Tag: Books

Love is a Curse: A Book Review

On By Annika PerryIn #books, Book Review, Book Reviews120 Comments

When approaching a new novel by Keith Stuart I’ve learnt to expect the unexpected! He’s a writer who continually explores style, themes and characters – and this is true for his recent release of ‘Love is a Curse’.

The novel immediately throws us into a world where the supernatural has dominated the lives of four generations of women of the same family. For nearly a hundred and fifty years they have lived under the curse – their lives have all been touched by it, as its youngest member, fifteen-year-old Camilla Piper is soon to discover on her aunt’s deathbed. Lorna’s last words to her niece are to warn her young Cammy: ‘Just don’t fall in love!’  All the women in the family are destined to lose the ones with whom they fall in love.

Ten years later, Cammy is still unsure of what to make of the declaration. While her sister and mother are quite normal, Cammy always feels lost and like an outsider, she is a goth just like her aunt was, and she is a little-known jewellery designer.

The arts are a critical key element within the novel, especially that of Lorna who was a world-famous artist in her time working together for a while with an equally renowned digital and robotics artist.

As an adult Cammy moves into her aunt’s old place of St. Cyprian’s Church in a small village in Somerset. It is not long before an overwhelming sense of doom falls upon Cammy, a constant feeling of being watched, smelling her aunt’s favourite perfume. She also learns about the horrific fire started by a woman in the late 1800s. A pivotal event, the fire destroyed the manor House nearby, and it turns out later that the woman was related to the family.

One day, just after Cammy declares her love to her new boyfriend during a call as he is driving, Ben crashes for no reason into a tree and is severely injured.

Cammy is convinced the curse is real and she starts to accept that she may never be able to love yet she feels compelled to delve into the past to discover more.

‘Love is a Curse’ becomes a superbly crafted paranormal investigative novel with a deep dark sense of foreboding prevailing throughout. Pathetic fallacy is used to great effect throughout the novel as furious gales and thunderstorms wreak havoc around the church and countryside. The church itself almost becomes a main character in its own right, its spooky and eerie atmosphere heightening the sense of the supernatural.

To help build up the stark threatening tension and mystery the author expertly employs a variety of elaborate narrative techniques including the main first-person POV of Cammy, but also the loving and heartbreaking love letters between her great-grandparents in World War I, her grandmother’s journal revealing a shocking (for the time) love story as well as articles and paintings. The author catches the sense of each era perfectly.

As Cammy gains knowledge of each sorrow endured over the decades a sense of inevitability takes hold over her and leads Cammy to take dramatic actions. 

The true tour de force of the novel is how Keith Stuart gradually, and then with increasing dramatic impetus, reveals the truth behind the curse.

Reading furiously at times I had to come up for fresh air. Here his expertise as a storyteller comes to the fore – his characters not only wind their way into our hearts, but the wisdom learned along the way becomes part of the reader’s heart and soul. It is a long time since I have underlined so many paragraphs in a book!

It is refreshing to read a book with so many resilient, strong and determined female protagonists, who experience extraordinary and life-changing events yet discover the strength to find the truth and overcome them. It is a joy to read a book where the paranormal and every day are interwoven centred on a convincing and engaging set of characters.

‘Love is a Curse’ is a hugely enjoyable fourth book by Keith Stuart and I look forward to seeing where his imagination will take him next!

I received a free copy of this book from the publishers via NetGalley in exchange for an honest and impartial review.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Publication Date: 25th April 2024

Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group / Sphere

Genre: General Fiction (Adult), Historical Fiction, Romance

Available: AMAZON UK Hopefully it will soon be released in U.S

A TERRIBLE KINDNESS et al

On By Annika PerryIn Goodreads Reading Challenge, short story, Writing148 Comments

Lurking at the edge of the Norwegian wood 

I cower from my evil mother.

Manipulative, domineering, demeaning.

The years of her house rules seemed interminable.

How true; at the seaside nobody hears you scream.

Believe me, I tried!

Like many I learnt to merely exist

Learnt that in the shadows we breathe.

My escape was a winding road

No dash to a happy place

Rather the sheltering of my soul.

‘Life is like a bowl of cherries, Maggie,’ 

my one and only friend told me.

‘That’s the problem, we have no cherries,’

I snapped back.

Poor Amy, she’d tried. She nearly succeeded.

Books became my saviour.

The lilac notebook in the lost bookshop, 

Filled with wise musings and inspiration was

a driving force for my escape.

Then came Leo.

I discovered him between maps and politics

A gentle invitation of coffee followed.

He saw me before I saw myself.

Never believe the lies we told, he said.

So many lies I told myself.

His friendship was a terrible kindness

One that crushed my world, the terrifying duality of my mother and I.

Did I tell you, she was evil?

The visit to the cafe was more than coffee, it was my freedom.

The vanishing of Margaret Small, the old me, was easy.

Learning to walk in someone else’s shoes as Maggie Stolz,  finding my true self, was gruelling.

It was from here where the story starts, where my life truly began.

In the ensuing days, months and years, I abandoned the family tree.

I step out of the darkness of the trees and at last realise there is a light that never goes out – the light within me.

In the five years since meeting Leo I am at last celebrating this beautiful life!

© Annika Perry, January 2024

The above story celebrates some of the 80 books I read in 2023 and it’s fun to create a short narrative featuring a few of the titles. The book titles included are in the list below.

  • Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
  • My Evil Mother by Margaret Atwood
  • House Rules by Jodi Picoult
  • At The Seaside Nobody Hears You Scream by Janet Gogerty
  • The Shadows We Breathe by Sarah Brentyn
  • A Winding Road by Miriam Hurdle
  • Happy Place by Emily Henry
  • The Sheltering by Khaya Ronkainen
  • Life is Like a Bowl of Cherries by Sally Cronin
  • The Lilac Notebook by Carol Notebook
  • The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods
  • The Lies We Told by Diana Chamberlain
  • A Terrible Kindness by Jo Browning Wroe
  • More than Coffee by Lauren Scott
  • The Vanishing of Margaret Small by Neil Alexander 
  • In Someone Else’s Shoes by Jojo Moyes
  • Where The Story Starts by Imogen Clark
  • The Family Tree by Sairish Hussain
  • In The Five Years by Rebecca Serle
  • There is Light the Never Goes out by David M Barnett
  • This Beautiful Life by Katie Marsh

Below are images of all the books I’ve had the joy of reading last year! I just made it over the finishing line of the Goodreads Reading Challenge in 2023 and this year I am reducing my sights to 52 books! 

Wishing you all a New Year blessed with good health, happiness and light – may 2024 be filled with creativity!

MORE THAN COFFEE: A BOOK REVIEW

On By Annika PerryIn #books, Book Review, Book Reviews168 Comments

‘More than Coffee’ by Lauren Scott is a beautiful and reflective celebration of life; a book of poems and prose that flows with ease between memories of the author’s life, of the six decades of a loving marriage of her parents and of her family, to present day hiking trails, between the wonder of nature and the seasons to the amusing encounter with spiders!

The pieces are imbued with warmth, love, light humour and sadness; overall togetherness. Life in all its facets is explored and ensures that the reader reflects on their own lives and those closest to them, reminding us of the treasures within even the most insignificant of items or events.

A late-comer to hiking and camping, Lauren captures the magic and enriching moments of being in the wonder of solitude in nature.

‘It’s about those quiet, nostalgic moments sitting on a smooth slab of granite, captivated by the sights and sounds of wilderness surroundings.’

The book begins with her first ever hike in her fifties and in ‘Silver Heirlooms’ she describes setting out her mother’s silverware which brings moving reflections on how this previously normal household cutlery is now filled with nostalgic significance and poignancy as her grief over the loss of her parents eases to help her move forward.

The power of nature is captured throughout and it is a privilege to join her on the trail, pausing to appreciate that ‘listening to the whispers/among the trees/our time here/is a gift.’ Just as Lauren Scott feels that the ‘tranquility embraces’ so the reader is enveloped in a heartwarming embrace.

The book fulfils the promise of being a ‘snapshot of memories’ and one of my favourites could easily be turned into a novel, I feel. ‘Ninety-seven candles’ is a beautifully penned piece about her father-in-law Wil and his extraordinary life. During his nigh hundred years of life, Wil has twice been joyously married yet endured two heartbreaking losses. However, his positive attitude and gentle humour still shine through.

A humour shared by her father, who when asked the secret to reaching his nineties, declared with aplomb, ‘the olive in the martini’.

Through her gifted writing, Lauren captures the fun first meeting with her husband; who knew selling a fridge could be so life-changing! On their first date, it was ‘as though we’ve danced together a million times before’. Lauren has a gift for seeing beyond the ordinary and in ‘Cake’ she weaves in descriptions of her bridal shower, her parents and children – the universal force of love and life is re-affirmed.

Since singing is part of Lauren’s being it is perhaps not surprising that the powerful and intense poem ‘Belonging’ is a love song to her husband and soulmate, Matt.

‘Do you trust me? Will you
take my hand and let me
lead the way to a place
transcending the boundaries
of our reality? Let us get
lost in the tranquility –
dancing to the majesty of
the surroundings, feeling the
rhythm vibrate through our
bones. For as long as our
hearts desire, this is our
destination. For time is
but a memory. Its existence
leaves no trace on the path
where we tread. There is
only you, me, and the
intensity of our belonging
to each other.‘

‘The Phone Call’ especially resonated with me as a recent ‘empty-nester’; I related to the gems of long chats with children moved away, the love and pride as they make their way into the world, but the pain too. As Lauren’s son is soon to embark upon his path across the country he tries to reassure his parents and show them how this is a positive experience for them – a comment that had me laughing out loud and so typical! ‘Mom and Dad can reap the benefits of having the house to themselves.’

In ‘More than Coffee’ Lauren realises her dream to be ‘the narrator of my own stories’ and it is with gratitude, joy and chuckling that I could sit down, with a cuppa, and join in this wonderful, uplifting and absorbing collection; peace settling upon me. I only hope I will learn to collect my memories with equal clarity, wisdom and warmth, to reach a deeper understanding of life and its joys and tragedies. ‘More than Coffee’ is a true tonic for the soul and I cannot recommend this book highly enough!

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Publication Date: 21st September 2021

Available:

Amazon UK: Kindle £ 3.32 Paperback £ 6.88

Amazon US: Kindle $ 4.99 Paperback $ 2.34

ABOUT LAUREN SCOTT

Lauren writes poetry, memoir, and fiction short stories who lives in California with her husband of thirty-three years and their chocolate lab; they have two grown children. She has authored two collections of poetry: New Day, New Dreams (2013) and Finding a Balance (2015). Her latest book, More than Coffee: Memories in Verse and Prose was published in 2021. And in 2022, she contributed four poems to the anthology: Poetry Treasures 2: Relationships. Lauren writes about family, experiencing loss, finding joy in the smallest things, and nature from her many backpacking and camping adventures.

Parallel to her passion for writing is her love for reading. Whether it is a gripping thriller or a heartwarming romance, she enjoys exploring different worlds and meeting diverse characters, drawing similarities to reality that translate into her own writing. Her writing projects are sometimes serious – drawn from painful subjects and raw emotions – or they spotlight her silly side – pulled from humorous moments captured in photographs.

Lauren is inspired to write from her love of nature and the marvelous wild world that surrounds her: the smell of the woods, the sound of a babbling brook, and the chorus of birds singing. Recent backpacking trips with her husband along the California coast and Sierra Nevada mountains have stirred up thoughts to pen about love, lost friendship, family, and the possibility that anything can happen. Hikes along the Paper Mill Creek remind her that life is fragile. From trout hatchlings to swallowtail butterflies, Lauren marvels at how the world is interconnected and that every living thing matters. She hopes her readers will find a little nugget of delight, comfort, or understanding in her poetry and stories – some detail that resonates with them beyond her words.

Finally, Lauren Scott shares her beautiful poetry, vignettes on life, and fiction short stories on her engaging blog Baydreamer ~ a thread of words from every stitch of life ~. Enjoy meeting her there and join Lauren for a cup of virtual coffee and chat.

MISPLACED DREAMS

On By Annika PerryIn #books, Books, short story, Writing102 Comments

It’s that time of year again! To reflect on the previous twelve months and especially in terms of books!

One blogger in particular sums up her reading with a creative and unique approach; namely, a short story using some of the titles of the books she’s read the year before. (You can read her wonderful short story A Walk in the Wood, Book by Book on her blog ROUGHWIGHTING) Many thanks, Pam for inspiring me to write the story below which features the titles of my top twenty of the eighty books I read in 2022.

Enjoy and see how many titles you can spot! A full list is at the end of the story.

MISPLACED DREAMS

On the island of missing trees, the grief songs resonated in the absence of the light through the leaves. Songs which spun through the air in the secret language of lost dreams; when the world of sleep took on a life of its own across the four winds of the continents and set forth into the wilderness seeking their beloved recipients.

Abigail considered herself to be one of many perfectly ordinary people until the day she joined the puzzle women. Here she realised she was uniquely placed to help others, to reconcile dreams with their owners. Many claimed she lived in cloud cuckoo land however she knew in her heart she must try and in the process find the dreams waiting for her.

It was impossible to forget the day she met him. There were so many funny things about Norman Foreman after all; a congenial chap with a triangular beard bustling down his chest, the white a comfortable padding upon his generous stomach.

“Here’s the reading list, to get you started,” he’d uttered as they sat on the bench that first meeting. The ducks waddled by the river, ignoring the bread thrown to them.

Abigail had taken the list and in that second of handover it quadruped in size and she almost lost it in the sudden gust of wind.

“I’ll do it,” she nervously promised this unusual man.

On the way home the girl at the back of the bus tried to peer over her shoulder, gasping at the impossible dreams on one side of the page, the never-ending list of names on the other. She might very well gasp in wonder, Abigail thought. She too was flummoxed. How was it possible to unite the two?

“I wish you were here,” Abigail muttered to herself in the evenings, resting in the favourite well-worn armchair, the armrests sunk in the middle disconsolately. Any energy on their part to remain puffed up long since abandoned following the passing of its regular occupant, her dear William. It was nearly fourteen years ago but still she talked to him every day.

“I’m coming home,” she reassured him. “I’m coming home.”

“Never forget the forty rules of love, my darling,” he used to remind her every morning as Radio 3 and its classical music played softly. They’d written their own rules for fun on a napkin in the local Italian restaurant on their second date. The day had forever changed their lives, love bound them into infinity.

The writing was now faded, the white of the tissue a dour brown yet certain words were legible. She’d framed it as a 20th wedding anniversary present. William died ten months later.

The napkin had become an ideal ornament of remembrance at the place of their first outing as an engaged couple. The unique museum of ordinary people struck a chord with them both and they were touched by how everyday objects of deceased loved ones were displayed with tenderness and thoughtfulness. The everyday items in the museum ensuring that the extraordinary of every life lived on. Her precious napkin was now an exhibit of its own.

Oh, how she missed her treasured hubby, how she ached to see him again and every morning the way home gets longer and longer, she thought wistfully. The way home to seeing him again seemed insurmountable.

Grief, the absolute abyss of sorrow swallowed her up, her vocal chords unused to speaking, she’d become a dictionary of lost words. Until the day she discovered the mad, insane yet incredible project.

She’d help everyone she could to be reunited with their dreams and perhaps one of the others would find hers. In the process she would find herself again and the refrain of ‘the rest of me, the rest of me’ rang in her mind.

She’d wandered alone for so long!

Years after their first talk she met Norman again and he made her the new leader of the puzzle women. To the backdrop of the murmur of bees in Glenn Gardens Abigail finally declared her longing to Norman – to dream of William every night for the rest of her life. To be reunited with him for eternity in the living and dead.

“It is quite possible,” he’d confirmed as he chewed the remains of the beef sandwich, the crumbs trailing down the white-bearded mass.

One night months later she turned off the Mozart CD that she’d been listening to whilst working away. Mozart! One of William’s favourites and how they had dreamed of going to Vienna. It was not to be.

Abigail put the massive sheaf of papers aside and stepped away from her overflowing desk. The buzzing of the computer faded with one last sighing whine and became silent. The house was quiet. Perfectly still.

Sleep, once again, Abigail fell into her dreamless sleep, the darkness overwhelming until the silence was broken by music from the secret piano. Overwhelmed she listened in bliss before William stepped forth from the piano and bowed to her. At last, her wish had been granted and they were finally reunited!

©Annika Perry, January 2023

Here are the books with links to them in chronological order as they appear in Misplaced Dreams.

The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak

Grief Songs by Liz Gauffreau My Review of Grief Songs

The Light Through the Leaves by Glendy Vanderah

The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah

Perfectly Ordinary People by Nick Alexander

The Puzzle Women by Anna Ellory

Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr

Impossible to Forget by Imogen Clark

The Funny Things about Norman Foreman by Julietta Henderson

The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams

The Girl at the Back of the Bus by Suzette D. Harrison

wish you were here by Jodi Picoult

Coming Home by Rosamunde Pilcher

The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak

The Museum of Ordinary People by Mike Gayle

The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams

the rest of me by Katie Marsh

And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer by Fredrik Backman

The Murmur of Bees by Sofia Segovia

The Secret Piano by Zhu Xiao-Mei

As I mentioned every New Year is a treat for all book lovers here on WordPress as the community shares some of their best reads from the previous year. Here are just a few posts I have come across. Please let me know if you have written a post featuring your books of 2022 or have enjoyed some other ones!

Jan Sikes

Dave Astor on Literature

Books and Bakes

Book Club Mom

Mick Canning

Darlene Foster’s Blog

Myths of the Mirror

Finally, to view all the books I read in 2022 as part of the Goodreads Reading Challenge please click here.

Not One to Read in Bed!

On By Annika PerryIn #books, Writing104 Comments

This is definitely not a book to read in bed!

Weighing 1,420 kilos (3,130 lb) and measuring a ginormous 4.18 m x 3.77 m (13.71 x 12.36 ft) this colossus book needs six people and special machine to open the pages.

Not surprisingly, the book gained the Guinness World Record at the time for being the largest book in the world.

In its 364 pages, the book explores the flora, fauna, caves and architecture of Szinpetri in northern Hungary. It is here its creators, Béla Varga and his son Gábor, reside. They used traditional bookmaking techniques and upscaled them for this project.

Béla Varga, one of the book creators

In some ways, it is a global effort as parts were sourced from Sweden (wooden tables) and from as far away as Argentina (leather from thirteen cows). Paper and billboard printing was carried out in Austria.

Watermill that houses the book at Szinpetri.

Enjoy looking at this time-lapse video of its installation.

Note: I first read about this book in ‘Writing Magazine’ and learned more about it at World’s Largest Book.

Finally, I feel this post ties in perfectly with one I wrote in my early days of blogging. Then I explored the smallest books in the world and you can read this article by clicking on the link to Small, Smaller, Smallest.

FROM HAVOC TO HARMONY

On By Annika PerryIn Books, Writing141 Comments

For years I’ve lain in bed studying the right corner of my bedroom. The mini alcove proved impossible to furnish, not for lack of trying though.

For nearly a decade a redundant large bookcase lurched out of the gap, encroaching into the room, looming over. It became an overbearing presence in the harmonious room.

Earlier a small hanging shelf fitted easily between the chimney breast and the wall, yet with only two shelves there was still the problem with the wasted space beneath. A small antique wooden box moved in for a while before becoming recalled for other purposes in the neighbouring room. Furniture seems to be itinerant in my house … restless, always on the move.

Enough is enough and one day I decided to take charge! A yearning cried out to be fulfilled, my vision for the corner, quietly resting in my mind longed for existence. It was time!

It never fails to astound me how one small plan leads to so much upheaval in a house! As I sketched my very rough outline for a fitted bookcase, my husband and I decided to invest in a new bed at the same time! And, oh yes, didn’t the paint need freshening up?!

By this time you might have realised there are a lot of books in my house … many of which needed to be moved for the project. The dining table and chairs moved into the living room (see what I mean about restless furniture!) With a heave and ho, with muttering galore, with logistics reminiscent of a battle plan we set forth!

We have a dog-legged staircase and on the middle landing are two beautiful bookcases both filled to the brim with books. Before any big furniture could go down and up these needed to be moved to the dining room. Gosh, did we add to the daily step count with these books alone! Over a hundred Encyclopaedia Britannica books moved down along with an old bible from my husband’s family as well as an abundance of fiction novels.

As the leather-bound Encyclopaedia Britannica books sprawled across the floor, their numbers seemed insurmountable as they lay in unread heaps. With thoughts to decluttering it was decided to sell them all … thank goodness for eBay and a lovely chap bought them and came to collect them the day after the auction ended. I bade the collection a fond farewell but no regrets and in the process greeted the extra space for other books!

Next to join the already burgeoning ad hoc library in the dining room (why does this post remind me of the game of Cluedo!), all the books from my old-fashioned bookcase and desk came downstairs. I cradled my children’s books in my arms, hello Heidi, ahh, the Children on the Oregon trail, there you are gold-embossed Ivanhoe!

Next step was bed removal and I’m always happy when one can donate to charity and the British Heart Foundation were only too happy to pick this up, along with the old bookcase! At last freedom … the painting soon got underway, the new bed was chosen and I’d found a carpenter for the bookcase.

A skilled craftsman, he immediately ‘got’ my vision for the corner, shared my enthusiasm for the design, adding his own additions to blend with existing old-fashioned bookcase and desk! I was skittish with excitement as I received the sketches! Perfect!

Four weeks later, the room had been reassembled and I am overjoyed with the result. The bed is a haven of comfort, I’m sleeping the cosy slumber from childhood, the corner bookshelf is a delight to see. Just as I imagined, sitting snugly into the gap, bringing light and warmth into the room!

Next came the most joyful of chores … arranging the books across the bookshelves in all the rooms of my home! Uprooting books from my study, the living room to create a cherished cohesion that I’d lost during numerous moves. I mulled over the location of books, their groupings. Where the Encyclopaedia Britannica books had resided I’ve now put my reportage and journalism books, memoirs and biographies! Already I’m finding my time going downstairs has exponentially lengthened as I take a halfway break, pick up a book, glancing through it. I’m having a wonderful time revisiting my old friends!

Unread books are safely stacked in the new bedroom bookcase along with inspirational books, poetry books ready for a perchance read are behind the glass doors, fiction books are scattered with my unusual known-only-to-me organisational skill! Ask me for a book, if I have it, I can find it!

The four weeks of havoc at home was more than worth the chaos, and I’m overjoyed with the peaceful harmony in the new bedroom with its enchanting bookcase.

2019 GOODREADS CHALLENGE

On By Annika PerryIn Books127 Comments

Welcome to the summary of my reading for 2019! For the past few years, I’ve been a keen participant of the Goodreads Reading Challenge. This year I surpassed my target of 62 books completing 66 in twelve months.

Below are images of all the books I read as well a list of them all. When there is a link, this is to my review of the particular book published earlier in the year on my blog.

Some books are in italics and these are ones I completed as part of the Reading Across Time (When Are You Reading?) Challenge in which I’ve also taken part and I almost completed all twelve, apart from 1300 – 1499! The specific eras are listed after each of the italicized books.

Both of the challenges ensured I read widely and outside my normal genre and it has been a hugely enriching and rewarding year of books … I look forward to new books galore in 2020!

SPRING

  • ‘The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra’ by Vaseem Khan
  • ‘A Velocity of Being’ edited by Maria Popova & Claudia Bedrick
  • ‘A Journal of the Plague Year’ by Daniel Defoe (1500-1699)
  • ‘I’m Fine and Neither Are You’ by Camille Pagan
  • ‘The Devil Aspect’ by Craig Russell
  • ‘The Man I Fell in Love with’ by Kate Field
  • ‘The Bookseller of Kabul’ by Asne Seierstad
  • ‘Jezebel’ by Irene Nemirovsky
  • ‘The Betrayal’ by Kate Furnivall
  • ‘A Spark of Light’ by Jodi Picoult
  • ‘Uncommon Type’ by Tom Hanks
  • ‘Elisabeth’s Lists’ by Lulah Ellender
  • ‘Youngblood Hawke’ by Herman Wouk (1940-1959)
  • ‘Epic Love Epiphany’ by Lynn L Swisher
  • ‘The Little Book of Hygge’ by Meik Wiking
  • ‘The Survivors’ by Kate Furnivall (1920-1939)
  • ‘Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng (1980-1999)
  • ‘This is Going to Hurt’ by Adam Kay (2000-The Present)

SUMMER

  • ‘I Remember’ by Joe Brainard
  • ’59 Memory Lane’ by Ceila Anderson
  • ‘Postcards from a Stranger’ by Imogen Clark
  • ‘The Binding’ by Bridget Collins
  • ‘The Romanov Sisters’ by Helen Rappaport (1900-1919)
  • ‘The Silver Ladies of Penny Lane’ by Dee MacDonald
  • ‘Valencia and Valentine’ by Siggy Krause
  • ‘The Perplexing Theft of the Jewel in the Crown’ by Vaseem Khan
  • ‘When I’m Gone’ by Emily Bleeker
  • ‘Becoming’ by Michelle Obama
  • ‘The Cactus’ by Sarah Haywood
  • ‘Dry Hard’ by Nick Spalding
  • ‘The Cut Out Girl’ by Bart van Es
  • ‘You Then, Me Now’ by Nick Alexander
  • ‘A Pinch of Magic’ by Michelle Harrison
  • ‘The Kindness of Strangers’ edited by Fearghal O’Nuallain

AUTUMN

  • ‘Simple’ by Anita Dawes
  • ‘Dear Mrs Bird’ by A J Pearce
  • ‘The Bottle of Tears’ by Nick Alexander
  • ‘If I Die Before I Wake’ by Emily Koch
  • ‘The Thing About Clare’ by Imogen Clark
  • ‘About Grace’ by Anthony Doerr
  • ‘Breakfast at The Hotel Deja Vu’ by Paul Today
  • ‘The Date’ by Louise Jensen
  • ‘The Day We Met’ by Roxie Cooper
  • ‘Lab Girl’ by Hope Jahren
  • ‘Blue Sky July’ by Nia Wyn
  • ‘The Wall’ by Marlen Haushoffer (1960-1979)
  • ‘The Wildflowers’ by Harriet Evans
  • ‘My Heart is Boundless’ by Abigail May Alcott (1800-1899)
  • ‘Moving’ by Jenny Eclair
  • ‘A Contract of Honour’ by Roy McCarthy

WINTER

  • ‘The Clan of the Cave Bear’ by Jean M. Auel (Pre-1300)
  • ‘Oh Baubles’ by Harmony Kent
  • ‘The Diary of a Bookseller’ by Shaun Bythell
  • ‘All My Puny Sorrows’ by Miriam Toews
  • ‘A Long Petal of the Sea’ by Isabel Allende
  • ‘Landmarks’ by Robert Macfarlane
  • ‘The Last List of Miss Judith Kratt’ by Andrea Bobotis
  • ‘What’s in a Name’ by Sally Cronin
  • ‘The Beekeeper of Aleppo’ by Christy Lefteri
  • ‘The Sorrows of Young Werther’ by Johann Wolfgang Van Goethe (1700-1799)
  • ‘The Last Letter of Istanbul’ by Lucy Foley
  • ‘Sea Prayer’ by Khaled Hosseini
  • ‘Testaments’ by Margaret Atwood (The Future)
  • ‘The Secret Barrister’ by The Secret Barrister
  • ‘The Seven Imperfect Rules of Elvira Carr’ by Frances Maynard
  • ‘Half a World Away’ by Mike Gayle

THE LITTLE BOOKS

On By Annika PerryIn #books, Books, Writing143 Comments

One of my favourite outings as a young girl was just an hours drive from home.

Nestled in a valley on the West Yorkshire moors, Haworth is an idyllic village, always bustling with visitors. On the top of the Main Street, a misnomer for the rambling cobbled lane, was the house of our regular pilgrimage. The Parsonage was for over forty years the home to Patrick Brontë and his family and later turned into a museum.

In silenced awe, I wandered around the rooms in which they lived, worked, wrote. I gasped at the exhibits, incredible to believe these were their actual writings. The rooms used by the Brontë family are largely unchanged and filled with a collection of furniture, clothes and personal possessions. One display particularly held me in reverential hush … the little books! Absolutely tiny – each the size of a small matchbox! How could they fit so much in these!

One set was produced by Charlotte Brontë in 1830 for her toy soldiers and featured an imaginary world created by the family called Glass Town. Aged 14 she wrote six (all sequenced) of these little books called “The Young Men’s Magazine”. They all included stories and advertisements in Charlotte’s own hand. Today five are still in existence, of which until recently the Brontë Society held four. Earlier this week they acquired the fifth through fundraising for the price of £666,790:- (approx. $860,825:-)

Over 1,000 people pledged money to help buy the book, including the illustrious and gifted actress, Judi Dench. Born in York, she is president of the Brontë Society and she captures the inherent spirit of the books perfectly.

“These tiny manuscripts are like a magical doorway into the imaginary worlds they inhabited, and also hint at their ambition to become published authors.”

Now living in the South East of England my journey to the Brontë Parsonage will take over five hours, yet this is a visit I look forward to making next year. Once there I imagine the young me and present me reunited as we stand in awed respect, admiring all five of the little books, in wonder at these young minds and hearts set on writing!

Note: All photos from Google.

YOUR BOOK BY DECREE

On By Annika PerryIn #books, Books, Writing151 Comments

The British Library wants my book! It’s official! There again they want a copy of every newly published work; be it a book, manuscript or music score.

It was only recently I learned that this esteemed institution requires publishers, by law, to forward a copy of any new publications. Legal Deposit was established in 1662 and since 2013, it now includes digital as well as print publications. Publishers, which also means authors who self-publish, must send their book to the British Library.

The King’s Library

What exactly is Legal Deposit:

“The legal deposit libraries work together to ensure the long term preservation of UK publications, both in print and digital form. They are collected systematically. They ensure that publications are held securely and that they can be discovered and accessed by readers within the legal deposit libraries as well as being preserved for the use of future generations.”

With pride, I pop a copy of “The Storyteller Speaks” in the post to them. I imagine it joining the 170 million items there. These are stored on shelving stretching on 746 km over fourteen floors.

The present British Library at St. Pancreas was only completed towards the end of the last century and it’s a building of beauty and function.

Humanities Reading Room

It is home to eleven reading rooms including ones for Rare Books, Manuscripts and Maps! Amongst its collections are materials ranging from Magna Carta to Leonardo da Vinci’s Notebook, from today’s newspapers to websites. For those interested in music there are over seven million recordings from 19th-century wax cylinders recordings to CDs.

Furthermore, a separate building on a 44-acre site in Boston Spa in Yorkshire houses around 70% of the Library’s print collection which accounts for over 80 million items.

Legal deposit is not restricted to only the British Library in London. A further five national libraries can insist on copies being forwarded by the publishers to them. These are the National Libraries of Scotland, Wales and Trinity College Dublin, as well as Cambridge University Library and Bodleian Library, University of Oxford.

  • Cambridge University Library
  • Bodleian Library, University of Oxford

Have you heard of Legal Deposit before? Have you sent your book to the British Library? For readers not in the UK, I wonder if there is a similar requirement in your county? Can’t wait to find out more from you all!

Dear Young Reader …

On By Annika PerryIn Books, Writing94 Comments

Imagine you’re writing to a reader in the future! To a new soul, yet to unravel the magic of books! What would you say to them? Would you share stories from your own life? Or inspire them with passionate prose or perhaps offer up playful poetic musings?

Just such a request was sent out to writers, scientists, artists, and other cultural trendsetters across the globe by Maria Popova. One hundred and twenty-one letters were received including ones from Mary Oliver, Jane Goodall, Neil Gaiman, from composers, philosophers to a 98-year-old Holocaust survivor.

Over eight years, together with her publisher friend Claudia Bedrick, they collated the letters, matching each of them with an illustrator, artist or graphic designer … bringing each letter individually and vividly to life!

I read about the creation ‘A Velocity of Being’ last year and ever since couldn’t wait to hold this treasure of a book in my hands. Although released in January, they had underestimated the demand and my book finally arrived last week.

With deep reverence I opened the box, with surgical skill (or so I liked to think) I cut gently through the tightly wrapped cellophane. I’m sure I heard a drum-roll as I opened the pages and started to read … my heart singing in harmony with the emotions and thoughts of the letters.

Here a just a few snippets:

“No matter where life takes you, you’re never alone with a book, which becomes a tutor, a wit, a mind-sharpener, a soul-mate, a performer, a sage, a verbal bouquet for a loved one.” Diana Ackerman

“Yesterday I swallowed a book. Opened it, read it voraciously, then gulped it down in a single sitting. … A book, and the universe within, is the touchstone for today, yesterday, and — wow, I can’t wait to find out what I read tomorrow.” Anthony Horowitz

“A writer can fit a whole world inside a book. … . Somewhere, is a book written just for you. It will fit your mind like a glove fits your hand. And it’s waiting. Go and look for it.” Neil Gaiman