April Roundup

As some of you know, I do not post reviews of all the books I read. I tend towards writing reviews of those that I have enjoyed the most and want to recommend. That is not to say that I have not liked those other books, only that for one reason or another I have not reviewed them. So, I thought that you might be interested to see what books I have read this past month. 

Have you a book to recommend that you have read? I would love to hear about it.

Tomorrow I will be back with a sneaky peek of the books that I want to read during May. 

Read in April

The Skeleton Road by Val McDermid. This is the third book in the lovely Karen Pirie series.

The Green Witch by Arin Murphy-Hiscock. I read this as research for something I am writing.

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout. This was April's choice for my book group. It really wasn't my cup of tea but several of our members enjoyed it very much.

My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin. This was the first book that I have read from The Virago Book of 20th Century Fiction. You can read my intentions for this book here.

Big Sky by Kate Atkinson. This is the fifth in the Jackson Brodie series which is one of my favourites. You can read my review here.

Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman. This was much more enjoyable than the film although Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman were perfectly cast.

The Single Thread by Tracy Chevalier.  This was my favourite book this month and you can read my review of this wonderful book by clicking here.

Books I am Partway Through

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

A Stash of One's Own by Clara Parkes. This was gifted me by my son and is wonderful for all yarn lovers. My review of this book will follow.

The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd. Review to follow.

A Single Thread by Tracy Chevalier - #Book Review

"'Shhh!' Violet Speedwell frowned. She did not need shushing; she had not said anything. The shusher, an officious woman sporting a helmet of grey hair, had planted herself squarely in the archway that led into the choir, Violet's favourite part of Winchester Cathedral."

1932. After the Great War took both her beloved brother and her fiancé, Violet Speedwell has become a "surplus woman," one of a generation doomed to a life of spinsterhood after the war killed so many young men. Yet Violet cannot reconcile herself to a life spent caring for her grieving, embittered mother. After countless meals of boiled egg and dry toast, she saves enough to move out of her mother's home and into the town of Winchester, home to one of England's grandest cathedrals. There, Violet is drawn into a society of broderers--women who embroider kneelers (kneeling cushions) for the Cathedral, carrying on a centuries-long tradition of bringing comfort to worshippers.

Violet finds support and community in the group, fulfillment in the work they create, and even a growing friendship with the vivacious Gilda. But when forces threaten her new independence and another war appears on the horizon, Violet must fight to put down roots in a place where women aren't expected to grow. Told in Chevalier's glorious prose, A Single Thread is a timeless story of friendship, love, and a woman crafting her own life.

***

We are living in extraordinary times - times of anxiety, worry and uncertainty. My reading tastes are currently inclined towards the lighthearted and humorous. However, this book was neither of those things but it was absolutely the best thing I could be reading right now. I loved it, loved it, loved it.

The pacing of this book was perfect. It is sedate and gentle and I felt as though I was being swept along in the gentle current that was Violet's life. Ms Chevalier's writing is consistently engrossing across all of her works and is very apparent in this novel.

Violet is a wonderful character. Set between the wars we see how she is able to adapt to a life that was unexpected before the Great War. Like many women of the period, Violet finds herself living a life that was unanticipated when her fiance was killed in battle and she faced life as a spinster. However, we see her grow and develop into a woman who was brave, courageous and who  paved the way for generations of women to come.

A book that combines two of my favourite things, reading and needlework, was a 'must read' for me and I enjoyed every word. I have previously read most of Ms, Chevalier's books and have enjoyed them all. I highly recommend this book.

ISBN: 978 0008153847

Publisher: The Borough Press

About the Author:

Tracy Chevalier is the author of ten novels, including At the Edge of the Orchard, Remarkable Creatures and Girl with a Pearl Earring, an international bestseller that has sold over five million copies and won the Barnes and Noble Discover Award. Born in Washington DC, in 2984 she moved to London, where she lives with her husband and son.

Big Sky (#5 Jackson Brodie series) by Kate Atkinson - #BookReview

"Jackson had been following Gary and Kirsty for several weeks. He had sent enough photographs of the in flagrante to Gary's wife .... for her to have divorced him several times over.... but everytime he said [this] to her she always said, 'just stay on them a little longer, Mr. Brodie."

Jackson Brodie has relocated to a quiet seaside village in North Yorkshire, in the occasional company of his recalcitrant teenage son Nathan and ageing Labrador Dido, both at the discretion of his former partner Julia. It's a picturesque setting, but there's something darker lurking behind the scenes.

Jackson's current job, gathering proof of an unfaithful husband for a suspicious wife, seems straightforward, but a chance encounter with a desperate man on a crumbling cliff leads him across a sinister network - and back into the path of someone from his past.

Old secrets and new lies intersect in this breathtaking new novel, both sharply funny and achingly sad, by one of the dazzling and surprising writers at work today.

The Jackson Brodie series is one of my current favourite series. I have read the previous four books in this series Case Histories (#1), One Good Turn (#2), When Will There Be Good News? (#3), Started Early, Took My Dog (#4). which you can read my review of here. 

Jackson is such a great character. He is something of a modern dinosaur and his internal ponderings are what elevate this book. He is humorous and cynical in his outlook on life but without being comical as Ms. Atkinson deals with some serious themes in this book.

However, at no point did I find it difficult to read and the author handled the more serious aspect of the book with intelligence and sensitivity. 

I was completely engaged with this book; both the characters and plot and I highly recommend it. In fact, this series has made me want to read the author's entire back list as she is an excellent writer with great understanding of what makes people tick.

ISBN: 978 0857526106

Publisher: Doubleday

About the Author:

Kate Atkinson was born in York and now lives in Edinburgh. Her first novel, Behind the Scenes at the Museum, won the Whitbread Book of the Year Award and she has been a critically acclaimed international bestselling author ever since.

She is the author of a collection of short stories, Not the End of the World, and of the critically acclaimed novels Human Croquet, Emotionally Weird, Case Histories and One Good Turn.

Case Histories introduced her readers to Jackson Brodie, former police inspector turned private investigator, and won the Saltaire Book of the Year Award and the Prix Westminster.

Kate was born in York and now resides in Edinburgh.

Magpie Lane by Lucy Atkins - #BookReview

"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. 

Keep safe and well through these difficult days my friends. Thank goodness we have our books to keep us company while we are isolated and socially distanced. 

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.

Some of her other books are, The Missing Ones, The Night Visitor and The Other Child.

Brilliant Careers - The Virago Book of 20th Century Fiction

I picked up this little beauty in a second hand bookshop for the princely cost of £1.00.

My husband and I (apologies if I sound like the Queen) were having a few days away in beautiful Herefordshire which is in the southwest of the England. Short of a tornado we experienced every kind of weather. We had snow, rain, wind, sunshine and the flooding in that part of the country was very bad. The roads were clear but there were flooded fields for as far as the eye can see.

Anyway, during one of our days there I came across this book. It is edited by Ali Smith, Kasia Boddy and Sarah Wood. It highlights one Virago publication for each year of the twentieth century; starting in 1901 with My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin and finishes in the year 2000 with From Midrash on Happiness by Grace Paley. Each featured book tells us about the author alongside an extract which was chosen to represent chronologically an extract from each year of the twentieth century.

I would dearly love to read every novel that is detailed in this book - a huge undertaking amongst all the other books that I would like to read. To that end I have purchased a copy of the 1901 book My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin - what better place to start then at the beginning. Realistically, I shall probably only read some of them and of those books I will be posting a review.

Unfortunately, it seems this book is currently out of print but there are second hand copies available. Or if you would like to see a list of the titles of the novels that are featured in this book then please let me know.

Keep well, keep safe and happy reading.

Lethal White by Robert Galbraith (A Strike Novel) - #BookReview

         

"Such is the universal desire for fame that those who achieve it accidentally or unwillingly will wait in vain for pity."

When Billy, a troubled young man, comes to private eye Cormoran Strike's office to ask for his help investigating a crime he thinks he witnessed as a child, Strike is left deeply unsettled. But before Strike can question him further, Billy bolts in a panic. 

Trying to get to the bottom of Billy's story, Strike and Robin Ellacott - one his assistant, now his partner in the agency - set off on a twisting trail that leads them through the backstreets of London, into a secretive inner sanctum within Parliament and to a beautiful but sinister manor house deep in the countryside.

And during this labyrinthine investigation, Strike's own life is far from straightforward; his relationship with Robin is more fraught than it ever has been - she is now invaluable to his business, but their personal relationship is much, much more tricky than that...

Although my edition of this book is just over 770 pages, I was so engrossed by the story and characters that I would have happily have continued reading this book if it was twice the length.

Without doubt, Robert Galbraith, the pseudonym of J.K. Rowling, is an exceptional story teller. She creates worlds and characters that are both likeable and unforgettable as evidenced by a whole generation of children and young people who have grown up alongside Harry Potter.

This is equally evident in this, the fourth book in the Cormoran Strike series. I have read the previous three novels, The Cuckoo's Calling, The Silkworm and Career of Evil.  I am completely entranced by the chemistry in the relationship between Cormoran Strike and his colleague Robin Ellacott. With each one of the books in the series I have felt that the books have grown in strength even though each of them have been fantastic novels in their own right. I think this is largely attributable to the characters who we get to know a little better with each book.

The plot has some wonderful twists and turns, making this book enormously absorbing, entertaining and unputdownable. I am excitedly anticipating the next book in the series, Troubled Blood, which is due to be published in the UK on the 9th September 2020 and on the 29th September 2020 in the US so I am just going to have to be patient until then.

If you have not read any of the books in this series then I strongly encourage you to do so as you have a real treat in store. 

Happy reading.

ISBN: 978 0751572872

Publisher: Little Brown

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)