The Night Rainbow by Claire King #50books2013

I'm pretty sure that any review I write is not going to do this book justice. In fact, any plot summary is going to sound desperately miserable. Poor, neglected Peony - a depressed, pregnant mother who has already lost one baby, a father who has died leaving them both bereft and grieving - what's to enjoy? But I'm telling you, I don't like miserable books, and I LOVED this one.

The author captures Pea's voice so perfectly. I'm not sure I've ever read a book where the narrator was so beautifully created. Narrating an entire novel from the perspective of a 5 year old is never going to be easy - or so you'd think - but King makes it seem effortless.

If you've ever visited the French countryside, or stayed in a Gite, you'll be gripped by the beautiful descriptions. Pea is restricted to the area immediately surrounding her house, but this is an entire fantasy world she explores with her playmate Margot. They run wild, collecting 'specimins', doing their best to do housework and getting into minor (and not so minor) scrapes.

Scary-looking Claude and his magical dog, Merlin who hears for him. Witchy Josette. These are fairytale characters in a real world, and we learn all about them through Pea's innocent eyes.

I was, simply, captivated by this novel - perhaps it helped that I was reading it during a heatwave, echoing the hot, steamy atmosphere of the story, but I'd recommend it to anyone.

#50books2013 A Commonplace Killing - Sian Busby

There are no winners in this book - each narrator has a sad story to tell and Sian Busby's evocative style will draw you right into their lives. Set in bleak, grey post-war London, the characters are all doing their best to navigate themselves through the depressing, mutilated landscape of both London and their own emotions.

Lillian Frobisher lived a life of freedom during the war, only to be brought crashingly back to earth when her husband returned into a life of drudgery, struggling to make ends meet on meagre rations - always hankering after the forbidden luxuries denied to her whilst trying to remain respectable. In post-war Britain she is described by some as a scarlet woman, yet what she yearns for is what a modern woman would take for granted. The character of Policewoman Tring is perhaps a little more hopeful - although she is usually reduced to driving around the men of the force and, like Lillian, is expected to magic up sustenance (in the form of tea and sandwiches) from nowhere.

Busby also explores the scorn towards those men who did not go to war - who played a different part and the damage sustained by those who did. An unlikely parallel is drawn between Dennis, a criminal, and Cooper, the principal detective on the case. Two men both permanently damaged by their experiences of war, neither with any hope for the future. Rather like London itself, suffering under the weight of a crime wave as ordinary people struggle to gain some sense of self by turning to the black market for items advertised on billboards, unobtainable by legal means.

Although the novel liberally draws on the traditions of detective fiction - the lone detective figure, Cooper and some real noir elements - really  the novel is less about solving the mystery and more about communicating the bleak nature of post war London - and this is something Busby does expertly. It doesn't make for an uplifting read, it's got to be said, but if you want to really feel what it was like to long for something other than spam, powdered egg and stale bread - whislt fielding propaganda telling you that you should be happy to be at peace, eating the healthiest way you ever had then this is the place to start.

#50books2013 Capital - John Lancaster

This book is pretty fat, and although I usually like fat books I was a bit concerned that in my current state of mind I would find it tricky to stick with. When I read the back of the book I was still concerned - the residents on 'Pepys Road' in London receive mysterious postcards simply with the words 'We want what you have' on the back. Sounded like a prolonged, and prehaps not particularly interesting 'whodunit'.

I should have had more faith. Despite not being much of a reader himself, my husband always seems to choose books I will enjoy and this was no exception. Of course, by then end of the novel you do find out 'whodunit', but not before you get completely sucked into the lives of the residents of Pepys Road. You get an interesting insight into the lives of a banker and his wife in the midst of the baking crisis; drawn into the familial relationships of the Indian family who own the shop and gripped by the growing relationship between the Polish builder and Hungarian nanny. Alongside these stories a Banksy-esque artist called Smitty and his grandmother tell their own intriguing stories. I found I couldn't put the book down. Although I sometimes became a little entangled and confused by the sheer number of characters (again, I blame my flaky state of mind at the time), I found many of them endearing and I loved the insight into many different elements of London - and British - society.

I'd really recommend this novel for an interesting, thought provoking and just simply good read.

#50books2013 - The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

Pilgrimage? Not that interested to be honest. Religion definitely not my cup of tea. Harold Fry? He doesn't sound that interesting, does he.

Really, Harold Fry isn't that interesting. He lead a static, boring life with his wife down in Kingsbridge on the South Coast. He doesn't seem to particularly mind - that is until he receives a letter from an old friend who he feels he let down many years previously who has cancer - he goes to post a letter back and thus starts the pilgrimage.

This book is about Harold - a stereotypical English man walking through England and stereotypical English towns and villages, meeting gloriously and wonderfully drawn characters on the way. It is a novel of British Idiosyncrasies at its best - especially towards the beginning g of the novel. Sadly, although I loved the book, I did feel like it lost momentum as more and more people joined Harold on his pilgrimage. However, the novel as a whole was great and I loved the story of Harold and Maureen, his wife, left behind uncertain of what is happening.

Road numbers, a journey you can follow on a map, descriptions of places you remember of previous holidays - and ones you file away in your mind for future ones... I really enjoyed reading this novel and would definitely recommend it.

#50books2013 - 10 word reviews

So, I've been ill this month (in case you missed it, lol!) and that means I've read lots of books that I just haven't had the time or energy to review - I thought I'd give myself a challenge to review all the books I've read so far this year in 10 words or less...

1. Salmon Fishing in the Yemen - Paul Torday
Too much fishing - not all it's cracked up to be.

2. Bright Young Things - Scarlett Thomas
Interesting take on a 'horror' scenario - would read again.

3. Extras - Scott Westerfeld
Bit boring - not as great as I remember the trilogy.

4. The Secret Supper Club - Dana Bate
OK for chic lit - liked the foody theme.

5. The Tent, The Bucket and Me - Emma Kennedy
Funny remembering camping trips - got a bit samey.

6. Between the Lines - Jodi Picoult
Disappointing - took me ages to plough through it.

7. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry - Rachel Joyce
Great start, loved it - lost momentum later but good book.

8. Starters - Lissa Price
YA -  easy to read and gripping in parts.

9. The Forbidden Queen - Anne O'Brien
OK but not Philippa Gregory.

10. Thursdays in the Park - Hilary Boyd
Went on too long - chic lit overload.

11. Matched - Ally Condle
Gripping - good concept - the new Hunger Games?

12. Crossed - Ally Condle
Good second book - characters interesting and likeable.

13. Reached - Ally Condle
Satisfying end to the trilogy.

#50books2013 Extras by Scott Westerfeld

I have just finished Extras by Scott Westerfeld. It is the fourth in the series also including Uglies, Pretties and Specials. They are Young Adult novels and are set in the future where bodymodification or 'surge' in the extreme is the norm. In fact, when you hit 16 you are transformed from an 'ugly' to a 'pretty'.

This concept allows Westerfeld to deal with many topics pertinent to today's teenagers, and Extras continues this exploration. In fact, Extras is particularly pertinent to my life right now as I have just started blogging and Extras is really a novel that focuses on social media and its effect on us. In Aya's world, your 'face rank' is all that is important. The city is run on a reputation economy - if you are famous you get what you want. It doesn't take a great stretch of the imagination to see what Westerfeld is saying about our own, real life, society.

I remember being completely hooked on the earlier novels when I read them a few years ago - they 'caught' me in a similar way to The Hunger Games trilogy. I just couldn't reignite that enthusiasm for Extras though. I'm not sure what it was - the writing style, the topic or perhaps that I am just not 'feeling' Young Adult fiction at the moment but I wasn't reaching for my book as frequently as I expected to. Of course, I did read to the end and I did enjoy it, but I just didn't really feel connected to the characters or even that involved in the storyline...

So, the series is worth a look if that's your sort of thing and you fancy a light read but maybe these ones are best left for the younger readers.

#50books2013 - Bright Young Things - Scarlett Thomas

I know already I'm going to really struggle to review this book, so I'm just going to have to jump straight in. I am a ig fan of the other Scarlett Thomas books I have read - The End of My Y, and PopCo. They force you to look at the world in a different way and introduce you to ideas and theories that you might never have thought of  - think quantum physics, code breaking, time travel. So I wasn't put off by the bad reviews of Bright Young Things. Maybe those readers just didn't get it.

The problem is I'm not quite sure I 'got it' either. On the face of it this book was written for me. It follows 6 'Bright Young Things' in their early twenties in the late 1990s. They answer a myserterious job ad to find themselves stranded on an island. One of the things that bugged the other reviewers was the constant and 'boring' pop references. Yet this novel is about pop culture - that's the point of it! It is a compelling read examining the effect pop culture has on us and leaving us questioning the power of television, games and the internet. It also has you reflecting philsophically on capitalism and the media. I think it's a big mistake to see the references to Home and Away and Neighbours as simply references to Home and Away and Neighbours. Unfortunately, although I'm pretty much the perfect generation for the references in the book, I've just always been more of a book person than a pop culture person. Many of the music and film references just went right over my head. And I think that there's possible a whole analogy with the scenario of the book that relates to popular horror movies - gang of young people deserted on an island with mysteries to solve... I've never watched a horror film so I'm not going to get that reference.

It just left me wondering just how many of Scarlett Thomas' other fans were also literature nerds like me, rather than big fans of pop culture and I think that's probably why I had never heard of this book before. It just didn't grab me like her other books - although I was gripped and read it at every opportunity (thanks, Kindle app). By the time I got to the end I wanted to go back and read it again to check the motivations of each character (each chapter is focalised through a different person, so you get a real feel for their emotions), so I was intrigued. But I can't help feeling that something was missing - and really by that I mean that I was missing something.

This isn't quite the glowing review I expected to write for a Scarlett Thomas novel, but I think it's probably better recommended for someone just like me but slightly different. And there I am, back to thinking about the characters of the novel and wondering if this isn't just exactly the way the author wanted me to feel...

#50books2013 Salmon Fishing in the Yemen Review

Mama Owl has inspired me to try to keep a record of the books I have read over the year. I'm pretty sure I read more than 50 books last year (among others I read the entire Cherub series and the Power of 5 Series!) but not all of them were 'good' books - I enjoy lots of teen/young adult fiction. I would love to keep track of what I read and when though, so this is a nice opportunity.

A book I recently finished reading was Salmon Fishing in the Yemen by Paul Torday. The novel is based around the story of a British Fisheries Scientist who is asked to participate in the seemingly impossible (and, he thinks, ridiculous) task of introducing Salmon fishing in the Yemen. Now, I'm not much interested in Salmon Fishing (or any fishing to be honest!) and I have been educated by this book, now knowing a little bit more about it! I'll be honest, I hadn't realised the true 'ridiculous' nature of the title until I started reading. I'm sure if I'd thought about it I would have realised that Salmon are generally found in - um - rather colder climes than the Middle East!

Of course, the point of the novel is not solely to educate us on the finer points of fly fishing though. In fact, Torday is seeking to explore some of the delicate political interplays between Britain and the Far East, as well as opening up his characters (some of whom are, at least, likeable and believable) to the scrutiny of the reader. I quite enjoyed the narrative style - the story is told through a collection of diaries, letters, emails, TV scripts, Newspaper Articles - pretty much any type of text you can think of. This does have the benefit of allowing the reader into the brains of multiple characters - however, it can occasionally feel a little clumsy.

Unfortunately, I a write this review, I am struggling to find anything to enthuse about with this novel. Yes, it's an unusual subject matter, yes, I enjoyed a different style of writing. But did I love the book? No, I'm afraid not. It wasn't for me. I didn't find myself 'caring' about the characters, which is something I want from a novel, and I wasn't hooked. I read through to the end because I felt I should, not because I wanted to. And that is not the sign of a book I loved.