Fiction - paperback; Penguin Classics; 112 pages; 2007.
Anais Nin (1903-1977) is mainly known as a diarist, publishing a series of personal journals spanning 60 years of her life. But she is also one of the world's most famous and finest writers of female erotica.
No surprise then that this book, part of the Penguin Great Loves series, depicts a ripe orange that resembles a woman's breast on the cover. It almost looks too naughty to read...
Non-fiction - paperback; Corgi; 286 pages; 2002.
The Eden Project is a series of man-made biomes built in a disused clay pit in Cornwall, England. One of the British Government's much-lauded Millennium Projects, it opened to critical acclaim in 2001 and has been on my list of places to visit for many years.
Designed to educate the public about plants and our dependence on them, it features the world's biggest conservatories, the first of which emulates a tropical environment, the second a warm temperate Mediterranean environment. Both biomes are made out of "bubbles" -- sturdy plastic, air-filled hexagons -- which interlock to form a series of gigantic greenhouses that are home to thousands of plants from across the world.
I visited the complex last month and was so in awe of its scale and beauty that I purchased this book, by the project's founder, in the souvenir shop because I was keen to learn more about the project's inception and difficult birth.
Humour - paperback; Penguin Classics; 336 pages; 2001. REVIEW COPY.
Remember my post about Blog a Penguin Classic? I was one of the lucky ones who registered with the site and a couple of weeks later received a free book on the condition I'd read and review it within six weeks.
With the six-week deadline fast approaching, I decided it was time I actually cracked open the book and took a proper look at it. The Enlarged Devil's Dictionary, written by 19th century journalist Ambrose Bierce, is not something you would normally sit down and read cover to cover, unless, of course, you have a penchant for reading dictionaries in their entirety. As much as I love using dictionaries -- I couldn't do my day job or the majority of my blog posts without access to one -- I'm not so nerdy about words that I would take something like this to bed with me for a little light reading. That would feel too much like hard work, right?
However, The Enlarged Devil's Dictionary is not your usual run-of-the-mill dictionary. It's a full-scale satire -- and despite being written more than 100 years ago it contains some very funny entries as Bierce makes light work of religion, marriage, politics and society. Here are some of my favourites:
Continue reading "'The Enlarged Devil's Dictionary' by Ambrose Bierce" »
Fiction - paperback; Vintage; 191 pages; 2003.
Is there anyone out there who doesn't know the basic premise of this book, which was first published in 1951 and has remained in print ever since? It must be the late Graham Greene's most famous novel. It's been adapted for the screen twice -- in 1955, starring Deborah Kerr and Van Johnson, and in 1999 starring Julianne Moore and Ralph Fiennes -- and transformed into an opera in 2004 by the American composer and pianist Jake Heggie.
I've long wanted to read it -- encouraged by several other bloggers, it must be said -- but it took me a few years to get my act together. I don't know why I waited so long. The End of the Affair is a dark but ultimately compelling tale about one man's tortured relationship with a woman he cannot have and the decisions people make that impact on the rest of their lives.
Continue reading "'The End of the Affair' by Graham Greene" »
Fiction - paperback; Penguin; 368 pages; 2006.
Judging by the reviews I have seen online, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close is definitely one of those books you either loathe or love. I fell into the latter camp, although I have to admit that the main narrator, nine-year-old Oskar Schell, irritated the hell out of me because he was just so damned precocious.
This business card, which Oskar hands out to acquaintances, might give you some indication of the boy's huge annoyance factor:
OSKAR SCHELL: INVENTOR, JEWELRY DESIGNER, JEWELRY FABRICATOR, AMATEUR ENTOMOLOGIST, FRANCOPHILE, VEGAN, ORIGAMIST, PACIFIST, PERCUSSIONIST, AMATEUR ASTRONOMER, COMPUTER CONSULTANT, AMATEUR ARCHAEOLOGIST, COLLECTOR OF: rare coins, butterflies that died natural deaths, miniature cacti, Beatles memorabilia, semiprecious stones, and other things.
Continue reading "'Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close' by Jonathan Safran Foer" »
Fiction - paperback; Picador; 256 pages; 2005.
This luminous, sparsely written but wonderfully evocative novel is set in rural Australia during the 1930s.
Jean, the 23-year-old narrator, is a seamstress instructor on board the government-sponsored 'Better Farming Train' that trundles through agricultural districts espousing wisdom on everything from chicken-sexing to baking cakes.
Her colleagues comprise a wonderful mix of eccentric characters which include the matronly infant welfare teacher Sister Crock, the cooking lecturer Mary Maloney, the Japanese chicken-sexer Mr Ohno and the Yorkshire-born 'agrostologist - a specialist in soil and crop', Robert Pettergree.
Continue reading "'Everyman's Rules for Scientific Living' by Carrie Tiffany" »
Fiction - paperback; Penguin; 463 pages; 2000.
This is a brilliant seafaring romp set in the 19th century that is intelligent, witty and thought-provoking.
Told through the eyes of more than 20 diverse characters, it is never dull or confusing. Instead, it plunges the reader into a wonderful boys' own adventure tale turned comical farce in which a Manx smuggling vessel inadvertently flees British Customs by sailing half way around the world to Australia. To make the journey legitimate the crew, headed by Captain Illiam Quillian Kewley, carry on board a small expedition team, comprising a spiritually crazed reverend, a sinister racial-theorist doctor and a wayward botanist, intent on finding the lost Garden of Eden in Tasmania.
Fiction - paperback; Picador; 272 pages; 2002
Did she do it, or didn't she? This is the one question that propels the reader to keep turning the pages in this unusual but gripping murder mystery.
I read this book in one sitting - okay, so I was trapped on a long-haul flight from London to Melbourne, but even if I wasn't I'm sure I would have read The Earthquake Bird just as quickly.
Set in Japan, it tells the story of an ex-pat English woman, Lucy Fly, working in Tokyo as a translator. She is arrested by police on suspicion of murdering a fellow English backpacker. What the reader is never quite sure of is this: is Lucy telling the truth? And why did she leave Yorkshire all those years ago? Why is she no longer in touch with her family? What exactly is she hiding?
Susanna Jones has written a sparse but intriguing novel with a menacing undertone throughout. As well as being a gripping, intelligent read, I found the insights into Japanese culture equally interesting. It's also very reminiscent of Losing Gemma by Katy Gardner.
But don't just take my word for it: this book won the CWA John Creasey Memorial Dagger for Best First Crime Novel of 2001.
Fiction - paperback; Abacus; 265 pages; 1994
This is a kind of sweet, simply told novel, the first by the prolific Anita Shreve, which explores the notion of love and loss.
It's about a man, Andrew, who returns to his childhood home after the death of his mother. As he packs up her things and makes plans to sell her home, he finds himself reminiscing about the past and reflecting on an horrific incident that still haunts him. He was only a teenager when his neighbour, Jim Close, was shot and killed in his home. Jim's daughter, Eden, Andrew's childhood companion, was blinded in the incident. Seventeen years on, Eden still lives at home with her elderly mother, but is shut off from the world with no friends and no life. Andrew tries to befriend her again and in doing so, begins to slowly chip away at the secrets Eden has kept all these years about the real truth of that murderous night in which her life was changed forever.
Shreve's languid prose adds to the claustrophobic atmosphere of life in small town America. But at times I felt the story was a little dull and slow-paced and tended to work over the same ground again and again. Despite this, the climax was unexpected and worth waiting for. Still, if you haven't read anything by Shreve before, I'm not sure this is the first place to start; her other novels are more accomplished.
Fiction - paperback; Vintage; pages; 2001
Following a fatal hot-air ballooning accident in the Chiltern Hills, a witness to the incident, Joe, suddenly finds himself embroiled in a deeper mystery; why was the victim in the area in the first place and why is another male witness, Jed, now stalking him?
In this well-crafted suspense novel, McEwan explores the notions of science versus religion; the meaning of love and stability in the midst of disruptive circumstances; and the damage which can ensue when a disturbed personality suddenly develops a 'thing' for you. Towards the end, it goes a bit over-the-top, but generally McEwan deftly balances the story so that you are never quite sure whether the stalker is real or merely a figment of Joe's imagination.
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