
Today is the last day of May. May and June are my favourite months of the year, the light is just so good, it doesn’t get too hot usually in the UK, more flowers start appearing, the countryside is so green, and it’s my birthday in May.
It was Daphne du Maurier reading week earlier this month and I want to say another thank you to those of you who joined in, and to Liz who helped by putting together a page of review links on her blog. It was a more reduced celebration this year from me – everything has become more reduced it would seem, but at least it went ahead.
It’s been a very slow reading month for me, for all the usual reasons – I had hoped to finish my current read today but I didn’t get much read yesterday, after being out all day, so that book will have to go into the June pile. Just seven books read this month, one of them hidden away on my kindle.
Having read my first DDM book of the year the previous month, I started May reading Myself When Young:The Shaping of a writer (1977) by Daphne du Maurier In this memoir Daphne du Maurier wrote about the first twenty-five years of her life, when she herself was nearing seventy, using the diaries she had kept between 1920 and 1932. Reliving her childhood, adolescence and early twenties the memoir ends around the time she marries.
My re-reading of Rebecca (1938) by Daphne du Maurier was an absolute joy from start to finish. I was left with a huge book hangover, and no wish to write a blog post about it, as that would somehow have spoiled it. It was my third reading of Rebecca and I was surprised at how much I had forgotten – I can’t really say which bits they were. I think my enjoyment of this novel was in part responsible for how slowly I read my next book.
A collection of short stories Winter in the Air (1955) by Sylvia Townsend Warner seemed like a good choice, given the aforementioned book hangover. Sylvia Townsend Warner is a writer I really enjoy, her short stories are always good and so I wasn’t disappointed. In these stories we meet abandoned wives, a young girl eloping, a murderer, we witness a schoolboy’s encounter in a railway carriage and a woman return to a village decades after she left. They were just what I needed.
One of the longlisted novels from this year’s Women’s Prize list had already caught my eye before the list was announced. The Bandit Queens (2023) by Parini Shroff was also selected by my book group as our June title. I absolutely loved it. I read it quite quickly on Kindle – which I always seem to read faster on anyway, and I am really looking forward to that book group discussion now.
Siblings (1963) by Brigitte Reimann translated from German by Lucy Jones was fascinating. Set in East Germany in 1960, the border between the east and west has closed (the wall went up a year later). For Elisabeth the GDR is a chance for East Germany to create a new socialist, fairer future for all. For her brother however it is all about oppression and strictures he can’t tolerate. It made me wonder about how I might have responded had I been angry, in my early twenties and East German in 1960, I suspect I might have been easily persuaded. I find that slightly uncomfortable now.
Having so enjoyed The Decagon House Murders in April, I couldn’t leave it too long before reading The Mill House Murders (1988) by Yukito Ayatsuji translated from Japanese by Ho-Ling Wong. I found this every bit as enjoyable as the first in the series, although I was able to work out a lot of the mystery myself – which always makes me feel a bit like Poirot.
Cork Street, Next to the Hatters (1965) by Pamela Hansford Johnson is the third in her Dorothy Merlin trilogy. A don attends a play with Dorothy’s bookseller husband, after which he decides to write a play so disgusting and obscene no one will put it on anywhere – he wants to make a point. Of course, he’s rather naive as to what the theatrical world will stand. It’s a brilliant satire. I won’t be writing a review of it though, as I realise its appeal is probably limited. However for those who like PHJ in particular and writers like her in general I recommend you seek this trilogy out. The premise of this one, probably doesn’t sound very enthralling and yet it’s a hoot – and I read it pretty quickly and was rather sorry there wasn’t more.
So that was my May – how was yours?
As for June, I really don’t have any plans at all and I don’t know of any reading challenges – other than 20 books of summer which I don’t do, as I can’t stick to a list, I’m far too fickle. So the world of my tbr is my oyster – I do have a vague plan to get some of my unread Persephones read soon. As I have already read my June book group choice, I could read our July choice which is Tresspasses by Louise Kennnedy, a novel I have been meaning to read for months and not quite getting to. Other than that, only time and my mood will tell.
So, what plans do you all have for June? Have I missed any challenges?