By Suzanne Nash
A winter storm is the perfect excuse to hunker down with a good book in front of a roaring fire and that is just what I did during the snowfall that dumped nearly two feet in Keswick. I hope you were all able to do the same and enjoyed a little down time at your home.
The first book I would recommend reading comes with a suggestion: Do NOT read the back cover or anything that might prove a spoiler to this story. I was completely taken unaware by this remarkable novel and it’s twists and I really believe that is the best way to enjoy it, so I am going to try and review it without giving away the particulars. We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves: A Novel by Karen Joy Fowler. The book begins with Rosemary Cooke who explains that she is going to have to start her story in the middle. Quite the little chatterbox when she was younger, Rosemary grows up to be a very different child who doesn’t say a great deal. All of this is due to an unusual childhood and a loss that affected her and her family deeply. Fowler looks at memories, those we hang on to, those memories we search for and those we aren’t completely sure of. This novel touches on perspectives, especially when dealing with parental responsibility and choices parents sometimes make to the detriment of the child. The Cooke family (Mom, Dad, Lowell, sister Fern and Rosemary) is a “typical” middle class family, except for a strange twist. When sister Fern is removed from the equation the family falls apart: Lowell disappears, Mother becomes depressed and Rosemary withdraws and realizes she is not like other children. This novel is a study of well-intentioned actions that lead to heartrending consequences.
If you are looking for lighter fare, then may I suggest Her Royal Spyness by Rhys Bowen. A prolific writer, Bowen, has created another fun mystery series about the crazy life of Lady Victoria Georgianna Charlotte Eugenie, a very minor British royal. Unmarried and broke, she is saddled with the burden of being 34th in line for the throne. With the family name to uphold, “Georgie” must figure out how to pay her bills without offending her cousin, the Queen. When a man who is blackmailing her brother is found dead in her bathtub, this heroine must do a bit of sleuthing to protect the family name. A complete klutz and not at all a part of the “smart set,” she manages to figure out a way to pay the bills, live without servants, bypass the amorous attentions of an Irish bounder, avoid marriage to a prince she nicknames “fish-face” and still solve the murder and save her rather vacuous brother. I have always enjoyed Bowen’s stories. Her characters are clever and the dialogue is funny and fast paced. She always serves up a delightful “cozy mystery,” perfect for a bathtub read!
Another piece of fiction that is sure to keep you curled up by the fire is Mistress Shakespeare by Karen Harper. The author of over 60 books, this is one of my favorites. First of all, I love anything having to do with Shakespeare, but add to that the real life mystery surrounding his marriage license to a woman named Anne Whateley just days before his marriage to Anne Hathaway was announced and you have a wonderful plot for a historical fiction piece. In this tale woven by Harper, Anne Whateley is a dark haired beauty who grew up with William Shakespeare. They played together and fell in love and planned to marry, but fate intervened and Will was forced to marry another. Brokenhearted Anne leaves for London to find another life there but she never forgets her first love. A story of love and literature, Harper does a beautiful job creating a fiction around the mysterious woman who may have inspired the greatest heroines of Shakespeare.
I hope you enjoy a few good books if we happen to have just one more snowstorm before spring comes to Keswick. These are the perfect stories to keep you company as we wait for the crocus to appear!