Brian's Place

The Book Corner

Here is a selection of some of my favourite books in various (overlapping) categories, with some indication of what the book is about and/or why I like it. The exceptionally fine ones (in my opinion) are marked with a gold cup.

In each section, books are listed in alphabetical order of author's last name. Hyperlinks will tell you more about the author and his or her works.

• Categories:
• Fiction for young people, enjoyed by all ages
• Sunny side up
• Mind stretchers
• Sci-Fi / Fantasy
• Detective
• War stories
• Holiday reading

See also the links to the right!

Fiction for young people, enjoyed by all ages

I find that some of the best fiction around falls into this category!

Pratchett, Terry: The Wee Free Men, A Hat Full Of Sky, Wintersmith.

These are possibly my favourite of all Terry Pratchett's books, following the story of Tiffany Aching, trainee witch, and the Wee Free Men, a hilarious bunch of tiny Caledonian hooligans. The stories are very funny, they are very wise, and best of all they have the witches. I suspect that (as with Samuel Vimes of the Night Watch in some of his other Discworld novels) his principal witches carry much of his own personal philosophy.

I hope that this isn't a trilogy; another book in this series would be very welcome!

Pullman, Philip: The Ruby In The Smoke, The Shadow In The North, The Tiger In The Well, The Tin Princess.

A set of cracking good stories set in Victorian times. They follow the adventures of a group of linked characters, among them Sally Lockhart. Sally (played by Billie Piper in the BBC's superb production of the first book, with two more to come) is an independent spirit in a time when girls were expected to know their place in society. Many copies must have been read in an all-night torch-under-the-bedclothes session when the reader was supposed to be asleep!

These books may be aimed at older children, but they pull no punches. The third book, in particular, reveals the deprivations of Victorian London in all their horror, but don't be put off by that. The fourth book doesn't feature Sally very much, and I didn't enjoy it as much as the first three on first reading - but I have revised that opinion having just read them all again!

Pullman, Philip: Northern Lights (a.k.a. The Golden Compass), The Subtle Knife, The Amber Spyglass.

These books form the "His Dark Materials" Trilogy. Apart from being a gripping story involving parallel universes (one of which is ours, containing our Oxford, another containing an alternative Oxford), the trilogy introduces several serious, deep themes, including the conflict between human sexual love and some forms of religion.

Sunny side up

Durrell, Gerald: My Family And Other Animals

This is an unsentimental account of a magical childhood spent on the Greek island of Corfu, with a delightfully eccentric family and an equally eccentric circle of friends and acquaintances. It was during this time that Gerald Durrell developed his love of animals into an occupation that was to last all his life, often to the horror (or at least resignation) of the rest of his family.

This book became part of my own family's life. My sister and I could recite major parts of it to each other from memory: Margo's ghastly Turkish boyfriend (who "had all the sleek, smug self-possession of a cat in season")... Gerald's brother Leslie moaning in anguish as he cleans the mud off the barrel of his beloved shotgun, attached to the other end of which is his pompous older brother Larry, fuming vitriolically as he sinks further into the glutinous mud of a drainage ditch... Spiro, the ferociously scowling Greek taxi driver who becomes their guardian angel... the episode with Larry and the scorpions in the match-box... the magical night by the sea, a picnic accompanied by fire-flies, sea phosphorescence and dolphins... It is one of those books that you wish that you could read again for the first time.

Of all Gerald Durrell's many other books, my favourite is probably The Bafut Beagles, a joyous account of an animal-collecting trip in the British Cameroons, with some wonderfully entertaining characters amongst both animal and human populations.

Shute, Nevil: Trustee From The Toolroom

This tells the story of Keith Stewart, a simple man living in post-war England who writes for "The Miniature Mechanic", a magazine for engineering model makers. His naval brother-in-law entrusts Keith with his daughter while he and his wife sail to Canada, taking with them (illegally at that time) their assets in the form of diamonds, which Keith has helped him to hide in a metal box, embedded in the concrete of the keel.

When the boat is wrecked in the Tuamotus, killing both parents, Keith realizes that he must recover the diamonds that are his niece's legacy. With very little money of his own he sets out on his long journey the hard way.

During each stage of his journey he is helped by friends in England and America that he never knew he had, friends made through the help and encouragement he has provided through his magazine articles and the many letters he has written to people in need of assistance. One of these turns out to be a lumber magnate living in Tacoma, Washington... and Keith's life will never be quite the same again.

This is a quietly written, heart-warming story of a simple man having to do extraordinary things. Of all of Nevil Shute's many excellent books (of which the most famous is probably A Town Like Alice), this is my favourite.

Smith, Alexander McCall: The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (Series)

These delightful books (eight of them, as of April 2007) tell the story of Precious Ramotswe, a "traditionally built" Botswana woman, and her mission to solve the problems of her local community.

The author clearly loves the country and the people that he writes about. Running throughout these sunny stories is a (very lightly delivered) message about what is really important (and not important) in life.

Mind stretchers

Hofstadter, Douglas R.: Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid. A Metaphorical Fugue On Minds and Machines in the Spirit of Lewis Carroll.

This is one of the most amazing books that I have come across. It is truly a mind stretcher, more of a hard mental workout than a normal read (but a very entertaining workout). Weaving together ideas from musical forms, formal mathematics and Escher's graphic art, it includes (if you stick with it) an unexpected deep insight into the role that RNA and DNA play in the processes of life.

The 1986 edition that I have fades away a little right at the end, maybe because it looks forward to things that are only just starting to happen.

Sci-Fi / Fantasy

Asimov, Isaac: The Original Foundation Trilogy: Foundation, Foundation And Empire, Second Foundation

These stories were first published in book form in the early 1950s, and there are two amazing things about them:

1. How little they have dated (unlike E.E. "Doc" Smith's Lensman Series, which is still enormous fun to read but has dated horribly), and
2. How short they are (roughly 180 pages each), considering how much appears to happen in each book. Asimov somehow makes the reader's imagination supply the background that other authors would describe in explicit detail - which is perhaps another reason why the books haven't dated.

These hugely entertaining stories are galactic in scale (written before such things became commonplace), but focus more on the battles of wits between people rather than on the space hardware, which is one reason why the stories haven't dated.

When the stories begin, the scientist Hari Seldon has developed a new branch of mathematics that can predict the behaviour of billions of people (but not the behaviour of individuals), and realizes that the Galaxy is doomed to many thousand years of stagnation and anarchy. In an effort to shorten this period to as little as a thousand years, he establishes the Foundation, apparently to preserve vital knowledge through what is to come. His actual plot is much more subtle.

As with many Asimov books, there is a mystery to be solved, which unfolds through the three volumes in a highly satisfying way.

The later books in this series (obviously written using a word processor and padded to meet the demands of a market-driven publisher) are much longer in word count, but contain no more actual story content than the originals did. I don't like them anywhere near as much as the originals.

I also like Asimov's earlier Robot stories (so much so that I can't bring myself to see the recent film). Of all his many other SF novels, my favourite is probably The Gods Themselves (the title being taken from the quotation: "Against stupidity, the gods themselves contend in vain."). I have no idea whether a latter-day publisher provided the inspiration for this title...

Brin, David: The Uplift Books: Sundiver, Startide Rising, The Uplift War, Brightness Reef, Infinity's Shore, Heaven's Reach

I have read a lot of science fiction in my time, and these are among the very best. Apart from being riveting adventure stories on a huge scale, they combine many of the author's interests, including geology, ecology, literature, Japanese culture and poetry, and the evolution of intelligence in (among others) dolphins and chimpanzees. You certainly don't have to be a science fiction fan to appreciate these books.

Sundiver is perhaps not as good as the others - you won't miss too much if you skip it and start with the second book in the series. The last 3 books form one continuous story (which really begins in Startide Rising, although that can be read on its own), don't start them unless you have access to all 3!

Le Guin, Ursula K.: The Stories of Earthsea: A Wizard Of Earthsea, The Tombs Of Atuan, The Farthest Shore, Tehanu, The Other Wind

The Earthsea books listed above are the ones that I have read - apparently the list is still growing!

Ursula Le Guin is often compared with J.R.R. Tolkien, but she is coming from a different place, and provides another original platform upon which other writers of fantasy fiction have (gratefully, I suspect) built their own creations. Christopher Paolini in Eragon has clearly borrowed from both Le Guin and Tolkien, for example, while adding his own original content. I don't think that Tolkien would have minded this cross-fertilization in the slightest; he meant to create a coherent mythology for England where (as he saw it) none previously existed - of course, he was drawing on other sources of mythology (Norse, Teutonic and Celtic) in doing this.

Ursula Le Guin's worlds are often bleak and wintry, and people learn their lessons the hard way. Her concept of Magic is serious stuff, and her philosophy of life has an Eastern flavour to it.

She has the gift of totally immersing you in a story, so that finishing it is almost like waking up from a dream. I felt that particularly when finishing another of her books (a very wintry one), The Left Hand of Darkness (one of the books of the Ekumen).

A visit to her web site is recommended!

Niven, Larry and Pournelle, Jerry: The Mote In God's Eye

Of all the good works by these two authors, separately and together, this is my favourite. It tells a very realistic story of a first encounter with aliens, with a deep and sympathetic exploration of the conflicts of interest that emerge, both amongst and between the human and alien species. The story also builds up considerable suspense, leading to a climax that leaves doubt about the future, and yet is strangely satisfying.

If you're tempted to read the sequel (which isn't bad), I would recommend that you leave well alone in this case.

Detective

I have read and enjoyed most of the excellent detective novels by Elizabeth George and P.D. James. Generally, however, these are in the "read only once" category as far as I am concerned.

The following is a description of the books that I have read several times, and still occasionally re-read, in spite of knowing the outcome of each plot.

Collins, Wilkie: The Moonstone

This is one of the longest, oldest and greatest detective stories in the English language. The story is told by the different characters involved in it, which gives the narrative great variety and depth. While the story has tragic elements, it also has some hilariously funny episodes (involving his wonderful creations of Gabriel Betteridge and Miss Clack).

Peters, Ellis: Brother Cadfael (Series)

I greatly enjoy all of these well-known stories of the Benedictine detective. Follow the hyperlink for a wealth of information about Ellis Peters and her many works.

I have only read one of her George Felse mysteries (set in modern times), A Nice Derangement Of Epitaphs. I now plan to read the others!

Sayers, Dorothy L.: The Nine Tailors

This is my favourite of all her Peter Wimsey novels. The images of the bleak Fenland in winter and the brooding presence of the church bells (the "tailors" are the teller-strokes for the dead) add a wonderful atmosphere to a fine detective story (which is also a very fine novel in its own right).

Sayers, Dorothy L.: Strong Poison, Have His Carcase, Gaudy Night, Busman's Honeymoon

Of her other books, the ones that I return to most often are the Peter Wimsey novels that feature Harriet Vane (the first three of which were played so superbly by Harriet Walter with Edward Petherbridge in the BBC TV series).

It has been said that through Harriet Vane, Dorothy Sayers was conducting a love affair with Peter Wimsey, her own creation. Whether or not this is true, it is quite easy to believe when reading these books.

War stories

Francis, Clare: Night Sky

Set against the background of the French resistance during the Second World War, this book is (in my opinion) one of the finest and most gripping thrillers ever written. The author has the soul of a true adventurer, as is obvious from her background, and it really shows in this book.

I haven't read all of her other works, but none of the ones that I have read, good as they are, quite match this one.

You can hear a radio interview with Clare Francis here. For links to radio interviews with other authors, see the top of the right hand panel.

Monsarrat, Nicholas: The Cruel Sea

This is a very fine novel of the convoys in the Battle of the Atlantic, and the men who sailed in tiny corvettes to protect the convoys, written by a man who was there. Understated and powerful, it describes the enormous demands placed on ordinary men, and how those men rose (or failed to rise) to the fearful challenges that faced them.

I have always grouped it my mind with C.S. Forester's book The Ship, which tells the story of a single critical engagement in the war in the Mediterranean, from the viewpoint of each of many individual men of all stations serving on a destroyer. On a much smaller canvas than "The Cruel Sea", it paints an equally understated and impressive picture of what really goes on behind the official despatches.