Tag: to-read pile

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week In Books: February 12 – February 18

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I’m really trying to get a handle on the long-running backlog in the Still Reading list – but it’s taking some time, because there’s chunky hardback non-fiction in there and literary prize winners.  I will get there in the end though.  Some of the books on the read list this week have been marked as being in the process of being read on my Goodreads account for some time – so I’m taking that as a partial win on that front.

Read:

Dimsie Among the Prefects by Dorita Fairlie Bruce

Five Children on the Western Front by Kate Saunders

Postcards from the Edge by Carrie Fisher

The Astonishing Adventure of Jane Smith by Patricia Wentworth

A Dangerous Place by Jacqueline Winspear

The Gift of a Family by Sarah Morgan

Fire on the Ice by Tamsen Parker

The Chimneys of Green Knowe by Lucy M Boston

Bump in the Night by Colin Watson

Started:

England Expects by Sara Sheridan

Last Ditch by Ngaio Marsh

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

A Spoonful of Murder by Robin Stevens

Three actual books and two ebooks bought…

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week In Books: February 5 – February 11

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A strange week of reading all in all.  I finished a bunch of books that I had started the previous week, but then started a load more that I didn’t manage to finish – either because of work and real life commitments or because I was so far into them they broke my rules about not taking books with less than 100 pages to go to work with me.  Oh and I’m trying to pace myself and make A Spoonful of Murder last, because otherwise I’ve got a *really* long wait for the next Wells and Wong book!

Read:

The Husband List by Janet Evanovich and Dorien Kelly

The Song of the Abbey by Elsie J Oxenham

A Case of Blackmail in Belgravia by Clara Benson

The Lark by E Nesbit

Medal Up by Nicole Flockton and Fiona M Marsden

Started:

A Dangerous Place by Jacqueline Winspear

Five Children on the Western Front by Kate Saunders

A Spoonful of Murder by Robin Stevens

Dimsie Among the Prefects by Dorita Fairlie 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

Five ebooks (all on sale) bought on Sunday in a moment of weak willpower related to working all weekend!

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week In Books: January 29 – February 4

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So the good news is that I’m not poorly any more, the bad news is that I’m still exhausted after being poorly.  So not a lot read this week, because once I was back at work I was mostly just sleeping to try and get myself back to normal.

Read:

Duke of Pleasure by Elizabeth Hoyt

Murder on the Rocks by Shean Reilly Simmons

Ballet Shoes for Anna by Noel Streatfeild

Coffin, Scarcely Used by Colin Watson

Started:

The Song of the Abbey by Elsie J Oxenham

The Husband List by Janet Evanovich and Dorien Kelly

Medal Up by Nicole Flockton

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

And we went to York for the weekend, and I *may* have spent some money in the charity bookshop on old Girl’s Own hardbacks.  So four books bought.

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week In Books: January 22 – January 28

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Well.  What a week.  I started coming down with a bug on Sunday night and was ill all week.    I can’t remember the last time that I felt so ill.  And I was thanking my lucky stars that I had last week’s posts already written I can tell you.  Yuck.  Anyway, once I had started to get my concentration back, I stuck to mostly children’s books and mysteries because that was all my brain could handle.  It was only on Friday night that I started to venture into anything else. Not. Fun. At. All.  Four of the books on this list were finished at the weekend once I was up and about a bit more – which just tells you how ill I was earlier in the week – despite being stuck at home with nothing to do and nowhere to go I wasn’t reading anything!

Read:

The Leader of the Lower School by Angela Brazil

Dandy Gilver and a Spot of Toil and Trouble by Catriona McPherson

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle

When the Stars Come out by Laura Trentham

The Riviera Set by Mary S Lovell

A House Full of Daughters by Juliet Nicholson

Started:

The Unfinished Palazzo by Judith Mackrell

Duke of Pleasure by Elizabeth Hoyt

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

Of course the other side of being ill, is that I didn’t buy anything either.  So that’s a bright side I suppose!

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week In Books: January 15 – January 21

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It was my birthday early in the week so we went away for a few days of relaxation. Which means plenty of reading, even before I tackled the comic/graphic novel backlog once we were home.

Read:

The Obsession by Lilliane Lee

Stiff by Mary Roach

Someone Like You by Susan Mallery

A Treacherous Curse by Deanna Raybourn

The Bittersweet Bride by Vanessa Riley

Black as He’s Painted by Ngaio Marsh

Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler

Should’ve Been You by Nicole McLaughlin

Cry Fox Vols 2 & 3 by Ben Aaronovitch et al

New Romancer Vol 4 by Peter Milligan

Bitch Planet Triple Feature Vols 4 & 5 by Matt Fraction, Marc Deschamps et al

The Mitford Murders by Jessica Fellowes

Started:

Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho

Still reading:

Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

The Square and the Tower by Niall Ferguson

The Vanity Fair Diaries by Tina Brown

The Riviera Set by Mary S Lovell

Uncommon Type by Tom Hanks

I may have treated myself to a book or two for my birthday. Nothing excessive, but Deanna Raybourn had a new book out and a couple of my favourite authors had books on sale. Oh and I went into a charity shop or two while we were away. I think the total was 3 ebooks and 2 actual books.

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week In Books: January 8 – January 14

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A bit of a bitty week of reading, but some interesting stuff in there. I’m trying to do better with getting to my NetGalley Books on time so that’s a fair few of this week’s books too.

Read:

A Scot in the Dark by Sarah MacLean

The Linking Rings by John Gaspard

The Phantom of Oz by Cindy Brown

A Fourth Form Friendship by Angela Brazil

A Week to be Wild by JC Harroway

The Spiritual Poems of Rumi by Rumi

Started:

The Riviera Set by Mary S Lovell

Uncommon Type by Tom Hanks

Stiff by Mary Roach

The Mitford Murders by Jessica Fellowes

Still reading:

Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler

The Square and the Tower by Niall Ferguson

The Vanity Fair Diaries by Tina Brown

A couple of ebooks bought, but no actual books, so that’s progress in a way!

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week In Books: January 1 – January 7

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New Year, new books and still a few stragglers from last year (which I’m working on it).

Read:

A Wedding at Two Love Lane by Kieran Kramer

The Crown Prince’s Bride by Donna Alward

Second Grave on the Right by Darynda Jones

Christmas in Cornwall by Laura Briggs

Lost and Found Sisters by Jill Shalvis

Started:

A Scot in the Dark by Sarah MacLean

Still reading:

Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler

The Square and the Tower by Niall Ferguson

The Vanity Fair Diaries by Tina Brown

Three books bought on the sly on Sunday morning – one of which I read immediately.  Lovely stuff.  Start as I mean to go on…

Authors I love, book round-ups, The pile

My Big Obsessions of 2017

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We’re a few days in to 2018 now, so it’s well past time to tell you about my Big Obsessions of 2017.  I’ve found it really hard to find new obsessions this year – because so much of what I’ve read has been a continuation of things that I’ve been reading previously.  I think that’s partly because I discovered a lot of new authors last year and have continued to glom on them, but also because I’ve been trying to work my way through the to-read pile backlog rather than buying lots of new books.

But if 2017 was anything, it was the year of contemporary romance.  After getting into Sarah Morgan in 2016, I tried a lot of other contemporary romance authors this year.  Some of them weren’t my thing, but quite a few were.  I’ve been on quite a few binges on new authors this year and I suspect it may continue.  I finally read Jennifer Crusie‘s Bet Me, which I’d heard people raving about over and over in Romancelandia. I read nearly a dozen of Jill Shalvis‘s novels and discovered that I really quite like small town romances, eight of Susan Elizabeth Phillips’s and got quite into sports romances even when they’re about American football and three Kristen Higgins books and thought about taking a trip to a winery.  I’ve started requesting a few more contemporary romances from NetGalley to see if there are any other tropes that I like.  So far I’ve worked out that I’m not a big fan of biker gangs and I really don’t like billionaires, but I’m hopeful that I’ll find some more that I do like at some point in 2018.

I’m still reading other genres though, especially crime and I’ve worked my way through a few series this year.  I’ve added Nick Bryan‘s Hobson and Choi series to my autobuy list, because I really need more snarky teen and cynical older bloke detective novels in my life.   I’m practically counting the days until the next Vinyl Detective novel from Andrew Cartmel, after reading the first two.  I’ve tried out some more of Henery Press’s cozy mysteries and found a couple of series there to dig into: the Tj Jenson series by Kathi Daley, Susan M Boyer‘s Lowcountry series and Julie Mulhern‘s 70s-set Country Club Murders.  Also in series set in the past, I read all three of the TE Kinsey Lady Hardcastle mysteries and the Christmas novella too and three more Royal Spyness books.

I have expanded my non-fiction reading this year – I’ve been concentrating on finding stories and voices from different perspectives than my own and I’ve really enjoyed it.  Actually that’s one of my themes in general this year in fiction as well.  It’s been a bit of a challenge at times, some times finding the books, but sometimes because I’ve got such a big selection of books to chose from that it means that I can ignore books on the shelf for ages in favour of things that are more familiar.  But I’m going to keep challenging myself in 2018.

So there you have it. It remains to be seen whether my consistency – as witnessed by revisiting my 2016 obsessions – will continue now the latest batch of renovation work is done and the book pile unpacked, but I hope I do add something random and new to my reading in 2018 or I might worry that I’m getting boring in my old age!

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week In Books: December 25 – December 31

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Here is the final WiB of 2017 – ending neatly at the end of the year precisely.  And everything that I finished this week was to try and finish ReadHarder – and it worked!  As it’s the end of the year, I’ve rationalised the ongoing books – and given up on the Rushdie – I wasn’t enjoying it and I’ve got lots of other things I’d rather read in 2018.

Read:

Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly

Meridian by Alice Walker

French Poems of the Great War translated by Ian Higgins

Revolutionary Ride by Lois Pryce

Northern Lights by Philip Pullman

Started:

Second Grave on the Right by Darynda Jones

Still reading:

Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler

The Square and the Tower by Niall Ferguson

The Vanity Fair Diaries by Tina Brown

I was so busy trying to finish ReadHarder that I only bought one book – in the Waterstone’s sale and no ebooks.  Not too bad really.

 

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week In Books: December 18 – December 24

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Yeah.  This is a day late, but you had a nice bonus post yesterday, so I don’t feel too sorry for you.  And as it’s been another one of those weeks – all reading plans derailed by the need to catch up on Christmas preparations – you weren’t really missing out on much anyway!

Read:

Christmas at the Grange by T E Kinsey

A River in the Sky by Elizabeth Peters

Started:

The Vanity Fair Diaries by Tina Brown

Still reading:

The Golden House by Salman Rushdie

Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler

The Square and the Tower by Niall Ferguson

French Poems of the Great War translated by Ian Higgins

Meridian by Alice Walker

A couple of books bought – but I blame the stress of Christmas!