Books for Christmas

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Some books I've enjoyed this year:

 

The Satsuma Complex by Bob Mortimer. The crime narrative is familiar, naturally enough, but the writing is not. Occasionally amusing too.

 

 

Mouth of Birds by Samanta Schweblin. Some super weird stories that leave the reader dangling from a hook.

 

 

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. Predictable territory on totalitarianism, control and identity and survival, but I enjoyed the writing style. The Testaments - Margaret Atwood. The sequel to The Handmaid's Tale, which I was intending to avoid, but found it in my local library and couldn't resist. It does give a conclusion to the story, and the 'witness' statements have some wit, but the characterisations did not feel particularly real. However, readable and insightful, especially in the context of an increasingly totalitarian world.

 

 

The hundred-year-old man who climbed out of the window and disappeared by Jonas Jonasson. Some positive vibes, amusing in a dry way, with an engaging narrative that page turns. A spectrum of soft-heartedness, sometimes a bit too much Forest Gump sentiment, to a darker satire (the nuclear weapon thread I don't find amusing given the reality). The book is a translation from Swedish, but the translator has delivered an engaging laid-back style.

 

 

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig.

I was lent this book, started reading and realized I read before (if I kindle read then I tend not to remember author/title). The book was worth a revisit, sort of, though the intentional agenda to be life-positive gets laboured at times. The device of visiting parallel lives in parallel universes made the read episodic, but did nudge this reader to 'what if' in the world of action/consequences.

 

 

'All The Pretty Horses' by Cormac McCarthy. Enjoyed the reticence, a nod to those who are honest enough not to articulate justifications for their compulsions. Narrative doesn't dawdle or digress, which are tick boxes. Western genre.

 

 

'We Begin At The End' by Chris Whitaker. I can recommend this one with prose similar to Cormac McCarthy and the fact some of the story is set in Montana. It has flaws, not buying into such an insightful teenager, but I took my time with the read because I didn't want to miss any of those insights. Crime genre.

 

 

Babel by R.F.Kuang. I found some of the devices used, such as an exploration of word origin and the challenges of translation, a real hook. The 'black and white' characterization was ludicrous, all the 'white' skin villains were one-dimensional. The central theme of colonization and exploitation was simplistic. Perhaps it was aimed at the teenage fiction market. However, it is a book that provokes thought, despite the lack of nuance. I do like the 'speculative fiction' genre.

Any books read this year that anyone can recommend?

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A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles.

A leisurely read, charming and wry.

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The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo

A novel combining the genre of folklore and detective. It is set in China around the beginning of C19. A gentle, playful read with insights on the compulsive behaviours of foxes and humans!