dittybox

Published:  2019, Tin House Books Genre: Fiction Themes: American South, taxidermy, bereavement, grief My rating (out of 5):  ❤❤ I didn't enjoy reading this. I found it hard to settle down and concentrate on the story as the writing style is way too 'honest' and 'real' for me and I found my tolerance for such things stretched to breaking point.  Imagine the expression on a baby's face when someone gives them a slice of lemon to suck on - well that expression, right there, would have been seen on my face at certain points while reading this book. The story is about a family who owns a taxidermy business and the father takes his own life after struggling to cope with his diagnosis and treatment for cancer.  Everyone in the family deals with their loss differently, but the only thing that helps mum work through her grief is creating pornographic diorama of the stuffed merchandise and leaving them in the shop window for her daughter to find. Well, I could cope with ...

  Published: 2019, Penguin Random House Genre: Fiction Themes:  American families, mental health, alcoholism, careers My rating (out of 5):  ❤❤❤❤   'You are what you appear to be'. That's a phrase I picked up years ago while attending a management training course and that concept of keeping up appearances sits at the core of this novel. It's a family saga that starts in 1973 with two young rookie cops setting up their first homes right next door to each other.  Nobody would have had to tell them that appearances matter back then because that was drummed into everyone right from the day they were born.  Mothers would exclaim; 'What would people think!' every time a child made too much noise, had a hole in their sock or made slurping noises when they drank their orange squash.  (You can tell I've been there can't you?) This kind of concern for appearances was considered a good thing but it also had it's darker side.  Much bigger issues such as ...

  Published: 2020, John Murray Genre: Fiction Themes: rural Ireland, the Troubles, autism, community My rating (out of 5): ❤❤❤❤ I began reading this book in a state of slightly revolted fascination, but after I got over myself a bit, I found I liked the eponymous Big Girl, Majellah, and even admired her for her courage in protecting what is hers.  This book is variously described as 'bawdy' and 'honest' but it is not something I would EVER offer to read for an audiobook. That may be my problem, but Jane Austen it isn't! Majellah works six evenings a week in the chip shop in the small rural town of Aghybogey and every customer is greeted with her opening question:     ' What can ah get chew? ' Her dad suddenly disappeared about ten years ago after he struggled to cope with the death of his brother Bobby.  Bobby was right in the middle of setting an incendiary bomb when the detonator went off prematurely, and in the town his death is considered to be:  ...

  Published: 2020, Oneworld Publications Genre: Fiction Themes: Marriage, bigamy, teenagers, American south My rating (out of 5):  ❤❤❤❤ Bigamy is a game for scoundrels, where you have no winners, and when the final whistle blows all you have is a mess.  In order to make the deception work over a period of years, one of the wives must understand what is happening, and enable her part-time husband to run his life as though he is not a criminal.  Just in case none of us has any idea why anyone would want to agree to that, Tayari Jones wrote Silver Sparrow to help us along. The first time James Witherspoon got married he was still at school and it was a barely legal ceremony held across state lines.  He and his fourteen year old girlfriend Laverne had already been refused a license in Atlanta, as the judge was not convinced she consented to the union, but James and Laverne's mothers were determined to see the thing through as Laverne was pregnant.  They finally...

  Published: 2019, Legend Press Genre: Fiction Themes: Japan, love, grief, culture My rating (out of 5): ❤❤❤❤❤ " Grief is the price we pay for love "                                                Queen Elizabeth II This really is the most beautifully crafted book, and if you read it you will have: Intrigue Romance Drama Heartbreak Desperation, then finally..... A renewed appreciation of the power of love Every page is written with the same neat precision as the folds in a Japanese kimono.  Care is taken to slowly build the story through the eyes of seventeen year old Naoko, who writes of her experiences in Japan in 1957, and alternately through Tori, a present day American woman whose father dies carrying a secret.   Tori's father served in the US Navy as part of the occupying forces based in Japan following World War 2, and in his final hours...

  Published: 2017, Penguin Random House Genre: Fiction Themes: Small town America, poverty, secrets  My rating (out of 5): ❤❤❤❤ Secrets.   Secrets from the past or the present.  Secrets carried like a stone in a shoe, unseen but always there rubbing, rubbing and not going away.  Elizabeth Strout exposes the carefully hidden secrets kept by some apparently nice people from the rural town of Amgash, Illinois, and by the time you get to the end of this novel you will be watching your friends and neighbours wondering what they might be hiding from you.  We all like to make wild assumptions about people (well that is what gossip is for, surely?) but what if all that secret stuff came tumbling out?  How would they cope and how would it change them? The secrets in this book range from heartbreaking to downright horrible and the reader is a voyeur of the unfolding events.  I could almost hear my mother's voice warning me to 'Stop gawping and come alo...

  Published: 2020, Penguin Genre: Fiction Themes: missing person, witchcraft, Scotland, rural community My rating (out of 5): ❤❤❤❤❤ So, this is my recommendation for your holiday read. (You'll thank me for this later!) You know that point on Boxing Day when it is just starting to get dark and you realise it's all over for another year, and you are pretty much done with Christmas now.  You had piccalilli with your cold cuts at lunch, and then remembered too late that pickle wasn't going to mix well with six strawberry creams and the last segments of your chocolate orange.  On top of that, your Nan is telling everyone for the eleventy billionth time that all they had for Christmas in her day was half a walnut and a puncture repair kit, but they were gratefull! This is the point when you need to get away and re-set your brain with a decent gothic spine chiller.  Snuggle down in a quiet corner in your new oversized hoodie and enjoy the much under-rated pleasure of feelin...