I have three published novels and might write/publish more someday. Now I'm more of a reader – welcome!
– Jodi Taylor (AUDIOBOOK) – 03.05.22
I have tried a couple of other time travel books recently, which have only gone to remind me that nobody does it as well as Jodi Taylor!
Max jumping through time to stop the bad guys and save the world – with humour and irreverent fun. What more do I need to say.
If you are new to the series, do go back to the beginning and read them in order. And then read everything else which Jodi Taylor has written. Your life will be better for it.
This was my book group read for May, and Sheila (our leader) had just completed a course at Queen’s University on Women Writers, which covered this book so she was able to share some nuggets of inspiration about the many layers of meaning to this magical realism fable. Set on a Caribbean Island, the story follows a local fisherman and an ancient mermaid who liked to listen to him singing on his boat. When she is caught by American tourists and strung up on the harbour pier like a prize fish, he rescues her and hides her in his house. The book covers all kinds of issues like colonialism and racism and classism as well as the harmful ways women can be treated by men and by other women. We liked the beautiful writing, told from different perspectives and different points in time which added complexity and interest and we found the story thoughtful, beautiful and sad.
I also liked how I still had the lovely Caribbean voice of Ingrid Persaud in my head from recently listening to Love After Love, to aid my interior monologue as I read!
I love Matt Haig, so much that I actually read his self-help type books even thought I hate self-help books usually. I listened to this on the way to my second physiotherapy appointment for my back pain. Since my Covid confinement, I’ve had a really bad back, which my GP thinks is due to a flare up of my autoimmune arthritis brought on both from having Covid, and from lying about for three weeks while being ill causing all my joints to stiffen up.
At my first appointment, the physiotherapist gave me some exercises, and a very nice massage and suggested various things including trying some mindful meditation. I’m cynical about such things, but I searched on YouTube for meditation for chronic pain, and gave it a go. Well, it just made me proper cross! The mindfulness lady firstly told me to thank my chronic pain for being me faithful companion for so long. Ha! No. I will not and do no thank my pain. It is bad. Then she said, now, put the pain in a backpack and wear it on you back, contained and mindfully. Now, take the backpack off, and walk away from it. Good grief – if only I’d known that a cure for my chronic disease was so simple (sarcastic). I know that the mind is a powerful tool and real physical changes can happen because of mental attitude but that was just trite twaddle.
So I gave up on mindful meditations for chronic pain. I know I’m going off topic here, but the point is that Matt Haig’s book is not trite twaddle. He doesn’t claim any instant cure for mental health problems, in fact I saw a recent social media post of his where he said he is currently in a bad place struggling with negative feelings. The book is just a nice comforting diversion to think about happy things and smile a bit. Which even I believe is a good thing. So I arrived at my physio appointment smiling, and feeling much better – thanks Matt Haig!
I really enjoyed this new instalment of the Rivers of London series – lots of fondly humorous nods to classic fantasy like Tolkien and Harry Potter with magic rings of power and WWII ghosts and the excitement of Peter’s partner Bev’s pregnancy and the birth of the twins. Can’t wait for the next one!
I listened to this story as an audiobook read by the author. Authors are not always good narrators, but when they are, I think it really brings a book to life being read by its author as they know just where to put the emphasis to convey the meaning they want to put across, plus Ingrid Persaud has such a beautiful lilting Caribbean accent that it was pure joy to listen to.
The story follows three characters: Betty: a single mother, Solo: her son, and Mr Chetan, their lodger who all live in Trinidad. Each character struggles with huge secrets. Betty lived with an abusive husband until his death, the guilt surrounding which haunts her. Solo is shy and depressive and can’t forgive his mother for what happened to his father, and Mr Chetan is gay and has to hide that in a society which is very homophobic.
I very much enjoyed the book and getting to know the characters and I was very moved by their stories.
This is a young adult dystopian fantasy novel, which can go either way for my, but thankfully I really liked this one. The heroine doesn’t remember her past, so with her we discover her world and why she hid her soul in different objects like a good version of Voldemort and his horcruxes! I even enjoyed the sweet romantic love story which managed to be not annoying at all.
Like other books by Fredrik Backman that I have read, the major theme of this story is life after bereavement. Once again Backman uses a deft hand to weave together the tales of ordinary people struggling to cope with the blows life has dealt them coming together and helping each other. There is humour and sadness and twists and turns that keep up the readers interest. I really enjoyed the book, and after reading it, watched the tv series (on Netflix, I think) and enjoyed that too.
My daughter and I have a thing, that when we’re visiting each other, we swap kindles and read books from the other one. At Christmas this was the book on Becca’s kindle that I started to read, but with one thing and another I didn’t get very far, so I eventually got around to buying my own copy and finishing it.
It’s an American YA book, so not always my cup of tea, and I didn’t instantly love it, but it did have its merits. The premise is that in this world, for some reason the day of everyone’s death is known (they never explain how) and at or around midnight of the eve of your death you get a phone call informing you that it is your last day.
The story follows two such ‘last dayers’ (I forget now the actual terminology they use – something snappier than ‘last dayers’!) from quite different backgrounds who find each other on an app and spend their final hours together.
I quite like the book. It certainly raised interesting questions about whether you would rather know your death was coming and how you would spend your final hours if you did, and even if knowing it was coming is actually what causes your death?!
The book grew on my, and I quite liked how it ended (they both died!).
This third book in the Frost files series see everyone reeling in the aftermath of the big Earthquake. As usual there is action, heartwarming moments and lots of soul searching. Like in the previous book, a new child with superpowers is causing grief, only this time the child is not evil. Teagan has to try to defend the child (thinking back to her own childhood) while realising the danger he poses to the world. There are more hints about Teagan’s backstory and other members of her family and I’m excited to read the next installment.
I really enjoyed this beautiful book (almost 100% – with one reservation…). The story can be read on multiple levels and addresses several issues with sensitivity and poetic strength. A father and his nine year old son are both struggling with grief after the sudden death of their wife/mother. The father studies simulations of possible alien life supporting environments, and the both he and the son have a strong interest in climate change issues. The son is clever and artistic, but suffering from problems with social interactions and impulse control (probable ASD).
They come into contact with a previous friend/college of the dead wife who is working on a ground breaking computer programme. The programme uses neural impulses to play games on the computer screen which effectively trains the user to have much more control over their emotions and impulses. He agrees to let the son be part of the study, with tremendous success .
Spoiler Alert – Don’t read on if you haven’t read the book and you don’t want to know too much about the plot.
The boy discovers that his mother had used the software, and that the computer basically had an imprint of her saved which the boy could communicate with.
The thing that I didn’t like so much about the book was the constant reference to ‘Flowers For Algernon’. The plot of this book very much mirrored the classic sci-fi novella and being quite familiar with the story I felt that it took some of the tension away knowing how everything was going to end up. I also felt that the references to Flowers For Algernon took me out the story and into thinking more about plot structure and technique and less about being engrossed in the characters’ emotional journeys.
Still, I really liked the book overall.
Sarah Wray Writer