These are my favourite books from my August reading:
Jan Bayhham – The Greek
Island Secret
This was an enjoyable dual timeline novel. Alexandra is mourning the recent death of her mother, Elin. She’s just finished art school, and hopes to be a potter, but her father is dismissive, and her younger sister Claire is about to start university. Alexandra is mistrustful of her mother’s friend Sally, who seems to be trying to take her mother’s place. Then a letter summons her to see her mother’s solicitor, where she’s given a diary and sketchbook belonging to Elin. It opens up a time that she knew nothing about, before her mother married. Alexandra had no idea that Elin had been an artist. The journal, written in 1969, describes her visit to a Greek island for a summer school with a Greek painter. The reader is transported back to that summer, where Elin’s talent and heart awaken, and she connects deeply with the people of the island. But there are sinister undercurrents, and not everyone welcomes her. However, much is left unsaid in the diary – so Alexandra determines to follow in her mother’s footsteps and try to unover all the secrets that the Greek Island has to reveal. A great summer read.
Tracy Chevalier - The Glassmaker
I absolutely adore glass, and stories about the people who make glassware. Added to that,Tracy Chevalier is one of my favourite authors, so I couldn't resist this book. The heroine lives on Venice's neighbouring island of Murano, the home of glass manufacturing through the centuries. The novel begins in 1486, during the Renaissance. Young Orsola Rosso tumbles into a canal and is pushed by her brother to go to dry off in the glass factory of one of the other glassmaking families on the island, to spy on them. There she meets Maria Barovier, the unmarried daughter of the family, who is a rare female glasmaker. A tentative connection begins between them. A few years later, Beatrice teaches Orsola to make glass beads with a flame, saying that her family's fortunes will come to depend upon it. As tragedy and hardship hits the family, Orsola works steadfastly despite her older brother's derision for her work. But the novel has a strange twist - as Orsola secretly falls in love and copes with caring for her family, the outside world is marching on at a faster pace. The years leap by, Napoleon conquers Europe, the industrial age comes, then modern wars... It's an unusual way of depicting the history of Murano and Venice, all through the eyes of one woman and one family, but somehow it works. Orsola is a multi-faceted character, kind, caring, loyal and resilient through all the hardships and emotions that life brings her.
Valerie Keogh - The Wives
This tense psychological thriller had me on the edge of my seat, and towards the end I couldn't put it down! Career nurse Natasha has long envied her three friends their settled marriages and families. So when handsome, charismatic Daniel sweeps her off her feet she doesn't hesitate to say 'yes' when he proposes. A few months later he suggests an expensive cruise for their delayed honeymoon, and insists that she asks her friends Barbara, Michele and Tracy Ann and their husbands Ralph, Don and Blake, to join them. But right from the start of the cruise there are many undercurrents. Natasha suspects that at least two of her friends are showing unwelcome attention to Daniel. Gradually the cracks in their friendships are revealed, and it turns out that there are bitter and dangerous resentments beneath the surface. Even Natasha is not totally innocent. As the ship journeys from port to port, tensions increase, and when tragedy strikes, it's difficult to work out who is to blame. Tense, pacy, and shocking, it's an exciting read.
