Books and cake

This evening I was hosting the Not the Book Group. What is that you may ask? Well, the rules are that when you are hosting, you present two books to the group and bake a cake. The great advantage of this set up is that you don't have to read books chosen by someone else each month - you read what you want to read and when you feel passionate enough about what you're reading, you're ready to host (or something like that). And another great advantage is that cake is important.

So, here is the cake; and today's blip is of the books I presented.

I have to thank chaiselongue for the recommendation of the Lucia Graves memoir - it is a wonderful account of her childhood in Mallorca in the late forties and fifties, feeling the full weight of Franco's Spain and Catholicism throughout her education and her attempts to mesh that with her very different home life. There are wonderful descriptions of Catalan festival and cultural tradition which later turns to an appraisal of the burdens of tradition and the position of women in a patriarchal society as she marries a Catalan and they move to Barcelona. She writes beautifully, and fluent in Spanish, Catalan and English captures the essence of each culture.

My second book The Floating Brothel describes the voyage of The Lady Julian, a ship that carried 240 female convicts to Australia, setting off in the summer of 1789. They thought they had been sentenced to transportation for the crimes they had committed (they were variously pickpockets, prostitutes, thieves and muggers aged between 11 and 68) but in fact they were being transported to provide breeding stock for the new colony. It's a compelling read that conveys the horror of conditions on board ship: Sian Rees' maritime knowledge is excellent, and she is able to use words to convey the deafening sound of wind in the sails; and her ability to give an earthy, vivid, account of all things noxious bizarrely riveting. Each character comes to life and we learn much from the ship's steward from his experiences sailing with Captain Cook. Difficult to believe this was only 250 years ago!