The Chilbury Ladies’ Choir by Jennifer Ryan

Crown Books sent me this book ages ago and I only just remembered it when I just received Ms. Ryan’s most recent book. I decided I ought to read the first book first. I just finished it the other night and so, with apologies for the late review, here are my thoughts on The Chilbury Ladies Choir.

The story takes place in Britain in 1940. Most of the men in the village of Chilbury have left or are leaving to fight in WWII. The Vicar decides to shut down the village choir due to the lack of male voices, but the women of Chilbury village decide to start their own choir — The Chilbury Ladies Choir.

These choir members make up an memorable cast of characters : a widow devastated when her only son goes to fight; the older daughter of a local scion drawn to a mysterious artist; her younger sister pining over an impossible crush; a Jewish refugee from Czechoslovakia hiding a family secret; and a conniving midwife plotting to outrun her seedy past. The choir soon becomes significant, not only for its members, but also for the village — as they practice to enter the regional choir competition.

This story is told in letters and journal entries and through very different points of view we see the hardship, loss and resilience of these women of the Chilbury Choir all dealing with war on the home front. There are some men left in the village, both young and old, who provide the ladies (and this reader) with gossip and entertainment.

This is an engaging book and I found myself invested in the various women and their plights — not to mention the choir competition. I stumbled a bit with some of the letter and diary entries, as they didn’t always ring true – as actual diaries or letters. The descriptive detail felt false in such a form i.e., ‘his fingers toying with his mustache as if it were a battlefield’.

The Chilbury Ladies Choir is unusual and rewarding novel of the lives of a small-town group of women facing the trials of WWI Britain.

Now I can start Ms. Ryan’s newest WWI novel.

Thanks to my dear and patient 20-something friends – you can now follow me on Instagram. Just scroll down and click on the Instagram link in the lower right.

@bookbarmy #chilburyladieschoir #jennifer_ryan_author

Turns out all those hashtags you see everywhere actually mean something.

A digital review copy was kindly provided by Crown Books #crownbooks via NetGalley.

Why I love ALL my books

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People always comment on the many books I have collected in this tiny house. They inevitably ask, “have you read all these books?” And my response is “no, not yet…but I will”. A younger visitor once said, “all these books around, that would just make my head hurt”! I often get comments on the space-saving-benefit of digital books. I just give these poor souls my tolerant Book Barmy smile, and we carry on with other, less troubling, topics.

Now I’ll tell you a short tale of how I just recently experienced a re-appreciation of having all my books here and physically available to me night or day.

I subscribe to the NY Times Book Review — just the book review section, not the entire paper. It’s fairly cheap and I’ve been subscribing for years. But they do tend to pile up. So the other evening, with a big cup of tea, I went through the stack. I like to read them in chronological order so that the letters to the editor relate back to the previous book review section (yes, I am actually that geeky).

There was a wonderful essay by Min Jin Lee, called Shelf Lives, in which she wrote about her experiences as a young reader who read voraciously. She recalled getting her first library card and which books she selected when she could read from the adult section.

The following week’s section had several letters reacting to this essay. One letter writer recalled picking up W. Somerset Maugham’s short story collection at the age of 12, and reading the first story entitled Rain. When finished, he’d experienced reading not only a very adult story, but also a first exposure to the art of ellipsis. Here’s what he wrote:

Great storytellers make readers co-authors, letting them complete with their imagination what has been left unsaid on the printed page. For the first time in my young life, I felt like an adult.

Hmm I thought, I’ve got to read this. I wandered over to my grandfather’s book collection of classics, and there it was — The Complete Short Stories of W. Somerset Maugham

I sat right down, opened up the first volume and read Rain right then and there. I had to see what this letter writer was talking about. The letter writer was right — here was a short tale of the tropics, torrential rain, and a critique of missionaries, not to mention religion. And, yes the ending lets the reader fill in the plot. I’m now slowly working my way through this two volume set – one story at a time. I’ve never read Maugham before and discovered a wonderful writer – all due to a letter to the editor of the NY Times Book Review.

So that, dear readers is why I cherish having (and hereby justifying) all my books – especially those I’ve never read.

What’s on your shelves just waiting to be discovered?

What I Did During the Pandemic

In mid-June, the Bay Area came off our COVID restrictions. We were the first to have lock down orders, so it’s been a long duration of pandemic gloom and doom. I’m not complaining, Husband and I were very fortunate and got off easy compared to the millions (and millions) who contracted the virus — including some family and friends.

But there it was, almost a year and half to read, write in this blog, go for long walks, tackle those house chores, and did I say read? A year and half to be productive, to be creative. You may have already figured this out by the lack of Book Barmy activity — but I have to fess up – I was neither productive or creative.

What did I do during the Pandemic ? Practically nothing.

At first, we nervously stayed tuned to CNN. Then we started distracting ourselves with Netflix and Amazon channels and binge watching some great shows (Shitt’s Creek – Line of Duty – Bosch just to name a few).

We limited our binge watching to evenings. We did shake it off with some walks and planting several successive vegetable gardens…but even so, we both took laziness to whole new level.

I avoided total boredom with my involvement with two (count ’em two) city government hearings, which turned out to be a great distraction but also caused much stress. You see, I had to read each and every government or legal document three times. First, to figure out what I didn’t understand (which was always alot). Then research what I didn’t understand. Read the document again to see if it was any clearer, and then a analysis to figure out arguments.

So at the end of those days, I didn’t want to think at all. When it came to a contest between my bookshelves and television — I’m ashamed to say, the television won out.

I did do some erratic, inconsistent reading, picking up and putting down books — my stack of partially read books mocks me as evidence

However, last week I woke up feeling like a cloud had been lifted and it hit me (OK I’m a bit slow) that we were leaving our days of pandemic gloom and boredom behind us.

Husband and I have been going for long walks, exploring different neighborhoods. We’ve planned some local trips. We cleaned out the freezer and somewhat organized our garden/work room. We had friends over for an impromptu dinner and went to have drinks with others in their garden. We have other social events coming up, but we’re going slowly – small steps on the social front.

But most relevant for Book Barmy readers, on one of my walks, I randomly picked a book from a little free library and read it in two sittings. Also, I made great strides on a publisher’s proof on my Kindle, and have finally worked my way through my backlog of NY Time’s Book Reviews. The stack of books above is still mocking me, but again small steps.

It’s a cliche, but I feel it’s a new day and I will tentatively state that I’m back (not back to normal, but close) and in the upcoming weeks, there will be much for you to enjoy here at Book Barmy. So please don’t leave – stay tuned.

p.s. sorry for all the GIF’s – I went a bit crazy.

Look for Masterpiece Theater Sunday Night

Us by David Nicholls was a surprise favorite read a few years ago. You can read my full review HERE.

Douglas and Connie, a British couple have planned a vacation through Europe, but it’s nearly called off when Connie wakes up and says “I think I want to leave you.” 

Douglas forges ahead and cajoles his wife to enjoy one last hurrah with their teenage son, who is soon off to college.   And thus begins a bittersweet and awkward journey through Europe. 

These are real and familiar characters; especially the befuddled Douglas, certain he can fix something unfixable if only he applied enough logic, pragmatism, and unfailing optimism. Everything that can go wrong on a trip – does. I found Us, the novel, both funny and touching.

This Sunday, PBS Masterpiece is starting a series based on the novel and the preview looks promising. I have it marked to watch. The scenery alone will be worth it for me, as I’m starved for Europe. Maybe you’ll want to watch as well. Masterpiece Theater, Sunday night 9PM (USA).

Kelly Corrigan

I’ve not yet told you about one of my favorite authors — Kelly Corrigan.  

The Huffington Post said it best  ~~ “Kelly Corrigan is the Poet Laureate of the Ordinary.”

I’ve read (nay, fallen in love with) her essays and memoirs.  Her writing is brilliantly insightful about parenting, human nature, and the importance of human connection.  Ms. Corrigan can find the good and the funny in almost everything – including her own bout with cancer.  She writes about love in all its forms, the messy-ness of life, tragedy of loss, her failed self-improvement plans, and reflects often on the power of the words you speak — the idea that the things we say matter, and that our words have both the power to crush a soul but also can comfort, empower and inspire.

Here’s one of my favorite Corrigan quotes:

That’s how it works: someone important believes in us, loudly and with conviction and against all substantiation, and over time, we begin to believe, too—not in our shot at perfection, mind you, but in the good enough version of us that they have reflected.

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You may have heard of Ms. Corrigan from her relatively new PBS show “Tell me More”.

There are new episodes of Tell me More coming in October but until then you can watch the older ones HERE. She’s a relatable, natural interviewer and you can feel her subjects relaxing into a nice long safe chat with her.

However, the reason for this post, other than to encourage you to find her books, is to recommend watching her recent commencement speech which a good friend shared with me. If, after watching this, you’re not choked up, you’re made of tougher stuff than I.

HERE is the commencement speech.

And because I’m sure you’ll need more of her HERE is a compilation of her speaking events.

So, if you’re like me, there are times you just need someone normal, natural, real and very, very funny – please turn to Ms. Corrigan.