This update was meant to be published two days ago. WordPress had other plans for how I should use my time however.
When I logged on to begin writing the post I saw those dreaded words — “critical error”. Something (don’t ask me what) had gone wrong with the theme I had been using and I the only way I could even get into the site was via a temporary “recovery mode”.
That’s when the fun really started. To fix this issue I had to deactivate all my plug ins and install a new theme. WordPress offers many themes but I couldn’t find anything that would give me the look and feel or functions I wanted. So I ended up with a compromise.
But then I had to change all the settings which wouldn’t have been too onerous if only I could have just copied what I’d used on the original site. But of course I couldn’t access that site so essentially I have to start almost from scratch.
Hence why Booker Talk now looks rather different. I’m not keen on this design but it will have to do for now…..
And now for the bookish stuff
I hope I’m not jinxing things by saying that my “plan” for an unplanned, spontaneous #10booksofsummer reading is paying dividends. delivering some fantastic books.
This month’s novels took me from rural Wiltshire in England to 1930s New York and Maine in 2019. They featured complicated marriages, people trying to get ahead in life and a global pandemic.
All of these came from my TBR bookshelves:
Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout (not yet reviewed) This title in Strout’s series sees Lucy move to Maine to escape the dangers of New York amid the Coronovirus pandemic. In a little house by the sea, she and ex husband William revisit the past and their complex life together.
The Paris Wife by Paula McLain (review is here) Ernest Hemingway’s first wife charts the ups and downs of her marriage.
Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller (review is here) . Judgemental attitudes towards people who live on the margins of “conventional life.” are revealed in Fuller’s novel about twins who lose their home and everything that represents security.
Rules of Civility by Amor Towles. (not yet reviewed) How a girl of very slender means but endowed with wit and intelligence makes her way into the glittering social circles of New York. It’s sort of a rags to riches story with a twist.
Favourite Book of the Month
The stand out book of the month was Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller. Interesting plot; strong theme and memorable characters.
The One/s That Got Away
For the first time this year I had a month when I finished every book I started!
The Newcomers
On our circuitous holiday which took in Derbyshire, Liverpool and Pembrokeshire, I had an opportunity to check out the second hand book shops at some National Trust properties.
Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire had only a very small shop – not much bigger than a kiosk really – and nothing that spoke to me so I left empty handed.
Lyme Park, also in Derbyshire, had a strange set up — racks and racks of books in what felt like an underground tunnel. I found a book I’ve been searching for all year: A Necessary Evil by Abir Mukherjee. It’s the second in his crime fiction series set in India in the years immediately after the First World War. I read and enjoyed the first book A Rising Man in 2019 but haven’t been able to find this second episode in the library nor in any secondhand bookshops.
Finding it made up for the otherwise very disappointing visit to Lyme Park — this was the estate which stood in for Darcy’s estate in the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice and from whose lake Colin Firth emerges. The BBC clearly only used the lake because the actual house is a rather dark grey, characterless edifice. It looks impressive from a distance as you can see in this photograph but seen up close it’s nothing like Darcy’s Pemberley at all.
Also purchased on this trip, from a lovely rambling secondhand bookshop in Buxton, Derbyshire was Uncle Paul by Celia Fremlin. The blurb describes this a tense drama of suspicion, betrayal, and revenge. I’m not sure it’s for me but since it was on sale for 50p I thought it was worth a punt.
State of the TBR
The current tally stands at 250, only one more than at the end of May. So not a bad state of affairs at all.
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