QuickLit June 2020

Linking up with Modern Mrs Darcy as usual for QuickLit. I have something to celebrate as we finish coming out of lockdown - I finally published my novel, A Dorset Summer (a promise seven years in the making, which is a whole other blog post). Here is a link to the post all about it, and the  Amazon link, if anyone is interested. Meanwhile, here's what kept me going in May:

The Venerable Bede. Source: https://drdudsdicta.com/2015/08/29/the-venerable-bede-on-immigration/

Donna Fletcher Crow - An Unholy Communion, A Newly Crimsoned Reliquary, and An All-Consuming Flame (The Monastery Murders, books 3-5)
I was definitely losing it by the end of lockdown - making cinnamon rolls at 10pm, and randomly choosing to read an entire series of cosy mysteries set in the heart of the Anglican church. As I mentioned last month, I enjoyed the first but the second was a let-down. The third picked up for me. In An Unholy Communion, ordinand Felicity and history lecturer Father Anthony, now engaged, take a young group of pilgrims through ancient Wales after the mysterious falling death of a past student of Anthony's. But the evil that seems to dog their footsteps is not wholly of this world. Oxford is the setting of A Newly Crimsoned Reliquary. Felicity is translating a manuscript for an order of nuns - but their Mother Superior has gone missing, and a grisly new "relic" turns up in a reliquary. The last installment, An All-Consuming Fire, meandered a bit, like the second: in the run-up to Anthony and Felicity's wedding, Anthony is roped in to help with a documentary on the English mystics, but the misfortunes dogging the set start to get closer to home...
What can I say - they have their ups and downs (Felicity must have some serious brain damage given all the times she's been knocked on the head, and Ms. Crow seems to paint anyone who isn't white middle class with broad brush strokes), but the historical parts of the mysteries are informing and entertaining, and it has spurred me to start re-reading the classics of my faith. Brain candy for church history geeks.


Jenny Colgan - The Loveliest Chocolate Shop in Paris
Usually I stick to Jenny Colgan books that involve remote British locations plus baking or books. Also (quelle horreur!) I am not in love with Paris (Florence, now...). Anyhow, this is two parallel stories: while in hospital, Anna is roomed with her old French teacher, who helps her brush up her language skills and gets her a summer job with a chocolatier, who happens to be the teacher's first love. Anna's story is interspersed with that romance, set in the 70s. It's the classic Colgan formula, breezy, heartwarming, and not explicit. I wept a little, too.

Lorna Cook - The Forgotten Village
I had to read this dual timeline novel because it incorporates a fictionalised account of Tyneham, the Dorset village requisitioned by the army in the Second World War, a place I've visited several times. Just as Melissa's relationship falls apart on a holiday in Dorset, she meets TV historian Guy on a visit to the village. Struck by an anomaly in the photo of Lady Veronica and Sir Albert, they begin a spontaneous investigation of what actually happened in Tyneham in the last few, fateful days before the entire population was relocated, and, of course, find themselves falling for each other. Once I got over my initial disconnect between the facts I know and the fictional story Ms. Cook creates, I enjoyed this. I also recommend visiting the village if you are down that way and it is open (the army still uses the land for target practice so it's sometimes closed).

Bede - History of the English Church and People [also known as: Ecclesiastical History of the English People]
I got right to my promise and pulled this off my bookshelf. British readers may well recall the Venerable Bede from history lessons. This 8th century monk is known as a father of British history - he gathers sources from his network across Europe to present the church history of the English. I have to admit my eyes glazed over at the difficult names, except for Bishop Sexwulf - I bet he had a good congregation, but I'm glad I tackled it. I was also amused by Bede's shameless plug for another of his books right at the end; some things never change in publishing, it seems.

Source: http://www.colleenldonnelly.com/

Colleen Donnelly - Letters and Lies
From a member of my critique group. Don't Come. I can't marry you. This is the telegram Lizzie's fiance-by-correspondence sends just as she is due to head out West for their marriage. But Lizzie, desperate to be married and to save her family business, boards the train under the guise of a widow intending to change his mind. But one lie leads to another, and she soon finds herself embroiled in trouble she hadn't anticipated. And she's not the only one concealing the truth. I wouldn't usually pick up a novel set in the Wild West, but I enjoyed this. It's an easy read, and, though romance is at its heart, it's more about sisterhood.

Let me know if you have any recommendations for Anglican mysteries - or just good Anglican books!

Available at Amazon

A Dorset Summer is here!

Well, maybe not quite in the actual county right now, but my novel is finally published on Amazon! A promise to myself it took seven years to keep (no, that's not the novel blurb, but real life). But talking of blurbs, here is the back cover blurb:

A holiday in Dorset with her wealthy, newly-divorced cousin seems the perfect escape from Phoebe's mundane life as a governess – until a man walks from the sea at Studland and into her life. Phoebe is drawn inexorably into a relationship with Alex Milne, a reclusive, tormented WWI veteran, even as she is courted by handsome, gentle landowner James Stephenson. The three form an uneasy triangle of lovers and allies fighting to save the Dorset countryside and its way of life – but the ancient land exerts its own forces on their lives. Trapped between her passion and her integrity, her head and her heart, Phoebe must make choices that compel her to confront her past and threaten to destroy her future.

The alternative cover - I'm waiting for my daughter to edit it :)

And here is the trailer - it's amazing what you can do with no knowledge whatsoever:

Now available at Amazon:

Amazon.com

Amazon.co.uk

Amazon.de

QuickLit May 2020

Linking up with Modern Mrs Darcy for QuickLit. At the time this is published (May 15), we'll be almost completely out of lockdown in Slovenia, with kindergartens about to start back up. It's been pretty much a two-month non-event here, with little Covid-19 but a whole lot of restrictions, and the joy of managing a job and daycare at home. Thank goodness for lovely spring weather and a back garden (not everyone in European cities has one!). I needed escapism in my reads - only one 'serious' book this month, and that was a pretty easy read, too.

Saint Cuthbert on his peregrinations (see below)

Soniah Kamal - Unmarriageable
So I finally decided to give an Austen rewrite a chance. This retelling of Pride and Prejudice is set in modern Pakistan. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. There are a few places where the parallels to the original feel forced, but on the whole it's a fun read, and I was sad to say goodbye to the lively Binat family.

Madeline Miller - The Song of Achilles
I was pleased to pick up this TBR second hand - and sorry I'd waited so long to read it. It was right up my alley: classical, with spare but lyrical prose, and sensual (but not explicit). It retells the story of the greatest Greek warrior through the eyes of Patroclus, an unloved, exiled child prince who becomes first Achilles' companion and then lover. I kept coming back to read favourite parts after I was done. Miller's other novel, Circe, has now shot up my TBR rankings.

Donna Fletcher Crow - A Very Private Grave and A Darkly Hidden Truth (The Monastery Murders Books 1 and 2)
As an Anglican, I was interested in the setting of this series, the inner circles of the Church of England. It's an entertaining read - but I'd been hoping for something a little more literary. Our amateur sleuths are Felicity, a young American studying at a theological college in northern England, and her history lecturer, Father Anthony. This premise gives Crow the excuse to explain details to her readers - but results in too many what I call  "history dumps" in the books. I did love the mystery in the first one, though, solved by tracing the centuries-long journey of Saint Cuthbert's body, after his monks fled Viking hoards with his coffin in tow. The second, unfortunately, is much weaker, too meandering in the middle and almost a repeat of the first plot line, translated to a mystery surrounding a stolen icon. But the series is very cheap, so I decided to keep going: final reviews next month!

I hope things are looking better (or never got bad) wherever you are, and that reading is pulling you through!

Quick Lit April 2020

Linking up with Modern Mrs Darcy, because reading is the perfect escape. What an adventurous month March was - I made it to the UK by the skin of my teeth, only to have my return flight cancelled. I had to leap to it and grab another flight  - and I'm crediting Anne Bogel's new book (see below) with helping me not to overthink the situation! Here's the small book stash I managed to squeeze into my luggage - I had planned on loading up an extra suitcase with stuff, but I had to switch to a budget airline. I'm not sure if that Dracula sequel is going to be too scary, but I'll give it a go and report back. I am so glad I also bought a pile of phonics material since we are now doing kindergarten at home, and I can work on teaching my son to read English before he goes to school and learns to read Slovenian.

Francesca Wade - Square Haunting: Five Women, Freedom, and London Between the Wars
I finished this at the end of the month, but it's up here as my top book - it might even be my book of the year. I rarely buy new releases, but as soon as I heard about this, I knew it was for me. In five linked biographies, Wade explores the time spent in the same Bloomsbury square during the interwar years by five notable British women: novelists Virginia Woolf and Dorothy L. Sayers, academics Jane Harrison (with Hope Mirrlees) and Eileen Powers, and modernist poet H.D. I knew, directly or tangentially, of all these women, so it was a total treat. These are the women who paved the way for us, who dared to live, work and love outside the bounds of society's dictates, not afraid to re-imagine their lives, even, as with Harrison, when in their 70s. But it wasn't just about the history for me: as I read of Woolf's experiences as war came to London, as the city grew quiet, fear crept in, and she struggled with issues of nationalism and curtailed freedoms, I felt an affinity with her and my own feelings and reactions to the coronavirus. It's a fantastic debut, and a book I'll be pressing into the hands of my daughters.

John Cohen - Harry's Trees
Harry loses his wife in a freak accident. When he receives compensation, the shock propels him to flee to the country, where he meets a widow and her child, who is convinced her father is still magically present. This modern-day fairy tale has received an abundance of praise - so I'm a little abashed to admit that, while I absolutely loved the plot, I cannot say the same for the style. Perhaps it was because there were so many points of view, or because it was a modern, breezy book, and I don't often read contemporary novels. But I'd still heartily recommend it.

Anne Bogel - Don't Overthink It
My preorder arrived early - yay! - and I had time to devour this quickly before I set off for the UK at the beginning of March. And how timely it was, because, given the coronavirus situation and my prebooked flight, there were lots of decisions I had to not overthink. In fact, when all went pear-shaped, Anne's encouragement helped me to (coincidentally - or not?) quickly rebook for what turned out to be the final flight back to Slovenia before the airport here closed. Written in Anne's open, approachable style, it's wide ranging in its exploration of how overthinking can scupper our lives, and full of practical advice. I intend to come back to it at a more leisurely pace some time.

H.Y. Hanna - Two Down, Bun to Go
Sleuthing Oxfordshire tea room owner Gemma is woken in the night with a frantic call from an old friend, now a don at an Oxford College. He has discovered a body - and he's the prime murder suspect. The third in this cosy series, and a fun read.

Cal Newport - Digital Minimalism
Maybe it was not the best time to read this book when we're all stuck at home almost 24/7 and the digital world is rising to the occasion. Although it has some interesting research and positive suggestions, which I will probably consider when all this is over, by the mid-way mark I was losing interest - I felt it was really an article stretched out into a book.

I hope books are providing support, fun, and escapism for you right now. Stay safe and healthy, and keep reading!

Quick Lit March 2020

Linking up with Modern Mrs Darcy as usual for QuickLit. Quite a lot happened this month: carnival, school closures, spousal travel, coronavirus arriving next door in Italy, but I still squeezed in four books. And a craft! I decided months ago that what our alcove needed was a book wreath - and I finally forgot chores one weekend and pulled it together. The hardest part was tearing that first page out of the book (The Du Mauriers by Daphne Du Maurier, if you are wondering).

B.B. The Little Grey Men
I picked this up in a second-hand bookshop because I remembered enjoying works by B.B. as a child, though I couldn't remember anything specific about the stories. It been sitting on my shelf waiting for my son to be old enough to have it read to him... but then I was on sick leave and looking for something to read, and I thought, why am I holding off?
And I am so glad I opened it. I was entranced from the beginning. This is the story of the last gnomes in England, who decide to go on an expedition upriver to seek their brother who left the year before to look for its source and never returned. The story is riveting and the nature writing exquisite. If you loved The Wind in the Willows, or Tolkien's Middle Earth, you will probably love this too. B.B.(real name Denys Watkins-Pitchford) describes it as a book for all ages, and I agree. (One small warning if you have sensitive children - this is a story of the natural world, so death is part of life here, including a sadistic human who comes to a bad end.) If you didn't believe in gnomes before you read it (why?), you will by the end.
Now to start scouring bookshops for more B.B. ...


Rosemary Morris - Friday's Child
Rosemary Morris is a member of my online critique group, and I always think of her as an example of not giving up on your dreams - because that was what she was about to do when, at retirement age, her first romance was finally published. This is the penultimate in a series of loosely linked Regency romances - light reading, and all with firmly closed bedroom doors. It is Lady Elizabeth's coming out, but she has already fallen for Mr Yates. However, a chance accident links her to her eldest brother's older friend, who finds himself attracted to her - and both men have a connection with India that one of them at least is keen to hide... If you like this, you've got five more to binge, with the last one in progress!


Dorothy L. Sayers - The Nine Tailors
After crashing their car on a treacherous New Year's Eve in the Fens, Lord Peter Wimsey and Bunter are taken in by the local vicar, and Lord Peter helps the bellringers ring in the new year. But when a strange and mutilated body is later discovered buried in another's grave, the vicar calls him back to investigate. I'd call this a mystery for grown-ups - complex and satisfying, and kept me guessing as to the exact details of the crime. However, hearing the local cathedral bells has now taken on a whole new meaning...

Alan Bradley - I am Half-Sick of Shadows (Flavia de Luce mysteries Book 4)
A film crew arrives at the crumbling de Luce mansion just before Christmas, but soon the leading lady is dead and half the village is snowed in with the body. Many readers seem to love this series featuring a precocious 11 year-old chemist, but, although it was entertaining, it didn't really draw me in. Perhaps that was because I read it on the heels of Sayers's adult mystery, or that I started mid-series (I also didn't get into the Lord Peter mysteries until the second).  So, to be fair, I would give another one a go.

At the moment of publishing, I'm with family in the UK, wondering if my flight back to Slovenia tomorrow will be cancelled, and I'll be stuck here at the seaside surrounded by tearooms and second hand bookshops :)

Quick Lit Februrary 2020

Linking up as usual with Modern Mrs Darcy for QuickLit. Having told myself that this year I was going to wait for the right books and not fixate on numbers, I seem to have read quite a lot in January. This was helped by the doctor telling me to rest for a few days (I had three viruses in succession this winter - nothing life threatening, but a great excuse for a reading vacation!). We shall see how this progresses.

Source: Wikimedia commons

Barbara Pym - Some Tame Gazelle
A solid start to the year with a favourite author. The overarching theme of Pym's novels is women waking up to find that life has become rather ordinary - but her exploration of that theme is anything but ordinary, and full of wry humour. In this novel, Harriet and Belinda Bede are two spinster sisters in their fifties, living in a small parish. Belinda is sustained by her faithful love for the archdeacon who spurned her thirty years ago (and lives practically next door with his waspish wife), while the voluptuous Harriet lavishes her affections on each new curate who passes through the parish. Delicious (literally, since food as a social weapon is also a feature of this novel).

Muriel Barbary - The Elegance of the Hedgehog
My elder daughter has been raving about this for several years. It focuses on two people living mentally isolated lives in an upscale French apartment block: the autodidact concierge and a teenage girl carefully planning for her suicide in a year's time. When a new, unconventional owner moves in, the three of them are brought together in ways that illumine all their lives. This book ranks along with Ishiguro's The Buried Giant as one that made me really angry - it drew me in with its beautiful writing and plot, and then just as I was in love with it, hit me with an unfair ending that made me want to throw the book across the room (except it was an ebook, so I couldn't break my device.). You have been warned.

Source: Alyssa Cole, Twitter

Alyssa Cole - Radio Silence
I'm not a contemporary romance reader, but a while back, I came across the controversy splitting the Romance Writers of America, and decided to widen my horizons just a tad with this interracial romance. In this first in a trilogy, the lights have gone out across America, and Arden and her room mate, John, escape urban chaos for the safety of his parents' cabin in the woods. However, despite the lack of electricity, sparks are soon flying between Arden and John's older brother. It was okay, but it confirmed that contemporary romance is still not my thing. Still, I'm glad it made me think about the issues of representation in the genre.

Anne Bogel - I'd Rather Be Reading
I listened to the audio of this a year ago, but felt it might be better savoured in print, and I was correct (apologies to Anne, who narrated). This way I could ponder her thoughts on the reading life, flick back and forth to passages I wanted to re-read, and absorb the whimsical artwork. I'm looking forward to her next book, Don't Overthink It.

Ruth Hogan - The Wisdom of Sally Red Shoes [audiobook]
I enjoyed The Keeper of Lost Things, and I'd been in a audiobook slump, so I thought I'd give this a go (thanks to a Chirp deal - readers who are in the US or can fake it digitally should check them out!). It's a book infused with the joy of living - or, how to find the joy in living - inspired by Hogan's own decisions following both a disabling car crash and brush with cancer. Masha has put her life on hold since the drowning death of her little boy twelve years ago, but two eccentric older women, who have lived through tragedies of their own, help her to find her way back. In a secondary plot line, Alice, a single mother who has devoted her life to her son, faces third-stage cancer. I can't say too much more, or I'll give away the story (what I've written here does not tell all!), but let's just say that if this had been a printed book, I would not have been able to stop myself flipping to the end to see what happened! Although the topics are dark - child bereavement, cancer, and dementia - and often starkly portrayed, the book is infused with wry, British, self-deprecating humour. The narrator was pitch perfect, with a great range of accents.

I usually think of Welty as an old lady, so I liked this photo of her in her youth. Credit: www.mdah.ms.gov/welty/eudora-welty/biography.php

Eudora Welty - Morgana
This is a notorious book from our shelf. Notorious because my husband got drunk at our church Oktoberfest/fundraiser back in the US and paid at least twice what it was worth (what can I say  - it was the Episcopal church, and I'm sure God credited him all that extra money). It's a limited edition copy of two stories from the collection "The Golden Apples", signed by Welty and the illustrator. The stories, set around 1910-20 in a little Southern Mississippi town, focus on moments of transition in the lives of adolescents. Welty's great strength is her evocative writing, whether it is descriptions of the Mississippi summers (almost too much for me, who suffered through them for years) or her unflinchingly accurate portrayal of racial attitudes in her beloved home state.

And a new footnote: Out This Month
I have some pretty prolific friends in my historical fiction online writing group, so I decided to start listing their new publications each month. All these are available via Amazon or your favourite ebook store. These are usually the sort of books you want to curl up on the sofa with and enjoy (as opposed to throw across the room).

Rosemary Morris - Friday's Child. Closed door Regency romance. Review to follow next month.
Diane Scott Lewis - Her Vanquished Land. Only one open door ;)

Hope you enjoyed the longer round-up. I know that doctors here can prescribe a rest at a spa, too, so I'll be plotting for that next :)

Quick Lit January 2020

Srečno novo leto! Happy New Year! Linking up with Modern Mrs Darcy as usual for QuickLit.

I know this is heresy to those of you whose TBR piles exceed the holdings of a small town library, but I have found myself somewhat agreeing with Marie Kondo's assertion that a book comes into your life at the right time to read it. Witness the free or on-sale unread books clogging up my Kindle. So, my New Year's resolution was to ruthlessly remove the books I had not got around to reading (for physical books, that happened with the Great Move - well, except for fine editions). For some people, an abundance of books is exciting, but for someone who does guilt really well, it was just an accusation of something else not completed. So, this year, I am going to try not to accumulate too many reads, and trust that the right book finds me at the right time - I'll report back on how it goes.

 On to last month's reading...

Syrie James - The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen
A chance discovery of a manuscript reveals the story of Jane's one great love. Maybe this would appeal to some Austen fans, but for me it relied too much on scenes in Austen's own novels.

Jane Austen - Persuasion
...But at least it sent me back to the great author herself. I have her works on Kindle, because I got rid of my paperbacks when I moved. I intend to treat our bookshelf to  a hardback collection of her novels, probably from the Folio Society. The original "second chances" novel.

H.Y. Hanna - The Mousse Wonderful Time of the Year
In a fit of the Christmas spirit, I broke my usual rule and paid full price for this new cosy mystery. Tenth in the Oxford tearoom series, Gemma finds herself snowed in at a Manor house with her cat, a body and a bevy of relatives with grievances. It was just the relaxation I needed.

Kenneth Grahame - Dream Days
Something checked off from my bookshelf! Better known as the author of The Wind in the Willows, this work of Grahame's is a series of fictional childhood memoirs, perhaps most notable for the fact they break free from the Victorian mould to see things truly from the child's point of view. It also contains his fairy tale, "The Reluctant Dragon".

Source: NYPL, as below

Charles Dickens - A Christmas Carol [audio]
Did you know that the New York Public Library has a free audio of Neil Gaiman reading Dickens' own performance edition of his most beloved work? A lovely treat for the end of the year.

Here's wishing you a wonderful reading year, whatever your book-choosing style!