Category: week in books

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: March 16 – March 22

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So the week started ok, and then everything in the world changed. Again. I’m exhausted and a bit anxious and I’m sure you all are too.  I’m still working on that bonus content that I mentioned last week, but my reading mojo is quite hard to find at the moment (you’ll notice I’ve started a lot and not finished much of it because I can’t keep my focus) and I’ve already talked about a lot of the stuff I really love – and at some length. Please stay safe everyone, follow your government’s advice for where ever you are and remember that it’s not just about you, it’s about the other people that you could make ill too.

Read:

In Prior’s Wood by G M Malliet

Secrets on the Shore by Katherine Woodfine

Murder by Matchlight by E C R Lorac

Almost Just Friends by Jill Shalvis

Undercover Bromance by Lyssa Kay Adams*

Started:

Legendary Children by Tom Fitzgerald and Lorenzo Marquez

Unflappable by Susie Gilbert*

Open Book by Jessica Simpson

She-Merchants, Buchaneers and Gentlewomen by Katie Hickman

Still reading:

Anna K by Jenny Lee*

The Animals at Lockwood Manor by Jane Healy*

I bought a bunch of books and I’m not sorry about it. And a preorder or two showed up as well. In fact at these difficult times I’m not sure I’m even going to keep count.

Bonus photo: I class as a key worker (I was as surprised as you are) and I was working this weekend, so I had my hostel room booked as usual because the Sunday trains are unreliable and don’t start very early. I was a bit apprehensive about still staying because it’s usually shared rooms. Not any more – YHA has moved to one booking one room – so I had a choice of six beds, and it really brought home to me how everything is changing – I’ve been using various YHA hostels around London for at least 9 years and I’ve never had a dorm to myself. My brain could just not compute.

An * next to a book title indicates that it came from NetGalley.

Book of the Week, new releases, romance

Book of the Week: Love Hard

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Back with a romance pick this week – and a book that was new last week to boot. I’m coping with the current world situation by reading a lot of romance and mystery (because it all turns out alright in the end) and this really did what I needed a book to do last week.

Cover of Love Hard

Love Hard is the third Singh’s Hard Play series – about a set of brothers in New Zealand’s professional rugby world. Rugby star Jacob Essera is known for his calm on the field and his ability to read the game like it’s chess. Off the pitch he’s a devoted single dad to his six year old daughter Esme, who’s mum – his childhood sweetheart Callie – died when Esme was a baby.  Juliet and Callie were friends at school. Jacob and Callie, not so much – she was just his girlfriend’s bad girl friend and he was her friend’s boring boyfriend. These days she’s all grown up and is building a sucessful business career. her only problem is her ex-husband – a pro-cricketer and tabloid magnet who seems determined to keep her name in the gossip columns.  When the two of them end up working together on an ad campaign, an uneasy truce turns into friendship and sparks start flying. But will they be able to find their way to a happy ending?

Well, duh, of course they will, because this is a romance. I loved the characters, I loved the world and I loved the way that Jake takes care of his daughter. I loved the way that Jake and Callie’s relationship built and the way Callie approached being part of their family.  I’m all about strong families in books – be they blood families or found families and this really delivered on that. On the sport front, I’m a casual rugby watcher -when-its-on-and-a-big-match rather than a proper fan, and I had to do a bit of googling because some of the positions have different names in NZ, but it’s not a big issue.  If not familiar with rugby at all, you’ll either be a googler or you won’t mind and will just go with the flow (a bit like I do with hockey or basketball romances!).  If you’re a fan, you’ll know what the positions are obviously, but I’m not knowledgeable enough to tell you how good the passages about action are – but they’re not a big part of the plot anyway – it’s more about knowing what Jacob’s status is in the sports and celebrity world.

Nalini Singh is fairly prolific in romance terms, but this was my first of hers – mostly because I don’t really read a lot of paranormal or urban fantasy romance and that is where she primarily writes – but I do like sports romances (as I have discovered recently). I’ll be keeping my eye out for the previous two books in the series – and watching out for the final brother’s book.  My copy came from NetGalley, but Love Hard is available now in Kindle and Kobo, as well as in paperback although I suspect that won’t be in the shops in the UK at least.

Happy Reading!

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: March 9 – March 15

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A slightly better week in general. I mean it’s still very stressful and anxiety inducing, but I’m operating more as normal. Not quite the normal list, but better than last week and some really good stuff here. I’m plotting some bonus posts too so watch out for some extra content coming soon.

Read:

American Sweethearts by Adriana Herrera*

The Five-Year Plan by Carla Burgess*

Death Stops the Frolic by George Bellairs*

Unfrazzle by Stephanie Lam

Murder in the Mill Race by E C R Lorac

Love Hard by Nalini Singh*

Started:

The Animals at Lockwood Manor by Jane Healy*

In Prior’s Wood by G M Malliet

Still reading:

Anna K by Jenny Lee*

Two ebooks bought – but for my sister so they don’t count right? – and a preorder of Greg Jenner’s new book, which I am so excited to read.

Bonus photo: some of my ebook stockpiling in case of need…

An * next to a book title indicates that it came from NetGalley.

Book of the Week, memoirs

Book of the Week: You Gotta Get Bigger Dreams

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I said yesterday that I wasn’t sure if there would be a BotW pick this week, but I had a think and had a write and this is what I came up with. It seemed a shame not to have a book of the week post for the week that included world book week – even if I didn’t have the greatest week and it had an impact on my reading. But You Gotta Get Bigger Dreams perked me up last week when I was feeling a bit blue and stressed so here we have it.

You Gotta Get Bigger Dreams is a coffee table book with a bit of extra. It’s a set of picture essays about moments in the actor and singer’s life. Depending on your age you’ll know Cumming from GoldenEye, the first batch of X-Men movies, The Good Wife or his work on stage – notably as the MC in the revival of Cabaret. If you’re a certain age and British, you may remember him from his sitcom about a minor Scottish airline, The High Life. His life has been eventful and this gives you snapshot glimpses of it all – from his difficult relationship with his dad, to his fragrance range (Including a body wash called Cumming all over) to meeting Liz Taylor and being friends with Liza Minnelli. Cumming has picked his stories carefully and it feels gossipy and revealing as you read it, but is actually very cleverly picking what it’s divulging. He has written a memoir about his relationship with his father which was painful and difficult and this is not that and I don’t think covers much of the same material at all – it’s more about the different facets of Cumming’s life and the pictures he’s taken of it.

I bought this when I saw Cumming in concert in London a few years ago*, which is why the book is signed and it had a fairly similar mix of stories to that gig – which was lovely and brought back the memories of that night in the theatre. I’m not ruling out reading Cumming’s memoir about discovering his real family history when he went on Who Do You Think You Are (even after hearing the story from the video below) but that wasn’t what I needed last week – and this was.

This one might be a little tougher to get hold of than some of my other picks because it is a couple of years old now, but Amazon tells me that it has hardcover copies in stock. It’s also available in Kindle and as an audiobook, but the photos are such an integral part of this that I can’t imagine that it would work anywhere near as well without them alongside at the least.

Happy Reading!

*I found the ticket for that concert tucked in this book and was shocked, shocked I tell you, to discover how long this has been on the to-read pile.

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: March 2- March 8

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So this week got away from me somewhat. Can’t really explain what happened, except that my brain was frazzled and all I could cope with was binge watching old seasons of Drag Race on Netflix. There may or may not be a BotW post tomorrow – it depends if I can actually write more than a sentence about any of these. Fingers crossed this week is better.

Read:

You Gotta Get Bigger Dreams by Alan Cumming

Love and Other Scandals by Caroline Linden

A Warning by Anonymous

Aunty Lee’s Chilled Revenge by Ovidia Yu

Started:

American Sweethearts by Adriana Herrera*

Unfrazzle by Stephanie Lam

Still reading:

The Five-Year Plan by Carla Burgess*

Anna K by Jenny Lee*

A couple of books bought for me, a whole bunch bought for other people. I can’t work out if that is progress or not!

Bonus photo: it was World Book Day this week, so here’s a shelfie of some of the collectables and some of the favourites.

An * next to a book title indicates that it came from NetGalley.

Book of the Week, detective

Book of the Week: Answer in the Negative

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Another week, another crime pick. I know. Sue me. At least I read this in March so that makes it one crime recommendation a month which is not quite so bad. Or am I grasping at straws? It wasn’t even the only classic crime book I read last week – I also read Seven Dead by J Jefferson Farjeon, which is another in the British Library Crime Classics series, which I have recommended a lot. This one however is from Agora books, who are also have a lot of more forgotten mid-century crime on their lists, including the Inspector Appleby series, which I have read a couple of, and some of the lesser known Margery Allinghams. Anyway, I stumbled across  this little gem last week and I’m unreasonably annoyed that none of the author’s other books seem to be available anywhere.

Answer in the Negative is a 1950s-set murder mystery, featuring a crime solving couple. It’s not the first in the series as it turns out, so I’m not quite sure how they came to be a thing, but Johnny is an ex-Commando and Sally is his wife. His family have a shop that sells books and he works there when he’s not solving mysteries. This particular mystery is a poison pen set in the National Press Archives on Fleet Street. Toby Lorn, a friend of the couple, asks them to investigate letters that are being sent to one of the archive assistants. Frank Morningside is not popular in the office, so the pool of suspects is fairly large. As well as increasingly nasty letters, there have been schoolboy-style pranks.  Johnny and Sally start investigating at the archives, posing as researchers, but just days into the investigation, things take a sinister turn.

This is a well put together mystery, which a good and varied cast of characters. I really like office-set mysteries – Murder Must Advertise is one of my favourite of the Peter Wimsey series. You get to find out what working life was like in the period and I like that there’s a cast of characters to draw from a bit like a country house mystery. But unlike country house mysteries the cast tends to be a bit more varied – less toffs with a grudge, more people from across the social spectrum. This is no exception – you’ve got office boys, young women on the lookout for a husband, stuffy spinsters, ex-soldiers and more. It makes for an intriguing mystery and although I developed suspicions about the culprit it has plenty of twists to keep you guessing. My only real problem with it was that it felt like it was set in the interwar period – whereas actually it was set in the 1950s. If it wasn’t for mentions of bombsites and the fact that Johnny was a Commando (who were only created in World War II) it could have been in an office two doors down from Pym’s Publicity.

This edition Answer is in the Negative came out towards the end of February, and I read it via Kindle Unlimited, but it’s also available to buy on Kindle. I can’t seen any other editions (except for super-pricey secondhand/collectible ones) and I can’t find it on Kobo either sadly. But if you’re a Kindle reader – especially one with unlimited – it’s worth it. I’m hoping that the recent release date means that more of the series will appear at some point too.

Happy Reading!

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: February 23 – March 1

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I finished the last of the longrunners! It’s been a bit of a week – three nights away from home for work (including one in Manchester), but managed to get a bit of reading in – especially on the trains. Anther busy week coming up – I’ll keep you posted. And in case you missed it yesterday, here’s the February stats.

Read:

The Case of the Drowned Pearl by Robin Stevens

Ask Me No Questions by Shelley Noble*

Morning Glories Vol 1 by Nick Spencer et al

Seven Dead by J Jefferson Farjeon

The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

Bellweather Rhapsody by Kate Racculia

Year of the Mad King by Antony Sher

Answer in the Negative by Henrietta Hamilton

Started:

The Five-Year Plan by Carla Burgess*

Anna K by Jenny Lee*

Still reading:

n/a

No books bought for once, although I bought quite a lot in February so I can’t be too smug!

Bonus photo: the obligatory Salford photo!

An * next to a book title indicates that it came from NetGalley.

Book of the Week

Book of the Week: The Colour of Murder

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Another week, another crime pick, and another British Library Crime pick, so what if it’s been less than a month since I last picked one – I couldn’t help myself because this was so clever and so readable.

The Colour of Murder is told in two parts. The first, Before, is a psychiatric report on John Wilkins. Told in his own words, it sets out his life, his unhappiness in his marriage and his job, his mysterious blackouts when he drinks, and his flirtation with a local woman. The second part, After, is the story of Wilkins’ trial for murder. It’s really unusual for a murder mystery in that for half of the book you don’t know who the victim is and you also don’t see any detection at all. And that is beauty of it – it lets you draw your own conclusions – or perhaps more accurately make your own assumptions – all the while adding more details and information.

It’s quite hard to talk about this book because it would be easy to say too much, but I don’t think it’s giving away a lot to say that John is a massively unlikeable man. He’s unhappy in almost every part of his life, but you don’t really feel much sympathy for his because he’s so awful even in his own words. His wife isn’t much more likeable according to him, but she has all the disadvantages of being viewed through his self-obsessed eyes – as well as suffering from the lack of opportunity and independence that a stay at home wife had in the 1950s. 

I absolutely raced through this, it’s not long but it’s also a massive page-turner. The writing is so clever that I kept changing my mind about what was happening. I read it via Kindle Unlimited but it’s also available to buy from all the usual sources.

Happy Reading!

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: February 17 – February 23

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A really bookish week – but lots of nights spent away from home, which affected the reading somewhat.  Had a wonderful time on Monday night listening to Ben Aaronovitch talk to Temi Oh about Rivers of London and his writing. I nearly got all the still reading books finished – but then I had to head down to London ready for more earlies on Monday – and my copy of Bellweather Rhapsody is a hardback and I didn’t have space in my luggage, so that didn’t happen. Next week…

Read:

An Unsuitable Woman by Cat Gordon

Room Service by Rochelle Ayers

What Would Wimsey Do? by Guy Fraser-Sampson

Meat Cute by Gail Carriger

Tiny Habits by BJ Fogg*

The Colour of Murder by Julian Symons

Started:

Ask Me No Questions by Shelley Noble*

Year of the Mad King by Antony Sher

Still reading:

Bellweather Rhapsody by Kate Racculia

Three books bought – one impulse purchase online, and then at Foyles for the Ben Aaronovitch talk, I bought a hardback copy of False Value so I could get it signed – even though all my other copies are paperback so it won’t match – and I bought Temi Oh’s Do You Dream of Terra Two too. And then four ebooks bought – including Guards! Guards! which doesn’t really count because I’ve already read it, but I wanted a kindle copy because I love it and it was on offer, Meat Cute (which you can see up above I’ve already read because I have been waiting for this for so long) and She Said by Jodi Cantor and Megan Twohey because that was also on offer, and having read Ronan Farrow’s book about Harvey Weinstein, I want to read theirs too.

Bonus photo: from the aforementioned Ben Aaronovitch and Temi Oh chat at Foyles. They have signed copies of False Value if you want them…

Ben Aaronovitch and Temi Oh at Foyles

An * next to a book title indicates that it came from NetGalley.

Book of the Week, non-fiction

Book of the Week: Burnout

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Burnout is a topic on lots of people’s minds.  Anne Helen Peterson‘s essay about Millennial Burnout just over year ago started a conversation – and she has been writing a book about the subject ever since (it’s due out in September). This week’s book of the week looks at female burnout and stress.

The blurb for this is: “This groundbreaking book explains why women experience burnout differently than men – and provides a simple, science-based plan to help women minimize stress, manage emotions and live a more joyful life. The gap between what it’s really like to be a woman and what people expect women to be is a primary cause of burnout, because we exhaust ourselves trying to close the space between the two.” I think this is quite an accurate description of what is inside the book without sounding either too way out or too serious. Emily and Amelia are identical twins – Amelia is a choral director and Emily is a sex educator and between them they explain the science and emotions behind female burnout.

As has been noted in the past, I have mixed results with self help and self improvement type books, but I actually found this really quite helpful. To use an Americanism, it’s quite validating in some ways to see things that you have experienced or suspected talked about in a “proper” book. I particularly liked the section on the stress cycle and how dealing with your stress doesn’t necessary mean actually solving the problem that is causing you stress per se but actually finishing the cycle and releasing the stress somehow. I’ve already started implementing some of the ideas from this, although I actually need to sit down with some of the worksheets on other areas.

I’m also midway through reading Tiny Habits at the moment and the two are proving to be quite a good pairing for me. One is tackling my stress, the other one is helping me figure out how to change a few things about my life without increasing my stress with unrealistic goals or trying to do too much too fast.

My copy of Burnout came via NetGalley, but you should be able to order it from all good bookseller or buy an ebook copy from all the usual sources (Kindle, Kobo). And if you like this, I’ve also read Emily Nagoski’s other book Come As You Are abut female sexuality. And if you’re not quite sure if this is one for you, there are episodes of the Smart Bitches Trashy Books podcast for each book with interviews with Emily (both) and Amelia (for Burnout), which will give you a bit of an overview – here’s the Burnout one, this is Come As You Are (NB it’s at times like this I realise how long I’ve been listening to Smart Bitches!).

Happy Reading!

Bonus photo: the very boring kindle cover – hence my use of the Apple Books cover up-post!