A bit crime dominated this month, with some old stalwarts and a couple of authors I haven’t read before. First with the general stuff. I love books about reading, and having seen a couple of recommendations, I decide to get Nick Hornby’s Complete Polysyllabic Spree; having had a quick dip into it I know I’m going to find it really enjoyable.

The Book God and I visited the South Bank branch of Foyles at the beginning of August (having been to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenixat IMAX) and I picked up a couple of interesting things: an Edward Gorey illustrated book of ghost stories (The Haunted Looking Glass) and a novel by Lauren Sanders called With or Without You, which looked like it could be an interesting read.

I also added to my library of books on the sixteenth century with Susan Ronald’s The Pirate Queen, which I suspect does exactly what it says on the tin!

As for the crime, well, the old stalwarts were Mark Billingham and Kathy Reichs whose novels I buy as soon as they come out, so no surprise that Death Message and Bones to Ashes were obtained pretty quickly on publication, and are likely to accompany me on my October holiday. I’ve read a number of Georgette Heyer’s detective novels over the years (but not her historical stuff, though a recent discovery that Stephen Fry is a fan might make me think again) and I came across one that I hadn’t read before, Detection Unlimited, with a wonderful cover which caught my eye immediately. Lastly, I decided to try Denise Mina’s The Field of Blood, having heard her interviewed on Radio 5; I was kind of aware of her but hadn’t got around to buying anything. It’s the first of her Paddy Meehan series and I’m interested in seeing whether its as good as the reviews.