September 2020 Roundup

 

As September draws to a close here in the UK, we have many counties in local lock-down once again. When we celebrated the New Year in January, we could never in our wildest imaginations predicted what this year would have in store for us all across the globe.

In the South East of England, where I am fortunate enough to live, we have no further restrictions at present. With the 'rule of six' that was recently introduced it meant that six members of my book group could meet in person. We met up in a local park and it was so wonderful to see everyone again and to discuss our monthly book. Alas, I am pretty certain that will be our final outdoor meeting this year as the weather already has an autumnal feel.

I have enjoyed all the books that I have read this month and hope that you have enjoyed your reading too.

Books I have read this month

This Isn't the Sort of Thing That Happens to Someone Like You by Jon McGregor - I love Jon McGregor's books and this volume of short stories was no exception. I was fortunate enough to meet him years ago at a readers and writers conference and he was such a nice man...... sigh.... bit of a fan girl moment for me.

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr - this is the book that I read along with my book group. This was it's second outing for me and I enjoyed it just as much.

Spirited by Julie Cohen - this was a very enjoyable read and I will be posting my review of this very soon.

A Dangerous Place by Jacqueline Winspear - this is number 11 in the Maisie Dobs series. I have read all of the previous 10 and you can find my review of the third in the series, Pardonable Lies, by clicking on the title.

The Story of Babushka by Catherine Flores - this adorable children's book has lovely illustrations by Ana Beatriz Marques and would be lovely to share with children. You can read my review here.

Fleishman Is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner - I really enjoyed this book and my review will be up very soon.

The Postscript Murders by Elly Griffiths - my review of this book can be found here.

Books I Did Not Finish

Women Who Run With the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes - I will return to this book at some point.

Books I Am Part Way Through

The Weaker Vessel, Woman's Lot in Seventeenth Century England: Part One by Antonia Fraser - I am really not sure why it is taking me so long to get through this book as it is highly interesting and accessible to read. 

The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri - I only started this one on Tuesday and am enjoying what I have read so far.

The Story of Babushka by Catherine Flores - #BookReview #BookTour

 

"In the light-flooded forest where the birds sang, the brook rippled, and the wind swept through the trees, there lived a beautiful matryoshka called Babushka."

The Babushka doll, also known as a "Matryoshka" or "Russian Nesting Doll," is a traditional Russian toy first made over 100 years ago. The doll has come to symbolize Russian folk culture, as well as the complex and beautiful layers of women.

Babushka dolls are made of wood and painted in bright colours and patterns. Each Babushka is made in a set of many round dolls, each a little smaller than the last. They separate at the middle so that each doll can be placed inside the one before it. There are some Babushka dolls with as many as fifty dolls nexted inside her.

This is the story of one very special doll, with five bodies that together make the Babushka.

***

This is such a lovely book for children and I cannot wait to share it with my grandchildren.

Before I even began reading I was impressed by the beautifully stylised illustrations by Ana Beatriz Marques. In that aspect, even a pre-reader will enjoy poring over this book and it would be a lovely book to read to children too. It is also ideal for slightly older children to read for themselves.

Each one of the dolls represents a different personality feature and has an individual name. The outermost body, called Antonia, represents beauty, the second body, Loretta, wealth, the third body, Paula, represents talent, the fourth, Viola, wisdom and the innermost body, Mary, represents compassion and understanding.

As each individual body goes out into the world  to seek the meaning of life they learn that there are no easy answers. Acutely observed, Ms Flores has depicted an age old desire whereby, at some point in our lives, we ask ourselves who we really are and seek to find an answer to that question? 

The moral of this story is that, actually, we were there all the time and that we have to look into ourselves for an answer to that question.

This is a lovely book which I highly recommend.

ISBN: 978 1527260290

Publisher: ACL Creative Studio

About the Author:

Catherine Flores is a children's author and graphic designer. As she wrote about Babushka's journey, she was embarking on her own, which delayed the completion of this book for some time.

In October 2017, she emigrated with her partner Aaron to Portugal. In March 2018 their son Kiasmos was born. And after three years, Babushka is finished in early 2020 allowing Catherine to begin planning her next adventure.

 

Book Tour Tomorrow - The Story of Babushka by Catherine Flores

I am delighted to be part of the Book Tour for this lovely book. Please do drop by the blog tomorrow to read my review.

The Sleeping Car Murders by Sebastien Japrisot - Translated by Francis Price - #BookReview

"This is the Way it Began .......... The train was coming in from Marseille. To the man whose job it was to go through the corridors and check the empty compartments, it was 'the Phonceen - ten minutes to eight; after that, breakfast'. Before that, there had been 'the Annecy - twenty-five minutes to' on which he had found two raincoats, an umbrella, and a leak in the heating system. When he saw the Phoceen pull in on the other sice of the same platform, he was standing by a window, looking at the broken nut on one of the valves."

A beautiful young woman lies sprawled on her berth in the sleeping car of the night train from Marseille to Paris. She is not in the embrace of sleep, or even in the arms of one of her many lovers. She is dead.

The unpleasant task of finding her killer is handed to overworked, crime-weary police detective Pierre 'Grazzi' Grazziano, who would rather play hide-and-seek with his little son than cat and mouse with a diabolically cunning, savage murderer.

Sebastien Japrisot takes the reader on an express ride of riveting suspense that races through a Parisian landscape of lust, deception and death. With corpses turning up everywhere, the question becomes not only who is the killer, but who will be the next victim.

***

This book was first published in France in 1962 and in the UK two years following. This re-publication will delight readers who enjoy classic crime fiction as the characteristic format of the story will be recognised as familiar. It reminded me of novels by Simenon, Christie and their ilk.

It was adapted for film in France in 1965. I have not seen the film but I would imagine that it would lend itself to a cinematic adaptation extremely well.

I really enjoyed the atmospheric quality of this book and the author did a really good job of describing both place and character. 

As well as the two detectives investigating this case, we learn much about the several victims and travellers in the titular railway sleeping car and the author has made even these more minor characters relatable.  However, it is the detective, Grazziano, and his quirky assistant, Jean-Loup, who have been so expertly drawn.

I would read other books by  the late Sebastien Japrisot as he was a good storyteller, and whats more, I did not figure out who had committed the murders, so the reveal was exciting for me. It's narrative twists and turns and each time I thought I had worked out who the murderer was there was another spin of the narration and I had to rethink. I so very much enjoy a book that can do that.

It is a short book with a big story within it's pages and I think anyone who enjoys a murder mystery will really enjoy reading this book.

ISBN: 978 1910477939

Publisher: Gallic Books

About the Author:

Sébastien Japrisot, an anagram of his real name, Jean-Baptiste Rossi, was born in Marseilles, France in 1931 and died in Vichy, France in 2003. 

He was a French author, screenwriter and film director, and has been nicknamed "the Graham Greene of France".

Famous in the Francophony, he was little known in the English-speaking world, though a number of his novels have been translated into English and have been made into films.

His first novel, Les mal partis was written at the age of 16 and published under his real name, Jean-Baptiste Rossi.  

 

Real Men Knit by Kwana Jackson - #TuesdayTeaser

 I can never resist a book about knitting and am pleased to be including this one as my Tuesday Teaser today. So here is some information about the book and it's beginning. What do you think? Are you tempted to read it with me?

When his adoptive mother, Joy, unexpectedly passes away, Jesse Strong is determined that her Harlem knitting shop, Strong Knits, should stay open. But his brothers - unsure if the flaky playboy Jesse can handle this responsibility - want to tie off loose ends and close shop.

Enter Kerry Fuller. Kerry has worked at Strong Knits for years and she's harboured a secret crush on Jesse for even longer. Soon, she's teaching Jesse and his brothers the knitty-gritty parts of the business they need to know - while trying to keep her heart from getting broken.

The more time they spend together, the stronger the chemistry builds between them. Kerry, knowing Jesse's history, doesn't believe their relationship can last longer than she can knit one, purl one. Can Jesse prove to Kerry that he is the right man for her - and that only real men knit?

***

"There was nothing cute about the first time Kerry Fuller met Jesse Strong.

He broke her glasses; she bloodied his nose and they both ended up in a tangle of yarn on the floor in the loft space of Strong Knits being scolded by Mama Joy.

What she wouldn't do to be scolded one more time, Kerry thought as she adjusted her dark framed glasses as she pushed aside the almost long-forgotten childhood memory. She glanced over at the front window of Strong Knits, the Harlem yarn shop that had been such a part of her life growing up.

Any other day Kerry loved walking through the doors of Strong Knits. It had been that way since she first stepped foot in the little knitting shop where she'd worked part time for the better part of the last ten years and pretty much just hung out for most of her childhood years before that, making it her unlikely sanctuary. A place of calm in the midst of the chaos that was the concrete jungle of upper Manhattan. But this day was anything but normal......"

ISBN: 978 0008435233

Publisher: Harper Collins

A Room Made of Leaves by Kate Grenville - #BookReview

"My Dear Son, James, has given me a task for my last years, or months, or whatever time I have left beyond the many years I have lived so far. It is to compile an account called 'The History of the Macarthurs of Camden Park.' Meaning myself and my late husband John Macarthur. He was barely cold in his grave when they began lauding him as a hero, even the ones who loathed him in life."

It is 1788. Twenty-one-year-old Elizabeth is hungry for life but, as the ward of a Devon clergyman, knows she has few prospects. When proud, scarred soldier, John Macarthur, promises her the earth one midsummer’s night, she believes him.

But Elizabeth soon realises she has made a terrible mistake. Her new husband is reckless, tormented, driven by some dark rage at the world. He tells her he is to take up a position as Lieutenant in a New South Wales penal colony and she has no choice but to go. Sailing for six months to the far side of the globe with a child growing inside her, she arrives to find Sydney Town a brutal, dusty, hungry place of makeshift shelters, failing crops, scheming and rumours. 

All her life she has learned to be obliging, to fold herself up small. Now, in the vast landscapes of an unknown continent, Elizabeth has to discover a strength she never imagined, and passions she could never express. 

***

I loved every word of this book. It was beautifully written and when I got to the end I could have happily gone straight back to the beginning and started it all over again.

The book is narrated by Elizabeth, the wife of John Macarthur, and is inspired by her letters to family and friends in England. Ms. Grenville has taken those documents and given Elizabeth a voice of her own from a time when the voice of women was very rarely heard. This is the memoir that Elizabeth never wrote but the author has such acute understanding of what Elizabeth's life was probably like that this reads as an extremely believable account.

The author's description of New South Wales was highly evocative and she describes the brutality towards the indigenous population and the transported convicts with perceptive skill. This is a brilliantly imagined account, of the lives of the first settlers in Australia.

This is the first book I have read by Kate Grenville and it certainly will not be my last. Thankfully, she has already published several novels for me to choose from. I highly recommend this book. I would be surprised if it does not make it into my Top 2020 Best Books at the end of this year.

Have you read anything by this author? Which of her novels do you suggest I read next?

ISBN: 9781838851231

Publisher: Canongate Books

About the Author

Kate Grenville is one of Australia's best-known authors. She's published eight books of fiction and four books about the writing process. Her best-known works are the international best-seller The Secret River, The Idea of Perfection, The Lieutenant and Lilian's Story. 

 Her novels have won many awards both in Australia and the UK, several have been made into major feature films, and all have been translated into European and Asian languages.

Left on the Shelf: Reading in September - 2020

Left on the Shelf: Reading in September - 2020:   Sitting at my desk on this first morning of September, I cannot help but watch out of my window and watch the world go by. The best of the...

Reading in September - 2020

 

Sitting at my desk on this first morning of September, I cannot help but watch out of my window and watch the world go by. The best of the summer has passed and this morning it is beautifully sunny and I cannot help trying to grasp this late summer sunshine before we head into Autumn.

Yesterday, I purchased a bunch of sunflowers which are bringing some much wanted colour into my room. They are such beautiful flowers - loud and brash, they make no apology for the statement they make and neither should they. Beautiful in their own unique way and when they go over they leave a seed head to nourish the garden birds.

Some of the books I plan to read this month I have carried over from last month as I did not get around to reading them. There are some books that I am very excited to read this month so without any further ado - here they are.

Happy reading everyone. 

***

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr (This will be a re-read for me)

Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

Independent People by Halldor Laxness

Gift Wrap Green by Camille Wilkinson

Islands of Mercy by Rose Tremain

Renia's Diary by Renia Spiegel

The Story of Babushka by Catherine Flores

Jerusalem as a Second Language by Rochelle Distelheim

Spirited by Julie Cohen

The Lantern Men by Elly Griffiths

Fleishman is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner

Books to Finish

The Weaker Vessel, Woman's Lot in Seventeenth Century England: Part One by Antonia Fraser.

Women Who Run With the Wolves: Contacting the Power of the Wild Woman 

by Clarissa Pinkola Estes.

This Isn't the Sort of Thing That Happens to Someone Like You by Jon McGregor.