The Girl with Louding Voice by Abi Daré

 

Adunni dreams of becoming a teacher.

But it seems it is not to be.  Her mother dies and her father marries her off so that he can earn some money. She faces several challenges but encounters a couple of friends on the way.  There are some grave dangers.  She has to escape the wrath of her husband. She finds employment but her boss is cruel and violent. She has to study hard at the same time as completing long hours of physical work.

Abi Daré certainly gives Audnni a “louding” voice and creates an authentic character here.     

The Little Wartime Library by Kate Thompson

 

Clare Button runs this popular little library in the Bethnal Green Tube station.

She faces many challenges: she is a widow and her mother and mother-in-law don’t approve of what she’s doing. Her immediate boss is very hard to please. Then there is a whole war going on out there and she feels obliged to help to keep several young people safe in these trying times.         

Kate Thompson tells a good story in the account of The Little Wartime Library that really existed though was somewhat different from the one depicted here.      

 

Grandmothers by Salley Vickers

 

The lives of three grandmothers and their grandchildren intertwine.

Each of the three women has her own set of challenges. Their interaction with their grandchildren brings them together. One character isn’t actually a grandmother but plays that role.

The characters are well drawn. The grandmother and the grandchildren are the main characters. The generation in between are more minor players but they are also believable and well-rounded.

It’s an easy read and it’s good to have characters over 50 who are at the same time just like  everyone else and yet feisty enough to survive in the modern world.

Salley Vickers has an easy style. Grandmothers offers a relaxing holiday read but invites you to reflect a little as well.        

Many Different Kinds of Love: A story of life, death and the NHS by Michael Rosen

 

I was torn between two books this month and neither of them are a particularly easy read but I’ve finally decided on Michael Rosen’s Many Different Kinds of Love: A story of life, death and the NHS

This is a record of Rosen’s encounter with Covid.

He contracted the disease when it first visited us and when so little was known about it.  He was in an induced coma for eight weeks and his illness has actually lasted months. The text combines his own prose poems, the notes left to him by the NHS workers who attended him, and notes and diaries from nurses, doctors and from his wife.

Many Different Kinds of Love: A story of life, death and the NHS is a touching account of a journey through an illness. Michael Rosen tells part of the story in his own excellent writing.  Illustrations are by Chris Riddell.  

 

 

Meeting Coty by Ruth Estevez

 

I really enjoyed attending the launch of this book at the lovely Portico Library in Manchester. Ruth gave us a fascinating talk which included some of the history of the Coty firm. 

Tessa Garcia has big dreams and takes steps to make them come true.

Tessa faces many expectations from her Spanish-Irish Catholic family; that she should marry, that she shouldn’t work, and that she should be dependent on men all of her life. She already has a work ethos and an enthusiasm for perfumes. This arouses in her a fascination with the perfume maker François Coty.    

Estevez presents us with a narrative as smooths as silk in this fascinating story of Meeting Coty.   

Find your copy: