All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

Marie-Laure LeBlanc, the daughter of a locksmith, has been blind since the age of six. Her father builds a perfect miniature of their Paris neighbourhood so she can learn to navigate her way home. But when the Nazis invade, father and daughter flee carrying a dangerous secret.

Werner Pfennig is a German orphan, destined to labour in the same mine where his father died. But then he finds and repairs a broken radio and suddenly life blazes with possibility. His talents win him a place at an elite military academy, but can he pursue his dream whatever the cost?

Hundreds of miles away in a walled city by the sea, an old man listens to a long-lost voice and discovers new worlds without ever setting foot outside his home. And yet impending danger will not allow him to remain shut in for ever.

This book is set in Europe during a time when war dominated everything. It is a wonderful demonstration of how lives can coincide in the most unexpected of ways.

I was completely gripped by this very excellent novel from start to finish. The prose was beautiful and not a word was wasted. Every sentence had real meaning and I frequently found myself re-reading sentences and paragraphs simply for the beauty of how they were constructed on the page.

The atmosphere was tangible and I felt as though I was actually there, living the lives of these two young people who were forced to grow up in war torn Europe. Consequently, I felt very in touch with Marie-Laure and Werner and writing this book so that the reader could identify with both the German and French point of view lifts this book well out of the ordinary.

There is something very special about this novel and I highly recommend it. This is the first book that I have read by Anthony Doerr and I guarantee that it will not be the last. I only wonder why I have not read anything by this excellent author before.

About the Author:

Anthony Doerr is the best-selling and prize winning author of The Shell Collector, About Grace, Four Seasons in Rome and Memory Wall.

In 2007 Granta named him as one of their 21 Best Young American Novelists and in 2011 he won the Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Prize. Doerr lives in Boise, Idaho, with his wife and two sons.

The Janus Stone by Elly Griffiths

Forensics Expert Ruth Galloway is called in to investigate when builders, demolishing a large old house in Norwich, uncover the skeleton of a child - minus the skull - beneath a doorway. Is it some ritual sacrifice or just plain straightforward murder?

The house was once a children's home. DCI Harry Nelson meets the Catholic priest who used to run it. He tells him that two children did go missing forty years before - a girl and a boy. They were never found.

When carbon dating proves that the child's bones predate the children's home, Ruth is drawn more deeply into the case. But as spring turns to summer it becomes clear that someone is trying very hard to put her off the scent by frightening her half to death.

Having previously read the first in this series, The Crossing Places, which I enjoyed enormously, I was very keen to read The Janus Stone and continue with the story of Ruth Galloway. This was equally enjoyable and I loved that the book picks up pretty much straight after the first book and this provided a marvelous continuity to the story.

Ruth is a wonderful character. Her personal concerns are easy to identify with. She is a cat loving, overweight single woman and thinks about life in the same way that you or I might. The other characters are also realistically drawn - DCI Nelson is as down to earth a character as you could ever hope to read about and I loved the descriptions of Ruth's born-again Christian parents and her Druid friend, Cathbad. Every one of Elly Griffiths characters were well drawn and I felt like I understood each one of them.

I also loved the plot and read the whole book in a couple of sittings which is something I rarely do. It moves along at a good pace but I would not call it a page turner. Rather it was a book to be read and enjoyed without the frenzied pace that many crime thrillers have.

I have already ordered the next book in this series, The House at Sea's End, and am looking forward to reading it and getting to know the characters even better. I highly recommend this series to readers who enjoy crime fiction or archaeology.

ISBN: 978  1849162296

Publisher: Quercus Books

Price (based on today price for the paperback at Amazon.co.uk): £6.39

About the author:

Elly Griffiths' Ruth Galloway novels take for their inspiration Elly's husband, who gave up a city job to train as an archaeologist, and her aunt who lives on the Norfolk coast and who filled her niece's head with the myths and legends of that area.

She has two children and lives near Brighton.

Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee

Maycomb, Alabama. Twenty six year old Jean Louise Finch (Scout) returns home from New York City to visit her ageing father, Atticus. Set against the backdrop of the civil rights tensions and political turmoil that were  transforming the South, Jean Louise's homecoming turns bittersweet when she learns disturbing truths about her close-knit family, the town and the people dearest to her. Memories from her childhood flood back, and her values and assumptions are thrown into doubt.

Since this book was published earlier this week there have been thousands of reviews written. I have deliberately avoided reading any of them so as not to affect my own judgement of this book but short of locking myself in a darkened room without any form of communication from the outside world it has been impossible not to have got the gist of the fact that the vast majority of these reviews have been negative.

Perhaps it is my contrary personality but I really wanted to like this book. Like many others I am a huge fan of To Kill a Mockingbird which I first read aged about thirteen and have reread many times since.

Harper Lee is a great writer as evidenced in To Kill a Mockingbird so it was hard for me to even begin to equate this sequel with the skill she showed in her first and only other book. My biggest disappointment was in the way she portrayed Jean Louise (aka Scout). Gone is the fiery young Scout who we all know and love and in walks Jean Louise who I think the author intended to portray as an opinionated and angry young woman. However, rather than possess the associated attributes of this persona Jean Louise comes over more as a moaning Minnie and quite frankly, I found her character rather tedious.

What I did like in this book were the flashbacks to Jean Louise's childhood. Here I glimpsed the characters and writer who exerted so much influence over me when I was in my teens.

Written in the 1950's and not published until 2016 does this book alter the way I have felt about To Kill a Mockingbird? Not one bit. It is vastly superior to this sequel and I have been a little in love with Atticus Finch for too many decades for that to change now.

ISBN:  9781785150289

Publisher: William Heinemann

Price: £18.99

About the Author: 

Harper Lee ws born in 1926 in Monroeville, Alabama. She is the author of the acclaimed To Kill a Mockingbirdand has been awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and numerous other literary awards and honours.

Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear

London, 1929. Having set herself up as a private investigator, Maisie Dobbs is relieved when her first client arrives. Christopher Davenham suspects that his wife is conducting an affair. But Maisie's investigations confound her expectations at every turn and she if forced by her findings to revisit her own turbulent experience of the Great War. For Maisie, the boundary between her private and professional life is suddenly blurred.

This is a world still reeling in the aftermath of war, a world in which many secrets lie buried. But Maisie is determined to hunt down the truth, however painful it might be.

Maisie is one of the most likable characters I have encountered in some time and I am very excited that this book is the first in a series. Sweet and heartwarming but feisty at the same time, it was impossible not to be rooting for her all through the book.

What I particularly liked was the way Ms Winspear initially drew me into the story through the plot. However, the narrative then shifts for about a third of the book and we are presented with Maisie's backstory and therefore, everything we may have assumed about her during the first part of the book is challenged.

Although simply written I did not guess the outcome of the story and there were still some surprises at the end. Wonderful writing and I can certainly envisage myself reading the twelve books in the series and I do not make a commitment like that very often. I already have the second book, Birds of a Feather, ordered from the library.

Purchase Link *

About the author:

Jacqueline Winspear was born and raised in Kent, England and now lives in California. The Maisie Dobbs mysteries have won great acclaim and have been nominated for several awards including the Edgar Award.

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*Disclosure: I only recommend books I would buy myself and all opinions expressed here are my own. This post contains an affiliate link from which I may earn a small commission.

TOP TEN FOR SUMMER

I don't know about you but at this time of year when the sun is shining and I can look forward to lazy weekends sitting with a book in the sunshine, I don't want anything too heavy going to read. This isn't the time of year that I want to get stuck into War and Peace. I can more envisage myself reading that snuggled up in an armchair on a cold winters day.

No, what I want are books to reflect my mood so here are a list of my ten favourite summer reads with links to my review if I have done one..

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

The Sunrise by Victoria Hislop

Coming up for Air by George Orwell

Evening Class by Maeve Binchy

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Blessings by Anna Quindlen

The Summer House by Santa Montefiore

Flight Behaviour by Barbara Kingsolver

Tigers in Red Weather by Liza Klaussmann

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

I would love to hear what your favourite summer reads are. Do you think the seasons influence what we read? 

After Before by Jemma Wayne

During a cold, British winter, three women reach crises point. Emily, an immigrant survivor of the Rwandan genocide is existing but not living. Vera, a newly Christian Londoner is striving to live a moral life, her happiness constantly undermined by secrets from her past. Lynn, battling with untimely disease, is consumed by bitterness and resentment of what she hasn't achieved and what has been snatched from her. Each suffering their own demons, their lives have been torn open by betrayal, by other people, by themselves, by life itself.  But as their paths interweave, they begin to unravel their beleagured pasts, and inadvertently change each others futures.


I actually finished reading this book a couple of weeks ago and I have been haunted by it ever since. Usually I write a review almost immediately after reading a book but this is one that I wanted to allow to sit in my mind while I worked out how I felt about it and I really have not been able to stop thinking about the three women in this book.

Emily, Vera and Lynn are all women that I could identify with to one degree or another and I was captivated by the realism of their lives and the interconnections between them. Ms. Wayne has made them each fully rounded characters whom I really came to care about throughout my reading of this gripping novel.

I liked the way the narrative is told from the point of view of the different characters and which carries the plot along harmoniously. 

Although dealing with some difficult themes the author deals with them sensitively but without sentimentality. Intelligently written and powerful meant this is one book that kept me up reading well past my bedtime.  Simultaneously painful and uplifting this debut novel ensures that Jemma Wayne is one to watch as if her future writing is of this quality then she is on the cusp of a long and successful novel writing career.

ISBN:  978 1909878846

Publisher:  Legend Press

Price: £6.39


About the Author:  Jemma Wayne is a writer and journalist with a special interest in multi-cultural issues. Having graduated from Cambridge University in 2002 with an academic scholarship for her achievements in Social and Political Sciences, she went on to gain a Distinction in a Postgraduate Diploma in Broadcast Journalism at the University of Westminster, before working as a reporter for The Jewish Chronicle.

In 2004 she left the JC to pursue her own projects and six months later saw the publication of her first full-length work, Bare Necessities, published by Piatkus Books.

Jemma has since turned her attention to fiction. Her short stories have appeared in a variety of publications including Ether Books, 33 West by Limehouse Books, and Kerouac’s Dog Magazine. 
As a freelance journalist Jemma continues to contribute to various publications. In particular she has written for The Evening Standard and The Independent on Sunday, She writes a political column for the The Jewish News and is a featured blogger for The Huffington Post.

Jemma has also written for the screen, and more recently the stage. Her first play Negative Space ran at The New End Theatre, Hampstead, in September 2009 to critical acclaim. Jemma and her co-writer Rachel Sternberg are currently at work on a second stage drama.

Jemma lives in North London.

After Before, is her first novel.

You can learn more about Jemma on her website:  http://www.jemmawayne.com/

Songs for the Butcher's Daughter by Peter Manseau

Itsik Malpesh was born the son of a goose-plucking factory manager during the Russian pogroms; his life saved on the very night it began by the young daughter of a kosher slaughterer. Or so he believes .....

Exiled during the war, Itsik eventually finds himself in New York, working as a typesetter and writing poetry to his muse, the butcher's daughter, whom he is sure he will never see again. But it is here in New York that Itsik is unexpectedly reunited with his greatest love - and, later, his greatest enemy - with results both serendipitous and tragic.

Itsik's story is recounted in his memoirs that to the most unlikely of translators - a twenty-one-year-old Boston college student who, in meeting Itsik, has embarked upon a lie that will define his future and the most extraordinary friendship he'll ever know.

Spanning decades and continents, this book is an immigrant's epic saga filled with adventure, humour, retribution and romance; a love letter to Jewish history that almost inadvertently tells a tale of the entire 20th century. Stories this passionate, surprising and enthralling are both hard to find and hard to forget.

I enjoyed this book very much. It has a dual narration. Each chapter begins with the translator telling his story followed by a portion of Itsik's memoirs. I enjoyed reading the translators story every bit as much as the memoir.

Without doubt Mr. Manseau is a good storyteller and I was very caught up in both the stories being told. My only criticism of this book is that at one point I felt coincidence went a little too far. However, it did  not detract from my enjoyment of the book as it is well written, the characters are engaging and the way in which the two stories come together was excellent

This is a good read for those who like reading about books, for those who are interested in history and for those who like a little romance in their reading.

ISBN:  978 1847393388

Publisher: Pocket Books

Price (based on today's price at Amazon.co.uk): £7.99

About the Author:  Peter Manseau has been a carpenter, journalist and typesetter in his time, and is the author of two works of non-fiction, including the memoir Vows: The Story of a Priest, a Nun and their Son. He is 34 and lives with his wife and two children in Washington. Songs for the Butcher's Daughter is his first novel.