All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr.

Okay folks, I know I am somewhat late to the party but being on furlough due to the Coronavirus, I thought I would try a book NOT in my usual crime/mystery/thriller reading genre.

All the Light We Cannot See is the work of historical fiction set mostly around the Second World War in France and Germany. The two principal characters are a blind girl in France and a short boy in Germany. Follow these two children as they grow up and meet the many challenges they face when Europe becomes a war zone.

This book is written in American English and Anthony has a tremendous vocabulary. His writing is of very high quality and is very descriptive. There is a lot of detail thrown into this story and I loved reading about the ins and outs of radio. A lot of research has gone into this novel which made it such a fulfilling read. Anthony really got to grips with telling his story from the perspective of a blind person…

To shut your eyes is to guess nothing of blindness. Beneath your world of skies and faces and buildings exists a rawer and older world, a place where surface planes disintegrate and sounds ribbon in shoals through the air. Marie-Laure can sit in an attic high above the street and hear lilies rustling in marshes two miles away.

...I liked how memories were created within the story, using phrases and tag lines that would be revisited later in this novel. Character development was wonderful and gentle, giving the impression that you the reader were growing up alongside them. 

All the Light We Cannot See is a very long read that runs to 532 pages. The time frame drifts about a lot, basically before the war and during the war. The last ten per cent of this book is more contemporary, following a linear time frame of two sections, 1974 and 2014. One of my pet hates are novels that roll backwards and forwards in time. Because this book won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2015, I thought I would bear with it. I decided to ignore the wandering time frames and coupled with the repeated memories, phrases and tag lines, I felt as though I was living the life through those eras. These shifting time frames made this novel very reflective of times we have not lived. It gave me access to another world before I was born and a world that I cannot see with my eyes - a world using other senses which blind people have to cope with every day of their lives. This is far more detailed than helping blind passengers travel on my coach.

I got a lot from reading All the Light We Cannot See. It is very sad in places but then those were very sad times. I found this book an OUTSTANDING read and is worthy of adding to your bucket list of books to read before you die. This novel has become very popular and rightly so, a lot has been written about this book, so what more can I add? It took Anthony ten years to write his novel but the detail and quality shine through from start to finish, so it gets the top score of 5 stars from me.

All the Light We Cannot See is available as an Amazon Kindle eBook and was written in 2014.

Grave's End (DS Alexandra Cupidi #3) by William Shaw.

Grave's End is the fourth novel in this Kent based British crime thriller series. It can be read as a stand-alone and new readers will not feel left out. You could even read this fourth book, enjoy it and start the series from book one without anything spoiling your enjoyment. Grave's End gets off to a creepy start when a man's naked body is found in a freezer. Detective Sergeant Alexandra Cupidi and her team are on the case to solve this murder.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Grave's End. Characters from the previous novels return like friends at a Christmas party. The plot is very complex and when another body is found both DS Alexandra Cupidi and the reader wonder if the two deaths are connected. When you go to bed after a reading session, your head is buzzing as you wonder who to trust and what the devil is behind it all. 

I loved how the issues around class conflicts, housing development, planning consent and local politics all played an integral part of the story. Grave's End is not a basic police procedural as there is lots more to this tale. There are even short chapters written from the point of view of a Badger. Don't worry if you know nothing about badgers as this old badger will teach you all you need to know. I found the badger tale gave this novel so much extra added value.

I found Grave's End to be a very entertaining read with lots to think about. I loved the rural locations, the wildlife and the bonds which developed between the characters. How Alex, Bill, Jill and Zoe bounced off each other was great to watch, it was as if the reader was the quiet one in the corner while the four of them got to the bottom of how and why the naked man was found in the freezer.

I like William's writing style, it is very easy to follow and roll along with. Character development is spot on. William has done it again, it is wonderful how he has published these 4 books in the series with the quality of each one being top notch. I can find nothing wrong with Grave's End and found it an OUTSTANDING read that gets the top score of 5 stars from me.

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

Grave's End was written in 2020 and is available as an Amazon Kindle eBook.

I'm Only in it for the Parking by Lee Ridley AKA Lost Voice Guy.

Lee Ridley is also known as Lost Voice Guy, a comedian who won 2018's Britain's Got Talent. Lee developed cerebral palsy as a baby and communicates using an iPad. Lee is also a writer but this is his first book.

I enjoyed reading this memoir which Lee has written at the age of 38. I found his gentle humour an easy and entertaining read, for example...

When I was little, my parents sat me down and explained to me that I couldn't talk like other people. I thought I was really special. Then I realized that every Geordie child had the exact same conversation.

... I liked how Lee explained his disability and the daily challenges it gives him, for example...

My general physical movements are also pretty restricted. I'm shit at bending down and picking up stuff off the floor (so I can't shop at Primark) or at reaching up and getting anything off a high shelf (so I can't buy any porn). As long as I shop where everything is at eye level I'm sorted.

... I also liked how Lee explained at length how he lived from day to day and dealing with the many obstacles in his way. I found this book great for increasing disability awareness within the able-bodied population. I liked how frank and self deprecating Lee is with his story. I liked how he explained his stage name, using his talker software and the many life skills he uses to gain a great deal of independence in his daily life. Lee also writes about other things that are important to him like education, receiving inappropriate presents and accessible hotel rooms. 

There are not many stand-alone jokes in this book, those are reserved for his stage shows. The best I read in this book was short and sweet...

I started off in a disabled Steps tribute band. We were called Ramps.

...But the main humour in this book is about the amusing things he came across along the way, like going horse riding at a Disabled Riding Centre and being given a horse with just one eye! Lee has also had much fun with leaving Post-It notes hidden in hotel rooms. I also liked the attitude throughout this book and Lee came across as down to earth and mature, for example...

None of us wants to be left on the shelf in the great big dating supermarket of life. The one where the most desirable people have already been taken, the cheapest have been used and brought back for a refund, and the rest of us just sit there, like Tesco-own-brand red sauce: not as tasty and hardly ever picked up.

... So, all in all, I found this book both enlightening and entertaining. You do not have to be a fan of his comedy stage shows to enjoy this book. I think I'm Only in it for the Parking is a GOOD read and it gets 4 stars from me. I got a lot from this memoir and I think that disabled people will be glad that Lee has taken the trouble to share his experiences with the public. Lee explained very well how disabled people differ so much from other disabled people, even with the same condition. Add to this the many people who have invisible disabilities. Disabled passengers present everyday to board and travel on coaches for long distance travel, so it is important for drivers to remember that one size does not fit all and to treat each passenger as a first date. Drivers should not take disabilities for granted and what most disabled passengers want is the ability to travel with independence and for drivers not to make a fuss.

I'm Only in it for the Parking was written in 2019 and is available as an Amazon Kindle eBook.

The Brightest Fell by Nupur Chowdhury.

Put yourself into the near future on a fictional island called Naijan, somewhere in the North Sea. This political thriller is a tale of betrayal and corruption.

I got a shock when I started reading this novel. Right from the first page the reader is thrown into a make believe world. All the locations are fictitious, the country does not exist and there are no cultural or religious clues. There are no geographic references to the real world, everything is generic. But we have a civilisation, a working infrastructure including houses, media, roads and telecommunications. For British readers the place names and character names may be a challenge but simply ignore this as we are not reading aloud. So although we will not recognise names to begin with, bear with it and you will recognise everything else. Politics is the same the world over, featuring lots of lies and dirty work behind the scenes.

I enjoyed reading The Brightest Fell and feel it is a GOOD political thriller. I liked the plot and the political manoeuvring was very engaging. Each character had their own hidden agenda and there was good and bad in each of them. There was lots for the reader to think about, not just in this novel but whether these political struggles could be taking place today in real world politics. Woven into this plot were our current day concerns over corruption, drugs, state control and terrorism. Add to that our daily tide of fake news and lies from all politicians.

I found The Brightest Fell to be an entertaining read that I could relate so easily to. It is similar to watching the Daily Briefing here in the UK as our country struggles with the coronavirus pandemic. Suspicions are aroused as the politicians and scientists compete against each other.

I liked the writing quality that Nupur put into her novel. I found this book very easy to follow and well written. It follows a lovely linear time frame and the pace is steady with no boring bits to tire the reader. She uses American English and gives no clue to her homeland, except for just one word I picked up on, “kulfi” - a traditional Indian ice cream. Nupur deploys a lovely wide vocabulary and has a great range of popular phrases and sayings, for example…

The best lies, after all, had a basis in truth.

Can’t stain a black coat and all that.

...The Brightest Fell was an interesting read for me and it makes the reader question just how representative democracy is for the population it claims to serve. Nupur serves her readers with a solid GOOD read that gets 4 stars from me.

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

The Brightest Fell was written in 2019 and is available as an Amazon Kindle eBook.