The Return

Posted on | August 3, 2010 | 21 Comments

Hello, all. I have officially returned from a holiday at home; I was back in London at the tail-end of last week but we enjoyed a few more days off de-compressing from our time away. Glasgow was … temperamental weather-wise; one day I was driving along a flooded street in torrential rain, water up to the chassis and such a badly steamed-up windscreen that it was like driving blind in a cloudy bubble (quite possibly the most horrific driving experience I’ve yet had) and the next I spent the day on the patio with a book, strawberry-flavoured beer whilst I left the BBQ in the trusty hands of my boyfriend. As always I didn’t read nearly as much as I would have liked but a great time was had with loved ones, even if the sun was not always splitting the skies.

I did check in online last week as the pre-Booker anticipation built; I was on tenterhooks awaiting the longlist announcement and quite excited by the result. I am not going on record by saying that I will read the entire longlist this year but I should have them all in my possession this week and we shall see where my reading then takes me … At present I am itching to read Room by Emma Donoghue (which I shall begin later today), The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas and The Stars in the Bright Sky by Alan Warner; I was delighted at fellow Scot Warner’s inclusion on the list as The Sopranos (to which The Stars in the Bright Sky is a sequel) is a favourite from when I read it about a decade ago.

I also came across this article in Bitch magazine (online) last week. Its focus on the importance of positive female role models in young adult literature is a subject I feel strongly about; in a society where Bella Swan passivity is culturally embraced, the need for strong heroines in literature is paramount. The examples of empowered young females in both the piece and its subsequent comments have me adding to my wishlist and nostalgically reliving my own childhood and young adult reading.

Whilst I was away a new literary prize was established, celebrating the writing of gay men. So forward-thinking and diverse is this prize that it has already caused controversy and undergone a name-change! More about The Green Carnation Prize can be found here.

Today I feature in Triple Choice Tuesday, a weekly event hosted by Kim of Reading Matters that highlights three books that mean a lot to the participant. It was a pleasure to take part in a feature that I greatly enjoy but I found the task of narrowing down beloved books to three far more difficult than I anticipated. Please have a look at Kim’s site for my final choices.

This week I hope to catch up with some outstanding reviews as well as share with you some of my summer reading and more of the same can be expected over the coming weeks, interspersed -I imagine- with some Booker reading. In the meantime, did you miss me and what have you been reading and writing about? Please do alert me to any posts you think I should read as I’m putting off opening my Google Reader and suspect I will mark all posts as read once I do.

Comments

21 Responses to “The Return”

Alex
August 3rd, 2010 @ 9:59 am

Welcome back! I also got all excited about the long list. I immediately ordered Parrot and Olivier and bought and reviewed Room. I’m ready to bet you’ll read it in one sitting and look forward to your review.

Thanks for the tips on the strong female YA characters. Some good examples that come to mind are Hunger Games’ Katniss and Cybele’s Secret’s Paula.
Verity
August 3rd, 2010 @ 10:32 am

Welcome back Claire! Sounds like you had a lovely break! x
Rachel
August 3rd, 2010 @ 10:33 am

Welcome back! Glad you had a lovely time. I am not bothering with any literary prize reading – I inadvertently gave away my ARC of Room without reading it so there goes my one chance to be involved! I look forward to hearing about your holiday reads, though actually I’m more excited about the strawberry beer and barbeque! I must have a good old British barbie before I head off!
Tony
August 3rd, 2010 @ 11:03 am

Welcome back to the land of the blogging – and I have no sympathy about the weather (it is miserable and cold in my part of Oz!).

I’ve finally managed to score a few review copies from OUP ANZ and Vintage Australia, so I’m feeling extremely chuffed at the moment. I reviewed ‘Ilustrado’ last week, which a few people had as a chance to make the Booker longlist (whether it was eligible or not, with Syjuco coming from the Philippines, is something we only thought about after the event…).

Only one more month of winter
diane
August 3rd, 2010 @ 11:42 am

Glad to see you back, and I have to say that Tortilla Curtain was a book I LOVED (read it twice).
Jackie (Farm Lane Books)
August 3rd, 2010 @ 1:35 pm

It is great to have you back! You’ve reminded me that I wanted to read The Tortilla Curtain – I’ll have to read it once I’ve finished all these Bookers.

I’m impressed that you will have all the Bookers in your possession. I’m missing a few at the moment, but hope that wont be the situation for too long.

I hope that you enjoy Room as much as I did
Simon (Savidge Reads)
August 3rd, 2010 @ 1:54 pm

I was very excited about the Booker and now feel a bit meh so won’t be reading along (not that I will have time haha) but Room and Skippy Dies are two books I am quite desperate to have a read of, the latter may be saved for my weekend in Derbyshire at my Grans as might give myself a Carnation weekend off.

Will be seeing you tonight which am looking forward to – saw your Triple Choice Tues and commented there!!
Steph
August 3rd, 2010 @ 5:19 pm

So glad to hear that you had a great vacation and that you’re back amongst us!

I was quite excited by the Booker list too, though I’d say only 30% of the books are out in the U.S. right now… I may be making a visit to The Book Depository soon, especially for Room! I’ve just heard such unflinchingly positive things about it that I definitely must read it soon!

Also, loved reading your choices on Triple Choice Tuesday… I have The Group, now I just need to read it!
Eva
August 3rd, 2010 @ 7:04 pm

Welcome back (and yes, I missed you)! I love that nail polish: what is it? I keep looking for a good purple, but I have yet to find one.
Nymeth
August 3rd, 2010 @ 11:03 pm

Welcome back, Claire! And like Eva above, I was going to comment on the lovely purple nail polish

Room is definitely the book that interests me the most from the Booker longlist. It’ll be a while before I have a chance to read it, but I look forward to your thoughts.

Also, loved the Bitch article – thank you for sharing!
Jenny
August 3rd, 2010 @ 11:16 pm

Welcome back!! Is strawberry beer good? I am always nervous to try fruity beer, although the pumpkin ale I had this one time was heavenly.
Darlene
August 4th, 2010 @ 2:19 am

Well of course you’ve been missed! Thanks for mentioning ‘Room’…must dash off to see what that’s all about.

LOVE the nail polish by the way!
softdrink
August 5th, 2010 @ 1:28 am

So was it intentional that your toenail polish matches the book cover?
anothercookiecrumbles
August 5th, 2010 @ 8:11 am

Welcome back! Hope you enjoyed the break, the reading, the barbecues and the strawberry beer!

Enjoy the Booker reads.
JoAnn
August 5th, 2010 @ 12:30 pm

Welcome back, Claire! Glad to see The Tortilla Curtain in the photo – I LOVED that book! Also look forward to your thoughts on Room.
Iris
August 5th, 2010 @ 12:57 pm

Welcome back!

I’ve heard so many good things about Room, I hope you like it!

And thank you for the Bitch article, it is bound to add to my wishlist.
Lija
August 6th, 2010 @ 11:04 pm

The Booker reading season is in full swing! So many people seem to be starting things off with Room. I’ll be doing C and Thousand Autumns first… and then probably slowly trailing off until the shortlist gets announced.
Paperback Reader
August 7th, 2010 @ 1:08 pm

Alex, I must go and read your review of Room now that I have read it.

Katniss was the character that instantly came to my mind when I read the article.

Verity, thank you, I did.

Rachel, I think you will be too busy for literary prize reading anyway and you simply must fit in a barbeque before you go! Here’s hoping we have the weather for it again.

Tony, well, you’d expect it to be cold during winter! Not so much during summer but Glasgow was cold at times, sniff.
Congratulations on the review copies! That’s great news and looking forward to your thoughts.

Diane, thanks! I actually didn’t manage to get to The Tortilla Curtain whilst away but it is remaining on my immediate TBR – I’m excited for it!

Jackie, yes, Booker reading does put all other reading intentions on the back-burner for the time-being.

I was lucky with obtaining most of the Bookers (I already had a couple and a couple more were immediately available at the library but the rest were very generously sent or on order). Oh, and I did enjoy Room a LOT

Simon, I’m hardly surprised you are not reading the Bookers! I’m reading Skippy Dies at the moment and finding it very amusing.

Steph, head to the Book Depository immediately for Room! I’ll be reviewing it soon although still have a backlog of other reviews (I’d prefer to get the Booker ones out there sooner rather than later though).

Also, as you know, I cannot recommend The Group highly enough.

Eva, aw, I missed you too! The nail polish is Revlon Autumn Berry and was bought from the states so you should be able to find it. I love having dark colours, especially purple and burgundy on my toes.
Paperback Reader
August 7th, 2010 @ 1:23 pm

Nymeth, purple nail polish, Room and the Bitch article are all amazing! Glad you approve

Jenny, the strawberry beer is sweet but lovely. I don’t like non-flavoured beer but love strawberry, raspberry and cherry beer.

Darlene, thanks. I’ll be reviewing Room soon and hope my thoughts convince you to read it, if you haven’t been already.

Jill, it was not intentional at all to have my toenail polish match the book but I’m delighted it looks that way!

Pri, thanks. Those were the highlights of my time away

JoAnn, I remember your review of The Tortilla Curtain. I will be sharing my thoughts on Room soon.

Iris, I’ll be adding to the positive things written about Room. You’re welcome for the article.

Lija, I think that Room is the Booker longlisted novel that is intriguing people most this year and the one that it the most universally accessible. I look forward to your thoughts on C and Thousand Autumns…
Alex
August 8th, 2010 @ 5:09 am

Hi Claire

I’ve just joined the biblio blogosphere chronicling my attempt to read my way through every country in the world. I cam across your site via Reading Matters and was very excited to find others who like me anticipate Booker prize lists with the same excitement others have for a new season of Glee As an Aussie, I am hoping The Slap will take out the prize despite the fatc that I haven;t yet had a chance to read it. I saw it reviews on an Australian tv show called “The First Tuesday Book of the Month” though and the panel all raved. Room sounds intriging and have heard quite a lot about Parrot and Olivier (Peter Carey – another Aussie), The Long Song and The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet but not much about the others. As I probably won’t get around to reading them all given my commitments to my own reading challenge, I will be interested to see which ones your reviuews on the ones you do get to read. Would also love it if you have the time to check out my blog and offer your suggestions for any books that have a strong sense of the countries in which they are set and really blew you away. Thanks!
Novel Insights
August 19th, 2010 @ 1:52 pm

Welcome back! Love the toenail – book colour co-ordination.