Elinor’s Bookshelf

My rating: I don’t usually like dystopian fiction, and thought I wouldn’t really enjoy the book. How wrong I was about that - in fact I am a bit annoyed with myself as cannot get matching editions of all three books – ugh. This book turned out to be a real page-turner despite its predictable storyline. Easy to read, fast-paced, sometimes funny, sometimes scary, it kept me up way past my bedtime! View all my reviews

My rating: In this second part of his historical epic, dedicated to his grandparents, Welsh author Ken Follett, picks up a few years after the first volume closes off. We reunite with the 5 families from the first part of the trilogy (Russian, English, Welsh, German, and American), including their offspring. The story portrays the war from their different perspectives (country, class, generation), depicting the political situation that inevitably led to the Second World War, and ultimately to the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the beginning of the Cold War. As Adolf Hitler rises to power, the brownshirts, and the SS, repress and silence opposition using horrific violence, targeting rival parties and the minorities, among which the Jews, the handicapped, and the gay community. There are some unpleasant scenes in the book; however, they seem always to serve the narrative. We travel across Europe, from Germany to Spain and Russia, to the United States via Great Britain, an...

My rating: In her impressive debut novel, Gail Honeyman introduces Eleanor Oliphant, a highly intelligent and articulate, yet rather comically socially inept character. Eleanor has no social life and chats with her mother on Wednesday evenings. She has a day job, and keeps to herself. She also spends her week-ends downing vodka alone at home. But Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine. Or is she? The writing is superb, and we discover a deep and scarred protagonist. Eleanor has a “Don Tillman” quality but you can tell from the top it runs much deeper, and there is no hint of Asperger’s. I quickly found myself wanting to know more, and was both amused and fascinated by her sometimes wild fantasies, sometimes incredibly down to earth attitude, not to  mention her complex relationship with her unpredictable mother. This book was a page-turner, and thoroughly enjoyable, funny, profound, thoughtful, moving and full of  kindness, and tolerance. I absolutely loved it! View al...