Claire's Book List 2015

[poppyshake]

Delighted to see that Robin Stevens series of books have been optioned for television and film adaptation!  I've loved the three books in the series so far, and think they could be great on screen. http://www.thebookseller.com/news/stevens-boarding-school-mysteries-set-big-screen-310183

Brilliant news Claire I'd love to see them on TV at Christmas but a film adaptation would be great too. Exciting! 

[chesilbeach]

The Peculiar Life of a Lonely Postman by Denis Thériault (translated by Liedewy Hawke)

 

Synopsis:

Secretly steaming open envelopes and reading the letters inside, Bilodo has found an escape from his lonely and routine life as a postman. When one day he comes across a mysterious letter containing only a single haiku, he finds himself avidly caught up in the relationship between a long-distance couple, who write to each other using only beautiful poetry. He feasts on their words, vicariously living a life for which he longs. But it will only be a matter of time before his world comes crashing down around him…

 

Review:

I found this book on holiday earlier in the year, and didn't really know much about it, I just wanted to buy a book from the indie bookshop!  I'm so glad I picked it up, as I loved it.  I know nothing about poetry, but the haikus sent between the two correspondents were just about at my level!  Seriously though, for such a short novel (it's only about 120 pages) it's completely compelling, and I loved how it developed.  

 

Bilodo's lonely existence is enriched by the letters and poems, but they gradually take over his life, sucking him in, and I have to say that I never saw the ending coming. When I realised what the author had done, I actually gasped out loud and it made such a satisfying conclusion to the story, I was mightily impressed.  I went back and read a few pages again, and skimmed some of the rest, and I now see there were clues along the way, but I was so caught up in it the first time around, it came as a bit of a shock. 

[chesilbeach]

Artful by Ali Smith

 

Synopsis:

Artful presents, in book form, four lectures given by Ali Smith at Oxford University.

 

Refusing to be tied down to either fiction or the essay form, Artful is narrated by a character who is haunted - literally - by a former lover, the writer of a series of lectures about art and literature. Full of both the poignancy and humour of fiction and all the sideways insights and jaunty angles you would expect from Ali Smith's criticism, it explores form, style, life, love, death, mortality, immortality and what art and writing can mean.

 

Part fiction, part essay, Artful is a revelation of what writing can do and a reaffirmation of Ali Smith's unmatched literary powers.

 

Review:

As ever, I find it incredibly hard to put into words what I feel about Smith's work.  I came to this believing it was non-fiction and a collection of essays, but it's so, so much more.  The essays are woven together where the narrator is grieving for a dead lover, so we get a story of bereavement and how it affects the narrator, not just as an emotional experience, but also the day to day tasks that are affected, and how the grieving process stays with us for a long time.  On the flip side, Smith looks at how art and literature affect us, so mixed in this heart wrenching narrative, there is literary criticism at its best.  One of my favourite books of the year so far.

[Nollaig]

Lonely Postman sounds like an amazing read! Dying to know the twist. Definitely going on the wishlist!

[chesilbeach]

I thought it was so cleverly done, Noll, it just really surprised me. I'm usually pretty good and seeing where plots are going, and guessing mysteries, but I honestly never saw it until it was upon me in this one!

I've just realised I'm about 40 reviews behind, so this weekend will be a review fest, and apologies to everyone in advance for blasting them all out

[chesilbeach]

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie
 
Synopsis:
1971: Mao's cultural Revolution is at its peak. Two sons of doctors, sent to 're-education' camps, forced to carry buckets of excrement up and down mountain paths, have only their sense of humour to keep them going. Although the attractive daughter of the local tailor also helps to distract them from the task at hand.
 
The boys' true re-education starts, however, when they discover a hidden suitcase packed with the great Western novels of the nineteenth century. Their lives are transformed. And not only their lives: after listening to the stories of Balzac, the little seamstress will never be the same again.
 
Review:
Thanks to Kay this one made it onto my TBR, and I'm so pleased she recommended it.  A beautiful story of the importance of stories in a society where books are banned, and that beauty and love can be found in the most difficult of circumstances.  A lovely story to read, thanks to Kay for lending it to me.

[chesilbeach]

In the Orchard, The Swallows by Peter Hobbs

 

Synopsis:

In the foothills of a mountain range in northern Pakistan is a beautiful orchard. Swallows wheel and dive silently over the branches, and the scent of jasmine threads through the air. Pomegranates hang heavy, their skins darkening to a deep crimson. Neglected now, the trees are beginning to grow wild, their fruit left to spoil on the branches.

 

Many miles away, a frail young man is flung out of prison gates. Looking up, scanning the horizon for swallows in flight, he stumbles and collapses in the roadside dust. His ravaged body tells the story of fifteen years of brutality.

 

Just one image has held and sustained him through the dark times - the thought of the young girl who had left him dumbstruck with wonder all those years ago, whose eyes were lit up with life.

 

Review:

I'd been looking at this book for a long time before I finally decided to buy it, and oddly, although I'd kept picking it up, I realised as I started reading it, that I had not read what it was about and had simply been drawn to the title and cover.  Thankfully, it's definitely worth judging a book by it's cover.   Beautifully written, and one of those stories where the real story is gradually revealed through the narrative, and it's a very engrossing tale.  I think I read it in a day, over just a couple of sittings, and in between those sittings, I couldn't stop thinking about it.  I think if you like The Kite Runner or A Thousand Splendid Suns, you'll probably enjoy this book too.

[chesilbeach]

The St. Clare Series by Enid Blyton

 

Synopsis (from http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk):

St. Clare's, a girls' boarding school which predates Malory Towers, is described by one parent as "a very sensible sort of school" but it is also a place of madcap schemes, games and jollity.

 

Headmistress Miss Theobald believes that people get out of life what they put into it, telling her pupils: "Do your best for us and St. Clare's will be able to do its best for you!"

 

Memorable characters — and there are many! — include Pat and Isabel O'Sullivan (the "stuck-up twins" as they are called at first), feather-headed Alison, mischievous French girl Claudine, circus-girl Carlotta, Don't-Care Bobby, Sour-Milk Prudence, the Honourable Angela Favorleigh and "Mam'zelle Abominable."

 

Tricks and jokes, midnight feasts, sports matches, thrilling rescues, fun and friendship are all a part of life at the school — but so are hard work, exams, problems, hot tempers, malice and snobbery. Certainly there's never a dull moment at St. Clare's

 

Review:

Despite devouring Enid Blyton and Malory Towers when I was a kid, I'd never read the St. Clare books. Thanks to Kay again, for finding a complete set and lending them to me, and it was just like being a kid again, as I read the whole series in a week! I absolutely loved them, and having recently re-reading the Malory Towers books, I have to say, I actually think the St. Clare's books were more enjoyable. The tricks and jokes were a bit more exciting, there's a life and death situation in one of them, and oodles more midnight feasts … heavenly! Obviously dated, but from a nostalgic point of view, they were perfect for this old Blyton fan.

[Anna Begins]

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie

 

Review:

Thanks to Kay this one made it onto my TBR, and I'm so pleased she recommended it.  A beautiful story of the importance of stories in a society where books are banned, and that beauty and love can be found in the most difficult of circumstances.  A lovely story to read, thanks to Kay for lending it to me.

I'd love to read this, but it doesn't seem like there is a Kindle version

I'm sure you've read Reading Lolita in Tehran? 

[Janet]

Hi Claire. I believe you're our resident E F Benson expert? Is it okay to read Mapp and Lucia and then go back to the Lucia books (which I believe we're first?) or would that not work?

 

I don't really like getting bogged down with series books and I think there are six books, but only three feature both characters?

 

 

I missed the BBC adaptation but quite fancy watching so some advice as to what I should do would be appreciated x

[chesilbeach]

Hi Janet.  I read Mapp and Lucia first, and then came back to the earlier books and read them all in order, and I don't think it matters too much.  The first three books are either Lucia or Miss Mapp, so there are some characters introduced in earlier books that you meet in M&L but it didn't spoil the earlier books as far as I was concerned.  
 
The television adaptation was actually an amalgam of some stories from the earlier books and some from M&L so it's not strictly down to just that one book, so it won't spoil to read them in order or not.
 
If I was coming to them from scratch, and was going out to buy them, I'd probably read in order, because that's just the way I like to read series, but after I'd loved M&L and wanted to read the rest, when I tried to buy them you could only get them in two omnibus editions, and M&L was the only one available individually.  The BBC tie-in paperback that was recently published is called Mapp and Lucia but is actually an omnibus of books 1, 2 and 4, which would give you the intro to both characters in Queen Lucia, Miss Mapp and then M&L.  The two editions I have (although I can't find one of them ) are Lucia Rising and Lucia Victrix.  They're quite weighty though, and I've got most of the six books on Kindle now, as I bought Lucia Victrix in ebook when I couldn't find my paperback edition, and I found free ebooks of Queen Lucia and Miss Mapp, so only Lucia in London to get, and it's only 99p so I don't know why I haven't got it already!

[chesilbeach]

In Darkling Wood by Emma Carroll

 

Synopsis:

'You're telling me there are fairies in this wood?'

 

When Alice's brother gets a longed-for chance for a heart transplant, Alice is suddenly bundled off to her estranged grandmother's house. There's nothing good about staying with Nell, except for the beautiful Darkling Wood at the end of her garden - but Nell wants to have it cut down. Alice feels at home there, at peace, and even finds a friend, Flo. But Flo doesn't seem to go to the local school and no one in town has heard of a girl with that name. When Flo shows Alice the surprising secrets of Darkling Wood, Alice starts to wonder, what is real? And can she find out in time to save the wood from destruction?

 

Review:

I love Emma Carroll's writing, so bought this one as soon as it was published!  It's the first book she's set in the modern day, so it was an interesting diversion from her previous novels, but there is still an element of the historical writing, with Flo's story being revealed gradually throughout the book.  Alice feels isolated from her mother, kept away from her brother, and has to live with a grandmother she barely knows, on top of which she has to go to a new school, and it's in Darkling Wood where she finds solace.  I loved it, and am eagerly anticipating Carroll's next book due out in a couple of weeks!

[Janet]

Thanks, Claire.

 

We're on our way back from holiday so I shall read and digest your post later and decide what to do. I think the 'complete' series is 99p on Kindle if I'm reading correctly, although that seems rather too good to be true!

[chesilbeach]

The Mystery of the Clockwork Sparrow by Katherine Woodfine.

 

Synopsis:

You are cordially invited to attend the Grand Opening of Sinclair’s department store!

 

Enter a world of bonbons, hats, perfumes and MYSTERIES around every corner. WONDER at the daring theft of the priceless CLOCKWORK SPARROW! TREMBLE as the most DASTARDLY criminals in London enact their wicked plans! GASP as our bold heroines, Miss Sophie Taylor and Miss Lilian Rose, CRACK CODES, DEVOUR ICED BUNS and vow to bring the villians to justice…

 

Review:

After I've become a big fan of Robin Stevens Wells and Wong Mysteries, I've followed her on Twitter, and she raved about The Mystery of the Clockwork Sparrow so much, that I had to buy it … well, actually I think I'd have bought it anyway due to the glorious cover by illustrator Júlia Sardà. An Edwardian mystery with fantastic characters, peril and danger around every corner … a brilliant story for children, I absolutely loved it.

[chesilbeach]

The Heavenly Italian Ice Cream Shop by Abby Clements.

 

Synopsis:

Anna and her husband Matteo are ready to embark a delicious Italian adventure. After a year and a half running their ice cream shop on Brighton beach and raising their baby Isabella, Matteo is starting to miss Italy. A shared passion for ices means it's easy to settle on a new business idea - they'll open a shop in Sorrento's cobbled square, a short walk from the sparkling blue sea. For a while, life is sweet; but then Matteo's overbearing family get involved …

 

Anna's younger sister Imogen feels like things are finally coming together - she's living with boyfriend Finn in a beach house in Brighton, and her photography is taking off. Then her career stalls, and the lure of Capri - and a man from her past - prove difficult to resist.

 

Review:

The follow up to Vivien's Heavenly Ice Cream Shop, we catch up with Anna and Imogen, and quickly find the action moving to Italy, where Anna and Matteo have decided to try their hand at selling their ice creams in the beautiful Sorrento square, while Imogen is struggling with life back at home. There's some humour and although the book is about relationships, it's not really a romcom, but definitely fits in with other books of that genre, with women trying to find the lifestyle that suits them and their family. I really enjoyed reading this book, but it's definitely not going to be everyone's cup of tea, and would mostly appeal to readers of authors like Jenny Colgan and Michele Gorman.

[chesilbeach]

Invitation to the Waltz by Rosamund Lehmann.

Synopsis:
On her seventeenth birthday, Olivia Curtis receives: a diary for her innermost thoughts, a china ornament, a ten-shilling note and a roll of flame-coloured silk for her first ball dress. She anticipates the dance, the greatest and most terrifying event of her life so far, with uncertainty and excitement. For her pretty sister Kate, it is sure to be a triumph, but what will it be for shy, awkward Olivia?

Review:
Well, first off I have to say that I don't generally enjoy character-led books, I like a good plot to keep me turning the pages, so I was a bit concerned when I realised that Invitation to the Waltz was a character driven story. I did struggle. I had to put it aside at one point, and I only really finished it because I'd borrowed it from Kay, and felt a bit guilty as I'd given up on another of her loans as well!

I don't think the passage of time since I read it has helped either … it's been a couple of months at least, and I think I probably felt more positive towards it at the time, but as the weeks have passed, the word that keeps springing to mind is dull. It's definitely my preference that dictates this … it reminded me of my feelings towards To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf, but at least I finished Invitation to the Waltz! I'm sure other people would love this book as much as Kay does, but it just wasn't for me.

[chesilbeach]

The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag by Alan Bradley.
 
Synopsis:
'I was lying dead in the churchyard...' So says eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce - but soon a murder provides a gruesome distraction from her own death...
 
A travelling puppet show arrives in the sleepy English village of Bishop's Lacey, and everyone gathers to watch a performance of Jack and the Beanstalk in the village hall. But a shadow is cast over proceedings when a shocking murder takes place during the performance - a murder which strangely echoes a tragedy that occurred many years before.
 
For Flavia, undoing the complex knot that ties these strands together will test her precocious powers of deduction to the limit - and throw a revealing light into some of the darker corners of the adult world...
 
Review:
This is the second Flavia de Luce book, and it's been a while since I read the first (probably a couple of years … actually just looked it up, and it was 2011 I read the first one ).  Although I enjoyed it a lot, I'm not as enamoured of the series as others on the forum.  I can't quite put my finger on it, but something about the setting and the language doesn't ring quite true for me, and I think it might just be that the author isn't English himself, and it's just a little off for me.  But, I'm nitpicking, I did enjoy it, and Flavia herself is as precocious as ever.  I won't be rushing off to buy the next one immediately, but I will read it at some point.

[chesilbeach]

Mystery In White by J. Jefferson Farjeon.

 

Synopsis:

On Christmas Eve, heavy snowfall brings a train to a halt near the village of Hemmersby. Several passengers take shelter in a deserted country house, where the fire has been lit and the table laid for tea – but no one is at home.  Trapped together for Christmas, the passengers are seeking to unravel the secrets of the empty house when a murderer strikes in their midst.

 

Review:

Not much to say about this one … it was perfectly fine, although it would have been better if I'd read it in the winter or at Christmas rather than in the middle of summer, as it might have been a bit more atmospheric.  As it was, it was a bit of a nuts and bolts mystery, but I didn't really connect with any of the characters and it lacked a sense of danger or peril for the most part.

[chesilbeach]

2am at The Cat's Pajamas by Marie-Helene Bertino.

 

Synopsis:

Madeleine Altimari is a sassy, smart-mouthed nine-year-old and an aspiring jazz singer, inwardly mourning the recent death of her mother. Little does she know that on Christmas Eve Eve she is about to have the most extraordinary day - and night - of her life.

 

After bravely facing down some mean-spirited classmates and a galling rejection at school, Madeleine doggedly searches for Philadelphia's legendary jazz club The Cat's Pajamas, where she's determined to make her on-stage debut. Meanwhile, her fifth grade teacher Sarina Greene is nervously looking forward to a dinner party that will reunite her with an old high school crush. And across town at The Cat's Pajamas, club owner Jack Lorca discovers that his beloved haunt may have to close forever . . .

 

As these three lost souls search for love, music and hope on the snow-covered streets of Philadelphia, together they will discover life's endless possibilities over the course of one magical night.

 

Review:

As a jazz lover, I couldn't resist this book.  Madeleine is a precocious young girl, but with a father who is barely functioning after the death of his wife, and being looked after by the shop owner who lives in the same building, but she desperately wants to follow in her mothers footsteps as a jazz singer, and listening to Blossom Dearie, one of my favourite singers, how could I fail not to love her?!  The stories of her teacher, Sarina and the club owner, Jack, are interwoven, and the story follows 24 hours in their lives that changes them all forever.  It's one of those books that I really enjoyed while I was reading it, but it hasn't stayed with me particularly.  I think I wanted more of Madeleine, and much less of Jack and Sarina, but I know why their stories were needed, and I certainly remember more of Madeleine than the others.  So a good read, but not an author I'd be looking out for again, and I think I liked the title more than the book itself.

[chesilbeach]

Clay by Melissa Harrison.

 

Synopsis:

Eight-year-old TC skips school to explore the city's overgrown, forgotten corners. Sophia, seventy-eight, watches with concern as he slips past her window, through the little park she loves. She's writing to her granddaughter, Daisy, whose privileged upbringing means she exists in a different world from TC - though the two children live less than a mile apart.

 

Jozef spends his days doing house clearances, his nights working in a takeaway. He can't forget the farm he left behind in Poland, its woods and fields still a part of him, although he is a thousand miles away. When he meets TC he finds a kindred spirit: both lonely, both looking for something, both lost.

 

Review:

This book is special. The writing is completely wonderful, particularly the wildlife and nature sections. A small story of three seemingly unrelated characters but as their paths cross, the drama of their stories is beautifully described on the pages.

 

The book is set around a small park in London, we are treated to a year in the life of the ecosystem in the park, and how nature can affect those in urban areas. The descriptive sections of each chapter that chronicles the life of the park itself are fantastic. I don't remember the last time I read such beautiful nature writing in fiction, and I sincerely hope that Harrison will continue with this as a theme in future novels.

 

As far as the story of the characters who meet in the park, there's an honesty about them - it definitely rings true - and at times is hard to read. I felt empathy for the characters, TC's story broke my heart, and Sophia and Jozef became real people in my head, and I wanted to be able to intervene in their lives and try to help others understand them.

 

This book has stayed with me for a long time, and I've genuinely thought about it most days since I first read it. I don't often re-read, but I think I will with this book, and so far, it's one of the best books I've read this year. Highly, highly recommended.

[bobblybear]

Clay sounds very much like the kind of book I would enjoy. I have added it to my wishlist.

[chesilbeach]

I hope you read it at some point ... I know I've already raved about it in my review, but I really thought it was excellent.

[chesilbeach]

The Wimbledon Poisoner by Nigel Williams.
 
Synopsis:
Henry Farr is forty years old. He is suburban, average, conventional - and desperate to be rid of his wife, Elinor. Inspired by a grisly episode in Wimbledon's local history, Farr begins to concoct a recipe for the perfect murder. But his plans go terribly, terribly wrong - and before long, poor Henry's best efforts to set himself free, in fact send him spiralling wildly out of control.
 
Review:
I can't believe it's 25 years since I first picked this up in a bookshop!  It's always been on my wish list, but for one reason or another, I'd never actually bought a copy.  Thankfully, Kay lent it to me, and I found myself at last able to read it.  Henry works well as the narrator of his own story of murder in the suburbs, and the result is a humorous caper that was a good read. However, I think it lost it a bit towards the end.  The end was dragged on for a little bit too long, and after such a good story, it was a bit of a let down for me personally.  Glad I've read it, but hasn't given me the inclination to read the other two books in the trilogy or any other of Williams books.

[chesilbeach]

First Class Murder by Robin Stevens.

 

Synopsis:

Daisy Wells and Hazel Wong are taking a holiday on the famous Orient Express. From the moment the girls step aboard, it’s clear that everyone in the first-class carriage has something to hide.  Then there is a scream from one of the cabins, and a wealthy heiress is found dead. But the killer has vanished – as if into thin air . . .

 

Daisy and Hazel are faced with their first locked-room mystery - and with competition from several other sleuths, who are just as determined to crack the case.

 

Review:

I've absolutely loved this series of detective stories from Robin Stevens.  This third instalment is her homage to her favourite crime writer, Agatha Christie, and her famous book, Murder on the Orient Express.  A cracking caper for our two heroines - perhaps if I'd had such great crime stories for children like this when I was young, I'd be much more of a fan of crime fiction now!

[chesilbeach]

The Robot in the Garden by Deborah Install.

 

Synopsis:

Warm-hearted fable of a stay-at-home husband who learns an important lesson in life when an unusual creature enters his life.

 

Review:

A brief synopsis, but that's perfect, as you really don't want to know too much about this story before you start it. All you need to know is that one day, Ben finds a robot in the garden, and it changes his life forever. An absolutely delightful story, beautifully written, and developed to a very convincing and satisfying conclusion. I guarantee that if you read this book, you'll fall in love with a robot. I think I read somewhere that there will be a sequel to the story, but I might just be hoping that's the case … either way, if it appears, I'll be first in the queue to read it!