Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish and now hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. For the rules see her blog.
I’ve tweaked the topic this week, which is Books Too Good to Review Properly (I have no words!) and am highlighting 10 books I read over the last two years that I loved but didn’t write about because I had writer’s block. It certainly wasn’t because I didn’t enjoy them, nor because I didn’t have enough time. I just couldn’t find the words to describe how I felt about the books. It began during the first lockdown – need I say more?
Not Dark Yet by Peter Robinson – Book 27 in the DCI Banks series. Crime fiction set in England and Moldova.
The Lieutenant by Kate Grenville – historical fiction set in Australia in the late 18th century.
Enigma by Robert Harris – historical fiction about the code breakers at Bletchley Park during World War 2, probably the best book on this subject that I’ve read.
The Dark Remains by William McIlvanney and Ian Rankin – McIlvanney’s half-finished novel about DC Jack Laidlaw’s first case, finished by Ian Rankin.
Still Life by Val McDermid – a DCI Karen Pirie murder mystery with two cases to investigate.
The Dry by Jane Harper – crime fiction set in set in the Australian outback…amid the worst drought in a century!
A Song for the Dark Times by Ian Rankin – Rebus in retirement, investigates the disappearance of his daughter’s husband in north east Scotland, whilst Siobhan Clarke and Malcolm Fox investigate a murder in Edinburgh.
The Darkest Evening by Ann Cleeves – more crime fiction with Vera Stanhope in Northumberland, giving an insight into her family background.
Fifty-Fifty by Steve Cavanagh – the 5th Eddie Flynn book, a court room drama with estranged sisters both charged with murdering their father.
The Stone Circle by Elly Griffiths – the 11th Ruth Galloway book, a mix of murder, baby abduction, archaeology and Norse mythology.
Every Friday Book Beginnings on Friday is hosted by Gillion at Rose City Readerwhere you can share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading. You can also share from a book you want to highlight just because it caught your fancy.
This week I’m featuring one of the books I’ve just started to read – The Honourable Schoolboy by John le Carré, a Cold War spy thriller, the sequel to Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy. It’s based in the Far East in the mid 1970s.
The Book Begins:
Afterwards in the dusty little corners where London’s secret servants drink together, there was argument about where the Dolphin case history should really begin.
I like this opening sentence – it focuses attention immediately on the Dolphin case – what was it and where did it begin? I hope all will become clear.
Also every Friday there is The Friday 56, hosted by Freda at Freda’s Voice. *Grab a book, any book. *Turn to Page 56 or 56% on your ereader . If you have to improvise, that is okay. *Find a snippet, short and sweet, but no spoilers!
Only George Smiley, said Roddy Martindale, a fleshy Foreign Office wit, could have got himself appointed captain of a wrecked ship. Only Smiley, he added, could have compounded the pains of that appointment by choosing the same moment to abandon his beautiful, if occasionally errant, wife.
At first or even second glance George Smiley was ill-suited to either part, as Martindale was quick to note. He was tubby and in small ways hopelessly unassertive. A natural shyness made him from time to time pompous and to men of Martindale’s flamboyance his unobtrusiveness acted as a standing reproach.
Surely, unobtrusiveness is just the quality a good spy needs.
Summary
In the second part of John le Carré’s Karla Trilogy, the battle of wits between spymaster George Smiley and his Russian adversary takes on an even more dangerous dimension.
George Smiley, now acting head of the Circus, must rebuild its shattered reputation after one of the biggest betrayals in its history. Using the talents of journalist and occasional spy Jerry Westerby, Smiley launches a risky operation uncovering a Russian money-laundering scheme in the Far East. His aim: revenge on Karla, head of Moscow Centre and the architect of all his troubles.
I have been having a sort out of both my physical and e-books and realised I have several books by John Le Carré, that I’d like to read sometime this year. I have three ‘real’ books by him and nine e-books. I’ve only read two (three now April 2022) of them!
Books shown in bold are the ones I’ve read and those in italics are the ones I own that I have yet to read. There are nine books in the Smiley series, in which the character George Smiley appears (in four out of the nine, Smiley is only a minor character). Within that series is the The Karla Trilogy (Books 5, 6 & 7).
In this classic masterwork, le Carré expands upon his extraordinary vision of a secret world as George Smiley goes on the attack.
In the wake of a demoralizing infiltration by a Soviet double agent, Smiley has been made ringmaster of the Circus (aka the British Secret Service). Determined to restore the organization’s health and reputation, and bent on revenge, Smiley thrusts his own handpicked operative into action. Jerry Westerby, “The Honourable Schoolboy,” is dispatched to the Far East. A burial ground of French, British, and American colonial cultures, the region is a fabled testing ground of patriotic allegiances and a new showdown is about to begin.
And after that as I did enjoy watching the TV adaptation of The Night Manager a while back, I might read that later on.
All I knew about David Copperfield: The Personal History, Adventures, Experience and Observation of David Copperfield the Younger of Blunderstone Rookery (Which He Never Meant to Publish on Any Account)by Charles Dickens is that it is said to be his most autobiographical novel. I think I must have watched a TV serialisation years ago but I remember very little about it. It was first published as a serial in 1849 and 1850, and then as a book in 1850.
It’s a long novel with a multitude of characters, including David’s cruel stepfather, Mr Murdstone, the family housekeeper Peggotty, his school friends Steerforth, who he mistakenly idolises and, my favourite character, Tommy Traddles, who has a heart of gold, and a remarkable upstanding head of hair. Then there’s another favourite character, David’s great aunt Betsey Trotwood, who wages war against marriage and donkeys and her companion, the simple-minded Mr Dick; Mr Micawber, always in debt and in and out of the debtor’s prison, and the odious and nauseating Uriah Heep are both memorable characters.
I was totally immersed in their world, enjoying the sights, sounds and smells of Victorian England, the living conditions of the poor contrasting with the decadent wealth of the rich, and the dramatic intensity of episodes such as the terrible storm at sea off Yarmouth. There’s drama, comedy and tragedy, melodrama and pathos as the story follows David’s life from his birth to his adulthood, covering his childhood, early schooldays, his time as a young boy working in a factory, then as a student in Canterbury where he lodged with the lawyer Mr Wickfield and his daughter, Agnes.
Betsey later established him in London where he worked in the Doctor’s Commons, under the tutelage of Mr Spenlow, whose daughter, the beautiful, frivolous and to my eyes, the utterly pathetic Dora totally captivated him. The sections of the book involving Dora are rather too sentimental for my liking. Then there’s Pegotty’s family – her brother Daniel, a fisherman, their nephew Ham and niece, Little Em’ly who is David’s childhood friend and sweetheart. They live in a converted boat on the beach at Yarmouth. And not forgetting Barkis, who marries Pegotty, after telling David to tell her, ‘Barkis is willing‘. Their sections of the book are the ones I enjoyed the most. I could go on and on, not forgetting David himself as describes the misfortunes and obstacles he met and the friends he makes.
I enjoyed reading David Copperfield, whichwas Dickens’ own personal favourite of all his novels, but it is not mine – it’s a bit too long for me. I think my favourite is Bleak House, which I read after seeing the TV adaptation in 2005 with Anna Maxwell Martin, Gillian Anderson, DenisLawson, and Charles Dance. Maybe I’ll read it again to see what I think of it now. These days I prefer shorter books and Bleak House, like David Copperfield is long with many characters and sub-plots.
The thirteenth longlist for the 2022 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction was announced today and the shortlist will be announced in April. The winner will be announced and awarded at the Borders Book Festival in Melrose, Scotland, in June 2022.
The Walter Scott Prize celebrates quality of writing in the English language, and is open to novels published in the previous year in the UK, Ireland or the Commonwealth. Reflecting the subtitle ‘Tis Sixty Years Since’ of Scott’s famous work Waverley, the majority of the storyline must have taken place at least 60 years ago.
As historical fiction is a favourite genre of mine I always look out for this award. These are the books on this year’s longlist:
I have started to read Mrs England and would also like to read The Magician, and maybe Rose Nicolson.
BLUE POSTCARDS Douglas Bruton – An experimental novella written in 500 postcard-sized paragraphs, set in post-WW2 Paris, interweaving three narrative strands and timelines, including the point of view of renowned French artist Yves Klein, whose obsession with the colour blue runs like silk thread motif throughout. A meditation on the way memory reshapes itself over time and on the nature of truth and lies.
SNOW COUNTRY Sebastian Faulks – Set in Vienna, first during WW1, and then under the looming shadow of the rise of Fascism as WW2 approaches, the novel follows the lives of a small group of individuals trying to make their way in the new, terrifying world, whilst still mourning the loss of the old. An epic novel about youth, hope, suffering and redemption.
ROSE NICOLSON Andrew Greig – Set in the late sixteenth century, during the troubled and violent years of James VI, the novel follows William Fowler as he embarks on his student life in St Andrews, and as he first encounters Rose, the woman who will prove to be the love and lodestar of his life.
MRS ENGLAND Stacey Halls – 1904, and Norland trainee nanny Ruby May is posted to a remote Yorkshire mansion, home of mill-owner Charles England and his wife, Lilian, to care for their four children. But Lilian seems detached and lonely, and in the background remains the mystery of Ruby May’s own impoverished family in Birmingham, to whom she sends most of her wages each month.
THE BALLAD OF LORD EDWARD AND CITIZEN SMALL Neil Jordan – Follows the life of freed American slave Tony Small, who arrived in Ireland in the 1780s, and his relationship with Lord Edward FitzGerald, the parliamentarian aristocrat turned guerrilla republican, whose life Small had saved on the battlefields of the American War of Independence, and who rewards Small with his emancipation papers and lifelong employment. But what will become of Small once his benefactor is no longer by his side?
THE SUNKEN ROAD Ciaràn McMenamin – Set during WW1 and the Irish Civil War, turning on two pivotal stories in Ireland’s history — the foundation of the State, and the Protestant memory of WW1 – the novel follows the story of a brutal IRA man, who now needs the help of his childhood sweetheart, and sister of his dead friend, to cross the border to safety.
THE FORTUNE MEN Nadifa Mohamed (Viking) – When a local shopkeeper in Cardiff’s Tiger Bay is murdered, Mahmood Mattan learns that 1952 Britain is not necessarily the haven of justice he thought it was, and must fight to clear his name, against conspiracy, prejudice and the inhumanity of a state where innocence is, sometimes, simply not enough.
NEWS OF THE DEAD James Robertson– Set in the fictitious Glen Conach in north-east Scotland, the stories of three different eras unfurl, linked by place and an ancient manuscript, but separated by centuries. The narratives weave together to explore the space between the stories people tell of themselves — what is forgotten and what is invented — and the stories through which they may, or may not, be remembered.
CHINA ROOM Sunjeev Sahota – Entwines the stories of a young bride trying to discover the identity of her new husband in 1929 rural Pujab, and a young man battling heroin addiction in turn-of-the-twenty-first-century northern England, who takes enforced flight from Britain to spend a summer in Pujab with an uncle, armed only with whisky and a reading list that reflects his inner turmoil and preoccupations.
FORTUNE Amanda Smyth – Catches 1920s Trinidad at a moment of historical change, as the oil-rush begins and Eddie Wade happens upon a would-be investor who seems to have the power to make true Eddie’s dreams of sinking his own well. But the partnership also brings the beautiful Ada, into the picture, and into Eddie’s life forever. A thrilling Shakespearean tragedy of a story, about love, lust, ambition, destiny, and human frailty.
LEARWIFE JR Thorp – The story of the most famous woman ever written out of history, Shakespeare’s dead King Lear’s Queen, exiled to a nunnery, but now with a chance to tell her story, and to seek answers, despite her grief and rage, whilst grappling with her past and the terrible choice she must make and upon with her destiny rests.
THE MAGICIAN Colm Tóibín – Through the life of Thomas Mann, Tóibín tells the awe-inspiring story of the twentieth century, in a novel about love, intimacy, family, exile, war and creativity, spanning three generations, and managing to secure itself as both epic and intimate in equal measure.
STILL LIFE Sarah Winman – A historical sweep of a novel, beginning in 1944 in the ruins of a wine cellar in Tuscany, as a young British soldier and a sixty-something art historian meet, bombs falling around them. The connection they make will shape the young man’s life over the coming decades, as the novel moves between the hills of Tuscany, the grand piazzas of Florence and the East End of London, exploring themes of love, family, beauty and destiny.
Have you read any of these? Which one/s tempt you?
Six Degrees of Separation is a monthly link-up hosted by Kate atBooks Are My Favourite and Best. Each month a book is chosen as a starting point and linked to six other books to form a chain. A book doesn’t need to be connected to all the other books on the list, only to the one next to it in the chain.
The chain this month begins with No One is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood, a book I haven’t read. ‘Fragmentary and omniscient, incisive and sincere, No One Is Talking About This is at once a love letter to the endless scroll and a profound, modern meditation on love, language, and human connection from a singular voice in American literature.‘ Shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2021 and the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2021. I don’t think I’ll read it.
As usual I spent some time thinking about where to start my chain – and came up with several options. Maybe another novel shortlisted for the Book Prize of the Women’s Prize for fiction, but instead I came up with another book about talking –
Daniel Isn’t Talking by Marti Leimbach, a novel. Daniel is autistic, but at first Stephen his British father refuses to accept that there is anything wrong with him, whilst his American mother, Melanie, struggles to find out what is wrong with him and the best way of looking after him and helping him to talk, play and become as ‘normal’ as possible.
My second link is to another character called Daniel – Daniel Hawthorne in The Word is Murder by Anthony Horowitz. ex-policeman, Daniel Hawthorne, who had been an adviser for Horowitz’s Foyle’s War series. The police call on Hawthorne as a consultant on out-of-the ordinary cases and he is working on the Diana Cowper murder. He proposes that Horowitz writes a book about him and his investigations into the case.
Magpie Murders also by Anthony Horowitz is my third link. This s a brilliant book by a master story-teller, with a wonderfully intricate plot. It’s a prime example of a puzzle-type of crime fiction combining elements of the vintage-style golden age crime novel with word-play and cryptic clues and allusions to Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle. It’s also a novel within a novel, with mystery piled upon mystery.
My fourth link is to another book that contains a story within a story – Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood. Beginning with Iris’s account of her sister’s tragic death, Atwood then introduces a novel-within-a-novel, entitled The Blind Assassin. It is a science fiction story, a pulp fantasy set on Planet Zycron.
Myfifth link is to a novel also set on a planet – a real one, Mars, in The Martian by Andy Weir. I haven’t read this but I have watched the film , which I read is a faithful adaptation. An astronaut is stranded on Mars with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive—and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive. Being a botanist, he creates a garden inside the ‘Hab’ using Martian soil fertilized with the crew’s bio-waste and manufactures water from leftover rocket fuel.
My sixth link: is to Stowaway to Mars by John Wyndham writing as John Beynon, was first published in 1936 as Planet Plane They claim Mars to be part of the British Commonwealth of Nations, a claim later disputed by the Russians when a second rocket lands.
My chain started with a book about living a life on social media to living a life on Mars, taking in books about autism, crime fiction and a novel within a novel.
Next month (March 5, 2022), we’ll start with a modern classic and a book that I have read, Graham Greene’s The End of the Affair.
BooksPlease 