Library staff review of the year 2007

Library staff choose their best books, CDs and DVDs of 2007. See also the most popular items borrowed from Plymouth Libraries this year.

Books

Nicola Barker - Darkmans

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You wouldn't have thought that a book set in Ashford with only a small cast of characters would be able to keep your attention for over 800 pages, but Darkmans does it. A fantastic book. Innovative, funny, current and compelling. I adored this and could have read on happily for another 800 pages.

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Alan Bennett - The uncommon reader

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The Queen discovers a mobile library in a part of the Palace she doesn't normally frequent. But she discovers a lot more besides, including Norman, a red-haired kitchen skivy. Even cuts to the library service can't stop her reading.

Once she's read her fill of books, along comes something else to take her attention, and another meeting with Norman. And that's where Alan Bennett's excellent little 124 page book gets really interesting...

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John Boyne - The boy In The striped pyjamas

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A thought provoking book for older teenagers and adults. Bruno aged 9, is the main character in the story and the son of a German officer in World War II. His family moves suddenly from Berlin to the countryside where their new house stands outside an area which is fenced off. The people that live on the other side of this fence all wear striped pyjamas. A friendship blooms between Bruno and a boy of the same age, who wears striped pyjamas and lives on the other side of the fence. The story's ending is totally unexpected and leaves the reader stunned!

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Christopher Brookmyre - Attack of the unsinkable rubber ducks

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Brookmyre’s latest novel featuring the maverick, anti-establishment journalist and part-time crook Jack Parlabane is dedicated to the magician and scourge of all things woo James Randi and science professor Richard Dawkins. Indeed, the title is a phrase of Randi’s used to describe people who hold views that they refuse to allow to be submerged under scientific proof.

The story, set mostly in the halls of Scotland’s Kelvin University, tells of a murderous battle between those who regards spiritualism and the paranormal as conjurers’ bunkum, and those who regard it as a paradigm shift within science, and therefore want it taught in schools.

The book is dark, funny, thought-provoking, and full of unexpected twists and turns: it is Brookmyre back to his best.

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Bill Bryson: Shakespeare

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This entertaining volume zips through the life and times of William Shakespeare at a cracking pace.  In honesty, there is not much to tell.  We know little about our greatest poet and dramatist.  There are huge gaps in his life - particularly the bit where he was transformed from an obscure nobody in Stratford, to the foremost playwright of his or any other day.  Bryson's incisive prose and trademark humour are very much in evidence.  This book can be enjoyed as a miniature detective story.

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Michael Cox - The meaning of night

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A very accomplished debut novel of love, loss, vengeance and retribution. Set in London and the English provinces of the 1850s it offers an atmospheric story reminiscent of the great Victorian novel. Much more than a murder mystery, it is rich in characterisation and human psychology.  It was my most satisfying read of the year.

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Jasper Fforde - The big over easy

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DI Jack Spratt is called in to investigate the sudden death of Humpty Dumpty. Was it suicide, murder, or an accident?Jack desperately needs to crack the case. His reputation is in tatters since the three little pigs were acquitted of the murder of the big bad wolf. This is a proper murder mystery featuring a range of suspects with motive, opportunity and means, plus a surprise twist at the end. It just happens to include things like a magic beanstalk, anthropomorphic animals, and references to cases solved by other detectives you think you may have heard of (Moose, Rhombus & Dogleash)Clever, surreal and very funny.

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Patrick Gale - Notes from an exhibition

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I have particularly enjoyed four books this year - A Good School by Richard Yates, the Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell, First Overland by Tim Slessor and best of all for me, Notes from an Exhibition by Patrick Gale. Probably his most delicately written book to date, it follows the lives of a dysfunctional family battling with the effects of their mother's bipolar diversity. Set mostly in Gale's beloved Cornwall, it chronicles the family's attempts to get to know their mother posthumously by unravelling the secrets of her life. As usual his characters are finely drawn and there are passages of sadness and humour with a few twists in the tale.

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Patrick Gale - Notes from an exhibition

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Patrick Gayle is a master at his craft, he hits the nail on the head writing about human relationships even though he’s in his 40’s, he has a wonderful insight to how the human brain works whether it be a young child or someone in their 90’s. His books are a great insight into family relationships and this is why they are so fascinating to me, because they have everything in them that most of us are able to relate to. Patrick spent his early years in Winchester in Hampshire where I also lived, he knows the West country where I now live, so some of the things he writes about are familiar to me and that is why I so much enjoy his books. “Notes from an Exhibition” is a story mostly set in the West country and a small section set in Toronto. The main character is an artist, she has an unusual background and has a mental disability!. Her family are a very mixed bunch, but the story is very realistic. The book has an unusual ending, one I think the reader would not have suspected!. It is well written and that is why it makes you want to keep turning the pages until the very end.

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Virginia Ironside - No! I don't want to join a bookclub

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Very funny and some of us who are of a certain age can relate to it.

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Ian McEwan - On Chesil Beach

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It is June 1962. In a hotel on the Dorset coast, overlooking Chesil Beach, Edward and Florence, who got married that morning, are sitting down to dinner in their room. Neither is entirely able to suppress their anxieties about the wedding night to come.

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W. Somerset Maugham - The painted veil

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The story of Kitty Fane, the adulterous wife of a bacteriologist stationed in Hong Kong. When her husband discovers her deception, he exacts a terrible vengeance: Kitty must accompany him to the heart of a cholera epidemic in China.

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Kate Morton - The house at Riverton

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It's set in a country house and a film is being made about a tragic event that happened there many years ago. The main character is one of the housemaids and the story is told from her perspective. It is one of the those books that you can't put down, right from the atmospheric start to the twist in the end.

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Maggie O’Farrell - The distance between us

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I really enjoyed this book; it starts dramatically and keeps you on your toes for the entire book.  I loved the time shifts back into the past and then forward to the present again.  I also liked the idea of two people’s stories being told at the same time while they are right across the world from each other.  The two main characters do not manage to meet till much later on in the book.The book is about relationships of all kinds, between families, parents, grandparents and lovers but the main relationship which is explored is the one between sisters. I loved the mystery which the sisters shared throughout the book and which is not revealed until the end of the book. I recommend this book if you like to read about relationships, mystery and you like a book which delves right back into the past and explores the events which have effected the present.

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Sid Owen - Life on a plate

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I was pleasantly surprised when I borrowed this book.  Sid Owen aka Ricky Butcher (Eastenders) shows another side to his talents. As well as some really delicious recipes and learning about his early years you catch something of Sid’s personality as well. I was attracted to reading it because there is a section called French adventure where he talks about his experience of buying and managing a restaurant in France and again he has captured the ambiance of the setting perfectly with photos and recipes,( which believe me are tried and tested!) The sub title is “The journey of an unlikely chef” and I must say I now view him in a  very different light. Bon appetit!

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Marcel Pagnol - La gloire de mon pere; souvenirs d’enfance

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I bought a copy of this title in a French market, very dog-eared, and it cost 1 Euro! I had seen the films – this title, and the sequel “Le Chateau de ma Mere” – in Plymouth Arts Centre and had been enchanted by them. (We have the DVDs by the way, so if you’ve missed seeing these in the cinema, you can hire them from the library.)

The book itself is just so amusing in a gentle, rather old fashioned way. Set in Provence at the family’s holiday home, everything is seen through the eyes of Marcel as a small boy narrating the story.

He adores his father, Joseph, and looks up to him at all times. His Uncle Jules - who, with his Aunt and baby cousin, shares the holiday home - he finds conceited and arrogant.

The book reaches its climax with the opening day of the French hunting season, and the focus is on the family rivalry – much pride at stake – when the 2 men in the family, Joseph and Uncle Jules, set off at dawn to see who can bag the most game. Happily for Marcel, his father ends the day with honour.

I am pleased to report that the French version of this is now in stock, so if you would prefer to read it in the original language rather than in translation, you can now do so. It isn’t new but is well worth discovering.

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Susan Pfeffer - Life as we knew it

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This is a post-apocalyptic style drama, written from the perspective of a teenage girl writing in her diary as an asteroid collides with the moon forcing it closer to Earth which disrupts tides, volcanoes and ultimately changes the weather so drastically that crops fail, electricity and water supplies are cut off and the existence of the human race is threatened. The story was chilling, and unusual in the sense that this was not a man-made disaster that could have been avoided but simply nature taking course. I was drawn deeply into the characters lives and their fight for survival in a world that was no longer able to sustain them in a manner that most of us take.

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Meg Rosoff - What I was

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Of all the teen-adult crossover novels I have read this year What I Was captured my attention the most. Rosoff sets the scene of a boy with an unhappy family life and a broken education in numerous private schools away from home. The third private school St Oswold’s, Suffolk is just as bad, until our character (the book is written in the first person) meets Finn, a boy who lives alone in a hut by the sea. During the book the boy learns to love Finn’s way of life and grows emotionally attached to him, a loveable adventurer who saves his life on a number of occasions. When Finn becomes ill at the very end of the book there is a shocking twist that turns the story on its head.  

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Cipriani Potter: Symphony No 8 in G minor (Sheet music)

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'A thing of beauty is a joy forever'. Keats words apply equally to Potter's virtually unknown symphony from 1832 as they do to this magnificent Volume 77 in the long-running Musica Britannica series.

Potter (known as "Little Chip" to his family because of his height) was born in London in 1792 . He met Beethoven in Vienna in 1817. Returning to London in 1819 he gave the first English performances of many of Mozart's piano concertos and Beethoven's 1st, 2nd and 4th. He died in 1871 and was buried on the 79th annivesary of his birth.

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CDs

Celtic Christmas

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Although I normally avoid themed albums such as this, it has been compiled from mostly unknown or less well known Christmas music, much of it of distinct Irish and Scottish origins, with some Eastern European influences, and most of it acoustic. Some instrumental, some vocal, the backing is predominantly pipes, harps, bhodrains and whistles. Ethereal and haunting.

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Klaxons – Myths of the near future

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Klaxons second album could be compared to Bloc Party’s Weekend in the City, another great album and acts on the nu rave scene. Myths of the near future has a fast paced, young feel including the hits Golden Skans and their remix of the dance classic It’s not over yet. The Klaxons have successfully brought together the indie-rock sound and incorporated a dance beat. The album won the Mercury Music Prize for their effort, a worthy winner. The CD is an ideal soundtrack to drinks with friends, well worth a hire.

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Snow Patrol - Eyes open

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A mix of slow songs, including the brilliant Chasing Cars, and more upbeat tracks, such as You’re All I Have; Eyes Open is a very satisfying album that I enjoy more each time I hear it.

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Kanye West – Graduation

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The exceptional storyteller that is Kanye West has written his best album yet. The heartstopping Good Morning sets the scene for Kanye’s most exciting and uplifting tracks. Other favourites include the hits: Good Life and Stronger which have proved so popular in the charts. I Wonder, Can’t tell me nothing and Flashing Lights create charged atmosphere more than any other songwriter. The more relaxed tracks Everything I am and Homecoming will also be popular for chilled out cruising US style. The overall sound is upbeat, fresh and a little haunting. This is a must hire and surely a guaranteed award winner for 2008.

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DVDs

Casino Royale

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Casino Royale is the twenty-first film in the series featuring James Bond, the British agent who first appeared in Ian Fleming’s novel of the same name in 1953.

The film stars Daniel Craig for the first time as Bond, and Eva Green as Vesper Lynd, a treasury agent seconded to help Bond defeat La Chiffra, played by Mads Mikkelsen, who funds terrorist organisations around the world.

Casino Royale is the perfect antidote to Pierce Brosnan’s final Bond outing, Die Another Day, which was crammed with CGI effects and lame innuendo.  Craig plays Bond as a gritty, hard-nosed character; it is a stand-alone film; it features car chases, stunts, suspense, emotion, and has a great plot and terrific performances. The Bond theme creeps up for the first time towards the end of the film, and when it does, the effect is brilliant: with Casino Royale, Bond is back!

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Casino Royale

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From being a Bond "virgin" - I had never seen any of the other films - I was completely caught up in all the glamour and excitement. Daniel Craig was the hook, he is a great actor, and the perfect James Bond for the new millennium.

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Step up

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Channing Tatum stars in this movie about a talented break dancer from the wrong side of the tracks. Fostered by a spiteful foster father Tyler spends his time stealing cars, going to parties on the underground scene and getting into trouble, usually resulting in a conviction. One night after getting into a fight and running he and two friends break into an arts school and vandalise the stage and props. Tyler takes the wrap for his friends when they are caught by a security guard; he is punished with 200 hours community service to be completed at the school of performing arts. There he meets Nora (played by Jenna Dewan) a talented classical dancer and helps her to rehearse for the showcase on which her careers hinges. Will he be able to commit to the performance and a career in dance? - A fun movie with a star-studded soundtrack, amazing dance moves and some romance thrown in.  

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The Last Kisss

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Zach Braff and Rachel Bilson star in this growing up crisis movie from the director of Crash. As in Crash there is a dark atmosphere in the movie and a number of poignant moments. Braff stars as Micheal, 30 a man who is expecting his first child with love of his life and long term girlfriend Becca. Michael realises he has experienced his last first kiss with a woman. When Michael attends a friends wedding and meets Kim (played by Bilson) his doubts about committing for the rest of his life escalate into an affair which destroys his relationship with Becca. The challenge for Michael is to win Becca back, but will she forgive him? Has he underestimated the feelings of student Kim? The movie reflected well the pain caused by the affair, acted passionately by Jacinda Barrett as pregnant Becca. The fact that she has to decide whether to forgive him reflects a dilemma: is their relationship is strong enough to raise a family or another bitter relationship breakdown? This is a thought provoking story about grown up love.

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