Books I read in 2020: Part 4 (October - December)

Today I will be taking a look at the books that I read during the last 3 months of 2020. Between October and December I managed to read 9 books in total, finishing off my final read for the year this afternoon. Just as I had done in 2019, in January I will review My Year In Books by publishing some fun statistics from the Goodreads website that I find really useful for book recommendations. Following bookworms on Instagram (generally referred to as #bookstagrammers) has also got me interested in genres that I would not normally read. For Christmas I was gifted 16 books which, in addition to another 2 books that I got from the Little Free Library at Find The Door, means that I will have plenty of titles to choose from once January rolls in. But enough of my chatter. Let's take a look at the books I read these past 3 months.

1. The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah 3/5 stars
2. Three Sisters, Three Queens by Philippa Gregory 3/5 stars
3. Innocence: Tales of Youth and Guile by Roald  Dahl 4/5 stars
4. Goodnight Mister Tom by Michelle Magorian 4/5 stars
5. Eli's Promise by Ronald H. Balson 3/5 stars
6. A Brief History of British Kings and Queens by Mike Ashley 4/5 stars
7. The Good Doctor of Warsaw by Elizabeth Gifford 3/5 stars
8. The French Girl by Lexie Elliott 4/5 stars
9. Cornflakes With John Lennon: And Other Tales From a Rock 'n Roll Life by Rob Hilburn 4/5 stars

Innocence: Tales of Youth and Guile by Roald Dahl

Featuring the autobiographical stories telling of Roald Dahl's boyhood and youth as well as four further tales of innocence betrayed, Dahl touches on the joys and horrors of growing up.

I don't know about you, dear readers, but Roald Dahl is one of my favourite story-tellers. He had the capacity to weave a tale out of almost nothing, using his imagination and life experiences to create memorable characters for the stories we are so familiar with, such as Matilda, Charlie And The Chocolate Factory and James And The Giant Peach. In Innocence, Dahl talks about his childhood: his mother and siblings (his father died when he was 3), summers in Norway visiting his grandparents, his early years in Llandaff (Wales) and his boarding school years at St Peter's in Weston-Super-Mare (England) and Repton in Derbyshire (England). Spanning the years from 1922 to 1936, this memoir gives a wonderful account of what life was like in that brief period of peace between the two World Wars. Written in Dahls' inimitable style, Innocence manages to rise above the author's homesickness and the caning and bullying he was subjected to at boarding school, leaving the reader with an image of an author who never lost his sense of humour, even when faced with difficult and trying circumstances. The book ends when Dahl got his first job with the Shell Petroleum Company. Innocence is the first in a series of 8 books about Dahl's life. 

Goodnight Mister Tom by Michelle Magorian

London is poised on the brink of World War II. Timid, scrawny Willie Beech--the abused child of a single mother--is evacuated to the English countryside. At first, he is terrified of everything, of the country sounds and sights, even of Mr. Tom, the gruff, kindly old man who has taken him in. But gradually Willie forgets the hate and despair of his past. He learns to love a world he never knew existed, a world of friendship and affection in which harsh words and daily beatings have no place. Then a telegram comes. Willie must return to his mother in London. When weeks pass by with no word from Willie, Mr. Tom sets out for London to look for the young boy he has come to love as a son.

Goodnight Mister Tom is aimed at older children and young teenagers and my rating and review reflects this. I think that this age group will appreciate and enjoy this story and it's cast of characters. Older readers may find this novel overly simplistic as it does not delve deeply into the development of the characters and, at times, the book almost reads like a modern-day fairy-tale. But this particular reader was happy to have her faith in humankind somewhat restored by a bunch of villagers from a bygone era who opened their hearts to an abused young refugee from London during WW2. Perhaps there's a lesson or two that we adults can learn from a time when people (admittedly not all of them) went out of their way to be kind. To sum it up in a few words, this is a story that is sad at times but leaves the reader with an overall feel-good factor.

Goodnight Mister Tom was the winner of the 1982 IRA Children's Book Award

The French Girl by Lexie Elliott

She appears, lithe and tanned, by the swimming pool one afternoon. Severine - the girl next door. It was supposed to be a final celebration for six British graduates, the perfect French getaway, until she arrived. Severine's beauty captivates each of them in turn. Under the heat of a summer sky, simmering tensions begin to boil over - years of jealousy and longing rising dangerously to the surface.

And then Severine disappears.

A decade later, Severine's body is found at the farmhouse. For Kate Channing, the discovery brings up more than just unwelcome memories. As police suspicion mounts against the friends, Kate becomes desperate to resolve her own shifting understanding of that time. But as the layers of deception reveal themselves, Kate must ask herself - does she really want to know what happened to the French girl?

Lexie Elliott's debut novel The French Girl is a psychological thriller that keeps the reader guessing about the course of events on that that fateful night in France ten years earlier until the very end. Elliott manages to keep a moderate pace throughout the novel and the book is only marred in places by the rather sluggish side-story. The ending leaves a few unresolved questions forcing the reader to surmise the answers. Overall, The French Girl is a strong debut novel and I look forward to more books by Lexie Elliott in the future.

My other 4 star reads are not novels and deal with niche subjects that will not interest everyone so I will be as brief as possible.

A Brief History of British Kings and Kings is exactly what the title says. It presents an outline of each British (English, Welsh and Scottish) monarch from Alfred the Great to the present Queen and even provides some insight into shadowy historical figures such as Boudicca and Macbeth. The book also provides a good explanation into how the three separate kingdoms eventually merged into the United  Kingdom that we know today. It is fascinating reading for die-hard fans (like myself) of the British monarchy.

Cornflakes With John Lennon provides a candid, behind-the-scenes look at some of the most legendary musicians of the past 5 decades. Written by Rob Hilburn, a music critic who worked for the Los Angeles Times between 1970 and 2005, this book is a fascinating insight into the world of rock 'n roll greats such as John Lennon, Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin and Kurt Cobain.

If you're looking for a few books that you might like to read, you may find more titles in Part 1 of this series here, Part 2 here and Part 3 here.

This will be my last post for 2020. I would like to wish you all a very Happy New Year. Let's all hope that 2021 will be everything that 2020 was not. See you all on the other side.