You all know I saw this three times at the Barbican this summer, so it’s my duty to report that they recorded the revival of Kiss Me, Kate and it’s coming to cinemas from today (17th November) and I am in fact going to see it, in my local indie today because a) I loved it and b) I want to see how it comes across on screen. It’s one of those event-cinema releases, so the dates may vary (the cinema where I’m seeing it is only showing it twice a couple of days apart at the moment) and you may need to look at either an indie or a larger multiplex cinema, but hopefully if you want to see it you’ll be able to find it.
Books Incoming: Another November post
As I said last week, there were too many arrivals for just one post, so I’m back with a second one. And this is fifty percent preorders (that’s the whole front row), and then a few others. And several of the others are because I’ve been ordering Christmas books – and to get free postage from Waterstones you need to spend more than £30… so I just bought myself something to get up to the value, because I haven’t been organised I’ve just been ordering in dribs and drabs. Anyway, to the actual books: we’ve got the new final Vanderbeeker book which is finally out here in paperback, the next part in the Fangirl Manga and the latest Katherine Center (which I also saw in the shops last week). Then there’s A Star Is Bored which has been recommended by several authors that I enjoy reading, the Roseanne Montillo book about Truman Capote and Ann Woodward and The Divorce Colony, which has been on the list for so long that I forget who recommended it to start with, but which had a price drop. So all lovely stuff hopefully, I just need to stop acquiring things and start reading them…
Have a great weekend!
Bingeable series: Lily Bard
The last couple of years I’ve reread some Charlaine Harris around Halloween, and this year it was the turn of Lily Bard, which is closer to Aurora Teagarden in feel than Sookie Stackhouse, but still has a similar feel in a way.
Lily Bard lives in the small town of Shakespeare in Arkansas. She moved to the town to escape a traumatic event in her past and has built herself a small, protected life as a cleaning lady whilst also honing her martial arts skills at the local gym. In the first book she sees a body being dumped near her house and after anonymously tipping off the police tries hard to stay out of it – until people start to suspect that she is the killer. And off we go for a five book series where Lily unravels a series of murders in her small town.
In some ways these are like other cozy crime novels: small town, female heroine who runs her own business etc, except that Lily’s life has been darker and more traumatic than most usual cozy heroines and her world view is pretty dark and cynical. The first time I read this series, I read them out of order and had a bit of a mixed response. But this time, reading them in order I could watch Lily develop and grow as she slowly breaks down the walls she has built around herself and starts living life rather than just existing. And yes I’ve hedged around what happened to her – because it’s a spoiler, it’s not in the blurbs, but it’s sexual violence and it’s bad. So be warned.
A few of the reviews of the books have some issues with the way that Lily views other women and her attitudes towards them, whereas if you read them in order, I interpreted it as it Lily knowing that she wasn’t doing anything wrong when she was attacked and so she can’t see why anyone would be so trusting as to let themselves be vulnerable. But these are definitely darker murder mysteries than Aurora, there’s a lot less sex than Sookie, which I guess makes them Harper Connolly but without the ability to see deadbodies – and there are people that have problems with that series too so maybe it is pretty apt!
Anyway, I bought the Kindle omnibus edition this time because I didn’t have them all in paperback to start with and I’m not sure I still have any of them any more (I couldn’t find them anyway) even if I wasn’t mostly binging through them while staying away from home. Kobo only seems to have the individual books. I’m not sure how easy they are to find in the shops atm – Charlaine Harris is a bit of a weird one on that front. They’ve definitely had a cover redesign since I last read them.
Have a great weekend!
Out This Week: Under the Mistletoe Collection
This is one of those Amazon collections that are free if you’re in Kindle Unlimited and features five novellas from some of the big name romance novels at the moment. So there are stories from Ali Hazelwood, Tessa Bailey, Olivia Dade, Alexandria Bellefleur and Alexis Daria all around a Christmas or holiday theme. Olivia Dade is one of my favourites – and I’ve written about Hazelwood and Bellefleur before, so I’m looking forward to reading these – hopefully at some point in the run up to Christmas – and I’ll try to remember to report back!
Recommendsday: November Kindle Offers
It’s the second Wednesday in November, so I’m back with another round of Kindle offers, and as we’re coming up to Christmas it’s a real bumper month – with relatively recent releases as well as Christmas themed reading. So lets get down to it…
Lets start with recent BotW The Darkest Sin by D V Bishop from his Cesare Aldo series. Also in historical mystery, the fourth in C J Sansom’s Shardlake series, Revelation is 99p – this is the next one I need to read in the series so I bought it, because it’s a total bargain for 600+ pages and it’s easier to read on Kindle when they’re that big! Just a mystery, not a historical mystery is C L Miller‘s The Antique Hunter’s Guide to Murder, as is the second Canon Clement, A Death in the Parish. More expensive, at £2.89 is last year’s Josephine Tey Mystery by Nicola Upson – the Daphne Du Maurier-y Shot with Crimson.
One of my favourites from last year, Jenny Jackson‘s Pineapple Street is 99p if you want some Rich People Problems. Somewhat older and rich people-adjacent is Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld as is Where’d You Go Bernadette by Maria. One of this year’s new releases Jasper Fforde’s Red Side Story is 99p.
On the Christmas books front, one of my current in progress books A Jingle Bell Mingle is 99p and one of the Christmas new releases I mentioned, Nita Prose’s The Mistletoe Mystery is 99p. One of my previous Christmas favourites is on offer too – Christina Lauren‘s In a Holidaze, also Susan Mallery‘s The Christmas Wedding Guest, one of my recent purchases The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year
The 99p Georgette Heyer is A Civil Contract, which is possibly my least favourite of her Regency novels, but your mileage may vary. The Terry Pratchett is Thud at £1.99 which is one of the Watch stories – but is particularly Sam Vimes focused. On the classic front Carry on, Jeeves is 99p and Hercule Poirot’s Christmas is 99p and in KU as well if you’re in that.
On the non-fiction front, there’s another recent BotW The Formula and also Laurence Leamer‘s Capote’s Women. And finally in things I haven’t read – there’s Rachel Lacey’s Stars Collide – and age gap romance with two pop stars at different points in their careers find they have more in common than music after they perform together 99p – also in KU – andCasey McQuiston, of Red, White and Royal Blue fame’s latest novel The Pairing is 99p
That your lot – Happy Reading and try not to spend too much…
Book of the Week: The Anti-Social Season
It’s November and we have our first Christmas-set pick of the season and it’s one of the new releases! And yes I know, I told you about it on release day, but now I’m reporting back…
Thea has been a firefighter for a decade, except that now she can’t do it any more after a colleague was injured. She’s got the chance of a job managing the fire service’s social media – but can she cope with being so close to her old job without actually doing it? And who even is she if she isn’t a firefighter? Simon is a librarian and manages the library’s social accounts part time. He’s the man tasked with teaching Thea the ropes of her new job. He also had a huge crush on her when they were at school – even though she didn’t notice him at all. As they work their way towards Christmas the two of them realise that there is something going on between them – but can they do anything about it without risking their jobs?
This is actually much lower angst than that description sounds. There is no active peril really, just some slightly toxic family members and two adults working out whether they might work together beyond the bedroom. There are adult conversations when things go wrong (not always straight away) and grown up behaviour. It’s actually a very comforting and calming read. Well except for Simon’s sister and mother who need to be fired into the sun. But apart from that. If you want to start your festive reading, this wouldn’t be a bad place to do it.
As you already know, I had this one preordered and it’s available now on Kindle and Kobo.
Happy Reading!
The Week in Books: November 4 – November 10
What a week. What a weekend – my sister came to visit and we went to London and ended up seeing two shows in less than twenty four hours, which is pretty much my idea of heaven. And I’ve got another one on Monday night too so I’m carrying the weekend fun over into the new week. And on the reading front, the Fetherings binge continues as well as some Christmas reading and a new-to-me historical mystery series. I just need to work on that long running list now…
Read:
A Reconstructed Corpse by Simon Brett
Death at the Dress Rehearsal by Stuart Douglas
The Killer in the Cafe by Simon Brett
A Body on the Doorstep by Marty Wingate
The Anti-Social Season by Adele Buck
The Nosy Neighbor by Nita Prose
The Liar in the Library by Simon Brett
Started:
The Killer in the Choir by Simon Brett
Death in the Dark by Julia Buckley
Still reading:
The Divorce Colony by April White
A Jingle Bell Mingle by Sierra Simone and Julie Murphy*
Small Bomb at Dimperley by Lissa Evans
So I spent the Waterstones voucher. Well all of it except about £1.80. And as you could see on Saturday, it’s all got a bit out of hand…
Bonus picture: Lego Liberty still makes me smile every time I go in, even if the crowds in the Christmas shop don’t!
*next to a book book title indicates that it came from NetGalley. ** indicates it was an advance copy from a source other than NetGalley.
Book Adjacent: Day of the Jackal
Back with another recommendation for a film based on a book this weekend, but I’m going to start off by saying that this film is brilliant, but I’m not sure I can ever watch it again. If you read on, I will explain!
OK lets start with the fact that I’m talking about the 1970s movie based on the book of the same name written by Frederick Forsythe and not the Bruce Willis remake or the recent mini series with Eddie Redmayne. This one is directed by Fred Zinneman and stars Edward Fox as the Jackal, an assassin hired to kill French President Charles De Gaulle in the summer of 1963. The Jackal is hired by a militant group, angry about the independence of Algeria, who have just failed in their own attempt to kill De Gaulle and hire a British assassin instead. The movie follows him as he meticulously plots the assassination, travelling all over Europe, and also the police effort to track him down – led by Deputy Commissioner Lebel, played by Michael Lonsdale aka Drax from Moonraker.
It’s a film full of fabulous but understated performances, but Edward Fox is truly chilling as the Jackal. He is a professional who is completely detached from everything and everyone and will do whatever it takes to get the job done. The reason I’m not sure I can ever watch it again is because one of the murders he carries out en route to his vantage point to take a shot at de Galle upset me so much. I can’t tell you much more than that, but it really upset/disturbed me. I couldn’t stop thinking about it afterwards, and in the course of finding the trailer to insert into this post, YouTube also turned up the clip of that scene and now I’m thinking about it again. Hopefully writing about it will help and I’ll be able to get to sleep tonight without it circling around in my head again. I honestly don’t know why sometimes things stick in my head like this, but things do sometimes and this one did.
A few months back I wrote about Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and I would put this in the same category as that – right up to the fact that there’s a scene at the end of that film that if I hear the music from it, I get flashbacks of it (although it doesn’t stop me from re-watching that one – so maybe I will get over this?). Luckily (!) after the opening sequence, Day of the Jackal doesn’t use music as a soundtrack – it only occurs on people’s radios or TVs or where there are bands or musicians on the street, all of which really adds to the tense atmosphere of the movie. It is also very sparing on the dialogue – you need to be paying attention to follow what is going on – so much is seen or inferred rather than spoken out loud. And on top of all that, it’s great to see what all of these European locations looked like back then and with all of the great 1960s cars.
Him Indoors recorded this one off one of the film channels for me, because he thought I’d like it (he was right, except for that one thing) so it should come around again at some point, but probably isn’t on the streaming services at the moment.
Books Incoming: November crime novels
Ok. So it’s all got a bit out of hand this month and I’ve had to split the books incoming up because there were just so many of them. And that’s because a bunch of preorders came in, a load of stuff that I’ve been wanting to read came down in price and I found a nice large book voucher that I needed to spend – and so here we are. So this week you’re getting the crime and mystery arrivals, next week you’re getting the other stuff and then I’ve saved the Christmas-themed arrivals to do all together!
So right at the back we’ve got the latest Rivers of London graphic novel which was on of those preorders and that I picked up from the Comic Bookshop last weekend. Then there’s the second in Frances Brody’s new series, the next two in the series which started with last week’s book of the week A Dark and Stormy Murder – one of which was second hand, the other came from the lovely cozy crime selection at Waterstones Piccadilly thanks to that voucher. Also on that voucher and from the same place is Six Sweets Under and Deadly Summer Nights – which are both first in series. The Anne George is a second in series – and will help with my 50 States challenge for this year (if I read it before the end of the year!) and then there’s another Edmund Crispin because happened to see it, the next books in two other series – the Edward Marston ocean liner books and Perveen Mistry mysteries.
Happy Saturday!
Belated Happy Birthday Soulless!
One of the things that happened last month that I missed was the fifteenth birthday of Gail Carriger’s first book, Soulless. I wasn’t quite in on this from the start – I started reading her about five years in, but I have consistently revisited Soulless since – and read all of the connected books at least once. I own many of them in more than one format – Soulless I have in paperback, ebook and audiobook (which I’m actually listening to at the moment) because that is the sort of person I am. Anyway, the point of this is to point you back at my series post for the Parasolverse, although I’ve also got review posts for a bunch of the later books which I read after I started this blog. So if you fancy some vampires, werewolves and more in Steampunk Victorian London this week, these could be just the thing for you!
Verity Reads Books (lots of them) 