The Book Of Books (Melvyn Bragg): This is a rather magnificent book. I’m rather late in reading it (it was first published in 2011 to coincide with the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible), despite the fact that Bragg is one of my true heroes (I’ve always found the Radio4 “In Our Time” discussion programmes absolutely fascinating and found his book “Credo” – an epic novel about Christian faith set in 7th century Britain – quite brilliant). Significantly, the Kings James version of the Bible was the first English translation and Bragg provides convincing argument the book has driven the making of the English-speaking world over the past 400 years. Bragg (fortunately from my perspective!) isn’t one of those ‘the Bible is the word of God’ people, but he writes about the effects that the book has offered to ‘ordinary’ people: its role in the movement to abolish slavery; its place in the charitable endeavours of the Victorian social reformers such as Octavia Hill; its worth as literature; and its capacity for invigorating writers as different as John Milton and DH Lawrence. Bragg’s analysis also takes into account the atheist views of Richard Dawkins – who Bragg accuses of being someone who “preys on anecdotal evidence", "worships statistics" and "swoops into neuroscience" (amongst other things)(which both amused and encouraged me). Despite the fact that every page is crammed full of facts and references, Bragg’s writing style and his story-telling abilities make it all effortless, compelling reading.
White Nights (Ann Cleeves): As I think I’ve previously mentioned, I absolutely love the ‘Shetland’ TV series, but this is only the second of the Shetland books I’ve read. A body hanging from a thick noose… it looked like a straightforward case of suicide… but no! Another wonderfully-crafted crime mystery coupled with the appealing calmness of Inspector Jimmy Perez… and set against the gentle(?) rhythm of island life. This ticked all the boxes for me… utterly pleasurable, escapist, hunkering-down reading!
Bobby Denise Is Reigning Rampant (Daniel Ross): This book was written by our good friend Dan, who co-owns our wonderful local bookshop (StorySmith Books). The novel tells the story of an acclaimed stage magician in Las Vegas, back in 1985, whose prized white tiger mauled and killed an audience member during a sell-out show. As if that wasn’t bad enough, this nightmare gets worse… (but, hey, no spoilers!). The magician ends up being sent to gaol… for a long time. 31 years later, out of gaol, he just wants to live out his days in peace. But, as you might guess, it doesn’t quite work out like that. Initially, I didn’t think this would be ‘my kind of novel’, but how wrong I was! It took me a little time to get into it, but I soon became engrossed by story. The book is very well conceived and hugely entertaining (with surprisingly believable Vegas characters)… and I really enjoyed it! Highly-recommended.
Scar (Alice Broadway): The final book in our daughter Alice’s ‘Ink’ trilogy. How exciting!! After reading the first two novels, I’ve found the last 12 months an agonising wait for the concluding story. I know an awful lot of people who are reading (or are about to read) this book at the moment, so I’m going to keep this very brief (I’ll blog about it elsewhere in due course) and I promise there won’t be any spoilers in this short review! It might be labelled as a ‘Young Adult’ (YA) novel, but it has a message for young and old alike. Even if she is our daughter, I think she’s an absolutely natural writer and an utterly brilliant storyteller! The wait was SO worth it… Thought-provoking, powerful and wise. I LOVED it.
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