Favourite book: probably The Mitford Girls, even though I haven’t written about it yet!
Books bought: possibly slightly better than last month, but still way too many
Most read author: T P Fielden of the new stuff, but Agatha Christie and Nancy Mitford if you’re including the re-reads
Books read in 2025: 251
Books on the Goodreads to-read shelf (I don’t have copies of all of these!): 808
Another fairly solid month in reading – especially considering that the Mary Lowell Mitford book is 700 pages long and that takes time, and there aren’t a lot of short stories on this month’s list.
Bonus picture: yarn bombing in Northampton for the rugby, courtesy of my mum!
*includes some short stories/novellas/comics/graphic novels – including 1 this month!
I can’t believe it’s September already. I mean the weather last week was pretty autumnal so maybe I can believe it, but anyway, the end of the school holidays is basically here and I will try and find a silver lining in the fact that hopefully it means that Central London will be a little bit quieter soon. Any way a pretty solid week in reading given that there was a bank holiday, I went to a concert and had a night out with a friend.
I’m in denial that August is nearly over, but the weather feels like it’s starting to change for the cooler, and the very early mornings are getting darker so it must be. Most of my reading time this week was spent on The Mitford Girls – which is 700 pages long and absolutely fascinating. It really does make me want to go off and read about more the various sisters and also the people around them, but I have so much non-fiction on the pile and they do tend to get slightly ignored in favour of fiction that I shall have to try and resist the urge to purchase more! And of the rest of the reading, aside from the Christie and Heyer which were on audio, the other three books were all from the pile, so if it wasn’t for that whole situation at the National Trust bookshops last week, I would be feeling quite good about myself. As it is, the pile is still larger than it was at the start of the month, and is looming at me from the corner of the sitting room and making me feel guilty.
Breaking away from the mystery theme of the new books from the last few weeks to mention that Juliette Fay has a new book out this month. I read her novel The Tumbling Turner Sisters nearly a decade ago and it was a BotW here all of those years ago. The blurb for The Harvey Girls says it follows two women who want to become waitresses in a hospitality chain on the Santa Fe railroad. From very different backgrounds and with different motivations, both are hiding secrets and must try and overcome their dislike of each other in order to survive training and then working at a luxurious hotel at the Grand Canyon.
I thought I’d mention this because of my recent recommendsday about books set in hotels, but I don’t know how easy it will be to get hold of here. I have another of Fay’s novels on the tbr shelf waiting – but I picked it up second hand and it’s an import. And this has reminded me that I really should get around to reading that soon….
A good week – in life and in reading. We’ve wandered Norfolk, I read an entire book while sitting in a field at Sandringham waiting for bands to perform, and I’ve finished another non-fiction book – two now this month. Bravely I’ve started two more, here’s hoping they don’t end up on the long-running list…
Read:
Wigs on the Green by Nancy Mitford
Seams Like Murder by Dorothy Howell
The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie
Happy second Wednesday of the month – I’m back with the Kindle offers that I’ve spotted (and in some cases bought!).
Lets start with the fact that The Three Dahlias (aka the first in the series) is 99p this month. I really like these as you all know at this point, so if you haven’t already checked them out, now may be your time. Murder Most Royal, the third HM the Queen Investigates book is 99p, and the first two are actually in Kindle Unlimited at the moment too. And recent book of the week A Murder for Miss Hortense is 99p too which is a total bargain.
Meanwhile there are some new releases on offer too: like the new Ashley PostonSounds Like Love is 99p at the moment – this is one of the books I bought while writing this! The latest Trisha Ashley, The Book of Lost Stories, is 99p – if you’re a Trisha reader, it should be noted that this is an updated version of Lord Rayven’s Revenge which apparently has new material. If you like a pregnancy plot then Cara Bastone’s Ready or Not is 99p. Pregnancy tropes are not my thing but this one is well reviewed for those of you who are and I like other books that are in the same multi-author series/collection.
In other things I bought while writing this post, there is Carl Hiaasen‘s latest book Fever Beach for 99p, and it should be noted that one of his earlier books Razor Girl is also on offer – this is the sequel to the recently-adapted Bad Monkey. I also bought Maigret’s Holiday, because I keep picking these up when there’s an offer on one I haven’t read and it’s a hugely long series so that happens fairly often!
A pretty solid list this week, although slightly more classic crime than I was expecting! But another one off the long-running list so that’s good. And after being nudged in Waterstones the other day, I’ve got started on some of the Kennedy books on the shelf. And we had a nice weekend in Cumbria so I got to wander around one of my favourite bookshops again as well as everything else!
Well that’s a much better list than last week isn’t it. I mean it’s mostly because I was exhausted and so didn’t try and get any theatre tickets while I was staying in London and stayed in instead. And it was a bit rainy too which doesn’t exactly encourage wandering around. That said, I did wander over to Waterstones Gower Street and yes, I did buy a book and there were some Kindle offers. Ahem. But I can’t be perfect all the time…
Not going to lie when I saw all of these in Waterstones Piccadilly it made me really quite happy. And of course it made me wonder how many of them I have read. And then I started writing it and realised there were a few more I had on the pile and a few I had read but not written about so if I could just do that the post would be better. And then suddenly it’s three months later. Ahem. Anyway after having finally finished and posted the BLCC roundup that that that started (slowed by several of them ending up as Books of the Week rather than round up post fodder), here we are.
And so here we go… One the wall from clockwise top right we have He Who Whispers (read but haven’t written about), The Lost Gallows – haven’t read, Capital Crimes, Murder in the Mill Race, The Hogs Back Mystery,then two more I haven’t read (yet) It Walks by Night and Miraculous Mysteries.
Let’s start on the back row and work left to right going forward: Guilty Creatures – which I haven’t read; The Ten Teacups, The Edinburgh Mystery – haven’t read, Murder in Vienna; Death of a Bookseller; Capital Crimes again, Murder as Fine Art and Post After Post-Mortem. One the second row: The Wheel Spins – which I haven’t read but which is the book the Hitchcock movie The Lady Vanishes is based on, Tour de Force, Metropolitan Mysteries, Blood on the Train, Quick Curtain, The Cornish Coast Mystery, The Notting Hill Mystery which is one of the very first murder mystery books and which I read nearly a decade ago and Crimes of Cymru which I haven’t read and doesn’t seem to be on Kindle which may explain why that is. And on the front row The Widow of Bath, Someone from the Past, The Lake District Murder, Castle Skull, The Corpse in the Waxworks (haven’t read), The Hogs Back Mystery (again), Murder Underground (one of the very first BLCC I read) and Tea on Sunday.
And there were even more… so here we go again with the table – this time just the ones I haven’t already mentioned: Port of London Murders, Who Killed Father Christmas, Dramatic Murder, Final Acts, Death of Anton, Murder at the Manor, London Particular, Serpents in Eden, The Mysterious Mr Badman, Family Matters, Surfeit of Suspects, and Murder by the Book.
And finally – and this time just the front facing ones that I haven’t already mentioned: Continental Crimes, Settling Scores (read), The Port of London Murders, Crook O’Lune (read), The Z Murders (read but not written about), The Spoilt Kill, The Murder of My Aunt, The Santa Klaus Murder, Mr Pottermack’s Oversight, Scarweather, Sergeant Cluff Stands Firm, and Death of Anton.
Phew. Honestly, I’m pretty pleased with my hit rate on this front, but it has given me a shove to finish a few things off that I have had kicking around on the kindle and on the shelves and also made me aware of a bunch of books in the series that I didn’t know about. Expect a(nother) BLCC post in the near future I think….
Most read author: Judith Flanders – three books in the Sam Clair series.
Books bought: too many
Books read in 2025: 219
Books on the Goodreads to-read shelf (I don’t have copies of all of these!): 799
I mean I think you must be bored of me telling you that it’s been a really busy week/month at this point, because I feel like I’m always typing it. But it really is true. In July I had a work trip to Accra, two theatre trips and a concert to name but a few. And the malaria pills and the overnight flight home really wiped me out and it’s taken (is taking?!) a while to recover. But given all of that, I’m pretty pleased with the stats for the month, even if they don’t include any non-fiction books *again*. Must really try and sort that out this month. Possibly wishful thinking though.
Bonus picture: another picture from Accra.
*includes some short stories/novellas/comics/graphic novels – including 3 this month!
Verity Reads Books (lots of them) 