The Reading Nook: Caitlin Moran

The first time I picked up and started reading How To Be A Woman, I got a bit of a girl crush.  I'm sure I'm not the only one either.  Caitlin Moran, part of the influential twitterati who occasionally, nervously, lets her 11 year old daughter take control of her feed, is the voice of a generation of women who aren't exactly your 1950's housewife women, but also are not the stereotypical man-hating, bra burning militant feminists of the 1960's and 70's.  She represents a middle ground, women who just wanted to be treated with the same amount of respect that men, for the most part, are automatically granted, without having to jump through hoops of fire.  She is the voice of women who quite like being able to vote, be a CEO and also secretly dream of baking the perfect loaf of bread (Bake-Off has a lot to answer for).  She gives life to all those thoughts and insecurities that women have about work, family, looks, weight, sex, alcohol, drugs, clothes, abortion, boyfriends, music, periods, fashion, pea-cocking and the quagmire that is adolescence at a time in your life when all you want to do is scream 'look at me, I'm important' and the rest of the world says 'that's nice dear' and returns to its adult conversation.

Not only that, the woman is astoundingly funny.  Laugh out loud, 'Steve you've got to let me read this section to you' funny.  It's described as the book that every woman should read, won the Galaxy Book of the Year Award and tipped the best seller lists.  I think part of that is due to Moran's signature, chatty, girls over a glass of wine writing style. Her command of the English language is masterful - she can be as flowery as a meadow in summer when she wants to be and is not afraid to swear like a docker.  Her descriptions can be graphic - the accounts on her giving birth and her abortion are particularly moving and had me squirming uncomfortably in my seat.  Her complete bafflement with expensive handbags and thongs had me nodding in agreement.  Her awkwardness at her first real job had me howling with laughter.

Is How To Be A Woman a feminist book? Well, yes, of course it is, but only in so much as explores what it means to be female in modern day Britain and then challenges that.

Should all women read this book? Yes. Should all men?  Hell yes. If anything, it may give you a bit more of an understanding as to why we flip out when we have nothing to wear.

I loved How To Be A Woman.  I couldn't wait to read Moranthology.  If How To Be A Woman is Moran's humorous mantra, then Moranthology are her sermons.  A collection of her best columns from The Times, sandwiched together with musings over topics that didn't quite fit into the How To Be A Woman structure (like the conversations with her husband Pete, who is drifting off to sleep moments before Moran gets her newest bolt of lighting, need to discuss it right now moment).  The problem with Moranthology is that you are reminded on a regular basis just how extraordinary a life Moran has led thus far.  A published writer, TV presenter and music critic whilst still in her teens, she has interviewed (and partied) with music's royalty, been late to interview the PM and downed gin with the poster children of TV and film.  She is still only in her 30's.  Makes you a bit sick.  

David Ellis

All through Moranthology though, you get a much stronger feel for who she is as a person and how she is as part of a strong family unit.  You get the feeling that, no matter who you are, she will quite happily plant down, spark up, pour out two large glasses and natter away with you until the small hours.  She is endearingly human and you get a sense of that no matter if she is talking about Lady Gaga lying down drunk with her head in Moran's lap in a sex club in Germany or playing with her kids on a beach in Wales before going for a picnic. 

Her observations are not just over the convoluted and sometimes ridiculous plot lines of Downton Abbey (the ability of a maid to kill the unborn Earl of Downton with a bar of lilac soap was a particular favourite of hers) or which Ghostbuster you should dress up as, but also offer a compassionate and frankly much more honest look at the some of the more serious issues facing society, such as the real life implications of benefits cuts on those families who truly need them (from the voice of someone whose family relied on those benefits when her father was unable to work) and her strident belief in the value of our public libraries 'a library in the middle of a community is a cross between an emergency exit, a life-raft and a festival. They are cathedrals of the mind; hospitals of the soul; theme parks of the imagination. On a cold rainy island, they are the only sheltered public spaces where you are not a consumer, but a citizen instead'.  You can read her full libraries column here. 

Levon Biss for The New York Times

If you are a regular reader of Moran's columns, a lot of the material in Moranthology will be old hat to you, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't get a copy.  Hell, the Keith Richards interview is worth the purchase price of the book alone (currently £6.29 on amazon, or about £4 for a kindle copy).  If you love How To Be A Woman, you should also read Moranthology, although it is very different, and not as strong as her brilliant debut, it will still have you laughing out loud.

Her latest offering, the semi-autobiographical How To Build A Girl is now out as well.  I'm off to get a copy.

If you like (or hate!) what you have read, please do let me know in the comments below or slap me with a cheeky follow, or say Hi to me on my facebook group or twitter!

The Reading Nook: A childhood, a dog and a trauma

Look at this.  3 books.  3 WHOLE BOOKS!!!!

I haven't really been doing anything else in the evenings it has to be said, but I have read 3 books.  Every page, didn't skip ahead, absorbed it all.

Are you proud of me?

OK, so they aren't exactly the longest books in the world (one happens to be a children's book which I read in 45 minutes, we'll come back to that in a minute), but the fact remains that in one month I read 3 books.

Hah!

I had a rather specific reason for selecting the first of my trio of literary lovelies.  As the whole world knows, Maya Angelou, an amazing woman and writer, sadly passed away in May of this year.  As a personal tribute to her, I picked up the first of her autobiographies; a book that I had only read snippets of before.

I was first introduced to her writing when I was about 14.  I was sat in my English Literature class in secondary school.  Our teacher had just handed us all extracts from a book of poems to study and analyse, and preceding each poem was a sample of writing from "I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings".  I have no idea why all the poems were preceded by these extracts, I can't even remember what the poems were or who they were by (they weren't by Angelou, I know that much).  What I can remember is being more fascinated by the extracts from this book with an intriguing title than I was by the poems themselves.

Thus began a lifelong love of American Literature.  I went on to study it alongside my Classics at University (thank heavens for Joint Honours degrees) and dove into a world filled with Toni Morrison, Harper Lee, Norman Maclean, Donna Tartt, Don Delillo and Alice Walker.  "I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings" had always been on that list of books that I would eventually read and it was just waiting for me on my bookshelf.  When the story of Angelou's passing appeared on my news feed, I knew that the time was right to read it.

It was worth the wait.

Written in 1969, "I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings" charts the life of the young Angelou from the age of 3 when her and her older brother go to live with her grandmother in the sleepy and racially segregated town of Stamps in Arkansas.  The book describes the general store in Stamps that her grandmother ran with her Uncle, her meetings with her father who is a stranger to her in her early years, school, examinations and her first best friend, weddings and funerals and the acceptance of death.  It covers the childhood struggle to find your own identity and a critique of the racism that permeated the everyday life around her, a racism that she refused to accept, a racism that she witnessed forcing her Uncle to contort his body for hours hiding in a barrel to escape the KKK, having her own name changed from Marguerite to Mary as it was more acceptable for her white employer and the refusal of a white dentist to remove a rotten tooth from Maya's mouth, despite the agony she was in.  It showcases powerhouse female role models, the idolisation of her Momma (her grandmother) and her mother, the trauma of her rape at 8 by her mother's boyfriend and the refuge she finds in books.

Written in conversational prose, we see the thoughts, ideas and dreams of the young Maya come to life before our eyes as she tries to work though complex situations in her mind and make sense of the environment around her.  We see her progress into her teenage years, rebel against the role of the housemaid that she is forced into and her growth and development into a self-assured young woman when she stays with her mother in San Francisco and becomes the first black female street conductor on the trams.  She stays with her father in California and goes with him to Mexico.  She later runs away from him and his new wife and lives in a car scrap yard with other children for a short period of time.

The book finishes with Angelou at the age of 16 giving birth to her son, having concealed her pregnancy- caused by her fear that she may be a lesbian or a hermaphrodite (the same thing to her confused and ill-educated about these matters teenaged mind) - from her family for 8 months so that she could graduate from high school.  

"I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings" is the first in a series of 7 autobiographical books written by Angelou which have been described as some of the most powerful books by women ever written.  It was nominated for a National Book Award in 1970, topped the New York Bestseller list for 2 years and has been studied in schools and universities ever since (although some places, including libraries, have banned it).

For me, it was hypnotic.  I loved how Angelou recreated the world of her childhood for me, and whilst I could never relate to the struggles she went though as a black child in the deep south of 1930's America, I could still relate to her as a child struggling to come to terms with who she is and her place in the world.

Everyone needs to read this book.

After immersing myself in Angelou's world, I needed something a bit lighter.  When I was little, my step-grandmother had a wonderful tradition of buying me books with characters called Becky or Rebecca in them, so that I could feel like I was part of the story.  She was always very discerning about the books though and would only do so if she felt that they were well-written, had a lesson I could learn or would interest me.

"Shiloh", by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, was one of these books.  The copy I have is a first edition from 1991 (sadly minus the dust cover, that got relegated to the sands of time somewhere over the years) and the story is still as beautiful today as it was then for me.  It isn't exactly long - I re-read it in about 45 minutes, but for those 45 minutes I was immersed in the love of a boy for a mistreated and abused beagle that he takes in and protects.

The book is narrated from the point of view of Marty, the 11 year old protagonist who lives in the poverty stricken and country town of Friendly in West Virginia.  One day, whilst out walking, he comes across a terrified Beagle dog who follows him home.  Marty quickly falls for the dog, whom he names Shiloh, but knows that he his parents would never allow him to keep him as they can't afford pets.  The Beagle also belongs to his neighbour, Judd Travers, a brutal man who hunts when it is illegal to do so, and whom Marty suspects shot one of his own dogs that was misbehaving.  Marty keeps Shiloh tied up and hidden away, and manages to keep the secret from his mum, dad and his two younger sisters (one of whom is called Becky) for a couple of days.  Eventually though the secret is revealed when Shiloh is attacked and injured by another dog.  Marty's family agrees to care for the dog until his leg is better, at which point he will go back to Judd.

Desperate to save and protect Shiloh, Marty, with his parents permission, offers to buy him from Judd by working for him for a week.  Judd, surprisingly, agrees and Marty is put through a series of brutal and hard tasks on Judd's land over the course of the week.  He does them tirelessly, and without complaining and by the end of the week there is a mutual respect between Marty and Judd.  Judd agrees that the debt has been paid and Shiloh returns to live with Marty.

Written in colloquial first person narrative, the book is incredibly easy to read.  It is really a coming of age story, a message about the need to work and fight for the things we believe in and just a brilliant children's book.  I'm not the only one who thinks so; it has won numerous awards over the years, including the Newbury Medal and has since been adapted into a film (which I have never seen) and is apparently taught as part of the curriculum in the US.

For me though, it will always be one of the novels I loved that Colleen bought for me because one of the characters  is named Becky.

The final book I whizzed through this month is "And Now You Can Go", the debut novel from Vendela Vida (and, coincidentally another book that Colleen bought for me.  She knows me far too well!).  Published in 2003, this is a very different style of book to the previous two.  It deals with the aftermath of a traumatising encounter that the protagonist, Ellis, had with an armed gunman in her local park in New York as she was walking one day.  After talking him down and trying to connect with him through reciting poetry to him, she escapes physically unharmed but emotionally and mentally traumatised by the ordeal.

The rest of the novel deals with her unravelling relationships, the romance that collapses, the university therapist she is referred to who hints at victim blaming, her friends and relatives who just want her to open up.  She bounces from man to man and friend to friend, searching for something that she isn't sure can be found, and finally agrees to assist her mother on a medical aid mission to the Philippines.  Once there, she finds that no matter what, life will still progress and she begins to confront her own insecurities about the father that abandoned her mother for a few years and then returned with no explanation or apology.

I loved this book in places and absolutely hated it in others.  One of my biggest peeves was the lack of chapters - it is instead divided into about 5 segments and as a result is quite choppy and the flow is difficult to follow.  I also found that because Ellis is written as utterly numb to everything around her as a result of the trauma she experienced (and the fact that this means that she is numb from about 10 pages in) I found it incredibly difficult to relate to her, or even feel any form of emotional attachment to her.

On the positive side, the book is beautifully written with sweeping descriptions and it moves quickly.  It was smart and funny, although the humour has an edge of pathos winding through it the entire time.  It is not an easy book to read and you need to expect that the book doesn't really go anywhere - there is no closure to be found.  It just stops.

Maybe, ultimately, that's why I found it so unsatisfying to read.

If you like (or hate!) what you have read, please do let me know in the comments below or slap me with a cheeky follow, or say Hi to me on my Facebook group or Twitter or Instagram!

The Reading Nook: The Wheel Of Time

I've fallen back into bad habits it seems.  Well, maybe not bad habits but definitely old habits.  I was trying so hard to break my cycle of fantasy reading and then I stumbled across these two books, The Eye of the World and The Great Hunt, the first of the Wheel Of Time series by Robert Jordan.  This was a huge error as when I started to read them I didn't realise that there were 14 volumes in total. 

14. 

One is taking me a good three weeks to read at the moment (I haven't actually finished the Great Hunt yet - I'm about a third from the end, but I've read enough to include it in this post).  I just know that my sense of order and neatness is going to end up kicking in and I will be compelled to read all 14 as once you start a series, you have to finish it, whether you want to or not.

And that's my major problem with these books; I'm not sure I want to.  The premise of them is relatively fresh - a bit Tolkien-esq but most epic fantasy novels these days are; Tolkien managed to cover basically ever major fantasy trope in existence so it's a little hard to get away from him.  The story line is a bit basic on the surface but gets more complicated when you weave in the magic system, world history and political structures- a young man and his friends from a small village are whisked away in the dead of night by a strange woman with magical powers who is part of a highly feared order of women as they are being hounded by evil creatures who basically, and for no apparent reason, want to stick them all in a cooking pot.  All three of the young men are ta'veren, people at the centre of the Wheel of Time (fate or destiny to us), for whom the Wheel specifically weaves the Pattern and as such all three are hounded by various factions that desire to use them for their own ends.  As they run they encounter all sorts of dangers and near misses including a haunted city and a cursed dagger, end up traversing The Ways with an Ogier whilst chased by a Black Wind that sends you mad, get separated, get injured and start to realise all sorts of unpleasant truths about who they may really be. 

There is a rich background history to this world; thousands of years ago certain men and women could 'channel', tapping into the One Power, (said'in and sai'dar, male and female halves of the True Source, the creator of all life).  However, whilst the female source, sai'dar is still pure, sai'din has been tainted by the Dark One during the Age of Legends when The Dragon, Lews Therin attempted to contain the Dark One.  The taint left by the Dark One on the male half of the One Power is foul, driving all male users eventually to madness.  After the madness led the Dragon and his male followers to Break The World, leading to an Age of Madness, certain female members of the order of the Aes Sedai (women who could channel) swore to 'gentle' all men who are born with the ability; driving the power out of them, an act which is as good as a death sentence.

At the time of The Eye of the World, Aes Sedai are thin on the ground due to the lack of male channellers able to pass the ability on and are also widely distrusted and feared.  People fear the coming of The Dragon Reborn as this will herald the start of the Last Battle against the Dark One and spring is very late coming.  Rand al'Thor, his best friends Mat and Perrin, the Wisdom from his village Nynaeve and the girl he always thought he would marry, Egwene, find themselves caught up in a chain of events that is spiraling around them.

I found the books cumbersome and very slow to start with - a significant amount of time is spent with characters conversing and uncovering the history of the world  (there is enough there for a WoT wiki which can be helpful) and there are a huge number of character names, terms and places to remember.  Thankfully there is an index in the back with name pronunciation included as I was really struggling to remember what the difference was between the One Power and The True Source and Sai'dar as opposed to Ta'veren.  This is the other problem - the names are so unfamiliar to a native English speaker and the pronunciation is more Celtic than Ango-Saxon that this was also a bit of a headache for me!  However, once you got used to the flow of the story and the characters settled down a bit (about halfway through the first book) it did become easier to read, and once that happened the story did become engrossing.

I am however a bit daunted at the fact that I am only halfway through Book 2 (and it has taken me a month to get this far) and there are 12 books ahead of me.  I'm also aware of the fact that Robert Jordan died before finishing the series and another author, Brandon Sanderson took up the reigns at Book 12 and according to a lot of WoT fans, managed to resurrect a series that had started to flag around Book 6. 

I'm wondering if my need to work out what the hell is going on is actually worth ploughing though the rest of the series for.  Book 2, The Great Hunt, is better than Book 1 as the characters are far more established. I felt a lot more confident in what they were trying to achieve and the intrigue and political shifting was starting to come into play.  There was still a lot of running and hiding in dark streets and self-tormented inner reflections which got a bit tedious.  However watching the characters trying to deal with multiple political agenda's and trying to remain true to their own needs and desires is one of the strengths of this book.  I am feeling like Mat and Perrin are becoming a bit one dimensional though - a lot of attention is focused on Rand as the protagonist and the other characters suffer as a result in my opinion.

You can probably tell I am utterly conflicted over these books.  I normally love a good fantasy novel, and there is no doubt that these are good fantasy novels; they have been around for long enough to have gathered quite a cult following, but I just can't work out why! In my opinion there are better writers out there who can give you the same sense of epic fantasy scale without dedicating paragraphs to the description of a coat, no matter how nice the silver herons lining the collar and sleeves are.

I'll finish Book 2 and give Book 3 a go - then I may call it a day on The Wheel Of Time.

If you like (or hate!) what you have read, please do let me know in the comments below or slap me with a cheeky follow, or say Hi to me on my facebook group or twitter!