Where will this month’s dip into the TBR Book Jar take me?

As always I’ve used a random number generator to pick three titles from my TBR spreadsheet. From those listed below I’ll pick one to read in the next two months.

The Whole Day Through by Patrick Gale

I’ve read four of Patrick Gale’s novels to date, the most interesting of which was Notes from an Exhibition. The Whole Day through seems rather different to those other novels with the description provided by Goodreads suggesting it’s about a romantic relationship.

When forty-something Laura Lewis is obliged to abandon a life of stylish independence in Paris to care for her elderly mother in Winchester, it seems all romantic opportunities have gone up in smoke. Then she runs into Ben, the great love of her student days and, as she only now dares admit, the emotional yardstick by which she has judged every man since..

I’m hesitating about this one because of the romance element. Maybe that isn’t as evident as the description suggests?

A Kestrel for a Knave by Barry Hines

Barry Hines had a long career as a playwright, screenwriter and author, often setting his work in Northern England where he was born. A Kestrel for a Knave is his best-known novel.

It tells the story of a troubled teenager growing up in the small Yorkshire mining town of Barnsley. Treated as a failure at school, and unhappy at home, he discovers a new passion in life when he finds Kes, a kestrel hawk. The boy identifies with her silent strength and she inspires in him the trust and love that nothing else can, discovering through her the passion missing from his life.

I have a strong feeling that I’ve already read this book. if so, it would have been decades ago. Or did I just watch the film Kes which was based upon Hines’s 1968. Only one way to find out I suppose!

William, an Englishman by Cicely Hamilton

According to the cover blurb in my Persephone edition this is one of the greatest novels about war ever written: not the war of the fighting soldier or the woman waiting at home, but the war encountered by Mr and Mrs Everyman, wrenched away from their comfortable preoccupations.

Cicely Hamilton was an actress and key figure in the Suffragette movement. She wrote the novel while serving in World War 1 as an auxiliary with the British army.

I’m thinking…. definitely one I want to read.

Decision Time

The Cicely Hamilton is calling most strongly to me from this trio. Though it wasn’t published until after World War 1 had ended, large parts of it were written was written in a tent within ear shot of the front line.

Let me know if you agree/disagree with my choice. If you’ve read the Patrick Gale do let me know whether I’m wrong to write this off as just a romance.