July Reads

As with June, I thought I would look at a theme to simplify the books that I review from July. This month I'm looking at the families in all of the books. Five this month, one of them took up half of the month and I didn't even finish it in the end.

Families in July

Dead Ends
Erin Jade Lange
Faber and Faber 03/07/14 Paperback
6/10
Review copy for Movellas
The first book of July!  It was actually Dead Ends that gave me the idea to have the theme of family for this month. My review of Dead Ends can be found here. Donated to the underground #booksontheunderground.




What Was Promised
Tobias Hill
Bloomsbury 13/03/14 Proof
6/10
Book haul (Bloomsbury)

A perfect book to think about family. This book follows three families who start in the Columbia buildings on Columbia road, the flower market. It is set after the end of the first world war. The links between the three families are solidified through their children who all play together, and through the generations we see how those early connections win out later on. The story also makes you think about what it means to be a family. Is it your history? Does blood relation make a family or not? and what family means to each of the characters.  I enjoyed this book, though it felt a little long at times.  I would not read it again, though I do recommend it. A cosy long read, Tobias Hill is a very good writer.

How To Be A Woman
Catlin Moran
Ebury Press 01/03/12 Paperback
8/10
Birthday Present
A hugely controversial topic for me personally. Why in this time would anyone not consider them selves a feminist? It is because of the small outspoken sect of women who give the movement a bad name. It therefore makes it very difficult for the run of the mill woman to admit to being a feminist. A misunderstanding of feminism. A more accurate term would be a humanist. Where race, gender, sexuality or religion do not define. Man hating is not feminism, unfortunately that is what it is sometimes seen as. The display of hate or discrimination one way or the other is not acceptable. It is important to understand that this book is NOT a feminist manifesto, by any means. It is VERY well written, and very funny, but it is not doctrine and it would be a mistake to subvert your own views for Moran's.  Her opinion on sex in particular was very disturbing to me.  She evidently wants to be seen as a strong female figure in her family. However it did occur to me that rather than equality there was an element of submission in the presentation of her husband, I constantly pitied him.

One Hundred Years of Solitude
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Penguin 06/09/07 Paperback
4/10
Gift (Penguin Intern)
This book either gets five stars or one. For those who award five, a review of incredibly critical insight is written. For those who award one they apologise for 'not getting it'.  I will not apologise.
I get it. The passage of time, the reality of time, the madness of the human condition. The absurd. One critic called it  Dali in words. I loved passages of the writing. perhaps one paragraph in nine. But I could not finish it. Such importance was put upon the family, but we were raced through it. I lost interest in trying to keep up. Unlike Ulysses where the beauty of the language has to wash over you as you read it (and perhaps this is the downfall of translation) one hundred years of solitude read as a very dull timeline with extraordinary events chucked in. Other critics I read said: one hundred years of Boredom/Tedium/Torture. I am inclined to agree. I did not finish it and I would not recommend it.

Eat My Heart Out
Zoe Pilger
Serpents Tail 26/06/14 Paperback
7/10
Off The Shelf (Profile books)

I really enjoyed this one. Ann-Marie is totally bonkers, but she does have people who care about her. She has some weird philosophies. This book is a mad and frantic romp around London, so energetic and whirlwindy. More like how I see my own experience of it. The family in this story is actually Sebastian's they are the only people who unequivocally accept her for one reason or another. I thought it was important that a) she had a refuge and b) she didn't abuse it too much. Donated to the underground #Booksontheunderground