Micro Review 14 (2024)

 

Edith Holler by Edward Carey (Gallic Books)

I couldn't resist this book when Gallic Books were offering advance copies to reviewers, after all a book about theatre set in Norwich ticks so many of my personal preferences and to cap it all it also focuses on many of the tales/legends about Norwich that I know so well.

Norwich, 1901. Edith Holler spends her days among the eccentric denizens of the Holler Theatre, warned by her domineering father that the playhouse will literally tumble down if she should ever leave.

Fascinated by tales of the city she knows only from afar, young Edith decides to write a play of her own about Mawther Meg, a monstrous figure said to have used the blood of countless children to make the local delicacy, Beetle Spread. But when her father suddenly announces his engagement to a peculiar woman named Margaret Unthank, Edith scrambles to protect her father, the theatre, and her play – the one thing that’s truly hers – from the newcomer’s sinister designs.

Teeming with unforgettable characters and illuminated by Carey’s trademark illustrations, Edith Holler is a surprisingly modern fable of one young woman’s struggle to escape her family’s control and craft her own creative destiny.

I was a little surprised by the horror inflections in this book - it was a little creepier and more bloody than I usually like but as I did pick this up to read whilst poorly with Covid it might just be my fever talking!

The book is wonderfully visual, not just because of Carey's sketches which definitely add to the experience, I really did find myself wandering around Edith's Norwich. I think that there is scope to base a walking tour of the city on the book - just as they have done for Shardlake's Norwich!

I loved all of the local history - it will be interesting to hear from other readers as to what they think are true events, what are local legends and what come from Carey's incredible imagination! 

Like the previous book by Carey that I've read (Little) this book won't be for everyone, he has a style all of his own but however much they drag me out of my comfort zone I will keep reading him!

Many thanks to Claire at Gallic Books for the advance copy of this book which is published on Oct 3rd.

And now for something completely different

 

The Runaway Heiress by Emma Orchard (Allison & Busby)

I was very lucky to be offered a chance to read this in advance of publication and it arrived at the perfect time. I'm reading (and enjoying) lots of non-fiction books right now but really struggling to find fiction that captivates me.

The Runaway Heiress is so far away from my normal reading choice that I hoped (rightly) that it would break the run of 'did not finish' books.

The blurb for the book reads:

London, 1815. Cassandra Hazeldon is on the run.

Under duress to marry a repellent friend of her uncle, Cassandra has made her escape, but now she is very much alone. With luck and quick thinking, she finds a refuge in a grand mansion in Mayfair, and a protector in Lord Irlam, or Hal to his friends.

Posing as a friend of Hal's sister, Cassandra is swept up into the social whirl of a Brighton summer. But the attraction between her and Hal is starting to scorch, and when jealousy is added to the mix, things are set to reach boiling point.

I don't read a lot of romance and this isn't a period of history I know about,  other cultural touchstones such as Bridgerton and Georgette Heyer have passed me by completely too. 

It was all these novelties that helped me to race through the book, along with the very vivid writing style. I was somewhat taken aback as to just how raunchy the book was in places - and if I am honest  I did prefer the less explicit romance scenes  where the tension was more erotic than the full on scenes - but I did feel like I was an eyewitness to all of the plot and could really 'see' a lot of the characters and settings in colour, so to speak.

I don't think that this period of history is ever going to become a favourite setting of mine but once in a while it will be nice to visit and it has reminded me to read books from genres I don't often touch as they are fun!

Huge thanks to Allison and Busby for the book and for widening my reading as well as my eyes!

Micro review 15

 

The Figurine by Victoria Hislop (Headline)

I was very lucky to win an advance copy of this in a Twitter competition and it has to be said that I abandoned everything else and just got stuck straight in - I'd only been back from Greece a matter of weeks but I was already homesick for the people and place so this just ticked so many boxes!

I really enjoyed Hislop's sweeping history of Greece from 1941-1970s (Those Who Are Loved) told from a family perspective but I did find the ending abrupt, and it left me wanting to know a lot more about the military Junta rule of the 1970s.

The Figurine isn't quite a sequel to the earlier book in that all of the characters are new, but it does pretty much pick up historically from where Those Who Are Loved ended which was great.

In this novel we follow Helena first as a child where she spends summers with her maternal grandparents in Athens where she becomes fluent Greek speaker while observing the politics of the time without understanding them. Her family decide that it is too dangerous for her to continue these visits eventually, but while a career in the sciences beckons, Helena never forgets her Greek roots.

Life continues and Helena has the opportunity to return to Greece, first as a volunteer on an archaeological dig with her new boyfriend, and then thanks to an inheritance as an expat returning home and there discovering her family's past.

The title 'Figurine' refers to the second theme of the book and is about the topical subject of who owns ancient artefacts and the problem of their illegal trade.

I say topical as it was as I was reading The Figurine the story about the curator at the British Museum stealing items from the collection broke - sometimes books are incredibly timely and not written after the events to highlight a story!

I loved this book totally, I did spot the little twist in the tale coming, but this isn't a 'who dunnit' book, it is Helena's story and all of the events fit in totally with her narrative.

Another book for my best of 2023 list and I really need to re-read Hislop's earlier books to give myself that real Greek buzz as winter approaches!

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 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.

Micro Review 51

 

I, Mona Lisa by Natasha Solomons (Cornerstone)

I love books with interesting narrators and as this one is told from the point of view of the painted Mona Lisa I was quickly drawn in.

The conceit is that Da Vinci was such a skilled painter that he actually created a sentient being with the Mona Lisa and so this book is actually her autobiography.

This Mona Lisa was firmly in love with Da Vinci and the bulk of the book is her recounting her life with him during Renaissance Italy and France. After his death we hear smaller parts of what happened to her/the painting in pre Revolutionary France, during her theft/kidnap at the start of the twentieth century and then how she was kept hidden from the Nazis during World War Two.

Because this Lisa had few people to talk to (exceptional artists/art lovers can also hear her, as can one other painting by Da Vinci) during these latter historical periods there is less detail in them and I did want to know more about them in a historical sense.

Solomon's Mona Lisa is quite a snob, very scathing and acerbic and also very unimpressed with most of the people who came to see her through history. At the same time she is quite amusing and her view point on history is different from other historical fiction set in similar time frames (such as The Agony and the Ecstasy by Irving Stone).

I feel that I would be one of the people that Mona Lisa would disparage as when I did see the painting in Paris she was smaller than I expected and hard to see because of the crowds, I never got close enough to see her in detail and failed to fall under her spell. The room was full of people trying to take selfies with her even before the camera phone became ubiquitous. I was much more impressed with the picture she was looking at...

Many thanks to Cornerstone and Net Galley for my advance copy of the book, it is published later this month.

Book sharing as a family

 

Swarm Rising by Tim Peake & Steve Cole (Hodder Children's Books)

Advance reading copy

This book is a real family affair (not least because as you might have guess from reading this blog we're all into space travel!)

Kentishbookboy's grandad won an advance copy of this in a BookTokens competition and instantly handed it over to a grateful Kentishbookboy (and his mum!).

On a recent visit to see the family KBB very kindly lent me the book, with the proviso that I had to read it and give it back to him that same weekend as he was still only half way through! I now have to apologies to the rest of the family for basically ignoring them while I kept my promise!

In all honesty it wasn't a hardship to read this all in one go - I found it a compelling, exciting page turner and even if I hadn't been on a deadline I'd have read it just as fast.

Peake has set this just a few years into the future so that the tech isn't too far off what we have now but is just a little more advanced. There are more driverless cars and drones than in 2021 but we're still texting, playing computer games and getting takeaway pizza!

As an adult reading this book I could see where a lot of the plot was going, but that is just because of life/reading experience. There were still surprises and twists that I hadn't expected and there's also a lot of plot ideas that will make great talking points. It also has a couple of really strong messages in the plot but they did (just) seem natural parts of the story rather than preachy.

I'm not always overly keen on 'If you like xxx you'll love this' tags for books but as an adult I think that if you are an Andy Weir or Doctor Who fan you're likely to enjoy this - just don't forget you aren't the target audience.

The thing I like the most about this book is that Peake is quite open that he has co-written this with another (excellent) author - there's no hidden ghost writer or false claims about authorship. Having read books by both Cole and Peake I can 'hear' them both in this one and I think that the book is all the stronger for this.

Thanks to Dad/Grandad for sharing his prize, and to Kentishbookboy for letting me sneak my read in!

Micro Review 38

 The Day the World Changed Forever by Baptiste Bouthier (words) Heloise Chochois (art). (Europe Comics)

NetGalley proof

The new(ish) NetGalley Shelf feature has meant that I've tried a lot more graphic novels recently - they didn't render well on my eInk reader but via the Shelf feature on my tablet they've become a delight to discover.

The 11th of September 2001 has become a defining date in many lives, Gen X's JFK moment. I remember very clearly where I was on that date, although I didn't get home from work to see any of the footage on the news until well after the towers had fallen.

This graphic novel conveyed the incomprehensibility of events that day evocatively - told through the eyes of a French teenager you get to relive the feelings of the day and the way we repeatedly watched the TV reports even though we were completely overwhelmed.

The inclusion of some real biographies from the day just added to the feeling of somehow time travelling and being back in 2001 and frantically hoping for good news, and that perhaps somehow it wasn't real. 

As we reach the 20th anniversary of the day that truly did change the world there's been lots of coverage of events, but somehow this has reached and touched me more than all of the documentaries and news articles that I've come across. 

As I was reading it I felt the same anxiety I remember from the time, and including later terror attacks from around the world that all link back to 9/11, really do just emphasise how monumental that one day in September really was. Made all the more poignant by the shocking and shameful events in Afghanistan over the past month.

Being French there is scope for a little more partiality when talking about 9/11 but it also allows a bigger global picture, and shows how actions and events in one country quickly build and ripple right around the world.

Not a comfortable read by any means, but I feel that this is book that should be in every secondary school library.

(Apologies if this is in translation and I've failed to name them, I can't find details of this on the publisher's website.)

Micro Review 19

 

A Burning by Megha Majumdar (Simon & Schuster)

proof copy

Again regular readers may realise that this book was actually in my top 10 for 2020 but that I hadn't reviewed it. I was a bit sneaky adding it to last year's top reads as it was only published a few weeks ago - in 2021.

However this was a book that really made an impact on me and was certainly one of the best books I did read last year so I bent my (pretty non-existent) blogging rules!

This book brings to light a lot of inequalities that exist in modern India and very much like Two Tress Make a Forest and Kim YiJung, born 1982   really made me reconsider my opinions on the nation.

The book has a simple plot outline: 

Set in contemporary India, Majumdar’s debut is a pulsating character study based in the aftermath of a terrorist attack and the complex, conflicting legacy that the atrocity unleashes on ordinary people’s lives. 

but is so much deeper than this. It brings to light the stories of minorities and also shows how quickly someone can be radicalised. It also shows the dangers of social media, albeit in an extreme manner.

I'm loathe to say too much about the book as the gentle (and not so gentle) unfolding of the story is one of the best things about it. In many ways the tone of the story reminded me of The Reluctant Fundamentalist and how that made me think when I read it. For a debut book this is astounding and Majumdar is definitely an author who's next book I will be eagerly awaiting.

Reprints and discoveries

Random thoughts about books.

My reading tastes (as well as being eclectic) seem to swerve from books read well in advance of publication to books that are well over 60 years old and both of these can be a problematic.

The books I read in advance often can't be talked about at the time I read them, and by the time they are published I've often forgotten many of the discussion points and no one wants to read a blog full of 'I love this book' with no more depth than that.

The older books are also problematic in that they aren't always easy to find, reasonably priced or read by enough people to discuss them!

The last point I am getting around by loaning some of the books I have to a colleague - it has been a bit hit or miss but it is so much fun to talk about these books with someone else that I'll forgive her for not liking one of my favourites.

The growth in smaller publishers who specialise in bringing former classics back in to print is also helping with the availability issues too.

Back in 2016 I read the wonderful Mrs Tim of the Regiment by D E Stevenson. At this point I knew that there were more books in the series and that I really wanted to read them. However they all came with an exorbitant price tag. Time passed and I'd stopped looking for cheaper copies of these books when I came across the wonderful Furrowed Middle Brow blog which is dedicated to lesser known (female) authors from the first half of the 20th Century.

This site has been very dangerous for my 'to-be-read pile' as there are so many books talked about, and handily categorised in to lists so I can really pick from my favourite genres. The bigger news however is that along with researching and reviewing books they are also reprinting books - including the wonderful Mrs Tim series!

I'm even luckier in that my colleagues in the library service also saw these books and ordered them and so I've spent the last two stormy weekends happily rediscovering the world of Mrs Tim and her friends. I can't explain what draws me to these books, they are predictable (and at times almost cringeworthy) but I do love the time I spend in this world. I have just one left to read now and I am trying to decide whether to save this last book for a special occasion or whether just to dive straight in.

Dipping in and out

My reading has become a little disorganised of late for three main reasons: a lot of my non fiction reservations arrived in one go at the library, I've been doing some more reading & reviewing for various projects and I've lost my fiction mojo.

This all means that I've not had a lot to say about my reading lately, however thanks to a trip to the theatre I've realised that I do have a book theme to talk about!

A little while ago we went to the Chichester Festival Theatre and saw Shadowlands, the play about C.S. Lewis' friendship with, and subsequent marriage to,  Joy Gresham and then her unexpected illness and death.  The play itself was magnificent, and the cast uniformly good. It was incredibly moving by the end, but shot through with humour meaning that it all felt very natural.

Between booking our tickets and seeing the play I had also read a new novel Becoming Mrs Lewis by Patti Callahan thanks to Net Galley and Harper Collins.  This told the more or less the same story as Shadowlands but from Joy's perspective, it of course is also fiction inspired by fact and I very much enjoyed seeing the dual perspective.  For a full rounding out of the story I am now waiting for Lewis' own version of the story Surprised by Joy to arrive at the library.

In the meantime I am reading Inklings, the biography of the writing group that Lewis started, along with Tolkien, in the late 1930s.  I've always been a fan of C.S. Lewis' work and still own the Chronicles of Narnia book set that I was given for Christmas when I was 7 or 8, but I only read Tolkien as an adult, and to be honest his tales never captivated me in the same way.

However reading Inklings I think that I would have preferred to be in Tolkien's company more than Lewis - like me they greatly enjoyed being out in the countryside walking. Lewis was a serious walker - far more about the distance covered and the conversations had while walking whereas Tolkien much preferred a walk with plenty of time to look at nature and the views rather than covering the miles!
It is all a moot point however as women were not included in either the meetings of the Inklings or on the walks!

I definitely recommend Shadowlands and if you like novels imagining real people then Becoming Mrs Lewis is a good read.

Travelling through time and literature - book reivew

Vintage 1954 - Antoine Laurain (trans. Jane Aitkin & Emily Boyce)

It is hard to say whether I am a bigger fan of Gallic Books or Antoine Laurain. As a publisher they've introduced me (and countless other readers) to so many great new authors from around the world *and* they translate Antoine's books into English.

I was very happy when Jimena from Gallic press sent me a very advance copy of Vintage 1954 and even more excited when I was told I could talk about it now and didn't have to wait until nearer to official publication in mid June.

Laurain's books for me are total comfort reads, something to turn to when you are a little under the weather or just longing to be anywhere other than Britain right now.

This one brings together a disparate cast of characters from around the world, and throughout time who are all linked by a particular wine. It takes you to a Paris that you instantly recognise and then to another Paris that (if you're like me) you'd love to visit.

This isn't deep sci-fi although there are elements and while I'm not sure it would stand up to a lot of scrutiny from die hard fans of that genre I found that the 'rules' Laurain created worked and while it is a fantasy it didn't stretch my credulity. Of course if you time travel you want to interact with famous people but even here Laurain is pretty restrained and again it all feels natural.

I'm being very circumspect with describing this book because most of the charm is discovering the twists and turns for yourself, and I think that the blurb Gallic Books have on their website (where you can pre-order the book) is just perfect:

After drinking a bottle of vintage Beaujolais, a group of Parisian neighbours are transported back in time to 1954.When Hubert Larnaudie invites some fellow residents of his Parisian apartment building to drink an exceptional bottle of 1954 Beaujolais, he has no idea of its special properties. The following morning, Hubert finds himself waking up in 1950s Paris, as do antique restorer Magalie, mixologist Julien, and Airbnb tenant Bob from Milwaukee, who’s on his first trip to Europe.
After their initial shock, the city of Edith Piaf and An American in Paris begins to work its charm on them. The four delight in getting to know the French capital during this iconic period, whilst also playing with the possibilities that time travel allows. But, ultimately, they need to work out how to get back to 2017. And the key lies in a legendary story and the vineyards of the Chateau St Antoine…

I recommend that you settle down somewhere comfortable, open a bottle of something nice and enjoy this whimsical, fantastical story.

Many thanks to Gallic Books for providing me with an advance copy, I was under no obligation to review this book but it is so good I had to!

Book Review: The Flat Share

The Flat Share - Beth O'Leary

This is a book that really took me by surprise when I read it. 

I'm lucky enough to read for several different projects and this was one that was on a review list a couple of months ago - it blew me away then but I've not been able to talk about it until now!

I really did think that it was going to be a run of the mill chicklit/romcom book. 

Tiffy needed to find a cheap place to live after a relationship break up and Leon also needs to raise some cash.

Tiffy works during the day and Leon by night so they are actually bed sharing, and not flat sharing and the idea is that they will never meet.

As I said so far, so fluffy, and it is obvious that they will meet...

But slowly, as you get drawn into their worlds, the plot takes several twists and becomes much darker. However the story unfolds slowly and the darkness slipped in and right under my skin before I realised it, very much like it does in real life I would imagine! I found my heart pounding at certain parts and wanted to shout at the characters to look out. I love being that involved in a book.

This is all very cryptic but while I really want people to read this book without knowing anything other than the bare plot outline.

I really did think that this was going to be a light, frothy, inconsequential read - perfectly fun but nothing more - I was pleasantly surprised and hope that this book does well. I look forward to reading more from Beth O'Leary too.

This books was provided as an electronic proof from Net Galley and Quercus and I was under no obligation to review the title.

Book Review: Island Song

Island Song - Madeleine Bunting.

I've written on here before about liking books set in the Channel Islands during World War Two and so it is unsurprising that when I saw this go by on Net Galley I requested a copy PDQ.

Like so many books this one starts with a mystery being revealed at the death of a parent and Ros finds her world turned upside down Everything she thought she knew about her life, and family events, are a lie.

The book isn't quite contemporary and that adds to this story as the layers are unpeeled slowly - literally at 'snail mail' pace. Our characters publish notices in papers, research in archives and travel to places to have conversations in person in order to find the truth. It helps the story unravel naturally rather than sensationally, and allows the flashbacks to slip in easily without upsetting the flow of either half of the tale.

The story is a new look at the occupation of the Channel Islands, and not one I had read before. I really didn't see the ending coming either, and it was far more satisfying than the one I'd imagined.

In the best tradition of books this left me wanting to know more about some characters and I'd love to read a companion work to this telling the other side of the story.

The hard copy of the book is published next week (April 4th) but the ebook is available now!

I received a copy of this book free of charge from Granta/Net Galley and I am under no obligation to review the book, nor did I receive any recompense for the review.

Two Steps Forward (in my reading recovery)

Two Steps Forward by Graeme Stimison & Anne Buist.

Book provided by Bookbridgr.

This book caught my eye as soon as I saw it advertised on the Bookbridgr website - it is a book told in two viewpoints by two authors, in this case with each chapter being told by the alternating protagonist. It is also a book that could easily be a non fiction, travel writing book and I love them.

Zoe and Martin both end up walking the Camino de Santiago from Cluny in France all the way to Santiago de compostela in Spain - well over 1000km. They have very different reasons for undertaking the walk, Zoe is recently bereaved, and Martin recently divorced and from the start you know that their paths will cross and there will be sparks of all sorts.

Despite the mental place that both lead characters start from, this isn't a book that focuses entirely on the spiritual journey the pair take, nor does it read like a diary of the journey taken by the two authors in real life. All aspects of the journey are covered. It is a fulfilling read, but it is always believable - perhaps because Zoe and Martin have time to tell their stories as the walk progresses.

All of the incidental characters we meet on the way have their own reasons for walking and are well rounded if used slightly in deus ex machina roles. While the ending could be seen as a little predicable and trite the authors have the confidence to extend the story on a little beyond the pilgrimage and tie up loose ends in a satisfying, but believable, conclusion.

This was a brilliant book to continue my reading recovery with, again the short alternating narratives were great for my concentration but unlike previous books I had to follow the plot from one chapter to the next. I did find myself having to reread chapters as my concentration slipped but the story was so good I didn't give up - I had to find out how it ended!

July Reading Round Up

July was another great month of reading for me, and one where I had lots of time to catch up on requests from Net Galley.  2017 is shaping up again to be a great year for books.

Two of the books that have made my top reads of the month I reviewed earlier The Children of Jocasta and These Dividing Walls but other standouts this month were:

Circe - Madeline Miller.
This was a very early proof (the book isn't actually out until sometime in 2018!) but I loved every word. It is very different from her first book The Song of Achilles whilst still firmly being rooted in Ancient Greece. The scope is huge but told very intimately - I hope it does really well.

The January Man - Christopher Somerville

Another walking book come memoir makes my list this month and this one is also shortlisted for the Wainright Prize. Somerville (and his wife or friend on occasion) takes a different walk around the UK each month. He talks about the history of the area he is walking and the legends but is quite open about how unobservant he is about his surroundings!

The story also tells of Somerville's relationship with his father and is wonderfully moving without being sentimental.

Artemis - Andy Weir

I loved The Martian when I read it on holiday a few years ago (I've not seen the film) I love this type of sci-fi - set in the not too distant future with a premise that could be true. Artemis is just this sort of fiction and added to this is a bit of a crime caper. The icing on the cake? The person "science-ing the shit out of the moon" is female!

The book is out later this year and I hope that it does even better than The Martian because there was no hint of the 'difficult second novel' here.

Travels with my Sketchbook - Chris Riddell
Chris Riddell has just completed his two year stint as the Children's Laureate and he has been a huge supporter of libraries and school libraries throughout his tenure. This is a collection of his sketches, cartoons, drafts for his final work and a diary in image form and a pure delight.  Riddell manages to capture the whimsy of life along with the terrible and I wanted to race through this book and savour every image simultaneously. Who says picture books are just for for children?

One Summer in Tuscany - Domenica de Rosa

This is a real guilty pleasure book - I won it in a Twitter competition with Quercus books and it was a pure delight to read some unashamed chick lit. Okay I guessed the main plot points early on but I enjoyed the ride as we got there and the writing definitely made me think I was in Tuscany in summer with the heat and the food. This was a fun escapist read.

Mojo retained

All too often you find me on here bemoaning the fact that once I am back from holiday I find it hard to get back into reading again. I'm never sure if this is because I've read too much in a short period of time or if it is just hard to re-adjust to fitting in real life and books!

This year I don't seem to have been quite so bothered by this real first world problem and this is possibly due to the great books I have been sent by publishers in either physical form or via NetGalley.

Sing to Silent Stones: Violet's Story - David Snell.  (book out now)

This book was sent to me in physical form after I responded to a tweet offering reading copies. It arrived just before we went on holiday and it was just that bit too big and heavy for my luggage.  It was the first book I turned to on return but I wasn't gripped that night, a couple of week's later I picked it up again and promptly lost two days as I fell into the story straight away.

It is the first part of a sweeping family saga covering both World Wars and so was always likely to appeal to me, I loved the detail of the war scenes and the mixed view points. At times I felt like I was reading a biography not fiction but certain scenes do certainly ground the book in fiction, however inspired by family history.

My one criticism was that it seemed rushed through the 1930s but by the end I realised that this was necessary to get the book to a suitable end point ready for part two - which I can't wait to read when it is published.


Clover Moon - Jacqueline Wilson (to be published October 2016)

When I started out as a book seller Ms Wilson was the most popular author around, and while she has remained prolific and reasonably popular I started to find her formulaic and stopped following her publication schedule.  I wonder if this  response is not unique as a couple of weeks ago an advance copy of her next book, Clover Moon, dropped through the letterbox - I don't recall her being 'proofed' for well over a decade, and probably longer.

I was intrigued enough to read the book and I was pleasantly surprised by it. It is a historical book, and the content is pretty hard hitting - although not covering the same period in history (or themes) I found it to create images in my mind very similar to those shown in the recent film Suffragette.

I'm not sure that the overt links to another Wilson title, Hetty Feather, were needed and also the ending seemed so open that I wish it had been stated for certain that a sequel is in the works because it didn't word as a standalone for me as an adult reader.

French Rhapsody - Antoine Laurain (to be published October 2016)

I'm a huge fan of the translations of Laurain's work and I was so excited that Gallic Books made this new one available on NetGalley so early.  It is the typical mix of profundity and whimsy this time with more than a dash of politics.
This one took me a little longer to get into than the previous two books but I did fall in love with the characters I was supposed to and had sympathy for the others - what I'd have liked is for the book to have been twice or three times as long so I could spend more time with them all!

Too advanced?

One advantage of working in the book world, libraries or retail, is the chance to read books in advance of publication. Through the generosity of publishers and also Net Galley I've discovered some great books and generally around the time of publication so that there is buzz and discussion about the titles at the same time I'm reading them, which is great - I love talking about books.

Some of the other projects I read advance copies for are less timely and that has come home to me twice in recent weeks.

I had the chance to read Phillipe Sands' East West Street many months ago and it blew me away then.

A book of coincidences, history, family history, law and so much more.  It draws various strands of life together and it is wonderfully personal and technical at the same time.  I've read a lot of books about the division of Europe pre- and post- World War Two and the Holocaust and this is up there among the best. There is even a Norwich link!

I can't say that I'd forgotten this book because it did have such an impact on me but as I read/heard nothing about it I thought I was in the minority in loving it.  However it was just that I read it so early no one was talking about it! Now it is published it is getting great reviews and I am so pleased - this is a readable book that manages to bring home the personal way the Holocaust touched people while never losing sight of the whole.

If you are in Norwich in July Philippe Sands will be talking at Waterstones Norwich - details here

The second book I read months ago and is just now being talked about is Elena Lappin's What Language Do I Dream In?

When I was studying languages we were always told that you'd 'cracked it' when you dreamt in the language you were studying and so I was drawn to this book just by the title alone but again it turned out to be a memoir/family history book that took post war Europe as a backdrop.

Another book that I raced through and then assumed that no one else liked, but again it was just I read it months and months before publication!

I think that the lesson I've learned from this is that when I read a proof copy of a book I need to also note in my reading journal what the actual publication date of a book is!

Advance reading

The Last Pilot by Benjamin Johncock

Reviewing a book by someone you know, and that you bump into on a frequent basis is actually quite nerve wracking.
Add in to the mix that their new book is on a topic that you love, and know quite a lot about.

To say I approached The Last Pilot with trepidation isn't entirely the truth however, since the author announced it had a publication date I'd been haunting Netgalley.com daily hoping that a reading copy would be available for request.

It duly appeared and I was approved for a download.  As soon as I'd finished my required reading for uni I did turn to it and then read pretty much non stop to the end.  I was very lucky that the following day was a day off!

The book took a little getting used to at first as there were no speech marks but this was good - it slowed me down (a little).

The publisher blurb tells more about the book than I ever could - and decides what counts as a spoiler:

FROM AN AWARD-WINNING WRITER, A GRIPPING DEBUT NOVEL OF THE SPACE RACE THAT EXPLORES THE INNER LIFE OF A NATIONAL HERO—AND ASKS WHAT IT MEANS TO BE COURAGEOUS IN THE FACE OF UNTHINKABLE LOSS
Jim Harrison is a test pilot in the United States Air Force, one of the exalted few. He spends his days in a precarious dance with death above the Mojave Desert and his nights at his friend Pancho's bar, often with his wife, Grace. Both are secretly desperate for a child—and are delighted when, against all odds, Grace learns that she is pregnant.But Sputnik has put the country in a panic, and NASA, newly formed, has been tasked with manning space before the Russians. Harrison turns down the chance to participate in Project Mercury and becomes a father to Florence, his baby girl. Yet his life, as a father and as a pilot, grinds to a halt when she becomes seriously ill and dies at the age of two. Devastated, Harrison loses himself in his work—and, sometimes, in distressing thoughts of Florence—and this time, when he gets a ticket to the moon, he takes it, but without consulting Grace.As Harrison trains to become an astronaut, the toll that his daughter's death has taken upon his marriage becomes more palpable, even as his ability to reckon with the reality of it diminishes. Set against the backdrop of one of the most emotionally charged periods in American history,The Last Pilot is a mesmerizing story of loss and finding courage in the face of it, from an extraordinary new talent.

What I loved about the book was how little like a novel it was, at the back Johncock lists books he consulted for the research (I'd read all but one of them!) and I really felt that his book stood alongside them as a biography of the time and age - just with an invented character which made it fiction.

The repressed emotion shown by Harrison was perfect when compared to the biographies and autobiographies of the early astronuats - you know that they had to have feelings but that they were repressed to the Nth degree to keep up the image of the macho astronaut.

However this (accurate) emotional distance did keep me a little distant from the book as a novel hence my constant forgetting that it was fiction.  This may be down to my own knowledge of the topic matter and I really look forward to talking about the book with people who don't know the source stories as well as me! The book has enough story that I think it will satisfy people who are 'space nuts' and those who like a good story set in the 1950s and 60s.

I've been to many of the physical places mentioned in the book, and met several of the real men featured and I am so pleased that this book adds to my experiences and, unlike some works on topics I like, send me either screaming back to the sources or ruin my interest entirely.

The book isn't published until July in either the US or the UK but add it to your wish lists now.

Please note that although I know the author the book was provided through Netgalley.com, the review is entirely independent and I have received no recompense for writing it.

Summer Reading

Roomies by Sara Zarr and Tara Altebrando

Supplied by Bookbridgr.com

Seeing this book on the Bookbridgr review scheme made me very happy - two of my favourite teen fiction tropes and by an author I already love.  I was a very happy Norfolkbookworm to find this on my doorstep over the weekend.

Lauren and Elizabeth are about to leave home for the first time to go to university, they've been assigned as room-mates for their first year and so spend the summer emailing each other in preparation for the autumn.

The book isn't deep, and there was little in it that related to my memories of leaving home for uni but I loved the book, the way that the girls are slowly trying to sort their lives out before a big change and how two such very different people can be so similar in many ways was wonderfully conveyed.  The characters felt real and their situations always realistic which is an achievement when as an adult you read light fiction aimed at teenagers.

I think that the mixture of sensible length emails interspersed with straight forward narration worked well, too often when reading epistolary fiction I lose interest because in reality very few people would write letters/emails that long every time.

I needed the escapism of something easier to read after a session of longer, complicated books and a big event at work - this fitted the bill completely and was a fun read.  I hope that we hear more from LoCo and EB as they were such strong voices.