A Far Cry From Kensington - an evocation of 1950s London

Set in the mid 1950s, A Far Cry From Kensington by Muriel Spark brings to life a time and place where people were trying to recover after the devastation of the Second World War. Our narrator is Agnes "Nancy" Hawkins - although no-one uses her first name. She is a young, rather portly, war widow working in publishing, but, as was common at the time, she is living in one room of a house with other disparate people. Everyone sees Mrs Hawkins as a trustworthy, reliable individual - someone you can go to with your troubles and who would be good in a crisis. Her best friend is Millie, the landlady, with whom she spends many companionable evenings. Things are ticking along nicely until she encounters Hector Bartlett - a wannabe author whose writing is atrocious and she rejects his manuscript in the strongest of terms, in the course of which she coins an unflattering phrase to describe him. Unfortunately for Mrs Hawkins, Hector is "attached" to a very well known author who wields much power in the relatively small world of publishing, with the result that her little outburst causes her to lose not one, but two jobs. While this is happening, unsettling things start to happen at her lodgings with one of the residents, a Polish dressmaker, becoming more and more unstable. Events start to unravel, and it's not until much later that Mrs Hawkins realises how woven together all these apparently random events actually are. This book is highly enjoyable, with a cracking narrator in Mrs Hawkins, and an excellent supporting cast, all of whom are totally believable. It is evocative of the time and place and is full of detail about post-war London and the publishing world of that time. There is light and shade and dodgy dealings, but also a sense of optimism that things can get better. It's the first book by Muriel Spark that I have read, but I'm sure it won't be my last.

My STAR rating: FOUR.

Length: 208 print pages.
Price I paid: £2.98.
Formats available: print, unabridged audio download, audio CD, ebook.

The Curse of the House of Foskett - Victorian-era crime fighters!

Having enjoyed the first book in the Gower Street Detective Series, I decided to dip my toe back into Victorian London and spend some more time with incredibly rude and uncivil detective, Sidney Grice, and his long-suffering ward, March Middleton. The Curse of the House of Foskett, by M.R.C. Kasasian begins with Sideny's reputation in tatters after leading an innocent man to the gallows in his previous case. No one wants to hire him and he is not taking it well. A new case is just what he needs, so when a gentleman comes calling to hire Sidney to investigate the Final Death Society, and promptly drops dead during the meeting, he couldn't be happier! Even better, it turns out that the man has been murdered. Sidney and March delve into this society where a distinguished group of people have clubbed together with the intention that the last one left alive inherits all the money. However, it seems one member of the Society isn't willing to wait for nature to take its course, for when Sydney and March try to speak to the various members, they discover that they too have been murdered, and in such a way as to implicate Sydney in the deadly deed. Despite the increasingly grisly nature of each crime, this book is full of laughs and clever touches. However, the incredibly un-PC statements made by Sydney did sometimes grate with me, and I wondered why on earth March puts up with them. But it becomes apparent that she is more than a match for him, and is a perfect foil for the socially inept man who has taken her in. During the course of the novel, we also find out more about March's past, which really helps round her out. There were also hints that Sydney does have a heart somewhere beneath his bluster and apparent coldness, which could help to make him a more sympathetic character. The action rolls along at great pace, and this is an entertaining read - but it might be a while before I can face Sydney and his acerbic tongue once again.

My STAR rating: FOUR.

Length: 416 print pages.
Price I paid: £2.99.
Formats available: print, unabridged audio download, MP3-CD, ebook.

Berlin Red - A bit too neatly wrapped?

Berlin Red, by Sam Eastland is, I have just discovered, the SEVENTH book in a series featuring Inspector Pekkala, a detective from Stalinist Russia. This came as a bit of a surprise to me as the book works perfectly well as a stand-alone story. It's April 1945 and the Red Army is on the verge of overrunning Berlin and finally defeating the Third Reich. Holed up in his bunker, Hitler is buoyed by the news that his scientists have perfected the guidance system for the V-2 rocket - and is convinced that this super-weapon could turn the tide of the War back in his favour. However, the message he received has been intercepted by a British listening post and they immediately set one of their extremely well-placed spies the delicate task of acquiring the plans to this "Diamondstream". But they realise that to get both the spy and those plans safely out of Berlin, they'll need the help of one man - Inspector Pekkala, Stalin's finest investigator. Meanwhile, Hitler suspects that there is a traitor in the ranks, as small bits of information keep leaking out, so he assigns his own highly skilled detective, Major Kirov, to trace the source. It's now a race to see who finds the spy first, but for Pekkala, the stakes couldn't be higher, as she is none other than the woman he had planned to marry before the Russian Revolution got in the way. This is a taught thriller, set against the horror of war. It weaves fact with fiction in an extremely convincing manner and whilst some of the characters may be a bit one-dimensional, there are some excellent ones too, particularly the villainous ones. It's grim and gritty, with a bit of romance thrown in for good measure. Yes, there are twists and turns, and a certain amount of tension, but I never really felt that the main characters wouldn't attain their goal and make it out alive. A good read, though maybe a little too neatly wrapped up at the end, possibly because it is likely to be the last in the series. We shall see! I did enjoy this, and it may be interesting to see earlier books in the series, but that won't be happening this year as I try to get through the mountain of books already nesting in my house!

My STAR rating: FOUR.

Length: 384 print pages.
Price I paid: free, borrowed from the library as an ebook.
Formats available: print, unabridged audio download, ebook.

Welcome to 2019

Happy New Year to one and all. Let's hope for a better one than 2018 turned out to be! During the last 12 months, I have been working my way through The Popsugar Reading Challenge, which contained 40 book prompts designed to broaden your reading. The prompts ranged from "a book about feminism" to "a book with alliteration in the title". Whilst I didn't get through all 40 of them (there were a couple of really, really long books in there which slowed me down!), I did manage to finish 31, so not too bad. It helped me find a new author (Madeleine Miller) whose books were a delight, and rediscover the work of an author I haven't read in years (John Irving). I read books I wouldn't have gone near without the Popsugar prompts, so the goal of expanding my reading horizons was achieved. HOWEVER, what this has now meant is that the pile of unread books in my house has not gone away and so this year, I will be delving back into those patiently waiting tomes in the hope that I can reclaim some much needed storage space.

Bring it on ...

Snow - or should that be "Slow"?

Any form of art is, as we all know, subjective. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and all that. So, if Snow, by Orhan Pamuk is one of your all time favourite books, then please look away now. Highly lauded with multiple 4 and 5 star reviews, I was hopeful that, despite my husband's warnings, this was a book I could get my teeth into. It's opening premise is great - we journey with Ka, a poet and political exile, as he travels on the bus to Kars, a town on the Turkish border. It is snowing hard and memories of his childhood in this place bubble up. He has been assigned to write a story about a worrying "epidemic" of young religious girls who are committing suicide, supposedly as a result of being forbidden from wearing their headscarves. However, when the town is cut off due to a blizzard, Ka finds himself caught in the middle of religious and political turmoil, including a theatrical coup. In the midst of this, Ka falls in love with the beautiful Ipek, who he tries to persuade to come back to Germany with him when the roads reopen again. Obsessed with the snow and his burgeoning love, Ka starts writing poems and hits a creative goldmine over the three days that the action takes place. But Ka cannot ignore the politics and is unwittingly caught between both sides. Needless to say, this doesn't end well. When I read what I've written so far, it sounds like a good story, and the bones of it are, but unfortunately, for me, the execution of telling this tale was dreary, depressing and dull. There is so much focus on the snow that it starts to get really irritating. Ka has no backbone. Other characters feel incredibly shallow. There is a lot of sitting around expounding on the beliefs of the different sides. Repetitious, confusing and frustrating. It left me not caring about any of the characters at all. It took me ages to read because I just couldn't get into it, which made me dislike it even more! I don't think I've ever given up on a book before, but this one was pretty close. If it hadn't been for trying to get through the PopSugar challenge, I probably would have put it to one side and moved on! So glad it's over!

POPSUGAR Challenge 2018 prompt 24: A book with a weather element in the title.

My STAR rating: TWO.

Length: 448 print pages.
Price I paid: free, borrowed from my husband (he did warn me!)
Formats available: print, unabridged audio download, audio CD, ebook.

The Go-Between - Sublime!

From the famous opening line - The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there - to the very last word, The Go-Between by L P Hartley is an absolute corker of a book. The story is narrated by Leo Colston, who is around 60 years of age, but whose memories of childhood are brought into sharp focus by the diary he kept during the year 1900. We first see Leo at school where he is bullied into misery until the bullies are vanquished by, so he believes, a magic spell he casts on them. This gives him a bit of celebrity and when one of his few friends, Marcus Maudsley, invites him to stay over the summer, he is thrilled. Leo is desperate to fit in with the Maudsley's whose circle includes a Viscount who is about to propose to Marian, Marcus's older sister. When Marcus becomes ill, Leo has time on his hands and the beautiful Marian pays him such lavish attention that he would do anything to please her, and so he begins to act as a messenger between her and local farmer, Ted Burgess. Set in a more innocent time, Leo is blissfully unaware that he is aiding an illicit love affair. As events unfold, Leo finally realises what's going on, and the bitterness he feels at the betrayal to both himself and the Viscount (who he very much admires) comes to the surface with devastating results. This is a sublime book that cannot help but affect the reader. You can really feel the heat of the summer, the rawness of the betrayal and the utter sadness of the characters who are locked into what is expected of them, but desperate to somehow find a way out. This is a beautifully observed study of class, and childhood, at the turn of the 20th Century. There wasn't anything I didn't like about this book, and as an added bonus, I used the audio edition narrated by the sublime Sean Barrett.

POPSUGAR Challenge 2018 prompt 20: A book by a local author.

My STAR rating: FIVE.

Length: 336 print pages.
Price I paid: £5.99.
Formats available: print, unabridged audio download, audio CD, ebook.

The Diary Of A Bookseller - I wish my diary was so amusing!

When Shaun Bythell, owner of the largest second hand book shop in Scotland, decided to start noting down his thoughts about books, customers, his employees and life in general, I'm not sure he envisioned it turning into a book that might appear on his own shelves. However, that's exactly what happened. This memoir is a day to day account of the trials and tribulations of running his shop in a place called Wigtown. If you've ever worked in a shop, cafe, or call centre - indeed anywhere you have to deal with people using your service - you cannot fail to empathise with the author. The many and varied anecdotes - from the banal to the exotic - are at times hilarious and at others, deeply touching. I never thought I would become fascinated by the number of online orders received, customers who visit the shop and the till receipts logged for each day ... but I did. Boy were there some slow days! The Diary Of A Bookseller, should become compulsory reading for anyone contemplating life as a bookseller. There are some sobering passages and it's clear that you have to develop lots of different strings to your bow to make ends meet ... mostly thanks to the all-consuming behemoth that is, Amazon. Buy direct from the high street where you can! Each month is prefaced by a quote from George Orwell's Bookshop Memories - an essay about his time in a second hand bookshop. It's scary how little seems to have changed! A slice of life showing the best and worst of humanity, all within the confines of a drafty, literary sanctuary, where the customer is definitely NOT always right! A really enjoyable book that is still making me smile as I write this blog as I keep remembering "Foodie Fridays", where Shaun's skip-diving employee would offer a weekly treat foraged from a supermarket bin. Delicious!

POPSUGAR Challenge 2018 prompt 39: A book that involves a bookstore or library.

My STAR rating: FOUR.

Length: 320 print pages.
Price I paid: £2.98.
Formats available: print, unabridged audio download, ebook.