I was visiting Ali back in September (it must have been my first visit after she moved into her lovely new flat, actually) and she, as is her wont, pressed this upon me, telling me I’d like it. Into the TBR it went, as it did look good, and I had someone in mind I could pass it on to afterwards, too, and then, when I was looking for wintry reads for this month and had decided to dart around in the TBR to pick some out, there it was! This is my last wintry read (well, until I start in on Annabel’s Nordic FINES challenge in January) as I’ve picked up a British Library Women Writers novel to read next, and have two Dean Street Press reads to get to, too (hooray!).
Ruth Thomas – “The Snow and the Works on the Northern Line”
(10 September 2021, from Ali)
I did see some Barbara Pym comparisons in the review bits at the front of this, but I trusted Ali and her knowledge of my taste so pressed on into it. And yes, it is quite Pymmish, and in the deadpan tone of the writing a bit Comyns-y (without the yuck factor), or Dodie Smith’s adult books or Victoria Clayton, who does that well, too. So I was already primed to like it from the first page.
Sybil is as we meet her a young woman working in a slightly fusty museum as a finds cataloguer, living with a fussy man who’s really into peculiar grains and special cooking. It’s a funny life but it’s OK, until 1) Sibyl’s ex-university tutor, Helen, swishes back into her life, working for an organisation that helps museums get into the modern world, gunning for a position on the trustees’ board and pushing her own, slightly dodgy research and – worse, and this is so funny – trying to sell a line of cups inspired by the actual Beaker People. Soon she’s got her claws into both the Institute and Sibyl’s boyfriend, and while Sibyl tries to recover from a freak skating accident and is not sure what’s real and what’s a feature of her head injury, worms her way in, gets rid of bits of the museum, puts people’s backs up, gets all over the telly and generally makes a nuisance of herself.
Sibyl visits her slightly comedy parents in slightly comedy Norfolk, moves in with a well-meaning but rather brisk old friend and takes a poetry course that is supposed to be “for the terrified” but is actually terrifying. The scenes there are marvellous. She also meets a librarian, Bill, who might be able to help her in all sorts of ways if she’ll just let him. Spanning academic conference dinners, a never-ending indexing job and dusty archival corners, the setting is right up my street and Sibyl a charming if unreliable heroine.
For something that sounds character-led and looks a bit chick-litty, it’s literary and plot-driven, well-written, and also very fun, but warm. Highly recommended, and thank you, Ali, for foisting it onto me in the first place!
This was TBR Challenge 2021-22 Book 28/85 ā 57 to go (possibly, let’s wait till I lay them out on the floor again on 1 January!)
Dec 28, 2021 @ 17:34:17
I have two or three reviews that I need to finish up still before closing out 2021. I get behind then I am swamped by the thought of moving forward. Ugh. My 2021 Favorites
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Dec 29, 2021 @ 06:19:28
I usually end the year with a bit of a flurry, as I like to keep tidy just at this end of month and not have things hanging over. I am publishing one tomorrow I wrote at the same time as this one, then might have one on Thursday as I’m part way through a good read (but have some work to do!). Hope you get sorted and calm!
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Dec 28, 2021 @ 18:22:49
This was serialised on the radio back in January, and I have a library copy TBR. I suggested it as a purchase and borrowed one of her earlier novels. Someone else seems to have decided to read whatever they can get hold of by her in Islington Libraries too. I’m convinced I have a shadow reader who keeps reserving the books I borrow, perhaps someone who works in the library service?
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Dec 29, 2021 @ 06:21:07
Oh that’s funny – someone who’s noticed you have similar tastes and looks out for what you look out for! I still miss working in the public library as a teen (free reservations) and the university library in my 20s (could see every new book as it came in and read them at lunchtime in the store when they were waiting to be catalogued!). I bet it was a good audio book – I’m trying to persuade Matthew it’s not chicklit so he can give it a whirl!
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Dec 28, 2021 @ 19:42:55
Sounds great fun Liz, and well done Ali for knowing you so well!!
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Dec 29, 2021 @ 06:22:03
Fun with a literary edge and a bite, and yes, she knew I’d like it even when I was unsure and trying to bat it away!
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Dec 28, 2021 @ 22:53:17
Yay, so glad you liked this. I did think you might. I liked the bits about the (hilarious) terrifying poetry course particularly.
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Dec 29, 2021 @ 06:22:34
Yes! So well done, we’ve all been in an awkward situation like that and she just ramped it that bit up!
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Dec 29, 2021 @ 02:13:09
It sounds quite funny! Glad to see that you enjoyed this book.
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Dec 29, 2021 @ 06:23:08
Yes, it was excellent and funny as well as tense (even though the tenseness was around whether she’d finish compiling an index …).
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Dec 29, 2021 @ 14:20:46
This does sound Pymmish; glad this was fun.
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Dec 29, 2021 @ 18:39:16
It was, the institute background really helped that of course!
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Dec 29, 2021 @ 18:47:05
Although I remembered this from Ali’s review, it was only reading your review now that it dawned on me that I’d read Ruth Thomas’ short stories in the late nineties, loved them and then never picked up anything else by her again! Definitely must get back to her š
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Dec 31, 2021 @ 11:29:11
Oh, that’s interesting! I would certainly pick up another of her novels.
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Dec 31, 2021 @ 15:47:55
She’s published two other novels and several collections of short stories. I read The Home Corner earlier this year. I own a copy but I don’t know where I’ve put it and didn’t find it in the boxes I’ve rootled through, so I borrowed from the library. It’s about a 19 year old Scottish woman who has screwed up her exams and is working as a TA in a school, but is struggling with the job and other issues in her life. It’s toften funny but also quite sad in places.
Her other novel sounds good too, but I don’t knowand I’ve how easy it is to get hold of. I’m going to read Snow and the Works that I have from the library and the short story collection that they have available, and then maybe I’lll put in stock suggestions for any other books that are in print. i’ve had really lovely responses to my stock suggestions so far – they have an online form and while I’m sure they won’t buy just anything, they are open to ideas that will appeal to library users.
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Dec 31, 2021 @ 15:50:37
Definitely someone to explore, although as Matthew looked at me, considering how to get all the new books on my TBR shelf and muttered “Can’t get a quart in a pint pot”, maybe not for a while. That novel does look good – this one had melancholy to it for sure but was a lovely read.
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Jan 19, 2022 @ 21:26:47
Every book lover loves a book friend who foists books upon them (and understands it’s not always going to be wholly successful)!
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Jan 20, 2022 @ 06:42:23
Yes! And in this case, I passed it to my best friend when we met up yesterday and she’d read half of it on the train by the time she got home!
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Jan 20, 2022 @ 16:00:31
That’s so cool! I still don’t have as many in-person reading friends as I have online reading friends. The actual swapping of copies is a significant downside of that arrangement!
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Book review – Eley Williams – “The Liar’s Dictionary” | Adventures in reading, running and working from home
Apr 28, 2022 @ 08:00:40