I did five nightshifts last week, my brain had hit a go-slow by Wednesday morning and so I didn’t get as much read as I wanted. Fingers crossed I’m back in normal working order soon!
Read:
Daughters of the Bride by Susan Mallery
Look to the Lady by Margery Allingham
The Herring Seller’s Apprentice by L C Tyler
Ten Little Herrings by L C Tyler
Behind the Shattered Glass by Tasha Alexander
Buzz Books 2016: Romance by Various Authors
Started:
Murder at the Manor: Country House Mysteries by Various Authors
Still reading:
The Seven Sisters by Lucinda Riley
Welcome to Night Vale by Joseph Fink
Those among you who’ve been coming here a while will know that Nightshifts = book purchasing. I was fairly restrained this time out – two Kindle sequels bought in the early hours and 3 books at the supermarket on Friday after I’d finished when my defences were low…
I’m back in the world of children’s books for this week’s BotW and Noel Streatfeild’s Curtain Up or Theatre Shoes as it’s called in the US and some newer editions here. I was sure that I had already read this – but it turns out, I hadn’t and it had been sitting on my children’s book shelf unread. A travesty.
The book has a plastic protective cover, so the photo isn’t great – but it’s so pretty I had to have a photo!
So, Curtain Up tells the story of the Forbes children – Sorrel, Mark and Holly. Their mother is dead, their father is missing in the Second World War. They had been living with their grandfather, but when he dies, they’re sent to live with their other grandmother – part of their mother’s family who they’ve never met. When they arrived in London, they discover that she is an actress and that she intends for them to follow in her (and their mother’s) footsteps and make a career on the stage. They’re not all happy about this – and life with their grandma is very different from what they’re used to and the book follows them as they get used to their new life – and discover some new interests along the way.
If you read any Noel Streatfeild as a child (or an adult) it will probably have been Ballet Shoes,the story of the three Fossil sisters – Pauline, Petrova and Posy – and you’ll re-encounter these three (albeit at a distance) here, along with their theatre school. It’s a fun and sweet story which features rationing and wartime problems as well as the workings of the world of child actors. I love this sort of story – although today’s children may find bits of it strange – unless they’ve done the Home Front at school already!
I think my favourite Streatfeild may still be White Boots (Skating Shoes) but that’ may be because there are a lot of books about dancers and the theatre and not many at all about figure skating (I wish I could have been a figure skater, but even if my mother had sent me for lessons my flexibility, athleticism, build and height would’ve ruled me out pronto) but all the “Shoe” books I’ve read are great stories, well told that children can wish they were a part of, and adults can enjoy as well.
You should be able to get a copy of Curtain Up – probably badged as Theatre Shoes from any book shop with a good children’s department, Amazon have copies under both names – new copies of Theatre Shoes, a Kindle edition and second hand copies as Curtain Up. I suspect the bigger second hand book shops would be able to help too. Happy reading!
A bit of a struggle in the middle of this week – no idea why. And as I started a run of five nightshifts on Sunday evening, expect light, non-taxing reading next week!
Read:
Trouble at Melville Manor by Mabel Esther Allen
Death in the Floating City by Tasha Alexander
A Demon Summer by GM Malliet
Curtain Up by Noel Streatfeild
Man on a Rock by Grant Sutherland
A Woman Unknown by Frances Brody
Started:
Welcome to Night Vale by Joseph Fink
Still reading:
Daughters of the Bride by Susan Mallery
The Seven Sisters by Lucinda Riley
3 second hand books bought – one to replace a book I lost a while back, two to read.
A fair mix (for me) of reading this week – romances contemporary and historical, mysteries contemporary and historical, non-fiction, a children’s book and a comedy of society and manners. But as you’ll notice, I’m still mostly on books with resolutions and happy endings. And expect I will be until silly season finally gets underway – if it ever does.
Read:
Only a Kiss by Mary Balogh
Sunset on Central Park by Sarah Morgan
The Secret by Lorna Hill
Before Lunch by Angela Thirkell
Dead is Best by Jo Perry
Death of an Avid Reader by Frances Brody
Queen Bees by Siân Evans
Started:
Daughters of the Bride by Susan Mallery
The Seven Sisters by Lucinda Riley
Still reading:
n/a
One ebook bought – and Gail Carriger’s next Custard Protocol novel (Imprudence, out on Thursday this week) pre-ordered along with a cookbook to get myself free postage!
A lovely week of reading – there’s some really charming romance in there, some relatively undiscovered classic children’s stories and a fast-moving thriller. It’s all good.
Read:
The Job by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg
Can’t Buy Me Love by Jane Lovering
The Little Bookshop of Lonely Hearts by Annie Darling
A Gentleman Never Tells by Eloisa James
Some Kind of Wonderful by Sarah Morgan
The Escape by Mary Balogh
The Wild Lorings – Detectives by Gwendoline Courtney
The MacIains of Glen Gillean by Mabel Esther Allen
Started:
Total D*ck by Christina Saunders
Still reading:
Queen Bees by Siân Evans
Hmmm. I may have bought three books and a trade comic on Thursday. But that was still June – so my resolution to do better in July still stands!
Books on the Goodreads to-read shelf: 451 (I don’t have copies of all of these!)
I was doing so well on the purchasing front – and then it got to the end of the month and I got stressed so started bookshop. Not good considering that I haven’t read as much this month as I wanted either. I’ll try and do better in July…
*Includes some short stories/novellas/comics (3 this month)
I gave up on the Elizabeth Jane Howard this week. I’ve been hanging in there trying to plough through because I love the Cazalets so much, then my Mum said I didn’t have to keep reading it if I wasn’t enjoying it – and that if she was trying to read something she wasn’t enjoying, I would be the first person to tell her to give up and move on so she was returning the favour for me. I have a great mum.
Read:
Once a Soldier by Mary-Jo Putney
Poison or Protect by Gail Carriger
Sidney Chambers and the Forgiveness of Sins by James Runcie
An American Airman in Paris (short story) by Beatriz Williams
Sleepless in Manhattan by Sarah Morgan
The Rogue Not Taken by Sarah MacLean
Started:
Queen Bees by Siân Evans
The Job by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg
Still reading:
n/a
I bought six books on Friday. It was very naughty of me, but I don’t regret it at all. I’ll try and restrain myself this week though.
I can’t work out whether I did well this week or not. Ok in numbers, the amount of books I read is not that big, but several of them were quite chunky books so I’ve actually done a lot of pages – over 2500 pages in fact. But is that good or not? I don’t usually add up pages, so I have no idea, and I don’t have the time (or inclination) to go back and add it up for a representative number of weeks. My Goodread stats average out at just over 2000 pages a week for this year so far, and just over 2100 a week for the whole of last year – but I know that there are always some books that I’ve read that don’t have a good reads page count so won’t have made it into the total. But hey, on that basis, I’ve done well – because the 2500+ figure doesn’t include the half of the Mary-Jo Putney that I read on the train on Sunday evening…
Read:
Wicked Intentions by Elizabeth Hoyt
The Tumbling Turner Sisters by Juliette Fay
Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld
Stormswept by Sabrina Jeffries writing as Deborah Martin
From Pasta to Pigfoot: Second Helpings by Frances Mensah Williams
Wedding Bells for Nurse Connie by Jean Fullerton
Started:
Once a Soldier by Mary-Jo Putney
Sidney Chambers and the Forgiveness of Sins by James Runcie
Still reading:
The Long View by Elizabeth Jane Howard
I pre-ordered Eloisa James’s upcoming novella, but that’s it. I’m trying to be restrained…
On holiday this week (and last week for that matter) but family wedding, visiting more family and sightseeing means not a lot of reading done by my standards – and certainly not as much as I’d’ve done on a beach holiday!
Read:
Wildflower Bay Part 1 by Rachel Lucas
Goodbye Mrs Chips by Dorothy Cannell
Vienna Waltz by Teresa Grant
Naked in Death by (Nora Roberts writing as) J D Robb
Bury Her Deep by Catriona McPherson
Unnatural Fire by Fidelis Morgan
Started:
Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld
Wicked Intentions by Elizabeth Hoyt
Still reading:
The Long View by Elizabeth Jane Howard
I pre-ordered Gail Carriger’s first self-published novella and a copy of Vita Sackville-West’s The Edwardians…
