As bad as it’s been, we are now over half way through 2020 so we thought we would take this time to look back (and forwards) to the books that have helped make things a little more bearable.
Back to the start
The Mirror and The Light by Hilary Mantel
Pre lock down this was THE book people were waiting for. Like Attwood’s The Testaments in 2019, the buzz around the final installment of Mantel’s Cromwell trilogy was palpable. When it arrived the hardback was ginormous, but in the days that followed a monster of a book suddenly didn’t seem such a bad thing.
‘If you cannot speak truth at a beheading, when can you speak it?’
“England, May 1536. Anne Boleyn is dead, decapitated in the space of a heartbeat by a hired French executioner. As her remains are bundled into oblivion, Thomas Cromwell breakfasts with the victors. The blacksmith’s son from Putney emerges from the spring’s bloodbath to continue his climb to power and wealth, while his formidable master, Henry VIII, settles to short-lived happiness with his third queen, Jane Seymour.
Cromwell is a man with only his wits to rely on; he has no great family to back him, no private army. Despite rebellion at home, traitors plotting abroad and the threat of invasion testing Henry’s regime to breaking point, Cromwell’s robust imagination sees a new country in the mirror of the future. But can a nation, or a person, shed the past like a skin? Do the dead continually unbury themselves? What will you do, the Spanish ambassador asks Cromwell, when the king turns on you, as sooner or later he turns on everyone close to him?“
Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
Inspired by the son of a very famous play write, Hamnet is a re-imagining of a boy whose life has been all but forgotten, but whose name was given to one of the most celebrated plays ever written. The play is Hamlet, the play write never mentioned, Shakespeare, and by the time you are finished reading the book, Hamnet will be a name you will never forget.
“On a summer’s day in 1596, a young girl in Stratford-upon-Avon takes to her bed with a fever. Her twin brother, Hamnet, searches everywhere for help. Why is nobody at home?
Their mother, Agnes, is over a mile away, in the garden where she grows medicinal herbs. Their father is working in London. Neither parent knows that one of the children will not survive the week.“
My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell
Published not long after the #MeToo movement this dark tale of grooming was disturbing as it was good. Check out our review here.
“Vanessa Wye was fifteen years old when she first had sex with her English teacher.
She is now thirty-two and in the storm of allegations against powerful men in 2017, the teacher, Jacob Strane, has just been accused of sexual abuse by another former student.
Vanessa is horrified by this news, because she is quite certain that the relationship she had with Strane wasn’t abuse. It was love. She’s sure of that.
Forced to rethink her past, to revisit everything that happened, Vanessa has to redefine the great love story of her life – her great sexual awakening – as rape. Now she must deal with the possibility that she might be a victim, and just one of many.“
Right Here, Right Now
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins.
At last, the prequel to The Hunger Games trilogy. Set around a teenage Coriolanus Snow we are reading it RIGHT NOW so check back later this month for our review.
“Ambition will fuel him. Competition will drive him. But power has its price.
It is the morning of the reaping that will kick off the tenth annual Hunger Games. In the Capitol, eighteen-year-old Coriolanus Snow is preparing for his one shot at glory as a mentor in the Games. The once-mighty house of Snow has fallen on hard times, its fate hanging on the slender chance that Coriolanus will be able to outcharm, outwit, and outmaneuver his fellow students to mentor the winning tribute.
The odds are against him. He’s been given the humiliating assignment of mentoring the female tribute from District 12, the lowest of the low. Their fates are now completely intertwined — every choice Coriolanus makes could lead to favour or failure, triumph or ruin. Inside the arena, it will be a fight to the death. Outside the arena, Coriolanus starts to feel for his doomed tribute… and must weigh his need to follow the rules against his desire to survive no matter what it takes.“
Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld
It’s a striking cover and a striking concept from American author Curtis Sittenfeld. Rodham, posing the question what would have happened if Hillary hadn’t married Bill, is THE BOOK of the moment. As Sliding Doors go, it doesn’t get bigger than the Clintons.
“‘Awfully opinionated for a girl’ is what they call Hillary as she grows up in her Chicago suburb.
Smart, diligent, and a bit plain, that’s the general consensus. Then Hillary goes to college, and her star rises. At Yale Law School, she continues to be a leader- and catches the eye of driven, handsome and charismatic Bill. But when he asks her to marry him, Hillary gives him a firm No.
How might things have turned out for them, for America, for the world itself, if Hillary Rodham had really turned down Bill Clinton?“
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
A feminist re-imaging of Gothic horror perfect for fans of Rebecca (as we are). A heroine, a family with a terrible secret, a house that is almost a character in itself, oh and lashings of creepiness.
“He is trying to poison me. You must come for me, Noemí. You have to save me.
When glamorous socialite Noemí Taboada receives a frantic letter from her newlywed cousin begging to be rescued from a mysterious doom, it’s clear something is desperately amiss. Catalina has always had a flair for the dramatic, but her claims that her husband is poisoning her and her visions of restless ghosts seem remarkable, even for her.
Noemí’s chic gowns and perfect lipstick are more suited to cocktail parties than amateur sleuthing, but she immediately heads to High Place, a remote mansion in the Mexican countryside, determined to discover what is so affecting her cousin.
Tough and smart, she possesses an indomitable will, and she is not afraid: not of her cousin’s new husband, who is both menacing and alluring; not of his father, the ancient patriarch who seems to be fascinated by Noemí; and not of the house itself, which begins to invade Noemi’s dreams with visions of blood and doom.
Her only ally in this inhospitable abode is the family’s youngest son. Shy and gentle, he seems to want to help, but might also be hiding dark knowledge of his family’s past. For there are many secrets behind the walls of High Place. The family’s once colossal wealth and faded mining empire kept them from prying eyes, but as Noemí digs deeper she unearths stories of violence and madness.“
In The Future When All Is Well
Troy by Stephen Fry
Following on from Mythos and Heroes Fry turns his attention to the legendary tale that is Troy. A beautiful woman, a love affair and a Trojan horse all wrapped up in Fry’s expert storytelling. It’s out in October and keep your eyes peeled for our lowdown next month as it may very well be Fry related. You heard it here first!
“‘Troy. The most marvelous kingdom in all the world. The Jewel of the Aegean. Glittering Ilion, the city that rose and fell not once but twice . . .’
The story of Troy speaks to all of us – the kidnapping of Helen, a queen celebrated for her beauty, sees the Greeks launch a thousand ships against that great city, to which they will lay siege for ten whole and very bloody years.
It is Zeus, the king of the gods, who triggers war when he asks the Trojan prince Paris to judge the fairest goddess of them all. Aphrodite bribes Paris with the heart of Helen, wife of King Menelaus of the Greeks, and naturally, nature takes its course.
It is a terrible, brutal war with casualties on all sides. The Greeks cannot defeat the Trojans – since Achilles, the Greek’s boldest warrior, is consumed with jealousy over an ally’s choice of lover, the Trojan slave Briseis, and will not fight . . .
The Glass Hotel by Emily St John Mandel
Delayed due to coronavirus and some six years after the amazing Station Eleven, Mandel returns with this deftly woven tale of shipping, ponzy schemes and what it is like to live a life unfulfilled.
“Vincent is the beautiful bartender at the Hotel Caiette, a five-star glass-and-cedar palace on the northernmost tip of Vancouver Island. New York financier Jonathan Alkaitis owns the hotel. When he passes Vincent his card with a tip, it’s the beginning of their life together. That same day, a hooded figure scrawls a note on the windowed wall of the hotel: ‘Why don’t you swallow broken glass.’ Leon Prevant, a shipping executive for a company called Neptune-Avramidis, sees the note from the hotel bar and is shaken to his core. Thirteen years later Vincent mysteriously disappears from the deck of a Neptune-Avramidis ship.
Weaving together the lives of these characters, Emily St. John Mandel’s The Glass Hotel moves between the ship, the towers of Manhattan, and the wilderness of remote British Columbia, painting a breathtaking picture of greed and guilt, fantasy and delusion, art and the ghosts of our pasts.“
The Kingdom by Jo Nesbo
A new standalone from the King of Scandi Noir that’s out in September. It’s based around a family secret and it’s set in a small Norwegian town. You just know it’s going to be a smash hit.
“When Roy and Carl’s parents die suddenly, sixteen-year-old Roy is left as protector to his impulsive younger brother. But when Carl decides to travel the world in search of his fortune, Roy stays behind in their sleepy village, satisfied with his peaceful life as a mechanic.
Some years later, Carl returns with his charismatic new wife, Shannon – an architect. They are full of exciting plans to build a spa hotel on their family land. Carl wants not only to make the brothers rich but the rest of the village, too.
It’s only a matter of time before what begins as a jubilant homecoming sparks off a series of events that threaten to derail everything Roy holds dear, as long-buried family secrets begin to rise to the surface…“
Until The Next Time
So what books have you loved in 2020? And which ones are you most looking forward to as we move towards Autumn/Winter? Tag us on social media or comment below.