April Reading Wrap Up

追加: 2026-05-13

[00:00:00]Well, hello and a very very warm welcome to my channel. My name is Louise and I love musing on about books. So, that's what I'm going to do this morning without further ado. A warm welcome if you're a returning viewer and an equally warm welcome if you are watching my channel or encountering it for the very first time. So, I started off this month, it seems absolutely ages ago. Um, so while I say this month, I'm actually recording this at the beginning of May now, but what I mean is I started off April, um, with an absolutely banging, belting read. Um, and it was, um, Kate Atkinson's Normal Rules Don't Apply.

[00:00:39]What a fab, fabulous cover. Look at that. Um, and this book has sat on my shelf, I think, since 2023, to my shame, when it first came out. I love Kate Atkinson. she can almost do no wrong in my view. Um, but for some reason I hadn't got round to to reading it. And um, it's this short story collection. I might have said that already. I'm not sure. Um, and what's wonderful about it is that every single story um, kind of exposes some really interesting truths about the way we are as human beings. And yet every single story has some wildly fantastical element. but she makes that wildly fantastical element just seem so normal and so plausible. So, you know, we have a talking horse, we have the idea that a woman um created the earth. Um and it's not just I mean there isn't a douff story in this book which I just find breathtaking. And I could just sit and read her sentences. Do you know what I mean? The way that she writes I just I'll read a sentence and it'll just bring deep deep joy. Um there's just something about the way she positions words together. Uh but what's also really clever is that the the book kind of comes full circle too. So the structure is interesting. It took me right back to those of you who've read the Jackson Broady um uh novels. Um Jackson Brody is a very flawed detective. Um and well he's not even that, is he? He's a he was some sort of um private detective, you know. He's I think he was a was he a policeman? Can't quite remember his background now. Uh no, I think he was in the military. But anyway, um he his the first book in which he appears is called Case Histories, which I think is classed as a novel, but actually in many ways is a series of separate stories which Jackson just sort of happens to kind of turn up in. And this felt very much like that, you know, because you've got you've got characters from one story popping up with some sort of minor or even major role in another story. And there's something deeply deeply satisfying about that, I think, as a reader. So, your mind is active as you read this in a way that it might not be in in other books. So, yeah, I really really loved it. Did not disappoint.

[00:03:05]Um, and then I read this, which I think I talked briefly about when um when I was talking to Mim about or Mim was talking to me about horror stories. For those of you who are unfamiliar with my channel, Mim is my my daughter. Um, so this is The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break by Steven Cheryl. So he's an American author and I haven't read any of his work before. And I suppose for those of you who know me um you know I did a degree in classics so you know the idea of the Minotaur creeping into a modern novel which is set in contemporary American trailer park territory. Um, I found that whole concept really interesting and a bit like with the Kate Atkinson book, it it's completely implausible that a minotaur could be living on a trailer park in America today. And yet Steven Cheryl makes it totally and utterly believable. Um, and I just love the way he writes. I like the Minotaur's character because he's, yes, he's got some sort of quite bestial tendencies if you like. He's working as a a chef um in a in a you know in a diner. It's called Grub's Kitchen or something. Um but he's got some really gentle qualities. So he likes making lists. For example, um he's really intrigued by cars and engines and he's got this really old car, but he maintains it. You know, he takes it to bits and mens it and repairs it. Um, and he can barely speak, you know, he sort of grunts. Everybody refers to him as M.

[00:04:45]Um, and and yet he sort of develops friendships with people and people kind of admire on him and to a certain degree even potentially depend on him. Um, so I just and and there's a poignency to this novel as well as quite a lot of humor.

[00:05:00]Um, I'll give you an example, if you'll bear with me, um, of just how clever this is because Stephen Cheryl also makes us com sort of, um, mull over the gulf between past and present. So you know is it is it is the minotaur this unsophisticated primordial beast or are we actually the beasts you know is it is it the fact that as humans we are bestial. So this is this is an extract from a moment where the minotaur has kind of been dragged to this really awful pool party and this woman um has been very very sort of sexually provocative with him. Um, and it says, "When the stink of pulian sweat and tanning lotion clots in his throat, takes his breath, the minotaur angers.

[00:06:00]5,000 years ago, he would have devoured them all. These pitifully arrogant boys and girls would have quakd at the mere mention of his name.

[00:06:11]One by one they would have been tossed into his chambered pit, ablations to rage or scapegoats to what is most base in men. 5,000 years ago Christiey's milk white breast would not have been so willingly procured for the minotaur's black mouth. 5,000 years ago he would have welcomed it, would have tasted it on his thick bull's tongue, taken it between the fleshy lips and into his very capable teeth. 5,000 years ago, the Minotaur would have bitten her breast off, chewed through her ribs, and eaten her heart.

[00:06:44]The minotaur snot snorts loudly, then stands. Yeah. The question is who's who's the primitive character, you know, and um yeah, I just I found this book thoroughly thoroughly entertaining, but also a really interesting reflection on trailer park society, I guess. Uh yeah, loved it. Really recommend it. Um and then for the first time, I read a Lily King novel, and this was for the savage prompts. The prompt for last month was class and I decided to go back into the classroom because I was a teacher and I was an English and classics teacher. So, this is the English teacher by Lily King. Now, I've never read any of her novels before. I really like the stillness of the woman on this cover and um and the novel features um oh, I've forgotten the woman's name now. Oh, Vita, that's right. It's great name. Um, so Vita is an English teacher and she is living on campus with her son Peter. And I'm not normally a fan of a campus novel, but I really, really enjoyed this. This is a book that I would say is deceptively complex. You know, on the surface of it, it's the story of a woman who's not quite at ease in her own skin and her own relationships, but there is so so much more to it than that. And it's really unpredictable. There were several things that happen in here that I was not expecting at all. Um, so she is on the the novel opens when she is on the brink of getting married. So she Peter was born um in the house, not in the house necessarily, he might have been born in hospital, but but basically they've lived in the same house on campus since Peter was born. She's a single parent and she's just on the brink of getting married and Peter is now in his I think he's 16 17 years old, that kind of age. Um, and what's wonderful is, I think, is the journey the two of them go on because she is, as I say, not at ease in her own skin, and he's a teenager, so neither is he. So, they're both kind of, they learn a lot about themselves in this book. So, their relationship is really, really important. Um, and I don't often, you know, I was a single parent for a time, and I don't often see that relationship expressed as well as I feel it is in this book.

[00:09:09]um she's on the brink of of getting married. She does marry and um and so they suddenly move from this house to a house to my horror that they've not even I mean when they arrive Peter hasn't he doesn't even know where his bedroom is, where he's sleeping. I found that really quite shocking. But she marries this widowerower who's got three children and Peter at first is really thrilled by this idea. He's always wanted siblings.

[00:09:33]Um so a lot of it is about the assimilation of two families as well and how that works or how it doesn't. Um it becomes very clear or in quite a sort of sinister I say very clear it creeps up on you that there is something in Vita's past and she's quite frigid within the marriage. So that all is quite interesting to read about as well. But the other thing I loved um was her in the classroom because she's teaching Tess of the Derbervilles and she clearly does not enjoy teaching it, but she's trying her best to bring it to the attention of her students. Uh not necessarily willing learners and she's becomes increasingly distracted in the classroom. There are quite a few set pieces in the classroom in this novel and gradually gradually you kind of realize why it is she doesn't like teaching this particular novel and I love the way that Lily King interweavves Hardy's writing and her perceptions of his writing with her and Peter's story. I got be really careful I don't give too much away. Um, but yeah, I the the more I think about this novel, the more complicated I think it is. And I think she writes really, really beautifully.

[00:10:52]So, yeah, I I am really looking forward to reading another of her books.

[00:10:59]Um, and then I'm going to take you through the books that I read in Italy.

[00:11:03]So, if you've already seen the video that I made about reading in Italy, you'll have heard me talk about these already, but I kind of wanted to give them more airspace because I really enjoyed all three of them. So, the first one was The Little I Knew by Kiara Valyria, which is translated by Alisa or Alyssa Wood. Um, translation is fantastic because you, you know, as as every good translator should, you're not aware that she's translating. Um, and it's called The Little I Knew Her because the novel is about the death of a woman called Victoria. She's an elderly woman living in a small town on the coast not too far from Rome. Um, she's lived there for years, but she was a, as they would call it in my village, a blowin. She didn't grow up there.

[00:11:46]She's sort of arrived in the village with a much younger woman years and years and decades before.

[00:11:52]and Leah um the the sort of the the lead character in the novel aside from her feels it's really strange that Victoria has suddenly died in her bath. Something about it doesn't ring true. She's a lawyer and she decides that she's going to sort of uh unofficially investigate what has happened to Victoria. But the thing I love about this is it's a really um a really faithful exploration of small town life.

[00:12:25]And I also loved I mean um Leah's husband is sort of peripheral to the novel as are her two children except that whatever Leah is doing she's really conscious of her daughters and her husband. Um, so I I I really loved the way that her family um is portrayed in this novel. Um, there's a lot in here about sexuality um which is addressed very thoughtfully I think. Um there is quite a sort of oh you could you could really picture this as a film. There's a character who arrives who's really sort of debonire but a male character but uh you know you could imagine him having sort of the the film star looks with maybe some sort of white melon streak in his hair to make him look a little bit sinister. Um so there are lots of yeah this book is peopleled with really interesting characters who could easily be stereotypes but somehow aren't. Um, so yeah, I think the word I would use to sum up this novel is is charming. I just I just found it an utterly charming and interesting book. And it was splendid to read it uh while I was hearing the Italian language being spoken around me.

[00:13:47]Um, and then I read a book that I know is really really close to a lot of your hearts. Those of you who've been watching my channel for a while, a lot of you when I bought this book a while ago, a couple of years ago probably, everybody was, you know, you must read this, you must read it now. Uh, but I waited. I waited until I was having my own Enchanted April in um in Italy. And again, I just love the way Elizabeth Vonim writes. I just find her pros really clear and really crisp. It's a little bit satirical.

[00:14:18]Um she's writing about uh four women who don't know each other and they end up renting a castle in Italy and it's the 19 oh is it even the 1900 yeah 1922 a few yeah it's the early 1920s and um so I suppose it's quite a daring thing for four women to do but yeah they don't know each other and they're all from really different walks of life uh they've all had very different life experiences they're all of different ages and different classes. Um, and it's a book, I think, ultimately about friendship and about um making sure that you don't judge people instantly. Um, and how your preconceptions of people can be really we we all do it, don't we? The minute somebody walks into a room, we we make snap judgments about them. And very very often those perceptions are so so so wrong. Um, so I loved that. I also loved um the take on men and uh particularly female relationships with men and power and um you know the whole sort of what it meant to be a good wife or a good woman in the 1920s.

[00:15:31]Um and how in a way that's being challenged very gently in this novel. Um and the scenery, the way that she writes about this castle. I mean I can I can walk around the castle. I can walk around the gardens. I can see the views.

[00:15:46]They're all in my head because she writes so well about place. Um I learned I think somebody um commented that she was a really keen gardener and it makes absolute sense because she as am I. She writes so wonderfully about all the plants she sees. Uh the characters see rather. Um, and yeah, there's a lot in here about beauty and and what it means to be beautiful and how that can put pressure on somebody if they've if they're known to have sort of classically good looks, how that can alter the shape of their lives. Um, yeah, a lot to mull over actually. Oh, I was going to read you a little bit just to give you I mean, I know I'm preaching to the converted with a lot of you, but let's just share the joy for a minute of her writing. So, Mrs. Fischer is the oldest uh of the four women who who um come to the castle and she's decided that she's going to, you know, be on her own and she's going to have her own space and da da da da da.

[00:16:51]Miss Fischer was sorry she'd bothered about Lady Caroline. She's the another of the four. She went along the hall towards her private sitting room. It wasn't her private sitting room. She'd just chosen it. and her stick as she went struck the stone floor with a vigor in harmony with her feelings.

[00:17:09]Sheer silliness these poses. She had no patience with them. Unable to be or do anything of themselves, the young of the present generation tried to achieve a reputation for cleverness by decrying all that was obviously great and obviously good, and by praising everything, however obviously bad, that was different. Apes, thought Mrs. Fisher roused, "Apes! Apes!" And in her sitting room she found more apes! Or what seemed to her in her present mood more, for there was Mrs. Arbnot placidly drinking coffee, while at the writing table, the writing table she already looked upon as sacred, using her pen, her own pen, brought for her hand alone from Prince of Wales terrace, sat Mrs. Wilkins writing at the table in her room with her pen. And I just think the way she captures that irritation and that that that sort of habit of judging everything that everybody else is doing. Uh it's just it's just utterly charming.

[00:18:18]And finally, I just wanted the opportunity to talk about this again. Oh my life. Um, I think this is going to be one of my favorite books of all time.

[00:18:27]The Covenant of Water by Abraham Vagi.

[00:18:30]It just has everything that I love in a novel. It's a really long novel, but it's not it doesn't take you a long time to read. You kind of devour it or I did.

[00:18:42]Um, it's set in southern India. I love reading novels about that part of the world. Um, it tells the story of Big Amachi who is married off when she's 12, I think, to a much much much older man.

[00:18:57]But the novel is not conventional. It takes you to all sorts of places. There are twists in it that I didn't expect.

[00:19:05]You get to know all the characters really, really intimately, particularly her, obviously, because she's kind of the thread through the novel. But there's also this amazing um Glaswegian doctor who I just adored. Um and their stories seem really really separate at the start. They're the two main characters that you're introduced to at the beginning and you think how on earth can their stories come together, but they do. Um and I won't give anything away obviously. Um Abraham Vagazi is a is a very um highly esteemed doctor and um in America and he um he is also of Malayam um heritage. So he knows this part of the world really well. Um so he writes about it with such obvious experience and love for the place but also his love of medicine. I learned so much in this book. um about that, about hospitals, about practices, and he doesn't patronize you. He takes you into operating theaters. He describes how things are done. Um and it didn't I mean I can be a bit squeamish. It didn't make me feel squeamish at all. Um so I really really enjoyed all of that. There is um there's a whole sort of um theme running through about leprosy, about marginalization.

[00:20:30]Um, this is a novel about um about class, about place. Um, and it's kind of timeless. Um, I I felt reading this like I felt when I read Paul Scott's um trilogy, the Jewel in the Crown series, the Raj, sorry, quartet. It's four books. uh years and years and years ago, you know, I I sort of went back to that youngish girl curled up with a book and I didn't I was on holiday thankfully because I really didn't want to do anything else but read this book. It is absolutely superb. There we go. So, yeah, I've had a a fabulous a corking reading month. Um so, what did you read in April? Any recommendations? I'm sure you have. Um, I'm well on my underway with my women's prize um for fiction short list reading.

[00:21:26]Um, so I'm really enjoying that. I think I'm on the third one now. Um, and um, obviously I'll be reporting back on those at some stage, but I'm not going to do that yet because that has to wait until I'm with my son Simon when we will um, oh god, I can't I just can't already just with the three I've read. I really really itching to talk to him about them, but I can't because we'll do our video together where we rank order the uh, short list for the fiction and non-fiction. So, that's all going on in my bubbling away in the background as well. Um, but yeah, please um, please let me know what I should be reading.

[00:22:01]Have you read anything else by Vayy? And if so, what should I go to? I think he's only written a few novels, but um yeah, I'd love to know. Anyway, take care everybody. I'm off now. Bye.