Three short reviews

Happy Mothering Sunday to those who celebrate it on this day, which is *us* in the UK but I'm not sure who else to be honest. I think it's in May in the USA? Anyway, I have a cold so, although I got cards and choccies etc., I'm not otherwise celebrating; a quiet day at home is what I need and no hardship at all.

I have three books to give a quick mention to. These have all been bedtime reads and read slowly and savoured over a month or two, so here we go:

Book Psmith has been reading a lot of books by Miss Read lately and when I saw A Country Christmas in a charity shop I was inspired by her to grab it for my own! I read a few of her early books many years ago and thoroughly enjoyed them, and the first thing I realised when I read the first story, entitled Village Christmas, was that I'd read it before. Funny how these things stick in your mind even after what is easily thirty years. The Fairacre Ghost was a good ghost story, creepy and tragic, and I also really enjoyed the saga of The White Robin, a story about an albino robin that arrives in the village of Fairacre and the reactions of the school children and villagers. This was quite a long story which I'm fairly sure must come from a separate book. Anyway, this was a delightful read. I was going to say 'nostalgic' and it is in a way. But then I realised that, but for a bit of technology, villages and schools such Miss Read's still exist, unchanged, all over the country. Attitudes are a little different maybe but, by and large, these books are not as backward looking as they might at first seem. I now have Miss Read's biography of her early years, A Fortunate Grandchild and Time Remembered from the library. I've just started it and already I'm finding it completely charming.

Dear Enemy by Jean Webster, is a kind of a sequel to Daddy-Long-Legs which I blogged about a few weeks ago. That one dealt with the education of Judy Abbot and was written in letter form. This book is also epistolary but this time deals with Judy's school friend Sallie McBride. Judy and her new husband have given Sallie the job of 'making over' the orphanage where Judy was brought up. It's old fashioned and bleak and there is a lot of work to do. At first Sallie hates the job but gradually we see, through her letters to Judy, that she is coming to love the children and enjoy her task. Her relationship with the Scottish doctor in charge of the orphanage is another matter though; he's dour in nature, never smiles or jokes, and Sallie has her work cut out in becoming his friend. Another delightful read... apart from some rather odd scientific ideas about inherited characteristics they had back then. I didn't think this was quite as charming as Daddy-Long-Legs but I enjoyed it nevertheless.

Friends, Lovers, Chocolate, is book two in Alexander McCall Smith's 'Isabel Dalhousie' series of books. When I first started book one I wasn't at all sure I would take to Isabel. She's a touch superior and a philosopher to boot, which means she thinks things to death:

'The problem with being me, thought Isabel, as she walked along George IV bridge, is that I keep thinking about the problem of being me. Her thoughts went off in all sorts of directions, exploring, probing, even fantasising. She suspected that most other people did not think like this at all.'

It was when I realised that, actually, I do think a bit like that and probably so do many others, that I liked her a lot more. This particular story involves Isabel involving herself in the plight of a man she meets in her niece's deli. He's had a heart transplant and is suffering what is known as cellular memory, where the recipient of the organ finds him or herself with memories or personality traits pertaining to the donor. This man feels that a face he keeps seeing is threatening to the point where he might die if he doesn't find out the cause of the hallucinations. I found this part of the story fascinating and thoroughly enjoyed the mystery element and the further insights into Isabel's life and times. A delightful series which I will definitely continue with. Alexander McCall Smith is rapidly becoming my favourite comfort read author, and maybe already is.

The Classics Challenge

One of the things I wanted to do this year, but haven't so far, is read some classic books. I'm quite a lazy reader in that I tend more towards genre reading rather than reading that will stretch my, all too few, lonely brain cells. Thus, when I saw this challenge on another blog, I realised it would be a perfect way to make myself read some classics. So, I'm going to do The Classics Challenge which will be hosted by Trish.



The challenge runs from the 1st. April to the 31st. October. There are three levels of participation and I'll be doing the first level, The Classics Snack - which is to read four classics. The list can change at any time but at the moment these are the four books I'd like to read:

No Name - Wilkie Collins
The Warden - Anthony Trollope
The Age of Innocence - Edith Wharton
The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde

I'll also be taking part in the bonus read but haven't decided which to read yet.
~~~oOo~~~

The Crossing Places

I don't really play the 'blame game' with points where reading books is concerned, but if I did I think Kay at My Randon Acts of Reading would be streaks ahead of the competition. The Crossing Places by Elly Griffiths is yet another of her reads that she wrote about here, that, once I'd read her thoughts, I really could not wait to read. Luckily, the library came up with a copy.



Ruth Galloway is happy with her life. No one else seems to be - her parents, friends, colleagues, all feel there should be a man in her life, that she should lose weight, and that she ought to move away from the isolated spot where she lives on the saltmarshes of the North Norfolk coast. But Ruth is content with her job as an archaeology lecturer at the local uni and with her life in her own little cottage with her two cats.

Into her life comes Inspector Harry Nelson, a brusque northerner, who needs her to look at some bones recently discovered buried in the saltmarsh. He is hoping it might be the remains of Lucy Downey, a child who went missing ten years ago. It's not, it's the remains of an iron age body, probably a ritual sacrifice, but it opens the door for Nelson to ask Ruth's opinion of the letters he's been receiving about the Downey case - possibly from the potential murderer.

Life suddenly becomes complicated for Ruth as she tries to juggle work with helping the police, and the situation is not helped by the memories being stirred up of what she herself was doing ten years ago. She was involved in a dig on the saltmarsh with a group of people, and the various relationships were very intense... and still are. Is there a connection between that dig, with the discovery of a henge, and the disappearance of Lucy Downey? Could one of the group she was, and still is, very close to possibly be responsible for this awful crime? And then, just when Ruth thinks things could not possibly get more tangled, another child goes missing...

This is the first book of a new series about professor of archaeology, Ruth Galloway. Book two The Janus Stone is just out I believe and I couldn't be more pleased as I really enjoyed this first instalment. I think the reason for that is probably Ruth herself. I love the fact that Elly Griffiths didn't make her glamorous and gorgeous but decided instead on someone very ordinary - an overweight woman who likes her own company and tells it like it is. She very much has a 'take me or leave me' attitude and that is so refreshing. That's not to say she doesn't have conflicts in her life. Her born-again Christian parents drive her nuts, her friends hint that her life might not be all that it could be, and work can be a real pain. She's real in other words and that's wonderfully easy to identify with.

The mystery aspect of the story was good. I have to admit I knew who the culprit was very early on, but it didn't spoil my enjoyment and there were other aspects to the story that, quite frankly, were just as fascinating. Especially the setting of the North Norfolk coast which I felt was very well done. It's bleak and it's lonely and the atmosphere of the place was beautifully depicted. I'm no archaeologist so I can't speak for the accuracy of those particular details; for a layman like myself they felt fine - an expert might not think so.

It did take me a little while to get used to the fact that the story is written in the present tense. That was slightly odd but, once used to it, I found I wasn't bothered and it actually added to the suspense in the end.

All in all a very good read and I'm looking forward to reading book two in the series as soon as possible.

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My Random Acts of Reading

Nation

I'm only doing two challenges this year - until the Once Upon A Time one starts on the 21st. that is - and both of them are going well. Two books read for the Year of the Historical and now two books for the Terry Pratchett one. This is book two, Nation, for the latter challenge which is being hosted by Marg at Reading Adventures.



Mau is returning to his island, from Boy's Island, when the wave strikes. When he reaches home he will be a boy no longer and will join the ranks of the single men. Somehow he survives the giant wave but when he reaches his own island he finds that no one else has: he is alone. Devastated, he has to bury his family and friends at sea and copes with this by mentally withdrawing. But someone is helping him by leaving food. Mau has no idea what's going on until he follows a trail through the forest and finds the ship. And a girl.

Ermintrude is a Victorian English girl on her way to join her father, who is the new govenor of one of the island chains in the Great Southern Pelagic Ocean. She too is an only survivor... but from a ship this time. Terrified, she tries to shoot Mau, who actually has no idea what she's doing as he's never seen a gun before. Or a trouserman for that matter, which what his people call white people from the northern lands.

Ermintrude decides to become 'Daphne' and slowly but surely, Mau and Daphne learn how to speak each others languages and find out about each others cultures. More people turn up and Mau finds himself in the position of chief, taking responsibility for his people's safety and well being. Daphne, intelligent and resilient, finds out more than she ever wanted to know about delivering babies and feeding old women with no teeth, but the upside of it all is that she is freer than she's ever been in her life.

As the scattered survivors become a community and things settle down there is still one over-riding worry. The cannibalistic 'Raiders' are destroying all in their path and Mau knows they are on the way and that his fledgling community is not strong enough to withstand an invasion. What's to be done?

I always find it hard to review books by Terry Pratchett as his work always leaves me simply thinking, 'This is brilliant - read it!' He is just *so* insightful and clever and makes me think things I'd never thought to consider before.


'And when your father comes in his big boat? What will happen to us then?'

'I... don't know,' said Daphne, which was better than telling the truth. We do tend to stick flags in places, she had to admit it to herself. We do it almost absent-mindedly, as though it's a sort of chore.

'Hah, you fall silent,' said the priest. 'You are a good child, the women say, and you do good things, but the difference between the trousermen and the Raiders is that sooner or later the cannibals go away!'

'That's a terrible thing to say!' said Daphne hotly. 'We don't eat people!'

'There are different ways to eat people, girl, and you are clever enough to know it. And sometimes the people don't realize it's happened until they hear the belch!'

Brilliant.

Nation is not one the Discworld books and is thus a very different kettle of fish. And yet there are similarities. Most of Pratchett's books have strong female characters who are often striving to fulfil their destinies or even simply to be taken as seriously as the men. Tiffany Aching springs to mind, 'Malicia' from The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents or Grimma from the Bromeliad trilogy - all of them want their intelligence to be appreciated while still retaining their basic feminity. I admire Terry Pratchett for doing this - he so gets it and that's very unusual in a man.

What else? Well this book will make you think hard about religion and gods, responsibility, respect, freedom... the list is endless. Pratchett writes 'thinking' books and it's rather sad, imo, that he gets very little respect for that from the literary world. I remember several years ago reading an article in The Telegraph where a book reviewer had to read the current top ten fictional books - it might have been the top twenty, I'm not sure. One of the books was a Pratchett book... I can't say for sure which one but I think it might have been Going Postal. The reviewer in question completely refused to read it saying, 'I'm sure Terry Pratchett's legions of fans are thrilled that he has a new book out, but I just can't bring myself to read it'. How totally closed-minded and stupid. And, without a doubt, his loss.

This is brilliant - read it!

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Sarah's Book Reviews

Haunted Ground

I seem to have read more library books than anything else this year, and here's another one. Haunted Ground by Erin Hart was recommended to me by an American friend and as I'm *trying* not to buy so many books this year (which is quite laughable seeing as I just ordered three of Anne Perry's Inspector Pitt books from Amazon) I was really pleased to find it in the library.



A farmer digs up a severed head in a peat bog in the west of Ireland. The experts are called in - archaeologist, Cormac Maguire, and American pathologist, Nora Gavin. These two had an older 'mentor' type friend in common who is now dead, the friend having been keen that they get together romantically. They never did so there is some slight awkwardness and history existing between the two.

As they arrive from Dublin to see the head, a local land-owner, Hugh Osborne, also arrives. His wife and son went missing several years ago and he's anxious to see if the head might be that of his wife, who was of Indian origin. It's not. It's a red-headed girl and no one has any idea how long her head has been buried in the bog.

Hugh Osborne asks Cormac to excavate a site on his land where he plans to build. Nora is intrigued by both the newly discovered head and the disappearance of Mina and Christopher Osborne, as she herself has lost a sister in suspicious circumstances. So she asks Cormac if she can help him so that they can covertly investigate the disappearances and also try to find out more about the red-headed girl. They stay at Hugh's manor house and meet his cousin, Lucy, and her son Jeremy. They also get to know the family of the farmer who found the head, the McGanns. All of them clearly have secrets they're not keen to share. Nora and Cormac set about investigating not only the mystery of Hugh's wife and child but also delve into local history to find clues to who the red-headed girl might be.

Erin Hart apparently lives in Minnesota but has an Irish husband, I believe, so that explains why the book set in Ireland. It's very apparent that she spends time in that country as the both the setting and atmosphere are very well done. Sadly, I've never been to Ireland - I've always wanted to go - so can't really say how accurate it is, only that it felt spot-on from what I've seen of the west of Ireland on TV. Put it this way, various descriptions made me want to pack my bags right now...

The mystery aspect of the book was very good too. I liked the way the author tied in the stories of the missing persons with that of the red-headed girl, anyone interested in Irish history would enjoy this I would imagine and I felt like I learned a lot. I didn't guess whodunnit or how the crime was committed - the how and the why was actually more important than anything in the end. Not that that matters too much to me as I can sometimes guess whodunnit right at the start of a book and it makes no difference to my enjoyment. Archaeology-wise I'm no expert and can't vouch for the accuracy of any of the methods used. An expert might be thoroughly annoyed by mistakes for all I know, or it could be spot-on.

All in all not a bad read. A good setting, a good mystery, good historically. It *possibly* would not have harmed had the story been a little more pacey but that's a minor quibble. I'll certainly grab more books by Erin Hart if I see them at the library and, in fact, I think there *are* a couple more books with these characters. And I seriously need to go to Ireland!


Dunguaire Castle near Kinvara, Co. Galway.
Photo from Galway.net

Historical crime - The Cater Street Hangman

Well now, The Cater Street Hangman is a book I've been meaning to read for years but, like a lot of books, I've put it off and put it off. Two things have prompted me to pick it up at last - my reading of a couple of Anne Perry's Christmas books, which I've enjoyed very much, and the fact that I'm in a Victorian mystery sort of mood at present. Add to that, that Kay at My Random Acts of Reading made mention of this first book in the Charlotte and Thomas Pitt series, and it seemed like it was time to take the plunge.



The Ellison family live quietly in London. The father, Edward, a banker, considers himself very much the head of the household and his word is law. He and his wife, Caroline, have three daughters - Sarah, the eldest, married to Dominic and still living at home, Charlotte, a spirited girl who says exactly what she thinks without thinking beforehand, and Emily, the youngest, an ambitious girl who wants more than anything to marry well and to marry money.

When the murders begin in their street the family at first try to stay aloof. Edward tries to keep the news from his wife and daughters on the basis that he doesn't want them tainted by it. But events overtake them - the family know one of the murdered girls and the police, who won't take no for an answer, arrive to ask questions - some of them embarrassing. Heading the police investigation is Inspector Thomas Pitt, a quiet but determined young man, who, it appears, has taken rather a shine to Charlotte.

The family are still attempting to stay aloof, treating the police with distain, and continuing with their daily routine as though nothing had happened, when one of their maids is found dead and mutilated in the street. If they thought things were bad before they are now horrified as Inspector Pitt begins turning up at all hours to question them minutely about their activities - especially the men. It seems Edward and Dominic both have secrets... but could they commit murder? Charlotte, in love with her sister's husband for years, is horrified and the only person who can help clear up the mess is the detested Inspector Pitt.

I expected this to be quite a light-weight book and in a way it was; it's very easy to read and I zoomed through it rather quickly. But dismissing it that easily would be doing Anne Perry an injustice because this is not just a crime/mystery story. The various layers of Victorian society are all here in this book. The class-ridden snobbishness the well-off used when dealing with anyone of a lower class, the double-standards of men, requiring their wives and daughters to be complete innocents while actively taking part in some rather dubious, extra-marital, sexual activity, women, completely frustrated at not being allowed to be full members of society, the hypocrisy of the church, and so on; it's all here.

To tell the truth I was really quite taken aback by some of it, even though I've read Victorian history and sort of knew. The father's censoring of the newspapers so that the women only heard the news he read out to them and had no idea what was going on in the world, angered me no end. And the appalling attitude of the middle-classes to the police. They were happy for them to investigate crime it seems, as long as they didn't have to have them in their houses. And woe betide any policeman who was overly familiar or even treated the middle-classes as equals!

More than anything though, I was sorry for the women. Intellectually frustrated, often trapped in loveless or dictatorial marriages, it must have been appalling. And that's just the middle-classes. Compared to the appalling conditions the working classes were expected to endure they had it very easy indeed! Such an interesting subject and I plan to read a lot of more of these Thomas Pitt novels (there are over twenty) because I bet you any money Anne Perry doesn't let up on her dissection of the diseased innards of Victorian society and I *really* want to read more.

This is my second book for the Year of the Historical challenge which is being hosted by Lurv a la Mode

Daddy-Long-Legs & Eva Moves the Furniture

It's half-term next week and my grandaughter is coming to stay so, in order to get my reviews up to date, I'm going to do two shortish ones of my two latest reads. First up, Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster.

Jerusha 'Judy' Abbott is an older girl living in an orphange in New England at the beginning of the 20th. century. She would like to go college but knows the likelihood is nil until one day she's called into the office and given some news. Apparently, one of her essays was read to the trustees of the orphanage and caused much hilarity. Because of this one of the trustees has decided to sponsor her through college. The only stipulation is that she must write to him every month, telling him about her studies and life at the college but she can never know who he is and never expect an answer.

Judy proceeds to write, filling her pages with her delight at being at college, the friends she has made and various interesting observations and illustrations to go with her comments. She pours it all out, including her growing friendship with her room-mates, one of whom, Sallie, has a most beguiling family who take Judy to their hearts, the other being stand-offish with a family to match, apart from one uncle, Jervis Pendleton, who takes to visiting the girls regularly. Judy is taken with one of Sallie's brothers and hopes to spend the summer holidays with the family. Her trustee objects and she ends up staying on a farm instead, where a surprise visitor makes life extremely interesting...

What a delightful book. I read about it on Nymeth's blog recently and reserved it from the library. It's literally pure charm from start to finish. Judy is full of enthusiam and gratitude that her life is now changed out of all recognition and she reminds me of Anne Shirley to be honest. The similarity is quite marked. The author, Jean Webster, neice of Mark Twain I believe, was a reformer and amongst the charm there are strong hints of Judy's hard life at the orphanage and the differences between her and her very well-off room-mates at college. Yes, it is a very light, romantic type read, but it also has a point to make, and make it it does. I loved it to bits and have reserved its sequel, Dear Enemy, from the library.

Next, Eva Moves the Furniture by Margot Livesey.

Eva McEwan lost her mother just after she was born and is being brought up by her father, David, and Aunt Lily in 1920s Scotland. Unbeknownst to anyone, Eva has two companions, both ghosts, a young girl and an older woman. She has no idea who they were when alive, but sometimes they act as her protectors and sometimes she has reason to question their motives.

Eventually, Eva is allowed to leave home and goes to train to be a nurse in a hospital in Glasgow. Thinking she must have left the companions far behind, Eva finds she's mistaken. Truthfully, she lives in fear that her secret will be discovered, especially when WW2 breaks out and she finds herself looking after very badly wounded soldiers. One of the surgeons, Samuel, begins to take Eva out and, eventually, Eva makes the mistake of telling him, the first person ever, about her companions...

I found the rec for this book on Alice Hoffman's FantasticFiction page. Often authors on that site will recommend other books and it's a good place to find book recs I find.

Anyway, Eva Moves the Furniture might sound like a ghost story but it's not. There are ghosts, yes, but the book is more about growing up, loneliness, loss, falling in love, the intense love of your children and so on. An ordinary life in other words but a fascinating one none-the-less. I found the section about nursing during WW2 to be particularly interesting - Eva works on the ward that reconstructs the faces of burned soldiers and it's both rivetting and harrowing. The last few chapters made me cry and not many books do that as I think I've said before. This is an intense book, but not written in a dramatic fashion... all is stated matter-of-factly so that shocking things are made even more shocking and often take the reader completely by surprise.

I've no idea why I'd never heard of Margaret Livesey before this. Her writing feels very similar to that of Alice Hoffman or Barbara Pym and is well worth reading if you don't necessarily need a happy ending all the time. I shall certainly be reading more if I can find it.