The Kitchen Diaries by Nigel Slater

In the past I liked perusing  The Kitchen Diaries by Nigel Slater .  It's been a while since I picked it up to read about a month in his life.  His thoughts on the London weather, his garden, the informal get-togethers he hosts and of course - recipes. One thing I love about this book is the diary format.  

One year I had planned to read through, month by month, and perhaps try a recipe or two.

It didn't pan out for as my proposed annual project. Alas.

So here I am, picking it up again as I am reading Claire Messud's tome This Strange Eventful History.  I needed something completely different to read at the same time, something without plot so I wouldn't be juggling two different stories/character sets.

This book has gorgeous photos and if you like a diary format with a foodie emphasis, you'd enjoy this book.  I’ve started reading July for now :-)

Sharing with Joy for British Isles Friday.

Ask Again, Yes and The Half Moon by Mary Beth Keane

 I can't believe I didn't post this.  Well, I did on Goodreads but wanted to record it here as well.  It's one of my favorites from my Twenty Books of Summer event.

A+ 5 Stars

The title is a nice nod to James Joyce's tome Ulysses.  Molly Bloom's rambling " ...and I asked him with my eyes to ask again yes and he then he asked me would I say yes to say yes my mountain flower..." That 700 page tome was one I had in English Lit class at university over 30 years ago :-)

Anyway.....

I absolutely loved this book and read it any chance I had. It starts in the 1970s with NYPD rookie police officers Francis Gleeson and Brian Stanhope. As they are patroling a call comes through about a robbery. They rush to the scene finding the owner of the bodega dead, blood all over him. Gleeson apprehends the suspect. It's the start of a partnership and good careers for Stanhope and Gleeson and, what you would initially think, a great friendship.

Both marry, have children, live next door to one another in a smaller town just outside the city. The neighborhood children had the kind of upbringing I had - kids running around across the lawns, riding bikes, catching fireflies and having birthday parties at each other's homes.

Ideal. Except there isn't an easy friendship and then there is a tragedy so great it shapes the lives of everyone in both the Stanhope and Gleeson familes permanently.

The story is told over a 40+ year timeline and from different perspectives. Such an excellent story. Themes of love, forgiveness, tragedy, mental illness and more.

This is an author new to me and I would group this story with Claire Lombardo's The Most Fun We Ever Had and Ann Napolitano's Hello Beautiful. A+ 5 Stars

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Next up was Keane's newst publication - The Half Moon

The Half Moon is a bar. The story is about Jess and Malcolm with The Half Moon figuring in prominently.   This story is ever evolving about their relationship, the love as well as the fractures as time goes on.  I see both sides of their stories.  Sometimes one is being unreasonable, letting pride overcome working things out.  As I read I found myself taking sides. I'll be Team Malcolm then switch to Team Jess and then ... neither one. 

You'll read how head-over-heels in love Jess was with Malcolm and vice versa. The initial thrill of being together, then the reality of marriage, the constant doctor appointments, IVF treatments and disappointments for seven years. Malcolm trying to keep the bar in the black and run his business.  It's mostly his happy place.

I can't enumerate the times I wondered WTF was going on with this relationship, if you could call it that.  I will say it took fortitude to finish the book, it was like an accident where you can't look away. About the 75% mark things started happening at a rapid progression.  

This book has more ruminations and observations from each character than dialogue between them and others.  There IS dialogue and you are in the moment for it.  I don't regret reading this book but I will say I loved Ask Again, Yes and this didn't meet that bar.  

My opinion - I am not recommending reading it or passing.  Keane is a good author and I will be reading another of hers next month.

Also on tap next month is a buddy read for the book September by Rosamunde Pilcher 😊📚

Sharing with Deb at Readerbuzz for Sunday Salon.

The latest issues of BookPage and some interesting interviews

 Yesterday I picked up the latest edition of BookPage and was happy to see a few interviews published by authors I am interested in.

The article on Flynn Berry was great, titled "I'm Used to Being Haunted by Characters".  I enjoyed Northern Spy by Flynn Berry and was pleased her latest book, Trust Her, will follow up on the same characters. Also in this piece it was nice to read about her characters but also how she feels about other books/characters we've both read. 

Flynn mentions she wonders about Rachel in The Rachel Incident, about how they might have been friends and where she is in London.  I wonder about characters like that as well. They seem so real and are so well developed that I hope to see them appear in other books.

Claire Lombardo's latest, Same As It Ever Was, is also featured in this issue.  She has an interview chatting about how her books come together and what she is working on.

Last month's issue here featured a good interview with Claire Messud.

The wrinkled pages are because I jammed it in my purse.  Messud talks about how long it took her to write the story and the inspiration from her family history.

This Strange Eventful History is Messud's sixth novel and draws from her own French Algerian family.

On tap today is getting back to a Mary Beth Keane novel and planning an enchilada dinner.  I hope your Sunday is going well :-)

Sharing with Deb at Readerbuzz for Sunday Salon.

The Night of the Flood by Zoë Somerville

This book is set in 1952 on a farm near the coast in Norfolk England. Verity Frost and her brother Peter live on the farm with their widowed father.  We start off with Verity meeting her friend Arthur on the anniversary of her mother's death.

 It is revealed Arthur was a child evacuee during the war, Verity's mother bringing him home to live with their family.  He grew up with them for several years but as an adult, he is no longer part of the family.  He is clearly in love with Verity but there are obstacles about religion and Verity's own hopes for her future.

She would like to attend Oxford and make a career and new life for herself.  Her father would like her to marry a local farmer and save their farm. Her brother Peter, expelled from a school for reasons of an improper relationship, wants to make something of the farm by modernizing the equipment and methods but the father won't hear of it.

The mother is rumored to have drowned by suicide and not accident so that comes up now and then.  And then there is the American pilot named Jack who befriends Peter.  Arthur suspects him of being a spy.  Those are the main characters and while the writing is at times stilted, you get a good picture of what is happening in Norfolk between these characters.

This is based on a true event about the flood that devasted Norfolk in 1953 with great license on the characters interactions.  This would appeal to someone who likes historical fiction but it isn't a fast read, slow going at times. 3 stars

Sharing with Joy's Book Blog for British Isles Friday.

New books on my horizon

 I am so glad I set a goal and joined the Twenty Books of Summer hosted by Cathy at 746 Books. It has made a huge difference in selecting my books.  I am doing fairly well on knocking out some titles which have been on my radar quite some time.

There are new titles coming out from authors I have previously enjoyed so they are added to my list.  Hoping to get to those sooner than later.

Trust Her by Flynn Berry.  I previously enjoyed Northern Spy,  A Double Life and Under the Harrow so this one will make my summer reading list.

This Strange Eventful History by Claire Messud is Messud's latest and I'm hoping to get a copy and fit it in before August ends.  My introduction to her work was The Woman Upstairs.

I am almost finished with Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane and like the writing style so much that I purchased The Walking People.

As the daily heat index is usually above 100 degrees, I am getting more reading time in.  This is just a short update.  Hope things are well in your part of the world.

Sharing with Deb at Readerbuzz for Sunday Salon.