Category Archive

So, I managed to miss the point at which my blog passed the 20,000 hits milestone, but it’s a nice warm feeling all the same.

This has been my first full week at home and we have been out and about visiting interesting places as we did in Berlin but on coming home after each trip it wasn’t a curl up in the hotel with a good book scenario but chores and admin and cooking very little reading done at all.

All that means that I am still reading and enjoying Look at Me by Jennifer Egan, and am hoping to finish it this week when my commute to work restarts.

I made up for the lack of reading and of new books in previous weeks with the following haul:

• Deadline by Mira Grant – “The truth won’t rest. Neither will the dead” A continuation of the Newsflesh series which started with Feed, the book which single-handedly broke my reading slump
• To Love and Be Wise  by Josephine Tey – “If a crime had been committed, , was it murder … or fraud … or simply some macabre practical joke?” A mystery by the classic crime writer which I had not been aware of, so of course it had to be bought
• The Good, The Bad and the Multiplex by Mark Kermode – what’s wrong with modern movies?
• Virginia Woolf by Alexandra Harris – because you can never have too many biographies of Virginia Woolf
• The Baskerville Legacy by John O’Connell – “a thrilling, frequently terrifying exploration of friendship and rivalry, love and lust, ambition and the limits of talent”
• The Hound of the D’Urbervilles by Kim Newman – “a volume in vermilion” – love Kim Newman, really looking forward to reading this
• The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern – because it has been recommended by so many other bloggers
• The Corn Maiden by Joyce Carol Oates – because she is my hero and I can never resist her.

I’ve really enjoyed the RIP VI challenge which finishes tomorrow, and suspect I will continue reading creepy books as we move into the winter months.

So, back to sort-of normal after my trip to Berlin; still on holiday for a week so hoping to get a bit more reading done. Given all the distractions of being on holiday in such a fascinating city I was really pleased that I managed to finish one book – Dark Harvest by Norman Partridge (which I had hoped to finish before I went but events conspired against me) – and completely read another one – Harbour by John Ajvide Lindqvist, which I loved – both for RIP VI.

Currently reading: Look at  Me by Jennifer Egan and enjoying it very much.

No new books made it into the Bride’s household this week but I’m working on it.

Thoughts this week have turned very much towards going on holiday; I fly off to Berlin with the Book God on Monday for 10 days of relaxation, and of course the big topic has been what books to take. I have finally made my decision and am packing three actual real books, most of which are relatively new and been mentioned in previous Sunday Salon and one which has been kicking about for a bit:

• Bryant & May and the Memory of Blood by Christopher Fowler;
• Look at  Me by Jennifer Egan; and
• Harbour by John Ajvide Lindqvist

I’ll also have my iPad with me with a variety of ebooks just in case.

One new book has made it into the Bride’s household this week:

• The Betrayal of Trust by Susan Hill is the latest Simon Serailler mysteries; a series I enjoy very much

In other news I finally watched the Culture Show special on Hilary Mantel and fell completely in love with her, so will be digging out the stuff of hers I have but not yet read (Wolf Hall and Fludd) and looking for the copy of A Place of Greater Safety which the Book God tells me we have but neither of us can locate.

I’ve also started giving some thought to special blogging plans for 2012; I turn 50 at the end of January and want to mark that in some way, but more of that later in the year…..

So this week I managed to finish one book, The Rapture, which will be my fourth read for RIP VI and means that I have technically met that part of this year’s challenge, though I am going to continue reading in the appropriate genres until the end of October. I am enjoying taking part in this chellenge very, very much.

I am still working my way through the Lovecraft-influenced book of short stories, and have started (but not got very far with) Dark Harvest by Norman Partridge.

Two new book purchasse this week :

• Bryant & May and the Memory of Blood by Christopher Fowler – I have said elsewhere how much I love this series so won’t bang on about it any more, but this looks great, murder in the London theatre, and may possibly accompany me on holiday to Berlin;
• Little Star by John Ajvide Lindqvist – baby found in pastic bag in woods, when given kiss of life her first breath is a perfect musical notes and presumably its all downhill from there; new king of modern horror, apparently, and the evidence so far backs that up

Now giving serious thought to what books to take on holiday with me; more on that next week.

Well, my plan to catch up on my reading during a week of travel failed miserably. The journeys out from London inevitably required working on the train, on the journeys back I was actually too tired to concentrate and on my one overnight stay I decided to catch up on blog reading. So I dragged my copy of Pirate King all the way around England to no good purpose.

However, things have been very different this weekend. I don’t know about you but I find travelling really, really tiring, so I resolved on Saturday to do as little as possible. That allowed me to curl up late afternoon and to read Pirate King to its conclusion. And very enjoyable it was too, exactly what I needed at the end of the week. I have also just this morning completed one of the best ghost stories I have read this year, The Dead of Winter. Both of these will be reviewed shortly.

Only one new book purchase this week but it looks like a real winner:

• Mister Creecher by Chris Priestley: can’t do better than the blurb “1818. London. Billy is a street urchin, pickpocket and petty thief. Mr Creecher is a monstrous giant of a man who terrifies all he meets. Their relationship begins as pure convenience. But a bond swiftly develops between these two misfits as their bloody journey takes them ever northwards on the trail of their target….. Victor Frankenstein.” Wonderful stuff

I feel on a bit of a roll at the moment and it’s a much more sensible working week coming up so let’s hope I can keep the reading thing going.

A very quiet reading week, not finished anything and to be honest not really had the time to read – very busy at work and slumping when I get home. I made a bit of progress with Pirate King and have started reading Lovecraft Unbound short stories so not a complete wash out, but hoping my week of travels which starts tomorrow will give me some time to catch up.

Having said all theat, the following new books made their way into the house:

• Look at Me by Jennifer Egan – more fallout from my girlcrush on A Visit from the Goon Squad this sounded really intriguing and may be a holiday read for my break in October
• The Adventures of the Princess and Mr Whiffle: The Thing Beneath the Bed by Patrick Rothfuss – as seen on a number of RIP participating blogs, this was irresistible

I have a couple of posts to write and the interview with Hilary Mantel from The Culture Show on Saturday night to watch and if I achieve all of those I can feel suitably bookish.

So, a couple of books read this week, bit for the RIP challenge being hosted by Carl, the second one only finished this morning so still mulling it over in my mind. But the review of Duma Key will be up in the next day or so.

Only one new book bought this week, Pirate King, the new Laurie R King Mary Russell novel which I am going to read next, but probably won’t class as an RIP book – I focus very much on horror, ghosts and supernatural mysteries rather than straight crime which this is, I think; usually pick those up in my August is Crime Month personal challenge (though I didn’t  do that this year).

I’ve had a really good exchange of book ideas with my good friend Silvery Dude, and the Book God has also suggested a couple of things I might take to read on holiday with me but more on that in a future post. My achievement has been to get both men to read and enjoy Christopher Fowler’s Bryant & May series which I love.

Quite a bit of travelling within the UK coming up over the next two weeks and being trapped on a train is a good incentive to get some reading done, so watch this space.

It has been an interesting reading week, though I only actually finished one book, The Shadows in the Streets by Susan Hill which I’ll review properly in the next couple of days.

I bought the following new books:

• The Keep by Jennifer Egan – because I loved A Visit from the Goon Squad and wanted to read more of her stuff, and this has a mysterious castle, a sinister baroness, a tragic accident and so on
• A Spell of Winter by Helen Dunmore – because someone whom I can’t remember blogged about it and said it was good; pre-WWI, dark secrets etc
• A Stranger in Mayfair by Charles Finch – because I have read and enjoyed the first three and enjoy a good mid-Victorian tale

I’ve signed up for the RIP VI challenge and selected quite a good range of books and committed to the short story and movie perils as well as the main reading challenge. The details are here, and I am already well into my first read, Stephen King’s Duma Key. Now this is turning out to be a real page-turner; I only started it on Saturday morning and am already well over 400 pages into it and likely to finish it today assuming I get my chores and other stuff out of the way. Enjoying it thoroughly, really creepy.

I’m also thinking about signing up for Fall into Reading 2011, but want to give some more consideration to the goals for that challenge before I commit myself. All looking good on the reading front at the moment!