'The Help' | Kathryn Stockett

I’m very late to getting this book under my belt but if like me, you missed out on all the excitement around The Help when it first came out, let me tell you: you NEED this novel in your life. Whether your thing is suspense, humour, sociology, history, politics or anything else you can think of, Kathryn Stockett manages to draw everything together in a tale about the lives of African-American maids working for white families in the town of Jackson, Mississippi, which is as touching as it is page-turning.

Set in the 1960s, The Help alternates between first-person narration from the three main characters: Aibileen, a hard working maid, Minny, her outspoken friend, and Skeeter, the daughter of a wealthy white family with aspirations to become a journalist rather than following the other women of Jackson by marrying early and spending her time planning social events and playing bridge.

After Aibileen confides in Skeeter about her son Treelore’s dreams of writing and publishing a book about the lives of the black communities in the Deep South, Skeeter comes up with a radical and risky idea to compile, with the help of the maids who work for her own friends, a documentation of their experiences working for white families. It takes a while for Skeeter to convince the maids to share their experiences, for fear of being fired by the very employers they are describing – though eventually the will to tell their important stories brings them round to the idea. But in a town steeped in racism, prejudice and divide, it is vital that the contributors remain anonymous, not to mention the difficulties of getting such a controversial piece published.

The Help conveys an important message about the completely contrasting lives of the two worlds in Jackson, despite the fact that the two work and live alongside one another every day. As well as being beautifully and uniquely written, it tells you a lot about the history of prejudice and fear in the Southern American states.

PS. My contribution to the 'no make up selfie' campaign, also to be found on Facebook! I have to say I was a little sceptical of this at first but seeing how much money has been raised by this alone I'm impressed at it's impact - it's not to say that selfies alone are beating cancer but every little helps and why not make donating and raising awareness a little bit fun?! So if you're reading this I nominate YOU for a #nomakeupselfie and to donate to Cancer Research or a cancer charity of your choice (online or text BEAT to 70007).

'Big Brother' | Lionel Shriver

Mum brought this back from the library while I was at home for a two-week university holiday and I’m SO glad she chose it – this is probably the best book I’ve read in 2014 so far.

Lionel Shriver provides an emotional and often shocking account of the obesity crisis in America through an autobiographical perspective.

Credit: Goodreads

Pandora, based loosely on Shriver herself, is a successful businesswoman meandering through an unremarkable routine and a middle-of-the-road marriage to obsessive, health-conscious Fletcher. When her brother Edison, a formerly successful jazz musician comes back into her Iowa life, hundreds of pounds heavier than when she last saw him, his obesity has an incredible and immediate impact on her marriage, family, household and state of mind. Pandora sacrifices all she has worked for to try and help her brother, implementing an extreme weight-loss regime and moving out of her marital home to give around-the-clock support.

But behind Edison’s obesity lies a cycle of depression and instability. Some reviews I’ve read have criticised Shriver’s characterisation and depiction of overeating and the problems attached to it, but personally I found the graphic and grotesque descriptions convincing and poignant. You feel like you need to find out whether Pandora and Edison are successful in their mission to get Edison back to his original size, and in that way Shriver held my attention for the duration of the novel.

Most importantly, reading this made me really think about our relationship with food – how we base our day to day lives around it, use it to celebrate and commemorate and enjoy, but on the other side of the coin, how the very thing that we depend on for sustenance can be wholly destructive. This is invoked from the outset when Shriver writes:

 "I have to wonder whether any of the true highlights of my forty some years have had to do with food. I don't mean celebratory dinners, good fellowship; I mean salivation, mastication and peristalsis." 

This sentence put the idea of obesity and why so many people overeat to an extreme degree in a new perspective and this idea is one that is emphasised throughout the rest of the novel.

Big Brother conveys an important message as obesity is undoubtedly one of the biggest problems for health and society of our time, particularly in the Western world. Shriver’s writing is nuanced, careful and gripping and in my opinion reveals something about why humans eat to excess and the rebounding consequences.

'Starter for Ten' | David Nicholls

I picked this up on a charity shop book haul the other week over in Belfast, but I’ve been meaning to read it ever since finishing Nicholls’ One Day, which I loved. I'll admit that another reason I was looking forward to this is that I'm secretly  a bit of a University Challenge keeno myself!

Set in 1985, Starter for Ten begins at something of an end – as awkward, unpopular Brian Jackson is leaving school to go to university. On his first night away, two life-changing events happen. One, Brian meets the rich and glamorous Alice Harbinson, whom he falls hopelessly and unrequitedly in love with. Two, he makes the decision to try out for the Bristol University Challenge team, as a fan of the programme since childhood. At first he doesn’t make the team – though only because of giving answers to Alice – but joins when another member becomes ill.

The novel follows Brian’s uncomfortable and unsettled first year at university, flitting between cringe-inducing social/romantic encounters and Brian’s attempts to show off his academic prowess. Nicholls pulls this off superbly and often I felt like laughing, wincing and feeling sorry all at once in response to Brian’s embarrassing escapades. There’s a real sense of friction in the story, I think –image and reality; class difference; friends and enemies.

Nicholls’ depiction of Alice is equally vibrant, and of course she is a total contrast to Brian – beautiful, desirable, and wealthy. She is clearly not attracted to Brian but is happy to lead him on. For me one of the most important parts of the novel is the description of Brian’s birthday, where he takes Alice on a date, spending a huge chunk of his student grant he can’t afford to try and impress her, all the while ignoring foul-mouthed but likeable Rebecca Epstein, a socialist law student.

My brother accidentally told me the main twist in the tale, which I won’t repeat for you here (though you may well have seen the film)! But there’s so much more to the plot that it didn’t spoil it for me really – I was still absorbed by Nicholls. Starter for Ten is both hilarious and observant.

Find out about David Nicholls' latest projects here.

'The Universe versus Alex Woods' | Gavin Extence

A very (late) happy new year to you all! I hope you’ve all had a lovely holiday and that it’s not too much of a struggle settling back into the usual routine – I for one have a lot of work to undo the overindulgence of food and drink alone!

I have been a terrible blogger over the last month or so with exams and catching up with everyone over Christmas so intend to make more of an effort now to make up for it.

So, without further ado, I’ll move on to one of the books I read over the festive period. The Universe versus Alex Woods, winner of the Waterstones 11 literary prize, is Gavin Extence’s impressive and quirky debut novel. At a superficial level, I don’t think the little blurb on the back of the book gives enough credit to the novel itself:

“A tale of an unlikely friendship, an unexpected hero and an improbable journey, Alex’s story treads the fine line between light and dark, laughter and tears.”

For me this was all very clichéd and cringe worthy, but I assure you the novel is nothing like this when you start reading. Alex Woods, the young hero of the story, has had a very unconventional start in life, with a clairvoyant single mother, constant bullying and an extremely unlikely event marking his life and future. Sometimes naïve, sometimes perceptive, Extence’s depiction of Alex is warm and lifelike.

Alex, by chance, befriends an elderly neighbour and the two share their different stories, learn from one another and form an unlikely bond. Mr Peterson is an American war veteran and Kurt Vonnegut enthusiast who helps Alex start a rather philosophical book club and introduces him to new ideas about morality and values. But Mr Peterson starts to suffer from ill health and the two outsiders help each other in the riskiest of ways. *SPOILER ALERT* It is at this late point in Extence’s narrative that we realise the primary theme is not bullying, friendship or innocence, but assisted suicide.

Of course from here the writing adopts a much more sombre tone, but is still characterised by light-hearted moments and amusing dialogue – my favourite part is where Alex essentially kidnaps Mr Peterson from hospital in order to drive him to Switzerland.

Look past the lukewarm blurb on the cover on this book and you will be rewarded – The Universe versus Alex Woods is charming, dark, eccentric and profound all at once.

'Dear Lucy' | Julie Sarkissian

Now that we’re well and truly into winter, you can’t avoid hearing “I can’t believe how cold/dark/close to Christmas it’s getting”, as if it doesn’t get cold/dark/close to Christmas every year. Not that I’m exempt from this; in true British style I find it impossible not to comment on the weather on a daily basis. Well, you can take the girl out of Britain…

All the more reason to curl up with a book when it’s gloomy outside!

I just finished reading “Dear Lucy”, the debut novel from Julie Sarkissian. Coincidentally this novel deals with similar themes to “Grace Williams Says It Loud” (read my review here), such as disability, abuse and relationships. Like Henderson’s writing style, the chapters narrated by the protagonist Lucy come across with a charming innocence and naivety. However what I found most striking was the way Sarkissian intermittently contrasted these sections with short chapters in the voices of other characters.

Lucy lives on a seemingly idyllic farm with an elderly couple known as Mister and Missus. Samantha, a pregnant teenager also taken in by the couple on the agreement that they will raise the child as their own, also lives there and has an unlikely but profound friendship with Lucy. As Samantha gets closer to giving birth, she has second thoughts about giving the child up and relies on Lucy to help her keep her baby.

The pace is rather slow and wandering up until this point, though not frustratingly so. But at this point shocking events that happened on the farm in the past become apparent and put Lucy, Samantha and the baby in danger. Lucy promises to save them all and the novel picks up speed with Sarkissian building up lots of tension, particularly when Samantha is locked in a room separated from her child.

One niggle I had was that there’s no real clue as to the setting of the novel – the author doesn’t give us much of an idea of the era in which the action is taking place, or even the location. However on further thought I think this could be down to her intention to make it seem like the issues in “Dear Lucy” could happen now, or anytime, and the lack of setting description any further than the house itself is because the idyll of the farm is central to the plot development and the notion that Lucy is in a bizarre and twisted bubble with no concept or experience of anything outside.

I started off feeling ambivalent towards the novel, but as I read on it grew on me and I was willing Lucy to succeed in carrying out the promise she’d made to Samantha. By the end I was inspired and impressed by “Dear Lucy”.

Find out more about this author on the Julie Sarkissian website.

'Sweet Tooth' | Ian McEwan

Last week while I was back home I was pleased to see that my mum had taken out Sweet Tooth from the library (yep, my family are just as geeky as me when it comes to books). Of course she couldn’t read it then as I wasted no time in snapping it up!

As a fan of McEwan’s novels since reading Enduring Love at school, I had skyscraper expectations for his foray into espionage writing – and he didn’t fail to deliver. Sweet Tooth is set in 1970s England, primarily London, and is narrated by a well-educated and flighty bishop’s daughter, Serena Frome, who is in her final year of maths at Cambridge at the start of the novel. An affair with a history tutor, Tony Canning, has further-reaching effects than it initially seems, as he recruits Serena as an MI5 spy, sculpting and disciplining her before abandoning her in a lay-by and disappearing, never to be seen again by Serena. Naturally, that’s not to say he doesn’t remain a key figure in the plot.

McEwan maps out Serena’s life – new friends, work, and feelings – before revealing the secret mission that provides the novel’s title. Every detail of kisses, lunches and relationships kept me captivated as the mission is hidden from us in typical McEwan style until much later. We are constantly kept guessing as to who is really being spied on – there appear to be some covert affairs among Serena’s co-workers, and there is a suggestion that someone has broken into her flat looking for something too.

When we find out about the mission the pace quickens – Serena meets Tom Haley, the subject of her mission, and according to some reviews I’ve seen, an incarnation of the author himself. The development of the two characters’ relationship alongside Serena’s mission is thrilling and mysterious. Personally I always seem to find that it is McEwan’s ability to create shockingly realistic and mesmerising relationships between characters, conjuring up the intensity of jealousy, lust and hedonism that sets him apart from others.

It wouldn’t be a McEwan novel without a revelatory and cathartic twist at the end that changes everything and makes you see the whole story in a different way – but I’ll leave it there so I don’t ruin it for you! This is one of those books that once you’ve finished reading, you immediately want to discuss with someone else to talk about the surprising ending (I had the same feeling with Life of Pi). One of the best books I’ve read this year – I’m already looking forward to the next offering.