Category: books

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: June 16 – June 22

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A really, really busy week. A trip to the theatre, plus the arrival of series 2 of America’s Sweethearts plus a busy weekend means not as much progress on some of the long runners as I would have liked, but I did get one more off the list. Also it’s been so hot and it’s so hard to concentrate (and to sleep) when it’s that muggy. Fingers crossed that it’s warm but not humid this week…

Read:

Helle and Death by Oskar Jensen*

Strong Poison by Dorothy L Sayers

Forbidden Fruit by Kerry Greenwood

The Listeners by Maggie Stiefvater*

Death and the Decorator by Simon Brett

A Wild Rose by Fiona Davis

The Forgotten Chapter by Pam Jenoff

Started:

Knit, Purl, Die by Anne Canadeo

Still reading:

A Schooling in Murder by Andrew Taylor*

Sorry for the Dead by Nicola Upson

Abdication by Juliet Nicolson

Three books and one ebook bought.

Bonus picture: Summer in full bloom in Bloomsbury

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

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: June 9 – June 15

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So I got two long runners off the list, but at the cost of not finishing two more that I started last week. So the Still reading list remains at four. Just not the same four. Other than that, I’ve been trying to pick my reading from the NetGalley lists because that’s one backlog I really should be trying to get down and that I can do when away from home, and I’ve got all sorts of genres on there so I really should be able to find something to suit my mood there.

Read:

Death on the Prowl by Ann Granger

A Murder for Miss Hortense by Mel Pennant*

The Sweet Dove Died by Barbara Pym

A Body at the Book Fair by Ellie Alexander*

Iced in Iowa by Patti Benning

Wish You Were Here by Jess K Hardy*

Trick or Treat by Kerry Greenwood

Started:

Helle and Death by Oskar Jensen*

Still reading:

A Schooling in Murder by Andrew Taylor*

Sorry for the Dead by Nicola Upson

The Listeners by Maggie Stiefvater*

Abdication by Juliet Nicolson

Two books bought at a book fair.

Bonus picture: filming happening in Fitzroy Square on Thursday afternoon.

*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 of the Week, books, cozy crime, crime

Book of the Week: Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers

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So a bit of a strange one this week – because I started this literal years ago and couldn’t get into it, gave up and then came back to it this weekend, started again and read it all in evening. So here we are.

Vera Wong is the 60-year-old proprietor of a tea shop. She likes to match make and meddle in her son’s life. But one day she finds a dead body in her shop and switches her focus to finding out who killed him – because she doesn’t think the police are trying hard enough. But it turns out that she likes her chief suspects a lot more than the victim and soon it’s all getting a bit messy.

So as I said, I didn’t get into this first time around at all and it did take a while to get into it the second time too. But I really liked Julia and Emma when they arrived and the effect that Vera had on their lives and that’s where I started to get into it and after that something clicked. The solution is clever and something I hadn’t spotted as well.

I do have a bit of a mixed record with Sutanto – I liked Dial A for Aunties, but didn’t enjoy the sequel and haven’t read the third yet, although I probably will for the sake of completeness because I am that person. There is a sequel to this, but given my prior experience who knows what I might make of that!

My copy of this one came from NetGalley an eon ago, but it should be fairly easy to get hold of if you want to – I’ve seen it in paperback in the big bookshops and of course it’s on Kindle and Kobo.

Happy Reading!

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: June 2 – June 8

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It’s June and we’ve been down to the seaside, so of course there were flash floods. British summertime everyone. Anyway, on the reading front I finished the Mitchell and Markby reread and then had to figure out what to read next. Which turned out to be more murder mysteries. I mean it almost always does turn out to be more murder mysteries at the moment, it just depends on what type.

Read:

That Way Murder Lies by Ann Granger

These Old Shades by Georgette Heyer

Nine Lessons by Nicola Upson

Deadly Company by Ann Granger

The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side by Agatha Christie

Copper Script by K J Charles

Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q Sutanto*

Started:

A Schooling in Murder by Andrew Taylor*

Sorry for the Dead by Nicola Upson

Still reading:

The Listeners by Maggie Stiefvater*

The Sweet Dove Died by Barbara Pym

Wish You Were Here by Jess K Hardy*

Abdication by Juliet Nicolson

One bought, one preorder arrived – the new Taylor Jenkins Reid.

Bonus picture: Bournemouth pier in June…

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

books, stats

May Stats

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Books read this month: 32*

New books: 13

Re-reads: 19 (5 audiobooks)

Books from the to-read pile: 6

NetGalley books read: 1

Kindle Unlimited read: 6

Ebooks: 13

Audiobooks: 5

Non-fiction books: 0

Favourite book: of the new things that I read, probably On Turpentine Lane.

Most read author: Ann Granger with 14 (!) books (re)read – see below

Books bought: still too many – especially given that I had to buy the Mitchell and Markby‘s because I had borrowed them from a friend when I read them the first time.

Books read in 2025: 156

Books on the Goodreads to-read shelf (I don’t have copies of all of these!): 793

After finishing the Ruth Galloway binge last month, I have gone on an even more intensive binge re-reading the Mitchell and Markby books after I bought that one at Baddesley Clinton despite everything else that was demanding to be read. This is why the NetGalley total is so measly – just the one, right at the start of the month before the binge started – and explains the lack of non-fiction too. The good news here (I guess) is that I’ve only got a couple left to read before I’ve finished the series and then I’ll have to read other things. But it probably says something about where my head is at at the moment that I’ve retreated into cosy murder mystery re-reads.

Bonus picture: Despite the re-reading last month, I am ahead of schedule on my beat the TBR pile bookcase. Of course some of this is due to the Elly Griffiths binge – check out all those dark green books – but there’s basically just a lot of murder mystery in my first five months of physical book reading!

*includes some short stories/novellas/comics/graphic novels – including this month!

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: May 25 – June 1

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We’re into June and I’m still playing outfit roulette in the mornings because the weather just can’t seem to sort itself out. But on the bright side, we’ve started to get the summer releases through. And on the even brighter side, I’ve finally finished that Cher Memoir. Admittedly there are still other long runner on that list I haven’t finished, but that’s the one that’s been sitting there the longest, so it’s definitely progress.

Read:

Beneath These Stones by Ann Granger

Curtain Call to Murder by Julian Clary

Shades of Murder by Ann Granger

A Restless Evil by Ann Granger

It’s a Love Story by Annabel Monaghan

The Bookstore Family by Alice Hoffman

The June Paintings by Maggie Shipstead

Swan Song by Edmund Crispin

Cher: The Memoir Part One by Cher

Started:

Nine Lessons by Nicola Upson

Still reading:

The Listeners by Maggie Stiefvater*

The Sweet Dove Died by Barbara Pym

Wish You Were Here by Jess K Hardy*

Abdication by Juliet Nicolson

Two pre-orders arrived, two ebooks bought and a second hand paperback.

Bonus picture: I’m annoyed I didn’t take a screen grab on day 1500 exactly, but still it’s pretty impressive.

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

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: May 19 – May 25

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It’s another Bank Holiday Monday here in the UK, so I hope those of you who aren’t working have a nice day and that the weather cooperates with whatever your plans are. There are three different football teams celebrating today, two of them with full on parades, so chances are there’ll be rain at some point! I continue to binge my way through the Mitchell and Markbys – and it’s surprising me how much I had forgotten from first time around. It makes them even more of a treat, but also harder to resist just going straight on to the next one! But I’ve still managed to get a few other things read this week – even if I didn’t get that much off the long-running list! Onwards we go…

Read:

A Touch of Mortality by Ann Granger

A Knife to Remember by Jill Churchill

A Word After Dying by Ann Granger

The Beast of Littleton Woods by T E Kinsey

Call the Dead Again by Ann Granger

Amelia’s Shadow by Marie Benedict

On Turpentine Lane by Elinor Lipman

Started:

The Listeners by Maggie Stiefvater*

Still reading:

Curtain Call to Murder by Julian Clary

The Sweet Dove Died by Barbara Pym

Wish You Were Here by Jess K Hardy*

Abdication by Juliet Nicolson

Cher: The Memoir Part One by Cher

Three ebooks and a pre-order

Bonus picture: Rainbows and sunshine at the train station.

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

books

Recommendsday: Books set in Brighton

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It’s Wednesday again and after our trip to Brighton the other week, I started thinking about books set in the seaside town – and the result is today’s Recommendsday. As I hinted yesterday, I’ve got a whole theme thing going on this week – with Brighton and 90s crime the twin things going on through the week. You’re welcome!

And the first book that features Brighton that springs to mind for me is always Georgette Heyer’s Regency Buck. I actually messaged my mum on the way down because I’d seen a sign for Cuckfield from the train and a key scene in the book takes place there. But proabably half of the book takes place during the summer that Judith Taverner and her brother Perry spend at a house on Marine Parade. We didn’t make it to Marine Parade this trip – but I did make Him Indoors walk to the Old Steine where Judith and Perry’s guardian Lord Worth lived. And of course we went to the Pavillion where there is another important moment in the plot. I first read this during my A-Level exams and I remember vividly sitting on the bus on my way home from school after an exam reading the final section and being open mouthed with shock at one of events towards the end. I can’t remember what the exam was – but I can remember where on the route I was when that happened (if you’re reading mum, I was coming around the corners with the nursery on the A508) It’s probably the book where I was most uncertain about who the heroine was going to end up with when you’re reading it first go around and that sticks with you. And yes the Waterstones in Brighton (of which more at the weekend) did have a copy although it wasn’t in a special books set in Brighton section, just the usual romance one:

It’s been a bit of a month for remembering books that I had forgotten about – which takes me to Sara Sheridan’s Mirabelle Bevan series. In the first book, Brighton Belle, it’s 1951 and Mirabelle moves to Brighton to take a job at a debt collection agency. But when a Hungarian woman the agency made a loan to turns up dead, her instincts scream that there’s more to the death than meets the eye. And things only get more mysterious as Mirabelle and her work colleague and new friend Vesta Churchill (no relation as she says) investigate. This is the first in a series that has nine books (although they aren’t all linked together after the first four if you’re looking at Amazon) and I’ve read three of them – all of which are set in Brighton although that doesn’t stay the same – and this reminded me to try and see if I can get book four – at which point I discovered that although I definitely read book one and two on Kindle (and book three from the library) none of them are on kindle any more. Which is frustrating and also weird. One and two are still on my Kindle though so that’s something.

As you all know I’ve just finished a binge of Elly Griffiths’ Dr Ruth Galloway series, but the first book of hers I read was The Zig Zag Girl which is the first in her Brighton Mysteries series. They’re set in the 1950s and feature a policeman and a magician who worked together during the war in a special unit. I’ve mentioned them before in my books set in theatres and then the quick reviews the other month and I’m four books into the seven book series, with books five and six already on the pile for when I’m ready, but I am trying to be good and space out the Elly Griffiths, not least because I need other authors to write about!

Death on the Pier by Jamie West is a murder mystery set in the theatre (now sadly gone) on Brighton Pier. Our main character is a playwright who is in town to see a production of one of his plays, only for an actress to be killed on stage in the middle of the opening night performance. Luckily the friend he is watching with is a Scotland Yard detective, so Bertie gets to (reluctantly) help with the investigation. I did have the culprit worked out before the end (and they why of it) but it was a good read and I liked the characters and so I went straight on to the sequel! There is also recent BotW The Fan Who Knew Too Much which is largely set in Brighton – including scenes of extras recreating the cult TV series running through the Pavilion Gardens.

And of course although Lizzie never goes there, Brighton is the scene of Lydia’s bad behaviour in Pride and Prejudice – so if you need an excuse for a re-read, here you are!

Happy Humpday!

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: May 12 – May 18

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Well I said on Friday that I was on a mega-binge of Mitchell and Markby books, and you see the results of that here – in the read list and in the purchases because I had to buy them to keep reading. We had a lovely trip away at the weekend and it was a busy week at work so I’m choosing to blame that for the increasing length of the still reading list…

Read:

A Farewell to Yarns by Jill Churchill

Where Old Bones Lie by Ann Granger

Men at Arms by Terry Pratchett

A Fine Place for Death by Ann Granger

Flowers for his Funeral by Ann Granger

Masqueraders by Georgette Heyer

A Candle for a Corpse by Ann Granger

Started:

N/a

Still reading:

The Beast of Littleton Woods by T E Kinsey

Curtain Call to Murder by Julian Clary

The Sweet Dove Died by Barbara Pym

Wish You Were Here by Jess K Hardy*

Abdication by Juliet Nicolson

Cher: The Memoir Part One by Cher

Five books bought.

Bonus picture: Another photo from a sunny Sunday afternoon in the countryside. Just glorious.

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

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: May 5 – May 11

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So here’s the thing, despite the fact that I have a tonne of books waiting to be read, at the start of last week all my brain wanted to do was re-read Mitchell and Markby books. Now this started because I bought the first one second hand a few weeks back as you know, and started reading it on Sunday night. And then I ended up buying the next few on kindle so I could read on because when I read them originally I had borrowed them from a friend and I gave them back like the good girl I am. And then I really struggled to get started on anything new to me and so moved on to more familiar old friends – with new books in series that I like and a dash of Terry Pratchett. We will see where this week takes us…

Read:

Say it With Poison by Ann Granger

A Season for Murder by Ann Granger

The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer

Cold in the Earth by Ann Granger

Murder Among Us by Ann Granger

Underscore by Andrew Cartmel

Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett

Started:

A Farewell to Yarns by Jill Churchill

The Beast of Littleton Woods by T E Kinsey

Still reading:

Curtain Call to Murder by Julian Clary

The Sweet Dove Died by Barbara Pym

Wish You Were Here by Jess K Hardy*

Abdication by Juliet Nicolson

Cher: The Memoir Part One by Cher

Four books bought and one pre-order made. And of course another preorder arrived.

Bonus picture: we have a flower on the new(ish) arrival!

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