Here's my round up and comments for April reading. 11 Books - not bad. Technically finished the last one on the 2nd of May, but hey, it was mostly read in April. There are actually 13 books on my list, a few more than normal, but two of them were ones I gave up on quite quickly. I still like to note them, though, so if I look back and try to remember whether I've read something or why I abandoned it, I might have a clue...
1, 2, & 3. The Windsinger, Slaves of the Mastery, Firesong (The Wind on Fire Trilogy): William Nicholson. This is actually a young adult/fantasy trilogy - counts as three books, but only needs one entry as it's an ongoing story. I read the first of these a long time ago, and Geoff has read them to the girls as bedtime stories, way back, but I never read the second and third and as I was tidying up the bookcase, I decided to give them a go. They are a nice, solid fantasy series, which I enjoyed. Not a huge amount to say about them. Interesting trivia fact: the author wrote the screenplay Life Story (about the discovery of the structure of DNA), Shadowlands (about CS Lewis) and Gladiator (yes, that Gladiator).
4. The Troubled Man, Henning Mankell. This is a Wallander novel, and I love Wallander, especially the Swedish series with Krister Henriksson. So when I saw one in a charity shop, I thought I'd give it a go. However, I didn't last more than 50 pages. Not sure if it was the writing style or the translation or what, but I just didn't like the way it was written, so stopped.
5. The Girl Who Chased the Moon, Sarah Addison Allen. Magical realism, enjoyable, fun story while serious at the same time. I enjoyed this.
6. Daydream Girl, Bella Pollen. Again, a light, satisfying read, though not the be-all and end-all implied in some of the reviews. Quite amusing in places without being too over the top.
7. The Other Side of You, Sally Vickers. An intense novel about a psychiatrist and his patient and the nature of love (sort of). A nice take on this relationship, I thought, lacking in some of the things that bother me about psychiatrists in novels (ususally, they just love themselves way too much). I thought this one tried to keep the relationship and the introspection much more honest and real.
8. The Year of Wonders, Geraldine Brooks. A novel about a village which sequesters itself during an outbreak of Plague, in order to keep the disease from spreading. Based on a true story. Heartbreaking in places and historically interesting, definitely one for the fan of the historical novel. Unlike the other novel of hers which I have read (People of the Book) there are no modern time intrusions in this one (not that I mind modern time intrusions and books set across various historical periods, but if those things bother you, you won't find them here in Year of Wonders).
9. The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out a Window and Disappeared. Jonas Jonasson. The cover of this proclaims it to be "The International Bestselling Sensation" and I can see why. This was very funny, like a good farce, but one which restrained itself and was quite subtle in places. (Or like a Mr Magoo cartoon where you keep thinking some major crisis is about to happen, and then it all just smooths itself out.) A fantastic mix of the absurb and the surreal and the mundane. I thought this was great.
10. Instructions for a Heatwave, Maggie O'Farrell. More Maggie O'Farrell, I know, but I had it on reserve from the library, so I had to read it straight away when it came in. I think I've read them all now, though, so you won't see any for a while. Again, a good novel, nice and solid, similar themes to her other novels, family relatiobnships, secrets and the damage they do, the dangers of not talking to each other and repercussions of these things.
11. An Awfully Big Adventure, Beryl Bainbridge. This is another one which I couldn't get into. I've tried a couple of times now and I just hate the tone (probably why I also didn't like Wise Children by Angela Carter). It's off to the charity shop for this one.
12. Valeria's Last Stand, Marc Fitten. Picked this one up in a charity shop, I think, knowing nothing about it, but I really enjoyed it. Quite a dramatic (as in drama queen) novel in places, but entertaining. Described in places as a comic romp, and I suppose it was, rather.
13. The Panopticon, Jenny Fagan. And now for something completely different, as they say. Serious and intense novel about a teenager in care who is accused of a serious crime (or on the verge of being accused) and finds herself at one last (somewhat unusual) carehome before being sent to prison or placed in high security care. If the word "fuck" bothers you, don't read this. And a lot of it is in Scottish - slang, saying dinnae & cannae and various other Scottishisms - I was always teetering on the brink of finding this annoying, but never quite got to the throwing across the room point. This was good, though not brilliant.
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