10 Year Blogversary - My Favourite Book from 2021 - The Girl With the Louding Voice by Abi Dare - #BookReview

 

This morning, Papa call me inside the parlour.

He was sitting inside the sofa with no cushion and looking me. Papa have this way of looking me one kind. As if he wants to be flogging me for no reason, as if I am carrying shit inside my cheeks and when I open mouth to talk, the whole place be smelling of it...

***

I don't just want to be having any kind voice . . .

I want a louding voice.

At fourteen, Adunni dreams of getting an education and giving her family a more comfortable home in her small Nigerian village. Instead, Adunni's father sells her off to become the third wife of an old man. When tragedy strikes in her new home, Adunni flees to the wealthy enclaves of Lagos, where she becomes a house-girl to the cruel Big Madam, and prey to Big Madam's husband. But despite her situation continuously going from bad to worse, Adunni refuses to let herself be silenced. And one day, someone hears her.

***

Continuing with my ten year blog anniversary celebrations, here is another of my favourites of the decade. Today I am publishing my favourite read from 2021 and it was originally posted on 28th October of that year.  I adored this book and it's characters have remained with me.

I have updated the review a little so there is more information about the book and the author but essentially the review is as it appeared that day.

In Adunni, the author has created one of the most endearing characters that I have come across in fiction. The whole novel is written from Adunni's perspective which brings her character to life in the most realistic of ways. Although Adunni's story is a challenging one for us in the Western world to comprehend, the book is full of hope and the creation of a better world, particularly for girls in the position of our main character.

The book is set in Nigeria and written in the vernacular of the region. This was not difficult to follow. Instead, it illuminated the novel as I found myself listening as much as reading the text. Ms Dare expertly accomplished this in a way that lesser authors could not have, and I was captivated.

Her gift for story-telling is beautiful, and she has composed a book that caused me to feel as though she was telling it to me personally. It is a enormously skilled to be able to write a novel that affects the reader in this way.

I will not be able to forget this book. Adunni has made an indelible impression on me and will remain with me for a long time. I applaud Ms Dare for writing this book with such passion, integrity, sensitivity and intelligence and, for bringing to light the difficult lives that many girls in the society in which the book is based have to face.

I borrowed this book from the library, but I know I will want to read it again so I have purchased my own copy. I strongly encourage everyone to read this book.

ISBN: 978 1529359275

Publisher: Sceptre Books

Formats:  e-book, audio and paperback

No. of Pages:  320 (paperback)

About the Author:

Abi Daré grew up in Lagos, Nigeria. She studied law at the University of Wolverhampton and has an M.Sc. in International Project Management from Glasgow Caledonian University and an MA ( Distinction) in Creative Writing at Birkbeck University of London. 

Her first novel, The Girl with the Louding Voice was shortlisted for several awards including the Desmond Elliott Prize and The British Book Awards( Debut). 

The novel was a New York Times Bestseller, A Today Show Book Club pick, a BBC Radio 4 Bookclub Pick and has been translated into well over a dozen languages. When Abi is not writing, she loves hanging out at her local cafe, giving talks, and advocating for girl education.

In 2022, Abi was appointed as Board Member for the BIC Corporate Foundation. She lives in Essex with her husband and two children.

(author media courtesy of Curtis Brown)

(all opinions are my own)

10 Year Blogversary - My Favourite Book from 2019 - A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry - #BookReview

 

The morning express bloated with passengers slowed to a crawl, then lurched forward suddenly, as though to resume full speed. The trains brief deception jolted its riders. The bulge of humans hanging out of the doorway distended perilously, like a soap bubble at its limit.

***

Set in the mid 1970's in India, A Fine Balance tells the story of four unlikely people whose lives come together during a time of political turmoil soon after the government declares a 'State of Internal Emergency'. Through days of bleakness and hope, their circumstances - and their fates - have become inextricably linked in ways no one could have foreseen.

Written with compassion, humour and insight, A Fine Balance is a vivid, richly textured and powerful novel by one of the most gifted writers of our time.

***

Continuing with my ten year blog anniversary celebrations, here is another of my favourites of the decade. Today I am publishing my favourite read from 2019 and was originally posted on 25th January of that year.  This book has stayed with me ever since I read it and it remains one of the best books I have ever read.

I have updated the review a little so there is more information about the book and the author but essentially the review is as it appeared that day.

The first thing I did when I finished this novel was to order everything else the author has written. This is an extraordinary novel written by a highly skilled author who has wholeheartedly won my admiration.

I was gripped from the very first page of this novel. The authors ability to create characters that are multilayered along with an atmosphere that made me feel as though I was living in India were quite remarkable. In fact, I think it is the sense of involvement that kept me hooked throughout the entire novel.

I felt as though I understood and knew these characters. Although the novel focuses around the four main characters whose backgrounds are all very different but whose lives become intertwined, the more minor characters are equally multi-layered. Indeed, Mistry's ability to breath life into his characters is superb and I am not sure I have ever come across another author who has done this with such excellence.

There is nothing superficial about this book.  It is packed full with depth and meaning and so beautifully written I could not get enough of it despite it running to over 600 pages in my edition. Indeed, for a few days after I finished reading I have felt a sense of loss and I could happily have kept reading this book for so much longer.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough and fully urge you to read it for yourself. Or perhaps, you have you read this book? Have you read any of Rohinton Mistry's other novels? I would love to hear your thoughts.

ISBN:  978 0571230587

Publisher:  Faber & Faber

Formats:  e-book and paperback

No. of Pages:  624 (paperback)

About the Author:

Rohinton Mistry is the author of a fine collection of short stories, Tales from Firozsha Baag (1987), and three novels that were all shortlisted for the Booker Prize: Such a Long Journey (1991), A Fine Balance (1996) and Family Matters (2002). His fiction has won, among other awards, the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best Book (twice), The Los Angeles Times Award, The Giller Prize, The Governor-General's Award, and the Royal Society of Literature's Winifred Holtby Award. In translation, his work has been published in over twenty five languages.

Born in Bombay, Rohinton Mistry has lived in Canada since 1975.

(author photo courtesy of the publisher)

(all opinions are my own)

10 Year Blogversary - My Favourite Book from 2018 - White Chrysanthemum by Mary Lynn Bracht - #BookReview

 

It is nearly dawn, and the semi-darkness casts strange shadows along the footpath. Hana distracts her mind so that she doesn't imagine creatures reaching for her ankles. She is following her mother down to the sea. Her nightdress streams behind her in the soft wind. Quiet foot steps pad behind them, and she knows without looking back that her father is following with her little sister still asleep in his arms. On the shore, a handful of women are already waiting for them. She recognises their faces in the rising dawn light, but the shaman is a stranger.

The holy woman wears a red and royal blue traditional hanbok dress, and as soon as they descend upon the sand, the shaman begins to dance...

***

Hana and her little sister Emi are part of an island community of haenyo, women who make their living from diving deep into the sea off the southernmost tip of Korea.

One day Hana sees a Japanese soldier heading for where Emi is guarding the day’s catch on the beach. Her mother has told her again and again never to be caught alone with one. Terrified for her sister, Hana swims as hard as she can for the shore.

So begins the story of two sisters suddenly and violently separated by war. Moving between Hana in 1943 and Emi as an old woman today, White Chrysanthemum takes us into a dark and devastating corner of history — and two women whose love for one another is strong enough to triumph over the evils of war.

***

Continuing with my ten year blog anniversary celebrations, here is another of my favourites of the decade. Today I am publishing my favourite read from 2018 and was originally posted on 18th July of that year.  This book has stayed with me ever since I read it.

I have updated the review a little so there is more information about the book and the author but essentially the review is as it appeared that day.

This is one of the best books I have ever read; praise which I do not give lightly. Rarely has a book simultaneously shocked, affected and impressed me as this one has. In fact, I borrowed this from the library and having read it I have ordere a copy of the paperback from a book retailer, when it was released on the 30th of August of that year, as I am certain that I will want to re-read this book.

I have read some excellent debut novels this year and I am confident in saying that this one stands head and shoulders above the rest. The writing is beautiful and tells the story of the little known history of Korea's women during the Japanese invasion of Korea during World War Two. Ms. Bract is to be applauded for bringing this to the attention of modern readers. I, for one, had no knowledge of this devastating aspect of twentieth-century history.

If ever fictional characters deserve to be fallen in love with, it is Hana and Emi. The author portrays her characters so fully that I really felt that I knew them and cried for the horrors that they were forced to endure. It is hard to leave this book behind.

The authors research has been thorough and she conveys this information with intelligence and understanding. By the time I had finished this book I was deeply affected and inspired by the bravery and strength of the women being portrayed and, therefore, their real life counterparts.

Bravo, to Ms. Bract for bringing this horrendous period of history to the fore and I strongly recommend this book to you all.

ISBN: 978 1784705459

Publisher:  Vintage

Formats: e-book, audio and paperback

No. of Pages:  320 (paperback)

About the Author:

Mary Lynn Bracht was born in Stuttgart, Germany and grew up in the United States. She studied Anthropology and Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin and received her Master’s Degree in Creative Writing at Birkbeck, University of London. Her debut novel, White Chrysanthemum, was published in January 2018 by Chatto & Windus Books and Putnam Books and translated worldwide.

(all author media courtesy of her website https://marybracht.com/)

(all opinions are my own)

10 Year Blogversary - My Favourite Book from 2017 - The Orphan's Tale by Pam Jenoff - #BookReview

 

They will be looking for me by now.

I pause on the granite steps of the museum, reaching for the railing to steady myself. Pain, sharper than ever, creaks through my left hip, not perfectly healed from last year's break. Across the Avenue Winston Churchill, behind the glass dome of the Grand Palais, the March sky is rosy at dusk.

I peer around the edge of the arched entranceway of the Petit Palais. From the massive stone columns hangs a red banner two stories high...

***

Sixteen-year-old Noa has been cast out in disgrace after becoming pregnant by a Nazi soldier and being forced to give up her baby.

She lives above a small rail station, which she cleans in order to earn her keep… When Noa discovers a boxcar containing dozens of Jewish infants bound for a concentration camp, she is reminded of the child that was taken from her.

In a moment that will change the course of her life, Noa snatches a baby and flees into the snowy night. And so begins this remarkable, harrowing story of friendship, sacrifice and survival in World War II from the international bestselling author, Pam Jenoff.

***

Continuing with my ten year blog anniversary celebrations, here is another of my favourites of the decade. Today I am publishing my favourite read from 2017 and was originally posted on 10th October of that year.  

I have updated the review a little so there is more information about the book and the author but essentially the review is as it appeared that day.

This book absorbed me from the very first page and captivated me right through to the end with it's original portrayal of the events of World War II. The circus setting for this novel dealt with the very serious circumstances that war brought to occupied territories but within the outwardly colourful and vibrant setting of the circus.

The chapters alternate between the two main characters of Noa and Astrid. I must confess there were times I could not find their individual voices but I was so gripped by their story that this really did not seem to matter. It was very interesting to observe their relationship develop as the back story for both of these characters was heartbreaking. Their bravery was astonishing and I felt nothing but admiration for them.

Based on true events Ms Jenoff  successfully weaves fact into fiction and has created a thoroughly well researched and captivating read.

Ultimately, this is an uplifting story of survival that I could not wait to get back to between reading sessions. It is a heartfelt and memorable story that I could imagine reading for a second time - and there are very few books that I place in that category.

ISBN: 978 1848455368

Publisher:  HQ

Formats:  e-book, audio and paperback

No. of Pages:  368

About the Author:

Pam Jenoff is the author of several books of historical fiction, including the NYT bestseller The Orphan's Tale. She holds a degree in international affairs from George Washington University and a degree in history from Cambridge, and she received her JD from UPenn. Her novels are inspired by her experiences working at the Pentagon and as a diplomat for the State Department handling Holocaust issues in Poland. She lives with her husband and 3 children near Philadelphia, where she teaches law.

(author media info courtesy of the author's website https://pamjenoff.com/)

(all opinions are my own)

10 Year Blogversary - My Favourite Book from 2016 - The Girl in the Red Coat by Kate Hamer

 

I dream about Carmel often. In my dreams she's always walking backwards.

The day she was born there was snow on the ground. A silvery light arced through the window as I held her in my arms.

As she grew up I nicknamed her 'my little hedge child'. I couldn't imagine her living anywhere but the countryside. Her thick curly hair stood out like a spray of breaking glass, or a dandelion clock...

***

Carmel is missing - but doesn't know she's lost.

When sensitive, distracted eight-year-old Carmel becomes separated from her mother at a local children's festival, a man claiming to be her estranged grandfather finds her - and takes her.

Unable to accept the possibility that her daughter might be gone for good, Beth makes it her mission to find her. But in what she's told is her new family, Carmel has embarked on an extraordinary journey, one that will make her question who she is - and who she might become.

***

Continuing with my ten year blog anniversary celebrations, here is another of my favourites of the decade. Today I am publishing my favourite read from 2016 and was originally posted on 8th January of that year.  I noted the price as costing £5.59 for the paperback that day. Today the same edition would cost £4.99 from the same retailer which is a little cheaper than it was at the time.

I have updated the review a little so there is more information about the book and the author but essentially the review is as it appeared that day.

This is a splendidly well thought out novel and was a fantastic read.

While I was reading this I could not help but be reminded of real life abduction cases i.e. Ben Needham, Madeleine McCan and many other lower profile cases of missing children. I think this made the story all the more real and relevant and, as a mother myself, my heart ached for the desperation felt by Carmel's mother Beth, as she lived through this nightmare.

What I thought was really clever about this book was the way the chapters alternated between Beth and Carmel which gave the novel two distinct voices throughout and allowed the reader to empathise with both characters.

What was uppermost in my mind whilst reading this book was whether Beth and Carmel would be reunited in the end. Now, as you all know, my reviews never contain spoilers, so suffice to say that I was kept guessing to the very end. I shall say no more!

The characters, the atmosphere and the plot was all wonderfully well executed being believable, intriguing and compelling.

Once again, I am amazed that this is a debut novel and not at all surprised that it was shortlisted for the Costa Book Award 2015. This is a novel of great skill and Ms Hamer is definitely one to watch.

ISBN: 978 0571313266

Publisher:  Faber & Faber

Formats: e-book and paperback

No. of Pages:  384 (paperback)

About the Author:

Kate grew up Pembrokeshire and has had a passion for books since being a small child.  She has written stories ever since she could hold a pencil. She studied art in university then worked in television for over ten years - mostly on documentaries, much of which involved using her writing skills. She studied creative writing at Aberystwyth University and won a prize there for the 'best beginning to a novel' - the book that went on to be 'The Girl in the Red Coat.'

She won the Rhys Davies short story prize in 2011 and the winning story was read out on Radio 4.

Kate currently lives in Cardiff with her husband and Mimi the cat. 

10 Year Blogversary - My Favourite Book from 2014 - Prayers for the Stolen by Jennifer Clement

 

Now we make you ugly, my mother said. She whistled. Her mouth was so close she sprayed my neck with her whistle-spit. I could smell beer. In the mirror I watched her move the piece of charcoal across my face. It's a nasty life, she whispered.

It's my first memory. She held an old cracked mirror to my face. I must have been about five years old. The crack make my face look as if it had been broken into two pieces. The best thing you can be in Mexico is an ugly girl...

***

On the mountainside in rural Mexico where Ladydi lives, being a girl is dangerous. Especially a pretty one. If the Narcos hear there is a pretty girl on the mountain, they steal her. So when the black SUVs roll into town, Ladydi and her friends hide in the warren of holes scattered across the mountain, safely out of sight. Because the stolen girls don’t come back.

Ladydi is determined to get out, to find a life that offers more than just the struggle to survive. But she soon finds that the drug cartels have eyes everywhere, and the cities are no safer than the mountains.

***

Continuing with my ten year blog anniversary celebrations, here is another of my favourites of the decade. Today I am publishing my favourite read from 2014 and was originally posted on 17th February, 2014. I read it on Kindle at the time and I noted the price as costing £6.02 that day. Today the same edition would cost £4.99 from the same retailer so is in fact less expensive today than it was nine years ago. 

This book has stayed with me since then. I have updated the review a little so there is more information about the book and the author but essentially the review is as it appeared that day.

This novel deals with some difficult issues.  Every year in Mexico women go missing, stolen by drug cartels to be used as prostitutes or slave labour. Jennifer Clements has based her novel on the lives of these women and she unflinchingly faces this issue head on.

However, whilst this novel makes the reader look at the harsh realities facing these women Ms. Clements writes intelligently and sensitively ensuring that this was a book that had me completely hooked.  She skilfully humanises real life victims through her portrayal of her characters whom she has created with a detailed realism. Whilst we experience the hardships facing the women and girls of this community they are never self pitying and are always brutally honest.

The prose is impeccable and not a word is wasted.  The subject matter ensures that this is not a comfortable book to read. The author packs a hard punch in this novel but does so whilst gently guiding her readers through it so that the subject matter never becomes overwhelming.  She is a very skilled writer and I am convinced that this is a book that will be being discussed amongst readers and critics long after the publication date.

I shall certainly be re-reading it at some point as it has so much to offer.  A book rich in humanity and insight, powerful and thought provoking and that is also beautifully written deserves a place on everybody’s bookshelf and I would strongly encourage you to read this.

ISBN: 978 0099587590

Publisher: Vintage

Formats:  e-book, hardcover and paperback

No. of Pages:  240 (paperback)

About the Author:

Jennifer Clement is President Emerita of the human rights and freedom of expression organization PEN International and the only woman to hold the office of President (2015-2021) since the organization was founded in 1921.   

Clement is author of the novels A True Story Based on Lies, The Poison That Fascinates, Prayers for the Stolen, Gun Love and Stormy People as well as several poetry books including Poems and Errors, published by Kaunitz-Olsson in Sweden.  Clement also wrote the acclaimed memoir Widow Basquiat on New York City in the early 1980’s and the painter Jean-Michel Basquiat, which NPR named best book of 2015 in seven different categories.  Her memoir The Promised Party will be published in early 2024. Clement’s books have been translated into 38 languages and have covered topics such as the stealing of little girls in Mexico, the effects of gun violence and trafficking of guns into Mexico and Central America as well as writing about her life in  the art worlds of Mexico and New York.

Jennifer Clement was raised in Mexico where she lives.  She and her sister Barbara Sibley founded and direct the San Miguel Poetry Week.  Clement has a double major in anthropology and English Literature from New York University (Gallatin)  and an MFA from University of Southern Maine (Stonecoast). She was named a Distinguished Alumna by the Kingswood Cranbrook School.

(author photo and bio courtesy of the author's website https://www.jenniferclement.org/)

(all opinions are my own)

10 Year Blogversary - My Favourite Book from 2013 - My Dear I Wanted to Tell You by Louisa Young

 

It's been a warm night. Summery. Quiet, as such nights go.

The shattering roar of the explosions was so very sudden, cracking though the physicality of air and earth, that every battered skull, and every baffled brain within those skulls, was shaken by it, and every surviving thought was shaken out. It shuddered eardrums and set livers quivering; it ran under skin, set up counter-waves of blood in veins and arteries, pierced rocking into the tiny canals of the sponge of the bone marrow. It clenched hearts, broke teeth, and reverberated in synapses and the spaces between cells. The men became a part of the noise, drowned in it, dismembered by it, saturated. They were of it. It was of them...

***

While Riley Purefoy and Peter Locke fight for their country, their survival and their sanity in the trenches of Flanders, Nadine Waveney, Julia Locke and Rose Locke do what they can at home. Beautiful, obsessive Julia and gentle, eccentric Peter are married: each day Julia goes through rituals to prepare for her beloved husband’s return. Nadine and Riley, only eighteen when the war starts, and with problems of their own already, want above all to make promises - but how can they when the future is not in their hands? And Rose? Well, what did happen to the traditionally brought-up women who lost all hope of marriage, because all the young men were dead?

Moving between Ypres, London and Paris, My Dear I Wanted to Tell You is a deeply affecting, moving and brilliant novel of love and war, and how they affect those left behind as well as those who fight.

***

This was my favourite read from 2013 and was originally posted on 19th November, 2013. I noted the price at the time as costing £3.86 that day. Today the same book would cost £9.19 from the same retailer. That is quite an increase, but I would still argue that it is worth every penny. 

I have updated the review a little so there is more information about the book and the author but essentially the review is as it appeared that day.

I was instantly drawn into this story by the intelligent prose of the Prologue which sets the scene, introduces the characters and establishes the main theme of the book right at the outset.  An explosion takes place on the battlefields of France, and Louisa Young demonstrates the ripple effect of this through a series of short paragraphs illustrating the thoughts of those who hear it both in France and across the Channel.

It was this ripple effect that I felt was one of the main themes of this book.  That the effects of war reach  much further than the soldiers themselves and extends to those whose involvement is far away from the battlefields and trenches.  Young men went to war and came back changed.  This also had significant repercussions on those left behind and reunions were not necessarily as had been hoped for, as the men who returned were not the same of those who had left.

This is also a story of love and of the class distinctions which existed prior to World War I.  It was interesting to read the reactions of both families to Riley trying to ‘better’ himself.  For me, it also raised questions as to whether the war changed attitudes to class?

This was much more than a book about war and love as it was thought provoking and informative.  The descriptions of the pioneering work being carried out at the Queens Hospital in Sidcup inspired me to find out more about it.  Any novel that makes me stop, think and research further has a lot to offer.  I have read quite a lot of novels set around World War I and in my opinion, this is one of the best.

ISBN:  978 0007361441

Publisher:  The Borough Press

Formats:  e-book, audio, hardback and paperback

No. of Pages:  416 (paperback)

About the Author:

Louisa Young is a history graduate, and worked as a journalist for British national newspapers and magazines for some years. Her first book was A Great Task of Happiness (1995), the life of Kathleen Bruce, her grandmother, the sculptor and wife of Scott of the Antarctic. She followed that with her Egyptian trilogy of novels: Baby Love (which was listed for the Orange Prize), Desiring Cairo and Tree of Pearls. They were followed by The Book of the Heart, a cultural history of our most symbolic organ. She has also published the Lionboy trilogy of children’s novels, written with her then ten-year-old daughter under the pseudonym Zizou Corder and two further children's novels, Lee Raven Boy Thief and Halo. 

Her 2011 bestseller My Dear, I Wanted to Tell You, which was shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award 2011 and the Wellcome Book Prize, was a Richard and Judy Book Club choice, and the first ever winner of the Galaxy Audiobook of the Year. It was followed by two sequels, The Heroes' Welcome and Devotion, and a memoir, You Left Early: A True Story of Love and Alcohol, about her relationship with the composer Robert Lockhart.

Her most recent book is a novel, Twelve Months and a Day.

She lives in London.

(photos courtesy of the author's website https://www.louisayoung.co.uk/)

(author bio courtesy of GR)

(all opinions are my own)

10 Ten Year Blogversary

 

I can hardly believe that it has been ten wonderful years since I began writing this blog. That's a whole decade of books that I have read and reviewed. According to Good Reads that is 887 books! Not that I have reviewed them all but quite a good number of them.

When I began the blog, I only intended to do it for a year. It was termed 'a year of austerity' here in the UK and so I pledged to only read books that were sitting gathering dust on my shelves or that I could borrow from the library. As the year moved on I started being offered books from publishers and authors so I included books which were being gifted to me.

With each review I recorded how much the books cost based on Amazon on the day of review and I ran a running total of those savings at the bottom of each review. I saved £373.74 that year and with that, the realisation of how much I had previously been spending on books!

At the end of the year, I realised how much I had enjoyed sharing my thoughts on the books that I was reading, and so I decided to continue, and I am very glad I did.

Since then, the blog has grown from strength to strength and I have added lots of other book related posts. There are author interviews, blog tours, occasional spotlight or book promotions that have caught my eye, as well as lists of new releases and loads of other book related posts. I have also been a judging panellist for The Book Blogger Novel of the Year Awards and for the Romantic Novelists' Association which has been so much fun.

However, none of this would have happened without you, my lovely followers, and I cannot say thank you enough. The blog has grown because you have all taken the time out of your busy day to read my reviews and I appreciate each and every one of you.

It is also fortuitous that my ten year blogversary has fallen on the 10th day of the 10th month so I thought it might be fun to look at my ten favourite books from those ten years. Throughout the next couple of weeks, I will be posting my favourite book from each of those ten years, and it has not been easy to choose. I have read some absolutely amazing books during the decade!

There will, of course, be some new reviews being published so do watch out for those.

If you would like to read my very first, tentative blog post from the 10th of October 2013 the link is below.

The Journey Begins....

10 Ten Books I Want to Read in October

 

Here we are in October already and it is pumpkin season. The clocks will go back later this month and the nights will start drawing in. However, beautiful, bright orange pumpkins always cheer me, and remind me that it has been the glow of the summer sunshine which has given them their gorgous hue.

October is also an exciting month on the blog as it will be my ten year blogversary! On the 10th of the month it will be a whole decade since I published my first post. Keep an eye out as there will be lots of extra exciting things happening soon.

Do you have any reading plans for October? Here are ten books which I would like to read.

Murder Before Evensong by Richard Coles

The Postcard by Anne Berest

Lily and the Pond Mermaid by Lucy Fleming

Hercule Poirot's Silent Night by Sophie Hannah

I Really Want to be a Cat by Helen Hancocks

The Missing Pieces of Nancy Moon by Sarah Steele

The Vast Clear Blue by Karen Winters Schwartz

Thrift Your Life: Cost-of-Living Hustles Waste Less, Save More and Live Well by Heidi Ondrak

The Christmas Appeal by Janice Hallett

The Wayward Sisters by Kate Hodges

10 Ten Exciting New Releases in October 2023

 

October is set to be an exciting month on the blog as it will be my ten year blogversary on the 10th! Where has that decade gone? 

There will be some special things happening so keep your eyes peeled!

In the meantime, here are ten books being published in October that look exciting. Do any of these catch your eye?

Underground by E.S. Thomson

A plague is coming to London. Dreaded more than the Devil himself, cholera - the 'blue death' - spares no one. As fear grows across the city, Jem Flockhart and Will Quartermain are called to the bedside of a dead man, murdered, and with his throat torn out, in the back room of a brothel. When an innocent man is taken to Newgate, Jem and Will have until execution day to save him. The search for the identity of the corpse, and the killer, takes them to the gates of Blackwater Hall, home to the secretive, and corrupt Mortmain family. With the approach of autumn, no one is safe, for the fog brings with it an evil and poisonous sickness - the perfect shroud for murder.

When family secrets are prised out into the open, people begin dying. But who, or what, is the cause? Searching for answers, Jem and Will are driven underground, to the passages and tunnels beneath the city's teeming streets. Here, their adversary proves to be more elusive, and more deadly, than ever.

The Puppet Maker by Jenny O'Brien

The scrap of paper looked as if it had been torn from a diary. The words written in faint pencil. The letters rounded, almost childlike. Please look after her. Her life and mine depend on you not trying to find me.

When Detective Alana Mack arrives at Clonabee police station, in a small Irish seaside town on the outskirts of Dublin, she doesn't expect to find a distressed two-year-old girl sobbing on the floor. Abandoned in a local supermarket, the child tells them her name is Casey. All Alana and her team have to go on is a crumpled note begging for someone to look after the little girl. This mother doesn't want to be found.

Still recovering from a terrible accident that has left Alana navigating a new life as a wheelchair user, Alana finds herself suddenly responsible for Casey while trying to track down the missing mother and solve another missing person's case… a retired newsagent who has seemingly vanished from his home.

Forced to ask her ex-husband and child psychiatrist Colm for help, through Forensic Art Therapy, Alana discovers that whatever darkness lies behind the black windows in Casey's crayon drawing, the little girl was terrified of the house she lived in.

Then a bag of human remains is found in a bin, and a chilling link is made – the DNA matches Casey's.

Alana and her team must find the body and make the connection with the missing newsagent fast if she is to prevent another life from being taken. But with someone in her department leaking confidential details of the investigation to the media, can Alana set aside her emotional involvement in this case and find Casey’s mother and the killer before it's too late?

The Mother of All Problems by Nancy Peach

When did having it all become doing it all?

Penny Baker is coping. Just about.

Three kids, one dog, one lovely but sometimes oblivious husband. Tick, tick tick.

She is even managing to hold her own among the competitive school mums - if you don’t look too closely. But when she finds herself also caring for her elderly mother, diagnosed with dementia, the household is thrown into disarray and Penny finds herself stretched to breaking point trying to meet everyone’s needs.

Can she make the new family situation work? And is there any chance of finding some space in it all for herself?

Sisters in Arms by Shida Bazyar

An explosive feminist and anti-racist novel about the importance of friendship.

We don’t exist in this world. Here, we are neither Germans nor refugees, we don’t report the news and we aren’t the experts. We’re some sort of wildcard.

Hani, Kasih, and Saya have shared a deep friendship ever since they were kids. After years apart, the three young women meet again for a few days, to pick up where they left off. But regardless of what they have achieved, it becomes clear, again and again, that they can’t escape the racism that accompanies their daily lives: the glances, the chatter, the hatred, and the outright rightwing terror. But their friendship gives them stability. Until one dramatic night shakes everything up.

Sisters in Arms is a provocative, uncompromising, and moving novel about the extraordinary alliance between three young women and the only thing that makes a self-determined life possible in a society that doesn’t tolerate otherness: unconditional friendship.

The Scandalous Confessions of Lydia Bennet, Witch by Melinda Taub

Miss Lydia Bennet may be the youngest, but what she lacks in maturity and responsibility, she more than makes up for in energy, fun - and magic.

In this exuberant reimagining of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, Lydia Bennet puts pen to paper to relate the real events and aftermath of the classic story from her own perspective. Some facts are well known: Mrs. Bennet suffers from her nerves; Mr. Bennet suffers from Mrs. Bennet, and all five daughters suffer from an estate that is entailed only to male heirs.

But Lydia also suffers from entirely different concerns: her best-loved sister Kitty is really a barn cat, and Wickham is every bit as wicked as the world believes him to be, but what else would you expect from a demon? And if you think Mr. Darcy was uptight about dancing etiquette, wait till you see how he reacts to witchcraft. Most of all, Lydia has yet to learn that when you're a witch, promises have power . . .

Full of enchantment, intrigue, danger, and boundless magic, The Scandalous Confessions of Miss Lydia Bennet, Witch, has all the irreverent wit, strength, and romance of Pride and Prejudice - while offering a highly unexpected redemption for the wildest Bennet sister.

How the Talmud Can Change Your Life by Liel Leibovitz

A witty and wide-ranging exploration of a book that has perplexed and delighted people for centuries: the Talmud.

For numerous centuries, the Talmud—an extraordinary work of Jewish ethics, law, and tradition—has compelled readers to grapple with how to live a good life. Full of folk legends, bawdy tales, and rabbinical repartee, it is inspiring, demanding, confounding, and thousands of pages long. As Liel Leibovitz enthusiastically explores the Talmud, what has sometimes been misunderstood as a dusty and arcane volume becomes humanity’s first self-help book. How the Talmud Can Change Your Life contains sage advice on an unparalleled scope of topics, which includes communicating with your partner, dealing with grief, and being a friend.

Leibovitz guides readers through the sprawling text with all its humor, rich insights, compulsively readable stories, and multilayered conversations. Contemporary discussions framed by Talmudic philosophy and psychology draw on subjects ranging from Weight Watchers and the Dewey decimal system to the lives of Billie Holiday and C. S. Lewis. Chapters focus on fundamental human experiences—the mind-body problem, the power of community, the challenges of love—to illuminate how the Talmud speaks to our daily existence. As Leibovitz explores some of life’s greatest questions, he also delivers a concise history of the Talmud itself, explaining the process of its lengthy compilation and organization.

With infectious passion and candor, Leibovitz brilliantly displays how the Talmud’s wisdom reverberates for the modern age and how it can, indeed, change your life.

The Unmaking of June Farrow by Adrienne Young

In the small mountain town of Jasper, North Carolina, June Farrow is waiting for fate to find her. The Farrow women are known for their thriving flower farm - and the mysterious curse that has haunted them for generations.

The madness that led to Susanna Farrow's disappearance left her daughter, June, to be raised by her grandmother. Everyone in Jasper is certain it's only a matter of time before she finds the same end, but June has kept secret that her unravelling has already begun.

After her grandmother's death, June follows a series of clues that link her mother's disappearance to the town's dark history, leading finally to a mysterious door.

Behind it may lay the answer to the mysteries that have always lingered like a dark shadow. Upon crossing the threshold, June embarks on a journey that will not only change both the past and the future, but entangle her fate and her heart in a star-crossed love.

Honest (The Uncut Memoirs of Boris Johnson) by Lucien Young

Offering a comprehensive account of his meteoric rise (and even more meteoric fall) we follow Boris from Eton and the Bullingdon club, via stints in journalism and as London mayor, before finally making it into Number 10 via slick and sophisticated campaign tactics such as lying and hiding in a fridge.

It will outline in bonce-combusting detail the up and downs - but mostly ups! - of his tenure in Downing Street, from Getting Brexit Done and battling the Wizards of Woke, to nearly dying because he shook too many hands. This is BoJo as you've never seen him before.

Scarlet Town by Leonora Nattrass

A rigged election. A town at war. A murderer at large... Disgraced former Foreign Office clerk Laurence Jago and his larger-than-life employer the journalist William Philpott have escaped America - and Philpott's near imprisonment for libel - by the skin of their teeth. They return to Laurence's home town of Helston, Cornwall, in the hope of rest and recuperation, but instead find themselves in the middle of a tumultuous election that has the inhabitants of the town at one another's throats. Only two men may vote in this rotten borough, and when one of them dies in suspicious circumstances, Laurence is ordered to investigate on behalf of the town's patron, his old master the Duke of Leeds. But it is no easy matter, thanks to the machinations of the rival political factions, not to mention the riotous performances of Toby the Sapient Hog. Then the second elector is poisoned and suspicion turns on the town doctor, the gentle Pythagoras Jago, Laurence's own cousin. Suddenly Laurence finds himself ensnared in generations of bad blood and petty rivalries, with his cousin's fate in his hands... 

The Great Survivor of the Tudor Age: The Life and Times of Lord William Paget by Alex Anglesey

Like Cromwell and Wolsey before him, William Paget came from nowhere to become one of Henry VIII's most powerful 'new men'. After serving as ambassador to the Court of Francis I of France, he became Henry's most influential foreign policy advisor and developed a close relationship with Emperor Charles V. He had the king's ear in Henry's later years, was the key player in drafting his will ( was it a forgery?) and in enabling Somerset to become Lord Protector in the reign of the boy king, Edward VI. For a while, he was Somerset's 'right-hand man'.

When Somerset fell, Paget was imprisoned in the Tower and nearly executed. But he survived and regained power. He had a major role in delivering the Crown to the Catholic queen, Mary, and in arranging her marriage to Philip II of Spain, whom he then advised on English politics. He kept in with the Protestant princess Elizabeth and survived to have influence when she came to the throne.

William was the founder of the aristocratic Paget family - Barons of Beaudesert, Earls of Uxbridge and Marquesses of Anglesey.

From records of the mansion that he built on a site next to today's Heathrow Airport, a picture has been created of how life was actually lived in a Tudor household at the personal family level.

The story is partly told from previously unexamined family letters. It is an exciting narrative of dramatic ups and downs: from rags to riches, plague to plenty, and prison to peerage. Court intrigues, conspiracies, rebellions and coups, follow one after the other. William is usually in the thick of it, the power behind the throne.