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

The Available Parent

The Available Parent: Radical Optimism for Raising Teens and Tweens by John Duffy is the latest parenting book and was pretty similar to the rest. The same comment applies: you need to keep re-reading this book to really retain the knowledge in it. It's also one of those books where the title says it all and is the thing to retain if anything. The rest is detail and too generalised to be of much specific help. 5/10

Why Won't My Teenager Talk to Me?

Why Won't My Teenager Talk to Me? by John Coleman is the first Parenting book that I manage to complete after a couple of false starts. My daughter is 12, so she's not quite there yet. The book is a very broad subject, it's difficult to take on board a lot of it, and I doubt many people will keep this by their bedside for when they have a problem to consult. In reality what I got from it was to listen and understand more. 5/10

Dead Simple

After months spent in non-fiction I returned to the fiction shelves for a book of short stories called Dead Simple. This crime selection was quite strong and of the 8 stories 5 were good, 2 were average and only 1 was bad. 7/10