The spring weather we've been experiencing in the UK for a couple of weeks has just shuddered to a halt and snow is forecast for certain areas. That may include us in Devon, it may not, no one seems to know. No matter, I have a warm fire and plenty of books and jigsaw puzzles.
March was a good reading month for me. Pretty much everything I read was enjoyable and interesting in some way and that's all you can ask for. (Although cake is always nice...) Eleven books in all and these are they:
19. Shelter in Place by Nora Roberts
20. The Sunny Side of the Alps by Roy Clark
21. A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers
22. Thrush Green by Miss Read
23. A Picture of Murder by T.E. Kinsey
24. The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett
25. Blind Search by Paula Munier. I didn't review this but it's book 2 of the author's 'Mercy and Elvis the dog' crime series and was excellent.
26. The Almost Nearly Perfect People by Michael Booth
27. The Greedy Queen by Annie Gray
28. Winter at Thrush Green by Miss Read. Also not reviewed but delightful. Wonderful descriptions of autumn and winter in The Cotswolds and nice to see what happened to the characters in Thrush Green.
29. Voices in the Ocean by Susan Casey. Almost finished and to be reviewed but this is an incredibly unsettling book.
So seven fiction books and four non-fiction. I've been slacking a bit with my non-fiction reading this year so that gets me caught up a little. I've done a bit of travelling this month, Maine and Vermont in the USA, Slovenia in Eastern Europe, all over Scandinavia, and all over the oceans of the world reading about dolphins and whales. I've comfort-read but I've also learnt a 'lot'. I've laughed, been surprised and even shocked, felt despair (dolphins) and generally just had a cracking reading month.
So, next month. A few books I'd like to read:
The three books on the left at the bottom are for the Read Around the World challenge I'm doing this year, the category for April is 'Islands'. The Lord of the Rings is there not because I want to read the whole thing but I had a fancy to read the first book, The Fellowship of the Ring, again. The rest may follow, who knows? To be honest I'd love one of those boxed sets of three separate books and was lusting after one that was about £70! Hmm. The rest of the books are all maybes, 'we'll sees'.
I also want to take part in Simon at Stuck in a Book's Read the Year club, which is the year 1954. That takes place from the 18th. to the 24th. of April. I have several books lined up on my Kindle:
Because of Sam - Molly Clavering
Maigret Goes to School - Georges Simenon
The Toll-Gate - Georgette Heyer
The Caves of Steel - Isaac Asimov
Realistically, being a slow reader, I doubt I'll manage more than two and those two will probably be the first two listed.
Anyway, a couple of days early but Happy April and I hope you find a lot of excellent books to read.
18 comments:
Haven't read many of your list this time.
Many people would say that 11 books in a month doesn't make you a slow reader! I usually manage 8 or 9 and thought that was quite good.
The library van is bringing me a huge pile in April which will be a challenge with gardening getting going
Hi Sue. 8 or 9 is my usual number as well. But 2 of these were novellas and the Miss Reads are quick reads, thus 11 this month which is unusually high for me to be honest.
I hope the library van delivers a lovely pile... maybe a photo of them on your blog would be nice? Ah yes, the garden... me too so we'll see how that goes!
Funny how the weather can change so suddenly at this time of year! I hope you won't have too much of a cold spate. I'm glad you enjoyed your reading this past month. I noticed that Caves of Steel is on your up-and-coming list. I liked that one a lot (although it's certainly not flawless!). It's the first of an interesting series about Lije Baley, and I hope you'll like it!
That is some nice variety IMO Cath. I like that you visited (3) place in New England as well. When browsing your stacks I saw several paperbacks which lately I'm finding the small print too much of an eye strain so opting for hardcovers, trade size, Kindle or audiobooks.
I had a good month which kept my mind off other stuff but, I am behind on reviews once again. Hope April is a good month as well.
Looks like some good books you read- quite a few have been on my list for a long time! We've had a lot of very up and down spring weather too- days into the seventies and then nights below freezing. I even started a new puzzle to get me thru a cold snap (eager to get out and garden but it's still too cold yet)
A warm fire and lots of good books to read sounds a little bit like heaven to me! I'm glad you're enjoying the Paula Munier series. The third book is even better than the second one, imo. I'm so glad March is coming to an end. I get next week off of work for Spring Break, and I'm really looking forward to sleeping in, doing some birding, getting together with family, and of course, reading a lot of books. :D
Eleven books! That is good no matter what length or type of books. I am at six so far for March (and only one was sort of long) and hope I will finish one more before the end of the month. My average so far for 2022 is 7 a month. Don't know why but both my reading and my blogging is off (or lower). I am trying to do more other things, like weeding and purging, but that doesn't usually affect my reading.
I am also doing at least one book for the 1954 Club and would like to read one more if I can find the book I am looking for. I have several 1954 books here and there in the house but some don't appeal at this time (and some turned out not to have been published in 1954). I have read The Caves of Steel previously and I enjoyed it (and also The Naked Sun, 2nd in the series). Both were good mysteries.
Glad you had an enjoyable reading month...and yes, cake is always nice too :) I hope your books for April are delightful as well. Happy reading!
Margot: Well the colder weather is here and we have a biting wind with it. I don't mind as I like the weather to be varied but would prefer snow in winter rather than spring! Especially as we have seeds up and growing in the greenhouse. Mind you I doubt we'll actually get snow...
I may not get to Caves of Steel for the 1954 week but will get to it very soon, after seeing that you think it's rather good. I'm now very intrigued.
Diane: I really love visiting New England on my armchair travels. Mainly because we were there in 1996 and loved it so much. I just wish we'd managed to get to the coast.
Like you, I can't cope with small print these days. So what happens is that I do heaps of reading on my Kindle Fire now and I 'love' it. The trouble is I love it too much and my real books get neglected so I'm making a conscious effort to read more printed books but the print has to be readable.
Jeane: I'll review Voices in the Ocean soon, the book about dolphins and whales, I think it will be your kind of thing.
Our cold snap has arrived so today it's a bit too chilly to go in the garden. I'm hoping the seeds we planted will be ok. Hope we haven't all been lulled into a false sense of security by the last couple of weeks!
Lark: I'm all for a bit of bookish heaven on cold days. :-) Oh, interesting that the 3rd. Mercy and Elvis book is even better than Blind Search. I thought that was pretty amazing! I hope you have a lovely week off for Spring break, books and birding sound wonderful to me.
Tracy: Eleven is very good for me but like I said, there were a couple of novellas and quick reads in there. I think some months are just like that, there's no visible difference in our routine but still less books get read. I can't explain it either.
Pleased to hear you're also doing the 1954 club! I haven't done it before so am really looking forward to it. I found out that The Fellowship of the Ring was also published in 1954, I had no idea when I put it on the shelf for April. Now I don't know 'what' to read. LOL! I'm definitely going to read Caves of Steel soon though.
Cindy: Thank you! Yes, cake is always good. :-)
Yep! It's definitely cold here today and VERY windy! A couple of flurries of snow, but nothing to write home about!
Cake would be most welcome now, but as Dave broke a tooth yesterday and has just had a temporary rebuild, he can't eat anything and I couldn't be that cruel to him (or could I?) :) He has to wait until the end of June for an full emergency repair appointment - and that's not even NHS!
I do hope that you get to read the 'Maigret' book, as that was another of those illicit authors I used to read and enjoy in my teens when I shouldn't really have been! I had no idea what a prolific author Georges Simenon was, I was actually quite shocked!
https://www.fantasticfiction.com/s/georges-simenon/
Now you have made me want to read the books all over again.
I never watched the 2016/17 remake TV series of Maigret, as Rowan Atkinson just didn't feel right for the part, but I always enjoyed the original 1960s series with Rupert Davies and the 1990s remake with Michael Gambon.
Sorry I got a little side-tracked there - Happy April Reading :)
Snow?? It was 80 degrees here today and it's only going to get hotter. Ugh. I'd welcome some snow right now!
You had a great reading month in March. Good luck for April. Looks like you've got some fun reads ahead of you. Enjoy!
Yvonne: Yes, and it was cold yesterday too. We popped into town and and the wind was really sharp. This morning we had a hard frost.
We don't eat heaps of cake but I must admit we treated ourselves to a couple of cakes in M&S yesterday, for the weekend.
Oh gosh, I'm so sorry to hear about Dave's tooth troubles. That really is horrible for him!
Yes, I learnt how prolific Simenon was when I started rereading his books a few years ago. He knocked them out at great speed apparently. I find some are better than others, he was very good at atmosphere in remote places.
We're watching the Rupert Davies version of Maigret at the moment. One of the obscure channels is repeating them and they really do hold up. I gather Simenon himself approved of Davies' performance. It was 'must watch' television when I was about 12. LOL
Thanks for stopping by and have a good weekend.
Susan: Well, we didn't actually get the promised snow. :-( But it is now quite chilly and we had a hard frost this morning. I don't envy you your 80 degrees one little bit.
Yes, March was a pretty good reading month all-told. Thank you and I hope you find some good books for April too. Thanks for stopping by.
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