January and February 2016 Wrap Up - Part 1/3

Oh dear! I don't know what to say. I have been AWOL - for a month and a half! Work has been crazy busy. BY the time I have finished given up working for the night, I have a brain cramp and the thought of being coherent typing up reviews for my blog is just too much. At least I have still made time for reading though. It is how I switch off from work.

These are the books that I read, in order of first to last.

First was The Accidental by Ali Smith. In this book we follow the dysfunctional Smart family on holiday. One day a stranger, a woman, Amber, arrives on their doorstep, and everyone thinks she knows someone in the family. Through Amber's interactions with each family member the problems are realised to the reader.
Plot-wise, I am unsure what to make of this; but I really enjoyed the writing. I enjoyed how she played with words and I enjoyed the way the thoughts of the characters would lead to so many different places. Overall, not a book I would recommend for everyone as the reading is fairly heavy. I gave this 3 stars on Goodreads.

Next up is The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson, the 4th book in the Mistborn series. Set a few centuries after The Hero of Ages (Book 3), I was introduced to new characters. Oh wow, but did I love them! Wax and Wayne were funny, smart and everything I was in the mood for. I also could not help but loving that this was a combination of a wild western and a fantasy novel. This was the best book I could have chosen to see my holiday to a close. It was humorous (no really, I laughed in so many places and that NEVER happens), action packed, exciting and still topped with that magnificent magic system of Mistborn. I loved it. I gave this 5 stars on Goodreads.

Then I read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith and Jane Austen, which I had picked up out of morbid curiosity. While this was by no means the worst thing I have ever read, I can't say that this book is going to top any of my favourite shelves. I think the big problem is that I LOVED Pride and Prejudice, and because of that, I felt the zombie, ninja thing a jarring addition. It was as though there were two separate tales going on at once. I felt Elizabeth's character differed throughout the story, and the same went for Darcy. There were moments where I did feel some satisfaction - something regarding Wickham especially. I also thought that Graham-Smith (hmm, sounds like a cricketer) did a good job of capturing the language used in the original. But I am a purist. I think the book was far better without the addition of the zombies. In other words, I like Pride and Prejudice for what it originally was. Additions to it just hinder a magnificent story. I gave this 2 stars.

To recover from the disappointment of P&P&Z, I picked up The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro. In this book we follow a typical English butler through a few days while he is on holiday, and we travel throughout his memories. I went into this expecting a read that would require me to dust off my English degree and use it. I was so wrong - in a way! The language was easy to read. What my English degree did love though, was the narrator. He was unreliable in the best way. I am not talking about something like Gone Girl. This was subtle and required a lot of reading between the lines. No one was out to trick me, or manipulate me. The narrator's account seemed completely genuine - but, that is where the charm was. The reader has to read his account and make up their own mind. Although this wasn't a suspenseful, gripping read, it really kept me interested and turning pages. I wanted to know what had happened in the past, I wanted to know what was happening in the present, and I wanted to know if my interpretations were accurate and whether the future would play out as I suspected. I think this is a very worthwhile book for folks who like a slow paced yet intellectually stimulating novel. I will definitely put this one aside to reread in a few years. I gave this 5 stars on Goodreads!

Next up is another Man Booker winner, A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James. To give a really inadequate synopsis, this book covers the lives of the people involved (directly or not) in the attempted murder of Bob Marley. This was a challenge! I loved every minute of it. OK, hang on. Let me explain. This is not what I might consider an enjoyable story. But - and this is the important part - this book was spectacularly written. James toyed with my head, made it work (a lot!) and left me feeling like I had enjoyed the ride after all. I felt accomplished! There are so many things about this book that are admirable. I truly respected how James could have a chapter from one character's point of view, where I could agree with that character, understand him as a moral bloke, only to get a completely different perspective on him from other characters and have me revise everything I had concluded. That was really something. Generally the writer's voice creeps in too far, and the feeling that the chapters are really being told by different people is lost. Not in this book. I also found the flow of the story, through time, through memories, into the present, well constructed. While it makes reading this book quickly near impossible, it does provide a satisfyingly well-rounded understanding of all the characters. And once again adds to the respect I now have for Marlon James. I also enjoyed how it only made sense as to which seven killings this book was about at the end. People die in this book - on almost every page. Not for the squeamish. Actually, that is important. If you are squeamish or particularly prudish, them perhaps give this a skip. My reading has lacked a lot of depth in the past years and it was brilliant reading a book that made me need to think again. Well deserved win of the Man Booker prize. This earned 5 stars from me on Goodreads.

I am going to leave it there for this post. I still have ten more books to talk about but I think 5 a post is a bit more manageable.