books I want

Buy me a book for Christmas 2025

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For the second year in a row, I’m posting my personal Christmas book wishlist the second last weekend of November. A saturnalia miracle indeed. So hi mum! (!) here’s what I’m hoping might appear under the tree this year!

Cover of Making Mary Poppins

I’m going to start with two books from my autumn preview post which I have managed to resist so far. I’ve picked up and put down Tim Curry’s Vagabond at least three times now – on one occasion reading the introduction and then forcing myself to walk away – telling myself that I don’t need more books, and that I didn’t have space in my bag for a hardback. But I really want to read it. I also really want to read Making Mary Poppins but I haven’t seen that one in the stores so it’s been easier to resist on that front. But Christmas is the season to watch Mary Poppins, and I think knowing more about the behind the scenes will only enhance the experience!

Right, now the new release non-fiction is done, I’ve been to check out the wishlist I keep of books I can’t justify buying for myself to come up with the rest of this year’s list. Options at all price points people, never fear – some of them have been on the list so long that they’re now in paperback.

One in that category is the Willig-White-Williams murder mystery The Author’s Guide to Murders which was on last autumn’s new fiction preview and consequently is in paperback now. I haven’t seen this in any of the many bookstores I’ve been in this last year – or I think I would have bought it. So either I’ve been looking in the wrong sections of the shop or it’s harder to find than it should be. I read Patrick Gleason’s Hattie Steals the Show a couple of months back, and I really want to read the first one Hattie Brings Down the House before the third one comes out next year (which I know about thanks to the author popping up in the comments on that last post, which was really exciting). Still in murder mysteries, I would like to read Murder at Gull’s Nest – the algorithm keeps suggesting me the sequel even though I haven’t read the first one yet, and you know what I’m like about reading in order!

On to non mysteries – I really want to read Alexa Martin’s new book How to Sell a Romance, which is set in and around an MLM and sounds like it might involve taking it down and so I think my sister would probably like to read it too, which makes it an ideal candidate for this list. Also in things I think my sister would like to read as well as me is The Influencers by Anne-Marie McLemore, which is about a fire and a murder at the house of a social media influencer who has been writing about her five daughters and their lives for 25 years. I would also like Last Summer at the Golden Hotel, which is about a hotel in the Catskills that has been run by the same two families for more than 60 years, but has reached a crossroads.

I think that’s probably enough for people to go on – for now at least! Have a great Saturday everyone.

historical, mystery, series

Mystery Series: County Guides

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Happy Friday everyone, it’s very, very cold where I am in the UK* and I’m seriously starting to think about starting Christmas shopping. I know. It’s still November. Anyway, after a romance series last week, here is a murder mystery one for you.

It’s the 1930s and the County Guides books follow “the People’s Professor” Swanton Morley around the UK as he writes a series of guidebooks. It is seem from the point of view of his newly recruited (at the start of book one) secretary Stephen Sefton, a veteran of the Spanish Civil War who has a slightly shady past. Also travelling with them is Morley’s daughter Miriam. Everywhere they they stumble across a body and this – and Morley’s attitude – makes them unpopular with locals and the authorities alike.

As you know I really like a historical mystery series and the 1930s are one of my real sweet spots for that. And the fact that each book moves to a different part of the country makes for a good way of varying the setting and giving opportunities for new characters to be introduced each book without expanding the core group and leaving hanging threads for the next book.

These are very much in the books where I love the premise but sometimes find the reality disappointing. This is mostly because Morley is set up as deeply irritating and at times Stephen can be too and that leaves you with no one to really root for – you share the exasperation of the locals with these annoying people who are telling them how to solve a murder! But that said, I liked them enough that I followed them through all five books in the series – even though it has taken me a while and they got harder to find.

I got the first few of these from NetGalley, a couple from the library and then bought the final one on Kindle. I have occasionally seen paperbacks in the shops – new and secondhand but I suspect at this point Kindle or Kobo will be the easiest way to get hold of these, although, neither Kindle or Kobo have managed to link the five books together as a series which is both annoying and weird because it makes it hard to give you a proper link to click and so all I can do is link you to the list of Ian Sansom ebooks and tell you that the order is: The Norfolk Mystery, Death in Devon, Westmorland Alone, Essex Poison and The Sussex Murders.

Have a great weekend everyone.

*although obviously as nothing to winter in some places, but the UK is not made for the cold.

Book previews, new releases

Out This Week: New Royal Spyness

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After talking about the new H M The Queen Investigates book a couple of weeks ago, today it’s the turn of another Royal-related historical mystery series – Rhys Bowen’s Royal Spyness books which has reached number 19 – with From Cradle to Grave – which came out on Tuesday. I remain surprised and delighted that Bowen continues to find more set ups for murders for Georgie to solve, but also that she’s continuing to put out multiple books a year despite being in her 80s. Anyway the blurb for this latest installment has nanny problems (more accurately sister in law problems) as well as a string of deaths which may threaten Georgie’s beloved husband Darcy. I am up to date with this series – and always wonder if the next book will be the last but surely Bowen wouldn’t finish on a strange number like 19 when 20 is right there? Right?

first in series, Recommendsday

Recommendsday: First in mystery series

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It’s the middle of the week again and I’m back with some more murder mysteries, but this time they’re the first books in their series.

Grime and Punishment by Jill Churchill

After picking up two later books in this series earlier this year, I’m now going back and getting more and have acquired the first one. Book two, Farewell to Yarns was a BotW in May, but in Grime and Punishment Jane is trying to solve the murder of a cleaning lady in the house next door because the suspects include a lot of her friends. Often in a first in a series there is too much set up and the book can suffer, either from just having too much going on or from the mystery not being quite good enough. This isn’t one of those – it manages to introduce the group and Jane very naturally and the mystery is sufficiently twisty.

Murder on the Mountain by Ellie Alexander

After having enjoyed Alexander’s Secret Bookcase series, I was interested to read this first one in a different series from her – a re-release and retitle of something she had previously released under a different pseudonym. Our heroine is Meg, a journalist who scores a job at an outdoors magazine, where she’s definitely trying to fake it till she makes it because her outdoor skills are practically nil. The murder in this one is of a contestant in an outdoor competition TV show, but in the background is the death of Meg’s father (an investigative journalist) in mysterious circumstances while working on an expose. I didn’t love this – I found Meg a real trial because she is almost aggressively clueless about the outdoors, and about a few other things in the story. However as these are in Kindle Unlimited, I’ll probably give the second one a go to see if it improves any once all the series set up is over with. However, given this was Alexander’s first ever series, and I don’t know how much reworking of it she’s done, it may just be that Alexanders writing has changed since she wrote these!

Beaches, Bungalows and Burglaries by Tonya Kappes

Mae West’s (no, not that one) life has taken a turn – her much older husband has turned out to be a conman, he’s in jail, she’s divorced him and all his assets have been seized. So instead of a life of luxury, she’s got to start over and all she has is am RV and campground in Normal, Kentucky which her husband put in her name years ago. So she heads to Normal to start over, but finds that the community there is suffering because of her husband too. Then he turns up – not in prison, but dead in the lake at the campsite and suddenly she’s a suspect. I found this while I was looking for books for my missing states for the 50 states challenge this year, and didn’t realise that I’d read one of Kappes’ series years ago when she was being published by Henery press back when they were in a really good groove of easy, fun cozy crime. And this is slightly ridiculous (and the recipes at the end are awful) but it’s a pretty fun read, with a good set up for a series. If you’re a KU member, it’s worth a read, but I have no idea how Kappes has get this set up going for *checks* more than 40 books! I suspect that I’ll read a few more to see because long series are so hard to pull off!

Book of the Week, cozy crime, detective, reviews

Book of the Week: Buffalo West Wing

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As I said yesterday, most of my reading last week was to contribute to this year’s fifty states challenge and this was one of them. It’s slightly rule breaking but I’m going with it.

Buffalo West Wing is the fourth in Julie Hyzy’s White House Chef mystery series featuring Olivia Paras, who (as the title suggests) is the executive chef at the White House. In this, a new president has just been elected and that means big changes for the staff at the Residence. It also means Olivia needs to impress the new President and his family, but when some mystery chicken wings turn up in her kitchen, she gets off on the wrong foot with them because refuses to serve them to the First Kids. But when the people who do eat them fall ill, she’s caught up in a plot to threaten the First Family.

This is the first in this series that I’ve read (or even come across) and it had slightly more peril than I was expecting and also a lot of pre existing relationships to get my head around. But there was info there (and not in info dumps) that it made sense and I really enjoyed it. I would happily read more of the series.

I read this one in paperback as you can seem but as it’s nearly 15 years old (and the series has been dormant since 2016) they may not be that easy to find in physical copies. In fact I’m amazed I found this one in Waterstones a couple of months ago. But they are all available on Kindle and Kobo.

Happy Reading!

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: November 10 – November 16

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I said last week that I have started my panic for the Fifty States Challenge early this year – and everything I finished this week except Gaudy Night is ticking off one of my missing states! If I can keep this rate up, I’ll be finished before Christmas, but my record on keeping this up is not great so I could still be in a panic on New Year’s Eve like every previous year!

Read:

Beaches, Bungalows and Burglaries by Tonya Kappes

Ghost Business by Jen DeLuca

New Uses for Old Boyfriends by Beth Kendrick

A Killer Edition by Lorna Barrett

Gaudy Night by Dorothy L Sayers

Buffalo West Wing by Julie Hyzy

The George Eliot Murders by Edith Skom

Started:

Calling All Blessings by Beverly Jenkins

Still reading:

You Had to Be There by Jodie Harsh*

Ritual of Fire by D V Bishop

Pet Shop Boys, Literally by Chris Heath

One paperback in Waterstones Piccadilly and two ebooks.

Bonus picture: the new Legends and Lattes in the wild!

*next to a book book title indicates that it came from NetGalley. ** indicates it was an advance copy from a source other than NetGalley.

books

Not a Book: Ballet Shoes is back!

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Just a quick post today to say that the National Theatre’s new version of Ballet Shoes is back from tomorrow (17 November). I saw it back in February and loved it, and I’m so pleased they’ve decided to bring it back for Christmas. I’ve been recommending it to people as a family show that’s not a panto for the holidays. And of course if you haven’t read the original book, I re-read it after seeing the show and it’s still a joy.

The pile

Books Incoming: Mid-November edition

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Happy Saturday everyone, I’m back with some more new arrivals in the house. Some of them are already off the pile though, so that’s good and one of them will help me with the 50 States Challenge, which is becoming ever more critical so that’s good too!

So here we have three more Jill Churchill books because I went a little mad on Abebooks. But two of them are safely off the pile already so they don’t really count. Also not really counting is The Dead Side of the Mike which is a Charles Paris novel, which I have already read and already own in ebook format. But I couldn’t resist this when I saw it on a charity donation shelf at a cafe in Cumbria. The shelf had a lot of Simon Brett of various types and I think I did well to just stick to one – and I picked this one because of the BBC microphone and all the tape. So this is also going off to a proper shelf and not the pile. Also from that charity shelf is the Edith Skom, which is set on Hawaii and so even if it is truly terrible, it is useful to me! Then we have the second Rosemary Shrager after I enjoyed The Last Supper so much. The Anthony Horowitz is The Marble Hall Murders, the latest Magpie Murders, which is less giant now it’s out in paperback and also was on offer. Another offer was Jonathan Miles’s The Once Upon a Time World which is a history of the French Riviera, which as you know is a firmly in my Rich People Problems non-fiction area and I have been waiting for an offer on for ages. And finally there is the new Katherine Center in paperback which I had preordered even though it came out in kindle months ago.

And finally as a bonus, because I had left Days at the Torunka Café at my parents’ house last month and it wasn’t in the picture for Books Incoming, here it is with this month’s books:

Have a great Saturday everyone.

books

Romance series: From Manhattan with Love

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Happy Friday everyone, this week I’m back with a Sarah Morgan series that feels like it has some great winter and festive books in it if you’re looking to snuggle up on the sofa out of the cold weather or even get in the mood for Christmas.

There are six books in this series (and also a couple of novellas) and the first of this series was actually the first Sarah Morgan I ever read nearly a decade ago now. The first three in the series centre on a group of friends who start an events company and who find love while being good at their jobs (competency porn!) and the second three expand to their wider circle. What really like about Sarah Morgan is that if people have problems in her books, they work them out for themselves – they are not solved by falling in love or by the person that they fall in love with.

The romance genre is constantly evolving and changing – historical romances are being replaced with romantasy and the trends in contemporary romance at the moment is much more towards younger heroines and first person narrative, but for me these fall really squarely into what I really enjoy the most in romance novels – a satisfying romance but with a couple who are more than just cipers falling in insta love for a reason you don’t quite understand as a reader. And I know that makes me old and unfashionable at the moment, and I’m ok with that!

These are easy to get hold of on Kindle and Kobo, but I don’t know how easy they’ll be in physical copies – I used to get my Sarah Morgans from The Works, but they only do recent releases, and of course it’s eight years since the last of these came out now so you may be more in the second hand/charity shop/library areas if you want a paperback. They’ve certainly had a cover refresh since I first read them!

books

Out Today: New Legends and Lattes

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Legends and Lattes is one of my favourite reads this year, and the third book in the series is out today. Brigands and Breadknives features Fern the Bookseller, who has moved to Thune to set up shop next door to a certain coffeeshop as an attempt to deal with her ennui with life. But it may not be as simple as a new place and a new start as various ne’er do wells emerge to cause problems. I’m looking forward to reading this one so much I may even buy it in paperback rather than waiting for the Kindle price to drop! If you haven’t read Legends and Lattes, it’s in Kindle Unlimited at the moment and I thoroughly recommend it.