What’s on your bookshelf: September

Thistles and Kiwis

That’s what I love about books – a journey without a map.

I stumbled upon this quote in this interview in The Guardian the other day and it struck home. For those of us who like to read, every time we pick up a book it does indeed take us on a new journey. I just started a new book on the bus this morning that transported me from a rainy Friday morning to a small town in the mid west of the US in 1945…a new journey indeed.

So to this month’s book, starting with the Marsden Books book club pick for August, Jeanine Cummins Speak to me of Home. An inter-generational saga of mothers and daughters, this was quite a good book but far from perfect. Apart from bad errors such as the dates Facebook and Instagram started/became mainstream which can easily be checked with Google, there were gaps in some of the story lines that needed to be filled. It was well written, and I wanted to know what happened to the characters, even though it did drag in places, but I have mixed feelings about it.

After finishing that I needed something in complete contrast and picked up a cosy crime, Murder at the Book Festival by Jane Bettany. This is the fourth in a series, but it didn’t matter. The scene – a village about to host its first book festival. Our heroine, Violet Brewster is delighted when she is asked to interview the star author….who is then found dead….but is it her? A decent book of its genre, if I see others in the series in the library I might pick one up.

Years ago I read Michael Arditti’s Easter which I enjoyed so when I spotted The Choice in the library I thought I would give it a go. This is such a well written book but may not be to everyone’s taste given the themes. I highly recommend it – there is a decent review in The Guardian here.

I followed this with another detective novel, The Girl’s in the Glen by Lynne McEwan, another in the series featuring. This was OK, a ‘if I was on holiday I would definitely pick this up from the hotel library and read it’ book. I’m not to keen on the lead detective, which, if you like detective fiction, is a must.

But then…a book which will definitely be on my top books of the year list, Theory & Practice by Australian writer Michelle de Kretser. The narrator is 24 and pursuing postgraduate studies on Virginia Woolf while living in St Kilda, Melbourne. But there is a lot more to it than that: discussion of academia, living in the 1980s with AIDS around, and finding out who you are as a person. It is such a beautifully written book, with wonderful sentences like:

I accepted the business card that she produced from a garment as ashy and architectural as her hair.

The book melds fiction, essay and memoir in a fascinating and different way. I loved it.

On recommendation from I think Anabel, The Glasgow Gallivanter, I picked up Maggie O’Farrell’s Instructions for a Heatwave. I know O’Farrell is a hugely popular writer, and I did enjoy it, but….unlikable characters again!

I picked up the second of the series about the café which can transport you back to a point in time to meet someone who meant something to you Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi. You either like this sort of book or you don’t, and I confess to being in the ‘like’ camp. I find these books relaxing and very good to take you away from the stresses of everyday like. I also read another in the Lilian Jackson Braun series of cat detective books, some of which are better than others. The Cat Who Went up the Creek is not one of the best but was perfect bus reading.

Finally, another book that may appear on my favourite books of the year Gabrielle Zevin’s The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry. I loved her Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow last year and was not disappointed with this work. As the blurb says….

A.J. Fikry, the grumpy owner of Island Books, is going through a hard time: his bookshop is failing, he has lost his beloved wife, and his prized possession – a rare first edition book has been stolen. Over time, he has given up on people, and even the books in his store, instead of offering solace, are yet another reminder of a world that is changing too rapidly. But one day A.J. finds two-year-old Maya sitting on the bookshop floor, with a note attached to her asking the owner to look after her. His life – and Maya’s – is changed forever. 

It is a book to make you smile, cry and feel good and I highly recommend it.

And so here is the voting:

  • Jeanine Cummins Speak to me of Home 3.5 families
  • Jane Bettany Murder at the Book Festival 3.5 books
  • Michael Arditti The Choice 4 churches
  • Lynne McEwan The Girls in the Glen 3 archaeologists
  • Michelle de Kretser Theory and Practice 5 flats in Melbourne
  • Maggie O’Farrell Instructions for a Heatwave 4 secrets
  • Lilian Jackson Braun The Cat Who Went up the Creek 3.5 cats
  • Toshikazu Kawaguchi Before the Coffee Gets Cold 4 cups of coffee
  • Gabrielle Zevin The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry 5 bookshops

Jo is hosting this month’s what’s on my shelf so do check her post out.

Thistles and Kiwis is a Wellington, New Zealand based blog written by Barbara, who likes cats, summer, good food and pretends to garden.

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Published by Thistles and Kiwis

Loves summer, sunshine and cats. Beginner gardener, likes eating, cooking and reading about food

33 Comments

  1. I don’t seem to get on with these very popular Japanese books. There’s just something about the writing – I think i find it very third-hand, so there’s a big element of distance from the characters for me. But they are certainly well-loved books. Have a fine weekend.

    cheers

    sherry https://sherryspickings.blogspot.com/

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  2. I was discussing unlikeable characters with a writing friend the other day. I’ve written characters I don’t like, but like to geive them some sort of redemption – probably the Pollyanna in me, but characters that persist in being unlikeable? I struggle with that -especially in detective fiction

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    1. You need the lead detective to be someone you like or at least sympathise with. I just finished a book where I liked all the characters, even the unpleasant one – what a difference it makes!

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  4. I have enjoyed the Coffee gets cold series having read the first three but it does get a bit repetitive. I have The Storied Life of A J Fikry on my bookshelf from ages ago and really need to prioritise that as I’ve heard nothing but good things.

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  5. I loved Gabrielle Zevin’s The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry and I only read the first installment of the Before the Coffee Gets Cold series. Happy with the fact that there’s more Japanese literature that’s getting translated.

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  6. Yes, it probably was me who mentioned Instructions for a Heatwave because I’ve read it fairly recently. I really enjoyed it, and although the characters were all flawed I didn’t find them unlikable. In fact I wanted to stay in their company to find out what happened next!

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  7. Excellent suggestions! I’ve read ‘Before the Coffee Gets Cold’ and ‘The Storied Life of AJ Fikry’ both are excellent. Like you, I’m in the “like” camp for the Japanese one. Have you read ‘The Guest Cat’ by Takashi Hiraide? It’s a beautiful book.

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  11. Your book reviews are always a pleasure to read. I agree with you about the lead characters in crime novels having to have at least some redeemable features 🙂 🙂

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  12. You have ignited my interest in Gabrielle Zevin’s book The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry. It’s going to be my next book to read. Something different. Thanks.

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  15. Pingback: If we were having coffee…or even a cup of tea… – Thistles and Kiwis

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