Apache: Girl Warrior by Tanya Landman

I borrowed this from the school library on the recommendation of the librarian. To be honest, I didn't really fancy it too much, and as I was reading it, the "tell" rather than "show" writing sometimes niggled me a bit. However, it was a very haunting and insightful tale of the life of the Apaches in North America, facing conflict from the Mexicans and then the white settlers. Some of the twists could be seen from over the hill, unlike a good Apache warrior, but all in all this was an enjoyable if sad story.

Mukiwa: A White Boy in Africa by Peter Godwin

Peter Godwin grew up in Zimbabwe (well, Rhodesia) and was in the police during the 1974-79 civil war. Very interesting to finish reading this book on the day that Zimbabwe "voted" again; I hadn't known much about how Mugabe came to 'be', so I know feel somewhat more informed. A well written and informative memoir. Very moving in places. And shocking, when he almost shoots a youth in anger, but in cold blood. And there are moments when it seems as if he has met a guardian angel. How did he manage to survive?

I look forward to reading the follow up, When a Crocodile Eats the Sun.

A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah

I have been meaning to read this for some time. Was glad to find it in the school library. Ishmael enjoyed rapping, and he had gone to rap and dance with some friends on the day that the rebels reached his village. So he had to run, and he ran, with friends, then by himself, then with other boys he met on his journey, until he finally reached a village where he could stop for a while and feel safer. A village protected by the army.

At first, I felt relieved that he was with the army, and had not been captured and 'brainwashed' by the rebels. But then I realised that the army was going to be just as bad; it doesn't matter what side you are on if you are being filled with hate for the others and taught how to use the serrated side of your bayonet to cut someone's throat to inflict the most pain as they die. Beah recounts a few incidents from the time that he had to fight with the army in order to not be caught be the rebels, and to kill those who had invaded his village and dispersed and destroyed his family.

However, although these passages are amongst the most graphic, they make way for the story of Beah's rehabilitation. He is sold by the army to some aid workers who are trying to rescue child soldiers. It is not an easy journey, but the final third of the book describes the path from soldier to international speaker on child soldiers and rehabilitation.

The book was not an easy one to read. Reading at night, I was glad to finish a chapter and put it away knowing that Beah was not yet a soldier, and that I had not had to read about the atrocities he had committed. I read about some of his acts on the tube, where my faced curled up and my feet folded under each other at some of the painfulness of the actions described. It was not necessarily 'unputdownable' because of the writing, although the writing was good, but I did feel that it was a book I had a 'duty' to read. However, in the end, it was a book that I was glad I had read, and it is a good book for someone to read to know about the horrors of the child soldiers - in fact, of anyone called to be a soldier in such a civil war, full of atrocities. And with Refugee Week upon us, the book should be read so that we can understand why some people leave a country and are scared to go back.

The Raphael Affair by Iain Pears

Another fun and gripping art based Jonathan Argyll mystery! A quick, light and entertaining read - I managed to get the first in the series this time round! Even though I know how some of the characters end up, the enjoyment wasn't diminished. I liked the twist as well ... didn't see it coming.

Boy by Roald Dahl

I really enjoyed this autobiographical novella by Dahl. Some funny incidents involving mice and sweets and schools ... No wonder he came up with the stories he wrote! Highly recommended.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid

Another Man Booker nominee, and another great read. A very interesting book, made more so in that it is one side of a long conversation over a meal between the narrator, Changez, and the American he has joined for dinner. We only hear Changez speak, and much of the tale is his story of going to university in America and working in America before, and just after, 9/11. However, there are interludes, where Changez orders food or replies to the unheard question of the stranger.

It is a melancholy story, a bit bizarre in places, and sad ... and with an ending full of possibilities ... which leaves you wondering.

I have to confess that I have never really read many Booker Award shortlisted books before ... but this year, there has been an excellent selection!

• Darkmans by Nicola Barker (Fourth Estate)
• The Gathering by Anne Enright (Jonathan Cape)
• The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid (Hamish Hamilton)
• Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones (John Murray)
• On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan (Jonathan Cape)
• Animal’s People by Indra Sinha (Simon & Schuster)

So far I have read the four in red ... I have been keen to read Animal's People for some time, and if the standard of the ones I have read is anything to go by, I need to read Darkmans as well!

The Medici Secret by Michael White

Another ancient secret, crime thriller. I bought it on purpose to have something light and easy to read, that might entertain and partly educate at the same time, although educate is perhaps not exactly the right word to describe the effect of these ancient conspiracy books! But it was fun to lie in bed this morning and read about the Medici family and an ancient mystery while trying to solve puzzles along with some non detective or police heroes. It fitted the bill well.

Fallen Gods by Quintin Jardine

I'm not entirely sure where to start with this one! It was lent to me by a colleague. I'm not sure if that was because he realised I would be familiar with some of the places described in the book, which covers Edinburgh, Buffalo, Perth, Pitlochry and Gullane Bay. Certainly was interesting! The only thing was that, like my last read, this book also seems to come in the middle of a long Bob Skinner series! Another whodunnit, every chapter covers a different part of a multifaceted story that ties together (a little bit implausibly!) at the end. It's great to be on holiday - after having read the opening chapters on the tube in the past couple of days, I woke up reasonably early today and stayed in bed until I finished the book at lunchtime! Another easy read, enjoyable, fun, not too taxing. Would read another - perhaps an earlier one! I do think I now know a little bit too much for the earlier ones though!

The Immaculate Deception by Iain Pears

When we visited the National Gallery, I decided to pick up a book. On artworld crime and mystery. A bit like The Da Vinci Code. So I opened a couple of books by the author Iain Pears, discovered this particular title at the top of the list, assumed it must be the first one in the Jonathan Argyll series, so bought it. As I read, I quickly realised it was not the first, so looked it up on the web ... it was the most recent one! So now I have met characters from earlier books that will make some of the mysteries a lot less mysterious! Never mind, I enjoyed this as a lighthearted good tube read, and do plan on reading the earlier ones - hopefully in the right order this time!

An interesting side note ... having finished the book, I overheard one of the key paintings being talked about on a DVD from the National Gallery - Claude's "Cephalus and Procris". Interestingly, the link I have just given leads to a picture at the National Gallery where this couple are reunited by Diana ... however, it refers to another picture where Claude depicts the death of Procris, which apparently is now missing, and it is this painting that is referred to in the book (and I thought they might have handed it back!).

Carnegie Award Winners

I have read many children's books in my time, but I wonder how many have been award winners? Here is the list of Carnegie Award Winners from the last 70 years ... the ones I have read are highlighted.

2007 Meg Rosoff, Just in Case, Penguin
2005 Mal Peet, Tamar, Walker Books
2004 Frank Cottrell Boyce, Millions, Macmillan
2003 Jennifer Donnelly, A Gathering Light, Bloomsbury Children's Books
2002 Sharon Creech, Ruby Holler, Bloomsbury Children's Books
2001 Terry Pratchett, The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents, Doubleday
2000 Beverley Naidoo, The Other Side of Truth, Puffin
1999 Aidan Chambers, Postcards From No Man's Land, Bodley Head
1998 David Almond, Skellig, Hodder Children's Books
1997 Tim Bowler, River Boy, OUP
1996 Melvin Burgess, Junk, Andersen Press
1995 Philip Pullman, His Dark Materials: Book 1 Northern Lights, Scholastic
1994 Theresa Breslin, Whispers in the Graveyard, Methuen
1993 Robert Swindells, Stone Cold, H Hamilton
1992 Anne Fine, Flour Babies, H Hamilton
1991 Berlie Doherty, Dear Nobody, H Hamilton
1990 Gillian Cross, Wolf, OUP
1989 Anne Fine, Goggle-eyes, H Hamilton
1988 Geraldine McCaughrean, A Pack of Lies, OUP
1987 Susan Price, The Ghost Drum, Faber
1986 Berlie Doherty, Granny was a Buffer Girl, Methuen
1985 Kevin Crossley-Holland, Storm, Heinemann
1984 Margaret Mahy, The Changeover, Dent
1983 Jan Mark, Handles, Kestrel
1982 Margaret Mahy, The Haunting, Dent
1981 Robert Westall, The Scarecrows, Chatto & Windus
1980 Peter Dickinson, City of Gold, Gollancz
1979 Peter Dickinson, Tulku, Gollancz
1978 David Rees, The Exeter Blitz, H Hamilton
1977 Gene Kemp, The Turbulent Term of Tyke Tiler, Faber
1976 Jan Mark, Thunder and Lightnings, Kestrel
1975 Robert Westall, The Machine Gunners, Macmillan
1974 Mollie Hunter, The Stronghold, H Hamilton
1973 Penelope Lively, The Ghost of Thomas Kempe, Heinemann
1972 Richard Adams, Watership Down, Rex Collings
1971 Ivan Southall, Josh, Angus & Robertson
1970 Leon Garfield & Edward Blishen, The God Beneath the Sea, Longman
1969 Kathleen Peyton, The Edge of the Cloud, OUP
1968 Rosemary Harris, The Moon in the Cloud, Faber
1967 Alan Garner, The Owl Service, Collins
1966 Prize withheld as no book considered suitable
1965 Philip Turner, The Grange at High Force, OUP
1964 Sheena Porter, Nordy Bank, OUP
1963 Hester Burton, Time of Trial, OUP
1962 Pauline Clarke, The Twelve and the Genii, Faber
1961 Lucy M Boston, A Stranger at Green Knowe, Faber
1960 Dr I W Cornwall, The Making of Man, Phoenix House
1959 Rosemary Sutcliff, The Lantern Bearers, OUP
1958 Philipa Pearce, Tom's Midnight Garden, OUP
1957 William Mayne, A Grass Rope, OUP
1956 C S Lewis, The Last Battle, Bodley Head
1955 Eleanor Farjeon, The Little Bookroom, OUP
1954 Ronald Welch (Felton Ronald Oliver), Knight Crusader, OUP
1953 Edward Osmond, A Valley Grows Up
1952 Mary Norton, The Borrowers, Dent
1951 Cynthia Harnett, The Woolpack, Methuen
1950 Elfrida Vipont Foulds, The Lark on the Wing, OUP
1949 Agnes Allen, The Story of Your Home, Faber
1948 Richard Armstrong, Sea Change, Dent
1947 Walter De La Mare, Collected Stories for Children
1946 Elizabeth Goudge, The Little White Horse, University of London Press
1945 Prize withheld as no book considered suitable
1944 Eric Linklater, The Wind on the Moon, Macmillan
1943 Prize withheld as no book considered suitable
1942 'BB' (D J Watkins-Pitchford), The Little Grey Men, Eyre & Spottiswoode
1941 Mary Treadgold, We Couldn't Leave Dinah, Cape
1940 Kitty Barne, Visitors from London, Dent
1939 Eleanor Doorly, Radium Woman, Heinemann
1938 Noel Streatfeild, The Circus is Coming, Dent
1937 Eve Garnett, The Family from One End Street, Muller
1936 Arthur Ransome, Pigeon Post, Cape

The books I read in 2007 ...

I don't want to lose the list, but since it's on my other blog, I thought I'd copy it over here too. Also, I wondered how many I had read ...

(This is in reverse order ...)

28* From Ganglands to Promised Land - John Pridmore
27* Chicken with Plums - Marjane Sarpati
26* Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? - Philip K. Dick
25* A Spot of Bother - Mark Haddon
24* The Memory Keeper's Daughter - Kim Edwards
23* Disgrace - JM Coetzee
22* The Outsider - Albert Camus
21* A Burnt-Out Case - Graham Greene
20* The Amber Spyglass - Philip Pullman
19* The Subtle Knife - Philip Pullman
18* Northern Lights - Philip Pullman
17* Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - JK Rowling
16* Don't Tell Mummy - Toni Maguire
15* Knocked out by my nunga-nungas - Louise Rennison
14* The Boy Who Lost His Face - Louis Sacher
13* Checkmate - Malorie Blackman
12* Just in Case - Meg Rosoff
11* Dangerous Reality - Malorie Blackman
10* Wild Swans - Jung Chang
9* Nights at the Circus - Angela Carter
8* Fear of Flying - Erica Jong
7* After the Quake - Haruki Murakami
6* The Breast - Philip Roth
5* Silk - Alessandro Baricco
4* A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian - Marina Lewycka
3* Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
2* Like the Flowing River - Paulo Coelho
1* Cry, the Beloved Country - Alan Paton

So, 28 books. Plus those academic books that I read for my Masters (Pass with Merit!) and other courses that I completed throughout the year. Which is not too bad, I suppose - about one a fortnight. And some real gems among them. I'm glad I decided to use "1001 Books to Read Before You Die" as an inspiration. Although some were better than others! Anyway, I wonder if I can beat that this year. Must read at least 30!

Misadventure in the Middle East by Henry Hemming

Henry Hemming is an artist who decided to travel around the Middle East with a friend, Al Braithwaite, and a car called Yasmine, not long after 9/11. They wanted to make art about the Middle East ... and soon discovered that there was not just one "Middle East" that could be summed up in the work. The book is a discovery of the vastly different people and places that Henry, Al, and, intermittently, Stephen and Georgie, made while passing through and exploring Turkey, Iran, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria, Iraq and Iran, to name a few. It charts their adventures and misadventures. Being mistaken for terrorists, tramps, spies, and sometimes recognised as artists, meeting princesses, poor, soldiers, students, Hemming describes each step of the way as he and his friends find out more about Islam in the Middle East, and the artists who live and work there. Since the Second Iraq War started while they were out there, the book also contains some interesting political and cultural observations as well. Eye opening and informative.