Books: Spring & Summer 2021

So my reading is slow this year, but maybe it’s because I’m reading a bit more non-fiction. 

Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie

A story of two families connected in vastly different ways by the jihadist father of one of the families. I loved the complexity and the tension comparing the situations before the other party was fully appraised of what the connection was, to after. 

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt

This non-fiction account of living in Savannah reads like an F Scott Fitzgerald novel. When the millionaire’s lover gets shot, will the true murderer be found? It is rich with eccentric characters and is one of those books that you regret finishing.

American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins

Another fabulous read. I was gripped from the opening sentences where Luca is being shielded by his mother, Lydia from the cartel who have just murdered her entire family. It takes some time to learn whether she was spared by accident or on purpose. The story follows the pair as they attempt to escape Mexico for a safer life in the USA. At every turn, Lydia suspects she is being followed but it is almost impossible for her to know who to trust.

The Glass Hotel by Emily St John Mantel

I loved her book, Station Eleven and so was intrigued by this one. It reads at first like a series of disconnected tales, but which eventually come together. Vincent and Paul (half siblings) work for a period at the same hotel where a macabre piece of graffiti shows up. This is the catalyst for a chain of events which are difficult to pin together. 

The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women by Kate Moore

The fact that the workers in the factories painting luminous clock faces were poisoned and died prematurely from cancer is not new, but Kate Moore really tries to bring to life the individual stories within the groups of workers and their journey in fighting the company that denied any knowledge of the dangers of radium. I think one of the most shocking things I read was that the radium “sand” was then used in children’s playgrounds.

Anti-Social:The Secret Diary of an Anti-Social Behaviour Officer by Nick Pettigrew

Working in social housing for the last six years has exposed me to all kinds of eye-opening stories and situations. The work of an ASB officer is undeniably hard and Nick conveys the frustrations of genuinely wanting to help his tenants coupled with the failings of the other support systems around them. Even though I am no longer dealing directly with customers, I recognise so many of these stories.

Happy reading

Love Mrs Jones x