Book 110 again

I thought I was up to 110 books but it was actually 108 so now I have read 2 more and am up to 110. They were both fiction, and it is proving hard to pick out books by authors I want to read.

First up was The Queue by Vladimir Sorokin, about my fifth attempt for its case. It was an unusual novel being 100% dialog, not bad, a bit weird, but it managed 5/10.

Then came Missing Fay by Adam Thorpe, set in my native Lincolnshire. This again had an unusual structure, with a chapter for each character. I like the way it painted the picture. But ultimately there was very little story, and I felt a bit cheated. Not bad though. 6/10.

Book 110

The Flawless Place Between by Bruno Portier has to be one of the worst books I have ever read. It's supposed to be like The Alchemist, but it's not even in the same league. A woman dies in a traffic accident and some mystic guy from the mountains appears to advise on her afterlife. Utter nonsense and cliched rubbish 1/10

 

Girl Unknown

Girl Unknown by Karen Perry is a simple idea, a girl who turns up (in the first chapter) claiming to be a daughter from an old relationship. The shadowy girl increasingly begins to disrupt the father's lives and eventually the rest of his family. The book is all about relationships, nearly all of the characters have relationships, and few of them have happy ones. Those in relationships sometimes have fault lines, which others can expose.

The problem for me with the book is that the author has had a good idea, but she's constrained by literary conventions to have a climactic ending and the obligatory twist or two. This book never quite makes it from a good first half to a satisfactory conclusion and the ending, and the events leading up to it feel contrived. Like the relationships it details, it would be better of stuck in the middle somewhere and without the need to have a finish. 7/10

The Mark and the Void

Book 108 The Mark and the Void by Paul Murray is quite an unusual book, very original in the way its structured, being a book about writing the very book you the reader are reading. It's a romantic comedy set during the financial crisis in Ireland. In places it is very funny, but I did find all the charcters blurred together and there were times where my interest was flagging, only to resurface a few dozen pages later. Not a bad read. 6/10.

Two more books

Two recent books read have been Born Survivors by Harry Bingham (unnamed shelf) which was an interesting read about three women who had babies in Nazi concentration camps. They survived as well as their children, in three amazing stories, and none of them even knew about one another. This book got 8/10. The other book (Humour) was Five Get Gran Online by Wendy Holden an Enid Blyton rip-off that wasn't remotely funny, 1/10

Next, I make a long-overdue return to fiction which the next few shelves all being fiction books. Something I can't say has been the case for a couple of years.

And Still the Music Plays

And Still the Music Plays: Stories of people with dementia  by Graham Stokes was quite a good book. It was of interest to me as it reminded me of my mum who has dementia and is in a care home. Obviously I know her story before she came into the home but those of her fellow residents I don't. The theme of this book really is that people still act rationally even when they have dementia, the main difference being that they live entirely in the now.  The author has numerous cases where he basically figures out why a resident is behaving like he is and devises a care plan to suite the needs of the resident. They are all success stories, I am sure he has a few failures as well, it would have been nice to hear those who couldn't be figured out. A good book, a bit repetitive, and a reminder that real people are still inside the shells that they appear in the home where my mum lives. 7/10

Do Fathers Matter?

Do Fathers Matter? by Paul Raeburn was just a series of "studies" that "proved" the importance of fathers. Books that just quote dozens of studies and draw conclusions which suit the author's agenda are ten a penny. 2/10