Many of the reviewed books are also recommended reads from Richard and Judy's Book Club or Summer Reads.
These include:
The Interpretation of Murder- Jed Rubenfeld. Book Club 2007
This Book Will save Your Life- A.M. Holmes. Book Club 2007
The Testament of Gideon Mack- James Robertson. Book Club 2007
The Girls - Lori Lansens. Book Club 2007
Getting Rid of Mathew - Jane Fallon. Summer Read 2007
The Memory Keeper's Daughter - Kim Edwards Summer Read 2007
Love In The Present Tense - Catherine Ryan Hyde. Book Club 2007
The House at Riverton - Kate Morton. Summer Read 2007
Restless- Willaim Boyd. Book Club 2007
The Other Side of the Bridge - Mary Lawson Summer Read 2007
The Boy in the Striped Payjamas - John Boyne. Children's fiction choice
The American Boy- Andrew Taylor. Book Club 2005
Tuesday, 27 March 2007
A Swift Pure Cry- Siobhan Dowd
"Beautifully written and deeply moving" Guardian.
Life has been hard for Shell since the death of her Mam. her Dad has given up work and turned his back on reality, leaving Shell to care for her brother and sister. When she can, she spends time with her best friend Bridie and the charming, persuasive Declan, sharing cigarettes and irreverent jokes.
Shell is drawn to the kindness of Father Rose, a young priest, but soon finds herself the centre of an escalating scandal that rocks the small Irish community to its foundations.
Siobhan Dowd has, in her debut novel, written a haunting tale which will appeal to both adults and younger readers. Shell, the heroine, is a delight and an inspiration. Her life is a drudge, and she sorely misses her Mam, yet she soldiers on, looking after Jimmy and Trix, her younger brother and sister, and the relationship between the three is incredibly moving. Her father has been little help to Shell, yet the reader begins to sympathise with him, and his plight, realising that he is a vulnerable and fallible man. The novel really captures smalltown life in Cork, and the prose and dialogue are lilting and lyrical. Although the novel is full of loss, it has at its heart a sense of hope, and an ending which did make me cry.
It is currently shortlisted for the Children's Books Ireland/Bisto Book of the Year Award and the Sheffield Children's Book Award and longlisted for the 2007 Carnegie Medal.
"Written with a fluent, lyrical sprightliness, this poignant novel invests tragic events with humanity and even, in places, humour" The Times.
Life has been hard for Shell since the death of her Mam. her Dad has given up work and turned his back on reality, leaving Shell to care for her brother and sister. When she can, she spends time with her best friend Bridie and the charming, persuasive Declan, sharing cigarettes and irreverent jokes.
Shell is drawn to the kindness of Father Rose, a young priest, but soon finds herself the centre of an escalating scandal that rocks the small Irish community to its foundations.
Siobhan Dowd has, in her debut novel, written a haunting tale which will appeal to both adults and younger readers. Shell, the heroine, is a delight and an inspiration. Her life is a drudge, and she sorely misses her Mam, yet she soldiers on, looking after Jimmy and Trix, her younger brother and sister, and the relationship between the three is incredibly moving. Her father has been little help to Shell, yet the reader begins to sympathise with him, and his plight, realising that he is a vulnerable and fallible man. The novel really captures smalltown life in Cork, and the prose and dialogue are lilting and lyrical. Although the novel is full of loss, it has at its heart a sense of hope, and an ending which did make me cry.
It is currently shortlisted for the Children's Books Ireland/Bisto Book of the Year Award and the Sheffield Children's Book Award and longlisted for the 2007 Carnegie Medal.
"Written with a fluent, lyrical sprightliness, this poignant novel invests tragic events with humanity and even, in places, humour" The Times.
Wednesday, 21 March 2007
Love In The Present Tense- Catherine Ryan Hyde
"A remarkable story of the magic of love" Daily Express.
Mitch is a 25-year-old with commitment issues. Leonard is a five-year-old kid with asthma and vision problems, who captivates everyone he meets. Pearl is Leonard's teenage mother, who's trying to hide a violent secret from her past. Life has given Pearl every reason to mistrust people, but circumstances force her to trust her neighbour, Mitch. Then one day, with a heart full of agony, Pearl drops Leonard off with Mitch and never returns. Pearl, Leonard and Mitch each have a story to tell and as their lives unfold, profound questions arise about the nature of love and family. How do you go on loving someone who isn't there? With Leonard's absolute conviction in 'forever love' always present, Leonard and Mitch grow up side by side and piece together the layered truths and fictions of their almost magical lives. The answers are heartbreaking, but ultimately triumphant.
I read this book as it was selected for Richard and Judy's Book Club, novels I have yet to be disappointed by. The author, Catherine Ryan Hyde, I was suprised to discover is also the author of Pay It Forward an enchanting film (starring Helen Hunt, Kevin Spacey and Haley Joel Osment) and an even better novel.
The book is riveting from the first page. Beginning the story is Pearl, a neglected and lonely child, hungry for love. "So much of how it was started when that cop got out and came up to me. But I didn't know all this when it first happened. I didn't know there would ever be a Leonard, or that this man would be his father, or that anybody would have to die.
The reader knows Pearl's story, yet Mitch and Leonard are clueless, and throughout the book Leonard tries to find his mother. Despite the fact that she is not around, her son believes Pearl is always with him, and his concept of "forever love" is a sweet one.
I did feel that in places the book was a little twee and sacharine, but the story is a beautiful one, and so I can overlook this.
Mitch is a 25-year-old with commitment issues. Leonard is a five-year-old kid with asthma and vision problems, who captivates everyone he meets. Pearl is Leonard's teenage mother, who's trying to hide a violent secret from her past. Life has given Pearl every reason to mistrust people, but circumstances force her to trust her neighbour, Mitch. Then one day, with a heart full of agony, Pearl drops Leonard off with Mitch and never returns. Pearl, Leonard and Mitch each have a story to tell and as their lives unfold, profound questions arise about the nature of love and family. How do you go on loving someone who isn't there? With Leonard's absolute conviction in 'forever love' always present, Leonard and Mitch grow up side by side and piece together the layered truths and fictions of their almost magical lives. The answers are heartbreaking, but ultimately triumphant.
I read this book as it was selected for Richard and Judy's Book Club, novels I have yet to be disappointed by. The author, Catherine Ryan Hyde, I was suprised to discover is also the author of Pay It Forward an enchanting film (starring Helen Hunt, Kevin Spacey and Haley Joel Osment) and an even better novel.
The book is riveting from the first page. Beginning the story is Pearl, a neglected and lonely child, hungry for love. "So much of how it was started when that cop got out and came up to me. But I didn't know all this when it first happened. I didn't know there would ever be a Leonard, or that this man would be his father, or that anybody would have to die.
The reader knows Pearl's story, yet Mitch and Leonard are clueless, and throughout the book Leonard tries to find his mother. Despite the fact that she is not around, her son believes Pearl is always with him, and his concept of "forever love" is a sweet one.
I did feel that in places the book was a little twee and sacharine, but the story is a beautiful one, and so I can overlook this.
Eye Contact- Cammie McGovern
"Compulsively addictive...heartbreaking" Daily Telegraph.
For nine years Adam has been the centre of his mother Cara's world. And, she thinks, she has been the centre of his. Until the day he disappears. When he is found in the woods behind his school, beside the body of a little girl whom Cara has never heard of , it feels as if her world has been torn apart. As Adam locks himself in silence, unable to tell his mother what he has seen, Cara's desperation to discover the truth becomes fiercer and more urgent than ever. A heartrending, haunting story of the tangled bond between a mother and her child, Eye Contact grips the mind as it engages the heart.
I adored this book. The description on the back cover in no way describes the intesity and complexity of this novel. At it's heart is a clever, twisting whodunnit murder mystery, yet it is so much more than this. Moving through different narrators, we meet not only autistic Adam, but also the charming Morgan, who, like Cara, is determined to solve the mystery for his own strangely logical reasons. If Mark Haddon gave us an insight into the autistic mind with his The Curious Incident of The Dog in the Night-time, this novel goes further, exploring how a child with what is loosely termed special needs, interacts with the world, and the effect this has others, particularly the mother. The theme is constant throughout the book, with the mothers' of Kevin, Amelia, Morgan and Chris, as well as Cara. The question faced by every mother, irrespective of a child's disabilty, of when to protect and when to let go is confronted throughout the book. Cara's meeting with Olivia, the murdered Amelia's mother left me literally sobbing. Amelia too was on the autistic spectrum, and the similarities and differences between the two unlikely friends is devastatingly moving.
The complexities of high-school are bewildering enough without being on the autism spectrum, and McGovern demonstrates this with insight and clarity. The issue of bullying, central to the novel is dealt with candidly, the cruelties children infict upon each other presented unflinchingly.
"Grasps the complex, often cruel hierachies of childhood" Lionel Shriver, author of We Need To Talk About Kevin.
I loved the sub-plots in the novel, the skeletons in the closet involving Cara's childhood friends, Kevin and Suzette, and the deaths of Cara's parents. Cara and Suzette's reunion gave me goosepimples! I felt completley drawn in to the private world of each significant character, and read slowly, not wanting to miss a single detail. I shall be recommending this stunning novel to everyone I know.
In an author's note at the back of the book, Cammie McGovern, the mother of a nine year old autistic son, tells us what moved her to write this book:
"...I wanted to write a hopeful book- one that reaffirms what I have come to believe: that even in the presence of a devastating disorder like autism, happiness, joy, success, love and even friendships are still possible. That for my son and the countless other children coming of age with this mysterious, isolating condition, there is a place in the world for them and an important role that they will play."
Breathtaking!
"Nobody who knows an autistic cjild could fail to be moved by this fantastic thriller...Wise and moving, as well as gripping" the Times.
For nine years Adam has been the centre of his mother Cara's world. And, she thinks, she has been the centre of his. Until the day he disappears. When he is found in the woods behind his school, beside the body of a little girl whom Cara has never heard of , it feels as if her world has been torn apart. As Adam locks himself in silence, unable to tell his mother what he has seen, Cara's desperation to discover the truth becomes fiercer and more urgent than ever. A heartrending, haunting story of the tangled bond between a mother and her child, Eye Contact grips the mind as it engages the heart.
I adored this book. The description on the back cover in no way describes the intesity and complexity of this novel. At it's heart is a clever, twisting whodunnit murder mystery, yet it is so much more than this. Moving through different narrators, we meet not only autistic Adam, but also the charming Morgan, who, like Cara, is determined to solve the mystery for his own strangely logical reasons. If Mark Haddon gave us an insight into the autistic mind with his The Curious Incident of The Dog in the Night-time, this novel goes further, exploring how a child with what is loosely termed special needs, interacts with the world, and the effect this has others, particularly the mother. The theme is constant throughout the book, with the mothers' of Kevin, Amelia, Morgan and Chris, as well as Cara. The question faced by every mother, irrespective of a child's disabilty, of when to protect and when to let go is confronted throughout the book. Cara's meeting with Olivia, the murdered Amelia's mother left me literally sobbing. Amelia too was on the autistic spectrum, and the similarities and differences between the two unlikely friends is devastatingly moving.
The complexities of high-school are bewildering enough without being on the autism spectrum, and McGovern demonstrates this with insight and clarity. The issue of bullying, central to the novel is dealt with candidly, the cruelties children infict upon each other presented unflinchingly.
"Grasps the complex, often cruel hierachies of childhood" Lionel Shriver, author of We Need To Talk About Kevin.
I loved the sub-plots in the novel, the skeletons in the closet involving Cara's childhood friends, Kevin and Suzette, and the deaths of Cara's parents. Cara and Suzette's reunion gave me goosepimples! I felt completley drawn in to the private world of each significant character, and read slowly, not wanting to miss a single detail. I shall be recommending this stunning novel to everyone I know.
In an author's note at the back of the book, Cammie McGovern, the mother of a nine year old autistic son, tells us what moved her to write this book:
"...I wanted to write a hopeful book- one that reaffirms what I have come to believe: that even in the presence of a devastating disorder like autism, happiness, joy, success, love and even friendships are still possible. That for my son and the countless other children coming of age with this mysterious, isolating condition, there is a place in the world for them and an important role that they will play."
Breathtaking!
"Nobody who knows an autistic cjild could fail to be moved by this fantastic thriller...Wise and moving, as well as gripping" the Times.
Tuesday, 20 March 2007
The Curious Incident of The Dog In The Night-time- Mark Haddon.
"Outstanding...A stunningly good read" Independent.
Christopher Boone is 15 and has Asperger's Syndrome.He knows a very great deal about maths and very little about human beings. He likes lists, patterns and the truth. he hates the colours yellow and brown and being touched. He has never gone further than the end of the road on his own, but when he finds a neighbour's dog murdered, he sets out on a terrifying journey which will turn his whole world upside down.
I did not know very much about Asperger's Syndrome before picking up this highly lauded novel, but feel that Christopher's character gives a stunning insight into this condition. I enjoyed the inclusion of maths problems, maps and diagrams, contributing to the exploration of an autistic mind.
It is easy to sympathise with Christopher, his naivety and logic is by turn heartbreakingly sad, and hilariously funny. I felt outraged on his behalf when the truth about his mother is revealed, but certainly not pity. It is clear from Christopher's observations about his parents that he does not grasp the havoc his condition has wreaked in the lives of his parents and this innocence makes the story all the more moving. Throughout the book, Haddon uses dramatic irony whereby the reader has more understanding of situations and events than the narrator himself. Christopher's inability to understand social interaction and to respond to social cues makes for some memorable deadpan comedy.
"I also said I cared about dogs because they were faithful and honest, and some dogs were cleverer and more interesting than some people. Steve, for example, who comes to school on Thursdays, needs help to eat his food and could not even fetch a stick. Siobhan asked me not to say this to Steve's mother."
The title of this amazing novel is a quotation of a remark made by Sherlock Holmes in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's short story, "Silver Blaze". Christopher's obssession with both this detective and the truth leads him on a quest, piecing together the jigsaw of lies and deceit surrounding his family. This book will appeal to both adults and children alike, and should in every school library. It won the Whitbread Novel of the Year (now called the Costa Book Awards), the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize and the South Bank Show Book Award, and was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize.
Christopher tells us, "This will not be a funny book. I cannot tell jokes because I do not understand them."
He is wrong, the book is laugh out loud funny, but also moving delightful and extremely memorable.
"Superbly realised... A funny as well as a sad book" Guardian.
Christopher Boone is 15 and has Asperger's Syndrome.He knows a very great deal about maths and very little about human beings. He likes lists, patterns and the truth. he hates the colours yellow and brown and being touched. He has never gone further than the end of the road on his own, but when he finds a neighbour's dog murdered, he sets out on a terrifying journey which will turn his whole world upside down.
I did not know very much about Asperger's Syndrome before picking up this highly lauded novel, but feel that Christopher's character gives a stunning insight into this condition. I enjoyed the inclusion of maths problems, maps and diagrams, contributing to the exploration of an autistic mind.
It is easy to sympathise with Christopher, his naivety and logic is by turn heartbreakingly sad, and hilariously funny. I felt outraged on his behalf when the truth about his mother is revealed, but certainly not pity. It is clear from Christopher's observations about his parents that he does not grasp the havoc his condition has wreaked in the lives of his parents and this innocence makes the story all the more moving. Throughout the book, Haddon uses dramatic irony whereby the reader has more understanding of situations and events than the narrator himself. Christopher's inability to understand social interaction and to respond to social cues makes for some memorable deadpan comedy.
"I also said I cared about dogs because they were faithful and honest, and some dogs were cleverer and more interesting than some people. Steve, for example, who comes to school on Thursdays, needs help to eat his food and could not even fetch a stick. Siobhan asked me not to say this to Steve's mother."
The title of this amazing novel is a quotation of a remark made by Sherlock Holmes in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's short story, "Silver Blaze". Christopher's obssession with both this detective and the truth leads him on a quest, piecing together the jigsaw of lies and deceit surrounding his family. This book will appeal to both adults and children alike, and should in every school library. It won the Whitbread Novel of the Year (now called the Costa Book Awards), the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize and the South Bank Show Book Award, and was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize.
Christopher tells us, "This will not be a funny book. I cannot tell jokes because I do not understand them."
He is wrong, the book is laugh out loud funny, but also moving delightful and extremely memorable.
"Superbly realised... A funny as well as a sad book" Guardian.
Monday, 19 March 2007
A Million Little Pieces- James Frey
"Utterly compulsive" Observer.
Aged just 23, James Frey had destroyed his body and his mind almost beyond repair. When he enters a rehabilitation centre to try to reclaim his life, he has to fight to determine what future, if any, he has.
I literally could not put this down and believed it to be the best rehab memoir I had ever read. I was moved to tears by Frey's story, and was fascinated by the other troubled yet colourful characters. I was left feeling desparate to know what happens next and could not wait to read the sequal, "My Friend Leonard". I demanded that practically everyone I know read it. I confess to being horribly disappointed when the truth of Frey's embellishments was revealed. Throughout the book, Frey's apparent honesty and candour made him a lovable anti-hero, yet we now know that some of the events in the book never took place. This knowledge somewhat colours my review of this "memoir".
I liked the style of writing Frey uses, choosing not to use quotation marks to denote conversation, and often the writing mirrors the confusion and chaos Frey faces. I applauded his rejection of the AA principle of being powerless over an addiction and loved Frey's rebelliousness in finding his own way in recovery from his addictions.
This book was selected for Oprah's Book Club in September 2005, and when the controversy over Frey's embellishments was made public he appeared on her show to defend himself. He admitted that the same "demons" that had made him turn to alcohol and drugs had also driven him to fabricate crucial portions of his "memoir"; it first having been shopped as being a fiction novel but declined by many, including Random House itself.
Despite all the controversy, A Million Little Pieces is a wonderful, heartbreaking and moving story about triumph over addiction, the nature of frienship, family love and the strength of human spirit. Well worth a read.
"Harrowing, poetic and rather magnificent" FHM.
Aged just 23, James Frey had destroyed his body and his mind almost beyond repair. When he enters a rehabilitation centre to try to reclaim his life, he has to fight to determine what future, if any, he has.
I literally could not put this down and believed it to be the best rehab memoir I had ever read. I was moved to tears by Frey's story, and was fascinated by the other troubled yet colourful characters. I was left feeling desparate to know what happens next and could not wait to read the sequal, "My Friend Leonard". I demanded that practically everyone I know read it. I confess to being horribly disappointed when the truth of Frey's embellishments was revealed. Throughout the book, Frey's apparent honesty and candour made him a lovable anti-hero, yet we now know that some of the events in the book never took place. This knowledge somewhat colours my review of this "memoir".
I liked the style of writing Frey uses, choosing not to use quotation marks to denote conversation, and often the writing mirrors the confusion and chaos Frey faces. I applauded his rejection of the AA principle of being powerless over an addiction and loved Frey's rebelliousness in finding his own way in recovery from his addictions.
This book was selected for Oprah's Book Club in September 2005, and when the controversy over Frey's embellishments was made public he appeared on her show to defend himself. He admitted that the same "demons" that had made him turn to alcohol and drugs had also driven him to fabricate crucial portions of his "memoir"; it first having been shopped as being a fiction novel but declined by many, including Random House itself.
Despite all the controversy, A Million Little Pieces is a wonderful, heartbreaking and moving story about triumph over addiction, the nature of frienship, family love and the strength of human spirit. Well worth a read.
"Harrowing, poetic and rather magnificent" FHM.
The American Boy- Andrew Taylor
"A wonderful book, richly composed and beautifully written, an enthralling read from start to finish" The Times.
England 1819: Thomas Shield, a new master at a school just outside London, is tutor to an American boy and the boy's sensitive best friend, Charles Frant. Drawn to Frant's beautiful, unhappy mother, Thomas becomes caught up in her family's twisted intrigues. Then a brutal crime is commited, with consequences that threaten to destroy Thomas and all that he has come to hold dear. Despite his efforts, Shield is caught up in a deadly tangle of sex, money, murder and lies- a tangle that grips him tighter even as he tries to escape from it. And what of the strange American child at the heart of these macabre events- what is the secret of the boy named Edgar Allen Poe?
I Have for the last 2 years, been picking this book up at the library, only to replace it on the shelf, believing that it was not my kind of read. How wrong I was! The prose is masterful and put me in mind of Dickens, evoking a compelling portrait of early 1800's London society, with all it's corruption. Edgar Allen Poe's character is peripheral, yet his role in the story is central to the events that unfold. The characters are extremely vivid, epsecially the villainous Carswell, and Shield, as the narrator has the readers sympathy and respect. I liked the short chapters, most of which ended with mini cliff-hangers, making it impossible not to read on. Both the immaculate attention to historical detail, and the twists of plot make for a deeply satisfying read, and that the ending allows the reader to draw their own conclusions enhances rather than detracts from the finished work.
Andrew Taylor's novel, "The Office of The Dead" won The CWA Historical Dagger for Fiction and featured in Richard and Judy's Book Club, 2005. I will definitely be reading more Andrew Taylor.
"A most artful and delightful book, that will both amuse and chill" Daily Telegraph.
England 1819: Thomas Shield, a new master at a school just outside London, is tutor to an American boy and the boy's sensitive best friend, Charles Frant. Drawn to Frant's beautiful, unhappy mother, Thomas becomes caught up in her family's twisted intrigues. Then a brutal crime is commited, with consequences that threaten to destroy Thomas and all that he has come to hold dear. Despite his efforts, Shield is caught up in a deadly tangle of sex, money, murder and lies- a tangle that grips him tighter even as he tries to escape from it. And what of the strange American child at the heart of these macabre events- what is the secret of the boy named Edgar Allen Poe?
I Have for the last 2 years, been picking this book up at the library, only to replace it on the shelf, believing that it was not my kind of read. How wrong I was! The prose is masterful and put me in mind of Dickens, evoking a compelling portrait of early 1800's London society, with all it's corruption. Edgar Allen Poe's character is peripheral, yet his role in the story is central to the events that unfold. The characters are extremely vivid, epsecially the villainous Carswell, and Shield, as the narrator has the readers sympathy and respect. I liked the short chapters, most of which ended with mini cliff-hangers, making it impossible not to read on. Both the immaculate attention to historical detail, and the twists of plot make for a deeply satisfying read, and that the ending allows the reader to draw their own conclusions enhances rather than detracts from the finished work.
Andrew Taylor's novel, "The Office of The Dead" won The CWA Historical Dagger for Fiction and featured in Richard and Judy's Book Club, 2005. I will definitely be reading more Andrew Taylor.
"A most artful and delightful book, that will both amuse and chill" Daily Telegraph.
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