Carolyn Mathews' 3 favorite reads in 2023

Firstly, I love books about transformation, and secondly, Elizabeth becoming a daytime TV cook after losing her job as a research scientist evokes a fond memory of a TV cookery programme featured in one my own novels.

Elizabeth not only transforms the culinary prowess of her under-achieving housewives but also transforms them – at atomic level – so they can act in more empowered ways in all areas of their lives.

I found this message touching, thinking of my mother’s generation when many women were often stuck in the home and how different things are now.

Fun fact: chemistry was a subject the author had to research before starting. I personally find these forays into other disciplines for research purposes absorbing, illuminating, and wonderful for one’s brain cells.

Every so often, I fancy a good thriller with a surprise ending, and this certainly fitted the bill. Intrigued by the concept of an agoraphobic psychologist, I read the book at two sittings, the second one far into the night.

I loved it because the intelligence in the prose elevated it from its genre—such as the scene when Anna, the psychologist, racks her brain to identify which Chopin nocturne is playing while she’s on hold, when seeking information about a neighbour she suspects of killing his wife!

I chose this book of short stories because I loved Caldwell's winning entry for the 2021 British National Story Award: "All the People Were Mean and Bad" included in this book. 

This story focuses on an encounter between the mother and an attentive man in the next seat who fetches milk for the hungry child. We learn she's an architect, lonely and yearning to return to her profession, dreading becoming pregnant again, as her husband is often away.

As I read this book on a flight to Crete, I observed a baby being nursed by an extended family, each taking turns to amuse the little one. And I thought, if only all parents had such loving support to help them cope.