The Women in Black - Madeleine St John

What a lovely little read!  Several women, from different backgrounds, with different views on life and with different hopes for their own lives..... described beautifully over a short period of time working at F G Goode's department store in Sydney, Australia in the 1950s.  And for three of them, in that short period, great changes do occur - and are hopes fulfilled?  It would only take you an afternoon to read the 141 pages and find out.
It starts rather slowly, and I found myself wondering if I was really interested enough in any of these women to bother reading on.  But so glad I did.  Her observations on the conversations of different kinds of women (men hardly get a chance to say much in this book, but as you read on you will see that it does not matter too much) is crystal clear, their hopes and dreams expressed quietly to themselves whilst having to just get on with real life and hope for the best.  For all the changes the world has seen since the 1950s, my guess is that we all know at least one of these women even now, wishing and hoping for something.  There is a delightful story running through with everyone else's stories which sees a result because of the purchase of a pretty negligee......   A quiet little charmer of a book.

Here on Earth - Alice Hoffman

March (Marcheline) Murray, and her daughter Gwen, arrive in the small Massachusetts town March grew up in for the funeral of a woman who cared for her and her father after the death of her mother.  For Gwen it is the first visit; and for March it's the first time that she's come home in nineteen years.  She married a local boy and they made their home in California.  And now March discovers that the boy she lost, the love of her life in her teens until he left town and didn't come back is home, and owning most of it.  This lost love seems stronger than her marriage, stronger than her bond with her daughter, stronger than the strings of old friendships because he wants her back and somehow it seems that he can get her.
This is the kind of love story you don't want to experience.  The dark side of a man who only wanted March, and will do anything at all to keep her this time round.  The dark side of a violent character.  How many times have you seen a woman with bruises and thought "how did that happen"?  This is the first of Alice Hoffman's books I have read, and boy, is she a wordsmith.  This one is worth reading for the pictures in those words which conjure up feelings and colours and temperatures and  everything needed to weave a heartbreaking story about the wrong kind of love, but also the way families can split and reform in different ways, and about how the conduct of one person alters the conduct of another.  Truly a book you need to read.

 

Tru and Adam's Big day!

Order of service

Just a pair of bridesmaid's footwear!

Well...... think that went off OK then?

Bridesmaids (and others) transport of delight!

and for taking the newlyweds to the reception?

What's a wee shower doing?

One of the bridesmaids!

and one of the pages

Just waiting for high tea now!

Bit of a chat at the top table......

sit in the right place, and ......

....... then it's time for tea!

in good company with the "kahlans"......

....Lisa, Sach and Nat.....

me and him!

Pretty cake, with Tru, Adam, Jethro and Dexter (just room for everyone up there!)

The Bride's bouquet

Lots of children at this wedding.... loved this "Strawberry Princess"!

and how fab is this...... shop for your own party favours!

And there wasn't a soul who didn't stop at this table!!

She Went to War - Edith Pargeter

First published during WW2.   Catherine Saxon is the story teller - and in the form of letters, she tells her story to a male friend who is bedbound following injuries received during WW1.  She is a person who wants to do what's right, and in that to make the world right and be a person to be looked up to - and she did so hope that the world would put itself right after the war was over... pity.  I have to say that this little book was worth the read and, because it was based on Pargeter's own experiences, gave me a great insight into WRNS activity during the war, and also the way the population seemed to be able to carry on working and dealing with being bombed on a day in day out basis.  She describes the way that women have to bunk together, and guesses that men can do this better, but then just gets on with it.  So many little insights about her life and the life of other WRNS are contained in this excellent depiction of life during the early years of WW2.  It also had me in absolute tatters towards the end of the book when the end of Crete was described and with that end, the death of her lover.  If you can find a copy, I urge you to read this if you have any interest in Greece, why they feel like they do today, how hard they fought with nothing to defend themselves, and how many allies died because of the stupidity of those very politicians that she railed against, wanting them to be honest and far thinking but knowing that they were not - and of course are still not. 

The Brief History of the Dead - Kevin Brockmeier

This was one of those "I really must get round to reading" kind of books, and I had no preconceived ideas before I read it, choosing to stay away from reviews and lengthy, in depth articles about the subject matter.

 

The inhabitants of a city.  How did they get there?  How come some people know each other but others don't?  The population ebbs and flows - sometimes the city is so large that you can't walk to the other side in day, and at other times, whole neighbourhoods become empty and run down. Because this city is a place where people go after death, and they can stay there all the time that a person still alive has a memory of them.  This of course may mean that they have another whole lifetime to lead in this city, but some disappear within days of arriving.  Back in the world of the living, three Americans are in Antarctica, supposedly researching whether it's feasible for  a major soft drinks manufacturer to take polar ice and use in in the manufacture of their product, and therefore advertise it as being made with truly "clean" water.  And then things start to go wrong, and the single woman amongst the three is left alone for what seems a rather long time.   How these two worlds link up is indeed the brief history of the dead - a new and altogether fascinating journey.  As I closed the book I found myself disappointed in the last page or so of the book; but, given a while to think about it, I changed my mind and realised that it was exactly the right ending.  Whatever your views on life after death (or not, as the case may be), this will give you some definite food for thought.

The Whole Business with Kiffo and the Pit Bull

Never judge a book by it's cover..... isn't that what they say?  Well, maybe, but not in this case, as the Converse All Star depicted on this cover has a staring role in this one.  Calma is a teen with large breasts, glasses, and a great imagination.  Her Mum works two jobs because her Dad ran out on them years ago, She loves to learn but is always amused in class by the one pupil who can stop any teacher dead in their tracks - one Jared Kiffing, or the Kiffo of the title.  He, and the rest of the class have managed to get rid of several in their time - that is, until they get Miss Payne.   She's big, ugly, and brooks no arguments.  Kiffo hates her, and Calma thinks he has every reason to do so, and so they turn amateur detectives, staying out all night and stalking Miss Payne and her dog.  She does some strange stuff, stuff that looks as though it might be the other side of the law. 

Calma is writing this book, and that imagination of hers can get her into trouble, although she may make the reader laugh!  But woven through this story is great pathos and a back story that you will find out about in dribs and drabs.  Brilliant depiction of lives going wrong, and kids who feel there is no-one they can turn to except their friends.

Older children and younger teens is, I think the market this book is aimed at, but as an adult I found it easy to read, and it's another book that has insights into the mind of a child.

Lud-In-The-Mist - Hope Mirrlees

Well, well!  I am not even sure how I heard about this one,  but it took my imagination enough to buy a new copy..... rare for me these days.  Neil Gaiman fans may like to know that Neil Gaiman thinks this is "....a little golden miracle of a book".  It is a fantasy, but unlike any fantasy novel written in the last 50 years.  It put me in mind of The Lumpton Goblings, which I retain on my shelves and will now have to re-read;  and the style of writing reminded my of the late Elizabeth Goudge (Little White Horse, Carnagie medal winner 1946).  First published in 1926, republished in the 1960s and still around.

Lud-In-The-Mist is a small, self-important harbour town in the country of Dorimare, whose inhabitants are referred to as Ludites..... The Mayor of Lud (and therefore the most important person in the country) is one Nathaniel Chantacleer, he too is self-important and moves socially within a group of town worthies and burgers who know each other well, tell the same old jokes, swear the same old curses - and life goes on as it has for many years, with the town worthies studiously not mentioning fairies - and there lies the problem!  For they do exist, somewhere over the hills to the west;  and when the also unmentioned fairy fruit is eaten by certain members of the population, and Nathaniel's son is packed off to a lonely farm for safety things start to go badly wrong for those worthy burgers.

As I started to read this, I was taken into Lud-In-The-Mist immediately, I understood the town, it's worthies, the fear of faerie and therefore the studied ignorance of it; and was enchanted - which is as it should be!  Each of the major characters has their own flaws, a few of them are worryingly dislikeable and we find out why as we read on; an unlikely hero emerges and it's altogether a lovely fairy story for grown-ups.