Book stuff : Five books I've read in 2015 (so far)

... aka, What I Do When Other People Sleep (Other Than Breastfeeding, That Is).

Well, there was me thinking that I'd have no time for reading with a newborn (now 5 week old) baby.

Ha!

What a fool.

I'd clearly forgotten all those wonderful hours between sunset and sunrise when lazy people lie in their beds and sleep. Sleep! Who needs it? Surely a better way to while away those very same hours- other than by feeding a CONSTANTLY hungry baby of course- is browsing Facebook hang on playing solo games of Words with Friends I mean browsing shops online for things I can't afford and don't need no, wait, what was it?

Ah, yes. Reading.

So, here are five of the books I've managed to get through in those wee small hours in the last five weeks. There's nothing revolutionary; mostly they are culled from everyone else's best of 2014 lists.

That's me, always (at least) a year behind...

1 : Us - David Nicholls

I liked One Day, I didn't much like Starter for Ten (though to be fair I didn't actually finish it). But I really enjoyed Us. It's a book about parenting and how hard it is to get it right, and about a marriage breaking up; and yet despite the sombre themes it still manages to be funny. The image of the main character supergluing his son's Lego sets together because he got so irritated that his son refused to build them properly sticks in my head as something both hilarious and tragic (and frightening- do I see a bit of me in there?!)

2 : The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry - Rachel Joyce

Somehow missed this when everyone else read it, but it's a lovely book. Another one about the perils of being a parent* it's a meandering, surprising, life-affirming sort of book, gentle and engaging. Really enjoyed it.

*Once upon a time I found that I accidentally read too many books about post-apocalyptic dystopian worlds filled with zombies/vampires/nasty people. Now I accidentally read books about failed parenting and estranged children. Oh, pants.

3 : The Miniaturist - Jessie Burton

Set in Amsterdam in the 17th century, I wasn't sure about this in the first couple of chapters; it seemed gloomy and a little slow. But it ended up being gripping and involving and very memorable. Still bloody gloomy, mind. And with a small caution for anyone about to embark on childbirth.

4 : The Bone Clocks - David Mitchell

I loved Cloud Atlas, and thoroughly enjoyed Number9dream and Ghostwritten. The Bone Clocks doesn't disappoint, but I'm not sure it quite matches my love of those novels. The characters are fabulous, the individual, apparently unrelated stories absorbing, but the sci-fi/ fantasy element didn't quite do it for me this time. I'd still rather read an average David Mitchell book than anyone else's best attempt though.

5 : Bryant & May and the Invisible Code - Christopher Fowler 

I'm a sucker for any books set in cities I love (hello, Ian Rankin), and particularly those that tap into the history and stories behind the place. The Bryant & May series, set in London, do exactly that. I get frustrated at the descriptions and backstories of the main characters being repeated in every single *yawn* book (I assume for the benefit of anyone reading them as one-offs), but the mysteries they investigate are always gripping. They begin with a crime that seems to defy any earthly explanation, then slowly unravel into something complex and clever but usually very much earthbound. (Ben Aaronovitch is another favourite in a similar- but definitely not entirely earthbound- vein, and I have just finished and enjoyed Foxglove Summer, the fifth in his Rivers of London series. It's not actually set in London, though...)

I've also read Jenny Offill's Dept of Speculation (interesting but ultimately not my cup of tea) and Robert Galbraith aka JK Rowling's The Silkworm (very enjoyable). And I'm embarrassed to say I'm in the middle of one or two others that for various reasons I have temporarily abandoned. But five books on my list to read next are:

1 : H is for Hawk - Helen Macdonald

2 : The Colour of Magic - Terry Pratchett (and the rest of the Discworld books- can't quite believe I only ever read Mort- and Good Omens, if that counts- and somehow never got round to the rest. Sorry, TP, and RIP)

3 : Station Eleven - Emily St John Mandel

4 : Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery - Henry Marsh

5 : The Paying Guests - Sarah Waters

Any other recommendations to add to the list?

Book stuff : Lists of Note by Shaun Usher

It's a short post this week, partly because it's the school holidays, and partly because I am trying to keep my eyes open without the aid of matchsticks. Whilst I totally accept that in becoming a parent sleep and I are not going to be as well-acquainted as we once were, I still struggle with it. A nice, unbroken night's sleep and I feel like I can take on the world- or at least greet a tantrum with a calm manner and a beatific smile. But the last week has consisted of nights interrupted by coughing, the child on the inside doing somersaults, and the child on the outside waking between 4.15 and 5.30 (though this morning, hurrah, 6.15!) either screaming (uh oh, I think the nightmares have begun) or just very ready to get up now, thanks.

Anyway, enough of the inevitable/boring I NEED SLEEP tangent. I discovered the existence of this book this week- Lists of Note by Shaun Usher, which I've yet to get my hands on (Christmas present, anyone?) but have read a sneaky sample on the Kindle. Definitely not a book for reading on my iPhone, I'd say, judging by how beautiful this looks. It includes the shopping list of two 9th-century Tibetan monks, Johnny Cash's list of things to do today, one French novelist's attempt to record every single thing he ate and drank for the duration of 1974 (somewhat different to my diet. Suddenly my arteries feel less clogged) and many more.

So it seems only right to borrow the list that opens the book: Usher's reasons for our reliance on lists. He puts it much more eloquently than I could hope to do.

1 : Life is chaotic- often unbearably so. The ability to divide some of that chaos into lists, to make the onslaught manageable, can bring much-needed relief.

2 : Human beings are fearful of the unknown and as such have a real need to label and group things, to assign them to comfortable lists.

3 : Lists can make us more productive and can eradicate procrastination. Nothing on earth, resignation aside, cuts through the thick fog of a daunting workload as effectively as a to-do list.

4 : Everyone is a critic. Ranking things- best to worst, biggest to smallest, fastest to slowest- can be strangely addictive, no doubt because it make us feel knowledgeable.

5 : Time is precious. Distilling hugh swathes of monotonous information into easily digestible lists ensures that we have more time to enjoy ourselves and make lists.

I'd add one, personally. Without my armoury of lists, and with a brain softened by pregnancy and-yep, you guessed it- a lack of sleep, I'd barely remember to eat*. I'm not joking. I actually have an item on a list that says 'drink water'. Hmm.

* Okay, that's a lie. I never forget to eat chocolate.

Buy the book at a local bookshop (go on), or splash out on the first, limited edition at Unbound. Or there's always Amazon...

Book stuff : We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves

Books! Everyone told me that I'd never read again having had a baby, and I guess for a short amount of time that was true- with all the broken nights I'm not sure my eyes ever stayed open long enough to read a single page. But I've always loved reading, and my habit has been to read last thing at night, I guess because I've always found it the best way to wind down from the stresses of the day. And reading gave me a bit of an escape from what can be a tiring and- let's be honest- sometimes boring routine of the early days of feeding, nappy changing... um... talking about feeding and nappy changing... thinking about feeding and etc etc. I manage to stay awake a bit longer these days to read (only achievable by being in bed by 9.30pm) and last week decided to try something outside of my usual cycle of crime/ thriller/ post-apocalyptic teen fiction/ vaguely sci-fi, and went all Man-Bookery for We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler.

First things first: it was an enjoyable, easy read, and not at all the literary, meandering, high-brow book I sometimes live in fear of when it comes to book prizes (but to be fair, very few of the Man Booker nominations I've ever read actually have been like that- my misguided expectations, I suppose). Yes, there are deeper themes to ponder on- how reliable our memories are, how reliable a narrator is (or isn't) and some others that to mention would give too much away- but it's also a funny, sad, interesting and engaging story of a childhood, of growing up, and of families and friends, that leaps backwards and forwards in time. Everyone talks about the great twist but I'm not sure I'd call it that- it's more of a key plot point that the narrator chooses not to mention for a while, which is key in itself- but it takes the story in an unexpected and interesting direction. A gentle, engaging and satisfying read. (I'm no eloquent reviewer- as you might have noticed- so for a better one please have a look at my friend Lonesome Reader's review here.)

I may have made a mistake picking up (aka downloading and clicking on) Rick Yancey's The Fifth Wave straight afterwards, though. Whilst I once really enjoyed this kind of post-apocalyptic fiction I'm not sure I cope with it as well these days. It's fiction, obviously, but I like to get properly caught up in a story and this brings out all kinds of parental fears and nightmares that are still a bit new to me. I'm not very far into it and am already a) wondering how I could ever have been so selfish as to have children in this world, and b) thinking that since I've gone and done it now the only solution is to dive under a duvet with them and never ever go out anywhere ever. So I might put this one on hold for a while until I'm better equipped to cope with it which, given that the raging pregnancy hormones are unlikely to make me feel any less emotional/balanced as due date beckons, might be a very long time in the future.

So the list- perhaps just the last five books I read...

1 : We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler

2 : Pretty Honest by Sali Hughes (I bought an ACTUAL, not electronic book! I may even do it again, because it's lovely with it's cover and pages and smell and typography and all that jazz. OK, I haven't really read it, I've flicked through it, but it is more of a reference book with practical beauty advice and has told me things I'm sure I should know already. Not my usual kind of thing but I aspire to one day do more than just slap on some tinted moisturiser and a pair of jeans and go out into the world. One day. Look out.)

3 : Burial Rites by Hannah Kent (took me two attempts- a meandering, bleak story but nonetheless evocative and beautifully written, and I never thought I'd know so much about 19th century rural Iceland or find it so interesting.)

4 : I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes (very mixed feelings about this- a great fast-paced terrorist-threatens-the-world thriller, but bleak (see my point about post-apocalyptic fiction above) and frankly just irritating in places with a character who has a very high opinion of himself for reasons I failed to notice. Not sure why I persisted.)

5 : The Bones of Avalon by Phil Rickman (I love Rickman's Merrily Watkins series- mostly crime, a bit supernatural, an unconventional and vulnerable 'heroine' and some great history of the Welsh border area- but this Elizabethan-era mystery left me unconvinced. Well-written, but somehow unsatisfying.)

What have you read recently? Any recommendations?