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Dave’s top five for 2008

Well seeing as it’s popular for at this time of year for newspapers, tv, and radio to publish their “top whatever” lists of the past year, I figured I might as well do the same.  So, here are my favourite books over the past year.

1. The Brooklyn Follies by Paul Auster
2. Written in Bone by Simon Beckett
3. New York Trilogy by Paul Auster
4. God is not Great by Christopher Hitchens
5. Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

I realize I have two Paul Auster books up there, but hey.  They were just that good.

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Next up - Anathem

So next up on my reading list is Neal Stephenson’s latest novel Anathem.  This sucker is going to take ma a while to work my way through.  Clocking in at 960 pages, I’ll be reading this one for a while.

The last Neal Stephenson book I read was The System of the World, the final novel of his incredibly well written The Baroque Cycle.

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Alligator - Take a pass

I decided to read this book because it was nominated for the Giller Prize a few years back.  After reading the book though, I was left with a bland feeling.  Kind of like “what was the big deal?”

The story definitely has a Canadian feel to it, but why do all novels set in Canada have be set in small towns?  Don’t authors know that the majority of Canadians live in large cities?  Maybe the authors feel it adds to the grittiness of the book.  In this case however, it certainly do not.

In short, the book is a snap shot look in to the lives of several very ordinary people living ordinary lives in an ordinary Canadian small town.  Each person is flawed in his or her own way, and the book follows them as they go about their business.  If there was a point to the novel (aside from just simply reading a book) then it was definitely lost on me.

If you’re looking to read a Giller Prize winning book, then I recommend The Life of Pi. If you’re looking to read a book that is set in small town Canada, then by all means give Alligator a shot.

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The Trade Mission - Very Dissapointing

Ok. I’ll admit it. I had high hopes for this novel. Both of Andrew Pyper’s other novels that I’ve read (The Killing Circle and Lost Girls) were great reads. The storyline in each of those novels were well written and I found myself unable to put the book down. Unfortunately, The Trade Mission does not fall in to this category.

The premise of the novel starts out great. Internet boy millionaires go out on a jungle cruise in the Amazon. Shortly after the trip starts their boat gets overrun by pirates and the members of the Internet team get held hostage. After several days of torture they manage to escape and the self introspection begins.

So first the good points. The book is well written. Descriptions of the Amazon jungle are fantastic and the dialogue that takes place between the characters is at times so realistic that I could believe people would actually say the things I was reading on the printed page.

So what didn’t I like? The book is entirely formulaic. Pyper starts out with a great premise but blows it by falling in to the same old cliches that other writers have used time and time again. When I had finally finished reading the book I was left rolling my eyes and saying to myself “oh, not this again”.

As adventure novels go, take a pass on this one.

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Now reading The Trade Mission

As a follow-up to having enjoyed The Killing Circle, I decided to give another Andrew Pyper novel a try. So this time through I’m giving The Trade Mission a try. This is Pyper’s second novel, written after Lost Girls. I enjoyed Lost Girls and The Killing Circle, so I’m optimistic that I’ll enjoy this book as well.

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Oracle Night - Finished!

Thanks to a lengthy delay at the airport, I was able to finish Oracle Night the other day. So what are my thoughts related this book? Well I’m happy to report that Oracle Night continues author Paul Auster’s writing style of delivering stories within stories within stories.

To whit. The story focuses on novelist Sidney Orr who, while recovering from an illness, purchases a blue notebook. Over the course of a week, the notebook consumes his life. And after a period of inactivity on the writing front, the notebook inspires Orr to start writing/working on a novel again. Of course while he starts work on his new book, other aspects of Orr’s life start to swirl around him leading to no end of confusion on his part.

In short, I liked this book. I didn’t like it as much as some of Auster’s other novels, notably The Brooklyn Follies or The New York Trilogy, but I found this novel quite entertaining. I took a vested interest in Sidney Orr and wanted to keep reading the book to find out how it ended. Auster did a good job, in my opinion, of pulling the reader in.

My only complaint about the novel is that as part of the story, Auster had his protagonist Orr start writing a story in his blue notebook. The story, I thought, as quite good and I was disappointed that because of certain turns in the novel itself, we never get to learn how the story Orr was writing ends. As a reader, we’re left hanging.

This minor complaint aside though, I thought Oracle Night as a good book and I recommend it to anyone looking for an entertaining novel to read.

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Up next - Oracle Night

So my next book is the Paul Auster novel Oracle Night.  The premise of the story is an author buys a blue notebook and from the moment he buys the notebook the next nine days of his life are forever changed.

I love novels like this.  Hopefully I won’t be disappointed.

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Boys in the Trees - review

I could not get in to this novel.  I tried.  I tried taking an interest in the book, in the characters, in the setting and the plot.  But I just couldn’t do it.

I think what a lot to do with it was the writing style.  The vantage point of who is telling the story is not always that clear.  The plot jumps around a fair amount and I found myself spending more time trying to determine who was saying and doing what, as opposed to enjoying the book and the story telling.

I picked this book up because Mary Swan, the author, had been recommended to me.  I’m not so certain that I will be as quick to recommend her to others.  I’m hesitant to categorize this novel as ‘chick lit’ but it definitely is not your standard fiction novel.  Perhaps it is because the novel is set in the 1800s Canadian landscape.

In any event, I’d have to say “pass” on this novel if you’re looking for a book to read over the holiday break.  There are much better books out there, just crying to be read.

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The Killing Circle - review

I first came across Andrew Pyper when I read his novel Lost Girls and he immediately became one of my favourite authors.  However as time went on I forgot Pyper and so I was pleasantly surprised to read an article of his in the Globe and Mail and discover this great Canadian author once more.

The Killing Circle is Pyper’s fourth novel.  Set in Toronto, the author’s hometown, the book focuses on a group of amateur writers getting together for a five week period.  As the amateur authors gather and share their writing,  the city of Toronto is gripped by a serial killer.  Could the killer be one of the writers?  How do the members of the group feel about one another?    And why do the members of the group feel a though they are being followed?

Pyper does a great job of starting the novel out slowly.  Characters are developed over a series of chapters and suspense continues to build in a natural fashion so that when the book does come to an end, you’re left saying to yourself “wow, I never saw that coming”.

In short I liked this book and I’m looking forward to reading Pyper’s other novels too.

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Ritual - A good read

Mo Hayder’s most recent novel, Ritual, is a pretty good read and one that I would certainly recommend.  If you have read any of her novels in the past, then you will certainly be familiar with the elements she presents here.  Creepy settings, well written characters, a plot that turns on itself again and again, and of course Hayder’s trademark dry wit.

The novel starts with the discovery for a severed hand found in the local harbour.  After the police are called in, the investigation begins and takes the investigators on a journey in to the dark world of human mutilations, the sex trade, and ancient superstitions.

If you have read any of Mo’s other novels, you will be familiar with the main character Detective Caffery.  I didn’t think that Hayder did a good job of flushing out more of Caffery’s history, although in reading other reviews on other book sites, some people disagree about this.

For fear of revealing too much about the story, I will keep this review on the short side.  However if you like detective novels which border on the suspense - even horror - side, then do yourself a favour and give this book a read.

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