Carolyn > Recent Status Updates

I had forgotten just how good AS Byatt can be. There is no way I'm going to finish this 450 page collection before it is due back at the library so I've bought it on Kindle. I like to be able to dip into short stories at my leisure.

I've put this aside. Colm Toibin is a favourite but this is a little disappointing. His other fictional biography, The Master (about Henry James) was splendid. I think Toibin has sacrificed depth for breadth in this one. I am interested in the historical context (Germany pre and post Hitler) and in the homoerotic element so I will return to the novel at some stage but it is reading too much like non-fiction for me.

I'm relishing this set of stories and characters linked by their connection to trees. It's an ambitious work that I think deserves the Man Booker Prize to be announced this week.

I've parked this as it doesn't feel like the right book for me at the moment.

I'm having the same trouble with this novel as I had with Towles' Rules of Civility. Yes, interesting material (Russian history after the Revolution). Yes, an appealing character (the gentleman of the title). Yes, a fluid and charming style. But there's something missing I can't quite put my finger on. I'm only half engaged. So I'm taking a break but I will finish it before it's due back at the library.

Oliver Orme is such an unappealing character - but he knows it so he ends up charming us (or at least this reader). The language is wonderful.

This confronting novel is set in Northern Iraq at the end of the first Gulf War and the early stages of the current Syrian conflict. A reminder of the evil inflicted on Iraq's and Syria's people by their leaders and an expose of complex religious, tribal and international issues.

But I need a break so will park this for a while and get on with reading novels for my April online and f2f book groups.

Loving these stories, each with a twist to the tail.

An unusual book, comprising chapters, each of which could be a short story in itself. We are gradually shown different sides of Olive's character - sometimes she is central to the story and sometimes just has a bit part. This is a rich and nurturing novel - just the thing for me at the moment.

This is a brilliant book - among Barry's best, I think, so far. But the subject matter is grim indeed. I've coped with the Indian Wars but don't think I'm quite in the mood for the American Civil War just yet. I'll park this for a while.

I'm not sure I should have begun a novel about death and ageing while sitting beside my sister in palliative care. But I found that the writer's voice was speaking to me in words that I could appreciate and identify with - but that also made me smile - even out-loud chuckle. Drabble (much the same age as me) has always seemed to write for an audience of her own age group. So this seems to be hitting the spot.

While much of this is compelling reading, I'm getting bogged down in some of the characters' backstories. The way Hawley exposes the pernicious effects of 'infotainment' is one of the most interesting parts of what is turning out to be a more complex novel than I expected.

Reno, a motorcyclist, competes in speed contest on a salt lake in Nevada. The descriptions of the desert, people she meets in lonely outposts and speed itself are poetic, empathetic and compelling. But her involvement in the New York avant-garde art and film world left me grasping for connections. The writing is still powerful but the content is distancing me and I'm struggling to keep up my commitment to this book.