Katie Fforde - Summer of Love

Sometimes you just need to read a book that is liking eating chocolate. You know it's not really good for you in large qualities, but in small doses it's might actually make you feel better. That was the case with Katie Fforde's Summer of Love. Just a book you don't need to think about too much, can easily read in one day and makes you want to know how the story turns out, even though you know how the story end: the girl gets the guy, after a bunch of misunderstandings.

In Summer of Love it's the single mother Sian Bishop who moves from the city of London to the countryside and meeting the father of her son again. He in turn didn't know he had a son. Chance encounters, misunderstandings and a happy end. Sometimes, that's just what you'd want from a novel. A break between reading serious books. Fun but not earth shattering, fun while it lasts, that's Summer of Love for you. Now on to some serious reading.

A.D. Miller - Snowdrops

Snowdrops is one of those novels that has a different quality than you'd expect while reading it. A.D. Miller in his debut depicts Moscow as a place where deceit can take on a disguise a foreigner wouldn't expect. Where everybody gets tainted by the lawlessness of the place.

The novels main character, a British lawyer called Nick tells the story of his time in Moscow when he was sucked in by two young girls Masha and Katya who use him for a scheme. Telling more about it would ruin the plot.

For a long time I felt I was just reading a run of the mill spionage thriller plot, not wanting to spend too much time reading it. I even wondered what made this book so extraordinary that it warranted a nomination for the Booker Prize. Granted the pace of the book is great, the suspense works and you get the feeling that something ugly is around the corner. Or better, underneath the snow. Because the title Snowdrops refers to the bodies that reappear on the streets in Moscow when the snow and the frost have gone.
Would I recommend the book. I don't now. It wasn't great, it was correct that it didn't win the Booker Prize, but one way or another I did want to keep reading because I wanted to know how the story ended.

David Nicholls - The Understudy

David Nicholls' novel The Understudy is the second novel by the author that I've read. Set in London, just as One day, The Understudy tells the story of a man not really willing to grow up. Stephen C. McQueen is an actor with a career not going anywhere. He's the understudy of Josh Harper, a successful young British actor playing Lord Byron in the West End. Night after night Steve hopes to get the opportunity to shine, but he's never allowed to do more to play the guy in the shadow, death ready to take Byron away.

The relationship between Steve and Josh, the selfisch young star, and his wife Nora is the main relationship in the novel. Steve falls in love with Nora and Josh offers him a break. If Steve manages to keep a secret he might just play Byron. But when Steve finally gets his big break, it turn out differently than he'd hoped.

Although the central idea of the novel is very different from One Day there are some simularities. There's the vanity that comes with fame and the behaviour of the male character that stays childlike for a long time, not ready to deal with the situations in the world surrounding him. And like One Day the novel has some unexpected twists and turns. Fun to read, but I am sad to say that The Understudy, while funny at times, is not as memorable as One Day, and yes in this case I do mean the book.

Chad Harbach - The Art of Fielding

Granted, I know next to nothing about baseball. At high school I was disappointingly bad at softball, always afraid that ball would hurt me. So at first glance there was not much to entice me to read Chad Harbach's debut The Art of Fielding. Except that there is a buzz about this book, calling it the best debut novel in a long time. Although small in scope, the lives of five people around Henry Skrimshander, it is broad in meaning.

So I wanted to read it, treating myself to a copy after a long stretch of marking. To read for myself what the buzz is all about. To get an answer to the question is this kind of novel could also appeal to someone who is notoriously bad at ball sports. And it did. It took me some time to get into the pace of the novel, but once I picked up, I couldn't let go. 

Henry Skrimshander is one of the most talented baseball players of his generation. But a foul ball puts him off course, losing confidence and thereby losing his focus in life. In many ways Skrimshander is an unlikely hero, because apart from baseball there's nothing much that makes him stand out from the crowd.  Mark Schwarz is his best friend, the player who spotted him when he was really a nobody. His background, his struggle to make a life for himself at one of the top universities of the countries make him the real hero in the story for me. In one way this book is about their relationship and their lives at Wetish College. But in another way it's a coming of age novel. Their lives are not lived in isolation so naturally their relationships with other people come into play as well. Each character has a part of their lives to sort out, a thing they're hiding from or cannot deal with. 

That aspect of the book drew me in, making me want to read the book every quiet moment. Because although you can easily hear the violins coming in, if the book would ever be made into a Hollywood blockbuster, the story also throws some curve balls, with a climax that at first I didn't see coming. But come to think about it, every aspect of the story ties in. This is one of those novels where no gun has been shown without it ever being fired. Tight, with a great sense of rythm, endearing complex character and a story full of surprises. So I guess you could say that for me it was a home run. 

Oliver Sacks - The Man who mistook his Wife for a Hat

This book has been on my to read list for nearly twenty years. I just never came round to first buying it and then reading it. I try to vary the types of books that I read to satisfy my curiousity and this idea put this book on one point on the top of my list.

The Man who mistook his Wife for a Hat is a collection of articles by Oliver Sacks based on his years of practice as a neurologist. And if the book show us one things, it's that our brain can play trics on us. When things go wrong, they can go wrong in the strangest ways. Sacks discusses a man who had been frozen in time, in 1943, because of Karsokow. A young autistic man who has a real talent for drawing and a man who despite his autism grew to be a savant on the subject of Bach, finding solace in music.

While parts of the book where a bit difficult for me, because I am no medic and I don't know the terminology, it's disturbing and challenging at the same time to read this book. It's not a cold discussion of strange cases. What really shines through for me is the compassion of Sacks, trying to see the possibilities for even the most impossible cases to lead a humane life. And that makes this book a compelling read, even if you're no psychiatrist or neurologist.

Kate Grenville - The Lieutenant

Close, very close, but no cigar. That's really what I think after finishing Kate Grenville's novel The Lieutenant. I liked the idea behind the book. I love her style of writing, but I don't know. There seems to be something that's just not there. So after finishing it, I feel a little bit let down.

The Lieutenant tells the story of a friendship between an English lieutenant who comes to the early colony in Australia and an Indigenous girl. In modern times we would call the guy a bit of a nerd, interested in structures of languages, astronomy and nature. Coming to Australia as one of the first settlers he tries his hand at identifying the different qualities of the native language. The girl offers him the introduction into the language and they manage to communicate. But against this seemingly peaceful story the growing tensions between the indigenous people and the English lead to a climax.

That's where the story for me is a bit of a let down. One way or another I think there could have been more. The motives are never really clear. Which is something I regret.

But I like the fact that Kate Grenville, after Secret River, took a personal perspective to write stories of early settlement by the English in the area around Sydney. Because that way she really makes history come alive.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - A Study in Scarlet

It was the new series of Sherlock that inspired me to finally read my first Sherlock Holmes story. To be honest I was a little afraid that the nineteenth century writing would appear a bit stiff to me. Fortunately that's not the case (at least not for me).

A Study in Scarlet is really the first Sherlock Holmes story, where he teams up with Watson and solves a mysterious crime. It's a story filled with surprises and a bypass that took us to America. It was a bit of a mysterie to me how that story could be related to the rest of the storyline, but all the stories tie together.

Remains the question, is the book, the story up to the 21st century or can we only be tempted by modern day versions. Sometimes the language might seem a bit old fashioned, but the pace of the story, the twists and turns of the plot make it a fun read. Maybe I should pick up more 19th century novels. There's two novels by Dickens waiting for me on my bookshelves. But I guess they have to wait until after I've read other books Arthur Conan Doyle.