May 16

Decades: Compiling the Ultimate Library with Caron McKinlay

It isn’t Friday but it IS time for a return to the Decades Library. It has been a while since we last visited the Library and I apologise for the brief hiatus which just so happened to coincide with a change of role in the day job (same job, new work), exam season in Scotland (teenager Grab has been working hard and we have been supporting where we can) plus lots of other fun reading things which I simply cannot talk about just yet.

But it’s time the Library welcomed a new curator and as it is Publication Day for The Storytellers I wanted to share Caron McKinlay’s selections today – rather than wait for Friday to roll around.

As it has been a couple of weeks I will recap what the Decades Library is all about. I am assembling a Library of the very best books. I started this project back in January 2021 and I had no books on my Library shelves. I did not know which books would represent the “very best” and I knew that I would not be able to fill a Library with just my personal selections so I invite guests to join me and ask them to nominate their selections for inclusion within the Decades Library. I ask them to pick their favourite or memorable reads or the books which they believe the best libraries should offer to readers.

Each guest must follow just two simple rules when nominating books to the Decades Library:

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

 

So with a huge congratulations on publication day I pass to Caron McKinlay for five new selections.

Caron grew up in a mining town on the east coast of Scotland where her dad would return from the pit and fill her life with his tall tales. She never thought about making a career in writing – that was what posh people did, not someone from a working-class council estate.

However, her father’s death was the cause of deep introspection and her emotions gave birth to a short story, Cash, which was published in the Scottish Book Trust’s anthology, Blether. This gave her the confidence to try and believe in herself.

When not blogging, reading, and writing, Caron spends her time with her daughters. She doesn’t enjoy exercise – but loves running around after her grandsons, Lyle and Noah, to whom she is devoted.

Caron had three childhood dreams in life: to become a published author, to become a teacher, and for David Essex to fall in love with her. Two out of three ain’t bad, and she’s delighted with that.

You can buy The Storytellers here: https://geni.us/theStorytellers

And Find Caron here:

www.twitter.com/caronmckinlay

www.instagram.com/caronmckinlay

www.facebook.com/mckinlaycaron

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZML8bGo9h/

Good Reads

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60844999-the-storytellers

Website

http://www.caronmckinlay.com

 

Decades

 

The 1980s

‘The Silence of the Lambs’ by Thomas Harris

Contemporary takes on the novel focus on Hannibal Lecter, the fearsome imprisoned serial murderer antagonist. But as the title suggests, the book is as much about the FBI agent Clarice Starling, her childhood as an orphan, and the screaming of slaughtered lambs on her cousin’s farm she experienced as a child. An eerie relationship grows between Starling and Lecter, as, perhaps for the first time in his life, he experiences empathy for another. Not exactly a love story, but a fascinating depiction of the way that relationships can grow, like weeds, in the unlikeliest of places as, at the end, he writes to her that he hopes, for her, the lambs have stopped screaming. I will never forget a section of the narrative where I thought “Huh what just happened” and had to turn back to read the pages again. I loved that!

 

 

The 1990s

‘The Notebook’ by Nicholas Sparks

I have always been swept away by grand romances. One of my favourite books is Wuthering Heights. In its own way, ‘The Notebook’ evokes the same sense, for me, of two people whose love transcends the passage of time and events. “I’ve loved another with all my heart and soul, and to me, this has always been enough”. How romantic? Of course, like all the best books, the story is unfolded in ways that you would never expect, beginning with an old man reading a ’story’ to an old woman in a nursing home. But who are they, and who are the characters in the story he tells her? It’s such a beautiful story that makes me cry every time I read it.

 

 

 

The 2000s

‘The Time Traveller’s Wife’ by Audrey Niffenegger

Write a book that involves time travel, and you already have me halfway there. But this is so much more. The poignant story of how Clare waits, as the years roll by, to be reunited with her one true love as he is flung across history and back again is both heart-breaking and uplifting. The love story is what captures you. But it only works because of the superb manner in which Niffenegger deals with the time travel element, allowing you to suspend disbelief long enough to become enthralled with Clare and Henry’s relationship. Another one that had me sobbing at the end.

 

 

 

The 2010s

‘11/22/63’ by Stephen King

This mix of time travel and one of the world’s great storytellers is just hard to beat. As ever, with King, the characters leap off the page, and their stories are never as straightforward as you would have imagined. The central character, Jake, has set himself the task of using a time portal to travel back in time to prevent John F. Kennedy’s assassination. But life, for a character in one of King’s novels, is never easy and, in the end, he is forced to confront a moral dilemma.  This was brilliantly plotted.

 

 

 

The 2020s

‘The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue’ by V.E. Schwab

Yet more twisty time travels. There might be a theme developing here. In the eighteenth century, a young woman barters her soul to avoid an enforced marriage. Consigned by the Devil, to live forever but be remembered by no one. We follow her life and struggles as she learns to live a lonely life. But in the twenty-first century, she finally finds love with someone, Henry, who does remember her. What will the Devil do now? Such gorgeous prose and the book I wish I had the talent to write. It was always remain one of my favourite books.

 

 

 

 

I am reading The Storytellers at the moment and enjoying it immensely. Unfortunatley the secret reading I am doing is keeping me away from finishing it for the present but a review will be forthcoming as soon as I can catch up!

As for these magnificent Decades selections – I am delighted that another Stephen King book has made its way onto the Library shelves (particularly as it is one of my favourites). And The Notebook! That’s a real crowd pleaser too.

 

DECADES WILL RETURN

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March 11

Decades: Compiling the Ultimate Library with Margaret Kirk

Seven days seem to fly past so quickly at the moment and already I find I am rolling out the red carpet to welcome a new guest curator to the Decades Library.

Have you visited the Decades Library before? Let me quickly explain what’s happening.

Back in January 2021 I asked myself the question: If I were to build a new library from the ground up which books would I put on the shelves to make sure only the best books were represented?  I quickly realised this was not a question I could answer alone so I have been inviting guests to join me here at Grab This Book and asking them to nominate five of their favourite books which they feel deserve a place in my Decades Library.

Why is it a Decades Library? Well there are two rules governing the choices my guests can make.

1 – Pick ANY five books
2 – You may only select one book per decade from five consecutive decades.

Easy. In theory. But when it comes to making those selections and narrowing down which decades to represent I am told it can get a bit more challenging than you may believe.

Today I am delighted to pass the Curator’s Hat to Margaret Kirk who (before you scroll down) has selected five brilliant books which I will add to the shelves of the Decades Library.

 

Margaret Kirk writes ‘Highland Noir’ Scottish crime fiction with a gothic twist, set in and around her home town of Inverness.

Her debut novel, Shadow Man, won the Good Housekeeping First Novel Competition in 2016. Described as ‘a harrowing and horrific game of consequences’ by Val McDermid, it was published in 2017 by Orion. Book 2 in the DI Lukas Mahler series, What Lies Buried, was published in June 2019. Book 3, In The Blood, is set in Inverness and Orkney and is available from all good book stores.

Margaret is also the writer of several award-winning short stories, including The Seal Singers, which has been published in translation in Germany and Switzerland.

You can find Margaret here:

Website:  https://margaretmortonkirk.wordpress.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MargaretKirkAuthor/

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/HighlandWriter

And Margaret’s books are here:

Amazon: Shadow Man https://www.amazon.co.uk/Shadow-Man-Margaret-Kirk-ebook/dp/B06VVS5P1H/ref

What Lies Buried https://www.amazon.co.uk/What-Lies-Buried-Margaret-Kirk-ebook/dp/B07N6DRL4K/ref

In The Blood https://www.amazon.co.uk/Blood-Margaret-Kirk-ebook/dp/B07ZK9CMXN/ref

OR

Hive https://www.hive.co.uk/

(supports local independent bookshops)

 

DECADES

 

Thank you for inviting me to contribute to Decades ! I changed my mind several times about which decade would be my starting point – I very nearly picked the 1890s, because I wanted to include a certain iconic horror novel. But how would it be fair to include Dracula and leave out Frankenstein, Mary Shelley’s more nuanced and arguably much more disturbing creation of 1818? And then I couldn’t have had one of my great heroes of the classic mystery genre, Dorothy L Sayers.

In the end, I’ve gone all modern, which allows me to genre-hop as I please, something I was also keen to do. My picks are all fairly well-known, but hopefully there’s something for everyone here – and I thoroughly recommend each and every one of them!

 

1970s – ‘Salem’s Lot  (Stephen King)

Very early Stephen King, and no, it’s not his best. It shows its age in places, and his protagonist, Ben Mears, is not a particularly compelling character. But King’s portrayal of small-town American life and attitudes always fascinates me, and this novel was the first I’d read which grabbed vampires by their mouldering, cobwebby capes and chucked them out into the contemporary world. Where, it seems to me, they have the potential to be infinitely more terrifying than confined to their Transylvanian homeland …

 

https://www.waterstones.com/book/salems-lot/stephen-king/9781444708141

 

 

 

1980s – Silence of the Lambs (Thomas Harris)

What can I say about this one that hasn’t been said?  It’s a masterful study in suspense, in drama, in character creation and development – there’s a reason so many books and courses on crime-writing pick this one apart to analyse the brilliance of its construction. (And let’s not forget, spawner of a million internet memes … 😉

 

https://www.waterstones.com/book/silence-of-the-lambs/thomas-harris/9780099532927

 

 

 

 

1990s – Good Omens (Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman)

The book which my husband and I bonded over, pretty much at our first meeting. I love fantasy, and I love clever, witty writing with a bit of bite. Is there any wonder this is one of my favourite books? (No, not another vampire reference). Pratchett is a huge loss to the writing world, and we’re all the poorer for not having him around to skewer the cruel and the vainglorious and the stupid in his own inimitable way.

 

https://www.waterstones.com/book/good-omens/neil-gaiman/terry-pratchett/9780552171892

 

 

 

2000s – On Writing (Stephen King)

Seriously, another Stephen King? Hey, my list, my rules. And this is his brutally honest and hugely influential non-fiction memoir and look back over his writing life. I read it initially just as a huge King fan, but now I think it was what gave me that initial nudge to think maybe I could try my hand at this writing thing (so if you were looking for someone to blame …)

Seriously, it’s one of the best books on writing I’ve read, mainly because it’s so honest and down-to-earth. And the final section on editing, where he actually shows how he does it? So, so good.

 

https://www.waterstones.com/book/on-writing/stephen-king/9781444723250

 

 

2010s – Just One Damned Thing After Another (Jodi Taylor)

‘St Mary’s – a group of tea-soaked disaster magnets who hurtle their way around History.’ Yep, that pretty much describes the protagonists of Jodi Taylor’s brilliantly irreverent take on the whole time travel concept (sorry, Dr Bairstow). But beneath the historical mayhem, there’s a subtle but growing darkness that hooked me from the outset. Another firm favourite!

 

https://www.waterstones.com/book/just-one-damned-thing-after-another/jodi-taylor/9781472264268

 

 

 

 

Boom – that’s how you do a Decades selection. King (twice) and Pratchett/Gaimen. Although I have never tried to nail down my personal five selections (I will save that for the very last Decades post) I would bet the farm on Good Omens making it into my five – no book has ever matched it for me. My thanks to Margaret for taking on the Decades Challenge, as ever, my apologies to your TBR.

 

 

DECADES WILL RETURN

 

 

 

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January 14

Decades: Compiling the Ultimate Library with Steve Cavanagh

It was around this time last year the Decades Library was first imagined. You’ve likely heard this before but to welcome new visitors I will explain my Decades Challenge and the ultimate goal.

Something happened which made me ponder the question: Where would you begin if you were asked to assemble a library but had to start with nothing but empty shelves. You have no books. None. Not one. Which books would you add to the library shelves to make sure readers would have nothing but the very best books to choose from?

I quickly realised that I could not possibly answer this question alone so I decided I would ask some guests to help me. Each week I am joined by a booklover (authors, bloggers, publishers and journalists have all lent their time to assist) and I ask them to nomimate some “unmissable” books. To make their selection process slightly more complicated I set two rules which each guest must follow:

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

And that’s the Decades Challenge. Selecting five favourite books. If you think it’s easy then try to narrow down your own five choices.

All that remains now is for me to pass the Curator’s Hat to my guest. It’s my absolute delight to welcome Steve Cavanagh to the Library.

 

Steve Cavanagh is a critically acclaimed, Sunday Times best-selling author of the Eddie Flynn series. All of his novels have been nominated for major awards. His third novel, The Liar, won the CWA Gold Dagger for Crime Novel of the year 2018. Thirteen won the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime novel of the year 2019. The Eddie Flynn novels have been translated into 26 languages. His latest book is The Devil’s Advocate.

You can order any of Steve’s books here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Steve-Cavanagh/e/B00OAGCA62?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1642111903&sr=8-1

 

DECADES

 

The Real Cool Killers by Chester Himes (1950)

 

Chester Himes had an extraordinary life of hardship and adversity. I can think of few writers who experienced half of what he had to endure. I am a huge fan of Raymond Chandler, but I think enough people will have read and marveled at Chandler already, and not nearly enough people have read Chester Himes. On his best day, Himes can make words dance. He is one of the very few writers that can turn prose into music. This novel is the second outing in the Coffin Ed and Grave Digger Jones detective series. By all means start with A Rage in Harlem, but I think some of the best prose work is in this one.

 

 

The Chill by Ross MacDonald (1964)

 

Ross MacDonald had his own personal troubles. He poured his heart and his empathy for his fellow human beings into his work, and specifically, his fictional hero PI Lew Archer. Writing a long-running detective series is an incredibly difficult undertaking. I remember Dennis Lehane remarking that writing a series can yield diminishing returns when it comes to the quality of each book, “how many people say the twelfth book in a series is their favourite?” This is a fair point, but some writers beat those odds. The Chill is the eleventh Lew Archer novel, and many people say it’s the best.

 

 

 

Ripley’s Game by Patricia Highsmith (1974)

 

Few authors have had such an impact on the genre as Patricia Highsmith. She was perhaps one of the finest proponents of the psychological thriller. In Strangers On A Train, she used a high concept hook as the engine for the novel and wrote many more standalones. She also wrote a brilliant short series about the killer and conman Tom Ripley. In Ripley’s game, she combines the two elements of her craft. What if you had a terminal illness? What if someone, perhaps with dark motives, came to you and offered a vast sum of money if you killed someone? You family will need that money when you’re gone. What if what began as a psychological game turned into something much more terrifying? A brilliant book, and one that I return to again and again.

 

 

The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris (1988)

 

There’s not much to say about this one other than it’s the book that made me love crime and thrillers. I’d read Sherlock Holmes, and detective comics, but it wasn’t until I was around twelve or thirteen that I read this one. My mum gave it to me. I know some people think Red Dragon is a better thriller, but for me Clarice Starling is an equally brilliant creation as Hannibal. This is the book that started it all for me. If you’ve just seen the movie, then do yourself a favour and read the book.

 

 

 

 

Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding (1996)

 

Because life isn’t all detectives and murders, it’s good to have an injection of humour now and again. I think this is one of the great comic novels. Maybe the last great one. It is so brilliantly well written, laugh-out-loud funny and touching and made all the more real by the style and structure. Again, if you’ve only seen the movie – please read the book.

 

 

 

 

 

It’s hard to believe it has taken twelve months of Decades selections for Patricia Highsmith make her debut. Five terrific reads and this is what I consider the “perfect” mix of titles – some books I know and love but there are also a couple of new recommendations which I immediately felt I needed to read. A weekly assult on my TBR!  My thanks to Steve for taking on the Decades challenge.

 

DECADES WILL RETURN

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May 28

Decades: Compliling the Ultimate Library with Nicolás Obregón

This is Decades.  Each week I invite a guest to select five books which they would want to see included in my Ultimate Library – the aim is to curate a new Library from the starting point of zero books and have the shelves bursting with terrific titles.

My guests are given two rules (which are often very well stretched as you will soon see):

Select ANY five books.
You may only select one book per decade pubished over five consecutive decades.

This is the sixteenth Decades post – all the books which have been selected thus far can be seen here: https://grabthisbook.net/?p=5113

If you are wondering why my introduction is shorter than usual it is because my guest this week has done all the heavy lifting for me. An utterly absorbing sequence of selections from Nicolás Obregón – I yield the floor.

DECADES

Right, then. Hello. Who am I? Well, I’m Nicolás—pronounced Nico-lass, but everyone just calls me Nic anyway. I’m a British/Spanish dual-national, born in London, and I grew up between the two capitals. (My father is Spanish, my mother is French). In 2016, I moved to Los Angeles and have been grinning up at palm trees and wearing loud shirts ever since. I recently became an American citizen meaning that my passport draw now looks like it belongs to Jason Bourne.

More importantly, I’m the author of the Inspector Iwata series, a trilogy about a lonely Japanese detective—Blue Light Yokohama (2017), Sins As Scarlet (2018), Unknown Male (2019). Jeffery Deaver has called one of my books a masterpiece, while AJ Finn was left awestruck. A short story I wrote, Colibrí, appeared in the anthology BOTH SIDES: Stories from the Border (2020), which was recently nominated for an Anthony Award. Colibrí was labelled by Publishers Weekly as a poignant standout.

As for what I’m working on now, I’m at the business end of a third draft for my fourth (and first non-Iwata) book for Penguin/Michael Joseph, which I can’t talk too much about. I’m also in negotiations re: a true crime podcast that, you guessed it, I can’t say too much about. Finally, seeing as I live in Los Angeles, I plan to embrace the cliché and write a screenplay at the end of the year. But that’s enough about me, on to the good stuff!

 

Now, initially, I tried to pick favourite books for Decades. But every time I thought I’d whittled my list down to five, I’d suddenly doubt everything—a deer caught in the headlights of all I was overlooking. Instead, I’ve gone for five books that have influenced me. And by that, I mean: books that have shaped me first as a reader, and then as an author. Without them, it’s not that I wouldn’t be half the writer I am today. It’s that I simply wouldn’t be one.

My thanks to Gordon for letting me submit myself to the delicious torture of picking five books across five consecutive decades.

 

Links to social media:

Twitter @NicObregon

Instagram @Obregonbooks

Facebook @Obregonbooks

www.nicolasobregon.com

 

2010s—Patria by Fernando Aramburu

As a young child, I remember sleeping next to my father and being woken by a cataclysmic bang. He pulled me under the bed, swearing under his breath in Spanish: sons of bitches, sons of bitches. One of his friends growing up was murdered by ETA, a car bomb intended for the military father. To my dad, every ETA bomb, every gunshot, every death threat or extortion attempt was like a personal affront. His outrage, perhaps, helped him cope with the dread. But this didn’t make him unique.

Growing up in Spain, spending my summers and winters there, it seemed that almost everyone was touched in some way by the decades-long terror campaign—third degree skin burns of separation. This is the backdrop to Aramburu’s 2016 novel that would become both a literary sensation in Spain and throughout Europe, (35th print run, translated into over 30 languages), as well as the recent well-received HBO adaptation.

Murder, (in the form of a compelling whodunit), friendship, loyalty, grief, ostracism, letting sleeping dogs lie vs staying silent in the face of barbarity—all these things unfurl through the 600+ page Homeric saga that is Patria (Homeland). But Aramburu, who has lived in Germany since the mid 80s, harnesses these broad themes and lion-tames them into two 50s-something women: Bittori and Miren. (Incidentally, their portrayal by Elena Irureta and Ane Gabarain is a work of art, I would urge readers to seek out the HBO series for these two alone). Because while Patria contains terrorists and bombs and gunshots, it’s first and foremost a story about victimhood and the human cost of violence. This is, inexplicably, so often overlooked in fiction, horror and bloodshed favoured over the tricky business of rebuilding lives and trying to exist with trauma. Aramburu’s novel understands that the wounds of this violence are still fresh, and the victims of it were everywhere (alongside ETA’s terror campaign, GAL also operated in Spain and Southern France—a death squad made up of former police officers who are, to this day, officially unofficial).

Now that said, I might have made it sound like Patria is a depressing slog. It’s quite the opposite. The Basque Country is almost a character in its own right, its language and culture showcased beautifully for what it is—one of the most distinctive and unique regions on earth. But like One Hundred Years of Solitude, this novel is also about life itself. There are relationships, betrayals, triumphs, gossiping, and jokes that had me laughing out loud. Milestones in Spanish history are also convincingly overlaid throughout the narrative.

What Aramburu attempts could read like a telenovela on paper. And yet what he pulls is a graceful and heartfelt rendering of the past and the present that, while concerning fictional characters, very much feels like non.

 

2000s—Le Corbeau (The French Film Guides) by Judith Mayne

This is cheating a little because the book is largely an excuse for me to talk about the film. But the rules do state that any book is acceptable so onward we march. Credit where it’s due, Judith Mayne’s work deftly analyses Le Corbeau’s deeply compelling darknesses and guides the reader through its manifold possible interpretations—the film standing, as it does, as one of the most important pieces in the cinema of paradox.

While nominally about a small French town gripped in the hysteria of a spate of poison pen letters (actually based on a true story in 1920s rural France), Henri-Georges Clouzot is not really examining these events. He is, instead, telling a story about the German occupation of France while exploring the mechanics of informing on your neighbour. It’s particularly fascinating considering he produced the movie for Continental Films, founded by Goebbels himself. After the war, Clouzot would be banned for life from the industry as a Nazi collaborator, though this would be overturned in favour of a two-year interdiction after much campaigning by the likes of Sartre.

This despite the fact Goebbels himself would telegram Clouzot after viewing the film, furious that, while Le Corbeau was a work of genius, it was subversive, and it might make France think for itself. You are paid to make empty films, Goebbels pointedly reminded him.

Upon its release, the Catholics would decry it for its sexual themes and open depiction of abortion, while the Communists would reject Le Corbeau for its unheroic characterisation of France. As Bertrand Tavernier would say in a 2002 interview, Clouzot made a film about the truth. But sometimes, some things are too true. Though banned for decades, its cultural impact remains undeniable. To this day, the French word corbeau—raven—is understood to mean someone who writes anonymous letters with intended malfeasance.

I first saw the film with my French grandmother, whose own mother was a member of the French Resistance throughout the war. On her birthday each year she would receive a letter from the President of the Republic in thanks. (“He won’t bloody leave me alone,” she would always say with a wink). They were both from a tiny village near the Dordogne and the politics and cruelties of small-town gossip are absolutely captured in Le Corbeau.

It’s a sumptuous film, full of hypocrisy, intrigue, and sexuality. Each shot is a charcoal sketch, and each character, no matter how minor, feels like a real person. But the reason this story will always stay with me is because it is, I think, my first memory of the figure of a detective.

As the plot races towards its noir-ish (before noir existed) conclusion and the identity of the true author of the poison pen letters is revealed, two doctors size each other up in an empty classroom (next door to where the local prosecutor is testing the handwriting of the 18 remaining suspects).

Doctor Rémy Germain, smooth-talking and handsome, philosophically clashes with the wily and colourful old psychiatrist, Doctor Michel Vorzet, whose young wife the former is having an affair with.

Vile beast?” Vorzet smiles enigmatically. “But I see one in the mirror each morning, alongside an angel. You are amazing—you think that people are all good, or all bad. You think that good is the light, and that evil is the darkness…” Vorzet swings the lightbulb in front of his face, like a pendulum. “But where is the darkness? Where is the light…?” he falls into shadow, then back into light as his knowing smile is illuminated. “And do you know which side you’re on?

This was not the moment I first knew I wanted to write books. But it is certainly the moment that I knew I wanted to write detective stories.

 

1990s—Out by Natsuo Kirino

Sometimes you love something so much it’s hard to elucidate. For me, Out is one such love. Originally published in 1997, the novel was translated in 2004 and promptly nominated for an Edgar (Kirino would lose out to Rankin’s Resurrection Men). While Rebus has obviously stood the test of time, for me, Out is one of the finest mystery novels—not just of 2004/1997—but of the entire modern canon. (Even the title of the book is a work of economical genius).

Sparse, poetic, kinetic, darkly hilarious, and utterly claustrophobic, it’s a masterclass in the crafting of domestic mystery and how one split second can change lives forever. On paper, it’s about four women working nights at a factory, the murder of an abusive husband in self-defence, and divvying up insurance money in exchange for sworn silence. Taken in isolation, that could sound like an episode of The Bill. But through it, Kirino trains her large magnifying glass on jealousy, loneliness, class structure, lust, misogyny, hatred and, ultimately, the desperation of what it is to be a woman in an empty suburban existence — all of it set against a backdrop of Japan’s economic downturn. Of course, these aren’t small themes. Yet one of Kirino’s many gifts is her ability to effortlessly condense the macro to the micro, entire existences understood in two lines:

When stones lying warm in the sun were turned over, they exposed the cold, damp earth underneath; and that was where Masako had burrowed deep. There was no trace of warmth in this earth, yet for a bug curled up tight, it was a peaceful and familiar world.”

As a 19-year-old dreaming about my own novel one day, Kirino lit a fire in the dark for me. Not just in terms of her exquisitely realised Tokyo. But her ability to birth characters with secrets and fears—inner worlds that threaten to spill out into the external.

 

1980s—The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris

This entry was a hair’s breadth from being Gorky Park by Martin Cruz Smith, particularly as a shining exemplar of an author writing outside of their native geography and culture which, later on, would be so important to me.

But in the end, those bloody lambs just won’t shut up. The way I see it, there are crime novels and then there’s the Silence of the Lambs. In Clarice Starling, Harris created one of the most interesting heroes in any genre, with an irresistible character arc that would give rise to a million scriptwriting workshops (and, in the collective psyche, pair liver with a nice Chianti forevermore).

Now, before I go on to glorify the book, I do want to say that I am, of course, aware of the controversy surrounding its depiction of transgenderism. While poorly-equipped to contribute to that conversation, I do feel it’s important Hannibal Lecter explicitly states in the story that Wild Bill is not, in fact, transgender. Still, I absolutely understand that any representation of transgenderism as some kind of vaudevillian freakshow is less than helpful, particularly if platformed by powerful voices. Still, if intent matters at all, I don’t believe Harris ever set out to do such a thing. With all that said, I’m yet to hear of a single detractor of the book for its quality.

It is, simply put, a masterwork. And while this taut, elegant novel spills over with suspense and narrative chicanery, it’s the characters that really set it apart. Unforgettable is an over-used word but the much-loved psychological chess game between Starling and the charming but diabolical archfiend, Hannibal Lecter, will live forever. So gripping is their relationship that it renders the actual antagonist of the story, Buffalo Bill, almost secondary.

As early as page 4, we are being warned about the nightmare to come. After all, Starling first hears of Lecter in the form of a warning:

“…It’s the kind of curiosity that makes a snake look in a bird’s nest… We both know that in interviews you have to back-and-forth a little but tell him no specifics. Starling, you do not want any of your personal facts inside his head.

And, just like that, we know this is precisely what’s going to happen.

For my money, it should be a staple on creative writing courses everywhere. But as a young aspiring writer, what really illuminated me was the way Harris binds together the steadily rising stakes in the external world, with internal one building inside Clarice also.

 

1970s—One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez

Originally published in 1967, Gabo’s magnum opus was translated into English three years later. (I’m aware I’m doing the opposite of what I did with Out—sorry for playing fast and loose with the rules, Gordon!)

Just over a decade on, he’d be receiving the Nobel Prize, firmly established as a living, breathing Latin American Tolstoy or Cervantes. Today, Cien años de soledad stands as The White Album of magical realism, the very paragon of Latin American literature in its entirety, having sold some 45 million copies—almost the entire population of Colombia. Not for nothing does he grace the 50,000-peso bank note.

Studied, adored, and devoured all over the world, so many have written so richly on this magical (wink) book, it almost felt like too obvious a choice. But this being a list of books that influenced me, I simply cannot disregard Cien años. Of course, Gabo’s art for treating the supernatural as mundane is widely-studied but picking this book up at 13 or 14 years of age, I was utterly bewitched. Macondo, no matter what happens there, always feels real and lived in. Omens, curses, prophecies—all of it somehow feels possible in the world García Márquez weaves together. But beyond the what, is the how. Never before had I been so mesmerised by words. His use of language is always elemental, even for a simple background banality. Consider this description of a priest collecting for a new church:

He went everywhere begging alms with a copper dish. They gave him a large amount, but he wanted more, because the church had to have a bell that would raise up the drowned to the surface of the water. He pleaded so much he lost his voice. His bones began to fill with words.”

It’s been said before but this book is life itself. As William Kennedy put it in a New York Times review: This is the first piece of literature since the Book of Genesis that should be required reading for the entire human race.

I encourage anyone reading this, whatever their stance on magical realism, to throw themselves at this book if they’re yet to experience it. I promise you, by the time you get to the end, you’ll scarcely believe it’s over. But long after it is, the words of Márquez will fill your bones too.

 

 

Each of my guests brings something new to the Library but I have been blown away by this contribution.  My thanks to Nic for these wonderul selections.  Every week I run one of these posts I wonder which books missed out – this week I don’t need to wonder as Nic has also shared some titles which narrowly missed out.  These don’t get into the Library this week, maybe they will be selcted by someone else!

Honourable mentions from the cutting room floor:
Richard Yates — Eleven Kinds of Loneliness
Philip K. Dick — Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Truman Capote — In Cold Blood

David Mitchell — number9dream

Martin Cruz Smith — Gorky Park
Juan Pablo Villalobos — Down the Rabbit Hole
Anaïs Nin — Delta of Venus
Carson McCullers — The Heart is a Lonely Hunter
Junot Díaz — Drown

Ryu Murakami — In the Miso Soup

Haruki Murakami — Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World

John Hersey — Hiroshima
Donna Tartt — The Secret History

DECADES WILL RETURN

 

 

Category: Decades | Comments Off on Decades: Compliling the Ultimate Library with Nicolás Obregón
March 22

Decades: Compiling the Ultimate Library with Noelle Holten

When I first started blogging I knew I needed people to help me.  I could do the reading and I knew what I wanted to say about the books but once you start releasing content into the world you do want to check that the delivery and promotion elements are correct.  Also, getting established in the blogging community and Book Twitter needs a wee bit of understanding – I enlisted the help of a few bloggers that I felt were doing what I (one day) wanted to be able to do.

One of these very helpful souls was the CrimeBookJunkie – Noelle Holten.  Noelle was supportive, generous with her time and her advice and helped me to shape this blog into the award winning ramble it has become. When I started my Decades project I knew Noelle was one of the booklovers I wanted to have in my team of curators helping to build my Ultimate Library.

A quick recap for new visitors.  I am building the Ulitmate Library from a starting point of zero books.  I am asking booklovers to help me select the books I should include in the Library.  There are just two rules governing their selections…pick any five books…only one book per decade over any five consecutive decades.

Enough from me, you want the books.  I will hand over to Noelle and allow her to introduce herself and her work and then she will share her (excellent) selections.

 

Decades

Hi! My name is Noelle Holten and I live in a small village in North Warwickshire. My author bio states I am an award-winning blogger at www.crimebookjunkie.co.uk and I have won a few awards so I guess that’s true! I am a PR & Social Media Manager for Bookouture, a leading digital publisher in the UK, and before this I worked as a Senior Probation Officer (for eighteen years), covering a variety of risk cases as well as working in a multi-agency setting. I have three Hons BA’s – Philosophy, Sociology (Crime & Deviance) and Community Justice, a Diploma in Probation Studies and a Masters in Criminology. My hobbies include reading, attending as many book festivals as I can afford and sharing the #booklove via my blog. In 2017 I started writing my first crime novel and in 2019, Dead Inside – my debut novel with One More Chapter/Harper Collins UK was published and is an international kindle bestseller. It is the start of a new series featuring DC Maggie Jamieson – Dead Wrong and Dead Perfect followed and Dead Secret is now available for pre order.

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I hear Sharon Bairden set the bar for this, so I hope I can meet those expectations. The fabulous Gordon of Grab this Book asked me to pick five of my favourite books, one from each decade over five decades – WTAF? So simple then, right? It’s a lot harder than you think, especially as I just wrote a piece which some of the same books fall into – but I am going to choose different ones because I love so many. So here goes – My range is the 1970’s through to present day and it was tough – but I focused on books that had memorable characters to me – as characters are what keep me hooked on a book/series!

1970- 1980

(Published 1974) Mystery of The Glowing Eye – Carolyn Keene (Nancy Drew Mystery series)

I was a HUGE Nancy Drew fan and this book creeped me right out as I read it on a family trip to our cottage in the summer. I was probably eight or nine, and we had no tv so books were how we entertained ourselves. This book made me slightly afraid of the dark and every time I had to go outside to the loo (no indoor plumbing) I was convinced I saw that damn glowing eye! This book was ahead of it’s time for sure as it touched upon robotics but it is the characters and how they work together that really brings this story and series to life. There was danger, abduction and a good old fashion mystery to solve and I was addicted despite my fear.

 

 

1980 – 1990

Pet Sematary – Stephen King (published 1983)

Just thinking of this book sends shivers down my spine. The whole idea of bringing back our loved ones in theory is a nice thought – but what they may return as – well they are better off dead for ebveryone’s sake. I loved the dynamics of the characters in this story – a lovin family find what they think could be their dream home – and then of course…the cemetery for loved pets…a phenomenal read and one of my favourites. As the tagline says: Sometimes dead is better…

 

 

1990 – 2000

The Silence of the Lambs – Thomas Harris (Published 1991)

OMFG what can I say about this book that hasn’t already been said. A crime thriller with one of the best serial killers ever created – Hannibal ‘The Cannibal’ Lecter. I have read this book a zillion times and watched the movie just as many times. The sheer fear I had as I raced through the pages was addictive. I wanted to be Clarice Starling and even looked into what I needed to do to become an FBI agent – no joke. She was living my dream! This book has everything – psychological, crime, horror – really set my heart racing. I had always had a fascination with serial killers and loved how this book almost showed the process in tracking and arresting those elusive killers. The characterisation was everything I could hope for and so much more.

 

 

2000 – 2010’s

Fleshmarket Close / Alley by Ian Rankin (published 2008)

Another one of my favourite series – I particularly liked Fleshmarket Close (also known as Flesh Market Alley) because of the setting (the darker side of Edinburgh is brought to life) and how we see a different Rebus and Siobhan to the ones we are first introduced to in earlier books in this series. Issues of racism, illegal immigration, and corruption are all tackled along with so much more. What I love about this book is it is quite complex and the characters complement each other even when conflict arises. If you haven’t met one of the grumpiest, old school detectives going – you really need to as he gets under your skin and you’ll find you will be hooked.

 

 

2010 – 2020

Lennox – Craig Russell (published 2010)

I was recommended this series by a friend and fell in love with it immediately. Lennox was born in Glasgow but raised in Canada so when he returns to Glasgow in the 1950’s we see the cultural differences immediately. It’s dark and littered with dry humour and the characters are just amazing. A very raw, gritty, violent and intoxicating read. The author is a master at bringing the reader into the stories – and I’ve been a fan of his work ever since.

 

 

 

My thanks, once again, to Noelle for these marvellous selections.  This is the closest I have come to having read all five selections made by one of my guests – I have read four of these books and the fifth is still in my TBR (so close).

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

Decades Will Return

Category: From The Bookshelf | Comments Off on Decades: Compiling the Ultimate Library with Noelle Holten