I rated these books when I read them, but don’t recall a lot about some of them. I probably didn’t at the time either, as I was going through life in an exhausted haze, still sorting through my mother’s things, all day, every day.

THE CROOKED MAID by Dan Vylata (Fiction, Literary, Canadian Author)

From Amazon: ” Mid-summer, 1948. The war is over, and as the initial phase of de-Nazification winds down, the citizens of Vienna struggle to rebuild their lives amidst the rubble. . . .

Two strangers, Anna Beer and young Robert Seidel, meet on a train as they return to Vienna . . . Determined to rebuild their lives, Anna and Robert each begin a dogged search for answers in a world where repression is the order of the day.

Before long, they are reunited as spectators at a criminal trial set to deliver judgment on Austria’s Nazi crimes.”

This was a Giller Prize finalist in 2013. It seems that I liked this well enough at the time, but don’t remember a lot – maybe I should have rated it only 4 stars?

4½ stars

DEATH OF A FELLOW TRAVELLER by Delamo Ames (Fiction, Mystery, Vintage)

Aka, Nobody Wore Black.

I know someone put me on to this series, but the only references I can find are on My Reader’s Block and In So Many Words, both of which appeared after I read this. Anyway, this is the fourth (published in 1950) in this series which features the young English couple Jane and Dagobert Brown. Jane is a struggling author and very fond of her husband who one would consider to be a no-good layabout apart from the fact that he’s tremendously charming.. Still they travel (I believe this book took place on a skiing holiday in the Alps) and generally have fun. It’s a solid mystery.

4 stars

 
THE UNIVERSE Versus ALEX WOODS by Gavin Extence (Fiction, Young Adult, Contemporary)

This ended up in my reading stack because I had ordered it at the library to fill in the author “X” on that unofficial A-Z reading challenge I had going.

Alex is very fond of his early-seniors neighbour and finds out that he is dying.

Death and death choices figure large in teenage angst, and this is a perfect book to help teens explore emotions. But I can’t condone a teenager leaving the country without telling his parents.

3½ stars

 
OUR MOTHER’s HOUSE by Julian Gloag (Fiction)

I read this book this month because, well, I was living in my mother’s house after her death.
Originally published in 1963, this was one of my favourite books when I was a teenager in the sixties.

In pre-internet days, books were harder to find, even though I was enjoying the adult library lending privilege of six books at a time. And it was rarer still for me to own a book and this, being definitely an adult book with child protagonists, made me feel grown-up while still identifying with the kids. So, it was a favourite even though it really isn’t all that good.

In 1960s London, not wanting to be put in an orphanage and split up, a family of seven children bury their mother (dead of natural causes) in the backyard and say that she is too sick to receive visitors. Shades of The Death of Bees, but darker.

I gather this was made into a 1967 film by British director Jack Clayton. 3½ stars

Does anything in this paltry offering appeal to you?

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