The Household Spirit by Tod Wodicka

Tod Wodicka has created a very different relationship story about two very different people. First of all there’s fifty-year-old Howie Jeffries who is painfully shy. He has a smile that makes young children cry, ‘the last face on earth’, according to his ex-wife. Since his divorce twenty years before, he lives alone on Route 29, reading books on fishing, and occasionally ineptly Facebooking his fierce daughter, an artist in New York.

Then there’s Emily Phane, Howie’s young neighbour, who suffers from a sleeping disorder. Emily stays up all night, filling her house with plants. Since the death of her grandfather, she seems to be slowly falling apart. When she sets fire to her house, Howie has to overcome his shyness to look after her, and remarkably each of them discovers they are able to help each other with their problem, Howie learning to communicate, while Emily learns to sleep.

Wodicka has written a quirky novel full of brilliantly unusual characters, and shows a depth of understanding for people’s mental states, particularly Emily’s sleep paralysis which gives her the most terrifying nightmares. The plot cranks up a notch or two when Howie’s workmates throw him a surprise party on his 30th anniversary with GE, and when we discover what his daughter has really been up to when her mother thinks she’s with Howie.

There is plenty of dark humour in The Household Spirit, but there is empathy as well, plus a splendid ending set in a blizzard-struck New York City. This is a decidedly different read about people living on the outskirts, about understanding our neighbours and communicating with the world at large.

Posted by JAM

Catalogue link: The Household Spirit

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

This was my introduction to the large body of work written by Daphne du Maurier; I could not have chosen better. This, her fifth novel (she also published short stories, plays and biographies) was written largely in Egypt where her husband Major Frederick Browning was posted as an officer in the Grenadier Guards.

Du Maurier was naturally shy and socially reclusive and detested the receptions she was expected to attend and give as a commanding officer’s wife. She was also desperately homesick, hating the fierce heat of the summer in Alexandria and longing for her home by the sea in Cornwall. All these things are put to good use in this novel.

Prior to it’s publication in 1938, the author feared it would be “too gloomy” to be popular and "too grim” to appeal to readers. But sold as an “exquisite love story” with a “brilliantly created atmosphere of suspense” by the publishers - reviewers belittled it with the label “novella” (a description used solely for the work of women writers), but readers ignored them and “Rebecca” became an immediate and overwhelming commercial success. It became a bestseller in America; it sold in vast numbers in Europe and went through twenty-eight printings in four years in Britain alone. It continues to sell well and has never been out of print.

“Rebecca” is the story of a house, a man and two women. We are more familiar these days I believe, thanks to “Downton Abbey” and the like, with the life lead by the house’s inhabitants than du Maurier’s earlier readers would have been, but no less intrigued by it.

The novel opens with a dream and its first sentence has become famous: Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again. Thereafter follows a brief first chapter that drew me in completely. Following this the unnamed main character and narrator (a technical device du Maurier said she found interesting, and about which she was constantly questioned, even by fellow author Agatha Christie) goes on to tell the story. All was not clear until the very last pages of the book. I loved it. Yes, it’s dark in places and certainly surprising but it is also skillfully drawn and deeply satisfying. Highly recommended on the off chance you too have not yet had the pleasure.

Posted by CC

Catalogue Link: Rebecca

Pretty Girl Thirteen by Liz Coley

When Angie returns home from a school camping trip, she can’t understand why her parents are acting so strangely. She’s only been gone a few days – what’s their problem? For her parents, though, the wait has been agony.

In reality, Angie has been missing, presumed dead, for three years after she disappeared in the night from her tent. Angie thinks they’ve gone crazy, or are trying to freak her out, even though she can’t understand why.

Angie has no memory of the last three years at all. It’s true that her body has changed and no longer feels like her’s, and her friends have all grown up. She has become the centre of attention at school and in her neighbourhood as people around her realise she’s the girl from the news.

Her parents are concerned about her health, so she is taken to hospital for an examination. She’s referred to a psychologist who works with Angie to reclaim those lost years, and finds that she developed a complex coping mechanism to deal with the horrors she’s faced throughout her life – both during her disappearance and before.

Pretty Girl Thirteen is a fascinating exploration of dissociative identity disorder. At times harrowing, at others heart-breakingly sad, Pretty Girl Thirteen is disturbing but touching journey into the mind of someone desperately trying to deal with a lifetime of sickening experiences. It’s very good young adult fiction which will broaden the mind of the teenage reader.

Posted by RJB

Catalogue link: Pretty Girl Thirteen

Shakespeare’s Mistress by Karen Harper

It’s widely known that Shakespeare lived an entirely separate life to that of his wife, whom he left behind in Stratford upon Avon when he went to London to make his fortune and fame as a playwright and actor. And it’s a matter of historical record that, days before he married Anne Hathaway, a man bearing his name was recorded in Worcestershire parish records as bound to marry one Anne Whately.

So, what happened in those few days that convinced Shakespeare to marry another woman? And what happened to Anne Whately? Some have argued that Shakespeare continued to court her and even lived with her in London as his wife and mistress.

In Shakespeare’s Mistress, Karen Harper takes this fascinating glimpse into the personal life of the world’s most famous playwright and draws it out into a twisting and tormenting tale of love, loss and longing.

Our heroine, Anne Whately, is at turns both hard-headed and business-like, and whimsical and simpering. The continual change of heart of our protagonist leaves the reader feeling frustrated and stuck in a rut. The frequent vague leaps forward in time are hard to grapple with and occasional inconsistencies jar. The character of Shakespeare was unsatisfying and unpleasant, and left me wondering why anyone would pine after him the way Anne Whately does. Shakespeare’s Mistress is a disappointing, if well-intentioned, read.

Posted by RJB

H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald

Winner of the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-fiction 2014 and Costa Book of the Year Award

Having been through a terrible ‘can’t settle on anything’ reading slump in recent times, H is for Hawk was like an unexpected precious gift. I found this memoir honest, interesting, engaging and absorbing. Like all great books it took me to another place, held my attention and I did not want it to end! Best book of my reading year:

Sitting there with the hawk in that darkened room I felt safer than I’d done for months. Partly because I had a purpose. But also because I’d closed the door on the world outside. Now I could think of my father. 

Helen writes beautifully – from her overwhelming grief at the sudden death of her beloved father, to her difficult task of training a scary and highly strung goshawk through trial and error (and almost becoming feral herself), and her interest in the history of falconry training. When her job and therefore accommodation at Cambridge University ends she cannot bear to interact with other people and becomes obsessed with training the most difficult and largest of raptors, the goshawk (Mabel), having had a love of hawks and falconry since the age of six.

At one point when teaching Mabel to hunt pheasants (pheasants!) the author pokes her head through a hedge to flush a pheasant out, only to have Mabel gash her face open mistaking her for prey. In the early days it is hard not to feel sorry for Mabel; such a majestic and wild bird tethered and hooded, terrified and hyper alert. I knew nothing of falconry but found the whole process fascinating.

Another of the author’s obsessions is the author T.H White who wrote The Sword in the Stone and was himself a tortured soul and trainer of goshawks. Highly recommended.

*Small grumble: I wanted photographs! Follow this link for a fabulous short talk by the author with photographs:

Helen Macdonald - H is for Hawke

Posted by Katrina

Catalogue link:  H is for Hawk

Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch

There’s something sinister lurking in London’s criminal underbelly. A malicious spirit hell-bent on instigating riot and rebellion amongst ordinary, law-abiding citizens.

Abnormally violent and disturbing assaults have been reported all over the city and it’s up to Constable Peter Grant to identify the common link and halt the uprising. The grotesque, usually fatal, injuries of the perpetrators hint at something supernatural. A suspicion confirmed by a witness who claims he died 120 years ago, and the revelations of his mentor Inspector Thomas Nightingale.

Until the night of the first murder, Grant is a common-or-garden, newly-qualified Police Constable trying to make it through the ranks. He is shocked to learn he has a gift for the ‘uncanny’ and has been drafted into Nightingale’s Economic and Specialist Crime Unit to begin his training as a wizard. And that’s when things really start to get interesting.

Rivers of London is a rip-roaring ride through the streets of London. Expertly written, with lively scenes and consistently humorous narrative, the book ends far too quickly. Peter Grant is an immediately likeable character and Inspector Nightingale is suitably mysterious and engaging. Surprising and expertly crafted reveals and plot twists make this an excellent first book from an exciting writing talent. I am already on the hunt for more books by this author.

Posted by RJB

Catalogue link: Rivers of London

Murder at Mansfield Park by Lynn Shepherd

Yes, as the title might suggest, this really is a murder mystery version of the well-known Jane Austen novel, Mansfield Park. Although at first you might think you are reading Austen herself, so cleverly has Shepherd recreated the tone and feel of the classic novels we know and love so well.

Shepherd has turned Fanny Price into a scheming heiress, charming and demur to her doting aunt and uncle, Sir Thomas and Lady Bertram, and in particular Mrs Norris, but snide and belittling to everyone else. Fanny is betrothed to Mrs Norris’s step-son, Edmund, but her attention soon wanders when that popinjay, Mr Rushworth, begins a flirtation.

The heroine of this novel is Mary Crawford who narrates much of the story. She forms a friendship with Edmund while her brother, Henry, is employed to redesign the Mansfield Park gardens. So begins what seems a wonderful comedy of manners – the romantic intrigue, the witty dialogue, the delight of the gentry in putting on plays and riding out to view other people’s homes are all there. And then there’s a murder.

The book swiftly changes its tone as Mary does her own bit of sleuthing and makes some alarming discoveries, while the Bertrams employ Charles Maddox, a ‘thief-taker’ from London to investigate. Maddox is determined and uncompromising, and takes Mary on as an ally, but is she prepared for what he uncovers?

Murder at Mansfield Park is a brilliant re-imagining of an Austen novel, and the murder element which gives the plot a bit of oomph is sure to please the modern reader. Maddox is a brilliant creation and you will meet him again in Shepherd’s other literary mysteries, all of which are true to their period, stylistically flawless and riveting reading.

Posted by JAM

Catalogue link (print copy): Murder at Mansfield Park

Catalogue link (ebook): Murder at Mansfield Park

The Word Exchange by Alena Graedon

Alena Graedon’s novel is set in a dystopian not-too-distant future in which everyone relies on tablet-like electronic devices, known as memes, to manage almost every aspect of their lives; from shopping and ordering taxis, to prompting the user when the meaning of an obscure word foxes them. The story revolves around the home of one of the last bastions of print – the North American Dictionary of the English Language, which, along with the OED, is the printing world’s swansong. 

The editor, Doug, has mysteriously vanished and it’s up to his daughter, Ana, to solve the clues to his disappearance and bring him home – all before she and everyone she cares about succumbs to the devastating effects of the insidious word flu propagated by the creators of the memes’ successor, the nautilus. 

The Word Exchange is fluidly written, and breathlessly faced-paced. Graedon interposes the ‘new’ words created by nautilus users into the recognisable syntax with ease and the reader is left in no doubt as to their intended meanings. The mysterious twists and turns leave the reader hooked until the end.

This book about words and meaning is a gratifyingly haunting homage to literature and language. Very entertaining.

Posted by RJB 

Catalogue link: The Word Exchange

A Brief History of Seven Killings wins 2015 Man Booker Prize for fiction

A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James has been named as the winner of the 2015 Man Booker Prize for Fiction. A Brief History of Seven Killings is published by Oneworld Publications. The 44-year-old, now resident in Minneapolis, is the first Jamaican author to win the prize in its 47-year history.

A Brief History of Seven Killings is a 686-page epic with over 75 characters and voices. Set in Kingston, where James was born, the book is a fictional history of the attempted murder of Bob Marley in 1976. Referring to Bob Marley only as ‘The Singer’ throughout, A Brief History of Seven Killings retells this near mythic assassination attempt through the myriad voices – from witnesses and FBI and CIA agents to killers, ghosts, beauty queens and Keith Richards’ drug dealer – to create a rich, polyphonic study of violence, politics and the musical legacy of Kingston of the 1970s.

This is the first Man Booker Prize winner for independent publisher, Oneworld Publications. Michael Wood, Chair of the judges, comments: ‘It is a crime novel that moves beyond the world of crime and takes us deep into a recent history we know far too little about. It moves at a terrific pace and will come to be seen as a classic of our times.’

In addition to his £50,000 prize and trophy, James also receives a designer bound edition of his book and a further £2,500 for being shortlisted.

Other recent winners have included Hilary Mantel (2012 and 2009), whose Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies have been adapted into award-winning adaptations on stage and screen, and Julian Barnes (2011), whose The Sense of an Ending will soon be adapted for film. Other winning novels that have gone on to have second or third lives as stage and screen adaptations include Schindler’s Ark (directed by Steven Spielberg as Schindler’s List), The Remains of the Day and The English Patient.

First awarded in 1969, the Man Booker Prize is recognised as the leading award for high quality literary fiction written in English. Its list of winners features many of the giants of the last four decades: from Salman Rushdie to Margaret Atwood, Iris Murdoch to JM Coetzee. This is the second year that the prize has been open to writers of any nationality, writing originally in English and published in the UK. Previously, the prize was open only to authors from the UK & Commonwealth, Republic of Ireland and Zimbabwe.

Michael Wood was joined on the 2015 panel of judges by Ellah Wakatama Allfrey, John Burnside, Sam Leith and Frances Osborne. The judges considered 156 books for this year’s prize, including a total of 18 call-ins.

There is more information on the award at the Man Booker Prize website.

Pigs in Clover by Simon Dawson

"As of this moment in time, nobody has died, nobody has given birth and nobody has escaped. All 57 pigs, 18 sheep, 46 chickens, two ducks, two geese (the terrorists of the chicken field), two wild cats, two horses, four goslings, two goats and a one-eyed sheepdog. All where they should be. But it wasn't always like this ..."

The true story of a young couple - him a real estate agent, her a solicitor - who decide (well, she does) to head for the good life in Exmoor. His very reluctant transition from Londoner to the country - pigs, chickens and all - is hysterically funny, but also explores deeper questions like where our food comes from.

Beautifully written, makes some good points. Raw and honest. Has a sequel - The Sty's the Limit, which I will look for.

Posted by Marian, Young@Heart Book Club

Author reading to farm animals:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LodNCP3LXxk

Catalogue link: Pigs in Clover

Catalogue link ebook:  Pigs in Clover

Catalogue link: The Sty's the Limit

This Thing of Darkness by Harry Bingham

They seem like perfect crimes: a burglary through a top-storey window, way beyond the reach of any ladder, and two murders dressed up as suicides with no forensics to indicate otherwise. Each bear the hand of a master rock climber, nick-named Stonemonkey, and nobody sees the connection until DC Fiona Griffiths reviews the cases.

Griffiths is supposed to be helping sift evidence to nail a rapist and studying for her sergeant’s exam. Against the advice of her governor, desk-thumping DCI Jackson, she becomes easily side-tracked. Her perseverance pays off when the Stonemonkey cases turn into a bigger crime than anyone could have imagined, with a huge pay-off for its criminal masterminds. Griffiths’ tendency to go-it-along throws her into some tricky situations so she has to rely on her martial arts skills and gritty determination to bring in the perpetrators.

Griffiths is a brilliant creation. She has a personality issue called Cotard’s Syndrome which causes people to believe they are dead. Fortunately she’s had a lot of counselling and has plenty of coping mechanisms, but it makes it difficult to form relationships when you can’t see the world as other people see it.

This Thing of Darkness is the first of Harry Bingham’s Fiona Griffiths mysteries that I have read but I enjoyed it so much that I’ll be adding them to my must-read list. The novel has a vivid first person narration that draws you in and non-stop action that makes it hard to put down. The writing is excellent and the settings varied and evocatively described. It’s always a pleasure to find a well put-together thriller and this delivers in every way.

Posted by JAM

Catalogue link: This Thing of Darkness

Dreamers of the Day by Mary Doria Russell

Actual historical figures, including T E Lawrence and Winston Churchill, pepper Mary Doria Russell’s novel, Dreamers of the Day. The story is set in 1921 Cairo where world leaders and diplomats gathered to thrash out a new Middle East in the wake of World War One and the fall of the Ottoman Empire.

These events are seen through the eyes of American tourist, Agnes Shanklin. She’s a forty-year-old teacher who has led a sheltered life, under the thumb of her mother. When the Spanish flu robs her of her family, Agnes discovers a new-found confidence under the guidance of shop-girl, Mildred, who encourages Agnes to travel.

Egypt beckons but Agnes finds herself turned away from her Cairo hotel – her skirts are too short, her arms too bare and her little dog, Rosie, not welcome. Laurence comes to her rescue, finds her a new hotel where she meets the dashingly handsome German and possible spy, Karl Weilbacher. Karl is charm itself, taking charge of Rosie, while Agnes is smitten.

Dreamers of the Day is a brilliant snapshot of a crucial moment in history from the point of view of an ordinary person. Agnes is a fairly savvy observer and her frank, no-nonsense manner earns her the confidence of the key players.

Russell conjures up amusing scenes where Agnes speaks her mind at dinner parties and is invited on jaunts into the desert with Churchill and co. At the same time she gives voice to those such as T E Lawrence and Gertrude Bell who have grave concerns for peace in the Middle East. Today’s readers can only nod their heads sagely in agreement. This is a well-researched and enlightening novel from a master story teller.

Posted by JAM

Catalogue link: Dreamers of the Day