science fiction

On the Shelf: August 2023 reads

| linleysarah1

In August 2023, I read:

  • The Maid by Nita Prose
  • Parable of the Sower by Octavia E Butler
  • In Other Worlds: Science Fiction and the Human Imagination by Margaret Atwood (non-fiction)
  • Murder in the Family by Cara Hunter
  • The Butcher of Berner Street by Alex Reeve
  • Lasting Damage by Sophie Hannah
  • The War of the Worlds by H G Wells
  • Fairy Tale by Stephen King
  • End of Story by Louise Swanson
  • Maddadam by Margaret Atwood (audio book)

The highlights for me were The Maid by Nita Prose and Parable of the Sower by Octavia E Butler.

What really stood out for me about The Maid was the voice of the main character, Molly. I loved her naivete and the way she wanted everything done properly. The back story was very believable, the romance subplot was very touching, and the main plot line kept me guessing. It was everything you want from a classic murder mystery. I’m really looking forward to the next in the series.

Parable of the Sower was very harrowing. I’ve been reading a lot of dystopian fiction recently and this is one that will stay with me. It’s very uncomfortable reading in places but again the main character, Lauren, is very engaging and the plot line was gripping. Written in 1993, it imagines a future heavily affected by climate change and social inequality. Again, I am looking forward to reading the next in the series.

I love Cara Hunter’s books and always find I can’t put them down once I start reading them. Murder in the Family is very different in that the format is scripts for a TV true crime drama, evidence from the investigation, emails and WhatsApp messages between the characters, etc. but no actual narrative. Once you got used to the format, it’s very easy to read. The characters were great, and the first plot twist was brilliant, but I found the resolution disappointing.

I haven’t read Stephen King for a long time, and I found Fairytale very immersive. I particularly liked the relationship between the main character and the dog he inherits. King weaves a horror out of familiar fairy tale tropes and takes inspiration from Jack and the Beanstalk and The Wizard of Oz. It was quite a strange book overall, but I did enjoy it.

Maddadam was the conclusion to the Maddadam trilogy. Listening to it on audio book was quite disjointed and I felt like I missed bits so I might read the trilogy again in paperback. The second book, The Year of The Flood, was my favourite of the three books but I liked all the backstory in this book and the ending was very poignant. I feel like I miss the characters already!

On the Shelf: April 2023 reads

| linleysarah1

I read ten books in April 2023:

  • Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
  • Old Babes in the Wood by Margaret Atwood (short story collection)
  • The Cloisters by Katy Hays
  • Angels and Demons by Dan Brown
  • The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood (audiobook)
  • The Silence Project by Carole Hailey
  • Scary Smart by Mo Gawdat (non-fiction)
  • Why We Dream by Alice Robb (non-fiction)
  • Blood and Sugar by Laura Shepherd-Robinson
  • The Book Share by Phaedre Patrick

I was lucky enough to get tickets to see Margaret Atwood in Liverpool in March. She is such an inspiration, and I could have listened to her all night! Intelligent, passionate and funny. One of my favourite actresses, Maxine Peake, also performed one of her short stories which was wonderful.

The trip sparked a binge read of Margaret Atwood’s books. I am (slowly) reading Burning Questions, a collection of essays, but this month I also read Oryx and Crake, Old Babes in the Wood (a short story collection) and listened to The Year of the Flood on audiobook. I am particularly enjoying the Maddadam trilogy and finding it more accessible than The Handmaid’s Tale which I read a long time ago.

Another highlight this month was The Cloisters by Katy Hays. A young academic spends her summer interning at a secret museum in the heart of New York with a medieval garden and enigmatic colleagues. I loved the setting of this book – it was like stepping back in time. The comparisons to The Secret History by Donna Tartt are well deserved.

The Silence Project by Carole Hailey was also a brilliant read. It’s written like a memoir and sometimes it felt like you were reading real events. Narrated by her daughter, a middle-aged woman vows to stay silent and listen more which spirals into a global movement with tragic and alarming consequences. I loved all the moral dilemmas this book raised.

I read Scary Smart for research, and it really opened my eyes to the potential dangers of artificial intelligence. There is lots in the news about it at the moment so I would recommend this book if you’re interested in the subject. I wasn’t 100% sold on the solutions offered in this book, however.

Finally, Blood and Sugar is another recommended read. It’s a historical thriller set in the 1780s. It is highly immersive and very detailed. I really enjoyed the book, but I did find it quite complicated towards the end and it was hard to keep track of who all the characters were and how they related to each other. I am looking forward to reading the next in the series.

On the Shelf: January 2023 reads

| linleysarah1

In January 2023 I read:

  • The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton (re-read)
  • The House of Fortune by Jessie Burton
  • Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury (non-fiction)
  • Shiver by Allie Reynolds
  • Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman
  • The Recovery of Rose Gold by Stephanie Wrobel
  • The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz (re-read)
  • In the Blink of an Eye by Jo Callaghan
  • Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Jessie Burton is one of my favourite writers and The Miniaturist was a re-read. I wanted to immerse myself in the world of 18th century Amsterdam again before I read the sequel, The House of Fortune. You could, perhaps, read the second as a stand alone but I thought it was better in sequence. Jessie Burton’s prose is superb and she has the ability to transport you anywhere and to any time. I loved the main character and all the historical detail in The House of Fortune, but I preferred The Miniaturist overall.

If you enjoy fast-paced psychological thrillers, I wholeheartedly recommend Shiver by Allie Reynolds and In the Blink of an Eye by Jo Callaghan. I thought both of them were excellent. They had all the elements you look for in crime fiction – a great plot, brilliant characters, a fast paced story and a satisfying ending, but each had an extra element which made them stand out for me.

Allie Reynolds’ book is set in the world of competitive snowboarding which I thought was really interesting and raised the stakes for her characters, while Jo Callaghan teams up an experienced human detective with an AI detective which was something I had never come across before and produced lots of great conflict and a touch of comedy.

Zen in the Art of Writing is a very inspiring book to read if you want to write and I also really enjoyed Neil Gaiman’s book about Norse Mythology.

The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz was another re-read. This time I am reading it for a book group, so I am keen to find out what other people think about it. It raises lots of interesting questions about writing and stories, and the main character is someone you love to hate. This time around I knew the ending, so it was fun to spot the clues I had missed the first time. I also enjoyed The Recovery of Rose Gold and the way Wrobel alternated between the daughter and the mother’s points of view.  

This is the first time I have read Brave New World. The style is quite different from contemporary fiction, so it took a little while to get into, but I enjoyed the moral dilemmas it raised and the acute observations about society, many of which are still relevant today.