Corinna Chapman mysteries

I've been delving into my 'will read it one day, I promise' list that's either shelved or scattered about the house propping up the wall while waiting for shelf space. Heavenly Pleasures was a very welcome present last year and I've spent the last fortnight reading every Corinna Chapman mystery that the wonderful Kerry Greenwood has published. Friends from Australia and New Zealand had said all kinds of positive things about her novels and I can only say that I wish I'd discovered them sooner. For those who haven't had the treat of a Corinna novel, these are set in present-day Melbourne. Corinna's a baker and lives in a 1920s block of astonishing elegance. These are non-violent mysteries that allow you to puzzle your way through missing girls, stolen bonds and suspected poisonings while enjoying fannish references to Babylon 5, Georgette Heyer and Star Trek, though they leave you wanting chocolate fondant muffins or some very fresh bread and butter.

The Gin Lovers - Jamie Brenner

For me it was just as much fun (OK, in 90 degree heatwave also a bit of an endurance test) to walk around New York (New York Public Library, Fifth Avenue, Rockerfeller Center, Metropolitan Museum of Art) as it was to experience the air-conditioning of the Javits Center and the superlative Book Expo America in late May and early June. You might read about the show in advance, you'll see the programme and you'll see who's exhibiting. None of that will prepare you for the scale or the friendliness as advance reading copies are shoved at you with recommendations to find a ticket to this signing or the other. I'd gone over to learn, to talk to people and hear something at the conference. I wasn't, quite, expecting to see so many authors or collect quite so many books. Some authors I knew and wanted to meet; others were entirely new to me and I'd like to introduce Jamie Brenner. Book signings are scheduled all day at Book Expo America, so you realise very quickly that without a time-turner or a buddy-system you will miss out on some events and you'll need to prioritise and just go with the flow. I happened to be walking past when Jamie Brenner was doing a signing and I'm so pleased I did as I now own a much-admired copy of The Gin Lovers.

I have a weakness for historical novels and was drawn to The Gin Lovers with an enticingly nightclubby red light cover art and suggestions of jazz and cocktails. English politicians do rail against binge-drinking, but England has never, unlike the US, banned the sale of alcohol entirely. It's in this climate of polite society toasting with sparkling water in public with the daring young visiting speakeasies during the night that we see exactly how dangerous and enticing alcohol is. It's the conflict of the traditional and the modern as the unhappily-married Charlotte Delacorte is tempted into a life of jazz, cocktails and seduction while trying to coax her louche sister-in-law to return to the gilded cage of her Fifth Avenue townhouse. Charlotte's married well in search of security and soon realises that she's exchanged poverty for other anxieties.

I happened on Jamie's signing at BEA and she's lovely, as is The Gin Lovers. This seems a change in direction for her as she's written several other contemporary novels also set in New York. I'm, selfishly, hoping we see more of Charlotte Delacorte as she's a beautifully conflicted heroine whose loss of naivete is shown in such a sympathetically believable way.

June - rain streaming down and I'm still here

I'm still around, but very much stuck in the inbox as rights queries become trans-Atlantic complications and you're always waiting for office hours and time differences to work their way out. That always extends things rather and it isn't something you can book a phone conversation for either as one or other party needs to be close to a library or an archive.

I'd hoped to be able to add a school story to my list, but I've had no reply for a month from my first choice. Given that the author is still alive and writing I think they aren't interested. A 'no' might be more useful. However, move on to the next name and hope that first author has every success in their new genre.

The historical possibilities are more promising and first queries have been welcomed. People need time to consider, so I'm rather more hopeful.

Finally, thanks to everyone at BEA this May and June for making a fantastic event for us all. Your interns were especially good even when they'd been working long hours in unseasonably hot weather. More about BEA to follow - I brought home some very good reads.

Reading and reviewing

Friends who blog usually note 'what they've been reading' this month at month end. Which is a nicer idea than the chaos of a financial month end. I was always put off by reading diaries, ever since the school insisted that I couldn't possibly have read that much in a week. (I could and did). Now, though, I'm buying and borrowing as many books as ever, not that I mention what I couldn't finish, hated or just 'passed the time'.

I love reading through what other readers are reading - a combination of natural curiosity and wonder if I've missed a book I'd love. I find it harder to trust mainstream print reviews as there are too many friends reviewing friends or academics looking for goodwill, but bloggers are happier to critique a free book. Some bloggers do wonderful reviews and I'm pleased to see them and consider. I also find the mixture of vintage and modern offerings that bloggers tend to offer to be far more interesting than the offerings of many broadsheets. I mentioned Waitrose's weekly newsletter a while ago - it's good to see vintage and modern represented in their reviews area together with recipes and ideas for local entertainment each weekend. Books need time and often word-of-mouth to gain a readership and that's what so many books don't receive. Your average high-street bookshop has very limited shelf space and is under tremendous pressure to move stock, so you have to remember to buy what looked interesting now and hope you can balance your finances until payday.

So, rather than use a Goodreads or a LibraryThing model, perhaps publishers could improve their websites and print on demand offerings. Yes, I realise publishers are now huge corporations, but they could show readers their imprints and suggest future novels to read within that imprint. If there are links to sample chapters, then that's even better. I blog, admittedly quietly, to maintain interest in my books and remind people that I'm still here. I can only publish so many each year, so Twitter and the blog have to work to gain attention.

Good Housekeeping Children's Cook Book - Happy World Baking Day

I've been drafting this post for a while and not been able to upload the photographs because of a mysterious technical glitch that just stalled at 90% of uploading each one. I thought I'd have another go to celebrate World Baking Day today. I may even try some baking of my own later, though I'd be quite happy if I could manage light and fluffy scones. Do the simple things first - the ones people enjoy eating. Which is why I've perfected banana bread that people are coming back for a second slice before it's even cooled down.

One occasional advantage of republishing vintage books is that you're given other vintage books as people think you'll appreciate them. I normally do and find them an interesting read. While I wait for the strawberries to grow, though I don't have enough of a gardenful to consider opening my own tearoom, I'll think of trainee cooks like Candy Nevill. She was lucky enough to create her own recipe notebook because she had cookery lessons at school. For those who didn't, the Good Housekeeping Institute could help then and still does today. This Good Housekeeping guide dates from the late 1950s, so around the time in which Candy would have been learning to cook. It's a clashing mixture of black and white and saturated technicolour photography. It would have been the perfect present for the young cook as it covers everything he or she would need to learn. I've omitted the cover picture as it's a frankly scary shade of orange with small boy gnawing on a toffee apple, one neat girl in an apron dipping an apple in the hot toffee and a taller boy looking over their shoulders while doing the drying-up. It's useful in that it's not simply a book of sweets and biscuits - you're taught how to make simple suppers, breakfast and the sort of recipes you might manage if your mother (it's only mother) is unwell.  

We start with a birthday cake. Home-made, be-ribboned and slightly squint candles.

Even the contents page is interesting. Before you're introduced to a circus of iced biscuits, you also learn how to prepare yourself (hand-washing, find an apron) and the kitchen. There are even illustrated instructions on how to light the gas stove. It's generally useful to get your ingredients ready before you start. 

Finally, this red, orange and blue runs over a two-page spread. It shows exactly how colour photography can enhance cookbooks and you see every layer in that jelly. 

It's a world away from layer cakes, cutting-edge patisserie and cupcakes with icing that's taller than the cake that you see in many shop windows now. Enjoy the vintage world of cooking for the family.

Print *and* digital - just read the book

Whatever marketing strategy is planned, the content underpinning it has to be appealing. Much as I like 'books are my bag' as a concept, there have to be books ready to fill said bags. London Book Fair excitement is ebbing away and all sorts of signed deals are being publicised. That's exciting to read as both reader and publisher and it's all very well for the new, but can it compliment the backlist? That critical part of publishing that builds up authors or publishers as brands? It has to be there or else you lose a good deal of your credibility, your past work and an opportunity for readers to see what you've done.

It's all about the story, isn't it? It's the author's job to present a story that transports you and your imagination and it's the publisher's job to present it in an appealing format.

As a reader, you can take the story wherever you like. Now, I've rejected handbags before as being too small for the necessary 'book I'm reading now' and 'second book in case I finish the first'. Now I have to consider the possible addition of an eReader too?! It's the story that appeals to the reader whether they feel in the mood to download, flick across a screen, turn a page or turn on an audiobook.

Veronica Henry and Iain M. Banks

It's a public holiday in England today, so I'd fully expected driving rain. Instead, I've been out in the sunshine watching the world go by. Don't worry, I did the business emails first and walked to the post box with the weekend orders. I took one of Veronica Henry's Honeycote novels as she's does exactly the sort of book for summer weather. Her latest - something to do with the Orient Express (I don't want spoilers) - comes out next month. Returning to Honeycote means that you return to old friends, drink sparkling wine and never worry about hangovers or work the next day.

I'm also working my way through The Crow Road. My copy is an old hardback, so not exactly transportable. It was my introduction to Iain M. Banks and remains a favourite. I can only hope that his treatment makes him more comfortable. I've been told that booksellers often recommend The Crow Road to reluctant readers as the story can draw them in so well. If so, that's the best compliment to an author that I've heard as there's nothing like finding a book that you enjoy, that stays with you and that you return to as an old friend.