Five in June

 I read five books in June.

 

 The Correspondent by Virginia Evans

I bought this lovely hardback copy with a birthday book token a few weeks ago. The book has since won the Women’s Prize for Fiction, which I was delighted to see as it shows that the demise of the epistolary novel was announced too soon …

Several of my very favourite novels are written in letter form: I’ve reread The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society twice, 84 Charing Cross Road (many times) and Daddy Long-Legs (many times).

Will I reread The Correspondent? At the moment I’m thinking that I will not.

The life story of the irascible 73-year-old Sybil Van Antwerp is told through the letters she writes to family members, famous authors and neighbours etc etc and I really liked that structure.

But there was almost too much – the death of her small son for which she has carried guilt, her law career and a decision that comes back to haunt her, the fact that she was adopted and discovers her origins through DNA, a rift with her daughter, her two current suitors, and more.

Maybe I was irked by the fact that seventy-three is presented as being truly ancient (!) instead of just over our allotted span …

I liked it but I thought I would love it.

 

The Impossible Fortune by Richard Osmond

Number five in the Thursday Murder Club. In which lovely Joyce acquires a son-in-law … and helps Elizabeth, Ibrahim and Ron solve a billion pound mystery.

 

 

The Hallmarked Man by Robert Galbraith

Have been saving this almost-1000-pager (hardback bought in charity shop) for a free weekend so I could binge – and binge I did. Couldn’t tell you the ins and outs of the complicated plot but it was an enjoyable forty-eight hours following Strike and Robin find out who was the dead man in the silver vault – and how their own relationship is (or is not) progressing.

 

 

A Journey of a Kind by Aimée Chalmers

This is a beautifully written and produced, self-published novel given to me by a friend – Aimée Chalmers is a friend of hers.

The protagonist, Thea, recalls the year she spent as a young woman, fleeing from her life in Scotland, to teach English in Greece.

Sadly, although it’s listed on Amazon and on various bookshop online sites, its status is currently given as ‘unavailable’; I don’t know why. Worth asking for in your local bookshop – ISBN 9781036954130.

 

 

The News From Dublin by Colm Toibin

Short stories, or in some cases, long short stories, set in Ireland, Spain, Argentina and Catalonia.

Look forward to hearing him speak about the collection next month at the Edinburgh International Book Festival (now sold out).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Six in November

I read six books in November.

You are here by David Nicholls

What bliss to travel west to east across the north of England, up and down the fells … vicariously that is, in the very good company of Michael and Marnie. Michael, 42, unhappily separated from his wife, is a geography teacher who sometimes forgets he’s not in the classroom. Marnie, 38, is thankfully divorced but trying to persuade herself she’s fine on her own.

As ever, David Nicholls’ dialogue is a joy as are the inner thoughts of both characters (I particularly enjoyed Marnie’s opinion of trousers that unzip at the knees).

If a Netflix series is in the offing so much the better. (Lovely Lesley Manville, if a bit younger, would be perfect as Marnie; I kept seeing her as I was reading.)

 

Redeeming the Reclusive Earl by Virginia Heath

 

A Regency with an amateur archaeologist, Effie, for a heroine. Reclusive owner, Max Aldersley, Earl of Rivenhall, disfigured in a fire and cast off by his fiancée, banishes her from his estate but when she returns and carries on digging he can’t help being interested in what she’s uncovered. However, he’s determined she’ll never reach the man beneath the scars.

 

I also had two comfort re(re)reads, to avoid the news:

 

 

Some Tame Gazelle by Barbara Pym

 

In my top ten of all the books I’ve ever read. Reading it (yet) again is like finding even more out about people you know well. If you’ve never read BP start with this one.

 

The Herb of Grace by Elizabeth Goudge

 

My paperback copy is a battered Hodder Paperback, third impression of the edition first published in 1965, but the link is for the e-book. She won’t be to everyone’s taste – there’s a lot of philosophising (some of which I skip I must confess) but I love her landscape and house descriptions and the relationships between the characters.

 

The Blackwater Lightship by Colm Toibin

 

Published in 1999 and short-listed for the Booker Prize.

This is the sad story of Declan dying of Aids in Ireland in the 1990s and unable any longer to keep this from his family especially his beloved sister Helen. It’s always a pleasure to read Colm Toibin’s writing but (thankfully, because of medical advances) the novel seems dated now.

 

 

10 Scotland Street by Leslie Hills

 

The mostly fascinating story of an Edinburgh home and those who lived in it (including the author) over two hundred years – including booksellers, silk merchants, sailors, preachers and politicians. Amazing amount of research, but far too many tangents which makes for reader confusion. Especially interesting to those who know Edinburgh.

Six in August

I read six books in August.

 

Long Island by Colm Toibin

The sequel to Brooklyn. It’s now 1976. Eilis and her husband Tony and their two children live in Long Island, in the same cul-de-sac as Tony’s parents and two brothers. A marriage crisis sees Eilis going back to Ireland and her mother’s house in Enniscorthy for her first visit in twenty years.

No further spoilers. It was such a pleasure to revisit these characters and Colm Toibin’s writing about them. I had the privilege of hearing him talk about the book at the Edinburgh International Book Festival this year (frankly, I could listen to him read the telephone directory). He said he’d loved the film of Brooklyn to the extent that he took some characteristics that Domhnall Gleeson gave to Jim, and brought them out in Long Island.

And that gorgeous lyrical writing? The minute he’s written anything flowery or introspective he deletes it … and pares down and pares down … 

 

A Coronet for Cathie by Gwendoline Courtney

I love to reread my favourite girls’ books. One I know almost off by heart is Elizabeth of the Garrett Theatre by GW and several others of hers are a nostalgic read too. I’d never read this one; it seemed unavailable but has just been reissued by the wonderful Girls Gone By Publishers.

Teenage orphan Cathie learns that, following the death of a previously unknown relative, she is now a duchess and has a castle to live in … The book then turns into more of a school story. Cathie manages to avoid having her lineage known when she attends a day school some distance away – that certainly sorts out the snobs from the nice girls!

And continuing on the comfort reads, a couple of L M Montgomerys – The Story Girl and The Golden Road with their bewitching story-spinning heroine Sara Stanley.

 

 

Lady of Quality by Georgette Heyer

Unmarried at thirty, wealthy Annis Wychwood defies convention and sets up her own household in Bath. She unexpectedly finds herself in loco parentis to seventeen-year-old Lucilla whose guardian is the much-gossiped about rake Oliver Carleton.

 

Bellman and Black by Diane Setterfield

I’m not that keen on ghost/slightly supernatural stories except if they’re written by Diane Setterfield … Her Once Upon a River is wonderful, even better than this one..

Here, William Bellman kills a rook with a catapult when he’s ten and thereby alters the course of his life. Rising from poverty to become a very rich businessman entirely through his own astonishing acumen, when his child is dying he enters into a kind of pact with the mysterious Mr Black.

Apart enjoying the story, I learnt many things from this book especially about rooks and the over-the-top mourning clothes and accoutrements the Victorians went in for. Highly recommended.

 

 

Six in December

I read six books in December.

The Blackwater Lightship by Colm Toibin

I’ve been a fan of CM’s since reading Brooklyn (made into a great film starring Saoirse Ronan, albeit with a slightly different ending). This one is set in Ireland in the 1990s. Declan is dying, and that brings together the women of his family – his sister, mother and grandmother, between whom relations have been strained for a long time. He is so good on family dynamics; for me though this book lacked the warmth and touches of humour that made Brooklyn so wonderful.

The Second Stage of Grief by Katherine Heyton

Read on Kindle. A police series set in New Zealand. I read the first in this series last month and the second one was just as good. Gritty and page-turning:

Ngaire Blakes is trying to put her life back together. The ex-cop resigned from the police after a vicious assault left her battling PTSD. Dragged into a murder investigation, she’s shocked to discover that all the evidence points to her.

Noreen and the Barclay Affair by Helen Dawson

Another book set in New Zealand, this time a children’s one with a great cover – I pounced on it in a charity shop. However, the story about Noreen, a girl who works in her aunt’s detective agency, was, I’m sorry to say, dire. Implausible plot to say the least and the aunt is barely mentioned – she is got out of the way in various unlikely scenarios so that Noreen can do the ‘detecting’. Still like the cover though …

The Pen and Pencil Girls by Clare Mallory

Another children’s title and set in New Zealand, although really it could be set anywhere. Six schoolgirls form a club to write and illustrate stories. One of them is set the task of typing the stories up for a competition. I learned to type myself on a manual machine with seven – seven – carbon copies (under the eye of a very strict teacher) so could sympathise with the pains she took. The book was first published in 1948; this edition is a reissue from the wonderful Girls Gone By Publishers.

Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald

I’d read reviews of this and have long wanted to read it – not knowing this, my dear d-in-l surprised me by giving me a copy which I proceeded to read in a couple of sittings. 

Sara is Swedish and has been made redundant from the bookshop she has worked in for ten years. She has been having correspondence with an elderly lady in a sleepy small town in Iowa which culminates in an invitation to visit. Not to give too much away – but Sara’s arrival and her love of books draws the town’s eccentric inhabitants together. I love books set in small-town America and I liked all the booky references. Sara’s slow-burning relationship with Tom was very believable. My favourite character though was ‘Poor George’ and his fatherly longing for the daughter of his faithless wife. Recommended …

The Virago Book of Christmas edited by Michelle Lovric

Curl up with a tantalising volume that fives full rein to the seditious humour, peculiar discomforts and exquisite social tortures of the season.

Some familiar and loved authors of mine here – Elizabeth Goudge, Agatha Christie and Laurie Graham for example – and many new to me. Among my favourite pieces was an extract from Winifred Foley’s memoir A Child in the Forest in which she – eventually – comes to love her home-made rag doll. And one unexpected pleasure was Jane Welsh Carlyle’s letter to a friend telling of ‘the very most agreeable party I was ever at in London’ where the company included Charles Dickens doing conjuring tricks.

The problem with anthologies – and I am working my way through The Virago Book of Food too – is the discovery of new authors. So little time, so much to read …

On that note, a very Happy New Year to you.

Nine in November

I read nine books in November.

The Hourglass Factory by Lucy Ribchester

Read on Kindle, for book group. This is a debut novel, set in London at the height of suffragette movement. The main character, Frankie, is a tomboy reporter who lives hand to mouth, always with an eye for a big story. The plot has many twists and turns, possibly too many, but the period feel is excellent – shades of Sarah Waters, and Frankie is a great character; I hope there will be more books about her. Most of the book group had been to see the film Suffragettes, so there was a good discussion about the subject; both the book and the film got a thumbs-up.

One Night at the Jacaranda by Carol Cooper.

Read on Kindle. Sounds as if it’s set somewhere hot and steamy but no – although steaminess in other forms does come in to the story. The Jacaranda is the venue for a speed-dating event in London and the book then follows each of the participants as they meet up afterwards. This meant that there were a lot of characters – I found it hard to care very much about any of them.

Flight to Coorah Creek by Janet Gover

An intriguing strapline – What happens when you can fly, but you just can’t hide?

Jessica Pearson starts a new job flying an air ambulance in and out of Coorah Creek in the Australian outback – a position that suits her as she’s running away from a very difficult situation. The resident doctor Adam Gilmore has his own secrets. Throw another runaway, Ellen, and her children, into the town on the edge of nowhere; eventually all the secrets emerge. 

A flying doctor romance – what’s not to like?

We go to the gallery

This was the first book to subvert the Ladybird brand;  the Ladybird publishers were not pleased but then took up the idea themselves – a hoot.

 

I blogged here about books I liked in which patchwork is a theme. I’ve just discovered Sandra Dallas so a lot more ‘patchwork books’ are going to be added to that list. Also, most of her books are set during the American Depression, an era I find fascinating to read about.

Prayers for Sale by Sandra Dallas

Set in the mountains of Colorado. Hennie is eighty-seven and can – just – remember the Civil War, but her age doesn’t prevent her living very independently in an inhospitable terrain, helping her neighbours, and always having a bit of patchwork on the go. There’s also an old score to think about – how is she going to settle it?

The Persian Pickle Club by Sandra Dallas

I liked Prayers for Sale but I loved The Persian Pickle Club. 

‘It is Harveyville, Kansas in the 1930s, where the crops are shrivelling and there are no jobs. For Queenie Bean, the highlight of each week is the gathering of the Persian Pickle Club, a group of ladies dedicated to improving their minds. Then along comes Rita, newly wed and decidedly glamorous.’

‘Persian pickle’ is another name for Paisley pattern – isn't that great? As the group of ladies gossip, or are read aloud to, they make quilts. A story of hardship and friendship – with a murder mystery thrown in.

New Mercies by Sandra Dallas

This one does not actually feature patchwork despite the cover. Set in the Deep South decades after the Civil War – but the legacy of slavery lives on:

Nora Bondurant is running away—from her husband’s death, from his secrets, … When she receives a telegram informing her that she has an inheritance, Nora suddenly has somewhere to run to: a house named Avoca in Natchez, Mississippi. … she’s inherited a mystery. Nora’s aunt, Amalia Bondurant, was killed in a murder/suicide, and the locals are saying nothing … ’

The Woman Who Stole My Life by Marian Keyes

Wonderful Marian never lets you down and this is her in grand form with a story set in Ireland and in the hilariously awful cut-throat world of American publishing. Terrific – but my favourite MK’s will always be a couple of her early ones: Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married, and Rachel’s Holiday.

Nora Webster by Colm Toibin

I loved his Brooklyn (and the recent film was brilliantly faithful to it) so was keen to read this one. Nora, widowed relatively young, with a family of four to look after, is trying to adjust to life without her husband. In small-town Ireland, in the 1960s, this is particularly difficult as everyone has an opinion on how Nora should behave. She isn’t as lovable a character as Eilis in Brooklyn but she leaps off the page in the same way.