More books!

Felt it about time to update my reading list. Have just got back from our church conference in Brighton, which was amazing, and my grandpa's 90th party, which was fun, but can't be bothered to describe these just now. Harry Potter mania is taking over my life, as I try to read the first 6 books in 2 weeks in preparation for the new one, so books are more or less all I can think about right now. So since I last blogged about books, I have read:

So Many Ways to Begin, Jon McGregor - I think this book suffered because I was comparing it to his first one, If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things, which I raved about before, I think. It is the story of a marriage and of 2 people's lives and also the search of the husband for his real mother. It shared the same immediacy of writing as the previous book, which draws people and their actions so clearly that I could see them, but it doesn't have quite the same poetic feel and so many intertwining stories. Still enjoyed it though.

The Bookseller of Kabul, Anne Seierstad- I found this book interesting, but was not blown away by it. It is a true description of an Afghan family that the author lived with for a while. It does give an insight into family life and the way people think, but I don't feel it changed my life much.

Blue like Jazz, Donald Miller - this is a fascinating, honest and funny account of one young man's journey towards true Christianity (or as he prefers to call it, Christian spirituality), in a postmodern world. He looks at topics like community, people's perceptions of Christians, sex and singleness, the mix of politics and religion in America, in such a simple, down to earth, what-we've-all-been-thinking-but-were-too-afraid-to-say kind of way, that I couldn't put it down. He also includes cartoons, and his hallucinations of Emily Dickinson. I'd recommend it to Christians or anyone who's interested in Christianity.

The Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams (R) - I re-read the whole series. Genius taking of a silly idea and stretching it to the point of lunacy and hilarity. I am an old fashioned happy ending lover though, and can't help preferring the end to "So long and thanks for all the fish" to the ultimate end of "Mostly Harmless".

The Undomestic Goddess and the Shopaholic books, Sophie Kinsela - Ok, so I don't normally read this type of book, but I borrowed one while having a bath at my sister's house (long story, I only have a shower in my house at the mo, and I need my baths), and found it unputdownable. They are very light and did not enlighten me in any particular way, but they entertained me a lot and were readable in about 2 hours each. I thought maybe I had been converted to chick-lit, but then I borrowed...

Watermelon, Marian Keyes - this was dull.

The Moonstone, Wilkie Collins (R) - the earliest English detective novel. The story of a cursed diamond which is left to a young girl on her 21st birthday by her dastardly uncle and the consequences when it is stolen the next day. Still gripping even though I've read it lots of times, atmospheric and spooky.

The Pull of the Moon, Elizabeth Berg- this was one I picked up almost totally at random in the Oxfam bookshop, and was intrigued by the synopsis of the story. It's a bit of a feminist treatise - middle aged woman leaves husband and goes off driving around America, discovers her cervix and sense of self etc, but I found it quite moving and it struck true with me as the inner world of a woman.

Doctor at Large, Richard Gordon - this is a random old book I also picked up in the same trip. It's a James Herriot type true but probably over-embellished account of the author's first few years as a qualified doctor in the first days of the NHS. He struggles to find a job, a car, to look the part, to get on with his seniors and to sleep with nurses without having to marry them. Found it fascinating just because of the contrasts and similarities to today.

The Once and Future King, T H White (R) - I love this book. It's a retelling of the Arthurian legends, mostly sourced directly from the Morte d'Arthur by Malory, but retold in a vastly human, comic, tragic, grotesque, sympathetic, historically accurate and wildly inaccurate way. Please read it.

Cry, the Beloved Country, Alan Paton (R) - Ditto - also brilliant, also please read it. This is a story of an old priest in South Africa in the days before true apartheid came in. He goes to Johannesburg in search of his sister and his son, who went there and never came back... It is about racism, but also about industrialisation, justice, loss of community and forgiveness. And it's beautifully written and will make you cry.

I Capture the Castle, Dodie Smith (R) - this is a gripping story of a young girl living in an old castle with her eccentric family and her attempts to escape upper-class poverty and find true love. Vividly evokes an imaginative adolescence.

Friday's Child, Georgette Heyer - Ok, so Georgette Heyer is chick-lit that I was already into, but it's all set in the Regency period, which makes it feel slightly more intellectually acceptable. They are generally your classic rom-com type plots with lots of balls, dresses, horses, scandals and elopements thrown in. The characterisation is generally very funny and they always make me feel good. Say what you like - I don't care!

Life isn't all ha ha hee hee, Meera Syal - a bit soap opera-like, but also a good insight into what it's like to be an indian british woman.

Harry Potter 1,2 and 3, JK Rowling (R) - I am racing through them, but also picking up tiny details I haven't noticed before in my attempts to work out what's going to happen in the last book. I'm so excited! My sister has borrowed book 4 and I'm sitting up waiting for her to drop it back to me...