The Lost Family by Libby Copeland and Signal Fires by Dani Shapiro

 

The Lost Family was an interesting nonfiction book about DNA testing.  Through spitting into a tube and sending your sample to Ancestry or 23andMe some people have found surprises in their family lines.

Some are welcomed into a family they never knew. With others, they've been met with mistrust as the "new family" think they’re interested in money or have ulterior motives. That’s quite a disappointment for somebody that feels like they have suddenly found their biological family.

This book also addresses the genetic testing with markers for health reasons, 23andMe may lead to discoveries you'd wish you’d never uncovered. If you find out you have a genetic marker for Alzheimers do you tell your children so they know something to look for? It would hang like a guillotine over my neck the rest of my life so I don't want to know.

Another book I found very interesting on the same subject is Dani Shapiro's nonfiction Inheritance.  Check out the review HERE on my previous book blog. I immediately thought about this book when I was reading The Lost Family.

And with that I will segue to Dani Shapiro's latest book, a work of fiction titled Signal Fires.  This kept me reading constantly. I finished this in two days. 

You know how some authors can describe characters so will you have a very vivid mental image of what they look like? Well not only does the author describe them so you can picture them, she builds the flesh and emotion around them.  You can visualize the mannerisms, witness their anxiety and know when they were uncomfortable or when they’re getting ready to explode and anger. She brings them to life.

There is a young boy who is a genius level with an interest in the the stars.  He can't seem to connect with his classmates or his father. He will become an astrophysicist but he experiences loneliness growing up. The connections of all the characters -signal fires -link the young boy, the doctor and his family who live across the street, a car accident which takes a life, everything is connected. As I said, couldn't put this down and would recommend to a fan of Dani Shapiro.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with this advanced reader copy.  The publication date is October 18, 2022 by Knopf Doubleday Publishing. Genre: General Fiction, Literary Fiction.

Sharing The Lost family with Shellyrae at Book'd Out for the 2022 Nonfiction Reader Challenge (Category: Popular Science). Marg at The Intrepid Reader for the 2022 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge.

I, Mona Lisa by Natasha Solomons

I wasn't sure what to expect from this novel about Mona Lisa but I liked the description so I bought it on a sale from Amazon. 

The odd parts, for me, was how Lisa spoke of being in love with Leonardo.  A fantasy tale of how the centuries passed and what the painting experiences. She tells how she was brought to life, how she was kidnapped, the lonely existance of sitting in her glassed prison in the Louvre as people wander by and only comment how small the painting is in real life.

 Listen to my history. My adventures are worth hearing. I have lived many lifetimes and been loved by emperors, kings and thieves. I have survived kidnap and assault. Revolution and two world wars. But this is also a love story. And the story of what we will do for those we love. (From Goodreads)

Overall I enjoyed the novel.  If you like historical fiction and reading about the Renaissance era you may well enjoy this book.  Natasha Solomons is a British author and as I liked her style, I will add her other books to my to-read list.  The House at Tyneford is set in England, another historical fiction, and I'd like to read that soon.

Sharing with Joy's Book Blog for British Isles Friday and Marg at The Intrepid Reader for the Historical Fiction Readng Challenge.

How to Stop Time by Matt Haig

Tom Hazard is  very old man; he is 429 years old.  He has only aged one year for each fifteen years in passing. Tom looks for meaning in life as he can never have a lasting relationship or let his guard down.  

As it turns out there are others in the world with the same condition and eventually they are discovered by a covert society called Albatross.  The society protects them, allowing them to live in a normal setting for eight years before getting an assignment, then relocating with a new identity. One thing that keeps Tom motivated to live (as he could kill himself to end this existence) is a desire to find his daughter Marion. She apparently inherited his genetic disposition and may be somewhere in the world trying to hide her identity. 

In his long life Tom has met F. Scott Fitzgerald, Captain Cook and Shakespeare among other historical figures. The book is divided by time periods and places.  Recently I read Benedict Cumberbatch has acquired film rights to star in the production.  For what it's worth, I prefered The Midnight Library to this book but I never considered abandoning the book.

Matt Haig was born in Sheffield England. His website may be found HERE. 

Sharing with Joy's Book Blog for British Isles Friday and Marg the Intrepid Reader for the 2022 Historical Fiction challenge.

Ashton Hall by Lauren Belfer

This book is a historical fiction based on the real Ashton Hall built in 1856 in Lancashire England.

Hannah Larson is researching her doctoral dissertation and the subject matter of Ashton Hall plays in.  There is a dark history about the house and a mystery about a  skeleton which was found in a locked room. You will eventually discover who that person was. The backstory on that and the house history is revealed at the end. This is not a ghost story and just about all of the book is set and present time. 

Hannah's life is basically a dumpster fire with a marriage in trouble and her son Nicky having emotional difficulties. I don’t mean he’s unruly or acting up, but more like a medical condition which causes him to become unpredictably violent.  Yet he is bright and it's Nicky who discovers the skeletal remains.

Hannah's research brings the Elizabethan era to life as she goes through old account ledgers and diaries.

Publication date is June 7, 2022 by Random House Publishing - Ballantine Books.  Genre: General Fiction, Historical Fiction, Mysteries and Thrillers.

Thank you to Netgalley for the advanced reader's copy of this book.  I was not compensated for the review, all opinions are mine.

Sharing with Joy's Book Blog for British Isles Friday and Marg at The Intrepid Reader for the Historical Fiction Readng Challenge.

The Glass Lake by Maeve Binchy

 

The setting is Lough Glass in Ireland and it's the early 1950s. The story follows Mary Katherine McMahon's life as a child and the approximately ten years after her mother Helen disappears. It's thought her mother drowned but Mary (known as Kit) worried her mother killed herself.  She had a note from her mother but burned it without reading as if it was a suicide note she couldn't have a church burial.

Kit misses her mother very much and leans on friends and distant family to help her. She gets into a pen pal relationship with a woman named Lena Gray who claims to have known her mother.  There is certainly a surprise lurking for Kit in that relationship!

If you want to submerge yourself into 1950s Irish culture this will be a good book for you. It's dated in references but I liked it. The themes are loss and love.  I liked the comparison of English life vs Irish life from Kit's perspective.

 This is another book I am clearing from the shelves in my mission to read more books from the stacks at home.  It's already in the mail to a friend who may enjoy it!

Sharing with Joy's Book Blog for British Isles Friday and Marg at The Intrepid Reader for the 2022 Historical Fiction challenge.

The Ruin by Dervla McTiernan

 I am so happy to have discovered this author as I now have a new-to-me series to catch up on.  Police procedurals and mysteries are one of my favorite genres as are books set in Ireland.

Cormac Reilly was once a detective at an elite Garda station in Dublin.  He transfers and demotes in rank to a police agency in Galway as his partner Emma relocates for her work. For someone with his experience and skills the Galway posting is wasting his talents on cold cases.  One case in particular is a blast from his past.

The prologue tells how twenty years earlier Cormac was young officer sent out to a rural home for a domestic violence call.  What he found was Maude, a neglected thin 15 year old girl who was taking care of her 5 year old brother Jack.  Their mother was dead in an upstairs bedroom, liquor and drugs surrounding her.  

Then chapter one starts us in present time when Jack, now 25 years old, has commited suicide.  His partner Aisling is not convinced Jack took his life. The past has a way of being interjected in this investigation. There are so many facets of this story that are interesting and Cormac is now one of my favorite detectives.  I am very much looking forward to the next few books in the series and seeing the character development.

Sharing with Joy's Book Blog for British Isles Friday and Marg at The Intrepid Reader for the 2022 Historical Fiction challenge.

A Few of the Girls by Maeve Binchy

 

As Maeve Binchy died in 2012 I was quite surprised, yet delighted, to see a new book available at the library.  The forward is written by her husband Gordon Snell.  He explains how she would type up a storm and get her thoughts out, never once seeing her staring at a blank page as she searched for inspiration.

As a big fan of Ms. Binchy I grabbed a copy and settled in to read the short stories.  I will say I prefer her novels more than this collection and these stories are dated in the narrative of how women defer to men.

That said, this is a book of stories about friendships and relationships.  Some show how women support one another and others where women stand up for themselves. If you haven't read Binchy before I would not start with this collection as her novels are much better.  I have read all of her books and Light a Penny candle remains my very favorite.

Sharing with

 Joy's Book Blog for British Isles Friday 

 Marg at The Intrepid Reader for the 2022 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge.

 

Imogen Clark books

Post Cards from a Stranger is the latest book I've read by Imogen Clark.  

The story shifts from perspectives in 1969, 1976, 1987 and then 2017 within three generations.

In 1969 the Kemp sisters Annie and Ursula are trying to stay out of their father's way when he returns home from work.  Anything can set him off and he becomes violent.  When he isn't angry he is condescending and demeaning.  They dream of the day they are old enough to leave and make a life for themselves far away. Why their mother endures being slapped and mocked is beyond their understanding.

When Annie is old enough to work she mets attractive and fast-talking Joe Ferensby.  She is charmed and accepts his marriage proposal, escaping her hellish homelife and thinks she hit the jackpot.

Joe doesn't hit Annie but his true nature comes out after marriage.  He's passive aggressive and talks down to her.  He isolates her from friends and keeps a tight wallet so she must ask for everything.  Once their two children Cara and Michael are born she knows she'll never leave. Lots more regarding the Feresby household but it's inserted in backstory throughout.

In 1987 we get a glimpse of single father Joe dealing with 2 year old Cara and 7 year old Michael. The children are uprooted from their London home and move to the Moors in Yorkshire.  Cara cries for her mother for weeks and Michael comforts her.  She misses her dead mother but in fact, young Michael is keeping huge secrets from his sister in an effort to protect her.

In 2017  Cara and her brother Michael as adults. Cara is caring for their father who has Alzheimers and her life is difficult.  Cara is still living on the moors while Michael is a barrister in London.  He is married with twin daughters and wants nothing to do with his father. There was a huge falling out when Michael was old enough to discover his father's secrets.

Now, Joe has Alzheimers. When things get bad Cara calls Michael for some input and he he says he knows it's difficult and would help more but..."you know how it is." He has no idea how difficult it is to be there and deal with an Alzheimers patient 24/7 and the rift between him and his father means he certainly won't head north and physically help. You'll discover the secrets much later in the book.

Cara is a wedding dress designer and has a studio where she crafts magnificent original designs. One day she is looking in the attic, a place forbidden by their father when Cara and Michael were children, and she finds a box of postcards.  Right there - her life is upended.

This wasn't my favorite book by Imogen Clark but I wasn't tempted to put it down. It certainly covers quite a bit of territory.  I was weirdly both sympathetic and impatient with Cara as she works her way the secrets her father kept. Imagine finding something you need to confront your parent with but their mind is gone so your opportunity is forever lost. 

Previous books I’ve enjoyed by the author are as follows:

Where the Story Starts

Reluctantly Home 

 On my former book blog Novel Meals I wrote about The Last Piece . I love the cover!

 I am awaiting the author's latest book Impossible to Forget.

Sharing with 

Marg at The Intrepid Reader for the  2022 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 

 Joy's Book Blog for British Isles Friday.

The Dynamite Room by Jason Hewitt

 The book description in the jacket caught my attention right off. Lately I have been reading novels set in England during the WW II era. This fictional narrative fell right into those categories. This is also the first book I’ve read by Jason Hewitt and I can safely say, it won’t be my last. 

The story line takes place over a six day period with our two main characters slipping into frequent recollections to times past. You have the multiple narratives from 11-year old Lydia and a German soldier who hides out in her family’s home. Lydia is a young English girl who has just arrived in her hometown after running away from Wales. She was sent to Wales as an evacuee and hated it. In the very beginning of the story Lydia is walking the deserted streets of her village, wondering where everyone got off to. Finally she reaches her home, a large residence called Greyfriars, only to find it vacant and musty. Where is her mother? Where are her neighbors and merchants from the village? All of the livestock appears to have disappeared with the people.

Lydia holes up in her home trying to figure out what to do next when she hears someone moving about downstairs. It’s an injured German soldier, just as astonished to see a young girl in front of him as Lydia is to see him. He raises his gun toward her but doesn’t shoot, warning her to obey his rules or he will kill her. From then on you have altering perspectives and learn about Lydia’s life before the war. Same thing with the soldier called Heiden.

In the six days they spend together you learn about Heiden’s love for a woman named Eva. You get the flashbacks of his service in the German military, his education in England prior to the war and the perilous mission in Norway where life altering decisions are made. He shares very little with Lydia but through his memories you get to know him well.

As for Lydia you will come to know a brave little girl who paid attention to what her mother taught her about survival. She is diligent in her efforts to hide things from Heiden as she won’t outwardly help an enemy of England. As they spend more time together, cooped up in a house shuttered with blackout curtains and boards, they form a tentative alliance. They need each other…for the time being.

This story captured my attention straight away, hard to put down. I am looking forward to Hewitt’s next novel Devastation Road.

Sharing with Joy's Book Blog for British Isles Friday. and Marg at The Intrepid Reader for the 2022 Historical Fiction Challenge.

Go Tell the Bees That I am Gone by Diana Gabaldon

Once I had finished this 902 page book I went to Goodreads to update progress and checked on how many friends had read the book as well. I am pleased to see a mixed bit of reviews and realize I am not the only one who felt this book meandered on way too long.  I also noticed a bit of hate flung at reviewers who thought the same.  People!  We all have different opinions! That said, I’m glad I checked this out of the library instead of purchasing. 

I was happy with the story line about Jamie and Claire and liked reading more about Brianna and Roger. Gabaldon has always been a descriptive writer but honestly I thought some of the details were overboard. The book could have been shorter by quite a bit in my opinion.

The ending left me hanging, as it's meant to, so I am eager to find out what happens next.  This book took 7 years to come to publication and frankly I think Gabaldon could have wrapped it all up with this one.  There were times when I was reading and I thought, hasn't she rehashed this before - several times. 

Those of us who have read the book series starting with Outlander have watched these characters grow, have children and get old. It will be nice to see a conclusion with these characters.  Recently I read that Gabaldon was thinking of writing a prequel series featuring Jamie's parents Brian and Ellen.  I would be inteested to check that out once this series is concluded.

Sharing with Marg at The Intrepid Reader for the 2022 Histirical Fiction Challenge.

The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell

This is a tragic story, full of twists and revelations, made all the more sad as the story’s inspiration comes from historical records. In the 1930s era women could be locked in an insane asylum just for wandering off on long walks, or for keeping their hair long. Your liberty was at the whim of your parents or husband.

The story starts in Scotland when two sisters are sitting at a dance. It’s but a glimpse of two important characters. Then the detailed background story begins in India where these same two sisters are young; you are allowed a look into their early lives and how they interact with their parents. There is a baby brother born, Hugo, and Esme loves to play with him. While Kitty is the more serious of the two and minds the rules, Esme is the polar opposite. She makes excuses to leave her tutoring session and wanders off to visit her little brother. She walks barefooted to the horror of her prim and proper mother, she won’t be molded into the quiet citizen her mother desires her to be. I like her.

The story flashes between the girl’s childhood in India, then their move to Scotland and then advances to present day with Kitty’s granddaughter Iris.

Iris is a single young woman who owns a vintage clothing shop. She is quite possibly in love with her step brother Alex. It’s not as creepy as it sounds when you read their back story. Her life turns on end when a phone call reveals there is an elderly aunt who has been housed at an asylum for over 60 years, and Iris is the family contact. She’s never heard of Esme Lennox. Iris visits her Alzheimer afflicted grandmother, Kitty Lockhart, who is in and out of hazy thought but does confirm Esme is her sister. So what does Iris do now? Move a possibly crazed old woman, a stranger, into her flat? More importantly, why was Esme’s existence kept a secret all these years.

Now we flashback to Kitty and Esme Lennox as teenagers who are being introduced to the social circle. Kitty is the older sister and all about propriety and appearance. Esme is not confined to conventional social mores and continues to upset her parents. Surprisingly, the young man they hoped would be interested in Kitty is actually besotted with Esme. Later events will change everything in Esme’s life.

 I am upset for Esme that her life was stolen from her. For no good reason she is swept out of her parents’ home at the age of 16 and then left to rot in an asylum. She is asked at one point how long it was since she had last seen her sister. Her reply: “Sixty-one years, five months and 6 days” and fact is, if the hospital had not been closing down, she would have ended her days there.

This is the second book I have read by this author and I like this one as much as the first. It’s sad and it leaves you with much to think about. I like having some things unresolved where you think about potential outcomes. Excellent writing. Well done Ms. O’Farrell.

A quote that sums up the lives of the patients…and when you ponder it, the everyday rituals we all move through.

“It is always the meaningless tasks that endure: the washing, the cooking, the clearing, the cleaning. Never anything majestic or significant, just the tiny rituals that hold together the seams of life.”

This is another paragraph I like. Esme is reflecting on Iris sitting on the beach. It’s perfect – as someone who enjoys genealogy this last part really spoke to me, thinking about my ancestors.

“From all her family – her and Kitty and Hugo and all the other babies and her parents – from all of them, there is only this girl. She is the only one left. They have all narrowed down to this black-haired girl sitting on the sand, who has no idea that her hands and her eyes and the tilt of her head and the fall of her hair belong to Esme’s mother.

We are all, Esme decides, just vessels through which identities are pass: we are lent features, gestures, habits then we hand them on. Nothing is our own. We begin the world as anagrams of our ancestors.” I think that was a marvelous bit of prose.

Sharing with

Joy's Book Blog for British Isles Friday.

Marg at The Intrepid Reader for the 2022 Historical Fiction Challenge.

Once Upon a Wardrobe by Patti Callahan

 

This story will be enjoyed by those who loved C.S. Lewis' books about Narnia and The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe.  As someone who hasn't read those books in decades I realized you didn't need the background to be entertained by this narrative.

The story begins in 1950, location Worcester and Oxford England. Young George Devonshire is a frail little boy with a heart condition.  He is completely besotted with Lewis' book The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe and wants desperately to know if Narnia is real.  He will occassionaly climb into the wardrobe in his room and sit, imaging the world outside and a life he'll never have chance to know.

His older sister Megs is a mathmatics and physics student in Oxford and doesn't think beyond mathmatical probabilities - it's either right or wrong. Fantasy and imagination never cross her mind with any serious thought.  

One thing for sure, Megs loves her little brother very much and rushes home from college to be with him each weekend and break. As she is reading to him one day George asks if she will approach Mr. Lewis and ask where the stories about Narnia came from.  Is it real? Where did the inspiration come from? Megs has been to a lecture of Mr. Lewis but is reluctant to approach him with this request.  Loving George so much she risks it as it's his dying wish.  From there - what a wonderful story this becomes.  

Megs is invited into the home called The Kilns, the residence of Warnie and Jack Lewis. (Jack is C.S. Lewis) and the story unfolds from there.  It's a nesting doll of stories

There is saddness in this story but it's also wonderfully rich with details aout Lewis' life from boyhood to present. Adventure seen through a child's eyes and some very imaginative adults.

I want to thank Katherine at I Wish I Lived in a Library for recommending this book.  It was one her favorites from 2021

Sharing with:

Joy's Book Blog for British Isles Friday

The Intrepid Reader for the 2022 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge

Historical Fiction Reading Challenge for 2022( and a roundup of the 2021 books)

 I will be signing up for the 2022 Historical Fiction Reader Challenge hosted by Marg at Intrepid Reader

Last year I opted for the Medieval level but this year I am going to bump it up to Ancient History for 25 books.  I did come close this year so I'll shoot for more historical fiction next year.

Want to join in?  Check out the signup link HERE at The Intrepid Reader

Here is my roundup for the 2021 Historical Reading Challenge.  

Thank you to Marg for hosting such a fun reading group.  There are lots of good book suggestions in the monthly linkups.

My personal favorites this year were The Rose Code by Kate Quinn, The Exiles by Christina Baker Kline and Under the Golden Sun by Jenny Ashcroft. 

1. The Rose Code by Kate Quinn
2. In Times of Rain and War by Camron Wright
3. The Letter by Ruth Saberton
4. The Vines by Shelley Nolden
5. The Kew Garden Girls by Posey Lovell
6. The Exiles by Christina Baker Kline
7. News of the World by Paulette Jiles
8. Wunderland by Jennifer Epstein
9. Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
10. The Green Road by Ann Enright
11. Beyond the Olive Grove by Kate Hewitt
12. The Enigma Game by Elizabeth Wein
13. The French Gift by Kirsty Manning
14. Northern Spy by Flynn Berry
15. The Storyteller of Casablanca by Fiona Valpy
16. Under the Golden Sun by Jenny Ashcroft
17. Her Secret War by Pam Lecky
18. A Little Bird by Wendy James
19. The Midwife's Secret by Emily Gunnis

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