My Year in Books 2023: June

I'm a little late posting this one again, but here's my monthly post about the books I read for pleasure in June. It's not a massively long list this time, but there you go.

In case you're interested, here are my posts from previous months this year: January, February, March, April, May

The Charmed Life of Alex Moore by Molly Flatt (2018)

I’ve had this book out of the library for a while, but I’ve finally found time to read it. As always, I went into this one with no real expectations, except that it looked like slightly gentler fare than I usually read (and, to be honest, I based that simply on the cover). While I wouldn’t say I was completely surprised by the novel, it certainly went in a very different direction than I was anticipating. The book’s central character is Alex – who goes by her middle name, her first name being Dorothy. When the story (and if you’ve read the book, you’ll know how charged that word is!) begins, Alex is a few months into a major change of direction in her life. She recently quit her job, started an online wellbeing company, and – according to her nearest and dearest – changed her personality and outlook. Alex is riding high on a new-found confidence and assertiveness, but a series of strange things happen that threaten to undermine her happiness. She’s the victim of a mugging, and then an unsettling visitor to her company’s office throws a shadow over her success. But are these things connected? As I said, Flatt’s novel heads off on a journey that you probably won’t see coming. It’s a little bit more speculative than the cover and blurb would have you believe. Nevertheless, it’s told with a charm and warmth that will carry you through the fantastical elements to the real human story at its heart.

The Double Life of Daisy Hemmings by Joanna Nadin (2022)

The similarity of titles between the first two books this month was a complete accident! And they really are quite different! The Double Life of Daisy Hemmings is, in some ways, familiar fare. In 1988, seventeen-year-old Jason lives in a small town in Cornwall. He works in the pub run by his alcoholic father with his older sister who… let’s just say she finds her own entertainment. In the summer of 1988, a group of friends arrive to stay at a big house on a nearby island. These friends – Daisy, her twin sister Bea, Hal, Julian and Muriel – are older than Jason, wealthy, educated and impossibly glamorous. He instantly falls under the group’s spell, and instantly falls for Daisy herself. As I say, this is a familiar story, with shades of The Secret History and books of that type. What lifts Nadin’s novel into more original (more interesting) territory is that the 1988 chapters are only half the story. They are alternated with chapters set in 2018, as Daisy approaches her fiftieth birthday and engages a ghostwriter named James to work on her autobiography. James is – and this isn’t a spoiler, as it’s right there on the blurb – harbouring some secrets of his own, and the 2018 chapters allow us to see how the passage of time has affected and changed the group (or not). The big revelations are quite easy to spot (I guessed the big secret very early on), but this is still a fun and engaging read.

The Twilight Garden by Sara Nisha Adams (2023)

The next library book I read was chosen partly to for my radio show, and partly because it looked interesting. The Twilight Garden is set in London, specifically on a street called Eastbourne Road. 77 and 79 Eastbourne Road are neighbouring properties that share a communal garden. In autumn, when the book begins, the properties are inhabited by Winston and his boyfriend Lewis, and Bernice and her young son Seb. Winston and Bernice do not get on, and a particular bone of contention between the ‘warring neighbours’ is their shared garden. What we as readers learn quite quickly – and what Winston and Bernice will learn over time – is that the shared garden was once a community garden, open to the neighbourhood and a focal point of communal pride and sociability. As Winston and Bernice grudgingly come up with a way to share this space, their relationship with one another develops, but so too does their awareness of the importance of community. The Twilight Garden is an incredibly positive depiction of community, friendship and neighbourliness. The community garden at Eastbourne Road is a site for communal gatherings, but also mutual aid, wellbeing, culturally diverse celebrations (the first we see is a combined Diwali and Guy Fawkes Night fireworks display), and intergenerational friendships. It was where good neighbours didn’t just become good friends – they became family. And it may be up to Winston and Bernice to bring the community together again. A well-written and very readable book with a lot of heart.