dittybox

  A tale of the fragile space that fills the gap between the past and the present, the living and the dead.  Here there is no certainty of which is dream or waking and anything imagined can be as real as what you see in front of you (if indeed you know what it is you see). I read this twice.  Once to get the frame of it and then to fill in the gaps, but even still, there was no telling if I had it right. I don't want to define this book or tell you what I think it all means because I want it to stay a fluid concept in my mind.  That's how I think it works best; no labels, no neat little boxes, just a glimmer of an idea passing through like light on water.

  This is an attractive little hardback that I picked up at the bowls club for the princely sum of twenty five pence.  The club has a book corner where everything is sold for that same price but, even so, much of the stock has celebrated several anniversaries sitting unloved and gathering dust on the shelves. Apparently there is not much of a market for dog-eared cookery books or old copies of Readers Digest, but every now and then an unwanted gift is dumped on the top, and I suspect that is how this one came to be there. Published in 2016, this is the story of Mata Hari, the exotic dancer and courtesan who achieved great fame in the early part of the twentieth century but was executed as a spy in 1917.  She billed herself as a Hindi artist, although she was actually Margaretha Zelle who was born in the Netherlands and had married an officer in the Dutch colonialist army.  The marriage was not a success, and her husband refused to let her have custody of their d...

  Not so much a 'who done it?', more a 'how on earth did that happen?' kind of book.  It starts with a terrible accident, that may or may not turn out to be a crime, then tracks back through the lives of everyone involved to try and get at the truth. Noah Hawley writes with such a comprehensive attention to detail and order that I wondered if he was a lawyer before he became a writer.  A quick Google search reveals that his degree was in political sciences and he has also worked for the Legal Aid Society in New York City.  Each of his principal characters are observed in detail to allow the reader to start putting together theories for themselves and all these bits of evidence eventually add up to the full picture. Some scenes are very well written with just the right amount of tension to keep you turning the pages, but there were one or two places where I felt the methodology of the story construction slightly jarred against the flow of the story-line.  Th...

  The plot structure of this novel reminded me of the workings of a Celtic knot.  Everything weaves in and out and under, but in the end you realise all those strands are really just one unbroken line. This is a multi-generational saga that slowly draws the past closer to the present with the stories of two women from very different generations.  One was a pioneer aviator lost in an air-crash as she attempted to circumnavigate the globe, and the other a modern-day actress chosen to play the aviator Marian Graves in a film. The book captured my interest from the start and I especially liked the individuality of the characters.  There are no clichés here, no Barbie doll girls being rescued by Ken in a flying suit, these people are imperfect humans just like the rest of us, but some of them do extraordinary things through sheer determination and perseverance. There's a lot to read, as the book is 600 pages long, but there's no padding and the story sits neatly...

  This book has a real cinematic quality to it.  While I was reading, I almost felt as though I was watching it play out in front of me on a screen, and the construction of the plot is very like that of a blockbuster movie with a young ensemble cast on the run from the bad guys.  It comes as no surprise that author Noah Hawley is also a screen writer and series creator, and that is in no way a bad thing, as the writing has pace and a strong sense of direction. Set in modern day America, it deals with many of the big issues facing society today, such as: political division, corruption bought about by great wealth, climate change, race, mental health issues and young people searching for the truth.  Quite a lot to bring together in one novel, but not so different from the world we all experience every day.  With the constant bombardment of news assaulting our senses through social media and streaming services, we are all dealing with this stuff every single day. T...

  As well as being a keen reader of fiction, I have a bit of a side hustle with current affairs and politics.  Usually I gather my information from magazine articles and news feeds, but when I saw this new book displayed in the library, I decided I felt up to a deeper dive.   I was drawn to this title because in recent years there has been a noticeable shift to the political right in a number of countries, and some hard-won societal changes are at risk of being taken away again.  Since the end of the Second World War we saw a global shift towards social liberalism, and most people saw that as a good thing, and embraced a more equal society with greater levels of acceptance of minority groups.  However, it turns out that not everyone is prepared to accommodate such rapid change and now some sections of society are looking for a way to not only put the brakes on, but to crash the gears into reverse and slam their collective foot down ...

A cold chill creeps from this book.  There is no warmth in the tone and I found the main characters cold and selfish.  For twelve years Aina and Whitney have been in exile on an island for a crime they committed together.  They have been left in a croft with a pill dispenser that releases a pill for each of them every eight hours.  If they fail to take their pills at the correct time, they will die within a few minutes because of the toxic bacteria that rises from the island. The Warden collected them from the mainland and took them for processing, then they were blindfolded and taken by boat to the island where they must stay for twelve years before they will be eligible for parole.  After that time there will be an assessment that takes the form of a test of their loyalty, and the tests are different for everyone, so they will never know what is part of the test and what isn't. It's not badly written, and it has been selected as one of the books for Betwe...