Category Archives: Fiction – Light

August 27, 2009 · 1:44 am

Mariana – Monica Dickens

mariana

I loved this book. It was definitely of its time and is probably a bit dated now.

Here is what Amazon.co.uk has to say about it …

Monica Dickens’s first book, published in 1940, could easily have been called Mariana – an Englishwoman. For that is what it is: the story of a young English girl’s growth towards maturity in the 1930s. We see Mary at school in Kensington and on holiday in Somerset; her attempt at drama school; her year in Paris learning dressmaking and getting engaged to the wrong man; her time as a secretary and companion; and her romance with Sam. We chose this book because we wanted to publish a novel like Dusty Answer, I Capture the Castle or The Pursuit of Love, about a girl encountering life and love, which is also funny, readable and perceptive; it is a ‘hot-water bottle’ novel, one to curl up with on the sofa on a wet Sunday afternoon. But it is more than this. As Harriet Lane remarks in her Preface: ‘It is Mariana’s artlessness, its enthusiasm, its attention to tiny, telling domestic detail that makes it so appealing to modern readers.’ And John Sandoe Books in Sloane Square (an early champion of Persephone Books) commented: ‘The contemporary detail is superb – Monica Dickens’s descriptions of food and clothes are particularly good – and the characters are observed with vitality and humour. Mariana is written with such verve and exuberance that we would defy any but academics and professional cynics not to enjoy it.’

And I think that pretty much sums it up – definitely worth reading if you liked I Capture the Castle. I haven’t read the two others they mention in the review, but I shall be looking out for them.

Here are some other reviews …

http://abookaweek.blogspot.com/2008/01/mariana-by-monica-dickens.html

http://booksandcooks.blogspot.com/2009/07/mariana.html

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August 18, 2009 · 12:57 am

The Making of a Marchioness – Frances Hodgson Burnett

makingmarchioness

I haven’t read any of Hodgson Burnett’s work before – not even The Secret Garden. I was quite keen to read this one, but found it quite difficult to find. In the end I bought it from Persephone – it’s a beautiful edition (not the one shown above, but one of their standard grey covers) with lovely thick pages.

I loved it – it’s a light romantic period piece. I enjoyed all of the references to fashion and the social mores of the day.

I can’t imagine any modern woman acting at all like Emily Fox-Seton – I’m sure we are all aware of our worth today and wouldn’t be so innocently accomodating (we would know when someone is taking advantage of us), but that just added to the pure escapist joy.

Here’s the blurb from one book seller …

Little Lord Fauntleroy and The Secret Garden are bestsellers, but the lesser-known adult novel The Making of a Marchioness remains a much-loved favorite among many. Unjustly out of print for years, this neglected classic deserves its place alongside Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre.

Part one, the original Marchioness, is in the Cinderella tradition, while part two, called The Methods of Lady Walderhurst, is an absorbing melodrama–a realistic commentary on late-Victorian marriage.

Frances Hodgson Burnett (1849-1924) grew up in Manchester. In 1886, Little Lord Fauntleroy was a huge popular success; from then on Burnett wrote for both children and adults.

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July 26, 2009 · 5:25 am

Finger Lickin’ Fifteen – Janet Evanovich

fingerlickin15

There is something quite comforting about reading Janet Evanovich. The Stephanie Plum novels are all the same – there will be explosions, there will be sexual tension between Stephanie and Ranger or Stephanie and Morelli or maybe both, there will be incredibly incompetent bounty hunter episodes.

Having said that, there also hilarious – definitely a guilty pleasure.

Here is the blurb from the back …

UNBUCKLE YOUR BELT AND PULL UP A CHAIR.  IT’S THE SPICIEST, SAUCIEST, MOST RIB-STICKING PLUM YET.

Recipe for disaster:

Celebrity chef Stanley Chipotle comes to Trenton to participate in a barbecue cook-off and loses his head –literally.

Throw in some spice:

Bail bonds office worker Lula is witness to the crime, and the only one she’ll talk to is Trenton cop, Joe Morelli.

Pump up the heat:

Chipotle’s sponsor is offering a million dollar reward to anyone who can provide information leading to the capture of the killers.

Stir the pot:

Lula recruits bounty hunter Stephanie Plum to help her find the killers and collect the moolah.

Add a secret ingredient:

Stephanie Plum’s Grandma Mazur.  Enough said.

Bring to a boil:

Stephanie Plum is working overtime tracking felons for the bonds office at night and snooping for security expert Carlos Manoso, A.K.A. Ranger, during the day.  Can Stephanie hunt down two killers, a traitor, five skips, keep her grandmother out of the sauce, solve Ranger’s problems and not jump his bones?

Warning:

Habanero hot.  So good you’ll want seconds.  

If you like to read trashy novels and you like them ‘racy and pacy’ then this book is for you. I do wonder how much longer Evanovich can keep going with these stories. However, I will definitely be buying whatever number 16 ends up being called.

At the moment I’m rereading The Children’s Bookby A S Byatt and The Lost Life by Steven Carroll, so expect reviews of them soon.

You might also want to check out my review of Claire Harman’s Jane’s Fame here. Just to prove I do read more than pulp.

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May 27, 2009 · 7:33 am

New Moon – Stephanie Meyer

As I found the first in this series strangely compelling (Twilight), I thought I would try the second. I have to say if I wasn’t on a plane with nothing else to read and no movie to watch I wouldn’t have finished it. It was badly written (or perhaps edited) and Bella was simply annoying. I can see why teenage girls love this stuff – it’s like the soapiest soap. However, just because they like it doesn’t mean it’s good for them. Is anyone else disturbed by that fact that Edward is 100 and something and Bella only 18?

The first half is painfully slow and what is it teaching girls about relationship break downs? Just fall in a hole and stop living?

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April 7, 2009 · 8:21 am

The Forgotten Garden – Kate Morton

This month we’re reading The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton. Selected because Kate Morgan went to the University of Queensland as did one of our book club members.

Here’s the stuff on the back …

A lost child
On the eve of the first world war, a little girl is found abandoned on a ship to Australia. A mysterious woman called the Authoress had promised to look after her – but the Authoress has disappeared without a trace.
A terrible secret
On the night of her twenty-first birthday, Nell O’Connor learns a secret that will change her life forever. Decades later, she embarks upon a search for the truth that leads her to the windswept Cornish coast and the strange and beautiful Blackhurst Manor, once owned by the aristocratic Mountrachet family.
A mysterious inheritance
On Nell’s death, her grand-daughter, Cassandra, comes into an unexpected inheritance. Cliff Cottage and its forgotten garden are notorious amongst the Cornish locals for the secrets they hold – secrets about the doomed Mountrachet family and their ward Eliza Makepeace, a writer of dark Victorian fairytales. It is here that Cassandra will finally uncover the truth about the family, and solve the century-old mystery of a little girl lost.

I found this story compelling. I wanted to know what happened to Nell, who were her parents. Ms Morton certainly knows how to write a ripping yarn. The novel is told from the point of view (chapter about) of many different characters; Cassandra, Nell, Eliza etc. Thus the novel also moves forwards and backwards in time – revealing more information (or more red herrings as the case may be). I can see this novel being made into movie (although the ending might not suit Hollywood).

I thought the characters were well written (if a bit cliched) and I do think they live beyond the page.

Overall I liked this book, but it is airport fiction (like Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code). However, I thought it was well researched with lots of seemingly disparate threads that came together in a suitable ending.

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January 27, 2009 · 4:08 am

The Diary of a Provincial Lady – E.M Delafield

I bought this book because of the cover.

It’s hilarious – very between the wars. For modern readers it’s a bit like Bridget Jones’ s Diary. In fact I wouldn’t be surprised if Helen Fielding was inspired by this (and Pride and Prejudice of course).

Here’s the blurb …

Behind this rather prim title lies the hilarious fictional diary of a disaster-prone lady of the 1930s, and her attempts to keep her somewhat ramshackle household from falling into chaos: there’s her husband Robert, who, when he’s not snoozing behind The Times, does everything with grumbling reluctance; her gleefully troublesome children; and a succession of tricky servants who invariably seem to gain the upper hand. And if her domestic trials are not enough, she must keep up appearances. Particularly with the maddeningly patronising Lady Boxe, whom our provincial lady eternally (and unsuccessfully) tries to compete with.

Definitely recommend reading this. It is an extremely easy read with laugh out loud funny moments.

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January 26, 2009 · 6:01 am

The Lace Reader – Brunonia Barry

I won this book at a Quiz night. It’s an uncorrected proof so I have no idea where it came from or who donated it. It has been sitting on my ‘To Be Read’ shelve for quite a while, but I finally decided to give it a go.

I liked it.

Here is the stuff on the back …

A cross between The Memory-Keeper’s Daughter and The Sixth Sense, this mesmerising first novel takes the reader into a world of secrets, confused identities, lies and half-truths, culminating in an extraordinary twist.

‘My name is Towner Whitney. No, that’s not exactly true. Me real first name is Sophya. Never believe me, I lie all of the time’.

Towner Whitney comes from a family of Salem women who can read the future in the patterns in lace, and who have a guarded history of secrets going back for generations. Exiled in California, she receives a phone call telling her that her beloved Great Aunt Eva has disappeared and Towner must return to her home for an absence of 17 years …

A literary page-turner with depth, narrative power and a story that novels like The Thirteenth Tale can only dream of, The Lace Reader is bewitching and tightly plotted read.

The characters in this novel are beautifully written – crazy and damaged, but very real. The plot is intricate – like a piece of lace – with Towner as the still point at the centre.

This novel has a bit of everything; romance, mystery, crime and is an ambitious (and successful) first novel. I look forward to reading subsequent novels by Ms Barry.

This book reminds me of Kate Akinson’s Behind the Scenes at the Museum same kind of family mystery – that feeling that everyone else knows something.

Here are some links

http://www.lacereader.com/

If you want to buy the book …

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January 19, 2009 · 8:26 am

Plum Spooky – Janet Evanovich

This was my ‘beach’ read. It’s racy and pacy. Read it because it’s hilarious (and it will only take a few hours – really!).

Here’s a link

http://www.evanovich.com/plum_spookyjacket.html

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January 1, 2009 · 7:30 am

How I Live Now – Meg Rosoff

I got this book out of the library – from the young adult section, but I think it transcends that definition. The blurb …

“EVERY WAR HAS turning points and every person too.” Fifteen-year-old Daisy is sent from Manhattan to England to visit her aunt and cousins she’s never met: three boys near her age, and their little sister. Her aunt goes away on business soon after Daisy arrives. The next day bombs go off as London is attacked and occupied by an unnamed enemy. As power fails, and systems fail, the farm becomes more isolated. Despite the war, it’s a kind of Eden, with no adults in charge and no rules, a place where Daisy’s uncanny bond with her cousins grows into something rare and extraordinary. But the war is everywhere, and Daisy and her cousins must lead each other into a world that is unknown in the scariest, most elemental way.

A riveting and astonishing story.

Daisy is sent to England to be out of the way of her step mother Davina. It is a tense time, her Aunt Penn, is busy working on ways to avoid war – she leaves England  only a day or two after Daisy arrives to attend a conference in Oslo. War  is imminent. Daisy and Edmund (her cousin) fall in love – bombs go off and England is occupied. Most of the English military are fighting in conflicts overseas, so it is easy to occupy the country. At first the war has no impact on the children – they continue having a lovely summer holiday, but eventually the house is  requisitioned and the girls (Daisy and Piper) are sent to one farm and the boys (Edmund and Isaac) to another. Edmund and Daisy have a special relationship – she can hear him in her thoughts and he seems to be able to hear her thoughts, answering questions before she has asked them etc.

Daisy’s plan is to find the boys. They take on a few farming jobs and she stores away information about the biys location – east of here. Then all hell breaks lose and the girls are on their own in the English countryside. They continue to try to find the boys – horrific things happen, but not to them and evenutally they end up back at their house and Daisy is forcebly returned to the US. She eventually returns to England and we hear the rest of the story.

Ms Rosoff’s version of a 21st century war is scary in it’s believability – no one even knows why there is a war, there are suicide bombers, poison in the water, no electricity and snipers. And the world really falls apart when there is no electricity – how do you milk the cows? keep the milk cold? etc.

I recommend this book – it starts of as a story of teenage angst and romance (is she anorexic), but ends up being an interesting story about survival and the break down of civilization.

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December 31, 2008 · 2:00 am

A Thousand Splendid Suns – Khaled Hosseini

I wouldn’t have chosen to read this book. My mother left it behind and I thought I would give it a go. I think I was put off by all of the hype surrounding The Kite Runner (I tend to be disappointed when something is universally acclaimed).

For me this book is all about the story – I thought the writing was a bit ordinary – but the story is compelling. I know very little about Afghanistan and had no idea that the war(s) had been going on for so long. And although, I knew women were treated badly, a first hand account (albeit fictional) carries much more impact.

This is a sad tale – probably not for the faint hearted – but it’s worth reading for the insight into the lives of Afghan women.

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