This has languished in the ‘pile of death’ as my daughter refers to my storage of unread books. And then its number was selected (number 190).
Here’s the blurb …
‘He’s gone…’
When his daughter Samantha calls in the dead of night, John Rebus knows it’s not good news. Her husband has been missing for two days.
Rebus fears the worst – and knows from his lifetime in the police that his daughter will be the prime suspect.
He wasn’t the best father – the job always came first – but now his daughter needs him more than ever. But is he going as a father or a detective?
As he leaves at dawn to drive to the windswept coast – and a small town with big secrets – he wonders whether this might be the first time in his life where the truth is the one thing he doesn’t want to find…
I have read and enjoyed other Rebus novels. Not all of them and not in order, but I don’t think it is necessary to read them in order. I like the characters and the world-building and the twisty plots. These are some of the best crime novels I have read.
Another Inspector Gamache novel – number 7 (I still have plenty to go)
Here’s the blurb …
“Hearts are broken,” Lillian Dyson carefully underlined in a book. “Sweet relationships are dead.”
But now Lillian herself is dead. Found among the bleeding hearts and lilacs of Clara Morrow’s garden in Three Pines, shattering the celebrations of Clara’s solo show at the famed Musée in Montréal. Chief Inspector Gamache, the head of homicide at the Sûreté du Québec, is called to the tiny Québec village and there he finds the art world gathered, and with it a world of shading and nuance, a world of shadow and light. Where nothing is as it seems. Behind every smile there lurks a sneer. Inside every sweet relationship there hides a broken heart. And even when facts are slowly exposed, it is no longer clear to Gamache and his team if what they’ve found is the truth, or simply a trick of the light.
I do like these novels and all of the characters (well most of the characters – I still haven’t warmed to Peter (Clara’s husband)). I love the writing and the settings, and I am hoping for a bit of romance in the next one. For me these novels aren’t really about the crime, but how the characters live together with kindness and empathy.
I had heard about this novel – who can forget that title? – and, so when I saw it at Readings I had to buy it.
Here’s the blurb …
In this moving, poignant novel by the bestselling author of Birds of America we share a grown woman’s bittersweet nostalgia for the wildness of her youth.
The summer Berie was fifteen, she and her best friend Sils had jobs at Storyland in upstate New York where Berie sold tickets to see the beautiful Sils portray Cinderella in a strapless evening gown. They spent their breaks smoking, joking, and gossiping. After work they followed their own reckless rules, teasing the fun out of small town life, sleeping in the family station wagon, and drinking borrowed liquor from old mayonnaise jars. But no matter how wild, they always managed to escape any real danger—until the adoring Berie sees that Sils really does need her help—and then everything changes.
First, this book is beautifully written – witty and thoughtful. For me, it was about the intense friendships and expectations of young women countered by the disillusions of middle-age. Ordinary people living their lives and have the occasional extraordinary experience. This is one of my favourite novels this year.
Here are some of my favourite quotes:
I often think that at the centre of me is a voice that at last did split, a house in my heart so invaded with other people and their speech, friends I believed I was devoted to, people whose lives I can only guess at now, that it leaves me with the impression I am simply a collection of them, that they all existed for themselves, but had inadvertently formed me, then vanished. But, what: Should I have been expected to create my own self, out of nothing, out of thin, thin air and alone?
In his iconic way our father remained very much ours, And in the long shadows of his neglect, we fashioned our own selves, quietly improvised our own rules, as kids did in America, in the fatherless fifties and sixties.
When later in life she [Sils] would appear – in a dream with a group of people; or in a thought about friends I never saw anymore, those I had consented to lose and live without…
She was, probably, the nicest person I had ever known. Yet in the years following, for myself, I abandoned even believing in niceness or being nice. I could scarcely control myself, wherever I was, from telling everyone, anyone, what I thought of them. It was an urge, a compulsion, my tongue bitten a futile blue.
I read in this article, that the novel’s title comes from a painting Ms Moore bought.
I have been on a holiday, so I wanted some fun, light and easy reads.
Here’s the blurb …
Annie Walker is on a quest to find her perfect match—someone who complements her happy, quiet life running the local flower shop in Rome, Kentucky. But finding her dream man may be harder than Annie imagined. Everyone knows everyone in her hometown, and the dating prospects are getting fewer by the day. After she overhears her latest date say she is “so unbelievably boring,” Annie starts to think the problem might be her. Is it too late to become flirtatious and fun like the leading ladies in her favorite romance movies? Maybe she only needs a little practice . . . and Annie has the perfect person in mind to be her tutor: Will Griffin.
Will—the sexy, tattooed, and absolutely gorgeous bodyguard—is temporarily back in Rome, providing security for Amelia Rose as excitement builds for her upcoming marriage to Noah Walker, Annie’s brother. He has one personal objective while on the job: stay away from Annie Walker and any other possible attachments to this sleepy town. But no sooner than he gets settled, Will finds himself tasked with helping Annie find the love of her life by becoming the next leading lady of Rome, Kentucky. Will wants no part in changing the sweet and lovely Annie. He knows for a fact that some stuffy, straitlaced guy won’t make her happy, but he doesn’t have the heart to say no.
Amid steamy practice dates and strictly “educational” tutoring lessons, Annie discovers there are more layers to Will’s usual stoic attitude. As the lines of their friendship become dangerously blurred, Annie reconsiders her dream guy. Maybe her love life doesn’t need to be perfect—it just needs to be real.
I haven’t read the first in this series – When in Rome, but it’s not necessary. This was fun, I enjoyed the banter between Will and Annie, and the set-up (Will being Annie’s dating coach). I did find it a bit long, and the reasons for keeping them apart a bit flimsy.
Having said that, it is just a mismatch between me and this novel. People must love it, it has four stars on goodreads.
Can a modern woman take lessons in love from Shakespeare? Book Lovers meets 10 Things I Hate About You in this sparkling romantic comedy from beloved Aussie author Jessica Dettmann. ‘Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more. Men were deceivers ever …’ Since she was sixteen, Willa’s curious touchstone in life and work has been the 1993 film Much Ado About Nothing . She’s always looking for The Feeling, the stirring in her heart – and loins – that she gets when watching the opening scenes. Now she’s navigating her mid-thirties, her career as a romance publisher in an unusual family business, and her determination to remain child-free, while quietly holding out for a love as big as Beatrice and Benedick’s. But when relationships start to get complicated between Willa, her cousin Imogen and the four sons of the family she works for, and the events of her own life begin to mirror the plot of her beloved comedy, Willa must consider whether there is such a thing as too much ado. A delightfully Shakespearean romantic comedy about modern love, women’s roles and how the films and stories we grow up with shape us. ‘An absolute delight! With its witty dialogue, relatable characters, and laugh-out-loud moments, this book is the perfect escape.
I am also a fan of Much Ado About Nothing, probably not as much as Willa. This does loosely follow the plot – I did spend a bit of time wondering who the ‘Benedick’ would be. I found Willa to be a bit more caustic than witty at times, but overall this is a fun, well-written novel. And it is always nice to read an Australian novel, set somewhere that I recognise.
I have read this before and watched the BBC adaptation. The theme for my book club is ‘wives’ and so, this seemed an appropriate choice.
Here’s the blurb …
Molly Gibson is a young girl who has been raised by her widowed father. During a visit to the local aristocratic ‘great house’ of Lord and Lady Cumnor, she loses her way in the estate and falls asleep under a tree. When she wakes up, she gets distressed at the thought of spending the night at the mansion, but to her relief, her father arrives to collect her. Seven years later, Molly is an attractive and rather unworldly young woman, which arouses the interest of one of her father’s apprentices. Mr. Gibson discovers the young man’s secret affection and sends Molly to stay with the Hamleys of Hamley Hall. Molly falls in love with Roger, the younger son of Mrs. Hamley, but it appears that he is more interested in Cynthia, Molly’s new stepsister from her father’s second marriage. Elizabeth Gaskell (1810-1865) was an English novelist and short story writer. Her novels offer a detailed portrait of the lives of many strata of Victorian society, including the very poor, and are of interest to social historians as well as lovers of literature. Some of Gaskell’s best known novels are Cranford, North and South, and Wives and Daughters.
I listened to this, it was read by Prunella Scales, read very well, but I kept thinking of Fawlty Towers.
This was fabulous – the characters in particular. I think we all know people like Mrs. Kirkpatrick, and then Mrs. Gibson, self-serving and jealous, but with a veneer of kindness. The blustering Lady Cumnor who knows how everyone should live and tells them so (shades of Lady Catherine De Burgh, but much kinder). And then there are the lovely characters, Roger, Molly, Lady Harriet and Mrs Hamley. Kind and thoughtful.
The setting is good too – I could see Hamley Hall and The Towers, as well as the village of Hollingford.
What was it about? People chosing their life partners. Some of the partnerships were good – Lord and Lady Cumnor, Squire Hamley and his wife, the Browning sisters, but Dr and Mrs. Gibson were ill-suited. She wanted to be supported financially and he wanted a mother for his daughter. They didn’t get to know each other well enough to see how very ill-suited they were. Cynthia is a flirt and broke some hearts (including Roger), but might settle in the end. I think the key message is not to rush into anything, but take time to get to know someone well.
What Jane Austen’s Characters Read (and Why) – Susan Allen Ford
I must have read about this, or heard it on a podcast. I was very interested.
Here’s the blurb …
The first detailed account of Austen’s characters’ reading experience to date, this book explores both what her characters read and what their literary choices would have meant to Austen’s own readership, both at the time and today.
Jane Austen was a voracious and extensive reader, so it’s perhaps no surprise that many of her characters display a similar appetite for the written word, from Mr. Collins in Pride and Prejudice to Fanny Price in Mansfield Park. Beginning by looking at Austen’s own reading as well as her interest in readers’ responses to her work, the book then focuses on each of her novels, looking at the particular works that her characters read and unpacking the multiple (and often surprising) ways in which these inform the reading of Austen’s works. In doing so, it uses Austen’s own love of reading to invite us to rethink the way in which she thought about her characters and their lives beyond the novels.
This was fascinating. There is a chapter on each Austen novel (Mansfield Park gets two!). And the author describes how Austen is using contemporary literature in her novels. Ideas that the readers of the time would appreciate, and which add nuance to the novels. For example, in the chapter on Pride and Prejudice, Allen Ford discusses Conduct Literature – Fordyce’s Sermons, among others.
It is extraordinary and if I could only bring myself to read these books, I would have a greater insight into Austen’s novels.
It was very easy to read, no academic jargon, and Allen Ford has a conversational style.
Two writers compete for the chance to tell the larger-than-life story of a woman with more than a couple of plot twists up her sleeve in this dazzling and sweeping new novel from Emily Henry.
Alice Scott is an eternal optimist still dreaming of her big writing break. Hayden Anderson is a Pulitzer-prize winning human thundercloud. And they’re both on balmy Little Crescent Island for the same reason: To write the biography of a woman no one has seen in years–or at least to meet with the octogenarian who claims to be the Margaret Ives. Tragic heiress, former tabloid princess, and daughter of one of the most storied (and scandalous) families of the 20th Century.
When Margaret invites them both for a one-month trial period, after which she’ll choose the person who’ll tell her story, there are three things keeping Alice’s head in the game.
One: Alice genuinely likes people, which means people usually like Alice—and she has a whole month to win the legendary woman over.
Two: She’s ready for this job and the chance to impress her perennially unimpressed family with a Serious Publication
Three: Hayden Anderson, who should have no reason to be concerned about losing this book, is glowering at her in a shaken-to-the core way that suggests he sees her as competition.
But the problem is, Margaret is only giving each of them pieces of her story. Pieces they can’t swap to put together because of an ironclad NDA and an inconvenient yearning pulsing between them every time they’re in the same room.
And it’s becoming abundantly clear that their story—just like the tale Margaret’s spinning—could be a mystery, tragedy, or love ballad…depending on who’s telling it.
What I like about Emily Henry’s novels is the guaranteed happy ending, but more than that I like that the thing that is keeping the couple separate is reasonable, not some villain or some made up conflict (‘you’re to good for me’). The writing is good, and there is some emotional heft to the story.
I just had a long weekend (ANZAC day on Friday) and I started and finished it. Easy reading, but very enjoyable.
Some quotes
“Clickbait,” I say. “before the advent of clicking.” “More or less,” she agrees. “That’s what my family used to make themselves very rich – and like Dove Franklin says, powerful too. But in the end, it doesn’t matter. Even if you’re the one to build the monster, you’re never going to be able to control it. It’ll gladly eat you alive and floss with your bones, once it’s finished with everyone else.
“No one knows how ‘normal’ or ‘strange’ their own life is until they see the alternative.”
My book club is reading James by Percival Everett. I have already read it (as part of my Booker short list reading), so I thought I would listen to Huckleberry Finn and see how they were connected.
Here is the Wikipedia summary
Commentators readily distinguish three parts in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. In the first, the author believes he is writing a children’s entertainment, a sequel to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Then, at the beginning of Chapter XVI, he experiences difficulties and stops writing. It is at this point that his hero questions the notions of good and evil that he has been taught. It will take Twain seven years before he regains his creative momentum. Finally, in a third part— a highly controversial “burlesque about-face —the character of Tom Sawyer reappears, selfish, cruel, and unconscious. Huck falls under his influence again, and the author returns to the “Tom Sawyer” spirit of the beginning.
This is not my favourite book – I know it is an American classic, but it wore me down. The constant use of the N word, and the bit at the end when they play at rescuing Jim was excruciatingly awful. The sections where it was Huck and Jim having adventures were enjoyable and interesting.
I know it is meant to be a satire and we see characters that are more like caricatures, and Huck grapples with the morality, first of helping a slave escape and then secondly of slavery itself. But I feel it has not aged well, and James does a much better job of show casing the awfulness of slavery and the selfishness (and ignorance) of the people white people.
This was my next random selection from my TBR (number 66). I read The Gathering (I don’t seem to have blogged about it). I wasn’t 100% sure about this one, but it was nominated for the Women’s Fiction prize, which I like, so I thought I would give it a go (I think it was a Kobo deal).
Here’s the blurb …
An incandescent novel about the inheritance of trauma, wonder, and love across three generations of women.
Nell McDaragh never knew her grandfather, the famed Irish poet Phil McDaragh. But his love poems seem to speak directly to her. Restless, full of verve and wit, twenty-two-year-old Nell leaves her mother Carmel’s home to find her voice as a writer and live a life of her choosing. Carmel, too, knows the magic of her Daddo’s poetry—and the broken promises within its verses. When Phil abandons the family, Carmel struggles to reconcile “the poet” with the man whose desertion scars Carmel, her sister, and their cancer-ridden mother.
The Wren, the Wren brings to life three generations of women who contend with inheritances—of abandonment and of sustaining love that is “more than a strand of DNA, but a rope thrown from the past, a fat twisted rope, full of blood.” In sharp prose studded with crystalline poetry, Anne Enright masterfully braids a family story of longing, betrayal, and hope.
We have multiple view points (even a tiny bit of Phil) and different time periods. We watch the women (Nell and Carmel) navigate life, love and trauma. The characters are fully formed and leap of the page – I found Nell to be quite annoying. There is also snippets of ‘Phil’s’ poetry
Part of the Acknowledgements
There is domestic violence and poor decisions, but ultimately feels positive.
