Book of the year alert! I know it is not even halfway through the year yet, but I have just read a brilliant contender for the title. I devoured it today in just the couple of hours it takes me to commute to work and back and it really made my day.
The book is Passenger by Billy Cowie, who is something of a Scottish polymath, being a writer, composer and choreographer - although this is his first novel. He's a research fellow at the University of Brighton at the moment, apparently.
Anyway, the book is based on the bizarre premise that someone can not only subsume his twin (which does happen) but not know about it until said twin begins "communicating" 42 years later. It sounds crazy but it is simply and beautifully written, with almost flawless plausibility - but most importantly it is an extremely thought-provoking and moving read.
If you buy one book this spring... this is the one to look out for.

Yesterday was Sunday - and Sunday mornings are traditionally time for a lie-in and some extra reading in our house. Unusually, I found myself in the position of being able to finish not one but two books - how satisfying is that?
The books were Affinity by Sarah Waters, which I was keen to rad before the TV serialisation starts, and Suzanne Berne's A Ghost At The Table. Both very good, although I don't think Berne quite matched her prize-winning A Crime In The Neighbourhood. The ending was a bit 'so what?' - but in a way that suited the book, really. Anything too dramatic would have been wrong. I suppose I had hoped for a bit more clarification. Whereas Affinity had a fine dramatic conclusion and was all the more enjoyable for it. The story is one of Waters' Victorian tales, based around a young spirit medum who is in jail for assault. It is very well imagined and rather a good mystery story.
Anyway, one of the best things about endings is... they mean it's time to choose the next beginning!

I haven't been able to read while commuting recently because I've mostly been having lifts in. Then, last Friday, I had my first round-trip train and bus day in a while. Naturally, I started a new book. The latest Val McDermid paperback, Beneath The Bleeding, seemed the ideal choice. I do love a good detective thriller but I find it's better not to read them at bedtime!
From the opening sentence I was hooked and I must admit I've been 'resting' several times today in between the weekend chores to catch up with DCI Carol Jordan and Dr Tony Hill. I don't mind that the TV dramatisation (Wire In The Blood) of these characters is at the forefront of my mind - Hermione Norris and Robson Green were such perfect choices, it actually enhances my enjoyment of the book. It's familiar but exciting, like settling down to watch some soothing Sunday night detective nonsense - even though McDermid is rather grittier than Agatha Christie or Midsomer Murders! Anyway, I doubt this book will survive until my next commute - I'll probably polish it off tomorrow.
In fact, I've already picked out my next train companion - The Servants by Brighton author MM Smith (aka Michael Marshall Smith and Michael Marshall as an SF/fantasy and crime author respectively). I haven't come across him before but this rather beautifully produced slim novel sounds very intriguing... More on this soon.

It's true, you never do know what's around the corner. A couple of weeks ago I got a call at work asking me to go on a live radio show to talk about The Argus Book Club.
Wow!
My mind went into a kind of excited panicky overdrive - until I realised the invitation was to go on Coastway hospital radio. Oh. Not Radio 4, then?
It's probably just as well, as trekking into Brighton last Saturday afternoon was time-consuming enough. But I'd said yes, so I made the effort. Coastway radio is a teensy office with two even teensier studio rooms off it, tucked away deep in the heart of some hospital building which eerily doesn't seem to be in use at the weekend. But my volunteer "book corner" hostess Rosemary was very welcoming and for a whole hour I got to inflict my choice of music on the poor patients of Brighton and chat about the book club, World Book Day, local authors and books in general. It was relaxing and fun - a whole hour devoted to me! A bit like having a pampering beauty treatment - without the hefty price tag. And I got to feel I'd done my good deed for the day as well.
As I left, Rosemary said "You've got a good voice for radio..." So if the call from Radio 4 ever does come in... I'll be ready.

I haven't written here for a while - mainly because I've been wading my way through Patrick Leigh Fermor's Mani: Travels in the Southern Peloponnes. I can't remember the last time I was reading a book almost guaranteed to send me to sleep. I've been struggling with it for about four weeks now and still a third left to read - I doubt I'll finish it in time for my book group meeting next Friday. It's quite frustrating because parts of it are really interesting - the actual journey and the people he met, even some of the history of the area - but the rest contains far too much discussion of what exactly a nereid is and how the (incredibly numerous) different kinds of centaur vary in different parts of Greece. I mean, who cares? They aren't real! Sadly, the pages given to the real journey seem to be far outnumbered by the mythical expositions. I don't mind myths but these minutiae are discussed as if they were under scientific scrutiny and it is neither interesting nor entertaining.
Luckily, the other book I've been reading recently was excellent - The Welsh Girl by Peter Ho Davis. Set towards the end of the Second World War,it focuses on three characters, a German who surrendered on the D-Day beaches, a part-Jew who escaped Germany to become an interrogator in the British Army and a Welsh farm girl. All three characters are well drawn and the narrative which links them is engaging and thought-provoking. One I'd recommend.

At the end of 2007 I wrote about how hard it was to find a 'book of the year' among those I'd read. Yet I'm already wondering if one of my first reads of 2008 will be a contender - Notes From An Exhibition by Patrick Gale was a total delight.
The structure (the narrative hangs upon the 'notes' of the title) is interesting and clever without being difficult or self-conscious and the story which unravels is intriguing and beautifully told.
When I'd finished, I passed it on to my husband, who'd just finished Salmon Fishing... "What? Another Richard and Judy pick?" he said, just a teensy bit sniffily. But the truth is - they (or rather, their book chooser) can't half pick 'em. Not that I've been deliberately following their book list - but it seems you could do worse. I'm actually trying to read more of the Spread The Word book list I wrote about in Reading Matters a few weeks ago. I've just finished another, The Dead Of Summer by Camilla Way, which was good, if disturbing... It focuses on three young misfit teenagers who hang out together one eventful summer. It's very atmospheric and there's a good twist but I felt she over-egged it a bit towards the end.
Still - 2008 is shaping up so well on the book-selection front I'm worried I might be peaking early.