Micro review 5 (2024) - so far out of my comfort zone I can't even see it!

 

Kammy: My Unbelievable Life by Chris Kamara (Pan Macmillan)

I've written before about how I often read for various projects which introduce me to books I'd never normally reach for, and sometimes this is great and sometimes not so good.

This time I was asked to read Kammy and I had no idea who he is - or was as I didn't even know if he was still alive!

It turns out he was a reasonably famous footballer turned presenter/pundit and while I wasn't expecting to find anything to enjoy in this book I found myself racing through it because it was so engaging!

Kammy has told his story to a very good ghost writer/co author and a fascinating book is the result. Kudos to Kammy for acknowledging Colin Young so openly too.

It mixes autobiographical chapters (in mostly chronological order) with chapters about more recent times and the result for a non football fan was that the book never got too bogged down in details about football matches as you knew there'd be a focus switch in a few pages.

The 'modern' part of the story is about Kammy's struggles with mental and physical health and he does this in such an open and engaging way that I think this book can do a lot to break down stigmas around both.

I'm still not a football fan but as happened back in 2021 (when I challenged myself to read all of the World Book Night titles) I I really enjoyed a book about the sport - I must remember to not dismiss books by footballers!

Micro review 4 (2024)

 

Safiyyah's War by Hiba Noor Khan (Andersen Press)

I read this book back last summer and really enjoyed reading it. It is  another book set in WW2 but this one had a different spin as while it was set in Paris during the Occupation it focuses on the resistance work undertaken by the Islamic community of the city and the help they provided to Jews trying to escape.

This is a book for children/young teenagers but it still packs one heck of a punch, and even with all the books I've read about WW2/Resistance/Occupation it brought a completely new dimension to this period of history.

At a time when tensions in the Middle East are once more in the news this book is a good reminder that cooperation between faiths is possible.

I'm really pleased that this book has been Shortlisted for this year's YOTO Carnegie Medal and longlisted for the Jhalak Children's and Young Adults Prize - it really deserves to reach a wide audience (and not just children).

Time Flies again (micro reviews 1, 2, & 3 for 2024)

 

How can it be February already?

The adage about time speeding up as you get older is definitely true and while January did feel like it had about a 1000 days it also rushed past in a flash and I just haven't had time to blog. 

Its not that I've not been reading, January was quite a productive month book wise but many of the books are very advance copies that I can't talk about yet and to be honest after a crazy busy work month the last thing I wanted to do afterwards was open the laptop and spend more time in front of a screen.

Anyhow here's a quick review of 3 books that have stuck in my mind since reading them...

Christ on a Bike by Orla Owen (Bluemoose Books)

I'd seen lots of chat about this one on social media for a while and was really pleased when my library copy came in the day after publication - the blurb was very intriguing too:

Cerys receives an unexpected inheritance but there are rules attached. Three simple rules that must be followed.

As she settles into her new life, she begins to feel trapped: the past is ever-present. She convinces herself that the villagers are watching her and, desperate to control her own future, she tries to break free...

The tension in this grew and grew with every chapter and I found myself snatching every opportunity to read this book available - I'm loathe to say too much about it as I think the blurb tells you as much as you need to know...

Atalanta by Jennifer Saint (Headline Publishing Group)

I'm very pleased that the trend for retelling myths and legends is continuing, and that they are often putting the women back in to the story front a centre. I'd heard of Atalanta but didn't know much about her story, even after reading Mark Knowle's Argo and Rosie Hewlett's Medea in the past couple of years - both novels which cover some of Atalanta's story.

I am also hopeful (thanks to some of my secret advance reading projects) that this trend for retelling myths will branch out into other cultures beyond the Greek/Roman world.

Clara Reads Proust by Stephanie Carlier/Tr. Polly Mackintosh (Gallic Books) & The Iliad - translated by Emily Wilson (W.W. Norton)

Clara isn't  out for another few weeks and my advance copy was provided by Gallic Books, but while I very much enjoyed the story and the writing/translation what struck me about this book was the timing...

The book is about Clara as she starts reading the novels of Proust for the first time and how while she was aware of them the details were all new. At the start of January I joined an online reading group to read The Iliad and very much like Clara I was familiar with a lot of the story but only the highlights. The synchronicity of the novel and my life definitely added to my appreciation of Clara!  

Why I loved those 20 books from 2023 - part two!

 

Why that Top 20?

Following on from my New Year's Day post of top 20 books for 2023 here's the reasoning behind my top fiction books.

It was really hard to pick just 10 (as ever) and I do feel bad that The Half Life of Valery K by Natasha Pulley and the Cat + Gamer manga books by Wataru Nadatani (tr. Davisson), and Wandering Souls by Cecile Pin didn't make the cut as all were excellent - in very different ways.

An Astronomer in Love - in a year of such horrible/sad events (on a global and personal level) this book was like a warm hug. It is full of Laurain's charming whimsy and I loved both of the dual timeline stories - even the flights of fantasy. The zebra was also great!

Black Butterflies - I reviewed this one at the time but I've found that it has really stayed with me since I closed the book.

Morgan Is My Name - despite my love of myths and legends I am very ignorant when it comes to the Arthurian tales (I'm guessing that Monty Python doesn't really count...) and I loved this introduction to them from the female perspective. I can't wait for book two and am resisting reading up on the tales until I've finished this trilogy just so as to not have the plot spoiled!

In Memoriam - after working on a big WW1 project from 2013-2019 I've not read a lot of fiction from this era since but this one really drew me in. I could see lots of Winn's influences throughout the story but it still managed to be moving and original.

What You Are Looking For Is In The Library - there's a lot of whimiscal books from Japan on the market at the moment and lots of them have links to books/libraries but this one was especially enjoyable and about the power of books without being didactic.

Sweet Bean Paste - another book from Japan but this one was very different to a lot of the others and in many ways reminded me lots of The Island by Victoria Hislop.

The Figurine - I loved this one from Hislop and it felt like a companion piece to her Those Who Are Loved which I remember saying at the time seemed to end very abruptly. The contemporary storyline in this novel took on a timely quality when the news about thefts from the British Library broke at the time I was reading the novel!

The Kamogawa Food Detectives  - set in Kyoto around a restaurant that is very hard to find but where the chefs can help you recreate that perfect dish from your memory. Don't read this one if you are hungry and don't expect it to be all about delicious sounding Japanese food. I really hope that there are more books from this setting to come.

The Dallergut Dream Department Store - one of several Korean books I read this year but it makes the list for reasons similar to An Astronomer in Love - it is a warm hug of a book! Very much a fantasy novel and in many ways it reminded me of Enid Blyton's Magic Faraway Tree in that there are many worlds and fantastical ideas all within a multi story building!

Four Seasons in Japan - another Japanese book but this time one written by a British author, all be it one who has spent a lot of time in Japan. This one, like The Kamogawa Food Detectives isn't set in Tokyo and the story within a story was just wonderful, I did review this one yearly in the year.

It has to be said that even though 2024 is only a few days old I've already read an absolutely brilliant book - another myth/legend retelling but from a source material that I am unfamiliar with - and I can see that it is a strong contender to be on this list next year!

Happy reading!

Why I loved those 20 books from 2023 - part one!

 

Why that Top 20?

It occurred to me yesterday that it was all well and good letting everyone know what my top reads were but perhaps I should say why I loved them...

Non Fiction:

One Hundred Saturdays  - this was a completely new to me story about both WW2 and Rhodes (an island that is always going to be very special to me) and it has made me really want to go back and to explore this new history. It also reminded me of Louis de Bernieres Birds without Wings in that there weren't as many differences between the Turks/Ottomans and Greeks as we think. Review for this book here.

Hitler, Stalin, Mum and Dad - another WW2 story but fascinating to read of the parallels between Hitler and Stalin's treatment of people. I knew some of the stories but again there was a lot of new information - and it tied in quite nicely with the novel The Half Life of Valery K by Natasha Pulley which just missed out on being one of my top 10 fiction books of the year.

The Dictionary People - a recent read and a fascinating insight into how the OED was one of the first crowd sourced projects - review here.

All the Beauty in the World - this is the biography of a museum guard at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. It combines personal history, history of art and quirky tales from the museum - including sock allowances!

Venice - after visiting Venice, and falling in love with the city, I've been reading lots of books about La Serenissima. Some have been histories and others personal reflections on the place but there was just something beautiful about this book of one man's visits to the city and the small things he notices while there.

The Six - not quite so many books about space crossed my path this year but this was a stand out as it is the story of the first six female astronauts picked at the start of the Space Shuttle era. It contained biographies of the women and details of their space flights and it was great to read of this era of space travel from a female perspective.

Femina - after reading For Thy Great Pain... at the end of 2022 I was keen to read more about women from further back in history and this book was wonderful to dip in and out of as women were put back into the narrative.

The Diary Keepers - after reading Bart van Es' The Cut Out Girl and learning more about the Netherland's less glorious WW2 history this was a fascinating collection of diary excerpts covering the whole political spectrum of life in occupied Holland. My thoughts from earlier in the year. 

Portable Magic - a book about the history of books by an author I really like, not much more to say really except that it really increased my list of books I want to read at some point!

Letter From New York - I've been a fan of Hanff for years but didn't know about this gem until it was republished this year. It is a more cosy, intimate, version of Letters from America by Alistair Cook and focusses very much on Hanff's life in New York before it was cleaned up. She has a unique writing style and I am sad that I have now read everything that she published in book form.

Books of the Year 2023 edition

 

My year in books.

Well it has been an abysmal year for blogging but despite this when I look back at my reading journal I can see that I read *lots* of books and that there were some real crackers in there.

Looking back through my journal I can also see the following stats...

• 66% of the books I read were by women
• 40 titles (14%) were books in translation
• 37 titles(13.5%)  fell under the nature or travel writing genre
• 29 titles  (10.5) were 'kidlit' 
• 12 (4%) were books about books

I thought about doing a 'Top 23 for 2023' but realised that this would get out of hand quite quickly as the decade progressed so here are my top 10 fiction and my top 10 non-fiction for the past year

Fiction

An Astronomer in Love by Antoine Laurain (tr. Louise Rogers LaLaurie & Megan Jones) Gallic Books

Black Butterflies by Priscilla Morris, Duckworth Books

Morgan Is My Name by Sophie Keetch, Oneworld Publications

In Memoriam by Alice Winn, Penguin Books

What You Are Looking For Is In The Library by Michiko Aoyama (tr. Alison Watts), Transworld

Sweet Bean Paste by Durian Sukegawa (tr, Alison Watts) Oneworld Publications

The Figurine by Victoria Hislop, Headline Publishing

The Kamogawa Food Detectives by Hisashi Kashiwai (tr, Jesse Kirkwood), Pan Macmillan

The Dallergut Dream Department Store by Miye Lee (tr. Sandy Joosun Lee), Headline Publishing

Four Seasons in Japan by Nick Bradley, Transworld

Non Fiction

One Hundred Saturdays by Michael Frank, Profile 

Hitler, Stalin, Mum and Dad by Daniel Finkelstein, Harper Collins

The Dictionary People by Sarah Ogilvie, Vintage

All the Beauty in the World by Patrick Bringley, Vintage

Venice by Cees Nooteboom (tr. Laura Watkinson), Quercus

The Six by Loren Grush, Virago

Femina by Janina Ramirez, Ebury

The Diary Keepers by Nina Siegal, Harper Collins

Portable Magic by Emma Smith,  Penguin

Letter From New York by Helene Hanff, Manderley

Interesting to see how many translated books made the top 20 and also that the % of top books written by women is around the same as my overall yearly totals - and far higher if you count the female translators.

Anyhow here's hoping that 2024 is another good reading year - it has to be said the one I've started today has got off to a cracking start and taking me to a culture of stories I know nothing about...