Review: Doomsday Book by Connie Willis

Doomsday Book (Oxford Time Travel #1)
Connie Willis
Allen & Unwin
2005 (originally 1992), 708p
Copy borrowed from Marg @ The Intrepid Reader

Blurb {from the publisher/Goodreads.com}: For Kivrin, preparing an on-site study of one of the deadliest eras in humanity’s history was as simple as receiving inoculations against the diseases of the fourteenth century and inventing an alibi for a woman traveling alone. For her instructors in the twenty-first century, it meant painstaking calculations and careful monitoring of the rendezvous location where Kivrin would be received.

But a crisis strangely linking past and future strands Kivrin in a bygone age as her fellows try desperately to rescue her. In a time of superstition and fear, Kivrin — barely of age herself — finds she has become an unlikely angel of hope during one of history’s darkest hours.

Five years in the writing by one of science fiction’s most honored authors, Doomsday Book is a storytelling triumph. Connie Willis draws upon her understanding of the universalities of human nature to explore the ageless issues of evil, suffering and the indomitable will of the human spirit.

I have been meaning to read this series for ages now. I read Crosstalk by Connie Willis way back in 2016 I think and I’ve read a few others from her since then as well. My library only has part of this series so I was able to borrow them from Marg recently and in preparation I read Fire Watch which is a sort of prequel to this and mentions Kivrin a lot and the trauma she is experiencing after her trip. But I’m getting ahead of myself a bit.

The book is set in around 2054 and Oxford historians have found a way to send researchers back to centuries past so they can live in that era for a small amount of time (usually a week or two I think) and report back on what conditions were really like, especially in times where records might’ve been lost or incomplete. Each century is graded in terms of difficulty or danger. Kivrin, a young historian, is desperate to experience the Middle Ages, despite the reluctance of Mr Dunworthy, her superior. She does find someone who is willing though, teaching her all she will need to know, she gets inoculated against everything that can kill her and prepares extensively for a trip to 1320 England, near Bath. Where in the current timeline, another historian is excavating a dig from around the same time that Kivrin will be sent back to.

In the 2054 timeline, James Dunworthy is worried sick about Kivrin and the things that could potentially harm her, especially when the scientist in charge of “sending her back” comes to breathlessly find him and say something went wrong, before collapsing with a virulent influenza that quickly has the area quarantined, to contain what is potentially, another pandemic like the one that swept the globe at some time in the 21st century. The virus attacks quickly and violently and at first proves difficult to sequence and doesn’t really respond to the treatments of the viruses they think it might be similar to. For Dunworthy, this complicates retrieval of Kivrin if no one is around to facilitate bringing her back and he’s worried about “slippage” which is the potential for the time the person is sent back into to be miscalculated slightly. This can be by just a few hours but there are other things that can go wrong too and no one is able to re-run the coordinates and he cannot speak to the unwell scientist, who drifts in and out of consciousness and is made delirious by his fever, making it impossible to pick what is rambling and what is truth he’s desperately trying to communicate.

Meanwhile after her “drop”, Kivrin is found and transported to the house of the local Lord, although the Lord himself is not in residence: it’s his wife, their two young daughters and the Lord’s mother, who is constantly at odds with her daughter-in-law. They care for Kivrin when she is horribly ill and it takes Kivrin some time to realise why they are all so isolated. And that she isn’t actually in 1320, like she assumed….

I really enjoyed this. I loved the dual setting of 2054 and (not) 1320 and think that Connie Willis did a really good job in creating a situation that not only isolated Kivrin but also made it impossible for James in the present day to ascertain exactly where she was and if everything had gone smoothly. The fact that the scientist who falls ill (I think his name is Badri) is basically patient Zero on a new potential pandemic is a really interesting situation especially when you consider that this was published in 1992. Well after the last pandemic the world lived through and well before the one that is currently still ongoing. Willis also uses humour in the present day as well, to take the edge off a serious situation and James is constantly frustrated by a lack of ability to contact people and constantly being harassed by people he doesn’t want to be seen by (the overzealous mother of a student, his assistant who wants to talk to him about running out of toilet paper/supplies). This balances the situation Kivrin finds herself in, as she realises that the reality of the Middle Ages is not at all like what she thought it might be. She grows close to the two young daughters of the house and is horrified when she realises that Rosamund, who is probably all of about 12, is betrothed to a man named Sir Bloet, who will “come for her in the spring”, a portly man who is probably in his fifties. But the hardest part of Kivrin’s journey into the past is still to come when she realises that she’s been dropped into the wrong time – not the 1320 she wanted, but a different time entirely and a danger has been delivered to their door.

In Fire Watch the student is sent back to the Blitz and often wonders what went wrong in Kivrin’s drop for her to come back the way she did – and this explains and showcases everything she experienced in all its heartbreaking and devastating glory. Kivrin is dropped into one of the worst times in history and finds herself helpless as everyone she has come to meet in this time is stricken down with one of the worst illnesses to be recorded. In this Kivrin finds the statistics grossly underestimate the lethal rate of the disease and she is exhausted caring for sick people. Her data entries, recorded into a device embedded in her wrist, showcase her disintegration as she the situation worsens and her desperation increases. Especially because having realised where/when she is now in history, the chance of her ever being able to get back to 2054 is basically impossible – she will have missed her pick up meeting by some twenty-eight years.

This book is long – there’s no denying it. It’s almost 700p (it’s slightly over in this version as it includes the first chapter of the next book in the series) and a lot of it feels like James running around trying to call people on a telephone that probably seemed very futuristic in 1992 but in 2022, seems slightly laughable. And it does often feel repetitive: James wants to know that Kivrin got to where she was intended to be and no one can tell him. He wants to run the coordinates again, an annoying man won’t let him, the head of the lab can’t ever be contacted (it’s never addressed where he was). But that only heightens the sense of danger for Kivrin and the impact when she realises where she is, is even more devastating.

Despite its length I found myself really invested in the story and the characters. I quite liked Colin, a young teen great-nephew of one of James’ more dedicated coworkers and I believe he appears in future books so I’m looking forward to that. I have 2 more here to read and I think I need to track one other down but it’s so good to find a chunky series to enjoy again!

(Also I read a few reviews of this written in the early 2010s and several of them denigrated Willis’ side plot about running out of toilet paper in 2059 when the area is quarantined. 2020 and the coronavirus has made Connie Willis look like a prophetic genius, lol).

8/10

Book #82 of 2022

This one also counts towards my 2022 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge, it’s book #21 so far!

Review: A Caravan Like A Canary by Sasha Wasley

A Caravan Like A Canary
Sasha Wasley
Pantera Press
2021, 451p
Read via my local library/Borrow Box

Blurb {from the publisher/Goodreads.com}: Two road trips. Twenty years apart. Can the memories of a troubled family past finally be put to rest?

When Tara Button’s mother asks her to drive the bright yellow family caravan from one end of the state to the other, it’s her charming but unreliable brother, Zac, who convinces her it’s a good idea. Besides, the road trip might keep Zac out of trouble – and that’s always been a second job for Tara.

Tara doesn’t expect Zac’s enigmatic friend Danh to come along for the ride. Or the bikies that seem to be following them up the coast .

As they travel along the open road, memories of the Buttons’ last trip in the caravan engulf Tara, while a rediscovered love for the wild, glorious ocean chips away at her reserve. When forced to face her past, will Tara find the courage to let go and discover her dreams?

I have read and loved Sasha Wasley’s previous 4 books. Two of them were 4.5-star reads for me and the other 2 were soldi 4-stars. I was excited to read this book but unfortunately, this book was just not for me.

I really struggle with books that contain characters like Zac, the brother of the main character Tara. Zac is a perpetual child, reckless and irresponsible, childish and juvenile, just generally all round unlikable to read about. Unfortunately, he and Tara share a strong sibling bond which means she can’t cut him off, no matter how ridiculous he is and no matter what sort of terrifying danger he gets himself into or how much he needs to be bailed out of trouble. Tara and Zac had a traumatic childhood, which is probably why each are the person they are now as adults: Tara graduated university, first in her family to do so and got herself a good steady job working for the police department processing forensic evidence. She’s saving to buy a house. Paid cash for a car. Keeps to herself and doesn’t really allow anyone to get close, lest they ask about her childhood and the events that ended up splashed across the newspapers. Zac is the polar opposite. He’s never held a job for more than a short amount of time, he’s perpetually broke, he drinks too much, indulges in other things as well, he borrows money and never pays it back, he is the “good-time guy”, the life of the party, the guy you call when no one else wants to go for a drink. Zac always wants to go for a drink. And you know what? I think all of that wouldn’t be so hard to stomach if Zac didn’t treat Tara like utter garbage throughout most of this book.

What I did like: I thought the idea was great. I love road trip books and I’ve never been to Western Australia, so the idea of reading about a road trip driving almost the length of the state sounded great. I also really like reading about caravans and RV’s and stuff like that. I also liked Tara. The book is told in the present day and also through flashbacks of pretty much the same trip that Tara and Zac took with their mother some twenty years ago for mysterious reasons that are slowly revealed over the course of the flashbacks. And I was invested in finding out what had happened, and how it was going to end. Tara obviously has a pretty fractious relationship with her mother (even as a child, Tara didn’t really feel her mother understood her, I don’t think) and her mother is now in a situation where this is probably Tara’s last and only chance to see her.

But far too much of this story revolves around Zac and his problems and honestly, it began to really drag me down and pull me out of the story. The thing was, if Zac had been the slightest bit remorseful (and later on, grateful) I might not have disliked him so much. But he’s never it seems, been able to take responsibility for anything, nor has he ever been made to and it’s infuriating. Also the way he makes fun of Tara, mocks her for her lifestyle choices, for the fact that she is working with the police, that she can’t take time off work…..all incredibly annoying traits and if I were Tara I’d honestly have been tempted to leave him in whatever pub he’d taken himself off to in whatever town they were stopped in multiple times. Even after the full severity of Zac’s…..”issues” are revealed he is still hopelessly, look I want to say naive but I don’t think that’s true. I think he’s just blatantly ignorant and careless. It has to be explained to him again and again and again why he cannot do something and I did not have time to read that over and over. And his actions at the end of the novel are horrifyingly selfish and I think we’re supposed to ignore that because he did one good thing that he only did to benefit himself anyway, not because he felt he had any civic duty or whatever.

Unfortunately sometimes we just don’t gel with a book and for me, this was one of those books. I also was apathetic about the romance that develops throughout the course of the story, it really didn’t contribute something that I felt like I could become invested in. And as I have mentioned, the character of Zac really took away a lot of the enjoyment that I might’ve found within this story and for some people, that will not be an issue. But it made this a real struggle for me.

5/10

Book #81 of 2022

Review: Sister Stardust by Jane Green

Sister Stardust
Jane Green
Harlequin AUS
2022, 304p
Copy courtesy of the publisher

Blurb {from the publisher/Goodreads.com}: In her first novel inspired by a true story, New York Times bestselling author Jane Green reimagines the glamorous and tragic life of fashion icon and socialite Talitha Getty, for fans of Taylor Jenkins Reid and Paula McClain

Claire grew up in a small town, far from the glitz and glamour of London. Ridiculed by her stepmother, Linda, and harboring a painful crush on her brother’s best friend, she has begun to outgrow the life laid out before her. On the cusp of adulthood in the late 1960s, Claire yearns for the adventure and independence of a counterculture taking root across the world.

One day a chance encounter leads to an unexpected opportunity. Whispers of a palace in Morocco. A getaway where famous artists, models, fashion designers and musicians—even the Rolling Stones—have been known to visit.

When Claire arrives in Marrakesh, she’s swept up in a heady world of music, drugs and communal living. But one magnetic young woman seems to hold sway over the entire scene. Talitha Getty, socialite wife of a famous oil heir, has pulled everyone from Yves Saint Laurent to Marianne Faithfull into her orbit. Yet when she meets Claire, the pair instantly connect. As they grow closer, and the inner circle tightens, the realities of Talitha’s precarious life set off a chain of dangerous events that could alter Claire’s life forever.

Bestselling author Jane Green’s first work of biographical fiction breathes new life into a complicated fashion icon and the tumultuous world she inhabited. Page-turning, lush and luminously drawn, Sister Stardust is a transporting journey through a forgotten chapter of the Swinging ’60s by a beloved writer at the top of her game.

I didn’t love this.

I really liked the idea of it in a way but the further I got into it, the less I liked it. Ultimately, I don’t have a lot of interest in the lifestyles of the obscenely rich and famous, especially in the 1960s. I’m not a person that’s interested in drugs, I never have been. There is quite a lot of drug taking in this, drinking and people just generally being horrible to each other (or very not horrible).

But. The beginning had promise. Claire is a young girl in Dorset, who moves to London when living at home with her father and stepmother becomes untenable. She gets a job in a department store and eventually reinvents her entire image and ends up drawn into a hedonistic crowd, flying to Morocco on a whim with members of an up and coming band to stay at the house of J. Paul Getty Jr, son of an incredibly wealthy oil baron, and his second wife Talitha. Claire, now known as CeCe to fit her new glamorous self, becomes enamoured with the lifestyle and Talitha especially, drawn into this dangerous heady world of money, privilege, drugs and exclusivity.

I actually thought this was going to be about Talitha, giving a fictional insight into the life of a very real-life person and quite tragic figure. But to be honest, it really isn’t. She doesn’t appear until well into the novel and she’s really more a peripheral figure, although she’s influential on CeCe during the weeks she spends at Paul and Talitha’s house in Morocco. The thing is, I honestly never really felt like I got to know much about Talitha and the author never really was able to capture what made her so special, so appealing for those that met her. It seems that everyone who meets her falls in love with her even just a little but it’s never really showcased how and why. She’s beautiful but….many people are beautiful. I wasn’t alive during this time so honestly, the appeal of the lifestyle passes me by, the generosity of wealthy people and the way they picked up hangers on, people who basically came to freeload off them in terms of accomodation, food, drugs, drink. I’m not sure what Talitha actually got out of everyone coming to stay with her other than that she was social and liked having people around, whereas her husband did not really. Especially given the level of drama that took place over the course of the time CeCe and the others were staying there. And I eventually end up finding it hilarious how all these wealthy and famous people kept confiding things in CeCe, this person they had no idea how she came to be there, who they had only met like, five minutes ago.

I liked the first part of the novel and I was actually excited about the trip to Morocco and getting to experience that but honestly, I found the time spent in Morocco incredibly boring. It’s a blur of name dropping, drinking, drug taking and orgies and I found CeCe’s blind desire to be “part” of this a struggle to understand. I know she had vulnerabilities, she lost her mother at a young age, her father remarried to a woman who had no interest in parenting or caring for his children and both CeCe and her older brother left home (or were told to leave) at young ages. She wanted a family, to be part of something and this crowd were glamorous and fun. But the further she gets into it, the more tedious it was to read as CeCe blatantly ignored troubling things or if she was concerned, reassured herself that it would all be fine. At least when she went to London, she had goals for herself. What were her goals in Morocco? To hang around these people as long as she could, getting everything she could from them?

I think if you’re curious about the lives of celebrities and people famous for being famous, then this might be an enjoyable book for you. For me, it didn’t have enough substance to it and the book never really felt like it gave me any sort of insight into Talitha as a character and why she was this force that people were drawn to. And the format, which is it being retold from in the present day, didn’t really work for me either.

I’ve read this author before and enjoyed some of her books but this one was disappointing.

4/10

Book #80 of 2022

This is book #21 of my 2022 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge, hosted by Marg @ The Intrepid Reader

Review: The Tea Room On The Bay by Rachel Burton

The Tea Room On The Bay
Rachel Burton
Aria Books
2020, 244p
Read via my local library/Hoopla

Blurb {from the publisher/Goodreads.com}: It’s time for Ellie to return home and rediscover the past she left behind…

After a tough break-up, Ellie returns to the only place she’s ever really felt at home – the coastal town of Sanderson Bay. A year later, she’s living her dream, brewing delicious artisan teas and selling them at her very own café. And when the mysterious and brooding Ben walks into her tearoom, Ellie finally dares to dream of true love.

But then her ex shows up in the Bay, and just as Ellie discovers some tragic truths about her family’s past, she learns Ben might be hiding an unwelcome secret of his own…

Can Ellie let go of her past and brave a future with Ben?

Recently I spoke about reading a book where I had to stop and reading something else, something fun and lighthearted, half way through. After I finished that difficult book, I needed something else lighthearted and as soon as I read the description of this one, I knew it was going to be the one.

Ellie lives in a coastal English town called Sanderson Bay. She fled there a year ago, from York, after the breakdown of a relationship. Ellie had spent most of her school holidays with her aunt and uncle in Sanderson Bay after her parents sent her to boarding school in her teens. Her aunt and uncle ran a cafe and Ellie decided to buy it from them, turning her back on academia and living her dream of turning the cafe into an artisan tea shop. She’s recovering from the break up, moving on. Building her life. Then Ben arrives. He’s a bit brooding and he drinks coffee. Ellie prides herself in matching people and teas and so she decides that Ben must be introduced to his type.

I adored this. Ellie is living my dream. I love tea – I start every day with a pot of tea and I cannot imagine life without it. I collect teacups and mugs and teapots. I have a whole cabinet for them (it’s almost full) and I enjoy trying new teas and finding new flavours. If there were a place like Ellie’s cafe/shop near me, I would frequent it all the time! I also loved the idea of her matching people with tea to suit their personalities and how she thought about which teapot or cup to serve it in when she brewed a pot for someone. Ellie also grows her own herbs and blends her own teas (mostly herbal tisanes).

I really enjoyed the small town setting and course, loved the cafe. Ellie also allows it to be used for different recreational actives at night – knitting club, yoga night, etc and it definitely seems like her hard work has turned it into a thriving community hub. There is of course a local pub where the characters go for trivia nights and a few other bits and pieces but apart from that, the town is small and retains a lot of quiet village charm. Before Ellie bought the cafe from her uncle, a big chain coffee place made a very generous offer (think modelled on a Starbucks) but her uncle in particular, was against selling to them, knowing that such a place would change the vibe. They accepted Ellie’s offer instead and she knows that they took less money which is something she feels a bit guilty over, that they sacrificed a much more comfortable retirement, for her.

Ellie has a lot of self-esteem issues, it’s not just the thoughts about not paying enough for the cafe that plague her. She has some quite deep rooted issues stemming back to her going to Sanderson Bay in her school breaks as well as her relationship breakdown and her leaving the field of academia and buying the cafe. She has a lot of very negative, intrusive thoughts and these creep in quite often, no matter what the others around her tell her, no matter that she’s managed to really make the cafe thrive.

The arrival of Ben brings the possibility of something new into her life. It’s been a year since her relationship ended and although she wasn’t looking for anything else, Ben turning up has made her realise that she’s open to it. There’s an attraction there but it’s pretty obvious that Ben is being a bit cagey about something and Ellie doesn’t seem to really want to puzzle it out.

This was just a really soothing story to read. Loved the characters, the setting was super fun, it was the sort of small town where it felt like it’d be sweet to live there. I liked Ellie and her friends (her best friend’s issue with her MIL provided some humour) and I enjoyed the budding relationship with Ben, even if the communication between the two of them was appalling!

This loses a point (it would’ve been a 9 if not for this) for the character of Marcus and his invasiveness into the latter part of the book and how terrible Ellie was with him. Girl. Stand up for yourself! The fact that he had no where else to go when it’s mentioned that he’s the son of wealthy Manhattanites with a trust fund, is not your issue. Having him camping out on your couch, working in your shop and moving things around and causing disasters should not have been a thing. She should’ve been blunt with him and gently moved him on – instead he got to hang around and kind of drag this book out a little with some petty actions. I know there was probably a need for some conflict, but to be honest, it didn’t need to involve so much Marcus.

Still enjoyed it and am very keen to read more from this author – have already borrowed another from one of my local library’s eBook apps, centred around a family bookstore. Because if there’s one thing I love as much as tea….it’s books.

8/10

Book #79 of 2022

Review: Honor by Thrity Umrigar

Honor
Thrity Umrigar
Swift Press
2022, 326p
Read via my local library/Borrow Box

Blurb {from the publisher/Goodreads.com}: In this riveting and immersive novel, bestselling author Thrity Umrigar tells the story of two couples and the sometimes dangerous and heartbreaking challenges of love across a cultural divide.

Indian American journalist Smita has returned to India to cover a story, but reluctantly: long ago she and her family left the country with no intention of ever coming back. As she follows the case of Meena—a Hindu woman attacked by members of her own village and her own family for marrying a Muslim man—Smita comes face to face with a society where tradition carries more weight than one’s own heart, and a story that threatens to unearth the painful secrets of Smita’s own past. While Meena’s fate hangs in the balance, Smita tries in every way she can to right the scales. She also finds herself increasingly drawn to Mohan, an Indian man she meets while on assignment. But the dual love stories of Honor are as different as the cultures of Meena and Smita themselves: Smita realizes she has the freedom to enter into a casual affair, knowing she can decide later how much it means to her.

In this tender and evocative novel about love, hope, familial devotion, betrayal, and sacrifice, Thrity Umrigar shows us two courageous women trying to navigate how to be true to their homelands and themselves at the same time.

I think this book scarred my soul.

This book was so hard to read, I had to take a break in the middle of it and read something else. I contemplated not finishing it, not because it wasn’t good – it’s extremely good. I was just finding it so hard to read, but I wanted to know what happened. I had to know what happened.

Indian-American journalist Smita is holidaying in the Maldives when she receives an SOS from her journalist friend Shannon stationed in India. Shannon has hurt herself and needs surgery so she asks Smita to come help. Originally Smita thinks that Shannon needs help recovering but instead, Shannon wants Smita to cover a court case with a verdict due soon, that Shannon has been devoting time to. The case centres around the trial of two Hindu brothers who are accused of setting fire to a hut with their sister and their sister’s Muslim husband inside. The woman, Meena survives but is horrifically disfigured from the fire. Her husband does not.

For Smita, this case brings up everything she hates about India as well as incredibly painful memories and the fact that she and her family left India when she was fourteen and it doesn’t seem like she has ever been back. Faced with speaking to Meena, a woman who turned her back on everything she knew and everything she’d had drummed into her in her small village for love, as well as the accused brothers, the local village guru and others, Smita pieces together the story of what happened for an article and also deals with the complex feelings it evokes, based on her own past traumas.

This book is just so horrifically tragic. I’m quite wary of going into the ins and outs of the cultural and religious aspects as I am obviously a white person not from India and really not at all knowledgeable about the systems in place in India and my opinions on them are obviously based on my having been raised in a completely different system. I’ve read books before which have covered the tensions between the Hindu Indian population and the Muslim population but this is the first one I have read that factors in this much violence. Meena grew up in what appears to be a very small village that’s quite a few hours drive from Mumbai and no women in her village had ever worked outside their homes. When she and her sisters take jobs at the local factory, her two brothers (struggling to earn enough money as farmers) see this is a slight on their honour. When Meena falls in love with a man she meets at the factory, this man being of the Muslim faith, they disown her and immediately marry off her sister to an elderly man as Meena’s actions have lowered her prospects. But that’s not enough – seemingly the only thing the brothers can do to restore their family honour, is to remove the very thing that they believe stains it, that being Meena and her husband’s very existence.

As well as Meena’s experience, which we gain in chapters that give her perspective, we also finally get Smita’s story about why she and her family left India when she was a teenager. Hints are dropped earlier in the novel but it’s not until almost the end that she confesses the story and I have to admit, it was different to what I had assumed but no less devastating. What her family experienced as a whole was horrific and it was no wonder it had coloured her opinions and feelings on India – but despite that, there was still a huge part of her that felt so connected to the country, it made everything incredibly complex. That Smita could love the country was still possible, despite its negatives (the misogyny, the poverty, the racism, the inequality). Smita’s emotions often got the better of her being back in India – she is sometimes very reactionary and emotional, quick to anger. I didn’t actually enjoy a lot of her and Mohan’s interactions and that romance was definitely the weakest part of the novel for me….

But. The rest of it. This is fiction but it’s based loosely on a few different real life circumstances and the fact that people have experienced this, is heartbreaking. And infuriating. The scene where Smita goes to speak to Meena’s two brothers and the village elder guy (whatever he is) is…one of the most frustrating scenes, I felt so helpless and full of rage and sadness and had to admire Smita’s restraint. Likewise Meena’s mother-in-law’s views are hard as well, there’s just so much sympathy that goes to Meena herself, you just want her to have something go her way.

And the ending. Look, I don’t think the book could’ve realistically ended in a different way. But it doesn’t mean it didn’t tear me in two anyway.

I’ll think about this one for a long time.

9/10

Book #78 of 2022

Joint Review: The Island Of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak

The Island Of Missing Trees
Elif Shafak
Viking
2021, 354p
Personal purchased copy

Blurb {from the publisher/Goodreads.com}: Two teenagers, a Greek Cypriot and a Turkish Cypriot, meet at a taverna on the island they both call home. In the taverna, hidden beneath garlands of garlic, chili peppers and creeping honeysuckle, Kostas and Defne grow in their forbidden love for each other. A fig tree stretches through a cavity in the roof, and this tree bears witness to their hushed, happy meetings and eventually, to their silent, surreptitious departures. The tree is there when war breaks out, when the capital is reduced to ashes and rubble, and when the teenagers vanish. Decades later, Kostas returns. He is a botanist looking for native species, but really, he’s searching for lost love.

Years later, a Ficus carica grows in the back garden of a house in London where Ada Kazantzakis lives. This tree is her only connection to an island she has never visited – her only connection to her family’s troubled history and her complex identity as she seeks to untangle years of secrets to find her place in the world.

A moving, beautifully written and delicately constructed story of love, division, transcendence, history and eco-consciousness, The Island of Missing Trees is Elif Shafak’s best work yet.

Marg from The Intrepid Reader and I have very similar taste in books and every so often we find ourselves reading the same book at a pretty similar time and so sometimes, we do a joint review. We’ve done this multiple times in the past, alternating who starts the review and who finishes. It’s a good way to have a discussion and also, change things up a little. This time the beginning of this review/discussion is over at Marg’s blog here. And this is the second part. So pop over to her blog and check out that before you read on! My thoughts are in italics and Marg’s regular text.

{M}: I loved it! The tree was smart and funny (I laughed out loud at the part where it explained exactly why it couldn’t have been an apple tree in the Garden of Eden) and full of interesting facts. If it was a person, I would have found it a great person to chat to!  

As you mentioned the tree became the omniscient narrator, able to tell us  the story of what was happening both when it was in situ in the tavern but also in the new life in London. The tree was like the consistent character which joined the two parts of the story together, prepared to remember and talk about the past,  whereas Kostas and Defne tried to only look forward, to the point that they wouldn’t talk to their daughter, Ada, about their life in Cyprus.

Why do you think Kostas and Defne wouldn’t talk about the past? And how did this factor into the way that Ada felt about herself?

{B:} Honestly, that’s an excellent question and it’s one I find hard to answer. They both experienced a lot of trauma and Defne had continued to experience it through her work during the time of their lives when they were apart. When she chose to be with Kostas during their “second chance”, she was also disowned by her family. I think those things scar a person and it was obvious Defne had a lot of mental demons and things that plagued her. I think probably Kostas might’ve spoken about the past if he felt like he could but it became a habit over the years, and one that it took him a long time to break when Ada needed to know.

I think their silence on the past had huge implications for Ada personally. She grew up never really knowing her heritage truly, not knowing about her parent’s time in Cyprus, the wars and what they had been through. She’d never visited. There felt like there was a disconnect there and it’s only in these tragic circumstances and Ada’s lashing out when she can’t seem to keep her feelings in anymore, that seems to be the catalyst for the wound to be opened so that it can heal properly. 

I just want to go back to Defne’s work – in Cyprus after she and Kostas are separated Defne works as an archaeologist and is with the CMP – the Committee on Missing Persons. They work on locating remains from the war, through research or sometimes anonymous tips and digging up/retrieving the bodies for identification and presumably, to repatriate them to their families for proper burial and closure. Did you know organisations like this existed prior to reading this book?

{M}: I had no idea! The work that the organisation was doing sounds by turn fascinating, compelling, traumatic, healing, important and necessary. It was also possible to see how this would have impacted the people who did the work, which was evident in Defne. I think it was also important that this was work that was done by people on both sides of the conflict, together. I couldn’t help but think how difficult it must be for the people who do this work when they get the information that helps them identify the final resting place of people they know. Having said that, it would also be heartbreaking to know that people you know have not yet been found. Hard either way I guess! 

I feel like there were so many other elements that we could touch on. There are fascinating glimpses into mythology, history, nature, food and we haven’t even talked about Ada’s aunt who comes into the lives of Ada and Kosta unexpectedly! There’s so much to talk about and so many things to love this about this book. It was my first 5/5 book for the year and I can’t wait to read more from this author!

How about you?

{B}: For me, this is a solid 4.5/5 or 9/10. An excellent story and I cannot wait to try another book from Elif Shafak.

Book #54 of 2022

This is book #12 of my 2022 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge, which is hosted by Marg

It’s also book #4 of my 22 in 2022 Reading Challenge.

Top 10 Tuesday 12th April

Hello everyone and welcome back to another edition of Top 10 Tuesday, hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl. It features a different bookish related theme each week and this week’s topic is:

Top 10 Authors I Haven’t Read But Want To

Meg Wolitzer

I’ve seen lots of people I know reading and praising her books and she’s an author I’ve always intended to read. I’ve just never gotten around to it!

Sulari Gentill

An author best known for her Rowland Sinclair Mysteries series which has about 10 volumes and has won numerous awards. Obviously I have never read any of them. This is her new (upcoming) release, which is a departure from the series and takes place in the Boston Public Library. I hate this cover but the premise sounds very good.

Mia Sosa

I think, based on the descriptions/blurbs, I would quite like her books. They’ve been on my wishlist/tbr for a little while, just haven’t gotten around to acquiring them yet!

Ken Follett

I own several of his books but the issue is – they are all so long! Like, over a thousand pages. I have so many books on my shelves unread, it’s like….choosing to read this or reading 3-4 other books in the time it would take me to read just one of his. But I intend to crack the spines on these…one day!

Robert Jordan

See above with Ken Follett, lol. But when I was in high school, many years ago now, I got quite into fantasy. David Eddings, Raymond E. Feist and the like. My library had loads of Robert Jordan books, but I could never find the first one. For some reason it was always checked out when I looked, so I never got around to starting this series. I bought a copy of the first book so I could watch the adaptation but have so far gotten around to neither.

Tricia Levenseller

I’ve seen a lot of people talk up her books and this one definitely sounds like my sort of thing!

Becky Chambers

I honestly do not know why I haven’t read these already! There’s a bunch of books in this loosely linked series now and they have all been seemingly very well received. I’ve seen loads of bloggers and people I follow praising them. I think I might’ve even tried to borrow one from my library once. I definitely need to try this author!

Yaa Gyasi

I even own Home Going. And I want to buy Transcendent Kingdom. Definitely an author I will read soon.

R.F. Kuang

I’ve been meaning to read this series for ages! I have owned The Poppy War for a couple of years now.

Sharon Kay Penman

I’ve had a few people recommend her books to me pretty enthusiastically. But like the Ken Folletts and the Robert Jordans, these things be huge. And so I’ve always avoided giving them a go but one day I’d really like to. I really like this cover! I’d be keen to try this one first, I think the story of Richard III is super fascinating.

Just 10 authors that I have not read yet, but really want to (there are many more!). Have you read any of these authors? If so…which ones should have me pushing their books to the top of my TBR? Let me know!

Review: How To Lose An Earl In Ten Weeks by Jenni Fletcher

How To Lose An Earl In Ten Weeks
Jenni Fletcher
Penguin
2021, 352p
Read via my local library/Borrow Box

Blurb {from the publisher/Goodreads.com}: This is the announcement of the engagement of The Earl of Denholm to Miss Essie Craven. Welcome to the hottest Season that Regency London has ever seen.

An enemies-to-lovers regency romance that’s like watching an episode of Bridgerton. Perfect for fans of Georgette Heyer, Outlander and Romancing the Duke.

Miss Essie Craven has been engaged since birth to a man she has only met once. The haughty, black-haired man with the intense blue eyes: Aidan Ravell, Earl of Denholm. The most coveted man in all of the Ton.

The day of their marriage is set. The only problem is, spirited Essie dreams of more than being a Countess. She soon finds out that Aidan has his own reasons for not wishing to marry, but is compelled to proceed due to his sense of honour and the financial baggage his father has left him.

So, Aidan and Essie strike up a deal. Essie will find him a more suitable match, and in the meantime they will keep up appearances as the most fashionable couple in all of the Ton.

But soon what is real and what is fake begins to converge. Suddenly, what seemed to be a simple agreement is no longer quite that straightforward . . .

Recently I was halfway through a book that I found so distressing that I had to stop it and read something else that was the complete antithesis of that. I chose this book to be my ‘light in the dark’ so to speak and it was a great decision because I really enjoyed this. I thought it was fun and although the premise isn’t exactly fresh, this book did a great job of making me feel as though it was.

Essie Craven has been betrothed to the (new) Earl of Denholm since she was 8 and he was 10. Now she’s turned 18, it’s not far away and she’s determined to escape the fate. Essie has other plans, ones that would be never understood by her distant father, who packed her off to relatives after her mother died, or the aunt who tried to raise her to be a Countess. The thing that makes it easier is that Aidan doesn’t seem to want the arranged marriage either, which gives Essie an idea. She’ll find him a replacement, the most perfect Countess he could possibly have – someone much better than her, who is ill-equipped for the role. What could go wrong?

Essie doesn’t come up immediately with the idea to find the Earl and new future Countess. She does have other plans that she puts into motion first, when Aidan refuses to dissolve the agreement because his father and her father made a gentleman’s agreement that he cannot bring himself to renounce. Essie tries a lot of fun things (and some that would’ve been quite embarrassing) but Aidan sees straight through her every time and their banter and time spent together actually allows them a lot of time to build quite a nice friendship. Essie is able to be honest with him about what she wants for herself. Which I really appreciated as so often in romances, characters aren’t always honest with each other and it leads to so many misunderstandings and small conflicts.

I quite enjoyed a lot of the antics in this and I also really liked the relationship Essie has with her cousin, who she was raised with after her father basically abandoned her, and the relationship she develops with her paternal grandmother when she and her cousin are take to be under her chaperonage for their Season. There’s definitely a storyline you can see coming a mile away with Essie’s cousin (I do hope she gets her own story one day) and that gives Essie and Aidan another opportunity to be together in a way that showcases how supportive they are of each other and how they work as a team. It gives Essie some complex feelings about her choice not to marry Aidan and to find him another Countess. Even as she’s looking for one, she’s finding fault with them all or watching jealously as Aidan speaks to any other young woman.

This was perfect for what I wanted – I enjoyed the characters and the time the author took to make sure they were able to actually spend time together, to develop a relationship. Being betrothed since they were children and only having met once in their lives and their time in London gives them lots of chances to actually get to know each other and fall in love organically and it gives Essie the time to make choices about her future and what she really wants.

Really enjoyed this. It’s the first time I’ve read this author but she has a pretty extensive backlist, so I’d definitely like to read some more.

8/10

Book #77 of 2022

This book counts towards my 2022 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge, hosted by Marg @ The Intrepid Reader. It’s book #20 of the challenge!

Review: On A Night Like This by Lindsey Kelk

On A Night Like This
Lindsey Kelk
Harper Collins
2021, 342p
Read via my local library/Borrow Box

Blurb {from the publisher/Goodreads.com}: It only takes one night to fall in love…

Within days of wishing she could change her life, Fran Cooper is acting assistant to a celebrity, on a yacht in the Mediterranean, and en route to a tiny Italian island and the glittering Crystal Ball, along with the world’s rich and famous.

When she – quite literally – bumps into a handsome American called Evan, a man able to keep his cool in the face of chaos, the magic really begins.

Evan makes her a promise: no last names, no life stories, just one unforgettable night. Yet Evan belongs at the Crystal Ball and Fran is a gatecrasher. They may be soulmates, but their homes are an ocean apart, and their lives a world apart. They’ll never meet again – unless, on a night like this, everything can change forever…

I have been in the weirdest reading mood lately. I have so many books unread on my shelves and yet when I look at them, none of them make me want to pick them up. I’ve been really struggling to find something that I want to read, that I wouldn’t just be reading out of obligation. Which isn’t great – you don’t tend to really fall in love with something you’re forcing yourself to read. So I set all the things I had intended to read aside and tried to find something that I really wanted to read. I’m deep into first assessment season so that probably has something to do with it, I’m doing a lot of prescribed reading so sometimes when I’m not doing that, all I want to do is zone out on mindless TV or fall down a YouTube hole. But it was the weekend and I wanted to find something to read so I ended up trying my library’s ebook catalogue. It has the bonus of wide variety plus instant gratification.

I have mixed feelings about Lindsey Kelk books – I’ve really loved some. Others haven’t hit the mark for me. I actually borrowed this electronically once before and had to return it before I read it but I decided to give it a go and I’m quite glad that I did because I really enjoyed this and it was a perfect way to spend a few hours on a Sunday.

Fran is stuck in a rut. She finished up her last temping job some time ago and despite her high skills and excellent qualifications, nothing else has come up. Partly because those jobs are all in London and Fran and her fiancé have an “agreement” that she won’t travel for work anymore. They’ve been together since university and after his Nan left him a house, moved to where he grew up. Everything is this town is his – his family (who seem to be trying to decide Fran’s future for her), his friends, his exes. When Fran gets a chance to take a temporary assistant job to someone very high profile, she decides to take it. After all her fiancé can’t even be bothered to talk to her about it so why should he be included in the decision?

Fran finds herself on a luxurious yacht, travelling to the hottest event in the world. Sure, she’ll be babysitting a diva but it’s just temporary. And at first Fran doesn’t find much to enjoy about her boss but over some drinks, they find a connection – only a series of events leave Fran on her own and she is persuaded to attend the party going on, because why the hell not?

This was just really fun. I liked Fran – even though you as the reader can tell she’s really letting herself ignore some important things, she’s just going with the flow because 12 years of history with someone is hard to walk away from. But the more she stays in this life, bending to his will, the more she’s losing of herself. Taking the job is a small act of rebellion that gives her some self worth back. She’s good at her job and she’s been stifling herself for quite a while, I think. She gets to truly let loose and have a bit of fun, she meets someone really interesting who challenges her in lots of different ways and although it scares her in a way, it seems to be something she needed.

I was expecting more romance but to be honest, there’s not a huge amount and a lot of this book is just Fran examining herself and her life, hearing some truths from others and finding the courage to get out there and do things like attend the most exclusive event in the world where she knows no one in a place where everyone will obviously know everyone else. The event sounded like so much fun and there are lots of little celebrity name drops woven in that are quite funny. But mostly the event and the job is just a catalyst for Fran to realise what she wants and what will make her happy – and what isn’t.

I think this went a long way to helping with reading feeling a bit like a chore at the moment. Sometimes you just have to take some time out and think about what you want to do (or in my case, read). This was really enjoyable and I ended up reading it in one sitting. I’m not sure what I’m going to feel like next, but I borrowed a few more random books from my library, just whatever jumped out at me in different ways. So things might get a little random for a while!

8/10

Book #73 of 2022

Review: Nomadland by Jessica Bruder

Nomadland
Jessica Bruder
Swift Press
2021 (originally 2017), 273p
Read via my local library

Blurb {from the publisher/Goodreads.com}: Nomadland tells a revelatory tale of the dark underbelly of the American economy – one which foreshadows the precarious future that may await many more of us. At the same time, it celebrates the exceptional resilience and creativity of people who have given up ordinary rootedness to survive, but have not given up hope.

From the beetroot fields of North Dakota to the campgrounds of California to Amazon’s CamperForce program in Texas, employers have discovered a new, low-cost labour pool, made up largely of transient older adults. These invisible casualties of the Great Recession have taken to the road by the tens of thousands in RVs and modified vans, forming a growing community of nomads.

Recently I watched the film Nomadland which I didn’t really know too much about but had seen advertised. I knew Frances McDormand was the lead and she’s generally in pretty well-received movies so I went in quite blind and realised part way through, that a lot of the cast were not actors. That they were actually people who live this way. So when the movie finished, I did a bit of googling and came across this book, on which the movie is based, inserting the McDormand character into situations that real life characters in this book (and the movie) are living.

Ultimately, this book examines a growing inability of the older community to live comfortable lives in retirement. This can be for a variety of reasons – the 2008 Global Financial Crisis wiped out a lot of Americans’ savings, 401k and the resulting housing crash meant that in many cases, people’s houses weren’t even worth the loan still owing. Looking to reduce the biggest drain on their finances, many older Americans simply walked away from their bricks and mortar houses and took to a life on the road. They bought RV’s, campers, vans, etc and kitted them out as moving tiny houses. Some of them just slept in their cars. They work seasonal jobs – Amazon makes use of this growing population, employing them in warehouses in the lead up to Thanksgiving/Black Friday/Cyber and Monday and through until almost Christmas to deal with the busy season. There are farms that employ them as pickers in different seasons and there are also jobs managing camping grounds and parks that are often available. The pay is dismal – often below or just on minimum wage, which is around $9 an hour in a lot of states. But these people, often in their 60s, 70s and even 80s are sometimes working up to 12-14 hours a day, clocking up to 15 miles walking an Amazon factory floor and doing up to 1000 squats. The work is mind numbing and often backbreaking (Amazon facilities provide painkiller dispensaries for free) and barely keeps them above the poverty line. In many cases, it doesn’t. But most of these people are proud, determined to keep earning a living, keep contributing. Few of them can rely solely on the pension and must supplement in order to survive.

The book also examines the stigma people face, living in vans or on the road. They are often seen as undesirable, slackers, lazy, not contributing to society. Often places make it hard for them to find a safe place to sleep, banning sleeping in vehicles or parking vehicles in certain places. They can often face harassment from the local communities, who are suspicious of vans parked too long. With the invention and development of the internet, communities sprang up for likeminded people to share tips, safe places, jobs that might help and it enabled them to organise get togethers, some of which now number hundreds of vans, gathering in the desert. The community is for the most part, a bit like a family.

In covid lockdowns, I found myself watching quite a lot of YouTube and in the year or 2 before covid, it seemed that a lot of channels had sprung up dedicated to living and travelling in vans. Those channels glamorise the lifestyle a little – these people have done it by choice, to downsize voluntarily in order to save more or explore more and for the most part, their vans are not cheap and furnished to be incredibly comfortable, not cobbled together out of necessity on a shoestring. I watched one set of videos where they drove from Mexico down to the tip of Patagonia (shipping the van across the sea for part of the journey). This book doesn’t romanticise the lifestyle for those that have really been forced into it due to financial situations. Although there’s been the building of a community and you can meet up with the same friendly familiar faces year after year, the simple fact is most of these people are living pay check to pay check, budgeting hard: will they pay for propane for the heater or will they go see the doctor? Will the food they have last them until the next payment hits their bank account?

It’s honestly, quite depressing. Most if not all of these people had worked hard all their lives. Some in high paying jobs, where they lost assets in a divorce or the financial crash. And now they simply cannot afford to retire. They’re working physically demanding jobs well into their 80s. The author undertakes some of the work – she applies to Amazon and also to the sugar beet farm in North Dakota, two of the larger employers of itinerant workers. The beet farm job, she lasted only a few days and I think she worked a week at Amazon. And she was in her 30s. There’s security in the knowledge that she doesn’t have to do it (she wanted to stick it out, in solidarity as well as to be seen as one of the community) but ultimately, she found those two jobs incredibly hard to do. And yet they are being done by people twice her age, because they have little choice.

This focuses on America and a set of circumstances that led to more people taking up this lifestyle but I can see it happening in other places, including here. Housing prices in Australia have increased in a way that far outstrips the increase in wages and rents in most capital and even large cities, would be beyond someone living solely on the Aged pension. I’ve read financial reports that say people need about $1m in superannuation and should ideally own their own home in order to be a self-funded retiree and not have to rely on a pension that governments keep looking for excuses to wind back or cut at any opportunity. For a lot of women, this is not achievable, as they can spend some of their highest potential earning years out of full time work when they have children. Divorce is another way that can financially decimate people, especially if it occurs later in life, leading to losing their greatest financial asset, a house as well as having to divide up superannuation in a financial settlement. Starting over can be almost impossible.

I don’t know if I’d use the term enjoyed to describe how I felt about this book – although some of the stories of the friendships the people build are heartwarming. But there’s so many heartbreaking stories and honestly the thought of how these people must feel after a six to twelve week stint walking 15 miles a day at Amazon, is horrifying. But I think it’s such an important read because this might not be outside of the realms of possibility.

8/10

Book #72 of 2022

I’m going to count this towards my 2022 Nonfiction Reader Challenge (hosted by Shelleyrae @ Book’d Out) for the category of Social History, which “focuses on how and why social groups and relationships are formed, develop, interact and function, with an emphasis on lived experience”. I think this book absolutely fits that category – there’s definitely an entire social group that has sprung up and formed around living on the road, in vans and RV’s and various other methods, whether by design or necessity. There’s a lot of lived experience here and the author joins in, buying her own van and kitting it out to travel with people and try to really understand what this life is like for those that live it 24/7.

1. Social History

2. Popular Science

3. Language

4. Medical Memoir

5. Climate/Weather

6. Celebrity

7. Reference

8. Geography

9. Linked to a podcast

10. Wild Animals

11. Economics

12. Published in 2022

This is the 2nd book I’ve completed for the challenge so far.