I found this in Mr H’s audible library and I needed a new audio book.
Here’s the blurb …
The war is ending. perhaps ended For the castle and its occupants the troubles are just beginning Armed gangs roam a lawless land where each farm and house.. supports a column of dark smoke. Taking to the roads with the other refugees. anonymous in their raggedness. seems safer than remaining in the ancient keep. However. the lieutenant of an outlaw band has other ideas and the castle becomes the focus for a dangerous game of desire. deceit and death.Iain Banks masterly novel reveals his unique ability to combine gripping narrative with a relentlessly voyaging imagination. The narrative technique and sheer brio of A SONG OF STONE reveal a great novelist at the height of his powers.
This novel wasn’t for me – it is first person narration, and I disliked the narrator. In fact, I disliked all of the characters and didn’t care what happened to them.
I love Elizabeth Strout. I think I have read all of her books.
Here is the blurb …
From Pulitzer Prize–winning author Elizabeth Strout comes a hopeful, healing novel about new friendships, old loves, and the very human desire to leave a mark on the world.
With her “extraordinary capacity for radical empathy” (The Boston Globe), remarkable insight into the human condition, and silences that contain multitudes, Elizabeth Strout returns to the town of Crosby, Maine, and to her beloved cast of characters—Lucy Barton, Olive Kitteridge, Bob Burgess, and more—as they deal with a shocking crime in their midst, fall in love and yet choose to be apart, and grapple with the question, as Lucy Barton puts it, “What does anyone’s life mean?”
It’s autumn in Maine, and the town lawyer Bob Burgess has become enmeshed in an unfolding murder investigation, defending a lonely, isolated man accused of killing his mother. He has also fallen into a deep and abiding friendship with the acclaimed writer Lucy Barton, who lives down the road in a house by the sea with her ex-husband, William. Together, Lucy and Bob go on walks and talk about their lives, their fears and regrets, and what might have been. Lucy, meanwhile, is finally introduced to the iconic Olive Kitteridge, now living in a retirement community on the edge of town. They spend afternoons together in Olive’s apartment, telling each other stories. Stories about people they have known—“unrecorded lives,” Olive calls them—reanimating them, and, in the process, imbuing their lives with meaning.
Brimming with empathy and pathos, Tell Me Everything is Elizabeth Strout operating at the height of her powers, illuminating the ways in which our relationships keep us afloat. As Lucy says, “Love comes in so many different forms, but it is always love.”
I enjoyed reading this novel. I enjoy the intimacy of Strout’s novels – we get to know the inner thoughts of many of the characters. And just when you’re thinking badly of someone you get their perspective and your opinion changes. Salutary lesson (for me at least) about not judging people. The writing is lovely, and although it is a reasonably short novel, by the end I felt a lot had happened to the characters. What I mean by that is that Strout manages to convey a lot with little.
I do like Kate Atkinson novels and I managed to get this one as an ARC.
Here’s the blurb …
The stage is set. Marooned overnight by a snowstorm in a grand country house are a cast of characters and a setting that even Agatha Christie might recognize – a vicar, an Army major, a Dowager, a sleuth and his sidekick – except that the sleuth is Jackson Brodie, and the ‘sidekick’ is DC Reggie Chase.
The crumbling house – Burton Makepeace and its chatelaine the Dowager Lady Milton – suffered the loss of their last remaining painting of any value, a Turner, some years ago. The housekeeper, Sophie, who disappeared the same night, is suspected of stealing it.
Jackson, a reluctant hostage to the snowstorm, has been investigating the theft of another The Woman with a Weasel, a portrait, taken from the house of an elderly widow, on the morning she died. The suspect this time is the widow’s carer, Melanie. Is this a coincidence or is there a connection? And what secrets does The Woman with a Weasel hold? The puzzle is Jackson’s to solve.?And let’s not forget that a convicted murderer is on the run on the moors around Burton Makepeace.
All the while, in a bid to make money, Burton Makepeace is determined to keep hosting a shambolic Murder Mystery that acts as a backdrop while the real drama is being played out in the house.
A brilliantly plotted, supremely entertaining, and utterly compulsive tour de force from a great writer at the height of her powers.
This is told from various different view points – Jackson, Reggie, Ben, Lady Milton, the Vicar, an escaped psychopath, and they all converge at the big house. It’s by turns funny and moving.
I bought this book because it was on the long list for the non-fiction prize of the Women’s Prize. And then, of course, I didn’t get around to reading it. For this month the theme of my book club is ‘Letters’, so I thought this would be perfect.
Here’s the blurb …
A history and celebration of the many far-flung volunteers who helped define the English language, word by word
The Oxford English Dictionary is one of mankind’s greatest achievements, and yet, curiously, its creators are almost never considered. Who were the people behind this unprecedented book? As Sarah Ogilvie reveals, they include three murderers, a collector of pornography, the daughter of Karl Marx, a president of Yale, a radical suffragette, a vicar who was later found dead in the cupboard of his chapel, an inventor of the first American subway, a female anti-slavery activist in Philadelphia . . . and thousands of others.
Of deep transgenerational and broad appeal, a thrilling literary detective story that, for the first time, unravels the mystery of the endlessly fascinating contributors the world over who, for over seventy years, helped to codify the way we read and write and speak. It was the greatest crowdsourcing endeavor in human history, the Wikipedia of its time.
The Dictionary People is a celebration of words, language, and people, whose eccentricities and obsessions, triumphs, and failures enriched the English language.
This was really enjoyable and I appreciate how much work would have gone in to researching all of these people.
I read (listened to) Geneva and enjoyed it, so when this appeared in my Audible library I was happy to listen to it (and it is narrated by Richard Armitage).
Here’s the blurb …
You can’t escape your past. The cut always reopens.
In the sleepy village of Barton Mallet, the old ruins of Blackstone Mill watch over the residents as they go about their quiet lives. Ben Knot and his friends are looking forward to a summer of fun and freedom once their last year of school is over. The class of 1994 have been through a lot together, good and bad, but teasing turns to bullying when the Knot gang target younger boy Mark Cherry. As tensions rise and violence escalates, the group fractures and tragedy strikes. Before the summer is over, one of them will be killed. Murdered by someone they called a friend.
Thirty years on, Ben is an award-winning architect who has moved his family back to the village where he grew up. His girlfriend Dani is a hands-on step mum to his kids, budding actor Nate and star footballer Lily, but even though the family seem happy, Ben has never been able to forget the tragedy of the past. And it’s a past that is coming back to haunt him with the murderer’s imminent release from prison. Ben’s glittering career is also starting tarnish as some shady business deals have put him on the path to bankruptcy. With the killer’s parole date approaching and the banks calling in their loans, Ben struggles to keep a grip on the perfect life he has built.
When Nate lands the leading role in a new horror movie, Dani jumps at the chance to propel him towards stardom, despite Ben’s concerns that it will complicate their lives. Ben is persuaded to support his son’s dreams, but when the film crew descend on the village to start shooting, the dream starts to turn into a nightmare. The film is not quite what it seems. His kids are being pushed to the limit and Ben’s paranoia makes him question the film makers’ motives. Ben is desperate for answers and will stop at nothing to keep his family safe.
If the first cut is the deepest, then the last cut is going to end it all.
This was really interesting and different. It has two different time periods thirty years apart and the story is told from various perspectives – Ben, Nathan, Max, etc. (all of whom may be unreliable). There is awful school bullying, fraud and suspect business practices, and an historic murder (the early narrative builds to the murder) not to mention the filming of a horror film. The pacing is excellent.
I am continuing my epistolary reading. This is a letter from a son to his mother. I listened to it, and it was narrated by the author (I am sure that must add something to the reading).
Here’s the blurb …
his is a letter from a son to a mother who cannot read. Written when the speaker, Little Dog, is in his late twenties, the letter unearths a family’s history that began before he was born. It tells of Vietnam, of the lasting impact of war, and of his family’s struggle to forge a new future. And it serves as a doorway into parts of Little Dog’s life his mother has never known – episodes of bewilderment, fear and passion – all the while moving closer to an unforgettable revelation.
This was incredibly beautiful, but also challenging. There’s trauma and generational trauma. The difficulties of making a new life in a country where you don’t speak the language. The harshness of poverty and the daily small indignities (trying to act oxtail at the super market counter). But it is also about love (all sorts of love) and family. Damaged people trying to do their best.
This is How You Lose The Time War – Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
The theme for my book club this month is ‘letters’. I wanted to read an epistolary novel and this one seemed to come up in everyone’s list. (I’m also reading Dictionary People by Sarah Ogilvie – more on that another time).
Here’s the blurb …
Among the ashes of a dying world, an agent of the Commandant finds a letter. It reads: Burn before reading. Thus begins an unlikely correspondence between two rival agents hellbent on securing the best possible future for their warring factions. Now, what began as a taunt, a battlefield boast, grows into something more. Something epic. Something romantic. Something that could change the past and the future.
Except the discovery of their bond would mean death for each of them. There’s still a war going on, after all. And someone has to win that war.
I loved this novel. The writing is beautiful, poetic and moving. The plot is a confusing at first, but stick with it, it will all come together and make sense.
I am always going to buy Tracy Chevalier’s novels. My favourite is still A Single Thread, but I have liked them all.
Here’s the blurb …
Venice, 1486. Across the lagoon lies Murano. Time flows differently here – like the glass the island’s maestros spend their lives learning to handle.
Women are not meant to work with glass, but Orsola Rosso flouts convention to save her family from ruin. She works in secret, knowing her creations must be perfect to be accepted by men. But perfection may take a lifetime.
Skipping like a stone through the centuries, we follow Orsola as she hones her craft through war and plague, tragedy and triumph, love and loss.
The beads she creates will adorn the necks of empresses and courtesans from Paris to Vienna – but will she ever earn the respect of those closest to her?
This had an interesting structure with time. Chevalier used the metaphor of skipping a stone over water to explain the way time worked in this novel. The rest of the world might skip 100 years, but Orsola and the people close to her only aged 8 years. In this way, we could witness the evolution of glassmaking from the 1400s to now.
I enjoyed this novel, but the end felt quite melancholic. Orsola was grappling with ideas of Tourism and Making. Is she adding to the world’s problems by making things that no one really needs? But surely there is a place for beautiful things? And tourism? Good or bad? All that air travel?
I have very much enjoyed listening to this. I watched the first two series of C.B Strike, so I have been picturing the actors as I have been listening.
Here’s the blurb …
When a mysterious package is delivered to Robin Ellacott, she is horrified to discover that it contains a woman’s severed leg.
Her boss, private detective Cormoran Strike, is less surprised but no less alarmed. There are four people from his past who he thinks could be responsible – and Strike knows that any one of them is capable of sustained and unspeakable brutality.
With the police focusing on the one suspect Strike is increasingly sure is not the perpetrator, he and Robin take matters into their own hands, and delve into the dark and twisted worlds of the other three men. But as more horrendous acts occur, time is running out for the two of them…
A fiendishly clever mystery with unexpected twists around every corner, Career of Evil is also a gripping story of a man and a woman at a crossroads in their personal and professional lives. You will not be able to put this book down.
I haven’t got much to say about this novel. It was a really enjoyable crime novel, and I didn’t pick the culprit. There is a lot of what I think of as world building – I felt like I was walking the streets of London, going to the office on Denmark Street, etc. It adds to the enjoyment of the novel for me.
This is my favourite novel (so far) this year. I am glad it has been long-listed for the Booker Prize. I have read other Sarah Perry novels – The Essex Serpent (which I loved and the TV series), After Me Comes the Flood (not my favourite), and Melmoth.
Here is the blurb …
Thomas Hart and Grace Macauley are fellow worshippers at the Bethesda Baptist chapel in the small Essex town of Aldleigh. Though separated in age by three decades, the pair are kindred spirits – torn between their commitment to religion and their desire for more. But their friendship is threatened by the arrival of love. Thomas falls for James Bower, who runs the local museum. Together they develop an obsession with the vanished nineteenth-century female astronomer Maria Veduva, said to haunt a nearby manor, and whose startling astronomical discoveries may never have been acknowledged. Inspired by Maria, and the dawning realisation James may not reciprocate his feelings, Thomas finds solace studying the night skies. Could astronomy offer as much wonder as divine or earthly love? Meanwhile Grace meets Nathan, a fellow sixth former who represents a different, wilder kind of life. They are drawn passionately together, but quickly pulled apart, casting Grace into the wider world and far away from Thomas. In time, the mysteries of Aldleigh are revealed, bringing Thomas and Grace back to each other and to a richer understanding of love, of the nature of the world, and the sheer miracle of being alive.
I loved this book. The talk of physics and comets, but also God and grace, the nature of time, and human connection. It is beautifully written and the descriptions are superb – I could see Grace’s outfits, and the comet dress, and the little church (with the sea drenched Harmonium). The characters were complex and their situations intriguing.
Some of my favourite quotes…
Everything still happens within me – how else can I make sense of time? How else can I explain that I am lonely, and never lonely – that I despise my friend and miss her – that James Bower causes me the worst pain I ever knew, and no pain at all?
It was small, strange, curtailed and poor, but every day made new by the beauty she detected in torn table linen, dying stems of forecourt carnations, silk ribbons sold for a pound in charity shop baskets: she was free to think as she liked, to say what she liked, to do as she pleased…
I have lived. I have felt everything available to me: I’ve been faithless, devout, indifferent, ardent, diligent and careless; full of hope and disappointment, bewildered by time and fate or comforted by providence – and all of it ticking through me while the pendulum of my life loses amplitude by the hour.
