Tuesday 4 June 2019

Books Read in May


A bit late with this as we've been away over the weekend. Spent a long weekend in Surrey visiting RHS Wisley (FAB bookshop) and a National Trust property called Polesden Lacey. Both wonderful, will post some pics this week, In the meantime, 'Books Read in May'. There were seven of them, so that's not a bad reading month for me.

25. The Darkness - Ragnar Jónasson

26. Dark Angel - Elly Griffiths

27. A Small Place in Italy - Eric Newby

28. Mr. Gandy's Grand Tour - Alan Titchmarsh

29. Hot Sun, Cool Shadow - Angela Murrills

30. One Sip at a Time - Keith Van Sickle

31. Messenger of Truth - Jacqueline Winspear.

Maisie is engaged by the sister of artist, Nick Bassington-Hope, a veteran of WW1, to find the truth of his 'accidental' death. On the eve of his first exhibition he apparently fell off his own scaffolding and died, but his sister, Georgina, feels that it wasn't an accident. The artist's work was controversial in that he often painted scenes from WW1 battles which depicted real people. Crucial to Maisie's investigations is the fact that his latest work, thought to be a triptych, has gone missing. Her search takes her to Dungeness on the south coast where she discovers that Nick might have been involved in something other than the art world and this also may have led to his death. Another superb instalment of Jacqueline Winspear's excellent Maisie Dobbs series, I think this was book 4. Always there are layers upon layers in these books and what starts out as a simple investigation always becomes complicated and always takes the reader to unexpected places they had no idea they were going, and often had no idea even existed. Superb, really superb. Can't wait to find out what else Maisie has in store in subsequent books.

So, seven books in all, four fiction, three non-fiction. I seem to have travelled all over the place too, starting in Iceland, moving on to Italy, doing a grand tour even, and spending quite a long time in France as well. In fact, only one of my books for May was set in my home country of the UK. So there you go.

It was such a good month that I can't choose a favourite. But it would be between these three:




So that was May and now it's June and I'm currently reading these two:




As to what I plan to read for the rest of June, I'm not sure at the moment. It's been a while since I read one of the BLCC vintage crime yarns so I may well pick out a couple of those to read... I have quite a large selection to choose from!

Happy June reading!

~~~oOo~~~

8 comments:

DesLily said...

Your reading gets faster and mine gets slower! You are incredible! Go glad you are my Sis!

Sam said...

Nice reading month, Cath. I've never read one of the Winspear books but I've been curious for years, so I may need to fix that. I'll look forward to the new pictures.

Cath said...

Pat: It's weird but I don't feel like I'm reading fast. I do other things too (gardening, jigsaws, cooking) and am not as driven a reader as I used to be. Really strange.

Sam: The Winspear books are pretty good. I resisted them for years after reading the first and not being crazy about it. Now I love them and enjoy the depth of plot they provide.

Will get some pics up soon.

Nan said...

The Maisie book - is that the one with railway cars? I remembered it when a blogger died because she lived in one. I hope I am remembering this right. I'll see if I can find it in my bookmarks. Yes, here is her obit. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/apr/07/elspeth-thompson-obituary

I was fascinated by the whole idea of living in one.

My reading isn't equal with you this year. A very busy time. I'm hardly reading or writing the blog.

Cath said...

Nan: Yes, this is the one where the artist lives in a railway carriage on the beach at Dungeness. Of course these days there's a nuclear reactor there which would not have been present back then.

I must admit I have not heard of Elspeth Thompson, which surprises me as I like the kind of thing she writes about. An interesting obit, how sad that she took her own life at 48.

Some years are just like that, your books will still be there another year when it's quieter.

Yvonne @ Fiction Books Reviews said...

Hi Cath,

I am becoming so frustrated about missing out on all these wonderfully entrenched series authors, that I am going to take the bull by the horns and jump into a few mid-series, in the hope that the individual stories work okay as stand-alones, or I can see me never experiencing the great writing and characters which you regularly feature.

Elly Griffiths and Jacqueline Winspear are therefore heading for my list, along with Damien Boyd, who is a new to me author, but who writes around some of the Somerset locations I know quite well, so that makes his character Nick Dixon even more interesting and I shall be keen to know what you think of 'Head In The Sand'

Thanks for sharing and 'Happy Reading' :)

Yvonne
xx

Cath said...

Hi Yvonne. I thought I'd answered this but clearly not...

I think I would start Elly Griffiths' 'Ruth Galloway' books at the beginning but Maisie Dobbs could probably be read as standalones as back history tends to be explained in each those.

I rather enjoyed Head in the Sand and will definitely read more of Damien Boyd's books, if only for the novelty of the Somerset setting.

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