Skip to main content

The Sky Beneath Us by Fiona Valpy

Posted

Travel writing and historical events are blended together in this beautiful and inspiring story told over two timelines. 

1927. Violet is a student at the Edinburgh School of Gardening for Women and she clearly an early journaller, writing down her thoughts on life as well as documenting her work at the school. Once she realises she's pregnant and not yet married, she decides to escape the school before it's too late. She embarks on an epic journey to Nepal to be with the father of the child, a fellow student from the gardening school (the male part of it...). 

2020. Daisy has come across Violet's journals and when she finds herself divorced and the children have flown the nest, she decides to follow her dream of retracing the footsteps of her great-great-aunt Violet. I normally dislike Covid being part of fiction books, but in this one, Fiona Valpy has skilfully used it to strengthen the story, to make it more believable. 

Lovely feel-good story with botanics thrown in as well. 


#TheSkyBeneathUs #NetGalley

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Thank you for leaving a comment.
All comments are reviewed before they are considered for publication.
=== EverySecondBook ===

Popular posts from this blog

The Harbour Lights Mystery by Emylia Hall

Posted
Lovely, laid back off-season Cornwall is the scene for The Harbour Lights Mystery written by Emylia Hall. It's the second book about the Shell House Detectives, but you can read it standalone (although you may like it as much as I did and read the first book in the series afterwards!). December in Cornwall and there are probably more locals than tourists attending when the famous Christmas lights are turned on in Mousehole harbour.  Ally, one half of the Shell House Detectives, is watching the lights with her friend Gus and she's worrying that he may be after more than friendship. Anything that was about to be said is abruptly stopped when there is a piercing scream ripping through the darkness. Joining the crowds, Ally finds out that someone has been brutally murdered and dumped in a fisherman’s boat. It turns out that the victim is the not so very popular chef JP Sharpe, but what has Ally and her detective partner intrigued is an unfinished letter found in Sharpe's coat p...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Social Distance Between Us / Hostile Environments by Darren McGarvey

Posted
This book seems to have two different titles: 'Hostile Environments' and ' The Social Distance Between Us: How Remote Politics Wrecked Britain'  This is a MUST read!! A real eye opener and a perfect book to base important discussions on. Yes, the book contains views belonging to certain political camps, but the painstakingly detailed research that has gone into creating this book including a huge number of real life examples make Darren McGarvey and his book forces to be reckoned with. Politicians, policy makers and those who want to, or more importantly can , influence decision making in Britain, should make it a priority to read this book.  The book extensively discusses how proximity is one of the biggest reasons for failure in most of the political system used in Britain today. The lack of actual lived experience of policy makers in Whitehall and the devolved nations, make policies fail miserably; in many cases not by ill-intent, but because the policy makers just c...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Half-Stitched Amish Quilting Club by Wanda E Brunstetter

Posted
This is not your typical quilting club! Title: The Half-Stitched Amish Quilting Club Author: Wanda E Brunstetter Quick and easy read with some heartwarming sections; all in all a feel-good, easy read. Emma (an Amish widow) decides to start a quilting club to earn some extra money to support herself, rather than getting re-married or relying on her children to take care of her.   Joining her quilt club is an unlikely mixture of people from outside the Amish community; young Star is holding a grudge against her mother at the same time as trying to cope with her beloved grandma’s recent passing; on the surface Ruby Lee is well put together but underneath not everything is as it seems; Pam and Stuart have been married for a while but has started to grow apart; biker Jan is covered in tattoos and on parole from prison when his parole officer suggests he tries something creative; finally we have Paul who is trying to build a life after his wife passed away and left him with the...
Post a Comment
Read more