I read nine books in October.
House
of Glass by Hadley Freeman
When she was a small child, in the early
80s, American-born Hadley Freeman’s parents and paternal grandmother took her
to Paris where some of her father’s elderly relatives lived, the one and only
time she saw them. Much later, when her grandmother died, she found a shoebox
of photographs and keepsakes that led her to research those relatives’ lives which
had begun in Poland. Hounded out in a pogrom they fled to France where they
were safe – until the 1930s and the rise of Nazi-ism. And the rest, as sadly we
know, is history.
This is an amazing feat of detective work
and piecing together all the back stories to bring her ancestors to life – and
comes up to the present day when she meets distant cousins her own age and
feels they already know each other.
The ties that bind.
A Dry
Spell by Clare Chambers
I said last month that In a Good Light was my favourite of Clare Chambers’ backlist and so
it was until I read this one.
‘In
1976 four students took a trip to the desert. Now the repercussions of that
fateful summer are coming back to haunt them.’
We drove down to London in October to visit
family. We’d hardly started our return journey when we encountered a traffic
jam (on the M25 if you’re the sort of person who likes to know these things)
and four hours later we were only three miles. I wasn’t one of the drivers and
was very grateful for my Kindle and for Clare Chambers whose characters removed
me to another place and kept me very good company.
Bright
Girls by Clare Chambers
Having read Small Pleasures and then all Clare Chambers’ backlist I only had
one more title of hers to go – this contemporary and very enjoyable YA novel of
two sisters, very different in personality, who have to go and stay with a
relatively unknown aunt in Brighton for the summer because their home has
become too dangerous to stay in.
The
Hating Game by Sally Thorne
‘Lucy
Hutton and Joshua Templeman sit across from each other every day . . . and they
hate each other. Not dislike. Not begrudgingly tolerate. HATE. Lucy can't understand Joshua's
joyless, uptight approach to his job and refusal to smile. Joshua is clearly
baffled by Lucy's overly bright clothes, quirkiness, and desire to be liked.
Now
they're up for the same promotion and Lucy, usually a determined
people-pleaser, has had enough: it's time to take him down. But as the tension
between Lucy and Joshua reaches its boiling point, it's clear that the real
battle has only just begun . . .’
Described as ‘Charming, self-deprecating,
quick-witted and funny’ by the New York
Times, with which I agree. I see that it’s going to be a film – I wonder
how that will work as so much of the story is inside Lucy’s head.
To
all appearance, dead by Liz Filleul
I know of LF as a fellow women’s magazine
writer. When she happened to mention in an interview that she’d written two
cosy crimes set in the world of ‘GO’ books (Girls’ Own, eg the Chalet School
series), I was very intrigued.
Goodness, I knew from some online GO forums
that there are some keen collectors out there but if this is to be believed
some of them will stop at nothing … great fun.
Sweet
Sorrow by David Nicholl
On the aforementioned visit south we
visited Sir Winston Churchill’s house at Chartwell. In the grounds there was a
second-hand bookshop with an honesty box and luckily I had some change with me
to buy this.
Charlie has just left school. He is at a
loose end and hates his home situation – his mother has left, taking his
sister, and he lives with his morose dad. The last thing on his mind is
Shakespeare … but when he meets and fancies Fran he gets involved in a
production of Romeo and Juliet. She
is Juliet; he is not Romeo.
The book certainly improved my knowledge of
the play too. I loved this line especially:
Night's candles are burnt out, and jocund day
/ Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.
Family
Album by Penelope Lively
A family of six children with a
there-but-not-there father and a rather monstrous mother who wishes they were
still little and who turns a blind eye to anything that doesn’t suit her view
of things eg the behaviour of Paul the eldest, and the parentage of Clare the
youngest.
Told in alternate viewpoints by the
siblings, it’s cleverly constructed but as there is no principle character and
no over-arching plot I found it all rather unengaging.
Love
All by Elizabeth Jane Howard
And the same goes for this one, from
another literary grande dame. I have
liked other titles of hers especially The
Beautiful Visit and Something in
Disguise and loved the Cazalet Chronicles
but this, her last novel, left me cold. Same structure as Family Album in being told by different characters but some of whom
only made fleeting appearances and were never seen from the point of view of
others. None of them get a happy ending.
It didn’t help that Persephone – a lovely
name when you see it written down although I can see it’s a trifle cumbersome
to say – is known as Percy which does not
look lovely written down. And she was such a wet hen; I didn’t believe in her at
all. In fact the only character who did seem to be made of flesh and blood was
the child Harriet. Disappointing.
A
Darker Domain by Val McDermid
Crime to finish with – this one is in the
Karen Pirie series of cold-case solving. Ultimately, the plot seemed very
far-fetched but VD keeps you turning the pages so I’ll forgive her.
