Micro Reviews - connected books (10 & 11)

 

Changing the way we think about the Dutch experiences of World War Two

A few years ago I read and reviewed Bart van Es's book The Cut Out Girl which opened my eyes to another side of the Dutch experience in WW2, as I said then the prevailing feeling is that the Dutch had a good war, protected the Jews and stood up for the Nazis but this really isn't the case.

Nina Siegal's The Diary Keepers (William Collins) uses the extensive archives of WW2 Diaries held in Amsterdam to tell a rounded story of WW2 as people recorded at the time.

The book includes many voices but concentrates on diaries from a Nazi-sympathising Dutch policeman, an ardent  female Nazi party supporter, an ordinary factory worker, a Jewish woman working for the Jewish Council, a Jewish journalist held in Westerbork Concentration Camp for well over a year, and a Christian woman at the heart of a resistance ring who protected dozens of Jewish people.

With Siegal's commentary framing entries a much fuller picture of Holland between 1940 and 1945 this was eye opening, even for me who has read so much around the Holocaust. There's lots of balancing views given but the reader is left to draw their own conclusions overall - and who knows how any of us would actually act if we were in the same situation.

After finishing this book I was approved for a book on NetGalley called My Friend Anne Frank by Hannah Pick-Goslar (Ebury Publishing). Pick-Goslar was, like Anne Frank, a German Jewish girl who's family had moved to Amsterdam in the 1930s. She was good friends with Frank and lived next door to them- she is mentioned in several times in Anne's diary.

However this book is so much more than someone tagging on to Frank's fame. While Pick-Goslar did survive the war, and Belsen-Bergen, her account of her experiences is one of the most moving Holocaust accounts I've read and I think that it does the incredible story a disservice to market it in terms of being about Anne Frank.

It tied in so nicely with The Diary Keepers  as many of the people Pick-Goslar talks about in Amsterdam are also featured in depth is Siegal's book and both narratives help build a full picture of the choices people had to make and of how life was at the time.

Pick-Goslar's account of liberation from the camps and her physical recuperation was as gripping as her actual wartime life, and filled in more of the "what came next" narrative for me. I really hope that this book does become as important in the Holocaust memoir cannon as Anne Frank's Diary.

The difficult second novel - but not for readers!

 

Four Seasons in Japan by Nick Bradley (Transworld)

Back in 2020 one of my friends was raving about a book called The Cat and The City and was insistent I had to stop everything and read it *now*. I was decidedly skeptical as Alison and I do not often share the same taste in books. I am glad that I listened to her as the book was excellent and I've been keeping my eyes out for the author's next book.

Four Seasons in Japan has just come out and it was, I think, even better. This is a clever book that uses the 'book in a book' device to weave two beautiful stories - one about Flo (a character we met in The Cat) who is looking for her next translation project and then the book she finds and falls in love with.

All of the characters jumped off the page for me and I loved the slight air of mystery and 'out of time' feeling I got from the book. Being a fan of translated fiction I also really liked the parts of the book that looked at this process.

Alison and I went to Nick's book launch this week and as he talked about the book I fell in love with it even more, so many little nuances that are obvious now I think about is, and also knowing how personal parts of the book are but without being autobiographical.

Nick also admitted that this was his second difficult novel - well in fact as the original 2nd novel was scrapped (bar three ideas) perhaps it should be known as the brilliant third novel - but as a reader I definitely didn't feel this at all and really hope that the book does brilliantly.

Many thanks to Transworld for allowing me to read this book early via NetGalley

Too soon? (Micro reviews 8 & 9)

 Looking back on Covid around the world - sort of.

It was inevitable that the Covid pandemic was going to spawn a lot of books, already you can see it filtering through into fiction and there have been a lot of memoirs from medical professionals published. In the past couple of months I've also noticed a few memoirs coming through from people in other countries talking about their experiences of lockdown. So far the ones I've come across have been all from English speakers and set in western cities but it has been interesting getting an insight into lockdowns around the world.

The first book I came across was These Days are Numbered by Rebecca Rosenblum (Dundurn Press/NetGalley) which is a collection of Facebook posts that Rosenblum wrote between March 2020 and March 2022. She lived in an apartment on the edge of a reasonably affluent Toronto suburb but was keenly aware how lucky she and her husband were compared to lots of their neighbours.

Being a collection of Facebook posts this book did, at times. feel overlong and repetitive but thinking back to this time in Norwich it was overlong and repetitive so this may be more accurate than annoying! 

The second book was Matthew Kneale's Roman Plague Diaries (Atlantic Books), set in Rome and focussing on the first Roman lockdown of March 2020 until early summer 2020. Again Kneale lives in an apartment in a reasonable affluent area of the city but the Italian/Roman lockdowns were more severe than others I've read and the lack of access to open spaces even for the Kneale family becomes an issue.

This book is a diary and also a meditation of being a non Italian living in the city, Italian history and politics as a whole plus also a look at how nothing in the world is actually new...

Both books were thoughtful in that they did query how people not as fortunate as themselves were coping with the rules, and they did convey the fear, oppressiveness and the way time really did seem to behave oddly. 

On the whole I preferred Kneale's taut and focussed book rather than the sprawling stream of consciousness from Rosenblum but it was great to get a more global view of the pandemic - I would like to hear more from the developing world, or even in translation to see how non English speaking world found this unsettling time. 

Award Season (Micro Reviews 6 & 7)

 

The International Booker Prize and the Dublin Literary Award

May seems to be a big month for book awards, several prestigious ones have been announced, there's been shortlists galore and just this week Café Nero announced it was starting a new awards (hopefully to replace the much missed Costa award). However just this week two prizes were given out in awards I follow more closely - and to the books I'd have picked which is unheard of!

The International Booker Prize went to Time Shelter by the Bulgaria author Georgi Gospodinov and his translator Angela Rodel (Orion books).

I was about three quarters of the way through this book when it won and I enjoyed it greatly - indeed it was the one that leapt off the shortlist to me initially and the one I made sure to read first when my library reservations came in.

It deals with the idea of recreating rooms and apartments from different eras in time to help those with dementia and other memory problems. These are such a success that people run with the idea at ever bigger scales with scary (but all too believable) results. For me the very end of the book was a little out of balance with the main part but it was still a great read and I am very pleased that it won.

The Dublin Literary Award was awarded to Marzahn Mon Amour by Katja Oskamp and her translator from the German Jo Heinrich (Peirene Press).

I read this book last year and reviewed it here, it also made my 'best of 2022' list and I was very pleased that this won from the shortlist.

The Dublin Literary Award is very different from most as all the books on the longlist are nominated by libraries from around the world, including Norfolk Libraries. We put Lessons in Chemistry forward this year (along with a few libraries) and while we made the longlist it got no further. One year we'll predict the winner!

Micro Review 5 (2023)

 

Black Butterflies by Priscilla Morris (Duckworth Books)

I was quite excited by the Women's Prize longlist this year as several books I'd read and loved were on it, sadly when it came to the shortlist none of these made the cut, and (contrary to every other reader I've met) the one I had read wasn't a hit with me at all.

On reading the blurbs for the others I want to try some of them but it was Black Butterflies that instantly caught my eye - the striking cover also helped with this!

After the fall of the Berlin Wall one of my other big historical memories of the 1990s is the conflict in the Balkans. We had our first family holiday abroad in 1990 and we went to Yugoslavia. We loved the place and planned on going back in 1991 but then Croatia declared independence shortly before our holiday and we ended up in Mallorca (quite a different location!). Following on from this declaration the area descended in to various conflicts, including the siege of Sarajevo, the setting for this novel.

This book details the siege through the eyes of Zora - an artist and teacher in Sarajevo, it starts before things descend in to utter chaos and Zora is able to get her husband and elderly mother out of the city to relatives in England but she remains in the city to tidy up the loose ends. Before she can leave the airport is closed and the city besieged.

The book focuses very much on the daily life of the people trapped in the city, the general violence, the hunger and the fear - it is not particularly about any sectarian divides and definitely not about neighbours turning on neighbours - and I found it utterly compelling and very hard to put down.

Parts of the books are quite gruesome but are definitely not gratuitous, and I also liked that through Zora's eyes you see how you can become desensitised to anything in extreme situations. Not an easy read but a book I'm really pleased to have read. The Balkan conflicts have faded in our memories and this book shows that Sarajevo in the 1990s wasn't that different to the WW2 sieges of Leningrad and Stalingrad and deserve to be remembered.

Quick reads don't mean easy reads

 

Brilliant Books by Barrington Stoke

I've been quite open here on the blog, and in real life, about the struggles I had with reading a few years ago and how much I support initiatives such as the Quick Reads books for adults. Over the past year or so I've been reading more books aimed at children and young adults who also experience difficulties with reading - whether through dyslexia or other reasons.

When I was a bookseller I was aware of Barrington Stoke as a publisher and really admired their work but they did slip completely off of my radar until recently when I rediscovered them thanks to the brilliant WW2 inspired books by Tom Palmer whose books I've blogged about before.

More recently I've been looking at their forthcoming books more closely and discovered that some of my favourite writers have published books with them. 

Ravencave - Marcus Sedgewick

Marcus Sedgewick, who sadly died recently, was the very first author I ran an event with when his novel Floodland was published back in 2000 and I'd only been a bookseller for about 6 months. Well ahead of its time Floodland was the first Cli-Fi book I came across and I loved that it had an East Anglian setting however I digress...one of Sedgewick's last books was Ravencave  and its published by Barrington Stoke.

This is a clever tale that right until 3/4 of the way through made me think it was going to be one type of book when in fact it was quite a different tale altogether. It is also written in clear, simple language with some evocative images to help move the tale along. The publisher rates it as having an interest level of 11+ but a reading age of 8+ and wow - if a book that is written to such incredible margins can surprise me to the extent it did what a powerful piece of writing it is!

Jodie - Hilary McKay

Another author I have loved for years (bust sadly haven't yet been fortunate enough to meet although Kentishbookboy did and got a book signed for me!) and who has written an incredibly good book for Barrington Stoke that is just published.

In this book a class is on a residential trip to a nature reserve and Jodie, who is a new pupil at the school, is out of her depth and unhappy which leads to all sorts of adventures and accidents. Something has happened in Jodie's past but this isn't discussed in the book at all,  as this isn't a book about what has happened or what will happen tomorrow it is all about what is happening right now which makes it a fascinating read and very different from the normal type of book I read.

I can imagine that the immediacy of the narrative, the action and the edge of your seat adventure/ghost story will all help reluctant readers discover a page turner. What is incredible is how McKay has managed to create such a feeling of place (a presumably North Sea) salt marsh within such  a short tale and not got bogged down (pun intended) in description.

I'm in awe of all authors anyhow but the skill needed in creating th

is type of book is incredible and I can't wait to explore more books from Barrington Stoke, whether from writers I already know or ones that are new to me!

Micro Review 4 (2023)

 

Wandering Souls by Cecile Pin (Fourth Estate)

This book has been longlisted for the 2023 Women’s Prize and while I don’t have time to read the whole longlist this one really leapt out at me and I am so pleased that it did.

To my shame the Vietnam War is not something I know a lot about, in fact I think I know more about the end of French rule in Indochina than I do about the American conflict, and the fallout through the 1970s and 1980s (and most of this comes from the musical Miss Saigon which is not a great admission).

Wandering Souls  is told in many voices but all of them relate to the story of siblings Anh, Thanh and Minh as they flee Vietnam in one of the small boats first to Hong Kong and then the UK. To say much more will spoil the way the book unfolds and I really wouldn’t want that to be the case as I loved it so much.

It is a shortish book but one that punches well above its weight in many ways and at more than one point I was in tears as well as reaching for my phone to research more about the things mentioned. It opens up so many things to talk about, and I also liked the exploration of intergenerational trauma which I’ve read a lot about regarding the Holocaust but hadn’t thought about in regards to other conflicts.

I also came away really wanting to try some of the food that is eaten in the book but this feels a very shallow response to such a great book.

Kentish Book Boy returns - part four

 

SkyWake Invasion by Jamie Russell (Walker Books)

Synopsis:

Casey Henderson – aka CASEY_FLOW – is obsessed with online team shooter SkyWake, which has taken the world by storm. The Ghost Reapers are a high-ranking team, and when Casey’s in the zone, anything seems possible.

Then, at a live SkyWake tournament, things start to get weird. The Red Eye alien “cosplayers” seem to have real guns, a massive spaceship looms overhead… and kids are going missing.

My view on the book:

Personally, I find this book very weird. I don't really know how to put my true view into words.

However, I am intrigued as to what the sequel has to offer.

Recommendation:

Honestly, I am giving it a 3.5/5 because it could be better.

Maybe more action/drama is needed; however, mine's just one opinion among many.

I think that this is one of the lowest starred books that KBB has sent over and while not every book can be a hit I admire his perseverance in getting to the end and then in being just curious enough to want to know what happens next. This is very much my reading style so I love that the traits of a bookworm are a family thing!

When he let me know this was the book he'd picked for the month I was really impressed at how far out of his comfort zone he was happy to go. I could see that the sci-fi aspect would appeal I was more surprised at the appeal of the computer game as I didn't know he was into multiplayer games...

I've added this one to my list as again it isn't my normal type of book but I have to confess that I won't be in a huge rush to reserve a copy from the library.

Micro Review 3 (2023)

 

A Complicated Matter by Anne Youngson (Doubleday)

I am always going to read everything that Youngson writes after the wonderful gift her Meet Me At the Museum gave me when I was so ill and I am so pleased to say that this one is just as good (possibly even better) than Museum.

I’ve read a lot of fiction and non fiction set in World War Two and yet in this book Youngson manages to introduce me to a completely new story from that time as we meet the women and children of Gibraltar who are forcibly evacuated from the Rock as a safety precaution while the men remain to work the essential port operations.

Their arrival and stay in Britain isn’t simple either, as they are first (disastrously) evacuated to French North Africa before coming to London where, despite their British citizenship, they are treated with some suspicion. Rather than being billeted in the country like most evacuees or held in large camps like many refugees they are housed in a hotel in central London which I found fascinating as it shows that no one really knew how to treat them. Their return to the Rock at the end of the war was also handled very differently from other evacuees and refugees.

Our main narrator is Rose and we follow her story closely through the war years as well as learning lots about life in Gibraltar and how society there was structured. Lots of ideas and themes are tackled in the book, but it isn’t an issue book, and throughout the story Rose remains a likeable character even in her fish out of water role.

I'd love to know if anyone else saw a parallel to one of my favourite classic novels - I can't say more for fear of spoiling the plot but it *isn't* Little Women!

The book has made me want to know more about Gibraltar and its wartime history from a non-military point of view and firmly places Youngson on my must read list.

Kentish Book Boy returns - part three

 

The Lizzie and Belle Mysteries: Drama and Danger by J T Williams, illustrator Simone Douglas (Harper Collins)

Synopsis:

Lizzie Sancho and Dido Belle live very different lives. Lizzie works at her family's buzzing Westminster tea shop, while Belle leads a quieter life at the majestic Kenwood House.

Their worlds collide when disaster strikes at the Theatre Royal, Dury Lane and Lizzie's father's life is put under threat. Why is someone after Ignatius Sancho? And who is the shadowy figure on the theatre balcony?

My View on the Book: 

I was really gripped into this book. The prologue encouraged me to read more, and it has a surprising plot twist as well. A very well written book and I want to read the sequel: Portraits and Poison.

Recommendation

I thoroughly enjoyed this book; I give it 6 out of 5 stars!

More people should read this because it is based on the black rights movement ad that is significant in history, all over the world.

When I saw the Bookily book token subscription at the end of last year I thought that it was a fun idea but I never dreamt just how many book recommendations I'd end up with thanks to the books the Kentishbookboy is choosing. 

I'm seeing him this weekend and hope to borrow this one from him too a book rated as 6 stars out of 5 can't be ignored. Interestingly I also have an adult novel on my TBR pile about Ignatius Sancho so perhaps I should read them back to back to compare...

Norfolkbookworm took an unexpected hiatus

 

Oops once more I really didn’t mean to leave a gap of almost 2 months between posts on here. Part of this has been because I’ve been reading lots of advance copies of books which means my lips have to be sealed until much closer to publication, part of it has been that I’ve not read a lot of books that I’ve loved, and part of it is pure laziness! Now the Kentishbookboy has supplied two new reviews for me so I really have to start blogging again!

Proper posts about a couple of books coming very soon but for now here’s a few non fiction books that I’ve enjoyed and that I think are worth looking out/reserving from your local library.

All the Beauty in the World by Patrick Bringley

Bringley shares memories of his 10 years as a guard at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art. He took the job as a stopgap during a traumatic period of his life and stayed 10 years. He talks about the job, the people and the art wonderfully and I am truly impressed at his stamina, I am sure museum floors are made out of harder material than anything else in the world!

 

Letters from New York by Helene Hanff

Alistair Cooke’s Letters from America were always interesting to listen to and gave an insight into how he saw America through the decades, I didn’t know that Hanff had had a similar slot on Women’s Hour. Her monthly essays are very chatty and in general just focus on life in her neighbourhood of New York, but they are simultaneously of her time and timeless and I laughed out loud more than once reading them.

 

Last Sunset in the West by Natalie Sanders

This book came out just at the same time as David Attenborough’s new series Wild Isles and the two tied together brilliantly. This book is about Orcas and in particular the pod found off the west coast of the UK rather than the east coast whales featured on the TV, however it is also about orcas in general and how unique each small population around the world is. I’d love to see an orca in the wild, and even more after reading this book. At times the book feels a little repetitive and at points like separate essays awkwardly linked together but overall the author’s love for the orca shone through and outweighed these minor annoyances.

Kentish Book Boy returns - part 2

 

S.T.E.A.L.T.H Access Denied by Jason Rohan (Nosy Crow)

Synopsis:

IT'S JUST ANOTHER ORDINARY DAY, UNTIL IT ISN'T. The kidnap takes place at 7:57. Arun, Donna and Sam are on the run by 11:43. By 17:23 they're operating MANDROID, the most powerful piece of technology the world doesn't know exists and are being shot at by unknown forces. All because one organisation's good idea is another one's weapon. So now someone has to step up.

My View on the Book:

ABSOLUTELY AWESOME! I really enjoyed this book. My favouite part of this was...well actually I don't have a favourite part; it's all really good!

Recommendations:

1,000,000,000,000% recommend this to anyone who likes action

I think that he liked this one, and I'm not so sure I'll get to borrow it!

Kentish Book Boy returns - part 1

 

The Very Merry Murder Club - edited by Serena Patel and Robin Stevens, illustrated by Harry Woodgate (Harper Collins)

One of the things KentishBookBoy and I used to hugely enjoy were our 'book splurges.' We'd go to a book shop with a generous budget and unlimited time to find a pile of new books. We'd often pull dozens off the shelf and read the blurbs or first pages and then buy loads of them.

Time has gone by and finding time when we're both free has become ever harder but I miss the joy of picking books with him - Book Tokens to the rescue as the new Bookily initiative tops up his book token every month so he can go into the bookshop and just chose whatever takes his fancy. To keep expanding his bookshelf the one rule is that the book has to be by a new to him author.

The books he chose in December (the token was a St Nicholas Day present) and January have been hits and he's kindly shared his reviews with me for the blog, and I'm hoping that next time I see him he'll lend the books to me!

Synopsis

"Cat-napping and crazy heists, suspicious Santas and Scrabble games, frost fairs and fancy dress...join the Very Merry Murder Club and put your  detective skills to the test with these fiendishly fun and festive mysteries."

My view on the book:

I really enjoyed reading this book. Personally, my favourite short story was 'Scrabble and Murder' by Nizrana Farook.* It tells the story of a family who stay at a hotel, play Scrabble and someone getting murdered in the middle of the night. I like it because it takes true courage and bravery to be a detective, especially a child with no experience standing up to a murderer.

Recommendation:

100% recommended. A must read and a good birthday/Christmas present for those who like actions, thriller and crime books.

* As many of the family have been trounced by KBB at Scrabble it doesn't surprise me at all that this was his favourite story.

This post and others from KBB are all independent and neither of us are affiliated to Book Tokens (or Bookily) in any way.

Holocaust Memorial Day 2023

 

One Hundred Saturdays by Michael Frank (Souvenir Press)

I'm not sure where I saw the first mention of this book but I was very pleased that I'd ordered it and that it arrived in time to read on Holocaust Memorial Day.

I've read many books set in Greece just before and during the second world war, and a couple have touched on the Jewish experiences but in the main they have been about daily Greek life.

This book tells the story of Stella Levi as she talks about her life to the author  (Frank) on Saturday mornings across a few years and it was incredible from page one.

Stella and her community were Sephardic Jews who had made Rhodes their home after the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in the sixteenth century. Unlike many European Jewish communities they spoke a version of Spanish rather than Yiddish and in many ways their way of life hadn't changed in that time.

The various rulers of Rhodes over the centuries have all left their mark on the community and by the 1930s the community was slowly modernising. Many of the young were emigrating for better lives in America, Palestine and the Congo, and those that remained were under the control of the Italians who ruled the Dodecanese from 1912. The young people were receiving a Western European education and able to speak Italian and French along with Judeo-Spanish, and assimilating this into their lives, along with the influence of the old Ottoman empire.

When the Italians surrendered to the Allies in 1943, the Germans took control of Rhodes, and at first life didn't change too much for the 1700 occupants of the Juderia but then in 1944 all of them were rounded up and deported to Auschwitz.

Stella's story is fascinating and moving throughout and the style of the book - short chapters covering different topics - added to the way I responded to it hugely. Frank asks questions of Stella that she isn't always comfortable with answering instantly but she often comes back to them later - in a natural way that speaks of the friendship she has with him and that deepens your connection with the story. 

The other thing that really struck me about the book was Stella trying to balance her memories with hindsight and create a complete picture of her life. Frank is at times incredulous of the naivety of the community and it is wonderful how Stella stands her ground and can explain the different feelings of before/during and then what you can say knowing how everything did take place.

The book doesn't spend a huge amount of time talking about Stella's experiences actually in the camps - she herself has never wanted to be a person who only exists as a Holocaust survivor - but being able to speak French and Italian (and not Yiddish) had a huge influence on how Stella and her immediate group of friends survived until liberation. Their experiences in immediate aftermath of the war was also a new aspect of holocaust history for me as they were liberated in the west by American GIs rather than in the East by Russian soldiers.

I've been luck enough to visit Rhodes four times and yet I wasn't aware of this unique history, and I don't recall seeing the memorials (or the museum) dedicated to the Jewish history of the island. It won't be this year that we go back to Rhodes but when we do I'll definitely be searching out the area and putting pictures to the words. More about the area can be found here: https://jewishrhodes.org/la-juderia/

  

Micro Review 2 (2023)

 

Caroline: Little House, Revisited by Sarah Miller (HarperLuxe)

I've been a fan of the Little House on the Prairie books for pretty much as long as I've been a reader. Little House on the Prairie was one of my earliest purchases from the school book club leaflets and I still have that same edition almost 40 years on.

I was also a fan of the newer children's books that were written in the 1990s and explored the childhood lives of Laura Ingalls Wilder's ancestors, including her mother, Caroline.

I can't remember where I saw mention of this new story about Ma (Caroline) but it was my first book purchase of 2023 and I'm pleased to add it to my collection even if I'm not quite sure what to make of it nor who it is aimed at.

This book reworks the end of Little House in the Big Woods and all of Little House on the Prairie to tell these stories from an adult's point of view. For the most part the book does rehabilitate Ma from the passive character she appears in the originals and it is interesting to have an adult view of the nightmare journey the family undertook. 

But...to rework the book as an adult tale the story has just been enhanced by adding references to Ma's pregnancy, the birth of Carrie and then marital relations between Pa and Ma. Without these the book would be fine for the original audience!

The fine line between keeping the spirit of the original and updating some of the more xenophobic views was done sensitively, and the afterword explains clearly how the decisions as to how this worked was informative. I also liked the way that as far as possible Miller managed to keep to Ingalls Wilder's timeline whilst including more of the actual happenings,

The story was fine and I quite enjoyed it but I'm not sure it added anything to the Little House story.

Micro Review 1 (2023)

 

For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy Upon My Little Pain by Victoria Mackenzie (Bloomsbury Books)

2023 has got off to a strong start and I've had a run of good books which is cheering. I did read this one at the end of 2022 but as it is officially published this week now seems the time to talk about it.

This is a shortish book that I was always going to fall in love with as it is set in Norwich/Norfolk and about strong, literary, women,

The book tells the stories of Margery Kempe, a Norfolk woman who is considered to have written (dictated) the first autobiography in the English language, and Julian of Norwich, a mystic and anchoress whose book the Revelations of Devine Love is the first book in English by a woman.

In this book we learn about both of their lives, and their growing and changing faiths as well as Mackenzie imagining how a meeting between them would have played out.

From past jobs, projects and reading I knew a little about each woman but through this books I know feel I know much more about both them, and Norfolk during the late 1300s/ early 1400s.  I also want to find out more so this has to be a sign of just how good I found the book!

Looking Back at 2022

 2022 - A Year in Books

Well I've really dropped the ball on reviewing books over the past few months, ok - for much of 2022!

One of my New Year jobs is to copy the information from my paper book journal across into my huge spreadsheet and as I was doing this I think I found why I've just not been blogging that much...

2022 just wasn't a great year for books, or at least not a great year for the books I chose to read! Looking back through the list very few, to use the Marie Kondo term, sparked joy in me. It is definitely the case that for the first time since reading kidlit ceased to be my job some of my absolute top books of the year were written with a middle grade/early teen audience in mind.

I also read a lot of very good non-fiction, the nature writing genre certainly goes from strength to strength. I also made a point to read more graphic novels in 2022, although as the majority of these were actually autobiographical I think that the 'novels' bit is a misnomer - one of my 2023 jobs will be to learn the right terminology!

On to the top books - 22 for 2022!

Children's

Return to the River Sea - Emma Carroll

The Week at Worlds End - Emma Carroll

When the Sky Falls - Phil Earle

The Misunderstandings of Charity Brown - Elizabeth Laird

The Lost Whale - Hannah Gold 

 

Nature Writing

The Unique Life of a Ranger - Ajay Tegala

Much Ado About Mothing - James Lowen

Jane's Country Year - Malcolm Saville (possibly a children's book)

Wild Green Wonders: A Life in Nature - Patrick Barkham

Wild Fell - Lee Schofield 

 

Non Fiction

This is The Canon: Decolonise Your Bookshelf - Kadija Sesay George, Deirdre Osborne, & Joan Anim-Addo

Ghost Signs - Stu Hannigan

Africa is Not a Country - Dipo Faloyin

Just Sayin' My Life in Words - Malorie Blackman 

Novels

Our Missing Hearts - Celeste Ng

Lessons in Chemistry - Bonnie Garmus

The Murder of My Aunt - Richard Hull

The Bread the Devil Knead - Lisa Allen-Angostini 

A Scatter of Light - Melinda Lo (possibly a YA book rather than adult fiction)

The Kingdoms - Natasha Pulley

Stone Blind - Natalie Haynes

Marzahn, Mon Amour - Katja Oskamp (trans. Jo Heinrich)

Black Cake - Charmaine Wilkerson 

As I am lucky enough to have access to books in advance of publication I'm also going to list 2 books that will be published in early 2023 that you really should look out for...

For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy On My Little Pain by Victoria McKenzie and The Meaning of Geese by Nick Acheson. Both of these have huge Norfolk links and I debated  long and hard whether to include them in my best of 2022 lists, but I do think that it will be an astounding reading year if they aren't on my best of 2023 list!

Micro Reviews 78 and 79

 

The Lost Whale by Hannah Gold, illustrated by Levi Pinfold (Harper Collins Children’s Books)

Leila and the Blue Fox by Kiran Millwood Hargrave with Tom de Freston (Orion)

Another two books, ostensibly for children, that I’ve read recently are by authors I read and enjoyed last year. Both are beautiful books with the illustrations perfectly complementing the text and working to move the story along rather than just depicting the written words.

The books very much wear their hearts on their sleeves and social issues/mental health plot lines are prominent in both and for me they just about stayed  ‘good books with a message’ rather than being ‘issue books’ hung around a narrative.

The Lost Whale follows a young boy as he is sent from the UK to his grandmother in California after his mother is hospitalised. While there he becomes fascinated with the grey whale migration and one whale in particular.  As well as Rio’s personal circumstances the book also has a strong ecological message and talks about climate change in a sensitive way.   

Leila and the Blue Fox is ostensibly about Leila, who lives with her aunt and cousin, visiting her scientist mum, Amani, in Norway for the summer. The blue fox of the title is an arctic fox who walks from Norway to Canada in 76 days, and who is being studied by Amani as this migration is unusual.

Just as with the Lost Whale there is much more going on in the book and as well as the ecological themes of global warming and melting ice caps, other issues covered include being a refugee, having a family torn apart, having to leave your own country and the power of social media.

I think that with both of these books you spot more of the underlying themes the more world experience that you have and that the stories are great in themselves, I very much like how important the illustrations are to create physically beautiful books.

Micro Reviews 76 and 77

 

The Wild Robot and The Wild Robot Escapes by Peter Brown (Hachette Book Group)

I think that someone made me aware of the first book in this pair at some point last year so I was aware of the book but when Kentishbookboy said that the 2^nd book was on his Christmas list I decided it was time to have a proper look at them.

I’m so pleased that I did – these are just wonderfully gentle books that have some huge messages to share with readers, but these are woven into the plot so naturally that it isn’t until you close the book you realise just how profound the books are.

In book one there is a shipwreck and a robot, called Roz, somehow survives and washes up on a remote island where she boots up in to life. She is a complete innocent at first and slowly starts to work out how to survive, despite the harsh conditions and unfriendly animals already living on the island.

There is lots of peril, lots of learning and also lots of happy events as Roz finds her place on the island. The final adventure is incredibly gripping but as this sets up book 2 I’m not going to talk about it and give away the details.

In a gentle and natural way the book is about loneliness, prejudice, fear, finding a home, being different, and how your family doesn’t have to be traditional. The sequel includes these themes too, along with the dangers of unrestricted use of AI, grief, and depression. But again you don’t realise this until after you’ve shut the book and start thinking about it.

I like that the idea that Isaac Asimov’s laws of robotics are obeyed in this story even as we suspend belief in that Roz doesn’t need to top up her charge at any point…

I adored these two books, and the short chapters made them ideal for reading whilst in the queue for rides at Disneyland Paris – huge thanks to Norfolk Libraries ebook offer which meant I could download the 2^nd book in France as soon as I’d finished the first one!

Time flies (like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana)

 

Ooops another whole month has flown by without me posting or reviewing anything.

October was actually a really quite month for me, I didn't read very much at all - I was too busy soaking up the last sunshine of the summer, seeing friends and then spending a chunk of half term with Kentishbookboy at Disneyland Paris.

None of the books I read last month really jumped out at me that much, and as I like to shout about books I love a month of silence seemed a good option.

Lots of people are taking part in "Non-fiction November" and unwittingly I seem to be embracing this as I can't find a novel to lose myself in and everything I've finished recently has been either for children or non-fiction!

Some of these recent books have started well or have really made me think about the content so hopefully reviews will be forthcoming...

Ooops!

 

Ooops - I really didn't mean for the blog to go silent for well over a month.

I'm not 100% sure how it is already October, I am sure that time has started going faster in 2022.

One of the reasons I've not blogged is that while I've been reading loads it is all either for advance projects so I can't talk about them yet or they've been 'ok' reads but nothing so exciting that I've wanted to thrust them into everyone's hands.

Some honourable mentions can go to:

The Measure by Nikki Erlick - one day every adult receives a box that includes a piece of thread. Everyone's thread is a different length and this translates into how long you're going to live. The book explores this in a fun way but ultimately (for me) it shied away from deeper thoughts.

Never Forget You by Jamila Gavin - a YA book exploring how WW2 impacts on 3 school friends. It takes some less obvious stories/historical ideas. Occasionally I think it loses sight of who the target audience is but it was a good read.

Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng - another book with a dystopian Handmaid's Tale vibe but this one has so many different allegories that it feels less didactic than Attwood and more rounded that Erlick. Librarians are also the heroes of this book so what's not to like!

A Scatter of Light by Malinda Lo - I loved The Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Lo last year and was very excited for her next book, it didn't disappoint and by the end had reduced me to tears a couple of times. I also liked the tiny references back to Last Night and I really hope that Lo writes lots more as I'm a real fan.

Here's hoping that the last few months of the year are full of brilliant books that I can't stop talking about!

Micro Reviews 73, 74 & 75

 

Women in Translation Month

August has been designated Women in Translation month and I've managed to read a few books that fit this brief - well two books written and translated by women and the third just being translated by a woman.

Marzahn. Mon Amour - by Katja Oskamp and translated from German by Jo Heinrich (Peirene Press)

This has recently been Radio 4's book at bedtime but to my annoyance I kept falling asleep while listening. I did however have a copy of the book on my shelves and decided to 'read along' as it were.

It's a strange little book, set in the former East Germany and focusing on a woman who's retrained as a chiropodist and her clients. The book is a series of vignettes about the people who come to the clinic where she works, or those who live in the area. It meanders and repeats key phrases but was wholly compelling and like nothing I've read before.

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The Easy Life - by Marguerite Duras and translated from French by Emma Ramadan (Bloomsbury)

Incredible The Lover by Duras was one of our French A Level set texts but since then I've not read or heard anything about her books. This one isn't out until December but while it was beautifully written and translated I am not sure I understood it at all. I'm not sure that I hugely understood The Lover either but that might just have been my French - I'm going to reread it again (in English) soon to see if it does bear any resemblance to my memories.

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Tasting Sunlight - by Ewald Arentz and translated from German by Rachel Ward (Orenda Books)

Another quirky tale with two strong female voices thrown together by circumstance and yet perfectly suited. Each has her own traumas to battle and these are unfurled slowly and convincingly.

I had my heart in my mouth on more than one occasion and wouldn't have minded if the book was twice as long!

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So in month that has seen me battle to find novels that capture my full attention it is literature in translation from independent publishers that has seen me though!

Heatwave 2

 As I write this we aren't quite halfway through the second officially designated heatwave of summer 2022 and I have to confess that I'm finding it all a bit much.

When we're on holiday temperatures like we're currently experience are fine - well there's no work, the sea and/or swimming pools plus the expectation that siestas will be taken. Sitting around and reading in these circumstances is fine.

With the extreme heat here I'm finding reading more of a chore and I've not lost myself in a novel for quite some time - short story collections and non fiction essay collections are keeping my reading muscle in shape but even they aren't holding my attention. Once I've struggled through work sitting in the living room watching cricket is about all I'm good for.

I'm sure that once it cools down this will all change but for now I'm scouring my shelves for anything that has a snowy/wintry setting! If anyone catches me moaning about the cold later in the year you do have my full permission to call me out on it!

Micro Review 72

 

Resist by Tom Palmer (Barrington Stoke)

Tom Palmer's last two books (After the War & Arctic Star) have appeared on my 'best of the year' lists and this one is heading that way too!

Again Palmer has taken a slightly less know aspect of WW2 history and made it accessible. and interesting, to readers of all abilities.

The book is set around one girl's (Edda) war and is all about how she decided to become a member of the resistance, and how dangerous this was. It is mostly set towards the end of the war, when much of Holland had been liberated but not all, and what life was like under these circumstances. This period is known as the 'Hunger Winter' and is brought into sharp focus with Palmer's skill.

An added bonus to this book is that it is inspired by the real experiences faced by one girl and her family - Audrey Hepburn.

There are a lot of WW2 books set in Holland for all ages, but this one definitely adds to the canon and is worth a read by anyone.

Many thanks to Net Galley and Barrington Stoke for providing an advance copy of this book.

Micro Review 71

 

The Fire Cats of London by Anna Fargher (Macmillan Children's Books)

After the splendid Umbrella Mouse books the whole family has been looking forward to this new book from Anna Fargher - her talent for retelling history through the eyes of animals is just brilliant.

This time we've gone much further back in time to London in 1666 and while the book does feature the Great Fire  it isn't quite the main point of the book. 

Plot threads are all about being separated from your family, perilous journeys, the fear (real or imagined) that is in the air regarding people who are different or foreign, and also quack medical ideas plus cruelty to animals in various forms.

When listed like that the books seems very dark and depressing - and also very political, but while, as an adult reader I can see these themes the book is just an adventure story about two wildcats who are captured in the wild, brought to London and then try to escape back to their home territory.

The skill in telling a story with so much to unpick but that remains a gripping adventure is huge and I'm already hoping for another book from Fargher very soon!

Micro Review 70

 

Murder Before Evensong by Richard Coles (Orion)

Crime novels, however cosy, aren't something that I read very often. In fact most of the ones I've ever finished have been in my to be read pile because I need to review them for various projects, rarely after that do I read other books by the author. I must be one of the only people around who didn't get on with Ricard Osman's books.

I've liked Coles' writing style in his non fiction books and his tweets often make me laugh (or think) and so I was really pleased when I was given access to this one early thanks to the publisher and Net Galley.

I really liked it, and felt that Coles' voice really came through and even in my head I could hear him 'reading' it to me. I liked the characters and while it did feel a little 'written for TV' I felt inordinately pleased when I did solve half of the mystery (who but not why) as usually I miss this completely. 

However since I finished the book I know two others who have read it and they both had the same problem with it - there were just too many ecclesiastical terms and references that they didn't recognise which spoilt the book for them. Thinking back I realised that I'd had this issue too but because I was reading on my Kindle I could just highlight the word or phrase and I'd instantly get a definition without losing my reading stride...a feature of reading eBooks that I'd not fully appreciated until now.

I'm already looking forward to the next one and that's not something I say often about a crime book.

Many thanks to Orion and NetGalley for my copy of this book - I was under no obligation to write a positive review

Micro Review 69

 

Much Ado About Mothing by James Lowen (Bloomsbury)

While I've been captivated by butterflies for a long time I've never really thought about moths. This year that has changed. Earlier in the year we were at Sculthorpe Moor Nature Reserve when wardens there were opening a moth trap, and then whilst on holiday in Scotland and seeing to many day and evening species.

Much Ado About Mothing was just the book for me at the moment as it follow Lowen over the course of the year as he tries to find and see the rarest UK moths. It isn't just about the rarities however and through the eyes of his daughter he talks about so many more species, often ones that are easier to find!

I had a couple of issues with the book.  One that Lowen touches on this - the use of artificial pheromones to lure moths to his garden and traps. I wasn't aware that this is a thing you can do and at it feel like cheating, or even cruelty to the poor moths. Lowen did stress where lights and lures couldn't be used but there was no discussion of the ethics of this.

When I talked about this with a friend they pointed out I had no problems with bird feeders and so wasn't I being hypocritical...I thought about this and came to the conclusion that at least on a bird feeder the bird was getting a physical and useful reward, but pheromones promised a lot but didn't actually reward the moths with a mate. I'm still not sure how I feel about lights in traps...

My second issue was that Lowen talks a lot about how climate change is really impacting on the moth populations of the UK and yet in one year he drives 14,000 miles as he searches for these rare species. The thought of this incredible mileage has made me all the more certain that I won't become a wildlife 'twitcher' who travels just to see an unusual species, it will have to fit into my plans and there has to be another goal for the trip, even if this is just a walk at a nature reserve. 

Apart from these two points I really enjoyed the book, all the more so as Lowen does live in Norwich and makes it clear just how many moths I could see on my own patch and how overlooked or feared moths are. It was certainly interesting to see how few language separate butterflies and moths out and so moths overseas don't have the same negative stigma that moths here often do.

Much Ado About Mothing is on the 2022 Wainright Prize longlist and I hope that it does make the shortlist as it is a fascinating read.

A selection of the moths seen in Scotland, July 2022 that have inspired me to learn more

Micro Review 68

 

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin (Vintage Publishing)

I am so glad that this book is finally out and that I can talk about it. I say this because I was lucky enough to get an advance copy of this months ago and have wanted to share my love for it every since.

Zevin wrote one of my favourite books ever with Elsewhere and while I've read all of her other works since they didn't have the same impact on me despite being very enjoyable at the time.

However when reading Tomorrow I was reminded just how brilliant Zevin is.

From the summing up on the Waterstones webpage:

From the author of the beloved The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry comes a heartwarming tale of human connection, creativity and collaboration as two children who meet in a hospital go on to pursue their dreams and identities through the production of video games.

It isn't at all obvious that this is book for me - someone who really doesn't play video games.

While the gaming industry, and the creatives behind it, are the focus of the book it really isn't about this - the characters could be involved in pretty much any field - it is about how complicated and unpredictable life is, and how one action many years ago can resonate through the following years.

I have to confess that I was hooked on this book when one of the characters can't see one of the once popular 'magic eye' optical illusions being used on a subway advert. As someone who never could make these illusions work, despite everyone around me being wowed, I loved this throw back reference and also discovering after all these years I wasn't the only one not to see them!

I think that the biggest complement to this book that I can make is that I was so invested in the characters and plots that I really wanted to try some of the games they create.

It didn't matter that I'm not a gamer - missing some of these references didn't stop me falling in love with Sadie, Sam and the other character.

A Quick Reads quick update

 

Quick Reads from the Reading Agency

I've talked about my love for this initiative a few times here and I've been picking up one of the Quick Reads each time I visit my local library - mostly from this year's selection but I've also been catching up on ones I've missed from other years.

As ever not all of the books are the type of book I usually go for, in fact books like M. W. Craven's Cutting Season is just the type of book I actively go out of my way to avoid!

I surprised myself by quite enjoying both The Swimmer and Blind Spot and also by how much I really enjoyed The Kiss and Sofia Khan and the Baby Blues -  not authors I normally pick up but if I'm wandering around the library looking for something to read these are authors I'll search out.

It has to be said that the inclusion of Cutting Season surprised me as it is obviously a book that is mid series and the references to books I'd not read was a little off putting - it felt a bit like I was being excluded from a club and I'm not sure that is a good thing from a book that is encouraging a reluctant or returning reader.

Kate Mosse's The Black Mountain strikes me as another odd choice - don't get me wrong I really liked the book, and I loved finding out a new piece of history about a place I've visited. However if a new reader found this one and decided to read more of Mosse's books they might be in for a big shock as they are real doorsteps and much different in feel from this, great books but a huge leap from this slim tale.

As ever these are just my thoughts on the books and as an avid reader I did enjoy them all (even the gruesome one!) and I think that this initiative is brilliant.

Micro Review 67

 

Escape to the River Sea by Emma Carroll (Macmillan Children's Book)

Eeek - another sequel to a much loved book...am I brave or crazy?

Well in the case of Carroll's Escape to the River Sea what I was is blown away!

I re-read Ibbotson's original book recently and I had forgotten just what a perfect book it is: well rounded characters, humour, adventure and peril with an (almost) believable plot and a thoroughly satisfying ending. In fact the book really didn't call out for a sequel so I was very nervous when starting Escape to.

I didn't need to worry, from the opening lines Carroll has captured Ibbotson's style and flair while at the same time writing a completely new (and brilliant) book.

The time setting of the book has moved on to a just post WW2 setting, and the main character in the book is an Austrian Kindertransport child who has been living at Westwood House (with some familiar characters) since 1938 - and she doesn't know what has happened to her family at all. The story this time hinges around the search for a jaguar as well as continued references to the Giant Sloth from the original book but to say more will ruin the way the book unfolds.

The book did stretch my credulity a little at the very end, but at the same time there's no way I'd have rather had the story finished. When Journey to the River Sea was published I was working in a bookshop and I marketed it as a perfect book for everyone in the family to read and wonderfully this one fills exactly the same brief.

Since reading this I've gone on to read Carroll's The Week at World's End and I am in awe of how she manages to work truly scary events into books that are suitable for a middle grade audience - I'm glad that I've got a lot more books by her to try.

Many thanks to Macmillan for giving me advance access to this book via Net Galley

Micro Review 66

 

The Change by Kirsten Miller (HarperCollins)

This book isn't out until August so just a very quick review.

I was sent this by the publisher to take part in a focus group about the book and the blurb really intrigued me:

The change is coming...
Nessa: The Seeker
Jo: The Protector
Harriett: The Punisher
With newfound powers the time has come to take matters into their own hands...
After Nessa is widowed and her daughters leave for college, she's left alone in her house near the ocean. In the quiet hours, she hears voices belonging to the dead - who will only speak to her.
On the cusp of fifty Harriett's marriage and career imploded, and she hasn't left her house in months. But her life is far from over - in fact, she's undergone a stunning metamorphosis.
Jo spent thirty years at war with her body. The rage that arrived with menopause felt like the last straw - until she discovers she's able to channel it.
Guided by voices only Nessa can hear, the trio discover the abandoned body of a teenage girl. The police have written off the victim. But the women have not. Their own investigations lead them to more bodies and a world of wealth where the rules don't apply - and the realisation that laws are designed to protect villains, not the vulnerable.

 It sounds utterly crazy but turned out to be a book that I really couldn't put down, even though content was waaaaaaayyyyyyy out of my comfort zone a lot of time!

Despite the title it isn't really about the menopause, this is just a nice hook to remind people that women aren't all young and pretty or old and demented. My favourite character was definitely Harriet, with her erudite take downs of a male centric world but all three worked well together.

The book is a bit sweary (but to be honest that works in this context) and it is a crazy story but I hope it does well when it is published later in the year - I've definitely read nothing quite like it before!

Many thanks to Harper Collins for supplying the book and running the focus group - there was no expectation that I'd (positively) review the book as part of the group.