Relax into Summer

We offer books and music to help you sit back in your deck chair in the garden or beach and escape from reality and Politics.

The Brazilian by Rosie Millard

Following on from her highly successful novel, The Square, Rosie has taken some of her characters and sent them to Ibiza, some on holiday and some with a television reality show.

A recipe for misunderstandings, personality clashes and plenty of fun in the sun. She has managed to adapt the action of her previously small area of a London square into a whole island but it doesn’t really fit for me.

The Brazilian of the title is a double entendre but it the innocence of the children who are the most engaging.

It was nice to re-visit the mix of neighbours who make this an easy read and an escapist romp.

The book is published by Legend Press in paperback RRP £8.99

Standard Deviation by Katherine Heiny

I just loved this book. It is quirky, funny, simple yet confusing. A saga of marriage, love, friendship and origami, it mixes hilarious offbeat comedy moments with heart breaking pathos.

Graham is a 50ish husband of Audra having left his first wife Elspeth to marry his mistress (Audra) and they have a ten-year-old son Matthew who has Asperger’s. Matthew loves order and origami. Audra loves people and gossip and Elspeth seems incapable of love: but Graham loves them all.

He somehow manages to navigate through their lives and Audra’s house guest by being confused. Some of the things that Audra said made me laugh out loud but all the time I was worried how they would stay as a family unit.

The title refers to the moment when Audra and Graham were given the diagnosis that their son Matthew had Asperger’s. He’s overly sensitive and his social development is off by more than the standard deviation. This is the perfect way to think about the book.

The style reminds me of Anne Tyler and her perceptive interpretation of the slightly unusual behaviour of the main and peripheral characters. I was also reminded of David Nicholls and Nick Hornby in the observations: the origami group and their attendance at the convention is beautifully depicted.

Nothing much happens in the way of action but in the lives of these people there are seismic shifts of understanding while all remains outwardly calm.

This is a book I was immersed in and it will stay on my shelves for me to offer to others to read. I want all my friends to share the joy of knowing this family created by Katherine Heiny.

Published on 1st June 2017 by Fourth Estate in hardback RRP £12.99

Greatest Hits by Laura Barnett

The soundtrack to a lifetime

This second novel from the talented Laura Barnett is a tour de force. It follows the life of a fictional British singer song writer who could, in reality, be someone we have listened to.

Cass Wheeler had a difficult start in life and found solace in writing and performing music. She, like so many of her generation in the 1970s, left home and followed her heart and her dream to be a musician.

The clever evocation of the music scene at that time and the struggles of a young woman in thrall to a maverick man all point to a struggle for Cass to claim her independence and make her own melody. She inevitably tussles with her needs as a recording artiste, a wife and mother and to the duties of her past.

Cass is successful with her heart breaking songs and after dropping out of the business following a slowly revealed tragedy.

Persuaded by her friends and family she agrees to break her silence and release simultaneously an album of new material alongside an album of her greatest hits. The narrative of the novel is structured around a day that Cass spends listening to each of the chosen tracks for her Greatest Hits album and remembering the events that inspired them.

As delicately written as the words of a song the novels draws us in to a harmony of her life, successes and failures, and the book is as satisfying as an album of greatest hits by your favourite singer.

Published by Orion on 15th June 2017 in hardback RRP £12.99

And now to some chilled music to play while you concentrate on relaxing:

Underneath and In Between – Nikka and Strings

Nikka Costa is a celebrated soul, blues and funk singer-songwriter who is perhaps best known for her 2001 album Everybody Got Their Something which featured the hit single Like A Feather. As the daughter of legendary music producer Don Costa, Nikka has been surrounded by music and world class musicians from an early age and has been performing since she was a child.

This album is her first for almost 6 years and was inspired by Nikka’s discovery of some old arrangements her father had written for Frank Sinatra. With a little help, these arrangements were reworked for a string quartet and an album was born.

Underneath and In Between sees a change of pace and direction, showcasing Nikka’s exceptional voice with a fabulous collection of heartfelt songs. The combination of a string quartet and Nikka’s soulful voice make for an intimate and emotional sound. It is a delightful mix of new songs and some classic covers. Starting the album with Nothing Compares 2 U is a brave move and one worth taking as it works fantastically well. Whilst many would have shied away from covering such an iconic song, Nikka’s interpretation is a joy, as are her covers of classics like Come Rain or Come Shine and Stormy Weather to name but two.

This album is a delightful example of how songs used to sound but with a few modern twists. It’s a chilled, laidback and well produced collection of great songs backed by wonderful strings and delivered by an amazing voice.

If you like Macey Grey, Norah Jones or Jill Scott then this may well be for you.

Label: Metropolis Music

ASIN: B06Y349FRV

Available from Amazon on CD, Vinyl and MP3