Tag: books

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week In Books: April 2 – April 8

veritywilde

A couple of books off the long runners list – so that’s good – and I’m working on a couple more.  A fun (and varied!) week’s reading!

Read:

Death by the Sea by Kathleen Bridge

Blame it on the Duke by Leonora Bell

The Long Weekend by Adrian Tinniswood

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Going to the Theatre by West End Producer

Uncommon Type by Tom Hanks

The Marlows and the Traitor by Antonia Forest

Lumberjanes: The Moon is Up by Mariko Tamaki, illustrated by Brooklyn Allen

Started:

The Glitter and the Gold by Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan

In the Unlikely Event by Judy Blume

Still reading:

Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

The Square and the Tower by Niall Ferguson

The Vanity Fair Diaries by Tina Brown

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

The Inaugural Meeting of the Fairvale Ladies Book Club by Sophie Green

Lots of discussion going on last week about diversity in romance and the problems faced by Authors of Colour – so I may have had a little ebook buying spree there as a result!  And I bought one paperback too.

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week In Books: March 26 – April 1

veritywilde

Another really busy week – at work and with things to do and people to see for Easter.  Not quite as much read as I wanted to, but some times real life is more important than reading.  I’ve been working on some of the long runners too – just not enough to get any more of them finished.  This week is going to be the week.  I hope.

Read:

Mirror, Mirror by Cara Delavigne

The Girls of Dancey Dene by MB Manwell

Pillow Stalk by Diane Vallere

The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher

Fire and Fury by Michael Woolf

Started:

n/a – I finished all the new stuff I started and was concentrating on long runners…

Still reading:

Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

The Square and the Tower by Niall Ferguson

The Vanity Fair Diaries by Tina Brown

Uncommon Type by Tom Hanks

The Long Weekend by Adrian Tinniswood

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

The Inaugural Meeting of the Fairvale Ladies Book Club by Sophie Green

Blame it on the Duke by Leonora Bell

Three books bought – in a moment of weakness when I went into Foyles.  Oops.  That said, I’ve just been going through my list of NetGalley books to get it straight in my head and in my journal where I track what I’ve got to read and have realised that I’m massively over committed for April, and have a reasonable sized backlog too, so I think that’s going to be a handy reminder to me not to buy more books until I’ve got that more under control.

books, stats

March Stats

veritywilde

New books read this month: 28 *

Books from the to-read pile: 11

Ebooks read: 17

Books from the Library book pile: 0

Non-fiction books: 4

#ReadHarder categories completed: 4

Pop Sugar categories completed: 9

Most read author: Ben Aaronovitch (one novella and one comic)

Books read this year: 90

Books bought: 5 – 2 books and 3 ebooks

Books on the Goodreads to-read shelf: 536 (I don’t have copies of all of these!)

*Includes some short stories/novellas/comics (2 this month)

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week In Books: March 19 – March 25

veritywilde

Some progress on the long-runners, but over all not as much progress this week as I would have liked.  Roll on next week.

Read:

Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho

Emily Windsnap and the Falls of Forgotten Island by Liz Kessler

The Unfinished Palazzo by Judith Mackrell

Devil’s Breath by GM Malliet

Uneasy Prey by Annette Dashovy

Started:

The Girls of Dancey Dene by MB Manwell

The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher

Still reading:

Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

The Square and the Tower by Niall Ferguson

The Vanity Fair Diaries by Tina Brown

Uncommon Type by Tom Hanks

The Long Weekend by Adrian Tinniswood

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

The Inaugural Meeting of the Fairvale Ladies Book Club by Sophie Green

Blame it on the Duke by Leonora Bell

And I bought a couple of books – well three – this week as well, but one of them was the paperback version of something I already have read (to complete the set on my bookshelves) so that doesn’t count!

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week In Books: March 12 – March 18

veritywilde

Ok, so it might not look like the long-runners shelf has improved much this week, it really has – I’ve done some serious time on the non-fiction entries and I’m hoping to get some more done this week coming.  I will sort this out!

Read:

A Princess in Theory by Alyssa Cole

A is for Alibi by Sue Grafton

A Tribe of Mentors by Timothy Ferris

Pietr the Latvian by Georges Simenon

Grave Mistake by Ngaio Marsh

The Town in Bloom by Dodie Smith

Full Speed by Janet Evanovich and Charlotte Hughes

Started:

The Inaugural Meeting of the Fairvale Ladies Book Club by Sophie Green

Blame it on the Duke by Leonora Bell

Still reading:

Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

The Square and the Tower by Niall Ferguson

The Vanity Fair Diaries by Tina Brown

Uncommon Type by Tom Hanks

Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho

The Unfinished Palazzo by Judith Mackrell

The Long Weekend by Adrian Tinniswood

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

If I didn’t get many long-runners finished, I didn’t buy any books either.  Small victories!

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week In Books: March 5 – March 11

veritywilde

It’s been a bit of a week.  And the Still Reading list grows ever longer.  I really must do better, but weekend working doesn’t lend itself to reading time.

Read:

Hopjoy was Here by Colin Watson

First Kiss of Spring by Emily March

Rivers of London: Cry Fox 4 by Ben Aaronovitch et al

Stiff Competition by Micah Persell

Where There’s Smoke by Peter Murphy

The Furthest Station by Ben Aaronovitch

Started:

Grave Mistake by Ngaio Marsh

A Princess in Theory by Alyssa Cole

Still reading:

Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

The Square and the Tower by Niall Ferguson

The Vanity Fair Diaries by Tina Brown

Uncommon Type by Tom Hanks

Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho

The Unfinished Palazzo by Judith Mackrell

The Long Weekend by Adrian Tinniswood

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

Pietr the Latvian by Georges Simenon

The Town in Bloom by Dodie Smith

A couple of ebooks bought – there were some good deals and I was at work at the weekend, it leads to book buying…

Authors I love, Book of the Week, new releases, women's fiction

Book of the Week: The House of Hopes and Dreams

veritywilde

In a change from recent form, it’s not a crime pick this week – but perhaps the pick won’t be a surprise to regular readers with an eye on the new release lists. I’m a long-time Trisha Ashley fan, and she has a new novel out this week and I was lucky enough to have an advance copy sent to me by the publishers. If you follow me on Litsy (I’m @Verity there) you’ll have seen me get excited about this when it arrived and it’s taken a lot of willpower to save it until close to release to read it.

Proof copy of The House of Hopes and Dreams

The House of Hope and Dreams follows Carey and Angel, who’ve been friends since art college, although life has taken them in slightly different directions. At the start of the novel TV interior designer Carey is in hospital recovering after nearly losing his leg after being knocked off his bike. He’s been dumped from his show, but when a lawyer arrives to tell him that he’s inherited a minor historic house in Lancashire it looks like he may have a new project. Angel’s life had been turned upside down after the death of her partner – who she’d been working with at his stained glass company for more than a decade. She’s lost her job and her home, but luckily her skills are exactly what her old friend is looking for and there’s space for her at Mossby. Soon Angel is setting up a workshop so she can repair Mossby’s unique windows and Carey is working on a new TV series about the renovation of the house and the secrets that it’s hiding. But how long will it take the two of them to work out that there’s more to their relationship than just friendship?

If you were to ask me about my book catnip, high on the list are old houses, competency porn (aka heroines who are really good at what they do) and friends to lovers stories, so straight away this ticks a lot of boxes for me. And this is back in a corner of Lancashire that has a lot of old friends from previous visits to TrishaWorld – Carey’s house is just up the road from Middlemoss so you get a few glimpses at old friends from novels gone by. This is a little sadder in the backstory and less funny than some of her other books, but I relaxed happily back into it and although I always had a very fair idea where everything was going, it was an enjoyable ride to get there.

If you’re very familiar with Ashley’s books (and I speak as someone who has read everything she’s published except her historical novel) then this may feel a bit like a Greatest Hits album – which I found a bit of a mixed blessing. But I think there’s a lot here for newer fans to love, especially people who’ve only started reading her in her last couple of novels and haven’t come across this part of her imaginary corner of England before. And they’ll be able to go away and discover more of it with the side characters in this, which in turn may lead them to my absolute favour of Ashley’s novels, A Winter’s Tale (another story about an old house with secrets) .

The House of Hopes and Dreams is out on Thursday – you should be able to find it in supermarkets (that’s where I picked up my first Trisha) and bookshops, or if you can’t wait here are the preorder links for Amazon and Kindle. I’ll be buying one too – because my preview copy doesn’t have the recipes in the back!

if you want to go and read some of my previous ramblings about Trisha’s world, try here, here and here.

Happy reading!

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week In Books: February 26 – March 4

veritywilde

The ongoing list seems to be getting longer rather than shorter – despite all my best efforts.  I think it’s because I’ve got so many non-fiction books on there and they take me longer to read than the lighter fiction does – and I’ve often got them as hardbacks, which means I don’t take them to work with me.

Read:

The New Girl and Nancy by Dorita Fairley Bruce

Murder on the Pilgrims Way by Julie Wassmer

Make Me Want by Katee Robert

On the Edge of Scandal by Tamsen Parker

On the Brink of Passion by Tamsen Parker

Maybe This Time by Nicole McLaughlin

The House of Hopes and Dreams by Trisha Ashley

A Killing in C Sharp by Alexia Gordon

A Country Escape by Katie Fforde

Started:

Pietr the Latvian by Georges Simenon

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

The Town in Bloom by Dodie Smith

Still reading:

Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

The Square and the Tower by Niall Ferguson

The Vanity Fair Diaries by Tina Brown

Uncommon Type by Tom Hanks

Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho

The Unfinished Palazzo by Judith Mackrell

The Long Weekend by Adrian Tinniswood

One ebook bought.  That’s it. Progress!

books, stats

February Stats

veritywilde

 

New books read this month: 28*

Books from the to-read pile: 11

Ebooks read: 16

Books from the Library book pile: 1

Non-fiction books: 3

#ReadHarder categories completed: 3

Pop Sugar categories completed: 3

Most read author: Dorita Fairley Bruce, Tamsen Parker and Colin Watson (2 books each)

Books read this year: 62

Books bought: 9 ebooks and 5 books

Books on the Goodreads to-read shelf: 521 (I don’t have copies of all of these!)

*Includes some short stories/novellas/comics (0 this month)

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week In Books: February 19 – February 25

veritywilde

Actually a better week’s reading than I was expecting  – the Deborah Cadbury was 400 pages long so for a while there wasn’t a lot on this list at all, but in the end it all came together when I finished off a few books that had been lingering on the Goodreads shelf.

Read:

The Pajama Frame by Diane Vallere

Queen Victoria’s Matchmaking by Deborah Cadbury

Last Ditch by Ngaio Marsh

England Expects by Sara Sheridan

Single, Carefree, Mellow by Katherine Heiny

A Spoonful of Murder by Robin Stevens

Bright Young Things by Alison Maloney

Started:

The Long Weekend by Adrian Tinniswood

The New Girl and Nancy by Dorita Fairley Bruce

Still reading:

Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

The Square and the Tower by Niall Ferguson

The Vanity Fair Diaries by Tina Brown

Uncommon Type by Tom Hanks

Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho

The Unfinished Palazzo by Judith Mackrell

Two ebooks bought – and one book acquired at an author teaparty on Sunday.  So not bad at all.