Michael J. Ritchie's Blog, page 18

“Man Walks Into A Room” by Nicole Krauss (2002)

“GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS reads the sign on a chain-link fence and we whistle and cheer as the bus slams past, churning up a cloud of dust in the basin.”

I’ve many low-key anxieties that pop up now and again, usually when I’m trying to sleep. They’re the sort of thing that one wouldn’t be able to control but nothing could stop them happening. What if a plane engine fell on me? Or I was in an accident and lost a leg? This is all dark stuff, I know, but it’s the only way I could think to tie into ...

“Grimm’s Fairy Tales” by the Brothers Grimm (1832)

“There was once a shoemaker who worked very hard and was very honest.”

Fairy tales have an important role in our society. They are some of the first stories we learn as children, teaching us (as either Neil Gaiman or G. K. Chesterton, depending on your views, tells us) that while dragons and monsters do exist, they can be beaten. The fairy tale world is one where good always prevails over evil, and all the wrong-uns get their comeuppance in one way or another, often in a grisly and macabr...

“The Hope Family Calendar” by Mike Gayle (2016)

“It was late when I reached home from work.”

When in doubt, pick up a favourite novelist and get cracking.

It’s been a year since Tom Hope’s wife Laura died in a car crash, and it’s fair to say he hasn’t been handling it well. After wallowing in despair for months while his mother-in-law Linda moved in to take care of his daughters, he abruptly returns to work in an effort to distract himself from the grieving process. Now he seems to spend barely any time with his family, and Linda ha...

“Wilding” by Isabella Tree (2018)

“It’s a still June day on Knepp Castle Estate in West Sussex.”

Britain can’t claim to have wildlife along the lines of the African savannah or the Amazon rainforest. We don’t have monkeys or elephants, ostriches or jaguars. What we do have, however, is something special. Unfortunately, due to a combination of intensive farming, hunting and climate change, many of our species have begun to disappear. Wolves, lynx, elk and bears have long since been made extinct on the island, although ther...

“To Be Taught, If Fortunate” by Becky Chambers (2019)

“If you read nothing else we’ve sent home, please at least read this.”

It’s a shame that I’m unlikely to witness much space travel in my lifetime. There is a lot of talk about returning to the moon and then heading on to Mars – and perhaps beyond – and with any luck I’ll get to see some of that, but there are more pressing matters to deal with here on Earth that we need to sort first. The space race seems so long ago. But what if, in some advanced future, we get the hang of the technology requir...

“A Place For Everything” by Judith Flanders (2020)

“Writing, from its earliest days, has been thought of as a gift from the gods.”

My niche reading has previously included a book about handwriting, one on the history of the bookshelf, another on stationery … I love a niche book. Here, however, I might have outdone myself. This isn’t just a book on writing or the alphabet: this is a book about the history of cataloguing and how alphabetical order came to dominate the world.

Like many people, this was something I’d never really considered. From th...

“River Of Teeth” by Sarah Gailey (2017)

“Winslow Remington Houndstooth was not a hero.”

About a century ago, a US senator suggested the the country imported hippopotamuses to the swamps of Louisiana. They would be able to eat much of the invasive water hyacinth of the marshland, and in turn they could be farmed for their meat. Unfortunately for everyone (except maybe the hippos), this plan never came to fruition, and remains an odd historical quirk. Sarah Gailey, however, obviously couldn’t let the idea rest and so has rewritten histo...

“Some Tame Gazelle” by Barbara Pym (1950)

“The new curate seemed quite a nice young man, but what a pity it was that his combinations showed, tucked carelessly into his socks, when he sat down.”

On a roll as I am with my forgotten authors, I stumble back to 1950 to indulge in the debut novel of Barbara Pym, who dropped in out of fashion within her own lifetime and is only now just getting a resurgence of recognition. If the rest of her books are like this, then I can’t wait for more people to discover her.

The action, such as it is, tak...

“The Other” by Thomas Tryon (1971)

“How old do you think Miss DeGroot really is?”

Thomas Tryon is one of the forgotten authors I found last year. Although he had quite a successful career in his day and there was even a film made of this book, these days he’s nothing like a household name, especially in Britain. It was fascinating to explore his work.

Identical twins, Holland and Niles Perry, are thirteen-years-old, and despite looking the same and having a very close relationship, they couldn’t be more different. Niles is the so...

“Carry On” by Rainbow Rowell (2015)

“I walk to the bus station by myself.”

Magical schools appear so often in fiction, and they routinely make real schools look really boring. Who wouldn’t want to spend the morning charming frogs, then hop on a broomstick for some magical ball sport, then end the day by defeating a great evil that’s sleeping in your dormitory? Better than double maths and stale jam roly poly in the canteen any day. Welcome to Watford, the newest magical school on the scene.

Simon Snow is the chosen one. Now enteri...