nomadreader

Dear Steven Hartley, I listened to most of The Music Shop  on flights from Des Moines, Iowa to Bangkok, Thailand (with stops in Chicago and at both Tokyo airport.) I don't like to fly, but I do love to travel, and flying is part of that reality. To help distract me from the fact that I'm flying, I like to pick books to transport me to a different place, and your narration made me feel like I was on Unity Street in the 1980's. I decided to read The Music Shop  when it was named a January Book of the Month pick. This year, I'm aiming to read all 60 Book of the Month picks , and to do that, I know I'll need to listen to one each month. I was quite intrigued when I saw The Music Shop  was your first audiobook. After listening, I'm surprised, but I'm confident it won't be your last. The Music Shop  is told from the point of view of Frank, a curmudgeonly, but loveable man who is passionate about music and vinyl (only vinyl.) Your performance made Frank co...

The backstory: The Chalk Man  is the debut psychological thriller from British author C.J. Tudor. The basics: Told in dual narratives in 1986, when Eddie and his friends discover the dismembered body of a young girl in the woods, and 2016, when Eddie and his friends each receive a cryptic chalk drawing in the mail. My thoughts: I didn't order The Chalk Man  as my December Book of the month, but judge Kristin Iverson's blurb did make me immediately start the egalley I had on my Kindle. This mystery wasn't even on my radar, and I'm so glad she convinced me to read this one. (Want to try Book of the Month? I'd love it if you use my referral link !) The Chalk Man  is a crime novel, but it doesn't necessarily read like one, as the crime is only part of the story. To be sure, there is a body discovered, and her head remains missing (how eerie is that?), but part of the benefit of the two timelines is the very ordinariness of life that infuses this story too. The...

When Ruth Ware's third novel, The Lying Game , came out this summer, I decided to finally read her first novel, In a Dark, Dark Wood , which I've been meaning to read since before it came out. I like to read books, particularly mystery and thriller authors, in the order they were written and published.  I liked In a Dark, Dark Wood  immediately. I realized for a book I'd been meaning to read for so long, I didn't really know much about it. I found the narrator's voice fresh, fun and deliciously dark. It didn't necessarily feel like a thriller, but there was a clear sense that something  was going to happen and make it darker. The novel is at its best when the narrative has two timelines. When the timelines merged, the pace slowed, and I grew impatient. The conclusion, however, reduced what was an enjoyable 3.5 or 4-star read to me to a 2-star read. I found it maddening and not grounded in the reality the rest of the book was. While I rated it only 2 stars...

The backstory:  I started reading the Maisie Dobbs series in 2010 (it began in 2003), and it's one of my favorite mystery series. The last title,  A Dangerous Place , was a bit of a departure for the series, and it my least favorite in the series, so I approached  Journey to Munich  with cautious optimism it would delight me. My reviews of other Jacqueline Winspear novels:  Maisie Dobbs ,  Birds of a Feather ,  Pardonable Lies ,  Messenger of Truth ,  An Incomplete Revenge ,  Among the Mad ,  The Mapping of Love and Death ,  A Lesson in Secrets ,  Elegy for Eddie ,  Leaving Everything Most Loved ,  The Care and Management of Lies ,  and  A Dangerous Place . The basics:  It's 1938, and the German government is willing to release a particularly valuable British prisoner to a family member only. Coincidentally, the prisoner's daughter looks a lot like Maisie, so she's enlisted to travel to Munich ...

The basics:  "Pearl doesn't know how she's ended up in the river--the same messy, cacophonous river in the same rain-soaked valley she'd been stuck in for years. But here her spirit swirls and stays . . . Ada, Pearl's daughter, doesn't know how she's ended up back in the house she left thirteen years ago--with no heating apart from a fire she can't light, no way of getting around apart from an old car she's scared to drive, and no company apart from her own young daughter, Pepper. She wants to clear out Pearl's house so she can leave and not look back."--publisher My thoughts: When Weathering  came out in the UK last year, many predicted it would be longlisted for the Baileys Prize. It wasn't, but when it finally was scheduled to come out in the U.S., I was still curious to read it. I picked it up not knowing what it's about, as both the title and cover are ambiguous. If I had read the basic description, I might have realized ...

The backstory: Tessa Hadley has been on my 'meaning to read' list for years. The basics: Four adult siblings, along with their children and one new spouse, gather at their country house for a three week vacation. My thoughts: Part of me has a hard time reading novels set at different temperature extremes than the one I'm currently experiencing. It's hard for me to remember how much I dislike the heat of summer in the middle of an Iowa winter (and vice versa), but Hadley made this summer country house come alive. The omniscient narrator is filled with wisdom, and I marveled at Hadley's ability to juggle so many characters in ways that left each one fully formed. It's a challenge to introduce a relatively large cast of characters so quickly, including those not present, but I was never confused about which sibling was which or whose children belonged where. As rich as the descriptions and insights were, Hadley is also a gifted writer of dialogue: "-...

narrated by Karen Cass The backstory: Crooked Heart  was longlisted for the 2015 Baileys Prize . The basics:  "When Noel Bostock – aged ten, no family - is evacuated from London to escape the Blitz, he ends up living in St Albans with Vera Sedge - thirty-six and drowning in debts and dependents. Always desperate for money, she's unscrupulous about how she gets it. Noel's mourning his godmother, Mattie, a former suffragette. Brought up to share her disdain for authority and eclectic approach to education, he has little in common with other children and even less with Vee."--publisher My thoughts: Now that I spend almost as much time listening to audiobooks as I do reading print books, I often find myself wondering how much the format impacts my reaction. As I listened to Crooked Heart , I found myself thinking something I can't recall ever thinking while reading: I'd rather watch this story on screen. As in, I would gladly put down this book and watc...

The backstory: A Pattern of Lies  is the seventh mystery featuring World War I nurse Bess Crawford. My reviews of the first six: A Duty to the Dead , An Impartial Witness , A Bitter Truth , An Unmarked Grave , A Question of Honor , and  An Unwilling Accomplice . The basics: The action in A Pattern of Lies  centers on the small Kent village of Cranbourne, where a gun powder mill exploded two years ago. More than one hundred men died in the explosion. The truth, never certain, has yielded to the titular patterns of lies and accusations in a town still reeling from tragedy, all are looking for someone to blame, as Bess tries to figure out the truth. My thoughts: A Pattern of Lies  is darker and presents dangerous situations (aside from the war itself) than most books in this series. It's set in 1918, and as readers know, World War I is nearly over. I'm quite curious to see where the series goes beyond the war. But in A Pattern of Lies , the War remains an increa...

The backstory: Life After Life  was shortlisted for the 2013 Women's Prize for Fiction  (now Bailey's Prize) and was a 2013 New York Times   Notable Book  and named to its Top Ten of 2013. The basics: Life After Life  is the story of a young British woman born in 1910. Throughout the novel she dies many times, and each possible life serves as an exploration of how small moments have enormous impact on our lives and deaths. My thoughts: The opening scene of this novel is incredible: twenty-year-old Ursula kills Hitler in 1930 in a German cafe. She is promptly killed. Then the action goes back to Ursula's birth. In the next few scenes, various iterations of the doctor getting stuck in a snowstorm and making it to her birth or not play out, as do various causes of her death. Atkinson plays with life and death somewhat whimsically here, which I appreciated: "I hear the baby nearly died,” Mrs. Glover said. “Well…” Sylvie said. Such a fine line between living ...

The basics: Sally Heathcote, Suffragette  tells the story of the British suffrage movement through the story of (fictional) Sally Heathcoate, who begins this graphic novel as a maid for the (real) Pankhursts. My thoughts: I have long had a fascination with the U.S. and British women's suffrage movements, and I was excited to see the British suffrage movement depicted in a graphic novel. Perhaps because I was so familiar with the key public moments depicted in this graphic novel, I was quite drawn to its art. There's a beautiful intentionality to Charlesworth's use of color. As depicted on the cover, Sally's red hair is often one of the few bursts of color in early panes. Yet as the story develops, and the different groups fighting for suffrage argue, their different colors shine brightly in the often otherwise black and white panels. The ruse of inserting a fictional character into an otherwise factual tale is typically a device I adore. In this case, Sally's ...

The backstory: An Unwilling Accomplice  is the sixth historical mystery in Charles Todd's Bess Crawford series. Bess is a World War I nurse. Read my reviews of the first five:  A Duty to the Dead ,  An Impartial Witness ,  A Bitter Truth ,  An Unmarked Grave , and  A Question of Honor . The basics: While home in England on leave from her nursing post in France during World War I, Bess is asked to accompany a wounded soldier to Buckingham Palace, where he receives an award. Overnight after the ceremony, the soldier vanishes, and Bess immediately falls under suspicion as an accomplice. She sets out to find the soldier herself to clear her name, but the mystery soon turns darker and more dangerous. My thoughts: One of my favorite things about this series is how well Charles Todd (the mother and son writing team of Charles and Caroline Todd) capture the atmosphere of World War I. Bess is such a dynamic character, and I always learn so much about mann...

The backstory: Last year I read and adored The Midwife's Tale , Sam Thomas's debut mystery. The basics: The story opens in August 1645, the year after the events of The Midwife's Tale. York is battling a brutal heatwave and adjusting to life with Puritan control. A new minister, Hezekiah Ward, has arrived in town, preaching about the evils of prostitution, just as much of the city believes the heat is God's punishment for evil. When the bodies of a prostitue and a john are found brutally murdered, Bridget's brother-in-law calls her in to view the bodies. Once again, her skills as a midwife find a crime-solving purpose. My thoughts: Once again I was delighted with the characters of Bridget and Martha, her servant and midwife apprentice. The relationship of the two women is one of my favorite parts of this series. As Bridget teaches Martha more about midwifing, the reader learns with her. There are numerous births throughout this mystery, but I also appreciate h...

The basics: Lady Elizabeth Ashton, known to most as Lilly, has longed dreamed of a formal education and career. When World War I begins, she is at odds with her mother, who desperately wants her to find an appropriate husband, whereas Lilly wants to join the war effort. My thoughts: Although this novel's subtitle indicates its about the Great War, the emphasis of the story is more on Lilly's search for independence and her love with war surgeon Robbie, the old roommate of her brother Edward. The hopefulness of both of these storylines shifts the tone of the novel away from the atrocities of war, even as its main characters continue to immerse themselves in it. For a novel about war, there is a surprising lack of somberness, as the narrating characters focus on their own fortune and nearly altruistic desire to help. Underlying the novel are themes of class and its place in the war, a theme of which I'm quite fond. This time in history is a fascinating one (admittedly my ...

The backstory: My obsession with love of Downton Abbey has inspired me to learn more about the period and customs of British country homes at that time. The basics: Upstairs & Downstairs: An Illustrated Guide to the Real World of Downton Abbey  is part nonfiction, part coffee table book about typical life in an Edwardian country home. My thoughts: Most of what I know about this time, I've learned from Downton Abbey . I was curious to learn more about the time, in part to better assess how true Downton  is to history. Upstairs & Downstairs  was an informative, engaging look into life at the time. Divided into sections based on a typical day. This structure allowed author Sarah Warwick to examine the roles of those upstairs and downstairs simultaneously. There was much that was familiar from Downton , but I also learned many things that added more nuance to my understanding of the servant's roles on the show. What I enjoyed most about this book, however, w...

The backstory: Summerset Abbey  is the first in a new young adult Edwardian trilogy. The basics: When their father dies, Rowena and Victoria Buxton are forced to leave their home and go live with their aunt and uncle. It's a house the girls know well, as they've visited each year. In order to bring Prudence, the daughter of their now deceased governess, whom they think of as a sister, the girls have no choice but to have Prudence come as their lady's maid. My thoughts: Summerset Abbey  ties in so well with the Downton Abbey craze (how long until season four makes its way to the U.S.?) It's story isn't as complex, but it is wonderfully entertaining. I like to think of the Edwardian era as a kind of coming of age for England (and much of the world.) To see these young women entering adulthood at such a time of changing priorities is quite fascinating. By going from a more liberal worldview of their father, who treated Prudence as a daughter and encourage all three...

The backstory: The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry , the first novel by Rachel Joyce, was on the 2012 Booker Prize longlist. The basics: When Harold Fry, a retired man who lives in southern England, receives a letter from an old co-worker and friend, Queenie, saying goodbye because she is quite ill, he sets out to post his reply letter. Instead of stopping at the mailbox, however, Harold keeps walking so he can say goodbye in person. Along the way, he remembers, thinks and meets a quirk cast of characters. My thoughts: From the first pages of this novel, there is a familiarity to its characters. Harold and his wife, Maureen, seem ordinary and the reader's first glimpse into their lives features the mundanesness of life. Rachel Joyce's observational prose, however, elevates the story. This early passage illustrates the novel itself: "He knew he was going to reach Berwick, and that all he had to do was to place one foot in front of the other. The simplicity of it was ...

The backstory:   Small Wars  was on the 2010 Orange Prize longlist. The basics: Set in British-occupied Cyprus in the 1950's, Small Wars  is the story of a young married couple, Hal and Clara. Hal is an officer in the British army. It's a politically tumultuous time, as Cypriots are increasingly resistant to the British. My thoughts: Small Wars  is a beautiful, subtle and powerful novel. It's not a novel that sets out to make its case from page one, and its power snuck up on me. Perhaps because of the cover, I expected this novel to be mostly Clara's story, but Jones shifts seamlessly back and forth between Clara and Hal's perspectives, often on the very same page. Initially, I identified with Clara more, but surprisingly, Hal ended up stealing this book for me. With my modern perspective, even knowing very little about this time in history, it was clear to see loyalties shifting. While this novel was about Cyprus in the 1950's, many of the names could be...