Andrea here, compiling this month's list of what we've been reading. To kick off the new decade, the Wenches have been as eclectic as ever, and this month's recommendations range from Christmas stories and timeslip paranormals to epic historicals, bookish memoirs and the rock 'n roll 1960s. Enjoy—and don't forget to share what you've been reading lately!
Pat: I think the wenches have recommended Sharon Shinn quite frequently, but it never hurts to mention her a few more times! Her stories are so effortless that they tug you into her fantasy world and hold you there, fascinated, for hours. Echo in Emerald is Book #2 in her Uncommon Echoes series. Characters from the first book show up, but this book can be read on its own (which is a good thing because my memory just isn’t that strong!). Chessie knows herself as the illegitimate daughter of a noble, a street urchin with the uncommon accompaniment of two echoes—shadows of herself. Except her echoes are more than shadows, they can act independently, and she can enter their heads and be them anytime she likes—in effect, she can be three different people, a boy who runs errands, a sexy waitress, and herself, a nondescript messenger.
Life becomes much more complicated when she saves the life of a noble who works for the king. Hiding who and what she is isn’t easy when a gentleman focuses all his attention on her. It becomes even more complicated when people keep dying around them as they seek the answer as to who wants to harm the royals.
This is simply a beautifully told tale, a study in character, and a lovely romance all at once. I highly recommend it for those days when you want to disappear into a book and not come out until the end.
I had great fun with these stories and read them straight through in a couple of days. In Joanna Maitland's One Christmas Tree to Go, the author tackles the eternal British theme of class. Her hero Gabriel Bliss is a gardener of modest background who is struggling to keep his new nursery afloat while also keeping Lucy, his rich landlord's daughter, at arm's length. Lucy and Gabe were friends when they were kids, and she'd like to be more than friends, but the annoying man won't let her! Maitland comes up with a very original twist to rearrange Gabe's thinking!
Both stories are very enjoyable, and the characters who have reason to hate Christmas end up thinking that a highly decorated holiday with friends and family might actually be a good idea. <G>
The Vanishing is Jayne Anne Krentz's newest romantic suspense novel, and as always it's a sleek pageturner. Catalina Lark and Olivia LeClair grew up as best friends in the remote Pacific Northwest town of Fogg Lake. A mysterious explosion years before left inhabitants with mysterious abilities. Cat and Olivia are now partners in a Seattle investigation firm and they use their “other sight” in their business. Then one night Olivia suddenly vanishes into thin air. Cat begins a frantic search for her friend, but no one takes Olivia's disappearance seriously except a mysterious man with secrets of his own…
Anne: I've read quite a range of books this month, from contemporary romance, to fantasy, some literary historical fiction and a memoir.
The contemporaries were rereads so I'll skip them. The fantasy was Emily Larkin's The Fey Quartet -- a linked series of four books, only one of which I'd read. I read them back to back and enjoyed them very much.
In historical mystery, I read A Treacherous Curse, part of Deanna Raybourn's enjoyable Veronica Speedwell series. These are lighthearted, Victorian-era mysteries with an unconventional heroine and a charmingly buttoned-up hero. If you haven't read them, start with A Curious Beginning.
Next, recommended by a friend of mine, I read The Weight of Ink, by Rachel Kadish. This is literary fiction, a wonderfully rich interwoven story of an ageing English history academic called in to investigate a cache of documents found in a 16th century house, written in Hebrew and scribed for a blind rabbi. In her search to discover the story behind these documents, we also discover her story and the story of the scribe, life in 16th century London (just before the plague and the Great Fire of London) and much more. Once I'd started, I couldn't put it down.
Finally I read Bookworm, by Lucy Mangan. It's part memoir, part a delightful ramble through her childhood reading, nostalgic, but also quite sharply observed and critical. Also funny in parts and very well written. Some of the books she talked about were unfamiliar to me, but many were classics. Not only did I find it an enjoyable read, it sent me scurrying to my bookshelves to pull down some of my old favorites for a reread. The only thing I can't forgive her for was leaving out The Wind in the Willows and AA Milne and the Winnie the Pooh stories. Hmph!
Nicola: I’ve been in the mood for love stories this month and have had a thoroughly good reading time. First was Jenny Ashcroft’s historical novel Meet Me In Bombay. It’s books like this that really qualify for the word “epic.” The backdrop of India at the start of the First World War was vividly drawn and the love story between Maddy and Luke was so emotional that I felt exhausted by it but in a good way! If you enjoy really powerful, epic romantic historical fiction then don’t miss it!
I‘d just got back from a few days on holiday in Dorset when I picked up On A Falling Tide by Georgia Hill, not realising it was set in exactly the place I had been visiting. Given that this is a spooky, paranormal dual time book that felt as though it was meant to happen! I loved reading about Lyme Regis and the Jurassic Coast (if you’re a Jane Austen fan you should enjoy these depictions of the places she loved.) The two intertwined stories of Charity and Lydia were beautifully woven together, Matt was a very attractive hero and the whole books was infused with a wonderfully supernatural atmosphere. It really gripped me and I loved it!
Joanna: This one’s a lovely nonfiction. I’m reading only nonfiction and unchallenging fiction lately, because I’m trying to hem and hang curtains and I can’t stand any more excitement in my life.
But this one’s lovely. Mrs. Hurst Dancing is a collection of naïve watercolors by Diana Sperling, painted between 1812 and 1823. They’re painstakingly detailed domestic scenes from the life of the petty gentry. A ride through the snow. Walking down a muddy lane to dinner at a friend’s house. The daughters of the house hanging wallpaper in the parlor.
This is the weft and warp of a comfortable country lifestyle in the long Regency, the sort of life that would be entirely familiar to Jane Austen. The paintings are charming, every one of them a story told. We won’t see a better portrait of this way of life till time travelers come back with photos.
Andrea: This month I decided to catch up on some recent bestsellers that have been garnering a lot buzz. They were both quite different, though set in the same time period (1950s-1970s) and a little out of the norm of what I usually read, so I wasn’t sure what I’d think. But I loved both of them! (Note to self—keeping trying new stuff!)
Where the Crawdads Sing, by Delia Owens begins as a mystery—a body is discovered in the tidal swamps of rural North Carolina by a couple of boys, and the local sheriff and his assistant have to decide whether it’s an accident, or something more sinister. At first blush, it looks like he simple fell from an old observation tower. But there are puzzling little details—no footprints leading to the tower, a missing necklace that the man was known to be wearing. And so they begin an investigation . . .who in their little town would have wanted to see him dead? The suspicion soon focuses on the mysterious Swamp Girl . . .
The story then intersects with flashback of child slowly abandoned by her dysfunctional family in a lonely cabin in the marshes. She learns the nuances of natural world and survive on her own, an outcast considered “white trash.” She avoids the truant officers and never attends school, and most people just forget about her. She learns to read from a friend of her brother, a boy a few years older than she is, and begins to read about science and biology, and draw all the things that she sees . . .
The writing about her learning to coexist in Nature is very lyrical—the author is naturalist who’s done years of field work around the world. And the story of Swamp Girl’s survival is heartbreaking beautiful. The mystery is also compelling, and kept me glued to the pages. I highly recommend it!
From the solitude of the swamps, I then moved into a totally opposite world of drugs, sex and rock ‘n roll in the late 60’s-early 70s. Daisy Jones and the Six, by Taylor Jenkins Reid tells the story of a fictional band rising from teenage garage jam sessions to becoming rock superstars when they add a wildly charismatic female lead singer to the mix.
It’s written in such a creative style—it’s all done as a series of interviews with the various band members over the arc of band’s meteoric rise and sudden break-up at the height of their career. When I read about, I just couldn’t imagine how that could work as a narrative—but I think it’s absolutely wonderful. It captures the energy, the craziness and the creative chemistry (no pun intended) of that musical era. And the characters and relationships are fascinating and so well-drawn—with some unexpected surprises! I just loved it!
So, now you know what has tickled our fancies lately. Please share what you've been reading . . .so we can all add to our dangerously high TBR piles!