It's Monday! What Are You Reading? #1

Fairly typical reading week for me, with my commuting I do tend to average 3 or 4 books a week without it feeling a strain.

Books I finished this week:

Like most families, they had their secrets...
And they hid them under a genteelly respectable veneer. No onlooker would guess that prim Vera Hillyard and her beautiful, adored younger sister, Eden, were locked in a dark and bitter combat over one of those secrets. England in the fifties was not kind to women who erred, so they had to use every means necessary to keep the truth hidden behind closed doors - even murder.

The first outing for Ruth Rendell as Barbara Vine and the first Vine I've read too. I found this one difficult to get into initially because Vine wanted to do a slow reveal on what the plot was going to be. But after that point it was a decent read; very well plotted and superb characterisation as you would expect from Vine/Rendell. Also interesting to be outside London which is the setting Rendell uses most in her books. I gave it a 4 out of 5 because it was just lacking that bit of bite her very best books have, e.g. The Bridesmaid.

Bilodo lives a solitary daily life, routinely completing his postal rounds every day and returning to his empty Montreal apartment. But he has found a way to break the cycle—Bilodo has taken to stealing people's mail, steaming open the envelopes, and reading the letters inside. And so it is he comes across Ségolène's letters. She is corresponding with Gaston, a master poet, and their letters are each composed of only three lines. They are writing each other haikus. The simplicity and elegance of their poems move Bilado and he begins to fall in love with her. But one day, out on his round, he witnesses a terrible and tragic accident. Just as Gaston is walking up to the post-box to mail his next haiku to Ségolène, he is hit by a car and dies on the side of the road. And so Bilodo makes an extraordinary decision—he will impersonate Gaston and continue to write to Ségolène under this guise. But how long can the deception continue for? 

In my head I liken this a tiny bit to the film One Hour Photo. But actually it's far less creepy that that. More philosophical on the grey area between right and wrong sometimes. And the ending reflects that in a very Japanese way. This is a tiny book but it is a great read, definitely one of my highlights this year. 

Also as normally a poetry avoider I was really surprised how much I enjoy the haiku in this, And the author managed to put some subtle history on Japanese poetry in between the story so you actually learnt about it too. I gave this a 5/5.

Tom Sherbourne, released from the horrors of the First World War, is now a lighthouse keeper, cocooned on a remote island with his young wife Izzy, who is content in everything but her failure to have a child.

One April morning, a boat washes ashore carrying a dead man - and a crying baby. Safe from the real world, Tom and Izzy break the rules and follow their hearts. It is a decision with devastating consequences.

Think this was a big hit a couple of years back, generally I don't read much historical fiction but this was a book I was leant by my Mum. I wasn't sure I was going to like it and sadly it did little to alter my expectations. Very readable but more on a "womens's lit" level than anything more challenging. And all the 'dilemma' in it didn't sit well with me as it was so clearly forced by the author to create the story - obviously this happens in all fiction by definition but here it was too visible.  I can see how a lot of people would love it but not my cup of tea, I gave it a 3/5.

June 1890. Leeds is close to breaking point. The gas workers are on strike. Supplies are dangerously low. Factories and businesses are closing; the lamps are going unlit at night. Detective Inspector Tom Harper has more urgent matters on his mind. The beat constable claims eight-year-old Martha Parkinson has disappeared. Her father insists she s visiting an aunt in Halifax but Harper doesn t believe him. When Col Parkinson is found dead the following morning, the case takes on an increasing desperation. But then Harper s search for Martha is interrupted by the murder of a replacement gas worker, stabbed to death outside the Town Hall while surrounded by a hostile mob. Pushed to find a quick solution, Harper discovers that there s more to this killing than meets the eye and that there may be a connection to Martha s disappearance.

This is a book I really wanted to like this, having a massive spot for Leeds in the 4 years I have lived here and wanting to support a local author. Unfortunately plot and characterisation was very flat. The location of Leeds was the best part of the book, but it was a case of too much research seeping in. For example when a  character is walking across town you are told they are walking down street x, passing street y, seeing business a and business b, not choosing to step in business c. It made it quite clunky and it isn't normal (in anything I read) to have such a level of detail. I have given this a 2/5.

What I will be reading:
I rarely know beyond my current book as I'm such a mood reader.  Currently reading Agatha Chrisitie's first outing of Tommy & Tuppence, The Secret Adversary. Which is definitely a good tonic for a Monday.