Author: veritywilde

Journalist, armchair sports fan, book worm and show fiend. There's a sentence you don't hear too often.
Book of the Week, new releases

Book of the Week: The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club

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A historical fiction pick today, and one that has taken me a while to read on account of my brain’s refusal to concentrate on long books when I’m tired and my uncertainty on how things were going to turn out and my current need for closure and happy endings!

It’s 1919, the war is over and the world is starting to return to normal. Except that normal seems to mean that all the gains that women have made during the war are being rolled back and having had a taste of independence the world is now trying to relegate them back to domesticity. Helen Simonson’s new novel focuses on three characters trying to figure out what their place is in the post-war world. Constance had taken over the management of an estate, but is now losing her job and her home to make way for returning men. After nursing the mother of her employer through influenza, she is sent with her to the seaside, where she meets Poppy and her group of lady motorcycle riders, and Poppy’s brother Harris, an injured wartime pilot who is still coming to terms with his new reality. And then there is Klaus, German by birth but a naturalised British citizen, who has got a job as a waiter again, but is finding that he has to keep a low profile on account of his name and accent.

This is a smart and thought-provoking novel set at an interesting time that is ripe for fiction. It’s also a coming of age story, but there is a deal of darkness to balance the tea dances and parties. The interwar period is one that I love reading about – but I haven’t read a lot of fiction set exclusively at the start of that period, and it gave me plenty to think about as well.

My copy came from NetGalley, but it’s out now and available on Kindle, Kobo and in hardback.

Happy Reading!

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: August 12 – August 18

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A super busy week – I started it in Lincolnshire, had a couple of nights in London, went to Paris and then finished it at home – so with all that excitement I’m surprised the list is as long as it is. But hey, it’s slightly better list than last week anyway.

Read:

Ravioli Soup Murder by Patti Benning

Thanksgiving Deli Murder by Patti Benning

A Season of Murder by Patti Benning

The Hazelbourne Ladies’ Motorcycle and Flying Club by Helen Simonson*

Valentines and Murder by Patti Benning

Hitting the Books by Jenn McKinlay

Started:

Dimsie Moves Up Again by Dorita Fairlie Bruce

Still reading:

Five Love Affairs and a Friendship by Anne de Courcy

The Swish of the Curtain by Pamela Brown

The Cracked Mirror by Chris Brookmire*

Two ebooks bought while I was finishing off the Kindle Offers post and then two books in actual bookshops too.

Bonus picture: breakfast in Paris!

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

concerts, not a book

Not a Book: Bernadette Peters

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I usually try and write here about things that you can go and see. This is a bit of an exception, because it was a one night only thing. But I had a great time, so I’m writing about it anyway.

Bernadette Peters only made her West End Debut I. Sondheim’s Old Friends, but she is an absolute Broadway Legend. If you go on a streaming service and look for Stephen Sondheim songs or cast albums you’ll find her there. And now in her mid-seventies she’s still touring and sounding pretty darn good.

The set list for this included a lot of Sondheim – and pretty much all the stuff that I hoped she would do: Losing Mind from Follies (and Buddy’s Eyes), Send in the Clowns from A Little Night Music, Children Will Listen from Into the Woods, You Gotta Get a Gimmick from Gypsy (with special guests Joanna Riding and Bonnie Langford) and Move On from Sunday in the Park with George. But on top of that she also threw in a couple of songs from Hello Dolly – given that she’s played Dolly and Imelda Staunton is currently headlining that show elsewhere in the West End and things like Nothing Like a Dame, Johanna and Being Alive. It was a wonderful straight through hour and fortyish minutes and from my perch up in the balcony it was amazing. And I think the rest of the audience was as spellbound as I was.

books, The pile

Books Incoming: Mid August edition

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I did Book Con last week, but here’s the other stuff that’s arrive in the last month, not including those ones. So we have two books from Persephone Books – on which more next week. The there is Film Stars at Riverlea which came from a friend, two books from the charity shops – The Fixer Upper and Lilian Boxfish Takes a Walk. I said in my post when the new Lady Sherlock came out we would see how long it took for my preorder to turn up – and here is the answer: it arrived on August 8! Then we have Laurence Leamer’s book Hitchcock’s Blondes, which came down in price in hardback and a cozy crime that I got cheap second hand. All very nice.

Happy weekend everyone!

books, series

Series Redux: Willow Creek

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As Jen DeLuca had her new book out yesterday, I’m taking the opportunity to point you at my point about her Renaissance Faire series – variously known as the Well Met, Renn Faire and Willow Creek series, following a group of linked romances all set at or adjacent to a renaissance faire in the town of Willow Creek. I think they’re great fun, and make a great summer read. Here’s my original series post here, and my BotW review of Well Met and preview for Well Travelled as well.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Book previews

Out Today: New Jen DeLuca

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You may recognise Jen DeLuca’s name from the Willow Creek Renaissance fair, but you can see from this cover that this is a new series and a bit of a new direction. The blurb seems to be promising ghosts (as is the cover if you look close enough) as our heroine, Cassie, moves to Boneyard Key and starts to investigate whether her new house is haunted with the help of local cafe owner Nick… I’m looking forward to getting my hands on this at some point when the pile isn’t quite as out of control as at the current moment!

books on offer, Recommendsday

Recommendsday: August Kindle Offers

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Oh this is a good month for offers. If by good month you mean Verity bought a bunch of books while writing this post!

Lets start with recent BotW Annabel Monaghan’s Summer Romance which is 99p, as is Tomorrow, and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin It was a BotW longer ago, but with a sequel coming soon is T J Klune’s The House in the Cerulean Sea. And the most recent in the H M The Queen Investigates series, A Death in Diamonds is 99p. More expensive at £2.99 but still very good are Kirsty Greenwood‘s The Love of My Afterlife and Sarah Adler’s Happy Medium which was also a BotW not that long ago and Suzanne Rindell‘s Summer Fridays is £3.99.

From the stuff I haven’t read but have on the tbr pile there’s Tom Hindle‘s Murder on Lake Garda, the fourth Before the Coffee Gets Cold novel Before We Say Goodbye, Match Point by Katherine Reilly, Alex Haye’s The Housekeepers Miriam Margolyes This Much is True Simone Soltani’s Cross the Line and The Fellowship of the Puzzlemakers by Samuel Burr. Ali Hazelwood‘s Check Mate is 99p as is Jessica Joyce’s The Ex Vows, which is her follow up to You With a View and Julie Soto’s Not Another Love Story which is her follow up to Forget Me Not.

This month’s bargain Terry Pratchetts are the graphic novel The Last Hero, Eric and The Ultimate Discworld Companion at 99p and Maskerade (think Phantom of the Opera, but Discworld) at £1.99. The Julia Quinns on offer are Lady Whistledown Strikes Back and The Secrets of Richard Kenworthy. The Georgette Heyer is The Lady of Quality. And one more from the classics shelf – Elizabeth von Arnim’s The Enchanted April is 99p – I really love this, it’s both 1920s-set (which I love) and about rediscovering yourself.

And now to the stuff I bought while writing this post – many of them things I mentioned when they came out and that I’ve been watching for a price drop on – like the new Ashley Poston A Novel Love Story, the new Christina Lauren Paradise Problem, Happily Never After by Lynn Painter, the latest Veronica Speedwell A Grave Robbery and the new Katherine Center The Romcommers which I had pre-ordered in paperback, but that isn’t out here until November so why wait?

Happy Humpday!

Book of the Week, books, Children's books, Forgotten books

Book of the Week: Film Stars at Riverlea

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It’s only right that the week after Book Conference, my book of the Week pick is a bonkers Girls Own boarding school story. So buckle up, this has got a lot of plot to get though…

I was going to say that I don’t know where to start on the plot, but I do: the start, because this opens on a twin arriving at Riverlea having run away from the boarding school she was attending after the parents decided they would be better apart from each other. And it only gets wilder from there. It’s got (not in order and not exhaustive) film stars, vindictive PE teachers, hidden talents, missing treasure, salvation through cricket, missing heirs, near drowning and a shipwreck. And those last are not at the same time. And it’s only just over 200 pages long.

Now I normally like my school stories a little saner – if by saner we mean the realistic (in comparison) boarding school in the Alps where you might get lost up a mountain that Elinor M Brent Dyer offers. But sometimes you just need something crazy. This was a great way to spend an evening and I thank my friend for letting me read it first.

I can’t even tell you where to get this – it’s long out of print and I’ve never seen it before – but I’m also not expecting many of you to want to read it because it’s niche. So niche. But also hilarious.

Happy Reading!

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: August 5 – August 11

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A somewhat bitty week where my brain has struggled to concentrate. Hey ho. Onwards we go.

Read:

Sergeant Cluff Stands Firm by Gil North

Mountains, Marriage and Murder by Patti Benning

Shrimply Murder by Patti Benning

Gazpacho Murder by Patti Benning

Peppered with Murder by Patti Benning

Sprig Muslin by Georgette Heyer

Film Stars at Riverlea by Constance M White

Started:

Five Love Affairs and a Friendship by Anne de Courcy

Still reading:

The Swish of the Curtain by Pamela Brown

The Hazelbourne Ladies’ Motorcycle and Flying Club by Helen Simonson*

The Cracked Mirror by Chris Brookmire*

I’m not telling you, but it involved charity shops and the new August Kindle deals…

Bonus picture: lovely Bath and the Assembly rooms.

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

book adjacent, books

Book Conference 2024

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As I mentioned yesterday, last weekend I was at Book Conference, and now you’ve seen the new arrivals, you get the write up of what I got up to at my third trip to The Bristol Conference for Twentieth Century Schoolgirls and their Books.

Once again we were at Wills Hall, which is part of the University of Bristol and has a pleasingly boarding school air to the old parts of the site. And this year’s theme was Mothers, Mistresses and Other Role Models – a reminder that in this context mistresses means teachers – but there were other topics on the menu as well, including my friend’s talk “Cantering Towards Christ – evangelical pony books” which we came up with at the 2022 conference and she’s had to do all the reading for. It was amazing – and came with commemorative magnets too.

As this is my third time at conference there were a fair few familiar faces now – but actually quite a lot of new ones too. And as I’ve said in my posts about the previous conferences, there is such joy in spending time with other people who are into the same stuff that you are – especially when its something so niche. Everyone gets it when you make a joke about good girls getting a doctor to marry, or singing someone out of a coma. And you get such good book recommendations too. Aside from my friend’s talk, my other favourite was the one about timeslip novels. Time travel or timeslip books are one of the areas where I can never figure out what I’m going to like and what I’m not very easily, so it was really great to hear someone talk with so much knowledge about them and with such love.

And then as well as buying books, I did a bit of selling too. There’s a participant book sale on Sunday morning and I went through my shelves to figure out what I thought the other people at conference might want to take off my hands. Two years ago I didn’t quite get it right – mostly because I took my duplicates and if I’ve got a duplicate of something they probably already have it too. So this time I went for the Girls Own stuff that I’m not going to want to read again (some of which I bought at last conference!) and then adjacent stuff that I’ve seen sold at conference (and indeed bought myself) – so adult novels set in boarding schools, crime, mystery and some literary and women’s fiction.

And I did quite well. I took four boxes of books to sell – and I only bought two boxes back. But more to the point, I made back in sales what I had spent on the books I bought! Which is quite the achievement. And now all the stuff I’m happy to get rid of is sorted and in boxes it makes it easier for me to sell it (the Girls Own stuff) or donate it (the other stuff). I just need to pull my finger out and sort that – although I’d rather be reading the books that I bought!

Have a great Sunday everyone