Disappointment and horridness

I am focusing this post solely on one book because I didn't like it. I picked it up at the airport as it sounded perfect for me. The cover was of a beautiful, colourful, fragmented butterfly, and the subheading is "short fictions and wonders". The book is called Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman. Of course I have heard of him and I thought he wrote magical stories, although I hadn't read them before. I don't usually read the introductions of the book, but this one was intriguing as the author explained his reasoning for writing/including each of the included stories. The book was described as "extraordinary, complicated, hilarious, melancholy, and terrifying". The first ten were exactly that, magical, clever, thoughtful, creative, but the 11th was really horrible and there was just no warning. It was such an unexpected switch! The language was offensive as was the topic, human trafficking, paedophilia, etc. - why would you include those topics in a book with magical stories in it. I was really disappointed and I am unable to finish the book, which might get better, but I didn't want to take the risk of further horrors. I know people have different tastes, but I just didn't expect to find such contrasts from magical to horror, and had I had the slightest hint that this was coming up, I wouldn't have bought it.

Bring in the new and revisit the old!

I am starting with a sad one. As you know, I love Agatha Christie's books, but the latest one I have read, Postern of Fate, was hard to read. It is a Tommy and Tuppence story and the last book that she wrote. I didn't realise that when I read it, and despite it's plot brilliance, which really was gripping, I found it was full of repetition, inconsistencies, and discrepancies, very unlike Agatha Christie. I read afterwards that she was in the early stages of dementia, which makes me sad. The idea that her brilliant brain was still susceptible to such a destructive illness. Part of me wishes that the publishers had not published this book or that her editors had done their job properly, but another part of me feels that if it hadn't been published, we would never have seen how this sad disease doesn't discriminate - everyone is vulnerable. I am back to reading her earlier books, but it is tempting me to read her books in chronological order. I find it fascinating the differences between her older and more recent works and I have to keep on reminding myself that some of her books are more than 100 years old.

To cheer myself up a bit, I read A Christmas Case: A Posie Parker Novella by L.B. Hathaway, which I picked up in a charity shop - an ideal place to find surprises! The author admits that she loves detective novels and adores Agatha Christie's novels, and while this is very much in the style of Agatha Christie, she has a wonderful style of her own, and I loved the way this was written. It starts off at a house party on Christmas Eve, with each house guest being invited to tell a story about a mystery they have encountered in the past. The puzzles are original and unexpectedly resolved as you progress through the book. I really liked the characters and even thought it was a very busy set of stories, everything included was vital to the final conclusions. I am very excited to have discovered this new author and I am looking forward to reading more. The only disappointment is that it isn't sold on Hive, an independent bookstore.

As you know, I discover a lot of books in charity shops and our local post office in St Just-in-Penwith, which sells books in aid of Cancer Research UK. I love children's books and there are so many classics that I am still working my way through. I recently discovered Pollyanna, by Eleanor H. Porter, which when I started it, I thought was going to be very similar to Anne of Green Gables, another one of my favourites. But, while there are similarities, - both focus on very animaged orphans, there was also such a uniqueness to it. It was so simple,

and so heart-warming! Just a simple message throughout, delivered via a game, taught to her by her father and which educated a whole community into being glad rather than sad. I feel that if the whole world read Pollyanna, and played the game, it would be such a better place.

Another discovery is Strange Magic by  Syd Moore is the start of a series of books about the Essex Witch Museum. Rosie Strange inherits the dilapidated museum from an estranged relative and visits it before planning to put it on the market. But once there, she is pulled into a mystery with the curator, for whom she has mixed-feelings, to put some bones to rest in order to rescue a child who has been taken poorly after being possessed by a lost spirit. It is such an interesting plot - a little bit of romance, some history, and lots of mystery and adventure. There was a lot of cross-England travelling and I really enjoyed the descriptions of the people and places that they visited. The museum sounds wonderful and I would love to visit it. While there wasn't a cliff-hanger at the end, I want to know what happens next, so I am definitely going to order the next installation!

Finally, The Ancient Curse by Valerio Massimo Manfredi, described as "A crime so cruel it calls for revenge after millennia".  When I was growing up, I wanted to be an archaeologist. I didn't manage that and became a librarian instead, a career that I love and highly recommend. Anyway, back to the book. The style reminded me the M.L. Longworth books that I was reading over the Summer, and blogged about in July 2025. They were set in France, while this one was set in Italy, but they both bring regional food into the plotlines and the beautiful local countrysides. However, this Italian murder mystery is darker, and very interesting, with regards to ancient Italian history. It focuses on a series of very gruesome killings which have links to an unexplored tomb. Each victim has been brutally torn to pieces, and it is up to a young archaeologist to find out who (or what) is causing the deaths. Looking at the cover, I thought it might be a bit cheesy, but the plot sounded intriguing. It reminded me a bit of the Relic, by Lincoln Preston (a book which was good but terrifying), but it was less of a movie blockbuster, and more of a historical monster thriller. A great surprise and a little bit scary!

So, enough for now. Time to read. Let me know your thoughts and recommendations!

Stories about little creatures

Just before Christmas, we went to our lovely friends for a wonderful dinner, and of course, the subject of books came up, and I admitted that I had never read "The Wind in the Willows" (well I had, but in school, where you go round the class with everyone reading one paragraph at a time...tortuous!). Our hosts urged me to give it a try, and I am so delighted that I did. What a wonderful book, written by Kenneth Graham, and illustrated by Arthur Rackham (whose work I adore). I also like EH Shepherd who illustrated Wind in the Willows and Winnie the Pooh. AA Milne wrote the foreword to the The Wind in the Willows, and it was beautiful! The stories in this book are marvellous, such a delight to read, and with such fantastic adventures! The image of Toad in a dress was one of my favourites! I love this book, and it has been added to my treasure list. I loved all the descriptions of each of their homes, and couldn't decide which one I would want to stay in. They all had some magic to them. The characters were wonderful; again, I don't know who is my favourite - kindly Ratty, wise Badger, bold Toad, or curious Mole. But it is a book, I shall keep on going back to, and I am so happy I was encouraged to try again.

It actually prompted me to read another children's book, one which I adored, but sadly lost my first copy, but amazingly found another copy in my adult years! The book is "The Forest of Boland Light Railway", written by BB, also known as Denys Watkins-Pitchford, who was an English naturalist and artist, who not only wrote his books, but also drew the illustrations, which are gorgeous! So, this book is about a clever gnome who invents the steam engine to help the other gnomes get to and from the mines where they work, and have day trips. There is so much detail about the flowers and the lives of these little people. It is magical, and I am so happy that I have come back to it again. (it is now out of print, which is why I don't have a link for it - you can get it, but it is very expensive). Keep an eye out though.

If you can't get that one, you can still get some of BB's other books, so I also read "The Little Grey Men", which was about two gnomes who decide to sail up the river to look for their brother who never came home after sailing away on an adventure. In both of these books, the names of the gnomes are brilliant: Cloudberry, Dodder, Sneezewort....so creative! With the help of their animal and bird friends, they sail off in a paddle boat of their own ingenious creation, and have lots of adventures. It gets a little bit dark in places, but it all ends up right in the end. This book is easily available, and a really wonderful, and creative read. I am just reading an Agatha Christie at the moment, and then I have the sequel to this book lined up to follow! I am loving my evenings reading in front of the fire, with my cat sitting on my lap!

Discovering Japanese crime fiction and other new authors

The Honjin Murders

Happy New Year! We live down a lovely farm track, a mile out of town. We regularly walk up to town and this short walk should only take 10 minutes, but often takes significantly longer because we chat with friends we meet who are making the same walk, or as they say in Italy "fare la passagiata". Recently we made friends with a lovely man and his dog who is a book lover like us, and from him we have learned about new authors. I had mentioned that I had discovered Japanese novels, and he told me about Japanese crime fiction. The next time I went into a bookshop, I discovered the Honjin Murders, written in 1973, by Seishi Yokomizo. It was brilliant, a really great locked-room mystery, with such an good twist at the end, and a Columbo-style detective. I love discovering new authors, and am really delighted with our informal walking book group.

The Kamogawa Food Detectives

Another book I have recently read is The Kamogawa Food Detectives, and again, I loved it. I do not know how they come up with their creative ideas. This one is about a secret restaurant, where people go to eat, but also to discover a recipe that they had previously experienced and want to recreate. It is not all about the food, but also about the experience that person had when they originally tasted it. This is about a father-daughter duo, with the daughter, conducting the original interview with the person looking for the recipe, and the chef taking that knowledge to rediscover the recipe, exactly as the requesting person wants it.

The Woodsmoke Women's Book of Spells

The last book I am going to post about is The Woodsmoke Women's Book of Spells. I was conflicted with this one. I really enjoyed it, but the author is from North Cornwall, and I am really proud of my adopted county, so I expected it to be more Cornish. However, it reminded me of books set in America, particularly those of Alice Hoffman. It talked about pancakes, which is not very Cornish. It did mention a couple of places in Cornwall, but it just didn't feel right. I would have preferred more Cornish context. Saying that, the plot was really good, with great descriptions of the location. It is about a woman who returns to the town where she used to live, after inheriting a house from her grandmother. There was conflict between her grandmother and her great aunt, because of a book of spells and the power of the mountains. The woman falls in love with a mysterious man, who her great aunt fears will break her heart by disappearing. It is a very magical story, and I think I am curious to read more.

So, that's it for now. Wishing you all a Happy New Year! Thank you for reading!