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.

Eight in January

 

I read eight books in January.

 

Preloved by Lauren Bravo

Gwen is 38 and has just been made redundant from a job she didn’t much like anyway. She seems to be adrift from old friendships and her relationship with her parents has become distant (the reason for which is slowly revealed). She volunteers to work in a charity shop and this becomes her saviour. It’s not just that she makes new friends (one of whom briefly becomes an unexpected lover, and one gives her bad advice) but in sorting the donated items she manages to sort out herself.

In between Gwen’s story there are chapters on the stories behind some of the donations and gradually we come to realise how these fit together. It’s very cleverly done.

I volunteer for a few hours a week sorting books in a branch of Shelter and that added to my enjoyment of Preloved.

The online strapline for novels rarely live up to their promise (in my experience) but I’ll certainly go along with this one – ‘sparklingly witty and relatable’.

I heard of Preloved through the blog https://portobellobookblog.com/ Joanne and I have (mostly) the same taste in books and her recommendations invariably have me adding to my to-be-read pile.

 

 

Limberlost by Robbie Arnott

This was a present from a lovely Tasmanian cousin when she visited last year. It’s a coming-of-age story set in Tasmania during the Second World War. Ned, too young to go to fight alongside his beloved older brothers, longs to buy a boat of his own. He dreams of getting away from working in the family orchard and from his father who’s become almost silent in his worry about his sons in a war on the other side of the world.

Ned finds a way of making money but the path to fulfilling his ambition is far from smooth.

Do love a coming-of-age novel. I learned a lot about various subjects in the book (what a quoll is, for example) – I do like to learn. But my main takeaway was the fabulousness of the writing from this young man who has already won/been shortlisted for prestigious awards.

 

 

The Whalebone Theatre by Joanna Quinn

Another absolute corker! Three children, half-siblings, bring themselves up, more or less, in a country house in the 20s/30s – delightful characters all of them. A whale washed up on the beach gradually becomes skeletal and their favourite playground. They grow up; WW2 comes; two of them end up in Occupied France … that’s all I’ll tell you.

 

 

Rising Tide by Ann Cleeves

The latest Vera, set on Lindisfarne. Fab as usual, with more shocks than usual.

 

What Lies Buried by Margaret Kirk

Terrific police procedure, the second in a series, set in Inverness/shire.

 

Victory for the Op Room Girls by Vicki Beeby

Third in a series (I haven’t read the first two which would probably have been a good idea).

‘With Jess newly promoted to Filterer Officer at RAF Fighter Command HQ, she is delighted to be reunited with Evie and May. However, now that they can enjoy socialising in London, Jess fears her friends will discover the secret she keeps there.’

 

The Last Voice You Hear by Mick Herron

Best known for his Slow Horses series of which I have read a few. His character here is private investigator Zoë Boehm investigating a possibly suspicious death. I was with her every step of the way (however scary … ) and that of her friend Sarah who gets caught up in the case.

 

Green Dolphin Country by Elizabeth Goudge

Last month I mentioned that was rereading a book by this author whose other titles are inspired by her background and beliefs. This one starts in the 19th century in the Channel Islands (where her mother’s family was from) and is based on a true story of something that happened to an ancestor. And so we then enter uncharted waters ... two of the three main characters – a young sailor and ten years later a thirtyish woman – take to the perilous seas and end up in New Zealand, during the time of the Maori Wars.

Elizabeth Goudge wrote the book while living quietly in the Devon countryside during the Second World War. She said she ‘made it New Zealand because my ignorance of Australia was, even more, total than my ignorance of New Zealand.’ So much for the advice often given to writers to ‘write what you know’!

Green Dolphin Country brought Elizabeth Goudge to international attention and was made into a film. Further info here. If you want a fabulous long historical to get stuck into these cold February days I would urge this on you.

 

Lastly … due to technical changes, for some months it has not been possible to Follow this blog, and those who had already Followed were not informed of new posts. This has now been rectified I hope – see the Follow button below the post. Please let me know if it works, or not!

 

Six in December

 

I read six books in December.

 

But first … due to technical changes, for some months it has not been possible to Follow this blog, and those who had already Followed were not informed of new posts. This has now been rectified – see the Follow button below the post.

 

Paper Cup by Karen Campbell

Kelly left her Dumfriesshire home many years ago and lives on the streets in Glasgow. She’s an alcoholic, sometimes a violent one. But a series of events, including a moment of unexpected kindness, see her leaving the city to walk all the way home. This is the story of her journey. She meets some generosity along the way; other reactions to her dishevelled appearance are not so warm … and she acquires a dog.

Cleverly told, with flashbacks to show why she became estranged from her loving family, this is both gritty and tender.

 

The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw

Read for book group.

‘ … explores the raw and tender places where Black women and girls dare to follow their desires, and pursue a momentary reprieve from being good.

There is fourteen-year-old Jael, who nurses a crush on the preacher's wife; the mother who bakes a sublime peach cobbler every Monday for her date with the married Pastor; and Eula and Caroletta, single childhood friends who seek solace in each other's arms every New Year's Eve.’

Love in many forms, unexpected, interesting.

 

The Fifth Letter by Nicola Moriarty

(By the sister of the more famous Liane.) While away for the weekend, four school friends, now in their thirties, learn each others’ secrets via the (I think rather unlikely) device of writing them down anonymously. Well told, though, in a way that the reader is left guessing who the author of ‘the fifth letter’ is.

 

A Spoonful of Murder by J M Hall

The book, the first in a series, is billed as ‘hilarious’ – it’s not and it does the author a dis-service to thus describe it.

It’s easy to see where J M Hall got his inspiration … he has three retired teachers who meet every Thursday for coffee. When an ex-colleague dies they suspect it was murder.

There are a lot of characters and it was sometimes hard to keep track of them.

Having got these wee gripes out of the way, I will say that I enjoyed this a lot and will definitely read the follow ups – and will pass them on to my retired teacher sister. I expect she will share Liz’s opinion of her grandson’s classroom.

 

Death in Good Time by Jo Allen

The eleventh DCI Jude Satterthwaite police procedural, this time with an intriguing Gothic atmosphere.

 

Joy of the Snow by Elizabeth Goudge

I have a lot of titles on my to-be-read list (print and e-) but I love to reread … or, as in this case, re-reread. It’s the autobiography of the Elizabeth Goudge, author of many books for adults, and for children – she won the Carnegie Medal in 1946 for The Little White Horse, cited as a favourite childhood book and inspiration for her own writing by J K Rowling.

I love the story of her early life being brought up in various English cathedral cities due to her father’s employment in theological colleges. Her Guernsey mother sounds wonderful, unfortunately not very healthy but very vivacious. (It’s always sad to read of health problems which these days might be cured or at least alleviated.)

However, on this rereading and having, since the previous time, been published myself, I was frustrated that she hardly mention her writing. Her books for adults are lengthy and most of them are clearly inspired by where she was brought up and by the theological discussion she would have been used to hearing and taking part in. But one of them, whose title I shall divulge next month when I have finished rereading it, is an extraordinary feat, far outside her own experience. I would love to know how she managed it.

Five in January

I read five books in January.

Bit of a lazy old nostalgia fest this month.

The Scent of Water by Elizabeth Goudge

I loved Elizabeth Goudge when I was younger and reread her books many times. About three years ago I reread my favourites, the Damerosehay trilogy The Bird in the Tree, The Herb of Grace and The Heart of the Family, and they stood the test of time for me. This one did too, mostly – I was eager to reach the bits I remembered: the wonderful house inherited by the main character, Mary; the description of the ‘little things’; and the evocation of a countryside and way of life that, in the 1930s, was being mourned as slipping into the past. But I’m not sure that it stands a general test of time – would it appeal to many folk reading it now for the first time? Hmm. I'd like to think so though.

The Castle on the Hill by Elizabeth Goudge

Miss Brown – we’re told her first name is Dolores but she’s never thus referred to thereafter – has to leave her seaside home which she’s run as a boarding house as it’s been taken over by the military in the early days of WW2. By a circuitous chain of events she ends up housekeeping in a castle owned by an author who lives there with his two nephews. As before, I still liked my favourite bits. But what my younger self didn’t picked up on was this: Miss Brown aged forty-four is considered well past her sell-by date and Mrs Heather, in her seventies – well, it’s a miracle she’s still alive. 

Maybe it's a mistake to go back to reread old favourites – what do you think? 

And here's another one.

Pollyanna Grows Up by Eleanor H. Porter

I read this as a child, probably from school library. Couldn’t resist this second-hand copy. It has not stood the test of time from a literary point of view – far-fetched, plot holes a mile wide – but I enjoyed it anyway for old times' sake and for the reminder of Pollyanna’s in/famous Glad Game (looking for the silver lining in every cloud). Even though I’m not likely to play it all the time …

E-books are handy but you don’t get this with them, a reminder of a previous owner – or lovely endpapers.

Or this, which was tucked inside – perhaps from a different owner. I like her priorities.

Caddy’s World by Hilary McKay

Love these (children’s) books about the bohemian Casson family and was thrilled to see the author at the Edinburgh Book Festival last year, where I bought this one. It’s the sixth to be published (following Saffy’s Angel, Indigo’s Star, Permanent Rose, Caddy Ever After and Forever Rose) but it’s not chronological – it goes back to when the youngest, Rose, was born early and had to be in hospital for several weeks. A treat, as usual.

And for something completely different –

The Lewis Man by Peter May

An unidentified corpse is recovered from a Lewis peat bog; the only clue to its identity being a DNA sibling match to a local farmer. A man with no memory.

I really enjoyed Entry Island and don’t know why I haven’t read more PM since. This was terrific, although I was cross with myself to realise halfway through that it was the second in the trilogy – look forward to catching up with the characters in the first and third soon.