Bookish Beauties: October 2015

The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd

Chose this as the 100th book (after a lot of deliberation). Had already read and enjoyed 'The Secret Life of Bees' and thought this was worth considering as a choice.
Really enjoyed the read, though found it distressing.
The fact that this book was partly based on real lives and set in Charleston, where racism has recently hit the headlines, made it particularly poignant.
Sue Monk Kidd captured the essence of her two main characters and her creation of their very different voices in the alternating chapters worked well. Not a great writer but I do think she's an accomplished one.
Felt pleased that everyone seemed to have something positive to say about it.

Man at the Helm by Nina Stibbe

Stoner by John Williams

On the Black Hill by Bruce Chatwin

Dubliners by James Joyce

Life after Life by Kate Atkinson

Stamboul Train by Graham Greene

A Change of Climate by Hilary Mantel

The Pure Gold Baby by Margaret Drabble

Jessica Speight, a young anthropology student in 1960s London, is at the beginning of a promising academic career when an affair with her married professor turns her into a single mother. Anna is a pure gold baby with a delightful sunny nature. But as it becomes clear that Anna will not be a normal child, the book circles questions of responsibility, potential, even age, with Margaret Drabble’s characteristic intelligence, sympathy, and wit.

All That Is by James Salter

The Woman Upstairs by Claire Messud

Monsieur Linh and his Child by Philippe Claudel

Offshore by Penelope FitzGerald

The Country Girls by Edna O'Brien

When God was a Rabbit by Sarah Winman

Before I go to Sleep by S J Watson

The Great Gatsby by F Scott FitzGerald

Believe it or not, the book came first, not the film ! I read The Great Gatsby a long, long time ago and loved it. Prompted by going to see the glorious Luhrmann version that’s showing everywhere, I’ve just re- read it.

As so often is the case, the film doesn’t hold a candle to the book. It could never capture its breathtaking, almost poetic language. I had to keep stopping along the way to admire sentences !

Fitzgerald manages to weave a brilliant story around the shadowy Jay Gatsby. who says little of interest in the whole novel, but holds the best of parties. There’s something exotic and enigmatic about him. Why is he such a liar ? Where did he make his money ? Why, when he was complicit in such a terrible crime, do we forgive him ?

Gatsby’s living a dream that all comes tumbling down and barely anyone attends his funeral. The fragility of it all is captured beautifully and economically. Second time round, I’ve appreciated the book even more.

Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwan

Capital by John Lanchester

John Lanchester's episodic format in Capital works. On one level his portrayal of the 'haves' and 'have nots', living cheek by jowl on Pepys Road, reads almost like a 'soap ' with lots of colourful vignettes glimpsing into these disparate characters' worlds. At times there is a superficiality to what we know of their lives .By creating sinister undertones of what was happening on the street, Lanchester conveys the full impact of the credit crunch. No coincidence that this was set in a London street, not far from the city in 2009. His setting, his characters are the microcosm for society. His idea of the spectre looming over people's lives on the street is a clever metaphor. The book manages to be thoroughly readable but also a penetrating social comment in one.

A Dickens for the 21st century?

Two Caravans by Marina Lewycka

The Pregnant Widow by Martyn Amis

The Post Office Girl by Stefan Zweig

The Beautiful Visit by Elizabeth Jane Howard

Ingenious Pain by Andrew Miller

Emma by Jane Austen

Beautiful, clever, rich - and single - Emma Woodhouse is perfectly content with her life and sees no need for either love or marriage. Nothing, however, delights her more than interfering in the romantic lives of others. But when she ignores the warnings of her good friend Mr. Knightley and attempts to arrange a suitable match for her protegee Harriet Smith, her carefully laid plans soon unravel and have consequences that she never expected. With its imperfect but charming heroine and its witty and subtle exploration of relationships, Emma is often seen as Jane Austen's most flawless work.

The Stranger's Child by Alan Hollinghurst

The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides

Freedom by Jonathan Franzen

The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht

The Black Tulip by Alexander Dumas

Whose Sorry Now? by Howard Jacobson

World's Fair by E L Doctorow

A Week in December by Sebastian Faulks

Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor

The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver

The novel tells the story of Harrison William Shepherd beginning with his childhood in Mexico during the 1930s. His parents are separated so he lives back and forth between the United States with his father and Mexico with his mother. During his time in Mexico he works as a plaster mixer for the mural artist Diego Rivera then as a cook for both him and his artist wife, Frida Kahlo, with whom Shepherd develops a lifelong friendship. While living with and working for them, he also begins working as a secretary for Leon Trotsky who is hiding there, exiled by Stalin.

Later in life, living in Asheville, North Carolina, Shepherd becomes a novelist and is subsequently investigated by the House Un-American Activities Committee. He instructs his secretary, Violet Brown, to burn his papers and returns to Mexico. However, she saves his diaries and letters and it is these papers that form the bulk of the novel. There are gaps, or lacunae, in the story, hence the title.

Tuesday 20 October 2015