CDVicarage (Kerry) completes the decade

I started last year's introduction by saying that apart from being a year older nothing had changed, but no-one can say that this year. Although I haven't been strongly affected by the pandemic and the resulting lockdowns and other restrictions, life is still different. My son, Andrew suffered from Covid back in March, and is still suffering the results of Long Covid. My husband, Jon, runs two rural parishes here in Cheshire and has had to learn how to run services using online technology, although we are now back to short services in the churches but with the doors and windows open. The biggest difference - now and in the future - has been the arrival of our first grandchild. Toby was due on 31st December (today) but arrived early on 16th December. Of course he is lovely, and I shall probably be involved in childcare as time goes on. Kevin is still with us; he is now 14 and a half years old but still acts kittenish from time to time.

January:

1. Why Mummy’s Sloshed: The Bigger the Kids, the Bigger the Drink, 3rd January
2. Working: Researching, Interviewing, Writing, 4th January
3. A Man of Some Repute, read by Michael Page, 5th January
4. Smoke and Iron, 6th January
5. Sword and Pen, 8th January
6. Lady in Waiting, 10th January
7. Wine of Honour, 12th January
8. A Question of Inheritance, read by Michael Page, 14th January
9. Business as Usual, 14th January
10. Stranger at St Bride's, 14th January
11. Ladies Can’t Climb Ladders: The Pioneering Adventures of the First Professional Women, 18th January
12. The Governess, 21st January
13. A Matter of Loyalty, read by Michael Page, 23rd January
14. The Quantum Curators and the Enemy Within, 23rd January
15. The Ordeal of the Haunted Room, read by Zara Ramm, 24th January
16. Arsenic for Tea, 24th January
17. Oliver Twist, read by Martin Jarvis, 30th January
18. The Postscript Murders, 30th January
19. The Foolish Gentlewoman, 30th January ROOT

February:

20. Miss Buncle's Book, read by Patricia Gallimore, 2nd February ROOT
21. Girl, Woman, Other, 6th February
22. Blood Feud, 7th February
23. Miss Buncle Married, read by Patricia Gallimore, 8th February ROOT
24. First Class Murder, 9th February
25. The Reluctant Widow, read by Cornelius Garrett, 10th February
26. The Laying On Of Hands, 11th February ROOT
27. Father! Father! Burning Bright, 11th February ROOT
28. The Girls' Book of Priesthood, 13th February ROOT
29. The Strawberry Thief, 14th February
30. Death In Profile, 15th February ROOT
31. The Two Mrs. Abbotts, 16th February ROOT
32. The Legacy of Elizabeth Pringle, 17th February
33. A Brief History of Britain 1485-1660, read by Roger Davis, 19th February
34. The Tightening String, 22nd February ROOT
35. The Quiet Gentleman, read by Cornelius Garrett, 25th February
36. The Flowering Thorn, 25th February
37. A History of Britain in 21 Women, read by Jenni Murray, February 27th
38. The Five-Minute Marriage, 28th February
39. Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?, read by the author, 28th February

March:

40. Rhododendron Pie, 3rd March
41. The Enchanted April, read by Nadia May, 5th March
42. The Sword Song of Bjarni Sigurdson, 5th March
43. The White Crucifixion, 6th March
44. Argos, 7th March
45. Long Live Grover Cleveland, 7th March
46. The Gustav Sonata, 7th March
47. The Folly Under the Lake, 10th March
48. The Corinthian, read by Georgina Sutton, 11th March
49. Outcast, 12th March
50. The Letters, 13th March
51. The Kite Flyer, 14th March
52. Jolly Foul Play, 15th March
53. Heat Haze, 15th March
54. Forcibly Bewitched, 18th March
55. The Glimpses, 18th March
56. Faro's Daughter, read by Laura Paton, 25th March

April:

57. Shine, Pamela! Shine!, 4th April
58. The Foundling, 5th April
59. Slightly Foxed 68: 'Ring Out, Wild Bells' Winter 2020, 5th April
60. The Executor, 8th April
61. The House Opposite, 8th April
62. The Scribbler No. 17 March 2021: A retrospective literary review, 9th April
63. The Rector, 10th April
64. A Promise of Ankles, read by David Rintoul, 11th April
65. The Diary of a Bookseller, 14th April
66. Another Time, Another Place, 15th April
67. Confessions of a Bookseller, 16th April
68. Jews Don't Count, 16th April
69. Seven Kinds of People You Find in Bookshops, 16th April
70. Mum and Dad, 18th April
71. Alice, 19th April
72. God's House, 20th April
73. A House in the Country, 22nd April
74. Queen Lucia, read by Georgina Sutton, 24th April
75. Harlequin House, 25th April
76. The English and Their History, read by Stephen Thorne, 25th April
77. Gone Away, 25th April
78. The Cruellest Month, 26th April
79. The Shortest Journey, 27th April
80. Mrs Malory and the Festival Murder, 29th April
81. Superfluous Death, 30th April
82. Death of a Dean, 30th April

May:

83. The Dictionary of Lost Words, 2nd May
84. Death in Practice, 4th May ROOT
85. Miss Mapp, read by Georgina Sutton, 6th May
86. The Silent Killer, 6th May ROOT
87. No Cure for Death, 7th May ROOT
88. A Death in the Family, 7th May ROOT
89. A Time to Die, 8th May ROOT
90. Any Man's Death, 9th May ROOT
91. A Necessary End, 9th May ROOT
92. Death is a Word, 10th May ROOT
93. The Doctor's Family, 12th May ROOT
94. Another Time, Another Place, read by Zara Ramm, 15th May
95. Slightly Foxed 69: 'The Pram in the Hall' Spring 2021, 16th May
96. What Angels Fear, 16th May
97. When Gods Die, 18th May
98. Lucia in London, read by Georgina Sutton, 20th May
99. Why Mermaids Sing, 20th May
100. Where Serpents Sleep, 21st May
101. A Girl Called Justice: The Smugglers' Secret, 21st May
102. The Eye of Love, 24th May
103. Martha in Paris, 25th May
104. Martha, Eric and George, 27th May
105. Tales from Lindford, 31st May

June:

106. The Swiss Summer, 4th June
107. What Remains of Heaven, 5th June
108. Where Shadows Dance, 5th June
109. When Maidens Mourn, 6th June
110. The Night Hawks, 7th June
111. Mapp and Lucia, read by Georgina Sutton, 10th June
112. A Pink Front Door, 11th June
113. The Chalet School Returns to the Alps, 15th June
114. The Masqueraders, 15th June ROOT
115. Bassett, 20th June
116. The Camomile Lawn, 21st June
117. Lucia's Progress, read by Georgina Sutton, 24th June
118. A Thousand Ships, 26th June

July:

119. The Scribbler No. 18 July 2021: A retrospective literary review, 2nd July
120. Let's Do It: The Authorised Biography of Victoria Wood, 5th July
121. Trouble for Lucia, read by Georgina Sutton, 6th July
122. Apricot Sky, 8th July
123. Small Pleasures, 10th July
124. Learning to Swim, 11th July
125. Susan Settles Down, 12th July
126. Pied Piper, 15th July
127. The Dead of Winter, read by Sandra Duncan, 18th July
128. Love in a Cold Climate, read by Patricia Hodge, 20th July
129. Ariadne, 22nd July
130. The Stone of Chastity, 24th July
131. Family Ties, 29th July

August:

132. Fanfare for Tin Trumpets, 5th August
133. An Expert in Murder, read by Sandra Duncan, 6th August
134. Mrs. Lorimer's Quiet Summer, 9th August
135. The Book of Longings, 11th August
136. Love Comes Home, 14th August
137. Slightly Foxed 70: 'Tigers at the Double Lion' Summer 2021, 15th August
138. Slightly Foxed 1: Spring 2004, 15th August
139. Slightly Foxed 2: an odd sort of comfort, 20th August
140. Slightly Foxed 3: Sharks, Otters and Fast Cars, 20th August
141. Letters From England, 22nd August
142. Slightly Foxed 4: Now We're Shut in for the Night, 25th August
143. Slightly Foxed 5: A Hare's Breadth, 27th August
144. A Time of Gifts: On Foot to Constantinople: from the Hook of Holland to the Middle Danube, 28th August
145. Silent in the Grave, 31st August

September:

146. Imagined Lives: Portraits of Unknown People, 1st September ROOT
147. Pride and Prejudice, read by Juliet Stevenson, 2nd September
148. In a Good Light, 7th September
149. Slightly Foxed 6: Taking the Plunge, 12th September
150. The Adventures of Miss Barbara Pym, 13th September
151. Slightly Foxed: No 7: Waist-high in Kale, 14th September
152. Slightly Foxed 8: Cooking with a Poet, 15th September
153. Slightly Foxed 9: Tusker's Last Stand, 16th September
154. Black Sheep, read by Barbara Leigh-Hunt, 18th September
155. Dear Hugo, 19th September
156. The Tiger's Wife, 24th September
157. Yoked With a Lamb, 25th September
158. The Heron's Cry, 26th September
159. Slightly Foxed 71: Jocelin's Folly Autumn 2021, 30th September

October:

160. The Editor's Wife, 1st October
161. The Pursuit of Love, read by Bessie Carter, 2nd October
162. The Armourers House, 8th October
163. The Last Library, 10th October
164. Saving Time, 16th October
165. Slightly Foxed 10: Dreaming of Home and Haileybury Summer 2006, 16th October
166. Kingdom of the Blind, 19th October
167. A Better Man, 22nd October
168. All the Devils Are Here, 23rd October
169. Four Gardens, 24th October
170. Lady of Quality, read by Eve Matheson, 27th October
171. Daughters of Chivalry: The Forgotten Children of Edward I, 29th October
172. Slightly Foxed 11 : A Private, Circumspect People, 29th October
173. The Horse and His Boy, read by Alex Jennings, 29th October
174. The Cleaner of Chartres, 31st October

November:

175. The Garden of Forgotten Wishes, 5th November
176. The Scribbler No. 19 November 2021: A retrospective literary review, 6th November
177. Saving Time, read by Zara Ramm, 8th November
178. Frostquake, finished 12th November
179. Slightly Foxed 12: The Irresistible Heptaplasiesoptron Winter 2006, 14th November
180. A Dry Spell, 17th November
181. Because of Sam, 20th November
182. Brighton Belle, 22nd November
183. London Calling, 23rd November
184. Before the Chalet School: The Bettanys on the Home Front, 29th November
185. Evenfield, 30th November ROOT

December:

186. Village Christmas, 2nd December
187. The Unknown Ajax, read by Daniel Philpott, 3rd December
188. Ballet Shoes, 5th December
189. Love in the Time of Bertie, 6th December
190. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, 6th December
191. No Holly for Miss Quinn, read by Gwen Watford, 6th December
192. A Child's Christmas in Wales, read by Dylan Thomas, 8th December
193. Theatre Shoes, 10th December
194. The Christmas Mouse, read by Gwen Watford, 11th December
195. The Story of Holly and Ivy, 12th December
196. Winter in Thrush Green, read by June Barrie, 17th December
197. Rachel Ray, 21st December
198. The Christmas Mystery, 24th December
199. Touch Not the Nettle, 24th Christmas
200. A Christmas Carol, read by Anton Lesser, 24th December
201. The Toast of Time, 25th December
202. A Guernsey Girl at the Chalet School, 26th December
203. The Amazing Mr Blunden, 26th December
204. Anna at War, 27th December
205. The Thirteen Days of Christmas, 27th December
206. The Toast of Time, read by Zara Ramm, 28th December
207. The Reading List, 29th December
208. Before the Chalet School: The Bettanys of Taverton High, 29th December
209. Another 366 Days: More Stories From This Day in History, 31st December
210. Thursday's Child, 31st December

Now I've set up my 2021 thread I shall go and read your threads - I've been resisting the new year for as long as possible but it's here now.

Happy New Year to you all!

Best wishes for a better 2021!

>15 DianaNL: Thanks, Diana, for the wishes and for 'opening' my thread - I have yours starred and will be reading it later!

Happy New Year, Kerry! I hope you get plenty of snuggles in with your grandson and have a year filled with good reads.

Lovely pictures of your grandson!

Welcome back, Kerry.

Congrats on the grandparent gig! And just look at that lovely wee thing! Adorable.

>17 MickyFine:, >18 SandDune:, >19 PaulCranswick:, >20 scaifea: Thank you all. I expect there might be a few more pictures through the year...

Welcome back!

Happy reading in 2021, Kerry!

And keep up with my friends here, Kerry. Have a great 2021.

Happy New Year, Kerry!

Happy new year!

Welcome back! Hope you have a great year in books!

Happy New Year! A new grandbaby! What a wonderful gift to receive at the end of a difficult year.

Happy New Year, Kerry. Being a grandparent is wonderful! Enjoy. I hope your son feels better every day.

>28 cbl_tn:, >29 BLBera: Thank you, I'm certainly enjoying it so far.

Its 2nd January and I haven't finished a book yet this year so I'll pad out my thread with a photo...



Toby and Grandad both having an after-lunch snooze.

>30 CDVicarage: Aw, I love it! And I *love* the name Toby!

Excellent photo, Kerry. Beautiful blanket on Toby.

Well, after a slow start I've now finished a few books:



Why Mummy’s Sloshed: The Bigger the Kids, the Bigger the Drink, finished 3rd January. The fourth, and final, part of this series. I've enjoyed them all but I think that's far enough. In each book I found there was a point when I found myself thinking that the joke had gone as far as it could but then Ms Sims would introduce a more serious viewpoint and carry the story on.



Working: Researching, Interviewing, Writing, finished 4th January. A very interesting, and easy to read, collection of essays about how Robert Caro writes his biographies. I considered, but decided against, reading one of them. It was the size that put me off. This book is for my RL bookgroup, meeting next week.



A Man of Some Repute, read by Michael Page, finished 5th January. A re-read of this audiobook. I shall go on to the other two in the series.



Smoke and Iron and Sword and Pen, finished 6th and 8th January. The fourth and fifth books in The Great Library series, which I have enjoyed very much. It's not a genre that I often read, and I didn't realise, until several books through, that it is YA fiction. Not that that would have put me off but once I knew I could see that it was. Anyway I've finished two series this year already!

There'll be plenty more books finished this month, I hope, but I'll just add another photo of Toby...

Love the snooze photo!

I'm sorry your son is contending with Long Covid, hope he starts mending soon.

happy 2021! and congratulations on your new grandchild. best wishes for your son's recovery from the aftereffects of Covid.

Toby is a cutie!

Your reading is starting off well.

Loving that Toby is the priority here at the moment, Kerry, although I am sure that your reading numbers will be stellar this year as always.

I looked at buying Working by Robert Caro too and I might just based on your positive review.

Have a lovely weekend.

One of the only books of Stephen King's I've wanted/meant to read is the one on writing (it's in my e-books so I have no excuses). If I was younger I would embark on the LBJ bios, but I can't see spending my reading time on them now.

When the libraries are open I tend to go look over the YA sections now and then-- the main thing about YA fantasy is less graphic sex (plenty of romance, of course) and a good deal less graphic violence as well. And, yes, perhaps simpler ethical dilemmas etcetera, but not always. As with all fantasy (especially) the writing varies from sublime to awful.

>38 sibylline: Quite early on in the series someone on LT commented that if you removed the sex scenes and the bad-language Chronicles of St Mary's would be good YA fiction. I think it's moved on a bit but I agree about the first few books.

Five more books finished this week:



Lady in waiting, finished 10th January. I started this back in November and stopped reading over Christmas. It was an extraordinary life and I veered between enjoying it and being horrified by it. It was the first book I've read that gave a sympathetic view of Princess Margaret.



Wine of Honour, finished 12th January. Another Furrowed Middlebrow book, and while I enjoyed it it is not one of my favourites. It is set immediately post WW2 and deals with the problems of returning to 'normal life' both for those who had been away from home and those who had stayed on the Home Front. It took me a while to feel any sympathy/empathy for the characters but was OK by the end.



A Question of Inheritance, read by Michael Page, finished 14th January. The second installment in my re-read.



Business as Usual, finished 14th January. Re-published recently by Handheld Press about a single woman working in a London department store - based on Selfridges - told in epistolary format - not a style I usually enjoy but this was well done and easy to read. Our heroine writes to her parents and fiancé back in Edinburgh and exchanges memos with work colleagues. The two writers completed many more books but no more like this, I think.



Stranger at St Bride's, finished 14th January. The second installment in this series but there are more to come. It's labelled 'A School Story for Grown-ups' and it is told from the angle of the staff rather than students but that's really the only thing that makes it for 'Grown-ups'. It's an easy, uncomplicated read which is just what I need at the moment.

>38 sibylline: I found the body count, if not the detailed violence, overwhelmingly high in many YA. Also, sometimes in telling the story of an elite, the subjugation of those supporting the protagonists' class is entirely taken as given. Both of those strike me as nasty and violent.

Belated happy new year Kerry! I've found your thread!

I really want to read Business as usual. We seem to be a in a golden age for reprints of books by women.

And I have the first St Bride's book on my kindle. I shall move it up the TBR list.

>42 Sakerfalcon: Hello, Claire, how nice to see you. I have your thread starred, too.

I'd certainly recommend Business As Usual!

>41 quondame: Good points all.

Hi Kerry, found and starred your thread. I love the photo's of Toby (and granddad). I'm a grandmother myself and know how happy that makes you!

Going to follow you, Toby and your books.

>45 connie53: Hello Connie, and welcome to my thread, and I hope you enjoy my reading comments!

I'm all in and love to take some bookbullets!

It's been another good week for finishing books:



Ladies Can’t Climb Ladders: The Pioneering Adventures of the First Professional Women, finished 18th January. While this was a good read it was a bit dry and 'listy' in places but it was a horrifying reminder about how bad things were for women so recently.



The Governess, finished 21st January. I thought this would be an interesting novel, and it partly was but I am still wary of novels about real people that are still alive, particularly people who value their privacy as much as the royal family. Not knowing what was factual and what was conjecture was also a problem.



A Matter of Loyalty, read by Michael Page, finished 23rd January. An enjoyable re-read.



The Quantum Curators and the Enemy Within, finished 23rd January. The second in a series set in an alternative earth (Alpha earth) but whose inhabitants can travel to 'our' earth (Beta earth) and back to their own. At the end of the first story a Beta was brought back to Alpha earth and this story covers the way he has to fit in to his new circumstances and, with his new friends, cope with the 'enemy within'. Until fairly recently I would have said that this was a genre that I didn't read but I love The Chronicles of St Mary's and I've just finished, and enjoyed, The Great Library series so perhaps my reading is branching out!



The Ordeal of the Haunted Room, read by Zara Ramm, finished 24th January. Audio version of the St Mary's Christmas short story, which I devoured in print on Boxing Day.



Arsenic for Tea, finished 24th January. This is the second in the Murder Most Unladylike series - seven more plus five short stories to go - and was a good and easy read. I felt that it was too good and not good enough: for a YA book it is very nuanced and the opposite of the usual simplistic/simplified view of life that is presented, but not quite good enough for an adult point of view so my mind was to-ing and fro-ing between the two outlooks. However it won't stop me from going on to the next one!

Touchstones aren't working so I will come back later to sort this post.

The Robert Caro book sounds quite interesting. Like many other of his readers, I m anxiously hoping he can finish the last volume of his epic biography of Lyndon Baines Johnson, who was US President from 1963-68. I almost don't want to start the set until I know I won't be left hanging!

Toby is lovely — congrats on arranging for such a photogenic grandson. :-)

>49 rosalita: Thanks, Julia! Working made me quite interested in reading one of Caro's biographies but the length of them made me think again.

It's (almost) the end of the month so time to list the rest of January's books and post a round-up:



Oliver Twist, read by Martin Jarvis, finished 30th January. This has been my around the house audiobook for about two months now. I read this in print many years ago but thought I remembered the plot pretty well - I was wrong. I've seen several TV or film adaptations and the musical and they all tinkered with the plot and characters. Of course, the one I remember best is Oliver!, the musical and the book is so dark and bleak it is amazing to think that a jolly musical is based on it. For modern day readers the anti-Semitism is (I hope) a problem, and the idea that Oliver's character is formed because he is well-bred, even though he is brought up in a workhouse with no affection, kindness or education.



The Postscript Murders, finished 30th January. The second in Elly Griffiths's new series and it was a jolly good read. Even though it deals with murder it is quite light-hearted - certainly more so than the Ruth Galloway series.



The Foolish Gentlewoman, finished 30th January. Although I was three-quarters of the way through this I broke off to read The Postscript Murders, but I was easily able to pick it up again. Many of Margery Sharp's novels are being re-published in the Dean Street Press Furrowed Middlebrow range and I'm looking forward to reading many more.

After what felt like a slow start I finished nineteen books in January: no paper books, fourteen ebooks and five audiobooks. Fourteen were new to me (but no ROOT successes) and the other five (all the audiobooks) were re-reads.

I'm part-way through several long non-fiction books, and have been for some months, but I don't feel there's any hurry about them and dip in to them from time to time. I shall continue my way through the Wells & Wong: Murder Most Unladylike series and I must read (or abandon) and review my outstanding Early Review books; unfortunately none of them particularly appeals to me at the moment.

>51 CDVicarage: At first seeing the title "Olive Twist" I thought this was one of those "homage/sendup" novels based on classic literature (like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies) but reading your review it sounds like you read the Dickens original?

I am anxiously awaiting the US publication of the Elly Griffiths book. Not until March, I think.

>53 rosalita: I've edited it now but it still picked up a touchstone! and, yes, it was the original version.

I'm now waiting for the next in the Ruth Galloway series.

Looks like you had a productive reading month, Kerry!

>55 ronincats: Thanks, Roni, yes I did in the end!

>55 ronincats: Thanks, Roni, yes, I did in the end.

>54 CDVicarage: Yes, the fact that it had a functioning touchstone was what really confused me!

>48 CDVicarage: I too am enjoying the Murder most unladylike series. It definitely becomes stronger as the series progresses - not that the early books are bad at all! I like the way the friendship between Daisy and Hazel develops.

Wishing you a lovely weekend, Kerry.

How is your son coping with the continued after effects of COVID by the way?

I'm late to the party, Kerry, but I congratulate you on the arrival of darling Toby. He's beautiful!

I'm off to see about the Caro *Working*. I think that his LBJs are the best biographies the best I've ever read. I'm waiting anxiously for the last one. I learned more about American politics from them than I ever expected to know. LBJ himself is a fascinating character, clearly a sociopath, but a sociopath with a determination to do something for poor folks. How he arrived at that place is an amazing story, and I can't recommend these books strongly enough.

I'm sorry that your son is a COVID long-hauler. I hope that he is finally beginning to feel better.

>60 PaulCranswick: Thanks, Paul. Andrew is fairly well at the moment - he's had lots of tests and may get some physiotherapy soon - but he is not as he was before Covid and he finds it very frustrating that he can't go running or ride his bike as he used to.

>61 LizzieD: Thanks, Peggy, Toby is a joy! I am still interested in Caro's biographies but reluctant to commit myself to so much reading!

Three books finished this week:



Miss Buncle's Book, read by Patricia Gallimore, finished 2nd February. I have read this in print before and enjoyed this reading. As British LTers may know the reader plays Pat Archer, in the long running radio series, and that was all I could hear to start with but she is very good at different voices so I soon forgot that. In some places she sounded more like June Spencer, who plays her mother-in-law, Peggy Archer, so it was sometimes difficult to remember what I was listening to!



Girl, Woman, Other, finished 6th February. Although I had a copy and intended to read it sometime this was read now for my RL Book Group meeting next Wednesday. I was horrified at the lack of punctuation when I opened the book but it proved quite easy to read from that point of view. I'm not quite sure what I think of it yet. I think I will rate it three stars but that is a definite average as I felt parts of it deserved five stars and parts one star. I listened to a sample of the audio version and I couldn't tell from that that the punctuation was abnormal in any way but many of the reviews (on Audible) rated the performance as very poor - many mispronunciations. One of our group members always reads the audio version of our books so that may contribute to the discussion on Wednesday. I hope I'll have decided what I think by then!



Blood Feud, finished 7th February. I know what I think about this one - it was marvellous. I have never read a Rosemary Sutcliff book that I wasn't impressed by and I'm glad that I still have so many left to read.

Here's a Sutcliffe I haven't read! And, going to look at my library holdings here, I see I have never put in the ones I read long ago. But what fun it would be to listen to those, I think, I might go see whether they're at Audible!

I might try the Elly G's new series soon too -- I am, alas, closing in on St. Mary's . . .

>63 CDVicarage: I listened to Girl, Woman, Other on audio and hated the performance. The parts set in London were OK (but with several strange pronunciations as you say) but the parts set in the North-East were abysmal. It’s such a characteristic accent, and the reader just didn’t convey it at all, and also didn’t convey the huge differences in accent that there would have been based on class either.

>65 SandDune: The sample I heard was fine and the reader had a lovely voice but it was from the beginning section. I do like audiobooks but there are still certain books that I definitely prefer in print, and of course it has to be the right reader. I listened to a good reading of The Secret Garden last year; the reader was American but did a very good English accent, even the Yorkshire but she fell down on one word - de-TAILS instead of DE-tails - and it ruined the rest of the book for me!

>64 sibylline: The next one is due out in April...

Six titles finished this week, although some were quite short:



Miss Buncle Married, read by Patricia Gallimore, finished 8th February. Another excellent reading of a good story but I think it would have been better in print. The voices used make the story verge on "twee". I shall read the next one in print.



First Class Murder, finished 9th February. Third in the Wells & Wong: Murder Most Unladylike Mysteries and it takes place on the Orient Express with plenty of references to Murder on the Orient Express which, according to the story, was recently published. Not a difficult mystery to solve but an interesting story.



The Reluctant Widow, read by Cornelius Garrett, finished 10th February. A many times re-read. I think this book is one of my top three Georgette Heyers.



The Laying on of Hands and Father! Father! Burning Bright, finished 11th February. Two novellas and I think it would have been better to have read them on separate occasions but anything by Alan Bennett is good.



The Girls' Book of Priesthood, finished 13th February. An interesting story covering a year in the life (with flashbacks) of a female deacon - not a common subject for a novel - which interested me since I am a vicar's wife and am therefore familiar with the set-up. It was well done (and well-written) although rather more dramatic than 'real life' is likely to be. Though that's the case for most, if not all novels!

>68 CDVicarage: Some very interesting reads!

>69 thornton37814: Thanks, Lori, yes I feel I've got into a reading rhythm after a poor start to the year.

Five titles finished (or abandoned) this week:



The Strawberry Thief, finished 14th February. Another enjoyable read in the Chocolat series; surely the final book?



Death in Profile, finished 15th February. This is the book that might really be regarded as abandoned. I got about a third of the way through and then couldn't be bothered anymore but I did scan through to see who and how dunnit. It was quite a disappointment as I have enjoyed other books by this author - he's written some good Mapp & Lucia sequels but this was very heavy and over-explained. Still at least it means it's another series that I don't have to continue!



The Two Mrs Abbotts, finished 16th February. The third in the Miss Buncle series and definitely better in print than in audio. There is a fourth book but it hardly concerns Miss Buncle (or Mrs Abbott as she now is) so I don't know if I will search it out at the moment.



The Legacy of Elizabeth Pringle, finished 17th February. An interesting story: there are two linked (but we don't quite know how) storylines - a contemporary one concerning two sisters and their mother, now developing dementia, and a historical one concerning a schoolteacher on the Isle of Arran, born 1911, who lives well into her 90s. The two sets of character don't meet and the story is told through Elizabeth's (non-chronological) memoir. I felt it went on for too long and the stories are wound up too conveniently, but the descriptions of the place are lovely.



A Brief History of Britain 1485-1660, read by Roger Davis, finished 19th February. Although this was an excellent reading I have reached the conclusion that non-fiction does not suit an audio format - for me. I would happily read this again in print as it told the history clearly and discussed the changes in historical viewpoints over recent years.

>71 CDVicarage: I've read the Harris book too and likes but not loved it.

I'm somewhat late to the party but congratulations, grandma!

>30 CDVicarage: That brings back memories. I have one (or a few) of my dad with infant grandson securely snuggled on his ample tummy and both sound asleep. He would sometimes take over when I got tired of walking up and down trying to get the baby to sleep.

>38 sibylline: That's why I like YA.

>41 quondame: Unfortunately, also true.

>71 CDVicarage: With history-type books (not that I read many), I find I need to flip back and forth to check details like names, places, dates and so on. Plus, how do audio books show maps and genealogy charts?

I've only read listened to a couple of audio books; the narrator of the first one didn't work for me which has made me wary about trying more - though the second was okay. I did find myself wondering, occasionally, if I would have 'heard' it differently in my head if I had read it.

>73 humouress: Thanks, Nina, we are able to be in a bubble with Clare, Richard and Toby so we see quite a lot of them. Toby has started smiling now.

So far narration (if I like the reader) has always added to fiction books, (it certainly helped me get through Dickens!) but I have just found a few books that were better in print, even though the narrator was excellent. I listened to two of the Miss Buncle books but found the reading was too 'twee' so went back to print for the third. Expressive reading for non-fiction is a bit of a waste and I find I can't concentrate enough for the facts to go in.

The end of February - time for a final list and the round-up:



The Tightening String, finished 22nd February. I'm in two minds about this book: it's very dated and very 'classist' and probably was when it was first published (in 1958) but it covered a place and period of WW2 that is not very often mentioned, so very interesting from that point of view. The writing was rather odd - it felt as though I was reading non-fiction for parts of it - and I didn't warm to any of the characters or the plot until quite a good way through. But it was a decent enough book and worth reading.



The Quiet Gentleman, read by Cornelius Garrett, finished 25th February. Not in my top rank Heyer favourites but this is a good reading, with an unusual heroine and a good plot, so worth the re-read.



The Flowering Thorn, finished 25th February. Although I've liked and enjoyed all the Margery Sharp novels I've read they have all started unpromisingly. This one took a while to get going but once it did I enjoyed it very much, and I am looking forward to reading all the new Furrowed Middlebrow titles just published.



A History of Britain in 21 Women, read by the author, finished 27th February. Having, earlier in this thread, declared that I don't like non-fiction audiobooks I'm amazed to find myself reading this one, especially as I don't like Jenni Murray's verbal/talking style to the extent of giving up listening to Woman's Hour some time ago. However I did read it, and mostly enjoyed it. Irritating as Jenni Murray's portentous emphases and gaps are, the reading was clear and easy to follow, the 21 women were (on the whole) interesting. There is a companion book about 21 women from the rest of the world and I don't rule that out reading that one too.



The Five-Minute Marriage, finished 28th February. An enjoyable Regency romance with a nicely convoluted plot. It was an easy, pleasant read but it wasn't Georgette Heyer, but it was probably better than my least favourite Heyers.

In February I finished (or DNF) nineteen titles: one paper book, twelve ebooks and six audiobooks. Eight ROOT successes of the sixteen new-to-me titles and only three re-reads. Kobo has been offering bonus loyalty points for books finished in February so that has guided my reading choices - eleven of my ebooks were recent (and not so recent) Kobo purchases - and it seemed as good a way of choosing what to read as any!

>75 CDVicarage: I've only recently started to read Margery Sharp but am really enjoying her books so far. Of the new reissues I've only read Rhododendron pie but can highly recommend it.

>77 Sakerfalcon: I'm reading that one now!

>75 CDVicarage: Oh, Joan Aiken, as in Wolves of Willoughby Chase. I was thinking Jane Aiken Hodge, her sister, who wrote more romance of the two.

Although I've finished seven titles this week I haven't read seven books: several were skimmed only.



Why be happy when you could be normal?, read by the author, finished 28th February. This should really have gone in last week's list but I finished it in the evening after I'd done my posting so it's carried over to March's list. It was an excellent reading about a bizarre and dreadful childhood, but well written and 'explained'. It's the non-fiction version of Oranges are not the only fruit.



Rhododendron Pie, finished 3rd March. Another lovely Furrowed Middlebrow title, astonishingly this was Margery Sharp's first novel.



The Enchanted April, read by Nadia May, finished 5th March. This was a re-read/listen and I didn't enjoy it as much as before as I had forgotten how selfish and unpleasant some of the characters were to start with, although all is resolved in a happy ending.



The Sword Song of Bjarni Sigurdson, finished 5th March. I have a book group book to read by 10th March and I'm finding it hard work so I'm easily distracted by other books. This was found unfinished after Rosemary Sutcliff's death and was edited and finished by her godson and a friend, Jill Black. They did a good job but the whole is not quite as 'finished' as her stories usually are, but it is still worth reading.



The White Crucifixion, Argos, Long Live Grover Cleveland, finished (or DNF'd) 6th and 7th March. I cannot really claim to have read these three books, merely skimmed through after trying the first chapters. They are all Early Review copies (dating back several years). In all cases they were physically difficult to read beacause they were supplied as pdfs rather than formatted ebooks. The first was a fictional biography of Marc Chagall, whose work I don't know well enough to appreciate his life story. The second was a child/YA's story about Odysseus's dog, told from the dog's point of view. I thought that was a nice idea, but most of it was told in the present tense - a style I dislike - and the author seemed to bend reality when he wanted - a frivolous criticism of fantasy writing, I know, but a fantasy world should still be consistent. The third seemed more promising but so out of my experience - it's set in a New England college during the 70s and 80s - that I felt I was missing all the cultural references and jokes.

I'm getting on with my bookgroup book - The Gustav Sonata - perhaps helped by reading some books I enjoyed even less!

This week's finished titles:



The Gustav Sonata, finished 7th March. I found this very disappointing, I had expected and wanted to like it. I took two goes to read as the beginning chapters were so sad and miserable it was a struggle to continue.The story was too 'bitty' for me. Although I like books where you have to work things out for yourself rather than being told every little detail this went to far the other way and I found I didn't care what went in the gaps. Most of the rest of the group liked it though.



The Folly Under the Lake, finished 10th March. Another Early Review title. This was pretty dreadful - but I rather enjoyed it! The dialogue was clunky with many anachronistic (it's set in the 1930s) terms. The plotting was poor. The setting was over-described and more than unrealistic - the outdoor features were probably impossible. The characters were two-dimensional. There was too much 'telling' and not enough 'showing'. However, as I said, it was quite a fun read, and, as there are now more in the series, others must agree with me!



The Corinthian, read by Georgina Sutton, finished 11th March. A many times re-read.



Outcast, finished 12th March. I'm working my way through all the Rosemary Sutcliff books that I have and I've liked them all so far - including this one!



The Letters by Edith Wharton, finished 13th March. I bought a pack (20 or 25) of these Phoenix 60p small paperbacks many years ago and I haven't read many of them yet so I've decided to try and read one a day and then take them to a charity shop. This was a good read.



The Kite Flyer, finished 14th March. This little book contained three short stories: as well as the title story, there was 'The Shooting Season' and 'Words with Marigold'. All were good but very sad, even depressing, which is not what I want at the moment.

Looks like you've had some varied reads lately.

>82 CDVicarage: nice job, Kerry. I wonder why you read another Rose Tremain book if the first book was so disappointing.

>84 connie53: Yes, it does seem perverse! I'm trying to read my way through these little paperbacks (so that I can then send them to the charity shop) at the rate of one a day. I don't choose but just take the top one on the pile. I was quite hopeful for the Rose Tremain one as one of the points that came up in our book group discussion was that all of her books are quite different from each other. And they were, but still rather depressing...

>82 CDVicarage: I’ve read several Rose Tremain books and I think The Gustav Sonata is the weakest. My favourite is Restoration which is quite an old one.

>86 SandDune: Yes, I've read that one - a long time ago- and I enjoyed it.

Four weeks today the next Chronicles of St Mary's title will be published - Another Time, Another Place - so I have started a swift re-read of the series so that I'm ready for it.

This week's reading:



Jolly Foul Play, finished 15th March. Fourth in the Wells & Wong series and very good. The author considers feelings as much as facts/actions more than I would expect in a YA story.



Heat Haze, Forcibly Bewitched & The Glimpses, finished 15th-18th March. More mini books with one or more short stories in each one. I only really enjoyed The Glimpses. I wonder why I am reading these books as I don't particularly like short stories, but having kept them in my bookshelves all this time - including three house moves - I can't bring myself to dispose of them without at least trying them!

As you can see, I haven't apparently read very much this week, but, as I mentioned above, I am re-reading The Chronicles of St Mary's ready for the new book next month. I am not adding them to my 'Books Read' listing as I am not reading them properly but just reading the bits I like and skimming through other bits - I just want to remind myself of the stories, characters etc. However, even though I have read them all before (some of them many, many times) I am still finding bits I had forgotten or hadn't noticed before.

Lots of books to load onto the WL -- I was a huge fan of the Miss Bianca books back in the day and my mother had some of Sharp's grown up novels and I remember (reading one or two in my teens) liking them. The Aiken looks fun, I hope I can find it on Audible.

Good idea to revisit St. Mary's!

I might seek out the Grover Cleveland just to see.

I know it looks as though I haven't read much this week but I'm reading through Chronicles of St Mary's (including short stories) ready for the new book, which will be published on 14th April. As I've read them many times before I'm skimming over any bits that I don't like or don't need, so I'm not listing them as 'proper' reads.



Faro's Daughter, read by Laura Paton, finished 25th March. This was read/listened to merely for the completist in me. I have read it in print (in 2014) but it's not one of my favourite Heyers. This reading was well done - good diction and well-differentiated characters - but it wasn't the right voice for a Regency story, somehow.

I have some audiobooks on the go but my print reading is only St Mary's. I'm on to the later books - And the Rest Is History at the moment - so I'm slowing down as I haven't read these so often.

Time for the March round-up:

Although I 'finished' seventeen titles this month, it's not nearly as impressive as it sounds. Many of them were really only short stories and others were skimmed or DNF'd. However there are also some titles finished but not included in my list: I'm re-reading Chronicles of St Mary's ready for the new book on 15th April and since I'm whizzing through some of them, having read them many times before, to remind myself of the plot, I'm not counting them as proper reads.

I finished five (mini) paper books, nine ebooks and three audiobooks. Fifteen were new to me and only two (both audiobooks) were re-reads.

I have a book for my book group - The Foundling - to finish by next Wednesday but it's not too long so should be easy enough.

I haven't finished anything this last week (apart from the Chronicles of St Mary's) but I am currently reading The Foundling for my book group on Wednesday, and several audio books Hard Times, A Promise of Ankles and The English and Their History, so I hope to have something to report next week.

Eight titles finished this week, although three were short stories:



Shine, Pamela! Shine!, finished 4th April. A good (everything written by Kate Atkinson is good) short story.



The Foundling, finished 5th April. This was my book group book for this month. None of us liked it very much - even the person who chose it. I already had it in my TBR pile and so was pleased at the choice - until I read it. From the blurb I had expected that it would be more about the Foundling Hospital but that only featured in the first third (?) and the rest was a rushed and unlikely (too many coincidences) account of the life of the foundling in question and the dramatic change (cure) in the mental health of one of her mothers. The set-up was good, particularly the descriptions of the dreadful poverty suffered by several of the characters.



Slightly Foxed 68: 'Ring Out, Wild Bells' Winter 2020, finished 5th April. Not such a good issue (for me) but still good.



The Executor, finished 8th April. The first part of Mrs Oliphant's Chronicles of Carlingford, which is the current set of books in the Virago chronological read-through, organised by Lyzard. This was a very short story, which plunges straight in with no introduction and leaves us with very little idea of what will happen in the future! I found one review which described it as "not a short story but a plot summary".



The House Opposite, finished 8th April. An excellent story, set during the blitz of 1940, about two families who live opposite each other in a London suburb. Part of the Dean Street press Furrowed Middlebrow range.



The Scribbler No. 17 March 2021: A retrospective literary review, finished 9th April. Reviews of novels featuring ballet, tennis and hotels; a literary trail around Aldeburgh and a short story by E. M. Delafield.



The Rector, finished 10th April. The second in the Chronicles of Carlingford, another short story. The new Rector arrives and goes away again.



A Promise of Ankles, read by David Rintoul, finished 11th April. The fourteenth book in the 44 Scotland Street series and they are still good. I hope things look up for Stuart in the next one.

>94 CDVicarage: I'm not sure why but I can't see any of your pictures. Skimming up a little, I can see a few but the majority seem to be missing. Are you using secure (https) sources and not http? Are they jpegs?

>95 humouress: I think it's a site problem. Pictures were very slow to appear while I was writing the post and I couldn't see some of my own!

>96 CDVicarage: Oh, you're right. They've suddenly appeared now. :0)

Got to find the Kate Atkinson book. Not translated or published here yet, if that ever happens at all.

>98 connie53: It's part of a collection of stories: Out of Line, All published by Amazon with matching audio versions.

Six books finished this week:



The Diary of a Bookseller, finished 14th April. An enjoyable, amusing and easy read. I expect a lot of us here on LT have fantasised about running a bookshop. This book - even allowing for exaggeration for comic effect - will show you why you wouldn't really like it.



Another Time, Another Place, finished 15th April. I speed-read this on publication day to find out what happened and I shall listen to the audio version at my leisure. First reaction: while I don't think it will be one of my favourites, it's good.



Confessions of a Bookseller, finished 16th April. More of the same from the Wigtown bookshop.



Jews Don't Count, finished 16th April. While I agreed with what Mr Baddiel said in this book, I also found myself thinking that he was making a mountain out of a molehill, which was his point.



Seven Kinds of People You Find in Bookshops, finished 16th April. Possibly barrel-scraping now but it was still a quick and easy read.



Mum and Dad, finished 18th April. I have read most of Joanna Trollope's novels and a couple I would include in my Favourite Novels list but as time goes on I am less impressed by them. I don't know if it because I have changed (grown older) or if the books have. This was pleasant enough but not worth much effort.

I must get those "Bookseller" books, Kerry. I am one of those fantasising about their own bookshop indeed.

Have a great weekend.

Won't be able to resist reading the second Blythell!

>101 PaulCranswick: Thanks, Paul. It does feel as though life is opening up a bit: it's been (fairly) warm and sunny and we're allowed to meet more people outside so life is brighter.

Four titles finished this week:



Alice, finished 19th April. More Furrowed Middlebrow; an easy and, in places, amusing read but I didn't quite connect with it.



God's House, finished 20th April. a pair of short stories.



A House in the Country, finished 22nd April. More Furrowed Middlebrow, not a novel but an account of post WW2 life in a shared manor house in Kent. Enjoyable - some parts sound idyllic but there are plenty of problems and hardships.



Queen Lucia, read by Georgina Sutton, finished 24th April. A new audio edition of all E. F. Benson's Mapp and Lucia novels. They are issued in two collections but I have catalogued each one separately. I had versions of Queen Lucia and Miss Mapp and an abridged Mapp and Lucia so I am very pleased to have a full audio set, and read by one of my favourite narrators.



Harlequin House, finished 25th April. Yet more Furrowed Middlebrow and a lovely light read.

And that's my first (I hope) 75 this year and a lovely one to finish on!

>104 CDVicarage: Congratulations on reaching 75, Kerry!

Congratulations on 75, Kerry! You and Anita are speeding through the books.

Congrats!

Felicitations on reaching the magic number, Kerry!

Adding my congratulations on passing 75, Kerry.

>106 FAMeulstee:, >107 humouress:, >108 drneutron:, >109 MickyFine:, >110 PaulCranswick: Thank you all. Although I never have a problem passing the magic number, it's still an encouraging marker when I do

>105 CDVicarage: Congratulations!

>112 quondame: thanks, Susan!

Time to wind up the month:



The English and Their History, read by Stephen Thorne, stopped reading 25th April. I have been listening to this, on and off, for some time now and decided that I had heard enough. The audiobook is forty five and a half hours long. I managed fifteen hours! It seemed unbalanced: in those fifteen hours we went from about 600CE to William and Mary, which leaves thirty hours for the next 300 odd years. The reading is good but, as I have mentioned above, Non-fiction is better in print (for me). However I will have to listen to any I have already bought!



Mrs Malory Investigates, The Cruellest Month, The Shortest Journey, Mrs Malory and the Festival Murder, Superfluous Death and Death of a Dean, finished 25th to 30th April. I've got rather carried away with this series. I have some of the later entries but I had to start with the first one of course and enjoyed it so much I was happy to go on in order. Hazel Holt was the friend and literary executor of Barbara Pym, which was a point in her favour for me. She also wrote an epistolary novel - My Dear Charlotte - which I very much liked despite not liking that style in general, and this series is of better quality than many similar 'whodunnits'. Although there is a certain amount of character and situation development over time, I think that having established the recurring characters they could now be read in any order without many problems - not that I want to but I'm hesitating over buying more when I have some unread already in my library.

April was a very productive reading month as far as numbers go. I finished (or didn't finish) twenty six titles: three paper books, twenty ebooks and three audiobooks. This is not as impressive as it first seems as four titles were novellas or short stories and, apart from The English and Their History, which is over 1,000 pages in print (and I didn't read it all), the rest were normal sized books.

I am currently trying to finish my book group book - The Dictionary of Lost Words - for Wednesday evening, and I'm finding it quite hard going. I'm just over a third of the way through - it's 432 pages in print - and, unless something really dramatic/complicated happens soon I think it is too long. That's part of the reason I'm reading so well through the Mrs Malory books - any distraction!

Congrats on reaching, 75, Kerry.

>116 connie53: Thanks, Connie.

I did finish The Dictionary of Lost words in good time for the meeting. We were mostly in agreement about it - quite good but could have been better! Things did change after the one third mark and it became easier and more interesting to read, but it still felt too long to me. Our main criticism was that it was 'bitty'. I felt that it was obviously a first novel - the author had lots of ideas and had done plenty of research - and she used it all! I think a more experienced writer would have limited her main themes, and produced a shorter, more concentrated (on fewer points) novel.

This has been a very active week for me (so far) compared with the way life has been recently. Clare and Richard bought a new (to them) car and I went with them to Bolton to fetch it on Wednesday. Richard had to deliver a funeral order of service (he's a printer, specializing in church stationery) on the way and, as we were out over lunchtime, we bought Macdonalds burgers. This may be amazing but it is the first Macdonalds I have ever had!

Thursday was even more busy - I went out three times: once for my second vaccination jab (I'm team Pfizer), once to fetch my new glasses (ones for working at a screen) and once to vote. This morning I had my monthly round-up from Google, which told me that I went out eight times, to four different 'cities' in April, and I've nearly matched that in a week in May!

It's nice to do more things 'out', Kerry. I'm on team Pfizer too. I had my first shot a week ago and will get my second one in the beginning of June. I hope to be more active too after that.

Good to hear your comment on the Williams book. And maybe your group is right about the 'could have been better when it was more concentrated' thing.

Another #teamPfizer here. I got my second shot on Wednesday and had absolutely no side effects, happily. Though now of course I'm wondering if that means it didn't work. (I know that's ridiculous, it's just how my mind works sometimes.)

>119 rosalita: I had a slightly sore arm - but nowhere near as much as from the first one - but that's all.

I had Pfizer shots as well; oddly, my first one was fine but with my second, my arm was sore and so ITCHY for a week. Could have been also due to the expertise of the people giving it; the first one was quick and easy, the second one was slower and a bit painful.

I didn't add my books read this week yesterday because I thought I was just about to finish one, but I didn't so here it is today:



The Dictionary of Lost Words, finished 2nd May. This was my Book Group book and I've put my comments above.



Miss Mapp, read by Georgina Sutton, finished 6th May. The next book in the Mapp & Lucia series. I've read this in print many times and I did have another audio version but I like this narrator very much so this is going to be my favourite version.



Death in Practice, The Silent Killer, No Cure for Death, A Death in the Family, A Time to Die, Any Man's Death, A Necessary End and Death is a Word, finished 4th to 10th May. This series really ran away with me. Although there are twenty two books in total, the middle seven are not available in ebook format. The first six that I read are American editions and the final eight are British editions. Perhap they will join up at some stage. Even though I don't like to do it, as long as you read the first two or three in order and establish the set-up and characters the rest can be read in any order. The main signifier of time-passing is the age of the granddaughter! I have liked the whole series, although the quality has evened out - the case with all long series, I think - there is usually some ethical dilemma and I like the background information about Sheila's and her friends' lives. It is set in an area I know slightly, having had some holidays there (I think Taviscombe is based on Minehead) which is also an attraction. I don't share Mrs Malory's political and cultural outlook but I think she is someone that I could get on with.

Only three titles finished this week, but I'm reading several more:



The Doctor's Family, finished 12th May. The first two stories in the Chronicles of Carlingford were just that - short stories - this one is termed a novella - just under 160 pages in my Virago edition - so a bit more to it. I don't feel quite part of Carlingford yet but the next books are all longer so that should change.



Another Time, Another Place, read by Zara Ramm, finished 15th May. I read this in print on publication day and have been listening more slowly to the audio version. There are some very sad events and it ends - quite suddenly - on a cliffhanger, but I have changed my opinion of some bits. I shall be reading the whole series again (and again) so things may become clearer.



Slightly Foxed 69: 'The Pram in the Hall' Spring 2021, finished 16th May. Another lovely collection of literary articles, including one about Hazel Holt whose Sheila Malory novels I have just read.

My Currently Reading collection contains twenty seven books but I'm not actually reading them all. My main ones are:

A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century, A History of Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years, The Story of the Jews: Finding the Words (1000 BCE – 1492), The Silk Roads: A New History of the World and The Story of Egypt in non-fiction. These are all large tomes and have been going for more than a year (or three in some cases).

The Venetian Affair, What Angels Fear and Hedy's War in print fiction

The End of the Affair, Hard Times, and Lucia in London on audio, although I've just re-started Timothy West's reading of The Warden as well.

It's probably time some books are finished or abandoned, and removed from the collection.

Kerry, I started dipping into lots of short story collections and listed them all as currently reading back in 2012. Some time in 2019, I think, I decided to actually take one at a time and read it. Between March and September last year I kept going days without doing any reading at all and was only finishing a book a month, but I've now read all but two of those collections properly, plus the 3 crime novels contained in a paperback crime omnibus. I've restarted all these books from the beginning and not tried to work out what I might or might not have read.

I also have loads of hefty history volumes which look like challenging but rewarding reading, some that I own, in print or Kindle editions and some that I have borrowed from the library. I have decided to tackle those one at a time - they're excellent, but I think I get more out of them by just dealing with x pages or a chapter at a time over however long it takes, and also reading some fiction and memoirs. If you do get to read The Silk Roads I'd be interested to hear what you think as I think it's another book in my huge non fiction TBR (luckily the virtual bit as it's a Kindle book!)

>124 CDVicarage: I'm always drawn to the fiction books and neglect non-fiction which I enjoy very much and need to be reading if left to my own devices. I stumbled upon the chapter-a-day plan which works well for me with non-fiction when I began incorporating some religious devotional reading into my daily quiet time. With the religious material, I'm reading the Bible daily, a daily devotional book, and then a chapter a day in another book.

When it comes to history/social history, I do allow myself to go beyond that chapter-a-day if I want to do so, but I look at it as a minimum. I sometimes take a day or two break as I select the next read. My next one this time is being determined by an ARC I need to review for GoodReads. I pulled it out and am ready to begin tackling it this weekend. It has 12 chapters so I'll finish in less than two weeks even without combining chapters. I'll need to read the June one for our online book club, but I'll need to check out a library copy of it. It doesn't seem to be very popular because it's been on the shelf every time I've looked at it. Hoping it holds out for when I make it to the library this week. I'll need to figure out when I need to begin that one to complete it before our meeting so I may be reading two books at a time briefly if I don't combine chapters.

As far as fiction, I usually have one audiobook and one or two print ones of differing genres. My current audio book is this month's Donna Leon book for the group read. I just completed an Amish fiction book which was a quick read. I'm reading a mystery set it Italy now. I will probably read a Francis Breeding book for this month's "Golden Age" theme in the MysteryKit after that. Then I'll probably tackle a book of historical fiction although I may read that one at the same time as the mysteries, depending on how engaging the others are. At the moment, I'm loving the mystery. I might have stayed up longer reading it but I knew my cats were right in insisting I go to bed with them.

>125 elkiedee:, >126 thornton37814: I'm happy to read non-fiction in bits - a chapter or two at a time (depending on the length) and then left for a while - but if I can do that with fiction it usually means that I don't much care for it and it will eventually be skim-finished or abandoned.

Although my reading didn't fall off in terms of amount during lockdown, what I wanted to read did change. I couldn't really cope with anything 'challenging' but the Dean Street Press Furrowed Middlbrow series has been wonderful for me - light and often humourous but serious at the same time!

>127 CDVicarage: If fiction isn't working, I usually abandon it. I did make an exception with one book recently because it was an ARC and my reading was a bit off at the time. When I got back into the book, I decided it was the book not working rather than my reading. I did finish it for the review, but I gave it a low rating.

Happy birthday, Kerry!

Ooh, happy birthday!

I hope you had a good birthday, Kerry!

Belated happy birthday!

>129 PaulCranswick:, >130 elkiedee:, >131 rosalita:, >132 humouress: Thank you for your kind greetings! I never expect them on LT as our birthdays are not part of the information on our accounts, but, of course, some of you see me on other social media.

A good reading week - I've finished six titles:



What Angels Fear, finished 16th May. I've had this ready to read, after much enthusiasm from other LTers, for over a year but finally started it. I'm glad I did and wish I hadn't waited so long.



Lucia in London, read by Georgina Sutton, finished 18th May. The third story in this new reading of the Mapp and Lucia novels.



When Gods Die, finished 18th May. I went straight on to the next in the Sebastian St. Cyr Mysteries and I can see I shall work my way through the whole series.



Why Mermaids Sing, finished 20th May. Still going.



Where Serpents Sleep, finished 21st May. This is the last for a while I decided I must have a break, although, of course, it ended on quite a cliffhanger.



A Girl Called Justice: The Smugglers' Secret, finished 21st May. A little light relief - the second in the Justice Jones series. Much shorter as it is aimed at children.

As well as my ongoing non-fiction and audiobooks, I've started The Eye of Love - the first in a trilogy - which is quite short and light, and then I shall go back to Sebastian St. Cyr.

Just the three books in the Martha Trilogy finished this week:



The Eye of Love, Martha in Paris, and Martha, Eric, and George, finished 24th to 27th May. I've started and finished a series within in a week! I think with all the Margery Sharp stories I've read I've been unsure for the first few chapters and then it seems to suddenly 'click' and these were no exception. Although they were published as three separate books they are all quite short so can really be regarded as one book. I've got three more unread books in my library (although there are many more), and I am looking forward to them all.

I'm currently reading Tales from Lindford, the fourth in a series. It is divided into monthly chapters, starting in January 2020 and I am quite shocked to realise how much I have forgotten of the early days of the Covid pandemic.

>134 CDVicarage: Hi Kerry, I see you've started reading the Sebastian St Cyr series. I've read the first three books and am really enjoying it. Series work better for me if I space them out vs. reading back-to-back. I'm glad to see the fourth book is another solid entry.

>138 lauralkeet: I wish I could do that! but if I'm enjoying a series (and I have them in my library) I tend to read them one after another. I've managed to take a break with Sebastian St Cyr but I shall resume after I have read my next bookgroup book.

It's the last day of the month and I've just finished a book, so I shall note the details and then do the May round-up:



Tales from Lindford, finished 31st May. This is the fourth (and last?) in the series and covers happenings in the diocese of Lindchester during 2020. It was good to hear about the characters that I had come to love but it was also good to remind myself what pandemic life was like. It was, I think, written in real time so there is a real sense of what it was like when we didn't know how things would end - not that we really do now, but at least we know that the vaccine is available and being taken up.

I finished twenty three books in May mainly from two series that I am rushing through: one paper book, nineteen ebooks and three audiobooks. Nine of the ebooks were ROOT successes. I have had the last seven books in the Sheila Malory series for at least two years (my definition of ROOT) but only recently searched out the first books. Only three books - all audiobooks - were re-reads, the other twenty were all new to me. Perhaps I'm coming out of my comfort reading phase! Although none of them were 'challenging' books.

>136 CDVicarage: I loved the Martha books when I read them last year. Martha is such a great character.

This week's reading:



The Swiss Summer, finished 4th June. This is my choice for my book group (meeting on Wednesday) and I'm disappointed in it. I have read, and enjoyed, many titles in the Furrowed Middlebrow range and several other by Stella Gibbons. The blurb made it sound like a lovely summer holiday story with plenty of witty and humorous interactions between the characters. However it was dull. The setting is England and Switzerland about 1950, when Brits were only able to take a maximum of £50 out of the country. At the time it was enough for our heroine to spend three months in the Oberland (with no accomodation costs). The characters are all rather unpleasant, although all have their good points, too, and really not much happens. A lack of plot is not necessarily a bad thing for me but there was no compensatory character interest and the descriptions of the landscape and scenery got rather boring after a while. I've so far managed to pick books that my fellow book group members have liked but I don't think they will be impressed by this one. What's more annoying is that any other Stella Gibbons book (and I have several) would probably have been better.



What Remains of Heaven, finished 5th June. Now my book group obligations are out of the way I've gone back to the Sebastian St. Cyr Mysteries; this is number five (of sixteen so far) and I'm still enjoying them very much. They are very easy to read.



Where Shadows Dance, finished 5th June. Straight on to the next one. At the moment each book starts within a few days of the finish of the previous one so they almost blend into each other. I read them as ebooks and was sitting outside reading when I finished book five. Such are the marvels (?) of modern technology that I was able to buy and download book six, sitting in my garden, and start reading it within five minutes!

>143 CDVicarage: I'm sorry to hear that about The Swiss summer as it's on my TBR pile. Maybe now my expectations are lowered I will enjoy it a bit more than you did.

>144 Sakerfalcon: Several members of the group liked it more than I did - I think my expectations were high!

Quite an eventful week for me: my husband will be retiring in March next year and, as we live in tied accomodation, we need to find somewhere to live. We started house hunting in earnest this month and put an offer in for a house in Holmes Chapel on Tuesday. It didn't come to anything as the sellers wanted more but we felt that so much work would be necessary that we couldn't afford more. Next we noticed that a fairly central location - a now defunct wallpaper factory - was being cleared. So on Friday morning, having looked at the site details online, we went into the on-site office to make inquiries, and came out thirty minutes later having committed to buy a three bedroom semi. It's a rather odd feeling as we haven't seen the house as it hasn't yet been built. No building work has started yet but we are assured that it should be ready by next February. We shall be able to choose floor coverings, kitchen and bathroom fittings later on. I go into Holmes Chapel at least once a week so I shall be keeping an eye on the progress!

Anyway, reading has taken second place and I only finished four titles this week:



When Maidens Mourn, finished 6th June. The next in the Sebastian St. Cyr Mysteries. I'm still enjoying them but beginning to get worried that they will become formulaic.



The Night Hawks, finished 7th June. The thirteenth in the Ruth Galloway series. Again I'm still enjoying them. Of course I'm not reading these one after the other as I have to wait for the next one to be published!



Mapp and Lucia, read by Georgina Sutton, finished 10th June. This is probably the best book in the series and this is a very good reading.



A Pink Front Door, finished 11th June. More Furrowed Middlebrow and another chance for Stella Gibbons. This is set in the late fifties in London, which is an interesting time for me as I feel it has been neglected in the books I have read up till now.The War still has a marked effect on life particularly with regard to housing shortages. There are a lot of characters in this story and some seem to have been introduced only to be ignored, but it was a good read and I am happy to go on to some more Stella Gibbons in the future.

>146 CDVicarage: Congratulations on the soon to be build house, Kerry!

>146 CDVicarage: That is big news! I hope it all comes together seamlessly and on time!

>146 CDVicarage: Congratulations on the house!

I hope it all goes through smoothly. Just a word of caution, although I don't want to put a spoke in the wheels, I hope your contract is flexible. My parents bought an off-the-plan apartment a few years ago but the housing market went down somewhat before the building was finished so it was very difficult to sell their existing place but the builders wouldn't reduce the agreed price. They eventually did move in but the finances took a bit of juggling. Of course, you don't have to sell your existing place first, so it's not so complex.

You're really steaming through the Sebastian St. Cyr series. I don't often read mysteries but I could give it a go. Recommended for a non-mystery reader?

>146 CDVicarage: Congratulations on prospective house purchase. We bought off plan and it worked fine for use - the house was ready exactly when they said it would be. Although I was somewhat surprised just how long it takes to build a house. I remember they started laying the foundations at the beginning of October and it looked complete from the outside by Christmas but it wasn’t finished inside until the end of March. We found that the builders were willing to adapt more that the obvious choosing of tiles and bathroom fittings. We had additional kitchen cupboards, moved some electrical points, moved a wall over by a few inches (a non load-bearing one obviously) and took out a fitted wardrobe

Congratulations on the new house, Kerry (as well as your husband's impending retirement). We've bought two houses in a similar way. The degree of customization varied, but it was fun to be able to choose what we wanted, and to have everything new and shiny when we moved in. Where we fell down was in forgetting that even new homes need maintenance from time to time! I hope the build proceeds apace and meets your timing requirements.

Congrats on your new house, Kerry. That's really exciting.

>146 CDVicarage: How exciting to be able to watch your new home take shape over the coming months! I hope it will be a great retirement home for you.

P.S. I just visited some photos of Holmes Chapel online. It looks like a really nice location.

Only three books finished this week:



The Chalet School Returns to the Alps, finished 15th June. The latest Chalet School fill-in. It covers the same term as The Chalet School and Barbara but concentrates on different aspects - how a new teacher settles in and the back story and the out of school happenings of a new girl. It all fits in nicely and the writing style matches EBD's well.



The Masqueraders, finished 15th June. I first started this in audio a long time ago but didn't get very far. It was an easy read in print but it's not one of my favourite Heyers.



Bassett, finished 20th June. More Stella Gibbons; while I enjoyed this I was annoyed that the blurb led me to expect something different. I was much more interested in the story of Miss Baker and Miss Padsoe, which was emphasised in the blurb, and less in the activities of the Shellings.

As part of downsizing I am disposing of some paper books and replacing them with ebooks, which has brought to my attention some books which I haven't read for a long time. I've just started The Camomile Lawn, which I last read in 2008 in print and 2012 as an audiobook.

>147 FAMeulstee:, >148 quondame:, >149 humouress:, >150 SandDune:, >151 lauralkeet:, >152 MickyFine: and >153 thornton37814:. Thank you all for your good wishes, and advice, about our (possible) new house. It seems to be going fairly smoothly - the foundations of the first houses are laid. The show houses are first but ours should be next. The finance is the problem at the moment and we are waiting to hear if our mortgage application is successful - we should know by the end of next week. Our broker is fairly confident but, of course, won't commit himself yet!

>155 CDVicarage: Fingers crossed!

>154 CDVicarage: About 20 years ago I borrowed Chalet School books from the library to try and read the series from beginning to end although I probably only got halfway through, if that. About 10 years ago I thought I'd try again - only to find that they had purged them from the system.

>154 CDVicarage: I've just finished The Chalet School returns to the Alps and thought it was very good. I always enjoy the staff POV and there was lots of that, but Sue's story was very well done too.

Big changes in the offing -- I'm glad you found a place you like -- and that you get to participate so much in how it will look inside.

I've had to WL quite a few books -- dangerous over here! The Margery Sharps (can't believe I haven't stumbled over these before) and . . . I can't think!

I love short stories -- V.S. Pritchett is one best. I was blown away too by the Irish writer Mary Lavin. Another SS writer that people don't talk about who is amazing is H.E. Bates.

It's been a rough week and not much reading done. Midweek, I heard that a friend, met in RL but mostly online, had been murdered. Her son, who has mental health problems, has been arrested and her other son was injured. This was such a shock and the online group has shared our grief and concern for both her sons.

But I did finish a few books this week:



The Camomile Lawn, finished 21st June. As part of my downsizing I am replacing my paper books when cheap (or free) ebook copies are available, unless I am particularly attached to the paper ones, and this was 99p recently. It came to the top of my 'recent' books on my Kobo and I read it this week and enjoyed very much. It is my daughter's birthday tomorrow - she will be thirty-three - and I first read it about a year before she was born!



Lucia's Progress, read by Georgina Sutton, finished 24th June. This has been my bedtime book and my middle of the night book when I have been unable to sleep this week. It was an excellent reading and I find the story (and the whole series) very cheering and comforting.



A Thousand Ships, finished 26th June. As a child some of my favourite reading was myths and legends and I still enjoy them now. I have enjoyed the the books of Madeline Miller and I also have The Silence of the Girls to read. This one was a very good read. I particularly liked the exasperated tone of Penelope's letters.

>159 CDVicarage: Kerry, that’s awful. So sorry to hear that.

>159 CDVicarage: So sorry, Kerry, (((hugs)))

>159 CDVicarage: Shocking and sad news. Sorry to hear this.

>159 CDVicarage: On retellings of Greek myths, I seem to be accumulating quite a few to read. I read and liked A Thousand Ships and The Silence of the Girls very much, and am currently reading The Children of Jocasta. I have Pat Barker's new book The Women of Troy on my Netgalley TBR and Circe on my Kindle. I read The Song of Achilles a few years ago. I also have lots of Mary Renault books, mostly in fairly recent Virago Modern Classics editions (a few older green VMCs) but I think I'm more drawn to the more recent feminist retelllings. There is also Margaret Atwood's take on Penelope, The Penelopiad.

And then there are the transpositions, for example Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie draws on the story of Antigone.

And I'm in a library queue for Pandora's Jar, though at the moment I'm very happy for it to take a while because I'm overcommitted on library books.

>163 elkiedee: I had forgotten Mary Renault and I have quite a few of her books in paper format, which I must get out.

>159 CDVicarage: Happy birthday to your daughter!

I'm so sorry to hear about your friend, Kerry.

>159 CDVicarage: How completely disturbing! Finding comfort in books is a great resource.

Thank you, everyone, for your kind wishes and sympathy.

This week has been busy: Clare (my daughter) and I have been preparing for a brief visit to Belfast. Toby came with us - I was included to mind him when Clare was busy - and luggage increases dramatically with all the equipment needed for a baby! I had a small suitcase (not full), Clare had a large one for her and Toby's clothes. Clare had to take three possible outfits for her 'appearance', and Toby needed plenty too as well as a car seat and a folding buggy. We flew out from Manchester on Friday afternoon and left our hotel in Belfast at 6.45 this morning and we were home by 11-ish, feeling as though we had put in a full day already. Much of Saturday was spent at the BBC studio and the result will be shown later this year.

However that means I've done very little reading and only finished one book this week:



The Scribbler No. 18 July 2021: A retrospective literary review, finished 2nd July. This issue included reviews of 20th century diaries, novels set in the circus, an article about Olivia Fitz Roy and a literary trail in the Yorkshire Dales - all very enjoyable.

I noticed that I didn't do a round-up for June, so here it is:

I finished thirteen titles; one paper book, ten ebooks and two audiobooks. One ROOT success, three were re-reads and ten were new to me.

>167 CDVicarage: Well, I do tend to pack everything including the kitchen sink but when you’re packing for a baby, it feels like you’ve got half the rest of the kitchen as well. It always amazed me that the smallest member of the family took the most packing space.

I’m intrigued by Clare’s ‘appearance’; can you tell us more?

>169 humouress: Well, it will be shown on BBC later this year. Clare is answering questions while sat in a particular chair...

Hi Kerry, sorry to have missed your birthday. I read all the good wishes up above while scrolling to the last post. I've been away from LT for a while and hope to do better in the future.

>171 connie53: Thanks, Connie. I read your thread so I know how busy and distracted you must have been lately. I hope the health problems of your various family members are soon as resolved as they can be.

>172 CDVicarage: Thanks Kerry. I doesn't end by Peet and Marie, Lonne is also suffering from a kind of stomach flu. But she is feeling better every day now. Marie has to stay in hospital for at least another night. Her oxygen levels are still to low.

>170 CDVicarage: Mmhmm, mmhmm. I'm getting some clues.

A better week as far as numbers go - four titles finished:



Let's Do It: The Authorised Biography of Victoria Wood, finished 5th July. I'm always wary of biographies of artists, writers etc that I like in case it makes me feel differently about their work. This one did, a bit, but I think I like her more rather than less.



Trouble for Lucia, read by Georgina Sutton, finished 6th July. The last of the Mapp & Lucia novels. I've been listening to them for nearly three months and I'm quite sorry that they are finished.



Apricot Sky, finished 8th July. Another lovely Furrowed Middlebrow title, set on the north west coast of Scotland.



Small Pleasures, finished 10th July. This is my book group title, ready for the meeting on Wednesday. It will be our first face-to-face meeting since March 2020 and I'm glad it's such a good book to discuss. I like to know details of a story before I read it so, having read some reviews, I was prepared for the ending. I liked the book so much that I've gone straight on to another by this author - Learning to Swim.

>175 CDVicarage: I love the Lucia books, Kerry. I've never listened to them but I can imagine a good narrator would only enhance the experience.

>176 rosalita: Yes indeed, Julia. The reader is Georgina Sutton, who is one of my favourite narrators. She has done the complete The Diary of a Provincial Lady (my desert island book) and one of my favourite Georgette Heyers, The Corinthian. This set of Mapp and Lucia is economically combined into two audiobooks so I got six books for the price of two from Audible!

>177 CDVicarage: That's a great deal! I'll have to remember this narrator's name for future reference. The Corinthian is one of my favorite Heyer's as well.

A good reading week - four titles finished:



Learning to Swim, finished 11th July. I liked Small Pleasures so much I went straight on to another book by Clare Chambers. It was also enjoyable but perhaps not quite up to the same standard.



Susan Settles Down, finished 12th July. A book from the latest batch of Furrowed Middlebrow books. Molly Clavering was a friend and neighbour of D. E. Stevenson and her books are of the same type. This one was set in the Borders and dealt with a lovely group of characters. Although there was sadness the right people paired up! There is a sequel, which I shall add to my TBR pile.



Pied Piper, finished 15th July. This was a lovely book: very understated and, despite mostly taking place in France, very British. It takes place during WW2. An Englishman goes on holiday to France and finds himself responsible for escorting two children back to England just as the German invasion takes place. He picks up more children on his way until he finally has five.



The Dead of Winter, read by Sandra Duncan, finished 18th July. The latest in the Josephine Tey Crime Series, which takes place on St Michael's Mount over Christmas 1938. It's been most unseasonal reading! The series is still strong and I hope there will be more.

>179 CDVicarage: It was also enjoyable but perhaps not quite up to the same standard. That’s happened to me a few times; I think I’ve discovered an exciting new (to me) author but the next book I read by them doesn’t quite live up to the standard.

Three titles finished this week:


Love in a Cold Climate, read by Patricia Hodge, finished 20th July. This is a many times re-read. Possibly as a result of the recent TV adaptation of The Pursuit of Love, new audiobooks of the many Nancy Mitford novels are being produced but this version is the perfect reading of this title so I shan't be getting a new one.



Ariadne, finished 22nd July. I very much like 'original' and modern tellings of myths and legends but this one didn't really work for me. I can't put my finger on why - the heroines (Ariadne and Phaedra) seemed too self-aware? Not usually a bad thing but it didn't fit with the rest of the story/characters somehow.



The Stone of Chastity, finished 24th July. Another jolly romp from Margery Sharp.

Another month is over: only one book finished this week.



Family Ties, finished 29th July. Confusion between the families in a village - more from the Furrowed Middlebrow range.

July: I finished thirteen titles this month - one paper book, nine ebooks and three audiobooks. Two were re-reads (both audiobooks) and the rest were new to me. None were ROOT successes.

August is the month for All Virago/All August but I shall be counting Persephones too.

So sorry to read about your friend. So unsettling.

Lots of book bullets here from the Furrowed Middlebrow -- and I'm thrilled that there are new readings of Mitford on Audio that you love.I only just noticed the TV version of The Pursuit of Love this morning!

>184 sibylline: Thanks, Lucy. And there are more Furrowed Middlebrow titles to come!

Only two titles finished this week:



Fanfare for Tin Trumpets, finished 5th August. Another Furrowed Middlebrow title; although I enjoyed it I can remember too well being young and foolish (even though it's a long time ago) to completely appreciate the story of someone else at that stage.



An Expert in Murder, read by Sandra Duncan, finished 6th August. Having recently read, and very much liked, The Dead of Winter, the ninth (and latest) in this series I decided to re-read, or re-listen, from the beginning. While I still enjoyed this one - Sandra Duncan is an excellent narrator - I noticed the info-dumping much more. Nicola Upson has definitely improved as a writer over the series. First time round I found the stories variable - not in quality of writing, but I didn't care for a few of the subjects. I'll see if I feel the same way in my re-read. I'm definitely inclined to read some of the stories in print rather that audio, so that I can read them faster!

Four titles finished (or not finished) this week:



Mrs. Lorimer's Quiet Summer, finished 9th August. Another delightful title from the Furrowed Middlebrow list.



The Book of Longings, abandoned 11th August. This was my Book Group book and the meeting was on 11th. I got about a third the way through and I'd planned to whizz through the rest on Wednesday afternoon but I couldn't bring myself to do it so I had to confess (and justify) my failure to the rest of the group. Of the seven of us three are married to clergymen and we had considered asking one, or more, of them for a 'professional' opinion but the resident Vicar also only got half way through it so we had to rely on our own opinions. Some liked it and some didn't, but I was the only one who didn't finish!



Love Comes Home, finished 14th August. Back to the more comfortable Furrowed Middlebrow.



Slightly Foxed 70: 'Tigers at the Double Lion' Summer 2021, finished 15th August. Another good selection of essays and I'm now caught up on available issues and have to wait a couple of months until the next one. I can read past issues - before I began my subscription - online but it's not such a comfotable way to read.

Books still coming thick and fast here, Kerry.

Have a lovely weekend.

Four tiles finished this week:



Slightly Foxed 01: Spring 2004, Slightly Foxed 2: 'An odd sort of comfort', and Slightly Foxed 3: Sharks, Otters and Fast Cars, finished during this week. Having got up to date with my paper copies (I started my subscription with issue no. 45) I decide to go back and read the earlier issues, which I can do through an app on my tablet. It's not my preferred way of reading but I have a fairly large screen tablet so that a page fits on it nicely. I have got through them faster than I would a paper copy but I don't know if it's because they were shorter then, or the articles were shorter, or I'm just not as interested. I think if I had started with issue one I might not have continued a subscription.



Letters From England, finished 22nd August. This was a book I picked up from an article in one of the early issues of Slightly Foxed (only one book from three issues: another sign of how they have changed/improved(?) over the years) and, although I enjoyed it, it would have been better read as a weekly column in Punch, say, rather than as a book. The satire and humour soon wear thin when read straight through.

I couldn't get anywhere with the one with bees in the title.

>190 sibylline: I have that one in my TBR pile but I don't feel inclined to try it at the moment.

Three titles finished this week, reading still seems a bit slow.



Slightly Foxed 4: Now We're Shut in for the Night, Slightly Foxed 5: A Hare's Breadth, finished 25th and 27th August. I'm still working my way through the early Slightly Foxeds. I'm still not liking them as much as the later ones (I started with issue no. 45) but I'm sure they'll settle down soon and they're good for odd bits of reading here and there. The latest paper copy - no. 71 - has just arrived so I shall be reading that next.



A Time of Gifts: On Foot to Constantinople: from the Hook of Holland to the Middle Danube, finished 28th August. Although this was a wonderful book I found it had dull (for me) patches. The action happens in 1933 when the author was nineteen and the book was written and published in 1977, which means there are widely different points of view. Some of the descriptions covers rural lifestyles that could be happening hundreds of years ago so I found it difficult to get a sense of time. I have the next volume but I don't think I shall be reading it straightaway.

I'll finish off my August reading:



Silent in the Grave, finished 31st August. Not a good end to the month. I was so cross about this book I wrote a brief review, which was a bit unfair really, but here it is:

The opening sentence, which is quoted in the blurb:

'To say that I met Nicholas Brisbane over my husband’s dead body is not entirely accurate. Edward, it should be noted, was still twitching upon the floor.'

was what interested me. It is a good start but it only goes downhill from there.
The behaviour of the characters is not of the time and, although it is set in England, the language is American. At first I was able to ignore it but it just became more and more obtrusive: no-one in the book died, only passed. (Passed what? 'Go', a kidney stone, their neighbour in the street?)
I'm disappointed as this was the first in a series, which I shall not continue. I shan't be trying any of her other books either.

August round-up:

Fourteen titles finished this month - two paper books, eleven ebooks and one audiobook. Only one was a re-read, the rest were all new to me.

Two titles finished, so far, this month:



Imagined Lives: Portraits of Unknown People , finished 1st September. A very interesting concept, and I liked all the short 'biographies'. It was a good book to pick up in a free moment, which I have been doing for several weeks, as each could be read in a few minutes.



Pride and Prejudice, read by Juliet Stevenson, finished 2nd September. I looked up my records and I first began buying audiobooks from Audible in September 2008, (although I already had some on CD) and the first ones I bought were the six Jane Austen novels. Five of them were read by Juliet Stevenson, who is one of my favourite readers, but for some reason she didn't record Pride and Prejudice. I struggled on with other readers but they were no good - I even returned one or two to Audible I was so disatisfied - but, at last, in May of this year Juliet Stevenson's version was released and available through Audible and my collection was complete. It was worth waiting for.

>194 CDVicarage: I'm glad you found the P&P that suits you. Having the wrong reader sounds like it would be even worse than watching a badly costumed adaption would be for me.

I had a week's holiday, staying in Grassington in the Yorkshire Dales, with my mother and sister so I've two weeks worth of reading to list:



In a Good Light, finished 7th September. This is the third book by Clare Chambers that I have read recently and, although Small Pleasures is still the best I enjoyed this one - particularly as it was set in an area I know well.



The Adventures of Miss Barbara Pym, finished 13th September. I have read (some more than once) and very much enjoyed the novels of Barbara Pym but I found this biography quite hard to read and rather disappointing. I don't think it is because one can sometimes be sorry to discover than one's heroines may have feet of clay - I don't think Barbara Pym has - but because it was a little dull in many places. I shall still be re-reading her novels, though.



Slightly Foxed 6: Taking the Plunge, Slightly Foxed: No 7: Waist-high in Kale, Slightly Foxed 8: Cooking with a Poet, and Slightly Foxed 9: Tusker's Last Stand, finished 12th to 16th September. I'm still working my way through the backnumbers (and will be for some time yet). They were ideal holiday reading as I could read a chapter here and there between outings and conversation. I feel they are now getting into their stride and feel more like the current issues in style and interest (for me).



Black Sheep, read by Barbara Leigh-Hunt, finished 18th September. This is a many times re-read and still enjoyable. The novels of Georgette Heyer are being published in new audio versions. I'm not really tempted to buy them as I'm very pleased with the versions I have - though I may consider this one as a) I dislike this cover and b) Barbara Leigh-Hunt, although an excellent reader is really a little old for the heroine in this book. This is also the case for Bath Tangle read by Sian Phillips but as I don't care for that story much I don't need to listen to it again.

>196 CDVicarage: I hope you had a good time with your mother and sister, Kerry.
And congratulations on reaching 2 x 75!

>197 FAMeulstee: Thanks, Anita. I noticed the double 75 as I posted my list!

Congrats from me too, Kerry, on getting to 2x75 already.

I am interested by your reading of the Slightly Foxed periodicals. Ilana sent me one a few years ago and I must say it was engrossing.

I have never seen them for sale here in Malaysia. Do you subscribe to them?

Have a lovely weekend.

>199 PaulCranswick: Thanks, Paul. I've been a subscriber since edition no. 45 (latest copy is no. 71) and members have online access to all copies, so I decided to start with issue no. 1 and work my way through! If you think you might like it here is the link to the Slightly Foxed website.

>200 CDVicarage: Thanks for that Kerry. I may well follow your lead. x

Congratulations on your double 75 Kerry!

>202 humouress: Thanks, Nina. I just managed the triple last year so I still have something to aim for!

Only three titles finished this week:



Dear Hugo, finished 19th September. Another lovely Furrowed Middlebrow title, set in the Scottish borders. It is an epistolary novel, which is not at all my favourite type, but it worked well. We only have one side of the correspondance but can easily fill in what's missing.



The Tiger's Wife, finished 24th September. I found this very hard work. It was the book chosen for my RL Book Group and I hadn't quite finished it by the time of Thursday's meeting but I did skim through to the end the next day. It is set in an unspecified Balkan country before, during and after the most recent civil war after the break up of Yugoslavia. One of our group members is Croatian, with a Serbian husband, and she was able to fill us in on what we didn't understand. While this was useful, and interesting, I feel it means that the book was a failure for (some of) us.



Yoked With a Lamb, finished 25th September. Although I'm still enjoying the Furrowed Middlebrows - this was a real palate cleanser after The Tiger's Wife - there were aspects of this book that I didn't quite like. A couple, who had been living apart after the husband had an affair, returned to their Borders home to live together as a family again. Although most was satisfactorily resolved for them and the other characters there was a tendency, by the writer and the characters to blame the wronged wife for her husband's affair.

I love coming here, especially these days, when I seem to need more books that require less of me!

Book group books do hold that risk, for sure, but I am sometimes very very glad to be pushed out of my comfort zone (sometimes definititely NOT!).

Too bad that writer didn't know to ask a knowledgeable person to read over her manuscript for Americanisms! What a great first sentence!

Four titles finished this week:



The Heron's Cry, finished 26th September. The second in Ann Cleeves's new series, set in Devon, is as good as any of her other books, although I feel we're still getting to know the set-up and the characters.



Slightly Foxed 71: Jocelin's Folly Autumn 2021, finished 30th September. Another excellent issue.



The Editor's Wife, finished 1st October. Another good story from Clare Chambers but I felt the first half/two thirds was overshadowed by the promise/threat of the 'desperate misjudgement' that Christopher is going to make - as described in the blurb - which, when it happens, is what I expected anyway. But all is resolved, if not necessarily in the way you might have expected.



The Pursuit of Love, read by Bessie Carter, finished 2nd October. I was pleased that the new TV adaptation of this title prompted a new audio edition, as the one I had was not very well read. This was excellent, with a narrator whose voice suited the main characters.

September is over; here is my September reading:

Fourteen titles finished - two paper books, ten ebooks and two audiobooks. All but one title were new to me, and one was a ROOT success - one audiobook was a re-read.

October's bookgroup choice is Shuggie Bain and I'm not really looking forward to it, but the next story in The Time Police series is due out on 14th October and I am looking forward very much to that. I shall also be continuing with my read through of the Slightly Foxed back issues.

>206 CDVicarage: Having just read Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers I’ve been lookout for more by her and managed to find In a Good Light a couple of days ago. Have you read many of hers?

>208 SandDune: I've read four now: Small Pleasures, Learning to Swim, In a Good Light and The Editor's Wife and I've liked them all. Small Pleasures, which is her most recent, is the best, I think, which demonstrates how she has grown as a writer, I suppose.

Only one title finished this week, and I feel I've hardly done any reading at all. It's been rather a busy time: Clare, my daughter, started back to work this week so we had to two days of looking after Toby. It went fairly smoothly, although it will take some time to completely get settled. I had forgotten how hard it is, physically, to look after a small child - all that picking him up and putting him down! Our cat, Kevin, who is now 15 and a half years old, is starting to fail and I had to take him to the vet on Friday. This was the first time he had ever needed to see the vet for ill health or injury (and I was shocked by the cost) and I am reluctant to commit to any treatment that might be 'invasive'. We have another appointment tomorrow and I fear it might be time to make a hard decision.

This is the only title I finished this week:



The Armourer's House, finished 8th October. A lovely story, beautifully written, for children but I appreciated it.

Congrats on the double 75, Kerry. I like visiting your thread. So much interesting titles passing by.

>210 CDVicarage: Sorry to hear you may be facing tough decisions for Kevin, Kerry. Hugs for you.

>212 MickyFine: Thanks, Micky. There was another trip to the vet on Monday and we have decided that there will be no treatment. Kevin has hyper-thyroidism, which is common in older cats, and he is already affected in several ways by it. We wanted to know how his body would fail so that we are able to tell when he is likely to become distressed or pained by his symptoms. We know what to look for and think it will only be a week or two until he can no longer manage. Andrew, my son, will be leaving us and moving back to Bristol (after ten months with us) next week so we hope Kevin will be able to cope until then.

>213 CDVicarage: I'm sorry to hear that. It can't be easy.

>213 CDVicarage: That's so sad.

I'm sorry to hear about Kevin, Kerry. We've had a number of hyperthyroid cats over the years, and it's sad to watch them decline. I am sure he will feel loved and at peace during his final days.

Sorry to hear about Kevin.

The Armourer's House was one of my favourite books as a kid.

>213 CDVicarage: Making those choices are always so tough. Hugs for you and your family, Kerry, and of course pets for Kevin.

>213 CDVicarage: That is sad, Kerry, but I do think that you are making the right choices. ((((HUGS))))

>213 CDVicarage: Sorry about Kevin, Kerry. I hope he can manage until your son has left.
(((hugs)))

Thank you, all, for your kind wishes for Kevin. He is still with us but visibly failing so not for much longer.

I missed my weekly reading update last weekend as we were away and I have had quite a busy/stressful week so didn't get around to it during this week. We were away last weekend for a family wedding in Edinburgh. I didn't really want to go anyway but of course there are family obligations. Jon and I travelled by train - my first train journey since before the first lockdown - and it was busy, so I didn't even enjoy the journey, and I usually love train journeys. Clare and Richard drove up - much easier with a baby and his equipment - and it was the first time away with a baby for them. Again it was harder than they expected. We stayed in a good Air B'n'B. The wedding itself was fine; it was held in a small castle on the edge of the Firth of Forth. Again I found the large numbers of people hard to cope with - I'm just not used to crowds!

Andrew, who didn't come to the wedding, went back to Bristol on Tuesday. Although I'm pleased that he feels able to cope on his own again I miss him, and so does Kevin. Jon drove down to Bristol on Thursday to take as much of Andrew's stuff as would fit in the car.

One disadvantage from the wedding trip was that all of us have gone down with bad colds - but it could have been Covid so I'm trying to look on the positive side!

Anyway I have been doing more reading:



The Last Library, finished 10th October. I needed something light and this just fit the bill. I knew it was going to end (at least partly) happily and it did.



Saving Time, finished 16th October. I had been waiting with enthusiasm for this to be published but I wasn't able to read it straightaway! It was issued on Thursday, which was my day for looking after Toby, and I was on my own as Jon was en route to Bristol, and then we had to get ready for our trip to Edinburgh but I managed to sneak odd times and got through it by Saturday. It's great and I shall be reading the audio version soon.



Slightly Foxed 10: Dreaming of Home and Haileybury Summer 2006, finished 16th October. As ever these are ideal for reading in oddments of time and I go straight on to the next one.



Kingdom of the Blind, A Better Man and All the Devils Are Here, finished 19th to 23rd October. I don't know why I let these build up. I've normally read each new book as I got it. They are so intense that I have to try and have rests between every few chapters but then go on anyway as I need to know what will happen. These were all as good as ever, although the third one, set in Paris, was very complex (to me) and I missed Three Pines.

You've had a stressful week, indeed, Kerry. I'm glad you're caught up on the Inspector Gamache series. Being in Paris with Gamache was disorienting for me and I was glad to see him return to Three Pines for the latest book. Is the The Madness of Crowds available in the UK yet? It's another fine entry in the series.

>221 CDVicarage: I occasionally do that same thing (letting things build up). I do know why. I try not to be greedy when the book first comes in. Since I catalog them, I could always be first, but I know that a retired staffer also wants that Louise Penny or Ann Cleeves book--and I usually just call her and let her have it first. Then when it comes back, someone else checks it out. I work my way down a list of books in order of arrival, so it can be awhile before I get around to reading them. I still usually read the Louise Penny books within the year, but other authors sometimes get pushed on down, and I may not get to them for awhile. I've also tired of a few series, but I sometimes find that taking a break helps me regain the enthusiasm for the series. Then I wonder why it took me so long to get back to them!

>222 lauralkeet: Yes, it's available in UK but not as an ebook from my library and it's still a bit too expensive to buy so I shall be waiting a while. When we move I shall be much closer to a physical library so may go back to reading more paper books.

>223 thornton37814: Yes, a break does often help, but several times I've saved the last in a series and then been a bit disappointed so it's hard to decide what is best!

>224 CDVicarage: That makes sense, Kerry.

By the way ... I recently decided to re-read Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence. I read it long before acquiring my Virago edition and, like most of my Viragos, I'd completely forgotten how the book came into my possession. When I pulled it off the shelves I found a slip of paper with your name and address printed on it. Thank you for making this re-read possible!

>225 lauralkeet: Amazing! I can't remember either why I sent it to you - a duplicate swap or Secret Santa?

I have an original green Virago in very good condition but I think I upgraded from a second style green - according to the cover upload date, only last year - and my reading date was pre-LT, so at least fourteen years ago. I suspect it may have been prompted by the Daniel Day-Lewis and Michelle Pfeiffer film.

>226 CDVicarage: I just checked my book details. I added it to my library in September 2010, so it must have been a duplicate swap. My original reading pre-dates LT also, and likely for the same reason. Of course now I want to watch the film again ...

>224 CDVicarage: It's always a pleasant bonus finding that there'll be a library close to where you're moving to :0)

I do miss my libraries being out here in sunny Kuala Lumpur.

Hope all is well, Kerry.

I realise I haven't finished my October reading so here it is:



Four Gardens, finished 24th October. Although I enjoyed this it did take me a while to finish it as I kept breaking off to read other books.



Lady of Quality, read by Eve Matheson, finished 27th October. This was the last Regency novel written by Georgette Heyer so it's not her best but still enjoyable. I had a day in bed as the result of a very bad cold and this kept me company nicely when I wasn't asleep.



Daughters of Chivalry: The Forgotten Children of Edward I, finished 29th October. An interesting, if rather dry, account.



Slightly Foxed 11 : A Private, Circumspect People Autumn 2006, finished 29th October. And straight on to the next one!



The Horse and His Boy, read by Alex Jennings, finished 29th October. More comfort audio re-reading.



The Cleaner of Chartres, finished 31st October. This was slightly disappointing, probably because I had been expecting more, but it was still good.

October was a fairly good reading month as far as numbers went: twelve ebooks and three audiobooks. Twelve were new to me - the ebooks - and three were re-reads - the audiobooks. Although there was nothing that I disliked or regretted, there was also nothing outstanding, except Saving Time, and I shall be reading the audio of that fairly soon.

Tonight is my Book Group meeting and I haven't managed to finish the book - it's Shuggie Bain and I just haven't had the mental strength to cope with it so there will be a DNF report next week!

>229 PaulCranswick: Thanks, Paul. It's been rather a busy few weeks: a weekend in Edinburgh for a family wedding, two weeks suffering with a very bad cold caught there, Andrew moving back to Bristol, and I've not really had anything to read that I really enjoyed to solace me! Still a new month (even if it's November) feels like a fresh start.

I've just listed a batch of ten Chalet School books on Ebay, only one more lot to go. I had over eighty hardbacks so it's quite sad to see the empty shelves (which will soon be filled when I rearrange my collections), but we must downsize quite considerably before we move next year. So far I have made more than I paid so it's not all bad! We have lived in large five-bedroomed houses for the last thirty-odd years but our retirement home will be more modest. I will miss having the space to fill but I won't miss having the space to heat and clean.

I decided to keep the catalogue entries for the books that I have sold, in a collection called 'Once Owned'. I don't do that for all books I dispose of, just for special ones that I don't want to forget.

Only two books finished this week (and one Not Finished):



Shuggie Bain, DNF 3rd November. This was our Book Group choice and I just couldn't manage it. I'd been quite poorly and this was not the kind of book I needed to read on my sick-bed!



The Garden of Forgotten Wishes, finished 5th November. This however was just what I needed for the situation. I've read several books by Trisha Ashley and when I fancy some good quality chicklit they fit the bill.



The Scribbler No. 19 November 2021: A retrospective literary review, finished 6th November. I started this a week or two ago but it got buried in the stuff on my desk. When it resurfaced I finished it straightaway. The themes for this issue were: novels connected with the Brontes, novels about evacuees during WW2, an article about school food during WW2, books about fiddlers (as opposed to violinists) and a literary trail through Brighton (and Hove).

So, a slow start to the month but I've got plenty to be going on with. I'm listening to the audio of Saving Time, reading a non-fiction about the winter of 1962-3 (which I can just remember) Frostquake, and I've just got the latest book in the 44 Scotland Street series, Love in the Time of Bertie.

>233 CDVicarage: If you post your Chalet School batches in the Girls Gone By or Chalet School groups, someone might be interested in picking them up.

>234 CDVicarage: I hope you're feeling better now.

I've been reading more chick-lit these past couple of years but it's been a bit hit and miss with authors. Since you like Trisha Ashley, is there a good starting point you'd recommend? She has a few series listed but I'm guessing they're just loosely connected?

>235 humouress: I have sold (and given away) some books using various Chalet School Facebook pages; it has the advantage of being simpler than listing on Ebay and you keep all the money you get! But I find it hard to put a price on the books. I don't want to rip anyone off but I also want to get a good price. An Ebay auction sets the price for you and, on the whole I have got higher prices than I would have thought to ask, but, of course, you have to pay Ebay commission. However I think I have mostly got more than I originally paid, although I didn't keep records, so I can't be sure.

As you guessed the Trisha Ashley series are very loosely linked so there is really no 'right' order to read them. Of all the ones I've read none stands out as particularly good or bad. I saw recently someone refer to such books as Hen Lit as they are about slightly older characters: mid-thirties onward with some entertaining older secondary characters too.

>236 CDVicarage: I use the phrase "hen lit" sometimes as shorthand for chiclklit with older characters, especially as some are hitting their 40s and 50s, with children and even teenagers and early 20s kids (!), and some of the writers still doing the genre feel like people I've grown up with over 20 to 30 years or so.

>237 elkiedee: I think it must have been you, Luci!

>236 CDVicarage: I was just thinking that there are folks in those (LT) groups who might be looking for books and you'd definitely be able to sell them - but it looks like you're not having a problem there :0)

>236 CDVicarage: >237 elkiedee: *sigh* I'm just getting comfortable with 'chicklit'. At least 'hen lit' sounds more responsible.

Dropping by to wish you a lovely weekend, Kerry.

>239 humouress: I do hope that the male version will not morph from "Lad lit" to "Cock lit" as that may lead to numerous teenage boys making very disappointing book purchases.

>240 PaulCranswick: You mean you haven't encountered p***klit?

Another poor week, as far as numbers finished goes. My cold (I know, it's only a cold) continues and I had a couple of days in bed. I was able to read audiobooks but only re-reads, nothing fresh. Three titles actually finished this week:



Saving Time, read by Zara Ramm, finished 8th November. This is definitely the best book, so far, in this series; it's been improving all the time, but now there's a year to wait for the next one...



Frostquake, finished 12th November. I found this very interesting. I am old enough to remember this winter - the snow began to fall as we drove home from a family gathering on Boxing Day evening but I don't remember the freeze lasting as long as it did. The accompanying history is interesting, and mostly passed me by at the time, and I'm sure the author isn't claiming that the long freeze caused it, but there is that feeling!



Slightly Foxed 12: The Irresistible Heptaplasiesoptron Winter 2006 , finished 14th November. The usual selection of interesting articles but nothing added to my TBR list.

I've started my next Bookgroup book - Queenie - but it's a slender volume and I've got nearly four weeks so I shall probably fit in some other books, too!

I had a busy Sunday so didn't get my reading update done, but here it is now. Only two titles finished but I felt as though I did more reading than the previous week!



A Dry Spell, finished 17th November. Having read several other books by Clare Chambers recently, I was fairly sure I would like this and I did.



Because of Sam, finished 20th November. When I don't know what to read next (and I'm not really enjoying Queenie) I turn to the Furrowed Middlebrow range and it didn't disappoint.

Well, another week has gone by:



Brighton Belle and London Calling, finished 22nd and 23rd November. These two books - the first in a series - appeared in my public library recently. I thought they looked interesting and they were - quick, easy reads set in an under-represented time period. There are already five more stories in the series but they are not (yet) available from my library.

Considerably more than a week has gone by this time! I usually make my reading posts on Sunday afternoons but for the previuos two Sundays I have been unwell. I had a reaction to my Moderna booster (Administered 1st December) and was whizzed off to the local A&E in the early hours of Sunday 5th with a swollen tongue. I stayed in, being observed until Monday afternoon and spent the rest of the week feeling a bit under the weather. I was just feeling back to normal when I went down with flu symptons - despite a flu jab - and had to spend Sunday and Monday in (my own) bed. I shall be busy tomorrow, but for a good reason this time, so I must get up to date today!

I'll finish off November first:



Before the Chalet School: The Bettanys on the Home Front, finished 29th November. I finished my last read-through of the Chalet School books nearly two years ago, in January 2020, so I decided to start again. There have been several fill-ins published over the last few years, which I have read out of order so I will try to get everything in order this time. I took nearly four years over it last time so I may be foiled by more new fill-ins.



An early title from the Furrowed Middlebrow range, which, although enjoyable, was outside my experience and attitudes, so I was unable to empathise or sympathise much with the heroine.

November reading numbers seemed quite low - only eleven titles finished: two paper books, eight ebooks and one audiobook. Only two were re-reads the rest were all new, and one was a ROOT success.

December reading (and re-reading):



Village Christmas, finished 2nd December. It seems reasonable to start Christmas books at the beginning of December. I read this one partly in print and partly in audio.



The Unknown Ajax, read by Daniel Philpott, finished 3rd December. This is quite a long book and I had to relisten to some bits as I fell asleep. It's a re-read and I still had to read the last chapter in print as it's too complicated to listen to, especially as a bedtime book!



Ballet Shoes, finished 5th December. A re-read with a partly seasonal theme. I first read this nearly sixty years ago.



Love in the Time of Bertie, finished 6th December. The fifteenth episode in the 44 Scotland Street series and I'm still enjoying them.



The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, finished 6th December. Another a book with a Christmas theme.



No Holly for Miss Quinn, read by Gwen Watford, finished 6th December. More seasonal favourites.



A Child's Christmas in Wales, read by the author, finished 8th December.



Curtain Up, finished 10th December. Not a sequel but the Ballet Shoes characters are involved.



The Christmas Mouse, read by Gwen Watford, finished 11th December



The Story of Holly and Ivy, finished 12th December.

The three books finished on 6th December were the ones I read while I was in hospital - there is nothing else to do even had I wanted to!

Sorry to hear you had a reaction to your booster and then came down with the flu right after. Hopefully that's it for illness for a good long while.

>248 MickyFine: Thanks, Mickey. I feel fine now, so I hope that's it for the year, or even for the winter!

>245 CDVicarage: Oh the hospital trip sounds scary. I'm glad your out and over the reaction!

>247 CDVicarage: Sometime between 1960 and 1963 is when I read the Shoes books. Probably 62.

I love that you read all the Miss Read Christmas stories!

Or in other words: Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year!

>252 ronincats:, >253 SandDune: Thank you Roni and Rhian. I'm trying to ignore Christmas as much as I can this year, helped by the fact that I don't have to cook Christmas dinner! But I do wish all my LT friends a Happy Christmas and hope it goes as you would like it to.

Have a lovely holiday, Kerry.

Happy Holidays Kerry!

One where you don't have to fix a dinner is great!

>255 PaulCranswick:, >256 quondame: Thanks Paul and Susan for your Christmas wishes - I hope you know they are returned.

I have started my 2022 thread and hope you will visit me here but I will be adding to this one until the end of the year so that my 2021 reading lists and comments are complete.

Gosh, I'm sorry about your adverse reaction to the booster. I'm glad you're alright now.

>247 CDVicarage: A Chalet School re-read; I wouldn't mind joining you but the books are impossible to find in the libraries these days. I like Ballet Shoes and have re-read it several times but I don't think I've read any of the sequels.

>259 humouress: Ballet Shoes isn't really part of a series, though some of the characters pop up in other stories by her, and any of her stories which can be given a footwear title, however silly, have been retitled and published as "Shoes" books. The book now sold as Theatre Shoes or even Theater Shoes is called Curtain Up. Pauline is also glimpsed in The Painted Garden (GRR at the title Movie Shoes).

Time for a final reading list; I've finished fourteen books since I last reported and it will be fifteen by the end of the day:



Winter in Thrush Green, read by June Barrie, finished 17th December. More Christmas re-reading - an old favourite.



Rachel Ray, finished 21st December. the next in the Trollope read-through, helpfully tutored by Lyzard/Liz, which made it much easier to read.



The Christmas Mystery, finished 24th December. My Advent calendar book, which I read and enjoy - and discover something new - every year.



Touch Not the Nettle, finished 24th December. A little rest from Christmas reading with some Furrowed Middlebrow. Although it was as good as I would expect there was some rather out of place melodrama, but it was soon over.



A Christmas Carol, read by Anton Lesser, finished 24th December. I listen to this every year and this year actually finished it as Christmas Eve turned into Christmas Day.



The Toast of Time, finished 25th December. I actually managed to get the St Mary's Christmas short story read on Christmas Day. I was helped by not having to cook the Christmas dinner and by not going to church - because of Covid risks, not because I didn't want to!



A Guernsey Girl at the Chalet School, finished 26th December. The latest Chalet School fill-in, which I had been fitting in throughout December. It was enjoyable and will be fitted in to future chronological read-throughs.



The Amazing Mr Blunden, finished 26th December. A good read. I wondered if I may have read this previously but there was nothing really familiar. There is a TV adaptation due soon but I shan't be able to watch it as we don't subscribe to Sky. I hope it will show up on another channel/stream at some time.



Anna at War, finished 27th December. A book I'd started about a month ago and, although I was enjoying it, it got pushed aside by other titles. It concerned the Kindertransport and the early years of WW2 from an unusual - and strangely believable - viewpoint.



The Thirteen Days of Christmas, finished 27th December. Another Christmas favourite: a funny account of the possible origins of the song 'The Twelve Days of Christmas'.



The Toast of Time, read by Zara Ramm, finished 28th December. The audio version.



The Reading List, finished 29th December. A pleasant little story, but I felt it was slightly manipulative - I knew how it end.



Before the Chalet School: The Bettanys of Taverton High, finished 29th December. The second book in the full (including fill-ins) Chalet School series. There are two prequels before the series proper starts.



Another 366 Days: More Stories From This Day in History, finished 31st December. This has been my chapter-a-day book throughout the year. Some days were interesting, and some weren't!



Thursday's Child, will be finished 31st December. I'm pretty sure I know how this will end but it doesn't feel manipulative at all.

Thursday's Child was finished and it meant that I finished twenty five titles in December. Some were quite short and there were no really big books. I read three paper books, fifteen ebooks and seven audiobooks. Although there was a lot of re-reading - it was Christmas - eleven were new to me, but no ROOT successes.

I don't expect to finish so many titles next year as we are moving house, going on holiday and supervising my mother's moving house, plus whatever else comes up!

Forget your stresses and strains
As the old year wanes;
All that now remains
Is to bring you good cheer
With wine, liquor or beer
And wish you a special new year.

Happy New Year, Kerry.

>261 CDVicarage: You always find the most interesting books.

>263 PaulCranswick: Thank you, Paul, that is an encouraging illustration!

>264 thornton37814: Thank you, Lori, that's what a random approach will do! No reading plans for me.

>261 CDVicarage: My interest is piqued every time you mention a Chalet School book. I just read The Durrells of Corfu which is a biography of the Durrell family from their years in India to, of course, Corfu. I vaguely remember that the Bettany parents were in India and the children were sent back to England, so it might be interesting to compare.

>266 humouress: Although the Bettany family had lived in India, by the time the Chalet School series begins it is something that is just mentioned, there is not even any indication where in India. Jo's big brother, Dick, goes back there to work - and meets and marries the boss's daughter - and we are told where, and there are frequent letters. EBD apparently wrote a book set in India, about Jo's visit there, but the manuscript was lost. All Chalet fans have fantasies of it turning up one day! There has been a fill-in written (not by EBD) which covers this visit, and a later one which covers the period after WW2 when Dick and his family finally leave India after he inherits a large house in Devon from a distant relative! So all we know about the India period is conjecture by fans. It is entirely possible that EBD knew very little about it anyway, although she had visited Austria, and probably Guernsey, and knew Hereford, where the wartime books were set, she never went to Switzerland and her facts and descriptions in the Swiss set books are from guide books of the time - and it sometimes shows!