📘The ‘What’s ’ are back….

I’ll be sharing this post with the January 2025 edition of 
What’s on your Bookshelf

January is the middle of Summer here in Australia…..when most of us sit back, relax and just enjoy life. Barring wondering if we’re going to have extreme heatwaves, bushfires or floods – which can always be just round the corner – many could be wondering how the cricket/tennis is going…..
Or if you’re anything like me – what am I going to eat read next

There are three age old questions readers often ask friends and family

What are you currently reading ?
What did you recently finish reading ?
What do you think you’ll read next ?

As well as …..What have you been watching ?

Maybe you could pass on ‘your’ answers in the comments.

Because it’s the beginning of the year and see above 👆 it’s Summer……..most of what I’ve been reading lately has been short – not too taxing – Summer related (being the season) – found in my library catalogue or online using the keyword Summer
However unread authors, new series, debut novels, novellas/short stories, Irish authors……these (and more) are what I have in mind for this year. No particular challenges like last year…..just see if it fits the bill.

On the go at the moment is:-

Shabby Summer – Warwick Deeping 1939.
A struggling landscaping nursery owner fights to keep his business alive during a severe summer drought. His wealthy neighbor plots to drive him out of business so as to purchase the nursery land at a low price. A beautiful woman takes up residence across the river on Folly Island, adding spice to the story.
That’s the Goodreads blurb however the ‘blurb’ on Amazon reads much differently- it sounds like a far more interesting and complex story HERE

Have just begun this which I’m enjoying so far. Set between two wars, small village gossip, a bit of obvious class distinction, older versus younger generation attitudes, The early seasons have been strange causing a bit of concern to the farming community.

(This quote makes me smile because it could be echoing words that many gardening bloggers have been known to come out with…)

……“this was one of those sanguinary years when the weather went mad, and played every sort of devilish trick on you. Evil spirits were abroad. The ruddy spring was bewitched“.
“There ain’t no sense in it. A March like June, and an April like January. And dry at that,” and Bob spat to show his opinion of the weather.”

*****

What I finished ….over the past month

• Summer – Edith Wharton 1917
  This is the summer that 19yr old Charity Royall could not have predicted. Living in the small community of North Dormer in New England it’s the summer she meets Lucius Harney and becomes a woman.
  Filled with all the emotions of a young confused girl, the highs and lows of a passionate first love, descriptions of flora and fauna ……which might have seemed out of place to some readers but definitely added to the storyline…… plus social history of the time (early 1900s)
  An easy to read short book, one that made you ponder (about small town living, attitudes to women, unmarried mothers, abortions, marriages ‘because’…..and whether they have changed at all) one I enjoyed reading.
  *******
• The Greengage Summer – Rumer Godden 1958.
  A summer of discovery.
  For the four children left in the care of an unknown adult after their mother becomes ill, the trip to France became a summer of discovering that some places are better than others, that growing up is not fun, that everybody has a private side, that all adults are not the same and do not always behave the way you expect them to.
  Another of those books that passed me by….one I thoroughly enjoyed and would recommend to others.
  
  The novel is based on a summer the author and her sisters spent in France when her mother took sick and they were allowed ‘to run free’ .
  If you are interested This link takes you to an interesting article about BBC journalist Hugh Schofield’s ‘search for Rumer Godden’s French summer’.
  

I also discovered this 1961 full length film adaptation of the book (called Loss of Innocence in other parts of the world). Starring Kenneth More and a young Susannah York – like all adaptations…..similar but not the same

It can be found online HERE.
******

• Mrs Lorimer’s Quiet Summer – Molly Clavering 1953.
  Mrs Lucy Lorimer (a successful published author) was looking forward to a nice quiet summer to enjoy with her friend (another female author) who lived in the same village….but her children along with young families (plus their various ‘problems’) were coming to visit for a week – all at the same time – and there just wasn’t enough room for all of them at her house. She rather liked the look of one (house not child) just down the road, which would have been large enough for them all but The Colonel (husband) wasn’t and then it was sold.
  In amongst sorting out sleeping arrangements, marriages, car crashes, accepting single son falling for girl from house down the road (not the right sort), returning order to the lives of ‘downstairs staff’ there was also sections of the local show to organise. All this and more meant it ended up being a very busy sometimes stressful time, thankfully with an ‘all’s well that ends well’ ending
  One of those lovely easy family oriented reads with descriptions of country village life in a different time also proving that mothers never stop caring….and are a dab hand at giving advice and solving problems.

(Loosely based on the friendship of authors Molly Clavering and D.E.Stevenson who lived close to each other in a Scottish village)
*******

• Murder by the Seaside (Classic Crime Stories for summer). 2022
  Edited by Cecily Gayford.
  It’s the height of summer. As the heat shimmers on the pavements and holiday makers depart for the coast, tempers begin to rise and old grudges surface. From an impossible murder on a remote Cornish beach to a coastal honeymoon gone horribly wrong, it’s not just a holiday that’s on some people’s minds…..it’s murder.

A set of short mystery stories – some longer than others – to be enjoyed during the summer….. the first one is The Boscombe Valley Mystery by Arthur Conan Doyle. Good reading – especially as it concerns a couple of fellas from Ballarat…..just two hours up the road from here!
And here for your enjoyment is the dishy Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes

*******
And now for something different – because of a recently ‘found’ photo taken on a trip we made back in 2006…..

…..I remembered a book that has been on my ‘must read sometime’ list – a downloaded version courtesy of Project Gutenberg has been sitting in my Books folder for a long time and thought maybe this summer is when I should actually get around to reading it

Anne of Green Gables – L. M. Montgomery 1908
A debut novel that turned into a series.
What a fabulous way to close off this month’s post. This story (which had me chuckling more than once as well as a bit teary in places) about a little orphan girl sent to Green Gables by mistake, who never seems to stop talking, whose mind/imagination just keeps on working, who sees the bright side of her mistakes, who gives so much of herself to Marilla & Matthew as well as the people around her has to be one of the most ‘feel good’ books I have read for a long time – if ever.
However I do wonder if it would have had the same effect/ if I’d felt the same way…..if I’d read it as a child rather than an adult.

I did learn a new word – drabbled….wet and dirty.

….” there was no help for it; Anne, clinging to Gilbert Blythe’s hand scrambled down into the dory, where she sat drabbled and furious in the stern with her arms full of dripping shawl and wet crêpe.

Chapter XXVlll. An unfortunate Lily Maid

What might I read next:- .
I’m not quite sure yet- it could be any one from this little pile that came home with me a few weeks back. I see Australian authors, historical fiction, a debut novel, a novel about a book club plus a mystery/thriller.
I’ll let you know sometime 😊

The Sea Captain’s Wife – Jackie French 2024.
Family Baggage – Monica McInerney 2005.
Where the truth lies – Karina Kilmore 2020.
The Wartime Book Club – Kate Thompson 2024

They came from my ‘cup of coffee and biccy book club’….a gloriously casual very special group that I wrote about when I first joined them back in 2015

Which is so very different to my ‘read – think – discuss’ one.
The one I enjoy in a different way because I get to read books I might not have read otherwise and where afternoon tea comes later

Click the link below to see what others have been reading
What’s on your Bookshelf

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