strange sally diamond by liz nugent

This was pretty good, til I got to the end. It felt like it was one of those books that has a Massive Twist in the last few pages – something that makes you reassess everything you read already. I was eager for it. I was trying to figure out what it was the whole way through. When I couldn’t figure it out, I surmised that this Massive Twist was going to be EPIC.

There is no Massive Twist, guys.

Soz for the spoiler. Maybe you’re like, who needs a Massive Twist anyway? Well, you read it and tell me it doesn’t feel like there should be a Massive Twist. The main character, Sally, is very strange, as we’re told constantly. Her dad has just died and she tries to incinerate him in the barn because he’d told her to (he hadn’t, by the way. This felt v tenuous to me). She actually gets away with this (no idea how) and we find out more about who she is and why she’s so strange. Turns out she’s the child of a paedophile kidnapper and one of his victims. Nice!

Then, as the book goes on, we’re given more info about what happened in the past. It’s supposed to be shocking but I found it quite mild tbh. I was waiting for my Massive Twist, see. As it is, it’s an easy read and paced well. I don’t think some of the dialogue and characterisation rings true – I’m not sure that many people would actually be that tolerant of Sally’s attitude and behaviour – but it rolled along and I was entertained.

In short…

Had there been a Massive Twist I would’ve scored this higher. As it is, I was disappointed by the anticlimactic ending, so it’s a 6/10 from me

the three-body problem by cixin liu (translated by ken liu)

Oh GOD. What I wouldn’t do for a good science fiction novel. It would just be nice to read something without rolling my eyes far back into my head. Though I totally dig the premise to this book, the execution is not as satisfying as I’d like. Maybe something got lost in translation?

There are two narrative strands: first, we’re in 60s China, where a professor is brutally killed during the Revolution. His daughter is a witness and subsequently shipped off to a military outpost, where she finds a use as a technician on a radar base. Then in the future, a nano material engineer is caught up in a spate of bizarre suicides – and finds clues to the mystery by playing Three Body, an immersive video game set on a far off planet.

Yeah. There’s a slow build up to what we’re all waiting for: aliens. But then when it’s revealed what we all know (aliens), it’s such a massive anticlimax that I almost threw the book across the room. As this is the first part of a trilogy, we’re not given much action – just lots and lots of exposition, which pretty much involves a huge amount of mathematical and scientific jargon. Yawn. I couldn’t connect to the characters at all (lost in translation again?) so I didn’t give a shit about their troubles.

I did find the whole idea of humans hating the human race and inviting aliens to come and invade quite interesting, but not enough to save this dire novel. Maybe the Netflix adaptation is better.

In short…

Noooo thanks. I’ll continue my quest for quality science fiction. A painful 1/10

into every generation a slayer is born: how buffy staked our hearts by evan ross katz

I can hear some of you rolling your eyes already. I don’t care! I love Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Love it love it love it.

Just finished my third rewatch of all of the TV series – and this time, with my daughter (her first watch – lucky!). There’s still so much to get from it. I guess some dismiss it as a silly, spooky show for teenagers, and sure, sometimes it goes down that route. But we’d do it a disservice to say that’s all it is. Buffy deals with huge themes, including grief, addiction, abuse, love, death, and everything in between – and makes it completely relatable. And it’s very funny too.

So this book came out around the time of the twenty-fifth anniversary. It has cast and crew interviews, insight into how the show was made, theories on how it gained its cult status, and brief overviews of what happens in each season. The author is an uber-fan (I mean, you’d have to be) and his devotion shines from every page. I do appreciate his willingness to acknowledge the TV show’s flaws, though – he readily admits that it’s not perfect.

The big thing this book deals with is the show’s creator Joss Whedon’s spectacular fall from grace, which has been widely documented in the media in recent years. The man is basically a horrid person, both personally and professionally – there are plenty of cast anecdotes to attest to that. Short of going into detail (read the book!) it does raise interesting arguments about separating art from the artist. My take is: I love Buffy, I do not love Joss Whedon.

In short…

If you’re a fan, you’re bound to enjoy this fascinating account of how Buffy came to be, and everything that followed. I thought it was great, 9/10

on beauty by zadie smith

Ah dysfunctional families. Providing fodder for novels since whenever. Hours of entertainment! Like EastEnders but well-written and it’s a book. I always like a clutch of unlikeable characters too, and this book has plenty of them. In fact I would say all the main characters are completely awful, but in very human and normal ways.

The story revolves around two warring academic families, the Belseys and the Kippses, though the main focus is on the Belseys, in particular the father Howard, a British art history professor at a semi-prestigious American university, and his wife Kiki, a nurse from a typically underprivileged background. Howard is a total prick, has to be said – though I’m not sure any other character can claim to be otherwise.

Zadie Smith always writes so intelligently, and it feels as if she’s an author that always does a huge amount of research for their books (I mean, this is just standard anyway, right?). It comes across more so here as the setting is a university. There’s a lot of thoughtful debate between characters on race, equal opportunities, gender, class, art, politics, etc. etc. It’s never too cerebral though; and always secondary to the family drama. Within the context of the family drama it becomes very readable.

I enjoyed this book a lot though I don’t feel it will stay with me in any way; I wasn’t moved as such (though I did cringe somewhat – due to plot developments, not the writing itself).

In short…

Plenty to enjoy here, especially if you like your family dramas on the clever side; a solid 8/10

o brother by john niven

A non-fiction book (yes I do venture into the real world occasionally) about the author, his brother, and their upbringing in Scotland. Of interest to me especially because the brother dies by suicide in his early forties – as my brother did several years ago. The book starts with his death and then leaps back, searching for answers to all the many questions the author has – why did he kill himself? Could it have been prevented? Was it always in him to self-destruct? etc. Unfortunately, there are never any real answers, as I know too well. You learn to live with the questions.

It’s a good memoir anyhow, especially if your frame of cultural references hits the same decades as the author’s. I’m slightly younger but still, there’s a nostalgic satisfaction from reading about the 70s/80s and mainly the 90s that always evokes my own childhood memories. Our lives differed hugely though, as John Niven worked in the music industry and took a lot of drugs, and I didn’t. Sometimes it feels as if it’s all about him – John – rather than the brother, Gary. I get why this is the case. John can only surmise about a lot that happened in Gary’s life so naturally writes about what he has more authority over – his own life. Writer’s prerogative. And things he does inform what happened to Gary. Still, there’s a pervasive feeling of egoism here.

I didn’t get as emotional as I thought I would. Not sure why; I put off reading it for ages as I assumed it would be hugely triggering. It wasn’t though. I could get through it being fairly detached.

In short…

Aside from the tragedy/horror of suicide, this is an easy to read memoir with lots of amusing anecdotes and fascinating social history details, 7/10

in the country of last things by paul auster

Who’s in the mood for a dystopian novel? Me! Or, I was, anyway – till I read this book and realised it wasn’t so much dystopian as current affairs. It was written in 1987 (I think – may need to fact check) so you could surmise that the events and locations presented in the narrative were but a horrible nightmare dreamt up by the author, trying to imagine the worst possible things he could think of for ordinary people to cope with.

Anna Blume is searching for her brother William, who moved to the ‘city’ and vanished – no one has heard from him for a long time. She fears the same will happen to her, as the city is a crumbling, bleak place, where corpses line the streets and people scavenge for food. Once you’re there, it’s impossible to leave (though Anna doesn’t try very hard IMO) and you risk starving or being chopped up and eaten by some downright wrong’uns.

OK, so that’s not exactly like anywhere I’m actually aware of, but it doesn’t feel like it’s so far in the future anyway. The societal structure is familiar, the behaviours of the people are familiar, and the absolute tyranny of the government/lawmakers is something you can watch with your own eyes on the evening news. Then the story loses some of its shock value – there was me, wanting to lift myself out of reality with a nice dark fiction, and oh – nope, it’s just another version of life.

Generally, though, the book is OK – not too writerly – a bit earnest in places, I feel like Paul Auster might be one of those ‘serious’ authors – and there’s some gratuitous lesbian/masturbation scenes that feel very much like a male author wanting to touch himself – but generally, it was OK.

In short…

Not quite what I was after, tbh, and though I’ve said it was OK, I was actually bored sometimes. Quite forgettable, 4/10

trustee from the toolroom by nevil shute

Is Nevil Shute underrated? I kind of feel like that’s the case. When I enthuse about him to other people they usually look blank. Nevil who? His most famous book – A Town Called Alice – is slowly sliding into relative obscurity. Which is a shame, as it’s really good. My fave is On the Beach, a perfect study of bleakness. And this one was rather satisfying too.

He tends to write about ordinary people in extraordinary situations. So in this story, Keith Stewart, a normal man from London, who enjoys a hobby making miniature engines and writing about them for a specialist magazine, is suddenly launched into an international adventure when his sister dies unexpectedly and leaves their daughter in his care. As her trustee, he feels it’s up to him to provide the best possible future for her, which results in a journey most people would balk at.

It’s amazing really, that this is the basis for a thrilling adventure. But it’s totally compelling. Set in the 1950s – without the modern conveniences of technology – it’s sort of fascinating to discover how you’d actually travel to a remote island in the Pacific Ocean on little to no money in your pocket. Of course, things go quite smoothly for Keith, which is convenient for the narrative – and he does have some very handy specialist knowledge which stands him in good stead.

I love Nevil Shute’s writing because there are no frills, no fancy devices – it’s all very straightforward and elegant. It reminds me of Daphne du Maurier in that regard. Substance is everything. Honestly, there is a whole chapter in this book about a yacht sailing into a storm that was the most tense thing I’ve read in a long time. Masterclass.

In short…

If you’ve never read Nevil then you’re missing out. Top writer with top stories. Give him a go – this book is a gentle winner, a solid 8/10

record of a spaceborn few by becky chambers

The final book in the science-fiction trilogy – I read the other two a (long) while ago, and as you know it all goes in my head then out again, so I hardly remember what the first two were actually about. I recall liking them? A lot? Maybe the first more than the second? And I have to say, I feel this is the weakest of the three, tho not terrible at all.

There’s no solid story, as such; it is – as the name suggests – a record of a few of the citizens who are born, and live, and die, in space – on one of the many ships that make up the Exodan Fleet (their ancestors were the ones who fled a dying Earth). We follow the varied lives of these different people (all Human, though other species figure) as they question the point of existing in space.

These books, for me, are easy access science-fiction – no complicated jargon or description, or reliance on some secret knowledge of reams of fantastical worlds – just stuff that makes sense to a world we live in now; a logical progression of technology and society. It bandies about ideas to do with how we live as communities, how we treat our dead, how we exist for each other rather than just ourselves. All terribly holistic of course.

The character arcs are not hugely dramatic and therefore fairly disappointing. I admit I kept waiting for something to happen – there was a tension that went sadly unfulfilled. The only unexpected moment of action kind of came and went. I found myself speed reading towards the end – the promise of picking something else to read was too tempting to take my time.

In short…

Not as strong as the first or the second, unfortunately – but still, an exciting writer to keep an eye out for, especially if you want your dip your toes in sci-fi every now and again. An all right 6/10

really good, actually by monica heisey

I usually avoid books geared towards women because I have some latent snobbery over ‘chick-lit’ which, as we all know, is derogatory and deeply unfair – we shouldn’t judge anyone’s reading material, m’k? But still, the avoidance, maybe because I don’t feel they speak to me or offer anything insightful or are largely (sorry, gals) not that well-written.

For some reason I picked up this one from my fave charity shop and bought it. It claimed it was funny (it is) and it’s about a young woman who gets divorced (also true). Oh hey! I’m divorced – though calling me a young woman is a bit of a stretch. But still – I’ve been there, it’s shit, maybe this story will resonate?

Yes it kind of does. I don’t think my circumstances were quite as devastating as Maggie’s (they divorced after only a year of marriage – yikes) but the feelings described are accurate, and it was nice to read about the absolute dark side of stuff like this because you realise you’re not alone. And, as I said, it is funny. Not LOLZ but lightly snorting through your nose funny. That’s pretty good.

A few minor quibbles – the friend circle treat her Horribly. Yes Maggie is a shitty friend but their reaction seems over-hard. Also the whole random sex with loads of strangers thing. Really? Felt a bit like the author was trying to score cool points there. And lastly, the book is just slightly maybe too long. Maggie’s recovery/redemption could’ve been way shorter.

In short…

My own prejudices against chick-lit aside, this is a decent read, funny and (if you allow it) life affirming. A pretty good 8/10

cousins by salley vickers

Remember how much I enjoyed The Librarian by Salley Vickers last year? Well, I bought a few more books by her almost immediately afterwards, in that excitement over finding a new good author type of thing. Chose this book to read thinking it sounded like my sort of thing; and it started well enough.

Told from the point of view of three women from the same family, it recounts an incident from recent memory and then moves back and forth in time. The incident – a young man, Will, related to all the women in some way – falls from a roof and is grievously injured. How this impacts the family is revealed as the story goes on.

The various narratives range in success. I’m not sure different viewpoints were necessarily needed. The notion of digging in the past and putting ghosts to rest is set up fairly successfully in the first part; why change that for the next part? It also feels like there’s a lot of muddying the waters… the story goes off on a tangent frequently and you’re playing catch up with different names and timelines. Maybe I’m getting old but I found it tricky to follow at times.

I definitely found myself bored by the last third, too. Maybe the author is aware of that as there’s a sudden, last minute injection of plot. But it wasn’t enough to save it in my opinion.

In short…

Started quite well but tailed off significantly. A shame as I thought this could be a new best author. Never mind, an OK 5/10