A bit of an action-adventure-mystery-y week – with a time-travelling romp, a spy romp and cozy crimes among the reading matter. And a bit of YA. And some romance. I need to get my non-fiction reading hat on again though as I’ve been a bit lax in that direction.
Read:
A Symphony of Echos by Jodi Taylor
Read It and Weep by Jenn McKinlay
Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
This One is Mine by Maria Semple
Sugar and Iced by Jenn McKinley
Her Only Desire by Gaelen Foley
The Mask of Night by Tracy Grant
Started:
The Song Collector by Natasha Solomons
Still reading:
Not That Kind of Girl by Lena Dunham
One actual book and a couple of ebooks (all sequels) purchased – and I’ve gone on a big kick of picking my next “real” book off the shelf – not the piles and leaving the gaps so I can see progress. Then I can refill from the pile at an appropriate point and make the pile go down, rather than constant replenishment of the shelf, which leads me to keep adding to the piles. We’ll see how long that lasts…
Most read author: Jodi Taylor, Jenn McKinlay and Phyllis Matthewman (2 each)
Books read this year: 84
Books bought: 16 (!)
Books on the Goodreads to-read shelf: 464 (I don’t have copies of all of these!)
That shopping spree at Alnwick and some celebratory buying when I got a secondment allied with a bit of series glomming to make a Naughty Month for book buying. And no non-fiction either – although I am still working my way through Lena Dunham, so it’s not like I’ve read nothing but fiction really…
*Includes some short stories/novellas/comics (although none this month)
I would have read more this week, except for the fact that I acquired a new-to-me copy of one of my favourite books of all time – Gone with the Windsors by Laurie Graham – and couldn’t resist re-reading it. This of course cut into my time for reading new books and doesn’t count towards my total for the year – or my list here. Still it’s so funny and so good I don’t mind!
Read:
The Queerness of Rusty by Phyllis Matthewman
Beneath a Silent Moon by Tracy Grant
Good Dukes Wear Black by Manda Collins
Just One Damned Thing After Another by Jodi Taylor
Mug Shot by Caroline Fardig
Maybe the Moon by Armistead Maupin
Started:
Read It and Weep by Jenn McKinlay
Still reading:
Not That Kind of Girl by Lena Dunham
Five books (including that copy of Gone with the Windsors) and two ebooks bought. Oops
This week’s BotW is Lyndsay Faye’s Jane Steele, which is billed as a gothic retelling of Jane Eyre, but is a bit more loosely related to Bronte’s book than that might suggest. I heard a lot of buzz about this before it’s release – Deanna Raybourn wrote about it in her newsletter and some of the book podcasts I listen to talked about it too, so when I spotted it on NetGalley I was already intrigued enough to request it.
Jane Steele’s favourite book is – and her life has some parallels with Charlotte Bronte’s heroine – she’s orphaned, she’s sent to boarding school, she becomes a governess and is attracted to her employer. But there’s a key difference – Ms Steele has a bit of a murderous streak. This Jane has a few more trials in her life than Bronte’s – but she’s not going to take them lying down.
Despite her killings, Jane is an attractive and appealing heroine with reasons (mostly) for acting as she does. I was concerned before I read this and early on in the book that I wouldn’t be able to get past the fact that she was killing people, but it really wasn’t an issue. Jane’s actions are (mostly) quite understandable – and not without consequences for her. She’s fairly self-aware – although the reader suspects she’s not as well informed about some things as she thinks she is – and chafes at the restrictions and limitations places on her by Victorian society. She’s smarter than most of the men around her during the first half of the book and it’s interesting and entertaining watching her work out how she can extricate herself from the situations she is forced into.
Considering I read Jane Eyre for the one and only time when I was about 9 and – whisper it quietly – have never read Wuthering Heights*, I seem to have read a lot (proportionally) with Bronte re-tellings or influenced books (and I have The Madwoman Upstairs sitting on the to-read pile so it’s not over yet!). And while I didn’t love this the way I love Jasper Fforde’s The Eyre Affair** it is really good fun. I liked the portion of the book before Jane arrives back at Thornfield the best – possibly because it’s quite hard to keep up the fast-paced, wise-cracking action when you introduce a love interest and try to work out a resolution where the problem of your heroine being a murderess isn’t an issue!
Not quite as brilliant as you expect from the first 50 pages, but nonetheless pretty darn good, Jane Steele is out in the UK in what I suspect from the price is the giant airport sized paperback and in the US in hardback. A cheaper (smaller?) paperback edition is due in the UK in November Get your copy from Amazon, Waterstones, Foyles, Kindle or Kobo.
* I do know what happens though.
** But Thursday Next is a very high bar and has a lot more going on than just Jane Eyre.
Look at my progress with the longstanding books in progress! And I read more besides. Thank you minibreak and days off work.
Read:
Dandy Gilver and a Deadly Measure of Brimstone
Jane Steel by Lyndsay Faye
The House at Baker Street by Michelle Birkby
Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld
Along the Infinite Sea by Beatriz Williams
Inspector of the Dead by David Morrell
Freya by Anthony Quinn
Chloe Takes Control by Phyllis Matthewman
Started:
Maybe the Moon by Armistead Maupin
The Queerness of Rusty by Phyllis Matthewman
Still reading:
Not That Kind of Girl by Lena Dunham
I bought books this week – but that’s because we went to Northumberland for a few days – and that meant a trip to the cavern of amazingness that is Barter Books in Alnwick. Ninety minutes later and I’ve got a basket of books that I’ve been after for a while – although a couple were for friends. So much fun.
Some really good books here – I’m having trouble picking my BotW for tomorrow! I’m going to try and finish some of the long-running books this week coming though.
Most read author: Mabel Ester Allen (and her pseudonyms)
Books read this year: 84
Books bought: 13 actual books and 4 ebooks
Books on the Goodreads to-read shelf: 471
The number of physical books bought this month is the reason that I’ve got an unoffical book buying ban in place at the moment. But at least I managed to get a library book and a non fiction book read – even if only one of each!
*Includes some short stories/novellas/comics (3 this month)
Some really good books this week – some of which I’ve already mentioned in my Easter Books post. You may yet hear more about some of them too! I went away for the bank holiday weekend – or you know the list of books read would have been higher if I’d been sitting on my sofa. Get me with my life outside work and books!
Read:
The Sport of Baronets by Theresa Romain
The Night that Changed Everything by Laura Tait and Jimmy Rice
Deira Joins the Chalet School by Caroline German
Jolly Foul Play by Robin Stevens
Broken Homes by Ben Aaronovitch
As If! An Oral History of Clueless by Jen Chaney
The Skeleton Garden by Marty Wingate
Started:
Jane Steele by Lindsay Faye
Still reading:
Freya by Anthony Quinn
Along the Infinite Sea by Beatriz Williams
Not That Kind of Girl by Lena Dunham
I didn’t buy any books! Well I bought one book, but it wasn’t really for me (although it is on my kindle account, because I share it with Him Indoors). So I’m calling it no books. Who knew that was possible. I’ll try and not to buy any books at all this week…
Easter is upon us again – early this year – and so I thought I’d throw some suggestions out there for books for reading over the bank holiday weekend, or the Easter holidays if you’re lucky enough to have them.
The Night That Changed Everything by Laura Tait and Jimmy Rice
I love the cover of this book – can’t explain why, but it just speaks to me
Rebecca and Ben are perfect for each other – blissfully happy, they’re made for each other. But when a secret from the past is accidentally revealed, their love story is rewritten. Can they recover? Is it possible to forgive and forget? This came out yesterday (Thursday), but I was lucky to have an advance copy which I finished on the train home from work just after midnight on Thursday morning. I really, really, enjoyed Rebecca and Ben’s story – which, as you can probably tell from my synopsis, is not your traditional romantic comedy. It nearly had me crying on the train – which doesn’t happen very often (in part because I try not to read books that will make me cry on the train!) and I had trouble putting it down. I didn’t even notice I’d arrived at Euston on the way to work on Wednesday I was so engrossed – if it wasn’t the end of the line I would have missed my stop! On top of everything else going for it, I had no idea where it was going. I suspect this is going to be on a lot of beach reading lists this year – get there ahead of the game and read it now. I’m hoping this will be in the supermarkets and all over the place – but here are the traditional links: Amazon, Kindle, Waterstones, Foyles, Kobo.
Death of a Diva by Derek Farrell
Danny Bird has lost his job, his boyfriend and his home. So of course the logical solution to this is to take over a dive of a pub owned by a gangster and try and transform it into a fabulous nightspot. But then his big act for the opening night turns up dead in the dressing room surrounded by a cloud of powder that’s definitely not talc and he’s the prime suspect in a murder inquiry. This is funny and clever – I was laughing out loud as I tried to figure out who was responsible. Danny is a fabulous character – and is surrounded by a great supporting cast. There’s lots of potential here – this is another winner from Fahrenheit Press – who you may have noticed have been providing a lot of my favourite crime reads recently. Get your copy on Kindle and badger Fahrenheit on Twitter to get it on other platforms. I got my copy free when it was on promotion a couple of weekends ago (it came out before the Fahrenheit subscription) – this weekend their free book for Easter is Fidelis Morgan’s Unnatural Fire – which is high on my to-read pile – as I loved The Murder Quadrille as you may remember.
The Shadow Hour by Kate Riordan
Harriet and her granddaughter Grace are governesses at the same house, nearly 50 years apart. Grace has been raised on stories of Fenix House – but once she’s arrived it’s clear that her grandmother may be a less than reliable narrator. I reviewed this for Novelicious (check out my full review here) and basically this is the book that is going to fill the Victorian-time-slip-upstairs-downstairs gap in your life. Secrets, lies, families, relationships -they’re all there in this twisty and intriguing book – which had me poleaxed at the end. If you liked Letters to the Lost, or the Mysterious Affair at Castaway House, or any of Lauren Willig’s stand-alone novels like The Ashford Affair then this is for you.
Jolly Foul Play by Robin Stevens
Hazel and Daisy are back on the detection trail after Deepdean’s new head girl is found dead during a fireworks display. I haven’t finished the latest Wells and Wong mystery yet (it’s another that came out on Thursday – I started it as soon as my pre-order dropped on to my kindle) but if it’s half as good as the other three it’ll be a delight. One for the 8 to 12 year old in your house – and your inner child as well.
What am I going to be reading this Easter weekend? Well, I’m hoping to finish Hazel and Daisy’s adventures on my Good Friday commutes, then I think I might try to fill the Night Circus-shaped void in my life with Ben Aaronovitch’s Broken Homes or my urge for more time-slip books with the rest of Beatriz Williams’ latest or Lucinda Riley’s The Seven Sisters. Any other recommendations gratefully received in the comments – although I’m meant to be on a book-buying ban!
Verity Reads Books (lots of them) 