Spring Reading

With Spring being a time for regeneration, perhaps it’s the right time to read stories about people embarking on new beginnings. Here’s a collection of titles that involve characters starting again in all kinds of ways.

Many of these novels have an element of humour running through them. Let’s begin with Kiwi novelist Catherine Robertson’s funny, feel-good, chick lit novel, The Sweet Second Life of Darrell Kincaid. Romance novelist, Darrell Kincaid is an expert at happy-ever-after endings. But with the death of her husband, Darrell feels she has lost her own happy ending. Suddenly it seems that what really matters is what happens next. Darrell up-stakes and takes off for London armed with the Nancy Mitford classic, Love in a Cold Climate, to help her understand Englishness and find the second sweet life she deserves.

The humour continues in Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan. It’s the story of Ava who moves from Ireland to Hong Kong with high hopes only to find life not turning out as she expected. Her job teaching English to rich children soon palls and her cramped flat and difficult flatmates add to her disappointment. Until she meets Julian, a well-off banker who offers her a path to a more lavish lifestyle. But is she betraying her feminist leanings by hooking up with him?

The Switch by Beth O’Leary is a feel-good novel that follows Eileen who is newly single and doesn’t like the thought of being nearly 80. Her granddaughter Leena is in her twenties and an over-achiever. When Leena’s told to take a two-month sabbatical, the two swap places. Eileen leaves her Yorkshire village for London, and Leena takes on Eileen’s cottage. Both are in for a few challenges adjusting to their new circumstances. A light-hearted romance that will make you laugh.

Evvie Drake Starts Over is a more romantic read by Linda Holmes. When Evvie plans to leave her husband, events take a dramatic turn and she finds herself widowed instead. Experiencing both guilt and grief, independence brings with it some surprises. When a former baseball star with a career derailed by a case of the ‘yips’ becomes Evvie’s neighbour, an unusual friendship develops. Can either of them be brave enough to hit the reset button and start again?

Some stories take you to some more serious themes, such as what does it mean to be our true selves and how do we find the right path in life? 

Ladder of Years by Anne Tyler was chosen as a notable book by the New York Times in 1995. The story follows under-appreciated wife and mother Cordelia Grinstead who abruptly abandons a family vacation at the beach to hitch a ride to another town. Here she builds a new life, reinventing herself as a single woman, making new friends. But how long will it be before her past catches up with her? Full of quirky characters and humorous situations, this is a brilliant study of the human heart.

Young Jane Young by Gabrielle Zevin is the story of Aviva who makes a colossal error of judgement which abruptly ends her beginning career as a Congressional intern. Social media is unkind and leaves her wondering how to go on. Years pass and Aviva builds a new life in a small town, raising her daughter, developing a successful business until she is asked to stand for public office herself. Will her long ago mistake rise to the surface? A sympathetic, funny and emotional story by the author who brought you last year’s big hit, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow.

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig poses the question: If you could live your life over, what would you like to do differently? In the Midnight Library, Nora Seed gets to fix up all the ways she’s let people down, including herself, as she gets to try out a selection of different lives. But her choices cause complications and before her time runs out, she has to make the decision: What is the best way to live?

Then there are the books with truly unforgettable characters.

With Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman, our main character is a prickly, socially awkward character – this is her defence mechanism resulting from an event from her childhood. She would carry on being difficult, wearing the same clothes every day, eating the same meal for lunch and drinking two bottles of vodka every weekend - until an act of kindness gets under her skin. Will she be able to change her life? Can she confront the shadows of her past? An unforgettable character and a heart-breaking story threaded through with humour.

Miss Benson’s Beetle by Rachel Joyce starts out in 1950's England where Margery Benson walks out of her thankless job as a teacher. She's determined to search for a particular beetle in New Caledonia – a secret ambition she has harboured for decades. Advertising for an assistant for her expedition, she is thrown together with Enid, a woman on the run and the least likely candidate for intrepid adventure. There’s lots of humour in the way these characters interact as well as tension as the plot builds to a dramatic event. The audiobook version read by Juliet Stevenson is thoroughly brilliant.

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens also boasts an unforgettable setting. Among the marshes of the Barkley Cove on the North Carolina coast, Mya has been living off her wits, navigating the waterways by boat and fending for herself - ever since she was abandoned by her family as a child. Then as a young woman she attracts the attention of two young men – one who means her harm; another who appreciates her knowledge of local wildlife, skills that offer her a means to make a better living. An unexplained death, a police investigation and court case ensue.

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson takes the theme of regeneration to the next level. The story follows Ursula Todd, who is born on a snowy night in 1919, but dies. She’s born again and again, only to die again in different ways, including during an attempt on the life of Adolf Hitler. The novel makes its heroine learn some difficult lessons as well as including some of the main events of the twentieth century, among them the great influenza pandemic of 1918-19, and both world wars. Can Ursula save the world from its destiny? And if she can, will she?

The Britt-Marie of Britt-Marie Was Here by Fredrik Backman is a difficult character - pernickety and a little passive-aggressive, to say nothing of socially awkward. But beneath all that is a big-hearted woman with big dreams. No one would ever know until she is suddenly left on her own with a football team to manage. A novel about finding love and fulfilment in the most unexpected places.

Posted by JAM

18 September 2023

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