Six in November

 

I read six books in November.

 

 

The Postcard by Anne Berest

This translated French best-seller is a harrowing read. It’s the story of the author’s ancestors’ flight from Russia and their moves to Latvia, Palestine and Paris. Each time they thought they were moving to safety. In 1930s France, this Jewish family was the opposite of safe. Anne Berest’s maternal great-grandparents and her teenage grand-aunt and grand-uncle uncle died in Auschwitz. Through chance, her grandmother did not suffer the same fate.

Why ‘The postcard’? In 2003, a postcard arrived for the family. On one side was a picture of the Opera Garnier. The other side bore only the names of their dead relatives. By the end of the book, we know who sent it and why. No spoilers about the who but I’ll tell you the why – so that the names of Ephraïm, Emma, Noémie and Jacques would never be forgotten.

Anne Berest has done an incredible job of researching her family’s traumatic history and recounting it in a way that’s as page-turning as a novel. Harrowing, yes, but highly recommended.

 

And now for something completely different …

 

 

My Favourite Mistake by Marian Keyes

Perhaps the last book about Marian Keyes’ much-loved Walsh family. This one focuses on Anna, returning to live in Ireland with burnout from her high-pressured job in PR for a cosmetic company in New York. The timing turns out to be good as family friends whose new business is in trouble are in dire need of someone with her experience.

This being the Walsh family, they all get involved with much shenanigans along the way. Great escapism. This, by the way, is the first book I’ve read on the Kindle app on my phone and it worked a treat. Now I’ll never be caught without something to read …

 

 

Without Fail by Lee Child

The mixture as before. More escapism.

 

 

Death at the Double by Jo Allen

‘On her return to Cumbria after years in Australia, Connie Sheldon’s first stop is the nursing home where she hopes to mend her relationship with her estranged elderly father, Edwin, but she’s in for a shock. Not only has Edwin been dead for three years but another woman, passing herself off as his daughter, has stolen Connie’s inheritance — and disappeared.’

Intriguing or what? Jude Satterthwaite investigates.

 

 

No Fond Return of Love by Barbara Pym

I reread my Barbaras regularly. This one, about spinster Dulcie and her curiosity (some might call it stalking … ) about charismatic academic Aylwin Forbes is one of my favourites.

 

 

Crusoe’s Daughter by Jane Gardam

Motherless six-year-old Polly Flint is sent to live with two aunts in a yellow house on a marsh; soon she is fatherless too. This excellent, atmospheric book follows her into extreme old age.

The household is not geared towards a small child so Polly’s early reading is from her grandfather’s library of classics. Robinson Crusoe, rather comically, becomes her hero; she sees a similarity between his situation and her own. In modern terms, she frequently asks herself: What would Crusoe do?

 

And if you are looking for another read this Christmas-tide how about this?

 

 

Or this?

 

Wishing you a merry Christmas and a happy and peaceful 2026.

Five in March

I read five books in March.

 

 

The Art of Dying by Ambrose Parry

Set in mid 19th century Edinburgh, the second in the Raven and Fisher mystery series – and featuring real-life medical hero Dr James Simpson.

Will Raven, assistant to Dr Simpson, has been in Europe for a year and has returned to the esteemed doctor’s practice in Edinburgh. He’s taken aback to find that former housemaid Sarah Fisher, for whom he had feelings (while at the same time thinking she was socially beneath him) is happily married to another doctor.

A series of mysterious deaths, one of which is being laid at Dr Simpson’s door, bring Will and Sarah together to find the cause – Sarah, with medical ambitions of her own being more than a match for Will.

 

 

Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome

I read this many years ago but didn’t have a copy in the house so when I saw one in a charity shop I bought it (although it didn't have this nice cover – there are dozens of editions). It stood the test of time – manages to be both erudite and very funny. My favourite set piece was of his friend Harris’s experience in the maze at Hampton Court.

Recently I adjudicated a Humorous Short Story competition for the Scottish Association of Writers. It made me think about what makes a piece of writing funny – although of course one person’s rolling in the aisles reaction is another person’s poker face. But, although I could think of quite a few funny novels, I couldn’t think of any writer who consistently writes humorous short stories – please let me know in the comments if you have any recommendations.

 

Death on the Small Screen by Jo Allen

I was lucky enough to read this before it went ‘live’ online as I know the author. (We are in a group called Capital Writers.)

It’s the latest in the DCI Jude Satterthwaite police procedural series set in the lovely Lake District.

A murdered body is found on the fells by a young actress. It turns out there is no shortage of suspects, mostly thanks to the victim’s tangled love life.

 

American Housewife by Anita Abriel

Farmer’s daughter, turned radio personality in 1950s New York, Maggie Lane is thrilled to be asked to host her own television show The Maggie Lane Baking Show. She has to ‘bake’ (I use inverted commas because all the cakes and desserts are from packet mixes … ) – and to sign a ‘morality clause’ and ensure that nothing will spoil her squeaky clean image. But Maggie has a past she is hoping to keep hidden, even from her husband.

Enjoyable, but reminiscent of Lessons in Chemistry without that book’s depth.

 

 

A Half-Baked Idea by Olivia Potts

Grieving the death of her mother, barrister Olivia Potts decided to leave the law and enrol on Diplôme de Pâtisserie at Le Cordon Bleu, in London. If that wouldn’t concentrate her mind on something else it’s hard to see what would – the course must be the most exacting anywhere, with its team of classically trained teaching chefs demanding perfection from their students.

She describes her progress – with recipes and very mouth-watering they sound (if someone else has made them).

 

 

Five in October

I read five books in October.

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the Women’s Prize, a world best-seller – Demon needs no accolades from me but I’ll give them anyway.

Apparently Barbara Kingsolver had finished a novel and wondered what to write next. While in London she visited the Charles Dickens Museum in London and was inspired to follow the structure of David Copperfield and write a version for the late 20th/early 20th century. Demon (a ‘variation’ of his name, Damon) Copperhead (red hair) is the child of a teenage, drug-addicted, single mother … don’t want to give spoilers so I’ll just say that his life gets worse before it gets better.

Demon’s home territory (also the author’s), Appalachia, was and is in the grip of the opioid epidemic that has ruined so many lives. The book is not for the faint-hearted (and it’s almost 600 pages) but it is so worth the effort. It follows the structure of its predecessor and many of the names are similar but you don’t need to have read D Copperfield to appreciate it.

It has its funny and its tender moments amidst the darkness, and wonderful characters – Angus and Tommy are two of my favourites from all the books I’ve ever read.

I found to begin with I could read only fifty pages at a time; it was such an intense experience. But I raced through the last two hundred, eager to follow Demon’s extraordinary young life.

An amazing act of literary ventriloquism.

 

Godmersham Park by Gill Hornby

 And now for something completely different … I loved this author’s Miss Austen, a fictional account of the reasons why Jane Austen’s beloved sister Cassandra burnt their correspondence.

 Here, she revisits Austenland (that crowded country … ) with an imagining of the life of a real person, Anne Steele, who tutored Jane Austen’s nieces and nephews, the children of her well-off brother Edward Knight. Hard to believe it’s not true. ‘Anne’ is such a well-realised character and her relationship with her employer’s sister Jane is delightful.

 

One Day I Shall Astonish the World by Nina Stibbe

 Like many people I thoroughly enjoyed Love From Nina, the real letters sent by the author to her sister back home in Leicestershire during the time (in the early 1980s) she was employed as a mother’s help in fashionable Camden, where she met many famous people of whose existence she had never heard before – for example, Alan Bennett used to frequently pop in at supper-time and the event would be pithily reported by young Miss Stibbe.

 So I had high hopes of this novel which came adorned with excited quotes from many big-name authors testifying to its side-splittingness. 

 Reader, I did not crack a smile, not once. It’s billed as ‘the ebb and flow of female friendship over half a lifetime’. But Susan only has one friend, the toxic Norma. She also has a not very happy marriage and a difficult daughter. More a tragedy than a comedy if you ask me.

 

Ruth Robinson’s Year of Miracles by Frances Garood

 Musician Ruth (35) had plans to go travelling with her best friend but now she’s discovered she’s pregnant by her lovely colleague Amos – who seems to have disappeared off the face of the earth, or at least the face of social media, and is uncontactable.

 Her disapproving religious parents suggest she go and stay with her twin uncles until the baby is born. Perhaps it’s not very original to say that a book has ‘quirky’ characters but I think the epithet is appropriate here – the uncles, the cleaner and her family, the animals, and oh yes, the Virgin Mary who puts in an appearance.

 

Bluethroat Morning by Jacqui Lofthouse

 I was attracted to this book in a charity shop because of its title – I believe that it means that time of the morning equivalent to twilight in the evening, the point between dark and light.

 Anyway, about it’s Harry Bliss, in his fifties. His much younger wife, Alison, took her own life six years earlier – she was a very famous model turned writer. He’s still being hounded by the press, by one reporter in particular. He decides to search for the reasons for the suicide and is accompanied on that quest by a colleague’s student daughter who is rather obsessed with dead Alison’s glamour. An affair ensues between them, very much encouraged, indeed initiated by the girl … but still –  it left a bit of a nasty taste.

 Described as a ‘literary thriller’. I’d agree with the first word but not the second. Disappointing.

 

Death at the Three Sisters by Jo Allen

The Three Sisters is a run-down spa on the edge of a lake. A young member of staff comes to a grisly end – why would anyone want to kill her?

Number 10 in the DCI Jude Satterthwaite detective series set in the Lake District. As usual, a satisfying mystery plus an update on Jude’s private life.

Seven in January

 I read seven books in January.

 

These Precious Days by Ann Patchett

A few weeks ago Waterstones had a three-day sale in which every single hardback was half price. I restricted myself to two, one of which is this book of articles and essays. I loved her first such volume This is the story of a happy marriage which includes a long and wonderful memoir of her life as a writer.

In this new book more than one essay concerns AP’s friendship with a woman (met through Tom Hanks – jealous, moi?) who, while she is still virtually a stranger, and a seriously ill one at that, ends up living with AP and her doctor husband during the first lockdown.

Years ago I read AP’s Bel Canto but for some reason I’ve never read her other novels; must remedy that.

She is much to be admired also for the bookshop she opened in Nashville when otherwise the city would be without one.

 

I like a bit of a crime spree in January. So I read these three:

 

Death in the Mist by Jo Allen

The seventh and perhaps the last (hope not) book in the Jude Satterthwaite series, set in the Lake District. The novel murder method might put you off camping …  Excellent.

 

Black Widow by Chris Brookmyre

Journalist Jack Parlabane is looking to redeem himself with a scoop, and a doctor on trial for the murder of her husband might provide one. The outcome was one I certainly didn’t see coming. Terrific.

 

Skeleton Road by Val McDermid

The third, and the only one I hadn’t read, in the Karen Pirie cold case series. With the investigation reliving the horrors of the Balkan war in the 1990s it was a harrowing read; for me there was just too much history/backstory.

 

China in the Morning by Nicholas Wollaston

A charity shop purchase – my copy doesn’t have this nice jacket. Nicholas Wollaston visited China in 1960 when very few outsiders were allowed in. He found a population which seemed to be happy with their lives in Mao Zedong’s Communist Party state – one urban student couldn’t wait for her turn to be selected for the ‘privilege’ of being sent to work the land with the peasants. The ‘Great Chaos’ of the Cultural Revolution was yet to come.

His onward trip to Vietnam is also here – again he was there at a time prior to seismic events in that country.

 

Late in the Day by Tessa Hadley

Married couples Alex and Christine, and Lydia and Zachary, have been friends for years. Christine and Zachary were once an item and Lydia holds a candle for Alex. Each couple has a grown-up daughter, one sensible, one a mess. Their lives are as entwined as they have been since they were students but (not a spoiler) Zachary dies suddenly. Old grievances emerge when Christine invites the grief-stricken Lydia to stay with them for as long as she wants.

Tessa Hadley notices everything about her characters and their surroundings – for example, she describes in forensic detail the items in artist Christine’s studio. So it is easy to visualise it all but I didn’t care for any of the self-absorbed characters (although dead Zachary sounds as if he was jolly company).

I enjoyed The Past, the only other TH novel I’ve read, but the jury is out on this one.

 

Against the Loveless World by Susan Abulhawa

Read for book group. Winner of the Palestine Book Award.

Nahr has been confined to the Cube: nine square metres of glossy grey cinderblock, devoid of time, its patterns of light and dark nothing to do with day and night. Journalists visit her, but get nowhere because Nahr is not going to share her story with them.

The world outside calls Nahr a terrorist, and a whore; some might call her a revolutionary, or a hero. But the truth is, Nahr has always been many things, and had many names.

How Nahr came to be imprisoned in ‘the Cube’ is told in flashbacks. A disturbing read, obviously, but there are some bright spots too – her relationship with her mother and her grandmother, her mother’s embroidery, her love of dance and some delicious-sounding meals.

Nine in April

 I read nine books in April.

 

The Long, Long Afternoon by Inge Vesper

Read on Kindle. If ‘debut novel’ implies that the author is a beginner and will do better … well, that’s hard to believe. This will be a very hard act to follow. The Long Long Afternoon encompasses racism, domestic abuse, (what we now call) PTSD, sexism and other issues but these are in the very fabric of this gripping mystery; they are not added for the sake of it.

Inge Vesper conjures up the stifling Californian heat and the stifling lives of 1950s’ housewives through terrific characters and a structure that works brilliantly.

The story is told through three characters: Joyce, the missing woman; Detective Mike Blanke; and Ruby, the hired ‘Negro help’ who knows these women’s secrets.

I’d love another book featuring this detective. It would be great if Ruby were there too but on the other hand I hope she’s got out of her current life and into the better one she so deserves.

 

This Time Next Year by Sophie Cousens

Read on Kindle. ‘2021’s most heart-warming love story.’ – for me, it didn’t live up to that hype. My heart was not warmed.

The heroine with a knack for choosing the wrong man? The hero with commitment problems? An unusual way in which they originally meet? The wacky best friend? The mother (mothers in this case) and friends with ‘issues’? The funny set pieces? The ‘sliding doors’ aspect?

Yes, it ticked all these romcom boxes but it read as if the boxes came first and the characters second.

My opinion … 5000 reviewers giving it 5* think otherwise.

 

I Thought You Said This Would Work by Ann Garvin

Read on Kindle. Samantha and Holly and Katie were best friends when they were at university. Twentyish years on Samantha and Holly don’t speak but they are still both close to Katie whose cancer has reappeared after a remission.

Circumstances then dictate that Wisconsin-based Sam and Holly have a mad car journey to reclaim Katie’s diabetic Pyrenees mountain dog from her ex-husband many hundreds of miles away in Utah, coming together for the sake of their beloved friend.

Funny, poignant, definitely heart-warming, and an American road trip – what’s not to like?

 

Death in the Lake by Jo Allen

Read on Kindle. The fifth outing for DCI Jude Satterthwaite and his colleague and lover Ashleigh O’Halloran. More murder and mayhem in the beautiful Lake District (the contrast works so well). Look forward to number six.

When a young woman, Summer Raine, is found drowned, apparently accidentally, after an afternoon spent drinking on a boat on Ullswater, DCI Jude Satterthwaite is deeply concerned — more so when his boss refuses to let him investigate the matter any further to avoid compromising a fraud case.

 

Grown Ups by Marian Keyes

I think her early ones are still her best – but this is a page-turning and enjoyable read.

Meet Jessie, Cara and Nell. Married to brothers Johnny, Ed and Liam Casey. Three very different women tied to three very different men. Every family occasion is a party - until the day the secrets spill out.

 

 

Shared Histories: Transatlantic Letters Between Virginia Dickinson Reynolds and her Daughter, Virginia Potter 1929-1966  Edited by Angela Potter

What it says on the tin … this is a collection of (some of) the letters exchanged by mother in America and daughter in England, focusing on the Second World War years.  

Virginia Jnr elected to stay in Britain during that time when she could have returned to the safety of the States, and although she was in the upper echelons of society she mucked in and did her bit in digging for victory, keeping hens and so on.

Virginia Snr (a near relative of poet Emily Dickinson) mostly griped – she was prejudiced against almost everybody to an unpleasant degree. But it was interesting and extraordinary to hear about her wealthy and generous Canadian brother-in-law, Huntly Redpath Drummond, donating thousands to the British war effort including paying £10,000 for a Spitfire named after Virginia Jnr’s little daughter, Jennifer.

 

The Ex Girlfriend by Nicola Moriarty

‘The gripping and twisty psychological thriller.’ Georgia thinks she’s found ‘the one’ when she meets Luke; he says his ex can’t accept their break up.

An enjoyable example of ‘Aussie noir’.

 

The First Lie by A J Park

Pity the poor blurb writer … this is ‘The most gripping psychological thriller you’ll read all year’ – until the next ‘most gripping’ I suppose. It certainly kept me turning the pages even if the original action – the first lie – did take a bit of swallowing.

 

 Mistress Masham’s Repose by T H White

Ten-year-old orphan Maria is the owner of a vast palace, most of which is uninhabitable, and acres of unkempt grounds. She has two horrible guardians who, if only they can find the paperwork, plan to grab the property for themselves.

Within the grounds there is an island, the wonderfully named Mistress Masham’s Repose, where Maria finds a community of Lilliputians, the tiny people (and their animals) whom Gulliver encountered on his famous travels. When their presence becomes known to the greedy guardians they – and Maria – are in grave danger.

Magical and delightful. I have an ex-library copy, scruffy with no jacket, a 1963 reprint. The illustration here is from a newer edition. (NB I chose this cover because I thought it was the sweetest of various options but other, cheaper editions are available.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

My year in books (maybe ... )

 

In school I was 

 

 

People might be surprised by 

 

 

I will never be 

 

 

My life in (full) lockdown was

 

 

My fantasy job is

 

 

At the end of a long day I need 

 

 

I hate 

 

 

I wish I had

 

 

My family reunions are 

 

 

At a party you’d find me with

 

 

I’ve never been to 

 

 

A happy day includes

 

 

The motto I live by

 

 

On my bucket list is

 

 

In my next life I want to have 

 

 

I’ve pinched this idea from a post on Joanne Baird’s terrific blog

She, in turn, was inspired by 746 books

 

How has your book year been?