My 10 cent book. Trying to read as many of his that I can find. This would be a good one to read with older kids. Lots to discuss. Facts about WW1 . Sad facts really. Unbelievable today.
I learnt the meaning of absolutist. A new word for my diminishing vocabulary. 😏.

Went shopping today. The biggest shop for a very long time, especially for books not from an op shop.
As if I haven‘t enough to read!! Kids books for a new baby arriving soon and for baby‘s big sister.

@MrsMalaprop when I‘ve read top book, would you like it? I‘m not keeping any of the books once I‘ve read them.
Now off to read my latest read and hope I don‘t fall asleep. My body loves Nana naps!!

This was a strange read because the book itself was giving off a not so nice smell and made me irritated .
I‘m guessing it is the print. Never happened to me before. Anyway it was a good read though I‘d have liked to read it faster but I had to keep having breaks. Love Vera.

Another book that was in a box leaving the house. Looked interesting and it was, very. See the fly at the top? Well there were small drawings of a fly on each page. Very real looking and often as my eyes moved along the lines reading I swear the fly moved! Very clever.

Read this because it was on its way out of house and I didn‘t know we had it. I loved his kids picture books done with his wife Janet. My favourites The Jolly Postman series and Peepo!
Memories of his childhood in prose and verse.
Long weekend here and after my morning walk and coffee with friends I‘m curled up reading .❤️❤️❤️.

The first one in the series. Better I thought than1989. Still bits didn‘t read like a Val McDermid book to me. I love the main character Allie. Strong woman journalist. In her 20s here, 1989 she‘s in her 30s. Hope she does 1990 when she‘ll be in her 40s and so on with 2009 and 2019. I expect she is basing Allie on herself. I was kept guessing to the end with this one.

This was lent to me by a friend. Not really my sort of read but interesting to get a look at life over a time from before WW1 to 1985. A Jewish grandmother talking to her granddaughter.

Heard the author on the radio. She is disabled and couldn‘t find an appropriate book so wrote this one with Sally Rippon. Cerebral palsy child,deaf mum, autistic child and dad,blind mum,achondroplasia dad and kid, intellectual disability mum, one arm dad, all feature in the book. Based on real people. We visit all their homes. Excellent.

When he died recently this was the only book of his I hadn‘t read. Dear dear. He must have been so depressed when he wrote this. Mind you some of it rang true for me. Sometimes I don‘t have a very good view of my life right now. Being much nearer the end like he was when he wrote this. Not a happy book .

Reading for book club. I finished it a few days ago and immediately starting reading it again. Looking forward to the discussion. Clever book that deals with issues , I think , of men and their power over time. She does not preach or actually spell it out. An excellent read. I‘ve never read a book twice in one go. Picking up more on second read.
Set in one of my favourite places, Scotland.

This was between a pick and a so so. It‘s been years since I‘ve read one of her books. This is very different to the early ones. Almost didn‘t seem like her writing. Enjoyed remembering events in Britain and the world from that year. I might give the other one in this series a go.1979. I lived that year too. 😊.

Delightful. I wish I could find more of her books. I just love the way she writes. This was an ex library book.
Perfect read right now for me after 2 bails!

Could not get into this. I‘m just not a historical fiction fan. Would love to give it to someone who would enjoy it. Love to hear if and when anyone reading this does read it. I heard her on the radio and loved her book Room. So thought I‘d give this a go. Just not my thing .

My last try at reading one of her books. Just can‘t seem to manage it.

A quick read. Perfect for a plane trip. Set in Scotland. Second in a series. Better I thought than the first one. Strong female character Shona Oliver. Detective , and Life boat volunteer. So a mixture of both. Life as a detective and what happens on life boat call outs. Mystery and murder. I worked out “ who dun it”. A simple easy read.

So beautifully written. This book kept me reading just by the way it is written. It deals with a lot of tragedy and things I could not imagine. I almost didn‘t finish it as I was not in a good space myself at the time. However I kept going as the words flowed along , and I‘m very glad I did. A book so very worthy of the prize.

A great Sunday read. A gentle well written story of a 40 something man. Perfect.

While looking for another book by her on the library shelf , I found this graphic novel. As a child she had an interest/fear of sharks. A fun read on a wet Saturday afternoon. My partner also read it as she won‘t go into the ocean because of her fear.

Not my normal read. Heard him on the radio. A BBC journalist who fell in love with America as a teenager. Has lived and worked there for much of his adult life. An easy, sometimes uncomfortable, informative, well researched and often lived experiences make this book well worth the read. 11/10. In 2020 his first American daughter entered the world. His final pages are written to her I feel. A great end to an amazing book.

A lovely warm afternoon in the sun reading this very enlightening graphic novel. War is such a waste and this book tells it all including the good that emerged and how lives became entwined. An easy read for all ages. Strong women role models. Tales that tug at your heart and others that make you smile. Well worth an afternoon read.

Very Scottish. A very light read , would be a plane read if I was travelling but did just perfectly for my 4 am awakening this past few days. Strong female character Shona Oliver. Nice tie up of ends.

For book club. For first time I watched the movie before reading the book. I really enjoyed both and glad I did it that way. The movie is interesting in that it‘s actors we all know when they were very young. The person who picked it did so because she kept seeing it on lists of books you “should” read. Written in 1932 , my edition published in 1977. It smells delicious.

Just love Posy Simonds.

Not sure why I picked this book up but I‘m glad I did. Published in 2016 by our university press here in West Oz , it is a delight. She is a brilliant writer. Even if I had disliked the story, which I didn‘t, I would have loved the writing . A pure delight. Story has two narrators, one being a skeleton in the cupboard, all seeing. Slow evenly paced start, surprising ending. I really enjoy this read.

Saw Stripey all over the place on our recent trip to Dwellingup. A lovely town in the bush south of Perth. Just reread her book . It‘s a fun story with facts about emus in the back. I didn‘t realise the males sit on the eggs and rear the chicks. He stays with them for 18 months.

Delightful kids book about the British library. I want to go there . Book is easy to read and very well illustrated. I love it. Was being discarded by our library .

This was between a pick and a so so. Clever cover, at first I thought it was a new Richard Osman book. I almost gave up at chapter 14 then the author did a clever thing. He had a chapter 14.5 where he summarised the story so far,.. So I kept going. Style is very different and a lot of mysteries . I really had to read carefully. I think I only bought it because it was $3 in an op shop and it‘s recent. Would love to see what others think.

Tried for 2 hours but could not do it. As it‘s a library book I don‘t feel too bad about not reading it. Now on to something that catches my attention.( I hope). It‘s rainy and very windy here perfect reason to stay inside and read.

This has been on my TBR list for a while. Beautifully written without a doubt. The 3 main characters had different chapters and settings. Had to concentrate.

Lent to me by a friend. About the return of a skull that had sat on a mantelpiece for years. The ceremony around the return was beautiful and I cried many tears. It was an emotional read for me. I‘m on my path to learning much more than our education system ever came any where near to teaching me about Indigenous people. The author takes us on his journey. This book should be read by all .

Intriguing. Passed on to me by my partner who couldn‘t finish it. I loved it at first and couldn‘t stop reading then got a bit bogged down but kept at it and glad I did. Quite different to anything I‘ve read recently and I have to say in the end I enjoyed it. Clever. You do need to concentrate . Not a book I could read fast.

A YA novel I was attracted by the name. Found the author who now lives in Melbourne grew up here in Western Australia . It‘s her first published novel. I haven‘t read a YA novel in a while. This one seemed to cover a lot of late teen angst. Maybe too many “ issues “ covered. A couple of mysteries run through the book and kept me reading.
Glad I did keep going as I felt good at the end.

I‘ve only read a few of his books. I really like this series which features a strong young woman called Evie. This is third in what is called the Cyrus Haven series.
The only negative for me was I found the ending a bit too drawn out. Great for tv perhaps but once I knew who did it I just skipped the rest.
Look forward to meeting Evie again. Cyrus staring to grow on me too.

I‘ve become quite fascinated by Daphne after watching 2 documentaries. I didn‘t realise she had written so much. This book written in the 60s when she was in her 60s. Fiction based on historical facts about the house she was living in. Time travel , relationships , history and drugs. Written at the height of the 60s drug culture.
This was her last successful novel. I am enjoying reading her. Next will be some of her short works.

I‘ve only ever read Rebecca. Just recently I watched some documentaries about Daphne and her life and that got me interested in her writing. This book I can see reflected in her life and I‘ve really enjoyed it. About to watch the movie. I‘ve got another of her books to read and some short stories. A very interesting lady. Perhaps born in the wrong time.

Between a pick and a so so even though I didn‘t finish it. It was a bit too long for me. A great insight into trans life , what it means to be a parent. I volunteered many years ago on a queer counselling line. Part of training was meeting and talking with all sorts of people from the queer community. This book would have been good back then. We have come a long way but still a long way to go. 🌈🌈

Stand alone book by him. Written in 2015. Very different to his London based Bryant and May series.
Gave me an insight into expat life‘s in Dubai. A bit of mystery , adventure and the supernatural.

I enjoyed this read. Loved the extras at the end of this edition. A Walk Around Penzance by the author. Penzance is now on my list of places to see when I travel again.

The above explains this book well. I enjoyed reading it and look forward to finding and reading some of his other books.

My second reading for book club this week. I enjoyed a lot more with this reading. I missed book club though so don‘t know what the others felt. I think in winter I‘m a bear, I have a tendency to want to hibernate!
Can‘t believe I was born and lived part of my childhood in a cold climate . I appreciate my mum wanting to relocate to the warm. 🌞🌞. Glad she did!

This has been on my TBR shelf since 2013. 35 cents in an op shop. I‘m a fan of this authors Bryant and May novels. Turns out that this book published in 1992 has the beginnings of those books. I love his writing and the way he drops in interesting facts about London. This one was ok . Touches on the supernatural which didn‘t appeal to me.

Probably not a book I would normally read but it popped up at the op shop. Must say I enjoyed the read. Such wonderful use of language. A bit of a family saga based around a promise that spans the generations. Gave me a bit of an understanding of life in South Africa. Well deserved winner.

I started this one morning in bed. It was so easy to read and promised to be a great read. I could have just kept reading but had to get on with the day. Later I took it up again and the initial joy went. I almost bailed. Instead I did a speed read. Felt too drawn out and not quite right.

This is different to the other books I‘ve read in that he has based the book on stories his grandmother had told him about his great grandfather who had emigrated to Canada. One page talks about the 1918 pandemic. No vaccines but they took care by wearing masks, avoiding crowds and washing hands. I enjoyed the story very much. @MrsMalaprop my favourite ending. 😊

I‘m currently looking through this. I have a question . It seems that many books I‘d like to borrow from our library system are only available as e books. What is the best ( and easiest) device to read them on?

Op shop. Second book of the Labyrinth I‘ve found for $2. It‘s our next book club book. The Kate books I‘m rereading and The Promise won the Booker last year. I‘ve found an Op shop that has an amazing selection of books and all for $2. Can‘t help myself despite having a 4 layered book shelf full of TBR books. 😏.

Not as good as her others. Really missed the mark for me . I‘m not completely sure why. Think it felt too contrived . It‘s been a couple of days since I finished it and already I‘m forgetting what it was about. Not at all memorable, for me anyway. Look forward to hearing what other people think/ feel.

A quick but thoughtful read. Loved the forward by Margret Mahy and afterword by the author. What a controversy this book has caused in some places when first published. I looked for the movie. Not streaming here but I see if I knew how to make a certain streaming service think I was in Canada I could watch it! 🤷🏻‍♂️.

Couldn‘t decide if I‘d read this before. However what a laugh I had . I believe this was her first book. I just loved it. I‘m on a quest to read her books when I find them in op shops or the library. When she described a holiday in Scotland I was right there with her, having spent many holidays their myself. Seems a lot of this book drawn from her own life. What a hoot.

Well this is one of the very positive things that covid has given us. A very insightful first novel . Gave me a ton to think about. Have things become slowly more toxic since I was a student in the 60s? Did none of our protesting matter in the long run? So much to talk about and think about in this book. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️