NORMAL PEOPLE by Sally Rooney

If I read this novel at the age the two main characters are - late teens/very early twenties, I would have hated it, I wouldn't have understood it, I would have been bored, I would have found very little to relate to. (I was very naive at that time in my life). But now that I have read it at the other end of life - middle age and all that, with plenty of life experience behind me - I got a huge amount out of this, almost to the point that I may think it is wasted on the young.

It is about love - young love which has such an intensity to it, often overpowering in its need to be fulfilled, expressed and simply let out. Danny and Marianne are the young couple, growing up in a small town in Ireland, at school together, yet in completely different social circles. She comes from money, academically gifted, not a popular at school, does not fit in with any peer group. Danny is the opposite - no money, his solo mother is Marianne's family's housekeeper, in the top sports teams and groups, and also academically very gifted. These two find each other, they are soul mates, kindred spirits, but too young and immature to fully realise it, emotional damage ensuing.

They end up at Trinity College in Dublin together - he on a scholarship, she because she can. Their paths cross, separate, recross during their time as students at college and back in their home town during holidays. All you want is for them to get their acts together, get those emotional hurdles out of the way, and be a couple - they are so obviously perfect for each other, but just can't seem to do it. Their paths diverge, Marianne not going through a good time, and Danny for a short time having a really good time. But then they meet up again - will it last?

This was frustrating, I can tell you, as an older person looking in on a young love! But all so incredibly normal - is this the secret behind the title? This novel brings back memories of intense teenage/young adult love/lust/stupid decisions and actions/treating lovers badly/indifferently, navigating one's way through the 'relationship stuff'. Exhausting really, and poor old Danny and Marianne seem to be in a constant state of exhaustion, which leaves you feeling drained, sad and actually very glad that you are no longer at that stage in life.

I am surprised how much I did like this book though, and put it down to the amazingness of the writing. Like so many Irish writers, the author captures emotion, angst, the heartfulness and torment of love, growing up. You feel you are there, that it could be you. There is so much to admire in how she writes about the smallness of the teenage life, how it expands, changes, and grows when moving away to a more stimulating and larger place, not just physically but intellectually too. The story, the plot line could be any book, but it is the writing that elevates this above the standard teenage love story.

THE BAREFOOT SURGEON by Ali Gripper

This is incredible. Not only is this the story of a truly extraordinary and amazing human being, but it is also an extremely well told and outstanding biography. Two huge reasons to read it; be humbled, be excited, enthralled, and grateful that the almost unbelievable story can be told so graciously and so well.

Sanduk Ruit was born in the mid 1950s, into a poor and humble farming community in the mountains of Nepal. Life expectancy was not long, child mortality high, blindness everywhere. And yet from this deprivation, he becomes a world famous healer of the blind, adapting and improving surgery procedures and techniques to pioneer a new and innovative way of cataract surgery, bringing sight back to hundreds of thousands of people. He teams up with Australian ophthalmoloigst Fred Hollows, also a pioneer in the field of cataract surgery and together they take on the rigid and conservative Western medical system to revolutionise the way cataract surgery is done. A real David and Goliath story. Never once does Ruit lose his sense of where he comes from, despite all the fame, accolades, the rich and famous wanting to be associated with him. He continues to perform hundreds of operations a day, in bare feet, in the most impossible environments, with the minimum of facilities and sanitation. His motivation? Seeing what the miracle of sight does to a person, deprived of it for so many years. The rebirth of a life.

The writer has spent a lot of time with Ruit his family, his team of doctors and nurses. She tells his story in his words, his vision, his perseverance and determination. His compassion and love for his fellow man comes shining through, as does his humour, and humbleness. The writer clearly adores her subject, what he represents and how in this deeply troubled world we live in, there are still some very very good people. Outstanding.

THE CUT OUT GIRL by Bart van Es

A memoir of sorts, as well as a biography, this is a gentle and elegantly told story of a young Dutch Jewish girl, Lientje, who was smuggled out of The Hague as the Nazis were taking over Holland, into the care of non-Jewish families in the Dutch countryside. It is also the story of the author, who is the grandson of one of the families Lientje lived with as a little girl. He had grown up knowing that his family had been part of the resistance against the Nazis, and the terrible danger they constantly lived in harbouring a Jewish child. He also knows that something happened some time after the war ended that estranged Lientje from his family.  So he sets out on a quest to find out what happened, Lientje's story is, his own family's story, and in turn  it also becomes a journey of self-discovery and healing for himself.

Part of the story is how Bart tracks down the now very elderly Lientje, her reluctance to open up and tell the story, his quiet and gentle encouragement, getting to know her, gaining her trust.  There is an urgency to it all - she is old after all, he wants to get the story while Lientje is still healthy and well.

We know war is a terrible thing. People do things, make decisions, behave in ways they just would not have to consider in normal every day predictable living. Lientje's parents saw the writing on the wall very quickly, and made the agonising decision to give their only child up to the unknown - the care of others, knowing they would never see her again. He writes so beautifully of this agony, the loneliness of a little girl, doing as she is told, without fully understanding why. being taken by strangers, delivered to strangers, settling in, opening her own heart, being moved on, living in fear.

And then what happened once it was all over. Where does a young girl go whose parents and entire family have all been obliterated?

I loved this book, a sad story, but also full of courage and hope, and above all the rebirth of a relationship and deep bond between two families formed and nurtured during such a trying and difficult time. 

THE ICE PRINCESS by Camilla Lackberg

Translated from the Swedish, this is the first murder mystery in a series featuring writer Erica Falck and detective Patrik Hedstrom. Being the first novel, the author does a lot of scene setting with Erica returning to the small town she was brought up in to sort out her parents' estate following their recent deaths in a car accident.  She is a journalist,  in her mid-30s, tired, stressed, single again, and is both happy and relieved to be back in her old home, enjoying the peace and quiet of her old neighbourhood. Until her best friend from childhood, the beautiful, successful, happily married Alex is found dead in her bathtub, apparently by her own hand.

Being a journalist she  naturally has a very enquiring mind, and fairly quickly she sees that things don't quite stack up in the death by suicide scenario. She and Alex were only children when they were best friends, with Alex and her family suddenly disappearing when the girls were about 10 years old. This little mystery and a few other odd things about Alex and her life do not sit well with Erica. The local detective Patrik also remembers Alex from childhood, and when he and Erica team up, the layers of silence and terrible secrets are gradually revealed.

I kind of guessed what was going on, but the time lines always remained a little hazy, so the big reveal when it did come was still a shock. Which of course is exactly what you want in a good thriller/murder mystery. Plenty of clues and red herrings tossed around, but not enough to give too many Aha moments. I really liked this novel - with a well developed plot line, it just manages to nicely walk the line between 'dynamic crime-solving duo' and the delicate art of slowly peeling the layers behind the lives of those entwined with those who are killed - yes, there is another death! I would happily read the next in the series. 

NEVER GO BACK by Lee Child (#18 Jack Reacher Series)

I am a Jack Reacher novice - this is only the second one I have read, sort of foisted upon me at a holiday accommodation place where guests can swap a read book for an unread one. This was the only one that appealed, so I began. The reviews from other readers seem to be a bit rubbish, but I liked it! Perfect reading fodder for long haul flights, sitting in a terminal, lounging by a pool, recovering from a gastric episode in your hotel room. No brain required to read and digest, plenty of action, odd characters, possibly ridiculous and unrealistic plot happenings, but rollicking good fun. A book that filled a purpose most perfectly. And apparently this story is the bones of the second Jack Reacher movie. Wow - with 17 others to choose from, I wonder what was special about this one! 

QUEST by AJ Ponder

It has been a few years now since I felt the indulgent pleasure of reading bedtime stories to my children, having a nightly excuse to become a child again myself, immersed in a world different from that of GrownUp. Escapism, fairy tales, fantasy, magic, a sort of parallel reality to adulting, where all things are seen from a different perspective.

So when I chose this little gem to review, I was secretly wanting to be taken back to the days of magic, the mischief that magicians and sorcerers would get up to, princesses and princes, dragons, silly story lines. And this sure delivered. Reminiscent of The Princess Bride, no introduction needed and which I haven't read as it so happens, but have seen the movie of course.

In this action packed story Princess Sylvalla does not want to be a princess. She wants to be a hero, to slay dragons, to wield a sword, to break out. And one day she does - she escapes the castle, setting in motion a 'princess hunt' which attracts all sorts of dodgy characters, opportunists, wizards, con men, runaways. It is actually hilarious. Some of them even join Sylvalla in her posse to hunt dragons - Jonathon the con man chasing his stolen treasure; his 150 year old father who is also a wizard; Dirk the world's most deadly swordsman; and Francis, the horse groomer who sees a chance to escape his lowly existence.

The story line is pretty crazy, and the characters are all over the place, but the writing is magnificent. This book is made for reading aloud, it fair rollicks along, a huge vocabulary with marvellous character drawings, funny dialogue and conversations. The best parts though, to encourage fully engaged adult interaction with child, are the footnotes the author has made which are really for adult eyes only. Funny, wicked and sometimes a bit naughty. There is no happy living after in this story either! No handsome prince, no evil witch. So the traditional fairy tale is turned on its head, and I hope to see more of Syvalla's adventures, because she is well set up to take on more baddies.

THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW by A.J. Finn

Who is the woman in the window? Is it Dr Anna Fox, child psychologist, house bound, pill popping, bottle swigging, movie watching tragic figure? Or is it one of her many neighbours she 'observes' (if one is being kind), or 'spies on' (if one is not being kind)? Between viewings, she binge watches old movies, most notably Hitchcock, Stewart, Bogart, Bacall and Bergman, Rear Window being the one most closely linked to Anna and her story.

One evening she has her own Rear Window/Girl on the Train moment, watching the neighbours, seeing something bad that really she shouldn't have seen. Well, she thinks she sees something bad happen, but has enormous trouble convincing the police and the few people she lets into her world that a catastrophic event has occurred.

As readers, I don't think we are ever really in doubt that Anna is 100% sane, not delusional or hysterical. Yes, she has some major mental health problems due to I guess what we would label as a post traumatic stress disorder. But she is so level headed and rational in her daily life within the small physical boundaries she operates/lives in, that we really do know that what she saw is true. We are constantly rooting for her - Go Anna, Go. You can do this. The real world however, is not so rational or so kind, neat and tidy. Anna has a very complicated challenge on her hands, not only in finding the truth, but also fighting her own huge demons so as to convince everyone else that truth and that she is not completely nuts.

Not only is the plot amazing, with so many twists, deviations, and the possibly unreliable narrator presence, but the writing, the creation of the tension, the slow but steady build up of the tension,  as well as the psychology of what is going on in Anna's brain, is outstanding. I knew this was a good read from reviews and sales, but am only now appreciating what a great thriller this is.