Category: non-fiction

Book of the Week, non-fiction

Book of the Week: The Year of Living Danishly

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This week’s BotW is a rare non-fiction pick – and has been a big hit in our house. I picked it out a couple of months ago and gave it to The Boy to read last weekend when he’d done too much Janet Evanovich in a row.  He laughed so hard at it and enjoyed it so much that I promoted it to the top of my to-read pile and read it too.  And it is just joyous.

  
The Year of Living Danishly is the story of author Helen Russell and her husband Legoman who move to Jutland in Denmark after he gets a job with the Danish toy giants.  As the country is reputed to be one of the happiest in the world, she sets out to find out whether the hype is true – and whether living a bit more Danishly can help everyone.  Ms Russell does have some reservations about the Danes – they seem to have a bit of a herd mentality and some of their habits are a bit … odd – so this is quite a balanced look at the pros and cons of Danish life as she experienced it.

I absolutely fell in love with this book.  It’s witty and engaging and an absolutely fascinating insight into a country that I knew very little about.  I finished the book thinking that Denmark wouldn’t be a bad place to relocate too – even if the winters are dark and glacial.  The Boy has an auntie and uncle in Denmark – so he had some personal experience of a few of the experiences detailed in the book – he can confirm that Danish kindergarten is fabulous and laid back – he just joined in with a class of them in the park some time in the early 80s and the teachers didn’t even bat an eyelid.

Even if you’re not a big non-fiction reader, this is well worth a look. It’s not dry or academic, it’s warm and enthralling and will leave you wondering what pickled herring tastes like (but maybe not enough to try it).  Meanwhile, The Boy and I are thinking about making a trip to see his relatives in Copenhagen soon!

Get your copy from Amazon, Waterstones, Foyles, Kindle and Kobo – so go forth and live more Danishly.

Book of the Week, books, non-fiction

Book of the Week: Her Brilliant Career

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This week’s BotW is a non-fiction book which has been on my to-read list since it was reviewed in hardback in the Sunday Times in October 2013 – and has been on the actual pile since soon after its paperback release in back in May.  Which, to be honest, tells you all you need to know about the to-read pile…

But Rachel Cooke’s book – which is subtitled “Ten Extraordinary Women of the Fifties” – shouldn’t have languished on the pile for so long.  It is really good.  A series of essays about fascinating women that I’d never heard of, but who had lead fascinating and trailblazing lives.  They’re not all tremendously likeable – Alison Smithson and her jumpsuit must have been very difficult to live with – but they all tried at least to live lives on their own terms, despite the constraints of the period.

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Not the greatest photo I know, but I'm on nights - give me a break!

The ten women worked in different fields and had differing degrees of success, but they all did something.  They challenge the idea that after the war women went back to the home until the sixties came along and shook everything up.  As I said when I reviewed Viv Albertine’s autobiography, I can live my life the way that I do because of trailblazing women in the past who were prepared to put themselves out there and stand up and be counted in a way that I know that I would be afraid to do.

Rose Heilbron was my favourite of the women – the first female barrister, the first woman to lead a murder trial – and part of the group that changed rules about rape so that the complainant could remain anonymous and not have to answer questions about their sexual history.  The pictures of her show that she also looked impossibly glamorous in her wig and gown.  Attagirl.

But all the women’s lives are interesting – if not always happy.  Nancy Spain, Joan Werner Laurie and Sheila Van Damme’s ménage sounds completely fraught.  But it is gripping reading.  You can get Her Brilliant Career from Amazon, Foyles and Waterstones and you can even listen on Audible. Don’t leave it as long as I did to get around to it.

Book of the Week, non-fiction, romance

Book of the Week: Beyond Heaving Bosoms

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This week’s book of the week is the very wonderful and very funny Beyond Heaving Bosoms by Sarah Wendell and Candy Tan.  I have recently discovered the Dear Bitches, Smart Authors podcast – and through it the Smart Bitches, Trashy Books website.  Now I’ve documented here in the past my slightly shamefaced addiction to US romance novels with the sort of cover I’m embarrassed to take out in public.  Now whilst I stick mostly to historicals, these ladies have read the lot – and can dissect it brilliantly and hilariously.  If you have a problem with profanity this may not be for you (Hi Mum!) but I just found it absolutely side-splittingly funny and totally on the mark.

My copy of Beyond Heaving Bosoms

As someone who has discovered the massive US historical romance market through Julia Quinn, Eloisa James and Sarah MacLean, I also got a lot of recommendations for old school authors to go back and read – to add to the massive book list I’m accumulating from the podcast.

I was reading this over the weekend whilst I was staying at my sisters – and had to keep stopping to read bits out to her – or pass the book over for her to read longer chunks.  She’s not a romance reader – but she found it hilarious too.

My only gripe with the book is that in the chose your own romance novel section, I kept being too sensible and the stories ended too soon… Now I’ve got two days off this week and I’m off to read the new Sarah MacLean which has been sitting at the top of the to-read pile for weeks waiting for me to not have to leave the house!

books, detective, fiction, genres, historical, non-fiction

Summer Reading Recommendations

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A few friends have already asked me for ideas for books for their summer holidays, so I thought now might be the time to come up with a proper set of recommendations for holiday reads.  It is a tradition in our family that you get a holiday book – this was started by my mum back when I was small and I have various books on my shelves with neatly written notes in the front from my mum telling me which holiday she gave them to me for.  My sister and I have continued this as grown-ups – The Boy thought it was weird at first but I now have him so used to it that he starts to offer suggestions for what he’d like me to get him. I have terrible trouble deciding what to take to read on holiday (thank goodness for the kindle) so I’ve tried to include a range of options.

The One that Everyone’s Reading 

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simison – I know.  It really is everywhere.  But I read this on our trip to Rome earlier this year and laughed so hard that people on the plane started staring at me.  It has had a lot of hype, but it is very, very good.  I don’t want to say too much about the plot, but watching Don Tillman hunt for love is properly funny – and in places you’ll want to read through your fingers as you cringe at his mistakes.  I’m already looking forward to the sequel.

The One if you like “Chick Lit”

I guess this could be considered my home genre (unless you count historical novels.  Or cozy crime), anyway I read a lot in this sort of genre.  So I couldn’t just pick one.  Books I’ve recently really enjoyed are The Little Beach Street Bakery by Jenny Colgan (which is definitely a holiday read – it’s set in Cornwall by the coast!), Trisha Ashley’s Every Woman for Herself (which has a full review here) and Sinead Moriarty’s Mad About You (although I think I’d have liked it more if I had read the other books about the characters) which all should be available in the sort of multi-buy offers you get at WH Smiths and the Supermarkets.

The One if You like Cozy Crime

It’s not really new, but try Manna from Hades by Carola Dunn if you like the sort of cozy crime that’s set in the past – this is in 1960s Cornwall where Eleanor Trewynn has retired to after a life working for charity abroad.  It’s as readable as the author’s Daisy Dalrymple series.  If you like your cozy crime modern, I reviewed Jenn McKinlay’s Death of a Mad Hatter a few weeks back which is fresh on the market – or you can’t go wrong with Donna Andrews’ Meg Langslow series – Death with Peacocks is the first one and as it came out 10 years ago, you can get it for cheap second hand.

The One if you like Non-Fiction

This is a tough one for me – because I’m very behind with my non-fiction pile.  Of books released recently, I enjoyed Neil McKenna’s Fanny and Stella which is the story of two young men who dressed as women in Victorian London and the scandal that ensued when they were caught.  Apart from that, all my recent non-fiction reads have been published some time ago.  I hesitate to recommend anything I haven’t yet read, but the excellent Helen Rappaport has a new book out (in hardback sadly) – Four Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Romanov Grand Duchesses which has been picked out as a recommendation at various places.  If you haven’t read her Magnificent Obsession (about Queen Victoria’s relationship with Prince Albert) that is available as a paperback and is well worth a look – as is her Beautiful Forever which is about a cosmetician and con-artist in Victorian London – who coincidentally also gets a mention in Fanny and Stella.

The One if you like Thrillers

A Delicate Truth by John le Carré – I got given copy of this a month or two back – you can see the long review here.  Its pacey, suspenseful and disturbing.  If you haven’t read any le Carré, go get yourself some of the Smiley series and try them out – they’re Cold War and this is modern, but all the ones I’ve read have been very, very good.

The One that’s a Kindle Bargain 

Vintage Girl by Hester Browne – This was 56p when I wrote this blog – which by any standards is a bargain, let alone when it’s as fun as this.  Valuer Evie gets sent to Scotland to asome heirlooms – romance, family secrets and Scottish Dancing ensues. (NB previously published as an e-book called Swept Off Her Feet – so don’t buy it twice!)

The One(s) if you want a series to start

The Amelia Peabody books by Elizabeth Peters. I have a terrible habit of starting a series and keeping going with it, ignoring all other claims from the to-read pile.  E-readers make this so easy and if you’re a quick reader, you may need more than one book for your week at the beach (hell I need more than on book for a DAY at the beach).  Amelia is a Victorian feminist who sets off for Egypt to do a spot of archaeology.  I can’t come up with the words to do her justice, but’s like a funny female Indiana Jones.  There are 19 books in the series (more than you could read on one holiday surely!) and the later ones feature various members of her family too – her son is a scream!

So there you are.  I hope there’s something for everyone in the list – I think most of them should be easy to find and in some cases as available in multi-buy deals. As usual most of my links are to Foyles – because I like independent bookshops and the name of their loyalty scheme Foyalty.  And if you’ve got any recommendations for books I should be reading this summer – please do put them in the comments below!

Authors I love, books, non-fiction

Maya Angelou

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So, I was crying in the supermarket car park today.  Admittedly I’m quite an emotional person and it’s not that hard to make me cry in the first 36 hours after a nightshift, but  Maya Angelou’s death really hit me. I sat scrolling through Twitter looking at the tributes that were pouring in to her from all sorts of people – from Joe Bloggs on the street to statesmen and everything in between – with tears in my eyes and no tissues to mop them up with.

Maya Angelou books
Maya Angelou books on my shelf

I read I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings when I was in my final year of A Levels.  In English Literature we were comparing Alice Walker’s The Color Purple and Jeanette Winterson’s Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit and it was on the suggested further reading list – which, being a book geek, I worked my way through.  And her book was the one on that list that touched me more than any other.

I was a white, middle-class teenager from rural England.  I’d heard about racism.  I’d even studied the Civil Rights movement in GCSE History.  Back in Judy Blume reading days I’d first come across segregation in Starring Sally J Freedman as Herself.  I’d studied To Kill A Mockingbird in GCSE English.  But it was Maya Angelou’s writing that really brought home to me the reality of what people had suffered, how they were persecuted just for the colour of their skin and how they had fought for rights that I took for granted – rights that it hadn’t even occurred to me that it was possible not to have.  And it had happened in living memory. It’s still within living memory.

Maya Angelou books
The covers of Maya Angelou’s autobiographies

After I read I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, I went out and bought the next book of her autobiography – and the next and the next and so on.  The final volume – A Song Flung Up To Heaven – came out during this period and I bought it, in hardback, because I was so desperate to find out what happened next.  And I never bought hardbacks –  I didn’t have a lot of spare cash and it wouldn’t match my paperbacks – but I didn’t care.  Her writing meant that much to me.

There have been a lot of her quotes posted on Twitter and elsewhere since she died, but her own last tweet was only a few days ago and it is great and it is wise:

For all the hardships and heartbreaks of her life, her writing was joyous.  She wasn’t bitter – although at times she was angry – she rose above and wanted to make a difference and she did, she has.  She crammed so much into her life that it really did need all those volumes of autobiography to tell it.  If it had been a novel, you would have said it was too far-fetched.  Whenever I saw her on the TV or in a video, she was a force of nature, one of those people who you thought would live forever  – and through her writing, she will.

Other people will be able to say all this and more much more eloquently than I have, but I couldn’t not say something about the death of someone whose writing and outlook on life had had such an impact on me.  I’m off to read her whole story again and to give thanks for a life so well lived.