Happy World Book Night!

 

Wishing all readers a very happy World Book Night 2021 - here's hoping you all find something new to read and love, it isn't often that you are actually encouraged to drop everything and read but today is for book worms everywhere!

Me?

I'll be dipping into the book specially put together for WBN21 which is free to download as either an eBook or an audio book! 

A seriously entertaining collection of feelgood stories guaranteed to put the smile back on your face written especially by ten bestselling novelists:
 
Jenny Éclair
Mark Watson
Veronica Henry
Eva Verde
Richard Madeley
Katie Fforde
Dorothy Koomson
Vaseem Khan
Helen Lederer
Rachel Hore

From a hilarious race against time to a moment of unexpected eavesdropping, from righting wrongs in rural India to finding joy in unlikely places, these stories are all rich in wit and humour, guaranteed to lift your spirits and warm your heart.

Stories to Make you Smile is a co-commission between The Reading Agency and Specsavers as part of World Book Night 2021.

World Book Night 2021: Thoughts

 

Reading Challenge Complete

Thanks to the third Covid-19 lockdown I have had more time for reading that I anticipated when I started my challenge, I thought that I would be hard pushed to finish the 21 books before the event, especially with other reading projects & non challenge books were taken into consideration.

However the lockdown meant more time at home, and the libraries being closed for a couple of months limited my access to new books a little (although I'm not quite sure that Mr Norfolkbookworm or our postman would agree!).

Reading books for a challenge like this is always interesting and a good way to be taken firmly out of my comfort zone, and this year was full of surprises - who'd have guessed that a book about football and a footballer would have been so interesting to a non-footie fan?

The choice of books overall was interesting. I did get frustrated that the teen appeal novels were both North American in setting - we have some great YA authors here, and in my opinion we should be supporting them more.

I liked the number of non fiction books on the list, and how many books featured short chapters or stories. 

I also liked how varied they were in exploring so many social aspects of life in the UK. I am guessing that the books were mostly picked in advance of the #BlackLivesMatter movement and the  resurgence of the #MeToo but so many of the books tied into these themes that I felt I really gained an insight into these issues, but in a very natural way.

I found it interesting that there were some 'harder' books on the list - Shakespeare & Austen are not the easiest of authors to read, and so promoting audio books is great even if they aren't for me - one day I'll grow out of falling asleep as soon as someone reads to me - the bath, book, bed routine has stuck fast!

 A couple of the other books were also quite literary and this is a good reminder that World Book Night is about fostering a love of books - even good readers can get out of the habit and a free book is a good way to kickstart this again.

While on a personal level I was happy that there were no crime novels on the list, I find this a little odd - crime as a genre is incredibly popular in libraries and on the television after all.

Anyway these rambling thoughts are all things that have occurred to me as I've completed the challenge and they really aren't very profound at all!  

In the main I have enjoyed the variety of books and hope that many people discover a new favourite, or have the right book pressed in to their hand at just the right time.

World Book Night 2021: Book Twenty-one

 

To Sir With Love by E R Braithwaite (Vintage Books)

Own eBook

I took quite a gamble leaving this book for my last. I'd read it before many years ago and it is a novel that left a big impression, and even a good twenty years on I could still recall lines from the book. Would a reread tarnish my memories, should I just stick to my 'book shadow' thoughts?

In this case I am really pleased that rereading the book was a pleasure, it was still the incredible book that I remembered. I had forgotten many details but as I read through the book it was a little bit like meeting up with an old friend after many years. I definitely had remembered the big themes.

Although the book is now over 60 years old I was struck by how little has actually changed in the world in so many ways. It is also interesting to think that this book is a contemporary to the setting for the Call the Midwife books, in so many ways the books complement each other and create a window back to the London East End of the 1950s

What Braithwaite has to say about education, racism, gang culture and London is still horribly accurate and in many ways A Dutiful Boy, which is also a World Book Night book this year, is the same story just about more recent times.

I am glad that I left this until last, and I am glad that my challenge did give me the opportunity to reread the book and fall in love with it all over again. 

World Book Night 2021: Book Twenty

 

Reasons to be Cheerful by Nina Stibbe (Penguin)

Own eBook

I have to confess that this is the one title from the 21 books that I had to abandon. I read 20% of it but no more.

I hadn't connected with the characters at all and the dentist setting, including quite graphic details of dental procedures, was just too much for me in light of my own traumatic experiences in the dentist chair.

I think that perhaps if I had liked any of the characters, or had found it at all amusing I might have coped with the setting but it wasn't for me. 

I think I am in a minority here as many do find Stibbe's writing amusing but this one just had to be put down.

World Book Night 2021: Book Nineteen

 

Much Ado About Nothing - William Shakespeare (Penguin)

Own book (and DVD)

This play is always going to hold a special place in my heart as it was the first play I saw at the Globe Theatre and the one that made me fall in love with Shakespeare - to the extent I ended up taking an MA!

I did reread the play again for this challenge rather than listening to the audio book and it still makes me smile lots. The squabbling couple are brilliant and like so many of Shakespeare's plays the plot is frankly bonkers at times.

Once I'd finished reading it I did watch my DVD of that important 2011 Globe production and despite all the restrictions in daily life I was back at the Globe, in the summer, utterly immersed in the show. I'm not sure I will be back in London or at the Globe for a while but without this challenge I'd have left it far too long before reading/watching this again.

World Book Night 2021: Book Fifteen

 

Where Are We Now? by Glenn Patterson (Head of Zeus)

eProof

When I first saw this book I couldn't place it at all, but when I read the blurb it started to feel familiar and when I looked back through my reading journal I discovered that I'd read the book a while back in proof form as part of one of my reading projects.

A little worrying that the title hadn't stuck with me (although these can change when they are read so early) but once I read the blurb much of the book came back to me.

It is a quirky choice but definitely an interesting one. It has an older, male protagonist and is set in a post Good Friday agreement Northern Ireland. It also has a lovely subplot of using and researching in archives which (having worked in a building attached to the Norfolk Heritage Centre for over a decade) I can say was very well written and realistic.

I confess to not having re-read this book before writing this review, (time is creeping on and as well as finishing the final seven books here I have another project about to start) but should there be time I very well may revisit this book and update my review.

World Book Night 2021: Book Fourteen

 

 We Are All Made of Molecules - Susan Nielsen   (Andersen Press)

 Own eBook

Warning there are spoilers in this review

I don't know where to start with this one, it made me so cross on so many levels. My first gripe is why does this 2nd YA fiction book have to be North American? Surely we have a plethora of great YA writers who are British?

The other gripes are to do with style and content. This book is very much in the vein of Wonder but comes no where near the brilliance of that book. There are so many issues in this book and off the top of my head here are just a few of them: death of a parent (from long illness), divorce of parents because father is gay, blended families, intelligent child but with no social awareness, child obsessed with fashion and friendship but not academic, bullying, peer presssure - oh and yes the biggie attempted date rape.

Phew, once all those are covered there wasn't much room for the writing, which may have been just as well because the style was all over the place. With themes as outlined above you'd think that this was a read for older teen, but in style and language this was pretty much a middle grade/upper primary  - way too junior for the content.

Oh and as for the content - by the end they basically all live happily ever after. I could handle that with the blended family coming together but the way the sexual assault was dealt with is shameful - as an adult reading this I could see that something was building but I never dreamt it would go as far as it did nor that there were no repercussions for either the victim  (and indeed it could be read that she was victim shamed) nor for her attacker.

I feel that I read this book so you don't have to and so far I think it is the worst book I've read for this project. 

World Book Night 2021: Book Nine

 

Good Food for Bad Days by Jack Monroe (Pan Macmillan)

Library eBook

Recipe books are possibly one of the most personal type of book to review - you are either going to love the recipes or you aren't (or they don't work when you try to make them).

I very much liked the idea of a book full of comfort food, that is still quite healthy but for me there weren't any recipes that leapt out as wanting to try.

Unlike some of Monroe's other books not all of these recipes use natural store cupboard ingredients, nor are they all budget dishes, but as cook books are often so expensive that being gifted one of these really could change someone's life.

World Book Night 2021: Book Eight

 

The Pocket Book of Happiness from Trigger Publishing

Own copy

When I ordered myself a copy of this book I wasn't sure what type of book was going to arrive, and I'm afraid that when I opened the parcel and saw what it was my heart sank.

Working in book retail for over a decade has left me with a slight aversion to this type of book - the pocket gift book. They used to clutter the till point and people would  read them in store (often breaking the spine) but not buy them. The very first Black Books episode parodies the genre wonderfully.

There was nothing wrong with this book at all, and it is fun to open it at random just to get a 'quote for the day' but, ironically, it just wasn't a book that made me happy.

Buying an independently published book from an independent bookshop however did make me happy!

World Book Night 2021: Book Seven

 

Sunshine and Sweet Peas in Nightingale Square by Heidi Swain (Simon & Schuster)

Borrowed from the library eBook catalogue

I wasn't sure that I was in the mood for a light and fluffy read when the notification from the library came in saying it was my turn to download this book, and I almost delayed the delivery date for a few weeks.

I'm really glad that I didn't for although the plot was reasonably light and I did guess a lot of the twists before they happened this book was an unashamed delight from (virtual) cover to cover.

There's nothing new at all in the story but it was just so well written that I felt I lived in Nightingale Square and that these were my neighbours. Being set in Norwich was also nice, and it is obvious that Swain is familiar with the city. Nightingale Square might be fictitious but all of the other local nods were spot on  - another reason to see this book as a warm hug of a read.

I'm not going to read any more of Swain's books immediately but I do now have a go to author when I want something comforting, romantic and easy to read. I'd never have read this without my challenge and once more I am delighted to have found something new.

World Book Night 2021: Book Six

 

Taking Up Space by Chelsea Kwayke & Ore Ogunbiyi (Random House)

eBook

This made a great next read after I Will Not Be Erased even though this came about accidentally.

It is another collection of essays and memories by women and non-binary people of colour but this time all about their experiences at university.

It is more academic than the other books I've read so far for World Book Night but was still highly readable. Again there were aspects of the experiences recounted in the book that I recognised, simply from being female and having gone to university but this was truly eye opening.

After a summer reading and learning more about racism in the UK as the Black Lives Matters campaigns grew I was none the less horrified at just how much institutionalised racism exists, and also just how easy it is to put everyone into the BAME category and assume everyone wants the same things.

Not an easy read in either style or subject but if you've enjoyed novels like Girl, Woman, Other or The Vanishing Half or Why I am no longer talking to white people about race by Reni Eddo-Lodge then I definitely recommend this.

World Book Night 2021: Book Five

 "I will not be erased" Edited by gal-dem (Walker Books)

Borrowed from the library eBook catalogue

A book that I really doesn't see me as the target reader but one that I loved never the less.

This is another essay collection but this time written by women and non binary authors of colour. Most start with the authors writing to their younger selves about an incident from their childhood.

The essays cover all types of topics, some are universal to many of our adolescent memories and others are far more specific to being non-white in our society. Some are funny, some shocking and some incredibly moving but there wasn't one that I wanted to skip over which is pretty incredible.

I really don't think that I've come across a book that I think should be handed to every high school student - regardless of gender or colour - for a long time.

The message of the book really is that it will get better, you are perfect as you are and no, your school days really aren't necessarily the best time of your life.

World Book Night 2021: Book Four

 

Faking Friends by Jane Fallon (Penguin)

Borrowed from the library eBook catologue

The colder weather and lockdown rules are helping me to power through my personal World Book Night challenge and my 4th read was a more traditional novel.

This was a read that would definitely sit quite happily under the chick-lit banner but this is to do it a little bit of a disservice. While the characters are just fit into the end of Gen X age wise much of the plot revolves around problems experienced by Millennials which could mean a wide appeal or a book that falls through the cracks.

For me the plot was fun and definitely a new take on the revenge comedy and for once a book where the peripheral cast was as well written as the main protagonists. That's not to say I liked them all, even the ones I was supposed to, but I did believe in them completely.

The book felt a little overlong, the start was fast paced and a real page turner and then the final third returned to this style so I am glad that I didn't abandon the book. The middle however felt a little too slow and explain-y (for want of a better word), it gave lots of back story but for me I found it dull and not really necessary to the main story.

Unless I am reading for review purposes this is the sort of book I usually treat myself to when I am on holiday and I think that if I'd been on a sun lounger somewhere warm I might feel more warmly towards this one but in the depths of a miserable winter it didn't quite give me the escapism I wanted.

World Book Night 2021: Book Three

 

Common People ed. Kit de Waal (Unbound)

Borrowed from the library's eBook collection

Another genre of books I've been increasingly keen to see in promotions such as World Book Night / Quick Reads is one that includes anthologies of short stories or essays. A book that you can dip in and out of, a genre that leaves you feeling accomplished as you can read a whole story easily or in limited time.

I enjoyed a lot of the pieces in this book, but like most anthologies not every entry was for more but by the end well over three quarters of the entries appealed which is a pretty good hit rate.

I'm still not 100% sure if the entries are autobiographical, observations or short stories but this didn't matter as they are all well written and 'lived' as I read them. I'm not sure I'd have found this book with out WBN21 and my challenge but I am very glad that I did.

World Book Night 2021:Book Two

 

Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli (Penguin)

Borrowed from the library eBook collection

This was a fun teen read that is all about acceptance and coming to terms with who you are. There are some great one liners in the book and without being didactic or pushy Albertalli makes a lot of good points about equality.

It was a quick read but I am wondering how memorable it is (the library catalogue reminded me that I'd borrowed and read the book in 2017 - pre brain haemorrhage) but I couldn't remember a thing about it).

My other minor gripe is that it is American - I know that there are some great British writers out there covering similar topics and I'd love for them to have been highlighted by WBN. It also means that some of the issues and themes of the book have less links to the UK and thus their message can be diluted or dismissed more easily (but incorrectly) as being 'not something that would happen here.'

Oh dear - I'm only two books in to this challenge and both books have been disappointing in one way or another!

World Book Night 2021

 

World Book Night 2021

I can't believe that World Book Night is 10 years old - time really does speed up as you get older. Back then I set myself the challenge of reading all the books that were to be given out before the big day.

Unlike so many reading challenges I set myself this was one that I actually managed to finish, mostly - I still have to go back to A Fine Balance and actually finish it! It also helped me to find one of the best books I've ever read - Half  of a Yellow Sun.

I've dipped in and out of WBN since the first one, both reading books and running events, but it seems fitting that to celebrate the 10th anniversary I set myself the challenge of reading all the books again. There's 21 titles that are already available and one new anthology being written specially for the date.

As ever there is a wide mix of styles and genres to read through and a lot of books I'd probably never pick up without a challenge like this. A quick look at the list, and cross referencing to my book journals, shows that I've recently (within the past 3 years) read 3 of the titles and there's one I remember reading a long time ago and look forward to revisiting. I have also read some of the authors before, but not the specifically the book on this list...

A Dutiful Boy by Mohsin Zaidi (Vintage)

Common People: An Anthology of Working-Class Writers by various authors, edited by Kit de Waal (Unbound)

Ask a Footballer by James Milner (Quercus)

Elevation by Stephen King (Hodder)

Emma by Jane Austen, narrated by Tanya Reynolds (Penguin Random House Audio)

Faking Friends by Jane Fallon (Michael Joseph)

Good Food for Bad Days by Jack Monroe (Pan Macmillan)

“I Will Not Be Erased”: Our Stories About Growing Up as People of Colour by gal-dem (Walker Books)

Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare, narrated by David Tennant and Samantha Spiro (BBC Audio)

Pocket Book of Happiness (Trigger Publishing)

Reasons to be Cheerful by Nina Stibbe (Penguin General)

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli (Penguin Random House Children’s)

Sunshine and Sweet Peas in Nightingale Square by Heidi Swain (Simon & Schuster)

Stories to Make You Smile by various authors, ed. by Fanny Blake (Simon & Schuster)

Taking Up Space: The Black Girl’s Manifesto for Change by Chelsea Kwakye and Ọrẹ Ogunbiyi (Cornerstone)

The Anxiety Survival Guide by Bridie Gallagher, Sue Knowles and Phoebe McEwan (Jessica Kingsley Publishers)

The Flatshare by Beth O’Leary (Quercus)

The Kindness Method written and narrated by Shahroo Izadi (Pan Macmillan)

To Sir With Love by E.R. Braithwaite (Vintage)

Up in the Attic by Pam Ayres (Ebury)

We Are All Made of Molecules by Susin Nielsen (Andersen Press)

Where Are We Now? by Glenn Patterson (Head of Zeus)

To find out more about the books for 2021 then the World Book Night page is great, here's hoping that the pandemic has receded enough that some events manage to happen...

World Book Night 2020...

...& Shakespeare's birth/death day

I can't believe that it is World Book Night again, it is trite but I can't believe how fast time is flying.

I've not paid a huge amount of attention to the official selection up until today but taking a look at them now I am really impressed with the mix of books - and extremely pleased to see that there are short stories and Quick Reads on the list.

However 23rd April is also the day taken to be both Shakespeare's birth and death day and so I'm going to talk about a book relating to this...

Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell

The publisher website reads:

TWO EXTRAORDINARY PEOPLE. A LOVE THAT DRAWS THEM TOGETHER. A LOSS THAT THREATENS TO TEAR THEM APART.

On a summer’s day in 1596, a young girl in Stratford-upon-Avon takes to her bed with a fever. Her twin brother, Hamnet, searches everywhere for help. Why is nobody at home?

Their mother, Agnes, is over a mile away, in the garden where she grows medicinal herbs. Their father is working in London. Neither parent knows that one of the children will not survive the week.

Hamnet is a novel inspired by the son of a famous playwright. It is a story of the bond between twins, and of a marriage pushed to the brink by grief. It is also the story of a kestrel and its mistress; flea that boards a ship in Alexandria; and a glovemaker’s son who flouts convention in pursuit of the woman he loves. Above all, it is a tender and unforgettable reimagining of a boy whose life has been all but forgotten, but whose name was given to one of the most celebrated plays ever written.

I will confess to having approached this book with some trepidation, there are so many unknowns in Shakespeare's life that I was worried that the book would be too large in scope and thus lose something.

This book isn't a scholarly or pseudo-scholarly look at Shakespeare's life or work, it isn't even really about him or his plays and writing - it is a story that puts his wife and children front and centre. It brings Stratford-upon-Avon to life and I really felt like I'd managed to travel in time. I do love a book that lets me almost 'smell' the setting.

Hamlet is not one of my favourite plays but having 'watched' it through Agnes' eyes perhaps I can see it a new light too!

Often a novel that is a fictional take on a real person leaves me wondering why the author didn't have more faith in their writing to just write a historical fiction but in this case I do think that the fleshing out of a famous name was a really good thing.

I'm not certain that reading a book about the plague during the current pandemic was the best timing but all in all I liked this 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...

Theatrical Interlude 9

Lady in the Van, Theatre Royal Norwich, June 2011.

I first came across Alan Bennett when I was studying for my GCSEs. A unit of my English course was all about monologues and I recall it being a real joy to watch all of the 1988 Talking Heads series. At that age I'm not sure I was really aware who the author was, I don't think I'd come heard of Beyond The Fringe at that point.

Up until the end of last year Bennett was someone I was aware of, I read The Uncommon Reader the day it was published, but until World Book Night reintroduced us I think that most of my Bennett awareness came from the pretty cruel sketches on the radio version of Dead Ringers.

When I found out that Lady in the Van was coming to Norwich it didn't take an awful lot of persuasion by a friend to get me to see it. I knew the rough out line of the story - Miss Shepherd parks her van in Bennett's front garden and remains there for the next 15 years - but nothing about the play.

I found it very good. The idea of the two Alan's confused me for the first few minutes but then I was swept away into the story and had no problem at all working out what was supposed to be happening at the time as opposed to what Bennett was thinking when he wrote the play.

The actors had me convinced from line one, and Nichola McAuliffe was incredible as Miss Shepherd. The play deals with some pretty deep and traumatic themes but there is enough humour throughout to stop it feeling depressing. In fact some because some scenes were funny despite the poignancy I found myself feeling guilty for laughing. Then I remembered that that is the British way of coping in times of stress and emotion - it was okay to laugh, so long as you feel a bit uncomfortable.

One thing jarred in the play for me, and that is probably because of my own perceptions, and that was the use of some of the swear words. I see Bennett as a mild mannered, polite, shy person - a veritable National Treasure - and to hear the F-word coming from 'him' was a shock. When I'm watching a play I lose track of the real world around me and the swearing did actually jolt me out of that state and back into the present. I don't doubt that Bennett does use that language (both in real life and in the situation depicted in the play) but it did to me feel anachronistic.

Each play I've seen this year has been fantastic and this one was no exception. The one thing I am particularly glad of is that the stage director didn't scent the production - my imagination was quite enough!

World Book Night Challenge 22/25

A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry

This is a real tome,a doorstop, at over 600 pages and not a book I want to spoil by reading too fast just in order to complete my self imposed challenge.

I've got about 100 pages in so far and I am really enjoying the book. I can't yet see where it is going, it is set in a country that I know little about (India) in time that I know little about (the 1970s). All I know is that so far the book is compelling and I really want to savour the book.

I don't count this as a failure to the challenge as I will be returning to it very soon, I just don't want to ruin my pleasure by racing through it.

Now for my big World Book Night confession - I won't actually be in the country on World Book Night!
I am off on my holidays again and have this book and 2 1/2 others left to read. I think I will get there by midnight on March 5th but the last few reviews will have to wait until I get back.
As a sign of solidarity with my colleagues and the big event planned for Saturday I do plan on reading Agent Zigzag on Saturday.

Happy reading