Review of the Year 2015

Early happy New Year everyone!  How has 2015 been for you?  Bit too exciting if you ask me - marauding vikings on and off the page, Poldark showing off his pecs in the Cornish countryside (don't remember THAT in the books!), Bond getting up to his old tricks and tonnes of fab new fiction and non-fiction to get me all distracted.

I did manage to read the minimum target 24 books (yay!), but 11 of those were either freshly published or new acquisitions (boo!). Such a shame when I got the balance right in 2014, reading an extra 10 or so books, but still finishing 24 from the list.  Definitely want to try and do better in the coming months.

Hopefully you've found something interesting among what I've read in 2015.  I'm quite pleased that there's a good variety in what I've covered, but classics are still rare.  After my fascinating trip to Haworth, the Bronte Parsonage Museum and the surrounding moors ('In Search of Wuthering Heights'), I'm hoping to get in some novels by the famous sisters in 2016.  And visit some more literary locations!

James Bond and historical fiction are still making regular appearances and I'm close to finishing both Ian Fleming's books and Philippa Gregory's Cousins War series.  Hopefully I can do this next year too and move on to another great series.

A few favourite genres and writers have disappeared completely recently, though, including Science Fiction and Daphne Du Maurier.  Perhaps in getting distracted by some great new publications I've missed the brilliant books already on my shelves.  Something to be careful of in 2016!

Almost unbelievably, next year will mark the fifth anniversary of this blog and my project.  A big thank you to all the friends, readers, writers and publishers who have given such great feedback and support here and on Twitter (@500_Books) over the years.  A special mention has to go to the lovely and glittery Lucy Porter, who thoroughly embarrassed me by looking at my Twitter feed while I was stood in front of her at a literary festival event.  Nearly as embarrassing as when I met Nigella Lawson at a book signing and couldn't think of anything to say... but that's another story.

Anyway, big love, bookworms!  Wishing you all a fabulous new year and I look forward to seeing you again in 2016!

Reviews of the Year

2012
2013
2014

2015: A Year in Books

January
'The Empty Throne' by Bernard Cornwell

February
'So, Anyway...' by John Cleese
'From Russia with Love' by Ian Fleming (Audiobook)
'The Victorian Chaise-Longue' by Marghanita Laski

March
'Goldfinger' by Ian Fleming
'Living Dolls: The Return of Sexism' by Natasha Walter

April 
'When I Met You' by Jemma Forte
'So, You've Been Publicly Shamed' by Jon Ronson

May
'Marie Antoinette: The Journey' by Antonia Fraser

June
'In Town' by Mark Steel
'Be Brilliant Every Day' by Andy Cope and Andy Whitaker

July
'It's All in Your Head' by Suzanne O'Sullivan
'My Grandfather Would Have Shot Me' by Jennifer Teege
'Diamonds are Forever' by Ian Fleming (Audiobook)
'The Spy who Loved Me' by Ian Fleming (Audiobook)

August
'A Book for Her' by Bridget Christie
'The Kingmaker's Daughter' by Philippa Gregory

September
'The Library of Unrequited Love' by Sophie Divry

October
'Just a Phrase I'm Going Through' by David Crystal
'Jeremy and Amy' by Jeremy Keeling

November
'Warriors of the Storm' by Bernard Cornwell
'Pet Sematary' by Stephen King

December
'Animal QC: My Preposterous Life' by Gary Bell
'Little Tales of Misogyny' by Patricia Highsmith - Coming Soon!

You Couldn't Make It Up!

Sometimes, I find genres confusing.  When does something become 'Classic'?  Why isn't PG Wodehouse under 'Humour'? Where on Earth do you put Daphne Writes-Horror-SciFi-Romance-And-More Du Maurier?  And what the fudge is 'Women's Fiction'?  But never before have I questioned whether something should be in fact or fiction!

The cause of the consternation is 'Animal QC: My Preposterous Life' by Gary Bell, published by Monday Books  It says it's an autobiography, but this rip roaring tale of a life less ordinary can't possibly be true.  Can it?

Mr Bell is the most unlikely barrister you're ever going to meet.  Far from the silver-spooned toff of the stereotype, he was born to teenage parents and began life in a condemned Nottingham slum.  Although the family escaped the city for the mining town of Cotgrave, life was far from easy and money was often short.  Despite showing promise, unimaginative careers advisors and an old fashioned working class attitude to education meant that he left school without taking exams.  Everyone expected him to follow his father down the pit, but his fear of the dark meant he lasted just one day.  A decade of short lived employment, strange strokes of luck and homelessness later and the boy was back in town and ready to start again as a mature student.  Living proof that hard work, dogged determination and just enough cheek can get you through, 'Animal QC' is a funny, inspirational and ridiculously preposterous story.  

I absolutely loved this book, but it's so unusual, I really don't know where to start!  Never has the phrase 'you couldn't make it up' seemed more appropriate nor a single paragraph so far from enough to summarise a story. 

Top barristers need to be great (and convincing) storytellers and Mr Bell must be one of the best.  'Animal QC' is engaging, charming and even jaw dropping, a well written page turner that made me want to keep reading.  His 'warts and all' attitude (which means he covers his major embarrassments as well as his greatest successes) keep the narrative on the right side of smug and when he touches on controversial topics, the reader is reminded that it's based on his own, personal experiences.  

The tone changes as he begins to talk about his casework and the pace slows slightly, but 'Animal QC' remains intriguing for a whole new set of reasons.  While I think the book in general could be an inspiration to anyone who thinks that where they start is where they'll stay, the later chapters would be of particular interest to people interested in the criminal law and the legal process.

Overall, I can't recommend 'Animal QC' enough.  The paperback is due out at the beginning of March, so look out for it then.  Hopefully we'll find it in 'Biography'...

And the Cat Came Back...

I can't believe it's over a month since I last blogged.  And I was doing so well!  So what's stopped me?  Christmas shopping?  Internet problems?  Or maybe I was just too scared to revisit the superlative 'Pet Sematary' by the master horror writer Stephen King.

'Pet Sematary' by Stephen King
(Hodder and Stoughton, 1989)

Dr Louis Creed has left behind the rough and tumble of the city for a chance at the peaceful, rural idyll in Maine. Louis, his wife Rachel, children Ellie and Gage, with cat Church, think they've found the perfect family home and move in eager to begin a new life together.  Creed soon bonds with elderly neighbour Jud Crandall, a man full of stories about the town who can't help sharing news of a notable local landmark through the woods behind the house.  Beyond the fields where Creed hoped his children would play lies a pet 'sematary' where local youngsters have buried their beloved animals for decades.  At first Louis likes the eccentric charm of the place, but it's not long before death raises its ugly head and he discovers that the secrets of the cemetery cast a very long shadow indeed...

I've read a number of Stephen King books before ('Christine', 'Different Seasons', 'Carrie' and 'The Green Mile'), but none of them are any where near as impressive as this one.  King himself says that this is the most frightening book he's written and it's easy to see why.  It deals with powerful, universal themes and fears including family, grief and anxiety about our loved ones and helped me finally see why Mr King is popular worldwide.  This book deals with the worst of everyday fears and what ifs, then pushes further, forcing you to consider how far you would go in the name of familial love.

Louis Creed is a completely relatable, flawed yet optimistic human being and was so expertly written that I had to find out what happened to him.  He does so many things wrong, but completely understandably, and I just couldn't leave him on his own or shake the hope that someone, anyone, would help him pull back from the brink.  This is the first time that I can remember screaming 'No, don't do it!' at a book!  Mr King's descriptions of every physical exertion, every rogue thought, every painful emotion kept the novel tense right to the very last pages and my heart ached as I had to stand by and watch his life torn apart by the opposing forces of love and the cemetery.

This book is horrific in a very specific sense of the word.  It's not about cheap gore and even cheaper thrills, it touches a much more fundamental nerve that I still find tremors several weeks after finishing the novel.  I have no doubt that 'Pet Sematary' will stay with me for a long time to come, a credit to an incredible author who is clearly full of surprises.

'Pet Sematary' is about family and how far you'll go to protect them.  If you think you already know, then read this book.  It might change your mind.