Decades: Compiling the Ultimate Library with Ayo Onatade

My Decades challenge began in January. I had been contemplating the joy of entering a new library for the first time and tried to imagine the overwhelming situation a librarian may face if they were asked to fill the shelves of a brand new library.

Starting with zero books, how could you possibly hope to decide which titles you needed to order to make sure the very best books would be available for readers? I knew this was a question that demanded an answer and I knew I couldn’t do it alone.

Each week I invite a booklover to join me and I ask them to nominate five new books to be added to my Ultimate Library. Although they can choose ANY five books I do add a second rule which governs their selections…only one book per decade over five consecutive decades. So my guests can choose five books from a fifty year publication span. Easy!

I don’t want to add much more as I want to hand over to Ayo. During my 8 year life as Grab This Book I have been constantly in awe of Ayo who champions crime writing, books and authors in a way I could only ever dream of matching. It is a huge honour to have Ayo taking part in my Decades challenge and, of course, she has selected five terrific books which I am delighted to add to my Library.

Ayo Onatade is a freelance crime fiction critic/commentator and blogger. She has written a number of articles on different aspects of crime fiction and has also given papers on the subject as well. She was a contributor to British Crime Writing: An Encyclopaedia (2008) edited by Barry Forshaw and The American Thriller (Critical Insights) (2014) edited by Gary Hoppenstand. She wrote the chapter on Legal Thrillers. She is co-editor with Len Tyler of the anthology Bodies in the Bookshop (2014). She is a former Chair of the CWA Short Story Dagger and former judge of the Ngaio Marsh Award. She is current Chair of HWA (Historical Writers Association) Debut Crown and a Judge for the Strand Magazine Critics Award. She is an Associate Member and a Committee Member of the Crime Writers Association of Great Britain (CWA).

She has an eclectic taste in crime fiction, which runs the gamut from historical crime ﬁction to hardboiled and short stories. Her research interests include historical fiction especially crime fiction and crime fiction literary criticism. She can be found blogging at Shotsmag Confidential and Tweets @shotsblog.

DECADES

The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett (1930)

Dashiell Hammett stole half my heart with Sam Spade. This is one of two books that changed my reading tastes for ever. It was originally serialised in Black Mask Magazine and was an instant bestseller on publication. For me Sam Spade (along with Philip Marlowe) encapsulated what it was to be a private eye. He (that is Dashiell Hammett) according to Raymond Chandler took murder out of the drawing room and put it back in the gutter where it belonged. As someone who before reading The Maltese Falcon had been reading Agatha Christie and other Golden Age mystery novels this was a revelation. Sam Spade was allegedly no one’s hero but to me he was and in The Maltese Falcon he clearly showed how ruthless he could be. It is a story of double and triple crosses, femme fatale’s and a statue that was worth committing murder for.

Farewell My Lovely by Raymond Chandler (1940)

Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe stole the other half of my heart. Farewell My Lovely is the second book to feature the iconic Philip Marlowe and despite being filled with murder and corruption is essentially a love story. Farewell My Lovely is a cannibalisation of a number of previous short stories. Famous for its metaphors and allusions it also in my opinion contains some of the most grotesque characters going. I have always said that reading crime fiction is the best way of opening your mind to social history and social policy and in Farewell My Lovely, Raymond Chandler’s implied social critique can be seen.

Both Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe have often been imitated but never bettered. They are the archetypal private eyes, more iconic and more enduring than we have at the moment.

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (1958)

It depicts pre-colonial life in the southeastern part of Nigeria and the arrival of Europeans during the late 19th century. The first book of a trilogy by Chinua Achebe it has gone on not only to be a bestseller but also it is a chronicle of African history and indeed a classic study of cross-cultural misunderstanding and the consequences. Things Fall Apart was described by Wole Soyinka as being “the first novel in English which spoke from the interior of the African character, rather than portraying the African as an exotic, as the white man would see him” and this certainly was the case. For me it was also the first book by an African author that I read that stuck with me and through a historical lesson as well showed how colonialism impacted on Africans and that violence and pride can bring down an individual. Also that despite Europeans’ claims of bringing “civilization” to Africa, there was already a complex and varied culture on the continent. I read it over 40 years ago and it is now considered to be a classic. Chinua Achebe writes beautifully and honestly about Nigeria warts and all. There is a reason that this book became an international bestseller and there is a reason why it considered to be one of the most foremost African novels. Once read never forgotten.

I know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou (1969)

Maya Angelou’s seminal novel was published 4 years after I was born (here’s me showing my age) but despite the fact that this book is over 50 years old it is still a classic. It describes her life from when she was 3 until her becoming a young mother at 16 and is the first of seven autobiographies. All her autobiographies deal with issues that a lot of black people (especially women) are still dealing with today. From identity and rape to racism and literacy and also the way in which women and their lives are seen and dealt with in a male dominated society.

The symbolism in I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings is very revealing. Think oppression in all its forms including slavery, race based segregation and the still pervasive and insidious forms of oppression that is still rife in black communities today. Maya Angelou was at the forefront of the launch of African American women writers and her importance cannot be ignored. When you think of Black writers whether male or female Maya Angelou will always be talked about. My only disapoointment is that she is no longer alive to inspire future generations.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by John Le Carré (1974)

Whether you have read the 1974 John Le Carré spy novel featuring George Smiley or have only seen the brilliant Alec Guinness as Simley in the BBC box set or Gary Oldman playing him in the 2011 film one cannot ignore the importance of the series or the character. John Le Carré is one of our modern day spy writers and the nuances in relation to complex social commentary at the time in Tink Tailor Soldier Spy was relevant as it had a lot of relevance in the light of Kim Philby’s deflection.

Why Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy as opposed to any other? The vivid characters and sketches of secret agents felt so true to life. The realism mad you feel that you were seeing what was going on from the inside. Whilst I was introduced to spy thrillers via Ian Fleming and I will always be a fan of the original Bond books. It was John Le Carré and specfically his Smiley series that made me appreciate the genre a lot more and seek out other authors. The books that made up the Karla Trilogy Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Honourable Schoolboy (1977) and Smiley’s People (1979) are amongst the best spy novels written. The icy atmosphere of the Cold War is brought brilliantly to life via a cast of memorable and characters who all have their own deep motivations for acts of loyalty, friendship, daring… and betrayal. It is really exceptional and the writing is superb and engrossing. If you want to read a spy novel without all the glamour then pick up Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

I made a conscious effort in my selection not to be solely crime fiction related. Despite what my family think I do read other books. Also some of the crime books that I would have wanted to include were published in the same decade. For example Casino Royale by Ian Fleming which was published in 1953. I had to make a choice. It could have easily have been the case that all five books were crime fiction but looking back on my selections I am pleased that I have included Chinua Achebe and Maya Angelou as they are both books that any self-respecting reader who wants to expand their reading to include black writers should have on their bookshelves. All the books that I have chosen hold important memories for me (aside from the fact that they should be read) and I can honestly say that if I am asked this question again it is likely that my suggestions would change especially if I am looking at a different decade.

I would be very much surprised if some of these have not already been suggested. If not hurrah! If they have then thank goodness as it clearly means that a lot of the books really do have a significance.

Thank you Ayo! Five exceptional selections and I am once again reminded I really must read Raymond Chandler one day soon.

If you want to visit the Library and see the titles which have been selected by previous guests then this handy wee link will take you there: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/GrabThisBookDecades

DECADES WILL RETURN

Category: Decades, From The Bookshelf | Comments Off

October 11

Decades: Compiling the Ultimate Library with Rachel Amphlett

Rachel Amphlett has a new book out today (11th October) and I am opening the blog tour for The Lost Boy – my review is here. In addition to reviewing The Lost Boy, Rachel is also on my blog today making her Decades selections. You are probably thinking that this was great planning but, if you knew me, you’d know that was highly improbable.

As as much as I would like to claim it was all planned out, I had asked Rachel if she could become my Decades Curator a few weeks before I was given the opportunity to host a leg of the blog tour for The Lost Boy. I have been a fan of Rachel’s writing for a few years now and was keen to see which titles she would select when faced with my Decades challenge.

If you haven’t encountered Decades before today let me quickly explain what’s about to happen: I am trying to assemble a brand new library of unmissable books. Each week I invite a guest to join me and I ask them to nominate five books which should be added to my Library. However, publication dates are important as my guests can only choose one book per decade and they must select from five consecutive decades – so a fifty year publication span of their choosing.

If you want to see which books have previously been selected here is a handy link: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/GrabThisBookDecades

Let me now hand over to Rachel Amphlett to guide you through five exciting new Decades recommendations.

Before turning to writing, USA Today bestselling crime author Rachel Amphlett played guitar in bands, worked as a TV and film extra, dabbled in radio as a presenter and freelance producer for the BBC, and worked in publishing as an editorial assistant.

She now wields a pen instead of a plectrum and writes crime fiction and spy novels, because that’s what she grew up reading. When she was 11 years old, her grandad gave her his copy of The Eagle Has Landed, and she’s been an avid fan of the genre ever since.

Her debut thriller, White Gold was released in July 2011 and features British secret agent Dan Taylor. The series established Rachel as an author to watch and spurned three more novels before Rachel turned her attention to a new character, Detective Kay Hunter.

The Kay Hunter crime thrillers are based in Kent and feature a tight-knit team of detectives. Praised by experts for their attention to detail, the books are also much loved by readers for their page-turning plots and devious twists with comparisons to TV shows NCIS and Law & Order: Criminal Intent.

More recently, Rachel created a new crime thriller series based around the central character Mark Turpin, an Oxfordshire-based detective. The first book, None the Wiser, received critical acclaim from Adrian McKinty (The Chain) and Jo Spain (With Our Blessing, The Confession), with the follow-up book, Her Final Hour being praised by the creator of the DCI Banks series, Peter Robinson.

In addition to her detective stories, Rachel also writes the English Assassins series featuring female assassin Eva Delacourt, and a number of standalone crime thrillers, psychological thrillers and conspiracy thrillers.

A keen traveller, Rachel has both Australian and British citizenship.

You can find out more about Rachel and her books at www.rachelamphlett.com

Contact details: Email: info@rachelamphlett.com

Website: www.rachelamphlett.com

Twitter: @RachelAmphlett

Instagram: @RachelAmphlett

DECADES

The Eagle Has Landed, Jack Higgins (1976)

This is how I discovered “proper” thrillers when I was 11 years old. My grandad had a secondhand copy of it from 1976 and one rainy weekend when I was bored, he took The Eagle Has Landed off the shelf and said “Go and read this – I think you’ll enjoy it”. I’ve re-read it every decade since.

The Talisman, Stephen King and Peter Straub (1984)

This is one of my favourite Stephen King books. I think I’m on my fourth or fifth copy now because when I first discovered it, I kept loaning it out to friends saying “read this!” and then never seeing it again. I love Stephen King, and he’s one of the few writers I’ll willingly read even though some of his work is from the horror genre – I just can’t resist speculative fiction.

The Pelican Brief, John Grisham (1992)

When this was published, I was playing lead guitar in bands around Oxfordshire so I think I picked it up one Saturday afternoon in Blackwell’s or somewhere like that. I’d already read A Time to Kill and The Firm, but it was The Pelican Brief that resonated with me the most because the characters were so well developed. There’s so much depth to the writing as well so you’re completely immersed within the first couple of pages. It’s a masterclass in getting a hold of a reader and not letting them come up for air. Again, The Pelican Brief is a book I’ll re-read every few years or so.

The Lincoln Lawyer, Michael Connelly (2005)

I first discovered Michael Connelly’s writing in my early thirties while living in Australia and quickly devoured everything from the backlist in the space of about three months. It got to the point where I’d read everything in the bookshop I used to go in on my way home from work so they were ordering in copies for me. I wanted to include Angel’s Flight here too but I already have a 90s book, so I’m picking The Lincoln Lawyer because I love how Connelly approached introducing a new character to readers while remaining in Harry Bosch’s world. As with all his books, the scene-setting is so good, I feel like I know LA even though I haven’t been there yet.

I Am Pilgrim, Terry Hayes (2014)

I was instantly drawn to this book when it was published based on Hayes’ screenwriting credits, all of them part of my teenage years including Mad Max 2 and 3, Dead Calm, and Hotel Bangkok. It just doesn’t let up from the first page, and is an absolute masterclass in thriller writing. I’ve lost count how many people I’ve recommended this to over the years!

The Talisman is one of the few Stephen King books I have yet to read so I really *must* get around to recitfying that soon. This feature really does make my TBR pile grow each week. But as a booklover I don’t see that as a problem! My thanks to Rachel for five brand new books to add to my Library.

DECADES WILL RETURN

Category: From The Bookshelf | Comments Off

September 17

Decades: Compiling the Ultimate Library with Russel D McLean

We are back. Decades time. And boy oh boy, there sure are some great new books about to wing their way to my Decades Library!

But wait – what’s Decades?

At the tail end of 2020 a “real world” incident happened which I should really tell you about one day. That incident got me thinking…if you had a brand new library and were tasked with filling the shelves; which books would you pick? I knew this was not a question I could answer alone so I decided to ask booklovers to help me. Each week I am joined by writers, bloggers, journalists and publishers and I ask them to pick five books they want me to add to the Decades Library.

Picking five books is easy and does not result in your guests calling you a swine. So I added a wee twist and made the selection process a bit more of a challenge. My guests are asked to add five books to my library but they may only select one book per decade from five consecutive decades. Imogen Church said it was “easy”, RJ Barker called me a “monster” and Russel D McLean…well Russel told me he had fun but there was a bit of name calling.

I leave you in the capable hands of Russel who wants to take us back to 1946 where his selections commence:

DECADES

First up – Gordon, you’re a swine, making me do this! A swine! How can I choose only five books, and one per decade? I mean, my initial list is something like twenty or thirty per decade… how can I narrow it down? How?

At least I know where I’m starting because I think any library worth its salt should have my 1940s choice…

So You Want to Be an Actor by Hugh McDermott, with sketches by Michael Gough (1946)

An odd choice, perhaps, to start my decades; a guide to acting by a Scot who made a decent enough career in movies such as Mrs Minniver, No Orchids for Ms Blandish and the sublime Scottish B-movie, Devil Girl from Mars.

But there’s method in my madness. For Hugh McDermott is my great, great, great (too many greats? Too little? It’s not terribly clear; the McLean family tree is rather overgrown in places) uncle.

I never met him, but upon discovering his filmography, and our family connection, I wanted to know more about him. Especially when I found out about his leading man turn in Devil Girl From Mars. but Uncle Hugh also starred in one of the most controversial movies of its era (controversial for its violence, although the US accents by the all-British cast are… well… controversial in their own way), No Orchids for Ms Blandish (based on the novel by James Hadley Chase)

Hugh’s one and only book, So You Want to be an Actor, is a compact wee hardback volume, full of ever so slightly sarcastic advice for actors of stage and screen… such as this little gem on how to avoid being a ham (after witnessing a particular actor in a play):

The villain on making his entrance… pushed his face through the door, well ahead of his body, and held it there, awaiting a burst of applause that didn’t come. That, my dear Watson, is “Ham” with an of gravy around it.

Naturally, then, given that he also wrote a book, I feel the need to include this in Gordon’s ultimate library (even if it is long out of print, although copies crop up here and there!) finally giving Uncle Hugh his due!

Psycho by Robert Bloch (1959)

In of those pieces of received wisdom I never want to check in case its untrue, someone once told me that Alfred Hitchock bought up the entire print of Robert Bloch’s novel when he decided to make a move from it in order that no one would spoil the surprise twists in the plot. Whether its true or not, it sounds like it should be – after all, Hitchock’s film followed the main thrust of the novel pretty closely, but the book goes into far more twisted detail about the way in which Norman Bates’s mind works, and deepens his relationship to “mother”.

It’s a short, sharp, shocker of a novel (my edition is 151 pages long) that is so tightly constructed you’re always in fear that the springs are about to come loose. But they never do. If you know the movie, then the book provides a different viewpoint and a few unexpected variations that you can see would never have made into the movie. And if you don’t know the movie… hooo boy, are you in for a dark, disturbing treat when you check in at the Bates Motel…

Cotton Comes to Harlem by Chester Himes (1965)

Honestly, I could have chosen almost any one of Chester Himes’s brilliant Coffin Ed Johnson and Gravedigger Jones books (thank goodness they spanned a few decades!) but this is the first one I think I read, and it’s a humdinger of a thriller that starts with $87,000 being stolen from a Back to Africa rally, and ends up with cops, criminals and more chasing after a bale of cotton that may contain the missing money.

Himes is one of my favourite US writers – his serious, earlier novel, If He Hollers, Let Him Go, is a chilling account of racism in the USA, but his crime novels deserve to be talked about in the same breath as Chandler, Hammet, et al – and Cotton Comes to Harlem is one of his paciest and most gripping books. If you haven’t read Himes before, you should start here.

A Scanner Darkly by Philip K Dick (1977)

Once, during a live event, the magnificent modern author of British Noir, Ray Banks (an author who should be far better known, and whose books deserve to be rediscovered by a huge audience) asked me if I was a Dickhead. After a sharp gasp from the audience, we had to clarify that he was asking if I was a fan of the science fiction author Philip K Dick.

And the answer yes is a massive yes: I am indeed a Dickhead.

A Scanner Darkly is one of Dick’s most personal novels. As his career went on, many of his novels would take and explore aspects of his personal life, including his religious beliefs, and what some might terms as his delusions that he had made contact with a higher power. But 1977’s A Scanner Darkly is personal in a deeply affecting way, talking about the highs and lows of drug use through the medium of a near future thriller. No doubt there are biographical aspects in this story of an undercover cop investigating users and deals of Substance D (D for Death, of course). The cop himself wears a scramble suit when on duty so no one can identify him. Even his superiors don’t know who he is. But his latest target is someone who’s a bit too close to home: himself.

The book is at its best chronicling the everyday life of the protagonist and his group of friends, all of whom are, in one way or another, addicted to or affected by D. The book doesn’t shy away from the seductive allure of drug use either, or the joy of shared experiences, but it doesn’t sugarcoat the tragedies, either. In many ways it’s a better exploration of the drug lifestyle than, say, Trainspotting, because it feels almost too natural in places.

But the SF work here is excellent as well, and the exploration of how it must feel to be investigating yourself is superbly done. Dick was never a master of the science side of science fiction, but his insight into people was second to none, and A Scanner Darkly is his most affecting novel, ending on a sobering reminder of the reality Dick was writing about.

Indemnity Only by Sara Paretsky (1982)

No library is complete without at least one book by Sara Paretsky. Into the eighties and beyond, a new generation of women crime writers reshaped and reformed the discussion around crime fiction, and Paretsky is one of the first and best of them. Without VI Warshawski, her brilliantly rounded PI, who makes her debut here; employed to find her client’s son’s missing girlfriend.

Of course, things get complicated fast, and VI needs to employ all of her skills to unravel the complex and dangerous investigation. VI is, even early on, a fully formed character, and Paretsky’s pacy writing style, even in her debut, is gripping and confident.

It cannot be underestimated what an impact Paretsky – along with other writers such as Sue Grafton – had on crime novel in the eighties and beyond (her latest VI novel, Dead Land, was released in 2020).

VI was a realistic and convincing step away from the old, two-fisted and very male PI of the past, using the form to explore more complex themes of class, feminism and so much more, while still creating a thrilling mystery that entertains and grips the reader.

While Paretsky’s proceeded to build her craft since this first novel, deepening her characters and their world, this is where it all began, meaning the book absolutely deserves a place in any decent library (and it remains an absolute belter of a read!).

Russel D McLean is the author of seven crime novels, one short story collection, and a whole bundle of other uncollected shorts. His first five novels, focussed on a PI working out of the Scottish city of Dundee, are currently being re-released in new digital and print editions, with the final book in the series, Cry Uncle being re-released soon. His latest standalone novel – published by the brilliant Saraband – is Ed’s Dead, which was described by Martina Cole as “a really authentic and remarkable read!”

When not writing novels, Russel works as a freelance development editor for several publishers, and is currently working on projects in other forms that he’s looking forward to talking about when he’s allowed!

In the past, he’s been a bookseller, a freelance book reviewer, a roving events chairperson, and a general miscreant.

Find out more about Russel at www.russeldmcleanbooks.com, or follow him on Twitter @russeldmclean, where he talks about the books he’s reading (#russelreads), the movies he’s loving (#russelwatches), the three cats that allow him and his wife to share their flat, and anything else that falls into his brain.

This week I am heading to Stirling where I hope to meet some old friends at Bloody Scotland. Despite my shyness I am really looking forward to finally meeting some of my previous Decades guests and thanking them in person for helping to grow my Library. I also hope to meet some future Decades guests – watch this space!

DECADES WILL RETURN

Category: Decades | Comments Off

September 9

Decades: Compiling the Ultimate Library with Tim Glister

Sometimes my new Decades guest arrives in the week they are celebrating a publication date, it’s almost like I can boast successful planning every now and then. Let me jump in ahead of Tim and drop a sneaky cover share of his new paperback, Red Corona, before he has a chance to tell you a bit more about it himself.

LUSH!

Before I hand you over to this week’s guest I had better explain what I mean by a “Decades guest”. Every week I am joined by a booklover who is asked to take on my Decades challenge. I am putting together a collection of unmissable books which should grace the shelves of the very best library collection.

I began this quest back in January and each week a new guest (authors, publishers, bloggers and journalists) select five books they want me to add to the Library. You can see all the previous selections here: https://uk.bookshop.org/lists/grab-this-book-the-decades-library

Choosing five books isn’t quite the whole story though. My guests may only select one book per decade from five consecutive decades. So their choices will come from a fifty year publication span. This can cause some gnashing of teeth but the range of books being added to the Library makes my jaw drop each week.

So it’s enough from me, Tim is waiting in the wings to introduce himself and to share his five selections with you.

DECADES

I’m Tim Glister, the author of the Richard Knox Spy Thriller series. My first novel, RED CORONA, is about the secret battle between Britain, America and Russia to control the birth of the global surveillance age. The second novel in the series, A LOYAL TRAITOR, poses the question: duty or honour, which would you betray?

Over the years I’ve been a library assistant, a bookseller, and a literary agent. Now I’m a novelist. I write espionage fiction, and I read as widely as I can for both fun and inspiration.

For my Decades challenge, I wanted to pick five novels that have blown my mind, and changed the way I look at both reading and writing. These are stories I still think about years after reading them, and recommend to anyone who will listen.

1957 – ON THE BEACH by Nevil Shute

Few novels have given me nightmares. This one has. The 50s and 60s were awash with excellent speculative (and mainly) dystopian fiction, but ON THE BEACH stands out for how devastatingly it explores a world that ends without a bang. It’s all so mannered, so polite, so plausible – it’s utterly terrifying, and extremely, deeply affecting.

1962 – LABYRINTHS by Jorge Luis Borges

As Heather Martin has already said, if you could only pick one book for this challenge it would have to be LABYRINTHS. It has no equal. These razor-sharp, mind-bending tales fizz with imagination and vitality, and conjure up entire worlds in just a few pages. Read them and learn the true, awesome power of literature.

1971 – THE DAY OF THE JACKAL by Frederick Forsyth

THE DAY OF THE JACKAL shouldn’t work. We know Charles de Gaulle isn’t going to die, and his would-be assassin is little more than a hollow puppet somehow pulling its own strings. And yet Forsyth is such a master of the thriller and so skilled at creating tension that you end up glued to the pages and rooting for murder.

1984 – HOTEL DU LAC by Anita Brookner

This novel is not what you think it is. It’s shrewd, cunning, deceptive. It takes the best of Jane Austen, Virginia Woolf and Daphne du Maurier and distills it all down into a biting social commentary driven by a mystery that compels you to keep reading and a heroine that critics have been keen to dismiss but who commands your respect.

1995 – BLINDNESS by José Saramago

Another nightmare-inducer to end on. What would happen if a plague of blindness swept through your city? Blending Camus-esque philosophical plotting with a disarming parable-style narrative voice, BLINDNESS grabs hold of you and beats you up until the very last page. Like ON THE BEACH, technically it’s science fiction, but it feels all too real.

Five stories which blew Tim’s mind and changed the way he looks at reading and at writing! That’s quite the testimony and exactly what I hope the Decades Library will do for other readers. Just last week I picked up one of the recommendations made by Steven Keddie and my next Decades purchase is guaranteed to be Blindness.

A reminder that Tim’s novel, Red Corona, released this week in paperback. If you want to spot how any of these five books helped shape a new story then here is the link you need to grab your own copy of Red Corona: https://www.waterstones.com/book/red-corona/tim-glister/9781786079435

DECADES WILL RETURN

Category: Decades | Comments Off

August 14

Decades: Compiling the Ulitmate Library with Rod Reynolds

This is Decades. It’s a challenge I set myself to assemble the Ultimate Library, a library which began with zero books and was to be filled with nothing but the very best reading recommendations. Which books should be included? What have been the essential reads over the years?

I knew this was not a task I could undertake myself so each week I invite a booklover to join me and I ask them to nominate books which they feel should be added to my Decades Library. There are two rules which govern the selection of their five books:

1 – You may choose any five books
2 – You may only select one book per decade over five consecutive decades

Easy? This week’s guest began his email reply to me with “I can see now why people are getting so mad about this”. This may well be why I am asking my guests to select the books and not taking this challenge on myself!

The Decades Library is also a bookshop as I have set up a store page over at Bookshop.Org. If you fancy reading any of the recommendations made by my Decades curators you can purchase the books through this handy link: https://uk.bookshop.org/lists/grab-this-book-the-decades-library 10% of the cover price goes towards supporting independent booksellers. This is an affiliate link.

This week the Decades curator hat passes to Rod Reynolds. Back in the early days of Grab This Book I was offered the opportunity to read Rod’s first Charlie Yates book. The Dark Inside, which utterly blew me away. Two more books followed in the series and I loved them both. The Guardian described the books as “pitch-perfect American noir” which is a near perfect way to describe how I felt when I read them. Last year Rod released his first novel set in the UK, London based Blood Red City was another terrific page turner and his latest, Black Reed Bay continues to set a high bar for tension and thrills.

You can see all Rod’s books here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rod-Reynolds/e/B01BHZGQ5E?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1628926594&sr=8-1

DECADES

1980s – The Neon Rain by James Lee Burke

Burke is arguably the finest prose sytlist in all of crime fiction, writing in a lyrical, poetic and mystical way about violent, damaged and gritty individuals. This is the first in his Robicheaux series, which I think is his best work. Although I can take or leave the titular protagonist, there’s no character I enjoy more in crime fiction than his fearsome partner, Clete Purcel.

1990s – 1974 by David Peace

The first of Peace’s Red Riding Quartet, a monumental achievement from a writer who is criminally underappreciated (at least in his home country). An intense portrayal of journalist Eddie Dunford’s harrowing journey through greed, murder and obsession to the dark heart of 1970s Yorkshire.

2000s – The Cold Six Thousand by James Ellroy

The book that changed everything for me with its raw power. I’d never read Ellroy before and, in retrospect, this is the worst place to start because it represents the high (or low, depending on your personal taste) point of his ‘telegraphic’, jive-heavy style, making it at times almost impenetrable to the uninitiated. At first, I had no idea what I was reading, and it made no sense. By the end of it, I wanted to be a writer.

2010 – November Road by Lou Berney

A book set in the aftermath of the JFK assassination was always going to catch my eye because it’s the same territory Ellroy’s best work treads. But this is a very different type of novel, one with that examines what happens when a lifelong mobster realises he’s run out of road with the bosses – just as he falls in love for the first time. A beautiful and beautifully written novel about life, regret and the redemptive power of love.

2020 – We Begin At The End by Chris Whitaker

All I can say about this book is that if you’ve already met Duchess Day Radley, you know why it’s here. And if you haven’t, you’re missing out on a novel that raises the bar for modern crime fiction.

My thanks to Rod for sharing his selections. I have never read James Ellroy so this is clearly something I need to rectify as soon as possible. The latest consequence of Rod reading The Cold Six Thousand is called Black Reed Bay, the first book in the Detective Casey Wray series and published by Orenda Books. You can order Rod’s new book here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08T65D9XX/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

DECADES WILL RETURN

Category: Decades | Comments Off

August 7

Decades: Compiling the Ultimate Library with Karen Sullivan

The Decades Library is growing beyond anything I could have imagined. I started this project back in January when it was dark outside and the rain was lashing against my windows. Now here we are in August, it is still dark outside and the rain is still lashing against my windows (I live in Scotland) but every week since February a new guest curator has joined me to add new books to my Library.

The five books which follow will bring the number of Decades book recommendations made by authors, bloggers, publishers and journalists to 130 – there have been fewer than five titles nominated by more than one person. As readers we are blessed for choice.

What is the Decades Library? My guests are all given the same challenge. Nominate five books to my Decades Library which they consider to be essential reading. But they can only pick one book per decade over five consecutive decades. Easy? Have a go and see if you can pick five of your favourite books from a fifty year publication span.

A further reminder that the Library is now also a Decades Bookshop over at Bookshop.org. You can buy any of the nominated titles through this link (which is an affiliate site): https://uk.bookshop.org/lists/grab-this-book-the-decades-library

This week’s guest needs no introduction (which is lucky as I forgot to ask her to write one). If I say Orenda Books you will surely know the force of nature that is Karen Sullivan.

Karen founded Orenda Books in 2014 and the first books were published in 2015. In 2016, Karen was a Bookseller Rising Star, and Orenda Books was shortlisted for the IPG Nick Robinson Newcomer Award in 2015 and 2016. Orenda won the CWA Crime & Mystery Publisher of the Year Dagger in 2020 and were a regional finalist for the Small Press of the Year Award in the British Book Awards in 2021.

DECADES

Anne of Green Gables, Lucy Maud Montgomery (1908)

The ultimate coming-of-age novel, classic children’s literature that appeals to readers of all ages. Anne Shirley is an unforgettable character – tragic, unwittingly feminist, eternally optimistic, accident-prone, proud, intelligent, funny – and the snapshot of (my native) rural Canada at the turn of the century is immensely evocative. My own personal manta is drawn from this book: ‘Isn’t it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?’

The Rainbow, D H Lawerence (1915)

D H Lawrence won my teenaged heart while I was at university, appearing to encapsulate what I perceived to be the human condition and all its existential angst in every book. This is a book about love in many forms, about relationships, about desire, and the fact that it was banned when it was published indicates its forward thinking. It also gives us an invaluable insight into life in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton (1920)

My high-school English teacher described this book as ‘ravishing’, and the story and its themes have stayed in my mind ever since. It’s about desire and deception, about rebelling against society and the decimation of innocence – a metaphor for the growing disillusionment about the ‘American Dream’. Its sophistication is breathtaking.

Little House in the Big Woods, Laura Ingalls Wilder (1932)

Another children’s book, and one that lays bare the struggles of American settlers, with bold, inspirational themes of survival, the importance of family, and the power of hope. It’s a classic for good reason, and although there are often shocking and dated attitudes towards Native Americans, it does serve a purpose in enlightening us to cultural beliefs and mores at that time, fed largely by ignorance and fear, and is upon reflection a lot more positive than it might seem. Few can fail to be inspired by this book.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betty Smith (1943)

A beautifully written coming-of-age story about a young immigrant girl in early 20^th-century Brooklyn, it embodies the bright, often blind hope of the American Dream, and highlights a period of vast social change. Its inspirational messages – that anything is possible if you persevere, believe – provided comfort to and renewed determination for the American people during the war.

It’s been an absolute delight to have Karen take part in my Decades challenge. When I was struggling to get Grab This Book established Karen was hugely supportive and entrusted me with early review copies of the first Orenda books which were making their way into the world. Watching Orenda Books grow has been a joy and Karen’s support and encouragement still keeps me going.

DECADES WILL RETURN

Category: Decades, From The Bookshelf | Comments Off

June 11

Decades: Compiling the Ultimate Library with Jonathan Whitelaw

In January I began a quest to curate the Ultimate Library. I had no idea which books should be included and I knew the only way to get the very best books represented in my Library was to ask booklovers which books they would include. We started with nothing. Nada. Zero Books. Each week I ask my guests to nominate ANY five books which they would like to see added to the Library shelves.

Six months on I think we have one non-fiction title (no Haynes manuals), two books which are children’s stories, we have a vampire, a Belgian Detective embarking on his first investigation at Styles, a book about a shark, a Fight Club and many, many more.

When choosing their five books my guests are slightly restricted in their selections. I don’t ask for their five favourite books as that way leads to chaos. I insist that my guests can only select one book per decade and they must choose from five consecutive decades. My new favourite reaction to my insisting on the consecutive decades was a simple message which read “you monster”. The identity of that guest remains a mystery for the moment but perhaps when I share his selections a few weeks from now I shall remind him of that interchange.

Today, however, my guest was politeness personified and I am therefore delighted to hand you over to Jonathan Whitelaw.

DECADES

Hello everyone, I’m Jonathan Whitelaw and I’m an author, award-winning journalist and broadcaster. When I’m not blowing my own trumpet with all of those inflated titles, I write the HellCorp series about The Devil solving crimes, along with the Parkers Sisters books – cozy mysteries following the adventures of three Glaswegian siblings. From the dark to the light you might say.

My latest novel is Banking on Murder – the first of the Parkers books. It sees Martha, Helen and Geri – three sister PIs from Glasgow tackle their biggest crime yet – the murder of a high-flying banker. Taken out of their comfort zones and thrown firmly to the financial lions, the Parkers are up to their necks in trouble from the off as they try to protect a grieving widow from ending up in the slammer.

I’m absolutely delighted to be taking part in Decades. As much as everyone moans that they can’t pick their favourite film/TV/show/book etc, we all secretly love it. And it’s a brilliant chance to revist good times gone by and look forward to even more special memories in the future. Without further ado, I present you my choices. Be gentle.

1960s – Dune by Frank Herbert

What a decade! The old adage that if you remember the sixties then you weren’t there. Which is certainly true for me as I wasn’t born for another twenty years. But in terms of cultural legacy and impact, there’s a strong argument to be made that we’re STILL feeling the effects of this particular decade so long on.

And that’s certainly true for the literary scene. There are thousands of possibilities I could have chosen from this decade. The later James Bond novels, John la Carre coming into his own, everything Arthur C Clarke touching turning to gold – and that’s just in the spy and sci-fi genres. I could literally go on forever.

That said, I’m going to pick one and that’s Frank Herbert’s Dune. I was gifted a Dune omnibus for Christmas when I was about 15 and that was me hooked. I can’t get enough of this series, this world, this universe that Herbert created. There’s always been something deeply fascinating about the construction of Dune’s cosmos that’s always triggered that innate, cerebral part of my reading brain that just wants more and more and more.

As a child of the 1990s, what makes all of Dune even MORE incredible is that it pre-dates Star Wars by a considerable margin. Released in 1965 – right slap, bang in the middle of the swinging sixties, it has all the hallmarks of a space opera that we all take for granted now. Ancient mysterious races, intergalactic politics, cosmic forces at play, the lot. It was and arguably still remains ahead of its time.

I also love that it’s one of the most quoted books as being ‘unfilmable’. There have been a few attempts at bringing it to the screen, each with its own merit. And another massive all-star cast blockbuster on its way later this year. I don’t like the ‘unfilmable’ tag as I don’t believe that with the right motivation and tact, you can translate any great bit of literature to another medium. But it’s a testimony to Herbert’s vision, forthrightness and general delivery that his masterpiece remains one of the hardest challenges even to this day.

1970s – Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S Thompson

Ah, the 1970s – the decade that style forgot. Brown carpets, brown walls, brown curtains… just brown. It’s the sobering aftermath of the liberated 1960s and my god did the world feel a comedown and a half.

Step into the fray Hunter Stockton Thompson – a man seemingly built to cause chaos and mayhem wherever he went. As a full-time journalist, I can’t help but feel my teeth itch and imagine the stress and strain he must have put his editor under. I can tell you right now that HST wouldn’t cut it in the modern newsroom. Search engine optimisation, social media stats and paid for posts just wouldn’t fly with this man.

But that’s okay. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is about as mental and bloody-minded as the whole 70s decade could get. Sent to cover a race for Sports Illustrated, only he could file copy that became “a savage journey into the heart of the American dream.”

It’s not an easy read. And yes, even I admit that it’s dated beyond all recognition. But isn’t that the point? Fear and Loathing is a literary time capsule and look into a world that was very much trying to come up with its own identity. It’s hailed as the defining work of so called ‘Gonzo’ journalism which, for more reasons than I can care to remember, are now a long-distant memory.

That’s why I like it. I try to read it at least once every couple of years and have done since I was in my early 20s. The book itself is overrated, pumped up and given plaudits by people who mostly haven’t read it. It’s been taken over by stoner and undergraduate stoner culture who like to treat it as their bible on how to live a rock and roll lifestyle… without actually having to live said rock and roll lifestyle.

I treat myself to these little re-reads to remind myself of what it must have been like back then. But I don’t take it too seriously. That, I think, was HST’s point.

1980s – Money by Martin Amis

It seems only appropriate for the decade that made braces popular, Filofax a thing and introduced us all to the horrors of mobile phones that my choice features money in the title. Semi-autobiographical, the sheer rudeness of Amis’ style and confrontational of his characters are what stick in my mind.

I was introduced to the book around 2010 when there was a BBC adaptation for TV starring Nick Frost. I enjoyed the series but I prefer the book (if I had a £1 coin for every time I’ve said that…).

It’s loud. It’s garish. It’s in your face. It’s ugly. It’s boozy. It’s angry. And above all else, it rings true to the world it was unleashed into. For my money (pun intended) there are no better cutting satirists than Amis. And while I’m not a massive fan of ALL of his work (not that he gives a toss of course) – this one really stands out for me.

And I can’t talk about Money without mentioning the fact the central character is called John Self. Every time it comes up in the book it feels like a weighty sledgehammer of tongue-in-cheek irony that never gets old. This is a book that is bored itself to sleep by only being a book. And Amis fills every page, every sentence even, with that charged venom that can only make you want to be a better writer.

1990s – Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby

I think this was my toughest choice. When it comes to picking books for this list, I tried to immediately think of something that sums up their decade of publication perfectly. And it was a toss-up between this and Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh. In the end I’ve gone for Fever Pitch, mostly because there are still parts of Trainspotting I can’t decipher – despite living on the border of the New Town and Leith for over three years!

Released in the same year as the start of the new Premier League, I genuinely can’t think of another writer who could capture the site, sounds, smells and soul of the decade that has, more than any other, shaped the way we do things now.

His characterisation of a die-hard football fan almost created the prototype of how the sport would go on to look over the next 20+ years. Gone is the tattooed casual, in its place a normal human being who absolutely loves the game and everything that goes around with it. More importantly, it’s the way Hornby uses the footie as a mechanism to tell what is ultimately a story about hope and growing up.

This is another of my go-too reads if I’m looking for a pick-me-up or a bit of nostalgia. Again I didn’t read it for the first time until my 20s and by that point the world had moved on from Hornby’s early 1990s utopia. But as a child who grew up while all of this unfolded around his ever growing ears – it’s always a lovely jaunt down memory lane to pick it up and re-enjoy.

2000s – The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

I think I can hear your scoffing from here. But I beg of you, before I’m carted away by the taste police, just hear me out. There IS a logic to this, I promise.

Released in 2003, this is the first novel I can ever remember being what you would call a blockbuster. It was EVERYWHERE. From reviews to TV interviews, scandal and sacrilege seemed to court this novel wherever it went – which was quite literally every corner of this blue and green marble we call a planet. If it wasn’t being condemned for its topic it was being blasted for its style.

Now, no matter what you think of Mr Brown or this novel, you have to agree that it’s a pretty hard gig to achieve both notoriety AND sell a bazillion copies at the same time. Any publicity is good publicity – as a certain former President used to like to remind us. It’s to that end that I hold The Da Vinci Code dear.

It’s also one of the first books I read as a late schoolboy that I genuinely enjoyed for the first time in what felt like forever. Compulsory reading lists, endless essays and forensic analysis for exams etc meant that I spent about five years of my teenage life reading for necessity instead of fun. And for a boy who had grown up reading non-stop for escapism and adventure, that was a pretty hard pill to swallow.

I am, if nothing else, a contrarian. I bought my copy from Borders in Glasgow city centre. I took it to the counter, a smug satisfaction oozing out of my school uniform as I handed over the crumpled tenner for this book that EVERYONE hated. I was going to read it, damn it, and I didn’t care what you all thought of me. Oh to be 17 again.

To my surprise, and bitter disappointment, I loved it. There’s a very good argument to be made that The Da Vinci Code set me off on what’s been an unbroken path of non-stop reading since that moment. And if I hadn’t gotten all the way through it back then, I fear my career as an author, if not life in general, might have been VERY different.

There’s something to be said for genre fiction and big, blundering thrillers like this. Sometimes, just sometimes, they go a long way to opening doors that might, for one reason or another, have closed forever.

My thanks to Jonathan for these thumping suggestions. I never fail to be surprised by the books which are suggested for inclusion but if you had told me six months ago that The Da Vinci Code made the cut before Shogun, Wild Swans or anything by Jackie Collins I would have been stunned. I also had a moment of wistful nostalgia – Borders in Glasgow was one of my favourite bookshops and I miss it deeply.

If you want to see all the books which have been added to the Library you can visit here: https://grabthisbook.net/?p=5113

DECADES WILL RETURN

Category: Decades | Comments Off

May 7

Decades: Compiling the Ultimate Library with Douglas Skelton

For the first time in the Decades series I have a returning guest. Not someone who has already taken part in Decades but an author who has previously joined me as a guest to chat about books. Before this year I had not hosted any guests at Grab This Book for around three years. In the first four years of blogging I actually hosted many brilliant authors and ran some recurring features which have since been put out to pasture.

One of the features I ran was called Serial Heroes. I love an ongoing series with recurring characters and I invited authors to join me to chat about the ongoing series of books they enjoyed and looked forward to reading. That idea came from hearing today’s guest, Douglas Skelton, chatting to readers as part of the North Lanarkshire Libraries Encounters festival. Douglas told the audience that he had been a big fan of the Ed McBain 87th Precinct stories and my immediate reaction was: YES! I wanted to know which books were read by the authors I was reading. If you want some more fabulous book recommendations then pop “Serial Heroes” into the search box at the top, right of the page.

So I jumped the gun slightly when introducing Douglas Skelton. As a former journalist he will appreciate that I have checked these facts from two different sources:

Douglas Skelton has published twelve non fiction books and eight thrillers (many of which have received glowing reviews on this blog). He has been a bank clerk, tax officer, shelf stacker, meat porter, taxi driver (for two days), wine waiter (for two hours), reporter, investigator and editor.

You can find the Skelton book collection here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Douglas-Skelton/e/B001K7TR10?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1620335880&sr=8-1

If you follow Douglas on Twitter @DouglasSkelton1 you will know he takes some wonderful photographs and some of his favourites are on sale through his online store here.

He is one quarter of the hilarious “Four Blokes in search of a Plot” and visitors to Bloody Scotland cannot fail to have been impressed the year Douglas played a key role in the Scotland vs England football match (he was the pre-match announcer). He also wrote the 2019 sold-out show You The Jury which wowed audiences at the festival when a criminal trial was recreated with audience members invited to become members of the jury to hear the case and decide if the accused was guilty or innocent of the charges.

As is ever the case with Decades I asked Douglas to select five books he wanted to add to my Ultimate Library. He could only select one book per decade and he must make his selections from five consecutive decades.

I hand you now to Douglas Skelton…

DECADES

I have a problem whenever I try to pick favourite books because as soon as I decide on one title, I think of a few more. I once vowed to be more decisive but then I changed my mind.

Anyway, here goes:

The Big Sleep – Raymond Chandler (1939)

I am a fan of US detective fiction and thrillers and, as you will see, I have been hugely influenced by both them and their movie counterparts. As anyone who has read the Dominic Queste books knows! I could have selected any one of Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe books but went with this rich, complex tale of family deception and murder, told with his customary wit and style, not to mention some plot confusion. Who did kill the chauffeur? Who cares? This is literature masquerading as pulp – or maybe even the other way round – and I love it.

Shane, Jack Schaefer (1946)

This selection will come as no surprise as I constantly name it as one of my favourites. Again, incredibly influential to my work, particularly Davie McCall. It’s a western and the story has become timeless, I can think of at least three movies that rip it off. First published in instalments in 1946 then in expanded book form in 1949, Jack Schaefer’s reluctant gunslinger resonated with me when I read it for the first time as a teenager and has stayed with me ever since.

The Temple of Gold, William Goldman (1957)

I stumbled upon this book as a teenager in a batch given to me by my gran, who we called Nana. I knew the author, William Goldman, from his screenwork, particularly Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (when pressed, that’s my favourite movie. Then, as with books, I think of a dozen more). This was his first novel, a funny, moving rite of passage story which I have read and reread many times – and actually have two copies. One is the original which was in no great state to begin with but is extremely fragile thanks to the many re-reads. The other is a much late reprint.

Fuzz, Ed McBain (1968)

If memory serves, this acted as my introduction to the work of Ed McBain, although I read it in the 70s after seeing the movie version with Burt Reynolds. It spawned in me a deep affection for the 87^th Precinct novels which remains to this day, even though McBain (or Evan Hunter, or Richard Marston or any of the other names he used – his real name was Salvatore Lombino) has left us. I still pick one up at random and have a read whenever the mood takes me.

Marathon Man, William Goldman (1974)

William Goldman again. He was, for me, the master of the reversal. Just when you think the story or a character is one thing, he suddenly twists it and you realise it’s something else entirely. He pulls a few such tricks in the book, most of which could not be replicated in the celebrated movie, although the celebrated – notorious – dentistry scene remains intact. Apart from that, this is a fine paranoid thriller that benefits greatly from Goldman’s use of humour as well as his ability to wrong-foot us! I wish I could write like that. Altogether now – is it safe?

I will add these classics to the Library. My deepest thanks to Douglas for his continued support and for choosing such great books.

You can see all the books which have been added to the Decades Library here: https://grabthisbook.net/?p=5113

DECADES WILL RETURN

Category: Decades, From The Bookshelf, Guests | Comments Off

April 30

Decades: Compilling the Ultimate Library with Imogen Church

The very best libraries are the ones which offer a broad selection of books to choose from. Since January I have been inviting guests to join me in a quest to determine which books should be added to the Ultimate Library. I started the Ultimate Library with no books so there was a clean slate (or empty shelves if you prefer) and I ask each guest to nominate the books they feel should be represented.

There are just two rules governing the selections each guest can make.

1- Choose Five Books
2 – You May Only Choose One Book Per Decade Over Five Consecutive Decades

In the past I have been made aware my two rules are “frustrating” and cause much gnashing of teeth. Imagine then, if you will, my delight at hearing my guest this week found making her selections “easy” and the experience to be fun!

If you visit the blog outwith my Decades posts then you will know I am a massive fan of audiobooks and enjoy nothing more than having someone read me a brilliant story. If you were to peruse my Audbile Library you would see one name repeated over and over: Imogen Church. If I am selecting my next listen and I see Imogen is the narrator (which happens often) then I am more likely to select that book over others.

I ask my guests to introduce themselves before they introduce their books so it is with great pleasure I hand you over to Imogen Church.

DECADES

Well, hello there! My name is Imogen Church and I’m an actor and writer. If you are a massive bookworm (like me) then you may know me as the narrator of roughly a gabillion audiobooks. Possibly you know my voice from audio dramas like Dr Who (for Big Finish), or as the voice of the Harry Potter Quiz on Alexa UK? Probably you don’t know me at all, which is fine too, we’re all busy and you must have better things to do with your time than knowing who I am.

Basically, I’m a storyteller. Sometimes I tell that story with my voice, sometimes with my body and sometimes by tippidy–tappedy-tap-tapping away on a computer screen and writing my brain out. Mostly, I get paid to talk to myself in a recording studio all day and, for a somewhat shy actor who is obsessed with books, that’s the greatest job in the world. I just can’t get enough of books; I read all day every day, in my head and out loud into a microphone. I also write. Most of my writing has been screenplays for films, particularly satirical horror comedy, but last year Audible commissioned me to write a novel for Audible Originals, to be narrated by moi. They asked me to write a crime novel, so obviously I wrote a satirical comedy crime caper set in an alternate world of steampunk and strippers, called Death and the Burlesque Maiden. I mean, obviously, I did that. The book was inspired by my experiences as a burlesque performer combining satirical poetry and striptease, and my experiences of life as an intersectional feminist. For those of you who have listened to Death and the Burlesque Maiden, I suspect the below literary selection may make some small sense of my writing style… the things that inspire me are comedy, social satire, black humour, the macabre, and explorations of what it is to be a woman. Also, being rude.

If you fancy finding out more about the weird world of Imogen, here are the links you need:

Instagram: @imogenchurchgobshite

Twitter: @ImogenChurch

Website: www.imogenchurch.com

And here (drumroll please) are my chosen books!

1920’s
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Anita Loos (published 1926)

Women have always been funny; with the crap our bodies put us through, we have to have a sense of humour. A century ago, one genius of a woman wrote a brilliantly acerbic, funny satire about the attention certain women get from men and what that means for those women and for all the women who are trying desperately to become those women. It is so funny, so biting, so sharp and witty. And she wrote it a century ago. One hundred years in the past. Yet it is still relevant… *Imogen sighs and stares off into the middle distance for a while*

1930’s
Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons (published 1932)

Did I mention that women are funny? It’s always my objective in life, to try and ‘do a Gibbons’ at any given point in time. In Death and the Burlesque Maiden I got the chance to ‘do a Gibbons’ by breaking the fourth wall and having the narrator talk directly to the reader, about the novel, mostly deriding the quality of the writing. I remember when I first read Cold Comfort Farm, the shocking oh-my-god-did-she-just-do-that joy I felt when Stella declared that she was going to help the literary critics out, by highlighting the sections she’d written rather well thank you very much, making it easier for them to pluck out and glorify her name. Throughout the novel there are moments when a particularly flowery and pretentious sentence is flagged by an asterisk or three: for our consideration. I mean… the genius! It made me die laughing and I wanted to write my own homage when I got the chance. Cold Comfort Farm is a warm and quirky pastoral parody, a silly, eccentric, heartfelt satirical joy and easily one of the greatest books I have ever read. Obviously, you can disagree with me, but I’m afraid you’d be wrong. You would be wrong.

1940’s
1984 by George Orwell (published 1949)

Orwell. Just… Orwell. I first read 1984 as a teenager and it blew the top right off my head. As I scooped my brains back inside my skull, I realised that the book had changed the shape of my brains, for life. Nowadays, any satirical dystopia has me drooling to consume it, all because of 1984. I think 1984 was the first novel to give shape to the feeling I had, that we are extremely lucky, to be alive at this point in history, in this place in history, in a world where we can access and read someone like Orwell, and the very keen feeling that I must never take that for granted. Orwell knew how small we all are, but also how important every small person can be and his writing is the most wonderful combination of misery and hope, humour and horror. Orwell. Just… Orwell.

1950’s
Wasp by Eric Frank Russell (published 1957)

I initially tracked down and read this book when I met my (now) husband and my (now) father–in–law told me it was his favourite book and he read it every single year.

Was I trying to impress him? Possibly!

Did it work? Certainly!

But did I also genuinely love the subversive, dystopian nature of it and the reminder that even the smallest individual matters? Absolutely!

Terry Pratchett chose Wasp as one of his favourite books of all time and said that he “can’t imagine a funnier terrorists’ handbook”. I rest my case.

1960’s
Catch 22 by Joseph Heller (published 1961)

If you don’t laugh, you’ll cry. Or kill yourself. This book makes you do the first two, but hopefully not the third. How else can you process the horrors of war, but to laugh through the pain? There are true horrors in Catch 22, true horrors and legitimately insane humour and those two are essential bedfellows.

Why?

Why does satire have such a hold on me? I think it’s all about power. Power, and impact for change. Satirising the terrifying, the inhumane, the oppressive, is a way to gain mastery over it. I love work that satirizes bigotry, predators, misogyny, Nazis… because mocking them gives me a feeling of power over them, that to laugh in the face of horrors, emboldens us. Also, satire is an entertaining inroad that makes for powerful impact. Humour softens an audience, it helps them relax and let down their barriers, the act of laughing releases endorphins that make us so much more susceptible… when an audience has let go of the stresses of real life, it enables the artist to get right in there, right under the ribs, right up in to the soft squishy heart of a person with ideas, ideas about cruelty and society and how to avoid moving backwards into persecution, racism, misogyny, fascism, all the things we really should be too grown up by now to be playing around with. I love art as entertainment, but I also want art to be something that helps us understand more about our lives, our world, our humanity.

I think this is why these are some of my favourite books of all time; stories that are beyond precious to me and have clubbed together to form part of who I am.

Which is why I love books.

My thanks to Imogen for her time and for these excellent additions to my Library

You can see all the books which have been added to the Library if you click this handy wee link: https://grabthisbook.net/?p=5113

DECADES WILL RETURN

Category: Decades, From The Bookshelf | Comments Off

April 23

Decades: Compiling the Ultimate Library with Tim Baker

At the end of 2018 I collated my favourite books of the year. This is something I do every year, but in 2018 I gave the post the imaginative title of “Top Ten Reads of 2018” so it would be easily identifiable. On that list was a terrific book called City Without Stars. This book remains one of the best books I have read since Grab This Book launched in 2014 – I was utterly swept away by it at the time. So before today’s guest can share his recommendations I will nip in early and urge you to seek out City Without Stars. Just click the name and you will spring to a vendor who will sort you out with a copy!

The reason I mention City Without Stars is that my Decades guest this week is Tim Baker, author of the aforementioned book, and as Tim is going to be discussing books written by other people I wanted to make sure I got my cheerleading in first.

This isn’t Tim’s only book and I want to give a second cheer for Fever City which I have also reviewed and which I also thoroughly recommend. You can catch all of Tim’s books here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tim-Baker/e/B018VPM0VM?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_3&qid=1619117335&sr=8-3

If you are new to the Decades series I will recap why we are here.

I wanted to know which books would be added to the Ulitmate Library if you started with no books and built up a Library from scratch. How to choose which books should be included? I could not possibly undertake this task alone so I invite booklovers to nominate five books to be added to the Ultimate Library. To bring a degree of control to the process my guests must follow just two rules:

1 – Choose Any Five Books
2 – You May Only Choose One Book Per Decade From Any Five Consecutive Decades.

Now I turn you over to Tim Baker who will introduce his five selected titles and Tim has kindly provided the actual covers of the editions of the books he read.

DECADES

Born into a show business family in Sydney, Tim Baker travelled extensively around Australia and Europe before moving to Rome at the age of 23. He later lived in Madrid before settling in Paris, where he wrote about jazz and became a French citizen. He has published a collection of short stories, Out From the Past with William Collins and two novels, the JFK-themed neo-noir, Fever City and the epic crime novel, City Without Stars, both with Faber. He currently lives in the South of France with his wife, their son, and two rescue animals, a dog and a cat.

1930-1940

AS I LAY DYING, William Faulkner, 1930

“My mother is a fish.”

I discovered this novel in our municipal library in Campsie, western Sydney, when I was 15. Our family was on the ropes. One of my parents’ theatrical ventures was going south and we were about to lose our home. Not for the last time, I desperately needed the distraction and solace of a good book and picked up my first Faulkner. I read As I Lay Dying in one sitting. It changed my life.

1940-1950

THE SHELTERING SKY, Paul Bowles, 1949

“Reach out, pierce the fine fabric of the sheltering sky, take repose.”

Port and Kit Moresby are not your ordinary, well-to-do American expatriates, eschewing the Riviera for the unexplored, “more authentic” experience of North Africa. As his name suggests, Port is attracted to wilder shores, whether they be physical or emotional, and as the couple begins to push deeper into the desert, their voyage becomes a searing journey into the collective soul of a couple and the limits of shared love in the modern world. And then halfway through the novel, something tragic and extraordinary happens that takes your breath away, thrusting Kit into unimaginable territory. A devastating, unforgettable read.

1950-1960

DOCTOR ZHIVAGO, Boris Pasternak, 1958

“How wonderful to be alive, he thought, but why does it always hurt?”

What makes this novel so exceptional is the way it effortlessly inhabits two apparently contradictory worlds. One is a convincing and convulsive portrayal of a momentous moment in history – the turmoil, excitement and tragedy leading into and during the Russian Revolution, and the crushing despair that follows. The other is the poignant and intimate world of the two doomed lovers, Yuri and Lara, who must learn to live their brief, poetic moments together to the fullest, and to leave the rest to the meanderings of history and fate. The main themes of Zhivago, like all the other books in this selection, are our constant battle with despair and alienation, our sense of being both lonely and alone, and our desperate quest for the liberation of love.

1960-1970

WIDE SARGASSO SEA, Jean Rhys, 1966

“One day it all falls away and you are alone”

The creative audacity of Jean Rhys in taking Jean Eyre and turning it on its head with her creation of her protagonist, Antoinette Cosway/ Bertha Mason, is matched by her lush, insistent prose, haunted by the revenants of slavery, oppression, cruelty, injustice, magic and misogyny. The 1960s are often remembered for the bold flamboyance of its loud male authors – Mailer, Vidal, Vonnegut, Kesey et al – but this decade of post-colonial convulsion and women’s liberation found its most convincing voice in Rhys’ subversive masterpiece. A post-modernist classic that lingers like a guilty fever dream.

1970-1980

JR, William Gaddis, 1975

“—Money . . . ? in a voice that rustled.”

I can think of no other opening line that so brilliantly announces the theme of a book – in this case a blistering satire about America’s tortured self-enslavement to the almighty dollar. Long before The Bonfire of the Vanities, there was JR, the schoolboy/financial Wizard of Wall Street who can do no wrong so everyone else can do no right. Gaddis had been experimenting with writing plays in the three decades between his magnificent debut, The Recognitions and this, his second novel, and that work shines through in the book’s daring use of dialogue – multiple voices interposing different views, different lives, different lies – all cohering into a relentless but cohesive babble about bucks. Both horrifying and deeply funny, it remains the greatest fictional commentary on the insanity and insatiability of post-WWII capitalism.

My thanks to Tim. I think there can be little doubt there are some classics in the five which certainly should be included in every library.

If you want to see all the books which have been added to my Library so far then you can visit it here: https://grabthisbook.net/?p=5113

DECADES WILL RETURN

Category: Decades | Comments Off