Tuesday 27 April 2021

Reading A Lot

 11 books read already this month and there are still a few days left. Once I got to the caravan which didn't have a smart TV so I couldn't watch anymore of the Inspector Montalbano I seem to have whipped through books at a great rate.

All have been good because if they weren't I wouldn't finish them, most have been crime.

Here we go - copied from my Books Read 2021 page.

  1. Nap Lombard - Murder's a Swine. Crime Fiction (British Library Crime Classic 2021. Originally Published 1943). This is a witty, lighthearted murder set in London in the early years of WWII before bombing started. It reminded me of Agatha Christie's Tommy and Tuppence mysteries. Nap Lombard was a pseudonym of Pamela Hansford Johnson and her then husband Gorden Neil Stewart who both served as Air Raid Wardens and this book starts with the discovery of a body behind sandbags in an air raid shelter.
  2. Chris Nickson -  To The Dark. Crime Fiction. (Published 2020)All of this authors books are set in Leeds but in different periods. This is the 3rd featuring thief-taker Simon Westlow during the  1820's. The city is in the grip of winter, but the chill deepens for Simon and his young assistant, Jane, when the body of Laurence Poole, a petty local thief, emerges from the melting snow by the river at Flay Cross Mill.
  3. Julie Wassmer - Murder on the Downs. Crime Fiction. (Published 2020). The 7th in the Whitstable Pearl series. A controversial new property development is planned in Whitstable which will encroach upon the green open space of the downs. A campaign starts to stop the development but soon one person is dead. A Very Quick Read! 
  4. Mike Hollow - The Custom House Murder. Crime Fiction (Published 2017 and re-named and re-published in 2020) September 1940 and a month into the London Blitz this is the 3rd in a series featuring  DI John Jago.
  5. Robin Blake - Secret Mischief. Crime Fiction (Published 2021). This is the 7th in a series of historical crime fiction set in the early 18C in Lancashire around the Preston area. It features the coroner for the area Titus Cragg and his friend Dr. Luke Fidelis  . This story centres around a Tontine which is a way of leaving money to the "last man standing" from a group of friends.
  6. Anne Hart - Miss Marple; The Life and Times of Miss Jane Marple. Fictional Biography. (Published 1986). Using all the Agatha Christie short and longer stories featuring Miss Marple, Anne Hart collects together all the pieces of information to provide a 'biography' of the crime solving sleuth. A small book - quickly read.
  7. Barbara Whitton -  Green Hands. Fiction. (And IWM reprint 2020. Originally published 1943) This fictional account of two Land Girls working hard on farms in 1943. The author worked as a Land Girl in 1939.
  8. Mike Hollow - The Stratford Murder. Crime Fiction (Published as Firing Line in 2018. Renamed and re-printed in 2020). The 4th in a series set in The London Blitz and featuring DI John Jago. 
  9. Elizabeth Fair - Seaview House. Fiction. ( A Furrowed Middlebrow reprint 2017. Originally Published 1955). Her books are always described as comedies of domestic life. This one is set in a seaside boarding house. A gentle easy read.
  10. John Coates -  Patience. Fiction. ( Persephone reprint 2012. Originally published 1953). This book was banned in Ireland when it was first published. It's the story of a Catholic girl married to a man 15 years her senior who believes all there is to life is babies and being a good wife who feeds her husband and submits to his attention. Then she meets Phillip and suddenly she falls in love which is very complicated - involving Sin. This is a lovely happy but sad story. Maureen Lipman wrote a preface in 2012 and said she hoped  Persephone would reprint more of Coates writing but so far they haven't.
  11. Jane Johnson - The Sea Gate. Fiction. (Published 2020) Mentioned on a blog, this is one of those books that has past and present. In the present Rebecca is recovering from cancer when her mother dies  and on clearing the house she finds some letters to her mother from Olivia, an elderly cousin in Cornwall who needs help with house repairs to enable her to be allowed home from hospital. In the past Olivia is 16 and abandoned in Cornwall by her mother in the middle of WWII. A well written book with an interesting story of family secrets kept for far too long.

Thank goodness for birthday present books, library books and books found in charity shops! What would I have done for the last 7 weeks without them.

Now I'm back with a smart TV to watch I shall finish the rest of Inspector Montalbano and have a look at the early series of Silent Witness which I didn't watch first time round.

Sue

27 comments:

  1. Goodness, what a lot. My reading has gone right off unfortunately. So hope you get moved soon, it’s getting really silly now.

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    1. I would be worried if I went off reading! - hasn't happened often

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  2. Just shows you what a distraction tv is! I have been reading the new Barbara Erskine this week (The Dream Weavers) which is set along Offa's Dyke and just up my street! I've not heard of any of your authors but the books sound enjoyable (I like the sound of the ones set historically in particular).

    I hope the house purchase goes ahead soon - really, paying off an Equity release is like paying off any mortgage, which would happen when contracts are exchanged. Has their purchase fallen through and they had to start again?

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    1. It's the subtitles that I have to follow properly so can't read at the same time.
      The Equity release is passed from one house to another which is where a 3rd solicitor has to be involved

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  3. A lovely section of books, I do miss reading I have found the book I kept that I wrote down when and read i started in August 1989 until the stroke in Feb.2019 I had read a lot of books and a mixture of authors.
    Enjoy the day Sue.
    Hazel c uk πŸŒˆπŸŒˆπŸŒˆπŸ“•πŸ“•

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    1. My book of books started in about 1972 when I had just started work in a library!

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  4. A good selection of crime fiction. I wish that I had put a brief description of the story when I ticked books off an author's list. As it is I can never remember what the story is about apart from murder of course.

    Surely this should be your last move. I remember you weren't looking forward to the two moves before you could be in the bungalow. In hindsight would you do it again?

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    1. Hope you are right about not needing to move again before I get into my real home although there's still no date

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  5. I envy your booklist. I have always been an avid reader,but that has disappeared this past year.

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    1. I've read more this month than I did for any month - helps to fill the waiting time

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  6. Wow, that's a lot of reading. You're putting me to shame!!

    The beauty ... or the danger ... of a Firestick is that you can quickly plug it into any television, and watch virtually anything you want to on tv, Netflix, YouTube etc, so my reading has suffered quite a bit over the last month. When Alan wants to watch something of his, I just go in the bedroom and plug it into the tv there. I have become addicted to a couple of YouTube channels and I am having great fun watching back over old vlogs and episodes etc.

    But I do make an attempt to start and end each day with reading, I've nearly finished the book I started two weeks ago!!

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    1. I read really quickly - hope I don't run out of books

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  7. I must take down. some of these titles. I know I'll like them too. I just finished the Moonflower Murders by Anthony Horowitz. It was very good. He writes so very well.

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    1. I've not read any books by that author, he is more well known for his teenage crime and Sherlock Holmes books. I've now ordered the first in that series from the library

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  8. I think I like the idea of a "witty lighthearted murder"!!

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    1. All the best murders should be witty and lighthearted!!

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  9. I know this time of waiting has been frustrating for you but it's certainly helped your reading list for the year!

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    1. Makes up for February when I didn't read many because I was packing boxes!

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  10. I've just sat and watched my first ever episode of Silent Witness today. It did seem strange seeing everyone with cigarettes in all the scenes. Enjoyed it. Arilx

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    1. I've watched the more recent but not the earlier years for some reason - so now I can catch up

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  11. I'm also watching Silent Witness and Detective Montalbano. I'm at the 7th season of the first and episodes 23 and 24 of the second. Enjoying them both!

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    1. I like the views of Sicily in the Inspector Monalbano - it looks so beautiful

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  12. I can raid our library again now, yay!

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  13. Wow you have been busy with the reading! I must admit that I'm behind on my reading goals. I can't seem to get into it lately. I am still reading but just not as much .

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    1. It's certainly kept me occupied while waiting this month

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  14. My reading list has just expanded greatly. Thanks for the recommendations, including many authors not known to me. This is my favorite genre!

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