The Bride’s Fortnight in Review

More or less, including what’s coming up in what’s left of March.

Not a bad beginning to the month. I managed to finish two books and made significant progress on one other, a chunky non-fiction that I’ve been reading on and off for what seems like centuries, but I’m determined to finish it this month. Determined I tell you!

Books read:

Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke by Eric LaRocca

Sadomasochism. Obsession. Death. All of the above are included in this set of three long short stories. I absolutely loved the title of this collection, though interestingly the main story isn’t the strongest one for me – everything in it happens so quickly and for once the email/message structure isn’t the most effective, though the ending was very creepy. The other two worked better for me, especially You’ll Find It’s Like That All Over (another great title). I will definitely be reading more of this author’s work in the future.

Written in Bone: Hidden Stories in What We Leave Behind by Sue Black

Or Dame Professor Sue Black as I like to acknowledge. She is one of my absolute heroes and this book doesn’t disappoint. Working her way through the human skeleton from head to toe each section is a mixture of anthropological insights, personal experience and heaps of anecdotes, many from criminal cases on which she has worked. I learned such a lot from this book and my admiration for her keeps growing.

Currently Reading:

Three books currently on the go – Moonflower Murders by Anthony Horowitz which I’ve kind of set aside for now but want to get moving on; ditto for Excellent Intentions by Richard Hull, a British Library Crime Classic by an author I don’t know and which I may have purchased because I really liked the cover; and Global Crisis which is a chunkster on 17th century world history and the impact of climate change during that period, which has popped up on this blog many times in the past and I WILL finish this month.

Coming up in March:

The TBR reduction challenge is to start a series I’ve never read before, with a stretch goal of completing the series this year. I’ve decided to choose the Love & Inheritance Trilogy by Fay Weldon, in honour of the fact that she died recently, starting with (obviously) book one Habits of the House.

Yes, it could be argued that a trilogy isn’t a series in the spirit of the challenge but I don’t care, I’m including it anyway. Don’t at me.

I also wanted to mention the passing of Christopher Fowler, author of the Bryant & May series, lots of creepy short stories and some fabulous standalone horror. I was lucky enough to meet him several times and he was a smashing person. He will be missed a great deal.

I have several books on pre-order which will be dropping into my reader this month:

  • Red London by Alma Katsu – Why? Female CIA operatives, Russian oligarchs and London.
  • Nothing but the Rain by Naomi Salman – Why? I’m from the west of Scotland where rain was a way of life when I was a child, so the idea that being out in the rain can wash away your memories sounds intriguing
  • The White Lady by Jacqueline Winspear – Why? OK, it’s not a Maisie Dobbs story but it is about a female ex-spy, corruption in Scotland Yard and organised crime in London. There is possibly a pattern here…..
  • A House with Good Bones by T Kingfisher – Why? It’s a “haunting Southern Gothic” family saga.
  • Rubicon by JS Dewes Why? First line of the description: “Sergeant Adrienne Valero wants to die. She can’t.“
  • Games for Dead Girls by Jen Williams – Why? I love Jen’s work and this has urban legends, macabre secrets, and has been described as a propulsive read so I. Am. In.

That’s it so far!

The Bride looks back at February

It’s almost Spring, so we just need to hang on in there for a wee bit longer.

February was not a bad reading month. I had a bit of a gap in the middle where I didn’t make that much progress but it wasn’t a slump; I was enjoying what I was reading, I was just distracted by other things.

The Stats:

  • Books read = 6
  • Pages read = 1952
  • Progress against my reading goals = 13% (2 books ahead of schedule to meet 72 books read in 2023)
  • Progress against my TBR reduction goals = near miss 😦

The goal for TBR reduction was to read 28 short stories in February (ie one a day) and the stretch goal was to read 4 novellas (ie one a week). I managed to read 25 short stories and 2 novellas. Perhaps if I’d concentrated on the short stories I’d have been successful, but do you know what? I still got four items off my stack and that’s a win for me.

Don’t ask how many books came into the Bride’s collection during the month, though. Just don’t. 🙂

What did I read for the challenge?

The Talosite by Rebecca Campbell

It’s 1916, during the First World War, in an alternate world where resurrection is possible. Anne Markham, the daughter of a celebrated neurologist, is reusing the bodies of the dead, combining them into new forms and sending them back into combat, building creatures so complex, and so enormous, that they can encompass all of the fallen.

I loved this story, so grim but also beautifully written and deeply strange. Found myself trying to visualise the creatures being created and couldn’t quite get there. Will definitely be re-reading this story.

The Catch by Mick Herron

John Bachelor is the saddest kind of spy: not a joe in the field, not even a desk jockey, but a milkman—a part-time pension administrator whose main job is to check in on aging retired spies. Late in his career and having lost his wife, his house, and his savings after a series of unlucky choices, John’s been living in a dead man’s London apartment, hoping the bureaucracy isn’t going to catch up with him and leave him homeless. But keeping a secret among spies is a fool’s errand, and now John has made himself eminently blackmailable.

Another excellent addition to the Slough House world, this fits in to the series after Book 6, which I haven’t read yet but I don’t think it matters that I came to this out of order. I love this world so much.

The Best Horror of the Year Volume 14, edited by Ellen Datlow

Like all anthologies there are stories included that just don’t work for me, but it did include one of favourites from the last year – Shards by Ian Rogers which I had read as a standalone but was very happy to revisit (and will no doubt read again).

Some favourite authors included and confirmation that I will enjoy Eric LaRocca’s work.

Ghost 19 by Simone St James – classed as a short story for the purposes of this challenge

A woman moves to a town where she becomes obsessed with watching the lives of her neighbours while stuck in a house that refuses to let her leave

This story gave me very strong Rear Window vibes and I am not mad about that at all. Nicely creepy, and I really liked Ginette.I really must read The Book of Cold Cases……

I also managed to read a couple of other titles:

The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels by Janice Hallet

Open the safe deposit box. Inside you will find research material for a true crime book. You must read the documents, then make a decision. Will you destroy them? Or will you take them to the police?

Another nicely twisty novel by Ms Hallett, this is told through exchanges between two true crime authors forced to collaborate on the same story, that of the Alperton Angels, a cult who were convinced that the Antichrist had been born to a young woman within the group and that they needed to kill it. Clearly all is not as it appears and we watch the story unfold. I can’t resist anything to do with cults so enjoyed this very much (though I still think The Appeal is the best of her three novels so far)

Enemies Within: Communists, the Cambridge Spies and the Making of Modern Britain by Richard Davenport-Hines

I also can’t resist anything about the Cambridge Five in particular and espionage in general, so picked this up recently though I think it’s been out for a while. I found it really enjoyable to read (you should see the quotes I pulled for my reading journal – pages of them) because the author writes wonderfully bitchy pen portraits of almost everyone involved, however tangentially, but I was not entirely convinced by his thesis that it was less about class and more about the culture of masculinity, though that undoubtedly played a role. Not sure it had the impact on the “making of modern Britain” that he suggests, and his dislike of certain individuals comes across so strongly that I think it undermines his position, but I’m glad I read it.

So that’s it for this month. Hope you are all well and having a great almost the end of winter!

The Bride looks back at January

Ummm…… it’s been a while……

But here we are in 2023 and it’s already the end of the first month so time to look at what I’ve achieved so far this year!

The Stats:

  • Books read = 7
  • Pages read = 2199
  • Progress against my reading goals = 10% (1 book ahead of schedule) (my goal for this year is to read 72 books).

I’ll be adding a new stat at the end of February which will be progress against my TBR reduction goals. The prompts I’m using have been set by Womble over on Runalong the Shelves (the post with the year’s plan is here). The only real restriction is that all the books you choose should have been in your hands before midnight on 31 December 2022

January’s prompt was to read the last book you bought before the deadline. I started off by choosing The Vessel by Adam Nevill, but though it is definitely something I do want to read it was just a bit too grim for a dull and wet January and has been added to my Set Aside for Now shelf..

So, I opted for something much lighter, namely The Greyhound of the Baskervilles, which is a slight but sweet re-telling of Conan Doyle’s Hound from the perspective of Septimus, the greyhound belonging to Sherlock Holmes. Great fun.

For the stretch goal, which was to read the oldest book on my TBR, I bent the rules a little bit and decided to read the oldest piece of fiction on my Kindle app. This turned out to be Monster Love by Carol Topolski which I apparently bought in January 2011. I was gripped by this novel but I also have Thoughts, so I’m hoping to review it shortly.

January’s TBR reduction goals are met, and for February I will be reading 28 short stories (almost certainly all horror) and 4 novellas (one for each week). Come back next month and see how I did.

More about this month’s books read, apart from the two already mentioned:

The Ends by James Smythe – the fourth and final book in The Anomaly Quartet. I enjoyed this book so much and I really should write about what it felt like to finish the final volume of a series that I have loved so much.

London Rules by Mick Herron (Slough House #5) – Mr B and I have been happily devouring the TV adaptations of these books so it made sense to get back into reading them before AppleTV catches up. This is probably my favourite yet and I’m looking forward to reading #6 in the not too distant future

The Corpse in the Waxworks by John Dickson Carr – a British Library Crime Classic release, this has what it says on the cover – a case in which a body is indeed found in a Parisian waxwork museum. Failed to identify the killer, sadly (me that is, not the detective).

Murder by Matchlight by ECR Lorac – another BL Crime Classic, this is set in the London blackout during the Blitz. I really like Lorac’s Scottish police detective and the unusual background. I love her books. Worked out who the murderer probably was but had no idea of motive or means.

True Crime Story by Joseph Knox – a twisty thriller told through e-mails and drafts of a true crime book, this features the author as a not entirely sympathetic character in his own novel. Recommended – but I’m probably the last person in the world to have read it, so you might want to ignore my advice 🙂

So, I feel like I’m off to a solid start. What have you guys been reading in 2023 so far?

The Bride Looks Back at – November

The month started off fairly slowly on the reading front, but the attraction of several British Library Crime Classics in my virtual collection meant finishing three books in a week, which is pretty good for me these days.

But onto the stats….

  • Books read = 5 including one audiobook
  • Pages read = 967 plus 15.5hours of listerning
  • Goodreads progress = 62 of 65 finished, 95% of my challenge target

Books I read:

  • Cthulhu Resurgent by David Conyers – volume 2 of the collected stories of Major Harrison Peel; a very military take on the elder gods but still enjoyable if you like that sort of thing (which I do)
  • Death of Jezebel by Christianna Brand – published in 1949, a post-war London murder mystery with the equivalent of a locked room scenario. I thought I had guessed the murderer but talked myself out of it only to be proved right but for all the wrong reasons and with no idea of how it was done. Fiendish.
  • These Names Make Clues by ECR Lorac – published in 1937 this isn’t exactly a locked room mystery but does appear to be an almost impossible murder given the situations of the victim and the main suspect (I will say no more). A literary treasure hunt at a publisher’s London home with a real life detective as one of the guests, this was heaps of fun and is definitely my book of the month
  • A Surfeit of Suspects by George Bellairs – published in 1964 so only a couple of years younger than me, this is very much of its time – financial shenanigans, loose morals, potential corruption, shifty bank managers and a joinery company that explodes. Dated but still fun to read.

I also listened to an unabridged version of Dracula with Alan Cumming and Tim Curry. I will have a review of that soon, as I definitely had Thoughts.

Currently reading:

I started several books and set them aside as not quite what I was looking for at present, though I’m sure I will go back to them all at some point. I’m currently absorbed in two:

  • The Explorer by James Smythe – the final book in his Anomaly Quartet came out this year and I am planning to read all four volumes this December. This is the third time I’ve read this, the first book in the series, and at about a quarter of the way through its just as excellent as I remember!
  • American Sherlock by Kate Winkler Dawson – an audiobook read by the author who is one of my favourite podcasters, though I’ve sometimes taken issue with her books. Very interesting, but I’m always slow when listening to non-fiction.

Looking forward to in December, the start of a year-and-one-month low buy challenge for books, but lots of gifts to come (fingers crossed)!

The Bride’s Early Autumn Wrap-Up

My reading progress has been significantly better during September and October, so it seems like a good time to get back into blogging with some thoughts on how it’s all been going.

SEPTEMBER

  • Books read = 5
  • Pages read = 1739
  • Goodreads challenge progress = 75% of my target

Book of the Month:

The Quest for Queen Mary by James Pope-Hennessy as edited by Hugo Vickers.

Pope-Hennessy was commissioned to write a biography of Queen Mary in 1959, a book which I have read and enjoyed; beautifully written and very discreet. In writing the book, he travelled around the UK and Europe meeting friends and family and taking copious notes, most of which are included in this book and contain his own observations as well as a number of topics which he either hinted at or left out altogether. The question he seems to have been asked more than once was whether the Duke of Clarence was suffering from syphilis at the time of his death.

Favourite anecdote, from a dancing class Princess May (as she then was) attended:

One of the most embarrassing exercises was to go around the room alone in turn, making a curtsey. Princess May said “Well goodness, that’s one thing I shall never have to do.” She was told to think again remarked Lady Reid.

OCTOBER

  • Books read = 7
  • Pages read = 2254
  • Goodreads challenge progress = 88% of my target

I made myself a nice long spooky reading list for October, not because I thought I would read them all but to give me some options. I like to have options.

I re-read A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny because that’s what I do in October. It is still awesome and will be back next year.

Book of the Month

The Pallbearers Club by Paul Tremblay. Not so much frightening as it is sad and moving, I became totally absorbed in this novel after taking a while to get into it. Once I was settled with the characters I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Favourite quote:

A book is a coffin because it holds a body, sometimes more than one, and we readers are there to witness, mourn and celebrate.

Currently Reading

What have you guys been reading lately?

My (first) September book haul

It’s a very surreal (in some ways) and unsettling time here in the UK as we go through a period of transition. I’ve largely put books aside for the moment, and as I’m not reading much I thought it was a good time to post a book haul.

September is a key month in publishing and I had a lot of pre-orders in place; here’s what’s arrived so far.

REVENGE OF THE LIBRARIANS by Tom Gauld – a wonderful collection of cartoons on “the spectre of failure, wrath of social media and other supernatural enemies of the author” – I love reading his cartoons in the Guardian every Saturday.

SLENDERMAN: A Tragic Story of Online Obsession & Mental Illness by Kathleen Hale – this looks into the shocking stabbings in Wisconsin in 2014 where two 12-year-old girls attempted to kill a classmate, apparently under the spell of an internet meme. I remember this case and the fact the girls were tried as adults, and will be interested in the author’s take

BLACKSTONE FELL by Martin Edwards – the third in the excellent Rachel Savernake series; a locked room puzzle with “a Gothic sensibility” set in 1930 – what’s not to love?

DEATH OF A BOOKSELLER by Bernard J Farmer – the 100th book in the always excellent British Library Crime Collection, I actually got this as a paperback because its the hundredth (obviously), but also because it has a lovely cover. It’s the first time the novel has been in print since 1956.

FAIRY TALE by Stephen King – a mysterious shed, a recluse (and dog) and parallel worlds. It’s Mr King so of course I was going to buy it.

ITHACA by Claire North – I love Claire North and this sounds amazing (and is getting excellent reviews) – telling the story of Penelope, the wife of Odysseus, it “breathes life into myth”.

BACK TO THE GARDEN by Laurie R King – going back to her non-Holmesian roots, this is the story of a fifty-year old cold case opened up by the discovery of human remains in California, taking us back to wealthy people indulging themselves during the counterculture.

THINGS HAVE GOTTEN WORSE SINCE WE LAST SPOKE & Other Misfortunes by Eric LaRocca – an author new to me, recommended by other bloggers and a good opportunity for me to widen my horror reading; looking forward to giving this a go.

KOKO by Peter Straub – sad to hear of the passing of Mr Straub I thought that rather than re-reading something from the books of his that I already own I would get a hold of this, which I missed the first time round. Again, a recommendation, this time on Twitter.

AGATHA CHRISTIE: A Very Elusive Woman by Lucy Worsley – a biography with a particular focus on why Mrs Christie chose to portray herself as a “retiring Edwardian lady of leisure” when she was in fact an extremely successful working woman who loved to try new things. I have a nice little collection of Agatha-related books which I will enjoy reading when the darker nights arrive.

There will be more new books coming in during the next few weeks, so watch this space!

Summer 2022 Report Card

Well, that was a long break from blogging, mostly because I hit a major reading slump and had nothing to say to anyone. At the risk of jinxing myself, September is already looking significantly more promising, in that I’ve already finished two books and am well on the way to finishing another two, so hopefully my slump is over.

Anyway, the stats…

20 Books of Summer

From my original reading list (which you can find here) I only managed to finish seven (dreadful) and started a further two which I have set aside for now but fully intend to go back to at some point.

Honourable mentions go to Claire North’s The End of the Day which I really enjoyed, and The Poisoner’s Handbook by Deborah Blum which taught me much about the development of forensics in Prohibition New York. I also enjoyed rediscovering Tess Gerritsen’s Rizzoli & Isles series, picking it up again at Book 7.

I’m also certain that if I haven’t written a review already then it’s not going to happen; starting September with clean slate.

My reading stats

  • June – 5 books
  • July – 4 books
  • August – 2 books (and one of those was an audiobook which was my walking companion and I probably started in early July)

Things, I feel, can only get better 🙂

What I was watching

I watched ten films over the three months, all of which I enjoyed to some degree with a couple of disappointments (Jurassic World: Dominion, which was fine, and The Secrets of Dumbledore which I only watched because I can be a bit of a completist) and two that were sufficiently strange that Mr B gave them a body swerve and I watched alone – Everything Everywhere All At Once (Michelle Yeoh is awesome) and Alex Garland’s folk horror Men which is very much an acquired taste; I found it unsettling rather than frightening and have a suspicion that I didn’t entirely understand what he was trying to achieve.

I loved, loved, loved the Netflix adaptation of The Sandman; the casting was excellent to the extent that I may now have a crush on Boyd Holbrook’s Corinthian which if you know anything about the character is problematic at best.

And Only Murders in the Building continued to deliver in season two; am tempted to indulge in a rewatch just to tide me over until the next one.

So that was my summer. How has your reading been going?

Almost halfway through June…

How did we get here so quickly?

This month has been relatively quiet, compared to last month at least. If you follow me on Instagram (link is at the top of my blog’s home page) you will have seen me posting lots of photographs of big cats, relatives up close and personal.

Not a real lion

That’s because at the end of May, partly celebrating our wedding anniversary, partly marking my significant birthday from back in January, we stayed at the Big Cat Sanctuary in Kent for their overnight experience, which included the opportunity to hand feed big cats. Mr B has a slight hand tremor so didn’t feel able to take part in that activity, so lucky me got to feed a white tiger (twice), a black jaguar and a white lioness. It was awesome, being so close to large, powerful animals who were gently taking food from your hands. So magical.

The Big Cat Sanctuary is an excellent organisation involved in the conservation of big (and small) cats and contributing to international breeding programmes. They have a fabulous Instagram feed of their own; go and check them out.

After that we celebrated Mr B’s birthday which involved presents (books of course) and a very nice Indian meal at a local restaurant, complete with cocktails. I think he enjoyed himself 😀

I’m making great progress on Cathy’s 20 Books of Summer Challenge (see my reading list here); so far I’ve finished three books, reviewed two on the blog and have another review prepping for posting in a day or so.

I’m currently reading two more:

  • Business as Usual by Jane Oliver and Ann Stafford, published in the 1930s; and
  • The Poisoner’s Handbook by Deborah Blum, all about forensic science during the Jazz Age in New York

A couple more after that and I will have met my target for June, which feels good.

In terms of what I’ve been watching, way back in January (possibly even December) one of the UK channels began showing Major Crimes each weekday starting from the very first episode. Mr B loves this show but I had never watched it, so we decided to build it in to our routine and soon enough I was hooked; only 10 years after everybody else. Last week we came to the very last episode and I am bereft. Currently looking for something else to fill the void.

Temperatures are starting to rise here in my corner of SW London so summer is on its way. I hope you are all well and staying safe!

A Life in Death by Richard Venables

A behind the scenes look at how victims of accidents and natural disasters are identified, from the perspective of a British police officer.

Detective Inspector Richard Venables has helped identify thousands of bodies all over the world, piecing together fragments from tsunamis, transport and other disasters to return victims to their loved ones.

I have a fascination with this subject matter which goes back many years to reading a book about facial reconstruction from skeletal remains, covering historical figures to the last unidentified person from the 1987 King’s Cross fire (finally given his name back in 2004). Of course not only can I not remember the name of the book, I can’t find it on my shelves so you’ll have to take my word for it that it was absolutely worth reading.

Anyway, I regularly pick up books on the subject whenever I see them, and was particularly interested in this one because of its focus on UK disasters as well as, of course, the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami which led to the deaths of an estimated 230,000 people.

One of the most interesting aspects of the book for me at least, was the amount of detail Venables goes into in recounting the development of DVI policies and procedures. I don’t know whether it’s because I was a civil servant for thirty years and heavily involved in writing guidance documents myself, but I appreciated his descriptions of how he and colleagues learned from each of the events in which they were involved, trying to make things more efficient and easier for the people involved in the DVI (Disaster Victim Identification) process, as well as the families who had lost loved ones. It wasn’t a perfect system but what is when humans are involved?

Some of the events he talks about hit home to me, especially the London bombings in 2005. One of my friends was on the tube train which exploded at Russell Square, and our office (which was within easy walking distance from that station and Tavistock Square where a double-decker bus exploded) was on lockdown for several hours. My friend was thankfully not physically hurt, and the impact on all of us lasted a very long time.

But the event that obviously had the greatest long-term effect on Venables was the tsunami. He worked in Thailand for many weeks on the difficult task of identifying people who had drowned in the disaster, with the heat and the effects of salt water on the remains adding to the difficulty of the task. His affection for Thailand and its people comes across very clearly.

I found it an informative read but a bit unbalanced, not sure how much of the author’s personal life to include. But I would still recommend it if this is a subject that speaks to you. Or is it just me?

This was my second read for #20booksofsummer20

Relic by Preston & Child

The first in the long-running and possibly still going Agent Pendergast series by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child.

The New York Museum of Natural History is built over a subterranean labyrinth of neglected specimen vaults, unmapped drainage tunnels and long-forgotten catacombs.

SOMETHING IS DOWN THERE…..

I remember watching the 1997 film adaptation of this book back in the day but despite having the same title (obviously) I didn’t connect the two, and therefore was able to come to the story relatively fresh. It’s an enjoyable, fast-paced thriller with a reasonable amount of blood and guts and a protagonist who is clearly extremely clever but manages not to be annoying.

Ask me if I still feel that way if and when I get to volume 21.

So the NY Natural History Museum is hosting an exhibition called Superstition with artefacts from many cultures including a relic (hence the name) found during a disastrous expedition to South America where nearly everyone died in various ways while still managing (eventually) to get their finds back to New York. But, did something dangerous come back with them?

Why yes of course it did.

Following the discovery of the mutilated bodies of two young boys in the museum’s basement, our hero, Pendergast himself, arrives from New Orleans to investigate because something similar happened down there. Is there a serial killer, or something more sinister?

If you voted for sinister you would be correct.

Is there a cover-up by arrogant senior museum officials who eventually get their comeuppance? Yes.

Is there a local arrogant and incompetent FBI agent who (a) doesn’t like our hero; (b) won’t listen to advice & (c) also gets what’s coming to him? Yes.

Is there a more than competent young woman researcher going through personal stuff who is dismissed by almost all of the men around her but is key to unravelling the mystery? Yes

Charming but cranky professor in a wheelchair? Check.

Does the mystery get solved by our team? Partially (but worry not, there is an epilogue).

I enjoyed this greatly, despite unfortunately positive mentions of big game hunting, which YUCK, so much so that I seem to have obtained the next five books in the series. What can I say, these things happen.

This was my first completed read for #20BooksofSummer22