I wasn’t sure what to expect when I picked up this book but I am so pleased to have read it. I loved it and was totally transported by it.
The book begins in Chicago with the 28 year old Hadley Richardson meeting a struggling writer called Ernest Hemingway. From this point onwards we are enveloped in life in 1920s – the age of jazz. The story moves to bohemian Paris where Hadley and Ernest mix with the Scott-Fitzgeralds, James Joyce, Ford Maddox Ford, Ezra Pound and other literary figures who make up “The Lost Generation”.
The story is told from the perspective of Hadley and is in the form of a memoir documenting her romance and marriage with Ernest and eventual separation and divorce. Hemingway is portrayed as a man still suffering from the effects of the war; a man of excesses with an obsession with death but also a man of great talent. It is Hadley who supports and encourages his writing and you feel that without her, he may not have achieved his full potential.
Hadley is very annoying at times, particularly when she passively accepts Hemingway’s behaviour. How many other wives would accept another woman slipping into the marital bed? However, her heartbreak at the way Hemingway unpicks their marriage is almost tangible.
It is unclear as to what percentage of the book is fact and what percentage is fiction. However, I am not sure it really matters. It is an absorbing story and has been thoroughly researched. The writing style is fluent and evocative of the era.
Leeds Libraries borrower
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What a read!
It’s crime with a difference – you know what the crime is, who’s done it and how. The book follows the investigation and it’s like a game of literary chess being played between the police and the protagonists.
It’s a fabulous read and I would recommend to most people, not just crime readers, because it’s so different.
Leeds Libraries borrower.
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I would like to recommend Call the Midwife by Jennifer Worth.
I read this book after watching the series on TV, and it has been really interesting to see the way the story was changed and adapted for the screen. The storylines and characters are all there, but the book is much more of a personal memoir.
I’m sure that anyone who saw the TV series will enjoy the book. If you didn’t see it, it’s the true story of a young midwife working amidst the poverty and terrible living conditions of the East End of London in the 1950s. Apart from anything else, the book is real glimpse of what life used to be like. It’s maybe not the most elegantly-written book I’ve ever read, but it’s powerful stuff.
Leeds Libraries borrower.
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I’ve just finished reading Pure by Andrew Miller.
It’s the story of the removal of the Paris cemetery Les Innocents and the destruction of the church building by a young engineer Jean Baptiste Barette in 1785. The engineer is the focus of the novel, starting with his commission at the palace of Versailles, and ending there with the report of work undertaken. The engineer is the one we get to know through the book and we get to see how he grows as a person through the project. Other characters come in and out of focus as they interact with him.
I really enjoyed this book – different to anything else I have read lately. I loved the use of language, the pace and the drawing of the other significant characters.
Leeds Libraries Borrower
Reserve a copy online, and collect from your nearest library. Pure was the winner of the 2011 Costa Book of the Year award.
The Spy Game by Georgina Harding is written from a child’s viewpoint during the 1960′s, when the cold war and spying was prevalent in the news.
A powerful story which is brought up to date when the girl narrator tries to fill in the gaps about her German mother’s life.
Leeds Libraries Borrower
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The author’s latest title, Painter of Silence, has been long-listed for the 2012 Orange Prize for Fiction.
My Sister Lives On The Mantelpiece, by Annabel Pitcher – really well written and compulsive, but so much loss in Jamie Mathew’s life makes the book hard to read and has made it stay with me long after I’ve read it.
Leeds Libraries Borrower
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I read this after hearing other readers talk about it. It is a fairly easy read (I managed to finish it in a day) but don’t let that fool you – you will be spooked. The story states on the front cover that it is a ghost story and it doesn’t disappoint.
The story is set on an Arctic expedition in the late 1930′s. The author manages to build the tension in the book until you really are looking over your shoulder as you read. The pictures that the book contains help to add to the tension as they help to convey the isolation and bleakness of the Arctic.
The book carries you along with Jack as he writes his journal of his time there. Is he seeing things? Is it real? I really felt I was in his mind as the story unfolds.
I would thoroughly recommend this book.
Leeds Library Borrower
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I saw this advertised and it appealed to me. I was surprised that when my reserve came, it was a book for young adults. Having read it, I think it transcends boundaries of age – it’s just a fabulous read.
Maddie and Julia meet and are both, in their way, unusual women characters for the era the book is set in, which is World War II. They are independently minded and determined. Their strong personalities take them into the war, one as a pilot and the other as a spy, both working to resist the advance of the Germans.
As soon as they meet they form a strong bond of friendship, and it’s this the novel is about as much as the adventure that happens to them both. The novel’s outcome is both shocking and so plausible that I’m sure similar things did happen that have not been recorded.
An approachable, compulsive read that I’m sure will be a prize winner.
Leeds Library Borrower
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I looked forward to this because it gave me the impression of being a literary crime novel and I wanted to read it before I saw the film.
I really wish I could give up on books more easily – this I found to be tiresome, with its in depth following of six suspects’ back stories, showing how they all could have committed this crime, only for the author to throw it all up in the air at the end.
I felt I ought to like it, but found it pretentious, misleading, disjointed and wish I hadn’t wasted the reading time on it. It’ll be a while before I tackle “Slumdog Millionaire”, if at all.
Leeds Library borrower
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I have just enjoyed The Broken Token by Chris Nickson.
Set in Leeds around the 1730s it’s a mystery. The city constable is Richard Nottingham and he and his men are trying to find out who’s killing couples late in the evenings.
I enjoyed the Leeds setting, as much of Leeds is still recognisable in it’s layout – a gentle read.
Leeds Libraries borrower
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The next two books in the series, Cold, Cruel Winter and The Constant Lovers are also available from Leeds Libraries.
I wasn’t sure what to expect when I picked up this book but I am so pleased to have read it. I loved it and was totally transported by it.
