Category Archives: Fiction

January 18, 2025 · 10:52 am

Offshore – Penelope Fitzgerald

Offshore – Penelope Fitzgerald

The theme for my book club this time is Rivers. I loved There are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak and I will definitely talk about that novel, but I wanted to read something else as well. I googled novels about rivers and this came up. I have read and watched The Book Shop, so this was the perfect choice.

Here’s the blurb …

Penelope Fitzgerald’s Booker Prize-winning novel of loneliness and connecting is set among the houseboat community of the Thames, with an introduction from Alan Hollinghurst.

Offshore is a dry, genuinely funny novel, set among the houseboat community who rise and fall with the tide of the Thames on Battersea Reach. Living between land and water, they feel as if they belong to neither…

Maurice, a male prostitute, is the sympathetic friend to whom all the others turn. Nenna loves her husband but can’t get him back; her children run wild on the muddy foreshore. She feels drawn to Richard, the ex-RNVR city man whose converted minesweeper dominates the Reach. Is he sexually attractive because he can fold maps the right way? With this and other questions waiting to be answered, Offshore offers a delightful glimpse of the workings of an eccentric community.

As I haven’t read the introduction yet, I might be missing some of the more literary or subtle points.

I stayed in Battersea on my recent trip to London, and suffice to say this stretch of the Thames has been gentrified.

This is one of my photos – from the Chelsea side of the river

I would call this an ensemble novel, no one major character or view point. For a short period of time we follow the lives of a small house boat community – the boats (apart from one) are all a bit battered as are the people by life and circumstances, but they are kind and look out for each other.

The writing is beautiful, evocative of the place and time, insightful, and, at times, witty.

Here are some of my favourite quotes

And each one of them felt the patches, strains and gaps in their craft as if they were weak places in their own bodies.

I’m afraid I can’t claim to know much about knitting

Tilda cared nothing for the future, and had, as a result, a great capacity for happiness.

She was still at the RSM then, violin first study, and she fell in love as only a violinist can.

A review

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January 15, 2025 · 2:55 pm

A Great Reckoning – Louise Penny

A Great Reckoning – Louise Penny

I came across this while searching my husband’s audible library – I haven’t read any of the previous novels (this is novel 12), so I have probably spoiled the earlier ones for myself. I liked it, I am planning on reading the first one while on a road trip.

Here’s the blurb …

When an intricate old map is found stuffed into the walls of the bistro in Three Pines, it at first seems no more than a curiosity. But the closer the villagers look, the stranger it becomes.

Given to Armand Gamache as a gift the first day of his new job, the map eventually leads him to shattering secrets. To an old friend and older adversary. It leads the former Chief of Homicide for the Sûreté du Québec to places even he is afraid to go. But must.

And there he finds four young cadets in the Sûreté academy, and a dead professor. And, with the body, a copy of the old, odd map.

Everywhere Gamache turns, he sees Amelia Choquet, one of the cadets. Tattooed and pierced. Guarded and angry. Amelia is more likely to be found on the other side of a police line-up. And yet she is in the academy. A protégée of the murdered professor.

The focus of the investigation soon turns to Gamache himself and his mysterious relationship with Amelia, and his possible involvement in the crime. The frantic search for answers takes the investigators back to Three Pines and a stained glass window with its own horrific secrets.

For both Amelia Choquet and Armand Gamache, the time has come for a great reckoning.

Number-one New York Times bestselling author Louise Penny pulls back the layers to reveal a brilliant and emotionally powerful truth in her latest spellbinding novel.

I loved the setting, the characters and the plot. I loved the map and the Three Pines community. The emphasis on kindness and empathy, and not believing everything you think. It’s about second chances and that there is always a road back.

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January 12, 2025 · 5:11 pm

Love Letters – Katie Fforde

Love Letters – Katie Fforde

I always like Katie Fforde’s novels. I found this one at the library.

Here’s the blurb …

With the bookshop where she works about to close, hopeless romantic Laura Horsley, in a moment of uncharacteristic recklessness, finds herself agreeing to help organize a literary festival deep in the heart of the English countryside. But her initial excitement is rapidly followed by a mounting sense of panic when reality sinks in and she realizes just how much work is involved – especially when an innocent mistake leads the festival committee to mistakenly believe that Laura is a personal friend of the author at the top of their wish-list. Laura might have been secretly infatuated with the infamous Dermot Flynn ever since she studied him at university, but travelling to Ireland to persuade the notorious recluse to come out of hiding is another matter.

Determined to rise to the challenge she sets off to meet her literary hero. But all too soon she’s confronted with more than she bargained for – Dermot. The man is maddening, temperamental and up to his ears in a nasty case of writer’s block. But he’s also infuriatingly attractive – and, apparently, out to add Laura to his list of conquests .

This was good – it had witty dialogue, lovely characters, and who doesn’t like a book about books? The reason why the hero and heroine couldn’t be together was a bit light – an evil other woman.

A review.

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January 7, 2025 · 3:06 pm

Molly – Rosalie Ham

Molly – Rosalie Ham

This was my book flood book. I have read The Dressmaker and scene the movie (Kate Winslet is fabulous – best Australian accent I have heard).

Here’s the blurb …

It’s 1914 and Molly Dunnage wants to see at home, at work and in underwear.

Her burgeoning corsetry business is starting to take off, thanks to some high-profile supporters. She’s marching with Melbourne’s suffragists for better conditions for women everywhere. And her family – her eccentric, confounding, adored father and aunt – are turning their minds to country retirement.

But as the clouds of war gather and an ominous figure starts skulking in the shadows of her life, Molly’s dreams begin to falter. Then, when true love drops out of the sky and into her arms, her hopes for her life and the world are entirely upended.

With the dark humour, richly detailed settings and vividly drawn characters we’ve come to expect from Rosalie Ham, this prequel to the international bestseller The Dressmaker is an unforgettable story of hopes lost, love found – and corsets loosened.

From The Dressmaker, we know the end of Molly’s story, so I was interested in the start. Her family (father and aunt) are delightful, but life is tough, and despite being talented and ambitious, things don’t go well for Molly. I was captivated by the story – the descriptions of poverty, but also joy and comfort, the corsets and costumes, the suffragette movement, the lovely Leander, the flamboyant Horatio, and finally the small mindedness and cruelty of rural Australia. Rosalie Ham is a great writer and this shows a slice of Australia in the early twentieth century just prior to World War One.

This quote really stuck with me, I have a friend who always says ‘you just need someone to love you’.

And all we need in this life is a single friend

A review.

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January 2, 2025 · 3:00 pm

Just for the Summer – Abby Jiminez

Just for the Summer – Abby Jimenez

I have a paper copy and an audible version of this novel – in the end I listened to it.

I have to say I think the cover is misleading – there wasn’t frolicking in the water.

Here’s the blurb …

Justin has a curse, and thanks to a Reddit thread, it’s now all over the internet. Every woman he dates goes on to find their soul mate the second they break up. When a woman slides into his DMs with the same problem, they come up with a plan: They’ll date each other and break up. Their curses will cancel each other’s out, and they’ll both go on to find the love of their lives. It’s a bonkers idea… and it just might work.

Emma hadn’t planned that her next assignment as a traveling nurse would be in Minnesota, but she and her best friend agree that dating Justin is too good of an opportunity to pass up, especially when they get to rent an adorable cottage on a private island on Lake Minnetonka.

It’s supposed to be a quick fling, just for the summer. But when Emma’s toxic mother shows up and Justin has to assume guardianship of his three siblings, they’re suddenly navigating a lot more than they expected–including catching real feelings for each other. What if this time Fate has actually brought the perfect pair together?

I enjoyed this novel, it has more heft than you would expect from the cover. It’s witty, well-written, and moving. It touches on some serious issues – abandonment and mental illness, but does so in a respectful thoughtful manner. And Justin is a fabulous hero.

A review.

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December 28, 2024 · 3:41 pm

Cuddy – Benjamin Myers

Cuddy – Benjamin Myers

As I read and enjoyed The Offing, I was keen to read this one.

Here’s the blurb …

Cuddy is a bold and experimental retelling of the story of the hermit St. Cuthbert, unofficial patron saint of the North of England. Incorporating poetry, prose, play, diary and real historical accounts to create a novel like no other, Cuddy straddles historical eras – from the first Christian-slaying Viking invaders of the holy island of Lindisfarne in the 8th century to a contemporary England defined by class and austerity. Along the way we meet brewers and masons, archers and academics, monks and labourers, their visionary voices and stories echoing through their ancestors and down the ages. And all the while at the centre sits Durham Cathedral and the lives of those who live and work around this place of pilgrimage – their dreams, desires, connections and communities.

This is definitely experimental – each section is written in a different style.

The first part is like the image above, plus there are quotes from (genuine) history books – that are ordered in a way that keeps the story moving.

There’s a section that’s in second person, a play, a diary, and contemporary fiction.

I think it’s successful, an alternative history of Durham Cathedral through the eyes of some of the people involved in its long history.

The writing is beautiful, here are some of my favourite quotes;

Down there, getting grubby on the bed of waxen leaves. Drunk on the flavour. Dizzy on the fist of it. Sweaty in the grip of it. Biting on the bone of it.

Sanctury is granted and the Galilee bell rung to mark the moment, and the seeker then made to wear a robe that bears the yellow sign of our Cuthbert sewn onto one shoulder to show the world the generosity of our saint who offers his home without judgement. The fugitive is then given quarters and food and the time in which to pray for forgiveness, give confession and make peace with himself, then say farewell to the city, for then he is made to leave and guaranteed safe passage by a chaperone acting on the king’s orders.

He made this for you, over many hours, days, many weeks, maybe. You have never before been given something that serves no purpose other than to express – what exactly? Love? His love for you?

Counting imposes a system of order and breaks the day into increments. Counting is a form of control. It is calming, like prayer.

I was a little bit disappointed it the ending. I wanted more for Michael, but I guess that is the point, events (history) moves inexorably forward. This is a fabulous book, full of great detail, characters and descriptions. Written (successfully) in a variety of styles.

A review

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December 27, 2024 · 4:38 pm

The Secret Hours – Mick Herron

The Secret Hours – Mick Herron

I needed something else to listen to and I have read the Slow Horses novels, so I thought I would give this one a go.

Here’s the blurb …

Two years ago, a hostile Prime Minister launched the Monochrome inquiry, investigating “historical over-reaching” by the British Secret Service. Monochrome’s mission was to ferret out any hint of misconduct by any MI5 officer—and allowed Griselda Fleet and Malcolm Kyle, the two civil servants seconded to the project, unfettered access to any and all confidential information in the Service archives in order to do so.  

But MI5’s formidable First Desk did not become Britain’s top spy by accident, and she has successfully thwarted the inquiry at every turn. Now the administration that created Monochrome has been ousted, the investigation is a total bust—and Griselda and Malcolm are stuck watching as their career prospects are washed away by the pounding London rain.

Until the eve of Monochrome’s shuttering, when an MI5 case file appears without explanation. It is the buried history of a classified operation in 1994 Berlin—an operation that ended in tragedy and scandal, whose cover-up has rewritten thirty years of Service history.

The Secret Hours is a dazzling entry point into Mick Herron’s body of work, a standalone spy thriller that is at once unnerving, poignant, and laugh-out-loud funny. It is also the breathtaking secret history that Slough House fans have been waiting for.

This is very much part of the Slow Horses world. Brinsley Miles and Alison North are characters (with different names) that we see in the Slow Horses novels. This is proper spy stuff, with fake identities, traps within traps, traitors, murders, and explosions. But what I like most is the wit – the dialogue and the descriptions are fabulously witty. Almost everyone has their own agenda and most of them are ruthless.

A review

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December 22, 2024 · 5:46 pm

Treasure and Dirt – Chris Hammer

Treasure and Dirt – Chris Hammer

I came across this on the Audible account and decided to give it a go. I have already read Scrublands, which I enjoyed (and I liked the adaptation), and I am a bit of a fan of Australian noir.

Here’s the blurb …

In the desolate outback town of Finnigans Gap, police struggle to maintain law and order. Thieves pillage opal mines, religious fanatics recruit vulnerable young people and billionaires do as they please.

Then an opal miner is found crucified and left to rot down his mine. Nothing about the miner’s death is straightforward, not even who found the body. Sydney homicide detective Ivan Lucic is sent to investigate, assisted by inexperienced young investigator Nell Buchanan.

But Finnigans Gap has already ended one police career and damaged others, and soon both officers face damning allegations and internal investigations. Have Ivan and Nell been set up and, if so, by whom?

As time runs out, their only chance at redemption is to find the killer. But the more secrets they uncover, the more harrowing the mystery becomes, as events from years ago take on a startling new significance.

For in Finnigans Gap, opals, bodies and secrets don’t stay buried for ever.

The descriptions of the heat, dust and flies were visceral. The two main characters (Ivan and Nell) are flawed, but good people, and we meet a cast of quirky out-back characters. For example, ‘the mayor’ with his tutu and armoured people carrier, ‘bullshit’ Bob, the Seer, and Trevor Topsoil (the names are very Dickensian). There’s twists and turns, conspiracies, and murder. A very satisfying read.

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December 19, 2024 · 5:27 pm

The Lonely Hearts Book Club – Lucy Gilmore

The Lonely Hearts Book Club – Lucy Gilmore

I read The Library of Borrowed Hearts and really enjoyed it, so when this one popped up on the Libby app I was keen to read it.

Here’s the blurb …

Sloane Parker lives a small, contained life as a librarian in her small, contained town. She never thinks of herself as lonely…but still she looks forward to that time every day when old curmudgeon Arthur McLachlan comes to browse the shelves and cheerfully insult her. Their sparring is such a highlight of Sloane’s day that when Arthur doesn’t show up one morning, she’s instantly concerned. And then another day passes, and another.

Anxious, Sloane tracks the old man down only to discover him all but bedridden…and desperately struggling to hide how happy he is to see her. Wanting to bring more cheer into Arthur’s gloomy life, Sloane creates an impromptu book club. Slowly, the lonely misfits of their sleepy town begin to find each other, and in their book club, find the joy of unlikely friendship. Because as it turns out, everyone has a special book in their heart—and a reason to get lost (and eventually found) within the pages.

This is not a romance, although if there is a sequel there might be a romance. This is about a group of lost and lonely people who connect, firstly through kindness and then through books. I loved all of the bookish references, in particular The Anne of Green Gables mentions (for me the novels of L M Montgomery were life changing – I have even been to Green Gables). The characterisation is great – no one is perfect, they all have flaws, and most of them are hiding from life.

A review

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December 17, 2024 · 3:58 pm

Newt’s Emerald – Garth Nix

Newt’s Emerald – Garth Nix

I was browsing Borrowbox looking for a new audio book and this popped up. It was described as a fantasy version of Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer – how could I resist?

Here’s the blurb …

On her eighteenth birthday, Lady Truthful, nicknamed “Newt,” will inherit her family’s treasure: the Newington Emerald. A dazzling heart-shaped gem, the Emerald also bestows its wearer with magical powers.

When the Emerald disappears one stormy night, Newt sets off to recover it. Her plan entails dressing up as a man, mustache included, as no well-bred young lady should be seen out and about on her own. While in disguise, Newt encounters the handsome but shrewd Major Harnett, who volunteers to help find the missing Emerald under the assumption that she is a man. Once she and her unsuspecting ally are caught up in a dangerous adventure that includes an evil sorceress, Newt realizes that something else is afoot: the beating of her heart.

In Newt’s Emerald, the bestselling author of Sabriel, Garth Nix, takes a waggish approach to the forever popular Regency romance and presents a charmed world where everyone has something to hide.

The description was true! Probably more Georgette Heyer than Jane Austen with all the cant terms (tiger, foxed, slowtop, etc.). I really enjoy it – so much fun. The description of the clothes was fabulous, and the balls, and the behaviour of the ton were exactly what you hope for in a regency romance. The magic added a bit of extra spice to the story.

It’s quite short – more of a novella – and easy to read. There is adventure, magic, a beautiful heroine, and a handsome (titled and wealthy) hero, why wouldn’t anyone want to read it?

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