Swimming Lessons by Claire Fuller

Oh I just thought this was wonderful - I didn't want it to end. It's one of those books that you just want to be part of, you want to live in their world and live how they live. I guess in this instance it's because all the characters are very free spirited and they all enjoy their lives. I don't want to make out it's a happy book, because it isn't really. A mother has gone missing, feared drowned, so her husband and children have spent 11 years not knowing whether she'll come back into their lives or not. The book has 3 intertwined storylines - the present where it's 2004, the children are grown up and carrying on with their lives, and the father, Gil, has an out-of-control habit of collecting second hand books that have old letters or notes or doodles from past owners in them. The second storyline is from the mother, Ingrid, in 1992 where she is writing letters to an absent Gil, telling him what she and their daughters are doing with their lives, and hiding the letters inside books. The third storyline is also set within the letters - Ingrid is retelling the story from when she and Gil first met in 1976, upto the present. It is mostly through these letters that we learn all the characters, especially that of Gil, and what may have caused Ingrid to disappear.

I loved all the characters, but all in a different way. I thought they were very realistic. I just wanted it to go on and on. I'm definitely going to have to read her first novel 'Our Endless Numbered Days, which won the 2015 Desmond Elliott Prize.

Little Deaths by Emma Flint

I love a good murder mystery, especially if it's based on a true story. For example, Mr Briggs' Hat, and The Suspicions of Mr Whicher. Emma Flint got the idea for 'Little Deaths' from a case she read about when a teenager. Read a good interview article with her here.

The story is set in Queens in 1964, and follows Ruth Malone, single mother to 2 children, Frankie (aged 6) and Cindy (aged 4). Ruth is a  heavy smoker and a heavy drinker. She works as a waitress at the local bar, and regularly comes home with a different man. She's currently going through a court custody case with her ex-husband Frank, who says she's a bad mother and shouldn't be looking after the kids. One evening she puts the kids to bed and locks their bedroom door (her son regularly wanders around at night). After a troubled night's sleep where she dreams she can hear a child crying, she wakes the next morning to an eerie silence. She unlocks the children's bedroom door to find them missing. It's not long before their bodies are found in a nearby neighbourhood.

The rest of the book then focuses on her side of the story with her innermost thoughts, the story she tells the police, statements from neighbours and friends and her ex-husband, police reports, and reports from the main journalist covering the case. Everybody seems to have their own opinion of what happened that night and whether Ruth carried out the murders herself. The police are convinced she's guilty, but the reporter wants to prove otherwise.

Even though I quite enjoyed the book, I found the story overlong and couldn't quite feel anything for any of the characters. I was upset about the children, but that's as far as my feelings stretched. I just wanted to get to the end to find out whether Ruth was guilty or not. If it had been edited a bit more and had a bit more of an atmosphere, I would have liked it more.

The Sellout by Paul Beatty

The Sellout has recently won the Man Booker Prize 2016, so I wanted to read it to see what I thought. I must admit, while I was reading the first chapter I was thinking, 'What is going on here, I'm not going to like this'. But you must stick with it, because you will end up enjoying it.

It's hard to sum up in a sentence what the book is about. I tried to explain to a colleague and they just looked at me slightly puzzled as I garbled a disjointed account of the story. They also looked slightly alarmed when I used the words 'funny' and 'racism' in the same sentence. But it's true!

The opening chapter is set in the Supreme Court in America. The case is 'Me v. the United States of America'. The Me in question is Mr Me - originally Mee but over the generations the final letter was dropped. That case title itself is ironic as Mr Me (who is black, and whose first name is never known) is accused of owning a slave, and almost the whole black population of America is mad at him for turning the civil rights clock back so many years.

Now if you are sensitive to racial language or indeed any language at all, you may want to avoid this book, but do bear in mind that the whole book is a satire, full of wit and sarcasm. Mr Me believes in segregation, and to find out why, we are taken through his life starting with him being home-schooled by his father, who would put Me through test scenarios (including electric shock treatments) to test fear, prejudice, servility and obedience. We learn about the small town he grew up in , how it was taken off the map and why he tries to get it back on there. We find out how he gets to 'own' a 'slave', about his girlfriend Marpessa, about the Dum Dum Donut Shop where they hold racism and black inequality talks, and about why an old friend of his father's tries to kill him.

It's a marvellous book like no other - it pushes boundaries and raises eyebrows. It's brilliant.