Uncommon Type - Tom Hanks

Description

A collection of seventeen wonderful short stories showing that two-time Oscar winner Tom Hanks is as talented a writer as he is an actor.

A hectic, funny sexual affair between two best friends. A World War II veteran dealing with his emotional and physical scars. A second-rate actor plunged into sudden stardom and a whirlwind press junket. A small-town newspaper columnist with old-fashioned views of the modern world. A woman adjusting to life in a new neighborhood after her divorce. Four friends going to the moon and back in a rocket ship constructed in the backyard. A teenage surfer stumbling into his father’s secret life.

These are just some of the people and situations that Tom Hanks explores in his first work of fiction, a collection of stories that dissects, with great affection, humour and insight, the human condition and all its foibles. The stories are linked by one thing: in each of them, a typewriter plays a part, sometimes minor, sometimes central. To many, typewriters represent a level of craftsmanship, beauty and individuality that is harder and harder to find in the modern world. In his stories, Mr Hanks gracefully reaches that typewriter-worthy level.

Known for his honesty and sensitivity as an actor, Mr Hanks brings both those characteristics to his writing. Alternatingly whimsical, moving and occasionally melancholy, Uncommon Type is a book that will delight as well as surprise his millions of fans. It also establishes him as a welcome and wonderful new voice in contemporary fiction, a voice that perceptively delves beneath the surface of friendships, families, love and normal, everyday behaviour.

Review

I'm going to have to admit upfront that I just love Tom Hanks - everything he does and he seems like a great guy too. I also love typewriters. So, unbiased review - really!

I did put this book at the top of my TBR pile and then read it in between another book. I don't like reading a whole set of short stories in one go, but I am a little sad now they are all read. BHowever, I've found out that the audio version of the book is read by Tom Hanks - I think I need to get it and hear them now too.

On that note, I did have Tom Hanks voice in my head whilst reading. Specifically his voice from "You've got Mail" (which also featured typewriters briefly) where he does read aloud a lot. This seemed to suit the timbre of the stories which are also very American, with some terms from way back that I have to admit I was not familiar with.

One character does crop up a couple of times, but otherwise each story is about a different person and situation. Some of them I found the typewriter connection to be a little tenuous and one I had to scan re read as I couldn't remember anything about a typewriter. 

I have two faves in this set of stories. One is a lady who buys an old typewriter for £5 bucks and her journey to get it fixed. The other combined into the mix another of my fave themes - time travel. I definitely could read this story over and over and it reminded me of Jack Finney's work.

In another story the typewriter takes the character back to recollections at hearing different parts of the typewriter, and as I read it, so did I - it was so spooky. Things I had not thought about for years - another one I would love to re-read. This book has got me hankering after getting an old typewriter - just like one I trained on years and years ago before my career went in another direction. I admit to having had a look online - oh Tom Hanks what have you started.........

I'm giving this book 5 out of 5 stars and my thanks go to netgalley for an advance copy of the book for review. 

Boundaries - Jennie Miller and Victoria Lambert

Description

A four-step programme to help develop self-esteem, create time to do the things that nourish and fulfil you, discover a deep sense of calm, and achieve healthy control over your life, home and work, co-written by psychotherapist and relationship expert Jennie Miller and award-winning journalist Victoria Lambert.

The need to understand where to draw the line has never been more acute, with new online trends seeping quickly into our consciousness often before we’ve had time to consider what personal boundaries they might require. Covering email etiquette, office politics, healthy parenting, dating among the over 50s, oversharing, relationships and more, there is no other book that deals effectively and practically with the embryonic and ever-evolving relationship codes of today.

Discover how to set personal boundaries in the most important aspects of your life: from sleep to fitness, diet to social media and computer usage, and build the self-confidence that results from learning to care for yourself. Then you can progress to applying that knowledge to all aspects of your life including work, home and relationships.

With anonymised cases from Jennie’s clinical practice, Boundaries contains exercises, motivational quotes, statistics, and clearly signposts when exactly you need to bring in the boundaries.

Review

I'm always looking for enlightenment into personal development so when I received this book I dived right into it. I found it very easy to read and understand with well laid out headings across the four steps. 

Step 1 Me, myself, I

Step 2 The workplace

Step 3 Love and intimacy

Step 4 Your family and other animals  

The most noticeable thing about this book is how very up to date it is with dealing with issues like social media boundaries both at home and in the workplace. I've never personally read anything in a book like this before and if you are starting out in the world of work (or indeed aren't sure about protocol) then this is a good guideline to set you on the right path regarding how to behave on social media. It also tackles the subject of bullying at work - again I haven't seen this met head on before and am pleased to see this advice.

Throughout the book there are real life case histories so you can relate to how the advice works in real life. There are also little insights which make it seem like the book is a bit of a mind reader! How did you know I just thought that when I read the heading "Fitness"???

I found the first step the most useful for me. This is a book you can refer to again and again at different points in your life and you will find some sound guidance and advice.

I'm giving this book 5 out of 5 stars. I received a paperback copy of the book from HarperCollins in exchange for an honest review.

The Group - Mary McCarthy

Description

THE GROUP follows eight graduates from exclusive Vassar College as they find love and heartbreak, forge careers, gossip and party in 1930s Manhattan.

THE GROUP can be seen as the original SEX AND THE CITY. It is the first novel to frankly portray women's real lives, exploring subjects such as sex, contraception, motherhood and marriage.

Review

This is a book that I have had on my TBR list for ages and I decided I would get it read over the Christmas break. At 437 pages that should have been doable, but I didn't reckon on the small typeface (I'm reading the paperback) and the language which takes a little getting use to.

I recently saw the film "The Greatest Showman" which I loved. However, I was a little critical as most of the women wore false eyelashes and the song which Jenny Lind sings whilst absolutely fantastic is nothing like a song she would have sung in those days. My point is this; whilst I felt that was not realistic of the time, this book is realistic, and I struggled with it! Set in the 1930s with the language of the time felt like wading through so many unfamiliar words, I thought I would never finish the book.

Seen as the "Sex and the City" of it's time and indeed with a forward in my copy by Candace Bushell the book is certainly very liberal for both the time it is set in and the era it was published in being 1963. 

When the book begins all the characters are all produced at once and I felt I would never remember who they all were (and I didn't most of the time). Then the book takes one or two of the characters to focus on in each chapter through the 1930s and ending at the time of the 2nd world war. Different aspects of each of their lives are written about from marriage, birth, motherhood, affairs of the heart and ageing parents.

It was a journey through American  social history for me, although these ladies are all ex Vassar (which is very laboured throughout) and from "society" so not a true cross section of history. However, I was a little shocked at some of the things described - especially towards the end of the book regarding a convalescence stay, which I won't spoil for you.

At the beginning of the book they talk about marketing, and it was only after a couple of references when they talk about going to the market, that I realised this is the term for shopping at the market! To my 21st century eyes I had to re read passages like this as the meaning was so different. There is one part which covers a birth. I was bemused that the Doctor tells the patient to put on fresh lipstick and powder and to stop screaming!!!!! 

As I mentioned the book was written in 1963 and yet it feels like it was written in the 1930's. The author has really captured the nuances and speech of the time. I think it deserves five stars both for the writing and capturing a part of history - this is the closest thing to a time machine you could wish for!

Happiness for Humans - P Z Reizin

Description

Don't tell anyone, but Jen is one of my favourite people.

(Machines aren't supposed to have favourites. Don't ask me how this has happened.)

Jen is sad. Aiden wants her to be happy. Simple? Except that Jen is a thirty-something woman whose boyfriend has just left her and Aiden is a very complicated, very expensive piece of software.

Aiden knows Jen inside out. With access to all her devices, he knows her most played song, can find her favourite photos and single out the insta-quotes which most inspire her. Based on observations and unique algorithms, he has calculated that Jen should find a new man to achieve optimum wellbeing. And with the whole of the internet at his disposal, he doesn't have to look far to find a perfect specimen and engineer a meeting. Except Jen seems to be remarkably unwilling to fall in line with Aiden's flawless plan.

Can a very artificially intelligent machine discover emotional intelligence in time to fix Jen's life? And find out what exactly does make human beings happy?

Review

If you like films like I Robot and the TV series Humans, then this is the book for you. It's along those lines but with so much humour and also a little unnerving glimpse into the future too.

When we first meet Jen she has just broken up with her boyfriend of 2 years. Aiden is her AI friend he watches old films with her and wonders what cheese tastes like.  So, what else would your friend do for you but have your back. Aiden although constricted by the confines of not actually being human begins to "sort" out things for Jen in the real world. What ensues is both hilarious and at times strangely frightening.

Aiden is not alone he has an accomplice AI Aisling and together they begin to put the world to rights as they see it. Meanwhile Jen has a couple of romantic entanglements orchestrated by Aiden. One that seems to be so perfect for her and yet she decides to break off further contact - or does she? Enter a third AI Sinai - which totally blew everything I thought was going to happen out of the water.

This is such a charming, clever and amusing story - it takes such unexpected turns and isn't quite like anything I have read before. A real page turner with a scary insight into what the future might hold for humans - after all we already have Alexa don't we!  One of my favourite lines from the book is when one of the AI starts to "see" an Amazon algorithm - and all the recommendations she has for him!

I'm giving this book five out of five stars - in fact it deserves so much more! My thanks to Netgalley for an advance copy of the book for review. 

Happiness for Humans is out on 4 January 2018.

Three Things About Elsie - Joanna Cannon

DESCRIPTION

There are three things you should know about Elsie.
The first thing is that she’s my best friend.
The second is that she always knows what to say to make me feel better.
And the third thing… might take a little bit more explaining.

84-year-old Florence has fallen in her flat at Cherry Tree Home for the Elderly. As she waits to be rescued, Florence wonders if a terrible secret from her past is about to come to light; and, if the charming new resident is who he claims to be, why does he look exactly a man who died sixty years ago?

From the author of THE TROUBLE WITH GOATS AND SHEEP, this book will teach you many things, but here are three of them:
1) The fine threads of humanity will connect us all forever.
2) There is so very much more to anyone than the worst thing they have ever done.
3) Even the smallest life can leave the loudest echo.

REVIEW

What an unusual read this book is, so many facets to it and running through it a little whodunnit too. It's not often I read a book and think I'm so glad I got to read this story - but this is one of those books.

The book opens with Florence aged 84 lying on the floor of her flat wondering if anyone is going to find her. She begins to recount events from her life over the past 60 years and more recently at the Home for the Elderly that her flat is a part of. From time to time the narration leaves the events and comes back to the present day and Florence who is still lying on the floor.

Throughout the book we meet the people in Florence's life - of course Elsie, the people who work at the home and various other characters that she encounters through little jaunts. The description of her time in Whitby was wonderful. I know Whitby fairly well and I could tell the author did too, I was there with Florence and her friends walking along seeing what they saw in glorious colour.

The plot construction is marvellous but to say would give too much away as there is more than one secret to uncover in this utterly enchanting read - a glimpse into seeing things through someones older eyes.

You don't just get to see things through Florence's eyes though. There is also Simon the Handyman who makes discoveries of his own about his life and Miss Ambrose who has probably been on a course for whatever life throws at her, except her own life!

So many beautifully written and evocative sentences too. My favourite was "three generations of women balance their lives on top of each other, like tiers on a wedding cake". The battenburg cake on the cover is also a charming but sad part of the story too.

I could go on and on about this book, but really you just need to read it for yourself.

I'm giving this book 5 out of 5 stars. My thanks go to Netgalley for an advance copy of the book which is out on 11 January 2018.

Covent Garden in the Snow - Jules Wake

Description

Tilly Hunter has fabulous friends, her dream job as a make-up artist with a prestigious opera company and Felix, her kind and caring husband to be. It looks set to be the most perfect Christmas yet!

But when a monumental blunder forces her to work closely with new IT director Marcus Walker, it's not only the roast chestnut stalls on the cobbles of her beloved Covent Garden that cause sparks to fly…

Super serious and brooding, Marcus hasn’t got a creative bone in his sharp-suited body. For technophobe Tilly, it's a match made in hell.

And yet, when Tilly discovers her fiancé isn’t at all what he seems, it's Marcus who's there for her with a hot chocolate and a surprisingly strong shoulder to cry on … He might just be the best Christmas present she’s ever had.

Review

I must admit the cover of this book had a lot with me wanting to read it, I just wanted to step right inside that scene! Once I was inside I wasn't disappointed either.

We meet Tilly just as she opens an email which it turns out has a virus attached to it - being a complete technophobe she manages to get into quite a scrape over it all. Plus a new IT Director, Marcus Walker, just happens to have taken up his new post and is not happy with her at all.

Despite not really understanding people like Till that can make such a hash of techy things I did love her. We get to find out in some detail about her job at the Opera House, and the tour and backstage insight was fantastic, really felt like I was there. I learnt a few things too.

This book was a little bit of escapism and a perfect read for this time of year. Yes it is a romance novel and you can see where it is all going - but I thoroughly enjoyed it and I'm giving it 5 out of 5 stars.

BTW the kindle version is only 99p! I read it in two days so perfect for over the festive season.

My thanks to Netgalley and HarperCollins UK for a copy of the book for review.

The Present - D S Devlin

Description

12 deadly gifts, one killer on a Christmas countdown…

On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me… this is one deadly Christmas that you can’t forget.

The police are baffled by the ‘Santa’ killer, who sends his intended victims gruesome presents based on the twelve days of Christmas. When a young journalist receives a mutilated bird in the post, it’s a race against time to find the killer…

Review

After reviewing the "other" book called The Present a few days ago I've now read the one I intend to. My review for the chicklit version has gone up on the page for this crime novel though!

I'm not one for true crime and gory details and so those aspects of this book did not appeal to me, but it is written in such a homely way that it actually didn't seem as if those things were too real. This enabled me to just carry on reading and enjoy the whodunnit aspect of the novel.

It's only taken me a couple of readings to get through, as once I was hooked and I was so sure of who the "Santa" killer was I had to know I was right! At some point I did think no one would write a plot this obvious and so changed my mind, changed it back again and finally I had no idea!

Just to make it clear this is not someone murdering Santas', but someone using the Christmas song of 12 days of Christmas as clues to taunt the police each year, before eventually murdering a victim. As it takes place during Christmas he is dubbed the "Santa" killer.

You do need to suspend some disbelief that Anna the journalist would put herself in so much danger and be prepared to meet the "Santa" killer one on one. She does come out of it as one gutsy lady despite being petrified, and I was swept along with her descriptive exploits.

If this sounds like your sort of thing and you are not looking for the next big crime writer then it's a good read.

I'm giving this book 4 out of 5 stars. My thanks to Netgalley for a copy of the book for review.