Six Degrees of Separation from Tom Lake to Come Tell Me How You Live

Published on by Margaret12 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 Tom Lake by Ann Patchett.

My first link is The Magician’s Assistant also by Ann Patchett, the first book of hers that I read. It’s about illusion – Parsifal was a magician and Sabine had been his assistant for twenty years. She and Parsifal had been married for less than a year when he died suddenly of an aneurysm, leaving her alone in their large house in Los Angeles, apart from a large white rabbit, called Rabbit, who was retired from the stage as he was too big to be pulled out of a hat.

My second link is Hemingway’s Chair by Michael Palin. Martin Sproale is an assistant postmaster obsessed with Ernest Hemingway. Martin lives in a small English village, where he studies his hero and potters about harmlessly–until an ambitious outsider, Nick Marshall, is appointed postmaster instead of Martin. I haven’t written a review of this yet so the link in the title takes you to Goodreads.

My third link is Nothing Ventured by Jeffrey Archer, in which there is another assistant, Beth Rainsford, a research assistant at the Fitzmolean Museum. It’s the first in a series of books following William Warwick’s progress from detective constable to the commissioner of the Metropolitan Police. When William meets Beth they fall in love almost at first sight – but Beth has a secret that she keeps from him. 

My fourth link is The Smiling Man by Joseph Knox in which Aidan Waits is a Detective Constable working night shifts with Detective Inspector Peter Sutcliffe, known as Sutty. They investigate the death of the ‘Smiling Man‘ at a disused hotel, The Palace, in Manchester. This is a fascinating and complex novel. Be aware though (if this bothers you), there are some violent scenes, and one strand of the story concerning a particularly loathsome and brutal character called Bateman and an eight year old boy and his little sister is very chilling.

My fifth link is The Clocks by Agatha Christie, which Detective Inspector Hardcastle and Colin Lamb investigate the murder of a dead man found in the sitting room at the home of Miss Pebmarsh at 19 Wilbraham Crescent. The strange thing was that there were five clocks in the sitting room and all, except for the cuckoo clock, which announced the time as 3 o’clock, had stopped at 4.13. 

My final link is another book by Agatha Christie, but not a crime fiction novel. It’s Come Tell Me How You Live, an archaeological memoir. She wrote it in answer to her friends’ questions about what life was like when she accompanied her second husband, Max on his excavations in Syria and Iraq in the 1930s.

My chain is made up of the following links – assistants, detective inspectors, detective constables and books by Agatha Christie.

Next month  (April 6, 2024), Kate is changing it up a little: look at your bookshelf – do you see a Lonely Planet title there? Or an Eyewitness Travel title? Or any other travel guide? That’s your starting book.

Book Beginnings on Friday & The Friday 56: The Secret Life of Bees

Published on by Margaret2 Comments

Every 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. You can also share from a book you want to highlight just because it caught your fancy.

I’m featuring The Secret Lives of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd one of the books I hope to read soon.

Book Beginning:

At night I would lie in bed and watch the show, how the bees squeezed through the cracks of my bedroom wall and flew in circles around the room, making that propeller sound, a high pitched zzzzzz that hummed along my skin

Also every Friday there is The Friday 56, hosted by Freda at Freda’s Voice, but she is taking a break and Anne at My Head if Full of Books has taken on hosting duties in her absence. You grab a book and turn to page 56 (or 56% of an eBook), find one or more interesting sentences (no spoilers), and post them.

Page 56:

We stared across the water at each other. In the dark she looked like a boulder shaped by five hundred years of storms.

Description from Goodreads:

Lily has grown up believing she accidentally killed her mother when she was four years old. Now, at fourteen, she yearns for forgiveness and a mother’s love. Living on a peach farm in South Carolina with her harsh and unforgiving father, she has only one friend, Rosaleen, a black servant.

When racial tension explodes one summer afternoon, and Rosaleen is arrested and beaten, Lily chooses to flee with her. Fugitives from justice, the pair follow a trail left by the woman who died ten years before. Finding sanctuary in the home of three beekeeping sisters, Lily starts a journey as much about her understanding of the world as about the mystery surrounding her mother.

~~~

What do you think, does it appeal to you? What are you currently reading?

Reading Wales 2024

Published on by Margaret5 Comments

Paula at The Book Jotter is hosting the sixth Reading Wales celebration (aka Dewithon 24), a month-long event beginning on Saint David’s Day, during which book lovers from all parts of the world are encouraged to read, discuss and review literature from and about Wales. I haven’t taken part before but this year I hope I can read at least one book.

Here are a few books I have on my bookshelves to choose from:

How Green was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn. A story of life in a mining community in rural South Wales as Huw Morgan is preparing to leave the valley where he had grown up. He tells of life before the First World War.

Richard Llewellyn Richard Dafydd Vivian Llewellyn Lloyd, known by his pen name Richard Llewellyn, was born in Hendon, London of Welsh parents. Only after his death was it discovered that Llewellyn’s claim that he was born in St Davids, West Wales, was false.

The Earth Hums in B Flat by Mari Strachan. Gwenni Morgan is not like any other girl in this small Welsh town. Inquisitive, bookish and full of spirit, she can fly in her sleep and loves playing detective. So when a neighbour mysteriously vanishes, and no one seems to be asking the right questions, Gwenni decides to conduct her own investigation.

Mari Strachan was born into a Welsh family in Harlech, on the north-west coast of Wales, and was brought up there with Welsh as her first language.

Completely Unexpected Tales by Roald Dahl. Described on the back cover as a collection of macabre tales of vengeance, surprise and dark delights. I used to enjoy these tales in the TV series, Tales of the Unexpected, years ago. 

Roald Dahl was born n Llandaff, Glamorgan. His parents were Norwegian. I bought this at The Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre in the village of Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire where Dahl lived until his death in 1990.

The Welsh Girl by Peter Ho Davies. In 1944, a German Jewish refugee is sent to Wales to interview Rudolf Hess; in Snowdonia, a seventeen-year-old girl, the daughter of a fiercely nationalistic shepherd, dreams of the bright lights of an English city; and in a nearby POW camp, a German soldier struggles to reconcile his surrender with his sense of honour. As their lives intersect, all three will come to question where they belong and where their loyalties lie.

Peter Ho Davies was born and raised in Coventry to Welsh and Chinese parents, he now makes his home in the US. 

The Fledgeling by Frances Faviell

Published on by Margaret4 Comments

Dean Street Press| 2016| 211 pages| My own copy| 4*

Karen @ Kaggsy’s Bookish Ramblings and Lizzy @ Lizzy’s Literary Life are hosting #ReadIndies for the fourth time. This is my first time taking part. And as I have several books published by the Dean Street Press I decided to read one of their books – The Fledgeling by Frances Faviell.

I enjoyed Frances Faviell’s memoir, The Dancing Bear, which is set in Berlin just after the end of the Second World War, so I was looking forward to reading another one of her books. The Fledgeling (first published in 1958) is her third novel. It appealed to me because it’s also a book about the post war period, but set a few years later in Britain in the late 1950s. National Service was then in force meaning that all men aged 17 to 21 had to serve in one of the armed forces for an 18-month period. It was discontinued in 1960, with the last servicemen discharged in 1963.

It tells the story of 19-year old Neil Collins , who deserted from his National Service for the third time taking place over the twenty four hour period following Neil’s desertion. When the book begins and sets out to go to his grandmother’s small basement flat in London. Mrs Collins is bedridden and dying. She has strong ideas about duty and thinks Neil should go back and finish his National Service. Nonie, his twin sister, supports him, despite the fact that Charlie, her husband, thinks he is a coward and should finish his National Service. But Nonie makes plans to get him to Ireland where their Great Aunt Liz lived. The flat is small and Neil has to stay hidden whilst several people visit during the day – Miss Rhodes the social worker, some of the neighbours, and Linda, a little girl who regularly climbs in through the basement window to see ‘Gran Collins’.

Neil is in a ‘sickening state of collapse’, is desperate to get away, and he lives in fear of the military finding him and taking him back. And adding to his terror is his fear that Mike, a bullying fellow soldier who has made Neil’s life a nightmare, will catch up with him, to escape with him to Ireland. It all seems hopeless to Neil.

In an Afterword by John Parker, Faviell’s son, he writes that each of her books were inspired by episodes in her own life. And The Fledgeling, about a National Service deserter was based on an actual incident. I enjoyed this book. As I read it I could imagine the reality of the fear and desperation that the family were experiencing. It gives an excellent insight into what life was like in Britain in the 1950s, and in particular into the impact National Service had at that time.

Top Ten Tuesday: Covers/Titles with Things Found in Nature

Published on by Margaret17 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 Covers/Titles with Things Found in Nature (covers/titles with things like trees, flowers, animals, forests, bodies of water, etc. on/in them).

This week I’ve read all ten books I’ve chosen so the links all take you to my reviews.

The first five books all have trees in the titles and on the covers:

The Man Who Climbs Trees by James Aldred, nonfiction. If you have ever wondered how wildlife/nature documentaries are filmed this book has the answers. James Aldred, a professional tree climber, wildlife cameraman, and adventurer, explains how he discovered that trees are places of refuge as well as providing unique vantage points to view the world.

The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver, a novel. There are several themes running throughout this book – both political and social including family relationships, particularly mother/child, sexual and physical abuse of small children, the integration of cultures, as well as the always current issue of refugees and illegal immigrants.

Wildwood: a Journey Through Trees by Roger Deakin about his journeys through a wide variety of trees and woods in various parts of the world. It’s a memoir, a travelogue and also it’s about the interdependence of human beings and trees.

The Man Who Planted Trees by Jean Giono, a short book about a shepherd who transformed the land by planting trees. Not just a few trees, thousands of them over the years. Where once the earth was dry and barren the trees brought water back into the dry stream beds, seeds germinated, meadows blossomed and new villages appeared. 

The Wych Elm by Tana French – psychological thriller, as dark family secrets gradually came to light. It isn’t a page-turner and yet it is full of mystery and suspense about a family in crisis. Soon after Toby returns to his family home a human skull is found in the hollow trunk of a wych elm, the biggest tree in the garden.

The last five books are a mixture of fiction and nonfiction on different Nature topics:

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owen, fiction, set mainly in the marshlands in North Carolina where Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh Girl lives She has survived for years alone in the marsh that she calls home, finding friends in the gulls and lessons in the sand. It is also a murder mystery.

The Grass is Singing by Doris Lessing – a novel set in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in the 1940s, this is a novel about failure and depression, disaster, racism, racial tension and prejudice, colonialism at its worst. It’s beautifully written, but so tragic.

Corvus: A Life With Birds by Esther Woolfson, nonfiction, mainly about the rook, Chicken. Esther Woolfson also writes in detail about natural history, the desirability or otherwise of keeping birds, and a plethora of facts about birds, their physiology, mechanics of flight, bird song and so on.

The Wild Places by Robert Macfarlane, a travelogue that will intrigue readers of natural history and adventure in which he explores our changing ideas of the wild. From the cliffs of Cape Wrath, to the holloways of Dorset, the storm-beaches of Norfolk, the saltmarshes and estuaries of Essex, and the moors of Rannoch and the Pennines, his journeys become the conductors of people and cultures, past and present, who have had intense relationships with these places.

English Pastoral by James Rebanks. This is an absolutely marvellous book. I enjoyed his account of his childhood and his nostalgia at looking back at how his grandfather farmed the land. And I was enlightened about current farming practices and the effects they have on the land, depleting the soil of nutrients. Rebanks also explains what can be done to put things right, how we can achieve a balance of farmed and wild landscapes, by limiting use of some of the technological tools we’ve used over the last 50 years so that methods based on mixed farming and rotation can be re-established. By encouraging more diverse farm habitats, rotational grazing and other practices that mimic natural processes we can transform rural Britain.

The Hog’s Back Mystery by Freeman Wills Croft

Published on by Margaret8 Comments

I’m trying to catch up with writing about the books I’ve read so far this year. So this is a short post about one of them.

The Hog’s Back Mystery by Freeman Wills Crofts, the 10th Inspector French book 4*.

This is a British Library Crime Classic, first published in 1933, during the Golden Age of detective fiction between the two world wars. Dr James Earle and his wife live near the Hog’s Back, a ridge in the North Downs in the beautiful Surrey countryside. When Dr Earle disappears from his cottage, Inspector French of Scotland Yard is called in to investigate. At first he suspects a simple domestic intrigue – and then begins to uncover a web of romantic entanglements beneath the couple’s peaceful rural life.

I’ve only read two Inspector French books before. They’re puzzle-type mysteries. French is a most meticulous and methodical detective – maybe too meticulous and methodical, but he is a very likeable character. It begins leisurely introducing the characters and setting the scene. He pays great attention to all the information as he discovers it. This slows the pace down, going over and over the clues several times and he even lists them, giving the page numbers they appear on towards the end of the book. Crofts’ descriptions of the countryside are outstanding, giving it a great sense of place.

The more he (Inspector French) had explored the country, the more it had appealed to him. He loved the tree-edged out lines of its successive ridges,showing up solid beneath one another like drop scenes in a theatre. He loved its quaint villages with their old red-roofed half-timbered buildings and their still older churches. He liked following the narrow twisting deep-cut lanes. But most of all he delighted in the heaths, wild and uncultivated, areas of sand and heather and birches and pines over which one could wander as entirely cut off from sight or sound of human habitation as if one was exploring a desert island. (page 61 in my paperback copy)

Ideal countryside for burying a dead body.

Although this is a slower paced novel than I usually prefer to read and the detail is rather repetitive in places, I really enjoyed reading this book, and I’ll be looking out for more of Inspector French murder mystery novels.