Reading Roundup - July 2021

 

So here we are once more, at the tail end of another month. Sitting here and writing this, the sun is streaming through my office window. There has been lots of rain over the past few days and more is forecast. The sunshine never fails to make my spirit sing and today is no exception to that.

I have really enjoyed most of the books that I have read this month. They range in genres and include fiction and non-fiction titles.

I would love to hear about what you have read this month.

Books I have Read during July

The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa - This was a very short book but really lovely. You can read my review here.

Agent Sonya by Ben Macintyre - This was my book group choice this month and it was enjoyed by all of our members. You can read my review by clicking here.

Do the Birds Still Sing in Hell? by Horace Greasley - On the whole I enjoyed this memoir. My only reservation is that it was a little overly descriptive of his sexual exploits. 

The Aleppo Codex by Matti Friedman - Interesting but not amazing.

The Metal Heart by Caroline Lea - This was a lovely book which I heartily recommend. You can read my review by clicking here.

Mr Mani by A. B. Yehoshua - I really enjoyed this one too. It has a really interesting structure and this author is becoming one of my favourites. You can read my review by clicking here.

The Image of Her by Sonia Velton - This was my favourite book this month. You can read my review by clicking here.

Tell Me Your Secret by Dorothy Koomson - This was a good book but I did find the subject matter a little disturbing.

Books I Did Not Finish

The Lamplighters by Emma Stonex - I read about 75 pages of this before I gave up. I can't quite put my finger on why it wasn't working for me.

Books I am Part Way Through

Journey to Munich by Jacqueline Winspear

(photo courtesy of Kimberley Farmer/Unsplash)

Mr Mani by A. B. Yehoshua - #BookReview - Translated from Hebrew by Hillel Halkin

 

" - But even if I disappeared, Mother, I didn't disappear for very long. You needn't have worried ...

_ But I did phone you, Mother, I most certainly did, on Wednesday evening from Jerusalem.

- Of course. I was still in Jerusalem Wednesday evening. Yesterday too.

- Yesterday too, Mother. And this morning too. But I left you a message.

- How could you not have got it?

- Oh, God, Mother, don't tell me that another message of mine got lost!

- How should I know... whoever picked up the phone...

- Some volunteer from Germany.

- But what could I have done, Mother! It's not my fault that no one in his right mind on the whole kibbutz will pick up the telephone in the dining hall after supper, because no one wants wants to have to go out in the cold and run around looking for whoever it's for."

Five conversations, each centring on the fate of a different member of the Sephardi Mani family, make up this profound, far-reaching and passionate Mediterranean novel which tells of six generations of the family, but in reverse chronology. In each conversation the responses of one person are absent, thus drawing in the reader as the story reaches back into the past, creating one of the most extraordinary reading experiences in modern literature.

On a kibbutz in the Negev in 1982, a student tells her mother about her strange meeting in Jerusalem with Judge Gavriel Mani, the father of her boyfriend whose child she is expecting.

On the occupied island of Crete in 1944, a German soldier relates to his adoptive grandmother his experiences there with the Mani family, whom he hunts down.

In Jerusalem, occupied by the British in 1918, a young Jewish lawyer serving with the British army briefs his commanding officer on the forthcoming trial for treason of the political agitator Yosef Mani.

In a village in southern Poland in 1899, a young doctor reports to his father his experiences at the Third Zionist Congress and his subsequent trip to Jerusalem with his sister, who falls in love with Dr Moshe Mani, an obstetrician.

In Athens, in 1848, Abraham Mani reports to his elderly mentor the intricate tale of his trip to Jerusalem and the death there of his young son.

***

Initially, the thought of reading a book full of one sided conversations was a little daunting.  Potentially, it could be akin to reading the script of a play but with only the lines for one of the actors. However, in the hands of the very talented author, it became an exceptionally intelligent and original device, employed to transport the reader right into the very heart of each of the stories. Indeed, the more I read the more I realised that reading the responses to the conversation was completely unnecessary. I felt as though I was a third person, in the room with them, simply listening and observing as the conversations unfolded. I could positively see and hear the responses of the silent partner.

I found the reverse chronology easy enough to keep up with, even though the generations are not consecutive. There are some gaps between the generations of the Mani family, but each section did indicate their geographical movements so that the reader was not left questioning how the various Mr. Mani's got from A to B. The conversations were also constructed in such a way that the reader could understand the political and social background of the times.

I believe this fascinating book will stay with me long after my completion of it. There is so much to think about; from its structure to its themes. In fact, it is the highly unusual format of the book which totally engaged me and leads me to feel I would like to read it again. I suspect this is a book whereby the reader would gain so much more for it's re-reading.

I have previously read and enjoyed, Mr. Yehoshua's novel, The Tunnel. You can read my review by clicking on the link here.. I am looking forward to reading more of his writing.

ISBN: 978 1870015776

Publisher: Halban

***

A. B. Yehoshua

Born in Jerusalem in 1936, A. B. Yehoshua is the author of eight novels and a collection of short stories. He is one of Israel's pre-eminent novelists, is widely translated and has won innumerable international prizes. In 2005, he was shortlisted for the first Man Booker International Prize.

He lives in Haifa where he taught comparative literature for many years.

The Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths - #TuesdayTeaser - 27th July 2021

 Welcome to this week's Tuesday Teaser, where we have a little peek at the beginning of a book which has caught my eye. It won't necessarily be a new release as there are so many books which have already been published, and I have not had chance to read yet.

 This week, we are looking at The Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths. Those of you who follow my blog regularly will know that I am a huge fan of Elly's. I have read all of the books in her Ruth Galloway series and am very excited that there is a new one due out next year.

The Stranger Diaries is the first in a series featuring Harbinder Kaur. 

I hope you will enjoy this taster of the book.

 

The Blurb

Clare Cassidy is no stranger to tales of murder. As a literature teacher specialising in the Gothic writer R.M. Holland, she teaches a short course on them every year. Then Clare's life and work collide tragically when one of her colleagues is found dead, a line from an R.M. Holland story by her body. The investigating police detective is convinced the writer's works somehow hold the key to the case.

Not knowing who to trust, and afraid that the killer is someone she knows, Clare confides her darkest suspicions and fears about the case to her journal. Then one day she notices some other writing in the diary. Writing that isn't hers...

Chapter 1 - Clare

'If you'll permit me,' said the stranger, 'I'd like to tell you a story. After all, it's a long journey and, by the look of those skies, we're not going to be leaving this carriage for some time. So, why not pass the hours with some storytelling? The perfect thing for a late October evening.

Are you quite comfortable there? Don't worry about Herbert. He won't hurt you. It's just this weather that makes him nervous. Now, where was I? What about some brandy to keep the chill out? You don't mind a hip flask, do you?

Well, this is a story that actually happened. Those are the best kind, don't you think? Better still, it happened to me when I was a young man. About your age.

I was a student at Cambridge. Studying Divinity, of course. There's no other subject, in my opinion, except possibly English Literature. We are such stuff as dreams are made on. I'd been there for almost a term. I was a shy boy from the country and I suppose I was lonely. I wasn't one of the swells, those young men in white bow ties who sauntered across the court as if they had letters patent from God. I kept myself to myself, went to lectures, wrote my essays and started up a friendship with another scholarship boy in my year, a timid soul called Gudgeon, of all things. I wrote home to my mother every week. I went to chapel. Yes, I believed in those days. I was even rather pious - "pi", we used to say. That was why I was surprised to be invited to join the Hell Club.'

ISBN: 978-1786487414

Publisher: Quercus

***

Has this whetted your appetite for this book? It has mine, and I can't wait to read it. Why don't you join me?

Top Ten New Book Releases - August 2021

There are some exciting new titles being released next month. Here are my Top Ten.

Sisterhood by V.B. Grey

Identical twin sisters Freya and Shona take very different paths, leading to long-buried family secrets that reverberate through the generations in this thrilling novel of psychological suspense by the author of Tell Me How It Ends. There are some choices you can't come back from.

It is 1944 in war-battered London. Freya and Shona are identical twins, close despite their different characters. Freya is a newly qualified doctor treating the injured in an East End hospital, while Shona has been recruited by the SOE. The sisters are so physically alike that they can fool people into thinking that one is the other. It's a game they've played since childhood. But when Shona persuades her twin to swap roles to meet her Polish lover, he is angered at being tricked.

Then Shona proposes a far more dangerous swapping of roles. At first Freya refuses but finally she agrees, with consequences that threaten not only the happiness but the lives of both sisters.

Forty-five years later in November 1989 Freya, now aged 69, is watching television with her daughter Kirsty. Freya is gripped as she witnesses crowds of Berliners attempting to knock down their hated Wall. This sight stirs memories of her own and her sister's war, especially the tragedy of the Warsaw Uprising - memories that she has never shared with anyone. Even if she wanted to reveal them now, she can't. She's suffering from a brain tumour and is unable to speak although her reason is unimpaired. And this is what she's thinking: if they succeed in knocking down the Wall, what secrets will come tumbling through? If her own were revealed, it would be devastating for all those close to her, especially her daughter, Kirsty. 

***

I'll Be Seeing You by Rosie Archer

A World War 2 saga to warm the heart. Three women become friends when working in their local picture house. When life is so tough for everyone, a trip to the pictures is the perfect way to escape, to dream of romance and hope for the good things peace will bring.

It is 1943 on England's war-weary south coast where the conflict seems never-ending. After the heartache of the previous year, Connie Baxter now appears to have everything a girl could want. There is Ace, a man who loves her. She enjoys an enviable lifestyle despite the deprivations of war. She has friends and a job she adores as an usherette at the Criterion cinema. But appearances can be deceptive and Connie is struggling in more ways than one.

Then, to compound Connie's problem, her nemesis, Cousin Marlene, returns home. Secrets come to light, revealing jealousies that could shatter Connie's world once more, and Connie realizes that Ace isn't the man she thought he was.

In the darkest days of war, the glamour of movies and their stars can lift the bleakest of moods, while friends make the good times better and the bad times bearable.

***

The Way Back Almanac 2022 by Melinda Salisbury

The Way Back Almanac is a modern spin on the traditional almanac, aimed at women who are looking for a way back to nature and to reawaken that sense of belonging in order to improve their own physical, mental and spiritual well-being.

The traditional almanac is a month-by-month prompt to the beautiful transformations of nature that offer a magical and poetic way to celebrate the year. The Way Back Almanac is a modern twist on the conventional almanac, an accessible and truly contemporary guide back to natural rhythms, designed for those who feel most removed from the old ways and cycles.

If you are concerned about the planet, climate emergency and sustainability, this interactive journal will help you discover a way of living more harmoniously with the planet, but without the necessity for a garden or to make major changes to your life. Both a practical companion to the year and a stunning piece of nature writing, it will show how even a busy modern life in a city can be infused with meaningful connections with the world we live in.

Beautifully illustrated throughout, each month includes sections on stargazing, gardening tips, seasonal vegan recipes, home organisation or crafting ideas, digital well-being practices, rituals, book club reads, folklore or ancient wisdom as told by modern women from different walks of life, and free space for your own writing, notes or recipes. This interactive and treasured item will gently encourage creativity, fulfilment and ultimately a way back to yourself.

***

History by Miles Jupp

Clive Hapgood is feeling stuck.

The private school he teaches at is consuming his life, no thanks to wretched headteacher Julian Crouch. The gentle country life Clive envisaged has stifled him and left his marriage on the brink. What he needs is a holiday - something to remind him and Helen what life used to be like. But when things don't go to plan, and an incident at school begins to weigh heavy on his head, Clive's life starts to unravel in front of him. Has he got it in him to turn things around, whatever the cost? After all, it's his own time he's wasting...

Wonderfully funny and often moving, this brilliant novel by star of The Durrells and Would I Lie To You? Miles Jupp is set to be the stand-out book of the summer.

***

Missing by Erin Kinsley

A MOTHER WALKS INTO THE SEA . . . AND NEVER COMES BACK. WHY?

One perfect summer day, mother of two Alice walks into the sea . . . and never comes back.

Her daughters - loyal but fragile Lily, and headstrong, long-absent Marietta - are forcibly reunited by her disappearance.

Meanwhile, with retirement looming, DI Fox investigates cold cases long since forgotten. And there's one obsession he won't let go: a tragic death twenty years before.

Can Lily and Marietta uncover what happened to their mother? Will Fox solve a mystery that has haunted him for decades? As their stories unexpectedly collide, long-buried secrets will change their lives in unimaginable ways.

***

The Miller's Daughter by Elizabeth Gill

When Mary's father, the miller, leaves his family and runs away with another woman, Mary and her siblings are left to weather the storm. But when their mother dies soon after, the children, alone and unwanted, are sent to the Foundling School for Girls to start a new life.

When the miller learns of his wife's death and what has happened to his children, he tracks them down and brings them to be a part of his new family, safe at last. But the miller is desperate for a son, and when Mary's newest sibling turns out to be a girl, he begins to court a vulnerable and lonely young woman called Isabel.

After Isabel gives birth to a boy, the miller believes that the son he has been waiting for is finally here. But when rumours abound that the miller may not be the father of Isabel's child, he begins to lose control. The miller will stop at nothing to keep his son.

Will Isabel escape with her child, or will the miller's wrath destroy everyone in his life, including his daughter...?

***

A Slow Fire Burning by Paula Hawkins

What is wrong with you?'

Laura has spent most of her life being judged. She's seen as hot-tempered, troubled, a loner. Some even call her dangerous.

Miriam knows that just because Laura is witnessed leaving the scene of a horrific murder with blood on her clothes, that doesn't mean she's a killer. Bitter experience has taught her how easy it is to get caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Carla is reeling from the brutal murder of her nephew. She trusts no one: good people are capable of terrible deeds. But how far will she go to find peace?

Innocent or guilty, everyone is damaged. Some are damaged enough to kill.

Look what you started.

***

The Beloved Girls by Harriet Evans

'It's a funny old house. They have this ceremony every summer . . . There's an old chapel, in the grounds of the house. Half-derelict. The Hunters keep bees in there. Every year, on the same day, the family processes to the chapel. They open the combs, taste the honey. Take it back to the house. Half for them -' my father winced, as though he had bitten down on a sore tooth. 'And half for us.'

Catherine, a successful barrister, vanishes from a train station on the eve of her anniversary. Is it because she saw a figure - someone she believed long dead? Or was it a shadow cast by her troubled, fractured mind?

The answer lies buried in the past. It lies in the events of the hot, seismic summer of 1989, at Vanes - a mysterious West Country manor house - where a young girl, Jane Lestrange, arrives to stay with the gilded, grand Hunter family, and where a devastating tragedy will unfold. Over the summer, as an ancient family ritual looms closer, Janey falls for each member of the family in turn. She and Kitty, the eldest daughter of the house, will forge a bond that decades later, is still shaping the present . . .

'We need the bees to survive, and they need us to survive. Once you understand that, you understand the history of Vanes, you understand our family.'

***

The Infernal Riddle of Thomas Peach by Jas Treadwell

WHO IS THOMAS PEACH?

Ah, reader! - if you would have us answer THAT question - What mysteries you shall compel us to expose!

It is the year 1785, and a gentleman of modest means has left London for the countryside, to look after his ailing wife.

Among his new neighbours, tongues begin to wag. Why does he keep a locked chest under the stairs? Is it really full of forbidden books? And what exactly is the matter with his wife?

For the most part, though, the couple live in peace -- until a letter arrives, threatening to cut off their livelihood and expel them from their home.

Faced with the prospect of penury -- and perhaps worse -- the gentleman rides out in search of some means to save himself.

But fate has other plans for Thomas Peach.

A bizarre request brings an encounter with a mysterious young woman, raised from infancy as a rich man's ward, now condemned to the madhouse. As their paths become disturbingly entangled, Mr Peach begins to suspect that in her past lies a dreadful secret . . .

Dreadful indeed! - Yet however fearful the poor child's history - can her secret be darker, than HIS OWN?

***

Cut Out by Michele Roberts

A lyrical tale of family secrets and self-discovery.

Denis knows his mother kept things from him.

His godmother, Clemence, knows the truth.

In rich, sensuous prose, Roberts interweaves Denis's search for answers with Clemence's memories of the time she spent working for Matisse.

The Image of Her by Sonia Velton - #BookReview

 

"Your name is Connie James.

I know this from the letter in front of me. The knowledge of you was folded neatly into a plain white envelope and addressed to me in a measured, precise hand. It looked so ordinary that anything could have been inside. Had I known it was about you, I might not have opened it. It would have been left untouched, propped up on the mantelpiece, like a wartime telegram, while I sat beside it, quietly weighing up the knowing and the not knowing.

Although I didn't know your name, there were three things I did know about you. One, that you are about the same age as me. Two, that you are a woman. Three, that almost exactly a year ago something happened to you that was every bit as devastating as what happened to me."

Stella and Connie are strangers, brought together by two traumatic events - cruel twists of fate that happen thousands of miles apart.

Stella lives with her mother, a smothering narcissist. When she succumbs to dementia, the pressures on Stella's world intensify, culminating in tragedy. As Stella recovers from a near fatal accident, she feels compelled to share her trauma but she finds talking difficult. In her head she confides in Connie because there's no human being in the world that she feels closer to.

Connie is an expat living in Dubai with her partner, Mark, and their two children. On the face of it she wants for nothing and yet ... something about life in this glittering city does not sit well with her. Used to working full time in a career she loves back in England, she struggles to find meaning in the expat life of play-dates and pedicures.

Two women set on a collision course. When they finally link up, it will not be in a way that you, or I, or anyone would ever have expected.

***

We all know the adage concerning the judgement of a book by it's cover. In this case, an exception must be made as the cover design is gorgeous. It instantly caused me want to pick it up and caress it softly in the hope that the words within its pages would be equally enchanting.

I was not to be disappointed. Original, compelling and convincing are the three words that spring instantly to my mind as I sit reviewing this book.

That there is a connection between the two main characters, Stella and Connie is presented right at the beginning. Initially, this bond between two such disparate women appears unfathomable but little by little is illuminated by the author. Approximately two-thirds of the way through I began to suspect the reason but in no way did that lessen the impact of the reveal when it eventually arrived.

Both Stella and Connie are superbly depicted and contained all the required layers to create characters that are easy to relate to. The chapters alternate between the two women, with Stella's being in the first person narrative. It is this that enables the reader to really connect with them. Even though we do not understand the underlying reason for their lives to ultimately collide, their portrayal leads the reader to question this continually throughout the novel.

The descriptions of the heat in Dubai were visceral and all the more significant when accompanied by descriptions of English weather. This also set up the illustration of the difference between the lives of Stella and Connie and was employed to great effect.

This is a sophisticated and compassionate novel which has been written with sensitivity and intelligence. It addresses some complex themes; self-worth, motherhood and identity, and as such is thought-provoking.

I love it when I come across an author that I have never read before and who writes as well as Ms Velton has in this book. She has previously published Blackberry & Wild Rose which has now shot to the top of my reading list.

ISBN: 978 52941 7364

Publisher: Quercus

About the Author:

Sonia Velton grew up between the Bahamas and the UK. After graduating from university with a first class law degree, she qualified as a solicitor at an international law firm, later going on to specialise in discrimination law. Sonia relocated to the Middle East in 2006. Eight years and three children later she returned to the UK and now lives in Kent. 

Blackberry & Wild Rose, inspired by real characters and historical events, was Sonia's first novel. The Image of Her is her second.

Sonia lives near Tunbridge Wells with her three children.

The Image of Her by Sonia Velton - #BookBlitz #MediaBlast

 

I am excited to be part of the media blast for this book. Please drop by the blog tomorrow to read my review of this fantastic book.

The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa - Translated by Stephen Snyder - #BookReview

 

"We called him the Professor. And he called my son Root, because, he said, the flat top of his head reminded him of the square root sign.

'There's a fine brain in there,' the Professor said, mussing my son's hair. Root, who wore a cap to avoid being teased by his friends, gave a wary shrug. 'With this one little sign we can come to know an infinite range of numbers, even those we can't see.' He traced the symbol in the thick layer of dust on his desk."

He is a brilliant maths professor with a peculiar problem - ever since a traumatic head injury seventeen years ago, he has lived with only eighty minutes of short-term memory.

She is a sensitive but astute young housekeeper who is entrusted to take care of him.

Each morning, as the Professor and the Housekeeper are reintroduced to one another, a strange, beautiful relationship blossoms between them. The Professor may not remember what he had for breakfast, but his mind is still alive with elegant equations from the past. He devises clever maths riddles - based on her shoe size or her birthday - and the numbers reveal a sheltering and poetic world to both the Housekeeper and her ten-year-old son. With each new equation, the three lost souls forge an affection more mysterious than imaginary numbers, and a bond that runs deeper than memory. 

***

If someone had told me that I would ever enjoy a book which features both maths and baseball I would have laughed. However, whilst a reasonable portion of this novel is about just that, I was utterly enchanted by it.

This is one of those books that has sat on my shelf for years (come on, we've all got them.) I am not quite sure why I have not taken it down before now. So, having finally blown off the dust and brewed a cup of tea, I settled in to read it. Having now done so, my heart sighs every time I think of it.

It is a short book of less than 200 pages but contains one of the sweetest and endearing relationships I have read in a novel. The closeness that develops between the professor, his housekeeper and her son was an absolute delight to read.

There is a fair amount of maths in this book; the discussion of various types of numbers, and having never been a lover of maths even when I was at school, in fact especially when I was at school, I remain unable to see the beauty in numbers that as described in the book.

Neither am I a baseball fan. It is not a common sport here in the UK but it's use as a device to enable the development of the relationship between the Professor and Root, the housekeeper's son, was perfectly achieved.

However, it is not necessary to be a fan of either of these things to enjoy this book. In no way did it detract from my enjoyment of the burgeoning affection between the three characters, and I was sorely disappointed when the book came to its inevitable conclusion. I felt a little bereft that these people were no longer in my life.

I definitely think that this is a book that I will read again. It has the ability to soothe and is a real balm to the soul. I strongly encourage you to read it, and would love to hear your thoughts.

ISBN:  978 0099521341

Publisher: Vintage

***

About the Author:

Yoko Ogawa has written more than twenty works of fiction and non-fiction and has won every major Japanese literary award. Her fiction has appeared in the New Yorker, A Public Space and Zoetrope.

The Poppy Factory by Liz Trenow - #TuesdayTeaser

Welcome to this week's Tuesday Teaser. The place where you can have a sneak peek at a book that has caught my eye. It won't necessarily be a new release but will be something exciting that I would like to read.

This weeks book is The Poppy Factory by Liz Kernow. It has been published in the US under the title All the Things we Lost. Published by Avon Books it is one of several interesting titles by this author.

Liz started writing fiction after a long career in newspaper and broadcast journalism, and is now the author of best-selling historical fiction which is published all over the world.  She combines writing with spending time with her family, her artist husband, two grown-up daughters and three grandchildren. 

Once again, I am surprised that I have not read any of her books as I am a big fan of historical fiction. I am looking forward to reading this book and I hope that you will join me.

The Blurb

With the end of the First World War, Rose is looking forward to welcoming home her beloved husband, Alfie, from the battlefields. But his return is not what Rose had expected. Traumatised by what he has seen, the Alfie who comes home is a different man to the one Rose married. As he struggles to cope with life in peacetime, Rose wrestles with temptation as the man she fell in love with seems lost forever.

Many years later, Jess returns from her final tour of Afghanistan. Haunted by nightmares from her time at the front, her longed-for homecoming is a disaster and she wonders if her life will ever be the same again. Can comfort come through her great-grandmother Rose's diaries?

For Jess and Rose, the realities of war have terrible consequences. Can the Poppy Factory, set up to help injured soldiers, rescue them both from the heartache of war?

A captivating story of two young women, bound together by the tragedy of two very different wars. Perfect for fans of Katie Flynn and Maureen Lee.

The Beginning

Chapter One

An uneasy silence fell as the plane lurched bumpily around a spiral holding pattern above Heathrow. England was somewhere below, shrouded in slate grey clouds. Even the lads had finally stopped talking.

On reaching safe airspace half an hour out of Camp Bastion, six long months of constant fear and tension had been released like a spring-loaded jack-in-the-box into an eruption of shouting singing and laughter. They'd bellowed loud boasts across the aisles detailing exactly what and how much they would drink on their first night of leave in six long dry months and bragged raucously about the sexual conquests they would make, forgetting that the two activities were usually incompatible. They'd embroidered ever more unlikely details about how they would spend their Long Overseas Allowance, the main bonus of the tour. And just a few of them, in quieter voices, had talked of family; parents and siblings, wives, girlfriends and children, the comfort of their own beds, and real, home-cooked food. 

She'd come to tolerate and sometimes even enjoy the lads' banter, their insults and juvenile pranks, their lavatory humour. She knew now that it was just the way they got through; underneath they were thoughtful human beings with the same fears as anyone else. For all their piss-taking and petty squabbling, when everything kicked off, they'd gladly give their lives for each other. Some had even done so.

ISBN: 978 0007510481

Publisher: Avon Books

Library Loans - 17th July 2021

 It feels as though summer has finally arrived in my part of the UK.

So, I was in the mood for something summery when I visited the library over the weekend. I did, indeed, find a couple of books that fit the bill, but I was also seduced by one or two others. My defence? I am a weak willed woman when I am in a library surrounded by so many lovely books.

What is on your reading agenda this week? Does the season have an influence on your reading choices?

In the Full Light of the Sun by Clare Clark

Based on a true story, this gorgeous new novel follows the fortunes of three Berliners caught up in an art scandal—involving newly discovered van Goghs—that rocks Germany amidst the Nazis’ rise to power.

Hedonistic and politically turbulent, Berlin in the 1920s is a city of seedy night clubs and sumptuous art galleries. It is home to millionaires and mobs storming bakeries for rationed bread. These disparate Berlins collide when Emmeline, a young art student; Julius, an art expert; and a mysterious dealer named Rachmann all find themselves caught up in the astonishing discovery of thirty-two previously unknown paintings by Vincent van Gogh.

In the Full Light of the Sun explores the trio’s complex relationships and motivations, their hopes, their vanities, and their self-delusions—for the paintings are fakes and they are in their own ways complicit. Theirs is a cautionary tale about of the aspirations of the new Germany and a generation determined to put the humiliations of the past behind them.

With her signature impeccable and evocative historical detail, Clare Clark has written a gripping novel about beauty and justice, and the truth that may be found when our most treasured beliefs are revealed as illusions. 

The Summer Villa by Milissa Hill

Three women. One summer reunion. Secrets will be revealed…

Villa Dolce Vita, a rambling stone house on the Amalfi Coast, sits high above the Gulf of Naples amid dappled lemon groves and fragrant, tumbling bougainvillea. Kim, Colette and Annie all came to the villa in need of escape and in the process forged an unlikely friendship.

Now, years later, Kim has transformed the crumbling house into a luxury retreat and has invited her friends back for the summer to celebrate.

But as friendships are rekindled under the Italian sun, secrets buried in the past will come to light, and not everyone is happy that the three friends are reuniting… Each woman will have things to face up to if they are all to find true happiness and fully embrace the sweet life.

Mercury Falling by Robert Edric

The Fens, 1954. It has been another tough winter. The floods are worse than anyone can remember and the Fenlands are alive with blackmarketeers, vagabonds and chancers, all trying to make their way.

The shadow of the war still hangs over these lands. Many people have lost everything. Others just want the chance to begin again. For Jimmy Devlin, both are true.

Forced from his home by bailiffs, Devlin must make a fresh start. But desperate people have a knack of finding trouble and he is no exception. It doesn't take long before he's caught in the wrong business with the wrong people and on the wrong side of the law...

Journey to Munich by Jacqueline Winspear

Working with the British Secret Service on an undercover mission, Maisie Dobbs is sent to Hitler’s Germany in this thrilling tale of danger and intrigue.

It’s early 1938, and Maisie Dobbs is back in England. On a fine yet chilly morning, as she walks towards Fitzroy Square—a place of many memories—she is intercepted by Brian Huntley and Robert MacFarlane of the Secret Service. The German government has agreed to release a British subject from prison, but only if he is handed over to a family member. Because the man’s wife is bedridden and his daughter has been killed in an accident, the Secret Service wants Maisie—who bears a striking resemblance to the daughter—to retrieve the man from Dachau, on the outskirts of Munich.

The British government is not alone in its interest in Maisie’s travel plans. Her nemesis—the man she holds responsible for her husband’s death—has learned of her journey, and is also desperate for her help.

Travelling into the heart of Nazi Germany, Maisie encounters unexpected dangers—and finds herself questioning whether it’s time to return to the work she loved. But the Secret Service may have other ideas. . . . 

Agent Sonya by Ben Macintyre - #BookReview

 

"On 1 May 1924, a Berlin policeman smashed his rubber truncheon into the back of a sixteen-year-old-girl, and helped to forge a revolutionary.

For several hours, thousands of Berliners had been trooping through the city streets in the May Day parade, the annual celebration of the working classes. Their number included many communists, and a large youth delegation...

At the head of the communist youth group marched a slim girl wearing a worker's cap, two weeks short of her seventeenth birthday. This was Ursula Kuczynski's first street demonstration, and her eyes shone with excitement as she waved her placard and belted out the anthem...'Rise up, rise up for the struggle'... As she strode along and sang, Ursula performed a little dance of pure joy."

In a quiet English village in 1942, an elegant housewife emerged from her cottage to go on her usual bike ride. A devoted wife and mother-of-three, the woman known to her neighbours as Mrs Burton seemed to epitomize rural British domesticity.

However, rather than pedalling towards the shops with her ration book, she was racing through the Oxfordshire countryside to gather scientific intelligence from one of the country's most brilliant nuclear physicists. Secrets that she would transmit to Soviet intelligence headquarters via the radio transmitter she was hiding in her outdoor privy.

Far from a British housewife, Mrs Burton - born Ursula Kuczynski, and codenamed 'Sonya' - was a German Jew, a dedicated communist, a colonel in Russia's Red Army, and a highly trained spy. From planning an assassination attempt on Hitler in Switzerland to spying on the Japanese in Manchuria and helping the Soviet Union build the atom bomb, Sonya conducted some of the most dangerous espionage operations of the twentieth century. Her story has never been told - until now.

Agent Sonya is the exhilarating account of one woman's life; a life that encompasses the rise and fall of communism itself, and altered the course of history.

***

This was a very accessible work of non-fiction. I found it very easy to read and I was quickly caught up in Ursula/Sonya's fascinating story. In fact, I eagerly read the whole book in three days as I was so gripped by the story.

The author did a great job in presenting her in her dual role as both spy and mother. From an early point I did wonder how she could perform both satisfactorily. Earlier in the book she says that she would like to have four children who were like Michael, who was her first child. At that specific point I was very puzzled by the incongruity of those two roles. However, in the latter part of the book, it becomes clear that it was her position as a mother that permitted her to hide behind that very domesticity.

She was a remarkable woman who was an effective, successful and high ranking Soviet spy over a period that spanned decades. I did not find her particularly likeable but I was fascinated by her and had to admire her determination to do what she believed was right.

Many people crossed her path over the years and, at times, I felt a little at a loss in remembering who was who. However, there are several photographs included in the book which allowed me to put a face to the names which aided this significantly. I think this is a book that benefits from being read in the physical format as being able to flick backwards and forwards to look at the photos and maps was extremely useful.

Mr Macintyre has clearly done extensive research for this book and he has presented these facts in a chronological and ordered way. It is intelligently written with skill and judgement and the author has ultimately presented readers with an excellent book which I highly recommend.

ISBN: 978 0241408506

Publisher: Penguin

About the Author:

Ben Macintyre is the multimillion-copy bestselling author of books including Agent Zigzag, Operation Mincemeat, A Spy Among Friends, SAS and The Spy and the Traitor. 

He is a columnist and Associate Editor at The Times, and has worked as the newspaper's correspondent in New York, Paris and Washington. He regularly presents BBC series based on his acclaimed books.

The Sixteen Trees of the Somme by Lars Mytting - #TuesdayTeaser

 Welcome to this weeks Tuesday Teaser. The place where I give you a sneak peek at a book that has caught my eye.

This weeks book is The Sixteen Trees of the Somme by Lars Mytting. This book was first published in hardback in the UK in 2017 by Maclehose Press. It is now available in all formats. It has been translated from Norwegian by Paul Russell Garrett. 

Lars Mytting was born in Norway in 1968. He has worked as a journalist and editor for various Norwegian newspapers. He is best known in the UK as the author of The Bell in the Lake and Norwegian Wood.

I am surprised that I have not stumbled across this book before but now that I have I will be reading it sometime soon. Has this excerpt tickled your reading taste buds?

The Blurb

Edvard grows up on a remote mountain farmstead in Norway with his taciturn grandfather, Sverre. The death of his parents, when he was three years old, has always been shrouded in mystery - he has never been told how or where it took place and has only a distant memory of his mother.

But he knows that the fate of his grandfather's brother, Einar, is somehow bound up with this mystery. One day a coffin is delivered for his grandfather long before his death - a meticulous, beautiful piece of craftsmanship. Perhaps Einar is not dead after all.

Edvard's desperate quest to unlock the family's tragic secrets takes him on a long journey - from Norway to the Shetlands, and to the battlefields of France - to the discovery of a very unusual inheritance. The Sixteen Trees of the Somme is about the love of wood and finding your own self, a beautifully intricate and moving tale that spans an entire century.

First Page

Chapter 1 - Like Ashes in the Wind

For me my mother was a scent. She was a warmth. A leg I clung to. A breath of something blue; a dress I remember her wearing. She fired me into the world with a bowstring, I told myself, and when I shaped my memories of her, I did not know if they were true, I simply created her as I thought a son should remember his mother.

Mamma was the one I thought of when I tested the loss inside me. Seldom Pappa. Sometimes I asked myself if he would have been like all the other fathers in the district. Men in Home Guard uniforms; in football trainers at old boys' practice; getting up early at the weekends to volunteer at Saksum's local association of hunters and anglers. But I let them fade away without regret. I accepted it, for many years at least, as proof that my grandfather, Bestefar, had tried his best to do everything Pappa would have done, and that he had in fact succeeded.

Bestefar used the broken tip of a Russian bayonet as a knife. It had a flame-birch handle, and that was the only real carpentering he had ever done. The top edge of the blade was dull, and he used that to scrape off rust and to bend steel wire. He kept the other side sharp enough to slice open heavy sacks of agricultural lime. A quick thrust and the white granules would trickle out of their own accord, ready for me to spread across the fields.

The sharp and the dull edges converged into a dagger-like point, and with that he would dispatch the fish we caught on Lake Saksum. He would remove the hook as the powerful trout flapped about, furious to be drowning in oxygen. Place them over the gunwale, force the tip of the blade through their skulls and boast about how broad they were. It was always then that I would raise the oars to watch the thick blood trickle down his steel blade, while thin drops of water ran down my oars.

But the drops flowed into each other. The trout bled out and became our fish from our lake.

ISBN: 978-0857056061

Publisher: MacLehose Press

***

What an evocative beginning. It has made me want to read more. What about you?

The Metal Heart by Caroline Lea - #BookReview

 

"Of all the ways to die, drowning must be the most peaceful. Water above, sounds cushioned, womb-dark. Drowning is a return to something before the knife-blade of living. It is the death we would choose, if the choice was ours to make...

Midnight. The sky is clear, star-stamped and silvered by the waxing gibbous moon. No planes have flown over the islands tonight; no bombs have fallen for over a year. The snub noses of anti-aircraft guns gleam, pointing skywards. The cliffs loom like paper cutouts, hulking shadows above the natural harbour of the bay. Everything is flattened by the darkness, as if the sea around Orkney is a stage set, waiting for an entrance."

Scotland, 1940.

On a remote island, a prisoner-of-war camp is raised to house 500 Italian soldiers sent to Orkney to wait out the war. Upon arrival, a freezing winter and a divided community greet them.

Where their neighbours see faceless enemies, orphaned sisters, Dorothy and Constance, see sick and wounded men unused to the icy cold, and volunteer to nurse them. But while Constance remains wary of the soldiers, Dot finds herself increasingly drawn to Cesare, a young man on the wrong side of the war, broken by the horrors of battle. 

Cesare and the other soldiers spend their days building a barricade between the islands. By night, they construct a reminder of their homeland - an exquisite Italian chapel, fashioned from Nissen huts and debris from the sea.

As tensions between the islanders and outsiders grow, the lives of these three people are set on a collision course. Each is forced to weigh duty against desire... until, one fateful evening, a choice must be made, one that will have devastating consequences.

***

Before I even began this book I was intrigued by the premise. Identical, flame haired, reclusive twins who live on a cursed island in the Orkney's was too good to resist reading.

There are many novels set during World War II but I feel that this book delivers something a little more substantial than the average. It is an enthralling story which captured the atmosphere of living on a small island alongside a prisoner of war camp whilst also weaving in local myths.

The perceived threat felt by the islanders seemed very real to the reader and the book captured the tension and fear of the island population extremely well.

However, amidst all this bad feeling runs a thread of love and hope as the twins, Dorothea and Constance, become nurses in the POW camp. Their reasons for doing so are individual and this willingness to place themselves inside the camp to aid the prisoners leads them to be further ostracised from the inhabitants of the islands.

As orphans, they only have one another and, as such, are extremely close. Ms Lea's depiction of her characters is excellent, all of whom are flawed in some way, giving them a realistic feel. Nobody was wholly good or completely bad and in doing this, the author was able to present them in a multi-layered and non-stereotypical fashion.

The descriptive sections are beautiful to read. The author has clearly chosen and placed each word carefully. The book is strong on plot whilst having a poetic feel to it.

Although all of the characters are fictional, the book is based around real events. There, indeed, was an Italian prisoner of war camp on the island of Lamb Holm in the Orkney Islands (Selkie Holm in the book.) The prisoners did build a chapel made out of Nissen huts and scraps and what they achieved was remarkable. I have included some photos at the bottom of this review.

I found the book heart-wrenching and inspiring in turn. I thoroughly enjoyed it and highly recommend it.

ISBN: 978 0241 423301

Publisher: Michael Joseph

About the Author:

Caroline Lea grew up on the island of Jersey and gained a First from the University of Warwick. Her fiction and poetry have been shortlisted for the Bridport Prize. Her previous novel, The Glass Woman, a gothic thriller set during the Icelandic witch trials, was shortlisted for the HWA Debut Crown Award.

Tell Me How it Ends by V.B. Grey - #BookReview #Re-post

 

This is a re-post of the review which I wrote in July 2020. I enjoyed it very much and it is being published in paperback today. It is available from all good booksellers.

"England, early 1950's - I have lost everything a person can lose. And, should I ever attempt to forget, my failing body will remind me. I've lived in the cramped attic flat of this big house in Birmingham, where I work as a housemaid, since the Red Cross parcelled me up and sent me here seven years ago......"

Delia Maxwell is an international singing sensation, an icon of the 1950's glamour who is still riding high on the new 60's scene. Lily Brooks has watched Delia all her life, studying her music and her on-stage mannerisms. Now she has a dream job as Delia's assistant - but is there more to her attachment than the admiration of a fan? Private investigator Frank is beginning to wonder.

As Lily steps into Delia's spotlight, and Delia encourages her ambitious protege, Frank's own suspicions of Lily's ulterior motives increase. But are his own feelings for Delia clouding his judgement?

The truth is something far darker; the shocking result of years of pain and rage, rooted in Europe's darkest hour. If Delia thought she had put her past behind her, she had better start watching her back.

***

It came as no surprise to me to learn that the author is also a screen writer as the book has a real cinematic quality and I would be very surprised if the film rights to this book are snapped up.

The characters are very easy to engage with and are well fleshed out. The dynamic between Delia and Lily is excellently portrayed.  Also, it is multi-narrated by Delia, Frank and Lily, and consequently, we see the story unfold from these three different perspectives which adds an element of complexity to both the characters and the story,

It has been well written and it has an element of gentility along with a much darker backstory. The narrative is gently paced and it is this that creates a mellow story rhythm that plays out slowly within the readers imagination. There is a depth to Ms. Grey's writing which continues throughout the whole story.

The writing is rich in historical detail and it was easy to envisage post war London in which the novel is set.

This is my first novel by V. B. Grey / Isabelle Grey and I anticipate reading more of her work. Anyone who enjoys 20th century historical fiction will love this book and I highly recommend it.

ISBN: 978 15249405392

Publisher: Quercus

About the Author:

V. B. Grey is the pseudonym of the acclaimed television screenwriter and crime novelist Isabelle Grey. A former arts journalist and feature writer, she has written for film radio and television, contributing episodes to Jimmy McGovern's award winning BBC series Accused. She is the author of two novels of psychological suspense and four books in a contemporary crime series under her own name.

On her pseudonym and change in creative direction, Isabelle says "I wanted to escape the bodies piling up around me in my television crime dramas and novels, and explore new ways to bring my love of film and television into my fiction. I've always been in awe of 1940's and 1950's noir thrillers and 'women's pictures', so turned to them, and to the stars who played in them, to inspire my new novel. It's been both exhilarating and rewarding to spend time in such a complex and glamorous world.'

Isabelle grew up in Manchester and now lives in north London.

Magpie Lane by Lucy Atkins - #BookReview #Re-post

This is a re-post of the review which I wrote for this book during April 2020. I enjoyed it very much and it is being published in paperback today.  It is available from all good booksellers.

"They are waiting for an answer. What do they want me to say? Perhaps they think I am a stalker, targeting the president of an Oxford College on his early morning jog. I have an urge to laugh which is inappropriate. There is nothing funny about this, nothing whatsoever. Felicity is missing. The whole country is looking for her."

When the eight year old daughter of an Oxford College Master vanishes in the middle of the night, police turn to the Scottish nanny, Dee, for answers.

As Dee looks back over her time in the Master's Lodging - an eerie and ancient house - a picture of a high achieving but dysfunctional family emerges: Nick, the fiercely intelligent and powerful father; his beautiful Danish wife Mariah, pregnant with their child; and the lost little girl, Felicity, almost mute, seeing ghosts, grieving her dead mother.

But is Dee telling the whole story? Is her growing friendship with the eccentric house historian, Linklater, any cause for concern? And most of all, why was Felicity silent?

Roaming through Oxford's secret passages and hidden graveyards, Magpie Lane, explores the true meaning of family - and what it is to be denied one.

***

This fabulous book ended up being a quick read for me as I could not put it down and sprinted through it to get to the books conclusion. Mostly told retrospectively during a police interview, the narrative goes back and forth with the recollections of the main character, Dee, coupled with the immediacy of the interview.

The characters were excellently portrayed.  Nick and Mariah were difficult to like and this opinion did not change throughout the book. Equally, both Felicity and Dee were engaging characters and I suspect most readers will love Felicity for her innocence and vulnerability. The main character, Dee, had a combination of strength and weakness and as the book progressed I did come to wonder how reliable she was as a narrator.

The house itself felt as though it was a character as the Masters Lodging is a focal point of the novel and much of the story is linked to the house. The author did a brilliant job of making the house come alive as she did with Oxford itself. Highly atmospheric I felt completely immersed in the setting of this novel.

It is a sensitive, eerie and excellently written novel and I can hardly wait to read another book by Ms. Atkins. Have you read any of her other books? I would love to hear about them.

ISBN: 978 1786485571

Publisher: Quercus

About the Author:

Lucy Atkins is an award winning author, feature journalist and Sunday Times book critic. She has written for newspapers including The #Guardian, The Times, The Sunday Times and The Telegraph as well as many UK magazines. She teaches on the Masters in Creative Writing at Oxford University and lives in Oxford.

Haven't They Grown by Sophie Hannah - #BookReview

 

" Here we are, in the wrong place: Wyddial Lane. It's a private road, as the sign unsubtly proclaims in letters larger than those spelling out its name, in a village called Hemingford Abbots. I switch off the engine, stretch my back to release the ache from two hours of driving, and wait for Ben to notice that there's no football ground in sight...

He's buried in his phone. I can't help thinking of it like that - as if he's stuck inside the machine in his hand, unable to get out. Quite happy about it too. Zannah's the same. Most teenagers are, as far as I can tell: they spend all day and half the night in lock-eyed communion with an addictive device."

All Beth has to do is drive her son to his football match, watch him play and then drive home. But the knowledge that her former best friend lives nearby is all-consuming. She can't resist. She parks opposite the house, and is still there when Flora and her children return home.

Except... something's not right.

Twelve years ago, Thomas and Emily were five and three years old. Today, they look exactly the same - they haven't changed at all. How is this possible?

Beth knows it isn't - yet she also knows what she saw, and that it was real. And, having seen it, how can she forget?

***

I am at a loss as to why I have not read much from this author. I have read all, except the latest, of the  new Hercule Poirot Mysteries, which I must rectify soon, but none of her other novels. I am not quite sure how she has slipped through my reading net. 

Having read Haven't They Grown I now intend to throw myself into her books with abandon. This was an amazingly different mystery to any which I have read before. I read it in a couple of sittings (it would have been only one sitting if that pesky thing called life didn't keep calling on my time) as I was completely engrossed in the story from the very beginning.

The main character, Beth, leads the reader to question the reliability of her as a narrator from the very beginning. She sees something which cannot be accurate, and I found myself asking all the same questions that she was asking. However, we come to trust Beth's instincts, and I enjoyed being on this determined journey with her.

Ms Hannah portrays all of her characters exceptionally well. In addition to Beth, her daughter, Zannah, was a wonderful character and it was a breath of fresh air to see a teenager portrayed with such mature and insightful qualities, whilst still being portrayed as an ordinary teenager who is trying to wriggle out of her exam revision.

The plot is original and contains the requisite twists and turns for this to be an exciting and immersive reading experience. As the story unfolds there are some dark undertones involved but never to the point of feeling uncomfortable. Indeed, I finished this novel full of hope and optimism for the characters. There are some important themes that the author handles with intelligence and sensitivity.

This is an excellent work which I highly recommend. I am going to order something by this author straight away. Are you a fan of her writing? What do you suggest I buy?

ISBN:978 1444776201

Publisher: Hodder and Stoughton

***

About the Author: 

Sophie Hannah is an internationally bestselling writer of psychological crime fiction, published in 27 countries. In 2013, her latest novel, The Carrier, won the Crime Thriller of the Year Award at the Specsavers National Book Awards. Two of Sophie’s crime novels, The Point of Rescue and The Other Half Lives, have been adapted for television and appeared on ITV1 under the series title Case Sensitive in 2011 and 2012. In 2004, Sophie won first prize in the Daphne Du Maurier Festival Short Story Competition for her suspense story The Octopus Nest, which is now published in her first collection of short stories, The Fantastic Book of Everybody’s Secrets.

Sophie has also published five collections of poetry. Her fifth, Pessimism for Beginners, was shortlisted for the 2007 T S Eliot Award. Her poetry is studied at GCSE, A-level and degree level across the UK. From 1997 to 1999 she was Fellow Commoner in Creative Arts at Trinity College, Cambridge, and between 1999 and 2001 she was a fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford. 

She lives with her husband and children in Cambridge, where she is a Fellow Commoner at Lucy Cavendish College. She is currently working on a new challenge for the little grey cells of Hercule Poirot, Agatha Christie’s famous detective.

(bio courtesy of Goodreads)