June 23, 2024
Daughter of Fortune – Isabel Allende
I could have nominated any one of the many Isabel Allende novels. She is my favourite author and much of her work has a historical basis. She is just a great story-teller.
Daughter of Fortune is part of a trilogy although it doesn’t matter if you don’t read them in order. It tells the story of a Chilean woman’s search not for wealth but love during California’s Gold Rush days as pregnant by a secret lover at the age of 16, she leaves Chile in search of her beloved.
Black Diamonds – Catherine Bailey
This is an absorbing true account of one of the wealthiest families in England and the extraordinary house they lived in which was larger than Buckingham Palace and yet few would have heard of today.
When guests stayed at Wentworth House they were given a bowl of confetti because otherwise they would never have found their bedroom at the end of the evening. Three servants were employed solely to light and douse candles and at its height 5,000 were employed to staff the house and garden. The house was vast and built off the back of collieries in Yorkshire.
The book charts the family feuds, madness and forbidden love that ultimately led to the downfall of a family and the decay of a house like no other in England. Extremely well told, it’s a great social document of a changing Britain.
My Turf – William Nack
You don’t need to like sport to appreciate this book. Bill Nack, winner of the prestigious Eclipse Award an unprecedented six times, is the finest writer of a sports story that I’ve come across. Sport is the backdrop to a series of riveting tales of people and places. I must have read this book at least three times.
Bill Nack wrote for Sports Illustrated and his passion for sport and its human side is told in a series of stories covering many sports, some well-known sportsmen and those much lesser known.
Outlets for writers of Nack’s skill are far less now than it was in his heyday, and he’s widely recognised as one of the finest sports writers of the past half century.
Razor Girl – Carl Haasen
You either get Carl Haasen or you don’t. My enjoyment of reading would be much diminished if I didn’t. His books are hilarious, implausible with characters that sound ridiculous but our extremely well formed.
Razor Girl kicks off when a car is hit from behind in Florida Keys. The driver is the eponymous Razor Girl, and the scam is one of a series of events that spirals out of control inspired by the collection of great characters. Just consider one of the central characters in Razor Girl, former detective Andrew Yancy has been busted down to the Key West roach patrol after accosting his ex-lover’s husband with a Dust Buster!
Razor Girl and a disgraced detective team up to find a redneck reality TV star. Hiaasen tells a tale that is a plausible as it is some times ludicrous.
Lessons in Chemistry
I liked the recent Apple TV series, but I enjoyed the book far more. It’s really funny which the TV series could never really capture – much of the humour comes from the dog. It has had a mixed reaction from other readers, it scored for me as I laughed and, I’m not ashamed to admit it, at times I cried.
Chemist Elisabeth Zott is socially awkward and highly intelligent. It’s the early 1960’s and she battles against the all-male team at the Hastings Research Institute except for one, Calvin Evans, who is the most brilliant of them all.
True love follows but, of course, a story can never run that smoothly. Elisabeth is incapable of taking the easy option as she inadvertently finds fame.
Those are mine, so do please tell us what your Top 5 are.
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