Seven in November

  I read seven books in November.

Connective Tissue by Eleanor Thom

I love books by someone tracing their hitherto unknown family history. This is couched as a novel because Eleanor Thom has had to fill in gaps but in essence it’s her finding out about her mother’s side of the family. Her grandmother, Jewish single mother Dora, lives in Berlin in 1937 and because of her father’s immigration status finds that she is ‘stateless’ and is forced to move to the UK to work as a domestic servant – as it turns out of course that means that she lives while relatives she leaves behind do not. 

‘Helena’, as the book’s protagonist is called, decides to find her long lost family after the birth of her baby who has an unexplained medical condition, echoing the author’s own experience.

 

This is Eleanor Thom’s second book; her first, The Tin-Kin, explored in fiction her grandfather’s, (Dora’s husband) side of the family.

 

The Lady of the Manse by Lavinia Derwent

The Mouse in the Manse by Lavinia Derwent

 

 Lavinia Derwent is (or was) best known for her books for children, including the Sula series, but these are autobiographical. They are an easy, nostalgic read but kind of make you gasp when you think about it. In her late teens, Lavinia (although that wasn’t her real name) found herself ‘the lady of the manse’ when her minister brother got his first charge and needed a housekeeper. With very little money, and none at all for her own use, she looked after the large, draughty manse and in addition to housework and cooking had to fulfil various parish duties.

 

One amusing story is that of a neighbour’s boy, ‘Wee Wullie’, who is in awe of the young red-haired minister, believing him to actually be God.

 

It doesn’t cross her mind not to do as her family wanted and it did lead to her career; to make some pin money she began to write articles. 

 

(The pb of The Lady is expensive online; mine came from a shop swap-box.)

 

Again, Rachel by Marian Keyes

 

 Twenty years after Rachel’s Holiday comes a sequel and it’s worth the wait. What happened after she got out of rehab and married Luke? Are they still married? And what about her mad-as-a-box-of-frogs family? Well, they still are mad but that’s all I’m going to say, no spoilers.

 

 Exiles by Jane Harper

 

The third book to feature Aaron Falk (following The Dry and Force of Nature); set in small town Australia. Aaron is actually a forensic accountant but he gets involved in the case of a missing woman when he goes to stay with a friend. Excellent, as are the other two.

 

The Wayward Miss Wyckenham by Melinda Hammond

 

‘Miss Clarissa Wyckenham comes to London to live with her pretty step-mama and finds that Mama-Nell has formed a discreet club for ladies. Soon she is pitched headlong into the scandalous antics of the Belles Dames Club, and finds herself in conflict with the disapproving Lord Alresford … ’

A very enjoyable eighteenth-century adventure and romance.

 

Skelton’s Guide to Domestic Poisons by David Stafford

 

Arthur Skelton has gone from being an unremarkable barrister to a much sought after one after winning ‘the legal case of the century’. Now he is charged with defending a woman accused of poisoning her husband. The story itself is satisfying but it’s the characters that make the book– Arthur has several wonderful sidekicks and the dialogue is wonderful.

Five in October

I read five books in October.

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the Women’s Prize, a world best-seller – Demon needs no accolades from me but I’ll give them anyway.

Apparently Barbara Kingsolver had finished a novel and wondered what to write next. While in London she visited the Charles Dickens Museum in London and was inspired to follow the structure of David Copperfield and write a version for the late 20th/early 20th century. Demon (a ‘variation’ of his name, Damon) Copperhead (red hair) is the child of a teenage, drug-addicted, single mother … don’t want to give spoilers so I’ll just say that his life gets worse before it gets better.

Demon’s home territory (also the author’s), Appalachia, was and is in the grip of the opioid epidemic that has ruined so many lives. The book is not for the faint-hearted (and it’s almost 600 pages) but it is so worth the effort. It follows the structure of its predecessor and many of the names are similar but you don’t need to have read D Copperfield to appreciate it.

It has its funny and its tender moments amidst the darkness, and wonderful characters – Angus and Tommy are two of my favourites from all the books I’ve ever read.

I found to begin with I could read only fifty pages at a time; it was such an intense experience. But I raced through the last two hundred, eager to follow Demon’s extraordinary young life.

An amazing act of literary ventriloquism.

 

Godmersham Park by Gill Hornby

 And now for something completely different … I loved this author’s Miss Austen, a fictional account of the reasons why Jane Austen’s beloved sister Cassandra burnt their correspondence.

 Here, she revisits Austenland (that crowded country … ) with an imagining of the life of a real person, Anne Steele, who tutored Jane Austen’s nieces and nephews, the children of her well-off brother Edward Knight. Hard to believe it’s not true. ‘Anne’ is such a well-realised character and her relationship with her employer’s sister Jane is delightful.

 

One Day I Shall Astonish the World by Nina Stibbe

 Like many people I thoroughly enjoyed Love From Nina, the real letters sent by the author to her sister back home in Leicestershire during the time (in the early 1980s) she was employed as a mother’s help in fashionable Camden, where she met many famous people of whose existence she had never heard before – for example, Alan Bennett used to frequently pop in at supper-time and the event would be pithily reported by young Miss Stibbe.

 So I had high hopes of this novel which came adorned with excited quotes from many big-name authors testifying to its side-splittingness. 

 Reader, I did not crack a smile, not once. It’s billed as ‘the ebb and flow of female friendship over half a lifetime’. But Susan only has one friend, the toxic Norma. She also has a not very happy marriage and a difficult daughter. More a tragedy than a comedy if you ask me.

 

Ruth Robinson’s Year of Miracles by Frances Garood

 Musician Ruth (35) had plans to go travelling with her best friend but now she’s discovered she’s pregnant by her lovely colleague Amos – who seems to have disappeared off the face of the earth, or at least the face of social media, and is uncontactable.

 Her disapproving religious parents suggest she go and stay with her twin uncles until the baby is born. Perhaps it’s not very original to say that a book has ‘quirky’ characters but I think the epithet is appropriate here – the uncles, the cleaner and her family, the animals, and oh yes, the Virgin Mary who puts in an appearance.

 

Bluethroat Morning by Jacqui Lofthouse

 I was attracted to this book in a charity shop because of its title – I believe that it means that time of the morning equivalent to twilight in the evening, the point between dark and light.

 Anyway, about it’s Harry Bliss, in his fifties. His much younger wife, Alison, took her own life six years earlier – she was a very famous model turned writer. He’s still being hounded by the press, by one reporter in particular. He decides to search for the reasons for the suicide and is accompanied on that quest by a colleague’s student daughter who is rather obsessed with dead Alison’s glamour. An affair ensues between them, very much encouraged, indeed initiated by the girl … but still –  it left a bit of a nasty taste.

 Described as a ‘literary thriller’. I’d agree with the first word but not the second. Disappointing.

 

Death at the Three Sisters by Jo Allen

The Three Sisters is a run-down spa on the edge of a lake. A young member of staff comes to a grisly end – why would anyone want to kill her?

Number 10 in the DCI Jude Satterthwaite detective series set in the Lake District. As usual, a satisfying mystery plus an update on Jude’s private life.

Six in September

I read six books in September.

There’s no coming back from this by Ann Garvin

I got a book by this author a few months ago, I thought you said this would work, one of my monthly free e-books courtesy of Amazon Prime. Enjoyed it (love a road trip book). In this one, single-mom Poppy has to earn money fast to make sure her daughter can go to college but when, through an ex-boyfriend, she gets a job in the costume department on a major movie it seems she’s bitten off more than she can chew. Fast-paced fun.

 

Don’t forget to write by Sara Goodman Confino

Another author I’ve acquired after reading a free e-book. This one is set in the 1960s. I loved it.

‘When Marilyn Kleinman is caught making out with the rabbi’s son in front of the whole congregation, her parents ship her off to her great-aunt Ada for the summer. If anyone can save their daughter’s reputation, it’s Philadelphia’s strict premier matchmaker’.

 

Murder among the roses by Liz Fielding

An excellent cosy crime, the first in a series, set in the Cotswold town of Maybridge.

‘Abby is horrified to discover the bones of a baby buried under a rose bush. It’s in the garden of her soon-to-be ex-husband Howard’s family home.’

 

The Easternmost House by Juliet Blaxfield

The author lives in, yes, the easternmost house in England, on the Suffolk coast – but for how long who knows? I’d imagined erosion would happen slowly, an inch a year maybe, but no, sometimes a foot of land disappears overnight.

Beautifully written and a lovely book in itself, a soft paperback with flaps and an illustration and a poem or quote at the beginning of each chapter.

 

The Easternmost House by Juliet Blaxfield

One of the most depressing books I’ve ever read (and I speak as someone who is currently reading Demon Copperhead). It was a shock given that I adore EMD’s Diary of a Provincial Lady books and regularly reread them, enjoying her wry humour.

The exact time for this one is not spelt out but probably early Edwardian.

Cosseted only child Monica is eighteen but has no agency – her mother determines what she will wear, eat, who she can be friends with, even when she should get up in the morning. Monica acquiesces because she is just about to come out as a debutante. Maybe she’ll get a proposal from someone wonderful at her first ball! Or if not, well, as long as she gets engaged and soon to someone – ‘any husband is better than none’.

On reading the Afterword in the Virago edition I think this is meant to be a parody of life for girls in the upper echelons in that era but I found no humour in it. Well, except maybe at the end when, shockingly still a spinster in her mid-twenties (having got herself talked about), our Monica accepts the offer of marriage from an old (old) family friend and on their wedding day she hopes fervently that she will give him a son – I’m pretty sure she has no idea how that will be achieved …

Why depressing? Well, thinking about the stifled lives women lived of course, but also listening to the news more than a hundred years later – are we going to have to go back to having chaperones for girls to keep them safe?

 

Think of me by Frances Liardet

I loved We must be brave, not just the story but Frances Liardet’s writing. And so it was with her new one.

‘James Acton has come to the village of Upton to begin again. As his grief over the death of his wife eases, he hopes to find new purpose as the vicar of this small, Hampshire parish, still emerging from the long shadow of the war.’

I was some way into when it began to dawn on me that some characters from We must be brave are here too which added extra enjoyment.

 

Five in August

I read five books in August.

Penintent by Mark Leggatt

When brilliant Edinburgh lawyer Hector Lawless is approached by his boss with a highly sensitive case that reaches from one of Edinburgh’s most exclusive private schools to 10 Downing Street, he relishes the chance to bring true evil to justice. But the commission is not what it seems …

A (sadly) very timely thriller which, at the time of writing, has been longlisted for the prestigious McIlvanney Prize, Bloody Scotland’s annual award for the best Scottish crime book of the year.

Of extra interest if you know Edinburgh and its environs but still thrilling if you don’t.

 

A Home from Home by Veronica Henry

A modern nod to Romeo and Juliet. ‘Dragonfly Farm has been a home and a haven for generations of Melchiors – arch rivals to the Culbones, the wealthy family who live on the other side of the river. Life there is dictated by the seasons and cider-making, and everyone falls under its spell.’ A fun read although the ending seemed rushed.

 

Happy Place by Emily Henry

I didn’t enjoy this one as much as I did Book Lovers. I thought it was overly long and the ending took a bit of swallowing; also the group of friends in their ‘happy place’ was so tight knit that this reader felt she was being kept at arms length.

But the promise of a beach cottage in Maine is always going to reel me in and EH’s dialogue is once again terrific.

 

A Keeper by Graham Norton

‘It’s not a crime novel,’ said the person who passed this on to me. So I started it in bed about half past ten, expecting to be lulled to sleep by a charming Maeve Binchy-esque story. And indeed there were echoes of much-missed Maeve and the writing was terrific but, far from being lulled, I was still turning the pages at midnight, my heart pounding at what was unfolding. 

I will say no more – read it for yourself – and I’ll definitely read more of Graham Norton’s books but I’ll start them well, well, before the witching hour.

 

The Borrowers by Mary Norton

I always preferred stories about real children when I was a child myself but one exception was The Borrowers. My sister and I both adored the first book (didn’t know at the time that there were anymore) and spent hours making a kind of Borrower village with our dolls’ house, Noah’s ark and constructions made from toilet roll cardboard and anything else that could be pressed into service.

So I grabbed this omnibus when I saw it in a charity shop. I delighted again in their ingenuity – Pod using a hatpin to scale the curtain, for example – and still find it hard to believe (as I try to find a paper clip or that little pencil I could swear I just put down) that they don’t exist … (do they??)

I enjoyed the further adventures of Pod, Homily and Arrietty (and there are dark and heart-stopping moments amongst all the lovely details) but the first one will always be closest to my heart.

 

Seven in July

I read seven books in July.

 

 

The Shell House Detectives by Emylia Hall 

Ally Bright, retired and recently widowed, and a young ex-cop, Jayden Weston, satisfactorily solve the mystery of a young man found dead at the foot of a cliff near their village on the Cornish coast. An unlikely but excellent duo of (semi-) amateur sleuths plus some lovely writing. Book 1 in a new series; would definitely read more.

 

 

Doors Open by Ian Rankin

A standalone IR title, a crime caper really – a heist of Scotland’s National Gallery pictures from its overflow store which is open once a year on Doors Open Day. Good fun, especially for Edinburghers I think.

 

 

 Fool for Love by Eloisa James

A Regency novel: ‘Lady Henrietta Maclellan longs for the romantic swirl of a London season. But as a rusticating country maiden, she has always kept her sensuous nature firmly under wraps – until she meets Simon Darby.’ Interestingly, Eloisa James is a Professor of English Literature in New York.

 

Touch not the Cat by Mary Stewart

I thought I had read all Mary Stewart’s books but this one caught my attention at the Christian Aid Book Sale this year. Not my favourite (which is Airs Above the Ground) because I wasn’t that keen on the rather supernatural element here – the family whose members can speak to each without words. But otherwise it’s vintage Mary Stewart. (I couldn't find a picture of mine – the cover isn't nearly as nice as this one.)

‘Touch not the cat bot [without] a glove’, by the way, is the motto of the Scottish Clan Chattan, to which, courtesy of my maiden name, I belong.

 

The Boy Who Loved Books by John Sutherland

A biography/memoir by the Emeritus Lord Northcliffe Professor of Modern English Literature at University College. His distinguished title and career belie his beginnings which were poor both financially and emotionally. His mother, widowed when he was a small boy, was a wonderful character but not a wonderful mother, and time spent farmed out to an unpleasant aunt in Edinburgh left him with a bad impression of the city although he did return to teach in the University.

Luckily, he discovered books. Unfortunately, he also discovered that he had a great capacity for alcohol. In the second half of the book I’d have like more about the former and less of the latter.

 

Found in a Bookshop by Stephanie Butland

I adored Lost for Words which came out in 2017 and featured Loveday Cardew, a troubled young woman whose refuge is the second-hand bookshop she works in. In Found in a Bookshop we meet her again – and now she’s inherited the shop. But, a big but – it’s 2020. No one can come in. She hits on the idea of a ‘book pharmacy’ – people can tell her, and her assistant, Kelly, what ails them emotionally and they will give a list of recommendations. Chosen titles can be posted or (cautiously) delivered.

Some customers are given more space than others such as the elderly devoted couple George and Rosemary.

For many years to come, I’ve no doubt, there will be novels set in the pandemic years. One written so close to the event has an authenticity and was a raw, perhaps understandably rather overwrought, reminder of that time. I liked it well enough (especially the books lists) but I didn’t adore it.

 

 

The Pear Affair by Judith Eagle

A delightful story aimed at the 9+ age group which, I’ll let you know, includes me ….

'When Penelope Magnificent's awful parents tell her they're taking a trip to Paris, she surprises them by begging to go along.’ 

Her ulterior motive is to look for her much-loved former au pair Perrine (‘Pear’) and there follows adventures both above and below ground in the French capital.