A God in Ruins

by Kate Atkinson

This is the story about Teddy, the brother of Atkinson's character in Life After Life.  

 Teddy is a singularly good man. A bomber pilot in World War II, he didn't expect to live to see post-war. Teddy didn't thrill to being a hero, but most definitely was. Everything after proves a disappointment.

He marries his childhood sweetheart, Nancy, and it's a pleasant, dutiful marriage, nothing more. His wife dies when their daughter, Vera, is young and he devotes himself to raising the girl. She's a bundle of nasty bitterness and gratuitous meanness as well as a terrible mother to her two children, Sunny (a boy) and Bertie (a girl).

Meanwhile Teddy strives to rescue his grandchildren while soldiering on in an England changed and on the decline in the years after the war. This is not what he fought for.

Both Harv and I read the book and enjoyed it.  It is beautifully done. It's tender, moving, caustic, and at times, brilliantly funny. The war passages are intense and impeccably researched. Then there are moments Atkinson parts the curtain, giving us a glimpse into the hearts of her worst-behaved characters. There's even something of an explanation for Vera.

While Atkinson doesn't play with time as she did with "Life After Life," she does fool with it a bit. The narrative isn't straightforward, rather it jumps back and forth to give us glimpse of each characters' future even as we meet them. It's effective. There's  point near the end where the author shocks un into remembering that this is just a story. It's fiction at its best.

The Jane Austen Society

by Natalie Jenner

This is the first book by this author and it is a gem. 

It is about a group of people who are Jane Austen fans and it reads very much like an actual Jane Austen story, quite and accomplishment.

The story takes place during the end of WWII.  A young American woman comes to an English village and asks a young farm worker if he can point out the house in the town where Jane Austen lived.  The young man tells her and is so inspired by her enthusiasm that he starts reading the books and gets hooked too.

The book moves ahead in time and we learn about the Knight family who are descendants of the Austen family.  The father of the family is very ill, his daughter, a recluse.  When the old man dies he bequeaths the house to the eldest male relative rather than her, because she never married and produced a male hire.  He leaves her a precarious hold on a small cottage on the property and a very small monthly income.  The estate is in poor financial shape.  The father never confided anything in his daughter.  We learn that the father actually interfered in some potential suitors for the woman including the man who is currently the family lawyer.  The lawyer still has feelings for the knight daughter.

Other characters in the town include a young woman who was a progressive teacher who got dismissed.  She married, her husband was killed in the war, leaving her pregnant.  She is sad about the death of her husband but looks forward to the baby.  Unfortunately the baby dies at birth.  The local doctors realizes there is a problem and gets her to a hospital.  He is devastated that the baby has died and feels responsible.  The doctor and the teacher both adore Austen.  They also have feelings for each other which they will not admit.

The last major character in the book is a young servant who works for the Knight family.  She spends her evening reading the Austen books and eventually takes on the task of cataloguing the entire library including any annotations by Austen.  She stumbles about a very important letter written by Austen tucked in one of the books.

Another character is a young man from Sothebey's who is eager to get the contents of the house for auction.  He is also an Austen fan and helps the group appraise and later sell some of the books to get funds for the purchase of a building for the society.

Just prior to the death of Mr Knight the young farm worker suggests that a tribute museum should be created in the town.  A Society is created including the young American woman who arrived early in the book.  She is now a successful actress with  money and agrees to bankroll the start of the society including the money to purchase the library at the knight house.  The fiance of the actress is a movie producer who is used to getting his way and is a bit of a criminal.

As in all Jane Austen books things all fall into place for almost everyone.  The Lawyer marries Miss Knight who was going to become homeless because the Actress's finance was part of a group that bought the family estate including the house she was supposed to get.  The young farmer is identified as the illegitimate heir to the estate but he doesn't want village scandal.  Somehow he does get enough money to buy a small farm and sets up a home with the Sotheby's fellown.  The lawyer marries Miss Knight, the doctor marries the teacher and the the young servant goes off to college for a degree.  The actress has left her fiancee at the altar when she finds out his role in the land purchase.

Things in Jars

by Jess Kidd

This book takes place in Victorian London.  It is about a young woman who was taken in as a child by a doctor.  She eagerly served as his lab assistant and learned a lot about anatomy, etc.  The Detective meets a ghost in a church yard and he now moves along with her as her companion.  He thinks she should recognize him but I am not sure she ever does.

When the book opens she is working as a woman detective.  She is hired to find out who has kidnapped the unusual daughter of a doctor.  The girl is kept hidden away in the house and seems to have vile habits including being able to affect people's minds, eating fish whole, attracting snails.

It becomes obvious early on that the kidnappers are the woman who was recently hired as the girl's nurse and the girl's doctor.

They plan to sell the girl to a "collector" in France but that falls through, then they sell her to a circus owner but that deal also collapses so they take her to London.  As the girl gets closer to London the rain starts to fall and threatens to submerge London, the river levels rise also.

As the detective seeks to find the truth they find a young woman dead on the property.  The young woman also comes face to face with the son of the doctor who took her in.  He was thought dead but has returned to England after year's abroad.  The young man is vicious and a womanizer.

In the end the woman detective is able to find the girl and release her into the river.  The ghost eventually fades from view.  The young woman who was found murdered was the real mother of the strange girl the doctor held at his house.

It was an unusual book, not really my cup of tea.

The Fifth Avenue Story Society

by Rachel Hauck

This is a book about five people who get an anonymous invitation to attend a Story Society meeting at a library in New York.  The group includes a university prof who is being pressured to publish his dissertation about a famous/popular American author as it will bring his university a major donation.  The other four people include the man's ex-wife who is working as an Exec Assistant for the owner of a fast growing fast food chain.  She is trying to convince the owner to reward her commitment and hard work by making her CEO.  Others include a uber limo driver whose exec has a restraining order against him so he cannot see his kids, a woman who is head of a women's cosmetics company who is infamous because she left her prince at the altar.  Last but not least an elderly man who wants to write a book about his dead wife, the love of his life.

The five people meet and over the weeks they start to divulge slices of their lives but not quite all the truth.  The prof and his ex-wife find being together awkward and snipe at each other at times.  Then the ex-wife trips when leaving a gala and is injured.  She reluctantly agrees to go live with her ex as she needs someone to help her.

As the book progresses the people reveal more about themselves.  Affection develops between the cosmetics person and the uber driver and the exec's start to talk more.  We find out why the cosmetics woman fled from her prince.  The elderly man eventually admits that the love of his life was a drug addict who committed suicide.  His desire to write a book is based on his wish for an ideal love relationship.

The female ex is shocked to find that when she returns to work another woman has been hired.  She is furious at being used by her boss and quits.  She accepts a job as CEO of a company in Seattle.

While in the little library room the prof had discovered a manuscript and some letters that might confirm the rumours that the author he has written his dissertation about actually stole someone else's work.  He is reluctant to address this but eventually does reveal this information which causes his university to lose the big donation and him to lose his job.

The book ends "happily" ever after as the cosmetics woman and the uber driver fall in love and it appears the man will have hope of getting access to his kids, the old man decides to leave his past behind and pursue a lady in the building and the author and his ex re-marry after her Seattle job falls through.  The uber driver becomes a published author of story ideas he used with his kids.  The prof had written a sci-fi book which gets renewed interest plus there is interest in his new book about the author who used a ghost writer.  The Admin Assistant/CEO is offered the CEO job with the cosmetics firm.

It was a feel good story but the story development was good so as not to make it too light.
At these times it is good to read a book where things work out for people.

The Department of Sensitive Crimes

by Alexander McCall Smith

This is the first book in a series about a crime unit in Sweden.  It came with very good reviews. I have enjoyed other books by him especially the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency Series.  However, this book was a big disappointment.

It is largely about a detective Ulf who works in this rather strangely named department.  The book attempts to be funny by having all the characters run off on unrelated tangents all the time.  The crimes they investigate are simple... a wife having an affair, a young girl who makes up a pretend boyfriend and a jealous friend suggests to police that she has killed him when she tells them he has gone to the north pole.

The Globe and Mail describes the book as smart, witty and clever... but I don't think it is any of these.  Certainly not his best work.  He is prolific but I think he may now be more interested in publishing books than in publishing well crafted books.

Island

by Johanna Skibsgrud

I heard about this book on Facebook and thought it would be interesting.

The author takes on a big task, a modern retelling or homage to Heart of Darkness by Conrad.  As soon as one take's on a classic the reader has high expectations.  I had high expectations but found the book very disappointing, uninteresting.

The story is about an island, originally settled by white plantation owners who brought in coloured workers/slaves to work on the crops.  At some time atomic bombs are set off in the vicinity or on the island and all islanders are removed to the "mainland".  Sometime later the "native" islanders demanded to be able to return to the island and they were allowed to do so.  The islanders are very poor and there is a definite difference in wealth and status between whites and blacks.  The island doesn't have much going for it.  The people were promised that a station (underground sea cable facility) would offer jobs but most people who come to work there come from the mainland.  Only a few guard-type duties are given to the locals.

The book revolves around two female characters.

One is a young diplomat whose husband and daughter have left the island  because of racial bullying the daughter suffered at school.  It is the diplomat's last day on the island.

The second woman is a young islander who has been enticed to join a cause to gain independence for the island by a woman Kurtz(same name as Conrad book).  Part way through the book she is warned that Kurtz is not who she says she is.  We later find out she was a diplomat who went rogue.

The fighters invade the embassy, kill one of the staff and tie up the diplomat who later tells them where some important maps are stored in the building.  She is able to get a message off to the mainland at the start of the attack by the fighters.

At the end of the book it is apparent that forces from the mainland are landing, the fighters did not really have a good plan to take over.

The only good thing about the book was that the author brought up the issue of colonial pasts and the damage/anger they have caused in the racial minorities they have controlled.  With the Black Lives Matter and the tearing down of statutes and removal of confederate flags in the U.S.  the topic is very timely.  The one good idea the author has is that the fighters cannot just take over and do what their overlords have done.  They have to come up with new ways of thinking, behaving, managing. etc.

Very disappointed in the book. It could have been a lot more interesting.  I recall how much I enjoyed the book Bel Canto by Patchett, about the kidnapping of a Japanese business tycoon in South America. The story, the action, the interaction of the characters was much more engaging and powerful.