Perks of the job

I have started a part-time job at a local international school.  I'm running 'library lessons' two days a week, which is the library's way of supporting the English department.  Soon I will be responsible for running two book clubs a week as well.  I spend my days surrounded by books and I have to read to keep up to speed with what my kids are reading.  What a chore!  There is a profusion of books available for younger readers - some of them reassuringly familiar (old friends) but many of them new and snazzy and so different to what I would have read when I was younger.

Anyway, it made me think of what an English teacher said to me when I was still in primary school - that I shouldn't rush into reading adults books as there were so many wonderful children's books (and when I say children, I include 'young adult' in that category) that I would otherwise miss out on.  I was obviously in a big hurry to move on to older reading material at the time, but now I know what she meant.  I'm devouring young adult fiction at the moment, maybe making up for the years when I thought I was too old for it.  In fact, these books deal with serious, weighty, life and death issues but in inventive and beautiful ways.

If you have kids you have all this to look forward to - rediscovering books that maybe you have forgotten about or introducing your children to stories that you loved.  I get excited just thinking about it.

Here are the books I have read and really enjoyed recently:

Skellig - David Almond
My Name is Mina - David Almond (prequel to Skellig)
A Monster Calls - Patrick Ness
The Knife of Never Letting Go trilogy - Patrick Ness
My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece - Annabel Pitcher

Hunger & Famine

I have been starving myself this weekend because I am having a small 'procedure' today in hospital. It hasn't been fun at all and I think my hunger was compounded by the book I was reading set during the Irish potato famine of 1847 - most of the characters were hungry most of the time. Star of the Sea by Joseph O'Connor was a really excellent book and I am almost sorry that it stayed on my bookshelf unread for such a long time. It now joins a few other books about voyages at sea that I have loved: Sea of Poppies (sorry to keep going on about it), English Passengers (Matthew Kneale) & Rites of Passage (William Golding).

Star of the Sea is the name of the ship taking hundreds of Irish immigrants to a new life in the US. The steerage passengers live in squalid conditions with little food. Disease, as you might expect, is rife. The first class passengers on the other hand sit down to a three course meal every night with proper table clothes, silver and glass. They have fresh water and can wash when they want. There is a murderer on board as well as a few other characters with interesting and interconnected back stories. I found it a gripping read.

I don't think I ever realised how many people suffered these terrible conditions in the hope of a better life - I guess it says something for the conditions they were leaving behind. My ancestors were among those people making that passage across the sea. I wonder how many of them died on the way. My book on Ireland tells me that by 1911 the population of Ireland had declined to less than 4.4 million from a figure of 8.2 million in 1841. Emigration was a way of life by that time.

My relatives might be surprised that it has come full circle: through my parents' marriage I have ended up pretty much where they started.

A tidy home = a tidy mind

I sometimes contemplate what our house must say about us. I'd like to think it would say 'those two have relatively tidy minds' but what I think it says is 'what a pair of hoarders'. I find it difficult to be ruthless and I hate parting with things like books, birthday cards, letters etc.

I woke up on Saturday resolved to have a clear-out. What differentiated Saturday's clear-out from other clear-outs was that I took a critical look at all my books...and decided to get rid of quite a few of them. Most of the time our book shelf is a repository for random bills, photos, wedding invites, things that I don't know what to do with (but couldn't possibly throw away) and of course books, CDs and DVDs. But I have read some great books lately and it didn't seem right that they didn't have a proper place to live once I had finished with them. So here are some of the ones that I am proud to say now have a space on our book shelf:

• One Fraction of the Whole -Steve Toltz. Australian writer, really funny and surreal novel about three generations of a family in Oz.
• Sea of Poppies - Amitav Ghosh. First part of a trilogy. Indian writer. It took me a while to get into it but I just loved this book once I did.
• Smiley's People - John le Carre. Classic John le Carré - the ultimate spy novel.
• Shellseekers - Rosamund Pilcher. I read this as a teenager and the magic was not lost when I re-read it earlier in the year.

These books (and a few others) did not make the cut and are looking for a new home:

• Mr Toppit - Charles Elton. I found this book infuriating. I loved the idea (obscure set of children's books suddenly become bestsellers after the author's death and his family are left to deal with the legacy) but it failed to deliver.
• The Gathering - Ann Enright. I could barely struggle through this even though it was a Booker Prize winner. I think it was something about the Irish setting, the alcoholism and the funeral that the whole plot was based around.
• "Let's Roll" written by the wife of one of the plane-crash victims in 9/11. This was a gift from 2005 and it has stayed on the book shelf since. I have never been able to open it.

And these books narrowly missed the cut:

• Shantaram - Gregory David Roberts. I bought it when Al moved to India but seeing groups of tourists walking around Bombay clutching it like a guidebook totally put me off it. Next time I pick it up I will try harder.
• The Historian - Elizabeth Kostova. I started it but couldn't get beyond the first few chapters. The vampire element should have been more of a draw but wasn't. I will have to give it another whirl.

But look how much tidier everything is as a result:

Next step, alphabeticalising!

The Honourable Schoolboy

Sometimes it is better to stick with what you know. After The Gargoyle, and via Child 44 (by newcomer Tom Rob Smith) I have returned to Le Carré and Smiley. I am currently reading The Honourable Schoolboy, the second book in the Smiley Trilogy. Spies and spycraft, Cold War, intrigue, revenge. Just brilliant.

The Gargoyle - revisited

I have just, out of interest, googled The Gargoyle and unearthed some pretty unfavourable reviews. So perhaps don't rush out and buy it after all. :-)

"This is basically tosh" - The Independent

"a colourful, sentimental and lopsided pageturner" - slightly more favourable from The Guardian

The Gargoyle

I am reading such a good book at the moment. It is called The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson. I bought it on a whim when I was browsing in Waterstone's one day and the reason I bought it was because the edges of the pages are all black. I liked the way it looked so different. Totally superficial I realise, but now I can say that I am really enjoying it so I don't feel so bad.

My Cousin Rachel

I am rediscovering Daphne du Maurier at the moment. I have just finished My Cousin Rachel which I loved (again) even though it will never take the place of my favourite, Rebecca. My Gran spent the last years of her life re-reading books she had read many times before. I think this was because her memory was not what it used to be towards the end. But perhaps it is because she found comfort in reading books she already knew and loved. Although I love discovering new books, there are times when I want to visit familiar places and familiar people. Sometimes I want to return to the time of Arthur (The Warlord Trilogy by Bernard Cornwall) or marvel again at the originality of His Dark Materials. The same goes for movies: sometimes I just want to get lost in Middle Earth.

Speaking of Middle Earth, Tim and I went to see The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring last night in the Royal Albert Hall. The London Philharmonic Orchestra and two choirs performed the music live while we watched the movie on a huge screen. It totally rocked. And Tim didn't complain once ;)