si reads in 2016

Happy New Year everyone.

Reading goals this year? 50 books would be great. I'm hoping to complete an Alphabet Challenge I started in December and I will be keeping track of my page count as I go along.
As in every other year I'll also be trying to rein in the book buying; which I'll call an aspiration rather than an actual goal.

books completed

January - April 2016

1. Before I Go To Sleep by S J Watson
2. Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin
3. The Crimson Petal And The White by Michel Faber
4. The Bookshop Book by Jen Campbell
5. Don't by Jenny Diski
6. Every Girl's Story Book
7. The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
8. Fried Green Tomatoes At The Whistle Stop Cafe by Frannie Flagg
9/10. The Fox and the Star by Coralie Bickford-Smith
11. Gorsky by Vesna Goldsworthy
12. Hidden Words: Collected Poems by Spike Milligan
13. Selected Poems 1957 - 1981 by Ted Hughes
14. The Tin Men by Michael Frayn
15. The Imaginary Girlfriend by John Irving
16. Man Tiger by Eka Kurniawan

books completed

May - August 2016

17. Just A Little Disco On An Open-Top Bus: An Illustrated Year in the Life of Edie Dudman. Girl in a Rut, 1982-3 by Candy Guard
18. A Year in the Life of South Cornwall by Rob Beighton
19. The Cordoba Connection by C. Terry Cline Jr.
20. Where: A Family Book Of Knowledge edited Anthony Addison
21. The Railway Station Man by Jennifer Johnston
22. Kandinsky by Michael Robinson
23. Being There by Jerzy Kosinski
24. Lyra's Oxford by Philip Pullman
25. The Piano Teacher by Janice Y. K. Lee
26. The Million-Dollar Bloodhunt by Joe Millard
27. Night Film - Marisha Pessl
28. Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger
29. Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot
30. Revenge Eleven Dark Tales by Yoko Ogawa

books completed

September - December2016

31. The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope
32. Ariel: The Restored Edition by Sylvia Plath
33. Quarry Bank & The Delph by Ned Williams
34. Fun With Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz
35. Everything Is Teeth by Evie Wyld
36. Curtain Call or The Distinguished Thing by Anthony Quinn
37. The Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft
38. Sidney Chambers and The Shadow of Death by James Runcie
39. The Secret Sin of Septimus Brope by Saki
40. Ten Italian Folktales by Italo Calvino
41. Fern Hill and Other Poems by Dylan Thomas
42. Used and Rare Travels in the Book World by Lawrence Goldstone
43. An Expert In Murder by Nicola Upson
44. Val Lewton The Reality of Terror by Joel E. Siegel
45. Deadeye Dick by Kurt Vonnegut
46. Not Bad For A Bad Lad by Michael Morpurgo
47. Winnie-The-Pooh by A. A. Milne
48. Something Borrowed Someone Dead by M. C. Beaton
49. Those Were The Days by Terry Wogan
50. X Y Z: A Detective Story by Anna Katharine Green
51. The Good Women of China: Hidden Voices by Xinran
52. The Yucky Yodelling Yeti by Gillian Johnson
53. Sailing To Byzantium by W B Yeats
54. Zennor in Darkness by Helen Dunmore

1. Before I Go To Sleep by S J Watson

Fiction. © 2011. 382 pages.
Best-selling crime thriller about a woman with a rare form of amnesia. I haven't seen the film and knowing as little about the plot as possible is certainly the best way to read this debut novel.
I found the writing at time to be fairly slow and heavy, but I raced through the last hundred pages. The story is totally driven by the plot. The need to known the answers kept me reading.

Happy reading in 2016!

2. Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin

Fiction. © 1956. 170 pages.
As he prepares to leave a rented house in the south of France, David, an American, looks back at the previous few months.

In Paris, while Hella - his fiancee - is away in Spain considering their future together, David meets a bartender, Giovanni, which leads to an affair. Although seemingly happy together David see their life together as impossible and plans to leave on Hella's return.; the consequences of which lead to tragedy.

Extremely well written, sad and melancholic. I found the first half stronger than the second. David's inaction ringing very true. Rightly considered a classic.

3. The Crimson Petal And The White by Michel Faber

Fiction. ©2002. 845 pages.
Mischievous novel reworking what feels like a familiar 19th century, classic English fiction landscape - Dickens, Charlotte Bronte, George Elliot. But as the opening sentence warns: 'Watch your step.' Unlike those great writers Faber is writing historical fiction and exploring modern concerns of sexuality, exploitation, freedom. Wilkie Collins is perhaps a more interesting comparison.
Faber's writing is often explicit in detailing the life of prostitutes, people in service or working in factories. Yet he also creates memorable characters and a story which holds the attention for over 800 pages.
The great worry with long novels is reaching page 500 or so and realizing you have lost interest, or can't abide reading anymore about such and such's problems. Well anyone who enjoys the first 50 pages of this will want to finish it.

4. The Bookshop Book by Jen Campbell

Non-fiction. © 2014. 303 pages.
Whistle stop tour of independent bookshops around the world, interspersed with author chats and intriguing facts. Jen Campbell talks with booksellers from Wigton in Scotland to Santiago, Chile. From the world famous Shakespeare and Company to D's Books in Phnom Penh.
The people she meets all share a passion for books and for bookselling - which is not always a given. A passion she shares as you can see by watching any of her youtube videos. Which is where I first encountered her; last year's Booker Prize had a group of booktubers reading and reviews the nominated books in the lead up to the prize.
Charming read. It's optimistic viewpoint will have you dreaming of your own bookshop.

5. Don't by Jenny Diski

Non-fiction. © 1998. 317 pages.
Collection of essays mostly written for The London Review of Books in the 1990's.
I love Diski's writing and these esssys, focused around the publication of various non-fiction books, cover a wide series of topics with her sceptical, never less than fully engaged eye. Often funny and insightful on books, people and ideas.
Jenny Diski has been seriously ill for a while ( she regularly posts on Twitter and has a blog on WordPress); a writer to treasure while we can.

6. Every Girl 's Story Book

Fiction. 1938 (estimated). 146 pages.
12 short stories. 10 authors. Stories for and about teenage girls; jolly hockey-sticks and suspicious men out on the moors or in isolated castles. Villains are captured, the brave and loyal rewarded. An undemanding read.

7. The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides

Fiction. © 1993. 249 pages.
The cemetery workers are on strike, the car industry is in decline, even the trees are being destroyed in a last helpless attempt to halt the spread of Dutch Elm disease.
A group of teenage boys, perhaps subconsciously aware of their limited future prospects, stare at the five Libson sisters as if at the sun; the only source of light in their lives. But then Cecila Libson kills herself and the boys watch helplessly, impotently, as the Libson family withdraws from society.
Written with a fluidity rare for a first novel, this is a book more concerned with language than plot - you are told the fate of the Libson sisters in the opening sentence and little time is spent on the actual suicides. Instead we get this chorus of male voices picking over the evidence of these teenage girls' lives; interviewing boyfriends, hoarding discarded photographs, bits of paper, even old clothes in an attempt to control the story by itemizing and boxing it's detritus.
I disliked this book for the most part; perhaps because the subject of suicide is difficult and painful, often - as in this book - with no real answers. Perhaps because I was expecting something comparable to Girl, Interrupted or The Bell Jar.
I feel like I'm missing the point, or simply that there is no point. That this book is almost a technical excise - unusual view point, exploitative title, oddball character names ( Trip Fontaine, Shaft Tiggs, Parky Denton). Not that self imposed literary constraints are necessarily bad. His next novel won the Pulitzer Prize, so anyway..
Certainly a disquieting novel.

8. Fried Green Tomatoes At The Whistle Stop Cafe by Frannie Flagg

Fiction. © 1987. 403 pages.
Story of the inhabitants of Whistle Stop, Alabama from the 1920's to the 1980's told through the stories of Ninny Threadgoode.

9/10. The Fox and the Star by Coralie Bickford-Smith

Fiction. © 2015. 62 pages.
Brilliant illustrations. Fairly run-of-the-mill story. Read twice over Easter.

11. Gorsky by Vesna Goldsworthy

Fiction. © 2015. 277 pages.
Reworking of The Great Gatsby, set in present day London. Long listed for the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction 2016.

Books which are based on existing stories may have a foot up in terms of media attention, but they will always face the possibility, in most cases probability, of a negative comparison with the original, even in laudable cases like the current series of novels based on Shakespeare's plays.
This is Veena Goldsworthy's first novel, following a memoir and a poetry collection. She writes in English, her third language, which she turns to an advantage, with a first person narration by Nikola Kimovic, who shares a similar background and capacity with languages as his creator.
I lost interest in this story around the halfway mark. And even though this is a fairy short novel I was glad to reach the end.
An outsider's view of London is perhaps it's strongest element; however critical.

Edited to get touchstone working.

12. Hidden Words: Collected Poems by Spike Milligan

Poetry. ©1993. 176 pages.

13. Selected Poems 1957 - 1981 by Ted Hughes

Poetry. © 1982. 238 pages.
I didn't plan to read two poetry collections back to back, but after giving up on a novel, The Cemetery of Secrets - as bad as it's title - I started selected poems, while debating my next choice. And ended up reading it to the end. These earlier poems by Hughes are marked by a heavy, dense language. Unsentimental snapshots of nature, an often detached view of various animals' life and death struggles.
Milligan's adult poetry is less polished, certainly more emotional. Technically no match for Ted Hughes. But certainly my favourite of the two.
Someone left the mirror running/ I pulled the plug out/ it emptied my face/ and drowned my reflection./ I tried mouth to mouth resuscitation/ the glass broke/ my reflection died/ Now there's only one of me. Lo Speccio by Spike Milligan.

14. The Tin Men by Michael Frayn

Fiction. © 1965. 158 pages.
A very funny first novel by the writer Michael Frayn, who over a long career has been equally successful writing for the stage and screen; alongside his many books. I most associate him with the John Cleese film 'Clockwise' and the play 'Copenhagen'.
The Tin Men is set in the William Morris Institute of Automation Research, which is preparing for a Royal visit, where the heads of various departments jockey for recognition, or attempt to avoid being involved with the endless committees set-up to organize the big day. The blurb on the cover references Evelyn Waugh and there's a quote from PG Wodehouse; not laughable comparisons. There's also more than a touch of Catch22's paranoia and doublespeak. If you know the BBC sitcoms 2012 & W1A this treads similar ground - only forty years earlier.

15. The Imaginary Girlfriend by John Irving

Memoir. © 1996. 176 pages.
The writer John Irving has had a passion for wrestling since taking up the sport at school and this memoir written in 1995 predominantly covers his time as a wrestler, coach and referee.
Irving comes over as a stubborn man, with little interest in the latest fashions and trends, who values honour, friendship and dedication. But any further insights are pretty scarce as he lists tournaments and opponents, weigh-in weights and points scored and lost. And as a Brit who only watches this type of wrestling at the Olympics (if at all) Irving fails to bring the sport alive. Which makes for a fairly uninteresting read.

16. Man Tiger by Eka Kurniawan

Fiction. © 2004. © Translation 2015. 187 psges.
A rare example of Indonesian fiction reaching the West. This is a tragedy involving two families in a small coastal town whose lives are destroyed by domestic violence.
Following a brutal murder the story circles back to tell the story of Komar Bin Syueb, Anwar Sadet and their wives and children. With sparse use of dialogue Kurniawan paints a picture of a poor, male dominated society held together by hard-working women.
Violence within families is always a tough read and if I'd known about it beforehand I'd have passed on this book. That said Kurniawan is obviously a talented writer.

17. Just A Little Disco On An Open-Top Bus: An Illustrated Year in the Life of Edie Dudman, Girl in a Rut, 1982-3 by Candy Guard

Fiction. © 2006. 363 pages.
First novel by Candy Guard, who found success in the 1980's as an animator of short comic films and as the writer and illustrator of a strip cartoon in the Observer magazine.
This book plough a similar furrow, of a young woman, still in the 1980's, trying to deal with boyfriends, family and choosing a career. There are examples on YouTube of Candy Guard's animation which pretty much match the tone and preoccupations of this story.
For me the book fell somewhere between sitcom and soap-opera. It does improve as it progresses, but I did question at times whether it was worth continuing. In retrospect a misjudged choice of book.

18. A Year in the Life of South Cornwall by Rob Beighton

Non-fiction.© 2010. 112 pages.
Collection of photographs taken in and around the more scenic parts of Cornwell. Well presented, with minimal prose. The pictures are idyllic; hardly a single person in sight.

19. The Cordoba Connection by C. Terry Cline, Jr.

Fiction. © 2016. 333 pages.
Posthumously published novel by the Alabama born writer, edited by his wife, Judith Richards - who is also a published novelist.

A brutal murderer believes his killing spree, targeting Muslims, will awaken America to the dangers of Islam. To this end he kidnaps a Muslim family; blackmailing the father to publicise his cause.
Religion is a strong theme in this book and careful research has led to significant amounts of detail about Islamic customs and traditions being included. An involving read, with interesting characters.

20. Where: A Family Book of Knowledge edited Anthony Addison

Non-fiction. ©1974. 128 pages.
A book of General knowledge presented in a Q&A format; all the questions begin 'where.....?' Other titles in the series are 'why', 'when' and 'what'.
Out of date and with no index, this book is of limited use as a reference tool. It's main appeal today are the illustrations and photographs.

21. The Railway Station Man by Jennifer Johnston

Fiction. ©1984. . 187 pages.
At times this is an outstanding novel and at others clunky and disappointing.
The novel is set in the north west of the Republic of Ireland, in a small village where Helen has retreated after the murder of her husband in 1975. The majority of the story is set a few years later around 1979; although it starts another eighteen months later after a tragedy in which we're told four people died and Helen has accepted her isolation from the world.
The title character is a Englishman, disabled during World War II, who is restoring an old railway station. After an awkward first meeting a romance blossoms with near neighbour Helen, but remote, empty outbuildings at the station attract the interest of a group involved with Ireland's armed struggle - which includes Helen's son, Jack and Damian Sweeney who is helping restore the station and inspiring Helen's paintings.
Jennifer Johnston writing is beautiful at times and Helen is a great character. But the plot is less successful and the repeated attempts to mix dialogue and a background song ( or a film playing on tv) just annoyed.

22. Kandinsky by Michael Robinson

Non-fiction. © 2006. 384 pages.
A look at Moscow born artist Vasily Kandinsky (1866 - 1944) through his paintings. The book is arranged like an art gallery split into five rooms - influences, early ideas, towards abstraction, late style & technique. Each right hand page is dedicated to a painting, while the left tells you the where, when and why - or at least speculates on the why.
Two world wars and the revolution in Russian lead to him moving around Europe; taking German citizenship he worked at the Bauhaus before moving to Paris and becoming a French citizen.

23. Being There by Jerzy Kosinski

Fiction. ©1970. 119 pages.
A re-read. A satire of American politics and media. Filmed by Hal Ashby.

24. Lyra's Oxford by Philip Pullman

Fiction. © 2003. 56 pages.
Illustrated short story set two years after Lyra last saw Will and the events in The Amber Spyglass. Another re-read. Enjoyable but too short. When will ' The Book of Dust' be published?

25.The Piano Teacher by Janice Y.K. Lee

Fiction. ©2009. 341pages.
A love story set in Hong Kong in the lead up to the Japanese invasion of 1941 and the aftershocks still affecting lives there in 1953. The story moves back and forth between the two time periods in the first part; before concentrating on the Japanese occupation. The final part focuses on the consequences of the characters wartime experiences.
Strong on character and place this debut novel has many elements - part mystery, part prisoner of war drama and partly the story of a woman finding independence and a place in the world - but at heart The Piano Teacher is a tragic love story.

26. The Million-Dollar Bloodhunt by Joe Millard

Fiction. ©1973. 190 pages.
Western. 8th book in a series of westerns featuring ' The Man With No Name'. The first three books were novelizations of Clint Eastwood films - made in Italy in the 1960's. By the eighth book the main character is fairly talkative and there is a more humorous tone to the whole tale. Which is just as well as our anti-hero is involved in a ludicrous story involving a hot air balloon and a gang of incompetent outlaws.
There are no running plotlines from previous books so this can be read as a standalone.
An undemanding, easy read - if you've not overly irritated by inaccuracies and illogical events.

27. Night Film by Marisha Pessl

Fiction © 2013. 622pages.

28. Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger

Fiction. © 2009. 487 pages.

29. Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot

Poetry. © 1939. 56 pages.

30. Revenge Eleven Dark Tales by Yoko Ogawa

Fiction. ©1998. 162 pages.

31. The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope

Fiction. 1st published 1894. 140 pages.
Swashbuckling adventure and romance as Englishman Rudolf Rassendyll becomes involved in the deadly fight for the crown of Ruritania. Catnip to filmmakers over the years, but all of them have fiddled around with the story either for laughs or to avoid Rassendyll's almost death-wish attitude to life.

32. Ariel The Restored Edition by Sylvia Plath

Poetry. © 2004. 218 pages.
Brilliant introduction by Frieda Hughes and lots of unique details for anyone interested in Sylvia Plath's work, but unfortunately I failed to connect with the majority of the poems in this collection. My loss probably and I will try again at some point.

33. Quarry Bank & The Delph by Ned Williams

Non-fiction. © 2010. 128 pages.
Local history told though photographs and the memories of local people.

34. Fun With Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz

Collection of strip-cartoons. © 1955,56,57. 124 pages.
Very enjoyable. Interesting to see earlier drawings of these iconic characters.

35. Everything is Teeth by Evie Wyld

Graphic novel. © 2015. 124 pages.

Striking visuals by Joe Sumner for Wyle's story/memoir of how shark attacks affected her childhood summers in Australia.

36. Curtain Call or The Distinguished Thing by Anthony Quinn

Fiction ©2015. 327 pages.
Period drama which suffers from soap-opera plotting. Set in 1936 London; five main characters' lives cross and interconnect as each deals with money, career, relationship problems - while there's also a brutal murderer on the loose.
The book falls between stools to much for me; so it doesn't convince as a crime novel or focus seriously enough on the characters. One review I read considered this a pastiche of 1930's novels - Wodehouse & Christie? Which may well be the best way to approach this story.

37.The Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft

Non-Fiction. © 1996. 58 pages.
An abridged version of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.

38.Sidney Chambers and The Shadow of Death by James Runcie

Fiction. © 2012. 392 pages.
Disappointing collection of linked stories introducing a new amateur detective in the form of a Cambridgeshire Vicar; a war hero with a complicated love life, whose best friend is the local police detective!
A case of the television series being markedly better than the original novel.

39.The Secret Sin of Septimus Brope by Saki

Fiction. Short stories. Earliest tales 1st published 1904. This collection 1995. 86 pages.
Edwardian acerbic humour. A total delight.

40. Ten Italian Folktales by Italo Calvino

Fiction. © 1956. 85 pages.
Just ten of the two hundred tales from Calvino's Italian Folktales. Loved. Hope to read more.

41.Fern Hill and Other Poems by Dylan Thomas

Poetry. © renewed innumerable times from 1931 to 1996 by 'Trustees for the copyright of the late Dylan Thomas'. 59 pages. I've had a disappointing year as far as poetry goes after last year's heights; this is just the latest - I don't know the answer.

42.Used and Rare Travels in the Book World by Lawrence Goldstone

Non-fiction. © 1997. 215 pages.
Easy to read memoir of how trying to finding something different as a birthday present can escalate into an expensive hobby. Really interesting insight into the book trade and the characters who buy and sell.
Bit of a shook to realize this book is talking about events in the 1990's - over twenty years ago.

43. An Expert in Murder by Nicola Upson

Fiction. © 2008. 292 pages.
Murder mystery in the style of the golden age of British crime fiction; with a fictional version of the writer Josephine Tey becoming involved in a murder which is somehow connected with her first West End play 'Richard of Bordeaux'.
The story has a lot of similar elements as Curtain Call but Upson's mix of murder, sex and the arts works within a tradition - so we have a detective, clues and a satisfying resolution.
Accepting that my expectations were high, 'Curtain Call' was one of the disappointments of the year; Making 'An Expert in Murder' even more an unexpected highlight.

44. Val Lewton The Reality of Terror by Joel E. Siegel

Non-fiction. © 1972. 176 pages.
Biography of film producer Val Lewton + criticism of his films.

45. Deadeye Dick by Kurt Vonnegut

Fiction. © 1982. 176 pages.
Rudy Waltz, sitting on a beach, looks back on his life, and his parents' lives which have been marred by terrible decisions. This is a broad satirical story which while being an easy and quick read feels disposable and fairly forgettable. There are touches which reminded me of John Irving - who studied under Vonnegut and became a close friend: a case of literacy influence working both ways I guess - and the fluid way the story moves between time periods is very impressive. Perhaps this will grow in the memory.

46. Not Bad For A Bad Lad by Michael Morpurgo

Fiction. © 2010. 92 pages.
Illustrated short short. Another in a seemingly endless list of stories from Morpurgo around the theme of children, animals and wartime. As WWII ends a boy's rebellion against school leads to a life of crime and prison; where he's saved by the chance to work with horses.

47. Winnie-The Pooh by A. A. Milne

Fiction. 1st published 1926. Colouring of illustrations © 1970,73. 149 pages.
Picked this up in the local library on impulse; while knowing the stories I don't remember reading the full original version. That said it's not exactly the original as colour has been added to the drawings - when they do that to a film I switch off. The stories remain charming, except for a kidnapping plot meant to drive outsiders (Kanga and Baby Roo) away.

48. Something Borrowed Someone Dead by M. C. Beaton

Fiction. © 2013. 198 pages.
Murder mystery. 24th book to feature PR Consultant turned private-eye Agatha Raisin. Not great literature, but enjoyably bonkers.

49. Those Were The Days by Terry Wogan

Fiction. © 2015. 167 pages.
Having risen through the ranks Tom returns to the 'Cattle Market' branch, where he first worked, as the bank's new manager. At a re-opening party we heard tales and stories about the bank's customers and their families.
Doesn't start very promisingly but once it found it's stride the writing became more confident and the stories themselves became more enjoyable.

50. X Y Z: A detective Story by Anna Katharine Green

Fiction. 1st published 1883. 36 pages.
Notable as an early American murder mystery. Slightly stilted short story but nevertheless an interesting mystery.

51. The Good Women of China: Hidden Voices by Xinran

Non-fiction. © 2002. 240 pages.
Carefully written; Xinran writes about her time working on a radio show in Nanjing and some of the stories listeners shared with her. Many of the stories are deeply disturbing and are all the more powerful by being told in a simple straightforward style.

52. The Yucky Yodelling Yeti by Gillian Johnson

Fiction. © 2012. 135 pages.
Illustrated children's book about four children who help a yeti on her wedding day.

53. Sailing To Byzantium by W B Yeats

Poetry. © 1996. 60 pages.
Poetry collection part of Phoenix Paperback 60p series of pocket size books. This is an abridged edition of The Poems. these were mostly new to me except for the occasional line or phrase I hadn't realized was Yeats and the poem 'An Irish Airman Foresees his Death', which somewhere along the line, probably at school, has become ingrained on my brain.

54. Zennor in Darkness by Helen Dunmore

Fiction. © 1993. 315 pages.
Last book for me this year; nice to finish on a really good book.

Zennor in Darkness is set during WW! in and around the coastal towns and villages of Cornwell. Real characters and events are interwoven with the lives of the Coyne & Treveal families, who after three years of war and loss are increasingly suspicious and fearful for the future.
The writer D H Lawrence, who is fiercely opposed to the war, and his German wife Frieda have move to Zennor after his latest book The Rainbow has been refused publication; but his attempts to form local friendships with Clare Coyne and her cousin John William, a soldier on leave, cause problems.