Doubles by Nora Gold - #bookreview

Wednesday, August 14, 1968

My favourite subject is math. I love math, even though I'm not especially good at it. I'm not good at anything really, or good for anything, as Dad often says...

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I am required to make it clear at the beginning of my reviews that I received this book for free from the author. I have not been paid for doing this and all opinions are my own. I am Bookshop.org affiliated, which means I earn a very small amount of money if you buy from there using my direct link. Although I include purchase links to Amazon, I am not affiliated with them. I include them to make it easy for you to navigate to them if you so wish.

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The Blurb

Doubles takes place in 1968 in an institution for troubled youth, and is told from the perspective of a brilliant, spunky, 12-year-old girl who is obsessed with math. Engagingly written and often funny, this novella explores how a sensitive young teenager changes over a six-month period from a polite, quiet "good girl" into a delinquent. Although set in the past, Doubles has direct relevance to today, with our recently heightened awareness of the harsh reality in some of our residential institutions during that era (including for Indigenous children, but not only).

My Review

I am not new to this author's work and I will include links to my reviews of her other books at the bottom of the post. When she asked if I would review this book for her, I was delighted to accept as she is a talented author.

This novella exceeded my expectations. It is rare for me to attribute five stars to such a short book, but this is worthy of the sparkle of each of them.

It tells the story of a girl who has been removed from her home by the authorities and placed into a children's home. Needless to say, she doesn't want to be there. She just wants to return home and does not understand why she can't.

Set in 1968, the entire story is told from her perspective through her diary entries. However, this is a multi-faceted novella and what the reader can ascertain from reading between the lines is significant. The reader's adult eyes allow us to understand what this narrator cannot. My heart was breaking for this girl as I read her diary entries and I found it very moving.

The reason for my giving this book five stars is because of the levels within the narrative. It is powerful, heart-rending and thought-provoking, and the author writes with compassion and sensitivity.  I think she has done a brilliant job with this and I cannot recommend it highly enough. 

Publishing tomorrow, I strongly suggest you get your hands on a copy of this novella. I think you will enjoy it every bit as much as I did.

To read my other reviews of Nora's work, please click on the respective titles.

In Sickness and in Health/Yom Kippur in a Gym

The Dead Man

Book Details

ISBN:  978 1778490361

Publisher:  Guernica Editions

Formats: Paperback

No. of Pages:  86 (paperback)

Purchase Links

Bookshop.org

Amazon US

Amazon CA

About the Author

Dr. Nora Gold is a prize-winning author of five books. Her first, Marrow and Other Stories, won a Vine Canadian Jewish Book Award and was praised by Alice Munro. Her second book, Fields of Exile, won the inaugural Canadian Jewish Literary Award for best novel, and was acclaimed by Ruth Wisse and Irwin Cotler. The Dead Man was honoured with a Canada Council translation grant and published in Hebrew. Her most recent book, 18: Jewish Stories Translated from 18 Languages (an anthology of translated works), was praised by Publishers Weekly, Cynthia Ozick, Dara Horn, and Joseph Kertes. Gold's fifth book, In Sickness and In Health/Yom Kippur in a Gym (two novellas), will be published by Guernica Editions in March 2024.

Gold received her PhD from University of Toronto, was a tenured professor for ten years, and left her academic position to write fiction fulltime. Subsequently she was associated with the Centre for Women’s Studies at OISE/University of Toronto, where she was, for six years, its Writer-in-Residence and created and coordinated the Wonderful Women Writers reading series.

In addition, Gold is the founder and editor-in-chief of JewishFiction.net, a prestigious online literary journal that publishes first-rate Jewish-themed fiction from around the world. To date, Jewish Fiction .net has published almost 600 works of fiction that were either written in English or translated into English from 20 languages but never before published in English. These include works by eminent authors such as Elie Wiesel and Aharon Appelfeld, Canadians Gary Barwin, Chava Rosenfarb, George Jonas, Sidura Ludwig, Morley Torgov, David Bezmozgis, and Sonia Zylberberg, and many talented emerging writers. A story from Jewish Fiction .net was selected for the Fall 2023 Pushcart Prize anthology, and Jewish Fiction .net has readers in 140 countries.

You can also find Nora at:

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Instagram

(ARC and media courtesy of the author)

(author photo and bio courtesy of The Writers' Union of Canada)

(all opinions are my own)

(Bookshop.org affiliated)

The Secret Collector by Abigail Johnson - #blogtour #bookreview

 

Alfred had not let anyone inside his house for almost three years. Not that anyone cared. The overgrown weeds and bushes that swamped the small front garden were usually enough of a deterrent to any potential callers...

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The Blurb

When an elderly eccentric collector and a troubled teen become each other's only hope of getting their  lives back on track, what can possibly go wrong? 

Alfred is an elderly widower who uses antiques and collectibles to fill the hole in his heart left by his late  wife. Kian is a lost teen who has been let down by the care system and finds it difficult staying on the  straight and narrow. 

After Kian throws a brick through Alfred's window, the shock sends Alfred to hospital and a social worker to his home, where his hoarding becomes impossible to ignore. 

Begrudgingly, and at the request of the authorities, they both agree to enrol Kian on a restorative justice  programme, helping to make Alfred’s home liveable again. The only problem: Alfred doesn't want to throw  any of his treasures away, and he certainly doesn’t want Kian for company. 

What unfolds is a surprising and delightful journey of two characters who help each other more than they  ever could have anticipated and, along the way, form the unlikeliest of friendships. 

My Review

This was a delightful read, and I loved everything about it.

The main characters, Alfred and Kian are brought together as part of the restorative justice programme after Kian throws a brick through Alfred's window. What follows is one of the most delightful of friendships that I have discovered within the pages of a book.

However, this friendship took time to form. Initially, they are resentful of each other. Both characters are flawed; both trying to appease the authorities that have entered their lives following the incident caused by Kian. If the restorative justice fails then teenager Kian fears he will be sent to prison and elderly Alfred is concerned he will be placed into a care home.

There are some difficult themes addressed in the book; growing up in care, grief and abandonment to name the main ones. However, Ms. Johnson dealt with this with compassion and sensitivity. At no point does the book ever become overly dramatic.

I was actually rather sorry when the book ended as it was delightful to be immersed in this story. Had time permitted I would have gobbled this up in one sitting. It was a quick and easy read with charming characters and a delightful plot line.

It is a well written, heartfelt and joyous book which was a delight to read. This is a debut novel from the author, Abigail Johnson. I thought it was fabulous and highly accomplished. If her future writing is as fabulous as this is then she is definitely one to watch. 

It is a heartfelt novel which is full of hope and optimism. I highly recommend this book.

Book Details

ISBN:  978 1035057757

Publisher:  Pan

Formats:  e-book, audio and paperback

No. of Pages:  304 (paperback)

Purchase Links

Bookshop.org

Amazon UK

Amazon US

Waterstones

Blackwell's

About the Author

Abigail Johnson wrote this novel while completing the Curtis Brown Creative three-month novel  writing course, where she was tutored by author Laura Barnett.  

It was longlisted for the 2021 and 2022 Bath Novel Award. Her writing has also been longlisted for  the Exeter Novel Award, shortlisted for the 2021 Edinburgh Flash Fiction Award and she was a  Friday Night Live finalist at the Festival of Writing in 2017. She lives in Birmingham.  

You can also find Abigail at:

Author Website

Instagram

Twitter / X

BlueSky

(book and media courtesy of the publisher/author)

(all opinions are my own)

(bookshop.org affiliated)

The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd - #BookReview

"I am Ana. I am the wife of Jesus ben Joseph of Nazareth. I called him Beloved and he, laughing, called me Little Thunder. He said he heard rumblings inside me while I slept ............ That my husband bent his heart to mine on our thin straw mat and listened was the kindness I most loved in him. What he heard was my life begging to be born."

Ana is a rebellious young woman, a gifted writer with a curious, brilliant mind, who writes secret narratives about the neglected and silenced women around her. Raised in a wealthy family in Galilee, she is sheltered from the brutality of Rome's occupation of Israel. Ana is expected to marry an elderly widower to further her father's ambitions, a prospect that horrifies her. A chance encounter with the eighteen-year-old Jesus changes everything: his ideas and his passion are intoxicating.

Taking Ana on a journey she could never have imagined, The Book of Longings is a glorious evocation of a time and a place where astounding events unfolded, and of one woman's fate when she fights to make her voice heard.

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This is a work of fiction and in my review I will not be commenting on it's accuracy to either the Christian Bible or the Jewish Torah. The author presents Jesus in an historical light as opposed to a religious one, other than within the Jewish community in which he lived.

This book is about Ana, his fictional wife, rather than about Jesus himself. Jesus is portrayed only in as much as he impacted her life and is not the main character. She is fourteen at the beginning of the book and unlike most girls of the period is literate. In many ways that is the main theme of the story. The author gives a voice to women of the time who have been silenced through history. As interesting as that is, I could not help but feel that Ana was a 21st century woman transplanted into history and with a modern feminist attitude.

That said, I loved reading about how strong these women were. At a time when nothing more than marriage, and that of their fathers choice, would have been expected for them. Ana in particular, has quite other ideas. She is headstrong, resolute and determined to live life through her own choices. She makes for a compelling character.

The meticulous research needed for this book has clearly been well done and has resulted in a book which is carefully told. The chapter in which the crucifixion is described has been movingly portrayed  not only by the way the author describes the brutality of such an execution, but she brought alive how it must have felt to stand at the foot of that cross watching their husband, son, friend die in such an horrific manner. 

The book is rich in atmosphere and imaginatively written. She evokes the sights, sounds and smells of the period which made for a captivating and compelling read.

I have read Ms  Kidd's novels The Secret Life of Bees and The Invention of Wings, (you can read my review here) both of which were equally well written. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys historical fiction.

ISBN:  978 1472232496

Publisher: Tinder Press

About the Author:

Sue Monk Kidd was raised in Georgia. She graduated from Texas Christian University in 1970 and later took creative writing courses at Emory University, as well as studying at Sewanee, Bread Loaf, and other writers’ conferences. In her forties, Kidd turned her attention to writing fiction, winning the South Carolina Fellowship in Literature and the 1996 Poets & Writers Exchange Program in Fiction.

When her first novel, The Secret Life of Bees, was published by Viking in 2002, it became a genuine literary phenomenon, spending more than 2½ years on the New York Timesbestseller list. It has been translated into 36 languages and sold more than 6 million copies in the U.S. and 8 million copies worldwide. Bees was named the Book Sense Paperback Book of the Year in 2004, long-listed for the 2002 Orange Prize in England, and won numerous awards. 

In her forties, Kidd turned her attention to writing fiction, winning the South Carolina Fellowship in Literature and the 1996 Poets & Writers Exchange Program in Fiction. Her short stories appeared in TriQuarterly, Nimrod, and other literary journals and received a Katherine Anne Porter award and citations in Best American Short Stories’ 100 Distinguished Stories.

When her first novel, The Secret Life of Bees, was published by Viking in 2002, it became a genuine literary phenomenon, spending more than 2½ years on the New York Times bestseller list. It has been translated into 36 languages and sold more than 8 million copies worldwide and was named the Book Sense Paperback Book of the Year in 2004, long-listed for the 2002 Orange Prize in England, and won numerous awards. For over a decade, the novel was produced on stage by The American Place Theater, and in 2008 it was adapted into a movie by Fox Searchlight, which won the People’s Choice award for best movie and the NAACP Image award for best picture. The 2019 off-broadway production at The Atlantic Theater won the AUDELCO VIV award for best musical. The novel is taught widely in middle school, high school, and college classrooms.

Kidd serves on the Writers Council for Poets & Writers, Inc.  She lives in North Carolina with her husband, Sandy, and dog, Barney.

The Temptation of Gracie by Santa Montefiore - #BookReview

"England, March 2010

The muffle of cloud that had settled over Badley Compton Harbour was so dense that the little fishing boats tethered to the buoys in the middle of the bay had completely vanished."

A cookery course in the heart of Tuscany proves irresistible to Gracie Burton. She decides to plough her life savings into the week-long trip, leaving her daughter and granddaughter baffled by her impulsiveness. But having grown apart over the years, in many ways the three women barely know each other.

Travelling together from Devon to the breathtakingly beautiful Italian countryside, they take up residence at a castle belonging to the elusive Count Tancredi. Yet everything is not as it appears, and quickly Gracie's family begin to suspect that this is not Gracie's first visit.....

What secret in Gracies's past is drawing her to this small hillside town? Will she let the magic of Italy revive her adventurous past and open her heart once more? And in doing so, will it reunite the three generations of her family?

Ms. Montefiore is an excellent storyteller and it was very easy to get swept along on the current of this story. Gracie is such a lovable character and I warmed to her from the very first page.

This book deals with many issues and I was really involved in the changing relationship of Gracie, her daughter Carina and her granddaughter Anastasia. They initially present as a fairly dysfunctional bunch and I was fascinated to observe the change in their relationship as the story progressed.

Italy was almost a character in itself. I was lucky enough to take a holiday there the year before last so I was really able to place myself within this book quite easily. However, even if you have never visited Italy the author describes it in such vivid detail that you will feel as though you were there. She clearly has a real love for the place and it shines through in her writing.

The dual narrative moves in time from the present day to the 1950's when Gracie was growing up and I found myself impatient to move from one era to the next to progress the story in both timelines. In addition, the narrative also occasionally takes us back to Gracie's English village in order that we can keep up with the present day village story at the same time. For me, this elevated this book into something much more as the minor characters were pure gems in their own right.

The final chapter catches up with the self appointed village matriarch, Flappy Scott-Booth. She is a wonderful character and had me in fits of laughter and demonstrates the authors skill of being able to flesh out even her more minor characters.

I enjoyed this book very much and highly encourage you to read it for yourself. I would love to hear your thoughts on this book. Have you read anything else by Santa Montefiore?

ISBN: 978 1471169618

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

About the Author:

Born in England in 1970 Santa Montefiore grew up on a farm in Hampshire and was educated at Sherborne School for Girls. She read Spanish and Italian at Exeter University and spent much of the 90's in Buenos Aires, where her mother grew up. She converted to Judaism in 1998 and married historian Simon Sebag Montefiore in the Liberal Jewish Synagogue in London. They live with their two children, Lily and Sasha in London.

Santa Montefiore's novels have been translated into twenty languages and have sold more than three million copies in England and Europe.

(author details courtesy of Goodreads)

Eve of Man by Giovanna and Tom Fletcher - #BookReview

"Against all odds, she survived. The first girl born in fifty years. They called her Eve."

All her life Eve has been kept away from the opposite sex. Kept from the truth of her past. 

But at sixteen it's time for Eve to face her destiny. Three potential males have been selected for her. The future of humanity is in her hands. She's always accepted her fate.

Until she meets Bram.

Eve wants control over her life. She wants freedom.

But how do you choose between love and the future of the human race?

Eve of Man is the first in an explosive new trilogy by bestselling authors Tom and Giovanna Fletcher.

I rarely venture into young adult territory in my reading but this one came highly recommended so I thought I would give it a go. I am very glad that I did because I enjoyed it very much.

The two main characters, Eve and Bram, were extremely likeable and from the first page I was rooting for them. One of the reasons that I steer clear of the YA genre is the teenage angst. I appreciate that we all go through it, then relive it again with our children, and is a very relevant part of growing up. However, the authors did not make it a prominent feature of the story and so I really enjoyed getting to know Eve and Bram.

I equally enjoyed spending time in this new world and I thought the authors did a great job of creating a new future existence and it felt real at all times.

The dual perspective which runs through this book was well executed. I liked being able to assess the situation from both Eve and Bram's point of view and it added an immediacy to the novel.

I am not giving anything away by saying that the ending left me hanging on a cliff edge and I cannot wait to read the next part in this trilogy. This is a strong start for what looks like an exciting trilogy of books.

The book had a cinematic quality and I can well imagine this being turned into a film. If you enjoyed The Hunger Games or The Handmaid's Tale I think you will really enjoy reading Eve of Man.


ISBN:  978 0718186340

Publisher: Michael Joseph

About the Authors:

Giovanna and Tom Fletcher are two of the UK's most successful authors. Tom is the creator of The Christmasaurus, which was the biggest debut children's novel of 2016, while Giovanna's novel, Some Kind of Wonderful, was one of the bestselling women's fiction titles of 2017. Their books have sold over 1.5 million copies and have been translated into over 30 languages. Their social media platforms have a combined audience of almost 6 million followers. Tom and Giovanna married in 2012 and are parents to two boys, Buzz and Buddy.

Eve of Man is their first novel as a writing duo, and the first in a trilogy.