I’ve made a mess of this month’s version of Spell the Month in Books, hosted by Jana at Reviews From the Stacks. Somehow I got it into my head that the theme for this month is red, white and blue and so I dutifully found four books with covers to match those colours.
Just when I thought I was done, I looked at Jana’s link up post and found that the theme is actually stars & stripes. Too bad. I’m not going to start all over again — it was hard enough to find one book matching the letter J and I can’t face trying to find another.
So here warts and all is my version. I could claim that by choosing red, white and blue I’m reflecting the colours of the American flag, known informally as The Stars and Stripes. So I got stars in there somehow…..
Links will take you to reviews where they exist.
J
Johannesburg by Fiona Melrose
Readers who love Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway will enjoy spotting the references and connections in Melrose’s novel. Like Mrs Dalloway, Johannesburg takes place over the course of a single day — the date of Nelson Mandela’s death in 2013. This book too involves a woman who wants to throw a party for a person who doesn’t really want to be the focal point of festivities.
U
The Unknown Terrorist by Richard Flanagan
In Flanagan’s novel, a 26-year-old pole dancer gets swept up in the hysteria that ensues after bombs are discovered at the stadium that will host many of Sydney’’s Olympic events. She goes on the run when the police identify the man she spent the night with as the principal suspect in the terrorist plot and she’s implicated as his accomplice.
The novel has a thriller element but also tackles the issue of how politicians, with the support of the media, manipulate public opinion and the truth.
L
The Ladies’ Paradise by Émile Zola
Every novel I’ve read in Zola’s Rougon-Macquart series has taken a deep delve into an aspect of French society in the mid nineteenth century. The focus of The Ladies’s Paradise is the world of commerce — as seen in the new phenomena of the department store. Zola goes behind the scenes of one of these early cathedrals of shopping to reveal details of the strategies used to entice women through the doors and persuade them to part with their money. There’s a romance element but it was the retail setting that held my attention throughout.
Y
The Year of Reading Dangerously by Andy Miller
You may come across Andy Miller through the Backlisted podcast he hosts with John Mitchinson. You’d never think to listen to his insightful knowledge on literature and authors that there was a time when he hardly read anything. He was a new father who also worked full time so had little energy left for reading — in three years he only managed to read one book (The Da Vinci Code).
The Year of Reading Dangerously documents how he re-ignited his passion for literature. First by creating a list of 12 books he had either lied about reading or felt he should read, (Moby Dick, Middlemarch, The Sea, The Sea for example). He grew to love reading so much he’d find an excuse to go to the Post Office just so he could stand in the queue and read.
Warning: this book will give you yet more ideas for books to add to your wishlist. Don’t say I didn’t warn you…..
.If you fancy having a go at Spell the Month, you’ll find all the info you need on the website of the host, Reviews From the Stacks. The theme for August is “Water”.