April brought plenty of rainy days so lots of opportunities for reading. I’ve been a bit busier with work stuff so my reading rate has slowed to about a book a week. So this is going to be a fairly short look-back.
Most of the time, my husband despairs at the books overflowing on the shelves and littering the coffee table, dining table, and many other surfaces in the house. He sighs when I struggle to walk past a book shop while we are out and about, and shakes his head if I don’t leave empty handed. So it was to my great surprise that, while doing the weekly shop, he had ventured down the middle aisle and spotted a novel for me and bought it! The Soulmate Equation by writing duo Christina Lauren, was what he chose. And he made a good choice. It was the perfect antidote to busy days. Set in San Diego, Jess Davis is a single mum and busy financial consultant who works out of a local cafe with her writer freind. Jess has little time for romance. She’s not really looking, but when would she have the time? Until a chance encounter with a cafe regular, Dr River Pena, leads her to her soulmate. Dr River is developing a new way of dating. He has devised a genetically-based algorithm which suggest that your soulmate can be found my matching DNA. Offering Jess and her friend a free trial, Jess’s DNA sample matches her with a higher compatibility score than the company has ever seen before. But does the science stand up? There was enough differentiation in this classic romance to keep it interesting. This would be a great beach read.
Having had a fun time in romance-land, I decided to stick with the genre for my next read, as well because I was still in need of some light distraction after some longer working hours.The Flatshare by Beth O’Leary was next to jump off my shelf. I’d picked up a second-hand copy after hearing the author interviewed on the Best Book Forward podcast, where authors are asked about their top five books, Desert Island Discs-style. They also discussed the author’s own books and I liked the sound of this one. And I really enjoyed it. Tiffy needs a place to live, cheap and fast. Leon works the night shift at a hospice and sleeps during the day and could use some extra cash to help a family predicament. One bed, two flatmates. And in principle the two would never meet. But post-it notes and kind gestures of making extra food for the other are all it takes to light a spark. I will look out for more of Beth O’Leary’s books and hope that each is as charming as this one was. Five stars for the charm factor.
When not thinking of books, I’m usually thinking about food or places to visit (often Italy) and after watching a gorgeous cooking/travel show by Sophie Grigson, documenting her move to Puglia, I had to buy her book A Curious Absence of Chickens. Part memoir, part recipe book, this transplanted me to southern Italy. I would love to spend an extended stay in Puglia and there was lots of inspiration in this to keep me going until I can make that happen. And this week, I learned that Sophie has another book coming out with more tales from Puglia so that’s already going on my TBR. If you know of anyone with a dog-friendly bolthole to rent for a month or two in Puglia, give me a shout!
Watch out for my upcoming review of Elizabeth Strout’s latest book. To catch up a little, I started at the beginning with My Name is Lucy Barton, a spare story of daughter and mother. Lucy has had an operation but there were complications and her stay in a New York hospital extends to several weeks. While her husband cares for their two young daughters, he calls upon Lucy’s mother to come and visit. Lucy’s mother has never visited Lucy in all the years she has lived in the city and ventures from her home in Amgash, in the Mid-West, braving a flight and a cab ride from the airport. As her mother sits in vigil in Lucy’s room, the two have their first, strained, conversation in years. The wonder of this book is how much is communicated in the unsaid. Although a short book (barely 200 pages) and mostly set within the confines of the hospital room, the story covers a number of relationships, childhood and trauma, the institution of marriage, as well as the exploration of self through writing. When a book leaves you thinking about it long after you have put it down, you know it has substance. This is one such book. Five stars from me.
Less thought-provoking but nonetheless memorable have been the books in The Thursday Murder Club series. Richard Osman’s fourth instalment was a Christmas gift last year and I have waited patiently to read it until I could also borrow it from the e-library. Why read it on screen when I have the paper copy? So that I can read it wherever I am night or day. When my hold came in, I was delighted to be able to get started. I read most of it through the paper book, hard back and heavy though it was. I would say I enjoyed it a little less than the preceding three. The characters are settled and there are few surprises, but there was more emotion and pathos in this one. The story begins with the murder of a friend of the TMC, and the unlikely mix of heroin distribution and antique dealing feature. There remained enough humour and intrigue to pull me through but I wonder where next with this series. Osman must have thought the same when he finished it as he is taking a break to introduce a new series with a father-in-law/daughter-in-law detective agency called We Solve Murders. I’m sure I will be putting that one on my Christmas list this year.
April also saw me attend my first in-person book club in about 10 years. Since my early 20s, conversations through books has been a gateway to finding my tribe. When I moved to Amsterdam nearly 20 years ago, a friend already living there instructed me to pick up two copies of the next book at the airport and took me along to her group. I made a close group of bookish and less bookish friends from that original group of six, so close that once the group broke up, I travelled to Chicago and Sydney to visit them. I didn’t quite get the same vibe from my new local group but there are still people to meet so perhaps I should give it another go. Until next month, book friends.
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