An Octopus in My Ouzo: Loving Life on a Greek Island by Jennifer Barclay
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A copy of this was provided free of charge from the publisher in return for an honest review.

Tilos is a tiny Greek Island, and it was here that Jennifer Barclay ended up with her boots, a laptop and a slightly broken heart. She moves into a small apartment with the delightful name of the Honey Factory and a new life and adventures are just beginning. Learning a new thing every day seems to be a good philosophy, and the best way to get to know her neighbours and the locals is to join in.

So she does; learning the local dances held at the regular festivals and weddings, teaching the local children English and helping her boyfriend, Stelios, with his early morning fishing trips and run a beach café with her help immerse her in the local society. Even though the apartment is small, she has enough space for a small garden and a few chickens. What they don’t have is enough space for is a dog! However, after a trip to Rhodes, she is offered a puppy free. Lisa becomes her new companion and almost soul mate joining her on walks and the daily trip to the beach to swim in the crystal clear seas of the Aegean.

This is a really good companion to Falling in Honey, her first book set in Greece. All of life’s rich experiences seem to touch Barclay. She is refreshingly honest too, wearing her heart on her sleeve whilst sharing these pivotal life moments and there is as much happiness in here as there are sad moments. Jennifer paints a beautiful picture of her island too; the descriptions of the landscapes and scenery are evocative. It is a lovely book to read, the writing makes you feel that you are there as well, watching the lightning flash around the hills, soaking up the sun with a glass of wine to hand or tucking into the delicious food. This book does what any good travel book should do, not only do you feel that you are there, it makes you want to that place at the first opportunity. 4.5 stars.

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The Four-Dimensional Human: Ways of Being in the Digital World by Laurence Scott
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A copy of this was provided free of charge from the publisher in return for an honest review.

You are no doubt reading this on a screen, most likely some sort of tablet or phone, but it could be on a computer. This constant interaction with the 1’s and 0’s of the digital world is starting to have an effect on our own lives, as we are drawn into a world of constant connection, information at your fingertips and 24 hour communication. Scott calls this new persona, the four dimensional human, and in this book considers the ways that this influx of digital consciousness will affect us. Some of his subjects include the private and public faces that we show online, how the digital sphere is affecting us and our thought processes and the perils on our sanity with a constant stream of news.

It was an interesting book in lots of ways, almost everything we do these days has some sort of interaction with a computer or screen, and Scoot has made a good attempt to try and see what sort of human being we will become with the constant digital feeds in our lives. The first part of the book dragged a little, but thankfully picked up in the last half where he gave a number of examples on social media and his own experiences on it as well as illustrations from the film and fiction worlds. Overall good, and it would be a subject worth re-visiting again in five years or so with my children’s generation who have only know this world.

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No Way But Gentlenesse: A Memoir of How Kes, My Kestrel, Changed My Life by Richard Hines
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Richard Hines is a Yorkshire man through and through. Raised in, Hoyland Common, mining was the chosen career of his father and grandfather and many of the men in the village. He remember sliding down heaps of waste, hearing of accidents in the pit; knowing that his father would open the door the same time after a shift; there was that dread in the stomach that came when he was late. Sitting the eleven plus exam, it was hoped that he would pass and follow his brother Barry to grammar school. He failed and entered the local secondary modern school; a place that sought to crush the spirit and hopes of all children it was supposed to be teaching.

Despondent because of the cruel antics of the teachers and the system, Richard spent time walking the fields beyond the slag heaps. It was whilst walking the grounds of a ruin he saw a kestrel fly into its nest. Spellbound by the sight, it motivated him to head to the library to discover more on the ancient sport of falconry. They wouldn’t lend him the book, so he ended up buying that and many others as he devoured every piece of information he could about raptors. Having read everything it was time to find a hawk, and a friend of his came up trumps bringing him his first kestrel; Kes. Just from the information in these books he trained his bird, from the very first stages to flying it with lures.

If the name Kes is familiar, there was a film of the same name about a boy learning to love nature and training his kestrel. The film was based on the book, A Kestrel for a Knave written by one Barry Hines, Richards brother. Richard was employed on the film to train the actor and the three kestrels required for all the filming.

This is a fine quality memoir, full of gentle, lyrical prose. It is a sad book to read too; he didn’t have that educational opportunity that his brother did, ending up at the secondary modern, future potentially dashed. Life as the son of a miner was tough too, you never knew if you would see your father again when he left for work in the morning. The descriptions of the natural world that surrounded the man made waste from the mine make for good reading too. Mostly this is about the birds; that you can take a creature that is so very wild, and with persuasion and gentle coercion make it respond to your commands.

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The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Like his father before him, Stevens is a butler, a career chosen for service and dedication to the highest in the land. Working for Lord Darlington in between the World Wars, he offered loyalty and discretion as various high-powered guests met to discuss the increasing perilous situation in Europe.

Post war the social landscape has changed dramatically. Stevens is still the butler at Darlington Hall, but his master is now a rich American, Mr Farraday. Stevens is encouraged by him to take a brief break, and offers to lend him his car for a motoring holiday. It is ideal timing as Stevens has recently received a letter from a past colleague, Miss Kenton, and sees it as an ideal opportunity to pay her a visit. As he travels through Wilshire, Dorset, Devon and Cornwall enjoying the sights and countryside he takes time to consider various matters; his service to Lord Darlington, the relationship that he had with his father and his housekeeper.

It is a melancholy story, full of subtlety whilst still having profound meaning and depth. The main character, Stevens, is the quintessentially English butler, composed and proficient; but whilst he can say the right words he lacks feeling and empathy because of his upbringing and career. I am not sure just how he does it, but Ishiguro has managed to capture the class distinctions perfectly in this book. Possibly because he has an outsider’s perspective on how society at the time functioned, or didn’t, and understands the minutia and restraint that a member of the household has to have whilst dealing with the great and the good. It is equally about what isn’t said and happens between the two main characters as it is about what actually happens, and it is impressive just how much emotion can be wrung out of such restrained prose. Good stuff.

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The Travelers by Chris Pavone
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Will Rhodes has an almost perfect job. He is an award winning correspondent for The Travelers, an upmarket travel magazine catering to the super rich. His latest assignment is at a luxury hotel in Argentina nestled beneath the Andes; it means that he is sampling fine wine and superb food, and watching the polo. But what starts as an innocent flirtation with a pretty girl he recognises from elsewhere, suddenly becomes far more deadly, and he realises that he has been the target of an operation.

You can read the rest of the review here

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Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen by Mary Norris
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The New Yorker’s readers demand the highest standards of copy, and Mary Norris has been of of those editors for the past three decades giving the readers what they demand. Having sharpened all her pencils, she now brings us her take on the newspaper business and the (American) English language. Working her way through the most common language issues, such as spelling, commas, when to swear, and when not to. She investigates the less common punctuation, extols the use of the hyphen – excessively perhaps and contemplates the genders. Drawing from classic works by Dickens and Melville and reasonably up to date works by Flynn and Wallace she aims to enlighten us in the ways and foibles of our language, from the Oxford comma to the apostrophe that wanders up and down the word depending on the profession.

This is not a bad read overall; it is fairly short, light hearted and informative and she writes with a gentle humour. Whilst she goes in to the minutiae of language with regards to punctuation, it is very much centred on the The New Yorker and her work there. There are some good parts, the chapter on profanity is quite amusing, her ventures into the historical reasons behind certain word uses and her penchant for a particular type of pencil. It is almost trying to do too much; is it a memoir of her work at the paper or a book on language? I’m still not sure. Worth reading, but if you are looking for a book on the delights of language, pop it back on the shelf.

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