Joined in 2023 
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Everyone has a story to tell. But what if you don’t have a story? What then? If you are Janice, you become a collector of other people’s stories.’ Janice is an extraordinary cleaner. She really cares for her clients and spends time ensuring their needs are met with barely a thought for her own. She’s a collector of stories and shares fragments of them with us as we read on. But her own story? That is a deep, dark secret that she can’t bring herself to share. Her life begins to change when she meets Mrs B, a cantankerous nonagenarian with an interesting story of her own. At its heart this is a story of friendship and it’s really rather magnificent.
The Keeper of Stories" is about human nature with all its flaws and inconsistencies. A fabulous story about storytelling and about guilt. It showcases people who are selfish and narcissistic as well as people who are kindness personified. It also portrays the blessings of friendship, and the influence parents have over their children, both good and bad, and the love of a good dog (with a foul mouth).
The Keeper of Stories” is about human nature with all its flaws and inconsistencies. A fabulous story about storytelling and about guilt. It showcases people who are selfish and narcissistic as well as people who are kindness personified. It also portrays the blessings of friendship, and the influence parents have over their children, both good and bad, and the love of a good dog (with a foul mouth). Joe Nuthin’s Guide to Life” by Helen Fisher – Book Review @RandomTTours #BlogTour #BookReview @simonschusterUK #JoeNuthinsGuideToLife @HFisherAuthor November 20, 2023
And the writing is pretty good, it is engaging and the flow is just perfect for this kind of book, which is way out of my comfort zone and therefor quite difficult to rate and review. There are some really beautiful lines in the book, the most memorable being the ones related to stories. Sample this: ��� Every man should leave a story better than he found it.” The book is warm and joyful but dies not avoid difficult potentially triggering subjects like suicide and alcoholism.It approaches these areas with sensitivity which is never banal.This is not a sweet slushy book but one that wraps it’s sentiment in truthfulness and tenderness I fell in live with Janice almost straight away. This is a beautifully written book. Janice's life stories are gleaned from the clients that she cleans for. She cares about her clients and their stories but we don't know much about Janice, but she does have a deep dark secret that she's unwilling to share. This is a character driven story. This book wasn't quite what I was expecting, it was much better.
About Fictionophile
Underneath” by Anne Goodwin – Book Review #NovNov23 #novella @inspiredquill #Underneath#BookReview November 22, 2023 Basically, this is a sweet book that means very well and has its moments of sunshine. But it could have been so much more had it been handled differently. I don’t know how I would have felt about this had I read it, but I know that the audiobook was certainly a wonderful way of getting to know this story. After studying history at university, Sally moved to London to work in advertising. In her spare time she studied floristry at night school and eventually opened her own flower shop. Sally came to appreciate that flower shops offer a unique window into people’s stories and she began to photograph and write about this floral life in a series of non-fiction books. Later, she continued her interest in writing when she founded her fountain pen company, Plooms.co.uk. The cover is simply gorgeous. If they make all book covers so delightful, I’ll have a tough time stopping books from entering my TBR mountain.
For some time now Janice has been collecting stories. She is a cleaner and she overhears lots of conversations because she is virtually invisible. It does not help that she has a husband of a thousand jobs. He is always coming up with hair-brained schemes as he eats into their savings mostly without even discussing it. He always refers to her as “just a cleaner” her job does not define her. With all these stories there is one story she neglects to think about is her own. This book really isn’t something I would’ve found organically and chosen for myself to read, but I was actually pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed it in the end. If you want something a little bit different, and you’re the kind of person who makes up a little narrative about every stranger they people watch on public transport - you might really like this one.EXCERPT: She can’t recall what started her collection. Maybe it was in a fragment of conversation overheard as she cleaned a sink? Before long (as she dusted a sitting room or defrosted a fridge) she noticed people were telling her their stories. Perhaps they always had done, but now it is different, now the stories are reaching out to her and she gathers them to her… In my stories, and I do collect stories…” She feels a sense of relief at saying this out loud. “I love that normal people do the unexpected, that they are courageous, funny, kind … selfless. I know these people have faults - of course, that’s life.” There are some fascinating characters in the book, almost all of whom are Janice’s clients or their family members. There’s Fiona, a grieving widow, and her teenaged son Adam who is still learning to face life without his father. There’s Geordie Bowman, a rich and famous opera singer with a generous heart. There’s Mrs. YeahYeahYeah and her husband Mr. NoNoNotNow, thus named by Janice for their catchphrase. But no character is as wonderful as their fox terrier Decius. The way the author has brought Decius to life is so brilliant, you won’t help but fall in love with him and his f-bombs. ( Oh yeah, a dog who cusses! 😂) Janice herself is pretty well-sketched, what with her love for books and her constant worries about things both great and small. She comes across as a really interesting character. This is a life-affirming book in which ordinary people each have their own story that will resonate with the reader. These ordinary stories are not usually heard but here they are told with such empathy and understanding that you feel you really know the characters and become absorbed in their lives and what happens to them. I have read this book three times now and I find new insights on each reading. I recommend this book highly and look forward to further books by this author. AnneH, 9 March 2022 Mrs. B wants Janice answer a question before she agrees to the help-“If you could only take one novel with you to a Desert Island, what would it be?” and when Janice responds “Vanity Fair” -Mrs. B agrees to hire her.
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