Five in June

I read five books in June.

 

Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead

Read for bookgroup. Loved it. It went straight into my top thirty or even top twenty all-time favourite reads. (I love making lists but that one is a moveable feast.) It’s over 600 pages but I whizzed through it – except when I stopped in awe at the writing. It’s rare to get perfect similes and descriptions and characterisation and a terrific story all at the same time.

The book was inspired by the early women aviators whose bravery/foolhardiness we can only wonder at. Here, Marian, brought up as an almost feral child in 1920s America, becomes obsessed with flight. The first time she sees an airplane, and ‘The Flying Brayfogles’ doing stunts and acrobatics, she’s hooked. Maggie Shipstead puts it this way: ‘She was at an age when the future adult rattles the child’s bones like the bars of a cage.’

But there’s so much else too – do read it and fly with Marian through much of the 20th century.

 

Last Resort by Andrew Lipstein

One of three carefully chosen books I was lucky enough to receive as a Mother’s Day present. A novel about writing a novel – fab and squirmingly funny.

Caleb Horowitz is twenty-seven, and his wildest dreams are about to come true. His manuscript has caught the attention of the literary agent, who offers him fame, fortune and a taste of the literary life. He can't wait for his book to be shopped around to every editor in New York, except one: Avi Dietsch, a college rival and the novel's 'inspiration'.

In fact, Caleb has stolen Avi’s ‘what I did on my holiday’ story and the hole he’s dug for himself can only get deeper.

 

Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout

Read for bookgroup. Strout’s Olive Kitteridge is floating around my top twenty/thirty too. I also enjoyed and admired My Name is Lucy Barton and Anything is Possible. Oh William! is the third book about Lucy and I’ve pictured the three of them here because I would urge you to read them in order.

I confess to being a little disappointed with Oh William!. Lucy’s turbulent life was so well documented (in the multi-viewpoint style this author is so good at) in the first two books but here, although her current situation has its blackly funny side, neither Lucy nor her ex-husband William were people I felt I wanted to spend a lot of time with.

 

The Undiscovered Deaths of Grace McGill by C S Robertson

Bought at Christian Aid Booksale. I love the TV programme Heir Hunters in which companies try to find beneficiaries of deceased people who have not left wills. I’ve now picked up two novels which use that scenario and I didn’t much like either of them. I was hoping for a straightforward family mystery but it was not to be. 

In the first one, read a few years ago, the writer was trying too hard to be literary which I didn’t think suited the plot. Here, the plot twist was just too, er, twisty; although it was nice when the action moved from Glasgow to Bute where I once lived and don’t recall being a novel setting before.

 

My Life Through Food by Stanley Tucci

His TV series was wonderful and I’m hoping (travels gods permitting) to visit Sicily next year. Thoroughly enjoyed reading about his parents and their Italian food heritage and, bringing things right up to date, how he and his own family coped with shopping and cooking during the first lockdown. My daughter followed him on Instagram at that time when he posted a cocktail recipe each day. Cheers!