Books I’ve enjoyed this month

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A fictional tale about the workings of the legal system in the USA

I think it is probably twenty-five years or so since I first read a novel by John Grisham and I remember particularly enjoying The Pelican Brief and The Client amongst others. He was one of my favourite authors.

A couple of weeks ago I found his 2017 novel, The Rooster Bar in our bookshelves so I decided to read it. It’s a story about three final year law students in America, each of whom have racked up a $200,000 loan for their university fees. They’ve been conned into attending a second rate law college and are unlikely to ever be able to repay the loan as they have no hope of getting a job in a law firm.

They decide to practice law illegally without the qualifications and that is where the trouble starts.

I enjoyed the book but it wasn’t one of my favourites. I wouldn’t want to read it again and I wouldn’t recommend it to you.

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So real! So readable! Loved it!

I have just read Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton. Trent is a Queensland journalist who has written for The Brisbane Times and The Courier Mail and now is a feature writer for The Weekend Australian. He has won many awards for his journalism and now this, his first novel, based on his life growing up in Darra in suburban Brisbane in Australia, is also winning awards.

This is a graphic novel about coming of age in a outwardly dysfunctional family where there’s plenty of love but also crime, drugs, domestic violence, social suffering, alcoholism, prison and prison escapes but always there was the dream of becoming a journalist & getting the girl.

Trent’s words carried me along so quickly. His descriptions are different but so clever. I found it riveting. I can’t imagine how people can live through what that family lived through and come out the other side. But they did. It’s an amazing story told brilliantly.

In this article https://www.harpercollins.com.au/blog/2018/06/26/trent-dalton-why-i-wrote-boy-swallows-universe/ he explains why he wrote the book. He says that he took all his own secrets and turned them into this novel.

We are privileged to be able to read it. I recommend that you do if you haven’t already.

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Have you read “The Book Thief”

I have just finished reading this book by Markus Zusak for the second time and I thoroughly enjoyed it again.

Using Death as the narrator is a novel idea and quite brilliant, I think, when you consider the horrific number of people who died in those years of the Second World War- many familes must have been visited by Death at least once if not, many times.

In spite of all the loss and grief, there is much love and tenderness and individual bravery, all augmented with beautiful words, stories, sketches and music in this beautiful tale.

It is a story of love and of family and friendship.

It made me wonder if I would have the strength of my convictions and the courage that Hans, Rosa and Leisel showed in the face of such cruelty and abhorrent behaviour. I hope so but you would never know until you were placed in those situations.

If you haven’t read this book, please do. It’s a must read!

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Holiday reading

Whilst cruising on the lovely Marina, I’ve managed to find the time to read a couple of books out of the ship’s library

The first was The Paris Vendetta by Steve Barry. I thought this was a fitting choice as I had just enjoyed that lovely week in Paris and I knew exactly where the characters were as they moved through Paris in the story. The book reminded me of The DaVinci Affair by Dan Brown as there were ancient mysteries to be solved, clues to be followed and places to visit. I learnt about the life of Napoléon and his battles through Europe. I wondered if he did really leave a secret legacy and followed the characters as they tried to prevent The Paris Club from triggering a global financial meltdown. It was a little difficult to grasp all the different characters at the beginning but once I did, I really enjoyed this novel. It was full of suspense and twists and turns and it got me in.

The second was The Girl in the Spider’s Web, a Lisbeth Salander novel by David Lagercrantz and continuing Stieglitz Larsson’s Millenium Series. I loved the series by Larsson and was very sad to hear he had died. Lagercrantz has done a great job of continuing these exciting stories and I really enjoyed spending more time with Lisbeth Salander, genius hacker and uncompromising misfit, and the journalist, Mikael Blomkvist. The characterisation fits with that in the original novels and the battle between right and wrong, between Lisbeth and her twin sister, was absorbing. I loved it. Didn’t want to put it down!

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No potato peel pie – just Cornish Pasties!

I was really excited to visit the home of that lovely book and film about Guernsey during the Nazi occupation in WWII. We were disappointed to hear from some of the shopkeepers that the movie was actually filmed in Cornwall and even the shoreline shots were not actually Guernsey. If you haven’t read the book, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society, I recommend it.

David started the day with his typical Oceania breakfast of lamb chops, bacon, tomato, hash brown followed by toast and marmalade. At home he has just toast and tomato.

We then rode the tender across and wandered through the streets of Guernsey. It was a lovely place to explore. David saw The Cornish Pasty Company shop so in we went for pasties and coffee (flat whites even with soy milk). We certainly didn’t need any lunch back on board.

I bought a lovely shirt in one of the many interesting little boutiques and they don’t have any VAT so the price was right.

The entertainer tonight was Chris Hamilton, an English piano showman and he could certainly tickle the ivories. He even played The Entertainer, my favourite piece of music.

Another great day!

Leave a comment Posted on by dapperdaveanddinkydi My favourite reads

Pachinko and Pompey

How are these two words connected? How can a Japanese recreational arcade game and a famous Australian general be linked? Is it merely alliteration? No – it’s because they are the key words to remind me of my favourite books from 2018.

I spent some time in hospital early in the year and a very kind friend brought me Pachinko by Min Jin Lee. It’s a delightful, sad family saga set in Korea and Japan during the 20th century. I had next to no knowledge of the history between Korea and Japan in that time frame but I learnt much whilst reading Pachinko. I absolutely loved the book and passed it around amongst my family and friends who all reviewed it favourably. Some members of my book club were not so impressed saying that it lost focus in the second half of the story. I reread it prior to our discussion at book club and I found it to be just as enjoyable the second time.

Pompey Elliott In His Own Words by Ross McMullin is also historical but it is the story of Pompey Elliott, one of Australia’s great fighting generals during World War I. Ross McMullin has researched Pompey’s life through his own writings; his diaries, his letters and his wartime correspondence and has published his writings in chronological order. We went to a talk by Ross at the 2018 Brisbane Writer’s Festival about this book and were hooked. We had to buy it. It’s a gripping read. We see inside the thoughts and feelings of this compassionate man who fought for his men through numerous controversies even though it affected his opportunities for promotion. He grieved when his men were sacrificed and we see that particularly in letters to his wife. (She kept and preserved all his letters to her and their two children.) He tried to be a father to his children even though he was thousands of miles away in horrific situations. The letters to the kids are poignant.

Two great books! I recommend them to you.

PS I’m doing a WordPress free online course at the moment and it gives a daily challenge. I haven’t managed them all but this one is to post a regular monthly or weekly post. So I reckon I’ll write about the best books I’ve read each month but I thought I had to start with these two great books I read last year. I hope you enjoy reading about what I’ve been reading.