From January 1st to January 16th:
* The Night Circus – Erin Morgenstern. I’m sure everyone has read this by now – it’s in all the book shop windows and on all the main displays inside. And it deserves it completely. My sister in law gave it to me for Christmas and it’s the first time that one of the in-laws has given me something that I desperately wanted! I loved it, from start to finish, and I was sad when it ended. Written with such colour and depth, this is one of my biggest recommendations from the past six months.
* Wall of Days – Alastair Bruce. Given to me by my mother in law for Christmas, I had never heard of this before. It’s beautifully written and is, I think, supposed to celebrate the strength of the individual in the face of overwhelming odds. (It’s not one of the plethora of abused children books, don’t worry.) Overall, a bit depressing but very well written.
* The Scarlet Letter – Nathaniel Hawthorne. I’d been meaning to read this for years. Wordy. Oh-so-very wordy. But I couldn’t wait to see how it ended. (And, it turns out, it had been sitting on a book case in my mother’s house waiting for me to come and get it for over a decade.)
* Sacred Hearts – Sarah Dunant. Renaissance Italian convents might not be everyone’s cup of tea but I enjoyed the characters here very much. A plain enough story but the focus was mainly on the thought processes and the unusual freedoms enjoyed by the women who had been closed off from the world. It made, for me, an absorbing read.
* The Summer King – O.R. Melling. When I was about thirteen or so, my mum gave me a book called The Singing Stone by the same author. I loved that it started in the town where we lived (where we still live and where the author was born and now lives once more) and I reread it many times over the years. The Summer King is, apparently, the second of three books in a series that deals with Faerie and the various mythological creatures and spirits of Ireland. It’s alright, but it’s not a patch on The Singing Stone. They’re all children’s/young adult’s books so I’m surprised there’s such a disparity in terms of their quality.
* The Ghost’s Child – Sonya Hartnett. A simple and beautiful book about an elderly lady who comes home from taking her dog for a walk to find a young boy sitting on her sofa. Delicious. I read it in half a day and loved every second. Everything about this books is fluid and gentle although it deals with things that are raw and painful. It is many things but it is never a sad book. It is a book that celebrates a life lived in wonder.
From January 17th - January 25th.
* The Ladies of Grace Adieu and other stories – Susanna Clarke. The stories in this compilation are very nicely written and overall, I think, the book works really well. The trouble is that nothing has really stuck with me in terms of the stories themselves. They are picturesque and lyrical and utterly insubstantial. Perhaps this is simply a continuation of her intention of writing stories about the realm of Faerie…?
*The White Witch of Rose Hall – Herbert G. de Lisser. Having just looked up this book on Amazon to provide the link, I discover that not only is this book based on local myths from Montego Bay, there is actually a real Rose Hall and there was a real Annie Palmer. Perhaps you really do learn something new every day? The story was first published in 1928 and it’s certainly a dated read. It’s got plenty of good reviews on Amazon but I can’t say that it’s made any particular impact on me.
