Goodreads Reading Challenge – 67% complete

Well it’s the end of July, and I’ve read two more books, one of which has to be one of my favourite books of all time.  So, what are they? How is my yearly reading challenge going? Well, my yearly progress is still good, I’m still 4 books ahead of schedule and now 67% of my target completed.

 

Book number 29: Total Chaos by Jean-Claude Izzo

Jean-Claude Izzo is a completely new writer to me, one I’ve not heard of or come across before (almost feel embarrassed by that) and one I feel like I should of. This is the first of three famous Marseilles trilogy books, I understand, which I am now on the look out to continue reading. It conveys the atmosphere of the Marseilles area amazingly, I imagine, along with all the political and social unrest, its mix of immigrants, criminals, economic problems, racial tensions, corruption, and its sights, sounds, smells and food! I gather the author was into his food, as some of the book read as a recipe book! Which isn’t a complaint, I quite liked it.

So yes, I read this slowly, I enjoyed it. Didn’t rush it like drinking a good wine! In a fancy café in Marseille’s! If this is what is classed as Noir, then I’ve found a genre I love.

So faults, what can I pull this book/story down for. Well, I’m going to harshly say that this isn’t a massively original story line. Three young guys grow up together, eventually as friends, from the hard streets of Marseilles. Our hero Fabio straightens up and ends up as a cop, his two school time friends don’t are more on the wrong side of the law, petty stuff, and he comes back to Marseille after some incidents leave his childhood friends (spoiler alert) dead. He comes back to find out and solve what happened, while also reliving his childhood.

This book spoke to me, I felt there where lessons in life hidden in the pages (I’m sounding a bit heavy here I know) but it did, felt I was learning while reading. So a well written book , which is more then just a crime story, it’s about a city.

Five stars from me!

Book number 30: Shipwrecks by Akira Yoshimura

This is smallish yet engrossing historical fiction book about a small, poor, desolate Japanese village and it’s struggles to survive the weather and lack of food. The story follows a young 9 year old, Isaku, who is now charged with looking after his family (mother, and younger brother and sister) as there father has sold himself into bondage for two years to earn the family/village some much needed money.

So our young lead has to quickly learn how to grow up, fish and protect his family and others in the village as lack of supplies threatens all. He also learns some dark mysteries about the village and how they come about gaining some much needed resources from the gods and the seas.

This is quite a dark, almost depressing story about the toils and struggles of this poor village and it’s folk, with a bit of a horror like ending as things take a nasty, unfortunate turn towards the end. Maybe not a book for everyone, but I pretty much enjoyed it.

4 stars out of 5.