October was a slow month on the reading front for me but here are my thoughts on the four (five if you count one twice) I did read.
Tomorrow x 3 - Gabrielle Zevin
Tricky one, this. I didn't finish it. Such a rare thing for me and I know it's a super-popular book but I got almost halfway through and nothing was happening except gaming and developing a game. Tedium x 3! If the characters had been developed so I'd felt I'd got to know them, then I think I would have stuck with it, alas no. So there we have it. Perhaps it's a generational thing? As a non-gamer in my mid-fifties, perhaps it's not even meant for me. Anyway, the reference, intentional or otherwise, to Macbeth's famous soliloquy with its title made me reach for this book.
"There would have been a time for such a word.Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death ..." - Macbeth (Act 5, Scene 5)
And now I need to read Macbeth again :)
A Lobster Tale - Erica Manwaring
Proof that not every idea that pops into our head is a good one. Short review this one - it's utter crap.
Small Things Like These - Claire Keegan
This is how you write a book. Sublimely written, words put in the right order and in the most exquisite way. All of Keegan's books are short but my god, are they epic in story and in skill. She is a master of her craft.
Small Things is a brilliantly observed insight into Irish life in 1985 when coal merchant, Bill Furlong, is preparing for Christmas with his family and happens upon a girl on one of his deliveries. From that moment, he is forced to face the horrors of the Catholic Church's Magdelene Laundries and his own past.
I cannot recommend this book enough. I finished reading it at the start of October and read it again at the end of the month. That's a first for me and I regret nothing.
Buy it. Read it. Gift it to every reader you know.
The Running Grave - Robert Galbraith
If you've read the previous Galbraith books then you'll love this as it has much of the same compelling drama as the other novels. Yes, once again, it's a huge doorstopper of a book - the antithesis of handbag friendly - but so readable that it's hardly an inconvenience. In Running Grave, Robin goes deep undercover at a hardcore religious cult and Strike has some upsetting personal issues to deal with. Will our favourite detective duo ever get together? You'll have to read the book to find out.
