Seven in April

 I read seven books in April.

 

Hope to Survive by Caroline Dunford

The second in a series but the first I’ve read – and my first Caroline Dunford book but not, I hope, the last. I much enjoyed this spy thriller and its sparky protagonist Hope Stapleford (love the punning title too). Hope, recruited for British Intelligence by her spymaster godfather, is sent to a secret base when the threat of invasion intensifies – but is everyone there on the same side? Heart-in-the-mouth stuff.

 

The Ink Black Heart by Robert Galbraith

Once again, Cormoran and Robin occupied me for three solid days. And once again they are investigating a very mysterious case with several suspects plus of course there is their own relationship … I could have done without quite so many comments/interaction from followers of the eponymous online game and skim-read most of them. Wouldn’t advise reading this on Kindle because of the column layout of these.

So, book six, one more to go. Can’t wait.

 

 

Marple: Twelve New Stories

I spent much of my youth reading Agatha Christie. I like Poirot but if I had to choose between him and Miss Jane Marple she would win (sorry, Monsieur Hercule). Each author in this welcome collection re-imagines Agatha Christie’s gimlet-eyed old lady in their own way. They include Naomi Alderman, Lucy Foley, Elly Griffiths, Jean Kwok, Ruth Ware and Val McDermid and, among other places, they take Jane to Manhattan, on a cruise to the Far East, to California and to Oxford – and back in time for a second murder at the vicarage.

 

The Paris Bookseller by Kerri Maher

Novelised true story, read for bookgroup. The description line ‘A sweeping story of love, friendship and betrayal in bohemian 1920s Paris’ is a lot of keywords but misses the most important element of the book – the establishment, by American Sylvia Beach, of the English-language bookshop, Shakespeare & Co, which became known across the world. Its reincarnation in a different street under different ownership exists to this day.

At the time there were many Americans in Paris, getting away from Prohibition amongst other crackdowns on enjoyment … There was censorship elsewhere too which is why Sylvia Beach came to be the publisher of the first edition of James Joyce’s Ulysses (and what a nightmare of an author he was).

 

A Tidy Ending by Joanna Cannon

I was keen to read this having enjoyed her The Trouble with Goats and Sheep and Three Things About Elsie. It didn’t disappoint but I still prefer Elsie.

Linda is an unreliable narrator of what is happening around her when people start to go missing and she has her own secret to hide too.

 

The Book Lovers by Victoria Connelly

I enjoyed this (very) short and sweet romance between author Callie and bookshop owner Sam (and a dalliance with Leo along the way). Callie’s new home in Suffolk, Owl Cottage, sounds enchanting and with books and bookshops being a big feature of the series (this is the first title), what’s not to like? Well, I have a couple of gripes – the shortness meant the storyline felt rushed and it was a bit annoying the number of times the men Callie encountered ran/raked their fingers through their hair. Other expressions of puzzlement are available.

 

 

A House in Sicily by Daphne Phelps

Daphne Phelps inherited a house in the shadow of Mount Etna in 1947. At 34, she had led a very interesting life but, war-weary from working as psychiatric social worker, she decided, despite the many difficulties, that she would live there.

To make ends meet she took in paying guests – not any old tourists but writers such as Roald Dahl (horrible), Tennessee Williams (fun), Bertrand Russell (with whom she might have had an affair) and an endearingly eccentric American artist I’d never heard of called Henry Faulkner. I wouldn’t want him and his pet goat as house guests but I enjoyed reading about him.

Her writing is terrific, telling the reader not only about her visitors but also about her Sicilian staff and neighbours including the local mafia leader.

 

Five in August

I read five books in August.

Three Things About Elsie by Joanna Cannon

I so enjoyed Joanna Cannon’s first novel The Trouble with Goats and Sheep. This second novel did not disappoint; in fact I think I liked it even more.

Flo has fallen in her flat in the Cherry Tree Home for the Elderly. As she waits (she hopes) to be rescued she thinks about the mysterious new arrival at the Home, about her best friend Elsie, and about a terrible secret she’s been keeping almost all her life.

It takes a brilliant writer to have that as a premise and not make it a gloom-fest. Joanna Cannon pulls it off beautifully – you will actually laugh and cry, and the revelations about how Flo’s past and present have collided make it a real page-turner as well.

My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout

I absolutely fell for Elizabeth Strout’s writing when I read Olive Kitteridge in May. Lucy Barton didn’t grab me quite so much but I still admired the structure and all the small details that made me feel I was right there. Lucy is in hospital for a prolonged but not life-threatening illness. She’s many miles away from where she grew up and the family from whom she’s become estranged. So when her mother turns up unexpectedly they have some talking to do.

Thorndon: Wellington and Home: My Katherine Mansfield Project by Kirsty Gunn

Acclaimed writer Katherine Mansfield grew up in Wellington, New Zealand – and couldn’t wait to leave it. And when she did she found she wanted to write about it. Kirsty Gunn grew up there too, to a family of Scots origin. She’s now based in the UK, writing, and teaching at the University of Dundee. When she got the chance, as a ‘Randell Fellow’, to go back to Wellington for a winter she didn’t at first jump at the chance – like Katherine Mansfield she had mixed emotions about her birthplace. But this little book came out of that time – staying in a 19th-century cottage in a street very near Mansfield’s old haunts, Kirsty Gunn explored the idea of ‘home’.

Why did I read this book? Well, watch this space.

Y is for Yesterday by Sue Grafton

Sue Grafton set out to go through the alphabet with her private investigator Kinsey Milhone. So it was very cruel that she died after she’d finished Y but before she’d written Z – and she left strict instructions that no one was to do that in her stead.

This 25th outing for Kinsey is, happily, the familiar mix of past and present mysteries and danger combined with her home life, such as it is. There’s her wonderful elderly landlord, Henry, and the diner with its almost uneatable Hungarian dishes run by Henry’s sister-in-law Rosie – Kinsey’s alternative to staying home and living on peanut butter and pickle sandwiches. In this book, though, there is the tantalising suggestion of a new direction Kinsey’s life might take. Sadly we’ll never know whether that happened or not. I will miss her – but I can always start at A again …

Too Marvellous for Words by Julie Welch

Perfect for grown-ups who can still remember great chunks of In the Fifth at Malory Towers. (Not just me … I met someone recently and the subject came up. I began to recite the song written by Darrell for Mary-Lou, as Cinderella, to sing in the school play, and my friend joined in: By the fire I sit and dream, and in the flames I see, picture of the lovely things that never come to me …ah, me).

However, moving on … Julie Welch’s memoir of boarding school in Suffolk in the 60s (billed as ‘the real Malory Towers’) does have its fair share of jolly japes and midnight feasts but in Julie’s case the school was a welcome escape from a home life that wasn’t very happy.

I don’t now, as I used to, wish that I could have gone to boarding school but I still love reading about those that did.

In which I acquire xx books

Christian Aid Book Sale 2016. Yes, purchases were made (haven’t dared to count them), and if I live to be 101 or 2 (or 3) they will all get read, as well as the others waiting tbr. 

Purchases, in no particular order:

The Trouble with Goats and Sheep by Joanna Cannon (published 2016).

Set during the UK drought of 1976. Lovely hardback edition.

Silent Voices by Ann Cleeves (2011)

A Vera Stanhope novel.

Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns (1984)

Set in 1906, small-town Georgia, USA.

Year of the Tiger by Lisa Brackman (2010)

Thriller, set in modern-day China.

The Art of Baking Blind by Sarah Vaughan (2014)

‘Whoever you are, why ever you bake, this story’s for you’.

Katherine’s Wheel by Rebecca Gregson (1999)

Four college friends reunite for a millennium party in Cornwall.

A Bit of Earth by Rebecca Smith (2006)

Author is ‘the perfect English miniaturist’ says Barbara Trapido no less.

Can’t Wait to Get to Heaven by Fannie Flagg (2007)

More small-town America, this time by author of Fried Green Tomatoes

No Second Chance by Harlan Coben (2003)

Missing child thriller.

Mistress Masham’s Repose by T. H. White (1947)

An unhappy young girl discovers a race of Lilliputians

A Winter in China by Douglas Galbraith (2006)

Thriller, set in China, 1937.

A Writer’s World: Travels 1950-2000 by Jan Morris

‘a vivid evocation of the late 20th century’.

Pictures of Perfection by Reginald Hill (1994)

A Dalziel & Pascoe novel. May have read before.

Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter (2012)

Italy, Hollywood, and ‘the shabby revelry of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival’ …

Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls (2009)

With a ‘sassy, straight-talking heroine’ born in Texas, 1901.

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston (first pub. 1937)

Virago edition 1986. Author has been recommended by several friends.

The Virago Book of Food: The Joy of Eating edited by Jill Foulston (2006)

Foodie extracts from books. Yum.

Diana Annual 1966

The Best of Girl

These last two to add to girls’ annuals collection.