I finished reading this book while sitting at the bar last night. Like Cold Mountain, The Sisters Brothers is set in America in the 1800s, only a little earlier (1851) so it seems natural to compare the two books. The Sisters Brothers is also something of an odyssey with lessons learned along the way but on a much smaller scale than in Cold Mountain. The mood is lighter too. Not that there aren’t some humourous moments in Cold Mountain, but there is less continual hardship and hunger in The Sisters Brothers.

This book is very easy to read. The story is fast-paced and swept me along with it. There are a few wonderful, thought-provoking passages which slowed me down a little. I think Cold Mountain trumps it in terms of scale and atmosphere but The Sisters Brothers is just as satisfactory a tale.

(9th in 2012)

I picked this up in the library because I had seen it reviewed on The TV Book Club. It is very easy to read and the references to modern middle class life are quite funny. But, although it passed the time, I can’t recommend this as a good read. Apart from all the mentions of blood it feels like it’s written for children, albeit older ones. It’s unconvincing somehow. Seems silly to be saying that since it’s about vampires, but The Time Traveller’s Wife is convincing and time travel is a fantasy too.

EDIT: Just found out it is in fact for teenagers from the Guardian’s review.

(8th in 2012)

This book starts off unpromisingly. I went back to the beginning a few times because I kept losing interest during the first chapter, abandoning the attempt then forgetting what I’d read when I picked it up to try again. But after the first couple of chapters the protagonist starts to have interesting adventures which held my attention.

It also took me some time to get used to the language which is of the time the book is set in: 1865. Although I had to look up many words at first, I remembered their meanings when they appeared again. Then my reading flowed and I was transported back in time. It was so enjoyable that I wouldn’t mind reading it again. It’s a story of adventure, friendship, hardship, love and nature. It is something of an epic.

There is a lot more to the book than the language and the plot. There are recurring themes, symbolism and so on but I didn’t look into those aspects in much detail this time around. The Guardian book club examined the book and there are some good notes on the novel here.

(7th in 2012)

Read this in just a couple of days. I admit that it’s a novella so not lengthy but, even so, the plot sprints along making it difficult to put down. Dark, delicious and very British, I loved it. My only criticism was that the ending seemed very slightly unbelievable but it is still a most splendid read.

(5th in 2012)

I finished reading Cosa Nostra tonight. Given my affection for mafia-based entertainment (The Sopranos, Scorcese’s films, The Godfather Trilogy etc.) I was very much looking forward to discovering the truth behind it. Although the content of the book was interesting, my enjoyment was marred for the following reasons:

1) I frequently had to look up the meanings of words, most of which don’t occur in everyday language. Every time this happened it disrupted my flow.

2) I had to keep looking up places that were mentioned on Google maps. There are maps at the front of the book but places aren’t easily located or even present on them, as far as I could tell.

3) There are so many people involved that it’s difficult to remember who they all are. Worse still – and this isn’t the author’s fault – everyone seems to be called Giuseppe or Antonino! I had to makes notes on who was who as I went along, otherwise I got utterly confused.

4) It isn’t in strict chronological order. Where stories overlap then it’s fair enough but the author sometimes goes back and forth over the same few years. I can see that this is necessary as there are so many interwined stories – the history of the mafia is complex – but again, I couldn’t make sense of it without making notes.

I have to admit that finishing the book is a relief. I got halfway through without making notes and then had to start again because I was too confused to continue! In summary, this book is a bit too much hard work if you’re after escapism or entertainment. If you want to think and learn then by all means read it, but not without a cup of tea and a notebook.

(4th in 2012)

I bought this book on a whim. It subsequently languished untouched on a bookshelf for years. I finally picked it up about two years ago and read almost to the end. But, for reasons I can’t recall, I abandoned that attempt, even though I remember enjoying it.

This time I read it from start to finish in four days. It’s very good indeed. The language is wonderful and, in contrast to When God Was a Rabbit, a great pleasure to read. It does contain many lesser known and old words so I was constantly looking things up. This did slightly detract from the pleasure, because it disrupted the flow but I was still glad of the opportunity to increase my vocabulary.

The book is set in 1666. ‘Balthasar Embriaco, a Levantine merchant, sets out on an adventure that will take him across the breadth of the civilised world..’ It is written in diary form. This gives the book a very human perspective but plenty of history is included, though not in an overt fashion. For a person such as myself, who knows very little history, it’s a fine way to be educated. There are lessons to be learnt about religion, fear, wars, racism and more which are relevant today. But it’s not all heavy; there are hilarious moments which made me laugh out loud such as when the protagonist scorns numerical values (p76) and when he says ‘I’ve been in business all these years and I still can’t tell a pimp from an outrages father!’ on p82.

Balthasar’s Odyssey is rather unique amongst the books I have read. It is erudite but not inaccessibly so. I would thoroughly recommend it.

(3rd in 2012)

This book hadn’t exactly been recommended to me, rather I was present when it was debated heatedly between two members of my family. Intrigued, I acquired it.

I didn’t get it at all. It seems so disjointed, in many ways.

The plot flits from one sensational event to another, never settling on anything for very long and leaving the reader wondering if they’ve missed something. There is much ‘and this happened then this happened then this happened’ but very little to emotionally engage the reader. I would also have to sometimes re-read a paragraph or even a page as it was unclear which character it referred to. I was irritated at the double spacing in conversations, which served to make every response seem more significant than it actually was. I continued to read through to the end, hoping for a few explanations or a conclusion to tie the book together somehow. None came.

Some aspects of the book I did enjoy. The nativity play deserves a special mention for dark humour. There are beautiful descriptions of nature. Elly’s outburst when she loses patience with Joe is very human and real. But these raw, real moments are few and far between. Most of the interactions feel wooden and stilted.

Ultimately I cannot recommend this book and don’t understand why it received so many rave reviews.

(2nd in 2012)

Just finished reading this. A friend had told me it was good and so when I later saw a pristine copy in a charity shop for £1.25 I felt that there was not much to lose by trying it out. Unfortunately I took it with me into the pub with me one night to read while I had a nightcap and didn’t notice that the back cover and last six pages became soaked in beer when I left it on the bar. But, given MR’s affection for ale, I feel he would be proud if he knew.

So, the book. I could hear Mark Radcliffe’s voice as I read and that itself brought back many memories of when I was an avid listener of the Mark n Lard shows on Radio 1 (I don’t listen to his current Radio 2 show with Stuart Maconie, although I really should.) The Shireshorses, to me at the time, were the pinnacle of radio comedy. I would cry with laughter every time they unveiled one of their spoof ditties. And I have fond memories of sniggering at Bird Or Bloke and the other silly quizzes. He was covering familiar ground there. But there was new (to me) ground too, for example I hadn’t realised he loved walking so much. I enjoyed the chapter about his coast to coast walk from St Bees Head to Robin Hood Bay. I was a bit disappointed at his view on food though. In one of the earlier chapters he talks about having a horrible meal at Sharrow Bay in Ullswater, he gently berates the small portions in nouvelle cuisine and concludes ‘I’d finally learned the lesson Doris inadvertently taught me all those years ago. If you don’t want to try it, then don’t. Have what you know you will like and you will not be disappointed.’ If John Peel, one of his biggest heroes, had applied this attitude to music then where would be now, hmm?

But that’s a minor and subjective criticism really. The rest of the book is filled with great anecdotes about meeting famous pop stars or simply growing up. The funniest bit is when he talks about games at school, in particular the ‘horse’ which had to be vaulted over. That had me belly laughing. But the entire book is written with an endearing warmth and honesty, pretty much like his radio persona. It’s difficult not to like.

(1st in 2012)