Snow Days

Finished November 28 

Snow Days by Deborah Kerbel and Miki Sato

This delightful picture book looks at all the different kinds of snow and the things that one can do with it, in it and because of it. From the first snow of the season that brings its own special delight to a child to the last sad melting snow that brings a close to the days of snowmen, from the sticky snow to make shapes and figures to the powdery snow that floats and moves effortlessly, this book covers it all. We see the snow angels and the snowmen, the skating and the shoveling, the horrid sleet and the way it makes you narrow your eyes as you walk. 

Sato's illustrations, using paper and fabric in collage, add a lovely dimension to the book. 

The book closes with five fun activities you can undertake with your child to further explore the world and wonder of snow. 

Cinderella Is Dead

Finished November 20

Cinderella Is Dead by Kalynn Bayron

This is a completely different take on Cinderella and I loved it. Here, the story of Cinderella is one based on real people in the kingdom of Lille. She's been dead for a couple of hundred years, after dying fairly young. She and Prince Charming had no children, and the princes that followed didn't either. They choose their successor from a distant place where they are trained for this purpose. 

Every year, there is a ball and all the eligible young girls are required to attend. There, they get chosen by the men that attend. If they aren't chosen by the third year of attendance, their lives are forfeit and they either are sent to servitude or death. 

This is Sophia's first year at the ball, and her parents are eager that she make a good impression. Sophia knows that what is happening isn't right, and she desperately wants to escape and live a life that she chooses for herself, but this is not looking like a real possibility. Especially as Erin, the object of her affections doesn't want to take such a risk, but would rather comply with her family's expectations and those of the prince and his men. 

The kingdom has also developed to a situation where many men treat their wives and daughters as possessions and without respect, and many women live sad lives. 

When Sophia, on the run from a desperate situation, meets an independent young woman Constance, who knows more of Cinderella's true story, she finds strength in that knowledge and becomes determined to change the kingdom for the better.

This is a story that turns the traditional fairy tale on its head in every way. And I loved the feisty characters of Sophia and Constance as they fought the established regime. 

Never Tell

Finished November 18

Never Tell by Lisa Gardner

This is a police mystery that has additional elements. It is part of the Detective D.D. Warren series, but we also have the presence of FBI investigators and a former victim who now acts as a confidential informant and seems to be doing unpaid undercover work. 

The novel starts with a crime with a man, Conrad, shot in his home office and his pregnant wife, Evelyn, with the gun in her hand. But she says she shot the computer, not him. And there is an eight minute gap between the first shots reported and the most recent ones. But she has a history. Back when she was a teenager she confessed to accidently shooting her father in the kitchen of their home when he was teaching her about the gun. And that case was one of D.D. Warren's as well. 

Flora, who was a victim years ago of a man who kidnapped her and held her as a prisoner for more than a year, has seen the story of the crime on the news, and she recognizes the victim from her time with her captor. What does that mean, and is she ready to dig deeper into those horrific experiences from her past. It is her that brings Kimberly Quincy, the FBI agent who rescued her into the case, and surprisingly another civilian, one who has extensive knowledge of his own. 

Evelyn has a difficult relationship with her mother Joyce, who idolized her father. Since his death, the two have grown further apart, with Joyce trying to bring her closer through the purchase of material things and Evie determined to build her own life. 

There is a lot going on here, with ties far into the past for both Evie and Conrad, and with Flora opening up those past traumas of her own as well. 

Many people have secrets, and those secrets often lead to more anguish and sorrow. Good intentions, but not always good outcomes. As the truths begin to emerge, this case takes on a different tone, and has more interesting dynamics.

The London Restoration

Finished November 17

The London Restoration by Rachel McMillan

This novel takes place in the fall of 1945, with some flashbacks to earlier times during World War II. The two central characters are a married couple who must find their way emotionally to each other. They got married during the war and have only had a few visits since then, and have never lived together. Diana Somerville (nee Foyle) is a student of architecture, church architecture in particular. She loves the churches of Christopher Wren, but is interested in all churches. She is therefore a fount of information on the churches. Brent Somerville, her husband is a professor of theology at King's College in London. His specialty is the gospels by the apostles. The two met in a churchyard, where he was eating lunch and sketching his surrounding and she was admiring the architecture and made the first move in their relationship by approaching him. 

During the war, knowing that she would be bored by many of the tasks available to young women, one of Diana's professors recommended her for secret work at Bletchley Park. They preferred single women, so even though she recently married Brent, she signed up under her maiden name. There she worked on breaking codes, using her knowledge of German and other skills from her education. Brent knew that she worked for the Foreign Office, but wasn't aware of her secret work. He worked as a medic and orderly, transporting wounded, and near the end of the war was wounded himself. He still has trauma related to his experiences and hasn't shared the extent of his PTSD with Diana. 

At the end of the war, Diana's superior Simon asked her to do some work for him relating to a new challenge that he sees for the country, the threat of communism and Russian tactics. She has gone to Austria on this mission for two weeks, missing Brent's homecoming. 

With Brent not aware of what she has been doing, nor of what she was away in Austria for, there is a barrier that has been raised between them. With Brent not sharing his own war experiences, there is also a barrier from his end. The young couple are very much in love, and very smart people, but they must feel their way into this new phase of their relationship. 

When you add that Diana's recent actions may put them in danger, this novel offers a lot of suspense. I hadn't read this Canadian author prior to this and enjoyed the book.
 

The Weekend

Finished November 15

The Weekend by Charlotte Wood

This Australian novel is set around a Christmas season weekend, with three long-time friends in their seventies. It's been a year since they lost the fourth member of their group, Sylvie, and Sylvie's partner is planning to sell her house in a seaside town. The three women will clean out the house, taking anything they want to keep.

It's a good plan, but the women are all dealing with personal issues of their own. 

Jude has worked in restaurants all her life and never married, but she's had a decades long relationship with a married man, Daniel, with him supplying the apartment she lives in. They meet on a regular basis and she's sure his wife must be aware of her existence, but no contact with her has ever occurred. One of the meetings is due to happen at Sylvie's house after the clean-out. They've met there at that time of year regularly. 

Wendy, an internationally respected academic, lost her husband several years back and fell into a depression, one that her dog helped her to climb out of. Her dog is now old and failing, but she can't bring herself to let it die. She has difficult relationships with both her children, feeling more distanced from them that she would like.

Adele is an aging actress, one who hasn't been working for sometime. She has fallen into poverty and her most recent relationship has just ended, leaving her without a place to return home to after this weekend. She is in good shape physically and looks after herself, but is clinging to her identity as an actress and not able to find a way to move forward. 

As the three women learn how to navigate their relationship with each other without their fourth member, they also must figure out the next step in their individual lives.

I really enjoyed this book, with its strong characters and nuanced relationships.

My Books for Classic Spin #25

 I was successful in knocking off a classic that had been on my shelf for years when I did the last Classic Spin, so I'm definitely up for another one. 

Here's the challenge host post for Classics Club Spin 25

Here is my list of books.

1. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

2. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner

3. The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope

4. The Water Babies by Charles Kingsley

5. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

6. Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence

7. Roxana by Daniel Defoe

8. Remembrance of Things Past 1 by Marcel Proust

9. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

10. The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

11. The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss

12. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

13. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

14. Madame Bovary by Gustav Flaubert

15. Dracula by Bram Stoker

16. Persuasion by Jane Austen

17. The Cretan Runner by George Psychoundakis

18. The Deptford Trilogy by Robertson Davies

19. Seven Gothic Tales by Isak Dinesen

20. Fire from Heaven by Mary Renault

Some are definitely more of a challenge than others!

The Grass Is Singing

Finished November 13 

The Grass Is Singing by Doris Lessing

This novel was one I was due to read with my book club this year, but plans changed. I decided to read it anyway since I had it on my shelves. 

To me this reads as a tragedy. The main character here Mary, grew up in South Africa and Rhodesia, moving around to different stations with her parents. Theirs was not a happy marriage, and Mary escaped to the city young, and became an office worker. Her emotional growth was a bit stunted, never leaving the phase of innocent teenage flirting. She was good at her job, and it was only when she overheard gossip about herself that she became dissatisfied with her life and began to look to marriage as a solution. 

Her impetuous marriage to a veldt farmer in Rhodesia was not the solution she needed, but it is where she found herself. 

We know from the beginning of the book her end, there on the farm, through an act of violence. The book takes us through how she got to that place, the various people that had a role in that life, from her husband Dick to their closest neighbour and the black workers that were on the farm.

This is an immensely sad book, and one mourns the forces that took these characters on this journey. Mental health is definitely one of them as we see the deterioration in both Mary and Dick through their time together. 

So well written, but so so sad.

Language warning: First published in 1950, this book uses racial terms that are not acceptable now.

District and Circle

Finished November 12 

District and Circle by Seamus Heaney

I was feeling in the mood for some poetry lately, so pulled this one that has been on my shelf for some time. 

The subjects of the poems here vary widely. The title poem refers to the London Underground, with others looking at common objects, memories returned of childhood friends, food, an ancient bogman, wildlife, or the feel of a place visited. 

His writing requires concentration for me to focus on the words, consider meaning and allusion and connect the poems to my own life and experiences. 

Poetry is a great way to slow down and thus good for the times we are in. I think I shall pull more poetry off my shelves soon.

My copy of this was used, and I enjoyed the copious notes made by what appears to be a student analyzing the poems. This added to my experience in an interesting way.

A Royal Affair

Finished November 11 

A Royal Affair by Allison Montclair

This is the second book in a mystery series, but I have not yet the first one. The two characters at the centre of the book are Iris Sparks and Gwendolyn Bainbridge. The two women work together to own and run The Right Sort of Marriage Bureau. Iris Sparks worked in an unidentified, but hush-hush manner in the war, and has a bit of a disreputable reputation in some of the "right circles" for some of her improper romantic experiences. She is also a Cambridge graduate. She is currently in the initial stages of a relationship with a mobster. Gwen Bainbridge is a war widow with a young son, Ronnie. She had a breakdown following the loss of her husband, which necessitated a stay in an institution. She is living with her in-laws and struggling for custody of her son. Gwen is of the upper class, came out, and has all the right connections, but her breakdown has made her former acquaintances slightly wary of her. 

The story is set in 1946.One of Gwen's cousin's, Lady Patience Matheson works for the Queen and has come to them on a delicate matter. A threatening letter was sent to Princess Elizabeth regarding one of her suitors, Prince Philip. Matheson asks Gwen and Iris to look into it and see if they can clear things up. With a case of attempted blackmail, at least one dead body, and a few Greeks involved, the two women look into the situation, but find that it is much more dangerous than it seemed at first.

The office of The Right Sort of Marriage Bureau is quite small and they are hoping to expand to the empty office next door, which comes with some lovely desks, but need more funds to make it work. This could be the opportunity they need, if all goes well. As they handle this unusual request, they also continue to match couples for the agency, and encounter some interesting personal situations. 

I like both the characters, women working in a world that didn't see a lot of independent women, and smart ones at that. There is some very good humour, and some suspenseful scenes. A great read.

Invisible Murder

Finished November 8

Invisible Murder by Lene Kaaberbol and Agnete Friis, translated by Tara Chace

I've read the third book in this series and decided to go back are read an earlier one. This is book two. Most of the book takes place in Denmark with the Red Cross nurse Nina Borg, but the story really starts in Hungary, with a young man, Sándor who finds his life upended. He is a law student at university, but he has a secret. His mother is a gypsy, and he started his life growing up with her and his younger siblings, but during a time they were in a children's home, he was taken away by his biological father, given a new last name, and has lived his life in mainstream Hungarian society. When his younger brother Tamás asks a favour, he gets drawn into a situation beyond his control. He cares about his brother, but with his life also in tatters, he feels he has no choice but to follow his brother to Denmark and see if he can help.

Nina is sometimes helping with outreach to groups in need outside of her day job, but she's promised her husband Morten not to do it when he's away working on the rigs. Her relationship with her teenage daughter Ida is a fraught one, with the girl wanting little to do with her. Anton, at eight, is still a joyful child. 

There is also an older man, Skou-Larsen, who is worried about how his wife handles finances, and wants to try to put safeguards in place for after he dies. But there are limitations on what he can do, even though she appears to have fallen for a vacation property scam and lost a big chunk of money. He is also curious about the mosque being build near their home. As a former municipal employee with the building department, he is always curious about permits and details of new developments and worries about whether this one is all it says it is. 

We also see a man, Soren, who is part of PET, the terrorism side of the police force as they hear of a young Hungarian man who has been on some suspicious websites and now appears to be headed his way. His focus on similar online activity at a local university focuses on a young Muslim man who seems to have something to hide.

There is lots going on here, and as Nina gets drawn in to help with a mysterious illness affecting some gypsies squatting in an abandoned gas station, she finds herself in more trouble than she expected, and when Ida gets involved she begins to fear for their lives.

I really enjoy this series, with so many issues in a book. There is racism and religious prejudice, fear of others, domestic abuse, human trafficking, relics of the Soviet times, and so much more.