Elinor’s Bookshelf

I am always slow at making up my mind about what to read next, but this is my plan for June: 1. Finish « Life, The Universe and Everything » by Douglas Adams (The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy #3 of The Trilogy of Five) I started this a few days ago and am making slow progress mostly due to work engagements, and needing sleep. The book is funny and nonsensical in the best of ways and I shall follow up with a review as always. It’s fair to say I throughly enjoyed  both: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy #1 and its sequel The Restaurant at the End of the Road . 2. Read my first 2020 Big Book of the Summer As you may recall from my Big Book Challenge kick-off post , I am joining in Susan’s Big Book Summer Challenge this year. It’s my first year and I have some exciting news: Africa is calling. An American adventure awaits. That’s right, I shall be starting with “Americanah” by Chimanda Ngozi Adichie - excited already! Thank you all for your advice, I’m holding onto ...

My rating: In this historical fiction, Colson Whitehead takes us on a journey through 19th century US slave plantations, their white supremacists, and an undying dream of equality. Cora is a slave on the Randall estate in Georgia. She is a stray, with few friends, a bad reputation, and a sadistic, unforgiving master. Her grandmother, Ajarry, was kidnapped and transported from the Kingdom of Dahomey to North America, aboard a slave ship transporting hundreds. She later mothered Mabel, born a slave, who, in turn, gave birth to Cora. As a girl, then a young woman, Cora works in the rows of the cotton plantation in Georgia, defending her (grand)mother’s plot against all. Abandoned by her mother amid treacherous fellow slaves, her life is one of wretched anguish and despair, save a few brief moments of respite. When Caesar offers her an opportunity to escape, she decides to seize it, despite the risk of being captured by slave catchers and returned to a lingering painful death at...

     When I learned Sue at Book by Book was launching her 2020 Big Book Summer Reading Challenge (also on GoodReads ), I thought about it for a couple of days, then realised I shall be reading books with 400+ pages anyway.       And who am I to turn down the opportunity for a giveaway for doing something I love and am planning on doing anyway?        So, down to the nitty gritty details: Sue says any book with 400+ pages fits the bill, and one book is all it takes to qualify. These are my current contenders for this year's Big Book Summer Challenge: “Americanah” by Chimanda Ngozi Adichie (477 pages)     Ah, now this! This, I have been wanting to read for absolutely ages.     Chimanda Ngozi Adichie having left Nigeria at the age of 19 to go to the US, I can imagine how the book’s blurb and her own personal experience of going to America will mingle throughout the book.      ...

     Don't you just love it when you've ordered books and hey presto they appear on your doorstep? Golden moments!     So, t hese have arrived today (in no particular order), causing slight chaos on my bookshelf:   Shadows of the Workhouse by Jennifer Worth      This is the sequel to " Call the Midwife ", the first in a trilogy based on Jennifer Worth (née Lee)'s work as a midwife in the 1950s. Call the midwife says a lot about Eastenders' lives and the hardships they went through in post-war London. I am looking forward to getting back to the familiar settings of Nonnatus House, the Eastend and the cockney rhyming slang. Can't wait to see what this book has in store for me. Gone for Good by Harlan Coben      I read my first Harlan Coben this year: The Stranger , mostly because it was airing on Netflix, and I wanted to read the book before viewing the series. In the process, I discovered that although The Stranger is a relati...

My rating: (3.5 stars rounded up) House of Cards is a solid power driven political thriller, well documented, and peppered with humour. In his first political thriller, at the heart of the political scene in the ‘90s, Lord Dobbs likens politics to a game of cards: Shuffle - Cut - Hand. The book starts with a flurry of characters, setting the scene for general election night the UK. Henry Collinridge, The Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative Party, wins the Party their fourth term by a sliver, leaving the opposition in a stronger position than ever. Francis Urquhart, Chief Whip for the Conservative Party, knows every dirty little secret of his MPs. When the Party wins the general elections by a whimsical margin, Urquhart urges Collinridge to reshuffle, and move him to a more prominent position. But the PM turns down his proposal, leaving 61 year old Urquhart working in the shadows, humiliated and irate. His anger fuels a plan to bring down the Prime Ministe...

My rating: A vibrant, well-crafted account of life, coming of age and indomitable resilience and resistance in the marshes of North Carolina.  1952 Kya is five years old when ‘Ma’ leaves her violent, alcoholic husband. Kya is left with her drunken father and her slightly older brother, Jodie, in their shack by the marshes. In a pattern of consecutive abandonments, the Marsh Girl, olive-skinned and illiterate, ends up fending for herself alone in the wilderness by the age of ten. There’s nothing quite like ‘squinting with your ears’ to uncover the marshes’ life and secrets, and Kya has mastered the art of avoiding the town people, who leave the marsh dwellers to themselves. Intelligent, skittish, and untamed, she is unbeatable at hiding in her natural surroundings. In times when it is possible to avoid social services, she receives a helping hand from Jumpin’ and his wife Mabel, and through the years turns into a pretty teenager, then a beautiful young woman shrouded in my...

My rating: In this children’s novel, Louis Sachar tells thirty stories about kids in the highest class of a 30-story school. I heard lots of good reviews of Louis Sachar works and bought this one to offer some friends’ children. This is not my usual genre, and I am unable to determine the target demo (10y olds?) but I must say story 28 had me laughing out loud! I found it difficult to get up and running with this one, then finally finished it at lightning speed, and enjoying it more than the first half! It’s wonky and funky like the school itself. Each chapter is a short story relating to one of Mrs Jewls pupils. The stories are sad, funny, silly, sometimes out of this world - and I guess that’s what makes this book fun. I shall be passing it on to my friends’ kids for their enjoyment. I am desperate for their feedback to rate this properly. View all my reviews

My rating: In his sequel to “The hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy”, Douglas Adams continues the adventures of Athur Dent, Ford Prefect, Zaphod Beeblebrox, Trillian, and Marvin, in the same funny and unassuming style. Zaphod, still nutty as a fruitcake, looks for the man who rules the universe, while Arthur’s continued search for “The Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything” churns out the unsatisfactory “What do you get if you multiply six by nine?”. It makes for a quick read, ever surprising by its sophisms, absurdity and sense of perspective from ‘one’s never alone with a rubber duck.’ to (speaking of planet Earth being destroyed to make room for a hyperspace bypass): ‘Oh, I’ve heard of worse,’ said Ford, ‘I read of one planet off in the seventh dimension that got used as a ball in a game of intergalactic billiards. Got potted straight into a black hole. Killed ten billion people.’ Douglas Adams also touches on deep issues like faith, people management, and ec...