January and February 2023 Bookshelf

I read an awful lot of rubbish but these are the standouts from January and February

The Wall by John Lanchester
Dystopia novel set in the near future where the seas have risen catastrophically, there is huge migration as a result, and surprise surprise the UK has build a huge wall to keep out the sea and the 'Others'.  National Service keeps The Wall guarded, with a penalty of being put to sea for any failure.  A simple idea, brutally thinking through the implications, but as with all the best sci-fi, grounding it in the issues of today.  Are the Others any different to us, and what would we do?  Enjoyed it, but it came to a bit of a sudden stop for me.

The Last Day by Andrew Hunter Murray

 

Another dystopia novel, this time after the earth has stopped spinning in space.  The details of how are sufficient to give a dubious credibility but aren’t really important. The ‘Stop’ means that half the world is in perpetual darkness, the other in perpetual day, with life surviving in the hinterlands, which includes the UK. This is a thriller set in a rump of England locked in by yet another border to keep the rest of the world out created by a genocidal sinking of ships, complete with their occupants many decades earlier.  There's an autocrat in power making sure he keeps his position and is now seeking to get hold of nuclear weapons to wipe out any other human populations or opposition.  Sounds familiar? Yes, it was, but the thriller element set it above the competition.  Great lead character too, and I'd love to read the next instalment.

Terry Pratchett: A Life With Footnotes - Rob Wilkins

I loved Terry Pratchett's writing, his nerdiness and his stout grumpiness, and still miss him and his characters, even 9 years after his death.    This is a pretty straightforward biography, but with the added twist that it is based on the unfinished notes for Pratchett's autobiography,  mixed with his own memories of working as Terry's assistant for 20 odd years.   It made me feel sad again, as there were occasional glimpses of  Terry's unique voice, but obviously he wasn't there.   I enjoyed reading it, but I would rather have read some of the unfinished work that Terry instructed to be destroyed on his death.

The Boy with a Topknot: A memoir of love, secrets and lies by Sathnam Sanghera

A memoir of growing up in the midlands as a child of Sikh Indian parents who don't speak English and with a father who can't read or write in any language.  Obviously it's interesting for the family side of things and the challenge for the second generation to find their own ways of living, but the most insightful bit for me was the health and exclusion issues that they faced, not because of any deliberate actions, but through ongoing invisibility in the systems.  A dad and sister with schizophrenia undiagnosed for many years, and even when realised,  not being well managed because of a mix of lack of organised support and understanding from within their own community.   I really admired the mum though - she was clearly the backbone of the family despite the appalling things happening to her. No easy answers here but a really worthwhile read

Washington Black by Esi Edugyan

A life of a boy born as a slave, but with a talent for art and saved by a man of science called Titch.  It starts with some brutal realism but there's a fair amount of magical realism in there too, and  I enjoyed the (fairly far fetched) adventures, but struggled a bit with understanding some of the characters.  Big Kit looms as a large mother figure at the start, and I was sorry that she wasn't given more attention in the later bit of the novel when her real significance became clear.  A picaresque adventure with art, science but as much about love and loss  I found its biggest flaw to be how much it was trying to pack in.  This made me think a lot more about the invisibility of Black scientists in our narratives, but ultimately the book is about freedom and what that means for the individual and those around them.  Is it enough of itself?  Maybe a little less action and a little more conversation and character would have improved it a bit for me, but that didn't stop it being an enjoyable ride.

I Was Born For This by Alice Oseman

A young adult novel, this time about social media, fame and toxic fandoms.  I really loved this.  Oseman is a child of the internet, and they see all of the benefits, showing deep virtual friendships but also the shallowness and toxicity that can arise when you don't keep a grounding in real life.     The hazards of fame arose long before the internet, but this shows really clearly how the internet has magnified the impacts, particularly with fans feeling they are entitled to know absolutely everything about their idols (and believe that they actually do have special insight!).  Thoughtful, with great characters well drawn and a plot which went in some lightly unexpected directions.    What makes me a bit sad is how what they write about here has come to pass to a certain extent with the cast of Heartstopper, Oseman's greatest hit to date.  If only knowledge was a protection in itself!