Kerry (CDVicarage) starts a Baker's Dozen thread in the 2024 75 Books Challenge

Yes, this will be my thirteenth year in the 75 Challenge Group.

My user name reflects my address when i joined LibraryThing and, although I've moved house twice since then I haven't changed it. I now live in Holmes Chapel in Cheshire, famous these days as the birthplace of Harry Styles. He is definitely a local hero and we live on the pilgrimage route between the bakery, Mandeville's, where he had a Saturday job and the railway viaduct where he apparently once wrote his name on a brick and had his first kiss, (legends may have been manufactured!) and we see many groups of fans, clutching their Mandeville's bags and poring over the map on their phones, as they go between sites.

Although retired I have two part-time jobs: I spend two days a week working with my s-i-l at his small printing business - specialising in funeral orders of service - and six hours (usually more) spread over a week on the admin of Christ Church, West Didsbury, currently in interregnum. Our grandson, Toby, now three, spends two days (and often more) with us, which is a joy but exhausting. My mother, now 84, lives close by and, although mostly independent, she is starting to need more help.

Reading 75 titles in a year has never been a problem for me and I used to regard 200 as easily achieveable but family and work commitments have definitely cut that down - it's been 180 for the last two years. Of course it's quality not quantity that counts but quality is subjective and quantity is indisputable...

Those of you who have followed my past threads will know that they are not very busy and, although I am full of good intentions, I have rather fallen by the wayside in past years, but it's a New Year so I have New Resolutions!

January:

1. Brother Dusty-Feet, 4th January
2. The Thirteen Days of Christmas, 6th January
3. Shot With Crimson, 6th January
4. Why You Should Read Children's Books, Even Though You Are So Old and Wise, 6th January
5. The Raging Storm, 8th January
6. The Sweet Remnants of Summer, 11th January
7. These Days, 13th January
8. The Stellar Debut of Galactica MacFee, 14th January
9. The Grand Sophy, read by Sarah Woodward, 15th January
10. Around the World in Eighty Days, 17th January
11. Walk the Blue Fields, 20th January
12. O, the Brave Music, 20th January
13. The Last Devil to Die, 25th January
14. The House of Doors, 25th January
15. The Good, the Bad and the History, read by Zara Ramm, 26th January
16. Slightly Foxed 77: Laughter in the Library Spring 2023, 27th January
17. The Master of Ballantrae, 28th January
18. The Great Deceiver, 29th January
19. The Chalet school and Cornelia, 29th January

Abandoned (so not counted towards the total)

Windmill Hill, by Lucy Atkins

February

20. Rivals of the Chalet School, 1st February
21. The Path to the Sea, 3rd February
22. A Bird in the Hand, 5th February, ROOT success
23. Slightly Foxed 78: A Familiar Country Summer 2023, 7th February
24. Doing Time, read by Zara Ramm, 8th February
25. Eustacia Goes to the Chalet School, 9th February
26. The Fair Miss Fortune, 11th February
27. The Thursday Murder Club, read by Lesley Manville, 14th February
28. Nina Balatka, 15th February
29. Latchkey Ladies, 17th February
30. Impact of Evidence, 18th February
31. Hard Time, read by Zara Ramm, 23rd February
32. A Man Called Ove, 23rd February
33. The Secret of High Eldersham, 24th February
34. Victorians Undone, 24th February
35. Slightly Foxed 79: U and I and Me, 25th February
36. Normal Rules Don't Apply, 25th February
37. The Secret Shore, 29th February

March

38. Comfort Eating: What We Eat When Nobody's Looking, 1st March
39. Slightly Foxed 80: Arrows of Revelation Winter 2023, 3rd March
40. A Secret Garden Affair, 4th March
41. Clerical Errors, 7th March
42. Unholy Ghosts, 8th March
43. Idol Bones, 9th March
44. Holy Terrors, 11th March
45. Cotillion, read by Phyllida Nash, 11th March
46. Every Deadly Sin, 14th March
47. Mortal Spoils, 15th March
48. Heavenly Vices, 16th March
49. A Grave Disturbance, 17th march
50. Foolish Ways, 18th March
51. Uncommon Arrangements, 20th March
52. The Last Word, 22nd March
53. A Kind Man, 22nd March
54. The Corfe Castle Murders, 23rd March
55. The Clifftop Murders, 24th March
56. The Island Murders, 24th March
57. The Man who Died Twice, read by Lesley Manville, 25th March
58. The Chalet School and Jo, 28th March
59. Slightly Foxed: No. 22: Don't Give Up the Day Job, 30th March

April

60. The White Ship: Conquest, Anarchy and the Wrecking of Henry I’s Dream, 1st April
61. A Lesson in Dying, 3rd April
62. Saving Time, 4th April
63. Murder in My Backyard, 6th April
64. A Day in the Death of Dorothea Cassidy, 6th April
65. Killjoy, 8th April
66. The Healers, 11th April
67. The Baby-Snatcher, 12th April
68. About Time,13th April
69. The Invisible Women's Club, 15th April
70. A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century, 15th April
71. The Last List of Mabel Beaumont, 16th April
72. Santa Grint, read by Zara Ramm, 18th April
73. He Who Whispers, 20th April
74. Steeple Chasing, 21st April
75. Slightly Foxed 23: Social Climbing, 21st April
76. Come, Tell Me How You Live, 24th April
77. The Salisbury Manuscript, 24th April
78. Storm Christopher, 25th April
79. Slightly Foxed 24: A Pash for Nash, 27th April
80. The Chalet Girls in Camp, 28th April
81. The Harbour Lights Mystery, 29th April

Devil's Breath, abandoned 16th April

May

82. The Unknown Ajax, read by Thomas Judd, 1st May
83. Northanger Abbey, 3rd May
84. Practically Perfect: Life Lessons from Mary Poppins, 6th May
85. Black Beauty, 7th May
86. The Wedding Dress Repair Shop, 10th May
87. Silas Marner, 11th May
88. Murder by Candlelight, 13th May
89. Atalanta, 13th May

Abandoned (so not counted towards total)
An Unsuitable Heiress, 11th May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Well, that's my set-up complete so I hope I now get some visitors. I shall be doing some visiting as well - see you soon!

Glad to be first up, Kerry. I will look forward to yet more of your prodigious reading in 2024.

Star dropped.

Happy New Year, Kerry! I read the comments on your previous thread about leaving your long-time book group. I'm sure it's difficult but your rationale is perfectly valid. Relocation alone would be sufficient reason, and is the sort of thing people can hardly quarrel with and are unlikely to take personally. I hope the new year's reading is more enjoyable for you!

Hope you have a pleasant farewell to 2023 and a very happy beginning to 2024!! I look forward to following your reading in the coming year.

Your intro reminded me of myself, retired..BUT..2 days a week for this, 1/2 a day per week for that, etc., etc. Good luck with your 2024 reading!

Happy New Year Kerry!

Welcome back, Kerry!

Hi Kerry!

Wishing you a great one!

Hope you have a great year of reading! You always read such interesting British books that I want to read.

Hi Kerry! Happy New Year!

Hi Kerry. Happy New Year. I hope 2024 is good to you.

Happy reading in 2024, Kerry!

Happy new year, and happy reading, Kerry!

Happy New Year!

>1 CDVicarage: " I am full of good intentions, I have rather fallen by the wayside in past years " Ah you've described me perfectly. Nevertheless this is still the best place on the web!

Hi Kerry, Happy New Year my dear.

Happy new year, Kerry! Finally dropping off a star.

Thank you to my fifteen (!) visitors for your New Year and reading wishes, they are all returned of course! And Happy New Year to any lurkers - I do more lurking than commenting so I like to remember you as well.

It's been a good reading start to the year with four titles finished and several more close to finishing:



Brother Dusty-Feet, finished 4th January. Another lovely story from Rosemary Sutcliff, but I still have plenty more to go. I think I still prefer the earlier set stories - Roman and Saxon Britain and Europe - but these ar good, too.



The Thirteen Days of Christmas, finished 6th January. This is another Christmas period re-read, and this year I read a chapter a day following the calendar. I have a lovely hardback copy of this with wonderful illustrations by Shirley Hughes.



Shot With Crimson, finished 6th January. I have enjoyed this series featuring a fictionalized Josephine Tey, once I'd got over my misgivings about using a real, fairly recently deceased person as a fictional character, and I expect there will be more to come as Josephine has about fifteen more years of life. This one introduces Daphne Du Maurier as a character and features the filming of Rebecca by Alfred Hitchcock.



Why You Should Read Children's Books, Even Though You Are So Old and Wise, finished 6th January. This hardly counts as it's an essay rather than a book, and I didn't need convincing anyway!

I am Currently Reading several titles at the moment: The Raging Storm, The Grand Sophy (my bedtime audiobook) and Walk the Blue Fields. I also have lined up The Sweet Remnants of Summer and The Stellar Debut of Galactica MacFee - the latest in two Alexander McCall Smith series. I had also, reluctantly started Betty by Tiffany McDaniel, but, as it's for the Book Group that I have decided to leave, I think I may abandon it. Although I like reading (and mostly re-reading) Christmas related books during December I realized that it did stop me reading other books that I was keen to start - I certainly can't blame anyone or anything for that as it's completely self-inflicted but I think I overdid it this time. I'll try and remeber that next December!

>30 CDVicarage: I think the essay on children's books sounds interesting. I don't need convincing either!

Hello Kerry! I never look for threads in the new year groups until Jan. 1 and I must have missed you in the deluge. But I've got you starred now. I love your description of the Harry Styles pilgrims!

It's so sad to see the last message on my thread from Julia, so full of things to come. The news of her death was a shock - it seemed so sudden and unexpected. LT friendships can be so close and yet there is so much that I don't know about people, beyond what they read and other snippets revealed in threads. I realised that I didn't know Julia's surname and had never seen a picture of her until someone posted a picture yesterday, of a meet-up that she had attended some years ago. I shall certainly miss her input in the threads I follow.

It has been a good reading week for me - four titles finished:



The Raging Storm, finished 8th January. This is the third in Ann Cleeves Two Rivers series and, although it is as good as any of her books, the set-up hasn't grabbed me as much as Vera and Shetland did. Neither Vera nor Jimmy Perez had straightforward lives but Matthew's background seems even more disfunctional - it's tempting to tell him to pull his socks up and get over it sometimes, which isn't fair of me really. I'm sure there will be more entries in the series so things may improve!



The Sweet Remnants of Summer, finished 11th January. This is the fourteenth enrty in the Isabel Dalhousie series and I'm fully immersed in it. I love Alexander McCall Smith's (apparently) rambling storytelling and Isabel's tangential thinking. I think I'm quite like that - only not as erudite and coherent of course. As usual, not a lot actually happens in this story but I love the glimpse of the characters' lives.



These Days, finished 13th January. This was much more harrowing but so well expressed. The blitz in Belfast (as in other cities than London) is often forgotten and overlooked. This novel reveals the horror of it and the - to me - unimaginable way that civilians coped with the disruption and disaster. The family in this story is affected dramatically and may, perhaps, have had their lives changed in good as well as bad ways. But all is not explained and tied-up by the end - just like life!



The Stellar Debut of Galactica MacFee, finished 14th January. This is the seventeenth entry in the 44 Scotland Street series and, as with Isabel Dalhousie just goes gently on.

I mentioned before, I think, that I have added a lot of ebooks to my catalogue as 'Possible ebooks' i.e. some will likely be removed if I ever start to read them and find I don't like them. This means that a lot of 'Recent Member-Uploaded Covers for Your Books' come up on my Home Page, especially for the 'classics' - do you know there are 890 member uploaded covers for Around the World in 80 Days - but it has also made me think about reading some of these books! and that is now (one of) my Currently Reading titles. It has also made me delete some titles, unread, already - I decided that James Bond was not for me based on the sexist cover designs of most of the editions. It will be sometime before I have been through all of the potential available covers but it's something I can do a little at a time...

As well as the covers here I have been correcting and adding editions elswhere. I have an account on Goodreads merely to keep track of my 'books read' - I don't use it for anything else - but someone suggested The StoryGraph to me, as an alternative. So, I exported my Goodreads data and imported them into a StoryGraph account. That was the easy part! Most of it imported perfectly well as far as title, author and reading date went but the editions weren't always correct. Of course, for a reading tracker that doesn't really matter, except that to me it does - it sears my librarian's soul to see that I apparently read a paperback when I know it was an ebook - so I have been making corrections. It's a fairly new system so their database is far from extensive. At the moment it is easier (to me) to add a new, correct, edition than to report the missing or incorrect data, so I hope it will be possible to combine entries in the future. I'm not really complaing about this as this sort of tinkering is something I enjoy but it does use up reading time so I have to be careful to keep a balance. There is no way that I would ever abandon LibraryThing but these 'extras' are good too.

>35 CDVicarage: I've just bought These Days on Kindle but haven't got around to reading it yet.

>35 CDVicarage: Thanks for alerting me to another 44 Scotland Street! Still being reviewed for purchase at my library, but I’m patient.

Karen O

>35 CDVicarage: I agree with your assessment being that the new Cleeves series hasn't grabbed me like the others.

>36 CDVicarage: Verifying your library's worth of books is daunting - you've twice as many entries as I do and I thought I had a lot. I may check StoryGraph to understand what people are talking about, but I think I'll be lax as to the editions I've read - since over 70% are library books in any case.

I'd need to base it on LT data rather than GR, which for me is only what I read on my Kindle, so it doesn't go back nearly as far and misses reads important enough to me that I'll resort to a physical book!

>40 quondame: My Goodreads records don't go back very far, only seven years, whereas my LT records now cover nearly seventeen years plus the pre-LT paper lists and an excel spreadsheet which I added. I wish I'd started keeping records much earlier! I may gradually add more to StoryGraph but I find it easy to get carried away and I must leave some reading time...

>39 thornton37814: I'm expecting (and hoping) it will improve as I get to know (and possibly love) the characters better. I also have ebook copies of her earlier series - George & Molly Palmer-Jones and Inspector Stephen Ramsay - unread so I may start on those soon.

>38 klobrien2: I was surprised to get this as an ebook from my library so soon. I like the Alexander McCallSmith books I have read well enough to be happy to buy them, at least when they are on 'special offer' but they are not often reduced in price.

Another good week as far as numbers go - four more titles finished:



The Grand Sophy, read by Sarah Woodward, finished 15th January. A bedtime re-read of a favourite.



Around the World in Eighty Days, finished 17th January. I like a 'Ripping Yarn' from time to time and this was one was forcibly brought to my attention as I was going through the 895 available member uploaded covers recently. (I still had to add my own as the cover my copy has wasn't listed by anyone else!) It was quite a good read but the attitudes are of their time and rather intruded on my enjoyment. This happens with other books too but sometimes I can 'read past' them and sometimes I can't.



Walk the Blue Fields, finished 20th January. This was a disappointment to me. I've recently read Small Things Like These and been impressed (it's not really a book you enjoy) and have Foster in my TBR list so was expecting more. I am not really a fan of short stories so some of the disappointment was inevitable but each story was too 'opaque' for me so I certainly missed 'something' in every one and probably 'most' of some. Plus, they were all full of unhappy, disfunctional people/situations - are there no happy people in Ireland?



O, the Brave Music, finished 20th January. This was better for me! Ruan's life was full of tragedy but there was also plenty of happiness and hope. We follow Ruan's life, pre-WW1, from the age of seven to nearly eighteen as she navigates her way through the clash of culture and attitudes within her family, and her friends and enemies.

Although there are thirty four titles in my Currently Reading collection I know I am not really currently reading some of them. In the week ahead I shall be continuing with The Master of Ballantrae, my current Chalet School title - a fill-in entitled The Chalet School and Cornelia, the audio version of The Good, the Bad and the History, and dipping into some of my long-term non-fiction books: Femina, A Distant Mirror and issues of Slightly Foxed and The Scribbler. I think that should keep me busy and interested!

Another good reading week - I must be on a roll - with five titles finished this week:



The Last Devil to Die, finished 25th January. I was pleased to get this so soon from the library but didn't mean to read it straightaway as I had other books that needed to be finished first. I'll just read the first chapter, I said to myself, but before I knew it I'd finished. Although Richard Osman says he will write more in the series he has other projects to follow first, and the story is left in a tied-up enough situation so I can wait.



The House of Doors, finished 25th January. I had read and very much liked The Garden of Evening Mists courtesy of my late Book Group so I expected to like this one, and I did but... It is based on real people - Somerset Maugham and Sun Yat Sen - and possibly some of the other characters were real too but I don't know and I don't know which parts of the narrative were 'true'. I'm always ambivalent about novels written about real, fairly recently deceased, people. How long should someone have been dead before they are 'fair game'? my other criticism is that the story wasn't explained, tied-up enough, for me. I don't (usually) need every 'i' dotted and 't' crossed but this time I would have liked more certainty.



The Good, the Bad and the History, read by Zara Ramm, finished 26th January. This has been my bedtime audiobook, although it wasn't very soothing! I read this in print when it was published last June and then didn't get around to the audio version until now, even though it was very good. I was slightly horrified to find how much of the story I'd forgotten although it came back as I listened.



Slightly Foxed 77: Laughter in the Library Spring 2023, finished 27th January. Even though we have been in our current house for eighteen months now I still haven't got a settled place for my paper copies of this and other periodicals so I haven't been reading them as quickly as I might have because they are not to hand. However this one did turn up and I have now finished, and enjoyed it. On to Summer 2023 now.



The Master of Ballantrae, finished 28th January. I like a good Ripping Yarn from time to time and, since Treasure Island and Kidnapped are favourites this one seemed a good idea. However I found it quite an effort - it seemed to go on and on - and I doubt I shall re-read it.

Although it's good to finish a book (or two or three) it means I have to decide what to read next. I know I'm part-way through quite a number (as detailed above) but I still want a new book: The next in the Brighton Mysteries series by Elly Griffiths was available for 99p last week so that - The Great Deceiver could be next. Or I got Light Over Liskeard from the library last week, but I'm not sure how 'dystopian' it is. Of course I shall be continuing, on and off, with my Chalet School read-through, and my regular periodicals Slightly Foxed and The Scribbler. Decisions, decisions... Watch this space!

I had a chuckle over you getting sucked into the fourth Thursday Murder Club book. It was a good one, wasn't it? I'm eager to see what Osman publishes during his time away from this series.

My goodness, you're on fire! I started The Last Devil to Die the other day but I'm having a hard time finding time to get back to it. Your enjoyment is a good nudge...maybe when I finish here...but there is a lot of ice skating waiting too...

>48 lauralkeet: >49 RebaRelishesReading: There are some books that once I've started I have to keep on... The Inspector Gamache series by Louise Penny grabbed me like that - they are so intense sometimes that I have to have a rest but find myself picking the book up again after five minutes!

I have audiobook versions of some of the Thursday Murder Club books so I am starting the series again. I found the first one quite hard work so I am hoping that, now I know the characters and the set-up better, I'll find it easier this time round.

Ah, another Louise Penny fan :) When a new book comes out by her it goes straight to the top of my TBR pile. Do you know a new one is due in October?

It was really nice to meet you yesterday and hope we'll have many more chances for meet-up's in the future.

>51 RebaRelishesReading: No, I didn't!

I think you've got your correspondents muddled - I haven't been to a meet-up, although I'd certainly like to.

>52 CDVicarage: Oh dear, Kerry. I'm hurrying through the threads because ice skating and/or a book are calling.. I'm so sorry. I do know the I didn't meet you yesterday...although I would love to have.

Quite a good reading week, in terms of numbers, but I was suffering a heavy cold so I could only manage comfort reads. Fortunately my Chalet School readthrough is always available and a new Elly Griffiths popped up just at the right time, too:



The Great Deceiver finished 29th January. Although I haven't taken to this series as well as to Ruth Galloway, it's still a good read and I finished this one pretty quickly. It's the seventh book in the series and when it started I couldn't see how Elly Griffiths could keep such a niche setting going but she has moved it on and developed the characters and settings very well, so I shall be very pleased to read the next one!



The Chalet School and Cornelia, finished 29th January. This is a fairly recently written fill-in to the Chalet School series and only my second reading of it. It covers the same term as Head Girl of the Chalet School so the plot is familiar but Katherine Bruce fills in some details about Cornelia that EBD only alluded to in passing.



Rivals of the Chalet School, finished 1st February. Back to an EBD original and, according to my LT record, only my third reading but I know I've read it several times before detailed records began. It's one of my favourites, set, when the school was fairly new, in Tyrol. There is a horribly sentimental episode towards the end but it still brings a tear to my eye every time. But EBD follows it up with a funny trick-playing episode so we're back to an even keel by the end!



The Path to the Sea, finished 3rd February. My hopes weren't particularly high for this. I'd read The Cornish House, Liz Fenwick's first novel, last year, and I wasn't surprised to learn it was her first as I felt she hadn't got the 'balance' right - the plot seemed rather contrived and the main characters were so horrible to each other that I couldn't see how they could forgive each other and move on. However this one, seven years and eight books later, was much better and I even sat up late to try and finish it I was so engrossed.

In January I finished nineteen books, which is a much better monthly total than for most of 2023:

Five paper books, twelve ebooks and two audiobooks, fifteen were new to me and only four were re-reads, none were ROOT successes. After December's reading, most of which was re-reads, I think that's a good ratio. Adding all the collected ebooks to my catalogue recently, I was rather shocked at the number of unread books I have, so I feel better that I'm doing something to reduce that number!

February, of course, is a much shorter month - actually and metaphorically - although it is a day longer this year, so I may not have such a good total at the next monthly round-up but I've started quite well.

Four titles finished this week, which I feel is a good 'average':



A Bird in the Hand, finished 5th February. This was Ann Cleeves' first published book (I think) and compared with her later books is a little lacking. I'm not sure if it is that she is now a better writer or if it is because it is the first in a series, with all the usual issues - lack of familiarity with characters, setting etc - but I didn't take to it. It hasn't put me off entirely, and I have the rest of the series available, so I shall continue at a later date.



Slightly Foxed 78: A Familiar Country Summer 2023, finished 7th February. The disruption of moving is still affecting my reading of these. They don't have a place in my bookcase until after I have read them so I have been unable to find the current issue and have fallen behind in reading them. It doesn't really matter, of course, as articles about long-published works can be read at any time. I'm still working my way through the digital editions from before my subscription started and I have now found all my paper copies so I might catch up!



Doing Time, read by Zara Ramm, finished 8th February. I'm re-reading (listening) to this series for my bedtime reading and enjoying it as much as ever. And even though I knew the story I had to fast-forward through a scary bit, which I would have happily read in daylight!



Eustacia Goes to the Chalet School, fiished 9th February. The next in my Chalet School read through. It's number six in the original series but number fifteen if you include the recent fill-ins. This is one of my favourite covers, in fact this section of five original stories all have lovely cover pictures by Nina K. Brisley.

>56 CDVicarage: You are right about the cover of Eustacia Goes to the Chalet School, Kerry, it is very fetching indeed, though I know nothing about the books!

Have a lovely weekend.

>57 PaulCranswick: More examples:

Four titles finished this week:



The Fair Miss Fortune, finished 11th February. I read this some time ago as an audiobook and that was better than in print. It's a very 'slight' novel and the audio performance gave it added 'body'. However D. E. Stevenson is always a good, easy read so it was worth not very little effort required.



The Thursday Murder Club, read by Lesley Manville, finished 14th February. This one is a reverse of the previous book - I read it in print first and followed it up in audio. I have a bad habit of reading too fast and when i finished the print edition I was still a little confused as to what had actually happened. With an audio version I have to listen more slowly and should, therefore, be able to absorb the story better! However I listen at bedtime and sometimes fall asleep, and then wake again, so I'm sure I still missed some of the story. It's a good bedtime book as it has lots of quite short chapters so it's easy to stop and start each night, although it's also easy to listen to 'just one more chapter'.



Nina Balatka, finished 15th February. This is the latest in Liz's tutored read-through of Trollope's novels and compared with some of his others it's another 'slight' one - only two volumes, originally, instead of the usual three - and it's another one that I wouldn't have read on my own. But I am glad to be able to 'tick it off' the list!



Latchkey Ladies, finished 17th February. This was something of a disappointment. I'm not sure if it's because I was expecting something different (from the blurb etc) or if it really was a bit 'wandering' in its plot and character development. I have a few more books from Handheld Press and I hope they will be less disappointing - I loved Business as Usual, so I'm still hopeful.

>58 CDVicarage: I still think that the cover in >56 CDVicarage: is the best, Kerry!

>56 CDVicarage: I've had that Cleeves book on my Kindle for years and still haven't read it or the other early ones I purchased cheaply. The Chalet school series still looks interesting, but it is difficult to find in the U.S.

Kerry, I read The Thursday Murder Club in January and it's not just you that could not follow what happened. I read the physical copy and even so, at the end I was a little puzzled about who killed who and why and thus I deducted half a star from what was otherwise a wonderful read.

>60 PaulCranswick: Yes, if I had to rank them I think the cover for Eustacia is the best!

>61 thornton37814: Chalet School books aren't particularly easy to find here, either. I wouldn't expect to find them in a Public Library except by Inter Library Loan (at a cost) and although they have been republished over the last twenty or so years it is by a very small independent publisher - Girls Gone By - so producing only small numbers of any title. Most of the (now adult) fans have bought them second-hand from ebay or other booksellers over the years, again, at a cost. When we moved and downsized eighteen months ago I made the decision to sell my complete hardback collection, as I had the newer paperbacks, and I got over £2000 for the eighty or so books (sold singly). I think that's more than I paid for them but, as the collection took many years to accumulate and I didn't keep records, I can't be sure!

>62 vancouverdeb: I also put it down to its being the first in a series so you have to learn the set-up and get to know the characters. As I recall the later books were easier to follow. Annoyingly the first two audiobooks are read by one narrator (Lesley Manville) and the last two by someone else, who, although she may be a good reader, is different.

Another good week with five titles finished:



Impact of Evidence, finished 18th February. After my disappointment with Latchkey Ladies I went back to what I thought would be a guaranteed 'good read' in the British Library Crime Classics series, and it was. I have read and liked a lot of books written by E. C. R. Lorac and Carol Carnac is another of her pseudonyms.



Hard Time, read by Zara Ramm, finished 23rd February. A bedtime re-read. This is the second in this series and the fifth is due out in June so I should have done a recent re-read of the whole series by then.



A Man Called Ove, finished 23rd February. This was the Public Library Book Group book and for a fairly short book has taken us a long time, partly because it provoked a lot of discussion (chatting) as we read it! We recently read The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, which I found a bit saccharine and I half-expected this one to be similar but Ove had enough acerbity/acidity in his character to make it much better.



The Secret of High Eldersham, finished 24th February. British Library Crime Classics not so reliable this time. The plot/subject was a bit too niche - witchcraft (or pseudo-witchcraft) with simple-minded and nasty rural locals ending up being put in their places by the upper classes. It was of its time and I can usually pass over those opinions but they seemed a bit too obtrusive this time. Otherwise the plot was good and unexpected so it wasn't a waste of time but I still prefer the Robert Macdonald series.



Victorians Undone, finished 24th February. This was an interesting approach to the Victorian era - five chapters: Lady Flora's Belly, Charles Darwin's Beard, George Eliot's Hand, Fanny Cornforth's Mouth and Sweet Fanny Adams - each of which was a starting point for a discussion of Victorian mores. It was a book I wouldn't have picked up on my own but it was recommended and pressed into my hand by the librarian who runs our book group. She surprises me in what she recommends as the group books are a bit 'light' for me but she is restricted by what she can get for those as we need about a dozen copies of each current title.

I'm on my own for a week (well five days) as my husband is away so I shall be able to do what I want without considering another person - I wonder if I will read more or less?

Kerry - You've done a lot of great reading. I agreed with you about The Raging Storm; it wasn't as good as the previous two. I really look forward to These Days; I love good historical fiction. I love seeing some of the "vintage" reads as well. I hope your days on your own are full of good reads.

>67 CDVicarage: It's rare for me to have that much time on my own, I think the last time it happened was in 2019 when my husband went on a cycling trip. It felt luxurious in a way, but sometimes I was at sixes and sevens. There's only so much conversation you can have with the dog!

I hope you are enjoying your solo time / extra reading time.

>69 lauralkeet: I'm going to have quite a bit of time on my own this year as Mr SandDune has signed up for numerous school trips. He's doing silver and gold Duke of Edinburgh trips in the spring, then a trip to Berlin, and he's umming and ahing about whether to sign up for a trip to Japan in the autumn. I think he thinks that it won't be too much longer until he retires, so he might as well do the trips before then. He's always enjoyed them (although they are hard work), and particularly now as he doesn't have the responsibility of organising them any more.

>69 lauralkeet: >70 SandDune: I did enjoy my week. I wasn't entirely alone as I still worked on Tuesday and Wednesday so saw my daughter, s-i-l and grandson. I was pleased to see Jon home on Friday afternoon but suddenly there seemed to be lots of trivial decisions to discuss and make: what shall we have for dinner? Is there any shopping we need? etc - decisions that I had been making, without discussion, all week!

My reading week - four titles finished:



Slightly Foxed 79: U and I and Me Autumn 2023, finished 25th February. The usual good selection of articles, although nothing added to the TBR list this time. When I finished this one and started no. 80, the latest one, I thought "I've caught up" and then the next issue arrived in the post this week!



Normal Rules Don't Apply, finished 25th February. Although I've never disliked a Kate Atkinson book I have found a few 'difficult'. This collection of short stories was lovely to read but surreal - fairy story-like. I'm also not really a fan of short stories, anyway.



The Secret Shore, finished 29th February. By the time I'd decided that I wasn't liking/enjoying this I was so far through that I had to finish it or I would have felt I'd wasted the time and effort I'd already put in! This is the third novel by Liz Fenwick that I've read and I've only really liked one of them so shall I ditch the other two ebooks, as yet unread, that I have or plough through them because I've paid for them (only 99p, I think)?



Comfort Eating: What we Eat when Nobody's Looking, finished 1st March. This was a slender volume, which turned out to be just right. It was funny, with serious bits, but didn't try and stretch the joke too far. The author is younger than I am but I could remember the era that she covered. It's very British so, much as I enjoyed it, I can't recommend it to non-Brits.

As far as numbers go, February was a very good reading month. I finished eighteen titles: seven paper books, eight ebooks and three audiobooks. Of those six were re-reads ad twelve were new to me, and only one was a ROOT success. Nothing really 'wowed' me this month and even the ones I didn't care for were OK, so I think it's been a good month for quality as well as quantity!

>73 CDVicarage: Well done, Kerry. My own reading in February fell pretty flat but I am hoping to do better in March!

Five titles finished this week and three are from a new series:



Slightly Foxed 80: Arrows of Revelation Winter 2023, finished 3rd March. Another good selection of articles.



A Secret Garden Affair, finished 4th March. I've enjoyed other books by Erica James but I found this one unneccessarily protracted but once I'd got so far I had to finish it.



Clerical Errors, Unholy Ghosts and Idol Bones, finished 7th, 9th and 9th March. I've had the first in this series - Theodora Braithwaite - for some time but only read it last week. I loved it and looked for the rest - eight more books. They were available in Kindle Unlimited or for sale at £1.99 each, which was a bit more than I wanted to pay, but then I found a 'Boxed' set of all nine books for 99p! Our main character, Theodora Braithwaite is a deacon in the Church of England in the time before women could be priests and the setting is very CofE. Reviews I have read, mostly from American readers, have commented that it is very complicated and they really don't understand it, even though there is a glossary of English usage for American readers. Much as I am loving the series I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who isn't steeped in the culture of Englishness and the Cof E in particular! So far I am impressed by how the author has convincingly moved Theodora around so that you haven't ended up with one small village or organisation suffering an abnormally high number of murders. (I enjoy watching Midsomer Murders but you do wonder how the county of Midsomer can have any population left!) I've read three of the nine books so far and I hope the quality is maintained.

Wow, you really get through a lot of books over the weekends!

I'm a bit later in the day than ususal making my weekly round-up as we have had our grandson, Toby, with us this afternoon, and I'm also now tired enough to think about bed, even though it's only just after seven! Anyway, five titles finished this week:



Cotillion, read by Phyllida Nash, finished 11th March. A many times re-read for my bedtime book.It's definitely one of my top five Heyer favourites.



Holy Terrors, Every Deadly Sin, Mortal Spoils and Heavenly Vices, finished 11th to 16th March. I'm still whizzing my way through the series Theodora Braithwaite, (two more to go) and still liking them and being impressed by the way the author moves Theodora on, plausibly, from place to place. The ridiculousness of the situations is beginning to show more but the protagonist is also aware of it so it fits into the story.

>76 mstrust: I do my weekly round-up on Sundays, the reading is done fairly evenly through the week!

I've moved on to the next in the Thursday Murder Club series for my bedtime book - The Man who Died Twice, still with Lesley Manville as reader, and I shall be reading the final two books in the Theodora Braithwaite series this week. The next in the Harbinder Kaur series - The Last word - is available for 99p as an ebook at the moment so that will be coming up soon in my reading, too. Although it's lovely to find, and read straight through, a series it then leaves a big void when finished and I hope The Last Word will fill that.

>79 CDVicarage: Yay! I was able to put The Last Word on hold! US Amazon wasn't offering it at a bargain price, but I didn't really want to buy anyway.

Another good week of reading in terms of quantity, and quality, I think - seven titles finished:



A Grave Disturbance and Foolish Ways, finished 17th and 18th March. The final two (of nine) in this series, and the stories held up well for the whole series. Theodora was moved very well and plausibly around so that she was in a different set-up for each story. I will repeat that, much as I enjoyed them, they will only appeal to a small niche of readers so I am not going to reccommend them unreservedly.



Uncommon Arrangements: Seven Marriages , finished 2oth March. This was a paper book that sat by my armchair in the living room so that I picked it up and read it intermittently over quite a long period - according to my notes I started it in August 2023. It was interesting but not riveting and all of the couples (or trios) involved were not attractive pleasant people - interesting to read about but not people I'd like to have known!



The Last Word, finished 22nd March. I was lucky to notice this ebook, briefly on offer for 99p, and bought and read it straightaway. I very much liked the Ruth Galloway series and I have enjoyed The Brighton Mysteries and this series too but they don't quite match up to Ruth. This is the fourth book featuring Harbinder Kaur and from the ending (and the title?) I think it might be the last.



A Kind Man, finished 22nd March. This was my Library Book Group book. It was quite short - it only took four meetings to read it - but there was a lot in it. As you would expect from Susan Hill, it is well written but a slightly odd plot, featuring a supernatural element which starts quite out of the blue in what had seemed a very 'down to earth' story.



The Corfe Castle Murders and The Clifftop Murders, finished 23rd and 24th March. I noticed these in my ebook library recently and the setting - Rural Dorset - was attractive. A DCI is seconded from Birmingham to Dorset and experiences a certain amount of culture shock as well as problems in her private life. While not great literature and not even great in their genre I have found them easy to read and I managed to resist reading the last page even though I hadn't guessed whodunnit. What really struck me was how similar they were in structure to a two-hour TV detective programme - Midsomer Murders or Vera, say - several red herrings of people with secrets that aren't necessarily anything to do with the murder and then the last frantic ten minutes or so (on TV) when our hero or heroine finally realises whodunnit and has to prevent a further murder at the last minute! Although there are nine stories in this series I only have one more in my library andmuch as I have enjoyed them - so far - I don't think I am inclined to spend the required sum to get the rest. Perhaps I'll have a month of Kindle Unlimited and read them then.

>81 CDVicarage: I've put Uncommon Arrangements on my wishlist.

>82 elorin: I'm glad I didn't make it sound too bad! It was definitely worth reading but not something that I had to finish in a hurry. I like to have a book like that on the go, in fact I usually have several...

Only four titles finished this week:



The Island Murders, finished 24th March. This is the last title in this series that I have and, although it was a good enough story, I don't feel I want to continue with it.



The Man Who Died Twice, read by Lesley Manville, finished 25th March. This, the second book in the series is definitely easier to read/follow. I suppose, because I am more familiar with the characters and set-up and can concentrate more on the plot - lots of good twists.



The Chalet school and Jo, finished 28th March. This is the seventh book in the original series but is now the sixteenth if you include the fill-ins. Jo is now (unwillingly) Head Girl and, as well as all the usual activities and adventures, the school goes to Oberammergau to see the Passion Play as their treat for Madge's birthday celebrations. I saw the play in 2022 and this is the first time I have read this account since then. The book was first published in 1930 so presumably reflects that year's performance.



Slightly Foxed: No. 22: Don't Give Up the Day Job, finished 30th March. Another ebook version of a Slightly Foxed back- copy (I'm up to no. 81 in paper) and, although just as pleasant to read, none of the articles really grabbed me and added to my TBR list.

It's April, so time to do a March round-up:

I've finished twenty-two titles this month - quite a lot, I think! Three paper books, seventeen ebooks and two audio books. Nineteen were new to me and three were re-reads. No ROOT successes. Nine of the new titles were part of one series - Theodora Braithwaite - which I enjoyed and read through very quickly and definitely caused the high number this month.

Of my current Currently Reading titles my re-reading of The Time Police and Chalet School series continues. The next Time Police is due to be published in June and I want to be ready! I've also just started the Inspector Ramsay series by Ann Cleeves and I see there is a new Vera title due in August. I also have a few historical non-fiction titles continuing as well as issues of The Scribbler and Slightly Foxed. So, enough to keep me going.

I've had a good, if quiet, Easter weekend. My best friend, Libby, came to stay, en route from Norwich to Bakewell, where she will be singing with a choir for a week. We first met at our Library and Information Science course back in the mid 80s and have been friends ever since. Libby has always worked as a librarian and is now Stock Control Manager (?) for Norfolk libraries and I've enjoyed a few days of bookish and library conversations. We don't have particularly similar reading tastes but I have got her started on The Chronicles of St Mary's.

If you are a church-goer you will know that it is a busy time, although for us, now Jon has retired, it is not as busy as it was in the past. I shall be going to the Hay Festival for the first time this year, which is both exciting and slightly daunting - will there be lots of clever and literary people to make me feel out of my depth? I'm going with some friends so I shall have company. I am also going to the biennial Bristol Conference on Girlsown literature in August, which I always enjoy, so more bookish times ahead.

Only four titles finished this week:



The White Ship: Conquest, Anarchy and the Wrecking of Henry I’s Dream, finished 1st April. An interesting book, filling in (for me) gaps in my historical knowledge, but the prose was a bit clunky and sometimes hard to follow. There was also too much of it; often a first time novelist will overwrite a book - 'I've done all this research so I'm going to use it regardless - and this would have been better with less in it. It must be difficult to write clearly about the subject as there are a lot of 'characters' involved and many have similar names, not in the format 'firstname surname' that we're more used to nowadays. The overall impression that it gave me was first this happened, then X did this, then Y did that etc. So I can't say I've read it cover-to-cover as I ended up skimming some parts.



A Lesson in Dying, Murder in My Backyard and A Day in the Death of Dorothea Cassidy, finished 3rd to 6th April. These are the first three in another Ann Cleeves series, Inspector Stephen Ramsay. This is the second series that she has written and overlaps, in publishing dates, with the George & Molly Palmer-Jones series. And then she moved on to Vera. This one is an improvement on the first, particularly, for me, as it is set in North-east England - an area I know. Inspector Ramsay himself is not a very appealing character and his flaws are emphasised in each book (so far). However they are very readable and I shall certainly continue with the other three books.

>87 CDVicarage: I've had some of those older Cleeves books on my Kindle for ages and have not read them. I must try some of them.

>87 CDVicarage: Only four books finished this week! That statement could only be made on LT, Kerry!

>87 CDVicarage: Even worse - only three this week!

Actually, I've remembered another - four titles finished this week:



Killjoy, The Healers and The Baby-Snatcher, finished 8th to 12th April. I did go on and finish the Inspector Stephen Ramsay series. There are six books in the series but definite ending - it seems as though once Ann Cleeves started on the Vera series she decided to leave Inspector Ramsay where he was!



Saving Time and About Time, finished 4th and 13th April. I forgot to enter Saving time when I finished it so here it is now along with the fourth in the series, which I finished yesterday. They have been my bedtime (re-) reading and now I only have last year's Christmas short story to read until the fifth book in the series is published in June.

It's been a very good week, numbers-wise:



The Invisible Women's Club, finished 15th April. Another 'heartwarming' story. I seem to have read quite a few recently in which a grumpy/lonely old man/woman meets 'the rest of the world' and is redeemed in some way. None of them has been awful - and this one was quite interesting and slightly different - but they are really all the same, and often rather saccharine. Or perhaps that's me being a grumpy old woman!



A Distant Mirror, finished 15th April. This was very different - an excellent history of Western Europe during the 14th century, using the life of one man, Enguerrand de Coucy, to follow the happenings through. It wasn't a book that I could for long stretches and I like to have a 'serious' non-fiction book to read on-and-off on the go. According to my records I started this one in June 2020, so you can tell there's been plenty of 'off'.



The Last List of Mabel Beaumont, finished 16th April. Another 'heartwarming' story! Again, it's perfectly pleasant and easy to read but... It's my fault, really, why did I read another book like it so soon?



Santa Grint, read by Zara Ramm, finished 18th April. The last (currently) in the Time Police series. It is a long short story, published for the Christmas before last. I now have to wait until June for the next full-length book in the series.



He Who Whispers, finished 20th April. Although I have found all the British Library Crime Classics that I have read to be worth reading there have been a few that I didin't really care for and this was one of them. It is sixteenth in the Dr Gideon Fell series but I don't think it matters that I haven't read the preceding fifteen. I didn't take to Dr Fell (and, no, I can't really tell you why) or the writing style, so, if another falls into my library, I shall read it, but I shan't be searching any out.



Steeple Chasing, finished 21st April. More non-fiction; the author travelled around Britain visiting churches and other holy sites in the months after lockdown had finished, and these are his descriptions of, and reflections on, his journey. Since I am British and used to ancient and modern church buildings, and probably take them for granted, I found the people he met more interesting and memorable than the buildings.

>92 CDVicarage: Ah well, the tradition distaste for Fell. ;)

I really enjoyed The Last List of Mabel Beaumont earlier this year, Kerry. Yes, I think you can read too many of similar books that are heartwarming and about the elderly. I read a two or three this year, but I have space them. I'm glad you were able to find The Maiden on kindle for a good price. Not here yet.

Only five titles finished this week and several were quite short:



Slightly Foxed: No. 23: Social Climbing Autumn 2009, finished 21st April. Still working my way through the back numbers.



Come, Tell Me How You Live, finished 24th April. I have been reading this on and off since the beginning of January. It started well - amusing and informative - but the dated (of its time) and patronising attitudes to the 'natives' became annoying after a while.



The Salisbury Manuscript, finished 24th April. I picked this up because I used to live in Salisbury and thought it would be interesting. It was - I could follow the protagonists along streets I knew - but the writing and plotting were not very good. There are two more in the series set in other cathedral cities - Durham and Ely - but I shan't be making an effort to find them.



Storm Christopher, finished 25th April. This is another short story in Jodi Taylor's Frogmorton Farm series and I was able to read it on publication day as I had a longish car journey. I don't know if Frogmorton Farm could take another full-length story but I'm sure there's capacity for a few more short stories!



Slightly Foxed: No. 24: A Pash for Nash, finished 27th April. These are ideal for reading in odd moments when I haven't the time or concentration for a full-length book and I still have twenty or so back numbers to read as well as keeping up with the new issues.

>95 CDVicarage: Congratulations on reaching 75, Kerry!

>96 FAMeulstee: Thanks, Anita! I didn't notice that, I often forget the name of the group!

Congrats!

April round-up: Twenty-two titles finished and one abandoned a surprisingly high number! Three print books, three audio books and sixteen ebooks. Some of the non-fiction had been in Currently Reading for a long time, which is fine as they were not books to read in a hurry but were good to pick up and put down from time to time. There was nothing outstanding and some were disappointing but only one so bad that I abandoned!

I hadn't really noticed that I had passed 75 - the name of the group doesn't register particularly, just the people I share it with. If I continue at this rate I should pass 2x75 and possibly even 3x. Actual numbers aren't important except as a guide that I am enjoying reading, so I hope they continue to rise well!

This week's reading: four titles finished.



The Chalet Girls in Camp, finished 28th April. The latest in my current Chalet School read through and a lovely account of the Chalet School guides camping. When I read these as a child I preferred the school-set books but nowadays I enjoy the holiday books more.



The Harbour Lights Mystery, finished 29th April. The second in the Shell House Detectives series. This was one of the disappointing ones mentioned above. The first one was perfectly fine, and so was this one really. I have the third in my library and will read it but I don't think I shall make much effort to find anymore.



The Unknown Ajax, read by Thomas Judd, finished 1st May. I haven't been at all impressed with the new audio editions of Georgette Heyer's Regency novels but I didn't like the old version of this book so I gave the new one a try and it's good. It was the treatment of the Yorkshire talk that put me off the old version but Thomas Judd does it much better. It's not one of my top-five Heyers but it's still a good story!



Northanger Abbey, finished 3rd May. I needed something reliable and this filled the bill very well. For a long time this was one of my least favourite Jane Austens. It had been spoiled for me by the English teacher I had at about age twelve. When I re-read it as an adult, having read all the other titles, I appreciated it much more. I hadn't realised how funny it is. I still don't re-read it as often as Persuasion, say but I like it much more than I did.

>100 CDVicarage: I completely agree with you about Northanger Abbey--it wasn't until I read some of the novels referred to in the book, that it all made sense, especially the humor. I think it's under-appreciated, even by JA fans. Right now I'm finishing up my annual re-read of P&P.

I've always been quite fond of Northanger Abbey and lucked out that when I took a class on Jane Austen during undergrad, my prof made reading it even more fun.

Congrats on surpassing 75!
I've always loved Northanger Abbey as it seems like she was writing it as a comedy. The villains are so very villainous.

Another Sunday, another reading report: four titles finished and one abandoned:



Practically Perfect: Life Lessons from Mary Poppins, finished 6th May. I would normally avoid books classified as 'Self Help' - and this one wasn't actually labelled that but it was close - but 'Mary Poppins', who could resist that. The author's name seemed vaguely familiar, and when I googled I recognised her photo but hadn't seen any of her comedy, although I think she was in a Midsomer Murder that I've watched. I whizzed throughthe book, agreeing with most of it.



Black Beauty, finished 7th May. A re-read. This cover is my Puffin edition, which I bought when I was about seven or eight and still have. I actually read an ebook as the paper copy is quite fragile. I probably read this a few times in my childhood but it's been a long time since the last reading and, although I thought I knew the story well there was a lot I'd forgotten. It's a heavily moral tale - something that passed me by as a child, I'm sure - and it's not nearly as long as I remembered - again a child's reading speed would be much less than mine nowadays. I'm glad I read it again but that will probably be the last time!



The Wedding Dress Repair Shop, finished 11th May. I've liked all the Trisha Ashley books I've read and this was no exception. I think it must be one of the later ones as many of those I have already read get sideways mentions. Although I don't read 'Chick Lit' for the excitement or tension of the story - you know it's going to end well - this one had even less tension than any of the others. But it's relaxing to read something that is so easy.



Silas Marner, finished 11th May. This has been my Library Book Group book but I shall miss the next meeting so I read to the end on my own. Everyone in the group said they liked it (although I don't think everyone was being perfectly honest) but it was a hard book to read aloud - it's verbose (compared with other books we've read) and the language is awkward, compared with modern writers. I did like it of course - I couldn't say I don't like George Eliot, could I? - but I shan't be rushing to re-read it. (Or any of her other books that I've read).



An Unsuitable Heiress, abandoned 11th May. I have read, and enjoyed, a Regency novel by this author before but this one didn't work for me. Obviously no-one matches up to Georgette Heyer and I didn't take to the Bridgerton novels either. This story seemed unrealistic, which is a ridiculous criticism as none of them are...