RIP J. D. Salinger

J. D. Salinger has died aged 91. The reclusive author, whose most famous novel is The Catcher in the Rye, hadn't published anything since 1965. However it's believed he didn't stop writing, so it'll be interesting to see what posthumous work is published.
As far as I know (from the newspaper obituary and article), unlike other writers he doesn't seem to have left instructions asking for his unpublished work to be destroyed. Not that that is necessarily adhered to. Kafka asked that all his papers be burnt, they weren't, so we have his later works, Nabokov asked for his unfinised manuscript to be destroyed, instead it is being published.
The Catcher in the Rye is considered a seminal text, a story of teenage alienation and frustration. Holden Caulfield as the ultimate anti-hero, he's unpleasant and self-obsessed. What teenager hasn't sometimes been like that. It speaks to the rebel we all want to be in our teens, the person who wants more than what the 'phonies' can offer us. It wasn't exactly popular on publication, seen by some parents as unsuitable for teenagers, because of its bad language and themes, however some more enlightened people made it required reading, it's still available on most schools' library shelves.

Theo's Odyssey - Catherine Clement

Originally published in French, Clement's novel centres around a sick boy, Theo, and the trip around the world his Aunt Martha takes him on in search of a cure, and an education. Following a series of riddles designed to lead him from one country to another, Theo is met at each stop by a selection of interesting people, from Jerusalem to Egypt, Nepal to Senegal, Brazil to Prague, Theo learns about the different religions and beliefs that make up the world. As he crisscrosses the globe he gains new insight into the beliefs that sustain and nurture, and a cure. His mystery illness fades as he finds out about the many paths to God and makes a multitude of friends across all boundaries. Described as "a superior cousin to the best-selling Sophie's World" (TLS) it does for religion what Gaarder's book did for philosophy, making it accessible and entertaining, as well as educational. Whatever your beliefs, this book is touching and insightful. No wonder it's a bestseller.

The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

This had been waiting in my 'To Be Read' pile for quite some time. I have no idea why it took me so long to get around to. I loved it. It's a literary mystery, that takes in a selection of genres, from the gothic to romance. Set in Barcelona in the years following WWII, it follows Daniel Sempere as he tries to unravel the mystery of the author Julian Carax and the book Daniel finds in The Cemetary of Forgotten Books, Carax's final novel 'The Shadow of the Wind'. It's well-written and full of fantasticly drawn characters, from the menacing Inspector Francisco Javier Fumoro to the eccentric beggar turned bookshop assistant Fermin Romero de Torres that people Daniel's adventures. The narrative skips back and forth between what happened to Carex, told by the people Daniel encounters, and Daniel's story, full of danger and love. There are riddles and untruths as Daniel and Fermin attempt to unravel the secrets and solve the mystery of Carax's life and those of their own.

The Book of my Heart.

"Few things leave a deeper mark on a reader than the first book that finds its way into his heart. Those first images, the echo of words we think we have left behind, accompany us throughout our lives and sculpt a place in our memory, to which, sooner or later - no matter how many books we read, how many worlds we discover, or how much we learn or forget, we will return."              

                            ~ The Shadow of the Wind, Carlos Ruiz Zafon ~

 Well there's a few that have really stuck with me, and to which I return. The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge is one. I can still almost see the words in front of me. Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier is another. I have no idea why these books stick. I guess they were among the first books to find their way into my heart. What are yours?

The 2 1/2 Pillars of Wisdom - Alexander McCall Smith

I picked this book up out of curiosity the other day, I enjoyed McCall Smith's Ladies No 1 Detective Agency books and wondered what his others were like. This encorporates all 3 novels about Professor Dr Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld (Portuguese Irregular Verbs, The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs & At The Villa of Reduced Circumstances), a Professor of Romance Philology in Germany. His adventures are quite comical, and the stories are light-hearted and gentle, much like his stories about Mma Ramotswe. If you liked the Botswana set stories, then these are probably going to be just as enjoyable. Although I didn't warm to von Igelfeld (apparently it means Hedgehog field, which did amuse me) as much as I did to Precious Ramotswe and co, I did enjoy this book. Happy Reading!

Not your average book...

Ages ago I bought a book that was huge, and weird, and non-linear, and quite frankly odd. I had visited the shop about 4 times before I decided to actually buy the book. It's secondhand, and I was paranoid that someone else would buy it before I got to it. Hence the daily pilgrimage to check it was still there. I should have just bought it the first time I saw it. I was put off by it's bulk, and the fact that when I flicked through it looked a bit bonkers. I'm going to start reading it in the morning. That's right, I obsessed over buying it, brought it home, stuck it on the bookcase and never opened it. So, I decided it was about time. House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski. I'm looking forward to reading it. Review when I'm done.

The Little Stranger - Sarah Waters

Waters' fifth novel is unlike any of her others. Set in crumbling Hundreds Hall, it chronicles the slow descent into a sort of madness of the Ayres family, as told by their doctor, Faraday. He remembers the house's former glory from his childhood and is saddened by it's disintegration, when called one day to treat the housemaid. Slowly he becomes drawn into the lives of the remaining family, and the strange things that happen there. He's not the most reliable narrator, and sometimes it feels as if it would be nice to have another perspective on the curious events at the Hall. Like Waters' other books there is a definite sense of 'the other', of the things people believe and rationalise away most of the time. It's quite creepy at times, and it's never entirely clear whether it's all in the minds of the Ayres' as Faraday believes or if something sinister really is going on. I don't really like ghost stories, but this was nicely done. Waters is one of my favourite writers, her previous books are memorable and worth devouring, as is this.

Juliet, Naked - Nick Hornby

Hornby often writes about men and their obsessions (Fever Pitch, High Fidelity for two), and in this he's doing it again. Duncan is obsessed with reclusive 80s singer/songwriter Tucker Crowe and it's slowly eroding his relationship with the ever-patient Annie. But this isn't really Duncan's story, it's Annie's and Tucker's. I liked it, I quite like Hornby, it's a quick read and the characters are fairly likeable, even Duncan, and he isn't always the nicest of people. If you like Hornby's previous books, then you'll enjoy this.

10 Books Everyone Should Read*

The Book Thief - Markus Zusak

Nation - Terry Pratchett

If This Is A Man/The Truce - Primo Levi

Of Love And Shadows - Isabel Allende

The Bloody Chamber & Other Stories - Angela Carter

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas - John Boyne

The Painted Drum - Louise Erdrich

The World's Wife - Carol Ann Duffy

The Raw Shark Texts - Steven Hall

Wild Swans - Jung Chang

This is by no means a complete and definitive list. That'd take forever.
*According to me!

The Divide - Nicholas Evans

Evans wrote The Horse Whisperer, but don't hold that against him. I really enjoyed The Smoke Jumper, and The Divide is once again set in the wide open spaces in the Northern US, in this case Montana mostly. It's the story of Sarah and Ben Cooper, and their daughter Abbie, an eco-terrorist on the run after someone dies in an act of vandalism and arson. The story jumps back and forth in time, and between the four Coopers (son Josh is the fourth), showing the perspective of each character and also placing them all in different parts of the action. The story opens with Abbie's body being discovered frozen in the snow by two skiers. As it unfolds you learn of the things that split the family and led to Abbie's tragic death. The Divide is both a place, and a metaphor for what has happened to Sarah and Ben's relationship. At times, this novel was quite sad, and slow, but the way it unfolds is clever and rather lovely. When it reaches the manner in which Abbie meets her end, it wasn't quite what I expected or how I'd been led by the narrative to believe she died. If you like Jodi Picoult style novels, then you'll like this one.

Shortcuts

Zadie Smith on the death of the novel.

I write about my love of books, once more!

The wonderful Tamora Pierce sums up her year in books.

Terry Pratchett talks about his latest book, Unseen Academicals

Speaking of, there's a really good review of Nation by Sir Terry, which I highly recommend everyone reads if they haven't already, and if you have, read it again!

The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Shaffer

"That's what I love about reading: one tiny thing will interest you in a book, and that tiny thing will lead you onto another book, and another bit there will lead you onto a third book. It's geometrically progressive - all with no end in sight, and for no other reason than sheer enjoyment."

I agree, sometimes reading is like this, when books reference another, or there's an echo of something that sends the reader to the shelves (or more likely now Google), hunting for where it came from and leading to another book to add to the pile.

The Evil Seed - Joanne Harris

This is, technically, Joanne Harris' first book. It's been reissued since it was first published, and has been tidied up, as the author explains in the foreword because what you write first is never as good as you would like it to be later. It's a departure from the novels that made Harris famous, including Chocolat and Five Quarters of the Orange. It is instead something that should be far more popular in the current climate, a vampire novel, set in Cambridge. It's similar in feel to her other ghost story Sleep, Pale Sister. Darker than Blackberry Wine or The Lollipop Shoes (which I preferred to it's predecessor), but with that familiar feel of being drawn into something a little unusual, Harris' novels have a tingle of the occult and magic to them, often in her novels (and short stories) characters have unusual gifts or strange things happen. The Evil Seed is quite gothic, and has an interesting structure, slipping back and forth in time as the story (or should that be stories) unravel. If you've been reading any of the recent flurry of vampiric books or are a fan of the gothic, I'd recommend this.

The Brightest Star in the Sky - Marian Keyes

Guilty pleasure time. Marian Keyes is funny, clever and probably ever so lovely in real life. I've read all of her books. I try to avoid 'chick lit', and not just because I can't stand calling it that. Often it's not very well written and derivitive, easy to predict and well, boring. Keyes' books aren't like this. Ok, so some of them might drift into this territory, but this latest steers clear of being too predictable. Set in a converted house, it looks at the lives of the inhabitants of the different floors, there's Katie at the top, whose life seems to revolve around her job, Lydia, am "evil pixie" who shares with two fed up Poles, elderly Jemima, who seems to see the future and Matt and Maeve whose apparently happy marriage isn't so. The narrator is a bit mysterious, and although there are clues to who it might be, it's not as obvious as all that.
Like all of Keyes' books it has a happy ending, and a sense of magic. It's also funny, a bit silly and quite lovely. Perfect for these cold winter nights. Happy Reading!