I read six
books in August.
Out of Bounds by Val McDermid
My sister passed this on to me. 'There were a lot of things that ran in families, but murder wasn't
one of them . . . When a teenage joyrider crashes a stolen car and ends up
in a coma, a routine DNA test could be the key to unlocking the mystery of a
twenty-year-old murder inquiry’. I’m not sure how I’ve managed to miss the
first three books featuring Detective Chief Inspector Karen Pirie investigating
cold cases (a la one of my favourite TV programmes New Tricks) but I will catch up asap. Fab.
The Trouble with Goats and Sheep by Joanna Cannon
I got a lovely hardback copy of this in the Christian Aid
book sale last year. The era appealed to me – the hot summer and drought of
1976 which I remember very well. I chose that year to move from Scotland … to
St Albans (and thence to London the following year). My abiding memory of my
first summer south of the border is of parched yellow grass in the park where I
went in vain to get some fresh air after work. I did write a poem about that;
wish I’d thought of writing a novel. Maggie O’Farrell also used this time for
her Instructions for a Heatwave.
This is a cleverly constructed story of neighbours and the
secrets behind closed doors. A woman from their street goes missing and
10-year-old Gracie and her loyal sidekick, Tilly, investigate (and search for God
at the same time). I loved both girls: Gracie, a worthy successor to
Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird (and
the book does have its own Boo Radley pariah figure), and physically frail
little Tilly – ‘She’d taken the bobbles out of her hair, but it stayed in
exactly the same position as if they were still there.’ – can’t you just see
her?
Hester and Harriet by Hilary Spiers
Bought in a
charity shop – and what a discovery! I loved this story of two widowed,
childless sisters (elderly but prefer to think of themselves as being in late
middle-age …) who have been living together for the last six years. They
reminded me a bit of Harriet and Belinda from Barbara Pym’s Some Tame Gazelle (one of my top ten
books of all time, so I don’t say it lightly). But this Harriet and her sister
face 21st-century dilemmas when they give sanctuary to a mysterious young woman
from Belarus and her baby, and a cousin’s moody teenage son also lands himself
upon their hospitality.
Rainy Day Sisters by Kate Hewitt.
Another sister
novel – or half-sisters actually. I was delighted to win this in a giveaway by
the author – I have read several of her books, particularly enjoying the Falling for the Freemans series (and The Vicar’s Wife under the name of Katharine Swartz). This is in her series
Hartley-by-the-Sea – a village in a relatively untouristy part of the Lake
District. Lucy has been living in Boston but when her life goes awry (thanks in
no small measure to her own mother) she accepts an invitation from the older half-sister
she barely knows, Juliet, who runs a B&B in Hartley-by-the-Sea. Juliet has
her own problems (again, mostly to do with their mutual mother) and it takes
various events, some involving other villagers, and revelations for the sisters
to begin to understand and to love each other.
The Meryl Streep Movie Club by Mia March
Lent by a
friend. The setting is the Three Captains’ Inn, Maine, New England. Lolly
Weller, the inn’s owner, summons home her daughter Kat along with the two
nieces she brought up, Isabel and June, telling them she has an announcement to
make. As the weeks go by the problems each of the four women have are revealed
and discussed in the context of whatever Meryl Street film they’ve just
watched. I thought the ending was a bit rushed and I didn’t find all the
relationships convincing (eg Kat’s with her childhood sweetheart – he seemed kind of creepy to me) but as a Meryl fan I found this an enjoyable read.
Chin Up Chest Out Jemina! A Celebrationof the Schoolgirls’ Story
by Mary Cadogan
A Christian Aid
Booksale purchase. I have blogged about my collection of girls’ annuals and I’m
also a fan of the Chalet School and Abbey Girls series of books, and of Angela
Brazil, so I was thrilled – Jubilate!
– to find this celebration of schoolgirl stories brought out by Girls Gone By
Publishers. It has extracts, stories, illustrations, and articles (one by actor
Terence Stamp, whose first adolescent crush, would you believe, was on ‘Dimsie’, the chestnut-curled
and leggy heroine of a series of books by Dorita Fairlie Bruce).
Some adverts
from girls’ magazines are reproduced. Cricket bats feature in these – and
typewriters: ‘Yes, Mary is quite the envy of her friends now her father has
bought her a Bar-Let Portable.’ Those were the days.