Observations by Jane Harris ✔✔✔

Another Kindle book, this title has been on my Book Browse reading list for several years.
Observations is the story of a young Irish girl working as a maid in Scotland in the 19th century. She is what her "missus" describes as a low-life prostitute who has been living with her "heart's companion", but he has just died and his family, quite naturally, have kicked her out of his home. She just sort of arrives at Castle Haivers and ends up staying there, devoted to her missus, frightened and intimidated by her mother, who sold her daughter Daisy on the streets as a young child. Daisy re-names herself Bessy and tries to make a new life for herself at Castle Haivers.

The title of the book refers to the study Arabella, the "missus" is doing of maids in Victorian times, a study which has been going on for several years when Bessy arrives on the scene. The study, now in book form, the missus, her husband, the local Reverend, Nora, the former maid, plus various servants at Castle Haivers make for an interesting, vivid picture of country life in Victorian times. Bessy is the narrator and a lively one she is, with her shrewd, ironic comments on the people around her, as well as her use of language - words I'd never heard before, words which didn't appear in the Kindle dictionary, that's for sure - like "flipsight", "clootie dumpling", "dunegan", but her voice and her language are genuine, and I chuckled many times over her own observations!

Here's what Book Browse had to say:


The Observations is a brilliantly original, endlessly intriguing story of one woman’s journey from a difficult past into an even more disturbing present, narrated by one of the most vividly imagined heroines in recent fiction. This powerful story of secrets and suspicions, hidden histories and mysterious disappearances is at once compelling and heart-warming, showing the redemptive power of loyalty and friendship. A hugely assured and darkly funny debut, The Observations is certain to establish Jane Harris as a significant new literary talent.

Started Early, Took My Dog by Kate Atkinson ✔✔

It was two years ago when I discovered Kate Atkinson, a Scottish writer. Her book, When Will There Be Good News, was reviewed by Book Browse, then I found it at the PCB library and enjoyed it so much I read three others quite quickly. Her main character is Jackson Brodie, a sort of anti-hero actually, because he's an ex-detective, has been married two times, his second wife took off with all his money, the first one is a constant pain in his backside, he doesn't really solve cases, he just kind of circles around them, occasionally getting beat up... and so on.

This particular book I did struggle with, maybe because we were travelling to Florida while I was trying to read it, but I read thirty pages - or more accurately my eyes skimmed through thirty pages waiting to be "grabbed" by the book, then I decided to re-read those 30 pages more carefully so I'd at least know what was going on.

I did sort of finish it, and maybe sometime I'll go back and try to re-read it, but it was odd - I sort of liked it, but then I sort of didn't, too.

The Mistress of Nothing - Kate Pullinger.✔✔✔✔

I started reading this book last night after supper, and I've just finished it - at 3:15 pm on Monday. I chose it because I figured I could get it read between last night and Thursday morning, when we leave for the winter - but here I am left with having to choose another book to read! What a tough life!

Anyway, it was easy to read because it's short - only 246 pages, but also a good story, and well-written. This novel won the Governor-General's Award for Fiction in 2009. The three main characters in this story are based on real people - Lady Lucie Duff Gordon, member of the English aristocracy in 19th century London, Sally Naldrett, her maid, and Omar Abu Halaweh, her dragoman in Egypt.

Lucie suffers from tuberculosis, and is ordered to leave England to spend time healing and recovering in Cairo, so she leaves her husband and family, and takes Sally, her maid, to be her sole companion and nurse. In Egypt, she is advised to hire a male helper, and this is how Omar comes to be part of the household. He and Sally fall in love, she becomes pregnant, and has his baby. In the time leading up to the birth of the baby, these three have become very close and the lines of class have all but disappeared, but discovering Sally has "betrayed" her turns Lucie completely and ruthlessly against her, while making Omar even more indispensable in the meantime.

The story then, is summed up by Sally, the narrator, on the first page of this novel.
1. "The truth is that to her, I was not fully human."
2. "The truth is that she hated me for being happy."

Having had some recent - and ongoing - experience with ruthlessness based partially at least on class differences myself, I identified strongly with Sally, and it could have been me asking the question Sally poses at the end of the novel:
"Why is the world full of people who see fit to dispense with others as soon as it suits them? But I stop myself from having these thoughts, from thinking these things, and I get on with the task at hand. I'm very good at getting on with the task at hand - it's what suits me".

Handle With Care by Jodi Picoult.✔✔✔

Willow is a five-year-old who was born with a brittle bone disease, and over her lifetime she will experience hundreds of broken bones. Her mother, Charlotte, is pursuing a wrongful birth suit against her obstetrician- who is also her best friend - in hopes of gaining the financial means to take care of her daughter. Willow's Dad, Sean, and her older sister, Amelia, suffer too, not only as a result of Willow's disease, but also Charlotte's unwavering pursuit of the best she can get for Willow, even though she has to say she would have aborted the fetus if she'd known. There's lots of questions of ethics and morality, the trials of parenting an ill child, trying to preserve a marriage in the midst of all this, plus a law case - and lawyers who have their own problems to deal with. A quick read, but enjoyable. This is about the fifth of Picoult's books that I've read.

Galore by Michael Crummey.✔✔✔✔✔

I just enjoyed a week-long holiday in Newfoundland - without leaving the house! I smelled the cod, felt the cold winds, heard the voices of the characters, and revelled in their wonderful stories. This book had stories galore, as the title suggests, and I savoured every one, every character - from the new Anglican priest who stumbled up the dock after his voyage from England, Judah, who sprang full-blown from the belly of a whale, Devine's Widow with her tart tongue and great knowledge, to Esther, the famous opera star who returns to her hometown after fleeing the stages of European opera houses.

The book begins in the early 1800s and ends just after the first world war, so this is pioneering Newfoundland we get to experience, and I would say it's a folkloric history of Newfoundland, based in a small outport hear Harbour Grace, mainly concerns itself with two families, who merge in interesting ways as the book progresses. but whose lives and experiences are those of all Newfoundlanders.

If you've visited Newfoundland, you don't want to miss this one, and if you haven't, you'll want to go for sure after reading this. Just wonderful!!

A Daisy Dalrymple Mystery - Carola Dunn.✔✔

It's always interesting to find a new mystery writer, and after reading Room, I needed something light, so the fact that Carola Dunn has written eighteen Daisy Dalrymple mysteries was intriguing enough for me to do some more searching, so I downloaded one for my Kindle. It was called The Gunpowder Plot, takes place on a country estate in the Cotswolds, where Daisy, a journalist, is doing some research into Guy Fawkes Day, and where her friend's father is found shot to death along with a visitor from Australia. Daisy herself appears to be a bit of a "ditz"- it's her husband, Alec, a Scotland Yard detective who actually solves the mystery when he arrives.

Entertaining enough - probably a good one to read on The Tube while going back and forth from work in London!