Despite being on a jigsaw kick at the moment I still managed to read five books in January. This, I feel sure, is down to not being able to do jigsaws in the winter evenings as I prefer natural light. Plus, decent TV programmes being as rare as hen's teeth, I'm reading through most evenings and the monster in the corner remains off. (I do watch a few odd things admittedly: Vera, Walks With My Dog, The Hairy Bikers doing a cookery tour of The Med. or anything cookery related, Michael Portillo in the US and Canada.)
So, anyway, five books and these are they:
1. Summer in the Islands by Matthew Fort.
2. Maigret on the Riviera by Georges Simenon. Maigret is sent to the French Riviera to investigate the strange death of an Australian living with two women. He disappeared for a week each month... where did he go? Enjoyable, with a lot of twists and turns, one where you can't work out what's going on until right near the end. This one would be very good dramatized with Rowan Atkinson.
3. A Climate of Fear by Fred Vargas, translated by Sian Reynolds.
4. Diary of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell.
5. The Cheltenham Square Murder by John Bude. To be reviewed but was very good.
So, five books and a nice variety which is what I like. Three fiction, two non-fiction... an excellent month as all of the books were good, some very good in fact.
I've started well on the two challenges I'm doing. Two books read for the European Reading Challenge and one for the What's In A Name? challenge. So, three out of the eleven already read, although I do plan to read more than five for the European one this year.
So, a favourite out my January reads? Sometimes I can't choose an outright favourite, but this month I will. It's this:
I loved the mix of complicated murders, French history and Icelandic mythology in this, super writing, very strong sense of place. Can't wait to read more by this author.
8 comments:
You are off and running!!! I was lucky I finished Red Cloud! I'm 1/2 was thru Sea Detective.. I am enjoying it! Just at times it throws me for a loop for a moment when all of a sudden the young girl is talking... sheesh... Does he find out whose feet got washed ashore? lol it feels funny to write that lol.
I love the "monster in the corner." I vary my evenings between reading and television. I think there is such good stuff on tv now that it is almost like reading. We're just watching on Acorn - Empire presented by Jeremy Paxton. Excellent. And then for fun later, I've been watching again, The Finder on Netflix. My January reading has been exceptionally wonderful. I'm hoping to write about it. We'll see. haha
Pat: Brilliant to chat to you on the phone last night about the feet in The Sea Detective. LOL! Couldn't work out what you were talking about at first. Hilarious.
Nan: It's probably unfair to call the TV that as we do watch a fair bit. I just get annoyed that it's 95% rubbish... we pay a TV license over here and sometimes I do feel robbed.
Oh, Empire was wonderful. Jeremy Paxman is one of my TV heroes. He has many excellent books too, I particularly love, The English, On Royalty and The Political Animal. Plus he has an autobiography out, which I loved. He has a very amusing style of writing, I think you would love his books, Nan.
Is that jigsaw in your header one you've done? I've seen it in the Wentworth Wooden Puzzles website!
A nice variety of books, as you say - I've read some of them, nos.1, 3 & 5 - and enjoyed them too.
And talking of Paxman I still haven't read his autobiography, but D is reading it and keeps telling me snippets. I really must get round to it soon.
Margaret: Yes, it's one by the artist Colin Thompson who does a lot of quirky scenes for jigsaw puzzles. I've done several of his. It wasn't a wooden one though, just a normal 1,000 piece puzzle.
The Paxman autobiography is really very good indeed. He used to drive me a bit nuts when interviewing people but I always enjoy his documentaries.
That sounds like a good mix of books, Cath. I keep resisting non-fiction, although I see a lot I would like to read. I still haven't signed up for the European Reading Challenge although I plan to. And I have only read one European book ... for the UK. But I have selections for other countries I want to get to.
Cath, I was the same about Paxman's interviews - he could be so irritating! I've probably said before that I went to a talk he gave which was great - such an entertaining evening, but he certainly didn't suffer fools gladly - in his reply to one person in the audience who asked a silly question.
I'll look out for the jigsaw - I'd prefer a normal one to the wooden version (although I do like the Wentworth “whimsy” pieces).
Tracy: Once I started looking I was surprised how many books I already had for the European challenge. It's a fun one that I really enjoy.
Margaret: Very irritating, never letting people answer the question. Oh yes, I remember now that you went to one of his talks and how envious I was. I wouldn't want to be that one person!
I prefer normal puzzles to wooden ones, but I know some will not to anything else... I think there's even a sort of postal lending library for wooden jigsaws that I read about somewhere.
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