Book Review: 'Nora Webster', by Colm Toibin

Oh my word! Where do I start with my thoughts on this book? 

Having not read any other novels by this author before, I decided to buy this book as it came highly recommended through the Waterstone's Book Club. At first I thought it was going to be a sad, morose tale of Nora Webster's adaptation to life as a widow - the loneliness of the book cover assisted me in coming to this conclusion. But how wrong I was. Yes, there are sad bits as Nora reminisces on the happy family life that she can no longer enjoy - family holidays being an example, but there are also threads of comedy, especially in the form of Phyllis whose attempts at a kind of karaoke stint didn't really pay off. There is also a seed of hope that life can go on after the death of a loved one, maybe pushing one to do things they never would have done before. Finally, there is also an unrelenting uncertainty and ambiguity about the book - what did Donal and Conor see in the department store, why were they so distant to Josie, what causes Donal to suddenly develop a stutter, and what on earth did the message from beyond the grave mean? And where did Francie Kavanagh disappear to? These questions and the hope in discovering the answers to them kept me turning the pages until......

.....NO! He can't finish the book THERE? Still so many ends left untied! I had to keep checking that I had read the last words of the novel to believe that the author had indeed ended the novel as he has. I just wanted to keep reading and reading, but alas! I feel like I have suddenly lost a good friend. 

So, in a nutshell, I loved this novel; I have ranked it among my favourites, which is quite an accolade.

Book review: 'Elizabeth is Missing' by Emma Healey

This novel took me on an emotional roller-coaster! I think having worked with demented people in hospital in my Gap Year after school, I could see some of my former patients in Maud - sometimes things she says or does are funny for not being in context, whilst at other times the harsher side of dementia left me feeling sad and frustrated for her and her family, and yet fearful that maybe I will end up like Maud in years to come - I'm not known for having the best memory at the moment! The thing that hit home with me was Maud's persistent quest to find her old friend Elizabeth; several patients I have cared for were on similar searches for "missing" loved ones, even though these sought-for people had been dead many years. 

This is a murder-mystery with a difference, only Maud can piece together the evidence, if only she can remember to write things down, and who she is investigating. The narrative is split between Maud now and her reminiscing about her childhood - her confused mind often blending the two together, often in darkly comic ways.

The novel reminds you that confused older people aren't as 'loopy' as they may seem - buried within themselves are coherent and lucid memories that they find hard to apply to normal life due to failing short-term memory, but yet these memories are important to their sense of self. These individuals are to be respected - after all, they were young too once.

Highly recommend this book, I know it is going to remain in my mind for a long time......... I hope!

Happy World Book Day!

Today is the day when bibliophiles like myself celebrate the joys of books, and in the attempt trying to pass on the enthusiasm for reading to the next generation. I have seen a lot of primary school children going to school in costumes of their favourite fictional characters; it's always great to see the old classics such as Alice in Wonderland represented alongside the newer Potter-ites.

I have had the flu over the past week so my reading progress hasn't been as rapid as it has been, but this evening I finished 'The Miniaturist' - I will write my review on this amazing novel tomorrow (and yes, I did like this book!).

In the meantime, here are two of my many favourite books of all time.  I am featuring the first volume of Powell novels in my photo as I have the others on Kindle, but these novels are, in my mind, literary masterpieces. I will post better reviews of each novel within the volume at a future date, but they are just brilliant.

I love Dickens. He is my favourite ever author and picking out a favourite of his novels is a nightmare. However, both 'Our Mutual Friend' and 'David Copperfield' are in my best-of-the-best of his works. Loveable characters, unforgettable plots, and atmospheric writing.  Love them!

So, now I get to choose a new book to start. Big decision to make as I want to read all my new books at once, but I will reveal the 'winner' tomorrow. Eeny meeny miney mo.......

My Top Ten Most-Owned Authors

One of the vloggers that I follow on Booktube did a film on this theme, and so I thought I would follow suit and do my own list of Top Ten Most Owned Authors. I own hundreds of books, so this list took a while to compile, but here goes:

In Pick of the Pops-style.....

(10) Rebecca Shaw: 9 books.

Cosy little stories about a small English village community and the goings-on within it. It's like the radio soap 'The Archers' but in book form. The novels are a great way to escape grim reality and I enjoy having a quick read of one now and again.

I own: A Village Dilemma, The New Rector, Scandal in the Village, Talk of the Village, Trouble in the Village, Village Gossip, Village Matters, Village Secrets, The Village Show.

(9=) Somerset Maugham: 10 books.

Many of Maugham's novels and short stories were based on his experiences in India and Asia during the First World War, as well as some characters symbolising other real-life figures (one of whom was the novelist Thomas Hardy). My favourite Maugham novel is 'The Magician'.

I own: Cakes and Ale, The Narrow Corner, Catalina, Liza of Lambeth, Ashenden, The Painted Veil, Up at the Villa, The Magician, Christmas Holiday, Don Fernando.

(9=) Anthony Trollope: 10 books.

One of my favourite 19th century authors - I particularly love the Palliser series of novels. 

I own: Can You Forgive Her, Phineas Finn, the Eustace Diamonds, Phineas Redux, The Prime Minister, The Duke's Children, Framley Parsonage, The Small House at Allington, Barchester Towers, He Knew He Was Right.

(7) Anthony Powell: 12 books.

One of my favourite book series of all time is the 'Dance to the Music of Time' series. Within this series, the twelve books (meant to represent the twelve months of the year) are split into seasons (three books per season). The stories follow characters in a (sometimes) comic take on upper class and bohemian England in the mid-twentieth century. The narrative is that of Nick Jenkins who, in being reunited with his former school class-mates, face up to war and its consequences. Highly recommend reading these books.

I own: A Question of Upbringing, A Buyer's Market, The Acceptance World, At Lady Molly's, Casanova's Chinese Restaurant, The Kindly Ones, The Valley of Bones, The Soldier's Art, The Military Philosophers, Books Do Furnish A Room, Temporary Kings, Hearing Secret Harmonies.

(6) Maeve Binchy: 13 books.

Light-reading which I usually enjoy when I am convalescing from illness or at times when my brain can't cope with anything else too heavy-going. Lovely escapist novels following a community based in Ireland. 

I own: The Glass Lake, Evening Class, Nights of Rain and Stars, Scarlet Feather, Whitethorn Woods, The Copper Beech, Light a Penny Candle, Dublin 4, Tara Road, Victoria Line Central Line, Minding Frankie, Heart and Soul, Full House.

(4=) Agatha Christie: 15 books.

There are times when nothing beats an old-fashioned murder-mystery, and other than Conan Doyle, Christie is - in my mind - one of the masters of crime fiction. Love Miss Marple, the old lady detective who rumbles crimes in the rural chocolate-box English village of St Mary Mead, and I love Poirot, the dashing Belgian detective. Have had these books for years - many belonged to my Gran - and admittedly I haven't read them in years, but I really should do again.

I own: Postern of Fate, Five Little Pigs, They Do It With Mirrors, Poirot Investigates, The Moving Finger, A Pocketful of Rye, At Bertram's Hotel, Hickory Dickory Dock, The Secret of Chimneys, Cat Among the Pigeons, Ten Little ******* (have to asterisk the actual word in the title of my copy as it was OK to use it when it was published - a very long time ago! -  but it is an unacceptable word to use nowadays), The Big Four, Curtain: Poirot's Last Case, Miss Marple's Final Cases, Nemesis.

(4=) PG Wodehouse: 15 books.

English humour at its very best! Love Wodehouse! Usually turn to a Jeeves and Wooster or Blandings novel when Uni work is getting me down/ is too heavy and I need an instant cheer-me-up remedy. 

I own: The Mating Season, Ring for Jeeves, Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit, Aunts Aren't Gentlemen, Thank You Jeeves, Joy in the Morning, The Inimitable Jeeves, Very Good Jeeves, Carry On Jeeves, Laughing Gas, Blandings Castle and Elsewhere, The Luck of the Bodkins, A Pelican at Blandings, Something Fresh, Summer Lightning.

(3) Jean Plaidy: 16 books.

Plaidy is one of my favourite historical fiction authors. She brings events and characters to life in a way that I wish my history teacher had done at school! My favourite books of hers are those which deal with the Tudors, but the ones based on Queen Victoria are also extremely good. I really want more of her novels......of which there are LOADS!!

I own: The Young Elizabeth, The Young Mary, Passage to Pontefract, The Captive of Kensington Palace, the Queen and Lord M, The Queen's Husband, The Widow of Windsor, The King's Secret Matter, Uneasy Lies the Head, Katherine the Virgin Widow, The Shadow of the Pomegranate, Murder Most Royal, Mary Queen of France, The Sixth Wife, Saint Thomas's Eve, The Thistle and the Rose.

(2) Charles Dickens: 19 books.

My favourite author of all time! Love Dickens, love his characters, comedy, symbolism, and descriptiveness. Favourite Dickens novel - that is a very hard one - David Copperfield, I think! 

I own: Dombey and Son, David Copperfield, Great Expectations, The Old Curiosity Shop, Our Mutual Friend, Bleak House, The Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist, Complete Ghost Stories, Sketches by Boz, The Haunted House, Martin Chuzzlewit, Hard Times, Nicholas Nickleby, A Tale of Two Cities, Barnaby RudNo.1ge, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Little Dorrit, Master Humphrey's Clock.

WHICH LEADS US ONTO..........

.......MY MOST-OWNED AUTHOR, WHO IS..........

(1) Alexander McCall Smith: 21 books.

AMS (as I shall call him for short) lives locally to me, in Edinburgh, which is where the Scotland Street of his novels is located (and yes it is a real street)! For this reason, I can imagine the characters and their sense of comic superiority over the Glaswegians that AMS mentions now and again, as well as the locations in which his characters visit, escape from, fall down stairs, get their wholesome food provisions. The Scotland Street series is well-worth reading whether or not you have been to Edinburgh; '44 Scotland Street' was Book of the Week on BBC Radio 4 a couple of years ago. AMS also wrote two other series: The Number 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, and the Isabel Dalhousie series (Sunday Philosophy Club) - very different from each other, but I think that is what makes AMS such a diverse author. Love them all, and am aware that I have many more books to collect in the Detective Agency and Dalhousie serieses (is that a word?) which I must top up soon. Very highly recommend. Very funny, very identifiable, great escapism.

I own: 2 1/2 Pillars of Wisdom (Von Igelfeld Trilogy), No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency, Morality for Beautiful Girls, In the Company of Cheerful Ladies, Friends Lovers Chocolate, The Sunday Philosophy Club, The Right Attitude to Rain, The Careful Use of Compliments, The Kalahari Typing School for Men, The Comforts of a Muddy Saturday, 44 Scotland Street, Bertie Plays the Blues, The Cleverness of Ladies, Espresso Tales, The Importance of Being Seven, Love Over Scotland, The Perils of Morning Coffee, Sunshine on Scotland Street, Tears of the Giraffe, The Unbearable Lightness of Scones, The World According to Bertie.

So there we have it. Near contenders for the Top 10 included: Thomas Hardy, Georgette Heyer, Barbara Taylor-Bradford (I own 8 books of each), and Jane Austen, EF Benson, and Elizabeth Chadwick (I own 6 books of each).

I may repeat this list next year, when I have bought even more books, to see if my Top 10 changes or not. I doubt Dickens will - I have bought every novel I can lay my hands on by him!

Let me know in the comments which authors feature in your Top 10 lists of Most-Owned Authors, I would love to hear different lists.

Thanks for reading! 

Book Review: 'The Girl in the Red Coat', by Kate Hamer.

A fantastic and compelling debut novel by Kate Hamer which I read in one day because I could not put the book down!

The story is related via two first-person narrators, Beth Wakeford, and her eight-year-old daughter, Carmel, with aspects from each narrative overlapping through the author's clever use of motifs (the colour red, spiders, fog, open fields, and "strings").  That a chilling event has occurred is evident from the beginning of the novel with Beth setting the scene for the suspense and emotion which increase as the narrative gathers momentum. The book is extremely well-written, with identifiable and likeable characters - even the 'baddies' elicited a degree of sympathy from me. 

There are gaps in Carmel's narrative at certain points which, although I found a little confusing, actually serve the purpose in reflecting the character's disorientation very well as she, and the reader, adapt to life after her fateful trip when life changed forever for her and her family.

It's thrilling, it's exciting, and it is heart-wrenching - a real roller-coaster which keeps you turning those pages. 

** Thank you Waterstones and Faber & Faber  for sending me an Advance Reader Copy  to read in exchange for an honest review. **

Book Review: 'Ready Player One', by Ernest Cline.

"Then I paused and spent a moment staring at my immersion rig. I'd been so proud of all this high-tech hardware when I had first purchased it. But over the past few months, I'd come to see my rig for what it was: an elaborate contraption for deceiving my senses, to allow me to live in a world that didn't exist. Each component of my rig was a bar in the cell where I had willingly imprisoned myself".


This novel takes computer gaming to a whole new level (no pun intended!). Based in the year 2044, people log onto the OASIS virtual world where they lead completely different lives, go to school, get real qualifications, and 'hang out'. In fact, OASIS seems to *be* the main form of socialization in this futuristic year, where everybody from youths to elderly people don their haptic gloves, wear visors, and sit in their special suits in their haptic chairs shutting out reality and living out better lives than they really have.

That is, until OASIS's founder, Jim Halliday, dies and leaves his whole fortune hidden within the game, in the form of an Easter Egg Hunt, for 'gunters' to find; the winner acquiring billions of dollars as well as control of the OASIS world. Wade Watts, the protagonist, decides to undertake the challenge of looking for the prize "egg", undergoing several trials and threats in the process chiefly from the "Sixers" (the 'baddies') - an enemy communications conglomerate and service provider - who are itching to gain control of this virtual world and run it for capitalist reasons.

Sci-fi is not really my genre, but yet I really liked this book. There are a lot of references to 1980s pop culture and video games (as this was Halliday's favourite and happiest era, and one in which he based his Hunt on), and the characters are likeable - even if, in our world, Wade could be considered a bit "weird"! The author keeps the suspense moving through a fast-paced narrative, related from the viewpoint of Wade himself, with one or two twists in the storyline; the many diversions that Wade ("Parzival") takes from his Hunt for the prize and the choices he makes ensure that this book is a real page-turner as well as one which saw me yelling at the pages in frustration with him!

I think I would have enjoyed the novel more if I didn't know the outcome of the adventure at the beginning of the book, if the author had instead left the reader wondering whether he would succeed or not, finding out at the very end. Personally, for me, it kind of dampened the excitement level a little. However, that said, it was still addictive reading, and I am glad I took up this recommendation from Booktube. 

Mission Not-Buying-Books: Failure.

Well, things started off okay, until I happened to be passing Waterstone's, and there just happened to be a deal on, and the four books I have recently added to my TBR list were available through this deal.

Oops.

Another weekend feeding my reading habit. Maybe next week will be more successful.