What Katie Read

If you're looking for a fun, quick, easy read with heart I would thoroughly recommend this book.  I literally read it in one afternoon.  Set in London in 1941 this is a World War Two novel about life on the home front.  Everything is very proper and amusingly stiff-upper-lip British with realistic 1940s language and mannerisms. The central character, Emmeline, is young and naïve, but she is also brave with a very kind heart.  She is a bit of a daydreamer, and has a positive outlook on life, despite the war.  Emmy dreams of being a Lady War Correspondent and is thrilled when she manages to secure her first job in journalism. But of course Emmy’s job is not at all what she had expected.  Instead of being a journalist she is merely a typist for the domineering old fashioned Mrs Bird.  And Mrs Bird is not an inspiring political reporter or even an amusing home front columnist, she is an agony aunt.  And to make matters worse, Mrs Bird’s st...

Having recommended this to my book club I have just read it for the second time, and despite knowing what happens I really enjoyed revisiting it.   It is a very unusual murder mystery novel told from the perspective of Jasper, a 13 year old boy who has autism, synaesthesia and prosopagnosia, or face blindness.   Not the ideal witness to a murder, you can hear the police thinking!   It has been likened to The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time , a book I also really enjoyed, and I can see why, but I still regard The Colour of Bee Larkham’s Murder as a very unique novel. At the start of the book Harris defines synaesthesia for readers not familiar with it.   Synaesthesia is a relatively rare condition, where the stimulation of one sense affects another sense.   In Jasper’s case, when he hears sounds he sees colours.   I had actually come across synaesthesia before, as my husband has it, albeit in a much milder form than Jasper, but I ima...

Do not be put off by the title!!   This is not a cheesy romantic lightweight story, but is actually quite heavy and sad in places.   I am perhaps slightly biased as the story is set in Victoria, Australia and I used to live there, so I enjoyed the references to places I know and the occasional use of local lingo.   It also, obviously, features a bookshop, and what reader doesn’t love a bookshop!? The story is set in the 1970s and centres on Tom, a good honest farmer with a kind heart, perhaps too kind.  At certain points I felt he needed more backbone and assertiveness, but gentleness is clearly in his nature and he does not wish to force his will on other people.   He has made his decisions and chooses to live his life in a simple manner and behave a certain way, and there is beauty and honesty in that, which other characters can and do appreciate, despite their frustrations. As the title suggests, there is a lot of heartbreak in the story.   ...

I may be slightly biased about this book, having met Rosie Walsh and her being a fellow alumna from the University of Birmingham English department, but I really enjoyed this book and was very impressed.   I would call it a romantic mystery novel and it really did keep me guessing.   I therefore don’t want to say too much as this is a book I could really spoil for a first-time reader! All I’ll say is that Sarah, the central character, has fallen head-over-heels in love with Eddie, and he seems to feel the same way.   But then he is gone.   Disappeared.   Leaving Sarah to wonder, question, rage, doubt, obsess, despair, sob, and basically drive herself crazy trying to figure out what on earth happened. Sarah is a well-drawn realistic character and the whole plot is very plausible whilst at the same time being interesting and compelling.   I was gripped pretty much from the start.   I found it easy to read and the characters very engaging, b...

Hi, I’m Katie.  I have always been a voracious reader and am known among my friends for being a bookworm – a term that always makes me think of the very hungry caterpillar!  I am frequently asked for book recommendations and with the current situation people’s reading has increased, so I thought I would start this blog to help others discover some of the fantastic fiction I have been so enjoying.  I am slightly jealous of you as you get to read these amazing books for the very first time! I am generally a book-a-week kind of reader, but now that I am no longer having to commute to work combined with the evenings being lighter for longer, I am getting through more books than ever!   This is a slight problem for me with the libraries being closed – I used to make a trip to the library at least once a month – but I did manage to borrow 10 books just before they closed their doors.   I am a “traditional” reader, preferring actual paper books to ebooks, so h...

Having been amazed, captivated and astounded by The Night Circus , I was very excited for a second novel from Erin Morgenstern and was delighted when it did not disappoint me.   While it retains many of the same wonderful characteristics of magic, mysticism, fate and boundless love, The Starless Sea is very much its own unique story. This is a book about books, about reading and writing, storytelling and game playing, plots, story arcs, character choices, possibilities and the inevitability of history repeating itself.   It is a mystery, adventure, quest novel but in a whole other league and dimension. I am not going to even attempt to summarise the plot, as it would be almost impossible and would completely and absolutely ruin the book for a first-time reader.   So I will simply tell you that the story follows Zachary as he becomes embroiled in what is essentially a rescue mission.   Zachary, a postgraduate student studying video games, is possibly an...

I think this is an absolutely fantastic book, made even more impressive by the fact it is Joanna Glen’s debut novel.  It is a completely absorbing and compelling read.  At nearly 400 pages long I read it in one weekend.  I have recommended it to several people and just could not stop talking about it. The story centres on, and is told by, two different characters, Augusta and Parfait.  Every other chapter is written from their perspective and there is often a lovely mirroring of topic or phrase despite the vast differences and distance between them. The story begins when Augusta and Parfait are children.  Augusta has a twin sister Julia and lives in, and is suffocated by, English suburbia.  Parfait lives in Burundi, amidst the danger and devastation of civil war.  As the story progresses you learn about their families, their particular circumstances, their struggles, uncertainties and the life-changing decisions they make. One of the j...