A cover is not the book so open it and take a look. - Mary Poppins
2021 Reading Challenge: 49 books out of 52 (94%)
Over the last few months, I've been working through some of my favourite books that I have on my Kindle. I have a couple of books that I'll happily go back and read, regularly. These books include titles like The Help (Kathryn Stockett), Meet Me Under The Clock (Annie Murray) and The Cat Royal Series (Julia Golding). I love reading, as you may well be aware, and even though I do enjoy reading new stories that I haven't read before, but I also love going through books I've read before.
The Help
Kathryn Stockett
Based in 1960's Mississippi, during the civil rights movement in the US, every white family had black maids. These black maids were part of the family and expected to keep the family secrets, but were not treated as part of the family. Racism was still strong. Whites and Blacks still lived in separate suburbs, used different building entrances and were generally treated very differently. A young woman, Skeeter Phelan, returns home from university to discover that her family's help had been let go under mysterious reasons that no one seemed to want to talk about. Skeeter seeks the assistance from her best friend's help for a local newspaper column. This collaboration leads to a friendship between the two women. Skeeter decides to write a book about what life is like for the Help using interviews from the black women who work for the whites and raise their children. The women involved knew that they were doing something that is against the law in Mississippi at the time. The book follows the lives of the women who take the risks to make their stories heard despite the dangers they are putting themselves and their families in.
Meet Me Under The Clock
Annie Murray
Meet Me Under the Clock is a book about World War II. It follows two families, neighbours, in London as they struggle to keep their sense of normal during the days of war, when normal is torn apart. The story sees friendship, comradeer, and betrayal. We follow the families and they face difficulties brought on by war, possible scandel and heartbreak. Fear of bad news hangs over everyone as they wait for the next letter from their loved ones, or worse, a telegram saying that their men were dead. The story really shows how the women of Britain stepped up to take over the roles of the men, who had gone to war. Its something that wasn't seen before. The women kept the country going, they brought food into their homes and made sure that there was still a country at the end of the war.
The Cat Royal Series
Julia Golding
This is one of my all time favourite series. Written from the perspective of the main character, Cathrine Royal, who grew up in a London Theatre. We first meet Cat (as she's known by her friends) in The Diamond of Drury Lane as she strives to save the 'diamond' hidden there, not knowing that its her new black friend, Pedro. The story continues in Cat Amongst the Pigeons, when Pedro's former owner comes to claim him and the struggle to keep him free. Den of Thieves is the third installment of Cat's story, when she goes to Paris during the revolution as a spy and ends up getting tangled up with a gang of thieves. In book 4, Cat O'Nine Tails Cat and her closest friends are pressed ganged into the British Navy, when they attempt to save one of their friends, Syd, from the same fate. Black Heart of Jamaia, book number 5, Cat comes face to face with Pedro's old master, Mr. Hawkins, a nasty man with a taste for revenge. She's later rescued by Billy Shepherd, a rival from her London days. Together they return to London, where Cat learns (in the beginning Cat's Cradle, book 6) that her mother is actually alive and living in Scotland. She decides to travel up to Scotland to find out more.
I hope I haven't given you more than enough to encourage you to pick up these books and read them for yourselves. Until next time.