My January Reads

Month by month I intend to post up my reading record here together with pen portraits of the books themselves and their front covers if I remember to take a picture! So here is January. The two hours of reading four days a week is my escape from the commute, as long as I am still awake after my long days!

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

I started this book in the middle of December, having bought it in the Red Cross Charity Shop in Cronulla Australia and finally finished it on January 13! I have never found a book that took more of my mental energy to read. The writing was magnificent and the sense of time and place incredible, but as a book for a commute it really took some effort at times. The effort was totally worth it, but I think I will wait for a while before tackling the sequel!

Orbital by Samantha Harvey

Started on January 13. Finished on January 15. This was far shorter and far more readable. The Booker Prize winner was a book unlike any I have read before. The setting of the space station and the 16 sunrises and sunsets the astronauts see in a day was utterly mesmerising. It blended the cosmic with the everyday, the profound with the commonplace and managed to make both elements completely complementary. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. You will be taken on a journey of the mind as you follow this day in the life of those who see the earth from a different perspective.

Seventh Son by Sebastian Faulks

Started on January 15. Finished on January 20. Set in the near future, this book features a clandestine experiment that introduces Neanderthal DNA into the Homo Sapiens gene pool. We follow the result of that experiment from the start of his life as he is born to a surrogate mother then presented to an infertile couple. It is fascinating, and extremely well written but unremittingly bleak. With no humour to leaven proceedings and the most downbeat ending imaginable it leaves the reader with no faith in humanity!

1983 by Tom Cox

Started on January 20. Finished on January 22. Tom Cox is one of the most original writers around and I love his books. After my previous depressing read this was a novel to lift the spirits. Set in Nottinghamshire in 1983, we explore the life of Benji and the people around him. The 1983 we are taken to bears a striking similarity to the 1983 the then 8 year old Tom Cox inhabited, but he places the fantastical, with aliens and people who are not what they seem, next to the everyday in a way similar to Orbital. It reminded me that there was good in the human experience and I was glad to be reminded of that!

Our Holiday by Louise Candlish

Started on January 22. Finished on January 27. Louise Candlish is a brilliant page turning writer. Her books have you racing through them eager to find out what will happen next and Our Holiday is no exception. We are taken to a resort in Dorset where two families own second homes next to each other. Their lives are well ordered and apparently privileged, but each of them has secrets that come out gradually. Pitched against the holiday home owners are locals waging a guerrilla war against people who have made their own town impossible to afford. The two groups become deeply involved with each other over the summer and the explosive events are something no one could have expected.

You Are Here by David Nicholls

Started on January 27. Finished on January 29. An author I can pretty much guarantee to enjoy delivers once again. David Nicholls is the master of bittersweet romance and with You Are Here, it is the story of Marnie who is stuck in life and Michael who can’t get over his previous love. The pair meet on a walking holiday courtesy of a mutual friend who has decided to do some match making. Initially unsure, Marnie and Michael start to open up to each other, but will that be enough? It has Nicholls’ usual mix of humour, pathos and insight. One of our very best novelists has yet another modern classic on his hands.