Five in October

I read six books in October.

 

The Cracked Mirror by Chris Brookmyre

A mystery jointly investigated by a Scottish Miss Marple-type and a hardboiled Los Angeles cop? What a perfect mash-up! But then … this unsuspecting reader got caught up in pretty outlandish scenarios such as a volunteer-run library in rural Perthshire being stormed by gun-toting policemen … It’s a gripping read with some of Mr Brookmyre’s trademark humour. I enjoyed it and am still thinking about it but don’t ask me to explain the plot (wee hint: if you like video games you might be able to get your head round it).

 

I is for Innocent by Sue Grafton

Californian PI Kinsey Milhone is hired to re-investigate the case of a man accused of murdering his rich wife  – a crime for which a court has already acquitted him.

 

Same As Ever It Was by Claire Lombardo

I thought Claire Lombardo’s last (and first) book The Most Fun We Ever Had was amazing and I looked forward to reading this one. I still think her writing is brilliant and her characters seem so real – but I didn’t enjoy this one so much.

Now, I know that you don’t have to like a character for them to make good reading but here the intolerant and judgmental protagonist, Julia, is not the most congenial person to spend 492 pages with. Through flashbacks, however, we discover reasons for her wariness around other people and why, when she’s determined not to form friendships with her peer group, she’s happy when an older woman, Helen Russo, befriends her. But that friendship has consequences …

Lucky Julia, though, she’s married to Mark, ‘the nicest man on earth’ – and he really is devoted to her (no twist in the tale there).

They have two children, sweet, laid-back Ben who’s 24, and teenager Alma who’s a pain in the •••t. For example, when Julia croons in baby talk to her miniature daschund, Alma admonishes her mother, saying ‘Don’t police her emotions!’ And when Julia waves politely in thanks for a courtesy by a fellow driver, Alma rolls her eyes: ‘God, Mum, do you even know that man?’

But there you go – I wouldn’t have felt so annoyed by Alma if she hadn’t come over as a real person.

I’ll definitely read Claire Lombardo again.

 

 

The Mission House by Carys Davies

Reading this book means, sadly, that I am currently up-to-date with Carys Davies’ novels (following West and Clear). Unlike those two, which are set in the 19th century, this is contemporary (emails etc) – although, being set in a ‘mission house’ in India it does have a historic flavour to it.

Hilary Byrd, a middle-aged man, an English librarian, has always found life a little difficult. He takes himself to India and ends up at a mission house on a hill station in South India where he is taken in by the Padre and his adopted daughter Priscilla. But tensions are brewing down in the town which spell trouble for the mission house …

A wannabe country and western singer and a rescued horse provide some light relief. As ever, Carys Davies’ writing is spare yet colourful and compulsively readable.

 

Private Revolutions: Coming of Age in a New China by Yuan Yang 

Non-fiction, read for book group. To quote from the blurb: 'This is a book about the coming of age of four women born in China in the 1980s and 1990s, in a society about to transform beyond recognition.'

The author, born in China, became a financial journalist and is now a Labour MP in England. Absolutely fascinating.

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley

These many posts I’ve compiled on books I’ve read have never included any science fiction until now … although The Ministry of Time has also been described as comedic, literary, romantic and (unsurprisingly) genre-defying. It is all of these things. Oh, and time travel.

What sold it to me, though, was the inclusion of a real-life Victorian polar explorer, Commander Graham Gore. Polar exploration is a subject I’m fascinated by and here was such a massively different take on the subject.

Gore is on the point of death, on a failed expedition in the Arctic in 1847, when he is snatched and taken to a time in our near future. He’s part of an experiment – the others (all fictional) include, for example, a soldier who would have died on the Somme if he hadn’t been ‘rescued’. Each of the rescued is housed with a civil servant to learn all about the new era they have found themselves in – not just the technology but changed attitudes and world orders; they have a lot of history to catch up on.

As our female narrator’s relationship with the dashing Commander changes and she gets involved in the lives of the others who have landed here from the past, she begins to wonder what exactly the government is hoping to gain from the experiment and if it’s as benign as she’d been led to believe.

I couldn’t put it down. Perhaps hard-core science-fiction readers are less enamoured with it, I don’t know, but if you’re soft-core then I heartily recommend it.

Nine in July

I read nine books in July plus two ongoing as I said in my previous post. Which are still ongoing …

Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield

This is a glorious and gloriously written book I believe I shall return to again.

‘On a dark midwinter’s night in an ancient inn on the Thames, the regulars are entertaining themselves by telling stories when the door bursts open and in steps an injured stranger. In his arms is the drowned corpse of a child.

Hours later, the dead girl stirs, takes a breath and returns to life.’

‘On a dark midwinter’s night …’ – who could resist such an opening? Fabulous. It pinned me to my chair until the last word.

Burying Bad News (The Much Winchmoor Mysteries Book 3) by Paula Williams

Read on Kindle. Cosy crime. Cosy to read that is; probably it’s not a cosy feeling when you find a severed head – or for that matter you have your head severed …

Kat Latcham, reporter/barmaid/dog walker, gets involved in the aftermath of an argument between two warring neighbours. Along with a touch of humour and a dollop of romance this is a satisfying read. But I’d recommend that, as with St Mary’s Mead and Midsomer, you give Much Winchmoor a miss when you’re making holiday plans.

 

Notes From a Big Country by Bill Bryson

I’ve read this before, probably more than once. But I’m finding at the moment I’m not always up for a new read however enticing but want to sink into the comfort of the tried and tested. This is a collection of columns BB wrote for a British magazine when, after twenty years of living in Yorkshire, he moved back to the US at the end of the 1990s – and sees the country of his birth in a different light.

The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo

Read on Kindle. Can’t remember which book blogger mentioned this title but thanks very much whoever you were. I loved it. The Observer described it as ‘the love child of Jonathan Franzan and Anne Tyler’. I was sceptical about the Anne Tyler bit because that’s a very bold claim for AT fans to get on board with …

However, I was totally won over; it is Anne Tylerish albeit with graphic love scenes and lots of swearing.

Marilyn and David have the most stable marriage ever and are still crazy about each other after all these years – which is probably why their four grown-up daughters’ lives tend to be dysfunctional and secretive. How can their relationships ever live up to that of their parents’?

A first novel – I certainly hope there will be more.

 

And talking of the tried and tested … my next (re)reads are (if you were to twist my arm to choose two) my favourite Anne Tylers:

 

Ladder of Years

‘One warm summer’s day at the beach, forty-year-old Cordelia Grinstead, dressed only in a swimsuit and beach robe, walks away from her family and just keeps on going.’

 

Saint Maybe

‘When eighteen-year-old Ian Bedloe pricks the bubble of his family's optimistic self-deception, his brother Danny drives into a wall, his sister-in-law falls apart, and his parents age before his eyes. Consumed by guilt Ian finds the hope of forgiveness at the Church of the Second Chance.’

 

 

A Debt for Rosalie by Anne Stenhouse

A My Weekly Pocket Novel. It came out on 23 July and was available in selected WH Smiths and supermarkets for two weeks. However, if you ring DC Thomson 0800 904 7200 hopefully they will have some still for sale.

Rosalie has taken a job as the chef at Maldington House, a private hotel, following the collapse of her business and the end of her relationship with Steve (these two facts being unfortunately connected). And just when she’s getting on nicely with David, the dishy hotel owner, Steve turns up like a bad penny.

There are serious issues discussed here, albeit with a light touch, and a great sense of place.

 

Our Castle by the Sea by Lucy Strange

I adored Lucy Strange’s first book The Secret of Nightingale Wood, set just after the First World War.

Our Castle by the Sea takes place during the Second World War. Pet and her older sister Mags have been brought up in the cottage by the lighthouse in Kent where their father is keeper. With a war raging at sea, and their German mother interned, life becomes very grim for the girls especially when it becomes clear that there is a saboteur in the village.

Terrific, although for me not quite so tear-inducing as Nightingale Wood.

 

Fulfilment by Anne Stormont, the Skye Series Book 3

Read on Kindle. The third in the trilogy about Rachel and Jack, following Displacement and Settlement. It was good to catch up with the two main characters as they continue to work out their relationship – which is complicated by the mental health issues ex-policeman Jack has following a horrific attack on him. You could read this even if you haven’t read the others as you can pick up on earlier happenings – but much better to start at the beginning and follow Rachel and Jack on their complicated journey to their <spoiler alert> happy ever after.

There’s a great sense of place – whether that’s in Skye where Rachel and Jack live or in Israel where Rachel goes to visit her brother; they are Jewish through their mother’s side of the family. She also goes there for work reasons as she has been putting together an anthology of writings intended to help promote peace in that part of the world. With that and with Jack wanting to help youngsters who’ve had a bad start in life there are important and topical themes explored here along with the love story. Highly recommended.

Apologies for any oddities of spacing etc in this post – Blogger has a new 'interface' I am still getting to grips with.