Month 12 of my reading challenge By Frances Colville

Posted on January 14, 2016 by Margaret Graham

The Secret of the Cathars by Michael Hillier (published Matador 2015) is the first of a new trilogy of books based on the history of the Cathars, a medieval French religious sect. Lots of different groups of people hunting for various treasures and all a little bit confusing with quite a few loose ends by the end of the book though no doubt that is at least in part because books two and three are still to come. I think I will read them – it was a good enough plot to hold my interest and I do want to know how it all works out.

Ian McEwan is one of my favourite authors and his latest book The Children Act (Vintage 2014)didn’t disappoint, although at the same time it didn’t quite measure up to my absolute favourite, On Chesil Beach. The Children Act tells the story of Fiona, a high court judge who is going through a personal crisis at the same time as being called on to make a hugely important judicial decision. McEwan’s fascination with judicial issues, with music and poetry, and with the moral conundrum of how far you place your religious beliefs above the life of someone you love, all feature in this book which will leave you thinking long after you have finished it.

The 100 year old man who climbed out of the window and disappeared by Jonas Jonasson (Hesperus Press 2012) has been recommended to me by several people over the last few years but I never quite got round to reading it. But now I have and I’m very glad indeed. The book tells the story – obviously – of the 100 year old man who climbs out of a window of his care home and has a succession of adventures with an ever-growing group of people. At the same time as we progress through these escapades we are told stories about the rest of his life. It’s absurd, ridiculous, incredible and very funny indeed. And it has in passing a lot to say about the twentieth century, its events and many of its main characters, and also about the treatment of the elderly.

Not Working by Lisa Owens (Picador 2016) was another quick read. Easy (because it is told in bite-size chunks) to pick up and put down in between enjoying a house full of Christmas visitors. It’s the story of Claire who decides to take some time out from work to decide what she really wants to do with her life. The ending was disappointing, I thought. It sort of fizzled out as if the author couldn’t quite work out how to finish it more definitively. I enjoyed it though – I empathised with the main character and I liked the mix of humour and more serious issues.

Jill Mansell has long been an author I turn to when I want something light and cheerful. Three Amazing Things About You (Headline 2015)is her latest book and I thoroughly enjoyed it as I knew I would, though I have to admit there were parts which were definitely not happy-ever-after. A sensitive handling of some of the issues resulting from chronic ill health, and from the need for transplants. But the happy ending I hoped for was definitely there.

I thought long and hard about my final choice for this month – and indeed this year – and eventually settled on The Time of Gifts by Patrick Leigh Fermor (paperback edition re-issued John Murray2004) which was given to me by my elder daughter and fellow obsessive reader. I knew as soon as I read the introduction that it was going to work for me – not only did I discover the source of the title of another book I read and enjoyed this year (Like a Tramp, Like a Pilgrim), but there was also a quote from George Herbert, the poet I recommended last month. Very serendipitous! The author tells the story of a walk he took as a teenager from Rotterdam to Istanbul in the 1930s. But he wrote the book in the 1960s so has the benefit of hindsight and far more knowledge than he had at the time of the walk. It’s crammed full of historical, geographical and cultural information and you can learn so much from it. Or you can just read it and allow the beauty of the language to wash over you. It’s a wonderful book.

So here I am at the end of my year of reading. Total of books read = 63. And conclusions drawn? I love variety and I love to read all sorts of books, I admire good and original literary fiction, and – somewhat to my surprise – have become aware during the year that my absolute favourite genre is travel writing. I also know that even if I reach the grand old age of 105 as my wonderful great-aunt did earlier this year, I will never be able to read all the books I want to read. Life is, quite simply, always going to be too short.

Where do I go from here? Not sure yet, but the possibilities are endless – and the prospect so exciting. I can’t wait.

All books available from www.amazon.co.uk

Month 8 of My Reading Challenge By Frances Colville

Posted on September 14, 2015 by Margaret Graham

This month I deliberately set out to base my book choices on recommendations from other people. This decision in part came about because my first book The Book of Lost and Found by Lucy Foley (Harper Collins 2015) was lent to me some time ago by a friend who has been wondering why I hadn’t yet got round to reading it. So now I have. And a good story it is too, telling of the relationship between two people over the course of the 20^th century from the viewpoint of a younger family member. It’s well-written and well-constructed. I enjoyed it. But it isn’t memorable in any way and I suspect I’ll have forgotten all about it in a month or two.

I met Harry Bucknall, the author of my next book, Life of a Tramp, Life of a Pilgrim (Bloomsbury 2014), at a recent creative writing workshop. He mentioned his book and I was intrigued enough to pick up a copy the next time I was in a bookshop. He writes about a pilgrimage he took from London to Rome on foot, following the old Via Francigena. This is a fascinating mix of travel book, history and memoir and I recommend it to anyone who likes any of those genres. I also found a personal link to the book – the author mentions Eric Newby, who escaped from a prisoner-of-war camp in Italy during WW2 and went on to write about his experiences. My father was in the same camp as Eric Newby and frequently talked of him and his successful escape. As I’ve said before, I like to look for connections in and between books and this one was very satisfying!

Next up was The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver (Faber & Faber paperback 2010). I read The Poisonwood Bible (about Belgian colonialism amongst other things) by the same author many years ago when I was living in Belgium and it has stuck in my mind ever since. So I was very pleased when her latest book was suggested by a member of one of my book groups. It’s a long book, and has been 10 years in the writing. It took a bit of getting into, but the language is memorable from the start and I was soon completely hooked by the story as well. This novel works on many different levels. It’s full of information about life in Mexico and the US in the 20^th century, about Trotsky, his exile from the USSR and murder in Mexico by Stalin’s men, about the art world of the early 20^th century, Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo in particular and about McCarthyism in the US. A fascinating mix of fact and fiction. Above all a book about people, their inner lives and their relationships. But I think what will stick in my mind most of all is the power and beauty of the descriptive passages. This is a book which has so much to admire, it might require reading several times. When though? That’s the problem.

My youngest son has been recommending Moby Dick by Herman Melville for a long time (years probably) telling me that my life is much the poorer for never having read it. However, having tracked down his copy and had a flick through I decided to opt instead for another of his recommendations, the much shorter The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes (Vintage 2011) . It proved to be a great choice, reminding me of On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan and Stoner by John Williams, both of which I enjoyed very much. Much of it resonated with me, having grown up in the 60s and 70s, and the idea of writing a novel out of relatively little appealed to me greatly. What I didn’t get – ironically given the title – was any sense of the ending. I’m not sure it fitted the rest of the book. And Moby Dick? On my list for the future, but probably not this year.

Month 7 of My Reading Challenge by Frances Colville

Posted on August 11, 2015 by Margaret Graham

At the beginning of this month for various (non-book-related) reasons, I wanted to read something light, enjoyable and relaxing, and I found just that in Erica James‘ latest book The Dandelion Years. A quick and easy read, this is a good story with characters I could identify with and of course a happy ending. Just what I needed. And any of Erica James’ 18 other books would have done the same job for me.

All month I’ve been dipping into a fascinating little book called One Hundred Great Books in Haiku by David Bader. For anyone unfamiliar with the term haiku, it describes a very short poetic form, originally Japanese, which traditionally uses no more than 17 syllables, divided into 3 lines in a 5,7,5 format. This particular book as its title suggests, uses the haiku form to express the titles of a hundred famous books. My personal favourite is the following which describes Brave New World by Aldous Huxley:

Euphoric drugs, sex,

cloning, the past forgotten.

So what else is new?

My bet is that once you’ve read the book you’ll want to try writing haiku yourself!

I have my family well trained and they know that a well-chosen book is always at the top of any present list of mine. The haul on my birthday this month didn’t disappoint. The first thing I picked from the pile was an old and battered copy of Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea. I hadn’t read this before and I was intrigued by a quote on the back cover saying that this might just be the best short story ever written. Maybe – maybe not. I don’t feel qualified to judge. But it is superb. And I’m sure that this seemingly simple tale of an old man’s battle of wills against a huge fish, and at the same time against old age and loss of dignity, will stay in my mind for a long time.

I’ve also been reading a couple of very recently published books this month and recommend both for different reasons. One Man’s Everest by Kenton Cool is a fascinating account of the author’s life as a climber, his motivations and obsessions and his many climbing successes. Not just a book for people interested in climbing, and well worth reading. My Stratford Friend by Dominick Reyntiens is also fascinating; the story is told from the point of view of Tom, a lifelong friend of William Shakespeare and is a good combination of fact and fiction as well as being a compelling read. Fuller reviews of both books can be found elsewhere on Frost.

I thought I was ending the month back where I began, with something light and relaxing. But a few chapters into Us by David Nicholls I decided this was a book with hidden depths. It is funny and it is entertaining, and it will make a good film, I’m sure. But it also has serious points to make about relationships (husband/wife and parent/child) and in particular the big question of how you go back to being just a couple once your children have left home and being a parent is no longer the definitive role in your life.

Month 6 of My Reading Challenge by Frances Colville

Posted on July 20, 2015 by Margaret Graham

Recently I went to a wonderful performance of Louis De Bernieres’ play for voices entitled Sunday Morning At The Centre Of The World. I’ve read and enjoyed Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, Birds Without Wings and various others of De Bernieres’ books but I’d never come across the play before and I went straight out and picked up a second hand copy to read. It’s such a vivid evocation of life in multi-cultural London and it’s a quick read which is useful for someone trying to read as much as possible in a year. I realised it must have been based on Dylan Thomas’ Under Milk Wood, an old favourite of mine, so of course I then had to re-read that as well. Both plays stretch the boundaries of language, putting together combinations of words which are highly original as well as being thought- provoking and hugely enjoyable. And both authors distill the essence of a community they know very well into just a few pages. To give you a taster, this sentence is taken from the first page of Under Milk Wood ‘It is spring, moonless night in the small town, starless and bible-black, the cobblestreets silent and the hunched, courters’-and-rabbits’ wood limping invisible down to the sloeblack, slow, black, crowblack, fishingboat-bobbing sea.’ Magnificent!

There’s a series of books written by Chris Stewart, one-time Genesis drummer, (Driving Over Lemons, The Parrot in the Pepper Tree and The Almond Blossom Appreciation Society) which are laugh-out-loud funny. They tell the story of how Chris and his partner Ana buy a rundown farm in Las Alpujarras, a region of southern Spain, and how their life develops over a period of years. I first read them years ago and have recently been dipping in to them again. Very enjoyable, but also well written and perceptive. I see there is a recent addition to the original trilogy – The Last Days of the Bus Club – which I have now added to my list of books to read.

What’s next? H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald has been in my pile since it won The Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction and the Costa Book of the Year in 2014. It’s not an easy read but it is one of the most sensitive and incisive portrayals of grief I have ever come across. For me, the training of the hawk Mabel is almost incidental to the proceedings but I can see that it is also a vital part of the book and will no doubt be completely absorbing for anyone who knows about hawks and falconry. The use of language and the descriptive passages throughout the book are quite simply outstanding.

Wild by Cheryl Strayed was an obvious follow up since it too tells of a passage through grief and depression by returning to the wild and searching for healing in the natural rather than the human world. It’s the story of a walk taken by the author along the Pacific Crest Trail. It isn’t as powerful a book as H is for Hawk, and at times I found it to be over-focused on the author and her feelings (so many paragraphs beginning with ‘I’!) rather than giving a wider picture of the trail. But it is very readable and I think actually resonated more with me – partly at least because I can see myself setting out on a long walk or other adventure to assuage grief far more easily than I can see myself trying to train a hawk.

So this month my reading choices have, purely by chance, been pretty much entirely about people and the different ways they live their lives. I’ve been by turn amused, saddened, educated, enlightened, inspired and always entertained. I suspect it would not be at all difficult to continue finding books in this genre for the rest of the year, but I’m not going to do that. Something different is calling.

Month 5 of my Reading Challenge by Frances Colville

Posted on June 12, 2015 by Margaret Graham

When I first started out on this project, I rather naively thought I was being original. Of course I wasn’t and it has since become apparent that not only have others done the same thing, but they have also gone on to write books from the experience. So this month I’ve looked at a couple of those books. The first, Howards End is on the Landing by Susan Hill, was the result of the author’s decision not to buy books for a year but to read from her existing library. Many of the books she read turned out to be books I have already enjoyed, but I was also able to compile a long list to add to my ‘to read soon’ pile. I was bewildered by a throwaway comment disparaging Khaled Hosseni (author of The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns and And The Mountains Echoed) but on the whole her choice of books and her commentary on them and on her life as a reader worked well for me. So Many Books, So Little Time by Sara Nelson (similar theme of focusing on a year of reading) was less interesting to me because as an American her book experiences were very different from mine. But I enjoyed her writing style and the way in which she wove comments about her life into her discussion of books and authors. I have yet to read The Year of Reading Dangerously: How Fifty Great Books Saved my Life by Andy Miller but it is definitely on my list.

I don’t know whether Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote counts as a short novel or a long story. Either way it seems to me to be a brilliantly crafted piece of writing, with no words wasted, and perfectly located in time and place. My copy has the added benefit of including three short stories. There is an obvious connection between this and my next read To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee. The two authors were childhood friends and in fact Lee bases Dill, one of the characters in her book, on Capote. I’ve read To Kill a Mocking Bird before (who of my generation hasn’t?) but was very happy to have the opportunity to re-read when it came up as a book group choice this month. One of my top ten of all time books, it’s a beautifully written portrayal of life in the southern USA during the 1930s depression, told from the point of view of the unforgettable 8 year old Scout, and focusing on a court case in which a white lawyer (Scout’s father Atticus) defends a black man charged with rape. It is of course the 50^th anniversary of the book’s publication this year and there is a new edition available for anyone who can’t get hold of one of the original copies. The only other book ever published by this author Go Set A Watchman is about to be released. One more for my list.

My next book – Daughter by Jane Shemilt – was a good read and a fast-paced one. Having once started it, I found it hard to put down. Both a family story and a crime novel, it is narrated by a GP working full time in a pressured job, while trying to be a good mother to her three teenage children, a good wife and at the same time keep her own identity and free up time to indulge her love of painting. It seems inevitable from the beginning that something will go wrong and of course it does. But this is not a predictable story; there are several twists and turns in the plot and I was kept guessing until the end.

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion has been on my pile for some time, having been recommended by my daughters. Another good read. Again I didn’t want to put it down, and I found myself willing the narrator (an undiagnosed Asperger’s sufferer) on to success in his endeavours. It’s funny, insightful and interesting. And yet it left me feeling a bit uncomfortable. I’m not quite sure why, but I think perhaps it’s because the view of autism it portrays is over-simplistic and too generalised. Still well worth reading though, and if you enjoyed The Curious Incident of the Dog at Night-time by Mark Haddon, I think you will enjoy this too. There is also a follow-up entitled The Rosie Effect.

Month 4 of My Reading Challenge by Frances Colville

Posted on May 18, 2015 by Margaret Graham

Rather slim pickings this month, partly because some of the books I chose took time to read and think about, and partly because it’s been a busy month anyway and time for reading has been in short supply.

First, to tie in with my plan to read some less current books this month, I picked up Persuasion by Jane Austen (my copy Wordsworth Classic 2000). I’ve been intending to re-read it for some time because I live near Lyme Regis where parts of the book are set. And then to my surprise I found that I hadn’t actually read it before. What a treat! So I took my time and reveled in every page, and then felt bereft when I’d finished it.

Next something completely different. A book called Nothing To Envy: Real Lives in North Korea (Granta Books 2010) recommended by a member of one of my book groups. The author Barbara Demick is an American journalist who has spent many years living in South Korea and China. Getting accurate and credible information about what daily life is actually like for North Koreans is almost impossible. But she managed it by interviewing dozens of defectors currently living in South Korea and then focusing on the life stories of six of them. The result is a well written and readable book which is both informative, believable and harrowing in the extreme. Before I read it, I had not fully understood just how repressive a society this is, and I certainly hadn’t appreciated the extent of isolation and the horrors of famine and poverty which the people of North Korea endure. For me, this is one of those books everyone should read. And it reminded me of other books I now want to look at again – The Siege by Helen Dunmore (a novel set during the siege of Leningrad), If This Is A Man by Primo Levy (depicting his life in Auschwitz) and of course George Orwell’s 1984. My list grows ever longer!

I needed a bit of light relief after that so I turned to the latest Katie Fforde book to appear in paperback – The Perfect Match (Arrow books 2014). An easy read and very enjoyable, as are all her books (and yes – I have read them all), but I wonder if I’m alone in preferring her earlier books which just seem to have a bit more substance? Not that I will let that stop me reading her next – and the one after that!

My final choice for this month has been Thomas Hardy’s Far From the Madding Crowd (my copy is Macmillan Papermac 1969). Like many of my generation, I first encountered Hardy novels at school and distinctly remember preferring The Trumpet Major because it was short! But Far From the Madding Crowd wasn’t far behind in my estimation. Many years later I came to live in Dorset and have enjoyed visiting Hardy’s Cottage and Max Gate, his home in later years. A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to get a ticket for the preview of the new Far From the Madding Crowd film and spent a wonderful evening at the Electric Palace in Bridport enjoying both the film itself and the delights of spotting familiar locations. The new adaptation is an excellent one in my opinion. But having seen it, I felt the need to return to my copy of the book and check out the accuracy of the film. And of course to appreciate anew Hardy’s wonderfully poetic language, his portrayal of the countryside I love and above all his ability as a story teller. Both book and film highly recommended.

So that’s it for another month. And now time to think what I want to read next. It’s not easy to choose.

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Month 12 of my reading challenge By Frances Colville

Month 8 of My Reading Challenge By Frances Colville

Month 7 of My Reading Challenge by Frances Colville

Month 6 of My Reading Challenge by Frances Colville

Month 5 of my Reading Challenge by Frances Colville

Month 4 of My Reading Challenge by Frances Colville

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