Kate's Reading Challenge 2011: Book Seven

7. "Just my Type" by Simon Garfield (Profile Books, 2010)

Not just for font geeks or graphic designers, my second non-fiction read of the year "Just my Type" reveals the fascinating stories behind typefaces. Written with a healthy dose of sarcasm, Garfield describes how type has evolved over time, how our best-known fonts came into being and the role of typefaces in branding and advertising before naming and shaming the world's ugliest fonts.

My favourite aspect of the book is all of the quirky little stories featured, I particularly enjoyed the tale of a hoax, run by The Guardian, which imagined an entire island composed of towns, rivers, beaches, etcetera which shared their names with popular typefaces. After this feature was run in the newspaper, travel agents were apparently inundated with requests to fly to Bodoni airport!

"Just my Type" is witty, interesting and really insightful, and what's more it may have just helped me conquer my fear of non-fiction.

Lucinda's Reading Challenge: Now for the Science Bit...

Obviously, ANYTHING on the
Mr B's science shelf is going to
be a good read, but I have to
say Michael Brooks' 13 Things
That Don't Make Sense is a
bit of a find. In addition to
(paraphrasing Donald
Rumsfeld) some 'known
unkowns': What's really
out there in our universe?
and What is the elusive
difference between kiving and dead matter? Michael Brooks also covers some intriguing 'unknown unknowns': Does cold fusion exist? Do we have free will? and intriguingly, Homeopathy - does it have any scientific grounding? The chapters are cunningly linked together, so one big question flows seamlessly into the next and occasionally some of the concepts you've just read about are carried over too. This means that you get the chance to apply your new knowledge as you make your way through the book - which allows you the luxury of feeling a teensy bit clever! Mr Brooks is pretty adept at explaining some fairly advanced physics, biology and chemistry to a science novice like myself, but to stop there would make this sound like a useful, but dry, little textbook. What I really loved were the back stories describing how scientists have pursued answers to these questions throughout the centuries. Brooks provides insight into both the personalities and politics involved, describing successes and failures with equal verve and all topped off with a dollop of humour. The human aspect weighs up nicely against all those theorems and hypotheses. I now have a passing interest in the progress of scientific investigations I didn't even know existed! With Brian Cox et al bringing science back into the media spotlight, before long we'll all be talking about string theory and genomes - arm yourself with this little volume, however, and you'll be able to tell your quarks from your eukaryotes with confidence.

Sport next and I've chosen 'Just Sea and Sky' by Ben Pester. This is a decidedly low tech affair: Ben and crewman Peter sail from Plymouth to New Zealand in the 1950s minus any mod cons like electric lights or radios or GPS. I am expecting some hiccups!

Marvellous Monday Book Group: 14th March

The weather on

Monday evening
was disappointingly

benign. No rain
lashed against the

(single glazed)

window panes

of Mr B's,the wind

was absent and the
temperature almost
balmy. We were
gathered to discuss
Charlie Connelly's Attention All Shipping - a travelogue charting the mystical, poetic and remote place names of the Radio 4 institution that is The Shipping Forecast. The book is divided into segments, almost as though Charlie was having to complete his odyssey on his odd weekends off - however - everyone agreed that this meant the book could be dipped into and out of very easily and that the bite size anecdotes were perfect for reading aloud. We felt that we probably learnt more about Charlie himself than the places that he visited (and the fantastical back story of his great grandfather's relationship with the sea is really not to be missed), but as he was such a witty and amiable guide, it didn't seem to matter. There were some genuinely curious historical facts and stories thrown up by his travels, but perhaps the most absorbing bits were the people and communities that he encountered, from the hardy Norwegians on the tiny, North Sea Utsira island to the canoodling mecca that is Plymouth Hoe. It was noted that the journalistic style was occasionally a little too... well, 'blustery' - but overall this is an engaging, informative and funny read. And has it lampooned our romantic ideas of the shipping forecast locations? Not a bit!

Next up, on Monday 18th April is George Rodenbach's Bruges La Morte, first published in 1892 and what looks like a deeply atmospheric study of loss set against the backdrop of a beautiful, decaying city. AND...to sweeten the mood, we are promised genuine Belgian chocolates whilst we discuss! Perfect. Copies are now available from the shop. [Lucinda]

Kate's Reading Challenge 2011: Books Five and Six

5. "The Howling Miller" by Arto Paasilinna (Canongate, 2007)

“The Howling Miller” is a book that I’ve recommended to many people (based on Nic’s rave reviews) but one which has actually been sat on my “to read” shelf for an embarrassingly long time. So I finally decided to check out what all the fuss was about and I must say I wasn’t disappointed.

Gunnar is a troubled miller, who moves to a small village where he beautifully renovates a dilapidated mill and entertains with his excellent (if slightly bizarre) animal impressions. But at night the miller’s raucous howling proves too distressing for the villagers who diagnose him as a madman and banish him from their precious oasis. What follows is a witch hunt as Gunnar battles with his desire for his mill and the drop dead gorgeous horticulture expert and his longing for a hassle-free life.

I loved the other-worldly, almost fairy-tale feel to this novel; it’s unexpectedly charming and genuinely moving. I can now recommend it myself with absolute confidence that it's just as brilliant as Mr B promised!

6. "Ms Hempel Chronicles" by Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum (Atlantic, 2011)

With a tagline from Curtis Sittenfeld (author of two of my favourite books “American Wife” and “Prep”) I was pretty excited about this novel following a teacher in her mid-twenties.

Ms. Hempel’s experiences imparting her wisdom upon a class of keen but rebellious teens leads her to reflect on her own coming-of-age story. The narrative flips back and forth between strange and specific recollections of Beatrice’s child self and scenes from the classroom of the grown-up woman.

As a young teacher herself, Ms Hempel’s relationship with her pupils is wonderful combination of endearing and awkward, the girls rarely hesitate to confide in her, and the boys simply adore her. Ms Hempel’s own feelings about her class are slightly muddier and are only confused by her age and occupation, which leave her stranded between the indulgent lack of responsibility enjoyed by the children that she teaches and the adulthood that she knows is beckoning.

I loved the variety of classroom characters depicted, particularly bad boy Jonathan, whom Ms Hempel has a real soft spot for (a rebel without a cause can be so irresistible)! I also think that the teacher herself is a very realistically drawn and interesting character.

However, I found the flippant style of storytelling slightly disorientating, and whilst generally I don’t mind a narrative that jumps around a bit (I loved the abstract style of “The Rehearsal” by Eleanor Catton) in this case I’m not sure that it entirely worked. The main issue for me was that throughout the novel the dynamic was fairly consistent and nicely understated and the violent texture of the plot created a jarring effect, which I don’t really feel complimented the story.

All in all, I wouldn’t say that this book quite lived up to my high expectations but it did have a strong charm aspect, which made me feel very nostalgic for my schooldays…