Oops it’s nearly the end of October so I am very late dipping into the TBR Book Jar this month. Not to worry, I’m pretty sure none of you were unduly concerned about my tardiness. But now I’ve completed the task with the aid of my wonderful assistant (Mr Booker Talk) so here are the three titles that resulted. Which of these would you recommend I read in the next few months.
I Am Dust by Louise Beech
This is a tale of magic and murder set against the backdrop of the theatrical world. The blurb on Goodreads tells me that the action takes place at a theatre believed to be haunted by a long-dead actress, singing her last song, waiting for her final cue, looking for her killer. That same theatre is now about to host a revival of a musical in which that actress played the starring role. A reviewer on Goodreads describes the book as “ghostly, mysterious, emotional, atmospheric and has a touch of the supernatural.”
The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women by Kate Moore
I’m not certain but I think I acquired this book as a result of Non Fiction November. It’s a true account about a scandal involving young girls who worked in factories where they handled radium, using it to paint luminescent dials onto watch faces. it wasn’t just the watches that glowed in the dark; so did the girls as the radium settled over their skin, clothes and hair. When those same girls began to fall sick in increasing numbers, questions were raised about the harmful effects of their expose to radium. The result was a groundbreaking battle for workers’ rights in the USA.
The Sellout by Paul Beatty
My project to read the Booker Prize winners ended with 2015, the year before Beatty won with a satire about a young man’s isolated upbringing and the race trial that sends him to the Supreme Court, He doesn’t seem to have been a popular winner — in the Goodreads community group that reads/comments on the Booker contenders every year, there were several comments that the satire became tiresome. One of the contributors described The Sellout as “a book that is memorable only in its sheer awfulness.” Ouch.
Which book do you recommend?
Do you have a favourite among these three books? I’m leaning towards The Radium Girls
When I started the book jar lucky dip at the beginning of the year my intention was to read each selected book within two months. In the light of my decision last month to take a more relaxed approach to my reading, I’m now going to give myself an additional month. Whichever book you choose from this trip, will be one i aim to read by end of December.
The People’s Vote from September
Thanks to everyone who pitched in with my September lucky dip options. There were several fans of Commonwealth by Ann Patchett but slightly more votes in favour of A Small Revolution in Germany by Philip Hensher. So Hensher it shall be.