oasis norfolk

Thanks to Petra, our Zoom expert for this article from her wife Loraine, originally written for publication in her local village newsletter.

I must write this month about how I have enjoyed reading `Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine’ by Gail Honeyman. The book has received many accolades and was in fact recommended by a friend. It’s about loneliness and discovery.  Fear not! Although it has a few dark passages it is very funny and uplifting; a tale of Eleanor’s journey from being a very fearful solitary unsocial creature with a secret dark past to becoming a girl with friends.  During her journey she learns how to interact with her work colleagues and although her pet plant (yes really) dies it is replaced by a domineering grey cat.  What’s not to like!?

Ah yes, the dread secret is also slowly revealed and unravelled.

Another recommendation is `The 100 year old man who climbed out the window and disappeared’ (by Jonas Jonasson)  I thought, what a strange title, how odd? But I giggled my way through this book of unlikely happenings and co-incidences, and odd friendships.  Scandi books are not always grim crime shockers.

In the meantime I’ve not neglected my `chick flick’ pot boiler books.  Regency stories by Tessa Dare about Spindle Cove and its boarding house for misfit women and their romances are an easy read.  Plenty of humour, a reasonable plot and some steamy sex if that appeals!

I enjoy reading fiction based in East Anglia, naturally so atmospheric!  Crime stories written by Jim Kelly and Joy Ellis come to mind.  The BBC series Books that Built Britain has featured some other authors including our own Nicci French. I am looking forward to read Losing You about a missing teenage girl. Could this be based in Southwold?

Nine Taylors is a crime book by Dorothy Sayers (back in 1934) featuring Lord Peter Wimsey.  It features our East Anglia and some bell ringing. I read it years ago but I’ve got to the stage in my life that I actually enjoy reading books again.  Just like seeing a good film you note different things or characters each time.

Now enough of this! Enjoy the summer, keep safe and above all “keep reading”

Loraine – The Book Worm