If you’re looking for good reads… I have two great recommendations for you.
The first one:
I have no idea why I picked up this book … it’s not my sort of read… and I can only think it was because of the title. ‘The Bookshop’, let’s face it, is there a reader/book lover out there that hasn’t at some point dreamt of opening a bookstore?
Anyway, I knew nothing of the author and I set up reading totally in the dark… not literally of course, that would have been silly. (Tangent…). Also, second tangent, I ‘ve just discovered that Penelope Fitzgerald published her first book at 58.
Bonkers. And strangely comforting. There’s plenty of life ahead, right?
Loved this little novel. It’s perfectly ‘English’; the characters, the descriptions of the places and the weather… and the dialogue. Eccentric and mundane and a ghost (it’s not a ghost story, don’t let that put you off)… classes and politics and … just so perfectly measured and not a word out of place.
The other book was a total impulse buy because it had the author’s signature in it… and I’m a sucker for an autograph. (Pathetic…)
Have your read Olive Kettering? or My name is Lucy Barton?
Sigh…
Also, let’s face it… is there a most amazing writer? Who else can say so much, can evoke so much in such a way that makes you feel you know the characters, the places, their stories. That you are them. Even if you don’t live in small town America and instead are an Italian turned English, housewife with three boys and a happy life.
Just perfect. Seriously.
And I love when writers loosely link two books… you don’t have to have read My name is Lucy Barton to enjoy these short stories… but because it talks about characters from the place she grew up… it kind of adds to the that novel. Makes it even bigger.
I’m waffling.
I’m hungry, bacon is cooking for a Carbonara and the kitchen smells so wonderfully. Mr M is playing tennis with some neighbours, No 1 should be revising, No 2 is lying on his bed snap chatting (I have no proof, but this is what he normally does at this time of day) and No 3 is playing hockey.
And I can’t remember whose turn it is to set the table… things could get ugly if I make the wrong call…
Have a good evening!
while you're ahead... 
This sounds interesting, and I haven’t read these or heard about them. Thanks for pointing them out 🙂
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Did you know that The Bookshop has just been made into a film with Bill Nighy and Emily Mortimer? Both these books are on my never-ending tbr list. Books I have really loved recently include; Golden Hill by Francis Spufford, Notes From an Exhibition by Patrick Gale and Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant by Anne Tyler.
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You might like to have a look at Persephone Books. I think the Elizabeth Strout book is on their list. I won’t tell you more because the discovery is half the fun!
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