The Daughter of Time
I'll be perfectly honest - this is not the kind of book I'd read normally. A Fifties police procedural about an upright police detective who investigates a historical mystery? Not my cup of tea!
However I was reading a thread about a book I love - The Dragon Waiting by John M. Ford and lots of people said that if you want some historical context then The Daughter of Time was the most palatable way to get it.
So I picked it up via the wonder that is inter-library loan. Libraries rock.
This brief book was written in 1951 and, given that some of it's attitudes towards women and anyone who isn't English are quite appalling, I found it quite entertaining.
The major thrust of the book is that common knowledge or the historical record is frequently a lot of rubbish and doesn't exactly match what really happened, which he then applies to the story of Richard III. As a result it's ironic that he accepts establishment interpretations of controversial events as examples of how historical events and the facts don't always marry up.
If you like a detective story, or historical sleuthing then you might love this book. Personally, as primer to the fall of the Plantagenet dynasty, I found it enlightening.
Dying Inside
First published in 1972 and set in 1976 this is considered one of Robert Silverberg's great novels.
David Selig is a middle aged New Yorker, barely scraping by on the bottom rung of the ladder, who has telepathic abilities.
As he has aged his power has weakened, become fitful, and he expects that one day it will go away for good.
Selig narrates the story of his everyday life and, with flashbacks, the story of his life and loves.
He's a self-centred, self pitying creature and at times rather unlikeable.
For someone with perfect insight to other minds he treats people incredibly badly.
I really didn't get why Silverberg included the essays that Selig ghost writes for college students to make a living and the narrator really annoyed me at times.
However, this novel is a fine character study and a clever take on the idea of ESP. Which is why it has an A rating, the minus reflects the problems I had with the book.
I'm not sure that I can say I wholeheartedly enjoyed Dying Inside, but I do think that it's an exceptional piece of science fiction - especially considering when it was put out.
I should say that the book is very much of its time. Some bits made me rather uncomfortable, particularly some of the attitudes towards women and blacks.
I'd like to direct you to a much better and rather less amibivalent review of the book by Jo Walton.
My final verdict is that if you love Science Fiction you should probably read this book, but with the caveat that if you can't stand books with an emphasis on the psychological then you aren't going to like Dying Inside.
The Hell Of It All
This is the third volume of Brooker's collected Guardian columns.
I'm very much a fan of his sense of humour and I thoroughly enjoy his work.
I was already familiar with about a quarter of the book as I'd read the columns as they appeared on The Guardian's website.
A couple of the pieces in this book are among the best things he's ever written, and yet, it also has some of the bleakest which can be disquieting among his firework displays of invective.
I'm happy to recommend this (and Brooker's other collections, particularly if you come from a vaguely lefty, media obsessed and net savvy background.
The Emigrants
The Emigrants tells the stories of four exiled German Jews. These four stories are loosely linked together by an unnamed narrator.
These four tales add up to tell the story of the narrator, another exiled German, obviously based on Sebald himself.
These tales are simply slices of ordinary lives told from the perspective of the narrator, or the narrator interpreting the memories or memoirs of others.
All four stories are haunting and linger in the memory. The writing is beautiful, economic and graceful.
I came to this book by recommendation from the James Yorkston book I read last. It was a recommendation well deserved and I think I will delve further into Sebald's work.
It seems that there is only a small back catalogue as sadly Sebald was killed in a car accident at age 57.
It's Lovely To Be Here
Pleasantly enjoyable jaunt through Yorkston's tour diaries as he travels the world playing solo shows as headliner and support act.
He's a fine raconteur with a nice line in self-deprecating yarns but to be honest there's nothing more to the book than that.
Worth it only if you're already a fan of his music.
Albums of the Year
This is hugely late, as I've been distracted with the selling of flats and other real life things, but finally here's my top 50 albums of the year:
- Neil Young - Le Noise
- Philip Selway - Familial
- Broken Bells - Broken Bells
- John Grant - Queen Of Denmark
- Edwyn Collins - Losing Sleep
- National, The - High Violet
- Imagined Village, The - Empire & Love
- Spoon - Transference
- Shearwater - The Golden Archipelago
- Burns Unit - Side Show
The others aren't ranked:
- Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
- Best Coast - Crazy For You
- The Black Heart Procession - Six
- Broken Records - Let Me Come Home
- The Corin Tucker Band - 1,000 Years
- Deer Tick - The Black Dirt Sessions
- Eliza Carthy - Gift
- Ellie Goulding - Lights
- Emma Pollock - The Law Of Large Numbers
- Field Music - Field Music (Measure)
- Grinderman - Grinderman 2
- The Hold Steady - Heaven Is Whenever
- I Am Kloot - Sky At Night
- Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan - Hawk
- Justin Townes Earle - Harlem River Blues
- Kristin Hersh - Crooked
- Kurt Wagner & Cortney Tidwell Present KORT - Invariable Heartache
- Laura Marling - I Speak Because I Can
- Laura Veirs - July Flame
- Los Campesinos! - Romance Is Boring
- Manic Street Preachers - Postcards From A Young Man
- Meursault - All Creatures Will Make Merry
- Micah P Hinson - And The Pioneer Saboteurs
- The New Pornographers - Together
- New Young Pony Club - The Optimist
- Phosphorescent - Here's To Taking It Easy
- Retribution Gospel Choir - 2
- Richard Thompson - Dream Attic
- Roky Erickson & Okkervil River - True Love Cast Out All Evil
- Rose Elinor Dougall - Without Why
- Rumer - Seasons Of My Soul
- School of Seven Bells - Disconnect From Desire
- Stornoway - Beachcomber's Windowsill
- The Tallest Man On Earth - The Wild Hunt
- Titus Andronicus - The Monitor
- The Unwinding Hours - The Unwinding Hours
- Villagers - Becoming A Jackal
- Warpaint - The Fool
- The Watson Twins - Talking To You, Talking To Me
- Yeasayer - Odd Blood
Among Others
This wonderful book somehow gets right to the heart of what it feels like to grow up as misfit teen, with only the comfort of libraries and their science fiction & fantasy books to keep you company. It really reminded of why I decided to become a librarian...
The plot is that fifteen year old Mori finds herself farmed off to a girls boarding school after running away from her Mother and being placed in the care of a Father she doesn't know. She's too smart for her own good, walks with a cane after an accident and speaks with a Welsh accent so she definitely doesn't fit in at her new, posh English, school.
The book follows her as she makes her first steps in getting to know her father, come to terms with her past and her introduction to fandom.
Among Others comes with my highest recommendation. Please read this book - you may not love it as much as I do, but I guarantee that you won't regret it.
Passage
If this book had just been shorter, or quicker paced it would have received a much higher mark from me.
The book follows Doctors researching into Near Death Experiences based in a General Hospital somewhere in the USA. One of them develops a way to safely replicate NDEs under lab conditions in volunteers and the other has been recording the testimony of real life NDE patients.
Essentially what should be a snappy medical mystery/science fiction novel gets bogged down in the detail of Near Death Experiences and generally makes you think "this is going nowhere, do something to advance the story"
It's extremely well written and some of the characters are great (especially the ultra pragmatic, disaster obsessed, pre-teen heart patient Maisie), and generally what happens is quite satisfying - I just felt it took too long to get there.
I think I'm going to take a break from Willis' books - I've been struggling with the audiobook of Blackout for months now and lost the will to listen to it anymore!
A booklog
Recent Posts
Authors
Bands
Blogs
Boards
treefell
Recently Listened
- Kurt Vile – Jesus Fever
- Kurt Vile – Baby’s Arms
- Low – Something's Turning Over
- Low – Nothing But Heart
- Low – Nightingale
