UK Book Club discussion

Read 112 of 240

Enjoy going round the bend.....v.apt title.

Great title and as still battling 3 years later very true. Good luck

1. South Africa
I'm very behind on any reviews for my country club reads. Just finished The Breadwinners by Jan Hurst-Nicholson, which is set in Durban, South Africa.

It is a family saga that covers a huge range from early in Durban's existence through to 60s/70s. Would probably have been better as a series of novels as it goes chronologically through the histories of a few families in the baking industry and leaves little time for exploring any particular scene. I learnt a lot more about baking than I did about South Africa and I was disappointed how European-focused the book was.

2. USA
Brandy L. Rivers' New Beginnings follows a familiar trope of werewolves, vampires, and seers in Washington State with a difference from the main player in that genre - Rivers lives in Washington State. The story moved along at a good rate and was a steamy romance with a paranormal action backdrop. This novel is a prequel to Rivers' Others of Edenton series.

3. Japan
I was uncomfortable with my previous choice for Japan as the Japan setting was not a huge part of the book, so I've replaced it with Barry Eisler's 2014 prequel to his John Rain thriller series set in 1972 Tokyo. Eisler is not great at historical fiction as he reflects too much on the differences between then and now rather than just getting on with the story. The story is about the early career of an assassin. Not my favourite topic, but at least the entire book is set in Japan.

4. Turkey
The Testament of Mary by Colm Tóibín is a very clever reimagining of the story of the mother of Jesus as reflects on her son's death and her present plight in exile in Ephesus (in modern day Turkey). This novel was the shortest ever one to be shortlisted for the Booker Prize.

5. Ireland
When a student in Dublin I often walked past the life-size statue of James Joyce on O'Connell Street and at school I studied the original Homer on which Joyce's Ulysses is based. The book is part of my literary heritage but I am not a fan. Joyce was undoubtedly very clever, but the attitudes towards women and Jews make this an uncomfortable read. It is also far far too long.

6. Morocco
Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist is one of the best selling books of all time and frankly I am baffled as to why. To me it is a twee morality tale with a bit of magic thrown in for good measure. It covers several countries to represent a pilgrimage from Spain to Egypt, but the longest stay is in Morocco, so I opted for it.

7. Italy
I heard about the Northwest Bookfest via Brandy L Rivers (see USA) and attended the festival in Kirkland near Bellevue one of the settings for Theresa Lorella's novel (see Japan) and heard a book tour interview about Just One Evil Act with Elizabeth George.

As a Londoner writing about Seattle it fascinated me to discover that a Greater Seattle author had spent a quarter century writing about two London detectives. Most of this novel is however set in Lucca, Italy. I found the story too long-winded, but then I have lost my former love of crime serials and I was annoyed at George for making some very basic errors about my home city.

8. Palestine
ETA saw Palestine on the list of countries and realised that medieval Jerusalem is by definition the Old City and so pre-1967 Palestine. Okay, I am slightly biased in that I have a novel based in Israel.
Paulo Coelho's Manuscript Found in Accra was being front of housed in the indie bookstore near my Seattle apartment so I had to read it when I found it on Scribd. It was not a pleasant experience. It reads like a rip-off Kahlil Gilban's The Prophet providing a vehicle for Coelho's personal philosophy. On the other hand it was set in Jerusalem despite the Ghanian title and so I get to tick Israel off my list.

9. England
I love positive portrayals of mental health in fiction and The Minotaur Hunt by Miriam Hastings falls into that category. It is the story of the lives and minds of a group of young patients at a London mental health hospital, so also an interesting piece of history as those hospitals were all closed down between the 1st and 2nd editions of this novel.

10. Egypt
I'm changing this Egypt one as only it and Poland were non-fiction. Libbie Hawker's The Sekhmet Bed is the story of Pharoah's daughter in the time of the New Kingdom (circa 1250BC). The history interested me, but it's aimed at a YA audience and the style is a bit too teenage girl's diary for me, especially for an author who proclaims her concern for historical accuracy.


Tweets and the Streets: Social Media and Contemporary Activism by Paolo Gerbaudo is a fascinating non-fiction analysis of the use of social media in the Arab Spring revolution in Egypt.

11. France
Of the three Paulo Coelho novels in my bendy tour this is by far the best. By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept is a romance that plays on the usual Coelho spiritual themes, but without losing sight of the need to still tell a good story. The story begins in Spain, but is mostly set in the French Pyrenees.

12. Poland
The Lullaby of Polish Girls

I bought this book in 2017 or 2018 to finally make all my entries in a challenge based on a novel novels. The author is a Polish actor living in America, and so is the main character. However the fictional exile returns home after the husband of a childhood friend is murdered. This is a human interest story with a little bit of tension as the murderer is still after the family. Most of the story is set in Kielce, with a little bit in Brooklyn, New York.

The following is the original non fiction entry:
My Hometown Concentration Camp: A Survivor's Account of Life in the Krakow Ghetto and Plaszow Concentration Camp is a non-fiction account by Polish American Bernard Offen of the horrible events of his childhood and his work in his later years to educate tourists to his hometown about its proud Jewish past.

Mercia wrote: "
Morocco
Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist is one of the best selling books of all time and frankly I am baffled as to why. To me it is a twee morality tale with a bit of m..."

I don't think you're alone in your bafflement, I'd also like to join the "why?" club.

Mercia wrote: "
Morocco
Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist is one of the best selling books of all time and frankly I am baffled as to why. To me it is a twee morality tale with a bit of m..."

Couldn't agree more Mercia. Never met/spoken to a single person who liked it.

Mercia wrote: "
Italy
I heard about the Northwest Bookfest via Brandy L Rivers (see USA) and attended the festival in Kirkland near Bellevue one of the settings for Theresa L..."

I love Lucca.....one of my favourite places in Italy.

13. Tajikistan
Kuraj sounded a fascinating book from the blurb, but was rather disappointing. The story centres on a young Mongolian nomad girl of the Steppes, Naja, in what is then the borders between the Soviet Union and Afghanistan. I thought the book was set in Mongolia (because they are Mongols), but the river they live on Amu Darya runs through the stans and I think the setting is near the river's source in Tajikistan. The blurb mentioned Naja having a father who fought for the Germans at Stalingrad, but I was not expecting that the take up the middle third of the novel. This is also the best written part. The author is an ethno-sociologist and it showed in the opening Steppes located third of the novel, which read like non-fiction ethnography at times. The writing does not flow, for which the translator shares the blame, but the odd structure of the book is its biggest failing. I do not recommend this book, but at least it got me to Tajikistan (I think, possibly Turkmenistan or Uzbekistan).

14. India
Midnight's Children

I was always uncomfortable using Life of Pi for India, even though much more of the novel is set in the country than is the case for the movie. So when I found a second hand copy of Salman Rushdie's Midnight Children it gave me the chance to have a more unambiguously set in India, although as it is about partition I was needlessly worried that it might spend too much time in Pakistan. It is set in India. I also wanted to read some Rushdie that was not his most controversial book to evaluate claims at the time of the fatwa that he was a very good author. Going by this debut novel he is a very literary author, but not to my mind a good one. Midnight's Children reminds me of ploughing through James Joyce's Ulysses (see Ireland entry), which is disappointing. I did learn quite a bit extra about partition (my previous knowledge was largely limited to the Ghandi movie) but the story was too disjointed for me to enjoy.

The following is my original entry for Life of Pi:

I was surprised how much of this novel was set in India. It was obvious that Yann Martel was setting the character of the hero Pi, but it could have been done in a lot less chapters or in flashbacks. The story was an interesting mixture of the macabre and light-hearted whimsicality. I found some of it uneasy reading and the queasy of stomach might want to give this one a miss. I have never seen the movie so I have no idea is the macabre bits were left out of the script.

15. Sweden
The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared

For the most part a glorious and at times hilarious romp through many the major events of twentieth century history. The novel is told as the eponymous tale of the 100 year old Allan Karlsson who escapes from a care home in Sweden, but also via extensive backstories tells of his very improbable life working abroad and meeting world leaders and changing the course of history. The writing style is akin to the understated humour of Douglas Adams, but there is clearly an educational intent that breaks the spell as Jonas Jonasson devotes non-humourous paragraphs to explaining developments in political history. That more ponderous aspect of the novel dominates towards the end leading to a feeling of anti-climax.

16. Iraq
The Gardener of Baghdad
This novel has an interesting structure in that it is a novel set in a war-torn Baghdad in 2005, but a sizeable proportion is a book within a book that had been written in the 1950s by the eponymous Gardener of Baghdad. Unfortunately the telling of the story is not as interesting as the structure. Ardalan has a tendency to tell far too much rather than allowing the narrative to tell the story. This is especially the case in dialogue where they is some direct speech then an explanation of what was said next then more direct speech. The characters also suffer from this telling tendency as they are never drawn out as complex people. If a reader can overlook those difficulties that the novel is charming enough.

17. Australia
Having been pulled up for falsely claiming a country as I refused to finish The Thornbirds what else could I read but True Country? It is the story of a one-eighth Aborigine who chooses to go to teach in a Catholic mission to Aborgines. It is a good improving book in terms of telling you about the locale and about the mixed feelings as Australia moved to treating the original inhabitants better. As a novel it is not so good and seems to go nowhere and gets very confusing in terms of Point of View. More educational than enjoyable.

Mercia wrote: "
Tajikistan
Kuraj sounded a fascinating book from the blurb, but was rather disappointing. The story centres on a young Mongolian nomad girl of the Steppes, Naja, in what is..."

A great country can always be a silver lining to a slightly duff read.

18. New Zealand
An interesting insight into Maori culture in contemporary New Zealand, although I was less interested in the passages dwelling on first class rugby. This is a romance with the protagonists being a kindergarten teacher and an All Black rugby star. I found the cultural bits more compelling than the romance.

19. Singapore
This suspense romance will not appeal to those romance readers who like the conventions to be followed and the suspense side has a couple of major plot holes (on evidence and character motivation). However, it is strong on describing the Singaporean setting.

The Amber Keeper
20. Russia
Not an enjoyable read with stilted dialogue that even the author did not like as she kept telling you in narration about the emotion that she had adequately well conveyed in dialogue. The story was set in 1960s Lake District and by flashback in revolutionary Petrograd. The story was ruined by a villain straight out of silent movies melodrama and pedantic explanations of the history (that apparently was all new to the author - something she learnt on a cruise). One to avoid, but at least it allowed me to fill in the largest blank on the map. It does, however, put me off reading anything else published by Mountlake.

Mercia wrote: "
For the most part a glorious and at times hilarious romp through many the major events of twentieth centu..."

I love your synopses (is that the plural of synopsis) for each of your books, they make for easy assessment of what you thought of the books - and with no rose coloured specs too!! I've had "The Hundred Year Old........" on my tbr list, and looking forward to reading it, so I hope the educational/ponderous side that you mention doesn't spoil the book too much.

Where does the action take place?? I can't see in your post any mention of the country it represents.

T4bsF (Call me Flo) wrote: "Mercia wrote: "Where does the action take place?? I can't see in your post any mention of the country it represents."

Thanks for pointing out for I omitted to add Sweden as the main location, although it also has extended sections of backstory in Spain, Russia, USA, and other places.

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
21. China
A book about two women joined in a special relationship since childhood and set in 19th century China. It is very hard to read due to the appalling sexism that is presented in an unapologetic manner. I would like the author to have presented the first person narrator to rebel a bit more against a culture that effectively locked females indoors from the age of six or seven. It has a powerful ending but were it not for this challenge I would have given up reading after about 50 pages.

At least it got me to colour in another big space on the map.

The map is looking good mercia, not sure I fancy your china read.

No Andrew I would not recommend it to anyone. The author could have written much the same story in a way that did not sound like she was defending the indefensible. Nice idea, shame about the execution. At least I only paid 59p for the book in a promotion to gain traction for Lisa See's latest book.

22. Spain
This novel is a reworking of The Cantebury Tales in a modern-day pilgrimage on the Camino to Santiago de Compestela. I am interested in that pilgrimage and it seemed an interesting concept. Unfortunately, it was marred by being written in the present tense and with dialogue that occasionally sounded like it was lifted from a guidebook. I rushed through the read in order to consign the present tense to the past.

23. Brazil
Unlike Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper her Herland is no classic, but reads more like an essay in sociological theories that has been fictionalised to popularise the ideals. It involves three young men (a sexist womaniser, a worshipper of the fairer sex, and someone looking for an intellectual help-mate) entering a community that consists entirely of parthenogenic women. Gilman's attitudes are rather dated in her focus on motherhood and the use of the term savages, but it is interesting to read views from that era even if the fiction is eminently forgettable.
The secret location is on a tributary of the Amazon, so more likely Brazil than not and anyway it allows me to fill in the biggest empty space on South America.

You are doing well! It's funny how the map influences reading choices. I'm currently after Russia which will be a nice large piece to colour in! lol

24. Suriname
This book is promoted as a frank expose of slavery under the slave trade, but is mostly the story of the lives and loves of the white slave owners. It is told against the historical backdrop of a slave revolt, but the story remains centred on the whites, few of whom question the slavery system. The novel is written by the daughter of Johann Ferrier, the last colonial governor and the first president of Suriname, and that might explain the clear focus on the white community. The discussion of slavery is neither frank nor even an expose with even the most brutal act against a slave easily brushed under the carpet in the lives of the white elite.

25. Trinidad and Tobago
This novel both is and isn't set in Trinidad and Tobago. It is a fictionalisation of the taking hostage of the Trinidad parliament in 1990, but the island is given a fictional name and one of the characters dreams of moving to Trinidad. It is an excellent exploration of the psychological impact of a hostage situation, although some of author's geo-political assumptions are a little off-beam. This is shortlisted for the Costa Book Award and as a regular user of Costa and with this as my best read of the year I hope it wins. This is such a tiny place that you cannot see the red dot I added to the map, but sooner or later I will get to fill in Canada and all will be well again (except for the levels in my ink well).

26. Belgium
I came across a graphic novel (aka comic book) version of Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front from something called Classics Illustrated, who had in the past withdrawn this from publication due to the potential for the graphic violence to disturb young minds. It is aimed as schoolchildren and encourages them to go the library and borrow the real book. I guess I should do that sometime, but I'm counting this as a read for Belgium.

27. St Eustacius (for Saba)
Before this challenge I didn't know there was such a place as Netherlands Antilles until I found out about a cheap download of the two books Ill Wind and Dead Reckoning. It is only Ill Wind that is primarily based in the Antilles, so I'm colouring in my microdot now. Next stop Canada, so I get to do a lot of colouring in red for reading about a white fang. Ill Wind is a prequel novella to a series about Caribbean pirates. It is quick brutal, but pleasingly very negative about slavery after the disappointing slave-owning apologetics of The Cost of Sugar.

The Netherlands (Dutch) Antilles was dissolved as a group of islands in 2010, but our challenge list includes the 5 biggest islands - Curacao, Aruba, St.Martin, St.Eustatius and Bonaire as separate "countries." It won't help your map but there are 4 more microdots you can visit if you can find books for them.

Ill Wind is based in Saba (spelt Sabya in the book) and reading up on the Antilles (which is an option on the Big Map thingy) reveals that amazingly I have to untick the Antilles and tick Netherlands instead as Saba is now part of Europe! There is about a page set in St Eustatius, but I'll go with Netherlands. Maybe I will finish Dead Reckoning after all in case it moves to one of those islands, but I suspect that it will stay on the high seas - I'm not exactly the target audience for pirate fiction.

Further research suggests that St Eustasius and Bonaire are not countries either, but have an identical status to Saba http://www.sabatourism.com/history.html I gather this is not part of Europe (so I still get to read the Goldfinch and see how much is in the Netherlands), but is a special municapailty of the Netherlands called St Eustacius, Bonaire and Saba, with each island a registered public body of the Netherlands. They are not part of the EU, so have a sort of Channel Islands status.
Moderation help required.

Hi Mercia....the list of "countries" for our challenge and explanation of the list is at the link below:

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/....

The map we all use is just a rough visual representation of where we've been and the lists are different.

Quite a few on the group's 240 challenge list are not countries in their own right but remain part of a former colonial power despite their geographical location. The UK, France, Portugal, the Netherlands, the US etc all treat these remnants of empire differently.

Curacao, Aruba, St.Martin, and Bonaire are on our list as they have all managed to become members of FIFA. St.Eustatius is included as it was one of the 3 small islands that I added at the end to bump the numbers up to 240. Which just leaves little Saba as the only one of the Dutch Antilles islands I excluded as it is just so tiny and I never thought anyone would find and read a book set there. So, as it is such a rare find I'm happy for you to use Saba/St.Eustatius as the "country" visited and still have the Netherlands free for another book.

Hope the mud is just a tiny bit clearer.

Thanks, Ian. Saba small? Just wait until I get to Vatican City. The main land-lubbing bit of Dead Reckoning is a fictional island, but near Dominica, so I will have other microdots to do. Now I'm getting really anxious for a big bit of colouring in with Canada.

28. Dominica
This pirate adventure is mostly set on ships in the Caribbean Sea, but its main land-lubbing destination is described as "An unknown island west of Dominico." From the map in the book that is clearly west of Dominica, although the unknown island appears to be entirely fictional.

I'm not really one for sea battles, but if you like your buckles swashed then this might be for you.

Next stop the wide open colouring-in spaces of Canada.

29. Canada
This unusual classic from 1906 is about a part wolf part dog and told from his perspective. That makes for an unusual read that was quite brutal at times. Not my cup of tea, but it allowed me to colour in Canada.

30. Mexico
I downloaded this book to find out how well Russell Blake writes as he is very free with his opinions on how good he is as a writer. It is an odd book in that he wrote a novel about an assassin and then quickly wrote this rather poor prequel. It tells the story of how this assassin came to start out in such a business, but I am left with the suspicion that the novel was written a bit too quickly as this could do with a bit of spit and polish. Now nipping across the border into Honduras to read another book by someone better known for writing about writing.

31. Honduras
Mercenary is a historical fiction novel inspired by the narrative non-fiction The Incredible Yanqui: The Career of Lee Christmas about Lee Christmas (not to be confused with the Jason Statham character in The Expendables movie franchise). That influence shows as this novel reads like a biography of a man of action with the focus on the action and on the man. Those who like to learn their history via historical fiction will learn a lot about the unstable politics of early 20th century Central America. Those who like action books that waste little time on anything other than action will enjoy the bulk of the book, with more human interest material at the beginning and the end (hence my biographical note above). The tenor of the novel is that of a history of the Great White Man with women playing very subordinate roles and Hispanics getting little look-in to this Central American novel. This will not be everyone's cup of Honduran coffee and I came away thinking that I had just been reading a Boy's Own adventure.
NB in summer of 2015 Mercenary was optioned as a movie.

32. Greenland
Anna Kim is a South Korean-born Austria-based prize-winning author writing about Greenland in Anatomy of a Night. It is a very literary book and a great evocation of both the landscape and the Inuit and Danish cultures in the almost post-colonial Greenland. The story is about high suicide rates among Greenlanders and contains multiple suicides and descriptions of how it was done. I could not watch this as a movie without my eyes shut, but found it readable, although for many readers this would be several triggers too far.

Sounds bleak but interesting as does the first one set in Kosovo.