As I’ve looked ahead at everything else this January, today I’m doing a quick run through what I’ve got tickets for so far this year – as always I do a lot of my buying last minute, but there are a few things that I’ve booked in advance as ever.
Let’s do the theatres first and this week coming I’m catching the very tail end of the run of Backstairs Billy in the West End. It’s a comedy about the Queen Mother and her “most loyal” servant and it has good reviews. Then in March I’m seeing a new version of The Time Machine which had a London run before Christmas and is now out on tour. Then there’s a big gap until July, which is when I’m off to see Imelda Staunton in Hello Dolly!
On the comedy front, there’s a couple in the box already – Rhod Gilbert in April and then Henning Wehn all the way in October. I’ve only got one music gig booked so far – Caravan Palace in April. We saw them in early 2020 in one is the last things we did before the world shut down so I’m looking forward to seeing them again. And finally – we’re off to the Athletics this year too. No not the Olympics, the last event before the Paris Games at the London Stadium in mid July.
And just writing this out has made me realise that I need to get booking some more stuff! There are some more things coming into the West End this year that I should really get the tickets in for.
I know. I said I wasn’t going to do this, but I’m justifying it because I’ve given you the non- series stuff last week – so this week I feel like I can give you the update on which of my favourite series have new books coming up this year…
Let’s go a bit chronologically because hey, I’m in charge. So in February we have the next in Jenn McKinlay’s Library Lovers series, which has reached number 15 with Fatal First Edition. And let’s keep authors together – so Fondant Fumble, the sixteenth in McKinklay’s Cupcake Bakery series is out early June. Keeping it mystery, but this time historical, we have a new Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes on the 13th – The Lantern’s Dance is book 18 in Laurie R King’s series. Also in February is the fifth and final book in Martha Waters’ Regency Vows series, To Woo and to Wed.
In March we have the next Veronica Speedwell – A Grave Robbery is book nine in the series and the blurb is promising Madame Tussaud’s meets Frankenstein but is also giving me strong thoughts of the Peter Wimsey short story with the very, very lifelike sculpture. If you know, you know. And before it comes out I need to read book 8 – which finally dropped to a price I was able to justify the other week. Also, while I’m talking about Deanna Raybourn, she’s announced a sequel to Killers of a Certain Age – but we have to wait until Spring 2025 for that I’m afraid!
I mentioned it last week but the next after that is the new Vinyl Detective novel, which is out in early April, so I’ll skip over that
No news on another Kate Shackleton, but Frances Brody does have a second book set in Brackerley Prison called Six Motives for Murder coming out in May, which really means I should get around to reading the first one which is in the pile in front of the pile. Also in May is another baseball-set story from Cat Sebastian. She’s not saying it’s a sequel to We Could Be So Good, just that You Should Be So Lucky is set in the same universe – so it probably should have gone in last week’s post – except that she only announced it on Tuesday this week. Hot off the press indeed – I’ve already preordered it.
Having mentioned one Sherlock Holmes inspired series; I should probably nod to the other, even though I also mentioned that last week Sherry Thomas’s Lady Sherlock number 9 is due in June – A Ruse of Shadows looks like it’s going back to Lord Ingram’s family for the main mystery.
I’ve only just read Birder, She Wrote and haven’t read Let It Crow! Let It Crow! Let It Crow! yet, but we already have the names and dates for this year’s two Meg Langslow’s from Donna Andrews: Between a Flock and a Hard Place is out in early August and Rockin’ Around the Chickadee arrives in mid-October. I continue to be in awe of whoever it is who keeps coming up with these title puns and long may they continue!
The fourth in Sarah MacLean’s Hell’s Belles series doesn’t even have name yet (or at least not that has been publicly announced!) but we do know it’s out in mid-September. And September also sees the long awaited Nightingale novella in the Rivers of London series. It’s called The Masquerades of Spring and you all know how much I’ve been looking forward to this – since Ben Aaronovitch mentioned it at an event for a previous book in the series.
I think that’s pretty much it – or at least all that I know about at the moment.
Happy Friday everyone, the good news is it’s time for the first series post of the year. The bad news is that I’m going to have to find another book to read for Ohio in next year’s 50 States Challenge – if I do it again next year, which is never a given despite the fact that 2024 is year five!
Anyway, today I’m talking about Emilie Richards’s Ministry is Murder series, about Aggie Sloan Wilcox, a minister’s wife in the small town of Emerald Springs, Ohio. Aggie isn’t a traditional minister’s wife – not just because she keeps stumbling across murders (although she does do that) but because she’s not going to make her husband’s job her full time job, no matter what the parishioners think – she’s got children to raise and being a minister doesn’t pay that well. But being a minister’s wife does mean than when she stumbles across bodies she has reason to be some what involved – especially if they’re parishioners!
They’re cozy mysteries – so relatively blood and gore-less, and the murdered person is usually someone you don’t like (or like less the more you know about them) and although the church and the church community is the setting for them, they’re not overly religious or preachy – I mean there’s no bible quotes popping up left right and centre. They’re really easy to read and very soothing in their way – despite the murders!
There are five books in there series and I wish there were more, because I think there could have been more plots – the house flipping strand, kid schools, rival churches all could have been exploited more. But as the last one came out in 2010, clearly I’m hoping in vain! Still Emilie Richards has written a lot of other books, so hopefully there’s something else in her catalogue that I’ll enjoy.
I bought the four I have secondhand – because that seemed to be the only way to get them. I read the first one as an ebook, but I can’t find them anywhere to buy anymore so not quite sure what the deal with that is. But if you spot them out and about they’re worth a look.
You all know how much I love a fake relationship romance so I had to mention that this is out today. Say You’ll be my Jaan is Naina Kumar’s debut and it’s been blurbed by former BotW authors Nisha Sharma, Linda Holmes and Sarah Adler as well as the Colleen Hoover one on the cover. This is the blurb:
Meghna has tried everything to find her jaan: blind dates, the dreaded apps, even attempting conversations with strangers. Everything except arranged marriage.
Then Seth, her best friend and the-one-who-got-away, asks her to be his “best man” and suddenly her parent’s taste doesn’t seem so bad. Which is how she meets the cranky but handsome Karthik, who knows marriage is not for him.
They’re the perfect match – if not the one their parents think they are making – and a deal is struck. They’ll announce their engagement: Karthik will be excused from his mother’s set-ups and Meghna will have a date for the wedding from her nightmares.
But how can you fake it and get away with it, when you’re not faking it at all?
Doesn’t that sound right up my street? I know. I’m looking forward to reading it!
For today’s Recommendsday I’m taking the opportunity to talk about a couple of books from last years read the USA that I hadnt got to yet!
Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead
This is the story of an aviatrix in the first half of the twentieth century but intercut with the story of the Hollywood actress who is playing her in a biopic. Given my reputation with award winning bond, it may not surprise you that this was a slog for the first half. It has took me literal months to read this despite having bought it on Kindle to try and get it finished because I wasn’t prepared to lug the paperback around everywhere with me. The early stages of Marion’s story are so depressing and such hard work it made it hard for me to spend too much time with it at once. But once we got to the Second World War it really came alive and I read the last couple of hundred pages in a few days and the end was more satisfying than I had feared it would be.
Wild Dances by William Lee Adams
So this one is a little unusual because I know the author. William is one of the preeminent Eurovision bloggers but also someone u work with in my day job. This is his memoir about growing up in Georgia with a profoundly disabled mother and an undiagnosed bipolar mother, and that’s only the half of it. William discovered learning as his escape and it took him to Harvard and then eventually to the UK. It is a brilliantly written and almost heartbreaking in places, but I know that because I know William I might be biased. Anyway, even though it’s sold as how Eurovision helped him, it’s actually about much more than that, and if you know him as a Eurovision figure, don’t go into this expecting lots of ESC info because it’s mostly about William and his life from childhood onwards.
When in Rome by Sarah Adams
This is another famous person and normal person romance – in this case a slightly Taylor Swift- y popstar and a small town baker. This was my first Sarah Adams and I quite liked it although it was more New Adult than I was expecting I think, but I can’t quite put my finger on why. I liked the small town vibe, I liked famous people and normal people romances (go read Nora Goes Off Script if you haven’t already, it’s wonderful) and I liked the twist of it being the heroine that’s famous and the guy that’s normal. But something just didn’t click to tip it over into great for me. Hey ho.
And there you are, three more books and we’re done. If I was going to put links to all the other books from Fiftyt States that I’ve already talked about I’ve been linking all day, so I’m just going to point you at the wrap up post which had them all there’s for you already.
Making a bit of a change this week, and I’ve got some Japanese fiction in translation for you. I do like to mix it up a little when I can, and today is one of those weeks where I can!
Our hero is Rintaro, a high school student whose beloved grandfather had just died and left him his second hand bookshop. The trouble is, Rintaro is also going to have to close it down because his aunt is his new guardian and wants him to move in with her. Rintaro is shy and would rather be reading books in the shop than talking to other people or going to school. Then a talking cat appears in the bookshop and tells him he needs his help to save books. What happens next sees Rintaro and Tiger entering different labyrinths to try and free the books.
This is about a teenager and a cat and the friends he makes along the way as he tries to rescue books from people who are misusing and mistreating them. Rintaro has to debate the value of books and reading against people who are diminishing them. That might sound a little heavy but it’s actually a charming story about how a love of books and reading can help you in difficult times and is important in a world where things are changing fast. It’s not a massively long book but I read it in one sitting and was very sad it was over so fast. A treat for the bookish and something a little bit different.
My copy was part of my NetGalley back log, so it has been out for a while now. I’m not sure how easy it will be to get a physical copy – I don’t think I’ve seen it in Foyles’s books in translation section – or at least not with the cover. But it is on Kindle and Kobo and in audiobook.
Am I burning my way through a cozy crime novella series on Kindle Unlimited rather than reading this month’s new releases? Absolutely I am. Do I have anything to write about tomorrow? Who knows. Am I a fool to myself? Absolutely. In my defence, I did go to the theatre two nights last week (as you know) and was away from home for a few nights as well and that always has an impact. But really, I continue to be the most extreme of mood and binge readers!
Quite a lot of books bought – combination of the Kindle Deals post, a few extra pre-orders put in and a trip to the bookshop…
Bonus photo: the 2024 Beat the To-Read Pile bookshelf, set up only a week late and by a miracleIrememberedto take a picturebeforeI started fillingit in!
*next to a book book title indicates that it came from NetGalley. ** indicates it was an advance copy from a source other than NetGalley.
Two more shows this week and I just can’t stop myself from telling you about them! But that’s pretty on brand for me at this point, so I’m sure you’ll forgive me.
First up was Peter Pan Goes Wrong, which has had a Christmas season in the West End. I saw the original cast when they were touring the UK back in 2014 (I was shocked when I realised how long ago that was). Since then the Mischief Theatre Crew have done all sorts of things – many of which I’ve seen (Groan Ups, Magic Goes Wrong, the TV series) and now fresh from a run on Broadway some of the original crew are back in the show before it goes out (with a slightly different cast) on a 2024 tour. Having been asked to explain panto earlier in the week on a Discord group I treated myself to a trip to this not quite a panto but based on a panto. I was worried that it wouldn’t be as funny as it was the first time, but I shouldn’t have. It’s still side achingly funny in the first half and when it takes a turn in the second it brings it all back around in true panto style.
Heres the trailer for the TV version of Peter Pan Goes Wrong on YouTube- although I think the TV version doesn’t do the theatre experience justice.If it’s coming to your local theatre, and you like comedy based on physical humour, then this might be your thing. I think if you’ve seen and enjoyed shows like Noises Off then it will work for you.
And then on Thursday night we were at my local for Yipee Kay Yay – which is a one-man retelling of the classic Christmas movie Die Hard. I would suggest having seen the film before you go – we did a refresher the week before to make sure we were ready for it, but I think Alan Rickman’s Hans Gruber is nearly well known enough that you’ll get some laughs out of it even if you haven’t. I bought the tickets for Him Indoors for Christmas because he loves a cheesy action movie and he laughed consistently the whole way though (so did I). I asked him to sum it up for you all and his response was: “one very enthusiastic man’s poetic take on the Die Hard movie and how it’s affected his life”. In case that doesn’t make any sense, here’s the 30 second trailer!
Now I’ll admit this is harder to see than Peter Pan Goes Wrong, unless you’re reading this in Oxford on Sunday or live in Adelaide – because it’s going to the festival there in March. But it was a hoot and he said at the end that word of mouth was important- so it’s the least I can do. Here’s the Website in case they add more dates.
Peter Pan Goes Wrong has a week left in the West End, then it’s touring til April. Here’s their website to check if it’s coming to you.
Well, after the Christmas special Books Incoming, I don’t actually have a lot to show you this time out. I’ve already read the Rivers of London graphic novel, and I’ve started Murder on the Minnesota. The Last Action Hero was bought because of how much I enjoyed Wild and Crazy Guys – and I think this is one that Him Indoors will want to read too. But that’s it. January does tend to be a quiet time for new releases, so there haven’t been any pre-orders dropping through the letter box, and because I was expecting books for Christmas I didn’t buy many in the second half of December. I also only made it into a bookshop for the first time this year this week so that limits a little! I would say Normal Service will be resumed – but remember I’m trying to reduce the size of The Pile, so maybe I should be hoping that it isn’t?! Still a third of this is already off the pile and another third will be shortly hopefully.
It’s that time of year again – where I look ahead to the books I can’t wait to read in 2024 – which also could be know as “What Verity has got on Pre-Order”. And not gonna lie, I’ve got form for some of these ending up on my end of year lists as well. I’m trying not to do too many “Latest in x series” books, because if you’re not already reading the series you shouldn’t start with them, but also I’ll probably remind you about them later too. I am going to shamelessly break that a few times in this post too. Because of course I am. OK, enough of the rules that aren’t really rules and on to the books. Today’s picture is the list as it stood in my last journal at the end of last year – hence the mini-bookcase above for the overflow from the big Beat the to Read Pile bookcase.
First up: At First Spite by Olivia Dade. It has been more than a year since Dade’s last book and this is the first in a new series. The Spite of the title is a spite house – a term I hadn’t come across before this was announced, but is apparently a very thin house built to irritate neighbours – which our heroine Athena bought as a wedding gift for her now ex-fiancé and is now going to live in herself. Only trouble is it’s next door to the aforementioned ex. This is out on February 20th and I can’t wait.
Next up is Fake Flame by Adele Buck which comes out in early April. Adele Buck was one of the authors I discovered two years ago now and this is also a first in a new series. The blurb for this is promising a fake-dating romance with a hero who knows his Jane Austen, and I am all in for that – I love Austen and fake relationships are a trope that I love.
I said I was trying to avoid series, but I can’t help myself with this – there’s a new Tales of the City novel coming out this year. I thought that Armistead Maupin was done after The Days of Anna Madrigal, but a decade on he’s back with Mona of the Manor, which is filling in a gap in the timeline – of what Mona did in England in the 1990s. It’s out on March 7th and I haven’t actually preordered it (yet) but’s because I have a ticket for and in conversation event with Maupin a few days before release, and I’m hoping I’ll be able to buy it there.
And the other sequel I want to mention is Red Side Story by Jasper Fforde which comes out on February 6th and is the long awaited sequel to Shades of Grey. I love the way Fforde’s brain works, although I’m not going to lie I was hoping that the next sequel he did would be the long-awaited eighth Thursday Next book. But I guess it’s only been twelve years and it’s been fifteen since Shades of Grey so I can’t really complain too much. The Thursday is listed for 2025, but that release date has been moving for years so I’ll believe it when I see it. In the mean time it’s just nice to have our first Fforde in four years.
I’ve just this week put my pre-order in for RuPaul’s memoir, The House of Hidden Meanings, which is about growing up poor, black and broke in San Diego and then forging his identity in the Atlanta and New York drag scenes.
Also on the list of things I can’t wait to read this year is the new Emily Henry, Funny Story, which has a heroine with her dream job – but stuck in the town where her ex-fiance and his childhood best friend are starting their happily ever after. She’s sharing a house with the ex-fiance of the aforementioned childhood best friend of her ex. What could possibly go wrong?
Annabel Monaghan’s Nora Goes of Script was one of my favourite books of last year, and she also has a new one coming out in 2024 – it’s called Summer Romance and is out in June. My other favourite new-to-me author last year was Elissa Sussman and her next novel is due in September and looks like it’s called Totally and Completely Fine, which would be in keeping with her other titles!
And that’s where I’m at with books I’m looking forward, if we’re not counting the new Lady Sherlock, Rivers of London Novella, the Vinyl Detective (back after a year off and tacking house music) and a tenth in Susan Elizabeth Philips’ Chicago Stars series. But I wasn’t going to talk about those. Whoops.
Verity Reads Books (lots of them) 