At the beginning of this month for various (non-book-related) reasons, I wanted to read something light, enjoyable and relaxing, and I found just that in Erica James‘ latest book The Dandelion Years.  A quick and easy read, this is a good story with characters I could identify with and of course a happy ending.  Just what I needed.  And any of Erica James’ 18 other books would have done the same job for me.

All month I’ve been dipping into a fascinating little book called One Hundred Great Books in Haiku by David Bader.  For anyone unfamiliar with the term haiku, it describes a very short poetic form, originally Japanese, which traditionally uses no more than 17 syllables, divided into 3 lines in a 5,7,5 format.  This particular book as its title suggests, uses the haiku form to express the titles of a hundred famous books.  My personal favourite  is the following which describes Brave New World by Aldous Huxley:

Euphoric drugs, sex,

cloning, the past forgotten.

So what else is new?

My bet is that once you’ve read the book you’ll want to try writing haiku yourself!

I have my family well trained and they know that a well-chosen book is always at the top of any present list of mine. The haul on my birthday this month didn’t disappoint.  The first thing I picked from the pile was an old and battered copy of Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea.  I hadn’t read this before and I was intrigued by a quote on the back cover saying that this might just be the best short story ever written.  Maybe – maybe not.  I don’t feel qualified to judge.  But it is superb. And I’m sure that this seemingly simple tale of an old man’s battle of wills against a huge fish, and at the same time against old age and loss of dignity, will stay in my mind for a long time.

I’ve also been reading a couple of very recently published books this month and recommend both for different reasons.  One Man’s Everest by Kenton Cool is a fascinating account of the author’s life as a climber, his motivations and obsessions and his many climbing successes.  Not just a book for people interested in climbing, and well worth reading.  My Stratford Friend by Dominick Reyntiens is also fascinating; the story is told from the point of view of Tom, a lifelong friend of William Shakespeare and is a good combination of fact and fiction as well as being a compelling read.  Fuller reviews of both books can be found elsewhere on Frost.

I thought I was ending the month back where I began, with something light and relaxing.  But a few chapters into Us by David Nicholls I decided this was a book with hidden depths. It is funny and it is entertaining, and it will make a good film, I’m sure.  But it also has serious points to make about relationships (husband/wife and parent/child) and in particular the big question of how you go back to being just a couple once your children have left home and being a parent is no longer the definitive role in your life.