Above Us The Sky by Milly Adams Book Review

Above Us The Sky by Milly AdamsMilly Adams is an exciting new author, with a wonderful knack of bringing characters to life vividly and bringing the story off the page and into the imagination. Above Us The Sky is a brilliantly researched, and hugely enjoyable novel. Sad in places but ultimately uplifting, this book is set in wartime Britain. Phyllie, a young teacher, is a great character. She becomes a surrogate mother to her pupils. She is particularly protective of Jake, a Jewish boy who has to put up with anti-Semitism. She is a great teacher but finds it hard to adjust to country life and custom. As things become tough she finds love and support in community.

This is an engaging and entertaining story of love and loss. The attention to detail is superb. I loved that the role of the Women’s Institute was including in the novel and you really feel like you are in the submarine, such is the brilliance of her writing. This is a well-written book and a stunning debut. I cannot wait for another Milly Adam’s book as this one is educational, entertaining and riveting all at once.

A compelling new Second World War novel. Evacuees, the WI, and keeping calm and carrying on. Perfect for fans of Katie Flynn and Ellie Dean.

As the threat of bombing raids intensifies, newly-qualified teacher, Phyllis Saunders, is evacuated with her school to Dorset.

Here she encounters prejudice and suspicion. But she is determined to make the best of life, for herself and the children in her care. All the while her fiancé and submariner, Sammy, is facing danger out at sea.

Then the Blitz hits London and Phyllis, trying to persuade her mother to return to Dorset with her, gets caught up in it herself. Shaken but alive, she returns to the relative peace of the countryside. But soon she is nursing a secret she can tell no one.

Until the news that Sammy’s submarine has been sunk reaches her, and she is forced to make a decision she hopes she will never regret…

Above Us The Sky is available here.

 

 

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara by Frances Colville

A LITTLE LIFE by HANYA YANAGIHARA by Frances Colville

A Little Life by American author Hanya Yanagihara is quite simply the best book I’ve read all year, and very well deserving of its Man Booker Prize short listing.  It’s  a book, I think, which will stand out for future generations in the way that Middlemarch or War and Peace or Birdsong stand out as epic studies of life in the time period in which they are set.  It hooks you in on the first page and keeps you enthralled until the very last word.  It’s one of those books which you almost can’t bear to read, and yet can’t not read.  It’s harrowing, enlightening, disturbing, haunting, uplifting and absolutely compelling.

 

A Little Life is the tale of four college friends who meet at sixteen and remain linked throughout their lives. There isn’t much in the way of plot and if you want a strong storyline this isn’t for you.  But that’s not the point of this book.  Told from various viewpoints, but with one central character throughout, it’s about friendship, love, relationships, identity, memory, grief, pain, abuse and death.  The characterisation is superb and the main characters will linger in your head long after you’ve finished reading the book.  But above all it’s the beauty and intelligence of the language which grabs you and won’t let you go.  I’m often guilty of skim reading, but I can honestly say I read every single word of this book just to make sure I didn’t miss anything.  Here’s just one example –  ‘A small memory he could contain, but as the days go by and he waits for Willem, he recognizes that this is a long eel of a memory, slippery and uncatchable, and it whipsaws its way through him, its tail slapping against his organs so that he feels the memory as something alive and wounding, feels its meaty, powerful smack against his intestines, his heart, his lungs.’

 

Beware though – it’s a lengthy book and definitely not a quick read and you’ll need to allocate a chunk of your life to it because you won’t be able to set it aside.

 

A Little Life is published by Picador and is currently available as a hardback and eBook.

 

 

Month 11 of my Reading Challenge By Frances Colville

I found it hard to decide what to go for first this month and spent a happy hour browsing my bookshelves.  In the end I chose The Devil in the Marshalsea by Antonia Hodgson (Hodder & Stoughton paperback 2014).  Set in a debtor’s prison in 18th C  London, this is in places a grim read and the plot fell short of being 100% convincing, but the author is good on atmosphere, the main character is engaging and the book is a good choice for anyone who likes historical crime fiction.

Month 11 of my reading challenge Frances Colville

I had no idea what to expect when I began my next book A Little Life by American writer Hanya Yanagihara, knowing nothing at all about it other than it had been shortlisted for this year’s Man Booker.  But it hooked me in right from the first page.  What’s it about?  Friendship, identity, working out who you are and what your life is all about, pain, abuse, relationships, death, grief and love.  It’s challenging, harrowing and absolutely compelling.  And of all the books I’ve read so far this year, this is the one I would recommend most.  Currently available in hardback – published Picador – or on Kindle.

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What do you choose when you’ve just finished a brilliant book; one which has taken you a long time to read and which you can’t get out of your head?  For me, the solution is to turn to something familiar and reliable and completely different.  And as followers of this year of book reviews will know, that means in my case an Agatha Christie.  This time I picked up The Moving Finger – one of a batch I was given last Christmas.  I don’t think I’ve read it before though it’s hard to be sure.  Either way, I couldn’t remember the ending.  And of course neither the book itself nor the ending disappointed. Vintage Christie – and very enjoyable at that.  My copy is a Fontana paperback, reprinted 1971.

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This Little World edited by Sue Ashby is the sort of book you can dip in and out of whenever you have ten minutes to spare  It’s a collection of short stories from people who live in Dorset – some as young as 11 – and each story is located in Dorset.  Lots of variety and lots to interest anyone who knows anything about Dorset.  My personal favourite is A Smuggler’s Life by 12 year old Sam.  Available now on Amazon and will soon be published as an e-anthology.

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And I’ve also been dipping in and out this month of my copy of the works of poet George Herbert edited by W H Auden.  I studied Herbert for A level and there are certain lines from certain of his poems which still stick in my mind.  Writing in the first half of the 17th C his poems are all about religion, his understanding of it and his struggle to be worthy, but it isn’t the content of the poems which speaks to me but the beauty of the language and the strength of his belief.  Not I think a well-known or in any way fashionable poet but one who in my opinion deserves to be read more.  My edition is a Penguin paperback published 1973.

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Only one month left to go.  And so many books to choose from………………..

 

 

MONEY PIZZA RESPECT By Josh ‘The Fat Jew’ Ostrovsky Book Review

MONEY PIZZA RESPECT By Josh ‘The Fat Jew’ Ostrovsky

Social media superstar @thefatjew has written a searingly honest and completely hilarious autobiographical book. It is amusing and fun: full of hilarious stories and humorous pictures. Ever wanted to see the author in a beef jerky bikini? Of course you do. There may even be an inappropriate (accidental?) shot of the authors, ahem, testicles. There is also lots of drug taking so…don’t try this at home kids, or anywhere else. Just read about Josh Ostrovsky a.k.a. The Fat Jew doing it instead. That is the best way. This book will not be to everyone’s taste but the author has laid himself bare- literally and figuratively, and that is commendable. 

Money, Pizza, Respect is available here. Josh Ostrovsky a.k.a. The Fat Jew has written a book about himself. It will be the funniest book you will ever read.

MONEY PIZZA RESPECT By Josh ‘The Fat Jew’ Ostrovsky Published by Hardie Grant, priced £16.99 Hardback

Follow on Instagram and twitter @thefatjewish

 

 

House of Dreams – Fanny Blake Book Review

book reviews, good reads

A hilltop villa, views, sun and a sibling get together – what’s not to like?

This is a lovely novel, one with which many can empathize as Jo, Tom and Lucy meet at Casa de Suenos for the weekend. It is the house in the mountains of southern Spain where they grew up and they have come to say goodbye.

The person missing is their mother, whose last request was that they celebrate her birthday – together. As with most siblings they perceive their upbringing differently. Will coming together confirm their memories, their perception of one another? More, will this weekend alter the dynamics between the siblings so that they come to like and accept, not just themselves, but one another, and the odd partner, here and there? And that’s an altogether bigger problem.

Fanny Blake writes with warmth, wit and understanding, and, more, she likes people, and it shows.  And somewhere along the way, she has become a wise woman, and that also shows.

Bravo, I loved House of Dreams. You should put it on your Christmas list.

Published by Orion. Paperback £13.99

 

 

Detonator: Andy McNab’s latest Nick Stone thriller by Margaret Graham

Detonator- by Margaret Graham Andy McNab’s latest Nick Stone thriller

Blimey, what a roller-coaster. A hardback is heavy, but Detonator was so gripping I toted it all the way up to Newcastle, where I was doing some publicity for my own books.

 

What an extraordinary man. During the Gulf War Andy McNab of 22 SAS commanded Bravo Two Zero and went on to write the biggest selling British work of military history about that patrol. Now he writes the huge selling Nick Stone and Tom Buckingham novels, cutting a swathe through the publishing world.

 

The plotting is tight, the hooks gallop us into turning the pages, the excitement is intense: there is humour, sadness, and authenticity. Or so I would think anyway. It rang so true to a mere civilian.

 

Nick Stone is a great main character who has spent a lifetime in harm’s way – but when someone he cares for very deeply is murdered in cold blood, he can no longer just take the pain.

 

A high-level internecine conflict at the dark heart of the resurgent Russian Empire and an assassin’s bullet, on an isolated Alpine pass, propel him from an apparently run of the mill close protection task into his most brutal and challenging mission yet.  As the body count increases, vengeance of the most explosive kind is top of Stone’s agenda. The fuse has been ignited – but who really holds the detonator?

 

Set in all too realistic times the scenario felt horribly possible, and would that we had a Nick Stone on our side, but perhaps we have, in McNab’s former outfit. It wouldn’t surprise me a bit.

 

A rumbunctious fabulous writer, who twists, turns and makes you sweat. Probably just what this highly decorated soldier did in the SAS too.

 

Can’t wait for the next book. Bravo, Andy McNab.

 

Published by Transworld Publishers – £18.99

 

 

When Christmas Bells Ring by Katie Flynn Reviewed by Jan Speedie

When Christmas Bells Ring by Katie Flynn Reviewed by Jan SpeedieKatie Flynn has so many successful titles already but we must add this gentle readable story to her successful list.

The story starts in 1938 in Liverpool. Rosheen Clarke and her lively, strong willed twin daughters have no idea how their world is going to change with the advent of war.

After war is declared the twins are evacuated to Wales. The prospect of living in the countryside does not appeal to them.

Rosheen joins the WAAF and meets a fellow Liverpudlian Cassie Valentine.  The two become firm friends and support each other through – trouble with the twins, the bombing of Liverpool and Cassie fighting her love for a childhood friend Andy.

When peace is declared in 1945, Rosheen, Cassie and the twins are all changed by the events that have happened in their lives – hopefully all to their good.

Read and enjoy this well presented tale of life during World War 2.

Katie Flynn lives in the north-west of England.   Her short stories were often broadcast on Radio Merseyside. Hearing her family reminiscing about life in Liverpool in the early twentieth century she was prompted to write her Liverpool series. Katie has always loved to write and continues to although she has had to cope with ME for the past few years.

Published by Arrow on 22nd October 2015 at £6.99

Also available in ebook

 

 

A Fellow Traveller by Karen Neale Book Review

afellowtravveler

A Sketchbook Journey Inspired by World Heritage Cities and Sites

A Fellow Traveller by Karen Neale is well worth reading. The watercolours almost leap off the page, they are so immediate, so imbued with the artist’s passion, and curiosity. Each illustration has text to put it in context. It is a brave and encompassing journey – for Karen, and an enormously satisfying read – for us.

Nick Danziger writes the forword, in which he talks of Karen Neale’s passion and courage, as she shared her ‘Fellow Traveller’ project after she was shortlisted for a Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Fellowship some years ago. Karen’s plan was to visit parts of the world, many of which were not on most tourists’ itineraries.

She travelled for five months through France, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Iran, Uzbekistan, India and Nepal in 2001. During this time she completed 106 annotated, watercolour sketches recording her experiences, 42 of which appear in this book.

Drawing with just a black biro, she became a part of each place for a time. Karen Neale found that sketching erodes cultural and linguistic barriers, as a picture and the process to create it can be universally understood. Almost without exception, people were friendly, informative, inquisitive and afforded her great hospitality. She soon realised that despite different cultures, languages, societal and physical structures, there lies a common universal aspiration. That is to lead an uncomplicated, peaceful life, with a roof over one’s head, food on the table and to be surrounded by family and friends, and taking great pride in our natural and cultural heritage.

I leafed through this album of water colours inspired by World Heritage Cities and found they communicated a profound sense of place, and were full of movement, somehow. No, it’s not as good as going yourself, but it’s still pretty damn good.

I heartily recommend A Fellow Traveller. Just wish I’d been alongside Karen for the trip.

Order the book directly via www.karenneale.co.uk