Recommendsday: September Quick Reviews

It’s the end of another month, and you’ve already had a stack of reviews from me what with the holiday, but I’m still here with a few more quick reviews of stuff I read last month.

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sánez

This is a delightful coming of age and love story set in 1980s Texas. Ari is quite and reserved and has trouble talking about his feelings. His brother is in prison, but they’re not allowed to talk about it. Dante’s outcoming and articulate and open. They would seem like an unlikely pair to be friends, but over the course of one summer they form a friendship that endures across injury, separation and the trials of teenage life. It’s really lovely.

The Dress Diary of Miss Anne Sykes*

Now you’ll know from the weekly lists that this took me ages to read, so I did want to mention it after all that because it is a really interesting piece of social history – using a book of fabric swatches compiled by one woman in the 19th century to look at what we can learn about her life. I knew a bit about dress and fabric already, but this was particularly good on changing trends and increasing colourway options and differences between what was available in the Great Britain vs Singapore. It was sometimes a little frustrating that you didn’t have more information about Anne herself or the people that she included in her book – but Kate Strasdin also feels that frustration and writes about it really well and puts it into the wider context of social history of women’s lives. I read it as an ebook on a kindle and I feel like it would be really good in an actual physical copy with colour pictures that you could easily flick forward and backward between. But all in all, a good read.

The Shadow of Vesuvius by Tasha Alexander

Now I don’t usually review later books in the series, but I’ve mentioned Lady Emily before, I wanted to drop a word for this. Emily and Colin and their friends are exploring Pompeii when they stumble upon a body – and not an ancient one. Soon Emily is investigating a murder, but she also has family drama to deal with. This is a good mystery with an interesting set up and what felt like a definite Amelia Peabody reference. If you haven’t read the previous books in the series this has what I would term A Significant Development for the family which looks set to provide some interest in the books to come.

And finally a few links – here’s the holiday reading and the latest batch of British Library Crime Classics, Lost Summers of Newport, We Could Be So Good, Codename Charming, The Secret Bridesmaid and Brynn and Sebastian Hate Each Other.

Happy Reading.