QuickLit September 2021

 Linking up with Modern Mrs Darcy as usual. I skipped last month, as I spent August visiting and being visited by family, including a fun trip to Vienna! So here are some highlights of the past couple of months' reading (which looks better than it was, as I admit to zoning out with some 'brain-candy' novels, too).

At the Belvedere museum complex, Vienna

In order to snap myself out of the emotional funk caused by reading The Remains of the Day and Villette in succession, I went out of my comfort zone with the first two below, with mixed results.

Talia Hibbert - Get a Life, Chloe Brown

After a brush with death, Chloe Brown makes an effort to shake up a life defined by managing chronic pain, and creates a "Get a life" list. Her first achievment is to move into her own flat, where she meets superintendent Redford. He seems her polar opposite, but he may be just the man to help her get through that list. MMD described this as steamy. Honestly, I'd say there is another phrase for this: "Mummy porn" (that's a description, not a judgement on anyone's reading choices). It has an engaging premise and a sweet couple, sandwiched together with erotica. You are now forewarned...

Tobly McSmith - Stay Gold [audiobook]

In this YA debut, trans teen Pony goes "stealth" (presenting himself as a boy, not trans) in his new high school, and immediately falls for cheerleader Georgia, who is cultivating her popular girl image at the expense of what she really wants from life. Georgia seems to reciprocate his feelings, but what will happen when she finds out the truth? I enjoyed the romance element of this novel, between one person hiding what she is, and another hiding what he is not. I did not agree with the presentation of some of the issues - there is a lot of stereotyping - but it is written for teens, after all, who have a much more black-and-white outlook on life. Despite that, I got very invested in the story, and was in tears at the climax (there are some very dark moments in this book). I think the audio version, with different narrators for the two characters, really brought it to life. (P.S., if you have not guessed from the theme, I'd definitely say it is on the "A" side of YA.)

Ruth Hogan - Queenie Malone's Paradise Hotel

Another Hogan novel with quirky characters and a positive outlook on difficult aspects of life. Tilda leads a solitary existence, isolated by her ability to interact with the dead, and a childhood tauma she does not understand. When she returns to Brighton to sort out her late mother's flat, she discovers a circle of (live and dead) people who help her to uncover family secrets and venture into the world of the living once more. I really enjoyed this, as with Hogan's other novels.

Julie Berry - Lovely War

I gave each of my daughters a copy of this as an Epiphany present a couple of years ago, but neither read it (guess I need better recommendations for YA), so I eventually took it back from one of them - and I, at least, enjoyed it. It's based on one of the Aphrodite and Hephaestus myths: when Hephaestus captures his wife and Ares in flagrante, Aphrodite defends herself (but not to the end you think) by proving that love is the greatest power of all, with the story of two World War I couples, a British pair who met only a week before deployment, and a Harlem musician and Belgian refugee who find that music transcends all boundaries. While for me, it had the same lack of nuance as the YA novel above (all the 'good' white characters are somehow completely non-racist - in 1916?), the romances were compelling, and the writing often deeply affective. But it made me realise that I need to re-read mythology, as I've forgotten many of the stories I used to know by heart.

Maggi Andersen - Introducing Miss Joanna

Another Regency novella from my critique group partner (aside: how do some people write several books a year?). Newly minted heiress Joanna comes to London for the season, and meets the handsome Baron Reade, who is vehemently opposed to getting married. But he is also investigating a white slave trade ring on behalf of the Crown, and Joanna is pulled dangerously close to the investigation. Maggi dishes up her usual irresistible mix of attraction, love and danger in this new Once a Wallflower series.

I hope you had some good summer reading. I look forward to gathering some recommendations for the autumn from your linkups!

QuickLit March 2021

 Linking up with Modern Mrs Darcy as usual. Strange to recall that about a year ago, I was feverishly reading Anne's new book, Don't Overthink It. My son and I were set to fly to the UK to visit family in two days' time, and there now seemed every possibility that once there, we might be stuck. The advice in the book helped me think through plans that gave me the confidence to go ahead and enjoy my visit without being overwhelmed by anxiety. 

It may seem small in the scheme of things, but many readers will be looking back over a year of rather different reading lists or reading habits. Dark or emotionally harrowing books have been (mostly) off my list. On the other hand, finally purchasing a new e-reader after a few years of reading on a large phone screen (for frugality and practicality) refreshed my reading experience. I'm just sorry that I didn't fork out the extra money for a waterproof one now that we have a bathtub.

Oh yes, actual books: I tackled a couple of books for research this month, so my leisure reading list is smaller. Here goes...

Daphne Du Maurier - Myself When Young

Breezier in tone than I expected, but it soon drew me in. Du Maurier draws on the journals she kept from an early age to trace her life and development as a writer up to the point of her marriage. It's frank, and, be warned, includes an exploration of the emotional incest that infuses her later novel, The Parasites. MMD readers will be delighted to know she also shares the reading lists she kept from those years!

Alan Bradley - The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

I'd read one of these Flavia de Luce mystery novels out of turn and, though I didn't really take to it, decided I would give another one a go. This is the first in the series, set around 1950 in Britain: eleven year-old Flavia finds a dying man in the grounds of her family's mansion - a man whom she had heard arguing with her father the night before. Blackmail, poison and a decades-old crime: just the excitement to feed the brain of a precocious, chemistry-obsessed girl. On paper, Flavia is a character I ought to relate to: intelligent, socially awkward, probably on the Asperger's spectrum,  but I just can't empathise with her. I think one of the problems is that, in both books I have read, the American author uses a British phrase or allusion in a way I would not, which throws the world of the novel off-kilter for me. Sorry, Flavia fans, but please, convince me to read on if you can :)

Corfe Castle, 1950s. Credit: https://www.dorsetecho.co.uk/news/features/lookingback/18850300.pictures-dorset-1940s-1950s/

Eric Benfield - Dorset

I'm ending with this, not particularly as a review, but as a little paean to vintage guide books. In researching Dorset in the first half of the twentieth century, my eyes have been opened to the charms of second hand books I would normally have passed over as pointless: old regional and travel books. I thought I'd be ploughing through outdated material, but ended up hooked - it's like time travelling from the comfort of your armchair. If you really want to get to the heart of a place, I recommend ditching the modern history and scouring the local second hand book shop for outdated guide books, written by a native son or daughter of the area. It's the first section I'll be heading for on my next trip.

Wishing you compassion and hope this anniversary, and books that will carry you through.

Book Review: Rethinking Women's Health: A Guide for Wellness

When I first moved to Starkville, MS, there wasn't much here. A handful of restaurants, three grocery stores, none large. Certainly no health foods - I had to join a cooperative that bought from a business in the Ozarks. Slowly, resources for health and wellness are growing: a large health food and bulk section in Kroger, a summer farmer's market, a CSA buying club - and Alison Buehler.

Alison lives a couple of miles down the road from me, in the Homestead Education Center, where she and her family have founded a way of life they share with others. As well as offering classes in health and homesteading, she's worked hard to attract nationally-known figures such as Sandor Katz and Glennon Melton (of Momastery fame) to Starkvegas (local joke).  I don't get out to her programs as often as I would like, so, when I saw in her newsletter that she was offering a year's membership for those who pre-ordered her book, I thought I had nothing to lose and might just give myself the nudge I needed to take advantage of what's on offer almost on my doorstep. So any bribery involved in this review is by me to myself ;)

The book is divided into three main sections: maiden, mother, and wise elder. Each is part manifesto, part resource, and part memoir of Alison and her family's journey into health. Alison begins by setting out her passionate vision for how we as a society might better manage each stage of life. She then moves into a survey of current options for health issues related to these stages, with an extensive bibliography for further reading. Alison is trained as a qualitative researcher (among many talents!), and applies it to women's health, looking for places where data, stories, and observations point to the same solutions. Not only has she trawled the latest information to bring solutions to women's health problems, but she models a research process that everyone can use in their own health plan. All this aside, I find Alison's voice at her best when she is sharing her personal story, illustrating her belief that stories themselves have the power to heal.

Published by Mississippi press, Sartoris, the book has a regional feel, speaking to a state that badly needs to focus on health issues. [Side bar: as I found out when I was pregnant, there isn't a single birthing center in Mississippi.] Yet the message is national. If you're looking for resources, inspiration, or affirmation that you are not alone in your struggle to achieve wellness, Rethinking Women's Health is for you.

Looking for more? Connect with Alison on her site The Healing Wall or the Homestead Education Center.

Review round-up

I'm putting my affairs in order/salving my conscience by catching up with with shout-outs and reviews I've been promising for months. Yes, I have critiqued, beta-read or edited these, or have other connections with the authors, but I'm also standing by their talented writing. I'd like to say I'm amazed by the rubbish put out by the big publishing houses versus the quality I so often see from smaller publishers or in self-published work - but no more, alas. So, in historical order, here are:

V.L. Smith - The White Spider of Savignac

The official blurb: When Sir John FitzAlan, lord of an elite mercenary company, is rewarded with the Aquitainian barony of Savignac by Richard Lionheart, his future seems straightforward enough: restore a neglected estate to readiness for war and make the best he can of an arranged marriage to its baroness, Mellisande, a woman he has never met. 
Twice-widowed Mellisande, however, is in no mood for a third marriage. Far from the demure chatelaine John expects, she is an expert vintner and herbalist – skills her people, and the local bishop, suspect she used to murder her two previous husbands.
As John’s disciplined soldiers clash with the unruly local people, and relations with his wife grow colder, John begins to wonder if the tales told of her are true. Will he be Mellisande’s next victim?
My two penny's worth: For those of us who are no longer twenty, Ms. Smith creates a mature hero and heroine you can connect with from the first pages of the novel. The setting is richly and believably detailed and the secondary characters fully fleshed and engaging. Having read other works-in-progress of Vicki's, I can attest to her particular talent in creating sexy vikings :) I especially appreciated the pace of the story - she avoids the current pressure for break-neck speed and develops a plot you can actually savor. I managed to read and enjoy it while still in the throes of morning sickness - what higher accolade could there be?

Diane Scott Parkinson - Ring of Stone

The official blurb: Rose Gwynn is determined to study as a physician in 1796 in England, a time when women were barred from medical school. When she prevails in assisting the local doctor, Rose uncovers a shocking secret that will threaten Dr. Nelson’s livelihood. Servant Catern Tresidder returns to the Cornish village to confront the man who raped her and committed murder. After Rose’s sister is betrothed to this brutal earl, Catern struggles with her demons to warn Rose of the truth. Rose’s attraction to a man far beneath her further complicates her situation. Three people fight society’s dictates to either face ruin or forge a happy ending. Through it all, the ancient stone circle near Rose’s house holds the key to her family’s past, and is positioned through the myths of Cornwall to save her sister’s life.

My two penny's worth: Ring of Stone is a romance by the strict literary definition: a story of love and adventure in a setting where the natural and supernatural coexist - here, the juxtaposition of emerging modern medical practice and the lingering magic of ancient Cornwall. Diane's prose is several cuts above the average romance novel, and the subplots make for a satisfyingly complex read. If you like Ring of Stone, check out Diane's latest Cornish novel, The Apothecary's Widow. Like White Spider, it features a mature hero and heroine the rest of us can relate to.

Amy Dupire - god-thing and other weird and worrisome tales

The official blurb: A Northern transplant teenager chafes under the culture of her Southern U.S. high school and creates her own deity. A reanimated corpse joins a zombie crawl, and stuffed animals spill the beans on their darkest secrets. These award-winning, YA short stories offer curious insights into human nature with humor as well as an unsettling view toward its darker truths. In this collection of tales, you’ll find fortune-telling pancakes, second-tier superheroes, and the occasional possum. 
And it may make you think twice before opening the kitchen cabinets.

My two penny's worth: I've read a lot of Amy's work, published and unpublished, and I love her oddball, dark, humorous take on life. As the blurb says, several of these stories have, deservedly, won or placed in writing competitions. It's hard for me to pick a favourite, but "Key Lime Pie at the Nightmare Diner" and "The Pancake Reader" would definitely be contenders. For young adults or preteens, depending on your child's maturity level/ threshold for the slightly scary.

7QT 6: Lessons from 1962

I was at an estate sale the other weekend and I picked up a copy of Seventeen magazine from 1962, thinking it would be a fun Easter gift for my elder daughter.  Here are seven things I learned, but first, a quiz: do you recognize this guy?

1. The right amount of raccoon or nutria fur makes an outfit. Or you can go all-out for Australian opossum and South American cat.

2. Thought abbreviations were a curse of the internet age?  TWYI - talk your way in - was the code for getting into college classes without having to test in. Does not knowing that make me a twink (out of date) or a boink (stupid person)?

3. Your bowling game not up to scratch?  Perhaps it's your underwear. Try perma-lift panties.

4. On that subject, girls should be spending the summer before college sewing name tags into their underwear. I hope it's because someone else was doing their laundry and not because they were losing their underclothes around campus.

5. Talking of campus, Princeton University reported $200,000 worth of petty theft from their college store over the past two years. It was a cooperative, so those top-notch Ivy League students were stealing from themselves.

6. The victim mentality wasn't heard of. Having trouble with your stepmother?-What have you done to make her feel welcome? Your boyfriend looks to others for advice?-Maybe you're too focused on yourself.

7. Finally, my husband looked at the cover girl and began humming a rift on a Beatles' song: She was just seventy, you know what I mean...

Answer: Bob Dylan. Really.

For more Seven Quick Takes, link up with Kelly at This Ain't the Lyceum.

Young Adult Round Up

I'm turning the blog over to my teenage daughter for her round-up of recommended YA historicals.  She's a very eclectic reader, so I hope you'll enjoy her choices!

Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos, by R. L. LaFevers: Theodosia Throckmorton is a young girl whose parents run a small London museum displaying ancient Egyptian artifacts. She has been hiding a huge secret from her family for many years: she has the special ability to detect and obliterate curses on the artifacts her mother and father unwittingly unleash upon their museum. However, when her mother brings home the famed amulet known as the heart of Egypt, a curse much more deadly threatens to overtake perhaps even the entire British Empire. Will Theo be able to counteract the curse and keep the amulet out of the hands of those who would use it for evil?

Bloody Jack, by L. A. Meyer: Mary “Jacky” Faber is an orphan living on the streets of London. When her gang’s leader is murdered by body sellers, she decides to fulfill her dream of going to sea by disguising herself as a cabin boy. On the H. M. S. Dolphin, Jacky is busy making friends and enemies and using her considerable wiles to get ahead with her captain and fellow sailors, forever guarding the secret that could get her killed.

A Spy in the House, by Y. S. Lee: An orphaned, penniless young girl called Mary Quinn is rescued from the death penalty in 1850s London and taken to live at Miss Scrimshaw’s Academy for Girls. After receiving a rigorous education, at seventeen years old she is enlightened to the fact that the academy is merely a cover-up for a female spy network called The Agency and offered a position in the organization. Her first mission is to act as a lady’s companion for the daughter of a merchant suspected of foul play, gathering information while an unknown counterpart does the nitty-gritty investigation. However, Mary’s insatiable hunger for knowledge leads her to stumble upon a conspiracy more serious than her superiors had imagined. Will she be able to bring the criminals to justice without paying the ultimate price?

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, by Ransom Riggs: Jacob never really believed the stories his grandfather told him when he was younger: stories of an old house on an island where gifted children lived, of a wise old bird who smoked a pipe, and of monsters lurking in the darkness. But now his grandfather is dead, killed by the very monsters he sought to eradicate; and Jacob must find the house of peculiar children to set things straight, once and for all.

Accompanied by a charming collection of authentic old photographs, this masterfully-told tale will astound and delight.