Saturday 29 August 2020

Bookshelf Travelling for Insane Times


I haven't done a Bookshelf Travelling for Insane Times post in while but as Autumn is rapidly approaching I thought I would sort out a few books I want to read over the next couple of months and use that for an Insane post. This meme was started by Judith at Reader in the Wilderness but has been taken over by Katrina at Pining for the West.


So my shelf this week is all about autumn reading, September and October to be precise. I sorted a few books I want to read, for various reasons, from my tbr shelves and these are they:



The pile on the left:

I have one book left in my 'Diary of a Provincial Lady' omnibus edition by E.M. Delafield and it is The Provincial Lady in Wartime, so I would certainly like to get that one read.

Smallbone Deceased by Michael Gilbert. It's a while since I read my first book by him Death In Captivity which I thought was excellent so it's definitely time to read more.

Walter and Florence by Susan Hill was sent to me by the author to read and review a couple of months ago so I do need to get to that one soon.

The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer is just part of my recent fancy to reread a few books by that author.

Death has Deep Roots is a second choice for a Michael Gilbert read.

A Companion to Wolves by Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear, well we are coming into autumn and it will be time for those spooky reads...

Travels with Tinkerbelle by Susie Kelly is my current travel book read and will take me into September.

The Somerset Tsunami by Emma Carroll I thought would take me into September but in fact I've just finished it so that should not really be on this pile.


Upright on the shelf:

No Name by Wilkie Collins will be my next read by him. Can't wait.

The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes is a recent purchase, set in Kentucky, is a book about delivering books to the needy in the 1930s.

Drood by Dan Simmons will be a reread of one of my favourite books.

Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens. I haven't read any Dickens since my late teens and it's time I did, this book is one I've owned for yonks.

Voyages of Delusion by Glyn Williams is all about the search for the Northwest Passage (which now exists I believe.)

Krakatoa by Simon Winchester is all about... yes... the explosion of the Krakatoa volcano.

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova is a reread because I enjoyed the book so much about 10 years ago.


So that's just some of my autumn reading. Some of these will get read, some will not. But that's ok, my 'read soon' pile is always very fluid and that's fine because I'm really not a huge fan of order and rules, I like casual.

~~~oOo~~~

11 comments:

DesLily said...

Strangely enough I haven't read the Wilkie Collins book or the Dickens one! sigh... And what makes it worse is I have "No Name"... I hope you enjoy all those books!

Lark said...

The Historian is one of my favorite books. And The Grand Sophy is super fun. They're certainly two books I wouldn't mind reading again. :)

TracyK said...

I want to read The Provincial Lady in Wartime soon too. It is on my 20 book of summer list, but I will not get to it before September. The Grand Sophy is also on my 20 books list also, and will wait until Sept or Oct.

I hope you enjoy Smallbone Deceased. I did not love it as much as some readers do, but in general I am a big fan of Michael Gilbert's books, so I will be reading all of them eventually I hope. There are other books on that shelf I am interested in and hope you read so I can hear about your thoughts on them. Drood and The Historian look huge, and I am probably not interested in those. You never know, though.

And now I need to go work on my Bookshelf Traveling post.

(Diane) Bibliophile By the Sea said...

I loved The Giver of Stars; I pretty sure you will as well.

Cath said...

Pat: I'll let you know what No Name is like once I've read it. It's not as well known as The Woman in White or The Moonstone so it might not be as good. We shall see.

Lark: The Historian is one of my favourite books too, or it was when I read it about 10 years ago. It'll be interesting to see if I still like it as much.

Tracy: I really liked Death in Captivity so I'm hoping Michael Gilbert's other books will be good too, people seem to rate him very highly. The Historian is quite bulky at 630 pages but Drood is even larger... 770! LOL It's ok, I pace myself with these big books and eventually get through them.

Diane: The Giver of Stars seems to be very popular at the moment so I'm looking forward to reading it.

Travellin' Penguin said...

I enjoyed the Diary of A Provincial Lady. Not read the other Wartime. Would like to read Tinkerbelle and might get the Keeper of Stars too. A nice group of books. I'd like to listen to another Dickens book. They work well on Audible for my night time listening.

Margaret @ BooksPlease said...

I haven't read Death in Captivity but I loved Smallbone Deceased. Drood is not one of my favourite books, but I loved Our Mutual Friend. I read The Historian a long time ago - before I had a blog - all I remember about it is that is a long book, a modern day telling of the Dracula story. No Name, I haven't read - another long book.

Well, you have a nice haul of books for autumn - happy reading!

Yvonne @ Fiction Books Reviews said...

Hi Cath,

I think that way back in March, we all assumed that there would be no need for the 'Travelling For Insane Times' posts by now! Little did we know then!

I have such a tight schedule of reviews to be posted, that I very rarely get to read a book of my own choice very often, so basically my many dozens of stacked 'real' shelves continue to sit untouched, but by no means unloved.

On my shelves I can see that I do have quite a few Susan Hill books, but not the one you have planned to read.

I also want to check out the Michael Gilbert series more closely, as these stories look like some I would enjoy.

Have fun deciding which order to read them in :)

Yvonne xx

Katrina said...

I loved The Provincial Lady in Wartime. The Wilkie Collins was good but it does show him up as being a typical Victorian hypocrite, when you know about his life. I hope to read The Jojo Moyes book - sometime.

Cath said...

Pam: The Tinkerbelle book is very enjoyable, I read another by her a couple of years ago, the name of which escapes me now, but it was where she walked across France. That was very good too. I shall read the Dickens in short instalments, the way his books were written I believe.

Margaret: I'm edging towards reading Smallbone Deceased first but want to read both eventually. I'm encouraged that you enjoyed Our Mutual Friend. Yes, I do seem to have picked out some rather 'long' books. Never mind.

Yvonne: I had absolutely no idea that the Insane posts would still be ongoing as September approached. It's mad, absolutely mad.

Sorry to hear your schedule is so tight you haven't the time to read your own books. I don't think I could cope with that so well done you!

The Susan Hill is a new book. She asked on Twitter for bookbloggers who were interested to let her know and she would send them a copy to read and review. So I must pull my finger out and do so.

Enjoy your bank holiday, we're off to our daughter's for lunch.

Katrina: Thanks for stopping by. Yes, I've read a bit about Collins' lifestyle and you're right it was rather, 'Do as I say, not as I do.' I think it was common male behaviour for the times as Dickens was like it too.

Katrina said...

I just can't read Dickens because of the way he treated his wife, I just can't suspend my sense of justice and decency the way other people seem to. Maybe I'm just too judgemental.