Banned Books

Over in the States it's Banned Books Week. I am completely anti-censorship. I think that books should be accessible to anyone. I was lucky, my parents never policed my reading, and I went to a fairly liberal church school, where nothing was banned. Here are a few other bloggers and interesting links about this.

I had no idea Francesca Lia Block's books were ever banned

 The Story Siren has an interesting article on the subject

Author Tamora Pierce also provides her opinion on the list

The Guardian has a list of the top 10 banned books (and there are a few surprises, certainly for me)

So what have you read from any of these lists of banned books?

"There where one burns books, one in the end burns men" -Heinrich Heine

Stories - Edited by Neil Gaiman & Al Sarrantonio

This anthology of short stories by acclaimed authors is not something to be read in one sitting, but rather something to be dipped in and out of. I've only read a few of the stories so far, and been delighted by all. As is the tradition in short story telling, each is a self-contained tale of the Other. From the twisted revenge in Neil Gaiman's The Truth Is A Cave In The Black Mountains, to the curious twin bond in Joyce Carol Oates' Fossil-Figures, and the vampirism of Walter Mosley's Juvenal Nyx, and the meta-fictive twists in Michael Swanwick's Goblin Lake, to name but a few, each story explores an aspect of the weird, sometimes frightening Other that preoccupies humanity.
Of what I've read so far, it's all rather brilliant. But then asking world-renowned, prize winning, authors to write a short story was bound to turn up some corkers. It's currently a hardback, so it might be out of some readers price range, but I highly recommend borrowing a copy from your local library, or just waiting for it to be a paperback.

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao - Junot Diaz

Oscar de Leon is one of life's losers. He's the ultimate nerd, living in a world populated by characters out of the sci-fi and fantasy novels he loves. All he wants to do is lose weight and find love. His family are living under a curse that's blighted it for generations, so how can Oscar ever get what he wants.

I liked this book, it speeds along at a nice pace, jumping between Oscar's story as narrated by his best friend Yunior, and the stories of his mother, sister and grandparents, explaining all that's gone before.
Set in both New Jersey and the Dominican Republic the family hails from, it explores what it is to be young and misunderstood, and seemingly doomed.

A Conspiracy of Violence - Susanna Gregory

Set in Restoration era London, this follows spy Thomas Chaloner as he attempts to unravel a series of mysteries dating back to the English Civil War and the execution of Charles I. Having returned from Holland, Chaloner is looking for employment, Oliver Cromwell's former spymaster suggests he try the Lord Chancellor, who asks him to look for some missing gold. While undertaking this mission, he becomes involved with the Brotherhood, a group of men claiming to be seeking tolerance and understanding in the political and religious tinderbox that is England at this time, or are they all following their own agendas?
A good, well-paced, historical mystery, that cleverly comes together as Chaloner resolves his many investigations, with explosive consequences.

Friends Like These - Danny Wallace

Writer, TV presenter and cult leader Danny Wallace returns with another 'stupid boy project', this time to update his address book by meeting the 12 people he was friends with as a child, that he'd lost contact with. This involves travelling to Australia, Japan, Dundee and Loughborough, looking for his best childhood pals. At times laugh out loud funny, and at one point, quite sad, you too can learn what Man Points are and how to earn them, and turning 30 will lead some men to do. Like his previous books, Yes Man and Join Me, you do wonder exactly why he decides to do these things, and how no one punches him in the face at times.

Red Leaves - Paullina Simons

Detective Spencer Patrick O'Malley meets a girl doing up her black boots one winter in Hanover, New Hampshire, a few weeks later she's found naked and suffocated in the snow. Who was Kristina Kim and why would anyone want her dead? Spencer digs into her past and the lives of her close group of friends, Conni, Jim and the mysterious Albert, as he searches for answers.

I'd read The Girl in Times Square, by the same author, a while ago, and so picked this up, not realising Spencer was in it as well. It's a good read, with echoes of Donna Tartt's The Secret History, and a well-paced detective mystery. I rather enjoyed it's surprising little twists, although the ending was a bit odd.

The Mistress of Spices - Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Tilo is a Spice Mistress, bound to serve the spices and the people who enter her shop looking for help. She knows exactly what they need. Until an American walks in her door and throws her powers off balance, can she find what she needs among the spices?

I quite liked this book, there's a touch of magical realism in there, and that appeals to me. Tilo might be all mysterious and wise, but at heart she's still someone who longs to make a connection with people and fall in love. Set amongst the Indian community of Oakland, CA, Tilo's customers come to her for food that reminds them of their homelands and also for her secret knowledge to ease their lives, there's Geeta's grandfather, angry Jagjit, Ahuja's wife, Kwesi cooking for the woman he loves, and Haroun who's searching for his slice of the American Dream. The one day a man called Raven walks in her door, and she disregards the spices and the voice of the Old Mother warning her not to leave the shop and forsake her calling.
It's a quick, charming read, perfect for now, when the weather's miserable and you're curled up inside wondering where the summer went!

Keeping the Dead - Tess Gerritsen

A forgotten mummy is found in a museum's basement, but x-rays reveal it to be a modern corpse, and now it's a murder case for Detective Jane Rizzoli and ME Maura Isles. Then another preserved corpse is found, could there be a serial killer with an interest in archeology out there?
Gerritsen's novels following the often sensational crimes investigated by her female protagonists, are much akin to other thrillers, unhinged murderers, brave detectives, terrible crimes. But if you, like me, enjoy these as a touch of escapism, then this is for you. Gerritsen writes well, and the characters of Isles and Rizzoli are likable enough.

Carnevale - M.R. Lovric

Set in Venice, this tells the story of Cecilia Cornaro, portrait painter and lover of both the legendary Giacomo Giralamo Casanova and the disreputable George Gordon, Lord Byron. The book moves from the days of the great republic through Napoleon's capture of the city and it's becoming an extension of his empire. Cecilia paints the portraits of the great and good, as well as their wives and mistresses and records her own love affairs in secret portraits of the men she loved.
They're a study in contrast, Casanova who worships women, and who loves Cecilia 'properly', and the narcissistic poet, who demands to be loved but seems unable to return any affection. Both great adventurers, but only one of them seems noble, and it's not the one with a title.
I loved this book, I have never been to Venice, but would love to, even though the age of La Serenissima is passed and the city is no longer the way Lovric describes, conjuring up the great festival of the title and the many noble families who filled its palazzos.

When Will There Be Good News - Kate Atkinson

I've read Kate Atkinson's previous Jackson Brodie novels (Case Histories, One Good Turn) and there's a new one out soon (Started Early, Took My Dog), and her retired policeman turned private eye, is a right curmudgeon, and that's what makes the books work.
In this one, set in Edinburgh, Jackson is in the wrong place at the wrong time (as he sees it), rescued from a train crash by a local girl, Reggie, whose employer, a GP with a tragic history, has gone missing, he's soon manipulated into helping find Dr Hunter and her baby.
Atkinson also tells Reggie's story, and that of DCI Louise Monroe, who has a personal connection with Brodie.

It's a good detective/mystery novel. Harking back to the various characters' pasts as well as their present situations, well written and paced.

Happy Birthday Penguin!

Penguin Books is celebrating it's 75th Birthday at the moment. That's 75 years since Allan Lane was coming home from visiting Agatha Christie and was disappointed by the lack of paperbacks at the train station and so decided to publish handy books, small, slim and the same price as a pack of cigarettes. The rest is publishing history.
Looking at my shelves, there's plenty of little penguins on the spines of my books, and some old Puffins too!!
Take a look at your shelves, which Penguins have you read?

The Last Hero - Terry Pratchett

*I'm a huge Pratchettaholic and have almost everything he's written on my shelves, this is a book I've read before, but never reviewed.*

The Last Hero is a graphic novel, illustrated by Paul Kidby, but not set out in the usual style of graphic novels. It mixes text with pages of Kidby's wonderful illustrations, his one of The Great A'Tuin and the elephants with the Disc on top is spectacular, he does an amazing job of bringing Pratchett's world to life.
It centres on Cohen the Barbarian and his Silver Horde as they travel to the gods' home of Dunmanifestin' atop Cori Celeste at the centre of the Disc, to return what the first hero stole, namely fire.
Lord Vetinari, Patrician of Anhk-Morpork assembles a crack team (inventor Leonard of Quirm, wizzard Rincewind and Captain Carrot of the Watch) to stop them. Along for the ride is the Unseen University's unusual librarian, a kidnapped bard, Evil Lord Harry Dread and his bumbling henchmen, Vena the Raven-haired and a whole host of wizards, deities and dragons. Just another day on the Disc really.
As always there are echoes of our world, inside jokes for the fans (although nothing that alienates the new reader), references to stories that sound a little familiar and with the added pictures it's almost like you can see inside Pratchett's head!
The book works as a stand-alone text or as part of the Discworld narrative as a whole. It's a lot shorter than most of the other books, so would work as an introduction to the wonderful world Pratchett has created.

Her Fearful Symmetry - Audrey Niffenegger

Set mostly in a flat overlooking London's Highgate Cemetery, this is a rather unusual ghost story. Elspeth Noblin leaves her spacious flat to her twin nieces, Julia and Valentina, who have never met their aunt. She stipulates that they must live there for a year before deciding whether to keep the flat or not. Upstairs lives Martin and his wife Marijke, he's an OCD crossword compiler and she works for the BBC, until one day, shortly after Elspeth's death, she leaves him. Downstairs lives Elspeth's lover Robert, a man trapped in his despair and sadness until he meets the twins and becomes entwined in their lives.
The twins are identical, symmetrical, Valentina is an exact mirror image of Julia, with her heart on the right. Seen as the weaker twin, she finds the bonds with her sister suffocating, but how far will she go to escape them?

I really liked this book, I wasn't that keen on The Time Traveller's Wife, Niffenegger's previous book, but I enjoyed the dark, Gothic-y tone of this one. Niffenegger spent time as a tour guide in Highgate Cemetery, and the little details about its inhabitants, which Robert is researching for his dissertation, add a sense of history to the novel.

Goodbye to Berlin - Christopher Isherwood

The book that inspired the musical and film Cabaret, should be a great, fun read right?
Well bits of it were, and bits weren't. A fictionalised version of Isherwood's time in Berlin during the late 1920s and early 1930s, leading up to the fall of the Wiemar Republic and the Second World War, it chronicles the lives of Isherwood's friends and acquaintances, from his landlady, Sally Bowles, the Nowak and Landauer families and others he meets, in a series of short interwoven stories.
The narrator (confusingly called Christopher Isherwood, although the author assures us in his introductory note, it's a mere coincidence), seems somewhat distanced from the people around him, and observes them with a detached air, as though unwilling or unable to get too involved in their lives. He's not entirely likable, being cruel to one young woman, just for fun.
At times the book drags, the way it is set out doesn't help. Hopping from one story to another, not entirely linking them together, it reads like extracts from a longer, more involved manuscript.
He touches briefly, at times, on the political situation, but as a foreigner, it doesn't seem to have much effect on him, even when it has a great one on the people he knows. It's an odd little book, worth a quick read but perhaps not worth investing too much in.

A few bits from the papers, found on the web

Today marks the 50th Anniversary of the publication of Harper Lee's one and only published book, the wonderful To Kill A Mockingbird. Author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has written a lovely piece about her experience of reading it.
I first read it at school, and the copy I went out and bought shortly after still resides on my shelf. Perhaps it's time for a re-read.

Michael Morpurgo explains the inspiration for his children's classic (and now stage play) War Horse. If it doesn't make you tear up a little, I'm not sure what will.

I'm not a fan of the whole Kindle/e-book phenomenon, it leaves me cold, but this was interesting.

Too hot to read...

I never thought I'd say that, but it is. It's boiling away outside and all I want to do is lie in the shade and eat ice lollies. I'm sort-of reading Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel's 2009 Booker Prize winner. I liked it when I first started it, but since then I've either been busy being sociable or too melted to read.
I'm drawing up a list of my favourite summer time reads. Any suggestions?

The Constant Gardener - John le Carre

This started off slow and I struggled to maintain my interest, but I'm glad I did. The novel is a tense thriller as Justin Quayle searches for his wife's murderer and investigates the work she was doing that may have lead to her death.
I haven't seen the film, I might now, mainly to compare the way the story is presented, the novel is well written, densely plotted, with strong characters and full of things to make you think.
I've never read any of le Carre's books, but I think it might be worth hunting some of his others out, any suggestions?

Bitter Chocolate - Lesley Lokko

I read Lokko's Sundowners a few years ago and quite liked it, so I hoped this would be as enjoyable. It's not a cerebral read (and sometimes that's just what's needed), but a light-ish novel, bit chunky, about the lives and loves of three girls, Laure, Ameline and Melanie. Set in Haiti, Chicago, L.A and London, it follows them as they grow up, lose their innocence and find their places in the world. At times, it seems to focus more on Laure than any of the other characters, and seems to struggle to keep three narrative threads going, especially when it's unclear how they're going to intersect in any way. Laure and Ameline grow up together in the heat of Petionville, Haiti, Laure is the granddaughter of a formerly wealthy family, and Ameline a servant, but they're closer than sisters, until one day they're divided and Laure moves to Chicago to live with her mother. It's difficult at first to see how they will meet up again and what circumstances their lives will be in. It's even harder to see how Melanie ties into any of this, and indeed she doesn't until the last third of the book, making her storyline slightly discordant with the rest.
Overall it was a fairly un-taxing read, perfect for the summer's heat, when you just want something gentle to read. People who enjoy slightly more intelligent "chick lit" (oh how I loathe that term) will probably enjoy this.

Some to start you off...

A while ago I wrote a post about how important books are, especially when you're a kid. That's when it starts, that's when the seeds of a love affair with words and stories are planted. I mentioned the Guardian's booklist, and that I could easily think of a whole list of books they'd missed. Well here's that list, with my commentary. Most of these books are ones I can remember reading when I was younger, some I seemed to have missed, and caught up on as an adult. How many have you read?

• Black Beauty - Anna Sewell. This was from my horsey period, a lot of little girls go through it. BB and I survived it, I'd still recommend this, it's a beautiful book, and unusually is told from the horse's point of view.
• Peter Pan - J.M Barrie. I have been enchanted by this book for years, studying it at uni only strengthened my affections for it. It's a deceptively sweet tale, re-reading it as an adult revealed the darker side to Barrie's Neverland and the boy who wouldn't grow up.
• The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery. A classic. Short, sweet and lovely. It has some important things to say, and everyone should read it.
• Carrie' War - Nina Bawden. I know some people don't like this book, I didn't at first. But then I realised how interesting it is. An odd omission from the Guardian's list, along with Tom's Midnight Garden, it's a look at what being a child far from home is like, and there's magic in it too!
• Winnie-The-Pooh - A.A Milne. How they missed this I'll never know. Everybody knows the endearing tales of Pooh and his friends, Christopher Robin, Piglet, Tigger, Eeyore, Kanga, Rabbit, and Roo in the Hundred Acre Wood.
• Mary Poppins- P.L Travers. Much better than the film with Julie Andrews and Dick van Dyke, much more going on too. There's a slightly dark core to Travers book, it's more sophisticated and enjoyable than Disney's pared down musical leads you to believe (but I have fond memories of the film too).
• Boy - Roald Dahl. I love Dahl, I love his weird stories, his courageous children and his adult short stories are dark and twisted too. Boy is the story of Dahl's own childhood, and it's a great way to see where he got some of the ideas for his children's books.
• Nation- Terry Pratchett. Sir Terry is amazing, this is his most recent children's book, I recommend it to everyone.
• Junk - Melvin Burgess. A contentious book. More for teenagers than children, it's been complained about, banned from school libraries, and as with any book treated like that, I wonder how many of it's critics have actually read it. Yes it's about heroin addiction, but it doesn't make it sound remotely appealing. Burgess doesn't shy away from serious subjects, and I agree that his books should be top of any young reader's list.
• Uncle Tom's Cabin - Harriet Beecher Stowe. I read this a long time ago, I think I was 7 or 8. It's stayed with me.
• The Water Babies - Charles Kingsley. This is my mum's favourite ever book. I have a gorgeous illustrated edition that never leaves the house. Full of weird and wonderful characters with names like Mrs Do-As-You-Would-Be-Done-By, it's an enchanting fairy tale of life underwater for a chimney sweep.
• The Graveyard Book - Neil Gaiman. Another recent book, from another writer I adore reading. I highly recommend it.
• A Gathering Light - Jennifer Donnelly. Based on true events, another book for slightly older readers.
• Children of the New Forest - Captain Marryat. As far as I'm concerned, the best book written about the English Civil War, for children, ever.
• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass - Lewis Carroll. It's a bit everywhere now I suppose, but the book's much richer and weirder than most.
• Tales of Redwall - Brian Jacques. I don't know if anyone else has ever read these, but I think they're fantastic. Chronicling life in an abbey populated by mice, hedgehogs, moles, badgers, and other woodland folk, Jacques' books have a little bit of everything going on. Hunt them out!
• A good selection of myths and legends. These should be on every bookcase. From the Greeks, to the Egyptians, to the Norse gods, the Legend of King Arthur and beyond. These stories form the backbone of much of the world's literature, they provide depth and understanding of human nature down the ages.
• A good collection of fairy tales. As with myths and legends, good folktales are the basis for almost all stories that came after. The Grimm's are quite gory, and Perrault cleaned them up. Get a good anthology or just pick up a couple of collections.
• The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame. Another true classic, sadly only really known nowadays it feels, for the rambunctious Toad. But there's a lot more there.
• Howl's Moving Castle - Diane Wynne Jones. Turned into a wonderful film by Japan's Studio Ghibli, Howl is a wizard who lives in a magical house, and Sophie is the girl who ends up there, trapped under a horrid curse. Wynne Jones' books are full of magic and mischief.
• Pippi Longstocking - Astrid Lundgren. I have to say, this isn't one I read as a child. It's an odd little story, but quite fun.
• Alex Cold Trilogy - Isabel Allende. Magical realism for young people, these could be called. Alex and his journalist grandmother embark on three amazing adventures to parts of the world rarely troubled by outsiders, great for anyone who wants to explore their adventurous side from the comfort of their own home.

So, I know it's a long list, and it's probably not a complete list. Give me a while, I'll raid the shelves and have more to add. What were your favourite books as a child? How many have you re-read since then?

The Agnes de Souarcy Chronicles - Andrea H. Japp

The Season of the Beast
The Breath of the Rose
The Divine Blood

Originally written in French, these books tell the story of Agnes de Souarcy and her family, and the conspiracies swirling between medieval France and papal Rome. There's a knight, a lord, a convent full of nuns, the Inquisition, a boy who might not be a boy, ancient manuscripts, and murder.
The first two books were the strongest, the final third devolved into quasi-Da Vinci Code territory (which was rather disappointing), and got a bit tangled up in it's conspiracies. I liked the characters of Clement and Sister Anneline, resourceful and clever, and also the clerk Agnan, who was rather sweet. These are well written historical romps, the appendices at the back proving that there's some rather thorough research gone into writing the trilogy. I enjoyed reading these, although the ending was a little weak.