It’s me!!! After an enforced hiatus due to various hosting issues I am back and ready to review. It hasn’t all been Christmas partying and January gym going though, I have actually been reading whilst I’ve been off line and below is a little round up of all that I read.
A Round up from Irish murders to Pandemic New York
The End of The Alphabet by CS Richardson was a brief love story short on words but packed with back story and emotion. Definitely has you assessing your bucket list
Some time around his fiftieth birthday, Ambrose Zephyr fails his annual medical check-up. An illness of inexplicable origin with no known or foreseeable cure is diagnosed and it will kill him within a month. Give or take a day. In the time that remains, he decides to travel to all the places he has most loved or ever wanted to visit, in strict alphabetical order. And so Ambrose and his wife Zipper embark on a strange adventure that takes them further and further away from home and doesn’t quite turn out as either of them had expected.
Holding by none other than Graham Norton was my next read about an unearthed body in a small Irish town. Great to see an overweight protagonist and whilst it didn’t blow my socks off it was enjoyable. Think Maeve Binchy does crime.
The remote Irish village of Duneen has known little drama; and yet its inhabitants are troubled. Sergeant PJ Collins hasn’t always been this overweight; mother of two Brid Riordan hasn’t always been an alcoholic; and elegant Evelyn Ross hasn’t always felt that her life was a total waste. So when human remains are discovered on an old farm, suspected to be that of Tommy Burke – a former love of both Brid and Evelyn – the village’s dark past begins to unravel.
As the frustrated PJ struggles to solve a genuine case for the first time in his life, he unearths a community’s worth of anger and resentments, secrets and regret.
Purchased in New York I was disappointed with Feral City by Jeremiah Moss. I fell in love with the shocking pink cover but expected more about what actually went on during the pandemic than the sociology and psychology deep dive it became. More a case of it was me not you.
An exhilarating and intimate look at what happened when the pandemic emptied the city- and a rebellious energy reclaimed the streets.
The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman had long been on my TBR pile and finally made its way to the top in time to be my first read of January. Appealing to both children and adults it is an easy read with stunning illustrations and beautiful writing.
This is what he remembers, as he sits by the ocean at the end of the lane:
A dead man on the back seat of the car, and warm milk at the farmhouse.
An ancient little girl, and an old woman who saw the moon being made.
A beautiful housekeeper with a monstrous smile.
And dark forces woken that were best left undisturbed.
They are memories hard to believe, waiting at the edges of things. The recollections of a man who thought he was lost but is now, perhaps, remembering a time when he was saved . . .
The Bullet That Missed by Richard Osman is the third in the Thursday Murder Club series. I still love the characters, the humor is still very present but do I sense sadness in the upcoming book number four?
It is an ordinary Thursday and things should finally be returning to normal.
Except trouble is never far away where the Thursday Murder Club are concerned. A decade-old cold case leads them to a local news legend and a murder with no body and no answers.
Then a new foe pays Elizabeth a visit. Her mission? Kill…or be killed.
As the cold case turns white hot, Elizabeth wrestles with her conscience (and a gun), while Joyce, Ron and Ibrahim chase down clues with help from old friends and new. But can the gang solve the mystery and save Elizabeth before the murderer strikes again?
And finally a classic in January has become a bit of a tradition for me and this year it was Orlando by Virginia Woolf. I didn’t love it despite it only being 160 pages and it felt a lot older than 1928 but I’m pleased I’ve read it and I enjoyed reading about the backstory behind it.
As his tale begins, Orlando is a passionate young nobleman whose days are spent in rowdy revelry, filled with the colourful delights of Queen Elizabeth’s court. By the close, he will have transformed into a modern, thirty-six-year-old woman and three centuries will have passed. Orlando will not only witness the making of history from its edge, but will find that his unique position as a woman who knows what it is to be a man will give him insight into matters of the heart.
So that’s it, all I have read. A new Book of the Month has been chosen but will be reviewed in February to give everyone (me) time to read it. Keep your eyes peeled for the lowdown on it shortly. Other than that is it business as usual, nice to have you with me.
