- Bookshelf Bridge
- Posts
- March 2024
March 2024
Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes
I’ve become one of those tedious people that can’t stop talking about the weather. In mid-March, we had a couple of glorious days and everything felt so promising, then we were plunged back into rain and wind. As I type this, there is sunshine beating through my windows, but a threatening wind blustering outside. I had lots of visitors to Liverpool this month, which was gorgeous. There’s nothing lovelier than your friends from different parts of your life meeting, and adoring each other. It’s so beautiful. I also visited Hawksmoor in Liverpool for the first time, and handed in my notice in the job I’ve been in for five years. 2024 is shaping up to be a big year!
The House of Broken Bricks by Fiona Williams
I think this might be the best book I’ve read this year so far. I inhaled it in two sittings, on the train journey down and up from London, sobbing both times. In classic polite British style, everyone just let me get on with it. It’s a story about a family told between ethnicities, cultures and locations, but primarily set in the Somerset levels. It’s told across four seasons, through the four perspectives of a family living in the titular house. I also got to meet Fiona Williams when she came to West Kirby, and she was warm, articulate and so witty. I’m already excited about her next book.
Love Me Tender by Constance Debré
March’s book club pick was this short piece on motherhood, femininity and shedding societal expectations. It is a piece of autofiction, detailing the author divorcing her husband and entering into a fraught custody battle with her ex-husband, where she becomes estranged from her son. She meditates on lesbianism, motherhood and how we position women as parents, lovers and familial figures. I loved it.
Vladivostok Circus by Elisa Shua Dusapin
Another wonderful author I got to meet in West Kirby this month! This book tells the story of a graduate costume designer who moves to Russia to work with a circus performance trio and their producer. I loved the writing in this one, but the story left me a little disengaged. However, there is a really great cat in this book that I’d recommend to any fellow crazy cat ladies.
Again, Rachel by Marian Keyes
I re-read this one, having not picked it up since it was released. I really enjoyed it on second reading, and I want to revisit its prequel, Rachel’s Holiday. Set many years after Rachel’s stint in rehab and exploring her subsequent life in recovery, it’s a warm and engaging piece that continues to explore the rehab process as deftly as its predecessor did. It’s a little long, but I still really enjoyed it.
Come and Get It by Kiley Reid
I had high hopes for this one, as I loved Kiley Reid’s debut Such a Fun Age, but I found this one a bit harder to get into. The story is interesting, but the characters feel a little flat. It tells the story of a visiting college professor, who, as part of research into her new non-fiction book, becomes entangled in a group of students and their dynamics around race, social class and money.
Happy Hour by Marlowe Granados
This was a read for our Food and Fiction meetings, where a smaller group get together to eat food and discuss a book. We chatted about this book, set in New York, and ate pizza. It was a super divisive one, and lots of people argued (fairly) that not much happens, but I loved this story of two friends, Isa and Gala, and their summer living illegally in New York, navigating money, men and using their looks and intelligence as assets to get by. It gave me nostalgia for my own time as a late teenager and early twenties woman in recession Ireland, not wanting to spend money on food, but always having cash for a nice cocktail.
The Butler by Danielle Steel
Of course, there’s always a Danielle Steel. This one was about an Argentinian/French man, who after spending time as a butler in a series of stately homes, becomes an assistant/project manager for an American woman running away from ghosts in New York who is setting up a new life in Paris. Not groundbreaking, but her books are always comforting for me.
If you’re in the Merseyside area, I’ll be hosting a chat with Niamh Mulvey in the West Kirby Bookshop on 26 April to discuss her new novel The Amendments. Do join if you’re around! Tickets can be bought here. March playlist is also below.