Month: April 2022

life update, not a book

Covid plus 20-something days

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It’s not quite a month since my (first) positive covid test, but I’m interrupting your regularly scheduled programming for an update, because hey, why not.

I think I’m mostly back to normal. I’ve got a slight residual cough and the back of my throat still feels a bit raw. I’m probably still blowing my nose a bit more than usual. I’m still getting quite tired and i got a bit puffed out going up all the stairs at work the other day – but that could just be me talking and walking up stairs too fast… I’m also sticking to that recommendation from some cardiologist somewhere that you’re less likely to get long covid if you avoid strenuous exercise for six weeks. It’s not just that I hate running and it’s a good excuse not to go do it – I’ll have you know I bought new running shoes the weekend before I caught covid and I haven’t had a chance to try them out yet!

In reading terms, I’m struggling to focus a little bit and the temptation to reread stuff is near impossible to resist sometimes. I was doing really well in early March with the NetGalley list and then it all came undone because almost everything I had due next required more brain power that I had to give – or wasn’t certain to have a resolution. But I think I’m clawing it back around slowly. Of course the difficulty with this is making sure that I’ve read something each week that I like enough to write about for Book of the Week, but I’ve managed it so far. Although this week may yet be the exception of course.

Even pre my covid I had cut back a bit on my podcasts in favourite of audiobooks and that trend has only continued. I’m working my way through the theatrical Inspector Alleyns at the moment with a side order of Gaudy Night when needed (plus ça change etc) and then Amelia Peabody as well (we’re back in 1914 again and oh my goodness Thunder in the Sky is so good). I’ve started a couple of Angela Thirkells but they just haven’t hit the spot so far in the way that the murder mysteries and Amelia do. My brain. Such a weird place.

Anyway, that’s the update from me. I’ve been very fortunate – now that I’ve had it with the tests to prove it I am fairly sure I had It but worse in January 2020, so thank goodness for the vaccines etc and may I be fortunate enough not to catch it again for another two years – if at all.

bookshelfies

Bookshelfie: Nice Hardbacks

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This is the current fancy hardback pile in the corner of the fancy bookshelf. This is the bottom right of the shelves, top left is the Virago shelf and next to that are the Fancy Pratchetts. I mean I know I’ve had Bookshelfies featuring a lot of previous books of the week before, but this might be a new record for books I have previously written about! I think the only book on here I haven’t written about already is Theatre for Dreamers, and I’m not 100 percent sure that that one is a keeper tbh. But it’s here until I find a hardback that I want to replace it with – at which point it moves to the lower shelves in the back room until I do the next cull, at which point it will be reevaluated!

Anyway, there is no rhyme or reason to this pile – it’s just hardbacks that I have liked and which don’t fit in with any of the other collections of that makes sense. So we have Rodham, which was my first hardback Sittenfeld, the two Jasper Ffordes which are here because they don’t match the crime ones and The Starless Sea because I don’t really have a hardback fantasy and magical realism shelf. Then there are The Girls and the Vanishing Half because I don’t have a lot of literary fiction hardbacks and the Katie Racculia because I didn’t know where else to put it. The Andrew Lownie and the Anne de Courcy are here because I don’t have space on the history book shelf and so I need to have a reorganise, but I just haven’t yet. So basically this is a bit odds and endsy at the moment – but I fully intend to fix this at the next clearout. When that is going to be, I am not currently able to say!

Series I love

Series I Love: Maisie Dobbs

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It’s been nearly five years since the first in the Maisie Dobbs series was my BotW and as the seventeenth in the series can out recently, it seemed like an opportune time to feature the series here.

At the start of the series it’s 1929 and Maisie is setting up a private investigation firm in London. As I said in my review at the time, the mystery in that book is slighter than you expect because the book is also doing a lot of heavy work in the set up for the series itself. Over the course of the rest of the series Maisie has carried out all sorts of different types of investigations – some murder, some not – but a lot of them using her experiences and contacts made during the Great War. Time moves by as the series goes on (yes, I know that sounds obvious but it’s not always the case!) and by book 17 we’ve reached 1942. This passage of time has enabled a huge variety of different set ups as well as meaning that historical events can be woven into what’s going on. And of course there have been developments in Maisie’s personal life.

This is one of my favourite series to dip into. They’re basically very easy to read historical mystery novels. They don’t have the hint of humour that you get from Royal Spyness or Daisy Dalrymple, but they’re not gruesome-gruesome either. I think there’s bits of it that need to be read in order, but I certainly haven’t done that – at the moment I’ve read 13 of the series – but the books I haven’t read are 9, 14, 15 and the newest one and I’ve read some of the others in the wrong order too! If you don’t read them in order you will get spoilers for Maisie’s personal life, but to be honest that may not necessarily be a bad thing. If you read them you’ll understand, but anything else I say will be a spoiler!

In terms of getting hold of them, it should be fairly easy – I’ve seen them in bookshops (new and used), libraries (physical and virtual) and they’re all on kindle and Kobo too. And because of all the factors mentioned above, if you want to see if you like them, you could just start with whichever one you can get hold of easiest. As I write this the cheapest on Kindle and Kobo are books 11 and 12 weirdly.

Happy Friday!

Bonus picture: Fitzroy Square on Thursday morning – the location of Maisie’s office.

detective, new releases

Out today: New Rivers of London!

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And I’ve already got my copy of Amongst Our Weapons in my grubby little hands as you can seee! I told you that I’d got a signed copy pre-ordered from Big Green Books – and they appear to have some of them left if you’re in the market. As it’s the ninth book in the series, it’d be breaking all my rules if it ends up being a Book of the Week – but I’m not ruling it out, although if previous books are anything to go by, you really need to have read at least some of the others to get the most out of. So instead, I’m going to remind you that I have a Series I Love post about them from two years ago from not long after the False Value came out.

book round-ups, Recommendsday

Recommendsday: March Quick reviews

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Another month, another batch of mini reviews. I’ve already written about so many books this month, I was almost surprised that I had anything left to write about, and yet here are three more…

Weather Girl by Rachel Lynn Solomons

Ari is a weather presenter at a Seattle TV station. Russell is one of the station’s sport reporters. Both of them are being driven mad by their bosses. Ari wants Torrence – the station’s star meterologist – to give her more mentoring but Torrence is too distracted by fighting with her ex husband – the station’s news director Seth. Russell wants off the college sports beat and onto pro sports, but Seth is paying too much attention to his fight with his exwife to take him seriously. After a disastrous Christmas party, Ari and Russell decide to team up to try and get Torrence and Seth back together. But over the course of their plan, the two of them end up spending a lot of time together too… I liked this a lot more than I liked the first book in the series – for some reason the romance in this just clicked for me. Ari and Russell make a great couple and each of them have valid reasons for avoiding relationships, but they work through them like sensible people (for the most part) rather than having dramatic Big Misunderstandings all the time. I also loved the fact that it had a Jewish hero and heroine – which is something I’d like to read more of! Lots of fun – would probably have been BotW if I hadn’t read Better Luck Next Time the same week.

With Love from Rose Bend by Naima Simone*

Owen is a former football player in hiding from the world after the accident that caused him to call time on his career. Leo is hiding from adult relationships by being constantly busy running her family’s business. Leo wants Owen to judge a contest at a town festival – but when she turned up at his house to ask him, she realises he’s the man she has a steamy one night stand with a year ago. And it gets slightly more complicated than that as a fake relationship element is added to the mix too. I’ve mentioned before that I like a sports romance and I also like a competent heroine and this ticked my noses in that front. Lovey weekend afternoon reading!

Sex Cult Nun by Faith Jones

Now this is a weird one. I’ve included it here because I think some of you will have seen it on my lists and known exactly why I was reading it – my ongoing interest in weird religious stuff -and wondered why I haven’t written about it’s so now I am and here is your answer: it is brutal. It’s bleak. It’s filled with child abuse, child sexual abuse, sexual abuse, neglect. But it’s also not as well written as say Educated and I don’t think the author has really come to terms with what happened to her, so it doesn’t actually really get you anywhere or give you a takeaway at the end. So it ends up just being a lot of really grim abuse without as much breaking away from it as you want/expect/hope.

And that’s the lot – and I know that’s a bit of a downbeat note to end on, but I couldn’t make any other order of the reviews feel any better!

Book of the Week, romance

Book of the Week: A Thorn in the Saddle

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I mean it’s only a few weeks since I wrote a whole post about romances on ranches, and here I am recommending another one! You wait ages for a a cowboy and then a while load of them come along at once!

Lily-Grace and Jesse went to school together, but she skipped town for the bright lights of tech startups as soon and she could and he stayed at home to help run his family’s luxury dude ranch and look after his siblings while his parents were away acting. Jesse has never really had time for relationships – and the ones he’s tried have gone badly – but he’s been approached to run for public office, so that single status might have to change. Lily-Grace is back in town after a breakup and after Jesse decides that Lily-Grace’s dad can’t date his grandmother she gives him what for. But when she sees his shy and awkward side at a community event, she offers to help him. And you know where this is going!

This is the third in Rebekah Weatherspoon’s Cowboys of California series and this one is a Beauty and the Beast sort of thing, with a side order of a sexually inexperienced hero to boot. I was a bit worried at the start with where it was going with Jesse’s anger issues – but actually it’s more boundary issues and the fact that he’s had to take on a parental role to everyone and never had the chance to have any fun. I really enjoyed the way his nurturing side came out as his relationship with Lila-Grace continued.

This at the higher end of the middle of Rebekah Weatherspoon’s steam and peril range. Yes I know that sounds confusing. I would say this is closer to the heat levels of Rafe than the other books in the series as and it also has a little more of a suspense-y peril element, but no where near as dramatic as her actual suspense stuff. But mostly it’s just a fun way to pass a few hours reading about a couple of people falling in love in a low-key money is no object sort of way. Oh and there are horses. And that was just what I fancied last week.

My copy of A Thorn in the Saddle came from the library but it’s out now on Kindle and Kobo and in paperback – although I suspect if you want it in paperback you’re likely to have to order it from Amazon.

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

The Week in Books: March 28 – April 3

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Did I have a week with a massive binge of Jodi Taylor and an inability to settle down to read anything else? Yes I absolutely did. Did I also go away at the weekend? Absolutely. Am I already behind on my plans for April? Totally. Hey ho. Happy Monday everyone!

Read:

A Thorn in the Saddle by Rebekah Weatherspoon

The Steam Pump Jump by Jodi Taylor

And Now for Something Completely Different by Jodi Taylor

Going Postal by Terry Pratchett

Christmas Past by Jodi Taylor

Hope for the Best by Jodi Taylor

When Did You Last See Your Father by Jodi Taylor

Why is Nothing Ever Simple by Jodi Taylor

Started:

A House in the Country by Jocelyn Playfair

Plan for the Worst by Jodi Taylor

The Fake Up by Justin Myers*

I Was Better Last Night by Harvey Fierstein

The Cheltenham Square Murder by John Bude

Still reading:

Worn by Sofi Thanhauser*

Paper Lion by George Plimpton

Fire Court by Andrew Taylor*

The Start of Something by Miranda Dickinson*

A couple of books bought because Little Sis (who has a kindle on my account) was off on holiday and needed some fresh reading material! Or at least that’s my excuse.

Bonus photo: There is no photographic evidence of my weekend away, and very little of the rest of my week because it was a fairly standard mostly working at home, day in the office in London sort of week. So instead here are my happy face paper clips, which I was using to try and persuade my sister to make a stationery order this week…

Multi coloured paper clips with smiley faces

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: Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

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God I love a movie musical. Here we are for the latest in my series of films I love.

Marilyn Monroe! Jane Russell! Do you need to know any more? Ok well if you do, Marilyn’s Lorelei is on the hunt for a rich husband. Russell’s Dorothy is her best friend who is looking for love. They’re both show girls and over the course of the movie we follow them from New York to Paris while being trailed by a private eye hired by the father of the rich idiot that Marilyn is engaged too. There are song and dance numbers, there’s comedy and there’s true love. It’s delightful.

I know everyone always talks about Marilyn Monroe, and I get it, but god I love Jane Russell. I first saw her in the French Line on a Sunday afternoon about 20 years ago and I’m still not over it. Anyway, for me this film doesn’t work without her. Her wise cracks balance out Marilyn’s dizzy, ditsy gold digging and make everything better. The songs are great, the script is funny and the Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend number has been copied so many times since that it’s worth watching to see the original of that alone!

Happy Sunday!

Authors I love

Squee: New Steven Rowley coming

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Ok it’s not coming till 2023, and all I know about is the title – The Celebrants – but I’m super excited about this. I loved The Guncle last year and The Editor the other week, so something new from Steven Rowley is very exciting to me. To be honest I’m not even sure it’s real, because Goodreads seems to be the only place it exists right now. But hey, I can hope/a girl can dream!

In the meantime, the paperback edition of The Guncle is out in the USA on the 5th and in the UK on the 12th. And you should definitely read that. And then try to resist the urge to buy a kaftan!

Happy weekend everyone!

books, stats

March Stats

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Books read this month: 40*

New books: 28

Re-reads: 12 (7 audiobooks, 5 books)

Books from the to-read pile: 5

NetGalley books read: 8

Kindle Unlimited read: 0

Ebooks: 11

Library books: 9 (all ebooks)

Audiobooks: 7

Non-fiction books: 3

Favourite book this month:

Most read author: Jodi Taylor – 3 books plus 6 novellas/shorts, all in the Chronicles of St Marys series.

Books bought: 8

Books read in 2022: 104

Books on the Goodreads to-read shelf (I don’t have copies of all of these!): 632

Quite a binge-y month – not just with the Jodi Taylor but also three more Sookie Stackhouses finished. I am quite pleased with the number of Netgalley books I’ve got through – I was doing better before the covid hit me because after that there were a few I was meaning to read that I just couldn’t get my head working well enough to cope with.

Bonus picture: running two books behind on the year so far…

*Includes some short stories/novellas/comics/graphic novels (6 this month)