Not sure why this is still in the reading pile here: I finished it and lent it to my sister months ago. I don‘t agree with all of CCP‘s thinking but this book makes a powerful, data-driven case that unconscious sexism kills women and harms men.

I loved this, and took my time reading it in order to savour it. It has a great structure and uses strong voices to draw out its themes.

I took this on my retreat in order to knuckle down with some freelance business planning. It worked in terms of kick-starting my brain and reminding me of the basics of running an editorial calendar. How useful it is for others will depend on how much you can bear listicle/clickbait phrasing.

I neglected to review this when I finished it, and didn‘t photo it either. So here‘s Colonsay, the Hebridean island I went on a retreat to, instead.

I get to a certain point reading crime series where my pleasure comes from familiar characters rather than any objective reasons. The Karen Pirie series is doing it for me at the moment.

I raced through this one: fast-paced, funny in places and with evocative descriptions.

Cannot recommend this highly enough. Some astonishingly astute writing, and a respectful use of dialect in the dialogue to indicate different characters‘ personalities.

Also ticks that awkward V letter if you‘re doing #LitsyAtoZ.

When someone you love is going to die, when you know they are going to die and there is nothing you can do to stop it, life splits.
...
The other half, though, is always looking forward. It sees beyond the dying to the dead.

Another cold case investigation. There are some enjoyable twists but I found the switches in structure partway through rather off-putting. A quick read, but I doubt I‘ll continue the series.

Got this in a haze in a charity yard sale last week, read it and redonated it to another charity before I thought to take a photo. It was a tough week. Hence the stock photo!

I liked this over the Tony Hill series (aka Wire in the Blood). It felt more grounded, and the protagonist was more my kind of person. I‘ll be looking up the others.

(You do that “buy, read, redonate” thing too, right? Right?)

A huge declutter has given me a chance to reorganise my TBR bookcase. Top row: smaller fiction paperbacks in rainbow format plus some kids books. Middle row: larger format paperback fiction plus all black or white spine fiction. Bottom row: non-canonical Holmes, non-fiction by subject. More books to go back in but it‘s a start. #Shelfie

I‘m not a big horror manga fan, but I did smirk at some classic cat owner behaviours.

I enjoyed many of the short stories in this, but ultimately stopped 60 pages from the end. This posthumous collection needed editing down: later stories repeat characters, locations and details. Several in a row all circling the same autobiographical situation led me to put it down. But the first half crackles.

Took me a week or so to get into, but then I really liked this. Bonus point for some proper Staffordshire dialect like the old ‘uns used when I was little.

Today‘s #LibraryHaul. One for me, two for 8yo.

Reread for the nth time since I bought it in 1991: would you look at the state of that spine?

Might be a tiny bit in thrall to David Tennant as Crowley too. I mean, come ON. 🕶🐍

I found it charmless.

Quick haul from the library. Crime for me and the child. #LoveLibraries.

My local library is listed on @Litsy ! Here‘s the child there back on World Book Day, dressed as Coraline.

Oops, forgot to review when I finished. Everyone should read this, even if you‘re not in management or the communications profession.

A country house murder mystery with bonus time travel elements? This was excellent. The only hard bit is ‘day one‘ where the protagonist has lost his memory. That bit dragged but once we started shifting around it got so enjoyable, with some great imagery.

A very light, fast, read but I found the way the male characters thought and treated women to be unpleasant. Not sure I‘d read more.

Simple premise, well told. Good to see The team split the way they are.

It turned cold as I finished this novella. I always enjoy Dunmore‘s evocation of other times, and this was no different. I always enjoy a naive protagonist.

Who else gets their CPD reading from their local library? #LoveLibraries #EveryDayIsALearningDay

Got this earlier this week.

I took far too long to get started, and then I loved this.

(I am rather overdue at the library)

I need to read this fast, ironically, as it‘s part of my CPD and deadline is 28 Feb.

Now overdue at the library but I‘m marking every page I need to go back to.... #Suffragettes #LoveLibraries

What did suffragettes do after 1918? This is a great, light novel. Whilst the two women who received the vote in 1918 are fighting each other through youth groups (one fascistic, one libertarian), the working class woman who supported them - and didn‘t get the vote - continues to work to make life better for other women. A subtle exploration of the different ways women can change things for others.

This was captivating. Memory, identity and the stories we tell ourselves.

Emergency book buy whilst travelling. Struggling to put it down.

This biography isn‘t currently listed on Litsy, and I didn‘t want to review it under one of the biographies of Luxemburg that are here! This was useful as a primer, but I can tell from the footnotes I‘d need to get one those other biographies to get more detail.

First library trip of the year! Really enjoyed Xingu by Edith Wharton so got a collection, plus a biog of Rosa Luxenberg.

I got around three stories in and stalled completely. Just not for me, I suspect.

A tale within a tale, this spins faster and tighter as it reaches its conclusion. A fascinating take on mental turmoil. Trans. Althea Bell 2006.

#LitsyAtoZ #LetterZ

As ever, du Maurier‘s use of landscape to create mood is wonderful. Would love this as a BBC Christmas ghost story. #LitsyAtoZ

Finished off this mini-collection of shorts this morning with a painfully funny tale of someone trying to remember if they‘d embarrassed themselves the night before.

This is a cute short intro to Parker‘s biting way with words.

And, yes, I did totally pick it as a first book to finish in 2019 as it was small and would get me off to a fast start. ;)

#LitsyAtoZ

Starting 2019 with a short Penguin Modern classic.

Bookstack.

Trying to get through the last four letters of my #LitsyAtoZ in the last few weeks of the year.

"Amusement," said Mrs Plinth, "is hardly what I look for in my choice of books."

Trying the Libby app with an Edith Wharton to tick my #LitsyAtoZ "X" box.

Deceptively simple thriller, read in pretty much one sitting.

I loved this. Time travel, bloodlines and simple emotional trauma all in clear, unflinching prose.

Please, Litsy, fix the listing so it credits Terry Pratchett as well as Neil Gaiman? Anyway the trailer has dropped for the TV adaptation and I am SUPER excited. Here's my first paper pack edition.

Three months. Five letters to capture. Any reccs to help me complete my #LitsyAtoZ?

Just 2 books in September. Both fiction. Both with male author names (though Galbraith messes with my stats). View is through the train window on the way home up the estuary.

Might start this today...

I enjoyed the self-delusion of the narrator as he tried to come to terms with the fact the different pre-War worlds he had inhabited have all vanished. His slow realisation that he needs to let go of his angry defence of his pre-War status is great, as are some of the mirrors and parallels such the repeated destruction of his work physically when he is young, and the erasure of it when he is old.

I preferred this over the previous book in the series. As with all the crime series I follow, I can't judge it in isolation but as part of that run. I preferred the structure here.

I'm a sucker for a sticker...