Category: books

books, reviews, stats, The pile

Reading Patterns

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At the start of January (in December stats in fact) I promised you a more in depth look at my reading and rating patterns.  And then I forgot about it until I was doing January stats.  So I’m rectifying that now!

I noticed when I was putting together the December stats that the number of 5 star ratings I give out has been creeping up at a rate that’s disproportionate to the increase in books that I’ve read.  And it led me to wonder why.  Am I getting less fussy/discerning? Am I just picking amazing books to read?

The answer is a bit of both I think, but mostly the latter.  I think I have, on occasion, reached for the 5 star rating too often.  But I have also discovered new authors that I love and then whistled my way through their back catalogues at a rate of knots, instead of at a rate of a book a year (or however often they bring out a new book).  I’ve also got a lot better at decoding back covers and reviews and working out what I’m going to enjoy and skipping over the stuff that I won’t. Then there’s my large to-read pile, loaded with books that I’ve heard good things about, from sources that I trust.  And the pile also means that I can ignore stuff I’m not sure about (for ages) and go straight to the good stuff!

So what am I going to do about it?  I’m going to try and have an extra cogitate before I rate books in Goodreads and try not to reach for 5 too often.  But beyond that, all I can do is rate honestly and continue to work my way down the pile.  And I’d always rather read a book I love than one I detest (who doesn’t) so all I can do is be honest and explain my choices.

I’ll be keeping the situation under review…

books, stats

January Stats

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New books read this month: 27*

Books from the to-read pile: 9

Ebooks read: 12

Books from the Library book pile: 2

Non-fiction books: 1

Most read author: Lauren Henderson (two Sam Jones novels)

Books read this year: 27

Books bought: 7 – and a subscription to Fahrenheit Press’s releases for the year!

Books on the Goodreads to-read shelf: 436

Another year, another tweak to the monthly stats post!  This time I’ve integrated my non-fiction count into the list alongside the library books – they were New Year’s Resolutions last year, but I’m going to try and keep them going in 2016 as I think they add to the variety of what I read.

So a nice mixed bag in January in terms of variety of reading and only four “real” books that jumped straight to the top of the to-read pile pretty much as soon as they arrived.

*Includes some short stories/novellas/comics (4 this month)

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week In Books: January 25 – January 31

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Another strange week for me.  I’m not entirely sure why, but long days and commuter trains may again have something to do with my inability to settle down to a book as well as usual.  In the traditional one post two days late or two posts a day late each, the latter option has won – and January Stats will be tomorrow with Book of the Week on Wednesday.

Read:

My American Duchess by Eloisa James

Freeze my Margarita by Lauren Henderson

Bettany’s on the Home Front by Helen Barber

The Marble Collector by Cecilia Ahern

Rivers of London: Body Work 1 by Ben Aaronovich, Andrew Cartmel and Lee Sullivan

Mystery of the Skeleton Key by Bernard Capes

Started:

The Swans of Fifth Avenue by Melanie Benjamin

Whispers Underground by Ben Aaranovich

Still reading:

The Edge of the Fall by Kate Williams

Sisters on Bread Street by Frances Brody

Barbara the Slut and Other People by Lauren Holmes

One e-book comic bought – and a pre-ordered novella arrived.  I’m still clutching my book tokens and trying to resist the urge to spend!

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week In Books: January 18 – January 24

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A fit of indecision and some standing only train journeys are to blame for the somewhat shorter than usual list. I’ve started a few good books though and adopted a short stories by the bed policy. I’ll keep you posted! 

Read:

London Rain by Nicola Upson

Death with an Ocean View by Nora Charles

Princes at War by Deborah Cadbury

Queen Lucia by E F Benson

Started:

Sisters on Bread Street by Frances Brody

The Marble Collector by Cecilia Ahern

Barbara the Slut and Other People by Lauren Holmes

My American Duchess by Eloisa James

Still reading:

Freeze my Margarita by Lauren Henderson

The Edge of the Fall by Kate Williams

I don’t think I bought any books this week – but I did get a book token as a belated gift, so a spree may be imminent!

Book of the Week, books, detective, reviews

Book of the Week: Black Rubber Dress

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This week’s BotW is Black Rubber Dress by Lauren Henderson.  These days she’s better known as Rebecca Chance, best-selling author of glamourous, sexy thrillers, but back in the 90s she wrote the Sam Jones series of mysteries about a sculptor in Camden.  They’re currently being republished by Fahrenheit Press (more on that later) and have come into my orbit.  Black Rubber Dress is the first of them to reappear.

Sam’s just made a big piece for a London bank.  But soon after the unveiling a body is found underneath it.  Determined to prove that it wasn’t her fault, she gets caught up in a web of intrigue, blackmail and Banking.  There’s stockbrokers, anorexic rich girls, trust funds, fraud and much, much more. Sam is smart, wise-cracking and no holds barred.  She knows what she wants, and she’s going to get it.  Her life is nothing like mine and if put in some of the situations she’s in I would curl up and cry, but reading the book I really wanted to be her.  I already have the second book underway.

It’s also quite fun to read and realise that a book written and set in the 90s is now a period piece – Sam has an answering machine not a mobile, there’s no talk of the internet and Camden is much seedier than than it is now.  It’s also a little traumatic – because I can remember life being like that too!

Start your Sam Jones obsession with Black Rubber Dress – it’s currently yoyoing between 99p and £1.99 on Kindle.  And when you get hooked, you might want to consider Fahrenheit Press’s Book Club – until the end of January for £36/$60/€50 you can get every book they publish this year.  I treated myself as a birthday present to myself (yes, another one) and the first to pop into my inbox was Freeze My Margarita – the next Sam Jones book…

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week In Books: January 11 – January 17

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So, it was my birthday last week and we went to Barcelona to celebrate for a few days.  Thus there was reading time on flights, in departure lounges, late at night etc.  So a fun week’s reading.

Read:

My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick

The Girl from the Opera House by Nancy Carson

Geek Drama by Holly Smale

Far in the Wilds by Deanna Raybourn

Black Rubber Dress by Lauren Henderson

The Astonishing Return of Norah Wells by Virginia MacGregor

Charlotte Bronte’s Secret Lover by Jolien Janzing

Stars over Sunset Boulevard by Susan Meissner

Lady of Devices by Shelley Adina

Started:

Death with an Ocean View by Nora Charles

Freeze my Margarita by Lauren Henderson

Still reading:

Princes at War by Deborah Cadbury

The Edge of the Fall by Kate Williams

Queen Lucia by E F Benson

I did have a bit of a spending spree on books though (twice) but it’s my birthday so I’m allowed – right?!

books, Fantasy, fiction, genres

Time Travel Novels

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I think I have a problem with time travel romances.  I love time-slip novels – like Lauren Willig’s Pink Carnation series – which have two parallel narratives set in different times.  I love straight historicals.  But I can’t think of a time travel romance – or even time travelling novel that I loved – unless you’re including Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (a couple of hours on the Time turner doesn’t count in my book) or the Thursday Next Series (which is more dimension jumping than time travel).  And after reading a time-traveller the other week, I started to wonder why.

Fundamentally, I think that I find it very hard to believe there’ll be a happy outcome – and that’s what you want in romances – because one is either going to have to go back to their own time and be miserable, or one is going to have to stay where they are, and I never believe that that will continue to be happy past the last page.  After all, one member of the duo is living out of their time – either with a massive amount of knowledge about the future and the advances there are or with a massive gap in their knowledge of the modern world – and on top of that, everyone they ever knew/loved is either dead or not yet born and thus they’ll never see them again.  I text my sister daily, and speak to my mum at least twice a week – and can’t imagine voluntarily chosing to put myself out of contact with them permenantly – and leave them wondering what has happened to me.

And that’s before you get to the fact that I’ve watched a lot of Scifi and fantasy TV over the years – from Star Trek to Crime Traveller and most of the variants in between – and have had it drilled into me that when you’re messing around in the past it’s very easy to change the timeline of the future and destroy the world.  And most books just ignore The Implications and don’t mention it or skim over it somehow.

Am I over thinking this?  Probably.  But that’s the kind of person I am.  I once spent 20 minutes crying on my Grandma’s lap because I’d just realised that Kaiser Wilhelm was Queen Victoria’s grandson – and wouldn’t she have been so upset if she’d realised he’d started a war against his grandma’s country.  Yes.  I was a strange 8 year old.  But that gives you a clue as to how my mind works.

So in the spirit of the New Year, does anyone have any really good time travel recommendations for me?  Books that I won’t buy and then ignore in favour of everything else ever because I’m convinced I’m going to hate them?  Because I got a copy of the first Outlander 18 months ago because everyone else was raving about it – and I still haven’t read it.  I took it on holiday with us back in 2014 as one of my paperbacks – and The Boy started reading it instead of me (he never takes enough books with him, but that’s another story) and he didn’t finish it either.  It sat under our coffee table for another year after that.

Go on.  Change my life. I dare you.

Book of the Week, books, historical, Thriller

Book of the Week: The Hourglass Factory

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So, a difficult choice for BotW this week – I finished the latest Laurie Graham last week and really enjoyed it – but I also read Lucy Ribchester’s Hourglass Factory and enjoyed that too.  So in the end, I’ve picked The Hourglass Factory for BotW and decided to do an Authors I Love post on Laurie G instead, which’ll be coming up in a few weeks. So more for you to read. Bonus.

The Hourglass Factory
Some of my best photos are taken on the train. No idea why.

In The Hourglass Factory, tom-boy reporter Frankie George is trying to make waves in Fleet Street, but all she’s getting are the women’s interest stories an the gossip columns.  When she gets assigned to write a profile of trapeze-artist-turned-suffragette Ebony Diamond she gets short shrift.  But then Ebony disappears and Frankie finds herself drawn into a world of corsets, circuses, tricks and suffragettes.  Where has Ebony gone?  What is going on with the suffragettes? And will anyone listen to Frankie if she finds out?

This has been sitting on my shelf for aaaaaages (what’s new) and I kept meaning to read it.  Then I saw it recommended by another blogger (Agi’s onmybookshelf) as one of her books of the year of 2015 – alongside several other books that I had read and liked and it gave me the push that I needed.

I really enjoyed this.  I haven’t studied the women’s suffrage movement in Britain in much depth – apart from as part of my history GCSE – so I knew the basics, but I don’t think you’d have too much trouble if you knew even less.  Lucy Ribchester paints a vivid picture of 1912.  Post-Edwardian London springs to life – all dark corners, imminent peril, seedy clubs, variety acts, cuthroats, suffragettes and jails.  Some passages were tough going – early 20th century jails were not nice places to get stuck in – but it was totally worth it.  This is quite a long read (500 pages) but it is pacy, exciting and thrilling – you don’t notice the pages going by.  So good.  And another cautionary tale about letting books sit on the shelf.

Get your copy from Amazon, Waterstones or Foyles, from Audible, or on Kindle, ebook or Kobo.  You’re welcome.  And thank you Agi for giving me the kick to read it.

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week In Books: January 4 – January 10

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Not a huge list this week – but The Hourglass Factory is 500 pages long – and it’s worth it.  Busy week at work too and quick trains both ways several days (often on the way home in rush hour too) reducing the reading time.

Read:

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

The Night in Question by Laurie Graham

The Hourglass Factory by Lucy Ribchester

The Chalet School and Rosalie by Elinor M Brent Dyer

The Chase by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg

Started:

My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick

The Edge of the Fall by Kate Williams

Queen Lucia by E F Benson

Still reading:

Princes at War by Deborah Cadbury

One short story pre-ordered – but I don’t think I’ve actually bought a book so far this year (the Deanna Raybourn spree was before New Year).  I’m sure that will change though…

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week In Books: December 28 – January 3

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You may notice a theme in this week’s reading.  Yes I went all out for the end of the Pink Carnation series and read another Lauren Willig I had on the kindle as well.  And then while writing about Deanna Raybourn in my 2015 Obsessions post I found that a the book sale gods were smiling on me, and I could reading the rest of the Lady Julia Books safe in the knowledge that I wouldn’t get left on a cliff hanger!  I’m still trying to ration myself on the new Laurie Graham – by which I mean only letting myself read a bit more every few days to try and stop myself from bingeing.  So far it’s working.

Read:

The Mark of the Midnight Manzanilla by Lauren Willig

The Ashford Affair by Lauren Willig

Whisper of Jasmine by Deanna Raybourn

The Lure of the Moonflower by Lauren Willig

The Dark Enquiry by Deanna Raybourn

Bleakly Hall by Elaine di Rollo

Started:

n/a

Still reading:

The Night in Question by Laurie Graham

Princes at War by Deborah Cadbury

Oh dear.  Massive Deanna Raybourn spending spree in the Kindle sale (as mentioned in my 2015 Obsessions post), then there was the only Hellions of Halsted Hall book I haven’t read on offer for 99p.  How could I resist.