The synchronicity in book reading is amazing; co-incidence and books that you happen to pick up and which just hit the moment, or smash glaringly into the moment in the wrong way. Perhaps it happens all the time, perhaps it is ‘meant to be’ – perhaps I just notice when I’m extra sensitive.
The Glassblower of Murano
It isn’t a plot with masses of surprises, in fact, a little like The Pull of the Moon, some of it is told from the very beginning, but the writing is elegant and enjoyable and the characters believable and easy to like. None of them are too perfect or too horrid, the nature of ‘The Ten’ fits well enough into the understanding of some governments now to make them a threatening shade and introduce a dimension of tension to the plot and the love affair that begins somehow fits comfortably into the main plot as to not take it over, while still managing to be difficult to gauge how it will end. It is a book with strength in how it is balanced and real colour and atmosphere in the prose and I found it a pleasure to read.
One of the elements I enjoyed was that, although the plot starts with a marriage break up and infertility as a theme, the main character, Leonora, has moved on. She’s still healing, but it isn’t one of the endless ‘hurt, moves to pastures new, meets a man, happy ending’ types of books. Sure, that is sort of what happens, but something in the way the character is drawn means that you aren’t forced to go through it with her – and that appeals to me, because I’ve got all of that type of stuff I can take! The chick lit element of the book occupies perhaps a quarter of it, the rest, historical, literary fiction, mystery, is all there and adds masses of meat to the bones of an already enticing story. I learned something new reading it too, about a place and a time and a people – and that ticks lots of boxes for me.
For the record, this isn’t a book for the most sensitive of my babyloss mother blog friends either. Infertility, child loss, birth and babies all feature. (Yes, I picked another book with all those in it!) But I’d give The Glassblower of Murano a resounding 9/10 – I’m sure I will read it again.
After that, I moved on to another that was recommended to me; I’ve put it on indefinite hold for now though, because it starts with someone in very raw grief over a miscarriage and… well, I’m not ready. I wanted to like it very much, but I was a bit unnerved by a character turning, in a blink of an eye, from likeable to hideous and had to stop. I suspect that says more about me than the book, but the speed of the change felt a little unreal. Still, the book gets good reviews and I’ll give it another go in a few months and report back 
So that made three books with babies in it out of 3 in the last week!
And then I moved on to Learning By Heart
Honestly, if you tried to do it on purpose, you couldn’t!
is probably the perfect example of why a Kindle has been good for my reading habits; I really don’t think I would have come across this had it not been for having my Kindle and it isn’t a genre of novel I tend to go for either. One of the habits I’m getting into, especially in the ‘late at night, can’t sleep, can’t quite be bothered to read’ bits of time, is to comb through the best seller lists on there, the recommendations and the new books that have been released too. Quite often, there are temporary free books within those lists and I’ve taken to hoarding them when I see them; I’m not averse to spending a little if I see something on a big discount too and there are plenty that fall into that category if you keep an eye out. I do have a rule that new authors need at least 6 reviews and at least 4 starts though, to avoid buying stuff I don’t have much chance of enjoying. It would be easy to spend a LOT on a Kindle without thinking anything of it, so I’m being strict 
– and yes, it would get yes’s in all those cases – so a definite thumbs up.
in no way reflects on how much I enjoyed it. It is another book though where I struggle to think exactly why. The story, narrated by a recently deceased friend and leader of the group, tells the story of a rather naive group of people who take a ‘cultural’ trip to China and Burma and their experiences as the trip teeters precariously around the edges of going very wrong. Perhaps that is a good sentence to sum up the book in fact; it teeters around the edges of exploring the characters, including the life of the narrator, dips its toe into the politics of the regimes in Burma and China, paddles along the edges of rebel causes and the unreality that perhaps builds up in the minds of the desperate and sprinkles flavoursome herbs of understanding about those countries too.
I shall link to a copy with a different cover, so I don’t pass my prejudices on 
series.) I love historical factual books nearly as much (Alison Weir is wonderful) and have adored Harry Potter and Artemis Fowl and His Dark Materials in equal measure as an adult, even if they were written with children in mind. Lord of the Rings will always be special and there are entire series’ on Boudica and Julius Caesar I have devoured.
when I was at college, from a WHSmith opposite the Swiss Cottage. I seem to remember buying with one other, now forgotten but kept for years, book and a Chalet School story. I must have been in that half confused stage of still being small and also being big. It is a typical ‘girl has a tough time, meets a cad, starts a business, cad turns out good’ type story but it is also of friendship and pulling together and I still love it. Katie Fforde at her best.
and it is another story of friendship, love and tragedy all mixed into the heady reality of youth becoming adult life. When I read it, it reminded me powerfully of a group of friends I had not long left, most particularly of one of them and all that I feared for and missed about those friends. It still makes me nostalgic for them now. I’m not sure if any other of Jane Green’s books haul me so close, especially now her focus has moved to America, but I still enjoy them all.
from the Swiss Cottage shop. Eva Ibbotson remains one of my most favourite authors; her writing is magical, beautiful, nostalgic and captivating. She weaves fairytale and brutal reality together with a charm and joy that would seem impossible to achieve and yet she does. The Morning Gift tells the story of a girl escaping Vienna at the time of Nazi occupation and all she encounters as she moves to London and falls in love. It is funny, clever and magical.
is one of three books by Elizabeth Buchan I have kept; I’m not a fan of her relationship books but this is the story of 1920’s-30’s England and the fading rose of aristocratic life. It tells the love story of Daisy, Kit and Matty through the eyes of another person and the themes of love, loss, wanting and passion are quite searing, though somehow conveyed through English demure and stoicism. I think it is masterful.
and perhaps the reason I like it is that Chloe is sent on a journey of discovery by a loving elder at a crux time in her life and the journey brings her home. There is something comforting about a theme which manages to twist together age bringing wisdom and the people who love you wanting to allow you the freedom to discover what is right for yourself. She is eminently likeable too and there is a recurring theme through the books of each character popping up at the end of the next one, so that you see how it worked out.
has always been special for the bohemian and slightly scatty but endearing nature of the artist heroine and her journey to self discovery. Unfortuately her name is Freddie (short for Elfrida) and she plays a large part in the subsequent book. I think it will be a long time before I can read it again.
by Kate Atkinson is an inspiration and a triumph, the sort of book I would love to write, a mastery of story telling, whimsy and word craft. It is simply a remarkable tale of a girl, a family, lives and the tangled twists of family history. I love it for it’s ramble and the imperfect ending which is nonetheless how life is. I was reading it before I had Freddie and just after and it was extraordinarily appropriate and oddly comforting.