My October Reads

There are few things nicer than snuggling up with a good book as the days turn colder and I read some excellent books this month.
Justine Picardie is an author I really enjoy, her biography of Coco Chanel is superb and her talk at the Oxford Literary Festival was captivating. "My Mother's Wedding Dress" is a beautifully written memoir. She describes outfits that have been important in her life, stories about her family, interviews with designers and so on. It's a cornucopia of essays and I loved it. My copy is signed "To Ellen, who understands the threads between mother and daughter". Justine wrote this after a conversation we had after her very moving talk. She seems an extremely nice lady, writes an excellent blog and I highly recommend this book.
"The Language Of Flowers" by Vanessa Diffenbaugh" was a lovely read. Victoria is a girl just leaving state care in San Francisco after several disastrous foster placements. She is fascinated by flowers and the Victorian language of flowers. After finding work at a florists she comes face to face with her troubled past. I found this very poignant and the author has fostered children herself, showing a real insight into their plight. I was rooting ( not a pun!) for Victoria and really cared how it would end for her. The actual language of flowers is fascinating too and the author includes a dictionary of their meanings at the end.
Andrew Motion's biography of Philip Larkin, "A Writer's Life" was a huge book but surprisingly easy to read and a deeply fascinating account of the poet's life. I love Larkin's poems but he was a difficult man, misogynistic, racist and quite gloriously grumpy. However, Motion succeeds in making him human and has added immensely to my understanding of his poems.
Sue Townsend is another author I look forward to reading. Her tales of Adrian Mole have been a constant since I was a teenager, I have grown older with Adrian! "The Woman Who Went To Bed For A Year" is very funny, Eva Beaver waits until her deeply ungrateful twins leave for university, then takes to her bed. A cast of brilliantly drawn characters react in different ways to her defiance. Various lines had me laughing out loud, Eva's inept husband, Brian, comes home to find her in her scruffs, pulling up vegetables, "For Christ's sake, Eva! You look like post-war Poland". My husband had said only last week I looked like a coal man when I donned my Gillet, I may take to my bed too! My only quibble would be that I thought it fizzled out at the end of the story, it was a little unsatisfying. Still worth a read though.
My lovely friend Jo, leant me JoJo Moyes "The Girl You Left Behind" and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Set in modern day London and France in the First World War, it follows the lives of two women who have to fight for what they love. A picture of a young woman connects them and I found the story absorbing, a real page turner. One for the dark afternoons, with a cuppa and slice of Parkin!

My September Reads

I read five excellent books this month, after last months disappointing holiday fayre! My daughter began her A levels and two of the books she is studying are "Never Let Me Go" by Kazuo Ishiguro and "Asylum" by Patrick McGrath. In an attempt to be able to discuss these with her ( a slim hope, those of you with teenage experience will know they communicate only in grunts and definitely not about their schoolwork!) I thought I would have a read myself.
I had read Ishiguro's novel before, it is a haunting tale of three friends, living a seemingly idyllic childhood but as the story develops we learn they are in fact, clones bred for their organs which are systematically taken from them until they "complete". They cannot escape their fate or early deaths, despite an attempt to stave off the inevitable.It is a beautifully written tale of love and loss and it will stay with you for a long
time.
"Asylum" is a gothic story set mainly in a foreboding mental institution in the 1950s and narrated by the chief psychiatrist. The wife of another doctor embarks on a disastrous affair with a patient, but as the story unfolds the reader begins to question the reliability and motivations of the narrator. After many disturbing events, the end is chilling indeed. I thought this was dark, very well written and worth a read.
I really enjoy the Inspector Montalbano series and "The Wings Of The Sphinx" is the eleventh book by Andrea Camilleri about the world weary Sicilian inspector. This is another self contained mystery but it is the writing, gently humorous and wonderfully descriptive, which makes these books a real pleasure.
As you may recall, Anne Tyler is possibly my favourite author as I have got a little(!) older. I am slowly making my way through all her books, re-reading some I didn't really appreciate even ten years or so ago. "Back When We Were Grown-ups" is another beautiful novel and I did so identify with Rebecca, trying to keep everyone happy whilst hardly anyone seems to appreciate her! Tyler is on top form here, funny and heart-braking, wonderful characters, I loved it.
Our book club choice this month was "State of Wonder" by Ann Patchett which was an Orange Prize finalist. I thoroughly enjoyed this book which followed a young American pharmacy research fellow who is sent to the Amazonian rainforest to try and discover what happened to her colleague who has been reported as dead. It is a very original novel and the characters are finely written, it had me gripped right to the end, highly recommended.

Autumnal Love

"Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness," so said John Keats and I have to admit, Autumn is my favourite time of year. I love the "going-back-to -school" feeling, even though my school days are a distant memory!
The nights draw in and I love putting on the lights and lighting the candles. My favourite dishes of casseroles, roasts, cottage pies and creamy mashed potatoes can be cooked again after the salads and pasta of summer. The Christmas cakes are baked and fill the house with the aroma of tradition and home.
I can snuggle up with a good book and not feel guilty that I should be doing something more useful in the garden. I love the damp, woodland walks, sniffing the air tinged with woodsmoke. I still adore opening conkers and fill my pockets with childish glee.
My dad hated this time of year, he would get depressed and mourn the summer. I could never understand that and as I get older I cherish the autumn even more than I used to. To me, it is a season of warmth, comfort, home and hearth. It is a slowing down, a hiatus before the bustle of Christmas, New Year and the coming of Spring.
The summer clothes are packed away and out come the velvet, jewel coloured jackets, the tweed skirts, brogues and FairIsle jumpers. Woolly hats, scarves and mittens are brought out of the lavender infused trunk.
Yesterday, I made Parkin. It is lying, waiting to be eaten but we must wait a few days for extra stickiness. My mum has already stolen a few slices!
Happy Autumn everyone!

My August Reads

I read three excellent books this month, and four not-so-excellent ones!
Linda Grant is a an author I really enjoy, her books are intelligent and very well written. "We Had It So Good" follows the life, into late middle-age, of Stephen. He came from Los Angeles in the sixties to study at Oxford, gets sent down and never finds his way back to the States. Grant writes beautifully of Stephen's relationships with his friends, parents, wife and children. His relationship with his father is particularly interesting and the account of their trip back to Poland and the consequent revelations, had me enthralled.

Jane Shilling is a writer who contributes to various publications, and her memoir "The Stranger In The Mirror" consists of her musings on entering "middle age", a subject close to my heart! She is another beautiful writer, she uses many literary allusions, and her prose is exquisite. I would recommend this to anyone of a certain age, but it is not a comfortable read!

"Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?" is a fabulous book. Jeanette Winterson revisits the territory of "Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit" with her autobiography of growing up in a strict Christian household, headed by the terrifyingly bonkers "Mrs Winterson". It charts her extraordinary life, and I loved the descriptions of the North West and its people. Winterson was adopted and is reunited with her birth mother, eventually, but she is searingly honest in describing this difficult relationship. For all her many faults, Mrs Winterson made Jeanette into the person she is, and her writing stems from her strange childhood. She ponders if she had grown up with her birth mother, she may not have been the writer she is today.

I went to Italy in August and took four books that I could leave there and not mind if they got wet or covered in sun cream.
Linwood Barclay's thrillers are a good holiday read and "The Accident" was a great page turner. The twist in the tale was a bit obvious, but it wasn't at all bad.
I usually really enjoy Joanna Trollope, but "The Other Family" was a tad weak. It is a tale of a popular song-writer who had left his wife and son, setting up home with his partner and having three more children. He dies and the action is concerned with the effect on them all. None of the characters were particularly well-written and not an awful lot happens. Rather disappointing.
I loved "American Wife" by Curtis Sittenfeld, a fictional account of a First Lady, based on the life of Laura Bush. "Prep" is set in the world of a rarified American private school. It was well written and I did enjoy it but "American Wife" is much better.
"Never Going Home" by Evonne Warham was not so good. It was reviewed in the magazine we get at the library and looked like a good holiday thriller. However, it was a Mills and Boon type romance, cringe-worthy in the descriptions of the attraction between the main characters. The mother who has lost her only child only recently, falls straight into the arms of the "security consultant" who helps her, after every major shock she is in his arms. It rings so untrue and the plot was so incredible I had to laugh in the end.

A Little Bit Of Glamour At The V & A

As a treat for doing well in her GCSEs, I took my daughter to London for the day. We had been wanting to visit the Ballgown Exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum and it was a lovely trip.
The ballgowns dated from the 1950s onwards and were stunningly beautiful. Unfortunately we couldn't take photos in there but believe me, the exhibits were gorgeous. There were contemporary designers on display, I loved an Alexander McQueen feather dress worn by Daphne Guiness. Bel was intrigued by the dresses worn by Beyonce and the Christopher Kane evening gown worn to this year's Met Ball by Shailene Woodley. The dresses from the 1950s and 60s were stunning, truly an age of glamour. The famous dress by Catherine Walker for Princess Diana, her "Elvis" look, was breathtaking. It was encrusted with pearls and showed how slim and tall Diana was. I felt rather sad looking at it, what an elegant lady she was.
The surrounding galleries were filled with designs from history, the top image shows  a dress from the court of George II which was fascinating, we wondered how on earth the ladies got through the doors!
The exhibition is on until January and for anyone who enjoys fashion, it is indeed, a real treat.

La Dolce Vita

Every year we decamp to the Tuscan town of Figline Valdarno, birthplace of my late and much missed father-in-law.
We eat, we visit relatives, we argue, we drink, we swim, we cycle in the intense heat, we read and we go to Florence.
I love my in-laws and I love that my daughter can feel a sense of heritage and belonging when she returns.
The light is different in Tuscany, I'm rather short sighted in the UK, I need glasses for driving, but when I step off the plane in Pisa, the colours are sharper..nothing is blurred at all.

Books I Have Read In July

My favourite book I read this month was "The Land of Decoration" by Grace McCleen. This is an amazing debut by a writer of real talent. It is the tale of Judith, who is brought up as a strict evangelical Christian by her father. Terribly bullied at school, she makes a model in her bedroom of an ideal world, her "land of decoration" and believes that she has the power to create miracles. This book is so beautifully written I really cared about what happened to Judith and her father. Interestingly, the author was brought up in a similar situation, she "escaped" through education, gaining a place at Oxford. Judith too, has a teacher who is on her side and offers her support and hope. I could not put this book down and was desperate that Judith would be alright in the end. Sometimes, it was almost unbearable to read, especially near the end. I won't spoil what happens but I can highly recommend this novel.

"I, Partridge" by Alan Partridge is one of the funniest books I have read in a while. He is such a great comic creation and this made me laugh out loud an awful lot. The audio book version is a hoot, but do not listen to it in the car, as laughing too much may cause accidents.

Nora Ephron sadly passed away recently, and I must confess I have never read any of her works. "I Feel Sad About My Neck" is a collection of essays and articles she has written and they are excellent. Witty, very wise and had me saying "YES" at almost every page. I have ordered a couple more of her books and can now understand the praise that has been lavished upon her.

I have a soft spot for the Alexander McCall Smith series set in Edinburgh, the 44 Scotland Street stories. This latest installment is a gentle read and I do love the story of poor Bertie, who appears to be gaining some well-deserved independence as the series goes on.

I went away to Italy for a few days in July, when I go away I like to take lighter reads I can leave in hotels, without guilt. My favourite of the three I took was "Me Without You" by JoJo Moyes. I had heard good things about this on Twitter and I wasn't disappointed. It tells the story of an ordinary girl, a bit of an under-achiever, who goes to work as a carer for a severely disabled man. I thought this would be a convoluted romance but suddenly it veers off into something else, suffice to say it left me weeping quietly on the beach at Forte Dei Marmi.

I liked Jane Fallon's "Getting Rid Of Matthew" so I was looking forward to "The Ugly Sister". It was quite a good read, a bit light maybe, but the heroine's sister was an absolute monster and you get the feeling in "real life" no sister would put up with her outrageous behaviour. It didn't ring very true.

Another book that didn't ring very true was Rosie Thomas' "Lovers And Newcomers". On one hand it was refreshing to read about a bunch of more mature friends , but it seems a little far-fetched that a group from university would choose to all live together in late middle-age, especially considering the simmering romantic tension between some of them. I certainly would not consent to go and live with one of my husband's old girlfriends, yet this is what happens in this book! Rosie Thomas is a good writer but this isn't one of her best.