Books not Netflix

Some people binge watch Netflix, I disappear into books. They can’t be too challenging, but the writing needs to be good. I could not read Dan Brown or some other bestsellers – the writing is so simplistic it’s annoying and not relaxing.

Elizabeth George has been a favourite for decades. Her Inspector Lynley novels are perfect escape books. They have kept me gripped since 1988. ‘Don’t try to talk to me until I’ve finished this book’ describes how her big books hold and keep my attention. The stories are complex and often surprising; characters are various shades of grey, with adorable and not so adorable traits. She’s one of the few writers whose characters eat, at least occasionally.

The 21st book in the series has just come out. ‘Something to hide’ is not just a book in the series, but it also delves deeply into the topic of Female Genital Mutilation. The story is told from multiple perspective, and Inspector Lynley and his team are just one of them. The challenges of cultural expectations, of relationships within multigenerational families – her characters are as always well drawn and full of surprises.

Not as story driven as some of the earlier books in the series, but well suited for a few reading sessions of escapism into another world. An insight into a world that’s real, and providing an insight into the complexity of tradition, change, expectations – it’s easy to condemn, it’s more challenging to understand.

‘The house of Kwa’ by Mimi Kwa is a fascinating memoir that reads like a novel. Life is often stranger than fiction – who’d believe a story like this? The family history of Australian author Mimi Kwa spans  China, Hong Kong and Australia; it is a multi-generational multi-cultural feast that includes wealth and poverty, war and immigration, mental illness, the strength of family and the importance of being part of that House of Kwa.  Riveting and highly recommended.

‘The Heron’s cry’, second instalment a new series of prolific author Ann Cleeves, was recommended by a librarian as utterly gripping. Yes, I enjoyed it. Interesting characters, gripping story, fabulous escapism from a challenging week. I enjoyed it sufficiently to borrow ‘The long call’, the first book in the series. I did not enjoy that quite as much, and decided that maybe I do not need to explore her other series. Good as one read, maybe two, but I think I’ll give further instalments a miss.