Book Reviews

Book Review #33 & #34 : Chris Evans Autobiography.

August 22, 2011 by Merry Leave a Comment

I read It’s Not What You Think and Memoires of a Fruitcake over a week when my brain wouldn’t take in fiction and I was putting off starting Pigeon English properly. I managed to be almost totally oblivious of Chris Evans during his rise and subsequent fall; I wasn’t a radio listener particularly and I think when I started to listen again as an adult, I mainly heard Zoe Ball on Radio 1, so that must have been after he left. I wasn’t interested in TFI and I didn’t watch breakfast TV (preferred my bed till the last moment!) so he wasn’t really on my radar at all. I did, however, hear his very first Radio 2 drivetime by chance and his first breakfast show on Radio 2 too. I even heard the infamous “we’re not here next week, we’re off to have a think”. He’s kept me company through the mornings of my pregnancy with Freddie and through the mornings of grief afterwards, when I heard dead baby in every song. I’ve grown to rather like him in that time, he seemed to have settled into a person who can laugh at himself and take life and luck just as seriously as it deserves.

These were the first celeb autobiographies I had read; I enjoyed the first the most because it appealed to the ‘boy makes good’ work ethic side of me. I really enjoyed reading about a boy and a young man who worked hard and saw opportunities and made it happen. It’s easy to see a celeb and think they just got lucky and this was the story of someone who properly made it happen, most through balls and effort rather than looks (!) or luck.

The second was a harder read, mainly because it was more his fall from grace than anything inspiring and I’m not one for that sort of story. I think he still feels like he has a lot to apologise for and is fairly hard on himself. Mind you, reading it, he did behave like an arse – but you know, we all make mistakes. What I liked about both books was the comments he makes on his industries. He doesn’t hold back on how he feels about radio or televsion (or Jonathan Ross!) and I found it interesting to get a glimpse of inside those sorts of jobs and environments.

Overall, both worth a read, epecially if you need to zone out from novels for a while. Funny, entertaining and enlightening.

Book Review #32 The Tiger’s Wife

August 22, 2011 by Merry Leave a Comment

I’m even? more behind on my book reading than I was before. Argh!

I picked up The Tiger’s Wife after seeing Cara had read it and posted on Goodreads about it. It managed to make my 3rd queued book my Kindle with Tiger in the title 😆 It was an enthralling read from start to finish, a real joy to disappear into. Getting to the end of it was a serious disappointment as I could happily have carried on enjoying the story. I think my disappointment was only made greater by discovering that the author is younger than me, younger even than my baby brother (!) and frankly, that just makes me insanely jealous of her talent!

The Tiger’s Wife is the story of a young female medic in a country which is certainly Yugoslavia after the war, though it isn’t specifically identified. It is also the story of her grandfather, his life and past and the people of the country they grew up in and explores the relationship between them within their family. Wider than that, the story utilises myths and fairy tales and superstitions that are as common is Europe as they are anywhere in the world. Mixed together inside a story that deals with the fairly brutal reality of a country torn apart by war and racial divide, it cleverly manages to make the stories not just morals, nor even allegories, but an integral and even believable part of the main plot. The deathless man, the tiger and even the histories of some of the supporting characters wove a story of great intensity which was also, in some strange way, extremely entertaining.

I loved the sense of history The Tiger’s Wife had and the sense of a community of people stitched together and ripped apart over centuries of controversy and border changes. I loved that the book was unsentimental about its themes but nonetheless made them seem incredibly important to me. One thing this book had in abundance was passion for the subject matter and it will be interesting to see if she produces more writing of the same quality. I really hope she does.

Book Review #31 Amazir by Tom Gamble

August 12, 2011 by Merry Leave a Comment

Amazir was one of my 99p Kindle downloads; I stocked up in the Amazon sale to make sure I had enough books to keep my mind occupied over the Summer. It was one of a long list of books this year that I’ve taken a chance on and been delighted by. I have a vague vetting system (nothing below 3 stars on Amazon and check Goodreads) and that seems to help. Kindle is harder than real book, where I mostly go by the covers I like!

Amazir is the story, initially, of two well educated men in the late 1930’s and is set in Africa, starting off in Morocco. It’s a coming of age story, a romance, a war story and an insight into a different time and a different life. It’s also a male point of view and I always find well written stories from a male perspective interesting. The story dips between society living of the French, rebel life, mystery and intrigue, love, the life of mountain villages and the brutality of not only the Nazi regime but also of the warring factions within France.

I found it fascinating and compelling; I could hardly put it down. Some of the criticisms on Amazon are that it is wordy and overwritten, but I really don’t agree. It captured the flavour of a bygone time and the way stories of that era are told perfectly. I was reminded very much of Ice Cold in Alex and the description of a man settling into North Africa life, something my dad has been doing this last year, was as touching as it was interesting.

Highly recommend it.

Book Review #30 Annie Dunne

July 23, 2011 by Merry 1 Comment

This was a short book, but deserves a great deal of praise. It’s the story of a woman in 1950’s Ireland, coming to the end of her life and finding herself on the margins of everyone else’s life. Annie Dunne is a story where the plot turns are minuscule but what they mean to the characters are huge and everything about each small set of events seems to illustrate more clearly how the world is dragging on tired limbs and a weary body. The book is populated by characters who have known each other for a life time, dropping in and out of each others existence with the inevitability of family ties and small town life and the endless dance that long intimacy and knowledge brings.

It’s really a very beautiful book, a quick but worthwhile read and on offer for Kindle readers just now.

Book Review #29 The Empress of Ice Cream

July 23, 2011 by Merry Leave a Comment

My knowledge of English history fades off into nothing from pretty much the end of the Civil War and my European historical knowledge from before that. In the case of the latter, I’m reasonably sure I did an A Level in something approaching that period, so I dare say I ought to! Still, one of the best things about decent historical fiction is learning more with the history hung around the necks of memorable characters and The Empress of Ice Cream was certainly an engaging read, though I have to confess it was a few weeks ago now and some details have faded.

The book centres of two characters, one an Italian maker of iced confectionery and, in the book, the inventor of ice cream and Louise Kerouaille, a French woman who became the mistress of Charles II and mother of his child, from whom, apparently, both Camilla PB and Princess Diana are descended. (Funny how things go.) The life of Louise is largely factual, from her time in the French court to her life in England, while the history of ice cream is woven into the life of one man, using the fact that two documents, one about each theme of Duchess and pudding, lay together in an archive for many years, as the device and reason for telling the two stories together.

The story is beautifully told, well paced and interesting, with plenty of the intrigue and detail of the time as well as characters who are believable and engaging. I heartily recommend it.