This Bird Has Flown by Susanna Hoffs

Title: This Bird Has Flown

Author: Susanna Hoffs

Genre: Romantic Comedy; Romance; Fiction

This romantic comedy filled with fun music references follows Jane, a one-hit wonder who is struggling to match her early success. A recent breakup leaves her bereft, and her agent/best friend offers to let her stay in her London apartment for a change of scenery. On the plane ride, Jane hits it off with a charming Oxford literature professor. When she visits him in Oxford, they spend a lot of time together, and she does little songwriting. But their budding romance hits a snag when past relationships catch up with them. Written by a co-founder of The Bangles, this breezy novel is perfect for the warmer weather ahead.

- Sarah

Check out This Bird Has Flown by Susanna Hoffs @ the library!

Radio Girls by Sarah-Jane Stratford

Title: Radio Girls

Author: Sarah-Jane Stratford

Genre: Historical Fiction

Radio Girls is set in pre-WWII England, as the BBC is just beginning to reach airwaves. The novel explores many topics, women's rights being the main one. Maisie takes a secretarial job at the BBC to earn some much needed income, and ends up falling into the career path of her dreams. Maisie is taken under the wing of Hilda Matheson and learns many different things, least of all how to put on broadcasts for the BBC Talks programming. An excellent read that inspires comparing the past to today's world, through the lens of journalism.

- Jamie

Check out Radio Girls @ the library.

The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper by Phaedra Patrick

Ever since his wife Miriam died a year ago, Arthur Pepper sticks to his routine as a means of coping with his loss. He wakes up at precisely 7:30 every morning, wears the same khaki pants and mustard colored sweater vest, eats breakfast, and waters his fern named Frederica. When he finally gets up the courage to start going through his deceased wife's things, he stumbles upon an exquisite gold charm bracelet in an old pair of boots. Having never seen his wife wear the bracelet, Arthur is especially intrigued by the stories behind the charms on the bracelet. Working with clues from the charms, old addresses, and conversations with Miriam's friends, Arthur sets out on a quest to London, Paris, and India in the hopes of finding out more about Miriam.

The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper is a heartwarming story of love, loss, and grief. Filled with a cast of quirky, witty characters the reader can't help but root for Arthur to change from a bumbling mess to the much better person he's meant to be, all while celebrating the joy that life has to offer.

Harbour Street by Ann Cleeves

Harbour Street by Ann Cleeves is the sixth in the series of British crime novels with Detective Inspector Vera Stanhope. Her protégé, Detective Joe Ashford discovers that a woman has been stabbed on a crowded Metro train just days before Christmas. The victim, Margaret Krukowski is an elderly woman that Vera learns has many secrets. A few days later a prostitute that Margaret was trying to help is also found murdered. The clues lead to the residents of Harbour Street who are trying to keep their own secrets safe. Through this is the sixth in a series, it stands alone with its vivid characters and suspenseful conclusion. The Netflix series, Vera, is based on the compelling and flawed characters from these books. What a moody and atmospheric story that keeps its readers guessing until the end.

Murder Most Malicious by Alyssa Maxwell

Due to the high number of causalities and disabled veterans, World War I forever changed England. One of the more positive transformations reflected in Murder Most Malicious by Alyssa Maxwell is the breaking down of class barriers. At Lady Phoebe Renshaw’s family estate, Foxwood Hall, the Marquis of Allerton is missing. Though he is a thoroughly unpleasant man that no one misses except his mother, he must be found. The local police suspect a footman, but Lady Phoebe believes the young man innocent. Lady Phoebe joins forces with her maid, Eva Huntford to find out what exactly happened to the Marquis of Allerton. This is a charming historical mystery with two strong female characters and an authentic sense of time and place. Recommend to Downton Abbey fans!

One Plus One by Jojo Moyes

Jess Thomas is a single mom, raising not only her math whiz daughter Tanzie, but her makeup wearing, bullied stepson Nicky. Oh, not to mention there's also the family's beloved, slobbery, often lazy dog Norman that Jess has to worry about. Life hasn't been easy for Jess since her husband Marty left two years ago. Since then, she's been working like crazy cleaning houses and bartending just to make ends meet. With money being tight and Jess needing to find a way to get Tanzie to the math Olympiad in the hopes of getting her into a great school, Jess winds up doing something she never thought she'd see herself doing.

Ed Nicholls is the head of a software development firm. Money has never been scarce for Ed, so much so that he owns a beachfront home in England (where Jess just so happens to be his cleaner), a flat in London, and far too many cars to count. Things are going well for Ed until he's investigated for insider trading. With his family constantly on his case to visit his dying father, Ed can't begin to bare letting them down with the news of the insider trading scandal.

In One Plus One, as only Jojo Moyes can do, Jess and Ed's stories end up being wound together with wit, charm, and romance. After a strange occurrence on the side of the road, Jess, Ed, Tanzie, Nicky, and even, slobbering Norman wind up spending lots of time together in the car in an attempt to get Tanzie to the math Olympiad on time. Disagreeing on eating out, renting hotel rooms, and pretty much anything else money related, Jess and Ed realize that although they come from completely different worlds, there's a spark that just can't be quelled. When things go awry, will Jess and Ed's love last?

The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher by Hilary Mantel

The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher is a collection of ten short stories by award-winning author, Hilary Mantel. Ironic observations and wry humor mark most of these stories which, for the most part, depict life in twentieth century England.  Adultery, sudden death, lingering death, class differences, the cruelty of children, cruelty to children and resentment against ruthless politicians are some of the subjects of these stories. They often lead the reader along gentle plot lines until the conclusions take unexpected darker twists. These stories are best approached cold, without a hint of what may happen, so the less said here the better. 

Check out The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher @ the library today! 

The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith

Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott are back in a new mystery!  Approximately nine months after solving the Lula Landry case, things are looking slightly better for gritty private investigator Cormoran Strike.   He’s now sleeping in the flat above his office (instead of *in* the office itself) and has a steady stream of rich socialites who have hired Strike to spy on their wives/husbands/girlfriends.  But Strike is bored.  Soon, a shabby, mousy woman arrives at the office saying that her husband has gone missing.  Leonora Quine insists that though Owen may be an unfaithful husband who often disappears for days at a time, he would never leave for too long because of their daughter.  Owen Quine is a has-been writer known for novels of a very graphic nature.  The newest book that he’s just finished and is ready to publish, Bombyx Mori, is more of the same or so it first appears.  Cormoran’s gut tells him that this is no ordinary case and is soon on the hunt for the missing Quine.

After a visit to Quine’s agent, Strike learns that the new novel is more than it seems.  Apparently Quine has based the characters in his book on many of his friends and coworkers in the publishing industry.  After being told that his book was unpublishable due to possible libel lawsuits, the author threatens to publish it himself as an ebook, gathers up every last scrap of the manuscript and disappears.  When Quine is discovered murdered in a way that mirrors that of the main character in Bombyx Mori, even more questions arise.  Who had a chance to read the manuscript?  Quine had dirt of a lot of people, but who would go so far as to commit murder?

Like The Cuckoo’s Calling, the first book in the Strike series written under J.K. Rowling’s pseudonym, The Silkworm jumps right back into the middle of Cormoran and Robin’s world of mystery and crime.  There is more character development: Robin’s fiancée Matthew still hasn’t come around to Robin’s career choice and Stike is still struggling with his latest breakup with Charlotte.  And yes, there is still a lot of unvoiced tension ala “Why don’t Robin and Strike just date each other?  Then they wouldn’t be so darn miserable!” which is half the fun of these books.  Readers who enjoyed The Cuckoos Calling will not be disappointed by The Silkworm and the fact that Galbraith has left plenty of room for more Cormoran Strike novels in the future.

Check out The Silkworm @ the library!

All The Birds Singing by Evie Wyld

Jake Whyte is living on a remote island off the coast of England. An Australian, a woman who is farming sheep on her own, she is an outsider who spurns the company of the locals. She prefers to live and work alone until someone or something starts to kill and eviscerate her sheep. Frightened, she seeks out the help of the man who previously owned her farm. Are the sheep being killed by teens, foxes, or something even more threatening? He is unable to advise her or assuage her mounting fear. She remains on her own. Alternating chapters tell the story of how Jake came to live on this island so far from her home. In reverse chronological order we learn the story of Jake’s life: her days traveling with a sheep-shearing crew; her life with Otto, a sheep farmer; her time as a prostitute; and her life with her difficult family. These chapters drive the story, building a page-turning tension that compels the reader to guess and guess again why Jake is always on the run, why she keeps to herself, why her back is covered with scars and why she maintains a tenuous connection with her estranged family. In All The Birds Singing, Evie Wyld has created a novel of suspense and mystery, a page-turner that will keep the reader enthralled to the last page.

Check out All The Birds Singing @ the library!

Minding the Manor: The Memoir of a 1930's English Kitchen Maid by Mollie Moran

Mollie Moran writes her book in a conversational style, making readers feel that we are visiting an elderly neighbor or relative who has good stories to tell.  Mollie Brown was born in rural England in 1916 to a poor but resourceful family. A bright, outdoor-loving tomboy, she left school at age fourteen to make her own way in the world. She was thrilled to get a position as a scullery maid in a London home. Part of a large staff (fourteen people served two men), at first she was overwhelmed by the sheer amount of heavy scrubbing she was expected to do. (She washed dishes for not only her two masters but all fourteen servants.) But with the help of friendship, good humor, physical strength and emotional pluck, she survived and eventually thrived. She was promoted to kitchen maid and learned some cooking skills which led to more promotions. Eventually she became a valued cook.

But this book is not only about drudgery below stairs. Just like any teenage girl, Mollie was interested in clothes and boys. She never wasted a minute of her free time, going to all the dances she could and getting mixed up with the Blackshirts in Hyde Park, (attracted by the boys and not the politics). She embarrassed her employer by posing in her bathing costume for a picture that ended up in the “News of the World” newspaper, a weekly tabloid that just went out of publication in 2011. During her time in London, she caught glimpses of members of the Royal Family as well as Wallace Simpson.

At the onset of World War II, she met and married a service man in the RAF. They were separated for the duration of the war, but in the post-war years she and her children accompanied him to his postings in the Far East. Her willingness to embrace opportunity and try new experiences helped her in this phase of her life just as it did when she worked as a maid.

At ninety-seven years of age, Mollie Moran has an excellent memory and sense of humor. Minding the Manor: the Memoir of a 1930's English Kitchen Maid is an engaging personal story.

Check out Minding the Manor @ the library!

Headlong by Michael Frayn

Martin and his wife and baby daughter have arrived at their country home so Martin, a philosopher, can work on his book. But, when he visits the neighbors and sees that they have recently purchased some old paintings at a rummage sale, he convinces himself that they have unknowingly purchased the missing work of an old master. Rather than inform the neighbors of this possibility, he plots and connives to get the painting for himself. Avarice takes control of his life. His obsession causes him to neglect his book and aggravate his wife (an actual art historian). To prove his own hypothesis, he delves deeply into the study of the paintings of Pieter Brueghel, a Dutch painter of the sixteenth century. And he undertakes some ridiculous shenanigans (including the promise of an affair with the wife of the art buyer) to acquire the painting. Just when it seems that Martin has successfully acquired the painting, a series of disastrous events bring him crashing (literally) back to reality.  Farcical humor makes this book uproariously funny. 

Check out Headlong @ the library!

The Secret Rooms by Catherine Bailey

What begins as a trip to do research for an upcoming book turns into a real-life mystery for television producer Catherine Bailey.  The Secret Rooms reads like something in a PBS Masterpiece or Downton Abbey script:  historian goes to giant English castle to research for a book and is let into a series of rooms that have been completely sealed off for more than 60 years.  While going through the extensive trove of family letters, she notices that all of the letters from the person she is most interested in, John, the 9^th Duke of Rutland, are missing for about six months of World War I.  Not only that: all of the letters from all of the family members are missing during the exact same dates.  Another queer fact pops up during this mystery: John died in the series of rooms where all of the family records were kept though he was suffering from a preventable illness.  What was he feverishly working on until the moment of his death?  Her original book idea abandoned due to a lack of primary sources, the thought continually nags at her: why, if the 9^th Duke was such a meticulous records keeper, would such a large bunch of letters be missing?  What transpires is a twisting hunt through decades of family and government records. 

After much searching, Bailey discovers that there was not one gap in the family’s letters, but three.  Once again, not only John’s letters, but those of the entire family were missing for the periods beginning on August 23^rd 1894, June 6^th 1909 and July 7^th 1915.  While she surmises that the gap in 1915 could potentially have something to do with the war, the gaps for 1909 (when John was stationed at the British Embassy in Rome) and the gap in 1894 (when John was only eight years old) are particularly puzzling.  Was John hiding something that he did or was he covering for someone else?

Bailey takes us on a thrilling ride through the early 20^th British aristocracy and the secrets they kept.  This book is a great choice for both readers who enjoy the writing style of Erik Larson’s Devil in the White City and those who enjoy the world of Downton Abbey.  The Secret Rooms is a fascinating true history of a family who would do almost anything to see their estate and way of life survive.  

Check out The Secret Rooms by Catherine Bailey @ the library!

Perfect by Racehel Joyce

In 1972, in suburban England, two smart and observant English boys, Byron and James, are somewhat obsessive about perfection. They want things to be right and earnestly try to correct anything that is amiss. But, although they are smart and observant and well-meaning, they are eleven year old children. They do not always understand what they have observed, particularly the dynamics of adult relationships. Consequently, their meddling creates unintended problems, particularly for Byron’s kind mother, Diane, who must strive every moment of her life to conform to the expectations of her exacting and controlling husband. When Diane inadvertently becomes involved with a working class family in the area, the boys perceive each minor mishap as a catastrophe. Their well-meaning meddling creates chaos that consumes Diane’s life. In an alternate story occurring in present day England, a middle-aged man, Jim, struggles to adapt to independence after the mental hospital in which he has spent his entire adult life is closed. Unlike other patients, Jim has no family to go to and must learn to cope on his own. When some co-workers at his new job befriend him, he finds himself with an unorthodox support group that helps him navigate the complexities of everyday life. The two stories eventually connect in the surprising conclusion of Perfect. Rachel Joyce is the author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, and in Perfect she has created another quirky, character-driven novel.

Check out Perfect @ the library!

Longbourn by Jo Baker

Many, many authors have tried to capture the genius that is Jane Austen (and more specifically, the delight that came from the characters in Pride and Prejudice).  But Longbourn by Jo Baker isn’t an Austen rip-off.  It isn’t even a story that tries to answer the question “What happened after Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy got married?”  Instead, Baker has told the story of the Bennet household from the point of view of a rather unlikely character: the Bennet’s housemaid, Sarah. 

Sarah (about Ms. Elizabeth Bennet’s age) has been with the family since she was a little girl.  She does everything that is expected of a housemaid including: soaking and scrubbing muddy petticoats, feeding the pigs, emptying chamber pots and washing the never-ending supply of dishes being used by a family of seven.  She does not complain. But she does wonder what it would be like to live a life where no one expected you to do anything and you could act on your own free-will. 

The joyous thing about this novel is that we see only glimpses of the Bennet family; a line of conversation here and there, but not much more.  The pages are filled with Sarah’s daily activities and those of the other staff: Mr. Hill and the housekeeper Mrs. Hill, the young housemaid Polly and a new hired man, James, who has a shadowy past.  There is little here of Jane’s pining for Bingley or Elizabeth’s annoyance with Darcy.  Sarah slowly sets off down a path towards her own romance but will she end up with the mysterious James or Mr. Bingley’s handsome and charming servant Ptomely? 

Baker takes us with Sarah on her journey from young lady to woman and we get to see just how much she longs for a world outside of service.  We see her set off with Elizabeth to Kent to visit the Collinses and her amazement at the metropolis that is London.  When she is given the opportunity to leave Longbourn and serve at Pemberly, will the grand house be the new responsibilities and distractions she needs?  Will she marry in order to get out of service?  Or will she go a direction all her own without the help of her benefactors and friends? 

Longbourn by Jo Baker is a fun and new twist for even the staunchest Jane Austen fans.  

Queen's Gambit by Elizabeth Fremantle

The Queen’s Gambit is a chess opening in which a pawn is temporarily sacrificed to give the player a strong center presence. In The Queen's Gambit by Elizabeth Fremantle, the life of Elizabeth Parr, sixth wife of Henry VIII, becomes a chess game after her marriage. In order to keep her position and her head, she must plan carefully, stay at least one move ahead of her enemies, and arrange her allies carefully around her. To succeed at this game, she needs the loyalty of her maid-servant, Dot, illiterate and lowly-born, who understands the importance of keeping the Queen’s secrets, even at great danger to herself.

Katherine Parr was thirty, twice-widowed and childless, when her modesty and common sense caught the eye of King Henry VIII. His proposal of marriage could not be refused.  Katherine was forced to put aside self-interest to marry a husband who was by this time elderly, sick, bad-tempered and dangerous. Henry was a man who could suddenly turn on those close to him and order anyone, even his queen, banished, arrested or executed. Katherine endured some close calls, but with the help of servants and friends and her own intuition about the King’s moods, she was able to outwit her enemies and outlive the king. In this book her story is told from two points of view, Katherine’s and Dot’s.  Each was a woman who rose above her station. Katherine, of aristocratic but not royal blood, became Queen of England. Dot, the uneducated daughter of a thatcher, became the Queen’s most trusted retainer. Together they navigated the chess board of the English Court, the gossip, the intrigues, the back-biting, the maneuvering for favor.

After Henry’s death, both Katherine and Dot married for love. Dot created a happy home and family, but Katherine’s fourth husband, Thomas Seymour, proved to be a social-climbing philanderer. Neither of Katherine’s positions, Queen and Dowager Queen, could provide happiness or safety. After careful strategizing in Henry’s Court kept her alive, she died at age thirty-six, as so many sixteenth century women did, in childbirth.

Check out The Queen's Gambit at the library!

Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear

In this first of many Maisie Dobbs mysteries a seemingly open and shut infidelity case leads the private investigator to more questions than answers.  Maisie looks into a place called The Retreat where severely injured soldiers form the Great War live out their lives with others who understand what they have been through.  Their savings are pooled and used to pay for the community.  This case brings up memories for Maisie from her own time serving as a nurse in the Great War and her backstory is gone over in detail.  You’ll love the smart, independent, and very intuitive Maisie Dobbs and be happy to know she has many more adventures.  Checkout Maisie Dobbs@ thelibrary!

The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling

Disagreeable people often make the most interesting characters in a book. J.K. Rowling’s The Casual Vacancy has so many disagreeable characters she has created a real page-turner, despite a mundane sounding plot concerning an election for a village council. Only Barry Fairbrother, who suddenly dies at the very beginning of the book, seemed to be decent and sincere. The others either seethe with anger and resentment or smugly bask in unwarranted self-esteem. Mr. Fairbrother’s sudden death creates a vacancy on the Pagford Village Council. He had grown up poor and worked his way into the middle class without forgetting his roots.  As a member of the council, he was the strongest supporter of the public housing complex called The Fields where the poorest Pagford citizens live. After his death, several people announce their intention to run for the vacant seat but none have his leadership abilities or empathy for the residents of The Fields. Gossip, lies and dirty tricks undermine the campaigns and reputations of several candidates as well as some of the current council members. Hostility to the public housing residents is the single issue driving the election. Many of the residents of The Fields, particularly the Wheedon family, have so many problems they cannot make an effort to even appear to be the “deserving poor.” But in Pagford, all the citizens have faults and weaknesses. Moral superiority and decency does not necessarily come with education, money or class. 

Check out The Casual Vacancy @ the library! (Perhaps while waiting for your hold on The Cuckoo's Calling!)

Instructions for a Heatwave by Maggie O’Farrell

In the summer of 1976, when London is suffering through a record-breaking heat wave and drought, Robert Riordan, a retired London banker, walks out of his home one morning to buy a newspaper. When he does not return, he creates a crisis requiring his three adult children to return to the family home.  Although his wife, Gretta, claims he was happy in his retirement, his emptied bank account reveals his vanishing to be premeditated and of his own volition. The family is not close and the children each have their own troubling secrets. Michael Francis, oldest child and only son, is failing in his personal and professional life. Monica, the responsible, perfect daughter, has similar problems. And Aoife, the difficult, late-in-life baby, who went through childhood with undiagnosed learning disabilities, is hiding the fact that she cannot read from family, friends and employers.  Monica and Aoife also have a secret between them that has destroyed their relationship. And, obviously, Robert has a secret reason for disappearing. But, in the course of searching for some clue of why their father left or where he might have gone, the children discover that their parents have keeping the biggest, most astounding secret of all. Using the small bit of information they are able to glean from their mother, their search takes them to the family home in Ireland.  Here they find answers to their questions and, perhaps, solutions to their problems. In INSTRUCTIONS FOR A HEATWAVE, author Maggie O’Farrell is able to make the reader understand this dysfunctional family (disappointed mother, distant father, angry children). We pull for them to come together and overlook each other’s weaknesses.  

Check out Instructions for a Heatwave @ the library!

Boy 30529: A Memoir by Felix Weinberg

There are a lot of Holocaust memoirs out there.  This one is a little bit different.  Czech-English physicist Felix Weinberg does not like to refer to himself as a “camp survivor.”  He considers it a series of miracles that he lived and his family did not.  But I find it hard to call Weinberg anything but a survivor.  This book tells the story of a teenager who survived not only Terezín, but Auschwitz-Birkenau, Blechhammer, the Blechhammer death march, Gross-Rosen and Buchenwald.  Once the war was over, Weinberg vowed only to look toward the future.  But years of not talking about his experiences left him feeling that he owed it to both his living and deceased relatives to put his story on paper.

Much of this book is a monument to his family.  Weinberg’s memories begin when he was a young child living in Aussig (Ústí nad Labem), Czechoslovakia.  He speaks fondly of the beautiful family home. How he and his mother, father and brother went to visit his mother’s parents in Prague during the holidays.  He talks about his health obsessed father, Victor,  who always took the family on nature outings, fed them all vitamins and even went so far as to hire a gymnastics trainer for young Felix. 

In 1939, Weinberg’s father left Czechoslovakia for London where he was arranging to move the entire family.  Hitler invaded the country in March of that year.  Victor had secured three Red Cross transportation passes for the remaining Weinbergs but through some sort of red tape or missing documents, they were not allowed to leave the country.  Nelly, Felix’s mother, moved them all to the small town of Wildenschwert (Ústí nad Orlicí) to live with the family of Rudolph Pick, a family friend.  Things continued to deteriorate in Czechoslovakia.  Soon, Felix was refused access to the local school due to his status as a Jew.  Food shortages worsened.  The SS even had the nerve to confiscate all of the skis belonging to Jews living in that mountain town.  Rudolph and Nelly decided to send inexperienced Felix to live at a nearby farm where he would be well fed.  This arrangement lasted about a week.  The Germans requisitioned the Picks’ large home in 1942 and the Weinbergs were soon after deported to Terezín; beginning a five year journey of horror and chance survival.

Weinberg’s short memoir is striking in its straightforward tone but is not filled with ghastly details of Nazi atrocities.  Felix explains that he does not remember large portions of those five years; that his mind enabled him to “see without seeing” as a coping mechanism.  Weinberg defied so many odds by surviving the war and his everyday account of life in Nazi concentration camps makes for an enthralling read.  Boy30529 is a thoughtful account of one man’s family and his experience during the holocaust.  

Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier

Mary Anning is a poor, working class woman living in Lyme Regis, England, a beach community. Elizabeth Philpot is a spinster with a passion for fish fossils.  Together they hunt fossils along the beach and find many varieties that were previously undiscovered.   Their friendship is tested by a fossil collector from London and questions raised about the authenticity of Mary Anning’s finds.   The novel begins in 1804, a time when women were not allowed out alone and their contributions to science were attributed to men.  Both of these women did live in Lyme Regis in the early nineteenth century and made valuable contributions to the study of fossils, though they were unacknowledged at the time.  Tracy Chevalier succeeds in making fossils fascinating with a novel that makes the beaches of England come to life.  From the author of Girl with a Pearl Earring, Remarkable Creatures is a richly drawn historical tale that brings little known people from famous moments in history vividly alive.