The Return by Victoria Hislop

Most young people in this country think of Spain in terms of the Costas, as they head off for Sun,Sea and Sand (and perhaps the other S) on cheap flights, but there is so much more to Spain than that. Even close to the Costa del Sol is Granada with the Alhambra built by the Moors during their occupation of Andalusia , which they called El Andalus. This is the most beautiful and awe-inspiring building with intricate carving. They probably don't even head inland to see the mountains behind the coast.

And what about Madrid, the capital of Spain? How many go there?

Or Salamanca, which is home to the oldest university in Spain and one of the oldest in Europe, founded in 1218?

The Return tells part of Spain's history using a family in Granada to help illustrate it.

This is a very dark part of Spain's history - the Spanish Civil War, fought in the late 1930s before the Second World War covering the successful attempt by the fascist General Franco to overthrow the government. The atrocities were many. The Republicans, many communist, were hopelessly outgunned and out manned.

My faithful reader knows that I enjoy reading detective stories, particularly those from the rest of Europe. They tend to be faithful to the tradition of detective stories, but are flavoured with the setting and history of the country in which they are set.

I can refer here to a series of books by Manuel Vasquez Montalban featuring the private detective Pepe Carvalho. He lives in Barcelona and the memories of the Civil War are still there. the Chief of Police was (and is, no doubt) a fascist and Carvalho was (and is) a communist. During the Civil War, the man now Chief of Police held a similar role and carried out torture on his prisoners, including Carvalho. Yet now they must rub along together.

This was my first real glimpse into the Civil War, as a peripheral part of the detective series, so it was enlightening to read more. Victoria Hislop has done her research and she does manage to make the past real. Of particular note was her overage of Guernica, a name that will go down in history as a town that was bombed out of existence from the air by the fascists, although Franco tried to deny it. There was a war correspondent on site who saw for himself and reported it back to Britain from where it was syndicated round the world.

Worth a read.

A Thousand Splendid Suns

Last week I finished "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini.

It is set in war-torn Afghanistan and illustrated by the story of two women from separate backgrounds whose lives come together unexpectedly as a result of the war.

It is a beautiful story, and the best summing up I can give is that if you liked "the Kite Runner" you will love this.

Random Acts of Heroic Love

I bought this book by Danny Scheinman following a recommendation by Jobbing Doctor on his book club site.

Don't be deceived by the title: this is not 'chick lit'. It is a beautifully written novel of the intertwined stories of two men sustained by the memory of love. It carries echoes of Sebastian Faulks, Tolstoy even, but Scheinman has his own voice. It is hard to believe that this is a first novel as it appears the work of a mature writer.

I cannot recommend this book too highly.

Aftwe fielding an anxious call from TBSITW, who thought I should be seen sooner by my GP, I had a lazy day, sitting either at my computer or reading my book.

I have just finished Ian Rankin’s s “Doors Open”. This is his first book since the end of the Inspector Rebus series.

I have really enjoyed the Rebus books, to the extent that I bestowed my highest accolade of buying in hardback, rather than waiting for the paperback to be published.

Doors Open is basically a caper story, and, as in most capers, the characters are two-dimensional.

So, a thumbs-down on this one.

Ah well, I have always considered Iain Banks (or Iain M Banks) to be the better author and think that this book serves to confirm my view.

Now, back to another book.

Barack Obama, "Dreams from my Father"

I bought both books that the President-elect of the USA has written as I considered that it was important to find out about this man who is about to become the Leader of the Western world.

I have now finished "Dreams from my Father", his first book, first published (in hardback, in the USA) in 1995. It is mostly autobiographical, starting in Hawaii where he was born, then his life with his grandparents in Hawaii before moving to Indonesia to be with his mother who had remarried. He then came back to Hawaii before striking out on his own in the USA.

He worked hard with the poor blacks in "sink estates" in Chicago before being offered a place at Harvard to study Law.

Before starting his time at Harvard he went to Kenya to find out more about his family there, after meeeting a sister in the USA and who travelled back with him to help introduce him to a large family. By this time his father had died, (and the story of his father almost deserves another book), but there were many people of several generations to meet.

The writing is beautiful and the book would deserve to be read whatever his position in life.

Catching up.

I am conscious that I haven’t posted for a day or two.

So, a quick catch up.

On Sunday after Church I did one washing (the dark wash), got it dried and put away by about 1.50pm. So I treated myself to a glass of sherry (as you do).

I also finished reading “Bad Science” by Ben Goldacre. This is an excellent book which debunks so much of the so called cures offered to the gullible. There are so many charlatans around peddling such things as colonic irrigation, not to forget these “nutritionists”.

It is becoming increasingly obvious to me that this book should be widely circulated. In particular, it should be mandatory reading for journalists and politicians.

Yesterday afternoon I played bridge with my usual partner. She received some gentle advice from our leader.

That was sufficient for her to start crying. Later our leader said quietly to me that she thought I was a saint to put up with her behaviour.

I really don’t know how long I can carry on coping. It takes its toll on me and I end up losing concentration and playing badly. If I make a mistake, she rounds on me in a very aggressive manner.

I really don’t feel like going tonight, particularly as I have been awake since 4am with the pain in my feet, up the front of my legs and my hands. However, shoulder on.

Brighter news is that the vegetable box arrived and contained: 2 cooking apples, some salad leaves (which are either green mustard leaf or mizuna -I can’t tell which I have, they look rather like spinach and I am sure they will make a good soup), a Savoy, carrots, onions, 3 leeks and 2 beautiful cooking apples. The fruit bag held 3 apples, 2 oranges, 2 pears and a kiwi fruit.

TBSITW tells me that the local farm shop has now opened; they were delayed as it took so long to get the potatoes in as the ground was so wet.

Book Review, the Heartland by Stuart Legg

Yesterday I had a quiet day, concerned only with my washing (yes, I know, once again!)

I got down to the laundry room at 8.03 (it is open from 8.00) to discover two machines in use. The third machine which is positively ancient, was out of order. I was very lucky as one of my neighbours offered to put my washing in the big machine once she had finished hers. She even gave me a phone to let me know what time it had gone into the machine so that I would know when to go down to transfer it to the tumble drier.

Anyway what I really wanted to talk about is a book called The Heartland by Stuart Legg.

This book must have been recommended by one of the blog authors whom I read, but very sadly I cannot remember who.

The Heartland of the title is, roughly, Inner and Outer Mongolia. I followed up the recommendation as I hoped it would shed more light on the history which is the background for Conn Iggulden’s series about Genghis Khan

I found it quite a difficult book to read, not least because my knowledge of Europe, the Middle East and Asia is woefully lacking. I can – more or less – identify countries on a map, but not old tribal areas nor mountain ranges, nor rivers. Some of the latter I did know, but many more were new to me.

I could have done with reading this book in a lecture hall with physical maps of Europe, the Middle East and Asia in front and the borders of countries as they changed superimposed.

I found it quite difficult to follow the movements of the various tribes as they moved to and fro and battles were fought.

At least I knew of the names of most of the tribes, but not all (the Alan, anyone?) and certainly the tribes of Asia were difficult.

The book really came to life, at least for me, when we had well passed the half way mark and at last Genghis Khan (or Chingis) and in fact his father moved into centre stage. It may be that there was more information about this time and place as writings were published not long after Ghengis’s death.

At that point I found the whole thing absolutely fascinating as this was history, not historical fiction.

Not that I would decry historical fiction; if well researched it can bring to life a time in our past.

Another Book Review

Yesterday I finished a book called Deaf Sentence by David Lodge. It was recommended by Jobbing Doctor's Book Club. The leading character is a retired professor of linguistics who is going deaf (as is the author). Many parts of the book are very funny.

So much of the protagonist's difficulties caused a wry smile with me. I first found out I was losing my hearing when it was somewhat forcibly pointed out to me that I had been very rude; when I was chairing meetings I would often talk over people sitting to my left because I had no idea they were speaking.

I was very lucky in that one of the staff with whom I was working closely at that time was an ENT sister (we were working on a protocol for care of a patient with a tracheostomy in conjunction with the consultant anaesthetist and the consultant ENT surgeon.) This meant that I was very lucky to get a rapid appointment with the ENT surgeon, a speedy MRI scan to exclude a tumour and then a hearing assessment with an in ear hearing aid fitted in a remarkably short time. I was also lucky that I was hard of hearing on only my left ear, although now I need two hearing aids.

However I digress. The hero's difficulties arise from his attendance at a party where an attractive woman corners him and he can't hear a word of what she says so he nods and smiles at what he hopes are appropriate moments.

I shall not give away any more of the story, but I do recommend the book unreservedly.

Particularly if you are not hard of hearing. I know how irritating it can be for a hearing person to have to cope with a hard of hearing friend or family member.

It has been really good to have my mind channelled into reading new (to me) books and authors. It started with a. (a travelling spouse) who recommended Fred Vargas as a French author of romans policiers and proceeded with niceladydoctor who recommended The Spare Room. Any other recommendations warmly received.

Bridge and Book Revue

Today I went to the Bridge Club to discover to my delight and pride that my partner and I had come first last week, but later discovered it was 2 weeks ago. It is so exciting, particularly as there were quite a number of players on that occasion. Last week we came third out of 4, which is still better than our usual bottom.

I have just finished reading Salmon Fishing in the Yemen by Paul Torday.

This book is written in the form of emails, diary entries and responses at an inquiry.

It is gently humorous, but not in terms of The Number One Ladies Detective Agency, but more in terms of A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian.

I really enjoyed it it and I recommend it.

An Apology

Yesterday I posted a crit. about a book I am reading and it was rather unfavourable.

In my haste to add that post I gave no thought to the feelings of daughter who had loaned it to me when it was in a pristine, unread condition. Additionally, she was looking forward to reading the book and I have taken the edge off her anticipation.

This was unnecessarily rude and unthoughtful of me, and I owe her a huge apology.

So, here it is: a HUGE APOLOGY. And big hugs from a mother who is sadly much less than perfect.

Alarums and Excursions

The house manager came to see me this morning to say that I do not qualify for the County Falls Service pendant alarm as there are already so many pull cords, one in every room (and a push button one in the bathroom). We both agree that it is a pity when it is a better use of resources than having an ambulance and 2 trained staff (so far it has always been a paramedic and an ambulance technician), but we have done our collective best, so that is that.

I am arranging to return the pendant alarm that I have been wearing (well, sometimes - it is sitting beside the monitor just now, and if I turn round I can reach the pull cord). As I think I have said, it was a big disappointment that it did not go through to the same call centre as the pull cords - the people there are very familiar with the way things operate here.

Other than that I have been struggling with a book that my daughter loaned me. It is called The Puppet Master by Ian Gosling.

It is his first novel, and the biographical bit at the beginning does not say by what route he came to writing this. It reminds me of more than one television series, and indeed, could have been written with the idea of a television series as his aim.

Still, I don't like giving up so I shall struggle on.

The Spare Room

On the recommendation of Nice Lady Doctor, I have just read The Spare Room by Helen Garner; Nice Lady Doctor was most disappointed that the book failed to make the Booker long list, and I can now see why.

In some ways it is an easy book to read as it is relatively short, but in other ways it is anything but easy. It deals with the way a lady takes in an old friend to stay in the eponymous spare room. This lady turns out to be in denial of the fact that she is in the last stages of cancer, and is now exploring some of the world of woo, with IVI Vitamin C which causes her great pain (which is supposed to be due to the vitamin C grabbing hold of the cancer), and then later coffee enemas.

The friend who cares finds life more and more difficult and even more difficult as she has to cope with the denial.

This is very much a story of friendship under adversity.

It is not an easy book, but it is beautifully written and is very thought provoking.