Book-review post!
And now some books for adults…
Maeve Binchy – Chestnut Street
A collection of linked stories – some more effectively than others – set on Chestnut Street in Dublin, although the times and sometimes places feel a bit vague. Lovely to get these last stories from the late great Maeve Binchy, but there is a perhaps inevitable sense of unfinishedness about this collection as a whole.
Sinead Crowley – Can Anybody Help Me?
‘Chick-lit’ meets police procedural in this story about online parenting forums and a dead body that turns up in an abandoned apartment. The story moves between the (necessary) preoccupations of new mothers and a tough, pregnant cop trying to solve the mystery. Without saying too much about the ending, I think it says some very intriguing things about pregnancy and motherhood and how people are treated in those circumstances. A second book is forthcoming.
Gwyneth Lewis – Sunbathing in the Rain
Musings, quotes, and analysis of depression from Welsh poet Gwyneth Lewis, who views the illness as an opportunity to rebalance one’s life, and suggests approaching it as a detective at a crime scene. There are lots of interesting points in here and it’s not too floaty and woo-woo – certainly one to check out.
Cathy Kelly – The Honey Queen
A recent widow comes to Ireland and finds herself sorting out the lives of her newly-discovered younger brother and other women in the village. A comforting, hopeful read that in typical Cathy Kelly style focuses on the strength of friendships and the difficulties women face in modern life.
Robert Galbraith – The Cuckoo’s Calling
Rowling under a pseudonym writes about a war veteran turned PI, Cormoran Strike, and his eager new assistant, Robin, as they take on the case of apparent suicide Lula Landry. The police are convinced that the famous model killed herself – but her brother isn’t so sure. At first Strike is thinking only of his mounting debts, but as he explores further, he discovers compelling evidence of murder. And then one of Lula’s friends turns up dead… This is a fun, readable mystery and the dynamic between Cormoran and Robin is sufficiently compelling to make me want to read the others. (I finished this and quickly moved onto the second… but more on that later.)
Ludmilla Petrushevskaya (trans. Anna Summers) – There Once Lived A Girl Who Seduced Her Sister’s Husband, And He Hanged Himself
Lovely collection of modern fables – sometimes it’d be good to see these as longer pieces (fables, by their nature, resist in-depth characterisation) but there are some nice twists and the writing is intriguing. Sucked in by that title, too – brilliant.
Anne Tyler – Back When We Were Grownups
This had been on my to-read shelf for an absurd amount of time, and once I started I couldn’t put it down. Rebecca is a widow in her early 50s, the matriarch of a big family and a party-organising business who finds herself looking around at her life going: how the hell did I get here? Her life is full of her stepdaughters and her daughter and their partners and children, who think of her as a cheerful outgoing sort – when in fact in her own head she is a quiet, learned sort who fell in love with an older man and fell into his life, with everything that went with that. I couldn’t put this down. Not a huge amount happens necessarily, but the small details, the insight, the emotion… gorgeous. Utterly gorgeous.
