Virginia Lane is not a Hero - Rosalind Stopps

 

There is something wonderfully uplifting about a novel that has a protagonist of mature years kicking butt. The title doesn't suggest that, it suggests it's going to be an Eleanor Oliphant, Dawn Brightside kinda story but it isn't! Many nails were bitten and many tissues were used during the reading of this book.

Ever since her beloved Jed died, all Virginia wants is to be left alone. But the little girl who lives down the street is so sweet, that even in her grief state Virginia's heart softens whenever she sees her.

And that's why Virginia knows there's something wrong in the little girl's house. So when the mother asks Virginia to take her child far away, somewhere safe, Virginia says yes.

The last thing Virginia would call herself is a hero. She's just doing what anyone else would do, right? But when she realises how much danger the child is in, she knows she needs to do everything she can to keep her safe… Because sometimes it's the most ordinary people who end up doing the most extraordinary things. 

Thus sayeth the blurb! But the book is so much more. For a start there are some memorable characters, not least Virginia herself, but Jackson and his brother, Noah (surely one of the most philosophically precocious and preceptive eleven year olds to populate the pages of a story!) And then there's Annie, a pen pal of Virginia's late husband whose own story could have been the subject of a full length novel, not to mention Noah and Jackson's grandmother, battling illness. And yet it is not a wholly character driven story, there is a dark, tense plot that explores several contemporary social issues not in a preachy, teachy way but in the best way for maximum impact - a novel. 

Whilst on the face of it the events in this story are very unlikely in a reality situation this is fiction and in the hands of a gifted story teller it all works. There is a pleasing balance between the darker aspects of the story and  some deadpan humour in some places.  

Rosalind Stoops gets under the skin of all her characters and enables the reader to feel what they are feeling, no mean feat, given the range of ages contained within the book from a toddler to a pensioner! So whilst Virginia is ostensibly the main character the others are never far behind her. 

You read a book like this and are forced to consider what you might do in a similar situation. Could you be bold enough? It is a fiction that offers more than the mere telling of a story it asks us to consider some of the more dire aspects of today's world and the impact on others. In this story there is a resolutions but an astute reader will know that it is not always the case.

My thanks to HQ Stories for a gifted copy of this book.

Maps of Imaginary Towns - SJ Bradley

 

I think the most forcible thing that struck me upon completion of this short story collection was how open ended the stories are, inconclusive almost, leaving the reader to take over with their own imaginations. And whilst the stories might appear inconclusive such a device renders the work inclusive for the willing reader as if the writer is inviting you to become cerebrally involved rather than merely entertained. The second thing that struck me was a sense of being off kilter, as if I was navigating dream narratives. That made me think of Kafka and some of his short stories. The sense of nothing being quite right. The protagonists struggling against bureaucracies, conventions and society itself even.

The stories boast a range of ideas, themes and chronology from futuristic, dystopian worlds - Backstreet Nursery 2050, The Life of Your Dreams to domestic abuse - Dance Class - and grief, in the story that gives the collection its title,  Maps of Imaginary Towns  yet some of the stories are almost impossible to categorise definitively, which I love. There seems to be such a need today to label and compartmentalise that it is so refreshing to have something that tests those boundaries, make the reader think, question and ponder.

The collection is diverse; expansive and imaginative with narratives that are economic without being lacking. Some stories were short, two or three pages maybe against some of their longer 'colleagues' yet they packed as much punch as the lengthier ones because it’s quality not quantity that counts. As a scribbler myself, (not just unpublished, never to be published, I think!) I have written pieces that I have all but discarded because I felt they were too 'short' so some of the stories here filled me with disproportionate joy! 

I found it easiest to discern a unified style throughout the book by the characterisations. Their gender, age, ethnicity etc. didn't matter. It was as if it  were one and the same person in different incarnations. That is a similar feeling I get from reading Kafka where the main protagonists may have different names and so on but it is as if the same character appears in each story or novel. 

I could try to say which were my favourites but it's tough because I might end up listing the entire compendium! Suffice to say that anyone who enjoys short stories should find something to excite them here. 

My thanks to Fly on the Wall Press who gifted me a proof.

Beautiful - William Spring

 This book is Beautiful. Yes, I know that's the title of the book but it really is - beautiful. It's a book of beauty on so many levels and I wanted to call my review Beautiful but I can't use the title of the book as a title for the review so I wrote it backwards instead!

It's beautifully presented for starters. and that's before you even start to examine the text and the illustrations. It's a large format book, maybe some folk would call it a coffee table book, depends on the size of your coffee table! However to contemplate this book being shrunk to conventional hardback or paperback size would be a travesty. 

This book celebrates a variety of creatures to be found across our planet. Details of each animal and how they have evolved are succinctly and articulately expressed to readers of all ages to access.

The art work is stunning. Each animal is presented as a beautiful water colour and here's where the size of the book really impacts because at times you think you're actually looking at the real life creatures. The Fossa entry is a perfect example. Don't know what a Fossa is? No, I didn't either. So the book is informative and will introduce you to animals you may not have heard of before. 

Some of the facts will astound you - for example did you know that the Pygmy Seahorse can swim 500 times  its own body length per second?! If there were aquatic animal olympics I think this species would be in for a stab at gold! 

It's book to be dipped in and out of. It's a book to be kept and treasured. It reminds us, in case we might have forgotten, what a beautiful planet we are privileged to exist on and how great is the need for us to revere and nurture its abundant diversity.

My thanks to Readers First for a prize copy of this book. They require a winner to write a review for their website the title of which must not be the title of the book hence the references in the first paragraph in case you were wondering!

         

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.