A super busy week last week, but not too awful week in reading all together. This coming week is even busier, so we’ll see how I go, but I have at least finished all of my August new releases from NetGalley before the end of the month which is practically a first. If only I had finished the July ones. Or the June ones.
After another sweltering week, it’s meant to be getting a bit cooler. I can’t work out if this is going to help or hinder my reading – the heat has made me stay indoors more but also made it harder to concentrate. If it gets significantly cooler it will be very tempting to go out and get some fresh air. But given my recent experiences of getting out have left me a sweaty mess because of the humidity as well as the heat, may be I’ll still be sheltering in areas with air conditioning! We’re at a slightly funny point in the book release cycle – the summer books are already out, but the autumn ones haven’t quite started yet. I should be using this to catch up on things in the NetGalley backlog, but what I’m actually doing is reading books that I bought at Bristol and picking things up from the actual pile, reading 10 pages and then putting them down again. I blame the heat.
Bonus picture: a Parachutist on their way down on Sunday at the Balloon Festival. We went to take a look because a) it’s really nearby and b) it seemed slightly cooler. But in fact it was deceptive and the humidity was grim. Still at least we saw the parachutes, even if the only hot air ballons we saw were the baskets waiting to be re-gassed.
*next to a book book title indicates that it came from NetGalley. ** indicates it was an advance copy from a source other than NetGalley.
Happy Monday. I would say I’m braced for another heatwave, but to be honest it feels like it has started already. It was really quite hot in London on Saturday, albeit not in the 30s, and it was so hot at home yesterday I was glad we hadn’t gone to the MotoGP at Silverstone – even though the races were exciting – because I would have been absolutely sure to get sunburn and a dehydration headache. Anyway, more excitement coming up this week with at least one more theatre trip, hopefully the air con will be working there. Anyway, on the reading front, it was a fairly ok week. I’m making fast progress down the conference purchases when I’m at home – the beauty of middle grade books is that they don’t take long to read – which is making me feel less bad about the enormous state of the pile in general.
Read:
The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side by Agatha Christie
The Irresistible Urge to Fall For Your Enemy by Brigitte Knightley
It’s offers post writing o’clock again so there were a few Kindle purchases. No actual books though
Bonus picture: The Strand and its little gaggle of theatres. I often forget that although the West End is (mostly) clustered around Shaftesbury Avenue, these three plus the Lyceum, the Duchess, the Novello, the Theatre Royal Drury Lane and the Aldwych are all very close together too. And on Saturday night it seemed like most of them had finished their shows just in time for their patrons to be clogging the pavement as we were walking back to Euston…
*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 bought: We’re not going to talk about this, because after a Very Good Books Incoming in the middle of the month as you all know I went to Book Con and it all got a bit excessive. You’ve already seen the Book Con purchases, but there are a stack more that you haven’t yet from the days around the actual conference. And then there were another 13 ebooks…
Most read author: Three Dimsies (middle grade, not loads of pages) vs three St Just mysteries probably means that GM Malliet is th most read on page count
Books read in 2026: 233
Books on the Goodreads to-read shelf (I don’t have copies of all of these!): 588
A pretty solid month in reading – except for the number of books coming in. Yes I may have sold more than than I bought, but the stuff I bought is now on the already bulging to read pile, and the stuff I sold wasn’t taking up as much space. But I did have a wonderful time!
Bonus picture: A summer garden party I walked past on the way back to the station one day…
*often includes some short stories/novellas/comics/graphic novels – but not this month!
Welcome to August everyone, all the usual start of the month stuff coming up over the next week or so. In the meantime, here’s the list from last week, which includes three of my Bristol purchases, three new releases (included one I mentioned in the Summer romance releases) and the last of the St Justs I hadn’t read which meant I could finally write that post on Friday! This week it’s meant to be hot and sticky again and I’ve got at least one theatre trip planned so we’ll see how all of that meshes with the reading list.
Happy Friday everyone and today for the series post I’m writing about G M Malliet’s St Just books. I’ve already written about her Max Tudor series, most recently back when I did a spy-themed week a couple of months back. But this week I finished the last book in the series I hadn’t read (reading severely out of order!) and so now I can tell you about then.
Our detective is Arthur St Just, a police Detective Chief Inspector and the crimes are Christie or Golden age-esque. Many of them are set around rich families, authors or Oxbridge colleges, or some combination of the above. St Just is from Cornwall but primarily based in Cambridge but Oxford also makes an appearance or two. St Just is a widower but does acquire a fiancée later in the series for some continuity of running characters as well as the fact that is it even a mystery series without a love interest?
It is very much a series of two halves as there was a decade or so gap (and a change of publishers) between book three and book four, and in fact I hadn’t realised that the series had restarted until I saw Death and the Final Cut on NetGalley last autumn. I read that then and now I’ve filled in the gaps with books four to six. And I’m pretty sure I’ve enjoyed these later ones more than I liked the earlier ones. My reviews of those on Goodreads from around a decade or so ago (I read them after having already started on the Max Tudors) are short but very much in the ok to fine sort of area.
Books three to six are in Kindle Unlimited at the moment and I actually think these are a pretty good place to start or at least test out series. They all have interesting characters, but the earlier books are more in the dislikeable mode than the later ones, and three to six particularly have good pacing and interesting mysteries. Seven isn’t quite as good, but it clearly wasn’t enough to put me off going back for the rest when I got a chance or to make a note to keep an eye for any more appearing.
I’m exhausted. I’ve had a fabulous time at book conference, but I’ve spent a lot of time talking about reading, listening to talks about reading and buying books to read rather than actually reading. So this list is short and I’ve already caused myself a major problem for tomorrow by writing about American Fantasy last week. Past Verity causing problems for Future Verity once more.
Where to start. About six on the way to book conference and another nine at book conference. And I’m writing this before our day out in Bath where we intend to visit even more book shops.
Bonus picture: Our (there’s a trio of us) sale table at the delegate sale on Sunday. The right hand side (all the less valuable stuff!) is (mostly) mine. I didn’t sell it all, but I came home with less books than I took with me – even when you include the stuff I bought at conference. Result.
*next to a book book title indicates that it came from NetGalley. ** indicates it was an advance copy from a source other than NetGalley.
A rollercoaster week in many ways, ending late on Sunday night with extra time in the World Cup Final and me rereading a Dimsie book instead of something new. Who knows what I’ll write about tomorrow given that the two NetGalley books that I finished aren’t out for months, and there are a lot of later in series on the list too. Oh well, I’m sure it will come to me…
It’s so hard to concentrate in the heat isn’t it? And to sleep. And to do anything other than slump somewhere and drink cold drinks and moan about how hot it is. That was basically my week. Lots of time on hot trains not being able to thing about anything except how hot I was. This week is meant to be a bit cooler (please, please, please) but we’ve also got an England semi-final at the World Cup (which I’ll be missing at least part of) and then whatever comes next. Who knows what all that means for the list…
Yes I know, this is the least unexpected BotW pick since, oh I don’t know, the last time I previewed a new release book on the Thursday and then promptly had it on the read list on Monday. But in my defence, I do try not to do this and pick my previews accordingly – and indeed when I went back and checked this the last time it happened is more than a year ago with A Murder for Miss Hortense (but only because I spaced out reading Dolly All the Time, The Paris Match and Finders Keepers from their previews – mostly because those were paperback preorders and not *right there* on my Kindle tempting me). But although there were a lot of books out last week, this was the one I was most excited about given how much I loved Pineapple Street. And also one of those other books that was out last week was a second Miss Hortense book – and was trying not to repeat on that front too. Anyway, with that slightly defensive opening over, to the review:
Caroline has always wanted to be a writer and when she gets a year long writer’s fellowship, she gives up her job in publishing and moves to Greenhead, Massachusetts and the cottage that writer the fellowship is endowed for once lived in. In Greenhead she meets Van. Van is one of the locals – an outdoorsy, ecologist who is like a big friendly dog made human. Soon they’re seeing each other and and Van is including her with his group of friends – including Bailey, who he’s been falling into bed with ever since they were at school. Van’s friends aren’t overly pleased at the advent of this rival to Bailey, and this only gets worse when Bailey realises that she’s pregnant with Van’s child. She’s definitely only in their circle because Van wants her to be – and what she does when she’s not anymore throws everything in the group up in the air even more than her presence did in the first place.
The blurb doesn’t reveal what it is that Caroline does – and as it happens a long way into the book (I want to say after the 60 percent point) I’m not either because it’s a huge spoiler, but it’s totally delicious and turns what was already a really good read into something truly excellent. This is very much a rich people problems novel as well as the Greenhead group with their family summer homes and ski trips, Caroline’s mother is a hugely successful writer and there’s never any sense that Caroline’s finances are dependent on whatever she writes on the fellowship being a success and so she’s an outsider only in that she doesn’t know them, not so much in status or class. And so it’s all about relationships and drama on that front and even if people break up you know they’re going to be OK financially, even if they’re upset interpersonally.
All of which makes it exactly my sort of soapy, beach read and I absolutely devoured it, messaging various people as I went along with choice quotes and how much I was enjoying it. It would be a perfect sun lounger read – and I can see why it’s the July pick for Jenna’s book club* because it’s a summer read and I can see people having diverging views about it – and in fact if you look at the goodreads reviews you will see that! If you liked Pineapple Street (which obviously I did), I think you’ll like this. That was about Rich People Problems in Washington DC, this is about Rich People Problems on the coast. The relationships are dysfunctional – and apart from Caroline that’s because they all have so much history together – and do they even really have that much in common any more aside from that shared history? Read it and find out, if you like the same sort of books that I do (and maybe that’s why are you here?) then I don’t think you’ll regret it.
My copy came via NetGalley but I think this is going to be everywhere. Pineapple Street was, and as previously mentioned, this has been picked by one of the big US book clubs so I’m expecting this to be as everywhere as Pineapple Street, if not more so. And of course it’s also on Kindle and Kobo and in audiobook.
Happy Reading!
*Jenna is Jenna Bush Hager, daughter of George W Bush and presenter of the Today Show on which her book club is a feature.
Verity Reads Books (lots of them) 