Books of the Week

Today's recommendations are linked to this week's celebration of LGBT+ History.  

A Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh by John Lahr
Recommended by Mr Harris

I don’t read much non-fiction (life is too short), and I confess to not having read all of this, but that which I have read is excellent. An enthralling, if not punishingly lengthy, biography of the great Tennessee Williams. I’d recommend downloading this as an ebook; the hard copy has caused irredeemable damage to my spine having been lugged around in my backpack. 

Books of the Year

The book blog's final post of the term is our regular 'books of the year' round-up, featuring books from all genres and for all age ranges, suggested by staff and students. Happy reading!

Clockwork Angel - The Infernal Devices 1 by Cassandra Clare
Recommended by Joaquin Birts

 

I recommend this book because it spans across genres - action to romance to thriller and so on. It follows the life of a sixteen year-old New York City girl who is forced to move to London in the late 19th century because of her brother’s disappearance. She then finds out about a whole new world in which her brother had been exploring.

Book of the Week

In The Distance by Hernan Diaz

Recommended by Mr Pirrie

Now that the excitement of the Booker has died down, and my copy of Shuggie Bain is sitting on a gargantuan pile of others for Christmas reading, I though it might be worthwhile to venture across the pond to America’s pre-eminent award for letters: The Pulitzer. Its roots since 1917 are in journalism and drama, but over the last hundred years it has expanded into a wide range of categories including poetry, criticism, non-fiction and biography to name a few. 

When a friend recommended In The Distance by Hernan Diaz (a finalist for the 2018 Fiction prize) as worthy of belonging to the great tradition of frontier literature my curiosity was piqued; when the novel arrived and a review on the back stated 'It’s as if Herman Melville had navigated the American west, instead of the ocean', I was smitten.

Book of the Week

Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson
Recommended by Thomas Hallé

 Winterson’s critically acclaimed novel can be rightly classified as a classic and a cornerstone of English literature; the continuously topical themes discussed in Oranges, ones of parental power dynamics and our own character development as we age and begin to define ourselves not solely as an extension of our parents, as well as the turbulent relationship between homosexuality and religion relevant in modern society, are wonderfully packaged in a largely accessible and thought provoking manner, in what is a blend of fiction and Winterson’s personal experience. 

Tell me the truth about ...

Today's post features some non-fiction picks from 4B.

Surely You're Joking, Mr Feynman by Richard Feynman
Recommended by Kirin Bhatnaga

'It explains quantum physics and the complicated biography of a Nobel-prize-winning scientist in a very simple and often funny way.'

Strange Places, Questionable People by John Simpson
Recommended by Max Clapham

'John Simpson’s long career in journalism makes his autobiography an exciting read. What I like is that you don't have to read it from front to back - you can dip in and out and still enjoy it.'

Literary Pick'n'Mix

Today's post is a lucky dip of recommendations from 6B. There’s something for everyone: non-fiction, murder mysteries, young adult fiction, stories to read to younger siblings or revisit, and general fiction.

Book(s) of the Week – Fiction and Non-Fiction

Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve 

Recommended by Raphael Hibou

'It was a dark, blustery afternoon in spring, and the city of London was chasing a small mining town across the dried-out bed of the old North Sea.'

This is how Philip Reeve commences Mortal Engines, a steampunk, post-apocalyptic series about motorised, ‘traction’ cities preying on smaller ones in a chaotic future. Following a ravaging sixty-minute war, the world was geologically upheaved and people had to adapt in what was known as ‘the great downsizing’. Then, tractionism was invented and the scarcely-resourced world rapidly became an enormous hunting ground where cities vied for power in a predator-prey relationship known as Municipal Darwinism, chasing smaller cities and closing their huge hydraulic ‘jaws’ on them: melting them for fuel or salvaging them for parts in this chilling food chain. Humans are either resettled in the predator city or, in other towns, enslaved!

How To Grow Your Own Poem

Some of you may have seen in the news or on Twitter the increasing prominence of the inspirational teacher and poetry guru Kate Clanchy.  Her students have been especially active during lockdown, publishing moving and inspiring works about life during the pandemic.  Follow her on Twitter and you will get a daily offering of one of her students' poems, some of whom have gone on to win national awards.

Check out her Twitter feed here: https://twitter.com/KateClanchy1

She has published a number of books, but her most recent, How to Grow Your Own Poem promises to be both inspirational and to offer you a chance to develop your creative skills at the same time.  The poems in the book are designed to help provoke a rich response in you, the reader, and there are exercises to help you write something of your own.  Why not try it out over the coming weeks?  Please do share your creative efforts with your teachers and remember that the school's creative magazines Areo and Pandaemonium (run by Mr Gardner) are always looking for submissions.

If you're someone who prefers criticism to creativity, perhaps check out Stephen Fry's useful and accessible book, The Ode Less Travelled as an alternative.  You'll learn a lot about literary techniques as well as learning about different ways of constructing your own verse.

Leavers' Post ...

Our final post of the term is our leavers' post: sadly, we're saying goodbye to lots of people - but Mr Edwards, Mr Jacoby, Mrs Mitchell, Mr Williams and Mr Kerr very kindly took a break from packing up their virtual classrooms to answer all or some of the book blog's questions.

What were you reading when you were a teenager?

Mr Edwards: Harry Potter was a staple - I was nine when the first came out so we were roughly the same age. In early teens I read all the Willard Price books; I confess my mid teens were a bit of desert partly as my school decided in some millennial wisdom to sell all their books and replace with six desktop computers; in later teens I went through a Raymond Chandler phase.

Mr Jacoby: I remember having a very serious list of books to have read before starting secondary school, from the Odyssey to Rebecca. However I wasn't really a fan of classical literature and must admit I spent my teenage years reading Tolkien!

Mr Williams: Orwell, Buchan, Dylan Thomas, PG Wodehouse, Graham Greene? As a teenager I was an avid reader, voracious and a frequent user of the public library, but apart from some wonderful A Level set texts (Hamlet, Under Milk Wood, The Power and the Glory, Tonio Kröger, Andorra, Les Mains Sales and others which sparked an interest in ‘serious’ reading) memorable reading really started in my gap year and through university.

The final scene from Mr Williams's production of Hamlet, with Will Attenborough in the title role

Mr Kerr: I always loved reading. I got hooked on Stephen King novels. I remember having an argument with my English teacher as he said he wasn't a proper writer! I picked up his On Writing last summer- highly recommend these inspirational words for all future Pauline authors.

Half Term Reading from 4C ...

4EN.C tell us about the books they are currently reading.

‘Twas the Nightshift before Christmas by Adam Kay

Recommended by Pradeep Ellepola

The book I am reading at the moment is a book by Adam Kay called 'Twas the Nightshift before Christmas. Like Adam Kay’s previous novel, this book is a series of witty yet poignant, diary entries from the time when he was working as a junior doctor: however, here all the diary entries are from around Christmas time. 

In both his books, he contrasts his sarcastic, amusing tone with the gruelling jobs he had to do as a junior doctor, and in this particular novel he cleverly contrasts his painful work-life with the festive atmosphere of Christmas. I chose this book because I read and thoroughly enjoyed his first book, This is Going to Hurt. I would recommend it to other students if they are comfortable with a few gory stories (as you can imagine, they get extremely graphic).

Book of the Week

Miguel Street by V.S. Naipaul
Recommended by Darshy Pandey

Miguel Street is a masterfully arranged portfolio of characters and occurrences experienced through the eyes of an unnamed young boy in World War 2 Trinidad. At first, the seventeen chapters appear to be isolated sketches based on individuals - however each one ties in and overlaps with the others, adding to the flavour of life on Miguel Street. Naipaul’s development of character is exceptional and the level of detail in which all the eccentricities and mannerisms are explored makes this book truly immersive for the reader. The novel takes us on a unique journey in which we can experience first-hand what life in Miguel Street was like through its each and every characteristic.

Naipaul’s novel recounts the simplicity and limitations of life in a small, working-class neighbourhood Port of Spain, Trinidad. Although the story is not chronological, we reach a climax of the narrator’s departure from the street he has been confined to for so long. It is difficult to categorise Miguel Street as it is unique in so many ways: firstly, it lacks a main plot, however this does not in any way detract from the incredible atmosphere Naipaul is able to engage the reader in. Secondly, the novel is presented in a comedic manner, not laugh-out-loud comedy, but a light-heartedness that is often used to mask the severity of tragic or dramatic occurrences. 

A Dance to the Music of Time

Recommended by Mr Toller 

During the lockdown I have read Anthony Powell’s 12-novel sequence A Dance to the Music of Time. 

The narrator Nicholas Jenkins tells the story of his circle over a fifty-year period, starting at boarding school in 1921. Even during his army years in the Second World War (intensely vivid even though he does not see combat), his own personality is secondary to those of his acquaintances, friends and lovers who recur in different combinations throughout the sequence. 

Fist of Five: Islands ...

Today's post was triggered by the National Theatre's excellent adaptation of Treasure Island, which has recently been available for streaming, as well as a post on the language of keeping a distance (including 'isolation' and 'quarantine') on the Merriam Webster blog. As John Donne observed, no man is an island. Although a famous New Yorker cartoon disagrees -

- plenty of fictional characters inhabit islands, and here are five of the most interesting.

Book of the Week

The Catcher in the Rye by J D Salinger
Conor Sinnott

J. D. Salinger’s 1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye had sat in the periphery of my awareness for about two years and I had heard a smattering of details along the way: a sardonic adolescent plays hooky and kills time hanging around Manhattan.

I figured that I already knew so many teenagers who thought their wit was acerbic enough to land them an editor’s position at Private Eye that reading this novel that’s usually taught to fourteen year olds in the US would be a touch jejune. However, with my eighteenth birthday fast approaching, and the disarming reality of adulthood on its heels, I thought I might as well read it, if only for some puerile entertainment.

Further suggestions for lockdown reading ...

This time they come from the 6th form and the U8th, with (as usual) a pithy, three-word recommendation attached.

All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy: 'portal to adventure'

The Trial by Franz Kafka: 'dystopian, confusing, Kafka-esque'

This is not my hat ...

Today's post is the book blog's first EVER video post - even lockdown has a silver lining.  Many thanks to Dr Gaydon, who has generously shared with us his review of Jon Klassens's brilliant, award-winning picture book This Is Not My Hat. You can find it via the link here. 

If you're intrigued by Dr Gaydon's analysis, and you'd like to take a look at the story yourself but you don't have a copy of the book to hand, you can find a version of it read aloud on Youtube here.  And if you'd like to read another post that celebrates the subtle philosophical undertones of writing for children, take a look at former member of the English Dept Bernard O'Keeffe's deconstruction of David McKee's Not Now, Bernard, which you can find here.  Thanks once again to Dr Gaydon for pioneering the video book blog post - the first, but hopefully not the last!

Book Recommendations from the 5th Form

In today's post, we have some more lockdown reading suggestions, this week from the 5th form, each with three words to recommend each of them:

A Song of Ice and Fire by George R R Martin: 'great story-line', according to one Pauline; 'expansive, inventive, character-driven' according to another. They're both right.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon: 'emotional, curious, weird'

Just keep reading ...

Although libraries are closed at the moment, there are still plenty of ways to find new books. The website of your local public library will show you how to borrow ebooks - usually via the Libby app

or the Cloud Library app.  They're both free, although you need your library card number to log in and borrow books. You can also use the Libby app to join in the Big Library Read, a global book club which makes one book book per month free to readers. This month's choice is comedian Michael McCreary's Funny, You Don't Look Autistic: a Comedian's Guide to Life on the Spectrum:

Stay up to date with the Kayton Library's Virtual Library and their Instagram page here: the Virtual Library has an ever-expanding collection of resources, including links to a wide range of digital collections and cultural hubs. If you'd like to suggest anything that could be added, please just e-mail the librarians at librarian@stpaulsschool.org.uk. 

Meanwhile, here are some reading suggestions from the fourth form, who were asked which books they'd recommend for reading during lockdown, with three words to sum them up: 

La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman: 'exciting, well-written, enjoyable'

Black History Month

As this year's Black History Month begins - with events at SPS including a reading group discussion of Reni Eddo-Lodge's Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race, as well as a display of books in the library and from the SPS archive - here at the book blog, we thought we'd put together some reading suggestions, including fiction and non-fiction, aimed at all ages: some are new works, and others are classics, and some are particularly linked to this year's theme of 'Black Britain'. If you'd like to suggest a book we should add to the list, please feel free to use the comments box at the end of the post. 

Passing for White by Tanya Landman 

1848 – America’s Deep South. Slave girl Rosa is pale-skinned enough to ‘pass for white’, yet escape seems an impossible dream until she meets Benjamin. Together, they hatch a desperate plan. If Rosa poses as a white gentleman, Benjamin can travel as her slave... But can Rosa hold her nerve on their thousand-mile flight to freedom? Inspired by a true story, this is a powerful tale of danger, injustice and unimaginable courage.

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

Gripping and powerful young adult novel about the point blank shooting by police of an African American teenager, told through the eyes of 16 year old Starr, who is the only witness to her friend's murder. Black Lives Matter.  

Dear Martin by Nic Stone

Raw and compelling young adult novel about contemporary race relations in the US. Justyce McAllister is top of his class and bound for uni, but none of that matters to the police who arrest him. He looks to the teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for answers. But do they hold up anymore?

Book of the Week

The Mandibles by Lionel Shriver
Recommended by Fintan Delaney

The Mandibles is about a family living in the United States in 2029 when suddenly, during a debt crisis, the country's economy collapses - a collapse which leads to the rise of a supra-national currency: gold.  America is relegated from a global superpower to a failing state, and civilisation all but breaks down.

The book follows four generations of an American family, and the author explores what financial ruin looks like to those who have the most to lose from it. I found this an extremely interesting and dark novel about family relationship bonds when all seems to be falling apart around you, as well as the stress of stepping into the unknown and picking up the pieces of a broken society.  I really liked this dystopian fiction for the way it portrays a unique view of what happens to the median of society, and how people react as the world collapses around them.  The novel talks about people being stripped of their normality, and how they cope when their 'bubble like world' is taken away.

I also like the fact that the novel talks about the socio-economic changes that a society can suddenly go through, especially as this seems a plausible and almost a realistic event that could happen in the near future.  I would recommend this novel to all people who like dystopian fiction, and simply enjoy a unique story, as it is a gripping read that explores a semi-realistic 'what if' of the near future.