Indignation by Philip Roth

I very much enjoyed this excellently written and thought provoking book about a gifted young undergraduate student, Marcus, in 1950s America, trying to find his identity outside of his small, Jewish family. The reader discovers early on that Marcus is dead and seemingly stuck in endless remuneration over his short life. This ensures that the plot, while engrossing, leaves space to really explore the character development. Marcus is a complex and sometimes uncomfortable character who it is easy to be intrigued by but hard to really understand. Ultimately this book is about the randomness of tragedy and that does make it quite dark, but it is still a very good book.

Salvage The Bones by Jesmyn Ward

This novel is about a young family in America who are struggling to cope emotionally and financially with the death of their mother.  Set in the run up to hurricane Katrina the book highlights the extreme poverty of this Southern American community and their lack of resources to cope with natural disasters.  The characters in this book are immediate and realistic which makes it easy to engage with them and become truly engrossed in the story.  I very much enjoyed the style of writing which is simple but poignant with really believable dialogue.  The story is often sad but in a very touching way which stops this book being depressing. Definitely recommended for an unusual, powerful read.

Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch

An exciting, if totally ridiculous book about a secret, magical division of the metropolitan police force.  This is the first part of a trilogy following Peter Grant, a new recruit to a wizard inspector, who is learning magic as he embarks on his policing career.  This is excellent escapism as the plot is humerous, believable (within the confines of a magical universe) and easy to read.  The writing is never going to be the attraction to this book but at the same time it is light, often illuminating and certainly never jarring.  Very readable, very good fun and enjoyable.

Keeper of the Light by Diane Chamberlain

Life is too short for many things - exactly pairing up similar looking black socks, making your own stock, keeping receipts, travelling on the circle & district line, conversations about mobile phone tariffs, anything to do with model railways.  And reading this book.  Or indeed, writing a review of this book.

NW by Zadie Smith

This is an excellently well written book about two girls, Leah and Keisha, who grow up on a Council estate in Kilburn.   I enjoyed the style of writing very much and it is worth a read to appreciate the language and the observational social commentary.  However, I was disappointed with the two main characters who are difficult to engage with and for me that unfortunately detracted from my enjoyment this book.  There was something about both characters which made them a little indistinct - and it was too evident that they were vehicles for the message behind the book rather than realistic representations of people.   In my opinion, this lack of identification with the characters prevented this book from being truly absorbing but it is still an enjoyable novel by a very talented writer.

A Trick I Learned from Dead Men by Kitty Aldridge

This is an unusual book written from the point of view of a young man struggling to keep his small family afloat after the death of his mother.  The main character, Lee, is a trainee undertaker at a local funeral parlour who takes care of his rebellious, deaf younger brother.

The writing is a little difficult to get into because it is written like a dialogue or internal monologue, but once you get into it it is excellent and becomes much easier to read.  Lee is likeable and it is easy to sympathise with his situation, which despite being tragic is portrayed in a surprisingly humorous way.  This is not a plot heavy book but it is very poignant, interesting and well written and I really enjoyed it.

The Misremembered Man by Christine McKenna

This novel is set in 1970s Ireland and is about 2 lonely hearts who meet and fall in love. With dialogue like "Deed ye might-a been", the author seems to have got the Irish dialect muddled up with 16th century farming slang. Unfortunately, the plot does not redeem the clumsy dialogue, as it is achingly predictable and dreadfully stereotypical.

Reading this is like walking down a very long, straight road (I am imagining one of those tarmac-ed 2 lane roads somewhere in middle America with little scenery and on which you could film a mediocre One Direction music video without inconveniencing a single passing vehicle) - you can see your destination clearly the whole time but the trudge seemingly takes your whole life.