Tag Archives: recommended novel

Diana’s August Book Review ~ The Paper Cup by Karen Campbell

I stumbled upon this delightful novel in Waterstones and have added it to my ‘signed books’ collection, to treasure or share with others. In fact, I enjoyed it so much when I first read it a year ago that I picked it up again the other day ~ savouring its detail this time and moments I had long forgotten.

Kelly is homeless and living on the streets of Glasgow. The harsh realities of her life of drink and drug abuse does not hide her beautiful soul. At times she pushed away family, friends and even strangers, who saw glimpses of the real Kelly and wanted desperately to help.

I loved the way she stumbled on a Pilgrimage. I loved her honesty, but also her generosity in times of sheer poverty, seeing the needs of others beyond her own. Above all I loved her inherent goodness, not saying Kelly was a saint. By all means no! Beyond the cold, the wet, the hunger and fear of her addictions, it was her connection with humanity which was so heart warming.

A magical book which I’m sure I shall read again.

Here’s a review in The Scotsman

At Waterstones

On Amazon

If you’d like to read a book with similarities to The Paper Cup then why don’t you try mine:

MISSING Past and Present ~ Is Life Just a Roll of a Dice

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Filed under Book reading, Book reviews, MISSING Past and Present, Scotland

Diana’s Summer Book Reviews (4) Songbirds by Christy Lefteri

Why did I choose this book?

I noticed the striking cover first in Kirkcaldy Waterstones, followed by honing in on the intriguing title ‘Songbirds’ and the blurb, which instinctively drew me in. It also continued my Greek flavour since it was set in Cyprus.

Did I feel empathy for a particular character?

Although Nisha was rarely far from my thoughts as I was reading ~ Where was she? Why was she missing? Was she safe? ~ it was Petra who struck a chord with me. She realised that, even after having Nisha in her house, helping to run their lives and looking after her child for so many years, once she had disappeared Petra knew very little about her ‘maid.’ Isn’t that true of many of our relationships with people? How many of them are superficial? More recently, we have found the quality of our friendships has been enhanced by actually going away together; having enough time to really talk about issues which matter to us and find out what we have in common.

Petra, however, really cared about Nisha, even when the authorities were dismissive about ‘foreign workers’ disappearing. That made Petra even more determined to find Nisha or to discover what happened to her. She was devastated by Nisha vanishing so suddenly. Was she safe? I felt every anguish and heartbreak along the way.

Is there a lasting thought or memory from the book which remains with me long after the novel is finished?

Several questions really, about the meaning of life? Do we only really value people when they are gone from our lives? How many of our friends and acquaintances do we really know and understand? Who do we take for granted? A haunting book, certainly.

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Filed under Book reading, Book reviews, Book Shops