The Day Our Lives Collided by Laura Pearson

Sep29

Friendship, Love, Life, & Everything In Between

The Day Our Lives Collided by Laura Pearson is a simply beautiful book set over a series of weddings from 2008 onwards. Three friends who met at Birmingham uni seventeen years earlier, share the celebrations over a number of years.

The action is told through three alternating points of view in the first person. The reader gets to know each character intimately.

We witness the highs and lows of life as we follow the wider group of friends down the years. Some are party animals; others are of a quieter nature.

We see rifts in lives. Some marriages make it; others don’t. And there is a funeral. “We couldn’t know… that one of our group would die within the year. If we’d known that, I wonder whether we would have done anything differently. Loved harder or lived more fully.” When death hits, there are always regrets. When death hits the young, it is tragic, especially if children are involved. True friends step in with a life-changing offer.

One character has a disabled sister who is in a wheelchair. “The first time they met… Tash spoke to her like she would anyone else… All too often people crouched down and spoke to Grace as if she were a little kid.” I can empathise as I used to work at the local high school and often worked with teens in wheelchairs – far too often people would speak over their heads to me, asking how the person was. I used to reply “they are sitting right here, why don’t you ask them.”

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Bob & Shirley’s Killer Cat Puzzle by Suzy K Quinn

Sep29

Loved The Interactions

Bob & Shirley’s Killer Cat Puzzle by Suzy K Quinn is a really fun contemporary novel that goes hand in hand with the other books in the Bob & Shirley Mystery series.

This book is unique in that the reader can interact with the characters, find the hidden clues, and decide if Sambuca, Bob & Shirley’s cat is guilty of murder. Or is it one of the other four lower village cats?

Bob loves his puzzles and draws out a grid within which we can place our clues. We need to decipher the clues in each chapter, add them to the grid, and work out who is the guilty party? – Easy?… Err, nope! Not for me! I am hopeless at that sort of thing. I had great fun finding the clues (some of them) and filling in the grid. But was left scratching my head, wondering which was the guilty cat? Fortunately, Bob goes through the clues in detail towards the end of the book! Don’t jump to the back to read the solution as it takes away the fun!

Of course, you can always just read the book without filling in the grid. As with the other books in the series, this is highly amusing with Shirley being slightly scatterbrained and definitely in Sambuca’s corner, and Bob providing the analytical brain and very fussy about the English language. The pair bounce off each other and are hilarious.

As the previous owner of a psycho cat, Marble (died aged 19 in July 2020), I can definitely identify with Sambuca. “Shirley says Sambuca is misunderstood, but I find him extremely easy to understand. He’s a spoiled, vicious, entitled cat with an alcohol problem.” I used to say Marble was misunderstood! And you had to keep an eye on his eyes, as he could go from enjoying a stroke o biting!! “There’s… a warning sin on the bar that says ‘Do not look directly at the cat’.”

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You Too by Katharine Light

Sep29

Families & Friends

You Too by Katharine Light is a comprehensive contemporary book that I enjoyed. It is the third book in the Millingham series but can be read as a stand-alone.

This is a book about friends and families as we join a group of friends who met at school and are now all approaching forty. They have a shared past. They know things about each other that no one else knows.

With biological clocks all ticking, four of the friends are pregnant – for some it’s their first babies, for others they already ave children.

There are many different types of families… some are blended families, others are hiding who they really are, and for some it’s the relationship they should have had years ago as friendship blossoms into more. For all of them there are choppy waters to navigate.

Fear has held characters back from confessing their love. “Who taught you you’re not lovable?” The roots to insecurities lie in childhood.

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The Deliberations Of Isabella M Smugge by Ruth Leigh

Sep28

The Journey Ends

The Deliberations Of Isabella M Smugge by Ruth Leigh is the fifth and final book in the delightful Isabella M Smugge series.

I have been with Isabella Smugge since the beginning and am gutted that her bookish journey has ended. Maybe when she becomes a grandparent, I am hopeful that she may have more to say – pretty please, Ruth Leigh.

Isabella Smugge journey as an influencer has seen her move from London to the Suffolk countryside; from self-absorbed and image conscious to a far more ‘real’ portrayal; and from a new Christian dipping her toes in the water to a fully fledged Christian who is muddling through life just like the rest of us. It has been a wonderful journey to witness.

Isabella Smugge is an extremely likable, believable and kind person. I love her views on life. She tells it as she sees it. She navigates through single parenting of four children; deals with a selfish ex-husband; an overbearing agent; and playground bullies (the parents).

As the books have progressed, Isabella Smugge’s faith in God has emerged. “It would be helpful if God could just reply immediately… A kind of spiritual WhatsApp conversation… If I got it right, He would give me a thumbs up.” She notes “I’ve been going to church… and chatting with the good Lord (who I have to say, is a lot more approachable than I had previously thought). Her faith walk with God is authentic. What you see is what you get. She talks to God very naturally, but ends her prayers “Thank you again and kindest regards.”

Her reaction to having her prayers answered: “Hello again, it’s me… Listen, that was impressive! I asked for a DM and a sigh, and You sent me one. I feel like a proper religious person now.”

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