Favourite Books: 2007 -2010

Published on by Margaret7 Comments

Last year I enjoyed highlighting some favourite books for each month from 2011 ‘“ 2015 so much that I’ve decided to begin a new series of monthly posts looking back at some of my favourite books from the years 2007 – 2010. Some of my earlier posts are rather brief as I was finding my way on the blog.

I’m beginning with books I read in June in each of those years (click on the titles to see my original reviews) – three crime fiction and one memoir:

2007

On Trying to Keep Still by Jenny Diski this book is a personal memoir about being still, being alone, wanting to be alone, phobias and the problems of coping with life and especially with ageing. It’s about experiencing an experience, becoming aware of experiencing the experience and so losing the experience.

She visited New Zealand, spent two months almost alone in a cottage in the country in Somerset and visited the Sámi people of Lapland.  She described her adventures in places at the opposite ends of the earth intermingled with personal insights and meditations on solitude and stillness, consciousness and belief systems. I found it a moving, amusing, thought-provoking and original book. It was my favourite book of the whole year!

Jenny Diski, who died in April this year was a prolific author of fiction, memoir and essays for whom no subject was taboo.

2008

Messenger of Truth: (the 4th Maisie Dobbs book) by Jacqueline Winspear, a detective story set in 1930/1 in England. The artist Nick Bassington-Hope has fallen to his death from the scaffolding whilst installing his work at an art gallery. The police believe it is an accident, but his twin sister Georgina isn’t convinced and hires Maisie Dobbs to investigate his death. Along with Nick’s death there is also the mystery of the missing piece of art work that was to be the centre of the exhibition.

Set in the  period, between the two World Wars, it reflects the great divide between the wealthy and the poor at that time. The lingering effects of the war are starkly and shockingly described in Georgina’s reminiscences about the treatment during the war of men suffering from shell-shock. An immensely satisfying read that I really enjoyed.

2009

A Judgement in Stone by Ruth Rendell: A Judgement In Stone portrays Eunice, an illiterate woman and a psychopath who does anything to stop anyone from finding out that she can’t read or write.  The opening sentences reveal that she killed her employers, the Coverdales. So, you know that the murder is going to happen and as  the reasons why it happens become clear, the tension builds relentlessly. Without doubt this is a disturbing and a scary book and in my opinion one of Ruth Rendell’s best books.

2010

Resurrection Menbook cover of Resurrection Men by Ian Rankin: the thirteenth Inspector Rebus novel. This isn’t about body-snatchers (as I wondered it might be), but about the cops who need re-training, including Rebus. They’re at Tullialian, the Scottish Police College and they are a tough bunch.  To help them become team players ‘“ fat chance of that I thought ‘“ they’ve been given an old, unsolved case to work on. But Rebus was involved in the case at the time and begins to get paranoid about why he is on the course. It’s a tough, gritty story  with more than one story line. An excellent book.

I’ve really enjoyed all the Rebus books and am looking forward to the next one, the 21st, Rather Be the Devil, to be published on 3 November.

The Agatha Christie Blogathon

Published on by Margaret1 Comment

Agatha Christie blogathon

Little Bits of Classics and and Christina Wehner are running the Agatha Christie Blogathon during the weekend of September 16th-18th in honour of Agatha Christie’s 126th birthday on the 15th of September.

All things Agatha Christie are welcome – about her life, her writing style, her characters, her books, the movie adaptations of her books, tributes, retrospections ‘“ the more the better! Check out Christina’s blog to find out more!

Each day of the blogathon is dedicated to a different topic:

  • Friday the 16th ‘“ all things Hercule Poirot
  • Saturday the 17th ‘“ all things Miss Marple
  • Sunday the 18th ‘“ all the rest, including Agatha Christie or any other novels or movies not related to Poirot or Miss Marple.

I’m planning to write about some of Agatha Christie’s short stories.

 

TBR Snapshot

Published on by Margaret11 Comments

I found this idea on Brona’s Books – it’s TBR Snapshot a way of drawing my attention to my TBR books -, where you make piles of your books that spell out words. I like making lists/piles of books – there are piles around me as I type, and on the floor. So, here’s my first pile, spelling out my name in the titles:

Margaret in bk titlesI’ve had six of these books for years, so some are books I’d forgotten I owned (hangs head in shame), whereas three of them are books I’ve added this year and they are clamouring to be read very soon. But I shall probably start with Moon Tiger as that is also on my list of 20 books of Summer.

What do you think – would you recommend that I read any of these sooner than the others or are there some that I shouldn’t bother reading?

Brona is wondering whether other people would join in – as I have plenty of TBRs I would. In fact I have another pile of books with titles spelling out my blog’s name. Anyone else interested – pop over to Brona’s Books and let her know.

Recent Additions at BooksPlease

Published on by Margaret12 Comments

My TBR piles have been growing again this week with two new additions, books that will be published soon.

First up is a book by an author whose books I’ve enjoyed reading in the past – Sandlands by Rosy Thornton, a book of sixteen short stories, which she has kindly sent to me for review – I have read the first story and am itching to read the rest.

Sandlands P1020059

Rosy Thornton’s email to me explained that the stories are all are set in and around the same small village in coastal Suffolk and, as well as sharing a setting and one or two minor characters, are all closely connected in thematic terms: the natural world, wildlife and the relationship of people to their landscape, and also how the past can make itself felt in the present in various unexpected ways. Some of the stories are ghostly or magical; some are poignant and sad; one or two are (she hopes) funny.

How could I resist this book? Rosy Thornton is an author of contemporary fiction, published originally by Headline Review and more recently by Sandstone Press. In her novels and short stories she enjoys exploring family relationships (especially mothers and daughters), and the way people relate to place and landscape. In real life she lectures in Law at the University of Cambridge, where she is a Fellow of Emmanuel College. She shares her home with her partner and two lunatic spaniels.

Her earlier books I’ve read are Hearts and Minds,  The Tapestry of Love, and Ninepins. I recommend each one, although I think The Tapestry of Love is my favourite.

  • Paperback: 320 pages
  • Publisher: Sandstone Press Ltd (21 July 2016)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 191098504X
  • ISBN-13: 978-1910985045

The other book is an e-book, one of the Kindle First choices for July – Doubt by C E Tobisman, described as a Caroline Auden legal thriller.

Doubt cover

Blurb:

When Caroline Auden lands a job at a top Los Angeles law firm, she’s excited for the challenge – and grateful for the chance to put her dark past as a computer hacker behind her. Right away, her new boss asks her to find out whether a popular GMO [a genetically modified organism] causes healthy people to fall ill. Caroline is only supposed to dig in the trenches and report up the ladder, but her tech background and intuition take her further than planned. When she suspects a link between the death of a prominent scientist and the shadowy biotech giant, she cries foul and soon finds herself in the crosshairs. The clock is ticking and thousands of lives are on the line’¦including her own.

Now this rookie lawyer with a troubled past and a penchant for hacking must prove a billion-dollar company is responsible for thousands of deaths’¦before they come after her.

I haven’t read anything by C E Tobisman, an American author.

  • Format: Kindle Edition
  • File Size: 3935 KB
  • Print Length: 346 pages
  • Publisher: Thomas & Mercer (1 Aug. 2016)

My Friday Post

Published on by Margaret20 Comments

Book Beginnings ButtonEvery Friday Book Beginnings on Friday is hosted by Gillion at Rose City Reader where you can share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires.

This week’s book is Leaving Everything Most Loved by Jacqueline Winspear, the 10th Maisie Dobbs novel. It begins:

Prologue – London, July 1933

Edith Billings – Mrs Edith Billings, that is, proprietor of Billings’ Bakery – watched as the dark woman walked past the shop window, her black head with its oiled ebony hair appearing to bob up and down between the top shelf of cottage loaves and the middle shelf of fancy cakes as she made her way along with a confidence to her step.

Blurb:

London, 1933. Some two months after an Indian woman, Usha Pramal, is found murdered in a South London canal, her brother turns to Maisie Dobbs to find the truth about her death. Not only has Scotland Yard made no arrests, but evidence indicates they failed to conduct a full and thorough investigation. Before her death, Usha was staying at an ayah’s hostel, a refuge for Indian women whose British employers had turned them out. As Maisie learns, Usha was different from the hostel’s other lodgers. But with this discovery comes new danger – soon another Indian woman who was close to Usha is found murdered before she can speak out. As Maisie is pulled deeper into an unfamiliar yet alluring subculture, her investigation becomes clouded by the unfinished business of a previous case. And at the same time her lover, James Compton, gives her an ultimatum she cannot ignore …

Friday 56Also every Friday there is The Friday 56, hosted by Freda at Freda’s Voice.

These are the rules:

  1. Grab a book, any book.
  2. Turn to page 56, or 56% on your eReader.
  3. Find any sentence (or a few, just don’t spoil it) that grabs you.
  4. Post it.
  5. Add the URL to your post in the link on Freda’s most recent Friday 56 post.

Page 56:

Maisie felt her skin prickle when she read the more common name for the Camberwell Beauty: the Mourning Cloak. It was not a clue, not an element of great import of her investigation, but there was something in the picture before her that touched her heart. That something beautiful was so bold, yet at once so fragile.

I’ve read a few of the Maisie Dobbs books and like them. I’ve read just the first chapter of this book so far and it promises to be as good as the others. I don’t know the significance of the Camberwell Beauty butterfly but I know it under that name – not as the Mourning Cloak. It’s a rare butterfly here in the UK.

No Man’s Nightingale by Ruth Rendell

Published on by Margaret4 Comments

Last month I read books from my own shelves for the Mount TBR Reading Challenge (books owned before 1 January 2016) and the 20 Books of Summer Challenge, but then the urge to read other books took over, mainly because I’ve been adding books to my shelves. For the time being I won’t be reading for the Mount TBR Challenge as I have several books that I’ve acquired this year that I want to read first.

One of them is Ruth Rendell’s No Man’s Nightingale.

Blurb:

The woman vicar of St Peter’s Church may not be popular among the community of Kingsmarkham. But it still comes as a profound shock when she is found strangled in her vicarage.

Inspector Wexford is retired, but he retains a relish for solving mysteries especially when they are as close to home as this one is. So when he’s asked whether he will assist on the case, he readily agrees.

But why did the vicar die? And is anyone else in Kingsmarkham in danger? What Wexford doesn’t know is that the killer is far closer than he, or anyone else, thinks.

My thoughts:

I like Wexford, so I was predisposed to like this book (who in my mind looks like George Baker in the TV Wexford series) and I did enjoy it, although not as much as some of her other books.

Maxine Sams has several cleaning jobs, including cleaning for Reg and Dora Wexford – she talks all the time and regales Wexford with stories about her family, interrupting his reading of Gibbons’ Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, which she thinks is a holiday guide to Rome. One of Maxine’s clients is the Reverend Sarah Hussain – and it is Maxine who finds her body, lying on the living room floor. She had been strangled.

Wexford, although enjoying his retirement, is pleased when Detective Superintendent Mike Burden asks if he would like to be involved as a consultant in the investigation into Sarah’s murder. It’s interesting to see how Wexford approaches this as he does not agree with Burden’s methods, thinking he has too many team meetings and ignores things Wexford would have concentrated on, nor can he express his opinions openly. And he isn’t sure just what he should or should not report back to Burden. As most of the book is written from Wexford’s point of view we can see how his mind works and the way he views his former colleagues and society in general and I was glad to see that as a retired person he is portrayed with an agile and observant mind.

There are plenty of red herrings and sub-plots that had me wondering as I read. At times it was rather confusing and I noticed a few continuity problems. Various issues are raised, not just the position of the elderly in society, but also questions of race and gender, religious intolerance, rape, single mothers and family relationships. I liked Wexford’s thoughts on The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, his musings on religion – he is a’committed atheist’ ( I don’t remember that from earlier books) and the self-doubt he reveals. I also liked the comic elements as Wexford tries to escape from Maxine’s non-stop chatter.

Overall I enjoyed the book, but think I prefer Ruth Rendell’s standalone books and those she wrote under the name of Barbara Vine.