Seven in July

I read seven books in July.

 

 

The Shell House Detectives by Emylia Hall 

Ally Bright, retired and recently widowed, and a young ex-cop, Jayden Weston, satisfactorily solve the mystery of a young man found dead at the foot of a cliff near their village on the Cornish coast. An unlikely but excellent duo of (semi-) amateur sleuths plus some lovely writing. Book 1 in a new series; would definitely read more.

 

 

Doors Open by Ian Rankin

A standalone IR title, a crime caper really – a heist of Scotland’s National Gallery pictures from its overflow store which is open once a year on Doors Open Day. Good fun, especially for Edinburghers I think.

 

 

 Fool for Love by Eloisa James

A Regency novel: ‘Lady Henrietta Maclellan longs for the romantic swirl of a London season. But as a rusticating country maiden, she has always kept her sensuous nature firmly under wraps – until she meets Simon Darby.’ Interestingly, Eloisa James is a Professor of English Literature in New York.

 

Touch not the Cat by Mary Stewart

I thought I had read all Mary Stewart’s books but this one caught my attention at the Christian Aid Book Sale this year. Not my favourite (which is Airs Above the Ground) because I wasn’t that keen on the rather supernatural element here – the family whose members can speak to each without words. But otherwise it’s vintage Mary Stewart. (I couldn't find a picture of mine – the cover isn't nearly as nice as this one.)

‘Touch not the cat bot [without] a glove’, by the way, is the motto of the Scottish Clan Chattan, to which, courtesy of my maiden name, I belong.

 

The Boy Who Loved Books by John Sutherland

A biography/memoir by the Emeritus Lord Northcliffe Professor of Modern English Literature at University College. His distinguished title and career belie his beginnings which were poor both financially and emotionally. His mother, widowed when he was a small boy, was a wonderful character but not a wonderful mother, and time spent farmed out to an unpleasant aunt in Edinburgh left him with a bad impression of the city although he did return to teach in the University.

Luckily, he discovered books. Unfortunately, he also discovered that he had a great capacity for alcohol. In the second half of the book I’d have like more about the former and less of the latter.

 

Found in a Bookshop by Stephanie Butland

I adored Lost for Words which came out in 2017 and featured Loveday Cardew, a troubled young woman whose refuge is the second-hand bookshop she works in. In Found in a Bookshop we meet her again – and now she’s inherited the shop. But, a big but – it’s 2020. No one can come in. She hits on the idea of a ‘book pharmacy’ – people can tell her, and her assistant, Kelly, what ails them emotionally and they will give a list of recommendations. Chosen titles can be posted or (cautiously) delivered.

Some customers are given more space than others such as the elderly devoted couple George and Rosemary.

For many years to come, I’ve no doubt, there will be novels set in the pandemic years. One written so close to the event has an authenticity and was a raw, perhaps understandably rather overwrought, reminder of that time. I liked it well enough (especially the books lists) but I didn’t adore it.

 

 

The Pear Affair by Judith Eagle

A delightful story aimed at the 9+ age group which, I’ll let you know, includes me ….

'When Penelope Magnificent's awful parents tell her they're taking a trip to Paris, she surprises them by begging to go along.’ 

Her ulterior motive is to look for her much-loved former au pair Perrine (‘Pear’) and there follows adventures both above and below ground in the French capital.

Serial news!

 

The Saturday Scribblers was serialised in The People’s Friend in 2021 and is now available on Kindle.

 

It’s set in the fictional town of Ashbridge in the north-east of England:

 

Jess’s advertisement on the library notice board has brought four ‘scribblers’ to her writing class. On Saturdays for the next few months Tina, Clarissa, Madeleine and Neil sit round Jess’s table and get to know each other – and more about themselves. One of them is not a beginner; one decides to have a career change; another discovers an unexpected talent for romantic-novel-writing; and two of them find real-life romance.

 

I really enjoyed writing this serial and so I set my new one in Ashbridge too. Footsteps in Ashbridge is not centred around the writing class but features Lou, Neil’s sister and a minor character in The Saturday Scribblers, and her colleague Sarah, a primary teacher new to the town.

 

The first instalment was in the issue dated 29th July 2023.

 

 

 

 

 

Six in June

I read six books in June.

No Life for a Lady by Hannah Dolby

I adored this book – it was the runner-up in the Comedy Women in Print Award in 2021, for an unpublished novel.

It’s 1895. Violet, aged 28, lives with her father in Hastings who worries that she will never find a husband. She is certain she doesn’t want to get married but what she does want is to find out what happened to her mother who disappeared ten years earlier.

Very soon she regrets employing a private detective as he seems to have his own agenda and she takes matters into her own hands. One thing leads to another, and another – the comedy comes when the reader catches on to situations of which Violet is unaware, and to her innocence (as befits a respectable Victorian unmarried woman) about the facts of life (and her curiosity on the subject).

Violet is delightful, someone it would be great fun to be friends with. The era and the setting are immersive and the resolution to the mystery unexpected.

Read this on Kindle but will be purchasing a paperback too. I hope very much that we will hear more of Miss Violet Hamilton. 

 

Reader, I Married Him edited by Tracy Chevalier

A book of twenty-one commissioned short stories inspired by Jane Eyre and what fabulous collection it is. The authors took the prompt and ran with it in all directions; they include Tessa Hadley, Helen Dunmore, Jane Gardam, Elif Shafak, Evie Wyld, Audrey Niffenberger and Lionel Shriver.

Two of my favourites were: one where you gradually realise that the narrator is Wallis Simpson; and a heart-breaking tale featuring Jane’s childhood friend Helen.

 

The Book Lovers by Emily Henry

I’m not on TikTok but am aware that Emily Henry is extremely successful as a result of being recommended on it. I see from looking at her other titles that her thing is romance with booky themes. This one, for example, has a relationship between an editor and a literary agent, both of them hustling New Yorkers, who find themselves in Sunshine Falls, North Carolina, very far from their comfort zone.

Well, what’s not to like? There was great banter and some lovely writing. I will be reading more Emily Henry.

(Bookshops/books and romance are definitely ‘a thing’ at the moment; I read a book with the same title in April.)

 

Three Junes by Julia Glass

An appropriate title to read in June … a Christian Aid Book Sale purchase. The ‘three Junes’ span a decade and purport to depict ‘the life and loves’ of a Scottish family, the McLeods.

I didn’t think they came across as particularly Scottish (whatever that means) and not much of the story actually takes place in the family home in Dumfries & Galloway. The characters are not given equal weight – most of it belongs to Fenno, gay, in Manhattan during the Aids epidemic.

I’d like to have, for example, seen Dennis, bad-boy turned award-winning chef and family man, up close rather than through the eyes of others.

Strangely, the last ‘June’ focused on a hitherto unmet character, not a member of the family …. I wanted to like this but it all seemed rather oblique.

 

 Lost and Wanted by Nell Freudenberger

I read and really enjoyed The Newlyweds by this author and so recommended her new novel (which I hadn’t read at the time) to my book group. Don’t know what they thought of it yet because I ended up not being able to attend the meeting.

And I don’t know what I think of it … it was – unexpected. One reviewer said it was 'Middlemarch meets Bridget Jones’ Diary'. Were we reading the same book?

Last month for the book group we read Lessons in Chemistry – this one could have been called Lessons in Physics. I don’t have the kind of mind to understand black holes and the decaying universe but fortunately I know someone who does and I shall be passing this on and asking for a explanation in words of one syllable.

 

My Life in Houses by Margaret Forster

Margaret Forster and her husband Hunter Davies had the same beginnings, brought up in council houses in Carlisle, and they met at school. Both were very clever and began, in their early twenties, to make their livings as writers.

By the time they were thirty they were earning so much (Margaret principally from her novel Georgy Girl which was made into a film) that they had to go and live in Portugal for fourteen months to avoid the Labour government’s punitive income tax.

Margaret (now sadly gone to the big house in the sky) remembers her life through the houses she has lived in, including the family home in Hampstead (bought for £5000 in 1962, with a sitting tenant) and holiday homes (at different times) in Portugal and the Lake District.

All financed from their writing and good on them… not that I’m jealous or anything …

 

 

Five in May

 I read five books in May.

 

Games and Rituals by Katherine Heiny

This is Katherine Heiny’s second book of short stories. I’ve been waiting for it and it did not disappoint. Inevitably some appealed more than others but all had the writing style I’ve come to love after reading her two novels Standard Deviation (three times so far) and Early Morning Riser (twice). 

 

The Crystal Crypt by Fiona Veitch Smith

A fun read with a 1920s amateur sleuth Poppy Denby. The sixth in a series but the first I’ve read. Here she is asked to investigate the mysterious death of an up-and-coming female scientist in an Oxford laboratory known as the Crystal Crypt.

 

 

Christmas is Murder by Val McDermid

Hardly seasonal, I know, but I bought this very pretty copy in the Christian Aid Book Sale and just got stuck in to this ‘festive collection of chilling tales’.

 

The Villa in Italy by Elizabeth Edmondson

I paid my first visit to Italy (Sicily) in February so the country is on my radar. Four people, previously unknown to each other, have been mentioned in the will of a woman, of whom none of them have ever heard. They have to spend time in her villa to find out why. I did keep reading to find the solution – but the reasons the legatees were brought together were convoluted and the whole thing pretty unlikely, but hey, that’s fiction for you.

 

 

Far Off in Sunlit Place: Stories of the Scots in Australia and New Zealand by Jim Hewitson

Another Christian Aid Book Sale purchase and a book I’ve wanted to read since it first came out many years ago. I’ve read other, academic, books on the fascinating subject of the Scottish diaspora – this one, while undoubtedly involving a great deal of research, is at the popular end of the history scale and extremely readable.

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.

 

Six in March

I read six books in March.

 

I’m Sorry You Feel That Way by Rebecca Wait

Read on Kindle but I liked it so much I’m going to get a paperback copy. Here is a very dysfunctional family: their issues include severe mental illness, a father who’s scarpered and a self-centred mother, but somehow Rebecca Wait finds light in the darkest moments. I loved Alice, one of the most self-effacing (to an almost ludicrous extent), lovable characters I’ve ever come across. Her twin sister, Hanna, could not be more different but I rooted for her too.

Alice’s party is one of the best set pieces ever. If you’re planning a party make sure one of your guests isn’t carrying a cat basket …

 

Second First Impressions by Sally Thorne

I much enjoyed this author’s The Hating Game (and the film made of it), a very well written romance plus I’m a sucker for anything set in a publishing house. I liked this one too; it’s set in a community for well-heeled, elderly retired folk (location unclear but somewhere they use dollars, not that it matters really).

Ruthie is managing the complex while her boss is away and when the owner’s wayward son shows up, having been told by his dad he has to grow up and do some proper work – well, that’s a situation Ruthie is unprepared for.

This would make a great film too – it comes over like a 1960s screwball comedy.

 

In a Summer Season by Elizabeth Taylor

It’s a long time since I read an Elizabeth Taylor (probably when they were first Virago-ed); don’t think this (published in 1961) will be one of her best but it was interesting and blackly funny in places (although not at the end). Kate Heron is a youngish, wealthy widow who has got remarried to, Dermot, a much younger, rather feckless chap. Some of the humour is got through the correspondence between Kate’s spinster Aunt Ethel (who lives with her) and Ethel's (spinster) school friend speculating on Kate and Dermot’s love life.

 

The Moon over Kilmore Quay by Carmel Harrington

A teeny bit of the book takes place in Kilmore Quay under the moon. It’s mostly set in Brooklyn – not that I’ve any objection to that, just the opposite; I guess TheMoKQ does make for an attractive title though.

This is my first Carmel Harrington book and I will probably read more (despite the ending of this one which I did not appreciate although it certainly made for a ‘devastating twist’ as the blurb writers say).

Bea has grown up in the Irish community in Brooklyn. Her mother died when she was little and she has always heard wonderful stories about her. However, when Bea is about thirty she finds out something life-changing.

 

Almost English by Charlotte Mendelson

And the first book I’ve read by this author.

It’s the 1980s. In a small West London flat, sixteen-year-old Marina lives with Laura, her emotionally delicate [English] mother, her Hungarian grandmother and two great-aunts. 

To get away from the very loving but stifling atmosphere at home Marina enrolls (at punitive financial cost to her impoverished relatives) in a boys’ boarding school in Dorset which takes girls in the sixth form. The story veers between the horrible time she has there and Laura missing her back in London and with problems of her own.

The elderly Hungarian relatives are delightful, and amusing to the reader, and I enjoyed the author’s notes at the back with reference to her own Czech Hungarian grandparents.

 

Halfway to You by Jennifer Gold

One of Amazon Prime’s first of the month free Kindle books. 

I thought it was too long – the on-off relationship between Ann and Todd that’s on and off for nearly forty years didn’t really grip me. But I liked the structure – Ann, who in the past published one massively bestselling book, is telling her story to young podcaster Maggie with whom, as it turns out, she has another connection.