Cramlington Book Club

Book of the Month? Blog Tour? Inbetweeny? Yep they are all thrown in to this review. If I have read it this year it counts, no holding back, my opinions only. I thought about doing a Top 10 but there are hundreds of them around at the minute and when looking back over my reads of 2018 nine books jumped from the page immediately so Top 9 it is! In no particular order here goes: Palm Beach Finland by Antti Tuomainen - Best Scandi A glorious mish mash of scandi noir and dark comedy slapped with a large does of plastic neon. Set around a holiday resort billed as the hottest beach in Finland it was unlike any scandi book I have read previously and has left every other one slightly lacking in its wake. The Lion Tamer Who Lost by Louise Beach - Best Love Story, Best Inclusion of Lions (OK so it's the only book I have read this year with a lion but STILL) An intensely beautiful love story, magnificent descriptions, an enriching supporting cast and in need of a tissue or two...

I know! There are so many round ups of 2018 going on at the minute that one just about December seems a little bit piddly in comparison BUT I'm ploughing on regardless if only for my records when looking back over the year. My first read this month was I'm Travelling Alone  by Simon Bjork. It was a solid Scandi Noir that required epic timeline skills from Bjork to connect all the dots (which he did) but for me it lacked a certain something compared to other brilliant Scandi books I have read recently. Up next was my first Blog Tour for the month -  Odette by Jessica Duchen. A modern take on Swan Lake, it was the perfect start to my festive reading. As it doesn't OD on the tinsel or the sweetness it can easily be consumed in January and beyond. Village Christmas: And Other Notes on the English Year by Laurie Lee was the book club's Book Of The Month. I loved the evocative descriptive writing harking back to a time gone by. The group awarded this collection of mem...

"When Sam falls in love with Deptford thug Derek, and Anne’s best friend Kathleen takes her own life, they discover they are linked not just by a world of drugs and revenge; they also share the friendship of the uncanny and enigmatic Deborah. Seamstress, sailor, story-teller and self-proclaimed centenarian immortal, Deborah slowly reveals to Anne and Sam her improbable, fantastical life, a history of hidden Deptford and ultimately the solution to their crises." Attend is the first book from (the brilliantly named)  West Camel  and coincidentally my last Blog Tour of the year. It is told from three perspectives, Anne, Sam and Deborah and flits about between present day and as far back as 1913. I found myself immediately warming to Anne. All throughout the book I was rooting for her to stay clean and stay clear of her nasty ex-husband Mel.  I can appreciate the stance of her mother and daughter given the hell Anne must have put them through as a heroin addict but real...

I'm sure you haven't forgotten (I had) which books we have read this year but in case you just want to see them all in one place -This year we have reviewed: January Did anyone remember that the first book we kicked off WAY back in January was Vanity Fair by William Makepeace? Nope I didn't. I developed a 30 day habit during the reading of this door-stopper which was awarded 6.2 by the group and was much more enjoyable than steamed kale. February A reworking (or should that be a follow on?) of Alice In Wonderland was next up. Alice by Christina Henry was a mish mash of very violent scenes followed by periods of time where not much happened. Not quite a young adult book, not quite adult fiction. We had little empathy for the main character (Alice, unsurprisingly) and awarded it a 6. March A venture into non fiction, Names for the Sea by Sarah Moss was March's Book of The Month that had us all reaching for the Skyr yoghurt. Recounting the year Sarah ...

Last Christmas, I gave you my heart.... No, start again. Last Christmas the book club and my whole family read A Boy Called Christmas by the rather brilliant Matt Haig. Last January Mr Haig signed our very own copy of A Boy Called Christmas and it had always been the plan to read the follow on, The Girl Who Saved Christmas, this Christmas (well it's just wrong to read a Christmas book in June isn't it?) Picking up more or less exactly where 'Boy' left off we are reintroduced to 9 year old Amelia Wishart. Trapped in the workhouse her festive spirit isn't exactly blooming and when Christmas goes spectacularly wrong Troll stylie Father Christmas sets out to find her. Featuring special appearances from Queen Victoria and Charles Dickens (who noted that Christmas could be both the best of times and the worst of times.) Well loved characters such as Noosh and Blitzen (who brilliantly saves the day be weeing on a chimney fire) also made a welcome return. It delive...

When suggested last month we snapped up this 150 page or so collection of Lee's descriptions, memoirs and musings. Consisting of Chapters of no more than a few pages, topics included the river Severn, a pub and the landscaping of a garden! Winter, including Christmas, was the opening section so more than met the one rule of book club requirement (we review a Christmas book at Christmas). Spring, Summer and Autumn sections followed and one of the group chose to stop reading after the Winter section in order to read each section in its correct season. I love this idea but would either forget and end up reading them all in Autumn or would get frustrated that I still hadn't finished such a slim book that I had started in 2018.  "Children trapped in new concrete estates will be denied the freedom we knew. They'll become prisoners of television, as most children are today, and as they grow up they'll start hanging about the streets in gangs and stealing cars." ...

Everyone knows the story of Swan Lake right? Even my three year old (alright so it's via Barbie in the Pink Shoes DVD but it's an introduction to bigger, better things). I love the story of Swan Lake and was curious as to how a modern take would work. Set in the fictional town of Cygnford (loved the swan reference), Mitzi is startled when a swan bursts in to her living room during a storm. Her astonishment continues, as one may imagine, when after sun down said swan turns into a Russian princess called Odette . I loved following Odette as she experienced life in 21st century. How her circumstances of being a foreigner in England could easily be explained away as an asylum seeker or a sex worker victim to trafficking. I did question how sensible it was for Mitzi to introduce Odette to both alcohol and spicy food in one restaurant visit! Moments like the restaurant however provided much humour to the book and in some ways I was reminded of Rapunzel or the Little Mermaid when ...

I'm Travelling Alone was passed to me by the in laws and strongly recommended by mother who had already purchased and read book two by the time I flipped the first page. "When the body of a young girl is found hanging from a tree, the only clue the police have is an airline tag around her neck. It reads ‘I’m travelling alone’. In response, police investigator Holger Munch is immediately charged with assembling a special homicide unit. But to complete the team, he must track down his former partner, Mia Krüger – a brilliant but troubled detective – who has retreated to a solitary island with plans to kill herself. Reviewing the file, Mia finds something new – a thin line carved into the dead girl’s fingernail: the number 1. She knows that this is only the beginning. To save other children from the same fate, she must find a way to cast aside her own demons and stop this murderer from becoming a serial killer." Two cops - check Both with problems - check No love ...

In our month of remembrance it seemed fitting that I read not one, not two but three books about war. The first being  The War of The World  by Niall Ferguson. It was well researched and well written with some brilliant parallels drawn, but the money went over my head and I found it slightly too focused on World War Two. Sea Glass  (a book nothing to do with war) about a newly wed couple and a mill strike in New Hampshire 1929 was next up by the late Anita Shreve. I loved the pace, writing and emotion that Shreve packed in to the pages and am now on the hunt for the other novels she has written all set around the same house the newly weds moved into.  My first Blog Tour of the month was  Paris In The Dark by Robert Olen Butler. Set in Paris during the first World War this well researched book is based around journalist cum spy Kit investigating a series of bombings taking place in the City. It's not Kit's first time gracing Olen Butler's pages and hopefully ...

Definition of Hydra . (Entry 1 of 2) 1 : a many-headed serpent or monster in Greek mythology that was slain by Hercules and each head of which when cut off was replaced by two others. 2 not capitalised : a multifarious evil not to be overcome by a single effort. Hydra is the second book in the Scott King series, the first being the recently read Six Stories . It is however unconnected to Six Stories and can easily be read as a standalone should you wish. Investigative journalist Scott King finds himself drawn to the 'Macleod Massacre' involving 21 year old Arla Macleod bludgeoning her family to death four years ago in an unprovoked attack. Convicted and being held in a mental health institution she agrees to speak to King who finds himself thrown in to a dark underworld of deadly forbidden 'games', online trolls, and creepy black-eyed children. King sums the book up perfectly when he states "this is not a whodunnit - we know who dun it. What we don't kno...

I love Tom Hanks. Big, Turner and Hooch, The Burbs, Sleepless in Seattle, Forest Gump, Saving Private Ryan, Philadelphia, Cast Away, I have grown up with Tom Hanks. Toy Story, Cars, The Polar Express, my children have grown up with him! He produced my favourite ever TV series (Band of Brothers). I so wanted this book to be good. I so wanted his writing to be as moving, as funny, as heartbreaking as his acting.  But was it?  The physical copy of Uncommon Type (hardback for me) was just beautiful. A gorgeous burnt orange hue with a ribbon book mark, pictures of typewriters at the start of every story (for it was short stories we were dealing with) and the kind of inside cover you wished you could print out and use as wrapping paper. The paperback, a pale pastel blue is equally beautiful and a glamorous edition to any bookshelf.     Each short story features a typewriter, sometime obviously, sometimes a mere slip of a mention. (True or False ...

Murder amongst the meat aisle? Read below to find out. The Cost of Living , The Blurb:  "After a young woman is brutally attacked on her way home from the local supermarket, checkout girl Bea is determined to find out who’s responsible. She enlists the help of Ant, the seemingly gormless new trainee – but can she really trust him? Customers and colleagues become suspects, secrets are uncovered, and while fear stalks the town, Bea risks losing the people she loves most." To describe the book as a cosy crime novel would be spot on as the violence was minimal yet the warmth of the characters really shone through. In Costsave, Ward has created the perfect backdrop complete with an overflowing well of characters all available for use in future books. I loved meeting them, discovering their problems and considering whether I thought they were capable of murder! Bea is a strong central character who I took to immediately. More to the point her investigations felt realistic, ...

Well I for one will now be studiously studying the person next to me at the checkout buying bleach! Good Samaritans , The Blurb: "Seth Beauman can’t sleep. He stays up late, calling strangers from his phonebook, hoping to make a connection, while his wife, Maeve, sleeps upstairs. A crossed wire finds a suicidal Hadley Serf on the phone to Seth, thinking she is talking to The Samaritans. But a seemingly harmless, late-night hobby turns into something more for Seth and for Hadley, and soon their late-night talks are turning into day-time meet-ups. And then this dysfunctional love story turns into something altogether darker, when Seth brings Hadley home… And someone is watching… " I applaud the mind of Will Carver for coming up with this sick, twisted, disturbing, thriller. Just how dark this book is, is revealed in the opening chapter where the reader is informed about the effects on a human body bathed in bleach (not pretty). We are then informed however that it's o...

I'll just put it out there and state this is quite simply the best book about war. Ever. A visit to relatives one weekend gave the opportunity to raid their bookshelves where I stumbled upon the 200 page or so All Quiet On The Western Front . I could do that in a weekend I thought so I put aside the book I brought and dived in.  And boy next time I emerged was I shellshocked from the heartbreak I had just read. Remarque describes the book as: "Neither an accusation nor a confession, and least of all an adventure, for death is not an adventure to those who stand face to face with it. It will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped (its) shells, were destroyed by the war." I have read quite a few war books in my time yet none of them has touched me quite as much as this has. The quality of the writing was such that I never once stopped to think, yeah but I'm reading from the viewpoint of a German soldier. I never once tho...

"AUTUMN 1915. The First World War is raging across Europe. Woodrow Wilson has kept Americans out of the trenches, although that hasn’t stopped young men and women from crossing the Atlantic to volunteer at the front. Christopher Marlowe ‘Kit’ Cobb, a Chicago reporter and undercover agent for the US government is in Paris when he meets an enigmatic nurse called Louise. Officially in the city for a story about American ambulance drivers, Cobb is grateful for the opportunity to get to know her but soon his intelligence handler, James Polk Trask, extends his mission. Parisians are meeting ‘death by dynamite’ in a new campaign of bombings, and the German-speaking Kit seems just the man to discover who is behind this – possibly a German operative who has infiltrated with the waves of refugees? And so begins a pursuit that will test Kit Cobb, in all his roles, to the very limits of his principles, wits and talents for survival." This isn't the first time Kit has graced the pag...