Two nights in London for work? Check. Three nights at book conference? Check. More chatting than book reading? Check. I mean I’m sure I’ll have a lot to say about my weekend talking Girl’s Own books, but today basically all you need to know is that I mostly listened to talks about books and bought books rwther than actually reading them!
Two nights away from home, three theatre trips and an evening at the Commonwealth Games. Truly it is a miracle I read anything this week! But I did, go me. This week is looking equally frantic, so goodness knows what next week’s list will look like too.
I’m always saying at the end of book of the week posts that I don’t know how easy a book will be to find in stores, so as I had a little wander through a few book shops this week, so I’m in a position to provide an update!
And let’s start with the fact that Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is getting a big push – which is great. Two spots in the front of Foyles. And I’ve raved about it so much that one of my colleagues has bought it as her holiday book. I hope she likes it now!
I’ve still not finished it, but also getting a good spot near the front is Janina Ramirez’s Femina. Side note: Jarvis Cocker’s Good Pop, Bad Pop is interesting to me, but not in hardback!
After spotting it in Birmingham last week, and at the airport the other month, proof the Richard Coles is everywhere! Also – the Ian Moore is the sequel to Death and Croissants which I read last year and enjoyed the setting more than the mystery – but loved the setting so much I would happily read a second book set around there.
And finally not a book that I’ve read, but one that I spotted for the first time in the store and now really really want to read: Young Bloomsbury by Nino Strachey. Bright Young Things, 1920s, artists, Bohemia – this is all so far up my street it’s unbelievable. But I can probably wait for the paperback or for a kindle price drop. On to the Christmas list it goes!
Most read author: Kerry Greenwood as I finished the Phryne re-read
Books bought: 13 – 3 books and ten ebooks.
Books read in 2022: 232
Books on the Goodreads to-read shelf (I don’t have copies of all of these!): 657
A fairly steady month in reading. I didn’t go too mad with purchases, but we also had a heat wave where it was too hot to concentrate and I’m back in the groove of a night or two in London each week with a social life going on. And then there’s the commonwealth games. So not quite as much read as I expected, but not too bad all in all.
Bonus picture: the Lionesses Mural going up on Thursday evening on Euston Road
*Usually includes some short stories/novellas/comics/graphic novels – 3 this month graphic novels
Well it’s been an amazing week – Martha Wainwright, Commonwealth Games Gymnastics and then England won the women’s Euros. Is it any surprise that the list is slightly shorter that usual this week? It’s the end of the month too so we have the usual array of review posts coming up this week too. You’re welcome.
Firstly, I’m sure the Birmingham Waterstones used to be in a charming old building – that used to be a bank or something like that. But the building I thought it was is now an Apple store and so I’m doubting myself. Anyway the current Waterstones is near the Bullring and I had a little wander on Friday to see what they’re promoting and displaying.
Let’s start with the big display as you come in – which has Jessie Burtons – old and new, the new Juno Dawson book , the Richard Coles that I wrote about the other week and the latest book in a thriller series that is clearly going to be too scary and violent for me!
On the other side, we’ve got the non-fiction selections – I haven’t read any of them, but I’ve got The Premonitions Bureau on the Kindle, as I thought it might appeal to the part of me that enjoyed The Haunting of Alma Fielding the other year. Then there’s Clubland, which I hadn’t heard of, but which is a history of working men’s clubs in the UK and which sounds interesting, although my to read pile is so huge that I can wait for it! I hadn’t come across The Escape Artist either, but that also sounds interesting- about the first Jewish man to break out of Auschwitz and tried to warn the world about what was going on there. Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before is a mental health toolkit type book which again sounds interesting and Cry of the Kalahari is presumably there because the film of Where the Crawdad’s Sing has just come out and it’s by Delia Owens and her husband about their life in Africa (and which there have been a number of articles about recently).
A number of books I have written about previously have now made it to the buy one get one half price table – notably Fatal Crossing and The Man Who Died Twice. I’m also somewhat intrigued by the Her Majesty the Queen Investigates series – A Three Dog Problem is the second one, but I’ve been looking out for the first at the library.
The non fiction table was where I spotted a few more things – I’ve got the hardback version of JudithMackrell‘s Going With The Boys, which I really need to get to because I’ve enjoyed her other group biographies (hence my purchase!). I hadn’t heard of Oh What A Lovely Century before – but Roderic Fenwick Owen’s edited Diaries sound right up my street – born in 1921, he went to Eton and Oxford, survived the Second World War and then became a travel writer. The blurb promises that he experienced Nazi Germany and the Pentagon during the Cold War and met people like Jackson Pollack and Sean Connery. He was also attracted to men at a time when it was still illegal in many places. The few pages I read were interesting enough that I nearly bought it – except that it’s a chunky old thing and I didn’t want to have to carry it around in my handback getting battered for the rest of the day. I will be watching out for it.
And there we are – a rare bookshop trip where I didn’t buy anything – but still managed to add a few more books to the list…
Check me out. A remarkably good and varied week in reading by recent standards. Non fiction, new fiction, contemporary romance, adventure and golden age crime. This week I have two nights away (only one last week) and a day out at the Commonwealth Games so who knows how much reading time I have. This could be the high point of the whole month!
Positively restrained – two Adele Bucks to enable the binge, but that’s it.
Bonus photo: The British Museum on Thursday evening as I walked past on my way to a gig at the Museum of Comedy.We’ve just started The Deeds of the Disturber as ournextAmelia Peabody relisten so it seemed apt for this week’s photo!
An * next to a book title indicates that it came from NetGalley. ** indicates it was an advance copy from a source other than NetGalley
I have once again been through the monthly Kindle offers to try and find the best books on offer – I would say it is to help you with your holiday reading but we all know that I’m just a dirty big enabler.
We’re very close to the release date for Taylor Jenkins Reid’s new book – and hard on the heels of me spotting it in paperback at the airport last month – her last book Malibu Rising – which is linked to the new one – is on offer for 99p. I loved it last summer and as you know I can’t wait for Carrie Soto to come out. A couple of her older books have been reduced for odd days here and there – I’ve picked up One True Loves and Maybe in Another Life for 99p already this month, so if you like her, it’s worth keeping an eye out.
I went to the launch of Lizzy Dent’s new book last month, but her debut novel The Summer Job is 99p at the moment. I wrote a whole post about Philippa Gregory last month – and this month White Princess is 99p, it’s the fifth in the series if you run both the series together, although written later than some of the books after it (you’ll understand if you read the post) and comes before Constant Princess which is not a magic book, but I don’t know if this one is or not (again, it’ll make sense if you read the post!)
If you’re building a Terry Pratchett collection, this months’ 99p books are The Last Continent and A Hat Full of Sky, while Jingo is £2.99. Also in fantasy, two of the three books in Andrew Caldecott’s Rotherweird series are 99p but irritatingly it’s the first one and the third one. Book two is £2.99. I suspect the offers are because Caldecott has a new book that has come out fairly recently. In other fantasy series, I read the first in Genevieve Cogman’s Invisible Library series back in 2020 – I have several more on the Kindle waiting for met to get around to them – now including the sixth book in the series The Secret Chapter.
In books I read years ago there is One Day by David Nicholls – warning, it made me cry. I read Ann Patchett’s Bel Canto during my year in France (I remember vividly reading it in my incredibly hot hall of residence, which sort of matches the stifling atmosphere of a book about a hostage situation). I haven’t read Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks since even longer ago – when I was doing that War Literature module at A Level – and it wasn’t my favourite then, but it is one of those books you’re meant to have read, so I include it here in case… they’re all also 99p too
Slightly more expensive, at £1.99, is one of my favourite non fiction books of last year – Andrew Lownie’s Traitor King. Also £1.99 is one of my childhood favourites – A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute. The Cazalets series is one of my favourites – and my favourite of the whole series, Casting Off, is just 99p. Also an old favourite – this month Murder Must Advertise is the PeterWimsey book on offer. And the 99p Georgette Heyer is The Reluctant Widow, although loads of them are only £1.99 this month if you’re impatient and can’t wait for more to drop to 99p – you can find them via this list.
And finally, in books I haven’t read *yet* – the newest Susan Mallery The Summer Getaway and Martha Waters To Marry and To Meddle (the third in her Regency Vows series) are both 99p.
So a shorter list this week. Partly because I finished the Phryne Fisher re-read rather than read new stuff, partly because of an overnight in London where I went out, but mostly because of a nightshift on Friday, that made my brain tired and not great at concentrating, and also meant I slept through part of the weekend. What I will write about tomorrow I do not know. And we’ve got a mega heatwave continuing this week, so that may also fry my brain!
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin*
Three actual books bought and two ebooks
Bonus photo: hostel life! Before the nightshift at the end of the week, there was a night away in London at the start of the week. And things are starting to get back to normal at the hostels – this was my first time back at my second favourite/choice one since October 2021 before the Omicron wave hit.
An * next to a book title indicates that it came from NetGalley. ** indicates it was an advance copy from a source other than NetGalley
Only two “new” books on the list this week. Oopsie daisy. But I have reached a good point in the Phryne Fisher series – Death by Water (as mentioned in the cruise ship mysteries) and Dead Man’s Chest are really good. And I finished the Vicky Bliss reread (as evidenced in the series I love post!) too. And on top of that there were two nights in London, one of which was spent watching Pretty Woman: the Musical and another recovering from the strains of a day of breaking political news. It was really quite a week!
One preorder and the Persephone subscription arrived, but I didn’t make it to any bookshops during my stay in London, so that meant I managed not to buy more any *actual* books, which is good because the books incoming pile is already huge! I did however start compiling the July kindle offer post, which lead to a certain level of ebook acquisition – I think five.
Bonus photo:
There was a book fair at the church hall on Saturday! I had a good browse, but there weren’t any of my particular passions – and although there were a few books I was interested in, they all cost way too much money. It has however reminded me that I need to start compiling my lists ready for Bristol next month!
An * next to a book title indicates that it came from NetGalley. ** indicates it was an advance copy from a source other than NetGalley
