So behind on reviews, so with apologies, here is my recent set.
45 Ghost Signs: Poverty and the Pandemic by Stu Hennigan
During the first lockdown, Hennigan – a council librarian – took a role delivering care packages to the elderly and vulnerable around Leeds. This is his account of those couple of months; it’s about the pandemic and the weirdness of the first lockdown, but more pertinently is about the impact of sudden shocks on people who are already struggling to cope financially and emotionally. I think this is a very important book and it says a lot about the type of poverty experienced in this country. It’s written as a diary and became somewhat repetitive over time but nonetheless merits a wide readership.
46 Extra-terrestrial by Avi Loeb
When telescopes picked up an unidentified object hurtling away from the earth in 2017, astronomers got excited by the fact it exhibited some strange behaviour. They named it ‘Oumuamua and spent time trying to figure out what exactly it was. We still don’t know, but Loeb – who is a serious and credible scientist – thinks we should at least consider the fact it is a remnant of an alien civilisation. I don’t think this theory has done him many favours and his doubling down on this in this book is not going to help, but he raises some good and valid points about the scientific method and the perils of assuming we know what we are seeing.
47 The Fourth Time We Drowned by Sally Hayden
This is harrowing. Hayden spent a long period of time in contact with migrants who found themselves in one of the immigration detention camps in Libya over the period from around 2017-2020, when the migrant crossings of the Mediterranean were in the headlines. She traces their stories from across Africa, particularly Eritrea and western Africa, and shows their path to Europe, or death in the camps or on the boats. It’s a complex and detailed book and she’s deeply critical of UNHCR and their approach to the issue, as well as the EU. Would recommend highly though it is not easy reading.
48 Other Minds by Peter Godfrey-Smith
Octopuses, mostly, although there’s a lot of other stuff in there that I was less interested in. I really did want to learn about octupuses and what I learned was fascinating. The rest of it reminded me of a philosophy of mind course. Good, but not what I was looking for. That’s a me problem, not a problem with this book though.
49 Everything You Really Need to Know about Politics by Jess Phillips
An entertaining and passionate look at the role of an MP. I didn’t learn an enormous amount I didn’t already know but I thought Phillips was good on the dynamics of Westminster and the importance of showing up, standing for office and rolling up your sleeves to represent your constituents, even when you don’t like them and they don’t like you.
50 Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe
I thought Empire of Pain was a great book but put that down in part to the subject matter being something I wanted to learn more about. But actually, Keefe is a terrific writer who knows how to marshall vast amount of information into a compelling and human story. This is about the Troubles, specifically the story of Jean McConville who was taken from her home while her children watched in 1972 and never seen again. He frames it through the story of some of the key players in the IRA, particularly Dolours Price and Gerry Adams. His account of Adams is particularly interesting, and his transition into a respected statesman who nonetheless seems almost certain to have had a lot of blood on his hands. Like many people, I know so little about Northern Ireland despite growing up during the Troubles and coming of age around the time of the Good Friday Agreement.
51 Frenchman’s Creek by Daphne du Maurier
I was going to say this was good clean fun, but actually there’s a little more to it than that. Dona is beautiful (obviously) and bored with her life in Restoration London so she goes to the family home in Cornwall where she falls in with a group of French pirates. I thought this was rather lovely, as a love story and an account of how it feels as a woman to be caught between duty and desire.
52 Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
This has sat on my shelf since I read Jane Eyre about thirty years ago. It definitely isn’t a prequel in the sense I understand it but it does pick up the story of Bertha Mason from her childhood to her journey to England. It doesn’t make much sense of Rochester’s character, but he’s a fairly terrible hero in my view anyway given the way he behaves. I liked it, but as a completely different beast to Jane Eyre – anyone looking for a genuine prequel is going to be disappointed.
53 Angels by Marian Keyes
Maggie is the least interesting Walsh sister, according to her siblings, so I was glad she got her own story. When her marriage breaks down she runs off to LA to stay with her friend Emily who is an aspiring script writer. There’s lots of chat about manicures, blow dries and the oddities of Angelenos, and I could have done without her parents showing up towards the end but this was entertaining and I do find the Walsh sisters amusing company.
Maggie is the least interesting Walsh sister, according to her siblings, so I was glad she got her own story. When her marriage breaks down she runs off to LA to stay with her friend Emily who is an aspiring script writer. There’s lots of chat about manicures, blow dries and the oddities of Angelenos, and I could have done without her parents showing up towards the end but this was entertaining and I do find the Walsh sisters amusing company.