January Round - Up

 I don't normally do a monthly round up on my blog but why not?  This month saw a couple of library books, a readalong, a novel for a blog tour and the third mystery in a series I've enjoyed very much so far and the third crime novel from a writer I've enjoyed very much so far. 

I read Yellowface by R.F.Kuang and I was keen to explore Babel. Very different thematically but no less enjoyable. I think I preferred Babel because it felt more substantial conceptually. I borrowed it from the library. I'm a keen library user and now that I receive less in the way of proofs and arcs I borrow more books. But my library is under threat because of council spending cuts. I shall be bereft if it closes. I urge any reader, anyone one who truly loves books, to support their local libraries. 

To The Dogs is an immersive thriller. I'd loved The Cutting Room and Second Cut so I was really excited to read this and it didn't disappoint.

I won't say too much about New Gillion Street by Elliott J Harper in this post because its part of a blog tour next month but it's incredibly imaginative and creative.

Lost and Never Found by Simon Mason is the third in the Wilkins Mysteries, so called be case both detectives have the same surname! Yet they couldn't be more different. The story boasts a complex plot with plenty going on with the two cops both individually and collectively.

Paul Murray's The Bee Sting was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. I found it a quite intense but immersive read. This family in chaos shuttle between humour and tragedy. 

Finally this month was a readalong from Canongate Books Ayobami Adebayo's A Spell of Good Things. I read her earlier novel Stay With Me last year and was equally absorbed by both books. I learnt so much about Nigerian culture and attitudes. I found it to be a very moving story. 

I'd like to thank my local library, Canongate Book, riverrun books, and Fly on the Wall Press for my gifted copies.

The Reading Race

 

I had an exchange on social media recently with a fellow blogger who was voicing similar concerns and frustrations to those that I have been experiencing for some time now as my ‘career’ as a blogger and book reviewer declines before my very eyes without my really knowing the reason why. This blogger admitted to increasingly falling off publisher lists and feeling overwhelmed by many of the end of year bookish posts. I also found myself wondering what the motivation is behind folk announcing how many books they had read in the previous year and how many they intend to read in the new year. People were setting themselves reading goals and reading challenges. I also saw somewhere on social media someone bemoaning the fact that a user was posting how they had read 14 books already and it was only January 1^st! (Maybe they were easy to read comic books or graphic novels?) 

 

But when did reading become such a competitive sport? What does it matter how many books you read? Isn’t the point of reading to entertain, to inform, to educate, to provoke thought and discussion, but above all to enjoy?   It isn’t about which books will make a pretty photo or video surely? But it’s becoming that way, and it seems to me that if you don’t do all these things on Twitter (X), Instagram, Threads, TikTok, Blue Sky, Snapchat, Reddit, Pinterest, Facebook – have I missed any? – you are not considered as pulling your weight as a reader. 

 

I also wonder whether people actually read blogs or book reviews anymore? It’s almost as if they are not immediate enough to compete with an image. It seems to be more about the visuals than any kind of intelligent response to a book that might be helpful to potential readers. There’s less conversation about the books. My social media posts just seem to be floating about in the ether. The majority of my blog views are comprised of referrer spam from Russia and Singapore! I know the digital/cyber world is ever changing. Perhaps I have grown too old and too cynical to see the picture clearly but I feel immensely saddened by all this. Nothing will ever stop me reading of course but it’s harder to share and discuss in a meaningful way nowadays. I find myself on the periphery. I receive fewer and fewer review copies now and when I do, I’m usually so excited I rip open the package…without filming myself doing so which seems to be another prerequisite of the online book community. It seems you have to make yourself visible in order to be taken seriously. I’m simply not comfortable in front of a camera. I keep posting sporadically; on my blog, the two social media platforms I inhabit, but I wonder for how much longer before I withdraw from the race?

Lost and Never Found - Simon Mason

There's no shortage of crime novels, good crime novels at that. And there's no shortage of crime novels with detective duos. But what sets Simon Mason's series apart is having his duo bear the same surname! And then having them as polar opposites. Ray and Ryan - chalk and cheese, yin and yang, night and day, diamonds and dust, fire and ice - ne'er the twain shall meet, yet they get results. And in Oxford, the city of gleaming spires, a perception of intellect and academia, our dynamic duo explores the polar opposites of society, the rich, the privileged, the homeless and the drug addicts. 

I love how so many  chapters begin with a flowing, protracted description of the current state of things in terms of weather, mood and environment,  you can imagine it in a film or TV presentation before the camera cuts to the nitty gritty of the story or in this case the chapter. 

But oh, Mr. Mason! You rascal! Putting your readers on the red herring diet! The book boasts a complex plot throwing plenty of clues our way but never quite letting us join the dots. It can be infuriating! My prime suspect kept changing as events unfolded. I would love to be the Spoiler Queen of 2024 and divulge the clever twists and turns in the action and offer my comments........ but I won't. Instead I'll offer all things blurbish.

At three o'clock in the morning, Emergency Services receives a call. 'This is Zara Fanshawe. Always lost and never found.' An hour later, the wayward celebrity's Rolls Royce Phantom is found abandoned in dingy Becket Street. The paparazzi go wild. 

For some reason, news of Zara's disappearance prompts homeless woman Lena Wójcik to search the camps, nervously, for the bad-tempered vagrant known as 'Waitrose', a familiar sight in Oxford pushing his trolley of possessions. But he's nowhere to be found either. 

Who will lead the investigation and cope with the media frenzy? Suave, prize-winning, Oxford-educated DI Ray Wilkins is passed over in favour of his partner, gobby, trailer-park educated DI Ryan Wilkins (no relation). You wouldn't think Ray would be happy. He isn't. You wouldn't think Ryan would be any good at national press presentations. He isn't. 

And when legendary cop Chester Lynch takes a shine to Ray - and takes against Ryan - things are only going to get even messier.

The characterisations are clever. I find Ryan exasperating. I've known people like him and I've never understood why they appear to go out of their way to be obnoxious. I think that given past misdemeanours Ryan only remains in the Police Force by the skin of his teeth. But his persistence and determination to solve crimes coupled with his ability to intuit and see what others may miss are his saving graces. The relationship he enjoys with his young son is endearing. Little Ryan is an advanced three year old full of questions and observations with a more defined sense of propriety than his father ! Ray, too can be irritating for the opposite reason - he seems too good! Always immaculately turned out, playing by the rules, seeming to get it right where Ryan gets it wrong. So as much as the reader is invested in the crimes and the solving of them we are also invested in the dynamic between these two cops, their relationship with each other, and their individual relationships in their personal lives. 

This is the third in the series and I think it's the best or maybe it's that I enjoyed it more than the others. That sense of reacquainting oneself with familiar characters that allows you to leap straight into the guts of a story without having to get to know everybody. The narrative moves along demanding the reader's attention and it is easy to become absorbed so much so that any requirement to stop reading and put the book down felt like an insult! I did feel it fell away a little towards the end of the book. I did wonder if that was because I didn't want the perpetrator to be found because if they were the book would end! 

And now, I wait for the next in the series..........

My thanks to Ana McLaughlin and Elizabeth Masters at riverrun for a gifted copy. 

To the Dogs - Louise Welsh

 A new book from Louise Welsh is always a treat.  I really enjoyed this immersive thriller. Page turner is a much bandied expression particularly in thriller and crime novels but it was applicable here for much of the book. It’s a fine example of story telling.

I had a fleeting sense of disappointment that I wouldn’t be renewing my acquaintance with Rilke the auctioneer from  The Cutting Room and The Second Cut but that regret didn’t last long as I became enmeshed in the life of Jim Brennan.

Professor Jim Brennan is flying high, the son of a Glasgow hard man, he’s risen to the heights of academia, tipped for a promotion to a top job.

But it’s not easy to escape the past, and those Jim’s left behind have been keeping tabs on him. As the threats mount, he discovers he’s not so different from his father, but how far will he go to protect his family, his students and his reputation?

 

To The Dogs is a darkly comic, gritty novel from the award-winning author of The Cutting Room, exploring organised crime, institutional corruption, and moral compromise.

 

It’s a complex plot and you need to stay focused to understand the threads linking events and situations with such sustained coercion, duplicity and bullying almost. And the narrative speeds along gaining momentum for the most part with one or two dips here and there. 

Jim is an engaging character and at times he seemed to be what I like to call a ‘Highsmith Hero’* where no matter what he does events just seem to overtake him and spiral out of control even if he appears to be acting on the side of the moral and the just. 

I found it fascinating to consider that Jim had seemed to throw off the constraints of his past in terms of parents and upbringing to become an almost stereotypical pillar of society until his son goes badly off the rails and you start to contemplate whether the sins of the father skips a generation. If you’re looking for something to think about that is more than just a story then Ms. Welsh allows us the opportunity to ponder the privilege and wealth of academia which nestles neatly alongside the paradox of the criminal underworld.And as ever the underbelly of society is explored which could be a bleak place to inhabit for the reader with its brutality but there is something darkly funny that offers an element of relief. 

A thoroughly enjoyable read and my thanks to Canongate Books for a gifted copy.

 

 

*In the manner of some of Patricia Highsmith’s characters.

Extracting Humanity - Stephen Oram - Blog Tour

'In the remarkably perceptive collection, Stephen Oram blends cutting-edge science, and tech with everyday emotions and values to create 20 thought experiments with heart.

Extracting Humanity is a skilful exploration of smart currencies, memorials, medical care, treatment of refugees, social networks, data monitoring, and justice systems. Always without prescription or reprimand, these stories is a simply the beginning of the conversation.

From an eerie haptic suit that Tommy must call Father, to a protective, nutritious bubble, that allows Fen Mian to survive on a colonised Moon; from tattoos that will learn their wearers a mini break in a sensory chamber, to Harrie anxiously, awaiting AI feedback on her unborn child… These startling, diverse narratives, map all-to0-real possibilities for our future, and the things that may ultimately divide or united us.'

Is this a chilling glimpse into the future of our world? Stephen Oram's compelling collection of short stories pose some fascinating considerations. Are they Science Fiction? Dystopian? Speculative? Maybe all of those and more besides. 

Many of the issues that absorb us in today's world are taken to a possible future level - healthcare, nutrition, data collection and manipulation, algorithms, AI, the potential social and economic worth of people before they're even born! It certainly makes the reader think about the directions we might be heading towards and to consider the morality of future decades and centuries. 

Some of the stories make for uncomfortable reading especially the title and concluding story, Extracting Humanity. I would go so far as to say that some stories are quite bleak and disturbing. It almost makes me glad I'm old and won't be around for too much longer! And I think what underlines the darkness is the plausibility in the science and technology that the author has employed to get his points across. That is not to say that the stories lack the very humanity of the title. You can extract it from every story (pun intended!) There is thankfully some humour too to balance the narratives. The short story is the perfect format for ideas such as these. Short, sharp, direct, they achieve the impact they're supposed to. And perhaps if we read them, respond to them and -  act we might prevent some desolate futures. 

The characters are relatable even if they are in somewhat surreal situations. The descriptive skill of this author makes it easier to imagine the unimaginable. Mr. Oram's creative power is remarkable and this collection of short stories offers a unique peek into a possible future. 

Stephen Oram writes near-future science fiction. He has two published novels and is published in many anthologies, including the Best of British science fiction 2020 and  2022. He also works with scientist and technologists to explore possible futures through short stories, as co-edited three anthologies along these lines, and guest edited the Futures issue of the BSFA  critical journal, Vector.

Stephen is based in the heart of central London and attributes much of the urban grittiness, and the optimism about humanity, and his writing to the noise, the bustle, and the diverse community of where he lives.

My thank to Isabelle Kenyon of Fly on the Wall Press for a gifted copy and a place upon the blog tour.

Babel - R.F.Kuang

 

Babel was all over social media for a while. The excitement seems to have died down. Perhaps because Yellowface came along to take its place. But excitement over that seems to have died down too. I let all the excitement die down before I read either of them! Actually that's not entirely true. I reserved Babel at my library. So I had to wait for a copy to become available. That indicated that it is still being widely read. The reservation lists for library books can be an interesting indicator of books that are in demand whether or not they are the current topic on social media. 

Babel. It's not new. It's there in the book of Genesis. It apparently means confusion. Some believe it to be a myth to explain why different languages are spoken globally. Others think it is based an actual structures or that the Biblical story was inspired by one such structure, the ziggurat Etemenaki dedicated to the god, Marduk of Mesopotamia, patron of Babylon, interesting, as he is believed to encompass both good and evil, he can help humanity and he can also destroy people. The inference worked well within the context of Kuang's book.

The author herself avers that Babel is 'about infinite worlds of languages, cultures, and histories'. Indeed it is. I found it to be an ambitious work, erudite and scholarly, occasionally dry in places and perhaps overlong, but nonetheless highly impressive. We tend to think of fantasy fiction occupying imaginary worlds and landscapes or being set in a stylised future where we are allowed glimpses and small comparisons with our contemporary lives. Not so here. Kuang has cleverly set her fantasy in a Victorian Oxford deep within the industrial revolution and the advent of train travel. A task that sees the need for extensive historical research that will also fit into the fantasy world she creates where Babel is the pinnacle of Oxford intellect and silver bars and translation are the key to running the country efficiently (I use the term loosely 😉) and...... world domination? If Yellowface was a scathing satire on the publishing industry and social media, is this an equalling scathing satire on how dependent we are on money and connectivity?  Maybe. But that's just a part of it.

Subtitled The Necessity of Violence Babel evokes a plethora of thought and emotions. It presents as a type of campus novel told primarily from the POV of Robin Swift an orphaned Cantonese boy plucked from his lowly origins to England to be moulded into an exemplary scholar destined for Oxford University and .......Babel. Identity is key for Robin and his fellow pupils who form a cohort as language students. To a degree they are all outsiders in this white world which both cements and fragments their relationships with each other. It is a story of paradoxes as Robin, particularly, wrestles with his place in the secure and privileged academic life enhanced by his position as a translator and the empirical, colonial world where the rich care little for anything but gain.

It is perhaps too complex a book to offer a succinct precis, for a great deal happens and I wouldn't want to give too much away. But I will say that I found the majority of characters hard to engage with. As people I could sympathise with their ideologies and understand their motivations but none of them were especially nice people except maybe Professor Craft who I quite liked. They are an intense group but I also think the reader needed to be kept at arms length emotionally in order to remain objective about the events.

It's a clever and intelligent book. The weaving of historical fiction with fantasy is masterful and poses numerous notions for the reader to consider. Like all literary fiction there's room for individual considerations and musings. It's a treasure trove for word lovers and linguists. As I read I found myself thinking of Les Miserables, perhaps it was the barricades, but maybe it's that idealism where people actually believe they can change the world for the better.  And I thought of Donna Tartt and The Secret History. I also thought of Genesis 11 and the significance to this book and our current world. I found my thoughts overflowing. But the Tower of Babel fell. The end.

Leave the World Behind - Rumaan Alam

 

I'm so old  I can remember a time when there was no such thing as the Internet. So I view and use it with a degree of balance, I hope. There are things I still won't use it for, e.g. Internet banking. The less financial information out there online of mine, I think the better and the less likely I am to be compromised by these insidious hackers that seem to enjoy messing up peoples' lives, just because they can. It's not because I'm rich, it's the principle, mind you it irritates the hell out of people who can't understand me!  It concerns me how we have placed so much blind faith and trust in a technology that when it fails will cause so much chaos and disaster, it doesn't bear thinking about. The Internet is useful but I refuse to put all my eggs in one basket. Nothing is foolproof. Everything is fallible. The Internet will fail one day by one means or another, which brings me to Leave the World Behind

There's been a lot of buzz about this book, some because of the Netflix film I think. I've read the book and I've watched the film. As with most film adaptations devotees of the book will find that, to them, liberties have been taken. To an extent, that's inevitable when you're using a completely different creative medium. What the book accomplishes with words cannot be accomplished visually so the film relies on a great deal of suspenseful music and cutting from one scene to another to create a very atmospheric piece. Details from the book and the film differ and may upset the purists. I did find myself asking why in the film, it's G.H's daughter called Ruth who is with him and not his wife, Maya. In the book, Ruth is his wife and Maya his daughter, but I guess the impact of the wife on the plane was thought to create a greater emotional response. Some of the sequences in the film do not appear in the book at all. And the ending? The film offers us even less closure than the book but does it matter? I guess not in the broadest sense. The film is there to entertain an audience who may not be readers. And the book exists for those who prefer not to watch films. And in some cases there are those who are happy to do both!

But the essence of both film and book remains the same. What happens when you have no Internet, you have no TV, your Satnav can't work and no one seems to know what the hell is going on because news cannot be disseminated without the World Wide Web. So there's mistrust and suspicion. It's a 21st century plague for sure. 

I think that Alam has created such a sustained sense of unease though the book punctuated by the symbols from nature telling us all that something is very very wrong - the volume of deer, so often a symbol of peace and gentleness, the flamingos in the wrong place  - it's nature yelling at us that there is a huge problem but somehow our characters don't seem to grasp it - the flamingos were probably from a private zoo opines one character. But I felt at the root of it all was the reluctance to accept that they wren in the midst of a disaster. They tried to explain things rationally and yet you knew that deep inside they were all too scared to admit that the world was in flux. The sense of impending disaster is never far from the surface but in actual fact any actual disaster is implicit. We are left to guess whether the US is on the brink of some kind of war, cyber or military, or whether there has been a global technological disaster. However the characters all seem desperate to retain some normality in the face of these inexplicable occurrences and brain piercing noises which they manifest usually in the form of some kind of food or drink! 

Earlier in the book it seems that the issues were those of race and class and there is something mildly encouraging about how all that dissipates within the midst of mutual disaster as this disparate group find themselves relying on each other. 

I didn't find the characters especially likeable. Amanda seemed so angry and snarky in spite of what might appear to be a privileged lifestyle. But fear is driving them and does this show their true character or merely one facet? 

I'm not entirely sure what Alam was hoping to achieve with this book. Was it to show what panic can do to a group of people initially separated by class and race? Or was it to expose the weakness of our society when you strip it of its technological safety blanket? Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the book immensely. It was absorbing and compelling writing that offers a reader plenty of food for thought. Perhaps I'm simply left with a sense of unease that a situation like this could be just around the corner?

I received a copy of the book and a delicious bag of popcorn from Tandem Collective.

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