Library Loans - 9th March 2024

 It has been a while since I posted about a library visit. Well, I went this weekend and enjoyed browsing around. I love my local library. It is a fantastic place and I love going there.

Do you visit your local library? Tell me what you love about it.

From Crime to Crime by Richard Henriques

Sir Richard Henriques has been centre stage in some of the most high-profile and notorious cases of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. After taking silk in 1986, over the course of the next 14 years he appeared in no fewer than 106 murder trials, including prosecuting Harold Shipman, Britain's most prolific serial killer, and the killers of James Bulger. In 2000 he was appointed to the High Court Bench and tried the transatlantic airline plot, the Morecambe Bay cockle pickers, the killing of Jean Charles de Menezes, and many other cases. He sat in the Court of Appeal on the appeals of Barry George, then convicted of murdering Jill Dando, and Jeremy Bamber, the White House Farm killer.

In From Crime to Crime he not only recreates some of his most famous cases but also includes his trenchant views on the state of the British judicial system; how it works - or doesn't - and the current threats to the rule of law that affect us all.

A Judgement in Stone by Ruth Rendell

'Eunice Parchman killed the Coverdale family because she could not read or write.'

Eunice, the Coverdales' housekeeper, guns down four of her employers in the space of fifteen minutes one Valentine's Day. None of them suspected anything. Her motive remained hidden.

As the police investigate, Eunice schemes to escape the blame - desperate to preserve the terrible secret of her illiteracy.

But Eunice's blindness to a crucial aspect of the world throws her plans into jeopardy...

The Silent Stars Go By by Sally Nicholls

Three years ago, Margot’s life was turned upside down when her fiancé, Harry, went missing in action on the Western Front. Worse, she was left with a devastating secret which threatened to ruin her life and destroy the reputation of her family. As a respectable vicar’s daughter, Margot has had to guard that secret with great care ever since, no matter how much pain it causes her.

Now it’s Christmas 1919, and Margot’s family is gathering back home in the vicarage for the first time since the end of the Great War. And miraculously Harry has returned, hoping to see Margot and rekindle their romance. Can Margot ever reveal the shocking truth to the only man she has ever loved?

The Vintage Shop by Libby Page

One dress. Three women. A lifetime of secrets.

Among the cobbled streets of Frome in Somerset, Lou is about to start something new. After losing her mother, she knows it's time to take a chance and open her own vintage clothes shop.

In upstate New York, Donna receives some news about her family which throws everything she thought she knew into question. The only clue she has to unlock her past is a picture of a yellow dress.

Maggy is in her seventies, newly divorced and all alone in an empty house. Visiting the little vintage shop in Frome, with its rows of beautiful dresses, brings back cherished memories she'd long put aside.

For these three women, only by uncovering the secrets of the yellow dress can they unlock their next chapter...

Snack, Please! by Georgie Birkett - #bookreview

 

When she was a baby, Gertie LOVED food. She would eat mashed-up veg, mushed-up fruit...smooshed-up anything really...

As Gertie got older, she would still eat most things... and once she even ate a slug! (Yuck!)

***

Tired of chopping fruit, cubing cheese, fishing rice cakes out of a backpack and generally fielding incessant snack requests? Then Snack, Please! is the book for you – all about the joy of making and sharing food, together!

Gertie LOVES snacks: sofa snacks, bath snacks, bedtime snacks … it’s a snack life! She abandons almost every mealtime in favour of snacking. Her daddy can’t help but feel frustrated – how can he convince her to try new food? Or to even talk about something other than snacks? A day in Granny's allotment might just provide all the inspiration that's needed. In this funny, warm companion title to Carry Me!, Georgie Birkett explores small children’s exasperating eating habits and, once more, through a very endearing father-daughter mouse duo, she perfectly captures the ups and downs of parenting life.

***

When the lovely people at Walker Books sent me a copy of this book, I was instantly attracted by the title. The reason being that "snack" was my grandson's first word. He completely skipped "mama, dada" and "nana" and went straight in at "snack." Clearly a boy who knows his own mind.

As you will see from the quote above, Gertie, the main character in the book, eats a slug! This brought to mind a slightly horrific occasion when my son did the same thing when he was little. Thankfully, I had got to him before he actually swallowed!  So, you can understand why this book resonated with me. 

It is such a lovely book too. It's characters, Gertie and her Daddy are delightfully portrayed, both in words and illustration. There is so much that children will find in the artwork to support the text as it is shared with them.

The book is aimed at a pre-school audience, but early readers will enjoy reading this too. It is amusing to read, and I think most little ones will identify with Gertie and her love of snacks.

I cannot wait to share this with my grandson, who is two. It is delightful book which I highly recommend.

About the Author:

Georgie Birkett is an illustrator and writer of many children’s books, she won the Booktrust Early Years award with Is This My Nose? and was longlisted for the Kate Greenaway medal. She lives in Lewes in Sussex with her one husband, two sons and two cats. She absolutely loves working in her garden cabin with one of the cats sleeping by her side.

(book and media courtesy of the publisher)

(all opinions are my own)

Cinnamon Girl by Trish MacEnulty - #blogtour #extract #excerpt

 

I am so happy to be bringing you an excerpt from Cinnamon Girl by Trish MacEnulty. It is a Young Adult novel but it looks like something that adults would enjoy reading too. In fact, it is the winner of the Gold Medal in YA Fiction from The Historical Fiction Company.

Let me tell you a little about the book...

The Blurb

When her beloved step-grandmother, a semi-retired opera singer, dies of cancer in 1970, 15-year-old Eli Burnes runs away with a draft-dodger, thinking she's on the road to adventure and romance. What she finds instead is a world of underground Weathermen, Black Power revolutionaries, snitches and shoot-first police.

Eventually Eli is rescued by her father, who turns out both more responsible and more revolutionary than she'd imagined. But when he gets in trouble with the law, she finds herself on the road again, searching for the allies who will help her learn how to save herself.

***

The Excerpt

Thanks to Mattie, my grandfather’s second wife, I spent my childhood as a small adult. 

Mattie had spirited me away from my alcoholic mother before I was two years old. The story Miz Johnny told me was that Carmella (my mother) was living in a two-bedroom trailer on the outskirts of town when Mattie stopped by one day to check up on me after my dad and my mom had split up. Mattie found my mother sprawled on the couch wearing high heels and a black slip with an empty Jack Daniels bottle tucked in the crook of her arm, and me trapped and crying in a playpen, wearing nothing but a dirty diaper. Mattie took me away that day, and then sometime after that – the details get fuzzy – my mother got on a Greyhound bus and never came back. My dad lit out for the West Coast shortly after she left. Grandaddy died of a stroke when I was four, and I hardly remember him anyway. That left me and Mattie and Miz Johnny, a maid whose family had been interlinked with mine since the days of slavery – not one of us related by blood but bound together nonetheless – in a big brick house on a hill in Augusta, Georgia, a few blocks from the Savannah River.

My dad, Billy Burnes, never made it as far as the West Coast. He spent a couple of years at Southern Illinois University before dropping out to become a D.J. at a Top-40 radio station in St. Louis. He visited us every Christmas and usually for a week or so during the summers. The summer after I turned nine years old, he brought a pregnant girl named Cleo with him and said she was his wife. We never saw or heard from my mother. Mattie never mentioned her. And who was I to miss a person I couldn’t remember? Especially when I had Mattie and Miz Johnny. Mattie spoiled me, and Miz Johnny disciplined me when she could catch me.

Before marrying my wealthy grandfather, Mattie had been a world-class opera singer. In order to entice her in to marrying him, he bought the old theater in downtown Augusta so she could turn it into her very own opera house. She was getting older anyway so she took the offer. While other kids stayed home at night watching “Bonanza,” I was at the Southern Opera Guild. For hours I played dress up in elaborate costumes or had swordfights with imaginary enemies in the rehearsal room. During performances I would turn pages for the pianist or sit in the lighting booth and read cues for the spotlight man. When rehearsals ran late, I slept backstage on the piles of black curtains while the sound of arias shrouded me like a dream. Sometimes I spied furtive kissing in the rehearsal room. Sometimes men kissed other men, sometimes they kissed women whose husbands were at home, drinking scotch.

I didn’t have friends my own age, but it felt as though Mattie’s friends were my friends. Since I considered myself a small adult, and they considered themselves large children, we met somewhere in between. Our house was the central location for evening parties where they sang showtunes around the Steinway that Carl played, hunched over the keys, a cigarette in his mouth, a highball glass on a stack of sheet music. I usually stretched out underneath the piano with my marbles or plastic horses and created stories till I fell asleep.

When I was twelve, a girl named Gretchen moved from half-way across the world with her German father and American mother. She was an outsider, like me, and for the first time I had a friend my own age. I liked Gretchen a lot, but the real attraction was her older brother named Wolfgang, an aloof philosophical boy with shaggy hair and bushy eyebrows, a boy who made my teeth sweat the first time I saw him.

Beyond the borders of our small town, all kinds of things were going on. Rock music had conquered the world, men in puffy white suits were jumping on the moon, a crazy man shot down Martin Luther King, Jr. and another one gunned down Bobby Kennedy. After both killings the house on the hill went into mourning though I didn’t understand why we cried over the deaths of men we had never met. There were riots and revolutions and hippies and Woodstock and all kinds of things the good citizens of Augusta, Georgia, tried to ignore, but the world would not be ignored. It was slouching toward us inexorably and arrived in a rain of smoke and ash in May, 1970. But it was not the brutal race riot that ended my perfect childhood. My perfect childhood dissolved a few months earlier when something growing inside Mattie suddenly emerged and stole the life out of her. I was fourteen years old.

About the Author:

Trish MacEnulty is the author of a historical novel series, literary novels, memoirs, a short story collection, children’s plays, and most recently, the historical coming-of-age novel, Cinnamon Girl (Livingston Press, Sept. 2023). She has a Ph.D. in English from the Florida State University and graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Florida. She currently writes book reviews and features for the Historical Novel Society.

She lives in Florida with her husband Joe and her two tubby critters, Franco and Tumbleweed. More info at her website: trishmacenulty.com.

(all media courtesy of The Coffee Pot Book Club)

The Shadow Network by Deborah Swift - #bookreview #blogtour

 

Lily tucked her scarf into her coat and braced herself against the chill of the November day. The examinations would start next week, so as she hurried down the steps from the main building of the university, she was still repeating the lines of Shakespeare under her breath...

***

One woman must sacrifice everything to uncover the truth in this enthralling historical novel, inspired by the true World War Two campaign Radio Aspidistra...

England, 1942: Having fled Germany after her father was captured by the Nazis, Lilli Bergen is desperate to do something pro-active for the Allies. So when she’s approached by the Political Warfare Executive, Lilli jumps at the chance. She’s recruited as a singer for a radio station broadcasting propaganda to German soldiers – a shadow network.

But Lilli’s world is flipped upside down when her ex-boyfriend, Bren Murphy, appears at her workplace; the very man she thinks betrayed her father to the Nazis. Lilli always thought Bren was a Nazi sympathiser – so what is he doing in England supposedly working against the Germans?

Lilli knows Bren is up to something, and must put aside a blossoming new relationship in order to discover the truth. Can Lilli expose him, before it’s too late?

Set in the fascinating world of wartime radio, don’t miss The Shadow Network, a heart-stopping novel of betrayal, treachery, and courage against the odds.

***

When I was offered the opportunity to read The Shadow Network as part of the blog tour, I jumped at the chance. I have previously read this author's book, Shadow on the Highway, which I enjoyed very much. You can read my review by clicking here. Deborah also featured as one of my guests for my Desert Island Books feature which you can read by clicking here.

Although The Shadow Network is the second book in the WW2 Secret Agent series it read perfectly well as a stand alone novel. 

From the very first page I was gripped by the story and liked Lily's character very much. I could feel her pain and panic as she watched her father dragged away by the Nazis. This scene was so effectively portrayed that it would have been difficult not to have been moved by it. She is a well formed character, and I enjoyed reading about her very much.

Whilst our sympathies lie with Lily, the reader is immediately alert when her former boyfriend, Bren, returns to her life.  As Lily suspects he is 'up to something' she demonstrated great bravery in allowing herself to get close to him again in order to ascertain his intentions. 

Based on fact, the Aspidistra transmitter was used in order to broadcast deceptive propaganda to the Nazis during World War II. This merging of fact and fiction produced an interesting and gripping novel. The author's focus on this lesser known aspect of WWII military history made for compelling reading.

It is written well and is appropriately paced for its genre. There was sufficient action to keep the plot moving although I rather enjoyed the slower aspects of the story. Observing the relationships between the staff and POWs develop was fascinating and I enjoyed reading about the day to day work that they were doing.

This is an excellent book that anyone who enjoys historical fiction will like. I highly recommend it.

ISBN: 978 0008586898

Publisher:  HQ Digital

Formats:  e-book, audio and paperback

No. of Pages:  352 (paperback)

About the Author:

Deborah Swift is the English author of eighteen historical novels, including Millennium Award winner Past Encounters, and The Lady’s Slipper, shortlisted for the Impress Prize. Her most recent books are the Renaissance trilogy based around the life of the poisoner Giulia Tofana, The Poison Keeper and its sequels, one of which won the Coffee Pot Book Club Gold Medal. Recently she has completed a secret agent series set in WW2, the first in the series being The Silk Code.

Deborah used to work as a set and costume designer for theatre and TV and enjoys the research aspect of creating historical fiction, something she loved doing as a scenographer. She likes to write about extraordinary characters set against the background of real historical events. Deborah lives in North Lancashire on the edge of the Lake District, an area made famous by the Romantic Poets such as Wordsworth and Coleridge.

(e-book and media materials courtesy of The Coffee Pot Book Club)

(all opinions are my own)

In Sickness and In Health/Yom Kippur in a Gym by Nora Gold - #bookreview

 

This flipbook comprises two novellas by the talented author, Nora Gold. 

***

Sickness is a foreign country. You are lost there, you don't know the language, no matter how many times you've visited before. Nothing is familiar. You are alone...

In Sickness and In Health   - Lily had epilepsy as a child, so her most cherished goal has always been to be “normal”. By age 45 she has a “normal” life, including a family, friends, and an artistic career, and no one, not even her husband, knows the truth about her past. But now some cartoons she drew threaten to reveal her childhood secret and destroy her marriage and everything she has worked so hard for. A moving novella about shame, secrets, disabilities, and the limits and power of love.

***

I am not new to the work of this author. In 2017 I read her book, The Dead Man, which was excellent and you can read my review here. With In Sickness and In Health, she has created an intelligent and mature novella that I was gripped by. 

The main character, Lily, suffers from an undiagnosed illness and the prose begins with her describing her symptoms and the effect that they are having on her life. In addition, we learn that as a child she suffered with epilepsy, but this is something that she has kept secret, even from her husband.

Lily's childhood was devastated by her disability and the way that those around her reacted to it. But more importantly, as an adult, she feels great shame about her past and carries this secret with her.

My heart broke for Lily.  It was an emotional read for me, and I wanted to reach into the text and hug her. She has much to come to terms with in order to ever find a level of self-acceptance.

This novella was a five star read for me. I felt profoundly moved by the author's beautiful writing. Every word is considered and perfectly placed. She writes with intelligence, compassion and sensitivity. She clearly understands Lily very well, and she has created a character who is both compelling and engaging. This is a fantastic novella and Lily is a character who will remain with me.

***

The gym is filling up with people in their finest, fanciest clothes. No, they have not come to work out in their suits, ties and dresses. They're here for Yom Kippur.

Yom Kippur in a Gym  - Five strangers at a Yom Kippur service in a gym are struggling with personal crises. Lucy can’t accept her husband’s Parkinson’s diagnosis. Ira, rejected by his lover, plans to commit suicide. Ezra is tormented by a mistake that ruined his career. Rachel worries about losing her job. Tom contemplates severing contact with his sisters. Then a medical emergency unexpectedly throws these five strangers together, and in one hour all their lives are changed in ways they would never have believed possible.

***

This was quite a different read to In Sickness and in Health but it was equally as good.

The narrative moves between six different characters at a Yom Kippur service. We briefly hear from the rabbi, and then the focus moves to five of the congregants. Whilst the service progresses, each has their own inner thoughts; it's a time of introspection and soul searching. 

Anyone, who has ever fasted for the twenty-five hours required for Yom Kippur will recognise themselves in one or other of the characters. It was easy to identify with how the minds of the characters could wander before coming back to the more serious aspect of the service. Added to that, an event happens during the service which throws these characters together in a life-changing way.

The author has such a good understanding of people, and this is excellently reflected in her characters. With different chapters being devoted to one or other of them, they became engaging and compelling. My sympathies were raised as they considered their hurts, heartbreaks and disappointments that life has thrown their way.

Ms. Gold writes with insight, and she excellently portrays the immersion and oft vulnerability required in the analysing and self-immersion of our own lives that Yom Kippur demands.

Both of these novellas deserve the rare five stars that I have given them. Both are truly worthy of them. 

ISBN:  978 1771838658

Publisher:  Guernica Editions

Formats: Paperback

No. of Pages:  200

 

About the Author:

Dr. Nora Gold is the prize-winning author of five books and the editor of the prestigious online literary journal Jewish Fiction, which has readers in 140 countries. 

Gold’s first book, Marrow and Other Stories, won a Vine Canadian Jewish Book Award and was praised by Alice Munro. Her novel 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 for the Arts translation grant and published in Hebrew. 18: Jewish Stories Translated from 18 Languages, an anthology of translated works, received glowing reviews from Publishers Weekly, Cynthia Ozick, and Dara Horn. Gold’s fifth book, In Sickness and In Health/Yom Kippur in a Gym (two novellas), was published just last week, and is already receiving international praise. 

For more information about Nora Gold, visit noragold.com.

(ARC and media courtesy of the author)

(all opinions are my own)

10 Ten Books I Want to Read in March 2024 - #TBR

 

Welcome to March! 

Today is also St. David's Day and I wish you all a happy one filled with happiness and daffodils like the one above. Unfortunately, the ones I had in my garden have been eaten by slugs/snails. They tend to decimate everything in my garden; with the exception of the weeds naturally!

What reading plans do you have for March? Here are ten books that I hope to read this month.

How to Survive in Medieval England  by Toni Mount

The Good Servant by Fern Britton

At the Stroke of Midnight by Jenni Keer

The Sewing Factory Girls by Posy Lovell

Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood

Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn

Call it Sleep by Henry Roth

The Trawlerman by William Shaw

The Heron's Cry by Ann Cleeves

The Incredible Adventures of Gaston le Dog by Michael Rosen

Reading Roundup for February 2024

 

Here we are at the end of another month, and it is time to tell you about all the books I have read in February.

My reading time is still being impacted by my new puppy shaped friend who will, in time, be a wonderful reading and writing companion. However, at the moment, it is a case of preventing her from getting into too much mischief!

Have you read anything good this month? I would love to hear your recommendations. 

Books I Have Read

Fourteen Days: An Unauthorized Gathering - Edited by Margaret Atwood and Douglas Preston - This is a really unusual collaborative work which made for an interesting read. You can read my review by clicking here.

Our Georgeous Baby by Smriti Halls - This is a delightful picture book about the arrival of a new baby. You can read my review by clicking here.

The Sisterhood by Katherine Bradley - A feminist retelling of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty Four. You can read my review by clicking here.

L is for Love by Atinuke - I reviewed this book for pre-schoolers on Valentine's Day as it seemed so apt. You can read my review by clicking here.

Next of Kin by Hannah Bonham-Young - This is a lovely book filled with humour and chemistry between the main characters. You can read my review by clicking here.

Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa - I read this with my Book Group and it had a mixed reception. However, I really enjoyed it and you can read my review by clicking here.

My Brilliant Life: An Unforgettable Memoir of Love, Loss and the Ability of the Heart to Heal by Rachelle Unreich - This is a very moving memoir, told by a daughter about her mother's experience during the Holocaust. You can read my review by clicking here.

Adiel and the Fuhrer by Elyse Hoffman - I read this as part of the blog tour and very glad I did. You can read my review by clicking here.

Snack, Please! by Georgie Birkett - My review of this lovely picture book will be up next week.

The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman - This particular book was a little over sentimental for my taste but it was a good story.

The Story Collector by Iris Costello - This was a five star timeslip novel and was excellent. You can read my full review by clicking here.

Books I Did Not Finish

Maude Horton's Glorious Revenge by Lizzie Pook - Absolutely nothing wrong with this book but I needed to prioritise other books so have set it aside for the moment.

The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky - Reading this I learnt that puppies and Russian literature are not a good combination!

Books I am Currently Reading

The Shadow Network by Deborah Swift

In Sickness and in Health/Yom Kippur in a Gym by Nora Gold

The London Bookshop Affair by Louise Fein

The Sorrow of War by Bao Ninh

Newborn by Kerry Hudson