Category Archives: Rating

January 1, 2022 · 3:01 pm

Small Pleasures – Claire Chambers

Small Pleasures – Clare Chambers

I can’t remember where I first hear about this novel – book club maybe? I had to order it from Dymocks and it did take about 4 weeks to arrive (book shortage).

Here’s the blurb …

1957, south-east suburbs of London.
Jean Swinney is a feature writer on a local paper, disappointed in love and — on the brink of forty — living a limited existence with her truculent mother: a small life from which there is no likelihood of escape.

When a young Swiss woman, Gretchen Tilbury, contacts the paper to claim that her daughter is the result of a virgin birth, it is down to Jean to discover whether she is a miracle or a fraud. But the more Jean investigates, the more her life becomes strangely (and not unpleasantly) intertwined with that of the Tilburys: Gretchen is now a friend, and her quirky and charming daughter Margaret a sort of surrogate child. And Jean doesn’t mean to fall in love with Gretchen’s husband, Howard, but Howard surprises her with his dry wit, his intelligence and his kindness — and when she does fall, she falls hard.

But he is married, and to her friend — who is also the subject of the story she is researching for the newspaper, a story that increasingly seems to be causing dark ripples across all their lives. And yet Jean cannot bring herself to discard the chance of finally having a taste of happiness…

But there will be a price to pay, and it will be unbearable.

I really enjoyed this novel – it’s beautiful, and sad, and interesting. The writing is lovely. It was well-researched, but unobtrusively so.

Another review

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December 26, 2021 · 11:05 am

The Story of the Bayeux Tapestry

The Story of the Bayeux Tapestry – David Musgrove and Michael Lewis

I am very keen to visit the Bayeux Tapestry. I planned to go in 2020, but we all know how that turned out. So i keep buying books about it. I first heard of this one on the History Extra podcast (worth listening to if you are at all interested in the tapestry – or even the Norman conquest).

Here’s the blurb …

Most people know that the Bayeux Tapestry depicts the moment when the last Anglo-Saxon king of England, Harold Godwinson, was defeated at the Battle of Hastings in 1066 by his Norman adversary William the Conqueror. However, there is much more to this historic treasure than merely illustrating the outcome of this famous battle. Full of intrigue and violence, the tapestry depicts everything from eleventh-century political and social life—including the political machinations on both sides of the English Channel in the years leading up to the Norman Conquest—to the clash of swords and stamp of hooves on the battle field.

Drawing on the latest historical and scientific research, authors David Musgrove and Michael Lewis have written the definitive book on the Bayeux Tapestry, taking readers through its narrative, detailing the life of the tapestry in the centuries that followed its creation, explaining how it got its name, and even offering a new possibility that neither Harold nor William were the true intended king of England. Featuring stunning, full- color photographs throughout, The Story of the Bayeux Tapestry explores the complete tale behind this medieval treasure that continues to amaze nearly one thousand years after its creation.

Firstly, this is a beautiful object with fabulous colour pictures of the tapestry – scene by scene and then altogether at the end (over several pages).

The opening two chapters are about the tapestry as a physical object – how did it survive, who commissioned it – and some information on the Normal Conquest.

The following 10 chapters are a detailed description (including images) of the scenes of the tapestry. I particularly enjoyed these chapters – the action in the main section is described as well as anything happening in the two borders. The authors have a lovely way of describing the action – they really bring the characters (actors?) to life.

The final chapter is about the tapestry’s legacy – will it ever get back to England?

I really enjoyed reading this (and it was easy to read) and I think anyone interested in textiles, early medieval history and even military history will find this a fascinating read.

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December 23, 2021 · 8:39 pm

Black Sheep – Georgette Heyer

Black Sheep – Georgette Heyer

This is another of my Rottnest reads. I like Georgette Heyer and I thought I had read all of her regency romances, but I hadn’t read this one. I found it for $5 at Target (about the cost of a coffee).

Here’s the blurb

With her high-spirited intelligence and good looks, Abigail Wendover was a most sought-after young woman. But of all her high-placed suitors, there was none Abigail could love. Abigail was kept busy when her pretty and naive niece Fanny falls head over heels in love with Stacy Calverleigh, a good-looking town-beau of shocking reputation and an acknowledged seductor. She was determined to prevent her high-spirited niece from becoming involved with the handsome fortune-hunter. The arrival to Bath of Stacy’s uncle seemed to indicate an ally, but Miles Calverleigh is the black sheep of the family.

Miles Calverleigh had no regard for the polite conventions of Regency society. His cynicism, his morals, his manners appalled Abigail. He also turned out to be the most provoking creature Abigail had ever met – with a disconcerting ability to throw her into giggles at quite the wrong moment. Will Abigail overcome Mile’s indifference towards his nephew and help Abigail foil Stacy’s plans?

This is fun, all set in Bath, lots of talk of clothes (or at least the fabric to make clothes) and Bath society (going to the Pump Room, excursions to Wells Cathedral, concerts, etc.)

Another review

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December 20, 2021 · 5:56 pm

The Mad Woman’s Coat – Ian Reid

The Mad Woman’s Coat – Ian Reid

At my last book club meeting someone mentioned this one and I was intrigued. I have read other novels by Ian Reid; The End of Longing and The Mind’s Own Place. This one is my favourite. Isn’t the cover lovely?

Here’s the blurb …

The Madwoman’s Coat, Ian Reid’s fifth historical novel, is set In England and Western Australia during the late 19th century. It is a story of love and grief, artistry and insanity, acts of sudden transgression and moments of quiet contemplation.

1897: Isabella Trent is found murdered in an Australian asylum cell. Why did she die? Who is the killer? What is the meaning of the ornate motifs that Isabella has secretly embroidered on a man’s frock coat?

Years earlier, young Lucy Malpass leaves her home town in Staffordshire for London, where she is drawn into a community of artists and socialists around William Morris and his family. Before long there is not only a prospect of fulfilling work but also a glimpse of reciprocal passion. Then her high hopes gradually begin to unravel.

There seems to be a link between Lucy and Isabella, related somehow to an old Icelandic tale. But what exactly is this link, and what can it explain about their closely held secrets?

I particularly enjoyed all of the mentions of the Morrises (William and May) and all of the textile bits. In fact, when the murder was finally solved, I didn’t really care who had done it. For me, the best parts were the sections set in England.

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December 19, 2021 · 1:35 pm

When he was Wicked – Julia Quinn

When He Was Wicked – Julia Quinn

I went to Rottnest Island for a few days and took this as my light, beach reading – and it didn’t disappoint.

Here’s the blurb …

In every life there is a turning point.

A moment so tremendous, so sharp and breathtaking, that one knows one’s life will never be the same. For Michael Stirling, London’s most infamous rake, that moment came the first time he laid eyes on Francesca Bridgerton.

After a lifetime of chasing women, of smiling slyly as they chased him, of allowing himself to be caught but never permitting his heart to become engaged, he took one look at Francesca Bridgerton and fell so fast and hard into love it was a wonder he managed to remain standing. Unfortunately for Michael, however, Francesca’s surname was to remain Bridgerton for only a mere thirty-six hours longer — the occasion of their meeting was, lamentably, a supper celebrating her imminent wedding to his cousin.But that was then . . . Now Michael is the earl and Francesca is free, but still she thinks of him as nothing other than her dear friend and confidant. Michael dares not speak to her of his love . . . until one dangerous night, when she steps innocently into his arms, and passion proves stronger than even the most wicked of secrets . . .

These books are all very similar, but what they do well is centre female pleasure and female experiences.

Another review

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December 17, 2021 · 6:02 pm

The Redeemed – Tim Pears

The Redeemed – Tim Pears

This is the third in the West Country Trilogy and it is definitely a three-act story.

Here’s the blurb …

The final instalment in Tim Pears’s spellbinding chronicle of love, exile and belonging in a world on the brink of change Selected as a book of 2019 by the Guardian, Scotsman and The TimesIt is 1916. The world has gone to war, and young Leo Sercombe, hauling coal aboard the HMS Queen Mary, is a long way from home. The wild, unchanging West Country roads of his boyhood seem very far away from life aboard a battlecruiser, a universe of well-oiled steel, of smoke and spray and sweat, where death seems never more than a heartbeat away. Skimming through those West Country roads on her motorcycle, Lottie Prideaux defies the expectations of her class and sex as she covertly studies to be a vet. But the steady rhythms of Lottie’s practice, her comings and goings between her neighbours and their animals, will be blown apart by a violent act of betrayal, and a devastating loss.In a world torn asunder by war, everything dances in flux: how can the old ways life survive, and how can the future be imagined, in the face of such unimaginable change? How can Leo, lost and wandering in the strange and brave new world, ever hope to find his way home? The final instalment in Tim Pears’s exquisite West Country Trilogy, The Redeemed is a timeless, stirring and exquisitely wrought story of love, loss and destiny fulfilled, and a bittersweet elegy to a lost world.

I found this one fascinating -I had no idea about the scuttling of the German fleet, or the effort to raise these ships again. Or the fact that all steel manufactured after world war two contains radiation (from Hiroshima and Nagasaki) and so these ships are some of the last ‘pure’ steel left in the world.

It is a beautiful story, full of detail of a vanishing world. Horses replaced by tractors and fewer men required to work the fields.

A review

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December 5, 2021 · 11:15 am

The Horseman – Tim Pears

The Horseman – Tim Pears

I heard about this trilogy from the Slightly Foxed podcast and then a friend asked if I wanted to read them – how serendipitous.

Here’s the blurb …

From the prize-winning author of In the Place of Fallen Leaves comes a beautiful, hypnotic pastoral novel reminiscent of Thomas Hardy, about an unexpected friendship between two children, set in Devon in 1911. In a forgotten valley, on the Devon-Somerset border, the seasons unfold, marked only by the rituals of the farming calendar. Twelve-year-old Leopold Sercombe skips school to help his father, a carter. Skinny and pale, with eyes as dark as sloes, Leo dreams of a job on the Master ‘s stud farm. As ploughs furrow the hard January fields, the Master ‘s daughter, young Miss Charlotte, shocks the estate ‘s tenants by wielding a gun at the annual shoot. Spring comes, Leo watches swallows build their nests, hedgerows thrum with life and days lengthen into summer. Leo is breaking a colt for his father when a boy dressed in a Homburg, breeches and riding boots appears. Peering under the stranger ‘s hat, he discovers Charlotte.And so a friendship begins, bound by a deep love of horses, but divided by rigid social boundaries boundaries that become increasingly difficult to navigate as they approach adolescence – Hallucinatory, beautiful and suffused with the magic of nature, this tale of an unlikely friendship and the loss of innocence builds with a hypnotic power. Evoking the realities of agricultural life with precise, poetic brushstrokes, Tim Pears has created a masterful, Hardyesque pastoral novel. The first in a dazzling new trilogy, The Horseman is his greatest achievement.

This is a beautiful novel – the writing is poetic. It spans 18 months from January 1911 to June 1912. Each chapter is a different event, activity or thing in Leo’s life. We learn a lot about farming in the early 20th century and it looks hard and very labour intensive.

Leo is a quiet and extremely observant boy and I loved all of the sections about horses and nature.

Lottie is a fiercely independent soul who shares Leo’s love of horses. There is definitely going to be class tensions or at least problems in the future.

Another review

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December 3, 2021 · 11:36 am

Game On – Janet Evanovich

Game On – Janet Evanovich

I do love the Stephanie Plum series (all twenty eight of them – some more than others), so I bought this on the day it was published. And read it within a couple of days.

Here’s the blurb …

Stephanie Plum returns to hunt down a master cyber-criminal operating out of Trenton in the 28th book in the wildly popular series by #1 New York Times bestselling author Janet Evanovich.

When Stephanie Plum is woken up in the middle of the night by the sound of footsteps in her apartment, she wishes she didn’t keep her gun in the cookie jar in her kitchen. And when she finds out the intruder is fellow apprehension agent Diesel, six feet of hard muscle and bad attitude who she hasn’t seen in more than two years, she still thinks the gun might come in handy.

Turns out Diesel and Stephanie are on the trail of the same fugitive: Oswald Wednesday, an international computer hacker as brilliant as he is ruthless. Stephanie may not be the most technologically savvy sleuth, but she more than makes up for that with her dogged determination, her understanding of human nature, and her willingness to do just about anything to bring a fugitive to justice. Unsure if Diesel is her partner or her competition in this case, she’ll need to watch her back every step of the way as she sets the stage to draw Wednesday out from behind his computer and into the real world.

Not as much will she/won’t she between Ranger and Morelli, but Diesel is back. Lula and Grandma are as crazy as ever, Stephanie’s mum has taken to knitting (an enormous thing). Cars explode, shots get fired. It’s racy and pacy. A fun, light read.

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December 2, 2021 · 6:07 pm

Sepulchre – Kate Mosse

Sepulchre – Kate Mosse

This is the second in the Labyrinth series (i have borrowed them from a friend)

Here’s the blurb ..

In 1891, young Léonie Vernier and her brother Anatole arrive in the beautiful town of Rennes-les-Bains, in southwest France. They’ve come at the invitation of their widowed aunt, whose mountain estate, Domain de la Cade, is famous in the region. But it soon becomes clear that their aunt Isolde-and the Domain-are not what Léonie had imagined. The villagers claim that Isolde’s late husband died after summoning a demon from the old Visigoth sepulchre high on the mountainside. A book from the Domain’s cavernous library describes the strange tarot pack that mysteriously disappeared following the uncle’s death. But while Léonie delves deeper into the ancient mysteries of the Domain, a different evil stalks her family-one which may explain why Léonie and Anatole were invited to the sinister Domain in the first place.

More than a century later, Meredith Martin, an American graduate student, arrives in France to study the life of Claude Debussy, the nineteenth century French composer. In Rennesles-Bains, Meredith checks into a grand old hotel-the Domain de la Cade. Something about the hotel feels eerily familiar, and strange dreams and visions begin to haunt Meredith’s waking hours. A chance encounter leads her to a pack of tarot cards painted by Léonie Vernier, which may hold the key to this twenty-first century American’s fate . . . just as they did to the fate of Léonie Vernier more than a century earlier.

It took me a long time to get into this one, I was about halfway through before I really got engrossed (and these books are long). Once again, there are two time lines; 1891 and 2007, and a mystical element (this time Tarot cards and unrestful spirits). There is also a bit of a romance and you learn some French history. There is also a diabolical villain. So, I would say, something for everyone. You can definitely lose yourself in this world.

A review

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November 30, 2021 · 7:08 pm

Oh, William – Elizabeth Strout

Oh William – Elizabeth Strout

I really like Elizabeth Strout, so I went to the book shop on the day it was published (of course they hadn’t unpacked it and I had to come back the next day).

Here’s the blurb

The Pulitzer Prize-winning, Booker-longlisted, bestselling author returns to her beloved heroine Lucy Barton in a luminous novel about love, loss, and the family secrets that can erupt and bewilder us at any point in life

Lucy Barton is a successful writer living in New York, navigating the second half of her life as a recent widow and parent to two adult daughters. A surprise encounter leads her to reconnect with William, her first husband – and longtime, on-again-off-again friend and confidante. Recalling their college years, the birth of their daughters, the painful dissolution of their marriage, and the lives they built with other people, Strout weaves a portrait, stunning in its subtlety, of a tender, complex, decades-long partnership.

Oh William! captures the joy and sorrow of watching children grow up and start families of their own; of discovering family secrets, late in life, that alter everything we think we know about those closest to us; and the way people live and love, against all odds. At the heart of this story is the unforgettable, indomitable voice of Lucy Barton, who once again offers a profound, lasting reflection on the mystery of existence. ‘This is the way of life,’ Lucy says. ‘The many things we do not know until it is too late.’

I thought that I had read My Name is Lucy Barton, but I can’t find it on my blog (and I am usually good at keeping records, so maybe I haven’t read it) anyway it’s not necessary to have read it to appreciate this new novel.

It’s written in a conversational, stream of consciousness method. Lucy thinks about her life with William and her two girls. There is not a huge amount of plot, it’s about the characters and the relationships between the characters. It’s about growing old and family and what it even means to be a family. And about how childhood experiences cast a long shadow over our lives.

A review.

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