Books: July to September 2022

 

The Headmaster's Wager by Vincent Lam

I absolutely loved this one. Percival Chen is the Chinese headmaster of an elite school in Vietnam in the 1960s. He is a gambler and frequently bribes government officials for maintaining his school. However, this all backfires when he is forced to wager more to get his son out of trouble.  There is so much detail to this story.

The Book Club by C J Cooper

This is not really my usual type of book, but my sister lent it to me. As always with these kind of books, I actually really enjoy them. Alice moves into a village and starts a book club. When the participants' choice of book starts to hint at darker secrets, the group members who were previously good friends start to suspect each other.

Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler

This was part of the Hogarth Shakespeare experiment where authors were asked to re-write a Shakespeare tale. This is her take on Taming of the Shrew. A very warm and quirky story.

My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell

Such a good book despite the difficult subject matter (teacher grooming his 15 year old student). It is so difficult to see Vanessa wrangle with this even years after the events, how she is still in touch with her abuser and the hold that he has over her. And then how this flips to her stalking him. 

Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal by Mary Roach

Why aren't all non-fiction books as good as this? Considering that Mary Roach explores literally every part of the alimentary canal (from taste buds to anus), it is such an engaging read. Particularly memorable was the part where Dr Beaumont becomes rather too fond of his subject with a stomach fistula and not only experiments on him, but also tastes his stomach acid. So, not for the faint hearted.

Being Dead by Jim Crace

The death and subsequent decay of an older couple on a beach is such a strange subject for a novel. Through their gruesome deaths we learn about who they were when living and how such an unlikely pair of individuals came together. This has been on my "to read" pile since it was featured on Radio 4's A Good Read (in 2005 - can that be right), and I finally bought it this year?!

Adventures in Human Being: A Grand Tour from the Cranium to the Calcaneum by Gavin Francis

A series of essays on the human body from the brain down to the feet. Although Gavin Francis obviously writes from his medical experience, his writing style is sometimes almost poetic. Really fascinating.

Stamboul Train by Graham Greene

This felt very dated - very much of the 1930s when it was written. Graham Greene undeniably writes a good tale, but this story set on the Orient Express was really marred by the anti-semitic stance.

The Appeal by Janice Hallett

A quirky presentation style in the form of emails, texts and reports as a team of lawyers try to solve a murder amongst a group of amateur dramatists in a small suburban town. 

Love Mrs Jones x