20 Books in 2012

#2 The Diary of a Provincial Lady by E. M. Delafield 

With the exception of a handful, I’m generally not much of a fan of diary style books. This, however, is one of the exceptions. I whizzed through it in two days and thoroughly enjoyed every word. It’s witty, often quite hilarious, and even thought-provoking at times. (Query: Is it necessary that a book be thought-provoking, even in a small way, for it to be enjoyable? Possible article for Time and Tide here.) It strongly reminds me of Jan Struther’s Mrs. Miniver which isn’t really surprising as both MM and PL are cut from the same cloth (although a few years apart). I would definitely recommend this book to a friend

20 Books in 2012

#1 The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton

As with all of the books I’ve read in recent years, when I started “The Forgotten Garden” I was very conscious of the fact that it might end up being a real struggle to finish reading it. When I was younger, I could pick up virtually any book and be immediately drawn into it’s world but it’s a long time since a book has made me feel that I’m a part of it, that I actually know it, and thus, my love for reading has, sadly, gradually declined. Then I picked up this book from the library and within reading the first few chapters I was swept up into a world that felt so tantalising, so real, that I raced through it, eager to find out what lurked on each page. 

The only downside I feel it worth mentioning is that at first, it can be a little confusing as to which year we’re reading about (1900, 1975, or 2005) but once the characters become more familiar, that issue is resolved. There’s also the fact that at times the plot is slightly predictable, or so we’re led to believe. With the help of the different character’s stories from each year, the author manages to weave all of the intricate plot twists into one another so that the reader is never quite sure whether her ideas as to the overall mystery are correct.