Books - June 2024
Jun. 22nd, 2024 01:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
smallhobbitOnly 5 books this month, but there is a week to go - not that I expect to have much time for reading. I have, however, read 38 books this year, so just over the 75 on my Goodreads target.
Maskerade by Terry Pratchett
The next in the Witches series and great fun. Someone's committing murders in Ankh-Morpork's opera house and Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg, with the assistance of Greebo, are out to solve the mystery and cause a certain amount of havoc as they do so. Great fun!
Night at the Crossroads by Georges Simenon
One of the new Penguin Modern Classics Crime and Espionage series, recently published. A different setting from many of the typical Maigret novels, but just as fascinating a plot. There are now 30 books in the series (released in sets of ten), but no indication as yet of whether there will be more in the future. Googling to see whether there would, I came across my own Fannish Fifty post from last October!
The Ha-Ha Case by J J Connington
A crime novel from 1934, I read it because the title intrigued me, since it refers to a haha in the garden of a country house. Deliberately convoluted, I had a good idea of whodunnit from partway through.
The Bletchley Girls by Tessa Dunlop
Bought last year when we visited Bletchley Park, it didn't really grab me. A number of women who worked there are featured, but it was difficult to remember who was who. There was also a lot of repetition - what was true for one woman turned out to be true for many of the others, so really didn't need to be restated. I suspect there are better books around.
These Foolish Things by Deborah Moggach
The book was made into the film of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, which I saw when it came out, but have forgotten what happened. It's the story of a retirement home which is set up in Bangalore in India and to which various elderly people from England move to. There's a great collection of characters thrown together, along with their relatives. I enjoyed the book - and found myself reading it for far longer than I had planned each night, because I wanted to know what would happen to all of them.
Maskerade by Terry Pratchett
The next in the Witches series and great fun. Someone's committing murders in Ankh-Morpork's opera house and Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg, with the assistance of Greebo, are out to solve the mystery and cause a certain amount of havoc as they do so. Great fun!
Night at the Crossroads by Georges Simenon
One of the new Penguin Modern Classics Crime and Espionage series, recently published. A different setting from many of the typical Maigret novels, but just as fascinating a plot. There are now 30 books in the series (released in sets of ten), but no indication as yet of whether there will be more in the future. Googling to see whether there would, I came across my own Fannish Fifty post from last October!
The Ha-Ha Case by J J Connington
A crime novel from 1934, I read it because the title intrigued me, since it refers to a haha in the garden of a country house. Deliberately convoluted, I had a good idea of whodunnit from partway through.
The Bletchley Girls by Tessa Dunlop
Bought last year when we visited Bletchley Park, it didn't really grab me. A number of women who worked there are featured, but it was difficult to remember who was who. There was also a lot of repetition - what was true for one woman turned out to be true for many of the others, so really didn't need to be restated. I suspect there are better books around.
These Foolish Things by Deborah Moggach
The book was made into the film of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, which I saw when it came out, but have forgotten what happened. It's the story of a retirement home which is set up in Bangalore in India and to which various elderly people from England move to. There's a great collection of characters thrown together, along with their relatives. I enjoyed the book - and found myself reading it for far longer than I had planned each night, because I wanted to know what would happen to all of them.
