What’s on my bookshelf September

The days are getting longer, the birds sing louder in the mornings and the pile of books beside the bed does not get any smaller. Or rather, I keep adding to it. This month’s reading has been good, with, as usual a real mix of things, but, shock, horror, no detective fiction. This must be a first! All the books were also written by women – not so sure that is a first.

Anyway, first up is Meg Mason’s Sophie Standing There, a book I really enjoyed. Sophie works as a freelance sound technician at literary festivals. She lives in a flat owned by her ex-husband whose new wife is pregnant. She has friends, a brother she is close too, but is dissatisfied with life. Then she becomes fixated on an author, and when she meets her, things take an interesting turn. The Guardian review is pretty spot on, but there is a lot more to the book.

Next up, the Marsden Books book club this month was Ann Patchett’s latest work, Whistler. The general consensus of the group was that we all loved it. When Daphne Fuller and her husband Jonathan visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art, they notice an older man who turns out to be Eddie Triplett, her former stepfather. Eddie had been married to her mother for a little more than year when Daphne was nine, and she has always wondered if it was her fault. Through the book we find out about the incident that brought them close, the real reason for the divorce, and a renewed friendship come to blossom. This is such a beautiful book and I highly recommend it.

Another book I enjoyed this month is Liane Moriarty’s new book Big Little Truths, the follow up to Big Little Lies, featuring the same set of characters but now with teenage children. This is a lot of fun, and a perfect weekend or holiday read. If you liked the original, you will like this, and I thought it fun that the author referenced the US-set TV version of it in her preface (I still think they should have kept the story in Australia).

In the non-fiction pile was Susan Hill’s delightfully titled Howard’s End is on the Landing. While it was an interesting take on re-reading your own library of books, she is a bit of a snob (would never read anything by an Australian writer…) and I found myself getting tired of it at the end.

I read one e-book from the library, The Eights by Joanne Miller, about the first undergraduate female students at Oxford, the friendships made, the misogyny still prevalent and their loves and life. It was the perfect sofa read when I had a bad cold.

So to end, I read the first two volumes of the time loop series, On the Calculation of Volume by Solvej Balle. I would really like to know if any of you out there have read these books. I wasn’t sure at first, but the writing is almost prose poetry, and flows along so beautifully (and remember, I am reading these in English and not Danish, so the translator has done a great job). Tara Selter is dealer in rare and antique books, keeps repeating a single day, 18 November. The first book describes how she first realises what is happening, outlining the days since she returned to her home and husband from a trip to Paris. Only Tara retains a memory of the previous 18ths, and she has to start every day by convincing her husband of what is happening to her. Meanwhile, her body and some material objects continue to move through time: an injury she received in Paris slowly heals and groceries vanish from supermarket shelves overnight. Volume two sees her journeying through Europe, seeking first winter, then spring, as she tries to experience a normal year. The descriptions of what it is like to see spring are little poetic gems. An intriguing series and I have volume three ready to read.

And so to the voting…in the order I read the books…

• Meg Mason Sophie Standing There 5 writers
• Susan Hill Howard’s End is on the Landing 3 books
• Ann Patchett Whistler 5 family connections
• Solvej Balle On the Calculation of Volume I 4 days
• Joanna Miller The Eights 4 students
• Liane Moriarty Big Little Truths 5 friends
• Solvej Balle On the Calculation of Volume II 4.5 days

Thistles and Kiwis is a Wellington, New Zealand based blog written by Barbara, who likes cats, summer and good food. Thistles and Kiwis can be found on Facebook and Instagram @thistlesandkiwis