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 September

I read five books in September.

 

Small Bomb at Dimperley by Lissa Evans

I’m a big fan of Lissa Evans’ Second World War trilogy – Old Baggage, Crooked Heart, and V for Victory – so was keen to read her latest novel set just after the war.

Dimperley is an unattractive and crumbling stately home which houses returning soldier sons and evacuees who never left – and the matriarch who insists on standards being kept up no matter what. Witty and profound like the trilogy although, in my opinion, not quite as good. I’ve never (yet) read her Their Finest Hour but I loved the film made from it. Their Finest (why did they drop the Hour?) has a brilliant cast including Bill Nighy.

 

 

Killing Floor by Lee Child

When I saw this in a charity shop I thought, ooh a Jack Reacher I haven’t read and it’s the very first one! And so I continued to think, until I was more than three-quarters of the way in when something rang a bell loudly … No point in telling you the plot because clearly they’re all the same. … J

 

 

When skies are dark and murky, thank your stars you’re not a turkey wrote a school friend in my autograph book (remember those?). Well, thanking my stars I’m not a turkey doesn’t help for more than maybe a second. What does help is returning to childhood favourite reading. Jennings books still make me laugh, especially Our Friend Jennings in which his best friend Darbishire acquires a false moustache through a small ad in a magazine and is convinced that it makes him completely unrecognisable. To make the most of it, the boys collaborate on writing a play about … a man with a moustache.

Similarly, in Jennings’ Diary, when he writes teachers’ and fellow pupils’ names backwards, our hero is positive that no one sneaking a look at his diary will crack the code.

 

And from the delightfully ridiculous to the sublime ...

 

Clear by Carys Davies

I really love Carys Davies’ writing, so spare and sharp, so clear in fact. This, her third novel, follows her hugely successful collections of short stories (in particular do check out the title story in The Redemption of Galen Pike).

Clear is set in 1843, encompasses: a seismic moment in Scottish religious history, the Highland Clearances, an island with one remaining inhabitant, a lost language, a late marriage, an unexpected relationship … all coming together in a tale other writers would take three times as long to tell.

 

Seven in April

 I read seven books in April.

 

Jeannie’s War by Carol MacLean

A couldn’t-put-down family saga set in Glasgow in 1939 and, yippee, the first in a series called The Kiltie Street Girls.

The first Girl is Jeannie Dougal who lives with her widowed mother, wayward teenage sister, Kathy, and small brother and sister – except that the younger two are currently evacuated to Perthshire and the fate of older brother Jimmy who is in the army is constantly on her mind. Jeannie has become engaged to the handsome and comparatively well-off Arthur Dunn but comes to realise how overbearing he is.

In the munitions factory she makes friends with three girls whose lives become entwined with hers and with her family.

The Second World War shows no sign of falling from popularity as a background for novels. (Last month I read A Wartime Secret, this month We Must be Brave, see below, and I have The Watchmaker’s Daughter lined up.) I look forward to hearing more from Kiltie Street.

 

The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra by Vaseem Khan

Vaseem Khan was the keynote speaker at the Scottish Association of Writers conference this year, and a very entertaining one he was too. I bought this book, the first in a series, and asked him to sign it. I told him I was going to read it first … but I’d like it signed for my brother who has been to India on business many times and he wrote a very nice personal message inside. Brother was delighted (and yes, I told him I’d sneaked a read). Terrific characters (two- and four-legged) and a great plot.

On the day he retires, Inspector Ashwin Chopra discovers that he has inherited an elephant, an unlikely gift that could not be more inconvenient. For Chopra has one last case to solve ...

 

The Sentinel by Lee Child with Andrew Child

The first book written by the two brothers. More of the same – violence and mayhem and our hero walking off into the sunset having sorted it all out with more violence and mayhem.

 

Transcription by Kate Atkinson

Original take on the spy novel. In 1940, Juliet Armstrong, alone in the world and just eighteen, is recruited to MI5. Mundane typing and dangerous liaisons follow – and an unexpected ending – told in Kate Atkinson’s brilliant writing.

 

The Pier Falls by Mark Haddon

Best-known as the author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night, Mark Haddon turns his attention here to short stories. Apparently he wanted to experiment with writing styles and genres but not commit these to a whole novel.

So the first story, for example, is about the collapse of a pleasure beach pier and it’s told by an omniscient narrator who observes the scene before, during and after – the innocent holiday makers, the deaths, the injuries, the traumas, the heroism. Not something you’d want sustained – as a reader or a writer – in a longer piece but the effect is stunning (if grim) here.

In fact all the stories are dark and disturbing and only too memorable – I wanted to, but couldn’t stop thinking about The Island, based on Greek mythology, long after I finished reading it.

 

We Must Be Brave by Frances Liardet

‘Domestic stories of women’s lives in wartime are common in genre publishing but rarer in literary fiction.’ began the Guardian’s review of this book.

It’s 1940; Southampton has been bombed and homeless civilians arrive in busloads in the village of Upton. Childless Ellen Parr and her much older husband, Selwyn, help them to find beds for the night – and Ellen realises that among them is a small, unaccompanied girl. Pamela ends up staying with them for some years until … no spoilers.

Then there’s Ellen’s riches to rags back-story, her uncompromising friend Lucy who just walks off the page, and much else woven into the fabric of Upton over the years – the novel finishes in 2010.

I won’t read it all again (so little time so much to read …) but when I finished it I did go back and revisit the passage where Ellen and Selwyn first literally bumped into each other. For various reasons it was an unlikely match but that meeting very believably set the tone for their happy relationship.

 

The Nighwatchman by Louise Erdich

Read for book group. Set in 1953 in the Turtle Mountain Reservation in North Dakota. Thomas Wazhuhk, a prominent member of the Chippewa Council is extremely worried by the US government’s proposed new ‘Emancipation Bill’ which threatens the rights of Native Americans.

The book also follows Pixie who supports her family financially but wants, somehow, to get to Minnesota to find her missing sister.

The author, an enrolled member of Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for this book. It’s a gripping read and opened up a world I knew almost nothing about.

Nine in August

 I read nine books in August.

 

 Bombs and Bougainvillea: An Expat in Jerusalem by L. E. Decker

Read on Kindle (also available in paperback). I do love books about expats; this is one with a difference though because the Decker family, after twenty years in various countries in the Middle East, are moving from Jordan to Ramallah, a Palestinian city in the central West Bank north of Jerusalem where even the school run is fraught with danger. However, life has to be lived day to day and the family looks for the positives – and there are plenty of those, in the food, the culture(s), and new friendships. I enjoyed my vicarious stay with them enormously and learned a lot from it (also enjoyed the recipes!).

 

 

The Mum Who Got Her Life Back by Fiona Gibson

Read on Kindle. This is the first Fiona Gibson book I’ve read and I loved it – usually books described as ‘laugh out loud’ don’t make me, but this one did especially during the ‘cathedral in Aberdeen’ conversations (variations of which I seem very prone to having myself).

Nadia is a single mum whose twins have left to go to university. Just when she’s beginning to enjoy being an empty nester with a budding romance, son Alfie drops out and returns home.

 

 

The Mum Who’d Had Enough by Fiona Gibson

So I bought another one but I’m afraid I didn’t take to it. A more accurate title might be The Wife Who’d Had Enough: A Mystery, the mystery being why Sinead ever married Nate in the first place.

The book is narrated in the first person by Nate – whose name could well be Gnat because he has the emotional depth and maturity of one of the wee irritating beasties.

However, I'll give FG the benefit of the doubt because of the previous title and give her another go sometime.

 

 

Meet the Malones Books 1-3 by Lenora Mattingly Weber

Read on Kindle. I happened to see online an article where various American authors were asked what they’d been reading during lockdown. Most of the answers were the serious, literary books you might expect them to say (while not necessarily believing them) but one of them mentioned this series for children/young adults which I’d never heard of so I looked it up.

It sounded just my cup of tea: impoverished motherless family (but with a fab crusading journalist dad), set in Colorado, beginning in 1943 (when I think it was first published), fourteen books in the series taking it up to 1963.

Print copies are prohibitively expensive and the e-books aren’t cheap, at around £5.40 a throw, so I am rationing their purchase.

In the first one, Mary Fred (no explanation of her second name) has been given fifteen dollars by a kind friend to buy a ‘formal’, a prom dress – but instead she spends it on a lame horse.

Amazon isn’t very clear about what order the books come in but I found a list on Goodreads.

 

  

Blue Moon by Lee Child

The last one he’s said he’ll write before his brother takes over the series.

The writing is like a child’s reading book much of the time: Reacher slid out of bed. He found his pants. He found his T-shirt. He found his socks. But you don’t read these books for the prose but for the adrenalin rush and that’s delivered by the page-turning bucketful. Even more cartoony violence than usual when Reacher contrives to set two mafia-type gangs against each other, thus ridding a city of its protection racketeers.

And the incident that sparks the whole thing off makes you even more thankful than usual for the NHS.

 

 

Near Neighbours by Molly Clavering

First published in 1956, republished by Greyladies Books and out of print from them too. Second-hand copies are a ridiculous price but a friend kindly lent me her copy (which I returned without first scanning the cover so have none to show you and can’t find it online).

Similar style to D.E. Stevenson. Set in Edinburgh in the 1940s. Two sets of neighbours get to know each other – one elderly (or what counted for elderly in the 40s) whose domineering sister has died leaving her free to make friends; the other a family mostly composed of delightful daughters with tree names: Willow, Rowan, Holly and Hazel.

 

 

The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes

Here the author of the multi-selling Me Before You transports us to Kentucky during the Great Depression and a group of women who set up a library and travel on packhorses to deliver books to those in remote areas. Very happy to be involved, as she has nothing else to do, is Alice who, unhappy at home, has made what turns out to be a disastrous marriage to get away from England. The other women have their problems too.

The horse-riding librarians did exist all over the Appalachian mountains between 1935 and 43; they must have been tough cookies because the terrain is very difficult especially in the winter. A good read.

Thirteen in May (1)

I read thirteen books in May; I’ll tell you about them in two blog posts.

Diary of a Somebody by Brian Bilston

Like very many people I enjoy Brian Bilston’s way with words. The ‘Banksy of poetry’ and ‘Twitter’s unofficial poet laureate’ nails current topics on the head in clever and witty ways that you wish you’d thought of first.

Diary of a Somebody is allegedly his diary but I think we can take that with a large cellar of salt.

To quote from the blurb:

Part tender love story, part murder mystery, part coruscating description of a wasted life, and interspersed with some of the funniest poems about the mundane and the profound, Diary of a Somebody is a unique, original and hilarious novel.

I whizzed through it, loved it; this will be one to reread.

The Visitor by Lee Child

The fourth Jack Reacher book. ‘The visitor’ is Jack Reacher himself when he helps a couple of government agencies to solve the gruesome murders of two former female army high-flyers who had both been acquainted in the past with our hero.

Her Mother’s Secret: The Summer of ‘69 by Jan Baynham

Isn’t that a fab (as we used to say in the 60s) cover?

Dual timeline, set on the Greek island of Péfka. The earlier story is about Elin when she attends a summer art school there and, later, Elin’s daughter Alexandra follows in her mother’s footsteps and learns much about Elin that she never knew. Great premise and great sense of place – I’ve never been to Greece but enjoyed my virtual stay in Péfka.

Before Green Gables by Budge Wilson

This was produced in 2008 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the publication of the story of fiction’s most loved redhead.

I’ve had it on my shelf for about ten years and finally plucked up the courage to read it – if that isn’t too strong a statement. L M Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables and its sequels have for so (sooo) long been among my very favourite books that I resented the thought of someone else writing her story.

We know from the Anne books that she was orphaned as a baby and subsequently brought up in two foster homes where she was treated with rough kindness but also as an unpaid and overworked skivvy before being taken to an orphanage from where she was adopted (by mistake; they’d asked for a boy) by siblings Matthew and Marilla. 

If you have never read or owned a copy of Anne of Green Gables there are dozens of editions to choose from, some with very unappealing covers, and others which look lovely, like this one: 

 

I thought Before Green Gables was unnecessarily long and I wasn’t massively taken with Budge Wilson’s writing. Through her eyes Anne appears to look like a ragdoll or a cartoon character – her large eyes and ‘long skinny legs’ being mentioned rather too frequently. We know from LM’s books that Anne is precocious and a chatterbox but here she is attributed speeches (speeches I tell you) from the age of seventeen months that are frankly implausible.

But there were some terrific characters, not least Anne’s delightful and tragic young parents, and many things are ‘explained’, such as Anne’s love of big words, her appreciation of natural beauty and her longing for a best friend, a kindred spirit.

At the end of the book we leave her at Bright River station, Prince Edward Island, waiting for Matthew Cuthbert to arrive. Anne of Green Gables begins with that scene so of course I had to read it again and one thing led to another and another and …

At the beginning of this year my sister and I planned (but luckily had not booked) a holiday in Canada this autumn, including a visit to Prince Edward Island which I have been longing to see for more than fifty years. Well, we all know how holiday plans in 2020 have turned out … 

Maybe in the next year or two (or three) it will be possible but, if not, then thank goodness for the imagination which can travel even when the body is in lockdown. A sentiment I'm sure Anne Shirley would approve of.

Twelve in March (1)

I read twelve books in March. 

You don’t need me to tell you what’s been going on this month. Silver lining is more time to read. I’ll review my twelve books in two posts rather than one huge one.

Confession with Blue Horses by Sophie Hardach

Read on Kindle for book group. Ella and Tobi live in London now but have unanswered questions about their childhood in East Berlin including the family’s failed escape attempt in 1987 and the subsequent disappearance of their little brother – ironically only two years before the wall came down. When Ella finds some of their mother’s old notebooks she goes to Berlin and the Stasi archives to find out what she can. A beautifully written mystery/family story/history.

The Other Mrs Walker by Mary Paulson-Ellis

Margaret returns to Edinburgh in 2011 after her life in London falls apart, and with no other means of support she moves back to her mother’s flat. Her mother, Barbara, has always said that she has no family and she has refused to tell Margaret who her father was.

I was attracted to the premise of this book, being a fan of the TV programme Heir Hunters which features a company who look for relatives of deceased persons who have property/money but who have died intestate and with no known family.

Margaret finds a sort of similar job (to do with what kind of funeral takes place) tracking down families of those who have died alone. Interwoven with that is the story (not in chronological order) of three sisters and their lives in London, from 1929 to 1980, encompassing, among much else, abandonment, madness, paedophilia, thievery and abortion. All this grimness is well evoked and I liked having to keep my wits about me to work out what was happening and when.

BUT <spoiler alert>It did beggar belief that the deceased in Margaret’s first case should turn out (I think) to be a relative.

I wasn’t mad on the writing style. Which tended to be a bit choppy. Like this. And like this. There was lots of repetition too. Lots of repetition, and bracketed comments. (But that was deliberate and not lack of editing. I think.) These stylistic tricks were a distraction away from the story.

It’s such a dreadful thought, dying alone, estranged from or without family, sometimes not being found for days, weeks or even years. I see that MPE’s new book has an heir hunter called Solomon Farthing – clearly the subject is very fertile ground for a novelist.

Things We Choose to Hide by Jane Riddell

‘After ending a long-term relationship, Rachel Grosvenor goes to stay with friends in Florence, where she meets the attractive Sicilian businessman, Tommaso. Despite her friends’ concerns, she marries him weeks later, only to learn at the end of their honeymoon, that he’s been less than honest with her. Gradually she stumbles upon more unpleasant secrets in his life. Set in Italy and India, this is the story of one woman’s experience of deception, jealousy and finding love in unexpected places.’

Read my interview with Jane here.

Journey to Munich by Jacqueline Winspear

I’m a big fan of JW’s Maisie Dobbs character – she’s a private investigator/psychologist and this is the twelfth title in the series (currently there are 15). Here she goes to Munich in 1938 on behalf of the British Secret Service.

I’d also recommend following Jacqueline Winspear on Facebook – she’s a Brit living in the States and has a lot to say that is thoughtful and wise.

 One Shot by Lee Child

One of his best, I think, and completely page-turning. A man is apprehended after six people are shot dead; all the evidence including forensics point to his guilt. His sister however doesn’t believe he was capable of such a thing. All the man will say is ‘Get Jack Reacher’ but it turns out they weren’t exactly buddies on their previous acquaintance.

Did you see that Lee Child is going to stop writing the Reacher novels and has handed the job over to his brother? I wonder how that will work out.

The Explorer by Katherine Rundell

I have just discovered children’s writer (for children of all ages) Katherine Rundell and her Rooftoppers was the very last book I read last year.

I loved this one too – a plane crashes in the Amazon jungle and four children are left to survive in it. The different personalities, talents and backgrounds of the three older ones mean they all have something useful to contribute.

What do tarantulas taste like? What does it mean when they find a cigarette box tied to a high branch? And all those stories of lost cities – could they be true?