Life is just too short!

In between working and travelling, I have been catching up with my reading and there are some great reads out there - so many books and so little time! One thing you realise as you get older that if a book doesn't 'grab' you - no matter how great the reviews and how much you love the author - don't waste precious reading time on it. So it was for me - I was so looking forward to reading The Barkskins by Annie Proulx. From the author of The Shipping News, it seemed perfect for me to read while travelling in Canada and North America as it is a novel about the First Nation peoples and how the Europeans settled in their lands - the very land I was treading on. However, I gave up a quarter way through as it was a laborious read and was just was not giving me any joy! I found it hard to feel anything for any of the characters and decided it would be less time consuming to watch a documentary on the topic ......and probably more lively!
In contrast I whizzed through the new Lucinda Riley book - all 750 pages in five days. The Moon Sister is her latest in the Seven Sisters series and this time takes you to the Scottish Highlands and across the ocean to Spain and into the lives and ways of the gypsies who used live above the city of Socromote in caves. Tiggy is the sister who begins the search for her birth parents and, as she explores her roots, you learn about the horrors of Spanish Civil war and the excitement of Flamenco dancing. Her current life in Scotland is on a remote Highlands estate which has been inherited on the verge of bankruptcy by the handsome young Laird. Of course there has to be a love story and although its predictable and cheesy at times - its still really enjoyable. It ends with an introduction to the last sister Electra which leaves you with a tantalizing glimpse into what the next book is to be about. I cant wait!
Two of my favourite authors had new books out recently so I feasted on both of them. The war years seems to be where Kate Atkinson is right now and her latest offering, Transcription, offers excitement and surprises with a stunning twist in the tale at the end. Juliet Armstrong is surprised when she is recruited at the start of WW2, not as a spy but as a typist. Her job is to listen in to the conversations of a group of German sympathisers in a flat in London and then type them up for the War Office. The work is both tedious and then terrifying and results in a series of murders  She is young, naive and charming but she is also a bright young woman drawn into a web of espionage and danger. Ten years later and working at the BBC, her past catches up with her. Kate Atkinson is an exceptional writer with a real gift for language and Transcription is beautifully crafted and a pleasure to read - her writing never disappoints -  I loved her last novel, A God in Ruins and I loved Transcription too.

Maggie O'Farrel is another author who never disappoints - I have read and enjoyed everything she has written over the years. Her latest book is autobiographical rather than a novel but if you need evidence that truth can be as dramatic as fiction then look no further. The title's tag line is 'Seventeen brushes with death', and it details the times in O'Farrel's life when she had a brush with danger and death. Its absolutely absorbing and the last chapter left me breathless as she witnesses what it is like to be a mother of a daughter who has a rare autoimmune disorder that results in severe reactions to a variety of allergens. The depth of her vigilance just to protect and keep her child alive is mind boggling! Each chapter is a self contained story and every word is devoured.

Waiting on my Kindle - I have Sapiens by Yuval Noah Hurari which three people have recommended to me - I am waiting for the right time to dig into this. I also have The Paris Secret by Lily Graham; The Trick to Time by Kit de Waal which cam recommended by my niece and I thought I would give Marion Keys a whirl as I haven't read anything of hers in a long while and having been in Ireland - I thought I may enjoy!

Make sure to enjoy your reading too and remember life really is to short to persevere with something that doesn't bring you joy!

I didn’t have a lot of time to browse for books as I usually do when it’s my turn to host book club, so I ran into Fogarty’s and took advice from expert Theresa. She recommended Woman in the Window by A J Finn. Theresa gave the added recommendation that the author was suitable ‘eye candy’ and produced a photo and a newspaper cutting – over and above the call of duty I thought, but I took the book and shared her viewpoint with Shakespear’s Sisters. We are divided on the topic of ‘eye candy’ but I think united on the choice of book!

Anna Fox lives alone-a recluse in her New York City home, unable to venture outside. She spends her days drinking wine (maybe too much), watching old movies, recalling happier times and spying on her neighbors. It's been ten long months since Anna Fox last left her home. Ten months during which she has haunted the rooms of her old New York house like a ghost, lost in her memories, too terrified to step outside as agoraphobia took hold of her. Anna's lifeline to the world is her window, where she sits day after day, watching her neighbours. When the Russells move in, Anna is instantly drawn to them. A picture-perfect family of three, they are an echo of the life that was once hers. But one evening, a frenzied scream rips across the silence, and Anna witnesses something and now she must do everything she can to uncover the truth about what really happened. But even if she does, will anyone believe a wine soaked agoraphobic.

The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen.

I have seen endless reviews about this book and I am always curious when a book is co- authored. I mean how does that happen – Do the authors come up with a plot together and then write a chapter each or do they sit together and write everyday until the book is finished? What do they do when they disagree? It must take enormous strength and reserve not to want your characters to be exactly who you want them to be and to share their creation with another.  I have started to read this and am hooked and halfway through at the first sitting so I can say it’s a page turner. Here are what the publishers say about it. "Vanessa and Richard fell deeply in love and were married for seven years – until he left her for another woman, someone younger and more desirable. She now spends her days immersed in painful memories, trying to decipher how it all went so wrong. Of course, she isn’t blameless, she was never the woman Richard thought she was, ‘A clever thriller with masterful twists’ Karin Slaughter. When you read this book, you will make many assumptions. It’s about a jealous wife, obsessed with her replacement. It’s about a younger woman set to marry the man she loves. The first wife seems like a disaster; her replacement is the perfect woman. You will assume you know the motives, the history, the anatomy of the relationships." You will be wrong.

The Uncommon Life of Alfred Warner in Six Days By Juliet Conlin.

I stumbled across this on Kindle and it was free and like most things we don’t pay for we assume it will be worth little but I loved this heart-warming tale of Alfred’s unusual life.  Alfred Warner, nee Werner he was born in Germany. He has been witness to the persecution of Jews and the rise of the Nazi party. He was a POW in a camp in Scotland and has lived in the UK up until 6 days before his death when he arrives back in Germany. The journey is for the purpose of meeting his granddaughter Brynja, the two have never met. The narrator of the story is Julia, she comes across Alfred while he is a little confused and lonely. She helps him in a way she could never have imagined. The story leads from the just before Julia meets Brynja back to Brynja’s childhood and told over the six days that Julia will know both of them. The story is heartwarming and sometimes heartbreaking. It covers all the things that a person may go through in their life, with the exception that Alfred has a little something extra. It is beautifully written and passes backwards and forwards through the characters histories. I didn’t want to say goodbye to Alfred but all good things come to an end and that is very true of this book.

Uncommon Type by Tom Hanks
I heard about this book through The Graham Norton Show and was pleased that it found its way into book club. I took it out the month that I was packing to come here knowing that a book of short stories would be ideal as there would be no pressure to finish the whole book – just the story I was reading but I found that I wanted to finish the book – I really enjoyed the stories. Mr Hanks is as talented a writer as he is an actor and, when interviewed just seems an all round great guy! I expected the stories to be anecdotes of his acting career but most are pure tales of fiction and others, I think a combination of memoir and imagination.  A hectic, funny sexual affair between two best friends, a World War II veteran dealing with his emotional and physical scars. A second-rate actor plunged into sudden stardom and a whirlwind press junket. A small-town newspaper columnist with old-fashioned views of the modern world.  A woman adjusting to life in a new neighborhood after her divorce. Four friends going to the moon and back in a rocket ship constructed in the backyard.  A teenage surfer stumbling into his father’s secret life.  These are just some of the people and situations that Tom Hanks explores . The stories are linked by one thing: in each of them, a typewriter plays a part, sometimes minor, sometimes central.  A man of words either spoken or typed – Mr Hanks delights!

Lost in translation.......

Books can transport you to another world, into another time and into someones life - and while I love being in my life and world I just love to experience life and our universe through the words of another. As I turn the pages, I allow my imagination to take me into the lives of the characters and not only has that broadened my horizons, its also given me a deep insight into understanding others, which for me is essential to a well lived life.Books this quarter have taken me to Poland, Germany, London, Australia and across various war zones!

So who have I met? Bookclub girls suggested I would love Karolina's Twins (Ronald H Balson) this month. I suspected it was a war story and there would be sadness. "Take it - you will love it," they said. So I took it not expecting to - but I loved it! I was invited to enter into the life of Lena Woodward, an elderly Holocaust survivor, who is on a quest to fulfill a promise to find two infant sisters who she last saw being thrown from a train as it journeyed to a Nazi death camp in Poland. She employs a lawyer and a private detective to assist her as her only son threatens to get her declared delusional and suffering from dementia. It is a story of survival, love and resilience and the importance of family and of forgiveness and it is beautifully written.

I was travelling though Namibia late last year and short of something to read so I scoured my Kindle and came across a book I had downloaded some time ago. The title is deceiving, The Secret Ministry of Ag. & Fish: My Life in Churchill's School for Spies, written by Noreen Riols." My mother thought that I was working for the Ministry of Agriculture.' so being's Noreen's memoir. She was in fact involved in work so secret that it is only in the past ten years that she has been able to declare what she did for the war effort and just how important her unit's work was. Receiving her call-up papers on her 18th birthday, she chose to joining the WRENS because she liked the uniform, she was almost immediately recruited into a secret unit who supported the French Resistance fighting the allied cause and their important work particularly in getting British airmen who were shot down to get back home. She acted as a decoy and master of disguise in Churchill's spy school and her job was to test the spies who were trained to support this cause. One of her female colleagues used to sleep with them before they went 'over' so they could be assured that they didn't talk in their sleep and worse speak in English in their sleep which would have seen them tortured and killed. A fascinating and yes - sometimes harrowing read about the atrocities of war and the treatment of spies who were caught by the Nazis. I did at times weep at the cruelty of war, but I also rejoiced at their triumphs, laughed at some of the witty and unbelievable stories and was in awe of their bravery. A roller coaster of emotions as I sped through the flat landscape of Namibia - and not the best book to read in a German speaking country! What a woman - I was so glad to be able to make her acquaintance and learn of her secret war and of the sterling work that she has done since.

There is another book out in the Seven Sisters Series, Lucinda Riley, that I enjoyed while I was on holiday in the US over Christmas. I am enjoying reading the stories of these adopted sisters as they trace their birth families. The Pearl Sister, is the fourth book of the series and transported me back to the 19th century into Australia and the equivalent of the gold rush but in the lucrative trade of pearls. CeCe travels from the coast into the Australian outback to trace her roots to the Aboriginal people and discovers where her artistic talents come from. These books are well researched and just so easy to get lost in and I am enjoying the continuity as each sister steps out to find her own history and yet the family bonds to one another remain strong. Again I am loving the characters, the history that I am learning and of course the descriptions of places I am yet to visit.  They each long for a sense of belonging and an identity that I am sure resounds with an adopted child. I cant wait for the next one!



Then I met Eleanor Oliphant in "Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine" by Gail Honeyman.
Eleanor, by contrast, leads a simple life, wears the same clothes to work each day and eats the same meal each evening and drinks two bottles of vodka each weekend. She is a lonely young woman living an old persons lonely life - an odd ball, laughed at at work - she is surviving barely. Her past holds a dark secret and you soon lose your heart to this fragile woman wearing a brave mask. I have known one or two, "Eleanors" I like people who live life in their own unique way. This Eleanor's life is changed by an act of kindness which gets her involved with an old man - very much loved by his family - a situation she has never found herself in! A lovely tale, beautifully told - you will want to rescue Eleanor and save her from herself. It is a No.1 best selling Sunday Times book and a stunning debut novel.

I have also enjoyed John Simpson's collection of  short stories "Twenty Tales from the War Zone". Simpson has fifty years experience as a journalist reporting from the front line and I enjoy his anecdotes and his clever style of reporting. He always features in the British Airways in flight magazine and I have usually read his article before take off! This is the perfect book to read in airports, waiting rooms and while ubering! Well written and quick reads.

I indulged in a kindle 99p book too called Dangerous Crossing by Rachel Rhys. Light 'chic-lit' reading and worth a pound of any one's money!

The novel that I have just started in set in the US, The Balitmore Boys by Joel Dicker - a good start! The journey continues.