January and February Books

A look at the books I've read over the past couple of months, all pretty good ones!

Other People's Houses by Clare Mackintosh

Clare Mackintosh is always a reliable author, and her Welsh police dramas are always engaging. I knew the main characters Ffion and Leo from when I read The Last Party and A Game of Lies and I believe this is the third or fourth book that features them, however you can read this book on its own, no need to have read the previous novels. 

In this book Ffion is investigating a suspicious death and Leo is investigating some random burglaries in the nice part of town. Meanwhile they are navigating their somewhat new relationship and encounters with Leo's ex-wife and son. 

Five Star Weekend by Elin Hildebrand 

This was a fun little book by another reliable author, Elin Hildebrand. The main character’s husband has just died in a car accident. She is a food blogger/influencer and decides to host four friends at her summer house in Nantucket for a weekend as a way to relaunch her blog and to try and find something to look forward to after a few months have passed since her husband died.  The four friends will be from different period of her life and the five of them are the "five stars" of the weekend.  There is a bit of drama and interesting back stories but I mostly just like reading descriptions of beautiful places and delicious food.

Nora Webster by Colm Toibin

This is the same author that wrote Brooklyn (made into the movie of the same name starring Saorise Ronan) and the sequel Long Island. This book takes place in the same town where Ellis is from, but there isn’t really any overlap with that story. Nora, the title character, is recently widowed and has two young sons. The book follows Nora over the course of some years, her thoughts about her life, and how she finds a job, mothers her boys, finds new friends and interests. One of the reviews I read about this book says that Colm writes a book that is like “drinking a glass of water” and that is actually a perfect description.  It’s not flashy, it’s plain, it’s plodding, it’s just there. 

Promises to Keep by Genevieve Graham

Another great book by this author, I have read most of her works by now. She always chooses some aspect of Canadian history and gives us more details than when we would have learned in school. This one is about the Acadian Expulsion. In the 1700s, French settlers, known as Acadians, were living in what is now Nova Scotia (my home province). After much fighting between the French and English, the English decided they didn’t like the Acadians being there and shipped them off to the Southern United States. I remember learning about this, but this book really gave me some insight into how it would have been for the actual people and families that suffered this experience. 

This story is about a young woman and her family living in Grand Pre. The story takes place over several months and includes the actual deportation and subsequent events. She becomes acquainted with one of the British soldiers and that features in the fate of her and her family. There are interactions with the local indigenous people, the Mi'kmaq. 

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans

I am going to call this now as my favourite book of the year. This is what they call an epistolary book where it is all letters/emails. I didn’t know that when I picked it up and at first I was a little put off as I have read books like this before and they don’t always work.  This one did however and I was very quickly engaged with Sybil, the main character, and her writing companions. Sybil is a retired lawyer, divorced, with grown children, living alone.  She likes to read and she writes a lot of letters, and some emails, to her friends, family, authors whose books she has enjoyed, and others. The book does a wonderful job of giving us all of the details of Sybil’s life, past and present, and introduces the supporting cast of characters in a seamless way. It was a very interesting way to read a novel and kudos to the author to keep it moving along the way she does. I loved the way that Sybil expressed herself in her letters, very candid but thoughtful, and I was just smiling most of the time admiring the loveliness of her writing. But oh my, I found it to be so sad at the end, I was glad I was reading it alone in my house instead of on the subway, several Kleenex were required! It does make one appreciate the art of letter writing that has gone away for the most part.