Armchair adventures

Hello and welcome to the latest blog from The Olivia Rose Diaries on September 27^th 2024.

I’m sitting in Le Shack listening to the rain falling on the roof. The sky is grey and feels low and heavy, as if it is pressing down on me. Despite this I feel content. We’ve had a lot of sunny weather this month, much to the delight of the mosquitoes and a plethora of other buzzing critters, to the point that sitting outside over the last few days has become a vexing experience rather than a relaxing one. I’m quite happy to retreat indoors for a day or two and use the time to catch up. And catching up on this blog is rather overdue!

It’s been two and a half weeks since we returned from our last house-sit and we have settled into shack-life. Spot has returned and taken up full-time residence with us once more. I sometimes wonder if her other family miss her when we come back, but then I suspect that she is there primarily to keep the mice under control rather than be cuddled and made a fuss of. At least that is what I tell myself…

As I sit here writing I have just seen her squirm her way in through the tiniest opening to the mini-shed where we keep the generator – one of her favourite hidey-holes and a fine place to take shelter from the rain.

I usually dedicate one or two blogs a year to sharing book recommendations, so here are four books that I have really enjoyed over the last couple of months, perfect for enjoying in a comfortable chair on a rainy day.

The Outlaw Noble Salt by Amy Harmon

Amy Harmon has written something like 17 books and I have read nine of them, so you can see I am a fan. This is her most recent book, published in April 2024, and I think it is one of her best. She often bases her novels on facts but then weaves her own unique story around that starting point. This one is about Butch Cassidy, a figure many of us are familiar with. What makes her so successful as a writer is her skill in taking a story down completely different paths to what you might expect and introducing us to characters who are compelling, completely believable and whom we come to care about. This book is described as a ‘romantic tale of risk, redemption and what happens when America’s most famous outlaw falls in love’ and that alone didn’t particularly draw me in. I read it because I had faith in her from previous books and I am so glad I did. You don’t need to like westerns, or romance, to be able to enjoy this book. It’s about humans and our struggles, about morality and doing the right thing, and about an enduring, inspiring love affair against all the odds. And if any of my male readers are out there, quietly thinking this is chic-lit and not for them, think again!

The Hike by Lucy Clarke

This was the first book I’ve read by this author and I found it on the bookshelves in our last house-sit. She also has written other books and when I am looking for an easy read I shall try another one. Four women set out on a hike into the Norwegian wilderness, but the area they have chosen has a dark past. A woman went missing there a year ago and the four friends stumble upon a secret that someone will do anything to keep hidden. This is a tried and tested formula but it keeps the attention well. The women have their own secrets and tensions to deal with which adds some twists and turns and I didn’t see the final twist coming. A satisfying read.

Horse by Geraldine Brooks

I will preface this review by saying that you don’t need to be a lover of horses to read it – there is so much more to it. Published in 2022, it is set in two time periods that eventually converge with devastating results. The first is set in Kentucky 1850, and follows the story of an enslaved groom and his relationship with a foal called Lexington, who would go on to become America’s greatest stud sire. The second is set in Washington in 2019 where a scientist and an art historian find themselves connected through their shared interest in the history of the same horse.

My summary above doesn’t begin to do this book justice, my excuse being that it is such a multi-faceted story that it’s quite hard to sum it up in one paragraph. It’s a compelling, often shocking, tale of how badly we humans treat each other and the animals we share our lives with, specifically horses in this case, and raises questions about the levels of racism in modern society compared to all those years ago. That might sound a bit grim but there is much to inspire and uplift us in the book as well: it’s a tale of family, of loyalty, dignity and bravery, of the deep love we humans have for horses and the lengths we will go to protect them.

Initially I found the constant switching from one time frame to the other a little irritating, but as the story progressed that faded away. This was a deeply satisfying book, one that made me really think about our world. It’s been a huge best-seller, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and one of the best books I have read this year.

And the good news is that Geraldine Brooks has written other books. I can also recommend ‘Year of Wonders’, the story of a young woman’s struggle to save her family during the plague of 1666, set in a small Derbyshire village.

The Language of the Badger by Mary-Jane Houlton

I can heartily recommend this book as I wrote it -ha! However, before you all rush off to Amazon and press ‘buy now’ it won’t be published until mid to late October. Rest assured I will let you know nearer the time in the blog and even inflict the first chapter on you as a sneak preview. It’s something quite different to my previous books – more details in a few weeks.

That’s it for this week. It’s lunchtime here at Le Shack and a home-made butternut squash soup awaits. See you soon.

MJ