Tag: to-read pile

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: December 14 – December 20

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I’m basically at the stage where my brain can’t cope with anything complicated anymore, so it’s all romances and murder mysteries, some of them with a Christmas twist. Sorry, not sorry.

Read:

Rage by Bob Woodward

In A Holidaze by Christina Lauren

Checkmate to Murder by E C R Lorac

40-Love by Olivia Dade

The Wedding Piper by Isabel Rogers

Snapped by Alexa Martin

The Prince and the Troll by Rainbow Rowell

Gift of the Magpie by Donna Andrews

Started:

The Trouble with Mistletoe by Jill Shalvis

Still reading:

The AI Who Loved Me by Alyssa Cole

Murder on Mustique by Anne Glenconner*

The Lavender Ladies Detective Agency by Minna Lindgren

Still not counting, still don’t care

Bonus photo: is this the most exciting reading material I acquired last week? Possibly! It’s the Christmas Radio Times, so I can plan my festive viewing

Copy of the Radio Times Christmas edition

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

Book of the Week, crime, detective

Book of the Week: Sick as a Parrot

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A big of week in reading last week, with some Christmas stuff you’ll hear about anon. Or at least I hope you will. Anyway, back to some old school crime this week for my BotW pick.

Copy of Sick as a Parrot on the Crime bookshelf

Sick as a Parrot is the fifth book in Liz Evans’s series featuring somewhat unconventional private investigator and ex-cop Grace Smith. Grace’s latest client is Hannah Conti, a young woman who has recently discovers that she is adopted and that her natural mother was convicted of murder. Hannah wants Grace to clear her mother’s name. And so Grace is drawn into the very messy murder of a school teacher two decades ago that no one wants re-examining. Meanwhile Grace is also pet-sitting a neurotic parrot and despite all her best efforts she also has an incredibly unreconstructed former colleague sleeping in her spare room.

This is the second book in this series that I’ve read (the other one being Who Killed Marilyn Monroe, the first in the series) and they’re both on the edge of gritty with an enjoyable side of black humour. They were written in the mid 2000s and that gives them an enjoyably low tech and low fi edge. Grace is a fun heroine – enjoyably flawed and smart in someways – but not in others. There are some common threads in this book from the first one too which have clearly been developing nicely in the interim which I’d like to go back for. And there’s an interesting romantic thread in this that means I really want to read the sixth and final book in the series.

So this is where it gets tricky. This is an older book which I picked it up secondhand, I think at a National Trust book stall. So you’ll have to hunt for it. But you never know, you might find one of the other books in the series while you’re at it. Some of the series have been republished on Kindle with new titles – you can find the box set of the first three here and some of them are even in Kindle Unlimited, if that’s a thing you have. Who Killed Marilyn Monroe is available on Kobo, but it’s the only one I could find there sadly.

Happy Reading!

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: December 7 – December 13

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Started some Christmas reading this week – from the to-read bookshelf – and then carried on with a few other bits and bobs from the shelf.  It’s been cold and miserable and so it’s been prime curl up on the couch with a book weather really!

Read:

Sick as a Parrot by Liz Evans

Diving Adventure by Willard Price

Golden Rules of Acting by Andy Nyman

I Heard the Banshee Sing by Paul Charles

More Golden Rules of Acting by Andy Nyman

Murder at Christmas ed Cecily Gayford

Build Your Own Christmas Movie Romance by Riane Konc

The Fatal Flying Affair by T E Kinsey

The Naughty List by Ellie Mae MacGregor

My Last Duchess by Eloisa James

Started:

The Lavender Ladies Detective Agency by Minna Lindgren

Still reading:

The AI Who Loved Me by Alyssa Cole

Murder on Mustique by Anne Glenconner*

Checkmate to Murder by E C R Lorac

Still not counting, still don’t care

Bonus photo: the latest addition to my bookshelves – a copy of Veronica at the Wells in hardback.  This was the first of the Wells series that I read back when I was about 11, and is now the last one to finish off my set of hardbacks. I’m so excited.

Hardback copy of Veronica at the Wells

An * next to a 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: November 30 – December 6

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I think I ticked off six of my missing stars last week – so maybe I’ll finish the challenge after all? Anyway, a cold and wintry week mean lots of reading.

Read:

Giraffe and Flamingo by Curtis Sittenfeld

Hope Never Dies by Andrew Shaffer

Strangled Prose by Joan Hess

Mary Anne Saves the Day by Anne M Martin and Raina Telgemaier

Man Hands by Sarina Bowen

Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K Hamilton

Dakota Born by Debbie Macomber

Pollyanna by Eleanor H Porter

Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu

The Bloomsbury Group by Frances Spalding

Started:

Checkmate to Murder by E C R Lorac

Still reading:

The AI Who Loved Me by Alyssa Cole

Murder on Mustique by Anne Glenconner*

Sick as a Parrot by Liz Evans

Still not counting, still don’t care

Bonus photo: my dad took this of sunset out in the village last week. It may look like somewhere exotic, but it is in fact Northamptonshire!

Fiery red, orange and yellow sunset with silhouetted trees on the edge of the sky line

An * next to a 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: November 23 – November 29

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Another steady week in reading as I attempt to finish all my reading challenges but get distracted by shiny new books and library holds. And once again, the end of the month is timed to annoy me! Book of the week as per usual tomorrow, Mini-reviews on Wednesday and Stats on Thursday seems to be the order of the day. Where has this year gone and also how has this year been forever?

Read:

Sentence is Death by Anthony Horowitz*

Can’t Even by Anne Helen Petersen

Well Met by Jen Deluca

Gluten-Free Murder by P D Workman

Spoiler Alert by Olivia Dade

Treasure by Rebekah Weatherspoon

Twisted Twenty-Six by Janet Evanovich

Started:

Giraffe and Flamingo by Curtis Sittenfeld

Hope Never Dies by Andrew Shaffer

Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu

Still reading:

The AI Who Loved Me by Alyssa Cole

Murder on Mustique by Anne Glenconner*

Sick as a Parrot by Liz Evans

Still not counting, still don’t care

Bonus photo: we’ve reached the Misty, foggy, cold part of the year when I always want a fire in the evenings so I’m cursing that one of the covid-complications has been that the chimney people haven’t been able to come and fix the top of the sitting room chimney so I don’t dare light a fire, because 2020 has already been bad enough without burning the house down…

Misty morning in the park

An * next to a 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: November 16 – November 22

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Some really good stuff read this week – and I held a pre-December audit of where I am with regard to my reading challenges for the year. Expect to here more about that anon!

Read:

Life, Death and Cellos by Isabel Rogers

Bold as Brass by Isabel Rogers

Steamed Open by Barbara Ross

Help Yourself by Curtis Sittenfeld

First World War Poets by Alan Judd

The Residence by Kate Andersen Brower

Peace Breaks Out by Angela Thirkell

Holidays with the Wongs epilogue by Jackie Lau

Cosmoknights by Hannah Templar

Death in Daylesford by Kerry Greenwood

Started:

Can’t Even by Anne Helen Petersen

Sick as a Parrot by Liz Evans

Sentence is Death by Anthony Horowitz*

Still reading:

The AI Who Loved Me by Alyssa Cole

Murder on Mustique by Anne Glenconner*

Still not counting, still don’t care

Bonus photo: I found this blue plaque for Edward Murrow just up the road from work on a lunchtime stroll. I don’t know how I haven’t noticed it before. If you’ve never heard of him, he was a legendary war correspondent for CBS during World War 2 and then went on to be instrumental in bringing about the downfall of Senator Joseph McCarthy (as in McCarthyism and the Red Scare). Here’s his wikipedia page, but I also reccomend the film Goodnight and Good Luck (named for his famous sign off) about his work on McCarthy – David Strathairn was nominated for an Oscar for playing Murrow and which also has George Clooney in it – here’s the trailer.

Blue plaque on a wall commemorating Edward R Murrow

An * next to a 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: November 9 – November 15

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Spent the weekend at work – which is why I have a whole bunch of stuff started and not finished – or still going – I’m reading across physical copies, kindle and iBooks and it all got a bit complicated. I’ll get it under control though.

Read:

The Vanderbeekers Lost and Found by Karina Yan Glaser

A Christmas Memory by Truman Capote*

Mr Wilder and Me by Jonathan Coe*

Grumpy Jake by Melissa Blue

Iced Under by Barbara Ross

Stowed Away by Barbara Ross

Started:

Murder on Mustique by Anne Glenconner*

Life, Death and Cellos by Isabel Rogers

Cosmoknights by Hannah Templar

Steamed Open by Barbara Ross

Still reading:

The AI Who Loved Me by Alyssa Cole

The Residence by Kate Andersen Brower

Peace Breaks Out by Angela Thirkell

Still not counting, still don’t care

Bonus photo: my latest bunch of flowers. They’re Peach Amaryllis and they’re gorgeous.

Close up of Peach Amaryllis

An * next to a 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: November 2 – November 8

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Well. Well. That was a week wasn’t it? I did a lot of hours at work – and my brain was correspondingly fried, so there’s a lot of familiar authors on this weeks list as I retreated to books I knew wouldn’t require too much effort of my frazzled brain!

Read:

The Body on the Train by Frances Brody

Somebody to Romance by Mary Balogh

Musseled Out by Barbara Ross

The Churchill Complex by Ian Buruma

The Last Mrs Summers by Rhys Bowen

The Falcon Always Wings Twice by Donna Andrews

Started:

The Vanderbeekers Lost and Found by Karina Yan Glaser

The Residence by Kate Andersen Brower

Peace Breaks Out by Angela Thirkell

Still reading:

The AI Who Loved Me by Alyssa Cole

Still not counting, still don’t care

Bonus photo: Early morning in central London on Thursday on my way for some post-US election action at work.

Fitzroy square in London slighly pre-dawn with the BT tower in the background

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

Book of the Week, cozy crime

Book of the Week: Boiled Over

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It’s Election Day in the US today, so it seems fitting that this week’s pick is a US-set book.

Cover of Boiled Over

Boiled Over is the second in the Maine Clambake series, but you don’t need to have read the first book to follow what’s going on (and if you did, I wouldn’t be recommending it because I have Rules!). In book one, Julia Snowden took a sabbatical from her job in New York for the summer to try and save the family business in Maine. Now the immediate danger seems to have passed, but the season isn’t over so she’s still in Busman’s Harbor for the Founder’s weekend celebrations. But things take a turn for the worse when a body is found in the fire under her family’s seafood cooker. The victim owns the local RV park and was on the committee planning the event with Julia. And when one of her employees becomes the prime suspect, Julia starts digging around to try to solve the crime and save her family’s business – again.

This is a fun cozy crime, with plenty of suspects, a great setting and enough going on in the heroine’s personal life that there’s more than just the murder happening. I enjoyed the mystery in the first book but was frustrated with Julia’s love life. This does better on that front so that makes it pretty much a winner all around. There are nine books in the series and I have the next one already so I’m looking forward to seeing where it all goes next.

You can get a copy of Boiled Over on Kindle or Kobo. It’s also available in paperback (and with a discount on the sticker price!) from the newly launched UK bookshop.org site – which has already raised more than £20,000 for independent bookshops in the UK in just 24 hours.  With lockdown 2 about to start in the UK and non-essential shops closing for a month, there has never been a more important time to support your local bookshop.

Happy Reading!

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: October 26 – November 1

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In case you missed it, it was October Stats yesterday. Book of the Week as usual tomorrow and Mini reviews coming up on Wednesday. I had a few days off work last week, which was delightful and very nice ahead of what is going to be a very, very busy week in the day job – with US presidential elections and a second lockdown in the UK. I feel like it’s going to be escapist reading all the way this week because my brain won’t be able to cope with any complicated ideas.

Read:

Southern Peach Pie and a Dead Guy by A Gardner

Sweet Dreams by Dylan Jones*

Drama by Raina Telgemeier

Dance of Death by Helen McCloy*

Happily This Christmas by Susan Mallery*

Ghosts by Raina Telgemeier

Boiled Over by Barbara Ross

This Green and Pleasant Land by Ayisha Malik*

Started:

Musseled Out by Barbara Ross

Still reading:

The AI Who Loved Me by Alyssa Cole

The Body on the Train by Frances Brody

Still not counting, still don’t care

Bonus photo: I made my Christmas cake, here it is, fresh from cooling and ready for feeding and maturing over the next few weeks….

A christmas cake on a cooling rack

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