Category: books

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: June 5 – June 11

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Well that was a bit of a week. Surprisingly so. I went to an RTS even about staging Eurovision (which was fascinating), a weekend in London for a house party (which was fabulous) and a morning at the dentist (which was horrid). And that last meant that I definitely treated myself to reading some of the new romances I had waiting on the shelf. And I also treated myself to two new houseplants. But I’m meant to be telling about about the books, not about my growing plant acquisition problem. I think I know what I’m writing about tomorrow. I think. But there are several options which is always a nice position to be in!

Read:

Ms Perfectly Fine by Kate Callaghan*

Buried in the Country by Carola Dunn

Men at Arms by Terry Pratchett

Role Playing by Cathy Yardley

Same Time Next Summer by Annabel Monaghan

Final Acts ed. Martin Edwards

The True Love Experiment by Christina Lauren

Started:

Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood

Death of Jezebel by Christianna Brand

Still reading:

The Dress Diary of Mrs Anne Sykes by Kate Strasdin*

The Empire by Michael Ball*

Travellers in the Third Reich by Julia Boyd

One ebook bought – and I should have had two preorders arrive (the new Andrew Cartmel and the new Rivers of London) except that wherever Amazon think they delivered it to, it definitely wasn’t my letterbox…

Bonus photo: making a change from houseplant photos, here’s Olympic park from the Elizabeth Line on a very hot and sunny Saturday.

*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

Books in the Wild: Spot the summer releases!

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A super quick hit today – just to take a quick look at which of the recent releases I spotted in Gower Street last week.

Hello hardbacks – no surprise it’s Emily Henry and Curtis Sittenfeld getting the front facing spots for romance along with Tom Hanks and the new Emma Cline. The Happy Couple was a new spot for me, but Death of a Book Seller has been popping up all over.

If you’re after paperback romance, this is what they had – and I’ve read four of the ones in this side and own another one.

And on the other side of the table I’ve read two, and own two more. And no I’m deliberately not telling you which, apart from Dead Romantics of course!

And finally, they’re not new, but here’s a bonus picture of a lot of Amelia Peabody in the wild. And yes, I did sit down and read all the best bits of Thunder in the Sky, because it is my favourite and if you have it as an actual book it’s so easy to find the best bits…

Happy Saturday!

books, historical, mystery, series

Mystery series: Cornish Mysteries

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Happy Friday everyone, I hope you’re all having a good week and have a delightful weekend planned. Allow me to usher you towards it with a post about a 1960s-set cozy crime series!

It’s the 1960s and Eleanor Trewynn is a retired widow who is living over the charity shop she’s running in a Cornish village. Her niece Megan is a police detective who has recently transferred to the local force and now finds herself with a commanding officer who doesn’t really think female officers are a good idea. There’s an artist living next door and a cast of side characters who work in the charity shop. Eleanor and her husband lived all over the world working for a charity and this life experience means that she can handle almost anything and is used to trying to solve problems. And thus you have all the ingredients for a satisfying mystery.

As I’ve mentioned before, I really like Carola Dunn’s other mystery series – the 1920s-set Daisy Dalymple series. I don’t love these quite as much, but they have good puzzles to solve and an interesting premise and it’s nice to read a series set in the 1960s – there are lots of interwar historicals, and some immediately post war and 1950s ones, but not as many sixties ones. Yes Inspector Alleyn gets into the 1960s, but none of them are my favourites, his age is getting a bit fuzzy and Ngaio herself was in her 60s when she was writing them. There are only four of these which is a shame but I’ll take what I can get in these cases.

My copies all came from various bookshops – I read most of them when they first came out a decade ago, but the last one came out a year or two later (as you can tell by the non matching cover…) and I hadn’t seen it in the flesh (or at least I don’t remember seeing it) until I spotted it in Gower Street Waterstones the other week when I was on that little buying spree. What a fortunate circumstance. They’re also on Kindle and Kobo.

books

Out Today: New Canon Clement

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Some of you may remember that I read Rev Richard Coles’ first detective novel last year – you actually saw it in the bookshelfie at the weekend and it inspired a whole Recommendsday post about detecting vicars. Well the sequel is out today – and sees Canon Clement investigating a suspicious death in his newly expanded parish. I don’t have this one pre-ordered because it’s a hardback release and my TBR backlog is huge, but I’m fairly sure I’m going to pick it up when I see it it on a decent offer either in the stores or on Kindle! The first one has been absolutely everywhere in the shops so I’m expecting this one will be the same. And there’s already a third planned too – or at least there is according to Amazon.

Book of the Week, books, new releases, Young Adult

Book of the Week: A Calamity of Mannerings

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A recent release for today’s pick – Joanna Nadin’s Calamity of Mannerings came out at the start of May so I’m only slightly behind times. I’ll take the small wins where I can, they happen so rarely. Well compared to how behind I am on so much anyway!

So the plot: Panth’s father has died – leaving only a gaggle daughters. This means the family have to move out of their home, into the dower house with their grandmother and slide further down into even more gentile poverty than they were already in. And it’s 1924, so the options for gently born young women are somewhat limited when it comes to earning money, and as a second daughter with an unmarried older sister there’s not a lot of opportunity for doing a social season and snagging a husband. But despite all that what Panth is really hoping for is a bit of romance and if at all possible, a taste of the high life that she’s seen in the pages of Tatler. So when their cousin lets their old house out to a dashing American Bright Young Thing of the male variety, it looks like her fortunes may be changing…

Now as you all know, I love books set in the 1920s and this is a lovely coming of age story about a young woman trying to figure out what she wants and what her place is in the world in difficult circumstances. The blurb for this says it’s for fans of I Capture the Castle and Bridgerton and I think that’s fairly fair – it’s a bit more adult and more modern that I Capture, but substantially less sexy than Bridgerton. It’s also witty and funny and if you’re an adult reading this you can spot some of the other books that it’s nodding to. I could see a few things coming a mile off, but I find it hard to guess what an actual teenager would guess. Whatever is the case on that front this is bundles of fun, and a charming world to spend time in.

My copy came via NetGalley but it’s out now in Kindle, but I can’t find it on Kobo (yet) and should be available in paperback too, although I haven’t managed to scout a YA department in a bookstore yet to try and spot it – I hadn’t read it when I was in Waterstones last week or I would have then.

Happy Reading!

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: May 29 – June 4

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What a week. It all got a bit busy at work again but then I had a lovely weekend hanging out with friends and watching Buffy Revamped, as well as the Formula One on Sunday. In book terms, I really didn’t mean to read the new Elissa Sussman as soon as it arrived, and I was doing really well until Sunday early evening where I lost all my will power and read it from cover to cover, stopping only to eat dinner. Big whoops because it was great and now I’m going to have to wait a year at least for something else from her. This week is scheduled to be a big week in new releases that are in my personal wheelhouse – so I’m not ruling out accidentally doing the same thing again this week.

Read:

Buried for Pleasure by Edmund Crispin

The Truth by Terry Pratchett

Best Men by Sidney Karger*

A Calamity of Mannerings by Joanna Nadin*

Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett

Lovelight Farms by B K Borison*

Once More With Feeling by Elissa Sussman

Started:

Buried in the Country by Carola Dunn

Final Acts ed. Martin Edwards

Still reading:

The Dress Diary of Mrs Anne Sykes by Kate Strasdin*

The Empire by Michael Ball*

Travellers in the Third Reich by Julia Boyd

Three books bought, accidentally, on a trip to Waterstones Gower Street on Tuesday evening, one ebook and the arrival of the preordered Elissa Sussman…

Bonus photo: Birmingham canal side on Saturday night. Makes a change from London.

*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, bookshelfies

Bookshelfie: An extra shelf

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Remember how I said I was running out of of space? Well this is my solution. I had a metal book end that I was using on the children’s book shelf upstairs – but that’s now got to a point where it doesn’t need it, so I’ve taken the opportunity to do some reorganising and create a new shelf!

So here you are. And obviously the main issue is that it’s already full. But this does mean I have made some space on other shelves that I can now fill up. So I’ve moved the Kate Andersen Brower books so they’re together – three were in the front room and one was on the bottom shelf of this bookshelf and it’s basically a selection of hardbacks and difficultly sized books from other shelves which means that it’s created more space than you would expect. So we have some Pink Carnation hardbacks, the Richard Coles and the latest Richard Osman along with The Last Hero, a Diane Mott Henry, Hello World, a Paul Charles and my Mallory Towers omnibus from when I was at primary school. And now I have some options for reorganising. So watch this space!

books, stats

May Stats

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Books read this month: 32*

New books: 23

Re-reads: 9 (all audiobooks)

Books from the to-read pile: 8

NetGalley books read: 11

Kindle Unlimited read: 1

Ebooks: 3

Audiobooks: 9

Non-fiction books: 3

Favourite book this month: Either Mrs Porter Calling or Wild Dances

Most read author: If we discount the re-listening, then it’s Josephine Tey (two books) or Michael Cragg (Reach for the Stars is 600+ pages!)

Books bought: 9 ebooks, plus 2 new ebook preorders and then 5 books and 2 arriving pre-ordered books. So quite a few…

Books read in 2023: 158

Books on the Goodreads to-read shelf (I don’t have copies of all of these!): 698

I read some really good stuff in May, but also some really less good. Still not everything is going to be for me and I did have a really excellent April so it all evens out. I’m very pleased with my progress down the to-read shelf – I was on track for a net reduction this month – until a little buying spree on the 31st. Oopsie daisy!

Bonus picture: the downstairs plant shelf enjoying the spring sunshine. I’ve added a few more to the collection this month too…

*includes some short stories/novellas/comics/graphic novels – including 1 this month

books, Recommendsday

Recommendsday: World War Two-set novels

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After having such a lovely time reading Mrs Porter Calling last week, this week’s Recommendsday features some more World War Two-set books that will give you a similar feel. And I had to think long and hard about it – because so many books that sprang to mind at first were Great War books – and that’s a whole other post!

I’m going to start with Elizabeth Jane Howard’s Cazalet series, even though I’ve already written a Series I Love post about them. They start in the 1930s, so if you just want the war period you could just start at book two – The Light Years. I mean I don’t recommend it because you won’t get the full impact of it all but you could if you want to. The Emmy Lake books are first person and just follow Emmy and these have a much wider group they follow, but in terms of the mixture of warmth and tears, they are right up there.

Next up: Mary Wesley’s The Camomile Lawn. It has more sex than Emmy Lake, but if you want the Home Front, it has that – people trying to carry on in the most dangerous and uncertain times. It has that sense of normal rules being suspended because the world might be about to end and people doing things that they wouldn’t normally have done.

It’s set in 1946, but Jojo Moyes Ship of Brides is all about the wartime brides heading over to their unknown futures with the soldiers they have married. There are no massive surprises (or at least I don’t remember any big twists, but it’s been a decade!) but you really get to know the women on the boat and care about what happens to them.

If you want mysteries set in this period, may I please nudge you again at Maisie Dobbs. There are lots of bad series set inWW2 (no I won’t name them here) but once this series actually gets to the Second World War (at Book 13 – In This Grave Hour) it is one of the best.

It’s much older and the first section is much grimmer, but I want to give an extra mention to Nevil Shute’s A Town Like Alice. I’ve mentioned it before but you follow Jean from her life as an English woman living in Malaysia, through her capture by the Japanese and the death march she was put on to her post war new beginning thanks to an inheritance. I like the Alice section best because it is a strong woman paying something forward, but I know that that may be unusual. It is a little of its time, but I’ve loved it for so long I find it hard to be rational about it.

Happy Wednesday!

Book of the Week, books, LGTBQIA+, new releases, Young Adult

Book of the Week: Fake Dates and Mooncakes

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It was a bit of a week of rhyming titles last week – one in YA and one in cozy crime, so it’s probably fitting that I chose one of them for the Book of the Week today. And in the end I’ve gone for the Young Adult romance – partly because the cozy crime isn’t out until next month and also because the cozy is the tenth in a series and I can’t break those rules two weeks in a row. But mostly because Sher Lee’s novel came out last week, it was a lot of fun and it made me really hungry!

Cover of Fake Dates and Mooncakes by Sher Lee

To the plot: Dylan spends his spare time helping in his aunt’s Singaporean Chinese takeout, Theo lives in a mansion and drives a Ferrari. Their first meeting is less than optimal but when Theo turns up at the restaurant sparks fly. And soon Dylan is pretending to be Theo’s boyfriend at a family wedding. But Theo’s family is nothing like Dylan’s and neither is the life he leads. Dylan isn’t sure whether he can fit in in Theo’s wealthy, gala-attending life – or if it’s even worth trying.

This is a sweet YA romance with two heroes with completely different lives. The blurb describes it as Heartstopper meets Crazy Rich Asians and I think that’s not a bad one as far as it goes but it’s not quite as exact as that might sound. Yes Theo is Rich and Dylan is not – so that’s Crazy Rich Asians-esque, but you actually spend a lot of the time in Dylan’s world rather than Theo’s – which is not very CRA. As far as Heartsopper goes, yes it has got two young queer protagonists, but it isn’t mostly set in or around school and there’s not really any story line around coming out here the way that there is in Heartstopper. So basically, stop smashing vaguely similar books together as comparators please publishing.

We all know that I love a fake dating story – so that was great and I loved Dylan’s tight knit family too. It’s got some Insta Love going on here – and your mileage may vary with that. I’m not entirely sure that Theo ever really stands up for himself against his family properly and the solutions to the problems the duo face are a little easy in the end – but then it’s a YA and that’s how it goes. But the romance is lovely and all the food that is written about sounds delicious and it all made me hungry. It’s a really nice way to spend a few hours, and if you’re anything like me, it’ll have you off googling the various bits of the food you’ve never tried before.

My copy of Fake Dates and Mooncakes came from NetGalley, but it’s out now in Kindle and Kobo, and Amazon say they have the paperback in stock too, but I’m not sure how much I believe them given my recent late arriving pre-orders. I’ll take a look for it in a big bookstore YA department next time I go into one – which may or may not be this week!

Happy Reading everyone.