WWW Wednesday: 28 September 2022

Published on by Margaret13 Comments

WWW Wednesday is run by Taking on a World of Words.

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

I still haven’t finished The Island by Victoria Hislop. I took it away on holiday but didn’t read much of it and now I need to refresh my memory before I can read any more. It is set mainly on the tiny, deserted island of Spinalonga – Greece’s former leper colony and is the story of Eleni and her daughters and a family rent by tragedy, war and passion. 

I’m also reading Godmersham Park by Gill Hornby, a novel about about Fanny Knight’s governess, Anne Sharp and her relationship with Jane Austen, and Never Greater Slaughter by Michael Livingstone, nonfiction about the Battle of Brunanburh in AD937, which Livingstone describes as ‘one of the most significant battles in the long history not just of England, but of the whole of the British Isles.’

The last book I read is Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan, a novella that is shortlisted for the Booker Prize this year. I loved it. It is 1985, in an Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal and timber merchant, faces into his busiest season. As he does the rounds, he feels the past rising up to meet him – and encounters the complicit silences of a people controlled by the Church. A tender tale of hope and quiet heroism this is both a celebration of compassion and a stern rebuke of the sins committed in the name of religion.

Next I’ll be reading Another Part of the Wood by Beryl Bainbridge as it’s my book for the Classics Club Spin. In a remote cottage in Wales two urban couples are spending their holiday with the idealistic owner and his protege. The beginning is idyllic but catastrophe lurks behind every tree, and as the holiday continues their relationships start to show their cracks.

Although this is a weekly meme l’m taking part once a month at the moment.

Top Ten Tuesday: Typographic Book Covers

Published on by Margaret24 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: Typographic Book Covers (Book covers with a design that is all or mostly all words.)

At first I didn’t think I’d have enough typographic book covers for a post so I was surprised to find that I have, although some do have a small illustration. These are all books I own, some of which I’ve read (marked with asterisks * and with links to my posts).

I was shocked and saddened to hear that Hilary Mantel died on 22 September, aged 70 after suffering a stroke – here’s a link to an obituary. I’ve enjoyed a lot of her books, including the one list below.

*After You’d Gone by Maggie O’Farrell – Alice is in a coma after being in road accident, which may or may not have been a suicide attempt. She has been grieving the death of her husband, John.

*He Who Whispers by John Dickson Carr – a locked room’ type of mysteries/impossible crimes, featuring Dr Gideon Fell, an amateur sleuth.

*Shakespeare’s Restless World by Neil MacGregor – nonfiction that recreates Shakespeare’s world through examining twenty objects. It reveals so much about the people, their ideas and living conditions, who went to see Shakespeare’s plays.

*The Burning Chambers by Kate Mosse – the first novel in a trilogy set in Languedoc in the south-west of France. It’s set in 1562 during the French Wars of Religion.

Eight Months on Ghazzah Street by Hilary Mantel – life in Saudi Arabia seen through the eyes of Frances, the wife of an ex-pat British engineer. The streets are not a woman’s territory; confined in her flat, she finds her sense of self begins to dissolve. This was her fourth novel, inspired by the four years she lived in Jeddah.

The Women’s Room by Marilyn French – described as ‘one of the most influential novels of the modern feminist movement.’ It was first published in 1977 to a barrage of criticism

Amo, Amas, Amat … And All That by Harry Mount – a guided tour of Latin featuring everything from a Monty Python grammar lesson to David Beckham’s tattoos. I’ve dipped into this one.

Nothing But the Truth by Adrian Plass – a collection of short stories and parables, both serious and comedic.

Persephone Book of Short Stories – an anthology of women’s short stories organised in chronological order through the twentieth century ranging from 1909 to 1986 with mini biographies at the back. I’ve read some of these.

*Somewhere Towards the End by Diana Athill – a memoir about what it is like getting towards the end of her life. At the time of writing she was 89 years old and looking back on her life with few regrets. She died in 2019 aged 101.

Undercurrent by Barney Norris

Published on by Margaret1 Comment

This is another short review of a book I read in the summer and didn’t manage to review before I went away on holiday. I really enjoyed it.

Random House| 25 August 2022| 257 pages| e-book Review Copy| 4*

Blurb:

Years ago, in an almost accidental moment of heroism, Ed saved Amy from drowning. Now, in his thirties, he finds himself adrift. He’s been living in London for years – some of them good – but he’s stuck in a relationship he can’t move forward, has a job that just pays the bills, and can’t shake the sense that life should mean more than this. Perhaps all Ed needs is a moment to pause. To exhale and start anew. And when he meets Amy again by chance, it seems that happiness might not be so far out of reach. But then tragedy overtakes him, and Ed must decide whether to let history and duty define his life, or whether he should push against the tide and write his own story.

Filled with hope and characteristic warmth, Undercurrent is a moving and intimate portrait of love, of life and why we choose to share ours with the people we do.

A few years ago I read Turning for Home by Barney Norris and thought it was a moving book with emotional depth. Undercurrent has very much the same tone, plumbing the same depth of emotion, as he tells the story of a family’s grief and loss as well as love.

The main story centres around Ed and his immediate family, but the narrative includes the stories of his grandparents and great grandparents. He had a troubled childhood, living on a farm in Wales with his mother, stepfather and stepsister, Rachel. His mother wants him and Rachel to take over the farm when she dies, but neither of them want to, which leaves Ed feeling guilty and frustrated. But when his mother becomes seriously ill and dies he has to make a decision.

It’s also the story of his grandparents and great grandparents, beginning in 1911 in India when Arthur, an Englishman met and later married Phoebe a young Indian teenager. When the First World War broke out they moved to England and Arthur enlisted in the navy. She never got over leaving India and sank into depression and melancholy. Their son, Leo, was greatly affected by his mother’s mental illness and caring for her and the farm became too much for him, resulting in tragedy. The women in the family followed the same pattern as Phoebe – following the men, their lives changing for better or worse.

I don’t feel I have done justice to this novel, finding it quite difficult to review. It’s a quiet thoughtful book that explores the nature of our relationships and emotions. The central theme is the pull of home, that sense of belonging, of attachment to a place, and how our past has shaped our lives. Alongside this there is the desire for a new life, and new experiences. It is beautifully written.

My thanks to the publishers for a review copy via NetGalley.

Top Ten Tuesday: Books on My Fall 2022 To-Read List

Published on by Margaret28 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 On My Fall 2022 To-Read List.

Some of these books are ones that have been on my TBR list for ages, and some are more recent additions from NetGalley. This is a list of books I want to read, but that does not mean I’ll read them all this autumn as I’m a mood reader and looking at my list of books on my Summer 2022 To-Read List I see that I read just one. Planning what to read next rarely works for me.

  1. Another Part of the Wood by Beryl Bainbridge
  2. The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai
  3. Mrs March by Virginia Feito
  4. The Island by Victoria Hislop
  5. Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
  6. Never Greater Slaughter by Michael Livingstone
  7. Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively
  8. Coffin Road by Peter May
  9. The City of Tears by Kate Mosse
  10. Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

The Classics Club Spin Result

Published on by Margaret2 Comments

The spin number in The Classics Club Spin is number …

which for me is Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe. The rules of the Spin are that this is the book for me to read by 29th January 2023.

Synopsis

I grew as impudent a Thief, and as dexterous as ever Moll Cut-Purse was’

Born and abandoned in Newgate Prison, Moll Flanders is forced to make her own way in life. She duly embarks on a career that includes husband-hunting, incest, bigamy, prostitution and pick-pocketing, until her crimes eventually catch up with her. One of the earliest and most vivid female narrators in the history of the English novel, Moll recounts her adventures with irresistible wit and candour—and enough guile that the reader is left uncertain whether she is ultimately a redeemed sinner or a successful opportunist. 

I hesitated before adding this book to my Classics Club list and now I’m not sure that I do want to read it. I’m hoping that at least I’ll like it. If you have read it I’d love to know what you thought of it.

Did you take part in the Classics Spin? What will you be reading?

White Rose, Black Forest by Eoin Dempsey

Published on by Margaret4 Comments

Rating: 3 out of 5.

This is the second of several short posts as I try to catch up with writing reviews of books I read earlier this year.

White Forest, Black Rose by Eoin Dempsey is a World War 2 novel which is different from other books set during the War that I’ve read before, told from the perspective of a German who opposed the Nazis. It is set in the Black Forest, Germany in 1943, where Franka Gerber is living alone in an isolated cabin, having returned to her home town of Freiburg after serving a prison sentence for anti-Nazi activities.

It is December and the Forest is blanketed in deep snow when she discovers an unconscious airman lying in the snow wearing a Luftwaffe uniform, his parachute flapping in the wind. Taking him back to the cabin she saves his life, but whilst he is unconscious she hears him speak in English and so it seems that he is not who she first thought he was. Both his legs are broken and, having been a nurse, Franka is able to set the bones, and tries to discover his true identity. Trapped in the cabin they both gradually reveal details of their past lives and learn to trust each other.

It is a tense, claustrophobic novel and as soon as he is able to walk they decide to leave the cabin and so begins a race against time, as they are hunted by the Gestapo. Can they trust each other enough to join forces on a mission that could change the face of the war and their own lives forever?

White Rose, Black Forest is a novel inspired by true events, although the author doesn’t clarify what is fact and what is fiction. I enjoyed it, especially the historical aspects. The White Rose movement in Germany was a non-violent intellectual resistance group in Nazi Germany, who conducted an anonymous leaflet and graffiti campaign that called for active opposition to the Nazi regime.

It slots into the Forest box in the Wanderlust Bingo card and is also one of my TBRs, a book I’ve owned since 2018.