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Has a orange cover


Fits the phrase "a falling out"

and a longer book:



Has a tree on the cover


Is in a fantasy genre


Is set in autumn


Feels cosy


Makes you think of Thanksgiving (or giving thanks)


Is one last summer read


Is witchy


Features family relationships


Is a book you'd read in English 101


Features a found family


Has a rural setting


Features an athlete


Was published in October

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A library sale find for 'book with an orange cover'. A beautifully written little book about life in and around a convent in early twentieth century Brooklyn. Although it is a gentle and rather melancholy book, it is realistic in its depictions. Quite a relief to find a convent laundry that isn't the Magdalen laundries. Reminded me a little of Call the Midwife .

Fits the phrase 'A falling out': I didn't expect to finish another book today, but So Late in the Day by Claire Keegan, which I'd ordered for a friend's birthday, arrived in the post.

I only meant to glance at it (honest, guv), but it is really a short story (only 47 pages), so....As brilliantly written as the author's other books, and changes perspective effortlessly within the same viewpoint, as the story leads up to the falling out in question. Certainly worth reading, but I think should really have been in a collection, rather than a one-off. Ah, it's a special edition from a collection!!

Book with a found family: I love Sarah Winman's writing, so I was delighted to find Tin Man in a library sale. Described on the cover as Beautiful; Deeply touching; Dripping with tenderness . I don't like 'dripping', (although there's a lot of swimming in the book), but all of those quotes are accurate.

LeahS wrote: "Has a orange cover


Fits the phrase "a falling out"
So Late in the Day by Claire Keegan

Has a tree on the cover

Is in a fantas..."

The Claire Keegan book sounds great. Her books are too short for our regular challenge, but I didn’t think it matters for this challenge.

I agree; we don't seem to have any rules for this one, and I would certainly recommend anything by Claire Keegan.

Set in a rural area:

The Perfect Golden Circle by Benjamin Myers.

In the spring and summer of 1989, Calvert, a Falklands War veteran with PTSD, and Redbone, ex punk musician and eco-warrior, create crop circles of marvellous complexity and beauty in the fields of England

A book with a great feel for the beauty and history of the landscape and also a clear view of its despoiling. One critic quoted in the blurb said that the book was reminiscent of ....TV series 'The Decectorists' and that's exactly how the relationship beween Calvert and Redbone works.

One last summer read:

One Italian Summer by Rebecca Serle.

Quickly grabbed from the library before they dismantled their summer reads shelf. Reading around Mediterranean islands for ATY this summer, I think I've read about half a dozen books where a young woman suffers a crisis and goes off to a sunny island to find herself/romance/some family secret, so this book, which combines all of those, really was one last summer read. It was a light, fairly enjoyable read, with a different twist, although the narrator was quite hard to like.

Has a tree on the cover:



I love the painting Christina's World by Andrew Wyeth, so this book about the story behind the art has been on my TBR a while. It's quite a slow, gentle read on the whole, with the rural life well depicted; I thought the back story of Christina's family was interesting and I learned a bit about Wyeth himself. Christina herself was a fully rounded character, with flaws as well as bravery.

My big surprise on reading was discovering that Christina lived in Maine. Looking at the rolling grasses in the painting, I'd always assumed it had a Mid-West setting.

Is a book you'd read in English 101:

The Professor by Charlotte Brontë.

This was CB's first novel which was rejected by publishers, but eventually published after her death. I did find a bit of a slog, as the hero/narrator was such a prig (though he did allow his wife to continue working after their marriage, so some redeeming features). You can see foreshadowing of Jane Eyre and particularly Villette, as the book is partly set in a Belgian school.

In fact, I am substituting The Things They Carried, a wonderful piece of writing, which I understand is often required reading in US schools.

Published in October (Originally published October 2006).

The Lay of the Land by Richard Ford

The third in a trilogy, but it didn't matter that I hadn't read the earlier two books. The book follows Frank Bascombe, a fifty something real estate agent as he prepares to host Thanksgiving for his somewhat dysfunctional family - his work, his cancer, his loves and his losses. I thought the descriptions of New Jersey were very well done and some bits really made me laugh; I do think though that the book could have done with a bit of cutting.

Features an athlete:

The Fastest Boy in the World by Elizabeth Laird is a good children's book about Soloman, who lives in an Ethiopian village and who dreams of becoming an Olympic marathon runner.

I've read two adult novels set in Ethiopia, The Shadow King and Beneath the Lion's Gaze, both by Maaza Mengiste. Having read those, the depictions of life in a village and in Addis Ababa in this book seem well done, and there are snippets of history interwoven.

The Ethiopian athlete, Derartu Tulu, features in the book.

Is set in autumn:

Nature Of Autumn by Jim Crumley.

A book by a nature writer, set in Scotland during September, October and November 2015. A quiet look at landscapes and wildlife. As Storm Abigail hits in November, the author observes Nature is getting restless . Nearly ten years on, and you feel Nature's beginning to lose patience.

Features family relationships:
Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout.

Randomly, the second book I've read in a week or so that's been set in Maine, and the second featuring a sort of accomodation with ageing.

The book is a series of vignettes linked by glimpses of Olive Kitteridge's life over a period of years. This is the book by Elizabeth Strout that I have enjoyed most since My Name Is Lucy Barton.

Is witchy:

Bitter Greens by Kate Forsyth.

A book based around the story of Rapunzel , and set in sixteenth and seventeenth century Venice and France. The story moves between three women, 'Rapunzel' herself, the witch, and a French noblewoman . (view spoiler)[ The noblewoman was the first to write the story in a literary form (hide spoiler)].

I thought this was very enjoyable, an interesting take on the original tale, and a good blend of history and fantasy.

Feels cosy:

A Place Like Home by Rosamunde Pilcher.

A posthumous collection of short stories, either written for magazines or unpublished, so they do have a slightly dated feel to them. All are romances. Happy endings? You bet.

Is in a fantasy genre:

The Bees by Laline Paull.

The story of a worker bee, Flora 717, and her life in the totalitarian hive world. Sometimes the overlap between the natural life of bees and the portrayal of the society doesn't quite come off, but I was engrossed by Flora's story. I learned a bit more about bees, too.

Gratitude by Delphine de Vigan.

A beautifully written and touching novella. An old lady, Michka, living in a care home and losing her words, seeks to find the family who cared for her as a child, helped by her speech therapist, Jerome, and Marie, who was herself cared for as a child by Michka. The substitute words that Michka finds are so well chosen by the translator, George Miller.

A friend lent me Truly Madly Guilty by Liane Moriarty which also fits 'a falling out'.

I enjoyed this more than Apples Never Fall. Told in two time settings, one at a neighbourhood barbecue and the other dealing with the fall-out from that barbecue. Rather like The Slap in its setting and the way it moved between characters, but the fall-out (and falling out) arising is much more domestic in nature. The incident is not revealed at first, and the reveal seemed quite well-timed - I had just gone from being intrigued to thinking 'just tell us', when Moriarty did just that.