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.

🇩🇪

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.

🇫🇷

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!

🇩🇪

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