november-december 2020 books…

The Thursday Murder Club (Richard Osman): I borrowed Ruth’s copy of this book. I was aware that it had become something of a best-seller but, if I’m honest, I felt a slight resentment that someone who already earned a very decent living as a television celebrity had the audacity to try his hand as a writer (what a horrible person I am!). Well, I have to admit that I absolutely loved it! It’s a crime novel set in an affluent retirement village and, every Thursday, four of the over-60s inmates/amateur sleuths gather to investigate unsolved murder cases that the local police force have failed to solve. Yes, I know it all sounds pretty ridiculous, but it’s beautifully silly and also quite clever… and, although I appreciate that murder is never ‘nice’(!), this is all gently amusing and satisfying – and with rather lovely characters (especially quiet, former nurse Joyce whose diary entries are simply delightful). There’s apparently already another ‘Thursday Murder Club’ book on the way and, no doubt, a whole lot more in due course… and I’ll probably end up reading them all. Excellent, gentle, easy reading.  
Gathered and Scattered (ed Neil Paynter): This is a book of daily readings and meditations from the Iona Community (published 2007) and covers a four-month period (unrelated to festivals etc). I think this must be the fourth time I’ve worked through the book. For me, as I continue to struggle in something of a spiritual wilderness, they provide a source of sustenance. They’re challenging and insightful, but never hectoring or telling me how I ‘ought’ to be thinking. The readings certainly don’t all ‘work’ for me, but they’re the closest I get to feeling ‘connected’. Although there are occasional biblical references, it’s definitely not a ‘Bible Study’ book (thank goodness). The subjects vary, but cover such things as: justice and peace; economic witness; racism; sexuality; healing; social action; the poor and disadvantaged; spirituality… In short, it reminds of my time spent with the Iona Community – sitting in the Abbey at the start of each day.
The Road To Little Dribbling (Bill Bryson): As you’re probably aware, I love Bryson’s writing. This book was his ‘follow up’ to his wonderful “Notes From A Small Island” (published in 2015, at his publishers’ suggestion, twenty years on)(just before Brexit – which, like me, he regards as a “kind of madness”). In some ways, Bryson and I have grown old together (ok, he’s actually younger than me, but…); we love similar things and we hate similar things; and he uses the word “splendid” very frequently. Needless to say, I loved this book and would happily quote whole chunks from it… but, instead, I’ll confine myself to just two. Bryson would like a government in charge that said “We’re going to stop this preposterous obsession with economic growth at the cost of all else. Great economic success doesn’t produce national happiness. It produces Republicans and Switzerland. So we’re going to stop trying to be a powerhouse and instead concentrate on just being lovely and pleasant and civilised. We’re going to have the best schools and hospitals, the most comfortable public transport, the liveliest arts, the most useful and well-stocked libraries, the grandest parks, the cleanest streets, the most enlightened social policies…”. Other new Bryson legislation would include: “male jewellery tax, stupid ponytail tax, carrying an open umbrella even though it’s stopped raining tax, texting while walking tax, earphone music leakage tax, walking much too slowly in crowded places tax, tattoos on knuckles tax, dribbled paint on the pavement tax, answering a question by saying ‘how long is a piece of string?’ tax, having an irritatingly small dog tax, and vending machines that don’t give change tax…”. As I say, I love Bryson!
Rebecca (Daphne Du Maurier): This is our Storysmith bookgroup’s latest selection (theme: ‘gothic’), first published in 1938. I’ve seen the Hitchcock 1940 film version and I THINK I first read the book some 40 years ago (I vaguely recall reading a few Du Maurier novels at that time, including “Frenchman’s Creek” and “Jamaica Inn”) and the novel’s hauntingly memorable first line: “Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again”. Manderley is the name of a grand house on the Cornish coast, owned by the wealthy Maxim de Winter – whose first wife Rebecca died in a boating accident about a year before he went on to meet and marry a naïve young woman after a whirlwind romance in the south of France. The young woman (we never learn her name – people simply refer to her as Mrs de Winter) is the narrator of this tale. You’re probably very familiar with the plot so I won’t elaborate beyond: beautiful, popular, confident Rebecca… adored by everyone, not the least by her devoted, sinister housekeeper Mrs Danvers… the shy, out-of-her-depth second Mrs de Winter is constantly being compared to her predecessor and feels totally inadequate. Well, I absolutely loved this book - a world of privilege and servants; about lifestyles and expectations; about duty and society – wonderfully written/narrated, unnerving and utterly compelling.
Dandelion Wine (Ray Bradbury): Published 1957. Part novel/part memoir set in the backwaters of Illinois in 1928 and revolving around the life of a 12 year-old boy, named Douglas Spaulding. Magical, evocative recollections of a timeless summer… simple pleasures; Grandma’s ‘belly-busting dinners’; imagining machines for every purpose from time travel to happiness; new discoveries and new possibilities... summers that seemed to go on forever (oh, and grandfather’s intoxicating brew from harvested dandelions – with each bottle marked with the day it was made). A wonderful haunting mixture of imagination and memories, based on Bradbury’s own experiences growing up in 1920s. Rather lovely.