My Reading Month - May
Three of my favourites this month were review copies from Saraband. I am, as ever, so grateful to receive their books, which are always beautifully produced.
Angela Meyer's Joan Smokes is a tiny, perfect novella, and I'm not surprised it won the inaugural MsLexia prize for that format. Meyer's every word is carefully chosen and rich with meaning, and her control is exemplary. I've read this twice and loved it. My review is here.
Ghost Trees is Bob Gilbert's journal of a year in Poplar, during which he discovers much about the local flora and fauna, and even more about local history and how the three are intertwined. He tells some fascinating stories, and made me look at my surroundings with new eyes.
The title of Sue Lawrence's latest historical novel is a mystery in itself - how can the death of Lady Grange be 'unreliable'? In telling this shocking story, which is based on real events that took place in the early 18th century, Lawrence exposes the dreadful, powerless, position of women - even rich women - at that time. Full review here.
Two murder mysteries featured on my May list, but neither impressed me too much. So far I've had only mixed feelings about the British Library Crime Classics series; the covers of these books are stunning, but the content of the ones I've read hasn't lived up to the presentation. John Bude's The Sussex Downs Murder wasn't a bad read, but I have yet to enjoy this series as much as many other readers seem to - maybe I've just not found the best ones.
I've read several in GM Malliet's series about ex-spy-turned-country-vicar-and-sleuth Max Tudor; each time I've told myself not to bother with any more, but something has made me press on. In Prior's Wood really was the nadir for me - ridiculous plot, but I can live with those in cosy mysteries. No, what drove me over the edge with this was the constant use of American words/spellings, and more especially American figures of speech, when the story is supposedly set in a West Country village. The author may be American but she has lived in England in the past, so there really is no excuse for things like 'who raised him' or 'a few years previous' (instead of 'previously'). English people do not routinely offer cream with morning coffee, no more than they 'visit with' someone. Sainsbury's supermarkets do not have 'parking garages' - whatever they may be. And as for 'canning nectarines' - I know we've got global warming and all that, but since when did any such thing happen in Somerset? Add to all this Max's unbelievably, impossibly, perfect wife Awena and their equally perfect, cherubic, well-behaved two year old son Owen, and you may begin to understand why I won't be spending any more time in Monkslip-super-Mare.
An ancient copy of Marghanita Laski's The Village had been mouldering on my shelves for years; I decided to pick it up to add to my #projectplaces reading theme, and soon wondered why I had left it so long. It is a wonderful book - it may be set in a village, but cosy it is not, and through some extremely well-drawn characters it examines class and change in the new Britain of 1945, and in particular the ways in which the war affected the lives of the old upper classes. Review here.
Finally, I am never above an easy read or two, and last month I indulged in Jenny Colgan's Class and Debbie Macomber's The Little Bookshop of Promises. Class was a very entertaining story about a working class Scottish teacher rocking up at an exclusive girls' boarding school in the south of England. Yes, it's predictable, yes it's unrealistic, and yes, I still enjoyed it very much; I think it's one of the best Colgans I've read to date.
Debbie Macomber is a sort of secret vice for me; I know her books are full of American Family Values, I know the men will be brave, taciturn and handsome, the women either good and self-sacrificing or immoral, misguided witches, and I know everyone (or rather, everyone who deserves to) will end up with the right person in the end. I don't share many, if any, of these values, but I still find these books addictive, comforting reads, and I admire Macomber for the difficulties she has overcome to emerge as an internationally best-selling and much-loved author.
So now it's June, 20 Books of Summer has begun, and I'll report on my progress with that next month.
I find the John Bude books very hit and miss. Some are quite good, Murder on the Riviera for instance although I like reading about France so that may have coloured my opinion somewhat.
ReplyDeleteOh goodness, I'm so with you on Americanisms in books supposedly set in the UK. I don't understand why American authors or publishers can't get the books checked by a Brit before publication, it would be quite simple. I actually think they don't care, that American audiences are more important to them and they of course don't notice a problem.
I've said elsewhere that The Village is now on my pile for this month, I also found The New House by Lettice Cooper sitting beside it, unread. Have you read it? That's on the pile too.
Hi Cath, thanks so much for your comments.
DeleteI haven't read Murder on the Riviera, but I agree, setting can certainly improve a novel.
As for Americanisms, I was still thinking about this last night, and I started to wonder why these writers don't just write about small towns in America instead? Is there no tradition of siting cosies there? And if not, why can't they start one? I'd be quite interested to read something set in one of the less well known states - I very much enjoy Dana Stabenow's murder mysteries set in the Alaskan National Park, though they are definitely not 'cosy'. Even the Debbie Macomber book I read last month, though it could never be called highbrow literature, had the (to me) interesting backdrop of a rural Texas town. I don't know if it was authentic, but the details about ranch life were fascinating. Macomber also sets many of her books in Washington State, often in naval communities, and again they are things I know nothing about, and enjoy learning.
Maybe Americans think their US readers want English villages at all costs, and as you say, that's what matters to them and their publishers - but I agree, why can't they get them checked first?
I haven't read The New House , but like you I have it on my TBR piles. I've only just discovered that Cooper was Leo Cooper's aunt and therefore Jilly Cooper's 'aunt-in-law.' Jilly Cooper is my elder daughter's favourite 'comfort author', and although I'm not that keen on her more recent output, I do still enjoy the early novels, especially Harriet.
Looking forward to your thoughts on The Village.
Oh, I'm a big fan of Dana Stabenow's Kate Shugak books too, I've read nine or ten and must get back to them. I think quite a few American authors do concentrate on American settings but a few think they can do the UK without making sure they get it spot-on for people in the UK reading said books. I must get back to Debbie Macomber, I read some of her books years ago and loved them. What was the title of the Texan one?
DeleteI didn't know about the relationship between Jilly Cooper and Lettice Cooper, it's such a small world! I read a couple of hers 'years' ago (how did I get to be this old?) but not recently. I seem to be moving away from murder books - although I still like them a lot - to what used to be called 'women's fiction'. I don't know what they call it now. I'm just reading All Passion Spent by Vita Sackville West and loving it. Now I want to read about her relationship with Virginia Woolf and so on . I love the way one books lead to another and another.