At last, the last catch-up of books from this year:

The Confessions of Max Tivoli by Andrew Sean Greer
I really can't recommend this one highly enough. It is engaging, emotional and strangely believable, given the subject matter. For Max Tivoli lives his life backwards: or rather, he is born an old man, and becomes physically younger as he chronologically ages. It's also a moving love story, and it got to me the same way as The Great Gatsby does, because of that longing the author portrays so vividly.

Although it's a clever book, it's never self-conciously so. The narrator is so very human, it feels like a very personal book, and for that reason it pips The Dream of Scipio to be my favourite book of the year. It also contains a quote that has stayed with me all year, 'we are each the love of someone's life.'
(94.5/100)

Plain Truth by Jodi Picoult

Another Picoult novel, another annoying heroine, another courtroom drama, another good idea imperfectly executed. This one involves the Amish. I think she's slowly working her way through each and every US minority population.
(50/100)

As Meat Loves Salt by Maria McCann

I couldn't be bothered to read this book properly. It's a door-stop in hardback, and no wonder. McCann has done her research, and so she's gonna use it! Hence lengthy descriptions of everything from housing to a bloody marriage feast that had me asleep twice before I finished it (without a word of a lie). The protagonist, Jacob, seems to be an interesting character: a murderer so desperately in love with his wife of an hour that he beats and rapes her. But not interesting enough for me to wade through the turgid prose. So I skim read it, and was glad I hadn't wasted my time. This character is motiveless, from what I can see, just randomly acts out violence against those he supposedly loves (and those he doesn't), yet narrates as though he's Michael Palin (though who knows what darkness may lurk under THAT genial exterior!).

If you want to read about a violent, sexually-ambiguous maniac, American Psycho is at least well-written. If you want to sleep with irritatingly irrelevent details of the Civil War whizzing around your brain, you might want to try this.
(5/100)

More book catching up:

Fangland by John Marks

I read three books this month and this was the weakest, but it is still absolutely cracking. It's the story of how a vampire tries to take over the world through the medium of television. Which sounds as bizarre as it is, but the engaging central character means there is always a personal element tying the reader into the story. There's a nd to Bram Stoker in the way that the story is told from differing viewpoints and in different forms (diary, e-mail etc). The suspense is maintained throughout the story, and the ending is no disappointment.
(84/100)

The Interpretation of Murder by Jed Rubenfeld
Another excellent book. Psychotherapy meets thriller as Freud visits the USA. There's a murder, a near-murder, and a love story. The wekness of the novel is its denoument, because it was pretty obvious all the way through. I'd have liked more of a twist. I'd also have liked a more realistic depiction of Jung, who is particularly monstrous in this book. Freud, in contrast, is a genial old chap, and I somehow think the reverse would be nearer the truth.
(86/100)

The Testament of Gideon Mack by James Robertson
This was the best book of the month, and the questions it raised don't go away. Did the minister really meet the devil? If he did, is the devil as bad as he appears? Is God as good? Or was Gideon Mack merely insane?
(89/100)

From the Daily Mail:

Chief medical officer wants hospitals 'fined if they harm patients'

Hospitals should be fined if they harm patients, the Government's chief medical officer said yesterday.

Sir Liam Donaldson also suggested that hospitals where patients contracted superbugs could have to pay for any extra treatment.

At the launch of a report by the National Patient Safety Agency, he said: "Why should the Health Service, funded by the taxpayer, pay for the care of a patient that's had bad care?

"In any other walk of life if you receive very bad service then you don't pay for it, you get a refund, and I don't think it should be any different in the Health Service.

He's obviously never heard of Ryanair. Or Local Government. Or New Labour. I've received terrible service from this government, which has lost my personal details, including everything needed for someone to steal my identity and my child's. It has also reneged on promises to improve educational standards, and has gone 90% of the way to privatising the NHS when it promised it wouldn't. Where's my refund, Sir Liam?

The NHS, like government, is NOT a business, and it wastes money to run it as such. It is a public service. Like the railways, privatising it will create greater expense for the service users, with more safety and service problems.

"If somebody develops MRSA and has to stay in hospital longer to be treated, why should it be funded?"

He said that in the U.S., some states require hospitals by law to report medical errors.

Last month, Rhode Island Hospital was fined 50,000 dollars for performing "wrong site" surgery on a patient for the third time this year.

Sir Liam said similar systems should be brought in here which would act as an "incentive" for hospitals to provide better care.

When I began working in the NHS in the mid-80s, we often had visits from US healthcare managers who wanted to see how the NHS achieved so much on so little funding. They didn't take on much, because as businesses it wouldn't work. Everyone just mucked in, we were poorly funded, but basically we were left to get on with the job as we saw fit. There was a feeling that everyone was in it together: our hospital managers were well-known faces who were often on the wards and understood the difficulties faced by staff. We knew they'd help if they could, but were cash-strapped.

This isn't suitable for a business model, which is what the US healthcare system is. Fundholding managers want to feel in control because they have to report back to shareholders and make profit. Yet they are way distanced from their staff. Those making the financial decisions may never have seen a ward, they are relying on reports and statistics. So endless time is taken collecting data and meeting targets that are clinically pointless.

Primary care trusts could withhold some of the funding due to the hospital for the care of the individual affected, Sir Liam said.

So a hospital that is obviously already struggling will be made to struggle more. It doesn't take a brain surgeon to realise that this will only make infection rates and other tragedies resulting from malfunding even worse.

Malfunding is probably the best word to use, even if it might be a made up one. The NHS is now gobbling up resources, but the money is disappearing into the gaping maw of financial mismanagement, funding givernment targets and staff demoralisation: there's no feeling of wanting to muck in any more (eg by working routine unpaid overtime, not taking holiday, and working outside of job description) because for staff it is now them against the managers, who are seen as the agents of Government.

He would be recommending the idea to Lord Darzi, who is carrying out a review of the NHS.

Data from the NPSA revealed there were more than 700,000 "patient safety incidents" in the NHS in 2006/07.

In total, 6,558 incidents resulted in severe harm and another 40,665 caused moderate harm to patients. There were 2,929 deaths.

Last night the Department of Health insisted that it would not be taking forward Sir Liam's proposal to fine hospitals for poor quality care.

I suppose we should be thankful for small mercies.

But it added that under the NHS "operating framework" unveiled yesterday, PCTs would be able to charge hospital trusts if they failed to stick to locally-defined targets to reduce C.diff rates.

Charges would also apply to trusts which breached an 18-week waiting time target, due to be implemented by the end of next year.

Because it is so very important that one shouldn't wait more than 18 weeks to have one's ongrowing toenail removed. And an 18-week wait for a breast cancer operation really isn't anything to complain about.

Why the fuck don't the government piss off meddling in the NHS and go and do something useful, like looking for those missing computer discs, or even better, trying to find their long-discarded socialist principles?

Sorry to go back to Amy Winehouse again, but you can sort of see why the poor girl is a mess.

It's been my experience that those who abuse their bodies with drugs, drink etc, have one thing in common: problems within their family which result in them becoming 'the identified patient'. I include my own family in this, so I'm not being as arsey as I sound!

So it really pisses me off when I see or hear that publicity seeking father of hers pontificating about her all the time. He's been at it again this week, all over the papers and sounding off on Radio One about how she needs to/is going to rehab. And then there's his 'fight' with Pete Doherty. It's not Pete Doherty who brought her up.

Maybe if Mitch didn't feel so guilty and didn't feel such a need to justify himself, he'd be better able to deal with his daughter's problems in a way that might help her.

Really trying to catch up on my year's books now or we'll be into 2008 before I've finished my reviews for 2007.

Refuge by Gillian White
I really like Gillian White. She writes with suspense and an unobtrusive style that is still atmospheric. This is typical of her stuff, and the way she describes the emotions of Shelley, a mother whose son is accused of the motiveless killing of a baby, is brilliant. The family find themselves having to move from their home out to the country to escape the lynch mobs, and of course, there is more to the tale than meets the eye. Well worth reading.
(62/100)

An Empty Room by Talitha Stevenson
I loved this book. Stevenson captures exactly how it feels to be a young woman, in summer, in love with someone you shouldn't be. It's a short book, so no excuse not to read it!
(85/100)

Catch Me When I Fall by Nicci French
Typical workmanlike thriller, but as is so usual for me, I saw the 'twist' coming from pretty much the start, and it wasn't even difficult, given that French seemed to be telegraphing it from the start. The depiction of bipolar disorder was quite good though.
(53/100)

I've got a feeling I read another book this month but I can't for the life of me remember it!

Shopping For God by Roland Howard
This non-fiction book has the author trying out lots of different religious practices. It's an entertaining book, but ultimately pretty unsatisfying, because he gives the same short shrift to any and all religious practices he encounters, from Fundamentalist Christianity to Druidism to Buddhism to naturist commune dwellers.

It comes across as very much an exercise in journalism rather than a genuine quest to find spirituality. Howard refuses to throw himself into any of the practices, even for a short time. He always remains an observer, and that is a problem, because it is only by becoming a true participant and throwing yourself into it that you truly experience rituals, faiths and ways of life. You're not really experiencing a druidic ritual unless you are throwing yourself into it, heart and soul. You're not really able to understand the thrall fundamentalist christians find themselves in unless you suspend your disbelief and allow yourself to feel the fear of hell fires.

Since Howard didn't do this, we cannot properly judge the benefits and dangers of his experiences within the different faith groups. It's a shame Howard didn't realise this, because the concept of the book was excellent.
(45/100)

Resurrection Men by Ian Rankin
I've ended up reading two Rebus novels in three months this year, mainly due to the poor selection of books available at the local library (unless you are into romances and family sagas, but I tired of Catherine Cookson in my twenties). This one is by far the better of the two. It has at least three main strands of story going on: Rebus is sent for retraining after a petulant outburst has him throwing tea at his DCI. He and his compatriots are assigned a cold case, but not all of them are unconnected to it. Meantime Shiobhan is investigating the murder of an art dealer, and the Scottish Crime Squad are trying to send down Rebus' old 'friend' Big Ger Cafferty.

This book surprised me by how well-structured it was in comparison to the other Rebus books I've read. They're always entertaining, but this one actually surprised me, as I didn't see the ending coming at all.
It's not literature, but it's bloody entertaining.
(61/100)

Snow Blind by PJ Tracy
This is the third PJ Tracy book I've read, and it's my favourite so far, not least because the supremely irritating Grace McBride, heroine of the other novels I've read, has been pushed into the background at last, and the action centres on the detective team, Gino and Maggozzi. I simply like these two far more than I liked any of the Monkeewrench computer whizzes who dominate her other novels.

This book has you hooked from the opening. It's a real page-turner, especially once the first murder is revealed. It really is a stomach churner, and gets worse the more you think about it!

HOWEVER - it has to be said the outcome is predictable. Some may have found it otherwise, but anyone who reads as many thrillers as me will have it sussed by the half-way mark, if not sooner. Even so, it's interesting to see how the detectives get to the same point, and the suspense is maintained by other aspects of the plot.
(58/100)