I’m not quite sure where my reading time went at the start of the week, but I know where it went at the end because we went away for a long weekend for my birthday. What a treat.
Read:
The Draycott Murder Mystery by Molly Thynne
A Perilous Undertaking by Deanna Raybourn
New York, Actually by Sarah Morgan
Crooked Heart by Lissa Evans
Wrong For Me by Jackie Ashenden
Three Men and a Maybe by Katey Lovell
Started:
Blitzed by Norman Ohler
Still reading:
American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld
First Women by Kate Andersen Brower
I may have bought a few books. But hey, I’m having an extended birthday treat!
This week’s pick comes from the bottom of the to-read pile – which is now the top because of the unfortunate fireplace situation. I acquired a little stack of Persephone Print books from a friend a year (and the rest) ago and some how they ended up getting relegated to one of the piles behind the sofa arm. What a mistake to make. Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Making of a Marchioness, although not perfect, turned out to be a little gem.
The Making of a Marchioness is a story of two parts. Both are about Emily Fox-Seaton, a well-born lady in her early 30s (so on the shelf for the era – this was published in 1901) who has very little money and who supports herself by running errands for people better off than herself. In part one, she gets invited to visit a country house to help out and during the course of her stay her fortunes change. The second part chronicles how she adapts to her change in fortunes.
Now, in order to explain my feelings about this book, I’m going to have to give some spoilers. Sorry. So, if you don’t want to be spoilt (so to speak) then don’t read below the photograph that’s coming up. But if you like a Cinderella story, but one that’s populated by really quite unromantic people who aren’t all beautiful or clever, than this might well be the book for you. The latest Persephone edition, although not quite as pretty as mine is £9.00 on Amazon and Foyles as I write this or in the edition that I own for £14 from Waterstones, but the total bargain is the ebook because both Kindle and Kobo have a free versions.
I do love these Persophones – plain unassuming grey cover and then a beautiful design inside.
And now the spoilers. I did warn you.
I really, really, liked the first part of the book – with Emily winning the Marquess by being herself and realising what she was doing. Emily is an immensely likeable character who is cheerful and uncomplaining and just generally indispensible. Part two, where we see her adapting to life as a Marchioness is really very Gothic and melodramatic and I didn’t like it as much – perhaps because it was so different from the first part of the book. Emily’s obliviousness to the machinations of the unsuitable heir and his wife (and her maid) started to annoy me a little after a while and I just wanted her to buck up and write that letter to her husband (away in India on government business) or confide in Lady Maria who would have sorted it all out. The two parts were originally published as separate books, and I can’t work out if I would have liked the second part more or less if I’d read the first part in isolation and then come across its sequel.
What is true of both parts is that they are very well written and without the overblown romantic transports of many similar novels. And the way it portrays marriage is also very different from other novels of the time. Emily is not on the prowl for a husband in part one, she’s content to try and live her life without a man (even if she is worried about old age and poor health) but when she does get married, her husband is not a romantic hero – in fact he’s really not sure why he settled on Emily at some points – and their relationship is very stiff and Victorian (and Edwardian). There are some slightly dated attitudes in here – but I’ve read much (much) worse and it’s on the nicer end of the attitudes and problems of its time.
Anyway, I really enjoyed reading an adult novel by an author that I only knew for her famous children’s stories like The Secret Garden – and I’m really looking forward to reading more of the Persephones on my to-read pile.
Three nights away from home impaired my reading progress somewhat this week, and also my attempts to read my way through the bottom of the to-read pile. Still at least one of the books I did read is eligible for a category on the #ReadHarder challenge, so that’s good.
Read:
The Making of A Marchioness by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Fountain of Sorrow by Paul Charles
More Work for the Undertaker by Margery Allingham
The Vets at Hope Green, Part 1 by Sheila Norton
Paradise Lodge by Nina Stibbe
Started:
The Draycott Murder Mystery by Molly Thynne
Still reading:
American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld
First Women by Kate Andersen Brower
Two books bought this week – but one’s in French, so its educational – and the other was for Him Indoors as well as me.
Now 2017 is well underway, and I’ve told you about my obsessions, the state of the (enormous) pile, and my #ReadHarder ambitions, it seemed like a good time to finally work out what my favourite books published last year were. I know. Everyone else did this weeks ago, but I didn’t want anything really excellent that I might have read at the end of the year to get missed out. And yes, fractured elbow. It’s my excuse for everything.
Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld
“Fred!” the nurse said, though they had never met. “How are we today?” Reading the nurse’s name tag, Mr. Bennet replied with fake enthusiasm, “Bernard! We’re mourning the death of manners and the rise of overly familiar discourse. How are you?”
Considering how much I loved this book, I have said remarkably little about it on here. I recommended it in the Christmas gift post and back in the Summer Reads post, but it wasn’t a Book of the Week – because I was expecting to be reviewing it elsewhere. And I don’t think that adequately conveys how much I adored it. But Sittenfeld’s modern reworking of Pride and Prejudice is my favourite book of last year.
If the quote at the top makes you laugh or smile (even if it’s only inside because you’re too cool) then you need to read this book. I’ve read a lot of Austen retellings, reworkings, sequels and the like and this manages to strike a perfect (for me) balance of retelling the story but modernising it so that it feels relevant to today. Lizzie (nearly 40 rather than 20) and her sisters are trust fund babies in Cincinatti, but the money is running out, their father has medical problems and their mother has a shopping problem. Darcy is a surgeon, Bingley a reality TV star (don’t let that put you off) and Lydia and Kitty are obsessed with Crossfit. I want to read it again – but my copy is still out on loan. The paperback isn’t out until June, but you could pre-order from Amazon or Waterstones and have a lovely treat in the summer, the Kindle and Kobo versions are £5.99 at time of writing or you could go nuts and buy the hardback from Amazon, Foyles or Waterstones – Waterstones was cheapest when I was writing – doing it on click and collect for £7.50 which is a total bargain for a hardback. I don’t think you’ll regret it.
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
The Underground RailroadAs I said in my BotW post last month, this book is going to win all the prizes and will be on English Literature sylabuses in years to come. Cora’s story is incredibly tough to read – and it’s partly the contrast between the realism of the terrible things that are happening and the magical realism of making the Underground Railroad a real, actual railway with stations, and trains that makes this such an incredible read. And the writing is beautiful. As you all know, I don’t read a lot of “literary fiction” – and I don’t have a lot of success with books that have been nominated for awards, but I’m so glad I read it – and I’ve been singing its praises to my literary fiction-reading friends. Still only in hardback I’m afraid, but bizarrely the paperback comes out the same day as Eligible – even though this was released six months later than the Sittenfeld. Odd. Anyway. In hardback from Amazon, Foyles, Waterstones, on Kindle and Kobo or pre-order the paperback on Amazon or Waterstones.
The Barista’s Guide to Espionage by Dave Sinclair
The Barista’s guide to EspionageYes I know. You’re sick of my Fahrenheit obsession. Well tough. Their books made up nearly 20 percent of my 5 star books last year, so they were bound to figure here. Sorry, not sorry. Anyway, this story about Eva Destruction – James Bond and Stephanie Plum’s lovechild – was another BotW and I defy anyone not to enjoy Eva’s battle to try to stop her evil supervillain ex-boyfriend from taking over the world. It’s an action thriller film in book form but with a smart woman doing the saving not a suave bloke in a suit (he tries, but she’s better than him). Get it on Kindle or in paperback.
Death of a Nobody by Derek Farrell
From Eva Destruction to Poirot on Poppers, the second Danny Bird book is the second Fahrenheit book on this list. The first book (Death of a Diva) is funny, but this book feels like a series hitting its stride. It’s got a great, off-beat cast, zingy one-liners, lashings of sarcasm and an up-and-coming gastro pub with a rising body count and a gangster breathing down Danny’s neck. I’m recommending this to my friends who read cozy crime who want something that’s not cupcakes, bakeries or crafting. I can’t wait for book three. Get it on Kindle or in paperback. You can thank me later.
Grunt by Mary Roach
Grunt by Mary RoachAnd this is why I’m glad I wrote this post so very late. This was the last book I finished in 2016 and it was one of the very best – definitely the best non-fiction book I read last year. It was BotW last week – so there’s no need for me to say anymore about it really because it’s less than a week since I raved about it at you. I think it’s going to be this year’s go-to pick for a non fiction book to give as a gift. Buy it (paperback!) from Amazon, Foyles and Waterstones or on Kindle.
This year is the third year that Book Riot is running their #ReadHarder challenge aiming to get people to widen their reading horizons. I first found out about it late in 2015, thought it was a great idea but didn’t have time to get anywhere near getting it done, so had a look at the list at the start of 2016, read through the categories and went off about my business. Halfway through the year I remembered about it again because of mentions on the Get Booked Podcast (they did an episode of recommendations for some of the tougher categories) printed a copy off and noted down what I’d done, congratulated myself on being more than halfway done and then promptly forgot about it until 12 days before the end of the year.
At which point I discovered that unless I stretched the boundaries of the criteria I was missing a few categories and it was going to be a mad scramble to finish it off. And of course life got in the way again, and I didn’t finish. I ended up missing four categories out of the 24 categories, but a couple of the others are a bit of a stretch/slightly tenuous.
I know I’ve read a book allowed to The Nieces, I just can’t remember the title…
So I’m going to make a big effort in 2017 and try and do it this time. It’s a really clever way of making you think about what you’re reading and expanding your reading boundaries – which is something we all should try and do. I may average 5 books a week – but if I’m not careful they end up being two romances, two cozy crime books and some historical fiction. And I want to make sure I’m doing more than that and this is a handy, easy way of doing this.
You can read BookRiot’s article about the challenge here and if you want to join in they also have a handy editable pdf that you can download and use. I’ll keep you posted on how I’m getting on – for a start I’m going to add a line to the monthly stats about how many of the categories I’ve ticked off until it’s done and hope that the accountability will force me to remember and do it properly this time!
Welcome to the first BotW post of the New Year, which is also the last Book of the Week from 2016. You know what I mean – I read it last week before the end of the old year, but the post gets to you in the New Year. Talking about last week and the old year, I hope you enjoyed my festive frenzy of posts. December stats is coming tomorrow (I thought better one post 3 days late, than three posts one day late each) now you’ve all had time to appreciate my New Years Reading Resolutions, and see my early failures in yesterday’s Week in Reading where I confess to a bit of a free book spree. Any how, back to the point.
I don’t think I have a lot of books with green covers, not sure why!
This weeks BotW is Mary Roach’s Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War, which is not about guns and weapons, but about the scientific and technological developments which have come about because of war and conflict. Topics include clothing regulations and design, shark repellent, submarine escapes and genital reconstruction. It’s absolutely fascinating. This is non-fiction writing at its best – informative and well researched, it wears it lightly and is incredibly readable. You learn a lot without realising it as Mary wends her way through military installations and research centres asking the questions that you wouldn’t dare to.
I’m not a science reader – if you’ve been here a while now, you’ll know that my non-fiction reading tends to be history, biography or a bit feministy. But I’ve been hearing about Mary Roach’s books for a while now – as they’ve been recommended on Book Riot’s Get Booked podcast as well as this getting a review on their All the Books podcast too – and I thought it might be a good way to widen my reading horizons slightly. Popular opinion seems to have Stiff as her best book – but I’m not big on death and so was wary of a book about dead bodies – so Grunt seemed like a better place for me to start. And if this is not Mary Roach’s best book, I can hardly imagine how good the others must be. I might even have to get over my squeamishness about cadavers and read Stiff.
Him Indoors got really fed up of me pausing the TV to read bits out loud to him and I’ve already got a queue forming for my copy. I bought my copy on my post-Christmas jolly to Foyles, but it’s also available on Kindle or from Amazon and Waterstones. You’re probably going to need a bookshop with a relatively large non-fiction selection (ie probably not a train station bookshop or a small WH Smiths) but it seems to be fairly orderable. It’s not terribly cheap anywhere I’m afraid, but it’s worth it.
Welcome to the week after Christmas. You’ll see that I got one of the books I wanted and have already started reading it. You may also detect a slight free book spree over New Year. What can I say. I regret it. And because of the fireplace situation, the bottom of my to-read pile is in the box at the top, so there are some books I’d almost forgotten I had getting an outing!
Read:
Midnight at Tiffany’s by Sarah Morgan
Deadly Duo by Margery Allingham
Grunt by Mary Roach
A Red Herring without Mustard by Alan Bradley
Open for Business by Cressida McLaughlin
I Love The Sound of Broken Glass by Paul Charles
The Billionaire’s Christmas Virgin by J S Scott
Perfect Holiday Fling by Farrah Rochon
Started:
First Women by Kate Andersen Brower
Fountain of Sorrow by Paul Charles
The Making of A Marchioness by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Still reading:
American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld
I didn’t buy any books this week – but as I mentioned, I had a little wander through the free book chart on Amazon. But hey, they didn’t cost me anything and I don’t have to finish them if I don’t like them…
I wondered as I was writing this post what the point of it was. After all I’ve make a resolutions posts before and it has not gone well. But as the whole purpose of this blog when I started it a few years back was to try and make myself accountable for bringing the to-read pile down and that’s failed singularly so far (as seen in my state of the pile post the other day), who am I to baulk at writing posts about things I suck at. So, what am I going to try and do in 2017?
Well 2016 was the first year that I have read less than the previous year, since I started using Goodreads religiously to track what I read. And I think that’s a good thing. 2015’s 365 books was a monster total – despite having said at the start of that year try to be less focused on stats. I purposely didn’t set any resolutions last year – except to try and keep the previous year’s resolutions better. And I nearly did that this year – only 1 month where I didn’t read a library book, and 1 where I hadn’t even started a non-fiction book.
So this year, I’m going for a renewed focus on quality reading, and enjoying my reading. I want to read more current affairs writing – I’ve just taken out a trial subscription to the New Yorker because I find myself reading a lot of their stuff online, I already have a Vanity Fair subscription and I’m midway through a Wall Street Journal trial and I want to make the most of them and – in the case of the trials – work out if they’re value for money without thinking “I should be reading a book now” which I’ve found myself doing a few times this year.
But, as I mentioned at the top, the whole point of this blog is for me to conquer the to-read pile. So I need to be better at not buying a couple of books every time I go into Tesco, and not spending my nightshifts impulse buying second-hand books. Better at reading what I have – and just picking up something, anything off the bookshelf instead of staring at it thinking “I don’t fancy any of these”. Pick up a book, try it and if I don’t like it, give up.
Lofty ambitions. Will they come to pass? Who knows.
As regular readers will know, I’m a binge reader. I find someone or something new that I like and I gorge on it. One of the big reasons my to-read pile never seems to shrink is because I’m forever discovering new series and then buying them up to read and ignoring the stuff waiting on the pile. We’ve already revisited last year’s obsessions, and so to mark the end of the year here are my big obsessions of 2016.
Fahrenheit Press
Lets start with the obvious. And yes, I know. You’ve heard so much from me about Fahrenheit Press this year that you’re starting to think they’re paying me (they’re not) but I could basically have written this whole post obsessing over their books. But I’m trying to be restrained, so I’m only giving them one entry. There is something about the books that they publish that just works for me. They’re not all the same but they work as a group. I haven’t read all the books that I’ve got through my subscription yet, but everything I have has that same slightly subversive, sideways look at what it’s doing – whether it’s old series they’re republishing (like Sam Jones) or new ones (like Danny Bird). The truly excellent thing about this particular obsession is that I bought their subscription early in the year, so it’s been excellent value and they’re an ebook publisher so it hasn’t been adding to the actual physical pile. And as I’ve already bought a 2017 subscription I suspect I may be boring you all about them again well into the year.
Girls Own fiction
I’ve always been a sucker for a boarding school story and spent much of my childhood playing made up games about being at one (despite the fact that I’m fairly sure in reality I would have hated it), but until this year my reading in the genre has centred around the authors that were still in print when I was small (so Elinor M Brent Dyer, Enid Blyton, Anne Digby). In 2016 I’ve managed to lay my hands on some who are more forgotten – like Mabel Esther Allen, Gwendoline Courtney and the downright obscure like Phylis Matthewman – as well as filling in more gaps in my favourites (like the end of Lorna Hill’s Sadler’s Wells series) and some modern fill in titles for my favourite series and it’s been glorious. Some of them are just great stories, some of them are so bad it’s funny and often you’re reading them giving side eye. I wouldn’t necessarily lend them to a child now, but for me personally they’re a fabulous escape from the misery of every day life. In Boarding School-land bad deeds are found out, no one is ever bullied, and everyone loves their school in the end (if they don’t, they’re probably A Bad Influence and may not return next term). I’m still not really into horse books and there’s only so much Guides I can take, but I’ll try anything – up to and including books about girls who want to be kennel maids…
The Chronicles of St Mary’s series
I don’t know how this had passed me by before. In case you’ve missed it too, The Chronicles of St Mary‘s follows Madeleine Maxwell and her colleagues at St Mary’s Institute of Historical Research – historians who have time machines and use them to go and investigate what really happened in the past. It doesn’t often go to plan. It’s made me laugh, it’s made me cry and it’s made me go and check up on some other periods in history that are out of my comfort zone.* I stumbled across one of the free novellas on audible and listened to it on one of my jaunts to the Youth Hostel back in March and fell in love. I went back to the start been working my way through the series since, but have been trying to pace myself so I don’t run out of books. I’ve got just finished book six and I’ve got book seven waiting for me on my Kindle – but book eight isn’t out until July so I’m trying to control myself.
Sarah Morgan
I will confess to not having read any Sarah Morgan before I met her at Sarah MacLean’s London tea party in May and got a goody bag with one of her books in it. Without that goody bag, I’m not sure I would ever have picked up one of her books, but I’ve read six novels and a prequel novella now, and have an advance copy of her next one on the stack and another few of her backlist on the kindle having picked them up on offer. They challenge my ideas about what I do and don’t read. Morgan’s background is in category romance, which I haven’t really read since I glommed on a box of old-school Mills and Boons at my Granny’s house when I was about 12. I don’t think that I would read a medical romance (which is what Morgan started out writing as she was a nurse) and I definitely don’t do secretaries and billionaires, but it turns out that I do like contemporary romances where smart, sassy women meet their perfect matches. Because I’ve enjoyed Sarah Morgan’s books I’ve ventured further into some of the other contemporary romance authors I’ve heard mentioned on Smart Bitches, Trashy Books. And if the spines say Mills and Boon, at least the cover designs aren’t cringey any more!
Books with Brontes
This seems bonkers considering the fact that I’ve never read Wuthering Heights all the way through, and haven’t read Jayne Eyre since I was about 9, but this year seems to have been the year of me reading books featuring the Brontes in some shape or form. I think I’ve read about half a dozen now. Some have been amazing, like The Madwoman Upstairs or Jane Steele, some have been less so, none have made me want to re-read Jane Eyre (but lets face it, if Thursday Next couldn’t manage that, I don’t think anything will) or have another go at Wuthering Heights, but I’ve enjoyed them and done some more reading around the Brontes. I think perhaps it’s because I don’t know much about them or their books that I enjoy them so much – there’s not much chance of me spotting mistakes or inconsistencies! And on top of all this, Trisha Ashley’s next novel, which I’m lucky enough to have an advance copy of, is set in Bronte country as well!
So there you have it, my bookish obsessions of 2016. Place bets now on what might make the list in 12 months time.
*My comfort zone being Western European history post 1485, with a strong preference for post 1750.
Verity Reads Books (lots of them) 