bookswelike

bwl 109 - Summer 2023

Fiction

Samantha Leigh Allen - Patricia Wants to Cuddle

The finalists of a TV Reality show, manipulated by a cynical production team, bitchily battle it out on an island in the Pacific North West. A swarm of social media follows them. But there is a dangerous primitive force at work on the island, aided by certain locals, and matters come to a drastic head. The novel has a bang up-to-date feel, with feminism and LGBT involved, and is richly entertaining, skewering the world of TV and keeping you guessing to the end. Good holiday reading. (Tony Pratt)

Elizabeth von Arnim - The Enchanted April

Published in 1922 after the author had spent a month in an Italian Castello overlooking the Ligurian Sea, you imagine that she was so entranced by the views, colours and scents that she had to share these with readers. Four disparate women, previously unknown to each other, rent a castle for a holiday away from their rather joyless lives. Initially there are petty misunderstandings but slowly their lives are transformed by this adventure and happiness is regained. A charming holiday read. (Christine Miller)

Sebastian Barry - Old God's Time

Retired policeman, Tom Kettle, is relishing his retirement until his peace is shattered by two ex-colleagues banging on his door. Now with a decades old case reopened, he must revisit long-buried memories of his and his beloved wife's past and confront what exactly happened one fateful day. A heartbreaking, mesmerising novel where memory plays tricks and nothing is quite as it seems. (Jenny Baker)

Sebastian Barry - Days Without End

Two young boys fall in love in 19th century America and dodge poverty together via cross-dressing theatricals, fighting the Indians and in the civil war and settling to farming. The language amazed me from the first sentence and I loved the fact that the complexities and nuances of the politics of the time come through subtly, sometimes subliminally. I learned a great deal and even got through the battle scenes without skimming! (Victoria Grey-Edwards)

Abi Daré - The Girl with a Louding Voice

Adunni is fourteen. Life is hard for her family in Nigeria. Indeed hard enough for her father to sell her as the bride to a much older friend looking for a third wife. This is the beginning of Adunni’s life – sounds dire. But Adunni has her own agenda as reader quickly finds. Here is a character who really steps off the page – I loved it despite the horrors. A great read. (Ferelith Hordon)

Charles Dickens - Great Expectations

Driven by the recent BBC travesty of an adaptation I had to read the book again and watch David Lean's black and white masterpiece. If school put you off Dickens then there's no better introduction to this master storyteller than the tale of Pip, the blacksmith's little nephew, bequeathed by an unknown benefactor to become a gentleman, learns by his mistakes and lapses to become one in the truest sense. Hang the washing and the housework, I couldn't put it down! (Jenny Baker)

Karen Joy Fowler - Booth

Encouraged by the review in bwl 107 I was curious to read this book. Like many British people, the only thing I knew about Lincoln's assassination was it happened in a theatre but by whom I had no idea. It's a fascinating read in which Fowler breathes life into Booth and his extraordinary family in a way denied to the writer of straight-forward biography. Purists turn away! (Jenny Baker)

Karen Joy Fowler - We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves

5-year old Rosemary is sent away to stay with her grandparents, when she returns there is no sign of her sister and beloved playmate, Fern. Now a college student far from home, Rosemary begins to piece together what happened all those years ago with a mis-guided experiment which drove her psychologist father to drink and her mother into permanent depression. Heavy going? No, it's a page turner. (Jenny Baker)

Bonnie Garmus - Lessons in Chemistry

Reviewed in bwl 106 this really is a terrific book, and a first novel by Bonnie Garmus who cleverly makes very wry observations about aspects of life in the 1960's, in an unusual and imaginative story. Don't be put off by the title - it's very readable - funny as well as tragic, with a surprising (if improbable) ending. I loved all the characters - especially the wonderful dog! (Mary Standing)

Sue Gee - Reading in Bed

Dido and Georgia, friends since university, return from a Book Fair - one to York the other to London - each laden with a pile of books. Sounds cosy? It isn't. Georgia is newly widowed, her only daughter searching for love, a distant cousin with dementia while Dido's life is falling apart with dizzy-turns, a husband she can no longer trust. Sounds grim? It isn't but it is all absorbing with living, breathing characters all conveyed in Gee's expressive prose. (Jenny Baker)

Frank Huyler - The Right of Thirst

In this riveting tale we follow grieving cardiologist, Charles Anderson, in his effort to help earthquake victims in an Islamic country. Goodwill turns into a rapid downward spiral of events that leaves the volunteers themselves fleeing for their lives - and haunted by thoughts that they have done more harm than good. We are left to ponder the ethics of good intentions - and the limits of benevolence - in a world divided by deep cultural differences. It is an exceptional read. (Sharron Calkins)

Louise Kennedy - Trespasses

Cushla, a young teacher just outside Belfast, meets Michael in her family pub and so it begins. A beautiful and heartbreaking account of a secret affair set in the middle of sectarian tensions and violence at the height of the Troubles. This is so well written with every detail drawing you in to Cushla’s moments of joy and despair. Her relationships with her Michael, his friends , her family, colleagues and pupils are brilliantly realistic. I loved it - my favourite read of this year. (Rebecca Howell)

Louise Kennedy - Trespasses

Catholic school teacher Cushla and protestant lawyer Michael fall in love in Belfast in the midst of the Troubles. Kennedy writes with absolute conviction of their attempts to carve out happiness in the shadow of hatred and violence. Cushla helping the deprived school child Davey, Michael defending wrongly accused Catholic youth, both attempting to bring normal goodness into a hellish world. Can it end happily? I won't give away the ending of this extremely moving story. (Annabel Bedini)

Nella Larsen - Passing

A thought-provoking tale of racial identity in 1920’s America. The fictional Clare, ambitious and beautiful, makes the decision to ‘pass’ as a white woman. Her invented identity begins to crumble as her longings to reconnect with her African-American roots lead her to live a risky double life. This slender, exquisitely written book will have you holding your breath as it explores the often blurred and unfair boundaries of racial identity. The ending will leave you shaken. (Sharron Calkins)

Nadifa Mohamed - The Fortune Men

This is not a comfortable read. Yes it is a novel – and very well written but its inspiration is a horrendous miscarriage of justice leading to the execution of a young Somali man in 1954. The portrait she creates of Mohamed Mattan is engaging, the prejudice and racism in the world of the Cardiff docks shocking. I wasn’t sure how much fact there was in the fiction but I do have to recommend it. (Ferelith Hordon)

Francis Spufford - Light Perpetual

The title quote from the funeral service is clue to this book about the imagined future lives of children killed by a real bomb in 1944 London – a sort of elegy for what might have been. Bright Alec, sisters Jo and Val, unlikable Vernon and tormented Ben are visited at fifteen year intervals as their lives - and indeed South London itself - evolve. A lovingly imagined work of redemption; and as for the last chapter? Ahhhh.... An absolutely lovely book! (Annabel Bedini)

Sarah Winman - Still Life

A lot of people love this book and I enjoyed it as the story carries you along easily from East London to Florence and back over 50 years. However, for me, a lot of the characters seemed lacking in depth but maybe because there is such a lot going on. I was fond of the hero, Ulysses, and there is a lot of historical ground from the War to almost modern day and the descriptions of Florence and the food kept me going. (Rebecca Howell)

Alice Winn - In Memoriam

Two young men at public school dare not declare their true feelings for each other. Boys are predated upon by older boys but that is accepted. However, they find moments of comfort together when surrounded by the horrors of the trenches, death and the banality of WW I. Only towards the end of the book do they acknowledge their true feelings. Winn’s reading of other war writers, such as Pat Barker, has given her own writing great assurance (Christine Miller)

Gabrielle Zevin - Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

A group of gifted, computer-engineering students on the East Coast of America turn their recreational gaming into a successful international business. The examination of their diverse goals and backgrounds, their evolving relationships, passions and betrayals, make a totally engaging contemporary story, despite my innate prejudice against what I would have labelled time-wasting on devices, I accepted that the references to the multitude of games created, was actually essential to the resolution of the relationship between the two main characters. (Margaret Teh)

Non-Fiction

James Bryce - The Holy Roman Empire

Returning from travelling in Europe, I always turn to this definitive, if somewhat old-fashioned work (published in 1880) since the Holy Roman Empire, which Voltaire said was neither holy, Roman nor an empire, still pervades the art and architecture of modern Europe as does the presence of Bonaparte who abolished it after 1,000 years. The best part by far is the chronological table of emperors and popes – a handy reference far better than Wikepedia! (Jeremy Miller)

Paula Byrne - The Adventures of Miss Barbara Pym

A splendidly compendious biography, life and works of a very unusual woman. Against my expectations of a prim life lived among vicars and cosy local communities, in reality she lead a rackety life, inventing alternative personas for herself, constantly falling in love with horrible men, including a Nazi SS officer, living in London where she stalked her neighbours. And yet she had an amazing eye for, precisely, the world of vicars etc. Eye-opening and enthralling. (Annabel Bedini)

Christopher Clark - Revolutionary Spring: Fighting for a New World 1848-1849

In this magnificently researched work, the author describes the many revolutions that eclipsed Europe in 1848. Though they followed one another in different countries, one was not the spark for the next. Rather they were all spawned by a common set of continent-wide social and political conditions. Initially successful, within the year the old order had begun to reassert itself often with great ferocity and many of the newly gained freedoms were, alas, rolled back. (Jeremy Miller)

Natalie Haynes - Pandora's Jar

Natalie Haynes is a historian with a flair for bringing the classics alive. She is keen to shine a light on hidden and forgotten characters; to allow a more balanced view. She is particularly interested in women. Here she turns her attention to the women in Greek mythology and stories. She is fascinating, enthusiastic, articulate and passionate. I must now go and read Euripides properly. Her message – there is always more to the story . . . (Ferelith Hordon)

Colin Jones - The Fall of Robespierre

This book draws on lots of writings (diaries, letters, official documents) from the single day in Paris, 27 July 1794, when Robespierre went from being supremely powerful to suddenly having no power and being destroyed by his own creation. There is so much written material available from this time that Colin Jones has been able to build up an hour by hour account and it reads almost like a novel. One of the best non-fiction books I have read in the last year. (Mark Baker)

Simon Sebag Montefiore - The Romanovs

For all who are interested in the relationship of past history to our present political situations and love very thick books, this is tops in every way. Although the main facts have been chewed over many times in innumerable books of every kind, there is always a new slant to be examined and new facts appearing in the public domain which produce, in the hands of a master, a fresh, very worthwhile and entertaining book, which is why this is highly recommended, a superb holiday read. (Kathie Somerwil Ayrton)

George Orwell - The Road to Wigan Pier

Published in 1937, Section 1 reports on the working and living conditions of miners during the Depression and explores the roots of class distinction in England. Section 2 is an urgent call for Socialism to defend the West against Fascism. Despite Orwell’s hyperbolic style and dubious claims, could his Big Brother today be in the form of internet data collection, cctv cameras and propaganda regarding LGBTQ+, wokeism, cancel culture, racism, children being allowed to identify as cats etc? Highly recommended food for thought. (Denise Lewis)

Roy Strong - Coronation

This history, first of its kind, begins before the first Coronation in 973 and ends in that of Elizabeth II, but reading it in the hindsight of the so recent coronation of King Charles III is what makes it so relevant and 'real', emphasising the fact that, uniquely, England has always opted for evolution and not revolution, and highlights a more than a thousand-years old tradition of committal of the monarch to the people, that we can all be proud of. (Kathie Somerwil Ayrton)

Ed West - 1215 and All That

This is accurate and narrative English history, but with a difference. He is funny! You will delight in his wry comments on those nasty royals as they scheme, gut their enemies, and put their personal interests above anything else. It is part of a series, but each book can be read independently. Douglas Adams and John Cleese meet Bad King John. You'll laugh. (Herb Roselle)