Book Review: The forever house - V. Henry

Loved it! Such a warm, cozy, nice, engaging story, set in an idyllic mansion in the Cotswold.
It is a family saga, mainly, split in two generations: one related to the famous writer Maggie and her broad, made of craziness, extravagant parties but also a lot of problems and secrets, and Sally's family in the present day, facing the horrible reality of having to sell their beloved home.
A really enjoyable treat, this novel, one that brings a smile to your face.

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

Title: The forever house

Author: Veronica Henry
Publisher: Orion
Pages: 363
Publication year: 2017

The Plot:

Hunter's Moon is the ultimate 'forever' house. Nestled by a river in the Peasebrook valley, it has been the Willoughbys' home for over fifty years, and now estate agent Belinda Baxter is determined to find the perfect family to live there. But the sale of the house unlocks decades of family secrets - and brings Belinda face to face with her own troubled past. . .

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: The wonder - E. Donoghue

A very powerful novel about extremism, about ignorance and poverty and religion and guilt. A poor young girl in the middle of the blindness of her community, the greed and ignorance of her family, the guilt about a fact she is not culpable for.
But also a book about passion for one's work, in this case nursing others, and carrying on against all odds in order to fight for what one believes in. A great character in Lib the Nightingale nurse.

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

Title: The wonder

Author: Emma Donoghue
Publisher: Picador
Pages: 368
Publication year: 2017

The Plot:

The Irish Midlands, 1859. An English nurse, Lib Wright, is summoned to a tiny village to observe what some are claiming as a medical anomaly or a miracle - a girl said to have survived without food for months. Tourists have flocked to the cabin of eleven-year-old Anna O'Donnell, and a journalist has come down to cover the sensation. The Wonder is a tale of two strangers who transform each other's lives, a psychological thriller, and a story of love pitted against evil.

The Author:

Born in Dublin, Ireland, in October 1969, I am the youngest of eight children of Frances and Denis Donoghue (the literary critic). I attended Catholic convent schools in Dublin, apart from one eye-opening year in New York at the age of ten. In 1990 I earned a first-class honours BA in English and French from University College Dublin (unfortunately, without learning to actually speak French). I moved to England, and in 1997 received my PhD (on the concept of friendship between men and women in eighteenth-century English fiction) from the University of Cambridge. From the age of 23, I have earned my living as a writer, and have been lucky enough to never have an ‘honest job’ since I was sacked after a single summer month as a chambermaid. After years of commuting between England, Ireland, and Canada, in 1998 I settled in London, Ontario, where I live with Chris Roulston and our son Finn (12) and daughter Una (9).

Book Review: The Murder at the Vicarage - A. Christie

In this novel first make her appearance Miss Marple, an old lady who lives near the vicarage and whose knows a lot about all the people of the little village and has very fine observation skills.

Every time I read a novel by Agatha Christie I am amazed at how brilliant her mind was in plotting crimes and in making every day to day situations into a possible motive, always keeping an underlining sense of humour.

I just love her!

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

Title: The Murder at the vicarage

Author: Agatha Christie
Publisher: Plant Three publishing
Pages: 
Publication year: 1930

Plot:

Miss Marple is led on her first case to a crime scene at the local vicarage. Colonel Protheroe, the magistrate whom everyone in town hates, has been shot through the head. No one heard the shot. There are no leads. Yet, everyone surrounding the vicarage seems to have a reason to want the Colonel dead. It is a race against the clock as Miss Marple sets out on the twisted trail of the mysterious killer without so much as a bit of help from the local police.

The Author:

Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, DBE was an English writer. She is known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around her fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. Born in Torquay in 1890, she died in 1976.

Christie was born into a wealthy upper-middle-class family in Torquay, Devon. Before marrying and starting a family in London, she had served in a Devon hospital during the First World War, tending to troops coming back from the trenches. She was initially an unsuccessful writer with six rejections, but this changed when The Mysterious Affair at Styles, featuring Hercule Poirot, was published in 1920. During the Second World War she worked as a pharmacy assistant at University College Hospital, London, during the Blitz and acquired a good knowledge of poisons which featured in many of her subsequent novels.

Book Review: Riunione di classe - R. Jaffe

Un libro davvero piacevole, la storia di quattro ragazze le cui vite si incrociano all'universita' negli anni 50 per ritrovarsi vent'anni dopo alla riunione di classe.

Un ritratto degli anni '50, '60 e '70, dal punto di vista femminile davvero interessante; quattro personaggi molto diversi eppure accomunati da intelligenza, ricchezza ed un'educazione per cui trovare marito all'universita' era lo scopo principale, mentre la laurea veniva vista come completamenteo culturale piu' che come strumento da usare in una professione.

Scritto molto bene, ti avvolge come una coperta e ti catapulta nel mondo di Radcliffe e Harvard negli anni 50 e poi NY e Parigi nelle due decadi successive. 

Un mondo di tabu' e segreti quello ritratto, in cui l'essere gay o l'avere una malattia come l'epilessia, devono rimanere nascosti.

Davvero consigliato! (anche se Il meglio della vita della stessa autrice rimarra' per sempre uno dei miei libri preferiti)

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

Title: Riunione di classe

Author: Rona Jaffe
Publisher: Neri Pozza
Pages: 480
Publication year: 2018 (first published 1979)

The plot:
È una radiosa giornata di giugno del 1977 e la cittadina di Cambridge è gremita da una folla di ex allieve giunte sul posto per l’annuale raduno del Radcliffe college.
Annabel Jones si guarda attorno frastornata. Vent’anni prima frequentava il Radcliffe e tutti dicevano che era il ritratto di Suzy Parker, con i capelli color oro ramato lunghi fino alle spalle e gli occhi verdi, innocenti e divertiti. Era felice allora, e si aspettava che la vita le venisse incontro piena di sorprese, invece non è andata affatto così.
Christine Spark English, Chris, è arrivata fin lì in treno: un viaggio sentimentale sulle tracce di quella ragazza acqua e sapone che vent’anni addietro, tra le mura del Radcliffe, aveva scoperto il mistero e l’innamoramento.
Emily Applebaum Buchman fissa il proprio volto nello specchietto del portacipria. Era
una ragazza minuta e delicata, con i capelli neri, i grandi occhi grigi e la carnagione di porcellana. Ora è una donna che ancora non ha dimenticato che cosa significava essere ebrea negli anni Cinquanta.
Daphne Leeds, lunghi capelli lisci e biondi e grandi occhi a mandorla azzurri, si  accende una sigaretta e scruta la folla alla ricerca di volti noti. Vent’anni prima era arrivata al college con il suo segreto e con quello era poi ripartita, ma adesso è tornata per liberarsene una volta per tutte.
Negli anni Cinquanta, un’epoca in cui tutti desideravano essere perfetti e la vita era una lotteria in cui non c’era spazio per gli insuccessi, Annabel, Chris, Emily e Daphne sono state amiche inseparabili. Ritrovarsi, dopo vent’anni, darà modo a ciascuna di loro di fare i conti con il presente e di misurarsi finalmente con ciò che hanno taciuto in passato.

The Author:
Rona Jaffe ha scritto numerosi libri di successo, quali Class Reunion, Family Secrets, The Last Chance, Mr. Right Is Dead. Il meglio della vita è l’opera che le ha dato la fama, con milioni di copie vendute e una fortunata trasposizione cinematografica con Joan Crawford, Suzy Parker e Hope Lange.

Book Review: Look for me - L. Gardner

This is what I call an engrossing, perfect for summer novel! Loved it!
Book 9 of detective D.D. Warren aerie.
The plot is thick, twisted and capture you page after page. A really sad story of a family torn apart, reunited and destroyed again.
I read a couple of thrillers from Lisa Gardner before, which I really enjoyed, but I must say this is the best one I have read of hers so far.
Tension all through the plot. Definitely a great summer read!

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

Title: Look for me

Author: Lisa Gardner
Publisher: Arrow
Pages: 416
Publication year: 2018

The Plot:

Detective DD Warren and Flora Dane are in a race against time to save a young girl's life – or bring her to justice. 
A family home has become a crime scene. Four are dead, savagely murdered. One – a sixteen-year-old girl – is missing. 
Did she have a lucky escape? Or is her absence evidence of something sinister?
Detective D. D. Warren is on the case, as is survivor-turned-avenger Flora Dane. 
Seeking different types of justice, they must make sense of the clues left behind by a young woman who could be victim or suspect. All they know is that the girl is silently pleading: Look for me...

The Author:

Lisa Gardner, a #1 New York Times bestselling thriller novelist, began her career in food service, but after catching her hair on fire numerous times, she took the hint and focused on writing instead. A self-described research junkie, she turned her interest in police procedure and criminal minds into a streak of internationally acclaimed suspense novels, including her most recent release, Look For Me.With over 22 million books in print, Lisa is published in 30 countries. She’s also had four novels become TV movies (At the Midnight Hour; The Perfect Husband; The Survivors Club; Hide) and has made personal appearances on TruTV and CNN. Lisa lives in New Hampshire where she spends her time with an assortment of canine companions.  When not writing, she loves to hike, garden, snowshoe and play cribbage.

Book Review: Lullaby - L. Slimani

“Louise is a soldier. She keeps going, come what may, like a mule, like a dog with its legs broken by cruel children.” 

Scary to think that this can happen, actually that it has happened in some cases, in real life.
The nanny is perfect, she is hardworking, caring, efficient, the kids love her. So she becomes more and more part of the family life, she goes on holiday with them, she stays longer and longer, she sleeps on the sofa. But inside the nanny is lonely, poor, she has been mistreated by her husband for years, her daughter left, she doesn't have enough money, she doesn't have a real life.
A novel that talks about the struggles of modern parents to balance between family and work, the guilt of mothers, the trusting a stranger to be with your kids.
And one day she just kills the two little people she has so lovely cared for up until the day before...
A tragic, scary, sad story, absolutely captivating. I'd recommend it! It's not a thriller, or a crime book, is the story of the personality of the nanny that has become an assassin.

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

Title: Lullaby

Author: Leila Slimani
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Pages: 224
Publication year: 2018

The Plot:

When Myriam decides to return to work as a lawyer after having children, she and her husband look for the perfect nanny for their son and daughter. They never dreamed they would find Louise: a quiet, polite, devoted woman who sings to the children, cleans the family's chic Paris apartment, stays late without complaint, and hosts enviable kiddie parties. But as the couple and the nanny become more dependent on one another, jealousy, resentment, and suspicions mount, shattering the idyllic tableau. 

The Author:

Leïla Slimani is a French writer and journalist of Moroccan ancestry. In 2016 she was awarded the Prix Goncourt for her novel Chanson douce.
Slimani was born in Rabat, Morocco and studied later political science and media studies in Paris. After that she temporarily considered a career as an actress and began to work as a journalist for the magazine Jeune Afrique. In 2014 she published her first novel Dans le jardin de l’ogre, which two years later was followed by the psychological thriller Chanson douce. The latter quickly turned into a bestseller with over 450,000 copies printed within a year even before the book was awarded the Prix Goncourt

Book Review: L'uomo del labirinto - D. Carrisi

"La natura umana era capace di genio e bellezza, ma anche di generare abissi oscuri e nauseabondi"

Un thriller psicologico di quelli che non ti dimentichi in fretta, che ti tiene incollato alle pagine ed alla cui fine pensi "Oh cavolo!".
Ho letto tutti i libri di Carrisi, sempre con piacere, ma devo dire che questo batte tutti per la complessita' psicologica.
Davvero da leggere!

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

Title: L'uomo del labiritno

Author: Donato Carrisi
Publisher: Longanesi
Pages: 400

Publication year: 2017

The Plot:

L'ondata di caldo anomala travolge ogni cosa, costringendo tutti a invertire i ritmi di vita: soltanto durante le ore di buio è possibile lavorare, muoversi, sopravvivere. Ed è proprio nel cuore della notte che Samantha riemerge dalle tenebre che l'avevano inghiottita. Tredicenne rapita e a lungo tenuta prigioniera, Sam ora è improvvisamente libera e, traumatizzata e ferita, è ricoverata in una stanza d'ospedale. Accanto a lei, il dottor Green, un profiler fuori dal comune. Green infatti non va a caccia di mostri nel mondo esterno, bensì nella mente delle vittime. Perché è dentro i ricordi di Sam che si celano gli indizi in grado di condurre alla cattura del suo carceriere: l'Uomo del Labirinto. Ma il dottor Green non è l'unico a inseguire il mostro. Là fuori c'è anche Bruno Genko, un investigatore privato con un insospettabile talento. Quello di Samantha potrebbe essere l'ultimo caso di cui Bruno si occupa, perché non gli resta molto da vivere. Anzi: il suo tempo è già scaduto, e ogni giorno che passa Bruno si domanda quale sia il senso di quella sua vita regalata, o forse soltanto presa a prestito. Ma uno scopo c'è: risolvere un ultimo mistero. La scomparsa di Samantha Andretti è un suo vecchio caso, un incarico che Bruno non ha mai portato a termine... E questa è l'occasione di rimediare. Nonostante sia trascorso tanto tempo. Perché quello che Samantha non sa è che il suo rapimento non è avvenuto pochi mesi prima, come lei crede. L'Uomo del Labirinto l'ha tenuta prigioniera per quindici lunghi anni. E ora è scomparso.

The Author:

Donato Carrisi, classe ’73, torna in libreria con un nuovo thriller psicologico, genere per cui è considerato autore di punta ed è molto apprezzato anche all’estero. Nato a Martina Franca e trasferitosi a Roma, dopo gli studi di giurisprudenza e scienze del comportamento, ha iniziato a sceneggiare serie tv e scrivere per testate come il Corriere della Sera. È autore di bestseller internazionali, editi da Longanesi, come  Il suggeritore – con il quale ha vinto il Premio Bancarella nel 2009 -, Il tribunale delle anime, La donna dei fiori di carta, L’ipotesi del male, Il cacciatore del buio, Il maestro delle ombre, La ragazza nella nebbia, dal quale è stato appena tratto il film omonimo, la cui regia è stata curata dallo stesso Carrisi.

July & August 2018 Wrap up

I love summer and I love holidays! A lot more time to be with family, friends and BOOKS!!!

Here it is what I have read during July and August:

(click on titles for the full mini review)

Standard deviation - K. Heiny

Loved the first half, not so impressed by the second one. Nice enough, could have been better.

Rating:  6 out of 10

The President is missing - B.Clinton/J. Patterson

A good, solid Patterson's novel with some presidential insights. Ok but nothing special.

Rating:  6 out of 10

The good daughter - K. Slaughter

A good thriller, lot of actions and adrenaline. But easily forgettable.

Rating:  7 out of 10

The summer seaside kitchen - J. Colgan

Pleasant, romantic, summary read.

Rating:  6,5 out of 10

The couple next door - S. Lapena

Fast pace, intriguing but quite predictable.

Rating:  6,5 out of 10

Clock dance - A. Tyler

Beautifully written, sweet and bitter, great read.

Rating:  7 out of 10

E' cosi' che si uccide - M. Zilahy

Un bel giallo, non sono del tutto convinta sul commissario, ma in generale avvincente.

Rating:  7 out of 10

Cattiva - R. Milone

Mi aspettavo di piu', in realta' piuttosto banale e scrittura buona ma non eccezionale.

Rating:  6 out of 10

The address - F. Davis
A great historical novel, full of mistery, love and NY!. Loved it!
Rating:  8,5 out of 10

Mi vivi dentro - A. Milan

Pianto tanto, un libro crudo e reale, con un bel messaggio di fondo. Bello bello.

Rating:  8 out of 10

Come una famiglia - G. Simi
Noir intenso, le parti sul calcio non mi sono piaciute, il "giallo" molto.
Rating:  6,5 out of 10

Living the dream - L. Berry
Witty, funny and very realistic. A very pleasant novel.
Rating:  7 out of 10

L'uomo del labirinto - D. Carrisi

Wow che thriller! Assolutamente da leggere, tiene col fiato sospeso per tutto il tempo!
Rating:  8 out of 10

Lullaby - L. Slimanu
The person behind the perfect nanny who becomes a murderer. Captivating.
Rating:  7 out of 10

Look for me - L. Gardner
Great engrossing plot, a thriller about a family massacre, great read,
Rating:  7,5 out of 10

Riunione di classe - R.Jaffe
Un ritratto davvero interessante di quattro ragazze negli anni 50, 60 e 70. Davvero consigliato!
Rating:  8 out of 10