Five in August

I read five books in August.

 

Table for Two by Amor Towles

Some (quite long) short stories and a novella from the author of A Gentleman in Moscow, The Lincoln Highway and Rules of Civility, all of which I loved.

My favourite of the short stories was the first one ‘The Line’, set during the aftermath of the Russian revolution. A peasant farmer and his much more ambitious wife leave the country and move to the city. He (delightful man) spends his days queuing for basic essentials, first of all for themselves and then keeping the place for others – and where one particular ‘line’ leads I don’t want to spoil for future readers.

It was such a joy in the novella Eve in Hollywood to catch up with Evelyn Ross from Rules of Civility, a young woman for whom the word ‘indefatigable’ might have been coined. Now we know what happened to her when she didn’t get off that train … and all her subsequent adventures including befriending Olivia de Havilland and besting a corrupt officer of the law.

 

The Clock Winder by Anne Tyler

Continuing my re-reading of Anne Tyler (hmm, same initials as Amor Towles: is this a coincidence?? Should I change my name?).

 

Murder in my Backyard by Ann Cleeves

First published in 2014 (and republished I guess because of the success of Vera/Shetland). The second in a series featuring Inspector Ramsay.

‘No one in Heppleburn has a bad word to say about Alice Parry . . . but here she is, murdered in her own backyard on a bitter St. David’s Eve.’ Inspector Ramsay investigates.

 

Homemaker (Prairie Nightingale Book 1) by Ruthie Knox and Annie Mare

‘When a former friend and devoted mother vanishes, a confident homemaker turned amateur sleuth follows an unexpected trail of scandals and secrets to find her.’

The scandal involved a pyramid-selling scheme and the culprit seemed so predictable I read on expecting a twist …

Whatever else she is, Prairie Nightingale is not a ‘homemaker’ although she says homemaking is something she’s ‘very, very good at.’ Instead of getting alimony as such in her divorce settlement from her perfectly decent husband (who asked what was for dinner once too often), she asked him to pay for staff – an office manager, a chef, a gardener and whatnot else to look after her and their two teenage girls – oh, and her very supportive ex-mother-in-law lives in the granny flat.

So our Prairie has all the time in the world to waft around playing detective and make sanctimonious speeches about the patriarchy to anyone who’ll listen.

 

Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout

Is ‘meta’ the right word here? Anyway, the book features characters from some previous books of Elizabeth Strout’s – Lucy Barton and Olive Kitteridge. Although I thought My Name is Lucy Barton was terrific, I was less enamoured when Lucy got together, parted, got together again … with the tiresome William. In this book she’s still divorced from him but they are living together in Maine. Olive Kitteridge (the first eponymous book about her is one of the best-written I have ever read) lives nearby in a care home and the reason I bought this book was to catch up with her.

Fortunately, in my opinion, William is mostly off-stage until the end which wasn’t the conclusion I was hoping for …

 

 

Five in June

I read five books in June.

 

Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead

Read for bookgroup. Loved it. It went straight into my top thirty or even top twenty all-time favourite reads. (I love making lists but that one is a moveable feast.) It’s over 600 pages but I whizzed through it – except when I stopped in awe at the writing. It’s rare to get perfect similes and descriptions and characterisation and a terrific story all at the same time.

The book was inspired by the early women aviators whose bravery/foolhardiness we can only wonder at. Here, Marian, brought up as an almost feral child in 1920s America, becomes obsessed with flight. The first time she sees an airplane, and ‘The Flying Brayfogles’ doing stunts and acrobatics, she’s hooked. Maggie Shipstead puts it this way: ‘She was at an age when the future adult rattles the child’s bones like the bars of a cage.’

But there’s so much else too – do read it and fly with Marian through much of the 20th century.

 

Last Resort by Andrew Lipstein

One of three carefully chosen books I was lucky enough to receive as a Mother’s Day present. A novel about writing a novel – fab and squirmingly funny.

Caleb Horowitz is twenty-seven, and his wildest dreams are about to come true. His manuscript has caught the attention of the literary agent, who offers him fame, fortune and a taste of the literary life. He can't wait for his book to be shopped around to every editor in New York, except one: Avi Dietsch, a college rival and the novel's 'inspiration'.

In fact, Caleb has stolen Avi’s ‘what I did on my holiday’ story and the hole he’s dug for himself can only get deeper.

 

Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout

Read for bookgroup. Strout’s Olive Kitteridge is floating around my top twenty/thirty too. I also enjoyed and admired My Name is Lucy Barton and Anything is Possible. Oh William! is the third book about Lucy and I’ve pictured the three of them here because I would urge you to read them in order.

I confess to being a little disappointed with Oh William!. Lucy’s turbulent life was so well documented (in the multi-viewpoint style this author is so good at) in the first two books but here, although her current situation has its blackly funny side, neither Lucy nor her ex-husband William were people I felt I wanted to spend a lot of time with.

 

The Undiscovered Deaths of Grace McGill by C S Robertson

Bought at Christian Aid Booksale. I love the TV programme Heir Hunters in which companies try to find beneficiaries of deceased people who have not left wills. I’ve now picked up two novels which use that scenario and I didn’t much like either of them. I was hoping for a straightforward family mystery but it was not to be. 

In the first one, read a few years ago, the writer was trying too hard to be literary which I didn’t think suited the plot. Here, the plot twist was just too, er, twisty; although it was nice when the action moved from Glasgow to Bute where I once lived and don’t recall being a novel setting before.

 

My Life Through Food by Stanley Tucci

His TV series was wonderful and I’m hoping (travels gods permitting) to visit Sicily next year. Thoroughly enjoyed reading about his parents and their Italian food heritage and, bringing things right up to date, how he and his own family coped with shopping and cooking during the first lockdown. My daughter followed him on Instagram at that time when he posted a cocktail recipe each day. Cheers!

Fifteen in April (1)

I read fifteen books in April – this is the first of two blog posts about them.

 The Glittering Hour by Iona Grey

I worried that I wouldn't care for this one as much as her Letters to the Lost which I positively inhaled; after I'd got it I put off reading it for ages for that reason. I worried needlessly. Lockdown came, with lots of reading time, and I spent a blissful day or two in the company of Alice and Selina and Lawrence. I love the era and the settings (1920s, country house/London) and the writing was wonderful and evocative and emotional. About two-thirds of the way through, heart pounding, I began to gulp uncontrollably. Luckily tissues were at hand. You have been warned.

Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout

(after having a quick skim through Olive Kitteridge which I read a couple of years ago)

I used a birthday book token in Toppings Bookshop in Edinburgh to get this copy which is not only beautifully bound but signed by the author. Having loved Olive’s first outing I knew I’d enjoy her second.

Not that she’s a lovable person, or even an easy one; the author shows her how she is, warts and all. As in Olive Kitteridge, each chapter is almost a story on its own and in some Olive barely appears; instead, we might, for example, follow a character who was once taught by her.

I expect this is the last we shall see of Olive, sadly. But there was a pleasant surprise at the end when Olive makes a friend – with someone from another Elizabeth Strout novel.

Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls

From Christian Aid Book Sale 2019. Jeannette Walls wrote the extraordinary memoir The Glass Castle – the story of her childhood with a charismatic but unreliable and erratic father, a mother who thought he could do no wrong, and her siblings. The opening scene, of the grown-up Jeannette, a successful film director, being chauffer-driven down a street and seeing her parents foraging for food in a dumpster, is unforgettable.

In this book she tells, in novelised form, the story of her mother’s mother, a most amazing character called Lily, who rode as easily as she walked and, with little schooling, could later turn her hand to anything including teaching.

Standard Deviation by Katherine Heiney

I’ve read this three times now in the last two years or so – and it will always be a go-to for me now. It is rare for a book to become a comfort re-read for me that isn’t one I first encountered decades ago. It is snortingly funny, clever and perceptive; and Audra is one of my favourite ever fictional characters.

I love Hilary McKay’s stories of modern family life, although I’m some decades beyond the target demograph (so what?). I saw that one of them was free on Kindle and after I’d read it I had to buy the other two. After a family tragedy Binnie, her brother and sister and their mother move to Cornwall but their troubles aren’t over.

I’ve been listening to episodes of A Good Read while I’ve been on the exercise bike of a morning (distraction from the agony). Comedian Danny Wallace chose Diary of a Nobody which reminded me that it was ages since I read Keith Waterhouse’s brilliant riposte showing Mrs ‘Nobody’s’ side of the story: Mrs Pooter’s Diary. Great fun.

Eight in October

I read eight books in October.

Anything is Possible by Elizabeth Strout

Lucy Barton’s estrangement from her family and her dysfunctional relationship with her mother was the subject of My Name is Lucy Barton. In this follow-up Lucy, an acclaimed writer living in New York, goes back for a brief visit to where she was brought up in small-town Illinois. But, as this is an Elizabeth Strout novel, Lucy herself hardly comes on stage. Instead, we see her in passing from the viewpoints of her siblings, her niece and her former friends and neighbours and in doing so we piece her history – and theirs – together. Loved it. Loved it.

Buried Treasure: is not always what it seems by Gilli Allan

Read on Kindle. The paths of event planner Jane and archaeologist Theo cross when she organises a conference in his university building. Both have got ‘baggage’ – Jane from her time as a young woman with a predatory employer and Theo with an abusive ex-girlfriend. It’s pretty much dislike at first sight for both of them but soon they find themselves trying to uncover an archaeological mystery – partly inspired by the author’s family connection with the famous Mildenhall Treasure. Recommended.

The Invisible Ones by Stef Penney

‘Rose Janko has been missing for seven years. Her family has made no attempt to find her.’ Until now. Well, if that’s not an intriguing premise I don’t know what is. What adds so much to this brilliant story is that Rose is from a gypsy family as is Ray Lovell, the private investigator hired by Rose’s father. I’d love to see him get another outing.

Stef Penny’s first novel was the Costa-winning The Tenderness of Wolves. At a writing event I was at in the summer, the first sentence of that book was deemed by the panel of publishers and agents to be one of the very best they’d ever read. The bad news, it transpires, is that publishers and agents, when reading manuscripts, sometimes barely read any further than that first sentence.

Christmas at Miss Moonshine's Emporium by Helena Fairfax, Mary Jayne Baker et al

Read on Kindle. Miss M got her first outing in Miss Moonshine’s Emporium of Happy Endings, a collection of stories by nine romantic novelists from Yorkshire and Lancashire, all set in the town of Haven Bridge and involving the ageless and magically empowered emporium owner. This new collection of contemporary and historical stories is even better I think.

The Silver Summer by Rachel Hickman

A few weeks ago I was in the Peak District of Derbyshire and came across a shop selling new books at low prices – publishers’ overstocks/remainders. What a treasure trove. I picked up this YA book because I liked the title. It’s a sweet romance between a newly motherless American girl, Sass, coming to live with her uncle in Cornwall, and a local boy … The identity of that ‘local boy’ was  a surprise and took the story in a different direction. Can’t make up my mind if I liked that aspect of it or not. If you want to know what I’m blathering on about see the footnote*. Or if you’d rather read the book and find out for yourself then don’t.

Lethal White by Robert Galbraith

Robert Galbraith (aka JK Rowling) needs no accolades from me to enhance her popularity but here are some anyway: Lethal White is brilliant – the best in the Cormoran Strike series so far! I didn’t speak to anyone at the weekend because I was so engrossed in it! Thank you very much! Now, please get on and write the next one.

The Christmas Holiday by Sophie Claire

Read on Kindle. Partly set in the cosy village of Willowbrook, this is the story of Evie and Jake. Evie has family difficulties and a controlling ex-boyfriend and Jake is still very much in love with his late wife. When circumstances dictate that they spend Christmas together in sunny Provence, the understanding is that no strings are attached … but with a woman gathering more confidence in herself and a man with the ice in his heart beginning to thaw, well, that wasn’t going to last, was it?

A Modern Family by Helga Flatland

Read for book group, on Kindle. The first English translation of a book by ‘Norway’s Anne Tyler’. I would not agree with that description for various reasons. Anne T is terrific, for example, on sense of place. There’s little of that here, despite the fact that family homes and summer cabins are important to the characters; plus it would have been interesting to have more of a sense of their wider surroundings. But I did enjoy this story of grown-up sibling relationships and rivalries, told in turn from the sisters’ and brother’s viewpoints, following the shock announcement that their 70-something parents are getting divorced.

*In an alternative version of the British Royal Family Sass’s boyfriend is Alex who is third in line to the throne, after his grandmother and his father. Cue the paparazzi, intrusive journalists etc.

Five in November

I read five books in November.

As I said in last month’s reading round up I was lucky enough to spend October in New Zealand. And I forgot to mention one book I read while I was there so I’ll catch up on it now; it is set in NZ.

The Three Deaths of Magdalene Lynton by Katherine Hayton

Read on Kindle. This is the first in a trilogy featuring Detective Ngaire Blakes, a half-Maori detective in Christchurch, in the South Island of New Zealand.

Magdalene Lynton died forty years ago, a vivacious teenager who fell victim to a grotesque, accidental drowning. Now someone has confessed to her murder …

I thought this was a terrific police procedural, very dark in places, and can thoroughly recommend it. (I have bought but not yet read the second one.) And you’ve got to love an author whose biography reads: ‘Katherine Hayton is a forty-two year old woman who works in insurance, doesn't have children or pets, can't drive, has lived in Christchurch her entire life, and resides a two-minute walk from where she was born. For some reason, she's developed a rich fantasy life.’

My last week Down Under was spent with lovely cousins in Tasmania.

Forty South Story Anthology 2018

An anthology of stories from the ten finalists in the 2018 Tasmanian Writers’ Prize. And one of those finalists was my talented cousin Allison Mitchell with Keeping Quiet, a story inspired by family tales.

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

Read on Kindle. The book opens with the Richardson’s house, in a genteel American suburb, burning down and it’s discovered that a fire was made in each of the bedrooms. The suspect is the youngest of their teenagers, Isabelle; she has run away. We then go back to find out what led up to that moment. Totally engrossing.

Amy and Isabelle by Elizabeth Strout

I’ve come late to Elizabeth Strout’s party but I’ll be staying right to the end. So far her Olive Kitteridge continues to be in first place for me but Amy and Isabelle is a compulsive and unsettling read, with all the characters living on in my mind. Isabelle and her teenage daughter Amy live in a small American town – a quiet, uneventful life until Amy has an affair with one of her teachers.

News from Heaven by Jennifer Haigh

Another small-town America book – this time of short stories, some of which link with each other. Jennifer Haigh has written an award-winning novel which I haven’t read (yet) called Baker Towers, set in the fictional coal-mining town of Bakerton, Pennsylvania. This declining town is also the setting for the short stories. Loved them – she really gets under the skin of her characters, male or female, whatever age they are.

Murder at the Mousetrap by Helena Marchmont

And now for something completely different – the first in a series of short, cosy, countryside mysteries, with Alfie, a protagonist described as ‘Miss Marple meets Oscar Wilde’. And where cosier to have a murder mystery, laced with a good dollop of humour, than the Cotswolds? A fun read (on Kindle). Look forward to the second one.

Five in August

I read five books in August.

Three Things About Elsie by Joanna Cannon

I so enjoyed Joanna Cannon’s first novel The Trouble with Goats and Sheep. This second novel did not disappoint; in fact I think I liked it even more.

Flo has fallen in her flat in the Cherry Tree Home for the Elderly. As she waits (she hopes) to be rescued she thinks about the mysterious new arrival at the Home, about her best friend Elsie, and about a terrible secret she’s been keeping almost all her life.

It takes a brilliant writer to have that as a premise and not make it a gloom-fest. Joanna Cannon pulls it off beautifully – you will actually laugh and cry, and the revelations about how Flo’s past and present have collided make it a real page-turner as well.

My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout

I absolutely fell for Elizabeth Strout’s writing when I read Olive Kitteridge in May. Lucy Barton didn’t grab me quite so much but I still admired the structure and all the small details that made me feel I was right there. Lucy is in hospital for a prolonged but not life-threatening illness. She’s many miles away from where she grew up and the family from whom she’s become estranged. So when her mother turns up unexpectedly they have some talking to do.

Thorndon: Wellington and Home: My Katherine Mansfield Project by Kirsty Gunn

Acclaimed writer Katherine Mansfield grew up in Wellington, New Zealand – and couldn’t wait to leave it. And when she did she found she wanted to write about it. Kirsty Gunn grew up there too, to a family of Scots origin. She’s now based in the UK, writing, and teaching at the University of Dundee. When she got the chance, as a ‘Randell Fellow’, to go back to Wellington for a winter she didn’t at first jump at the chance – like Katherine Mansfield she had mixed emotions about her birthplace. But this little book came out of that time – staying in a 19th-century cottage in a street very near Mansfield’s old haunts, Kirsty Gunn explored the idea of ‘home’.

Why did I read this book? Well, watch this space.

Y is for Yesterday by Sue Grafton

Sue Grafton set out to go through the alphabet with her private investigator Kinsey Milhone. So it was very cruel that she died after she’d finished Y but before she’d written Z – and she left strict instructions that no one was to do that in her stead.

This 25th outing for Kinsey is, happily, the familiar mix of past and present mysteries and danger combined with her home life, such as it is. There’s her wonderful elderly landlord, Henry, and the diner with its almost uneatable Hungarian dishes run by Henry’s sister-in-law Rosie – Kinsey’s alternative to staying home and living on peanut butter and pickle sandwiches. In this book, though, there is the tantalising suggestion of a new direction Kinsey’s life might take. Sadly we’ll never know whether that happened or not. I will miss her – but I can always start at A again …

Too Marvellous for Words by Julie Welch

Perfect for grown-ups who can still remember great chunks of In the Fifth at Malory Towers. (Not just me … I met someone recently and the subject came up. I began to recite the song written by Darrell for Mary-Lou, as Cinderella, to sing in the school play, and my friend joined in: By the fire I sit and dream, and in the flames I see, picture of the lovely things that never come to me …ah, me).

However, moving on … Julie Welch’s memoir of boarding school in Suffolk in the 60s (billed as ‘the real Malory Towers’) does have its fair share of jolly japes and midnight feasts but in Julie’s case the school was a welcome escape from a home life that wasn’t very happy.

I don’t now, as I used to, wish that I could have gone to boarding school but I still love reading about those that did.

Six in May

I read six books in May.

Persons Unknown by Susie Steiner

A second police procedural with the terrific DI Manon Bradshaw. I read the first one Missing, Presumed and loved it; was not disappointed with this one and do hope there will be more.

As dusk falls, a young man staggers through a park, far from home, bleeding from a stab wound. He dies where he falls, cradled by a stranger, a woman's name on his lips in his last seconds of life. ...

The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder by Rebecca Wells

Bought in Christian Aid book sale.

Years ago I read and loved Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by the same author. I liked this one less but there is something fascinating, when you live in a place that’s more often than not a wee bit wet and chilly (OK, ‘dreich’), to read about the Deep South of America when the intense heat and the fecundity of nature transfer themselves to the printed page – and you find characters with names like Calla Lily … Louisiana is a brilliant place to spend a few hours virtually, but I’ll stick with dreich for everyday.

Plotting for Beginners by Sue Hepworth and Jane Linfoot

Bought in Christian Aid book sale

In his fifties, Sally’s husband goes to build himself a cabin in the wilds of America, and live like his hero Thoreau for a year. Sally is happy enough anticipating all that time to herself and trying to make a success of her writing, but first her d-i-y obsessed brother in need of a temporary home disturbs her peace and then there’s her boomerang son and the local lothario and other distractions. Can her long-distance marriage survive?

Miss Moonshine’s Emporium of Happy Endings

Read on Kindle

‘Nine romantic novelists from Yorkshire and Lancashire, including best-selling and award-winning authors, have joined together to create this collection of uplifting stories guaranteed to warm your heart. This intriguing mix of historical and contemporary romances will make you laugh, cry, and believe in the happy-ever-after.’ What more can I add except that I enjoyed this collection – and every community should definitely have a Miss Moonshine.

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

Bought in Christian Aid book sale.

ES has been on my radar for a while but this is the first one I’ve read. Why have I waited so long? It’s a miracle, this book. Olive, a retired teacher, is looked at from the points of view of various people with whom she is regularly, or hardly ever, in contact with. In some chapters she barely appears. Sometimes she comes over in a good light, sometimes not. I didn’t really like her, not until the very end – not that that mattered at all because I think this is the most effective portrayal of a character I have ever read. It’s all beautifully written but the last chapter particularly – I read it quickly because it drew me in and then read it again to appreciate the language.

Midwinter Break by Bernard MacLaverty
A retired Irish couple take a break in Amsterdam and over the few days the fractures in their relationship are revealed.

This has been much lauded but my appreciation of it suffered because I read it directly after the Elizabeth Strout and any book would have paled in comparison … plus for me two authors, Anne Tyler and Carol Shields, have covered this territory more beguilingly.