This was my stash of second hand books from my trip to the UK. It might not look like much, but we took the "cabin bags only" option on Ryanair, so we had to be extremely careful on weight (and I also had a years´worth of my favourite UK magazine, Country Living). Nice to have some real books to hold.
Not a whole bunch of reading this month - my life has been consumed by filling out forms, especially for school and kindergarten. Here´s what I read for brief moments of relief.
Alan Bennett - The Uncommon Reader
I was really pleased to pick this up as a hardback at the Three Parishes Fete in Dorset. I have seen Talking Heads and The Lady in the Van, but never actually read any Bennett. One day, the Queen almost literally stumbles into reading for pleasure. She soon gets hooked, and chaos follows in the palace. This novella was a delight - witty (especially if you are British or up on modern British history) but respectful and admiring of Her Majesty. I finished it in a day because my husband went out for drinks with friends that evening (yes, I did encourage him to go).
Jenny Colgan - The Little Beach Street Bakery
Last month, someone was kind enough to compliment me on my reading tastes. I had to confess that, with a degree in literature, I feel compelled to be bit of a reading snob. A new exception is Jenny Colgan, a purely-for-fun author. Reading a Jenny Colgan novel is like when my husband brings home those bags of paprika peanuts from Hofer (the name for Aldi here): I open the bag and can´t stop eating them. I would have read this (e) book in the shower if I could. Polly escapes a failed business and relationship by taking cheap lodgings on Mount Polbearne, Cornwall, a tidal island. Her love of baking saves her and opens up possibilities for a new life. Oh, and this is chick lit, so of course there are several possible love interests. Pretty much the same formula as The Cafe By the Sea, right down to the billionaire American character, but hey, it works.
Muriel Spark - The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
A slight theme going here, in that the Maggie Smith film version has been a favourite of mine for decades, but I have never read the actual book. Miss Brodie is an unconventional teacher at a very conventional girls school in Edinburgh. Deciding that she has entered her prime, she selects a group of pupils whom she will cultivate to be "la crème de la crème", and proceeds to mould them to her vision: "Give me a girl at an impressionable age and she is mine for life". If you have seen a screen version, it is not really a spoiler, because the novel jumps between past, present and future; you begin to discover the fates of Miss Brodie´s pupils early on, and then must watch helplessly as she shapes their destinies. A short novel, where every sentence seems crafted, a complete pleasure to read. Now I can say I love both the film and the book.
Jill Murphy - Five Minutes Peace
It was good hunting in the UK this summer: this series favourite (for me and my three year-old - and his Nana, too) was a 50p charity shop find. What parent could not empathise with a book that begins, "The children were having breakfast. This was not a pretty sight"? And so Mrs Large tries to sneak off to the bathroom for an elusive five minutes of peace, with predictable results. The Large family stories hit that perfect note of appealing to parent and child alike.
Linking up with Modern Mrs Darcy and wishing you la crème de la crème of a reading month!
I LOVED The Uncommon Reader. Thanks for the other recommendations!
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