Fantasy classical pre-Greek Sci-fi...

Yes it sounds pretty wacky, but it's a way of writing about an ideal society, as envisaged by Plato in The Republic. I started by reading the sequel, Philosopher Kings, and am now reading the first one, The Just City, by Jo Walton.

Athene decides she wants to start an experiment, conveniently in a place that will be obliterated, so it won't affect history.  Whoever prays to Athene that they can live in The Republic is magically transported to this place, followed by 10,000 children who were slaves.  Women are equal with men; there are robots doing routine work, so slaves are not needed in order for the rest of the inhabitants to be free to pursue 'excellence'.

Another twist is that the Gods Apollo and Athene are also there, incognito...

A good and thoughtful read.

Great books 2016

For now this is a list of books I found moving, that expanded my perspective and knowledge as well as involved me.

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves - Karen Joy Fowler
Has a great plot twist that changes everything and opens up a new perspective on humanity.

The Round House - Louise Erdrich
A crime novel set on a Chippewa? reservation, a coming of age novel.. Won the National Book Award for Fiction in 2012 (US).

Reading Lolita in Teheran

I have just come out of this book's world so am getting my thoughts down now.  It's a true story, about an English literature lecturer in Iran during and after the Revolution there, and the girls she teaches, as well as about the conditions there, especially for women, and interwoven with this, a critique of the books and authors they discussed.

Azar Nafisi eventually stopped teaching in Iranian universities, and organised a regular meeting with a group of young women to discuss literature in her home.  She gives fictional names to these women and has changed some of the details, however this doesn't dilute the power of what she has to say.  She relates the real life issues of the group and the intricacies of novels by Nabokov, James, Austen and others with such passion and intelligence, it made me want to read Henry James for a start and gave me more of an understanding of what happened in Iran.

When the revolution first began there was hope mixed with huge uncertainty, with many different political voices united in making change happen.  Then the extremists took over, executions happened and women became 'half the worth of men' and had to endure daily scrutiny to ensure they conformed with new rules about clothes and behaviour.  Offenders could be thrown in prison; some were raped and executed.  Two of her 'girls' spent time in prison, where executions happened nightly and seemed arbitrary.

The book is not all gloomy - the literature group enjoys themselves in their little 'haven' from reality, and some relaxation of the rules eventually happens so they can have a little freedom, but not much.

I Capture the Castle

I have just finished I Capture the Castle, a book by Dodie Smith I read a long time ago and had completely and happily forgotten, so it was like reading a new book except I knew I would like it.  It has one of the best first lines: "I write this sitting in the kitchen sink."

Although the setting is romantic - a ruined castle with a poverty-stricken family whose former bread-winner has writer's block - it is the story and developing character of the narrator, 17-year-old Cassandra and her family which is the point of the book.  Cassandra writes in her journal what happens when the family, at their wits' end regarding generating enough income, meet a rich American family who have inherited the local stately home.

Cassandra's older sister Rose is determined to marry for money.  Stephen, almost adopted brother, has fallen for Cassandra.  Topaz is the passionate 'muse' and ex-artist's model who makes for a wonderfully eccentric stepmother.

What I like about these characters is that they are rounded:  although Topaz, for example, goes naked in the rain, she also is very practical about cleaning the house.  Rose isn't completely mercenary either, and Stephen ends up doing something completely different from what you'd expect.

I also loved the description of the seasons in England, and the atmosphere of living in a moated castle.  Also the impression that England and English have on the Americans; Dodie emigrated to the USA from England, so she knows:  one American says that fall is melancholy here and it isn't in the States.  I have had that difference in feeling too, though mine was the other way round, maybe from homesickness.

And then Cassandra falls in love... you'll have to read the book to find out what happens then.

Self-improvement bookpile

This is my bookpile in the kitchen.  It doesn't have any fiction in it - which is what I mainly read.  That pile is in the sitting room and is mostly library books.  This pile has reference books in it - poetry, art, self-help - and is mostly half-finished books.  Maybe my project for 2012/13 is to finish off the half-done ones!  See 'Stuck in a Book' and other book blogs for other 2012 book project ideas.

The Magician's Assistant by Ann Patchett

I liked this book, which was gently readable despite potentially depressing subjects - AIDS, unrequited love, family conflicts. It was good to read a book that dealt with an unusual relationship of a woman who has finally married the man she loves - who is gay and is not in love with her.  His gay partner has recently died of AIDS.  The woman is left to mourn him after his sudden death - and her partnership with him as magician's assistant must also end - though it has future benefits she does not foresee.

Then she is called to Nebraska to meet his relatives, hitherto unknown to her.  Although this could have been the last straw of a painful life, it is not at all - and there are interesting worlds to explore: the sunlit luxury of LA and small-town, snow-bound Nebraska; the making of magic tricks, and the generosity of the family she gets to know. I loved the bits about magic, and the optimism of life moving on and new beginnings.

News re Murder Must Advertise - on BBC 7!

Have just discovered that this last book I reviewed is being broadcast, with the great Ian Carmichael as Lord Peter Wimsey, on BBC 7.  Catch up on episodes with the i-Player by going to this link:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00f9wxy/episodes/player.  There are 5 days left to listen to the first episode.

Murder Must Advertise!

This book is by Dorothy L Sayers and is fresh, funny and relevant today as a critique of advertising, capitalism etc in a humourous way.  The author worked for 11 years as a copywriter so she is questioning rather than biting the hand that feeds her.. and her experience adds to the sparkle and the satire of this very readable detective story.  Lord Peter Wimsey, her creation, part Jeeves, part Wooster - very debonaire and clever, has been invited to work incognito in an ad agency after a suspicious death.  His expensive shoes are remarked on, but generally he disguises his usual suave demeanour and starts to enjoy earning a living.  The plot develops well, with humour, style and good writing and a great cricket match even if you don't have a clue about cricket, though some of the vocabulary needs a glossary.  Read!

Katharine McMahon's favourite books

Hi - I have just read Lovereading's latest recommendations and shamelessly voted for Mary Renault for the 'Lost Booker' prize as I loved her books as a teenager. (I say shamelessly as I haven't read them - and there must be strong competition from Muriel Spark and Patrick White and the others - great reputations as writers.)  'The Bull from the Sea' was the Mary Renault book I remember - about Theseus and Ariadne from A's point of view.

Anyway, Katharine McMahon is guest editor this month, and has chosen her favourite books .  I think 'Stuck in a Book' will like these too! 

I'm reading 'The Road Home' by Rose Tremain right now and enjoying it, though it is a bit close to home as I have some Polish friends - while their story is different, the 'no jobs' situation is the same as the hero of this book.  Let's hope Poland does have jobs from joining the EEC...

I also enjoyed KM's The Rose of Sebastopol and The Alchemist's Daughter (you can find out about those through the link at 'favourite books' and read extracts).

And now the season is almost right for reading outside - have preempted summer by sitting against my apple tree with my book and tea and Hot Cross bun!

A daily book of Buddhist slogans: Always Maintain a Joyful Mind

'Always Maintain a Joyful Mind: and Other Lojong Teachings on Awakening Compassion' by Pema Chodron is very easy to use every day to give you something useful to focus on.  I could say something 'spiritual' to focus on, but that could put people off who don't believe in God - these teachings are useful in taking us outside of our inward-looking selves, our egos, whatever we believe.

It consists of 59 'slogans' or one-line instructions designed to wake you up.  They are ancient Tibetan 'lojong' teachings.  Each slogan occupies a page, and on the opposite page there is a short commentary by Pema Chodron.  The idea is that you open a page every day and let that be the theme for the day.

  

Pema Chodron is a Buddhist nun and teaching director in an abbey in Nova Scotia, who has written many popular books on Buddhist teachings.  She is American; I think she is popular as she can make Buddhist teachings understandable to a Western audience without diluting their power.  For example, the slogan "Don't talk about injured limbs" has her commentary: "Don't make yourself look good by disguising others' weaknesses."  About "Don't be so predictable" she says: "Don't hold grudges against other people."

What I particularly liked about this book is that Pema Chodron emphasises how we ourselves benefit from behaviour that may look purely altruistic: being generous, kind and less reactive decreases our own suffering as well as that of other people.  I guess that's the point of Buddhism: we look at the blissful face of Buddha and think he got that way by meditating, but that's a Western misconception; he got that way by practicing letting go of his selfishness and developing compassion - and became blissful as a result!

Books we can't put down

I liked ABE books' piece on 'Books we never get round to reading' or similar title.  Now they have the opposite - books we devour.  Here is the link.  I liked the fact that the author included ones she/he didn't think were 'good' books but was stuck into them anyway!  I read Nora Roberts that way.. though I support her having a 'kick-arse' female detective series, politically speaking.
  What books does everyone else have like these?

Doris Lessing - The Grandmothers

Doris Lessing on right, with Beryl Bainbridge, 2008
This is a collection of 4 short stories published in 2003 when Doris Lessing was I think 84.  It is an excellent book, with very different stories, circumstances, people.  It's as if she wants to convey the whole of her perception of humanity and her values, through these stories, which are very readable, clear prose.  I think she wants to pass on what she knows and feels - about education, the value of culture, the different experiences of love, of the history she has lived through.  I've always loved her books for this huge view she has, ranging from politics, prophecy, different countries, states of mind (mental illness included), much about relationships between men and women and love, spirituality in its broadest forms, the environment.. and all very clear-sighted.  My favourite is the 'Children of Violence' series ending in 'The Four-Gated City'.  I haven't read it for decades but I still remember it.

Full Catastrophe Living - reduce your stress using 'mindfulness'

This book, by Jon Kabat-Zinn, is a course used in the University of Massachusetts Medical Centre for stress management and reduction.  The people using it, whose case histories are included in the text, are not ‘burnt-out yuppies’ but people with very pressing physical or emotional problems, including chronic pain and frightening illnesses.  It involves using a secular form of meditation, relaxation and yoga for an 8-week period, during which no goals are set, in order to release people from striving to achieve a result, just as they might do in their everyday lives.  I liked this attitude – an achievement orientation can be a curse for those who like me were recovering from ME, though motivation is important.

I used this course and book in my own way – following the relaxation and meditation practises but not the yoga or ‘walking’ meditation.  I found that it was very helpful in reorienting myself to ‘being’ rather than ‘doing’, creating a feeling of more space in my life to appreciate things.  The relaxation exercise was helpful in increasing my sleep at night and properly relaxing during the day, which felt healing.  The 8 weeks was just a start for me – this is a life’s work!

In addition to the course exercises there is a lot of useful material here on all kinds of stress – ‘people stress, ‘time and time stress’, ‘working with physical pain’, ‘working with panic, fear and anxiety’.  These provide useful fuel for your mind at bad moments, and the case histories mentioned are very encouraging.  I’d recommend this book for anyone who wants to improve the quality of their life, including their health.

Seabiscuit and me

I just noticed I had this comment on another book on my personal blog - here it is for you, in the hopes you'll enjoy this book, which is a great yarn and a true story.

I have just finished 'Seabiscuit' by Laura Hillenbrand. It is a fantastic true story, well told, and I was very involved with it (OK I cried at times). It's about a bow-legged horse who makes an unlikely racehorse, and the stories of the team who worked with him.  At the time of the Great Depression people all over the USA were obsessed with him and his rivals.  Although I knew nothing about horse-racing before I read this, it didn't matter - all was explained, in a page-turning absorbing manner.

Then I read Laura H's article about her illness (CFS) which is another moving true story, of determination against the odds and terrible setbacks to produce a best-selling, award-winning book. She is still ill. I do hope she finds ways of recovering like I did.

I am getting better after a long CFS-like recurring virus since April. I am relieved I can use the Lightning Process to get rid of it, even after I'd left it awhile to try and clear up on its own. I am plugging away at my walks and short drives, and seeing people in the village, and I'm seeing positive results again - phew!

Laura Hillenbrand's story and her book have moved me. Not the drama and the struggle but the characters' creativity and enjoyment of life, even when they are in pain. Keep on trucking!

The Poisonwood Bible

I seem to be going in for epic novels about completely different cultures at the moment. This is the best of all of them! I heard about it in Oprah's Book Club. It is one of those books that can change the way you view everything - in this case, valuing what you have, and also putting it in a different light. It's funny, sad, disturbing, beautiful and intelligent.

An American Southern Baptist preacher (zealous) and his family go to live in the jungle in the Congo in 1959. The preacher's aim is to enlighten the heathen - however the whole family is drastically changed by living there, in different ways. As the jacket says, it's the story of the family's 'tragic undoing and remarkable reconstruction over 3 decades in postcolonial Africa'.

Barbara Kingsolver has tackled many themes in this novel, in a very readable and articulate way - she reminds me of Doris Lessing in this: including a wide historical viewpoint and viewing events and cultures as they affect different people, who have very different opinions. She has said that she waited 30 years waiting for the wisdom and maturity to dare to write this book - it was worth the wait.

It's about Africa, America, colonialism, religion, agriculture, the jungle, family life, love - and as Barbara Kingsolver puts it, 'the great shifting terrain between righteousness and being right'.

Comic detective fiction

Psychic Siamese cats and men with big moustaches. Man-hungry PR ladies in the Cotswolds. Victorian Egyptologists pursued by ghosts. Welcome to the world of comic detectives!

I was much entertained by this genre in the last few years, when my brain was cloudy and spirits were low. "Light as a souffle" suddenly became a welcome sign rather than a comment which put me off reading. I now alternate these books with more serious stuff when I feel like a bit of time out. Here is some of what I found:

1. Lilian Jackson Braun's The Cat Who.. series
2. Agatha Raisin and.. by MC Beaton
3. Elizabeth Peters' Amelia Peabody -the Victorian Egyptologist sleuth.

One aspect which attracts the reader is a main character whose failings are as appealing as her or his strengths, such as Amelia Peabody. Through the odd comment as she narrates her stories, we find she is bossy, proud, likes giving advice - but putty in the hands of the right man, although she won't always admit to that. Agatha Raisin is extra appealing as she hasn't got a happy-ever-after marriage and she is down to earth in her mixture of bitchiness and generosity.

Another is a perfect, comfortable yet interestingly different world eg where neighbours are friends, reporters become millionaires and live in fantastical barns and coincidences make the world smaller and happier, less alien to us. Similar to the TV version of 'Lark Rise to Candleford' for British viewers. Community spirit is very much alive in these stories -often remote communities where everyone knows each other: a perfect pretext for much character interaction and comedy from the eccentricities of the inhabitants. This is, alas, escapism and wishful thinking for urbanites - and anyone who longs for the days when we lived more closely together.
Any of us who would like more friends - and also to be entertained by the conflicts that come up when we are not friends. And the extra spark added by a murder. ...So we yearn for more love, while our intellects love the intrigue and are coldly curious by the evil intent. Well, that's enough of philosophising - where's the next Agatha Raisin?

The Invisible Mountain by Carolina De Robertis

Another book, another country. This time, one I've never read about - Uruguay, written by an American of Uruguayan descent, about 3 generations of women in the twentieth century. One from the depths of the country, one a poet and one a revolutionary Tupamaro - and much more than that for each.

It is interesting to read the 'Q&A' from the author's site http://carolinaderobertis.com/ and find out how she pieced the story and characters together - that some of the more fantastical, Gabriel Garcia Marquez-like incidents were actually true! (When you read Marquez' autobiography you discover similar unlikely true stories.) Even so, there is a touch of 'magical realism' among some very down-to-earth events.

The other author this reminds me of is Isabel Allende - maybe because she also has strong Latin American female characters and a story that spans generations on occasion.

Anyway, a great book - took me a bit to get into it, but then I got completely absorbed by it and 'lived to read' another chapter.

Intro and first book - Young Turk by Moris Farhi

I have read so many books since leaving my last job, and I keep meaning to record my enthusiasms for some of them before I forget - for the benefit of those with less time who might miss them. So here we go!

My most recent good read is 'Young Turk', by Moris Farhi. It's a book of interwoven episodes about different but related people, all growing up in Turkey during or after World War 2. Some are comic, some have a lot of lyrical sexuality, and some are serious. I was reminded of Gabriel Garcia Marquez at first, as some have that 'magic surrealism' he was famous for, however the tone grew more serious and idealistic, alongside the poetry and comedy, as the book progressed. Farhi is Vice President of International PEN and campaigns for writers imprisoned for their beliefs. A passion emerges for a Turkey that was envisaged by Kemal Ataturk, of all the different peoples, religions and cultures in Turkey allowed to express themselves and yet united in being equally Turkish. This was thwarted by politics in the 50s, it seems, when 'Kemalism' meant everyone had to have the same culture and religion to be Turkish.

I learnt a lot about Turkey through this book, and felt it to have a similarity to modern Britain in the 'multi-culturalism' debate. Serious though this is, it's expressed in a lively, passionate and very readable way and I loved the book.