Everybody lies

posted on Wednesday, August, 15th, 2007 in Thursday Thirteen

I am aware that I have done this same topic back in May already, but since then I have read quite a lot of new books, so I figured I might as well do it again. (And probably a third time sometime around Christmas.) Last time I listed only the names of the books, but this time I’d like to add a few words to each about why I liked them. I have linked the title of each book to the respective Amazon-page, and the pictures to the respective journal of the book on Bookcrossing (not all of them are registered there though).

John Marsden – Tomorrow, when the war begun
This is the first in a series of books about a group of australian teenagers. They go on a hiking trip for a few days, and on their return find that in their absence the country has been invaded and their parents and most of the other people are held prisoners. This first book is about them coming to grips with the situation, of trying to find out what exactly happened, and of deciding to fight the enemy in every way possible to them.
I had read this book before, I found it when I was in Australia but couldn’t take it home with me. It has taken me months to get the whole series together through Bookmooch, and now that I finally have them all, I have started with reading the first part again. Ostensibly it is a book aimed at teenagers, but I think it is definitely readable for adults as well. A bit like Harry Potter, minus the wizards, of course. I’m very much looking forward to finding out how the story goes on in the next 5 books.
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Margaret Forster – The Memory Box
Catherine has never been interested in her biological mother Susannah, who died when Catherine was just 6 months old. Her stepmother Charlotte has always been her rolemodel and the person she loved most. So when, after both her parents are dead, she finds a box that Susannah assembled and left for her daughter, Catherine is more than reluctant to even open it. When she finally does, she finds it full of strange and disconnected objects. In her attempt to find an explanation for this bizarre collection of things she traces the life of her mother and finally has to face the fact that not only has she never really known anything about her, but also that maybe she did miss her after all.
I loved the way this book explores the relationship of parents and their children. How much do we really know about our parents? Much more so if they died early and we know them only through stories other adults tell us. How can we help our children to really get to know us? I don’t have children myself, but I found it interesting to think about what I would put in such a memory box, if I knew I would die soon and wanted them later to remember me. I came up with a few items, but I guess without a lengthy explanation noone could make head or tail of them…
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Bryce Courtenay – The Power of One
Before I went to New Zealand I had never heard of Bryce Courtenay. But down there he is apparently quite popular, because every bookstore I went in had several of his books on display in a prominent place. When I was down there in 2004/05 “The Power of One” was the one book I came across most often. I didn’t have enough money then to buy it, but I put it on my wishlist and a few months ago I finally got it through Bookmooch.
All this time I had never bothered to find out what it was actually about, so imagine my chagrin when I read the story not only did involve boxing, but also was set in South Africa. I am not even interested in doing any sports myself, much less in reading about it (even the Quidditch matches in Harry Potter books always put me to sleep in under 2 pages). And boxing is way down on my list of even marginally tolerable sports. And South Africa, well, let’s just say it is way down on my list of interesting countries to read about. Plus, I later found out that a big part of the story takes place in a prison. Another one of those topics I don’t much care for. This book looked set to be a major disappointment to me.
So I wasn’t exactly stoked to start reading it. But I picked it up eventually, and boy was I in for a surprise! The story is fantastic and if I hadn’t so many other unread books lying around here I would have liked to read it all over again right away. Coming from me that says a lot. I will definitely check out other books by this author as soon as I get my hands on them.
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Neil Gaiman – Anansi Boys
This was my second Neil Gaiman book.
I read “American Gods” a couple of months ago and although I was quite impressed with the scope of his imagination I didn’t really get into it.
This one, alas, was different from the start. I am not much of a fan of spiders in reality, but for some strange reason I like them in stories. At least in this one. This is the story of two very different brothers, one of which may or may not really exist, and their relationship with each other but also with their father, who was (or is?) a god and may or may not be dead. Thinking about it all got me a bit muddle-headed, but it was great fun reading the story and I really fell in love with Gaiman’s style of writing.
As I said in my Bookcrossing review with this book he rose into my personal top ten of authors. I am signed up for two more of his books on bookrings, but I might actually just buy myself the books, because they are gonna be keepers anyway.
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Diane Setterfield – The Thirteenth Tale
I have to admit this is one of those books I fell in love with purely because of the cover at first. They tell you to never judge a book by its cover, but I do it again and again anyway. Also, I had seen it mentioned in more than a few book blogs, so I decided I had to find out if it was deserving of the hype. Luckily I didn’t have to buy a copy, but could join a bookring on Bookcrossing.
When I finally held it in my hands I was blown away by the cover art again. This is one of those covers that you could frame and hang up like a good painting.
Fortunately, and surprisingly for me, the story was just as good as the cover promised. It is a gothic story in the best tradition and it was full of suspense, mystery and a wonderfully atmospheric setting. Considering this was Diane Setterfield’s first novel, I am very curious to read her next one. It is that good.
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Mary Roach – Six Feet Over
I became a fan of Mary Roach when I read her first book “Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers” last year as a ringbook. That one had been hilarious and I am still hoping to find a copy of it for my permanent collection. So when I stumbled upon an ARC of “Six Feet Over” on my last bookshopping trip to London (for all of 1 Pound!) I snatched it.
But even though I quite enjoyed it it is not quite as good as the other one in my eyes. That can, of course, to a good part be attributed to the fact that there are no gory descriptions of death and decay in here. Instead it tackles the question of what comes after all that. I liked the fact that she tried a scientific approach and some of the chapters about the fake mediums and the ectoplasma (yuck!) and the weighing of souls were absolutely hilarious.
Unsurprisingly this book doesn’t settle the question of “is there an afterlife or do we all just go poof” in the end. But I guess that wasn’t really the point of the exercise anyway.
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Joan Didion – The Year of Magical Thinking
Another one of those books I have read about on other blogs and decided to put on my wishlist. A few months back I just stumbled upon it in my local library. Even though I regard it as a waste of time nowadays to read books in german (because if I like them I will read them again in english anyway) I decided to give it a try.
It was a surprise insofar as I hadn’t really expected it to impact so deeply with me. Joan Didion writes about her feelings during the year after her husband of forty years suddenly dies of a heart attack at the dinnertable.
So far in my life I have been lucky enough to not lose a beloved person, so I don’t really know what that feels like. Actually, I shouldn’t even want to know. But I do and this book gave a very moving description of the grief this causes. Understandably, this is not exactly a very up-lifting book, although I can imagine it might be a consolation to anybody in a similar situation to get confirmation of not being the only one going through this.
Still, I’m not all too interested to read anything else by Ms. Didion, and I don’t think I will bother to read the book again in english, but I am glad I read it at least once.
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Michael Marshall Smith – What you make it
Another author I found through Bookcrossing. I read another one of his books, “Only forward”, on a bookring back in February and just completely fell in love with Smith’s writing. Just with Gaiman I admire his scope of imagination, the worlds he invents, the twists in his stories, his dark humor. I just love the guy and I aim to read everything he ever published.
“What you make it” is a collection of short stories – very very strange and disturbing short stories, I might add. Needless to say, I loved every one of them. “The Man Who Drew Cats” was my absolute favorite, though. Wish I had that special talent myself.
This is also a book whose cover I love. It took me a while to figure out that every symbol on it corresponded to one of the stories (I am sometimes a bit slow on the uptake).
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Jhumpa Lahiri – The Namesake
Speaking of beautiful cover art yet again…
Jhumpa Lahiri is another of those Bookcrossing finds. I got another of her books, “Interpreter of Maladies”, from a friendly Bookcrosser and although I am as interested in India as I am in Africa (that is to say: not very much) I liked those stories very much. So, when I had the chance to sign up for a bookring for “The Namesake” I took it.
When I finally had the book in my hands the beautiful cover made me read it at once. Surprisingly I found it very hard to get into the story at first. Gogol, the main character, is not exactly a very likeable fellow. Actually he is really depressing. But the story grew on me and when I was finished I would have liked to start right over again.
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Nathaniel Philbrick – In the Heart of the Sea
I just realized, this year I have read quite a lot of books whose topics normally don’t interest me at all. Sea adventures definitely belong in this category, normally. I find the ocean a pretty sinister and frightening place, not to speak of uncomfortable, uncompromising, and despite all that, in the end pretty boring.
So why did I pick up this book at all? Bugger me if I know. It is advertized as “the epic true story that inspired Moby Dick“. Well, I don’t know about the epic part, but it was certainly a gripping story. There were a few details too many about life on a whaling boat for my taste, but I found myself cheering on the whale that finally attacked and sunk the whaler and I have to admit, when the men in the small boats had to resort to cannibalism to avoid starving I was not so much shocked as gleeful, because I felt this ordeal served them right for making a living out of killing whales. Yeah, I know, that is probably not very politically correct, but I had a jolly good time reading this story.
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W. Hodding Carter – A Viking Voyage
This book was a random find in a used book shop in London. I picked it up mainly because there was a comparison to Bill Bryson on the cover. I hate it when they do that. Not every marginally funny travel report can be compared to Bill Bryson, ferchrissake. So I took it with me just to prove to myself that I was right and Bryson is still the king of travel literature.
Now Hodding Carter is certainly no Bill Bryson, but he can actually write and he is quite funny at times. It is an amusing and entertaining book. Even more so, I presume, if you have sailing experience yourself. Which I don’t. So I found all the nautical terms quite confusing, not to speak of uninteresting (although his explanations were sometimes hilarious). I can’t bring up any interest for the putting up or shortening of sails, or their playing around with different types of rudders, or any of that stuff. But these are just minor grievances. Overall it was a book I enjoyed a lot, even though I am neither a Viking nut nor a sailor. I have to check out one of his other books as well: “Westward Whoa: In the Wake of Lewis and Clark”. Not only do I have more interest in the exploration of the American West than in Vikings, but this title sounds just hilarious.
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Mary Lawson – Crow Lake
This is another one of those “not really my type usually, but I loved it surprisingly” kind of books. For some long forgotten reason I had it on my wishlist and recently got it from Bookmooch.
It is a story about family, about history, about living in a little rural community in the middle of nowhere, and about decisions that can change the course of a whole life in an instant. I always liked the saying “people make plans just to make God laugh”. This story reminded me a lot of that phrase. You can plan whatever you like, but everything can be changed literally in an instant. The real challenge in life is how to react to those changes. And apparently some people manage this adaption better than others.
Again, this novel is a stunning debut of a talented author I am very much looking forward to reading more from.
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Jim Lynch – The Highest Tide
A beautiful, bitter-sweet coming-of-age story, which I loved not only for the fact that it is magical and beautifully written, but also because of the setting on the tidal flats of Puget Sound and the wonderful descriptions of the creatures of the sea. I have been there myself, so I felt right at home in this story from the beginning.
Miles finds this giant squid on the beach one night and instantly becomes a local celebrity. But his thoughts are occupied by much more important things, like if his feelings for his ex-babysitter Angie are requited or how he can help his elderly friend Florence to stay in her home and out of a nursing home, and not least the impeding divorce of his parents.
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