reluctant Fundamentalist (poignantly enlightening), and loved How To Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia (wryly funny).  They were both very different to each other and Hamid has done something very different again - but this one missed the mark for me.

The plotting was thoughtful, the premise was interesting, the characters were engaging but unfortunately it did not make the sum of the whole a thoughtful, interesting, engaging read.  The writing style was both descriptive or stark, poetic or simplistic, pacy or plodding.   The whole thing lacked a cohesion.  

It wasn't about the victims of conflict, it wasn't about refugees.  At it's heart it was a relationship story - how it began and how it was strained by circumstances and how it petered out.  The beginning, set in an unnamed city under attack from unnamed forces, was good at showing that those caught up in a conflict are just-like-you (social media, coffee culture, studies).  The middle introduced random irrelevant characters.  The end was as strained as the relationship became.

It seemed to me that the only reason for the relocation doors was to fast track the movement of the characters as refugees.  Nothing of substance about the doors was explored.  They were just a narrative device but they could have been so much more interesting!

It is short enough and unusual enough to keep you from looking for an exit door but that's about it.

Purple Hibiscus ~ Chimimanda Ngozi Adichie

**** RECOMMEND ****

Purple : liturgical colour for penance, humility & melancholy. 

Hibiscus : exotic blooms that needed nurturing.

And Kambili blooms despite the turbulent forces and oppression of family and politics that make up her exotic environment.

There is so much that could have made this a depressing read; a narrative  focused on lives lived under the shadow of a violent, authoritarian, religious fanatic.  But it wasn't.  The always-present edginess and wariness of the thought-provoking narrative absorbed me completely.  It was as if I worried for Kambili and Jaja when I wasn't with them.  I was emotionally committed to the characters and their welfare.

Theirs was a life of father-pleasing rote answers, following strict suffocating guidelines, confined and cossetted from the world. The father was such a complex character - a pillar of society, a devoted Catholic, a generous citizen who abhorred corruption ... and a violent, abusive, controlling father and husband.

Maybe, just maybe, not my favourite Adichie.  Maybe, just maybe, that is still "Americanah" ... but then again ... maybe not.  Except for being brought up a Catholic, I have no idea why this book resonated so strongly.  No doubt it is in no small part due to the clarity of the writing style,  the depth of the characterisation, the sense of place and time.  The simplicity of expression, because it was written from the point of view of 15yo Kimbili, made it all the more poignant.

Pachinko ~ Min Jin Lee

** OK **

Like Pachinko machine, a little mechanical.
Like a Pachinko ball, the narrative fell through the gaps

Many of the characters are involved in the Pachinko business and there was mention of adjusting the pins to regulate winnings.  As a reader, I felt a little like this - my involvement in the characters was manipulated.  I felt like a Pachino ball guided around a track but ultimately a random path.  And I wasn't a winner.

I did enjoy the historical and cultural background of the narrative.  While it wasn't unknown history to me, it was well presented in the events of the story. The overt racism against the Koreans in Japan is head shaking!  The bigotry and prejudice is clearly evident.  It is hard to say that it is a good light read (and it is!) but it is also a dark and depressing read.

There was plenty of colour but it started to fade in the second part of the book.  A good edit would have worked wonders (eg a section where they are watching a tv program; a gloss over many years to leap to x years later; inclusion of characters or characterisations that seemed to just tick-a-contemporary-box; exposition rather than action). It would have been a 3 to 4 star read if it had kept its momentum or not become a muddled message mess.


Pachinko (パチンコ ^?) is a type of mechanical game originating in Japan and is used as both a form of recreational arcade game and much more frequently as a gambling device.

 

FEBRUARY 2107

Lincoln In The Bardo ~ George Sanders

** OK **

Too much of a good thing?  

Or not enough of anything??

Innovation in writing can be thrilling, a scintillating experience for the reader.  This was ultimately frustrating.  What I was enjoying at the beginning became tedious at the end.  I longed for the whimsical style of the narrative to give way to something more productive, but no, it continued until the end.

There was a lot of ta-da trumpet blowing that this was Saunders, a master of short stories, first novel.  What we were given was a stream of snippets from short stories, almost like an annotated bibliography, thrown together in a cutesy was to give the narrative.  It would possibly make a great radio play (and may have been a much more enjoyable experience as an audiobook).

There was a lot to like about it.  The storyline is unexpected (the "Lincoln" in the title is Willy Lincoln).  The oddball characters and their oddball behaviours are engaging.  The melange of historical fact is informative and interesting.  But in the long run it became a chore, having to make do with finger food when you were expecting a main meal.

The Tibetan word bardo means literally "intermediate state"

Norse Mythology ~ Neil Gaiman

**OK **

Ye gods!  Yawn!
Informative but not engaging

I know I am meant to swoon with joy because it is by (spoken in reverent terms) ... Neil Gaiman ... but no, no swooning on my part.  I felt very let down by something that I had been eagerly anticipating.  

While it definitely added to my scant knowledge of Norse mythology, it was not an engaging read.  It felt more like a lowly translation by someone not adept at either language.

The short story format was fine but it, combined with the language used, made it seem more of a children's version than a richly detailed, magical presentation of Norse mythology.  It was all too simplistic.  Dialogue in particular was poorly done - was he initially planning a graphic novel?  And if there is an argument that it was a written presentation of oral storytelling, then I would have fallen asleep around the fire.  It was informative but not colourful, it was peopled with characters but had no charisma, it was paraphrasing rather than engaging storytelling.  

Kindred ~ Olivia E Butler

** OK **

Unoriginal, uninspired

Let's take The Time Traveller's Wife and ummm change it to make it black history instead ... yes! That will work ... not!!!  While the idea was good it needed more effort to lift it from being a "What I did in my holiday" school assignment essay. 

The Husband's Secret ~ Liane Moriarty

** OK **

JANUARY 2017

A Long Way Home ~ Saroo Brierley

** OK **

Homegoing ~ Yaa Gyasi

** OK **

Post Polio, Dogs & the Peotry of Loving and Dying (Draft) ~ Alpheus Williams

All The Birds In The Sky ~ Charlie Jane Anders

X NO X

- UNFINISHED -

Big Little Lies ~ Liane Moriarty

***** FAVOURITE *****