Tag: fiction

Authors I love, Book of the Week, fiction

Book of the Week: The Celebrants

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A diversion away from mystery and romance into “proper” fiction today. And this has been on my shelf since the paperback came out in February last year, but given that I had a Very Bad Year last year when it comes to people dying it has taken a while for me to be in the right place to read it, much as I love Stephen Rowley.

The Celebrants follows a group of friends, who made a pact in college to throw each other “living funerals”, after one of their group dies. Nearly 30 years later, the five of them are still in touch, but rather than the funerals making them think of all the reasons life is worth living, all they seem to do is make them remember what could have been. But one of the group has just had a diagnosis that there’s no coming back for, and the whole group will need to face their past head on.

As I said, I had a bad year last year on the losing people front, and wasn’t really in a place to want to be reading about impending death in a friendship group, given that I was living through precisely that. But I’m in a better place at the moment (or at least a more resilient one!) and so I went in. And it’s really good – it will remind you about the friends you’ve made over the years, how the friendships you made with people you met when you were young can sometimes survive all the changes that come with the years and still understand you better than almost anyone else and also that you never do really feel any older than you were just after you graduated college.

This was a lovely read – and although it made me tear up at the end, it was worth it (if that makes sense). I really like Rowley’s writing style and his characters are always so real – no one is perfect, they’re all three dimensional, flawed people. The narrative moves around through the years between their various funerals as different things happen in their lives and that really worked for me too and broke up the potential sadness nicely.

Annoyingly, this one isn’t available on Kindle (and nor is the Guncle sequel which is a right pain) so you’re going to have to get this in a physical edition. I’ve seen the Guncle in the Big Foyles, but not this one, so it may also be a special order. But it is worth it.

Happy Reading!

Recommendsday

Recommendsday: Habemus Papam

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It’s Wednesday, and as we have a Papal conclave starting next week, I’m bringing you a Recommendsday themed around the Vatican City and or the Catholic Church. You’re welcome.

Of course one of the big movies of Oscar season was Conclave, which is based on a book of the same name by Robert Harris. So you could read that or if you haven’t already seen the film, now might be the perfect time! But before Conclave, if you’d asked me to think of a book that’s set around the Vatican I would have said Angels and Demons, which is the first book in Dan Brown’s Robert Langdon series. This has the Illuminati and a bomb in the Holy See on the eve of Conclave. This was the third Dan Brown I read, 20 or so years ago and I had started to spot his tropes and patterns by that point, but there’s a reason he’s sold so many books – he’s very easy to read, particularly if you’re not a big reader. There’s a sixth book coming in the autumn – and all of the others have also had strong links to religion in some way. I still think the Da Vinci Code is probably the best of them though.

After not having thought about these books for probably actual years, I’m now mentioning Gyles Brandreth’s Oscar Wilde myseries twice in just a couple of weeks – as book five in that series The Vatican Murders (if you’re buying on Kindle) or Oscar Wilde and the Vatican Murders (if you’re buying in paperback) sees Wilde and Conan Doyle in the Holy See in the aftermath of the death of Pope Pius IX – my review from all the way back in 2016 (!) says it’s a bit like a Victorian Da Vinci Code, so it would seem like a really apt choice for this post!

Not set in the Vatican, but very much about the Catholic Church is Umberto Eco’s In the Name of the Rose. I mentioned this last year in my post of books set in Italy, but it also fits here. Like The Da Vinci Code, it’s one of the best selling books ever published – with about 50 million copies worldwide compared to 80 million for the Da Vinci Code – but people are a lot less sniffy about this one than they are about Robert Langdon. As I’ve said before I read it as part of my history degree because of all the research and detail that Eco put into this, and its set in the fourteen century during the Avignon Papacy. Fun fact: there hasn’t been a French Pope since all of that went down, which didn’t stop the French media from really, really hoping the new Pope would be French during their coverage of the Conclave after the death of Pope John Paul II, which happened while I was living in France. Ahem. Anyway, back to In the Name of the Rose: this has got lots to unpick in it – from the Sherlock Holmesian hero – William of Baskerville – to spotting the deliberate anacronisms and errors and working out why they’re there. There was a TV adaptation five or so years ago (which I found way more gruesome than the book) which was an Italian and German co-production but also featured Rupert Everett in the cast. It was shown on BBC Two (that’s how I watched it) and I enjoyed it but thought some of the dubbing was clunky as well as the simplification of the plot but it’s very expensively done (and they spent the money better than Disney+ did on the Shardlake adaptation) – it’s still available to rent from Amazon should the mood take you.

On my to read list in this sort of area is Katte Mosse’s Labyrinth which has got an archaeological mystery set around some bodies discovered near Carcassone and a crusade 800 years earlier. To be honest the only reason I haven’t read this yet is because it is absolutely huge and my record with very long books right now is not great. I’m pretty sure I’ve got some Medici fiction somewhere on my shelves too – but I can’t remember if it’s Papal-Medici or other Medici doing things around Florence! And I’m also pretty sure I’ve got some Father Brown on my shelves somewhere too.

But what I’m actually doing at the moment is listening to Terry Pratchett’s Small Gods, which is his satire on religion and philosophy and the role of religion in politics. It would have been Sir Terry’s birthday this week and it’s been ages since I read this – and the shiny new recording has Andy Serkis narrating it which is a lot of fun. And in a weird quirk of fate, I’ve just had an email saying it’s actually the Audible Daily Deal today (Wednesday) so if you don’t already own it, now is your chance…

Happy Humpday everyone.

books

Book of the Week: The Rest of Our Lives

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Pinch, punch, first day of the month etc to you all – and watch out for April Fool’s jokes today. I used to enjoy going through the newspapers on April first to try and spot the joke stories and adverts. I have a long ago memory of one for a car company (BMW I think) boasting about a new feature on their cars that would turn the oven on from the car to help you with the dinner prep when you got home. I remember how outlandish it seemed at the time – and now here we are in the smart home era with devices of all sorts controllable from your phone – should you want to. Anyway, to today’s book…

The Rest of Our Lives on a book display in Foyles

The Rest of Our Lives follows Tom, who drives his 18-year-old daughter to college in Pittsburgh – and then keeps driving. Various aspects of his life are not going to plan and he drifts himself into a road trip to try and escape. Years earlier when his wife had an affair, Tom had decided that when their youngest child left for college he would leave the marriage – and that moment has now arrived. But it’s also arrived at a moment when he’s just been suspended from his job after his students complained about the politics of his law class, and he’s got a health issue that he’s busy ignoring but from the descriptions you get of it, he really shouldn’t be.

I really wasn’t sure what to expect from this from the blurb – it could have been a Rich People Problems novel but it’s actually more of a mid life crisis novel. Tom’s in denial about his health, doesn’t want to tell his wife about his work situation or to deal with the underlying issue in their relationship so he finds an excuse to up and run. He doesn’t seem to have anyone in his life that he can talk to properly about things, so you see him find excuses for what he’s doing to the people he meets – right up until the point that he can’t any more. It’s not a long book, but it’s got a lot going on and leaves you with some things to think about as it deals with male loneliness, morality and mortality. It doesn’t have the level of resolution that I get from my regular reads of mystery and romance – but I enjoyed it never the less and it’s a thought provoking read that I think would work really well for book clubs and people who like to read book-club type books.

The Rest of Our Lives came out last week. My copy came via NetGalley, but as you can see I’ve already seen it in the shops, so you should be able to get hold of it ok. And of course it’s also in Kindle and Kobo for £3.99 at time of posting, which is pretty good for a new release hardback.

Happy reading!

Authors I love, Book of the Week, new releases, reviews

Book of the Week: Show Don’t Tell

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Happy Tuesday everyone and today I’m back with a new release (it’s under two weeks since it came out, that totally counts as new still) collection of short stories from one of my favourite authors.

This is a new collection of short stories from Curtis Sittenfeld, mostly looking at various aspects what it is like to be a women, usually a woman in her forties, in the Mid-West of America. It’s her first full collection of short stories since 2018’s You Think It, I’ll Say It which was also a Book of the Week when I read it in 2019 (and which is probably the only book of hers I don’t own. I should fix that). Since then she’s written Rodham, her alternative history of Hillary Clinton, and Romantic Comedy which was one of my very favourite books of 2024 and which I now want to go back and read again. It should also be noted that there is a bit of overlap here with some short stories having appeared elsewhere individually or in a mini collection. But given that I didn’t write about any of those at the time I’m feeling ok about recommending this – just if you are a fan (like me) you’ll have read some before and you may want to calibrate your expectations of new stuff accordingly.

Anyway there are not enough stories about normal women, with normal lives doing things and this is full of them. As with that last collection there is just enough action to keep things moving but not so much that you don’t get to know the character. And once again Sittenfeld has picked out a few things that are happening in the world and done interesting and often witty takes on them. It’s just lovely. Really really nice. I rationed myself to make it last longer. It’s that sort of book – and you can do that with short stories if you just let yourself read one in a sitting.

As you could see from my photos at the weekend, this is getting shelf space on display in the bookshops, but it’s also available on Kindle and Kobo.

Happy Reading!

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: January 6 – January 12

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Well it’s that time of year where the counters are reset and some of the audiobooks that I listen to more than once a year will appear on the lists again. And aside from that, I’m also trying to be better with the NetGalley reading than I was for some (most?) of last year. So still a bit behind on clearing the long runners, and of course I broke my own rules with last week’s BotW so we’ll see what I do about tomorrow on that front…

Read:

The Cinderella Killer by Simon Brett

The Paradise Problem by Christina Lauren

Dark Tort by Diane Mott Davidson

Murder and Mendelssohn by Kerry Greenwood

Scared Off by Barbara Ross

Murder on the Marlow Belle by Robert Thorogood*

A Man Lay Dead by Ngaio Marsh

Started:

Deadly Summer Nights by Vicki Delany

Murder on the Celtic by Edward Marston

Still reading:

White House by the Sea by Kate Storey

A Traveller in Time by Alison Utley

Cher: The Memoir Part One by Cher

Only one ebook bought I think, but that’s seems strangely low so I might have missed something…

Bonus picture: beautiful but cold Northamptonshire on the way to Stratford for Twelfth Night on Saturday!

*next to a book book title indicates that it came from NetGalley. ** indicates it was an advance copy from a source other than NetGalley.

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: December 30 – January 5

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I finished the old year with possibly the last of the Christmas-themed reading (but who can tell) and started the new with lots of good resolutions about finishing the stuff on the long running list – and then forgot to take any of the physical copies of it up to the Frozen North with me. So one off the list, and a slow start to the year. But it was a busy week, and there was a lot of driving.

Read:

Unnatural Habits by Kerry Greenwood

The Christmas Book Hunt by Jenny Colgan

A Very Lively Midwinter by Katy Watson

The Green Mill Murder by Kerry Greenwood

Not in My Book by Katie Holt*

A Decent Interval by Simon Brett

Started:

White House by the Sea by Kate Storey

The Paradise Problem by Christina Lauren

Still reading:

A Traveller in Time by Alison Utley

Cher: The Memoir Part One by Cher

Six books bought. The January kindle sales have been tempting!

Bonus picture: Snow in Carlisle on Sunday. It was cold. Very cold.

*next to a book book title indicates that it came from NetGalley. ** indicates it was an advance copy from a source other than NetGalley.

Book of the Week

Book of the Week: Cure for the Common Breakup

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Did I finish this on Monday? Yes. Would I have finished it on the train to work if that train had taken ten minutes longer? Also yes. But still. This one was a lot of fun, so it deserves it.

Summer is a flight attendant – and her always moving lifestyle is perfect for her attitude towards relationships. Except… at the start of a long haul flight to Paris, she hears her boyfriend might be about to propose and she’s thinking about saying yes. But then the flight goes wrong and everything changes. Summer needs somewhere to recover (physically and mentally) and heads for Black Dog Bay, a small town in Delaware known as “the best place in America to bounce back from your breakup”. There she finds a small town community ready to welcome her – and a mayor who is definitely not her type and who definitely doesn’t do relationships…

The fact that this is set in Delaware probably gives you the hint about why I was picking this up last week, but often with the books I read at the end of the year to tick some states off, they’re a slog to get through (and I might have given up on them in other circumstances) but this was really nice. If you had told me it was written in the early 2000s I would have believed it too – except for the smartphones! Not because it’s outdated but because there’s just something about it that reminds me of the books I used to read back when I was at university – funny and slightly caper-y, and with a romance but more about the female lead finding herself than just getting the man.

Anyway, this is the first of a series set in Black Dog Bay – and I will happily read more and try and not use them all up as my Delaware option too fast!

I bought my copy on Kindle, but it’s also on Kobo. I suspect any physical copy will be harder to find, but I’m sure the big vendors will try!

Happy Reading!

Book of the Week, cozy crime

Book of the Week: A Dark and Stormy Murder

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This week I’m back in the cozy crime genre for my pick, and with a first in a series so I’m abiding by the rules (yes, those rules I set myself!).

And so the plot: Lena’s just landed a job as the assistant to her favourite writer, Camilla Graham and moved to a small town in Indiana. Lena has always wanted to be a writer and now she gets to learn from her idol. Lena’s best friend already lives in Blue Lake – in fact she’s the one who met Camilla first, but Lena quickly gets stuck into small town life and meeting the locals – including a notorious recluse and the chief detective. But when a body turns up on her boss’s land, and strange things start happening at the house Lena can’t help but start investigating…

This has a fairly classic cozy crime set up in many ways – small town, two potential love interests for the heroine and a developing group of friends. But the writing as a profession is fun and the actual murder plot is good and allows the development of Lena and Camilla’s working relationship as well as doing some world building work too. There’s also a secondary investigation going on that is setting up more for the series, so it feels quite action packed – and I mean that in a good way. At the moment Lena seems to be picking my least favourite of the two love interests but there’s plenty of scope for either him to grow on me or for her to change her mind. This is my first book by Julia Buckley, and there another five in this series and she has a couple of other series too so that’s something to look forward to, if I can just get the tbr under control…

I read this one in paperback, but it’s also available on Kindle and Kobo.

Happy Reading!

Recommendsday

Recommendsday: Upcoming adaptations

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Autumn is new TV season, and the run up to Christmas (and THanksgiving in the US) is the big movie release season, so I thought this week I’d mention the books that are about to hit the screens of various sizes before the end of the year.

I’m starting with the one you’re most likely to have already seen a trailer for even before I put it here, and that’s Wicked. It’s based on the musical which is quite a long way away from Gregory Maguire’s novel, but as they’ve split it into two parts, it sounds like they have used more of the book material for the film – which makes sense because the second half of the musical is less obviously spectacular than the first and the most well known songs are in the first – including the iconic Defying Gravity which is the ending of the first half in the musical and has been so heavily featured in all the promotional material that it has to be in the first part!

Excitingly Interior Chinatown has a brand new trailer today – ahead of it’s release in the US in mid November. Charles Yu has adapted it himself from his novel, which is about an background character in a police procedural drama who longs to be the main character. It won a National Book award the year it came out and was nominated for a couple more prizes. I read it in 2020 and although it was not entirely my thing (as we know that’s not unusual for Award-winners) but I thought it was really clever, inventive and mind bending. It’s on the list of things I might be able to watch with Him Indoors. Or at least let him start watching it to see if I’ll be able to cope. I just need to get Disney+ again first!

Already out there in the US, but frustratingly still without a confirmed date in the UK is the Moonflower Murders. I did mention this the other week when I posted that there is going to be another book in the Atticus Pünd/Susan Ryeland series, but I don’t care, because I think these are so fun and clever and I’m looking forward to seeing how book two translates to the screen – I doubted Anthony Horowitz before the seeing the Magpie Murders and I’m not making that mistake again. I’m sort of expecting that this is going to be in the Christmas TV offerings, so I might still have two months to wait…

This one is a bit of a cheat on two fronts because it’s already out there *and* I haven’t read the book, but the trailer made me laugh so I’m going with it anywhere. I’ve read about half a dozen of Carl Hiassen’s books – but not Bad Monkey – and I am a little worried this is going to be a bit too violent for me on screen – the novels fall into the same sort of humours crime-thriller-adventure area as Stephanie Plum does, but with a lot more gore on the page. This one is on Apple TV+, which I hardly ever have, so it may be a while before I can set Him Indoors on it to check it for me.

And finally, this is the one that I have no clue how I would be able to watch as it’s a Hallmark Movie, but the book itself sounds intriguing: The Chicken Sisters. It’sabout two families feuding over whose restaurant serves the best fried chicken and two sisters who have ended up on opposite sites try to settle it by taking part in a TV cooking show. It’s at least partially set in Kansas too – so if I can get hold of a copy of that, it might help me with one of my harder to get states in the 50 states challenge…

Happy Reading!

books

Recommendsday: Gentle Fiction

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Inspired by yesterday’s post about Small Miracles, I thought I’d write today’s recommendsday is a batch of books that are similarly gentle but uplifting, but it was harder than I expected.

So Small Miracles is blurbed by A J Pearce as in the Emmy Lake series – which have more sadness to them than these (or at least more on page sadness) but the first one Dear Mrs Bird is in Kindle Unlimited at the moment, so that’s fairly risk free if you’re a KU member.

It’s actually really hard to come up with something that feels really similar – but I think maybe The Diary of a Provincial Lady would work – it’s funnier and also nearly 100 now, but it has a similar gentle, low stakes feel to it. Which also made me think of Miss Buncle – another woman trying to get some money, although in this case because her dividends have failed and Ladies don’t have jobs.

There were a few things in the people also read/bought columns that looked promising Julietta Henderson’s The Funny Thing About Norman Foreman – still haven’t read but kept coming up as a suggestion when I was writing this – so maybe I should get around it to! Also popping up is Claire Pooley’s The People on Platform Five – which I don’t have, but is 99p at the moment, so it’s entirely within the realms of possibility that I’ll end up buying it after writing this post! Again, I haven’t read them, but I know my sister and my mum really like Rachel Joyce’s novels and I think they’re doing something similar too.

Oh, and I’ve pre-ordered the Small Miracle’s sequel…