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

The Cold Vanish: Seeking the Missing in North America’s Wildlands by Jon Billman – I have only just started this but am already convinced that as the MFM ladies would say, we should stay out of the forest
Cthulhu Resurgent by David Conyers – the second volume of the collected Harrison Peel stories; we all need some Elder Gods for the spooky season, don’t we?

What have you guys been reading lately?

My Week – 15 May edition (just a wee bit late)

Looking back at last week where I managed to both do some reading and get out into the big wide world….

What I finished:

I managed two this week, a bit of entertaining true crime and an engrossing mystery

Alice Diamond and the Forty Elephants: Britain’s First Female Crime Syndicate by Brian McDonald

I was listening to an episode of the Dirty Sexy History podcast hosted by Jessica Cale (well worth a listen if you are interested in stuff that is a bit outside the mainstream history we mostly get taught) when this book was mentioned, and remembered that I had picked up the Kindle edition some time last year. It’s a very entertaining, extremely detailed and fast paced dive into mostly female criminality in south London, with some social history thrown in and lots of dodgy male offenders as well. I really liked it but the title is a bit misleading as we don’t get to Alice until we are quite far into the book, and what we do get was clearly insufficient for some reviewers on Goodreads who expected a full biography of the lady herself.

The Twyford Code by Janice Hallett

I really enjoyed Hallett’s first novel (The Appeal, which I didn’t review but should have because it was just excellent) and if anything this is even better. The narrative device this time is the use of transcriptions of voice recordings made by our protagonist Steven, who is recently out of prison and has become obsessed with trying to solve a mystery from his childhood – the disappearance of his teacher after a school outing where the investigated clues in the works of Edith Twyford, an out-of-fashion children’s author based loosely on Enid Blyton. Almost everything we read comes from Steven’s perspective and we are in potentially unreliable narrator territory here; I won’t say more because watching it all unfold is part of the joy of the book. The clues are all there for the reader to solve, and now that I know how things turn out I am almost certainly going to read it again to find the clues I missed. I really recommend this if you want something a bit different, and am looking forward to what she might do next.

What I’m currently reading:

The Fall of Paris has gone onto my Set Aside for Now stack; I will definitely be going back to it later in the year.

Girl 4 by Will Carver – this is the first novel from Carver who has become one of my favourite authors, largely due to his excellent DS Pace trilogy (which I loved so much and intend to read again). This is the first in a series of novels involving a police detective, January David, who specialises in very violent crimes. This first tale is a serial killer targeting young women (which is what they do) with the first victim hitting very close to home for our protagonist. I’m just over a third of the way in, so shall say no more.

Unmasked by Paul Holes – the cold case investigator whom I first came across via Michelle McNamara’s excellent I’ll Be Gone in the Dark (as mentioned here) and numerous mentions on the My Favorite Murder podcast , as well as his own investigative podcast with Billy Jensen, The Murder Squad. I have only just started this and it looks like a mix of cases he has worked on and the impact his career has had on his family and so far so good.

New books worth mentioning:

In honour of finishing the TV adaptation Slow Horses and the publication of the latest Slough House novel Bad Actors, I treated myself to all of Mick Herron’s series in one fell swoop. Will bereading the fifth entry in the series very shortly.

Last week I mentioned Under the Banner of Heaven which I had just finished, and had an interesting conversation with Kathy at Simple Tricks & Nonsense where she recommended Heaven’s Ditch about the building of the Erie Canal and religious stuff around it; now ordered and awaiting its arrival.

Most of this week’s book spend was focussed on the Book God’s birthday list, so my recommendation will be out of sync for the next wee while.

Other stuff:

So this week I finally got back to Sadler’s Wells, my favourite venue for all things dance, to see the Northern Ballet perform Casanova. I had such a good time; the costumes and sets were gorgeous and a quick glass of prosecco at the interval added to the fun. But oh, so many people on public transport were not wearing masks (I was fully masked the hole time) and that did make me feel uncomfortable, especially on the Tube which on the way home in particular was so crowded. This is how it will from now on I suppose….

Until next time I hope you are all well and have a great reading week!

It’s time for another book haul

I’m trying quite hard to cut back on buying new books. Long-term readers will be aware that I rarely buy physical books now because there is no more shelf/floor/window sill space chez Bride, but it’s just so easy to click that order button when browsing Kindle editions, so I need to work on that even though it goes against every fibre of my being 😀

These are the things that have made it onto my virtual (with one exception)stack so far in April:

My Evil Mother by Margaret Atwood

Life is hard enough for a teenage girl in 1950s suburbia without having a mother who may—or may not—be a witch. A short story by Ms Atwood is not to be missed.

The Candy House by Jennifer Egan

This was a pre-order. I’ve read several (but not all, and not in order of publication) of Jennifer Egan’s books starting with Goon Squad and I understand that this new book builds on that earlier work & might even be a sequel.

Watch Me by James Carol

I mentioned in my last post that I had read and quite enjoyed the first Jefferson Winter serial killer thriller Broken Dolls and thought I would give the second one a go to see if its a series with which I want to continue

Jane’s Country Year by Malcolm Saville

Mr B and I sadly attended the funeral of a friend and former colleague a few weeks ago, and on of her interests was the work of Malcolm Saville, a children’s author from the mid-twentieth century who was completely new to me, so I thought I would pick one to try out, and this tale spoke to me the most. Originally published in 1946.

Business as Usual by Jane Oliver

I can’t resist a story constructed from letters, so when I cam across this novel from 1933 I thought I should give it a try, especially as it concerns a young woman from Scotland trying to make her way in London by working in what is clearly meant to be Selfridges.

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St John Mandel

Sea of Tranquility is a novel that investigates the idea of parallel worlds and possibilities, that plays with the very line along which time should run.

Amongst Our Weapons by Ben Aaronovitch

The ninth entry in the Rivers of London series; I am so far behind in reading these but I know I’ll get to them eventually. Plus this is one of the few authors I read in hardback and I have a lovely matching set, which counts for a lot in my world.

Letters to Gwen John by Celia Paul

Gwen John is one of my favourite artists and I thought this book, by the artist Celia Paul would be interesting, though I understand that its likely to be more about Celia than Gwen…

Hide by Nell Pattison

I can’t remember where I saw this mentioned (another blogger? a newsletter? a website recommendation?) but it involves hiking, a group trying to rekindle the friendship and a murder. Known as Nowhere to Hide outside the UK I think, looks like fun.

Agatha Christie’s Poirot by Mark Aldridge

From Agatha Christie’s earliest conceptions and publication history, to forays on the stage and screen, the story of Poirot is as fascinating as it is enduring. Mark Aldridge tells this story decade-by-decade, exploring and analyzing Poirot’s many and often wildly different appearances, following the detective to present day when he is enjoying a worldwide renaissance.

Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer

I have already started reading this, having bought it because of a reference in the afterword to Adam Nevill’s Last Days and seeing information about the soon-to-be-released TV adaptation starring the wonderful Andrew Garfield. Murderous fundamentalist Mormons are fascinating it seems. To me at least.

Have you read any of these? Are they already on your TBR list? Or is this the first time you’ve heard of these titles? Let me know in the comments.

Stay safe everyone!

April so far…..

How did we get halfway through April without me posting anything (yes, I know my posting “schedule” is always erratic at the best of times)?

I’ll tell you why – coming down with the dreaded lurgy, that’s why.

Saying that, I should make it clear that I am not talking about Covid, just your common or garden spring head cold with added allergies (tree pollen is going mad at the moment) but it’s the first cold I’ve had since long before the pandemic and I was wholly unprepared, though in a (misguided) generous impulse as I recovered I gave it to my husband.

So I basically spent the last seven days or so slumped on the sofa. The good news was that I didn’t have any headaches so I was able to read…

A few thoughts on the books I finished:

Broken Dolls by James Carol – I am unable to resist a hunter of serial killers and this is the first in the Jefferson Winter series. I enjoyed it enough to buy the sequel, but this is clearly the introduction to a new character and suffered a tiny bit from that, but like I said, intriguing enough for me to want to read more.

Mimic by Daniel Cole – talking about serial killers, Mimic is the latest novel from Cole, who wrote the Ragdoll trilogy which I liked very much (but don’t ask me about the TV adaptation unless you really want a bit of a rant). This is a standalone novel, set initially in 1989 then jumping ahead to 1996. So no mobile phones or any other whizz bang technology, just good old fashioned police work. I liked it.

Her Silhouette, Drawn in Water by Vylar Kaftan – possibly my favourite author name in recent years; I can’t remember on whose recommendation I got this, but it’s a very atmospheric novella set on a prison planet where Bee, a telepath, is being held for crimes she can’t remember. It’s a strange book but was quite moving and beautifully written.

Suspects by David Thomson – better known for his non-fiction work on the history of the movies, this is the first of Thomson’s novels that I’ve read and I found it really intriguing. It’s basically a biographical dictionary of about a hundred (I didn’t count) characters from film noir, giving them backstories and often details of their probable future taking place outside the films in which they appear. I can see that a lot of people wouldn’t like this because there isn’t really an easily discernible narrative but I found it fascinating, though I definitely got more out of the characters whose films I had seen.

Currently reading:

The Cabinet by Un-su Kim – a literary work from South Korea, I’m not sure if it’s a novel or a set of linked short stories but it is definitely interesting and I just need to remember to pick it up…
Unquiet Spirits by Bonnie MacBird – the second in her Sherlock Holmes series, all about ghosts, murder and of course whisky; I’m struggling with this a bit because I’m just not in a Holmesian mood at the moment, so will probably set it aside and come back to it later….
Alice Diamond and the Forty Elephants by Brian McDonald – as much about general London lawlessness as it is about this all woman shoplifting syndicate, I’m not quite a fifth of the way in and haven’t yet met Alice….
The Fall of Paris by Alistair Horne – the Franco-Prussian War, the siege of Paris, the fall of Louis Napoleon and the Commune; if you’re at all interested in French history, especially where it intersects with war then you should definitely read Horne’s work
Last Days by Adam Nevill – independent filmmaker is hired to make a documentary about a cult focussing less on the disastrous ending of the group and more on the potential supernatural elements; definitely not going to end well and I probably shouldn’t have started reading it at bedtime….

What I’ve been watching:

No films this month(so far), but I really enjoyed working my way through:

Peaky Blinders S6: the last outing, on TV at least, I had never watched this series before though the Mr B has been encouraging me to do so. The presence of Diana Mitford as a key character got me interested and I was hooked. Will be going back to the very beginning to watch the whole thing
The Ipcress File: I remember watching the sixties movie starring Michael Caine which in some respects can’t be beaten, though this was a very stylish and well acted version of the story; I hope they adapt the remaining Harry Palmer books

Hope you are all staying safe. How is your April going so far?

February wrap

Well, after a fairly ordinary January, I found myself devouring books in February for no particular reason other than picking some really absorbing titles and, if I’m honest, finishing a couple of books that didn’t quite make it the previous month.

The Stats

Books read = 10 (I know!)

Pages read = 3,861

Goodreads progress = 22% of my goal, 4 books ahead of schedule

I’m going to cover the books I read in a couple of posts over the next few days so look out for them. I will mention one DNF or (more accurately) one set aside for later as I think I still want to read it. That book is The Quantum Curators & the Faberge Egg by Eva St John. I picked it up because I had been reading a lot of intense and dark stuff and thought I could do with a bit of humour and whimsy but apparently I was wrong. Nothing negative to say about the book, I was just in the wrong frame of mind, and intend to pick it back up at some point.

March pre-orders

Coming up this month:

Stars and Bones by Gareth Powell – this may look familiar as I mentioned it last time; due originally for publication in February I actually received it this morning
Sundial by Catriona Ward – Stephen King says it’s authentically terrifying so who am I to argue?
The Book of Cold Cases by Simone St James – a true crime blogger gets more than she bargained for….
Femina by Janina Ramirez – a new history of the middle ages focussing on the women written out of traditional narrative, really looking forward to this
Insomnia by Sarah Pinborough – another book about not being able to sleep – feel drawn to this theme at the moment even as my own intermittent insomnia is dormant (I’m probably going to regret saying that…)
A Sunlit Weapon by Jacqueline Winspear – Maisie Dobbs #17 – I am very behind with this series also
The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd – maps, I love maps
Dark Queens by Shelley Pulaski – more medieval history focussing on women; i think I see a pattern here
Escape from Yokai Land by Charles Stress (the 12th Laundry Files book – I really need to catch up with this series being only at book 7) – also arrived this morning and now I look at it properly it is (a) a novella and (b) actually book 7.5 so will probably shoot up my TBR 🙂

Currently reading Gallows Court by Martin Edwards but haven’t picked my non-fiction read as yet.

What are your plans for March? Let me know in the comments.

Have a great month everyone, stay safe!

My Week – 26 September edition

It has been a very quiet week chez Bride, partly because I’ve been feeling a bit under the weather and consequently lethargic, which has meant watching YouTube videos and sleeping. That also means not much reading, though I did manage to finish The Eleventh Day which I mentioned in my post last week.

I’m still currently reading The Black Angel which I also mentioned last week; I think I’m about a third of the way through and continue to enjoy. I have also started Perversion of Justice by Julie K Brown, the investigative reporter who broke a lot of the Jeffrey Epstein stuff and has now pulled it all together in book format. Like everyone else I’ve picked up a lot of the stuff surrounding Epstein’s awfulness, and being a Brit of course there is the whole Prince Andrew situation, but I mainly picked this up after listening to a podcast called Chasing Ghislaine which I can recommend. The whole thing is just so ugh.

Long-time followers will know that there isn’t a true crime subject that I will not follow, so it will come as no surprise that I’ve been enjoying Only Murders in the Building which pokes gentle fun at our obsessions with such things and has a good mystery to boot.

A few books came into the Bride’s home this week, the two standouts being the Audible Sandman Act II (I loved Act I and am looking forward to this accompanying me on my walks) and most importantly Will Carver’s Psychopaths Anonymous. I am very excited for this as it is an unexpected fourth entry in the Detective Pace series which I thought had finished with Hinton Hollow Death Trip, one of my favourite books of 2021. This is likely to be my next read and after that I may go back to the original trilogy again just because I can. They are so rewardingly odd and he is becoming one of my favourite authors.

So like I said, very quiet. Hope to have more to share in my next post but in the meantime I hope you all have a great week and stay safe 🙂

No more looking back…..

I think that I may be coming out of my reading slump but I’m still a little wary of declaring victory just yet. I’ve also made decisions on my backlog of reviews and I’ve decided to dump the lot – the long list is making me anxious which is something I don’t need right now, and to be honest I don’t actually need to write full reviews of everything I watch or read – this is meant to be fun, not a chore.

So what’s been happening chez Bride?

I finished one book this week. After re-reading The Only Plane in the Sky, a very moving oral history of 9/11, I wanted something trashy and lightweight and I found that in the first of the Dr Harper Therapy series (I’m a Therapist and my Patient is Going to be the Next School Shooter) which is very silly in a horror-adjacent way and just what I needed. I was amused to see some people had picked this up thinking it was going to be a genuine memoir – cue howls of outrage.

I’m currently reading two books:

The Eleventh Day by Anthony & Robyn Summers, which is a narrative history of 9/11 with lots of new to me information on bin Laden and Al Qaeda and what happened after the attacks. My interest in the subject is partly to do with having watched The Looming Tower, listened to Missing on 9/11 podcast and, of course, the recent anniversary.
The Black Angel by John Connolly – this is the fifth in the impressive Charlie Parker series, grim as always but so well written

I was going to write a full review of The Suicide Squad which we watched last weekend, but I don’t think there’s much I can add to what’s already out there. You’re either already a fan and loving it or it isn’t your cup of tea. I thoroughly enjoyed it; if you’ve been around here for a while you may remember that I am a huge Harley Quinn fan and love the way she is portrayed by Margot Robbie, but the addition of Idris Elba to the cast didn’t hurt. Great bloody foul-mouthed fun.

My current watching obsession is the TV series The Crimson Rivers (original title: Les rivières pourpres), which involves unusual murders, a tenacious pair of detectives and a lot of dead bodies. Most of the murders have some kind of ritual element to them and the series doesn’t shy away from gruesome detail. It’s brilliant and very, very French. We devoured S2 which was showing on TV here very recently, and have gone back to S1.

So that’s where I am at the moment. I hope you are all well and staying safe 🙂

My Month in Review | May 2021

I can’t believe that we are already at the end of May (or the start of June when this will be published); almost halfway through the year. So much better than this time last year. The Book God and I have both been fully vaccinated, we’ve ventured out to a restaurant for the first time in I don’t know how long, and we have plans to do interesting things over the next few weeks.

The sun is also shining and the temperatures are beginning to climb above 20 degrees (centigrade) and things are looking good.

I’ve probably jinxed it now!

It’s been a good reading month too.

Books read this month = 8
Pages read = 3417
Progress against Goodreads challenge = 53% (8 books ahead of schedule)

In terms of challenges, I have half-heartedly started the David Copperfield Reading project with nothing substantive to report so far, and the Twenty Books of Summer challenge starts tomorrow (1 June). You can find my book selections here.

Next month’s pre-orders:

Castle Shade by Laurie R King – Mary & Holmes get caught up in a mystery involving Queen Marie of Romania. Transylvania might just be involved! This is the 17th entry in this series and I really do need to get caught up
The Wood Bee Queen by Edward Cox – librarians, local folklore, magical stones – what’ not to love!
The Murder of Graham Catton by Katie Lowe – death of Mr C thought to be solved, done and dusted but along comes one of those pesky true crime podcasts to stir things up again
The Maidens by Alex Michaelides – exclusive students in a Cambridge college – actually made it four comments down on the Amazon page before I hit my first reference to The Secret History
Falling by TJ Newman – pilot’s family is kidnapped and the only way to save them is to crash the plane…..
Star Eater by Kerstin Hall – magical bloodlines, shadowy factions, spying, all of the things
Artifact Space by Miles Cameron – what is targeting the great spaceships which transport stuff in human occupied space?

I’m going to try really, really hard not to buy anything else but we shall see. My track record is not good…

Nothing much else to add here, so I’ll wish you very happy reading, and stay safe!

Looking back on my week, ending 25 April

Part of me is thinking “How is it nearly May?”, but the other part of me, the one who was out in our tiny back garden today (Sunday) planting in the warm sunshine, was convinced that we are well into late spring!

This is a good thing.

And, despite being a little unwell and the (luckily) unsuccessful attempt to cut off my thumb with a craft knife – don’t ask me to explain the REALLY stupid thing I did that resulted in said injury – it has been a really good reading week. I’ve been on a bit of a roll, but of course now that I’ve said that I’ll hit a slump, but I don’t care.

Anyway, I read three books this week and I fully intend to review them over the next wee while. My track record on that has been appalling, so just in case…..

The Children of Red Peak by Craig DiLouie – cult survivors going back to Red Peak work out what actually happened on that fateful last night
An Evil Mind by Chris Carter (Robert Hunter #6) – the best of the Hunter novels so far IMHO, bit Silence of the Lambs, bit Israel Keyes, all good
Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots – what happens to the people who are collateral damage when the supes fight the villains?

Of these I would say that the greatest is Hench which I read in a single sitting on Friday, only stopping for comfort breaks and lunch.

This week’s impulse purchases were:

The Last Day by Andrew Hunter Murray – because the end of the world is always fascinating even in a pandemic
I Am Death (Robert Hunter 7) by Chris Carter – because this is one of my favourite series and I’m going to read them all
Shimmerdark by Sarah Mensinga – because I loved Sarah’s previous fantasy novel and the premise of this one sounds so good
Silenced by Solveig Palsdottir – because I have purchased (but not read) the first in this new series and the recommendations are many and uniformly favourable
Agatha Christie’s Marple by Anne Hart – because it sounds fun and I can’t resist anything that’s Agatha adjacent
Civilisations by Laurence Binet – because it sounds so cool

Currently reading – The Deadly Touch of the Tigress by Ian Hamilton, the first in his Ava Lee series. I wish I could remember who recommended this (I think it might have been Musings from the Sofa) but whoever they were I’m enjoying it so far.

Other stuff

For the second year in a row I am not pulling an all-nighter to watch the Oscars. I just haven’t been paying attention to the eligible movies and performances so would have been solely focusing on outfits and the red carpet will be a bit weird this year.

Sadly we have come to the end of the very last episode of Elementary. We’ve been watching these steadily over the past few months having come to it late due to misplaced snobbery. It’s now my favourite incarnation of the Great Detective (other than Basil Rathbone of course) and I may at some point go back to the beginning and start again just because I can. We shall see. Now looking for something else to fill the gap – may go back to The Blacklist as I’ve only watched the first two seasons.

Spent Sunday night focussed on the penultimate episode of Line of Duty S6 – as Ted Hastings would say “Jesus, Mary and Joseph and the wee donkey”; if you know, you know 😀

Anyway, enough rambling from me. Hope you are all staying safe, and have a great reading week.

Updating my week (ending 18 April)

We’ve been graced with beautiful sunny weather over the past few days which is guaranteed to lighten my mood, but last week didn’t start that way. On Monday 12th we woke up to sleet, of all things.

Anyway, despite that the signs of spring are increasingly evident, and the photo here shows the view as I walk out onto my front step 😀

Currently reading

I’ve got a few books that have been on my currently reading list for some time, but I have been absorbed in The Children of Red Peak by Craig DiLouie because of a long-held and continuing fascination with cults, whether real or fictional. Hoping to finish this soon.

Just finished

One by One, my next read in the Robert Hunter detective series by Chris Carter; I think it’s #5 but I’m far too lazy to check. Oh wait, yes it is. Deeply gruesome, I sat up until 02:30 to finish it, and have already added #6 to my TBR

New books (excluding pre-orders):

An Evil Mind by Chris Carter – as mentioned above
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens – planning to read this following the original publication schedule
Antiquities by Cynthia Ozick – In 1949, Lloyd Wilkinson Petrie has returned as a Trustee to live in the long-defunct boarding school that he had attended as a child. There he is preparing a memoir.
Hummingbird Salamander by Jeff VanderMeer – A speculative thriller about the end of all things, set in the Pacific Northwest. A harrowing descent into a secret world.
Made to Order: Robots and Revolution, edited by Jonathan Strahan – This collection of stories is where robots stand in for us, where both we and they are disadvantaged, and where hope and optimism shines through.
Theory of Bastards by Audrey Schulman – Francine is a luminary in her field of evolutionary science. She joins the Foundation to study a colony of bonobo apes: remarkable animals, and the perfect creatures to certify her revolutionary feminist theory of reproduction.
The Best Horror of the Year, edited by Ellen Datlow – volume 12 of this long-running series, a good source of new authors in the horror field

Currently watching:

We’ve been trying to finish off a number of series we had recorded, and have succeeded with ZeroZeroZero (awesome) and Briarpatch (very enjoyable), and we will soon come to the end of the very last series of Elementary, which will make me very, very sad.

Hope you are all doing well and staying safe. Some short movie reviews will be coming up soon, so watch this space.