You are here by David Mitchell Review

I’m yet to find a David Mitchell I have not enjoyed, so no surprise I enjoyed this one. One day still by far holds the number one spot in my heart ❤️.

I enjoyed You are here because:

– Definately related to the characters as they are at a similar stage in life to me having gone through a pandemic whilst single in late 30s and therefore not being sure of their futures. Then they are put together on the coast to coast walk!

– Lot’s of familiar to me Wainwright illustrations.

– It is about walking the English coast to coast and starts in the Lake District so as a walker those features interest me.

– It has some grit, some humour and is about characters being physically and emotionally challenged.

So if you like One Day then yes try this one. I will likely reread at some stage!

If you have not read it start it and stop 🛑 reading this because spoiler ahead!

So if you have read it what do you think?

So the spoiler ….

The ending ….

Well I did not expect to turn the page to find just an illustration! I felt kind of disappointed as was enjoying reading and then there was no more. Plus it felt like a non ending.

But they say a picture says a thousand words so in this case guess those words are ones for the reader to imagine. Presumably the illustration means that they completed the coast to coast. Became a couple / remained friends or used it as a character building exercise then moved on? Not sure as since read it not given the book much thought. I enjoyed whilst reading but it has only made a minor impact … on the first read.

CAWPILE for my favourite book One Day by David Nicholas

I’m still trying to get to grip with star ratings for book / CAWPILE system as I think to score properly you need some kind of scale. So I’m thinking top of scale would be a book absolutely love, so in my case that would be One Day. It is a book I have reread (and cried both times at a certain point!), listened to the audio, have multiple copies of it with different covers and have even in blog posts attempted to write sequelae to it as want more of it! So it must be worth a 10 right?

CAWPILE is an acronym 7 categories. Each category is rated out of 10 then the total is divided by 7. As below I think I can justify each category getting a 10 and therefore overall score of 10!

C – characters. They are flawed and relatable. Their characters develop and fluctuate realistically over the chapters that look at that one day over a series of years.

A – atmosphere. The book has many settings; Edinburgh, London, Greece and France and I think they all seem authentic so justify 10.

W – writing style. Yes love it.

P – plot. The plot definately makes sense. As each chapter is the one day, a year apart it is well paced.

I – intrigue. Definitely wanted to follow their lives and see what next chapter holds.

L – logic. The actions and decisions made by the characters may not have always been the wisest but they made sense for these flawed characters.

E – enjoyment. Of course it is a 10 as I love it.

CAWPILE Review of all my family has killed someone by Benjamin Stephenson

Testing the CAWPILE system on a book read for a book club.

About Cawpile

It is hard to rate this book, because the style of the book. The premises is that is written by a character in the book who writes books about how to write mutrder mysteries. It is kind of a parody of murder mysteries. At times it is difficult to know whether it is really clever or contrived.

Characters

On one hand don’t feel fully understood motives of characters. But as book narrated by one character makes sense that he did not know what other characters were thinking. Even bearing in mind that reason why characters may not seem fully developed; I still do not think it accounts for the Mother’s actions and to be this also makes the plot problematic see below.

The narrater told story as he was writting a book, I think the writting style showed he was a flawed writer which makes sense as he wrote books about how to write books rather than writing his own books therefore would not expect his writting to be perfect.

Score: 6

Atmosphere

The atmosphere of a classic murder mystery was definately portrayed. Characters trapped in a snowy place.

Score: 8

Writing style

I did not fully enjoy way book wrote. It was very chatty which I found irritating and this is not how you would write a good book. However there was a note from the editor to tell writer needed to streamline so, kind of clever that writer portrayed self as imperfect writer.

Score: 5

Plot

It is a typical murder mystery with lots of twists and turns but with a subversion of the genre due to way written, so clever to some extent or maybe contrived?

As mentioned actions of Mother presents a big plot hole to me that does not make sense. not wanting to introduce spoilers but she and others live with knowledge for years and that brings up questions of both how and why. I may after book club do a second discussion post including spoilers.

Score 6

Intrigue

Definately there is intrigue as want to find out how each person has killed.

Score: 7

Enjoyment

Score 7

Total 39 divide by 7 = 5.5 rounds up to a 6.

Top 5 Tuesday books with Neurodiverse characters

Well we are all neurodiverse are we not? So any books could be on this list? But going for books that I most people would recognise the characters as neurodiverse.; do you agree?

1. Rosie project series by Gramme Simsion

2. Boy made with clothes by Keith Stewart

3. The girl with dragon tattoo etc series

4. The curious incident of a dog in a night by Mark Haddon

5. House Rules by Jodie Piccoult.

Trying CAWPILE for Stay by Me

Recently read Stay by Me. for a book club and when we were discussing someone raised question of marks out of 5. The rest of us argued against rating that way and we compromised on marks out of 10. So reluctantly, pushed into giving a score on the spot, I said roughly 6 or 7. Now having decided to give CAWPILE a go will see if works out the same.

More about CAWPILE

C – characters

Not sure fully understood any characters.

I felt sympathy for the main female. The main male more complex as to whether was meant to be a likeable character so think that shows depth of character as not black or white.

So think I’m more than 50/50 on this one so going 6.

A – atmosphere.

The book was set in Nigeria. But at the beginning in my mind I was thinking of it as India so it that me being dense or the book not creating the appropriate atmosphere?

The book was also Set in 80s against background of political unrest in Nigeria but did not feel immersed in that and gained no understanding of that.

So atmosphere did not come across strongly so going for 4 on this one.

W – writing style.

Bit confusing in places as not clear who’s point of view chapters were from.

Scoring this 5.

P – plot.

Plot made sense but not convinced about pace as felt slow in places and slightly rushed in others; so going 5 again.

I – intrigue.

The prologue gave glimpse of the future so was intriguing how would unfold. So give it 6.

L – logic.

The book, mostly made sense overall. But big part of how fertility issues not realised sooner jars and questions the actions of characters (trying to avoid spoilers there!).

Logic scoring 6.

E – enjoyment.

Think would go 6.

OVERALL ASSESSMENT

TOTAL of 7 categories = 33

Divide 7

= 4.7

Even rounding up to 5 that is lower than original as this system made me mire critical.

CAWPILE for deciding rating of books

I’m always reluctant to give star ratings or marks out of 10 for things like books or days out when they are multiple factors. Especially when some factors are subjective like how you were feeling at the time rather than the thing itself. Also I do not like distilling a thing down to one number without having evidence about how that number arrived at to back it up (I’m a scientist)

5 reasons I do not star rate

However, I have been told about the CAWPILE system for rating books which breaks down scoring into categories which seems a little more scientific to me. So I will try the system out.

CAWPILE is an acronym of the categories (see below for more details) . Each carergory is rated out of 10 then the total is divided by 7. One catergory is enjoyment which is a subjective catergory but depending how extreme the enjoyment score it could be evened out by the dividing of the total of the scores.

C – characters. For example Were they well developed/ identifiable / likeable if depicted as such.

A – atmosphere. Did the book feel like where it was meant to set

W – writing style.

P – plot. Including whether the plot of the book make sense and was well paced / built to a climax.

I – intrigue. As in did the book hold interest, in other words how hard was it to put the book down or pick it back up?

L – logic. Did the book make sense? Did the actions or decisions made by the characters make sense? Did the developments in the story make sense within the world the story was set in?

E – enjoyment.

Top 5 Tuesday: Books with punctuation marks Scavanger

One of my challenges on my recent book Cllub challenge was a title with a punctuation mark in. From my casual observations most book titles, do not have punctuation in them. From what I saw looking for challenge book’s in charity shops the most common punctuation in titles was an apostrophe ( ‘).

1. For my challenge I found one with hashtags and hyphens (Confessions of a 40-something f##ck up Punctuation book club challenge

Looking back at books read last year; I found the following:

2. With an ampersand: Ivy & Abe by Elizabeth Enfield. Loved this one.

3. With the common apostrophe: The midwife’s secret by Emily G.

4. With a question mark: Are you awake? By Claire McGowen.

5. With a hyphen: The No-Show by Beth O Leary.

A Sheffield set play in London: Standing on Skye Edge

I set off from Sheffield station near Park Hill flats to see the play about them; Standing on Skye Edge in London.

This was my third time seeing it after seeing it twice in Sheffield. In my review the first time I saw it I could not see it transferring to London!

Standing on Skye Edge first review

Now it has transferred to London and the audience seems to get it! Lots of big laughs! My first review explains what Park Hill flats are and the concept of the play.

Standing on Skye edge 2nd review

After seeing the play again I now feel connected to it. Since I saw the play the first time I have been lucky to tour park hill flats and think it is a place which has so many stories to tell! The I love you sign is part of the current chapter of my story! Since the first time I’m increasingly fond of Henderson’s.

I have now live in Sheffield half my life and therefore feel like a Sheffielder and I’m proud that there are two fabulous shows that are set in London and premiered in Sheffield; the other being Everybody’s talking about Jamie. I still prefer Jamie for the music; however with the band in London the music did feel more upbeat.

Although I love Everybodies talking about Jamie more; I’am curious about the characters in Skye Edge and far from bored of them. I want to know what happens to the characters in the play after it ends in 2020. How the pandemic treats them! Or I could see it being a long running tv sit com starting in the 60s and going and going by keeping key characters in as they move from Park Hill where they still have a strong connection to Park Hill!

February Library Month Update

After writting about library month at the start of February; when I needed a book for a forthcoming book club discussion I thought I should try getting it from the library rather than going on Amazon.

Library Month

At first I tried ordering online through library webpage but I needed a pin for that. I tried enrolling to sort the pin issue but I have never got a reply.

Instead I went to the library got a PIN number and reserved the book. The library had two copies that were both put. I was doubtful whether the book would arrive in time. It took three weeks but then I got an email to say it was in my local library. Whilst I was in the library I also picked up another book to read. All in all cheaper than buying; it just involved some patience!

The Appeal by Janice Hallet: Spoiler Free Review

Murder mysteries books give an insight into the lives of those around the victims including the professionals who handle the aftermath. Often the work of the professionals are glamorised and the paperwork sight minimised; not in this book! This book is told through the premise of documents being sifted through as part of preparing an appeal against a murder conviction. At times it is tedious reading through email after email especially as some are mundane.

The documents are being sifted through by legal assistants so there are also WhatsApp messages between them sharing their thoughts. They have been commissioned to look through the documents without initially knowing who has been murdered and who has been convicted. This allows the reader to read the emails leading up to the murder whilst being in suspense of who is murdered, until it happens. However, it seems strange that the legal assistants are given the task of sifting the documents blinded to who has been murdered and who has been convicted as how could they pick up up relevance from documents without that knowledge.

The emails are interesting in finding out about characters. In emails characters portray themselves in a manner of their choosing. There is then contrasting emails from other characters talking about them.

Towards the end of the book, after the murder the book switches from the email focus to be more about the drafting of a report the legal assistants are working on.

I believe this style of telling a story through documents / letters is called epistolic. Another book with this style I have attempted but not managed to get though (yet) is Dracula. Reading lots of letters / emails can be hard to follow. I did however manage to finish the Appeal. I thought the reader was meant to take clues from the emails but I did not find I did; others may be more successful. I suppose this book kept me guessing as I did not know who the murderer was. But as still not sure what the logistics and motives were then not sure completely convinced by the book. Yes it was interesting concept so I was intrigued how it would end but ultimately think my enjoyment throughout was limited. There is a follow up; but I’m not in a rush to read it.

Have you read The Appeal? What did you think? 💭