France's Reading 2023

[France]

This Must Be The Place by Maggie O Farrell  is the story of a disfunctional marriage, covering a multitude of characters over several different time slots. That makes it sounds confusing, it isn't because Maggie O Farrell is such a good writer that she manages to keep all her balls separately and clearly in the air and as ever her prose is just stunning.  She also manages to write about people who are dislikeable or irritating and keep the reader's sympathy, or with one person in the book understanding why they did what they did while at the same time wanting to yell at them for for being a sniveling, duplicitous little rat.

 

 The first time I read this novel I had to do it quickly because I'd been loaned it as a book club read and the owner needed it back, I enjoyed it but wasn't bowled over. This time, deciding to reread it on a whim and taking my time to savour the good bits I loved it.

[France]

Alan Moorhead  was a distinguished war correspondant who decided after the war the settle in Italy in the hills above Florence. The Villa Diana is a collection of articles he wrote about Italy which were published mostly in the New Yorker in the late 40s and early 50s. They aren't travel articles as such - for instance his piece set in Sicily is about a gangster who started off in a Robin Hoodish type fashion robbing the rich to help the poor and ended up as a down right thug but naturally his observations often have much to do with the rebuilding of Italy after the war.

 

So far everyone I know who has read this agrees on one thing - it's an enchanting book and is much more than a nostalgic look back at an age where Venice was reeling under having as many as 2000 visitors a day. An absolute must for anyone who loves Italy.

[France]

The Serpent's Mark - SW Perry.  This the second in a series about Nicholas Shelby, doctor and sometime spy and is set in one of the seedier parts of London in the 1590s. I picked it up at a second hand book sale because there was a quote praising it from S J Maclean and I really enjoy her books (see below!) For once it wasn't a puff quote from a friend, this was good, atmospheric, characters well drawn and necessary historical facts explained without info dump. Much better than his near namesake S J Parris's series about Giodano Bruno, set in much the same time, which are readable but not a patch on this.

 

Crucible of Secrets by S J Maclean  is the third of her series about Alexander Seaton, this one is set in Aberdeen in 1626. It's a great read and though there are murders and dastardly deeds it's lighter in tone than the previous book in the series which is a relief as that one was very dark indeed.

 

The Wonderful World of Jane and Oliver Bloke by Rorie Smith.  Admission time here, Rorie is a member of my writing group and I've heard quite a lot of this novel during our meetings as he was writing it. It's hard to describe, it definitely doesn't follow standard hoping-to-be-a-bestseller tropes but is is very funny in places, wryly funny in others, distinctly different and, for me, a welcome breath of fresh air.

 

 

[France]

 Ghost Girl, Banana by Wiz Wharton was recommended by my daughter and not  a book I've have necessarily picked up. I started off thinking it was going to be a bit YA and ended up thoroughly enjoying it. it's a dual time line story, the first set in 1999 on the eve of China taking back Hong Kong when Lily, the "messed up" member of her family receives an inheritance from someone she has never heard of in Hong Kong. She decides to go to Hong Kong against her sister's wishes to find out about it and also to meet her mother's family who have been estranged since her mother's death 20 years before. The second theme is the story of Lily's mother, sent to London in the 60's by a super critical brother to earn her living. It's a well written, well paced story, apparently inspired by letters the author's mother wrote, and definitely worth reading.

 

I galloped though The Satapur Moonstone by Sujata Massey which is the second in her mystery series about Parveen Mistry, "Bombay's first lady lawyer" 'her professional title as a lawyer is Parveen Mistry Esquire). This time Parveen has been asked to go to the palace of the small Princely State of Satapur where a series of deaths has left a 10 year old boy as Maharajah to discuss his education with his mother and grandmother. As both women are in purdah only a female can see them. This was an excellent read, wonderful scene setting and a good sense of what was going on in India in general (Gandhi, the Independence movement) without info dump. If it hadn't been for one plot hole, which didn't spoil the story, this would be a five star read.

 

[France]

I haven't read any Harlan Coben for ages, I got a bit bored of him, then someone gave us a bag of books with The Match in it, I picked it up idly and basically read it solidly for the next two days. Wilde was found feral in the woods when he was a small boy and has no memories of his life before he was presumably abandoned. He put his DNA into one of those find your relatives sites and came up with two matches. One match vanishes after the first meeting, the other sent Wilde a message four months before and is presumed to have committed suicide.  People start being killed... Some of the plot is utterly preposterous but that doesn't stop it being a fantastic read.

[France]

Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout. This was automatically put on my to read list the moment it came out, I really like Elizabeth Strout's writing, it's compact, it's straightforward, she uses words beautifully and her characters, sometimes very low key, are always multi-faceted and interesting. However I'm not sure about this one the fourth of her books about Lucy Barton who grew up in utter poverty and has managed to overcome her background to become a successful novelist. In this one William, Lucy's ex husband whom she has stayed good friends with, scoops up the recently widowed Lucy at the beginning of the pandemic and takes her out of her comfort zone (New York) to an isolated beach house in Maine where they end up staying for several months. And therein lies the problem, this isn't a character based novel, it's a lockdown novel and to be blunt I feel 'been there, done that'. I don't have any interest in fictional characters social distancing, I know all about that, I want to know what drives them and when Elizabeth Strout is concentrating on her people the book is superb but there's too much f the other.

 

That said I read this in three days (OK, it isn't long) because the good bits were so very good. If you haven't come across Elizabeth Strout before do give her a go.

[muggle not]

The River We Remember:

 

The writing and story were very good. There were many different characters in the story. and you need to pay attention to each one and how they relate to the others, The more I think of the book the more I realize how much I enjoyed it. The book keeps you wondering who was the person that shot the wealthy guy, but the story is a lot more than that.

You may also enjoy Ordinary Grace and This Tender Land by Krueger. They were both books that got good reviews.

I have read all of William Kent Krueger's books and maybe I am a little prejudiced on him. He also writes a series that  

revolves around Cork O'Connnor, I believe it was the first book in this series that almost made me cry at the ending.