Sue Fairhead's Blog, page 12

A vicarage family (by Noel Streatfeild)

(Amazon UK link) My favourite books by Noel Streatfeild are her novels for children. I’m slowly re-reading my way through them, as I do from time to time. But this month I decided to read the first of her fictionalised biographies, ‘A Vicarage Family’. I last read this in 2014, so it felt like more than time to peruse it again.
I’m not entirely sure why the author decided to tell her story in the third person, featuring a family with different names. Perhaps she was worried about the legal implica...

Sing you home (by Jodi Picoult)

(Amazon UK link) I’m always slightly apprehensive when I embark on a new (to me) novel by Jodi Picoult. I know it will be well-written, and that it will cover current issues in ways that will make me think. I know, too, that her characters will mostly be three-dimensional, and that there will be a mixture of positive and negative traits in each. But sometimes the stories are very dark, and I find them too tense for my tastes, even though I keep reading. 
I have just finished ‘Sing you home’, and i...

The queen of new beginnings (by Erica James)

(Amazon UK link) I’m slowly re-reading the many novels I have on my shelves by Erica James. I’ve read some of them more than once, and they feel nicely familiar when I re-read. But there are others which I have read only once, when I first acquired them, and for which I have no memory whatsoever. One of the latter group is ‘The queen of new beginnings’, which I read back in 2011. I’ve just reread it, and, on the whole, liked it very much. 
The first character we meet is the rather grumpy Clayton, ...

Beyond Sundays (by Wayne Jacobsen)

(Amazon UK link) It’s hard to believe that it’s almost two decades since I first came across a book by Wayne Jacobsen. It was under the semi-pseudonym of Jake Colsen, in a book he co-wrote with Dave Coleman. I haven’t been able to find other books by Dave Coleman, but managed to acquire several by Wayne Jacobson. I found them all well-written, sometimes moving, and very readable. 
So I was very pleased to be given one that I didn’t have, ‘Beyond Sundays’, for Christmas. I started reading it at the...

Mary-Lou of the Chalet School (by Elinor M Brent-Dyer)

(Amazon UK link) In my slow meander through the lengthy ‘Chalet School’ series by Elinor M Brent-Dyer, I reached the one originally numbered 34. I last read ‘Mary-Lou of the Chalet School’ in 2015. It’s not one I remembered much; possibly I didn’t read it all that regularly when I was younger. It’s set in the winter term following on from the previous book, ‘A chalet girl in Kenya’. So it features the second winter of the new Swiss branch of the Chalet School. 
Mary-Lou is one of Brent-Dyer’s stro...

The trouble with goats and sheep (by Joanna Cannon)

(Amazon UK link) I hadn’t heard of Joanna Cannon. Apparently ‘The trouble with goats and sheep’ was her debut novel, although she has written others since this was published in 2016. It was allocated for this month’s read for our local book group. We were told it was light-hearted, and a relatively easy read for a busy time of year.
I really wanted to like it. It starts so well. Ten-year-old Grace narrates; she’s an only child who thinks a lot. Sometimes her narration feels more like that of an ad...

Stress family Robinson (by Adrian Plass)

(Amazon UK link) Since I had decided to re-read Adrian Plass’s fictional books, I turned to the ones I hadn’t read for the longest time. I had remembered the first ‘Stress Family Robinson’ book as quite light-weight, not one of my favourites but still a good read. I was a little shocked to discover that I last read it in 2010. I had not realised it was such a long time ago; more than time to re-read. 
I knew that the story revolved around the Robinson family, although I had forgotten their names. ...

The second form at St Clare's (by Enid Blyton)

(Amazon UK link) Since I reread - and enjoyed - the first three ‘St Clare’s’ books by Enid Blyton in the past few months, I decided to try the fourth, ‘The second form at St Clare’s’, which I haven’t read for at least thirty years. There’s a note in the front of my ‘dragon’ paperback saying that I acquired it in April 1970. So it’s perhaps not surprising that it’s starting to fall apart. I must have read it many times in my teens, and it has been borrowed regularly by young friends.
But with a thi...

Scarlet Feather (by Maeve Binchy)

(Amazon UK link) In my gradual re-read of the novels by the late Maeve Binchy, roughly in chronological order of publication, I reached ‘Scarlet Feather’. My edition is a hardback with just under 500 pages, so I was a little daunted when I decided to read it at quite a busy time of year.  I last read it in 2017. 
However, as with many of this author’s books, particularly the later ones, I was quickly drawn into the story, felt empathy with some of the characters, and eager to know what was going t...

The artist's way for retirement (by Julia Cameron)

(Amazon UK link) Back in 2017, I acquired (second-hand) a couple of books by the American author Julia Cameron that came highly recommended. They were supposed to encourage creativity and provide inspiration for anyone feeling a bit blocked or uncertain where their lives were heading. I spent a few months attempting to get into one of them, and failed. In the end, I gave up. 
Four years later, in the summer of 2021 we were able to travel after eighteen months of restrictions due to the pandemic. W...