I have been reading...

Not heaps to be honest as it was Wimbledon fortnight for the first two weeks of the month and I watched a lot more of it than I normally would. So good this year, my two favourite players, apart from the Brits who all went out early, were Lulu Sun from New Zealand and Jasmine Paolini from Italy - two bouncy, dynamic players and huge fun to watch. And in a week or so it will the Paris Olympics of course. 

So, books. I started July with Murder Takes a Holiday, an anthology of murder mystery short stories with a holiday theme, edited by Cecily Gayford.

Ten stories in this collection. It started with two stories I'd already read, the first being, The Adventure of the Devil's Foot, a Sherlock Holmes story by ACD of course. It's set in Cornwall on The Lizard Peninsula and I'm always up for a reread of this one as it's 'so' atmospheric. That was followed by a Lord Peter Wimsey which is not one of my favourites but even an average Wimsey is better than a lot of other stuff. After those I had five favourites. The Mystery of Home's Cross by Anthony Berkeley tells the story of a body discovered in the woods but when the man who finds it brings the police the body has gone and no one believes him. Chapter and Verse by Ngaio Marsh is an Inspector Alleyn story about a murder that took place in 1770. I haven't read any Alleyn novels so I must correct that. The Mysterious Visitor by Austin Freeman is about a man who goes on holiday and goes missing. The Fever Tree by Ruth Rendell was set on an African game reserve and was probably the best story in the collection for my money, very atmospheric. A couple go to reinvigorate their marriage after he's had an affair, nice twist at the end. Parking Space by Simon Brett was the last one I liked, another story about a disintegrating marriage and husband who's a social climber and another author I need to read a proper novel by. This anthology has quite a low rating on Goodreads - 3.33 - which really surprises me as I thought it was very solid with no dud stories at all. Oh, well.

Next, I read the third novella in the canal boat series I've been enjoying by Cressida McLaughlin, Cabin Fever. These are light and fluffy and set on a canal with interesting characters and dogs and what's not to love if that's what you're in the mood for?

After that it was Reckless Creed, book 3 in Alex Kava's 'Ryder Creed' series. 

Hard to see what I can say about this as it's a continuation of book 2 and I don't want to spoil it. Basically it's about secret labs in parts of the USA where uncontrolled experiments on human guinea pigs have been taking place. This came to light in book 2 when there was a landslide in South Carolina that engulfed one of these labs and Ryder Creed and his dogs are sent in to find survivors. Someone from the lab got away and book 3 tells what happens next and it is 'scary'. It was written in 2016 I think, and it's odd how many authors there are who predicted pandemics, what would be the cause of them, and how they would spread. Sobering stuff and this was quite edge of the seat reading. I do enjoy this series, good characters, all of them nuanced and interesting, and delightful dogs of course. But I've had enough of pandemics now...

 

 

So that's been my reading so far in July. My two current reads are two non-fictions. First up, Everything is Everything: A Memoir of Love, Hate and Hope by Clive Myrie.

 

Clive is a very well known in the UK as a BBC newsreader, maker of travel documentaries and question-master for Mastermind. I thought this might be an interesting read and it is, covering as it does, some of his childhood as part of a black immigrant family from Bolton near Manchester with origins in Jamaica. It gives a different perspective from the one I know and that's always a good thing. I'm really enjoying this, especially his experiences as a foreign correspondent for the BBC in many countries, which is one of the reasons I wanted to read it. A very readable and fascinating memoir.

Lastly, Jane Austen at Home by Lucy Worsley. 

I love Lucy Worsley's books and TV documentaries and this one lives up to its promise. It charts Austen's life through the various houses she lived in with, first of all, her family in Steventon in Hampshire and then, basically, wherever Jane, Cassandra and their mother could find to house themselves after the father died. The brothers all had careers of course, not so easy for widows and women who couldn't find a husband. I think this is going to take me a while to read as it's very densely written.

I hope you're all having a good July, one that's not 'too' hot, and also finding some good books to read.

Books read in June

Now that it's July, the Wimbledon tennis tournament has my attention, so my reading has dropped off the last few days. But June was not actually a bad reading month for me. I read eight books in all and these are they:

38. The Bordeaux Book Club - Gillian Harvey

39. A Charmed Life - David Essex. Autobiography by the famous British singer, actor, writer. Enjoyed this one a lot.

40. What Would Jane Austen Do? - Linda Corbett

41. The Wild Isles - edited by Patrick Barkham. An anthology of British nature writing, a bit hit and miss but overall not bad.

42. The Canal Boat Cafe - Cressida McLaughlin

43. The Canal Boat Cafe, book 2 - Cressida McLaughlin. A continuation of the story from the first book, great fun. 

44. Death in the Sunshine - Steph Broadribb

This crime yarn is set in a retirement complex in central Florida. Moira is a retired British under-cover police officer, hoping to find a quiet life away from people she knows who might be aware of the secrets she's harbouring. Her mission is to keep herself to herself but this intent is stymied rather when she's the one to discover the dead body of a young woman floating in a swimming pool. Moira is not the only retired police officer living in the complex. There's another British couple, Phillip and Lizzie, he was a DCI and she a crime scene investigator. And then there's retired American cop, Rick. The police are so inept that the four retirees start to investigate themselves and discover that there's still life in the old dogs yet. I rather enjoyed this. The Florida retirement village setting was unusual although it was rather a stretch to imagine 'three' retired Brits in the same place, all previously attached to the British police. I also struggled to believe that the local police would that antagonistic. But I liked the way the four main characters with their various secrets were written and having each chapter written from the point of view of each of them worked for me. It kept me guessing about what had happened in their previous lives and even at the end we realise that not everything has come to light. Interesting. I will definitely read more in this series as I thought this was a decent start.

45. Frederica - Georgette Heyer. This was a reread for the 'Reread an old favourite' category in a Book Bingo  challenge I'm doing with a friend. It was like snuggling into a comfy old blanket as I immersed myself in the story of how Frederica and her young family inveigle themselves into the affections of the Marquis of Alverstoke. No one did Regency Romance like Heyer and I enjoyed this so much I plan to reread a few more favourites, Arabella, Sylvester etc. before too long.

Oh, here's a strange thing that happened while I was reading Frederica. It has a long scene about two thirds of the way in concerning an adventure the youngest brother has with a hot-air balloon. That mode of transport was in its infancy when this book was set. So, I'm sitting there reading this when I hear noises outside and when I looked out there was only a hot-air balloon floating along just above the house! How's that for weird?

So, eight books is not bad for me, I liked them all so that's even better. And I even managed a couple of non-fictions which I failed to do in May. 

My total for July so far is two and I will be back soon to talk abut those. Hope the summer is treating you well and it isn't too hot where you are. It certainly isn't here, it's more like autumn, but that's ok with me, I'm not a hot-house plant.