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Magslhalliday

Magslhalliday

Joined February 2016

Writer. waffler. Redhead. magslhalliday.co.uk
review
Magslhalliday
Strange Weather in Tokyo | Hiromi Kawakami
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Panpan

May to December romance which I disliked. I kept going in the hope of a narrative swerve.

Image is book on wooden surface. Cover shows a photo of a young Japanese woman floating in the air in a supermarket.

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Magslhalliday
Instructions for a Heatwave | Maggie O'Farrell
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Pickpick

Robert says he‘s off to buy a paper. He doesn‘t come back.

Another story in which the patriarch is an absence around which the rest of the family swirl as secrets emerge.

I first read O‘Farrell last year and she‘s now firmly on my must-read list. This was compelling in its everyday strangenesses.

Image shows book cover: a table set with a green and yellow cloth, with an inset photo of two kids on a beach in blazing sun.

Magslhalliday I was a kid in 1976 and some of the descriptions in this shot me straight back to that summer. 4w
LapReader She is a must read for me since Hamnet. 4w
Magslhalliday @LapReader Yep! Wasn‘t on my radar before that and now on my must-read list. 3w
11 likes1 stack add3 comments
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Magslhalliday
Daughter of Doctor Moreau | Silvia Moreno-Garcia
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On a remote Mexican peninsula, Dr Moreau is playing god. Told from the alternating viewpoints of Carlota, his daughter, and Montgomery, his major-domo. Picking at colonialism and patriarchal ideas of power.

Gift.

Image show book. Cover shows a Mexican woman in a blue silk dress standing in the doorway of an overground, dark pink hacienda.

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Magslhalliday
Reservoir 13 | Jon McGregor
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Pickpick

What happens in a community after a visiting teenage girl goes missing.

I loved the structure and rhythm of this, and the idea of using nature-writing to make people seem small in the landscape.

Image description: Book as named in post. Cover shows a high moor with a large blob of water over it.

BookwormM Loved this one 1mo
13 likes1 comment
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Magslhalliday
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Mehso-so

Novelisation of one of the more standalone Whittaker stories.

Image description: Book as named in post. Cover illustration showing Jodie Whitaker as the Doctor and two Kerblam robots

Cuilin I wish she had had better writers. 😞 1mo
9 likes1 comment
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Magslhalliday
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Mehso-so

Novel in the form of letters as a woman writer in London is drawn into under covering life in an occupied island in WW2. Nicely drawn characters but one bit where the story broke the form.

From a charity shop and already in the stack to be redonated.

Image description: Book as named in post. Cover shows a pretty woman looking sad and dear god the font is twee.

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Magslhalliday
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Pickpick

Book about the growth mindset for tween which I have read before passing it to them. Straight-forward and with a good explainer of marginal gains and some decent looking exercises.

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Magslhalliday
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Pickpick

I rather hope we end up with a full set of Donna novelisations. This one adds some great details including additional character notes.

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Magslhalliday
IQ | Joe Ide
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Pickpick

A consulting detective working in the LA hood. Brilliant crime book.

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Magslhalliday
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Pickpick

The original was one of the first Target novelisations I bought so this was a small delight. This is the Who I fell in love with. A mix of fantasy and science fiction with some comedy and some rad bite too.

Image description: Two copies of the novelisation and a small K9 toy. The 2023 version on the left has a cover illustration shows the Doctor and Romana plus the eyes of a man lion and a spaceship. The 1982 version has a gateway.

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Magslhalliday
Time Shelter | Georgi Gospodinov
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Pickpick

A meditation on memory loss, time and the perils of nostalgia. Some laugh out loud moments but also some that made me cry. A slow read.

From a high street book chain.

Image description: book cover has photos of rooms from different times in the twentieth century. Next to the book is a bookmark saying “get lost in a good book”.

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Magslhalliday
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Mehso-so

Look at the new logo! With gold embossing and everything! A very fast, slight new Target novelisation with some lovely little jokes.*

*See the use of footnotes to refer to other stories, which earlier Targets would do.

Gift.

Image description: Book cover is an illustration of Peter Capaldi and Jenna Colman as the Doctor and Clara, with two zygons menacingly looming over them them.

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Magslhalliday
The Summer Book | Tove Jansson
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Pickpick

A girl and her grandmother spend their summer on an island.

I was fascinated by the absences. The lost mother is only mentioned once. Papa comes and goes, and works, but never gets a line of speech. I recognised my own mother when she was old in the Grandmother.

Loan from husband

14 likes1 stack add
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Magslhalliday
The Word for World is Forest | Ursula K. Le Guin
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Pickpick

Angry, heartfelt and depressing. Le Guin writes furiously about colonialism and patriarchy. Still a punch to the guts 50 year after it won a Hugo.

Bought from an indie bookshop.

10 likes1 stack add
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Magslhalliday
The Thirteen Problems | Agatha Christie
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Pickpick

Another set of Miss Marple stories. This time using the conceit of 12 fireside stories that then lead to the 13th active crime scene. Delightfully sharp and funny.

Charity shop find.

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Magslhalliday
Piranesi | Susanna Clarke
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Piranesi lives in the House and works with the Other until strange new writing appears…

Absolutely glorious meditation on self, alternative realms and magical thinking.

I have failed to read Strange and Norrell twice: I‘m hoping having finished this I‘ll not get stuck a third time.

Loan.

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Magslhalliday
Cursed Bunny | Bora Chung
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Pickpick

A collection of Korean magic realist and ghost stories, in translation.

I need to read at least three again.

Gift.

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Magslhalliday
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Pickpick

Relatively cosy crime from the pov of an amateur detective who is a sailor from Shetland.

Library loan.

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Magslhalliday
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Pickpick

A collection of articles, talks, screenplays, plays and blogs by the columnist so many now copy. Funny, but not laugh out loud funny.

From the original Foyles back at Christmas

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Magslhalliday
Desire: A Novel | Una L. Silberrad
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An Edwardian North and South with less time for toxic masculinity, and a free heroine who doesn‘t judge people. Really enjoyed this. Bought from Handheld Press at a pre-pandemic convention and finally read!

9 likes1 stack add
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Magslhalliday
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Pickpick

AKA the Miss Marple with characters called Halliday. A young woman returns to Devon, only to be haunted by her past. Comes complete with the idea Miss Marple‘s birthday treat was to see a performance of John Gielgud in The Duchess of Malfi.

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Magslhalliday
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Pickpick

Well, oh dear, yes, quite. I have come to the conclusion I disliked Christie when I was a teen because I thought they ought to be ‘proper‘ crime books. I now realise they are comedies with some crime in them.

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Magslhalliday
The Accidental | Ali Smith
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Mehso-so

A family holidaying in Norfolk have the lies they tell themselves stripped away by the arrival of a random person on their doorstep.

I normally love Ali Smith books so I was surprised to not love this one. It was still funny, and angry and all the things I like in her writing but…

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Magslhalliday
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Pickpick

Sometimes difficult, sometimes illuminating and sometimes very North American book about ADHD.

Bought from that famous online bookshop.

Aimeesue I had to look it up. "He draws heavily on his own experience with the disorder, as both an ADD sufferer and the parent of diagnosed children." Huh. But not genetic? Okaaay. I probably should refrain from commenting until I‘ve actually read it, but that seems a little odd. 6mo
Magslhalliday @Aimeesue he suggests it‘s a mix of genetics and environment (nature + nurture) as opposed to solely a genetic thing that should be medicalised. It is 20+ years old, but some elements made sense to me. 6mo
Aimeesue @magshalliday That makes more sense. I work for people with disabilities, including autistic people, many of whom also have ADHD. Meeting families, it‘s rare to find that the person with the dual diagnosis is the only one with ADHD. Changing the environment to work for the person as opposed to trying to force them to change to fit the environment makes complete sense. Environmental conditions and social expectations impact us for sure. (edited) 6mo
11 likes1 stack add3 comments
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Magslhalliday
The Other Mrs Walker | Mary Paulson-Ellis
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A lost woman untangles the identity of an old woman found dead in a flat, discovering connection to her own past. Split over multiple time periods, so the reader knows more than the main protagonist. CW for implicit child abuse.

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Magslhalliday
The Gilded Ones | Namina Forna
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Pickpick

YA in which young women deemed cursed are rescued from mistreatment in order to fight. CW for depictions of violence and descriptions of sexual violence.

Bought from an indie shop a while back.

11 likes1 stack add
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Magslhalliday
The Yield | Tara June Winch
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Pickpick

The loss of, and hope for recovery of, a family‘s land. Told from three perspectives, and in three forms. Some tough passages of violence against Aboriginal people.

Library loan

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Magslhalliday
King Rat | China Miville
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Pickpick

Exceptionally 90s punk magic realism with drum and bass as a key thread. The early magic police procedural subplot vanishes near the end. I struggled at first as one character is so obnoxious, but then it became compelling.

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Magslhalliday
Bass Rock, The | Evie Wyld
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Pickpick

A dark view of human nature as patterns of behaviour repeat in an old house in Berwick. CW for if you want to read it: violence against women. I hovered between pick and so-so as if you‘ve read “All The Birds, Singing” then this feels very much like more of the same and veering towards misery porn. But I also stayed up late reading it, so I‘ve gone for a pick.

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Magslhalliday
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Pickpick

A collection of autobiographical stories. Some feel too sparse, like they are making weight. Others are fantastic. ‘The Squirrel‘ and ‘Travelling Light‘ were favourites for me.

This year all but four books in my #LitsyAtoZ will be off my TBR bookshelf. This has been lurking there since my husband finished it a few years ago.

10 likes1 stack add
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Magslhalliday
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Actually laid out my #LitsyAtoZ for 2023 as I‘m trying to make serious inroads into my TBR bookcase. I have all but five letters (K, U, X, Y and Z). Any suggestions for the gaps? Ideally available from a library.

Lindy I don‘t know if you will find this at your library, but I highly recommend 9mo
Lindy For U, there‘s this outstanding award-winner: 9mo
Lindy And Y, if you haven‘t yet read this one by Nobel laureate Ernaux: 9mo
See All 16 Comments
Lindy I gave 5 stars to this work of poetry: 9mo
Lindy Another U possibility is 9mo
Lindy I‘ve used this one for Z in the past and was surprised by how much I enjoyed it: 9mo
Magslhalliday Thank you! 9mo
rockpools Hi Mags, happy new year! Two questions. Do you do ebooks/audio, or just print? And how about nonfiction? 9mo
rockpools I‘d thought about this next time I need an X book - I think @batsy rated it highly. It‘s on Serial Reader. (edited) 9mo
rockpools But if you‘re up for a bit of creative alphabetising, this is FABULOUS and there are lots of copies around the libraries 9mo
rockpools If you like a bit of nonfiction, this is really interesting (if a little too hipster-annoying at times!) 9mo
rockpools You must have read this already? 9mo
rockpools Otherwise I did this on audio: 9mo
rockpools Or if you fancy something a bit weird, you‘d be welcome to have my copy of this: 9mo
rockpools And nonfiction audio again - this was fab! 9mo
Magslhalliday Thank you! @rockpools - I knew you‘d know our library catalogues books and crannies! 9mo
8 likes16 comments
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Magslhalliday
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Mehso-so

Dated what if romp in which Lestrade investigates the death of Lord Carnarvon. Not really my thing but got me to 52 books for the year.

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Magslhalliday
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Panpan

Underwritten characters and a misanthropic narrative voice. And sometimes adding “so it goes” at the end of a scene does not make it Slaughterhouse 5.

I only finished it as I‘ve never given up on a Who novelisation.

Present.

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Magslhalliday
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My #FourFoursIn22 grid has just the one gap. @Lauredhel

Lauredhel And that's enough for an entry! Email me lauredhelhoyden@gmail.com 9mo
13 likes1 comment
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Magslhalliday
Marple: Twelve New Stories | Agatha Christie, Leigh Bardugo, Elly Griffiths, Jean Kwok, Val McDermid, Alyssa Cole, Lucy Foley, Naomi Alderman, Karen M. Mcmanus, Natalie Haynes
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Pickpick

12 new Marple stories from the best women crime writers of today. I loved it so much! Each one plays with the tropes and the Christie Marple canon. A little over reliance on nephew Raymond West to get Marple into some scenarios, perhaps. Library loan.

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Magslhalliday
Marple: Twelve New Stories | Agatha Christie, Leigh Bardugo, Elly Griffiths, Jean Kwok, Val McDermid, Alyssa Cole, Lucy Foley, Naomi Alderman, Karen M. Mcmanus, Natalie Haynes
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“I often underestimate the steel under the tweeds when it comes to my older female parishioners. ‘Mary‘s not sulking, my dear. Mary‘s been murdered,‘ Miss Marple said, her tone entirely lacking in drama.”

Having to pace myself with this book of new Marple cases.

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Magslhalliday
Serpentine | Philip Pullman
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Mehso-so

Technically an illustrated short story but it‘s in a book by itself so, like the Penguin 60s, I‘m counting it. Lyra wants to repair the harm done in her relationship with Pan. It feels like mood music, not a story.

TrishB I brought it and still haven‘t read. I have a pretty copy though! 9mo
7 likes1 comment
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Magslhalliday
First Love | Ivan Turgenev
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Pickpick

A youth‘s first crush crashes into the more complex adult world. Told in retrospect, the naivety of the narrator whilst also dropping clues for the reader is excellent.

8 likes1 stack add
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Magslhalliday
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Panpan

Spinsters in Jeopardy by Ngaio Marsh. 1954 Inspector Alleyn murder mystery. Not one of the best, and filled with dodgy national stereotypes that veer towards racism towards Egyptian characters.

Charity shop find of an omnibus. Just Scales of Justice to go.

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Magslhalliday
The Bookshop | Penelope Fitzgerald
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Pickpick

Angular novella set in East Anglia. Stark and sparse prose that creates a strong sense of place and melancholic air.

10 likes1 stack add
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Magslhalliday
First in the Fight: 20 Women Who Made Manchester | Helen Antrobus, Andrew Simcock
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Pickpick

Short biographies of the twenty women shortlisted to have a statue in Manchester back in 2018.

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Magslhalliday
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Mehso-so

I didn‘t like Christie as a teen. I wanted my golden era crime hard-boiled or aristo. I‘ve come back to her and am enjoying some immensely.

CW: a queer character is treated as inherently suspicious.

Charity shop find.

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Magslhalliday
The White Horse Gang | Nina Bawden
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Pickpick

This rattled alone and had a lead protagonist who learnt some tough lessons. Very much filled with Bawden‘s tropes: old woman seen as a witch by kids; spooky woods; kids getting out of their depth.

charl08 These covers are all like a time capsule from childhood. 🤩 10mo
11 likes1 comment
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Magslhalliday
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Pickpick

This non-fiction book delves into several key automata and “living dolls” throughout history, looking at their relationship with the uncanny. Brilliant.

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Magslhalliday
The Witch's Daughter | Nina Bawden
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From a bundle of Puffin books. Like Bowden‘s most famous (Carrie‘s War) there are skulls and child guilt. Some lovely descriptions of an island, and kids that are not too precocious.

LeahBergen I love the old Puffins. ❤️ 11mo
Magslhalliday @LeahBergen I‘m convinced the book with a girl living in a house that was nears some barrows was a Puffin so I think I might have to go on a quest for it. 10mo
LeahBergen Hmm, the only vintage children‘s book I can think of right now that references barrows is Long Barrow by Gwendoline Courtney (also published as The Farm on the Downs). It wasn‘t released as a Puffin though. Maybe take a look at the covers on Goodreads and see if they stir up any memories. 😄 10mo
15 likes3 comments
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Magslhalliday
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Pickpick

Ideal for 8-11 year old wanting some Ms Marvel content. Teenage life is stretched thin even if you‘re not a superhero. Lovely artwork too.

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Magslhalliday
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Pickpick

Straightforward 1970s non-canonical Holmes. The story itself is closer to a novella, but multiple framing devices establishing the game make it longer. Read in a day as it was so light.

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Magslhalliday
The Dead of Winter | Nicola Upson
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Pickpick

Josephine Tey goes to spend Christmas with her Chief Inspector friend on St Michael‘s Mount. Cut off by a storm, the murders start…

Well, this is a cosy crime series I‘m going to devour.

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Magslhalliday
Companion Piece | Ali Smith
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Pickpick

Ali Smith‘s seasonal quartet was something I grew to look forward to during the pandemic. This new novel, set in two times of plague and exploring connections, is another corker.

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Magslhalliday
Grandmothers | Salley Vickers
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Pickpick

Contemporary fiction as three women circle each other‘s lives and their roles as grandmothers. A quick read and slyly funny.