Nine in October

 I read nine books in October.

 

House of Glass by Hadley Freeman

When she was a small child, in the early 80s, American-born Hadley Freeman’s parents and paternal grandmother took her to Paris where some of her father’s elderly relatives lived, the one and only time she saw them. Much later, when her grandmother died, she found a shoebox of photographs and keepsakes that led her to research those relatives’ lives which had begun in Poland. Hounded out in a pogrom they fled to France where they were safe – until the 1930s and the rise of Nazi-ism. And the rest, as sadly we know, is history.

This is an amazing feat of detective work and piecing together all the back stories to bring her ancestors to life – and comes up to the present day when she meets distant cousins her own age and feels they already know each other.

The ties that bind.

 

A Dry Spell by Clare Chambers

I said last month that In a Good Light was my favourite of Clare Chambers’ backlist and so it was until I read this one.

‘In 1976 four students took a trip to the desert. Now the repercussions of that fateful summer are coming back to haunt them.’

We drove down to London in October to visit family. We’d hardly started our return journey when we encountered a traffic jam (on the M25 if you’re the sort of person who likes to know these things) and four hours later we were only three miles. I wasn’t one of the drivers and was very grateful for my Kindle and for Clare Chambers whose characters removed me to another place and kept me very good company.

 

Bright Girls by Clare Chambers

Having read Small Pleasures and then all Clare Chambers’ backlist I only had one more title of hers to go – this contemporary and very enjoyable YA novel of two sisters, very different in personality, who have to go and stay with a relatively unknown aunt in Brighton for the summer because their home has become too dangerous to stay in.

 

The Hating Game by Sally Thorne

‘Lucy Hutton and Joshua Templeman sit across from each other every day . . . and they hate each other. Not dislike. Not begrudgingly tolerate. HATE. Lucy can't understand Joshua's joyless, uptight approach to his job and refusal to smile. Joshua is clearly baffled by Lucy's overly bright clothes, quirkiness, and desire to be liked.

Now they're up for the same promotion and Lucy, usually a determined people-pleaser, has had enough: it's time to take him down. But as the tension between Lucy and Joshua reaches its boiling point, it's clear that the real battle has only just begun . . .’

Described as ‘Charming, self-deprecating, quick-witted and funny’ by the New York Times, with which I agree. I see that it’s going to be a film – I wonder how that will work as so much of the story is inside Lucy’s head.

 

To all appearance, dead by Liz Filleul

I know of LF as a fellow women’s magazine writer. When she happened to mention in an interview that she’d written two cosy crimes set in the world of ‘GO’ books (Girls’ Own, eg the Chalet School series), I was very intrigued.

Goodness, I knew from some online GO forums that there are some keen collectors out there but if this is to be believed some of them will stop at nothing … great fun.

 

Sweet Sorrow by David Nicholl

On the aforementioned visit south we visited Sir Winston Churchill’s house at Chartwell. In the grounds there was a second-hand bookshop with an honesty box and luckily I had some change with me to buy this.

Charlie has just left school. He is at a loose end and hates his home situation – his mother has left, taking his sister, and he lives with his morose dad. The last thing on his mind is Shakespeare … but when he meets and fancies Fran he gets involved in a production of Romeo and Juliet. She is Juliet; he is not Romeo.

The book certainly improved my knowledge of the play too. I loved this line especially:

Night's candles are burnt out, and jocund day / Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.

 

Family Album by Penelope Lively

A family of six children with a there-but-not-there father and a rather monstrous mother who wishes they were still little and who turns a blind eye to anything that doesn’t suit her view of things eg the behaviour of Paul the eldest, and the parentage of Clare the youngest.

Told in alternate viewpoints by the siblings, it’s cleverly constructed but as there is no principle character and no over-arching plot I found it all rather unengaging.

 

Love All by Elizabeth Jane Howard

And the same goes for this one, from another literary grande dame. I have liked other titles of hers especially The Beautiful Visit and Something in Disguise and loved the Cazalet Chronicles but this, her last novel, left me cold. Same structure as Family Album in being told by different characters but some of whom only made fleeting appearances and were never seen from the point of view of others. None of them get a happy ending.

It didn’t help that Persephone – a lovely name when you see it written down although I can see it’s a trifle cumbersome to say – is known as Percy which does not look lovely written down. And she was such a wet hen; I didn’t believe in her at all. In fact the only character who did seem to be made of flesh and blood was the child Harriet. Disappointing.

 

A Darker Domain by Val McDermid

Crime to finish with – this one is in the Karen Pirie series of cold-case solving. Ultimately, the plot seemed very far-fetched but VD keeps you turning the pages so I’ll forgive her.