Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim

This was my first David Sedaris book, and it was recommended to me by so many people I was really looking forward to reading it. And because so many people seemed to like it, I really wanted to like this. And I tried really hard to like it, but ultimately, I failed.

This is a collection of autobiographical essays, told in a style that is supposed to be humorous. And I could see how they were supposed to be funny, they just didn't make me laugh. Some of them made me chuckle slightly in places, but unfortunately not enough to sway my opinion of this book.

I think one of the main reasons I didn't have a good reaction to this was it was so dark in relation to family life. I just don't think I could relate to a family where their seemed to be no love and support, and everybody just seemed so angry and spent all their time hurting each other. But all credit to him to bring humour out of this, for those that find it funny anyway.

I did however find one of the essays funny. Six to Eight Black Men, about a very strange Christmas tradition in The Netherlands really did make me laugh. I can't remember much about it though, just that I found Sedaris' reactions to the strange events funny.

I've put off writing this for a couple of weeks because I really didn't want to write something so negative. I hoped something good might come to me if I let it stew for a while. But all that really achieved was that I forgot most of what I'd read, and am just left with the impression that I didn't like it. So I'm very sorry to Mr Sedaris, but this just wasn't for me!

Once upon a Time Challenge

This is a challenge to read fantasy type books. This is not something I read much of but I thought I'd give it a go!
Full details are Here. I'm going to go for the first challenge, The Journey, which doesn't commit me to a specific number of books. I'm just going to see what I can read.

The End of the World Challenge

This is the End of the World Challenge challenge. I'm a bit late joining this one and I don't know what I'll actually read apart from that I really want to read The Road, but I'll find another three and list them as I read them.

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Case Histories by Kate Atkinson

This was one bought for me my mum and have been putting off reading it because we don't usually read the same things. But I'm glad I did because I really enjoyed it. It concerns three cold cases presented to ex police officer, Jackson Brodie, now a private detective. The three case histories are presented at the beginning and then it is left to Jackson to decipher the truth from the information he's given.

The first case history concerns a three year old girl who went missing from a tent in the back garden 30 years ago, the second is about an eighteen year girl who was murdered in her fathers office ten years ago and the third is a woman looking for her niece who was supposedly witnessed the murder of her father by her mother twenty-five years ago.

The book is not just about these three case's though. Jackson himself, and his dysfunctional family life and tragic past is revealed slowly throughout the story. His pain at being separated from his eight year old daughter and his reaction towards his wife and her new lover illuminate his distress at his current life. He also expresses great concern at the provocative way his daughter is allowed to dress and behave, juxtaposed in his head with the atrocities that have occurred in the cases he is working on.

The stories themselves interlock and when the endings are finally resolved, nothing is as it seems. What we are given at the start is a brief overview of the three stories, and the rest of the story unfolds in small parts over the course of the novel. We get multiple points of view for the events that happened in the past, sometimes from Jackson, sometimes from the characters that are searching for the person, but more often than not from the people Jackson interviews that were connected with the events. Each viewpoint illuminates another aspect to each case which moves the story on a bit more, although sometimes it confuses more than elucidates!

I'm not sure whether I liked the case histories themselves or the development of Jackson Brodie best in this book. I found the case histories interesting, although the last one was fairly predictable. But I also found Jackson himself to be a really interesting, and human investigator. I suppose the histories themselves and Jackson's history are interlinked, and maybe neither would be as interesting to read about without the other. All the characters have lost at least one thing, some more, whether it a cat, sister, daughter, family, niece or even life as they knew it. Maybe this is what brings them all together, and makes the novel so coherent and readable.

And I definitely want to know more about Jackson Brodie, so I've been visiting my mum this week so I've picked up the second and third to take home with me.

In the Fold by Rachel Cusk

I was totally gripped by this book, even though nothing much actually happens! The book starts with university friends Adam and Micheal visiting Micheal's large country home, known as Egypt, for his younger sister's eighteenth birthday celebrations. This serves to elucidate the slightly odd set up of this family, not least being the Micheal's fathers first and second wife seemingly so close. Adam is slightly awed by the well to do and bohemian attitude of the Hanburys, and the way he seems to be taken in without question.

From here we fast forward years. Adam is married (incidentally into a similar wealthy family to the Hanburys) with a child and living in a slightly unsatisfactory marriage with a woman who is not content with her life since having a child. This is probably the most action packed chapter in the novel, when the balcony in his town house collapses, nearly crushing him. I can't help but feel that this is overt symbolism for the crumbling of his marriage. When he gets a call from Adam, he jumps at the chance to go and spend a week with him lambing at the farm at Egypt.

From here the novel becomes a exposition of family relationships, modern life and character study. Adam lives in Georgian town house in bath, whereas Micheal lives in a modern housing estate. During his tour of the house by Adam's wife, Lisa, Micheal is struck by the sterile nature of the house and the estate, and therefore the people

"I did not dislike her, though I saw she was suffering from a madness of convenience. She had decided to concern herself with the morality of inanimate objects"

He also seems ultimately concerned with her attitude towards the children. Due to his wife's seeming inability to cope with the child on her own, he has taken Hamish with him to the Hanburys, and he is left with Lisa whilst the men are lambing. At various points he comments on the way she always has sweets available to keep children quiet, and the omnipresence of television.

"While preparing to take me on the tour of the house she had placed the children in front of the screen, switched it on, and then, like an anaesthetist, waited fr a count of ten, before the end of which they had happily vacated their bodies."

However, social commentary aside, there is a climax to this book. Its very quiet and really involves a long conversation in the kitchen at Egypt, but it prompts everybody to think about their lives and Adam goes home in a pensive state of mind. His absence means everything has changed back home and his already distant wife is even more distant.

I know I haven't done this book justice but it's really hard to write about. I loved it, found it quite depressing, and didn't think I got everything out of it I should have done all at the same time.

A Natural History of Unicorns by Chris Lavers

I wasn't sure what to expect when I picked this up. The title just intrigued me! Its a fascinating look at the history of unicorns. We all know that unicorns don't exist but this book looks at both the history and development of the myth, and the actual animals that could have inspired the myth in the first place.

It covers a lot of ground, starting with accounts of one horned beasts stretching as far back as 398BC. As well as producing these accounts, Chris Lavers goes on to suggest what the beast discovered could have actually been. Many theories are suggested, including a rhinoceros, antelope and other such horned beasts.

It also goes into the reasons the myth of the unicorn has lasted so long. I actually found these parts most interesting. It explores ideas of the unicorn as a symbol of Christ, and how this association developed, as well as the unicorn in heraldry, which would be the image of the unicorn most of us have in our imaginations today. One of the reasons the unicorn myth is so enduring is the idea of the anti-poisoning and magical properties of the horn. This is traced back to its origins and goes on to examine what the horns that turned up claiming to be unicorn horns could have been. Narwhal tooth, a type of fish, was the prime suspect!

This book comes as far forward as the early 20th century and the search into the African heartlands for the elusive unicorn. It is theme running throughout the search for the unicorn that reports of sightings are always far away from where the report is made! Another reason the myth is so enduring.

It asks a lot of questions about where the idea of a unicorn came from and doesn't really give any definitive answers. But then there are no definitive answers to give. It's entertaining and does explain where the ideas may have come from and how and why they were perpetuated. I also like the fact that it uses language that makes you feel you are on the hunt for the unicorn. Words such as searching, tracking and hunting.

Booking Through Thursday-Libraries

I saw that National Library week is coming up in April, and that led to some questions. How often do you use your public library and how do you use it? Has the coffeehouse/bookstore replaced the library? Did you go to the library as a child? Do you have any particular memories of the library? Do you like sleek, modern, active libraries or the older, darker, quiet, cozy libraries?

Libraries are fantastic! I love mine and couldn't live without it, but I don't actually spend a lot of time in it. I spend more time on their website checking the catalogue and requesting books. I live in a small rural town so consequently the library I use is small. But it is part of an excellent county network which has most books I would like to read somewhere in the county. So my library visits are short, usually just to collect books that have come in on request. And since I have to pass it every day taking my daughter to and from school, I don't even have a particular time to visit. I'm usually in their to collect my books the moment they text me to tell me they have arrived!

I do spend more time in there when I take my daughter though. She loves the library. She always chooses her books really quickly then sits down to read them and is quite upset when she has to come away. This is the time that I will just browse the shelves and look for anything that might just catch my eye.

As for childhood experiences of libraries, my mum is a librarian so I spent a lot of time in the library. Visits to the library were a regular thing and I spent some of my school holidays in the library when mum had to work. I loved that though, and I even got to help out behind the desk when it was quiet.