July Wrap Up

I’ve had a bit of a Fiona Cummins fest this month! Or perhaps I should say another Fiona Cummins fest for I read three of her books last month and now three this month. And she is returning to my local bookshop this Friday to talk about All of Us are Broken which I’m looking forward to and I can tell her that I’ve read all of her books now, if I get the chance. They are chilling, twisty stories that you just can’t put down. Rattle and the Collector go together and we meet Saul Anguish for the first time before he progresses into Into The Dark and All of Us are Broken. 

 One of the publicists at Quercus books offered me a finished copy of Trevor Woods’  latest book, The Silent Killer, which I wrote about on my blog.

https://bookphace.blogspot.com/2024/07/the-silent-killer-trevor-wood.html

 

 Bridget Collins The Silence Factory was a library book. I read The Binding but not The Betrayals. However, that might have just edged its way further up my TBR list after this one which was mesmerising almost in its gothic tale of family, fortune and… silk!

  

 

Next up was a volume of poetry from Ricky Ray. I wrote about this on my blog.

 

https://bookphace.blogspot.com/2024/07/the-soul-we-share-ricky-ray.html

 

 Rose Tremain’s Absolutely and Forever was a novella, a moving tale of love and friendship with a twist right at the end that will grab your heart.

Next  is Three Sisters, Three Queens by Phillipa Gregory. I love her Tudor books although I would say this one dragged a little at times because it seemed repetitive in one sense as Maragret went from castle to castle fleeing someone other. But it does give you a flavour of the courts of Scotland and England at that time and how basic communication was!! Days for letters to reach the recipient, hard to think of in our time of instant messaging!!

 

 

Finally this month Thinking Girl by Norma Meacock. Published in the sixties it reminded me a little of Henry Miller. I found it on a second hand book site because it is out of print. I read it because it was written by my brother’s neighbour! I had the pleasure of meeting her earlier this year, she is 90 now, bless her and one of those bohemian, original people you only come across every so often. She’s written two book and I hope to read the second one soon.

 

 

 

 

 

The Soul We Share - Ricky Ray

 

WINNER OF THE 2023 ARYAMATI POETRY PRIZE

When a collection of poems are ordered into a prelude, five movements, a coda and an interlude I immediately thought I was in for some kind of musically themed poetry. And in a way, to me anyway, there is something musical about poetry – the rhyme, the rhythm, the meter. But having read these pieces, I felt more that the poet was expressing the symphony or a concerto of his life. 

The prologue contains a single poem, entitled The What of Us in four sections, and it gives us, I guess, a hint,  a summary maybe, of what is to come within the collection thematically – the poet’s disability, his dog, his life choices and dilemmas and his life’s philosophies.

It’s very accessible work. There are no attempts at clever trickery in terms of metaphor and imagery. It’s straightforward verse that you feel just comes straight from the poet’s very soul that he is sharing with his readers. I wasn’t sure if that was the intent behind the title or whether he was referring to the soul he shares with his beloved dog. Or, maybe both!

I wasn’t too sure about the inclusion of some prose pieces in the collection. It wasn’t that I didn’t find them interesting it’s that I was in poetry mode and that’s what I wanted. I suspect that’s why it’s the Interlude of the collection.

For any animal lovers, particularly dog lovers, the poems about Addie will burn their way onto your heart, especially if you’ve experienced the heartbreak of losing a beloved pet companion.

If you've suffered with spinal problems then Preparing My Spine for the Afterlife is a must!

For ecologist, there’s much to delight. Mother Earth is referenced on more than one occasion, and then one poem in particular contains an affirmation that could become a mantra for environmentalists.

‘ I offer Mother Earth, my voice, my life,

To help her creatures, creativity,

To do with as she pleases.’

It's poetry to ponder; full of thoughts to take away with you and contemplate. It's a man opening his own soul up to himself, questioning his life and courageous enough to share it all with his readers. 

As always one has favourites, I especially enjoyed Aches, Quartet #3 with its subheadings of Resilience, Hope, Reverence and Faith, perhaps because I understand so well the difficulty of getting comfortable -

'I shift and shift,

shift and shift in search

of comfort,

knowing there's no such thing.'

Movement III contains the poem And Then, Very Gently which comprises of fourteen sections which I would love to quote here in full but I will refrain! It's moving, thought provoking and well observed -

On writer's block;

'The next day 

language arrived 

like a puppy in my pen.'

On friendship;

'Is this what friendship amounts to,

the right to curse and complain,

to grumble, without offense,

or with offense, but just a little?'

On language;

'I like well-worn language

but live in an era

that wants the newest new.'

I think it's a collection I will return to again and again. And, as ever, it's much better if you read the poems out loud! 

My thanks to Isabelle Kenyon at Fly on the Wall Press for a gifted copy.

Buy your copy here  https://www.flyonthewallpress.co.uk/product-page/the-soul-we-share-by-ricky-ray

Arrives with a limited-edition postcard artwork of Addie. 
17% of each sale will be donated to the Irish Setter rescue organization (Irishrescue.org)

The Silent Killer - Trevor Wood

I was lucky enough to snaffle a proof of Trevor Wood's first book, The Man on the Street, which I reviewed in 2020 just before lockdown -

 https://bookphace.blogspot.com/2020/03/the-man-on-street-trevor-wood.html - 

I can remember thinking I must keep an eye on this guy and check out when he writes another book. But I'm ashamed to say I've only just got around to reading another of his stories. And that is because the good folks at Quercus Books sent me a beautiful finished copy of his current work.  

I find it fascinating to read the debut work of an author and then see how they develop and progress as a writer. The Silent Killer is as an accomplished a piece of work as you're likely to find within its genre. I simply couldn't wait to read on and on. In fact I finished it at about 2:00 am one morning, I simply had to find out whodunnit and how!

But the problem with reviewing crime and thriller novels is the danger of giving something crucial away. So I'll head to the blurb......

'The first in a Newcastle-set police procedural series with a twist. DCI Jack Parker has a secret. He has Early Onset Dementia and he will do anything and everything to keep it hidden from his peers and the criminals he’s investigating.

THE CLOCK IS TICKING. THERE’S NO ESCAPE.

DCI Jack Parker has faced down hardened villains and raving, drug-addled lunatics. He’s disarmed a machete-wielding psychopath and broken devastating news of a loved one’s death more times than he can remember.

With a serial killer stalking the Newcastle streets and one of his closest colleagues lying in the mortuary following a hit and run he thinks things are about as tough as they’ve ever been. But he should know that trouble always comes in threes.

Jack is about to face the biggest challenge of his life, one that will end his career and destroy his family: Early Onset Dementia.

As he does everything he can to hide his deteriorating condition from his family and colleagues, Jack believes that the serial killer is haunted by his childhood while his own memories are built on increasingly shifting sands.

The race against time to save lives, including his own, has begun. 

Whilst staying within the realms of the police procedural genre, this cracking thriller will explore character in depth and with sensitivity, as well as with the author’s trademark dark humour.'

As with Wood's first book, the title has a double entendre which I always find pleasing. And in a sense Jack Parker lives a dual life - the cop and the guy facing a dementia diagnosis - and he tries to keep the two separate.

He's a great character and the story is told from his perspective. He's flawed, screws up from time to time but there's a loyalty and commitment that puts him firmly on the side of good. 

It's a robust book with a substance that you don't always get in a crime novel. Wood seems to have the ability with his characters to show them as people as well as police men and women.  So they become very real and you can identify with them and relate to them. There's the suggestion of an implicit link between us all no matter who we are or what we do which renders the narrative very real. 

Many books in this genre offer you a good story that can have you on the edge of your seat, looking for the clues and seeking to second guess the outcome and very enjoyable they are. But you seldom come away from the story still thinking about the characters and their challenges. Dementia is a very pertinent topic in our times and Wood's treatment is real and compassionate. 

Yet take all that away and it doesn't detract from the novel being an excellent police procedural and a gripping crime story that will keep you turning the pages. Plenty of clues, plenty of red herrings and a pace that carries the reader willingly along. No shying away from the seamier side of life and the brutality that one human can wreak on another. But that's balanced out by a subtle humour and some banter between the characters.

And if you feel a sense of loss as you turn the final page and close the book, fear not, for the door is open for a sequel. This is intended as the first in a series which will be exciting and fascinating to see how life develops for Jack Parker.

My thanks to Ella Patel at Quercus books for my gifted copy. 

June Wrap-Up

 

First up this month was Liv Constantine's The Next Mrs. Parrish. Astute readers of this blog ( and I'm chuckling here because I don't think there are any readers of this blog let alone astute ones! 😂) will remember that May ended with The Last Mrs. Parrish which I read quickly and in preparation for this follow up. I reviewed it on the blog'

https://bookphace.blogspot.com/2024/06/the-next-mrs-parrish-liv-constantine.html

My local bookshop has been hosting several writer events. Often they are local authors. Tim Burrows, a freelance journalist, wrote a book about the county of Essex. It is an attempt to dispel the myths about Essex and explode the stereotypical ideas of Essex Girl and Essex Man. It's fascinating. I am ambivalent towards Essex even though I live here. I don't love it. There are bits of it I like. This book makes it sound like an okay place.

The Maid by Nita Prose was one of my 'walking books'. So it was read on the kindle app on my phone. Not my favourite method of reading but better than not reading. I loved it ! I loved the character of Molly, clearly on the spectrum, and well observed by the author. It was an absorbing whodunnit as well.

I've read all of Kate Morton's books. Homecoming is the seventh and didn't disappoint. She is a natural story teller and her stories are often what I like to call 'big house' stories. This book alternates between two different timelines - 1959 and 2018 - and is a slow reveal of the events that surrounded the tragedy of the Turner family. Lots of twists and turns, some you see coming, others you don't. In this story the big house is called Halcyon and the action takes place in Australia.

Next up was a book that has been on my radar for a while. The Island Missing of Trees by Elif Shafak. I think it is the only book I have ever come across where one of the main characters is a fig tree! Genius. It's a beautiful, moving book that looks at the conflict between Turkey and Cyprus.  It's about love and loss and family and heritage. 

Fiona Cummins is a writer who has been on my radar for a while. I didn't realise that she is a local author and I met her at my bookshop where she came to help out for a morning during Independent Book store week.  She was lovely  to talk to and I can't believe how someone so nice can come up with such brutal and fiendish characters and twisty plots! 😂 She told me she would be returning to the bookshop in August so I am determined to read all her books by then. I started with her current book, All of Us are Broken. I’ve just finished When I was Ten and I've just started The Neighbour. I have another reserved at my local library so that means I will have just a couple to go before August if I can stay on target. They are truly UNPUTDOWNABLES!

My friend lost her Mum last October and I've been trying to support her and help her through the worst of bereavement. I remember so well what it feels like.Her Mum was an avid reader and River God by Wilbur Smith was her favourite book. My friend asked me if I would like to borrow it. I said yes but it’s sat on my shelf for a while now and I’ve been feeling bad that I had left it. So I made sure I read it this month and I enjoyed it very much. It’s pure adventure , a kind of Egyptian Game of Thrones! Smith is an experienced writer and I think my own Mum liked his books too. 

And lastly this month is a debut novel from Nikkitha Bakshani. Ghost Chilli! This was one of those delightful books about which I had zero expectations. I knew nothing the author and I just went into it blind, and it was a delight. Funny, touching, a beautifully paced narrative that just moves smoothly along. There were times when I wanted to just hug Muskan and other times when I wanted to give her a good shake! She is quite the character. 

The Next Mrs. Parrish - Liv Constantine

 

I have always believed honesty is the best policy so I will admit that when I received a copy of this book I had not read the first in the series - The Last Mrs. Parrish. But because I am diligent and thorough I tried to put in a request at my local library for a copy. But the Library's online system was down undergoing some lengthy maintenance so I ended up getting a copy for the kindle. There. I've said it. Me, who loathes kindles is such a dedicated reader and book blogger that I endured the dreaded device so that I could read the first book in preparation for the next! 

So I read the books back to back, and frankly after reading the first one I was so full of disgust for Jackson and Amber that I wasn't sure if I could endure another book featuring them so soon. But, I did. Of course I did! 

And the first thing that occupied my thoughts was how can such a fiendish plot can be created? How are minds capable of such vileness?! And how can a book that is a tale of nasty, despicable, manipulative, fraudulent people doing nasty, despicable, manipulative, fraudulent things to reasonably decent people who resort to devious behaviour simply to survive and find out the truth be so damned compelling!!?? I couldn't put the wretched book down!!! 🤣🤣 Also I was reminded slightly of The Talented Mr. Ripley and of Virginia Andrews’ Flowers in the Attic series where there seemed no end to dreadful behaviours. I also realised that I could have read the second without the first because I think it stands up as a standalone ok but I wondered how quickly I would have loathed Amber and Jackson without reading the first. 

But I'm rambling a bit. Let's get to the nitty gritty. The Next Mrs. Parrish is a thriller with lots of suspense as well as a psychological domestic tale. The characters play cat and mouse with each other throughout and there are twists and turns around every chapter! The duplicity of the two main characters is unsurpassed. I think. But the naivety of Daphne sometimes made me want to slap her! 

Briefly Daphne was married to Jackson in an abusive car crash of a marriage that ended when he succumbed to the charms of the obnoxious Amber Patterson. Jackson ends up in jail for tax evasion. That's the first book in an extreme nutshell. The second begins as Jackson's release from prison become imminent and Amber has to begin a new round of conniving and scheming. Meanwhile ex wife Daphne seemingly safe in California has to contend with her eldest daughter running away to try and see her beloved father. Throw in to the mix a blast from Amber's past and the stage is set for a tour de force of deceit, two faced, dishonourable machinations between the lot of them!! The only characters I really felt consistently sorry for were the children, especially Jax and even Tallulah who really was the catalyst for much of what followed. 

Structurally the tale is told in the third person with the exception of Daphne's story which is told in the first person, an interesting device which is more likely to engage the reader positively towards Daphne. 

The narrative stays focused, more so perhaps than in the first book? There is much that you simply can't second guess in terms of the twists and turns that it almost unbalances the reader. It's pretty well paced and simply so compelling. 

The ending was good and I can see a way for another book but I wonder if that would be a mistake? I think I would find it too stressful!!

I was interested to learn that the author is in fact two people! Two sisters. I wondered what their roles might be in the writing of the books. Are they both responsible for these fiendish plots? 🤣

My thanks to Ana McLaughlin at Quercus Books for a gifted copy.

This is where I find the softest hurt - Christiana Jasutan

 This is where I find the softest hurt  is a debut chap book of delicate words from emerging poet Christiana Jasutan. 

The collection comprises work of differing form and style from concrete poetry, prose poetry, dialogue poetry, alongside more traditional stanza driven poetry. The diversity is refreshing. 

Thematically the poems examine the body and its relationship with the self within the context of life itself, the highs and the lows, the hurts and the pleasures. 

This is set very firmly within the opening poem in the collection - Morning Ritual - a poem with four parts that illustrate the different forms ( I loved the egg shaped part that seemed to celebrate the notion that the egg contains all that is needed for life, including love) as well as the almost symbiosis between the body and the life it is living. The inclusion of some Indonesian words also features here and is evident in other poems in the pamphlet. I was grateful for Google translate!

The poet is a keen observer of the human condition -

'Thins the lesson of cooking,

of separating life with (dis)jointed fingers,

that washing the leaves under cold water

before splitting them to sections.'

Food features prominently too in several of the poems, I especially enjoyed Kitchen - 

'it still tastes heavenly; not entirely soup and not entirely cream

but this might be what our friendship is like: flavours bursting

in your mouth that go straight to your heart.'

 I particularly liked Phantom Limbs. The poem is a clever comparison of seeing yearning. and missing as the same sensation an amputee experiences with a phantom limb. 

'Not every distance is the cause of an amputation,

yet every kilometre - a phantom limb to behold.'

Here the poet seems to be missing her mum and addresses her in Indonesian. It's delightful. 

The future of poetry is safe and well in the hands and pens of young poets like Christina Jasutan. It's very exciting.

My thanks to Isabelle Kenyon for a gifted copy of the poems and a place upon the blog tour. 

May Round-Up

 A fiction month with a smattering of poetry and only two library books. But.... two ebooks. Yikes!

I began the month with SJ Bradley's Maps of Imaginary Towns. It isn't published yet so I won't blog until publication day - September 27th 2024. It's a diverse short story collection where the majority of stories are open ended and begging for the reader to form not necessarily their own conclusion but their own interpretations of what might happen next. 

Next up Was Stacey Halls' The Foundling. I had recently read The Household which motivated me too seek out another of her books. I did blog about this one! https://bookphace.blogspot.com/2024/04/the-household-stacey-halls.html 

Claire Douglas' The Wrong Sister was a Tandem Collective mail out. I'd never read any of this author's books before but I hope to rectify this. I was gripped. It was genuinely unputdownable. https://bookphace.blogspot.com/2024/05/the-wrong-sister-claire-douglas.html

I like to walk. But as I've aged and arthritis has taken such a hold I find myself needing to sit down more frequently to let my hurting joints recover a bit. I'm happy to view the natural landscapes abut I also like to read. And so I have the kindle app on my phone. I don't enjoy reading on a kindle but I've found that reading a couple of chapters allows my body to recharge enough to carry on walking. It takes me a longer time to read a book this way but I will admit to finding it enjoyable. I finished Linda Huber's The Cold, Cold, Sea a tense missing child story.

Kate Grenville's A Room Made of Leaves was my next read. A delightful piece of antipodean hisfic.

https://bookphace.blogspot.com/2024/05/a-room-made-of-leaves-kate-grenville.html

Poetry was my next stop. It is for a blog tour in June so the blog post will be ready a little later. Christiana Jasutan is a young poet and This is where I find the softest hurt is her debut collection exploring the relationship between the body and the world using a variety of style and form. 

Lying Perfectly Still by Laura Fish isn't published until October 2024 so my review is not due yet. It is about Koliwe who leaves the UK for a job as an aid worker in Swaziland. The novel examines some of the corruption within the system. 

Another Kate Grenville story. This time The Secret River which tells the tale of one of Grenville's ancestors sent to Oz as a convict in the nineteenth century. I reviewed it. https://bookphace.blogspot.com/2024/05/the-secret-river-kate-grenville.html

A new book by Sarah Perry is always a treat. I reserved this at my local library. and they had to send out to another library to get a copy! Ambitious, complex and beautifully written, Enlightenment had me rapt.

I was lucky enough to be sent a finished copy of Liv Constantine's The Next Mrs Parrish. But first I needed to read The Last Mrs. Parrish! And quick. So I did. But on the dreaded kindle. That's two books on the kindle this month. What's happening to me?!