Parent and friend of Byte the Book, Sara J felt inspired to write a piece on Roddy Doyle. We really enjoyed it as it gave a good insight into how interactive the reading experience can be.  If you're interested in blogging or reviewing on Byte the Book then please do drop us an e-mail at info@bytethebook.com.

Roddy Doyle - The Meanwhile Adventures/The Giggler Treatment

I am scratching an itch by writing this review because since I finished reading them, I have been desperate to spread my joy of the wonders that are Roddy Doyle’s children’s books.  The Giggler Treatment is an old favourite in our house but what has prompted this review is that I have just finished reading The Meanwhile Adventures to my 7 and 5 year old boys.  Our family are in a lovely phase of supplementing their reading with eking out a modern classic each night before bed. So Roddy was finished the other week, sandwiched in between Matilda and our current hero The BFG by Roald Dahl.  I have had many funny conversations with my 5 year old who mistakes Roddy and Roald and Doyle and Dahl when we talk about our favourite books, but there can be no mistaking when I’m reading Roddy’s work.

It seems that out of the available adults in our house, only I seem to volunteer when the boys choose his books and that is because it requires a few attributes from the reader:

1)     You have to feel utter joy at the anarchic approach Roddy has to chapters, plot, dialogue and characters.  Nothing is safe from his ripping up and rewriting of the rules.

2)     Due to above-said joy and wonder, you must push past the first chapter and not give in to confusion or convention trying to distract you.

3)     You need to be able to do an Irish accent on a few of the words.  If you manage that then you might, as I did, bravely give in and read all of it that way.  Doyle peppers the text with gorgeous phrasing and words like Eejit to help you along and really, it’s worth the initial embarrassment.  Plus my kids are laughing so much at the story and the writing that laughing at Mummy’s accent makes it even more fun.

4)     So it would help to be able to not be offended when your children laugh at you.

5)     You need to be able to embrace “naughty topics” and not censor yourself or your kids.  A book like The Giggler Treatment is unabashedly, rampantly, unapologetically all about dog poo.  About how close one of the characters is to stepping in it, who put it there and why and which dog it is that provided the poo.  I know many parents who would blush, shut the book and walk away on reading this but I pity those parents.  They have no idea what fun and mastery they are missing.

I always knew that Roddy was a great author even before I knew it, because The Commitments is one of my favourite films.  Then I read a couple of his books in my 20s and was impressed all over again.  Now my admiration is turning to gratitude; as a parent who loves to read him to my kids, but also as one who is quietly trying to write my own books for my kids and anyone else who might want to read them.  I love how I can almost feel his satisfaction as he writes so cleverly, inventively and challenges the reader/listener.  He makes me want to write, to read, to laugh and I can’t help imagining how much fun it must have been to write his books.

Roddy Doyle is my hero.

My itch is now scratched.

If Sara's reviews have made you want to buy these books then please do click on the links below:

and

Throughout reading Toibin's excellent novel based on the life of Henry James, I was intrigued by the title - 'The Master'. For I wondered while reading it and wonder still what exactly Henry James was the master of?

We first meet James just at the time of the failed premiere of his play Guy Domville and the book takes us both forwards and backwards from that point. We see James naked in bed with a man too afraid to move, or even sleep but excited by the experience. We read about him losing a dear female friend to suicide, a friend he was close to, but never let conversation stray into personal topics.  We watch him entranced by the manservant he has attending him while visiting friends,  who later visits with his employers and still continues to fascinate James. Another episode follows his adventures with a beautiful male sculptor in Rome, who comes to visit James at his home in Rye but appears only to be after James' wealthy patronage, not knowing that James is unable to offer him anything of substance.

On reflection I am left feeling that the title is ironic, for while James is indeed the 'Master' of great literary fiction when it comes to both theatrical productions and more importantly matters of the heart he is merely a servant.

This is really interesting take on James as a man,  I don't think you need to be a massive fan of his to read this book, nor to have read much of his work, though no doubt big fans of James would enjoy Toibin's biographical novel. Personally I found this book fascinating and would thoroughly recommend it to all lovers of great fiction.

If this review has intrigued you and you're interested in buying this book then click on the link below:

Book Club launching this month - Fifty Shades of Grey - E.L. James - 30/4/12 - Map Cafe Kentish Town

We're launching our book club at the end of this month (30/4/12) at the Map Cafe, 46 Grafton Road, Kentish Town,NW5 3DU, 7-10pm,  with the New York bestseller - Fifty Shades of Grey by E. L. James.

The book has proved so popular that M&S are selling out of grey ties. It really is an interesting read and I do recommend it, though must warn you it's not intellectually high brow and does contain quite a few scenes with fairly adult content. Some have compared James to Harold Robbins or Jackie Collins. For our full review take at look here.

If you're keen to buy this book click on the link below:

If you're about on Monday 30th April, 7-10pm and fancy joining our book club then please do let us know, you can register on this site on our events page, or drop us a line at info@bytethebook.com.

Alternatively why not set up a book club local to you and read with us in parallel each month, it would be good to see how far a network of readers could reach. If you do want to set one up please do get in touch with us at info@bytethebook.com.

Byte the Book got nominated for a versatile blogger award recently, made us feel quite chuffed, more details at http://mrsgoldsdaysarehere.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/versatile-blogger-award.html

Swedish Crime, neither genre nor nationality that I am particular familiar with but when the brilliant Christopher MacLehose (he who built the Harvill list) urged me to read this book at the Independent Publishers Guild conference a few weeks ago, I thought I'd give it a go.

This is the fourth in the series of books based on investigations by prosecutor Rebekah Martinsson.  I've not read the others in the series but she seems to have a very loyal fan base all of whom agree that this book can be read alone.

Martinsson together with police detective Anna Marie Mella are investigating the suspected murder of  a young couple, Wilma and Simon, and much of the book is told from the dead Wilma's point of view.  As the story progresses we learn not only about the perpetrators of the crime but also their vile motive for it and the guilty local secrets that date back to the Second World War. We also get an insight into Martinsson and Mella's contrasting love lives and hear about the lives of a lot others in this isolated part of Northern Sweden around the river Torne.

The opening scene is stunning! After reading it, I actually dreamt about the door being placed over the ice and the fingernails clawing to escape. The ending is also good, the historical facts educational,  the study of the psychology of killing interesting but all of that aside I did find it quite a slog to get through, mainly because there were about zillion Swedish names and places and what felt like far too many minor characters.

However I'm pleased I've read it, and now that I've finished it, it has simplified in my memory. I just wish there had been fewer characters to grapple with, oh and I do think it would make a great film, especially that opening scene.

To buy this book, click on the link below:

A funny thing happened to me at the Bologna Book Fair

I was sitting outside having a meeting with a Mexican publisher when we noticed a man wearing a patchwork pastel shirt, we complimented him on his shirt saying how much it reminded us of Elmer illustrations and then got chatting to him.

He said he used to run a very successful mail order book club which he'd since sold but he still dabbled in that area. So I gave him my card and said I thought that Yudu's solutions might be able to help him. He seemed a little taken aback, commenting on the Whitehall Court address.

He asked me why I was in publishing and about the ethos of our company. I told him how much I loved books and how important digital was to publishing. Just as Guttenberg's Press had released monks from handwriting manuscripts, and Allen Lane had with the introduction of paperbacks made books affordable to the common man, so digital had the potential to provide further access to books, and, in my opinion anything that got more people reading was a good thing.

'Why did you mention Allen Lane?' He asked.

I reiterated how the founder of the press that became Penguin had allowed more people access to books through the 6d paperback and as such revolutionised the publishing industry.

'Allen Lane was my father-in-law,' he said. 'He died 42 years ago but I still miss him very much. His London flat was in Whitehall Court.'

Ghost Knigi - by Benjamin Sommerhalder

Ghost Knigi is a little, but friendly ghost child that's handed a book on his birthnight. However the pages are blank and he can't read them, nor any other books in the Ghost Library, that is until he learns to think a different way, and then the book he's given and the book you are reading comes alive.

This is the first book I've read in it's entirety on my iPad admittedly it's on 24 pages so no incredible task but I love reading it on there. For two reasons - 1) it's a beautiful allegory of the need for imagination when reading  2) It looks absolutely fantastic on my iPad. I don't have children myself but I can't wait to show it to my nephews to see what they think.

There isn't yet much content in the iBook store yet (I'm sure that will change), but I really recommend giving this one a read.

Buy this book: To The End of the Land

David Grossman's son fought in the Gulf War and was eventually killed. Although this book was not written as a reaction to that loss it is made more poignant by that eventual tragedy.  It is an absolutely stunning book and answers the Israeli question better than anything else I've ever read, heard or seen.

Ora, has a close relationship with Avram who is captured and tortured by the Egyptians in 1967, many years later she has a son Ofer, who joins the Israeli army and is involved in the mistreatment of  some Arabs he captures. Ofer goes missing, worrying for his safety and no longer able to stay at home, Ora takes the now almost reclusive Avram on a hiking trip up to Northern Israel. Through this trip we learn how their stories interweave.

I read the majority of this book on a long haul flight back from Malaysia a year ago, sat squished in economy for many hours, yet even in that uncomfortable position, I was reminded how luxiourious my life is, one that is lived in peace and without conflict and always with enough food and water. As a Jew I’ve always been interested in Israel and understood that the conflicts riddling it’s history are never easy to comprehend or even on occasion justify. This book, in its 576 pages goes someway to explaining that troubled  history.  The writing is so utterly real and beautiful, and it touched me so deeply that I’m sure it will always remain one of my favourite books.

Invisibles - Ed Siegle

Joel is born is Brazil to an English mother, Jackie, and Brazilian father, Gilberto. Gilberto gets caught up with another woman and ends up in jail. From there Gilberto's life continues to go down hill and soon after his release is arrested again. Jackie takes 10 year-old Joel back to England and soon after they learn that Gilberto is dead. 25 years later Joel thinks he sees his father  in the crowd on a television report and goes back to Brazil to investigate.

I have a hell of a lot of respect for people that can write novels. I've tried to do it and found it very hard, so I am impressed with any book that is good enough to keep me reading taking on average 6 or 7 or so hours of my life and I did want to read this book to the end.  I did want to know whether Joel would find his father and how it would affect his and Jackie's life.

However I found it tough going, his father is an unlikable character and I also found Jackie a bit manipulative. The man that helps Joel find his father is also dislikable, although Joel seems touched by him, perhaps he finds a replacement father figure in him  I'm not sure I truly believed their friendship. Plus there were so many different characters in the book I found it difficult to keep track of them all. That said Brazil sounded amazing through this account, it is a gripping story and the structure going between past and present through lots of different people's lives was good but  I just didn't love any of the characters which made it difficult for me to fully enjoy this book.

To buy this book click on the link below:

The Imperfectionists - Tom Rachman

This is an unusual book, billed as a novel it's actually a collection of short stories around the central character of an international newspaper run out of an office in Rome. Characters from one story sometimes turn up in other stories but often they never reappear, this feels a little bit sad in some cases, as you grow fond of the characters and want to read more about them. But that gripe is testament to the quality of the writing and the depth of characters that are drawn in such short spaces of time, both of which are excellent.  We start with the story of Lloyd Burko a struggling journalist working on the periphery of the paper, and then as the short stories continue we go deeper into the lives of those actually in the offices in Rome and also into the sorry lives of the paper's management. Plus we hear the story of one of its readers a woman who has read every copy of the paper from cover to cover and is subsequently living approximately 15 years behind current times.

I've never worked in journalism, but this book was a good insight into that world and it is perhaps fitting that it should be shot out in segments, with newspaper-like headlines and character name by-lines, just like a newspaper is constructed each day. While each story in itself can stand alone, as a whole the book manages to give us a complete picture of the changing face of journalism in the digital age, and the universal story of man's struggle to survive in a challenging economic climate, and thus like a newspaper comes together to create a whole entity.

I'd recommend this book, it is enjoyable and its characters and the general story have stayed with me since reading it, which is an impressive achievement given its episodic form.

To buy this book click on the link below: