The Book Post – November

Alrighty, here we go, the second last bookish post for the year…

Fiction Reads

Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy

Anna Karenina seems to have everything – beauty, wealth, popularity and an adored son. But she feels that her life is empty until the moment she encounters the impetuous officer Count Vronsky. Their subsequent affair scandalizes society and family alike, and soon brings jealousy and bitterness in its wake.

When this was suggested as our book club read, I was excited but also a tad wary – this book is almost 1000 pages long, and I’m not that great with commitment. Because we had a few months to read it, I decided to attack the book as if it was an episode of a TV show that only aired once a week and couldn’t be binged, and that really helped with the overwhelm.

This turns up on those lists of books you must read before you die for a very good reason. If you can get past the length, it’s brilliant. It’s also sweeping and soaring and all those other superlatives one uses for novels such as this. We all loved how it gave us a glimpse into the cultural world of Tsarist Russia (and an indication of the revolution that was to come). Mostly though, we all found it still to be relevant today.

As an aside, there’s an Australian mini-series, The Beautiful Lie, which is a modern retelling of the story and is brilliant. If you’re in Australia, it’s streaming for free on TenPlay.

Next, we’re tackling Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World.

A Taste of Home, by Heidi Swain

Fliss Brown has grown up living with her mother on the Rossi family’s Italian fruit farm. But when her mother dies, Fliss finds out she has a family of her own, and heads back to England with Nonna Rossi’s recipe for cherry and almond tart and a piece of advice: connect with your family before it is too late…

Fliss discovers that her estranged grandfather owns a fruit farm himself, on the outskirts of Wynbridge, and she arrives to find a farm that has fallen into disrepair. Using her knowledge gleaned from working on the Rossi farm and her desire to find out more about her past, Fliss rolls her sleeves up and gets stuck in. But what will she discover, and can she resurrect the farm’s glory days and find a taste of home…?

Heidi Swain publishes twice a year – a summer, sunshiney story, and a Christmas novel. It’s a predictable schedule, something I’ve come to rely on. Her books are warm but not emotionally over the top (although there are times I think my editor would probably leave a comment in the margin something like “How does she feel? This is a big moment for her”). They’re predictably but comfortingly nice – and this was no exception. It was also the perfect read after finishing Anna Karenina.

The Cryptic Clue, by Amanda Hampson

Welcome back to Zig Zag Lane in the heart of Sydney’s rag-trade district, where our intrepid tea ladies, Hazel, Betty and Irene, have their work cut out. Solving a murder, kidnapping and arson case, and outwitting an arch criminal, earned them the respect of a local police officer. Now he needs their assistance to help solve a plot that threatens national security.

As if that’s not enough, Irene gets a coded message directing her to the spoils of a bank robbery, which sends the tea ladies on a treasure hunt with an unexpected outcome.

There’s also trouble brewing within the walls of Empire Fashionwear, where an interloper threatens not just Hazel’s job but the very role of tea lady. It’s up to Hazel to convince her friends to abandon their trolleys and take action to save their livelihoods – before it’s too late.

I’m loving Hampson’s Tea Ladies Mystery series. While the first book introduced us to the tea ladies, the mystery is really amped up in this one. I also love the bits of comedy provided by Irene. The star of the show is 1960s Sydney.

All I Want For Christmas, by Karen Swan

When Darcy Cotterell discovers her boyfriend is cheating, she falls out of love with love. With Christmas coming she’s also too busy pursuing her PhD studies in Copenhagen to be distracted by a broken heart, despite her friends’ efforts to set her up with the ‘perfect’ blind date in the city.

Then an unknown portrait by Denmark’s greatest painter is discovered beneath another masterpiece and Darcy is charged with discovering the identity of the woman in the painting. With no name or any supporting evidence to work with, she must utilise all her research skills to find a ghost. Working closely with the most powerful figures in the art scene, she encounters Max Lorensen – her blind date The attraction is instant but knowing they must work together, they agree to keep things between them professional. But the chemistry between them is hard to ignore until one of Darcy’s discoveries threatens to set her and Max on opposite sides for ever.

You know Christmas is coming when a new Karen Swan hits the shelves, and this year’s offering, set in Copenhagen, has all the feels. As always, it’s a great story, and the chemistry between Darcy and Max is scorching.

The Festival of Christmas reads is off to a good start.

Light Up My Heart – A Point Perry Christmas, by Joanne Speirs

Scarlett Reynold’s life in the city may be in tatters, but that doesn’t mean anyone needs to know. Especially when Christmas is her favourite time of year and it’s her first visit home to the small town of Point Perry in forever.

Ryan Black would recognise Scarlett anywhere, although apparently, she doesn’t remember him or their teenage summer romance. He’s fine with that because he hates Christmas and anyone who loves it so much isn’t meant for him.

But then Scarlett and Ryan are thrown together amidst preparations for the town’s annual Christmas festivities. The longer Scarlett is in town, the more reasons she’s finding to stay, and the harder it is for Ryan to deny their growing attraction.

When admitting your feelings means facing past pains, sometimes even love can’t overcome doubt and fear. But never underestimate the power of a little Christmas magic.

The annual Festival of Festive Reading continues with this gem of a novella by Joanne Speirs. I loved her debut – Second Chance Love in Point Perry – so I was very happy when this arrived in the mail… although I deliberately delayed opening it until the Festive Reading Festival had commenced.

With all the feels (and a master class in show, don’t tell – at this point, I should add the disclaimer that Jo is my copy editor…), do yourself a favour and add this quick read to help get you in the festive mood.

Home For Christmas, by Heidi Swain

Bella is living her best life in Wynbridge, with her beloved Spaniel, Tink. She’s found a way to keep the house she inherited from her grandparents while expanding her dream business – Away With the Fairies – and she’s ecstatic that Christmas is on the horizon!
 
In fact, everything is perfect until family friend, Catherine Connelly asks Bella if she’d be willing to rent part of the house to freelance author, Jude who is researching the history of the Connelly Clan and Wynthorpe Hall ahead of turning his findings into a book. The plan had been for Jude to stay at the hall, but he can’t cope with the chaos and Bella reluctantly agrees to open her door to him.
 
Initially, the pair clash but then friendlier feelings begin to grow and Bella finds herself wondering if Jude could become more than just another guest before it’s time for him to leave. That is, until he announces he has no time for Christmas!
 
With her favourite time of the year suddenly in jeopardy, will Bella ever feel like she’s home for Christmas?

Returning to Wynbridge with a seasonal Heidi Swain is always a treat. While an enjoyable read, this wasn’t my favourite Wynbridge novel – Jude was just too much of a … well, I’m sure you can fill in the blanks … for me to think Bella could possibly fall for him. I guess, though, that’s what makes a good enemies-to-lovers story.

Non-Fiction Reads

The Sober Diaries, by Clare Pooley

Clare Pooley is a Cambridge graduate and was a Managing Partner at one of the world’s biggest advertising agencies, and yet by eighteen months ago she’d become an overweight, depressed, middle-aged mother of three who was drinking more than a bottle of wine a day, and spending her evenings Googling ‘Am I an alcoholic?’

In a desperate bid to turn her life around, she quit drinking and started a blog. She called it Mummy Was a Secret Drinker.This book is the story of a year in Clare’s life. A year that started with her quitting booze having been drinking more than a bottle of wine every day. It sees her starting a hugely successful blog, then getting and beating breast cancer. By the end of the year she is booze free and cancer free, two stone lighter and with a life that is so much richer, healthier and more rewarding than ever before. Sober Diaries is an upbeat, funny and positive look at how to live life to the full.

I’ve read – and enjoyed – Clare Pooley’s novels, so I thought I’d go back to where it all began… especially as I was ready to cut down dramatically the amount of alcohol I had been drinking. While it skims a tad over those difficult early days, this is a great read. And when she was diagnosed with breast cancer (no spoilers – it is, after all, in the blurb), well, those chapters are so full of … everything.

The Way, My Way, by Bill Bennett

Written in a humorous self-deprecating style reminiscent of Bill Bryson, it tells the story of a stubborn self-obsessed and pedantic man who undergoes a fundamental shift in character whilst walking the famous 800km pilgrimage route across Spain. At times laugh-out-loud funny, at other times so deeply personal and emotional you´ll have a tear in your eye, The Way, My Way is a must read for anyone thinking of walking the Camino.

Am I thinking of walking the Camino? No. For a start, Grant isn’t interested, and secondly, I couldn’t do the dorm alberque thing. #toomuchofaprincess and #toobadasleeper If I was thinking about it, though, I’d read this book first. I’ve read a few Camino memoirs (ok, ok, you got me – I might have flirted with the idea…) and this one by far is the best.

I also watched the movie – and while it was dramatised, I really enjoyed it too.

My read of the month…

A Thousand Feasts, by Nigel Slater

For years, Nigel Slater has kept notebooks of curiosities and wonderings, penned while at his kitchen table, soaked in a fisherman’s hut in Reykjavik, sitting calmly in a moss garden in Japan or sheltering from a blizzard in a Vienna Konditorei.

These are the small moments, events and happenings that gave pleasure before they disappeared. Miso soup for breakfast, packing a suitcase for a trip and watching a butterfly settle on a carpet, hiding in plain sight. He gives short stories of feasts such as a mango eaten in monsoon rain or a dish of restorative macaroni cheese and homes in on the scent of freshly picked sweet peas and the sound of water breathing at night in Japan.

This funny and sharply observed collection of the good bits of life, often things that pass many of us by, is utter joy from beginning to end.

This is one of those books that’s a delight to step in and out of. I’m reading it on my iPad, but I’m also listening to it and I could listen to Nigel Slater read a shopping list. As for the notes on a peach. Oh my… it’s so seductive I think I need a cigarette.

Festive Reads

While I’ve already begun my Festival of Festive Reads, in December, as per normal, that’s all I’ll be reading.

Last year’s festive reads were:

and you’ll find 2022’s batch here, and still more here.

Your turn…

Deb, Donna, Sue, and I would love you to share what you’ve been reading…the linky is below.

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