Tag: The House at Riverton

January Line Up

Happy 2019 everybody! I hope you rang in the New Year in style. Thank you for all the comments and support in December – I was way behind schedule and you were very patient as I got back on track. It has been incredibly cool to hear all the people who have been reading and sharing the blog and I am really grateful to you for following along with me and sharing the books you are excited about.

I really enjoyed a lot of the books I reviewed last month and I hope my luck holds out for January. The theme for this month is going to be “keeping secrets” for no reason other than that all the books I really want to read next have secrets as a common feature. If you have read any of them, I would love to hear from you!

January 5, 2019 – The House at Riverton by Kate Morton

If you are following along at home, you might be thinking, “hey, she was supposed to review that last month.” And you would be right dear reader, but December was a month with 5 Saturdays and the novel is 471 pages long (I already started and it’s really good by the way) and well, I just couldn’t get through it all on time. Luckily, this is my blog and I get to make up the rules as I go along so I am reviewing it as my first book of 2019. (And I will catch up. I promise. Probably not until July though.)

January 12, 2019 – Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

I enjoyed Little Fires Everywhere so much that when I dug Ng’s other novel out of my pile, I couldn’t resist adding it to the January list. The story centers around the death of Lydia, the favorite child of the Lee family. Her death brings secrets to the surface and unravels the bonds that hold the Lees together.

January 19, 2019 – Melmoth by Sarah Perry

This novel is set in Prague but also jumps time and space to 1930s Cairo, the Ottoman Empire during the First World War, Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia, Manila, central Africa and London. It is modern Gothic (which, if you haven’t noticed yet, I kind of have a weakness for) but seriously – there is a mysterious letter found in a Czech library, a surprise confession, the legend of Melmoth, a dark creature who seeks out the cowardly and complicit across history and a sudden disappearance – how can I resist all that? It seems like a perfect dark story for such a dark month.

January 26 – The Language of Thorns: Midnight Tales and Dangerous Magic by Leigh Bardugo

I am normally not a fan of short stories but I have read Bardugo’s YA fiction and she is a first-rate story teller. Her work infuses elements of fairy tales, folk lore, religion and magic in a world of her own creation. This new book is a collection of modern fairy tales influenced by the stories Bardugo read in her youth. While her subject matter is very different from Ami McKay’s, their writing shares that same quality of stories told by firelight with darkness all around.

I hope there is something here that inspires you to pick up one of these books this month. If you plan on reading any of them along with me, comment and let everything know your thoughts.

Now I have to go – there are still 300 more pages of The House at Riverton to get through before Saturday! Until then, happy reading!

 

December Line Up

OK, so, have you ever heard of Jolabokaflod? If you haven’t, get ready for this: it’s an Icelandic traditional that roughly translates to ‘the Christmas book flood’. It turns out that every year, publishers in Iceland release their new titles in the run-up to Christmas (side note: turns out the Icelandic are a very bookish people). So every year, the ‘Book Bulletin’ – a catalogue of the new books – is published and then everyone spends the next several weeks going through it and deciding what books they are going to give (and hope to get) for Jolabokaflod. Which is all very nice except I haven’t gotten to the best part – on Christmas Eve, Icelanders exchange books and chocolate and then sit around in their pjs reading their new books and eating their new chocolate. HOW GREAT IS THAT? So while I clearly do not need any new books this Christmas (don’t take that as a hint not to get me any), I thought I would go through my TRP and choose the books I would most like to read for the December Line Up – a little early Jolabokaflod gift to myself. So without further ado, here goes:

December 1: The Grave’s a Fine and Private Place by Alan Bradley

This is the ninth novel in Bradley’s Flavia de Luce mystery series. Flavia is a twelve year old chemistry genius with a penchant for solving murders. I love Bradley’s novels because they are darkly comedic and while they play with conventions of British mystery novels, they are not at all predictable. And … Bradley’s next novel in the series is coming out in January so I really do need to get a move on.

December 8: Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

This one came up on so many “best of 2018” lists this year that I felt like I had to read it. The novel follows the stories of two families who are connected but ultimately divided by a community conflict. It deals with the price of secrets, the nature of art and identity and the dangers that come from following the rules.

December 15: Half Spent Was the Night by Ami McKay

I really enjoyed Ami McKay’s novels The Birth House and The Virgin Cure. This novella follows the three witches from Witches of New York (which is also in the TRP) in the nights between Christmas a New Year’s. They receive an invitation to attend a New Year’s masquerade ball at the home of a stranger – and as the witches go into the New York night to meet their mysterious host, they may be facing unknown dangers.

December 22: Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty

I think I’m at the point where Liane Moriarty could publish the phone book and I might buy it. I have really enjoyed her other novels which are big, generous, gossipy stories set in contemporary Australia. In this novel, nine people gather at Tranquillum House, a health resort, to recover from what ails them. The main character, Frances, is soon fascinated by the houses’ owner. Within days, all the guests are asking, should they surrender to the “recovery” that Tranquillum House offers, or run while they still can?

December 29: The House at Riverton by Kate Morton

This one came recommended by a friend. The House at Riverton reminds me of The Thirteenth Tale – a story line that shifts between the early twentieth century and the contemporary world, a shocking death and secrets revealed. It sounds like the perfect book for unraveling in front of a warm fire over the holidays.

I am really excited for this month’s books. If you are planning on reading along, let me know. Happy Jolabokaflod, everyone. I wish you books and chocolate this holiday.