This year I resolved to tackle the ‘to be read’ pile by using a random number generator. I listed all the unread books on a spreadsheet and when I needed a new book to read, I would let the generator pick it. No faffing around to see what I was in the mood for, just… Continue reading Half year round up
Category: books
June reading round up
It’s finally warm and I’ve been taking part in a writing intensive this month – 1000 words a day – and have pretty much completed it too. I did think this might impact on how much I read this month but actually, the biggest obstacle to getting a lot of reading done was the length… Continue reading June reading round up
Libraries and a backlist borrowing conundrum
Paul Auster died a few weeks ago and bizarrely I felt sad despite not ever reading any of his books. He felt like a writer whose passing should be marked with respect, even though my reading had neglected him. When my reading group suggested we make our way through New York Trilogy – arguably his… Continue reading Libraries and a backlist borrowing conundrum
Review: Maybe, Perhaps, Possibly – Joanna Glen
The path to true love doesn’t run smooth, as they say, and certainly not if your families are both really weird. But I love a good tale of people being really very strange, and as this one also involves puffins and an octopus, AND has a map, what’s not to like? Actually the review copy… Continue reading Review: Maybe, Perhaps, Possibly – Joanna Glen
Richard Russo and the Sully series
Somebody’s Fool, the third book in the Sully series by Richard Russo, is published in paperback on 4 July and as you may be busy out voting that day, what you will need is a good book or three to get down to at while you wait for the results to come in. Nobody’s Fool… Continue reading Richard Russo and the Sully series
May reading round up
It’s been an odd but varied reading month, but with three trips to London and a trip to Birmingham I have at least been able to read a lot on trains, which is better than spending the journey wondering why we can’t run the service anywhere near as well as practically any other country in… Continue reading May reading round up
April reading round up
April feels like it was a long month. Looking at what I read at the beginning of the month, these seem a good while ago. So here’s what I got through in April. Joe Country – Mick Herron I started this month as I finished the last, with Mick Herron’s dodgy spies at Slough House.… Continue reading April reading round up
March round up
This has felt like a long grey month. You’ll spot a theme in the reading – unintended to start with but which has been quietly absorbing. Lila – Marilynne Robinson Lila is the third book in Robinson’s Gilead series, which began with Gilead, the story an old man, John Ames, writes for his son about… Continue reading March round up
January reading round up
Ah 2024. War. Elections. Change or destruction? I’m not optimistic so this is why I thought I really should start to make a serious dent in the to be read pile before the apocalypse. I’ve created a spreadsheet and there are around 100 unread books in my house that I need to tackle. It’s a… Continue reading January reading round up
Susan E Barsby 