All Sorts of Winter Books

 In 2024 I did 'Reading the Seasons' and for Winter I read  Arthur Ransome's Winter Holiday, Winter in the Air by Sylvia Townsend Warner, The Woods in Winter by Stella Gibbons and The Winter Killer by Alex Pine.

Since then I've gained two books with Winter titles for my shelves- one is the winter word dictionary mentioned yesterday and then The Nature of Winter by Jim Crumley, found at a charity book-sale in the Autumn.

 ( I also bought The Nature of Autumn at the same time and the library tells me I'd borrowed The Nature of Spring  at sometime too, but have no recollection of reading it).

 I've not got around to reading further than the prologue of The Nature of Winter yet but can already see he is a good nature writer. I've also not had a chance to properly read the two books that I got myself for Christmas as a gift from BiL.

A Year to Slow Down has a Further Reading/ Resources list at the back which includes a book written by by Emma Mitchell - A Wild Remedy; How Nature Mends Us.  In 2017 Emma Mitchell also wrote Making Winter: A Creative Guide to Surviving the Winter Months  so maybe she was the first to write about coping with winter depression. Another book in the list is  Wintering; The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by Katherine May. That dates from 2020 which is when I read it, although I don't remember if it helped me survive winter!

When I was looking for the date of that book I kept coming up with information of everyone else who's written similar........How to Winter; Harness your Mindset to Thrive in Difficult Times  by Kari Leibowitz. The Gifts of Winter; How to Uncover Seasonal Joy, Health and Happiness by Dr Stephanie Fitzgerald and Winter Wellbeing:Seasonal Selfcare by Cico Books(no author) and finally Self Care for Winter by Suzy Reading.  All published in 2024 or 2025. 

Even crime writer Val McDermid is joining in with a new book that I brought home from the library van. Although this is more about the things she enjoys about Winter rather than just surviving it.....

.............love the front cover - an illustration by Phillip Harris.

I've reserved the books by Kari Leibowitz and Stephanie Fitzgerald from the library - long waiting lists for both so it will be Spring before I get them!

Writing books about Winter survival is obviously a lucrative business! I wonder how we got through without them?!

The End of the Reading the Seasons Year

It's a year since I came up with the idea of reading some books with Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter in their titles.

This was the book that inspired the idea, and I ended up reading 6 for Spring.

Two of these I would have read anyway even if I hadn't been doing the challenge but it was good to search out the others and  I enjoyed all of the books. 

Then it was onto Summer titles, nine found and read in total.

.

 Again there are some that I would have read anyway but others searched out for their titles and enjoyed.

In Autumn I didn't find so many, out of half a dozen borrowed I only read these two. My excuse was I was decorating the living room and nothing else appealed.

So then it was winter and there were three from the library

The Woods in Winter was the best of them

And one from my shelves

And that's it, 'Reading The Seasons' is all finished. Info on all the books above are on the separate pages or click  on the Reading The Seasons in the label list .

 I did ponder reading books with the month in their titles, but after putting 'April' in the library search and finding lots that didn't appeal at all I gave up on that idea.

Back Soon

Sue

Half of February Gone - Thank Goodness

 When did a Railway Station become a Train Station? When did Going Shopping become a Shopping Haul? Why is the tag line to TV adverts for Magnum ice creams "True to Pleasure" and what on earth does it mean?

These are questions that need answering........................or not!

But while you are pondering..........................

It's been such a cold and grey ol' week in Mid Suffolk, everyone I've spoken to - which was really only the people  at the Keep Moving Group -have been saying how dismal it is. 18 ladies there this week - which is really good - means we cover our costs (hall hire, coffee and biscuits) with our £1.50s, and build up enough to have more free weeks. One lady who hadn't been for a few weeks wondered where all the new people had suddenly come from - she didn't know that I'd put the info on Facebook Village groups.

The February jigsaw is almost done, I'm at the point of thinking there must be pieces missing - but hoping there aren't.

I finished one more book for my Reading-the-Seasons-not-really-a-challenge thing. It was by a new to me author. The story was OK but I thought some of the writing, especially dialogue, was a bit odd and clunky. 

Christmas has arrived in Cumbria, and wedding bells are ringing. As the clock strikes midnight on New Year's Eve, DI James Walker receives a phone call that puts paid to his Christmas break. During the wedding of the year at a lakeside hotel, the bride's sister has vanished. When Rachel left the wedding breakfast before her speech, newly-wed Libby was furious. But as the night went on with no sign of her maid-of-honour, Libby started to realise something was very, very wrong. Before the wedding night is out, the lake is being searched for a body. One guest is a killer. 

I hope these two weather sayings for yesterday are correct............

                                           St Valentine Breaks the Back of Winter

                                         To Saint Valentine the spring is a neighbour

Last piece of news for the week is that BiL came over yesterday afternoon with his motor mower and cut the grass for me. It was still a bit wet and clogged up now and again but it's done....... thankfully. I should be able to keep on top of it now. With the last of the Buddliea and now the grass cuttings the garden waste bin is full again, so I can't do any more clearing for while. I've had to stop using my dalek compost bins - Rats!

I'm hoping a lady gardener who advertised on the local facebook group is going to come sometime and get the two big borders back to some sort of tidy too, then I'll be able to cope with them again. She likes to be paid in cash for one-off jobs like this, so I must organise that. It sounds as if she is very busy locally. The person who volunteered to help me last autumn lost his driving licence before Christmas, for being over the alcohol limit -twice- and hasn't been heard of since!

Back Next week

Sue

Book Talk

  The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah is another excellent well written story from this author. I picked up my copy from a jumble sale, grabbing it quick when I spotted it in a pile of books. 

This is the Amazon blurb

This story is about what it was like to be a woman during World War II, when women’s stories were all too often forgotten or overlooked . . . Vianne and Isabelle Mauriac are two sisters, separated by years and experience, by ideals and passion and circumstance, each embarking on her own dangerous path towards survival, love and freedom in war-torn France.

It was an excellent story, well written and researched and especially thought provoking as I was reading it just prior to National Holocaust Remembrance Day.

The library have more Kristin Hannah books than they had a while ago but still none of the earlier novels - pre 2003. The books they do have in stock have good sized waiting lists so she's become a very popular author this side of the pond, with over fifty people still waiting for her 2024 publication - The Women.

I've now read five  of her most recent seven books because for some reason I didn't read Home Front when I had it on loan and have reserved True Colours (2009) and can reserve Another Life, Between Sisters and Wild.

Has anyone read her earlier books? I'm wondering if they are worth looking for on Abe books or Amazon or is she an author who's got better with time?

A few weeks ago I'd got down to only half a dozen books on my library reserved list and went through my 'Book of Books Read' to see if any of my favourite authors had had books published without me knowing! 

I was able to reserve Murder at St Paul's Cathedral, Murder at Whitechapel Road Station and Murder at Lords Station all by Jim Eldridge who seems to write about 3 books a year - pretty good going........that's what I call prolific, although they are not 'classics' they are quite readable. 

Somehow I'd missed hearing about the new series by Elly Griffiths, starting with The Frozen people so I'm 235th on the waiting list, luckily they've got 80 copies so should be a few months rather than years. I also found a new book by Alys Clare - The Chrysanthemum Tiger in her Gabriel Taverner series and Spoilers Prey by Robin Blake the most recent in his Titus Cragg series.

Now there are already  six books on the way for February mobile library visit and another 13 reserved, which looks much more promising.

In the meantime, the book I've been reading this last week is  Arthur Ransome's Winter Holiday - The Swallows and Amazons plus two extra children. Only my 3rd Winter book for the Reading The Seasons not-really-a-challenge which has just 4 weeks left.

Back Tomorrow

Sue

A Winter Book, a Snow Jigsaw, Keep Moving and Apple Crumble

 The short stories in this book were weird but I got to the end. It's only the second book with winter in the title so I thought I'd better finish it and it needs to go back to the library anyway.

The jigsaw puzzle is coming along and I'm way past how far I got with the other snow jigsaw before I gave up, this one has more colour and less snow and sky. This is a 'Spot the Difference' puzzle but I won't tell you what they are as I'll make it into a blog post when it's done.

I put a note on some of the local face book groups to tell people about the Keep Moving Group and we had 2 new ladies come along, which is good. Numbers have dropped from a high of 16 down to eight or nine due to illness, being busy elsewhere and winter colds and flu. We only had two weeks off over Christmas and New Year but we all felt so unfit! (or maybe that was just me!) Personally I feel Fat! need to get moving more so I came home and booked a swim. It's a pain going swimming in winter with so many layers to take off and put on but needs must. I'm hopeful that the Stradbroke pool will be quieter as the next nearest pool along the Norfolk/Suffolk border at Diss is reopening after being shut for a nearly two year re-build.

This apple crumble will do nothing for the weight but was delicious and next year I'd like to find more free cooking apples to put in the freezer. I don't keep ice cream in the freezer all the time  but got some in as a just-in-case thing at Christmas and didn't use it but I'll save most for the end of the month when the Surrey boys are here

Back Tomorrow

Sue

Advent 2024 and Going Green For Christmas Plus This Week's Happenings

 I've got lots of Christmas tree decorations gathered over 40 years and only a smallish tree so a few years ago everything got sorted into different bags. Gold, silver and white, red, green, and finally old fashioned and handmade traditional, so I could swap around each year.

Looking back on the blog to see which had been used last year and found this is what I'd written after going to the one-off Christmas car boot sale.

 I went round looking for green things for the Christmas tree for next year and didn't find any. 

The traditional bits got used last year and  I must have been thinking of using green this year and there aren't many of them. So when I shopped I did a tour of all the charity shops in Stowmarket .......7 and then in Diss...........6  ............ and one in Eye on my way back from Diss and found these..........

After the usual battle with opening up the tree and fluffing up the branches and getting the lights spread out - (glad this is only a once-a year thing!) and putting on all the green and silver and white bits it looked like this. 

( There was one minor disaster, because that lovely long green decoration slipped as I tried to hang it up and it smashed into pieces on my new hard floor - being the only one that was glass - typical!)

Had to shift things around to find a different place for the tree this year as my chair is near the window now and putting the tree where I've had it before meant it was between me and the TV which didn't work of course.

I'm thinking green and silver are a bit 'cold' so I reckon it'll be back to red and gold next year.

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I've had a good week. Sorted out more Grandchildren presents, got all but one card finished - needs a letter to go with it - and all that were done got posted. Bought a few frozen vegetarian main meal type things that are only in the shops at Christmas and met up with my friend from Grammar School days for a coffee in the Osier cafe in the church. While there I took photos of the Christmas tree festival, I'm sure there were even more trees there than usual, it looked lovely and a man started playing carols on the piano while we were there which was nice. I'll put photos on the blog post tomorrow.

I finished the first 'Reading the Seasons' for Winter. Stella Gibbons- The Woods in Winter This is one of the books published by Dean Street Books in the Furrowed Middlebrow cover and I loved it. 

Seems the country is to be hit by Storm Darragh today. (I'm puzzled because we had Storm Bert but I didn't hear about a storm beginning with C ?) Anyway, there are Red Warnings for west coastal areas of the country for very strong winds and rain but over here in the East it might not be quite so bad. Hope they are right, as I'm supposed to be heading to the coast on Sunday and there are so many places on the cross country roads that get flooded. And thank heavens we've not got the huge snowfalls some parts of the US have had.

Stay safe blog friends 'in the west' and I'll be back tomorrow.

Sue

 

Advent 2024 and The Winter Books

Thank you everyone for comments yesterday, sorry I didn't reply individually - I wanted to get Christmas cards and notes done so I can get the jigsaw puzzle out onto the table.

There are four books lined up for the Winter Reading The Seasons 'challenge' so far. These two from my shelves..............although I have read The Long Winter before so will only read it again if I completely run out of reading matter.
 

Two from the library - Winter in the  Air  by Sylvia Townsend Warner and  The Woods in Winter by Stella Gibbons

I've got a couple of books here with Christmas in their title that I've been promising to read every December for years and I might or might not get round to reading later in the month but I see there are already 10 library books waiting for me to collect mid month when the mobile comes round - including the most recent by Mike Ripley - Mr Campions Christmas and some other favourite authors new crime offerings, I won't be short of reading!

Back Tomorrow

Sue

This Weeks Happenings

 Last weekend I said I'd decided to paint the small bedroom/toy room with just enough paint left from the living room to do it but painting in a small room with a single bed and a book shelf that are too big to move out isn't easy. I moved very carefully and slowly, as I could imagine stepping back and straight into the paint pot like something from a slapstick comedy! 

I started by shifting out all the toys and books, removed 15 little hooks and filled the holes that were left and began with two walls that had to be completely finished before I could move the bed and shelves to get to the other two walls. All finished now except for moving everything back in again. I may weed out some toys now too - the grandchildren are growing up. The youngest  - down in Surrey - is 3 tomorrow.

  

I've not bothered with a TV schedule magazine for several weeks - I still miss the copy of the Radio Times that used to come through the letter box every Thursday but I'm doing without for a while to save some pennies before Christmas (and yes I know I can look online but it's not the same as a paper copy in the hand). Luckily I  came across info on several new crime series starting on TV soon - Dalgeish, Ellis and DI Ray all start sometime soon and second series of Chelsea detective started Wednesday. Lots to look forward to. I watched all of Ludwig - a clever story and it will be back for another series.

Did you know there's a US version of Have I Got News For You? It's on BBC iplayer and almost as funny as our version.......... apart from not knowing who they are talking about!  I reckon HIGNFY is one of the best programmes on TV ...watching politicians squirm has to be fun.

My Reading The Seasons 'challenge' isn't going well.  Out of the books with Autumn in their title that I'd reserved and brought home last month, I only read one. The rest have gone back unread. I'd read some of Lesley Cookman's book in the past but stopped as they were all the same and this one was just as bad - they are written almost completely in dialogue and there are so many characters that I was completely lost after about 30 pages.

Couldn't get into the Louis De Bernieres book at all and the one called Autumn Leaves was truly bad! So just the Christie book read. Which means that it's nearly halfway through Autumn already and I've only read two with Autumn in their titles and nothing else I fancy reading on the library website.

Someone did  ask if I would include books with 'fall' in their titles as well as Autumn- but I decided against as there are over 2,000 on the library website and many are romances. The way the days fly by it will soon be time to look for 'Winter' titles anyway and with the first hard frost on the car windscreen on Friday morning winter is on the way.

Must say apologies for not commenting much this week and not replying  yesterday due to the painting and when I wasn't shifting and painting I was outside clearing up in the garden - the job list out there is long, as is the list of things I need to get made in the kitchen.....that's next week.

Have a good weekend.

Back Soon

Sue

Reading The Seasons + A.N.Other

 Just the second book with Autumn in the title so far. This is a collection of short stories that had previously appeared in magazines back in the 1930's, 40's and 50's. One was a Poirot story and another a Miss Marple.  

Quickly read and not very interesting! is my summing up of this book.

100% better was the latest book by Robert Harris. I had no interest in the WWI Prime Minister H.H. Asquith and his correspondence  with a woman less than half his age during the start of the war, but Robert Harris writes so well that it's impossible not to get drawn in. This story, as are many of his books, is fiction but built around fact.

Summer 1914. A world on the brink of catastrophe. In London, 26-year-old Venetia Stanley - aristocratic, clever, bored, reckless - is having a love affair with the Prime Minister, H. H. Asquith, a man more than twice her age. He writes to her obsessively, sharing the most sensitive matters of state. As Asquith reluctantly leads the country into war with Germany, a young intelligence officer is assigned to investigate a leak of top secret documents - and suddenly what was a sexual intrigue becomes a matter of national security that will alter the course of political history.

A really good story about a bit of history that I had no knowledge of at all.

Back Soon

Sue 

First Book For Autumn Reading the Seasons.

 Someone mentioned this book when I said there are a shortage of books with Autumn in the title but  there was no copy to borrow at the library.  I've read several others by Barbara Pym so didn't mind buying a second-hand copy and Abebooks had one for a couple of £s.

So this is my first for Autumn for the Reading the Seasons 'not really a challenge'.

 

1970's London and four elderly single people work in the same office but live separate and lonely lives. This is the quiet story of their day to day life, the things that annoy them, which seem so trivial and the things that worry them as they get to the end of their working lives.

Like most of her books this explores relationships with a touch of humour and sadness too.

Published in 1977 after a 15 gap this was her 7th novel and was originally turned down by her publishers. She almost gave up but in 1977 the Times Literary Supplement had a list, written by writers and academics, of the most underrated authors from the last 75 years and Pym was mentioned twice. Interest in her was revived and Quartet in Autumn was published and nominated for The Booker Prize.

She died in 1980,  when cancer returned seven years after treatment, she was aged just 66.

Back Soon

Sue

 

Lots of Short Notes from the Week

The Olympic part Summer of Sport 2024 has nearly finished - what will I do now?  Have to wait for the Paralympics coming along on the 28th.

 Something I didn't know......................

Team GB is the brand name used since 1999 by the British Olympic Association (BOA) for their British Olympic team. The brand was developed after the nation's poor performance in the 1996 Summer Olympics, and is now a trademark of the BOA.

 Something odd............when I went out early to the boot sale last Sunday morning, for several 100 yards down the A140 the road was strewn with Parsley. Somewhere nearby it must have been grown as a crop for cutting. Had to investigate online when I got home and found this Company not far away. Another thing I didn't know.

 Book 8 for the Summer part of Reading The Seasons was a re-reading from about 50 + years ago of The Greengage Summer by Rumer Godden. I expect many book lovers have read this at sometime - it's a bit of a classic - a coming of age story. I'd forgotten almost all of it so it was lovely to read again.

Why does a book of short stories take less time to read than the same number of pages in a single whole story? I read the stories in this below in no time at all. Elly Griffiths - The Man in Black and Other Stories. These feature some of the characters from her Ruth and Nelson; Max Mestopho and Harbinder books.

 How and why is a 51 year old man doing Olympic skateboarding? Is he mad?

 On Thursday I watched some of the kite surfing/sailing at the Olympics, it looks like the nearest thing to flying .....and a Gold Medal too. Exciting stuff. More really good races in the Velodrome and on the athletics track.

 I was cutting back some of the Black Elder which keeps getting tangled up with the washing on my whirly when I heard my neighbour getting started on cutting his side of the horrible Yew Hedge out the front, which is really my hedge and I usually do both sides. I'd been putting off the job but I didn't want him to do it all as he's had a few health problems so I quickly got the extension lead and hedge cutter out and got my side done. Goodness me, it's a knackering job now I'm nearly 70! I couldn't reach one bit last year so left it sticking up but my neighbour managed to get that too so it's all level and neat enough for another year.

The BBC have really plugged some of the sportsmen and women at the Olympics, with short films on their background being shown several times, but on Thursday Katarina Johnson-Thompson was in the Heptathlon and I'd not even realised she was there in France - I'm sure she'd had no mention at all beforehand.  She did so well and got a Silver medal.

A Gold medal in the sport climbing before lunchtime Friday. The GB&NI hopes were for more than 50 medals total and by the end of Friday they'd won an amazing 57.

Runner beans and the climbing French beans this week, providing me with a couple of 'baits'.

Got some busy times with family now for a couple of weeks, I think I can post every other day as there are some church visits and a few other posts in drafts- I'll see how it goes - I might end up with more time than I think as the Surrey family aren't staying with me this time but near the coast for some seaside time for the boys.

I will be back..................

Sue

Saturday 3rd

There have been some sticky hot nights this last week, the gel pillow things are totally useless, they only stay cold for a short while so I was glad of a cooler night on Thursday. The gypsies/travellers who've bought land down the road and moved in two caravans haven't got electric on yet and have a generator running and at night I can hear it in the background which is well annoying on a night when the windows  are open for a bit of air.

 In and out today taking my entries to the Fayre and Produce Show and going back later to see if I've won anything. As one of the Handicraft classes was for 'An item of Cross Stitch' I was able to put in an entry as I've got several of my X Stitch pictures around the house. Plus the tomatoes and peppers and one cake.

Just one entry in the Cookery classes this year. A Coffee and Walnut Marble Cake - chilling in the fridge - I don't think it's marbled enough to be a prize winner. 

Prize winnings are still in pence so I'm hopeful for winning something somewhere which might be enough for a cup of tea!

Still watching as much as possible of the Olympics. An emotional end to Andy Murrays long tennis career, but with 4 children under 8 at home he'll be kept busy! Trampolining Gold yesterday by a GB woman - Bryony Page who has had Silver and Bronze in the past- 33 years old. When I was 33 I'd got 3 children and the pelvic floor would have been no good  on a trampoline! Then another Gold for the team show jumping- that made 9 Gold by 3pm Friday and 25 in total and up to 3rd in the Medal Table - Incredible stuff.

One sport I never watch is boxing but I heard about the transgender woman and saw the news about her - so much bigger and stronger - seems so very unfair and odd of the Olympic Committee. Perhaps one day there will be a whole different category or a wholly different games - Olympics, Paralympics and Trans Olympics? 

The 8th Book for the Summer bit of  Reading The Seasons was another collection of short crime stories edited by Cecily Gayford. - Murder Takes a Holiday; Classic Crime Stories for Summer.  From Conan Doyle to more recent authors like Ruth Rendell. All good stories.

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Apologies to people whose comments went into spam again . I look and there is nothing there but then another day there are comments from many days earlier. It's been like this for a couple of years now and about time blogger.com solved this issue.

Back Next Week

Sue

The 6th and 7th Books of Summer for Reading The Seasons

 This book with Summer in it's title is accounts of school summer holidays from various people from all walks of life - although tipping more towards those who went to boarding schools or were in the 'upper classes'.

What comes over in this book is the huge difference between then and now . From the 1930's - 60's and 70's when fewer Mums were out at work so at home for child care and nothing was scheduled to fill those six weeks except perhaps a week at the seaside or a stay with grandparents, to now - when so many things are organised for children they hardly have time to do their own thing!

Another big difference was (is?) between the wealthier, who would often get the chance to travel abroad or to a rented holiday home for the duration, and the poorest who were lucky to have a day at the seaside curtesy of the local church outing.

The 7th for Reading the Seasons was this by Cora Harrison, 'Summer of Secrets', another of her series about the friendship between authors Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens and the solving of a crime.

August, 1856. Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens are spending the summer at Knebworth House, the magnificent Hertfordshire home of fellow writer Lord Edward Bulwer-Lytton, where they are putting on a charity performance of one of Lord Edward's most successful plays, The Lady of Lyon. But the dress rehearsal is disrupted by the discovery of a body lying in the centre of the stage, shot to death.

There are five so far in this series, and I've read 4 and enjoyed them all. Luckily the one  not read has Winter in it's title so that will be reserved later for December.

(There's a problem for September to November - very few books with Autumn in their titles and even less that I'd actually want to read  - may have to include 'Fall')

 Back Soon

Sue

5th Summer Book + Summer of Sport

 First of all have to say thank you for all the comments yesterday about Redgrave Church - it's quite a special church. I keep being surprised at all I'm finding out about bits of history of Suffolk with my church adventures - I'm glad I started.

The 5th book with Summer in the title for Reading The Seasons was this.

Sweet Remnants of Summer by Alexander McCall Smith. In the Isobel Dalhousie Philosopher series set in Edinburgh.

I did say I wouldn't read anymore of these are they are all a bit 'same-y' and Isobel and Jamie are so perfect it's quite annoying!

But as it was a Summer titled book and I knew it would be quick and readable I gave it a go and it was similar to all the others with Isobel getting involved in other people's problems, editing her Philosophy newsletter and dealing with her Housekeeper and her children while the beautiful and perfect Jamie cooks up wonderful meals!

Monday's best sport was a really good match at Wimbledon between Taylor Fritz from the USA and Alexander Zverev of Germany which went to 5 sets with Fritz having to win the last three to get through to the quarter finals - and he did. Djokovic got in a tizzy about the spectators shouting Ruuuuune for his opponent - he seemed to think they were being disrespectful and booing him. I didn't think so and nor did the commentators  but who knows - he does divide opinions. Djokovic went on to win in 3 straight sets anyway.

Tuesday was the first of the quarter finals. There was no play at all on the outside courts - it rained there all  day (Suffolk was a bit drier - just long enough to get raspberries picked and cat proof fences organised for the kale plants which are due today). I half watched the two quarter finals in the men's singles. I'd have preferred Sinner to win.

They are so far behind with doubles matches now and running out of days to catch up. Hope the next few days are dry.

Back Soon 

Sue 

Creeping In for the Summer Reading Challenge plus Summer of Sport Update.

 Allowed  into my 'not really a challenge' due to it's subtitle was this.....

Murder By The Seaside - Ten Classic Crime Stories for Summer. Edited by Cecily Gayford.

10 short stories by several well known crime writers from the past, including Conan Doyle, G.K. Chesterton, Michael Innes and Gladys Mitchell.

They are all set in summer, from an impossible murder on the Cornish coast to an odd honeymoon story.

A quick read for my 4th Reading The Seasons Summer Book.

The opening day of Wimbledon on Monday and it was fine all day so lots of matches finished. Emma Raducano won in straight sets as did defending Champion Carlos Alcaraz. British Men with wild cards got knocked out as did Heather Watson but 2 British women who I can't remember hearing about before got through the first round.

Tuesday and not at all summery - cold and cloudy - but lots more British wild card entry men playing although Andy M was originally scheduled to play he pulled out during the morning. More of the British men wild cards were knocked out but Cam Norrie won in 3 sets and later into the evening Jack Draper had a 5 set tough game but managed to beat the Swedish Number one and that meant that Jack and Cam play each other on Thursday.......... guaranteeing a Brit in the third round....good news. 

Back Soon

Sue

The June Library Book Photo + Reading The Seasons

 My third book of Reading the Seasons for Summer was Stephen Baxter's Historical Fantasy - Bronze Summer. 

 This is the second in The Northland Historical Fantasy series. Imagining that England is still attached to the continent where what we call Doggerland was the home of the people who had built a wall so tall that the North Seas are kept at bay and they have become rich from the fertile lands . 

Generations on from the first book and the  people of the Mesolithic period, this is now a different Bronze age. Volcano eruptions have changed the climate and have brought years of poor crops. The people of the drought affected Mediterranean areas are looking west to the wealthy Northlanders and war is brewing.

It was a very confusing read and I didn't enjoy it as much as the first but it is good to read a totally different genre to my normal now and again.

 Collected from the library van this time, just seven books that I'd reserved online.

Left to right - a cookery book that I think I saw mentioned somewhere. The latest by Kristin Hannah, I brought home her book 'Home Front' last month but didn't like the subject so didn't finish it. 'Made for Murders' by Peter Tremayne is a collection of short stories by this prolific writer. 

 Next is a non-fiction book that might be a bit heavy going. It might get read for my Reading The Seasons thing or it might not. Then I know I'll love 'The Comfort of Ghosts' by Jacqueline Winspear although it's the last in the Maisie Dobbs series which is sad. Then there is one more Donna Leon and finally 'Reasons to stay alive' by Matt Haig, this must have been mentioned somewhere as it's not something I would usually read. 

Last month I brought home these below plus two non fiction and some for the Summer Reading Challenge. I still have some here unread.

Those I did read are on the Books Read 2024 page. 'Close to Death' by Anthony Horowitz, 'Munich Wolf' by Rory Clements were both brilliant.

Back Soon

Sue 

Reading The Seasons - The 2nd Book for Summer

 My second book with Summer in the title was a children's book -  Cuckoo Summer by Jonathan Tulloch. This popped up when I searched for 'Summer' in the library catalogue. As it's set in WWII, I was keen to read it as it's the sort of adventure story I would have loved as a child.

It is summer 1940 and life is about to change for two children living in the Lake District. Sally is a mysterious evacuee living on one of the two farms in Woundale valley in the Lake District. Her best friend is Tommy, living on the other farm with his three aunties. Tommy's mother is dead and his soldier father has been reported missing in action in France.

One day a German plane crashes in the village but one of the airmen is missing and when Sally finds him alive but injured and hanging in a tree in the woods - his parachute caught in the branches -  she races off to tell Tommy. Tommy wants to report him to the police but Sally wants to keep him hidden, especially after Farmer Starcross, who she is billeted with, heads off with his gun to find and shoot the man. She knows how nasty he is as he keeps her short of food, makes her sleep in the barn and she's watched him drown a litter of kittens.

Keeping the airman secret and hidden starts a summer adventure and a chain of events that reveals Sally's past, and changes several lives for the better.

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Sue