80 Books No.75: The Whole Day Through by Patrick Gale

In the few months since I've read this, I've sort of forgotten about it which can't be a good sign. This is therefore a very short post, mainly to state the fact I did read it. I remember it was about a thwarted couple who met up many years later and seemed to have some sort of affair, but it became a bit hazy to be honest. The premise was it was set on one day, although much of it was spent reflecting upon what had happened on previous days. However, at the end, I suspected that they were actually two different days as it didn't tie up properly. Either that, or I simply didn't understand it. A whole heap of time-shift here which made A Perfectly Good Man look easy to follow. Enjoyable and well-written but beyond that, I have no idea.

80 Books No.74: Annerton Pit by Peter Dickinson

I try to be really fair in these reviews, and rational, and reasonable, and generally quite erudite. I've managed to find good points in most of my reads this year, even if it's that they were over quickly and I could move onto something better. I try not to have knee-jerk reactions to things.

But this was stupid. It was so ridiculously stupid that it sort of insulted me and I only skim-read the last fifty pages or so because I was so bored stiff. It was the sort of stupid which made you wish the writer had let someone else do it, because somebody else might have made it less stupid.

It wasn't all stupid. The opening pages of this were clever. It took a while to realise the narrator was blind and it really showed what could be done with clever descriptions and building up an almost tangible sense of surroundings. Throughout, Dickinson did well with this and I felt like I was wherever the narrator took us, purely through the descriptions of the four senses open to him. Kudos for that.

But the plot. Oh God, the plot. It was so stupid, and I shan't apologise for repeating that word because anything more would be crediting it too much. The plot relied on so many coincidences and unlikely events to make it work. Dickinson needed help with this.

And the book covers (whichever edition you read - just Google them) are horrendous. They make the narrator look like something out of The Exorcist.

Plus the copy I read was really grubby which made me feel a bit ill.

80 Books No.73: Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D Taylor

Having finished this, I couldn't really understand why I'd never read this before. It's a popular GCSE text, it's got a title which rolls pretty neatly off the tongue and it's so similar to To Kill a Mockingbird that it would seem the natural next choice for anybody to recommend to you. I feel almost let down by my English teacher that this didn't happen before I was twenty-six.

No matter, it was a rare find when I came to it. I enjoyed almost every page and found so much truth and wisdom in the pages. Like Harper Lee's classic, it deals with black segregation in the 1930s, only this time from a black girl's perspective. It was beautifully sparingly written and made me wonder why more people don't rave about this when they rave about Atticus and co (though Atticus totally deserves raving about - he's the Man).

Perhaps the weirdest thing about Roll of Thunder is that it's part two of a trilogy. It seems really odd for people to have decided to stick a middle book on so many reading lists with next to no reference to the other two parts. It would be like whacking Catching Fire on the curriculum and ignoring The Hunger Games. I sort of want to see what part one is like but it seems to be about trees; I struggle to empathise with trees.

But a really good read nonetheless.

80 Books No.72: Arthur, High King of Britain by Michael Morpurgo

We've already established I don't really get Morpurgo, and I feel like I should because the kids love him so. I just can't find a book I connect with of his, even Private Peaceful, because I never really truly love his characters. This probably makes me the hardest hearted person ever, but there it is: I cry more at Boxer dying in Animal Farm than at any of the events in Private Peaceful.

Given this, it will come as no surprise that Arthur, High King of Britain didn't really grind my gears. I do like an Arthurian legend and I'm immensely gutted that Anna Elliott's Avalon trilogy has been completed on e-book only, as I not only don't own an e-reader, I have no intention of buying one. It seems I am doomed never to find out if Trystan and Isolde are ever going to get together (I mean, it's pretty blindingly obvious they will but whether they'll come to a sticky end is anyone's guess). This little book, I hoped, would fill the void a little and educate me somewhat in less romantic Arthurian myths.

In terms of conveying the legends, Morpurgo does well. It's essentially a little run-down of key tales from the Knights of the Round Table which means it was always going to be a little picaresque in style. He therefore does well to tie it together a little (even if he for some reason involves the Isles of Scilly again). What lets it down is that I don't actually rate his style of writing and that he introduces some frankly weird plots into the story. Okay, so he doesn't make up that Arthur sleeps with his half-sister and has a bastard, but does this really need putting in a kids' story? Acres of awkwardness if we had to teach this. In terms of reading for meaning and analysis, it's also completely void of any material. The planning needing to surround this novel would be ridiculous.

Basically, not a recommended read. I feel I could probably blag a few answers on University Challenge off of the back of it though.

80 Books No.72: Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer

Like You Don't Know Me, this is a book which has been staring me in the face in the book cupboard for a couple of years. Perhaps more so than Klass' novel as I've actually heard of this one before, though I've always assumed it's about a delinquent chicken (cause so many YA novels are about poultry). This clearly shows me off as a bit of dimwit.

Instead, Artemis Fowl is about a master criminal who is only in his teens, and his clash with the fairy world. In the light of this, it being about a delinquent chicken sounds marginally less far-fetched. I'm almost tempted to write a novel about a delinquent chicken now in order to justify this expectation.

I was pleasantly surprised by Artemis Fowl as at first I was a bit sniffy about it. I'm not sure why, beyond it feeling like one of those books which is written by somebody with a pseudonym which wind me up. In reality, it was quite witty and interesting, although the last few chapters didn't wholly hold my attention. It suffered a little from my knowing there were further books in the series and so key characters were highly unlikely to snuff it, but there was a creativity and inventiveness that kept it from being too stale. Definitely a good example of how to build a 'world' and stay within it.

Teaching this one in January. Why I've selected this year as the one to start teaching about five new novels, I have no idea. This fact further supports the viewpoint that I am in fact a dimwit.

80 Books No.71: You Don't Know Me by David Klass

Confession: I read this months ago. According to my log, I finished it on 23rd August. I've read twenty more books since this one and completely failed to blog about any of them. This is therefore a mammoth blogging session in which I shall attempt to make my blog look pretty and organised again, filling it with pithy witty reviews of books I can only a little bit remember in some cases.

Here goes nothing.

You Don't Know Me has been knocking around the book cupboard for ages. We have thirty five copies of this book in near pristine condition and nobody teaches it. I expected it to therefore be rubbish and to have to sigh heavily and re-juggle the curriculum.

People are crazy. This is so up my street it's unbelievable. American high school, angsty, dysfunctional families - this is basically my ideal kind of read. And I was going to ignore it?

In basic terms, this book is about a boy called John who believes his mother doesn't understand or know him at all. He lives his life basically feeling pretty invisible, apart from when the man who is not his father hits him. Gradually he finds out who his real friends are and that not all teachers are useless hopeless blind idiots - which I'd hope my students found as well.

Admittedly, the narrative style is a bit annoying at first as Klass tries a little too hard in my opinion. Once the story proper gets under way (as opposed to mere scene setting) it becomes a much more interesting book. This is why I've opted to teach it starting next week. That, and I cannot do The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas again.