Category Archives: 3

The Wakes – Dianne Yarwood

The Wakes – Dianne Yarwood

The shop assistant at The Lane told me that this was similar to Lessons in Chemistry, so I was keen to read it. Clearly she hasn’t read either of them (or read one but not the other?). They are absolutely nothing alike!

Here’s the blurb …

It’s winter in Sydney and the lives of two strangers have fallen apart. Newly separated and in need of a distraction, Clare agrees to help her neighbour Louisa with a funeral catering business that has bitten off more than it can chew. Chris, an emergency doctor, has witnessed too many deaths but still feels compelled to attend the occasional wake.

When Clare and Chris meet, the good in their lives is slowly illuminated. After all, the thing about death is that it makes life matter.

Funny, moving, wise and hopeful, The Wakes is an irresistible debut novel about old friends, lost love, good food and new beginnings.

I enjoyed it, not as much as Lessons in Chemistry though. It’s a story of being blind-sided and then picking up the pieces and getting on with things, only to realise that your life is better now. It is also about grief and loss and making the most of each day. There are some funny bits, definitely emotional bits, and I really want to try the amazing chicken sandwiches (how good could a chicken sandwich be?).

A review

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Old God’s Time – Sebastian Barry

Old God’s Time – Sebastian Barry

I enjoyed Days without End and The Secret Scriptures, but I was a bit wary of reading this one. I kept seeing it in various different places though, so I thought I would give it a go.

Here’s the blurb …

Recently retired policeman Tom Kettle is settling into the quiet of his new home, a lean-to annexed to a Victorian castle overlooking the Irish Sea. For months he has barely seen a soul, catching only glimpses of his eccentric landlord and a nervous young mother who has moved in next door. Occasionally, fond memories return, of his family, his beloved wife June and their two children, Winnie and Joe.

But when two former colleagues turn up at his door with questions about a decades-old case, one which Tom never quite came to terms with, he finds himself pulled into the darkest currents of his past.

A beautiful, haunting novel, in which nothing is quite as it seems, Old God’s Time is about what we live through, what we live with, and what may survive of us.

I found the blurb quite misleading – I thought he would be dragged back into an unsolved case and it would be a crime novel. But that’s not what happens, he thinks back on various incidents in his life. Tom is old and alone (all of his family have died) and he is confused. So a very unreliable narrator – he had conversations which may or may not have taken place. Altogether I found it quite a challenge to follow; I think that’s the point, but the writing is beautiful. I can forgive a lot for lovely sentences.

This book is not for the faint-hearted, there is horrific child sexual abuse (only described retrospectively).

A review

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Real Tigers – Mick Herron

Real Tigers – Mick Herron

This was also in Mr H’s audible library and having read the first two, I decided to read this one (and then I will be ready when Apple releases the next season).

Here’s the blurb …

London’s Slough House is where disgraced MI5 operatives are reassigned to spend the rest of their spy careers pushing paper. But when one of these “slow horses” is kidnapped by a former soldier bent on revenge, the agents must breach the defenses of Regent’s Park to steal valuable intel in exchange for their comrade’s safety. The kidnapping is only the tip of the iceberg, however, as the agents uncover a larger web of intrigue that involves not only a group of private mercenaries but also the highest authorities in the Security Service. After years spent as the lowest on the totem pole, the slow horses suddenly find themselves caught in the midst of a conspiracy that threatens not only the future of Slough House, but of MI5 itself.

I think this is my favourite of the three; machinations within machinations and Lamb is grotesque, but occasionally funny. The other slow horses are kind and loyal (maybe not Roddy, but being in his head is hilarious).

This is a fast-paced, easy to read spy drama (slightly horrifying in that they always seem to be scheming against each other and not the enemy).

A review.

I have been outside my comfort zone with my reading lately – thriller (Geneva) and now this one, but I am currently reading Old God’s Time and listening to The Unknown Ajax, so there will be a return to normality soon.

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Filed under 3, Fiction, Spy

Wild Apples – Minnie Darke

Wild Apples – Minnie Darke

This was free from Audible and it sounded like something I would like. It’s quite short – about five hours – so I was prepared to give it a go. And I enjoyed it. A nice romance with a mature heroine.

Here’s the blurb …

Jane Bancroft has returned to Lovett, Tasmania after 20 years away, minus one ex-husband but plus one outraged teenage daughter. Life in the city – life in general – hasn’t quite panned out as she would have liked. With her mother unwell, now seems as good a time as any to come back to where it all began, and perhaps even start a new life here in the heart of Tasmanian apple country. But the legacy of Jane’s wild apple youth has not been forgotten by small-town Lovett and her homecoming is haunted by past tragedy.

Jane’s not the only child of Lovett returning home. Drew Pascoe, one-time scrawny kid working the pub kitchens, now handsome celebrity chef, is also back in town and looking to re-establish his roots. With the blessing of the locals and in an effort to reinvigorate tourism to Lovett, Drew has restored the old homestead Valleyfield, and plans to televise its opening as Tasmania’s hottest new dining destination. He knows a key ingredient to success is a unique homegrown flavour: Jane’s mother Thea, crowned Apple Queen of Lovett and the cantankerous guardian of the legendary recipe for apple snow. But the charm offensive he’s launched on Thea is not the only reason he’s keen to spend quite so much time with Jane.

Between her mother’s bitterness, her daughter’s escapades and the struggle to rebuild a her life, helping Lovett’s new golden boy with his grand plans are not Jane’s priority. But Drew’s enchanting persistence is making Jane realise that mending old wounds and a homegrown romance may in fact be the only way to start a fresh new chapter.

This was an easy to read (listen to) story. Drew was a lovely hero (possibly a bit too understanding). I think many of stuck in the sandwich generation (teen-aged children and aging parents) can appreciate the difficulties of Jane’s life. I always like a return to a small town romance.

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Exactly – Simon Winchester

Exactly – Simon Winchester

I has this languishing on my Kindle (was it a daily or monthly deal?).

Bestselling author Simon Winchester writes a magnificent history of the pioneering engineers who developed precision machinery to allow us to see as far as the moon and as close as the Higgs boson. Precision is the key to everything. It is an integral, unchallenged and essential component of our modern social, mercantile, scientific, mechanical and intellectual landscapes. The items we value in our daily lives – a camera, phone, computer, bicycle, car, a dishwasher perhaps – all sport components that fit together with precision and operate with near perfection. We also assume that the more precise a device the better it is. And yet whilst we live lives peppered and larded with precision, we are not, when we come to think about it, entirely sure what precision is, or what it means. How and when did it begin to build the modern world?

Simon Winchester seeks to answer these questions through stories of precision’s pioneers. Exactly takes us back to the origins of the Industrial Age, to Britain where he introduces the scientific minds that helped usher in modern production: John `Iron-Mad’ Wilkinson, Henry Maudslay, Joseph Bramah, Jesse Ramsden, and Joseph Whitworth. Thomas Jefferson exported their discoveries to the United States as manufacturing developed in the early twentieth century, with Britain’s Henry Royce developing the Rolls Royce and Henry Ford mass producing cars, Hattori’s Seiko and Leica lenses, to today’s cutting-edge developments from Europe, Asia and North America.

As he introduces the minds and methods that have changed the modern world, Winchester explores fundamental questions. Why is precision important? What are the different tools we use to measure it? Who has invented and perfected it? Has the pursuit of the ultra-precise in so many facets of human life blinded us to other things of equal value, such as an appreciation for the age-old traditions of craftsmanship, art, and high culture? Are we missing something that reflects the world.

It has 9 chapters based on a level of precision:

  • Stars, Seconds, Cylinders and Steam.
  • Extremely flat and Incredily Close
  • A Gun in Every Home, a Clock in Every Cabin.
  • On the Verge of a More Perfect World
  • The Irrestibible Lure of the Highway
  • Precision and Peril, Six Miles High
  • Through a glass, Distinctly
  • Where am I and What is the Time?
  • Squeezing Beyond Boundaries

I particularly enjoyed the chapters on the Hubble Telescope (and its issues) and the shrinking of transistors on chips.

I think there is a lot we take for granted in a world of mass production; we expected parts to be interchangeable, i.e. we can just replace a part when it breaks down and not have to hand-machine something specific to replace the broken bit.

This is a fascinating book with a lot of information about precision, but also about the people who make precise things and who are trying to push the boundaries of precision.

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Anne’s World – A New Century of Anne of Green Gables, edited by Irene Gammel and Benjamin Lefebvre

Anne’s world – A New Century of Anne of Green Gables

I bought this soon after it was published (way back in 2010) and I finally read it. It’s a series of papers written around the time of the 100th anniversary of the publishing of Anne of Green Gables.

Here’s the blurb …

The recent 100 year anniversary of the first publication of L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables has inspired renewed interest in one of Canada’s most beloved fictional icons. The international appeal of the red-haired orphan has not diminished over the past century, and the cultural meanings of her story continue to grow and change. The original essays in Anne’s World offer fresh and timely approaches to issues of culture, identity, health, and globalization as they apply to Montgomery’s famous character and to today’s readers.

In conversation with each other and with the work of previous experts, the contributors to Anne’s World discuss topics as diverse as Anne in fashion, the global industry surrounding Anne, how the novel can be used as a tool to counteract depression, and the possibility that Anne suffers from Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. Anne in translation and its adaptation for film and television are also considered. By establishing new ways to examine one of popular culture’s most beloved characters, the essays of Anne’s World demonstrate the timeless and ongoing appeal of L.M. Montgomery’s writing.

It covers a diverse range of topics; from translations to adaptations, bibliotherapy, etc. I skipped some of the chapters – the one on Fetal Alcohol syndrome for example, if anything I think Anne has ADHD. But this was an interesting selection of papers, and made me want to read the novel again and dig into LM Montgomery’s journals.

It is quite an academic book, but don’t let that put you off, it’s easy to read. And there are lots of foot notes you can explorer for extra reading.

I can’t find a review of this book, but here is a link to an article Margaret Atwood wrote about Anne of Green Gables.

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Filed under 3, Miscellaneous, Non-Fiction

The Wind Knows My Name – Isabel Allende

The Wind Knows My Name – Isabel Allende

A friend lent me this novel. I wouldn’t have read it otherwise – I read something by her years ago and wasn’t that taken with it. However, I really enjoyed this one, so I am glad I read it.

Here’s the blurb …

This powerful and moving novel from the New York Times bestselling author of A Long Petal of the Sea weaves together past and present, tracing the ripple effects of war and immigration on one child in Europe in 1938 and another in the United States in 2019.

Vienna, 1938. Samuel Adler was six years old when his father disappeared during Kristallnacht—the night their family lost everything. Samuel’s mother secured a spot for him on the last Kindertransport train out of Nazi-occupied Austria to the United Kingdom, which he boarded alone, carrying nothing but a change of clothes and his violin.

Arizona, 2019. Eight decades later, Anita Diaz, a blind seven-year-old girl, and her mother board another train, fleeing looming danger in El Salvador and seeking refuge in the United States. However, their arrival coincides with the new family separation policy, and Anita finds herself alone at a camp in Nogales. She escapes through her trips to Azabahar, a magical world of the imagination she created with her sister back home.

Anita’s case is assigned to Selena Duran, a young social worker who enlists the help of a promising lawyer from one of San Francisco’s top law firms. Together they discover that Anita has another family member in the United States: Leticia Cordero, who is employed at the home of now eighty-six-year-old Samuel Adler, linking these two lives.

Spanning time and place, The Wind Knows My Name is both a testament to the sacrifices that parents make and a love letter to the children who survive the most unfathomable dangers—and never stop dreaming.

This is a novel about child refugees; a small boy fleeing Germany, a young girl and her dad leaving El Salvador, a mother and daughter also leaving El Salvador. It’s about acts of cruelty (both thoughtless and deliberate) and acts of kindness. It is about families – biological and the ones we make for ourselves. But, at its heart, it is about the strength of the human spiriit.

A review

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The Curfew – T M Logan

The Curfew T M Logan

I heard about this on Jen Campbell’s booktube – in particular the audio version read by Richard Armitage. Surprisingly, it was available on Borrowbox.

Here’s the blurb …

Your son said he was home. WHY DID HE LIE?

It’s time to preorder the brand new up-all-night thriller from the Sunday Times bestselling author of Richard and Judy pick The Holiday, now a major TV Drama.

I should have known something was wrong. I should have sensed it. Felt it in the air, like the build-up of pressure before a thunderstorm, that heavy, loaded calm.

The curfew
Andy and Laura are good parents. They tell their son Connor that he can go out with friends to celebrate completing his exams, but he must be home by midnight.

The lie
When Connor misses his curfew, it sets off a series of events that will change the lives of five families forever.

The truth?
Because five teenagers went into the woods that night, but only four came out. And telling the truth might mean losing everything…

WHAT WOULD YOU DO?

First, T M Logan writes excellently about teenagers and being a parent of teenagers and how things change over time. Secondly, Richard Armitage is a fabulous narrator.

The plot is a little bit predictable, but how it all gets discovered is not. It’s quite the page turner – some of Andy’s actions (he’s the dad) annoyed me (quite a few of the things he did just made things worse).

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Filed under 3, Crime, Fiction

Hello Beautiful – Ann Napolitano

Hello Beautiful – Ann Napolitano

This one was recommended by a friend whose taste is impeccable. I put myself in the queue at the library and it arrived surprisingly fast.

Here’s the blurb …

An emotionally layered and engrossing story of a family that asks: Can love make a broken person whole?

William Waters grew up in a house silenced by tragedy, where his parents could hardly bear to look at him, much less love him. So it’s a relief when his skill on the basketball court earns him a scholarship to college, far away from his childhood home. He soon meets Julia Padavano, a spirited and ambitious young woman who surprises William with her appreciation of his quiet steadiness. With Julia comes her family; she is inseparable from her three younger sisters: Sylvie, the dreamer, is happiest with her nose in a book and imagines a future different from the expected path of wife and mother; Cecelia, the family’s artist; and Emeline, who patiently takes care of all of them. Happily, the Padavanos fold Julia’s new boyfriend into their loving, chaotic household.

But then darkness from William’s past surfaces, jeopardizing not only Julia’s carefully orchestrated plans for their future, but the sisters’ unshakeable loyalty to one another. The result is a catastrophic family rift that changes their lives for generations. Will the loyalty that once rooted them be strong enough to draw them back together when it matters most?

Vibrating with tenderness, Hello Beautiful is a gorgeous, profoundly moving portrait of what’s possible when we choose to love someone not in spite of who they are, but because of it.

I thought this novel was beautifully written, warm and generous, but I think it could be edited – there were times where I felt like I was (essentially) reading the same thing.

A review

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The Sentence – Louise Erdrich

The Sentence – Louise Erdrich

My local library recommended this and I had read La Rose, so I thought I would give it a go.

Here’s the blurb …

The Sentence asks what we owe to the living, the dead, to the reader and to the book.

A small independent bookstore in Minneapolis is haunted from November 2019 to November 2020 by the store’s most annoying customer. Flora dies on All Souls’ Day, but she simply won’t leave the store. Tookie, who has landed a job selling books after years of incarceration that she survived by reading with murderous attention, must solve the mystery of this haunting while at the same time trying to understand all that occurs in Minneapolis during a year of grief, astonishment, isolation, and furious reckoning.

The Sentence begins on All Souls’ Day 2019 and ends on All Souls’ Day 2020. Its mystery and proliferating ghost stories during this one year propel a narrative as rich, emotional, and profound as anything Louise Erdrich has written.

This book slowed me down (as you can see by the length between posts). It is set during 2020 and I enjoyed the Covid and BLM (Black Lives Matter) references. Ghost stories are not my thing (even if you can read them metaphorically). I loved all the book talk and the list of novels at the end. It is about story in all its different forms (and family).

A review

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