From the far

Books Jo’s read whilst away:

The Road, Cormac McCarthy – Dark, bleak, powerful. All the things you want the film to be, but worry it will not.

White Tiger, Aravind Adiga – Good read about India.

Guernica, Dave Boling – Beautiful. A must read.

Children of the Revolution, Dinaw Mengestu – Story of Ethiopian immigrants in Washington DC. But fairly slow. Willed it to be better than it was.

The Other Hand, Chris Cleave – Beautifully written. Clever. Insightful. Really enjoyed this.

Shantaram, Gregory David Roberts – Hmmmm. Think Mr Roberts may love himself just a tad too much. Everyone seems to love this. Except me. I don’t hate it. And I really want it to be good. But Papillon is SOOOOO much better. And I’m sure this is just a first draft. Didn’t Roberts edit it at all?? It is so convoluted. Hmmmm. Maybe the film will be better. Probably not.

A Quaker Book of Wisdom, Robert Lawrence Smith – wonderful book, very interesting about the history and beliefs of the Quakers. They have a lot of good points those Quakers.

Kill Your Friends, John Niven – Genius book. Genius evil main character. Bit Easton-Ellis like. Loving the ridiculous evil of it all, ‘cos you know a lot of it must be based on things that really do happpen in the music industry.

Let The Right One In, John Ajvide Lindqvist – He is billed as the new Stephen King. As a kid I used to love indulging in King books so thought I’d give this a whirl for fun. Starts off well enough but descends into the trap that so many horror books fall into of elaborate ridiculousness (Think the big spider thing in It). So disappointed that it didn’t deliver as the first third of the book was good.

The Time Traveller’s Wife, Audrey Niffenegger – Finally got to this. Thought it was v good. Love her style. Good stuff.

The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, Kate Summerscale – Doesn’t quite live up to the amazing hype on the covers but a good yarn. Dragged out a bit.

Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri (second reading) – Read this first several years ago. Remembered it being quite unique then. Read it again and felt less enamoured. But some beautiful tales nonetheless in this book of short stories.

Time of Our Singing, Richard Powers – Amazingly powerful (haha) book. One of the best books I’ve ever read re. Black American history. Up there with Toni Morrisson. Loved it loved it. Powers is a wonderfully poetic author and the way he weaves the science of time and music, as well as the historical events of black America in the 20th century, is inspirational.

Cold Mountain, Charles Frazier – Dull, dull, dull. Blah, blah, blah. Even the film was better than this. Even with Nicole Kidman. I so wanted it to be so much better than it was.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson – Indulgent page turner. Bit ott sometimes and a tad self-indulgent with some elaborate plotting in the denouement but all in all a fun read.

The Girl Who Played With Fire, Stieg Larsson - Even better than the first, much more believable and great development of the awesome femme fatale protagonist.

History of Love, Nicole Krauss - Beautifully written, brilliant story.

Wind-up Bird Chronicles, Haruki Murakami (abandoned…) – I just can’t get on with him, as loved as he is. I don’t get it. I hated Sputnik Sweetheart and so thought I’d give him a fresh go with this which had been highly recommended. But I just couldn’t do it, so after 100 pages I left it and got back to my life.

Yesterday’s Weather, Anne Enright

The Abortion: An Historical Romance 1966, Richard Brautigan – This man is a literary god. This piece, like most of his work is short and sweet. His mind works in beautiful meandering ways.

The Bloody Chamber, Angela Carter – Ashamed to say I had never read this collection until now. Love the title story. Warped fairytales retold. Mesmerisingly surreal and poetic.

The Mirror Crack’d From Side To Side, Agatha Christie – I know, I am ashamed. But I just had to relive my 12 year-old youth. Sadly, the brilliance of Agatha Christie that I remembered was shattered when I read this travesty. Maybe I should have gone for a classic, A Death On The Nile or some such, but there’s not much to choose from in rural Laos!! (update 22/11/09 – I knew I should have gone for a classic!!

Lemona’s Tale, Ken Saro-Wiwa – An almost uncanny foretelling of his own story, Saro-Wiwa writes about the intimate tales of an African woman on death row. A wonderful quick read.

Women with Men, Richard Ford – I know I should like him, but I just don’t think Richard Ford moves the world like other people seem to. I thought The Sportswriter was fairly bland, and sadly I think this is too. Not my cuppa tea.

The Pilgrimage, Paulo Coelho – Forced myself to read this since it is about El Camino. Suspended belief for a while using De Bono’s thinking hats, but at the end of the day this is just a poorly written adult fairytale. And a rather laboured one. Where did I put Agatha Christie?

The Gathering, Anne Enright – One of my favourite ever books. This is the third time I have read! Enright is just supremely talented, darkly comic and adept. A classic.

A Map of the World, Jane Hamilton – Sad tale of a woman wrongly accused of sexually abusing a child in her care.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Jonathan Safran Foer – Wonderful book written from the point of view of a nine year old boy who lost his father in 9/11. Similar style to Curious Incident… Brilliant.

The Disappeared, Kim Echlin - Short and captivating tale about a love lost to the horrors of the Khmer Rouge aftermath.

On Beauty, Zadie Smith – Really enjoyed this. Preferred this to White Teeth.

Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell – Finally got round to reading this. And am I glad I did. Brilliant.

Miss Me A Lot Of, Louise Wareham Leonard – Haunting story by NZ author about a girl caught in controlling relationships and her childhood past.

Please Mr Einstein, Jean-Paul Carriere - Interesting story of a young girl who spends some space-time with the infamous Mr Einstein and learns all about the history of the world, life, the universe, his own life and lots lots more. A great book for those of us who have failed to read A Brief History Of Time (I guess that would be pretty much everybody then…)

The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath – Ashamedly I had never read this, not even through my Plath and Sexton A-Level poetry days. But have read it now and really enjoyed it. Particularly loved the first third when she wasn’t a complete nutter.

Generation A, Douglas Coupland - Genius. Coupland is just such an innovative writer. And this answers my questions about my bee stings. I am obviously a very special person.

Apple In The Dark, Clarence Lispector – Strange tale of a man on the run who thinks he has murdered his wife. Had previously read Lispector’s Hour Of The Star which is just a beautiful story. This was strange and introverted, but not mesmerising.

Buddhism Is Not What You Think, Steve Hagen – Some good bits, some interesting ideas and quotes but also a lot of waffle.

Sula, Toni Morrison – Wonderful. I just love Toni Morrison. Short and beautiful.

The Photograph, Penelope Lively – Disappointing. I’d heard about this book a couple of years ago on Radio 4 and had put it on my mental To Read list. But Lively is not what she used to be. Outdated and laboured.

26A, Diana Evans – Got better and better. Story of two half-caste twin sisters caught between London and Nigeria and happiness and sadness.

Journey From Venice, Ruth Cracknell – True account of a wife bringing her sick husband home from Venice. Heartwrenching.

Cures For Love, Stendahl – Musings on love, in all its forms.

The Next 100 Years: A Forecast For The 21st Century, George Friedman – Imaginings and predictions for the next 100 years of world history. Talk of WWIII, space games, unlikely new super powers. Interesting stuff.