Happy Boxing Day everyone. I hope you all got what you wanted and have a lovely day and that your food babies today aren’t too big.
Read:
Deadly Treasures by Vivian Conroy
Twas the Night before Christmas by Sabrina Jeffries
A Cornish Christmas Carol by Liz Fenwick
The Weed that Strings the Hangman’s Bag by Alan Bradley
We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
What Could Possibly Go Wrong? by Jodi Taylor
A Bachelor Establishment by Jodi Taylor writing as Isabella Barclay
Christmas Ever After by Sarah Morgan
Started:
A Red Herring without Mustard by Alan Bradley
Still reading:
American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld
I had nights last week, so there was the usual nights related impulse purchasing – but on a fairly small scale as I was trying to restrain myself because i was hoping for Christmas books!
You may be relieved to hear that this weeks BotW is neither Fahrenheit Press book or a Christmas book – even though the title might suggest that it could be the latter. It is however the perfect book for curling up with on a sofa on a wintry afternoon.
My second hand copy- the stain on the front was there when I got it, the dent in the top… I’m not sure.
The titular Angel is the spoilt darling of a grocery shop proprietress, who spins fantasies to her school mates about a glamorous house where her aunt is a maid. When she is found out she takes to her bed, refuses to return to school and starts to write novels. These turn out to be bestsellers – at least at first – even if they’re wildly inaccurate, far-fetched and slated by the critics. But Angel doesn’t care – she believes she is one of the world’s greatest writers and nothing and nobody is going to stand in her way.
Elizabeth Taylor (not that one) has created a monster. Angel is dreadful in every way – delusional, deceitful, ungrateful, selfish, vain and more. But you can’t stop reading about her in a sort of fascinated horror. She is oblivious to her faults and to the way that others view her and is able to sail through life in the comfortable delusion that she is clever, witty, brilliant and under-appreciated. You would never want to spend any time with any one like her in real life, but I could happily have spend hours more reading about her antics.
There are a fair few women in books who become writers as a response to straightened circumstances – often with a trusty maid in attendance. But they are almost always portrayed as gentlewomen brought low by financial troubles not of their own making. Angel is not one of these – she starts writing as a way of getting her own way – initially she’s more interested in showing her neighbours that she’s better than them. Then the money enables her to exert power over her mother, who in her attempts to allow her daughter to go further in life by scrimping and saving for a better education for her has created a stubborn tyrant who will brook no opposition. As we follow Angel through 40 plus years we see the changes in British society as it moves from the Victorian era, through two World Wars – and we see Angel rewrite her past and invent new fictions for herself – which she believes even if those around her know other wise.
Although Angel is the centre of this book we also get to see the people she uses up and spits out – her mother, her aunt, a wannabe poetess, her husband, her servants – and the people who manage to survive her onslaught – only really her publisher and his wife. It’s a portrait of a tyrant and it’s very, very good.
My copy of Angel is a lovely Virago Designer Hardback which I got second hand and seem to be quite hard to come by, but it’s also available in paperback from Amazon, Foyles and Waterstones and on Kindle and Kobo. And as it was first published in 1957, you have a fighting chance of being able to find yourself a second hand copy in a charity or second hand bookshop.
So this week coming is Nightshift week, so that means impulse purchases and light reading. So not that different to a normal week then! And this week’s reading ended up being really un-Christmassy – even though I’m feeling quite festive now. And in unrelated but rather lovely news, I’m on Fahrenheit Press’s list of Book Bloggers of the Year which was very touching and made me come over all teary eyed. But then I’ve got a fractured elbow, a terrible cough and am fighting off the newsroom lurgy so I think I’m particularly suseptible to tears at the moment. Or that’s my story and I’m sticking to it – after all I cried at the Strictly final on Saturday night. Twice.
Read:
The Case of the Screaming Beauty by Alison Golden
Last Boat to Camden Town by Paul Charles
The Case of the Hidden Flame by Alison Golden
Sweetest Regret by Meredith Duran
Juniors at the Chalet School by Katherine Bruce
A Little Murder by Suzette A Hill
Angel by Elizabeth Taylor
Started:
Deadly Treasures by Vivian Conroy
Still reading:
American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld
Three e-books bought – and three real books when I went into The Works for some Christmassy bits. Oops. And I’m never good at avoiding buying books on nights either am I? Still I’ll try and restrain myself – because who knows what Santa might bring – if you want to know what I’m hoping he’ll bring, check out my Christmas gift post – or if you’re still looking for last minute things here’s the book gift guide.
I feel like I’m getting repetitive here, because this BotW is another Fahrenheit Press pick. Seriously, my Fahrenheit subscription has been one of my best book-based purchases this year. It was a total bargain (and I got in early so it really was a bargain!) and I’ve discovered older series I was too young for (or not in the right crowd for) first time around and new authors doing interesting things and who I’m hoping I can say that I was there at the beginning for.
And Sparkle Shot falls in the latter camp. It’s Lina Chern’s first book and it’s short but it packs a lot in. The subtitle is “A wannabe cowboy, a handsome cop and the search for a perfect breakfast cocktail” but that doesn’t really do it justice. It is a perfect fit for the Fahrenheit family – Mara fits in somewhere between Sam Jones from Black Rubber Dress and Eva Destruction from Barista’s Guide to Espionage, in that she’s sassy, smart and runs with an interesting crowd which sees her getting tangled up with things she’d rather not be. In this case, her roommate, a stripper who dances under the name of Karma misses a breakfast date with her and then phones in a panic – she’s witnessed a murder and needs Mara to help stop her being the next victim.
Sparkle Shot races along at 100 miles an hour, with boys with guns, girls with guns, wannabe mafia dons, cops and peril. It’s probably technically novella length at 95 pages, but doesn’t suffer from any of my common complaints about novellas. There’s not a hint of underdeveloped story or things feeling too rushed. There’s plenty of plot, there’s backstory, character development and proper tension and proper danger – not just the sort of thing that is a misunderstanding or could be fixed with a simple conversation. It does feel like it could stand a sequel or two – hopefully longer than this because it was over too fast – but even if it’s not more from Mara and her friends, I’m still looking forward to seeing what Lina Chern writes next.
You can buy Sparkle Shot on Kindle or in paperback from Amazon, or you could treat yourself to some Bad Santa Bucks from Fahrenheit themselves and buy a few of their books – the discount gets bigger the more bucks you buy – and given that I’ve already mentioned two Fahrenheit books that have been BotWs and I’ve also recommended Death of a Nobody and Murder Quadrille (this is why I think I’m getting repetitive with my love of Fahrenheit, but honestly, so many good books) that’s five there – even if you only buy the first Sam Jones book and not the series… And if you’re still not sure, both Sparkle Shot and Barista’s Guide to Espionage would be good books to read if you’ve read Stephanie Plum or any of the other Janet Evanovich thriller series and are looking for where to go next. And on that encouragement to buy books I’ll go away before I buy more myself.
Lots of Christmas-y reading this week – and yes, I am planning a post on it, just as soon as I get my Christmas book gift posts sorted. Fractured elbows are a nightmare…
Read:
Sleigh Bells in the Snow by Sarah Morgan
What Nora Knew by Linda Yellin
The Late Scholar by Jill Paton Walsh
Sparkle Shot by Lina Chern
Candlelight at Christmas by Katie Fforde
Comfort and Joy by Cathy Bramley
Not Just For Christmas by Alex Brown
Started:
American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld
Last Boat to Camden Town by Paul Charles
Angel by Elizabeth Taylor
Still reading:
n/a
Four ebooks bought. Three proper books. And the library book bag was replenished too!
So the elbow is still giving me trouble, but I did find time to sit down and finish The Underground Railroad. And I’ve properly started my Christmas reading kick now – with two festive short stories, finishing the Christmas Meg Langslow and starting a holiday-themed Sarah Morgan. I foresee this situation continuing.
Read:
Duck the Halls by Donna Andrew
The Hanging Tree by Ben Aaronovitch
Silent Night by Deanna Raybourn
Twelfth Night by Deanna Raybourn
The Wangs vs the World by Jade Chang
Herring on the Nile by L C Tyler
The Underground Railroad by Coulson Whitehead
Started:
What Nora Knew by Linda Yellin
The Late Scholar by Jill Paton Walsh
Sleigh Bells in the Snow by Sarah Morgan
Still reading:
n/a
One book bought – to get some free postage for a Christmas present. Progress!
This may well be a slightly shorter than usual BotW post – the dodgy elbow is making typing hurt and I’m not sure I’m at my finest. But I’m going to give it a go because this was hands down my favourite book that I finished last week and it deserves a big old mention here.
This a collection of the best bits of advice from the Dear Coquette blog which I happened upon felicitously at a time when I needed a pep talk and cheering up. It did a marvelous job of both – and there is now a waiting list to borrow my copy. I got told off by The Boy for reading too much of it out loud to him because “there’ll be nothing left for me to read myself”. A few selected quotes also went down a storm on Litsy and on Twitter.
Most of the advice in here is about relationships in their various forms – the book is split into sections – on things like love, family and dating. The Coquette is smart, witty, brutally honest and very, very frank. It’s like the advice you wish your friends would give you, but would be too afraid to hand out yourself in return. I don’t always agree with the Coquette’s world view, but it’s always well argued and thought provoking.
I’m not sure I’ll be lending my copy to my mum (not that she’s asked for it yet) but I can see myself giving this as a Christmas book to a few people who I think might appreciate The Coquette’s view of the world. My copy was a proof copy (which the Coquette said she was mortified it still existed on Twitter!), but you can get a shiny proper hardback copy now – get it from Amazon, Waterstones and Foyles or on Kindle or Kobo. The paperback is out in April.
Ok. So I went ice skating on Monday and fell over and now I have a little fracture in my elbow. The hospital don’t like to immobilise elbows (you lose movement fast and it’s hard to get it back) so until the giant bruise appeared on Saturday I had no evidence of my injury, but I have had lots of sympathy and I’m hopped up on painkillers so it’s fairly ok. I’ve been taking it easy (mostly on the sofa) but I haven’t been able to concentrate on anything serious – or hold heavy books. I called time on The #MonuMeta Social Media Book this week – I’ve tried and tried and tried (I’m not sure the pain helped when I gave it another go in A&E), but I just couldn’t get into it. It’s got great reviews on Goodreads though, so it’s clearly me that has a problem not anyone else!
Read:
The Season by Sarah MacLean
Burke’s Last Witness by C J Dunford
It Must Be Christmas by Jennifer Crusie, Donna Alward and Mandy Baxter
Twelve Days of Christmas by Debbie Macomber
A Whole Latte Murder by Caroline Fardig
The Best of Dear Coquette by The Coquette
Potent Pleasures by Eloisa James
Started:
The Wangs vs the World by Jade Chang
Duck the Halls by Donna Andrew
Still reading:
The Underground Railroad by Coulson Whitehead
Perhaps unsurprisingly given my weakened state, I had a kindle spending spree from my sick bed on Tuesday and Foyles were doing 20% off for Black Friday so I bought myself a book along with the ones I was buying as presents, but apart from that I’ve been remarkably restrained. Or at least I think that I have.
As I mentioned yesterday, I did a lot of hours at work last week and not as much reading as I had been hoping, but graphic novels featured heavily in what did get read. But before I talk about this week’s BotW I just wanted to mention that I’m reviewing on Novelicious again today – if you want to see what I thought about Mary Balogh’s latest Someone to Love you can click here. With that shameless bit of self-promotion over, lets talk about Lumberjanes Volume Three: A Terrible Plan.
Do you like my pretty checked table cloth? It was my granny’s and seemed appropriate!
I’ve mentioned Lumberjanes here before in last year’s Christmas books for kids post and it continues to be a great fun, hundred miles an hour journey through summer at a slightly eccentric camp for girls. The adventures are bonkers, the characters are great and the underlying messages are nothing but positive. In this volume we join our intrepid heroines as they try to earn badges and escape from dinosaurs (which totally makes sense in the context of the book) whilst we find out more about what some of the girls’ lives are like at home and their feelings about themselves.
This has some different artists to some of the previous issues and at times I didn’t like the drawings as much as I have previously – but that is more about my dislike of things changing in general (which all ties into my dislike of non-matching sets of books, and changes in cover design) because the art work is still beautiful. I’m not the target market for this, but I still enjoyed reading it a lot and want to get the next volume asap. I also want to give it to all the little girls I know as an example of female friendships and that girls can do whatever they want to do without boys to help them. I’m even debating lending my copies to the nieces – and I’m not a big lender of books!
You should be able to get Lumberjanes from any good comic shop – and please do find a comic shop to support. Amazon are only offering 31p off the RRP on this at time of writing – so why not go and support an independent shop – go to the Comic Shop Locator and put in your post code and it’ll tell you. My local store is incredibly friendly and happy to get anything in for me that isn’t in stock – and you can order online from him too if you really don’t want to leave your house. And either way it’ll give you a warm and fuzzy feeling inside for supporting the little guy not the corporate giant!
I did a lot of work this week – a lot of nights away from home and only one day off in the last seven. Consequently a lot of sleeping and not as much reading time!
Read:
Charlaine Harris’s Grave Surprise by Charlaine Harris, Royal McGraw and Ilias Kyriazis
Baron by Joanna Shupe
Hero in the Highlands by Suzanne Enoch
Cooking the Books by Kerry Greenwood
All I Ever Wanted by Lucy Dillon
Lumberjanes Vol 3: A Terrible Plan by Noelle Stevenson et al
Started:
Potent Pleasures by Eloisa James
The Best of Dear Coquette by The Coquette
Burke’s Last Witness by C J Dunford
Still reading:
The Underground Railroad by Coulson Whitehead
The #MonuMeta Social Media Book by Roger Warner
The Season by Sarah MacLean
A slight shopping spree in the comic book store – and a few secondhand books to get some free delivery from a well known online retailer, but over all fairly restrained given that I was wandering in Foyles on Tuesday night!
