Eight in April

I read eight books in April.

 

V for Victory by Lissa Evans

The conclusion to the trilogy (I read Crooked Heart last month, and Old Baggage some time ago). Schoolboy Noel (except he doesn’t go to school) and his guardian, Vera, are running a boarding house and still lurching from one financial crisis to another, with the ever-present threat of being found out for Vera is not who she has to pretend to be. Noel’s parents, hitherto unknown to him, are revealed but his bond with Vera is now unassailable after such a bad beginning. A perfect conclusion, an absolute joy.

 

 

Under a Brighter Sky/A Light to Guide us Home by Dianne Haley

 

Following The Watchmaker’s  Daughter which I read in February these two books continue the gripping story of Valérie, operating in the Resistance in Switzerland, helping refugees escaping from Occupied France.

 

Birds of a Feather by Jacqueline Winspear

 

The second in the wonderful private investigator Maisie Dobbs series, set in the aftermath of the Great War. I’ve read a few of them, not in order but always a pleasure.

 

 

The Harbour Lights Mystery/The Rockpool Murder by Emylia Hall

 

The second and third titles in the Shell House Detectives series, the detectives being an unlikely duo of sixty-something widow Ally, and Jason, a young former London cop now relocated to Cornwall. Great stories and lovely writing – although I’m getting a bit weary of books written in the present tense.

 

Past Lying by Val McDermid

 

More crime; this is a Karen Petrie cold case. Karen has more time than usual to investigate the murder of a female student because it’s the first lockdown in 2020. The streets of Edinburgh are eerily quiet and one of her colleagues is grappling with the reality of the virus. The suspect is a crime writer and several actual crime writers are mentioned by name, as an in-joke I guess.

 

The Two-Headed Whale by Sandy Winterbottom

 

Read for book group; suggested by a member who, by the time we came to read it, had done what the author did and visited part of Antarctica on a sailing ship.

Sandy Winterbottom left her husband and teenage children behind in Edinburgh and embarked on this voyage, partly for the adventure, partly for respite, and as it turned out to find out more about the history of the whaling industry pertaining to Scotland (far more recent than you might think).

When she saw the grave of a teenage whaler born very near where she lives, and buried so far from home, she imagines his early life and also embarks on finding his relatives.

All these strands come together to make a fascinating (and beautifully written) read. I am the world’s worst sailor so was glad to be able to make this amazing journey vicariously.

Highly recommended.

 

 

Five in May

 I read five books in May.

 

Games and Rituals by Katherine Heiny

This is Katherine Heiny’s second book of short stories. I’ve been waiting for it and it did not disappoint. Inevitably some appealed more than others but all had the writing style I’ve come to love after reading her two novels Standard Deviation (three times so far) and Early Morning Riser (twice). 

 

The Crystal Crypt by Fiona Veitch Smith

A fun read with a 1920s amateur sleuth Poppy Denby. The sixth in a series but the first I’ve read. Here she is asked to investigate the mysterious death of an up-and-coming female scientist in an Oxford laboratory known as the Crystal Crypt.

 

 

Christmas is Murder by Val McDermid

Hardly seasonal, I know, but I bought this very pretty copy in the Christian Aid Book Sale and just got stuck in to this ‘festive collection of chilling tales’.

 

The Villa in Italy by Elizabeth Edmondson

I paid my first visit to Italy (Sicily) in February so the country is on my radar. Four people, previously unknown to each other, have been mentioned in the will of a woman, of whom none of them have ever heard. They have to spend time in her villa to find out why. I did keep reading to find the solution – but the reasons the legatees were brought together were convoluted and the whole thing pretty unlikely, but hey, that’s fiction for you.

 

 

Far Off in Sunlit Place: Stories of the Scots in Australia and New Zealand by Jim Hewitson

Another Christian Aid Book Sale purchase and a book I’ve wanted to read since it first came out many years ago. I’ve read other, academic, books on the fascinating subject of the Scottish diaspora – this one, while undoubtedly involving a great deal of research, is at the popular end of the history scale and extremely readable.

Seven in May

I read seven books in May.

 

One More Croissant for the Road by Felicity Cloake

Cookery writer Felicity Cloake had her own ‘tour de France’ – cycling (2300km) around the country in search of the perfect croissant, and has written a delightful book about the experience. She ate fabulous and not so fabulous meals, and in the book she gives a recipe from each region. The ultimate croissant (9/10) turned out to be from her last stop, Paris, from the Blé Sucré patisserie.

During the 2020 lockdown we got veg and various other provisions delivered by a local company. One time, having run out of bread flour they substituted buckwheat flour and most of it was still in the (large) packet. So when I came across Felicity Cloake’s recipe, from her journey from Saint-Malo to Redon, for Crêpe Complètes made with the flour, I gave them a go. With an egg and grated cheese on top they were trés delicious.

 

Riding Pillion with George Clooney by Geraldine Ryan

Geri is a much-published short story writer, particularly in women’s magazines (for whom she has also written serials). This collection of a dozen stories showcases her versatility and demonstrates how she is inspired by the daily lives of women at different stages of their lives – I was particularly fond of Bernadette in the title story as she bravely moves out of her comfort zone.

 

Daughters of the Labyrinth by Ruth Padel

Read for book group. An area of history none of us were familiar with – the treatment of the Jewish community living on Crete when it was under German occupation during WW2.

Ri, a successful artist living in London, goes back to her ancestral home in Crete following the death of her husband. Her mother is ill and in her delirium she lets slip a family secret. As well as being a book about the wartime history of the island it’s about relationships between mothers and daughters so a good read on several levels.

I wasn’t sure about the first person, present tense, narration – first person can sound self-conscious, and the present tense plain irritating, so the two together in a book (as opposed to a short story) is hard to sustain successfully, in my opinion.

 

1979 by Val McDermid

The first in her new series – the next one due imminently is 1989, and so on; the books will chronicle history, changing attitudes etc as well as following reporter Allie Burns. In 1979, Allie and her colleague, Danny, infiltrate a splinter Scottish Independence group bent on aping IRA violence, and investigate an insurance scam that comes only too close to home.

 

The Wife by Meg Wolitzer

Bought at Christian Aid booksale. I’d vaguely heard of the film with this name (with Glenn Close) but hadn’t connected the two when I picked up this book.

I haven’t read any of Alison Lurie’s books for decades but her name came to mind when I started this – about a literary, warring couple. I appreciated The Wife for the writing and deplored the way (mostly) American men lorded over the literary scene in the mid 20th century, some quite undeservedly … but I don’t feel invested enough in the story to seek out the film.

 

The Hive by Gill Hornby

Bought at Christian Aid booksale.

It's the start of another school year at St Ambrose. But while the children are in the classroom colouring in, their mothers are learning sharper lessons on the other side of the school gates. Lessons in friendship. Lessons in betrayal. Lessons in the laws of community, the transience of power... and how to get invited to lunch.

I loved this, wanted to know the end but didn’t want it to finish – the best kind of read. The dialogue was so sharp, each character so distinct. And it was so funny in places (yes, Heather, thinking of your lunch menu). 

 

The Fishing Fleet: Husband Hunting in the Raj by Anne de Courcy

Bought at Christan Aid booksale

From the late 19th century, when the Raj was at its height, many of Britain's best and brightest young men went out to India to work as administrators, soldiers and businessmen. With the advent of steam travel and the opening of the Suez Canal, countless young women, suffering at the lack of eligible men in Britain, followed in their wake. This amorphous band was composed of daughters returning after their English education, girls invited to stay with married sisters or friends, and yet others whose declared or undeclared goal was simply to find a husband. They were known as the Fishing Fleet, and this book is their story, hitherto untold.

I love this kind of social history, although I skipped the parts about the tiger hunts.

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 December

 I read nine books in December.

 

The Lamplighters by Emma Stonex

Read for book group.

‘Cornwall, 1972. Three keepers vanish from a remote lighthouse, miles from the shore. The entrance door is locked from the inside. The clocks have stopped. The Principal Keeper’s weather log describes a mighty storm, but the skies have been clear all week. What happened to these three men out on the tower?’

Twenty years later the women in their lives are still coming to terms with the mystery – the mystery that has caused them to fall out with eachother. Now, a writer wants to talk to them and old secrets come to the surface.

Based on a true story and beautifully written, the book was described by Hilary Mantel, no less, as ‘the novel I’ve most enjoyed this year.’

 

 

Broken Ground by Val McDermid

I’ve been volunteering for my local Shelter shop for three years now, sorting out their book donations and shelves. Almost nothing gives me greater pleasure than arranging books. It’s costing me a fortune though (luckily a very good cause benefits) – I nearly always come home with some irresistible find ssuch as these two hardback Val McDermids.

They are the fifth and, the latest, the sixth in her Karen Pirie series of cold-case solving, set in Fife and Edinburgh. I hope there will be more.

 

 

Still Life by Val McDermid

(Editions other than hardbacks are available of course.)

Diary of an MP’s Wife by Sasha Swire

Sasha Swire was (is?) her husband Hugo’s political researcher, both of them good personal friends of David and Samantha Cameron. Here she spills the beans on eg the infighting in the Tory hierarchy, the two referendum, and the appointment of the two subsequent prime ministers Theresa May and Boris Johnson.

No one comes out of it well. And since katewritesandreads is not a political column I will stop there.

 

Looking Back with Love by Dodie Smith

Today, Dodie Smith (Dorothy, 1896-1990) is most associated with The Hundred and One Dalmatians – although it’s probably more likely that Walt Disney’s name would come before hers. (I like the films but the book is better than any of them.) Her other book which has more than stood the test of time and one I've read and reread is I Capture the Castle.

But in the 20s and 30s she was a much-performed playwright, the best known ‘woman playwright’ of her day. The others are forgotten now; only Dear Octopus had any real longevity.

She is a fascinating character. She was brought up in Manchester by her widowed mother, grandparents, three bachelor uncles and two aunts, who all lived in the same house and doted on her. It was a fun, noisy household with musical evenings and many outings to theatres; her uncle Harold was a leading light in one of the local companies.

All this adoring attention gave Dodie a very healthy ego. She ended up writing five volumes of autobiography (only three have been published). This is the first; it takes her up only to the age of fourteen when her life changed. Her mother married again and moved with Dodie and her new husband to London.

I love these Slightly Foxed books; they’re comparatively expensive but so delightful to hold and to look at – and to read of course.

 

Dear Dodie by Valerie Groves

I already had this biography of Dodie Smith and had read it but having acquired Look Back with Love I wanted to remind myself of what happened after she was fourteen.

She didn’t succeed in her desire to become an actress – she was slightly odd looking, very short with a large head and bust, and dressed in a startlingly individual style, so directors were more inclined to smile and send her on her way than to cast her – so she began to write plays and to keep the wolf from the door was a successful saleswoman at the famous London shop Heal’s for a time (and had a long affair with its married owner).

After marrying the wonderful (and long-suffering) Alec she lived in America during the 40s, adapting books for film and making friends with, amongst others, Christopher Isherwood.

Back in England she was given her first Dalmatian although it took her a long time to write about him. She was extremely extravagant and loved spending money even when she didn’t have it – but it seemed that a large cheque from some project always arrived in time to bail her out.

Hard to do justice to her in a few words – do read about her for yourself.

 

Snow Angel Cove by RaeAnne Thynne

A prettily-covered romance set in a picturesque American small town ticks a box for me and there are some great series of them. Here, I’m afraid I didn’t really take to Eliza, her inevitable heartstrings-tugging issues and the way everyone thought she was so wonderful. In fact, everyone thought everyone else was wonderful so it was all too sugary with no real conflict. Her little daughter, Maddie, was the only character who came over as a real and delightful individual rather than one from central casting.

 

The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman

I went to the launch of this at my local (brilliant) branch of Toppings back in September. About three hundred of us (masked) crammed into a church near the shop to hear RO being interviewed by Scottish comedian and presenter Fred MacAulay. They’d evidently met before so there was some good banter between them.

I saved the book up for the Christmas hols and it did not disappoint; in fact I preferred it to the first. Great characters, great twists and a cracking ending.

 

On which note … that’s the end of 2021. Happy 2022 (we can but hope) and thank you for reading my blog.