Historical Fiction Challenge 2024

Published on by Margaret3 Comments

Marg at The Intrepid Reader hosts the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge. Each month, a new post dedicated to the HF Challenge will be created where you can add the links for the books you have read.

Everyone can participate! If you don’t have a blog you can post a link to your review if it’s posted on Goodreads, Facebook, or Amazon, or you can add your book title and thoughts in the comment section if you wish.

Any sub-genre of historical fiction is accepted (Historical Romance, Historical Mystery, Historical Fantasy, Young Adult, History/Non-Fiction, etc.)

During the following 12 months you can choose one of the different reading levels:

20th Century Reader – 2 books
Victorian Reader – 5 books
Renaissance Reader – 10 books
Medieval – 15 books
Ancient History – 25 books
Prehistoric – 50+ books

I love historical fiction so in 2024 I’m hoping to reach the Ancient History level, that is to read 25 books.

Top Ten Tuesday: Novels about or set in Mountains

Published on by Margaret6 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish and now hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. For the rules see her blog.

The topic this week is a Freebie and I’ve chosen to focus on novels about or set in mountains. I’ve read seven of these books, but the other three are books I own but haven’t read yet – marked with an asterisk*.

Gray Mountain by John Gresham – in which the big coal companies come under the microscope, companies that are  ruining the environment by strip-mining in the Appalachian mountains, clear-felling the forests, scalping the earth and then blasting away the mountain tops to get at the coal. All the trees, topsoil and rocks are then dumped into the valleys, wiping out the vegetation, wildlife and streams.

The Black Mountain by Kate Mosse, historical fiction set in May 1706 on the northern part of the island of Tenerife, where Ana and her family live in the shadow of a volcano, known locally as the Black Mountain.

 Thin Air by Michelle Paver, set in the Himalayas on Kangchenjunga, as a group of five men set out to climb the mountain in 1935. It is based on real events, although the 1907 and 1935 expeditions described in it are fictional. But the setting is real, the characterisation is excellent as is the feel of the 1930s, with its class snobbery, and racism and above all the creeping sense of dread that pervades the whole book.

*Cairngorm John: a Life in Mountain Rescue by John Allen, who was an active member of the Cairngorm Mountain Rescue Team and for most of them acted as Team Leader. In ‘Cairngorm John’ (his call sign when in contact with search and rescue helicopters) he recalls the challenges of mountain rescue and the many changes he has witnessed. A TBR.

*Murder in the Glen: a Tale of Death and Rescue on the Scottish Mountains by Hamish MacInnes although fiction it gives a ‘true portrayal of Highland life by a world authority on mountain rescue as well as the the Scottish Highlands.’ Another TBR.

*Flight Behaviour by Barbara Kingsolver, Appalachian Mountains above her home, a young mother discovers a beautiful and terrible marvel of nature: the monarch butterflies have not migrated south for the winter this year As she hikes up a mountain road behind her house to a secret tryst, she encounters a shocking sight: a silent, forested valley filled with what looks like a lake of fire. Yet another TBR.

Silver Lies by Ann Parker, a murder mystery set in 1879/80 in the silver-mining town of Leadville, Colarado in the heart of the Rocky Mountains.

On the Black Hill by Bruce Chatwin was first published in 1982 when it won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Whitbread First Novel of the Year Award. The Black Hill is one of the Black Mountains on the border of England and Wales, although fictionalised in this book.

The Fall is not just a gripping account of the dangers of rock climbing and mountaineering, mountains of Wales and the Alps, culminating on the North Face of the Eiger. It is the story of Rob Dewar and Jamie Matthewson from their childhood up to Jamie’s death in Snowdia 40 years later. But it’s also the story of their parents and how their lives are interlinked. I found it enthralling, one of those books that make me want to look at the ending to see how it all turns out. I managed to stop myself, however, and read impatiently to the end anxious to know what actually happened between them all.

The Seven Sisters by Lucinda Riley, the first in the series based the books on the legends of The Seven Sisters of the Pleiades. This one is about Maia, taking her back to Brazil, the country of her birth. I loved all the details about the building of the statue of Christ the Redeemer on Corcovado Mountain in the Carioca Range, overlooking the city of Rio de Janeiro.

Spell the Month in Books – December 2023

Published on by Margaret11 Comments

Spell the Month in Books is a linkup hosted by Jana on Reviews From the Stacks on the first Saturday of each month. The goal is to spell the current month with the first letter of book titles, excluding articles such as ‘the’ and ‘a’ as needed. That’s all there is to it! Some months there are optional theme challenges, such as “books with an orange cover” or books of a particular genre, but for the most part, any book you want to use is fair game!

The theme this month is Winter, Christmas, or Christian themes… I’ve chosen mainly mystery stories set at Christmas.

The links in the titles of each book go to my posts on the books, where they exist, or to Amazon, or Goodreads for the books I haven’t read.

D is for Dalziel and Pascoe Hunt the Christmas Killer & Other Stories by Reginald Hill – a TBR

A vicar nailed to a tree in Yorkshire.
The theft of a priceless artefact during a fire.
A detective forced to tell the truth for 24 hours.
A body hidden in a basement.

From the restless streets of London to the wilds of the Lake District, displaying all his trademark humour, playfulness and clever plotting, this landmark collection brings together the very best of Reginald Hill’s short stories for the first time, complete with a foreword from Val McDermid. (Goodreads)

E is for An English Christmas by John Julius Norwich – a TBR

The snow is thick, the phone line is down, and no one is getting in or out of Warbeck Hall. With friends and family gathered round the fire, all should be set for a perfect Christmas, but as the bells chime midnight, a mysterious murder takes place.
Who can be responsible? The scorned young lover? The lord’s passed-over cousin? The social climbing politician’s wife? The Czech history professor? The obsequious butler? And perhaps the real question is: can any of them survive long enough to tell the tale? (Amazon)

C is for  A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens – I’ve read this many times over the years since I was about 10!

A Christmas Carol tells the story of a bitter old miser named Ebenezer Scrooge and his transformation into a gentler, kindlier man after visitations by the ghost of his former business partner Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come.

The book was written at a time when the British were examining and exploring Christmas traditions from the past as well as new customs such as Christmas cards and Christmas trees. Carol singing took a new lease of life during this time. Dickens’ sources for the tale appear to be many and varied, but are, principally, the humiliating experiences of his childhood, his sympathy for the poor, and various Christmas stories and fairy tales. (From Amazon)

E is for Edie Kiglatuk’s Christmas by  M. J. McGrath – a TBR.

The shortest day of the year didn’t count for much up on Ellesmere Island. By the time 21 December arrived, the sun hadn’t come up for two months and it would be another two before it managed to scramble over the High Arctic horizon. Objects, animals and even people could disappear during the Great Dark without anyone much noticing. Which was why no one reported Tommy Qataq missing . . .

Christmas is fast approaching on Ellesmere Island, in the vast frozen landscape of the High Arctic, and half Inuit ex polar bear hunter Edie Kiglatuk is drawn into a mystery when a young man dies in suspicious circumstances. (Amazon)

M is for A Maigret Christmas by Georges Simenon (my review)

It’s set in Paris on Christmas Day – Inspector Maigret has the day off. Madame Martin and Mademoiselle Doncoeur, who live in the apartment opposite, visit him to tell him that Colette, a little girl staying with her aunt and uncle, Madame Martin and her husband, had woken in the night. She said she had seen Father Christmas in her room, making a hole in the floor. He gave her a present, a big doll and then held up his finger to his lips as he left. But who was he and why was he trying to take up the floorboards?

B is for The Big Book of Christmas Mysteries: 100 of the Very Best Yuletide Whodunnits edited by Otto Penzler – I’ve read several of these stories and will be reading more this Christmas.

Festive felonies, unscrupulous santas, deadly puddings, and misdemeanors under the mistletoe…

From Victorian detective stories to modern mysteries, police procedurals to pulp fiction, comic gems to cozy crime, there’s something for every festive mood in this must-read collection starring sixty of the world’s favourite detectives. (Amazon)

E is for An English Murder: The Golden Age Classic Christmas Mystery by Cyril Hare – a TBR

The snow is thick, the phone line is down, and no one is getting in or out of Warbeck Hall. With friends and family gathered round the fire, all should be set for a perfect Christmas, but as the bells chime midnight, a mysterious murder takes place.
Who can be responsible? The scorned young lover? The lord’s passed-over cousin? The social climbing politician’s wife? The Czech history professor? The obsequious butler? And perhaps the real question is: can any of them survive long enough to tell the tale? (Amazon)

R is for Ryan’s Christmas: A DCI Ryan Mystery (The DCI Ryan Mysteries Book 15) by L J Ross – a TBR.

Christmas can be murder…

After a busy year fighting crime, DCI Ryan and his team of murder detectives are enjoying a festive season of goodwill, mulled wine and, in the case of DS Phillips, a stottie cake or two—that is, until a freak snowstorm forces their car off the main road and into the remote heart of Northumberland. Their Christmas spirit is soon tested when they’re forced to find shelter inside England’s most haunted castle, where they’re the uninvited guests at a ‘Candlelit Ghost Hunt’. It’s all fun and games—until one of the guests is murdered. It seems no mortal hand could have committed the crime, so Ryan and Co. must face the spectres living inside the castle walls to uncover the grisly truth, before another ghost joins their number…

Murder and mystery are peppered with romance and humour in this fast-paced crime whodunnit set amidst the spectacular Northumbrian landscape. (Amazon)

The next link up will be on January 6, 2024 when the theme will be New (interpret as you wish: new releases, recent acquisitions, “new” in the title, etc.)

Six Degrees of Separation from Kitchen Confidential to Wycliffe and the Last Rites

Published on by Margaret20 Comments

It’s time again for Six Degrees of Separation, a monthly link-up hosted by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best. Each month a book is chosen as a starting point and linked to six other books to form a chain. A book doesn’t need to be connected to all the other books on the list, only to the one next to it in the chain.

This month starts with  Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain described by Amazon:

After twenty-five years of ‘sex, drugs, bad behaviour and haute cuisine’, chef and novelist Anthony Bourdain decided to tell all – and he meant all.

From his first oyster in the Gironde to his lowly position as a dishwasher in a honky-tonk fish restaurant in Provincetown; from the kitchen of the Rainbow Room atop the Rockefeller Center to drug dealers in the East Village, from Tokyo to Paris and back to New York again, Bourdain’s tales of the kitchen are as passionate as they are unpredictable, as shocking as they are funny.

I spent more time than usual deciding which route to take with my chain. I considered starting with another book by a celebrity chef, and there are plenty to choose from, or a book with ‘kitchen’ in the title, but both chains just fizzled out.

So I opted to start with a book by an author with the same initial letters in the surname:

The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett, telling the story of Her Majesty, not named, but she had dogs, took her summer holiday at Balmoral and was married to a duke. She came across the travelling library outside the palace and borrowed a book to save the driver/librarian’s embarrassment. 

Also by Alan Bennett The Lady in the Van, is one of the stories that I read in his collection Four Stories. It’s also available as an e-book. In 1974, the homeless Miss Shepherd moved her broken down van into Alan Bennett’s garden. Deeply eccentric and stubborn to her bones, Miss Shepherd was not an easy tenant. And Bennett, despite inviting her in the first place, was a reluctant landlord. And yet she lived there for fifteen years.

Lady Susan by Jane Austen is a unfinished novella in Lady Susan, The Watsons and Sanderton. Told in a series of letters it’s the  story of an unscrupulous widow who plans to force her daughter into a marriage against her wishes.

Lady Susan reminded me of Laclos’s Les Liaisons Dangereuses, not just because both are epistolary but also the content – manipulative and evil characters without any moral scruples, who delight in their power to seduce others. One of the characters is an innocent convent girl, Cecile Volanges.

Another character called Cecile is in Cecile is Dead by Georges Simenon, one of the best Maigret books I’ve read – and it is complicated, remarkably so in a novella of just 151 pages. 

Another novella in the crime fiction genre is Wycliffe and the Last Rites by W J Burley – set in Cornwall. Detective Chief Superintendent Wycliffe investigates a bizarre murder that shakes the village of Moresk. Arriving at church on Easter morning the vicar discovers the body of a woman sprawled across the chancel steps.

Well, this is my chain travelling from cooking to murder and passing through royalty, to eccentric and unscrupulous characters.

Next month (January 6, 2024), we will start with Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin.

Top Ten Tuesday: Books Set on Islands

Published on by Margaret12 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish and now hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. For the rules see her blog.

The topic this week is Books Set In X – Pick a setting and share books that are all set there. This could be a specific continent or country, a state, in outer space, underwater, on a ship or boat, at the beach, etc.

I’ve chosen books set on islands:

The links go to my posts on the books.

The Island by Victoria Hislop, her debut novel. It is historical fiction set in Plaka on the island of Crete and in Spinalonga, a tiny, deserted island just off the coast of Plaka.

The Island by Ragnar Jonasson, Nordic Noir, set on the isolated island of Elliðaey off the coast of Iceland. It’s an intricate mystery full of suspense and foreboding, set against the beautiful and dramatic Icelandic landscape.

The Long Song by Andrea Levy. This is a brutal, savage, and unrelenting novel that depicts the lives of the slaves in Jamaica just as slavery was coming to an end and both the slaves and their former owners were adjusting to their freedom.

Raven Black by Ann Cleeves, the first in her Shetland series, crime novels set in the Shetland Islands, to the north of mainland Scotland. This is a murder mystery investigated by Inspector Jimmy Perez.

The Blackhouse by Peter May, set on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, a murder mystery. the first in his Lewis Trilogy. It includes a description of the traditional annual two week trip to An Sgeir, the rock fifty miles north-north-east of Lewis to harvest the guga, or young gannets. 

Lord of the Flies by William Golding, a short novel about a group of boys stranded on a desert island. What at first seemed to the boys as a great adventure soon descended into a sinister nightmare scenario. 

A Sea of Troubles by Donna Leon, the 10th Commissario Guido Brunetti novel, set mainly on the island of Pellestrina, south of the Lido on the Venetian lagoon. Brunetti investigates the mystery surrounding the deaths of two clam fishermen, father and son.

Entry Island by Peter May, set in the present day Magdalen Islands, part of the province of Quebec, in the Gulf of St Lawrence, and in the nineteenth century on the Isle of Lewis at the time of the Highland Clearances.  Only two kilometres wide and three long, Entry Island is home to a population of just over 100 inhabitants, the wealthiest of whom has just been discovered murdered in his home.

The Survivors by Jane Harper, set in the fictional coastal town of Evelyn Bay on the island of Tasmania. Just who and what the ‘Survivors‘ are plays a major role in the story – along with the sea, the caves and the tides. This is a slow-burner at first, that turns into an emotionally charged book

Silver: Return to Treasure Island by Andrew Motion, a sequel to Treasure Island. Jim and Natty, son and daughter of Jim Hawkins and Long John Silver, go in search of the silver left behind on Treasure Island forty years earlier.

Every Man For Himself by Beryl Bainbridge

Published on by Margaret11 Comments

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Every Man For Himself was the winner of the 1996 Whitbread Novel Award and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in that year.

For the four fraught, mysterious days of her doomed maiden voyage in 1912, the Titanic sails towards New York, glittering with luxury, freighted with millionaires and hopefuls. In her labyrinthine passageways the last, secret hours of a small group of passengers are played out, their fate sealed in prose of startling, sublime beauty, as Beryl Bainbridge’s haunting masterpiece moves inexorably to its known and terrible end.

This is one of her historical novels, so it’s no surprise that this is a disaster novel. It’s the story of Morgan’s voyage divided into four days as he tells it. It’s mainly the story of the young rich people as they drink and party their way across the Atlantic. Morgan is part of the crowd but he is not rich, and although he has connections, he’s a young American who has to earn his living. We only see a glimpse into his background and I found it confusing for quite a way into the book. But eventually we learn more about him and things became clearer,

By the time he writes about day 4, the sinking itself, the pace speeds up, and the story came to life for me. I think Bainbridge conveys what it must have been like –

There was such a dearth of information, of confirmation or denial of rumours – the racquet court was under water but not the Turkish baths; a spur of the iceberg had ripped the ship from one end to the other but the crew was fully equipped to make good the damage and were even now putting it to rights – and such an absence of persons in authority to whom one might turn that it was possible to imagine the man in the golfing jacket had spoken no more than the truth when presupposing we were victims of a hoax. (page 179)

I could easily imagine what it was like to be a passenger, people rushing about the boat, trying to get on the lifeboats and being separated from friends and family. And the final scenes bring home the reality that it really was a case of every man for himself with the callous attitude towards the steerage passengers, the lack of lifeboats and the disregard of the ice warnings. And so the boat described as unsinkable, sank.