My Book List.

Homework from writing class came in two parts this week. One was to write a very short story about an inanimate object, and the second part was to list five books that you either liked enormously or had left an impression on you.

My inanimate object is a ten-pound note! It has been in a money box for five months and is savouring the freedom of being back in circulation!

My list of five books is as follows:

1. I heard The Owl Call My Name - Margaret Craven.

This book left a huge impression on me and is one of the few books that I have read and re-read.

It is one of the best selling classics of Native American Literature. It is about the new generation of native Americans in an ancient village where old customs are being replaced. They are sent a new, young, white American vicar who is dying but doesn't know it. It is a story of happenings which add up to significance. A compassionate, poignant and compelling drama, which I first read about 10 years ago. A story of cultural change which is told brilliantly.

2. Jeans Way - A love story - Derek Humphry.

This is true story, a unique and personal document about a women who is dying of cancer. She makes a pact with her husband that when the disease gets too bad that she will end her life herself, but she has to ask his help, which he freely gives. A tender, honest and moving book which tackled the issues of euthanasia before it became a topic of global discussion. I first read this book in the early 1980's.

3. Last Tango in Aberystwyth - Malcolm Pryce.

This book is hugely funny, but I think it will help to understand the humour if you are Welsh! In a fictional Aberystwyth the main character, Dean Morgan, is a Private Detective and accidentally takes possession of a suitcase belonging to a Druid assassin. He falls in love with a porn star 'Judy Juice' and she becomes entangled in the dark imagination of the plot. It is hilarious, with the author's imagination firing on all cylinders!

4. A Prison of my Own - Diane Nichols.

Another true story. Divorced and in prison, John, found God's love was deeper than any dark pit he could sink into. He had lived a double life and had murdered his secret lover. His wife Diane, the author of the book, felt she was sentenced to a prison of her own. It charts her life on the outside and that of her children, while discovering John's thoughts and change process on the inside of the prison. The story tells of her coping strategy and the road she had to travel, before the whole tangled mess could be unravelled. Her understanding of God, when she was about to give up the struggle that is normal life, is very sensitively written.

5. On Chesil Beach - Ian McEwen.

This story begins on a young couples wedding night. The couple are portrayed as educated young people from very different backgrounds. While threads of class difference runs through this story it is ultimately sexuality that the novel is based on. Edward and Florence, two sexually inexperienced people, who on their wedding night discover that they are totally sexually mismatched.


The events of that night are described so sensitively, results in a painful tragedy that is impossible to revoke, and what happen that night, and afterwards, will effect them both for the rest of their lives. I read this book for the first time about a years ago. It is set in the 1960's, which is when I was married myself for the first time, and in Dorset which we knew very well. It is definitely on my list of books to read again.

My friend from reading class called in when I was writing the critiques on these books, and is gone home with three of them! The picture above is of some of the books in this brief resume.