What We're Scared of by Keren David

 

This month I’m recommending Keren David’s What We’re Scared Of.

I’d also like to flag up here The Hive who recommended the book to me. This is a lovely on-line book shop that supports independent bookshops. Their site is clean and uncluttered, they deliver our print on demand books quickly and sell them at the RRP which Amazon is not doing at the moment.

What We’re Scared Of starts off with many of the marks of the chicklet-lit book. However, it becomes more serious as non-identical twins Evie and Lottie confront their Jewishness.  

Evie is a feisty stand-up comic and goes to the local comprehensive school.  Lottie is tall and thin.  She possibly has an eating disorder though this is understated. She also suffers from asthma. She attends a fee-paying school. As Evie gets to know the son of their mother’s friend and as Lottie gets to know school friend Hannah better the girls begin to realise that their being Jewish is significant.  After their mother protests openly on her radio show about antisemitism both girls are exposed to danger.  Will life ever be the same again? Will they be able to live with their Jewishness?

What we’re Scared Of   will really get you gunning for Evie and Lottie. Keren David has created an engaging and enticing read here.

Get your copy via The Hive here  or Amazon here.       

Fearless Heart by Dawn Knox

 

Find on Amazon

Although this is a feel good romance with an upbeat ending the story shows a lot of evidence of careful research by the writer. This is another novel that shows women playing a very active role in war time activities. Here we have details of:

SOE (Special Operations Executive)

The Resistance

How undercover workers were got into and out of France

How people reported in

How the BBC helped convey “personal” messages

What life was like for French civilians?

How the occupying forces operated

The type of war work women could do  

Hunger and deprivation

It is also extremely well written. 

Genevieve has to learn to behave as a man in occupied France. Yves is at first very wary of her. She falls in love with him.  But will her love be requited. Will they both survive?

Knox engages us from the beginning and keeps our attention through her carefully drawn characters about whom we care about a lot.   

 

A Short Histroy of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

 

I have to recommend this month A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. I’ve always liked Bill Bryson’s style anyway. He always writes as if he’s sitting in your lounge and talking to you. He has a very controlled and effective voice.

This book is packed with facts and information.  I doubt there is any fake news. Every fact is verifiable. And there is at least one fact on every line. It’s a long read, coming in at 672 pages in the paperback. So, a heck of a lot of facts, then.  

Bryson’s research has been thorough.  It isn’t just regurgitated knowledge. He has visited places and talked to people as well.  

There’s quite a bit to be worried about: will Yellowstone Park blow any minute – it’s long overdue? How many more animals will become extinct? The rate at which that happens, and to plants as well, is alarming.  And will we be one of the victims?  What’s going to happen to the climate? Are we actually coming to the end of an ice age and will the planet get too warm for us?  

He covers so many topics: space, the ocean, genetics, evolution, particle physics, and many, many more.

Very pertinent of course was the chapter on diseases and viruses and he all but predicted what is happening now.

In many ways it’s a terrifying read. There is so much that can go wrong and there was so much chance involved in life being able to form. Yet there is nothing here that would challenge or reinforce any religious belief.

It is also awe-inspiring. This life, fragile as it is, is worth celebrating.

You have to admire the amount of work Bryson has put into this. There is so much there I think I may have to read this book again.       

Grab your copy here

        

Word Shower

 

I’m recommending this time Word Shower produced by poets Mary Bevan, Lesley Cooke, Jane Cope, Bec Macleod Turner, Anne Peterson, Julie Sharpe and Christine Storey. They were introduced to prose poetry by Anne Caldwell, who runs Prose-Poetry UK, when she ran a day’s workshop with the group.

Inspired by the workshop, the eight began to meet on a monthly basis and this project was born from those meetings.   

We are encouraged to read the pieces aloud. Yes, that does indeed work.

This is a genre I’m rather fond of. My own first writing was in this form when I made contributions to the school magazine. Back then nobody talked about prose poetry.

Each piece transports you to a moment in time and each of these moments each have a gentle emotional overlay.

It’s a tricky book to find. You really need to make contact with one of the contributors. I know Penny Rogers and was delighted to receive this book from her.     

The Lost Spells by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris

                                             

 

Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris introduce us to some strong images of nature.  As we turn the pages we can hear the wind swirling in the trees, we can feel the cold softness of the snow and we can hear the cry of the birds.

The verses make an extraordinary use of language.

The book is very tactile and is one anyone would be proud to have on their bookshelf.

It is longer than standard picture book though is divided into “chapters” with a few pages being dedicated to a particular animal or plant.

The illustrations are superb and would provide a good talking point. 

Absolutely gorgeous. 

Salt by Catrin Kean

                                       

 

I’m recommending this month Salt by Catrin Kean. This starts off in Cardiff in the late 1800s. The story is based on Catrin’s great- grandparents who married in 1878. This was a mixed-race marriage.

Ellen goes to sea with Samuel and they lead a pleasant romantic life as they make their way across the world.  However, when they return to Wales they encounter prejudice.

It’s quite a topical read.

It is beautifully written and the language reads like poetry.

There are big gaps between paragraphs and this feels odd at first but this layout actually enhances the rhythm of the words.

Interestingly I read this book because I know Catrin. She also made it easy for me to buy it by providing a link. Soon I’ll be blogging about how I buy books and how we might examine our book-buying habits when we market our own work.