deilibri

Having now amalgamated bags of books I wanted to read with the shelf in my study entitled READ THIS LOT NEXT, I’m rather overwhelmed by just how much reading I’ve got to get through. There’s no official deadline only time but, despite an attempt to read every day for at least an hour, it’s going to take eons. However, over the last couple of months I’ve managed to get through three books:

J S Monroe Find Me – Before They Do (Head of Zeus). A new thriller and a quite engaging one ( if there’s such a thing as a thriller that isn’t engaging) which was given to me at the London Book Fair 2017, so I’m not too far behind on that one. The author, new to me, seems to have adopted the now familiar dotting back and forth between last year, next year, this year and yesteryear. Star rating 3.

Ian Rankin Rather Be the Devil (Orion). Rankin is, in my view, always a good read despite getting bogged down in police procedure (but then that’s his forte). It’s only my third Rankin book but even though his chief protagonist (and antagonist according to his colleagues) Rebus is retired, he still has great grip on the case. Star rating 5.

Andrea Di Robilant A Venetian Affair (Harper). Based on a stash of letters discovered in an old case, the story is one of intrigue and unfulfilled love stretching from the canals of Venice to the lush mansions of London via the less salubrious parts of Paris. Not my type of story at all, but the Venice connection provided the important key. Star rating 4 (if only for the interweaving of the facts with the fiction).

A large pile of books has accumulated in my study – probably far too many to read in a year even at one a week (which I find impossible at present). Among these are a number of Stephen King and author I haven’t read much of yet but am going to need to.

Recent Reads. The aim is reading ever day. Not just papers, journals, etc but fiction.

After some persuasion I read Paula Hawkins Girl on a Train (Black Swan)a few weeks back. This is not one I’d have picked – even on a by one-get-one-free offer. And it did take a lot of perseverance to get past the first few pages. I’ve always said if it doesn’t grab my attention in the first couple of pages it’s a no go. Having said that, Salman Rushdie’s The Ground Beneath Her Feet, took me a couple of chapters before I was comfortable. In his case I stuck at it because of the author’s fame rather than the content. I suppose when you’re that successful you can afford to drag it out for a few more chapters and it’s still a book I need to finish, or re-read and finish. Paula Hawkins book did become a gripping read. I literally ate the last few chapters in my eagerness to get to the end.

Next on the list was Life After Life (Black Swan) by Kate Atkinson. This is an intriguing book and took some reading. No spoiler alert but it took me a while. In the end you’re gripped and hooked. It was a very clever premise and one has to admire authors who can dream up this sort of structure. Not one I’d read again, nor did I find it easy to explain the plot to anyone else but worth reading.

The third in line was Kate Mosse’s Taxidermist’s Daughter (Pan/Orion). Kate Mosse I like having read Sepulchre, Labyrinth and Winters Ghosts – the latter some months back. I’ve got used to her technique – now extremely popular it would seem – of alternate historical recounting. Every other chapter covers either what is happening to another key character as their two stories merge or what’s happened in the past. It no doubt has a name but I’ll stick with AHR. More soon.