September was a very busy month for book reading. The months pass so quickly, especially with a good book or two. One of my, new, favourite authors, I have found through our book club, here in the Cotswolds, is Alis Hawkins. She doesn't live far from us and we had the good fortune to meet her, as she agreed to come to one of our meetings. It was really interesting getting all the insights from the author direct.
So keep scrolling to read some of my reviews and, please let me know what you have been reading in the comments.
Title: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Author: Betty Smith
About Book: The Nolan family, originally from Ireland and Austria, are first-generation immigrants to the United States. Their life in the Williamsburg slums of Brooklyn is poor and deprived, but their sacrifices make it possible for their children to grow up in a land of boundless opportunity.
Francie Nolan– alert, imaginative, and resourceful– is the eldest daughter of the family. Her journey through the first years of a century of profound change is difficult - and transformative. Despite the poverty and suffering, there is hope, and the prospect of a brighter future.
Betty Smith's debut novel is universally regarded as a modern classic. The sprawling tale of an immigrant family in early 20th-century Brooklyn, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is one of the great distinctively American novels.
My thoughts: A poignant story from the perspective of Francine during the early 1900’s and her coming of age. The Nolan family are first generation immigrant family from Ireland and Austria moving to America It is a look at life, family relationships and their struggles through the eyes of a child. It is a feast of imagination and resourcefulness of a families struggle to survive each day. The book shows how struggles can be turned into hope with grit, determination, and love. This book has beauty, enlightenment and sadness all rolled into one. It shows Francine’s naivety, hope and questions during her period of growing up into a teenager. Along with her relationships with all members of her immediate and wider family. You do not need to be born in America or poor to feel linked to her feelings and thoughts. A great read which has certainly stood the test of time and a must to read.
Title: Home
Author: Marilynne Robinson
About Book: This is Jack's story. Jack - prodigal son of the Boughton family, godson and namesake of John Ames, gone twenty years - has come home looking for refuge and to try to make peace with a past littered with trouble and pain. A bad boy from childhood, an alcoholic who cannot hold down a job, Jack is perpetually at odds with his surroundings and with his traditionalist father, though he remains Boughton's most beloved child. His sister Glory has also returned to Gilead, fleeing her own mistakes, to care for their dying father. Brilliant, loveable, wayward, Jack forges an intense new bond with Glory and engages painfully with his father and his father's old friend John Ames.
My thoughts: This book was chosen for our book club September 2022.It is about the life of the Boughton family, specifically the father and two of his children Glory and Jack. Glory returns to the family home to care for her father who is dying and Jack, the prodigal son, who returns after 20 years who is trying to make peace with events from his past.
For me there were a lot more words on the paper than needed to be and the explanations and descriptions for things ran on in long rambling sentences so much so that they lost all meaning and made me want to skip pages and pages. The twists and turns meant I often had to re-read paragraphs, because I felt that I had lost sense of the story. The story frustrated me because it had potential to lead you through the lives of the three main characters, their secrets and histories that lead them to where they were and the interactions with others in the book. For me, a very disappointing read. But am fascinated to see what others thought.
Title: None so Blind
Author: Alis Hawkins
About Book: West Wales, 1850. When an old tree root is dug up, the remains of a young woman are found. Harry Probert-Lloyd, a young barrister forced home from London by encroaching blindness, has been dreading this discovery.
He knows exactly whose bones they are.
Working with his clerk, John Davies, Harry is determined to expose the guilty. But the investigation turns up more questions than answers and raises long-buried secrets.
The search for the truth will prove costly. But will Harry and John pay the highest price?
My thoughts: This book is a brilliant historical mystery set in 1850’s West Wales. It is the first book in a series about the coroner in the Teifi valley. When an old tree root is dug up and the remains of a young woman are found a young barrister forced home by his worsening blindness has been dreading the discovery. He enlists the help of a clerk and is determined to find out exactly what happened, but the investigation brings up more questions than answers and raises long buried secrets.
Sometimes I am tempted to buy the actual paperback book rather than an eBook and I am glad I did. I try to give my own honest opinion of each book I read knowing that it is all subjective and what is good for me may not be quite right for everyone else, but if you enjoy Historical Fiction then I urge you to give this book a try and immerse yourself in turning the pages of a real book while it swallows you up and takes you on the journey with each and every character.
The background to the story is the Rebecca Riots in West Wales at a time of social unrest and upheaval. This book from start to finish engulfed me in the characters and their quests. The main plot, the discovery of a young woman’s remains and the question as to who murdered her and why lead you through an intriguing complex story but interweaving with many other sub plots that reveal the issues and injustices of the social system in its time.
It was clear that Alis Hawkins had done her research and leads you through this unique and fascinating narrative that grips you from start to finish. The dialogue is excellent and leaves you in no doubt who is speaking, what social standing they have but also reveals the characters and personalities of everyone in the book.
There is also a good sense of West Wales in the period, so much so you feel as if you can see each street, road and hill that is described.
This is a wonderful read, a book to immerse yourself in and I would thoroughly recommend it to those that enjoy not only historical fiction but mystery and crime Fiction.
Title: Not One of Us
Author: Alis Hawkins
About Book: The Teifi Valley’s coroner, Harry Probert-Lloyd, is struggling: with the blindness that drove him home from London, with the county magistrates and with an estate teetering on the edge of bankruptcy.
He needs an escape, so when Dr Benton Reckitt is asked to give a second opinion on the apparently natural death of young Lizzie Rees, Harry willingly goes with him. But mistakes are made. Harry becomes embroiled in local rumours and in Esther Rees’s search for the truth behind her daughter’s sudden death.
What is Lizzie Rees’s father hiding? Was somebody else in the farmhouse on the night she died? And, most crucially for Harry, will he be able to uncover the mystery, and solve personal difficulties that threaten to tear him apart?
My thoughts: Not One of Us is the fourth book in the Teifi Valley series and certainly does not disappoint. It is a well-researched historical mystery that is set in the 1850’s West Wales. This book can be read alone, but the previous 3 are too good to miss. The story is absorbing from the minute you pick it up from the relationships between the characters to the rich insights into the period to the plots that are intertwined.
The characters and their struggles are relatable along with the dynamics between Harry Probert-Lloyd, the Coroner and Squire, his assistant John Lloyd and Lydia Howell who has come to live in the house to work for Harry.
Harry goes along with Dr Benton Reckitt who has been asked to give an opinion on the apparent natural death of the very young Lizzie Rees. John his assistant is at the Great Exhibition and mistakes are made. Harry starts to look for the truth, rumours are rife among the community and very soon more deaths occur. Harry and John find themselves at loggerheads and a rift threatens their relationship both at home and at work.
There were so many strands moving along at pace from the work of Coroner to the work of Squire along with Harry’s blindness. Alis kept me guessing and enthralled from start to the very end. I loved the characters and their stories. Alis is very good at drawing you into their world and making you feel that you are there with them. I can’t wait to read the next edition. I would highly recommend this book.
What book have you been reading in your book club and would you recommend it?
Love Alis
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