Summer of '76 by Isabel Ashdown - A Great Read for a Summery Weekend

The Autumnal Equinox is officially at 20.44 GMT on Sunday, 22nd September, so you have a weekend left to read this novel about the hot Summer of '76 by Isabel Ashdown! On the other hand it can be enjoyed anytime when you want to remember the halcyon days of this summer, perhaps when the autumn winds are blowing or it's snowing in January!
It's a coming of age story set on the Isle of Wight, about seventeen-year-old Luke, his family, and friends during that long hot summer of 1976.
In some ways it's like The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker where the heat affects everyone's behaviour which I reviewed recently.
As Diana, one of Isabel Ashdown's characters says:
'It's the heat; the endless summer. We live on this tiny island, and no one knows what to do about the sun when it just won't stop shining, so we all go a little mad, because it feels it's just a dream that will be gone when we wake up tomorrow.'

Luke is spending his last summer on the island before he goes off to Brighton Poly, working at the campsite with Samantha whom he fancies, and helping his friend Martin with his problems, but under the surface of all this fairly normal story is the scandal that is gripping the town, and the part that Luke and Martin play in uncovering the truth.
It is a gripping read, and Isabel has drawn a picture of life in the mid-seventies very well. It is always difficult to write about a time well within living memory and she has captured the era perfectly right down to Luke's favourite pudding made from shop bought swiss roll and custard!
I thoroughly recommend this book and I will be looking out for her other ones.
Have you read any of Isabel Ashdown's novels?

The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker - A View of an Alternative Future ......

I've just read The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker because I was intrigued by the premise of this story: what would happen if the world slowed down on its axis and the days and nights got longer?
The scene is set in a Californian community on a sunny Saturday, everybody going about their business until the news breaks. It follows eleven-year-old Julia's story and the effect that the 'slowing', as it is called, has on her friends and family.
It reminds me of words from The Second Coming by WB Yeats:

'Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

                                                   Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,'

Time as we know it no longer has any meaning; students are told to ignore the bells that sound at the end of a lesson. The day is already over twenty-five hours long, and this is just the beginning.
Some families flee inland to be with their loved ones, leaving amongst others, Julia's family and Seth, a boy she's always had her eye on, to face their strange fate.
Julia always talks about things like 'later we realized', so you know she survived, but to what cost?
She is an increasingly isolated young girl trying to make sense of an increasingly complex world where literally night is day and day is night.
I thought it was a very interesting read, aimed at anyone from young adults to adults who are curious about an alternative future.

What do you think would happen if the world slowed down on its axis?

Summer Reads for my Garden

Now that summer's here, I thought that I would sort out some books to enjoy in the garden. It's easy to keep buying them and end up with a pile gathering dust and no time to read them, but we writers are always being advised to Read, Read, Read, so here are my choices:

• Silver Bay by Jojo Moyes. I love her novels, but I haven't read this one, published in 2007, and republished this year. It's set in New South Wales, and is also a story about Liza who protects whales, and the man who comes into her life and turns it upside down.
• The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker.  This book looks really exciting. Set in America, it's about Julia and her family who wake up one ordinary Saturday to find that the rotation of the earth has begun to slow, making the days get longer! I love sci-fi stories that are founded in reality, rather than fantasy ones, so this one sounds just right.
• The Beach Hut by Veronica Henry. Coming back down to earth and home to North Devon, this story follows the families who visit the seaside at Everdene each year, their love life and their memories of summers past. I think it may be a little like In the Summertime by Judy Astley, which I also hope to read, (if only I could read faster!)
• The Italian Wedding by Nicky Pellegrino. Off to Italy now. I'm going to read this book because I loved  her Recipe for Life which I reviewed last July. This one is about two feuding Italian families, and two love stories, (sounds a bit familiar!) but if it's anything like the last, I  know I'm going to love it.
• A Cornish Affair by Liz Fenwick. This is Liz's second novel, and like the first one, The Cornish House, I was able to buy it and get it signed by her at the RNA Conference. Originally from Boston, she now lives in Cornwall, and her love for the county shines through in her writing. This story is again about a Cornish house, and Jude, who leaves her fiancé at the altar, and ends up uncovering the secrets of the house's past. I can't wait!
• My last book, The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton, was actually on the bottom of my pile because it was the biggest, but I had began to read it on my Kindle on the train to the conference, and was lucky to get a hardback copy in my goody bag. Wow! It follows the story of Laurel who witnessed a terrible event one summer afternoon, fifty years ago, when she was sixteen, and the secret that her mother has kept throughout her life about why it happened. Will Laurel find the answer before it's too late?

These books are definitely going to keep me busy, and I will review them for you as I finish each one.

What have you got in your pile to read?