Category: Personal Purchase

Posted in Personal Purchase

How to be Hopeful by Caitlin Moran 

Posted on by thelotusreaders

Not getting enough sleep, doomscrolling on your phone, and feeling acid anxiety every time you watch the news? You’re not alone. One morning, Caitlin Moran lay in bed and realised: she had finally reached Peak Despair. The point where, in books and movies, the heroine decides to move to a remote farmhouse, walk an ancient, 600-mile pathway, or adopt a baby hare. The moment where someone goes on a quest to find … hope.

But this – this is not that kind of book. Caitlin tried – but it turns out remote Welsh farmhouses are really expensive. No-one with a job can walk 600 miles. And it’s incredibly hard to get access to baby hares in Crouch End.

And so, Caitlin decides instead to go on a domestic quest. To see if you can stay in the same house, in the same neighbourhood, but feel better about the frantic modern world by trying to make better days. Leaving social media, eschewing 24/7 news for local newspapers, sitting on buses without headphones, and listening to what people are really saying. Picking litter, donating blood, rewilding a garden, and the hardest thing of all – learning to fall back in love with the world again.

I would imagine that I’m not the only one who has lost sleep over the state of the world at the moment, or turned off the news for fear of launching a brick at the screen. Back in the 1980s my grandad would converse with the television, usually with hastily put together child friendly swear words – ‘suffering night’ was a favourite. I used to think it must be hard to find a level of rage that made you swear and argue with a tv screen but then I turned fifty and the floodgates opened! Now rarely a day goes by where I’m not exclaiming ‘What the fuck?’ Or telling someone to fuck the fuck off. At least my grandad only had Thatcher to rail against, I have Musk, Farage, Trump, Bannon, Hegseth, Zuckerberg, Fox, Robinson, Truss, Jenrick, Anderson, Yusuf, Tate… etc. Our county has a Reform council and mayor. The list feels endless so it’s no surprise that I have a daily conversation with tv, radio and every one of the social media sites, particularly X (stupid name) which is an absolute cess pit of hatred and bile. I worry about the future all the time and tonight I’m writing this after a very trying day as I’m still wide awake at 4am. Food prices are rising, so is fuel and the level of hate towards people with disabilities and anyone else marked out as different has started to affect me. I can’t always get my prescribed drugs since Brexit. I can’t afford to go out as much and some experiences like theatre and gigs are becoming unaffordable. The government are telling us to prepare for disruption so I’m stockpiling candles, loo roll, tinned and long life food as if we’re on a war footing. I can’t get to my own GP. My personal details have been hacked to such an extent that I had three different bank cards this year and I don’t know if my money is safe. It feels like we’re in the second episode of the brilliant series Years and Years where the banks crash and AI has taken most of our jobs. It feels like everything is in flux and if you haven’t noticed it’s because you’re on beta-blockers or you’re not paying attention. 

Into this maelstrom of disaster and anxiety comes the wise counsel of Caitlin Moran, a writer I’ve followed since her years at NME. I loved her book How to be a Woman and her novel about her time as a music journalist. She’s honest, warm, funny but wise too, characteristics that are in abundance in this new guide to all of the above. Set in clear individual chapters, she gives us a roadmap out of the sleepless nights and pointless arguing with fascists on social media. It’s a brisk walk through middle aged life starting with a crisis over the state of the world. She decides that the only way to be happy is to create her very own Eden in the Welsh hills – a dilapidated farmhouse with several acres for hens, wildflower meadows and a buffer against the world. It’s months before the realisation comes that the house needs raising to the ground then rebuilding, they don’t have the necessary skills or enough money to pay someone else. After a period of mourning, Moran reevaluates and decides she will have to create a happier life where she is, near a tube station and with a world’s supply of Red Bull cans sticking out of her hedge. In fact her first task is to stop saying ‘someone should do something about this’ and just get on and do it. She starts by tidying her garden, the hedge and the path outside, but her endeavours reach the local park where people just dump their unwanted crap next to the recycling bins, instead of in them. Slowly she notices other people tidying their front yard and the pavement outside, the road starts to look smarter and the rubbish gathers more slowly. 

The chapters that most resonated with me were those on the ‘uni-cause’ and social media. Don’t be an activist she tells us, relating a story about an acquaintance who has fallen down the rabbit hole of X and become gripped by the ‘uni-cause’ – performative outrage or emotion over one issue. We all know someone this has happened to and it is no different to radicalisation. She cites how this person has become obsessed with the plight of the Palestinians, a good cause to raise awareness about until it becomes all they do online. They start to share their cause with friends, especially those with a lot of followers asking them to retweet their posts. If they don’t, he then follows it up with entreaties to ‘not look away’ and berates those who haven’t supported his viewpoint, concluding that if they’re not on his side they’re an enemy. As people like this are drawn further in, their relationships start to suffer, family gatherings become bad tempered, they stop talking to people with an opposing viewpoint and see everything in binary rather than the multitude of grey shades in between. Why are we actively making ourselves miserable? Especially when we know that these algorithms work to narrow down our interests – so if we argue on a post about immigration, you’re suddenly inundated with the latest news from Reform, right wing commentators and more outrage. It’s like stoking the fire. Moran gives sensible advice on the input – limit the time you spend online, retrain your algorithm by watching nothing but cats, don’t read the news or reactions to it and instead read the papers at the weekend. If someone you know is depressed or incensed by a specific cause she gives them a limited time to speak then tells them to find a charity, a petition, a march or someone to write to about the issue. In this way you get involved and become part of the solution rather than wallowing morbidly in the slurry of other people’s opinions. I’m trying to apply this with my own family and it does help. Moran often finds that an issue that seemed disastrous on Monday has gone away by the weekend anyway, or at the very least a few world leaders are promising a summit about it. 

Another great tip is having an awareness of how animals act at different times of the year and even each day. Her cockapoo gets up in the morning, goes into the garden and stretches. She sniffs her territory and welcomes the day, instead of languishing in bed or hunched over a screen, taking in an avalanche of bad news and faux outrage. It sounds obvious but just being present in whatever you’re doing is key with this. You can walk the dog on the same path every day, not taking anything in and listening to a podcast or you can take the ear pods out and listen to what’s around you, letting the dog dictate the direction and varying what you see. Walking the dog regularly is something I really struggle with due to my mobility issues but when I can be out in the fresh air I always have a better day. I’m also a big believer in keeping your ears free to hear what’s happening around you and I always carry a notebook so I can jot down snippets of other people’s conversation. It makes us more connected to the world and means we’re doing one thing at once, a more mindful way of living. Also varying what you do according to the season is sensible – if you feel more relaxed and the need to hibernate in winter, then do it, it’s what animals do. It made me think of something I say about holidays. We work hard to afford our holidays but often feel quite blue and stressed as we go back into normal life. I tell clients to think about what they do on holiday that creates the relaxed, happy feelings. Obviously we can’t give up work, family commitments and all of normal life but what made the difference: less screen time? More time outdoors? Quality time with our partner? Having lie-ins? Then try to incorporate a bit of that in everyday life. Me and my husband spent two weeks in Scotland but when we returned he was soon stressed so we talked about what helped his stress levels and it was more time outdoors, having time to fish and spending less time on his cause (anti-fascism) especially online. We realised we need more quiet time, so we’re spending more time with no tv, radio or music. Both of us are calmer.

There’s nothing ground breaking here from a counsellor’s perspective, but it is sensible, effective advice to stave off apathy and try to bring some hope back into life. This is delivered with Moran’s usual honesty, forthrightness and wit. It made me think of a very low point in my life, when I moved into a little barn conversion on my own. I’d not lived alone for very long so it was a real opportunity to get to know myself again, and find what I needed at this point in my life. I went to New York and Venice, spent more time with friends, I picked up my counselling training and became qualified. I went to gigs and started writing again. I helped out at the meditation garden in the village. One of the key things that made me feel ready to face the day was a few lines of Emily Dickinson’s poetry that I had on the chimney breast in my bedroom: 

“Hope is the thing with feathers, 

That perches in the soul, 

And sings the tune without the words 

And never stops at all.” 

It was just one small moment of uplift as the day started that made everything else possible. If you’re having a mid-life moment of ‘let’s emigrate’ or ‘shall we move to the seaside and open a zoo?’ maybe go get your hormone levels checked and chat to a counsellor before buying an expensive money pit and uprooting your whole family. Then make tiny little changes to how you spend each day. I promise it will lead to bigger ones and the despair, although we can’t banish at altogether, will definitely improve. 

Meet the Author

Caitlin Moran is the eldest of eight children, home educated on a council estate in Woverhampton. She published her first novel at 16 and became a columnist at The Times at 18. She has won Columnist of the Year seven times and has also been named Interviewer and Critic of the Year. Her million-selling groundbreaking feminist memoir How to be a Woman was voted one of the Sunday Times ‘Most Important Books of the Twenty-First Century’. 

Caitlin’s other books have also been bestsellers and How to Build a Girlwas made into a film with Beanie Feldstein and Emma Thompson. Her Channel 4 sitcom Raised by Wolves, co-written with her sister Caroline Moran, won a Rose d’Or for Best Sitcom. Her Who’s Who entry lists her interests as ‘cava, eyeliner, hair embiggening, and The Struggle’.

She lives in North London with her husband and two children, and, after following all her own advice, she really is hopeful now.

Posted in Personal Purchase

The Housekeeper by Rose Tremain

Posted on by thelotusreaders

Mrs Danowski – known as Danni – is the housekeeper of a grand mansion on the wild coast of Cornwall. When glamorous young writer Daphne du Maurier visits Manderville Hall to research her new novel, she and Danni are drawn into a clandestine and intoxicating affair.

For Danni, it is an all-consuming love; for Daphne a submission to long-suppressed desires. But their fragile secret is vulnerable to prying eyes and destined for heartbreak. When Daphne’s novel launches to triumphant success, Danni is distraught to find herself transformed into a malign and jealous character on the page. She seeks respite from the hurt by telling her own story: The Housekeeper.

I remember my mum first showing me the 1940 Alfred Hitchcock film adaptation of Rebecca, the novel by Daphne du Maurier and I have loved it ever since. Of course as an adolescent girl I thought this was a romance and missed most of the complex psychology between the characters and their insignificance next to the overwhelming presence of Max de Winter’s dead wife Rebecca. She’s in the diary in the morning room, on the stationery, the bed linen and in the sheer and fragile nightgown still laid out on her bed in the wing overlooking her beloved sea. So significant is her ghost that Max’s new and unprepared young bride doesn’t even have a name. One thing that always stayed with me though was the pale and haunting face of the housekeeper, Mrs Danvers. Beautifully played by Judith Anderson in her severe black dress, she seemingly floats quietly through the house always catching out his new bride who is inept and deeply self-conscious. She doesn’t have the upbringing or self-assurance to assert her own opinions and ideas for how they live at Manderley, simply acquiescing to the status quo and Mrs Danvers lead. We never know whether she means harm or is simply devoted to her dead mistress, a relationship that as I got older took on a different meaning – the display of the sheer nightgown, the way Rebecca told Danni of her sexual exploits and how she talks about touching Rebecca’s hair all have a sapphic undertone I didn’t see when I was young. It remains one of my favourite books and films to this day, so knowing there was a novel inspired by Rebecca was really exciting and this book didn’t disappoint.

Judith Butler and Joan Fontaine in Alfred Hitchcock’s Rebecca 1940

Rose Tremain takes everything we know from Rebecca and gives the novel an origin story. At Lord Grenville- Whithers’s house, set on the Cornish coast, we meet Mrs Danowski, the housekeeper of Manderville. Danni, as she is known, worked for Grenville’s wife who recently died. She’s protective of her employer who was so shocked by his wife’s untimely death he suffered a small stroke. Along with the other servants Danni runs a tight ship and still keeps her mistress’s things in her part of the house. Her quiet and regimented world is blown apart when the novelist Daphne du Maurier visits the house. She falls in love with its position on the cliffs near Fowey, where she lives at Ferryside. She tells Lord Grenville that she is struggling to write in their family home always interrupted by the children and the servants. She asks if she can use the small boating shed in the cove for a writing place. He agrees that she can come and go as she pleases and orders Dani to make sure the place is ready for Daphne’s visits. It’s soon clear that there is more to Daphne’s request than meets the eye. An intoxicating pull of desire exists between the two women and as Daphne confides, there are times when the boy inside her needs to come out. As they embark on this passionate and dangerous affair change is in the air. The possibility of war looms and closer to home Grenville- Whithers is thinking about the future and where to bestow Manderville if he should die. He’s considering his niece Adelaide, a loud and careless girl who has no experience running a big house. The servants are feeling restless and start looking at other options for their future. Suddenly the place Danni felt safe and stable is in flux and she’s living life on a dangerous edge again.

The confrontation at the ball

I loved how the author incorporated Rebecca into the novel, so that her whole story becomes the reason for its creation. Mrs Danvers becomes the repository of Daphne’s passion and ‘perverted’ nature. She makes Danni into this evil and obsessive woman to excuse her own behaviour. Then there’s Rebecca and the second Mrs de Winter who function as two sides to Daphne’s character: the social butterfly with insatiable passions and the inept and inexperienced mistress of the house.

“What I see in this character is Daphne’s horror of her own nature.’

As well as using the boat house in the cove for her novel, Daphne incorporates the ball thrown by Grenville- Whithers at Manderville as the scene of the young wife’s disastrous choice of costume, encouraged by the housekeeper to drive a wedge between them. This is the unforgettable night where Mrs Danvers takes the young wife into Rebecca’s bedroom and shows her Rebecca’s alluring sheer nightgown and how she would confide her sexual exploits. It’s where I first realised the depths of her obsession with her mistress, she’s almost living vicariously through Rebecca and getting an erotic thrill from her sexual conquests. Rose Tremain uses the ball as a catalyst for change too. It’s the moment where Manderville’s future is decided and where a decision is made about Daphne and Danni’s relationship. Danni has to look at herself in the mirror at times to see whether the woman she sees in the glass is who she expects or if she’s become the woman immortalised in Daphne’s new book. She replays parts of her upbringing in Poland in her mind, the terrible rise of hate against Jewish families like hers and being ostracised at school. Even though the memories are painful she uses them to reaffirm who she is, Mrs Danowski born in Kalinskiego Street now housekeeper of Manderville Hall with the attention to detail and quiet deference the position requires. Overriding the memories of Daphne and her naked in the boathouse giving in to their desires.

“The more she is made guilty by these feelings, the more terrible she must make me in her story.”

I enjoyed the two subplots about two younger servants called Roly and Florence and around Dani’s dressmaking. Roly wants to get ahead and dreams of opening a tobacco and sweet shop. Danni supports the young couple and is willing to help them set up, but is horrified when Roly goes to extreme lengths to secure what he wants. She feels an affinity with a young woman called Emerald, brought along to Danni by her mother because they are finding it impossible to buy a wedding dress that suits her. Danni gets the sense that Emerald isn’t looking forward to her wedding, but sets to work creating a dress that’s simple but cut beautifully to suit her fuller figure. When Danni gets the chance to talk to Emerald alone, she confides in her about the real love of her life. Danni’s thwarted feelings for Daphne drive her to help Emerald live the life she wants, on her own terms.

The pace of the novel is perfect, slow and languorous at first with moments of intense and hurried desire. My heart raced at times, terrified they would be found out. There was a constantly ticking clock in my mind, waiting for the moment everything would change. The author’s representation of Daphne du Maurier feels genuine, even to someone who has read a lot about her background and life at Menabilly – her very own Manderley near Fowey. It’s easy to see aspects of Rebecca and the second Mrs de Winter in her character and behaviour, but also Daphne herself. It was interesting to imagine Danni beyond the Hitchcock film’s representation of Mrs Danvers. Instead of the austere and ghostly housekeeper we see a woman in moments of abandonment, with her hair down her back and nothing but a fur coat on, the object of Daphne’s desire. A desire she’s so ashamed of she makes her lover evil in print then burns her to death. I must mention the stunning cover of this book too, a wonderfully stylised Art Deco representation of the housekeeper, perhaps peering from her dead mistress’s window to the sea below. It’s stylish and immediately takes us to the East Wing of Manderley where the housekeeper is stood as a boat runs aground bringing disaster for Maxim de Winter. Most exciting is the news that Rose Tremain has also written a screenplay to turn the novel into a film. Now in post production this is a Richard Eyre film with Anthony Hopkins as Grenville and Outlander’s Catriona Balfe as Danni. I’m really looking forward to seeing this and I’ll be placing this book pride of place in my collection of books I inspired by Rebecca and Jane Eyre.

Out Now from Chatto and Windus

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The Witches of Cambridge by Alice Hoffman

Posted on by thelotusreaders

Once upon a time, women were drowned in the river and the only witnesses were the crows in the trees. The Puritans blamed Eve for the sins of the world. That was when we began to meet in the name of Lilith, Adam’s first wife―banished for refusing to do as she was told. 

We Fly Together…

By the 1950s, Cambridge, Massachusetts feels far removed from the legendary witch trials that marked its early days as a colony. Ava, a bright young woman from a small town in Maine, arrives for her first year at Radcliffe College. There, she meets Lauren, her opposite in every way―the wild and brazen daughter of a wealthy and well-established Cambridge family. But the two have more in common than they think. Both are recruited by the Lilith Society, a secret organization of witches at Radcliffe dating back to colonial times. As they learn more about their legacy, Ava and Lauren form a close bond that is put to the test as they learn to navigate their new power, friendship, and love.

While Radcliffe seems like a safe haven, the shadow of McCarthyism looms large, an ever-present threat to the flourishing creative and intellectual life in Cambridge. And as girls from the Lilith Society begin to go missing, Ava and Lauren realize the witch trials of the past may not be as deeply buried as they once believed.

What a perfect read for cozy autumn months! Alice Hoffman’s latest novel is on the surface a fantasy – a magical battle between the female witches of Lilith House at Radcliffe and the male witch hunters of the founding families responsible for Yale and Harvard. Within this battle we have two friends, Ava and Lauren, as well as a love story between Ava and Jamie Mather that isn’t just a mismatch of class, but a clash of witch and a family of hunters. Underneath these magical and romantic stories is a much darker tale about history repeating itself, one that is incredibly brave when in real life it feels like we’re about to reach the peak of that repetitive cycle. Our first storyline is narrated by Ava and Lauren, invited to join the sorority at Lillith House, a house paid for by its alumni that takes on two freshmen a year but only those with particular skills. Lauren is aware of her heritage and skills, but for Ava it’s a revelation and something to explore. She finds her skills come naturally as she finds her familiar, a grey wolf called Jack, and when her emotions are heightened as she meets Jamie Mather – a legacy student with a pedigree that goes back to the founding families of Massachusetts. Then we delve into the past to look at the formation of these Ivy League universities but also the Mather’s family business of witch hunting. Hoffman’s unique narrative voice weaves a spell around you with her layered imagery and I found myself completely absorbed. 

There are two paths a witch can take. There’s the kind of witch who provides love spells and helps the women in their town who queue up for herbal remedies that give them choice about their bodies and tonics for women’s ailments. The other path is the crooked or ‘left-handed’ path, the magic of control, domination, power and anger. I felt for Lauren, who is tempted by the power of the crooked path and the desire she feels for one of their university tutors who researches the anthropology of magic. However, she is offered a different direction when she meets an unusual young man called Carrick who is a tattooist. Lauren wants her body covered with magical words, but she can sense that she and Carrick have a connection. Could she leave the crooked path behind her and instead fall in love with this man? She knows from bitter experience though, that love brings vulnerability and the possibility of being hurt. Or will she choose the path that gives her power and control, but also the ability to deeply hurt the ones she loves? I had empathy for Lauren, but was drawn in by Ava’s loyalty, bravery and willingness to go it alone. Her connection with her dog Jack is touching and incredibly endearing. Her love for Jamie will put her directly in the path of an historic enemy: the Mather family. When she visits for Thanksgiving she has to borrow clothes from Lauren as she knows there is nothing in her wardrobe that would fit into his world. It doesn’t work and she finds the hostility towards her almost overwhelming. Mrs Mather is aware that her youngest son is different to his brothers, more sensitive and emotionally aware but also born with a sixth finger, now removed, that betrays his real identity and skills. She watches her husband belittle Jamie and his brothers follow suit until he walks out. She can see something in Ava, she has an ability to truly understand Jamie and accept him for all of who he is. 

It is Ava who takes us back in time through the diary of  the very first witch of Cambridge, another woman battling the Mathers family. This account takes us back to the persecution of witches and a history of ‘lost women’ made up of those who were accused but innocent and those who were skilled in magic, all of whom were drowned, burned or hanged. This history is about men who wanted to control, not just women but the means of treating ailments and illnesses. Their evidence was flimsy and flawed, now it’s clear that what were taken as signs of witchcraft could be explained. Crop failure could have been fungi or rot and ergot poisoning could produce vivid hallucinations in humans who must have thought themselves enchanted in some way. The signs were women who lived alone, supported themselves, had a sixth finger or an animal companion, or wore red boots. When I read that description I realised it was all about control and fear of women who did not need men. Nothing here has changed, except instead of red boots it’s a comedian on a popular Saturday night show complaining that the women at his gym dress like whores. Or an evangelical preacher warning his female congregation about the evils of gossip and groups of them meeting together, because if they meet together they might talk and compare notes on what men are doing. It’s a president of the United States telling a female journalist that she doesn’t smile enough or calling her ‘piggy piggy.” Misogyny runs deep in society and as Hoffman observes “what men don’t understand they seek to destroy”. 

In the current context of US book bans, Hoffman uses a magical story to underline those policies that set out to control women, to keep them at home, pregnant and under their husbands. The US government believe this to such an extent that they will seek legal advice to keep a brain dead woman alive on machines as an incubator for a baby that was eventually born with profound disabilities – because unsurprisingly a dead body isn’t the best host for a pregnancy. In her past narrative she explores the Puritan settlers of North- East America, their treatment of the indigenous people who lived on the land and the women accused of witchcraft. In the 1950s narrative she explores McCarthyism and how it sought out traitors and communists, particularly focusing on the entertainment industry and the liberal arts communities. The most famous example is Arthur Miller who wrote The Crucible about the witch hunt of Salem, as an allegory of Senator McCarthy’s committees and blacklists. Other victims were Dorothy Parker, Dashiell Hammett and Dalton Trumbo who won an Academy Award under a pseudonym. There were also investigations dubbed the Lavender Scare that sought out homosexuals employed by the federal government, represented in the novel by Lauren’s brother Lionel and his relationship with a local detective. We’re right now in a phase of black- listing writers and novels that centre on abortion, gun massacres, transgender characters, racism and homosexuality. Similarly there’s a war on DEI, where right wing politicians and governments are actively removing DEI hiring policies in universities and any federal employment. I have often been interviewed due to DEI policy, but all it guarantees is, if you have the right qualifications and experience, you get an interview – providing equality where a candidate might be overlooked because of their race, sexuality or disability. This has been re-packaged by Trump and right wing politicians in this country as not giving the job to the best candidate and awarding it to the token candidate instead. Only this week Channel 4 showed a documentary called The Experiment and it found that if Nazi policies on disability are re-packaged and presented to the public they will accept them, even to the extent of institutionalising all disabled people and stopping their benefits. We often ask how did people stand by and allow the Holocaust to happen, so I think Hoffman is brave to write a book that reminds us this history can repeat itself over and over. 

I loved how the first witch warns that this type of persecution has never gone away, particularly against women. She defines real witches as those who try not to be noticed, who stay away from men and align themselves with nature. I also enjoyed her philosophy of life as the chapters of a book, for life to have balance it must have seasons of joy and seasons of sadness. The strength of female friendship is the strongest theme in the book and I loved Ava and Lauren’s friendship, hoping it would endure everything that threatens it, from falling in love, to left-handed magic and serious betrayal. She captures beautifully how women know instinctively when their friend is in trouble and how loyal those bonds are, even after long periods of being apart. I have those friendships that have endured, a couple of them that have even reached the forty year point, way beyond any relationship I’ve had with a man. Even when life takes us in different directions I know that if I called they would be there for me because they’ve seen me through so much. The magical darkness that envelops Lauren is thrilling when read as a magical fantasy, but takes on greater resonance if we think of it as the influence of an abusive older man preying on one of his students. I so wanted Ava to bring her back just as my friends have got me through bereavement, illness and other dark seasons of my life. Magic is strong but female friendship is the strongest magic of all. Hoffman’s writing is as dream-like and beautifully lyrical as ever. From a writing therapy perspective what I loved most that Hoffman acknowledged the power in the act of writing whether it’s a grimoire, a letter or a daily journal. 

“Writing is the antidote to sorrow and the first step of magic.”

Meet the Author

Alice Hoffman was born in New York City on March 16, 1952, and grew up on Long Island. After graduating from high school in 1969, she attended Adelphi University, from which she received a BA, and then received a Mirrellees Fellowship to the Stanford University Creative Writing Center, which she attended in 1973 and 74, receiving an MA in creative writing. She holds an MA from the Harvard Divinity School and is currently a fellow at the Harvard Divinity School. She lives outside of Boston.
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Hoffman’s first novel, Property Of, was written at the age of twenty-one, while she was studying at Stanford, and published shortly thereafter by Farrar Straus and Giroux. She credits her mentor, professor and writer Albert J. Guerard, and his wife, the writer Maclin Bocock Guerard, for helping her to publish her first short story in the magazine Fiction. Editor Ted Solotaroff then contacted her to ask if she had a novel, at which point she quickly began to write what was to become Property Of, a section of which was published in Mr. Solotaroff’s magazine, American Review.

Since that remarkable beginning, Alice Hoffman has become one of the most distinguished novelists. She has published over thirty novels, three books of short fiction, and eight books for children and young adults. Her novel, Here on Earth, an Oprah’s Book Club choice, was a modern reworking of some of the themes of Emily Bronte’s masterpiece Wuthering Heights. Practical Magic was made into a Warner Brothers film starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman. Her novel, At Risk, which concerns a family dealing with AIDS, can be found on the reading lists of many universities, colleges and secondary schools. Hoffman’s advance from Local Girls, a collection of inter-related fictions about love and loss on Long Island, was donated to help create the Hoffman Breast Center at Mt. Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, MA. Hoffman has written a number of novels for young adults, including Aquamarine, Green Angel, and Green Witch. In 2007 Little Brown published the teen novel Incantation, a story about hidden Jews during the Spanish Inquisition, which Publishers Weekly chose as one of the best books of the year.

Hoffman’s work has been published in more than twenty translations and more than one hundred foreign editions. Her novels have received mention as notable books of the year by The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, The Los Angeles Times, Library Journal, and People Magazine. She has also worked as a screenwriter and is the author of the original screenplay “Independence Day,” a film starring Kathleen Quinlan and Diane Wiest. Her teen novel Aquamarine was made into a film starring Emma Roberts. Her short fiction and non-fiction have appeared in The New York Times, The Boston Globe Magazine, Kenyon Review, The Los Angeles Times, Architectural Digest, Harvard Review, Ploughshares and other magazines.
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Toni Morrison calls The Dovekeepers  “… a major contribution to twenty-first century literature.” The story of the survivors of Masada is considered by many to be Hoffman’s masterpiece. The New York Times bestselling novel was adapted for television in a 2015 miniseries starring Rachel Brosnahan and Cote de Pablo.

Her most recent novels have received many accolades and are New York Times bestsellers. They include The Museum of Extraordinary Things, The Marriage of Opposites, Faithful, The Invisible Hour, and When We Flew Away. Her novel, The Rules of Magic, is the prequel to her cult-classic Practical Magic. It was selected as a LibraryReads and Indie Next List Pick for October 2017, and was one of the Most Anticipated Books on iTunes. Reese Witherspoon picked it as her October 2017 Book Club read, remarking that the “story is full of magic, love, family, heartbreak and redemption.” Set in New York City at the cusp of the sixties, The Rules of Magic is a timeless story that reminds us that the only remedy for being human is to be true to yourself. The World That We Knew, published in 2019, is an exploration of humanity set in France during the Holocaust. Magic Lessons, book three in the Practical Magic series, was published in October 2020, and received praise from The New York Times, Publishers Weekly, The Boston Globe, and was a Book of the Month Top Pick for October. Book four in the Practical Magic series, The Book of Magic, was released in October 2021 and was selected as a Indie Next Pick and a LibraryReads Hall of Fame Pick.

Giveaway

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You’ll Be Sorry by Lisa Gardner 

Posted on by thelotusreaders

The Dixon family house was once a crown jewel of the White Mountains. Perched on a cliff with breathtaking views, it promised summer adventures, winter skiing, and family gatherings around a roaring log fire.

Until late one August night, when both parents and their four children vanished, leaving behind a trail of bloody footprints, and a mystery that has endured for generations.

Thirty years later, the grand mansion is stirring back to life. For Raquel and Theo Collins, restoring their new home represents a fresh start after a terrible tragedy.

For Amanda Grady, the recently appointed police chief of Shereford, it’s good to see a fresh start for the derelict house. But a new family in the old home can only mean one thing: the past has returned with a vengeance.

When a stray dog arrives and discovers a skeleton on the property, Raquel and Theo face a daunting choice of what to believe, who to trust, and how to survive.

Because in the tiny village of Shereford the time has come. A town, a couple, a cop must all work together to unravel the terrifying events that happened one night thirty years ago, or…

They will all be sorry.

I love that even seven years into blogging about books I can still find authors I’ve never read before and this recommendation came from a fellow book reviewer. My first thought a few chapters in was that the writing had a feel of Stephen King with its small town setting, secrets and horrific things hidden in unexpected places. The remoteness of this community adds to the claustrophobic atmosphere, especially in the final chapters as a storm sets in and cuts them off from outside help with only Chief Grady to defend the residents. There’s also a theme of something malign passed down the generations, but is this an evil that human beings inflict on each other or is it something lurking around this town, something that never dies? The action is focused around a property known as the Dixon House, a house that stayed empty ever since the tragedy from a few decades ago. When Chief Mandy Grady was a little girl and her dad held the role of police chief, the six members of the Dixon family disappeared. It was a confusing scene with various footprints, some of them bloody and others from bare feet. The lack of DNA testing meant finding any answers to the mystery or identifying a possible suspect never happened. The house has since stood empty and has been the site of teenage meet-ups, graffiti art and wild animals taking shelter. Now though the house has new residents, interior designer Raquel and her husband Theo have taken it on as a project. They are an intrepid couple, happy to take risks and with the funds to remodel the home to their own needs. However, they have suffered a personal tragedy before arriving in Maine and when they find an unexpected feature in their grounds with horrifying contents Chief Grady starts to question. Will they still be able to enjoy their new remote lifestyle and settle into Shereford or can a house hold a trauma, dooming every residents to repeat the experience over and over again? 

The two main investigators in this mystery are Chief Mandy Grady and new resident Raquel, providing the interesting contrasting perspectives of someone born and bred in Shereford and someone completely new to the area and its residents. For Mandy it is hard to imagine that her father did anything but his best when investigating the Dixon’s disappearance, but she knows how tight knit this community is. Would they tell her if they knew something? Would she believe them? This is the difficult and lonely job of policing your own community, often too close to see things objectively but somehow always an outsider too. These families can trace their ancestors back for generations and have a vested interest in keeping old crimes hidden. Raquel is new enough not to care who she upsets, perhaps not realising that the consequences could be more serious than being snubbed by the neighbours. When she finds a well on their land with a woman’s skeleton buried inside she becomes fascinated with this decades old mystery and whether it’s linked to the Dixon disappearance. When researching in the heritage centre she’s restricted by the hovering of its guardians Betty and Mason, but thinks nothing of stealing a journal from under their noses. As she reads she discovers it’s been written by a local wise woman and midwife, something that links in with the well. Is there a supernatural element here or a witch hunt against a woman simply treating her fellow women? Though it does seem strange that a retriever type dog turned up at the house when they moved in, just like the one that the Dixons took in. It’s as if their house is caught in a time loop, doomed to repeat history every time a new resident moves in. What she finds as she reads Rita’s journal is a suggestion of witchcraft and satanic rituals, something that seems almost unbelievable as she walks around and meets friendly residents, but she knows better than most that proximity isn’t a guarantee of safety. 

A huge theme in the book is motherhood, both within the mystery and for Raquel and Theo personally. When smaller bones are found with the woman in the well, Raquel identifies them immediately as infant’s bones. This set off a few alarm bells about her past because it seems to trigger something emotionally. We know she had a difficult childhood but there are secrets she’s keeping from us and from Theo. She agonises over not being good enough for her husband who is described as handsome and comes from a rich and well connected family. He has proven himself loyal to Raquel but are there things he doesn’t know and if so, will their marriage survive? As a couple they’ve gone through pregnancy loss, a devastating experience that can often break a couple apart, yet they’ve survived. Theo has made the decision that he wants to be with Raquel because he loves her, not because of her ability to be a mother. I loved the chapters where this was explored from Raquel’s perspective as she muses on her lost children and as someone who experienced recurrent pregnancy loss it really resonated. She captures the difficult gap between those who only experienced the idea of a baby and the fully formed little person who was a reality to the mother who carried them: 

“Did babies have souls? Even the ones who never took a breath, but kicked their precious feet and turned funny little somersaults inside the safety of their mother’s womb […] were they just fragile wisps of what might have been, an idea never fully formed.” 

This combination of addictive thriller with real emotional intelligence captured me completely. As days pass and Mandy is driving around the more isolated parts of the community to see if they’re prepared for the coming snow storm, we can see how complex her job is. She’s taking care of these people but also suspicious of some of them. Even while she checks if they have supplies, she’s assessing them and wondering who holds the town’s secrets and who has been actively trying to keep them buried. I found both women brave, forthright and willing to stretch the rules to find the truth. As the storm hits they end up together, chasing down their suspects in an intensely claustrophobic town, completely cut off from any reinforcements or chance at escape. There’s been so much hiding in plain sight, simply needing a different perspective to unlock the truth both literally and figuratively. The twists kept coming and I was astounded by the layers of lies and collusion. Mandy finds herself at the centre of a web of deception woven into a more complicated pattern by each generation that followed in order to preserve reputation and power. I love it when a book grabs my attention so much that I’m choosing to read it rather than turn on the television. I’ve placed this author on the list I keep for second hand bookshops because I definitely want to read more of her work.

Out now from Penguin

Meet the Author

Lisa Gardner started her writing career aged seventeen. Having caught her hair on fire while working in food service, crafting a novel seemed a safer bet. A mere ten years later she became an overnight success with the publication of her first thriller, The Perfect Husband.

Now an internationally bestselling author and winner of the International Thriller Writers Award for best suspense novel, Lisa lives in the mountains of New Hampshire with her family.

When not glued to her computer, she can be found hiking the mountains with her dogs and/or researching new and interesting ways to get away with murder.

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Under the Blazing Sun by Jenny Lund Madsen

Posted on by thelotusreaders

Hannah is miserable. Her love life is in ruins, her contract demands a sequel to her bestselling crime debut – and she’s out of ideas. After a mortifying TV interview, her agent ships her off to a sun-drenched Sicilian villa with a simple order: finish the book. No distractions. No excuses.

But inspiration doesn’t strike – murder does. When a night out ends in murder, Hannah finds herself at the centre of a murder investigation … again. The police want her out of the way, and the only person who seems to believe her is a young but charming Italian police officer. That is, until she doesn’t.

Soon Hannah is chasing suspects, fleeing crime scenes, and doing whatever it takes to avoid becoming the next victim. She came to write a crime novel. Now she’s trapped inside one. Dark, sly and deliciously atmospheric, Under the Blazing Sun is the second novel in the award-winning series featuring accidental sleuth and disgruntled literary author Hannah, whose pursuit of plot twists keeps turning dangerously real.

I loved the author’s first book in this series and I devoured this one in a day. Hannah is once again fretting over writing her latest book, disgusted that copies of the romance novel she poured her heart into is being ignored, while the crime novel she wrote in one month for a bet is a bestseller. Hannah is a brilliantly flawed character full of writer’s neurosis, hating that she is forced to write what will sell rather than the books she aspires to write. Again she’s on a deadline and as a last resort her editor Bastian finds her a quiet villa in Sicily with its own swimming pool. No distractions and plenty of time to unwind and write the novel she’s had an advance to produce. I love this character because she says and does the things I want to, but my inhibitions keep it inside. She has no such restrictions, happily saying what she thinks when she thinks it. Her disgust with the crime genre and Jorn Jensen in particular is so funny. I wonder if she has ever had a thought or need she didn’t express? She’s also totally unregulated and this is what lands her in trouble every time. She decides to walk to the village without thought about the heat, how far it is and which direction she takes. So when it comes to going back to the villa she has no idea which hill to take and ends up exhausted and on the verge of sunstroke on her way back. This is where she is found by Hans and Greta who take her to their incredible house to clean up and drink something. This turns into dinner, wine and a night spent in their house. It’s when she wakes up in a strange place that she and the housekeeper Lucette find a dead body. Greta has been murdered and Hans is nowhere to be found. Has he been kidnapped or could he be the murderer? Hannah seems to have an inability to weigh up a decision before taking action. There’s so much going on in her head that it’s very hard for her to remain in the present. I’m always wishing she’d slow down a minute and breathe, but the only times she seems to do this are in the water. 

This hot Italian island couldn’t be further from Hannah’s Scandinavian home and is a great backdrop for a murder. Hannah is a fish out of water here and she notes the contrast between the cold and snow of her last case and the relentless heat and dryness of Sicily. The area throws up different obstacles too. There’s the rather sexist and misogynistic Sicilian police, aside from their one female recruit Carlotta. Hannah has to consider the local community and possible objections to people like Greta who are making money by bringing even more tourists into the area. There’s the possibility of corruption too with links between the Mafia, business and local government. We see the contrast of what the area is like for holiday makers and wealthy incomers, as opposed to the young people in the area who are struggling to find work and homes without moving away. The young police detective Carlotta wants to be the difference in the police force, banding together with Hannah on a couple of occasions and proving to be quite the distraction. Hannah is still in love with Margret and is dangling on an open ended waiting game. They’re not in a relationship until Margret can extricate herself from her marriage and make the best decisions for her children. Hannah isn’t always patient with this and doesn’t seem to realise that if Margret was in her life permanently so are her children. When she imagines them together I’m not sure the children feature in that picture. It was interesting to see her getting more than she bargained for and having the cheek to ask Margret’s police officer husband for help! He voices what many readers might be thinking when he tells her she’s the most annoying person he’s ever met. 

The case is an absolute maze of connections and suspects and despite her aversion to crime as a genre, she’s just as caught up in the mystery of this murder as any reader would be. She’s utterly reckless, in a comical way and there’s a chase on a moped during the final chapters that is clumsy and hilarious to imagine. Sparks fly when Jorn Jensen appears, but she can’t deny he helps make things happen. His arrogance is brilliant and when he suggests they write a crime novel together I thought Hannah might hit him with something heavy. The creepy moment in the basement, including Jensen’s cardboard cut out made me laugh and worry about her safety at the same time. This is a dark humour that I love. Jorn’s statement that he has ‘enormous sex appeal’ and it’s that and not his wealth that attracts women shows what sort of brash and conceited character he is, but there’s no denying his bravery and quick thinking. They are quite the investigative team, despite her reticence about working with him. Hannah’s instincts are good. She won’t accept the police’s conclusion that Hans killed his wife, reasoning that he adored her and couldn’t have done it. Instead she follows the money, often blundering into compromising situations and dangerous people. If the conclusion teaches her anything it’s that people will murder for very unexpected reasons. This is a brilliant second instalment of Hannah’s adventures and I’m going to resolve to be a little more Hannah and say what I think here and there. 

Out now from Orenda Books

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Dissection of A Murder by Jo Murray

Posted on by thelotusreaders

A dead judge. A silent defendant. And a courtroom full of liars.

When Leila Reynolds is handed her first murder case, she’s shocked at how high-profile it is: the murder of a well-respected, well-known judge. This shouldn’t be the kind of case she’s leading; it’s way beyond her expertise. But the defendant, Jack Millman, is clear. He wants her, and only her.

To make things worse, he’s refusing to talk. How is she supposed to prove herself on what appears to be an unwinnable case?

Losing is not an option. She must find the most persuasive argument. Trials aren’t won by convincing judges or fellow barristers – they’re all about convincing a jury.

Suddenly, Leila finds herself fighting not only to keep Jack out of prison, but also to keep her own secrets buried.

It’s true what they say – there are two sides to every story.

Guilty or not guilty?

Wow! This was a ‘devour in one sitting’ thriller in the high stakes setting of a barrister’s chambers and an incendiary case where two of their barristers have been requested; one in prosecution and one in defence. The defendant has requested Leila, an up and coming young barrister who has just heard she’s getting a mention in an exclusive legal publication. The man who’s keen to let Leila know she has him to thank for that mention, is her previous mentor Julian. As a pupil she had to work under Julian to complete her training and he’s now going to be her opponent in court. Even more complicated is the fact that they’re now husband and wife. This is a murder case and the victim was a high court judge, Anton Smythe, who died in a flat above a nightclub after being hit in the head with a doorstop. The accused is Jack, who works as security for the nightclub owner and lives on the premises. Leila is surprised that his solicitor has requested her because she has defended this client before, and lost. When they meet again for instructions, Jack tells her he will be pleading not guilty but offers no defence. She absolutely refuses to put him on the stand and his solicitor agrees. They should argue his case if he will trust them with the truth. Jack sticks to his guns, he will not say a word about his defence until he is on the stand. Could this be paranoia? Although to be a judge like Anton means you have powerful friends, maybe it is sensible to keep his story under wraps for now. 

I’m a big fan of legal dramas like Silk and North Square so the setting in a barrister’s chambers definitely appealed to me. I loved Maxine Peake as Martha, she was Northern, intelligent, quick with a put down and nobody’s fool. Leila comes across as more of a gentle character than that, but definitely intelligent, determined and perhaps driven by a background that has its secrets. I intensely disliked Julian, but he is so well-written. There was a definite power imbalance between them, especially since she’d been his pupil. He must have seen her star quality and I had the thought that maybe he’d married Leila to keep her under him, both literally and figuratively. The layers of charm and ease soon fall away as the case starts. 

“You want someone whose mind is in alignment with yours, but whose appetite for dominance will never exceed your own”. 

When Leila is congratulated on her mention he makes sure to comment that without his influence it wouldn’t have happened. I noticed that his ex-wife seems to want to talk to Leila, something she’s avoiding but might be worthwhile. As lines are drawn in the court room there’s a definite misogyny in how Julian gangs up with the police witnesses against her, but because he can couch it in terms of prosecuting competently even though she’s his wife, it’s hard to narrow down his intentions. Is he just serving the best interests of his client? Or is he trying to rattle his wife and make her feel like she’s dependent on him? As the case continues their once calm married life becomes more fraught and separate. Leila isn’t sure whether it’s just the case and the distance needed to be opponents or whether something more fundamental is wrong. The other thing that struck me as odd is that it’s Leila who goes to spend Friday evenings having fish and chips with her mother-in-law Audrey who is in the early stages of dementia. Julian never goes with her. When she does have one lucid moment Leila asks what she thinks about her son. ‘You can’t trust him she says very quietly. Thats why he doesn’t come to see me. He hates women who can see through him.” Maybe Leila is just starting to see the real man she married. There is also mystery around Leila’s background, definitely a poorer area of the North East than Durham but she seems to have no family. It’s as if she has totally reinvented herself. She calls it a wretched life that’s left it’s mark: 

“It’s the smaller, subtler things I’m now fiercely protective of, like feeling safe when I turn the light off before I go to sleep […] recognising my body is my own and I now get a say in who touches it. The things I had to do to get here you’d be horrified to know.”

It feels as if her relationships have been transactional even when she’s had a choice. Could Julian just be another rung on the ladder? It seems he wasn’t her first mentor and she wonders often whether this past will catch up with her. The twist is very good indeed. I had an inkling, but it is a proper ‘sixth sense’ moment where you’ll want to flick back through the book and see the clues you missed. This is a high drama, high stakes, legal battle and only one of them can win. The tension is unbearable as Jack takes the stand, it almost feels like a done deal but no one is expecting his testimony. The fall out is seismic. This is such a clever thriller with a cast of characters you won’t like but will be fascinated with. It’s very well written by an author who knows this profession and its pitfalls for women, particularly working class ones. It feels like social commentary – with the well educated, upholders of the law and all their status, against the ordinary, working class person who’s usually in the dock. Can the law be the great equaliser it seems or are some people more equal than others? This was a great debut with a fast pace and some brilliant ‘oh my God’ moments. 

Meet the Author

Jo grew up in Teesside during the 90s when working class girls were told they probably shouldn’t try to become barristers. Thankfully, she ignored everyone. After studying Classics at Newcastle University, she went to law school and did just that. Jo was a criminal barrister before leaving the profession to look after her two children. She lives in North Yorkshire.

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It Could Have Been Her by Lisa Jewell 

Posted on by thelotusreaders

It was the night she almost died.

Newly divorced and feeling a little lost, Jane Trevally agrees to accompany a man she doesn’t know to his house in the darkest corner of Hampstead Heath.

She’s offered a drink. She steps inside.

And then she hears a scream.

Jane runs.

Twenty five years later, Jane finds herself outside the same house, this time to return a dog who’s been found near her home. A dog whose owner has just been reported missing.

A fleeting glimpse of a haunted looking woman through the window sends Jane on a mission to uncover the house’s secrets – secrets more terrifying than she could have ever imagined.

And she can’t stop thinking:

It could have been her . . 

Lisa Jewell really is a must buy author. I can’t remember a time when I was disappointed by one of her novels and as she mentions in the acknowledgements, this is her twenty fourth! I gelled with the main character Jane very quickly, perhaps because I related to her a little bit. I don’t have a mansion house, but I do have rescue animals, step-children and a similar turn of phrase – a couple of her lines genuinely made me laugh out loud. I never expected to hear the line “with all due respect, Stuart, I’m not sure what could actually be worse than Daisy being abused by a pervert dressed as a clown.” It’s also a good point to mention that I actually hate clowns. Hate them all. They scare me. I don’t like masks, mime artists or anything else where someone is trying to change their face. This might have been the reason I found this novel particularly creepy. Jane comes across as an independent, forthright and opinionated woman of middling age and I loved those qualities in her. Basically she’s the perfect investigator because she’s quite happy to ask uncomfortable questions and to suspect the worst of people, although I don’t think she imagined returning a lost west highland terrier would lead her into the darkness of the Black family. Under her exterior she has a big heart and whether it’s her rescue dogs or her step-children she’s always there, especially for Dexter who she spends a lot of time with. When she comes across the strange disappearance of a young girl called Daisy from a local AirBnB she didn’t imagine taking a step back into her past and the house she fled from many years ago. 

This particular house is a brilliant setting, residing in a quirky little part of London called the Vale of Health on Hampstead Heath. I had to look it up because it sounded so odd and fell in love, because it’s almost like a village within a city. The house Jane is looking for is at the far end of a lane and quite isolated, but Jane knows it as soon as she arrives and meets a man called Stuart who lives there with a woman called Jessamine Black, Daisy’s mother. She’s worried that Daisy hasn’t returned home or to the house she rented to revise for her exams. There’s Déjà vu for Jane as she sits on the same sofa she sat on years before, because nothing much has changed here. Of course our houses do tend to represent us and they often stand in for our bodies when we dream about them – the attic in particular standing in for our psychological state. This doesn’t bode well for this family because the house is untidy and unloved. Being nosey, Jane sees that Stuart has left a drawer slightly open she peers inside. There are the secateurs he was looking for, but also some handcuffs, white leather gloves and a plastic clown mask. Needless to say I’d be back on a train before that drawer was closed. From there Jane is hooked and gets the chance to house sit for a friend in London so she can follow up on Daisy and her hunch that something very dark has happened in that house and the family that live there. 

Though Jane is our main protagonist we have flashback chapters from Stuart’s perspective and we see how he meets Daisy’s mother Jessamine at his local pub. Stuart has been homeless for many years, but has been living in a coveted spot in a squat with several other people. He’s noticed Jessamine a couple of times and there’s something winsome about her big eyes and waif-like frame, but he realises very quickly that she has a drink problem. Always arriving immaculate at opening time and then slowly becoming more messy as it gets towards the end of the school day as she seems to scurry off to be at the school gates. When she becomes very unsteady on her feet one day Stuart turns Good Samaritan and helps her to get home. This is how he ends up meeting her daughter Daisy and takes Jessamine up on her offer to stay, which he does for a few days. As these flashbacks continue we see that Jessamine is not the victim Stuart originally thought she was. She has the ability to be neglectful of her daughter, prioritising alcohol and is surprisingly manipulative. Stuart is surprised that Jessamine’s mother doesn’t say anything to her daughter and he wonders if he’s imagining that something is off about her too. There’s a total lack of accountability, particularly from Jessamine who at one point tries to cut off his ear, then saying “I know I’m a handful” like she’s bought another pair of shoes or had one too many at a hen night. When Stuart comes under pressure to return to the squat or lose his space he decides to return, but will Jessamine agree to that and what might she do to ensure he stays? Jane realises he has largely been there for Daisy and while he has been a great stepfather, he has enabled Jessamine. It’s as if everyone in the house turns a blind eye to the issue and he worries she will drink herself to death. He’s also found some things disturbing. He doesn’t know who Daisy’s father is, but no one else seems to know either. In the outhouse there are metal rings attached to the walls and a chair, as if someone has been chained up there. There’s a room upstairs referred to as the au pair’s room, but there hasn’t been an au pair for some time and no one talks about Jessamine’s father or brother either. The family story is that the brother ran away to join the circus and Jane is wondering if he is the clown? Like Stuart she’s starting to wonder about this family and their generational trauma.  

This is a great plot, revealed deliciously slowly as Jane begins to realise that other women have gone missing in that part of Hampstead Heath. She and Dexter put their heads together and start to investigate in earnest, unearthing photos of the missing women and several incidents across the country involving a clown. Dealing with those allegations send to her to drink, asking Dexter to fix her anything that “will take the edge off the thought of that tiny masked clown pulling a scarf out of a woman’s ear in a car park with a hard-on.” Another laugh out loud moment. Jane relates to Daisy struggling to survive in this dysfunctional family, because she did too. Her parents neglected her and her brother until they were malnourished and practically feral. This is probably why she takes her role as a stepmother so seriously, she knows what it’s like to have no one from a very young age. I thought the twists and turns were done so well here, paced beautifully and not rushed as they sometimes are in thrillers. I read the end and felt satisfied, like every question had been answered and I wasn’t having to turn back through the pages and read it again to be sure I’d understood who’d done what.  Nevertheless I still managed to devour it in a couple of days and I’m sure you will too. This is as thriller that comes highly recommended for it’s grasp of family dynamics and psychology of trauma, but I fear I will always be on alert for tiny little clowns from now on.                                                          

Meet the Author

LISA JEWELL was born in London in 1968.

Her first novel, Ralph’s Party, was the best- selling debut novel of 1999. Since then she has written another twenty novels, most recently a number of dark psychological thrillers, including The Girls, Then She Was Gone, The Family Upstairs, The Family Remains and The Night She Disappeared, all of which were Richard & Judy Book Club picks.

Lisa is a New York Times and Sunday Times number one bestselling author who has been published worldwide in over thirty languages. She lives in north London with her husband and two daughters.

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Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke 

Posted on by thelotusreaders

I’d seen so many extremely varied viewpoints on this book that I couldn’t resist dipping in and it was definitely worth the hype it’s received. I read it voraciously over two days, so excited and so confused towards the end I realised I’d read it too fast. I had to go back and force myself to read it slowly. Read either way, this really is a delicious story that has hit at exactly the right time in history. With the US administration rolling back women’s rights and rumours about the implementation of Project 25 it feels like we’re watching Gilead formed in real life. One of the most controversial online figures in this huge political move to the far right is that of the ‘trad wife’, a woman who lives her life focused solely on the home, children and obeying her husband who is always head of the household. This might come from a religious conviction or a political one, but social media is awash with trad wife influencers like Hannah Neelham who shows life at the family farm and cooking from scratch or Estee Williams who proudly declares a return to 1950s values where motherhood and domesticity are the priority. To me this feels like the logical extension of the late 1990s dating book ‘The Rules’, much lauded by Charlotte in Sex and the City. Single women were advised to keep their distance and mystery on the dating scene – with men naturally being pursuers they are more responsive to women who play hard to get. It also advocated withholding sexual contact and focusing on the man’s wants and needs. It stands to reason that any eventual marriage would also involve the man’s needs coming first and feminists are concerned that the current trad wife trend appears like a pop culture phenomenon, but is born of patriarchal policies that will set back women’s autonomy and authority by decades. Of course the obvious paradox here is the influencer’s monetisation of the trad wife lifestyle, promoting the concept of the man as sole breadwinner while simultaneously operating successful and lucrative online content creation businesses, often with merchandising and multiple staff. These women are highly driven and ambitious and this is where our main character Natalie is situated; right at the centre of the monetisation paradox. 

The story is told through Natalie in a compelling inner monologue that had me absolutely gripped, despite disliking her quite intensely. The author takes us back to her college days, where she keeps herself separate from her roommate and other students often with a condescending and superior attitude. She firmly believes she has the answer to why feminism isn’t working, labelling her roommate the archetypal ‘angry woman’ who thinks they can have it all but will only end up exhausted and dissatisfied. She marries Caleb and is pregnant before graduation, not finishing her degree. She’s married into a political dynasty, with Cal’s father hoping to start a presidential campaign soon. Obviously they are republicans and Natalie’s father in law does point out that Caleb could be perfect for politics, being an ‘idiot’ who has no direction and is easily controlled. It’s Natalie who gets the idea to run a ranch, scouting for suitable properties and approaching her father-in-law for funding. He agrees to give them the five million they need, but Nat must keep her end of the bargain and keep producing beautiful grandbabies. She sets out to sell the great American Dream on social media, giving her ranch the tongue in cheek name ‘Yesteryear’. Despite having no farming experience, the plans for are to keep livestock, grow vegetables and become self-sufficient. She sets out to represent their lifestyle as pioneers, deliberately choosing her decor accordingly and instructing builders to hide all their modern appliances behind doors and false walls. She starts out posting nostalgic pictures, but then expands to videos where she and the children cook from scratch or make items for the house. Before long she has a business on her hands and now she isn’t just hiding the appliances, but two nannies and a producer, not to mention the merchandising. What could possibly go wrong?

This is a book with some huge reveals, you won’t always know what’s going on and you won’t be able to put it down – I was even reading while cooking the tea. I was so involved that when Natalie wakes up one morning to find her home isn’t as she knows it I was completely discombobulated – we ended up with gluey spaghetti that night! There’s no electricity and she finds children in her kitchen eating breakfast by candlelight, but they’re not her children. Caleb looks like her husband but there’s nothing behind his eyes. She’s now living pioneer life for real and when she opens the cupboards to look for her appliances, there aren’t any. There’s no help either. Her eldest daughter Mary cares for her with something close to a resigned exasperation, making sure that even if Natalie is only sitting, she can still do laundry and churn butter. Imagine a more realistic version of Little House on the Prairie where you can never escape to a power shower or flushing toilet. Natalie asks herself what’s going on: is this a punishment for something she’s done, has she lost her mind or is this some sort of sick reality TV situation? Is God punishing her. She’s now a trad wife for real, but she definitely isn’t happy, nor is she making any money.

This book is so well written, incredibly ambitious and captures the zeitgeist. I didn’t like Natalie but found her inner voice almost hypnotic. She’s deliberately hiding her intelligence and business brain on screen, but makes the comment that her eldest daughter takes after her because she holds “her intelligence like a knife behind her back.”However, once she becomes a traditional wife for real Caleb is the head of the household and she realises that whatever their home situation men can opt out of chores and childcare with no explanation, whereas she’s being forced out of bed while unwell. I was intrigued about where her belief system comes from, expecting generational religious beliefs and trauma but her mother and sister, while religious, have compassion and the ability to accept changes to their world view. They have understanding and compassion, something that Natalie seems to lack and it is utterly damning when her mother asks her why it’s so hard for her to be kind. I was so angry about the hypocrisy, pushing her ‘lifestyle’ to an online audience of women while keeping, not only her modern applicances, but the help hidden. She must know she’s making women feel inadequate, taking their money and lying to them. Once you become a tool of the patriarchy you’re an enemy of your fellow women, even though she gives them lip service by repeating the Christian Nationalist narrative that a trad wife is equal to her husband in the eyes of God – her work is different but of equal value. How can they be equal when only one of them has autonomy and the final say? In fact she openly fears aspects of the real pioneer life, especially giving birth. She is also aware of the paradox: 

‘To be a wealthy Christian woman and maintain good standing, you needed to publicly disavow your luxuries in order to maintain possession of them.’ 

It’s only by pretending they have nothing, that she becomes rich. I think I kept reading because I was so desperate to see her carefully planned, fake world fall apart. At a time where feminists are debating whether they’d rather be alone with a man or a bear (and regularly choosing the bear) she pedals a dangerous rhetoric and any woman selling it is colluding with the patriarchy. On a day where I’ve seen yet another group of white British men on trial for raping a woman drugged by her husband, I’m not inclined to give any man that sort of power over me. This week a pregnant woman on holiday in Florida had an incomplete miscarriage and was still, days later, unable to get the procedure she needed to prevent infection. This is because she wasn’t in her home state and doctors in Florida were unsure on the legal position of performing a D and C operation thanks to ‘pro-life’ policies. Another woman who’d been informed that her baby was too malformed to survive outside the womb, was bombarded with hate on Instagram for choosing to end her pregnancy early. Female influencers can’t post on social media without facing a barrage of abuse from trolls. Thanks to all this, men like Andrew Tate and Christian Nationalist men in positions of huge power, I have a permanent level of inner rage. There should be a special level of hell for women who take up this cause and use their religious beliefs to make life harder for their fellow women. I let go a bit of that rage while reading this because it helped me remember that what we see online is like any other representation of real life – heavily edited and stretching the truth, if not an outright lie. Not only is this book addictive and inventive, but through Natalie, the author blows apart the whole hypocritical and dangerous industry as well as the Christian Nationalist ideology that espouses trad wives and I absolutely loved that. 

Out Now from Fourth Estate.

Meet The Author

Caro Claire Burke received her Master’s in Fine Arts from the Bennington Writing Seminars. She is the co-host of Diabolical Lies, a politics and culture podcast. YESTERYEAR is her first novel.

Posted in Personal Purchase

The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett

Posted on by thelotusreaders

Eleven-year-old Meg Lefleur has learned the hard way to rely on no one.
Ever since her beloved mother failed to come home last Christmas Eve, she’s been one of the ‘unadoptable’ girls at the town’s orphanage, where she fights each day to keep her wits sharp and her spirit unbowed.

When she meets Birdie, a young woman who has come to Oxford determined to remind her socialite sister of the impoverished family she left behind, for the first time in a long while it seems someone else might care about Meg’s future. But as the Depression tightens its grip, Birdie begins to suspect her sister’s charmed life may be founded on a tapestry of lies. Then, Birdie encounters Charlie, a woman haunted by loss who has been pushed to the brink with nothing left to lose. Drawn together by circumstance, they find unexpected kinship among a disreputable, determined band of women.

But in a town steeped in hypocrisy, even the smallest act of defiance can have dangerous consequences …

In our prologue we find Birdie in the pharmacy of a small town in the southern states of America buying ‘Merry Widows’ condoms by the dozens. I then became so engrossed in the story of this fascinating woman and the relationship she makes with a girl called Meg at the orphanage that I forgot all about the question that came to mind; why she would be buying so many? Thankfully all questions are answered in this incredible book that’s moving, infuriating, saddening and hilarious all at once. The plot takes us on a journey as Birdie travels to visit her newly married sister Frances who is living with her in-laws at their house Idlewilde. Frances is at great pains to point out her new family, the Tartts, are well to do and Birdie must try not to show her up. In truth, Birdie can only ever be her glorious self and Mrs Tartt is too much of a Southern lady to show anything but politeness to a guest. Frances’s husband, Rory Tartt, is a good looking man, but to Birdie he seems to have something on his mind. He’s eager to leave in the morning and eager to be in his office in the evenings, even retiring to his own bedroom at the end of the day and not his wife’s. Frances confides in Birdie that there’s been very little in the bedroom department and Birdie starts to worry. One thing she knows is money and if she didn’t know better she’d be concerned about Rory’s business and where he’s going. When asked to book-keep for the local orphanage Frances again gives her a note of warning. The president of the orphanage board, Mrs Garnett, is very influential and is hoping to be the governor of the Anti-Vice Committee. Birdie is unimpressed with this paragon of virtue and lets Frances do the sucking up, instead she puts her energy into the disgusting room she’s working in alongside one of the orphans, Meg. As far as Birdie can see, Meg is in this room by herself every day away from the other girls. She has nothing to read. The walls are mouldy and she’s not allowed to open the window. She’d think it was a punishment, but Meg doesn’t appear to have done anything wrong. With an attentive adult to clean and paint the room, let the air in and ask her interesting questions Meg starts to blossom, much to Mrs Garnett’s consternation. Birdie can find solutions to most problems and is enjoying her time with Meg, but the Tartt’s troubles loom and Birdie will have to come up with a creative way to help. When she meets Charlie, a woman broken down by the system and longing to get her child back, they make a formidable team. 

I absolutely loved Birdie, the sensible person between an anxious mother who thinks the price of canned peaches will put the family over the edge and a sister who is willing to spend every penny they have if it makes her pretty. She is pragmatic, knowing she’s not a beauty she decided she would have to look after herself and got a job bookkeeping at the local store. Frances didn’t even invite her family to her wedding, scared of being found out as poor. Birdie doesn’t believe in trying to be what you’re not and she’s utterly herself which I loved. She’s sensible but also has a loathing of injustice. She has her own moral compass that is based on the Bible, common sense and kindness. She doesn’t believe in people that set themselves up as good in a performative way, just be good because it’s the right thing to do. Meg was fascinating and her story is so deeply sad. She believes her mother left her one Christmas Eve and never came back, so she had to survive on what was in the house until the local doctor found her. She’s absolutely starving for books and learning, even sneaking a Life magazine she finds in the cupboard and gorging on it like a cream cake. She has to some extent accepted her treatment at the orphanage, never expecting to be chosen as one of the eldest there. I found myself hoping Birdie might adopt her, they certainly have an instant affinity. I loved Meg’s sense of humour too, especially when she relates an adoption letter received that states: 

“We need us an older girl, on account of I was chopping cotton and it was hot out and the blade swung out my hand and sliced my wife’s arm clean off so we had a proper funeral for it but she cannot lift a pot now.”

As Meg observes, they had a funeral for an arm? That’s quite a letter. It has people, action and weather, with a bit of gore for interest. She’s a girl with so much to say and no outlet at all. It’s a whole lot different than life with her mum who was a feminist and clearly loves her daughter. She celebrated when Meg was placed in the ‘exceptional learners’ and tells her to remember that most men are placed in the slow learners category. Where could this woman have gone?

The themes in this are very much like The Help, injustice, inequality, the strength of women and what we’ll do to survive. In addition there’s the rise of the eugenics movement in America, something I researched at university and when preparing for my PhD. Eugenics supposes there is a master race, that white able-bodied heterosexuals with European origins are superior. This is such an important topic when we see what’s going on in the US today and when The Sanctuary exists in London – a destination that stays out of the press, but launched the Restore party, houses a eugenics magazine and race scientists. People forget that Germany didn’t start this lean towards wanting a superior race. Birdie finds out that Mrs Garnett’s policies for the Anti-Vice group include eugenic thinking such as imbeciles will give birth to more imbeciles, some ethnic groups should be prevented from having more children and that others should be forced onto contraception from a very young age, especially girls from poor, black families. It’s an evil that’s never really gone away, especially in America where some of these measures were still happening in the 1970s. These policies made it easy to get inconvenient people out of the way, just like Meg’s mum whose story brought me to tears. Birdie starts to realise that doing something considered immoral by society might be the best way to survive and she has to weigh it up in her own mind.

There was just so much I want to say about this book and I’ve had to stop myself rambling! Kathryn Stockett has done it again. I can see this on the big screen and it will be brilliant. It also has the added bonus of chatter about merkins at the breakfast table, which made me laugh out loud. I fell in love with Meg and Birdie, but also the women who form a team to get Birdie’s in-laws out of the mess they’re in. This book has so much to say about female strength, friendship and adaptability in terrible circumstances. Every character is so well drawn I could see them. I know a lot about eugenics and its history in the US and this is an important book right now, going against where Christian Nationalist policy is taking the country. It shows the damage that can be done when someone lives the rigid rules of manmade religion rather than the actual message of love given in the Bible. Often those who want the appearance of goodness most, will do anything to keep it. Birdie finds that friendship and loyalty can be found in the most unusual circumstances and with people you never expected. There’s tragedy and brutality but also lightness, humour and so much love. Utterly brilliant!

Out now from Penguin Books

Meet the Author

Kathryn Stockett was born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi. After graduating from the University of Alabama with a degree in English and Creative Writing, she moved to New York City, where she worked in magazine publishing and marketing for nine years. The Calamity Club is her second novel.

Posted in Personal Purchase

The Bell Witches by Lindsey Kelk 

Posted on by thelotusreaders

After sixteen-year-old Emily’s father tragically dies, she is forced to live with the only family she has left, an aunt and grandmother in the heart of Savannah, Georgia in a house as beautiful as it is mysterious.

But all is not what it seems with the Bell family; they’re hiding a magical secret.

When Emily meets the alluring Wyn, she forms a connection that feels like it was always meant to be. As the spark between them grows more powerful, her life takes an exhilarating and terrifying turn; but every step closer to him, takes her a step further away from her family.

Emily will find out that blood is always thicker than water…

THERE’S NO BOND GREATER THAN MAGIC

YA fiction isn’t usually on my radar, but I love both Alice Hoffman’s and Sarah Addison Allen’s mix of small town America and witches so I gave it a try. I was sold on the cover comment that this was ‘Buffy meets the Gilmore Girls’. It certainly isn’t short on atmosphere, with a charming setting in Savannah and Bell House in particular. For Emily who is used to the Welsh climate, it’s hard to acclimatise to the soupy heat that leaves everyone dripping in minutes – their laundry basket must be full every day. The Spanish moss that hangs from the trees like a natural brand of tinsel is actually parasitic, showing us that not everything is as beautiful as it first appears. Bell House is breathtaking and Emily’s first glimpse is overwhelming, calling it ‘Sleeping Beauty’s castle through an Instagram filter’. Everything has that southern charm, including her aunt Ashley’s breakfasts that have so much variety it feels like going out to brunch every morning. What Emily hasn’t yet realised is that she has the power to change the weather just by changing mood and Bell House is equally responsive to the people who live there, but its sentience isn’t just benign. Emily’s grandmother Catherine is in tune with the house and drips with Southern charm, her sayings are pure Deep South hokum; “you look like you were rode hard and put away wet” made me giggle out loud. As she starts to educate Emily in her heritage as a witch I wondered whether her sweetness was just as synthetic as saccharin. 

I felt like the plot was paced awkwardly, feeling both too slow and too fast at once. This was a slow burn at first, setting up both the atmosphere and back story of the Bell family. While this is understandable as the first book in a series, it did feel like the plot took a back seat to description. Conversely, the central romance seemed to proceed at the speed of light with an intensity that felt unnecessary at this early stage. It felt as if their connection was simply announced rather than slowly building up through their emotions. I wanted more from her new friends Lydia and Jackson, both of whom promise fun and mischief and are incredibly loyal to Emily despite only knowing her a few weeks. I liked Lydia’s role as the naughty twin and I hope their friendship develops in the next book. Jackson is taken with Emily and I was expecting some rivalry between him and Emily’s love interest Wyn. I also loved her aunt Ashley who cares for Bell House and its inhabitants so beautifully, but has a dry wit and plenty of sarcasm. She doesn’t take to Emily right away and she’s a great antidote to Catherine’s syrupy sweetness. She never leaves the house and doesn’t pretend to be happy about her role, there’s far more going on here than meets the eye. 

Catherine is the strongest character, stunningly beautiful and clearly very powerful. She takes her role as Emily’s mentor and caretaker very seriously, but there’s very little emotional connection. Catherine isn’t a cuddly grandma at all and imposes quite a few rules on Emily including a ban on dating until her ‘becoming’ when she comes into her full power as a Bell witch. It is Catherine who relates the story of the family of witches who have lived in this house and her history with Emily’s father Paul, who didn’t want Emily to grow up knowing about her potential powers. I loved that the author addressed issues from within that history that resonate today, especially the witch’s role as wise woman to others in her area.

“She helped women who wanted to control the size of their families […] there have always been women who help others in that regard.” 

This is important to Emily who soon discovers she’s a natural apothecary, somehow able to identify most of the plants in Bell House’s garden along with their specific uses. I liked the idea that witches tend to have a speciality, with Catherine being an elemental witch. She suspects Emily of having many different powers, shown clearly when they encounter an unexpected attacker in the cemetery one night. This is a terrifying incident for Emily, even though she doesn’t know the full implications of her actions yet. Catherine tells her that their powers don’t signify them as good or bad, but the opposing forces they work with must be treated with respect. It felt like the book really picked up the pace towards the final third, with Emily’s becoming on the horizon and Lydia planning her a birthday party. This contrast shows us how extreme Catherine’s regime is and reminds us that Emily is a teenager who should be getting to know other young people and looking forward to dancing the night away on her birthday. Instead she’s heading out to a cemetery in the dark, for a potentially dangerous initiation into the Bell tradition under a guidance of a grandmother who doesn’t always seem to have her granddaughter’s best interests at heart. This is where Ashley comes into her own and I hoped to see Emily’s relationship with her aunt develop in future books. The becoming is going to be a reckoning for Emily, Catherine and Wyn in an action packed finale that is gripping and unexpected. There were elements of this novel that I really enjoyed and others I felt were underdeveloped or rushed. I wanted more depth to Wyn and Emily, with perhaps a few twists to their relationship considering their age and Jackson’s interest in Emily. The atmosphere and setting really stood out most, the action sequences were dramatic and fast paced and there were characters with a lot of potential. I am very interested to see how werewolves are going to integrate with the story and how Bell House will respond to Emily after her becoming. I really hope we also see more of that conflict between normal teenager and all powerful witch, as well as more about Savannah and its history. The sequel is out now so look out for my review coming in the next few weeks. 

Sequel The Witch and the Wolf is out now from Magpie Publishing

Meet the Author

Lindsey is a Sunday Times and USA Today bestselling author, podcaster and vociferous defender of The Cheesecake Factory. Her books include the I Heart series, Christmas Fling, The Christmas Wish, Love Story and YA fantasy series, The Bell Witches.

When she isn’t writing, Lindsey moonlights as a co-host on Tights and Fights, a pro-wrestling podcast on the Maximum Fun network. Yes, really, pro-wrestling. And when she isn’t writing, podcasting or ruining her life with social media, Lindsey is most likely to be found reading, watching literally anything on television, texting the group chat or planning a karaoke night (please note she cannot sing).

Born and raised in South Yorkshire, Lindsey lived in London and New York before settling in Los Angeles, where she lives with her husband and their two cats.