It’s so hard to concentrate in the heat isn’t it? And to sleep. And to do anything other than slump somewhere and drink cold drinks and moan about how hot it is. That was basically my week. Lots of time on hot trains not being able to thing about anything except how hot I was. This week is meant to be a bit cooler (please, please, please) but we’ve also got an England semi-final at the World Cup (which I’ll be missing at least part of) and then whatever comes next. Who knows what all that means for the list…
Yes I know, this is the least unexpected BotW pick since, oh I don’t know, the last time I previewed a new release book on the Thursday and then promptly had it on the read list on Monday. But in my defence, I do try not to do this and pick my previews accordingly – and indeed when I went back and checked this the last time it happened is more than a year ago with A Murder for Miss Hortense (but only because I spaced out reading Dolly All the Time, The Paris Match and Finders Keepers from their previews – mostly because those were paperback preorders and not *right there* on my Kindle tempting me). But although there were a lot of books out last week, this was the one I was most excited about given how much I loved Pineapple Street. And also one of those other books that was out last week was a second Miss Hortense book – and was trying not to repeat on that front too. Anyway, with that slightly defensive opening over, to the review:
Caroline has always wanted to be a writer and when she gets a year long writer’s fellowship, she gives up her job in publishing and moves to Greenhead, Massachusetts and the cottage that writer the fellowship is endowed for once lived in. In Greenhead she meets Van. Van is one of the locals – an outdoorsy, ecologist who is like a big friendly dog made human. Soon they’re seeing each other and and Van is including her with his group of friends – including Bailey, who he’s been falling into bed with ever since they were at school. Van’s friends aren’t overly pleased at the advent of this rival to Bailey, and this only gets worse when Bailey realises that she’s pregnant with Van’s child. She’s definitely only in their circle because Van wants her to be – and what she does when she’s not anymore throws everything in the group up in the air even more than her presence did in the first place.
The blurb doesn’t reveal what it is that Caroline does – and as it happens a long way into the book (I want to say after the 60 percent point) I’m not either because it’s a huge spoiler, but it’s totally delicious and turns what was already a really good read into something truly excellent. This is very much a rich people problems novel as well as the Greenhead group with their family summer homes and ski trips, Caroline’s mother is a hugely successful writer and there’s never any sense that Caroline’s finances are dependent on whatever she writes on the fellowship being a success and so she’s an outsider only in that she doesn’t know them, not so much in status or class. And so it’s all about relationships and drama on that front and even if people break up you know they’re going to be OK financially, even if they’re upset interpersonally.
All of which makes it exactly my sort of soapy, beach read and I absolutely devoured it, messaging various people as I went along with choice quotes and how much I was enjoying it. It would be a perfect sun lounger read – and I can see why it’s the July pick for Jenna’s book club* because it’s a summer read and I can see people having diverging views about it – and in fact if you look at the goodreads reviews you will see that! If you liked Pineapple Street (which obviously I did), I think you’ll like this. That was about Rich People Problems in Washington DC, this is about Rich People Problems on the coast. The relationships are dysfunctional – and apart from Caroline that’s because they all have so much history together – and do they even really have that much in common any more aside from that shared history? Read it and find out, if you like the same sort of books that I do (and maybe that’s why are you here?) then I don’t think you’ll regret it.
My copy came via NetGalley but I think this is going to be everywhere. Pineapple Street was, and as previously mentioned, this has been picked by one of the big US book clubs so I’m expecting this to be as everywhere as Pineapple Street, if not more so. And of course it’s also on Kindle and Kobo and in audiobook.
Happy Reading!
*Jenna is Jenna Bush Hager, daughter of George W Bush and presenter of the Today Show on which her book club is a feature.
Not going to lie, I’m really feeling it after getting up to watch the England match in the middle of the night and my brain’s not really working right now. So this might be a shorter than usual post because of the brain fade but basically the top line is that I finally finished a long runner and because I was writing the offers post I may have bought some things…
Well as you can see, I didn’t get any of the long runners ticked off, but also the heat was even worse than I was expecting it to be. Honestly. The office was fine – but getting there was not, and sleeping at night was terrible. I feel like I need to sleep for a couple of days to recover. Apparently this week is going to be better until we get to the weekend. Thoughts and prayers everyone…
It’s hotter than Britain has any right to be and my brain has packed up and gone home to try and get cool somewhere. It’s impossible to capture in a photograph how hot it feels – and I wouldn’t subject you to my shiny red faced sweaty look either. I don’t want that committed to the internet. These were taking just after 7am when the temperature was already nearly 30. I haven’t been this hot since I was in Ghana. And the hotel in Accra had air conditioning, which my house definitely doesn’t. Normal service will be resumed when the temperature drops a bit…
Morning everyone and welcome to the (extreme) heatwave. Houses in Britain aren’t made for this sort of weather and I’ve found myself researching portable air conditioning units more than in the last week! Anyway on the reading front, we’re just over a month out from Book Con and so I’ve started clearing out my shelves for the sale table – which lead to three Lorna Hills in 24 hours rather than finishing any of the still reading books. Because of course it did. Lets see if I can concentrate enough in the heat this week to get them read shall we (I doubt it).
Happy Monday everyone! This list is shorter than I would like given the fact that I added six physical books to the pile this week and another five ebooks, but my excuse is a theatre trip and a concert, the start of the World Cup, the Le Mans 24 hours, an F1 race and grass court tennis season. I did also visit four bookshops so that’s why the purchasing happened! Anyway, onwards to this week…
A fairly solid week in reading all things considered, helped by commuting for the four days that I was working and some miserable weather as well. Having (finally) finished the first Heated Rivalry book last week, I then proceeded to binge through the next four, but managed to distract myself away to read some other things too so that I have some things to write about this week. Less good on the NetGalley front, but given the orgy of early June releases, the rest of the month is a little quieter for me on that front so hopefully I’ll catch up a bit this week. Still need to work on that long runners list.
Firstly – Marilyn Monroe would have been 100 today (June 1st) so if you need an excuse to watch Some Like It Hot or Gentlemen Prefer Blondes again, this is it. Secondly, if it seems like I’m on a bit of an Agatha Christie kick at the moment, that’s because after revisiting Caribbean Mystery the other week I’m trying to reread the whole series before the new continuation novel by Lucy Foley comes out and there was a Poirot short story collection that I haven’t read in Kindle Unlimited too. And because I forget about things and get distracted quite easily I’m striking while the iron is hot and getting on with it!
A really solid week in reading, helped by a series of football matches that meant that I stayed in watching/listening to them while reading a book rather than going out to the theatre. And then the weather got really hot so it seemed like the sensible thing to do was to stay inside in the cool and read books. This week is due to be even hotter though…
Read:
A Ghost Hunter’s Guide to Catching a Killer by F H Petford*
Bonus picture: A view across the river from the side of St Paul’s Cathedral last week. I was going to say it was old London and new London – but then I realised you can’t see the old London in the picture so you’ll have to trust me on that!
*next to a book book title indicates that it came from NetGalley. ** indicates it was an advance copy from a source other than NetGalley.
Verity Reads Books (lots of them) 