Alison

📚What’s On Your Bookshelf – April 2024 📚

It’s been quite a while since I posted any reviews of books that I’ve read this year. So I have a very diverse selection for this month. The feature photo is my bookclub hosted by me in my garden. I haven’t reviewed this book The Wakes – Dianne Yarwood, because it was barely 3/5 for me.

“There is no friend as loyal as a book.”― Ernest Hemingway

Historical Novels

The Weather Woman – Sally Gardner

The Weather Woman – Sally Gardner – Neva Friezland is born into a world of trickery and illusion, where fortunes can be won and lost on the turn of a card.  Abandoned by her parents at a very young age, she is adopted by a clockmaker and brought up by him and his housekeeper. She is also born with an extraordinary gift. She can predict the weather. Neva wants to use this gift for the good of the people but who would believe her and a woman at that.
I loved this book from start to finish, Sally Gardner is such a talented author and I hope to read more from her. 5/5

The Secrets of Blythswood Square – Sara Sheridan. Set in Glasgow, 1846. Charlotte Nicholl discovers that the fortune she has been bequeathed by her father, is tied up in a secret collection of erotic art. Mortified by this secret when she meets Ellory McHale, a talented working-class photographer newly arrived in Glasgow to set up a photographic studio, she realises she can trust her with this secret. They form a friendship and devise a way of disposing of the art and also keeping Charlotte’s good name.
This book has some interesting facts dotted around in the story. Women were meant to be seen and not heard and marry at the earliest opportunity. To forge a career such as Ellory is trying to do is most frowned upon.
I always enjoy Sara Sheridan’s books and this was no excpetion. 5/5

Mercury Pictures Presents – Anthony Marra. Like many before her, Maria Lagana has come to Hollywood to outrun her past. Born in Rome, where every Sunday her father took her to the cinema instead of church, Maria immigrates with her mother to Los Angeles after a childhood transgression leads to her father’s arrest.
She eventually ends up as a producer in a film studio in Los Angeles. This story is just remarkable and it is not only Maria’s story but all the characters she meets during her life.

Anthony Marra is such a talented writer and although it took me a while to read this I learnt so much about the emigres during WWII in the US. He writes about each character with such depth that you feel you are actually with them. I’m not sure how he comes up with such fantastic metaphors but they make such perfect sense. 4/5

“Think before you speak, Read before you think”
Fran Lebowitz

Contemporary Fiction

My Name is Maame – Jessica George. This is the story of Maddie Wright, a young Ghanaian woman who has the world on her shoulders. She is a carer for her Dad as her mum flits back and forth to Ghana to run a hostel. There is a brother who rarely checks in. This is a coming of age story and I was routing for Maddie at every turn as she finally begins to live her life. An easy fun read. 4/5

Ghost Girl, Banana – Wiz Wharton. Set between London 1966 and Hong Kong 1997, it is the story of Sook-Yin being sent to London in 1966 to train as a nurse and of her daughter Lily who returns to Hong Kong in 1997 to find out the mystery of her mother’s death. Lily is notified in 1997 that she has inherited a large sum of money but she must go to Hong Kong to learn about her early life. A page turner from start to finish as we learn the background story of what happened to Sook-Yin. 4/5

This is a monthly challenge hosted by Deb, Jo, Donna and Sue.

24 comments

    • You need to get into a good book Suzanne, I think you would love this book set in London during the big freezes over the Thames. It seems like a fantasy novel but it’s not at all.

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  7. I’ve just seen my library has a few Sara Sheridan books (a new to me author) so I’ve popped her name on my ‘list’ – looks like her hisfic works will keep me happy for quite a while.
    Cathy #WOYBS

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  8. I really like the sounds of a few of these 5 star books Ali, particularly The Weather Woman, there are a few authors you mention that I’ve not heard of before so I’ll be looking for them now. Thanks for your great reviews and for joining us for #WOYBS

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