Valentine's Day

 Forget the storms and snuggle up with this collection of fourteen love stories, 

all previously published in women's magazines.

http://amzn.to/2BzxNa6 

Stories include:

Two for Joy
Superstitious Jess is looking for true love – will the magpies or the tea-leaves point her in 

the right direction?

Bonnie Prince Charlie
Isabel has an unexpected guest staying for Bed & Breakfast – and there are people who would 

pay to know his whereabouts.
 

Summertime Blues
It’s the year of Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep, but Lindsay, part-time record-spinner on 

a Scottish island, is feeling far from chirpy.

A Parallel Universe
Louise meets David for the first time in fifteen years and wonders about the life they might have had together – is it too late?

And Pomona Came Too
There’s a third party in Nick and Jill’s relationship – his metal detector. He even wants to take it on their weekend break to Basking-in-the-Wold …

Making a Scene
Of course her little boy’s birthday party is Lorna’s first priority but how she wishes she could

 be in two places at once.

For Love or Money
Jackie is about to marry someone who’s made a lot of money – is she trying to leave 

her two oldest friends behind?

The Palace of Complete Happiness
While escorting a school party through the Forbidden City in Beijing, Milly comes to the conclusion that she can learn a lesson from the life of the imperial family.

http://amzn.to/2BzxNa6

 

Six in January

I read six books in January.

 Death at Eden’s End by Jo Allen

I was eager for another encounter with DCI Jude Satterthwaite and his colleagues after loving the first in this series Death by Dark Waters. It did not disappoint. A nursing home is a great enclosed-community setting for murder; at Eden’s End (what a fab name for such a place!) the death of Violet Ross is not at first thought to be suspicious – she was 100 after all – but it emerges that she had some murky secrets. The personal relationship between Jude and DS Ashleigh O’Halloran moves forward (that’s all I’ll say about that … ) and the ending is both surprising and completely satisfying. Look forward to number three.

Someday, Someday, Maybe by Lauren Graham

I have never watched The Gilmore Girls so it wasn’t the fact that its star, Lauren Graham, is the author here that made me pick up this book, set in 1995, about Franny who is trying to make it as an actress in New York. Books set in NY always attract me and the highs and lows of acting do too for some reason so this was a double whammy – and of course the author obviously knows that world very well.

And I did enjoy it, mostly. I liked her relationship with her dad, and the humour in the awful commercials she was sent to audition for by the agent she should never have signed up with. It did feel rather slow though – not something I usually take issue with, but in this case the pace didn’t match the content.

The Redemption of Galen Pike by Carys Davies

The VS Pritchett Award is given annually for short stories. I was looking the history of the competition up online and came across the winning story for 2011 The Redemption of Galen Pike. It’s one of the best short stories I’ve ever read – and for me its ending is even more satisfying in 2020 than it would have been nine years ago. Read it here and see for yourself. So I wanted to read more by Carys Davies. The title story remains my favourite in this collection but there is much else to enjoy including a sad and surprising one set in the Australian outback, and a grimly funny tale of the perils of arguing over map-reading with your other half.

Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly

Aimed at the YA market as it has a contemporary seventeen-year-old female protagonist but can be read by anyone over the age of fourteen. Jennifer Donnelly won the Carnegie Medal with her first book A Gathering Light and on the strength of enjoying that so much I went to see her at the Edinburgh Book Festival in 2010 and bought this one. Why it’s taken me ten years to get round to reading it I have no idea … but when I started it I got completely immersed and every time I had to put it down I couldn’t wait to get back to it.

American teenager Andi is struggling after the recent accidental death of her little brother, for which she blames herself, and her wayward behaviour causes her father to take her away with him when he has to go to Paris for work. Andi finds a diary written by a girl, Alexandrine, during the French Revolution and the bloody time of ‘the Terror’ and thereafter their lives intertwine. It’s not exactly a time-slip story – or is it? I do find that historical period fascinating and her writing is fab.

I’m not sure that the title conveys all it might do and the hardback jacket is not very inspiring, in my opinion, but don’t judge the book by it …

Good Morning, Midnight by Reginald Hill

One of my 2019 Christian Aid Book Sale purchases. The title is taken from a poem by Emily Dickinson and RH is not the only one to have used it. It’s the title of a book by Jean Rhys and a sci-fi book made into a forthcoming George Clooney film.

This is an outing (the third last) for one of my favourite detective duos, Dalziel and Pascoe; here the Fat Man’s turn of phrase is as witty (and un-PC) as ever and the plot as clever.

Frederica by Georgette Heyer

The latest read in my extremely enjoyable romp through GH’s Regency novels … this has everything: an outspoken, impoverished heroine, her delightful little brothers, an imperious hero – comedy provided by his relationship with his social-climbing and sponging sister, and a perilous hot-air balloon ride. What made the book even more special was that it was given to me by my daughter-in-law whose favourite GH it is – so nice to have a loved author in common with her and to know that Georgette Heyer continues to have multi-generational appeal.

My Life (maybe) according to the books I read in 2019

My Life (maybe) – according to the books I read in 2019

Describe yourself

How do you feel?

Describe where you currently live

If you could go anywhere where would you go?

Your favourite form of transportation is

Your best friend is

You and your friends are

What’s the weather like?

Favourite time of day

If your life was a book

What is life to you?

Your fear

What is the best advice you have to give?

Thought for the day

How would you like to die?

Your soul’s present condition

This is a fun idea I saw first on Joanne Baird’s Portobello Book Blog

Nine in December

I read nine books in December, squeezing the last one in on 31 December between dinner and waiting for neighbours to arrive to see in the New Year.

Meet Me at the Museum by Anne Youngson

Read for book group. A contemporary epistolary novel – yay! Hope this will start a new trend for them. Here, a developing relationship is told in letters/emails between a Norfolk farmer’s wife and a Danish museum curator. Very enjoyable. If I had a quibble it would be that their voices sounded too similar. Anders’ first language isn’t English so it makes sense that his writing style would be formal (eg no contractions like ‘I don’t’ rather than ‘I do not’) but that was the way Tina wrote too – I think she might have sounded more colloquial.

With all the election hooha some escapism was called for and I found it in Georgette Heyer, in three comedies of errors read in quick succession which did the required job admirably: Sylvester, Bath Tangle and Black Sheep.

I can’t understand why Andrew Davies et al don’t make films/tv adaptations of her books instead of continually rehashing Jane Austen (marvellous though she is). I reckon Sylvester, Duke of Salford, could give Mr Darcy (marvellous though he is) a run for his money.

A Clean Sweep by Audrey Davis

A fun cast of characters – fifty-something widow Emily, her daughter Tabitha and various of their friends and acquaintances and their romantic mishaps. This is the first and probably the last romantic novel I’ve read in which the hero is a chimney sweep but as he is a hunky twenty-something (with clean finger nails) what’s not to like? I liked Meryl too and her generous, optimistic nature (and penchant for Abba songs). A warmly written rom-com.

The Librarian by Salley Vickers

I have read two other books by SV, liked one, didn’t like the other. But this appealed to me: set in 1958, a young woman, Sylvia Blackwell, takes up a position as children’s librarian in the market town of East Mole. Her attempts to enthuse the children with a love of reading are hampered by the antagonism of the bullying (male) librarian but she has some successes particularly with her landlady’s awkward daughter and her neighbours’ bright son. However, some of her other relationships events aren’t so happy and events conspire against her. Loved the period detail; not sure about the ending.

I appreciate the timing for this book with the scandalous closing of so many libraries and school libraries all over the country; sadly, Salley Vickers is probably preaching to the converted here in trying to convey their importance.

Walking Home: Travels with a Troubadour on the Pennine Way by Simon Armitage

Bought at Edinburgh Book Festival about eight years ago and just got round to. In summer 2010, SA (since he wrote this he has become the Poet Laureate) walked the 256-mile Pennine Way the ‘wrong’ way ie north to south. He sang, as it were, for his supper along the way, giving poetry readings in exchange for accommodation and food. It doesn’t sound like a walk in the park, crossing lonely fells and climbing hills, mostly against the prevailing (howling) wind. Just the thing to read when you’re wrapped up warm at home.

Christmas at the Beach Hut by Veronica Henry

’Tis the season … to read a Christmas novel. Not that a beach hut is the obvious place to go at Christmas time but this was a very superior one with a wood-burning stove, beds and washing/toilet facilities. Lizzie is feeling overwhelmed, not only with Christmas stuff but also with her recent redundancy and impending empty nest plus her tricky relationships with her mother-in-law and her husband’s first wife, so she runs away to the seaside where she meets others seeking escape for various reasons. A page-turner, as usual, from this author.

Rooftoppers by Katherine Rundell

For children of all ages. KR has been on my radar for a while; this is the first one I’ve read but it most definitely will not be the last. Baby Sophie is rescued from a shipwreck; she has been tucked inside a cello case. As the years go by she is convinced, against all the evidence, that her mother survived the wreck too. Sophie's search takes her and her wonderful guardian, Charles, to the rooftops of Paris. Absolutely magical writing – a lovely note to end my reading year on.

Jinty's Farm

My latest People's Friend serial, Jinty's Farm, is set on – surprise! – a farm. The first instalment is in the bumper issue dated 21 December.

The setting for my last serial, A Time to Reap, was also a farm, although the scenarios are quite different.

Whereas A Time to Reap was historical (1963 – yes, a story taking place before 1970 is now deemed 'historical') and the farm was part of a large estate in the Scottish Highlands, 'Jinty's' is a small farm in Fife which, in 2019, the Watson family have run for a hundred years.

All farms have to diversify in some way these days and so Isla and Kerry, wives of the Watson brothers, have begun an artisan gin company in the old byre; Jinty's Gin (named after the brothers' granny) is flavoured with local rosehips and rowan berries. I did have fun researching how to make it!

Then there's Isla and Bill's elder daughter Rosalyn and her boyfriend problems; an entry in the farm diary from the WW2 years which has a link to the present day; and Isla, the main character, who's run ragged between managing the house and the family and school farm visits and the gin company and the holiday cottages and her part-time teaching job ...

I was brought up on a farm but that doesn't mean I know anything much about farming as I blogged here when A Time to Reap came out. However, as I can't seem to stop writing about it, it would seem you can take the girl out of the farm but not the farm out of the girl.

A large glass of Jinty's Gin (or your chosen tipple) to all my readers. Cheers!

Having fun this Christmas!

(with thanks to https://photofunia.com/ )

Stella's Christmas Wish, The Ferryboat, The Family at Farrshore and A Time to Reap are all available from Amazon, and in large print from libraries.

Seven in November

I read seven books in November.

The Little Library Cookbook by Kate Young

I love reading (and using ... ) cookery/baking books; don't usually mention them here – making an exception because this lovely book (bought with the last of a birthday book token) has 100 recipes that the Australian-born author and blogger has written and road-tested, inspired by food references in her favourite books. They all sound delicious and very doable, not in the least gimmicky. If you are looking for a Christmas present for a book-loving cook look no further.

The Cactus by Sarah Haywood

I liked this first novel a lot – it’s ‘uplit’, the same category as, eg, Needlemouse and Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine (also first novels as it happens; look forward to all their second ones). Susan is in her mid forties, a workaholic living on her own with no outside interests (apart from seeing a friend-with-benefits once a week) and a toxic relationship with her brother. She has a complete lack of self-awareness which is funny and sad at the same time. An unplanned pregnancy and the revealing of family secrets after the death of her mother turn her carefully managed life upside down.

One Winter Morning by Isabelle Broom

I’m a bit puzzled by how this book is presented, in its title, wintry cover and promotion banner beginning ‘Warm your heart this Christmas … ’ None of these, to my mind, give a true indication of what the book is like.

The incident that happened ‘one winter morning’ in England was offstage and a year before the story begins. It was the catalyst for Evangeline (‘Genie’) going to New Zealand where most of the book is set. Genie is there during the month of December, one of the hottest times of the year on the other side of the world, and Christmas barely gets a mention.

I wasn’t keen on Genie (perhaps it was the way she came over in the first person, present tense voice). Her little sister Tui was delightfully drawn though and there was a great sense of place – I enjoyed, vicariously, revisiting Queenstown in the South Island of New Zealand.

Bright Lights and Lies by Gill-Marie Stewart

When I was a child and got new books only at birthdays and Christmases and from additions to the folding bookcase that was the school library (we weren’t anywhere near a public library), I read them immediately.

Nowadays I’m spoilt for choice – I can buy books for myself in print or digital from bricks-and-mortar and online bookshops, or I can borrow from Edinburgh’s Central Library, fifteen minutes’ walk away. I can acquire them from second-hand or charity bookshops or buy and get them signed at events; even get out-of-copyright titles free from Project Gutenberg.

So there is always a tottering to-be-read pile; I wouldn’t go back to my previous state but I know I’ll never recapture the total joy I used to feel at embarking on a book I’d never read before.

Bright Lights and Lies was bought at a book launch four years ago and only now fished out of the pile. And well worth the wait it was too – a YA set mostly in Glasgow, a sweet romance between Finn and George (Georgina) with some very gritty subjects along the way, such as drug addiction and police corruption.

Lily’s Just Fine by Gill-Marie Stewart

And having enjoyed that Gill-Marie Stewart it was great to be able to whiz over to the TBR pile for the first in her new series Galloway Girls. That one was bought at the Romantic Novelists’ Association conference a mere four months ago. Again, a sweet romance plus difficult subjects for the protagonists to tackle, set in beautiful Galloway in south-west Scotland. Lily is a terrific character because she’s so well rounded; she just walks off the page, as do all the other teenagers and adults.

You think it; I’ll say it by Curtis Sittenfield

Short stories. I loved CS’s first four novels especially The American Wife and Sisterland; I was disappointed however in her fifth, Eligible, a bleak modern retelling of Pride and Prejudice. So I was interested to read this, her first short story collection. In several of the stories she references and skewers current American politics, one of her favourite themes as evidenced in The American Wife (an imagined life of Laura Bush – yes, really, and far funnier than you’d expect).

She’s good too on the perennial theme of meeting your high school nemesis; that’s in A Regular Couple. The secret game (that gives the book its title) played by Julie and Graham, married to other people and who meet through their children, is embarrassingly misconstrued by Julie; in Plausible Deniability it’s Libby who thinks her relationship with her brother-in-law is other than it is.

‘You won’t want these stories to end,’ said Reese Witherspoon no less.

Girl, Balancing by Helen Dunmore

Read for book group, these are short stories which were published after the writer’s untimely death in 2017. The subjects and themes are wide-ranging and include: a teenager, abandoned by her parents, gives the book its title; a young man caught in a storm while on a boat to Sweden meets a mysterious girl; the last days of John Keats; two women from very different backgrounds have an unusual night out; a young mother is left with her unpleasant mother-in-law while her husband goes exploring; and much more. She's such a wonderful writer.