Border Songs - Jim Lynch

A beautiful, kind and quirky celebration of difference and human connections that acknowledges Andy Goldsworthy's art and Temple Grandin's books as inspirations. The book is set on the US / Canadian border, with the central character (Brandon, a 6'8" dyslexic with a talent for ephemeral art and communicating with animals) joining the border patrol with unexpected effects for the local dairy farming community and the Canadian cannabis smugglers he is pitted against. "Hobbies", when pursued passionately, seem to have redemptive power for many of the characters in this book - Brandon creates art, his father builds a boat, and another man works on "re-inventions", reproducing the failed experiments that led to Edison's creation of the light bulb in order to share the excitement of seeing the first one working. Characters who struggle with impairments also seem to be granted unusual insights as they perceive situations more clearly - as well as the obvious theme of Brandon's talent for noticing the unusual, his mother (struggling with the onset of dementia) is the only one who takes time to really listen to the enigmatic oral historian Sophie, who most people only see through the filter of their own fantasies.

The Golden Notebook - Doris Lessing

I only managed to finish this big, dense, complex novel on my 3rd attempt (although my 2nd can perhaps be discounted, as I found it difficult to concentrate on even simple books while pregnant...). It demands a high level of concentration because it deliberately plays with different ways of viewing the same events & situations, as the same characters and scenarios are presented three times: as simplified snapshots in the frame novel, from a different perspective in the central character Anna's blue notebook, and through the distorting lens of fiction (with the main characters appearing recognisably under different names) in her yellow notebook.

In the introduction to the edition I read, Lessing says that one of her main aims in the book was to capture "the intellectual and moral climate" of 1950s Britain, which I think the novel does beautifully. The political atmosphere - in which communism dominated the agenda and the only available options were membership of a dogmatic but disintegrating party or total rejection of the programme - pervades the book, and the difficulties faced by the "free women" who are trying to engage honestly with men without taking refuge in marriages of compromise are equally forcefully presented.

The central theme is the relationship between madness and a divided self (& it's only in writing this that I notice the obvious connection with R. D. Laing's ideas) - Anna is restored to herself when she allows all of her barriers to break down during her relationship with fellow-writer Saul, and ultimately discards her compartmentalised notebooks in favour of the single Golden Notebook of the title. Lessing's introduction states that the "essence of the book [...] says [...] that we must not divide things off, must not compartmentalize", picking out as an announcement of this cenral motif the comment early in the book where Anna laughingly dismisses the categories that divide people: "Men. Women. Bound. Free. Good. Bad. Yes. No. Capitalism. Socialism. Sex. Love . . .". Despite my initial struggle to get through the book without losing concentration, and occasional moments where I found it hard to engage emotionally with the characters or to relate to their inner worlds (since they put so much emphasis on Freudian & Marxist ideas & language), I found this a convincing and satisfying read.

Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life - Karen Armstrong

I bought this when I went to hear her speak on the subject of 'God as imperative' (i.e. religion having meaning as a call to action rather than a set of beliefs) recently. The book is presented as a sort of accompanying workbook for her Charter for Compassion, for people who want to strengthen their ability to implement the "Golden Rule" (always treat others as you would wish to be treated yourself), and deliberately uses the familiar AA 12-step format because "we are addicted to our egotism".

The 12 steps she suggests are:

1. Learn about compassion
2. Look at your own world
3. Compassion for yourself
4. Empathy
5. Mindfulness
6. Action
7. How little we know
8. How should we speak to one another?
9. Concern for everybody
10. Knowledge
11. Recognition
12. Love your enemies

I have to admit that I found the book itself a little lightweight - there is some interesting material on the concept of compassion through history & in different faiths, but also a lot of repetition, and the passages based on neuroscience - emphasizing the capacity of the "new-brain" to overcome the "old-brain" impulses of the Four Fs (feeding, fighting, fleeing and f***ing) - seemed somewhat superficial. However, this assessment is probably missing the point - the book is presented as a challenge or signpost, & its value lies more in what the reader does with it - to judge it fairly it would (will?) be necessary to follow her instruction: "do not leave a step until the recommended practices have become part of your daily routine".

Mister Pip - Lloyd Jones

A deceptively slim book about a young girl attending a strange makeshift school on a tropical island cut off by civil war. Matilda is torn between her mother's faith and the story of Pip as told by the only white person there, in much the same way as the village is (tragically) caught between the increasingly vicious conflict of the 'redskins' and the 'rambos'. As she learns to use her imagination to escape to another world and to invent a new reality for herself, she is also - brutally - forced to realise that, as her mother and Mr. Watts ultimately agree, "We know the devil because we know ourselves. And how do we know God? We know God because we know ourselves."

Eat Pray Love - Elizabeth Gilbert

I picked this up at an airport intending it as throwaway holiday reading, and to some extent it obliged nicely - it was an absorbing but undemandng read, and didn't contain much to challenge or surprise. I did enjoy it more than I'd expected to though, and found a few memorable passages - I liked her attitude to antidepressants (try them if desperate but for the minimum time possible and only in conjunction with lots of other efforts to rescue yourself), and some of her quirky ideas (communicating with the divine via a notebook, or when things are at their worst, trying to change one thing to regain some control, even if it's just to stand on one leg while sobbing hysterically). I also laughed at the observation of one of her friends that while some people look like their pets, she had a tendency to become so absorbed in relationships that she grew to look like her men...

My favourite section was the time she spent in an Ashram in India, which is where the most substantial content of the book appears (and amusingly, if the promotional photos are anything to go by, this is the part that the film glosses over...). I liked the improvised ritual of forgiveness / freedom that a friend prescribed for her to get over her messy divorce (as she says, "we do spiritual ceremonies as human beings in order to create a safe resting place for our most complicated feelings of joy or trauma ... we all need such places of ritual safekeeping ... and I do believe that if your culture or tradition doesn't have the specific ritual you're craving, then you are absolutely permitted to make up a ceremony of your own devising.".) Most of all I appreciated the way she eventually found a glimpse of what she was looking for - first by persevering with the one practice she found extremely difficult, and then, having decided to embrace silence, she was asked to take on the much more in-character role of 'hostess' for a retreat. In accepting this (noting the yogic saying "God dwells within you, as you", i.e. as your true self rather than "some performance of personality" that fits your notion of a spiritual person) she found herself able to meditate fully while lurking at the back of the temple to be on hand for the retreat participants.

Two other ideas resonated with me: one was the possibility of finding a middle ground between getting ripped off or losing a friend when trying to play the benefactor (by playing a game back to call the person's bluff, while understanding their perfectly reasonable need to get the most out of the situation). The other actually came from the teaser for the sequel at the end of the book, and is the simple tactic of asking "What would you do now, if you were in our situation?" when faced with "a dispassionate customer service operator or an apathetic bureaucrat". The ending - finding love after regaining her independence and spiritual balance - does ring true, but by wrapping up the book neatly as a happy ending, it risks sending the message that finding the right man was the ultimate purpose of her quest, rather than a positive consequence of the real goal of finding peace.

The Good Thief - Hannah Tinti

I picked this up from the library because I was impressed by a couple of the reviews, particularly one imagining families reading it aloud together. Having read it, I would hesitate to choose this sometimes gruesome tale as a bedtime story - too many grave-robbers and mining disasters for my liking! I did enjoy it on one level - it has an engaging plot and some memorable characters - but overall I found the experience of reading it rather unsettling. (This may just have been because I had toothache while reading the description of the robbers trying to sell rotten teeth to a dentist?)