Over to Peggy!

In the spirit of Amity & Sorrow, here are a handful of books about God, sex & farming.  I do hope you’ll give them a read:

PLENTY OF FARMING, QUITE A BIT OF GOD, A LITTLE BIT OF SEX:

The Grapes of Wrath had to be on my list, didn’t it?  The Joad family’s farm fails with the Dust Bowl that emptied most of Oklahoma.  They stack their possessions and family on the back of the family truck and head for California, the land of milk and honey where it’s rumoured there is plenty of fruit-picking work.  Raised in California myself, and granddaughter to an “Okie”, I have long been aware of our agricultural history and the injustices done to migrant workers.  Oklahoma refugees suffered terrible abuse in a state that was frightened it would fill to bursting.  We still have that fear of migrants, I suppose, so this is a wonderful history of a specific point in history, as well as a timeless examination of fear and want.  There is plenty of God and sex with the former preacher Jim Casy, who loses his faith after “fornicating with willing members of his church”.  Of his novel, Steinbeck said, “I want to put a tag of shame on the greedy bastards who are responsible for this [the Great Depression and its effects]… I’ve done my damndest to rip a reader’s nerves to rags.”  I reckon he succeeded.  And how.

PLENTY OF GOD, QUITE A BIT OF SEX, A LITTLE FARMING:

Red Water by Judith Freeman tells the story of a polygamous fundamentalist Mormon marriage through the points of view of three wives.  The story begins with the murder of their husband, John D. Lee, implicated in the notorious (and real life) Mountain Meadows Massacre of 1857, whereby a group of Arkansas emigrants, bound for California, was attacked by Mormons and Paiute Indians.  Freeman, raised Mormon herself, is a skilled historian and her book is filled with details that bring a mysterious episode in American history to life.  Of polygamy, Freeman writes, “Growing up we were taught that polygamy had been a holy institution, a Divine Principle, an edict from God for the betterment of man… I find the Mormon culture a highly sexual culture, lusty in spite of the veneer of primness. There’s a kind of precocious sexiness and I think this is a residue of the early polygamous culture.”  She is also a wonderful storyteller and her language is rich with poetry.

PLENTY OF GOD, A LITTLE SEX AND FARMING:

A “mercy seat” is a cover put into the Ark of the Covenant, to be used on the Day of Judgement, but it also means “the place of grace”.  The Mercy Seat by Rilla Askew, is set on a dry and dusty pre-state Oklahoma, back when it stood in two halves, Oklahoma Territory to the west and Indian Territory to the east, the land that had been “given” to re-settled Native Americans from the south and east, moved off land that white Americans claimed.  (The Oklahoma Panhandle, where Amity & Sorrow is set, was a “public land strip” then, claimed by many and wanted by none.)  Before the land runs that would see Oklahoma carved up into farms, it was a hiding place, outlaw terrain.  The story is told by plucky ten-year-old Mattie, whose gift of premonition becomes a curse.  In this Cain and Abel tale of two brothers fighting over a gun patent and the need to be right, God is straight out of the Old Testament.  With beautiful writing and big emotions, The Mercy Seat will stay with you, long after reading.  It has for me, anyway.

GOD, SEX & TOBACCO FARMING:

I read The Rapture of Canaan by Sheri Reynolds, when it was an Oprah book back in her grand old book club heyday.  Goodreads recently reminded me of it, and I’m glad it did.  It’s a gentle and folksy read about naïve Ninah, raised in the small, strict deep-South Christian faith created by her WW2 vet grandfather, The Church of Fire and Brimstone and God’s Almighty Baptizing Wind.  A cracking name for a church, that.  Ninah spends time with her prayer partner and cousin, James, attempting to resist all temptation.  But when she finds herself pregnant, she tells her community it is God’s…

PLENTY OF FARMING AND ALL TYPES OF GODS, A DASH OF SEX:

The Night Birds, Thomas Maltman’s first novel, begins with a plague of locusts, devouring farms and livelihoods by the mouthful.  It is 1860s Minnesota and German emigrants are struggling to work land that is claimed by embittered Dakota Sioux, in the aftermath of the Dakota War or The Sioux Uprising, depending on which side you were.  When teenager Asa releases a Sioux from a local jail it gets him a whipping from his father, but the locusts all take their leave.  Throughout a book that is rich in metaphor, German folklore and Dakota mysticism, Asa learns his history and the history of the land through the stories of his aunt, recently released from a mental asylum, where she was put after her capture by the Sioux and her subsequent marriage to one of their braves.  It is a dark and riveting read about race, abolition, family and redemption.  Perfectly lovely.

To win the signed hardback of Amity and Sorrow, just leave a comment below and I’ll pick a winner at random. It can be sent internationally and you have until 26th April to enter. You can also enter by tweeting about the giveaway, mentioning @bibliomouse.

This giveaway has now ended. I’ll pick a winner from the comments and Twitter and contact them this afternoon about receiving the prize. Thanks for entering!

Publisher: Tinder Press

ISBN: 978-0755394364

Publication date: 28th March 2013

There aren’t many books that can be described by the hashtag #GodSexFarming, but Tinder Press’ second title is one of the few. Peggy Riley’s debut novel is fascinating and disturbing look at how hard it can be to escape from a former life.

It opens with a car crash. Amaranth has been driving without sleep for days, trying to get her two daughters, Amity and Sorrow, as far away as possible from their previous home. As the first wife of a charismatic preacher at the heart of a polygamous cult, Amaranth has first-hand experience of the effect that her daughters’ father can have on people and when a mysterious fire rips through their compound, she gathers her strength and the girls and drives with no real idea of a destination.

The crash occurs just outside a farm owned by Bradley, a taciturn divorcee who lives with his aged father and surrogate son, Dust. Against his better judgement, he finds himself sheltering the three escapees, two of whom have never before experienced life in the  ’real world’. Amity tentatively embraces her new life, enjoying the novelty of being free to venture further than she had previously been allowed, but Sorrow fights it at every opportunity. Convinced by her father that she is ‘chosen’, she shows definite sociopathic tendencies as she attempts to destroy any happiness that her sister and mother find away from the compound.

Life within the cult is revealed in a series of flashbacks, revealing  Amaranth’s history and her reasons for marrying the preacher in the first place, as well as highlighting the complicated relationships, friendships and rivalries between the many women all ‘wedded’ to the same man.

Riley’s prose is lyrical and gorgeous, with descriptions that frequently made me pause and re-read. There is a particular passage where the women are spinning around in celebration that highlights Riley’s skill with cinematic imagery and also gives a suggestion of the appeal of living with so many other people who are linked by a common belief. Most of the sections of the novel set in the compound are dark and disturbing so these tiny moments of light really shine through.

The novel is a both a slow-burner and a page-turner; parts are hard to read but I couldn’t turn away. Amity and Sorrow was one of the best books I read last year and I’m thrilled that it’s finally out in the wild!

4.5/5

Peggy Riley will be appearing on the blog in April and there might even be a giveaway so keep your eyes open.

I was sent a review copy by the lovely Tinder Press in return for an honest review – thanks guys.

]]> http://bibliomouse.com/2013/03/28/amity-and-sorrow-by-peggy-riley/feed/ 4 bibliomouse Amity and Sorrow http://bibliomouse.com/2013/03/13/life-after-life-by-kate-atkinson/ http://bibliomouse.com/2013/03/13/life-after-life-by-kate-atkinson/#comments Wed, 13 Mar 2013 09:00:51 +0000 bibliomouse http://bibliomouse.com/?p=1283 ]]>

Publisher: Doubleday

ISBN: 978-0385618670

Publication date: 7th March 2013

Since winning the Whitbread Prize for her debut novel, Scenes From The Museum, Kate Atkinson has become a familiar name on bestseller lists, both with her detective series featuring Jackson Brodie and with her standalone novels. Her latest novel has been eagerly awaited by many and, although many much-hyped novels turn out to be a slight disappointment, Life After Life is definitely not one of them.

A baby is born on 11th February 1910 in a the midst of a snowstorm, strangled by the umbilical cord. She dies instantly. She is born again, in another life, and lives to be named Ursula Todd, the ‘Little Bear’. Ursula will die several times throughout her childhood, but each time another Ursula will use the “awful sense of dread” that she experiences on occasion to learn to avoid death, and darkness, for a little longer.

For the first part of the book, the chapters are short and cyclical; with each death, the narrative returns to 11th February 1910. Ursula is forced to resort to increasingly desperate measures the ensure that darkness will not fall on her young life again, at least not in the way that it has done before. By the time that World War I is over she has negotiated her way through a maze of both real and potential deaths, including drowning, falling and Spanish ‘Flu. Life is not easy for the Little Bear.

Atkinson never shies away from writing painful scenes and the situations that Ursula faces as she gets older are sometimes horrific, especially during World War II, when she both becomes, and doesn’t become, a warden with the ARP.. Ursula’s experiences in the aftermath of air raids highlight the oft-forgotten, crucial, and frequently gruesome, part that women on the Home Front played in the war.

Ursula is a wonderful character – intelligent, measured, occasionally impulsive, fallible and utterly human. It’s almost impossible not to be affected by some of the decisions that she makes, knowing that they will lead to her death, but it’s also fascinating to see where the alterations that she makes in the next version of her life will lead her. There is only one occasion in the novel that she chooses the darkness over life and it’s all the more moving because it’s the only choice left available to her.

Atkinson doesn’t neglect secondary characters, and it’s easy to love Ursula’s favourite siblings, Pamela and Teddy. Atkinson is a master of playing with perceptions and delaying truths until she feels the time is right for them to be revealed. This means that although the  fates of most of the characters stay the same throughout Ursula’s many lives, it isn’t always easy to predict what these fates will be.

In the hands of a lesser writer, Life After Life could have been terrible –  cliché-laden, repetitive and sensationalist. However, Atkinson has a skill for creating complex narratives peopled with very human characters, and for writing with a warmth which can make the most disturbing of situations readable. This is a novel in which the main protagonist dies several times, often in horrible ways. That it is a hugely life-affirming read is a testament to the talent of it’s author. I’m gushing now but it’s hard not to. The book is brilliant. Go, read it.

5/5

Many thanks to the publishers for my review copy. Needless to say, I’ll also be buying the hardback! This review was originally posted at http://www.forbookssake.com.

The beautiful cover of the hardback

Publisher: Pan Macmillan

ISBN: 978-1447202141978-1447202141 

Publication date: 14th February 2013 (paperback)

My favourite book of 2012, Tell The Wolves I’m Home, is out in paperback today so I thought I’d post the review I wrote for the lovely Lizzie over at These Little Words, as part of her ‘Best of 2012′ series, in December.

Set in the mid-1980s, Carol Rifka Brunt’s novel is a hauntingly gorgeous debut. When June’s uncle and best friend, the renowned but reclusive painter Finn Weiss, dies of a mysterious disease, she is devastated. In the early days of AIDS awareness, the stigma attached to it means that no-one will talk to June about Finn, and she cannot reveal why she is as upset as she is. When Finn’s partner Toby gets in touch with her and explains that he misses Finn as much as she does, she is prepared to hate him for occupying part of Finn’s heart that she had thought was all hers. As they get to know each other, she and Toby realise that Finn has been more cunning that they gave him credit for.

What makes the novel so fabulous is the quality of the writing. There are paragraphs that I had to read several times because the writing is so gorgeous, and June’s narrative voice is pitch-perfect. Insecure, baffled by her sister’s distance and somewhat isolated from her schoolmates, she thinks that she has hidden her greatest shame, her love for Finn, from everyone, not realising how obvious it was to those who mattered. She is self-aware enough to admit that there are less than altruistic motives to some of her actions, but at other times her naïvety is immensely touching. She is brave and imperfect and is my favourite ‘heroine’ since Cassandra Mortmain.

It’s been several months since I finished reading Tell the Wolves, and I still get emotional thinking about June, Toby and Finn. Carol Rifka Brunt has a beautiful way with words and a real knack for getting inside the heads of her characters, and I very much hope that she won’t make us wait too long for her next novel.

The equally lovely paperback cover

5/5

Huge thanks to the publisher for sending me a review copy of the book.

Publisher: Corsair

ISBN: 978-1780331676 

Publication date: 7th February 2013

Tom-All-Alone’s was one of my favourite books of 2012 so I was really excited to see that Lynn Shepherd’s third novel also featured Charles Maddox, the detective and great-nephew of the ‘great thief-taker’ from Murder at Mansfield Park. 

Shepherd’s previous book ended with a man leaving a card for Charles and the elder Maddox being taken ill. When Charles returns the call, he finds that he is visiting Lord Percy, the only remaining child of  Percy Bysshe Shelley and Mary, author of the (in)famous Frankenstein who now, frail and elderly, lives with her son and daughter-in-law.The Shelleys want Charles to stop the publication of some letters which would harm the reputation of the dead poet, something that Lady Jane has spent years working to clean up. The letters belong to Claire Clairmont, Mary’s step-sister and one-time lover of Lord Byron, who is reviled and feared for the potential power she holds over the family.

Accepting what he believes will be a relatively simple commission, Charles once again finds that nothing is what it seems and that there is a lot more to the animosity between the two parties than the Shelleys had let on. Suspecting that his great-uncle knows more about the affair, he trawls through Maddox’s case notes from thirty years before whilst the man himself lies insensible, struck down with an illness that is mystifying the household. As Charles gets drawn further into the lies and intrigue that surround the history of Shelley, Mary and Claire, he discovers that there are many reasons that Maddox was so keen to cover up his part in it…

As with Tom-All-Alone’s, Shepherd’s research is impeccable. The atmosphere that she creates feels authentically chilling and she doesn’t shy away from describing squalor and seediness. The pace doesn’t flag throughout the novel and none of the multiple threads of the story ever feel confused or arbitrary. Despite the numerous narrative voices employed by Shepherd, all feel authentic and they work together to create an engaging whole. I particularly appreciated the introduction of Maddox Sr’s case notes as a way of enabling the use  of his voice whilst he is essentially out of action.

Charles is still a great character, naïve and street-smart in equal measure, able to conduct a complex investigation whilst being utterly unaware of what is going on under his nose. I defy anyone to read the novel and not feel an overwhelming urge to shake him several times. Shepherd excels at writing villains, and there are plenty to choose from here, from the unbearable Lady Jane to the twisted Shelleys, each seemingly as bad as the other. There are also genuinely moving moments, especially, as in the previous novel, those involving the fate of infants unfortunate enough to get caught up in the tangled relationships of the adults around them.

The notes at the back give suggestions for further reading and indicate the extent of Shepherd’s research and the love she has for the period. This is turning into a brilliant series and I’m really pleased that Shepherd’s next book will also feature Charles and his investigations.

4/5

Thanks to Corsair for sending me a review copy!

Before I Go to Sleep was one of my books of 2011 and I was really excited to hear that the film rights had been picked up by Ridley Scott. The lead actors were confirmed this week as *drum roll please * Nicole Kidman, Mark Strong and Mr Darcy Colin Firth. Colour me excited.

This post was in no way just an excuse for this photo. Nope.

Publisher: Orion

ISBN: 978-1409144519 

Publication date: 14th February 2013

A K Benedict’s debut is a thriller set in Cambridge which combines murder with time-travel.

Stephen Killigan, a young lecturer just arrived at Cambridge, finds himself in the middle of a murder investigation when he drunkenly stumbles over the dead body of a beauty queen who disappeared a year earlier. The police look for the body and find no sign of it, and Killigan is suspected of either being a hoaxer or a madman. When the body of a young choir boy is found the day after he goes missing but looking as if he has been dead for a year, Killigan is upgraded from a hoaxer to a murder suspect.

Cambridge is a city with enough idiosyncrasies and history to make it an effective setting for a thriller like this, and the author’s knowledge of the city means that the level of local detail is impressive and adds to the atmosphere of the novel. The villain, Jackamore Grass, is well drawn – arrogant and intelligent, he has been waiting for a worthy opponent and, in Killigan, he thinks he’s found him. The use of the different voices throughout the novel keeps the narrative interesting and the plot zips along a good speed.

There were some niggles though – the occasional anachronism grates, especially as most of the novel was well-researched. Some of the characters seem a little flat and underdeveloped – the police inspector, Jane Horne, is a good example of this. There are some attempts to make her a more rounded character by giving her concerns beyond her job, but it feels a little perfunctory. The dialogue is sometimes forced and Killigan himself crosses the line between witty academic and pretentious twit more than once.

It is a largely well-written, easy to read and compelling thriller which would make a good introduction to a series, but isn’t quite as clever as it thinks it is.

3/5

I was sent a review copy by http://www.lovereading.co.uk in return for an honest review. A shortened version of this review also appears on that site.

 Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd

    ISBN: 978-0007136865

        Publication date: 5th August 2002 (originally published in 1949)

I read my first Agatha Christie aged 9 and, twenty years later, I’ve now read all of them. I wrote my Masters’ thesis on her novels and I can bore people for hours about why I think that she has been unfairly maligned in terms of racism and sexism. Many a  happy Sunday has been spent on the sofa watching David Suchet mince across the screen as Poirot and, had my over-enthusiastic ex-flatmate been quicker than me, the cat would have been called Aggie. In case it’s not clear, I love Agatha Christie* and I think they’re fabulous books for lazy afternoons – they’re short enough to read in one go and somehow reading about murder always makes my living room feel cosier. Make of that what you will…

 Crooked House is my favourite Christie mystery and was one of the author’s favourites too. Its detective is Charles Hayward, whose fiancée won’t get married until the murderer of her grandfather is discovered. I love it because it’s genuinely chilling and unexpected whilst still being non-gory and cosy.

*Even I can’t defend Curtain. Really, I’ve got nothing.

 Publisher: Persephone Books

    ISBN: 978-1903155714

        Publication date: 23rd October 2008 (originally published in 1934).

I admit that this isn’t the best and most exciting photo, especially when you have to have superhuman eyesight to see what the book actually is, but bear with me. Persephone Books are all jacketed in dove grey, which looks lovely when you have several on a bookshelf, and each has a different end-paper and bookmark in a ‘fabric’ design chosen to compliment the book. They’re gorgeous, really.

Although many of the works re-printed by Persephone could be called ‘cosy’, Miss Buncle’s Book by DE Stevenson is one of my favourites. The story of Miss Buncle, an unmarried and impoverished lady in her 30s who writes a novel about her small village and its inhabitants as a way of making some money, the novel is charming, witty and well-written, much like Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day. If anyone would like to get me Miss Buncle Married for Christmas, that would be lovely, pleasethankyou.

]]> http://bibliomouse.com/2012/12/09/books-to-curl-up-with-part-ii/feed/ 4 bibliomouse Crooked-House-Christie-Agatha-9780062073532 miss-buncle http://bibliomouse.com/2012/12/05/books-to-curl-up-with-part-i/ http://bibliomouse.com/2012/12/05/books-to-curl-up-with-part-i/#comments Wed, 05 Dec 2012 09:00:04 +0000 bibliomouse http://bibliomouse.com/?p=1169 ]]> I said that I’d put together a list of ‘cosy books’ what seems like an age ago and I’ve finally done it, in a few parts. I feel I have to point out that it’s definitely a list that reflects my reading tastes, although there does seem to be a bit of everything (apart from ‘Mommy porn.’ I draw the line at badly-written erotica). So, without further ado or disclaimers, here are my first two top tips for books to curl up with (preferably with a mug of something hot and delicious – cocoa? Hot toddy?)

Publisher: Hodder

ISBN: 978-1444727036 

Publication date: 10th November 2011

Lucy Dillon’s The Secret of Happy Ever After could have been written specifically with my curling-up-book needs in mind. It has snow, books, scruffy dogs, books and regular drinking of hot chocolate, as well as strong characters who are funny and intelligent, without being twee or irritating. Neither of the two main characters, Anna and Michelle, made me want to gouge my eyes out with pen, which is a common reaction to many of the characters in novels based on ‘female friendships’. There are two very good dogs. There are serious topics which are well-written and not shoe-horned in to make us forget that the characters’ lives are basically perfect. Oh, and there are books. Did I mention those? Lots of mentions of children’s books that I remember from my childhood, like Ballet Shoes, Mrs Pepperpot, Malory Towers, and that I now want to go and re-read immediately. Bravo Lucy Dillon!

Publisher: BBC Books

ISBN: 978-1849900010 

Publication date: 20th May 2010 (revised edition)

Everyone who knows me knows about my passion for David Attenborough and his fabulous nature documentaries. Blue Planet and Planet Earth are my go-to dvds for when I’m hiding from a hangover feeling ill, my computer at work has this photo as its wallpaper, (actually, so does my twitter profile…no, I’m not obsessed, shush now) and now I have Life on Air for when I don’t feel like watching tv. I’ve no idea how it took me so long to get this but I now refuse to put it down. A memoir of his time in broadcasting, starting with his first job at the BBC in 1952, this is as funny, warm and intelligent as one would expect from its author.

(It’s also available as an audio-book, which I didn’t get for fear that I’d get all giggly when listening to it on the bus. I know he’s 86 but…that voice. Sigh.)

Look out for 2 more books perfect for a Winter’s day at the weekend!

Publisher: Doubleday

ISBN: 978-0857521194 

Publication date: 8th November 2012

The latest collection from Joanne Harris is an eclectic mix of stories, linked more by Harris’ sly witty storytelling than by any particular theme.

Readers familiar with Harris’ previous books, both her novels and her first collection, Jigs and Reels, will recognise several of the settings and characters – Faith and Hope, two rather intrepid old ladies living in Meadowbank Retirement Home; the aspects of several Norse gods who appeared in the Rune books; Malbry, the setting for blueeyedboy and Gentlemen and Players.

In addition to these familiarities, there are plenty of new characters, which helps to give the collection a freshness. I particularly liked Ngok, the child narrator of ‘River Song’, in which she has to ride the rapids more fearlessly than the boys to prove her place in their team. Based on a practice that Harris came across in The Congo, the story focuses on Ngok’s challenge but there is still an undercurrent running through the story which doesn’t let the reader forget that the children are risking their lives to entertain tourists in return for scraps of food.

Some of the stories were brilliant: ‘Dryad’, about a woman who falls deeply and passionately in love with a tree; ‘Cookie’, a tale about a woman who convinces herself that she is carrying a baby made from ‘sugar and spice and all things nice’; and ‘Would You Like To Reconnect’, about a mother who believes that her dead son haunts Twitter. Several of the stories are unsettling and insidious, nestled within other, more gentle tales.

The collection does feel as if it might benefit from more of an overall theme, and some of the stories are less memorable than others, but this is an great collection to dip in and out of when you need something imaginative and well-written.

3.5/5

I was sent a copy of this by We Love This Book, where the original review first appeared. I wasn’t paid for the review.