"Between tears and laughter" by Alden Nowlan (Bloodaxe, 2004)

Selected poems by a poet I've not heard of. Canadian, he was born in 1933 to a 14 y.o. woman and was in school for only 5 years. Bly wrote that he was "The greatest Canadian poet of the 20th century". He's sometimes compared to Robert Frost. He wrote more simply as he aged.

There are about 130 pages of poetry. Some pages have more than one poem. It's an enjoyable read. Poems often have punchlines - sometimes indented for maximum effect - e.g. "it was me, his father, who told him/ you write poems about what/ you feel deepest and hardest" (end of p.80); "this is a country/ where a man can die/ simply from being/ caught outside" (end of p.81). The back cover notes say he is "comparable in the public's affections to Stevie Smith or Betjeman in Britain".

I like his early portraits of (real or imagined) townsfolk - men often disguising their emotions. Some of the poems are too simple for me though. "Looking for Nancy" is about someone stopping girls in the street - "But there's always/ been some mistake:// a broken streetlight,/ too much rum or merely/ my wanting too much/ for it to be her." OK, so maybe he's not looking for a particular girl, but all the same.

He tackles some topics head on - he died at 50 having had cancer for years. In "Escape from Eden" he shows how hospital staff's response to a patient's state of dress depends on their health. In "For Yukio Mishima" he writes about press attitudes to writer's suicides (madness? accident? a statement?). He writes that "There are no pacifists/ in the cancer ward."

I like "Old Town Revisited" and "What Colour Is Manitoba?" - they look like much like Flash to me. So does "The Rites of Manhood", which I don't much like. I don't get what "The Middle-aged Man in the Supermarket" is really about. I get (but am not impressed by) the 2-page "He sits down on the floor of a school for the retarded" whose penultimate stanza is "Yes, it's what we all want, in the end,/ not to be worshipped, not to be admired,/ not to be famous, not to be feared,/ not even to be loved, but simply to be held."

"Towards the winter solstice" by Timothy Steele (Swallow Press, 2006)

Poems from Kenyon review, Measure, Poetry, Southwest review, Threepenny review, etc. Unsurprisingly there are many iambics and lots of rhyming. I liked his "Missing Measures" book and have recommended it to people. I doubt that I'll recommend this book to non-formalists. I'm not used to reading such poetry nowadays, but I don't think that's the reason why some of it sounds pedestrian to me. E.g. -

The square had otherwise, a leafless tree And litter's swirling, sad agility; And densely packed surrounding buildings made The place, save at mid-day, a cheerless shade. (p.7)

"In the Memphis Airport" we see that

Some draw wheeled suitcases along Or from a beeping belt or purse Apply a cell phone to an ear; Some pause at banks of monitors Where times and gates for flight appear

"April 27, 1937" is 42 lines about the dangers of war. I don't sense much wisdom in the piece. E.g. -

That day in Spain has taught us to our cost, That there are lines that never should be crossed; The ignorance of leaders is not bliss If they're intent on tempting Nemisis

From "Didelphis Virginiana", about roadkill, we learn that

Many such creatures perish daily, nothing In evolution having readied them Against machinery: grief seems absurd. Nature herself, ever pragmatic, is Blithely indifferent to her child's departure

Maybe I've failed to interpret the intended tone. This sounds light -

Meanwhile the garden's thriving: rows once strict Are now a rioting of salad greens; Zucchinis threaten that, if left unpicked, They'll burgeon to the size of submarines; (p.56)

And this isn't saying anything new -

In such rich warmth, it's easy to relax And hard to credit calendars and clocks, Which register, among their other facts, The shorter days, the coming equinox (p.57)

I liked "The Sweet Peas" the most. From "Didelphis Virginiana" this is attractive - A mockingbird displays his wings, like someone/ Opening the panels of an overcoat/ To show he's come unarmed and should be trusted. And this section is better than most -

But we best loved stars rising here and there, Whether from hopes of something we might sow Or from a lonely impulse to declare The kinship of the lofty and the low (p.61)

"Good Material" by Dolly Alderton

An audio book.

Andy (35, his PoV, a comedian who does a lot of other bit-jobs) is staying with his mum for a few nights. Jen (maritime insurance) has dumped him. He's worried about hair-loss. He's relearning how to be single, but all the friends he had last time he was single are married now. He's trying to recontact old friends, including a girlfriend he's not seen for 17 years. He stays with friends Jane and Avi. He's godfather to their 4 y.o. Jackson. He compares his way of getting over it with Jen's - she goes with friends to a spa; he's entitled to one pub/club night on the NHS with mates paying, then it's BUPA territory. He realises that within each break-up there are many mini-breakups - with mutual friends etc. He continues doing gigs, analysing the other acts. He lives in a houseboat for a few days then lodges with Morris, a 78 y.o. conspiracist.

When it's Jen's birthday he sends her a multiply-drafted text, analysing the speed and content of the reply. When they meet the bank people to close their joint account they argue. When they meet by chance a few weeks later, she's with Seb. Andy researches Seb online. He think Jen's therapist told Jen to dump him. He checks this theory by going to a therapist and pretending to be a lawyer with a juggling partner. The therapist keeps focussing on fake details.

Kelly, his lesbian trainer, is getting over a break up.

He rations how much he mentions Jen, runs out of people to talk to. He continues going to gigs. When someone bombs on-stage he leaves before the end because that's what you do.

Via a comedian friend he meets Sophie (12 years younger than him) whose past boyfriend was older than him. Her flatmates are pan, poly. At their first date she shows him nude photos of herself and some chats she's having on dating sites. He has sex for the first time in 4 months.

When she begins to show affection for him he has doubts whether he understands what's happening. A flood of bad reviews of his recent gig appears online. He's told to write some new material.

He and Sophie reach “The Flip” – first one of them loved the most, then suddenly the other did. The one least in love is the one with the power, and when he had the power he dumped her. A friend breaks up. Andy offers him a chance to chat about it. Andy meets Jen at a kids’ party. She’s broken with Seb. She invites him home. He stays the night. They skillfully avoid arguments that had spoiled things in the past. They have a good time. Next morning he realises it was a one night stand. Months later he breaks with Kelly, who's happier by then.

Now it’s Jen's PoV. There’s some details about her upbringing, how she discovered her father with his long-term mistress. We learn what she thinks of Andy – his low self-esteem means that he misjudges what people think of him. He’s not curious, he doesn't want to go to new places. He was her first real boyfriend – her Oxford degree only got her dates with boring lawyers. Andy was a breath of fresh air. Then within months, she went for a top job, he was filming for TV, she found she had few eggs left (Andy's her last hope), and her gran’s last words were that she shouldn’t marry. It was all too much. She realised that Andy wasn’t the one. With the help of her therapist she'd planned the break-up for months.

She says that when you break up with someone, you look for someone else who has the 10% that your ex lacked. Seb had the missing 10% but not much else. She's been stalking him online. She watches Andy perform his new material about their break-up. She tells him afterwards that it was good - some parts too long, some not long enough. She decides to give up her job and go travelling - she's not had time before. He's fitter now. He'd be a good father. Good husband material.

Yes, it does sound like Nick Hornby. The dialogue and the analysis of stand-up all sound convincing to me. The second part (much shorter than the first, with much less mention of other people) makes him sound less self-indulgent. They both suffered. I felt more sorry for her by the end.

Other reviews

• Hephzibah Anderson
• Michael Donkor (There’s much to enjoy here, not least Alderton’s willingness to allow in some narrative ambivalence: while Andy’s sorrow is humanely sketched, it also often leans towards self-indulgence. She’s got a good ear for dialogue ... Alderton has a solid line in cameos)
• Katie J.M. Baker (I found it a bit cringe (Sophie’s favorite adjective) that otherwise true-to-life characters kept coining aphorisms)

"Another Life" by Kristin Hannah

An audio book. In the USA it was entitled "The things we do for love".

Angie's 38. After 2 miscarriages, a baby who died days after birth, and an adoption from birth that fell through, she felt that her love for her husband Conlan should be enough, but it wasn't. Divorced, her father dead 6 months, she gives up her good advertising job to save the family business - a restaurant. Sisters Livy (a failed model) and Mira want to sell up.

Lauren lives in the same town. She has an alcoholic mother, 34. She's clever, and would like to go to a top university. Her rich boyfriend David, 17, will do so. She spends some nights with him. He longs for proof of his parents' love.

Lauren's looking for a job. Angie wants staff, so Lauren works for her. Lauren doesn't like charity or sympathy, but Angie's more than happy to be a mother-substitute, lending her dresses etc. Lauren discovers that she's pregnant. She tells David, who wants to do the right thing. She tells her mother, who has no sympathy. Her mother has a new boyfriend. It might be serious.

Angie sees Conlan by chance and realises she still has feelings for him. She finds out that they have mutual friends who blame her for the separation - she'd been so involved in her own grief that she hadn't help him through his.

So my guess is that Lauren's going to consider abortion, then reject it. David's parent won't like that. Her mother will want her lover to move in, so she'll chuck Lauren out. Lauren will move in with Angie. Angie will get back with Conlan and they'll adopt the baby. Angie will pay Lauren's college fees. There'll be obstacles and hesitations at each stage.

Actually what happens is that Lauren consider abortion, then rejects it. Her mother leaves with her lover. Lauren moves in with Angie. Angie remarries Conlan. They agree to adopt the baby. Lauren hadn't considered the difficulties to the child of having the natural mother always around. David's parents give Lauren $5k. Lauren wants David to continue with Princeton because she loves him, though she knows they'll drift apart. After the birth, Lauren runs off with the baby, as Angie and Conlan expected. Lauren returns to them. They suggest that she keeps the baby and lives/works with them while continuing studies.

I've doubts about writers who resort to passage like "though she was smiling, there was a sad knowing in her eyes". Later there's "a heavy sadness in her eyes". People often "draw a adjective] breath"

Other reviews

• MrsB (I did feel as though it was a little out of touch with the direction of society today. I easily picked up that this was a book published almost two decades ago, as a few of the situations and responses presented seemed a little backward and not forward thinking. It was interesting to see where Kristin Hannah sat as a writer some twenty years ago as I feel her craft has definitely evolved into something much grander of late than this particular title.)
• goodreads

"The Best Revenge" by Gerald Seymour

In the prologue a showcase Chinese missile test (involving non-GPS navigation) goes wrong. Colonel Jang Dong is consequently executed.

Jonas Merrick, 69 (a rusty loose cannon), works in London. MI6 Chinese Desk. He's married to Vera. Henrietta (Hen) is assigned to him - a shiny loose cannon.

Hired thugs jump a prisoner in transit near Manchester. But they get Reuven, the wrong man. He offers to do the job anyway - a killing.

Frankie (female, a defector) doesn't reveal who did a nasty deed on a Danish island until a hired stud, Peter, who used to be friends with her, gets a name from her - Jonas. The Russians want to kill him, but he barely figures on their records.

Jimmy Bolton, who's lived by Leamington Spa for 12 years having come from China (his father is still these, an executioner for the party), sponsors the local football team and runs a network of spies including Mary Lou, a pretty girl who gets secrets from clients. Quinton (a nerd who researches non-GPS navigation) is her latest target. MI6 have known about Jimmy for years. Mary Lou wouldn't mind running away with Quinton and starting a new life. Quinton's warned that Mary Lou might be a spy.

Hen delivers a blackmail threat to Jimmy - he's slept with a Chinese envoi's wife and they have photographs.

Frank escapes from her Russian room and wants to warn Jonas. She's recaptured.

The Russians have recruited 2 anti-establishment squatters to check out Jonas and host Reuven. Reuven likes being treated like a warrior but messes up the assassination, being mauled by a cat.

Jonas is about to go on a caravan holiday. He likes working behind the scene. Jimmy's taken in by the UK secret service just before the Chinese ones get him. He gives names and several spy rings are disbanded. The UK organisations are worried about rocking the boat but the US are delighted to have Jimmy. It's their appreciation that spares Jonas his job. Hen is upset because Mary Lou and Quinton kill themselves, and because Jonas didn't praise her.

Reuven follows the caravan and is about to kill Jonas when he's caught. His death is made to appear accidental. The Russian leader wanted Jonas' head delivered to him. A head was delivered and everybody was happy.

An enjoyable read.

Narrative sometimes switches rapidly between story-lines. Though it was an audio book I didn't have trouble with that.

Instead of a list of sentences with the same subject (e.g. "He had ... . He swept ... . He had ...") he chains them into a long sentence, mentioning the subject only once ("He had ..., swept ..., had ...). Even the Russian's thoughts are sometimes rendered in this way.

"he smiled to himself" appears. Fair enough I suppose.

Other reviews

• goodreads

"How the dead speak" by Val McDermid

An audio book.

Dr Tony Hill is in jail. He killed to spare Carol needing to kill. He's writing a book about psychological profiling. He offers to do a little series on the prison radio station. His mother Vanessa stole the chance of him knowing his father.

Mark Conway is a multi-millionnaire. He invites Jeezer, his cousin, to have a seat on the board of his favourite football team.

Stacey and Paula are part of the REMIT team. Stacey has a successful side job. Paula's ex-boss was Carol who's resigned. Rutherford is her new boss.

Tony doesn't want Carol to visit him (though Carol loves him?). He says she has PTSD. She used to drink too. She goes to Melissa, an alternative therapist. Vanessa visits Tony, saying that she's lost £5 million in a scam and wants Carol to get the money back. She thinks that Carol somehow rigged the situation so that Tony killed someone she wanted dead.

Dozens of children's skeletons are found in the grounds of an old convent/children's home closed 5 years before. The REMIT team investigates.

The defence barrister in Tony's case, Bronwen Scott, visits Carol, offering her a job because Carol impressed her. Scott investigates miscarriages of justice. Nielson ("deeper in the closet than Narnia") was convicted for murdering call-boy Lyle Tate, but a body was never found. Carol interviews him.

Mark goes around gay bars etc looking for "new talent".

The police try to contact the girls and nuns who were dispersed around the country and beyond. A girl says that the mother superior inflicted corporal punishment. The groundsman Jeezer says he was asked to bury bodies and that a priest asked him to prepare graves for destitute women who died in the city to give them a decent burial. More bodies are found - men who had plastic bags on their heads. The priest is brought in for questioning. He'd caught Jeezer peeping at the girls. His answers cast doubt on Jeezer's. Jeezer's cousin is Mark, who bought him his cottage and gives him perks on match days.

Paula visits Tony to get tips in how to approach Mark, who slept rough for a while.

Tony does some talks for Razor wireless, the prison channel. Then he starts a reading course, using kids books so that the prisoners can read to their kids. A prisoner takes offence and cracks his skull. Eleanor, a hospital doctor, is Carol's girlfriend. Tony's taken to her hospital.

Paula tracks down the con-man. Vanessa unexpectedly arrives with a knife and gets her money. Paula's disappointed by her own reaction, walks into the sea then changes her mind. Next day the therapist, Melissa, convinces her she's doing well.

One of the bodies is Lyle Tate's but there are newer ones so if there's a series killer, Nielson is innocent. The police interview the mother superior who says she saw Jeezer and Mark bury something late one night.

The police track Mark down. He dies in a car chase. Enough evidence is found to incriminate him.

The religious people are defensive, thinking that people are trying to extort money from them because of a few bad priests. The criminals don't like helping the police. The different police units are in competition.

The book doesn't depend on surprising us. The first chapter already gives clues about who the culprit is. Chapters are headed by extracts from Tony's book, so we know he survives.

I like the way she writes at a sentence level (except for "He wore flip-flops on his feet"). I learnt only late that this is the 11th in a series that's been going for decades. I guess that's why we don't get Venessa's backstory etc.

Other reviews

• Stuart Kelly (This is a novel much concerned with education, about how it can liberate and how it can be used as a weapon. ... The other thematic chord involves, as it usually does in McDermid’s work, the nature of power and the abuse of power.)
• Kate Vane (He’s also refusing to see Carol until she gets therapy. This, for me, is problematic ... just one unfortunate example of McDermid sacrificing the long-term integrity of her characters to make an immediate plot gain. ... McDermid is capable of so much better than this and I think she knows it. )

"The Englishman" by David Gilman

An audio book.

Someone's chased through a wood by gunmen.

There's a battle to occupy caves - helicopter gunships, French legionnaires, suicide jackets, and kids carrying messages between caves.

London, Carter (a banker, married to Amanda) leaves home with his step-son Stephen, driven by a chauffeur. He's kidnapped. The boy escapes.

McGuire (MI6) investigates. He sends Abby to find Raglin in France. While Abby's asleep, Raglin flies to England, finds the boy (who knows him as Dan) and takes the boy home (he and Amanda were brought up together). He meets McGuire, who he's done work for. Carter was in MI6 for years. McGuire thinks he's stealing money and may have rigged the kidnapping.

Abby's father is a legless Sikh. She becomes Raglin's driver. She's multilingual and has her father's taxi-driving knowledge of London.

JD is the interrogator. They kill their driver (who we'd learnt about) and move to a new location. They want names and addresses from Carter. Carter had left cryptic clues in his room and with his son. JD had been in the cave mission. He'd worked for the Russian secret service and had killed 4 Russian policemen. A Russian policewoman comes over to track down JD. Raglin sleeps with her.

Raglin finds their hide-out. Carter dies in his arms, having given some info away, but not the most important. Raglin finds JD who escapes by helicopter, Abby being killed. Raglin's convinced that Carter wasn't a traitor. McGuire still seems unsure.

JD is caught, but given a light sentence to placate the Russian police - The Russian secret police want to re-employ him. With the help of the Russian policewoman Raglin is arrested in Russia and is put into JD's prison. He kills JD and escapes. He's the one being chased through the wood at the start.

I liked much of this at the start, even the knife-fights. There's little tension/plot in the final section set in Russia.