I wonder if everyone selects the book to read at any given moment based on a gut feeling. I look at my bookshelves, hold individual books in the eye of my mind and wait for a sensation to surge up from my abdomen. I have been struggling this week, having finished Love, Nina for the book club and not receiving the next book yet. Could Little Dorrit be it? I thought so yesterday but today I am not so sure.
This week saw me acquire six new books. As random and disparate as they come, I believe. First comes from a charity shop in West Worthing – Edward St Aubyn’s Never Mind. I have seen the TV series with Benedict Cumberbatch, so have an idea of what will lie within. It looks brand new so whoever owned it before is unlikely to have read it. Was it a mismatched gift? I am curious to see when the time will be right for me to reach for it, it is not now…
The second book came from Littlehampton (wishing to see the sea takes you places) – Vera Brittain’s Testament of Youth, which has been on my list for a while and alas, it has found me. Being 660 pages long I do not think this is my next reading project but maybe during the dark winter days?
Marilynne Robinson has been delighting me since she was recommended to me five years ago. Jack is her fifth novel and as she is not a prolific fiction writer I have been saving up her previous novel Lila afraid it may be her last. Now I have two to look forward to and yet, not even these books that feel as inviting and cozy as a familiar armchair by the fire are the answer to my current state of mind.
Next two finds are Henry James’ The Diary of a Man of Fifty and Tim Burton’s beautifully illustrated The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy & Other Stories. I am not fifty yet and so may be too early for James and with Derek Mahon’s death I am rereading his poems now so Burton’s may need to wait until the cortège passes.
The last book is a gift and it being a memoir of sorts feels to be coming too soon after the joyride with Nina Stibbe. It is Kate Clanchy’s Some Kids I taught and What They Taught Me. I am certainly looking forward to it sometime in the future.
Where does that leave me - off to the bookshelves I go one more time to see if anything speaks to me…
I came back with Geraldine Brooks’ Year of Wonders and tried to remember why I picked it. Googling around brought me to The Guardian recommendation where her writing was likened to Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead. We have come full circle.
The Guardian: On the brink of a Booker: 2020's shortlisted authors on the stories behind their novels
As the winner of the Booker Prize 2020 is to be announced on Thursday 19 November, let us have a closer look at the finalists. I have only read one of the shortlisted books but I have another one waiting on my shelf and two more that I would like to purchase. Watching The Guardian Live Booker Prize shortlist readings (embedded in the article) I found myself quietly and distantly smiling throughout the evening spent with writers, yet again.
'It had been on my shelf for years': Guardian readers share their lockdown reads
Now that the weekly "Tips, Links and Suggestions" column has ended, I will keep looking for fellow-readers' recommendations as I often find them enticing. The first ones I came across were of the "classics" in multiple sense of the word.
"Tips, links and suggestions" by The Guardian readers, week of 26 October 2020
This was my favourite weekly column for inspiration about what to read next. I enjoy the mix of the latest bestsellers and obscure works from centuries ago, as well as, original comments by the readers.
Where to start if you want to get into black young adult fiction by Leah Cowan
I know very little, read nothing, about Young Adult fiction since I have been looking down on it for some reason. I think it is the genre name that confuses me. I have not been aware of it until I moved to the US four years ago and, thinking about it, I am sure it has its purpose but for me the only age division in books was children's and the rest. I am sure by now it is also being used on the Czech and Slovak book market but it was not something I came across growing up.
The report then made me wonder about the books by non-white authors I have read and whether and/or to what extent they are conforming to the white, middle-class readers’ supposed perception of what a non-white author should be writing about.
Any comments?