The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen, 83 ¼ Years Old by Hendrik Groen.

83 year old Hendrik Groen lives at a care home in Amsterdam. Here is his 2013 diary.

I got a lot from reading this book, the format is rather good. Remember when people published personal blogs on the web, rather than these very short snippets we now get from Facebook and Twitter? Well, Hendrik’s diary entries are very much like the best of blogs. You have a lovely mix of personal life, current day cultural trends and landmark historical occasions.

This book enables you to enter the very often closed world of life for 80 plus year olds in residential care homes. Although this book is set in Amsterdam, the attitudes, issues and problems are worldwide.

Hendrik’s diary entries are not simple prose but lengthy rants about whatever has got Hendrik’s goat that day. The language used is not simple but very mature and his range of vocabulary is spectacular.

This book brings an intelligent look at the daily life of residents in a care home. It explains what is important to them in their sunset years. I can see parts of this book being used in staff training sessions across a range of industries to explain to workers how the elderly think and understand their world. I found this book very useful and not just in relating to elderly passengers travelling on my National Express coach. My own father is also 83 years old and this month has just moved into a residential care home in Cardiff. This book helped me to see things through my dad’s eyes too. Not only does it give an 83 year old’s take on care homes, other residents, cultural changes and historical events but also the challenges posed to residents who have dementia. Because of the way dementia creeps on, I was blind to my father developing vascular dementia and just thought he was getting old and not bothering to compete for conversation between my mother and my wife. I was concerned how my father would cope with being split away from my mother, put into a care home and accepting his own dementia.

I found this book helpful, informative and reassuring. It allowed me to enter my father’s world and see it from his eyes. When I read this, I thought “that’s my dad!”...

Everyone in here has strong views on the subject of cake crumbs in fish tanks. But ask them what they think of the war in Syria and they’ll stare at you as if you’ve just asked them to explain the theory of relativity. A handful of fish floating belly-up are a thousand times worse than a busload of women and children blown to smithereens in some far-off country.

...I took a lot from this book and found it a pleasure to read. There is a lovely humour that runs through this book that is all deprecating, for example…

So indeed, yesterday I attended ‘Feel Good Fitness’. It was my first time. And also my last. When it was over and the instructor - ‘Call me Tina’ - gushed that I should definitely come again next week, I told her right then and there that once was enough. ‘Oh, and why is that?’ she asked suspiciously. ‘Because with so much female pulchritude about, I can’t concentrate on the exercises properly. I stiffen up.’

… I really liked this book and it was great to enter Hendrik’s world on such an intimate and personal level. Even if you do not have an elderly relative living in a care home, it is great read in the way that reality television fails to capture. It is a very good reading experience that I will vote the top score of 5 stars because it is entertaining, informative and rather witty.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Penguin for giving me a copy of this book on the understanding that I provide an honest review.

Nina is NOT OK by Shappi Khorsandi.

Nina is 17 and lives in London where she also goes to college. Nina is sociable and chatty plus she also enjoys a drink. Follow Nina for a year in this first person narrative.

The writing style of this novel was simply a pleasure to read. Shappi writes her novel in the same voice as she uses on her stand-up comedy routines on television. Reading her book, you can imagine Shappi performing the content as a monologue on stage. However, Nina can perform too, especially after a drink and you can’t forget how she got that mess on her hair.

The story starts as a jolly tale with a lot of wit. For example…

It’s not jealousy, it’s not. Just fucking infuriating. Why do guys go mental over tall, skinny women with blonde hair? Why do girls like Zoe get watches on second dates and I get pictures of dodgy men’s cocks?

...But as the story progresses and Nina turns 18, serious issues are raised, notably alcoholism and sexual consent. There is great social commentary in this novel, which is Shappi’s first and I found the language used was spot-on for how teenagers talk today. I found this book both enlightening and entertaining. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and felt privileged to enter another world. You can escape into a world of youth and lots of drama.

Nina is NOT OK is a lovely down to earth drama which is easy to relate to and features ordinary people like the girl next door. I like the way Shappi built her supporting characters, they were a balanced mix of girl friends, boys and middle aged adults. The spread of Nina’s girl friends reminded me of that great sitcom on television called Some Girls which ran for 3 series between 2012 and 2014.

I think this book will appeal to both genders and all ages. I am a 57 year old man and I found this novel refreshing with all the social observations woven into the storyline. It is all about being human and making mistakes. There is a little bit of Nina in all of us, from making poor choices from time to time, enjoying a drink and getting sexual urges. This exploration of human nature with all it’s highs and lows plus some wonderful character development, made this book such a joy for me to read. The quality of writing is first class and I really engaged with Nina. It was a treasure to see the world through her eyes and this book creates a milestone of understanding about alcohol and sexual urges.  It will help readers understand how some people can so easily become an alcoholic and how easy it can be for them to relapse, time and time again. Thanks to Shappi for writing a top class novel that I will vote the top score of 5 stars.

Nina is NOT OK was written in 2016 and is available as an Amazon Kindle eBook.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Ebury Press for giving me a copy of this book on the understanding that I provide an honest review.

Stalker by Lars Kepler.

This novel starts…

It wasn’t until the first body was found that anyone took the film seriously. A link to a video clip on YouTube had been sent to the public email address of the National Criminal Investigation Department. The email contained no message, and the sender was impossible to trace.

… and so this crime thriller set in Sweden gets off to it’s creepy start as Margot Silverman leads the police chase to catch the stalker and serial killer.

Stalker is the 5th novel in the Joona Linna series but I have NOT read ANY of the other 4. What I thought would be a regular police crime thriller was very different because although Margot was in charge of the police investigation, Joona Linna an ex-cop and his friend Erik, a doctor - poked their noses into the case. This angle was odd because generally the reader follows just one lead character/detective as they solve the case. I did not feel as though it was one character’s story and with the content spread across Erik, Joona and Margot, I was unable to fully engage with the plot. I constantly thought, why are Erik and Joona poking their noses into police business rather than getting on with their lives? It was very difficult to root for Erik and Joona.

What was good about this plot was just how difficult it was for the police to pick up clues. The stalker/serial killer was forensically aware and those YouTube clips just poked fun at the police but gave nothing away. I liked how Lars Kepler made the stalker very creepy in the tale. The tone of suspense and danger/threat was spot on. From time to time you would suspect characters of being the stalker as the story moved on. But I did find the shifting focus between Erik, Joona and Margot a distraction. This structure of story telling was a disappointment for me.

I liked how the character Jackie brought into the story how blind people cope in their daily lives. The mysteries were explained and were a gentle way to raise public awareness. The humour within this novel was gentle too, for example…

‘Our lives aren’t boring,’ Thomas says calmly. ‘There’s nothing boring about not using drugs, or alcohol or tobacco… or coffee or tea.’

‘Why not coffee?’ Adam asks.

‘Because the body is a gift from God,’ he replies simply.

‘If it’s a gift, then surely you can drink coffee if you want to?’ Adam retorts.

‘Of course, it isn’t set in stone,’ Thomas says lightly. ‘It’s just guidance…’

‘OK,’ Adam nods.

‘But if we listen to this guidance, the Lord promises that the angel of death will pass our home and not kill us.’ Thomas smiles.

‘How quickly does the angel come if you mess up badly?’ Margot asks.

... This novel covers a lot of ground, a nice tour around sex and drugs but is rather far fetched in places, especially towards the end. But the epilogue is very good, especially the explanation of stalking and obsessive fixation syndrome.

I thought Stalker was a 4 star GOOD read, it got the creepiness of stalking spot on but lacked the character development and dynamics of police procedurals. It was a good crime thriller but not in the top division. The split between Erik, Joona and Margot simply did not work for me. I think readers like to strongly follow a single character rather than a trio who do not work for the same firm. But it was a GOOD read and will make me think twice about walking my dog whilst wearing my yellow rain coat with a camera in my pocket.

Stalker was written in 2014 and is available as an Amazon Kindle eBook. Lars Kepler is the pen name for the Swedish literary couple Alexander Ahndoril and Alexandra Coelho Ahndoril.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Harper Collins UK for giving me a copy of this book on the understanding that I provide an honest review.