Summer reading

Recently read a right mix of books, some more memorable than others. Some are a considered read, others a bit like a quick snack, enjoyable but not particularly exciting. I sort -of plan a certain amount of reading for when we visit our house in France, as I like to take a few print books, but also have a Kindle, onto which I can download whatever titles I fancy while there.


 I've read a couple of titles by Laurie Graham, A Humble Companion and The Liar's Daughter. Both historical in their setting, but also about people and their complex lives. A Humble Companion focuses on Nellie Buzzard, daughter of brought into the palace  to be a companion to one of George III's many daughters., Princess Sophia. Nellie is the daughter of the Prince Regent's major-domo, so not remotely aristocratic, and she eventually marries a confectioner, and works in his shop, while Princess Sophy leads a very cloistered and contained life. George III's illness and madness form part of the story, giving the reader a different point-of-view on this devastating event.





The Liar's Daughter is set in the early 19th century, and Nan Prunty's mother claimed that Nelson was her lover and Nan his daughter. Few people believed this, and Nan spends a large part of her life trying to find the truth of her mother's claims. Despite her working as an apothecary's apprentice, then being married to an Edinburgh qualified doctor, Nan persists in her search for the truth about her parentage. A story about how much our origins matter to us, and is truth better than not knowing.




I read  and loved Sue Gee's The Mysteries of Glass, a gentle telling of bereavement, loss of faith and change in a lovely, tranquil rural setting. Sue Gee's descriptions of the natural world surrounding the small place, Lyonshall, where Richard Allen is newly appointed curate are lovely. Richard is  but trying to be of service to the parish, but also trying to resist falling in love with Susannah, wife of the vicar. The writing is fairly gentle, but also reflects Richard's inward struggle, which becomes more intense as Susannah's husband draws nearer to his death from tuberculosis.

For a different read, I chose Eve Chase's  debut novel, Black Rabbit Hall, a family story set in a large Cornish house, used as a summer holiday home by the family who owned it. There are two time-lines, one set in the 1960's and the other 30 years later, when Lorna is searching for her ideal wedding venue. The story is mainly told in flashbacks, with the past narrated by Amber while the present, Lorna's, is told in the third person. It 's an accomplished first novel, with engaging characters and dramatic events to keep one turning the pages.

Holiday reading

Having taken several books away with me to France in July, I didn't read all of them, partly because staying in a house which needs work doing to it means that reading takes second place to that, and also the valley we stay in is an excellent place for walks, although the weather was a bit too hot for us to go climbing up the hills at first. However a change in the weather to cooler and damper meant we managed to fit in some nice walks. I did mange some reading such as Ian McEwan's Atonement, which had been sitting on my bedside table for a few months, waiting to be read, also Haruki Murakami's Norwegian Wood. These are both novels about in part, growing up, although in different times, places and by different people. I found I enjoyed Norwegian Wood more than Atonement ( I don't usually compare books in that way) as I wanted to keep reading about Toru Watanabe making his way through university, struggling to understand why his best friend committed suicide at the age of 17, and to build relationships with two contrasting young women. I found keeping going with Atonement slightly harder work, but still an enjoyable read.

I have had Sarah Dunant's In the Company of the Courtesan for some while now, took it away with me and enjoyed being transported to Renaissance Venice and reading the story of life as a high class courtesan of that period and place - Venice is evoked very clearly, especially as I have visited it a couple of times. Renaissance history and novels set in that period are among my favourite reads and this read reached all my expectations for it.

Sue Gee's Bedtime Reading was a totally diffferent reading experience, starting out with two friends returning home after visiting a book festival. One hads been recently widowed, the other is still married to a university professor. Although life seems calm and pleasant at the outset, the kicks in the teeth for both friends are soon revealed, and how they and their families cope or don't. In many ways a reassuring read, although that may seem a strange comment in the light of some of the events described, but people do cope with the difficulties of life, one way or another.
My final holiday read was Vanora Bennett's Portrait of an Unknown Woman. The setting is Henry VIII's England, at the time he falls in love with Anne Boleyn, and the story is about the life of one of Thomas More's adopted daughters, Meg Giggs and her relationships with Thomas More, her eventual husband John Clements and the painter Hans Holbein the Younger. For a first novel, this is very accomplished and certainly made me want to follow this writer. Very well researched, but the research does not hinder the storytelling. Being a fan of historical fiction, but also a fairly picky one - the writing must be excellent, I loved this book.