Title: The Other Hand (released as Little Bee in the US)
Author: Chris Cleave
Publisher: Sceptre, 2008 (355 pages)
Grab: some tissues and a pencil to underline things as you go

I will admit to being annoyed by the ambiguous back cover blurb with this book (“We don’t want to tell you what happens in this book. It is a truly special story and we don’t want to spoil it”). The inclusion of a letter from the senior editor extolling the virtues of the story while similarly not giving anything away also frustrated me. After all, it’s unlikely that an editor would include a note saying “Well, this book is okay, I guess”, so her enthusiastic support is hardly surprising.

If I hadn’t received a review copy of The Other Hand I doubt that I would have ever bothered reading it, and that would have been a terrible shame. This book is now quite firmly in my top 10 books. I loved it so much, that I insisted Meredith read it IMMEDIATELY when I finished, despite the fact that she already had about 8 review books sitting on her review pile and we don’t tend to double up by reading the same books.

I loved this book and found it difficult to put down. There are some disturbing scenes and serious issues, particularly relating to refugees and attacks on the central character of Little Bee, but the book also has some lovely light-hearted family moments for the other central character Sarah and her son.

While the story isn’t without its flaws, in my opinion these are far outweighed by the fact that Chris Cleave has taken such important issues and communicated them in a way that is accessible and, at times, enjoyable. The writing is superb and I have numerous phrases and at times whole paragraphs that I have underlined because I thought they were so incredibly well-phrased.

I am keen to read Cleave’s first book, Incendiary. I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes to read books that encourage them to think. Don’t be put off by the air of secrecy and mystery.

Related Article:

• Susan’s review of The Other Hand at Suite101.com

I’ve just discovered the wonderful world of reading challenges and as they combine two of my favourite things, reading and lists, I have not been able to resist signing up for a ridiculous number of them.

I have tried to restrain myself… Well, actually, I haven’t exercised much restraint at all as the list below will show you. Fortunately I’m busy reading books all the time anyway as the Feature Writer for World Literatures at Suite101, so I should have some hope of completing at least one or two of the challenges.

We’ve created a separate link to keep track of them all. Meredith tells me that this is to keep things simple, but I’m inclined to think she is just trying to stop me from taking over the whole blog with my new reading challenge obsession.

No doubt I will find more challenges as the year progresses, but for now I am aiming to complete the following by the end of the year:

A – Z Challenge
1% Well Read Challenge
Colourful Reading Challenge
Triple 999 in 2009
What’s in a Name 2
100+ Reading Challenge

I have also decided that Meredith and I are going to take on the following perpetual challenge as a team:

Book Around the World Challenge

We may even come up with a challenge of our own sometime in the future, so watch this space!

I’ve just finished reading Meredith Costain’s A Year in Girl Hell #1: Crushed, the first in a four book series of novels for 10 – 14 year old girls.

The book is about three friends starting high school together dealing with the typical problems – finding themselves in different classes, making new friends, trying to work out if the cute guy has noticed them, trying to find a hole to crawl into because the cute guy noticed them when they were doing something really dorky, trying to be part of the popular crowd.

It was a fun read and I’m sure it will appeal to girls at the end of primary school or early high school.

It got me thinking about what books I was reading when I was that age. I seem to recall far too many Sweet Valley High books, some teen romances (Loveswept?), and the discovery of David Eddings and the Belgariad series, which I still love. The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams was balanced out by my first Shakespeare (The Comedy of Errors) and Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels.

Anyone else remember what they were reading when they were 11 – 12?

Last year, in what was obviously a rush-of-blood-to-the-head moment, Meredith and I decided to read our way through the 2008 Miles Franklin Literary Award longlist. (That’s Ms Franklin in the pic, in case you were wondering.) Our primary objective, I’m ashamed to say, was being able to take a superior (yet informed) attitude when we disdainfully disagreed with the shortlist selections and the eventual winner.

Unfortunately, we only managed to read through half of the books before the shortlist was announced and, you guessed it, we had chosen to read the ones that weren’t shortlisted. By this stage our enthusiasm had waned but we valiantly soldiered on and managed to read most of the shortlist finalists.

It’s that time of year again and the Miles Franklin Literary Award 2009 Longlist has been announced. As Murphy’s Law would predict, we haven’t read any of the ten novels selected, which are:

Addiction – Toni Jordan
A Fraction of the Whole – Steve Toltz
Breath – Tim Winton
fugitive blue – Claire Thomas
Ice – Louis Nowra
one foot wrong – Sofie Laguna
The Devil’s Eye – Ian Townsend
The Pages – Murray Bail
The Slap – Christos Tsiolkas
Wanting – Richard Flanagan

With the shortlist announcement only 5 weeks away on the 16th April, I think we might hold off until the list has been reduced to four titles. We then have until the 18th June to read the shortlisted books before the final announcement so that we can once again overestimate our ability to judge which author most deserves the $42,000 prize.

Want to avoid bingo wings and a jelly belly? Well, who wouldn’t answer a resounding “YES!” to that question?  For those not feeling paranoid enough about their appearance yet, I’ll mention droopy boobs, a shapeless butt, pudgy thighs and bra fat to get you really desperate for a body makeover solution.

So, have I turned everyone off going swimsuit shopping for a while? I thought so.

Health journalist Paula Goodyer recent release Fit and Firm For Ever (Ebury Press, 2009) promises tips on how to “stay toned, lean and vibrant through menopause and beyond.” A tantalising thought and one that Goodyer assures her readers is achievable.

The appeal of this book for me is that she isn’t advocating an excise and diet regime promising to make every woman look 18. I’ve been 18 and frankly, I didn’t have that much fun that year. I’m not all that keen to go back there. I am interested in being healthy and comfortable in my own not-quite-40-thank-you-very-much skin and this book seems to promote that kind of outlook.

I thought that this book was a great guide to building a basic level of fitness and muscle tone.

Of course the key factor in remaining fit is will power. Without it, no matter how good the exercise plan or diet, things are doomed for failure. However, if you have the desire to do something positive to get in shape and the willpower to see it through, Fit and Firm For Ever is quite a good guide for those women who don’t think life stops at 40 and who want to remain fit and vibrant enough to have the energy to enjoy life into their 50s, 60s and beyond.

I was intrigued by the title How to Talk about Books you Haven’t Read when it appeared in a recent new release catalogue. I was very tempted to request it for review, but thought that maybe the publishers would start to worry about the authenticity of reviews written by someone who was so keen to find out how to avoid reading books.

I found a copy at my local library last week and couldn’t resist borrowing it. Originally published in France in 2007 by Les Editions les Minuit with the title Comment parler des livres que l’on n’a pas lus?, it was released in English as How to Talk about Books you Haven’t Read in England and the US in 2008 by Granta books. If only I had known, I could have quite legitimately requested it for the European literature section at my World Literature topic at Suite101.

Nevermind, I now have a copy in my hot little hands, albeit temporarily, and I am quite fascinated with the playful logic of the author. I’m rather attracted to whimsical literary discussions (as opposed to intense literary analysis) and this book is likely to appeal to anyone who has ever doubted whether those who speak with such generic enthusiasm about a particular book have ever actually taken the time to read the novel in question.

Given my rather faulty memory, my favourite chapter is Books You Have Forgotten (in which, along with Montaigne, we raise the question of whether a book you have read and completely forgotten, and which you have even forgotten you have read, is still a book you have read).

A great book for fans of good literature and book discussions.

• The Doctor – still grieving for the loss of his wife/child, this gifted medical practitioner puts all of his emotional energy into healing his patients. Somehow he manages to maintain a buff physic despite his 16 hour working days.
• The Cowboy – practical, tough and sexy as all-get-out, this hardworking rancher doesn’t have time for anything except for his property and his horses. Funnily enough for a man who only seems to leave his property to visit the rodeo, feed store or local honky tonk, he can be amazingly suave when the right woman comes along (see Hugh Jackman in Baz Luhrman’s Australia for the Aussie equivalent, The Drover).
• The Billionaire Tycoon – From dirt poor beginnings, probably with one alcoholic parent and one absent parent either through death or desertion, this man has abandoned all emotion in his single-minded quest to accrue wealth and power. He is most inclined to fall in love with a) his plain-jane secretary who really stunningly beautiful and incredibly nice and has secretly loved him for years, b) a sassy woman who cares nothing for wealth or monetary success and is not impressed by him in any way or c) a random woman that he asks to marry him to fulfil some business ultimatum from a managing director or to avoid some money-hungry socialite trying to trick him into marriage.
• The Billionaire Heir – Unable to know whether women are more interested in him or his money, this hero is unable to trust. For possible romantic interests, see The Billionaire Tycoon.
• The Prince – Who knew there were so many dashingly handsome, charming, single royal males roaming the world? As with The Billionaire Heir, The Prince believes that all women are only interested in his wealth and status but will probably end up falling deeply in love with a woman he marries to fulfil his obligation to continue to royal line.
• The Hero – Perhaps a police or ambulance officer, fireman, detective, marine or SEAL, he is always tough as nails, totally independent and unwilling to form emotional attachments.