I use the GoodReads app / website to keep track of books I am reading. I kid myself that I will use it to write wise and interesting reviews of each book I read, but I rarely do so. Here, however, is an attempt to give a very truncated mini-review of each book I read in 2023:
1. Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus: A book club obligation that was a kind of fun romp, set in a world adjacent to my own - scientists at Universities / research labs. I didn't like the fantastic elements like the magic dog, and the plot was pretty ridiculous, with clichéd backstory and rather black and white portrayal of everything and everyone. On one level, quite fun as mindless entertainment.
2. Solar by Ian McEwan: From a set of books with an environmental theme, though the environment is more of the backstory, while the book is about the people, their behaviour and their relationships. More so than Lessons in Chemistry, this one had smatterings of my real life, with the main figure being a physicist. The closeness to my own life was sometimes a bit uncomfortable: The physicist in the book is jerk, yet I could see parallels between my own life and his. I used to read and enjoy Ian McEwan books around 30 years ago, and I do like his writing. His portrayal of people and events is perceptive, though it feels to me like it is a kind of 30 year old, and more misogynistic way of writing than I have become used to in more recent years. Is that just him portraying the world accurately?
3. The Man with the Compound Eyes by Wu Ming-Yi: Another in the series of environmentally-tinged books. In this case, it is set on the coast of Taiwan and the enviromental concerns are the inundation of land from the ocean, and an island of plastic and trash building up in the pacific. In what seems like a more deliberate way than Lessons in Chemistry, the magic realism work well, and I felt immersed in the world of aboriginal Taiwan.
4. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë: I have read this before, but this year I read it to my 9 year old. Possibly too early to have read it to her partly for the language and partly for the plot. She seems to enjoy more or less everything she experiences, and this book was no exception. A favourite of mine, too. One of the (many) upsides of having kids is reading old favourites to them.
5. The Men by Sandra Newman: I love Sandra Newman's writing and I've picked up and read each of her last few new books (though I still haven't got a copy of her latest, Julia). I enjoyed The Men well enough, though not as much as, say, The Heavens. It is a favourite genre of mine - feminist dystopia, of the sort that publishers seem to be churning out since the TV adaptation of The Handmaid's Tale. Enjoyable writing by Newman, as always, and nice to see how she had the characters deal with the premise (the sudden disappearance of all men from the world), but with a so-so plot hanging the whole thing together.
6. The School For Good Mothers by Jesamine Chan: A book club obligation, and another feminist dystopia. This time supposing that the American state polices parental quality to an extent that parenting lapses are punished by removal of a child and compulsory attendance in parenting boot camp. Much of it was plausible and scary enough, though there was (I think unintended) magic with technologically implausible 'dolls' which had to be cared for in the boot camp. I didn't enjoy the book that much, having to read it, figuratively, through my fingers at times as one thing after another went wrong for the poor heroine of the story. It did a good job of getting into my head, and I was a bit devastated by the outcome for the heroine and her training doll.
7. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain: This is what 9yo and I followed up Jane Eyre with. I remember liking it a lot when I read it aged about 13. Re-reading now, it was okay, but I saw neither the plot or the writing as exceptional. Hard to judge older books which may have been groundbreaking and often emulated (and bettered). Enjoyed reprising the kind of accent I used to hear when I lived in Tennessee.
8. Black Spartacus: The Epic Life of Toussaint Louverture by Sudhir Hazareesingh: My first non-fiction book that I finished this year, which I actually started in 2022. I was bought it as a present from my oldest daughter. I recognised the author's name, recalling that he was a tutor at my Oxford college when I was there (and he still is). Not that I ever knew him, as his politics and history did not overlap with my physics. Very enjoyable book about a person and a piece of history about which I knew very litle. Depressing to read it and reflect on the failed state that Haiti now seems to be.
9. Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk: A present bought for me, but one I was looking forward to read. I'd misplaced the book and it ended up taking longer to get the to the top of the pile. Like many books, when I think back to reading it, I am transported to the place where I did much of the reading. In this case, in a cramped fumey boat cabin where I lay quite ill while on holiday in Italy. I think I had built up the book to be some kind of Tolstoyan epic covering lofty and broad ideas. In fact, it's a darkly comedic book with an unreliable narrator whose character is the main draw, and the unfolding story a delight to read.
10. Small Island by Andrea Levy: A book club book. I had tried to read this book once before, years ago. This was in the days before kids when my partner and I would read a book out loud to each other. I found the Jamaican Patois too hard to say out loud without me sounding silly. Was no problem reading it and just having the words in my head. It's set around the Second World War and features the lives of Jamaicans who come to the UK. I can see why it was turned into a TV series, as the chapters are written as scenes, and the events are overdramatised. Good fun.
11. The Fifth Risk by Michael Lewis: As the shops in the Whitgift Centre in Croydon are closing down one by one, so the decaying branch of WH Smiths there has had a long-term sale of terrible books written and ghost written by minor celebrities. Sometimes there are interesting books to be found there, and I picked up this for a pound or two, liking the sound of the investigative journalism looking at the transition of power by the Trump team (or effectively the lack of it). I was drawn to it partly because of things to do with nuclear issues, so close to my work interests, though the book is broader, concetrating on several different goverment agencies, depening on testimony from a selection of people the author interviewed. It reads like a half-written up summary of interview notes made by the author, in preparation for a fully-developed book, but was rather published quickly to get out there while it could still count as journalism. Interesting, but would have rather read the full book, especially as I was reading it a couple of years after the event.
12. The Fifth Season by N K Jemisin: I'd been bought these books (this is the first of a trilogy) by my ex-wife, whose taste I trust implicitly, and had slightly put of reading them by being a bit underwhelmed by another book of Jemisin's. But this, and the following two books in the series, were great. Glorious Sci-fi, exploring all the themes and beautifully written.
13. I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys: A book club read. This falls under Young Adult fiction, and is set in Romania during the last days of communism. I remember that time well, following the news as it happened while I was a 15 year old - about the same age as the main protagonist in the novel. The book has a compelling story, adroitly written in short chapters, developing the coming of age story intertwined with the historic events. Full of pathos. Waiting for the film adaptation.
14. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain: I remember thinking this much superior than the simpler and more childish Tom Sawyer book when I read it originally. With the changes wrought in my by 30 years, I no longer see the distinction so clearly.
15. Strange People I Have Known by Andy McSmith: I used to enjoy reading Andy McSmith's journalism when I was a reader of the defunct paper-based Independent newspaper. When I saw this memoir pop up I ordered it and devoured it pretty speedily. I enjoy autobiographical work. As long as the author appears to honestly reflect over events in their life, then the expert perspective usually makes for a very satisfying read that helps me understand what it is like to be (a) human (that is not me), which is the subtext for why I read anything, I suppose. This book did not disappoint. Interesting anecdotes about political life over the last half century, from a personal perpective.
16. The Kingdom of the Sea by Zohra Nabi: A children's book that my partner bought for my 9 year old. Partner read it it 9yo and recommended it to me, so I read it. A nice adventure story as a girl discovers a secret existence and makes here way from contemporary UK to a magic part of the Earth. So many good kids books available these days.
17. You're a Bad Man Mr Gum! by Andy Stanton: A book I read to my 6yo. I knew I'd like it because I'd read it before to my now-9yo and my now-16yo enjoyed it when she was younger too. It's a silly book, with silly names and silly things in it, but pulls of the brilliant trick of doing silliness well and making it a great please to read as an adult and to listen to as a child.
18. The Periodic Table by Primo Levi: A book club obligation. I previously read his The Drowned and the Saved and became an instant fan of his writing. He is able to portray great feeling with rather formal and even abstract writing, like no-one else I have read. This book uses stories from Levi's life as a professional chemist to link together autobiographical stories. A real pleasure (despite the bleak occurences - Levi was in Auschwitz as an Italian Jew). I could have down withouth the pure fiction chapters which I didn't think were up to the standard of the autobiographical writing.
19. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin: One of the zeitgeisty books that everyone seems to be reading. I was keen to jump on the bandwagon, and found it to be a very intense bildingsroman as we follow some a group of self-centred children grow up into self-centred adults. Some gratuitous tragic life story and this reads like a kind of junior version of A Little Life.
20. An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears: I've had this sitting on my shelf since a friend of mine left in my house (accidently, I think) many years ago, and it never got returned (Sorry, Gwilym). Every now and then I hear people rave about it, and so again this year when someone mentioned it on Twitter in glowing terms. Finally, then, I read it, and I'd say it's worth the hype. A very well-crafted historical novel with four different witnesses recalling a series of events taking place in and around Oxford in the 17th Century. A highbrow page-turner that I finished as quickly as anything else I read this year, despite it probably being the longest fiction book I read.
21. Hard Times - Charles Dickens: A book club choice. We discussed the possibility of reading a Dickens book, and this came up as the choice, thanks to it being one of the shortest Dickens books, and we having a deadline to read it by. I could have sworn I'd read the book before. I knew all about Gradgrind and "Now, what I want is, Facts", but it turns out that was just through cultural osmosis and the book was largely new to me. I like reading Dickens, though I rather struggled to enjoy it to begin with, thanks I think largely to reading single chapters and half-chapters in snatched moments, only really getting long reading sessions towars the end, which I enjoyed much more
22. The Mystery of the Whistling Caves - Helen Moss: The first of a series of advernture stories. I read this to my 6yo. This series features a pair of boys on holiday in Cornwall where they befriend a girl and her dog and together solve lots of criminal cases. It is a modern-day Famous Five, more or less. I enjoyed reading the books to the now 9-yo and now I am reading them the to 6yo. I also read the next couple of books in the series, not listed separately here.
23. The Northern Lights - Phillip Pullman: Again, with the excuse of reading books I like to my 9yo, I started reading the greatest set of recent children's books. The books only came out when I was an adult and I remember first hearing about Northern Lights on Radio 4 many years ago when Pullman was being interviewed about it. I thought it sounded intruiging and I bought a copy and greatly enjoyed it. Truly a children's book which is not simply a childish pleasure for an adult, but a great book. Also not listed seperately, we read The Subtle Knife. Book 3 (The Amber Spyglass) we are part-way through.
24. I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings - Maya Angelou: Somewhere high up on the list of iconic books that somehow I have not read yet. Rectified this year, thanks to it being selected for a book club. I was expecting to enjoy it more than I did. The writing style left me cold much of the time, and the lack of narrative in what is ostensibly a chronological autobiography did not do much to draw me in. Despite it being a surprising slog, I had warmed to it considerably by the end, though I don't think I'll be reading the follow up autobiographies.
25. Minor Detail - Adania Shibli: I heard of this short novel through a report that its publisher Fitzcarraldo Editions was making the eBook free to read in response to the Frankfurt Book Fair withdrawing it from the shortlist for a prize, because it dealt with the historic Israel-Palestine conflict in a way sympathetic to Palestinian people. The book gives a fictonalised account of the true story of the group rape and killing of a Palestinian woman by Israeli soldiers in 1949 and is written in two parts: One, from the point of view of the leader of the soldier group in 1949, and the second from a Palestinian woman investigating the story today. The prose in the first half is written in a very matter of fact and spare way, creating an odd effect for the subject matter. I suppose it serves to dehumanise the victim from the point of view of the soldiers, though the lead soldier is not portrayed unsympathetically. The voice changes for the second half, and the woman's inner monologue is centred as much on her own neuroses and difficulties in navigating life as it is on her investigation. A book that will stay with me
26. My Fourth Time We Drowned - Sally Hayden: I saw this come up on Twitter and fancied reading it, so I bought it and then tried to persuade the book group to pick it as one of our non-fiction books, but they wouldn't have something potentially so sad or harrowing. I read it outside of book club, and learned a lot about the horror of the lives of those who try to migrate from Eritrea (mostly) to Europe via Libya. In Libya they are detained by what amounts to a government, or controlling faction at least, in inhuman conditions, where their families are extorted. All the while European countries and the UN contribute to the cruelty, coming out very badly from the whole sorry afair. Vital reading for our times.
27. Flora and Ulysses - Kate DiCamillo: I started reading this to my 6yo, having bought it for my now-16yo years ago. She didn't like it but I then read it to my now-10yo and she enjoyed it, as did I. Now 6yo begged me to stop reading it after a while, but I finished it by myself, as I find it delightful.
28. A Shining - Jon Fosse: A Christmas present which I read on Christmas Day. Well, it's a short story or perhaps just about a Novella, coming in at around 50 pages. 50 pages of a single paragraph mind you, with the stream of consciousness of someone lost in the Scandinavian wilderness as they see (hallucinate?) a shining presence, then their own parents and then another being. Fosse won the Nobel Prize for literature this year. Enjoyable enough, but I'd take George Saunders for this kind of thing any day.
29. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens: Having read Hard Times, and pondered over the pile of unread Dickens books on my shelves, I started reading this, then carried on, then finished. LIke Hard Times, I got increasingly more into in as I got through the book. It ends up as quite an action packed adventure story: more like Hugo than Dickens, and certainly there are hints of Les Miseables (though that was published a couple of years after A Tale of Two Cities). It does nothing to stop my slow and inexorable journey through all of Dickens novels.
There we go. In the end, perhaps not as "mini" for each review as intended. Here's to 2024.
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