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.

Micro Review 65

 

The Magic Faraway Tree by Jacqueline Wilson (Hachette Children's Group)

As readers of my blog will know I am drawn to modern sequels of classic books like a moth to the flame, and like the moth all too often I do end up being burnt.

I still remember when I first read Enid Blyton's Magic Faraway Tree books. My grandad came home from shopping with a green hardback copy of The Folk of the Faraway Tree. I don't recall reading much fantasy before this time and I can't remember how old I was when I was given this book but I know that it had a deep impact on me and even today on sleepless nights I use the idea of every changing lands at the top of a tree as a way to try and drop off.

This up to date sequel captures some of Blyton's out of time feeling to it, not including the bit that is necessary for the plot. They are a modern family but they don't have modern toys for instance, and their parents are fine with them playing alone and outside in an unfamiliar area... I know that as a child I didn't really think too much on the stereotypes, names and actions in the stories but in removing these, or explaining things away, the book felt very anodyne. Even the childrens' names no longer raises a smile!

For me the book just had none of the magic that I remember from childhood, even taking into allowance that I am probably about 40 years older than the target audience there was just no wonder, and also no real peril. All of the characters felt very flat and the adventures just not adventurous... I read an eProof thanks to Net Galley and this didn't include Mark Beech's illustrations so perhaps they do make the book more magical.

I am loathe to go back and read the originals again as I don't want to lose my memories of them but I feel that perhaps this is an author (and a series) that shouldn't be reworked for a modern audience.

Many thanks to the publisher for letting me read this book in advance of publication via Net Galley

Inadvertent Blog Silence

 

Apologies for the lack of posts recently, I have been reading a lot of books in proof form that aren't published until later in the year and so I can't really talk about them yet.

There's a few books about to be published however so stand by for a flurry of posts.

In the meantime Mr Norfolkbookworm and I have been enjoying the recent good weather and getting out and about lots, and just last week we had a few days in Yorkshire with my parents where we spent lots of time getting windswept on the cliffs at Bempton watching the seabirds.

I do try to upload my photos to Flickr on a reasonable regular basis and if you'd like to see them then they can be found here: flickr.com/photos/norfolkbookworm/albums

Back to the book backlog...

Micro Reviews 62, 63 & 64

 

The Ticket Collector from Belarus by Mike Andersen & Neil Hanson (Simon & Schuster)

A Village in the Third Reich by Julia Boyd and Angelika Patel (Elliott & Thompson)

The School that Escaped the Nazis by Deborah Cadbury (Two Road)

In that way that seems to happen in my reading life I've recently read three books that connected in more ways than just the obvious WW2 setting.

The Ticket Collector from Belarus is an account on the only War Crimes Trial to ever take place in the UK and weaves a moving (and horrifying) tale of atrocities carried out by one Belarussian man on behalf of the Nazis. The details of the war period were supplied by Jewish survivors from the area, some of whom knew Sauwoniuk, and others who were directly affected by his actions.

I had no idea that there had only ever been on War Crimes Trial in the UK and the explanation of how it worked and the very precise legal wording and evidence that was admissible was as eye opening as the wartime stories.

The book also had added poignancy as thanks to border changes over the past 100 years the area in question is back in the news again as the current war in Ukraine is also taking place in this area.

A Village in the Third Reich also touches on some of the same themes as Ticket Collector. This is the biography of a rural village in Germany from roughly 1900-1950, and again a book I found fascinating as I read it, although slightly more controversial as I think about it afterwards.
Boyd attempts to be scrupulously fair in her account of the politics as they ebb and flow through the years and shows the insidious way Nazism did creep into every facet of life.

However in this attempt at fairness and balance I found that there was just a little too much excusing of people's behaviour and also the perpetuation of the idea that 'ordinary' Germans didn't know what was really happening. There was also a lot of justification of people with low party numbers not being the same as the 'bad' guys.

It was really interesting to focus on one village throughout the period rather than individuals but overall I'm left feeling that it was a bit bland and too safe - perhaps unsurprisingly as the author makes her home in the village.

The School that Escaped the Nazis also presented me with another strand of wartime history that I knew nothing about as it follows educator Anna Essinger who realised very early on into Hitler's reign that she needed to move her school out of the Third Reich and to provide a safe haven for her Jewish pupils, as well as those who's parents were marked as enemies of the Reich.

Against amazing odds she moves the school to England and builds a school that was far more like a family than place of education. She fought prejudice on all sides and was hugely instrumental in helping with the Kindertransport. Once war was declared there were more struggles for a German school in England, not least the internment of teachers and pupil and rationing.

After the war Essinger also took in survivors from Europe, whether they'd been in hiding or the Concentration Camps, as well as trying to trace any surviving relatives of her pupils and teachers. 

The book is interspersed with personal stories from the children she saved, and in that circular way of books one of these stories also touches on the locations mentioned in Ticket Collector.

This book was always going to be more emotive as it is filled with first hand accounts but of the three connected books this was definitely the best (if you can use such a word for the topic) and it was also the most hopeful as we look at how history does seem to be repeating itself in 2022.

Thanks to Norfolk Libraries for ordering in Ticket Collector and Net Galley for the 2 other books

Micro Review 61

 When the Sky Falls by Phil Earle (Andersen Press)

This one was another recommendation from Kentishbookboy as it was their family read a few weeks ago. I didn't know that much about it beyond that it has been shortlisted for (and won) lots of awards.

I am drawn to books set in WW2 and I was eagerly awaiting my library copy to come in when I got a message from my sister warning me that I'd need tissues by the end and to make sure I had them easily to hand...

I was so grateful for the warning as this book packed a huge punch and while I couldn't see that it could end any other way I was still sniffing gently (full blown sobbing) by the last page.

The book is about a troubled boy being evacuated to a friend of his grandmother's after his father is sent to France to fight. It is a reverse evacuation however as Joseph is sent into a city that is under sustained attack from German air raids. Mrs F is not your standard guardian and is trying to save the last few animals remaining in her family's zoo - including Adonis, the male silverback gorilla. Looking after dangerous animals at a time when they could be released from their cages by bomb damage brings a whole new level of dilemma and thought provoking points for discussion as well as making it an edge of the seat read.

There's so much covered in this book but it all works together and as with all the best books I wanted to know what happened to the characters after the last full stop.

I'm glad I got the warning about the ending of the book - and if books carried warnings then this one would have 5 handkerchiefs on the back cover, but also 2 laughing emojis as there's a lot of dry humour in the book. 

It is being recommended for fans of Michael Morpurgo and I'd agree with this - but it is definitely for the older end of his readership. I've seen that Earle has another book about WW2 coming soon but I think I'll have to recover from this one before reading that!

Micro Review 60

 

Argo by Mark Knowles (Head of Zeus)

It is no secret that I love Greece and all of the stories, myths and legends attached to the country. It also no secret how much I enjoy retellings and reinterpretations of these tales for modern readers and so discovering a new version of the Jason and the Argonauts tale got me very excited, and even the whopping 600+ page count didn't deter me.

Sadly this one didn't quite live up to expectation and to mix my legends it felt far more like one of Hercules' labours to finish rather than an edge of the seat tale of epic adventures.

I'm not sure why, the chapters were short and punchy and the over all tale is fascinating. However I wasn't a great fan of the writing style and to get to the end of the novel to find that it didn't cover the whole adventure was the final straw. A definitive translation of the original epic comes in at only 375 pages *including* commentaries and an introduction!

This led me to think about modern versions of the Greek legends and their authors. Many of these new volumes have been by women - Natalie Haynes, Madeline Miller, Pat Barker and Margaret Atwood  to name a few, and I've enjoyed or loved nearly all of these. However Stephen Fry's retellings left me cold, as did Colm Toibin's.

This has made me think about why this could be: 

Not all of them are told by the female characters so it isn't all about giving voice to the unheard characters from the sources. 

They certainly don't shy away from the brutality of the originals so it isn't all about being squeamish either. 

Toibin is an award winning writer while a lot of the female authors are debut novelists so it isn't a straightforward case of experience. 

It isn't even an unconscious bias against male writers in general as I've read and enjoyed translations of the originals and these are by men and the editions I have are translated by men... 

If anyone has any other ideas as to why I'm struggling with the retellings from (modern) male authors - or suggestions of other retellings I could try I'd be grateful to receive them but for now I shall be eagerly awaiting Stone Blind, a new version of the Medusa tale from Natalie Haynes which is due later this year! 

Micro Review 59

 The No-Show by Beth O'Leary (Quercus Publishing)

I was blown away by Beth O'Leary's first novel, The Flat Share as it managed to pack some hefty punches in what could so easily have been any other rom-com. Much of the plot to this appeared to be obvious but the way the two leads got there was innovative and emotional.

I didn't enjoy her second book (The Switch) quite so much and very unusually for me I didn't finish  last year's The Road Trip. However I'm nothing if not persistent and felt very lucky when my wish to read this book was granted by Quercus and Netgalley.

Something about the book's blurb drew me in from the start: 

Three women. Three dates. One missing man...

8.52 a.m. Siobhan's been looking forward to her breakfast date with Joseph. She was surprised when he suggested it - she normally sees him late at night in her hotel room. Breakfast with Joseph on Valentine's Day surely means something... so where is he?

2.43 p.m. Miranda's hoping that a Valentine's Day lunch with Carter will be the perfect way to celebrate her new job. It's a fresh start and a sign that her grown-up life is finally falling into place: she's been dating Carter for five months now and things are getting serious. But why hasn't he shown up?

6.30 p.m. Joseph Carter agreed to be Jane's fake boyfriend at a colleague's engagement party. They've not known each other long but their friendship is fast becoming the brightest part of her new life in Winchester. Joseph promised to save Jane tonight. But he's not here...

Meet Joseph Carter. That is, if you can find him.

With a hook like that I was instantly drawn in and I am going to say nothing more about the except to say that it was funny and sad and beautifully written. The plot gently revealed itself and was very clever, and the book managed to touch lightly on many issues giving you plenty to think about and discuss.

I am now looking forward to Beth O'Leary's next book even more!

Micro Review 58

 

Librarian Tales: Funny, strange, and inspiring dispacthes from the stacks by William Ottens (Skyhorse)

I've always enjoyed books that take you behind the scenes of professions, and that are full of anecdotes from the front line, and as I've now worked for the library service for well over a decade books about library life (fiction or non) are definitely ones I gravitate towards.

On the whole I find books about real libraries slightly more appealing as they try to dispel so many persistent images people have of libraries and library staff.  Reading Allowed by Chris Paling did this for the English library system a few years ago and I loved it so much that I've read it repeatedly.

I've been looking forward to reading Library Tales for a while to get a behind the scenes feel for how American libraries work, from trips we've made to libraries in the States I had the feeling that US libraries were incredibly similar to ours but also very different and I wanted to know more about this.

Otten's book charts his career as a librarian and working in libraries in Kansas and Iowa, and it gave me a great feel for what these similarities and differences are. It seems that library users are the same the world over - it is the behind the scenes work that differs. He does explain the different roles that people working in libraries do, and clarifies who can actually be called a librarian although I'm not sure that this makes any difference to customers in branches!

This was an easy read that made me nod along in recognition and wince at some of the stories whilst gaining an insight as to how different the running of buildings can be. If I'm honest I'd have preferred more anecdotes but that's just me - and if you'd like more of the humorous insights into working for a library then do give Ottens a follow on Twitter @librarianprblms or on Instagram as @librarian_problems.