Hi everyone, its Lauren and welcome to
part 1 of my reading wrap-up for the
month of May. I'm very pleased to say
that I have been working with the
Bailey's Women's Prize for Fiction again
this year which means I have been
reading and I'm going to review all of
the shortlisted books, and then also me
and Jen and Jean are going to be doing a
video all together in the next couple of
weeks where we discuss all of our
different reactions to the shortlisted
books, which our favorites are and which
one we think is going to win. So I've
already read three of the shortslisted
books which is First Love, Do Not Say We
Have Nothing and Stay With Me so if
you'd like to see my reviews of those I
will leave links to those videos in the
description box below, and then this
video we're going to get onto the next
three in the short list and I'm also
going to be discussing my favorites and
who I think is going to win, or who I'd
like to win anyway! So the first book
that I finished this month was The Dark
Circle by Linda Grant. This is about two
twins in post-war East End of London
Lenny and Miriam who contract TB and
with the opening of the new NHS, the National
Health Service, they are now able to go
to a sanatorium down in Kent I think
to rest their lungs and hopefully get
better although it was a disease that
people didn't really know very much
about at the time. So this is about their
journey, about them taking a break from
their lives essentially and going down
somewhere completely different and all
of the different characters that they
meet, the different people who are in
this sanatorium and how this experience
then affects their lives going forward
I'm really, really unsure about this book
I really loved the characters in it and
I thought they were really interesting
and I liked learning about all the
different people that were in the
sanatorium, for example someone who had
survived the Holocaust, but I did just
come away from it feeling a bit 'so what?'
I don't really know what the point of
this book was - if you can't say that any
book has a point! I did feel like it was
interesting while they were in the
sanatorium but I didn't really feel...I
didn't really know what she was trying to
say with it. It felt like this would be
interesting if it was someone's real
life and it was just - this was a period
of my life where I had TB and I went to
sanatorium...then it'd be interesting but
as fiction and as a plot as a novel I
wasn't sure...I didn't really get why?
However I do think I'm in the minority
here with this opinion because a lot of
people I know really, really enjoyed this
book so I'm going to find it really
interesting to discuss this with the
other guys once everyone's read
everything
and to get our opinions because like I
say, it wasn't a bad book, I enjoyed it
while I was reading it and I enjoyed the
characters but I just felt it didn't
move me at the end I didn't and put it
down thinking 'wow, that was fantastic' and
I'm being especially critical here with
all of these books because it's on a
shortlist for a literary prize. I'm not
just going 'oh that was an OK book, I
enjoyed it' I'm trying to be really
really picky because if you're trying to
judge a book it's not just whether you
liked it or not, you're also judging it
in comparison with the other books on
the shortlist so bear that in mind. I'm
being a big extra..scrutinable?
scrutinizing? Then the next book
that I really enjoyed in the month May
was The Power by Naomi alderman. This is
a dystopian, not-too-distant future kind
of book. Naomi is a mentee of Margaret
Atwood and you can really see Atwood's
influences in this book, it feels very
similar to Oryx and Crake and The Year of
the Flood, those Maddaddam books
because this is multiple perspectives
and it's just told, it's really
imaginative but also you could
believe that this could happen. The
premise of this book is that one day a
few young girls realize that they have
this electric charge and it is revealed
that throughout the generations women
have been developing this skein in their
skin which allows them to generate
electricity which then kind of flips the
whole social structure on its head
because suddenly women are more powerful
stronger in a physical sense than men
and this takes a look of what would
happen to our social structures and
hierarchies if that were the case. We
follow a number of different women
mostly from the UK and the U.S. to be
fair but she also does examine what
would happen in say Moldova if this were
the case? What would happen in Saudi
Arabia? How are different power
structures going to be changed? And not
only was it interesting but it's
actually really exhilarating, so readable
I absolutely raced through it and wanted
to know what was going to happen. She's
also got that kind of macro view of
what's happening in society as well as
what's happening to the individual so I
really really enjoyed it. Being very
picky again, this is structured in the
sense that there are some
letters at the beginning and the end of
the book and there are some pictures of
artifacts
of the book which gives the impression
that this is a historical novel being
written by someone in the distant future
and they're looking back on the time
when this shift happened and although I
really liked that idea, I just don't know
if this book needed it to be honest and
especially the bits of the different
archaeological finds in the middle of
the story I felt that they detracted from
the narrative and...I was quite torn by it
actually because I like I like the idea
I just don't know if actually added
anything to the work itself
So quite interesting there, overall
really really enjoyed it, definitely be
looking to read some more of her other
work and I really recommend it
especially for like a holiday read
actually this is something you'd
absolutely whizz through. And the last
book that I read on the short list and
that I read and also exists on
the shortlist is The Sport of Kings by C E
Morgan. Now this is about racehorses, it's
not just about racehorses. I am so
conflicted about this novel, this is the
novel that conflicted me absolute the
most on the whole shortlist. So this is
about a rich white family in Kentucky we
mostly follow the story of Henry
from his childhood and his relationship
with his father and then his love of
racehorses and his obsession and then
his relationship with his own daughter
and then in parallel to this family's
kind of the story of their generation we
also have the story of some people who
were related to this family's former
slaves and I think that's perhaps a
detail which actually annoyed me
slightly because it mentions it on the
blurb that it's the white family and the
black family who are descendants of their
slaves, but it's done so subtly in the
book that I almost don't know if it was
necessary, but anyway so you also have
the life of Allmon who is growing up in
Cincinnati I believe and it's his
relationship with his mother and father
and his grandfather and then it all kind
of comes together and towards the middle
when and he goes and works for their
family and helps them with their horses
The themes of this book and what she was
saying in his book I absolutely loved
and thought was so interesting I
particularly liked Allmon's story growing
up I really found interesting
the parallels between Henry's
obsession with white supremacy and also
breeding racehorses and the idea of
breeding something to perfection and
what lengths you would go to in terms of
obsession I thought it was wonderful
that was
really really clever and I really liked
her observations there. I also
thought her writing was beautiful I
think parts of it were absolutely
gorgeous and I really really appreciated
the craft of this novel and how she put it
together. However, it was probably about
in my opinion maybe even 200 pages
too long and there are parts of it which
just went on to the point where I was like
'is is there any need?' for example
you'd have a sermon by somebody and we'd
literally have three or four pages of
the sermon and for me as a reader I'm
like can we get on with the plot please?
So I'd be really interested to hear other
people's opinions on this now that I've
read everything and we can discuss it I
know the Simon at Savidgereads actually
really really enjoyed this and I find it
really interesting how I can really
appreciate and enjoy a novel so much in
one sense but then in the other sense
while I was reading it I was a bit like
I found it dragging and I found it
difficult to want to pick it up
and I found the story very slow and yet
in hindsight now that I finished it I
kind of really appreciate what it was
doing, so it depends what you're reading
a book for, it depends what you think
literature is, are we looking for
something that's very well crafted
something that has a message, something
that's written very beautifully, and how
much does enjoyment and readability of a
novel come into that question? So I just
really don't know, I really enjoyed
reading all of these books from shortlist
actually because they're all so
different from each other and the authors
have taken very different approaches to
their novels and that's what I love
because reading is so subjective it's
not just about what do you want in a
novel it's also what I'm going to enjoy
and what you're going to enjoy is going
to be completely different and
completely subjective so I really find
it interesting that you've got a short
list of such different books and one of
them's got to win! So I think if I were
going on enjoyability and readability
alone my favorite book to read has
definitely been Stay With Me I really
enjoyed it
but for some reason I can't put my
finger on, it I feel like this really you
can really tell this is a debut and not
because it isn't good or isn't very well
crafted but I just feel like it almost
feels like there's more to her and like
she can write more and I feel like her
next novel is going to be even
better, so really enjoyed that one and also
I really enjoyed
The Power however I have just mentioned
there are a couple of things about it
which I wasn't sure about, but again in
terms of readability, really love those
two. And then if we're going to be
talking about the art of a novel or the
novel as a craft I feel like First Love
it's a really great example of that; it's
such a short book and yet Gwendolyn
Reilly fits so much into it like it's
amazing the topics she manages to cover
compared to the other end of the
spectrum with The Sport of Kings which is
a very very long book, but again so much
is covered and it's so well structured
but my enjoyment wasn't that high for
either of these even though both of them
have stayed with me after the fact, I
didn't love them while I was reading
them. So for me really the only book on
the shortlist which was both enjoyable
and kept me interested the whole way
through and I also really appreciated
the writing and the whole structure and
the craft and of all was Do Not Say We
Have Nothing...so perhaps if it was up to
me this one would win! But even that's
even saying that, just makes me feel I'm
just really not sure, I don't envy the
judges at all! I'm really looking
forward to finding out who the winner is
on the 7th of June I was going to say 8th
that's the day of the election! I will be
at the event So make sure you're
following me on Instagram and Twitter
because I'll probably be tweeting and
Instagram storying at the event. I
probably? I definitely will be knowing me!
and also look out for my discussion with
Jen and Jean as well because we're going
to be arguing I'm sure over who we think
should win the prize. I would love
to hear from all of you if you read any
of these books, what your opinions, and
I think would be great to continue the
discussion so I really hope you enjoyed
this video I really look forward to
hearing your thoughts and I will see you
next time, bye!
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