Tag: books

books

Book of the Week: Funny You Should Ask

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It’s only a few weeks since I recommended Nora Goes Off Script, but I’m back with another romance that features a movie start – and I don’t care because it is so, so good. This is the book I was talking about yesterday when I talked about trying to cure a book hangover!

Ok, this plot is a little complicated – because the narrative is split between now and then. The then is the start of Chani Horowitz’s career. She’s graduated from her writing course, but instead of writing novels like her fiancé, she’s writing magazine articles. Then she’s asked to write a profile piece of Hollywood heartthrob Gabe Parker. He is her celebrity crush – and he’s just been cast as James Bond. The weekend she spends with him for the piece changes her life – it launches her career and also sets the tabloids buzzing. The now is ten years on. Chani is asked to revisit the subject of her most famous piece to do a second interview. After a decade being asked about that profile, and fresh from a divorce, Chani knows she should say no. But she has never forgotten that weekend – and it could be a chance to finally turn the page.

I loved this so much. So, so much. It’s got a long slow pine and so much yearning. And two people trying to figure out what is going on between them. There is a lot of drinking in the before part of the story – and the Gabe of the now section is fresh from rehab and newly sober. And unlike one of the books I read after this last week as I tried to get over my book hangover, you get to see that Gabe has grown and changed and is a different (and better) version of himself. And Chani is a great heroine. She’s smart and clever and fed up of her career being defined by one piece when she wants to do different things.

I bought this in my haul from Foyles earlier in the year – you can see it in the February Books Incoming – I started reading it in the shop and knew it was going to be good, which is why I’ve read it so soon (for me!). I finished it and immediately ordered Elissa Sussman’s next book which comes out later the year.

You should be able to get hold of this fairly easily – I’ve seen it all over the place since I bought it, and it’s in kindle and Kobo too. The only thing I couldn’t find was the audiobook on Audible but there does seem to be one on Goodreads so it may yet turn up.

Happy Reading!

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: March 20 – March 26

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A really good week in reading, helped by dog sitting my parents’ dachshund for three nights – a very silly dog who wants no more than to sit on your lap, or next to your lap, or maybe trying to eat your ears – but anyway a very nice excuse to spend some time reading. And I’ve made some very good progress on some of the long runners too. Fingers crossed on that front too. And I can’t believe we’re nearly at the end of March though. Where has the month gone?

Read:

Swing Brother, Swing by Ngaio Marsh

No Life for a Lady by Hannah Dolby*

R in the Month by Nancy Spain

Funny You Should Ask by Elissa Sussman

Opening Night by Ngaio Marsh

What Happens in the Ballroom by Sabrina Jeffries*

When in Rome by Sarah Adams

Eaves of Destruction by Kate Carlisle

How to Fake It in Hollywood by Ava Wilder

Started:

The Roughest Draft by Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka

A Very Merry Bromance by Lyssa Kay Adams

Still reading:

The Dress Diary of Mrs Anne Sykes by Kate Strasdin*

Shadows of London by Andrew Taylor*

Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead

The Empire by Michael Ball*

Travellers in the Third Reich by Julia Boyd

Rogues by Patrick Radden Keefe

The Final Revival of Opal and Nev by Dawnie Walton*

A couple of books bought in a book hangover quest to find something as good as the book I had just finished. You’ll find out which tomorrow!

Bonus photo: my sleepy companion for the long weekend. Bless her paws and whiskers.

*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, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: March 13 – March 19

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Another busy week, with last minute changes to my plans and all sorts going on. Also several nice meals – some of which I cooked myself! But March marches on and the still reading list has got even longer. But some of them are a lot closer to being finished – that’s why the finished list this week is a little shorter. But I will get there in the end.

Read:

The Nonesuch by Georgette Heyer

The Lady with the Gun Asks the Questions by Kerry Greenwood

Death by Darjeeling by Laura Childs

The Cricket Term by Antonia Forest

Tough Cookie by Diane Mott Davidson

The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels by India Holton

Started:

R in the Month by Nancy Spain

Funny You Should Ask by Elissa Sussman

Still reading:

No Life for a Lady by Hannah Dolby*

The Dress Diary of Mrs Anne Sykes by Kate Strasdin*

Shadows of London by Andrew Taylor*

Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead

The Empire by Michael Ball*

Travellers in the Third Reich by Julia Boyd

Rogues by Patrick Radden Keefe

The Final Revival of Opal and Nev by Dawnie Walton*

One arrived that I bought the other week, a couple of preorders paid for, and two ebooks!

Bonus photo: I started the week with a night out at the Palladium listening to some of the cast of Neighbours talking about working on the show. You weren’t meant to talks pictures inside so you get this I’m afraid!

*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, The pile

Books incoming: mid-March edition

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Oh dear. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. I usually lead with the photo but honestly this year I’m not doing very well with the self restraint and I’m almost scaring myself. It is a little more than a calendar month’s worth but February is quite a short month so it probably evens out, so no excuse there!

It’s bad isn’t it? Really bad. I mean the books are good. But the amount of them is bad. I mean the good news is that some of them are already off the pile because I read them even before this post! Death in the Stars is a Kate Shackleton and I read that the other week and The Cereal Murders is one of the Diane Mott Davidson’s that is not available on kindle so I read that too. White Mischief is one of the books about the Happy Valley set that I haven’t read yet and I picked it up in Bookends, which is also where The Ladies Auxiliary, the Edmund Crispin and the Jennifer Crusie came from.

The Crichel Boys and Young Bloomsbury are from two different wanders through Foyles – one before Noises Off and the other the same one I bought Death in the Stars as well. Bookman Dead Style is from that delightful cozy crime selection in Waterstones Gower Street. To The One I Love Best is from my walk over to see John Finnemore (I’ll explain next week!) and the Vanderbeekers, How to Fake it in Hollywood and the Tracey Thorn were impulse purchases off the internet after several different bad days. Because books make me better, right up until I’m confronted with the evidence of how many I’ve bought!

Have a great weekend everyone and go buy a book.

Book of the Week, books

Book of the Week: Scattered Showers

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A familiar name on the cover of this week’s pick, but this time it’s a short story collection from Rainbow Rowell and not a novel

Scattered Showers is a collection of short stories and novellas, some of which have been published before and some of which have some familiar faces from other Rowell novels. My edition is also very, very pretty. You can’t see it in the photo, but the long edge is sprayed in rainbow colours and the type itself is a sort of dark pinky purple colour that is really nice.

I think my favourite might be the last in the book – about two characters waiting to be used by a writer. It’s a bit meta but it really is charming. But it was also nice to spend time with Simon and Baz again and I loved the text conversation short story with the women from Attachments, and also the college dorm story set in the same world as Fangirl. And that’s already at half the book without mentioning the two that I had already read which are also good. Some old friends and some new friends and really it’s a lovely way to spend a few hours.

My copy was a preorder because it’s a nice signed one, but it should be fairly easy to get hold of this in hardback – I saw it in a shop just the other week – but it’s also on Kindle and Kobo. And a couple are available on their own too on Kindle Unlimited if you just want to sample a bit of the range.

Happy Reading!

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: March 6 – March 12

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Well. I smell a binge, which isn’t at all what I should be doing. But it is very typical of me of late. Anyhow, I’m enjoying myself so that’s fine, although the length of the still reading list is definitely not. And I have at least one evening entertainment this week coming which is always a risk.

Read:

The Grilling Season by Diane Mott Davidson

Died in the Wool by Ngaio Marsh

The Main Corpse by Diane Mott Davidson

The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen by K J Charles*

Final Curtain by Ngaio Marsh

The Cereal Murders by Diane Mott Davidson

Scattered Showers by Rainbow Rowell

Started:

The Final Revival of Opal and Nev by Dawnie Walton*

The Lady with the Gun Asks the Questions by Kerry Greenwood

Still reading:

No Life for a Lady by Hannah Dolby*

The Dress Diary of Mrs Anne Sykes by Kate Strasdin*

Shadows of London by Andrew Taylor*

Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead

The Empire by Michael Ball*

Travellers in the Third Reich by Julia Boyd

Rogues by Patrick Radden Keefe

One pre-order and a couple of ebooks but I nobly avoided bookshops for reasons that you will understand when you see the next Books Incoming post!

Bonus photo: winter refuses to go away and treated us to snow this week. Snow. Just want none of us needed. Then it turned to rain and everything was just soggy and squelchy and miserable. And cold. Really quite cold. Even buying a bunch of daffodils didn’t make it feel any more spring like.

*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, books on offer, Recommendsday

Recommendsday: March Kindle Offers

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Yes, I have once again gallantly trawled this month’s offers to find stuff that I’ve talked about – or am interested in that is a bargain this month. You’re welcome.

Let’s start with news that will possibly surprise no one, the tie-in edition of Daisy Jones and the Six is 99p this month. You all know I loved the book – and the other three in the related universe so if you haven’t read it yet, then do it now! Another recently adapted book (albeit one I haven’t read yet) also has a tie in edition on offer – Fleishman is in Trouble.

In buzzy books, Ali Hazelwood’s Love on the Brain is 99p. Also in the “TikTok made me buy it” group is Sarah Adams’s When in Rome, which I am tempted by but am holding off on buying because I have on of her other books on the to-read pile so I should really read that first! Mhairi McFarlane’s Mad About You is on offer too – I loved it when I read it last year, but it comes with a warning for emotional abuse/gaslighting in the heroine’s immediate past. Second First Impressions is 99p as well if you want a romance with a bit of a different setting – I do love meddling old people.

Cover of An Impossible Imposter

The new Veronica Speedwell is out next week – so the previous one An Impossible Imposter is £1.99 – you do need to read them in order for best effect though. This month’s discount Terry Pratchett is Pyramids for £1.99, which isn’t one of my favourites but I know that other people do love it. The cheap Peter Wimseys are the first two – Whose Body and Clouds of Witness – the latter of which sets up Charles Parker’s interest in Lady Mary. We still don’t have a date for the next series of Bridgerton, but this month’s cheap Julia Quinns are Just Like Heaven (from the Smyth Smith series) and The Lost Duke of Wyndham. Frederica is the 99p Georgette Heyer. The latest Agatha Raisin, Devil’s Delight, is 99p – it’s three years since M C Beaton died, but there are still new books coming out, with a co-author on the cover. I haven’t read any of the “with R W Green” books yet, but I’m sure I’ll get to it at some point – the very first book in the series, Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death, is also 99p as is the first Hamish MacBeth Death of a Gossip.

Back in the mists of time I wrote about The Rosie Project – if you’re looking for something a bit different from the last decade, that would do you quite well for 99p. There was meant to be an adaptation happening, but it hasn’t materialised yet… Not quite as long ago, I recommended Dial A for Aunties, which is 99p at the moment as well presumably because Jesse Sutano’s new novel is out imminently. If you’ve read Crazy Rich Asians, the final book in that trilogy, Rich People Problems, is on offer.

If you want some non fiction, Andrew Lownie’s Traitor King is £1.99 – I read this on holiday nearly 18 months ago and have since recommended it to lots of people. On my pile waiting to be read is Katja Hoyer’s Blood and Iron about the German Empire – which is 99p. Lucy Worsley’s Queen Victoria is also on my list to read – but I should probably get to her Agatha Christie biography first… Also in history books, The Radium Girls – which is one of a series of books I read a few years ago about women doing dangerous jobs (and sometimes not knowing they were dangerous) in the first half of the 20th century. Hannah Fry’s Hello World about the age of the machines and machine learning which I read a couple of years ago but seems even more relevant than ever with the appearance of ChatGPT and the other AIs. Also on offer is Helen O’Hara’s Women vs Hollywood which I read a couple of years ago and is a total bargain at 99p at time of writing

And finally – in stuff I bought while writing this post, we have Chanel Cleeton’s latest novel Our Last Days in Barcelona which is £1.99, Fiona Davis’s latest The Magnolia Palace – also £1.99 when I wrote this and David de Jong’s Nazi Billionaires which was £2.99. Positively restrained.

Happy Reading!

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: February 27 – March 5

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Well. There’s good news and bad news on this reading list isn’t there. The good news is that I read some really good stuff and found a new cozy crime series to binge. The bad news is that I found a new cozy crime series to binge and everything else went out of the window so the still reading list is even longer than it was before. How typical of me. Anyway, as well as all that we had a lovely weekend in Carlisle visiting my sister – and listened to two entire series of Cabin Pressure and started a third on the journey up and back as Him Indoors was jealous of my trip to see John Finnemore last week. Oh and we finished the new Drive to Survive just in time for the first race of the new F1 season. Motorsport is back baby.

Read:

Catering to Nobody by Diane Mott Davidson

Colour Scheme by Ngaio Marsh

Dying for Chocolate by Diane Mott Davidson

The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer

Soulless by Gail Carriger

The Last Suppers by Diane Mott Davidson

Deck the Halls by Kate Carlisle

Gone But Not for Garden by Kate Collins*

Started:

No Life for a Lady by Hannah Dolby*

Still reading:

The Dress Diary of Mrs Anne Sykes by Kate Strasdin*

Shadows of London by Andrew Taylor*

Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead

The Empire by Michael Ball*

Travellers in the Third Reich by Julia Boyd

Rogues by Patrick Radden Keefe

Quite a lot of books bought to be honest – becuase not only did I buy the Diane Mott Davisons, I’ve also written the Kindle offers post which is always dangerous *and* we went to Bookends/Bookcase and I spent literal hours in there and got a bit carried away. Oops.

Bonus photo: the amazing ceiling in Carlisle cathedral. So cool.

*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, Recommendsday

Recommendsday: February Quick Reviews

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Another month is over so we have a fresh batch of quick reviews for your delectation, and for once it’s all non-fiction – which I didn’t really realise until I had finished writing the post, but I guess sort of gives it an extra theme. Go past Verity.

Going with the Boys by Judith Mackrell

Judith Mackrell’s group biography (which is called The Correspondents in some countries) took me ages to read mostly because I own it I hardcover (as you can see) and as you all know I don’t tote those around with me. But it’s also because the subject matter required me to be in the right frame of mind. The six extraordinary women of the subtitle are war reporters struggling for the right to cover conflicts in the first half of the 20th century. It’s fascinating and infuriating and sobering. Very much worth a read.

I Want to Die But I Want to Eat Tteokbokki by Baek Se-hee

This is the English translation of a very successful South Korean memoir about the author’s therapy for depression. I read it in an afternoon but it gave me a lot to think about – not least that I didn’t think her therapist was very good, if the exchanges you see on the page are accurate! Anyway, there are some thoughts here about living with anxiety and self doubt and how it affects your perception of others and yourself.

Movie Star by Jessica Simpson

Just throwing an Amazon short story in here – because I read Jessica Simpson’s autobiography three years ago and if you’re interested in getting a taste of what her book is like, this will do that for you. My review of Open Book said that it’s very American and “There’s also a lot of god and a lot of evidence that Simpson has had some really awful men in her life – her dad is terrible and her boyfriend choices were also not great.” This has some of the terrible taste in men but a lot less of the god than the full length book does. I enjoyed it – and have enjoyed playing the guessing game as to who the movie star in question is! This is free if you’re in Kindle Unlimited too.

And that’s your lot. It’s a short month so the rest of this list is a bit shorter than usual. The books of the week were The Pot Thief who studied Pythagoras, The Soulmate Equation, Nora Goes of Script and Death of an Author. And there were recommendsday posts on novels with food and Swoony Romances.

Happy March everyone!

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: February 20 – February 26

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How is it nearly the end of February already? I know that it’s the shortest month, and January always feels like it goes on forever, but this year it seems to have gone even quicker. Anyway, what have I done in the last week? Ummmmm. Well. Lots of work? And quite a bit of reading? Oh. I know. We watched seven episodes of Drive To Survive after it came out on Friday. That would explain it. Anyway, there are another couple of books nearly finished, so we’ll see how that goes this week, when I have another couple of nights away in London and an event or two I’m planning to go to. All the usual stuff coming up this week by the way including the Stats and Quick Reviews.

Read:

Movie Star by Jessica Simpson

The Unknown Ajax by Georgette Heyer

Murder Served Neat by Michelle Hillen Klump*

The Pot Thief Who Studied Pythagoras by J Michael Orenduff

Death in the Stars by Frances Brody

I Want to Die But I Want to Eat Tteokbokki by Baek Se-hee

Started:

Gone But Not for Garden by Kate Collins*

The Dress Diary of Mrs Anne Sykes by Kate Strasdin*

Catering to Nobody by Diane Mott Davison

Shadows of London by Andrew Taylor*

Still reading:

Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead

The Empire by Michael Ball*

Travellers in the Third Reich by Julia Boyd

Rogues by Patrick Radden Keefe

Two books bought in Foyles because I just can’t help myself and another two books in the post plus two Kindle books. Whoops.

Bonus photo: The park again as that’s the prettiest photo I have from the week. It’s starting to look more green and less muddy and the hope that spring is coming is rising.

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