books

Book Corner

I have the good fortune to be a reviewer for NetGalley, a website which distributes advance reader copies of books to hundreds of thousands of members in exchange for honest reviews.

I was introduced to it by a friend in Lush Places, who insisted it would be for me after we started reviewing books from the village phone box library during lockdown.

It was too much hassle at first, but she kept on at me until I signed up and requested my first book. Thank you, Vikki!

Several years on, I’m now getting some amazing (free) downloads for my Kindle. The more books you review online, the more likely you’ll be approved for books in your favourite genres.

I share my reviews on the Goodreads platform or here on this blog.

I don’t very often award five stars but I’ve had some absolute corkers recently. Here are a couple of novels to look out for (both books are available to pre-order):

You Are Here by David Nicholls (due to be published by Sceptre 23 April 2024).

I was very excited to be approved for the latest David Nicholls novel. It didn’t disappoint. I didn’t want it to end, although I did, to find out what happened.

Michael and Marnie are two single strangers approaching middle age, living lonely, separate lives, north and south of the country. Michael is a geography teacher, obsessed with geology and his broken relationship with his beloved ex. Marnie is a self-employed, self-taught book editor who is finding her way after divorcing her entirely unsuitable husband She is anchored to her work, her ‘cosmopolitan’ life in London and, most of all, the joys of the English language.

The two are thrown together by a mutual friend on an arduous walk across luscious countryside in the Lake District and Yorkshire Moors. As the walk progresses, and as other walkers fall by the wayside, the reader learns more about the two of them and their problematic love lives. We are willing them to get together, to reach some kind of understanding that will see them triumph, ultimately, as a couple. But the course of true love, just like a coast-to-coast walk, does not run smoothly.

Romance isn’t really my thing but I loved this novel. I loved the characters of Michael and Marnie (and most of all, Marnie, who has a kick-ass sense of humour and pedantic eye for detail).

Nicholls’ writing is seemingly effortless and a joy to read. Tender moments are captured with humour and clarity. There are laugh out loud moments and I imagined myself picturing who might play the roles when it’s adapted into a television series like his best-known novel, One Day.

The new novel has so much hope at its core, following the desperation and isolation of the covid lockdowns. I thoroughly recommend it.

The Silence Factory by Bridget Collins (expected publication by The Borough Press, May 2024).

In 1870s London, widower Henry Latimer is working in his father-in-law’s shop selling hearing aids. A mysterious customer, who owns a silk factory in the Devon town of Telverton, asks Henry to help his young daughter who has been deaf since birth. Intrigued, Henry takes up his invitation. He travels to the man’s big house in Telverton and ends up getting caught in a web of deceit, greed and enchantment.

Henry’s story is interspersed with the first person journal of a previous lady of the house, whose sojourn on a Greek island results in the discovery of spiders which spin the most incredible silk. When worked into fabric, the spider silk has a unique property that can bring calming silence or excruciating madness to those exposed to it.

I was spellbound by this novel – more so because I wasn’t expecting to like it. I had read one of Collins’ previous novels, The Binding, which I was enjoying before it started to get weird. The Silence Factory, however, is streets ahead in its storytelling, quality of writing and characterisation. If you like gothic novels, you will love this. Prepare yourself for an immersive ride. It’s definitely got big screen potential written all over it, either as a film or television series. Highly recommended.

What we’re reading and watching

With all the rain we’ve had, the door on the village telephone box library is jammed shut.

Luckily, I have a number of great books on my Kindle still to read, thanks to NetGalley, which provides advance reader copies of digital books in exchange for an honest review.

I’ve just finished reading The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley. It’s not out yet – I had a review copy – but it’s such a compelling novel.

I’m generally a low scorer (something has to be pretty amazing for me to award it five out of five) but I gave the book four stars on Goodreads.

Here’s my review :

This is an astonishing debut. Time travel, romance, comedy and thriller, all beautifully constructed and written with literary flair.
In the near future, the unnamed protagonist works as a civil servant for The Ministry of Time in London as a ‘bridge’ between her world and her charge, a naval officer from the 19th century who history says disappeared in the frozen north, with the rest of the ill-fated crew. The plot follows the twists and turns of their relationship with each other, with authority, their pasts, presents and future and the wider world.
This was a compelling, easy read with much humour and pathos. Can see it making a great film or television series.
Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for an advance review copy of this novel.

Lo and behold, the novel is being made into a television serial.

Imagine what it must feel like to have your work adapted for the small and big screens. It’s happening to someone I know who worked at the Dorset Echo the same time as I did, albeit in different offices. It must be incredible, if a little scary, to see someone else nurturing your ‘baby’ for a different medium and audience.

Joanna Quinn’s The Whalebone Theatre, a family epic, coming-of-age novel and wartime thriller set in Dorset and France, is to get the television treatment. I loved the novel and gave it five stars.

I’m about to start reading Andrew McMillan’s Pity and The Women by Kristin Hannah.

Television

We’re still plodding through Blue Bloods (CBS), the multi-season police drama with Tom Selleck heading a family of New York cops embroiled in crime and political intrigue. It’s an easy series to watch, with self-contained episodes and likeable, hardworking characters, and nothing too taxing for an addled brain to take in late in the evening.

We’ve just started True Detective (Amazon Prime), a crime and mystery drama which is providing to be uncomfortable and brutal viewing. The jury is still out on this one. Maybe I need to get past season one. I’m done with stories that feature hideous crimes with women as victims.

There are times when our preferred viewing is just not compatible. Mr Grigg is currently watching Masters of the Air (Apple TV), an American war drama mini-series, and I’m watching Daisy Jones and the Six (Amazon Prime), which charts the rise and fall of a fictional 1970s rock band not dissimilar to Fleetwood Mac.

I wasn’t keen on the book but I’m enjoying the show, particularly the gorgeous Riley Keough, the granddaughter of Elvis and Priscilla Presley. She’s mesmerising.

Films lined up to watch include Saltburn (Amazon Prime), which I’m plucking up the courage to see after hearing someone talk about it in the pub, and One Love, the biopic of Bob Marley, in cinemas now, which looks amazing.

TV, films and books

What we’re watching

We’re into the second series of Trigger Point (ITV) and absolutely hooked.

Vicky McClure is mesmerising in this drama about a police bomb disposal team in London. As Lana Washington, she’s cool, complicated, flawed, tormented by the past and bloody brilliant at her job.

The first series just flew by and now we’re settling down for a bumpy ride.

Hats off to creator and writer Daniel Brierley, who was mentored by Line of Duty‘s Jed Mercurio. Brierley was new to television and developed the series during a television bursary scheme.

It’s real edge of your seat stuff. Awards await.

We’ve just seen the film Napoleon, directed by Ridley Scott and starring Joaquin Phoenix as the titular character. It’s long and patchy and, a bit like the curate’s egg, good in parts.

The battle scenes, particularly the deadly icy ballet at Austerlitz and the finale at Waterloo, are choreographed to a nanosecond. They are incredible to watch (albeit, in my case, through closed fingers).

Phoenix is a compelling Napoleon, a relentless genius obsessed by power, his love for his country and the resourceful Josephine (Vanessa Kirby, who played Princess Margaret in The Crown). He’s steely, creepy and a little unhinged, like The Joker, Commodus and the Emperor of France all rolled into one.

What I’m reading

I’ve got my hands on a review copy of The Ministry of Time and I can’t put it down. I also can’t believe it’s a debut novel.

Kaliane Bradley has written a piece of fiction which cuts across genres – time travel, romance, comedy and spy thriller – and it’s a cracker. It’s out later this year.

Set in the near future, at the centre of the story is a nameless protagonist, a civil servant who has to act as a ‘bridge’ between her charge, naval officer Graham Gore, who was First Lieutenant on the Erebus during the Franklin expedition to discover the Northwest Passage, which ended in 1850 with the loss of all 129 officers and crewmen.

The book twists and turns with a style so easy to read I’ll probably finish it by the end of the week. Thanks to NetGalley for an advance review copy of the book.