The next oldest book on my TBR, I received this one from Cari for my birthday in 2022. Looking at the pile I received then, I have now read and reviewed all but one of them (the big Penguin Modern Classics book which I will have to read in bits over a while, I think). I’d had this on my wishlist as was interested to read about Black motherhood in America, but it was a lot more than I was expecting.
Nefertiti Austin – “Motherhood so White: A Memoir of Race, Gender, and Parenting in America”
(27 January 2022, gift)
Austin was a single woman in her 30s when she decided to adopt a baby through public services. Apparently – something I knew nothing about – “Black Adoption” in the US typically involves families practising unofficial and under-the-radar adoptions of family members or friends’ babies. So as well as the usual racism and sexism she encountered, and issues about her being single, she also encoutered pushback from her family and community on why she was adopting an “unknown” child.
Then she went looking for books on Black motherhood and found (in the 2000s) there were basically two. She looked for books on adoption for young Black children and found nothing apart from books on interracial adoption. And then no films with positive portrayals of Black women adopting (she found plenty of cultural stuff about “crack babies” and single Black mothers, none of it positive). So she wrote this book, and she even contemplated doing a children’s book before she realised she had too much on her plate.
As we can see, as well as being a memoir, it offers a guide through the pathway she took – classes, registering as a foster parent, fostering first then adopting, then more individual pathways around forming a community to help her child grow, including Black male figures to act as guides and supports for her son. A lovely positive story, though it does not ignore the hard points and the author had to navigate some difficult family stuff of her own before the adoption and as she went along.
Austin shares interviews with other Black single women who have adopted Black children in the back of the book, then selected resources, and there’s a reading group guide and a short interview with the author. I have no idea whether this would chime with Black women in the UK, but I would be interested to know – I can’t say I’ve seen many Black British motherhood memoirs let alone adoption ones but that might have been me looking in the wrong places.
I have an awful lot of NetGalley reads to get through this month and I’ve only just finished reviewing books read in September, so there may be some more groupings as I go along. These are two excellent novels aimed at YA readers but suitable for anyone which I thoroughly enjoyed.
Amanda Addison – “Looking for Lucie”
(31 January 2024, NetGalley)
College student Lucie has always known that she has a different dad to her younger sister and she’s been conscious all her life of looking different to both her family and to most of the people in her small Norfolk town. She makes friends with Nav, member of a large extended family who sometimes wishes he had less family, just at the point where she’s about to get her DNA tests back and he helps her to navigate the science while she teaches him how she sees differently as an artist. Microaggressions for both of them cement their friendship, and it’s touching to see it develop while we also see the points of view of both sets of parents (I’m reading another multiple-narrator novel at the moment), Nav’s dad being very different in his own narratives than from what Nav sees. Art and science have equal value and we follow Lucie through a few subsequent years as she develops her artistic practice. Some of the themes are very linked to the author’s own life and she mentions in her note at the end that “We need better stories around living as a mixed-race person”. Thank you to Neem Tree Press for approving me to read this book in return for an honest review. “Looking for Lucie” was published on 1 October 2024.
Jason Reynolds – “Twenty-Four Seconds from Now”
(17 July 2024, NetGalley)
PS: Black boys deserve love stories too.
In this marvellous novel with a wonderful experimental form, we meet Neon, 17, who is about to have sex with his girlfriend, Aria, for the first time – he’s in the bathroom, panicking. We then hop back to 24 minutes previously, then 24 hours, 24 days, etc. It all makes sense and it gives us a chance to see Neon in three dimensions, plus his family – there’s a wonderful scene where his mum gives him sex advice very loudly in a cafe, and it’s full of love, tenderness and laughter, but makes the very important point that Reynolds ends his afterword with.
A meditation on young Black masculinity shown organically through Neon’s friends, it’s very well done. There’s some lovely metafiction near the end where Neon tells us what would have happened if this was a film rather than “the beginning of a special, regular story”.
Thank you to Faber for approving me to read this book in return for an honest review. “Twenty-Four Seconds from Now” was published on 8 October 2024.
In yet another Bookish Beck Serendipity moment, characters in both of these books experience synaesthesia!
Back onto the oldest books on the TBR shelf, and another September read I’ve had to hold the review over for – I need to be square with reading and reviewing this month as November will be full of nonfiction! I received this one from my lovely friend Cari for my birthday in 2022. Looking at the pile I gloated over then, I’m pleased to say I’ve read all of them except for two, and one I’m reading at the moment! I read his later book, “The Ship Asunder” first; this is his more famous work but follows a similar pattern.
Tom Nancollas – “Seashaken Houses: A Lighthouse History from Eddystone to Fastnet”
(22 January 2022, gift)
In one sense, it is a working navigational aid, marked on Admiralty charts and GPS systems, but in another it has the feel of a ruin, a brooding air of abandonment. I have encountered no other buildings that produce these twin impressions of use and disuse, centrality and marginality. The tower appears shuttered up, like a relinquished outpost and a relic of a time when we grappled more actively with the sea. (p. 66)
At first I was a little disappointed that, like Barkham’s book mentioned below, actually, we weren’t going to visit all of the rock lighthouses around the United Kingdom and Ireland; however, having a longish chapter on selected ones allows Nancollas the space to go into depth on the construction history, the records, sometimes talking to ex-lighthouse keepers, occasionally managing to visit the lighthouse itself, culminating in a week in one with two men who were tasked with maintaining it.
Nancollas is an affable companion, well-read and just obsessive enough to still be engaging. The book was published in 2018 and records trips and photographs made in 2016 and 2017 but it hasn’t had a chance to date, with most of its subjects there for 100-200 years and having been decommissioned from having keepers a good few decades ago. Nancollas takes the lighthouses in order of age, so we see how one design influences others and how families of architects and builders create them, as well as the trial and error that comes before the ones that stick – one pair were build next to each other, one around the core of the first in one case. There’s also a fascinating interlude where he visits the experimental lighthouse in Blackwall, near the Thames in London, where lights and reflectors and lenses were tested before they were put into operation at sea.
A good and well-written survey with plenty of illustrations although some of the diagrams come out a little small.
We have an interesting Bookish Beck Serendipity Moment here – in both this book and the recently read “Islander” by Patrick Barkham, mid-way through researching a book, the author takes their wife and small children for a holiday on the Isles of Scilly! This was Book 65 in my 2024 TBR project – 76 to go.
I bought this book from The Heath Bookshop on a special arrangement where you bought the book, said how you wanted it signed, Jess popped in to sign them all then you could go and collect your book. This was because it was published in August this year and Jess was a little busy with starting off in government and wasn’t able to arrange a traditional signing. It worked very well and I was able to collect my book, signed to me. This last Saturday was Jess’ actual event for the bookshop, and I’d planned to have the signature beefed up a bit, but it was not to be, as I’d only just tested negative for Covid and didn’t think it was a good idea to squish myself into a crowded venue. I wanted to see her because, having had the odd chat at signings over the years, plus running into her around the place and seeing of course what she does for women and for her constituents, Jess has always been a bit of a hero of mine. I know she can be divisive and make mistakes (which I do believe she owns up to) but she’s personally very inspiring, and indeed I can credit her with a lot of my empowerment to go out campaigning in our next-door constituency for our Labour MP (I was desperate not to let the independent, who was the misogynist/homophobe responsible for the Anderton Park School protests, win: we didn’t let him win). Anyway, I was very sad not to be able to attend the event and I read this book over the weekend in tribute.
Jess Phillips – “Let’s be Honest: Truth, Lies and Politics”
(11 August 2024, The Heath Bookshop)
The only way forward is to end the era of political lying once and for all. Politicians need to clean up their act. And the public and the press must stop joining in with the charade that places populist politicies, dividing lines and charismatic political leadership above boring old service delivery. Our cravings must move from the desire for a delicious instant hit to something that will acutally sustain us. (p. 9)
It was a shame that this book became subject to the forces of history and politics. Coming out in early August 2024, its publishing process must have been very much underway when the snap election was called for 4 July 2024, with no opportunity to react to that in the text or rewrite anything. So Jess is writing it very much from the Opposition benches, only allowing herself a couple of wistful “If I were in Government” moments.
It is a good book still, however, heavily criticising the tendency for words, not deeds and for politicians to look for short-term projects and sound-bites over solid change; the public has then been led to look for very quick actions or assume nothing is going to get done, which all leads to the impossibility of being truthful about the small changes that will take time to bring into effect.
Of course, she’s very funny as she goes along, and there’s lots of great stuff from her stoical and unfussy husband, but also as usual her real anger at the way change isn’t allowed to happen, and especially on how violence to women and girls is given lip-service as being important to address but never actually addressed properly. She’s particularly scathing about the Conservative Government’s actions over the withdrawl from Afghanisan, talking movingly about the thousands of her and others’ constituents she tried to help get family members out, and their increasing desperation and resorting to unofficial routes.
She uses addressing violence against women and children as an example for how things should work and finishes the book by talking positively about the effect individual empowered citizens have had on government and policy at local and national level. Finally, and wonderfully, The Heath Bookshop is mentioned in the Acknowledgements!
A good read and a manifesto for change, some of which hopefully she is able to help put into effect now.
I managed to start my October NetGalley reads in September; given that, this will be one of my shorter reviews as I wrote it when I was still recovering from Covid. However I want to say here that this is an excellent book. A note about another one below that I can’t really find a full review in myself for!
Shannon Downey – “Let’s Move the Needle: An Activism Handbook for Artists, Crafters, Creatives, and Makers”
(1 July 2024, NetGalley)
Craft is the greatest tool I’ve ever stumbled upon for building communities and mobilizing them to take actions that will bring about actual social change. In fact, I call myself a community organizer disguised as a fiber artist. I trick people into hanging out together by promising embroidery workshops, and what we actually do is have commnity gatherings where we identify and find ways to work toward common goals (and also to embroider). (p. 9)
Although I had to read this on the Shelf app, it was worth it as it was full of great images of activism and lovely little cross-stitch hoop projects, and nicely laid out in general, which would have probably got lost in a straight Kindle version.
Although Downey is a long-standing craftivist, this book offers much more than a discussion of craftivism – although it does that really well, too – it’s a deeply practical handbook that will take you through two things:
First, through exercises and worksheets, it takes the individual through an exploration of their skills and attributes and the meaning they ascribe to their life;
Second, through a worked example but lots of other bits and pieces, it walks you through absolutely exactly how to set up an activism campaign, covering costing, resourcing, recruitment, creating structures, running events and making sure very robustly that they are accessible for volunteers and participants alike, and assessing them afterwards.
This all comes along with an excellent section on crafty campaigns of the past which serve to inspire and encourage and a discussion of why people think craft is a quieter and somehow “nicer” way to do activism, where it’s in fact a strong and powerful way. Downey helps the reader towards defining themselves as an activist if they feel uneasy about that term (personally, I’ve never had a problem with that, but I can see some people fear going out with a banner into a demo and would rather do something else). They are also really good on matching people’s different abilities to their roles within a campaign in order to keep everyone safe and comfortable, although they do advocate some gentle going outside of one’s comfort zone, as well.
Downey is a great guide on this journey, sharing where they’ve gone wrong and how they’ve learned as well as where they’ve done great things. The back of the book has templates for planning and self-reflection and I can’t emphasise enough what a great and readable resource this is.
Thank you to Storey Publishing for choosing me to read this book via NetGalley in return for an honest review. “Let’s Move the Needle” was published on 1 October 2024.
Shannon Downey created the website and project hub Badass Cross Stitch and you will have seen their designs all over the place over the past few years. Note: I’ve used the “they” pronoun here following the Wikipedia page on Downey; I will adjust if I’m corrected.
Courtney Conquers – “Planet Drag”
(24 September 2024, NetGalley)
This was a heavily illustrated survey of drag culture around the world (well, sort of), looking at its history and current forms, whether that’s simple cross-dressing from one gender to another or more transgressive and exciting forms that undermine and cross genders. The author defines themselves as a queer cis female drag queen, who has experienced queerphobia and misogyny so is careful to show a variety of experiences, Care is taken for areas where there are Indigenous peoples that their drag cultures are respected and outlined. It’s a shame the coverage is mainly confined to the US and Canada, Europe, Australasia and the Far East; there’s one South American country and no African (while it might be risky to do drag in those places, it is and has been in other countries that are covered). So a starting point rather than an exhaustive encyclopaedia.
Thank you to White Lion Publishing for making this available via NetGalley in return for an honest review. “Planet Drag” was published on 1 October 2024.
It’s state of the TBR time and look, there is more of a gap at the end! This is because I had Covid, basically, and have been reading away – although I picked books somewhat at random for their easy reading until I recovered myself enough to take chewier material off the start of the shelf. I took six print books off the shelf and read them (no Three Investigators this month) and have taken two more off to read now. I took the three oldest books off the TBR among those, and read six of my TBR Project books (65 now read, 76 to go, but also now reading Books 66 and 67, see half-way report below). I deaccessioned one more of those (62 – “The Bandit Queens”). Last month, I set an intention to read two print books (did) and read 4 NetGalley books (I did) plus finished the two I had on the go. The Liz and Emma Read Together books are in a separate pile (middle shelf, to the right) because they don’t form part of the TBR project.
I completed 20 books in September (four still to be reviewed). I am part-way through three more (plus my current Reading With Emma Read and a read that will take all year). I read all of my September NetGalley books in September plus two October ones, I did win a few but my NetGalley review percentage is still a healthy 94%. I did no challenges in September.
Incomings
I did acquire a few books from friends, the Heath Bookshop (an event and an order) and High Street Books and Records in Derbyshire who put out a distress flare over their cashflow – they have a wonderful second-hand stock available for mail order as well as a Bookshop.org page for ordering new books if you’re not near High Peak. Do go and have a look and place an order if you fancy something as they’re not out of the woods quite yet.
I went to a lovely event with Marianne Cronin and bought her new novel, set in Birmingham, “Eddie Winston is Looking for Love“. When I went to Leicester with Kaggsy she bought Robert Twigger’s “36 Islands” which is about the Lake District but turned out to be very much about Arthur Ransome, so she asked me if I’d like it and I said yes – I will read this along with the book on Ransome I already had TBR. My High Street Books & Records order features lovely mid-century romances “Touch-Me-Not” and “The North Wind Blows” by Anne Hepple, a hitherto unknown to me Noel Streatfeild, “New Town” and E.R. Braithwaite’s South African sojourn, “Honorary White”. I visited Ali before being infected with Covid and she gave me Paul Lynch’s “Prophet Song” (which I think is too grim for me but Matthew will have a look at it) and Mohamed Mbougard Sarr‘s novel of migration, “The Silence of the Choir”. After a frustrating time being too Covid-positive to pick them up, I finally collected “The Chicago Manual of Style” (for work, not to read cover-to-cover) and Takeo Doi’s “The Anatomy of Dependence” which I learned about at the Iris Murdoch Conference and I hope will be illuminating.
I won TEN NetGalley books (I have, however, read four of these already):
Jack Strange’s “Look up, Handsome” (September) was a fun romance between a writer and a bookshop owner set in a gay bookshop in Hay-on-Wye; Christie Barlow’s “A Postcard from Puffin Island” (Sept) is the first in a new series of romance/community novels for her. Shannon Downey’s “Let’s Move the Needle” (Oct) was a great craftivist handbook and Courtney Conquers’ “Planet Drag” (Oct) a survey of the drag world. I’ve read all these four already with two reviews to come. We have a bit of a Christmas in October theme now with Kristen Bailey’s “We Three Kings” (Oct) workplace friendship and romance novel, Debbie Macomber’s “A Christmas Duet” (Oct) with a musical Christmas escape and Eliza J. Scott’s “Christmas at the Little Bookshop by the Sea” (Oct) which is part of a series which could be dangerous. Then I won Philip WIlliam Stover’s “My Mother’s Ridiculous Rules for Dating” (Oct) which has a ghostwriter allowing his mum to find him a boyfriend, Catherine Coleman Flowers’ essays on activism and environmental justice – and hope – “Holy Ground” (January 2025) and finally Harry Trevaldwyn’s LGBTQ YA novel, “The Romantic Tragedies of a Drama King” (Jan).
No books from Amazon for Kindle this month, and that’s 20 books read and effectively 14 books in (two not to read, four already read) for September – hooray!
Currently reading
After the Covid Easy Read Hiatus, I need to finish Shiny New Books review book “Birds, Beasts and Bedlam” by Derek Gow. I’ve taken the oldest books from my TBR and started them – Stuart Hall’s memoir brought to life by Bill Schwartz, “Familiar Stranger” and Nefertiti Austin’s memoir of being a Black woman adopting a Black son, “Motherhood so White” which I started this morning. Emma and I will be finishing Paul Baker’s excellent history of Section 28, “Outrageous!” this month, I think. I’m also still reading my literary quotes for the year with Ali.
Coming up
In print books, well, I’m taking part in a challenge! It’s Kaggsy and Stuck-in-A-Book’s 1970Club mid-month and I had a book from that year already on the TBR! So I’ll enjoy Stella Gibbons’ “The Woods in Winter” soon and get my review ready for the right date. Late in the month we have a holiday coming; although I’ll be mainly doing Kindle reading (hopefully by the sea / on the balcony) I do like to have a print book for the flights, so we’re taking Richard Osman’s “The Last Devil to Die” for me for the journey out and Matthew for the stay, and I’ll read Angie Cruz’ “Let it Rain Coffee” on the return journey. That one is a 2024 TBR read, too.
This is the start of the rest of my TBR, all now in 2022! If I read the Arthur Ransome I will add in the one I received this month, so I’m not sure how many of these I will take down. It would be nice to get the Penguin Modern Classics books down to read.
I have nine books on my NetGalley TBR for October (and have read another two already, not pictured)
I have the three Christmas ones and the dating ghostwriter ones already mentioned, plus Amanda Addison’s YA DNA test novel “Looking for Lucie”, Damilaria Kuku’s Nigerian family comedy, “Only Big Bum Bum Matters Tomorrow”, Alan Hollinghurst’s new one, “Our Evenings”, Jason Reynolds’ YA novel looking at masculinities, “Twenty-Four Seconds from Now”, and James Rebanks’ book about spending time on a remote Norwegian island with an elderly farmer, “The Place of Tides”. Quite a variety to keep me going!
With the ones I’m currently reading, I have three books to finish and 12 definite other books to read, with the one challenge to complete.
TBR 2024 project update
I am half-way through my allotted 18 months for my TBR 2024 project, so should have read up to Book 71. I’m actually reading Books 66 and 67 at the moment which isn’t too bad, right? But do need to get going a bit on them. Next month I have 11 short nonfiction works to contribute to Nonfiction November (which I’m helping to host again) AND Novellas in November, which should help.
How was your September reading? What are you reading this month? Are you doing any book challenges for the year or the month?
There’s a chilly wind blowing. For most of us, autumn is all about cosy cardies, delectable candles and pumpkin drinks at the cafe. Here in the book blogging community, it certainly is about all of those things, but there is one most special event in the forecast every autumn. For us, the autumn breezes bring Nonfiction November!
Throughout the month of November, bloggers Liz, Frances, Heather, Rebekah and Deb invite you to celebrate Nonfiction November with us.
Meet your hosts!
Liz (that’s me!), who blogs at Adventures in reading, running and working from home, is an editor, transcriber, reader, reviewer, writer and runner. She likes reading literary fiction and nonfiction, travel and biography.
Frances blogs about the books she has read at Volatile Rune and is a published poet, reviewer, sometime storyteller and novelist.
Heather of Based on a True Story lives in Ohio with her husband, surrounded by lots and lots of critters!
Rebekah reviews social justice books on She Seeks Nonfiction. She is a Pittsburgh-based activist, graphic designer, and cat parent.
Deb, who blogs at Readerbuzz, is a Texas librarian-for-life who swims, rides her bike, draws, writes, and loves to read nonfiction-that-reads-like-fiction, literary fiction, classics, and children’s picture books.
How it works
Each Monday, our weekly host will post our topic prompt and include a linkup where you can link your posts, connect with other bloggers and dive deeper by reading and sharing nonfiction book reviews. Feel free to use our official Nonfiction November graphics, too!
Here are the topic prompts for each week:
Week 1 (10/28-11/1) Your Year in Nonfiction: Celebrate your year of nonfiction. What books have you read? What were your favorites? Have you had a favorite topic? Is there a topic you want to read about more? What are you hoping to get out of participating in Nonfiction November? (Heather)
Week 2 (11/4-11/8) Choosing Nonfiction: What are you looking for when you pick up a nonfiction book? Do you have a particular topic you’re attracted to? Do you have a particular writing style that works best? When you look at a nonfiction book, does the title or cover influence you? If so, share a title or cover which you find striking. (Frances)
Week 3 (11/11-11/15) Book Pairings: This week, pair up a nonfiction book with a fiction title. Maybe it’s a historical novel and the real history in a nonfiction version, or a memoir and a novel, or a fiction book you’ve read and you would like recommendations for background reading. Or (because I’m doing this myself) two books on two different areas have chimed and have a link. You can be as creative as you like! (Liz)
Week 4 (11/18-11/22) Mind Openers: One of the greatest things about reading nonfiction is the way it can open your eyes to the world around you–no plane ticket required. What nonfiction book or books have impacted the way you see the world in a powerful way? Is there one book that made you rethink everything? Is there a book where, if everyone read it, you think the world would be a better place? (Rebekah)
Week 5 (11/25-11/29) New To My TBR: It’s been a month full of amazing nonfiction books! Which ones have made it onto your TBR? Be sure to link back to the original blogger who posted about that book! (Deb) [hint: keep a note of them through the month on a draft post!]
Our fifth Nonfiction November host!
This year we have a new Nonfiction November host for week 5: New to my TBR in Deb. This prompt allows everyone who participates to come together and share all the new nonfiction books they discover each November.
The other four of us (along with Lisa) saved Nonfiction November from the brink of extinction in 2023, and we’re hosting this event again because we love the book blogging community and the books that we get to share. Thank you to Deb for joining us for our final week and sharing the joy of hosting. Please join us in spreading the love and tying the bow on Nonfiction November 2024!
More Covid reading, three great books but I’ll be doing short reviews or else there’ll be no reviews as I still have limited energy. Having said that, I have at least tested negative today and have been feeling well enough to do bits of work and admin, so moving in the right direction (and I was able to pick up my Chicago Manual of Style 18 and Takeo Doi’s “The Anatomy of Dependence” from the bookshop today). These three reads are all from my 2024 TBR project shelves and I’ve added one more to the total, too, as, as predicted by Meg and Ali, I found “The Bandit Queens” too gory when I got to it. The first one was a gift from my friend Jen, when she passed along a load of books last year – “The Secret Lives of Church Ladies” was the other I had from her so good choices! “Honey & Spice” was a The Works purchase and Ali passed me “Sankofa” via Meg. All quite different books, but they do all have a central theme of equality and social justice, it turns out!
Cyndi Lauper (with Jancee Dunn) – “Cyndi Lauper: A Memoir”
(11 February 2023, gift)
There were a lot of times that I felt totally isolated backstage, so I always tried to connect with people when I was onstage. With the college audiences, we had no barriers, so they coud touch me and I could touch them. We would hold each other, or they’d put their hands out and hold my feet and legs and I’d put my arm out and sing. They never did anything weird – if they did, I woud have smakcked them. Listen, I was never a sex symbol. Because I didn’t dress like one. I had fishnet stockings with one black sneaker and one white sneaker that I painted in Magic Marker. And I didn’t act like a sex sympbol, either. I was selling freedom of expression and the freedom to be different – not sex. I’m telling ya, there were no men who chased after me. Instead I got the sad people, because that’s who i was trying to heal when I sang. (p. 148)
This was published in 2012 so we’ll forgive Lauper for thinking Donald Trump was OK and concentrate on the excellent story teller and person Lauper is. I have actually transcribed an interview with her this year, so I could tell it was in her distinctive voice. We go through her struggles, including a lot of sexual harrassment, always seeking to maintain her own voice and vision, owning her mistakes and trying things out.
Her commitment to diversity in the people appearing in her videos, and especially to supporting the LGBTQ community including direct activism, fund-raising and donation is moving and impressive and I loved all the little bits of life advice sprinkled through. Also a rare occasion I’ve seen endometriosis mentioned (a condition I have) as Lauper mentions a couple of operations for it. And I really loved that the thing the musician Tricky most rated Lauper for was that she mended his toilet!
Bolu Babalola – “Honey & Spice”
(11 October 2023, The Works)
A fun university novel featuring a fake-romance plot instigated by Kiki in order to bolster her ratings on her campus radio show which doesn’t make a lot of sense but does showcase the intention and art in her working to help women avoid dodgy men, as well as hero Malakai’s film-making. It’s quite a long book and only covers a couple of months, so it’s got some more substance than some romances and is notable for covering stop-and-search, Black community, double standards and consent so there’s definitely more to it than it looks.
I was a bit confused by the description of their (it turns out) South of England university as a liberal arts college with a Black caucus, as that feels like an Americanised way of describing things and the book is firmly set in the UK, however I think that’s a product of wanting to market the book worldwide (it’s been a Reese Witherspoon choice) and also perhaps within a Nigerian diaspora which the author belongs to. And it was easy enough to gather what was what, anyway. I loved the book-nerd sub-plot, too, so lots to like and while I probably won’t read the author’s retellings of myths in short stories, I will look out for her next novel.
Chibundu Onuzo – “Sankofa”
(17 September 2022, gift)
Eighteen months ago, I would not have travelled so far to meet a man who had known Francis Aggrey. Eitheen months ago, I was Robert’s wife and that came with its own preoccupations, an entire set of people and holidays and activities that I now see had everything to do with Robert and nothing to do with me. But there was an Anna Bain before there was an Anna Graham, perhaps the real Anna, the interrupted Anna who had always been curious about her father, maybe even desperate for him. And who was this Anna, hurtling towards Edinburgh? Anna unrooted and untethered, free and lost as a balloon in the sky. (p. 79)
This was just wonderful. A proper novel bridging literary/popular genres by an author who’s a member of the Royal Society of Literature which previous novels behind her, this is a fascinating exploration of heritage, colonialism and belonging. Anna has grown up with her White mum, knowing nothing about her Black African father. Now her mum’s dead, she’s thrown her husband out for cheating and their daughter is 25 and very independent – and now’s the time she finds her father’s “Lonely Londoners” style journal and a book of press cuttings that implies strongly he’s gone back to his (had to be fictitious) country of Banama and become its dictator. Still, she can’t help but go and seek him out, with the “help” of a White academic who knew him back then and a White businessman who keeps popping up.
As Anna meets her family and gets entwined in life in Africa, will she return and will she change? Kind about her neighbour’s Christianity and open about different lifestyles in her new part-homeland, it’s a tour de force with some heart-stopping moments, and unputdownable.
These were Books 61-64 (62 was weeded, see above) in my 2024 TBR project – 77 to go. Note: at the end of this month I should be half-way through as my new target was 18 months; I’m currently reading Book 65, so still some work to do!
I’m not sure how Christie Barlow always knows I have Covid and gets a book ready for my comfort reading, but she’s done it again! And the start of a new series, too (hooray) after I so enjoyed the Love Heart Lane books. I managed to notice this one had come out and request it, hopefully I’ll be on the list now like last time so I know when the next one comes out!
Christie Barlow – “A Postcard from Puffin Island”
(18 September 2024, NetGalley)
To her amazement, the postbox contained mail! There were various local business leaflets, from handymen to painters, an outstanding week’s milk bill written in shillings and pence, and, right behind the rest of what she would call junk mail. a postcard. Holding it in her hand, she took in the colourful picture on the front, which featured two puffins sitting on a rock, looking out over the sea.
One of the last jobs Verity does to prepare her grandmother’s cottage for the renters she’s arranged is to prise off the unsightly mailbox stuck on the front and get it open to see what’s inside. She’s about to go off on a trip with a friend in her trusty van, which she’s converted into living quarters, complete with a pet shower borrowed from her vet assistant job she hopes can act as a human one, after her boyfriend has cheated and then moved in over the road with his new girlfriend.
But Verity’s emotions, and then her path, are diverted by finding this card and realising that the stories her grandmother told her about a magical “Puffin Island” and its inhabitants were all true stories – and there’s a mystery to solve in the form of said postcard, signed “W”. Of course there’s then a hunky islander to flirt with, but there’s also friendship extended from two other young women and a curmudgeonly old naturalist, puffin counting to do and a risky trip over a causeway.
Will Verity learn to stop poking her nose in? Might she be able to stay on the island? Why do two residents really not get on? We’ll find all this out in this lovely, gentle and atmospheric read – and I can’t wait to read more about this community in future books.
Thank you to One More Chapter for approving me to read this novel via NetGalley in return for an honest review. “A Postcard from Puffin Island” is published on 30 September 2024. And thank you to Christie Barlow for helping see me through another bout of Covid!
So yes, a year after I had Covid and did short Covid-reading reviews, here I am again with some short Covid-reading reviews. These are the NetGalleys and I’ll have a few print books to come. I’m recovering but tired (I had one day when I felt too spacey and woolly headed to even read and had to be propped up in front of some random showjumping on the Horse & Country channel, but I did rally from that … ). This time around, Matthew brought Covid back home from his work meeting in America. I do encourage anyone who’s offered a vaccination to take it up.
Warona Jay – “The Grand Scheme of Things”
(19 June 2024, NetGalley)
Eddie, full name Relebogile Naledi Mpho Moruakgomo, is a playwright with a glittering university career, but she’s failing to get her provocative play in with any agents, especially as it’s highly political and it’s Brexit time. Comes a chance encounter with Whiter-than-White, well-connected Establishment boy, Hugo Lawrence Smith, whose cousin is even *that* author who became famous for their, ahem, space opera series and can now click her fingers and get a play in the West End. Can Eddie persuade Hugo to pretend to have written her play and get it to the places where her name can’t open the doors? Well, turns out yes. But there are complications, in the form of the woman, Nahid, who gets to direct the play, her background and her mutual attraction with Hugo …
This is really well-plotted and definitely believeable, but where it fell down in my eyes was that in the two narrative strands, from Eddie and Hugo’s points of view, their voices weren’t really differentiated very much in terms of the way they “spoke” their narratives, whereas I’d have expected that given their different backgrounds, classes and experiences. Also, half the narrative is given to the headspace of the mediocre White man (though that might be a satirical point) and he doesn’t seem to learn much or move from his impressively woke starting position. So not an entire success but I will be interested to see what this author does next and it’s a strong start.
Thank you to Bonnier Books for offering me this to read via their publicist in return for an honest review. “The Grand Scheme of Things was published on 12 September 2024.
Jack Strange – “Look Up, Handsome”
(5 September 2024, NetGalley)
Who could resist an LGBTQ romance set in the book town of Hay-on-Wye? Not me, obviously (and I was excited to learn in the Acknowlegements that there is now a new LGBTQ bookshop in the town!). Quinn runs “Kings and Queens” in Hay-on-Wye, following on in his late father’s tradition in being a bookseller, but threatened by his stepfather’s plans to cash in on the lease he owns on Quinn’s shop and turf him out. Mum is caught in the middle but not doing much, and Quinn’s always been a quiet people-pleaser so keeps just shoving the eviction notices in a drawer. He has two piece of luck: knowing Ivy, the colourful, redoubtable cleaner who knows everyone’s secrets, and meeting Noah, romance writer and son of the town who seems to be everywhere. We follow these characters as they work to save the bookshop, with the help of influencers and drag queens and unexpected allies; the whole thing is charming and funny, with good touches of reality, noting how the bookshop offers a safe space for people, including its employee, and how Welsh traditions suppressed by the English have bounced back (yes, there’s a Mari Llwyd – shudder!). A very nicely done novel with a real feel for bookshops and a proper warmth.
Thank you to One More Chapter for approving me to read this book via NetGalley in return for an honest review. “Look Up, Handsome” is published on 26 September 2024.
Chandra Clarke – “Let’s Fix This: Cleaner Living in a Dirty World”
(31 July 2024, NetGalley)
Now I have been reading quite a few “But what can I DO?” books about recycling, combatting climate change, etc., and there is very little new to discover once you’ve read a fair number and have been thinking about this for a while, but I really liked the way this one gives very specific information and encourages the reader to try for some small changes at least, while also, so importantly, acknowleding that not everyone has the resources / ability / energy / health to make their own everything while riding a bike everywhere and running an eco-business. Clarke reminds of this a fair bit and also points out how to spot greenwashing in companies; she also shares resources, for example a list of organisations working on improving public transport around the world and a good book list at the back. So I would recommend this as a primer for thinking about different areas of your house and garden and what you can do to make things that bit better. She does go on about electric cars a bit, though.
Thank you to Obsidian Owl Press (great name!) for accepting my request to read this book via NetGalley in return for an honest review. “Let’s Fix This” was published on 17 September 2024.
There we go, three books read, and since then I’ve finished my last September read and started on the October ones, as well as working on my physical TBR …
Adventures in reading, running and working from home 
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