What are you reading? What are you going to read next?
We love books at Mature Times and read as much as we can so that we can pass on our recommendations to help you find great books to read that will keep you inspired and entertained.
We try and cover a wide range and pick out the best of the new publications coming up. The reading team visit literary festivals around the country and interview authors that we think will interest you. We are often offered some copies to give away and you will find those on our competitions page.
This week’s choice:
The Prodigal Daughter by Prue Leith
If you love cooking and eating, are interested in the restaurant trade, and watch Prue Leith on television this book is for you: but only if you really like romance and family sagas as well.
Having satisfied all these criteria and finding the cover appealing I sat down to devour this novel in a couple of sittings. It was a satisfying read and even though I have not read the first book in this trilogy I didn’t feel I had missed out. I could use more food based puns but not really necessary.
Our heroine, Angelica Angelotti (a bit of a mouthful of a name) has grown up in the family restaurant business started by her Italian father, Giovanni, and his English wife, Laura. Angelica is an independent young woman and at the age of 18 she persuades her father to let her attend a cookery school in Paris. Caught up in the excitement and emotion of the May ’68 student riots, she falls in love with a charismatic but unreliable man.
Back in London with her husband, Angelica’s future career flourishes at the Savoy Hotel and as a food writer and television cook: sound familiar? The marriage flounders as expected but the story and characters develop.
Prue Leith is a good writer and drawing on her knowledge of love of food and family she has brought a very palatable book to the table – sorry can’t help the puns.
I enjoyed the book and will probably look out for the next one in the series.
Published by Quercus on 15 September 2016 in hardback RRP £19.99
A Boy made of Blocks by Keith Stuart
I have a soft spot for stories of children with autism. Having met a friend’s grandson who is just on the lower end of the spectrum and watched the BBC drama The A Word; it is a subject that can cause great distress for suffers and their families.
One of the stand out books I read and reviewed this year, was Shtum by Jem Lester and I was not sure I was ready for another similar story. But I was; and I laughed and cried and revelled in how these two struggling fathers of sons at different ends of the scale coped with the relationships.
The author, Keith Stuart has a son who suffers an obviously writes from a deep understanding of the real issues and lack of public understanding of this condition.
The lack of connection to the world around the eight-year-old Sam is a symptom of autism and at times I wondered if our struggling father, Alex, didn’t have some tendencies. But Alex was more affected by tragedy in his childhood that coloured his close family relationships and needed to come to terms with this before he could relate to his own son and wife.
The introduction of a video game as a pivotal piece of the story is new to me but he, I have heard of them and even tried to play them with my children. Nowadays they are as much a part of life as comics and books were in my childhood. The game of Minecraft as a tool to reach his son is very real as in true life the author has experienced this and the clever way he described their “gaming” world.
Inspired by the author’s experiences with his own son, this novel is an genuine story of love, family and friendship. It moved me to tears but enriched my understanding of both autism and the modern tools for inter-action. Communication by whatever means is a vital tool to shared lives.
Published by Little, Brown Book Group on 1 September 2016 om hardback RRP £12.99
I See You by Clare Mackinstosh
This psychological thriller has been out since the end of July but I have only just got around to reading it.
This is a well written fast moving story of and deeply disturbing series of crime. Her years in the Police have given Clare a fascinating insight into the life of a detective and the people who inhabit this career.
For once the hype is true: it is fast moving yet sympathetic to its main characters. Cleverly she has us following more than one protagonist. The clever twists of plot kept me guessing and the reality of the setting had me following with no distractions.
The author has also skilfully avoided too much violence and goriness that I find off-putting in some novels of this ilk.
Published by Sphere on 28 July 2016 in hardback RRP £12.99
Paperbacks
Just a quick mention that this month brings paperback versions of some of our earlier recommendations. Look out for:
The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper by Phaedra Patrick
The Good Liar by Nicholas Searle
The Widow by Fiona Barton
