Kategorie: Reviews

I Will Judge You by Your Bookshelf – Grant Snider

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AuthorGrant Snider
PublisherAbrams & Chronicle Books
Date14 April 2020
EditionIllustrated Hardcover
Pages128
LanguageEnglish
ISBN-13978-1419737114

“MY HOLIDAY WISH LIST – The book everyone is reading – the book no one is reading … A place for all my new books.” (Quotation page 36, in part)

Theme and Content

A collection of literary comics by the well-known American cartoonist and writer Grant Snider, about booklovers, book hoarders, booksmell-addicted, but also about literature, writers and writing, including writer’s block.

Implementation

This beautifully crafted book contains 124 comics of one or two pages, grouped into fourteen chapters from “I’m in love with books” to “I write because I must”. There are stories about bookmarks, unpaid library fees, the smell of old books, about classics and about the daily dreams and problems of writers. Not only the cartoons are funny, but also the texts are witty, philosophical, poetical, giving words their true and real meaning, sometimes a different meaning, and always perfectly illustrated. This is a book to lose yourself time and time again, discovering new details, and just thinking: “so true, that’s me!”

Conclusion

A charming book, every bookworm will love from the first page.

Reviews, Short Stories , ,

Lifesaving for Beginners – Ciara Geraghty

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AuthorCiara Geraghty
PublisherHodder & Stoughton
Date27 September 2012
EditionKindle edition
Pages465 (print version)
LanguageEnglish
ASINB008HTQ34I

„Four months. That’s all it takes. Four months for everything to fall apart.” (Quotation Pos. 893)

Content

A brief moment of inattention of the truck driver, a deer on the road, two hitten cars, and after this first of June everything has changed. For Kat Kavanagh, the thirty-nine years old famous author, who publishes her crime novels under an alias, who was in one of the two cars, and whose friend Thomas told her that she were lucky. For Milo McIntyre, nine years old, whose Mam was in the other car and had no chance. Faith, Milo’s twenty-four years old sister, who still lives at home, does her best to look after Milo. One day in October, when she is searching for something in the attic, she finds old documents and a hidden family secret that again had changed and will change the life of the persons involved.

Theme and Genre

This novel is about lies, trust, loss and grief, but most of all about family, friendship, love, courage and hope.

Characters

We meet likeable characters, most of all Milo, but also Faith and Kat’s brother Ed, and a main character, I have disliked for the major part of the story: Kat, selfish, egoistic, cold and sunken into self-pity.

Plot and Writing

There are two main stories, alternately told by Kat or Milo, both first-person narrators, interspersed with some flashbacks. The plot is believable and a well-balanced mixture of romance, humor and substance with some interesting twists, until loose ends are tied together.

Conclusion

More than just another chick-lit novel, this is a delightful, cozy story with deepness.

Novel, Reviews , , ,

The Lido – Libby Page

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AuthorLibby Page
PublisherOrion
Date4 April 2019
EditionPaperback
Pages400
LanguageEnglish
ISBN-13978-1409175223

“We shouldn’t stop fighting, and we shouldn’t stop enjoying it here.” (Quotation pos. 2292)

Content

Kate is twenty-six years old and has recently moved to Brixton. She is a journalist for the Brixton Chronicle, longing for a real good story to advance her career. When she is asked to investigate and write a story about the local lido, open since 1937, and “Paradise Living”, a property company who wants to buy it and turn it into a private members gym area, she sees her chance. But she had no idea, how much meeting eighty-six years old Rosemary Peterson and her friends, and the campaign they would start together to save the lido, would also change her own life.

Theme and Genre

A feel-good novel about friendship, love, community spirit and solidarity, swimming and, of course, the lido, the outdoor swimming pool in Brixton, South London.

Characters

Rosemary has lived all her live in Brixton, it was here where she has met George, her husband and the lido with the happy memories of a lifetime now is all left for her, after George has died. Kate has always felt more comfortable with books than in real life. Apart from her job, she lives a lonely live in London, until she meets Rosemary. The characters we meet in the story are believable, witty and charming.

Plot and Writing

The story starts during springtime and time is short, because the lido is to be closed and turned in a private members property. Reading, we find us in the middle of the community and the campaign, hoping, that somehow there will be a solution to save the lido. We also learn about Rosemary’s youth and a long gone past, her life with George, many years of early morning swims in this lido and walks through the adjacent park. A fox on his way through the streets of Brixton in search for food leftovers shows the other side of the area, the poor and homeless. The story and the characters are fictitious, but Brockwell Lido and its history is real.

Conclusion

An enjoyable, uplifting read about the values of a community, about friendship, family and love. Full of vibrant and colorful descriptions, of charming, loveable characters, this novel is perfect to get lost in the story and summer dreams.

Novel, Reviews , , ,

Spectres in the Snow: A Third Collection of Classic Ghost Stories for Christmas

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Author21 authors
PublisherBlack Heath Editions
Date9 September 2016
EditionKindle
Pages391 pages (print)
LanguageEnglish
ASINB01LW9TVHI

“Haunted or no, there was something so uncanny in the appearance of the old gables, fast rottering to ruin, that even in the crepuscular light and early evening, persons would hurry by it with a shudder, while later at night, many would go a long way round rather than pass its weather-worn walls.” (Quotation pos. 337 “The Phantom Riders” by Ernest R. Suffling)

Theme and Content

A collection of ghost stories set in the Victorian and Edwardian time. Written by different authors, these twenty-one old gothic tales too are multifaceted, but always gripping and spooky. The reader meets phantom riders, haunted houses and haunted rooms, the dead sexton, Mr. Morgan in Australia who always hurries home before it gets dark, and a friendly ghost who helps his descendants and real true stories about eerie appearances with no logical explanation. Mysterious things happen in these nights around Christmas, where the snow is falling and shadows might be not only shadows but also something else.  

Conclusion

This selection of traditional ghost stories, written in the poetic language of the olden times, is a perfect read for the dark winter nights around Christmas time.

Gothic, Reviews, Short Stories , , ,

A Child’s Christmas in Wales – Dylan Thomas

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AuthorDylan Thomas
IllustratorTrina Schart Hyman
PublisherHoliday House
Date17 October 2017
EditionHardcover
Pages48
LanguageEnglish
ISBN-13978-0823438709

“It was always snowing at Christmas. December, in my memory, is white as Lapland, though there were no reindeers.” (Citation page 8)

Content, Theme and Genre

The well-known Welsh poet Dylan Thomas writes about the traditional Christmas days of his childhood with the family celebrating together and the fun children had.

This is a book about Christmas that makes grown-ups dream and still will be enjoyed by children of any age. The illustrations by Trina Schart Hyman make this book a delightful gem, to be read every year again and again.

Conclusion

A beautifully illustrated story about the joy of traditional Christmas days for readers of every age.

Novel, Reviews , ,

Winter Ghosts: Classic Ghost Stories for Christmas – Charles Dickens, Elizabeth Gaskell and others

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AuthorCharles Dickens, Elizabeth Gaskell and others
PublisherBlack Heath Editions
Date18 September 2014
EditionKindle
Pages378 (print version)
LanguageEnglish
ASINB00NQA0K1U

“As for me, I know very well that when I read him of a dark night, I am obliged to creep to bed without shutting ny book, and without daring to look behind me.” (Quotation from “The Dead Man’s Story”, pos. 1056)

“We talked on an extraordinary variety of subjects, I distinctly recollect a long argument on mushrooms-mushrooms, murders, racing, cholera; from cholera we came to sudden death, from sudden death to churchyards, and from churchyards, it was naturally but a step to ghosts.” (Quotation from “Number Ninety”, pos. 3878)

Content

The Phantom Coach by Amelia B Edwards

The Ghost of Christmas Eve by J.M. Barrie

The Governess’s Story by Amyas Northcote

The Story of the Goblins Who Stole a Sexton by Charles Dickens

The Dead Man’s Story by James Hain Friswell

Bone to His Bone by E.G. Swain

Jerry Bundler by W.W. Jacobs

The Old Nurse’s Story by Elizabeth Gaskell

Thurlow’s Christmas Story by John Kendrick Bangs

The Story of a Disappearance and an Appearance by M.R. James

The Real and the Counterfeit by Louisa Baldwin

Mustapha by S. Baring-Gould

Wolverden Tower by Grant Allen

Number Ninety by B.M. Croker

The Great Staircase at Landover Hall by Frank Stockton

A Strange Christmas Game by Charlotte Riddell

What Was He? by Theo Gift

The Brazen Cross by H.B. Marriott Watson

The Beeston Ghost by John Swaffield Orton

Theme and Genre

A collection of classic Victorian and Edwardian ghost stories about inexplicable, supernatural, spooky experiences, written by different authors.

Conclusion

A perfect collection for dark winter evenings, giving you spine-tingling feelings. Very different stories and different writing styles make this book a thrilling, enjoyable reading.

Gothic, Reviews, Short Stories , , ,

Book Love – Debbie Tung

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AuthorDebbie Tung
PublisherAndrews McMeel Publishing
Date1 January 2019
EditionHardcover
Pages144
LanguageEnglish
ISBN-13978-1449494285

“How to spot a Bookworm – Saying they’ll just have a quick browse but come our looking like they bought a whole shelf.” (Quotation page 106, 107)

Genre, Theme and Content

Illustrations and relating texts for every minute, day and situation in the life of a book addict. Humorous, funny comics to make a bookworm laugh aloud with pleasure, smiling and nodding in agreement. Debbie Tung perfectly understands the everyday problems of bibliophiles and how it feels to be one.

Conclusion

A perfect gift for booklovers, for bibliophiles knowing the meaning of “SUB” and owning some of it. A book to flip through, read and enjoy time and again.

Non-fiction, Reviews , , ,

Fireside Gothic – Andrew Taylor

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AuthorAndrew Taylor
PublisherHarperCollins
Date3 November 2016
EditionKindle
Pages257 (print-version)
LanguageEnglish
ASINB01D4WO1VE

A collection of three gothic stories

Content

BROKEN VOICES

“The emptiness of the place enfolded us like a shroud. The air was cold and smelled faintly of earth, incense and candles.” (Quotation page 44)

The narrator remembers one special Christmas, more than forty years ago. He is fifteen years old and has to stay in school over the holidays, together with a boy named Faraday, who is two years younger. Mr. Ratcliffe, an old, long retired teacher, takes care of them and during the evenings, he entertains them with ghost stories about the nearby Cathedral. Some of the stories have real backgrounds, such as the fate of Mr. Goldsworthy, two hundred years ago, and the beautiful anthem he wrote, since lost. Therefore, the boys plan to climb the tower of the Cathedral and search for the lost sheet of notes.

THE LEPER HOUSE

“There’s always a next time.” (Quotation page 159)

After the funeral of his sister, the narrator is on his way to visit a client in Ipswich and afterwards he would drive home to London, where he lives. But there are roadworks, the day changes into a dark, rainy, stormy evening when the traffic stops again. Therefore, he follows some local drivers, taking a narrow road, when one of the tires of his car is punctured. He leaves the car, starts to walk and suddenly he sees a light and arrives at an old cottage by the sea.

THE SCRATCH

“Two things happened that afternoon which were both important, though I didn’t realize their significance until later.” (Quotation page 176)

Clare and Gerald live in a rural area, near the Forest of Dean. Jack, Gerald`s young nephew, just back from the army in Afghanistan, is going to stay with them for some time. He dislikes their cat Cannop, because he generally does not like cats. He is sure that there must be wild cats in the Forest, because sometimes he notices a big, dark shadow on his daily walk through the forest. One day Clare sees a big scratch on his arm.

Conclusion

Three stories, modern versions of the well-known traditional Gothic novels, a perfect read for rainy, dark afternoons and evenings. The gripping, suspenseful plot starts from normal daily situations, which makes everything that happens plausible. There are always more solutions and explanations, left open for us readers to think about and find our own ideas. Just relax, light some candles and enjoy the high literary quality of stories and the eerie fascination.  

Gothic, Reviews , ,

Your Soul is a River – Nikita Gill

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AuthorNikita Gill
PublisherThought Catalog Books
Date12 June 2016
EditionKindle
Pages160 (Print edition)
LanguageEnglish
ASINB01H0RMWTC

“I hope you find someone who knows how to love you when you are sad.” (Original quotation, page 132, A Midnight Thought)

Content

A selection of powerful poems, each of it telling a story. They are divided into chapters with the following titles: The Cosmos. Fire. The Storm. Ache. The Sea, the River, the Ocean. Wild. The Earth. Heal.

Themes and Language

Nikita Gill is one of the modern poets who share their impressive thoughts also via Instagram. She writes about love that hurts, ends and still hurts. These are powerful poems about darkness, the unbroken forces of nature, about growing strong again, hope and the journey of our souls to heal the inner child. Her language reveals deep feelings and she knows how to paint pictures in our minds and souls.

Conclusion

In these modern poems lyricism flows with richness of pictures painted by poetic words and feelings, rhythms like a stormy sea, darkness and sadness, and the hope of being strong and whole again.

Poetry, Reviews , ,

What She Knew – Gilly Macmillan

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AuthorGilly Macmillan
PublisherPiatkus
Date18 August 2016
FormatKindle
Pages565 (print)
LanguageEnglish
ASINB01K1IZNIE

“If there’s so much potential for others to judge us wrongly, then how can we be sure that our assessment of them in any way resembles the real person that lies underneath?” (citation pos. 152)

Content

Rachel Jenner, recently divorced, photographer, loves to go for a walk with her son Ben, eight years old, and their dog Skittle. When he wants to run ahead to go on the rope swing, Skittle on his side, she tries not to listen to her maternal voice and allows it, because it is not far and he knows the way. After a short phone call with her sister, Rachel arrives at the rope – and Ben is not here. He is missing, without any traces. Every day that passes makes the search and the questions more desperate.

Theme and Genre

This thriller is about the impact of a case of a missing child on the family, friends and the investigating police. An important topic is the psychological point of view, the feelings of the persons involved. The story also shows the pressure of the public opinion, of journalists, of strangers gathering and sharing their opinions via social media, hate postings and bullying.

Characters

Rachel sometimes still struggles to get over her divorce. She feels guilty for letting Ben run ahead in the wood and with the public opinion calling her a bad mother almost breaks her down, as well as having to wait for results of the investigation. But she never gives up.

DI James Clemo leads the investigation team, knowing that time is important and if the want to find Ben, they first have to find out who took him.

Plot and Writing

Rachel and Jim, beginning with a prolog one year after Ben’s disappearance, tell the captivating story. Each day is a chapter and begins with notes from an OJJDP law report about Missing and Abducted Children, Rachel’s description of the events and Jim who tells his part to the story to his therapist. Together with extracts from the blog, it is this special and brilliant plotting, that makes the story so breathtaking, deeply impressing and thrilling.

Conclusion

A gripping, unputdownable story and definitely not a book that is closed with the last page, shelved and soon forgotten. An amazing read that remains in the readers thoughts.

Reviews, Thriller & Crime ,

Still me – Jojo Moyes

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AuthorJojo Moyes
PublisherPenguin Books
Date23 January 2018
EditionPaperback
LanguageEnglish
Pages480
ISBN-13978-0718183196

“I had started to understand New York a little bit more and, in return, it had started to accommodate me.” (Quotation page 88)

Content

Louisa Clark has arrived in New York and is now working as personal assistant to Mrs Gopnik, wife of multimillionaire Mr Leonard Gopnik. The new employment includes a small staff room in the famous building “The Lavery”, address Fifth Avenue. She is missing her family and boyfriend Sam back in the UK, but buzzling New York is waiting for her, with daily new experiences. Then she meets Josh and long-distance relationships are sometimes tough.

Theme and Genre

This third novel of the series about Lou Clark is settled in New York. Important topics are family, friendship, love, changes, new opportunities and choices to be made during lifetime. It is also about feeling at home in different countries.

Characters

Lou Clark, although almost thirty, still has not found out, who she really wants to be, and what she wants to do with her life. She tries to adjust herself to the needs of others, until unforeseen events completely confuse her life and raise her self-esteem, forcing her to think about her own hopes and wishes for the future.

Plot and Writing

The story is entertaining and includes exciting moments, especially when Lou begins to behave and act like an adult. There are also funny scenes, sad ones, interesting descriptions of New York and its very different lifestyles. The book is well written and enjoyable to read.

Conclusion

An entertaining, loveable story, especially for readers who have read the first two novels, Me Before You and After You. Personally, I really liked Me Before You, was quite disappointed about After You, but I like this third book of the series.F

Novel, Reviews

The Bookshop on the Shore – Jenny Colgan

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AuthorJenny Colgan
PublisherSphere
Date13 June 2019
EditionPaperback
Pages432
LanguageEnglish
ISBN-13978-0751575583

“They went past dark hedgerows and low-roofed outhouses, before The Beeches finally revealed itself. It was the spookiest place Zoe had ever seen in her life.” (quotation page 62)

Content

Zoe, a single mother of four-years-old Hari desperately needs a job and somewhere to live, because she cannot afford her flat in London any more. That is why she comes to Inverness to assist pregnant Nina with the bookshop in the vintage van. There also are the children of her new landlord Ramsay Urquart, two boys, twelve and five years old, and nine years old Mary. Zoe has to look after them in the morning and evenings, until the housekeeper arrives. The children are special, the house, more a castle, is dark and cold, but the nature was just breathtaking and her son Hari adores five years old Patrick. Would Zoe be able to bring about some changes, definitely needed in her new place?

Theme and Genre

Another chick-lit novel with substance and depth, a special genre, the author is famous for. It is about being different from others, about family, motherhood, fathers and children. Books are only a second theme.

Characters

Zoe is likeable, mostly down-to-earth and strong in there own way. We also meet again Nina, still known as the main character from “The Bookshop on the corner”, but she is now quite bossy. The characters are well described with realistic behavior, especially the children.

Plot and Writing

There are enjoyable descriptions of the beautiful Scottish landscape and the old, aristocratic country house, in urgent need of any kind of warmth and renovation. The story is well developed, gripping and has the right touch of romance and wit, but there are other novels by Jenny Colgan, I liked more.

Conclusion

An enjoyable read for cosy afternoons.

Novel, Reviews, Romance , , ,

The Inaugural Meeting of the Fairvale Ladies Book Club – Sophie Green

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AuthorSophie Green
PublisherSphere
Date1 March 2018
EditionKindle
Pages432 (Print edition)
LanguageEnglish
ASINB072JFG5X5

“Kate smiled brightly at Sallyanne and Sybil felt something click inside her: she would like to think it was the sound of things shifting into place but perhaps it was merely relief.” (Quotation pos. 833)

Content

In 1978, Sybil Baxter is fifty-one years old, married to Joe and since twenty-six years lives on Fairvale, in Australia’s Northern Territory, a remote vastness with difficult climate conditions. Her new book club brings together five very different women: herself, her British daughter-in-law Kate, her old friend Rita, nurse and member of the Flying Doctors, Sallyanne, mother of three children and Della from Texas, doing a man’s job just to feel free. They soon learn that their group is much more than just books, its female friendship and helping each other through difficult times.

Theme and Genre

A brilliant novel about friendship and the strength of women under adverse conditions and in a rough environment in the late seventies and early eighties. It is also about changes and the possibilities life could offer. Important topics are books and Australia’s North.

Characters

Every single main character is well described, individual, authentic with edges and contours, and definitely loveable. In these few years they have to cope with decisions and changes, new developments, not always voluntarily chosen.

Plot and Writing

Each year starts with a summary of international events happened during the year. The life of the five female protagonists is told chronologically with memories and flashbacks. There are chapters and each is mainly focusing on one of the main characters, on more only if they meet. The story is gripping and the descriptions of the rural life and the beautiful but rough environment are very well researched, detailed and the perfect, interesting addition to the story.  The books read by the Fairvale Book Club invite to further backlist reading about the topic.

Conclusion

An enjoyable, gripping read with loveable characters and captivating descriptions of the landscape and lifestyles marked by nature and the different seasons. At the end of the story it feals like leaving well-known friends.

Novel, Reviews , ,

The Vintage Summer Wedding – Jenny Oliver

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AuthorJenny Oliver
PublisherHQ Digital
Date22 May 2014
EditionKindle
Pages384 (Print edition)
LanguageEnglish
ASINB00JBGZJOQ

„It was the feeling of someone taking her life that was already a muddle and giving it a good hard shake. Like she was her own personal snow globe.” (Original citation pos. 1135)

Content

Anna Whitehall and her fiancée Seb are living their upper class live in London and are planning a stunning wedding ceremony. But due to a failed investment, Anna loses her job and all their money. When Seb gets a job offer as teacher at Nettleton High, in the small village where Anna had grown up, he is happy to move there. Anna finds a job in an old antiques shop, Vintage Treasure. A few years ago on her way to become a famous ballerina, she is now asked to train a group of village youngsters for the “Britain got Talent” Show. But there is a new job waiting in New York …

Theme and Genre

This story is about love, friendship, family, failures, hopes, and about decisions.

Characters

Ann has to learn to value things in her life and also be ready and open for twists. Happiness sometimes comes different than planned and expensive designer clothing does not always guarantee a happy life. The characters are loveable and very well described.

Plot and Writing

Even though a kind of Happy Ending is predictable, there are enough twists, to make the story enjoyable to read. Especially to see how Anna learns to value the small village community, and her old friends who still are there for her when problems arise, is interesting. Also funny situations are not missing.

Conclusion

A cosy and enjoyable read with enough romance to finish the book with a smile.

Reviews, Romance , , ,

Worlds Apart: Stories about love, language and cultures – David Newby

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AuthorDavid Newby
PublisherVerlag Klingenberg
Date5 December 2018
EditionHardcover
Pages176
LanguageEnglish
ISBN-13978-3903284005

„We’re concerned with literary fiction, not with our own personal reality.’ ’I don’t see how you can separate them,’ says Joy.” (Original quotation page 173, 174)

Content

This book contains six short novels: The Bird’s Trilogy, Culture Lovers, Carol’s Christmas, Joy of Man’s Desiring, Framing, The Reading Circle. Each story has different main characters, men and women in a relationship, but definitely focuses on the female protagonists. One of the stories is very amusing and special.

Themes

All stories are about love, relationships and the British way of life, seen from different point of views and as adopted by different cultures and they all contain unexpected turns and twists.

Language is important, not only connected to the content, but used in a splendid way, playing with idioms, giving words and phrases amusing new contexts, which makes the book a real pleasure to read and makes the reader not only smile but laugh out loud.

Conclusion

Everyday life and marriage, including misunderstandings, humorously analyzed and described and told in a sensitive way, with subtle wit and irony.

Reviews, Short Stories ,

The Broken Girls – Simone St. James

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AuthorSimone St. James
PublisherWildfire
Date20 March 2018
EditionKindle
Pages338 (Print-edition)
LanguageEnglish
ASINB076H6T827

“Fiona realized as she walked inside that she’d been picturing something Harry-Potter-like, with high Gothic ceilings and warm candlelight.” (Quotation page 56)

Content

Idlewild Hall had been a boarding school for girls, sent away by their families. Finally closed around 1979 and since abandoned, the new owners want to restore it and reopen the house as a new, modern school.

Young Journalist Fiona Sheridan has her own bitter memories connected with the Idlewild property, as twenty years ago her sister Deb had been found dead on the former sports field. Although Tim, her sister’s boyfriend, had been sentenced, for Fiona there are still lots of very unclear details and open questions. She wants to write an article about Idlewild Hall and starts her own researches. When the renovation team finds the remains of the body of a young girl, dead for more than sixty years and definitely murdered, she digs deep into the past of Idlewild Hall. Who was Mary Hand?

Theme and Genre

This dark and atmospheric story is written in the perfect tradition of the famous Gothic fiction originated in England in the second half of the 18th and the 19th century. There are female heroines, four girls in 1950 and Fiona in 2014, a ghost and darkness and mysteries. Topic are the living conditions of for different reasons unwanted girls in the early 60ies, but also female friendship, tenacity and courage, now and then. Another topic are grieve and loss and the Holocaust.

Characters

Fiona is likeable, because although her questions are soon getting dangerous for her, she is not willing to stop and give up. 1950, in the dark, cold surrounding of Idlewild School, four girls, Katie, Roberta, CeCe and Sonia are best friends, holding together against everything.

Plot and Writing

The story takes place in Barrons, Vermont. There are two timelines, the fifties with each chapter focusing on one of the four girls and 2014, with details going back to 1994. Both timelines are gripping und breathtaking, with surprising twists and turns. Especially historical facts connected to Sophie´s story were thoroughly researched.

Conclusion

A dark, atmospheric novel in the tradition of the famous English Gothic literature, gripping and full of suspense. A perfect pageturner, sleepless nights included.

Deutsche Ausgabe: Die schwarze Frau, Goldmann Verlag, 18. Februar 2019

Gothic, Reviews, Thriller & Crime , ,

The Girl in the Letter – Emily Gunnis

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AuthorEmily Gunnis
PublisherReview
Date1 August 2018
EditionKindle
Pages384 (Print edition)
LanguageEnglish
ASINB079RMFFCJ

„They said it was good all the records had been destroyed, because it was time to move on.“ (Quotation pos. 2149)

Content

Young journalist Sam, mother of four-years-old Emma, after a bad row with her husband Ben stays with her Grandmother, where she had grown up. Her Grandfather had died less than 12 months ago and Nana shows her a bundle of letters she had found. They are from a girl named Ivy, written a long time ago, in September 1956. Ivy had gotten pregnant and was sent to, a home for unmarried mothers, open until the mid seventies. Sam is deeply captured by this very sad, impressive story about Ivy and her baby Rose and determined to find out the truth. She has left only two days, because the old Victorian manor is going to be demolished and the persons involved are not ready to talk about St Margaret’s. Are the many mysterious, sudden deaths in the area somehow linked to the past?

Theme and Genre

A gripping novel about the situation of pregnant but unmarried poor young girls and women, sent away by their own families to Catholic institutions. Often their babies were given up for adoption, often against the mother’s will. The story, settled in England, is based on known facts about real, similar institutions in Ireland.

Characters

Sam is a modern woman, struggling to be taken serious as an investigative journalist. A working mom feeling guilty for leaving her little girl with Nana, but definitely not ready to give up to find out Ivy’s story.

Ivy too is strong and helpful under her own worst conditions of life, willing to fight for her baby.

Plot and Writing

The gripping story has many twists, turns and many characters involved from the past until today. Told in two different main time levels, Ivy’s story beginning in 1956 and Sam’s story in 2017, there are more steps into the past when it comes to events in the lives of persons involved. Although the reader from a certain moment on might have some assumptions about how some events are connected, the story remains exciting until the end.

Conclusion

An impressive, gripping story, empathically written – a book that is unputdownable.

Novel, Reviews , , ,

The Lost Vintage – Ann Mah

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AuthorAnn Mah
PublisherWilliam Morrow
Date19 June 2018
EditionHardcover
Pages384
LanguageEnglish
ISBN-13978-0062823311

“I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about responsibility and what one generation owes to the next.” (Citation page 151)

Content

In September 2015 Kate, an ambitious sommelier living in San Francisco, returns to Meursault, Burgundy, where her family since generations owns a vineyard, famous for its wines. Years ago, she had left Burgundy and her fiancé Jean-Luc. Now she needs to freshen up her knowledge about Burgundy vintages, to pass the blind testing of the extremely difficult Master of Wine exam.

She stays in the old family landhouse and vineyard, now managed by her cousin Nico who is married to her best friend Heather. When she helps Heather to clean out the large, deep cellar, she discovers a hidden room, the traces leading back to WWII. Who was Hélène, a family member never mentioned? Should they reveal hidden family secrets?

Theme and Genre

This novel is about family, generations, friendship, love and about the passion of viniculture, Burgundy and French living style.

An important theme is the Second World War, the occupied France, Nazis and resistance and how people tried to survive and in the same time follow their conscience. There are family secrets, still hidden and never spoken about.

Plot and Writing

The story is told in two different timelines; both are chronological. They are interwoven and told alternately. There is the first story, told by Kate in the first person and set in modern France 2015. The second story is the diary of Hélène, written between 1939 and 1944. The headlines show the dates, so it is easy to follow the story.

Ann Mah has found the perfect balance between the French scenery of modern, but still traditional winemaking, framing a story about friendship and love, and the gripping story of the French Résistance, courageous people risking their lifes.

The author gives us wonderful descriptions about wine and Burgundy and shows a deep understanding of feelings and human character.

Conclusion

This admirably written novel about the violence of war and memoirs between generations of family members is both, a story of love and friendship in the beautiful scenery of a Burgundian vineyard and a gripping, breathtaking story about life in occupied France. A perfect page-turner to lose yourself.

Novel, Reviews ,

Our Souls At Night – Kent Haruf

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AuthorKent Haruf
PublisherPicador
Date5 May 2016
EditionPaperback
Pages192
LanguageEnglish
ISBN-13978-1447299370

„And then there was the day when Addie Moore made a call on Louis Waters. (quotation page 3)

Content

Addie Moore and Louis Waters are both widowed. The houses they live in are just one house apart,  in Cedar Street, in the small rural town Holt. One day in May Addie asks Louis that they could maybe spend some of the hours during the long, lonely nights together.

Theme and Genre

This poetic, beautiful novel is about ageing, loneliness and friendship. It is also about the problems between parents and their adult children, about life and love. Another important topic are the small-mindedness of small towns and conventions.

Characters

Kent Haruf definitely loves the characters he creates in his stories. Addie and Louis are both caring about each other and their families. Loveable, not perfect, just two normal persons who try to do things their way, and to not care about what people might think about them.

Plot and Writing

A story that will make you laugh and maybe also cry and leave you thoughtful. The positiveness between the lines will remain with you after the end of this book. The novel is writen in the known poetic, brilliant, quiet and specific style of the author.

Conclusion

A beautiful, deeply human story about understanding, friendship and love, about growing old but trying to make the best of it.

Novel, Reviews ,

Unsent – Penelope Shuttle

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AuthorPenelope Shuttle
PublisherBLOODAXE BOOKS
Date1 October 2012
EditionPaperback
Pages270
LanguageEnglish
ISBN-13978-1852249502

„What is it with poets and their hearts? They leave them in the oddest places.” (Quotation from “Hearts”, page 241)

Content

This is a new collection of poems from nine of her published books, published between 1981 and 2010 and a new collection, “Unsent” from 2012.

Themes and Language

Thema und Genre TextThe poet has written poems about everything, everyday situations and feelings; nothing seems too simple, flowers, rain and roses, art, nature, Cornwall’s impressive landscape, dreams and magic, children, especially about herself as a mother and her daughter Zoe. We find poems about love and poems written about her love for her husband Peter Redgrove who had died in 2003 and how she still is missing him.

Penelope Shuttle has words for everything and embraced by her feelings between the words, her language paints beautiful pictures full of wisdom, wit, happiness and sadness.

The first poem by Penelope Shuttle, I had read, was “Outgrown” written for her daughter Zoe and it is still one of my favorite ones

“….. because just as I work out how to be a mother

       she stops being a child.” (Page 107)

Just a few words to describe everything about motherhood.

Conclusion

Unsent is a collection of poems, not of classical rhymes, but of a beautiful poetic language, with its own intonation and rhythm, sensitive, stunning and deeply impressing. They are experiences of life, to share with our own experiences.

Poetry, Reviews , ,
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