Book of the Week, historical

Book of the Week: Jane Steele

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This week’s BotW is Lyndsay Faye’s Jane Steele, which is billed as a gothic retelling of Jane Eyre, but is a bit more loosely related to Bronte’s book than that might suggest. I heard a lot of buzz about this before it’s release – Deanna Raybourn wrote about it in her newsletter and some of the book podcasts I listen to talked about it too, so when I spotted it on NetGalley I was already intrigued enough to request it.

Jane Steele’s favourite book is – and her life has some parallels with Charlotte Bronte’s heroine – she’s orphaned, she’s sent to boarding school, she becomes a governess and is attracted to her employer.  But there’s a key difference – Ms Steele has a bit of a murderous streak.  This Jane has a few more trials in her life than Bronte’s – but she’s not going to take them lying down.

Despite her killings, Jane is an attractive and appealing heroine with reasons (mostly) for acting as she does.  I was concerned before I read this and early on in the book that I wouldn’t be able to get past the fact that she was killing people, but it really wasn’t an issue.  Jane’s actions are (mostly) quite understandable – and not without consequences for her.  She’s fairly self-aware – although the reader suspects she’s not as well informed about some things as she thinks she is – and chafes at the restrictions and limitations places on her by Victorian society.  She’s smarter than most of the men around her during the first half of the book and it’s interesting and entertaining watching her work out how she can extricate herself from the situations she is forced into.

Considering I read Jane Eyre for the one and only time when I was about 9 and – whisper it quietly – have never read Wuthering Heights*, I seem to have read a lot (proportionally) with Bronte re-tellings or influenced books (and I have The Madwoman Upstairs sitting on the to-read pile so it’s not over yet!).  And while I didn’t love this the way I love Jasper Fforde’s The Eyre Affair** it is really good fun.  I liked the portion of the book before Jane arrives back at Thornfield the best – possibly because it’s quite hard to keep up the fast-paced, wise-cracking action when you introduce a love interest and try to work out a resolution where the problem of your heroine being a murderess isn’t an issue!

Not quite as brilliant as you expect from the first 50 pages, but nonetheless pretty darn good, Jane Steele is out in the UK in what I suspect from the price is the giant airport sized paperback and in the US in hardback.  A cheaper (smaller?) paperback edition is due in the UK in November Get your copy from Amazon, Waterstones, Foyles, Kindle or Kobo.

* I do know what happens though.

** But Thursday Next is a very high bar and has a lot more going on than just Jane Eyre.

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week In Books: April 11 – April 17

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Look at my progress with the longstanding books in progress!  And I read more besides.  Thank you minibreak and days off work.

Read:

Dandy Gilver and a Deadly Measure of Brimstone

Jane Steel by Lyndsay Faye

The House at Baker Street by Michelle Birkby

Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld

Along the Infinite Sea by Beatriz Williams

Inspector of the Dead by David Morrell

Freya by Anthony Quinn

Chloe Takes Control by Phyllis Matthewman

Started:

Maybe the Moon by Armistead Maupin

The Queerness of Rusty by Phyllis Matthewman

Still reading:

Not That Kind of Girl by Lena Dunham

I bought books this week – but that’s because we went to Northumberland for a few days – and that meant a trip to the cavern of amazingness that is Barter Books in Alnwick.  Ninety minutes later and I’ve got a basket of books that I’ve been after for a while – although a couple were for friends.  So much fun.

Book of the Week, new releases

Book of the Week: Somewhere Inside of Happy

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A paperback copy of Somewhere Inside of Happy
This week’s attempt at an artistic photo has floorboards and sheepskin

There were two strong contenders for this week’s BotW crown – the latest Daisy Dalrymple mystery (which I’ve only just got around to) and Somewhere Inside of Happy, but as Anna McPartlin’s latest was released last week (I was lucky enough to be sent an copy in advance) and I really did love it, the funky yellow book takes home the prize.

Somewhere Inside of Happy starts with Maisie Brennan standing on a podium, about to address an audience on the twentieth anniversary of her son. Then we go back in time to find out what happened to her beloved Jeremy, as well as what her life was like before he disappeared.

You may remember that The Last Days of Rabbit Hayes reduced me to tears on a train, so this time I took precautions while reading this – no public transport.  However it did leave me in tears (subtly I hope) in my youth hostel dorm room as I finished it.  This is a tear-jerker in the very best sense.  You go into this knowing that Jeremy is dead – it’s on the back cover – but you desperately don’t want it to be true.  Watching how the story unfolds is a total rollercoaster as you get to know the characters and their backstory and their close family unit.  I was alternately desperate to know what had happened to Jeremy and desperate not to know because once you know then he is definitely dead and the family will never be the same again.

But don’t go thinking that this book is a downer. It’s not. It is funny and warm and life affirming. It shows the power of love and what people can achieve even in the face of great adversity. It shows the importance of family – whether it’s the one you’re born with or one you find and make for yourself. I may have an aversion to sad books and be devastated that Jeremy died, but I’m so glad I read it and I know I’m going to be recommending it to so many people. It’d make a great holiday read – as long as you have some big sunglasses to hide your tears behind!

Get your copy from Amazon, Waterstones or Foyles – but I’d expect this to be front and centre in the supermarkets and WH Smith stores – on on Kindle or Kobo.

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week In Books: April 4 – April 10

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Some really good books here – I’m having trouble picking my BotW for tomorrow!  I’m going to try and finish some of the long-running books this week coming though.

Read:

Superfluous Women by Carola Dunn

Somewhere Inside of Happy by Anna McPartlin

Exile for Annis by Josephine Elder

Prefects at Vivians by Patricia K Caldwell

Secret Letters at Trebizon by Anne Digby

Midnight Pleasures by Eloisa James

Started:

Dandy Gilver and a Deadly Measure of Brimstone

Still reading:

Freya by Anthony Quinn

Along the Infinite Sea by Beatriz Williams

Not That Kind of Girl by Lena Dunham

Jane Steel by Lyndsay Faye

No books bought!  Again.  I’m really trying hard.

Book of the Week, cozy crime, reviews

Book of the Week: Speaking from Among the Bones

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Back to detective fiction for this week’s BotW which is Alan Bradley’s fifth Flavia de Luce book.  Unusually for me these days, I’m reading this series out of order – I read the first book first, but the only others I’ve read in the series are the two which follow this one.

In Book 5 we join our heroine as the village is preparing for the exhumation of their local saint from the church yard to mark the 500th anniversary of his death.   But when they open the tomb, instead of a skeleton they find the recently deceased church organist and the pre-teen detective can’t help but start to investigate…

In the first book, Flavia trod a fine line for me – between engagingly and  clever and irritatingly precocious.  In this book (and the other later ones that I’ve read) she’s smart, with some pretty peculiar interests, but doesn’t ever cross too far over into preternaturally omnipotent!  Aside from her sisters, most of her relationships are with adults and I enjoyed watching how the different adults interact with her – and their varying success (in her opinion) in treating her “properly”.

This was a fun page-turner, I had my suspicions about the culprit but couldn’t figure out the hows and whys – but the explanation was ingenious.  I’m obviously still enjoying the series despite reading it out of order – you should be able to find Flavia’s adventures (where ever you want to start with them) in all good bookshops and online or, as I did, at your local library.

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week In Books: March 28 – April 3

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My lack of reading progress this week is entirely down to the combination of late shifts and the World Figure Skating Championships…

Read:

The Mueller Twins at the Chalet School by Katherine Bruce

Speaking from Among the Bones by Alan Bradley

A Frightfully English Execution by Shamini Flint

A Crimson Warning by Tasha Alexander

Champion of the Chalet School by Adrienne Fitzpatrick

Started:

Somewhere Inside of Happy by Anna McPartlin

Superfluous Women by Carola Dunn

Still reading:

Freya by Anthony Quinn

Along the Infinite Sea by Beatriz Williams

Not That Kind of Girl by Lena Dunham

Jane Steel by Lyndsay Faye

Although I may not have made as much progress down the stack as I wanted, I haven’t added to it either – no books bought!

books, stats

March Stats

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New books read this month: 30*

Books from the to-read pile: 10

Ebooks read: 11

Books from the Library book pile: 1

Non-fiction books: 1

Most read author: Mabel Ester Allen (and her pseudonyms)

Books read this year: 84

Books bought: 13 actual books and 4 ebooks

Books on the Goodreads to-read shelf: 471

The number of physical books bought this month is the reason that I’ve got an unoffical book buying ban in place at the moment.  But at least I managed to get a library book and a non fiction book read – even if only one of each!

*Includes some short stories/novellas/comics (3 this month)

Book of the Week, books, non-fiction

Book of the Week: As If!

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Tricky choice this week – I’ve already waxed lyrical about The Night that Changed Everything in the Easter post, where I also mentioned Jolly Foul Play which I’ve now finished and is part of a series I’ve already written about in various places (like here, here, and here).  And my other favourite book last week was Broken Homes – book three in the Peter Grant series  which I wouldn’t suggest you read as an introduction to the series and I’ve already written about Rivers of London and Body Work.  So, I preface this by saying, go and read Wells and Wong if you like school stories, Peter Grant if you like magic and detective series and The Night that Changed everything if you like romantic comedies.

That all out of the way, the BotW has to be As If! An Oral History of Clueless.  This is the inside story of the classic teen movies – with contributions from pretty much everyone involved – mostly from interviews given to the author.  If you’re my age, you may have watched Amy Heckerling’s film on fairly hard rotation through your teenage years.  Cher and Dion’s adventures through Beverley Hills are both funny and strangely universal despite their mega bucks wardrobes and swanky life style.

If you love the movie then this is a fascinating insight into how it got made, what was going on behind the scenes and what it was like working on the book.  I found it fascinating – although I found that the style of putting in chunks of quotes from each contributor made it feel more like a stack of research notes in places rather than an actual book coming to conclusions.  If you’re not a mega fan of the movie, then this probably isn’t going to be your bag – unless you have and interest in the behind the scenes machinations of Hollywood and the process of making a film.

It’s a fairly pricey paperback – so unless you’re a super-fan if may be one for your local library – but here it is on Amazon, Kindle, Waterstones and Foyles.

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week In Books: March 21 – March 27

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Some really good books this week – some of which I’ve already mentioned in my Easter Books post.  You may yet hear more about some of them too!  I went away for the bank holiday weekend – or you know the list of books read would have been higher if I’d been sitting on my sofa.  Get me with my life outside work and books!

Read:

The Sport of Baronets by Theresa Romain

The Night that Changed Everything by Laura Tait and Jimmy Rice

Deira Joins the Chalet School by Caroline German

Jolly Foul Play by Robin Stevens

Broken Homes by Ben Aaronovitch

As If! An Oral History of Clueless by Jen Chaney

The Skeleton Garden by Marty Wingate

Started:

Jane Steele by Lindsay Faye

Still reading:

Freya by Anthony Quinn

Along the Infinite Sea by Beatriz Williams

Not That Kind of Girl by Lena Dunham

I didn’t buy any books!  Well I bought one book, but it wasn’t really for me (although it is on my kindle account, because I share it with Him Indoors).  So I’m calling it no books.  Who knew that was possible. I’ll try and not to buy any books at all this week…

books, children's books, fiction, holiday reading, women's fiction

Easter Reading Suggestions

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Easter is upon us again – early this year – and so I thought I’d throw some suggestions out there for books for reading over the bank holiday weekend, or the Easter holidays if you’re lucky enough to have them.

The Night That Changed Everything by Laura Tait and Jimmy Rice

Copy of The Night that Changed Everything
I love the cover of this book – can’t explain why, but it just speaks to me

Rebecca and Ben are perfect for each other – blissfully happy, they’re made for each other.  But when a secret from the past is accidentally revealed, their love story is rewritten.  Can they recover?  Is it possible to forgive and forget? This came out yesterday (Thursday), but I was lucky to have an advance copy which I finished on the train home from work just after midnight on Thursday morning.  I really, really, enjoyed Rebecca and Ben’s story – which, as you can probably tell from my synopsis, is not your traditional romantic comedy.  It nearly had me crying on the train – which doesn’t happen very often (in part because I try not to read books that will make me cry on the train!) and I had trouble putting it down.  I didn’t even notice I’d arrived at Euston on the way to work on Wednesday I was so engrossed – if it wasn’t the end of the line I would have missed my stop!  On top of everything else going for it, I had no idea where it was going.  I suspect this is going to be on a lot of beach reading lists this year – get there ahead of the game and read it now.  I’m hoping this will be in the supermarkets and all over the place – but here are the traditional links: Amazon, Kindle, Waterstones, Foyles, Kobo.

Death of a Diva by Derek Farrell

Danny Bird has lost his job, his boyfriend and his home.  So of course the logical solution to this is to take over a dive of a pub owned  by a gangster and try and transform it into a fabulous nightspot.  But then his big act for the opening night turns up dead in the dressing room surrounded by a cloud of powder that’s definitely not talc and he’s the prime suspect in a murder inquiry.  This is funny and clever – I was laughing out loud as I tried to figure out who was responsible.  Danny is a fabulous character – and is surrounded by a great supporting cast.  There’s lots of potential here – this is another winner from Fahrenheit Press – who you may have noticed have been providing a lot of my favourite crime reads recently.  Get your copy on Kindle and badger Fahrenheit on Twitter to get it on other platforms.  I got my copy free when it was on promotion a couple of weekends ago (it came out before the Fahrenheit subscription) – this weekend their free book for Easter is Fidelis Morgan’s Unnatural Fire – which is high on my to-read pile – as I loved The Murder Quadrille as you may remember.

The Shadow Hour by Kate Riordan

Harriet and her granddaughter Grace are governesses at the same house, nearly 50 years apart.  Grace has been raised on stories of Fenix House – but once she’s arrived it’s clear that her grandmother may be a less than reliable narrator.  I reviewed this for Novelicious (check out my full review here) and basically this is the book that is going to fill the Victorian-time-slip-upstairs-downstairs gap in your life.  Secrets, lies, families, relationships -they’re all there in this twisty and intriguing book – which had me poleaxed at the end. If you liked Letters to the Lost, or the Mysterious Affair at Castaway House, or any of Lauren Willig’s stand-alone novels like The Ashford Affair then this is for you.

Jolly Foul Play by Robin Stevens

Hazel and Daisy are back on the detection trail after Deepdean’s new head girl is found dead during a fireworks display.  I haven’t finished the latest Wells and Wong mystery yet (it’s another that came out on Thursday – I started it as soon as my pre-order dropped on to my kindle) but if it’s half as good as the other three it’ll be a delight.  One for the 8 to 12 year old in your house – and your inner child as well.

What am I going to be reading this Easter weekend? Well, I’m hoping to finish Hazel and Daisy’s adventures on my Good Friday commutes, then I think I might try to fill the Night Circus-shaped void in my life with Ben Aaronovitch’s Broken Homes or my urge for more time-slip books with the rest of Beatriz Williams’ latest or Lucinda Riley’s The Seven Sisters.   Any other recommendations gratefully received in the comments – although I’m meant to be on a book-buying ban!