#bookmoods #royalty #silence #inthemountains #setinthe60s
I've neglected this challenge after a burst of enthusiastic posting at the beginning of the month but its been a busy few weeks. So in no particular order I've gone thru my back list to reference Catherine The Great, Alan Turing (murmur is nearly slience), a ghost story in the himalayas, and a 60s folk rock group. Hopefully I'll finish June with a burst of posts !!!

Realised I had 2 copies of this so rd the penguin but took much from the virago intro. If you like End of the affair I think you'd like this story of 2 sisters who meet after their mother's funeral. Then follows a tale of how dinah had an affair with madeleines husband + the split that ensued. At times a hard read as the dialogue was intense but I soldiered on + enjyd an emotional story set both pre + during the war. And what an interesting life.

#joysofjune @andrew65
I finished on Sunday my 3rd book of the readathon with the 9th episode of the ever reliable dave robicheaux series. Here a former Klansman, locked up in prison for killing an naacp advocate seeks daves help to prove him innocence just as a very manipulative couple who dave knows of old aim for the governship. All the usual themes and characters but so long as I leave a gap btwn bks I'm never disappointed.

I've had this ex library book on my shelf for some time so with no challenges or rdg grp pending I gave it a go. Not quite as compelling as the exorcist I still enjoyed this story abt an assassin who escapes torture before landing in Jerusalem however no one appears to know who he is. Much discussion of religion, + a lot of interviews to explain whats going . An ok read.
Hopefully as I'm halfway bk3 in
#joysofjune @andrew65 I may get to 4.

This was a new author to me but what a great piece of gritty crime writing. Joe Cashin is a police officer who, following injury in duty, is seconded to a small Australian town near his home town. He gets drawn into investigation of death of a local businessman. This highlights racial tensions in Australia. The language + character rings true ,a powerful crime novel, can't wait to read more.
Book 1 in
#joysofjune @Andrew65 . I'll try for 2 more

#bookmoods #dnf
I rarely if ever bail but in the year of its publication I have to confess tried twice, failed twice. One day !!!!!!

#bookmoods #byyourfavouriteauthor
I 1st came to John Irving when I borrowed a vhs of the tagged bk, over the years Ive read everything he's produced, often with joy ,sometimes less so but always with excited anticipation + even managed to see Jeanette winteron interview him for his last bk. Definitely my favourite author although I've never reread, except again for the tagged bk, I'm scared to do so in case Owen meany isn't as joyous as my memory

This was a challenging rd abt a woman Elizabeth who moves from SA to Botswana after learning of her mixed heritage. She has a yng son + joins a village grp growing food yet also troubled by vivid hallucinations which dominate the narrative. Echoing the writers own life this is both troubling + hypnotic so while I struggled with the story I was determined to finish.
#authorborninafrica #booked2022 @Cinfhen @BarbaraTheBibliophage @4thhouseontheleft

Just back from reading group and an interesting discussion abt this remarkable bk abt the mother/dtr relationship. The prose and dialogue is haunting while also exposing fragile characters with a few words as well as what is unsaid. Bridget has to manage her lonely and unfulfilled mother as she grows older but as a reader we wonder why Bridget is so cold to 'Hen', + who is the more troubled. Loved it, raced through it and plan to read again soon.

#bookmoods #600+pages
I had a look at my litsy photos to find the last biggie I read and noticed it was in that great time for reading between Christmas and New year. I'd had this on my shelf for a while and as ever when I put it down wondered why it had taken me so long to get to it.

#BookMoods #4wordtitle
Looked down at my current read and hey presto!
A demanding read so far but interesting picture of a fractured mind. My review will be later on in the week and after I've given it some thought.

#bookmoods #laughoutloud
This series, as I recently posted , has me laughing out loud to the annoyance of my wife who is usually sat next to me concentrating on something else. The glorious Adrian Mole gave commentary through his diaries to much of the events of English society and politics from the 80s to the 2000s and Sue Townsend was a brilliant comic writer whose sharp wit would have been appreciated in our current strange world .

#makeyourownprompt #booked2022 @Cinfhen @4thhouseontheleft @BarbaraTheBibliophage
I've chosen bks set in the pandemic with this thriller set as Dublin goes into lockdown in March 2022 and two people meet, form an attachment + move in together but something doesn't feel right, which one is deceiving the other. A very enjoyable page turner and tackles that strange period well.

The cover doesnt reflect a dramatic story based on a true crime. We know at the opening that a woman has been killed but then the bk tells the story of Theresa Dunn, her life as sister,dtr, teacher, in 60's NY who lives a life where she enjoys sexual encounters in the city's bars.The bk gives voice to the victim, a tough read but compelling. I've not seen the film but plan to do so if I can find it. A remarkable bk that feels ahead of its time.

#BookMoods #secondinaseries
I've recently booked our summer holiday with a few days in Suffolk then Norfolk so plan to take my 8th in the series of forensic archaeologist Ruth Galloway as the books are set in that unique landscape. This was bk 2.

Gwendoline Riley is so good on ordinary people's lives and relationships and I am loving this book about a woman's relationship with her mother but I thought this extract embodies the feelings anyone on litsy might feel on seeing a favourite author as opposed to any other celebrity although the scene is dripping with the 'what if's' of her mothers life.
Another book that I am savouring but just want to devour over my Saturday morning cup of tea.

#BookMoods #becameamovie
A few weeks ago I picked this up in a charity shop and while I'm not a big graphic novel reader I recall this being such a great film that I'm looking forward to reading it soon. From what I remember Paul Newman, Tom Hanks and Daniel Craig so also deserves rewatching.

#bookmoods #lies
I haven't done a phot challenge for some time so here goes and I'll try and keep up.
Looking back on my reads over the last year this one stands out as a book with a lie at the centre. This was a remarkable book which led to a great reading group discussion and I must look out for the recent film adaptation.

#20in4 Didn't get a lot of rdng in this wkd as I was helping dtr move flats so spent a lot of time sat waiting hence photo but another instalment in the wonderful Adrian Mole series had me chuckling away and later to the annoyance of my wife giggling while she watched TV. Adrian is now 24 in 1991, still in love with Pandora + working for DOE counting newts. Sue Townsend was a genius and still grinning thinking abt it. Bk 2 in @Andrew65 challenge

Frank Gardner is security correspondent on BBC news + was paralysed after an attack in Saudi.His 1st novel, is a rip roaring thriller borrowing a lot from his knowledge of the security services. A dynamic ex soldier now mi6 operative has to stop a weapon devastating London,a revenge attack from Colombian lord, v boys own but enjoyed it. My bk for#20in4
#writtenbyajournalist #booked2022 @Cinfhen @4thhouseontheleft @BarbaraTheBibliophage @Andrew65

Volume 2 of May Amgelou's remarkable life story and a really incredible tale of a 18/19 year old young mother who has to survive in the world. Destined to be drawn to unsuitable men she is brutally honest about her life and her passion. She works variously as cook, dancer, managing sex workers + falling into prostitution after believing a lovers sob story. Astonishing and compelling I can't wait to read bk 3. No wonder she was such a titan.

#Amurdermystery #booked2022 @Cinfhen @4thhouseontheleft @BarbaraTheBibliophage
2nd in the Tuva Moodyson series finds the deaf reporter abt to leave the small town for a job in the city, but a suicide at the local liquorice factory followed by a gruesome murder leads to Tuva investigating but putting herself jeopardy. A good series although ending felt a bit hurried. However nothing like a snowy Sweden as spring in England blooms.

A day off work today so some retail therapy followed by Top Gun. Not seen the 1st instalment in the 80s and my wife didn't fancy my choices but enjoyed it all the same, definitely didn't need to think too much.
I'm looking forward to the Richard Thompson after reading Utopia Avenue recently and humming singing beeswing badly to myself for many years and can't wait to start the jen ashworth.

#MarvellousMay @Andrew65 Just squeezed in 3 books to the challenge with this historical crime novel. Certainly the history was interesting as set in 1781 it centres around the slave trade, abolition, and the profits that mean lives of the poor victims are little more than cargo borrowing from a real sea borne atrocity. A former soldier investigates his friends death in the Deptford docks. A few stutters prose + plotwise but a page turner.

Here was my 2nd book in #MayMadness @Andrew65 + really enjoyable. A bk about how cicero emerges as the great political figure in the Roman Republic. It rds like a thriller + is v readable + extremely interesting, a lot of intrigue bringing the senate to life.
I'll rd later + raise a toast to a lovely lady jenny @ReadingEnvy after the horrible news this wk. I listened to her for yrs + was lucky to talk to her virtually on the show in 2020. V v sad

So a sad farewell to Kurt Wallender. A great last bow as he investigates the disappearance of daughter Linda's partners father, an ex naval commander. With a huge dose of cold War intrigue, I enjoyed this story, that involves soviet submarines and spys, while also noticing the detective's increasingly poignant loss of memory. At last I can try the TV series
I've put this in for #MarvellousMay @Andrew65 + hope to rd another bk before Saturday

Second of Deborah Levy's series of memoirs is an astonishing piece of writing. It portrays the life of a woman in her 50s who has to come to terms with a divorce after investing her life in the marriage, but then having to manage the death of her mother. With beautifully crafted expression of her feelings as she wonders at her place in the world it also contains both amusing and poignant individual scenes. Makes me want to revisit her novels.

A strange bk set in the early 70's when 2 larger than life women frieda + Brenda share a flat + work in the said factory bottling wine with their Italian workmates. Frieda is a force of nature and organises the outing to Windsor grt park where tensions already simmering erupt in a v dark conclusion. Can't say I loved it ,a curiosity that feels of its time but had the dark comedy I like with grt writing. Bainbridge is,like Spark uniquely brill.

Fri night pizza, wine and Angel + Louis in their story what a perfect end to the week. I loved learning more about Louis's early life as his past crimes come back to haunt him with another great villain Bliss. Another character in the bk Willie and arno, whose relationship is characterised w great dialogue. And with an intro in which the author tells of a man who buys 10 copies for his gay book club because of angel and Louis what is not to like.

I picked this up after it was referenced in the last john Irving and what a joy of magical storytelling. Set in the reign of napoleon it centres on Henri, the great man's personal chicken chef, and villanelle the venetian dtr of a boatman. A story of passion for a charismatic monster, unrequited passion for a woman, + passion between 2 women. With madness, starvation, and stolen hearts (literally) this was a compelling, interesting + magical read.

#booked2022 #anauticalnovel @BarbaraTheBibliophage @Cinfhen @4thhouseontheleft
What a brilliantly told story of the experience of people escaping the potato famine to the promised land. Told by a reporter present on the ship this is a finely woven mystery that tells of a murder, the killer, and conditions in Ireland at the time. The interconnected lives add to the tension + it is dickensian in telling esp with hid cameo. A joy to read .

My weekend reading was the penultimate frieda klein novel in which her friends suddenly are the target of violence. The question is who is responsible and where is Dean reeves.
Not sure if I should read the final book very soon or wait. The readers dilemma.

Friday night and I recovered from being identified as a killer in this the 5th book in the excellent Alex Morrow series with a beer. Looking on GR Denise Mina hasn't written any more Morrow since 2015 which is a shame as she is a great female character who holds her own in the male world of the Glasgow police. Here money laundering, dead bodies, gangs, a hired killer, in a small scottish seaside town make for a thrilling tale.

At 105 pages i was slowly unnerved as the extent of a father's mistreatment of his 2 children gradually revealed itself in a narrative told by the daughter. The story opens with the mother cooking mussels, a celebratory meal for a father returning home to announce a promotion but as she + the 2 children wait the picture of a happy family disintegrates. Written in 89 the author references a tyrranical father and a German saga a story of a country

This is the moment in my reading life I turned a page and got a huge shock . Not come across my own name in a novel before and in such circumstances!!

Thr Easter Sunday weather allowed me to spend a first opportunity this year to sit in the garden and read my book, definitely a favourite reading spot. This is 10th in the DCI McLean series and as usual an enjoyable hunt which involves some sinister goings on with a supernatural twist, here it is the legend of a family of cannibals executed in Edinburgh in the 17th century that keeps cropping up. McLean has to balance home and work. A good series

#PersephoneClub
I'm so glad I joined this group read as the story of muriel Hammond from 1900 + her childhood/ adolescence as the perpetual wallflower under the thumb of her self obsessed mother to the dramatic final pages in 1920. As much a social history of the lives of women in this period the introduction allows an insight into an equally fascinating author. There are many highs and lows in this book and I was absorbed in muriels life.⬇️

#aboutarealorfictionalroyal #booked2022
@Cinfhen @4thhouseontheleft @BarbaraTheBibliophage
Oleg is an aspiring screenwriter who produces a script abt Catherine The Great, mocked by his g/f for the detail, it finds favour inbthe 80s with the soviet film Committee but he is sacked mid prodn. Skip to the 90s and a new raunchy TV series begins in which he consults. As well as the story of Catherine this story goes into post war + post wall Russia.

It's rdg grp on Wed + this is up for discussion. A bk about abt 2 yng men in Glasgow in 1986, on the cusp adulthood with v different family lives who head to Manchester for a weekend of music and living life. Cut to 2017 + Tully has something to tell his best friend Jimmy which changes their lives. V evocative of the 80's and the joy of being young, nails the feeling of aging, lost youth and friendship. Definitely a memorable and moving read.

#PersephoneClub
Started the prologue just now and what an uncomfortable opening, poor muriel, never has a sweet turned sour so quickly.
I'm looking forward to enjoying the book particularly after recently listening to the Backlisted episode on South Riding.

A unique story by a writer I hadn't come across until I heard him recommended on backlisted. The opening introduces Katherine as an embryo, frozen but having to wait to be implanted. Skip to K,19, living in Rome, her reporter father flying around the world but neither parent or child managing grief. Plot then skips to Berlin, Moscow, + the Arctic as K learns who she is through various encounters. Grt to find a new writer whose writing feels fresh

The 1st in a trilogy of memoirs opens with the author escaping depression to majorca. An opening of her crying on escalators emerging from a train stn, + a struggling mother followed by a hectoring yngr self are dramatic images.The story of growing up in S Africa is fascinating as the writer emerges b4 developing in grey 1974 london. It finishes with hope as her writing continues.I'm looking forward to rereading this short bk before I go on to bk2

With nods to Hamlet this bk set in 1955 Yorks opens with a body floating in a river as per the classic image of ophelia. 3 yng people pull the body of their friend to shore and the ensuing story slips btwn the 30s,40s 1955 to gradually allow the reader to unearth the secrets that led to this dramatic opening. I really liked this novel which I hadn't heard of until hrg the author on 'up north books' podcast. I was off work Fri so we spent it in pub

Merrily Watkins is a great character, the Herefordshire's diocesean reluctant exorcist who with her feisty teenage daughter Jane, finds herself drawn into an exploration of the criminal but with an inevitable supernatural twist. In this, the 4th book a hop kiln converted into a home appears to be haunted but does it need an exorcist or is it just something dodgy.
Glad I went back to this series, very readable

Here is my #winter selection for #booked2022 which allowed me to read fairly diversely picking up books that I'd meant to read for a while ( the girls, and woman on the edge of time), returning to a series I enjoy (mandarin dress), a favourite novelists memoir( I am, I am), one from my unread pile (thin air) and a book new to me from a black owned press (living the dream). Not started spring yet but having a think about suitable options.

When Julie, a geeky teenager in 1974 living with newly widowed mother + sister goes to summer camp she meets 4 new friends who bewitch her with their difference + form the structure of her next 40 years. This bk explores relationships both beneficial + corrosive as well as jealousies + passions that simmer. An enjoyable story of friendship as it changes over time although when I put it down I did not miss the characters who at times annoyed me.

My irl grp are reading this very short but very compelling, darkly funny, story of 2 men, obsessed with vinyl who create their own society for listening to music in the back of their local consuming many pints of Guinness. When rival grps start to emerge politics + power struggles reminiscent of great revolutionary struggles erupt in the microcosm of the pub. Its many years since I read magnus mills + it won't as long again. Enjoying a 0% tipple.

Julius, a nigerian/German newly qualified Dr reflects on life by wandering the streets of NY + Brussels (holiday) encountering +sharing the lives of diverse individuals he meets including immigrant in holding prison ,cafe owner, post office clerk, + marathon runner. His reflections on culture as well as the stream of consciousness make for a slow read altho the penultimate chapter changed my thoughts on him with a dramatic reveal. V interesting

Nearly home time on a Friday so thought I'd post last weekends reading. Book 7 in the Ruth Galloway series and while still enjoyable a few of the plot lines creaked a bit and it felt a little bit formulaic . Still what I like about the series is the scenery ( must visit Norfolk) and the archaeological theme. Here a ww2 missing bomber crew , son of a landed family is found not at sea as believed but in a buried single plane. Much nastiness follows

Sarah Moss has rapidly become one of my favourite writers + going back to one of her earliest novels only reinforced that feeling. Six diverse individuals set camp in Greenland for an archaeological dig but discover that the world is beset by a global pandemic (written in 2009). The story is haunted by ghosts ,personal tension ,starvation ,cold, and paranoia to create the perfect setting for wonderfully evocative and intelligent writing.