Month: March 2022

Authors I love, books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: March 14 – March 20

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So this was the week that Covid descended on our household. I’ve never been gladder for forward planning my posts, and that I haven’t really had much more to do that this. So far, my covid is mostly manifesting in swollen glands, ear ache, sore throat, a cough, a persistent underlying headache and a bunged up nose, which I realise sounds like a lot when I write it down, but as it doesn’t include any breathing problems I’ll take it. I’ve mostly spent the time since I went down with it sleeping and watching mindless TV. Fingers crossed this is as bad as it gets.

Read:

The Family You Make by Jill Shalvis

The Radical Element ed Jessica Spotswood*

It Takes Two by Cathy Newman*

Without a Hitch by Mary Hollis Huddleston and Asher Fogle Paul

The Editor by Steven Rowley

Started:

With Love from Rose Bend by Naima Simone*

Still reading:

The Story of a Life by Konstantin Paustovsky*

Worn by Sofi Thanhauser*

Paper Lion by George Plimpton

Fire Court by Andrew Taylor*

The Start of Something by Miranda Dickinson*

Nothing bought (although a fair bit arrived) so I guess there’s something to be said for my general lethargy.

Bonus photo: honestly did you expect anything other than my positive covid test? It’s not like I’ve been able to do anything or go anywhere is it?!

An * next to a book title indicates that it came from NetGalley. ** indicates it was an advance copy from a source other than NetGalley

 

not a book, romantic comedy

Not a Book: The Philadelphia Story

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This Sunday I’m treating you to the latest instalment in my occasional series about films I love is the Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn comedy The Philadelphia Story.

Hepburn plays Tracy Lord, the daughter of a wealthy Philadelphia family, who is about to get married for the second time. Days before the wedding, her ex-husband turns up, with a tabloid reporter and photographer in tow. C K Dexter Haven (Grant) has been working for Spy magazine in South America since his marriage to Tracy broke up (she didn’t like his drinking, he drank because he didn’t like her criticisms of him) and is inveigled into taking Maccauley “Mike” Connor (James Stewart) and Liz Imbrie (Ruth Hussey) the the wedding with a threat that if he doesn’t then a scandal about Tracy’s father will be published instead. Thus the scene is set for a love square as Tracy finds herself drawn to Mike and to her ex husband all while she’s preparing to marry George.

There’s more to it than that of course, but that’s the best potted plot summary I can come up with. It’s very funny and is managing to skirt the production code rules of the time by being a comedy of remarriage (see also Bringing Up Baby and His Girl Friday among others) and it’s full of snappy, witty dialogue as well as a few nice bits of physical comedy. If you’re a fan of movie musicals, you’ll recognise the plot as it was later turned into High Society (with Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra and Grace Kelly) but it started as a stage play -written for Hepburn – and marked her comeback after being dubbed Box Office Poison after a string of flops. I didn’t know any of the Hepburn-y background when I first watched it on a DVD in my hall of residence at university. I just thought it was clever and funny and something a bit out of the normal run of the black and white movie classics I was renting (from LoveFilm!) at the time.

That said, it does fit perfectly into the types of romantic comedies – films and books – that I love. It’s got a smart heroine (as well as a smart hero), it’s got plenty of banter and the comedy doesn’t come from humiliation – see also When Harry Met Sally, Jane Russell in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and Shall We Dance (the Fred and Ginger film) and authors like Jennifer Crusie, Susan Elizabeth Philips, Julia Quinn and Lucy Parker (although those last two are more witty than comic).

Anyway, this is the sort of film you’re most likely to come across on TV on a Sunday afternoon – and if you do, you should definitely stop and watch it.

The pile

Books Incoming: March edition

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Did I wait to take this photo until this morning? Why yes. And why is that? Well say hello to Harvey Fierstein’s memoir that is my latest arrival. The most of the rest of this haul is a result of a spending spree on Nick Hern Books last month and the 50% off that Virago were doing on their designer editions last Friday as a belated International Women’s Day offer. I swear I cannot resist those hardbacks. I’m going to have to reorganise the shelves once I’ve read them all because I don’t have space to keep them together as it stands! The lone British Library Crime Classic is from our day out last Saturday when I trawled the charity shops of Stony Stratford – thank you Willen Hospice bookshop – and the Persephone is my latest in the subscription I got given for Christmas. Lovely stuff.

binge reads

Bingeable series: Fool’s Gold

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I finished the new Jill Shalvis this week and it got me to thinking about reliable romance authors, which got me thinking about when the next Susan Mallery is due out (turns out there was a woman’s fiction novel that came out on Tuesday and there is another non-series title out in May before the next wishing tree in October) which made me think that Susan Mallery’s Fool’s Gold series makes for an excellent binge read. And so here we are. You’ve had an insight into the way my mind works, so now on to the books!

Fool’s Gold is a small town romance series set in a community at the foot of the Sierra Nevada hills. Across the series you’ll find an above average number of world class athletes living there and also that it’s big enough to have its own radio station – but this is small town romance, all such things are allowed. In the first in the series, the town is short of men and heroine is a city planner brought in by the town’s Mayor, Marsha (who is a great recurring character through the series, a bit like a fairy godmother), to try and bring things around. There are 20 books in the series and they come in groups. So in the first book you get meet the character who will feature in the next couple and then you move to a fresh group of people. You get the idea. It’s charming.

Looking back through my reviews, there are more pregnancy/baby plots that I would usually go for, but they are all still fun. I think my favourite set are the three books about the Hendrix triplets, but I also like the set about the ex NFL players and their business. Anyway, there are 20 full length books to chose from as well as about the same again in novellas – all of which means you can have a good old binge on them. And it looks like they’ve all had a bit of a cover redesign since I last read them too – I suspect because of the success of Virgin River on Netflix and people looking for similar books to read.

My goodreads ratings for these are fairly consistent – I’m not giving any five stars, but they’re mostly threes, with a few fours and they only drop off towards the tail end of the twenty. In fact romance series like this make for a perfect binge to be honest. When I was writing about Sookie Stackhouse last week I talked about spotting the formula. Well you don’t have that problem with a series like this – because each book is about a new couple and you can do different tropes each time. You don’t even need to read them in order because it’s different characters in each book. The only thing that’s going to happen is spoilers for previous books when you encounter them in their happily ever afters – but as you know from the blurb of a romance that they’re going to end up together, that’s not much of a spoiler really! As long as the writing and the characters are good you’re all set for many happy hours of reading.

books I want

On My Wishlist: Books with Motorsports settings

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As I mentioned at the weekend, we’ve been watching Drive to Survive here and it has awoken in me a desire to read some more books set in the motorsport world – but NOT biographies – I’ve got plenty of those – but fiction whether it’s romance or something more women’s fiction or saga-y.

I think I’ve only ever read one romance with a motorsport setting – Erin McCarthy’s Flat Out Sexy – which iirc is a Nascar-type set up, although it may be Indy Cars , it’s definitely in the US racing scene though – which features a driver’s widow falling in love with a hot shot rookie and having to work out if she (and her kids) can cope with being a part of the racing scene again. On the Mystery-thriller-romance front, one of the earlier Other Janet Evanovich series featured a Nascar driver – but i’ve read both of them and i didn’t love them.

So if anyone knows of any books set in a travelling motorsport series – glamourous settings, a bit of a closed group (both with the team and then the paddock as a whole), I am absolutely here for that. Bonus points if the heroine is the racing driver or part of the team rather than being a a rich airhead…

book round-ups, Recommendsday, romance

Recommendsday: Romances on Ranches!

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Now I said in yesterday’s post about Better Luck Next Time that it is not a romance. And I absolutely standby that. But I know that a lot of people who read my blog read romances, so for Recommendsday today here are three books set on ranches that *are* romances!

If the Boot Fits by Rebekah Weatherspoon

A Cinderella retelling with a downtrodden PA and an Oscar winning actor who have a fraught first encounter when she accidentally takes his goody bag – containing his statuette – home with her and then end up at the same wedding at his family ranch. I wanted more comeuppance for the villain of the piece but enjoyed the dancing around about whether Sam and Amanda are just a fling or if they want it to be something more. The first book in this series – A Cowboy to Remember was a BotW just over two years ago and that’s just as much fun – even if it does have an amnesia plotline which is usually something I hate – and there’s a third book in the series that I haven’t read yet, but have on my watch list.

Black Hills by Nora Roberts

I haven’t read a lot of Nora Roberts, but I read Black Hills for the 50 states challenge in 2020. This is a romantic suspense with a long slow build and a resolution that happened a little too quickly for me after the build up. But how often have you heard me complain about romances wrapping up too quickly? Yeah, I know, a lot. When they were kids living on neighbouring ranches, Lil and Coop found the body of a dead hiker. Now they’re adults Lil is running a wildlife reserve and Coop is back in town taking a break from his life as an investigator to look after his grandparents. When pranks on the ranch turn into the killing of a cougar, the two start investigating only to find that the trail leads back to that body from long ago. Can they find the culprit before a killer finds them?

Summer Nights with a Cowboy by Caitlin Crews*

This isn’t out until later in the month and it’s *slightly* cheating, because although it is in Crews’ Kittridge Ranch series, our hero Zack is running away from the ranch and rebelling by being the town’s sheriff. The heroine is Janie, a travelling nurse who has come to Cold River to find out more about her family’s past. Zack is suspicious of Jamie’s reasons for being in town and Janie can’t work out why she’s so drawn to the glowering guy who lives across the road. There are charm lessons and a hero who has to come to a reassessment about what he thinks his parents’ relationship is about. Probably the least ranch-y of this group, but worth a look.

NB: these are all contemporaries because historical romances in ranches are Westerns and I just dont really do westerns – and not just because so many of them are mail order bride stories… If you want one though, go read one of Beverly Jenkins’ ones – like Wild Rain.

Book of the Week, historical

Book of the Week: Better Luck Next Time

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And for the third week in a row I’ve picked something other than romance or mystery for BotW. Today we’re in the historical fiction portion of my reading life for one of my library books that was coming due and which I really did enjoyed as I read it over the weekend.

It’s 1938 and Ward is a cowboy working at a dude ranch just outside Reno that caters to women who are visiting town to get a quickie divorce. To qualify for a divorce, they need to satisfy the residency requirements and that’s where the Flying Leap fits in – we’re told it was even designed by a Hollywood set designer. Ward’s family lost their money in the Great Depression – which also forced him to drop out of university and he’s got the job at the Flying Leap because of his handsome good looks. No one at the ranch knows about his somewhat well heeled previous life and he likes to keep it that way, enjoying the assumptions that the guests make about him – they think he’s pretty but dumb and using his looks to try and get ahead. He, in return, thinks he has the women who visit the ranch all figured out, but one particular group are different. Among them is Nina, the heiress and aviatrix, back for her third divorce and Emily who says the bravest thing she has ever done is to drive to the ranch leaving her cheating husband behind. Over the course of their stay friendships and relationships are made and broken.

Don’t worry, it’s not miserable, for all that I’ve put broken in that last sentence. It’s a cleverly put together glimpse at the six weeks at the ranch that changed Ward’s life. It’s more bittersweet than anything else, if we’re using book blurb code phrases, and it is not a romance – if you’re a romance reader, I’ve described this as historical fiction for a reason! But if you want some 1930s hi jinx with an interesting premise that I hadn’t come across before, then this would make a great choice for your sun lounger or sofa.

As I said at the top, my copy of Better Luck Next Time came from the library but it turns out that I’ve managed to be accidentally timely as it comes ot in paperback this Thursday! It’s hard to work out if it’ll be available in stores, but I suggest it’s going to be an order in job as that’s what her other novels are on Foyles’ website. But of course it’s available on Kindle and Kobo as well as in audiobook from the usual sources.

Happy Reading!

Authors I love, books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: March 7 – March 13

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So I didn’t go to the theatre last week, but it was another busy one. A real mix of reading too – with a few library books coming due that I finished off and more of the aforementioned Sookie Stackhouse reread as well. Probably not making as much progress on the NetGalley list as I should be so might have to tackle that a bit more this week…

Read:

Summer Nights with a Cowboy by Caitlin Crews*

Sprig Muslin by Georgette Heyer

Dead to the World by Charlaine Harris

Weather Girl by Rachel Lynn Solomon

Better Luck Next Time by Julia Claibourne Johnson

The Only Woman in the Room by Marie Benedict

Dead as a Doornail by Charlaine Harris

Started:

The Editor by Steven Rowley

The Family You Make by Jill Shalvis

The Radical Element ed Jessica Spotswood*

It Takes Two by Cathy Newman*

Still reading:

The Story of a Life by Konstantin Paustovsky*

Worn by Sofi Thanhauser*

Paper Lion by George Plimpton

Fire Court by Andrew Taylor*

The Start of Something by Miranda Dickinson*

I had a mega book buying spree – Virago were doing their designer hardbacks at fifty percent off and I filled in a few gaps in the collection. I just couldn’t help myself.

Bonus photo: I know, not the most exciting picture this week, but at least it looks a bit like spring is coming – this was Fitzroy Square on the walk to work last week!

 

An * next to a book title indicates that it came from NetGalley. ** indicates it was an advance copy from a source other than NetGalley

 

not a book

Not a Book: Drive to Survive

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What have I been doing this weekend? A little light shopping, ironing, cooking and watching the new series of Netflix’s Drive to Survive.

Something you may not know about me if you only know me from this blog is that I love motorsport. I mean I really, really love motorsport and even then it’s not quite as much as Him Indoors loves motorsport. The MotoGP season started last weekend and we spent a lot of time with the bikes on the TV. Next week, the Formula One season starts – but this weekend the latest series of Netflix’s show about F1 dropped.

If you don’t follow F1, last season was one of the most controversial ever and lots of fans have been talking about the Netflixification of F1. I’ve just finished watching all the NFL seasons of All or Nothing on Amazon and have started the NHL season. And if you watch a few of them, you’ll spot the difference approaches to dealing with a season – DTS is a bit of an outlier in that it doesn’t take things chronologically, but instead jumps back and forth as it focuses on one team or one story each episode. You could argue that this approach is why it’s sucked in so many non-F1 fans – it follows the characters and has more off track footage than the actual race. There is a MotoGP season documentary coming soon too – I’m looking forwards to see what they’ve decided to do.

Certainly DTS has brought a whole load of new fans to the sport – the US Grand Prix added extra grandstands because the demand for tickets was so high. For me, having watched every race of the season already, I’m watching DTS for the behind the scenes content, but also to see which stories they decided to follow through the season and how they’ve put their narrative together. It’s Formula One Jim, but not as we know it.

Bonus picture: we visited Monaco a few years ago in the weeks after the F1 Grand Prix so we saw them dismantling the race track when we walked the route of the circuit! This is the pit complex.

Authors I love, bookshelfies

Bookshelfie: Downstairs Pratchetts

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Why is this post called Downstairs Pratchetts? Because the Tiffany Aching books live upstairs with the middle grade books so that’s the upstairs Pratchetts. And why aren’t there more of them? Well when I first read them I was a teenager, so there is the family set at my parents’ house. I’ve done most of my rereads via audiobook or ebook, so this is just the start of what I’m hoping will be a selection of my favourites in delightful hardback form. Because these really are very pretty.

And why did I pick this shelf today? Well it’s seven years today since Sir Terry died so it seemed fitting. I wrote at the time about how much he and his books meant to me. And I wrote again when I read the last book. So here’s another excuse to talk Sir Terry and his wonderful worlds. My first books in this collection are the ones that I revisit the most. And as we know I like sets and they’ve helpfully broken the Discworld down into strands, I’ll probably get the rest of the ones that are in these sets. Although there are some new paperbacks coming too. And a fresh set of audiobooks with new narrators, which I’m quite excited about because although I love Stephen Briggs he hasn’t done all of them and I don’t like the Nigel Planer version. I know. I’m sorry.

Anyway GNU Terry Pratchett.