#9. A Character-Driven Novel – The Satsuma Complex by Bob Mortimer (Paperback)

Many, many, moons ago, I was given the nickname Mad Bob. I worked with a girl called Vicky, who became a great friend until her untimely death. At the time Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer were starting to become household names, everyone at work would be talking about “Vic Reeves Big Night Out” on Channel 4 and so my mate and I became affectionately known as Vic and Bob! Many a happy hour after work was spent in the pub trilling the well-known catchphrases from the TV, so all these years later, when I heard Bob Mortimer had written a book, I knew it was something I would enjoy reading. I thought it was bound to have some unique and interesting  characters in it like the ones he makes up on the panel show “Would I lie to You?” and it would be a perfect fit for #9 on my reading list.

"Gary Thorn goes for a pint with a work acquaintance called Brendan. When Brendan leaves early, Gary meets a girl in the pub. He doesn't catch her name but falls for her anyway. After she leaves suddenly, all Gary has to remember her by is the book she was reading: The Satsuma Complex. But when Brendan goes missing, Gary needs to track down the girl he now calls Satsuma to get some answers. And so begins a quest, though the streets of South London, to finally bring some love and excitement into an unremarkable life…"

I honestly cannot believe Bob Mortimer has waited so long to pen a novel. I was worried that as a fan of Bob Mortimer, the book might not live up to my expectations, but I loved it. From the start I was laughing and looking at the world through the joyous eyes of this great comedian and I was genuinely sad when I finished the book and had to say goodbye to the character Gary Thorn.

In this tech savvy world where everyone has their face firmly attached to their smartphone, even when out for a walk in the countryside, Gary Thorn is living in the here and now:

“if I’m out and about I keep my head up and my mind stimulated by the sights and sounds around me: neighbours arguing (I might imagine it’s over the need to replace a washing machine filter); a broken window (I imagine it was smashed by a child manoeuvring an adult ladder); rust penetrating the wheel arches of a long abandoned car (I imagine the car has been dumped by a wine merchant who went nuts); dogs sharing an interest in a spillage (I imagine the dogs are called Zak Briefcase and Lengthy Parsnips).”

I think I’d like Gary. He is a solicitor, but one of little talent, who enjoys eating pies and going to the pub. It’s refreshing to meet someone with such an upbeat outlook on life, even if he does have imaginary conversations with a squirrel in the local park. I can’t say anything really, I talk to the squirrel who regularly visits my garden, and Mr and Mrs Dove, and of course I have many lengthy conversations with my cat. I’m still trying to work out if it’s the first signs of madness or an overactive imagination…although I have spoken to animals from a very early age, so…

#8. Feature’s The Ocean – Mr Peacock’s Possessions by Lydia Syson (Paperback)

I was in a second-hand bookshop last year, and my friend picked up this book and asked if I'd read it. I hadn't, she recommended it wholeheartedly. I sometimes find historical fiction a bit dull to read, however, the cover captured my attention, my friend recommended it and the blurb on the back cover sounded interesting enough; for £1.00 I wasn’t going to argue!

 

“Oceania, 1879.

 

For two years the Peacocks, a determined family of settlers, have struggled to make a remote volcanic island their home. At last, a ship appears. The six Pacific Islanders on board have travelled over eight hundred miles in search of new horizons.
Hopes are high, until a vulnerable boy vanishes.

In their search for the lost child, settlers and newcomers together uncover far more than they were looking for. The island's secrets force young Lizzie Peacock to question her deepest convictions, and slowly this tiny, fragile community begins to fracture ...”

 

Lydia Syson is known for her young adult fiction which explore less familiar historical events such as the 1871 Paris Commune in “Liberty’s Fire” and Battle of Britain Polish pilots in “That Burning Summer.”  It is said that you should write about what you know, and for her debut adult novel, she has explored the history of her husband’s family, for a remarkable tale built on a solid foundation of facts and real events, showing the lengths a family will go to for survival.

Mr Joseph Peacock has decided to move his family from New Zealand to a remote uninhabited Pacific Island, hundreds of miles away from any other human civilisation. At the start of the novel there are six children, Ada, Albert, Billy, Queenie, Gussy and a baby, Joseph, who is born on the island. Albert is expected to be a big, strong man who can help his father, but instead he is a vulnerable child who fears his father and his temper. Fifteen year-old Lizzie can fulfil many of the demands that Albert can not face, and she appears to do no wrong in her father’s eyes.

“This island will change everything for the family. ... Land. That’s the important things. That’s what a man needs to survive. To take his place in history. To keep his name. The land will be our future. Your future.”

Since moving to the island, exhaustion and hunger has set in. The captain who brought them here has sailed away, promising that he will return in three months. After he leaves, they realise that all the provisions he left them with were rotten and it dawns on them they will never see him again. They will have to rely on foraging and tending the land to grow food, otherwise they will starve to death. This is not the romantic Utopia that Joseph Peacock had dreamt of as he led his family to this small volcanic island. Their adventure is turning into a nightmare as each day passes and the island’s dark secrets are slowly emerging.

As the family’s hope of ever seeing other human life wanes, some Polynesian Islanders arrive to assist with clearing the land and planting food, a commodity now in scarce supply. They have been travelling for over eight hundred miles in search of work and new opportunities and they relish the challenges ahead. Perhaps these outsiders will be the answer to the Peacock’s prayers to finally turn the island into a paradise the family can enjoy.

Lizzie thinks the arrival of the kanakas (native workers) will be an opportunity to start all over again, and their hard work does begin to tame the harsh landscape into something more manageable. Of the new arrivals, Solomona is a teacher and pastor, whilst his brother Kalala dreams that they will one day return home and their family will be proud of their achievements. Kalala, is unsettled by Joseph’s quick temper, and when Albert disappears, a spectacular turn of events takes place to fracture this fragile community, as feelings of mistrust are centred on the newcomers. 

“Lizzie stops trusting herself. She begins to doubt the island. Its noises have not changed but now she is alone in the forest Lizzie hears them freshly. Birds whose unremarkable cries have kept her company on hunting expeditions for nearly two years squawk like frightened children among the fleshy leaves of mouse-hole trees, whose branches meet high above her head. She catches something of Albert’s voice; misrecognition pierces her just below the ribs. The air itself feels violent, as though the island is gathering itself for something. She imagines it breathing, heaving, maybe shifting.”

Lizzie is remarkable character who shares the narrative with Kalala in a portrait of family life, cast adrift to survive this unforgiving landscape. The duel perspective is also combined with a “before and now” narrative, so we embark with the family on their journey to the island and realise that they endured a great deal before even setting foot on the island.

#7. At Least Four Different POV – How Not to Murder Your Ex by Katie Marsh (Kindle)

This book was an option on Amazon Prime’s Nov 2023 First Reads list. I've not read the author before and I thought it looked like a light-hearted cosy murder mystery. I had already traded the book that I was originally going to use for “At Least Four Different POV” to a different category, so this seemed like the ideal opportunity to read a book that had been sat on my Kindle for several months.     

“It is 5:30 am on Clio's forty-fifth birthday and her hated ex is lying dead on her doorstep. Even worse, this is no accident. Someone’s killed him...

 

When single mum Clio’s ex Gary turns up dead on the doorstep of her caravan – the one she’s been forced to live in ever since he stole every penny she had – there’s only one suspect. Her.

 

What’s more, she doesn’t remember much about the night he was killed – not just because of the forgetfulness that’s been plaguing her along with the hot flushes – but because she definitely had one too many cocktails with her two best friends Amber and Jeanie.

 

Clio does remember them talking about how much they all hated him though. And, in the frame for murder, she has to ask herself – if she didn’t kill Gary, who did? One of his many enemies? Or someone a little closer to home? And can she and her friends find the real killer before it’s too late?.”

Clio, Jeanie and Amber are celebrating Clio’s 45^th birthday in the caravan she now calls home (which belongs to her first ex-husband Bez, and is due to her second ex-husband Gary, stealing her home and business from her and leaving her as a single parent to look after her and Bez's teenage daughter Nina.)

As forty somethings, all three women are experiencing difficulties in life, and this night is a chance for them to really let their hair down and let things get messy.

“Maybe Amber's lethal margaritas had tipped her over the edge - cocktails mixed by someone doing the Macarena were always going to be a risk.”

After drinking and dancing the night away, Amber manages to lock herself in the toilet, Jeanie has passed out on the floor, and Clio has gone for a walk among the sand dunes. When she returns to the caravan, she finds her ex-husband Gary slumped on the doorstep with his head bashed in. Naturally, instead of ‘phoning the police, Clio immediately panics that she might have done the dirty deed. She is in the throes of the menopause and has become rather forgetful recently, plus it doesn’t help she’s drunk far too many cocktails during the evening. Roll on much hilarity as the three friends try to unravel the truth to clear Clio’s name!

#6. Women in STEM – Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus (Hardback)

I read this book in 2022 not long after its release. I heard countless reviewers extoling its virtues and so, unusually, I bought the hardback. It had been classed as original, fresh and captivating. By the end of the first page, I already loved Elizabeth Zott and wanted to read her story.

For this challenge I didn’t plan on re-reading the book. I was looking for another book relating to women in STEM, however, as the challenge progressed and I still hadn’t found something I wanted to read, the local book group announced their next book was going to be…"Lessons in Chemistry." It seems fate decided I would read the book again!

 

“Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact, Elizabeth Zott would be the first to point out that there is no such thing. But it’s the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute takes a very unscientific view of equality. Except for one: Calvin Evans; the lonely, brilliant, Nobel–prize nominated grudge-holder who falls in love with—of all things—her mind. True chemistry results.

But like science, life is unpredictable. Which is why a few years later Elizabeth Zott finds herself not only a single mother, but the reluctant star of America’s most beloved cooking show Supper at Six. Elizabeth’s unusual approach to cooking (“combine one tablespoon acetic acid with a pinch of sodium chloride”) proves revolutionary. But as her following grows, not everyone is happy. Because as it turns out, Elizabeth Zott isn’t just teaching women to cook. She’s daring them to change the status quo.”

 

Sometimes debut novels come with a pomp and ceremony that isn’t deserved, the “must read” becomes a disappointing trudge through endless pages of nonsense until you finally reach the end with a sigh, wondering why you’d missed what the fuss was all about. Thankfully, this is not one of those books. This is a thought-provoking story, tackling hard hitting issues of abuse, loss, misogyny, self-worth and change, seen through the eyes of a very remarkable woman and her dog.

1950s/60s trailblazing women are nothing new, in “The Queen’s Gambit” by Walter Tevis, Beth Harmon is a chess prodigy who against all odds becomes America’s number 1 chess player. Julia Child was an American chef, author and TV personality, recognised for bring French cuisine to an American audience. Elizabeth Zott, the fictional heroine of “Lessons in Chemistry” becomes a success in the male dominated area of chemistry (albeit not in the way she would have liked or imagined.)

This is obviously a well-researched novel, but it is written with a dry wit that keeps the novel bright and entertaining rather than a mundane trudge through the history books. This light-hearted novel is centred around a unique character who has experienced some dreadful things in life, but she does not let them define who she is. She refuses to be anything but herself, despite the best endeavours of those around her telling her what she can and can’t do.

#5. Magical Realism – The Murmur of Bees by Sofia Segovia (Kindle)

I was a bit stumped by the term “magical realism,” do I own any books under that category?  As I scrolled through the ideas listed on the challenge web page, I noticed, and remembered, I had a copy of one of the novels suggested on my Kindle App. I bought “The Murmur of Bees” in August 2021 but never got around to reading it; there was always something better to read, or at least that’s what I thought. What a beautiful story, and what a shame I left it so long before reading it.

 

“From the day that old Nana Reja found a baby abandoned under a bridge, the life of a small Mexican town forever changed. Disfigured and covered in a blanket of bees, little Simonopio is for some locals the stuff of superstition, a child kissed by the devil. But he is welcomed by landowners Francisco and Beatriz Morales, who adopt him and care for him as if he were their own. As he grows up, Simonopio becomes a cause for wonder to the Morales family, because when the uncannily gifted child closes his eyes, he can see what no one else can―visions of all that’s yet to come, both beautiful and dangerous. Followed by his protective swarm of bees and living to deliver his adoptive family from threats―both human and those of nature―Simonopio’s purpose in Linares will, in time, be divined.

 

Set against the backdrop of the Mexican Revolution and the devastating influenza of 1918, The Murmur of Bees captures both the fate of a country in flux and the destiny of one family that has put their love, faith, and future in the unbelievable.”

Often, when a tale is translated from the language it was written it, it can lose its meaning, however, Simon Bruni has worked his magic in translating this book from Spanish into English. It retains a beautiful poetical quality, and it gives the impression the family could be recounting their life story around the dinner table. Told largely in chronological order, the narrative does tease the reader as to what the future holds, much like Simonopio’s visions, before returning the reader back to events both in the past and present, allowing the reader access to precious details required to understand the various characters.

The tale begins in Mexico in the early 1900’s when Nana Reja finds a baby abandoned under a bridge, its body covered in a blanket of living bees. Miraculously it hasn’t been stung, instead it seems to have formed a connection to the bees. No-one suspects who the baby belongs to, but to have been born with such a deformity, and with superstitions rife in the village, the only plausible answer is that it must have been born to one of the witches of La Petaca.

#4. Lowercase Letters On The Spine – The Quality of Silence by Rosamund Lupton (Paperback)

I remember reading "Sister" by Rosamund Lupton in about 2010/2011 and being haunted by the ending; it was proper hairs on the arm tingling good. So good in fact, I immediately bought the next novel "Afterwards"…and then Lupton didn’t publish anything for a couple of years. Somehow, I missed this book when it was released in 2015 and it was only when I was searching through my bookcase and I spotted her two previous novels that I thought I would do a quick online search. I realised that two further books had been written, this one and one called "Three Hours." I bought them both and decided they would be shoehorned into this challenge because I was so excited to read them!

 

“On 24 November Yasmin and her ten-year-old daughter Ruby set off on a journey across Northern Alaska. They're searching for Ruby's father, missing in the arctic wilderness.

More isolated with each frozen mile they cover, they travel deeper into an endless night. And Ruby, deaf since birth, must brave the darkness where sight cannot guide her.

She won't abandon her father. But winter has tightened its grip, and there is somebody out there who wants to stop them.

Somebody tracking them through the dark.”

 

I genuinely could not put this book down. There really is something engaging about Lupton’s writing that engulfs you with a curiosity to know more from the moment you pick the book up. Just before chapter 1 starts, Ruby introduces herself. "My name is a shape not a sound. I am a thumb and fingers, not a tongue and lips. I am ten fingers raised old - I am a girl made of letters R-u-b-y And this is my voice." Immediately I was compelled to think about how different the world must be to a deaf person. This simple statement transported me into the world of how a deaf 10-year-old girl viewed things and I wanted to know more about her.

Ruby does not want to speak with her voice, however much her mother tries to encourage her. Instead, she prefers to use her voice-generating laptop, or to use her hands to sign her words. She understands others who use sign language, or if they articulate properly, she can read their lips. This means that in the dark, Ruby is effectively deaf and mute. Something to consider as the central characters move further and further north in the constant darkness of an Alaskan winter.

#3. More Than 40 Chapters – Burial Rites by Hannah Kent (Audible)

 

This book was announced as a recommended read as part of the ‘Eurovision-themed book club’ on BBC2 Between the Covers (UK TV program.) It piqued my interest when I realised that, though a work of fiction, the book is based on a real incident in Iceland in 1828, where three people were tried and convicted of a double murder. Kent learnt about Agnes Magnúsdóttir whilst she was an exchange student in Iceland, and this inspired her to write a story of the months leading up to Agnes’ execution. 

“Iceland, 1829 – Agnes Magnúsdóttir is condemned to death for her part in the murder of her lover.

 

Agnes is sent to wait out her final months on the farm of district officer Jón Jónsson, his wife and their two daughters. Horrified to have a convicted murderer in their midst, the family avoid contact with Agnes. Only Tóti, the young assistant priest appointed Agnes’s spiritual guardian, is compelled to try to understand her. As the year progresses and the hardships of rural life force the household to work side by side, Agnes’s story begins to emerge and with it the family’s terrible realization that all is not as they had assumed.

 

Based on actual events, Burial Rites is an astonishing and moving novel about the truths we claim to know and the ways in which we interpret what we’re told. In beautiful, cut-glass prose, Hannah Kent portrays Iceland’s formidable landscape, in which every day is a battle for survival, and asks, how can one woman hope to endure when her life depends upon the stories told by others?”

 

1829, Agnes Magnúsdóttir, a 34-year-old servant, became the last woman in Iceland to be beheaded for the murder of two men, one of whom was her employer. Set against the harsh winter landscape of Iceland, this book tells of her final months before her execution. As there were no prisons in Iceland, she was sent to live with the family of an Icelandic district officer, on a farm she had formerly lived on as a girl. 

Despite the subject matter, this is a beautifully crafted book, which has obviously been thoroughly researched. It is a tough read, both emotionally and historically. We become so inhabited by Agnes’s tale, that you can’t help but feel an emotional attachment to a woman who was described as "an inhumane witch, stirring up murder." Kent tries to make this Agnes’s story, but all that research means she is also compelled to use the archival material that has been collected, and so there are chunks of a narrative that cut through Agnes’s voice and confuse the reader as to whether they should be rooting for Agnes or not. 

#2. Bibliosmia – A Smelly Book – The Burning Girls by C. J. Tudor (Audible)

 

There’s something about the smell of books that’s really appealing – especially those old fusty leather-bound volumes in second-hand book shops. Whilst I love the smell of old books, and there’s a plethora of them in the bookcase to pick from, I didn’t want to take this challenge too literally. Instead of reading a book that smells, I’ve chosen a book where a certain smell forms part of the story line. 

“500 years ago: eight martyrs burned

30 years ago: two teenagers vanished

Two months ago: a vicar died mysteriously

 

Welcome to Chapel Croft.

 

For Rev Jack Brooks and teenage daughter Flo it's a fresh start. New job, new home. But in a close-knit community old superstitions and a mistrust of outsiders mean treading carefully.

 

Yet right away Jack has more frightening concerns.

 

Why did no one say the last vicar killed himself? Why is Flo plagued by visions of burning girls? And who is sending them threatening messages?

 

Old ghosts with scores to settle can never rest. And Jack is standing in their way . . .”

After a scandal in Nottingham made the Revered Jack Brooks headline news, it was deemed appropriate to move Jack and daughter Flo to a new rural parish in Sussex where they could enjoy the anonymity of life until things quietened down. Flo like any typical fifteen-year-old is not happy at having to move away from the bright lights of the city and all her friends to the rural parish of Chapel Croft, a back water where nothing happens and there is nothing to do.

#1. Locked-Room Mystery – Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney (Audible)

 

I love physical books, so it is disappointing that my first “read” is actually a book I listened to! Over the last couple of years I have become an audio book convert; I still prefer sitting down with a paperback, but Audible makes for a solid walking companion, especially on those dull days when you really need to do your steps for the day!

From Sheridan Le Fanu and Edgar Allen Poe to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie, the locked-room mystery, or “impossible crime” mystery has enthralled readers and continues to do so. The reader is confronted with a conundrum and sufficient clues with which to solve a murder. What seems impossible can be answered by a rational explanation, but only if you can keep your wits about you. 

“Isolated on their private island in Cornwall, the Darker family have come together for the first time in over a decade. When the tide comes in, they'll be cut off from the rest of the world for eight hours. When the tide goes back out, nothing will ever be the same again. Nothing – because one of the family is a killer . . .

As the leaves of autumn fall, Daisy Darker arrives at her grandmother’s house for eightieth birthday celebrations. Seaglass, the Darker’s ancestral home, is a crumbling Cornish house perched upon its own tiny private island.

Every member of the family has their secrets. Nana, alone for so long. Daisy's absent father, Frank. Her cold-hearted mother, Nancy. Her siblings, Rose and Lily, and her niece, Trixie, full of questions and without a father of her own. Daisy has never had an easy relationship with her family, but some secrets are much darker than others. This will be a gathering that some of them won't remember.”

 

Reading the blurb, I was excited to read this novel. If you’re a fan of Agatha Christie’s “And Then There Were None” this book will resonate with you as there are many similarities that scream “Agatha Christie.” It’s not just the Cornish Island setting and the fact that events take place during a dark, stormy night, but the fact that there is a poem used as an epigraph weaving throughout the course of the novel.

The 52 Book Club 2024 Reading Challenge

 

Time is a strange concept. You think you’ll take a short break from writing, and before you know it a month has passed, then six months, a year, possibly even more. Then the burning question arises - how do I restart my blogging?

To pull myself out of the writing rut I set myself a challenge – read 52 books in 52 weeks and then if it seems like the challenge will succeed, blog about them all. I’ve been partaking in The 52 Book Club’s 2024 Reading Challenge  but with an added blogging twist!

I’m currently on track to get the challenge completed, and so I’m going to share my thoughts about the books I chose to read throughout the year. (As you can see, there are still a few blanks on my list, but once those blanks have been filled, I’ll update the list and add the reviews!) 

The joy of this type of challenge is reading books you might not normally read, finding new authors you love, and perhaps re-reading an old favorite you’ve forgotten about. I can’t say I’ve enjoyed every book I’ve read during the challenge, but I’ve still learnt something from it. I might not like a book for a certain reason, but someone else will love it. Never be dismissive of a book with a “bad” review, if the subject piques your interest, give it a go; you might find you enjoy something you would never normally read. (Equally, just because the book is by an established author people rave about, you might find the book as dull as dishwater.) 

This is how my 2024 Reading Challenge has panned out, there were so many titles I could have chosen, and some that haven’t made it on the list will be read in the future! I hope that this list inspires you to add some of these titles to you TBR pile!