Kathy Hamilton What’s new to the bookshelf? These are the books that I have been reading lately. From classics to modern romance, Japanese magical realism and even a bit of crime fiction. Let’s take a look at the latest reading roundup.
New To The Bookshelf
Welcome back to one of the best loved and longest running features on The Female Scriblerian!
One of my favourite things to do whenever I visit someone’s house is to sneak a glance at what’s new to the bookshelf. Us bookworms love to compare what we’ve been reading, don’t we? Well, since I can’t invite you all over to have a good browse of my books, think of this as the next best thing! A virtual tour of all the books I’ve been reading lately, from to good to the not so good.
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
Marianne Dashwood wears her heart on her sleeve. Meanwhile Elinor, is always sensitive to social convention. Through their parallel experience of love—and its threatened loss—the sisters learn that sense must mix with sensibility if they are to find personal happiness in a society where status and money govern the rules of love.
What I Thought
I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve read this book. But there’s always something new each time I do. Jane Austen is a master and I love how she sparkles when navigating intricate social commentary. The thing about any Austen book, and this one in particular, is realising there’s just as much going on beneath the surface. She invites you to think about constructs like marriage, family and happiness without forcing your opinion.
The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey
Scotland Yard Inspector Alan Grant is intrigued by a portrait of Richard III. Could such a sensitive face actually belong to a heinous villain — a king who killed his brother’s children to secure his crown? Grant seeks what kind of man Richard was and who in fact killed the princes in the tower.
What I Thought
Perfectly plotted, perfectly paced. The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey book took me by surprise more than any book featured in this post. It was once named the greatest mystery novel of all time by the British Crime Writers’ Association and after reading it, I might agree! I loved the idea of taking a ‘modern’ (for the 1950s) crime solving approach to a historical mystery. I’d never heard of Josephine Tey before reading this book. But she’s earned a firm place on my TBR after this.
The Cat Who Saved Books by Sosuke Natsukawa
Bookish student Rintaro Natsuki is about to close the second-hand bookstore he inherited from his beloved bookworm grandfather. Then, a talking cat named Tiger appears with an unusual request. The world is full of lonely books left unread and unloved, and Tiger and Rintaro must liberate them from their neglectful owners.
What I Thought
This unassuming book made me cry. In the best way! I picked it up hoping that it would be a cosy, cheerful read and it was. But there’s something about Japanese fiction that manages to combine simplicity with meaningful contemplation. This story was full of wisdom and powerful truths about the meaning of a good life. I lost track of how many quotable lines there were! It’s gone straight back onto my pile of books to re-read. A great book for any reader who sees the power of books.
The Feast by Margaret Kennedy
A Cornish cliff collapses on top of a seaside resort hotel, squashing everybody but those lucky enough to be away on a picnic. The story tells why some were spared and some were not…
What I Thought
This book wasn’t quite new to the bookshelf. I was drawn to the cover when it was first released but it sat on the shelves for a little while waiting to be read. However, what a brilliant mystery it turned out to be! Margaret Kennedy was inspired by the seven deadly sins when writing this. And so trying to work out which characters most closely resemble pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony and sloth was fun. Some characters jumped out immediately and others kept me guessing. If you’re in the mood for a clever, cosy crime style novel, this one is perfect for you.
Book Lovers by Emily Henry
Nora has been through enough break-ups to know she’s the woman men date before they find their happy-ever-after. That’s why Nora’s sister has persuaded her to swap her desk in the city for a month’s holiday in Sunshine Falls, North Carolina. It’s a small town straight out of a romance novel, but instead of meeting sexy lumberjacks, handsome doctors or cute bartenders, Nora keeps bumping into…Charlie, her work nemesis.
What I Thought
Emily Henry is fast becoming a favourite romance author. And when I saw Book Lovers I had a feeling I would love it. I love how she plays with the genre in each of her books. It makes them feel fresh, with a loving wink to familiar tropes that we all know and love. Here we have a city girl who goes to the countryside only to fall in love with another city boy. As usual her characters sizzle with chemistry, but there was something touching about the way Charlie and Nora found each other in spite of their flaws. They love each other, including the prickly bits. A wonderful bit of escapism after a feeling rundown.
Sylvester by Georgette Heyer
Lord Sylvester is looking for a wife. She must be well-born, intelligent, elegant and attractive. And of course she must be able to present herself well in high society. But when he is encouraged to consider Phoebe Marlow as a bride, Sylvester is taken aback when she seems to hate him.
What I Thought
Here at The Female Scriblerian we’re long-time fans of Georgette Heyer! And this one is definitely not new to the bookshelf! But it has been a long time since I read Sylvester and I even had a vague feeling that I hadn’t enjoyed it all that much the first time around. However, this is the power of re-reading books, because this time I loved it! Georgette Heyer is brilliant at finding two characters who bring the best out of each other in unexpected ways. And in Sylvester this is definitely the case. He has grown an arrogant outer shell after a lifetime of being the best man in the room. She has been ignored and slighted and has no time for that arrogance. Add it some excellent secondary characters and a haywire plot and you have the recipe for a perfect regency romance!
Before The Coffee Gets Cold: Tales From The Cafe by Toshikazu Rawaguchi
In a small back alley in Tokyo, there is a café which has been serving carefully brewed coffee for more than one hundred years. But this coffee shop offers its customers a unique experience: the chance to travel back in time…
What I Thought
Japanese fiction is fast becoming my go to genre for short books that leave me thinking. This is the a prequel to the similarly named ‘Before the Coffee Gets Cold’. Whilst it isn’t quite as perfect as the first, it is a fantastic sequel. I loved that this book dealt with more characters who work in the cafe and explained some of the mysteries of the first book. It made me cry, buckets, but only the best books do that, am I right?
Thunder on the Right by Mary Stewart
Jenny Silver’s trip to the Pyrenees is no holiday. Perturbed by a letter from her cousin Gillian, Jenny has come to Gavarnie in an attempt to discover why Gill has entered a convent. On arrival, however, she finds herself caught up in a mesh of intrigue. Her cousin has vanished, and there is evidence that she is dead. Refusing all explanations, Jenny throws herself into a dramatic and dangerous search.
What I Thought
Mary Stewart is a master of description. She can pull a plot so that it feels like its dangling on a knife edge simply by describing the way the light shifts across the mountains. I love that! However, the reason this book slipped into three stars for me was that it fell slightly further into melodrama than I usually like. Mysterious nuns, smugglers, a murder, suspicious locals…it’s got it all!
Bringing Down The Duke by Evie Dunmore
England, 1879. Annabelle Archer has earned herself a place among the first female students at the University of Oxford. In return for her scholarship, she must support the rising women’s suffrage movement. Her charge: recruit men of influence, Her target: Sebastian Devereux, the cold and calculating Duke of Montgomery. Her challenge: not to give in to the powerful attraction she can’t deny for the man who opposes everything she stands for.
What I Thought
New to the bookshelf, via Bookstagram recommendations this is a book I wanted to love. It has all the ingredients of a great historical romance. But somehow it fell short of my expectations. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it but after I finished I found some of the plot points slightly clunky. The plot of this book relies heavily on the idea that Annabelle has her studies sponsored by a suffragette. The downside of this is that occasionally it feels as though she is being coerced into following the women’s emancipation movement in order to keep her scholarship. Even one conversation with her benefactor could have cleared up this misconception and the love story isn’t impacted at all. But for a book about the importance of women’s rights it felt ever so slightly off.
Violeta by Isabel Allende
Violeta comes into the world on a stormy day in 1920, the first girl in a family of five boisterous sons. From the start, her life will be marked by extraordinary events, for the ripples of the Great War are still being felt, even as the Spanish flu arrives almost at the moment of her birth. Her life will be shaped by some of the most important events of history: the fight for women’s rights, the rise and fall of tyrants, and, ultimately, not one but two pandemics.
What I Thought
Violeta is another book I wanted to love. A sweeping saga about a woman born in turn of the century South America. It has great bones. However, this book is narrated as one long letter and for some reason this seemed to take some of the emotion out of powerful moments in the book. Violeta felt detached from her own actions at times. As a result, I found it hard to feel invested. A real shame because Isabel Allende is such a towering feature of South American literature.
What’s New To Your Bookshelf?
That wraps up the latest reading roundup here on The Female Scriblerian. If you want to share book recommendations or follow along with what I’m currently reading, check out my Goodreads account. What’s new to the bookshelf for you? I’d love to know!
