March Reading

Gullivar's Travels for the online podcast. I took this to be a satire on Colonialism, so read it with that frame of reference. Some of it is very funny - especially the fire part. I did enjoy the reversal of position when he changed in stature. However, I lost interest by the end. I found the satire on learning and education (and school systems) interesting, but more for the conservatism we see today, almost the gate keeping to discourage others from benefiting from it. I don't think a child would be interested in reading this at all, which is interesting as I loved the movie and the story as a child. I think the fantasy side is why the movies and 'story' is so popular, but if you read the book, it's the humour in human nature that makes it relevant. The pride and ego in politics is as much a part of today as it was then. Interestingly, there were attempts to ban it for all the public urination in the book, among other reasons. Glad I read it but not sure I'd put it in the must read pile. The online book club chat is here. I like to read along and then listen to their discussion.

Alpine Divorce. I had to read this after it kept popping up in these dreadful murders. I was genuinely suprised it's not what people say it's about. It's clever and cute (though meant to be horror or thriller or something). I could only find it on Audible, paid $3.99 and it's 10 mins long. 

Destination Unknown - I booked my husband's trip around Morocco and as I'm now very familiar with all the locations, I thought I'd read this spy novel by Agatha Christie. I really enjoyed it. Different to her usual work in many ways, it was clever and fun. It had the most brilliant line, which came out of nowhere after a minor character we just got introduced to made a speech annotating the action “And with long graceful steps Mademoiselle Maricot walked out of the small salon and out of the story.” It really was a fun read and a change from her usual style. Written in 1954, it was funny to have the cold war themes as I think of her as much older time periods for her stories. This felt more modern.

Flesh - I only read it because Zadie Smith said he wrote it with the aim of readers shortened attention span and it was excellent. So that was enough to make me curious. I will admit it took me a little time to get into the rhythmn of it. But I enjoyed it. I won't say I thought it was excellent but I'm glad I read it and I think I'm seeing him at the writers festival so will be interested to hear what he as to say. It's very interesting in the style and pace.

The Commendant for book group - I really wanted to love this as I love Tirra Lirra By The River but I found it a little slow to get started. I was 100 pages in before I began to get interested. It does pick up and the characters and politics of the early days in Australia become more interesting. So worth a read, thought it is out of my usual style. I am however looking forward to our book club discusssion as I think most of the group will have really enjoyed it.

Lastly, I walked past this on a running trail. I thought it was a great title and a great way to capture a relevant market, but not for me....