Tag: reading

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week In Books: February 22 – February 28

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Now that is what four nightshifts can do for the to-read pile – I actually finished my 7th book of the week on the way home from the last night shift on Friday morning.  You’ll notice that the two books that are still on the go are ones where I need to use my brain a bit – and my brain is frazzled so it was light reading only!  But I did finish all my February new releases from NetGalley before the end of the month (with 3 days to spare!) – which is unusual for me.  Now I just need to work on the slight backlog from the autumn when everything got a way from me a bit…

Read:

Barbara the Slut and Other People by Lauren Holmes

Nancy Parker’s Diary of Detection by Julia Lee

The Mystery of the Jewelled Moth by Katherine Woodfine

Murder on a Silver Platter by Shawn Reilly Simmons

A Summer at Sea by Katie Fforde

The Duke’s Accidental Wife by Erica Ridley

The Stylist by Rosie Nixon

Ghostwriters Anonymous by Doreen Wald

The Unfortunate Decisions of Dahlia Moss by Max Wirestone

Started:

The Winter Ground by Catriona McPherson

Still reading:

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

The Shadow Hour by Kate Riordan

I was very, very virtuous and only impulse bought non books on the nightshift.  The pile is still massive though!

 

Book of the Week, cozy crime, new releases

Book of the Week: Murder on the Half Shell

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This is a strange BotW post for me to write – as there were two other books that nearly beat The Murder Quadrille last week, and nothing that I liked as much as them this week.  But I have a rule about not carrying over picks that weren’t used in a previous week.  So Shawn Reilly Simmons’s Murder on the Half Shell gets the nod – but I enjoyed it more this paragraph implies.  Trust me, keep reading!

Murder on the Half Shell is the second book in The Red Carpet Catering Mysteries. The plot: Penelope Sutherland runs a catering company that works on film sets, she’s on an island in Florida catering a movie – but it’s not all plain sailing.  The director is difficult, the leading lady has a seafood allergy and it is hot, really hot.  Then two of the waitresses she’s been using go missing after a crew party and Penelope’s former culinary school instructor turned celebrity chef is the prime suspect.  But she’s sure he didn’t do it and starts to look into it herself.

Food-related cozies are such a massive trend at the moment.  There’s a lot of cupcakes, bakers and coffee shops and so a catering company is a nice variant.  One of the problems I often have with cozy series is that there’s a lot of murder going on in a very small area.  I’m not sure how long a real cake shop/coffee shop/bakery would last if bodies kept turning up outside them and that does sometimes affect how I feel about a series as it goes on – depending obviously on how the author handles it.  But the location catering idea means that there’s potential for the series to move around a bit.  This of course makes it a little harder to maintain a large gang of supporting characters, but it does stop the Cabot Cove effect.  The flipside is that with location moving around does it does mean that the murders might start to seem to be following the lead character around – the Jessica Fletcher effect.  But there are ways and means of dealing with all of these issues – and we’ll see how Red Carpet Catering copes if the series continues.

Penelope is one of the more appealing heroines I’ve recently read in the genre too.  She’s not too stupid to live (or at least not often), she’s not too obviously encroaching on police territory in a way that would get her arrested and she still manages to spend enough time at her business (or have staff manning it) that you can see that she’d stay solvent.  I guess I’m trying to say that Murder on the Half Shell has a good premise, lead character and is solidly executed.  I did think that some of the set-up and diversionary tactics were a little heavy-handed at times – the “obvious suspect” evidence particularly – but it wasn’t enough to annoy me.  It’s not as humourous as my favourite books in the genre, but again, that’s not really a problem if the mystery is interesting – and this one is.

Murder on the Half Shell was a perfectly nice way to spend a couple of train journeys – my copy came from NetGalley and I liked it enough to go back and get the first book in the series from there too.  If you fancy dipping your toe in the world of cozy crime on location, you can pick it up on Kindle (for £1.99 at time of writing).

Happy crime reading!

 

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week In Books: February 15 – February 21

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Two longstanding books finished this week (with most of the reading of them done this week) and a few nights away from home and a bit of a social life means not as much read as I was hoping at the start of the week.  I also had a lot of stuff on the go and tried to prioritise getting some of them finished over starting new stuff that I could have read quicker.

Read:

Murder on the Half Shell by Shawn Reilly Simmonds

The Prince’s Boy by Paul Bailey

The Edge of the Fall by Kate Williams

The Feud in the Fifth Remove by Elinor M Brent Dyer

Villa America by Liza Klaussman

Started:

The Shadow Hour by Kate Riordan

The Unfortunate Decisions of Dahlia Moss by Max Wirestone

Nancy Parker’s Diary of Detection by Julia Lee

Still reading:

Barbara the Slut and Other People by Lauren Holmes

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

The Stylist by Rosie Nixon

A big old order of republished classic school stories arrived this week (hence the Feud in the Fifth Remove on the read list) and a couple of kindle books which were on a deal and recommended by the Smart Bitches crew.

 

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week In Books: February 8 – February 14

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Late night train journies really help with the book reading, but I need to sort out this habit of mine of starting big thick books that are too chunky to take in my handbag to work!  I also read a couple of single issue comics, but they don’t have Goodreads entries, which I guess means I can’t count them!

Read:

Sisters on Bread Street by Frances Brody

The Little Shop of Happily Ever After by Jenny Colgan

The Incredible Adventures of Cinnamon Girl by Melissa Keil

The Murder Quadrille by Fidelis Morgan

Lumberjanes Vol. 2: Friendship to the Max by Noelle Stevenson

The Mystery of the Clockwork Sparrow by Katherine Woodfine

Started:

The Stylist by Rosie Nixon

The Prince’s Boy by Paul Bailey

Still reading:

The Edge of the Fall by Kate Williams

Barbara the Slut and Other People by Lauren Holmes

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Villa America by Liza Klaussman

My headphones broke midweek and in ordering new ones, I may have bought 5 second hand books to get me free delivery on them.  I would have been buying then at some point anyway…

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week In Books: February 1 – February 7

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A much more “normal” (for me) week.  Lots of good stuff here – new stuff from authors I like, a new author or two and a wide range of stuff – historical fiction, contemporary women’s, detective, childrens, started some fantasy etc.

Read:

Whispers Underground by Ben Aaranovich

The Swans of Fifth Avenue by Melanie Benjamin

All Aboard (Canal Boat Cafe Part 1) by Cressida McLaughlin

The Glittering Art of Falling Apart by Ilana Fox

The Case of the Blue Violet (A Wells and Wong short) by Robin Stevens

Secrets of a Lady by Tracy Grant

Dangerous to Know by Tasha Alexander

Started:

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Villa America by Liza Klaussman

Still reading:

The Edge of the Fall by Kate Williams

Sisters on Bread Street by Frances Brody

Barbara the Slut and Other People by Lauren Holmes

I don’t think I ought to talk about the acquisitions this week – a couple of orders with book dealers have come through and I got more than I was hoping for/expecting.  Mostly children’s books, and some are books I read as a child and wanted a copy of, so they kind of don’t count, right?  It did make me restrain myself from a few other purchases though.  Long may the will power continue.  Not that this week is a demonstration of will power at all really!

books, reviews, stats, The pile

Reading Patterns

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At the start of January (in December stats in fact) I promised you a more in depth look at my reading and rating patterns.  And then I forgot about it until I was doing January stats.  So I’m rectifying that now!

I noticed when I was putting together the December stats that the number of 5 star ratings I give out has been creeping up at a rate that’s disproportionate to the increase in books that I’ve read.  And it led me to wonder why.  Am I getting less fussy/discerning? Am I just picking amazing books to read?

The answer is a bit of both I think, but mostly the latter.  I think I have, on occasion, reached for the 5 star rating too often.  But I have also discovered new authors that I love and then whistled my way through their back catalogues at a rate of knots, instead of at a rate of a book a year (or however often they bring out a new book).  I’ve also got a lot better at decoding back covers and reviews and working out what I’m going to enjoy and skipping over the stuff that I won’t. Then there’s my large to-read pile, loaded with books that I’ve heard good things about, from sources that I trust.  And the pile also means that I can ignore stuff I’m not sure about (for ages) and go straight to the good stuff!

So what am I going to do about it?  I’m going to try and have an extra cogitate before I rate books in Goodreads and try not to reach for 5 too often.  But beyond that, all I can do is rate honestly and continue to work my way down the pile.  And I’d always rather read a book I love than one I detest (who doesn’t) so all I can do is be honest and explain my choices.

I’ll be keeping the situation under review…

books, stats

January Stats

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New books read this month: 27*

Books from the to-read pile: 9

Ebooks read: 12

Books from the Library book pile: 2

Non-fiction books: 1

Most read author: Lauren Henderson (two Sam Jones novels)

Books read this year: 27

Books bought: 7 – and a subscription to Fahrenheit Press’s releases for the year!

Books on the Goodreads to-read shelf: 436

Another year, another tweak to the monthly stats post!  This time I’ve integrated my non-fiction count into the list alongside the library books – they were New Year’s Resolutions last year, but I’m going to try and keep them going in 2016 as I think they add to the variety of what I read.

So a nice mixed bag in January in terms of variety of reading and only four “real” books that jumped straight to the top of the to-read pile pretty much as soon as they arrived.

*Includes some short stories/novellas/comics (4 this month)

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week In Books: January 25 – January 31

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Another strange week for me.  I’m not entirely sure why, but long days and commuter trains may again have something to do with my inability to settle down to a book as well as usual.  In the traditional one post two days late or two posts a day late each, the latter option has won – and January Stats will be tomorrow with Book of the Week on Wednesday.

Read:

My American Duchess by Eloisa James

Freeze my Margarita by Lauren Henderson

Bettany’s on the Home Front by Helen Barber

The Marble Collector by Cecilia Ahern

Rivers of London: Body Work 1 by Ben Aaronovich, Andrew Cartmel and Lee Sullivan

Mystery of the Skeleton Key by Bernard Capes

Started:

The Swans of Fifth Avenue by Melanie Benjamin

Whispers Underground by Ben Aaranovich

Still reading:

The Edge of the Fall by Kate Williams

Sisters on Bread Street by Frances Brody

Barbara the Slut and Other People by Lauren Holmes

One e-book comic bought – and a pre-ordered novella arrived.  I’m still clutching my book tokens and trying to resist the urge to spend!

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week In Books: January 18 – January 24

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A fit of indecision and some standing only train journeys are to blame for the somewhat shorter than usual list. I’ve started a few good books though and adopted a short stories by the bed policy. I’ll keep you posted! 

Read:

London Rain by Nicola Upson

Death with an Ocean View by Nora Charles

Princes at War by Deborah Cadbury

Queen Lucia by E F Benson

Started:

Sisters on Bread Street by Frances Brody

The Marble Collector by Cecilia Ahern

Barbara the Slut and Other People by Lauren Holmes

My American Duchess by Eloisa James

Still reading:

Freeze my Margarita by Lauren Henderson

The Edge of the Fall by Kate Williams

I don’t think I bought any books this week – but I did get a book token as a belated gift, so a spree may be imminent!

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week In Books: January 11 – January 17

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So, it was my birthday last week and we went to Barcelona to celebrate for a few days.  Thus there was reading time on flights, in departure lounges, late at night etc.  So a fun week’s reading.

Read:

My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick

The Girl from the Opera House by Nancy Carson

Geek Drama by Holly Smale

Far in the Wilds by Deanna Raybourn

Black Rubber Dress by Lauren Henderson

The Astonishing Return of Norah Wells by Virginia MacGregor

Charlotte Bronte’s Secret Lover by Jolien Janzing

Stars over Sunset Boulevard by Susan Meissner

Lady of Devices by Shelley Adina

Started:

Death with an Ocean View by Nora Charles

Freeze my Margarita by Lauren Henderson

Still reading:

Princes at War by Deborah Cadbury

The Edge of the Fall by Kate Williams

Queen Lucia by E F Benson

I did have a bit of a spending spree on books though (twice) but it’s my birthday so I’m allowed – right?!