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.

Seven in November

  I read seven books in November.

Connective Tissue by Eleanor Thom

I love books by someone tracing their hitherto unknown family history. This is couched as a novel because Eleanor Thom has had to fill in gaps but in essence it’s her finding out about her mother’s side of the family. Her grandmother, Jewish single mother Dora, lives in Berlin in 1937 and because of her father’s immigration status finds that she is ‘stateless’ and is forced to move to the UK to work as a domestic servant – as it turns out of course that means that she lives while relatives she leaves behind do not. 

‘Helena’, as the book’s protagonist is called, decides to find her long lost family after the birth of her baby who has an unexplained medical condition, echoing the author’s own experience.

 

This is Eleanor Thom’s second book; her first, The Tin-Kin, explored in fiction her grandfather’s, (Dora’s husband) side of the family.

 

The Lady of the Manse by Lavinia Derwent

The Mouse in the Manse by Lavinia Derwent

 

 Lavinia Derwent is (or was) best known for her books for children, including the Sula series, but these are autobiographical. They are an easy, nostalgic read but kind of make you gasp when you think about it. In her late teens, Lavinia (although that wasn’t her real name) found herself ‘the lady of the manse’ when her minister brother got his first charge and needed a housekeeper. With very little money, and none at all for her own use, she looked after the large, draughty manse and in addition to housework and cooking had to fulfil various parish duties.

 

One amusing story is that of a neighbour’s boy, ‘Wee Wullie’, who is in awe of the young red-haired minister, believing him to actually be God.

 

It doesn’t cross her mind not to do as her family wanted and it did lead to her career; to make some pin money she began to write articles. 

 

(The pb of The Lady is expensive online; mine came from a shop swap-box.)

 

Again, Rachel by Marian Keyes

 

 Twenty years after Rachel’s Holiday comes a sequel and it’s worth the wait. What happened after she got out of rehab and married Luke? Are they still married? And what about her mad-as-a-box-of-frogs family? Well, they still are mad but that’s all I’m going to say, no spoilers.

 

 Exiles by Jane Harper

 

The third book to feature Aaron Falk (following The Dry and Force of Nature); set in small town Australia. Aaron is actually a forensic accountant but he gets involved in the case of a missing woman when he goes to stay with a friend. Excellent, as are the other two.

 

The Wayward Miss Wyckenham by Melinda Hammond

 

‘Miss Clarissa Wyckenham comes to London to live with her pretty step-mama and finds that Mama-Nell has formed a discreet club for ladies. Soon she is pitched headlong into the scandalous antics of the Belles Dames Club, and finds herself in conflict with the disapproving Lord Alresford … ’

A very enjoyable eighteenth-century adventure and romance.

 

Skelton’s Guide to Domestic Poisons by David Stafford

 

Arthur Skelton has gone from being an unremarkable barrister to a much sought after one after winning ‘the legal case of the century’. Now he is charged with defending a woman accused of poisoning her husband. The story itself is satisfying but it’s the characters that make the book– Arthur has several wonderful sidekicks and the dialogue is wonderful.

Seven in August

 I read seven books in August.

 

Islands of Abandonment by Cal Flyn

Non-fiction. Cal Flyn visited places which humans have vacated for one reason or another – eg Chernobyl; the island of Monserrat (because of volcanic activity); the no-go buffer zone in Cyprus; and a strange sea that comes and goes in California. Nature has reclaimed all of the places to a great or lesser extent. Following the fall of the Soviet Union, when collective farms in Estonia were abandoned, a staggering 500,000 hectares of forest had taken over by 2010 which is very good news for the planet on the carbon front.

Two sites closer to (my) home were of much interest: the abandoned island of Swona off the north coast of Scotland which is a living experiment in how cattle behave when they stop being domesticated; and the shale bings, legacy of coal mining in West Lothian, where no end of plant life can be found now including two rare orchids.

Cal Flynn doesn’t shy away from the bad news around climate change but it was heartening to have these flashes of hope.

 

A Civil Contract by Georgette Heyer

See July … impossible to choose a top five of GHs as it turns out because this one is right up there too. Unusually, the heroine is plain and plain-spoken and much of the book takes place in the countryside with talk of new farming methods rather than balls and beaux.

 

Early Morning Riser by Katherine Heiny

Read when it came out in April 21 and it was a joy to read it again, not for the last time I’m sure. I’ve read her first novel Standard Deviation three times and just thinking about it makes me want to make that four. Check them out!

 

Fabulous Nobodies by Lee Tulloch  

I had never heard of Fabulous Nobodies until I read this article praising it by Marian Keyes and before you could say ‘look, missus, there are already xx books on your to-read pile’ I’d nipped online and bought it.

It reminded me in some ways of The Dud Avocado, a book I am fond of, although it is set in New York in 1983 instead of 1950s Paris. Reality Nirvana Tuttle (known as Really) is fashion obsessed and desperate to be a trendsetter, to be ‘somebody’ – sometimes succeeding and sometimes not. Entertaining and oddly sweet.

 

The Bridge Ladies by Betsey Lerner 

I’ve been dipping in and out of BL’s The Forest for the Trees: An Editor’s Advice to Writers, (bought in a charity shop, not for this price). She’s been an agent as well as an editor so very well qualified to write it, although not everything translates to this side of the pond (and publishing has changed so much since 2010).

She mentioned her memoir and, yes, my fingers went walking online again. Her mother played bridge with the same friends for over fifty years. When Betsey comes back from New York to live where she grew up, she gets to know the ladies better and asks them about their lives, especially their young lives, so different from her own.

I very much enjoyed that aspect – the ladies and their families, living in a post-war Jewish community in Connecticut – but when Betsey takes up bridge too and goes to classes so that she will be a worthy player, she lost me. I can only hope that playing bridge is more interesting than reading about it.

 

The Swallow’s Flight by Hilary Mackay

A welcome sequel to The Skylarks’ War with as wonderful a cast of characters as you could meet anywhere. For children of all ages.

 

Arabella by Georgette Heyer

Arabella, daughter of a Yorkshire vicar, is brought to fashionable London by her mother’s friend to enter the marriage market. Despite her new surroundings, her vicarage upbringing keeps coming to the fore as she intervenes in the lives of those less fortunate … (as you can see from this cover – shades of The Water Babies). Unwittingly, she attracts the attention of wealthy and elegant Mr Beaumaris who is undoubtedly the catch of the day.

Despite the money and the immaculate attire though, our hero has a strong sense of the absurd. He is aware that other men strive to dress like he does (he’s an ‘influencer’ of his time) so, three days in a row, he sports a dandelion in his buttonhole and is amused to watch his followers scramble over themselves to do likewise.

A total delight.

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.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nine in November

I read nine books in November.

The Hourglass Factory by Lucy Ribchester

Read on Kindle, for book group. This is a debut novel, set in London at the height of suffragette movement. The main character, Frankie, is a tomboy reporter who lives hand to mouth, always with an eye for a big story. The plot has many twists and turns, possibly too many, but the period feel is excellent – shades of Sarah Waters, and Frankie is a great character; I hope there will be more books about her. Most of the book group had been to see the film Suffragettes, so there was a good discussion about the subject; both the book and the film got a thumbs-up.

One Night at the Jacaranda by Carol Cooper.

Read on Kindle. Sounds as if it’s set somewhere hot and steamy but no – although steaminess in other forms does come in to the story. The Jacaranda is the venue for a speed-dating event in London and the book then follows each of the participants as they meet up afterwards. This meant that there were a lot of characters – I found it hard to care very much about any of them.

Flight to Coorah Creek by Janet Gover

An intriguing strapline – What happens when you can fly, but you just can’t hide?

Jessica Pearson starts a new job flying an air ambulance in and out of Coorah Creek in the Australian outback – a position that suits her as she’s running away from a very difficult situation. The resident doctor Adam Gilmore has his own secrets. Throw another runaway, Ellen, and her children, into the town on the edge of nowhere; eventually all the secrets emerge. 

A flying doctor romance – what’s not to like?

We go to the gallery

This was the first book to subvert the Ladybird brand;  the Ladybird publishers were not pleased but then took up the idea themselves – a hoot.

 

I blogged here about books I liked in which patchwork is a theme. I’ve just discovered Sandra Dallas so a lot more ‘patchwork books’ are going to be added to that list. Also, most of her books are set during the American Depression, an era I find fascinating to read about.

Prayers for Sale by Sandra Dallas

Set in the mountains of Colorado. Hennie is eighty-seven and can – just – remember the Civil War, but her age doesn’t prevent her living very independently in an inhospitable terrain, helping her neighbours, and always having a bit of patchwork on the go. There’s also an old score to think about – how is she going to settle it?

The Persian Pickle Club by Sandra Dallas

I liked Prayers for Sale but I loved The Persian Pickle Club. 

‘It is Harveyville, Kansas in the 1930s, where the crops are shrivelling and there are no jobs. For Queenie Bean, the highlight of each week is the gathering of the Persian Pickle Club, a group of ladies dedicated to improving their minds. Then along comes Rita, newly wed and decidedly glamorous.’

‘Persian pickle’ is another name for Paisley pattern – isn't that great? As the group of ladies gossip, or are read aloud to, they make quilts. A story of hardship and friendship – with a murder mystery thrown in.

New Mercies by Sandra Dallas

This one does not actually feature patchwork despite the cover. Set in the Deep South decades after the Civil War – but the legacy of slavery lives on:

Nora Bondurant is running away—from her husband’s death, from his secrets, … When she receives a telegram informing her that she has an inheritance, Nora suddenly has somewhere to run to: a house named Avoca in Natchez, Mississippi. … she’s inherited a mystery. Nora’s aunt, Amalia Bondurant, was killed in a murder/suicide, and the locals are saying nothing … ’

The Woman Who Stole My Life by Marian Keyes

Wonderful Marian never lets you down and this is her in grand form with a story set in Ireland and in the hilariously awful cut-throat world of American publishing. Terrific – but my favourite MK’s will always be a couple of her early ones: Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married, and Rachel’s Holiday.

Nora Webster by Colm Toibin

I loved his Brooklyn (and the recent film was brilliantly faithful to it) so was keen to read this one. Nora, widowed relatively young, with a family of four to look after, is trying to adjust to life without her husband. In small-town Ireland, in the 1960s, this is particularly difficult as everyone has an opinion on how Nora should behave. She isn’t as lovable a character as Eilis in Brooklyn but she leaps off the page in the same way.