Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

"Largely set in a futuristic World State, inhabited by genetically
modified citizens and an intelligence-based social hierarchy, the novel anticipates huge scientific advancements in reproductive technology, sleep-learning, psychological manipulation and classical conditioning that are combined to make a dystopian society which is challenged by only a single individual: the story's protagonist."

I personally didn't enjoy this book. Some aspects and ideas where very clever and I genuinely enjoyed them. The first third of the book in which the basic outline of the "Brave New World" and its devalued, conveyer belt morality is set forth is brilliant. The narrative device employed by Huxley of having the Director of Hatchery and Conditioning provide a walking tour to students around the facility as a way of informing the reader on the societal basics was perfect. We learn of the cloning/birthing process, the caste system and the fundamental tenets upon which the society is organized. 

It invited some intriguing concepts. The concept of forced consumerism, social conditioning, the breaking down of all emotional bonds, genetic castes, the dumbing down of media to reduce audience engagement and the use of narcotics to escape anything vaguely disconcerting all have parallels in our own world abet not as extreme. You could definitely understand and identify many of the societal trends that Huxley was concerned about. 

However the rest of the book, and thus the main pathos, fell flat for me. The visit to the reservation, the introduction of John, his arch into ascetic monk/lunatic. None of these elements really make me feel anything. I couldn't connect to John or his struggles. The rest of the book was unemotional, dry and uninteresting. Huxley's final point was lost on me. John was no more sane/ relatable than the rest of the drugged up characters. 

Age Rating 16+. Allusions to sex and some vaguely disturbing imagery. 

10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World - Elif Shafak

"For Leila, each minute after her death brings a sensuous memory: the
taste of spiced goat stew, sacrificed by her father to celebrate the long-awaited birth of a son; the sight of bubbling vats of lemon and sugar which the women use to wax their legs while the men attend mosque; the scent of cardamom coffee that Leila shares with a handsome student in the brothel where she works. Each memory, too, recalls the friends she made at each key moment in her life - friends who are now desperately trying to find her. . ."

10 Minutes is separated into two parts, the Mind, with Leila recalling the moments of her life and The Body, the efforts of her friends to recover and bury her. Right there, in that two-part structure is something startlingly radical: Leila is both a mind and a body, a fully rounded woman with four decades of lived experience and a cadaver on a medical examiner’s table. Her death is not where the story ends or where it begins. Her grisly murder is not an outrage to be avenged, nor a puzzle to be solved , there is no brilliant/jaded/antisocial detective , it is simply a tragedy. A lurid death of the type so common in fiction (and upon which a whole genre has been built) – a murdered whore stuffed into a bin – but here the victim is humanised, centred, she is no plot device in someone else’s story.

It is a deeply depressing story of exclusion, sexual abuse, the fall into prostitution, the death of loved ones and an all encompassing feeling of abandonment and hopelessness. But that is not all it is. Yes, there is incredible sadness. But there is also hope, and friendship, and love. For me this book re-affirms how very special life it. What it means to be alive. How and why we can try to make changes and make the world more inclusive and loving.  Most importantly to seek out those with which you will be able to share your life with, those who are meaningful and understand you. 

Shafak's sensual writing abounds. You can smell the scents of spices, cardamom, lemon. You can feel the heat from the sky. The evening breeze on your neck. The lights of the city at night. The sizzle of the food vendor's grill. See the sun reflecting off the harbour. Hear the seagulls careening. The writing is so wonderfully descriptive. 

This is not a perfect novel by any stretch. Leila’s life story is compelling, but not remarkably so; Shafak’s prose style is undeniably lush and sensual, but also occasionally sentimental. Two consecutive chapters open with almost identical lines, which felt slightly lazy. Leila’s ‘found family’ of misfits are drawn with broad brushstrokes and feel more like ‘types’ than real people and their farcical efforts in Part Two are a bit slapstick (Part Two is overall weaker than Part One). 

But along with the mawkishness and melodrama there is poignant charm , wisdom, beauty and compassion. 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World is a novel that beguiles and seduces despite its flaws.

Age Rating 18+. Sexual abuse of a minor, prostitution, swearing, murder, serious mental illness. 

Blue Salt Road - Joanne M Harris

"So begins a stunning tale of love, loss and revenge, against a
powerful backdrop of adventure on the high seas, and drama on the land. The Blue Salt Road balances passion and loss, love and violence and draws on nature and folklore to weave a stunning modern mythology around a nameless, wild young man.

Passion drew him to a new world, and trickery has kept him there - without his memories, separated from his own people. But as he finds his way in this dangerous new way of life, so he learns that his notions of home, and your people, might not be as fixed as he believed."

Harris understand storytelling and the deep emotional and moral power of the folk tale tradition. Like all the best artists, she takes the base but makes it wonderfully her own in this rich tale. She takes you there, to the wide strand by the ocean, the poor village, the whaling ships, and into the water itself, to a part of the world where both the Folk and the Selkie live. Although the story centres on one couple, slowly the wider picture emerges of a reality that’s different to anything we imagine at first, yet absolutely believable. Her characters are alive. Their good traits and  their bad; nothing is painted in black and white, not even love. It’s a very human story, as all the best ones should be, one that ends with bittersweet hope, and an unexpected twist. There's redemption and reclamation, along with every shade of emotion, and that, along with a lovingly-told story, is what makes it such a compelling read, with magic treading lightly between the words. 

Overall, a really intriguing story from one of my absolute favourite authors. I love the beautiful way she has with prose and she never fails to take me someplace else. I always feel deeply human after reading her books. This is a story of change, betrayal, forgiveness, identity, belonging, anger, loss and love.

Age Rating 14+ Nothing untoward, a few mild allusions to sex and the horrors of whaling. 

Parable of the Sower - Octavia E. Butler

"In 2025, with the world descending into madness and anarchy, one
woman begins a fateful journey toward a better future.

Lauren Olamina and her family live in one of the only safe neighbourhoods remaining on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Behind the walls of their defended enclave, Lauren’s father, a preacher, and a handful of other citizens try to salvage what remains of a culture that has been destroyed by drugs, disease, war, and chronic water shortages. While her father tries to lead people on the righteous path, Lauren struggles with hyperempathy, a condition that makes her extraordinarily sensitive to the pain of others.

When fire destroys their compound, Lauren must make her way north to safety, along the way conceiving a revolutionary idea that may mean salvation for all mankind."

I have mixed feelings about this book. On one hand it's a good dystopian novel. It speaks to the reality of religion as a socially unifying force, as a tool to necessitate movement and cohesion. It has a interesting group of characters and a plot that is interesting and moves at a good pace. It has the usual brutality of dystopian, rape, killing and arson being present on almost every page, but that is par for the course in the genre. I enjoyed my experience reading it. 

But unfortunately Butler's insights into religions aren't revolutionary. The rag tag group of survivors that meet on the road to form a found family it tried, tested and a little tired. The effects of the hyper empathy on Lauren are disappointingly little. Lauren, the narrator of the story, is painfully unemotional both in her actions and her narration style. I think this was possibly to show how quickly we become desensitised to violence in a survival situation. But that doesn't explain why Lauren was so unemotional in the beginning, surrounded by a community and loving family. I also didn't understand her attraction to the older man. I mean he was like 50 and she was a teenager. That just felt creepy and gross, sorry. 

I am confused about the choice of cover design. This cover doesn't make it obvious it is a dystopian set in the future. It also really over plays the race aspect which isn't a huge themes of the book, except some offhand mentions. 

Overall it was a good dystopian, but it didn't stand out to me. I obviously cant speak to it's impact or originality during its first publishing. However, now, it didn't have much new to offer me. 

Age Rating 18+. Brutal. Rape, arson, murder, drugs, cannibalism. 

Another Country - James Baldwin

"Set in Greenwich Village, Harlem, and France, among other locales,
Another Country is a novel of passions--sexual, racial, political, artistic--that is stunning for its emotional intensity and haunting sensuality, depicting men and women, blacks and whites, stripped of their masks of gender and race by love and hatred at the most elemental and sublime."

It would be overly simplistic to say that this book is about racism. It is, in a way. But it is more broadly a book about human struggle. The struggle against the many manifold issues, pains and inner turmoil that plague the everyday human. It's about people trying to make it work and still getting it all wrong. And that's interesting, no? For a book that came out in 1962, Baldwin is unabashed and runs the whole gamut of human interaction. It is sweet, scary, idealistic, depressing, nostalgic, and sometimes downright ugly. But it's also not overblown or politicized. It never feels like it trying to make a point or tell a lesson. Baldwin is merely showing us humans, dirty, ugly, striving, beautiful humans in all their complexity. A complexity that is often inextricably linked with the social environment around them. 

It is an undeniably sensual book, as all Baldwin's work is to a point. His characteristic style of eloquent brutality and raw sensuality are at once erotic and haunting, each increasing the impact of the other. For me, the main take away of this book was the understanding of the raw sexuality of the human experience. To strip us right back, to take away race, sexuality, gender, class, all we want is to be seen, wanted and needed. That is the basic human need and to deprive us of that is to create monsters of us. 

A deeply impactful book. I cannot recommend it enough though it is at times a tough read. 

Age Rating 17+ Domestic abuse, rape, sexual content, hate crimes, suicide, depression, alcoholism. 

Friends and Relations - Edith Bowen

"Friends and Relations follows the exploits of four wealthy families
whose lives are changed forever by a torrid affair. The Studdart sisters each take a husband; for beautiful Laurel there is Edward Tilney, and for the introverted Janet there is Rodney Meggatt. But the marriages are complicated by changeable passions, and each character must navigate the conflict between familial piety and individual desire. With Bowen’s signature blend of tragedy and comedy, Friends and Relations is truly an investigation into the human heart, and the book is as beautiful, mysterious, and moving as its subject."

After reading Bowen's The House in Paris with no idea of the author and being completely blown away by it, I was deeply intrigued to read more of her work. 

Bowen's prose is truly a wonder to behold. The true master in show don't tell, her writing leaves you at once confused and deeply moved. A writer that I feel is fully writing for herself, she barely explains her work but it is so emotionally raw. Leaving you to just sit, and think.  Much like we often don't fully understand other people's feelings or thoughts, why should you be able to fully understand the feelings and emotions of her characters? You aren't allowed the easy emotional clarity offered in so much fiction, you are left in the dark just like in real life. This makes her books a deeply feminine experience, with them being rooted solely in emotions rather then logic or motive while never tipping into sentimentality. 

However, I do have a few gripes with this book. It felt less tight and polished then The House in Paris. There are too many characters and while they're sketched with skill, they can become unwieldy and confusing to keep track of. Following Theodora to school also feels like an unnecessary interlude. 

And, for all my great admiration of Bowen's style, there where sometimes when I wondered what people's deals were? Most specifically Edward.  His mother had an affair with a man and, so, was socially "ruined." But this happened when Edward was very young, he had barely, if any, understanding of what was going on. So, when he got older, I couldn't fully understand why he was so caught up on that event. Why had it so deeply scarred him that he wanted to remove his children from the house when the two people who had once had the affair, his mother and the man, are reunited? 

Another thing that was more obviously brought into my focus was the class dynamics. All these drawing rooms, well-kept gardens and country houses are maintained by servants who are barely perceptible in the novel and the sense of entitlement can be an irritant. 

Age Rating 15+. Nothing untoward but some more difficult prose. 

Go Tell It on the Mountain - James Baldwin

"With lyrical precision, psychological directness, resonating
symbolic power, and a rage that is at once unrelenting and compassionate, Baldwin chronicles a fourteen-year-old boy's discovery of the terms of his identity as the stepson of the minister of a storefront Pentecostal church in Harlem one Saturday in March of 1935. Baldwin's rendering of his protagonist's spiritual, sexual, and moral struggle of self-invention opened new possibilities in the American language and in the way Americans understand themselves."

This is my second Baldwin and I am again shocked by the brilliance of his work. He writes with such searing prose and honesty to the human condition. An eye opening mix of brutality, rawness, and elegant eloquence. 

Though I must be entirely honest, I was not as blown away by this book as by 'Giovanni's Room' though I think that was because of my own personal experience. I related more to the struggles of Giovanni's room then to the religious mania and pressure of 'Go Tell It on the Mountain', having not been raised in a religious environment. 

The structure of the book was unique, with most of the action happening in one evening as the family comes to church to pray together and we get to know what each one is praying for and their backstory as to how they got to this point. Allowing Baldwin a  huge amount of range explore different themes in different peoples lives, and we come to understand, if not condone everyone's actions.  The screaming hypocrisy of Gabriel’s brand of evangelism made me absolutely furious, but I also felt very moved by his story. And I loved Florence and Elizabeth's stories; their lives were hard and bitter, and the strength and sacrifice they needed to make to survive was impressive and heart-breaking. We tend not to think much of parents before they were parents, and I am always fascinated with the exploration of their own lives and sufferings, and how all that stuff inexorably trickles down: Baldwin may have never forgiven his father, but in this book, he gives Gabriel the grace of having his pain and guilt acknowledged.

This book does not have an agenda on race, religion, class, violence, or sexuality. This book is about these things, but they are never in the driver's seat, because the characters are. The characters are the glue between the intersection of these numerous difficult themes, and they show how out of these things arises an insurmountable complexity, an ambiguous amorphous blob of feelings.

I must speak about the amazing amount of attention and quality of the actual words that make up Baldwin's sentences. His prose is absolutely masterful, mimicking the flow and imagery of sermons. It give the whole book a weight and seriousness, and it also shows how imbedded these characters are within the church. The vocabulary of faith has worked itself into their mental spaces. 

Age Rating 15+. Some very serious themes such as abuse, rape, race, lynching, sex, addiction and abandonment. There is also some strong language. 

The Well of Loneliness - Radclyffe Hall

"Stephen is an ideal child of aristocratic parents—a fencer, a horse
rider and a keen scholar. Stephen grows to be a war hero, a bestselling writer and a loyal, protective lover. But Stephen is a woman, and her lovers are women. As her ambitions drive her, and society confines her, Stephen is forced into desperate actions." 

I' m conflicted about this book. On one hand I enjoyed the writing style, it was elegant and there were some genuinely beautiful and moving passages. The subject matter of queerness and gender non-conformity is dear to my heart, and I deeply related to many of Stephan's struggles which Hall expresses and explores with skill. 

However, the plot drags in the middle, and the opinions expressed are one-sided. Stephan is at least slightly an autobiographical representation of Hall and this gives the book a great emotional weight. But it also closes Hall's ability to write other points of view. The side characters of Wanda and Valerie are fascinating and show opposing reactions to living as a queer women in the early 1900s. I thought that with their introduction, Hall would explore some of the different view-points within the queer community at the time. But no... not at all. A thoroughly missed opportunity I feel, as the side characters turn out to serve no narrative purpose at all. 

I have to be honest that I didn't feel that this was accurately categorised as a lesbian book, though I understand why it was. Our understanding of people and psychology has come along quite a ways. I personally believe that Stephan, and possibly Radclyffe Hall in extension, weren't lesbians but transgender men that didn't have the words. The book itself talks about inverts and the "normal" women that fall in love with them. This also makes sense when looking at Stephan's attitudes to gay men which is frankly down right homophobic. If you read this as a transgender man hating that these man have what they don't i.e. a male body yet are "squandering" it by being feminine, then this makes more sense. Though it is by no means condonable. 

I could not help but be shocked at some of the hypocrisy, the books striving for acceptance of a minority while at the same time there is an underlying attitude of snobbishness and chauvinism towards other minorities. Stephan had certainly taken in the classist dogma of much of the landed gentry and would have been downright awful if she had been born male as her gender non-conformity was the only thing that gave her any self doubt/ interesting foibles. 

Age Rating 14+ Nothing untoward. 

The Discovery of Witches (All Souls #1) - Deborah Harkness

"Deep in the stacks of Oxford's Bodleian Library, young scholar Diana
Bishop unwittingly calls up a bewitched alchemical manuscript in the course of her research. Descended from an old and distinguished line of witches, Diana wants nothing to do with sorcery; so after a furtive glance and a few notes, she banishes the book to the stacks. But her discovery sets a fantastical underworld stirring, and a horde of daemons, witches, and vampires soon descends upon the library. Diana has stumbled upon a coveted treasure lost for centuries-and she is the only creature who can break its spell."

This book genuinely put me into a reading slump. I really tried to persevere, as the plot hooks of what was in the manuscript and what happened to Diana's parents kept me engaged. However, I...I just couldn't anymore and actually had to put it down. Harkness's glacial pacing and repetitive/obsolete descriptions where enough for me to start clocking out. The descriptions of multiple wines, intimate knowledge of Diana's exercise routine and a Wattpad like fascination while wardrobe descriptions padded this book far beyond it's warranted length. I am no enemy to atmosphere, slow pacing or heavy descriptions. I have read my fair share of 19th century novels to fine with that. But none of this description actually does anything, it serves little to no narrative purpose. 

What irritated me the most, however, was Harkness's characterisation. At first, I thought that this book was going to be an intelligent Twilight for grown-ups. The female lead is Diana, is a highly intelligent woman and well respected in her field. She’s also the daughter of two powerful witches who were murdered when she was seven years old. The main character wasn't helpless, thought for herself, didn't immediately adore her bloodsucking, murderous stalker or find his abusive behaviour endearing, and didn't seem interested in losing her entire identity to the first good-looking guy who wanted to eat her. A rebuttal of Twilight, almost.

But no. Despite Diana's increasing Mary Sue-ishness as she develops every witch ability ever known, she must constantly be rescued and protected by Edward, er, Matthew.

Matthew, meanwhile, is a complete jackass. (Excuse my French) Trotting out the obnoxious "pack mentality" trope so often used in "paranormal romance" (a genre that really, really needs to be marked better so that those of us looking for "urban fantasy" won't be blindsided every damn time), Matthew is neatly absolved from all responsibility for his sexist insistence that Diana obey him as her husband and for his volatile, potentially murderous temper if and when she doesn't comply. Who doesn't want a hyper controlling boyfriend that keeps a huge amount of secrets, keeps important information away from you, uses his temper to make you obedient and says, “I might not be able to control myself if you step away” after a first kiss. Diana is the otherwise highly intelligent woman who acts like a child whenever she’s in his presence. She has to be bullied and bated into using her powers, and saved time and time again by Matthew. Despite Matthew’s continual marvelling about how powerful and strong she is, her strength is barely in evidence.

It is really unfortunate. I am a sucker for academic settings (having lived in Oxford myself), urban fantasy and the general aesthetic of this book was wonderful. Large French castles, ancient libraries, large dysfunctional vampire families (wish there was more of that), horse riding. All right up my alley, with the potential to be something really amazing. A fusion of urban fantasy and dark academia. Unfortunately Harkness's characters and pacing completely threw me off. 

Age Rating 16+. Violence, sex, threat, torture (very tame though.)

The Never Ending Story - Michael Ende

"Only the right name gives beings and things their reality. A wrong
name makes everything unreal. That's what lies do.

Bastian is nobody's idea of a hero, least of all his own. Through the pages of an old book he discovers a mysterious magical world - a world of dragons, monsters, witches and giants. A world that is doomed unless a human can save it. Can Bastian succeed in battling terrible foes and find the strength he needs to give the Empress a new name?" 

I enjoyed a huge amount of this book. However, I must admit that I understand why the movie decided to change where the story ended. The first half of the book is truly amazing and I loved every minute of it. However once Bastian has been taken into Fantasia, things started to get rather wobbly from a plot point of view. While still incorporating a huge amount of stunning imagery and fun ideas, the plot felt aimless and only loosely tied together. Bastian wanders from place to place, scenario to scenario with no drive or purpose. I understand what Ende was trying to express, he used a very old folklore theme, of the corrupting influence of power and finding the joy of your own identity. However I don't think this theme was as well expressed as the theme of the importance of imagination and creativity expressed in the first half. 

I must say that Ende certainly knows his mythology/ folklore. I recognised many themes, emotional motifs and plot beats from other stories. Quite similar to the Arthurian legends. 

Age Rating 13+. Nothing untoward but some emotionally intense scenes. 

The Outsider - Albert Camus

"Meursault will not pretend. After the death of his mother, everyone
is shocked when he shows no sadness. And when he commits a random act of violence in Algiers, society is baffled. Why would this seemingly law-abiding bachelor do such a thing? And why does he show no remorse even when it could save his life? His refusal to satisfy the feelings of others only increases his guilt in the eyes of the law. Soon Meursault discovers that he is being tried not simply for his crime, but for his lack of emotion - a reaction that condemns him for being an outsider. For Meursault, this is an insult to his reason and a betrayal of his hopes; for Camus it encapsulates the absurdity of life."

I think the little book Gods must really be liking me recently. I have been reading amazingly profound book after book. 

This was another book that knocked me sideways (though, I must say, not to the same extent as say Giovanni's Room.) 

It was a very interesting read. The idea that someone is tried for not reacting in a conventional manner sits very close to home as someone who has Asperger's and thus doesn't react conventionally myself. However, I think that the people who argue that Meursault isn't a bad person, just someone unconventional, different, being unfairly persecuted by a out of date traditionalist society, must not have read the same book I did. Meursault is undoubtedly a bad person. Even if I do not feel nor express emotions the same way as "normal" people, it doesn't mean that sitting by while a pimp beats his girlfriend, a man abuses his dog, or killing a man in cold blood are acceptable things to do. 

I am unsure of what Camus was trying to express ideologically through this book. That all morality is just a social construct and thus false and meaningless? That people are more judged for being unconventional then they are for their actual crimes? The life in itself is inherently meaningless and thus your actions hold no meaning?

One of the main questions that was raised in the book was, what truly defines humanity or makes someone human? During Meursault's trial, he is constantly accused of not showing remorse and therefore as being cold and inhuman. He is most definitely human though, just detached. This raises the question of whether one should be expected to exhibit certain characteristics in certain situations to "keep their humanity". It also raises the question of whether much of our emotion is created by ourselves or the expectations of others to exhibit certain emotions in a given situation. The book is also an indictment on people's efforts to dictate other people's lives. We are constantly told what is right and as a means to justify our own sense of "what it means to be human." As someone who, on many occasions, has been accused of being cold, inhuman, even psychotic, merely for not displaying emotions in the expected way, this was a wonderful question to be mulled over. It also prompted me to be more honest myself. Why should I have to lie, as Meursault refuses to do, about what I do or do not feel.  

Camus's writing was also wonderful. Meursault lives very much "in" his body, he experiences the world through his senses rather than his emotions. This creates a brilliantly evocative, unique and absorbing tonal atmosphere. Camus's choice to have all the settings drenched in sun heightened the raw sensual savagery, of humanity being brutally illuminated. 

A thoroughly interesting book full of a complex and ambiguous philosophical messages, thoroughly open to interpretation and analysis. Age Rating 16+ Sex, murder, abuse, both domestic and animal. 

The House in Paris - Elizabeth Bowen

"When eleven-year-old Henrietta arrives at the Fishers’ well-
appointed house in Paris, she is prepared to spend her day between trains looked after by an old friend of her grandmother’s. Little does Henrietta know what fascinations the Fisher house itself contains–along with secrets that have the potential to topple a marriage and redeem the life of a peculiar young boy. By the time Henrietta leaves the house that evening, she is in possession of the kind of grave knowledge that is usually reserved only for adults."

I was unsure of what to expect with this book, as I picked it up merely because of an intriguing blurb and an aesthetically pleasing cover. What I found inside was a deeply unusual, constrained, tense yet stunningly beautiful work. This book haunts you. 

Some have said that the main characters, the 11 year old Henrietta and the 9 year Leopold, don't act like real children. I have to beg to differ. The rigid mistrust and hierarchy is very true to the experience of the inner lives of children. (Or at least to my experience of childhood.) Children don't fully understand that they are children, thus their emotions and inner lives are by no means neutered by that fact. 

The plot is relatively simple, a sad romantic entanglement between a group of friends. It's simplicity is what makes it brilliant, it allows Bowen the time and space to really explore the emotions, tensions and atmosphere of these characters. What most struck me was Bowen's writing style. Bowen’s sensibility is heightened to the pitch of a lonely woman in a big house who hears what sounds like an intruder downstairs in the middle of the night. Inanimate objects become animated and not only contribute to the tension of every passing moment but define it. The way light falls or dwindles becomes a coded text of prophecy. It took me a while to get into the rhythm of the book, at once feeling melodiously slow and tensely frenetic. Bowen's primary story-telling device is dialogue, dialogue filled with hidden meaning delivered in staccato. This tempo gets even more frenetic when Bowen writes in monologue, telling a person's thoughts. Bowen covers a range of themes in a relatively short book: the creation of identity, time, secrets and lies, sexuality and sensuality, the constraints of society, death, the relationship between mothers and their children.

The most fascinating character to me was definitely Madame Fisher, the controlling and menacing matriarch. Her ever-watching presence that consumes the house with a creeping ennui. 

A story of passion and heartbreak, of sexual power and destruction - without ever being voyeuristic, it is deeply erotic. Leopold is the living personification of passion spent and lost, and his future, standing at the station in the end, is just as open as his mother's was before her path was chosen. This novel spins an intricate and horrifying atmosphere, that feels at once deeply peaceful and deeply unnerving. A book that is less enjoyed but felt. I would highly recommend.

Age Rating 16+ Adult themes and a unique writing style that might need a slightly higher comprehension to understand/appreciate. 

Rubyfruit Jungle - Rita Mae Brown

"Molly Bolt is a young lady with a big character. Beautiful, funny
and bright, Molly figures out at a young age that she will have to be tough to stay true to herself in 1950s America. In her dealings with boyfriends and girlfriends, in the rocky relationship with her mother and in her determination to pursue her career, she will fight for her right to happiness. Charming, proud and inspiring, Molly is the girl who refuses to be put in a box."

An objectively good book with some really, really questionable sections. 

A fun and interesting coming of age story with a spunky main character, Molly, who never accepts an answer or societal control, kicks against all her disadvantages and the bigotry facing her. It was genuinely funny too - the description of the children's nativity play in the local school is priceless. Overall I enjoyed reading this book, especially the childhood part. However there were some definite issues. 

First of all, everything is too contrived. Everyone Molly meets just happens to become gay. Things happen very easily for Molly, she is homeless in New York than the next day finds a cheap apartment? I mean I wasn't in New York in the 70s, I wasn't around at all in the 70's, but that seems a little unrealistic. 

I enjoyed the main character’s strength of self and unapologetic intention to live her life only for herself without a care for what the world thinks. However, there is unfortunately little nuance, little moments of understanding and in truth, little sense of a full character. Molly's a one-dimensional saviour, who has no negative characteristics accept for the fact that she seems to be a bit of a bitch. She never seemed to care about any of the women she slept with. Her definition for being a lesbian seemed to be that she enjoyed sex with women more than she did sex with men, which I mean...I guess that's one definition. She never seemed to fall in love or actually care about anyone.

Now, the parts I had some real issues with. The aggressive putting down of butch lesbians, basically amounting to butch women being just like men. Molly literally says, why would she wish to be with a butch women, if she wanted a men she would sleep with a man. So yeah.... Then goes on to characterise butch women as ugly, stupid and grotesque. There is also the putting down of older lesbians. They are characterised as predatory and deeply sad. I am of course not here to say that there are no predatory, stupid, ugly people within the community, obviously they are. But for that to be all that you show in a book? Molly is the only "good" queer. It actually feels really homophobic for a gay book. 

There is also a rape scene (with Molly being the attacker) or at least the consent lines where so blurred I really wasn't comfortable with it. And the final cherry on top, - the approval and almost slight endorsement of incest and the assertion that it's "anti-human" to not commit incest to some level. I mean...excuse me, what? I am unsure whether all of these views are the authors, but as the book is semi-autobiographical I am led to believe so. 

I enjoyed the humour, the quirky happenings, the side characters were vivid and writing wasn't bad. It was interesting to read a book so important within the lesbian historical canon. But as a book that has been called so "sex positive", and I am no prude, but I personally don't think rape, incest, infidelity, cheating and sex without any emotions if very healthy or sex positive. 

Age Rating 16+ Sex, homelessness, discrimination, abortion, childhood abuse, death. 

Giovanni's Room - James Baldwin

"In a 1950s Paris swarming with expatriates and characterized by
dangerous liaisons and hidden violence, an American finds himself unable to repress his impulses, despite his determination to live the conventional life he envisions for himself. After meeting and proposing to a young woman, he falls into a lengthy affair with an Italian bartender and is confounded and tortured by his sexual identity as he oscillates between the two."

I picked this book up on a whim at the library. I had no idea what it was about. I had never heard of it before, and I must be honest, I didn't put the name James Baldwin together with the Civil Rights Activist I was taught about in school. So, I had no idea I was about to read one of best book I have yet read. 

This book unravelled me completely. I felt like my whole body was strung out by the sheer, inexorable weight of this story. During reading, I often found myself having to close the book and just process. Giovanni's Room is one of the rawest, most wounding and open-chested portraits of what it is like to burn with the fires of self-loathing as a result of internalized hate, and to wrestle, every day, from the webbing of a shame that stains, indelibly, yourself and everything you love. 

There is viciousness, lust, loneliness, sensuality, deception, sorrow, tenderness, despair, and ultimately tragedy that makes this book easily one of the top 100 best books I’ve ever read. Every reader will find something of themselves in this book, maybe not the part of themselves that they want to hold up to the mirror, but certainly a fragment, disdainful in nature or worthy of pity, that can not be denied.

It is classified as a "gay book." I think that is a overly simplified grouping, it is a book about doomed love. I do not think that you have to be queer to enjoy or relate to this book. You must only have felt out of place, a stranger in a strange land, to have looked at yourself in the mirror and not liked what you saw. To have felt the deep well of loneliness and meaningless desperation that comes with living as a human. Baldwin explores and expresses the torments of humanity and love, through his achingly beautiful prose that often left me breathless. David is profoundly selfish, and evasive to the attention he receives. He paradoxically wants love but cannot bear the responsibilities that go with it. He is an unlikable man, yet you cannot help but emote with him. You cannot help but feel all of his pain and regret and loathing. 

Truly a haunting read, one that will stay with you long after you have finished it. My review cannot do it justice, I merely urge you to read it. 

Age Rating 16+. An insinuations of rape, murder, execution and prostitution but nothing overt. 

Chronicles of a Liquid Society - Umberto Eco

"Umberto Eco was an international cultural superstar. In this, his
last collection, the celebrated essayist and novelist observes the changing world around him with irrepressible curiosity and profound wisdom. He sees with fresh eyes the upheaval in ideological values, the crises in politics, and the unbridled individualism that have become the backdrop of our lives—a “liquid” society in which it’s not easy to find a polestar, though stars and starlets abound."

I must be honest as we go into this review that this is the first piece of work I have read by Umberto Eco, and probably it wasn't the best starting point. I was somewhat disappointed to discover that this is not a book of essays, as I expected, but a collection of Eco's newspaper column articles. The nature of the original media dictates the format of most entries: incredibly short (500 - 1500 words each), the use of 'newspaper language', and written in response to a certain event (many of which felt either dated or way too regional)… So overall it reads a bit bitty, piecemeal, and lacklustre. 

Due to the short word count Eco is allotted for each subject he is never fully able to delve into the question or topic but rather skims, thus it doesn't feel like a fulfilling range of work or a complete understanding of his views. Plus, they are totally outdated. It’s a posthumous collection, so I can understand that. Yet he is referencing events that I have no recollection of, often happening while I was in Primary School. Or he is speaking about social trends that have either become common knowledge or haven't happened at all. 

Eco's intelligence and education shine in his more academic pieces, his more "modern" criticism often sound like the moaning of your grandfather that tells you you spend too much time on your phone and that childhoods where better in his day. I’m not really interested in reading about your hatred of the Internet when you’re ranting about Windows Vista.

I would like to quickly draw your attention to the cover of the book, which I thought was so clever. I loved the use of the shot of piled up newspapers, that not only references the topical/ non - fiction nature of the collection, but also visually references water or ice flows. I thought it was neat. 

Overall an entertaining read but by no means an invaluable education. I would either suggest another piece of Eco's work that is less obviously outdated, or, if you want to read about current social affairs, read something more current. Age Rating 15+. 

Glimpses of the Moon - Edith Wharton

"Set in the 1920s, Glimpses of the Moon details the romantic
misadventures of Nick Lansing and Susy Branch, a couple with the right connections but not much in the way of funds. They devise a shrewd bargain: they'll marry and spend a year or so sponging off their wealthy friends, honeymooning in their mansions and villas. The other part of the plan states that if either one of them meets someone who can advance them socially, they're free to dissolve the marriage. How their plan unfolds is a comedy of errors that will charm all fans of Wharton's work."

Well, Wharton's brilliance is at it again. 

I have heard this story described as a love story, and while an accurate description, I would suggest that it is a touch misleading and strips the story of the many many layers that it possesses. Both as a character study, and as a study of society at a very specific time in history. 

Glimpses of the Moon is a intricate character study of two, actually quite unlikable main characters. Susy is vapid, self absorbed, mercenary and grasping. Nick has a superiority complex though the roof, condescending and hypocritical. Both are prone to feeling that the world owes them something, refuse to work honestly, and look at their wealthy friends with such distain it amounts to loathing while still happily taking their money and aspiring to their lifestyle. These are not nice people. Yet Wharton is able to write them in such a way that you find yourself genuinely feeling for them, despite being aware of how flawed they are.

You become genuinely invested in these characters and you are able, strangely, to relate to them. You feel for Nick when he becomes aware, and then embarrassed, by his inability to financially look after his new wife and how this deeply impacts this view of himself. You see him becoming aware of just how low he has slipped morally, and how he wants to try for something better. You see him grapple with his feelings about Susy. He loves her and in loving her, he wants to be a better person and have a higher standard of moral integrity. Yet as his morals change, he becomes more and more disillusioned with her morally grey mercenary ways. By loving her, he falls out of love with her. 

You feel for Susy who just wants to be financially secure and have pretty things. Is that really such a crime to want, especially as a women with little to no financial mobility by herself, who's only route to power was through matrimony? Could you really hate her for "managing" when what else was really open to her? Did she deserve to be so looked down on by Nick who, up until their marriage, had been "managing" himself in exactly the same way. 

There where moments when I wanted to just slap both these characters and tell them to just god damn communicate better. But, I think that was the whole point. They had to discover what was important to them separately. I loved the ending. It was utterly endearing; so beautifully and painfully hopeful. The realisation literally amounting to money can't buy happiness. Fulfilment doesn't come from material gain but from emotional investment. This was a slightly amusing take, however, coming from a writer whose family supposedly inspired the saying "keeping up with the Jones'" as they where so exceptionally wealthy everyone had to fight to keep pace with them.  

I am also honour bound to discuss Wharton's writing. She just blows me away. Her descriptions of Susy and Nick's acquaintance are brilliant. I was especially struck with her characterisation of Streffy. Wharton's insights into the human psyche and the foibles of society are stunningly handled and nuanced. Everyone is multi faceted and achingly human. I truly cannot recommend enough, though I must warn you it is an emotionally taxing book and deserves a slow and thoughtful perusal. 

Age Rating 15+. Nothing untoward, though the writing style might be a little tough for a younger audience. 

Kintu - Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi

"In 1750, Kintu Kidda unleashes a curse that will plague his family
for generations. In this ambitious tale of a clan and of a nation, Makumbi weaves together the stories of Kintu’s descendants as they seek to break from the burden of their shared past and reconcile the inheritance of tradition and the modern world that is their future."

This is a sweeping, ambitious book, relating the story of an extended family that begins with a patriarch in 1750 and then jumps forward to the 60s,80s and 2004, tracing the mis/fortunes of his descendants in modern Uganda. It’s been much discussed as a very Ugandan book, written for local readers and enjoying massive popularity there, but it’s an excellent novel with much to offer international readers as well.

The story begins in the old kingdom of Buganda, where Kintu Kiddu, a governor, journeys to the capital to pay his respects to a new king, who just took power by murdering his brother. Kintu’s most pressing concerns, however, are closer to home, with the large number of wives he’s obliged to marry for political purposes, the grooming of his heir, and the adopted son who meets an unexpected problem on the journey.

Plot summaries about this book tend to focus on the ancient curse, but as someone who usually finds fictional curses to be difficult plot element to handle well, I was impressed with Makumbi’s handling of this element. The Kintu clan believes that they are cursed, but the story leaves room for other interpretations.  All the characters experience hardship, but it never feels inevitable. 

The writing is surprisingly beautiful and deeply emotional. There is a certain undefinable African writing style that I am starting to notice, a mixture of lyrical prose and matter of fact brutal realism.

I was impressed by this book. Makumbi explores sweeping areas of Ugandan life, from sexual mistreatment, extreme poverty, religious zealotry, abuse, the HIV epidemic, mob "justice" and the effects of colonialization. Yet each of these issues, and I haven't listed all of them, are handled with such nuanced gentleness and understanding. It never feels didactic or unnecessarily wedged in there to make a political point. This is a brutal book, with Makumbi not shying away from any of the pain that her characters go through. Yet it is also a strangely hopeful novel, championing family, love, connection to yourself and your identity. 

Age Rating 17+. Mature adult themes. 

Antigone Rising: The Subversive Power of the Ancient Myths - Helen Morales

"The picture of classical antiquity most of us learned in school is
framed in certain ways -- glossing over misogyny while omitting the seeds of feminist resistance. Many of today's harmful practices, like school dress codes, exploitation of the environment, and rape culture, have their roots in the ancient world.

But in Antigone Rising, classicist Helen Morales reminds us that the myths have subversive power because they are told -- and read -- in different ways."

I thought this was going to be a scholarly classical reception volume: it's not. Instead it reads like a series of popular articles that have a link (sometimes tenuous) or spring from a classical phenomenon (not always a myth) which Morales uses as a foundation for writing about our own cultural flashpoints, principally around feminist resistance to patriarchy but which also attend to other inclusive issues around race, gender and sexuality.

The writing is frequently fierce (and rightly so) with flashes of ironic humour (the terrible danger to men of a naked collarbone!) and the whole thing is easily read in 1-2 hours. I'd say that if you're already familiar with Greek and Roman culture and classical myths then there might be a bit too much storytelling rather than analysis here, but that feels appropriate for a cross-over audience. While I was familiar with most of the connections between myths and popular culture and the myths themselves, being both a classicist and queer, it was still lovely to read an eloquent book about this subject which is very close to my heart. I would highly recommend this book to people that know little about either Greek and Roman Myth, culture, or modern feminist issues. 

Age Rating 16+. Mentions of rape and violence. 

Three Daughters of Eve - Elif Shafak

"Peri, a married, wealthy, beautiful Turkish woman, is on her way to
a dinner party at a seaside mansion in Istanbul when a beggar snatches her handbag. As she wrestles to get it back, a photograph falls to the ground--an old Polaroid of three young women and their university professor. A relic from a past--and a love--Peri had tried desperately to forget."

I have read Shafak's work before, more specifically her much acclaimed Bastard of Istanbul. However, while I was blown away of the Bastard of Istanbul's prose, I was left wanting when it came to plot. Three Daughters of Eve was far better in my personal opinion. This might be because the themes discussed, such as loneliness, religion and finding yourself stuck between cultures where far closer to my heart than the family estrangement depicted in Bastard of Istanbul. 

Three Daughters of Eve is a multi-layered novel that explores the feeling of being caught in between the tensions that plague the modern era - between traditionalism and modernity, between religiosity and secularism, between East and West - and the consequences of being ideologically unmoored in a polarized world. While Three Daughters of Eve succeeds in scaling down these lofty ideas into the ways they shape the everyday life of the protagonist, it also uses the rest of its characters as caricatures of these ideas, turning moments of potentially genuine connection into staged battlegrounds where the clash between dichotomies can play out. While this should have led to the characters feeling one dimensional and unrelatable, through Shafak's beautiful writing, I still related to them despite understanding what they represented on a textual level.  I enjoyed the novel for the author's skill in evoking time and place, and her depiction of the modern existential crisis that went beyond the individual and into society as a whole, while still being deeply personal. I truly related to Peri and her struggles in finding herself. 

I also adored Shafak's prose. She has a certain style that is both poetic and raw, never feeling overly florid. She cuts through human nature and it's condition in short sharp sentences, displaying a dizzying love for both Turkey and England. 

My only negative to this book is that I couldn’t help but feel that, in some places, there were build ups to scenes that were abruptly abandoned. I was also dissatisfied with the rather abrupt ending although I understood the point the author was trying to make. 

Age Rating 15+ Nothing untoward, though there is a mugging and attempted rape at the beginning. 

By Light Alone - Adam Roberts

"In a world where we have been genetically engineered so that we can
photosynthesise sunlight with our hair hunger is a thing of the past, food an indulgence. The poor grow their hair, the rich affect baldness and flaunt their wealth by still eating. But other hungers remain...

The young daughter of an affluent New York family is kidnapped. The ransom demands are refused. Years later a young women arrives at the family home claiming to be their long lost daughter. She has changed so much, she has lived on light, can anyone be sure that she has come home?"

I was drawn to this book initially by the very interesting premise. I am also willing to admit, here and now, that the cover totally sucked me in. An art deco sensibility is definitely the way to make me interested in starting your book.

The main idea is that science has produced a mechanism where people are able to gain all their energy from sunlight, thanks to a bug that makes their hair capable of photosynthesis. All they need to live is water and a few essential nutrients. A clever idea, certainly, but where Roberts triumphs is in exploring the many unexpected implications of this change. The absolute heart of what makes science fiction. 

One implication considered is that for the first time ever it's possible to have a group of people who have literary no money at all.(Besides slaves obviously.) A group of people that the wealthy can argue don't need to be paid in money. Making them not just poor, but literally penniless. Roberts also examines the possibilities for male/female distinctions (though I will be honest this sounded extremely far fetched), and how a small group of wealthy people might consider those who have the special hair to be a subspecies, and begin to conspicuously wear their hair short to emphasise their extreme wealth. 

Something I thought was clever on Roberts part is that he creates a world in which the wealthy and the poor both realistically portray their stereotypical attributes. The poor sit around all day doing nothing, lazy, sex obsessed, violent, contributing nothing. But for reasons that make sense in the world. The poor, because they are surviving on light alone, have no extra energy to do anything. They survive but are skeletal and easily drained, fighting for the one resource they still need. Water. 

The wealthy, on the other hand, are cut off from reality, selfish and wasteful. They literally make the labouring forces into skeletons and rob them of the ability, literally and metaphorically, to eat. 

The book is divided into four parts, each seen from a different (but linked) individual's point of view. At the heart of the book is the story of a privileged family whose daughter is taken from them on a skiing holiday. They assume initially she has been taken as a hostage, but the authorities gradually explain that something much darker is behind it.

The one fault I would say that the book has is that the forth segment, which is the longest, seen from the viewpoint of the captured daughter, is the least effective. It's partly because the environment she is in forces a slow, plodding development, with occasional dramatic outbreaks of violence and rape, but also because it just doesn't work quite as well as the other sections. I am not quite sure why this is. It's undeniably good, but the others are brilliant. Strangely I absolutely adored the Mother's Chapter. Roberts excels at creating a unique inner voice with each POV, something that many authors struggle with. The mother's internal monologue is so inherently selfish and manipulative. Full of privilege, victim complexes and entitlement. But she is blind to it. We as the readers, not only see her for what she is, but are also made to see the world through her warped eyes and are brough to understand how horrific people can genuinely believe themselves to be good people. Roberts makes use of much of today therapy/self help speech, parroting wealthy celebs self love talk making this character instantly recognisable and all the more horrifying. 

I would also like to point out how wonderful Roberts prose is. There aren't many sci-fi authors that employ such poetic and startlingly beautiful writing. Though it was rambling at points, it actually felt coherent in the world. A boredom in the parent's chapters as they ramble on with no real reason for existence due to their wealth, nothing to strive for. And a surrealist introspection caused by deep trauma in the daughter. 

Age Rating 18+. Violence, death, murder, rape, paedophilia, kidnapping, assault. 

She- Merchants, Buccaneers and Gentlewomen: British Women in India - Katie Hickman

"Women made their way to India for exactly the same reasons men did -
to carve out a better life for themselves. In the early days, India was a place where the slates of 'blotted pedigrees' were wiped clean; bankrupts given a chance to make good; a taste for adventure satisfied - for women. They went and worked as milliners, bakers, dress-makers, actresses, portrait painters, maids, shop-keepers, governesses, teachers, boarding house proprietors, midwives, nurses, missionaries, doctors, geologists, plant-collectors, writers, travellers, and - most surprising of all - traders.

As wives, courtesans and she-merchants, these tough adventuring women were every bit as intrepid as their men, the buccaneering sea captains and traders in whose wake they followed; their voyages to India were extraordinarily daring leaps into the unknown."

This was a good, comprehensive and enlightening history of British women in India. It allowed British women to speak for themselves through Primary sources about their life and experiences in India. 

Unfortunately, the sources by the English women are not complemented by any sort of meaningful discussion of Indian women. The British women said Indian women were stuck in zenanas and lived grand but highly claustrophobic lives, and that's all there was to it--Hickman takes this at face value, perhaps ignoring the rich literary and political traditions that women have sustained in the subcontinent. It seems as though we are encouraged to root for or sympathize with women who arrived in the subcontinent because they were daring and "different" from other British women at the time and were sometimes in great peril. In celebrating their accomplishments, Hickman steamrolls over very infuriating events during British colonization and offers no real commentary about their complicity in the whole endeavour. I saw some negative reviews that it didn’t include Indian voices, and it doesn’t at all. But despite my comments, it arguably isn’t what it set out to do. I think it is definitely skewed to favour the British as it hardly every explores how British racism and/or colonialism effected India, which can be somewhat unsavoury at times. However, it seemed well-researched but I am not informed enough about this subject to speak accurately on that front. 

I was appalled to read about the Siege of Lucknow and the Massacre of Cawnpore, things I had never even heard of. To hear about the events of these incidents from Primary Sources just increased my horror. 

One of my main irritation about this book is, that while it never suggested that it would explore Indian women's culture so I cant be too frustrated on that head, I was promised Merchants and Buccaneers. There are glancing mentions of Merchants and no Buccaneers. The huge majority of the women in this book, while having very interesting and illuminating life stories, fit firmly into the Gentlewomen category. I really wanted to explore a wider understanding of the lives these women lived. I could have had less lists of their clothing choices and more discussion of how unmarried ladies made a living? How did the working class ladies get by? What where the lives of the mixed race children? 

All round a very interesting and illuminating read that I thoroughly enjoyed, however explores a narrow demographic and doesn't try to weave these narratives into the larger story of Indian history. A good starting point but requires substantial further reading into Indian History, feminism, Indian gender politics and British Colonialism. 

Age Rating 17+ Some very distressing and graphic description of certain events.