Best non-fiction, 2023.

So, just twenty two non-fiction books read last year but there were some really good books amongst those so I thought I would do a separate post to talk about a few of them.

First, I must apologise for being a bit AWOL in commenting on posts for a couple of days. I took a tumble in the kitchen and knocked my head quite badly, so took a day or two to be quiet and get over it. I'm fine now but my head still has a nice lump and I have a really impressive black eye! Not a great start to 2024. 

So, books. In 2023 I read a few less non-fiction books than other years but those I did read were excellent and very memorable. These are a few of the best:

La Vie: A Year in Rural France by John Lewis-Stempel is what it says on the tin - a recounting of the author's move to France and how he settled in, started a garden and got to know the locals in the village. The writing was 'sublime' and I absolutely loved this short little book.

The Hunt for Mount Everest by Craig Storti is a historical account of the discovery of Mount Everest. I say 'discovery'... the locals always knew it was there, obviously, but it was a bit of a myth to western explorers and even when its existance was confirmed the Dalai Llama managed to keep the world at bay for many more years. Lots of interesting political history in this one and I do love books about climbing and how it emmerged as a serious 'thing' amongst Europeans.

Jane Austen: A Life by Claire Tomalin is self explanatory. I didn't review this but that doesn't mean I didn't think it was absolutely superb. I learnt so much and want to read more biographical works about Austen and her works now. I have Lucy Worsley's book to start me off, hopefully get to that this year. 

The Accidental Detectorist by Nigel Richardson was such a fun, enjoyable read. Quirky and bonkers in places but also a lot of history and information about the various buried hoards that have been found all around the UK. Plus, you know, 'mad' people. (My favourite sort.) LOL! Highly recommended.

 

Outlandish by Nick Hunt. The authour considers the various landscape anomalies that exist in several European countries and goes to look at and experience them. I still think about this book, it was outstanding quite honestly, 'beautifully' written and so informative and full of atmosphere. Absolutely loved it and hope to read his, Walking the Woods and the Water this year. 

 

Along the Enchanted Way by William Blacker. This is another book I'm still thinking about. The author goes to live in the Maramures region of northern Romania, a region that has not changed in centuries. He's practically adopted by the community he lives with and also gets to know the local gypsy population too. I don't know when I've ever read a book with a more intense sense of place: forests, villages, wintery landscapes, it was like moving back to the middle ages. Wonderful. 

So that's just six of my favourite non-fiction books for 2023. It's a cracking year when I can pick out six superb books like this and could easily have included a handful more.

Some honorable mentions. Two books by Kate Humble, A Year of Living Simply and Home Cooked, both gorgeous. Bringing in the Sheaves by The Reverand Richard Coles charts the life of a well known TV Vicar - enjoyed it a lot. A Spoonful of Sugar by Brenda Ashford - nannying during WW2. 50 Shades of the USA by Anna McNuff - cycling across the 50 states of the USA. I could go on and on, it's been a stellar year for me for non-fiction. Let's hope 2024 is equally as good.

My 2023 reading

So, I hope everyone who celebrates Christmas had a good one? Ours was very much a family Christmas, quite busy, so I've just emerged blinking into the... well... not sunlight... it's December in the UK after all... more like damp and drizzle with the likelihood of more storms on the horizon... possibly even a tornado or two now, apparently!

December was, as predicted, not a hugely productive reading month, but that's fine. I read 5 books, 3 of them managing to be Christmassy in theme.

96. A Closed and Common Orbit - Becky Chambers

97. Who Killed the Curate? - Joan Coggin

98. Home Cooked - Kate Humble. Seasonal living in a farmhouse with recipes included. Delightful.

99. Haunter at the Hearth - edited by Tanya Kirk. To be reviewed but this was a better than average collection of Christmas themed weird stories published by The British Library.

100. Sherlock Holmes and the Christmas Demon - James Lovegrove. I saw this on Lark's blog, thought it sounded fun, and grabbed it for my Kindle. It was fun too. All dark brooding castles  and weird goings on in the wilds of Yorkshire. Lovegrove has written a lot of Holmes and Watson stories, I've read one other and plan to read more as I'm a bit of a Holmes and Watson mood at the moment. 

So I made it to 100 books read this year... for the second year in a row. I didn't intend to, I intended to slow down but it just didn't happen. Oh well, perhaps I just need to read what I read at a pace that just happens and stop trying to fix what ain't broken. 

Of the 100 books 22 were non-fiction. That's ok, not brilliant but not terrible either. I completed the Mount TBR challenge and read 24 books that had been moldering on my tbr mountain since the dawn of time. I read 14 books for Susan at 'Bloggin' 'Bout Books' Bookish Books reading challenge. I also read 17 science fiction or fantasy books, which was one of my personal challenges for 2023. I consider that a success. (For 2024 I've set myself all kinds of personal challenges but more about that in another post.) 

According to the Goodreads thingy, I've read nearly 34,000 pages, the shortest book being To Be Taught if Fortunate by Becky Chambers at 135 pages and the longest, The Mad Ship by Robin Hobb at 906. Apparently that gives me an average of 339! Who knew?

A few favourite fiction books:

I'm going to do non-fiction in a separate post, partly because of the length of this post but also because I read some good ones and they deserve their own post.

So, another year of reading under our belts. It's whizzed by. It's not just me, everyone says so. It's quite alarming really so I'm choosing not to think about it and concentrate instead on having a good reading year in 2024. Again, I will do a separate post.

Happy New Year to everyone who reads my humble blog, whether you comment or not. I hope you all have an excellent 2024, finding lots of wonderful books and having loads of fun reading them.

A quick catch-up

As always, this time of year proves to be pretty busy so I thought I'd do a very quick catch-up on what I've read so far in December.

First-up, A Closed and Common Orbit is book two in Becky Chamber's 'Wayfarer's' science fiction series. If you haven't read book one and are inclined to, probably best not to read any more of this review because there are *spoilers*.

So, at the end of book one the AI that runs systems on the space-ship 'Wayfarer' is transferred into a human 'kit'. It's so realistic that you can't tell she's not human. She becomes 'Sidra' and this is the story of how she moves to another planet with 'Pepper' and how she settles into day to day life. Pepper was at one time Jane23 and in this book we have a dual time-line, learning who Jane 23 was and what happened to her as a child and teenager. For me, it was Jane's story that grabbed me. The situation on her home planet was somewhat shocking but I loved her story and what saved her. I'm not a great fan of the AI sub-genre of science-fiction but this book proves that I should stop saying, 'I don't like' and just try different kinds of books that I'm not sure if I'll enjoy. Because nearly every time I do that I end up with a pleasant surprise. An excellent read and I already have book three for 2024.

 

Next, Who Killed the Curate, a vintage crime yarn by Joan Coggin.

A whirlwind romance sees Lady Lupin Lorimer married to a vicar, Andrew Hastings. She's staggered that what she thinks will be a quiet existence in rural Sussex is anything but and she's expected to be on this committee and that and even run the girl guides! Being young and more than a bit silly this is quite a challenge. When her husband's curate is found dead on Christmas Eve there's even more of a challenge as the police try to find out who poisoned him. Lupin, along with two society friends and Andrew's MI5 nephew, decide to help the police find the culprit. But there are so many suspects, due to the curate's secret life, that this proves to be an almost impossible task. This is probably one of the funniest books I've read all year due to the author's very amusing turn of phrase in her writing. I honestly laughed a lot. Unfortunately, I did feel she overdid Lupin's ditziness... to the point where she was borderline too annoying to want to read about. Toned down a bit this would have got 5 stars from me because of the humour and good characterisation as regards the supporting cast... although it was a bit hard keeping track of who was who. Plus, 40% in is a tiny bit of a long wait for a dead body... But a good, fun, Christmas murder mystery. 

Also just finished:

Home Cooked by TV presenter, Kate Humble, is a delightful book of seasonal recipes and ruminations about the changing seasons in the UK. She collected the recipes from friends and family and they all get credited, even a neighbour, 12 year old Freddie, who is apparently an expert on ice-cream making. Loved this and will definitely be trying a few of the recipes.

I seem to be currently reading four books. Not sure how but these are they:

 

Haunters at the Hearth, edited by Tanya Kirk, is a book of Christmas weird stories published by the British Library. I'm about three quarters of the way through and so far it's rather good.

Sherlock Holmes and the Christmas Demon by James Lovegrove is a book I read about HERE on Lark's blog. Only just started it really but again it's good.

Vesper Flights is a book of nature writing essays, concentrating on birds, by Helen MacDonald. Really superb and beautifully written.

This is Nature Tales for Winter Nights, edited by Nancy Campbell. It's a delightful compendium of exerts from books, by all kinds of authors, that are connected in some manner to Winter. This I'll probably let float over into 2024 as I'm in no hurry to gobble up its gorgeousness.

Well, I hope you're not too crazy busy in the run up to Christmas and that you're finding time to read good books. 

Books read in November

Well, the forecast snow amounted to several small flurries as we set off on our short journey to the hospital, yesterday afternoon, so I was glad about that as the M5 in a blizzard did not particularly appeal for some reason.  I think we were on the edge of the couple of inches that got dumped on Cornwall, so it was bitterly cold with a biting wind, but little to no snow.

So anyway, that's the weather report for today (which is a cold, crisp, sunny day for those interested in that kind of thing, ie. me.) So... books. I read seven in November. It was a nice varied month with three crime stories read, a couple of autobiographies, and a couple of paranormal/horror books. These are they:

89. Behind the Sequins by Shirley Ballas. This is an autobiography by the head judge on the iconic British show, Strictly Come Dancing. It was a rags to riches story of one very determined woman and how she became a world ballroom/latin dancing champion.  It was quite simple really, she worked her backside off to succeed and all power to her. I enjoyed her book. 

90. Murder While You Work - Susan Scarlett

91. Journey to Munich - Jacqueline Winspear

92. Doorway to Dilemma - edited by Mike Ashley 

93. Rotten to the Core - T.E. Kinsey

94. A Game of Ghosts - John Connolly 

95. A Spoonful of Sugar - Brenda Ashford. The author became a Norland Nanny in the late 1930s and had only been qualified a short time before war broke out. She then ended up looking after nursery children while their mothers worked in munitions factories, plus there were also a lot evacuees. This was a gentle book but quite important in that it reminded the reader that even nannies did their bit in the war and that the women who worked in the war effort could not have done so without the likes of Brenda Ashford to look after the children. I learnt quite a lot from this one. There was sadness of course but Brenda had the wonderful, 'Keep calm and carry on' attitude of the day and I admired her greatly.

So, a decent reading month all in all. I seem to have majored on the theme of WW2, which is appropriate for November, but I found it quite inspiring and one of my personal challenges for 2024 will be to read more. There's so much I don't know about that conflict. 

I'm not sure that I have a favourite November book as the seven ranged from good to excellent so no duds. But if forced, it would be this:

For me there is no author like John Connolly and no hero (anti-hero?) like Charlie Parker. I hope he never stops writing this creepy, very thought-provoking series. If he does I think I'll just have to go back to the beginning and start again. 

My current reads number two:

This: 

 

A Closed and Common Orbit is book two in Becky Chambers' 'Wayfarers' sci-fi series. I liked book one a lot and, although I've just started book two, I think it has a lot of potential.

And this:

Vesper Flights by Helen Macdonald is a book of nature writing essays majoring on birds. The writing is just beautiful. 

So, onwards into December. It tends not to be a major reading month for me because it gets busy, but I have a few Christmassy books I'd like to read and some short stories... we'll just see how it goes. Happy December reading and I hope everyone is avoiding all the nasty colds and bugs that seem to be rife at the moment.

I have been reading...

No sooner has autumn properly set in than the weather forecasting bods start talking about winter. Snow coming for us in the south and south west next weekend apparently. I tend to be of a, 'I'll believe it when I see it' frame of mind, if I'm honest. Living in the south west we don't get anywhere near the snow Scotland or the north of England get but we'll see. At least these days we get plenty of warning so can stock up on essentials because our drive turns into a ski slope when it snows and I'm past the age when whizzing down it on my rear end sounds like fun...

Anyway, books. I've finished three since my last post about WW2 crime fiction ten days ago. 

Doorway to Dilemma: Bewildering Tales of Dark Fantasy, is a book of weird fiction short stories put out by the British Library and edited by Mike Ashley. Unusually for a collection by him I found this a bit average. I marked several as being good though: The Anticipator by Morley Roberts, a story about a writer of short stories who gets exciting ideas only to fine another author thinks of exactly the same idea just before he does and writes the story first to great acclaim. The Mysterious Card by Cleveland Moffat - a man gets given a strange card in some gardens in Paris. Thereafter he is completely shunned by by everyone he knows including his family. Why? I love this kind of supernatural mystery. The Thing in the Cellar by David H. Keller was about a young child not happy about the cellar and won't even be in the kitchen where the door to it is... very good indeed, probably the best story in the collection. 

Next, Rotten to the Core by T.E. Kinsey. This is book eight in his Lady Hardcastle and Flo the Maid, books. 

It's September 1911 and a heatwave has been ongoing for weeks. The apples are ready to harvest, Gloucestershire being a cider area, and The Weryers of the Pomary are doing their appley thing though no one quite knows what that is as it's all supposed to be a bit secret. It's not of course as the villagers know exactly which men are in it. When their members start to turn up dead it lands on Lady Hardcastle and Flo to help the police with their enquiries. I do enjoy the instalments of this series which are Littleton Cotterell (the village where the two women live) based, as we get to see and hear more of the locals who are a joy. But the real joy of these books is T.E. Kinsey's wonderful touch with the dialogue between Lady Hardcastle and Flo. It's very funny. And I love how nothing whatsoever phases these two, they think nothing of flying planes, driving racing cars, chasing after Russian spies. It's all completely bonkers but this is one of my favourite series at the moment.

 

And lastly, I've just finished A Game of Ghosts by John Connolly, book fifteen in the author's 'Charlie Parker' series.

Parker is called in by FBI agent, Edgar Ross, to help him find private investigator, Jaycob Eklund. Ekland has some paranormal investigations going on, which are clearly troubling Ross, but not all of which he divulges to Parker. But he's disappeared and Ross wants him found. Eventually Parker discovers that Ekland was obsessively investigating some strange murders and disappearances involving ghosts. The deeper Parker delves the more he discovers about a group of people called The Brethren, and the more strange and dangerous the case becomes. Well, of course it does, it wouldn't be a Charlie Parker book otherwise! We now know that there's something very different about his daughter, Sam, and that's fascinating as dribs and drabs are revealed. And there're some highly creepy villains (or not) in this instalment. Someone on Goodreads said they wanted John Connolly to write literary fiction because his writing is sublime. Well, yes it is, but I (and many thousands of others) thank our lucky stars that he loves writing weird, paranormal fiction with a mystery bent and would not want to lose him to literary fiction. He's brilliant quite honestly and I hope he has no plans to go anywhere!

I hope you're all keeping well and finding loads of great books to read this autumn which may soon be turning into winter...
 

World War 2 fiction.

I try in November, because it's Armistice month, to read something connected to the two world wars. This year I seem to have subconsciously settled on WW2. I'm not sure why as I would have said my interests veer more towards WW1, but there you go, I'm nothing if not contrary.

So, first up for me was Murder While You Work by Susan Scarlett (which is a pseudonym for the author, Noel Streatfield.)

World War Two is in full swing and young Judy Rest is on the train to Pinlock, heading to her new job in a munitions factory. She meets Nick Parsons who, coincidently, works at the factory and lives in the village of Pinlock too. On hearing where Judy is to be billeted, Nick is concerned. The house is lived in by three women. Mrs. Former, who owns the property, is elderly but very sweet. So is her daughter, Rose. But the place is lorded over by Clara who is Mrs. Former's grand-daughter in-law; widowed with one son she is autocratic and of a martyred disposition. Mr. Former died recently and Nick is not happy with the circumstances, the house has a bad atmosphere and he suggests to Judy that she find another billet as soon as she can. Judy, always up for a challenge, is not willing to do this of course and Things Ensue. I gather this is the only murder mystery Noel Streatfield wrote. That's a shame because I found this to be very well written with quite a vivid sense of menace in the form of Clara. You realise from the start that she's up to something, so it's not a spoiler. But what? If she's done what we think she's done - how? It seems impossible... A few people on Goodreads have given this one star. Everyone's welcome to their opinion but I couldn't help wondering if they were reading the same book: I loved it.  

Next, Journey to Munich by Jacqueline Winspear, book 12 in the author's 'Maisie Dobbs' series. A warning: this review contains spoilers so if you're thinking of starting this series best not to read it.

The year is 1938. Back from Spain but still grieving for her husband, Maisie is staying with her best friend, Priscilla. She doesn't really know what to do with herself but starts searching for a flat in London. Then she's approached by the Secret Service. A Captain of Industry, Leon Donat, has been imprisoned by the Nazis in Germany for having some connection with an illegal newspaper. They've agreed to release him only to a member of his family, which is sly of them because they know his only daughter is in very poor health. Relying on the Nazis not knowing this, the Secret Service want Maisie to impersonate the daughter and go to collect Donat. It is of course an incredibly dangerous mission, made worse by the fact that Maisie will not fly so will need to bring her charge back by train. While in Germany, Maisie has also been asked to look for the daughter of a man she feels is responsible for the death of her husband, the daughter also culpable in her opinion. It seems this girl has become infatuated with Nazism and has abandoned her child to go and live in Nazi Germany. (Shades of Unity Mitford here.) It's an incredibly dangerous can of worms and Maisie knows she'll be lucky not to be discovered as an imposter and locked up herself. This was yet another excellent instalment of this series. I thought the last one, A Dangerous Place, was bit odd but this returns to the usual format, although spying in Germany is not normally what Maisie does. It worked for me though and there was real suspense and menace in the shape of the SS people she had to deal with and of course she has no idea who she can trust in a country that is now frighteningly unstable and extreme. With WW2 rapidly approaching in the series I'm rather eager to read the next one now.

I shall continue on with my WW2 reading so this will most likely be my next non-fiction read, A Spoonful of Sugar by Brenda Ashford, a tale of the experiences of a Norland Nanny during The War.
 

And The Festival of Rememberance on TV on Saturday night brought up the subject of the Battle of the Atlantic, convoys, U-boats, that kind of thing. Realising I knew very little about it I grabbed this for my Kindle.

I'll probably save it for 2024, when one of my personal challenges will be to read a few books throughout the year dealing with the two world wars. 

I hope you're all keeping well and finding lots of good books to hibernate with.

A quick catch-up and October books

October was a slightly slower reading month than usual for me, no particular reason, just taking my time with books instead of devouring them. To be honest, I enjoyed it. 

Anyway, a few quick reviews.

First, The Fall of the House of Thomas Weir by Andrew Neil Macleod.

So this is the first book in a series that features a fictional idea of two very famous men, Dr. Samuel Johnson and his good friend, James Boswell. The year is 1773 and the setting, Edinburgh. There are strange things going on in the streets and cemetaries of the Scottish capital... starting when a ghoul scares the wits out of the cemetary's nightwatchman. Johnson and Boswell, with their interest in the occult, can't help but get involved. They feel that somehow Edinburgh's secret societies are involved and there is something very sinister going on in the tunnels below the streets. This had the feel of a Lovecraftian romp to me, quite daft, but hugely entertaining and a really strong sense of Edinburgh, at least it seemed so to me even though I've not been there. The book suited October perfectly with its sinister overtones and weird goings on - I'm not sure if I'll carry on with the series, there's one more available, The Stone of Destiny, we'll see, but it was a fun, spooky read.

Next, a non-fiction book, Along the Enchanted Way by William Blacker. 

A few years ago I became quite interested in countries around the Balkans/Central Europe. Authors like Patrick Leigh Fermor, Nick Crane, Elizabeth Kostova started it and a couple of weeks ago my reading of Outlandish by Nick Hunt reawakened the interest because he was in Hungary on the plains. So I remembered I had this book about Romania and hoped it would not disappoint. It didn't. The author returns to Romania after being there for a while when he was younger. He ends up in the Maramures region in the north of the country where life hasn't changed since time immemorial. The village is a Saxon enclave and has been since the 12th. century or something. He settles in there with an older couple and totally immerses himself in the culture and ancient way of life and also gets to know the local gypsies, which is frowned upon by the Saxon villagers. I could go on and on about this book but I won't. I'll just say that it is gorgeous, beautfully written, atmospheric, sad, uplifting, incredibly informative about a way of life that is fast disappearing as roads are built and the 21st. century intrudes on an ancient way of life. Wonderful - 5 stars no question. 

Lastly, Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King. 

So, I don't read many books by Stephen King. I have read a fair few of his short stories but his lengthy horror books don't really appeal. But when I saw in a Booktube video that he had a crime series I wasn't aware of, I thought I'd give it a go. This is the first book in King's 'Bill Hodges' trilogy. Hodges is a retired detective from a city somewhere in the Mid-West of the USA. They don't say where exactly. Retired and not happy about it... so discontented in fact that he thinks of taking his own life. Until a letter arrives on his doorstep. It's from a man who tells him he is 'Mr. Mercedes' the individual who drove a stolen Mercedes into a crowd in the city centre, killing eight people. He was never caught. Hodges suddenly has a reason to stay alive as he sets about tracking a psychopath down with the help of the young man who cuts his lawn and - later - 'Holly' a relative of the woman who committed suicide because it was her car that was stolen and people blamed her for maybe leaving her keys in the ignition. So this was quite a journey. Layer upon layer of things revealed, people becoming involved, and quite a scary killer. The book is told partly from his point of view and - a warning here - his thoughts are extremely unpleasant and so are his actions. This is not a book for everyone. King's writing is always compulsive reading, you can't stop until you get to the end as he builds and builds the tension. I gave it 5 stars on Goodreads and yet I have no idea whether I will read on in the series. King always goes just that little bit too far for me and I suspect that this is actually quite tame for him. As always, we will see.

Other books read in October:

The Lost Bookshop - Evie Woods

Outlandish - Nick Hunt 

To the Bright Edge of the World - Eowyn Ivey

So, six books read in October, four fiction, two non-fiction, all different and interesting and I consider it to have been not a bad reading month all told. 

I also managed to finish this at long last, a 3000 piece jigsaw puzzle entitled Payment of Taxes at Bethlehem, painted by Pieter Bruegal. Possibly the hardest puzzle I've done although I have done quite a few... it took me two months to finish. This one's going straight to the charity shop as I really can't imagine wanting to do it again!

 

So here we are in November (I won't mention the 'C' word...) and some people are doing 'Non-fiction November'. It has prompts and weekly posts and so on, which I'm not doing, but I do plan to read two or three non-fiction books if I possibly can this month. I hope you're keeping well and finding some good books to read this autumn.