Another month of books reviews from Deb at Debs-World. A challenge Deb and some others are hosting called What’s on your Bookshelf
My bookclub this month chose Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell. It’s all about William and Anne Shakespeare and their children, mainly about the death of one of them. Sadly this was a DNF for me. It was just too “purple”, using ten words where one would do. It does have some great reviews, but in amongst all those five stars I spotted a few that thought along the same lines as me!
I have read another book by this author – The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox – which I really enjoyed – 4* from me.
I finished The Rose Code by Kate Quinn, recommended by Deb last month, I can’t say it was a favourite of mine – 3*. I recommended it to a friend and she loved it and has gone onto read the others in the series.
I read another of one of my favourite authors – Allie Cresswell, Relative Strangers. A book about a very dysfunctional family who get together one week in a stately manor for a celebratory anniversary. It ends in carnage and mayhem with some falling out and some getting closer. I enjoyed this book although not as much as her others – 4*.
On my shelf for this month are:
The Vanishing of Audrey Wilde – Eve Chase In the Dark – Deborah Moggach Treasure and Dirt – Chris Hammer
An A to Z of my favourite authors
I thought I would select a few each month of favourite authors to share.
Isabel Allende – Daughter of Fortune and Portrait in Sepia Kate Atkinson – Jackson Brodie series
This is a new challenge for me and it’s hosted by Deb over at Deb’s World with a few other bloggers. It’s called What’s on your Book Shelf.
I love reading and have always done so, ever since I could read. I enjoy a good crime novel and I think the earliest ones I ever read were the Enid Blyton Famous Five books and Secret Seven. I really wanted to be in those gangs and they fired up my imagination to search for more of the same. Then came Agatha Christie and I don’t think I ever guessed who did it.
These days I read all types of fiction books which is my preference, rather than an autobiography or non-fiction.
I’ve just read the following three books.
They are about three different women, Jocelyn, Georgina and Evelyn.
This is the first in the trilogy. It’s mainly about Jocelyn who is banished to Tall Chimneys. We don’t find out the reason until later on in the story. She is humiliated and dishonoured and sent to live with just a few staff in the North of England. It is set in the Regency period where appearances matter above all else.
I loved this book and was transported back to a time when women were just puppets made to do as they were told by the men in their lives.
This is the second one and it does say it’s a stand alone but it would definitely make more sense to read the first. In this book we also don’t find out until later on why Georgina insists on wearing a veil. It is set in the year 1835 and not much has changed for women who still continue to do as their male relatives tell them. I enjoyed this book very much and it was a definite change from the usual psychological thrillers I usually read.
Tall Chimneys is set at a much later period, just before and during the second world war. This can be read as a standalone. It is about Evelyn who is banished to Tall Chimneys as the family don’t quite know what to do with her. I enjoyed this one the most as I felt I really got to know Evelyn and her trials and tribulations against the men in her life and how much her home meant to her.
✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦
Another book I also loved is the first novel by Chris Whittaker called Tall Oaks. Last year I read another one by him called We Begin at the End, this would be one of my all time favourite novels. What a talented author this man is to be able to write from a 14 year old girl’s viewpoint. They are both contemporary fiction and each features a police officer trying to solve a crime. Both have twists that I didn’t see coming.
I do belong to a book club and we meet once a month, usually in a cafe or in the house of whoever chose the book. It is called the Dancing Queens Book Club because we mainly all met at zumba!
We chose our books around two months in advance. Some of the books I love but some are DNF’s! which is a bit slack of me, but life is too short to read something I can’t get into. It’s one of the reasons I love my kindle as I can download samples to see if they grab me or not. I can usually get a feel of whether I’m going to enjoy the book by the first chapter although I do try and give it the 100 page test.
My two adorable grandchildren enjoying their books
Time for another challenge! There are so many to choose from, thanks to all those bloggers who are happy to host. This one is hosted by Cee Neuner, Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge.
I’ve managed to find something for all three 😁
Reeds
Reeds and a Pelican attempting to hide from my camera
Some of my Reads of this year
I really enjoyed all three of these books and can highly recommend. Invisible Girl is my book for February Book Club, a psychological thriller set in London. Magpie Lane also a psychological thriller this time set in Oxford around the university and lastly The Other Bennet Sister a spin off from Pride and Prejudice – did you ever wonder what happened to Miss Mary Bennet?
