Reviews and Comments

This play is a new one on me and I really enjoyed it. The main character Midgley is a very morose chap, he has never lived his life, he is married to a woman who hates him, he is distant from his own son and feels he has always let his father down. When his father has a stroke and is in hospital in a coma on his death-bed, Midgley decides he will wait by his side to be with him at the end, he is determined to not let down his dad this time.

Even though the book is set in the ICU surrounded by grief there are still quite a few laughs here...none of them by Midgley...and that's the great part about this book, Midgley is a brilliant straight man, throughout he keeps his composure whilst his family cause chaos.

I do have one issue, it would have been much better if it was longer, there isn't the time for Midgley's relationship with the nurse to develop properly, you're just left having to accept things have happened. Still, it was a good read and I'd love to see this on stage.

Blog review: felcherman.wordpress.com/2020/01/22/father-father-burning-bright-by-alan-bennett/

Holy Craparooney! what a cracking book. The first two books of 2020 have been amazing, it looks like it is going to be a good year of reading for me.

Whilst most people are looking around them or looking up at the stars, Macfarlane is looking down at the magical places underground. Whether that is a small cave under a tree or an underground lake system or even man made tunnels he manages to find something unique and poetic in each place.

I've always enjoyed exploring underground, since being a young kid and exploring caves at the beach on holiday and pot-holing as a scout to being at work and running cables under one of the buildings. I always jump at the chance to go and explore, hoping I don't get stuck with my ample gut :-) and whilst there the light has to be turned off for as long as I can stand it to experience the complete blackness.

There is something very special about Macfarlane's writing, every place he visits in this book has been treated well, he uses his words very carefully and is able to transport the reader there, I found his time under Paris terrifying, pretty sure this could traumatise some readers. One of the most interesting parts of the books was with the network that trees had created for themselves underground sharing nutrients and helping those in need....Nature has proven that social media can work, you just need to get rid of the humans.

A wonderful book and I've loved every page. I highly recommend this one.

Blog review: felcherman.wordpress.com/2020/01/18/underland-by-robert-macfarlane/

I do love stumbling across an unknown book and finding out that it is a brilliant read, that is what happened with "enter the aardvark". A political satire that captures the madness of politics and news media perfectly. Alexander Paine Wilson is a politician that pushes crazy laws about same sex marriage and abortions by day and at night is completely oblivious that he is breaking the laws he is trying to enforce, in my opinion that fits the average politician in the UK.

That is just half the story of this book, the second half is about a Victorian Taxidermist working on his masterpiece...the Aardvark...all whilst dealing with his sexuality. All woven into this story is the Aardvark, written with a wry humour just like Kurt Vonnegut would have used. It is not slapstick funny but there were loads of times I found myself shaking my head with a grin on my face. There are quite a few plot twists and Wilson's epic realisation at the end was a smart way to tie up any loose ends.

I have enjoyed this book big time, some very good characters and who in their right mind couldn't love the aardvark?

Blog review: felcherman.wordpress.com/2019/12/30/enter-the-aardvark-by-jessica-anthony/

What a cracking adventure story this was, it really brought out the child in me. I can see that when this book came out it could have inspired young men to leave the safety of home to travel across the ocean, to fight in revolutions, to meet beautiful young ladies and to eat, drink and be merry.

Our main character is Richard Lamb, he is travelling and looking for work and he has left his wife at home. He is a very passionate young man, falling in love with every pretty girl he meets, this passion soon gets him in hot water and he finds himself embroiled in a revolution, it is quite comical to read as he is charging towards the enemy, gun at the ready and not being sure what is going on. At the start of the journey he is quite British, not impressed with Uruguay and it's dirty lowly people, as the journey progresses and he meets more and more kind and wise people he starts to fall in love with the country and freely admits that his first impressions were way off the mark. This change in character, that almost happens without the reader realising it, shows just how good the writing is, very impressive for a debut.

This has been a very enjoyable read, I've met some great people and if everybody in the world had this friendly outlook (treat every visitor as if they were a member of your family) then it would be a far better place to live.

Blog review: felcherman.wordpress.com/2019/12/24/the-purple-land-by-w-h-hudson/

An award winning book and this time I can totally see why it won. The book is based in a small dive of a theatre as we watch a comedian falling apart on stage, the "sadness of a clown" is captured spot on. Dov is our comedian and what starts out as a standard show soon goes belly up as the hecklers kick off, Dov doesn't seem healthy either. As the show goes on Dov loses his grip more and more as his jokes become darker and the flashbacks to a scene in his early life become more prominent. This is where the book wins its award it stays inside the dive but somehow transports you elsewhere to experience Dov's tragic upbringing, with Dov telling the odd joke to keep you tethered in the dive.

The writing is top notch and Dov's meltdown is mesmerising, you really feel for the guy as people heckle or leave and as the story comes to the end you find yourself on the edge of your set with the few remaining audience members who are left. And as for the jokes Dov tells? They are not Christmas cracker friendly that's for sure. :-)

Blog review: felcherman.wordpress.com/2019/12/19/a-horse-walks-into-a-bar-by-david-grossman/

This my first reading of this book, of course the story of A Christmas Carol is not new to me, I have seen many versions of this on the TV. The original does not disappoint, it is a brilliant little story that plays out just like I know, the animated version with Jim Carey is, in my opinion, the one that captures the book best. Scrooge is a great character and reading as he realises that Christmas is all about blowing all his dosh on the biggest bird possible was fun to read.

As for the other stories, you can see a few of them were almost first attempts of Dickens creating the main story. The Haunted man is the second big story in the book and the weakest in the whole collection, I thought it was dull and failed to grab my attention enough to figure out what the hell was going on. My favourite of the shorter stories was "A Christmas Tree" Dickens spots a Christmas tree and all it's decorations and gets transported back to his childhood and the fun he had playing with his toys, very touching stuff.

This is another of the Penguin Clothbound classics that I own and again it is lovely. It feels amazing in your hands as you read, nice thick pages and a top notch cover.

Blog review is here: felcherman.wordpress.com/2019/12/17/a-christmas-carol-and-other-christmas-writings-by-charles-dickens/

I have to admit that the goose is a bird I've tended to ignore, we get lots of them around here, mainly canada geese, and they keep their distance and make a right noise. I usually get distracted by other birds.

Stephen Rutt has had a similar history with the bird, it was only when he moved to Scotland (same area I'm off on holiday to in August 2020) that he saw them properly for the first time and his obsession kicked off big time. You can see why he needed to focus his energy on something, moving to Scotland is a big thing and adapting to the weather and less daylight can be challenging. This book is a memoir of sorts by a birdwatcher as he travels the country looking for the main species of goose that we get in this country. He shows some real dedication trudging through muddy fields on many frozen mornings on the off chance of spotting the bird. At first I was a bit disappointed that you don't get much info on the geese, their plumage is the main focus on information, once I realised the book is about the search and the experience of birdwatching I settled in to the book nicely, Stephen has a good voice when it comes to writing, he has a good sense of humour too, I especially liked that the cat got a mention in the thanks for sitting on his hands and forcing breaks from writing. This was a fun little book to read.

Blog review and a creepy Goose: felcherman.wordpress.com/2019/12/11/wintering-a-season-with-geese-by-stephen-rutt/

Pierce's Dad has died and Pierce is unable to deal with his grief, his dad battled with cancer and Pierce feels guilt for grieving for somebody who had been suffering so much. He becomes disjointed from life, no longer able to deal with school work or his friends. Instead he becomes fixated on a book, "the one book", and the girl who once gave it too him. He ends up on a journey to find her and once there he can't face her. Instead he meets some odd characters, especially the very wise homeless philosopher Roger.

Whilst all this is happening there is a parallel dystopian story happening. At first this is odd until you realise that each story is influencing each other, gradually starting to merge as you get near the end of the book. My theory on this is that it is how Pierce is managing his nervous breakdown. The ending of the book is quite touching and I liked how everything worked out.

Daniel Clausen is one of my favourite authors and this was his first book, I have been after it for years and recently he has re-written/tidied up a lot of the book ready to be re-released, so I'm well glad to have got me hands on a copy. It was nice to read about Pierce and Roger who have been characters in other books by Clausen I think.

Blog Review: felcherman.wordpress.com/2019/12/06/the-sage-and-the-scarecrow-by-daniel-clausen/

An award winning crime story? Can't see that myself, there is nothing special about this that makes it stand out more than any other crime mystery. It isn't terrible though, fantastic setting and when reading this the Aussie accent was coming through really well in my head. The heat was the best part, the book is based in the middle of a very long drought and the terrible heat and lethargy comes across big time. The characters were ok, Falk and Raco make a brilliant team, nice to see for once that the local cop wasn't portrayed as an idiot.

The main reason that this book doesn't stand above other run-of-the-mill crime novels is the end result was really limp, the book flows nicely and deserved an outrageous ending, the bad guy should have been nobody you could have expected....instead I was left going "Is that it? All this for something so silly?" Probably too much like real life for me.

This was an ok story, I might give Falk's second case a go just to see if things become more inventive. Looking on google it looks like there is gonna be a movie released Jan 2020, could be worth a view.

Blog review: felcherman.wordpress.com/2019/12/05/the-dry-by-jane-harper/

This is a tough one to review, I can see a lot of low ratings for this in the future. The reason for this is the misleading title "How to draw a map", I was looking forward to using the skills learnt in the book to create my own little map, alas there is nothing about creating a map, not even the basics, that is not what this book is about. Very disappointed.

Once you get over that issue you'll find this to be a very interesting book on "the history of mapmakers". The Swanston's are pretty witty too, some of their comments will give you a chuckle, especially the one about being unable to skip anymore. I love a book with a map at the beginning and this one is crammed full of wonderful maps, full of so many details, from the journeys undertaken by explorers to battle plans and maps of cities. You could spend hours pouring over them.

This book covers a huge amount of history all brief glimpses, which gives it the advantage of not smothering the reader in dates and facts. The adventures of explorers finding trade new trade routes, discovering new lands and eventually dying in barbaric scenes was the highlight for me. A lot of the darker sides of humanity are the reasons why so much effort was put into mapmaking, genocide, slavery, war, increasing an empire's territory, the better map always gave the owner the advantage in the end.

What this book could have done with was more about the work the writers do, they make historical maps, it would have been a nice ending to find out how they go about that, where do they get their information and how do they go about putting that down in map format. This book does have it's faults but is still a good learning experience.

Blog review with images: felcherman.wordpress.com/2019/12/01/how-to-draw-a-map-by-malcolm-and-alex-swanston/

Holy Baboons this was a brilliant book! If you are a fan of The Brothers Sisters or Blood Meridian then give this a go, it has similar atmosphere, an amazing sense of adventure and some brilliant characters. Set during the "Indian Wars" and the Civil War, it shows the brutality of war and the cruelness of man. As a reader you know that both of these wars were awful and very one-sided, but you still get shocked by scenes as Indians get slaughtered, men, women and children, Thomas McNulty our narrator is not happy doing these things but he has his orders and must carry them out, there is no chance of questioning why he was doing these things.

As a young man Thomas meets up with John Cole who soon becomes his soulmate/brother-in-arms they experience so much together and survive so much that instantly you are cheering them on hoping that they survive each scene. Sebastian Barry is very critical of war and the things these men did, he does a great job using the wise Thomas and John to voice some truly great lines, I'd repeat them here but they wouldn't be as effective as when used in the flow of the story.

I read this as part of an award winners reading challenge, I am 100% certain I would have bypassed this book as it is not my normal reading fare. I'm so glad I took up the challenge and that this book met the challenge criteria. It should come with a warning though...."Breathe"....I found myself holding my breathe during the battles, gasping for air when a scene ended. Top stuff.

Blog review: felcherman.wordpress.com/2019/11/25/days-without-end-by-sebastian-barry/

Never has a book filled me with as much rage as the beginning of this book did, the injustice of it all is heart-breaking. Ray starts off explaining how a friend for years invests some of their money, it goes wrong and he leaves them as the fall guys. A disinterested judge working with a failed justice system will not accept a piece of evidence clearing them as it wasn't submitted correctly...absolutely ridiculous...they lose the farm they lived on that was their life. To make things impossibly bad Moth, her husband gets diagnosed with a terminal illness. Whilst hiding from the bailiffs they get inspired to walk the South West Coast Path, even though Moth has been told to take it easy and to not walk too far....it's only 630miles long.

The Salt Path...which I would have called "Old People Walking" :-)...is one of the most riveting books on walking I have ever had the pleasure to read, I found every excuse I could find to pick it up to read a few more pages. It is a spiritual journey, a trial to see how much the human body can endure, it raises awareness of homelessness which is far more prevalent than our lovely Government would have you believe. Ray and Moth experience first hand the reaction of people when they learn that they aren't backpackers but are in fact homeless, the fear in their eyes is instant. There are shocking scenes, there is a desperation that almost makes you cry and there is a sense of humour that is charming. They meet some brilliant characters on their walk, a favourite of mine was the man so happy to see a Peregrine Falcon.

This is the best book I've read in 2019, the writing is wonderful and the hope it gives the reader feels really profound. It hasn't inspired me to camp wild though, I'll have to walk between B&Bs on walks of this length. Pick this book up and check it out.

Blog review: felcherman.wordpress.com/2019/11/13/the-salt-path-by-raynor-winn/

One of my favourite movies, top 10, is Memento, it's a cracking story, about somebody who wakes up every morning with no new memories and to make things crazy they've gotta solve a crime, the main character does this by tattooing clues on himself. So obviously when starting this my opinion was of it being a rip-off of the movie. It doesn't take that long for this story to find its own feet....and when you come to think of it a journal you write in seems more sensible than tattooing yourself.

Christine has suffered from trauma and since then can create no new memories, she is living at home with her husband and has a few techniques set up to help her get through the day without having a breakdown. She then meets a doctor who convinces her to write a journal about her day which she can read each morning, gradually she starts to remember glimpses of her past which starts to get darker and darker.

The writing is very good, there were a few times where the plot slows down too much for my liking, but the more Christine writes in her diary the more plot there is, so it just gets better and better. One very interesting thing was how much I got caught up in the story, the paranoia was contagious, I started finding myself not trusting any of the characters.

This was a great debut novel, I'm definitely gonna check out what else S. J. Watson has written.

Blog review: felcherman.wordpress.com/2019/11/05/before-i-go-to-sleep-by-s-j-watson/

What a fantastic story, a proper adventure through the afterlife. Milton is our main character, he wakes up one morning after a night out drinking and fighting, incredibly hungover....he even threw up on a book....shocking! His journey to work is like any other day, except for the dying part that is.

Edward Vass then creates a wonderful series of events as Milton works his way through Purgatory, meeting some great characters on the way. If one day a cult is built around this book then count me in, it makes life and death more fun than most religions around at the moment.

The writing is very good, it draws you in very quickly and doesn't let go until the end, it's one of those books that sticks with you when you put it down. This is my first book by Fairlight Books and I love it, brilliant cover and small enough to fit in your pocket....I'm gonna have to start collecting these.

Blog review: felcherman.wordpress.com/2019/11/04/milton-in-purgatory-by-edward-vass/