World Book Night 2021: Book Thirteen

 

Up in the Attic by Pam Ayres (Ebury)

Own book

I've been dipping in and out of this book for a couple of weeks  and this is how I normally approach poetry books not a reflection on the quality or the ability of this volume to capture my interest.

As is to be expected not every poem in the book is to my taste but certainly enough were to mean that I did read them all and laugh mightily at some of them.

I think my favourite was the series about long haul travel - I recognised every stage of that cycle and it was a way to remember that the pandemic and not being able to travel does have some plus sides!

The one thing I couldn't quite capture with this was Ayres' own voice - she has a great accent and her work does sound best (to my ears at least) when she is reading them and I'd have loved this even more as an audio book.

As a World Book Night introduction to poetry I think it is a brilliant choice and I'm not sure that I will be passing my copy on to family as I initially thought.

Put to shame by Kentishbookboy's reading!

Ooops!

Oh dear, the idea of how great the Coronavirus (Covid-19) lockdown will be for catching up on books, films and TV series couldn't be more wrong for me. I am busy than ever at work and working my hours over five days and not three which somehow doesn't leave me as much time or mental space for reading.

The Kentishbookboy is having more luck than me but as the weather recently has been glorious and it was the school Easter 'holiday' he's been doing a lot more outdoor things related to science, nature, technology and inventing.

Also as he'd completed his school reading challenge I think that he enjoyed reading and not having to think about writing it up!

A new review did drop into my inbox recently and he's managed to tick of the 'poetry' square on his bingo card with this great summary:

His enthusiasm for poetry was obviously rekindled by this book as he gave his mum and dad an Easter gift poem, something that he'd composed in secret so really gave them a nice surprise.

I can also say that I am able to tick off the poetry box on my bingo sheet as a friend surprised me by having a copy of White Ink Stains by Eleanor Brown delivered to me and I've had this beside my bed and dipped in and out of an evening before sleep.  I don't think that I am ever going to become a huge poetry fan but in approaching this volume like it was full of short stories and knowing that not all of them were going to be for me, and that it is ok to just read one and then stop was definitely the right approach for this volume.

Here's hoping that work calms down enough that I can find more time and energy for reading and that the nice weather returns so I can sit in the garden with a book...I think that Carrie's War might be next on the agenda as KBB is studying WW2 this half term...

That was the year I read...

The end of the year round up for me concludes with my lists of best books for 2016.

This was a year that saw me complete (and pass) my MA and find lots of time for reading. This year the grand total was 223 books finished between 1st January and 31st December.  There are quite a few I've started and wandered away from, none of them bad enough to give up totally on - just ones that failed to engage me at the time.  With so many read I haven't broken them down (yet) into fiction/non fiction or male/female etc.

In mid December I was asked to write for the work blog and list my top reads of the year there, that list can be read here along with the choices of my colleagues. After some more reading and reflecting many of my overall choices remain the same but I have made some last minute additions and alterations - books I remembered how much I'd loved them as I added the books from my journal to my spreadsheet.

My overall top fiction book of the year does go to my friend James' The Apprentice Witch.  It was such a happy read and one that I want to share with so many people that how can it not be my top book?  Before reading it I knew nothing about the book apart from the author but I know that as a child I'd have read and reread this one loads - it ticks all of my boxes, and while it is the first of a series it is also a complete story which is wonderful.

In non fiction my top book is actually one I read last year but due to restrictions that came with it I couldn't talk about it then. Philippe Sands East West Street went on to gain lots of praise (and prizes). It isn't an easy read but by heck has it stayed with me. I'm really sad that we were away when Sands came to Norwich as I'd like to have told him in person just what a brilliant book I found this one.

The rest of my lists have been really hard to compile - it seems that I have had a really good reading year after all!

Top Young Adult Reads 

Am I Normal Yet? - Holly Bourne. This was a World Book Night title and I read it down in one sitting. The sequels are good but didn't stay with me in quite the same way.

Chasing The Stars - Malorie Blackman. In the year of Shakespeare this retelling of Othello isn't just for a young audience. Shakespeare in space worked really well.

The One Memory of Flora Banks - Emily Barr. This was one of the last books I read this year, and as it was a Netgalley book it isn't officially published until next week but it was still gripping enough that I stayed up far too late to finish it! If pushed to describe it I'd say Before I Go To Sleep for a slightly younger readership, with added snow.

Nina Is Not OK - Shappi Khorsandi. Another 'issue' book but again one that had me reading from cover to cover avidly.  Coming from a comedienne it has a nice vein of humour running throughout but this never detracts from the serious point.

Top Fiction Reads

The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen 83 1/4 Years Old - Hendrik Groen. Reviewed here.

The Infinite Air - Fiona Kidman. A wonderful tale of the first women fliers chasing records in the air.

Cartes Postales - Victoria Hislop. Reviewed here, and Father Christmas did take a hint and there was a copy of this under the tree for me!

Shtum - Jem Lester.  I read this early in the year and had almost forgotten it until I read through my journal, on seeing the title it all came flooding back - a deeply moving story about a mad dealing with a disabled child and a dying father. Put like that it sounds terrible but the writing was beautiful.

Five Rivers Met on a Wooded Plain- Barney Norris. This made many of the 2016 'best of lists' and it is again a clever novel weaving 5 stories together.

The Summer Before the War - Helen Simonson. I can't praise this one highly enough, it really did make the summer before WW1 come to life for me and show what a shock the brutalilty of the war was for many.

Mrs Tim of the Regiment - D E Stevenson.  This was my discovery of the year, all about the life of the wife of a regiment's CO in the 1920s.  Reminiscent of Diary of a Provincial Lady, I'm now on the hunt for more books featuring the delightful Mrs Tim.

Top Non Fiction Reads (incl. graphic novels and poetry)

The Old King in His Castle - Arno Geiger, tr. Stefan Tobler.  I can't really explain this book, on the surface it is Geiger recounting his father's life and battle with Alzheimer's but it is so much more than this.

Eighty Days - Matthew Goodman. Two New York women set out to see if you really can go around the world in 80 days - one goes east, one goes west.

The House by the Lake - Thomas Harding. The history of Germany since 1900 told via just one house on a lake just outside Berlin.  Since reading this I've read a couple of other books that reference this village which has been a bit weird but added a lot to those books!

A World Gone Mad - Astrid Lindgren tr. Sarah Death.  Better known as the author of the Pippi Longstocking books this was a fascinating insight into life in neutral Sweden during WW2, their ideas of shortages will make you laugh but it is a fascinating take on the war.

Frontier Grit - Marianne Monson.  The West of America is, rightly or wrongly, associated with cowboys, gold rushes and men so this book addresses this by telling the story of some of the women who opened up the West. Fascinating reading but I'm glad I can visit in the 21st century!

Food Fights and Culture Wars - Tom Nealon. A history of the world told via food stuffs as varied as carp and Bovril. Quirky and full of beautiful eillustrations from the British Library collection.

Marzi - Marzana Sowa tr. Sylvain Savoia. A graphic novel about growing up in Poland in the 1980s, before the fall of communism.

Jerusalem - Guy Delisle. I reviewed his books in general here but it is Jerusalem that has stayed with me as Delisle echoed so many of my thoughts about this troubled city.

Sentenced to Life - Clive James. This is the second year running that James has made my best of lists, and this time - to my surprise - it is his poetry book that I loved.  It is again a sad/morbid book but there is so much beauty and hope in these poems. As ever I didn't like them all but the volume as a whole was a delight.

The Print Museum - Heidi Williamson. In 2016 I got to be a shadow judge on the East Anglian Book Awards and this took me way out of my comfort zone with the reading I undertook but again, to my surprise, it was the poetry book The Print Museum that stayed with me - and I'm pleased  to say the main judging panel as it won the poetry section of the prize!

Here's hoping that 2017 will be an equally good year book wise!

Theatre 2014: Review Twelve

Cats. Theatre Royal Norwich. April 2014.

Although my love of theatre did start a while ago with musicals (a trip to see Les Miserables at 13 was my first West End experience) it has been a while since I've seen one of the 'big' musicals.

I know a few of the famous songs from the score but apart from knowing that they were adaptations of T S Eliot's poems Old Possums Book of Practical Cats I didn't know how it worked as a narrative stage production.

And to be honest at the end of the first half I still didn't, the opening overture had been great and the end of the act with Memory was wonderful but I had absolutely no clue what was going on.  It didn't help that the theatre was excessively hot and concentrating on a story told in the medium of modern dance was hard work.

A flick through the programme in the interval and a stronger story arc helped in the second act and the staging of Skimbleshank the Railway Cat's story was wonderful and so inventive and by the end I was mostly won over. However I do wonder if this was a musical of its time and that it is only the name that keeps it selling out - a bit like The Mousetrap.

Several thoughts went through my mind during the production:

• how come I can completely suspend disbelief when watching either War Horse or Swan Lake but at no point could I see cats in the people on stage.
• when you notice how clever the set it over the performers then there is something missing.
• how rude the cast were in not acknowledging the orchestra at the end of the performance.
• what an amazing voice the understudy Griselda had - better than some of the cast recordings I've heard with real stars.

I'm pleased we went, and I don't think I've become anti-musical since studying theatre in more depth but this wasn't quite for me.

This is a post to shock my dad...

Strange Meetings by Harry Ricketts

... well this is a book review post to shock my dad (and many others that know me)

I think I've read a book that could be my book of the year, and it is about poetry and poets.

Now while I'm not a poetry fan normally I've always liked much of the poetry that came out of the First World War, for once studying a topic didn't put me off totally.

This book isn't about the poetry primarily but more about how the lives of the famous war poets were linked - either intimately, casually or via the six degrees of Kevin Bacon.

All of the characters came back to life on the page, they were neither demonised nor lionised and the excerpts of poetry complement the biographies perfectly. 

I can honestly say that I almost missed my train stop on Saturday as I was reading this, it really was an undignified scramble to get off the train in time! I've been recommending the book left, right and centre since finishing it and that makes only the 3rd book this year that I can say that about.  

It won't be to everyone's taste but I was blown away by the book.

Trying New Things

Dancing on Ice, Nottingham Arena, April 2012

I didn't intend 2012 to be a year of new challenges and experiences but that does seem to be how it is panning out so far - and that includes the blog as blogger seems to have changed quite radically since I last posted.

On Saturday I took a friend to see Dancing on Ice Live in Nottingham.  This really was a treat for her and I admit that I was dreading it a little bit.  I am the clumsiest person around on solid ground and can't ice skate to save my life, plus I've never watched an episode of Dancing on Ice.  However I do remember watching the Olympics back in 1984 and seeing Torvill and Dean winning their gold medal with Ravel's Bolero.

The arena was huge and we were *pretty* high up - jokes about oxygen masks and nosebleeds felt pertinent!  The advantage to these seats became clear as soon as the skaters appeared on the ice as we could see all of the skaters at once and the patterns they were creating on the ice.  There were big screens to the side so that seeing close ups were possible.

I only knew one of the 'celebrities' who was skating and so that part of the show left me a little cold but I was blown away when Torvill and Dean or the professional took to the ice - the speed, grace and moves that these people performed were truly incredible.  Skating whilst hula-hooping fire has to be seen to be believed.

What surprised me the most was how influenced I was by the lighting (and costumes) when the ice and lights were yellows and oranges I instantly disliked the routine but the pinks, blues and purples really captured my attention.

I did surprise myself with how much fun I did have, but this was a one off - I don't think I'll be doing it again.

The trying new things continues today as it is World Book Night and I will be the MC for an Open Mic poetry night...

A bit quiet

I almost read myself to a standstill during February and March and so consequently don't have a lot of books to blog about at the moment.

In addition to this I was reading a lot of more academic books about All Quiet on the Western Front in preparation for the April meeting of the International Fiction group. It was a great meeting and I discovered that some of my reactions to All Quiet when I read it for World Book Night might have been because when I read the book before it was actually a different translation...
I'd purposely saved a few copies of my WBN version of the book to give to group members and they went down really well. The main consensus of the meeting was that you can't call the book 'good' per se but it really is one that everybody should read.

The main reason for not having a lot to write about is that I am reading in preparation for this year's Writer's Centre Norwich Summer Read campaign. The WCN kindly let me have the six books in advance and I am reading them ready to be able to talk/blog about them as soon as the promotion starts on May 3rd. Details for now can be found here but there is so much more to announce. 3 whole months dedicated to good books and authors - I can't wait.

And I'm even reading another poetry book!

World Book Night Challenge 7/25

The World's Wife - Carol Ann Duffy

I approached this second poetry volume on the list with not quite as much trepidation as the first and I'm not sure if this paid off or if more of the poems appealed to me.

I'd not read any Duffy before this and apart from being aware that she is the current poet laureate I knew nothing about her works at all. Like I said a few posts ago I really do tend to avoid poetry.

I liked about half of the poems in this collection. I think it is that the subject matter was so much clearer. They are all poems either about or supposedly by the 'wives' of famous male historical characters. There is a lot of humour in many of the poems and I defy anyone not to snigger at Mrs Darwin's very short poem.

Since reading the book I have read a little more about Duffy and I think that I might even try a few more of her poems. These poems at least seem to have a very strong feminist ideal coming through and I liked both enjoying the poems and seeing the meaning behind them.

So there we are - World Book Night has made me read books I really would normally have avoided like the plague and enjoy them.

Who knows maybe this year I *will* like Doctor Who!

World Book Night Challenge 5/25

New Selected Poems 1966-1987 - Seamus Heaney

This is one of the books I was dreading reading for the challenge. I never read poetry through choice and I think that I can count the number of poems I like on my fingers. It is a running joke in the family that the BBC radio programme Poetry Please is known as Poetry No Thanks!

I can't say that I liked many of the poems, and there were dozens that I really didn't understand - I am sure that there was a meaning in there somewhere but it eluded me. However the two of three that I like made reading the book worthwhile, and I now don't dread the other poetry book on the list half as much.

Another book that I'm pleased I read but it didn't convert me to liking poetry and I won't be searching out more works by Heaney. I might however be a little slower in switching the radio off though.