Book Review: The beach hut next door - V. Henry

In all honestly I got this book from the library just because I was going to Wells next the sea and I wanted a book cover to photograph with the beach huts!
I have read and enjoyed Veronica Henry's books before, she writes pleasantly and this novel too is a very good escapism, full of secrets, love, happy endings.
Various characters, all linked by the beach hut setting, have their secrets, troubles, hopes in the various chapters of the novel. All very pleasant, some more than others. I really like Eloide's story, from the grandeur of a wealthy family and the happiness of youth to a massive betrayal and her finding her own feet.
Probably a bit too "and they all lived happily ever after" to be credible, but nevertheless a very enjoyable book. And I really want a beach hut now!

Overall rating:  7    Plot: 7,5   Writing style: 7   Cover:  8

Title: The beach hut next door

Author: Veronica Henry
Publisher: Orion 
Pages: 304
Publication year: 2014

The Plot:

Summer appeared from nowhere that year in Everdene...and for those lucky enough to own one of the beach huts, this was the summer of their dreams.For Elodie, returning to Everdene means reawakening the memories of one summer fifty years ago. A summer when everything changed.Vince and his brother are struggling to come to terms with the death of their father - but they have very different ways of coping.And for Jenna, determined to put the past behind her, the opportunity to become 'the ice cream girl' once again might just turn her life around.But this summer is not all sunshine and surf - as secrets unfold, and some lives are changed for ever...

The Author:

From the author's website:
"As an army child, I went to eight different schools, including the Royal School Bath, where I learnt Latin, how to make rock buns and how to take my bra off without getting undressed.  I went on to study Classics at Bristol University, followed by a bi-lingual secretarial course - a surprisingly useful combination.    

I landed a job as Production Secretary on The Archers at Pebble Mill in Birmingham, where it used to take me two and a half hours to type out an Archers script on an Olivetti ET121 typewriter.  Duties ranged from recording the sound of newborn piglets to playing Peaches the barmaid in the Cat and Fiddle.  There was never a dull moment, and The Archers taught me that everyone needs an escape from everyday life.

From there, I became a script editor for Central Television, working on broadcasting legends Crossroads and Boon.  I started a family and became a freelance scriptwriter, writing hundreds of hours of television drama, including Heartbeat and Holby City.  

In 2000 I got my first book deal, and am currently writing my twentieth novel.

I also write lifestyle features for newspapers and magazines, including Woman and Home, Red, The Daily Mail, Woman and The Sunday Times.

I speak regularly at Literary Festivals, libraries, WIs and charity events, talking about my career and the inspiration for my novels."

Book Review: This is how it always is - L. Frankel

“This is how it always is. You have to make these huge decision on behalf of your kid, this tiny human whose fate and future is entirely in your hands. Who trusts you to know what's good and right and then to be able to make that happen. You never have enough information. You don't get to see the future. And if you screw up - if with your incomplete contradictory information you make the wrong call - nothing less than your child's entire future and happiness is at stake. It's impossible. It's heartbreaking. It's maddening. But there's no alternative."

A family of seven, an ER doctor mother, a writer father and five sons. A busy, chaotic life, two loving parents and the littlest of the boy that one day starts wearing dresses and affirms he wants to be a girl when he grows up. 

A very powerful message, a very brave story of acceptance and about loving your dear ones for what they are, but also of finding who you really are when it is not so obvious and you are stuck in the middle.
A very difficult theme to write about, gender dysphoria in a very young child, in a very bigoted America, in a family that is doing a great job, but maybe in doing so is making things to easy to last.
I loved the first part of the book and all the characters, I was less fond of the second part as I found it too focused on the mother than on Poppy/Claude.
Overall, a novel of high impact for the subject more than for the writing style.

"How did you teach your small human that it’s what’s inside that counts when the truth was everyone was pretty preoccupied with what you put on over the outside too?” 

Overall rating:  8,5    Plot: 8,5   Writing style: 8   Cover:  8

Title: This is how it always is

Author: Laurie Frankel
Publisher: Headline Review
Pages: 480
Publication year: 2018

The Plot:

When Rosie and Penn and their four boys welcome the newest member of their family, no one is surprised it’s another baby boy. But at least their large, loving, chaotic family knows what to expect.
But Claude is not like his brothers. One day he puts on a dress and refuses to take it off. He wants to bring a purse to kindergarten. He wants hair long enough to sit on. When he grows up, Claude says, he wants to be a girl.
Rosie and Penn aren’t panicked at first. Kids go through phases, after all, and make-believe is fun. But soon the entire family is keeping Claude’s secret. Until one day it explodes. 

The Author:
Laurie Frankel is the New York Timesbestselling, award-winning author of three novels. Her writing has also appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, Publisher’s Weekly, People Magazine, Lit Hub, The Sydney Morning Herald, and other publications. She is the recipient of the Washington State Book Award. Her novels have been translated into more than twenty-five languages, and all three have been optioned for film or TV. A former college professor, she now writes full-time. She was recently named one of the 50 Most Influential Women in Seattle where she lives with her family and makes good soup.

Book Review: They do it with mirrors - A. Christie

“We’re all mad, dear lady,” he said as he ushered her in through the door. “That’s the secret of existence. We’re all a little mad.” 

I still have not read a book written by Agatha that has disappointed me.
Her insight of human nature and relationships, her ability to picture murders and other secrets in enclosed spaces are so great, she never lets you down as a reader.
They do it with mirrors is one of Miss Marple's cases, this sweet looking old lady with an eagle eye for crimes and details. I'd have never guessed who did it, to be honest; so many possibilities, so much going on for each character, they could all have done it.
I always know that when I need a novel to engross me and ensure me entertainment, Agatha is a safe bet!

Overall rating:  7,5    Plot: 7,5   Writing style: 8   Cover:  6

Title: They do it with mirrors

Author: Agatha Christie
Publisher: The Agatha Christie collection - Planet Tree
Pages: 192
Publication year: 2002 (First published (1952)

The Plot:

A man is shot at in a juvenile reform home – but someone else dies… Miss Marple senses danger when she visits a friend living in a Victorian mansion which doubles as a rehabilitiation centre for delinquents. Her fears are confirmed when a youth fires a revolver at the administrator, Lewis Serrocold. Neither is injured. But a mysterious visitor, Mr Gilbrandsen, is less fortunate – shot dead simultaneously in another part of the building. Pure coincidence? Miss Marple thinks not, and vows to discover the real reason for Mr Gilbrandsen’s visit.

The Author:

Agatha Christie was born in Torquay in 1890 and became, quite simply, the best-selling novelist in history. Her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, written towards the end of the First World War, introduced us to Hercule Poirot, who was to become the most popular detective in crime fiction since Sherlock Holmes. She is known throughout the world as the Queen of Crime. Her books have sold over a billion copies in the English language and another billion in over 100 foreign languages. She is the author of 80 crime novels and short story collections, 19 plays, and six novels under the name of Mary Westmacott.

Book Review: Educated - T. Westover

“You can love someone and still choose to say goodbye to them,” she says now. “You can miss a person every day, and still be glad that they are no longer in your life.” 

If this was fiction, I would have said a very interesting and compelling novel. But this is real life, this is an autobiography and consequently for me it is quite shocking and very dramatic.
Religion doesn't really matter in the book, what matters is a bipolar father that has never seen a doctor and his personality is so strong and his wife so subdued to him that he ruins his life and the ones of his entire family. No doctors, no school, everything needs to remain in the family.
A serie of psychological abuses from a father to his family and afterwards from a brother to his siblings. People too scared of being banned from the family to face them and confront them.
And of the three of them that find the courage to fly the nest and go and study, in reality it is just Tara who breaks her mind from the poisoned relationship.
Brave, brave, brave. A survivor, but a strong one, who went on to build a great life for herself after years of abuse.
Unbelievable that in this modern age this is still the reality in some places. I really wonder how many Taras there are out there. It is sad.
A must read, and a loud well done to Tara for reinventing herself.

“The decisions I made after that moment were not the ones she would have made. They were the choices of a changed person, a new self. 

You could call this selfhood many things. Transformation. Metamorphosis. Falsity. Betrayal. 

I call it an education” 

Overall rating:  8,5    Plot: 8,5   Writing style: 8   Cover:  6

Title: Educated

Author: Tara Westover
Publisher: Windmill Books 
Pages: 400
Publication year: 2018

The Plot:

Tara Westover and her family grew up preparing for the End of Days but, according to the government, she didn’t exist. She hadn’t been registered for a birth certificate. She had no school records because she’d never set foot in a classroom, and no medical records because her father didn’t believe in hospitals. 
As she grew older, her father became more radical and her brother more violent. At sixteen, Tara knew she had to leave home. In doing so she discovered both the transformative power of education, and the price she had to pay for it.

The Author:
Tara Westover was born in rural Idaho. She studied history at Brigham Young University and upon graduation was awarded a Gates Cambridge Scholarship. She received an MPhil in intellectual history from Trinity College, Cambridge in 2009, and a PhD in the same subject in 2014.

Book Review: No and me - D. de Vigan

“All my life I've felt on the outside wherever I am - out of the picture, the conversation, at a distance, as though I were the only one able to hear the sounds or words that other's can't, and deaf to the words that they hear. As if I'm outside the frame, on the other side of a huge, invisible window.” 

A really touching and profound novel about two girls, one homeless and one very clever and lonely.
Two very different realities but one commonality: the companionship, the "being in it together" that both girls are looking for.
Lou tries very hard to "save" No, to give her a home, a family, a sense of "normality", but it cannot last forever, No has been burnt too many times to survive this kind of "normality" and before it ruines her, she ruins it and escape.
Highly recommend it, a novel that touches your heart.

Overall rating:  8,5    Plot: 8,5   Writing style: 8   Cover:  8

Title: No and me (original title No et moi)

Author: Delphine de Vigan
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Pages: 256
Publication year: 2007

The Plot:

Lou Bertignac has an IQ of 160 and a good friend in class rebel Lucas. At home her father puts a brave face on things but cries in secret in the bathroom, while her mother rarely speaks and hardly ever leaves the house. To escape this desolate world, Lou goes often to Gare d'Austerlitz to see the big emotions in the smiles and tears of arrival and departure. But there she also sees the homeless, meets a girl called No, only a few years older than herself, and decides to make homelessness the topic of her class presentation. Bit by bit, Lou and No become friends until, the project over, No disappears. Heartbroken, Lou asks her parents the unaskable question and her parents say: Yes, No can come to live with them. So Lou goes down into the underworld of Paris's street people to bring her friend up to the light of a home and family life, she thinks.

The Author:
Delphine de Vigan is an award-winning French novelist. She has published several novels for adults. Her breakthrough work was the book No et moi (No and Me) that was awarded the Prix des Libraires (The Booksellers' Prize) in France in 2008. 
In 2011, she published a novel Rien ne s'oppose a la nuit (Nothing holds back the night) that is dealing with a family coping with their mother's bipolar disorder. In her native France, the novel brought her a set of awards, including the prix du roman Fnac (the prize given by the Fnac bookstores) and the prix Renaudot des lycéens. 

Book Review: Only child -R. Navin

"I waited for my feelings pages to dry, and then I went and got tape from the kitchen and hung them up on the wall inside my hideout.  That was a good spot for them. I could lie down on Andy's sleeping bag and look at the feelings. Now they were separated and that made it easier to think about them."

I cried, very difficult not to with this novel. That fiction is but could very well be not, as so dramatically close to real life.
A parent's worst nightmare, to lose a child, especially in a brutal and violent way. I cannot even think about the pain of it. And this novel really describes the grief of a middle class American family, mother, father, two boys, with a "normal" life and "normal" problems, shattered by a mass murder in the school. The members of the family are each enveloped in their own grief and pain and the family starts disintegrating.
The story is told by Zach, the 6 years old brother, who is lucky enough to escape death in the school, but who loses a brother and the parents he knew until then. Maybe too wise for his age, the narration of how the family dynamics are facing this tragedy is so realistic, so well put, it really seems to be suffering with this little boy.
A book full of pain and grief, but also a novel full of hope for the future.
Heartbreaking, a must read.

Overall rating:  9    Plot: 9   Writing style: 8    Cover:  7,5

Title: Only child

Author: Rhiannon Navin

Publisher: Mantle

Pages: 304
Publication year: 2018

The Plot:

We all went to school that Tuesday like normal. Not all of us came home.
When the unthinkable happens, six-year-old Zach is at school. Huddled in a cloakroom with his classmates and teacher, he is too young to understand that life will never be the same again.

Afterwards, the once close-knit community is left reeling. Zach's dad retreats. His mum sets out to seek revenge. Zach, scared, lost and confused, disappears into his super-secret hideout to try to make sense of things. Nothing feels right – until he listens to his heart . . .

But can he remind the grown-ups how to love again?

The Author:

Rhiannon Navin grew up in Bremen, Germany, in a family of book-crazy women. Her career in advertising brought her to New York City, where she worked for several large agencies before becoming a full-time mother and writer. She now lives outside of New York City with her husband, three children, two cats, and one dog. Only Child is her first novel.

Book Review: Fate il vostro gioco - A. Manzini

"Le stelle non hanno nomi. Sono loro che li hanno dati a noi. Vuoi sapere il tuo?".

"E dimmelo".

"Eristalis..." la guardo e non sta scherzando.

"Che cos'e'?".

"Aprilo un libro ogni tanto. C'e' qualcuno per te!".

Rocco e' sempre Rocco, e stavo aspettando con ansia il suo ritorno, dopo aver divorato tutti i gialli precedenti ed aver amato in particolare gli ultimi due, 7-7-2007 e Pulvis et umbra.
Devo dire che anche quest'ultimo libro non mi ha delusa, un giallo interessante, scene che portano un sorriso sulle labbra, i soliti personaggi strambi della questura, Rocco con le sue Clarks nella neve.
Eppure, qualcosa mi manca in questo romanzo, Rocco, pur presentando in un paio di casi il suo lato piu' "umano", con Gabriele e con Italo, in generale e' abbattuto, cinico al massimo, meno "romano" e reticente a mostrare che sta soffrendo.
Italo, che gia' non mi piaceva tanto prima, troppo "molliccio" per i miei gusti, in questo libro proprio fa la figura del tordo.Second me manca proprio una spalla a Rocco, che forse prima era piu' Caterina che Italo. Antonio sta venendo fuori meglio invece.
Il finale, come gia' capitato prima, e' aperto, aspetta una conclusione con il prossimo volume, che spero arrivi presto! E spero che Rocco torni meno "duro" e mostri di nuovo quella vulnerabilita', che accoppiata con i suoi lati da "bad boy" me lo fanno amare cosi' tanto.

Overall rating:  7,5    Plot: 7,5   Writing style: 8   Cover:  7,5

Title: Fate il vostro gioco

Author: Antonio Manzini
Publisher: Sellerio
Pages: 400
Publication year: 2018

The Plot:

Due coltellate hanno spento la vita di Romano Favre, un pensionato del casinò di Saint-Vincent, dove lavorava da «ispettore di gioco». Il cadavere è stato ritrovato nella sua abitazione dai pochi vicini di casa dell’elegante palazzina, e serra in mano una fiche, però di un altro casinò. Rocco Schiavone capisce subito che si tratta «di un morto che parla» e cerca di decifrare il suo messaggio. Si inoltra nel mondo della ludopatia, interroga disperati strozzati dai debiti, affaristi e lucratori del vizio, amici e colleghi di quel vedovo mite e ordinato. Individua un traffico che potrebbe spiegare tutto; mentre l’ombra del sospetto sfiora la sua casa e i suoi affetti. Ed è ricostruendo con la sua professionalità la tecnica dell’omicidio, la scena del delitto, che alla fine può incastrare l’autore. Ma il morto è riuscito a farsi capire? Forse non basta scavare nel passato: «Favre ha perso la vita per un fatto che deve ancora accadere».

The Author:
Antonio Manzini, scrittore e sceneggiatore, ha pubblicato i romanzi Sangue marcio e La giostra dei criceti, quest'ultimo pubblicato da Sellerio nel 2017. La serie con Rocco Schiavone è iniziata con il romanzo Pista nera (Sellerio, 2013) cui sono seguiti La costola di Adamo (2014), Non è stagione(2015), Era di maggio (2015), Cinque indagini romane per Rocco Schiavone (2016), 7-7-2007 (2016), Pulvis et umbra (2017), L'anello mancante. Cinque indagini di Rocco Schiavone (2018) e Fate il vostro gioco (2018). Nel 2015 ha pubblicato Sull’orlo del precipizio in altra collana di questa casa editrice.

Book Review: Il ladro gentiluomo - A. Gazzola

"In Papua Nuova Guinea esiste una parola precisaper descrivere questo stato d'animo: awumbuk. E' la sensazione di vuoto che si prova quando gli affetti ripartono dopo aver fatto visita e d'un tratto la casa sembra deserta. Per assorbire l'energia negativa, questa saggia gente mette una bacinella d'acqua sul tavolo e l'indomani la butta via, l'acqua insieme all'emozione. Ma per me non c'e' acqua che basti."

Povera Alice, anche in questa avventura si ritrova nei pasticci. Ma, soprattutto, lontana da Roma, dalla famiglia, dagli amici e da CC, Alice in questo libro e' un po' piu' triste del solito, comunque mantenendo quella personalita' curiosa, svampita, frizzante e dolce che la caratterizza.
Il giallo e', come sempre nei romanzi della Gazzola, intricato e per nulla prevedibile. Ma cio' che mi piace maggiormente nei libri di Alice e' proprio lei, cosi' lontana dalla mia personalita' e vita, eppure cosi' vicina, sembra di conoscerla e manca quando non la si legge piu'.
Nel frattempo sto anche seguendo la seconda serie della riproduzione TV, che mi piace molto, trovo i personaggi di Alice e CC davvero ben rappresentati, amo lo scenario romano.
Purtroppo nei ringraziamenti la Gazzola accenna ad una pausa dalla sua Alice, che spero non si prolunghera' troppo, ma sono curiosa di leggere cos'altro la scrittrice produrra' - magari ambientato nella "mia passata" e "sua attuale" Verona?!?

Overall rating:  7,5    Plot: 7,5   Writing style: 7    Cover:  7,5

Title: Il ladro gentiluomo

Author: Alessia Gazzola
Publisher: Longanesi
Pages: 304
Publication year: 2018

The Plot:

Alice Allevi, finalmente Specialista in Medicina Legale, ha dovuto affrontare scelte difficili sia sul piano professionale che su quello sentimentale. Dopo un lungo e burrascoso corteggiamento, sembrava che tra lei e Claudio Conforti, l’affascinante e imprevedibile medico legale con il quale ha condiviso ogni disavventura dai tempi della specializzazione, fosse nato qualcosa. Per un attimo, Alice ha creduto finalmente di aver raggiunto un periodo di serenità, almeno al di fuori dell’Istituto di Medicina Legale. Ma in un momento di smarrimento sentimentale chiede un trasferimento. E lo ottiene: a Domodossola.
Per sua fortuna, o suo malgrado, Alice non avrà molto tempo per indugiare sul proprio destino, perché subito un nuovo caso la travolge. Durante quella che credeva essere un’autopsia di routine, Alice ritrova un diamante nello stomaco del cadavere. Una pietra di notevole caratura e valore, ma anche una prova materiale importante per il caso. Per questo, Alice si premura di convocare un ufficiale giudiziario a cui consegnarlo in custodia. L’ufficiale che si presenta da lei è un uomo distinto ed elegante, dai modi cortesi ed impeccabili, e Alice non esita ad affidargli il diamante. Ed è a quel punto che il fantomatico ufficiale sparisce nel nulla e i guai per Alice iniziano a farsi enormi…

The Author:
Alessia Gazzola (Messina, 1982) è laureata in Medicina e Chirurgia ed è specialista in Medicina Legale. Ha esordito nella narrativa con L’allieva nel 2011, cui sono seguiti Un segreto non è per sempre (2012), Sindrome da cuore in sospeso (2012), Le ossa della principessa(2014), Una lunga estate crudele (2015), Non è la fine del mondo (2016), Un po’ di follia in primavera (2016) e Arabesque (2017). Dai romanzi della serie L’allieva, tradotti in numerose lingue, è tratta la serie tv di successo in onda su RaiUno con Alessandra Mastronardi nei panni di Alice Allevi e Lino Guanciale nel ruolo di Claudio Conforti. Collabora con i supplementi culturali di La Stampa e del Corriere della sera. Vive a Verona con il marito e le due figlie.

Book Review: Wish you were here - C. Alliott

Quite a pleasant reading, smooth, relaxing, nothing too complicated or heavy. Idillic setting in Provence, family secrets and relationships, maybe a bit too much throw in the same pot and some parts very difficult to believe, but overall an enjoyable chick lit.

Overall rating:  6    Plot: 6   Writing style: 6    Cover:  7,5

Title: Wish you were here

Author: Catherine Alliott

Publisher: Penguin

Pages: 432

Publication year: 2015

The Plot:

When Flora, James and their two teenage daughters are offered the holiday of a lifetime in a chateau in the South of France in return for one simple good deed, they jump at the chance to escape the confines of Clapham, the weight of the mortgage and anxieties over their future for a blissful break.But Flora didn't anticipate a mysterious guest and a whole heap of family baggage coming along too. And with James developing a schoolboy crush on a famous singer and Flora distracted by ghosts from her past, their dream holiday suddenly takes some very unexpected turns . . .

The Author:

Catherine has written fifteen bestselling novels and is translated into eighteen languages. She has sold over 3 million books worldwide.

The first of these novels Catherine started under the desk when she worked as an advertising copywriter. She was duly fired. With time on her hands, she persevered with the novels, which happily flourished.

In the early days she produced a baby with each book - but after three - stuck to the writing as it was less painful. 

She writes with her favorite pen in note books, either in the garden or on a sofa.

Home is a rural spot on the Hertfordshire border, which she shares with her family and a menagerie of horses, cows, chickens, and dogs, which at the last count totaled eighty-seven beating hearts, including her husband. Some of her household have walk-on parts in her novels, but only the chickens would probably recognize themselves. 

October 2018 Wrap up

Vox - C. Dalcher
Very thought provoking, quite scary as a not impossible future; second part not quite so good.
Rating:  7,5 out of 10

Home fire - K. Shamsie
The theme is very interesting, execution didn't blow me away though.
Rating:  6 out of 10

The clockmaker's daughter - K. Morton
Unfortunately a disappointment, too slow, too ghostly for me, who normally loves K Morton!
Rating:  5 out of 10

Quello che rimane - P. Fox
Non fa per me, discorsi spezzati, mi manca il pathos.
Rating:  4 out of 10

In a house of lies - I. Rankin
Rebus never disappoints! Another great Scottish crime story. Rating: 7,5 out of 10

Wish you were here - C. Alliott
Pleasant enough chick lit, a bit too much thrown in maybe.
Rating:  6 out of 10

Anatomy of a scandal - S. Vaughan
Abandoned - too slow pace, very uninteresting.
Rating:  Abandoned

Il ladro gentiluomo - A. Gazzola
Un altro piacevolissimo giallo con Alice. Un po' piu' triste dei precedenti, ma sempre con quell'aria di tenera goffaggine che la contaddistingue. 
Rating:  7,5 out of 10


Fate il vostro gioco - A. Manzini
Rocco rimane sempre Rocco, anche se questo romanzo mi e' piacituo meno rispetto ai due precedenti.
Rating:  7,5 out of 10