jazzy_dave: (books n tea)
Sophie Mackintosh "Cursed Bread" (Penguin)




This is a book about obsession and centres on the real unsolved mystery of the 1951 mass poisoning of a French village.

Our story follows Elodie, the wife of the village baker. Elodie is bored with her simple life. She becomes taken with Violet, the fancy cultured wife of the Ambassador. They recently arrived in town and Elodie finds herself enraptured by them. As Elodie begins to recall the events leading up to the mass poisoning of the village, her reality begins to blur and her imagination takes hold.

This was a fever dream for me. It bounces around a lot. While I found the story very intriguing, keeping up with it was challenging as the storyteller's reflection was disjointed. It's erotic and strange, but I was invested in what was happening.
jazzy_dave: (bookish)
Book 5 - John Lanchester "Capital" (Faber & Faber)




This book starts like a small rock slowing rolling down a snowy hill that eventually turns into an avalanche. You are left with silence and white powder at the end of the novel.

John Lanchester’s novel borrows its title from the famous Karl Marx and his “Das Kapital”. Although, the book is not exclusively about a struggle between the proletariat and bourgeois. Rather, it is a more complex observation of how we, in a modern society value, treat, and exchange money and capital.

The novel, for me, felt very Dickens-esque. The story is set in London, and like in a Dickens novel, the city itself is its own awe-inspiring character. Lanchester follows a group of people who either live or are connected to the people who live on Pepsy Road. He slowly weaves the characters into each other, until at the end of the novel their lives become almost all intertwined.

I would suggest that if any one is interested in understanding more about Lanchester’s ideas that they should read his nonfiction novel “Whoops: Why Everyone Owes Everyone and Why No One Can Pay”. Lanchester looks at the rich who feel poor, the poor who know the value of money, and the middle class that are in between in name and nature.

For me, one of the most powerful lines in the book was delivered by the character Smitty, an anonymous artist who goes around London pulling off art stunts. He says:

The stuff which can’t be sold, that’s the stuff which makes everything else seem real. You can’t commodify this shit. Which is the whole point” (p.82).

The book has a strong themes of debt and profit, but not just in the financial understanding of these words. It is about familial ties and obligations that stretch from Mary helping her sick mother, and the Kamals coming together when Shahid is imprisoned. These obligations to family can also be spoken of as debts and profits. And this is the stuff you can’t sell. As Smitty would say, “You cant commodify this shit.”

The book is fairly long, closed to 600 pages, but it is well worth the read. I actyally started reading this book i December. There is always something happening and as each chapter swaps from family to family, you are spurred on to read one more chapter to find out what happens to each family.
jazzy_dave: (books n tea)
Jonathan Scott "Into The Groove: The Story of Sound From Tin Foil to Vinyl" (Bloomsbury)




Into the Groove by Jonathan Scott is a detailed history of recorded sound, from discoveries and experiments to popularisation and improvement of playback material.

This probably would have been more history than I would have wanted if it wasn't for the fact that Scott made it all so interesting. I learned far more than I expected, especially the time before records. Before the advent of CDs and all that has come after, most people of age will remember their early experiences with records. Probably their parent's or sibling's albums. The first I bought with my own money was Deep Purple In Rock in 1970. I never stopped buying them.

This book will fill in any gaps you have (I had a lot) in the history of recording and playing back sound and make you recall just how special it is to put an album on. He is right when he highlights how playing an album is different, and for many better, than just digitally pulling up a file.

I would recommend this to anyone with an interest in audio, from listening to the technical aspects. This is indeed a history, but one that is told in an engaging manner that keeps your interest piqued.
jazzy_dave: (books n tea)
Barbara Demick "Nothing To Envy: Real Lives In North Korea" (Granta Books)







Barbara Demick gives us a rare glimpse into the day-to-day life of the people of North Korea. Through the tales of six people who managed to escape the "Hermit Kingdom", we are exposed to horrors that are all but unimaginable.

We read of the initial prosperity of t the 60's and 70's and the decline from there, which ended in the famines of the 1990s. We read of a country where the people are so malnourished the average height to be accepted into the army had to be lowered(to something like five feet). A country where if you were able to purchase a television set, you would need to register it with the government, which would then block all channels except the approved state television networks, and could then show up at your home to inspect the television.

As I read this book I had to stop and process the severity of the tales the author was telling us. People starving in such numbers you would stumble over dead people in the street. Arrests and deportations of 3 generations of a family for the most minor infractions.

This is a must-read for anyone interested in the Stalinist state, although it is at times hard to process due to the overwhelmingly depressing tales.
jazzy_dave: (bookish)
Samantha Harvey "The Western Wind" (Vintage)





I found this paperback in my local Fleuers bookshop for a quid and it looked intriguing. However, it is a bit of a mixed bag. Samantha Harvey's The Western Wind is set in an out-of-the-way village in 1490s England, and the first half of the book in particular is a careful portrait of a small medieval community, written with a keen eye for landscape and the mundane details of everyday life. In that early part of the novel, too, Harvey impressed me with her attempt to enter into a medieval mindset—there are some anachronisms, yes, but I'll take a more convincing mentality with some mistakes about days and clothes any day over a book where 21st-century characters are playing dress-up in perfect period attire.

However, the novel flags in the latter part, even its early lyricism fading; it read almost as if Harvey ran out of things to say earlier than her self-imposed chronological structure allowed. Still an interesting read, and I would pick up another book by Harvey if I came across it, but I finished The Western Wind feeling as if there were possible depths to it that she had never quite plumbed.
jazzy_dave: (books n tea)
Daphne Du Maurier "Jamaica Inn" (Vintage)






Mary Yellan’s mother is dying. Her final wish is that Mary go to Bodmin to live with free-spirited Aunt Patience and her husband. When Mary arrives, she is shocked to see her Aunt Patience is a timid, dispirited woman, broken by the abuse of her husband. Jamaica Inn is located in the bleak moorlands of Cornwall and when Mary arrives, she not only has to deal with its bad reputation, but also with the landlord, her uncle Joss Merlyn, a known criminal who has successfully evaded the law.

Uncle Joss warns Mary not to look outside at nights when she hears sounds, but she does anyway and discovers a smuggling ring. Her uncle is a smuggler and probably a murderer too. She also discovers that there is another person, who is secretly working with Joss. Before long she finds herself tossed into a world of shocking human brutality, as she is drawn into the smuggling, theft and murder.

Although the story is a mystery, the author uses the bleak setting to unfold a true classic of gothic romance and adventure. This novel is very well written and I found the characters to be very distinctive. My only complaint is that the narration of the several landscapes Jamaica Inn was surrounded with, were overly descriptive at times and slowed down to story a bit. Nevertheless I could envision Jamaica Inn totally and particularly the smuggling scenes. What a fabulous book, and du Maurier was still a book or two away from her most famous novel, Rebecca.
jazzy_dave: (books n tea)
Gayford Martin "Spring Cannot be Cancelled: David Hockney in Normandy" (Thames & Hudson)




The book is somewhat falsely advertised though: “It is based on a wealth of new conversations and correspondence between Hockney and art critic Martin Gayford, his long-time friend and collaborator. Their exchanges are illustrated by a selection of Hockney’s new, unpublished Normandy iPad drawings and paintings alongside works by van Gogh, Monet, Bruegel, and others.”

This gives the impression that the book consists mainly of “their exchanges”, but that’s not true at all. The book is mainly Martin Gayford’s musings and anecdotes about Hockney and art in general, indeed based on their Facetime talks and emails. I’d say the bulk of the text, about 80%, is Gayford’s prose, intersected with fragments of what Hockney said or wrote.

Not that it is fully without problems: the main issue being that Gayford isn’t critical at all, and I think the book would have benefited if he would have given a different viewpoint to some of Hockney’s statements – most notably about Duchamp and about photography.

Another issue is its overall lightness: some parts border on the clichéd – panta rhei, true, but that isn’t very insightful. Gayford is at his best when he simply tries to describe Hockney’s work: “a seamless blend of the sophisticated and the straightforward.”
jazzy_dave: (books n tea)
Simon Winder "Germania: A Personal History of Germans Ancient and Modern" (Picador)




Writing “German” history prior to 1871 presents a daunting task because before that date there was no country known as “Germany.” The land we think of as Germany was composed of numerous principalities, dukedoms, bishoprics, and independent city-states that popped in and out of existence owing to the vagaries of hereditary suzerainty and noble marriages. Winder notes that successive historical maps of the country resemble nothing so much as "an explosion in a jigsaw factory." He does not undertake to present a chronological narrative; rather, he travels around the countryside and regales the reader with stories relevant to the place he is visiting, although the history still manages to be presented in roughly chronological order.

Winder is not one to make heroes of long-gone historical characters. Of Charlemagne he writes:

"As usual with such leaders, historians – who are generally rather introverted and mild individuals – tend to wish Charlemagne to be at heart keen on jewels, saints’ relics and spreading literacy, whereas an argument might be made for his core competence being the efficient piling-up of immense numbers of dead Saxons.”

Rather, the “heroes” of Winder’s story are the Free Imperial Cities such as Strasburg , Nuremberg, and the Hanseatic League that endured the middle ages as independent entities fostering trade and cosmopolitan values.

Winder breaks off his history in 1933 with the rise of the Nazis, avoiding not only the nastiest period in German history, but also its remarkable economic recovery after World War II. But he does manage to get in a few jabs at modern Germany, as with his exploration of what it means to “be” German, spoofing the Nazi’s efforts to create a pure Aryan race. After a short summary of the shifts of various unrelated tribes over the territory for about a thousand years, he says, “In practice Germany is a chaotic ethnic lost-property office, and the last place to be looking for ‘pure blood.’” Indeed, he sees German reverence for their deep past as having a corrosive and disastrous effect:

"There can be few stronger arguments for the damage that can be done by paying too much attention to history than how Germany has understood and taught its ancient past, however aesthetically pleasurable it can be in operas."

Winder livens up his sweep of German history with a tourist’s eye for the unique and noteworthy in his travels, describing the Christmas markets, the Ratskellers (with their massive glasses for serving beer), the ubiquitous castles, dense forests, flower-bedecked windows on half-timbered houses, marzipan in a variety of shapes (including, in one Lübeck shop, models of the Brandenburg Gate, the Eiffel Tower, and the Houses of Parliament) and “endless sausages.” He quips, “There is always a pig and a potato just around the next corner…..”

Germania is a quirky book that could hardly be classified as serious history, although it contains a lot of factual information on an important topic. ("Germany," the author writes, "is a place without which European culture makes no sense.”) Perhaps “travelogue with historical background” might be a more apt description. The writing is sprightly and entertaining, and the book presents an often delightful and decidedly unique guide to the region.
jazzy_dave: (books n tea)
Jostein Gaarder "The Solitaire Mystery" (Phoenix)






I've read "Sophie's World" and found it a lovely book to get you into philosophy. This one is a bit more subtle in all its philosophy, yet it does talk about philosophy. I do hate to repeat things said about a book, but this is definitively an "Alice in Wonderland" kind of book meant for adults or young people who want to do a little thinking and not just zone out when reading (but it is not the tedious kind of thinking, but the very engaging type).

It is so cleverly written. The story has a beautiful rhythm to it, almost poetic. It is well organized too. The reader is sucked into this fantastic journey that takes him or her deeper than expected. Like the Harry Potter series, this book has magical moments on almost every page. And where it is not magical, it is thought provoking- sometimes it is both.

This is a book that one could pick up again and again in different stages of life and get something new from it each time. I'm so glad I found this treasure! I wish more people could read it.

Very recommendable.
jazzy_dave: (books n tea)
Sylvia Simmons " Serge Gainsbourg: A Fistful of Gitanes" (Helter Skelter)



I stumbled upon this in the back end of my bookcase recently. I decided to read it again. I inhaled this bookt back in 2008, took its wayward magic into my lungs and held it.

Historically I haven't read much about French vocalists, and in fact, I tend to read about French artists more. However, as I have a couple of albums by the Frenchman I thought this was an appropriate read.

Serge's televised encounter with the late Whitney Houston was astonishing as was during his less than cereberal time in Yugoslavia. Beyond such, Gainsbourg was an unflinching artist, one compensating for his own insecurites and baggage. He stormed across borders and perforated genres. His mark on music is unmistakable. This biography illuminates such and is a remarkable survey of his life as well.

I highly recommend it.
jazzy_dave: (books n tea)
J.G. Ballard "Crash" (Harper Perennial)





This is a perverse novel about a group of automobile accident victims who develop a sexual fetish for car wrecks and the resulting injuries. There is a lot of sex in this book, but it isn’t very arousing. If this is an attempt at pornography (I don’t think it is), it’s not very successful. Ballard’s prose is too clinical (I believe he contemplated a medical career once), to be arousing. This prose tone and quality mutes his attempt at poetic explanations for his narrator and Vaughn's (that "nightmare angel of the highways”) thuggy, obsessed psychological state. While l I realize that people can and do develop all sorts of bizarre sexual fetishes, Ballard never really convinced me of the reality, plausibility, or emotion behind this one.

While this is not an sf novel per se, it has a science fiction sensibility about it in its exploration of the erotic attraction and mediation involved in a technology – here autos and automobile transportation (even for the failures of the latter in wrecks). Ballard uses the novel to plot an extended series of sexual metaphors involving autos. In that sense, I can see his influence on the cyberpunks and their use of technological metaphors (though William Gibson is more skilled in this area). His fascination with celebrities and media – here symbolized by Vaughn’s obsession with “the film actress Elizabeth Taylor” – also prefigures cyberpunk themes. Sf critics antagonistic to the New Wave and its major figure Ballard accused him of creating disaster stories in which not only does the hero not try to prevent the disaster, is passive in the face of it, but actually seem to desire it. This is certainly true here. The narrator – named James Ballard – not only senses a coming “autogeddon” but looks forward to his death in it and plots the erotic configurations of his future death.

Weird and yet an intriguing novel.
jazzy_dave: (bookish)
Kate Atkinson "Normal Rules Don't Apply" (Bloomsbury)



Not what you’d expect if you’re familiar with this talented writer, the first of eleven stories introduces The Void, a daily worldwide massacre that kills off any (formerly) living creature out in the open air. It occurs for five minutes per day, and at five minutes later every day, and seems to be the method used to remake the world, by a god named Kitty. Other strange and occasionally connected stories feature Franklin, who works on a popular British soap opera called Green Acres, encounters a talking horse, and becomes engaged to a woman with murderous sisters; a collection of stuffed animals whose child dies; a popular movie star who falls in love with a prince; and a fairy tale that springs into real life. Some of the stories are bound together, some not, and each is either enchanted/enchanting as a standalone or as part of the larger themes, which are the fragility of life and the sinister power of fantasy. Best read twi
jazzy_dave: (bookish)
Toon Francine "Pine" (Black Swan)





Francine Toon’s eerie and unsettling debut novel Pine is set in a small and remote Highland town, where the nearest supermarket is 23 miles away, and the planned opening of an Aldi has been a topic for discussion for months. It is a community where everybody knows everybody else. So, it’s quite ironic that there’s a mystery at the heart of this story. Just under ten years before the events described in the novel, a young woman named Christine disappeared without a trace. Her partner Niall and their baby Lauren are still struggling to accept this. The villagers gossip about Niall’s possible involvement in this disappearance, their suspicions fuelled by his alcohol problem and evident anger management issues. Lauren, who doesn’t remember her mother, is bullied at school, and branded as the daughter of a “witch”. Christine might well have recognised herself as one – before her disappearance, she was into alternative remedies, crystal healing and fortune-telling. In secret, Lauren is teaching herself spells and tarot reading from one of her mother’s books - her way of coping with a harsh and dangerous world.

The novel opens on a Halloween night. On their way home in their truck after an evening out “guising”, Lauren and her father come across a strange, white-gowned woman stumbling onto the road. They take her home with them, but the following morning she’s gone, and Lauren notices that Niall does not recall the event. Other ghostly and unexplained events take place. Could they be harbingers of an impending tragedy? The disappearance of teenager Ann-Marie unearths memories of a mystery which has never gone away and Lauren – and the whole village – fear the worst.

Francine Toon was raised in the Highlands, and she ably uses a setting familiar to her to create a dark, uncanny atmosphere. The novel’s title refers both to Christine’s name for her daughter (Oren, the Gaelic word for “pine”) and to the forest which surrounds the village. As in traditional fairy tales, the “trees, coarse and tall in the winter light, standing like men” evoke dread but also a sense of something timeless and otherworldly. This idea is also visually conveyed in the brilliant, minimalist cover.

The references to folklore, the Highland setting and the supernatural elements reminded me of another debut novel which I had greatly enjoyed – Kerry Andrew’s Swansong. However, there are also some clear differences between the approach of the two authors. Whereas Andrew’s story is steeped in folklore, Toon’s is darker, its Wiccan elements pushing it more towards horror. It also owes much to the contemporary thriller, which has turned the “missing person” trope into a veritable sub-genre.

The result is a gripping, genre-bending book which provides plenty of thrills, supernatural and otherwise. Indeed, in the excitement of the story, it’s easy to miss its subtle, realist aspects – particularly the challenges of living in a small, remote community especially if you are a young teenager raring to see the world. This novel should also be read for this.
jazzy_dave: (books n tea)
Kang Han "Greek Lessons" (Penguin)



Originally published in Korean in 2011 it has finally been released in early 2023 in English with a translation from Deborah Smith.

In Greek Lessons, the nameless narrator finds the echo of words in her mind so overwhelming, that she loses her capacity to speak. She signs up for a for ancient Greek language course to see if she can communicate in a language other than her native Korean.
Her instructor is captivated by the silent woman since he himself is slowly going blind.

Soon the two discover a deeper pain binds them together. For her, in the space of just a few months, she has lost both her mother and the custody battle for her nine-year-old son. For him, it’s the pain of growing up between Korea and Germany, being torn between two cultures and languages, and the fear of losing his independence when his sight finally fails him completely .

Greek Lessons is the narrative of an improbable friendship between these two people, as well as a beautiful discourse on human closeness and connection. Greek Lessons is a remarkably deep book for such a short tale.
jazzy_dave: (bookish)
Tom Watson "Metronome" (Blooomsbury)




Initially, it started very well with an interesting poem eyes and also a feeling of something very different. This felt like good suspenseful near future dystopian fiction. However, it loses its way partially around about the midpoint to 2/3 through and I don’t think it really recovers from that stumble. I’m not sure that the ending is particularly satisfying, but then again, it’s also not a cursory warning. I think the characters were well drawn out and I think that their ploys and motives were entirely believable. I do however feel that it lacks something.
jazzy_dave: (bookish)
Toby Manning "The Rough Guide to Pink Floyd" (Rough Guides)




A nice overview of Pink Floyd whether you are a committed fan or curious to find out more about the band. It gives a lot of inside information to the rise and fall of this mysterious progressive rock band. It also provides a lot of additional places to find out more information about them. Therefore, it serves as a great start-up to any Floyd fan, including all the post Floyd solo music or projects by members of the band. One to read thoroughly or dip in to. Perfect.
jazzy_dave: (books n tea)
Matt Haig "How To Stop Time" (Canongate)




Tom Hazard is a seemingly middle-aged man starting a new job as a secondary school history teacher in a London borough. However, due to an extremely rare condition, he does not age as humans usually do and has actually been alive several centuries.

Every eight years he must change his identity and location to avoid being exposed. The main rule of his life being not to get emotionally attached to any one life or one person because sooner or later he will have to move on.

The book is set mainly in the present but through a series of flashbacks Tom takes the reader on a journey through several centuries of British history taking in the witch trials, the plague, colonialism, Shakespeare and jazz along the way.

It turns out, he is not the only one with this condition and a society has been set up to help and protect people like him, and Tom is a fully paid up member. But Tom is tired of hiding and being alone. The question is, what will his breaking of the society's rules cost him?

At first the book seems to be just another immortal story with witch-hunters rather than vampires, but in reality its a love letter to life, how we should cherish every moment because you never know when everything will change and as such is moving and life affirming.

This is my first book by the author and I have to say despite a few minor quibbles, the repetition of how smelly London used to be being one, I thoroughly enjoyed it. It had a good pace to it, the history was interesting without being too detailed and I felt that Haig showed a deft touch with the old heart strings. I will certainly be on the look out for more of his offerings.
jazzy_dave: (books n tea)
C J Tudor "The Drift" (Penguin)




Dystopic apocalyptic fiction with a touch of horror driven by a global pandemic.

Narrated by 3 different characters, the novel focuses on survival in a world that has been changed by a virus that keeps mutating and infecting. Students bound for safety are stranded in the snow after their bus crashes. A cable car with workers going up the mountain to volunteer at the Retreat stops halfway up to the control station. In the former chalet, the staff at the Retreat are tested by dwindling supplies and power failures. Hannah, Meg, and Carter are willing to do whatever it takes to stay alive. Everyone has a secret and all are lying.

This was OK but I didn't find it suspenseful or compelling. Many characters, but they were dropping so fast that I didn't invest much into them and couldn't work up the empathy needed to care. The Whistlers were much more interesting to me and I would have preferred to read about them rather than the 3 sets of people in the bus, cable car, and chalet. The sketchy details about the virus and the pandemic left me wanting more. Much of the action and all that happened required a great deal of suspension of disbelief. Lots of blood and gore if that's your thing. A few twists and turns along the way to a reveal and the sort of unsatisfying conclusion.
jazzy_dave: (books n tea)
Patti Smith "M Train" (Bloomsbury)





This book is a real pleasure, accentuated by listening to Patti read her own lovely fragmented prose with the Audible audiobook version. It's a lyrical travelogue more than a memoir, a collage of memories scattered across a map strewn of cafes and bookstores. We are given audience to her visits to gravesides of great writers, of phone calls from William Burroughs, and dreams of a philosophical cowboy (who sounds a lot like Sam Shepard). We learn of the heartbreak she felt in losing her love Fred "Sonic" Smith, her fascination with the writing of Hakuri Murakami, and her quest for the perfect cup of coffee. We also learn she is fascinated, nay obsessed, with detective dramas, and is as apt to indulge in "CSI" as she is a collection of Genet's.

Smith's reputation in the 70's was that of a drug-addled punk priestess. Today, she seems more like a well-heeled professor, who knows something about everything, and shares it in the most intimate and warm-hearted of ways.

Upon listening to her share her very private experiences in her very public profession, I am taken with how close I feel to her having never met her. This book made me feel like I was having coffee with Patti with every chapter she shared. I am certain I will return to it many times for inspiration and the sublime pleasure of her gift of reflective storytelling.
jazzy_dave: (bookish)
Zadie Smith "NW" (Hamish Hamilton)




I think this book is Zadie Smith's way of dealing with mortality, which is to say it's a very erudite, emotionally complex, formally inventive take on the issue.

The book is split between different perspectives, each with its own formal conceits and tone. The fun is the interplay between these, the way time compresses and overlaps, and choices have consequences that radiate outward jaggedly. This isn't your magnolia/love actually/slacker characters cross paths and fates diverge and mingle thing--it goes deeper. It's not even a pulp fiction/imitations of pulp fiction non linear interlocking deal where the story emerges bit by bit across many crossing timelines. It's more of a high modernist Faulknerian thing, where subjective experience is recreated in prose, and perspective is fluid and time compresses and expands, except here the subject is time itself and persons across time. Did I mention time? What I'm trying to say is weird shit happens with time in this book.

Oh yeah and the characters are extremely well drawn and there's a whole lot of class and race politics in the fold and marriage and motherhood and technology find themselves under the microscope.

The Natalie section is one of the best things I've ever read. Her section forms the structural and emotional core of the book. Her search for a constant identity and the slow erosion of the person she once was is devastating to witness. Her tale is told in vignettes that act like guideposts along the timeline of her life, sometimes narrowing in and viewing a single incident from 3 to 4 perspectives, sometimes covering years in a single stroke. All of the pathos of the Nathan section that immediately follows was built in Natalie's journey. He doesn't get a chapter, and his chastisement of Natalie is one of the best 11th hour character reveals I've read.

This is the work of someone who has lost the faith. The voice is far from the certainty of White Teeth. It has more of the ambivalence and empathy of her nonfiction, without the occasional both-sides fallacies.

Reminds me of Light in August and In Our Time. Oh and I caught a Joyce reference, most likely from Ulysses.
Anyway, the more I read, the more I liked it. This is a novelist at the height of her powers. Definitely has me hooked for at least one more novel.

Profile

jazzy_dave: (Default)
jazzy_dave

July 2025

S M T W T F S
  12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728293031  

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jul. 8th, 2025 04:06 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios