It was an easy read but a bit in the happy ending chick lit sort of way. Things happened but got quickly resolved so I never really got involved with any of the characters. I can't believe that the inside flap gave away the WHOLE plot, so it was no surprise that Hugh went weird at the end of the book! A forgettable read for me.

It's no surprise that Lily and Jeanie, two gifted girls from very different backgrounds, are drawn to one another as children in rural Scotland. Their friendship endures whilst being challenged by events, for example Jeanie running away from home as a teenager to escape an abuser and Lily moving to live in China. The two things that bind them are art (one is a painter, the other a dancer) and an indomitable spirit.

The story is set in the early part of the 20th century when women were meant to be seen but not heard. However, these two haven't read the script and defy convention to build successful lives, albeit lives with many challenges.

Maggie Richie creates characters we like, care for and root for and writes a very good story. I enjoyed it. 4/5.

Daisy Chain is an easy and readable novel, but for me it leaned too heavily on familiar patterns. The story relies on well-worn tropes - the poor little rich girl and the poor girl who does well- and the contrast between the two friends felt predictable. The themes of female friendship, artistic ambition versus social expectations, escaping one’s background, and personal self-discovery are classic, but here they came across as an amalgamation of stories I’ve read many times before. While the book has warm moments and isn’t an unpleasant read, it didn’t offer anything new or surprising. Overall, it felt familiar and I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it.

I felt this was formulaic from the very beginning. Little rich girl befriends the poorest, raggiest child in her class and the book follows their life stories. Everything that befalls them somehow failed to touch me. The whole book sort of left me cold. I thought that the demonisation of Hugh fairly crass and clashed with the saintliness of his sister. The settings were interesting historically but the characters needed more development into actual people. They all kind of sailed through life and came out the other end. There is a story here but this is not it.

A book of no particular merit, an easy read with a predictable plot and much used plot line; rich girl and poor girl, lifelong friendship with ups and downs. Lilly's life is the more interesting, with art school and her move abroad with her husband.

In the early 19th century, a woman and her husband go to a Greek island, where he hopes to collect some rare insect specimens, particularly a rare spider that produces a silk that is infused with dangerous magic. It is Sophia Ashmore - Percy who locates them and who finds an intense friendship with a local woman.

Many years later, a young widower, Henry Latimer, is sent to stay with Sir Edward Ashmore – Percy in order to use his skills as an audiologist to cure his daughter. Unable to effect a cure, Henry begins to get involved with Sir Edward’s silk spinning industry, learning its capacity to shield noise and so give the wearer complete calm. However, all is not as it seems and for those who work with the silk or are within earshot, there are creepy, indistinct voices and sounds that lead to serious physical and mental health problems. When Henry explores the history of the Ashmore – Percy family and the silk business, he finds horrors beyond his imaginings.

Collins appears to favour books that look at memories and their forgetting (The Binding) and how people can be exploited in a quasi-Dickensian manner.

The story of a married, middle-aged man who inhabits a dream world. Seemingly unable to face reality, he wanders about, dipping into others’ lives, with lies and make believe whilst taking no responsibility for himself. He tries to insert himself into the lives of a young couple of misfits, puppeteers. This character takes selfishness to new levels. His wife somehow copes with him by largely running the household despite him. Written in 1980, it reminds one that these were different days.

The book is set in the heat of summer in 1989 and the action takes place around Wiltshire. It is the story of two very different men and their passion for creating crop circles; Redbone is the one who crafts the designs and Calvert scopes out the right fields. They get a kick out of their nocturnal endeavours; the secrecy and mystery they create that leaves people puzzled. Other characters appear, such as a posh drunken toff who thinks Redbone is the son of the groundskeeper. There are fly tippers, the men out lamping, hippies and professors, all the stereotypes that gather, like flies, around weird phenomena. What motivates these two very different characters, each with their own demons? How does their tentative friendship develop? Do they get caught? Myers’ prose is as good as ever, with powerful descriptions of the land, the sky, animals and birds. Beauty gives hope.

Matt sold bathrooms until he didn’t and had a girlfriend until he didn’t but at least his cat, Goodmonson, the one he rescued, will remain faithful. Or will he? There is no such thing as a free lunch and when he is offered a job and the apartment of his girlfriend’s dreams, he has to go for it. Mortimer creates a variety of off beam characters who live in other apartments and it is Matt’s job to keep an eye on them. Add to this a nymphomaniac neighbour, a kidnapping and the purchase of oddball bric a brac items and you have a brilliantly funny book. Is Mortimer a marmite kind of guy? I hate that salty brown sludge but find Mortimer’s brand of quirky humour an absolute delight!

Set in the US, Europe, Korea and Japan this 440+ page novel proves you should always read to the end. The first 340 pages have no definite plot telling the story of each of the four main characters, a troubled family. The most remarkable event is the unexplained disappearance of Serk, husband and father, from a Japanese beach. Set post war, its underlying theme is the relationship between North Korea, South Korea and Japan. The last 100 pages reveal, three decades later, what happened to Serk and others who were kidnapped and taken to North Korea.

Set in an unspecified date, this novel looks at the power held by powerful social media magnates who have companies that control weather, secret weapons and algorithms, whilst also predicting the end of the world as we know it. One character escaped an end of the world cult started by her father and another is an internet survivalist who is avoiding an assassin. A few billionaires have a Plan B for their own survival but all is not as it seems. The scary thing about this book is how it reminds us of the extent to which our data, and ultimately ourselves, are mined by those who create wealth out of nothing. It also looks at how technology per se has no moral value but its morality is determined by those own the BIG companies. It is a modern day parable and a gripping read.

Sybil Van Antwerp writes letters nearly every day. She writes to family, friends, authors and to one unnamed character but she doesn’t actually post the letters to this mysterious person. Sybil wants life to remain the same but the arrival of letters from a person in her past means that she has to face her demons.

Leaving behind Olive Kitteredge, Lucy Barton and the Burgess Boys is a huge wrench so it took me a while to get into Strout’s new character, Artie Dam but he was worth waiting for! Strout is a genius when it comes to writing about small town America, so much so that it was easy to identify with Artie and the rest; she looks at human nature through a magnifying glass.

Artie is a high school history teacher who is going through a midlife, existential crisis and he obsesses over the idea of free will. He calls out his students on their offhand and hurtful remarks and lends an ear to those who are struggling. His life goes on as normal, sailing, parties and holidays but in his head, he is thinking about ending his life. He cannot understand how it is that we know so little about the people in our lives. A family tragedy, a near death experience and a long held secret revealed all work together to shape Artie’s world. Strout said she came up with the title whilst stacking the dishwasher!

A mummy has been lying in a Boston museum, appearing to be an ancient artefact from Egypt, a lifejacket for the financially struggling institution. However, Maura Isles M.E. discovers the truth and it is not what everyone thinks. Jane Rizzoli, a homicide detective, sees the forensic evidence as being indisputable and thinks a dangerous psychopath is at large. Archaeologist Josephine Pulcillo finds that her worst nightmare is coming true and worse is yet to come.

Amelina was a writer and mother when Russia invaded Ukraine on 24th February 2022, albeit not for the first time. As the war develops, she makes the decision to become a war crimes researcher, documenting the lives of women who joined the resistance movement. She also got her son out of Ukraine as a way of protecting him. She interviews a lawyer turned soldier, a librarian who found out about the abduction of a children’s writer, along with women who experienced violence inflicted by the invading armed forces. Her activities were well known and her writing and photographic evidence amassed in order to go back to being a writer who would tell the world what is happening in her beloved country. It isn’t just lives that are being taken as many efforts are also being made to erase Ukrainian culture and Ukrainian children in border areas are being kidnapped and taken to Russian homes.

On June 27th 2023, Amelina and other writers were eating at a restaurant near Donetsk and a cruise missile hit the building. She had serious head injuries, lost consciousness and died on 1st July. She had had the presence of mind to hide her notes and recordings and they have become this book. This book is not the one she intended to write and reads more like reportage which makes it hard to follow at times and the content adds to the intensity. It is not an easy read in any sense of the word but is a vital resource that will, I hope, bring justice to those scarred by war crimes.