This section is for a daily update on what I am currently reading, books I have applied to review and thoughts on new releases or books purchased (physical or e-books).
25th July 2020
Reading Ayala’s Angel by Anthony Trollope.
I enjoy reading Trollope. He has a way with words, an observational humour and ability to winkle out the minutiae of people’s characters. Like Charles Dickens, he produces some truly memorable names.
What also pleases me is the way in which he writes about women as primary characters, not reduced to a secondary role or as somehow inferior. They are alive and resonate their feelings, desires and intentions in clear and unambiguous terms. We can judge them on the same level as any other characters.
Trollope also writes preposterous scenarios very well. Tom Tringle junior is enraged that Colonel Jonathan Stubbs didn’t tell him of his interest in Ayala and writes to Stubbs, inviting him to a duel anywhere that the law permits – apparently, it was by this time illegal in England. Tringle junior sends the hapless Samuel Faddle (great name!) to deliver the missive and, in true Trollopian style, Stubbs writes Tringle junior a delightfully courteous and humorous reply.
What Trollope also does well is prick the balloon of pomposity on a regular basis, such as he does with the Tringle family. Augusta Tringle, a young woman full of her own self-worth, marries the MP Septimus Traffick (another great name) who is much older than her. The newly married couple then proceed to sponge off her parents rather than settle in a home of their own. Tom Tringle senior is enraged by this but cannot penetrate the impossibly thick skin of his son-in-law.
Ayala is a romantic, immature young girl who has an idealised vision of the “angel” of the title; however, she is plagued by her cousin Tom Tringle junior, whose infatuation will not be quenched. She proceeds through the novel finding men happy to fall in love with her, but – alas! – none that meet her exacting standard. Even the delightful Colonel Stubbs has fallen under Ayala’s spell but, although enjoying his company, she dismisses him for being ugly!
Perhaps by the end of the novel, Colonel Stubbs will have improved in appearance and Ayala come to a realisation that the perfect man simply doesn’t exist in physical and emotional terms. Of course, being a Trollope novel, everything always makes sense in the end.
26th July 2020
Email from Waterstones today with August new releases.
Matt Haig’s new book, The Midnight Library, is out on 13th August. Following on from How to Stop Time and The Humans, it should further cement the author’s reputation for quirky, inventive prose that blends fantasy, myth and science fiction.
The description calls this book a ‘poignant, unique novel about regret, hope and forgiveness’. I look forward to reading and reviewing it.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53568397-the-midnight-library
Anthony Horowitz has a new book due. Moonflower Murders is released on 20th August. I have requested this one to review, but am still waiting to hear back from the publisher.
As a fan of Foyle’s War, I know that the plot will be complex, well researched, and the journey intriguing and compelling. I would recommend this book even without reading it, and anyone who enjoyed Magpie Murders need not hesitate.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49205881-moonflower-murders
For social media devotees, James Ball has produced a book called The System: who owns the internet, and how it owns us. The title on its own demands you to read this work of investigative journalism. It comes out on 20th August and is one I shall look out for and hopefully review.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54260750-the-system
Football fans with an interest in social history may wish to take a look at David Kynaston’s new book, Shots in the Dark, where the author views contemporary British society through the prism of the 2016-17 Aldershot Town campaign. This book is out on 6th August.
As a long-standing Portsmouth fan, this is another for my want to read list.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53851734-shots-in-the-dark
Nature author Helen Macdonald’s Vesper Flights is a collection of essays about our relationship to the natural world. Out on 27th August, it is a compendium of her best-loved pieces and new observations, and will be well worth reading. I requested a review copy, but the publisher declined so this will be one for purchase.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52026319-vesper-flights
Other authors with books due out include Lisa Jewell and Ali Smith. Also, Jamie Oliver’s new cookery book, 7 Ways, is due out on 20th August. If you are a Jamie fan, you need no further recommendation from me.
Happy reading (and eating)!
27th July 2020
Inspired by a clerking friend, I have decided to try my hand at writing a book.
Not putting the title out there at present, as it is very early days yet.
It isn’t a novel, although some of my experiences as a clerk would merit inclusion in a novel!
No, this is a book about … clerking.
Clerking and how to survive it, basically. After all, everything is easy if you know how. So, why not write a guide to clerking in schools.
It is humorous in places, as genuinely funny moments occur in the life of a clerk; however, names will be changed or redacted to protect identities.
I have adopted a name as author, otherwise some of the people I refer to in the book are going to go, “that’s me, that is!”
It’s looking promising so far and I promise to keep you updated from time to time with its progress, but for now let’s say the book is a work in genesis.
2nd August 2020
Started reading We Are All the Same in the Dark, a new novel by Julia Heaberlin.
I got to around 14% in this book and just didn’t like it.
Sometimes, a book simply isn’t your cup of tea. The promise that led you to request the book in the first place simply doesn’t live up to the hype and you are left disappointed.
This book promised but did not deliver. It may well deliver for someone else, someone who can read this kind of fiction.
For me, it was just too weird and when a novel is weird to start with, the characters need to be really convincing for me to want to continue.
I felt that the characters were slightly off-kilter and I wasn’t prepared to wade through the rest of the novel to find out what happened to them.
Books are like songs and fine wine – some are instantly loved, others take time to seep into your soul and others are just not to your palate.
This book was never going to seep into my soul and so was shelved.
I provided feedback via NetGalley to the publisher, Michael Joseph, who sent me an advance review copy of this book.
6th August 2020
Finished reading Ayala’s Angel by Anthony Trollope.
So, Ayala revised her opinion of the Colonel and apparently loved him all along. How endearingly sweet of her. Of course, both Dormer sisters end up with the men they love, whilst the spoiled Tringle girls marry for altogether different reasons.
Gertrude is an empty-headed and fickle young woman, who changes lovers as often as her dresses, or so it seems. First Frank Houston, then Ben Batsby, then back (in epistolary form) to Houston, who wisely does nothing about it and marries Imogene Docimer instead.
Tom Tringle senior is an intriguing character. He genuinely cares for his children, is often exasperated by them but is too generous hearted to leave them penniless, despite several threats to the contrary.
He also proves more than generous to his two nieces, although his wife and daughters don’t appreciate it.
Houston is another interesting character. A seeming ne’er do well type who is content to go through life without doing a scrap of work, he meets his match in the redoubtable Miss Docimer.
I rather like Houston at the end of the novel when he stands up to Imogene’s ghastly brother, Mudbury, and decides eating cabbages and fathering countless children is a far better option than wedding a silly rich girl who falls ill at the drop of a hat.
Tom Tringle junior is immature, thinks he is head over heels in love with his cousin, and broken hearted when she rejects him. He stands in contrast with Colonel Jonathan Stubbs, who is more a man of the world and better able to stand rebuffs in the name of love.
Trollope is careful to point us to a happier future for Tom junior at the end of the novel, although he will still wear far too much jewellery. We all know what happens to the Colonel, lucky chap, and the scene in the railway carriage with the old married couple is Trollope at his very best.
This is yet another delightful novel and would translate very well to a television drama.
24th August 2020
One of the things that really bugs me about reading books, including e-books, these days, is the publisher dangling a chapter of another book by the same author at the end of the one you just finished.
Yes, you might have enjoyed it, but why must they presume you want to read the beginning of another one?
Marketing ploy? Obviously, they want to entice you to read more.
If you enjoyed the book, though, you would want to read more. It kind of defeats the purpose.
Just leave the book where it is, add a list of all the other available books by the author and a brief synopsis of each.
People who love to read will make the effort. We don’t need a “taster” chapter to whet our appetite.
Publishers, please take note.
6th April 2021
Reading several books at once is all very well, but some tend to get put on the back burner.
For instance, at the moment I have a Shakespeare book, one on the US Presidential elections, a collection of writings by black female authors, a study of the art of rethinking, a series of interviews with people connected with Portsmouth FC, and 3 works of fiction.
The one that has really caught my imagination lately is about the art of rethinking. We can so easily change our mind about what to wear but our opinions in other areas are often entrenched. It is refreshing to find a book that is easily accessible and which challenges us to – as the title says – “Think Again”.
I hadn’t realised until reading Nick Bryant’s book on the US Presidential elections just how much Ronald Reagan influenced modern-day American politics. There are some scary similarities between him and Donald Trump – it is clear that the two are not as diametrically opposed as one might have been inclined to think. My eyes have definitely been opened.
Portsmouth FC is another passion. I love reading about the club and its characters and this book is excellent at getting behind the people who make Pompey the wonderful community that it is, both on and off the field.
Diversity in writing is so important. Embracing new voices is something we all need to do, to be aware of the things that matter and challenging stereotypes and misconceptions. Loud Black Women brings together 20 women from different backgrounds, all of whom are eloquent writers on how being black has impacted their lives and the ways in which society still gets it wrong on so many levels.
The book that has really suffered is the Shakespeare one, surprising for someone whose degree is in English literature. I guess it’s the area – being most comfortable with – that can be left for weeks, even months at a time. It is good, but just hasn’t forced its way to the top of my to-read pile as much as the others.
As for the fiction books, one of them hasn’t even been started yet. Another group read has stalled around two-thirds through and the latest book – threatening to overtake everything – is Hilary Mantel’s final chapter in her Thomas Cromwell trilogy. Such eloquent and intelligent prose deserves my full attention.
So – finally – I have managed to blog something after several months away. Governor meetings and football page updating notwithstanding, it has been far too long. I will endeavour not to be so tardy in posting the next entry.
18th August 2024
Grief comes to us sometimes when we least expect it.
I had not expected grief to come knocking last year, but it did.
My lovely husband passed away last October. He had been ill and in hospital, yet still I held onto hope that he would eventually return home.
Sadly, that was not to be. His beautiful soul is now at peace.
My heart was broken. I was there with him at his passing and found comfort, yet moving forward has not been straightforward.
I guess the thing that is hardest is adjusting to the space next to you. Nobody to turn to in the night, nobody to ask you how your meeting went when you arrive home. Nobody to plan holidays and Proms concerts with.
All the things we loved to do together are still there, but I now navigate them as one rather than two.
Reading, the thing that grounded me and kept me afloat, went by the wayside. I simply could not get my head around reading when there was so much else going on.
The process of grieving, of planning a funeral and sorting out personal and financial affairs, of moving home for a second time in little over a year, all took up the greater part of my time and the Kindle remained untouched.
Even once moved, I still had unpacking to do, work and personal commitments and again it was easier not to read.
Finally, I found the means to read again. It has taken just over nine months.
Reading is cathartic. It is healing and affirming. I wonder now why it was so difficult to get back into the rhythm of it.
Perhaps I will never know.
I will never stop loving my husband, but realise now that moving on does not diminish those feelings. Living my life in a positive way gives me confidence and hope. He would not wish for me to wallow in grief.
Carry on Kindle-ising. That’s what I will do, and play the violin and minute governor meetings. And go to Prom concerts and plan more holidays.
Grief is part of life. And life must go on in the midst of it. Perhaps that is the answer I was searching for all along.
The Kindle Bookworm 