Six Degrees of Separation: From Beach Read to A Hero of Our Time

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It’s the first Saturday of the month – and of the year – which means it’s time for another Six Degrees of Separation, hosted by Kate of Books are my Favourite and Best. The idea is that Kate chooses a book to use as a starting point and then we have to link it to six other books of our choice to form a chain. A book doesn’t have to be connected to all of the others on the list – only to the one next to it in the chain.

This month we’re starting with Beach Read by Emily Henry. It’s not a book I’ve read or plan to read, but here’s what it’s about:

Augustus Everett is an acclaimed author of literary fiction. January Andrews writes bestselling romance. When she pens a happily ever after, he kills off his entire cast.

They’re polar opposites.

In fact, the only thing they have in common is that for the next three months, they’re living in neighboring beach houses, broke, and bogged down with writer’s block.

Until, one hazy evening, one thing leads to another and they strike a deal designed to force them out of their creative ruts: Augustus will spend the summer writing something happy, and January will pen the next Great American Novel. She’ll take him on field trips worthy of any rom-com montage, and he’ll take her to interview surviving members of a backwoods death cult (obviously). Everyone will finish a book and no one will fall in love. Really.

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My first link this month is to Evil Under the Sun by Agatha Christie (1), a novel set on a beach. Published in 1941, this is a Poirot mystery which takes place on a private island belonging to the Jolly Roger Hotel. When a woman is found murdered on the island, almost all of the other guests become suspects – but luckily Hercule Poirot is also staying at the hotel and is able to begin investigating immediately!

My copy of Evil Under the Sun has a postcard on the front cover, which reminds me of a book I read just a few months ago: Blue Postcards by Douglas Bruton (2). Set in Paris and weaving together three different narratives, this is a very unusual novella. It’s written in the form of five hundred numbered paragraphs – and each one contains the word ‘blue’! Very cleverly done, but not really a book for me.

Paris is always an interesting and atmospheric setting. One of my favourite books set in Paris during the time of the French Revolution is The Way to the Lantern by Audrey Erskine Lindop (3). Audrey Erskine Lindop wrote more than a dozen novels between 1954 and 1978 and sadly all of them are now out of print, despite being successful at the time and, in some cases, adapted into films. I keep hoping her books will be picked up again by a publisher, but no luck yet!

My next link is to another book with a title beginning with the words ‘the way’: The Way of All Flesh by Ambrose Parry (4). The name Ambrose Parry is actually a pseudonym for the husband and wife team Chris Brookmyre and Marisa Haetzman, who worked together on this historical mystery set in the medical world of 19th century Edinburgh. There are currently three books in the series; I’ve enjoyed all of them and am hoping for a fourth.

I’ve read lots of novels with a medical theme, but the first one that comes to mind is The Country Doctor’s Notebook by Mikhail Bulgakov (5), which I read in an English translation by Michael Glenny. This is a collection of semi-autobiographical short stories based on Bulgakov’s own experiences of working at a small village hospital between 1916 and 1918. I loved this book, although it’s completely different from The Master and Margarita, the only other Bulgakov novel I’ve read so far (and also loved).

Another author who shares a name with Mikhail Bulgakov is Mikhail Lermontov, who wrote A Hero of Our Time (6). This entertaining Russian classic was published in 1840 and consists of five stories which combine to produce a portrait of a young army officer, the flawed but fascinating Grigory Pechorin. I really enjoyed it and can recommend Nicolas Pasternak Slater’s translation.

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And that’s my first chain of the year! My links included: beaches, postcards, Paris, ‘the way’, doctors and the name Mikhail.

In February we’ll be starting with Trust by Hernan Diaz.

Shadows and Strongholds by Elizabeth Chadwick

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I had intended to read this book for last year’s 20 Books of Summer but when it became clear I wouldn’t be able to finish it before the deadline I decided to save it to read later. With nearly 600 pages in my paperback edition it wasn’t a book that could be rushed!

Shadows and Strongholds, published in 2004, is a prequel to Lords of the White Castle, which I haven’t read yet, and tells the story of Fulke FitzWarin, known as Brunin due to his brown eyes, and Hawise de Dinan, youngest daughter of Joscelin de Dinan of Ludlow Castle. As the events of this book come first chronologically, I hoped it wouldn’t matter that I was reading the books out of order and that it might actually make things easier.

The novel opens in 1148 with ten-year-old Brunin attending a fair in Shrewsbury with his father, also Fulke FitzWarin, the lord of Whittington. That day, two things happen that will change the course of Brunin’s life. First, he is attacked by Ernalt de Lysle, a young squire who takes pleasure in bullying younger children, and this marks the beginning of a lifelong rivalry between Brunin and Ernalt. Then, Brunin discovers that his father has arranged for him to join the household of his friend Joscelin de Dinan to begin his own training as a squire.

Arriving at Ludlow Castle, the sensitive, awkward Brunin finds his new duties challenging but learns quickly and is soon accepted as part of the family, befriending de Dinan’s daughters Hawise and Sibbi and his young ward, Marion de la Bruere. As the years go by and the children grow into adults, de Dinan and FitzWarin begin to arrange a marriage between Brunin and Hawise – but this is not the time to lead a peaceful married life, as both Whittington and Ludlow are about to come under attack.

As always, Elizabeth Chadwick brings the medieval world vividly to life, from her descriptions of the duties of a squire and the running of a 12th century castle to the risks of childbirth and how to buy a horse at a fair. This novel is set during the Anarchy, the period of civil war that followed the death of Henry I, with his daughter, the Empress Matilda, and nephew, Stephen of Blois, battling for the English throne. Our protagonists and their enemies are forced to choose one side or the other – and some switch sides at least once – but their loyalties seem to count for very little after the war ends and Matilda’s son takes the throne as Henry II. While the changes in the monarchy and the wider issues affecting England as a whole play out in the background, the FitzWarins and de Dinans are understandably more concerned with the threat to their own castles – particularly as there seems to be a traitor within the de Dinan household.

The main characters are all loosely based on people who really existed, although not much is known about some of them and in her author’s note Elizabeth Chadwick explains that a major source for her novel was a rhyming romance written by a 13th century chronicler. There’s obviously a lot of focus on the relationship between Brunin and Hawise, but I have to admit I didn’t find them particularly appealing as the hero and heroine and some of the secondary characters interested me more. I loved Joscelin de Dinan, who remains a good and honourable man during this time of brutal war and shifting loyalties and to whom Fulke FitzWarin entrusts the care of his son, and I was intrigued by the story of Marion de la Bruere, whose ghost is said to haunt the ruins of Ludlow Castle to this day.

Because I wasn’t fully invested in the central romance, this hasn’t become a favourite Elizabeth Chadwick novel but I did enjoy it. I will read Lords of the White Castle soon, but I also have two more of her books on my shelf, The Love Knot and The Marsh King’s Daughter.

The Reckoning by Edith Wharton

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The last book I read in 2022 was this slim collection of Edith Wharton short stories from Penguin’s Little Black Classics series. There are only two stories in the book and at just under 50 pages in total, they can be read very quickly. Despite being so short they are still substantial and satisfying and I enjoyed reading both of them.

The first story, Mrs Manstey’s View, was my favourite. It was actually Wharton’s first published story, appearing in the July 1891 edition of Scribner’s Magazine. It’s a simple but very moving story about a widow, Mrs Manstey, who lives alone on the third floor of a New York boarding house. As her health begins to fail and visits from friends and family become less frequent, Mrs Manstey’s sole pleasure in life is observing the view from her window:

Mrs. Manstey’s real friends were the denizens of the yards, the hyacinths, the magnolia, the green parrot, the maid who fed the cats, the doctor who studied late behind his mustard-colored curtains; and the confidant of her tenderer musings was the church-spire floating in the sunset.

When Mrs Black, the owner of the house next door, announces that she’s planning to build a large extension, Mrs Manstey is devastated. Her view is the only thing that keeps her going from one day to the next; if the view is lost, she feels there will be no point in living at all. The construction work must be stopped, but will Mrs Black be prepared to listen?

The title story, The Reckoning, is much longer, but I found it less powerful. First published in 1911, it deals with an unconventional marriage between Julia and Clement Westall, who have both agreed that marriage should be a voluntary arrangement between two people which either can break off at any time if they become unhappy. Julia has already put this theory into practice when divorcing her previous husband, but when she begins to suspect that Clement has his eye on another woman she starts to wonder whether it’s such a good idea after all.

The Reckoning is an interesting story and when you consider the stigma still attached to divorce in the early 20th century, the depiction of the Westalls’ marriage is very progressive for its time. However, I didn’t find it as appealing as Mrs Manstey’s View, with its theme of seeing the beauty in the small everyday things that others take for granted.

Apart from these two stories, I have only read Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton so far. I’m sure I’ll be reading more of her books now that I’ve been reminded of how good her writing is.

Reading Resolutions for 2023

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Happy New Year! I hope your 2023 reading is off to a good start. As I do every January, I have listed below some reading resolutions for the year ahead. I don’t do very well with numerical targets and goals or anything that restricts my reading choices too much, so these are just some loose plans to help shape my year of reading.

* Finish my Classics Club list. There are only sixteen books left on my list and I’ll be reading at least one of them this month (Wild Strawberries by Angela Thirkell) so I think this is very doable! My deadline for completing the list was actually last November, but I’m not really bothered about that; I would just like to finish the remaining books and have already started to prepare a new list!

* Re-read some old favourites. I say I’m going to do this every year and then hardly ever do it! I used to re-read a lot, but now, with my endless TBR, there always seems to be something else that needs to be read first.

* Resist the temptations of NetGalley. After a lot of hard work I have finally got the number of review copies waiting on my NetGalley shelf down to single figures! NetGalley is a great source of new books, but you can very quickly find yourself requesting more than you can keep up with. While I’m sure I’ll still request some, now that I’m down to a manageable number I want to focus more on books I already own.

* Make some progress with my Reading the Walter Scott Prize project. I did quite well with the 2022 shortlist, reading three out of the four shortlisted titles, as well as some others from the longlist. However, there are still lots of books from previous years’ shortlists that I haven’t read yet, so I’ll try to read some of them this year. I’ve already discovered lots of great new books and authors through this particular prize and am looking forward to discovering more.

* Continue with some of the series and trilogies I’ve started and never finished! There are so many of these I couldn’t even begin to list them all here, but a few I would particularly like to go back to are Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey/Maturin series, Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series, Ellis Peters’ Cadfael mysteries and Elizabeth Jane Howard’s Cazalet Chronicles. There are many, many more!

* Take part in the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge and Read Christie 2023 (although I won’t do the Christie challenge every month as it can become too much). Apart from these two year-long challenges, I will be joining in with any shorter reading events and themed weeks/months that appeal to me.

* My final resolution is the same every year – make every book I read a potential book of the year! That means being more ruthless about abandoning books I’m not enjoying (something I find very difficult) and being more selective about which books to pick up in the first place.

~

What about you? Do you have any reading resolutions or plans for 2023?

My Commonplace Book: December 2022

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For the last time this year…

A selection of words and pictures to represent December’s reading:

commonplace book
noun
a book into which notable extracts from other works are copied for personal use.

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His eyes invited me to say more. No one ever had. Whether mortal or immortal, people did not like the sight of grief. They feared it.

The Witch and the Tsar by Olesya Salnikova Gilmore (2022)

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“Where there is no hope left, you may draft in as many soldiers as you wish, but you will still not be able to implement any restrictions, and once you have failed to persuade people of the benefits of such restrictions, you will find that you are unable to enforce quarantine at all. Quarantine is the art of educating the public in spite of itself, and of teaching it the skill of self-preservation.”

Nights of Plague by Orhan Pamuk (2022)

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Garden with rhododendrons

‘I say,’ he began apologetically, ‘you mustn’t mind Aunt Cecelia. It’s only her manner. She’s terrifically pleased to see you.’

‘It must be awful if she isn’t,’ said Ann sincerely.

Rhododendron Pie by Margery Sharp (1930)

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Just a few common words; and yet common things can sometimes be sublime, or, at the very least, delightful.

The Looking-Glass by Machado de Assis (2022)

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She laughed then and rose up, beginning to pace, as though her feet were seeking the boards. ‘You see, now, the beauty of tragedy? It has so many faces. Not all doom and gloom, but nobility, honour and a hundred other qualities. You may laugh at a comedy, but you’ll forget it in time. Tragedy has burrs. It sticks to your heart. You remember what it made you feel, always.’

The Whispering Muse by Laura Purcell (2023)

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He stopped and pulled her round to face him. “You’re talking nonsense, Sara. Wars are not won on soldiers, sailors or airmen, they are won on the temperament of the people. Nobody can beat a people who don’t mean to be beaten.”

The Winter is Past by Noel Streatfeild (1940)

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Ludlow Castle

“You always take for granted what you have until it is gone. And then you realize how much value it truly held in your life.”

Shadows and Strongholds by Elizabeth Chadwick (2004)

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The sky boiled until, with a grace that even now left Shay breathless, the birds became a single entity. What were they? They were the shape of candle smoke or that twist of stars that lights clear nights. They were black silk. Patterns dissolved seamlessly into one another as they took on a form that was older than the earth itself, from an age before men’s straight lines.

The Ghost Theatre by Mat Osman (2023)

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Most of the novels are by female authors – Daphne du Maurier, Angela Carter, Virginia Woolf. In the last month, she has read Rebecca, The Bloody Chamber, Orlando. It’s been a long time since she’s derived such pleasure from it, from the stories spun of other people’s dreams.

Weyward by Emilia Hart (2023)

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He was struck again by the strangeness of people, their mystery, but also their recognisability. He felt he knew these people immediately, which to him suggested a certain homogeneity among humankind. A general familiarity. As if there were only ten different varieties of soul after all.

Old God’s Time by Sebastian Barry (2023)

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Christmas pudding

‘Rather a waste of your time, isn’t it?’

‘If one has an opportunity to observe human nature, time is never wasted,’ said Poirot quietly.

The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding by Agatha Christie (1960)

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‘Oh, the sort that are rather looked down on, I suppose,’ she replied, and laughed – though not, I rather thought, at herself, but at those who might dare to disdain her. ‘Which is to say I write stories about adventurers and forbidden love and the occasional dastardly plot for revenge, and the critics bemoan my lack of moral virtue. But people read them, and I think I should find it rather dull writing long, moralizing works.’

The Secrets of Hartwood Hall by Katie Lumsden (2023)

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She loved, at twilight, when the distant brown-stone spire seemed melting in the fluid yellow of the west, to lose herself in vague memories of a trip to Europe, made years ago, and now reduced in her mind’s eye to a pale phantasmagoria of indistinct steeples and dreamy skies. Perhaps at heart Mrs. Manstey was an artist; at all events she was sensible of many changes of color unnoticed by the average eye, and dear to her as the green of early spring was the black lattice of branches against a cold sulphur sky at the close of a snowy day.

The Reckoning by Edith Wharton (collection published 2015)

~

Favourite books read in December:

The Whispering Muse, The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding and The Winter is Past

Authors read for the first time in December:

Orhan Pamuk, Olesya Salnikova Gilmore, Machado de Assis, Mat Osman, Emilia Hart, Katie Lumsden

Places visited in my December reading:

The fictional island of Mingheria, Russia, Brazil, US, England, Ireland

~

December reading notes: In December, I managed to read Rhododendron Pie for Liz’s Dean Street December and The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding for Read Christie 2022, but otherwise I’ve mainly spent this month trying to get ahead with next year’s NetGalley review copies! Unfortunately that means you’ll have to wait a few months for the reviews, but they are all written and scheduled and I feel as though some pressure has been lifted. I don’t have any specific plans for January, apart from needing to read Wild Strawberries by Angela Thirkell, which was chosen for me in the last Classics Club Spin.

What about you? Have you read any good books in December – and what do you think your first book of 2023 will be?

~

Happy New Year!

My favourite books of 2022

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With only a few days of 2022 remaining, it’s time to look back on my favourite books of the year. Before I started to put this list together, I thought it would be a very short one; although I enjoyed my reading this year, I didn’t feel that I had read many books that really stood out as exceptionally good. However, I’ve ended up struggling to narrow the list down! It was obviously a much better year than I thought it was.

In no particular order, here are my books of 2022:

In a Lonely Place by Dorothy B. Hughes (1947)

This is the third year in a row Dorothy B. Hughes has won a place on my books of the year list! I loved this dark, atmospheric novel as much as I loved The Expendable Man in 2020 and Ride the Pink Horse in 2021.

From my review: “I had high hopes for this novel and it certainly didn’t disappoint! All three of the books I’ve read by Hughes have been so much more than just straightforward crime novels; she takes us right inside the minds of her characters and although they may be damaged, unhappy and not the most pleasant of people, she makes them feel believable and real, if not exactly sympathetic!”

The Romantic by William Boyd (2022)

This is the first book I’ve read by William Boyd and what a great one I picked to start with! It tells the story of Cashel Greville Ross, following him through his life from birth to death as he befriends the Romantic Poets in Italy, searches for the source of the Nile, joins the army in Sri Lanka and uncovers family secrets in Ireland.

From my review: “The Romantic is a long novel, but I read most of it in one weekend because it was so gripping I couldn’t bear to put it down. Although the story never becomes bogged down with historical or geographical detail, it’s still completely immersive and I loved every minute I spent in Cashel’s world.”

That Bonesetter Woman by Frances Quinn (2022)

I loved this novel about a female bonesetter in the 18th century. Our heroine, Durie Proudfoot, is based on the real-life Sally Mapp and is a wonderful character. I never stopped hoping she would find happiness and a way to do the job she loved.

From my review: “This is a fascinating novel, particularly as it’s loosely based on the lives of real people…Poor Durie experiences one setback after another, but her passion for bonesetting and helping those in pain really shines through.”

The Dark by Sharon Bolton (2022)

I don’t read a lot of contemporary crime these days, but I always make an exception for Sharon Bolton. The Dark was the long-awaited fifth book in the Lacey Flint series and I loved it! I also enjoyed Bolton’s other novel published in 2022 – The Buried – but for the purposes of this list I decided to restrict myself to one book per author.

From my review: “She’s back! After an eight year absence – during which time Sharon Bolton has written several excellent standalone crime novels – Lacey Flint has returned in possibly her darkest and most dangerous case yet. It’s the fifth book in the series and after such a long wait, I’m pleased to report that I think it’s as good, maybe even better, than the previous four.”

A Pin to See the Peepshow by F. Tennyson Jesse (1934)

I had wanted to read this book for years and got round to it at last this summer! It’s based on the 1922 Thompson-Bywaters case and is a fascinating novel – not really the crime story I’d expected (not until near the end, anyway), but that didn’t matter at all.

From my review: “I loved this book, although I had expected the crime element to play a bigger part; the section of the novel based on the events of the Thompson-Bywaters case only takes up around 100 pages out of 464. The rest of the book is really a character study of Julia Almond and an exploration of the world in which she lives. Jesse spends a lot of time building this up, but I never felt that a word was wasted – every detail seemed necessary…”

The Wolf Den by Elodie Harper (2021)

Ancient Rome is not usually a favourite setting of mine, but I found this novel about a group of prostitutes working in a Pompeii brothel completely absorbing. I need to hurry up and read the second book before the last in the trilogy is published next year.

From my review: “I loved following Amara around the bustling, vibrant city, going into the shops, taverns and bathhouses, taking part in the Vinalia festivities and watching the gladiators in the amphitheatre…Elodie Harper doesn’t shy away from having bad things happen to her characters, but there’s some warmth and humour in the novel too.”

Booth by Karen Joy Fowler (2022)

I loved this fictional biography of the 19th century theatrical family the Booths, which focuses not just on John Wilkes Booth, but also on his parents, brothers and sisters.

From my review: “I enjoyed learning about a group of historical figures I’d previously known almost nothing about – I particularly liked the parts about the colourful theatrical careers of Edwin and Junius Brutus – and every time I picked the book up I looked forward to finding out what would happen to the family next.”

Silver on the Tree by Susan Cooper (1977)

I loved all five books in Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising sequence and read the final one, Silver on the Tree, early in 2022. I can’t decide which book in the series is my favourite, as they are all so good! This one blends Arthurian legend with Welsh folklore and even some time travel.

From my review: “Although I’m sorry to have come to the end of the series, I enjoyed every minute of it. This particular novel is the perfect finale, bringing together all the characters and storylines from the first four books as we head towards the great, decisive battle between the forces of the Dark and the Light.”

Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes (2022)

I’ve read a few retellings of Greek myths this year, but this is the one I enjoyed most. It’s the story of Medusa, which made a nice change from novels about the Trojan War!

From my review: “Stone Blind is subtitled Medusa’s Story but is actually written from the perspectives of many different characters, all coming together to tell the tale of the Gorgon Medusa and Perseus’ quest to capture her head…I can’t really say anything negative about this book.”

The Winter is Past by Noel Streatfeild (1940)

I read this adult novel by a favourite childhood author of mine in early December with snow falling outside – and I couldn’t have chosen a better time of year to read it!

From my review: “I loved this book; it’s very character-driven but with just enough plot to keep the story moving forward. I always find it fascinating to read books set during the war that were actually written before the war was over – it puts a very different perspective on things, when neither the characters nor the author have any idea how long it will last or how bad things are going to get.”

Death and the Conjuror by Tom Mead (2022)

I loved this detective novel set in the 1930s that felt as though it could really have been written in the 1930s! I’m looking forward to the second book in the series, coming next year.

From my review: “Death and the Conjuror is a homage to the great locked room mysteries of the Golden Age and a clever and entertaining novel in its own right…As with any good mystery novel, there are plenty of suspects, an assortment of clues and lots of red herrings!”

The Twyford Code by Janice Hallett (2022)

A book written almost entirely in the form of transcripts of audio files recorded on an iPhone is the sort of book I would usually hate – but not this time! I enjoyed the story and loved the little puzzles, codes and word games incorporated into the plot.

From my review: “It’s always a nice feeling when you start to read a book and can tell after just a few pages that it’s going to be one of your books of the year…I loved this book and on reaching the end, I wanted to go back to the beginning and read it all again to look for all the clues I’d missed the first time.”

The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff (1954)

Having read several of Rosemary Sutcliff’s adult novels, I finally read the book for which she’s probably most famous. Although this is described as a children’s book, I think it’s one of those novels that can be enjoyed by anyone of any age. It’s also the second book set in the Roman period on my list.

From my review: “I wasn’t sure whether I would love this book the way everyone else seems to have done…Of course, I needn’t have worried; The Eagle of the Ninth is a beautifully written novel with wonderfully vivid and colourful descriptions, a gripping plot inspired by historical fact, a very likeable young hero and even a touch of romance – what’s not to love?”

Blue Water by Leonora Nattrass (2022)

I loved this sequel to last year’s Black Drop. It works as a standalone and is an excellent historical mystery which takes place during a long sea voyage. I often struggle to stay interested in books with a nautical setting, but had no problems with this one!

From my review: “Well, I enjoyed Black Drop but this second book is even better! With almost the entire story taking place at sea and therefore with a limited number of characters, the mystery has a ‘locked room’ feel and kept me guessing until the end.”

4.50 from Paddington by Agatha Christie (1957)

I took part in the Read Christie 2022 challenge this year and read seven Agatha Christie novels. I enjoyed all of them, but this Miss Marple mystery from 1957 was my favourite, I think. Honourable mentions to After the Funeral and The Man in the Brown Suit.

From my review: “I found this a particularly enjoyable Miss Marple novel – probably in my top two or three…We never find out exactly what leads Miss Marple to identify the correct suspect. However, I didn’t have a problem with this. The solution does make sense, even if we don’t know how she arrived at it, and the culprit was actually the person I suspected myself (again, not based on any real evidence – just a hunch!).”

A Lady’s Guide to Fortune-Hunting by Sophie Irwin (2022)

I didn’t expect to enjoy this Regency romance so much; I thought it would be very light and frothy and derivative of other authors. But although it is obviously strongly influenced by Heyer and Austen, I found it witty, entertaining and different enough to be a great read in its own right. I’m looking forward to Sophie Irwin’s second Lady’s Guide coming next year.

From my review: “Although I could predict from early in the novel how it was going to end, that didn’t make it any less fun to read. Sophie Irwin throws just about everything into the story that you would expect to find in a Regency romance: balls, dinner parties, trips to the theatre and the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens, carriage rides, notorious gambling dens, elopements to Gretna Green and encounters with highwaymen.”

The Clockwork Girl by Anna Mazzola (2022)

Inspired by the scandal of ‘The Vanishing Children of Paris’ in 1750 and the technological advances in the creation of clockwork dolls and automata at that time, this is a fascinating novel set just a few decades before the French Revolution.

From my review: “The Clockwork Girl is Anna Mazzola’s third novel and, I think, her best so far. Not only is the cover beautiful, the setting is also wonderfully dark and atmospheric and the story is fascinating…an engaging and unusual novel that I thoroughly enjoyed reading.”

The Rose of Sebastopol by Katharine McMahon (2007)

This book had been waiting on my shelf for years and I finally got round to reading it this August. Set during the Crimean War, it’s the story of a young woman who travels to the battlefields in search of her cousin who set out to join Florence Nightingale and become a nurse.

From my review: “If I had known I was going to enjoy this book so much I would certainly have made time for it before now…I was impressed by the way McMahon has us thinking we know which characters we’re supposed to like or dislike, then turns everything around and makes us think again.”

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And that’s my list for this year! What did you enjoy reading in 2022?

Historical Fiction Reading Challenge: Wrapping up 2022 and signing up for 2023!

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I don’t take part in many year-long reading challenges as I prefer to just join in with shorter reading events these days. However, there is one that I like to participate in every year – and that is the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge, hosted by Marg at The Intrepid Reader. This is not really much of a ‘challenge’ for me, but I still enjoy linking my reviews to the monthly challenge posts, seeing what other participants are reading and discovering new historical fiction novels and bloggers. This year, Marg has also been posting monthly statistics so we can see which books and authors are getting lots of reviews!

Before I post the details of the 2023 challenge, I want to look back at what I achieved in 2022.

I had signed up at the ‘Prehistoric’ level, which meant reading 50+ historical fiction novels during the year. I managed to read 64 (about half of my total number of books read this year) and here they are:

1. The Key in the Lock by Beth Underdown
2. A Terrible Kindness by Jo Browing Wroe
3. The Silver Wolf by JC Harvey
4. I, Mona Lisa by Natasha Solomons
5. The Leviathan by Rosie Andrews
6. The Rebel Daughter by Miranda Malins
7. The Queen’s Lady by Joanna Hickson
8. The House of Footsteps by Mathew West
9. The Clockwork Girl by Anna Mazzola
10. The Reindeer Hunters by Lars Mytting
11. Go Tell the Bees That I am Gone by Diana Gabaldon
12. The Sunken Road by Ciarán McMenamin
13. Booth by Karen Joy Fowler
14. Mrs England by Stacey Halls
15. Traitor in the Ice by KJ Maitland
16. The Stone Rose by Carol McGrath
17. The Toll-Gate by Georgette Heyer
18. The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff
19. Theatre of Marvels by Lianne Dillsworth
20. The Vanished Days by Susanna Kearsley
21. The Fugitive Colours by Nancy Bilyeau
22. The Dance Tree by Kiran Millwood Hargrave
23. A Lady’s Guide to Fortune-Hunting by Sophie Irwin
24. In Place of Fear by Catriona McPherson
25. Winchelsea by Alex Preston
26. Fortune by Amanda Smyth
27. The Second Sight of Zachary Cloudesley by Sean Lusk
28. The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn
29. Privilege by Guinevere Glasfurd
30. The Colour Storm by Damian Dibben
31. Godmersham Park by Gill Hornby
32. The Trial of Lotta Rae by Siobhan MacGowan
33. Joan by Katherine J. Chen
34. Death and the Conjuror by Tom Mead
35. Elizabeth of York: The Last White Rose by Alison Weir
36. That Bonesetter Woman by Frances Quinn
37. The Fortune Men by Nadifa Mohamed
38. The Bewitching by Jill Dawson
39. The Night Ship by Jess Kidd
40. The Magician by Colm Tóibín
41. The Flight Portfolio by Julie Orringer
42. Haven by Emma Donoghue
43. The Blood Flower by Alex Reeve
44. The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel
45. The Wolf Den by Elodie Harper
46. The Rose of Sebastopol by Katharine McMahon
47. Act of Oblivion by Robert Harris
48. Hawker and the King’s Jewel by Ethan Bale
49. All the Broken Places by John Boyne
50. The Bookseller of Inverness by SG MacLean
51. The Hidden Palace by Dinah Jefferies
52. In the Shadow of Queens by Alison Weir
53. The Romantic by William Boyd
54. The Drums of War by Michael Ward
55. Ashes in the Snow by Oriana Ramunno
56. Blue Water by Leonora Nattrass
57. Cup of Gold by John Steinbeck
58. The Winter Garden by Nicola Cornick
59. Blue Postcards by Douglas Bruton
60. The Secret of Matterdale Hall by Marianne Ratcliffe
61. The Ladies of Missalonghi by Colleen McCullough
62. Nights of Plague by Orhan Pamuk
63. The Darlings of the Asylum by Noel O’Reilly
64. Shadows and Strongholds by Elizabeth Chadwick – review to follow

Here are the rules for the 2023 challenge, taken from Marg’s blog:

Everyone can participate! If you don’t have a blog you can post a link to your review if it’s posted on Goodreads, Facebook, or Amazon, or you can add your book title and thoughts in the comment section if you wish.

Any sub-genre of historical fiction is accepted (Historical Romance, Historical Mystery, Historical Fantasy, Young Adult, History/Non-Fiction, etc.)

During the following 12 months you can choose one of the different reading levels:

20th Century Reader – 2 books
Victorian Reader – 5 books
Renaissance Reader – 10 books
Medieval – 15 books
Ancient History – 25 books
Prehistoric – 50+ books

You can sign up for the challenge here. I will be aiming for Prehistoric again in 2023. Let me know if you’re planning to take part too!