15) Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy 16) The Night Guest

15) Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy by Helen Fielding


This is the first book in a while that has made me laugh out loud, to the curiosity of my fellow passengers on the train. Having enjoyed the first two books in the series, it's interesting seeing both how similar and different Bridget is in middle age, to when she was in her thirties; she's still messy, late and obsessed with her weight (a bit of accidental rhyming there), but she's also maternal, nurturing and tries really hard to do the best for her kids.  

I'd recommend this book for a fun, enjoyable read that also tugs on your heart strings and doesn't let you put it down.







16) The Night Guest by Fiona McFarlane




Having only really read one thriller before (Before I Go to Sleep, by S J Watson, which I thoroughly recommend), I didn't have a lot to compare this book to, so I had to take it at face value. Bewitchingly disturbing, this is a book that invitingly sits you down and makes you a cup of tea, then before you know it, you're bound to the chair and you've burnt your tongue. After reading it I felt hollow and paranoid; like the words had crept under my skin and possessed my senses. The gradual decline is so beautifully done, so subtly implemented, that it take both us and Ruth by surprise.

Given the recent and ongoing care workers' strikes, this book seems very on-topic and I congratulate McFarlane for an amazing debut novel, which looks into important social issues in a new, and worrying, way.

13) To Kill a Mockingbird 14) The Other Boleyn Girl

13) To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

This is one of my set texts for uni this coming year. Having already studied it at secondary school for GCSE, I'm enjoying being able to read it again from  a more adult perspective. It is, and always has been an amazing book, with an important message about equality and open-mindedness. While nominally told from Scout's perspective, rather than being about her, this is a novel about her father, and his struggle for justice. It seems to me that Atticus Finch, one of the best, if not the best father in literature, is suggested to be so because of the following attributes:

1) He  is reliable and keeps his word.

2) He stands up for what he thinks is right.

3) He loves his children unconditionally.

He is a solid, constant presence in the children's lives, and throughout the narrative, reassuring us that everything will be ok, even if the world isn't a fair place to live.


14) The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory

I loved this book. I find non-fictional history really dull, and struggle to retain it, but  give it a narrative and not only do I find it interesting, but I remember it. This book tells the story of Mary, the "other Boleyn girl", and how she and her sister competed for for Henry VIII's favour.

Having just read "To Kill a Mockingbird", in which Scout is a valued member of her family, this book provided a bleak contrast on the position of women, which is summed up nicely by Anne's words: "One Boleyn girl or the other...We might either of us be the queen of England and yet we'll always be nothing to our family." Both Anne and Mary are just puppets in their father and uncle's plans, important only in increasing the family fortune, no matter what it may cost them, and cost them it does.

11) Continental Drift and 12) The Woman Warrior

11)  Continental Drift by Libby Purves      

I surmised from reading the blurb that this book was going to be a bit predictable, . And yes it was...to a certain extent....there were definitely some things that I didn't see coming.
Eva's beautifully sad naivety, Henry's optimism, Philip's disappointment and Diana's submission all go to make this a quite interesting read. All together it is a story of hope, of better things waiting just around the corner, or even in front of your nose.

P.S. It also includes the a quote from Tennyson, "Let the great world spin"...it's like she knew what I'd just been reading!

               

12) The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts by Maxine Hong Kingston

This is a strange book, the narrative flitting in and out of Kingston's and her mother's lives, getting caught up in moments of drama, and moments of everyday family life. There is no clear narrative structure, as the book consists of several "episodes" at varying points in both women's lives, mixed in with Chinese folk-lore. However I am left feeling that there has been character development, or should I say "discovery"; rather than finding out more about the characters as each colour of the narrative is brushed onto the canvas of the story, instead it is like peeling an onion; as each layer is lifted we discover the things in the characters' past that makes them who they are.

Strange as it was, I really enjoyed peering through Kingston's character's eyes and those of her mother, and discovering the mindset of Chinese immigrants in America in the 20th century, under the shadow of the Chinese Revolution. The obsession with "ghosts" is new to me; both non-Chinese people who are classified as ghosts, and "real" ghosts, who have to be banished with smoke and fire. And yet, for a narrative so concerned with ghosts, it still feels very real; not translucent but solid and vibrant and waiting to be discovered.