Layla’s 2017 Review of Books

In 2017 I read 64 books – almost exactly the same number as last year, though I had periods of several weeks where I read little, and other periods when I read constantly. I do wonder whether social media and other digital distractions have been interfering with my ability to really focus on reading and accounted for the gaps over the past year. But nevertheless, I did some interesting reading in 2017, including a lot of science fiction, along with lots of new fiction, some classics, and assorted others. First I’ll talk about the books, then at the bottom of this post I will list all the books I read in 2017, arranged into ratings of 1-5 (where 5 is excellent). Behold: your reading inspiration for the year!

Best book of the year

2017 has been odd for not really having a stand-out book of the year. I ranked 18 books (28%) at 5 stars, but it’s hard to pick the absolute best. Since I have to, I will be decisive and say The Gustav Sonata by Rose Tremain. This is a wonderful novel set in Switzerland after WWII. It’s about family and friendships and love, and the decisions we make, and their impact on the people around us. The characters are beautifully drawn, and I recall shedding some tears while reading this book.

Disappointment of the year

While not intrinsically a bad book, I was rather disappointed by Man at the Helm by Nina Stibbe. I read Love, Nina last year and loved it. And so many people told me that her next novel, Man at the Helm, was even better. They described being in floods of laughter throughout. And sure, it was amusing at times. But I hardly laughed out loud, and it seemed to have lost that freshness of tone that was so intrinsic to Stibbe’s first book. Plus, I can never really get behind books that are primarily focused on ‘finding a man’… I grudgingly bought the sequel, Paradise Lodge, and enjoyed it a little more, probably because the ‘finding a man’ narrative took a back seat to a more engaging, quirky coming of age story. Embarrassingly, I didn’t realise it was actually a sequel til halfway though. Also, everyone except me seems to have loved Tin Man by Sarah Winman – I have no idea why I couldn’t get into it… And having loved the Silo trilogy, I was disappointed in the bleakness and lack of sympathy in Sand by Hugh Howey.

Blockbuster books

In the young adult section, The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas got a lot of publicity this year – and for good reason. Focused on the challenge of race in America through the eyes of a teenage girl in New York, I read it at the start of the year and it has stayed with me and affected how I think. I was also impressed by Autumn by Ali Smith, which gave me the unusual experience of reading a book that is anchored in the UK right now. This must have been written at speed and it has an interesting format that conveys mood very well – though it’s not exactly jolly. And La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman absolutely lived up to expectations as a brilliant, thrilling prequel to The Golden Compass. But for me, the most exciting books this year have improbably been the Hogarth Shakespeare series where beloved authors have reimagined Shakespeare’s plays as modern novels. I say improbable as this is a concept about which I’d ordinarily have had grave suspicions. But I couldn’t resist reading Hagseed by Margaret Atwood, based on The Tempest. It was gloriously written, engaging, original, and edge-of-the-seat fascinating. I loved it. So then I tried New Boy by Tracy Chevalier, based on Othello. And it was maybe even better! In the coming year I’ll be reading the rest of them: The Gap of Time by Jeanette Winterson (The Winter’s Tale), Shylock is my Name by Howard Jacobson (Merchant of Venice) and Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler (The Taming of the Shrew) are all out already; Macbeth, Hamlet and King Lear are being published in 2018.

More offbeat books

I’ve been charmed by some lovely quirky books this year. I loved Mrs Queen Takes the Train by William Kuhn, which is funny and charming and a little silly, imagining the Queen taking a day off from her duties. It will appeal to those who liked An Uncommon Reader… My other favourite was Calling Major Tom by David M Barnett about loneliness and connections and coming of age at different ages… and about random decisions that can literally send you into space. It’s heartwarming and delightful – I distinctly remember both laughing and crying out loud. Another big charmer on similar themes (though less about space) is the delightful Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman. Also very interesting was The End of the Day by Claire North, who wrote The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August. This book is pretty similar in some ways but a bit wittier, with an inventive premise that death employs a human harbinger. It’s not charming, but it’s gripping and thought-provoking.

Classic author treats

I loved re-reading A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute while I was actually in Alice Springs this year. I concurred: it’s a ‘bonza town’. And one of my favourite books of all time. I finally tried my first Barbara Pym. Excellent Women by Barbara Pym is one of those refreshing, funny, charming books about spinsterhood and humanity. And I picked up The Parasites by Daphne DuMaurier on the strength of a recommendation on Facebook that it was A Swish of the Curtain for grown-ups. Not sure it exactly was, but it was interesting, written in intriguing  collective tones, about three siblings who shared famous showbiz parents and are now making their own way in the same sort of world. Quite thought provoking.

Dystopias

This was the year of the dystopia for me. I went dystopia mad. I couldn’t get enough of them. And they very much fell into two camps: the ‘literary’ dystopia, and the ‘young adult’ dystopia, some of which felt a little more of a (trashy) guilty pleasure than a worthy read (but were no less compelling for it!).

In the category of worlds where population has been almost wiped out by something or other, the theme this year (with the exception of The Book of the Unnamed Midwife by Meg Elison) seems to have been longish-term survival after the event, rather than a focus on the immediate aftermath. I was excited to finally read The Boy on the Bridge by MR Carey, the long-awaited sequel to The Girl with All the Gifts. I liked it almost as much. I re-read On the Beach by Nevil Shute which I still think is one of the most haunting and human descriptions of a possible end of the world by nuclear fallout. Another apocalypse-by-nuclear-fallout I read was A Gift Upon the Shore by MK Wren which had its flaws within the plot but was a very compelling meditation on what’s important in rebuilding a world. I also got round to reading Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky, and while I was suspicious of a civilisation of spiders providing half the narrative (the other is set on a human space ship), my only ‘space-set book’ on the list was actually one of my highest quality sci-fi reads this year. I also quite enjoyed When the Floods Came by Clare Morrall because it was set in Britain and gave a fairly unusual but realistic vision of a rather grim future world. As mentioned under disappointments, I did not really enjoy Sand by Hugh Howey, which is a far-sequel to the Silo trilogy, set in a world covered by sand that has buried cities and was just a bit depressing.

Moving along to worlds that have adapted to new technology and other futuristic demands, this was the premise most popular with the coming of age sci-fi trilogies I read this year. The Testing trilogy by Joelle Charbonneau was one of those worlds where people are kept down and isolated into districts, Hunger Games-style, but every year a few of them are invited to the capital to participate in something that sounds good but is violent and bad. The first book was quite compelling, but the sequels started to decline in quality. The same for the Gender Game series by Bella Forest where men and women are separated into different towns that do not mix, which I really enjoyed at first, though the quality fell so quickly I stopped at book 3 of 7. I preferred The Girl Who Dared to Think trilogy, also by Bella Forest, where civilisation is based inside skyscrapers, controlled by a computer, and success depends on positive mental attitude. Which is perhaps the modern-day version of The World Inside by Robert Silverberg which I also read this year, and found fascinating, both in terms of concepts and also the way in which it’s told, each chapter through the eyes of a different tower resident. Further harnessing technology (and punishing those who don’t conform), Replica by Lauren Oliver was about clones, Flawed by Cecelia Ahern was about physical perfection, and The Unit by Ninni Holmqvist (not young adult, and falling more clearly into the literary fiction camp) was about what happens to those who fail to find a romantic partner by a certain age.

The only book I read in the category of alternative reality this year was United States of Japan by Peter Tieryas, imagining a world where Japan had won WWII. It’s a fascinating concept but it was quite violent – not really my thing. Something else that’s not my thing is fantasy. I only read The School for Good and Evil trilogy by Saman Chainani as it’s been getting a lot of press in the young adult market and I was intrigued. Two girls are plucked from a village of fairy tale readers to train respectively as the hero and villain of future stories. The trilogy was a frustrating mix of really nice progressive and inventive, quirky ideas… and tediously maintained stereotypical gender roles that felt incongruous and annoying. But it was an exciting page-turner throughout.

RATINGS

Here are my ratings of the books I read in 2017 on a scale of 1-5, 5 being the best in my particular opinion.

Rating: 5

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

Hagseed by Margaret Atwood (Hogarth Shakespeare series)

New Boy by Tracy Chevalier (Hogarth Shakespeare series)

The Gustav Sonata by Rose Tremain

Curtain Up by Noel Streatfeld (re-read)

Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick

Excellent Women by Barbara Pym

Calling Major Tom by David M Barnett

The Painted Garden by Noel Streatfeld (re-read)

The Boy on the Bridge by MR Carey (sequel to The Girl with All the Gifts)

On the Beach by Nevil Shute (re-read)

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

The End of the Day by Claire North

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

The Unit by Ninni Holmqvist

A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute (re-read while in Alice!)

La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman

All These Wonders by The Moth

 

Rating: 4

Oranges are not the only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson (re-read)

Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Autumn by Ali Smith

When the Floods Came by Clare Morrall

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula LeGuin

Dirty White Boy by Clayton Littlewood (re-read)

A Gift Upon the Shore by MK Wren

The Testing by Joelle Charbonneau

Charlotte Sometimes by Penelope Farmer (re-read)

The Parasites by Daphne DuMaurier

Paradise Lodge by Nina Stibbe (sequel to Man at the Helm)

Flawed by Cecelia Ahern

The Girls by Emma Cline

Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney

Harmony by Carolyn Pankhurst

The World Inside by Robert Silverberg

Mrs Queen Takes the Train by William Kuhn

The Girl Who Dared to Think by Bella Forest

The Gender Game by Bella Forest

The School for Good and Evil by Saman Chainani

The School for Good and Evil 2 by Saman Chainani

The School for Good and Evil 3 by Saman Chainani

Borrowed Spaces by Christopher deWolfe

Replica by Lauren Oliver

 

Rating: 3

United States of Japan by Peter Tieryas

The Sympathizer by Viet Thang Nguyen

Cousins by Sally Vickers

The Hours by Michael Cunningham

The Marvelous Misadventures of Ingrid Winter by JS Drangsholt

Man at the Helm by Nina Stibbe

Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver

Requiem by Lauren Oliver

Independent Study by Joelle Charbonneau

Graduation Day by Joelle Charbonneau

Sand by Hugh Howey

How to Stop Time by Matt Haig

A Lovely Way to Burn by Louise Welsh

Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer

The Book of the Unnamed Midwife by Meg Elison

Tin Man by Sarah Winman

The Girl Who Dared to Stand by Bella Forest

The Gender Secret by Bella Forest

 

Rating: 2

You Will Know Me by Megan Abbott

The Rift by Nina Allan 2/5

The Gender Lie by Bella Forest

 

Rating: 1

None

 

Onwards: to 2018!

 

 

Layla’s 2016 Review of Books

In 2016 I read 65 books, and reviewing my rating system, it looks like I rather enjoyed most of them! First I’ll talk about the books, then at the bottom of this post I will list all the books I read in 2016, arranged into ratings of 1-5 (where 5 is excellent). Behold: your reading inspiration for the year!

Best book of the year

The Unseen World by Liz Moore was much anticipated after Moore’s outstanding novel Heft. And it absolutely delivered: this is a book about families and love and artificial intelligence. It’s smart and thought-provoking and touching and very well done indeed.

Disappointment of the year

The Wonder by Emma Donoghue was one of the new releases I looked forward to most. But compared to her other lovely, complex books, this one just seemed a bit flimsy and trivial, with a lightweight story that wrapped up in a far too convenient manner and didn’t seem to signify much.

Blockbuster books

Most of this year’s blockbusters lived up to expectations: At the Edge of the Orchard by Tracy Chevalier was fantastic and a must read. Stone Mattress by Margaret Atwood was also compelling (though I’m never totally sure I like short stories), and The Mandibles by Lionel Shriver, while not perfect, has me thinking about the ideas within Shriver’s economic dystopia months later. The Power by Naomi Alderman was also an intriguing dystopia that imagines the consequences of women having power that renders them the dominant gender, and was really interesting though a bit too violent for my liking. A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler was one of those luxuriously sprawling books about family and relationships. (Okay, it was published last year but I only read it this year). Finally, I liked Zadie Smith’s Swing Time, but not as much as I felt I ought to.

More offbeat books

Some slightly more offbeat books may not have generated an anticipatory buzz but were still amazing. When I encountered The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet I was completely charmed and compelled by the world building and character building of a multi-species universe traveling through space in a way that somehow felt more ‘literary’ than ‘sci-fi’ though I know lots of people dispute that genre separation anyway. I desperately wanted to read more of this world, and I was in luck: a sequel was in the works. While awaiting it, I read the full Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Series, but despite its similar worlds, I remained staunchly unsated. When Chambers’s sequel, A Closed and Common Orbit, was finally published, I was so delighted: this book is as good or perhaps even better than the first one. It doesn’t just follow on from the plot, but explores a whole new set of ideas,  mostly around artificial intelligence – perhaps a theme of 2016… Becky Chambers is a big talent and if you even slightly enjoy science fiction, don’t miss it. Also thrilling was Arcadia – world building in the past, present and future, time travel, and all of it tying together in brilliant ways. This is a smart book that I enjoyed a lot. I’m intrigued that one can read it via an app in an almost choose-your-own-adventure way. Haven’t tried that myself. When She Woke was another fascinating dystopia, focused on women’s rights and how to punish people for crimes beyond a jail sentence. I couldn’t put it down. And if you want another dystopia, Crosstalk may have a slightly trashy vibe to it, but is a hard-to-put-down, almost-present-day dystopia addressing telepathy, empathy, and our culture of smartphones and increasing communication. Meanwhile Landfalls was based on a historical voyage and was inventive, interesting and told the tale of an ill-fated voyage from the perspective of the different people on board the ship. I found this both a great and an annoying technique – but it’s worth reading. The New Woman, about a transgender person transitioning from male to female in her 50s, is an important and well-written book, and I found it unputdownable. If you are looking for a plane or beach book, you’ve found it. Slightly more lightweight but another good plane book is My Grandmother Sends her Regards and Apologies – but avoid the sequel, Britt Marie Was Here, which I found a big disappointment. Love Nina is another lightweight but compelling read for the holidays, in the form of letters from the London Review of Books editor’s nanny to her sister.

Classic author treats

Why had I never really read much Nevil Shute? Clearly a ridiculous omission from my reading lists all these years. I’ve previously loved Trustee from the Toolroom and On the Beach, but had not explored further. So I had a Nevil Shute feast this year. A Town Like Alice and Pied Piper were two absolutely glorious books. If you haven’t read them, consider this an urgent call. No Highway and In the Wet were also very good. I’d skip Round the Bend. Also in view of Brexit this year, I read the prophetically topical Rule Britannia by Daphne du Maurier which I thought was fascinating: published in 1972, it’s a dystopia where Britain is no longer part of the EU. And I couldn’t resist a delightful re-reading of Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons.

LGBT books

I was interested to come across The Miseducation of Cameron Post, which is a coming of age book about a gay girl in Montana. Much of it is set in a boarding school (where the miseducating takes place as they try to convert her to heterosexuality). It is an intriguing contemporary-feeling young adult book that I found quite unusual. In terms of gay male-themed books, The Lost Language of Cranes was another delicate, compelling coming out story, this one set in 1980s New York City. I’ve already mentioned the outstanding The New Woman and Kitchen as really interesting  books about transgender people I read this year; another was the excellent Trumpet, which I re-read for book group. The same book group had me re-read Tales of the City, a classic that gets better every time I read it.

Books about Japan

Since I moved to Japan, I have been particularly compelled to read books on that theme. My favourite of all was perhaps Hokkaido Highway Blues, a very entertaining road trip book about an English teacher hitchhiking from south to north Japan, and learning much about Japanese culture through the people he meets. Texan in Tokyo was fairly similar in theme and tone, though done partly in the form of a graphic novel. In terms of more classic literature, The Artist of the Floating World was outstanding: a personal look at the repercussions of the second world war in Japan, while The Housekeeper and the Professor is gloriously charming and surprisingly about relationships for such a mathematics-based plot. Kitchen is the first Japanese book featuring a transgender person I’ve read and it was really interesting, though not my favourite. The Haruki Murakami books I read this year (two of his first plus Sputnik Sweetheart) were fine but did not thrill me. Neither did Strange Weather in Tokyo which was, well, mostly quite strange. But I did find Woman in the Dunes a creepy and intriguing little dystopia that is not like anything I’ve read before and definitely worth a read.

RATINGS

Here are my ratings of the books I read in 2016 on a scale of 1-5, 5 being the best.

Rating: 5

An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro

Hokkaido Highway Blues by Will Ferguson

My Grandmother Sends her Regards and Apologies by Fredrik Backwan

A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler

The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily M Danforth

The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

Stone Mattress by Margaret Atwood

At the Edge of the Orchard by Tracy Chevalier

Arcadia by Iain Pears

The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa

A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute

Landfalls by Naomi Williams

The Unseen World by Liz Moore

When She Woke by Hillary Jordan

Pied Piper by Nevil Shute

The New Woman by Charity Norman

Trumpet by Jackie Kay

Rule Britannia by Daphne DuMaurier

A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers

The Lost Language of Cranes by David Leavitt

Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons

Rating: 4

Everland by Rebecca Hunt

Me and You by Niccolo Ammaniti

The Giant’s House by Elizabeth McCracken

Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares by David Levithan and Rachel Cohn

Texan in Tokyo by Grace Mineta

Crooked Heart by Lissa Evans

The Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams

This must be the Place by Maggie O’Farrell

The Mandibles by Lionel Shriver

Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by JK Rowling and others

In the Wet by Nevil Shute

Secret Language by Neil Williamson

No Highway by Nevil Shute

Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto

Unwind series by Neil Shusterman (5 books)

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

The Power by Naomi Alderman

Tales of the City by Amistead Maupin

Woman in the Dunes by Kobo Abe

Swing Time by Zadie Smith

Love Nina by Nina Stibbe

Crosstalk by Connie Willis

Rating: 3

Hear the Wind Sing by Haruki Murakami

Pinball by Haruki Murakami

My Life in Orange by Tim Guest

The Repercussions by Catherine Hall

Life, the Universe and Everything by Douglas Adams

So Long and Thanks for All the Fish by Douglas Adams

Mostly Harmless by Douglas Adams

The Family from One End Street by Eva Garnett

Britt Marie was Here by Frederik Backman

Reader, I Married him by various authors

I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson

Bilgewater by Jane Gardam

Strange Weather in Tokyo by Hiromi Kawakami

Round the Bend by Neville Shute

The Reader in the 6:27 by Jean-Paul Didierlaurent

The Wonder by Emma Donoghue

Rating: 2 and 1

None. Wow: either I had a particularly great reading year, or my standards have slipped… I haven’t rated any of my 2016 books 2 or 1.

Gender balance

Of the 65 books I read, 53% were by women and 47% were by men.

Onwards: to 2017!

 

 

Layla’s 2015 Review of Books

BOOK OF THE YEAR

SevenEves by Neil Stephenson – an amazing epic (with a time span giving new meaning to the word epic) in a meticulously realized dystopia. The end of the world is nothing new for fiction… but I’m not sure I’ve ever read much of the long view of what happens generations afterwards. This book is not perfect, but it is crammed with ideas, and I don’t think a week has gone by since I read it without me thinking of it.

DISAPPOINTMENT OF THE YEAR

Avenue of Mysteries by John Irving – I nearly burst with excitement at the prospect of a new Irving, especially one billed as the ‘next Owen Meany’… but it was really just a lot of chat about the main character’s medication, lions, ghostly women, and a ton of significant events and metaphors that were either too pretentious or facile for me to get. It is well-written, but I was bored by this book and sacrilegiously glad when it was done.

SUMMARY OF THE BOOKS I READ: READING INSPIRATION FOR YOU IN 2016

It has been a funny year for reading. I went through phases of voraciously devouring books, and other phases where I took weeks to finish a single book. But looking back, I read 54 books and they were a mixed bag.

NEW-ISH LITERATURE

Blockbusters

The only book on the Booker shortlist that really tempted me was The Year of the Runaways by Sunjeev Sahota – this is a fascinating, sad insight into the plight of young men from India coming to England in search of fortune and happiness – and how that isn’t always what happens. It’s a book about humanity in its different forms. I also really liked the author when he read from it at the Booker shortlist event in London. Another outstanding book, also by an author I loved hearing from at an event (though this time in Washington DC), was The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro. This intriguing, exquisitely written book imagines old England just after Arthur as a place rather different from reality, and centres on a delightful older couple as they journey to reclaim mysteriously lost memories. A really worthwhile, unique, and rewarding read. I found Funny Girl by Nick Hornby, about a Blackpool lass trying to break into comedy in London, to be charming, compelling, and indeed funny. Another anticipated book was Avenue of Mysteries by John Irving. See my ‘disappoint of the year’ above for details. I was also disappointed by the sequel to Life After Life – A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson was okay, but it didn’t do much for me.

Slightly more offbeat

My Salinger Year by Joanna Rakoff, about a year working for JD Salinger’s publishing house, was far more charming and compelling than I’d expected. Clever Girl by Tessa Hadley was also a nicely written, engaging read, about a ‘clever girl’ who gets pregnant when she’s young, and the sequelae to that. Family Life by Akhil Sharma gave a bit of insight into life in an Indian family though I seem to remember it being a bit depressing. The Storied Life of AJ Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin (not that new, but was assigned reading on a holiday I was on this year) was lightweight but charming, about a man who runs a bookshop which is always an attractive theme. I went to a Booktopia event (by the people behind the podcast Books on the Nightstand) so read a few books by authors who spoke at that event. Thus The Book of Unknown Americans by Christina Henriquez which was fab (Mexican family move to Delaware, don’t have a very good time, but good discussion of the contemporary American immigrant experience). I also read Fram by Steve Himmer – a sort of magic realism Arctic sort of book. Didn’t really know what to make of it, but it was interesting… (and I liked Steve).

SCIENCE FICTION WHERE THE PROTAGONISTS ARE (MOSTLY) YOUNG

Of course I continued to fan my zeal for science fiction, particularly dystopias, and this was a great year for that. I discovered the silo series by Hugh Howey and very much enjoyed Wool, Shift and Dust, about humankind surviving underground in a society within a giant silo while the world above is poisoned. I also discovered the Life as We Knew series by Susan Beth Pfeffer, which surprised me in its excellent and engaging depiction of life on earth after a moon-related disaster. I adored Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel – a deeply engaging, complex story about a post-pandemic world. And I was really interested by Speak by Louisa Hall, about artificial intelligence and the risks of becoming too attached to your robot – I didn’t enjoy the way the narrators jumped around though. My least favourite sci fi book was probably The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer (interesting ideas about drug lords running countries, growing clones for parts, etc, but it all gets a bit too depressing). And of course I couldn’t resist a bit of John Wyndham – I adored The Midwich Cuckoos.

All of the above are told mostly from the perspective of teenagers/young adults. Sort of in-between was the surprising and compelling The Silent History by multiple authors. What an interesting book, and not just in its multi-author conception. It looks in a pseudo-factual, reporter-ish way at a rapidly expanding phenomenon of children who are unable to speak, and how society interacts with this. It’s not often you find books that are really bubbling with ideas and social commentary. I liked this book.

SCIENCE FICTION WHERE THE PROTAGONISTS ARE (MOSTLY) ADULTS

As for sci-fi about grown ups, I discovered Neil Stephenson this year. Snowcrash, about a future where corporations exist instead of countries, there’s no real law, and people exist online, is an intriguing, meticulously built world, even if I didn’t particularly warm to the high-peril, save-the-world type story. But I absolutely adored SevenEves also by Stephenson, a story about the survival and evolution of humans, taking place over thousands of years after the Earth’s destruction (by another moon event) – see my ‘book of the year’ above for details. Of course the most anticipated adult-focused dystopia book published this year may have been The Heart Goes Last by Margaret Atwood. I’d read her previews on Kindle, and heard her talk about it, so I knew what to expect from this tale of an ‘ordinary’ couple seeking refuge from a dystopic world in an apparently ideal one, with a few strange – and of course alarming – quirks. I wanted this to be A Handmaid’s Tale. Alas it was not. It was good though, and worth reading, but I didn’t think it was great. The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North was a better, more interesting read than the Bone Clocks (people who are continually reborn over many generations), while The Book of Strange New Things by Michael Faber was a less good (but still pretty good) version of The Sparrow (Christian missionaries meet aliens on far away planets). Sliding down my list of enjoyment, I didn’t really enjoy The Affinities by Robert Charles Wilson, despite its promise about extrapolating from how we live and narrow our lives on social media by separating people into affinity groups, which I think is an interesting commentary. The Forever Watch by Ramirez David was full of promise, following a woman on board the Noah, a space arc saving humankind from an earth disaster – but the writing wasn’t great, and it just went on and on far beyond my caring about it. I had to google it to even remember it from my list! Neither was I a big fan of The Dog Stars by Peter Heller, another apocalyptic take – it was a bit macho or something… I don’t know. But to be fair, the writing itself was pretty good.

AN ADULT READING YOUNG ADULT FICTION

I read a bit of young adult type fiction, the best of which may have been Wonder by RJ Palacio (a great, unusual, and gloriously engaging school story about how a boy with facial disfigurements affects his peers – its sequel Auggie and Me is of a similar excellent quality) and Black Swan Green by David Mitchell (middle-England coming of age), and my least favourite was The Wanderers by Richard Price (but if you like books about teenage gangs in New York, this may be for you…). I read two books about young girls sent to boarding schools for emotionally damaged children – what are the odds? I really liked Among Others by Jo Walton, about a sci fi fangirl with a bizarre family situation, but you have to have a certain tolerance for magic… Belzhar by Meg Wolitzer of The Interestings fame was a really interesting read, and I suppose I’d better not give it away but suffice to say it also involves a bit of magic. An Abundance of Katherines and Paper Towns, both by John Greene, were okay but didn’t thrill me. Katherines was slightly better. And some more trashy style (but still enjoyable) like Greyhound by Steffan Piper (young boy from dysfunctional family makes long trip alone on Greyhound bus), while too trashy to really be that enjoyable was The Fever by Megan Abbott (school students become hysterically infected with a weird epidemic), and Landline by Rainbow Rowell (calling from a particular phone connects woman to the past).

CLASSICS

I squeezed in a bit of classic English literature. I adored Trustee from the Toolroom by Neville Shute, about a very ordinary man having an extraordinary adventure in a very English way. I enjoyed Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. I was rather delighted by the surprisingly feminist messages in An Old Fashioned Girl by Louisa May Alcott. And I delighted in The Haunted Hotel by Wilkie Collins, about strange happenings around a marriage – I read it mostly because I was in Venice, where it is largely set, but it was absolutely compelling.

BOOKS ABOUT JAPAN

Given I’m about to move to Japan, I’ve been reading a bit around that. Not counting my delightful Japanese textbooks, I’ve enjoyed some books by foreigners (‘gaijin’) about their experiences living in Japan. My favourite may have been Tune in Tokyo by Tim Anderson, a witty, interesting, quirky account of his time teaching English in Japan and what life was like for him in Tokyo. I quite enjoyed My Japanese Husband Still Thinks I’m Crazy by Grace Buchele Mineta, a sequel with cartoons about a Texan’s ongoing culture shock in Tokyo. A Geek in Japan by Hector Garcia was okay though not as engaging. I also read some Japanese-based literature, and The Thousand Lives of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell was intriguing, fascinating, and instructive about times before Japan was open to the West, though I found some storylines more engaging than others.

RATINGS

Here are my ratings of the books I read in 2015, all of which are how much I personally enjoyed a book, out of 5:

Rating: 5

SevenEves by Neil Stephenson

SnowCrash by Neil Stephenson

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North

The Thousand Lives of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell

The Year of the Runaways by Sunjeev Sahota

Trustee from the Toolroom by Neville Shute

The Book of Unknown Americans by Christina Henriquez

Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel

Funny Girl by Nick Hornby

Wonder by RJ Palacio

My Salinger Year by Joanna Rakoff

Belzhar by Meg Wolitzer

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

Tune in Tokyo by Tim Anderson

The Silent History by multiple authors

Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham

The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro

Rating: 4

The Book of Strange New Things by Michael Faber

Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer

The Dead and the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer

The World We Live In by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Among Others by Jo Walton

Wool, Shift and Dust, all by Hugh Howey

Black Swan Green by David Mitchell

Family Life by Akhil Sharma

An Abundance of Katherines by John Greene

An Old Fashioned Girl by Louisa May Alcott

The Storied Life of AJ Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin

Clever Girl by Tessa Hadley

Speak by Louisa Hall

The Heart Goes Last by Margaret Atwood

The Haunted Hotel by Wilkie Collins

Rating: 3

The Dog Stars by Peter Heller

The Shade of the Moon by Susan Beth Pfeffer

My Japanese Husband Still Thinks I’m Crazy by Grace Buchele Mineta

The Forever Watch by Ramirez David

Fram by Steve Himmer

Greyhound by Steffan Piper

A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson

The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer

Paper Towns by John Greene

The Affinities by Robert Charles Wilson

A Geek in Japan by Hector Garcia

The Forever Watch by Ramirez David

Rating: 2

The Wanderers by Richard Price

Packing Up by Brigid Keenan

The Fever by Megan Abbott

Landline by Rainbow Rowell

Rating: 1

None. Phew.

SO WHAT’S NEXT FOR 2016?

I can’t wait to start reading in 2016. I already have a few books I’m excited about lined up for reading: Everland by Rebecca Hunt, Pinball by Haruki Murakami and the Iron Heel by Jack London, all Christmas presents. If you have any suggestions of what I might like, please do comment at the end of this blog. Happy new year, and happy reading!

Post-apocalyptic rebuild in Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel

As you all know, I’m a sucker for an end-of-the-world dystopia but not for a while have I found one quite so compelling and so real. We start out at the theatre, where a movie star named Arthur dies in a shocking ‘tragedy’, just before the Georgian flu starts to spread, a global pandemic with a rapid, 99% death rate. It makes you think: what sort of death is tragic?  What really matters? What is humanity without its trappings? How lucky was Arthur to die when the world was still in order?

I’ve seen reviews criticising the ‘world building’ in this dystopia but in my opinion that is part of its beauty: we never really get an overview of what’s happened to the world. Instead we experience this new world order, or disorder, from very personal, provincial points of view, flitting between people with tenuous links to Arthur, in a way that emphasises how small the world might feel without mass communications and long distance connections. We know we’re only hearing about a tiny snapshot of the post-flu civilisation. And that’s okay. 

If I have two criticisms about the realism of this world, I wonder at remaining humankind’s lack of capitalist tendencies and practical skills. But in general this felt real, I felt in the action, I loved several of the characters and after reading quite a lot of gung ho action dystopias of late, it was nice to find such a nuanced balance of compelling plot, charismatic characters, contemplative thoughtfulness, and a healthy helping of nuanced symbolism (the book title refers to the art that eschews mass replication, yet outlasts both technology and superficial celebrity and touches the hearts of two key characters). The book is really more philosophy than action – but don’t let that put you off.

In conclusion, I’m not sure I’d do well at the end of this particular world, but I rather hope I end up in an airport with my wife. This is one of my top reads of the year so far.

Rating: 5/5 shoes

Review: Fram

Fram by Steve Himmer

It’s not often I read a book and think ‘hmmm, that was quite odd.’ And yet with Fram I couldn’t quite figure out what to make of it. It is very much a book of two halves. I developed huge fondness for the main character, Oscar, a man whose obsessive love of the concept of the north pole (charmingly abbreviated by his longsuffering wife to PF, or Polar Fever), and his unquestioning bureaucratic dedication mean that Oscar has his dream government job at the bizarre Bureau of Ice Prognostication, complete with its ridiculous, meticulous processes and shroud of secrecy. He has a dream marriage too; however it is at risk of going sour. But then Oscar finds himself sent north on a secret, inexplicable mission fraught with peril that anyone with less bureaucratic dedication might find perturbing… Oscar is brilliant. I loved the first half of this book. But with his bizarre mission to the north pole, or somewhere like that, I started to love it a bit less. I got impatient reading it. There were questions that were never answered. I flicked through some bits about a hunter that I didn’t quite get. It all turned into a strange sort of adventure which was entertaining, a bit inexplicable, and ultimately either hopeful or hopeless. I heard Steve Himmer speak about the book (and he was brilliant) and when asked about how it ended, he refused to reveal his intent. So whether pessimism or optimism… apparently that depends on the reader. Having heard him speak just before I finished it, and knowing his intent, this left me in a state of angsty lack of resolution.

Rating: 3/5 shoes

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Three coming of age books ‘beyond the rye’

What exactly is a coming of age book? A couple of weeks ago, I was intrigued to attend a discussion class at Politics and Prose (lovely independent bookshop in Washington DC) to consider three ‘coming of age’ books ‘beyond the rye’, Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury, Black Swan Green by David Mitchell, and The Wanderers by Richard Price. The class was run by author James Grady. 

I have a massive soft spot for coming of age books, so proved a feisty student. We had an interesting discussion about whether ‘coming of age book’ and ‘novel about children’ were synonymous and indeed whether we adults favor the more pretentious-sounding genre to justify our childish reading choices… In fact other than books where the kids are frozen in eternal youth, like the Famous Five, I personally find it hard to think of many novels starring a child character which couldn’t be characterized as ‘coming of age’ – can you? That transition phase as a child experiences and learns things that mould them from innocence and simplicity into their grown up selves is to me the most fascinating time of life to read about – that pluripotent time where anything could happen, when their life could still take any direction. I love how such a universal process always feels so unique and yet resonant. There’s rarely a coming of age book I don’t manage to enjoy (especially, I confess, if it takes place in a dystopia). 

And yet, my experience at this class made it clear to me that I very much prefer the coming of age stories that focus on girls, or gay boys (of which I’ve probably read hundreds), to the violent, posturing, and foreign-feeling boyhood world in which these three set books took place (one of my few forrays into this domain). I admit I didn’t enjoy any of them much except Black Swan Green which was wonderful. There was indeed that horrible stereotypical schoolboy violence but there was a fascinating backdrop, sensitively-rendered relationships, a stammer which almost felt like a character in its own right, and there was charm and joy and quirk. The English countryside was well-depicted but still, gender simplification as it may be, I finished it thinking “gosh, I’m so glad I’m not a boy!”

Next I read The Wanderers, about gangs in the Bronx, and I had the same thought a thousand times over. It was so infused with violence I almost found it too stressful to read, even though I could tell it was very well done, in a sort of West Side Story way. 

I’d been particularly looking forward to Dandelion Wine as I always have high hopes of Ray Bradbury,  but then found it so self-consciously dull I soon ended up skipping it altogether. 

A strange little batch of reading but sometimes it’s nice to find myself obliged to read something I otherwise wouldn’t. I think it’s good to know what else is going on in the land of coming of age before I settle down with my beloved The Painted Garden by Noel Streatfeild – which, on three thousandth reading, is a glorious antidote to gang warfare. Even though the characters don’t change all that much, I’m still calling The Painted Garden a ‘coming of age book’ to comfort me that I’m not just reading a children’s story. Ahem… Anyone want to stop me?

The Silo Series by Hugh Howey

One sentence plot: The world’s air has been poisoned long ago; the only survivors live underground in a silo. 

In the mood for a nice new dystopia for holiday reading, I happened across Hugh Howey’s Silo series (Wool, Shift and Dust) and I was hooked. Each of these books is over 400 pages making this a real epic read, but very much an easy read, and pretty consistently compelling (though some friends disagree!). 

Essentially we have the standard dystopia formula of people living in some socially very different evolution from our present day society following an unspecified disaster with the population going along with the rules enforced by those in charge, til some lone person wants the truth, and a better life, and starts asking questions. What is fun about this trilogy is that after the first book it’s told from two different sides, the dystopic world we have met, and another dystopic world that’s linked in fascinating ways… 

I felt the world of the silo was very well crafted and full of great detail. The characters were interesting and relatable and generally well drawn. At times this was a compulsive page turner. I particularly enjoyed one of the main characters, Juliette, and liked that gender is a fairly irrelevant fact in this world. There are a lot of very good characters, some less compelling. The writing is more than competent (though not expecting a Booker Prize nomination for this one). But really I most appreciated the well-imagined plot. Despite being written in serial form, it comes together very well. I admit to pulling a couple of very late nights just to find out what happened next. 

I could find out, because there’s a sequel, Sand. Can’t decide if I like the sound of it, but I expect I’ll cave and not regret it. Good dystopia, Howey!

The verdict: 4/5 shoes

The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henriquez

One sentence plot summary: A Mexican family move to Delaware after their daughter has an accident that leaves her with brain damage, and they find a community in this foreign country. 

Do you ever feel you’ve had a run of reading things that were… just okay? Well thank goodness for The Book of Unknown Americans for breaking my rut of pleasant mediocrity. 

Maribel’s parents reluctantly leave their lovely Mexican home behind in hope of accessing the special education they hope will help their daughter after an accident that leaves her with brain damage. They end up living in a depressing apartment block in Delaware where Maribel’s father braves a depressing job while Maribel’s mother Alma tries to make a life for them all. 

The book is primarily about this family’s story, but interwoven is the story of the other immigrant families living in the apartments. The narrative, which is beautifully done, moves between Maribel’s family members and, as Maribel makes a friend of Mayor, those of his family across the hall. Their voices are charming and compelling and real. Every so often a short chapter flits to another apartment dweller, building up a sensitive, nuanced, happy and sad and very human picture of how each individual ended up converging in that Delaware building that they’ve all unexpectedly found themselves calling home. It’s smart and reflective. 

Don’t relax, because worse things happen than you might expect. But the message of the book seems to be that life isn’t about blame, recriminations, or dwelling on the might-have-beens and what-ifs. And ultimately, that’s an uplifting, hopeful thought. This book is very well done. 

Rating: 4/5

Among Others by Jo Walton

One sentence summary: After surviving an incident involving magic, that killed her twin sister, 15-year-old Morwenna’s love of science fiction books help survive her boarding school and build a new life. 

I like coming of age books set in boarding schools. I like books about reading. But I’m not sure I like books about fairies and magic… This book is a combination of these, and in the end I did quite enjoy it. But would I recommend it? Not sure. 

When we meet her, Morwenna has fled her home in Wales, where her mother was mentally/magically dangerous, and is placed with her estranged father in a posh English boarding school. They bond over a shared love of sci fi, but thanks to his never-explained bizarre social situation, she finds herself sent to a boarding school where she overcomes the town/gown divide to make friends who also love science fiction books. Oh, and some talking to fairies, and a bit of magical peril. 

What was confusing about this book to me was the seemingly random magical bits inserted amidst a fairly standard and enjoyable coming of age story. Some parts are all a bit too neat (the people she meets become perfect friends); other parts are insufficiently neat (OMG the aunts may be trying to steal her magic by piercing her ears, you say? Errr… Why? Are they magical too? Mysterious family suicide… Why are there no answers or elaboration?) And then the end: eh?!

I kept wondering if the magic bits were supposed to be metaphors but I’m not convinced – I think they were intended to be taken as read. Maybe… I liked Morwenna, I enjoyed her detailed book enthusiasm (if I knew more about 70s science fiction literature it would have been even better, but not necessary to enjoy). I even enjoyed the relationships she made between the other characters. But I found it hard to suspend disbelief and embrace the magic, personally. 

Rating: 3/5

The Forever Watch by David Ramirez

One-sentence synopsis: The world has ended, and Hana happily lives aboard the Noah, a giant spaceship transporting the remainder of humanity on a hundreds-of-years journey to a distant planet – until she discovers there’s a grisly secret.

It’s a bad sign when you go to write a review of a book finished a couple of days ago and think: “gosh, what was that about again?” The Forever Watch was recommended to me by a friend, and as a dystopia enthusiast, I was excited about reading it. I was partly rewarded, but mostly left unfulfilled.

First, I will say that this is an ambitious and well realised sci fi world. The author sets up a meticulously detailed civilisation inside the massive spaceship Noah where a whole population lives and works together to keep the spaceship running as efficiently as possible on its long journey to the distant planet where humanity will eventually repopulate. Everyone has a role according to their talents, and everyone’s talents are somehow augmented. There is a complicated, cool system of tapping into humans’ powers to achieve different things and to communicate in a way that is fascinating and compelling (and explained with slightly too much detail).

Descriptions of life onboard the Noah take up the first third of the book, and this was my favorite part – though I’ve read other reviews complaining that this part dragged. It clearly depends on whether the reader’s taste is for daily life in a dystopia (me) or murder mystery hijinks and peril (really not me). The last two thirds of the book involves a complicated hunt for the truth, involving a certain amount of highly complicated technology use. This was done reasonably well though I kept getting confused about what was happening.

The element of the book that put me off the most was Hanna’s relationship with ‘my man’, ‘my lion’, ‘my beast’, aka her unconventional boyfriend, a policeman with a mission to uncover a secret, which he draws her into. Every time she spoke about him like that, it made me cringe, and like both of them less.

There were all sorts of fascinating questions explored in this book, and the dystopia was well realized. Other than her sloppy soppy way of referring to her boyfriend, I liked Hanna a lot as a main character. Plus the ending is good.

The reviews I’ve read have mostly been glowing. Personally, I can name about 30 sci fi books I’ve enjoyed more. Nevertheless, an interesting read. But one I nearly ditched with a third of the book to go due to boredom, irritation, and lack of taste for murder mysteries…

Rating: 3/5 shoes