These are the books I have read or listened to in the last fortnight:
68. A Note of Madness- Tabitha Suzuma A novel, recommended on another thread, about a gifted pianist at music college who has a breakdown. I am a musician and I was feeling pretty stressed out when I read this, so it was probably the wrong book for me at the time! It was moderately enjoyable, but the ending was too neat and a cop-out.
69. The Best of Adam Sharp- Graeme Simsion Another novel related to music, this was not up to the standard of the Rosie books (although I haven’t read the most recent one). I just didn’t care enough about the characters and only kept going out of bloody-mindedness: I wasn’t particularly interested in how it would end.
70. Before I Go to Sleep- SJ Watson A novel about a woman with severe amnesia, who wakes up each morning with no recollection of the last umpteen years of her life. As time goes on and she starts to keep a diary, it becomes clear that she is not being told the truth. It was quite gripping and the story was well handled. In the acknowledgements, I discovered that the novel is influenced by the true story of Clive Wearing, the musicologist featured in Musicophilia by Oliver Sachs, who I have mentioned before on one of these threads. I also discovered that his wife Deborah has written her own account of their story, Forever Today, which I will definitely read. I also intend to watch the film of Before I Go to Sleep, starring Colin Firth.
71. Lion: A Long Way Home- Saroo Brierley This tells the tale of a very young boy in India who gets lost, boards a long-distance train and doesn’t know where he came from. After some time living rough on the streets of Calcutta, in a young offender’s institution and then an orphanage, he ends up being adopted by an Australian couple and moving to Tasmania. Despite living a happy life, he is desperate to find his birth family and, after several years combing Google Earth and looking for the few landmarks he can remember, he manages to do so. This is a short but moving book.
72. Long Road from Jarrow- Stuart Maconie I have already read this on the Kindle, but I loved it and, as a huge fan of Maconie, I decided to get the audiobook in addition. In it, Stuart recreates the route of the Jarrow March, meets many interesting people and uses it as an opportunity to sound off about Brexit, Corbyn, Trump, football, popular culture and anything else that takes his fancy. I particularly enjoyed his visit to a stand-up comedy night in Sheffield (about which he says ‘I would have been more relaxed at the controlled explosion of a suspect package’) and to a gurdwara in Leeds.
73. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them- JK Rowling I found the audiobook on BorrowBox: it was mildly diverting but didn’t add much to the Potterverse. It is pleasing that this dictionary includes a number of ‘real’ creatures- dragons, fairies, mermaids, werewolves etc.- in addition to those invented by JK Rowling eg. the Golden Snitch.
74. The Sense of an Ending- Julian Barnes I got through the whole audiobook in a day, while driving around as part of my job. Beautifully written (and wonderfully read by Richard Morant), this is a miniature gem.
75. The Librarian- Salley Vickers This is a very light and easy read of no great profundity, but I liked the influence the children’s librarian had on the local youngsters, which became particularly clear in the book’s very short Part Two (which is really more of an epilogue).
76. The Handmaid’s Tale- Margaret Atwood I am keen on dystopian fiction and this had some very interesting scenes, but perhaps wasn’t as incredibly good as I was expecting.
77. The Cut-Out Girl- Bart van Es This was also not quite as good as I was expecting. It was shocking to learn that about 15 of Lien's relatives were killed at Auschwitz.