March Round Up

 I began the month with a book that I received for a blog tour at the end of the month. Stephen Oram’s We Are Not Anonymous. I reviewed it for the blog tour. 

 https://bookphace.blogspot.com/2025/03/we-are-not-anonymous-stephen-oram-blog.html  

I’ve read a previous book of Stephen’s called Extracting Humanity, a Collection short stories. Although there is a strong science-fictiony flavour to his work, I would say it’s more speculative fiction. I reviewed that on the blog. 

https://bookphace.blogspot.com/2024/01/extracting-humanity-stephen-oram-blog.html

 

Back to the library for the second book of the month. And this was a random, unplanned pick. I came to return a book and I saw this displayed on the shelf. It’s called Heartbreak is the National Anthem by Rob Sheffield who is a writer for Rolling Stone. The book is about Taylor Swift. It’s an essay, love letter even to the artistry of Taylor Swift. He wrote about the songs as if they are poems looking at imagery and metaphor and I enjoyed the way that he examined her work as a serious creative artist rather than a popstar.

 

From time to time as a blogger, writers approach you to enquire whether you would be prepared to read and review their work. It can be a lottery. But I feel like I hit the jackpot here! A wonderful quirky offbeat collection of short stories by Katie Wimhurst called An Orchid in my Bellybutton. Who could resist a book with the title like that? It’s a wonderful collection and is one of the best books I’ve read this year. I absolutely love the stories.

 

https://bookphace.blogspot.com/2025/03/an-orchid-in-my-belly-button-katy.html

 

Another library book recommended by my yoga teacher. Anne Youngson. Meet me at the Museum. It’s an epistolary novel which won a Costa prize back in  2018 for a First novel. A delightful story of a long distance friendship and endurance, a sharing of lives and confidences. Beautifully written.

 

Last October, a good friend of mine took a trip to Louisiana. And she visited some of the old plantations. She picked up this book at one of the plantations that she visited, and the owner of the plantation signed the book. The book is called Chained to the Land and it’s edited by Lynette Ater Tanner. The interviews took place during the 1930s.It’s absolutely fascinating to read accounts of the lives of the former slaves whose memories go back to before the Civil War. 

 

In spite of the fact that my TBR book shelves are groaning with an abundance of volumes I still can’t go past a charity shop without looking to see if there are any gems just waiting for me to buy them. I found Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty in one of those charity shops. I’d watched the TV series when I had Covid. And I was interested to read the book. It’s better than the TV series, I think. There are some significant details that differ. In my opinion they make a better story than the changes that they made for the small screen. I’d read one of Leanne Moriarty’s books before and quite enjoyed it. This isn’t a book I would have read had it not been a pound in a charity shop! That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy it, I did, but I guess other books take priority.

 

Another charity shop volume is next. Without a dust cover, but who cares?! I don't read the cover, I read the book! Quite pertinent too. It’s Suzanne Collins The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. It’s the prequel to the Hunger Games trilogy and as I’ve just received my copy of Sunrise on the Reaping I thought I would read this one first. It’s the type of book I just lose myself in and give myself up to escapism and adventure. And I’m a real sucker for dystopian trilogies!

 

Last but by no means least Sunrise on the Reaping. For those of you familiar with the Hunger Games series the character of Hamish Abernathy features here and this book tells his story. We learn the reason he’s taken to drink. The familiar Hunger Games brutality endures here and in a sense there’s nothing new under the sun (no pun intended) but it’s immersi

We Are Not Anonymous – Stephen Oram - Blog Tour

 

Many dystopian tales are high tech, stylised, futuristic fantasy fables that entertain us without making us unduly uncomfortable - think Hunger Games, Maze Runner, Divergent. Bureaucratic, autocratic, technocratic. They entertain us without hurting us or alarming us unduly. 

But every once in a while, one comes along that hits home with a chilling sense of prescience. Often, they depict a near future with enough familiarity for the reader to relate. 

We Are Not Anonymous is one of those once-in-a-whilers.

 

The story spans two decades in a three country England still struggling with climate change. Beth is a ‘caster’. Naomi is a rebel opposing the regimes via Resist and Regain an organisation that makes Just Stop Oil look like kindergarten. 

 

Dystopia embraces the us versus them, good versus bad, dark versus light concepts, Anonymous is no different. Here it is the tech elite Narcissists who are the bad guys headed by Kia who experiments on children and wants complete control. Beth and Naomi want to oust Kia. But activism comes at a price. 

 

This book is heavy on mnemonics and my advice is to get them sorted in your head right at the beginning of the book – OS, BP, ANN, UBI, the L’s and, of course, AI. 

 

The creation of an alternate regime and society is at the heart of dystopian fiction. But it must be plausible. Terminologies must be relatable without extensive explanations. The reader needs to learn and understand though the narrative itself. It’s a skill for the writer and not always achieved. It is here. Trust me, you’ll be thinking about globules as if you’d had one your entire life. 

 

In some ways a story like this offers future consequences for the actions of today. The book looks at how our reliance on technology and our devices underpins everything we do. Recognisable areas of our country permanently flooded. Individuals seek to control and dictate. Surveillance and observation are everywhere. Is this a chilling blueprint for our future?  However, you cannot merely seek to preach and warn, even if you do it under the guise of fiction, without some broader dimensions. Stephen Oram has done that with a rip-roaring tale of subterfuge and skullduggery, some of it taking place on the seven seas like a pirate escapade. High octane adventure nestles alongside some domestic and family dynamics, considerations of friendships and parenthood. And the nature of activism. 

 

It is an immaculately plotted story. It has to be for there is so much going on, at times it made my head spin! But the story remains highly pertinent, this line for example.

 

‘We will resist this onslaught of unfettered belief in the flawlessness and omniscience of artificial intelligence. It’s species suicide. We will resist.’ 

With current events unfolding in this world of ours today a novel like this cannot fail to make us think about what might be ahead. 

 

My thanks to Isabelle Kenyon of Fly on the Wall Press for an advance copy of this book and a place on the blog tour. 

Links...

https://linktr.ee/WeAreNotAnonymous

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/228567029-we-are-not-anonymous

 

 

 

 

Graffiti Girls – Elissa Soave

 

I remember reading Ms. Soave’s first novel Ginger and Me , and believing it to be something of a coming of age story. 

(I wrote about the book on this blog - https://bookphace.blogspot.com/2023/04/ginger-and-me-elissa-soave.html)

 

Graffiti Girls looks at a completely different female demographic – women in their forties looking back at their lives and wondering if they are past their sell by dates! Very different from the previous book. There’s an element of the feminist novel here but it’s also about friendships and how different women react in given situations. I found it a keen observation of the misogyny in our society. 

 

I should say that I don’t actually approve of graffiti! There are ways to get your points across, I think, particularly nowadays, but ultimately some poor sod has got to clean the graffiti off! That takes resources and manpower and detracts from the intent of the graffiti artist, I believe. I have no arguments, though, with what these four women are saying in their graffiti.

 

The four women, Amy, Carole, Elenore and Susan are friends since schooldays. They have a tight supportive friendship despite their very different characters. I liked the format of the book where each woman had a section devoted to her and the reader leant more abut her as an individual. And there were chapters that were general to all the women. They are all likeable characters, so the reader is invested in their stories and their motivations.

 

The book has an easy flowing narrative with much appeal to those of us who are older and can identify with some of the situations described in the book.  

 

Ultimately, it is an uplifting read that has a point to make but not in a preachy, hard or angry way  (even though Amy is pretty feisty!) 

 

My thanks to HQ Stories for my gifted copy. 

 

An Orchid in My Belly Button – Katy Wimhurst

 

The short story is an underrated genre. Character, plot, setting and suspense all combine succinctly to a satisfactory conclusion. It used to be far more prevalent amongst writers of substance. Think of Rudyard Kipling, Edgar Allan Poe, Daphne Du Maurier, Franz Kafka, Raymond Carver…… I could go on.  But now it seems that many short story authors fall below the radar. I long for the day when we see the longlist for the Booker Short Story Prize 20whatever……. But I guess in our money dominated times it is an economic issue that inhibits the major publishers from embracing the short story collections. 

 

I’m an eclectic reader, maybe that helps, but I love short stories. I love the skill that a short story writer displays with their ability to create a concise narrative without compromising literary integrity. So, I jumped at the chance to read this absorbing collection from Katy Wimhurst. For a start I adored the title!! Who couldn’t resist a book entitled An Orchid in my Belly Button?!

 

I laughed, I cried, I marvelled. The stories are diverse. Some juxtapose what we might see as the norm; snow falling inside rather than outside, predator rabbits and a Buddhist wolf. Another takes the capability of an everyday item to an extreme - a vacuum cleaner that can suck up literally anything! 

 

There are tales of magic, dystopia, shapeshifting, dreamlike tales, bizarre imaginings. There are fables for our contemporary times; materialism that causes a boat to sink, a stroppy mermaid aghast at the plastic pollution.

Accounts of flora and fauna growing on the human body. There is something euphoric about an imagination running so freely. 

 

I think my favourite story was Bootleg Chocolate. It was certainly the one that made me laugh the most. At times it was almost Kafkaesque, with a helping of Lewis Carroll. It’s a short story but it defies a precis, it’s so offbeat with such creative episodes within the story, very clever.

 

But as well as making me laugh I was also touched by the empathy and understanding of the natural world - The Ghosts of Crabs where little Luke can communicate with the ghosts. So many of Katy Wimhurst’s characters are in tune with the rhythms of nature and possess a reverence for living things that is almost spiritual. 

 

It may only be March, but this has been one of my favourite books so far this year. I loved it. 

 

Thank you to the author for gifting me a copy. 

February 2025 Round Up

Unfortunately, my covid recovery is taking longer than I would have liked. One visit to the surgery later and I was told it can take up to six months to fully recover. Six months?! Not what I wanted to hear. But the only silver lining is that I seem to read more books while I’m trying to recover my energy.

 

First up this month was Katie Lumsden’s The Secrets of Hartwood Hall. Reviewed on the blog here - https://bookphace.blogspot.com/2025/02/the-secrets-of-hartwood-house-katie.html

 

Closely followed by Bernadine Evaristo’s Girl, Woman, Other. One of those books I’ve been meaning and meaning to read and finally got around to it. I thought it was marvellous. I loved it’s structure and the way each of the women’s stories merged with the others in some way. It's a pertinent book and it stays with you for a long time after you finished it. I’m still thinking about it to be honest, which is probably why I haven’t braved a review as yet because I’m still cementing my thoughts.

 

I received a copy of Nick Stapleton’s How to Beat Scammers from Tandem Collective. I wrote about this book on my blog. https://bookphace.blogspot.com/2025/02/how-to-beat-scammers-nick-stapleton.html

 

Since having Covid and having such poor energy levels, my usual routine of walking to the library and the bookshop have been curtailed significantly. One of my goals, as I try to build up my stamina, is to get to these beloved venues. I’ve managed the library on a couple of occasions now. First of this month’s library books was Lottie Hazell’s Piglet. Quite an unusual book in some ways as there is an onus on the reader to summon their imaginations because we are never told what it is that Kit has done to cause such a sense of betrayal in Piglet just weeks before their wedding. Piglet loves her grub, hence the nickname, but hunger can be interpreted on more than one level. I must confess that I didn’t warm to Piglet as a character, but I did find the book an interesting one. I found there were several issues to consider - the strength of female friendship, considerations of social roots and whether you ever can completely cast them aside. An interesting debut novel for sure.

 

Canongate Books sent me a copy of Doon Mackichan’s memoir, Lady Parts. I blogged about it.

https://bookphace.blogspot.com/2025/02/my-lady-parts-doon-mackichan.html

 

Another Library book. This time it’s the wonderful Chris Whitaker’s All the Colours of the Dark. I’ve read all of his books. I’d read his shopping list if he’d let me.

https://bookphace.blogspot.com/2025/02/all-colours-of-dark-chris-whitaker.html

 

Amy Engel - new writer to me, thank you HQ Stories – with I Did it for You is a deliciously twisty tale of small town America. The paperback published on the 27^th of February, blogged here. 

https://bookphace.blogspot.com/2025/02/i-did-it-for-you-amy-engel.html

 

Another book from HQ Stories Elissa  Soave’s Graffiti Girls doesn’t publish until 13^th March so I’ll hold on to the review until then. Four women, Amy, Carole, Elenore and Susan are friends since schooldays. They have a tight supportive friendship despite their very different characters. United in their despite of misogyny they decide to take action.

 

My final library book of the month was recommended to me by my yoga teacher who has been kind enough to do some online yoga sessions with me, free of charge, until I’ve regained my stamina. It was Jo Browning Roe’s A Terrible Kindness. I loved it. I thought it was very well written, and I liked the structure. I thought the characters were well drawn and the story raised so many issues and points of discussion. I’m old enough to remember the Aberfan disaster. In this story William is one of the four hundred volunteer embalmers. Newly qualified and nineteen years of age the experience affects his whole life and relationships and causes him to appraise his past.  

 

 

 

 

  

I Did It for You – Amy Engel

I must admit that initially this book had me fooled into thinking it was set in the town where my brother lives in Shropshire, Ludlow. And indeed, it IS set in Ludlow but it’s a Ludlow in small town America! My disappointment was short-lived when I started to read this fiendishly, twisty plotted story. It’s a complex story that will have you playing amateur sleuth as you try to figure out exactly what is going on – copycat killer or the same one? 

 

In tandem with the crime aspects of the novel there are some spider web relationships enduring throughout; family, friendships, romance, law enforcement. I think the book also explores the nature of grief and what it can do to an individual. And how hard it is to escape the fetters of the past. 

 

The pace is such that the reader cannot help but read on and on to complete the jigsaw laid out before them. Secrets unfold that throw some suspicions under the bus and give birth to new ones. It is gripping.

 

The characterisations are excellent, the author’s ability to develop characters who are real and flawed and to elicit empathy even for those who have transgressed the law most horribly is admirable.

 

I didn’t see the final denouement, it really took me by surprise. So the ending was quite moving. Altogether a very entertaining read. 

 

My thanks to Rhiannon Morris at HQ Stories for my copy.

 

My Lady Parts – Doon Mackichan

 

When I’m feeling down and in the need of a cheer up, streaming a few episodes of Smack the Pony usually does the trick. So I was really excited when Canongate Books sent me a copy of Doon Mackichan’s memoir.

 

I found it unusual as a memoir because it wasn’t just the re-accounting of somebody’s life with entertaining anecdotes are so many memoirs seem to be. This pulls a punch and has a point to make. I suppose you could call it a feminist memoir but I think it goes beyond that . It examine the place of women and how they are treated, certainly in the entertainment industry but you sense that it is much broader. 

 

Doon is a force to be reckoned with. This is such a bold memoir, full of honesty and insight. The writer is unafraid to expose the misogyny that seems endemic and creates barriers for women in theatre, TV and films. She seems to have made an alternate career of sticking to her principles which I so admire.  

 

But if all that sounds a little heavy, fear not, for this is also the work of a very witty author and there’s a balance between the good times and the bad times and there were plenty of both. I guess the account illustrates the price that can be paid for being bold enough to say no and calling out the bigotry. 

 

However, it’s not all about show business. Doon speaks of her life outside of her thespian pursuits. Her early life and how she came to be involved in the performing arts.  I found the account of her son’s leukaemia very moving indeed. 

 

I also enjoyed the format of the book. Each chapter is prefaced with a casting call that gives you some hint of what’s ahead in that particular section and is a description of Doon Mackichan herself!

 

Thanks to Canongate Books