With this month being one spent predominately indoors, I looked to my bookshelves for favourite rereads:
The Gown by by Jennifer Robson: First read in June 2019 and before we’d binge-watched The Crown.
Historian-turned-novelist Robson sets her latest historical release in 1947, when times are grim: so many have lost so much, war rationing continues, Britain is in ruins. But in a bleak year, there’s a bright spot: Princess Elizabeth’s royal wedding captured the hearts of a nation, and was a beacon of hope to a country on its knees. The people insisted on a real celebration, including a beautiful gown. Robson’s story shifts among three protagonists and spans 70 years, but the common thread is Elizabeth’s gown—and specifically, the women who make it. While Robson has a fine eye for detail, and her behind-the-scenes descriptions of the fine atelier’s workroom are riveting, the heartbeat of the story comes from female friendship, secret pasts, and life after loss.:
How to Find Love in a Bookshop by Veronica Henry: First read in January 2017.
This caught my eye because it’s set in two of my favourite places; the Cotswolds and a book shop. The story moves along nicely, but is definitely in the Chick Lit genre. An easy read, but perhaps not for someone who has recently lost a parent. {I’d have given this book a wide berth if I’d realised the extent of the loss the main character suffers}.
The Little Women Letters by Gabrielle Donnelly: First read in May 2018.
“… Lulu stumbles across a collection of letters written by her great-great-grandmother Josephine March. As she delves deeper into the lives and secrets of the March sisters, she finds solace and guidance, but can the words of her great-great-grandmother help Lulu find a place for herself in a world so different from the one Jo knew?”
This was a recommendation from My Top 12 Beach Reads and I enjoyed it a lot. Jo March was always my favourite sister in Little Women and it was interesting to ‘hear’ her voice echoing across the generations to the present day. The characters were well written, although I found the father to be annoying with his talk of his perfect imaginary wife and his almost-but-not-quite fall from grace.
What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty: First read in April 2018.
This was another recommendation from Top 12 Beach Reads and I was gripped. Alice, in her thirties, falls in a step aerobic class at the gym and when she wakes up, she remembers nothing of the past ten years. She thinks she’s still in her twenties, madly in love with husband and expecting their first child. It’s a shock (to put it lightly) to discover that ten years have passed, she has three children, and that her marriage is collapsing. But Alice is determined to set things right, no matter what it takes.
This was such a clever story; can you imagine losing 10 years of memory in an instant and how terrifying that must be? I spent some time thinking back over my last 10 years and cried when I realised that I would have to relive the grief of losing Mum, my parents-in-law and Grandad Paddy. The thought of also having to relearn about The Boy Child’s autism was enough to bring the wander down Memory Lane to an abrupt end.
This West London Life 
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