Paris for One and Other Stories by Jojo Moyes with a Great Christmas Story too!

I've always loved short stories from Roald Dahl to Maeve Binchy.
Paris for One is Jojo Moyes' first collection and I've really enjoyed it. The stories have appeared elsewhere and I have read some of them before, but you always see different things the second time round.
I actually saved the last story, The Christmas List, until December because it's a Christmas one. Hence the Santa in the photo! It's a great tale about a woman who takes a taxi whilst doing her Christmas shopping in London and changes her life.
The best story is Paris for One, a delightful romcom of a read about Nell who sets out for a weekend in Paris with her boyfriend, Pete, but interesting things develop when he doesn't turn up.
The stories have clever twists like those of Maeve Binchy and Roald Dahl, and I thoroughly enjoyed them. I hope you do too!

This book also includes the first chapter of still me, the third book which follows Lou Clarke, who appeared in best seller me before you and after you, as she starts her new life in New York.
still me is out in hardback on 25th January 2018, so it's a good opportunity to get reading now!  

How to Find Love in a Book Shop by Veronica Henry - the perfect book to curl up with on a chilly autumn evening.

Veronica Henry has done it again with How to Find Love in a Book Shop. It's the perfect book to curl up with by the fire on a chilly autumn evening.
Emilia returns to Peasebrook, a small Oxfordshire town, after her father, Julian's, death. She has happy memories of growing up in the flat above the book shop, and she has to decide whether to sell the business or keep on Nightingale Books in his memory.

The clever thing that Veronica Henry does is to weave together several stories all connected to the central theme, rather like Maeve Binchy used to do so well. So here, apart from Emilia's story, we have the stories of:
Jackson, a builder, who works for Ian Mendip, a local business man who wants to get his hands on Nightingale Books to make a car park for his new development. Ian wants Jackson to come on to Emilia in an effort to make her give in, but Jackson has his own problems with his soon to be ex-wife, Mia.
Marlowe, the cellist, who encourages Emilia to join their quartet and take her father's place, and his fiancée, Delphine.
June, Nightingale Books' best customer, who had a relationship in her youth with Mick Gillespie, the still attractive septuagenarian actor. Will he remember her after all these years?
Sarah Basildon who owns Peasemore Manor, a fifty something woman who has a secret which she can't share with anyone, least of all her husband, Ralph.
Dillon, her young gardener, who has always shone a light for Alice Basildon, their daughter.
Alice, herself, who is to marry Hugh, someone rich who can change the fortunes of Peasebrook Manor and the Basildon family, but has she made the right decision?
Bea who has moved with her husband and child to Peasebrook to live the perfect country life, but why has she stolen a book from the book shop?
And, quiet Thomasina, who is secretly in love with Jem at the cheese shop. How can their love grow?

It does what it says on the cover: it's a rich irresistible mix of people finding love in a book shop as  autumn leaves fall and Christmas twinkles on the horizon. I loved it!

Catch the Last Rays of Sunshine with The Beach Hut and The Beach Hut Next Door by Veronica Henry

With summer virtually over, it's great to recapture some of that endless sunshine we've had this year with two books by Veronica Henry.
The Beach Hut and The Beach Hut Next Door are two sets of stories all linked together by the row of beach huts at Everdene Sands in Devon.
In the first book, the stories are linked by the Milton family who are having their last season here before their hut is sold after fifty years of idyllic summers, and in the second it is the story of Elodie who grew up at The Grey House on the cliffs that runs through the book.
Both books marry the past with the present, telling the story of Jane Milton's first summer at their beach hut and the way it changed her life forever, and Elodie's last summer there before she left to make a new life for herself.
Veronica Henry writes like Maeve Binchy in, for example, The Italian Class: seeing the same thing from a different point of view and really getting under the skin of the characters. She also good at making you feel the sands of Everdene between your toes!
So drag your deck chair out of the shed, find a patch of sunshine in your garden and settle down with these two great reads.
I've enjoyed them so much that I'm going to get A Night on the Orient Express next!
Have you read any Veronica Henry books?

Maeve's Times by Maeve Binchy - A Great Collection of Articles from The Irish Times

Last year I wrote how Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without unwrapping a lovely book by Maeve Binchy, so I was very excited to receive Maeve's Times this year.
It's a selection of her work first published in the Irish Times over an amazing five decades!
Most people will remember Maeve for her wonderful novels full of warmth and humour, and indeed these articles reflect that too, such as A Week of Self-Improvement, where she attends an Italian class (which obviously gave her the idea for Evening Class); brightened herself up with a disastrous facial for £2.80 (well it was 1976); helped serve lunch to some elderly people and, impressed by their wisdom, came away not so afraid of getting old; dealt with her office being brightened up by crawling under her desk and getting stuck in the corner whilst the workmen got on all around her; and took a walk around the City and got her handbag knocked out of her hand by two men who were actually trying to kill each other!
Other articles are more serious such as two news reports about the Greek coup and Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974 and the Herald of Free Enterprise disaster in 1987.
She was lucky enough to attend three Royal Weddings, perched high up with the Press in St Paul's or Westminster Abbey, and followed the story of Diana and Charles from their engagement in 1981 to his engagement to Camilla in 2005.
It is truly a fabulous book; one to dip into or read from cover to cover in chronological order. I really hope that Róisín Ingle, the editor, brings out volume two!

Christmas won't be Christmas without Maeve Binchy - A Week in Winter

I used to look forward to having Maeve Binchy's latest book amongst my presents on Christmas Day. It would be in hardback, which made it even more special.
Of course, she died in July, so A Week in Winter will be the last I receive, which makes me sad.
Born in Ireland, she was a master storyteller for over thirty years, and I have all her novels and short story collections. It was, in fact, Scarlet Feather, the first book of hers that I read which inspired me to start writing.
A Week in Winter is like her later books which are a collection of short stories, linked together like Whitethorn Woods which was how people in a village dealt with the prospect of a new by-pass. This one is about  a collection of people who spend a week at a new hotel on the west coast of Ireland. It starts with Chicky Starr who sets up Stone House hotel. Maeve Binchy loved to write about capable women who can set up a business like for example, Cathy Scarlet, and Chicky is one of these.
The stories are mainly set around Stoneybridge, but others are set in England and Sweden. The Swedish story is about Anders who is to take on the family accountancy firm, but who has other ideas. Another story is about a couple who win their week at the hotel but would have rather gone to Paris.
As with all Maeve Binchy's fiction, you are left with a warm glow, and this book would be perfect to read on a snowbound weekend like this!

Maeve Binchy

I was really sorry to hear that Maeve Binchy had died, because she was a great influence in getting me started with writing.
One wet Bank Holiday weekend, we had our village fete, but it poured. It took twenty minutes to rush round and look at the stalls and then rush home to get dry again. However, Scarlet Feather had caught my eye on the second hand book stall and I bought it to take home and read and I loved it.
Being busy with a young family, I had only time to read on holidays, but now that they were older, although I still felt guilty at having some 'me time', I worked my way through all her novels, revelling in her magical stories. This led me on to trying other novelists like Joanne Harris and Anita Shreve, and soon I was thinking that maybe I could try writing myself. And so I did.
So thank you, Maeve, for all your wonderful stories.
Which is your favourite Maeve Binchy book?