Category: week in books

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: November 21 – November 27

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Another super busy week – I’m beginning to think that’s the only sort of weeks that I have these days. Anyway, some interesting reading, one off the long running list and progress made on some of the others. It’s nearly December too, so as well as the usual end of month posts, I’ve been working on all the Christmas content. My Buy me a book for Christmas post is the first of them, but there is much more to come!

Read:

On the Hustle by Adriana Herrera*

An Act of Foul Play by TE Kinsey*

Snowed in for Christmas by Sarah Morgan*

Crook O’Lune by ECR Lorac

Murder on a Summer’s Day by Frances Brody

Beginner’s Luck by Kate Clayborn

Jane Fills the Breach by Bessie Marchant

Started:

Green for Danger by Christianna Brand

A Sunlit Weapon by Jacqueline Winspear

Still reading:

Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead

Going With the Boys by Judith Mackrell

The Inverts by Crystal Jeans

The Empire by Michael Ball*

Travellers in the Third Reich by Julia Boyd

Well, there were a few books bought – because as as I said in Buy Me a Book, I did buy a fair few things while putting it together.

Bonus photo: the houseplant obsession continues – one of my friends brought me some cuttings, which I carefully nurtured on my desk for three days before I could take them home. Hopefully they survived the journey…

An * next to a book title indicates that it came from NetGalley. ** indicates it was an advance copy from a source other than NetGalley.

Book of the Week

Book of the Week: The Last Hero

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A bit of a different direction for this week’s pick. In fact I had plenty of options to chose from, so as there aren’t a lot of Terry Pratchett things I haven’t already read and even less of them in the Discworld, I’ve taken a rare opportunity.

This is a graphic novel about Cohen the Barbarian’s final quest – and the efforts of the wizards of Ankh Morpork to stop him before it leads to the end of the world. Cohen first appeared in The Light Fantastic and is leader of the Silver Hoarde – a band of elderly barbarian heroes. At the start of the Last Hero, Cohen and his friends are fed up of the infirmities that come with their advancing age so decide to climb to the top of the highest mountain on the Discworld and meet the gods that live there. Of course this isn’t all they want to do when they get there and therein lies the problem.

This isn’t long, but it is a lot of fun – partly because story features so many the side-ish regular characters that it’s always a delight to see again. It’s hard to say too much without giving the plot away, but obviously there is Vetinari, and also some of the key figures from the Unseen University, including Rincewind. And of course it is beautifully illustrated. I do love Paul Kidby’s Discworld art – I mean I have a print of his Errol the Dragon artwork on my wall at home – and there are some lovely extra touches here as well as the illustrations that tell the story. Basically it’s a lovely way to spend some time.

I bought my copy in paperback form, because that’s how I like to read stuff with illustrations, but it is available on Kindle and Kobo, although your experience with that may depend on what sort of reader you have to read it on.

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: November 14 – November 20

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Well that was an interesting week. Another few nights away from home off the back of my weekend at the skating and an evening at the theatre on top of all the usual stuff and the bits I already mentioned. Oh and the Cowboys won on Sunday. And as I think you can probably tell from the list, a good week in reading even if, once again, I failed to reduce the length of the still reading list. This week. I will do better this week.

Read:

Murder Most Royal by S J Bennett*

Better Than Fiction by Alexa Martin

That Summer by Lauren Willig

Death on the Riviera by John Bude

The Last Hero by Terry Pratchett, illustrated by Paul Kidby

Chester House Wins Through by Irene Smith

Shop Wrecked by Olivia Dade

Started:

Murder on a Summer’s Day by Frances Brody

Travellers in the Third Reich by Julia Boyd

Still reading:

On the Hustle by Adriana Herrera*

Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead

Going With the Boys by Judith Mackrell

The Inverts by Crystal Jeans

The Empire by Michael Ball*

Snowed in for Christmas by Sarah Morgan*

Yeah, so I bought some books. All will be revealed in due course on the kindle front, but also my Olivia Dade turned up and the Terry Pratchett graphic novel. What a week.

Bonus photo: Thursday night at the London Palladium with Jinkx Monsoon and BenDeLaCreme.

An * next to a book title indicates that it came from NetGalley. ** indicates it was an advance copy from a source other than NetGalley.

Book of the Week, detective, Fantasy, Forgotten books

Book of the Week: Fire in the Thatch

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I read two British Library Crime Classics last week, and it was a tough choice between the two – both of which are within the statute of limitations according to my own rules, but I’m going with Fire in the Thatch, because I read it quickest and I do like Lorac’s style – it’s so easy to read.

It’s towards the end of the Second World War, and a service man who has been invalided out of the forces takes a tenancy on a thatched cottage in rural Devon. Vaughan sets about putting the cottage and land in order, seemingly ready to make his life there. His landlord is a local farmer, whose son has been taken prisoner and has invited his daughter in law and baby grandson to come and live with them. But June is bored of the country and its company, and invites her friends to stay nearby, disturbing the peace of the rural idyll. And then Vaughan’s cottage burns down and one of his friends refuses to believe that it’s an accident. Inspector Macdonald is sent down from London to investigate whether there was a motive for murder.

Setting aside that I really liked the victim and wanted him not to be dead (it’s so much easier in a murder mystery when the victim is awful isn’t it?) this is a clever and twisty mystery, where I had figured out the who of the solution but not quite the why. Some of the motivation is a little of its time – sorry can’t explain more than that because of spoilers – but it’s not really any wilder than some of the stuff that goes on in some of the Girls Own stuff I read so I was prepared to go with it.

MacDonald is Lorac’s regular detective and his is calm and methodical and although you don’t always see much of his personality or personal life, he still manages to be engaging to the reader. This is one of a long series, not all of which are available on Kindle, but I’ve already written about several others – including Post After Post Mortem, These Names Make Clues and Murder By Matchlight.

Fire in the Thatch is £2.99 on Kindle at the moment in the BLCC edition, but there is another version for 99p, if you can live with the fact that the author’s name is spelt wrong on the cover. This is also the only version that I can find on Kobo. But the BLCCs do slowly rotate through Kindle Unlimited, so it may comethrough at some point. Several of the other Lorac’s are in KU at the moment though if you want to read them instead.

Happy reading!

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: November 7 – November 13

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So, the list has been impacted by a couple of things – the fact that I was away from home for two nights at the start of the week, then I spent the whole weekend watching figure skating – and when you’re at the rink from 8am until after half past ten at night, that doesn’t leave a lot of time for reading! But it was so amazing. Also, I realised at the start of the week that I have the first two books in the S J Bennett series, so I went back to read them first before carrying on with Murder Most Royal.

Read:

Seat of the Scornful by John Dickson Carr

The Windsor Knot by S J Bennett

Death of a Shadow by George Bellairs

A Three Dog Problem by S J Bennett

Fire in the Thatch by E C R Lorac

Started:

Better Than Fiction by Alexa Martin

Still reading:

On the Hustle by Adriana Herrera*

Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead

Going With the Boys by Judith Mackrell

The Inverts by Crystal Jeans

The Empire by Michael Ball*

Snowed in for Christmas by Sarah Morgan*

Murder Most Royal by S J Bennett*

One book bought, in Foyles at the start of the week…

Bonus photo: have a selfie of me at the skating – because all my live action pictures were terrible!

Bonus bonus: have a video of my favourite performance of the weekend – Latvia’s Deniss Vasiljevs skating his Free (long) programme as well as I’ve ever seen him skate.

An * next to a book title indicates that it came from NetGalley. ** indicates it was an advance copy from a source other than NetGalley.

Book of the Week, reviews

Book of the Week: Carrie Soto is Back

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I know, I know. I’ve already mentioned this a few times, and it was on the reading list for a while, so why is this book of the week now I’ve finally finished it? Well firstly, take a look at it: it’s a hardback. And that should explain why it’s taken me a while to read – I don’t take books in my work rucksack these days because I have a laptop in there but I especially don’t take hardbacks around because they get so battered and also hardbacks are just harder to read than paperbacks are – speaking as an integrate eat-and-read person, you cannot read a hardback while you eat your lunch!

Carrie Soto was the best tennis player in the world. When she retired at the end of the 1980s, she had the all time grand slam record. But just six years later, that record is about to be broken- so she decides to make a comeback to take back her crown and prove that she’s the best of all time. But being the best tennis player in the world is much harder when you’re in your late 30s and harder still when it feels like no one wants you to succeed.

Carrie is not a sweet and fluffy tennis player: the media nicknamed her The Battleaxe basically because she did things that in a man would have been celebrated, but women aren’t meant to do. Like saying you’re going to crush your opponents. And admitting that you were targeting an opponent’s injury. And her singular focus means that she’s not always easy to like as she creates a world where it’s her against everyone else – but you’re shown her history and her family so you get why she is the way she is and you’re hoping that someone will come along and break through her protective shell.

Carrie popped up as a secondary character in Malibu Rising and it’s amazing how much you end up rooting for her in this, given what she was up to in that. Taylor Jenkins Reid has said that is the final book in this particular universe and this is another story about a woman who is unapologetic about her ambition and wants to live life in her own way and on her terms. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about the themes across the four books – The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Daisy Jones and the Six, Malibu Rising and this – and that’s sort of where I’ve come down: they all look at women challenging the status quo in some way, but they’re all very different stories and told in different ways. Like the first two books, there is a lot here where you can pick which real life tennis players have provided some inspiration for various people and the world feels so real by the end of it you can’t quite believe that none of it is real. Excellent, engrossing reading – perfect for a sun lounger, if only you don’t buy the hardback version!

You should be able to get this basically anywhere. Seriously. I think it’s been front and centre in every book shop I have recently featured. And of course it’s in all the ebook formats too.

Happy reading!

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: October 31 – November 6

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Check it out! I’ve finished some of those long running books. I finally had some time at home with the physical books. And I would have done even better, except that I had a migraine on Thursday last week that basically led to me sleeping for 16 hours and spending as much time as possible in a darkened room. I have another busy week coming up this week, but I am optimistic.

Read:

The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatio Sancho by Paterson Joseph*

My Evil Mother by Margaret Atwood

Dashing through the Snowbirds by Donna Andrews

Drumsticks by Charlotte Carter

Murder at the Manor by Catherine Coles

Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Mercury Pictures Presents by Anthony Marra*

Started:

Murder Most Royal by S J Bennett*

On the Hustle by Adriana Herrera*

Still reading:

Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead

Going With the Boys by Judith Mackrell

The Inverts by Crystal Jeans

The Empire by Michael Ball*

Snowed in for Christmas by Sarah Morgan*

I don’t think I actually bought anything this week. Unless I bought something I have forgotten about, there’s no evidence of purchases in my inbox either.

Bonus photo: in a massive role reversal, I went to listen to my parents play in a concert with their band on Sunday night. They spent many years coming and listening to me playing with school bands, county bands and community bands and now it’s my turn to watch them! They both took up an instrument when they stopped working full time – and it was really cool to see them in action.

An * next to a book title indicates that it came from NetGalley. ** indicates it was an advance copy from a source other than NetGalley.

Book of the Week, romance

Book of the Week: When Stars Collide

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We’ve made it to November – the year is nearly over. And I’ve got all the usual goodies this week for the end of the month – quick reviews tomorrow, stats later in the week and book of the week today when I’m back in my happy place of romance.

When Stars Collide is the latest in the Chicago Stars series – about players at a (fictional) NFL team in the Windy City. I’ve mentioned these before – as many of them are variants on my favourite enemies to lovers trope and this is no exception. And there’s no actual football in this really as all the action takes off in the off season.

Our football player is Thad, the team’s back up quarterback, who has had been sent out on a publicity tour for a luxury watch brand who sponsor the team. Unfortunately, there is someone else on the tour too: Olivia, an internationally renowned opera singer. He thinks she’s a diva, she thinks he’s an uncultured jock and has a grudge against him. But of course over the course of the tour things change. Because this is a romance!

This has got a bit of a suspense plot line to it – maybe more minor peril than actual romantic suspense but it adds a little extra something to the romance plot, although I would say don’t expect it to follow the Rules of mystery stories if that makes sense and isn’t too much of a spoiler. I really liked that Thad was never rude about opera – in fact he likes Olivia’s singing right from first hearing it – and that both of their careers are taken equally seriously. I’m fed up with romances where one or other of the partnership abandons all their long held career dreams because: love. This is definitely not that. What it is is a well put together romance with an interesting hero and heroine with just enough obstacles in their way for the reader to understand why it takes them a whole book to get together.

When Stars Collide is currently £1.99 on Kindle and Kobo. I suspect you probably won’t be able to get hold of it in a shop without ordering it it as it’s order only on Foyles website and has a two week lead time. But it should be orderable from your local if you want it.

Happy reading!

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: October 24 – October 30

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So as you’ll see, there is a massive Harper Connelly binge as the start of the week and a weekend away at the end of it. And I still managed to get some other stuff read and made progress on the long runners even if you can’t tell that from the list. So it’s a net yay me. And this is the end of October, so we have all the usual things coming up this week for your delectation.

Read:

Grave Sight by Charlaine Harris

Grave Surprise by Charlaine Harris

Ice Cold Grave by Charlaine Harris

Grave Secret by Charlaine Harris

The Hog’s Back Mystery by Freeman Willis Crofts

Rooted in Deceit by Wendy Tyson

Some Hauntings Never Go Out of Fashion by Rose Betancourt

When Stars Collide by Susan Elizabeth Philips

Started:

Snowed in for Christmas by Sarah Morgan*

Dashing through the Snowbirds by Donna Andrews

Still reading:

Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead

Going With the Boys by Judith Mackrell

Mercury Pictures Presents by Anthony Marra*

Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid

The Inverts by Crystal Jeans

The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatio Sancho by Paterson Joseph*

The Empire by Michael Ball*

One book bought – but I was going on holiday so it’s practically a requirement!

Bonus photo: some monastic ruins and historic buildings out the back of Canterbury Cathedral cloister. I love a good cathedral.

An * next to a book title indicates that it came from NetGalley. ** indicates it was an advance copy from a source other than NetGalley.

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: October 17 – October 23

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So I spent five nights away from home last week. Five. And that’s probably all you need to know about why the list looks like it does. Still I achieved a lot in the real world – even if I didn’t in the actual reading – so I can’t be cross with myself. I even know what I’m writing about tomorrow already so that’s a bonus too.

Read:

Death in the Tunnel by Miles Burton

A Mansion for Murder by Frances Brody

Double Dip by Gretchen Archer

Cherry Ames: Boarding School Nurse by Helen Wells

Heartstopper: Vol 3 by Alice Oseman

Started:

The Hog’s Back Mystery by Freeman Willis Crofts

Still reading:

Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead

Going With the Boys by Judith Mackrell

Mercury Pictures Presents by Anthony Marra*

Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid

The Inverts by Crystal Jeans

The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatio Sancho by Paterson Joseph*

The Empire by Michael Ball*

I went to Foyles and bought two books – including that new Kate Shackleton that i mentioned on Friday and have now finished. I also picked up the new Marian Keyes because it was a Kindle deal on Sunday. Apart from that, I’ve been very restrained!

Bonus photo: two bonuses this week – here’s me and my friends out playing mini golf on Tuesday – swipe through to see me celebrating and possible the best photo of me in half a decade. And then check out the flowers I got at the school I visited as a speaker at their careers day on Friday!

An * next to a book title indicates that it came from NetGalley. ** indicates it was an advance copy from a source other than NetGalley.