This month, my personal circumstances so arranged themselves that I managed to read six books, the number that I read in May, June, and July combined!
H is for Hawk, by Helen MacDonald, is hard to describe. I began it somewhat reluctantly, thinking that I would not enjoy it, but it turned out to be the best book of themonth. It’s a memoir of the time after her father died, when she began training a goshawk — a particularly wild and deadly type of hawk — as a way to deal with her grief. At the same time, she muses on the book “The Goshawk”, written by T. H. White in 1951, about his own failed attempt to train a goshawk. It’s a book about grief, about the relationship between humans and nature, and about how we deal with our psychological issues. Extremely well written and highly recommended.
Warlight, by Michael Ondaatje, is the atmospheric tale of a boy whose parents abandon him shortly after World War II and leave him in the care of a pair of men who appear to be criminals. A coming of age story, something of a mystery, well-written but one that for some reason didn’t grab my attention. Perhaps slightly too contemplative for a a mystery novel?
I read two books by Julian Barnes. England, England is a satirical novel about a rich, eccentric businessman who decides to buy the Isle of Wight and create a theme park that brings together everything that tourists love about England — from Robin Hood to black cabs to the Royal Family — to save them the trouble of having to visit the real one (and make a tidy fortune in the process). It’s clever and well written and has gained a new reading in the post-Brexit era. A History of the World in 10 ½ Chapters is more a collection of short stories than a novel , although there are a number of cross references between the stories. The best chapter is the first, a retelling of the story of Noah’s Ark by an animal that smuggled itself onboard, in a very humorous vein, with nothing but disgust at Noah and his family. The other chapters are a bit hit and miss, but still enjoyable.
Ancillary Justice, by Ann Leckie, is a science fiction novel of the space opera genre, focusing on a conscious artificial intelligence. It’s good, but was slightly too complicated for me. I liked it but won’t be reading the sequels.
They All Fall Down, by Rachel Howzell, is a contemporary retelling of Agatha Christie’s “And Then There Were None” that loses a lot in the adaptation. I didn’t like the style of writing or the characters, not was I surprised by the denouement. My time would have been better spent rereading the original. But if you want a short, lightweight thriller, this will do.
