August 2009 Archives
A fantastic book, featuring two of my most favourite places on the planet: Fife and the Northern Areas of Pakistan, and the first book on Pakistan written by a woman that I've found or read.
In the new (2002) edition of her book, Kathleen Jamie takes her earlier account of her time living with the people of Gilgit and adds new first and last chapters, featuring (first) her encounter with a group of Pakistani men on a peace march through Scotland post-9/11, and (last) her return to remote Gilgit and the resumption of the friendships made a decade earlier.
It's beautifully written, about a beautiful part of the world, and provides a rare opportunity to catch glimpses into the personal lives of Pakistani women.
Amazon.co.uk link: Among Muslims: Meetings at the frontiers of Pakistan - Kathleen Jamie
I'd no idea Kate Atkinson wrote crime novels.... and very good this one is too. I shall search the library for the earlier works featuring Jackson Brodie, although I'd also like to know more about Joanna Mason, the main character in When Will There be Good News?. As a 6 year old Joanna survived the unprovoked and brutal murder of her mother, sister and brother and in the novel we meet her 30 years later, a quietly respectable Edinburgh doctor, albeit with a rogue of a boyfriend. I really liked Reggie too....
Amazon.co.uk link: When Will There be Good News? - Kate Atkinson
Revenge is a dish best served cold.... and at a distance.
The plot focuses on David and Elizabeth, and American couple living in London and apparently enjoying the wealthy lifestyle that comes from David's high flying City career as an investment banker. However, when über control freak Elizabeth discovers that her husband is having affair with a co-worker, she first retreats into self-starvation and then demands that the family moves back to America, finding a beautiful farmhouse in Virginia for David to buy and for her to redecorate and furnish with the best that his money can buy. But her lavish spending spree is only one small part of Elizabeth's revenge...
Amazon.co.uk link: Canarino - Katherine Bucknell
A good summer holiday read, which has similarities in setting and themes with Atonement and The House at Riverton. In 1960s Suffolk, the three sisters Mortland are each in love with the young artist who is spending the summer at the family pile painting the sisters' portrait, and all observed by Davy, local village boy made good. When tragedy strikes, the apparent idyll unravels into tales of envy and guilt, and the novel fastforwards thirty years to follow through the repercussions.
Amazon.co.uk link: The Landscape of Love - Sally Beauman
In The Outcast Sadie Jones shows us the lives and lies that lie beneath society's norms and conventions, and the brutality and despair that can exist behind closed doors and minds.
Set in the repressive suburban world of 1940s and 1950s home counties, we first meet Lewis Aldridge as a young boy when his soldier father returns from the war. We then follow him on the journey into teenage rebellion and self discovery in central London's jazz joints that follow his mother's death. Rebellion and repression turns into revolt, and Lewis is sent to prison.
Returning home two years later still struggling with his personal demons, Lewis meets Kit Carmichael, tomboy daughter of the local gentry and together they find hope of redemption and escape.
Not an easy read, but definitely a rewarding one. Don't let the Richard & Judy recommendation put you off.
Amazon.co.uk link: The Outcast - Sadie Jones
Set in Amsterdam, we meet a cast of characters, centred on wide boy wheeler dealer Lienzo, whose lives revolve around and reveal the mechanics and machinations of 17th century international trade.
However trade is not just in physical goods but also in what I'd always assumed to be a very 20th/21st century phenomenon, futures...
A less earnestly educational work than A Conspiracy of Paper, The Coffee Trader is a rollicking read with similar themes (crime, economy and social history), lots of detail on Jewish and financial communities (this time in Amsterdam and Portugal rather than London), and the underworld and underbelly of a successful business centre.
Amazon.co.uk link: The Coffee Trader - David Liss
A wholly American-setting for Jane Green's latest chick lit novel, as singles, couples, divorcees and closet gays gather around independent matriarchal Nan, who, dropped into hard times by the credit crunch, has turned her Nantucket family home into a B&B.
Amazon.co.uk link: The Beach House - Jane Green
There's an entry for Revelation almost a year ago, but having just read the book (principally on the prom at Walton) it's clear that I haven't read it before - goodness only knows which book I did read
I definitely would have remembered more about Revelation. Set in the 1540s, as Henry VIII's reign nears its end, the plot focuses on religious belief, radical protestantism and the aftermath of the Reformation and the Dissolution; and Henry VIII's wooing of his sixth and final wife, Catherine Parr.
A series of grotesque murders brings lawyer-detective Matthew Shardlake back into contact with the Archbishop Cranmer, and the dangerous political factions of the Tudor period. Matthew Shardlake also finds himself back in love with an old flame, and dealing with the case of a young man confined to Bedlam. Meanwhile his side kick Barak and wife Tamsin struggle after the death of their baby and Guy Malton's affection for his young apprentice brings concern.
Through the novel we learn a lot about the spread of ideas and the power of books: the bible in English, protestant beliefs from Europe and within England, medicine and theories of how the body works. We also see how the thin line can be between strong belief, obsession and madness.
Amazon.co.uk links:
The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency series is back on form, with Mma Ramotswe searching for a lady's missing family and dealing with poison pen letters. Meanwhile, Mr J.L.P. Matekoni searching for a miracle cure for their adopted daughter Motholeli and Mma Makutsi dealing with the aftermath of bed buying with fiance Phuti Radiphuti and the arrival of the seasonal rains to Gabarone. In the end everyone discovers something unexpected, which makes them look at other people with fresh eyes.
Amazon.co.uk link: The Miracle at Speedy Motors - Alexander McCall Smith
A book of two parts, the first a day by day account of the silence of Isabelle and her parents parallel struggles to find a way to deal with it and to break it; the second Isabelle's own realisation that she needs to end her self-imposed silence, and her eventual escape.
I don't agree with the back cover blurb that this novel is "Wholly involving and ultimately uplifting....". For me part one went on too long, with seemingly endless examples of Isabelle and her parents' suffering; part two was better, with a faster pace even if I found it hard to believe the trigger for Isabelle's eventual utterances was enough to break such a destructive, controlling cycle.
I love the writings and quiet observations of Anne Tyler and Anita Brookner; this isn't in the same league.
Amazon.co.uk link: December - Elizabeth H Winthrop