Tag: Funny

The List of Suspicious Things by Jennie Godfrey

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The List of Suspicious Things by Jennie Godfrey

Published by Hutchinson Heinemann on February 15th

What They Say

Maggie Thatcher is prime minister, drainpipe jeans are in, and Miv is convinced that her dad wants to move their family Down South.

Because of the murders.

Leaving Yorkshire and her best friend Sharon simply isn’t an option, no matter the dangers lurking round their way; or the strangeness at home that started the day Miv’s mum stopped talking.
Perhaps if she could solve the case of the disappearing women, they could stay after all?

So, Miv and Sharon decide to make a list: a list of all the suspicious people and things down their street. People they know. People they don’t.

But their search for the truth reveals more secrets in their neighbourhood, within their families – and between each other – than they ever thought possible.

What if the real mystery Miv needs to solve is the one that lies much closer to home?

What I Say

It is always brilliant to be able to review books by authors that you have met and become friends with on social media, which is quite ironic, considering that in The List of Suspicious Things we are firmly in a world way before anyone even knew what a mobile phone or Twitter is!

I had been chatting to Jennie for while – usually about all the fabulous books we have been reading, and sharing recent recommendations of books we loved. When I was offered a copy of Jennie’s debut novel to read and review, honestly, I was more than a little nervous – it is a Radio 2 Book Club pick, and already there have been so many wonderful reviews, that there is always the worry that I might not love it.

Once I started reading The List of Suspicious Things, I just knew that I was reading something really special.

Miv, and her best friend Sharon are growing up in the late 70s. Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister, and The Yorkshire Ripper dominates every news story and headline. Miv lives with her Mum and Dad and Aunty Jean. Her Mum keeps herself to herself, often in her bedroom and then disappears from their house for periods of time, with no one really explaining to Miv what is happening.

Miv’s Dad seems unsettled and not himself, and decides that maybe the best thing for the family is to move down South away from The Yorkshire Ripper and all the uncertainty and unrest around them. Miv is devastated and doesn’t want to move away, so the solution to her is perfectly clear – if she can discover who The Yorkshire Ripper is, she can stay here, with her best friend Sharon and nothing has to change.

Sharon agrees to help, and as Miv pours over the newspapers and listens to news about The Yorkshire Ripper, she decides that she and Sharon have to investigate anyone who fits any part of the profile. This is a brilliant way to change the narrative, because this opens up Miv and Sharon’s world for us to meet the people in their community who make their list, but also shows us that what we have always known is true – that appearances can be deceptive, and you never really know what goes on behind closed doors.

As Miv and Sharon investigate the people and things they have hunches about, we are introduced to a range of characters – amongst them there is Omar who runs the local shop and his son Ishtiaq, Helen and Gary Andrews who seem to be a happily married couple, and Arthur, who is Helen’s Dad and dealing with the death of his wife.

Jennie’s writing harks back to a time when all our lives were contained in the small world of the streets and places and people we knew so well, and we were reliant on who had seen and heard what to find out what was happening. Yet it has to be said that this is not a cosy, uncomplicated and innocent novel, mired in nostalgia and a rose tinted view of life.

The List of Suspicious Things is also a novel that unflinchingly shows a world where there is racism, domestic violence, mental health issues and marital affairs. This is a world presented to us through the eyes of children, who see and hear these things, but do not fully understand the intricacies and realities of what they are party to. Their innocence and seeming naivety presents us with a different view of the world, whereas we as readers, and the adults in the story bring our own experiences and knowledge of the realities of what the children are actually going through.

This is such a layered and nuanced novel that deals with so many things in one book, all executed effortlessly. Undoubtedly the main focus of the novel is the project that Miv and Sharon are undertaking, as to whether they can find the true identity of The Yorkshire Ripper, but this is not singularly why this is such an unforgettable book.

What makes this book so compelling for me to read is the portrayal of family life and the wider community, in all its shapes and forms. I felt that Jennie absolutely understood all her characters and their voices are clear and distinct. You get a real sense of place and time without it being something that detracts from the plot, and it makes the book feel anchored and authentic. Miv is such a brilliant protagonist, fearless and questioning and also aware that her family life is not like other people’s. Her relationship with her Mum is genuinely heartbreaking. – she knows what it should look like, and there are little moments in the book that shows us how much Miv understands that whatever happens her Mum is still there, trying to find a way back to being the Mum Miv needs. Miv is undoubtedly the pivotal character in this novel, and it is her relationships with the people around her that makes this such a compelling story.

In becoming part of Miv and Sharon’s world, we are also looking back at a time that some of us can remember clearly – that sense of growing up in a world where human connection was part of our everyday lives, with no phones or social media to colour our opinions. Our world at that time went as far as the streets around us, the neighbours we knew and the conversations we heard. The List of Suspicious Things is an unforgettable book that perfectly articulates what it meant to be a child at that time, and in doing so may make us realise how far we have come, but also how much we have lost in terms of having that close community around us.

Do Miv and Sharon find out who The Yorkshire Ripper was? Of course I am not going to tell you, you need to read it. One thing is certain though, that I promise after reading The List Of Suspicious Things, Miv and Sharon will always have a place in your heart.

I absolutely loved it.

Thank you so much to Hutchinson Heinemann for my proof copy.

O Brother By John Niven from Canongate Books

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O Brother By John Niven

Published by Canongate Books on 24 August

What They Say

John Niven’s little brother Gary was fearless, popular, stubborn, handsome, hilarious and sometimes terrifying. In 2010, after years of chaotic struggle against the world, he took his own life at the age of 42.

Hoping for the best while often witnessing the worst, John, his younger sister Linda and their mother, Jeanette, saw the darkest fears they had for Gary played out in drug deals, prison and bankruptcy. While his life spiralled downward and the love the Nivens’ shared was tested to its limit, John drifted into his own trouble in the music industry, a world where excess was often a marker of success.

Tracking the lives of two brothers in changing times – from illicit cans of lager in 70s sitting rooms to ecstasy in 90s raves – O Brother is a tender, affecting and often uproariously funny story. It is about the bonds of family and how we try to keep the finest of those we lose alive. It is about black sheep and what it takes to break the ties that bind. Fundamentally it is about how families survive suicide, ‘that last cry, from the saddest outpost.’

What I Say

There are different ways you come to read books – some you read as soon as they are in your house, others linger on your shelves until you find them again or you decide that it’s what you want to read at that time. O Brother had arrived at my house a couple of weeks before, and when I was trapped in my dining room with my dog and my oldest son – (long story, boring anecdote) I picked it up, started reading, and just couldn’t stop.

The story starts with John being told that his younger brother Gary is in hospital in Irvine, Ayrshire. After ringing the emergency services, telling them he had been trying to kill himself, Gary was taken to hospital. After being assessed, Gary was placed alone in a room where he attempted suicide again. He was induced into a medical coma, and the family are faced with the realisation that he may never wake up, or that if he does, the brain damage he has suffered would mean that Gary’s family would have to look after him for the rest of his life.

To understand how Gary and John’s life has come to this point, John goes back to his childhood, to tell the story of the two brothers, and later of his sister Linda, and a compelling and heartbreaking story emerges from the two seemingly very different brothers. They are inseparable when younger, both of them getting up to things that will make every parent who reads it (and every child who has done something they know they shouldn’t) wince in recognition. As the two boys grow up, it is clear that their lives will take very different paths – John into the music industry, Gary into a world that involves drug dealing and the occasional carpentry job.

Yet both men are flawed, hellbent on pleasing themselves while causing worry for those closest to them, but John eventually makes the decision to stop and change his life when he realises he is now responsible for a family. Gary meanwhile, although a father and in a relationship, can’t settle, and deals with prison and drug and mental health issues – and when offered help, doesn’t turn up for appointments. In spite of the tireless work by the mental health team, Gary repeatedly goes it alone. The relationship between the brothers and between Gary and his family becomes strained – punctuated by Gary wanting money and help from his family, and the frustrations they feel as they attempt to live their own lives, while constantly on edge, waiting for the next incident they have to get involved in.

At no point does John depict himself or his family as the saviours, the ones who sweep in and save Gary, and this is what makes this memoir even more relatable – because these are normal people dealing with an extraordinarily difficult situation. You absolutely understand how challenging and complex this was for everyone involved, and that although the family may be geographically distant, they are all united by the familial bonds that keeps them together through all the life changing events they endure.

It would also have been easy to demonise Gary, as the unreliable and unlikeable sibling, but John depicts his brother with compassion and tenderness, acknowledging that there are many sides to his brother. Gary loved being the centre of attention, and was mischievous and funny. Yet he could also be cruel, violent, and testing, demanding everyone’s time and money, and causing untold heartache for them all.

Perhaps in writing this memoir, it gave John the chance to reflect not only on the life his brother had led, but also to process his own emotions about what it means to lose someone who decides that the family you are part of is not a strong enough reason to want to live. I can’t imagine what that must be like for anyone, but in reading this book, I feel that I understand so much more about it, and can see the incredible resilience and dignity that John, his Mum and Linda have in dealing with it all.

O Brother is one of the most affecting memoirs I have ever read, ostensibly because John is talking about something that touches us all – what it means to love your family. However complicated, layered or marvellous our family is – we know it is the connections and emotional shorthand we all have, and the fact we so often take it for granted. The in jokes, the nick names, the shared memories, the mundane but necessary evenings in front of the telly, and the times when we couldn’t be closer, and those when we are far apart.

The last chapter completely broke me, and I defy anyone not to be incredibly moved by it. John perfectly captures the culmination and celebration of a life that ended too soon, and the hope that we all have, in reading O Brother, that in death, Gary could finally find the peace and comfort he could not find in life.

I absolutely loved it.

Thank you so much to Anna Frame and Canongate Books for my copy.

We All Want Impossible Things by Catherine Newman

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We All Want Impossible Things

by Catherine Newman

Published by Doubleday Books on January 12th

Available from West End Lane Books and all Good Bookshops

What They Say

Who knows you better than your best friend? Who knows your secrets, your fears, your desires, your strange imperfect self? Edi and Ash have been best friends for over forty years. Since childhood they have seen each other through life’s milestones: stealing vodka from their parents, the Madonna phase, REM concerts, unexpected wakes, marriages, infertility, children. As Ash notes, ‘Edi’s memory is like the back-up hard drive for mine.’

So when Edi is diagnosed with terminal cancer, Ash’s world reshapes around the rhythms of Edi’s care, from chipped ice and watermelon cubes to music therapy; from snack smuggling to impromptu excursions into the frozen winter night. Because life is about squeezing the joy out of every moment, about building a powerhouse of memories, about learning when to hold on, and when to let go.

What I Say

There are novels you read and love, and then there are novels you read and love and nod your head in recognition, that make you laugh and add lots of post it notes so you can go back and reread the passages because they are so wonderful – and We All Want Impossible Things is one of them.

If you are looking for a sweet, subdued book about friendship – then this is not for you. If however like me, you love novels that show friendships in all their glorious, messy and magical forms, then this should absolutely be on your reading list.

Edi and Ash have been friends for longer than they can remember, and have that wonderful connection that comes with a lifetime of shared experiences and moments they only understand.

When Edi is diagnosed with terminal cancer, Edi’s husband Jude decides that to avoid their son Dash having to see his Mum pass away, that Edi will move into a hospice close to Ash, and Ash will provide the daily support she needs.

The power of Catherine’s storytelling is steeped in every single page of this novel. Not only must Edi and Ash now navigate a new and uncharted path through their friendship, but dealing with the day to day unglamorous realities of cancer, the etiquette of grief and dying, and the ever present knowledge that Edi is not going to be here for much longer, makes the women appreciate what they have now and all the things they have ever had together.

Ash seems to be split in two – dealing with Edi and being the present and unshakeable friend in her presence, but at the same time unravelling when she is away from Edi, seemingly separated from her husband and ricocheting from relationship to relationship as she tries to hold everything and everyone together. At times I felt completely frustrated with her, but it also makes you understand that there is no prescriptive way to deal with grief, and while we may not understand why Ash behaves as she does, it is not for us to judge her.

It is also important to say that this novel does not shy away from Edi’s condition, and this is not some airbrushed version of cancer. The day to day realities of what it’s like to have a terminal illness, and the physical, emotional and medical stresses that Edi and her family go through are laid bare. It was at times undoubtedly hard for me to read, having lost a Mum to cancer, but at the same time I was pleased that Catherine told Edi’s story with compassion and candour.

Catherine Freeman also perfectly understands the complicated and awkward nature of dealing with a loved one who is dying, and that there should be no shame in acknowledging the humour too. If Edi’s heart’s desire is to taste the cake from a recipe no one can find, that Ash will do everything she can to get hold of it, whilst at the same time Ash wonders when the most appropriate time would be to ask Edi if she can have the favourite t-shirt back she borrowed! This is what Catherine does so well – her characters are real, relatable and not perfect – and it made me love them even more.

We All Want Impossible Things is a glorious love letter to female friendships in all its unremarkable, remarkable and perfectly imperfect forms. Edi and Ash are characters who not only have the emotional shorthand that so many of us long for in friendships, but also resonate so deeply because they are just like us – not perfect, not always likeable, but they would do anything for each other however difficult that might be, and I completely loved them for it.

Thank you so much to Alison and Doubleday books for my gifted proof copy.

One Day I Shall Astonish The World by Nina Stibbe

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Published by Penguin Viking on April 21st 2022

Available from West End Lane Books

and all Good Bookshops

What They Say

Susan and Norma have been best friends for years, at first thrust together by force of circumstance (a job at The Pin Cushion, a haberdashery shop in 1990s Leicestershire) and then by force of character (neither being particularly inclined to make friends with anyone else). But now, thirty years later, faced with a husband seeking immortality and Norma out of reach on a wave of professional glory, Susan begins to wonder whether she has made the right choices about life, love, work, and, most importantly, friendship. 

Nina Stibbe’s new novel is the story of the wonderful and sometimes surprising path of friendship: from its conspiratorial beginnings, along its irritating wrong turns, to its final gratifying destination.

What I Say

Before I tell you about Nina’s novel, and what I think of it, I have a confession to make. I usually write my reviews by referring to the notes I have taken as I write it,

I didn’t write a single note about One Day I Shall Astonish The World because I was too absorbed, and didn’t want to put it down! I was sat outside on my patio on Easter Sunday (possibly with an Easter egg!) reading it, laughing out loud and reading numerous passages to Mr Years of Reading.

It’s a brilliantly funny, incisive and emotional novel that absolutely understands not only the complexities of female friendships, but also the realities of life for so many women that it’s impossible not to be genuinely moved by it.

Susan and Norma are lifelong friends, who first meet when Susan starts working in The Pin Cushion, the haberdashery shop that Norma’s family owns. Norma breezes into Susan’s life and wants to learn about literature from her so that she can apply for courses and leave her life at The Pin Cushion behind.

While Norma forges ahead with an academic career, Susan has stayed in Brankham, married Ray – the marketing manager of the local golf club and and has dropped out of her degree course to be a full time Mum to their daughter, Honey. Norma seems scornful of the life choices that Susan has made, and yet makes her own romantic choices based on the opportunities the men afford her. She marries her first husband, Hugo Pack-Allen, the man who has invested in The Pin Cushion, and Susan cannot understand what the attraction is. Unfortunately, after they Norma and Hugo are married, certain proclivities come to light that reveals Hugo to be someone who is not what Norma thought, and a twist of fate means that she finds herself alone a lot sooner than she thought.

As Norma sets on a path of carving out a career in academia for herself, Susan is feeling increasingly trapped at home. She is knows she is ever more isolated from Ray, and when they discover Ray has a daughter called Grace from a previous relationship, Susan starts to question exactly what she is getting from the life that seems to be whizzing past her without her making any mark in the world.

It’s also important to say that Norma and Susan’s relationship is an interesting one. They are in each other’s lives, but there always seems to be an ebb and flow in the relationship, and they seem to take a delight in the passive aggressive towards each other. Yet that is what made me love them even more. The fact that they quite frankly wind each other up and sometimes seem to take delight in the other woman’s misfortune is what adds another dimension for me. I loved the fact that their friendship wasn’t saccharine sweet and cosy confidences – because friendship isn’t always like that.

The turning point is when Susan decides to apply for a role at the local University – first in the Estates Office and eventually she ends up working for the Vice Chancellor. As someone who worked in a University, I can tell you that Nina has absolutely nailed what it is like to work in a place like that! On the one hand it is steeped in tradition with a dedicated group of people determined to ensure the University never changes, on the other is the outside ever changing world and the voices of those who know that in order to thrive, it has to understand the very students it needs to come through it’s doors.

Susan feels herself increasingly drawn towards the enigmatic VC and finds herself romantically imagining a life with him, Norma is suddenly again putting herself front and centre into Susan’s life. She decides she wants the VC for herself – while also keeping other relationships on the back burner just in case! Norma soon marries the VC and Susan wonders if she ever really had a friend in her at all.

As we follow both women through their lives from 1990 right up to the onset of the Covid-19 Pandemic, we see how their worlds weave in and out of each others, and how whether they like it or not, in the absence of other female friends, they have this really deep, but not always comfortable bond that always brings them back together.

One Day I Shall Astonish The World is an incredibly funny and touching novel about women, friendship and the lives we somehow find ourselves in. For me, one of the many brilliant things about Nina’s writing is that she has that perfect balance of humour and emotion. She intuitively understands her characters and it is testament to her writing that each and every one of them is unforgettable and relatable, and that is why you can’t put this book down.

If I had to tell you just one reason why I loved One Day I Shall Astonish The World, I would say that in a world which at the moment for me seems unsettling and confusing, this book brought me such utter joy, that to be able to lose myself completely in it was just what I needed until I really did have to put it down. That for me is the sign of a brilliant writer, and Nina Stibbe is undoubtedly that.

I absolutely loved it, and this is without doubt one of my favourite books of this year.

Thank you so much to Ella Harold and Penguin Viking for my gifted Proof copy.

You can buy your copy from West End Lane Books here.