1001 Books Round-Up December 2023

This months winners and losers as we head into another New Year. Where does the time go?

A Home at the End of the World by Michael Cunningham. BOTM#1 What GR Says: Michael Cunningham’s celebrated novel is the story of two boyhood friends: Jonathan, lonely, introspective, and unsure of himself; and Bobby, hip, dark, and inarticulate. In New York after college, Bobby moves in with Jonathan and his roommate, Clare, a veteran of the city’s erotic wars. Bobby and Clare fall in love, scuttling the plans of Jonathan, who is gay, to father Clare’s child. Then, when Clare and Bobby have a baby, the three move to a small house upstate to raise “their” child together and create a new kind of family. A Home at the End of the World masterfully depicts the charged, fragile relationships of urban life today. An interesting idea about family but will it work out?

My Thoughts: This is an interesting take on the love triangle and the traditional ideas of family. It explores friendship, love and loss as well as acceptance, moving on and the changes a child can bring to the best laid plans.

Based on the description I wasn’t really expecting to enjoy this but I was pleasantly surprised and spent a happy six days in the company of Jonathon, Bobby, Clare and occasionally Alice.

I listened to the audio version of this and really enjoyed the change in readers for each character section.

This is a book about character rather than a fast paced plot and part of the joy of reading this is watching the characters grow and change.

4 Stars – Bump this one up your list there are a lot worse 1001 books you could be wasting this time reading.

Moon Palace by Paul Auster – Other. What GR Says: ‘It was the summer that men first walked on the moon. I was very young back then, but did not believe there would ever be a future. I wanted to live dangerously, to push myself as far as I could go, and then see what happened when I got there.’

So begins the mesmerising narrative of Marco Stanley Fogg – orphan, child of the 1960s, a quester by nature. Moon Palace is his story – a novel that spans three generations, from the early years of this century to the first lunar landings, and moves from the canyons of Manhattan to the cruelly beautiful landscape of the American West. Filled with suspense, unlikely coincidences, wrenching tragedies and marvellous flights of lyricism and erudition, the novel carries the reader effortlessly along with Marco’s search – for love, for his unknown father, and for the key to the elusive riddle of his origins and his fate. Oh that cruel master fate…

My Thoughts: Another winner this month really enjoyed this story following the life of one fatherless man as he tries to make his own way in the world.

Fogg makes good friends and bad decisions as he life progresses however it seems fate my have more of a hand in what is going on than anyone would expect.

The joy of reading this book is the Eureka!! Moments when events and outcomes are revealed to the reader, some we may have already guessed and others that come completely out of the blue.

As the joy lays in discovering these for yourself my lips are now sealed and I recommend going into this with no more knowledge than I have given you above.

4 Stars definitely worth the read!

Amadis of Gaul by Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo. BOTM #2. What GR says: Not a lot really except that this is an important book and they hope I enjoy it.

My Thoughts: This is a Spanish example of a Medieval chivalric story featuring Knights and Ladies. Reading this reminded me of reading Le Morte D’Artur and like that book this also suffers from repetition. All that knighting needs to be read in small doses.

Needless to say Amadis is the best Knight who ever lived in terms of honour, faithfulness and love and his lady is likewise with the added benefit of being the most beautiful lady ever.

Those familiar with the genre will find little new here but it is interesting to see that the same sort of stories were obviously widespread across Europe and that chivalry is always appreciated.

3 Stars – long winded and repetitive but if you like Knights and Ladies go for it.

Have you read any of these? Let us know what you thought.