The Brightest Star in the Sky (Marian Keyes)

Title: The Brightest Star in the Sky
Author: Marian Keyes
Published: 2009
Publisher: Penguin UK
Pages: 614
Source: Own copy
Genres: Contemporary Fiction / Chick Lit
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There's this thing that happens when you get pregnant where all of a sudden your energy levels decide to leave you to go on holiday and your concentration seems to have hitched a ride in the suitcase. This results in the need to re-evaluate your reading list and start choosing titles that require, well how do I put this diplomatically, a little less brain power.

As such I picked up The Brightest Star in the Sky by Marian Keyes. I love Keyes. Her books tend to have the best mix of low key chick-lit writing with themes that have a bit of substance thrown in for good measure. My favourite so far has been Anybody Out There and I would recommend it to anyone.

The Brightest Star in the Sky centers around a 'being' of some kind (explained later in the book) that comes down to 66 Star Street in Dublin and watches the residences in the building's 4 apartments. The book quickly jumps between the characters lives slowly interweaving the stories as time goes on. The chapters are quick enough and the characters interesting enough to keep the pages turning and I really enjoyed reading as the various plots unfolded. There was a lot of mystery surrounding the couple in the bottom flat but I did guess the mystery long before it was revealed within the pages.

I must admit I didn't enjoy the ending, things just didn't quite seem to round up in an interesting enough way and the 'being' stuff was a bit too much out of reality for me to buy into it. This meant that unfortunately the whole book was a bit more disappointing in the end even though I enjoyed the middle part so much.

Ultimately if you haven't read a Marian Keyes before I certainly wouldn't recommend starting with this one and there are a lot better books out there to read but if you're after an easy to read popular character fiction it's still worth the time.

Man and Boy (Tony Parsons)

Title: Man and Boy
Author: Tony Parsons
Published: 2000
Publisher: Harper Collins
Pages: 344
Source: Own copy
Genres: Contemporary Fiction
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Man and Boy is the story of 30 year old Harry Silver. With a loving wife, a young son and a fantastic job he seems to have it all but one single act turns his world upside down and he becomes a single father trying to juggle parenthood and work and having to come to turns with the decisions he makes in his life.

This book is touted as being both humorous and heart warming and it didn't really hit me on either level. I did find it interesting to explore the thoughts and decisions of a man who is thrust into single parenthood, someone trying to do the best he can by his son while trying to work out his own life. But at the same time I found it hard to feel for the guy when it was his own stupid decisions that put him there in the first place.

On top of that, I have to admit something, I'm a bit of a romantic. I do love the whole idea of your one true love and although happily ever after doesn't always make a great book I can't go past a book with a brilliant enduring love sort of plot. Which meant that this book about falling in and out of love, divorces and second marriages was a little difficult for me. I wonder what that says about me? Maybe I don't live in the real world, or maybe I just see enough of it in the real world that I don't like to escape to it in my books.

Ultimately I didn't get very invested in the characters or their story and didn't find enough wit or emotion to hold my attention on this one.

Skip It

Man and Boy by Tony Parsons

Book of Lost Threads (Tess Evans)

Title: Book of Lost Threads 
Author: Tess Evans
Published: 2010
Publisher: Allen and Unwin
Pages: 368
Source: Own copy
Genres: Contemporary Fiction
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Book of Lost Threads tells the story of Moss, a young woman who runs away from Melbourne (Australia) to the small town of Opportunity on the search for someone. In Opportunity she encounters Finn, a brilliant mathematician and a recluse, Lily Pargetter, an 83 year old knitter of tea cosies for the UN who is also trying to find someone and Sandy, the town joke who is trying to find his place in his own town. The four of them strike up an unlikely friendship which leads them all to evaluate their own lives and find strength in each other.

Book of Lost Threads is Tess Evans' first novel and she is an Australian author. I was very impressed with this as a first novel and I wouldn't have known the author was new to writing if I hadn't read the author profile in the back of the book.

The characters are incredibly likeable and it is very easy to engage with them all. I was trying to think who was my favourite but I couldn't quite decide. I absolutely loved Lily and her dedication to her tea cosies for the UN which is such a great side story, and I really felt great empathy for her suffering such a great loss in her life. But Finn as the town recluse who is battling his own demons and who lived for a time in a monastery is such an intriguing character. And Moss, with her two mothers; Amy and Lindsey deals with situations in a very relateable way.

The beginning of the book pulls you in and sets a steady pace but the story does seem to flounder a little in the middle and lose its way. Thankfully things pick up again and the end ties everything in well. One of my only issues is that some of the smaller supporting characters seem to get thrown in there at the last minute with no apparent cause. Hamish, a friend (and potential love interest) of Moss' seems to just get thrown in from nowhere but doesn't really add anything to the story, along with a few other minor characters living in Opportunity that seem to have more mention in the epilogue then anywhere else in the story so you really can't buy into them at all. Other than that it was an enjoyable light read, a good one to read on holiday or at the beach.

Read It

Book of Lost Threads by Tess Evans

After Dark (Haruki Murakami)

Title: After Dark
Author: Haruki Murakami
Translator: Jay Rubin
First Published: 2004
This Edition Published: 2007
Publisher: Harvill Secker
Pages: 202
Source: Book club
Genres: Translated Literature, Japanese Literature, Contemporary
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This is the first book by Haurki Murakami that I have read so I am not familiar with his writing style at all, although I have heard a lot of things about his books Norwegian Wood, Kafka on the Shore and IQ84, so I knew that I might be getting into something a bit different, and well yes I think I can definitely sum up this book as a little weird... weird and brilliant.

The premise of the book is that at midnight in Tokyo we meet Mari, a 19 year old student who is reading a book at Dennys at midnight. Into Dennys comes Takahashi who knows Mari's sister Eri. The story follows Mari and her sister Eri through aspects of their night and finishes up at 7am. Well 6:52am to be exact, you see each chapter of this book is a time which I thought was so well done.

The descriptions of Tokyo at midnight are just incredible, it really does feel like you are there, I visited Tokyo a couple of years ago and this book took me straight back to that incredible city. The language of this book is simply beautiful, this was one of my favourite excerpts.

"Even at a time like this, the street is bright enough and filled with people coming and going - people with places to go and people with no place to go; people with a purpose and people with no purpose; people trying to hold time back and people trying to urge it forward."

There are some incredibly interesting characters in this book (I'm going to go into a bit of detail in this paragraph so skip if you hate knowing too much about a book before you read it, but don't worry I never give away too much plot!). Takahashi is a Trombone playing student who bumps into Mari in between band practices. Through Takahashi she is introduced to Kaoru, the retired female wrestler who is now the manager of a love hotel. Mari also meets a Chinese prostitute, along with Komugi and Korogi, maids whose names mean Wheat and Cricket. We also meet Eri, Mari's beautiful sister who has been sleeping for months, literally a sleeping beauty. Eri's sections are certainly the most unique thanks to her encounters with The Man with No Face.

Okay you're pretty safe now. The narration in Eri's sections was incredibly unique using terms such as 'we see such and such' and highlighting the fact that we are but a point of observation that cannot interact with the scene in any way. It was fascinating. I would love to know what kind of narration style it would be called. Maybe something along the lines of an external or video narration, where the point of view  changes to take in different aspects of the scene and is actively talked about as part of the narration?

Ultimately this book explores ideas of sibling relationships and alienation through the exploits of a scattering of outcasts on one night in Tokyo. It was a joy to read and I recommend it to you all.

Read It

After Dark by Haruki Murakami

Anatomy of a Disappearance, Hisham Matar

Title: Anatomy of a Disappearance

Author: Hisham Matar

Published: 2011

Pages: 247

Source: Book club

Genre: Contemporary

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Anatomy of a disappearance follows the story of Nuri el-Alfi whose mother dies when he is a young boy and whose life is forever affected by her death. One day he meets Mona and everything changes, absolutely besotted he longs to be with her but she falls in love with and marries his father. Nuri's relationship with his father is changed forever and then his father, a political diplomat, disappears.

This book really is more than it seems, its the type of book where no description will really do it justice. Even the above paragraph really doesn't cover the scope of this extraordinary novel. At its heart a purely character novel, it also winds the reader through a number of mysteries which slowly unravel as you read. Unlike traditional mysteries there is no wow moment, no major twists and turns, quite simply the story is like a present being slowly unwrapped - revealing a little more with every page.

Split between Cairo, England and Geneva, ultimately this book is about the changing nature of relationships. The disappearance of Nuri's father has a profound effect on him and it impacts his interactions with other people in a variety of ways. This book alludes to a number of other components to Nuri's story that allow you to explore your own imaginations. Of course I struggled a little with the slightly unhealthy relationship with his step mother however the story telling was so well done that it had me riveted.

I can highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a character novel that explores the dynamics of human relationships.

Read It

Anatomy of a Disappearance by Hisham Matar

Room (Emma Donaghue)

Title: Room

Author: Emma Donaghue

Publication Date: 2010

Publisher: Picador
Pages:320

Source: Library

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

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It is highly likely that I'm one of the few people in the world who hadn't read this book, I've seen it everywhere! So when I joined up to the local library in my new town (we've recently moved) and I spotted this one on the shelf I snapped it up.


Now I'm always a little nervous when I read a book that everyone else has raved about because sometimes you can expect things and when your expectations aren't met you get a bit disappointed. So I tried really hard to go into this one with an open mind.

I did really enjoy it, predominantly because it's different. As the entire book is narrated by the 5 year old boy it provides this unique perspective. Donaghue was able to perfectly capture the innocence and love that envelops a child's world while still conveying so many raw emotions. It is a very clever book and a great read.

*Little spoiler follows*
I had thought that this book took place entirely in the 'room', that's as much as I knew about the story itself but I was pleased to find that the location moved throughout the novel which meant for a much more exciting read. It's a pretty grim subject matter but somehow the child's point of view turns everything on it's head and makes you thing about situations differently.
*Little spoiler ends*

I can see why this book has had such acclaim and I would definitely recommend it.

Read It

Room by Emma Donoghue

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The Lollipop Shoes (Joanne Harris)

Title: The Lollipop Shoes (aka The Girl With No Shadow)

Author: Joanne Harris

Publication Date: 2007

Publisher: Transworld Publishers
Pages: 459

Source: Book club borrowed

Genre: Travel

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The Lollipop Shoes is the follow up novel to the very popular Chocolat, bringing us back into the lives of Vianne Rocher, her two daughters Anouk and a new addition to the family. These days they have changed their names to Yanne, Annie and Rosette and live in relative anonymity in the streets of Montmartre.

I have to admit I went into this book with some preconceived ideas as I had read and seen quite a few reviews that didn't land very favourably on this new edition in the series. So I didn't expect too much from it and was pleasantly surprised to find it, if not as good as the first, a perfectly enjoyable read.

The book centers around Zozie de l’Alba, an enigmatic character with a number of past lives herself. She blows into their lives and creates all sorts of havoc. I think Zozie was a interesting new character to bring into the mix but I didn't like the direction the writer took Vianne's character in. She became a bit of a wallflower trying to lead a more normal life and well became far more snooze worthy until later in the book. Roux does make an appearance of course which I definitely think helped move the story along. There is also a significant increase in the amount of magical references in the novel which I believe made the book less enjoyable. I understood that it may have been necessary for providing context around Zozie's character but I just couldn't relate to it.

Overall it's very different to Chocolat and I think that's why the reviews have been pretty bad. As a stand alone book it is a good read but in comparison to the first it just doesn't have that special something. Basically don't expect the same thing as Chocolat and you'll probably enjoy it.

Read It if you want to know what's happening with the characters but don't expect another Chocolat

The Lollipop Shoes by Joanne Harris

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The Housekeeper and the Professor (Yoko Ogawa)

Title: The Housekeeper and the Professor
Author: Yoko Ogawa
Translated By: Stephen Snyder
Publisher: Vintage
Publication Date: 2010
Pages: 192
Source: Own copy
Genre: Translated Literature, Contemporary
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The Housekeeper and the Professor is the story of a brilliant math Professor who after a terrible accident lives with only eighty minutes of short-term memory and the Housekeeper who is hired to care for him.

Along with her ten year old son, whom the Professor has nicknamed Root because of his flat head reminding him of the square root sign, the Housekeeper is introduced anew to the Professor each morning and a unique relationship forms.

The premise of this book is compelling and could have made for a stunning read but unfortunately I felt this book fell short. Mathematical formulas and baseball take precedence throughout the story and although critical to the feel of the book I thought the execution resulted in a less engaging character connection and a tedious read in places. And I even liked maths at school but I still found these parts drawn out and a bit boring.

Don't get me wrong there were some beautiful parts to the book, I especially liked the details about the Professor's suit and post-it notes which he writes to himself for anything important and sticks them all over his suit and a couple of other parts later in the book such as the birthday which I don't want to mention in detail in case of spoilers. But I didn't think there was enough of those parts. I do wonder if maybe it is the translation that wasn't able to more effectively portray the feelings of these characters.

So overall it's a nice book and had huge potential but didn't quite hit the mark for me. It's a short read so feel free to give it a go as a lot of people have really liked it and I think I may be in the minority on this one.

I didn't like it but others may.

The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa

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