Theresa Smith's Blog, page 124
September 19, 2018
Australian Reading Hour
[image error]Today is the day! What is Australian Reading Hour? It’s a day where everyone is encouraged to stop for an hour, pick up a book, and read it. Read it to yourself, read it to your children, read to someone else’s children. Read to another adult who can’t read. Just read!
It may seem odd for someone who reads for more than an hour every single day to be making a fuss about this, but it’s the bigger picture of course, the large scale encouragement of reading that I like to get behind and support.
Because I do read everyday, all the time, I still wanted to do something a little different with my reading time today to mark the occasion. So I got up earlier than normal and read over breakfast, not something I generally do on a work day. It was extremely relaxing and while I probably couldn’t be organised enough to set aside an hour every morning before work, it made me realise that even fifteen minutes of reading over breakfast, instead of scrolling through social media and answering emails, is probably a better way to start my day. Food for thought!
[image error]So, what did I read this morning for my reading hour? I have been working my way this week, in between other books, through a short story collection that is due for release at the end of October. An Evening in Paradise by Lucia Berlin. It’s a posthumous compilation of previously unpublished stories. I don’t read a lot of short stories; the shortness of them tends to inhibit my enjoyment. I want to get into something, not have it all over not long after it has just begun. Surprisingly though, I am finding that Lucia’s writing is breaking through this barrier for me. She has a way of wielding a lot of power with few words and her stories are incredibly engaging. I can see why her work continues to garner so much attention.
I hope you set aside some time to read today and if you do, please let me know what you read. You can find more information on Australian Read Hour over at their official website.
September 17, 2018
New Release Book Review: Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty
About the Book:
The retreat at health and wellness resort Tranquillum House promises total transformation. Nine stressed city dwellers are keen to drop their literal and mental baggage, and absorb the meditative ambience while enjoying their hot stone massages.
Watching over them is the resort’s director, a woman on a mission to reinvigorate their tired minds and bodies.
These nine perfect strangers have no idea what is about to hit them.
With her wit, compassion and uncanny understanding of human behaviour, Liane Moriarty explores the depth of connection that can be formed when people are thrown together in unconventional circumstances.
My Thoughts:
Nine Perfect Strangers is one novel where the anticipation more than lives up to the experience itself. For me, this is Liane Moriarty’s best novel yet. Unfortunately, I can’t tell you much about it, because even a hint of spoilers will quite simply ruin the reading experience for you and I don’t want to be that person! I can however tell you why I think it’s her best and give you a few impressions, which will hopefully be enough of an enticement for you to pick it up and judge for yourself.
Nine Perfect Strangers lacks the ambiguity of Liane’s previous release, Truly, Madly, Guilty, which for me, was a huge bonus. Instead of a constant back and forth alluding to ‘something huge’ – such as in Big Little Lies – Nine Perfect Strangers unfolds chronologically and in the moment. Yes, there is some reflection on past events, but overall it’s styled very different to previous novels by Liane. There is no ‘something huge’, so to speak, more of an experience that is being shared by nine people that is so unbelievably out of the box that it’s this that bonds them, the experience as well as their reactions and connectivity over what they go through. I have to say, Liane blew me away with what she did to her characters in Nine Perfect Strangers. What begins as a stay at a pretty weird health retreat morphs into a truly bizarre scenario that was so violating to these characters – I was horrified. Such a clever storyline, and totally unexpected! There was an element to this novel that I like to call ‘Fargoesque’, and if you’ve seen the original movie Fargo, you’ll know what I mean. That dark humour that borders on inappropriate yet is utterly hilarious while at the same time completely unbelievable. When done well, as it was in this case, it’s priceless.
The characterisation in Nine Perfect Strangers was second to none. Each person had a unique presence, a distinctive voice, and while some characters had more air time than others, they all had a valid space to occupy. I particularly loved Frances, with her novelist’s eye and overactive imagination, but then the Marconi family’s story was one that particularly affected me deeply. I could empathise with Carmen, I liked Tony and Lars, and I had a great deal of understanding for Ben and Jessica. I liked them all, I became invested in each of them, and I enjoyed each person’s journey equally. It’s quite a feat, to craft a batch of characters like this, make them distinctive and authentic, yet not have any of them too annoying. And then there’s Masha. Perhaps one of Liane’s best characters yet. At first she was simply intense, narrow focused, a little zealous maybe. But as the retreat wore on, Masha was revealed in all her diabolical, narcissistic, sociopathic glory. She was, to put it simply, unbelievable. Along with Yao, who worshipped her, and was a stunning example of how a normal person with a modicum of intelligence can be taken in by the manipulations of a charismatic leader, Liane has created quite the cast for Nine Perfect Strangers.
Filled to the brim with snark and sarcasm, dark humour and witticisms, Nine Perfect Strangers touches on some serious issues, a few that really hit me hard. The burden of guilt, the roles we assume and then never let go of, the human tendency to keep doing what we’re already doing, even if it’s killing us. There’s plenty of food for thought in these pages. To a certain degree, you need to check your reality at the door with this novel, particularly throughout the second half and the ending, but I honestly liked that about it. It was entertaining, thoroughly funny; a marvellous way to spend a weekend. Nine Perfect Strangers comes with my highest recommendation, and if you’re in a book club, this is definitely one you’ll want to add to your reading list.
September 16, 2018
Behind the Pen with Sally Piper
[image error]Today it gives me great pleasure to welcome Sally Piper to Behind the Pen, here to talk about a few of her favourites. Over to you Sally, what is your favourite…and why…
Character from one of your books?
Lisa from The Geography of Friendship remains a favourite character. I know she will polarize readers because of her easy anger and tendency for recklessness, but she is also incredibly loyal and protective of her friends, which is something I value. And I like that she expresses her anger. I think as women we often suppress anger from habit or from the fear that we will be seen as hysterical, unseemly or a harridan; labels given because an angry woman makes demands on people (on men) that aren’t usually made of them, and dares to suggest that change is required.
Scene from one of your books?
[image error]There is a scene in The Geography of Friendship that is a gentle and quiet one but offers so much promise for the repair of the friendship between Lisa, Samantha and Nicole. It occurs on the second hike. They have just walked the length of a long beach, which was really tough going, especially for Samantha, the least fit of the three. The beach represented a major breaking point in their friendship on the first hike, so it carries particularly troubling memories for each of them. Samantha is fatigued and has painful blisters on her feet and her boots are full of sand. They stop to empty the sand from their boots before tackling a difficult ascent. Nicole, who has remained mostly uncommunicative and distant from the other two since they set out three days earlier, takes care of Samantha’s feet. She tenderly wipes the sand from them, reapplies blister plasters, bangs the sand from the weave of her socks and helps Samantha put them and her boots on again. Lisa watches these simple acts of intimacy and kindness and feels she is witnessing not first aid but an anointment. I wanted to instill hope in this scene. It still moves me when I read it.
Indulgent I know, but I would like to mention one other scene, this one from Grace’s Table. I can’t give details of the scene as it represents the climax of the novel, but it is more the writing of it that I want to draw attention to. It is a deeply harrowing scene and it hurt a great deal to write. It was a longer scene initially, about 3000 words, and I wrote it in one day. When I finished it I felt emptied and had to leave the house and go for a long walk to escape from what I’d written, the pain of it. I will never forget this day of writing and I still can’t read the scene without crying. It reminds me of the power of words.
Movie of all time?
I can’t choose between A Knight’s Tale, because it’s laugh-out-loud funny, sexy, has a great soundtrack and costumes and such an upbeat ending, and Dangerous Liaisons, because it is suggestively erotic, has equally spectacular costumes but delivers such a heart-achingly tragic but fitting end. Movies that are polar opposites really – love confirmed in one and betrayed in the other!
Book that you always keep a copy of and recommend to others?
The Prophet by Lebanese-American poet, philosopher and artist Kahlil Gibran. This slender book was given to me by the mother of a young man I nursed while working on a neurosurgical critical care unit in the UK in 1992. Sadly her son, aged only twenty, never regained consciousness and died, so I never really got to “meet” him, as his mother described it in the letter she included with the book.
She also said: …you might explore some of the insights in this book, and think of him. He was exploring the mysteries of life and would, I think, have enjoyed it.
This book and letter is one of my most treasured possessions and when I read it I do think of him, twenty-six years on.
Fashion accessory that despite having plenty of, you still keep collecting?
Look, it’s a cliché, but shoes, and I’m yet to work out why.
Drink that you enjoy everyday?
Coffee, but I limit it to no more than three a day, which is probably two too many, but better I guess than two too many glasses of Pinot Noir.
Treat you indulge in?
A Portuguese custard tart from Lisboa Caffe. Sublime!
Place to be?
Walking in the bush.
Person you admire?
Anybody who writes something, puts it out there, gets a knockback but turns up at the desk again the next day.
Season of the year?
Autumn. Because I don’t have to think about Brisbane’s eyeball-drying heat and hair-curling humidity for several months.
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The Geography of Friendship
When three young women set off on a hike through the wilderness they are anticipating the adventure of a lifetime. Over the next five days, as they face up to the challenging terrain, it soon becomes clear they are not alone and the freedom they feel quickly turns to fear. Only when it is too late for them to turn back do they fully appreciate the danger they are in. As their friendship is tested, each girl makes an irrevocable choice; the legacy of which haunts them for years to come.
Now in their forties, Samantha, Lisa and Nicole are estranged, but decide to revisit their original hike in an attempt to salvage what they lost. As geography and history collide, they are forced to come to terms with the differences that have grown between them and the true value of friendship.
Released on 2nd July 2018
September 15, 2018
Sunday Spotlight with Sally Piper — Australian Women Writers Challenge Blog
I’m over at the Australian Women Writers Challenge blog today, talking to Sally Piper, author of The Geography of Friendship.
Welcome to Sunday Spotlight. Our guest today is Sally Piper, author of the recently released The Geography of Friendship, published by UQP. What is it about women’s friendship that inspired you to write a novel about it? I was interested in looking at female friendships from their earliest beginnings – why and how certain girls…
via Sunday Spotlight with Sally Piper — Australian Women Writers Challenge Blog
September 14, 2018
Bingo! The Desert Nurse by Pamela Hart
It’s bingo Saturday once again – that rolled around fast! The square I’ve filled for this entry is:
A book written by an Australian woman
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Not quite as easy to come up with a title for this category as you might have thought, which is why I’ve left it for so long. I have so many excellent titles to choose from. Anyway, I have settled on The Desert Nurse by Pamela Hart, one of my top reads for this year.
You can always rely on Pamela Hart to write an authentic Australian story that is true to its era with a focus on the incredible Australian women who have shaped our nation’s history. With crossovers to characters from her previous WWI novels, Pamela shows just how small our nation was at the time of WWI, highlighting the enormous sacrifice Australians gave to the fight for world peace. What a great tribute this story is, to our nation’s WWI effort. What an honourable representation of the heroic work done by our desert nurses. I highly recommend The Desert Nurse as one of my top reads of the year so far.
This year I’m playing book bingo with Mrs B’s Book Reviews. On the first and third Saturday of each month, we’ll post our latest entry. We’re not telling each other in advance what we’re currently reading or what square we’ll be filling next; any coincidences are exactly that – and just add to the fun!
Follow our card below if you’d like to join in, and please let us know if you do so we can check out what you’re reading.
Now I’m off to check out what square Mrs B has marked off for this round. See you over there!
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September 13, 2018
Top 5 Anticipated Reads
There’s always loads of books I want to read. It’s pretty much a list that I’ll never get to the end of. But every season there are new releases on the horizon that automatically jump to the very top of my list and for the remainder of the year, these are my top five can’t wait to get my hands on them, titles.
A Spark of Light by Jodi Picoult
[image error]As a long time Jodi Picoult fan, each new release of hers is one I eagerly anticipate, long before I even know what the topic of the novel will be. Releasing in October, at least I won’t have to wait long for this one, which promises to be quite a powerful read.
When Vonita opened the doors of the Centre that morning, she had no idea that it would be for the last time.
Wren has missed school to come to the Centre, the sole surviving women’s reproductive health clinic in the state, chaperoned by her aunt, Bex. Olive told Peg she was just coming for a check-up. Janine is undercover, a pro-life protester disguised as a patient. Joy needs to terminate her pregnancy. Louie is there to perform a service for these women, not in spite of his faith, but because of it.
When a desperate and distraught gunman bursts into the Centre, opening fire and taking everyone hostage, Hugh McElroy is the police negotiator called to the scene. He has no idea that his fifteen-year-old daughter is inside.
Told in a daring and enthralling narrative structure that counts backward through the hours of the standoff, this is a story that traces its way back to what brought each of these very different individuals to the same place on this fateful day.
Jodi Picoult – one of the most fearless writers of our time – tackles a complicated issue in this gripping and nuanced novel. How do we balance the rights of pregnant women with the rights of the unborn they carry? What does it mean to be a good parent? A Spark of Light will inspire debate, conversation … and, hopefully, understanding.
Releasing 3rd October 2018
The Turn of Midnight by Minette Walters
[image error]The Turn of Midnight is the sequel to The Last Hours which released in November of last year. I thoroughly enjoyed The Last Hours but it really left readers hanging at the end, so this one can’t come too soon! Lucky for me, I have an advanced copy ready and waiting and come school holidays the week after next, this is one I am definitely reading ahead of time.
As the year 1349 approaches, the Black Death continues its devastating course across England. In Dorseteshire, the quarantined people of Develish question whether they are the only survivors.
Guided by their beloved young mistress, Lady Anne, they wait, knowing that when their dwindling stores are finally gone they will have no choice but to leave. But where will they find safety in the desolate wasteland outside?
One man has the courage to find out.
Thaddeus Thurkell, a free-thinking, educated serf, strikes out in search of supplies and news. A compelling leader, he and his companions quickly throw off the shackles of serfdom and set their minds to ensuring Develish’s future – and freedom for its people.
But what use is freedom that cannot be gained lawfully? When Lady Anne and Thaddeus conceive an audacious plan to secure her people’s independence, neither foresees the life-threatening struggle over power, money and religion that follows.
Releasing 1st November 2018
Transcription by Kate Atkinson
[image error]I have heard a lot of good things about this novel and it’s Kate Atkinson, so what more is there to say?
In 1940, eighteen-year old Juliet Armstrong is reluctantly recruited into the world of espionage. Sent to an obscure department of MI5 tasked with monitoring the comings and goings of British Fascist sympathisers, she discovers the work to be by turns both tedious and terrifying. But after the war has ended, she presumes the events of those years have been relegated to the past forever.
Ten years later, now a producer at the BBC, Juliet is unexpectedly confronted by figures from her past. A different war is being fought now, on a different battleground, but Juliet finds herself once more under threat. A bill of reckoning is due, and she finally begins to realize that there is no action without consequence.
Transcription is a work of rare depth and texture, a bravura modern novel of extraordinary power, wit and empathy. It is a triumphant work of fiction from one of this country’s most exceptional writers.
Released 6th September 2018
Published by Penguin Random House Australia
The Pearl Thief by Fiona McIntosh
[image error]I always love a new Fiona McIntosh, her novels are a cut above in my opinion. They don’t call Fiona a master story teller for nothing!
Severine Kassel is asked by the Louvre in 1963 to aid the British Museum with curating its antique jewelry, her specialty. Her London colleagues find her distant and mysterious, her cool beauty the topic of conversations around its quiet halls. No one could imagine that she is a desperately damaged woman, hiding her trauma behind her chic, French image.
It is only when some dramatic Byzantine pearls are loaned to the Museum that Severine’s poise is dashed and the tightly controlled life she’s built around herself is shattered. Her shocking revelation of their provenance sets off a frenzied hunt for Nazi Ruda Mayek.
Mossad’s interest is triggered and one of its most skilled agents comes out of retirement to join the hunt, while the one person who can help Severine – the solicitor handling the pearls – is bound by client confidentiality. As she follows Mayek’s trail, there is still one lifelong secret for her to reveal – and one for her to discover.
From the snowy woodlands outside Prague to the Tuileries of Paris and the heather-covered moors of Yorkshire comes a confronting and heart-stopping novel that explores whether love and hope can ever overpower atrocity in a time of war and hate.
Releasing 29th October 2018
Published by Penguin Random House Australia
The Moon Sister by Lucinda Riley
[image error]The Moon Sister is book 5 in The Seven Sisters Series, and I am very much looking forward to this one. Each previous book ends with an opening chapter for the next one and Tiggy’s opening chapter was positively explosive. Plus, she’s a really nice sister and I’m keen to see where Lucinda takes her.
Tiggy Aplièse is doing the job she loves; working at a deer sanctuary up in the raw beauty of the highlands of Scotland. When the sanctuary has to close, she is offered a job on the vast and isolated Kinnaird estate as a wildlife consultant by the elusive and troubled Laird, Charlie Kinnaird, she has no idea that the move will not only irrevocably alter her future, but ironically, bring her into contact with her past. She meets Chilly, an ancient gipsy, who has lived for years on the estate, having fled from Spain seventy years before. He tells her that not only does she possess a sixth sense, passed down from her gipsy ancestors, but it was foretold long ago that he would be the one to send her
back home.
It is 1912 and, in the pitifully poor gipsy community that have been forced to make their homes for hundreds of years outside the city walls of Granada in the seven caves of Sacromonte, under the shadow of the magnificent Alhambra Palace, Lucía Amaya-Albaycin is born. Destined to be the greatest flamenco dancer of her generation, La Candela – as she is named, due to the inner flame that burns through her when she dances- is whisked away by her ambitious father at the tender age of ten to dance to his guitar in the flamenco bars of Barcelona. Her mother, Maria, is devastated by the loss of her daughter, and as civil war threatens in Spain, tragedy strikes the rest of her family.
Now in Madrid, Lucía and her troupe of dancers are forced to flee for their lives, their journey taking them far across the water to South America and eventually, to North America and New York itself – Lucía’s long-held dream. But to pursue it, she must choose between her passion for her career and the man she adores.
As Tiggy follows the trail back to her exotic but complex Spanish past, and – under the watchful eye of a gifted gypsy bruja – begins to accept and develop her own gift, she too must decide to whether to return to Kinnaird, and Charlie.
Releasing 30th October 2018
Published by Pan Macmillan Australia
What books are you anticipating the most over the next few months?
September 12, 2018
New Release Book Review: Letters to My Yesterday by Karyn Sepulveda
About the Book:
At the age of eighty-eight, Marie runs a much-loved café from the house her single mother Rose built in the 1920s. A warm and welcoming refuge for many, Marie is determined not to let a downward spiral in her health get in the way of her busy life helping others.
Dee, the highly respected principal of a local public school, is facing the biggest challenge of her career – launching an inter-faith curriculum to an unwelcoming school community. But will her own background as a Lebanese Muslim immigrant work against her?
Isla, the young marketing guru tasked with helping Dee launch the campaign, has suffered the greatest loss of all, and is haunted by a devastating secret from her past.
Letters to My Yesterday is a moving and tender portrayal of female strength, hardship and friendship, and that beautiful moment when someone comes into your life at just the right moment, and changes it forever.
My Thoughts:
I always enjoy a novel that is inspired by an author’s own family history. It adds a layer of magic that makes the moments within the pages all the more poignant.
‘Rose Robson was my great-grandmother and did indeed build a house and shop at 33 Maher Street, Hurstville. Although I’ve taken creative licence, there are many precious memories belonging to my family intertwined throughout this story.’ (Author note)
The novel opens with Rose, a widow with two young children running a general store on her own in Sydney during the 1930s. Rose is a woman who has carved her own path and I admired her greatly. I would have loved a bit more of Rose throughout the entire novel to be honest, because she becomes secondary to Marie and is mostly present in Marie’s memories rather than in sections of her own. Later in the novel, we begin to get these letters to my yesterday sprinkled throughout, and these are from Rose, but even still, I just felt like I hadn’t gotten enough of her all round. She was so inspirational and resourceful, a story within the story, I felt. I really loved this scene with Rose and her children at the beginning of the novel, it really highlights the special person she was:
‘“If these walls could talk,” Rose whispered and she held them closer still.
“What would they say Mum?” Lucas asked, his eyes wide, ready to hear the secret of the whispers his mum always talked about.
“They’d say this is an extraordinary house. It’s ordinary, yet amazing in so many ways. So it’s extra-ordinary.”
“But why? What happened here?” Lucas was very disappointed the ghosts he’d imagined whispering in the walls of his house didn’t have anything more interesting to say.
It’s not so much what’s happened here, it’s more than that. It’s who’s been here, what’s been spoken about, what’s been hoped for, what’s been fulfilled. But even more than that, my darlings, it’s about what’s yet to happen here.”
“Well, what’s that then?” Lucas tried one more time, crossing his fingers and hoping it was something spooky.
“Anything. Anything could happen here. And that is what is so extraordinary about our house. Anything is possible at thirty-three Maher Street.”’
And this really sets the scene for the rest of the novel too, the idea that anything is possible at thirty-three Maher Street.
In the present day, Marie is living in the house and the general store is now a café. Marie is very much like her mother in the sense that she has created this welcoming and memorable space and regularly touches the lives of others through her kindness. She’s quite old though, and not in good health. While she’s determined to not let this stop her from continuing to do what she has always done, inevitably, there comes a point when she no longer can sustain the myth that she is well and fine. Maire befriends two women, Dee, who is a regular customer, and Isla, who is new to the café but used to visit the general store when she was a child. Isla is working with Dee on the marketing campaign for Dee’s new inclusive program, and through Marie, these two women connect on another level and form a firm friendship. It’s a lovely scenario that unfolds, Marie matchmaking friendships until her last days. At times the narrative was light and even glossy, not offering as much depth as I might have liked, but then at others, moments dug very deep and there would be a breathtaking disclosure that would just stay with you and have you contemplating life and love in equal measure. Memories from the past were offered for each of the women at key moments and I think this worked really well in terms of character development.
This novel is very much about connectivity between people, the relationships we form and the way we move through our daily life inhabiting them. It’s about viewing the ordinary as extraordinary, and this is summed up so well by Rose in one of her letters to yesterday:
‘When my children were young I would explain the word ‘extraordinary’ to them from time to time, because that is what I felt our life was. Ordinary from the outside, but when examined closer and you see all those extras, it becomes extraordinary. Now I realise every life is the same; full of extras.’
Isn’t this a wonderful notion? Ordinary full of extras. I just love this. Letters to My Yesterday is a quiet novel, one to curl up with and get lost in. It didn’t take me long to read, but it was lovely and warm hearted, with some great scenes. My favourite of all was ‘Smithy’ the pilot dropping into the general store. This is one of those great moments of serendipity that show how far a kindness to a stranger can sometimes extend.
‘Hope that no matter the circumstances, life will continue and anything is possible.’
I highly recommend Letters to My Yesterday. It has all the feels and the letters to yesterday written by Rose that were included are a poignant reminder about the important things in life. Tapping into contemporary themes on tolerance, exploring issues of guilt and grief, along with all of the wonderful human connectivity throughout, this is a novel that will appeal to a wide audience.
September 11, 2018
New Release Book Review: The Clockmaker’s Daughter by Kate Morton
About the Book:
My real name, no one remembers.
The truth about that summer, no one else knows.
In the summer of 1862, a group of young artists led by the passionate and talented Edward Radcliffe descends upon Birchwood Manor on the banks of the Upper Thames. Their plan: to spend a secluded summer month in a haze of inspiration and creativity. But by the time their stay is over, one woman has been shot dead while another has disappeared; a priceless heirloom is missing; and Edward Radcliffe’s life is in ruins.
Over one hundred and fifty years later, Elodie Winslow, a young archivist in London, uncovers a leather satchel containing two seemingly unrelated items: a sepia photograph of an arresting-looking woman in Victorian clothing, and an artist’s sketchbook containing the drawing of a twin-gabled house on the bend of a river.
Why does Birchwood Manor feel so familiar to Elodie? And who is the beautiful woman in the photograph? Will she ever give up her secrets?
Told by multiple voices across time, The Clockmaker’s Daughter is a story of murder, mystery and thievery, of art, love and loss. And flowing through its pages like a river is the voice of a woman who stands outside time, whose name has been forgotten by history, but who has watched it all unfold: Birdie Bell, the clockmaker’s daughter.
My Thoughts:
‘As he looked at her, and she looked at the house, something in the way the leaves of the maple caught the sun and illuminated the woman beneath it made his heart ache and expand, and he realised that he wanted to tell her, too, that by some strange twist it was the very meaninglessness of life that made it all so beautiful and rare and wonderful. That for all its savagery – because of its savagery – war had brightened every colour. That without the darkness one would never notice the stars.’
There’s been a lot of anticipation for The Clockmaker’s Daughter, as there always is for any new novel by Kate Morton. They are far too long and extensive to come out once a year, so it’s usually heading towards the two year mark between reads, ramping up that anticipation even higher. I have read and loved all of Kate’s novels, right since her first was released. I know I’m guaranteed a good read. But The Clockmaker’s Daughter is at a whole new level of storytelling, even for Kate. It is a magnificent novel. There are so many words I could use, but then I would just be drivelling, and no one wants that. Kate’s normal mode of storytelling is to use a dual timeline, one voice set in the past, another in the more modern day. With The Clockmaker’s Daughter, she has surpassed this style of dual timeline in favour of using multiple voices, spread over multiple eras; a collection of stories within a story, with a four hundred year old house and a mystery as the connecting web between each person. It’s ambitious, epic in scope, and one of the best novels I have ever read.
‘There was a single likeness, a small sketch, that he kept inside a gold locket, and which I treasured. Until, that is, we were forced to move into the pair of draughty rooms in the pinched alleyway in a pocket of East London, where the smell of the Thames was always in our noses and the calls of gulls and sailors mingled to form a constant song, and the locket disappeared to the rag-and-bone man. I do not know where the likeness went. It slipped through the cracks of time and went to where the lost things are.’
In terms of historical fiction, Victorian London is a time and place I have always been drawn to. It’s Dickensish of me, I know, but I love the grim atmospheric tones and the social history of that time. Depressing, but anyway, that’s me. Birdie, our mysterious main character who I intend to leave as a mystery for you even in this review, is from this era. She is a poor Victorian orphan child. Kate brings Birdie’s world to life with such vividness, the terrible things that were done to children, the harshness of life for everyone who was less than middle class. And the yearning for more, the thirst for knowledge, the quest for creative freedom; a society on the cusp of so much, which is what I’ve always loved about the era. The juxtaposition of poverty and progress. This world was recreated with such a deft hand, it was truly wonderful.
‘The Thames here had a vastly different character to the wide, muddy tyrant that seethed through London. It was graceful and deft and remarkably light of heart. It skipped over stones and skimmed its banks, water so clear that one could see reeds swaying deep down on her narrow bed. The river here was a she, he’d decided. For all its sunlit transparency, there were certain spots in which it was suddenly unfathomable.’
Kate has a certain way with words though, where with a single turn of phrase, she can turn the ordinary onto its head. I have included quite a number of quotes in this review, because over and over, there are these moments that are so profoundly moving. Images conjured up so vividly, the type of storytelling that is rare and precious.
‘Ada tore open the package to find a small black leather book inside. Between its covers were no words, but instead page after page of pressed flowers: orange hibiscus, mauve queen’s crepe myrtle, purple passion flower, white spider lilies, red powder puffs. All of them, Ada knew, had come from her very own garden, and in an instant she was back in Bombay. She could feel the sultry air on her face, smell the heady fragrance of summer, hear the songs of prayer as the sun set over the ocean.’
As I mentioned above, this novel is told through multiple voices. The character list is extensive, because within each era’s story, their is a full cast of varying people. I adored Elodie, our main character in the present day. The way she lived and breathed history, seeing it in all of her everyday moments. Her career was like my dream come true! But it would be so hard to pick a favourite, to have preferred one era over another, because each was unique, and each contained the soul of a person who had been profoundly influenced by the house and its mystery. The serendipitous moments that stretch across time within this story are delectable. As I got further and further in, each one of these moments gave me goosebumps as they were revealed. Master storyteller does not even come close.
‘They all have a story, the ones to whom I am drawn. Each one is different from those who came before, but there has been something at the heart of each visitor, a loss that ties them together. I have come to understand that loss leaves a hole in a person and that holes like to be filled. It is the natural order. They are always the ones most likely to hear me when I speak…and, every so often, when I get really lucky, one of them answers back.’
Many early reviewers are calling The Clockmaker’s Daughter Kate Morton’s best novel yet. Do I agree with this? Most definitely. Despite its size, nearing 700 pages, I devoured it over a weekend, Friday evening through to Sunday afternoon. It was impossible to put down for any length of time. And while reading it, I was utterly closed to the world, it’s that kind of absorbing.
‘There was a lot that Juliet would have liked to say. It was one of those occasions that came rarely, in which a parent recognised that what she said next would remain with her child forever. She so wanted to be equal to it. She was a writer and yet the right words would not come. Every explanation that she considered and discarded put another beat of silence between the perfect moment for response and the moment that she was now in.’
As to the mystery. It doesn’t disappoint. And the only hint I’m willing to give is to say that The Clockmaker’s Daughter is gothic historical fiction. You draw what conclusions you like from that!
‘And as my name, my life, my history, was buried, I, who had once dreamed of capturing light, found that I had become captured light itself.’
September 8, 2018
Book Review: Jewel Sea by Kim Kelly
About the Book:
The whole of the harbour was touched with gold – the tops of the quiet waves, warehouse roofs, the bulging folds of sails at rest, the tips of seagull wings – giving him one sweeping glimpse of beauty just as he was leaving, a vision of things as they ought always to be just as they were not…
March, 1912. A sultry Indian summer hangs over the west coast of Australia and aboard the luxury steamship SS Koombana, three tales entwine.
Irene Everley longs to leave her first-class fishbowl existence, secretly penning a gossip column as her life spirals out of control into soulless liaisons and alcohol, the long shadow of a tragedy clouding her view.
James Sinclair, an investor on his way to Broome is not the man he says he is but can he be trusted?
Abraham Davis, a wealthy dealer whose scandalous divorce is being dragged through the press, prepares to take the gamble of his life: to purchase an infamous, stolen pearl along the journey north.
Perfectly round, perfectly pink, this pearl comes with a curse and with a warning – destroying all who keep it from returning to the sea.
My Thoughts:
The ill-fated Koombana, a steamship that disappeared, along with 150 passengers and crew, without a trace during a cyclone north of Port Hedland in Western Australia on the 20th of March in 1912, provides the setting for this novel, Jewel Sea. We board this ship with a group of passengers, and through their interactions we experience a re-imagined version of the last trip the Koombana ever made. It’s a fast paced little novel, tense and gripping, with a grim sense of expectation foreshadowing the story. And yet, most surprising of all, it is a love story, of an intense attraction that bursts into a love like no other. In Jewel Sea, we are treated to that special blend of Kim Kelly magic: history, love, legend, and authenticity – above all, there is always that rich vein of authenticity.
Bracketing the events on board the ship is a curious tale told by one of the most curious characters I have ever come across. Miya is a pearl, the legendary cursed rose coloured pearl, whose fate is purported to be knotted closely with that of the Koombana. Kim Kelly breathes life into this inanimate object, giving her a soul, a destiny, and a story like no other. As much as I loved this novel in its entirety, Miya’s chapters were my absolute favourite. I could feel her pain, her desperation; it’s an extraordinary writer who can take an object and make it sing with life.
‘And it was at this moment that my change became complete: in the absence of shell, I began to lay down my curse around me. For theft unleashes a law of life, too. Tragedy is the thief who denies there must be recompense against his greed. It was simple. I would be used as I has been made: to call the clouds over the land. Or I would be returned to the sea. But to steal me, to keep me from my purpose, is to pay the highest price. To pay with your life.’
Kim Kelly, my reading life has forever been altered for the better since discovering your words. There is truly nothing to risk in reading a novel written by Kim Kelly if you are yet to do so. She writes with truth and beauty, depth and love. I highly recommend Jewel Sea with the greatest affection. It’s an unforgettable story that will sweep you away and leave you breathless with anticipation.
September 7, 2018
New Release Book Review: One Day in December by Josie Silver
About the Book:
Laurie doesn’t believe in love at first sight. Life isn’t a scene from Love Actually, after all.
But then, through a bus window one snowy December day, she sees him. There’s one glorious moment when their eyes meet…and then her bus drives away.
Laurie thinks she’ll never see the boy from the bus again. But at their Christmas party a year later, her best friend Sarah introduces her to the new love of her life. Who is, of course, the boy from the bus.
Determined to let him go, Laurie gets on with her life. But what if fate has other plans?
Following Laurie and Jack through twelve years of love, heartbreak and friendship, One Day in December is a life-affirming love story to escape into this winter.
My Thoughts:
This was such a delightful novel! Utterly perfect for a mid-week wind down. While romance/chick-lit is not my usual choice of genre, I do like it a lot when it’s British. I’m kind of like that with my rom-com movies too. It’s all in the humour, I find myself able to click better with British humour. And Josie Silver has a way with words too, an intimate style of telling her story that had me veering between laughter and tears – One Day in December really does have all the feels.
‘Who was St Valentine anyway and what made him such an expert on romance? I’m willing to bet his full name is St Smugbastard-three’s-crowd Valentine, and he probably lives on a candle-lit island where everything comes in pairs, even bouts of thrush.’
Laurie is gorgeous, a character I was able to relate to on every level. In her early 20s when the novel opens, she’s still very much finding her way, actively looking for her dream job while keeping an eye out for her dream man. And then she sees him, love at first sight through a bus window, but he’s not quick enough at getting up and jumping onto the bus, so they miss each other. Until months later, when he turns up as her best friend’s new boyfriend. But don’t be mistaken in thinking that this is the beginning of a cliché love triangle – far from it. What unfolds is a story about friendship, loyalty, and missed opportunities. As Laurie and Jack get on with their lives, as friends, the next twelve years throw up many different paths, none of which see them on the same one at the same time. And the other big relationship within this novel, between Laurie and Sarah, her best friend, was awesome. They were a great pair, through the highs and the lows, and there’s nothing better than a solid book friendship anchoring a story in my opinion.
‘I remember the day I first met Sarah, and the first time I saw Jack, and how very tangled and complicated our lives have become over the years. We are a triangle, but our sides have kept changing length. Nothing has ever quite been equal. Perhaps it’s time to learn how to stand on our own, rather than lean on each other.’
One Day in December is a novel that wraps you up in a comforting embrace. In many ways it’s more life-lit than chick-lit, the sort of novel I can see myself getting really excited about if it ever made it up onto the big screen. And that ending…incredibly wonderful. A truly perfect way to finish such a gorgeous novel. I highly recommend One Day in December.
