I enjoyed everything I read in January.
A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler - I had read some less than favourable reviews of this novel, but I thought it was marvellous and loved every moment of it. When the first section concluded and I read the familiar opening line of the second section, I felt like cheering. Tyler writes families so wonderfully - every little irritation, every perceived slight and service is illuminated and examined.
Dream House on Golan Drive by David G. Pace - This novel is unashamedly Mormon. If you don't know anything about Mormonism, it may be something of a baptism of fire. If you are Mormon, you may find the detailed descriptions of the temple ceremonies somewhat disconcerting (although I must say think Pace's descriptions and depictions are sensitive). Having said that, it's a moving, compelling novel. Pace expertly depicts the restrictive and redemptive nature of family and, in a haunting final scene, melds the sacred and the profane.
A Portable Shelter by Kirsty Logan
- I so enjoyed these modern fairy tales. Logan's story-telling is fluent and accomplished and her take on the Hansel and Gretel story (in her rendition a human mother finds a bear in the forest) shocked and delighted me.
I read
The Reapers Are The Angels and
Raising Stony Mayhall because I've been thinking about apocalypse narratives. These novels had excellent reviews so I gave them a go.
The Reapers Are The Angels by Alden Bell - There's a really lyrical lilt to the prose in this novel which I very much enjoyed. It's a bleak and brutal story and I must confess to being disappointed in the ending (although having discussed it with my son, I have discovered that I am
wrong to be disappointed), but there are some scenes that will stay with me and Temple is an engaging protagonist.
Raising Stony Mayhall by Daryl Gregory - Such an interesting book. Gregory really gets to grips with what it means to be human. His characters are believable and beautifully drawn.
Raising Stony Mayhall has shades of Pinocchio - inanimate child animated by love - and, later, to an extent, Frankenstein's monster.
Hope Farm by Peggy Frew - Set in a hippie commune in rural Australia this novel is a taut and riveting depiction of the natural world and the failings of human nature. I raced to the perilous, pivotal moment, desperate for thirteen year old Silver to escape physically
and emotionally unscathed.
Hope Farm will be published in the UK in 2016.
