A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (born in Manchester) – Classic/Dystopian Fiction.

The story of Alex, a fifteen year old violent, thuggish Beethoven loving psychopath. He and his gang perpetrate atrocities. He is eventually treated with aversion therapy and the result is an almost lobotomised Alex.
Burgess' message is that this is not a solution to the problem. Humans must have the ability to choose if they act rightly or wrongly even at the social cost of possible violence. The book was published in 1962.

The film made by Stanley Kubrick came out in 1971. To protect sensibilities, Alex is made older and the opening graphic scene of the gang beating up a tramp in an underpass changes the sex of the victim from female, in the book, to male, in the film. The film was banned and indeed with the blessing of Stanley Kubrick. The reaction of the audience when I saw the film shocked me and still does. That opening scene was greeted with laughter. Were they shocked or amused? Who can say?

I chose this because I heard that there is a craze in Manchester for beatings of street people being filmed and shared on social media - 60+ years later.

A Schooling in Murder by Andrew Taylor – Crime/Historical Fiction

The cover shows a somewhat dilapidated building. The story was set in 1945 when the former grand building was being used as a boarding school for girls.
Taylor previously used the building as a setting in An American Boy which is about the childhood of Edgar Allen Poe. At the end of the war, the staff were finally beginning to realise that girls might need to learn more than deportment and sewing and that they might even choose to take the school certificate exams.

The story begins as a teacher is pushed off a cliff to her death and she is the narrator of the story. Although now a ghost, she is determined to discover her murderer. This works as a narration technique as we note the frustrations of seeing and hearing but not being heard and being unable to influence events.

The story is pretty straightforward. I guessed the murderer but was happy to read on to the end. The book covered the frustrations of intelligent women who were still fighting for a role in society other than as wife and mother. This was a standalone book. It wasn't his best, I didn't care enough about the narrator to rush to the end of the story. It passed the time, was a little bit different to the usual murder mystery. I enjoyed it as an easy read but it's not a book I'd suggest anyone should rush out to buy or read. It's available on Borrowbox.

Andrew Taylor is a good writer and I have previously enjoyed his Ashes of London stories, set after the civil war and the Inspector Lynley stories set in the late 50s, early 1960s.

Orbital by Samantha Harvey – Contemporary/Science Fiction

Harvey’s book is the shortest to have won the Booker Prize (2024) and it gives a clear message about the spectacular beauty of earth. We read about how the space mission tests the limits of the human body and collects weather information. It tracks a typhoon which is about to hit an island where relatives of one of the six crew live. The crew orbit the earth several times a day and see burning forests and how there are actually no boundaries representing countries and nations. The prose is poetic in style and highlights how seeing earth from space creates a fundamental shift in how you understand our planet.

Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri – Short Story Literary Fiction

After reading the Lowland (2012 and shortlisted for the Booker Prize) and The Namesake (2003) and enjoying them so much that when the category ‘a story set in Asia’ came out of the hat I could not resist visiting this author.

Unaccustomed Earth is a book of short stories, the last three being connected. The first and main story is the title story and although mainly set in Seattle, I hope I will be given licence in that the characters are from India. The story explores the complicated relationship between the daughter of Indian parents, more prominently with her father following the death of her mother. The story deals with the cultural expectation that a daughter in this scenario feels compelled to offer her father the choice to live with her and her family. Initially she is reluctant to offer this but following a visit by her father, during which he develops a strong bond with his young grandson, she changes her mind. What she doesn’t know is that her father is about to embark on a new relationship with a lady he has recently met whilst travelling and as such, has no desire or plans to go to live with the daughter. The story explores family duty, expectation, complicated relationships and love, both passionate and familial.

The link running through the other seven stories is the experience of being a person of Indian decent living in the USA and assimilation. The experience is different for each generation and Lahiri likes to explore especially how the younger generation manage to steer a course which does not alienate and conflict with their parent’s Indian culture and conflict whilst under pressure to fit into the USA.

Lahiri writes beautifully and we feel like we know these characters and their trials and tribulations.

The Villa in Italy by Elizabeth Edmondson - Mystery/Historical Fiction

Set in the 1950s. Beatrice Malaspina was an old lady who lived in an impressive villa in the Italian countryside. When she died, solicitors contacted four people, three British and one American, to notify them that they were her beneficiaries. To receive their bequests, they must travel to the villa, where her solicitor would tell them what has been left to them. None of the four knew each other, and none had ever heard of Beatrice.

The first part of the book covers their respective journeys to Italy, and one of them takes along her best friend, who is trying to evade her estranged husband and is glad of the chance to leave England. Five people arrive at the villa, where the housekeeper greets them and looks after them. The local solicitor comes and explains that within the next thirty days they need to find a codicil which is somewhere in the villa, then it will be revealed to them what each has received from Beatrice.

All four beneficiaries, and the fifth person, are living troubled lives in some way. One is an opera singer who has become disillusioned with her career. The second is a physicist, who had worked on the development of the atom bomb and is now tormented by the consequences. Third is a banker, who would rather be an artist. Fourth is the unhappy daughter of a lord, with a miserable family history. Fifth is a once successful writer who has fallen on hard times and not produced a decent book for years.

Gradually they get to know each other, and their relationships develop, as they explore together to solve the mystery and locate the codicil. Eventually, as some extra characters arrive at the villa, connexions start to emerge, before they finally work out what they're looking for, and all is revealed.

Black and Blue by James Patterson and Candice Fox - Mystery/Thriller Fiction

Set in Sydney, Detective Harriet Blue is convinced that she is the next woman to die at the hands of a serial killer. She wants to be on the investigating team but isn’t allowed as she is a woman. She had worked in vice and found a body on a riverbank where other women had been found. There is an aggressive loner detective investigating and nobody wants to work with him because of his past – no spoilers! She wants to work with him and discovers that he is an excellent detective. The women killed were linked by the university and the detectives finds their killer. It was easy to guess the ending, which is disappointing and the book veered off into something else.

Passing by Nella Larsen – African American/Historical/Classic Fiction

Written in 1929, this novel is considered an American literary classic about
'Passing', living as white whilst having coloured ancestry. Clare has been doing this, Irene hasn't. The two school friends meet by chance in adulthood when both are married. Clare's husband, who has no idea about her parentage, is very racist and uses language which, today, would be totally unacceptable. Two years after the original meeting Clare contacts Irene again and they restart their friendship. Irene thinks this is a dangerous thing to do but Clare casts her spell as she craves the company of other people of colour and revels in the relationship. It doesn't end well. Irene suspects Clare and her husband of having an affair. She meets Clare's husband on the street, whilst out with another coloured person and events snowball with tragic results.

Chocolat by Joanne Harris - Magical Realism

Every page is a feast for the senses, there is the taste, smell and texture of chocolate, a vicariously wonderful experience for someone hypnotized not to eat it! The opening lines are like a spell cast over the reader, making you crave for more, as happens with chocolate. “We came on the wind of the carnival. A warm wind for February, laden with the hot greasy scents of frying pancakes and sausages and powdery sweet waffles cooked on the hot plate right there by the roadside…” Vianne Rocher arrives in a narrow minded village at the start of Lent and is immediately caught up in a battle of wills with the local priest. She is able to sense who needs healing and what chocolate would bring about positive changes. Will a woman leave her abusive husband? Will a man get over the death of his beloved dog? Will she be able to withstand the gossip and meanness of the women who form the local Catholic mafia? Can she heal herself? With beautifully drawn characters, even the nasty ones, Harris is able to weave a splendid yarn around which you can wrap your brain, like fingers around a mug of hot chocolate.

In Ascension by Martin MacInnes – Science Fiction

In his three novels, Martin MacInnes explores the psychological effect of scientific and technological advances in the near future. In Ascension is his third novel. It is 500 pages of quite rich content.

The book’s central character is a microbiologist called Leigh. She escapes a violent father and apathetic mother to study marine biology at university. After gaining her doctorate, she is invited to a mission to study a newly discovered deep trench in the Atlantic. There are strange properties to this trench which are studied and discussed by the mission scientists. It appears the trench has been formed by extraterrestrial forces. At around the same time, there is news of a break-through in space propulsion, which allows for far-reaching space travel.

This was the point where I decided I liked this book. The scientists from different disciplines were asking each other sensible questions and intelligently feeling their way through the situation. The author seemed well informed of different sciences and approaches without getting bogged down. I also liked the psychological aspects of people continually asking themselves if they were right and testing their assumptions.

Several years later, Leigh is invited by one of the participants of the Atlantic trench mission to apply for a job at a corporation developing space travel. It becomes apparent that this corporation holds all the data from the trench mission. This, along with several other occurrences, form a pattern which suggest that a crewed space mission is required to travel roughly to the location where the Voyager space craft, launched fifty years ago, would be now. The corporation want Leigh to develop an algae ‘garden’ to feed the crew in their mission.

The rest of the book covers the mission itself and its aftermath. The bulk of the mission text covers the psychology of moving further away from home until contact with earth is lost. There is also the acceptance of not being fully in control.

It seems clear that the author has read Nobel Prize winner Carl Sagan’s only fiction, Contact. There are similarities in structure in that there is first contact along with external help in developing space travel. There are also discussions of rationale and belief systems. However, Contact was written nearly fifty years ago at the time that the Voyager probe was launched in a highly optimistic time for space exploration. This book is much more cynical. The sleazy role of the corporation comes to the fore as the aftermath concludes with a legal battle over accountability. Hopefully, without giving too much away, the book ends in a way that I prefer to think of as optimistic in micro-biological terms.

The continuous presence of algae as the simplest life form and the idea that this building block of life binds us to the universe was absorbing on many levels. The idea of entropy and everything breaking back down to this level was also present and reminded me of the Hindu Wheel of Life. Science and philosophy are closely bound and this is reflected in this book.

Persuasion by Jane Austen – Classic Fiction

Whilst there is a Mills and Boons like air to the book, it is a beautifully written plot and a pleasure to read. It is funny and pinpoints the absurdity of human behaviour. I watched the film afterwards.

Persuasion is Jane Austen's last completed novel and is linked to Northanger Abbey as both stories are set partly in Bath, a fashionable city with which Austen was well acquainted, having lived there from 1801 to 1805. Besides the theme of persuasion, the novel looks at the Royal Navy, in which two of Jane Austen's brothers ultimately rose to the rank of admiral. As in Northanger Abbey, the superficial social life of Bath, well known to Austen, is brilliantly portrayed in a biting satire directed at some of the novel's characters and the resigned outlook of its otherwise admirable heroine, Anne Elliot. The Royal Navy allows Anne to see the possibility of a more outgoing, engaged, and fulfilling life, a theme which wins out in the end.

Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books by Kirsten Miller – Contemporary Fiction

Miller writes to the theme of small town USA, similar to Elizabeth Strout, where different characters come in and out of the action. A group of parents get together to ban books from the local library, even though none of them has read them. One parent sets up a small library outside her house and puts books in it. The daughter of the librarian goes out at night and puts the banned books in the dust jackets of the ‘good’ books. The Black postie takes a book but soon realises that it doesn’t match its cover but the book helps him. A man with a gay brother, who thinks his sibling lives a wild life, but after taking one of the switched books, he learns that gay people actually have boring lives, just like everyone else. There is a lot to get you thinking but the ending is too saccharine as everything turns out okay.

The novel goes across time and place and follows the lives of a family. A new Yorker lives in rural Ireland to get away from his vile father and his wife who is a reclusive ex actor. As ever, life throws a curved ball and their peace and privacy are broken, but is it beyond repair? It is a book about family, identity and love and it is told with O’Farrell’s usual wit.

Desai’s novel is a study in the search for identity and meaning. A Hindi lecturer lives a routine life until he is given the chance to interview India’s greatest Urdu poet. The two men form a unique bond and together they explore the decline in culture and tradition and the rise of modernity.

Galloway’s mother left her alcoholic husband and they go to live in a room above a doctor’s surgery. Janice learned to keep quiet and out of the way as her mother had not wanted another child and Janice has to live under the shadow of her older sister, Cora, who is a real piece of work. Galloway reveals domestic life in Glasgow, from washing and make up to learning to write. She is ignored by her elders and this causes a fire to burn in her belly that, years later, fuels her writing. It’s an interesting read.

Set in Ireland and published in 2023 but not set in any specific time, this novel tells the story of a family that gets ripped apart by the new government regime. Nationalism is running riot and daily decisions are being made to introduce emergency laws. People are being removed from government jobs for disagreeing with the powers that be. Who will survive and who will perish? Who can you trust? It’s a bleak and brutal read but a powerful reminder of many people’s current lived experience.

The Safekeep was long listed for the Booker Prize and is the tale of two women staying in a house in the Dutch countryside in the summer of 1961. It seems like the rebuilding of the area is a sign that World War II is finally over and Isabel lives a routine life in the house inherited from her mother. Her peace is shattered when her brother brings his girlfriend, Eva, to stay. The two women are opposites and we know opposites attract and in this case it is via suspicion, obsession and infatuation.

Leigh is a young Dutch microbiologist who grew up in an unhappy family situation, using the sea as an escape from her abusive father. She becomes almost fixated with the underwater world and this is later brought to her work exploring the deepest vent on the ocean floor. She hopes to find evidence of the world’s first life forms but ends up with more questions than answers. She then becomes involved in the work of a space agency, discovering that there are number of these deep vents situated across the world. She is sworn to secrecy and has to decide whether or not to continue her work or leave and be with her family. What would you do if you had the opportunity to do something not only groundbreaking but that would also throw a light on the origins of our planet?

After a storm, Cora takes Maia, her 9 year old daughter to register the birth of her son. Gordon, her husband is respected in the community but at home he is in control. He wants the child to have a family name that has been passed down the generations but Cora holds back. She has a name she likes and so does Maia. The book covers thirty five years and gives three different versions of their lives, each depending on the name given to the baby boy. Knapp looks at family ties, how we have only one shot at life and how love can endure.

In 2010 Stewart was an unknown but within ten years he stood for the leadership of the Conservative Party. He was sacked by the Party and he claims it had become unrecognisable. He looked at flood response, prison violence, conflict and poverty abroad and Brexit as a Cabinet minister. It all led him to believe that democracy and government have become hollow and are now based around cronyism, ignorance and incompetence. He believes that there were individuals who deliberately set about to cause political and economic chaos, the rise of popularism and global conflict. The memoir is his story, told in an uncompromising and funny way, it is a picture of Britain today.

Three women in the same community discover new powers as they enter midlife. Nessa’s husband has died and she is an empty nester. A nurse in her late forties, she begins to hear voices and soon realises that they are the voices of the dead. This gift comes with responsibilities. Harriet’s career and marriage have collapsed, she hasn’t left the house for months, the garden is overgrown yet Harriet emerges, having undergone great change. The third woman is Jo, a woman who has spent her life at odds with her body. The arrival of the menopause has added insult to injury but she soon learns to channel her hot flushes and develops new powers. Nessa’s voices lead to the discovery of a girl’s body left at a remote beach. The police aren’t interested but the women use their powers to investigate her death and they take matters into their own hands.

Set in Amsterdam during the Golden Age of Holland, we have the story of Greetje, a poor widow, who is used as a pawn by her brother in order to ingratiate himself into society. Geertje is sent to the home of Rembrandt to work as a nursemaid to his ailing wife and to their son. When the wife dies, Greetje finds herself being drawn even closer to the painter and, in spite of misgivings presented by her friends, she enters into an affair with him. Whilst Rembrandt can master dark and light on canvas, he cannot control these same elements of his personality. Greetje loses all whilst the soon to be great painter moves from strength to strength. It is an atmospheric tale of loss, reconciliation and feminism and the perfect read for cold, wet and windy days.

A wonderful read. This is a real page turner. the story of a band - think Fleetwood Mac. Every character comes to life and every word rings true.

Set in New Zealand in an unspecified future, the book tells the story of Alice and how her country is being changed by ‘wealthugees’ moving to where water and food resources are still readily available. She lives with her mother, on separate floors, and they communicate using morse code. A stranger and his daughter come into her life but is it by accident or by design? Who is this young woman, how can she kill someone so easily? At times, the book is both disturbing and funny and it certainly explores important issues.

Set in a dilapidated old house in the South of France, a family mystery unfolds. A slow paced narrative jumps between past and present, with the family home revealing its secrets as we meet the characters involved. Sylvie receives a letter which takes her back to France with her daughter, Emma, who she tries to shield from the truth about her dead sister, Elodie.

Billed as a thriller, it is atmospheric and gripping with the family drama being played out through the various relationships. The plot is full of twists and turns and this, plus the crips prose, is compelling. This is not an author I have read before, nor is it a genre I would normally read, but I enjoyed it.

Harris comes from immigrant family stock where speaking the truth was a much valued family principle. Her parents were a success story, with her father being an esteemed economist from Jamaica and her Indian mother a renowned cancer researcher. They met as political activists in the civil rights movement and passed on their thirst for justice to their daughter. She talks about her journey to and within politics and how she tackles issues with a holistic and data driven approach. She has often been the voice of the voiceless and sees that being smart is learning the truths about communities and then struggling together to create a shared vision, purpose and values so as to uphold justice and the common good. The second part of the book reads like a self-congratulatory commentary on what she has achieved and is a bit less inspiring. However, I was left wondering how things might have been different if she had won the Democratic party leadership.

I have had this book on request through Borrowbox for some time. I chose it because of the author and, in that area, it did not disappoint. Each chapter was headed with a word, its class and meaning and, mostly but not always, an idea as to what each chapter was about. The writing has its “show off” moments and the style leaves you without doubt as to the background of the author.

Set in the Clarendon English Dictionary Office, Martha, recently returned from Berlin, receives an anonymous letter. A slow paced mystery is then pursued by Martha and her colleagues, solving complex clues which are thought to have something to do with the disappearance of Martha’s sister, Charlie.

Whilst I enjoyed the book, I felt it was a little too much in places with the author trying too hard. This is, after all, a mystery novel!