Seven in December

I read seven books in December.

 

Everything I Never Told you by Celeste Ng

This is second Celeste Ng book I’ve read (the first being Little Fires Everywhere which was adapted into a series by Reece Witherspoon). Everything is her debut novel, although the term is meaningless when the writing is so accomplished.

Sixteen-year-old Lydia’s body has been found the town lake. So, this is a crime novel but oh so much more. Her father is Chinese, her mother American. She’s the eldest child, with a brother and a sister. It’s the 1970s in small-town Ohio. As the family try to trace Lydia’s last movements (and discover how little they knew her) the reader finds out her parents’ back-story, their ambitions for their clever daughter and their heartbreaking attempts, as a mixed-race family, to be accepted in their community.

 

 

 

House of Eyes by Patricia Elliot

Written for 9-13-year-olds – I guess I fall somewhere in-between … J

In a dark house in Edwardian South Kensington, Connie Carew investigates what happened to her baby cousin, Ida, who went missing years before. Can the beautiful young woman who claims to be the long-lost child be telling the truth?

I bought the book because I met the author. Loved it – it has everything: a delightful heroine, atmosphere, danger, history (suffragettes, séances eg) and a very satisfying conclusion.

 

 

 

Dorita Fairlie Bruce

I went to an all-day event at the University of Edinburgh, a symposium Investigating Irish & Scottish Writers of Children’s Literature 1750-1940. Part of Scotland’s Early Literature for Children Initiative. So interesting!

One of the speakers, Jane Sandell, gave a presentation on Dorita Fairlie Bruce (1885-1970). A writer mainly known for her school stories, Bruce was hugely popular in her day, especially with her ‘Dimsie’ series which alone sold half a million copies by 1947.

What Jane likes particularly about her work is that she treats Scotland as a place where people just live normally and are not defined by bagpipes, haggis or other clichés but, having said that, the author describes the Scottish west-coast landscape beautifully.

When I got home, I looked out three DRB titles from my shelves and reread them – three ‘Springdale’ titles. Dimsie, you’re next.

 

 

 

They Called Her Patience by Lorna Hill

Lorna Hill is another writer who describes landscape beautifully – in this case the Northumbrian border with Scotland.

As it’s very hard to come by, I was very happy to acquire this from a friend of a friend who was downsizing her collection of children’s books (although sadly my copy does not have the lovely dust jacket shown here). I’ve got the second (of two) Patience books (It Was All Through Patience) already.

Patience (her name is really Fleur and she’s definitely not patient) has a will of iron. Though she is much younger than her adored half-brother David and his friends, plus she has recently been very ill, she is determined to join in everything they do whether that’s riding, camping or getting up to mischief.

 

So after my very happy visit to the blue remembered hills, I picked up

 

 

Act of Oblivion by Robert Harris

and read about the Restoration of Charles II to the throne in 1669 and the ‘Act of Oblivion’ whereby everything that had happened leading up to the execution of Charles I was, in effect, to be forgiven and forgotten – except for the 57 signatories to the King’s death warrant.

The regicides were to be hunted down and dispatched slowly and cruelly. This is mostly the story of two of them who managed to escape to America, to the aptly named ‘New England’ where it was very hard to hide in the small settlements and to travel between them.

A page-turner, and the book ignited an ambition to read some non-fiction about the Civil War and its aftermath. Tune in next month …

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 October

I read six books in October.

 

The Cracked Mirror by Chris Brookmyre

A mystery jointly investigated by a Scottish Miss Marple-type and a hardboiled Los Angeles cop? What a perfect mash-up! But then … this unsuspecting reader got caught up in pretty outlandish scenarios such as a volunteer-run library in rural Perthshire being stormed by gun-toting policemen … It’s a gripping read with some of Mr Brookmyre’s trademark humour. I enjoyed it and am still thinking about it but don’t ask me to explain the plot (wee hint: if you like video games you might be able to get your head round it).

 

I is for Innocent by Sue Grafton

Californian PI Kinsey Milhone is hired to re-investigate the case of a man accused of murdering his rich wife  – a crime for which a court has already acquitted him.

 

Same As Ever It Was by Claire Lombardo

I thought Claire Lombardo’s last (and first) book The Most Fun We Ever Had was amazing and I looked forward to reading this one. I still think her writing is brilliant and her characters seem so real – but I didn’t enjoy this one so much.

Now, I know that you don’t have to like a character for them to make good reading but here the intolerant and judgmental protagonist, Julia, is not the most congenial person to spend 492 pages with. Through flashbacks, however, we discover reasons for her wariness around other people and why, when she’s determined not to form friendships with her peer group, she’s happy when an older woman, Helen Russo, befriends her. But that friendship has consequences …

Lucky Julia, though, she’s married to Mark, ‘the nicest man on earth’ – and he really is devoted to her (no twist in the tale there).

They have two children, sweet, laid-back Ben who’s 24, and teenager Alma who’s a pain in the •••t. For example, when Julia croons in baby talk to her miniature daschund, Alma admonishes her mother, saying ‘Don’t police her emotions!’ And when Julia waves politely in thanks for a courtesy by a fellow driver, Alma rolls her eyes: ‘God, Mum, do you even know that man?’

But there you go – I wouldn’t have felt so annoyed by Alma if she hadn’t come over as a real person.

I’ll definitely read Claire Lombardo again.

 

 

The Mission House by Carys Davies

Reading this book means, sadly, that I am currently up-to-date with Carys Davies’ novels (following West and Clear). Unlike those two, which are set in the 19th century, this is contemporary (emails etc) – although, being set in a ‘mission house’ in India it does have a historic flavour to it.

Hilary Byrd, a middle-aged man, an English librarian, has always found life a little difficult. He takes himself to India and ends up at a mission house on a hill station in South India where he is taken in by the Padre and his adopted daughter Priscilla. But tensions are brewing down in the town which spell trouble for the mission house …

A wannabe country and western singer and a rescued horse provide some light relief. As ever, Carys Davies’ writing is spare yet colourful and compulsively readable.

 

Private Revolutions: Coming of Age in a New China by Yuan Yang 

Non-fiction, read for book group. To quote from the blurb: 'This is a book about the coming of age of four women born in China in the 1980s and 1990s, in a society about to transform beyond recognition.'

The author, born in China, became a financial journalist and is now a Labour MP in England. Absolutely fascinating.

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley

These many posts I’ve compiled on books I’ve read have never included any science fiction until now … although The Ministry of Time has also been described as comedic, literary, romantic and (unsurprisingly) genre-defying. It is all of these things. Oh, and time travel.

What sold it to me, though, was the inclusion of a real-life Victorian polar explorer, Commander Graham Gore. Polar exploration is a subject I’m fascinated by and here was such a massively different take on the subject.

Gore is on the point of death, on a failed expedition in the Arctic in 1847, when he is snatched and taken to a time in our near future. He’s part of an experiment – the others (all fictional) include, for example, a soldier who would have died on the Somme if he hadn’t been ‘rescued’. Each of the rescued is housed with a civil servant to learn all about the new era they have found themselves in – not just the technology but changed attitudes and world orders; they have a lot of history to catch up on.

As our female narrator’s relationship with the dashing Commander changes and she gets involved in the lives of the others who have landed here from the past, she begins to wonder what exactly the government is hoping to gain from the experiment and if it’s as benign as she’d been led to believe.

I couldn’t put it down. Perhaps hard-core science-fiction readers are less enamoured with it, I don’t know, but if you’re soft-core then I heartily recommend it.

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.

 

Five in August

I read five books in August.

 

Table for Two by Amor Towles

Some (quite long) short stories and a novella from the author of A Gentleman in Moscow, The Lincoln Highway and Rules of Civility, all of which I loved.

My favourite of the short stories was the first one ‘The Line’, set during the aftermath of the Russian revolution. A peasant farmer and his much more ambitious wife leave the country and move to the city. He (delightful man) spends his days queuing for basic essentials, first of all for themselves and then keeping the place for others – and where one particular ‘line’ leads I don’t want to spoil for future readers.

It was such a joy in the novella Eve in Hollywood to catch up with Evelyn Ross from Rules of Civility, a young woman for whom the word ‘indefatigable’ might have been coined. Now we know what happened to her when she didn’t get off that train … and all her subsequent adventures including befriending Olivia de Havilland and besting a corrupt officer of the law.

 

The Clock Winder by Anne Tyler

Continuing my re-reading of Anne Tyler (hmm, same initials as Amor Towles: is this a coincidence?? Should I change my name?).

 

Murder in my Backyard by Ann Cleeves

First published in 2014 (and republished I guess because of the success of Vera/Shetland). The second in a series featuring Inspector Ramsay.

‘No one in Heppleburn has a bad word to say about Alice Parry . . . but here she is, murdered in her own backyard on a bitter St. David’s Eve.’ Inspector Ramsay investigates.

 

Homemaker (Prairie Nightingale Book 1) by Ruthie Knox and Annie Mare

‘When a former friend and devoted mother vanishes, a confident homemaker turned amateur sleuth follows an unexpected trail of scandals and secrets to find her.’

The scandal involved a pyramid-selling scheme and the culprit seemed so predictable I read on expecting a twist …

Whatever else she is, Prairie Nightingale is not a ‘homemaker’ although she says homemaking is something she’s ‘very, very good at.’ Instead of getting alimony as such in her divorce settlement from her perfectly decent husband (who asked what was for dinner once too often), she asked him to pay for staff – an office manager, a chef, a gardener and whatnot else to look after her and their two teenage girls – oh, and her very supportive ex-mother-in-law lives in the granny flat.

So our Prairie has all the time in the world to waft around playing detective and make sanctimonious speeches about the patriarchy to anyone who’ll listen.

 

Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout

Is ‘meta’ the right word here? Anyway, the book features characters from some previous books of Elizabeth Strout’s – Lucy Barton and Olive Kitteridge. Although I thought My Name is Lucy Barton was terrific, I was less enamoured when Lucy got together, parted, got together again … with the tiresome William. In this book she’s still divorced from him but they are living together in Maine. Olive Kitteridge (the first eponymous book about her is one of the best-written I have ever read) lives nearby in a care home and the reason I bought this book was to catch up with her.

Fortunately, in my opinion, William is mostly off-stage until the end which wasn’t the conclusion I was hoping for …

 

 

Six in July

I read six books in July.

 

The Lady in the Park by David Reynolds

I enjoyed David Reynold’s travel memoir The Road to Brownsville (and have yet to read his family memoir Swan River) so I was interested to see that he’d written a cosy-ish crime novel featuring Max, a retired CID inspector, as a private investigator; Max’s sidekick as it were is his observant six-year-old grandson which worked really well.

 

‘When a woman is found unconscious on a ping-pong table in Peckham's Warwick Gardens, it looks like a case of mistaken identity. Why would anyone want to injure this popular local mum of six?’ Danny spots a vital clue in CCTV footage.

 

I look forward to the next outing of this duo.

 

 

Long Story Short by Victoria Walters

Hmmm. Wasn’t keen despite its literary agent/book publishing background.

 

 

Wycliffe and the Tangled Web by W. J. Burley

When I was in Orkney in the summer we passed a hall with a jumble sale, raising funds for the RNLI, and couldn’t resist going in. It was a jumble sure enough … after a good rummage the cousin I was with found a dress for a couple of pounds that she was delighted with. The ladies running it were so lovely and chatty I wanted to buy something so (last of the big spenders) I paid 50p for this tangled tale. I quite enjoyed it, and its Cornish setting, but I couldn’t really believe in the victim, a very troubled teen called Hilda.

 

So, as a palate cleanser as it were, I reread Clock Dance by the peerless Anne Tyler.

 

 

 

The Cliff House by Christopher Brookmyre

A take on Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None – a hen party on small island goes very very wrong. Brilliant.

 

Days Without End by Sebastian Barry

My first Sebastian Barry but definitely not my last. What a staggering feat – to sustain the voice of teenage Irish-born Thomas McNulty, driven to emigrate to the United States after the death of his family in the potato famine. After signing up for the army, Thomas and his beloved friend, ‘Handsome John Cole’, fight in the Indian Wars and the Civil War, both viscerally described, and gain and lose comrades along the way. When they think they have finally settled down to farm life, the past comes back to haunt them.