Rachel´s Random Resources: The Sticky Toffee Pudding Club by Rosie Green

 

The weekend is about to start and if you are looking for an easy sweet novella, I am happy to recommend you something that will really sooth your soul: The Sticky Toffee Pudding Club by Rosie Green.

The book is part of a series set around a small coffee place in a village, but it can also be read as a stand-alone. 

The Sticky Toffee Pudding Club is built around the story of a missed-connection: the good-hearted Annalise saved a poor dog together with the handsome Jensen, but took over by the events, she forgot to ask his number. Short after, her life will take a turn for the bad, as she lost her job, among other misfortunes. But she is offered a chance to turn her pudding skills into art, and this may be the beginning of a new chapter in life, and maybe love will find her too.

I love to read romantic novellas, and this not only a lot of romance, but also an eventful plot, taking plaace within a relatively short period of time, however allowing both the characters and the story to develop. I particularly liked Annalise, fragile and funny, yet resilient and strong enough to start over. 

I am interested in exploring more novellas set in the same place and more reading by this author, as I enjoyed the style. It is not easy to find good novellas, and I may store some of them for the very busy days when my attention span does not allow me to focus on too long and complex reads.

Rating: 4 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own

Random Things Tours: The Durian Pact by Christopher Howarth

I love political thrillers with an international touch, as long as they are happening purely in the literary realm. We are experiencing way too many international crisis at the same time to wish to experience any more. Those with direct connection in the high realms of politics, can rarely stop thinking about their everyday experiences. Some may even write about it.

Christopher Howarth is an insider of Westminster´s with connections in the British politics and diplomacy. Although the action of his book The Durian Pact happens in the future - not too far, though - many may think about something that he is in fact inspired by real encounters. The curse of people with known access to information: everyone expect you to be aware of well-kept secrets, even those who are no longer secrets.

In that not so far future, China may invade Taiwan which prompts to an unite defense on behalf of the UK and its allies, putting into motion relics of Britain´s colonial defense. In the midst of it, a young MP, Richard Reynolds, privy to important information that is trying to intervene, hoping to stop an inevitable war.

For decades already, China is often portrayed in literary terms as a threatening world power. I remember having read SF French novels with China invading the rest of the world and enjoying it. The Durian Pact though is built around a realistic threat, that is often proclaimed by Chinese officials themselves. Personally, I liked that drop of reality in the sea of political incertitude.  

I appreciated the pace of the book, allowing historical and political details to complement the literary action, which is equally entertaining. 

For readers of political thriller, with a very clear international outreach, The Durian Pact is a recommended read. It also sends you to update your knowledge in terms of British´s colonial power games, which makes the book even more relevant.

Rating: 4 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own

Random Things Tours: The Accidental Plus One. Travel Tales from a Trailing Spouse

Seasoned author and screenwriter Alison Ripley Cubitt inspired her ninth book by her own experience, taking the radical decision of moving countries, careers, trading lives. When you are making such a change as a spouse, ´trailing spouse´, to be more precise, there is always the shadow of the doubt that you are maybe not doing the right thing for you. Finding inspiration in other people´s experience is a valuable lesson in life.

The Accidental Plus One. Travel Tales from a Trailing Spouse by Alison Ripley Cubitt has everything you ever wanted to read in a book on such a topic. Although it involes ´tales´, it is very realistic and full of humour, an important ingredient everyone moving countries needs in abundance. It is a book of modern and mobile life, as many of us may experience, more than once in a lifetime.

I personally loved her style, and the alert tone of the story. Besides the book, I wish I can see some of the stories as vlogs, as the stories are very dynamic and entertaining. 

If you are an expat, or you are considering a big country move, I recommend to read this book and take notes as well. It may save you many of the mistakes and misunderstandings that are usually typical for those trading one lifestyle, passport and even language for another. 

I just can wish that there are more and more countries on similar topic, sharing candid, nonfictional accounts of life experiences out of fairy tales.

Rating: 4 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own

A Death in Cornwall by Daniel Silva

 

As usual, I´ve spent my last summer days, in expectation of the latest book from the Gabriel Allon series, the successful Mossad top spy featured in Daniel Silva´s series. My very busy working and life schedule, rarely allows me to follow series from A to Z, but this one is probably one of the few, if not the only one, that I religiously followed one book at a time, every single year.

The 24th installment, A Death in Cornwall, is very well structured, and following a clear story: the search for a looted Picasso, stolen years ago during the Shoah from its rightful Jewish owners. Gabriel Allon, now retired - officially, because a spy never actually is fully enjoying his non-active time - is trying to figure out some mysterious murders surrounding this Picasso getting entangled in a conspiracy leading to Downing Street and upper echalons of the British politics. It does also involves some thriller travel, from Cornwall to Corsica and back to London.

From one perspective, the book is extremely moderate in terms of suspense, without the extended global outreach and terrorism focus as in previous books. However, the focus on looted art is enough, and the information about the dark ways of art money laudering is accurate and it is complex enough to keep the reader focused. 

The focus on British politics is also relevant, given the latest corruption scandals and unaccountability of politicians that took the first page of local and international newspapers.

Unexpected, in the very good sense, systematic and relevant, A Death in Cornwall is another gem from the series. I am just left with the sad feeling that I have to wait just another one full year until the next installment. 

Rating: 4.5 stars

Grenzgänger by Mechtild Borrmann

German language has an unique art of wording. One single word, may have so many meanings, sometimes very opposite to one another. Grenzgänger is usually used for people commuting from one side of the border to another, but can also be understood as people who are with each foot on other side of the world, mentally, emotionally.

Henni, the main character of Grenzgänger by Mechtild Borrmann is exactly like this. Set in the post-war years, the book combines recent German history with a crime topic. The world of the book is full of secrets, unshared emotions and struggle for existence. In her youth years, Henni was part of a local coffee smuggling gang at the border between Germany and Belgium. 

Now, she is accused of murdering her father, and the investigation to clarify the crime leads to a traumatic family life and ongoing abuses taking place in Catholic orphanages, where her siblings were placed and eventually died.

Set in a fictional locality of Velda, the book is a world in itself, connected however with a post-war reality that sounds relatable, especially based on nonfictional accounts.

I had access to the book in the audiobook format, in the original German language.

This book showed me how much I still have to learn about German post-war history and realities. Also, that there are so many local authors waiting for me to discover. A challenge I am more than happy to take.

Rating: 4 stars

La Belle Créole by Maryse Condé

 

After around two months break, I was finally able to return to the world of Maryse Condé. La Belle Créole is a social story, a tragic passion story taking place during times of social change.

Dieudonné is accused of murdering Lorraine, a rich lady for whom he worked as a gardener. Manipulative, emotionally and psychologically instable and much older Lorraine used him, and wants to get rid of his presence, but he may reach violently killing her. He is becoming a kind of local celebrity, for all the wrong reasons, and he will return to freedom, but the life he is back to is an empty, lonely, full of remords life. Not worth living it.

I love social stories, or novels with a strong social dimension, but I am often afraid to discover that some may just be strongly biased accounts trying to convince the reader without being based on a narrative of sorts. In this case, everything come admirably perfectly together: the characters, the story, the context. Both events and the characters do grow up in sync, developing under each other´s influence.

Especially Dieudonné, the main character, is portrayed in his psychological complexity, put into the specific social context he grew up, experiencing the social alienation and relationships, interacting with people involved at different degrees in the social experiment. The social environment, its cruelty particularly, is experienced through the daily interactions and the personalities of the main characters. It is the background against which the story unfolds, allowing however the own stories of the characters to take shape.

I´ve read the book in the original French language, rich in local expressions, which makes the book even more authentic. I was very fond of this book and would continue discovering Condé´s work both for the style and writing, as well as for the social relevance.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Mon Enfant de Berlin by Anne Wiazemsky

Berlin is nowadays a place where people may find themselves. As in running away from everything, re-inventing oneself. It seems it happened the same at least for a previous generation. 

Claire is a young nurse working for the Red Cross that insisted to leave her bourgeois family in Paris to join the post-war efforts. But she is not any Claire, she is the daugher of François Mauriac, the great writer who dared to remain on the side of the Resistance, unlike many of his peers. But Claire wants to write her own story and Berlin is the place to start. There she will fall in love with a Russian prince, a former war prisoner working for the allies. They got married and their first child is the author of a fictional auto-biography, Mon enfant de Berlin - in my approximate translation, My Berlin Child.

The late actress and author Anne Wiazemsky re-wrote that story, using letters her mother sent back home and diary entry, and filling the gaps in between with accounts from people that knew her parents or fragments of memory. The method is ingenious, as it combines both biography and fiction.

The story evolves chronologically, kindly focusing on the love story, with moderate remarks and observations about the general historical and society context in war-torned Berlin of the mid-1940s.

Although it does not excel from the literary point of view, it was a story of searching oneself in a world in turmoil. Someone not familiar with Claire´s background may just consider the story a work of fiction, which in the end is not very relevant. Fictional or not, Mon Enfant de Berlin shares a narrative that makes you think and reflect. The choice of literary genre is less important.

Rating: 3 stars

Bookish Travels in Nürnberg, Germany

My travels to Nürnberg, a city I visited often, were short, but I still had a bit of time to discover two very special bookstores.

Freytag&Berndt is the main destination for travellers like me, displaying a large variety of printed maps and travel guides. Nowadays, we do have everything only one click away, but Germans are more conservative when it comes to online. If you are riding your bike in the countryside, you may meet groups of travellers unfolding their big paper maps and tracing their journey. 

The bookstore also has an online presence, so you can order your books and pick them up. The personnel is very friendly and acknowledgeable, able to answer different questions and requests.

I love comix and I am always curious about everything connected with this genre. UltraComix satisfies my interests. From older Manga versions to various figures, this store has it all. In addition to books, it also organises different related events, as well as courses among others, teaching to draw your favorite Mangas. So bad that I do live so far away...

And you, do you also visit bookstores when on the road? Would be happy to hear about your findings!