My book list for September

 We went out for drinks a couple of weeks ago and my friend was telling me about a really good book she read on holiday. As she explained it, a dim and distant memory came back to me that I thought I had heard of that book before.  Next day I checked my Kindle contents and sure enough, I had downloaded that book to take on holiday last year and never got round to reading it!  So that became my first book of the month.

This is the first in a series of books involving seven sisters - none related by blood, but adopted over the years by a billionaire who they knew as 'Pa Salt'.  Maia is the eldest of the sisters and is the first to learn of Pa Salt's death.  She returns to the luxurious castle she has called home on the banks of Lake Geneva to find that her father's instructions were for him to be buried at sea as soon as possible after his death and that he wants none of the girls to be there.  Far from returning to arrange a funeral, Maia is tasked with the unhappy task of telling her sisters what has happened and to let them know that they will be unable to say a last farewell to their father.

When the solicitor arrives to discuss Pa's last wishes he hands each daughter a letter with clues to where in the world they were born before he adopted them.  Further clues are found on a sculpture in the garden which gives them the coordinates of that location on a globe, along with a personal quote for them all.

So this book is dedicated to Maia whose clues lead her to visit Brazil and whose family is linked to the famous statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio di Janeiro.  She is also given a soapstone tile, which she goes on the discover is identical to those which adorn the statue.

I really enjoyed this book and am pleased to find that each sister has her own book so if the others match up to this one, I know I won't have any trouble deciding on a book to read next. This one definitely ends on a cliffhanger!

So onto the next in the series!

This book concerns Ally who was on a boat off of the Greek coast at the time that Pa Salt died.  By a strange coincidence, she saw her father's yacht moored at sea and in hindsight, assumes that she had inadvertently been close at the time that his body was 'buried at sea'.  

The letter that Pa Salt had left for her suggests that she look at a book from his study suggesting that her history may be found in Norway.  There is also a small model of a frog in the envelope which Ally finds confusing.  She has never seen it before and cannot think of any significance to it being passed onto her.  

She realises she has fallen in love with Theo, the yachtsman that she was with in Greece, and is thrilled when he asks her to join his crew for the Fastnet race.  But tragedy is not far away and Ally finds herself having to completely rethink the future she thought she would have.

She decides to visit Norway, seeking the significance of the hints that Pa left behind as clues to her history.  So we step back in time to learn about Anna, a farmer's daughter with a beautiful voice who is given the opportunity to sing in the famous Christiana theatre where she meets Jens, a talented musician with a reputation for being unreliable and unfaithful.  

How will the love story between Jens and Anna lead to Ally's adoption? 

I can see that I'm going to end up reading all of the books in this series!  The author takes historical facts and weaves interesting stories into how this very unusual family was formed.

I tracked down another in the series in our local library

The Sun Sister tells the story of Electra, possibly the most troubled on the sisters.  A famous model with the world at her feet on the outside but inside lies a number of addictions and a very unhappy woman.  

Rocked by the death of Pa Salt and the break up of her relationship with a famous musician, Electra relies on drugs and drink to lift her up.  Friends and family are concerned for her mental health, then one day she receives a message from someone who says they are her grandmother and who can tell her where she came from before she was adopted.  This tips her over the edge and she is booked into a rehab centre.

On her discharge she decides to talk to her grandmother to find out more of her history and so we embark on a journey to Africa to discover exactly how Electra's family lived through the war and how her grandmother came to live in America.

Only by confronting her past can Electra turn her life around and try to ensure that the future is brighter for women who find themselves in her birth mother's predicament.  

I enjoyed this book just as much as the others!

My last book for the month is one that doesn't have a front cover, and I can't share any details about it I'm afraid!  My friend Dani is an author and she has kindly let me read a draft of her new novel.  I will reveal more when I can. 

#WBOYC in August

 

What's been on my calendar this month?  Not very much!  It's school summer holidays here and so with four grandchildren we've been kept busy with helping with childcare.  How do families with both parents working manage if they don't have family nearby to help out?  

Watching and reading

Destination X sometimes had me wondering why some people apply to go on shows involving different places in the world when they admit 'I'm hopeless at geography'.  They all start out as a group 'of course we will share any information or clues we find, we're in this together'. Seriously?  Only one of you can win the £10,000, it's going to be each man for himself!

We enjoyed The Hostage on Netflix.  Suranne Jones was very good as a prime minister having to make some huge decisions.  

The Sewing Bee has been good to watch and it is interesting to see how creative all the contestants are, especially under a tight timescale.

My reading list is here - as you will see, it is somewhat monopolised by one author!

Eating

We went to dinner at our friends' house and they had cooked Sicilian sausage ragu with the meat coming from a nearby Italian deli.  Oh boy, it was absolutely delicious.

Leo and Rosie helped with the design and decoration of their mum’s birthday cake 

We took our son's children out for a McDonald's lunch as a birthday treat.  This was I think the second time they have been there as their mum and dad try hard to avoid processed foods.  The last time I had a McDonalds was in 2008!  I remember it as we were on our way up to Sheffield to collect our daughter from university.  I have to say, it tasted better than I remembered but boy are those french fries salty!

Self care

A whole month with no normal pilates or zumba classes!  The hall we use for zumba is having air conditioning installed (and about time too!) and the pilates teacher decided that she would not hold classes for August as so many people had holiday commitments.  I signed up for a month of online classes via my zumba teacher but am ashamed to say that I have only logged on three times.

I'm not sure if it really qualifies as self care, but I went to my 'knit and natter' group on Friday for the first time in a few weeks and it was so nice to just sit, do some crafting and chat.  My blanket is finally finished!

Days Out

Any days out seem to have been related to child friendly places, crazy golf, cinema trips and a birthday trip to McDonalds.  But last weekend we went to the Gibberd Gardens which is a six acre site in the grounds of Sir Frederick Gibberd's home.  It was a gloriously warm day and it was lovely to wander around the gardens and woodland with Coco.  I think I am right in saying that Harlow was the second 'new town' to be built in England back in the late 40s, and Gibberd was the architect and designer of the town.  It holds an interest to me as I grew up in that area and the secondary school that I went to was on the outskirts of Harlow New Town.

So, here is my 1 Second Everyday for the month

My book list for September

 After a month of reading a variety of genres, this month I found one and stuck with it!  I started the month with a book which is the second in a series

I really enjoyed this book. As I had read book one in the series I needed no introduction to the main characters and already knew that I was going to easily become engrossed in the storyline. Philly Barker is an antiques specialist whose knowledge and skills make her a valuable companion to a local police officer who is close to retirement, Inspector Robbie Dawkins, and we sense the beginnings of a ‘more than friends’ relationship forming by the end of the book. 

In my mind's eye I can visualise the Yorkshire village where this story is set. I can feel the atmosphere of the local pub, and almost taste the delicious offerings in the cafe. An added, and welcome, bonus is the inclusion of several recipes at the end of the book! 

There has been a spate of burglaries in the homes of the elderly residents of the village, and also a mysterious estate agent visiting them in their isolated farms to suggest it may be time to put their homes on the market and move to safer, sheltered accommodation. The local police force seems to be happy to log the missing items but look no further into a possible pattern emerging. Robbie feels there is more to this and wants to solve the mystery as his last case before retirement.

However, once a murder victim is discovered at one of the farms, the police have to agree with Robbie that serious crimes are being committed.

I do hope there is a book three! I like the partnership between Philly and Robbie and the style of writing is interesting and easy to read ‘just one more chapter’! 

As I'd decided that this was an author whose books I enjoy, I decided to try another.  Although I was pleased to see that there is a 3rd Philly Barker book, I chose a different character, in a different continent.

It didn't take long to decide that I liked Clementine Carter, and that although I have never been to that part of the world, I felt like I could really imagine life in Whale Bay, Queensland.  Clementine has returned to Whale Bay following the death of a loving Aunt who has died in what appears to be a terrible accident.  But Clem is not convinced that is was an accident and sets about investigating the facts.  Having been the sole inheritor of her aunt Rose's home and shop, Clem has to decide whether or not to sell the properties.  There are people anxious to get their hands on both properties with a view to redeveloping the land who naturally fall under suspicion.  

Of course there is a gorgeous, loveable man on the scene which makes Clem question whether or not she should stay with the man she has left behind, who just so happens to be very keen for Clem to sell up and return home.

There seem to be a lot of people who may have benefited by Rose dying and Clem selling up her home and shop and it was interesting to see how this panned out with the true culprit being revealed at the end.  

I really enjoyed this book, it was a perfect easy, relaxing read after quite a few extra days of childcare while our grandchildren are on summer school holidays!  

So this month really is a Joanne Tracey month as I decided to follow up with the second in the Clementine Carter books!

Clem has now moved to Whale Bay and things have definitely moved on with her relationship with Finn.  She's scared to say things are pretty perfect as that will always tempt fate to step in and pull the rug from under her feet.  Sure enough, in the first chapter we hear that a feasibility study is being proposed for the nearby mangrove swamps which rings alarm bells in case the area is being considered for development.  Probably a bigger surprise though, is the fact that Finn receives a phone call from his wife.  Clem knew that he had been married and had assumed that he was divorced.

Harry offers to take Clem out in his boat to see the mangrove swamps for herself but on arriving they find a dead body in the water.  Things take a turn for the worse when the body turns out to be that of Finn's wife and both Finn becomes the prime suspect.

There are moments when Clem wonders just how well she knows Finn, and her emotional state is not helped by the reappearance of Nick, her former boyfriend.

Several suspects, a few twists and turns, and another enjoyable book by Joanne Tracey!

My book list for August

 I read a variety of genres this month.  The first book of the month was actually started at the very end of July.  It was one that my husband read on holiday and said that I might enjoy it too.  It isn't often that we both enjoy the same book as our tastes are quite different!

This book is a story woven around the true facts of the relationship between the Prime Minister of England in 1914, H H Asquith and a young woman who was half his age.  The letters  included in the book were actually sent by Asquith although there is no record of Venetia's replies and it has to be assumed that Asquith destroyed them whereas Venetia kept every one that she received.  Robert Harris has written his book around the letters she received and turned it into a work of fiction.

A young intelligence officer is instructed to investigate a possible leak of confidential information following the discovery of top secret telegrams in a public park.  He is shell shocked to discover that the likely person to have done this is none other that the Prime Minister.

To say that Asquith appears to be obsessed with this young girl is an understatement and at times he was writing to her three times a day, sometimes from the Cabinet Office, when clearly his attention should have been totally on a country on the brink of war.  I found myself becoming increasingly frustrated with his reckless behaviour and his obsession with Venetia.

Was it worth reading?  Yes.  You have to keep reminding yourself that these letters actually existed.  He did show Venetia extremely confidential documents and having done so, merely wound down a car window, screwed up the telegram copy and throw it away.  Anyone could have found them, and should they have ended up in the wrong hands rather than a law abiding member of the public, the course of the war may have taken a very different turn.  But you must also remember that this is a story wound around those facts and is from Harris' imagination.  It was definitely a very different book to those I would normally read!

In all, 560 letters were written to Venetia, and these are held in boxes at the Bodleian Library in Oxford.  I felt that Asquith's obsession with Venetia made me cross.  He clearly wasn't giving his job as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom the attention it needed! 

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I chose something light to read while waiting to hear which would be the next book chosen for our book club this month

Daphne and Miles become flat mates after they both find themselves unexpectedly single.  The situation isn't helped by the fact that Daphne's fiance Peter has left her for a childhood friend, Petra, who was in a long time relationship with Miles. While both of them try to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives, Daphne moves into the flat where Miles has been living.  The home she was sharing with Peter was in his name and when they broke up, she had nowhere to live.

When they discover that Peter and Petra have had a whirlwind engagement and are planning their wedding they both accept the wedding invitation. They decide to mislead their exes by posting photos on social media suggesting that they too have become a couple, in the hope that they would believe that they have not been devastated by the situation.  However, what started out as a light hearted act starts to turn into something deeper.

It's kind of a predictable storyline, but I liked the characters and it was a nice easy read. The plot wasn't as straightforward as I thought it may be!

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Our book club choice this month was Not Quite Dead Yet

On the night of Halloween, Jet is attacked and suffers catastrophic brain injuries.  The doctors say that without surgery she is likely to suffer a brain aneurysm within a week which will kill her. The surgery has only a 10% chance of success and so Jet decides not to have it but to spend the last few days that she has left trying to find out who tried to murder her.  

She teams up with an old friend, Billy, to try to piece together the events leading up to the attack and understand who may have wanted her dead.  In the course of the next few days, many names come under suspicion and it is quite a mystery.

The premise of the story line could have been very good but I really didn't enjoy the style of writing.  I kept forgetting that Jet was in her mid 20s and not a teenager because of the way she talks and acts.

Jet is determined to spend her last 7 days finding out who was the mystery attacker.  She is unaware of having any enemies who would wish her dead, so everyone becomes under suspicion. In the end you realise that there are a lot of people with motives to harm either her or her family.

When I started this book the style of writing made me wonder if it was published as Young Adult fiction.  Apparently the author is usually a Young Adult writer and in my opinion, this is obvious.  I wasn't sure that I was going to get engrossed in the storyline. I didn't really like Jet.  Despite the horrendous injuries and the fact that she knew she was dying, I just couldn't warm to her.   If it hadn't been a book club choice, I may not have decided to finish it!

#WBOYC in July

 

What am I watching and reading?

My book list for the month is here - quite a wide variety of books this month! I've also started, but not finished, Precipice by Robert Harris.  It took me a little while to get into and it is hard to believe that it is a fiction worked around the true stories of the correspondence between the British prime minister at the start of the first World War and a girl half his age.

I'm still catching up on the Chelsea Detective and have started the new series of Ginny and Georgia.  Wimbledon was on our screens quite a lot and that seemed to be all there was on terrestrial tv in the evenings!  The Great British Sewing Bee has returned which always brings back happy memories of studying for my A level in Needlework back in 1975.  I also watched the new series of The Couple Next Door.  It was very raunchy in places but a real 'twist in the tale' story.

We started watching Destination X where people are taken to places in Europe in a blacked out bus, then given hints and clues so that they can guess where they are.  Bearing in mind that I worked for 10 years in the travel industry, my geography is not as good as it should be so it will be interesting to see if I do any better than the contestants.

Eating

Well, I returned from Italy with a couple of extra pounds so I've been trying to return to healthy habits.  Hopefully by not having the lure of an evening gelato after dinner will help me lose those pesky pounds.

It has been very hot here and it's just too hot to spend much time at the oven and hob so I have been cheating a bit!  Things like turning chicken breast in breadcrumbs into chicken katsu curry (with the help of a sauce sachet and microwavable rice!) and making a large pot of ragu and freezing it in portions has made life very easy.  

We have a gooseberry bush in our garden and each year there are more and more fruit on it and it's hard to know what to use them for.  Last week I found a recipe for a gooseberry crumble cake and it was lovely!  It is really just a normal sponge recipe but you cook it in a deep sided cake tin, spread the gooseberries over the top and cover with a crumble topping.  I was surprised how tasty it was and am already thinking that I will be able to do something similar using apples instead of gooseberries.

Another recipe I discovered was using mince meat.  It's from an instagram account called 'boredoflunch'. It's called Hot Honey Sweet Potato Bowls. I don't have an air fryer so I just browned the meat on the hob.  I'd never tried hot honey before - honey with added chilli flakes - but it's so yummy drizzled over the cottage cheese and sweet potatoes.

Self Care

This one is on a bit of a hiatus.  I'm still enjoying my Zumba and I'm still going to Pilates but I can't say I'm loving it.  Whereas I look forward to Zumba and come out full of happy vibes, Pilates is still something on the calendar that I feel I have to go to.  The teacher is lovely, the class is lighthearted but I am no more flexible now than I was when I started in January! However they are fitting air conditioning into the hall that we use (and about time too!) so there are no classes in August.  I've signed up for an online week of classes so I'll let you know how that goes next month.

There was a haircut; I had been toying with the idea of changing my style after seeing a picture of Fern Britton in a magazine where she had her hair tucked behind her ears and I was very tempted to go shorter and more layered to try and get a similar effect.  In the event, although quite a lot of hair was cut, it doesn't look that much shorter!

Days out

There haven't been many of these, apart from a visit to a garden centre.  We also went our our grandson's football presentation afternoon.  It's been his first year of playing in a proper team and he was very proud of his trophy!  

For the last two weeks we have either been childcaring or dog sitting but those dates in the diary are over now and we can get back on track. We had planned on going out for dinner the first day we had the house back to normal but quite honestly, it was nice just to be able to relax at home.

So, it was a quiet month for me, but I bet that the other Deb over in Australia had a busier time.  Let's go and check here ...

Time for 1 Second Everyday

My book list for July

 I actually started this book on holiday in June!

Twenty years ago, nine friends made predictions for each other with the agreement that they would meet again in twenty years time to see just how accurate they were.  We meet them all at Ivo's family home on Dartmoor where they have arranged a weekend together to reveal the predictions.  Not all of them are still alive.  Some are remarkably successful in their careers. Some are living ordinary lives. One of them is a murderer.

I liked the idea of this storyline and the story keeps you guessing up to the end. I did feel that it dragged a little in places however and the characters are a little stereotyped but nevertheless I did enjoy it.

Next - something completely different!

Now there was a point that I nearly gave up on this book!  But it has good reviews and it is certainly something unlike any other books I have read.  

Imagine if you could erase any bad memories or bad behaviour, wipe your conscience or your memory clean and start again with a fresh slate.  Imagine how many secrets would be hidden.  This is where the Binders come into their own.  Books are not as we think of them nowadays; books are where your confessions or bad experiences are written down, bound into a book and locked in a vault for safekeeping.  

Emmett Farmer is summoned to become a Binder's apprentice and although he, and his parents, are reluctant to let him go, he has no choice in the matter.  He starts to learn how to prepare the books for their contents and gradually learns how to complete a book.  Then one day he comes upon a book with his own name on the cover.  In a past time that he can no longer remember, he must have visited a Binder to have this memories erased and the details hidden away forever.

The two central characters have both met before, despite a huge gulf between their lives, but neither can remember how or when.  It's hard to pinpoint the era in which this is set.  There are no real clues other than it was a time where witchcraft was feared and in my imagination, the town of Castleford resembles the era of Charles Dickens' novel Oliver Twist.

This was a cleverly written novel and each part gives us a little more information as to how Emmett and Lucien met in a former, forgotten life.  It's not the kind of book I would say that I thoroughly enjoyed, but it is a very clever concept and well written.

The next book was the one chosen by our online book club

The book begins in 1961 when Mari arrives at Martha's Vineyard to supposedly research the paintings of Elizabeth Devereux.  While going through her mother's possessions after she died, she has found the name of the artist and is intrigued to learn more about the connection.

We then go back in time to 1942 and meet sisters Briar and Cadence Smith who are trying to maintain a sense of normality as the war in Europe is escalating and US soldiers are training to go off to war.  Their brother Tom is called up and leaves the two girls and their grandmother to keep the farm going in his absence.

They are trying to adapt to their new 'normal' with troops training around the area of their farm and beach when a soldier is found, washed up onto the beach.  The girls rescue him and allow him to recover in their boathouse, their sympathy drawn from thinking of their brother and how they would hope that he would be treated if it were to happen to him.  But the man is German, having tried to escape from the U boat where he was working as a medic.  His family are all living in America and he just wants to be reunited with them and not drawn into the fighting in the war.  Is he telling the truth?  As they did not report finding him straight away, the family has put themselves into danger as harbouring the enemy is a serious offence. 

He insists there is a spy on the island and a U boat is waiting to pick them up, his story seems convincing but who is about to betray their country? More to the point, how is Mari associated with the family? 

I enjoyed this book, I've never been to Martha's Vineyard, but the author makes me feel like I can imagine how it looks and the people that would have been there in the war years.  All in all, I enjoyed this book, it's not your typical WW2 story and I would recommend it. 

Me on Monday

 i think it's fair to say that I am now completely back in the old routine after our holiday!  Once the cases are back in the loft and the washing is all done and back in the wardrobes it's almost as if you've never been away.

We had a curry night with a group of friends that we get together about 3 times a year.  We used to all live in the same street and struck up our friendship when our children were young.  It's nice to keep in touch even though we've all moved from the original street.

Our grandson Leo had his first school residential - two nights away from home which is a big deal when you are only eight! He had a great time even though he lost a tooth on the first morning there.  

Our son had a great day on Saturday.  He and his wife were offered corporate tickets for Centre Court at Wimbledon.  How lucky was that?  Especially bearing in mind that Djokovic was playing that evening.  Look at the view from their seats!

Just before I went on holiday Gail from Is This Mutton asked me if I would join in a blog post she was compiling about people's favourite dresses.  You can read it here. The idea was to show your favourite dresses, but this was the day before I went on holiday so I had to slightly alter mine to be my 'favourite dresses to take on holiday' The main criteria for holiday dresses is that they must not crease as I don't like ironing at home so I certainly won't be ironing when I go overseas.  

This Monday sees me going to pilates and then into town to look for inspiration as we have three birthdays coming up. I'm sure that I will be given ideas for Max and Leo but I still like to get them a surprise or two.  Much harder to shop for our daughter though, if she wants something she tends to just buy it rather than hold on until it's her birthday.

To be honest, I am going to try and relax and enjoy this next week as once schools break up our childcare will be increasing, not to mention a certain little dachshund coming for a 10 day stay while her family head off to Turkey for their holiday.  This also clashes with a 3 day visit from Max and Olive while their mum and dad go to a 'no children' wedding in Manchester.  Wish me luck!

Have a good week x