A reasonable week on the reading front with three books finished, two of which I hadn't planned to read. The Anatomy of Ghosts by Andrew Taylor and The Keeper of Secrets by Judith Cutler were part of my library haul and proved irresistible - The Anatomy of Ghosts because Andrew Taylor is one of my favourite authors, but I didn't think this was one of his better books, and The Keeper of Secrets appealed to me as I'm always on the look out for a new series to follow. While I enjoyed this book I'm not sure I liked it enough to continue with the series.
From This Valley, the third of my books, was an unusual story of a young man coming to terms with his past and looking for a better future. His search takes him into Canada where he meets various people, among them Mounties, trappers and several Native Indian tribes, as well as Métis Voyageurs. Canada's history is something I know very little about, so found this novel very informative as well as a good story.
This week I'm carrying over from last week Daughter of Mine and have started For Two Cents I'll Go With You.
Up next is Map of Stars, but Tuesday is library day, so that may change depending on what books come in for me.
What I Read Last Week
From This Valley by Murray Harvey
The year is 1876, and Trooper Ryan Price Meade is a deserter from the US Army 7th Cavalry Regiment who strikes north, fleeing the Montana Territory just as Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer closes in on Little Bighorn. A deeply troubled young man, Meade finds himself in Canada’s Northwest Territory, only to be confronted with all he has lost and come face to face with a ghost from the past—one that will alter the course of the rest of his life.
The Anatomy of Ghosts by Andrew Taylor
1786, Jerusalem College, Cambridge. The ghost of murdered Sylvia Whichcote has been sighted prowling the grounds by Frank Oldershaw, a disturbed fellow commoner. When his anxious mother employs John Holdsworth, author of The Anatomy of Ghosts- a stinging account of why ghosts are mere delusion - to investigate the sighting, the uneasy status quo at Jerusalem is rapidly torn apart. Holdsworth grows to realise that the sinister Holy Ghost Club governs the privileged life at Jerusalem with a rigour far more effective than anything the Master, Dr. Carbury, could muster. And when Holdsworth finds himself haunted - not only by the ghost of his dead wife, Maria, but also Elinor, the very-much-alive Master's wife - his fate is sealed. He must unravel the circumstances surrounding Sylvia's death ... or the hauntings will continue.
The Keeper of Secrets by Judith Cutler
Spring 1810. Young Parson Tobias Campion is excited to be taking over the small Warwickshire parish of Moreton Priory. But his first night in the village brings excitement of the wrong kind when Tobias intervenes in an attempted rape and becomes hero to housemaid Lizzie Woodman. As Tobias settles into life in Morton Priory he finds friendship in the form of Dr. Edmund Hansard and his concern for Lizzie quickly blossoms into something more. But as Jem, Tobias's groom, and local farm boy Matthew compete for Lizzie's attention Tobias resigns himself to the fact that his feeling for the girl will remain unrequited. Soon, however, his mind turns to other matters when the unsettling death of poverty stricken poacher Mr Jenkins, the suspicious demise of local aristocrat Lord Elham and a mysterious attack on Tobias himself make one thing clear; a malign influence is at work in the supposedly sleepy hamlet!
What I'm Reading Today
Daughter of Mine by Fiona Lowe
The three Chirnwell sisters are descended from the privileged squattocracy in Victoria’s Western District — but could a long-held secret threaten their family?
Harriett Chirnwell has a perfect life — a husband who loves her, a successful career and a daughter who is destined to become a doctor just like her.
Xara has always lived in Harriet’s shadow; her chaotic life with her family on their sheep farm falls far short of her older sister’s standards of perfection and prestige.
Georgie, the youngest sister and a passionate teacher, is the only one of the three to have left Billawarre. But is her life in Melbourne happy?
Despite all three sisters having a different and sometimes strained bond with their mother, Edwina, they come together to organise a party for her milestone birthday — the first since their father’s death. But when Edwina arrives at her party on the arm of another man, the tumult is like a dam finally breaking. Suddenly the lives of the Chirnwell sisters are flooded by scandal. Criminal accusations, a daughter in crisis, and a secret over fifty years in the making start to crack the perfect façade of the prominent pastoral family.
For Two Cents I'll Go With You by Marcia Maxwell
In the spring of 1917, Walter "Pat" Lusk sits at his desk shuffling papers and dreaming of glory on the battlefield. Frustrated, he's convinced the Great War will remain forever out of reach until one day his friend Aubrey arrives with the thrilling news that the United States has finally declared war on Germany! With his path to adventure now clear, Pat immediately enlists in the Army, where he trains as a surgeon's assistant. Sent to France with Evacuation Hospital No. 4, will Pat finally attain the glory he seeks treating desperately wounded soldiers through the war's darkest days? Will he ever win over the redoubtable Nurse Oberholtzer? Will the Armistice bring peace to the boys of Evac 4, or does a time of even greater testing await Pat and his friends?
What I Hope To Read Next
Map of Stars by Catherine Law
Kent, 1939. Eliza is to be married to Nicholas, her companion since she was a child. But when the pair are involved in a car crash, Eliza is rescued by a stranger, Lewis Harper, whose stunning green eyes she will never forget.
As the war begins, Eliza's world begins to fall apart: her beloved brother Martyn is killed in action, and her once-beloved husband grows increasingly distant. And then, when her efforts to help the Dunkirk evacuees take her to the south coast, she spots a familiar pair of eyes.
To meet the Darracott family of Darracott Place, Sussex, comes Major Hugh “Hugo” Darracott, an unknown relative and now heir of the irascible Lord Darracott.
The Darracotts are convinced that Hugo is a country bumpkin because his father, Lord Daracott’s second son, married a Yorkshire weaver’s daughter. They poke fun and are determined to dislike him, believing he will never know what it means to be a Darracott of Darracott Place. His cousins are disgruntled by the fact that Hugo, having “brass” of his own, is not dependent on his grandfather.
But Hugo is more astute than they give him credit for
At the Duchess of Richmond's ball, three days before the famous Battle of Waterloo, many are surprised by the presence of the Trenchard family. For James Trenchard is Wellington's supply master and in trade. While it is an important role to keep the army well supplied, it doesn't warrant an invitation to the ball. But Trenchard has a beautiful daughter, Sophia, who has caught the eye of Viscount Bellasis, the only son of Lord and Lady Brockenhurst.
Skip forward to the 1840s and the Trenchards, through a number of successful business deals, have become part of the nouveau riche and now live in the fashionable area of Belgravia. Among their neighbours are the Brockenhursts.
Another week gone and not much in the way of reading to show for it with only one book finished, A Paris Apartment. This book was a little disappointing as I didn't like the main female character that much, but I did enjoy the part of the novel about Marthe de Florian set during La Belle Epoque.
However, I also read a delightful short story from Kaye Dobbie, May's Rose, which was first published in The Australian Women's Weekly magazine back in 1996, under her pseudonym Lilly Sommers and originally titled Haunted by Roses. This short story was free to those signing up for her newsletter and those already on her list.
This week I made the momentous decision to shelve Barnaby Rudge for the time being. No progress was made with it last week. It sat on my coffee table, but I couldn't bring myself to pick it up and read more. I'm not ready to classify it as a DNF just yet so it will stay on my coffee table for a while longer.
This week I'm still reading From This Valley and hope to follow with Daughter of Mine and then For Two Cents I'll Go With You. I've read many novels set during World War I, mostly from the British perspective, so this will be a change for me.
What I Read Last Week
A Paris Apartment by Michelle Gable
When April Vogt's boss tells her about an apartment in the ninth arrondissement that has been discovered after being shuttered for the past seventy years, the Sotheby's continental furniture specialist does not hear the words “dust” or “rats” or “decrepit.” She hears Paris. She hears escape.
Once in France, April quickly learns the apartment is not merely some rich hoarder's repository. Beneath the cobwebs and stale perfumed air is a goldmine, and not because of the actual gold (or painted ostrich eggs or mounted rhinoceros horns or bronze bathtub). First, there's a portrait by one of the masters of the Belle Epoque, Giovanni Boldini. And then there are letters and journals written by the very woman in the painting, Marthe de Florian. These documents reveal that she was more than a renowned courtesan with enviable decolletage. Suddenly April's quest is no longer about the bureaux plats and Louis-style armchairs that will fetch millions at auction. It's about discovering the story behind this charismatic woman.
It's about discovering two women, actually.
With the help of a salty (and annoyingly sexy) Parisian solicitor and the courtesan's private diaries, April tries to uncover the many secrets buried in the apartment. As she digs into Marthe's life, April can't help but take a deeper look into her own. Having left behind in the States a cheating husband, a family crisis about to erupt, and a career she's been using as the crutch to simply get by, she feels compelled to sort out her own life too. When the things she left bubbling back home begin to boil over, and Parisian delicacies beyond flaky pâtisseries tempt her better judgment, April knows that both she and Marthe deserve happy finales.
May's Rose by Kaye Dobbie
The deep red rose cast its spell on her, drawing her back into the past, and showing her a future.
What I'm Reading Today
Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens
Set against the backdrop of the Gordon Riots of 1780, Barnaby Rudge is a story of mystery and suspense which begins with an unsolved double murder and goes on to involve conspiracy, blackmail, abduction and retribution. Through the course of the novel fathers and sons become opposed, apprentices plot against their masters and Protestants clash with Catholics on the streets. And, as London erupts into riot, Barnaby Rudge himself struggles to escape the curse of his own past. With its dramatic descriptions of public violence and private horror, its strange secrets and ghostly doublings, Barnaby Rudge is a powerful, disturbing blend of historical realism and Gothic melodrama.
From This Valley by Murray Harvey
The year is 1876, and Trooper Ryan Price Meade is a deserter from the US Army 7th Cavalry Regiment who strikes north, fleeing the Montana Territory just as Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer closes in on Little Bighorn. A deeply troubled young man, Meade finds himself in Canada’s Northwest Territory, only to be confronted with all he has lost and come face to face with a ghost from the past—one that will alter the course of the rest of his life.
What I Hope To Read Next
Daughter of Mine by Fiona Lowe
The three Chirnwell sisters are descended from the privileged squattocracy in Victoria’s Western District — but could a long-held secret threaten their family?
Harriett Chirnwell has a perfect life — a husband who loves her, a successful career and a daughter who is destined to become a doctor just like her.
Xara has always lived in Harriet’s shadow; her chaotic life with her family on their sheep farm falls far short of her older sister’s standards of perfection and prestige.
Georgie, the youngest sister and a passionate teacher, is the only one of the three to have left Billawarre. But is her life in Melbourne happy?
Despite all three sisters having a different and sometimes strained bond with their mother, Edwina, they come together to organise a party for her milestone birthday — the first since their father’s death. But when Edwina arrives at her party on the arm of another man, the tumult is like a dam finally breaking. Suddenly the lives of the Chirnwell sisters are flooded by scandal. Criminal accusations, a daughter in crisis, and a secret over fifty years in the making start to crack the perfect façade of the prominent pastoral family.
For Two Cents I'll Go With You by Marcia Maxwell
In the spring of 1917, Walter "Pat" Lusk sits at his desk shuffling papers and dreaming of glory on the battlefield. Frustrated, he's convinced the Great War will remain forever out of reach until one day his friend Aubrey arrives with the thrilling news that the United States has finally declared war on Germany! With his path to adventure now clear, Pat immediately enlists in the Army, where he trains as a surgeon's assistant. Sent to France with Evacuation Hospital No. 4, will Pat finally attain the glory he seeks treating desperately wounded soldiers through the war's darkest days? Will he ever win over the redoubtable Nurse Oberholtzer? Will the Armistice bring peace to the boys of Evac 4, or does a time of even greater testing await Pat and his friends?
The three Chirnwell sisters are descended from the privileged squattocracy in Victoria’s Western District — but could a long-held secret threaten their family?
