Just finished and currently reading

I've finished just two books since the beginning of August, one I've been reading for several weeks, the other I devoured in two days. This is a quick catch-up post.

First up, Atlantic by Simon Winchester.

The sub-title of this book is 'A Vast Ocean of a Million Stories' and that pretty much sums up the book. The author starts at the beginning, going back to the slow creation of the Atlantic when the continents parted and moves on through history to the present day. He uses Shakespeare's 'The Seven Ages of Man' as his basis for the chapters of the book, 'The Infant', 'The Whining Schoolboy', 'The Lover', 'The Soldier' etc. It might sound a bit odd but it actually works very well. The book is beautifully written, very readable, not at all dry, lots of interesting anecdotes and lots of accessible history. My favourite section was that of the fishing of the Grand Banks off Newfoundland, descriptions of the amount of cod that used to be there and how we humans managed to fish it out. A sad, sad story but Simon Winchester made it absolutely fascinating. I've been reading off my own shelves for months now with the intention of clearing a few books to go to the charity shop. And I've succeeded, but not with Atlantic, it's a keeper and a candidate for rereading in a few years. Fascinating and excellent. I have his book, Krakaotoa (apparently it's not 'East of Java' at all) to read and I'm really looking forward to it. I love it when I can add another non-fiction writer to my list of reliably good authors.

Atlantic was my 14th. book for Bev's Mount TBR 2020.

Lastly, An Air that Kills by Andrew Taylor.

Jill Francis, a journalist living in London, is visiting friends, Philip and Charlotte, in Lydmouth after a traumatic event that has left her an emotional wreck. After she arrives the bones of a young baby are found in an old pub that's being demolished and it's thought they might date back to Victorian times. Jill and Charlotte become involved with the police investigation which is being headed by another newcomer to the area, Inspector Richard Thornhill. He's struggling with life in general and in particular his marriage and his new boss, an old style, overbearing detective. Thornhill and Jill Francis join forces to solve the case but their mutual antipathy is a barrier to progress. This was an odd one. Well written, pacey, very interesting, set on the borders of Wales and England. I devoured it in a couple of days, I was so intrigued by the case. Which makes it all the more peculiar that I can't decide whether to read any more in the series. You see, I didn't really care for anyone in the story. And it was 'grim'. Unrelentingly so. OK, the time period of the 1950s was not the most cheery of the 20th. century and thus I'm not attracted to books set during that decade, so that doesn't help. But for a book to have no humour, no one in it that's happy, that's quite an achievement really! So while I admired the writing, was fascinated by the case, despite having guessed the outcome from quite early on, I honestly don't know if I want to read on. Do I care enough about the characters? Possibly not.

So, I'm currently reading these three:


A Watery Grave by Joan Druett. Murder and mayhem on the high seas at the time of the United States Exploring Expedition in 1838. Great fun so far.

The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins. Classic about a missing diamond. Loving it to bits.

Coastlines: The Story of our Shore by Patrick Barkham. Walks on the pieces of coastline owned by The National Trust. Just started but think it's going to be very enjoyable.

How nice to be reading three good books all at one time.


So, all of a sudden I'm not blogging very much and it's down to one thing and one thing only, this wretched new interface that Blogspot are trying to force upon us. I've tried it twice now and run into trouble posting pics both times and had to go back to the old legacy one. That's apparently only going to be available until the end of this month (though they said that in June and then in July) so if it does go I'm not sure what I'll do because I'm really not going to struggle to use something that gives me a load of aggro. Blogging's supposed to be fun not an extra source of stress in your life. We'll see. I'll either have to give up my blog and move my reviews to Goodreads or move my blog to Wordpress. But what if I struggle with Wordpress too? At least I'm not the only one struggling with Blogspot blogging, I just wonder if they will listen to what people are saying and leave the legacy interface for those of us who prefer it. If not I can honestly see a mass exodus. And, you know, life is horrible enough at the moment for everyone, you might have thought Blogspot would realise this and leave well alone until things are more normal, not purposely add to the stress by doing this to us. You have to wonder about these people sometimes, you really do.


~~~oOo~~~