Alan Bennett The Uncommon Reader

Just in time for Queen’s Birthday holiday this weekend I picked up Alan Bennett’s The Uncommon Reader. It’s a cute little book, packed with ideas, humour and wit.

The premise of the book is what happens when the Queen discovers, much to the displeasure of her staff, the joys of reading. She accidently happens, by way of her rascally corgis, onto the Westminster travelling library bus and decides it would be rude not to borrow a book.

This book is joy to read; Bennett light heartedly pokes fun at the monarchy, modern management practices, bureaucracy and New Zealand too! The book is also packed with ideas about how reading can challenge, stimulate and be ultimately quite subversive. There are many laugh-out loud moments as Bennett’s humour is quite deliciously wicked.

A part of the book that was a real “Aha” moment for me was the point where the Queen points out the difference between reading and being briefed:

“briefing is not reading…antithesis of reading. Briefing is terse, factual and to the point. Reading is untidy, discursive and perpetually inviting. Briefing closes down a subject, reading opens it up.” (p.22)

As someone who has to write a lot of briefs for work, I always find it quite an unenjoyable task. Sure there is considerable skill needed in being able to write an effective, concise and readable brief, but reading Bennett’s book made me realise just why I find them so painful – the act of writing a brief is not really a creative act.

Will be chasing down Bennett’s autiobiographies – Writing Home and Untold Stories

Hooked on another crime series: Boris Akunin's Erast Fandorin

On another crime reading spree!

Am really excited about making my way through another list having just discovered Boris Akunin’s Russian detective novels featuring the wonderfully named, Erast Fandorin. What a great name!

Am half way through the first book, The Winter Queen, and already totally hooked. The books are set in Russia in the early nineteenth century and feature the young detective Erast, who works in the Criminal Investigation Division of Moscow Police.

Akunin easily builds the suspense and evokes the atmosphere of Russia in 1876.

The chapters have the most entertaining subtitles, for example:

• Chapter Two, which consist entirely of a conversation
• Chapter Four, which tells of the ruinous power of beauty

I liked Erast straight away, he is clever and intelligent but also slightly vain. There is the hilarious scene involving a male whalebone corset!

There are 10 Erast Fandorin novels, which are still being translated into English. I can’t wait read more about his adventures and have the second book, The Turkish Gambit, on waiting for me on my shelf already!

Hooked on Ian Rankin's Rebus series

Got given Ian Rankin's Fleshmarket Close for present and gotta say am now officially addicted to Inspector Rebus!

Rankin's writing is so clean, clear and crisp. There is not one wasted word or description. I love the dialogue too and the droll humour of the characters, including of course Rebus.

What I liked is that Rankin is able to so easily grab you and get you into the story immediately. I haven't got into a book so quickly for a while.

The great thing about being a late convert is that I now have an extensive back list to read. Nearly finished Book 2 - Hide and Seek and have Book 1 Tooth and Nail waiting.

Will pick up Book 3 Tooth and Nail from library tommorow!

Soooo good to find myself working through another list;-)

Historical adventure - Bernard Cornwell's Agincourt

I didn't think I'd find myself so enamoured of English history, but after my spate of reading covering different periods from Napolonic to Elizabethean period, I find myself reading Cornwell's latest book, Agincourt.

Cornwell's book is a fictional account of one of most dramatic victories in British history:King Henry V and the Battle of Agincourt in 1415.
It focuses how the English archers proved decisive in delivering battlefield victories over much larger and better equipped French legions.

I found the description of the archers and their professional standing among the army fascinating. The battle scenes, sieges of Harfleur and Soissons, are well drawn.

However, some parts of it are quite overblown, particularly the revenge story line and I would have liked some more subtley and nuance.

But overall a rollicking good read.

Totally Addicted to Thomas Perry's Jane Whitefield Series

I am totally addicted to Thomas Perry’s Jane Whitefield series of books, having just finished Dance for the Dead (Book 2) and Shadow Woman (Book 3) over the weekend.

Jane Whitefield is a “guide” who helps people who are in trouble and danger ‘disappear’. She often ends up playing a game of ‘cat and mouse’ with the dangerous people who are after the person she is protecting.

Here are some things I love about this series, and why you should definitely check it out:

• the writing is short, sharp and drives the narrative brilliantly
  
• the characters are all well developed and behave like ‘real’ people in all their moral complexity
• Jane’s Native American background adds a fascinating element and depth to these stories, enabling Perry to delve into mythology and history
• the various twist and turns where the roles of hunter and hunted are always changing
  
• the banter between Jane and her love interest, the fabulously named, Dr Carey McKinnon, is clever, sexy and witty
• the exploration of the human psychology of taking on new identity.

Here's the full series, as you can see I'm making my way to the latest release this year:

• Vanishing Act (1995)
• Dance for the Dead (1996)
• Shadow Woman (1997)
• The Face-Changers (1998)
• Blood Money (1999)
• Runner (2009)

As you can see there is a 10 year gap between the last two novels! Here's what Perry wrote in this website about the returning to writing about Jane:

"I've missed Jane, and I've found that going back to write about her after a few years of writing stand-alone books about other characters was a pleasure. I believe it was Ezra Pound who said that great literature is "always news." I think that any book we expect readers to enjoy had better be news too. Runner catches us up with what Jane's been up to and how she's changed, and gives us an inkling of how she's going to be in the future."

Here's Perry talking about the Runner:




I can't wait to get to The Runner!