My Favourite Thing - Books!

Helloooooooo! I'm back! Yes, can you believe it, two blog posts in a month. You'll see pigs flying soon, hehe!

This is more of a hold-up, slow-down, let me tell you something blog, but I promise my next one will be slightly bouncier :-P Maybe. Hopefully!

I said a while back that I would do a book "review" type thing, but with the moving and everything else it kinda got away from me. This isn't going to be a countdown, a top 10/20/40 or a critical anything, just an exaltation of the books that have really stuck with me and that I go back to time and time again. 

The Alchemist by Paolo Coelho - I read this for the first time when I was... 12, maybe? It's not really what I would call a children's book, you're more likely to find Coelho's books in a mind, body and spirit section, or even near the philosophy books. It's a story about a boy who knows what he wants, is given a task, goes on an adventure and ends up, well... Back where he started. In a good way. All of what I just said is a massive understatement. You cannot describe The Alchemist, only read it. It's one of those books that is simple enough for a child to read and understand, but when I read it now as an adult it moves me in profound ways. It's about the material world and what we want from it, the soul and what it needs, it’s also about faith and doubt, but it's not preachy and you take from it what you want. There's an element of "magical realism" in it, which I really like in South American literature. Even the foreword in the edition I have is deeply moving. His later works haven't had the same affect on me, but that's okay, this book is enough.

We'll stay in South America with some more magical realism from Isabelle Allende this time. Her debut novel The House of the Spirits is an epic family saga set in Chile pre-revolution. It centres around Clara, the youngest of a large family and follows her life and the life of her daughter and granddaughter. There are two narrators, one of which is her husband who is writing about her after her death. It is a story about people, some ordinary and some extraordinary, doing awesome, wacky and sometimes horrible things. It is critical of its characters as well as forgiving and generous. It celebrates humanity and the power of women as individuals and in communities. The author herself has become quite the activist for women's right in areas where these are lacking, and her TED talk on the matter is really powerful. If you haven't already experience the pleasure of TED talks then please Google it! There are so many fantastic talks and lectures on every topic you can imagine. Anyway, I digress. Bille August made a film version of this book, featuring Winona Ryder, Antonio Banderas, Meryl Streep (truly one of my favourite actresses) and Jeremy Irons, but it misses out a whole generation and just isn't as powerful as the book. If I had to pick just one book to read the rest of my life, this is it.

The Children's Book by A S Byatt is next on my list. This book takes us to the UK, spanning a time period from ca. 1880 to the outbreak of the First World War. It follows a group of adult bohemian types (some are a bit more "square" or traditional) who are friends and who all have children. One of them is a popular children's book authoress, and she and her husband have the largest brood of the group. The story follows the adults (who may not be as happy, free, or caring as they seem) and their children, and how they and their relationships change with the times. There's love and betrayal, unconventional decisions made by seemingly conventional people and vice versa, a wee bit of politics, scandal and all sorts. Alongside that there are little informative tidbits about the period in general almost seamlessly interwoven in to the story itself. It's a rich and indulgent book that I could do with re-reading soon. When I had finished it, I just had that 'wow' feeling, and I needed to mull it over for a while. 

The Witches by Roald Dahl is another of my favourites, in fact, pretty much anything Roald Dahl wrote was kind of awesome. I think all parents, would-be-parents and soon-to-be-parents should be required to buy and read his collected children's stories. And then read them to their children. I like how un-sanctimonious he is about kids and what little horrible devils they can be, and how hilariously clever and observant they are too. My dad read this to and with me a lot (along with Tales from Watership Down, I remember) when I was younger, and I'm really thankful for that. The film version with Anjelica Huston is actually very good too! 

Next up is Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. It's a coming of age story set in Nigeria. Our main character Kambili is the daughter of a very religious (and seemingly quite affluent and influential) man who appears to have a great disdain for his own heritage and culture. To me the books is about that moment when you realise that your parents are people, and you learn more about who they are as people, and how you may not always like who they are even though you love them. I also have such great respect for the author, who in her TED talk, spoke about the dangers of a "single story", as in the potentially one-sided view we may have of a person, a group, a nation or culture. It's an incredibly powerful talk, and I can recommend anyone to watch it! Press here to be directed to the TED talk!

David Attenborough is an icon and my hero. His autobiography Life on Air only made me respect him even more. Honestly, that book is one of the most amazing stories I have ever read. It's obviously about his career, but he also talks about the beginnings of the BBC and throws in some anecdotes from when he was a child. There's a couple of "behind the scenes" moments, and of course a lovely collection of old and new photos. It is everything you could really want from an autobiography. 

Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden is perhaps not the most amazing book in the world. So why oh why have I included it? Nostalgia, for one. I've moved around a lot, so my memory if very location based. I can tell you what house we lived in when I first read it, and roughly how old I was. I remember that I didn't understand all of it, but that this was set in a really fascinating culture. If you haven't come across the book or the film, it's a story about a girl who by unfortunate circumstance becomes a Geisha in what we now know as Kyoto (I think, my memory may be slipping). In hindsight I obviously do question how accurate a western author can be in describing a culture that is so very different, but the book certainly sparked an interest in Japan that has not faded since. 

There are so many books that I love, but the ones above just stuck on to me and never let go. I hope one day to be able to write a book that does that for other people! 

I may in future write a similar piece for films or TV movies as well. I think it’s easy to scoff at visual media, but it shouldn’t because it can produce some truly beautiful pieces of art and be just as thought provoking as literature. 

I’ll do a more general blog for you all tomorrow as well, a little treat for the weekend, hehe. 

Cheerie Byes!