Seven in October

 I read seven books in September.

The Wedding People by Alison Espach

I didn’t know this author but kept hearing good things about The Wedding People – which were well justified. I loved it. An excellent premise: Phoebe arrives at a grand beachside hotel in Newport, Rhode Island wearing her best dress. As she discovers, she’s the only guest at the Cornwall Inn who isn't here for Lyla and Gary’s week-long wedding extravaganza.

This is both serious and humorous with an ending I won’t reveal but which leaves you well able to imagine what happened next. And the icing on the (wedding) cake for me is that that I have visited beautiful Newport so could picture the setting.

 

The Running Grave by Robert Galbraith

The seventh in the Cormoran Strike series. Over eleven hundred pages! I hardly spoke to my other half for a whole weekend. Strike’s professional partner Robin (with whom he is in love although he’s never hinted at that) goes undercover for several months to investigate a cult. Seriously unpleasant people and some very scary moments for the resourceful Robin.

 

The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

I picked this ‘TikTok sensation’ in a lucky dip. I’d heard of ‘STEM’ romances – romances set within the world of science but hadn’t read one before. I enjoyed it a lot, the characters, the setting and the resolution. Sadly, it also showed that the misogynist 1960s world that Bonnie Garmus conjured up in Lessons in Chemistry is still evident in the new millennium.

 

Murder on the Marshes by Clare Chase

A cosy crime – well, cosyish. My heart was in my mouth as Tara, the main character, walked home each night to her rather isolated cottage on a Cambridge common, especially when we learn that she’s had a stalker in the past. A journalist, Tara becomes involved in the investigation of the murder of a charismatic university professor, Samantha Seabrook. Suspects abound. The resolution was satisfactory although I thought the way the investigating police officer was able to put two and two together just in time strained credulity. But I’d like to read more by Clare Chase.

 

How to Solve Murders Like a Lady by Hannah Dolby

The fun follow up to No Life for a Lady set in the late 1800s. I love Lady Detective Violet and her professional and personal partner Benjamin. The body of a local woman (bit of a busybody) has been found on the beach. Violet’s attempts to investigate the death see her thwarted (be a Lady Detective? how dare she!) and ultimately in danger herself. The book has a lovely ending with the next mystery being set up.

 

A Duke of One’s Own by Emma Orchard

A spicy Regency romance. I liked that, for a change, this wasn’t set in Bath or London but in a castle in wintry Yorkshire. The Duke of Northriding is hosting a weekend during which he will choose a bride, for he needs to have an heir. Lady Georgiana Pendlebury is one of the guests. Both she and the Duke are horrified to see each other as they have met before – at a very clandestine party.

 

The Maiden by Kate Foster

Long-listed for the Women’s Fiction Prize 2024; read for book group. ‘The Maiden’ – no, not a delicate young lady but a guillotine (now in the National Museum of Scotland), was used between the 16th and 18th centuries to execute nobility.

Based on a real-life murder trial in 1679, the book imagines the circumstances which led newly married Lady Christian Nimmo of Corstorphine, Edinburgh to be found guilty of stabbing her lover – who was her uncle by marriage. Kate Foster doesn’t suggest that Christian was innocent but rather that she was more sinned against than sinning. Seventeenth-century Edinburgh is wonderfully evoked and the author has invented some very colourful character.

 

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.

 

Eight in September

 I read eight books in September.

 

Dear Reader by Cathy Retzenbrink

Read on Kindle. Yay, a book about books; what’s not to like. My favourite of the genre is Lucy Mangan’s Bookworm but what I loved particularly about this one was the behind-the-scenes glimpses of working in bookshops and Cathy Retzenbrink’s successful bookselling career before a family tragedy led her to become a writer.

 

Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers

Read for bookgroup. As you will have seen if you read last month’s post I am on a Clare Chambers jag at the moment. This is her latest one, published last year after a ten-year gap, which has been so successful that her backlist has been reissued.

Set in 1957 in smoggy suburban London, it’s about Jean, a journalist on the local paper who is asked to follow up a letter from a reader, Gretchen, who claims that her daughter is the result of a virgin birth.

No spoilers except to say that Jean’s life is changed as a result of meeting Gretchen and her family. Clare Chambers conjures up so well Jean’s small world, the aforementioned smog and the general grimness of life in just-post-ration Britain, with an edge of sharp black humour.

 

Back Trouble by Clare Chambers

Read on Kindle. ‘On the brink of forty, newly single with a failed business, Philip thought he'd reached an all-time low. It only needed a discarded chip on a South London street to lay him literally flat. So, bedbound and bored, Philip naturally starts to write the story of his life.’

Another bittersweet novel from CC.

 

In a Good Light by Clare Chambers

Read on Kindle. My favourite backlist CC (so far, I still have A Dry Spell to read; it is ready and waiting on my Kindle).

Esther’s life, living with her adored older brother, Christian, has become mundane until there are repercussions from her happy but eccentric childhood. I loved all the characters especially Donovan, one of the waifs and strays Esther’s parents were fond of collecting.

 

Troubled Blood by Robert Galbraith

I suppose I must have eaten and slept and thrown the odd word to my other half between the Friday evening I started this and the Sunday afternoon when I finished but that was all a blur; for the time it took to read 1073 pages I was completely absorbed in the world of Cormoran Strike and Robin. A corker to end all corkers.

 

Death in the Woods by Jo Allen

Read on Kindle. The sixth outing for Jude Satterthwaite and this engaging series set in the beautiful Lake District.

A series of copycat suicides, prompted by a mysterious online blogger, causes DCI Jude Satterthwaite more problems than usual, intensifying his concerns for his troublesome younger brother Mikey. Along with his partner Ashleigh O'Halloran and a pyschiatrist he tries to find the identity of the malicious troll.

A distressing subject, beautifully handled.

 

The Keeper of Happy Endings by Barbara Davis

Read on Kindle. I think this was the free book I chose as a perk of being an Amazon Prime member (to which I signed up inadvertently a year ago … ).

The worlds of two people collide in 1980s Boston – Rory (Aurora) in her 20s, grieving the loss/lack of news of her kidnapped medic boyfriend in Africa, and Soline with a past in war-torn France that she’d rather forget.

I wasn’t mad on the writing (a bit repetitious) but I did like the story and shed a wee tear or two at the end.

 

Big Sky by Kate Atkinson

Hadback from charity shop. The fifth (and long overdue but she has been writing other novels) outing for one of my favourite fictional detectives, Jackson Brodie (played by Jason Isaacs on TV in a series that inexplicably got axed). As with the first four, Kate Atkinson gives us several strands of story and ties them up miraculously.

Eight in October

I read eight books in October.

Anything is Possible by Elizabeth Strout

Lucy Barton’s estrangement from her family and her dysfunctional relationship with her mother was the subject of My Name is Lucy Barton. In this follow-up Lucy, an acclaimed writer living in New York, goes back for a brief visit to where she was brought up in small-town Illinois. But, as this is an Elizabeth Strout novel, Lucy herself hardly comes on stage. Instead, we see her in passing from the viewpoints of her siblings, her niece and her former friends and neighbours and in doing so we piece her history – and theirs – together. Loved it. Loved it.

Buried Treasure: is not always what it seems by Gilli Allan

Read on Kindle. The paths of event planner Jane and archaeologist Theo cross when she organises a conference in his university building. Both have got ‘baggage’ – Jane from her time as a young woman with a predatory employer and Theo with an abusive ex-girlfriend. It’s pretty much dislike at first sight for both of them but soon they find themselves trying to uncover an archaeological mystery – partly inspired by the author’s family connection with the famous Mildenhall Treasure. Recommended.

The Invisible Ones by Stef Penney

‘Rose Janko has been missing for seven years. Her family has made no attempt to find her.’ Until now. Well, if that’s not an intriguing premise I don’t know what is. What adds so much to this brilliant story is that Rose is from a gypsy family as is Ray Lovell, the private investigator hired by Rose’s father. I’d love to see him get another outing.

Stef Penny’s first novel was the Costa-winning The Tenderness of Wolves. At a writing event I was at in the summer, the first sentence of that book was deemed by the panel of publishers and agents to be one of the very best they’d ever read. The bad news, it transpires, is that publishers and agents, when reading manuscripts, sometimes barely read any further than that first sentence.

Christmas at Miss Moonshine's Emporium by Helena Fairfax, Mary Jayne Baker et al

Read on Kindle. Miss M got her first outing in Miss Moonshine’s Emporium of Happy Endings, a collection of stories by nine romantic novelists from Yorkshire and Lancashire, all set in the town of Haven Bridge and involving the ageless and magically empowered emporium owner. This new collection of contemporary and historical stories is even better I think.

The Silver Summer by Rachel Hickman

A few weeks ago I was in the Peak District of Derbyshire and came across a shop selling new books at low prices – publishers’ overstocks/remainders. What a treasure trove. I picked up this YA book because I liked the title. It’s a sweet romance between a newly motherless American girl, Sass, coming to live with her uncle in Cornwall, and a local boy … The identity of that ‘local boy’ was  a surprise and took the story in a different direction. Can’t make up my mind if I liked that aspect of it or not. If you want to know what I’m blathering on about see the footnote*. Or if you’d rather read the book and find out for yourself then don’t.

Lethal White by Robert Galbraith

Robert Galbraith (aka JK Rowling) needs no accolades from me to enhance her popularity but here are some anyway: Lethal White is brilliant – the best in the Cormoran Strike series so far! I didn’t speak to anyone at the weekend because I was so engrossed in it! Thank you very much! Now, please get on and write the next one.

The Christmas Holiday by Sophie Claire

Read on Kindle. Partly set in the cosy village of Willowbrook, this is the story of Evie and Jake. Evie has family difficulties and a controlling ex-boyfriend and Jake is still very much in love with his late wife. When circumstances dictate that they spend Christmas together in sunny Provence, the understanding is that no strings are attached … but with a woman gathering more confidence in herself and a man with the ice in his heart beginning to thaw, well, that wasn’t going to last, was it?

A Modern Family by Helga Flatland

Read for book group, on Kindle. The first English translation of a book by ‘Norway’s Anne Tyler’. I would not agree with that description for various reasons. Anne T is terrific, for example, on sense of place. There’s little of that here, despite the fact that family homes and summer cabins are important to the characters; plus it would have been interesting to have more of a sense of their wider surroundings. But I did enjoy this story of grown-up sibling relationships and rivalries, told in turn from the sisters’ and brother’s viewpoints, following the shock announcement that their 70-something parents are getting divorced.

*In an alternative version of the British Royal Family Sass’s boyfriend is Alex who is third in line to the throne, after his grandmother and his father. Cue the paparazzi, intrusive journalists etc.

Five in May

I read five books in May.

A Petrol Scented Spring by Ajay Close

Read on Kindle for book group. Set around the movement for women’s suffrage in Scotland and the hard core of militant Scottish suffragettes prepared to fight for the vote with any weapon to hand, it’s mainly the story of Donella and her troubled marriage to a doctor who has been force-feeding suffragettes in prison. The descriptions of force-feeding are not for the squeamish … but this is brilliantly written with some great characters.

The Old Man and Me by Elaine Dundy

If you have never read Elaine Dundy’s first and most famous book The Dud Avocado, then I would urge you to – it’s a treat. The heroine of The Old Man and Me is as quirkily individual as Sally Jay Gorce (‘hellbent on living’) in TDA, but while Sally Jay was an American girl in Paris in the 1950s, Betsy Lou Saegessor is in London in the swinging 60s. 

Her pursuit of the ‘old man’, the reclusive rich Englishman C D McKee (‘fat and ugly – but boy is he sexy’), has a very ulterior motive, stemming from her troubled childhood. Their relationship is sparky – great dialogue – and believable and Betsy Lou tells her first-person story in a most original style. ‘There isn’t a dull line in it,’ P G Wodehouse, no less, said in a review.

But how can C D McKee be an 'old man' when he's younger than I am ... ?? That's one perspective that means that for me the book hasn’t stood the test of time as well as the The Dud Avocado. Or  perhaps it's because C D has more health problems than you’d expect a man in his mid-fifties to have now (the book was first published in 1963; my copy is in the Virago Modern Classics series); or maybe it’s the swinging 60s thing that make it seem a period piece. But I’d still recommend it for the brilliance of Elaine Dundy’s writing and because as Jilly Cooper says of this edition it is ‘a gloriously funny novel … ’

Basil Street Blues by Michael Holroyd

I read an extract from this online somewhere and thought his writing was wonderful. He’s best known for his biographies of literary greats (none of which I’ve read) but this is an autobiography.

Tolstoy’s famous quote ‘All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way' was never more apt than in Michael Holroyd’s case. When his parents died in the 1980s he felt the need to find out more about them and their immediate ancestors. His father and his mother had each been married and divorced three times and young Michael spent a lot of time with his father’s family, the only child in an eccentric and often very unhappy household.

He’s very amusing about his own perceived shortcomings and accident prone-ness. Once, when he was an articled clerk for a solicitor, he was spending a boring afternoon in court and somehow managed to unleash (fortunately tepid) water from a radiator over some witnesses.

Loved it.

Katherine’s Wheel by Rebecca Gregson

First of this year’s haul from Christian Aid. Published in 1999, it’s about four friends, now aged thirty-five, who met at university and are planning a big party for the millennium. Didn’t really take to it, unfortunately. There were so many viewpoints, not just those of the four friends, that it wasn’t ‘Katherine’s’ story any more than anyone else’s. It was all like looking through a glass darkly – if there was something interesting happening in there I couldn’t make it out.

Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith

This Robert guy – he can write. I loved the first book in this series, Cuckoo’s Calling, and the second, Silkworm, but this one is even better; what a joy to know that s/he’s planning another four. Slightly disturbed though to read that there’s going to be a TV series – who will be cast as Cormoran and Robin??

Six in June

I read six books in June, half May’s number. But I wrote two instalments of a People’s Friend serial and a short story. Writing/reading – sadly, it seems I can’t do lots of both at the same time.

Her Forget-Me-Not-Ex by Sophie Claire.

Read my interview with Sophie here.

Wonder by RJ Palacis

Read for book group. This is an American YA novel about a boy born with a severe facial deformity:

'My name is August. I won't describe what I look like. Whatever you're thinking, it's probably worse.'

But ‘Auggie wants to be an ordinary ten-year-old. He does ordinary things – eating ice cream, playing on his Xbox. He feels ordinary - inside.’

It’s written from Auggie’s point-of-view and various others such as his sister and his classmates. He’s been taught at home but now that he’s twelve his parents decide he should go to high school.

In places it’s more cheesy than a pound of cheddar but, yes, of course I cried when Auggie won through to be voted the most popular boy in the school. 

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs Basil E. Frankweiler by EL Konigsburg

As I was buying Wonder, From the Mixed-Up Files came up as ‘customers who bought this … ’ When I read that it was about two children who run away from home and hide out in the Metropolitan Museum of Art I had to have it.

It was originally published in 1967, won the Newbery Medal, and ‘has rightly become one of the most celebrated and beloved children's books of all time.’

Claudia and Jamie aren’t badly treated at home or anything like that – the wonderfully resourceful twelve-year-old Claudia is just rather bored in the suburbs of New York. She plans their escapade to the nth degree while her entrepreneurial younger brother looks after their (not very much) money.

The new edition is lovely (paperback with flaps). I loved the characters and the setting, and the story is quirky and charming and I really liked it – I expected to love it though, not sure why I didn’t.

Debs at War 1939-1945 by Anne de Courcy

What upper class young ladies did in the war, from factory workers and land girls to decoders, ambulance drivers and pilots. For most of them it was the first time they’d mixed with the hoi-polloi – but one had to do one’s bit.

Beauty Tips for Girls by Margaret Montgomery

Blog post about this book here.

The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith

The second in the private-investigator Cormoran Strike series (after The Cuckoo’s Calling) – did not disappoint. I would enjoy these books even if it were a previously unknown writer called ‘Robert Galbraith’ who’d written them.

In The Silkworm:

‘When novelist Owen Quine goes missing, his wife calls in private detective Cormoran Strike. At first, she just thinks he has gone off by himself for a few days – as he has done before – and she wants Strike to find him and bring him home.’

Strike’s enquiries take him into the murky word of … London publishing. The author must have had great fun writing it.

Can’t wait to read the next one.