The Year Of The Flood

The Year Of The Flood
by Margaret Atwood

First published in Great Britain in 2009.

The Year Of The Flood is the second in the post-apocalyptic trilogy by Margaret Atwood which begins with Oryx And Crake and ends with MaddAddam.  The trilogy is set in the future, after a man-made plague has wiped out the majority of humans and left only a few survivors.  I generally enjoy post-apocalyptic books and films, and this was particularly good because it seemed like a realistic possibility.  The characters talk about how mankind was using up the Earth's resources without thinking of the consequences, and seemed fitting for today's 'global warming' society.  Thunderstorms are a daily occurrence and people have to be fully covered to protect from the fierce midday sun.

Oryx And Crake focuses on one of these men, who calls himself Snowman and looks after a group of man-made people called the Crakers.  The Year Of The Flood is set alongside the first book, but is about two woman called Ren and Toby who have both (seperately) survived the plague.

The story alternates chapters about each of the women and includes flashbacks to give us more detail about the so called 'Waterless Flood' and God's Gardeners - a group of humans who were self-sufficient and believed that one day mankind would ruin itself.  Both Ren and Toby were in the Gardeners and use a lot of their foraging and recycling skills to survive.

Ren is trapped in the upmarket sex club where she worked as a dancer and is slowly running out of food.  Whilst waiting for her friend Amanda to reach her, she tells us about her life with the Gardeners and how she ended up working in the club.  Toby is older and has managed to survive in the AnooYoo spa.  She reveals how she came to live with the Gardeners and her life before the 'Waterless Flood'.

I definitely preferred Toby to Ren, mainly because Toby is older and I could relate to her more.  Ren is quite needy, which is expected for her age, especially in the post-apocalyptic situation she finds herself in, but I just wanted to see her try to do more to ensure her survival.  When Amanda finds her they spend an evening drinking champagne and doing their nails.  This made me smile in a sad way because I could imagine two teenagers doing this and trying to hold on to their old lives.

Toby is very practical.  She doesn't show emotion and just gets on with what needs to be done.  She is a strong woman but clearly has thoughts about what might eventually happen to her.  I would find it difficult to carry on as she does, living alone and surviving day-to-day with just a belief that things will get better, but I found this true to her character and well written.

The writing is a bit difficult to get into and I had to keep track of which year I was reading about.  After getting into the book I felt that it worked well to have the long flashbacks as it gave a lot of detail and answers.

This book is great in that it made me think about how we live and how we don't always think too far into the future.  As much as the book is fictional and the plague is man-made, a lot of the smaller details seem possible, which is one of Atwood's great skills.

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Neither Here Not There - Travels In Europe

Neither Here Nor There - Travels In Europe
by Bill Bryson

First published in Great Britain in 1991.

Having just returned from a holiday I felt this was a fitting book to review.  I don't read many travel books, aside from a bit of a guidebook to wherever I'm going, but I think Bill Bryson is brilliant (oh I love alliteration).  His books are hilarious - I often laugh out loud while reading - but also interesting.  Bryson has written books about history, science and language plus a memoir.  I haven't read these but if they're anything like his travel writing they'll be excellent.

Neither Here Nor There is about Bryson's travels around Europe by train.  He went when he was a young man and fifteen years later decides to go again.  This book is written from Bryson's point of view and he compares his trips as he travels.

This book is great because of Bryson's chatty writing.  At times he goes on little rants, but includes interesting facts which keeps it relevant.  As I read it I can easily imagine him sat opposite me on a train, trundling through some fantastic European countryside, telling me his tales of adventure (being pick-pocketed in Florence is particularly well told).
Bryson travelled without the use of the internet and simply jumped off a train in a city and searched for a hotel on arrival, with varying results.  It makes me glad that I can research trips thoroughly in advance but does put that adventurous spark in my mind every time I read this book.

The book is split into chapters with one for each city.  These are listed at the front so you can dip in and out or read it all.  As the book was published twenty-three years ago it's not a particularly useful guidebook as a lot of the information isn't valid anymore (he visits Yugoslavia, for example), but to me this adds charm and interest to the stories; I love seeing how things have changed when I go to the places he went.  It also adds a sense of history and of a not-so-distant past that at times seems quite unimaginable now.

For me, the ending sums up exactly how I feel at the end of a holiday.  Bryson is in Istanbul and has the sudden urge to keep going and go to Asia.  Naturally, reality intervenes and he decides to go home instead, but I could really relate to wanting to never go back to your everyday life.  Ofcourse if you did this then 'holiday' would become your everyday life, but I digress (maybe this is why I like Bryson so much - the sometimes random tangents he goes off on).

Bryson has written about nearly every continent, and I would recommend that you all at least read the book that is about yours.  'Notes From A Small Island' and 'Down Under' are particularly good.  I warn you, he will make you want to jump on the next plane/train/boat and see the world.

The Chronicles Of Narnia

The Chronicles Of Narnia
by C.S. Lewis

First published in Great Britain between 1950 and 1956.

Made up of seven excellent books, The Chronicles Of Narnia was a series I grew up with.  I started (as most kids seem to) with The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe when I was about seven and then borrowed the others from the library.  I was going to choose just one of the books to write about, but decided that they all deserve some blog time as they have all been my favourite at one time or another.

I like the fact that C.S. Lewis has recommended a reading order for the Chronicles which is different to the order in which he wrote them.

The Magician's Nephew is first in his recommendation, and this is a wonderful story to introduce readers to Narnia.  In it we meet Digory, a young  boy who comes to London to live with his quirky uncle and becomes friends with a young girl named Polly.  Together, and with the help of magic rings, they enter another world and witness Aslan the lion creating the beginning of Narnia.  After several adventures the story ends with a brilliant link to the next - The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.

Set long after The Magician's Nephew, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe introduce us to Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy Pevensie.  These four children are evacuated to the countryside during the second World War and get into Narnia through a wardrobe.  Whilst there, they find that Narnia has been under an evil spell and is in a constant winter.  Slowly they gain allies and end up fighting the White Witch.  In the end they take their places at the palace at Cair Paravel and are named as Kings and Queens of Narnia forever.  This is perhaps one of the best known Narnia stories and the same characters are featured in two further stories.

The third book is probably my least favourite.  The Horse And His Boy follows on chronologically from The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe, but is set in a different area of the magical world.  We meet Shasta, a boy who rescues a horse who can talk.  Shasta and the horse, Bree, flee north and meet princes and hermits.  They eventually reach Narnia but discover that Calerman (one area of their world) is planning a raid on Narnia's neighbour, Archenland.  For me, as well as this book is written it didn't add as much to the overall Chronicles as the others.  It paints a picture of Narnian life in good times, and so there are less obstacles for the characters.

The next two books are Prince Caspian and The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader.  The first of these feature Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy when they are called back to Narnia to help Prince Caspian.  The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader is set mainly onboard a ship, and follows Edmund, Lucy and their cousin as they journey to find Narnian lords who have been put under a spell.  Whilst trying to make things right again the cousins come across a dragon, some Dufflepuds and meet Prince Caspian again.

The Silver Chair features Eustace again, but this time he is joined by a girl called Jill.  They get into Narnia and are given a task to find a lost prince.  I found Jill to be rather difficult to like - I'm not sure why, but I think I just feel more connected to the Pevensie children, having read their stories first.  I found the Silver Chair harder to get into, and found myself wishing the Pevensies would pop up again.

The Chronicles end with The Last Battle.  This is a book that does what it says on the tin, as it were.  The Calermenes have taken over Cair Paravel and so all allies of Narnia have been called together.  Eustace and Jill are called into Narnia to help, and end up fighting in the ultimate final battle.  The end of this book is a great tie up of everyone's stories and is one which I enjoy reading every time.

The entire series is so detailed that it is a great introduction to high fantasy for younger readers.  I remember the first time I read The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe, I was overwhelmed by the amount of detail in the characters, the geography and the history of Narnia, and how each stories was connected to another in some way.  I really like the endings to each book, they give a touch of suspense and lead brilliantly into the next one.  The adventures are all aimed at defeating evil and working together to save Narnia, and although the Narnians are a bit overly nice and chummy, it is an idealised world at the end of the day.  The books are full of metaphors and stories told within them, which help them to not be too simplistic.

Even though they are aimed at children, I would tell any readers to read these books.  The writing is not patronising at all; rather I feel I understand the layered meanings better as I have gotten older.  If you read them when you were younger I can promise that you will feel the same innocent excitement reading them again.  If you haven't read them, then do and give your imagination the perfect setting to go wild.

The Gate To Women's Country

The Gate To Women’s Country

by Sheri S. Tepper

First published in Great Britain in 1988.

The Gate to Women’s Country is one of my favourite books.  I feel like I say that a lot but I have a lot of favourites depending what mood I’m in.  This one is for when I’m in an ‘I wonder what the world would be like if women ruled and there were hardly any men’ mood.  I can’t remember how this book came to be on my bookcase – I can remember buying it but have no idea what led me to do so.

The story is about Women’s Country, where (as you might guess) women rule.  It is set three hundred years in the future, after a nuclear war has destroyed most of humanity and the United States has split into several different, new areas.  In Women’s Country the females live inside the city walls and educate themselves, with science and the arts flourishing.  They keep some men for servants, but most of the men live outside the walls in barracks and are the women’s army.

The main character is Stavia, a thirty-seven year old woman who we meet when she is summoned to meet her fifteen-year old son at the Defender’s Gate.  After a discussion in which her son decides to stay with the Warriors instead of returning home, Stavia tells us her life story from when she was ten and living with her older sister and mother.  As the story progresses we learn more about the separation of mother and son when the child is handed to the men outside the walls at age five.

Stavia is an interesting character.  She has always lived in Women’s Country, growing up with her doctor mother.  Her mother takes her along when she tests the gypsies who travel around in the wild for diseases, and Stavia is aware of her brother who was given to the Warriors.  With an older sister too, Stavia shows all sides to life in Women’s Country including that of their servant Joshua.  When Stavia meets a Warrior boy, Chernon, she has to make up her mind about how she feels about the rules she is supposed to obey.  I thought that Stavia was well-written and was relatable, even in a situation I couldn’t easily imagine.  She progresses from a child following rules ingrained into her, to questioning those rules and then following in her mother’s medical footsteps.

I found Stavia’s mother to be rather annoying at times – probably because I felt so much for Stavia as she tried to understand her family and why the city is how it is.  Her mother sometimes seemed quite cold, and it was the servant Joshua who was the most caring person for Stavia to turn to.  In this way it was as if the ‘traditional’ gender roles are reversed, with the few men providing the most support.

Although the men are shut outside the city, they stand together and bond as Warriors.  We get more details of the past from the men’s conversations than the women’s and learn that they have previously gone to war with other armies, with mixed results.  I found the men’s lives really interesting as they have to decide whether or not to return home.  By doing so they lose all respect, but by staying in the garrison they are more likely to die young.

Tepper’s future is not one that I found easy to imagine – for me it is set too far ahead in time.  I generally prefer books set ahead in time just enough for the world to be different, but still hold onto some parts of our present day so that I can picture the stories actually happening.  With this one I had to use my imagination a bit more, and try not to fixate on filling in the three hundred years between our now and Tepper’s future.  However once I got into the book the setting fit well and was simple enough to create a strong mental picture.  I particularly liked how even the towns were names after women, for example Marthaville, Susantown and Melissaville.  Everything the women could take charge of they had done, and done so explicitly.

Overall this is a book I enjoyed reading.  The story is great, the characters are developed and the message behind the plot is one which can be taken seriously in any time or place.  It’s one of those that leaves you wondering ‘what if?’  Oh, and there is a brilliant ending that I had to reread a few times to believe!

The Help

The Help
by Kathryn Stockett

First published in Great Britain in 2009.

This is one of those books that you know you should read when it comes out.  It's one of those that everyone talks about and tells you to read.  Then the film is released a couple of years later and the hype is refreshed.  This is pretty much exactly as it happened for me, and I ended up buying the book to read before someone lent me the film.

The story is set in Mississippi in 1962 and follows a group of black maids dealing with their lives as second-class citizens and Skeeter, a young, white woman who comes home from college to find that the maid who brought her up has gone.  As she tries to find out what happened, Skeeter uncovers the horrendous way the 'help' is treated behind the closed doors of her neighbours and family's friends and decides to write an anonymous book about it all.  As more and more maids find their voices and come forward to add their stories, tensions in the town rise.

The Help is narrated in turn by Skeeter, Aibileen (a maid who is bringing up her seventeenth white child) and Minny (a maid who struggles to keep jobs because of her temper).  These three women are tied together by the risk they take in starting the book project - if they are discovered the maids will be fired and Skeeter's writing dream will be shattered.

Minny and Aibileen are each dealing with problems with their husbands and children at home, yet still have to endure the terrible unfairness of life as a black maid.  I really liked Minny and her wicked temper, but felt more of a connection to Aibileen with her gentler ways.  Although she is not happy with her situation, she concentrates on the child in her care and tries not to let the injustices she faces upset her.
Skeeter is an interesting character; she is the only white person in her town who takes the time to ask why the maids are treated as they are, and in doing so makes several enemies.  This does not stop her, rather it empowers her to reveal the truth.  Saying that, she does struggle with going against her family and friends at first.

It took me a while to get into this book, not because of the story, but because when the maids are narrating it is written in their dialect.  I thought this was a clever way to really get into the mindset of the characters but it also divided theirs and Skeeters sections and, I felt, represented their division in life.  It may take a chapter or two, but once you hear the voices in your head it is difficult to stop them!

The story itself is excellent.  It captures the Mississippi way of life in the sixties without skimping on the details.  Other writers may have hinted at the maids experiences, but Stockett exposes them fully.  That being said, this is not a tragic tale.  It is one of hope and courage, and shows that any lines can be crossed, no matter how ingrained they are.

If you want a book that has a deep message without being preachy, get your hands on this one.

Before I Go To Sleep

Before I Go To Sleep
by S J Watson

First published in Great Britain in 2011.

Imagine if every morning when you woke up you had no idea who you were, where you were or how you got there.  This is the reality that Christine faces every day since she had an accident that left her with memory problems.  Most things she learns while awake become forgotten as she sleeps.

Before I Go To Sleep is a brilliant thriller about Christine's day to day life as she tries to come to terms with her accident with the help of her husband Ben, and her doctor.  She keeps a journal to try to jog her memory and has photographs and notes all over the house, and each morning Ben has to calm her down and show her scrapbooks of their life together.  As the story progresses there is an underlying feeling of unease and then a great twist hits that I did not see coming.  It does end on a bit of a cliff hanger, but it fits with the story and allows readers to decide what they think would happen next, which I actually liked in this case.

Christine is a forty-seven year old, but can only remember being in her early twenties.  Although I have not been in Christine's situation, she was written well and I felt a connection to her.  She is desperate, upset, angry and strong throughout the story, which was all very realistic and how I imagined I would feel.
I felt sorry for her husband, Ben, as every day he has to explain about his life with Christine to her and allow her to be scared and confused.  He deals so well with it, though you can tell it affects him too.

The story is easy to read and a definite page turner; I felt myself reading increasingly feverishly at one point when Christine reads her journal.  S J Watson's writing is exciting, detailed and doesn't skimp on the thrill factor.  I was also glad that the story didn't have Christine as a together, strong character who is getting on with her life despite her adversities.  As uplifting as those stories can be, in Christine's situation I know I would be panicking, and therefore felt the emotions were much more realistic.

Reading this book made me really think about and appreciate the importance of memories and how they shape us.  I couldn't imagine not being able to remember whole chunks of my life, especially if this included major events such as getting married, as in Christine's case.  It made me realise how vulnerable you are without your memories, with Christine having to rely on Ben and her doctor to explain her life to her.

This would be a great holiday read, but I can't promise you'll be able to put it down!
As an extra bonus, the Black Swan edition I have has some great 'reading group' questions at the end.

The Night Circus

The Night Circus
by Erin Morgenstern

First published in Great Britain in 2011.

This book is wonderful.  It is magical.  It is mysterious.  It entices you into a dream world and wraps you in its secrets.

The first time I read this book I was enthralled with the language and imagery.  The characters were so well written that they stayed with me long after I finished reading.  I know that sounds like such a cliché but I honestly don't think it happens all that often.

The story is set in the late nineteenth century, and centres around a circus which appears with no warning and only opens at night.  It becomes an international sensation, with people travelling to visit it.  Behind the scenes are a group of performers, including contortionists and magicians.  Two of these magicians are Celia and Marco.  Magically tied to each other before they even know of the others existence, each is trained by a mentor in the magical arts.  Their mentors are playing a game, the circus is their playing field and Celia and Marco their pawns.  Although on the surface the circus is a wondrous surprise, the game takes a sinister turn as it becomes clear that there can only be one winner.

The book intersperses chapters from different characters points of view with chapters written in the second person.  These place the reader in the story as a visitor to the circus and makes you feel as though you are meeting the people in each chapter.  Rather than following a straighforward structure, the plot switches between times, characters and places.  This fits well with the idea of the circus being an endless group of circles of tents and winding paths; I felt as if I were wandering through the story, at times rather dreamily and with a page-turning urgency at others.

Celia and Marco are becoming two of my favourite literary characters.  Individually they are intriguing, but together they are a fierce power couple to be reckoned with.  Without giving too much away, yes there is a love story here, but it is so beautifully written that I would dare anyone not to champion them.
Herr Thiessen is a seemingly small character who grows with the story, and is one I was particularly drawn to.  He is a clockmaker who makes the circus's amazing clock and becomes a 'revêur', a follower of the circus.  I imagined myself to be friends with him if I were in the story.

Like the visitors to the circus, each time I read this book I find myself drawn to a different aspect of it.  If you want a brilliantly told story with a magical aspect then add this to your bookcase.