Eleven in January

I read eleven books in January (including rereads).

Dusk by Robbie Arnott

I read and loved Limberlost by Robbie Arnott JAN 2024 and the Tasmanian cousin who gave it to me very kindly brought me Dusk when she visited last November. In between those dates I had the pleasure of meeting Robbie Arnott at the signing session after his event at the Edinburgh International Book Festival when he signed Limberlost for me.

His writing is so lyrical and the landscape, in the Tasmanian wilderness, so extraordinary. In that place, a puma, nicknamed Dusk, is killing shepherds. Outcast twins, Iris and Floyd, see a chance to make some money when a bounty is placed. The ensuing journey into the wild brings their relationship and their terrible childhood to the fore.

(The cover shown is of the Australian paperback.)

 

What’s Next: A Backstage Pass to The WestWing, Its Cast and Crew and Its Enduring Legacy of Service

by Melissa Fitzgerald and Mary McCormack 

I’ve watched The West Wing several (ahem) times and will do so again. That, apparently, means that I am a ‘Wingnut’. So when I spent Christmas with relatives in the States I was thrilled to get this book, began to read it immediately and interrupted everybody to read bits out eg ‘Charlie’ made a name for himself as a tap dancer before WW! Martin Sheen holds up filming because he insists on greeting everyone first, not just the main cast but all the crew! The regular cast all have their pet charities and support each others’! ‘Will Bailey’ is a prankster who sounds very annoying!

If you’re a Wingnut too, you’ll know that Melissa Fitzgerald plays Carol and Mary McCormack is Kate Harper. 

 

Echo Burning by Lee Child

Vintage Reacher.

 

I took the notion to reread two books by Ruth Thomas and enjoyed them all over again especially The Snow and the Works on the Northern Line.

 

 

And because rereading children’s books set in the past is a comfort in these trouble times I blitzed through the four titles in The Saturdays series by American writer Elizabeth Enright and her standalone lovely Thimble Summer.

 

Army Without Banners by Ann Stafford

A memoir really, I think, but written as a novel – middle-aged Mildred and other wonderfully brave ladies driving ambulances in the London Blitz.

 

 

 

Seven in May

I read seven books in May.

What She Saw by Wendy Clarke

Psychological thrillers can be frustrating in one way – as in a gothic novel when the heroine will insist on opening the door to that room she’s been told to keep away from, there’s always a woman in a psychological thriller at whom you want to shout: ‘What are you thinking? Don’t do it!’ I had a binge on them at one point but haven’t picked one up for a while.

But I wanted to read this one as it is the debut novel by very successful magazine-story-writer Wendy Clarke, who I had the pleasure of meeting at a conference a couple of years ago.

‘Everyone knows Leona would do anything for her daughter, Beth: she moved to Church Langdon to send Beth to the best school, built a business to support them and found the perfect little cottage to call home. … But Leona never talks about why they moved to the Lake District. … When Leona answers the phone one morning, her heart stops as she hears a voice from her past. … She’s given her daughter everything, but now she must tell her the truth.

It’s difficult to review a novel in this genre without giving spoilers so I will just say that I found it page-turning and my heart beat ever faster as the story went on. My favourite aspect of it was the amazing sense of place. It’s set in the Lake District and you feel you are actually there among the mountains and the tarns. It makes a brilliant backdrop to the unfolding drama.

Surprise Me by Sophie Kinsella

A new SK is a treat and this one was no exception.

‘After being together for ten years, Sylvie and Dan have a comfortable home, fulfilling jobs, beautiful twin girls, and communicate so seamlessly, they finish each other's sentences. They have a happy marriage and believe they know everything there is to know about each other.’

But Dan is keeping a secret from Sylvie and I would defy anyone to guess what it is. Here is the trademark Sophie Kinsella mix of real emotional problems and laugh-out-loud set pieces – the latter achieved I think by piling up the absurdities, then putting even more on top (in this book, for example, the revolting takeaway breakfast).

Encyclopaedia of Girls’ School Stories by Sue Sims and Hilary Clare

I thought I knew the world of girls’ school stories but no, I’d never even scratched the surface until reading this. An amazing resource of the genre and, moreover, a great social history. I found my copy in a charity shop for £5.00. I’m afraid they are rather more expensive online …

Career Novels for Girls by Kay Clifford

Another round up of books for girls, another great social history; this one is by Kay Clifford who has the largest collection of such books in the world (lucky her). The career novel genre was in its heyday in the fifties and sixties and the titles include Sally Grayson: Wren; Sarah Joins the W.R.A.F; Sheila Burton: Dental Assistant; Joan goes farming. Other titles encouraged girls to become journalists, nurses, librarians, beauty students and secretaries. 

What they all had in common was the clear message that the ‘career’ was a stopgap, to be given up when our heroine married Him; they all end with a proposal/engagement/at the altar. Kay Whalley dissects the books in what I would describe as an affectionately sarcastic tone; it must have been terrific fun to write. (Now out-of-print.)

No Middle Name by Lee Child

Short stories all featuring Jack Reacher in some way. Some take him back to when he was an army child and then a young man, even then ever-ready with his fists for a just cause. Yes, some pretty unbelievable and over-the-top storylines but that’s why every nine seconds someone in the world buys a Jack Reacher book.

Mystery and Mayhem: Twelve Deliciously Intriguing Mysteries by Katherine Woodfine et al

Aimed at 10+ age group and that includes me, doesn’t it? A terrific selection of contemporary and historical detective stories, some with an edge of magic, with heroines and heroes as brave and resourceful as we like them to be.

The German Room by Carla Maliandi; translated by Frances Riddle

Read for book group, on Kindle – a novella. The narrator, in her early thirties, travels from Buenos Aires to Heidelberg, where she lived for a while as a child, to get over the break-up of a relationship. She somehow finds a room in a students’ hostel/hall of residence and goes on to meet a diverse group of people including an old family friend, a fellow countryman, a Japanese girl and that girl’s mother – hard to say more without spoilers. 

I wasn’t fully on board with the end of the book but I enjoyed what the publishers call this ‘non-coming of age novel’ and would read this author again.

Eight in January

I read eight books in January – well, seven books and one long short story.

‘Broadsword Calling Danny Boy’ On Where Eagles Dare by Geoff Dyer

I’ve had a soft spot for the film Where Eagles Dare (based on the novel by Alastair Maclean) since I first saw it, something that for some reason my husband likes to tease me about. So what should I find in my Christmas stocking but this book, ‘Geoff Dyer’s tribute to the film he has loved since childhood.’ I thought I would put off reading it until I had the chance to see the film again – and lo, in early January there it was on one of the Freeview channels.

It was fun to see it again after a long gap and to realise the many ways in which it is preposterous (that seemingly bottomless haversack of explosives and useful things that Clint Eastwood lugs up and down snowy precipices for example) – and that is the tone of Geoff Dyer’s terrific little book: he still loves the film despite/because of its many preposterousnesses.

The Corrections by Jonathon Franzen

My son left this behind after a holiday. I’d never read JF before and I don’t think I will again but I was compelled to finish this once I’d embarked. The premise – an elderly mother wants to gather her three children and her grandsons around her in the family home for one last Christmas – could be the cue for a soft-focus, sentimental story, but soft-focus this most certainly ain’t. Father Alfred has always been a bullying type and, as a mother myself, my sympathies should have been with Enid but I’d avoid spending Christmas with her too given the choice.

Intellectual (too intellectual sometimes; I skipped pages of technical details concerning Alfred’s potentially millions-making invention which he’s sold to a large company for peanuts) but always with an edge of black humour to leaven the mix.

Song of the Skylark by Erica James

A dual timeline story. Lizzie in the present day, at a crossroads in her life, meets elderly American Mrs Dallimore when she volunteers in a care home. ‘As Lizzie listens to Mrs Dallimore's story, she begins to realize that she's not the only person to attract bad luck, or make mistakes, and maybe things aren't so bad for her after all . . . ’ Didn’t grab me.

A Country Christmas by Louisa May Alcott

This is a long short story and was a giveaway at Christmas time by a writer friend Helena Fairfax. Recipients could download the file; I then sent it to my Kindle. What a treat to read something previously unknown to me by the author of Little Women. I've just had a google and see that you can read it online here (along with Christmassy American recipes and other delights).

The Inaugural Meeting of the Fairvale Ladies Book Club by Sophie Green

Read on Kindle. Set in Northern Territory, Australia in the 1970s. The members of the ‘book club’ live miles apart with often hostile terrain/weather between them so they can’t meet very often but their friendship and support for each other sees them all through difficult times. Loved it. And it led me to download, free from Project Gutenberg, an autobiographical novel set in the same region at the beginning of the last century: We of the Never Never.

The Woman in the Dark by Vanessa Savage

Read on Kindle – more or less in one go, on a cold wet Sunday. This is ‘A chilling psychological thriller about dark family dysfunction and the secrets that haunt us’ and had me gripped to the last twist. My only gripe is the title – rather fed up of seeing books called The Woman/The Girl ...

The Hard Way by Lee Child

Paperback from charity shop to whence it returned when I’d finished it. My favourite Jack Reacher (of about four) to date, unusual because it is part of it is set in England. A rich man’s wife has disappeared and Reacher has been hired to find her. He certainly knows how to make you turn the pages. If you want to read what other people think of the book it will take you a while – the last time I looked there were 11,657 reviews on Amazon with an average of four and a half stars.

The Hopes and Dreams of Lucy Baker by Jenni Keer

Read on Kindle. Tagged as ‘the most heart-warming book you’ll read all year’ and although the year has just begun this could well be true. The friendship between twenty-five-old Lucy and her neighbour Brenda who’s seventy-nine is touching and funny, a perfect combination.