My Year in Books 2023: May

I'm a bit late posting this one, but here is my monthly blog post with mini-reviews of the books I read in May this year. There are only three this time. And wouldn't you know? They were all library books!

In case you're interested, here are my review posts for the rest of the year: January, February, March, April

The Last by Hanna Jameson (2019)

So I started the month (as I often do) with a library book. And this one had such an intriguing and original premise that I just couldn’t resist it. The Last takes place in a remote hotel in Switzerland… shortly after nuclear war has broken out and destroyed the world as we know it. Most of the guests and staff of L'Hotel Sixieme fled when news of the apocalypse broke – some even ended their own lives rather than draw out the inevitable. A small group, though, have chosen to stay, deciding that the hotel is as safe as anywhere else. One of the survivors is Jon Keller, an American historian who decides to document their experience in case anything of the human race survives. However, this is all derailed somewhat by the discovery of a body – a young girl has been murdered, and her killer could well be among the small group of survivors sheltering in the hotel. It’s like Z for Zachariah meets And Then There Were None! Okay, it turns out it’s not quite like that, but Jameson’s novel is certainly a compelling read and very much to my taste. I couldn’t help but notice the inspiration for L'Hotel Sixieme (it’s clearly modelled on the Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles, with the discovery of the girl’s body bearing grim similarities to the tragic death of Elisa Lam). But the story doesn’t quite go in the direction you might be expecting, and the denouement comes as quite a surprise!

Various Pets Alive and Dead by Marina Lewycka (2012)

Marina Lewycka’s A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian must rank among my favourite novels of all time. I also loved Two Caravans and We Are All Made of Glue, though the latter was a little bit more heavy-handed in its humour, which makes for something of a challenging read. I don’t know why it took me so long to read Various Pets Alive and Dead, but I’ve finally got around to it! It was a little bit of a surprise after the other three novels, but not necessarily in a bad way. The thing about this novel is that, compared to Lewycka’s earlier novels, it’s really rather gentle! The story revolves around Marcus Free and Doro Marchmont, radical left-wing activists who chose to raise their children in a commune. The novel is actually set years after the commune’s demise, when their daughter Clara is working as a secondary school teacher in Doncaster, and their son Serge (who’s told them he’s finishing up his PhD at Cambridge) has become an evil capitalist banker. Marcus and Doro are also raising the amazingly named Oolie-Anna (actually Ulyana), who has Down’s Syndrome and is the abandoned daughter of another commune member. The novel takes place during the 2008 financial crisis, with the family navigating the present, while remembering some of the things that happened in the commune to bring them to where they are now. It’s very readable, and really very charming, but it lacks the sucker-punch of some of Lewycka’s other writing.

The Keeper of Lost Things by Ruth Hogan (2016)

And next… another library book! I got this one out because last month I read another of Ruth Hogan’s books – Queenie Malone’s Paradise Hotel – and really enjoyed it. Even though it’s not my usual genre, I thought Hogan’s writing was so good that I wanted to read more of her work. The Keeper of Lost Things is the story of Anthony Peardew, a man who collects things that people have lost (a single glove, a child’s hair bobble). Anthony has lost something himself, you see, and this is his way to make up for this. I say this is Anthony’s story, but it’s really the story of Laura comes to work for Anthony and to whom he leaves his house and his collection when he dies. Anthony’s bequest comes with the condition that Laura must do everything she can to reunite the lost things with their owners, and in this she is helped by Freddy, Anthony’s attractive gardener, and Sunshine, a young woman with Down’s Syndrome who lives nearby. Intertwined is the story of Eunice and Bomber, but I won’t spoil that story too much or reveal how the two tales intersect (you’ll work that out as you read it!). The Keeper of Lost Things is definitely a bit of a lighter read that I would normally choose, but Hogan’s writing really is excellent. The central premise initially reminded me of Kate Atkinson’s Behind the Scenes at the Museum, but the story unfolds in quite a different (less painful) way.

My Year in Books 2023: April

Well, this month's post is slightly longer than last month's. There are three books on this month's list! I'm quite pleased with that, as we've both been so ill I'm surprised I got chance to read anything at all!

My mini-reviews of the books I read in April are below, but in case you're interested, here are my posts for the rest of the year so far: January, February, March

Myst: The Book of Atrus by David Wingrove, Rand Miller and Robyn Miller (1995)

A while ago, me and my brother decided that we’d replay the Myst videogames together. We have very happy memories of playing the original Myst when it first came out in the 90s, and some vaguer memories of playing some (we’re not 100% sure which) of the sequels. We’ve been merrily (or should that be frustratedly?) working our way through the games, and we’re up to Uru: Ages Beyond Myst now. Sadly, we’ve had to put our weekly game sessions on hold in April due to illness. So this seemed like a good time to go full completist and read the novels! My brother read The Book of Atrus back in the 90s, but I’ve never read any of them before. If you know anything about the Myst games, then you might have guessed that the novels aren’t straightforward novelizations. Nothing as mundane as that! The Book of Atrus is more a prequel to the first game, which fills in a lot of the backstory and – much as I hate the word – lore that sits behind Myst. It’s a bit weird reading it several decades after first encountering the game, but I did enjoy the way it works as a parallel text to the game, and it’s very readable. Obviously, you don’t need to read the novel to understand the game itself, but it adds some interesting extra layers. It also adds some detail to Uru that perhaps would have been useful to us before we started that particular instalment!

Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood (2016)

The next book I read this month was another library book. I’ve had this one checked out for ages, but somehow never seemed to get around to reading it. I got a bit of a nudge from the library, as I discovered this month that I’d renewed it the maximum number of times! I don’t know why it took me so long to get around to reading Hag-Seed because I generally really like Margaret Atwood’s writing (and I love a couple of her books), but I guess it just ended up buried in my to-read pile. I’m glad I dug it out though (at the library’s prompting), as I thoroughly enjoyed Hag-Seed. The story is a riff on Shakespeare’s The Tempest – partly a retelling, and partly an exploration of the themes of Shakespeare’s play. Felix Phillips is a theatre director who is ousted from his position as a director of a prestigious festival during preparations for a production of The Tempest. For twelve years, Felix lives in a (semi-)self-imposed exile, planning his revenge against the people who destroyed his career. He takes up a post teaching literature in a prison and devises a Shakespeare programme for inmates. The stage is then set for him to lure his enemies to his ‘island’ for a very special production of The Tempest. Hag-Seed is compelling and readable, with surprisingly sympathetic characters and some rather moving considerations on loss, revenge and imprisonment. I’m very glad it finally got to the top of my pile!

Queenie Malone's Paradise Hotel by Ruth Hogan (2019)

Another library book now… though not one that’s quite as overdue as the previous one! I’m not sure what led me to pick up Queenie Malone’s Paradise Hotel. Even a glance at the cover suggests it is not my usual sort of reading material, so it’s a bit of a mystery. However, I have to say I’m glad I picked it up. Yes – Hogan’s novel is absolutely not the sort of book I would normally read, but I actually really enjoyed it. The story is told across two different times and in two different voices. In the present day, we meet adult Tilda, a rather closed-off, even cold woman who had a difficult relationship with her mother. Tilda’s mother has died and we find the protagonist moving into her mother’s flat to sort through both the physical and psychological reminders of her childhood. These chapters are alternated with chapters about Tilly, a rather charming seven-year-old who lives with her mother after her father leaves for work. Essentially, the book is about Tilda’s task of reconciling her memories of childhood (including her stay at the eponymous Paradise Hotel with the larger-than-life Queenie) with revelations about what really happened – helped along by some diaries kept by her mother, and by her ability to see and speak to ghosts (something that I would normally find a bit annoying but actually works well here). It’s a story filled with warmth and – ultimately – forgiveness, but it steers on the right side of sentimental and saccharine.