Tag: books

Book of the Week, new releases

Book of the Week: The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club

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A historical fiction pick today, and one that has taken me a while to read on account of my brain’s refusal to concentrate on long books when I’m tired and my uncertainty on how things were going to turn out and my current need for closure and happy endings!

It’s 1919, the war is over and the world is starting to return to normal. Except that normal seems to mean that all the gains that women have made during the war are being rolled back and having had a taste of independence the world is now trying to relegate them back to domesticity. Helen Simonson’s new novel focuses on three characters trying to figure out what their place is in the post-war world. Constance had taken over the management of an estate, but is now losing her job and her home to make way for returning men. After nursing the mother of her employer through influenza, she is sent with her to the seaside, where she meets Poppy and her group of lady motorcycle riders, and Poppy’s brother Harris, an injured wartime pilot who is still coming to terms with his new reality. And then there is Klaus, German by birth but a naturalised British citizen, who has got a job as a waiter again, but is finding that he has to keep a low profile on account of his name and accent.

This is a smart and thought-provoking novel set at an interesting time that is ripe for fiction. It’s also a coming of age story, but there is a deal of darkness to balance the tea dances and parties. The interwar period is one that I love reading about – but I haven’t read a lot of fiction set exclusively at the start of that period, and it gave me plenty to think about as well.

My copy came from NetGalley, but it’s out now and available on Kindle, Kobo and in hardback.

Happy Reading!

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: August 12 – August 18

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A super busy week – I started it in Lincolnshire, had a couple of nights in London, went to Paris and then finished it at home – so with all that excitement I’m surprised the list is as long as it is. But hey, it’s slightly better list than last week anyway.

Read:

Ravioli Soup Murder by Patti Benning

Thanksgiving Deli Murder by Patti Benning

A Season of Murder by Patti Benning

The Hazelbourne Ladies’ Motorcycle and Flying Club by Helen Simonson*

Valentines and Murder by Patti Benning

Hitting the Books by Jenn McKinlay

Started:

Dimsie Moves Up Again by Dorita Fairlie Bruce

Still reading:

Five Love Affairs and a Friendship by Anne de Courcy

The Swish of the Curtain by Pamela Brown

The Cracked Mirror by Chris Brookmire*

Two ebooks bought while I was finishing off the Kindle Offers post and then two books in actual bookshops too.

Bonus picture: breakfast in Paris!

*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 of the Week, books, Children's books, Forgotten books

Book of the Week: Film Stars at Riverlea

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It’s only right that the week after Book Conference, my book of the Week pick is a bonkers Girls Own boarding school story. So buckle up, this has got a lot of plot to get though…

I was going to say that I don’t know where to start on the plot, but I do: the start, because this opens on a twin arriving at Riverlea having run away from the boarding school she was attending after the parents decided they would be better apart from each other. And it only gets wilder from there. It’s got (not in order and not exhaustive) film stars, vindictive PE teachers, hidden talents, missing treasure, salvation through cricket, missing heirs, near drowning and a shipwreck. And those last are not at the same time. And it’s only just over 200 pages long.

Now I normally like my school stories a little saner – if by saner we mean the realistic (in comparison) boarding school in the Alps where you might get lost up a mountain that Elinor M Brent Dyer offers. But sometimes you just need something crazy. This was a great way to spend an evening and I thank my friend for letting me read it first.

I can’t even tell you where to get this – it’s long out of print and I’ve never seen it before – but I’m also not expecting many of you to want to read it because it’s niche. So niche. But also hilarious.

Happy Reading!

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: August 5 – August 11

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A somewhat bitty week where my brain has struggled to concentrate. Hey ho. Onwards we go.

Read:

Sergeant Cluff Stands Firm by Gil North

Mountains, Marriage and Murder by Patti Benning

Shrimply Murder by Patti Benning

Gazpacho Murder by Patti Benning

Peppered with Murder by Patti Benning

Sprig Muslin by Georgette Heyer

Film Stars at Riverlea by Constance M White

Started:

Five Love Affairs and a Friendship by Anne de Courcy

Still reading:

The Swish of the Curtain by Pamela Brown

The Hazelbourne Ladies’ Motorcycle and Flying Club by Helen Simonson*

The Cracked Mirror by Chris Brookmire*

I’m not telling you, but it involved charity shops and the new August Kindle deals…

Bonus picture: lovely Bath and the Assembly rooms.

*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, books

Book Conference 2024

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As I mentioned yesterday, last weekend I was at Book Conference, and now you’ve seen the new arrivals, you get the write up of what I got up to at my third trip to The Bristol Conference for Twentieth Century Schoolgirls and their Books.

Once again we were at Wills Hall, which is part of the University of Bristol and has a pleasingly boarding school air to the old parts of the site. And this year’s theme was Mothers, Mistresses and Other Role Models – a reminder that in this context mistresses means teachers – but there were other topics on the menu as well, including my friend’s talk “Cantering Towards Christ – evangelical pony books” which we came up with at the 2022 conference and she’s had to do all the reading for. It was amazing – and came with commemorative magnets too.

As this is my third time at conference there were a fair few familiar faces now – but actually quite a lot of new ones too. And as I’ve said in my posts about the previous conferences, there is such joy in spending time with other people who are into the same stuff that you are – especially when its something so niche. Everyone gets it when you make a joke about good girls getting a doctor to marry, or singing someone out of a coma. And you get such good book recommendations too. Aside from my friend’s talk, my other favourite was the one about timeslip novels. Time travel or timeslip books are one of the areas where I can never figure out what I’m going to like and what I’m not very easily, so it was really great to hear someone talk with so much knowledge about them and with such love.

And then as well as buying books, I did a bit of selling too. There’s a participant book sale on Sunday morning and I went through my shelves to figure out what I thought the other people at conference might want to take off my hands. Two years ago I didn’t quite get it right – mostly because I took my duplicates and if I’ve got a duplicate of something they probably already have it too. So this time I went for the Girls Own stuff that I’m not going to want to read again (some of which I bought at last conference!) and then adjacent stuff that I’ve seen sold at conference (and indeed bought myself) – so adult novels set in boarding schools, crime, mystery and some literary and women’s fiction.

And I did quite well. I took four boxes of books to sell – and I only bought two boxes back. But more to the point, I made back in sales what I had spent on the books I bought! Which is quite the achievement. And now all the stuff I’m happy to get rid of is sorted and in boxes it makes it easier for me to sell it (the Girls Own stuff) or donate it (the other stuff). I just need to pull my finger out and sort that – although I’d rather be reading the books that I bought!

Have a great Sunday everyone

The pile

Books Incoming: Book Con haul!

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This time last week I was at Book Conference, so it’s only right that this Saturday’s post is the new arrivals that came home with me! To be honest, I think I was pretty restrained. I mean judge for yourself from the photo, but I could have gone completely wild. Instead I resisted and stuck to what I could buy with the cash I took with me. I went with a list of what I wanted and fresh photos of the relevant bookshelves to try and make sure I didn’t buy anything I already have. Most of this came from the dealer sale, but there are a few from the participant sale and a few freebies from the very end.

So lets go from top left, which is a copy of Return to the Wells with a dust jacket to replace the one I have which didn’t have a jacket. I love the Sadlers Wells series, and I bought seven of them in hardback at my very first Book conference in 2018. I’ve now got a whole set, but there are a couple that don’t have dustwrappers, so one of my goals for this conference was to see if I could upgrade for a reasonable price. And so now I just have Jane Leaves the Wells and some of the very late ones without covers – and those last ones are *expensive* so it may stay that way for a while.

I’m still missing a couple of Shirley Flight books – sadly none in the sale – but there were two other Air Hostess themed books which I just couldn’t resist. Going clockwise, there’s the first of two Dimsie books that I picked up. Dimsie is a series that I’ve read very out of order so I got a couple more to fill in some gaps. Then there’s some crime – a cozy that’s the first in a series and then four of Josephine Tey’s Alan Grant series – three of which I’ve read and the fourth is the only one I haven’t.

Then there’s the other Dimsie, an Armada Chalet School because it was free and I just can’t resist upgrading and adding to the Armada collection, even though I have the full set in Girls Gone By paperback now, and this one was on the free table as we were leaving as was Roller Skates. And the Alison Uttley is a classic of the kids timeslip genre that I some how haven’t read.

I’m pretty pleased with what I got – there were a couple of hardback Drina books that I was tempted by, but the prices weren’t quite right and collecting Drina in hardback isn’t one of my priorities (and also you can’t get a matching set of them because Drina, Ballerina was written so many years later) so I bought the priority stuff first – and when I can back they were already sold so it clearly wasn’t meant to be. I also resisted another Sadlers Wells – which I already have in hardback and with a dustcover – it’s just not a *matching* dustcover and it was expensive. So I was good. And not too many of these (relatively) are going on the pile. Return to the Wells will go onto the shelf with the others, the Chalet Book will go with that set and the Alan Grants that I’ve already read will go with the Golden Age Paperbacks. Lovely stuff.

Have a great Saturday everyone!

books, Recommendsday

Recommendsday: July Quick Reviews

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It’s the first Wednesday of the month, and I’m back with some quick reviews. And this is a weird one, because there wasn’t actually a lot of stuff I hadn’t written about that I had loads of stuff to say about. But there are a couple, so here I am.

The Way We All Became the Brady Bunch by Kimberly Potts

Though I’ve never really watched the actual TV series of the Brady Bunch, I am a devotee of the two mid-90s movies based on it, so I picked this (really quite heavily marked up copy) up from the Oxfam near work quite a while back and finally got around to reading it. And although it jumps around somewhat in terms of the chronology, it’s a pretty good read. I’m not sure how much new stuff you’d learn if you were a series super-fan, but as someone with a casual interest and a bit of anecdotal knowledge when it comes to anything beyond the movies, I learned a lot – particularly about the impact of being on the show on the child actors – and enjoyed it.

The Vinyl Detective: Noise Floor by Andrew Cartmell

I wanted to report back in on this one – with a heavy heart – as I flagged it when it came out because it’s actually the first time this series has disappointed me. I’d been saving it for when I needed cheering up, but actually I sort of wish I hadn’t. I had some big issues with the first book in Carmel’s new (and linked) series The Paperback Sleuth, to the point where I didn’t buy the second one, and some of the things that I didn’t like about that I also spotted in this one. Now whether that’s because I’m looking for them now because the Paperback Sleuth has rubbed me up the wrong way so much, or because writing two series has led to a diminution in quality I don’t know. There is a good plot in here somewhere, but it’s too thin in the execution and overshadowed by the way it’s written and some of the flourishes. To sum up, after reading this, I haven’t bothered to pre-order the next one (which I have been doing since the second book in the series) although I probably will still read it if I can get it for a decent price. Urgh. I hate even writing this, but I do try to be honest with you all.

Next Best Fling by Gabriella Gamez*

And this is another one I’m reporting back on because I mentioned it on release day. I usually love a fake relationship romance – but this was just not it for me. The hero and heroine have a lot of unresolved issues and it felt less like they were together because they wanted to be and more like they had bonded over their shared mutal pining for someone else. Add to that the fact there were that some issues with the ex that made it all just a bit harder and less escapist to read than I’d been hoping, and it added up to a not for me – but like How to End a Love Story, I think other people may like it more than me!

And that’s your lot – happy Wednesday and here is a clip from the Brady Bunch Movie to send you on your way…

Book of the Week, books, Forgotten books

Book of the Week: Sergeant Cluff Stands Firm

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Yes this is something of a cheat, because I finished this on Monday, but it would have been Sunday night if I hadn’t been so very tired after book conference. So here we are, and let’s hope now that I’m not scuppering myself for next week’s pick!

When an Amy Snowden marries a much younger man, her neighbours are outraged. When she then apparently kills herself a few months later, her husband then disappears. The coroner rules it suicide, but Sergeant Caleb Cluff isn’t convinced. He knows the area and Amy and thinks someone is getting away with murder. So he sets out to find out the truth about what happened to Amy, despite the disapproval of his colleagues.

This was originally published in 1960, but like the Lorac the other week it is another that is really good at conjuring the location and the people and is very atmospheric. It’s also quite creepy – as a reader you’re not in a lot of doubt about whether it was a murder at the start but it builds and builds. Yes there are some slightly dubious attitudes here, but it does all make sense within itself. This is the first in a series and I will look out for more.

This is in Kindle Unlimited at the moment, so if you don’t read on kindle you may have to buy the paperback or wait for it to cycle out of that for it to pop up on Kobo.

Happy Reading!

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: July 29 – August 4

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So it’s a short list this week because I’ve been at Book Conference and I’ve been hosting guests. Oh and the Olympics is on… But I have spent even more time than usual thinking about books, I just didn’t have time to read many!

Read:

Death on the Night Train by Hugh Morrison

Julia of Sherwood School by Kathleen M MacLeod

Julia in the Sixth Form by Kathleen M MacLeod

Murder in Act Three by Hugh Morrison

Started:

Sergeant Cluff Stands Firm by Gil North

Still reading:

The Swish of the Curtain by Pamela Brown

The Hazelbourne Ladies’ Motorcycle and Flying Club by Helen Simonson*

The Cracked Mirror by Chris Brookmire*

Quite a few books bought because there was a dealer book sale and a participant book sale, and the new month has started so there are fresh kindle offers.

Bonus picture: cacti in the botanic gardens in Bristol on Saturday!

*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, stats

July Stats

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Books read this month: 32*

New books: 25

Re-reads: 7 (all audiobooks)

Books from the to-read pile: 3

NetGalley books read: 5

Kindle Unlimited read: 16

Ebooks: 1

Audiobooks: 7

Non-fiction books: 1

Favourite book this month: Do Me a Favour

Most read author: Probably Patti Benning again, because I read a bunch at the start of the month, but Hugh Morrison coming up fast behind at the end of the month

Books bought: One book-book, two ebooks and a preorder

Books read in 2024: 240

Books on the Goodreads to-read shelf (I don’t have copies of all of these!): 740

A pretty solid month in reading, although ending slower than it started. I was binging through one author at the start of the month, and moved on to mini-binges on a couple of others as we moved through. Not enough Netgalley reading done, which is all pretty standard stuff for me.

Bonus picture: Another picture from the Barbican Conservatory before Kiss Me Kate

*includes some short stories/novellas/comics/graphic novels – including this month!