Just to make a change, this Saturday this is part of the pile of books that I’m taking to Book Con with me to try and sell. This isn’t going to be a new regular feature (or at least I don’t think it is) but because there are not one but two book sales at conference, this is my attempt to try and make sure that I come home with less books than I take with me, and it may or may not be successful. It’s also my best opportunity to sell some of these rather than donate them to charity, because there are other people there who are interested in the same things as me.
They’ve all got much better collections than I have though so I have to be quite choosy about what I take – no point in taking any Chalet School, because they all have all of them (mostly in better editions than I do) or any Blyton (because those are rubbish to read as an adult) but the 80s and 90s stuff that I read when I was little may work better. We will see.
Happy Friday everyone. If all goes to plan I should be on my way to Book Con at the moment, so in honour of a long weekend of bookish delights focused on literature for school girls in the twentieth century I’ve got a Girl’s Own boarding school series for you this week.
Dimsie is Daphne Isobel Maitland and she is the heroine of nine stories – seven set at her school, The Jane Willard Foundation, and two at her family home. As you can see from the photo I’ve read six of the and the missing ones are on my purchase list for conference this weekend. The name Dimsie comes from her initials D I M in case you hadn’t realised and the books follow her from her first year at the school all the way through to her final year as Head Girl. There were originally seven books in the series, but the final two were written in response to reader requests and the final one is actual set during World War Two when Dimsie is married. They were published across a 20 year period starting in 1921, and as was often the case with school series in this era there were also short stories published in various annuals.
Dorita Fairlie Bruce is one of the names when it comes to Girl’s Own boarding school books for girls along with Angela Brazil, Elinor M Brent Dyer (Chalet School), Elsie Oxenham (the Abbey books) and depending on your point of view Enid Blyton. The Chalet School will always be my favourite (and in writing this I’ve astonishingly realised that I’ve never written a proper series post about them so I must rectify that at some point) because those are the ones that were still in print when I was little and so were the ones I could get hold of from the library or buy for myself (see also Drina and Sadlers Wells) but DFB is my favourite of the ohers, all of which I first read as an adult, which is obviously a different experience to when you’re seven or eight and you first come across the idea of a boarding school.
I wrote about Dimsie, Head Girl back when I first read that and it’s fair to say that Dimsie is, like many other a boarding school heroine, a girl that somehow manages to get away with things that others wouldn’t for: Reasons. Dimsie is able to talk to prefects on their level when she’s a junior and have conversations with teachers (and the head!) that others wouldn’t be able to get away with. And yet you still like her. She’s a good friend, she’s not annoyingly smart or talented, and she cares about people. The thing you will have heard of from Dimsie (if you have heard of anything that is) is the Anti-Soppists League – which is Dimsie and her friends in league to not to go soppy over senior pupils or teachers or anyone. And the books follow the usual rules of boarding school – inter pupil drama, trouble with the juniors, trouble with a pupil who isn’t quite undertanding the rules of the school or is out for herself not the group, sports rivalries and illnesses, with the odd exceptional event thrown in – which are where they can be a bit bonkers. The Chalet School has handy mountains and lakes (and Nazis) to provide opportunities for drama, but being set in Britain, DFB has had to come up with her own ideas – which include stolen old masters and secret passages.
As ever there are some old fashioned stereotypes and language that isn’t acceptable today in here which means that I won’t be lending them to the young readers in my life, but they’re also unintentionally hilarious at times and I find them really really readable. This is another day when its not so much a suggestion to read if you’re not already interested in this sort of book, but if you are you really should try one. They’re miles better (to my mind) than Elsie Oxenham! Fingers crossed that I can lay my hands on the missing ones in the book sale.
The third in Ellie Alexander’s Novel Detectives series came out on Tuesday so having already mentioned Glow Job which was out on Monday in yesterday’s post I thought I’d mention this one today. As you may remember this is the continuation series that has spun off Alexander’s earlier and completed Secret Bookcase series featuring the same main character and her new detective agency. This third in the new series has a reclusive heiress who has disappeared from her mansion and Annie and Fletcher are called in to investigate. I love a fancy house mystery so I’m optimistic for this one, although the murder rate around Redwood Grove where this series is based is frankly alarming at this point!
Happy Wednesday! It’s peak summer holiday season, and so this week I’ve got some of the new books that might make for ideal reading as you hit your sunlounger this vacation season. And given the temperatures that we’ve had in the UK over the last few weeks it might even be cooler (or at least less humid) wherever it is you’re going on holiday. And unlike a normal Recommendsday post, these are books that I haven’t read but that I’m looking forward to, rather than stuff that I have read and recommend.
First up it’s the new Christina Lauren The Romance Revival which came out last week and which I haven’t read yet (obvs). Per the blurb: our heroine is Emery, who married Luca-the-Landscape-gardner three years ago in an impulsive moment. But now she’s consumed with her secret job – and telling herself Luca will understand once she can tell him about it. Until an accident takes him from her and now she’ll try everything to bring him back. Now this is the point where I can’t tell if this is going into necromancy or what. The cover doesn’t suggest the supernatural, but the blurb is talking about miracles of science and the wording of the aforementioned blurb seems very carefully chosen and so I think I could go either way on this one because at best it’s an amnesia plot and I have a mixed record on that front – and it’s possibly also paranormal/fantasy. I look forward to seeing what the reviews-with-spoilers say after release day! But this will undoubtedly work for some people – no matter whether or not it does for me!
Next up is Glow Job by Kristen Bailey which came out on Monday. This is about two people who meet at a chaotic wellness retreat on Ibiza – Chloe is there on holiday and Ben is trying to turn his uncle’s villa into a functioning retreat. It’s described as “for fans of Emily Henry, Beth O’Leary and Sophia Kinsella” which I am – although my cringe tolerance is sometimes too low for Sophie Kinsella so there’s a little question mark there for me but I know that I’m at the lower end of that particular scale. So I guess we have a bit of a theme here – books that I think will work for other people, but I’m less sure will work for me. This one is going to be in Kindle Unlimited when it comes out so there’s a low barrier to entry for those who are members.
Out next Thursday is the new novel from Jeevanki Charika – The Wedding Planner’s Guide to Stealing the Bride which is also described as for fans of Emily Henry (and Chloe Liese among others) and I am usually a big fan of Charika so I am optimistic. Kalpana is a romance author due to marry Marcus, a prize-winning literary author. Sampat is their wedding planner – skilled at working out what couples want from their big day. But this couple has very different ideas about their wedding – Marcus wants a traditional wedding in Sri Lanka, but Kalpana’s the third generation of her family born in the UK and doesn’t feel like that that’s her tradition. I can’t wait to read this – I’m going to try and get to it asap.
And of course I’ve already read a bunch of books that could be read on a sunlounger this year – including The Paris Match and Dolly All the Time which are romances, as well as The Shampoo Effect which isn’t but is really, really good.
Yes, yes, yes. I finished this on Monday. But I would have finished it on Sunday if I hadn’t been watching the World Cup final and also reading Dimsie. It happens. Anyway, this is still relatively new (it came out mid-May) and as this peak summer holiday season (it’s the first week of the school holidays in a lot of places in the UK this week) this would also be a great book to read on your sunlounger.
So the plot: American Fantasy is a cruise ship, and for the duration of this cruise it’s going to be filled with fans of the 90s boyband Boy Talk, among them Annie. She was meant to be on the cruise with her sister, but after her sister broke her leg, she’s there alone. Annie is also newly divorced, newly empty nested and wondering what she’s doing on this cruise full of people who are clearly bigger fans than she is (or was). But with the help of her roommate, she starts to embrace the break from reality and the opportunity to re-examine her life as she takes a break on the sea. Also on board are said boyband, and when Annie accidentally connects with one of the members, it seems like there might be a whole new world out there .
I was expecting from the blurb that this could be a bit of a Romantic Comedy situation, but it keeps you guessing a bit more than that. We’re following the cruise from three points of view – Annie’s but also Sarah who works for the production company in charge of the boyband side of the cruise and Keith one of the members of the boyband. All the action takes place across the cruise and I’ve seen a lot of people saying that there isn’t a lot of plot or action. I’d disagree with that a bit – but I’d agree that a lot of what happens is internal to the characters. Annie’s situation I’ve already mentioned, but Sarah has just been dumped by her girlfriend and Keith is stuck in a bit of a rut in his life. Annie and Keith are doing the most reflecting on their lives, but Sarah is doing some too – along with providing the reader with a slightly different view point of the cruise and its attendees.
I’m a bit younger than Annie but I was a boyband teenager and so I really enjoyed reading about a fandom that’s been with a band for decades and is willing to shell out thousands of pounds/dollars to spend some time in proximity to them. I’m not that person – and Annie wouldn’t have been if her sister hadn’t wanted her to go, so I really felt this description of Annie as she waits to have her photo taken with the band:
Annie felt her heart rate increase. She wasn’t sweating anymore, she wasn’t hot, she wasn’t excited, exactly. It was the clickclickclick of a wooden roller coaster climbing to its first drop. Dread. It was one thing to be here—to admit to herself that this one group of men still mattered to her for whatever combination of reasons. Still, it was something else to actually meet them. Annie was comfortable with Boy Talk existing as an idea, a sort of inner party trick, like knitting or knowing something by heart. This was what she had known by heart for so many years, and hearts were meant to be kept inside.
Straub has talked about being a fan of New Kid on the Block and going on an NKotB cruise in the publicity tour for this book but contours of Boy Talk’s back story – one member of the band leaving and doing other things/becoming the break out success – is actually more similar to other bands – primarily N*Sync and Justin in the US but also Boyzone and Ronan, Take That and Robbie in the UK. I really enjoyed that Straub isn’t mocking the women for their fandom she’s leaning into it. There is some crazy in here, but it’s not about them having something that they are fans of. And that’s nice because liking boybands is often one of those things that’s framed as a guilty pleasure – like reading romance novels, or going to events for things that you like. I’ve certainly felt that.
I don’t think this is my favourite Emma Straub and I think what she’s trying to leave the reader with is more open-ended than I’m ever going to prefer, but it was a lovely reading experience and I only wish I’d been reading it on a sun lounger at the beach and not on the sofa and the train.
This is going to be super easy to find in shops – I’ve already seen it in several not just the time I mentioned in this post where I’ve reused the photo of the UK cover above from. I like the US cover better, which is why I used it at the top of the post and I think it is more reflective of the tone and genre of the novel that this one, but I wanted you to know what you’re looking out for. And of course it’s on Kindle and Kobo and in audio. My version came from NetGalley, even if I didn’t get to it before publication.
A rollercoaster week in many ways, ending late on Sunday night with extra time in the World Cup Final and me rereading a Dimsie book instead of something new. Who knows what I’ll write about tomorrow given that the two NetGalley books that I finished aren’t out for months, and there are a lot of later in series on the list too. Oh well, I’m sure it will come to me…
It’s been a roller coaster week – from the highs of England scoring against Argentina (seen above) to the lows of losing 30 minutes later, then last night’s 10 goal thriller in the third place game that saw England emerge victorious (just). Today we have the Formula One at Spa (one of my favourite tracks) before the actual World Cup Final and so I’m taking a Sunday off. I hope you all have a wonderful day.
Remember this moment. The month when I only had one book to report. Genuinely one physical copy. Of course this won’t last because Book Con is next weekend and there is no way that I am coming back from that empty handed. The goal will be to come back with less books than I took, even if that means doing a drop off at a National Trust with a second hand bookshop on the way home. Anyway the one book that has come in is the fourth Perveen Mistry mystery. That’s it!
Happy Friday everyone, and what a great Friday it is because yesterday evening Taylor Jenkins Reid announced that her next book is out in March. More on that at the end of this post, but I’ve taken the opportunity to make today’s series about the Reidverse novels.
What I’m talking about with the Reidverse are the full length novels The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Daisy Jones and the Six, Malibu Rising and Carrie Soto is Back. It’s slightly tenuous as a series in away because they’re all standalone and you don’t have to read them in order – but they do contain easter eggs and crossovers for each other. Goodreads also has the short story Evidence of the Affair featured in the series – but I’d need to read that again to figure out how it’s connected because unless I’m being very stupid, I can’t remember any of the characters from the others popping up in it.
As you can tell from the fact that all of those novel titles are hyper links, I really, really liked all of them. And I was sad when TJR announced that Carrie Soto was the last book in that world, but I get it. I still need to read Atmosphere – I tried during the Artemis mission but it turns out I’m not good at reading about peril in space when there’s actual astronauts doing a perilous mission. Maybe now is the time though after England’s defeat in the World Cup maybe a cathartic cry is what I need – and I think all of these made me cry at some point or another!
And now to the new book: It’s called The Last Days of Vic and Coco and it’s coming out in early March. In her email Jenkins Reid says she’s always “wanted to write a story about how friendship is its own kind of romance” and that this is that novel. According to the blurb it’s the summer of 1974 and is about two best friends who are also pool hustlers. They’re both untrustworthy and word is starting to get around about them – so they set in motion the plan for their biggest payday yet – but can you ever trust a hustler?
I can’t wait to read this – and I’m sure it’s going to be everywhere when it comes out. But in the meantime, if you haven’t read the Reidverse novels you should. If you like stories about Old Hollywood, read Evelyn Hugo try and figure out which bits of real stories she’s adapted for various parts of Evelyn’s life. If you like messy rock bands, read Daisy Jones, which is so inspired by Fleetwood Mac you wouldn’t believe. If you want some 1980s drama, its the beachy, sunny world of Malibu Rising and the complicated Riva siblings. And if you’re in tennis withdrawal after the end of Wimbledon, it’s Carrie Soto which has a tennis comeback fuelled by anger.
Happy Thursday – and happy new Three Dahlias day! We have two books in the series this year and the first of them, Death on a Lively Sea sees our three heroines on a super yacht in the Med with a property mogul whose father died recently in a death that he doesn’t think was natural and who is convinced he’s going to be murdered next. And so he’s done the only thing a sensible billionaire can do: invite all the suspects on a two week cruise and get some amateur detectives along to try and work it all out. I really enjoy this series – and I love that Katy Watson is finding settings for the books that pay homage to the settings of Golden Age mysteries as well. I’m really looking forward to readng this – and to reading the seventh book which is a Christmas mystery set on a sleeper train in Swiss Alps (see above again) and is out at the end of November.
Verity Reads Books (lots of them) 