Category: week in books

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: October 14 -October 20

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It has been a week. I mean if you live in the UK I’m sure you’re well aware, but for those of you in the rest of the world, let me tell you, it has been a ride.  And I’ve been at work for a lot of it.  Consequently not a lot of reading has happened and I’ve had trouble finding stuff to read that fitted my mood, but a bit of stress-related book-buying has happened.  Tant pis.  On the brightside, I’ve started the Christmas-themed reading, which makes me somewhat better organised than I was last year.  Or better organised *at the moment* at least.

Read:

The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith

A Bollywood Affair by Sonali Dev

The Christmas Sisters by Sarah Morgan

Vacationland by John Hodgman

Started:

Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith

The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street by Karina Yan Glaser

Still reading:

Wayward Son by Rainbow Rowell

The Last of August by Brittany Cavallaro

My Friend Anna by Rachel DeLoache Williams

Two books bought. One more pre-order arrived – after some aggressive chasing of a certain multinational mega-company who took my order in June, emailed me last week to say it wasn’t going to dispatch until November and yet had it as available with Prime on their website on release day. Colour me unimpressed.  I like to pre-order books from authors that I really like because it helps them with their publishers.  But I really wish the aforementioned company did their pre-order price guarantee on ebook orders because it would be so much easier all around.

Bonus photo: Sunday night dinner, as prepared by Him Indoors – the dish we call Coq O’ven – because it’s Coq au vin done in the oven.  The recipe is from The Roasting Tin which, along with its two sequels, is in frequent rotation chez nous.

 

A roasting tin with chicken dish

 

 

Book of the Week

Book of the Week: Next Year in Havana

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It’s definitely starting to feel distinctly wintery here, and I’m being drawn to books about sunnier climes to counter act the gloom of the days shortening and the lack of sunlight.  So this week’s BotW pick is one that took me away from the damp of a British late-autumn and to the warmth of Cuba – but don’t worry, this isn’t a sunny beach read.

Cover of Next Year in Havana

Marisol Ferrera is on her way to Cuba for the first time.  She’s grown up on stories of the land her grandmother was forced to flee. Now with the easing of travel restrictions for Americans, she’s on her way to the country she’s heard so much about ostensibly to write an article for tourists, but with her grandmother’s ashes hidden in her luggage to fulfil her dying wish to return home.  But Cuba has changed a lot in the 60 years that have passed, and there are family secrets waiting to be uncovered. Back in 1958 Elisa Perez was a debutante, the daughter of a sugar baron and sheltered from the unrest sweeping the nation.  But that all changes when she starts an affair with a revolutionary who is fighting alongside Fidel Castro.

I liked both women and I was swept away by Cuba – in both time lines.  I do love a bit of last-days-before-it-all-comes-crashing-down society sometimes – all that doomed glamour and obliviousness; but actually modern day Cuba was just as intriguing – a country held in stasis, where you had to know the right people and say the right things to get on or else survive by your own ingenuity and cunning.  Which ever way there’s a lot of personal risk involved.  I will admit that I was a little worried that there was no way for there to be a satisfactory resolution to Marisol’s story, but actually it really pulled it off. I finished the book really wanting to visit to Cuba – but even more conflicted about doing that than I had been previously.

We all know that I love a dual timeline novel and I’ve had a fancy to read this since I first first heard about it, which I think (like it often is) was when Chanel Cleeton was a guest on the Smart Bitches, Trashy Books podcast back on episode 284 in early 2018.  And yes, it’s taken me this long to get around to getting hold of a copy and reading it.  In between it’s become a Reese Witherspoon book club pick and was a Goodreads choice award nominee for historical fiction last year. And actually it pretty much lived up to the hype, which isn’t always the case with books like this and as my Goodreads reviews will attest.  It was a period of history I don’t really know a huge amount about – beyond having studies the Bay of Pigs and the Cuban Missile Crisis during GSCE history and it was nice to be swept up into a different era and a different culture – I’ve read a lot of European-set dual timeline novels (particularly recently) and it’s not often that I venture as close to the present day as the 1950s for novels like this so it was a refreshing change all around.

My copy of Next Year in Havana came from the library, but you can get hold of a copy on Kindle, Kobo or in paperback from somewhere like Book Depository.  I’m not sure how easy it will be to find in stores, Amazon say they can despatch it really quickly but Foyles say they can order it but it will take about a week, which makes me wonder if it’s an American import.  I’ve already got Cleeton’s next novel on hold at the library.

Happy Reading!

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: October 7 -October 13

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A real mix of reading this week – with everything from graphic novels aimed at middle graders to prize winning translated fiction with romance and Hollywood history in between.

Read:

Next Year in Havana by Chanel Cleeton

The Castle on Sunset by Shaun Levy

Lumberjanes Vol 10 by Shannon Waters et al

Backstagers Vol 1 by James Tynion IV et al

The Age of Light by Whitney Scharer

The Order of the Day by Eric Vuillard

Meet Cute by Helena Hunting

Started:

The Last of August by Brittany Cavallaro

The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith

My Friend Anna by Rachel DeLoache Williams

Still reading:

Wayward Son by Rainbow Rowell

Four books bought, no ebooks.  And one of the books was a book that had been recommended to me earlier in the week and that I then spotted in the charity shop serendipitously, so I can hardly be blamed for that right?

Bonus photo: my first attempt at flower arranging. I need help. Is there a book for that?

badly arranged flowers in a vase...

 

American imports, Book of the Week, memoirs, non-fiction, Uncategorized

Book of the Week: Southern Lady Code

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I had a really lovely week of reading again last week. And there were difficult choices for book of the week this week, but actually I haven’t picked a book of essays in a while and this one was just delicious.

Cover of Southern Lady Code

I wrote about American Housewife back in 2016 and I’ve been waiting for more from her ever since.  American Housewife was a short story collection though, and this a bit different. Across more than twenty essays, Ellis examines what it means to her to be a Southern Lady – and in particular what it’s like to be a Southern Lady living in Manhattan.  Her mantra is “If you don’t have something nice to say, say something not-so-nice in a nice way” and there are a lot of laughs to be had because of this, but there are also ghosts, retro buffets, cleaning as a method of keeping the spark in a marriage and how to shop for a formal event.  It’s funny, clever and true – or at least mostly true. Probably.  But basically Helen Ellis makes me laugh.  I’m not a Southern lady, and I’m a bit younger than Ellis, but there was so much here that amused me and spoke to me.

If you like wry sideways takes on American life, this would make a great addition to your autumn reading list. It was definitely worth waiting two months in the hold queue for it.

As you might guess from that, my copy of Southern Lady Code came from the library, but I’ll be buying myself a copy when it’s out in paperback here. It’s available in hardback, kindle and kobo.

Happy Reading!

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: September 30 – October 6

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I’m really trying hard to ration myself and read Wayward Son nice and slowly.  Really slowly.  Make it last.  This was derailed this week by the arrival of my signed, special edition hardback, which has caused me no end of problems and worries – because I ordered it so long ago it was going to the old house, and Waterstones don’t let you change delivery addresses.  Nightmare.  Luckily our old house and our new one are so close together that we have the same postman and he is a Good Guy.  Phew.

Read:

The Allingham Minibus by Margery Allingham

Love and Ruin by Paula McLain

Southern Lady Code by Helen Ellis

Mrs Hemingway by Naomi Wood

Asterix in Britain by Goscinny and Uderzo

Asterix and Caesar’s Gift by Goscinny and Uderzo

Lumberjanes Vol 9: On A Roll by Shannon Waters et al

Who Is Vera Kelly by Rosalie Knecht

The Girls of Atomic City by Denise Kiernan

Started:

Next Year in Havana by Chanel Cleeton

The Age of Light by Whitney Scharer

Still reading:

Wayward Son by Rainbow Rowell

Bonus photo: my lovely copy of Wayward Son.  Isn’t it pretty…

collage of pictures of signed hardcover Wayward Son - with flowery edges, flowery cover under the dustjacket and lovely endbards

 

American imports, Book of the Week, Young Adult

Book of the Week: Autoboyography

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So, a mixed week of reading last week. Some stuff you’ll be hearing more of. Some you… won’t. But I did finally find my copy of Autoboyography, which had been MIA since the house move back at the end of July, and managed to get time to sit down and read it and i enjoyed it so much that it’s this week’s BotW.

Paperback copy of Autoboyography

Tanner Scott’s life was different when he lived in California. At his school there it was ok there to be bisexual and he was out and proud. But when he moved to Provo, Utah, drinking caffeine became controversial, let alone liking boys, so he’s temporarily back in the closet in his overwhelmingly Mormon new community. With one semester left of high school he signs up for The Seminar, an honor roll only class where the students aim to write a book in four months. How complicated can it be? It turns out, very because the first thing he notices in class is Sebastian Brother, bishop’s son and star student from the previous year’s Seminar: a prodigy with a book deal. Sebastian ends up as his critique partner – but what will happen when he finds out that Tanner’s novel is about falling in love with Sebastian?

This is a YA love story and journey of self discovery, you fall in love with both Tanner and Sebastian but there are very real reasons why their story may not get a happy ending and there is a lot at risk here. I’m not sure I got everything I wanted from the ending – but I always want more After, I want more reassurance that everything is going to be Alright – and I accept that you don’t always get that in YA, because it is unrealistic in stories about teenagers!

This got nominated for a whole bunch of awards when it came out back in 2017 and I can totally see why. Sebastian’s world view is so different from Tanner’s, but it’s so sensitively handled and you really believe in them. Regular readers may know that I have a semi fascination with Religion In America and this did a really good job of scratching that itch for me.

Christina Lauren is a writing duo better know for writing contemporary romance. I met them both back in February last year at Sarah MacLean’s London tea party* where they were charming and signed a copy of Dating You, Hating You for me and were very charming. In the afterword they say that this book was informed by their experience including Christina’s work as a guidance counsellor at schools in Utah, which adds an extra level to Sebastian once you know.

There is drama here and angst, but it worked out at pretty much the perfect level for me. I think I may actually have liked it more than Christina Lauren’s romance writing, where I can sometimes find the heroes a little obnoxious and don’t always like the humour.

My copy of Autoboyography came from the really lovely YA department in Foyles, but it’s also available from most online bookstores and in Kindle, Kobo and as an audiobook.

Happy Reading!

* Bonus photo of Sarah MacLean, Christina Hobbs, Lauren Billings and Tessa Dare (and the buffet!) at the tea party.

Sarah MacLean, Christina Lauren and Tessa Dare

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: September 23 – September 29

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Back to work after the holiday – and a couple of nights away from home and working the weekend meant it was a very busy week.

Read:

Agatha Oddly by Lena Jones

The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo

Chanel’s Riviera by Anne De Courcy

American Royals by Katherine McGee

When Paris Sizzled by Mary McAuliffe

Autoboyography by Christina Lauren

Started:

Wayward Son by Rainbow Rowell

Love and Ruin by Paula McLain

Still reading:

The Girls of Atomic City by Denise Kiernan

Who Is Vera Kelly by Rosalie Knecht

Mrs Hemingway by Naomi Wood

No books bought – mostly because I didn’t have any free time on my nights away to wander through Foyles. That may not be the case this week though…

Bonus photo: best post of the week – an advance copy of the new Trisha Ashley Christmas novel and some goodies.  The goodies are to make a bauble to hang on your tree – that’s a bag of fake snow, not as one of my friends suggested, half a kilo of cocaine…

Box with a book and goodies to make a christmas bauble

 

Book of the Week, non-fiction

Book of the Week: Jim Henson

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So many good books on holiday last week. And if all goes to plan, you’re going to be hearing a about a lot of them. Just as soon as I have time to read a few more books and write the posts. But I’ve got it all planned out in my head. Trust me. Ahem.  Anyway, this week’s pick is Jim Henson: The Biography, Brian Jay Jones’s look at the life of the innovative puppeteer, animator and filmmaker.

Cover of Jim Henson: The Biography

If you don’t know who Jim Henson is, I think you must have been living under a rock, or just not paying attention. Henson was the creator of the Muppets and the puppet characters on Sesame Street. Exactly. I think everyone has grown up with Bert and Ernie, Elmo, Big Bird and of course Kermit and Miss Piggy. This is a big, in-depth look at the man behind the puppets and what drove him.

Going in to reading this, I knew about the Muppets, and I knew he died in the early 90s – there’s a dedication to him at the end of the Muppet Christmas Carol, which is of course one of the all-time great children’s Christmas films – but that was about it. It turns out that he (and his creations) were a TV sensation in his local area before he was out of his teens, he was hugely affected by the early death of his younger brother which lead to a breakneck work ethic, but who also was devoted to being a good dad to his five kids. It’s really a remarkable life.

This book came out in 2013* and Brian Jay Jones had the cooperation of the Henson family, access to all the archives and interviewed all the key players. It was the first full length biography of Henson and Frank Oz (aka Miss Piggy aka Yoda) said that it captured Henson’s genius and his flaws. And I found that very true – it’s not a hagiography. You get a real sense of the amazing mind and vision that Henson had, but also that he must have been a difficult man to live with at times – and definitely a difficult person to manage!

It’s a fascinating read not just because it’s about a great subject but because it’s really well written. Jones has since written biographies of George Lucas and Dr Seuss and even though I’m not hugely interested in either of those men, I enjoyed this so much I would probably still borrow them from the library or buy them in a kindle daily deal just because this was so well researched, thoughtful and readable.

My copy of Jim Henson came from the library but it’s available on Kindle, Kobo and Audible and in paperback and hardback – although mostly via secondhand sellers and coming in from the US.

Happy Reading!

*and I’ve had it on my to-read list since seeing Brian Jay Jones interviewed on the Daily Show soon after it came out, which tells you a lot about how long it’s taken me to get around to getting hold of a copy – thank you library!

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: September 16 – September 22

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I am back in the UK after a very relaxing week’s holiday in Greece – and the book list is accordingly longer than usual – and it would have been even longer except that I’ve been in a nonfiction mood and those books are looooooong.  And yes, there’s a bunch of stuff started as well because holiday moods are like that! Some really good reads in there – and I’m back, refreshed and with lots of ideas for new posts – so watch out!

Read:

This Town by Mark Liebovich

Red, White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

The Queen Con by Meghan Scott Molin

City of Jasmine by Deanna Raybourn

A Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee

Trumbo by Bruce Cook

Kiss and Cry by Mina V Esguerra

Jim Henson by Brian Jay Jones

Magnolia Buildings by Elizabeth Stuckey

Rose Petal Summer by Katie Fforde

Started

American Royals by Katherine McGee

The Girls of Atomic City by Denise Kiernan

Who Is Vera Kelly by Rosalie Knecht

Mrs Hemingway by Naomi Wood

Agatha Oddly by Lena Jones

Still reading:

Autoboyography by Christina Lauren

Chanel’s Riviera by Anne De Courcy

Bonus photo: a picture of the very blue sea and sky from the top of the Acopolis at Lindos last week.

Sea, rocks, blue sky - the Greek coast at Lindos

 

American imports, Book of the Week

Book of the Week: You Think It, I’ll Say It

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This is going to be late and short. I’m sorry. I’m also sorry for the lack of witty commentary on yesterday’s Week in Books [ed: the commentary is meant to be witty? Try harder], any how, to business.

I’ve written about Curtis Sittenfeld before – I spent a lot of time telling people how good Eligible was back when that first came out. I’ve read most of her books now, and I had the paperback of this on a preorder than Amazon mysteriously cancelled. So I was very happy when my library hold on this came through for me. You Think It, I’ll Say It is a collection of short stories which feels very applicable to modern day life. There’s the former shy girl who gets to meet her high school nemesis years later and see how it all turned out. A woman flirting with adultery with a man in her social circle. It’s tough to pick a favourite, but having spent a lot of time reading blogs, dissecting blogs and watching the rise of influence culture, the woman who takes an unhealthy interest in the career of an Instagram influence-cum-lifestyle guru she once knew might be mine.

Sittenfeld’s writing is sharp and has got the balance right (for me at least) in these stories of enough happening to make things interesting, but not so much that you don’t get to know the characters well enough to care about how it all turns out. I don’t read a lot of short story collections, but this is a very good one. And – as much as you can tell on a kindle – they are all short stories, this is not a few stories plus a novella situation. If you liked Helen Ellis’s American Housewife, this did some of the same stuff for me, but without the horror or supernatural elements. If you haven’t read Sittenfeld before, I might still start you with Eligible, but that’s because it’s tough to top a retelling of Pride and Prejudice where Kitty and Lydia are cross-fit fiends, Mrs Bennet is a kleptomaniac and Jane is the sort of yoga instructor who would spent all her spare cash on crystals from Goop. It’s a high bar.

You should be able to get hold of a copy of You Think It, I’ll Say It from a good bookstore – Amazon even have a paperback now, despite my struggles with them!

Happy Reading!