smallhobbit | Entries tagged with books

As usual I am joining in with

kingstoken book bingo

Non-fiction -

Main character over the age of 30 -

Set in a country other than your own -

Author's Debut/First book -

Graphic Novel or Comic -

Set at a school/university -

No sex/romance -

Historical (fiction or non-fiction) -

Author you've never read before -

ebook/audiobook -

Figures without facial features on the cover -

Crime/Mystery -

Free Space -

Short Story/Novella -

Book Older than you are -

Pet or animal companion -

Female author -

Book made into a film or TV series -

From you TBR -

Humour -

A favourite author blurbed it -

First person POV -

Banned Book -

YA/Children's -

Job/Profession in the title -

Substitution list:

*Over 300 Pages

*Book in Series

*LGBTQ+

*Recommended

*POC Author

*Multiple POVs

*Classic/Retelling

*Sci-fi/Fantasy

*Free Space

*Anthology/Collection

*Biography/Memoir

*Friendship

*Name in the Title

*Movie/TV Tie-in

*With a Woman Protagonist

*From the Library

*Thriller/Suspense

*Set Somewhere You've Been

*Non-Human POV

*Fairy Tale or Fairy Tale Retelling

*Under 100 Pages

*Romance Plot or Sub-plot

*Translated

*With a Blue Cover

*Horror or Paranormal

*Colour in the Title

*Seasonal Read

*Number in title

*Three word title

*Craft, Hobby or Cookbook

*Written by an author from your state or country

*Animal on the cover

*Disability or Mental health

*Read a book from the year you were born

*Mythology

*Title begins with first letter of your name

*Dystopian

*Book mentioned in another book

*Diverse reads

*One word title

*Award Winning/Bestseller

*Disabled Author

*Non-western Setting

*Set in your state/country

*Title is at Least Five Words Long

*Indigenous author

*Has illustrations (but not a comic or graphic novel)

*Re-read

Looking back to 2025, I did a quick analysis of my books read into three categories:

1) Library/Non-library
40.5 library, 41.5 non-library. (49.5%/50.5%) The half book is because I started off borrowing one from the library, realised it would take me a very long time to read it, so bought a cheap second hand copy and read it over nine months. I'm definitely pleased that half my reading was library books, which is an increase on 2024.

2) Crime/Other Fiction/Non-fiction
38 crime, 35 other fiction, 9 non-fiction. (46%/43%/9%) Which will be no surprise at all to most of my friends. The proportion of crime novels has dropped to below half of my reading, which I'm pleased about, as I am keen to broaden my reading.

3) Male/Female authors
43 male, 39 female. (52.5%/47.5%) Not very much in it. For anthologies I count half each.

As usual for 2026 I have split my reading into 6 lists, with the aim being to read at least one book from each list each month. They are:
A) Library - initial list of 16 books, which allows for returning one or two unfinished
B) Library - 15 Maigret books, all the Maigret's in the library which I haven't read
C) Book shelf - 15 books, 12 last year's purchases plus 3 crime anthologies
D) Mixed Bag - 12 books, split as follows: 4 odd purchases from years ago; 3 Sister Joan mysteries; 3 Yarn Retreat mysteries; 2 Christmas presents from Son
E) Book Club - aiming for 1 per month, from Shedunnit, an online group I join occasionally, read Christie etc
F) New Books - purchased new releases or new books in the library
I have signed up for a Goodreads goal of 75 books again. I realise there are more on my lists, but there's bound to be the odd DNF and I'd rather exceed by a few books than struggle to make it.

( graphics )

Final list of the year. 8 books finished this month, bringing my total for the year to 82 - 7 above my goal.

Firstly, I continued to read for the Goodreads Challenges. Here my intention is simply to broaden my reading, but only choose something which specifically interests me, so I'm never going to complete all the sections within a challenge. For the Fall Challenge I achieved 5 out of 12, the first three being simply to read books over the months.

84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
Short books category. I'm really glad I read this - it crops up every so often. The correspondence between the young American lady and the English bookseller is great and very entertaining. Thoroughly recommended to anyone looking for a short read.

The Cat who Saved the Library by Sosuke Natsukawa
Cosies category, cat sub-section. I do like a good cat book and for me this worked better than some of the others I've read this year. While the human characters have the main part, the cat has their own role to play. This is the second in the series and the first is now on my list for next year.

( Fall Challenge )

After which came all my Christmas reads:

Murder in Wintertime: Classic Crime Stories edited by Cecily Gayford
The last few books in this series haven't been as good, but this year I really enjoyed the selection.

Murder for Christmas by Francis Duncan
Written in 1948, I found this disappointing. Normally when reading a mystery I will speed up towards the end, but this time I didn't. And to me the solution was poor and unconvincing.

The Winter Spirits: Ghostly Tales for Frosty Nights edited by Bridget Collins
I'm not always a fan of spooky stories, but these I really enjoyed. Our library has the book from the previous year, so that's also on my list.

Murder for Christmas edited by Thomas Godfrey
Lots of classic short stories. Some of which I'd read at least a couple of times before (good ones) and several I didn't know. An excellent collection.

Death Comes at Christmas edited by C.L. Taylor
A modern collection of short stories which on the whole I enjoyed. Published last year, so worth looking out for.

Death in Ambush by Susan Gilruth
This year's British Library Crime Classics Christmas mystery. I normally treat myself to this for Christmas, but wasn't impressed. Too many boring domestic details, a narrator too sure of herself (think early Hastings) and bizarre behaviour from the police detective.

( Annual challenge )

For completeness, I'm also including the two audiobooks I've recently finished:

The Murder of Mr Ma by SJ Rozan and John Shen Yen Nee read by Daniel York Loh
Set in 1920s London amongst the Chinese community, I eventually enjoyed the book. It will not surprise regular readers of my posts that Lao, the narrator, annoyed me considerably.

The Four Deadly Seasons by David Hewson read by Richard Armitage
The third book in Hewson's Venetian Mysteries series. The premise is that there's an until now undiscovered autobiography by Vivaldi. The ramifications are both convoluted and deadly. I've stopped listening to a number of books Armitage narrates, since I haven't been enjoying them, but this is one series I do enjoy and get caught up in the story.

Another 7 books read this month, bringing my yearly total to 74 - up on last year, but it all depends on length of book etc.

Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear
The runner up for the Shedunnit book club read of historical novel by modern author. It looked interesting, and the time period of just after WWI should have been of interest, but the book spent a lot of time showing Maisie Dobbs' background in great detail, which, together with some very clunky explanations, put me off. The actual mystery was interesting and well solved, but not worth all the pages that needed reading.

The Retired Assassin's Guide to Country Gardening by Naomi Kuttner
I forget who recommended this, but it was excellent. Great fun, with a well plotted mystery. There's a retired assassin, ghosts, and a cat, together with several other plot twists. And it's set in Aotearoa New Zealand. Not serious but definitely fun!

Brueghel - the Complete Paintings by Jurgen Muller
My review is here

Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett
The wizards need to create a football team, with the usual confusion and creativity. The Librarian plays in goal. I've enjoyed reading several Discworld novels this year, and this one was a good way to finish.

N or M? by Agatha Christie
More of a spy thriller than a straight murder mystery. Tommy and Tuppence are deemed too old to make a useful contribution to the war (the book was written in 1941), but then Tommy is asked to help seek out a spy, and Tuppence gets herself involved. Christie's prejudices, which are greater than I think the war justified, are very apparent. And I guessed one of the plot points.

Crime in the City: The 2002 Crime Writers' Association Anthology edited by Martin Edwards
This year I bought a number of anthologies cheap, which I shall be reading over the coming year. This was the first. It does make me wonder how many of these writers will still be read in another 20 years.

Life in Secrets: The Story of Vera Atkins and the Lost Agents of SOE by Sarah Helm
The role of the SOE agents in France and the discovery of their fates was interesting, although the unnecessary loss of life was appalling. Vera Atkins turned out to be an unappealing character and I really wasn't interested in her background, especially given her share in the responsibility for the deaths, which she doesn't appeared to have accepted.

In addition, but not counted in the total, I read (twice):
Always Remember: The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, the Horse and the Storm by Charlie Mackesy
I remain the Mole!

Read book on Brueghel

I had planned to finish this in September, which I would have managed had I started reading it in April, but I didn't begin until June, so I've only just finished now. But it's still done within the year.

This book has almost all the paintings by Brueghel the Elder. I had requested it as a Christmas present, and had read up on a few of the paintings, but this time I worked all through the book. The paintings themselves are wonderful - very detailed and certainly worth looking at closely. The book was semi-interesting, helpfully pointing out details not to be missed, but at the same time the theological interpretation was very much of the author and extremely narrow-minded. Every painting was examined in the same way, and I frequently disagreed with the interpretation.

Having said that, I didn't want the book for the commentary, but to have the paintings and the challenge this year was to look properly at them, so I was happy with the outcome.

The library refit has been done and looks maybe a bit better. But, they still need to replace the windows and get the new book racks put in, so it will be shut again next month, but fortunately only for a week this time.

In the meantime, this month I've read 7 books, so I'm up to 67 books for the year and should easily reach my 75 books goal.

Feast for the Ravens by Sarah Hawkswood
The next in the Bradecote and Catchpoll series. I bought this new as I was keen to read it, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Set in September 1145 in the Wyre Forest in Worcestershire, there's a dead body to identify and investigate and a fascinating plot, all of which give a distinct sense of both time and place.

Green for Danger by Christianna Brand
Shedunnit's book for October and one I happened to already have on my TBR shelf. My second Brand in three months and sufficient to make me decide not to read any more. I generally like war time setting, especially when written at the time (this was written in 1944) but the story felt implausible to me.

Seven Clues in Search of a Crime by Bruce Graeme
I'm not sure why I bought this book (second hand), clearly it had been recommended by someone. Although published in 1941 to me it read like a more modern novel, but written as a historical story. However the story is set in 1938 (there's mention of the Cunard liner Queen Elizabeth which was launched that year), so maybe Graeme was feeling nostalgic for a more peaceful time when he wrote the book. I quite enjoyed the story, which involves the main character working out what is happening and why, but won't be actively hunting out further books in the series.

As If By Magic: Locked Room Mysteries and Other Miraculous Crimes edited by Martin Edwards
I bought this book of short stories to read on holiday. Sadly I didn't enjoy the majority - but then I'm not a fan of locked room mysteries, and I think I've read sufficient by now to be able to work out what happened since most rely on one of three explanations.

Maigret and the Ghost by Georges Simenon
I also read this on holiday and enjoyed the story. Set in Paris it has the usual Maigret selection of suspects and the solid police work which reveal the perpetrator. I continue to enjoy the Maigret stories, as I always have the sense of being present in the location when reading them.

Green Hands by Barbara Whitton
A reprint by the Imperial War Museum, this was written in 1943 and tells the story of three land girls and their year working on farms. Although not autobiographical, it's based on the author's own experiences and really does give a good sense of what life was like. For anyone interested in the period, I would recommend this book.

The Worst Journey in the World by Apsley Cherry-Garrard
Cherry-Garrard was one of those who was on Robert Scott's attempt to reach the South Pole, although he was in one of the support parties and therefore didn't get to the Pole - and consequently survived to write about it. A couple of people recommended the book and said how good it was, so I decided to try it. I read the first half last year and then the second half over the last few months this year. It's a long book, and hard going. In the end I was disappointed. Yes, it was very hard going and the men involved suffered, but they had chosen to go. There was an Edwardian arrogance which led to mistakes being made. The book was published in 1922 and very clearly reflects the attitudes behind British imperialism.

9 books this month, which means I'm at 60 for the year. Some were started towards the end of last month, but mostly this is because my local library is shut for a (much-needed) refit for a month, so I made sure to have plenty to read.

V for Victory by Lissa Evans
I read Crooked Heart last year, and this is the follow up novel. It's set in the last few months of WWII and is just as good as the previous book, with compelling characters and an interesting plot, with the characters intertwining in very believable ways.

The Mistletoe Mystery by Nita Prose
I had the first book in the Molly the Maid series last year when it was abridged for the radio. This book was one of the Goodreads Summer Challenge books and as there was a copy available at the library I decided I'd read it (also it's shorter than the main series). It was obvious what was happening, but it was understandable why Molly was struggling with events.

Maigret and the Lazy Burglar by Georges Simenon
The library has some new Maigret editions, so I reserved a couple when I realised they were coming in and this was one of them. It's set in Paris, and is one of the later books in the series. Maigret uses his knowledge and vast experience to solve the case.

The Last Continent by Terry Pratchett
Continuing my progress with the Rincewind series. I enjoyed this more than some of the others. All the wizards are involved and the Librarian is present, which I always enjoy. I thought it was good fun, set in the Discworld's version of Australia, with all the usual inventiveness.

Death and the Conjurer by Tom Mead
A modern whodunnit, although set in the 1920s. I can see the attraction of the book, but it wasn't one which worked as well for me, but that was partly because it was a locked room mystery, which is not a genre I'm particularly keen on.

The Balkans: Nationalism, War and the Great Powers 1804-1999 by Misha Glenny
I originally borrowed this from the library, but it's over 700 pages and not something which can be read quickly, so I bought myself a cheap copy. I found it really interesting, although I did get confused with various people. It was something I knew little about, so I was glad to have read it. And yes, it took me 7.5 months to finish, because I wasn't reading it all the time. It also showed how throughout the 200 years the Great Powers only became involved when they could use it to their advantage, and that even at the end of the time they didn't seem to have learnt anything.

Small Bomb at Dimperley by Lissa Evans
I'm enjoying books by Lissa Evans, so I've set up an alert for when the library obtains new books by her. So, when they announced they'd purchased the new paperback, I put in a reservation, and fortunately it arrived before the local library closed. Set just after WWII, it was another enjoyable read. The ending was possibly to be expected, but the process of getting there was neatly done.

The Penguin Book of Murder Mysteries edited by Michael Sims
If I'd realised the mysteries were Victorian ones, I wouldn't have got the book. I had already read three of the stories elsewhere, and of those that I hadn't I only enjoyed one. I suspect if you like the style of these early mysteries you might enjoy them, but I can see why only Sherlock Holmes remains well known (and none of his stories were included).

A Stroke of the Pen: The Lost Stories by Terry Pratchett
This was on my library list of 'to read at some time', but there was a copy in the local library, so I shot in on the last day it was open and borrowed it. Very short stories, but all highly entertaining, and definitely appealing to my slightly 'off the wall' brain.

The Goodreads Summer Challenge finished in the middle of the month and I managed 5 of the 9 categories. I wasn't planning on doing them all, just those which had books which actually appealed.

7 books this month, so 51 for the year, 1 ahead of my goal.

Maigret and the Hotel Majestic by Georges Simenon
This month's Shedunnit book club choice (also called The Cellars of the Majestic), so I was definitely going to read it. Set mostly in Paris, although Maigret does go out of the city briefly. The usual interesting plot and excellent mix of characters.

System Collapse by Martha Wells
The latest Murderbot, which brings me up to date with the series. I enjoyed it, but for me, these later books don't quite have the feel the earlier ones had. I won't be trying to watch the series, as I have my own version of Murderbot in my head.

A Vicarage Family: A Biography of Myself by Noel Streatfield
Fictional, but based on Noel Streatfield's early life (she was the author of Ballet Shoes). Well worth reading, although the arrogance of Edwardian men of the upper and middle classes is astonishing.

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
The current Goodreads challenge is the Summer Challenge, and this was one of the books under the Challenge Faves category, and, since it's on my mental 'should read sometime' I read it. It was okay, but definitely not one of the genre I like, so I wasn't particularly struck. I wonder whether it's more the concept than the actual story which is why it is so popular.

War Among The Ladies by Eleanor Scott
A British Library Women Writers book, set in the 1920s at a girls' school. The insight into the lives of the teachers and their very real concerns, but also the petty nature of some of their behaviour is brilliantly observed and written. I had a real feel for how perilous life was for many unmarried women at the time.

Music of the Night edited by Martin Edwards
Short stories by the Crime Writers' Association all with a connection to music in some way. I was disappointed with many of the stories.

Stan the Killer by Georges Simenon
Three Maigret short stories. I wouldn't normally buy a book like this new, but I had some Waterstone's points so I treated myself. Three excellent stories, of the 'just one more page - oh, there's only another 10 left till the end of the story, I don't need to go to sleep yet!' variety. I passed it onto J who said, "I'll take my time over it" and like me, isn't.

6 books this month, bringing my total for the year to 44, so on target.

Silence by Shusako Endo
Read for my (zoom) book club. It's the story of a Jesuit priest who goes to Japan in the seventeenth century. While the priest initially comes over as arrogant and ready to die for his faith, since Christianity is outlawed with severe penalties for those who disobey, the story deepens and because thought-provoking as it continues. Outside my usual range of reading, but I'm glad I did read it.

Arthur and Teddy are Coming Out by Ryan Love
The story of a grandfather, who comes out just before his 80th birthday and his grandson who struggles to make the same decision. I liked Arthur, and while the story piled on too many twists and turns, I was always rooting for him. I became tired of the grandson and didn't like the way his story ended.

Tour de Force by Christianna Brand
Runner up for the Shedunnit 'set in a holiday resort' read. I tried the winner, read three chapters, the end, and took it back to the library. I did finish this book, as I've never read any Christianna Brand, but wasn't impressed - I guessed 'whodunnit' about two-thirds of the way through. And I didn't like her detective, who she seemed to be making unlikely - why do that?

Interesting Times by Terry Pratchett
Quite fun, but lacks my favourite characters so not up with my top ten.

Karolina, or the Torn Curtain by Maryla Szymiczkowa
Set in Cracow in 1895 this is an entertaining read, with a good mystery. The amateur detective is the wife of a university doctor, who has plenty of personality and determination. It's a great look at Cracow society at the time, and some of the issues there were. This is the second book in the series, but sadly the later ones haven't been translated from Polish.

The Weirdstone of Brisingamen by Alan Garner
Recommended some while ago by

badly_knitted this is aimed at older children, with two children as the main protagonists. I rarely read fantasy, but the story was enjoyable and didn't read like a 'kid's book'. I suspect if it had been written purely for adults the timing of the last few chapters would have changed, but it remained entirely believable in its universe.

And so I've finished my Book Bingo for this year. I used my two substitutions, but only the central Free square. The full list can be found here
( bingo card )

7 books read this month, so 38 for the year and I'm on target!

A Frightfully Fatal Affair by Hannah Hendy
I normally listen to these on audiobook, but for a change I borrowed it from the library. The next in the Dinner Lady Detectives series. Entertaining, slightly implausible, but the two dinner ladies are appealing characters, so I enjoyed reading it.

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
A look at how Mr Rochester might have found his 'mad' wife in Jane Eyre. Worth reading, but I didn't feel for Antoinette (Bertha) as I had expected to.

The Dead Witness edited by Michael Sims
A collection of short detection stories for the nineteenth century. Very few of the stories appealed, and I was left grateful for Sherlock Holmes!

Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells
The next Murderbot story, which was fun and continued to prove that Murderbot was far better equipped to deal with most things than anyone else.

The Rose Apple Tree Mystery by Ovidia Yu
The next in the Su Lin series (which was the Crown Colony series, although the name is no longer accurate), this one is set not in Singapore but in the Cameron Highlands in Malaysia. As always, it's an interesting look at the region in 1947 and I enjoyed the mystery. I had guessed part of it, but I imagine the reader was supposed to have their suspicions.

Cyanide in the Sun edited by Martin Edwards
Another of the British Library Crime Classics short story collections. Not as good as previous books, it may be that the pool of such stories is being drained.

CWA Anthology of Short Stories: Mystery Tour edited by Martin Edwards
Another short story collection, but this time modern short stories. I enjoyed the majority - in any collection there are going to be some which I don't like, for various reasons, but it was a good batch.

Also, I had a go at the Goodreads Seasonal Challenge for May and June and achieved 5 of the 7 categories:

And here is my book bingo card - I may even finish it next month!

First off,

melagan is running a Plot Bunny Dust-Off Challenge, which is running from now until 31 July, here

This is the perfect opportunity to carefully remove one bunny from its hutch and let it run...

Secondly, as I mentioned in my last Book post, I like collecting the challenge bookmarks that Goodreads now do. Here's the ones for the Readers' Pick Challenge Sept-Dec 2024

And lastly, our roses have started flowering:

Six books this month, so I've read 31 so far this year.

Their Finest by Lissa Evans
Having read one of Lissa Evans WWII books last year I decided I'd see what else of hers the library had, and this is the first of two books. It tells the story of the making of a film about Dunkirk by a ragtag collection of individuals. I liked it, sympathised with the main character, but also enjoyed seeing various other characters and how they dealt with the difficulties caused by living in London during the war.

Small Gods by Terry Pratchett
I didn't enjoy this book as much as many of the other Discworld stories. Very much a standalone, I really missed the regular characters. Also, while I understood where Pratchett was coming from, and would agree with a number of his thoughts, I felt it lacked some of the lightness of touch he usually has.

Plenty under the Counter by Kathleen Hewitt
Republished by the Imperial War Museum and written during WWII, this was one of the runners up for the Shedunnit wartime month. As such I liked the sense of the period, but as a detective story I didn't find it that strong.

The Body in the Dumb River by George Bellairs
A couple of people have recommended Bellairs to me, so I borrowed this from the library. Written in 1961, so outside the usual Golden Age period, although Bellairs started writing earlier. Chief Inspector Littlejohn is my sort of detective, sorting through all the facts and working out what happened and why. There's a definite sense of the people and the period, and although not an exciting crime, it's all very believable.

The Blanket Cats by Kiyoshi Shigematsu
Goodreads has started running some different challenges, and this is one of the books in the Heritage category of the current seasonal challenge. Having read a similar book last month, I thought it would be fun to read another (also from the library). I quite enjoyed it, but I think that will do me for this particular type - too much time on the people, too little time on the cats.

Mrs Plansky's Revenge by Spencer Quinn
This was recommended as a slightly different take on the crime genre. The basic crime is financial via the internet, and the interest comes from how Mrs Plansky deals with it. The first third of the book is quite slow, but then it improves and I was definitely cheering Mrs Plansky on by the end, which was not as I'd initially expected.

My book bingo card. Finally achieved a row and a column. I'm expecting to complete this in July/August, slowly reading books in the last few categories.

Today's

thefridayfive questions:

1. What is your all time favorite book?
Difficult to answer, but generally when I answer this question I say The Seamstress (also known as The Time In Between) by Maria Duenas

2. What is your all time favorite movie?
Casablanca, no question!

3. What are you reading right now?
Their Finest (Lissa Evans), Plenty Under The Counter (Kathleen Hewitt), Mrs Plansky's Revenge (Spencer Quinn), Small Gods (Terry Pratchett), and The Balkans: Nationalism, War and the Great Powers 1804-1999 (Misha Glenny)

4. What is your favorite show on TV?
Call The Midwife, which is about the only thing I do watch on TV

5. What is the last movie you saw in the cinema?
Conclave - at the end of February.

I've read (or at least finished, having started last month) 8 books this month, so am back on track with 25/75 books in my Goodreads Challenge.

The Lake District Murder by John Bude
I'm not a great fan of Bude, but still read his books. This was a Shedunnit runner up for first book featuring a series detective and also filled the book set in somewhere I've been, having holidayed in the Lake District in years gone by. It's an okay book, very procedural and drags a bit, but easy enough to read.

Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day by Winifred Watson
A couple of people had recommended this, and although I was dubious I thoroughly enjoyed it. First published in 1938, it's the story of a very down-at-heel governess who when searching for a new position accidentally ends up at the wrong address. She and the young lady who admits her to her flat become unlikely friends, and Miss Pettigrew resolves that, although she will have to return to her normal life, she will have one day really enjoying herself. It's a great portrait of life at the time. A library book, I was forced to renew it so J could finish reading it as well.

Network Effect by Martha Wells
The fifth book in the Murderbot series and this time a full-length book. I didn't enjoy it as much as the previous ones, although it was still good. I felt too much was jammed into it, but I do generally prefer shorter books rather than long convoluted stories.

Death at the Chateau by Ian Moore
The third main story in the Follet Valley Mysteries. Another slightly daft plot, but highly entertaining and the recurring characters are growing on me. A film about Napoleon is being shot at a French chateau, with the inevitable result in a murder mystery. Good fun, and not to be taken seriously.

A History of Britain in Ten Enemies by Terry Deary
This is the same author as the Horrible Histories series and written in the same jokey style. I was given it as a Christmas present. I learnt a few things, but nothing major, having already got a reasonable basic grasp of British history, and there was one major error, which annoyed me. I could have done without the preachy epilogue as well.

The Seven Dials Mystery by Agatha Christie
Using Read Christie I'm slowly working my way through the Agatha Christie books I haven't read for a long time. This was written in 1929 and involves espionage and totally unrealistic action. I'm not impressed with Christie's thriller writing.

Not Quite Perfect by Annie Lyons
I've read a number of books by Annie Lyons and enjoyed them, so this year I decided I'd read the two in the library which are more romantic in nature - I don't normally read romance. The plot is quite well done, and things don't go as expected, but I wasn't convinced about the ending. The story is about two sisters, one with three young children who finds herself at odds with her husband, the other who begins to have doubts about her fiancé. A bit too much 'Hallmark Movies' for me, but okay.

We'll Prescribe You A Cat by Syou Ashida
Chosen because two people on my Goodreads list both read it and the library had copies and a waiting list. I like cats, which helps, and I enjoyed the concept of being prescribed a cat for various problems. I'm not so sure about the underlying theme. It's a Japanese best seller, and, if you like cats, I'd recommend it.

And my book bingo card. I've got books lined up for some of the remaining squares and by using free squares and substitutes I know I'll complete it.

I've only finished 4 books this month, which means I'm behind on my Goodreads challenge by one book. This is due to two DNFs, both of which I read for 4/5 days before deciding they really weren't for me. That might sound like a lot of progress in each book, but bear in mind I'm reading 3 or 4 books at a time, it means I was far enough to decide it was definitely a no go having read enough to give a reasonable judgement. One was particularly annoying as I'd waited over a month for it from the library and had to go in to ask my local branch to chase it up. On the plus side I have already started 3 more from the library (on the 'reserve at different times, arrive together' basis), so I should have caught up by the end of next month.

Cuddy by Benjamin Myers
I've joined an online dip-in dip-out book club (you go if you like the sound of the book), so thought it would be interesting to take part this month. The Cuddy of the title is St Cuthbert and the book centres around different stories of Durham Cathedral, beginning with the monks carrying him in his coffin from Lindisfarne in search of a place of safety for him. The other stories all take place in Durham Cathedral or close by over the centuries. It was an interesting read, certainly one I wouldn't normally have chosen and also appealed to my general interest in history.

Steeple Chasing: Around Britain by Church by Peter Ross
Ross visits various churches around Britain from the largest cathedrals (including Durham) to smallest abandoned churches. His appreciation is for the beauty and the history they show. I'm always left wondering whether those who wish to preserve the beauty and history are really concerned about the local congregation and community whose requirements may be rather different.

Stories for Mothers and Daughters edited by Simon Thomas
A new addition to the British Library Women Writers collection. I very much enjoyed this collection which takes stories over most of the twentieth century and shows the many different ways mothers and daughters relate to each other.

Never Too Old to Save the World: A Midlife Calling Anthology edited by Addie J King
Why is it always a teenager who is called to save the world? Wouldn't it be much better if the person had already gained experience of life? This collection of stories is all about those who are older and yet answer the call when it comes. I really enjoyed this and definitely recommend it to anyone who is no longer a teenager but prepared to put that experience to good use.

Here's my book bingo card to date: